The Mighty Storm - The Book of Acts

Join Julia Jeffress Sadler as she takes us on an incredible adventure in Episode 216.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
For there stood by me this night, an angel belonging
to the God whose I am and whom I serve, saying,
don't be afraid, Paul, you must stand before Caesar. Behold,
God has granted you all those who sail with you.
Acts twenty seven, twenty three. Dear Gud, thank you for

(00:23):
the special ways in which you speak to us and
provide for us when we need you the most. Paul
must have been so scared on that boat, and you
sent your angel to comfort him. You love your children
so very much. Thank you for showing up in the
middle of our storms. In Jesus name, I pray Amen.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Thank you for praying with us today. The Kid's Bible
in a Year podcast is sponsored by Little Passports, delivering
monthly activity kit subscriptions that help kids explore the world,
cultivate curiosity, and discover new interests with hands on crafts
and activities in cooking, science, crafts, and more, all with
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(01:10):
to learn more and save twenty percent with code Blessed.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
The Mighty Storm. In our last story, Festus replaced Felix
as governor, and so Paul stood before him. Paul appealed
to Caesar and pled his case before King Agrippa. Explaining
his testimony, Agrippa said Paul could have been freed, but
he appealed to Caesar, so we must send him there.

(01:44):
In this story, Paul is sent to Rome and will
experience a.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Terrible storm and shipwreck on the way.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
As inspired by acts.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Welcome back everyone, Jolia here with another episode of Kids
Bible in the Year podcast. Today, Paul finds himself in
the middle of an awful storm. Hasn't he been through enough?
Don't worry. God is not leaving him high and dry.
An angel is showing up once again to comfort him

(02:19):
and show him the way. Here we go.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
It was decided that Paul would go on a boat
trip to Rome and be watched by a Roman officer
named Julius. Julius was a part of the Emperor's army,
so he was in charge of prisoners. Paul got on
the boat and the crew began to set sail on
the water. The ship was supposed to stop at many
harbors along the coast of Asia, but because of bad storms.

(02:46):
Even though Paul was technically a prisoner, Julius was very
kind to him and gave him a lot of freedom.
Julius told Paul that whenever they got to shore, he
could go see his friends, who would take care of
whatever he needed. After a while of hard sailing, the
crew put down an anchor at the harbor of fair Haven,

(03:06):
which was on the island of Crete. They had lost
a lot of time taking a break at the port,
but now it was too dangerous to leave. It was
winter time, which meant there was a lot of bad
storms happening on the sea. Paul looked at Julius and
told him, you have to tell the captain that we
can't sail any more. We need to wait. If we

(03:27):
don't wait, then there will be a lot of trouble.
The ship and everything on it will be lost. We
could die. The captain of the ship and Julius disagreed
with Paul and said that they would be sailing anyway.
The captain thought that fair Haven wasn't a good place
to stay anyway, and that they were better off leaving,
so they all got back on the ship and decided

(03:47):
to go back to sea. All of a sudden, a
huge storm came over the sea. It was so strong
that it pulled them away from the coast and into
the middle of the ocean. The winds were very strong
and there was thunder so loud it hurt their ears.
This storm went on, so the crew threw all of
their stuff off the ship. They threw anything else they

(04:09):
could find off the ship as well. Everyone was beginning
to get upset, thinking that there was nothing else they
could do and they would just die. Paul looked at
everyone on the boat. I told you guys that it
was a bad idea to leave crete. You guys didn't
listen to what I said, But you're lucky. An angel
came to me last night with a message from God.

(04:31):
He told me there is no reason to be afraid.
You will make it through the storm. You will talk
to Caesar. No one will die in this storm.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
God never lies.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
We are all going to be okay, but we will
not make it with the ship. The storm lasted for
two weeks. The end of the last day, the sailors
saw the shore. They put down an anchor so they
wouldn't crash into the shore. The crew began to prepare
to pull the boat on to the shore. They were
putting down lifeboats so that they could get off the ship. Sooner.

