The Two Thousand Mile Challenge

The title, as you can see on the bulletin, is the 2,000-mile challenge. Let's ask you a question. I am intrigued by... Do any of you love being on a boat? I don't see anybody raising their hand. You have to! She's always on a boat. She's on the boat. Half your life anymore. David, you like being on a boat? To do what? Fish, dive, snorkel, spearfish, yes. Anybody else? I like the flats. Yeah, Stephen? You're a fishing man. Okay. We have, what, cruise ships, which you are on, right? People have taken cruises. I've taken a few. My mother's taken too many. Spent my inheritance on cruises. But I've also been on a fishing boat. You knew coming here it wasn't going to be. I've been on a fishing boat. Loved fishing, you know. I went on a speed boat one time. Went from one island to another, which was exciting, okay, expensive. Might do it just once, right? And then Mary and I just came off, and we were on a ferry, that very slow boat that took us from one island to the other. I've never been on a boat for a very long time.

Can you imagine going 2,000 miles, traveling 2,000 miles on a boat?

I can't. Maybe you have. I guess you probably have some of your longer, you know, routine day trips and so forth. But it was on a cruise ship. Can you imagine on a smaller boat, one-tenth of the size?

I was in Freeport, Bahamas visiting our brethren there, and we had a camp out. We had services outside, which would be nice to do sometime here. We didn't want to do that. We've done that in the park, but here we did it in a park. Two of our members there, Mark and Wendy Mackey, they are fishermen and women extraordinaire. They love to fish, and they're good at it. They catch. So they decided the Sunday morning after the camp out, we had services, and we're camping out, and then we're going to spend the Sunday in the Bahamas on a beach. They had their little boat, and I say, a little boat. They had a different boat, but they wanted to take me out fishing on a little boat. Did they do that with you when you were there? Okay. Oh, you wouldn't allow them. So you take maybe two of these tables and put them together. And that's about the size of the boat. There was no motor, so you had to paddle. Okay, so Mark and I were paddling, and Wendy was getting the fishing lines ready as we went from the Bahamas. And there was this island out there that was a special island that nobody could go on, and it was a preserve for birds and so forth like this. So they said, there's great fishing out here. We were to go and fish and catch the fish to eat for lunch for all the entire group. And I always thought I was a good fisherman, but I didn't know I was going to be that one. That many people. There were 20 people or so. So we go out and this boat is just sitting about that far above the water. It's just right there. And I begin to look around as I'm paddling and I'm out. And then it's about a half a mile out to the island, and we can't come within 200 feet of the island, but there's great fishing. So we're out there, and I'm getting there, and it took us about 20 minutes to reach the point fish.

And it's a fairly calm day, but I noticed the water would occasionally splash into the boat. And they start fishing and moving the boat a little bit, and I'm kind of like, oh, there's no life jackets. And I said, do you guys ever... They started laughing. No.

And so we're fishing then, and I realized, we're pretty far away. And as you know anything about the Bahamas, it's a lovely feeding ground for sharks. They have more sharks around the Bahamas. They even feed them and keep them in certain areas there. And I'm beginning to think, hmm, we catch... I catch three fish. Mark catches about six, and Wendy catches a dozen. She just knows how to catch that. And she was, of course, you know, sticking it to us men for not being able to fish as well as she did. And then I'm looking, okay, we need to catch... It probably doubles that amount of fish. But then all of a sudden, in the distance, I see black clouds. And there's a storm coming. And I'm beginning to want my life jacket because the waves start going.

And I'm sitting there, um, I won't eat that much. How about we catch a few more? No! Oh no, we'll be a few more. So we stay out there a little bit longer, and the clouds are getting dark, no longer any sun. And they then tell me the story about Joey, one of our member sons who was out on a boat similar to this with three other guys. And it got dark, and the storm came, and they were all thrown out, and all of them died. But Joey, they drowned. They couldn't get... Oh, that just made my day. I'm thinking, boy, I just... Maybe I should have prayed another hour that morning. So then they said, okay, I think we'd better hurry in because the current started pulling, coming out. And so here the storm's coming. The current's going. I'm like this. Mark's just going, and I keep going like this. I'm like, we want to get in because that storm's coming, and the waves are just like this. It took us 45 minutes because of the waves going out to come into the shore. Land never felt so good in that time. I bring that story up because most of us, perhaps if you've been on the water, have had scary moments. Might have even been on a cruise ship where you've had scary moments. Well, imagine going 2,000 miles in a relatively small boat compared to the ocean. You would want to make sure you had your sea legs. Sea legs means you can survive out there without getting sick, right? Anybody here been seasick? Almost everybody. Okay. It happens, and it's a terrible feeling.

