Sailing Into Uncertainty

Grab your message notes as we now kick off a brand new message series called "An Unexpected Journey" based on the Apostle Paul's epic ocean voyage. First of all, show of hands, anybody ever experienced an unexpected journey in life? I think pretty much all of us. I've had many including when I've tried my hand at actual sailing. One time I was sailing on a lake in Wisconsin and I was sailing a Hobie cat. The fun thing about Hobie cats is that you can tip them up on one of their twin holes and when you do that they go really really fast. The downside is that they're also really easy to flip over.

Well, making things worse that day and I'm tipping my hand a little bit, on the boat with Lauren I was her brother David and David's wife Sarah and Sarah had had some kind of traumatic sailing experience when she was about 10 years old so she's visibly uncomfortable the moment that we leave shore and not only did I manage to flip the boat but I flipped it real good. I mean we just were flung into the lake, a boat ends up completely capsized so the mast sail sticking straight down towards the bottom of the lake. David and I have to crawl onto one of the capsized holes and you grab onto the keel to try to flip it over which is kind of a lengthy process and the winds blowing and Laura and Sarah they're just drifting away as they bob in the lake and like I said it's a pretty slow process until you get to a particular moment when the sail comes up out of the water and then things happen really fast and sure enough this boat just snaps over.

David and I are plunged underwater at that same moment the winds fill the sail again and the boat takes off. I just managed to grab onto the back of it and I'm crawling up as it starts heading straight towards who else Sarah. I just managed to get on top to have a view of the look of terror and betrayal on Sarah's face as the boat runs right over her but it's a catamaran so she's right in the middle as the twin holes go right by her and that's when I did the one right thing in that entire debacle as the boat passes over her I reached down grab her by the hand and pull her back under the boat. At that point she's completely catatonic and she never spoke to me again. Almost but I'm quite confident she's sworn off sailing for the rest of her life.

Now even though I'm an awful sailor and probably should be banned for the rest of life it does give me a little appreciation for how much can go wrong when you're on a boat on the water and not to mention the ship that Paul finds himself on out in the open ocean in the midst of a horrific storm. So let's begin with part one of Paul's unexpected journey sailing into uncertainty and let me ask you something do you think a god has a plan for your life? Do you? Sunday school answer is to say yes probably most of us would admit that but we'd also admit that there are times when that plan seems completely confusing. Like Lord what in the world is going on? How could you possibly bring some sort of good some sort of purpose out of these circumstances? And if you've ever found yourself in that place I'm confident you have you're gonna find much in the story to relate to.

First of all a little bit of background the Apostle Paul dreamed of going to Rome. He tells the Christians in his letter to him the book of Romans he says I pray all the time right in this is greeting says I pray all the time that the Lord will open up a way for me to come and visit you and there's good evidence that Paul writes Romans while he's in Corinth okay so check this out he's doing ministering Corinth and in the neighboring cities praying that he'll be able to go to Rome and then according to Acts 20 God answers his prayer so to speak says the Holy Spirit compels him to go to Jerusalem okay so this ways Rome that ways Jerusalem God could not pick a more opposite place on the compass to send Paul totally 180 degrees in the other direction and Paul's got to be scratching his head this is definitely not the answer I was hoping for.

Even so Acts 21 Paul goes to Jerusalem where he's promptly arrested in fact soon as he opens his mouth to share the gospel and explain while he's there he starts a riot and so in Acts 22 the mob is trying to kill him when the Roman soldiers have to intervene they grab him they pull him into their barracks and they're about to flog him for being a disturber of the peace when Paul says um excuse me is this how you treat a Roman citizen and that puts Paul on a brand new course in life because now he gets entered into the Roman legal system and in Acts 23 verse 11 it says the following night the Lord stood near Paul and said take courage as you have testified about me in Jerusalem so you must also testify in Rome and Paul's got to be so excited finally I'm going to Rome yay but look what happens in the very next verse the next morning some bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul more than 40 men were involved in this plot.

