Ah While sailing in the Mediterranean Sea, the Apostle Paul's ship was struck by a violent storm. His life-threatening episode demonstrates how Paul stood firm. not because he was tethered to a rope or clinging to the rails. Paul was anchored by a divine promise. And today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl recounts this harrowing moment in Acts chapter 27.
In doing so, we'll discover four anchors for surviving our storms.
So whether you're threatened by a broken marriage, a frightening disease, or even financial ruin, these four anchors will keep you from drowning. And Chuck begins with prayer. Lord, there are those in peril. land And in the air and at sea, even as we. meet for this time of worship.
Do watch over them. Guide us through the storm of this present crisis. Dear father. We do not know what a day would bring forth. And in many ways, Lord, there is no place to hide.
And so we hide in you. strength. and our Redeemer. You are truly our hiding place. You are, as we have learned recently, a very present help.
Mm-hmm. In time of trouble, you are neither distant nor aloof. You were not framed in some stained glass where we look. and respect you From afar, you are, in fact, dwelling among us. even within us.
Nearer, nearer, nearer we cannot be, for in the person. Of your son we are as near as he Thank you, Lord. for coming up close. Thank you for hearing us in our need. Thank you for meeting.
those needs so often And so well. Today, we pray for those who do not worship publicly. Because they cannot. We pray for those who meet in secret places. in caves and dens of the earth, In basements.
enclosed rooms with the shades drawn, and the door locked. Removed from the public awareness. always looking over their shoulder, not knowing when they might be arrested, are accosted or killed. We pray for them today, all those in the persecuted church around the world. We pray that you will come in like a flood and be to them.
an encouragement. and remind them that you are for them a very present. Help. In this time of their need. We pray for those nations that are blinded to the things of Christ.
that you would provide a breakthrough. That you would somehow intervene and bring relief. and hope. and change in legislation. and a difference of perspective.
even in political powers that would restrain this. And for those, worst of all, who are indifferent To all of these needs, we pray that you will arouse them. and alert them. to the importance of their involvement. Make us aware, even at this noon meal today.
To remember those who are in places we have never been. Suffering through things we have never known. Serving under a ruler. we have never had the experience of submitting to. Help them.
Meet their needs. And now, Lord, with the needs before us and always among us at this church, I pray that you will prompt your people and only your people. to give today. In a way that would cause them great joy and would cause you to have great glory. We realize, Lord, that you have promised to meet our needs, but we also know you meet those needs through our generosity.
and so prompt us today to participate. in a way that would honor you. Out of obedience to what you have led us to do. For everyone, as he has purposed in his heart, you have told us, so let him give. not grudgingly.
are of necessity. You love a cheerful giver. And Lord, finally, I pray that you would cause this passage of Scripture to come to life. and to be lifted from the salt spray of the Mediterranean, and the high seas of that treacherous storm, and cause us to realize this is truth for us today. The time in which we live.
in the hour in which we find ourselves. We commit all of this to you now, our Father, in the name of Christ. who loved us and gave himself for us. And everyone said Yeah. You're listening to Insight for Living.
To dig deeper into the life of the Apostle Paul on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study workbook by going to insight.org/slash workbooks. Chuck titled today's message. How to handle a shipwreck.
Well, we sit in a comfortable place as we hear the story of Acts chapter 27, and we're not getting wet. And there is no ship, everything is imaginary. We try to picture in our mind what it would have been like to be in that westerly direction on the Mediterranean.
Sounds sort of nice to hear that we're going to take a trip from Caesarea by the sea all the way to Rome. in Italy. Uh Until we put ourselves in the scene as Luke hoped we would when he wrote it. The destination is declared clearly in the first verse. It was decided we would sail for Italy.
Remember, Luke is in it when he says we.
So Luke gets on the ship along with another traveling companion. Who is uh Aristarchus, verse 2, we know Virtually nothing about this Macedonian from Thessalonica, but they are traveling with Paul, and then along with Paul, Aristarchus, and Luke. is a large company of prisoners. who were going to be lion bait when they got to Rome. they would become the victims of Nero's Uh schemes and plans, no doubt.
