This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
Fear is a horrible thing, isn't it?
Fear can really mess you up. It can cause you to just freak
out. It can cause you to be hopeless.
It can cause you to hear stupid things in your head that are
lies from the devil. It can.
It can cause people to do horrible things.
Fear. God hasn't given us a spirit of
fear, the Bible says, but of power and of love, and of a
sound mind. Have you ever stopped to think
that God created us with a range of emotions along with
happiness, joy and contentment? He created us with the potential
for anger, jealousy, and impatience.
Additionally, Pastor Clark discusses today the emotion of
fear. There are positive reasons why
we fear. For example, it keeps us from
approaching an aggressive dog or from getting into a stranger's
car. But sometimes our fear is
unfounded. Turn to the Lord in these times
and lean on His strength to gain the courage you need now.
Here's Pastor Clarky in the book of Acts Chapter 27 with today's
edition of Living Waters of Grace.
If you've ever been to the shore on land and you have a vacation
and all of a sudden the winds start coming up and the, and
gets to the temperatures drop and the waves start looking
really crazy and the lifeguards won't let you in the in the
water. That's a discouraging time
because Northeasterns could last a week and your whole vacation
and all the money is spent to be at the beach.
You know, you can't go in the water.
You can go up maybe to your knees and that's it.
So this is what's happening here.
This is a very, very serious storm and it's scary, someone
said. It's like they were in this
really cool boat and this floating and the sun and the
gentle breeze and all of a sudden they're like a toothpick
in the mid midst of 40 foot swells that this is
unbelievable. So the ship was caught and it
could not head into the wind. So we let her dry.
So they didn't have the ability to steer this boat.
Now this boat was taken by the wind and being pushed down more
toward the coast of Africa instead of the shores of Italy.
And they couldn't even really tell where they were going.
And running under the shelter of an island called Claudia, we
secured the skiff with difficulty.
They're trying to stabilize this this huge vessel and when they
had taken it on board, they use cables.
So they're pulling the the lifeboat out of the water to
skiff and getting it into the big boat because it would start
smashing the other boat. And they undergirded the ship
and with these cables to sort of wrap it around to prevent it
from coming apart because of the waves less they should run
aground on the sands. They struck sail and were so
driven and because we were exceedingly Tempest toss the
next day they lightened the ship.
So they're starting to dump stuff out of the boat.
The cargo, which was worth a lot of money, they had to begin to
get rid of it because of the weight.
They're they're lightning the ship.
On the third day we threw the ship's tackle overboard with our
own hands. So not any are they getting rid
of the grain. But now they're getting rid of
any kind of physical bedding or any kind of equipment.
It isn't necessary right now. And they're getting rid of all
of it. It says in verse 20 now when
neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and those small
Tempest beat on us all hope that we would be saved was finally
given up. Have you ever been in a
situation where you're going through something that you feel
that there's no hope left and they're ready to give up?
I'm sure you have been. I know I have been.
There doesn't seem to be any answer or any reason for why it
is what it is you're going through.
And it's a really time of testing your faith and how well
you know God because God will never fail you.
He promises us throughout the Scriptures, Jesus never fails.
Our faith fails. We get our eyes off of the Lord,
we get our minds and our hearts out of the word of God, and then
all of a sudden we have nothing to stand on, do we?
There's no stability. Everything's uncertain.
Everything's up in the air and they're at a point right now
that they are basically hopeless and they're giving up.
I don't know where you are today, but I'm here to tell you
and encourage you. Don't give up no matter what.
Get close to God. He's ready to do something.
You get close to Him, He'll reveal himself to you in ways
that you never even knew Him. I hate to say it, but we're all,
at least I'll say myself, knuckleheads, I'm going to say
that about you. But God has to many times cause
stuff to happen in order to get our attention, to show us like
we're missing things. We're not seeing things the way
he wants us to. We're maybe not living the way
he wants us to live. He's he loves us so much that
he's going to do everything he can sometimes.
And he starts gradually many times to get your attention.
And then if you don't listen, then maybe things get a little
bit more challenging, more difficult.
But here's Paul in this situation.
He's a human being like the rest of them.
I'm sure he's freaking out too, in his ways.
A lot of people are seasick. They can't even think about
eating anything. But Paul begins to speak verse
21. But after a long abstinence from
food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, men, you
should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and
incurred this disaster and loss. Has then anybody ever told you
after you made a decision and everything fell apart?
I told you so you shouldn't have done that.
Always Monday morning quarterbacks always telling you
how you should have handled it differently.
