The Word Made Plain

Guest (Female): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the Book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 27, verses 27 through 38.

Tony Clark: 2020 was tough, yes. Yes. And we were hoping, we were wishing at midnight on the 31st that when we woke up, we woke up from a nightmare, from a bad dream and said, "Okay, it's back to normal, everything's normal."

First seven days of the year, we're like, "No, this ain't going nowhere no time soon." We were wishing, we were hoping that we woke up and it had been different. We were. I was with you. I went to bed early that night because I wanted to hurry up and see 2021. I wanted to see that one. And I thought I'd see it, but no, it's still because we haven't learned the lesson yet. I don't think we have.

A pastor friend of mine said, "This pandemic, it just exposed people's hearts concerning church." So it's not that the pandemic took away church for people. No, it exposed what was already in their heart. That's all it did. They felt this way in their heart about church, and then the pandemic just proved it.

We've got to learn the lesson. How did Paul react when he saw these sailors trying to escape? He told the Centurion, a Roman captain over 100 soldiers, in verse 31, "Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved."

Here's the main point of this message: don't jump ship. I know that the storm is raging, the winds are beating intensely against you, and all of your instincts are telling you to bail out, give up, turn back. This is natural. But watch this: God wants to do something supernatural.

However, you must stay in the ship. This goes for the ship of your marriage, the ship of your job, or the ship of whatever it is that you are experiencing difficulties in. Stay in the ship. I say this because I believe that we jump ship too soon and never learn the lessons that the storm was sent to teach us.

So we bring our toxic selves into another marriage, into another relationship, and we poison it. We go to another job, and once again we start yelling about the people on the job. The problem is us because we jumped ship prematurely before the lesson was learned.

Have you noticed all those jobs? What's the common denominator? It's you. All the roommates you've gone through? What's the common denominator? It's you. But you start yelling, "All these people in this job." They say, "Well, didn't you just get here?" "Yeah, but you know, same people on the job." No, it's the same you. You bring your toxic self.

You know why I believe that we jump ship prematurely? Now once again, I'm not talking about you jumping ship from an abusive marriage or abusive situation. That's another sermon. I'm talking about we jump ship prematurely on jobs, relationships, marriages because we never learned coping mechanisms when we were younger. We never learned them.

Many of us, when we were younger, learned how to cope and deal with difficulty. We came in the house, "Boy, they did this to me." "Get back out there and make it right with them. That's your friend. You go out there and make it right with them." And then the next thing you know, we're playing because we learned coping mechanisms in order to deal with the difficulties in life.

We played sports in the yard and we competed and we learned what it is to lose. And then we're mad, but okay, you get them next time and you win next time. And we learned how to cope with difficulty. We'd get mad at our friends; they'd take their ball and go home. And then the next thing you know, we'd make up and we're back playing again because we learned how to cope.

But today, the kids today don't know how to cope. Number one, we're in a pandemic. You stay away, you don't get close, and then if you do, wear a mask. And then the kids are mumbling, "What are you saying? I don't know what you're saying." They don't know how to cope and deal with each other.

And then in school, they come home, "This teacher, this..." and you're running up there. You're running up there chewing out the teacher, and you know your kid is bad as Jesse James. You know Sally is just a terror at home, but though you go up chewing some teacher out, and then little Sally, little Johnny, just keep going on terrorizing classrooms.

No, we learned how to deal with stuff, deal with the kid. You know your kid is bad. They're at home with you all the time. They've been at home all year with you. You know they're bad. But though you're going to jump on these other adults for disciplining your kid, your baby. Your baby is a terror and you know it.

Therefore, you need to deal with them at home. But because you don't, they don't know how to cope because "Mommy lets me get away with it all the time," and they expect everybody to be like Mommy. Everybody is not like your mama. And you don't know how to deal with stuff, so what you do is you get mad and jump ship.

You get mad in this relationship, you jump ship. You get mad at this roommate, you either boot them out or you go move somewhere else. You don't know how to deal with it, and we jump ship because we didn't learn mechanisms and didn't learn how to cope with difficulty and hardships. We didn't learn how to deal with disappointment.

You lost. No, today, everybody gets a participation trophy. Are you kidding me? You lost. Learn how to deal with losing. There are going to be disappointments in life. But because kids today don't know how to deal with this kind of stuff, they are quick to jump ship.

And because you didn't learn the lesson, you take your toxic self to the next marriage, the next relationship, the next job, and you poison it. Because you didn't learn. See, watch this.

The Bible says in 1 Peter 2 that we are living stones. If you look at any building, there are bricks and they're put next to each other with some mortar or some cement to keep them right next together. Those are dead stones. The Bible says that we as believers are living stones. Living stones are moving.

And God places people next to you in the form of a marriage spouse, in the form of a coworker, and they're living stones too. And if you notice, stones that are alive create friction. And God specifically placed these people in your life because God sees that there are some rough, jagged edges about you, about your personality, about your little hangups, that God is using them to smooth out.