Well, God's story, God's history book, uses incredible stories of man on water, right?

What's one? Peter? Jonah? Paul? Peter? Noah? Talk about having to live on the water. I don't know how many thousands of miles they probably went, right? All these amazing stories. But I want to touch on one today that mentioned about Paul. Because Peter walked on water. Paul had some not-so-unique experiences in water and in the actual ocean. They are lessons for us that I hope we can learn today. There's this incredible lesson for us about divine providence. Divine providence. Do we believe as followers of Christ in divine providence that God is in charge and that He's in charge of everything, especially in our life? I found it interesting as the United States was forming as a nation that Benjamin Franklin, another Sabbatarian, said, God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? He believed in it. I've always thought myself, if God made and maintains the sun every day, He can certainly look after something as small as me or you. Our story and lesson today about divine providence comes from the 27th chapter of Acts, next to the last chapter of Acts, that I found to be very interesting when you can understand that just before our story begins, Paul is standing before King Agrippa and Festus. He has been two years trying to have his day in court, and it wasn't going well. But finally, two years after he was first arrested and charged, he comes before King Agrippa. King Agrippa listens to his story and tells him, I don't find anything wrong with this guy. You're free to go, except you have appealed to Caesar. So you're going to have to go to Rome.

But he didn't really send him a condemned or guilty man, but he sent him to Rome because he appealed. He was a Roman citizen. And so as he left there that time, because the trial was at Caesarea, just above Jerusalem on the coast, he went from Caesarea to Sidon to Myra, Sinitis to Crete, to Fair Havens to Malta to Rome. A 2,000 mile journey.

2,000 miles on water.

All to get to Rome. It wasn't a very pleasant trip.

Imagine being on a boat, as we were on the ferry boat the other day, and it was about a hundred feet long, and it was 30 foot wide as I marked it off with my feet as I was studying this. The boat that Paul is going to be riding on is about 140 foot by about 30 foot wide, 35 foot wide. Not a real big... I wouldn't call a ship, but a boat. At that size.

And it helps us as we read this story to let us relate to divine providence, because Paul believed in it. Paul knew that his life, wherever it took him, day by day, was guided by the oversight of God. He breathed because God let him breathe.

He had issues and problems because God allowed that to come into his life, as he does ours. So do you believe in divine providence? Truly believe.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defined divine providence as this. Traditional theism holds that God is the creator of heaven and earth, and that all that occurs in the universe takes place under his divine providence. That is, under God's sovereign guidance. According to believers, God governs creation as a loving Father working all things in their lives for good. The Scripture says, do we really and truly believe that? We can say, but when it comes to going through things, we sometimes wonder, and I've said this to myself before, does God ever take a day off? I've had weeks where I didn't get a day off. I wasn't the most pleasant person to be around.

We need a day off. God even tells us to take this day off. Does he take a day off?

Does he ever go on vacation? I say, wait, wait, wait a minute. I need a break from you guys. And so we may think that sometime as, where are you? We may go through a trial of problem, pray about it, and kind of say, God, where are you? But you see, our God isn't the God that Elijah confronted there on Mount Carmel, where he even asked him, where's your God? Where he even asked him, where's your God? Did he go to the bathroom?

Is he out running around? Did he forget you? We, as believers in divine providence, hopefully understand that God doesn't take a day off. He's not like us, he doesn't get tired. I think he's gotten tired of me a few times, but thankfully he didn't just walk off and go, I'm going to the beach for a while, I'll come back.

Do you really, truly believe with all your heart that God is in control of your life?

And that belief, if you believe it, that belief is the foundation of your faith.

Faith plays a big part.

A woman would say, I believe, and if I see this, and Christ said, blessed are those who believe and can't see.

So I paraphrase that.

Do we believe that God is with us through thick and thin? We've had some issues and some problems and sickness and various things in His church. Gone through things together.

But is He with us 24-7? Through the good and the bad. Through the highs and the lows.

I can probably say I'm not the only one that's had doubts, at times. Had doubts that what?

And God isn't hearing? That my prayer bounced right off of the ceiling and came back down?

