Now, Jesus, tonight, Lord, I yield my mind
and body to you.
I know this is a divine appointment.
I know that you have, personally, selected people
to be here tonight.
And you know every thought of every heart
and mind.
And now I know that I'm standing and
speaking what's in your heart.
Father, I thank you that you're going to
give me the words and help me to
stay out of this mix, so that it's
your heart that is spoken.
It is your mind that is revealed.
It is your kingdom that advances.
And I pray, as we heard today, there
be a demonstration of the spirit and the
power tonight.
Lord, that you absolutely set people free.
Absolutely bring battles to a decisive end.
A victory in Christ.
And Father, I thank you for this, with
all of my heart, in Jesus' name.
Acts 27, please.
If you'll go there, Acts chapter 27.
I'm going to be speaking tonight on getting
to the other side of your storm.
How many tonight would like to get to
the other side of your storm?
Now, storms come and storms have a purpose
and a reason and a season.
They come to everybody's life.
But there just does come a time.
I've been there, you've been there, that we
just go to our prayer closet and say,
okay, Lord, thanks for the storm.
Really appreciate the things that I've learned.
But it's just time.
I just need to get out from under
this for a little while, if you don't
mind.
I need to rejoice again.
I need to have my hands on something
other than oars in a boat trying to
make it to the other side.
I need to rejoice.
Now, there's a story in the Gospels of
a night when the disciples were in a
boat, and the Scripture says they were toiling
and rowing.
They were afraid.
They thought they were going to drown.
And Jesus came walking to them.
And of course, the scenarios are different.
There are different interactions.
If you look in the different Gospels, let
me paraphrase.
Basically, they were afraid.
They always were afraid when they saw him.
Why should we be afraid when it's Jesus
in the middle of our storm?
You wonder sometimes what would even be the
basis of that fear.
But they opened their hearts to him, and
they invited him into the boat in this
one particular Gospel account.
And then it says in the King James
at least, Jesus stepped into the boat, and
immediately they were at the land.
They were at the place where they were
originally heading to.
Now, there's two possibilities here.
Number one, Jesus stepped in the boat, and
just as Philip, for example, was translated in
the book of Acts, this boat was miraculously
taken from one location to another.
That's one possibility.
The other is the whole scenario happened about
three feet from shore.
I think it's probably three to six feet
from shore.
It was dark, don't forget.
They're rowing, and they don't know where they
are.
And they're almost at the end of their
journey.
But you see, there's only one problem.
Jesus is not in the boat yet.
And folks, this is the word the Lord
has given me tonight for you before we
even begin.
Some of you are in a storm, and
you are just feet from shore, really.
You're feet from the other side.
But the journey continues, or the forces that
are coming against you are still driving you
back from the shore, because Jesus is not
yet in the boat.
You've not yet opened your heart and invited
him in.
And when you invite him in, you're inviting
the entire agenda of God.
You're not just inviting a minimal form of
divine protection.
You are inviting the agenda of God into
your boat.
And I believe tonight that if you can
hear this, what the Holy Spirit has given
me to speak, that there are many here
tonight.
You're going to get out of your seat,
and you're going to make your way, even
if it's just in your heart, even if
you don't do it physically, but you're going
to make, you're going to open your heart
and say, Jesus, you are welcome.
You are welcome into the midst of my
situation.
You are welcome to speak to me, whatever
you want to speak to me.
You're welcome to challenge me.
You're welcome to overturn my whole agenda and
my direction.
And the moment you do that, you're going
to be on the other side of your
storm.
The purpose of the storm will have been
accomplished in your life.
And the storm that God sends is to
produce in us that desperation.
I know exactly what I'm speaking about.
I've been in hurricanes, not just rowboat storms.
I've been in absolute hurricanes in my spiritual
walk.
I know what this is about.
And I know the moment that finally, I'm
willing to hear God.
It's as if a peace comes.
The same Christ that stood in the boat
and said, wind, stop, and waves be still,
speaks into my life.
And I begin to realize that the purpose
of this storm has been accomplished in and
for me.
Now, Acts 27 is about, it's about a
journey.
And I want to go, I'm going to
go verse by verse from verses 10 to
about somewhere in the middle of the 20s.
And this is a, I'm going to liken
this to the typical Christian life, typical Christian
journey.
From the time we begin to walk with
God, we head out as it is.