There were 276 persons on board. The time is curious to us. They left probably late August. After a three-month delay on the island of Malta, which we will determine later in our study. They were seven months getting to Rome.
Took them Twice as long, no doubt, because of the storm and certainly because of the shipwreck.
So they traveled in the winter. Tough time to travel across the Mediterranean, and there is no more treacherous part of the Mediterranean than the sea below Greece. And you'll see on your map Athens and the fingers of land that reach down, that tells you it's Greece.
So they were going at the worst time across the worst part. of the sea. I want you to see the growing intensity in Luke's writings. Verse 4, he mentions the winds were contrary. Uh verse 7, with difficulty.
We read with difficulty that they arrived off Canidis, since the wind did not permit us to go farther. We sailed under the shelter of Crete. Verse 8. He mentions, with difficulty sailing past it, we came to a place called Fair Havens. Verse nine uses the word dangerous.
The voyage was now. dangerous. Finally, verses 14 and 15, Before very long there rushed down from the land a violent wind, and the ship is caught in it and can't face the wind. Remember, it couldn't sail into the wind, built as it was.
So we gave way to it and let ourselves be driven along. Oh, man. And it as Luke writes, it gets more and more treacherous and more and more out of control. Look at 18. The next day, as we were being violently stormed-tossed, they began to jettison the cargo.
Whew! Gives me the willies to think about that. On the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard. That's what you use to control the ship.
So it's out of control. Since neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and no small storm was assailing us, only a doctor would write it like that. No small storm was assailing us. From then on, all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned.
Now let me insert a sila right here.
Some of you right now are very near being bored to tears. I know that. I understand. You came expecting a message, and you're getting a nautical lesson on sailing and hearing about an old ship. Who really cares, Chuck, about an old ship?
Let me, in the silah, which is a pause, a time to let some of this sink in, let me mention that God's Word is not given to us as a scientific journal. God's word has not been preserved to satisfy idle curiosity or to stimulate you intellectually. God's Word is not a legal document for you to guide your life by when you stand in a courtroom.
So that you follow the legal proceedings set forth in the scripture, God's word is given to us to change our lives. This is a book. about life. Therefore, the storm that hit the Mediterranean. Is a storm that impacted Luke and Paul and Aristarchus and the other 270-plus men who were on board.
But that's history, the storm that's implied, or at least. Between the lines of this passage of Scripture is about life as we know it today. It's about our lives when we're on a sea that we cannot control and in a ship that we cannot steer, battling waves and winds that we could not predict and we are unable to restrain, facing the possibility of not being able to survive and realizing the absence of sun by day and stars by night, and as time passes, it only gets worse. That's where we are in this passage of Scripture. If you miss that, all you're going to see is nautical terms and names of people you have trouble pronouncing and a situation that means everything to them in the first century and nothing to you in the 21st.
So I'm not going to let you do that. I'm not going to let that happen.
Well, I will tell you, since you're not able to speak and to tell us, I will tell you, I have been in storms like this. Which are far worse than any storms I've ever known on sea. I have been in places where I did not know how I was going to get through. I remember being awake at night and leaning over and awaking Cynthia, who was barely asleep herself, and saying, I'm not sure we're going to make it through this one.
Some of you are there even as I speak. And I want you to know I take that seriously. You have not come into this storm accidentally. And God is not absent, nor is He aloof from you in the midst of it. You are precisely where he planned for you to be right now.
And if not planning explicitly, certainly permitting it all to take place. He could have stopped at any point, but he didn't. He could have stopped you and had you take another turn, but you didn't. And he didn't.
So you're there. And your situation is as close to impossible as you've ever known it. And I respect that.
Now nobody's bored.
Now, everybody understand, this is not about a storm in the Mediterranean, though that is what the text is teaching, and we want to be true to it. This is about life. And how to endure it when it impacts us. And our ship is coming apart. And there's a reef straight ahead, and we're not going to make it without a wreck.