(05:04):
Paul noticed this. If anyone leaves the ship, we will die.
Don't leave. They listened to Paul this time and moved
away from the lifeboats. Everyone on the ship was just
hoping that the morning would come faster. Right before the
sun came up, Paul looked at all the men on
the boat. We haven't eaten in two weeks, so why

(05:24):
don't we eat now. We're going to need to have
full stomachs when we finally get on land to walk.
Paul found some bread on the ship and said a
thank you prayer to God before taking a big bite.
Everyone did the same. When the sun was finally up,
they could see the shore. The captain of the boat
saw somewhere they could dock on the beach. They brought

(05:45):
up the anchor and put up their sails. A strong
wind from the storm pulled them closer and closer to
the beach until they got to land. As soon as
they got the boat close to the shore, the whole
crew got nervous being around the prisoners. They thought maybe
they should kill the prisoners so they wouldn't try to
escape and run away. Julius, the Roman officer, said not

(06:06):
to kill anyone because he didn't want the crew to
kill Paul. Anyone who can swim, he said, jump off
the ship and swim to land. Anyone who couldn't swim
found Wood to use his flotation devices to help them
swim to shore, and everyone got in the water. They
all managed to get to the shore safely.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Scary, right, that was no little thunderstorm. Paul is on
the way to Rome to go before Caesar. This would
be a very long voyage. He was placed on a
boat with other prisoners, most likely guilty criminals who would
be put to death in Rome. In all, there were
two hundred and seventy six people on board this big ship.

(06:57):
And right away we meet a guard who seems to
have a soft spot for Paul. His name is Julius,
and he allows two friends of Paul to join him
on this journey. I bet Paul was so glad he
didn't have to do this alone. By the way, one
of those friends was Luke. How do we know that,

(07:19):
because he is the one writing the book of Acts
telling us about all that had happened. As the ship sailed,
they hit some pretty bad weather which made everything take
a lot longer, and because of that, it was now
almost winter, and that meant one thing, bad storms on

(07:39):
the sea. Paul knew this because he had already traveled
many miles on that sea as a missionary. In fact,
he had already been in three shipwrecks by this time.
That's why he told the guard and the captain they
needed to stay on shore for a while and wait
until winter passed. But no, they were determined to go anyway.

(08:04):
Sure enough, as they are sailing along the shore, a huge,
ginormous storm comes out of nowhere. The wind was so
strong that they were pulled into the middle of the
ocean and lost all sight of the sun, moon, and
stars for a very long time. This meant they didn't
know where they were, and the storm was only getting worse.

(08:28):
As we've walked through the Bible on this journey together,
this isn't the first time we've seen God use a
storm to teach us something. It's not the first time
we see Jesus showing up in the middle of the
wind and waves to bring us comfort, peace and direction.
And he was about to do it again, this time

(08:50):
for Paul and his friends. Well, here they are. People
are crying, panicking, throwing things overboard. This awful storm had
lasted two whole weeks, and they just knew they were
going to die. Until Paul stands up to speak, I
have to laugh at his first line. He pretty much says, well,

(09:13):
I told you so. You should have listened to me
when I said this was too dangerous to sail. But
then he says something that probably made everyone feel a
whole lot better. He says, an angel appeared to him
in the night and told him they would make it
to shore. And when God gives Paul a message, he

(09:34):
knows to believe it. But that's the thing. This was
only good news for the people who believed it, like Paul.
If you ever hear God speak a promise to your
heart or read it in your Bible, believe it, stand
on it, rest in it, hold on to it. Sometimes

(09:54):
it's the only way to not feel scared. The angel
had given Paul a prom in the middle of that ugly,
scary storm. He said, God has granted you all those
who sail with you. In other words, with God's help.
The people on board believed what Paul was saying, and
they did what he said to do. God was using

(10:18):
him still even in this terrible storm, to be the
leader he had called him to be because when you
take what God said a muse it as your anchor,
people will follow. When you are going God's way, you
can't go wrong. Well, Paul and his friends make it
to shore, but the action isn't over. Paul is about

(10:42):
to get bitten by a big, yucky snake. That's right.
Come back next time to hear what happens. And lastly,
the Bible is the best story ever told. It's God's
story to you and it's all true. Enjoy our Sho Sanko.
Don't keep the fund to yourself, share it with a family,

(11:04):
member of friend, and help us reach more lives for Christ.
Thanks for listening to Kids Bible in a Year podcast.
For more Bible stories and wisdom to last a lifetime,
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(11:26):
listening to Kids Bible in a Year. I want to
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Unapologetic God's Truth on today's topics. It's unfiltered, important, inspiring,
and we have awesome conversations and amazing guests such as
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(11:48):
Shannon Breem, Maddy Pruett, and so many others. We are
helping you have conversations that empower you to have bold
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in your faith. As you check out and apologetic, remember
that you can tune in wherever you get your podcasts,

(12:09):
and on pray dot com.