We say in our heart, I want to
live for the Lord.
And we begin the journey.
This is exactly what happened with the Apostle
Paul.
And he was on a ship.
He was in the divine will of God.
He's moving to an end that the Lord
had desired for his life.
Now, there are other people with him on
this journey who are not spiritually minded.
And take this now, the story as the
type of the Christians who are not yet
hearing from God.
They are minimally hearing from God.
They like the fact that there are men
of God on their boat as it is,
but they are not themselves yet hearing from
God.
And they are moving, their whole life is
moving in a direction that is going to
bring them to shipwreck.
And God is doing everything in his power
to prevent this, but there's a deep inner
stubbornness in them to hear what God is
speaking.
In verse 10, verse 9, it says, And
now when much time was spent, and sailing
was now dangerous, because the fast was now
already passed, Paul admonished them.
And he said to them, Sirs, I perceive
that this voyage will be with hurt and
much damage, not only of the lading in
the ship, but also of our lives.
Nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and the
owner of the ship more than those things
which were spoken by Paul.
Now, there had been a season of fasting.
It's actually a historical time.
This time of the fast was over.
Paul, who is a type in the story
of the voice of the Holy Spirit, is
now speaking to those who are contemplating a
journey.
Just as you come to the house of
God, and some of you are here tonight,
some of you are here this morning and
this afternoon, and you are in your mind
contemplating a journey.
You want to go somewhere and you're happy
as it is to have God with you
on this journey.
And Paul now is speaking and warning, just
like you quite often hear from this pulpit.
If you're in a house where God is
speaking, He will caution you when you're heading
in a direction that is not good.
And Paul said to them, I perceive that
this voyage will be with hurt and much
damage, not only of the lading in the
ship, but also of our lives.
And you've heard it from here.
You've heard us stand in the pulpit and
say, Turn off ungodly television.
It will not only hurt your journey, but
it will eventually even take away your spiritual
eyesight.
It will hurt you.
You've heard Pastor Neal from time to time
talk about marriages that are destroyed, children's lives
that are wounded because husbands and wives will
not cease this flirtatious behavior in the workplace,
thinking that no harm can come from it.
And they come to the house of the
Lord.
They're on their journey.
They claim to be walking with God.
But the voice of the Lord comes and
says, You must stop in this journey.
You must not do this because you see,
God sees the end from the beginning.
He knows where you're going.
He knows where you're going to be 10
years down the road.
He's not confined to time like you and
I are in this sanctuary this evening.
Verse 11 says, Nevertheless, the centurion believed the
master and the owner of the ship more
than those things which were spoken by Paul.
And here's a type of the person who
says, No, I we've built something.
And this thing where we've built is taking
us on a journey.
And we prefer to trust this thing that
we have built.
And we believe that this thing is going
to get us where we're going more than
those things that God is speaking to us.
And many, many people are like that.
In Luke chapter 10, for example, a lawyer
came to Jesus and the lawyer said to
Jesus, What must I do to inherit eternal
life?
And Jesus said, Well, simple love the Lord
your God with all your heart, soul, mind
and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
Then the scripture says this man willing to
justify himself said, Then who is my neighbor?
Then Jesus begins to show him three types
of people who are on a journey.
Now, remember, his question is, What must I
do to inherit eternal life?
Or in other words, what is the evidence
that I'm on a pathway that's bringing me
to the life that God has destined for
me, not only in time, but also through
eternity?
And he spoke about the priest who's heading
off to do his priestly duty in the
house of God and sees a man who's
been left for dead on the side of
the road and passes him by and goes
along with his journey into his religion.
And we see another man who's a Levite,
a type of a worshiper.
And he does the same.
He passes by this wounded, bruised and bleeding
man.
And you see, because these men had built
their own ship, they had built a form
of religion.
And folks, this form of religion they thought
was sufficient to carry them into everlasting life.
But Jesus is answering the lawyer's question and
he's telling them and the crowd that are
listening, this is not sufficient.
You see, if what you profess to be
of my heart, God says, does not does
not actually possess my heart, if there's nothing
in it to minister to fallen man, if
you find the vessel that you're on and
the journey you're on is always ducking and
dodging the bleeding man in society, then you
don't have something that's leading you to everlasting
life.
For to have the eternal life or the
life of God within us means that we
bear within these earthen vessels the very burden,
at least in some measure, of Christ himself,
who came to this earth and became a
man and was not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to everlasting
life.