That's why I think an example that Paul gave is good for us because the same God that called Paul and used him called you and is working with us. So let's dive right in. Let's, when you say, swim with Paul in the deep end of divine providence. I'd like, if you would, to turn with me. I'll be reading from the New King James version today. And turn to Acts 27. Acts 27, he had just left King Agrippa, and now he's been sent to Rome. And so he's going to get on a boat that eventually on the size of boat that I told you about with mostly non-believers and one translation called some barbarians, another called some heathens, others call them gentiles. But there are people who were from all walks of life that were sailors. That's what they did for a living. And many were from various areas that had different beliefs and gods. One of the main gods at that time for sailors, they would have a little carving, little wood carving of this god Poseidon. Yes, he was a belief of God in the Greeks and for even the Romans. And so Poseidon, they believed he was the god of water and storms and all things that go on in the ocean. So to make sure that they told their god, they would have a little small carving they could buy from one of the pagan priests of Poseidon. Then they would carry it in their pouch, pockets if they had them, but most pockets didn't come around that time yet. So here Paul is being put on a ship. So let's go chapter 27 verse 1. And when it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to one named Julius, a centurion of the Augustan regiment. Here is a high officer in the Roman army. His name is Julius. Where do you think he got the name Julius?

Caesar, probably named after the great first real emperor, but Julius Caesar was known before there as one of the great military leaders of his time. That's how he became emperor. A centurion, it says. So entering a ship at Edron Tiam, we put to sea. We? We? Who's we? Who?

Who wrote the book of Acts? Luke. Luke, the physician. Right? He wrote this as an account to Theophilus.

So we see here that Paul's not by himself. Luke's with him. Now, I don't know how many of you, if the Broward police pull down here and say, Chuck, we're taking you to jail. You go, let me go with you. Bruce, would you do that for me? Sure. Okay. I got his word on that. Okay. So, meaning to sail along the coast of Asia, and Aristarchus and Macedonian of Thessalonica is also with us.

Aristarchus? Who's this guy? Well, he shows up all through the book of Acts. He's from the Thessalonica church, and he just kind of follows Paul around and helps and sent out to do work. And the next day, we landed at Sidon, you know, Tyre and Sidon, so it's just up the coast. Most of you have a Bible, don't you? Okay. Turn over in your Bible. At the end of the Bible, they always have these pictures of the maps.

You can show in the back of your Bible, they show you this, and almost all of them have Paul's journeys. And this is his fourth journey that we're talking about here. He'd already taken three others. So this is a fourth journey, and it kind of shows you how they go up the coast. So they're kind of sailing up the coast in Tyre and Sidon, so you can kind of keep up where we're going if you have that map. Mine says it's fourth journey, and it follows this scrigly little line that goes from here to here to here to here. Boy, wouldn't it have been nice if it was like a one-stop? Shoot right up the coast.

We're going to find out why that isn't possible, why that wasn't possible at that time. Okay? So we landed aside, and Julius treated Paul kindly. Why would he do that? Wasn't this his prisoner? Because we find out he had other prisoners. Paul was a Roman citizen. Good point. The other was he wasn't found guilty of anything. He'd already appealed to a group of... a group of staff, I'll find out, but you want to go to Rome? Go ahead, take him to Rome.

So there was some respect here. It happened to Paul, and he treated him kindly and gave him liberty to go to his friends and receive care. So he went to church members there. That's Sidon. How you doing? Here's some food. Because one thing people forget, if you're a prisoner at Rome, and this is how they conducted their life at that time, is the Romans, you would serve time in their prison or in their care.

Their only obligation was to give you water. They were not obligated to give you food. So you kind of see in Paul's writings where he says visiting those who are in prison, because if you didn't and you didn't have family, guess who's going to starve to death? They were just obligated to give you water. So here, the church, he stopped off and people, oh, let's give you some stuff. So they would have loaded him up with food and to receive the care. And says, when we had put out to sea from there, we sailed under the shelter of Cyprus, because the winds were contrary, which means the winds were picking up and they weren't blowing the way that they needed to blow.

And when we had sailed over the sea, which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra into the city of Lycia. There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing to Italy and he put us on board. This Alexandrian ship, that's the one I gave you, was known as an Egyptian ship. Okay? Why Egyptian ship? Well, you have to understand, the Roman Empire had soldiers, they had a large population in Rome, they couldn't grow all their food, so they had to have this food imported.