How'd you like to have 40 people out to kill you now something tells me those guys must have starved to death but that aside this had to be terrifying because God's got plans for Paul humans have plans for Paul whose plans are going to prevail how about in your life who's ultimately in control and before we say well of course God is you know don't we spend a lot of time worrying about the plans and actions of other people isn't it human beings that exercise influence over the economy human beings who in many instances decide how much you get paid or make decisions or do things that could profoundly affect you or the ones you love who is ultimately in control if Paul ends up in this tug-of-war between what God's told him and what human beings want to do to him he spends two years sitting in prison in Caesarea which is a lot closer to Jerusalem I might add than Rome two years his court case goes nowhere he's just dead in the water finally there's an ironic twist at the end of Acts 26 King Agrippa who's the highest-ranking guy in Judea he finally hears Paul's case and he says this guy hasn't done anything wrong to be imprisoned or anything else I could let him go right now except for one small detail Paul has appealed to Caesar and so we're gonna have to send him to you know where Rome now Paul's going to Rome but from Agrippa's point of view there's no cosmic plan unfolding here it's just bad luck coincidence you know a legal technicality and off Paul goes but in reality God's plan is moving forward.

And this is when the story gets it's really good because not only when Paul gets onto that boat not only is he at the mercy of men but now he's at the mercy of the ocean the sea which the ancients feared more than anything else and so the big question is you know whose plans are going to prevail not just in the face of human opposition but in the force of the face of this chaotic powerful sea the forces of nature what the ancients would view as the gods of nature this is the central question of Paul's unexpected journey write this down who is in control who is in control and it's the central question of our unexpected journeys as well think of the many things that are beyond our control last week's horrific tornado in Oklahoma earthquakes drought cancer some other type of dread disease a sudden loss or tragedy can overwhelm us in a moment how do you press on how do we press on in the face of the unpredictable uncertain uncontrollable events of life well crack your Bible's open to Acts 27 and let's begin to find out and if you don't have your Bible with you feel free to grab one of those TLC Bibles in the pew rack in front of you or if you're joining us over in venue this morning good morning there are Bibles in the back of the room on a table there Acts 27 comes up right after the Gospels we're gonna start right at verse 1 pretty much go through this whole story verse by verse Acts 27 verse 1 when it was decided that we would sail for Italy Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to us centurion named Julius we boarded a ship about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia and we put out to sea their starkus was with us the next day we landed at Sidon and Julius in kindness to Paul allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs.

Now let's stop there for just a moment because there are three things that I need to remember in my unexpected journeys the three that you need to remember in yours and the first one is this we're in this together we're in this together according to scripture as brothers and sisters in Christ we belong to each other and look at these opening verses notice how it says that Eris starkus was with us he's one of Paul's traveling companions and there's also Luke the author of Acts and you can tell that Luke is here with Paul by the way he uses the pronouns we and us it gives himself away and the point is this Paul's not some kind of lone ranger in life from the moment he becomes a Christian you always see him doing life doing ministry with other people it's Paul and Barnabas Paul and Silas Paul and Timothy or here Paul and Luke and Eris starkus even the centurion Julius somehow Paul strikes up a friendship with him so that when they get to their very first port Julius extends shore leave to Paul so that he can go and visit what more of his friends.

I mean Paul is is well connected relationally well sometimes we think of him as somewhat of a bookish monkish kind of guy but he's got friends practically everywhere he goes and what do his friends do at that first port it says in verse 3 they provide for his needs you know you'll never know where you might just meet your next friend and Julius is a great example of this later in this series we're going to see how God will use Julius to save Paul and his friends who he will save their lives at the same time God will use Paul to save Julius and every single person on the ship it's amazing how God pulls us all together but it all demonstrates this connection provides protection connection provides protection and this is true on so many levels.

Sometimes people say well I just practice my faith by myself you know I've got my own little individual program and and that's what I prefer I don't need to be part of some kind of organized group this is not for me well not only is it not biblical it might work for you for time for a season until the storm hits and then who's gonna have your back who's gonna be praying for you who's gonna be encouraging you or turn it around if you're off you know doing your own little individual spiritual journey all the time who are you going to support who are you going to be there for who are you going to be able to serve we're in this together even in smooth sailing sometimes we just need someone to tell us the truth to call us on it when we start drifting off in a direction that's not going to end well.