Well, that's the last thing you want to hear at that point in
time because like you already made the decision and
everything's messed up. You don't need to tell me that.
I already know I've messed up, right?
So he says. And now I urge you in verse 22
to take heart for there will be no loss of life among you, but
only of the ship. Now they must.
Some of them had to think he was nuts.
The ship is going everywhere and it is like, no way.
How are we not going to die? But Paul during this journey was
also sharing the gospel. And I'm sure there was people on
the ship at that time because of what was happening.
Said, hey, Paul, what do I need to do to be saved?
Is there an afterlife? Yeah, there is.
Let me tell you about it. Let me tell you, this life's
real short. You want to put your trust in
Jesus because one day you're going to leave this world and
you want to be where he is. You don't want to be in hell.
You want to be in heaven with the Lord.
And he's made a way because of what Jesus did on the cross to
die for us and to forgive us of our sins that cleanse us,
forgive us, give us new life. So there was probably a lot of
deathbed conversions here. I always like visiting hospitals
when someone's getting ready to die and they still have
consciousness and their loved ones ask the pastor to go and
talk to the person who's in the bed.
The person in the bed knows that it's coming down the home
stretch and they're going to pass from this life.
And that's when you begin to tell them about the gospel.
And I'm amazed. And how many people are
definitely prepared at that point to hear it and to believe
it and to depend on the Lord so they can go into heaven?
Isn't that wonderful? God in his mercy, He does that.
And occasionally someone won't say anything.
You don't know if they believed or didn't, but you know, you,
you, you tell them the truth and you trust the Holy Spirit to do
what only He can do. And so Paul's telling them
there's not going to be any loss of life.
And this is amazing here, verse 23.
Now we know. And Acts 23 verse 11, Paul was
in jail and he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to get the
room. Jesus showed up personally and
spoke to Paul and told him that you're going to get the room,
don't worry about it, I'm going to get you there.
So Paul tucked that down in his heart, a promise from God to
hold on to. But now he's got another
spiritual encounter. For there stood by me this night
an Angel of the of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve,
saying, do not be afraid, Paul, you must be brought before
Caesar. And indeed God has granted you
all those who sail with you. So the Angel reminded Paul,
don't you remember? Jesus told you you're going to
get the room. Paul's faith, I'm sure, wasn't
shipwrecked, but he's, you know, he's human.
Like, you know this stuff. You know what's going to happen
here? He needed the confirmation from
the Lord that it was going to be OK and they were going to get
through it. Don't be afraid, Paul.
So Paul's being admonished not to be afraid.
And fear is a horrible thing, isn't it?
Fear can really mess you up. It can cause you to just freak
out. It can cause you to be hopeless.
It can cause you to hear stupid things in your head that are
lies from the devil. It can.
It can cause people to do horrible things.
Fear. God hasn't given us a spirit of
fear, the Bible says, but a power and of love and of a sound
mind. When we have fear, we have to
call it out as a lie because God does not give us that spirit,
does He? And we have to acknowledge that
and ask the Lord to replace the thoughts that we have that are
causing the fear with the things that He tells us to think upon.
Paul, think on these things whatsoever.
Things are pure, lovely, just, and a good report.
That's a discipline. It's real easy to get down the
fear track and to stay on that right?
No, I'm not going to fear, I'm not going to live with this in
my head. Lord, take this out.
Help me. Ask the Lord to help you.
He will stabilize my thoughts. God give me truth to think on
and not lies. Therefore take heart men.
And He says that to us today. Take heart brothers and sisters,
for I believe God that it will be just as it was as he told me.
I believe God. Who do you believe in your life?
You believe Fox News, CNN, Wall Street?
Or do you believe the God of heaven, the creator of the
universe? Everything in your life, in my
life, is designed by God to cause our faith to increase, not
to decrease. Adversity and trial and
heartache and tragedy are allowed in our lives to deepen
us, not to destroy us. If we believe God, no matter
what, we're going to get through.
Amen. If we don't believe God, it is
hopeless. There is no answer apart from
God Himself. So God tests us.
And in every situation, He knows where you're at.
Clark needs more faith. He needs to go deeper with me,
and I'm going to allow this to occur so that he's on his face
crying out to me like he never cried out to me before.
Someone told me this morning they were moments from death,
kidney operating at 2%. A Christian told his brother
that God will do whatever he has to do to get us back with him.
He'll allow adversity. He'll allow us to get smacked
around in life. He'll allow all kinds of things
to happen to us that we don't like and we don't think it's
fair. Until finally we say, I give up,
Lord, I want what you want. No longer do I want what I want.