And one of the best growing seasons and fields came out of Egypt. And so men ran boats up with grain and made a tremendous amount of money, going up from Egypt up to Rome. So here he, this centurion had the authority to commandeer the boat. He said, well, you're going to Rome anyway, I'm putting these people on. They didn't argue, because he could seize the whole ship if he wanted, and do anything he wanted.

You didn't mess with the Roman military. And verse 7, and when we had sailed slowly many days and arrived with difficulty of sonitis, the wind not permitting us to proceed, we sailed under the shelter of Crete off Simone. Hmm.

So it's supposed to be just a little bitty jaunt across there, but the winds were going this. Who controls the winds? Who controls the water? I'll preside, and you know that, right? That's what they believed. They had gods over the wind, they had gods over this, and thankfully, we only have one god. Okay? And it said, passing it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens near the city of Lecia. Fair Haven, boy, that sounds like the name of a good golf course, somewhere you could go, or maybe a retirement community. Oh, let's go to Fair Havens. We'll stay there. Well, find out that it's a dock, but it's not a very good dock for this time of the year. It's a place people duck off, but then you wanted to go around. Okay? Interesting here in verse 9, it says, Now, when much time had been spent, Luke is saying, What? What are you doing? Why are you waiting? Why are you men dragging your feet? And selling was now dangerous, because the fast was already over. What was the fast? They have atonement. He's making this reference. Here's a... Luke, the physician, writing to a Greek, theophilus, and he's using, what? Terms that would know the fast. Atonement. Atonement this year in 59 AD or ACE was October the 5th. So it's a very late feast as it is this year. One of the latest feasts ever. I think it's around the 9th this year. So it's the 5th. So what is he saying? It's kind of late in the year.

What do we have, Chris? It's kind of like, do you want to go into take a boat and sail it once hurricane season starts? Huh? No. Oh, it is? What day? The 9th. Yes. So it is late. Well, they're sailing in these waters that they know, okay, here's the storms. Just like we have hurricane season here. And you're not going to go, oh, let's wait till the start of hurricane season, and then let's sail down to the humps. Or let's sail down to St. Martin. You'd be stupid if something was going to take you a week or two because tropical storms turn up like they what?

They didn't have GPS. They didn't have radar like they do on cruise ships because cruise ships will actually steer away if they see something coming. They'll change where they're going to go. You ever had that happen? Yes, they do that. They couldn't do this. So they're letting you know this is not wise because the ship would have been, you can usually run one to one and a half, according to historians, boats from Egypt to Italy before the weather gets bad. So obviously this was either a very late ship or trying to make that last turn with all this green. So he said, men, Paul said, men, Paul advised them, imagine this, a prisoner, supposed prisoner, putting his two cents in. And he said, men, I perceive that this voyage will end to a disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship but also of our lives, which I imagine the ship captain and everybody else said, why don't you shut up, preacher? But Paul had some experience, didn't he? Turn over with me to 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11. Just in verse 25, as Paul's telling his life to the Corinthians, which this was written about three years before 59, it was written about 55, 56, A-C-E. So this had already happened before this journey he's on in Acts. And it says, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. A night in the day I have been in the deep. In journeys often in perils of water, in perils of sea. Paul was not some novice. He had already traveled over 3,500 miles in his previous journeys on water. He knew.

He knew what it was. Imagine being shipwrecked. Imagine being out treading water on maybe a piece of wood for a day and a night. So he knew what he was talking about. Go back to Acts now. Nevertheless, the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken of by Paul. Why? Why? Money! It's about the money! I want to get this... if I get this last one in, if I can get this to Rome, I'm going to be doing well because all the others got there, so I'm going to bring the freshest crop in. Yes!

Verse 12, And because the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to set sail from there also, and by any means they could reach Phoenix. Now everybody likes to winter in Phoenix. It's nice and warm there, right? Same thing with Phoenix. If you have a map, look at Crete. Look at Crete there. You might have a map that shows you, but mine shows where Fair Havens was. Anybody? It'll show yours on Fair Haven? Does it show where Phoenix is? Yes. Okay. Yeah, Phoenix is on the opposite side where you kind of are in a bay. If you look where Fair Havens is, jump right across Crete and you'll see there's a little harbor there, and that didn't take any of the hard wind. It didn't take the waves beating up against like it would in the ocean. So they're saying, okay, then we know where we're from. Let's... all we have to do is go around Crete, get up there, and then we'll just winter right there.