How do you keep it together? What do you do when you're in the hospital and the lights have been turned out and the information you've gotten is not encouraging at all and the family has gone home? And it's just you and God. What do you do when the mate walks out and you're alone, and much of it's your fault? And you're living in the backwash of months, even years, of where you now find yourself.
And it's bleaker than words can describe. You're in a situation financially or at work where it's curtains. It will be amazing if you can stay at it another two weeks. And you can't miss the reef. Or the bottom has dropped out, and someone has ripped you off, and you can't get your money back.
And you've lost a slug of it. The possibilities are numerous. You can finish different ones wherever you may be. I want to offer you four anchors that will help hold you fast. when you're in a time like that.
And if you don't need them now, trust me. As your pastor, take it from me, you will need them someday. You will need them when the news comes that that loved one has died. Or your son didn't come home that night. Or your daughter.
has run away. Again. or the baby didn't make it. Or the damage. appears to be inescapable.
You're going to need them. The first I will call the anchor of stability. All four come from the text. And if you will forgive me for not just taking verse by verse and word by word, I want to get the spiritual lessons across mainly. I want to address the times when there are no stars, no sun, no compass, no sextant, and you can't find your way.
To the destination you thought you were going to arrive at. You were heading for Italy and you wound up shipwrecked on Malta. The anchor of stability. Turn to verse 20. Since neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, no small storm was assailing us.
From then on, all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned.
That's a treacherous moment. All Hope. was gradually abandoned. I got a phone call from a man who, when I was finishing Dallas Seminary, I was working part-time at a hospital as a counselor. This man had been released from the hospital when he got home.
His wife had left him and taken their only son. And I uh found out where he lived. It was a little pathetic little dwelling behind a an old house. It was kind of a uh one room with a I guess it was a bath, bathroom, and little room where there was a bed and a kitchen table and a naked light bulb. And I met him at the door.
And I walked in and I heard his story and it was absolutely. Impossible. as I tried to help him. I was so young and he was He was at the end of his rope and he had a shotgun. Sitting in the corner of the room, and he said, I just want you to know that.
Uh I'm going to take my life. And I tried everything I knew to tell him. I tried every approach I could think of, and I I promised I'd get back with him. Uh Two days later, I found out he had gone to East Texas and took his own life. Uh He was He was all hope.
for him. was abandoned. That that is an option. And some of you have come to that place where you have even considered. uh the taking of your own life.
An anchor of stability will help. If you will just listen. If you would just apply this. That man couldn't listen. He was just...
It was too far gone for whatever reason. Verse 21: when they had gone a long time without food, Then Paul stood up in their midst and said, Man, you ought to have followed my advice, to have set sail from Crete and incurred this damage and loss, not to have sailed from Crete. You know, that was then, this is now. Yet now I urge you, watch closely. Keep up your courage.
I urge you. Keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. Yeah. How's that? Ship's going, but we're going to make it.
The ship we're in right now will not make it, but there will not be one loss of life. But notice his words: keep up your Courage, interesting term. Uh Yeah. Uthumet, oh, it's a hard word to say. The EU prefix means good.
Or well, or well-being. When it's on a word, it usually adds something good to whatever follows. Thumos, from which we get our word themometer, is the word for passion. often translated anger or an outburst of anger.
Some kind of passionate response. In this case, it's a good passion. You threw metal. Rarely used in the scriptures. Used twice right here: verse 22, keep up your courage, verse 25, keep up your courage.
In fact, other versions render it be of good cheer.
Now, that's a tough thing to say to someone at the end of their rope. with the winds howling and the salt spray stinging your face. and the m the the main sail just about to break the mast, That's a tough thing to hear. But believe me, right now, this is directly from the Word of God. It is possible for you to finds stability in the midst of the storm.
How? First, Paul tells them There will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship, because, verse 23, here's the first reason. This very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand before Caesar. That's Paul's ticket. He's going to make it.