Tell me, how do I have the life
of Christ within me and not have the
burden of Christ within me?
How do I say that he is my
Lord?
His life is becoming my life day to
day.
I'm changing from image to image and glory
to glory.
And I care nothing about perishing society around
me.
Tell me, am I really on the right
journey?
Have I really constructed the right vessel?
Am I really moving in the right direction?
But you see, people even here tonight will
choose to believe this this religion that they've
concocted more than the things that are spoken
by God through the Holy Spirit.
God through the Holy Spirit will come and
challenge religion that has no compassion for the
lost.
And people have then to make a decision.
Do I believe that this journey I'm on
is going to lead to the loss of
life?
And folks, if you have no compassion for
the lost, there are people that are going
to lose out as it is their opportunity
to know God, because simply you're on a
journey without that compassion, without that passion of
God.
And you and I have a choice to
make.
We believe the things that the Holy Spirit
is speaking to us or we believe this
vessel and that we have concocted out of
our own minds or perhaps you're following a
religion that is simply made out of the
minds of men.
It has no burden for the lost.
It has no cross.
It has no blood.
It has no altar.
It has no sacrifice.
It has no nothing.
It is it is simply a self-induced
and a self-absorbed journey that has the
name of God somehow on the bow of
its ship.
But it is destined for disaster.
It is not going through to the other
side.
Verse 12 says, And because the haven was
not commodious to winter in, the more part
advised to depart than Salso, if by any
means they might attend to Phenis or there
might and there to winter, which is in
the haven of Crete and lied toward the
southwest and the northwest.
And verse 13 says, And when the south
wind blew softly, supposing they'd obtained their purpose,
losing thence, they sailed by Crete when the
south wind blew softly.
That's exactly how so many people are led,
even in the body of Jesus Christ.
Almost like putting my finger to the wind
and whichever direction seems to bring the least
amount of resistance to my ambitions, my plans
and my wishes.
That's the direction I'm going in.
And there's so many people today that are
following the soft south wind, the soft south
wind that requires nothing.
It just simply it has such an appearance
of ease.
It has such an appearance of God in
it, just like the prodigal son in Luke,
chapter 15.
There's a young man who just he's in
his father's house.
His father is trying to give him at
least in some measure an understanding of of
what his house is all about, but he
can't seem to grasp it.
And finally comes to his father and you
can just feel the soft wind just leading
him out of the father's house and out
of the father's work and off to Hawaii
somewhere where he can just relax on a
beach with all of his friends and just
have a real good time.
And he's being led by this.
And he comes to his father and says,
Give me my inheritance.
And I can't help but think of the
multitudes in the house of the Lord who
have this inheritance of the life of Christ,
have the treasure of heaven opened at their
disposal to enter into the work of God.
But they come to the house of the
Lord and it's the same cry as the
prodigal son.
Father, give me my inheritance that I may
go out and enjoy my life, that I
may go out and have a good time
with all of my friends, that I may
travel and journey.
Now that now that you've set me free
and now that I've become a child of
God, I have so many plans, so many
ambitions that I want to fulfill, so many
things that I want to do.
So such a sense of destiny that I
feel needs to be accomplished through my life.
So now I know, Father, I can't do
it without the inheritance.
You see, this is the this is the
measure of the deceptiveness of this young man's
religion.
He knew that he couldn't accomplish this without
the inheritance.
He knew what he was without his father's
inheritance as it is given to him and
within him.
And there are many, many come to the
house of the Lord and you know that
without God, you're a reprobate.
Without God, you're an adulterer.
Without God, you're a liar.
Without God, you're a drunkard.
Without God, you're an adulterer.
You know it and you know what you'll
be.
So so many come to the house of
the Lord and say, Father, also, thank you
for calling me now, your son and your
daughter.
I just asked you now, give me the
portion that I need.
I need a portion of your life.
I don't want the whole thing and I
don't want the whole burden.
I don't even want to I don't even
want to know fully what it is that
you want me to do.
I just want the portion because, you see,
the soft wind is blowing and it's carrying
me to my sense of destiny that I
have for myself.
And I must go and fulfill this.
The father, of course, gives him what he
requires is seemingly without argument.
And, you know, the Lord is very gracious.
If it's not in your heart to to
serve him, you will walk out of this
house still with a measure of his life
in you.
