Obtaining your desire
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9 Now when much time had been spent, and sailing was now dangerous because the Fast was already over, Paul advised them, 10 saying, “Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives.” 11 Nevertheless the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul. 12 And because the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to set sail from there also, if by any means they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete opening toward the southwest and northwest, and winter there.
13 When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their desire, putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete. 14 But not long after, a tempestuous head wind arose, called Euroclydon. 15 So when the ship was caught, and could not head into the wind, we let her drive.
Here we have a group of people trying to reach a destination who although were warned, continue in their journey only to be caught in the very situation they were warned about. It was early fall as revealed by the Fast being over. designates the time of the Fast known as the day of Atonement. The weather is changing, wind, rain, storms, especially out at sea.
Why did they not take Paul's advice?
They knew the risks, they knew the possibilities, but they chose to continue anyway. I think we can learn alot by looking at the reasons for their decision, because you and I have done the exact same thing many, many times.
9 Now when much time had been spent, and sailing was now dangerous because the Fast was already over, Paul advised them,
Much time had been spent. They had already been sailing, unsuccessfully, for many days without the progress they thought they should have already made. We've wasted enough time, we've been here too long, we need to get going instead of wasting time sitting here.
How do you react to things when you get impatient?
Many times we try to push through the obstacles to get where we want to go because we are tired of waiting. What ends up happening is that we go against God's will for our lives because we are trying to make our will happen. And on the other side of that, we sometimes dig our heels in a little too much and little too long, again going against what God has for us because we don't see it, understand it, or agree with where He is trying to take us.
I love what says.
9 Do not be like the horse or like the mule,
Which have no understanding,
Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,
Else they will not come near you.
says.
Our pride makes us act like horses and mules and keeps us from submitting to our Shepherd.
Our pride makes us act like horses and mules and keeps us from submitting to our Shepherd.
11 Nevertheless the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul.
So the centurion listened to the experts instead of listening to Paul. That seems to make sense doesn't it? Why wouldn't you listen to the guys that do this for a living? After all, Paul is not a sailor and surely these other men know more about what they are doing more than Paul does. This man put his faith in the experts.
We put our faith in the people around us. I have faith in every one of you to be who you were created to be. We have faith in our children and their abilities to grow up to be good and make good decisions, we have faith in our spouse to come along side us and be honest and take care of us, we have faith in our teachers to teach our kids and nurture them, we have faith in our doctors to prescribe and treat us with the things we need, we have faith in our leaders to make the best decisions for us, but we have been let down and disappointed by every single one of those people haven't we!
God's wisdom is far above the ours. No matter how much education or experience you have, His wisdom will always be greater. Not only is His wisdom greater than ours, but his love for us is far greater than our. I cannot love my wife or my kids or you the way God loves my wife or my kids or you. We can never match His love.
If His love is unmatched and His wisdom is unmatched, then why would we take someone else word over His? Our faith in God must always be greater than our faith in ourselves.
12 And because the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to set sail from there also, if by any means they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete opening toward the southwest and northwest, and winter there.
There was no way they could see themselves staying in that harbor for the next few months while the weather passed. It was uncomfortable and inconvenient.
Have you ever been in an uncomfortable situation? I'm not talking about awkward. Your best friend told your crush that you like them right in front of you. I mean really uncomfortable. Unable to pay your bills or buy groceries, out of work, cancer, loss of a loved one, family falling apart uncomfortable. Life is full of uncomfortable situations, Life is an uncomfortable situation!
It's in these uncomfortable situations that we can truly realize and understand how weak we are. But it's in our weakness that we find strength in God. It's in our weakness that He is glorified because it's in our weakness that He works so there is no mistake that it was God.
But is has to be an automatic reaction. If we don't rely on and praise God when things are good, then we won't automatically go to Him when things are not good. It's easy to take the credit when things in life are good. Sometimes we get so used to it that we try to rely on ourselves when things get difficult.
Uncomfortable situations should not scare us or cause to run away, they should challenge us to rely on the one who comforts us and eagerly await the work of His hands.
12 And because the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to set sail from there also, if by any means they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete opening toward the southwest and northwest, and winter there.
So because of the discomfort, the majority of the people on the ship voted to go ahead and set sail. As many of us know, the majority is not always right, just look at some of our past elections! (that's all I'm gonna say about that).
All throughout the bible, stories of mob mentality gone wrong.
Noah and the ArkMoses and the Israelites in the wildernessJoshua and Caleb and the 12 spiesPeople of Israel wanting a king instead of GodDavid willing to battle GoliathDaniel and his friends refusing to bow to the kingThe crowds that called for the crucifixion of Jesus
And today in our lives, we are surrounded by people and things trying to lead us away from Jesus and into a life of selfishness and self gratification. Just because everyone is doing it doesn't mean it's ok for us to do it. Just because everyone says it's not a big deal doesn't mean that they're right. Just because the world says something is normal and acceptable doesn't make it so. Following the crowd does not make you right, it makes you lost.
We are not to live our lives on what the world deems true, but on the truth itself which Jesus Christ. He is the Way the Truth and the Life!
We must be willing to go against the crowd!
13 When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their desire, putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete.
Supposing they had obtained their desire.
This was the final sign that they should take to the sea. They were wanting to head south and wouldn't you know, here comes a gentle south wind at the perfect time. If there was ever going to be a sign from God, this had to be it!
Has that ever happened to you? Thinking you just got a sign from God himself only to find out once you made the move that it was huge mistake?
Illustration:
We have to be very careful about perfect moments or signs from God when they seem to contradict the Word of God. The world is full of opportunities that look very appealing and might even look made for you.
We must learn to weigh every option and opportunity in our lives against what God has said to us. If it goes against His Word even in the smallest way, it's still against His Word.
Paul warned them about not setting sail, but they ignored him and found themselves in a fierce storm in which they had no choice but submit to. Even though they had more reasons to go than to stay, it was still the wrong choice. How were they to know? How are we to know?
You and I are going through life every day looking for answers, direction, advice, looking for the right thing to do and the right way to go only to find out that the choice we made was not the best one.
The thing is, that usually, we see what we want to see. When we have our minds made up about something, we look for others who will justify our decision. We may find one person who disagrees with us but find ten people who agree or vice versa. It usually doesn't matter, we go with the ten or the one that agrees with us.
We are not the standard by which all things are done. Jesus is the standard.
We make decision every day to:
spend time with God, read bible, pray
invest in our spouse, children and families
come to church, be part of a bible study, serve in a ministry,
love our neighbors, share the gospel with those around us
The world will always give us reasons for or against something and those reasons will always pull us away from Christ!
When we make these decisions, what do you allow to influence you?
TIME, SITUATION, PEOPLE AROUND YOU, WHAT YOU WANT
All of these things play a factor in all of our decisions, but if we want to make the right decisions, we have to make to make them with the right heart. And the right heart only comes when we give it to Jesus.
When we surrender our lives to Christ, we:
Let go of our pride and submit to our shepherd
Have more faith in God than we do in ourselves
Rely on Him for our comfort
Be willing to against the crowd
Keep Jesus as our standard of what is right and true
Then we find that the desire we obtain is not only our desire, but Jesus’ desire as well.