And behold, God has granted you. All those who are sailing with you. Because of what God has said, you can find stability. Your tendency will be to turn to every other source but the Word of God when you've come to the end, and I'm telling you, it is the first and only source you really need. Turn there first.
Some of you haven't begun your promise book, though we've talked about it before. You need that promise book. You need to be making a list of, writing them out in your own words, the promises of God. There are over 7,000 of them in the book. And those promises that offer you encouragement and hope and a reason to go on, it is what God has written that will be for you a cause of stability.
First, do not fear, he says. That's reassurance directly from God. You must stand before Caesar. That's a direct word of hope. And not only you, but God has granted all those sailing with you.
That's an indirect hope. Paul says, I'm telling all of you, we're going to be safe, we're going to make it. And then he says, keep up your courage, verse 25, he repeats it, for I believe God. The second reason is that God is trustworthy. God has given us promises to read and to claim, and God is trustworthy.
Listen to the wind howling. Feel the sting on your face, hear the cracks and the groans of the ship, see the swells and the wind and the waves around you, and then observe Paul's words. I believe, God, it will be exactly as God said. Hold your place here. Show you an example.
Isaiah chapter 43. Turn back there. Isaiah 43. We'll provide you with a promise. that will make good sense.
It's general enough to apply In many settings. 431. Good for you. I can hear the music of those pages turning. Isaiah 43:1.
But now, thus says the Lord your Creator, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel, do not fear, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name. You are Mine, is that encouraging or what? I have called you by name. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. He's not talking about literal waters, talking about the waters of suffering, struggle.
When the waters invade, when difficulties arrive, when you are cast about on your ship, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God. Verse 5: Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east, gather you from the west.
And he goes on to describe this. Verse 12, right across the page: It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, and there was no strange God among you, so you are my witnesses, declares the Lord. And I am God, even from eternity, I am He, and there is none who can deliver out of my hand. I act, and who can reverse it? I want to tell you, I've gone to promises like that, and I have said to the Lord, right now, Lord, I want you to know I'm claiming this for my situation right now.
This is the only way I'm going to be able to make it. You know what you're doing, I can't tell. Doesn't make sense to me, but I know that with you on board, we're not going to sink. We're going to make it. You promised me that.
He says in another part of Isaiah, can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yeah, they may forget, but I will not forget you. I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. Your ways are continually before me. Is that a great statement?
I have Drawn you on the palms of my hands, your ways. Those are all words that describe how close your situation is to the heart of God. He knows exactly where you are, He knows exactly what He's doing. There's much more that Schuxmindahl wants to show us in this passage, so keep listening. Acts chapter 27 includes what Chuck calls four anchors that'll keep you afloat.
He titled today's message, How to Handle a Shipwreck. It's just one of twenty-two messages in this in-depth study of Paul titled A Man of Grace and Grit. And Chuck has written a full-length biography on Paul's dramatic life as well. It's our featured resource today. Many people tell us how much they enjoy Chuck's biographical studies because of the way he brings their stories to life.
This one is called Paul, a man of grace and grit, and you can purchase a copy right now by calling us at eight hundred seven seven two eighty eight eighty eight, or go directly to insight dot org slash store. In addition to Chuck's biographical book on Paul, Insight for Living has prepared a brand new Bible study for this series. It's in our Searching the Scriptures format, which is a spiral-bound, interactive Bible study workbook. Many listeners are using this resource in their personal study. But we're also learning that a lot of small groups are using it to enhance their learning as well.
To purchase one today, go to insight.org/slash workbooks. Insight for Living is a non-profit ministry entirely sustained by grateful listeners just like you. In fact, we just closed the accounting books yesterday and started a brand new ministry year. It's not too late to make an impact with your contribution. Whether you give a one-time gift or you agree to become a monthly companion, your contribution is directly applied to helping men and women apply the life-giving wisdom of the Bible to their lives.
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Join us when Chuck Swindahl continues to describe how to handle a shipwreck. Tomorrow on Insight for Living. The preceding message, How to Handle a Shipwreck, was copyrighted in 2001, 2003, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
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