This is the amazing thing about the grace
of God.
If it was you or I that were
God, we would just simply pull the plug
and let you go out empty.
But God lets you go out and you
still have a measure, even though your ship
is headed in the wrong direction, even though
you're moving, your life is is heading into
a place of storms and great, great difficulty.
God and his grace still goes with you.
It's it's amazing when you begin to see
it.
And, you know, the story, the father is
not in the field with the others.
The father is waiting on the porch for
his son to come home.
He's waiting because there's a revelation he wants
to give him.
There's something this son is heading into a
terrible storm, just like we're about to we're
reading in Acts chapter 27.
He's he's going into a place of famine.
He's going into a place of want.
He's going into a place of shipwreck and
ruin.
He's going into a place where he himself
is going to become poor, like the man
beaten up on the Jericho Road.
And he's going to find nobody willing to
give him anything there who doesn't have the
spirit of God.
Finally, comes to himself and gets up and
begins to head for home.
And when he comes home, he finds something
he should have known all along.
His boat, as it is, as I can
see him heading down the road back to
his father and his boat is now just
feet from shore.
And it's when finally he receives the embrace
of his father.
His heart is now open to say, father,
what is it that you have for me?
He may not understand it, but even the
fact that he's heading home, the fact that
he's willing to be embraced by his father
and finally perhaps understand what the father's will
is for his life.
He now receives the covering, the ring of
authority and the shoes of commission that are
put upon his feet.
And now he becomes an ambassador of his
father throughout his and father's entire kingdom.
Verse 14 says, not long after there arose
a tempestuous wind called Euro Clyde.
And when the ship was caught and we
could not bear up into the wind, we
let her drive.
And that's exactly what happens to people who
are out of the will of God.
You're driven now, driven, you can come into
this church even tonight, absolutely driven.
Verse 16, it says, running under a certain
island, which is called Claude, we had much
work to come by the boat, which when
they had taken up, they used helps and
undergirding the ship in fearing lest they should
fall into the quicksands, straight sail.
And so we're driven.
And this is exactly where you are.
I know I'm speaking prophetically to someone here
tonight because God gave me this very word
to speak to you tonight.
There are people who have come in to
this house.
You are driven.
You are using helps.
You've got more tapes and books than half
of this church combined.
You are constantly got a you've got a
Walkman in your ears listening to tapes.
You're in the middle of the most horrific
storm of your entire life.
You're undergirding the ship.
You're reading books how to do this, how
to do that, how to get out of
this, how to get into that.
You're listening to every tape you can get
on the topic of getting through your storm.
You are afraid that you're going to sink,
it says right here, and fearing lest they
should fall into quicksand.
In spite of all the sermons you're listening,
you're getting this increasing sinking feeling coming into
your spirit like I'm not going to make
it.
My ship is going down.
I don't care how many times I look
in the mirror and say, you are great
and you are and try to be positive
in the morning.
Talk about my destiny and all of these
things.
I am sinking.
I know it.
And it says in a straight sail and
we're driven.
And here you are.
I had a vision of this as I
was preparing this message of people.
You got your sail out.
You're going down Broadway, driven.
You're going into work, driven.
There's a little breeze that goes by people's
desks when you are not the saver of
Christ.
It's a little breeze of a person who's
driven because they're on the wrong journey.
You're driven at home.
You're driven to work.
You're driven everywhere you go.
And now you're driven in the house of
God and your sail is only down just
for a moment during this service, saying, God
Almighty, would you be kind enough to get
me through this storm?
I need to get to the other side
of this thing and being exceedingly tossed verse
18 with the tempest.
The next day they lightened the ship.
You know, there's a day coming where you
start throwing out your books and tapes and
all of these undergirdings because you begin.
I know there are people here that have
been doing this recently.
You're saying, ah, you're taking the tape and
just chucking it in the garbage as you're
walking down Broadway or wherever you're going, heading
forward.
You said, ah, that's useless.
It's not you're you're throwing out all of
these undergirdings.
Not that the word is not good, but
at the moment you're not willing to hear
it.
And it says the third day we cast
out with our own hands the tackling of
the ship.
In other words, finally, you get to the
point where you're casting out your own plans.
You're casting out your own ability to get
through the storm.
You're finally casting it out and say, God,
I'm not going to make it if you
don't come.
I'm not going to make it.