But you jump ship before the work of smoothing out is done and you stay jagged, you stay sharp, and you stay like that and you never learn the lesson because you're too busy jumping ship. There are things that God sees about you and He's going to use that person.

And when you say, "I can't stand that coworker, I can't stand that classmate, I can't stand that neighbor," when I hear you say that, I smile because God specifically placed them next to you to rub off those edges about you and about your life. But when you jump ship at every sign of friction, you keep that jagged, rough edge about you.

God wanted to use them as a spiritual sandpaper to smooth you out. But as soon as the friction starts, you bail. We're out. We're moving out of the neighborhood, we're moving from this job, we're going to move out of the state. At the first sign of difficulty, you're jumping ship.

This is what we see occurring today constantly, and people don't learn the lessons that the storm is bringing. David said, "Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word" (Psalm 119:67). He said that before he was afflicted, God had to afflict him because he had a tendency of going astray. But because he'd been afflicted, now he's keeping God's word.

Here's something that the Lord showed me. In Hebrews 5, right around verse 8, it says that Jesus learned obedience by the things he suffered. Notice that. There are some things that we won't learn unless we have to go through some suffering.

There are some areas that we're constantly being disobedient in that God has to allow us to suffer through a storm in order for us to be obedient in that area. God will always try the calm way: speak to our heart, speak through a friend, speak through a coworker, family member, speak through a verse. He will always go that route first.

But when we don't want to listen, then He has to allow a storm to come. And that storm is for a reason. It's to make us more like Jesus. But we never learn these lessons because we're too busy jumping ship. And we jump it prematurely before the lesson is learned.

Now when Paul said this, "Unless you stay in the ship, you cannot be saved," did they listen to Paul? Oh yes, yes they did because verse 32 said that they cut away the skiff and let it fall off. Now, I don't think that this was what Paul had in mind. But by cutting away the lifeboat, no one else would try to escape in this way.

However, as we will see the next morning, they could have used that lifeboat. Here's a lesson. As you can see, it is during storms that we get impulsive and do things we will later regret. But once again, it is another lesson learned during the storms, not to act impulsively.

It is so easy for us to do this. They went and cut the lifeboat out and they needed that; they could have used it the next day. But they got impulsive and cut it off. In storms, we can act impulsively. Be very mindful and watchful for this as you're in the midst of your storm.

Look at verses 33 to 35. And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, "Today is the 14th day you have waited and continued without food and eaten nothing. Therefore, I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you."

And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all, and when he had broken it, he began to eat. Finally, verse 33 says, "And as the day was about to dawn." Let me pause right here and encourage some of you, too, that your day is about to dawn as well.

Psalm 30:5 says, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." And this is what Paul and his crew are about to witness. Verse 33 goes on to say that Paul, who was now in charge, implored them all to take food, seeing that it had been two weeks or 14 days since many of them had eaten.

Why? Because of fear, worry, and being seasick. I believe that this is a word to some of you that you need to eat. You have not eaten or eaten very little since your storm started. You need to eat. But the same is true for us spiritually. We need to eat spiritually during storms. We need to feast on the Word of God as we go through our storms.

Why? Because like verse 34 says, it is for our survival. In other words, we cannot survive the storms of life without taking nourishment of God's Word. It is for our survival, like Paul told these men on the ship. Then Paul reminded them of God's promise that none of them would die, and that's mentioned in the phrase in verse 24, "Not a hair will fall from the head of any of you."

Now this doesn't negate personal responsibility because they had to stay in the ship. Paul told them, "Unless these men stay on the ship, they cannot be saved." Now you are free to jump off or to stay on the ship. You have a responsibility. Paul said, "Unless you stay on the ship."

Now you can jump ship and not learn the lesson that God wants you to learn, but just understand you're going to see that lesson again and again and again because God is trying to teach us something and He's trying to make us more like Jesus Christ. So you have the choice. Stay on the ship.

Now if you bail, you can bail; you have that choice. Many of them could have jumped off and just said, "I'm going to take a chance and try to swim this." Jump off, but unless you stay on the ship, you cannot be saved. And this is the point that He is bringing up.

So when Paul had said these things—what things? Well, about them taking nourishment because it was for their survival—it meant that they would need their strength to get from the broken ship to shore. When the ship crashed, they could only get so far, and the rest once it crashed, they had to jump over and grab onto a piece of wood and try to get to shore.

Some swam. We're going to see that God willing next week. But the point is they would need their strength. Can you imagine if you had not eaten for 14 days? You would be weak. And for them to get from the broken ship to shore, they needed their strength.

So he said, "It is for your survival." And this is so true because we will need instructions and our strength to get from the ship to the shore, and this comes from the Word of God, which is where our strength comes from.

So in verse 35, Paul took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all, and when he had broken it, he began to eat. Now from the language of this verse, some scholars suggest that Paul was having communion with these passengers.

You know that communion represents God's presence and reassuring these passengers that God will see them through, that His presence will be with us. Oh, how we need a Paul in our life as we go through the storms of life to encourage us of God's promises and to reassure us of His presence being with us and point us, most importantly, to the Word of God.