Verse 13. What was interesting about the difference between Phoenix and Fair Haven was that Fair Haven had four springs of fresh water. I mean, excuse me, Phoenix had four springs of fresh water that empty right out by the harbor. You know what Fair Haven had? Zero.

You got to have some water. You're gonna want water. Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. That's kind of what it says here. Okay. When the south wind blew in verse 13, softly supposing that they had obtained their purpose, putting out to sea, they sailed close to Crete. They weren't going to get too far away from this island, but not long after a tempestous headwind arose called a uroclodon. Uroclodon sounds like what? Yeah, it's a cyclone. It's a northeastern, as they call it, in the northeast. But it's called uroclodon. It even sounds like a dinosaur or something. It's just like, yeah, a raracodon came. Well, we would think like it's a tropical storm. Tropical storm, or a raracodon. Oh, well, good. Let's go sail right in the middle of it. Now, you have to realize these ships are not the type where you have people rowing. These are sail ships, so all they have is a sail. So they're just kind of however the wind blows them and however they're carried. They don't have a lot of power. And in strong waves, the rudder doesn't do a whole lot of good.

Verse 15, so when the ship was caught and could not head into the wind, we let her be driven. So she kind of ran her own course. And running under the shelter of an island called Claudia, or Caudia, we secured the skiff with difficulty, which is like a small little dinghy boat you would jump off and go onto the island with. Isn't it interesting that we... does this mean Luke was having to do some work too? You think they're going to let him on that ship and not do anything? Everybody! Okay, what does it tell us? They're in a tropical storm. We've been through tropical storms here. We've been through some hurricanes. Do you want to be out on the water? I don't want to be anywhere near the water. But they're on this boat, and they have no choice. They can't get off. There's waves just bringing the ship up and down and up and down. And it's just all you can do to try to hold on to the side of the ship. You think seasickness didn't hit? Ooh, and you imagine. And there's no relief in sight. Verse 17, and when they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the front of the ship. They ran some cables at the front of the ship because they were afraid that all these waves, and if they hit anything, it was going to tear the ship apart. So they were trying to pull it together to hold this wood ship together. Scary thought! You're stuck out there. All right, there's no coast guard coming.

Fearing that lest they should run aground the Sardis sands, they struck sail and so were driven because we were exceedingly tempest-tossed the next day we lightened the ship. They had to start throwing things over because they couldn't keep things tight. I mean, you can imagine if you had a box or barrels tied here, and the ship's just doing this, and the ropes are breaking, and these things would go across and just kill them. All this stuff, they had to get stuff off of that ship. The next day we lightened the ship, and on the third day, we threw the ship's tackle overboard with our own hands. They're running out of what they can do.

Verse 20, now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, how did they navigate?

By the stars. The sailors have done that for years. If something happens now, you can navigate by, okay, you know the sun comes up in the east and sets in the west, right? So you know where that is, then at night you can set it by your stars, and they would know these stars. So they knew which way they were going, but if it's a storm, they can't see because it's raining.

The waves have them going up like this. You can't see anything. It's just like one of the worst storms you can go through. They can't find their way. They don't know where they're going. They don't know how far they've been off, and it's been going on for many days. And no small tempest beat on us. All hope that we would be saved was finally given up.

We're all going to die. And these were experienced sailors. They've been here. But after long absences of food from food, then Paul stood up in the midst of them and said, men, you should have listened to me. Boy, don't you know they wanted to pick up the first wrench they could find and let him have it. Well, sorry, guys, you should have listened to me. You wouldn't be in this mess. Haven't we either said that to our wives or our wife said that to us? I told you to stop and get directions. Well, guess what? It didn't happen. And they were in a mess and Paul knew. So they'd gone without food a long time. Why?

Well, if you thought you were going to die, it's one thing. But the other thing is you couldn't keep anything on your stomach. Try 15 to 20 foot waves, and that's not exaggerating.

Just hitting you and you're just so sick. You think you're going to die, and you've been doing this for how long? Two weeks. 14 days. He said, man, you should have listened to me and not sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of the ship among you, but only of the ship. Okay, so none of you are going to die, but we're going to lose this ship. Oh, that would make me feel great. I'm looking at these 20 foot waves. I'm looking to be crashed up against the rocks when it hits and everything else, and you're going to throw, I'm going to be thrown out into these 20 foot seas, and I'm going to be...

