June 14, 2025 • 24 mins
On the next Treasured Truth, as we consider further how God uses storms in our lives, we’ll discover that God knows exactly how to bring us back to Himself. And for some of us right now—what we’re going through—it’s a storm that has divine design on it, because God wants to use it to push us back to Him. Join us for the next Treasured Truth, as Pastor Ford continues his current study in the book of Acts called “The Perfect Storm.”
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:00):
God knows how to bring you back to himself and
some of us right now, what we're going through. It
is a storm that has divine design on it because
God wants to push you back to himself.
S2 (00:21):
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford Jr,
senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm
Steve Hiller. Glad that you're with us today as we
continue our look at acts chapter 27 and a message
called The Perfect Storm. You know, we began to look
at last time how God very often will allow storms
into our lives for a number of different reasons. One
(00:42):
of those reasons may be to bring us to salvation.
Other times, it may be to get us, in a sense,
back on track with him when things are going well
in life. It can be very easy to, in a sense,
hit the cruise control and just coast for a while.
We're no longer spending the time with God that we
once did. Maybe our hearts begin to feel a little
(01:04):
bit calloused. We begin to unintentionally, slowly kind of grow
in pride because you're thinking, look at how well my
life is going here. God must think I'm doing things
right because he's allowing all these good things in my life.
And at other times, it may just be flat out
rebellion that we begin to drift into. And so God
(01:26):
very often will allow some sort of storm into our lives,
so that we begin to recognize that our dependence really
needs to be upon him and him alone. You know,
for the person who's struggling with pride, when that storm
hits and you come to the end of yourself and
you realize you don't have it all together, that might
(01:47):
be just the very thing that God wanted to have
happen and why he allowed that storm into your life.
For the person who maybe has been slowly walking away
from their faith, and the rebellion seems to be growing
a little bit each and every day. It may be
that storm that causes us to recognize that what we're
actually experiencing is God's loving discipline. Yeah, loving discipline because
(02:12):
he wants what's best for us. Sometimes he does have
to discipline us, just as a parent may discipline their
child to bring them back into right behavior and relationship,
to ultimately be getting good consequences down the road, they
may have to experience some short term negative consequences. Very often,
God will allow us to go through negative consequences and
(02:34):
storms of life because he ultimately loves us and has
our best in mind. He wants to conform us more
into the image and the likeness of His Son, and
he may just use a storm to do that. We're
going to continue to look at that today from acts
27 as we continue the message, the perfect storm. Here
is Pastor Ford.
S1 (02:55):
What is missing in chapter 34 that you have in
chapter 33 and chapter 35. God speaking because God is
not going to speak when we're in disobedience. He's silent.
When we're in disobedience. You say, how do you know
that every passage we've looked at that has that? Like
(03:16):
when we looked at Abraham, right. He was in Haran
five years and God didn't say anything. That's at the
end of chapter 11. But then at the beginning of
chapter 12 and the Lord said unto Abraham again, God
speaking to him. Now why? Because he's on his way
to where God told him to go. And the person
(03:38):
who was impeding and stopping him from going was terror.
His father. And it says, And Terah died, and Abraham
looked to the Negev. Wonder who or what gotta die
in your life for. You're ready to listen to what
God has to say. And so what happens? God says,
okay now. And God said unto Jacob, Jacob begins to obey,
(04:03):
and God continues to answer. And so what happens? Because
when we are being corrected at least two two areas
in this text, uh, it affects us emotionally and it
affects us experientially. Let me just walk through the text
here and let me show you what happens there, designed
(04:26):
to emotionally correct us and to experientially correct us. If
you are taking notes, just write these down. I want
to walk you through real quick. Uh, 14 through 20
and show you what's going on. So then what are
they designed to correct? Because the storm, uh, they were
lost totally for 14 days. They had no destination. And
(04:52):
problems do that to you? You can lose all your bearings.
You know, they're coasting, going in the wrong direction, but
you can't coast uphill. And so what happens here it is.
Storms want to correct us, to stop us from drifting
like we don't have a compass. Here's the second one.
(05:12):
Storms correct us by causing us to be desperate. These
guys get desperate. Look what they're doing. Uh, in verses
16 through 18. Look what they're doing. They're doing all
these kinds of things to try to help themselves and
is not working. Verse 20. Because storms cause you to despair.