I mean I don't know about you but I need the influence the support of people in my life to keep me you know away from myself that's destructive tendencies and I've got them I mean there's a reason that recovery groups meet in groups connection provides protection so let me ask you how connected are you think about that I'm not asking you to think about how many friends you have on Facebook or how many email or LinkedIn contacts you have I'm talking about in the flesh face to face relationships and listen I understand that we can all become disconnected or isolated through circumstances beyond our own control but so much so far as it's up to you investing in relationships is so important John Cacciopo is the director of get this title he is the director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago and he's considered the world's leading expert on loneliness that's not something I would want to be an expert on but he is and his research was featured in an article in the Atlantic a little while back entitled is Facebook making us lonely.

According to this article in one experiment Cacciopo looked for a connection between the loneliness of subjects and the relative frequency of their interactions via Facebook chat rooms online games dating sites and face-to-face contact the results were unequivocal the greater the proportion of face-to-face interactions the less lonely you are he says the greater the proportion of online interactions the more lonelier you are now he's not saying that social media makes you lonely although he says it doesn't help what he's saying is that the amount of time you spend online reveals how lonely you are and he's also saying that there is no substitute for real life face-to-face relationships.

Now don't get me wrong I'm not here to preach against Facebook what I am here to do is to to preach about the importance of belonging to a group to belonging in real relationships like a community of faith like this one for example it's why we do everything we can to encourage each other to make church a priority not so that we can have you know a healthy head count on the weekends but so that we can all have healthy heads healthy hearts healthy lives and it doesn't happen overnight but little by little over time lasting meaningful bonds are formed in our lives and you there's a rising awareness that I belong here I belong to these people and we all need a place to belong because sooner or later point point to every journey includes hardship.

Now that's not exactly a news flash every journey includes some hardship but so often people think that if they're experiencing hardship you know God must be mad at them for some reason that's really a superstitious view of God but watch how Paul in the center of God's will as God's plan is going just exactly the way God wants to Paul he's not having such a great time he's suffering so when bad things happen to you it doesn't mean that you're you know out on the fringe of God's plan.

Watch this picking up the story at verse 4 from there we put out to sea again and pass to the Lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us when we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia we landed at Myra in Lycia there the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy we made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off synodus when the wind did not allow us to hold our course we sailed to the Lee of Crete we moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens near the town of La Silla.

Now if you look at that map in your notes or better yet even on screen you can see that they're trying to head you know from from right to left on the screen or from east to west and which way is the wind blowing the entire time right in their face okay right back towards Jerusalem and it look adds you know much emphasis here verse 4 the winds were against us verse 7 we made slow headway for many days had difficulty the wind didn't allow us to hold our course verse 8 we moved along the coast with difficulty and Paul's got to be going crazy how many delays are we going to face.

We experienced just a little bit of this two weeks ago we took our Twin Lakes Christian School seventh graders along with the seventh graders from Baymont down to Mexico for a week-long mission trip and no sooner had this trip begun then we already ran into our first delay we arrived at the airport at a dark o'clock in the morning to catch the first flight from San Jose to San Diego where bus was going to take us over the border and when we when we arrived at the airport the line not exaggerating going through the TSA checkpoint what had to be at least 200 yards long if you're familiar with the new terminal at San Jose the checkpoints are upstairs the line you went back and forth back and forth like at Disneyland down the stairs through the the first floor all the way to the the doorway when you walk in not a good omen and I get in line and soon as I get line one of the TSA officials hands me a card and I say well what's this and he goes well that's gonna house show that's gonna show how long it took you to get up to the checkpoint give it to the guy when you get there.