You see, you could have avoided this entire
scenario by saying that in the beginning.
You know, I'm learning this as I go
along to avoid this long, long stormy journey
by just inviting Jesus to come in the
beginning, inviting him to speak in the beginning,
inviting him to to take the helm, inviting
him to chart the course and inviting him
to say, Lord, you take me where you
want me to go and you do through
me what you want to do.
I'm tired of charting my own course.
And I'm finally getting to the point where
I'm willing to throw out the tackling of
the ship.
I'm willing to throw out all the things
that I have gathered and put on this
homemade religion of mine that is that I
feel are necessary to get me through to
what I think my life should be.
And, you know, the amazing thing is God
in his mercy just simply sends us into
a storm and gets us to the point
where we finally realize that it's not by
might nor by power.
It's not by the thoughts of man.
It's not by my own plans and my
own devices.
It's just by yielding to God.
It's by letting him take the reins of
my life in this short little vapor of
a life that I have and let almighty
God just begin to lead it through from
beginning to end.
Lord, do you want to send me to
Tanzania?
Send me to Tanzania.
You want to send me to the Bronx?
Send me to the Bronx.
You want me to do this in your
house for the rest of my life?
I would be happy to do this in
your house for the rest of my life.
But, oh, God, I'm just so tired of
my own plans.
I'm so tired of my own dreams.
I'm so tired of all of the preachers
on television that are sowing nothing but flesh
and carnality in my mind and in my
spirit and teaching me only how to be
discontent and putting me on a ship that
you've not designed and sending me on a
journey that you've not called me on.
Oh, God, thank you that in your mercy,
you are willing to send a storm and
you're willing to stop me in the midst
of this journey.
And you're willing to cause me one more
time to have to cry out to you.
Verse 20, it says, when the sun nor
the stars appeared in many days and no
small tempest lay on us, all hope that
we should be saved was taken away.
But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in
the midst of them and said, sirs, you
should have hearkened to me.
Now, remember, this is a type, this is
a type of a Christian on a journey.
And Paul is a type, as I'm speaking
tonight, of the Holy Spirit, the voice of
God.
Finally, when all hope that we should be
saved is taken away.
I think it's second Kings, second Kings, rather,
chapter six, when Elisha in a certain city
was surrounded by the warring armies of the
king of Syria and the servant of Elijah
woke up in the morning and he saw
the scripture says a great host had surrounded
him.
And the servant said to Elisha, oh, no,
what alas, master, what are we going to
do?
And Elisha just said, oh, God, please open
this man's eyes and have him see that
there are more with us than there are
against us.
And of course, the Lord now in the
midst of this bad situation opened the servant's
eyes and he began to see what he
could not see because he was walking by
his natural mind.
He was walking in his natural thinking.
The scripture tells us that when his eyes
were opened, he saw round about the mountains
all surrounding it, he and Elisha and the
people of God at that time, chariots of
fire, angels and warring angels and chariots of
fire.
He saw this incredible power of God that
was there at his disposal, but yet his
eyes could not see it.
And Paul, the scripture tells us in verse
20 that all hope was taken away that
we should be saved.
Finally, we get to the point where we
say, God, what are you speaking to me?
You know, it's amazing.
I know I speak for every pastor on
this platform and every leader.
We should know this.
But from time to time, I have to
go through this again.
It's something about human nature.
We chart a course and we think it's
right and we try to keep it alive.
Maybe it's a dream, a vision.
Maybe it's just a direction.
Maybe I don't know.
It's just different little things.
Maybe it's our own image of ourselves sometimes.
And we try to keep it alive.
And God says, no, this thing has to
die before I can come and speak to
you.
This whole thing has to die.
I've just been there a few times.
And all hope, it says, was taken away
that we should be saved.
In other words, this thing can't be kept
alive any longer.
It can't go any farther.
It's got to stop here.
And finally, our hearts are open.
And the scripture says in verse twenty one,
but after long abstinence, Paul stood in the
midst of them.
In other words, the voice of God comes
back again.
This has been a long journey.
There's been a lot of stuff going on
here.
They've been using helps.
They've been fearing quicksand.
They've been striking sail.
They've been driven by the wind.
They've been casting out their own tackling.
They've been lightning, lightning the ship as it
is.
They finally lost hope that they can save
this direction that they're on.
And after all of this, they're finally through
it.
