| Blown Off Course |
|
|
|
|
BLOWN OFF COURSE Acts 27:1-11 (7) Our son, Craig, was about 4 or 5 years old. He already had his life jacket on, and I knew it was time to put mine on. Often on Mondays we would go salmon fishing off Johnson’s Point near The day had started out beautiful, but soon the wind began to blow from the southwest. The waves began to build, and by the time we headed across the mile or so of open water between us and the boat launch we were facing a very dangerous situation. To get to the boat launch we had to head directly into the wind. The 3½ horses in that motor turned out to be ponies, and it was too dangerous to head into the wind because of the height of the waves and the lack of power in the motor. The wind began to blow me off course. The only thing I could do was to try to ride the trough of the wave, going parallel to the waves instead of into them until I got near the shore far north of where I wanted to be. There we were more protected from the wind and were able to navigate the shallow water to the boat launch. It was the only time I have been really frightened out on the water. Storms. Have you ever been in one? It’s on thing to stand on terra firma when a storm rages around you. It’s another thing to be out on the water with nothing between you and the deep blue sea but that thin piece of metal or fiberglass or wood. Our reading in the Bible this morning has to do with a storm. Please turn with me to Acts 27. The Apostle Paul had been in the city of Paul was not only a Jew, he was also a Roman citizen, and Roman citizens had certain legal rights. During one of his hearings, when he sensed that things were not going well, he exercised one of his rights as a Roman citizen. He appealed his case to the Roman Emperor, Caesar. Some would say that he should have just trusted God and forgotten about his legal rights. And maybe there are times when that is what we ought to do. But not always. Here the Biblical example is that of exercising the rights of our earthly citizenship in order to accomplish the will of God. Paul’s appeal meant that he had to be taken to Read Acts 27:1-12 As I read those verses a few weeks back, some phrases stuck out to me. In v.4 “the winds were against us”, and in v.7 “the wind did not allow us to hold our course.” We have been speaking the past several weeks about our God-given course to produce growing disciples of Jesus, who are worshippers, witnesses, workers, and warriors. Those tapes are available to you if you have missed any of those messages. And as I read this chapter the thing that struck me was that there are winds which will blow us off course if we are not alert. Paul tried to warn those in charge of the impending danger, but they would not listen. What are some of the dangers we face today as a church, and as individuals, winds which will blow us off the course God has set for us? I would submit to you the following: The wind of pride. The wind of self-sufficiency. The wind of apathy. The wind of moral impurity. The wind of rebellion. The wind of unbelief. Let’s spend a few minutes looking at each of these, and let’s remember that these winds will not only blow a church off course, they will also blow your individual life off course. THE WIND OF PRIDE. Pride is taking for ourselves credit that belongs to God, honor that belongs to God, the glory that belongs to God; it’s exalting ourselves instead of Him. The KJV sometimes uses the words “puffed up.” Its opposite is humility. Listen to some things the Bible says about pride. Prov. 21:4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin! Prov. 16:5 The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. James 4:6 “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Prov. a haughty spirit before a fall. Prov. but wisdom is found in those who take advice. 2 Chron. 26:16 But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. Deut 8:10-14 a warning God gives to His people: When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Daniel 1 Pet 5:5-6 Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. God has blessed us as a church. Pride will take the credit for ourselves. If we do, He will humble us. How much better that we humble ourselves and give the credit, the glory, the honor to Him Who alone deserves it. THE WIND OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY. Self-sufficiency is to depend on ourselves: our wisdom, our understanding, our talents and abilities and experience. The opposite of this is to depend on God, to be dependent rather than independent. It goes against our culture; it goes against our upbringing; it goes against our nature. “I do it by myself, daddy.” Don’t help me; I can make it on my own. Read 1 Corin. It is pride that leads us to self-sufficiency. Humility acknowledges our dependence on God. It is pride that denies it. Think about it for a minute: do we really want to live life based on our wisdom rather than God’s wisdom? On our understanding rather than on God’s understanding? On our resources rather than God’s resources? I look at our church and its needs. I see our needs as an organization and I see our needs as a family. I see financial needs; I see facility needs; I see staffing needs. But I also see needs in people’s marriages, in their families, in their finances and their employment. I see people’s needs to grow in their understanding of God and of his will for their life, their need to make commitments, their need to put the teachings of the Bible into practice in their lives. I see the need for relationships to be healed, for forgiveness to be sought and granted, for unconditional love to be practiced. I see things that need to be fixed in our church, and I cannot fix them. You see things that need to be fixed in your marriage, in your family, in your circumstances, in your own personal life, and you cannot fix them either. So do we continue in our self-sufficiency to try to do the impossible, or do we begin to cry out to God in dependence on Him? The greatest evidence of our dependence on God or our lack of dependence on Him is our prayer life. Little time in the presence of God is a sure symptom of a spirit of