I'm like well thank you very much it took so long that Jack my son and I were the last two people to make it on the plane when they had to rush us down to the gate and 20 members of our group adult and kids they missed the flight all together so this mission trip is getting off to a just a banner start and this is a major commuter flight as you know from San Jose to San Diego so there's no guarantee that our group they're gonna find 20 seats on the next flight or the one after that these planes are packed somehow they get all 20 of them on the plane and guess who's on that second flight with them mr. Jerry Rice yeah seriously and this is there's no like you know first-class partition between first class and steerage it's all for one man they're all in this the Southwest plane together no place for Jerry Rice to hide and start kids just they mobbed him they were respectful but but one of our seventh graders good friend of my son named Muthani Williams he is an outstanding receiver on our flag football team he ends up sitting in front of the greatest wide receiver ever in fact here's a picture of Muthani in the news his new best friend Jerry as they stroll off the plane together like take see you later but how come I didn't get him miss that plane you never know how it's gonna go you know sometimes on the other side that delay there's there's Jerry Rice on the other side like for Paul just more delays.

But every journey especially the journey of life is bound to have hardship but when you know that God is ultimately in control that he's going to redeem those delays and disappointments and even our pain it makes such a profound difference. Several years ago when our second child was stillborn that was a very disappointing painful time of our lives there was nothing intrinsically good about the death of that baby Laura and I will miss him till our dying day and then we will see him standing next to Jesus but until that day got his promise not to waste our pain and we've already seen that I know one person for sure who came to faith hearing me he was sitting down the lobby hearing me share about the loss of our son Joseph he came to faith as God touched his heart through that story a year later I had the privilege of baptizing him over the years Laura and I have been able to pray and support parents couples who have gone through a similar losses because they know that we know a little bit about their particular pain.

Now would I trade all of that to have that baby back honestly probably yeah but I'm not in control it's not my plan that is unfolding it's God's and you know what I'm at peace with that at least most of the time there are folks here this weekend they've lost children young and old perhaps even through war you don't need a reminder that every journey includes hardship but if that is you I simply pray that God will provide you with the peace and comfort that only he can wherever you are today especially if you find yourself sailing into uncertainty remember we're in this together so so far it's up to you stay connected and number two every journey includes hardship but when God redeems those hardships we receive strength and comfort to go on and make no mistake with that uncertainty comes vulnerability.

You know life throws you a curveball or we lose our bearings we become so desperate so vulnerable because we want to latch on to something that will provide a sense of stability back into our lives but the problem is there's all sorts of competing voices vying for attention or or recommending which way we should go and you can't listen to every voice which means at some point I got to decide who I'm gonna listen to especially in moments of uncertainty I have got to decide who am I gonna follow you know who's gonna be my lodestar here and so often the more difficult the journey the more difficult it is to make decisions decisions that might otherwise be easy but because of the pain and the confusion everything is harder but those choices still matter they're still consequential.

Back on board the ship verse 9 much time had been lost and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the day of atonement and depending on the year the day of atonement falls somewhere between late September and early October and piecing together the timetable of the story most scholars believe the day of atonement was in early October this year which means puts this point in the story afterwards it's mid-october this is a very dicey time to be on the Mediterranean in fact Roman military records indicate that all sailing ceased on the Mediterranean from November to March it was just too dangerous so Paul warned them men I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo into our own lives also but the centurion instead of listening to what Paul said followed the advice of the pilot and the owner of the ship since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in the majority decided that we should sail on hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there this was a harbor and Crete facing both southwest and northwest.

Now Paul's no expert sailor but he knows the conventional wisdom he knows it is not wise to go any further I'm sure the pilot and the owner of the ship they know a lot more about sailing and said like who is this guy Paul but they also have an ulterior motive little thing called profit way this worked was these ships would go from Rome to Egypt where they'd load up with the grain and then back to Rome typically you get one trip a year that was your sailing season but if you if you really wanted to go for it kind of put the pedal to the metal you might be able to squeeze in two trips if you left in early spring but your wrist on that second trip getting caught in the late fall which is exactly what happened to these guys.