Paul, representing the voice of God, one more
time rises up.
God has always been there.
He's always been willing to speak.
It's just that they've not been willing to
listen.
And he said, sirs, you should have hearkened
to me.
You should have not loosed from Crete and
to have gained this harm and lost.
In other words, you should have listened to
me way back then.
I was telling you not to go in
this direction, but you were you were bent
on doing this.
And you headed off in this direction.
And because you did, it's all come to
nothing.
And because of my love for you, the
Lord says, I've caused this cry to come
into your heart.
I've caused this desperation.
Remember, we began by saying you're just three
to six feet from shore, most likely.
But the only thing left is that you
have to invite me now, the Lord says,
into your boat.
You just have to invite me in.
And when you invite me in, you don't
get just protection.
You get the agenda as it is for
your life of God.
Because remember, they went to the other side
and Jesus didn't follow them.
They followed Jesus.
There is a huge difference, folks, when things
are in right order.
And Paul says in verse 22, Now I
exhort you to be of good cheer, for
there shall be no loss of any man's
life among you, but of the ship.
In other words, you're going to live, but
your plans are going to die.
For there stood by me this night the
angel of God, whose I am and who
I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul.
Thou must be brought before seizure.
And, lo, God has given thee all them
that sail with thee.
Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I
believe, God, that it shall be even as
it was told me.
Now, this is incredible.
Here are these people who have followed a
soft wind.
They followed a soft wind to achieve their
own objectives.
They've ended up in a storm.
The storm has produced in them a despair.
The despair has progressed to the point of
hopelessness that they don't even believe that they're
going to be saved or make it through
the storm.
Now, that's what happens when men follow their
own will.
They follow their own direction.
That's always the end result.
And God's mercy will bring it to that
end.
You better hope that God doesn't let you
continue on in your own plans, in your
own schemes, because it will all come to
nothing.
But who then has the word of hope?
Who is the person of good cheer?
Here's the Apostle Paul, steps out of the
middle of the ship while everyone else is
trying to figure out how to get through
the storm.
This man is down as it is in
the bowels of the ship, and he's just
communing with God.
Here's a man who is completely willing to
follow God even unto death, not only to
go to Jerusalem, but to go to Rome,
to go wherever God calls him to go,
to go to prison, to do whatever God
asks him to do.
Completely satisfied with the life that Christ has
given him.
He's on a journey.
It's a completely different journey.
Nobody on this ship can understand this journey.
Nobody who is walking by their own abilities
and their own will can even begin to
remotely understand this.
Here is a man who stands on the
midst of this ship and says, be of
good cheer.
Don't be afraid.
God spoke to me and told me I
have to be brought before Caesar.
Now, you have to understand, most Caesars were
incredibly wicked.
They were bloodthirsty.
They were not.
Their dispensation of justice could be, if you
annoyed them, it'd be in a moment.
Just throw you to the lions, take off
your head, boil you in oil.
And Paul says, be of good cheer.
God spoke to me and I have to
appear before Caesar.
Amazing.
Everybody on the ship for a moment must
be just standing back and blinking here.
Here's a man who's on a journey that
none of us want to go on.
But he's the man who has the word
of God.
He's the man who has not just the
word of God, but God has given him
everyone who sails with him.
Now, folks, you may not like the journey
that God has you on.
Initially, it might be incredibly distasteful.
But I tell you tonight, if you will
obey God, God will give you your children,
your grandchildren, your sons, your daughters, your neighbors,
your friends, your family.
Not just you, but the people who sail
with you.
He'll give them to you because they will
see in the midst of their storm, a
steadfastness.
They'll see a light in your eye when
their eyes have gone dim.
They'll see a rock under your feet when
they're sinking in quicksand.
They'll see you standing in the midst of
the same opposition and difficulty that faces every
man, woman and child ever born into this
world.
But you are standing with purpose.
You are standing with an objective.
You are standing with words of hope in
a dying generation.
You know what your life is about.
You know where you're going.
And God says, not just you, but I'll
give you those who sail with you.
I'll give you those who speak to you.
I'll give you those who are all around
you.
I'll make your life a light.
I'll set it upon a hill.
I'll pour out of your living water for
those that are thirsty.
I'll make the theology comes out of your
mouth, a rock for those that are sinking
in quicksand.
I'll make your life a compass for those
that are confused in this darkened generation.