Oh, but we're just going to lose the ship, where the ship's the only safety you've had for all that time. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, do not be afraid, Paul. So why did he have to say that to Paul? Because Paul was afraid. Paul had been through this before, but this was worse than anything he'd ever been through. And an angel, God sent an angel to talk to him. You ever wish God would send an angel to you sometimes? Just give you a direct talk. Well, thankfully, he does send his Holy Spirit. The message is through there. And we also look at his word when we have troubles and problems. And he says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. And boy, that's some words we need sometimes when we go through things. He said, now be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar. And indeed, God has granted you all those who sail with you. It leads you to think that Paul had been praying. Any doubt Paul had been praying? Looks like Paul had even been praying for all the men on the ship. And guess what happens? All the men are saved. Therefore, take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. However, we must run aground on a certain island. But when the 14th day had come, as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight, the sailors sensed that they were drawing near some land. And they took soundings and found it to be about 120 foot deep. Now deep the water. They put this thing down in the water. See how deep it was. Then, a little bit later, they did it again and it was only 90 feet. So they knew they were getting close to something. Verse 29, then fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks. Have you ever seen a ship that happened to be? You can see it on YouTube if you want to see one. Find a ship that they've had to abandon and then it gets by a terrible storm brought into the shore and it splinters. It's like a bomb goes off because it hits that water, the waves just go and it's boom! The ship just kind of almost explodes as it's torn into pieces by the rocks and the cliffs.

This is what they knew. The sailors had seen it before and they knew nobody hardly survives.

Lest fearing we should run aground onto the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for a day to come. I imagine Poseidon was getting a lot of prayers that day. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, they were going, wait a minute, we're not going to listen to this crazy old preacher tell us we're going to take that little dinghy, we're going to jump into that thing, and we're going to control our own destiny and try to paddle on. When they had let down the skiff into the sea under the pretense of putting out anchors, oh we're just going to put out some anchors, oh we're doing it now, they were getting the devil out of there. They were not going to put up, they were not going to be this. Paul said to the centurion and to the soldier, unless these men stay on the ship, you cannot be saved. The prisoner calling the shots, he had been right before. The centurion wasn't about to take a chance now, that he was not right. Can you imagine the sailors looking back at Paul at this time? You imagine the head, the ship. Paul said to the centurion, unless these men stay on the ship, you cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off. Oh, I imagine those soldiers would have loved to kill Paul right then. Man, those sailors were going to be, you know, we were going to get our own way. Verse 33, as day was about to dawn, so this was all going on at night. They couldn't see anything. Storm, rain, just blowing. Paul implored them all to take food. Paul, I can't eat. Today is the 14th day you have waited and continued without food. Thank you, fast and long done. And eating nothing. Well, they probably couldn't keep anything down. 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, gave thanks to God in the presence of them all, and when he had broken it, he began to eat. This was a pep talk. This was leading by example. It's going to be okay.

Wave's still going. It's about the end, guys.

Then they all, then they were all encouraged, and they also took food themselves. So they followed Paul's example. Paul believed. He knew God was in charge, and God told him, don't worry. You're going to go before Caesar, no matter how bad it looked. So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea. All that wheat! The whole reason that ship came. They threw it all overboard. Wow, that owner had to be sick. Sick. Worse in sickness. I remember my father telling me when I was younger. Couldn't understand this until later. My father told me one time, he said, because we were on a fishing boat together, and it was going like this, and we weren't catching any fish. And, oh, man, everybody was getting a little seasick. We were on the back of the boat, and you're just sitting there. And finally, somebody caught a fish. It was about that big. So as they were getting it there, we were all this, you know, for a minute, it was like, oh, I don't feel the sickness. They brought that fish on, and then somebody grabbed this big hook, hooked into that fish. Blood went everywhere, and we about lost it. Oh, you know, that was just like... And I remember going up underneath, and my dad was going down underneath to try, okay, all we want to do is get to the shore. Six, people throwing up everywhere on that ship. And on my dad, I said, man, I don't think there's anything worse than seasickness. And he said, there's only one sickness worse than seasickness, to be homesick. Always stuck with me. But seasickness, can you imagine? So then they were all encouraged, and they all took food themselves, and we were about 276 persons in the ship. So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea. Now, when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they observed a bay with a beach onto which they had planned to run the ship aground, if possible. And they let go of the anchors and left them in the sea, meaning, meanwhile, loosening the rudder ropes, they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made it for shore. But striking a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground, and the prow, or the bow, which is a front, struck first and remained immovable. But the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves. So the back of the ship, the front had run aground, it ran into the sand, into the net, and was stuck there. But the waves just breaking the ship up, and wood just being scattered everywhere, as these waves just beat this ship into pieces. 42. Now, when the soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape. So there were quite a few prisoners. The Roman soldiers knew that if you let somebody escape, and he was to be put to death, then you had to be put to death. So they said, well, you know, they're all going to escape. We're going to have to all get off the ship. Let's just kill all the prisoners. Which made sense. 43. But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to the land. You think those other prisoners knew? The only reason they were alive was because of divine providence. It wasn't about them, it was about Paul.