So here's the rub stay in fair havens and risk the grain the paycheck or try to make it to Phoenix just 40 miles away and risk the lives of everyone on the ship you know should they stay or should they go proverbial rock in a hard place ever been in a place where there's you know not like there's one just stellar option and no downsides to the other alternative you're kind of stuck just for fun I want to show you one of my favorite commercials it's in a foreign language but it translates I assure you but this is a great illustration of what it means to be between a rock and a hard place watch the screen nothing to call losing the ball what I love me moon now see what a lot of time Mary what I don't think that's a good way to work Oh and now that's what you call being stuck perhaps in a manner of speaking you find yourself between two options neither one's all that attractive you're stuck in fair havens so to speak the right decision not the most fun not the most profitable the other decision you're not so sure that's the right way to go either.

Maybe you hold yourself to certain ethics at work or in business at work or relationships even you see others playing faster and looser and they seem to be getting away with it they seem to be profiting from it and you ask yourself sometimes you wonder am I missing out how come other people have more fun I mean who wants to be in fair havens when you can be in best or better havens and that's what the majority decides they decided to let's go for it let's go well you know what sometimes the majority is wrong 1933 the majority in Germany elected this guy Adolf Hitler 1950 in America the majority thought that smoking was healthy in fact look more doctors smoke camels than any other cigarette 2012 the majority of Americans picked the Green Bay Packers as their favorite team I mean come on they just barely edged out the Dallas Cowboys Niners didn't even make the top ten I mean how can this be but seriously there are all sorts of issues that the majority gets wrong I mean whose voice do you listen to can't trust the majority sometimes you can't even trust your own thinking because let's face it we have a way of interpreting circumstances according to our own biases.

Verse 13 when a gentle south wind began to blow they saw their opportunity so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore to Crete as soon as they make their choice what happens little gentle south wind you see Paul we were right you're wrong and we even got a nice little tailwind to blow us along we ever feel like something was meant to be only to find out it wasn't I have and that's because we are so good at making the wrong thing feel so right in this case it didn't take long before the majority and everyone else wish they had never left Fair Havens verses 14 and 15 before very long a wind of hurricane force called the north-easter you know it's bad if it's got its own name you know it's like she ever meet timbers it's the nor'easter comes blowing down from the from the island the ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind so we gave way to it and were driven along oops I guess the experts and the majority were wrong and we'll see where that takes them next weekend you have permission to read ahead if you like but as we wrap up this question of who you listen to who I listen to this has huge implications in her lives.

Jesus says in John 10 my sheep listen to my voice I know them and they follow me that doesn't mean that you're gonna hear whispering into your ear every day now follow me here follow me there what it means is that in most days I'm trusting that through it all even when I cannot hear his voice I know that he's there sustaining me guiding me holding me it means even when the rest of life is shrouded in uncertainty you know his word will never fail you his spirit will never forsake you just this week I was with a little gathering and a friend of mine was sharing about how he lost his wife of many years lost his wife a couple years ago and he said it was in the weeks and months following that for the first time in my life I really learned the power and comfort of prayer because it was in those moments even though I had friends that had gone through similar situations Jesus was the only one who knew exactly what I was feeling in any given moment and so my intimacy with the Lord just took it a completely different level because as Jesus said my sheep listen to my voice I know them better than anyone and they follow me because the bottom line is this the voice that I ultimately listen to or you listen to is the one that we believe is in control it's the one I believe is in control.

So if life is all riding on you know your shoulders or my shoulders and ultimately we will call our own shots we will be our own lords but there's a much better candidate for that job the one who's actually the only one qualified and so let's bring our hopes and our hurts and our concerns to him right now as we pray would you join me precious loving Heavenly Father we thank you for the wonder of who you are and Lord there's so much about you and your ways that we don't understand but what we know what we we can take to the bank is that you love us you love us so much you've given it given us your one and only son who redeems not just our sin but our entire lives Lord you redeem our pain you work all things together in a way only you can to for our good and for your glory and so Lord I want to pray for each person here who's facing an uncertain journey in their life right now something they didn't welcome it's there's a question hanging over their their health their finances their job their marriage their relationship with their kids relationship with their parents relationship with somebody there's more questions than answers father I pray that by your grace and through your spirit who dwells within your children that Lord you would give us the faith and the confidence the insurance that you are with us and that you are in control I pray this in the matchless name of Jesus Christ amen.