Who can you call on as you're going through storms? Remember, all of us are either going into a storm, in the midst of a storm, or just coming out. Who do you call on when you're in the midst of a storm? Are they like a Paul? I pray it's someone like Paul that's going to point you to the Word of God, that's going to have a verse for you, that's going to pray with you, that's going to encourage you.

That's who you need. You need a Paul, not somebody, "Girl, I'd have dropped that zero a long time ago, girl. Jump out of that marriage." You don't need somebody like that. You need a Paul that's going to give you the Word of God, that's going to encourage you. That's who you need. And so you have to evaluate your own life and say, "Who do you call when you're in the midst of a storm?" It says a lot.

Look at verses 36 to 38 as we wrap it up. Then they were all encouraged and also took food themselves. And in all, there were 276 persons on the ship. So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw the wheat into the sea.

Now as we can see in verse 36, they were all encouraged when they saw the peace and calmness of Paul, and they took food themselves. All of the 276 people on the ship ate as well according to verse 37. Now there are some critics who mocked these verses and say that ships at this time were not large enough to carry 276 people.

Not true. Because Josephus—you hear me quote him a lot, he was a first-century Jewish historian—he said that he sailed on a ship to Italy with 600 passengers in his writings. So they did have vessels this large at this time.

Then verse 38 says when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw the wheat into the sea. Why did they do that? Once again, they were trying to lighten the ship so as more weight is being thrown off the ship, the ship will sail mostly and be riding close to the surface of the water because they were trying to get as close to the land as they could.

And this is why they threw the rest of the wheat overboard. Also because they knew whatever food they would need from this time on, they could get from the island that they were landing on. And we will see what happened, God's will, next week.

Now let me conclude with this. Stay in the ship. Stay in the ship. We saw how Paul instructed the men who were trying to escape: unless you stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. Stay in the ship. Don't jump ship, don't bail out, don't turn back when you're in the midst of a storm.

Why? Because if you do, you will miss out on the lessons God is trying to teach you. In other words, storms have a purpose. And this is why God allows them to blow our way. They're teaching us lessons when we get a little hard-hearted or stubborn about doing something that will be destructive to our lives, our families, and our careers.

So don't give up on Christ. Don't give up on Christianity. I bring this up because somebody is contemplating on that. Somebody is a Muslim on the job and talking to you. Or somebody who is a scholar on the internet and got some apparent contradictions that you're, "I didn't know that was in the Bible."

Don't jump ship. Every apparent contradiction has an answer. Don't give up on Christianity because of internet scholars who know how to Google a site and because somebody's been talking to you and they seem to be making sense. Christianity does, too. Don't jump ship. Don't jump the ship. Get a Paul that will encourage you through the storm because we can't survive ourselves.

Commit to reading the Word of God. I would encourage you, if you're in the midst of a storm, read through the Psalms. Read through the Psalms because David had many storms he survived that are similar to the ones we go through. And through his writings, we can receive his wisdom, counsel, and encouragement as we read about the storms David survived in his life.

David went through some stuff very similar to things we go through. So if you're in the midst of a storm, read through the Psalms. Many of them are not that long. The longest one is Psalm 119 that has 176 verses to it, and I know that just wearies some of you to even hear that. And some of them are just five verses, 10 verses. They're not that long. Read through the Psalms. Let God minister to you through the Word of God.

So you can learn how to—see what we don't have today is a word that I like to use, we have no stick-to-itiveness about us. Difficulties come, we run. Difficulties happen, we bail. We jump ship. We leave, we run, because we never learned these skills growing up. We never learned them from a natural level.

So okay, then God has to teach us from a spiritual perspective how to stay the course, how to stick to it. And God wants to teach us those things and many of those things. Now, if you're like me and you've learned these lessons growing up, then when you hear them from a spiritual perspective, they make sense. It's like, "Oh yeah, I got it. Oh yeah, I'm good with that."

Some of you still struggle because your first recourse is to put on your track shoes and run. Because maybe that was the example you saw growing up. Somebody ran out of your life. And therefore, because you don't know how to cope, you think, "I need to run too."

And it's unfortunate. And I'm sorry that somebody did that to you. But at the same time, God wants to teach you how to stick to it, how to keep going when the going gets tough. He wants to teach you those particular lessons, and He uses storms to do just that. May we learn the lessons that God is trying to teach us. Let's pray.

Father, thank You so much for Your Word. Lord, forgive us for wanting to bail, wanting to jump, wanting to run. Forgive us, Lord. Show us what it means to stick to it. Show us what it means to abide in Christ. Lord, show us what that means. Show us what it means to abide. Oh God, we need You.

Lord, forgive us. Lord, many of us have turned our backs on You and You've allowed the storm to get us back to praying, get us back to church, back to the things of God. And Lord, I pray that we as Americans, we will learn the lesson that You're using this pandemic to teach us.

Lord, forgive us for putting other things, other people, other activities first and putting You somewhere down on the totem pole somewhere. Lord, forgive us. Forgive us. Forgive us, Lord.

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