And the rest, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped to land. They arrived on Malta. Arrived on Malta, that little island. Now, I just want to read a few verses in Malta, because this is the last chapter that's really given. So chapter 28, verse 8. Now, when they had escaped, then they found out that the island was called Malta, and the natives of the barbarians showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire, and made us all welcome because of the rain that was falling and because it was cold. How cold is the water in Malta in October, 1st of October? I looked it up. The average temperature of the ocean at that time of Malta around October the 5th is 59 degrees. You've been in 59 degree ocean water? You won't last very long, you won't survive. Hypothermia will get you. And then the average temperature at that time is about 62 or 3. Can you imagine being wet and at 62 or 3, there's still a storm going on, the wind's blowing. How cold would you be?

Would you be saying, God, where are you? Well, that's not what Paul thought. Paul knew his destiny. It didn't mean he didn't have to go through tough times. Brethren, it doesn't mean because God has this destiny for us that he is over and guiding everything. It doesn't mean we're going to just have an easy way of it all the time. Paul didn't. Neither did others. But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on a fire, a viper, which is a poisonous snake, very poisonous snake, came out and because of the heat, fastened onto his hand. See, you're saying, I just got out of this ship. I just spent two weeks throwing my guts out. And here, I'm finally here. And then all of a sudden, this poisonous viper bites me on the hand. Would you say, what else? But he didn't. What did he do? He just goes over there and shakes the, shakes the snake off onto the fire. And it says, the people then turn around, the natives looked and said, ah, look, he escaped here. He must be a murderer because now the snake has bought him, bit him, and he's going to die.

But after a while, they observed him. And nothing happened. His hand didn't swell. He didn't even get sick. So they're going, instead of a criminal, what was he? He's a god. He's a god. He must be a god. And so they only wanted to worship him.

But he stayed, actually, three months on this island. He healed the leader of the islands, father, who was deathly sick. And it said, then everybody on the island came to him, and he healed them all. Divine providence? Yes. Divine providence, brethren. It is a purpose being worked out.

So this, eventually, they, then after three months, they wintered, and they were able to go up to Rome, and he finished the 2,000-mile journey without any real problems this time. But what he went through? It was more than a trial. It was life-or-death situation. And sometimes, all of us will have to go through things. Then we're going to have to be like Paul, and know that God is working out his purpose in our lives. This very, very important lesson. It was definitely a trial, a life-and-death problem that lasted for two weeks.

It happens, and sometimes it's hard to live with the words of James. James 1 and verse 2 said what? Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. We would just like to write out the trials first, though, wouldn't we? Well, God said count it all joy when various. So it's not the same one that happens all time, but it's others that happen, and count it all joy, because God is in charge.

We will all be required, brethren, to swim in the deep end. You realize that? If you haven't gone through things, you will, because we're all going to be required to swim in the deep end.

The deep end of life's challenges. And why? So that we can prove to God. Just like Isaac had to be brought before his father and laid out, and his father stick a knife to his throat and ready to cut his throat and kill him. And God said, no, now I know, now I know that you will trust in me, that you have faith in me beyond. We're going to have to experience probably not an Abraham Isaac thing, but there's going to be various trials in our lives, in the next months, in the next years, because he wants to see.

He wants to see that we not only have faith, not only have faith in him, but we truly believe brethren in divine providence. Count it all joy.

Build the faith. Have the faith in God. And no matter what happens, God's in charge.