Be of good cheer.
I believe God.
See, this is the oxymoron, for lack of
a better word.
It's the man who's going on what humanity
says is the most distasteful journey of all,
who's the man with hope and life.
And his course is set and he has
a compass in his hand and he sees
the end from the beginning.
His eyes singly focused, his whole body is
full of light.
And this man, this woman.
Becomes the person who is able to gather
the lost, the wounded, the dying, the struggling.
It's this man, Paul, who says, Jesus, you
are welcome on my boat.
He's not even on a boat of his
own making in this particular case.
But ironically, the boat that he's on is
not the boat he's traveling on.
There's another boat that's carrying him.
There's an unseen vessel that is taking him.
It's amazing when you begin to see it.
There's an absolute split between the physical and
the spiritual world.
And they have Paul on a physical boat.
But it's not the physical boat that's carrying
him.
It's a spiritual boat.
It's a boat that Paul has said in
his life.
Now, it's not like Paul didn't go through
hard times.
You remember the scripture.
He said, I don't have you ignorant, brethren,
of the trouble that came to us in
Asia, that we were pressed down above measure.
That we despaired even of life.
It's not like Paul hadn't gone through storms
himself and known difficulties and trials.
But somewhere along the line, Paul made the
decision, that final decision that said, Jesus, you
are welcome to be the center of my
storm.
You are welcome in the boat.
And through the storm, I've been studying Paul
for a long time.
And through the storm, I see he never
lost his song.
He never lost his hope.
When everyone else is running for fear, Paul
is the eternal optimist, really.
He's the one who goes to jail and
everyone around is trying to stop him.
And even in jail, he just takes out
a pen and just simply begins to write
Timothy and begins to write different people.
He's not free to preach, but he's free
to write.
And God has put a pen in this
man's hand by the Holy Ghost and is
writing the holy scriptures that we have today.
And we see simply the end journey of
a man whose his sense of destiny is
not what he thinks he should be.
It's not where he thinks he should go.
It's where God is leading him.
Would be to God, wouldn't it be incredible
if we could have a church age like
that again?
If we could have a church age, everyone
wants to emulate Acts chapter two and they
all want to go into an upper room
and they all want to come out and
roll around and speak in tongues.
But there's so very few that are willing
to embrace the call.
And it was a call to be a
martyr in those days.
And they were fully aware of it.
It was a call to leave familiarity and
go into the territory of the spirit, which
to them, at least before the baptism, was
an unfamiliar territory.
It was a call to go, as it
were, to the ends of the earth and
be witnesses, living witnesses of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
And the uttermost parts of the earth, there
were places that people hadn't gone to, they
were they were not familiar with the journey.
But it was a call of God on
their lives to make this journey.
And these hundred and twenty peoples came out
of this upper room, stepped out into the
public as it is.
And they made a declaration.
We're on a journey because the scripture says
they were speaking in known languages.
The wonder of the anticipated outworking, the Megalios,
which is the anticipated outworking of the inward
life of God.
They were speaking it out loud.
And amazing when you begin to see it,
that God took these hundred and twenty and
very shortly there were three thousand one hundred
and twenty.
And very shortly after that, there were probably
well over five, six, seven thousand.
And very shortly after that, all of Asia
at that time and many parts of the
known world had been literally overturned by the
gospel of Jesus Christ through a people who
are willing to simply say, Jesus, in spite
of where this takes me, I invite you
into this boat.
I invite you into this journey that I'm
on.
I invite you to be the center because
it's not going to be an easy journey.
And they knew it.
But I invite you into the center of
this journey.
And Paul says in verse twenty five, Wherefore,
sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe
God.
Even as it was told me, I believe
God.
There comes a point, folks, where that's what
it's all about.
I believe God.
I stopped trying to reason it out.
I stopped trying to figure it out.
I see it here.
I believe it.
I believe God that if he leads me,
he will keep me.
If he calls me, he will empower me.
If he asked me to do something, he'll
give me every resource I need, that it
can be done in a manner that brings
honor and glory to his name.
If he's called me on the journey, then
he's going to take me on the journey.
I live until God says I don't.
It's over when God says it's over.
Until then, I live for him.
I'm moving him, Paul says.
We have our being in him.
It is Christ and Christ alone.
It is all Christ.
And everything in us is Christ and through
us is Christ.