self-sufficiency. THE WIND OF APATHY. An atheist is one who is without God. A-theos. One who is apathetic is one who is without pathos, without passion, who is passive and indifferent. So the opposite of apathy is passion. Passion is defined as “intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction; ardent affection, a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.” Do you have passion for the things of God, or are you apathetic? In speaking of signs of the times preceding Jesus’ return, He said in Matthew 24:12 And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. Most people will become apathetic. How much spiritual apathy do you see as you observe Christians around you? How much of it do you see in yourself? Romans “Oh, but pastor, we don’t want to be fanatics.” So instead we sit in apathy, blown off God’s course for our lives because we fear that any enthusiasm for the things of God might be considered by some to be fanaticism. THE WIND OF MORAL IMPURITY. How holy is God anyway? And how holy does He expect me to be? How much ricin (Kenneth Olson convicted last summer) do you need in your oatmeal to kill you? A speck no bigger than a grain of salt is enough to kill an adult. Two millionths of an ounce – such a tiny speck in comparison to your bowl of mush. But won’t all the rest of the oatmeal compensate for that tiny speck? No, it won’t. And all of your good deeds are not enough to compensate for your sin, no matter how small you sin looks in your eyes. So often we think that just a little sin isn’t all that bad. After all, maybe God won’t even notice it hidden in my oatmeal. Maybe He will overlook it and it won’t matter. James Our faulty view of sin reflects our faulty view of God, and especially of God’s holiness. We see Him as a God of love and of mercy and of grace. And that He is. But that’s not all He is. He is also a God of holiness and justice and judgment. He is a God Who hates sin, and does not just ignore it. It was sin that sent His Son, Jesus to the cross and it is sin that sends people to hell. His heart breaks over our sin, sin that we often take so lightly. The opposite of moral impurity is holiness, and God calls every one of us to live a holy life. 2 Corin. 7:1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. Eph. 4:22-24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Heb. Are you committed to personal holiness? Is our church committed to holiness? If we are not, the wind of moral impurity will blow us off course and on to the rocks. THE WIND OF REBELLION. Rebellion can be so subtle. It’s not always a noisy, in-your-face kind of thing. It can also be very quiet and sophisticated. Last Saturday evening when our guest speaker told us to hold up our “Power of Attorney” cards and wave them before the Lord, I thought “That’s a pretty stupid thing to do. Why should I do that?” And the Lord spoke to my heart about rebellion. He wasn’t telling me to kiss my neighbor’s wife. He was asking me to do something physical as an act of faith. And I have seen it over and over. Our worship leader asks us to lift our hands and begin to praise the Lord. And I have seen many stand there with their hands in their pockets and their mouth closed. We don’t see that as rebellion do we? We are exercising our personal right to do whatever we want to do. When God says “forgive” and we refuse, it’s rebellion. When God says love your neighbor as yourself and we don’t do that, it’s rebellion. When God says tithe and we don’t tithe, when God says witness and we don’t witness, when God says pray and we don’t pray, when God says give thanks to the Lord and we don’t give thanks, when God says “praise Me, give voice to your praise, declare My praise” and we don’t, it is passive rebellion. But it’s rebellion none the less. The opposite of rebellion is submission. The Bible says submit to God, submit to civil authorities, submit to spiritual leaders, submit to every authority instituted among men, even simply submit to one another. Philippians 2 says that Jesus submitted Himself to the Father and was obedient to Him, and that we should have that same attitude in us. THE WIND OF UNBELIEF. Unbelief and doubt are not exactly the same, but they are close cousins, maybe even brothers. I had thought that maybe unbelief was more of a choice we make, and doubt just happened. Yet as I began to read verses about both doubt and unbelief, they are both condemned in the Bible and are harmful to our Christian life. The opposite of both of them is faith. Without faith, we are told, it is impossible to please God. (Heb. 11:6) So our doubts, and our unbelief cause us to displease God. Not our doubts that we bring to Him and ask for His help with, as the man in Mark 9:24 who said “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” That is an act of faith in the midst of doubt. In Mark Let me bring this to a close with some personal questions. God’s course for you is to glorify Him in all you do. What wind is blowing you off course? God’s course for you is to live a holy life. What wind is blowing you off course? God’s course for you is to have a healthy marriage. What wind is blowing you off course? Or God’s course for you may be to be a contented unmarried person. What wind is blowing you off course? God’s course for you is to be spiritually strong. What wind is blowing you off course? God’s course for you is to have healthy friendships. What wind is blowing you off course? God’s course for you is to bring others to Him. What wind is blowing you off course? God’s course for you is to use your gifts and talents to serve Him. What wind is blowing you off course? The Apostle Paul had no choice. He was on a boat over which he had no control, a boat headed for shipwreck. But you do have a choice. You have control over your personal boat, and you can make decisions today that will bring you to a safe harbor, or will head your boat out into open sea to face a storm like none you have ever encountered. Are you aware of the dangerous winds: pride, self-sufficiency, apathy, moral impurity, rebellion, unbelief? What are you doing about those winds in your life? Pray. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|