And I still battle as a human being, as I'm sure you do, with
my will versus God's will. I try to negotiate with God at
times so that he might let me have my way, and sometimes he
does. OK, clerk, go ahead.
We'll catch up later when it doesn't work out and he's always
gracious and merciful and loving.
He God never. He's the only one that says I
didn't tell you so the words full of like the admonitions of
the consequences of going against the will of God.
But he's so tender to us when we come to him, no matter where
we've come from. He's the good father, the Good
Shepherd, the merciful 1 and I love the story of the prodigal
when he comes back. He's not sitting down with an
acquisition and bunch of questions.
He knows our heart and he knows when we turn, when we repent.
And right away he's like, I know, I know, I love you.
Come, let me hug you, let me embrace you, Let me restore you
and let me reveal myself to you. So then Paul says, OK, we're
going to get through this, but we are going to run a ground on
a certain island. So remember that just because
you're a Christian doesn't mean you won't have trials.
You won't have tribulations, but you will get through them
because of him. None of us get through this life
without stuff occurring. Now.
When the 14th, 40th, 14th night had come, as we were driven up
and down the Adriatic Sea about midnight, the sailors sensed
that they were drawing near to some land, so they were hearing
the Breakers on the shoreline. They knew they couldn't see
anything because the stars and the and the moon and everything
was blocked out from the clouds from the storm.
They knew they were getting near land and they took soundings and
found it to be 20 fathoms. So they're checking the depth of
the water, 20 fathoms. And then they got a little
further. They took sounding again and
found it to be 15 fathoms. Then fearing lest we should run
aground on the rocks, they dropped 4 anchors from the stern
and prayed for day to come. So like, oh, God help this
daylight to come so we can see what's going on here.
When they had let down the skiff into the sea under pretense of
putting out anchors from the prow, Paul said, this centurion
and the soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot
be saved. So some guys wanted to get in
that little dinghy and watch out for their own hides and not
worry about anybody else. But Paul said, hey, these guys
all got to stay in this boat the way God set it up so that
everybody's going to get saved and get through this.
Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it
fall off. So there was no chance of any
escape that way. And as the day was about to
dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying today is the
14th day you have waited and continue without food and eat
nothing. Now some of these people weren't
eating because of fast, but some people I'm sure were seasick and
there's no way they were interested in having any food.
But Paul knew they were going to need some stamina and strength
to be able to swim from where they were jumping in the water
to get to land. OK.
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. So some believe that he was
actually, you know, providing the Lord's Supper for the
believers there, but he gave thanks publicly.
So Paul's a witness in the midst of all this craziness, and
that's what God calls you me to be.
He's watching how you handle whatever it is you're dealing
with. And are you still thanking God,
walking with God, praising God, following the Lord?
Are you wimping out and freaking out and saying you're not going
to follow God anymore because of what happened to you?
That's the big decision. And when God puts you or allows
you to be in something you don't like, but you know it's for your
good, it's going to be for the benefit of other people as they
watch how you handle your relationship with God in the
midst of the adversity. And whenever they see you
staying stable and strong in the Lord.
Someone's going to ask you one day, how did tell me about this
God you follow? I need to know him.
I need to have him. I don't know how you're getting
through what it is you're getting through, but I see you
getting through and I know you tell me it's because of your
faith in the Lord. I need this Jesus too.
But if we fall apart and we give up and we curse God, then
everything is a mess. So they were encouraged.
They ate. They began to eat, and they were
all encouraged and also took food themselves.
Verse 37 and all we were 276 persons on the ship.
So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and
threw out the wheat into the sea.
When it was day they did not recognize the land, but they
observed the Bay with the beach onto which they planned to run
the ship if possible. This little island is South of
Italy and it's called Malta. And they let go of the anchors
and left them in the sea, meanwhile loosening the rudder
ropes. And they hoisted the mainsail to
the wind and made for sure. So they're they're going right
into the ground, the ship into the sand, but striking a place
where two seas met. They ran the strip aground and
Prowl stuck fast and remained immovable.
But the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves,
and the soldiers plan was to kill the prisoners lest any of
them should swim away and escape.
But the centurion wanted to save Paul, kept them from their
purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump
overboard first and get to the land and the rest, some on
boards and some on parts of the ship.
And so it was that they all escaped safely to land.
So the Lord has this in the Bible to teach us that when
you're in situations that are beyond your ability to control,
that God is the one that will show up and give you the ability
to stay, stay stable and sane and not be freaking out.