John, chapter five, and I'm going to close
with this.
You don't have to turn there.
A man who is thirty eight years lame.
He's laying on a mat at a.
In a place of where water was stirred
in.
Every once in a while, and there was
a different porticoes leading down to the stirring
of the water.
And Jesus stood one day beside this man
and.
He said, will you be made whole?
The man says, I will have no man.
And when I get up and try to
go, somebody else goes down before me.
And he's the type of the person.
When Christ comes and he's standing right outside
of your storm, even tonight, even this very
moment, he's standing three feet from the bow
of your boat.
And he says, will you be made whole?
And he's the type of a man or
woman that says, well, it's just been too
long.
It's been too hard.
I have too little strength and it's too
late when God himself is saying, will you
be made whole?
Will you let me come and make you.
By sovereign supernatural power into what I have,
I have, God says, destined your life to
be where I have destined you should go.
And I don't know what happened in this
man's heart, but somewhere along the line, I
don't know.
He'd been 38 years like this.
38 years with excuses, 38 years and probably
his storm was as severe as any storm
that you and I might be facing tonight.
He'd given up hope.
I don't even know why he's still laying
there, because by his response, he had no
hope of ever getting to the water of
healing.
And standing beside him is Jesus himself and
says, will you be made whole?
And Jesus just says, rise, take up your
bed and walk.
I have a journey for you.
Here's where your journey has taken you.
Powerless.
Hopeless.
All this, all these words in your mind,
too little, too late, too long.
But I'm giving you an opportunity now to
get up.
And you're going to roll that thing up
and stick it under your arm, that's exactly
what he told him, roll up your mat,
put it under your arm.
I'm going to send you on a journey.
And it wasn't going to be easy because,
folks, I'm telling you, he ran into religious
criticism the very first few steps he took.
But I'm going to send you on a
journey.
And it's not your journey any longer.
It's it's my journey.
All you have to do now is invite
me into your storm.
It's as easy as that, folks.
I've said all of that for 42 minutes
to say that all you have to do
is invite Jesus into your storm.
Say, Lord, I give up.
I've rode long, hard and enough.
Please, God, get in my boat.
And I when we hit the shore on
the other side, I will follow you.
I'm not going to ask you to follow
me.
I will follow you.
If that's in your heart tonight in the
annex balcony, main sanctuary, if you're among those
that I know God is speaking to and
you just you need to get through, you've
come here tonight, say, God, I've got to
get through this storm.
If this is a divine word just for
you and the Holy Spirit is drawing you,
you've heard what God is speaking to your
heart and you're going to willing to lay
down your plans and hear what the Lord
will speak.
Come and meet me here.
Let's stand together.
Balcony annex.
We'll wait for just come and meet me
here.
We'll pray together and you're going to be
through your storm.
This this storm anyway, you'll be through it
before the night is out.
Hallelujah.
Thank you, Jesus.
Balcony, you go to either exit annex.
We'll wait for you to come here.
You're going to go through.
Paul, remember, he said, I believe, God, that
it shall be even as it was told
me.
So that's really the choice you're making coming
here tonight.
I believe, God, that if I'm willing to
ask him, it's going to be just as
it was told me.
Hallelujah.
Move in close.
Please make room for those that are coming.
Lord, you are welcome.
Pray with me, Jesus.
You are welcome in the center of my
storm and my journey.
God, thank you for not letting me prosper
in the flesh.
Thank you for stopping me from moving in
directions that bring no glory to your name
and no deliverance to those that are lost.
Thank you for the storm.
God, Jesus, I thank you that you're my
only hope.
You're my only life.
And I invite you into the very center
of my Christian journey.
And I ask you, Holy Spirit, to open
my heart and open my ears to the
voice of God, the plans of God and
the direction of God.
I yield the direction of my life and
I ask you to take me and use
me for your glory.
I will follow you.
I'm no longer asking you to follow me.
I will follow you where you lead me.
I will follow you.
Jesus, thank you.
Thank you, God.
With all my heart, I give you praise.
I give you glory.
I give you thanks from the depths of
my heart.
Thank you, Lord.
Pastor Neal, I just had a I just
had a vision in my mind as we
were praying of all these boats hitting the
shore.
I don't know if you're feeling this.
I just have a sense in my heart
as we're thanking God that your boat is
hitting the beach.
You're finally through.
You're through the storm.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, God.