And I can rehearse in my own life.
I'm sure you can't. I remember when this happened.
Oh God, I didn't know how I was going to ever get through it.
And here I am so many years later, and it's in the past and
it's a chapter in the legacy of my own personal life and my
family's life. I can say God's still in
control. He's still working, He's still
doing miracles. He's still getting us through
all of us. And, and as a body of believers,
as a family of God here we walk in the midst of the adversity
with each other, don't we? We pray for each other, we lift
each other up. We're there for one another.
We care for each other. And we we wait on the Lord to
bring the healing and the comfort and the deliverance and
eventually the testimony. Nothing better than a testimony.
Of someone who's been through something that, you know, only
God could get him through. This young couple that I met at
the conference, I said, how's your mom and dad doing?
They said our dad just died a month ago of a massive heart
attack. Godly man, probably in his early
50's the last time you'd think you'd be dying at that age,
right? But they had joy in their face.
They had the peace of God. Yeah, their hearts are broken,
but they know they're dads with the Lord and they are going to
keep serving God. How many people would have maybe
said I'm not going to serve God anymore.
Look what he did. Look what happened in my life.
That's not the Christian way, is it?
The Christian way is though he slay me yet I will trust him.
And I don't know about you, but Pastor Lewis and myself and the
guys that went to the conference together, we heard things that
are activating things in our heart that only an experience
like that can accomplish. We went with soft hearts.
As I pray you come to church on Sundays or Wednesdays whenever
studies your heart's open to to hear from God because God's
going to speak through His Word. He never does not speak through
His Word. I got a new app on my phone, so
when I'm driving around, I'm hearing one scripture after
another. Scriptures when you drive,
scriptures when you eat, scriptures when you sleep,
scriptures when your leisure, whatever.
It's just awesome. Nice little bit of music in the
background. But this is the word, the word,
the word. You got to hold on to the Word
of God and you got to know the Word of God, and you got to
believe the word of God and you got to act on the word of God in
Psalm 121, God, the help of those who seek Him.
You got to seek the Lord. The Lord wants you to seek Him.
And the psalmist says, I will lift my eyes up to the hills or
to the mountains from whence comes my help when stuff's
happening. You can call 30 people on the
phone and I'll pray for you, but no one can help you but God,
right? Isn't that the reality, The
bottom line only? The only person that can help
you and life is God. We can point people to God, we
can tell people about God, but they have to get with God, just
like you do whenever things are dismal, desperate, disastrous.
My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to be moved.
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your
right hand. The sun shall not strike you by
day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from
all evil. He shall preserve your soul.
The Lord shall preserve your going out.
And you're coming in from this time forth and even forever
more. Amen.
Psalm 121. Get with the Lord in that Psalm
if, if you really need to connect right now and let the
Psalm wash over you and let it feel you and let it renew this,
this need that that God has in his heart in the sense of
wanting you to depend fully upon him, to trust him and every
situation that you're in, and He'll be strong on your behalf.
Amen. If this isn't true, why are we
here today, right? If this isn't true, what else is
there to believe in nothing that it is true, Jesus tells us the
trust in Him with all of our heart.
Lean not to our understanding and always acknowledge Him and
He shall direct our paths. Thank you for listening to this
edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Pastor Clark is teaching us about the book of Acts in this
series. Acts is a powerful and unique
part of Scripture, not just because it records the spread of
the gospel geographically from Jerusalem to the ends of the
earth, but also culturally. Acts shows us how the message of
Jesus moved beyond its Jewish roots and began to reach the
Gentile world. What started with Peter leading
a small group in the Upper Room became a global movement with
Paul taking the gospel to cities, synagogues and
marketplaces across the Roman Empire.
Acts captures this vital transition and reminds us that
the good news of Jesus is for all people in every place.
May we be inspired to carry that same gospel boldly into our
world today. Living Waters of Grace comes to
you from Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, you can listen to Grace FM
on the new 91.7 frequency. Pray about helping support the
new station that will reach thousands more listeners.
Send gifts to Grace FMPO, Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601 also
invite you to join us in person this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E
Pittsburgh St. Unit 6B.
To stay up to date, visit calvarychapelonline.com where
you can find our teaching archive, submit prayer requests,
join our e-mail list, or give online.
If you're outside the area, don't worry, you can still
worship with us through the Calvary Chapel Westmoreland
YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe so you
won't miss new content. We're so thankful that you
joined us today. Be sure to tune in to the next
edition of Living Waters of Grace.