(05:36):
Here's the last one. Storms cause you to draw in.
That is to prioritize. So they tighten up on some
stuff and they discarded some stuff. So they threw some
baggage overboard. They threw aboard overboard all the non-essentials. Wait
a minute. They threw over their cargo. What's their cargo?
(05:58):
This is how they make their money. Okay. So let's,
let's let's walk through this real quick before I go
to the next one. Um, number one, God send this storm.
And at first, this storm causes them all kind of trouble. Why?
Because when you are in disobedience, you lose your moorings
(06:21):
in the word of God. Now they're desperate. Hey, look,
somebody say that's a good thing. Why is that a good?
The storm made them desperate. Okay, see? See y'all looking
at me like y'all don't know what I'm talking about.
But you done been in a storm where you didn't said, God,
(06:42):
this thing is really bad. I can't deal with this.
If you get me out of this, I will. That's
what the storm is designed to do. To make you
so desperate that you're ready to do what God and
I tell people all the time. Like, like a lot
of times it's the ladies. Sometimes it's the man. But
most of the time it's the lady. He won't come
to counseling. He won't do this. And he won't do that.
(07:03):
He ain't desperate enough yet. It's still going too well
for him. Let God have him for a little bit more.
Well how long? I don't know, but God knows how
to bring you back to himself and some of us
right now. What we're going through. It is a storm
that has divine design on it, because God wants to
(07:27):
push you back to himself. That storm is designed to
bring you back to him. That's what he's trying to do.
And so what do they do? Let me get to
the cargo for a minute. The cargo is their livelihood.
But when the storm comes and there's a danger, they're
(07:50):
willing to throw away their provision so that they can survive.
Now get this. This is why I want to bring
it out. Because what at one time was so very important.
We can't let this go. God can put you in
(08:11):
a situation where it's not as important to you as
it used to be. And some of you know what
I'm talking about. He is not as important to you
as he used to be. She is not as important
to you as she used to be. That thing, that job,
(08:32):
that car, that house is not. As you begin to realize.
What should it profit a man if he gained the
whole world and lose his own soul? You begin to
realize I have to seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto me. It's like this storm is designed to correct us.
(08:57):
Storms change you. You're no longer to be who you are,
but you can't become who you're supposed to be until
you let go of who you are. Mm. Go ahead,
look back, take a retrospective analysis and see you wouldn't
(09:20):
be who you are now or where you are now
without them storms. Mm. So the storms help them to
cancel what was behind them so they could get what
was ahead of them. How many of you your past
is keeping you from your future? They threw some baggage overboard. Yeah. Yes.
(09:49):
He takes from us to give to us. And so
then he takes something from them and they get something
that they've never had. Here's the third one. Then I
got to stop. So God has storms to inspect us,
to correct us. Here's the third one to protect us.
(10:10):
So notice what goes on 21 through 25. But after long. Abstinence.
Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, sirs,
you should have hearkened unto me, and not loosed from Crete,
and to have gained this harm and loss. In other words,
some loss is because we didn't listen. Then he says,
(10:30):
and now I exhort you to be of good cheer,
for there shall be no loss of any man's life
among you but of the ship. For there stood by
me this night the angel of God, whose I am,
and whom I serve, saying, fear not, Paul. Thou must
be brought before Caesar. And lo, God hath given thee
all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of
good cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be
(10:53):
even as it was told me. Wow! He says the
storms come to protect us. Here's what I find about storm.
In the storms of life, God is still in control. Amen.
I know it's Bible study, but Amen. Remember, it may
(11:15):
be over your head, but it's under his feet. And
so sometimes we see their problems can be blessings in disguise.
S2 (11:30):
I know it is so hard to have that perspective
as we're walking through storms, but Pastor Ford is so right.
And we're going to get back and explore this a
little bit more deeply in just a moment. But if
you're walking through a storm right now, you may want
to listen to this teaching again. You can do so
by coming to our website, Treasure Truth Radio. Stream the
programs download or order copies of the broadcast on CD. Again,
(11:53):
you'll find that at Treasure Truth Radio. If you're just
joining us, we're in acts 27 Again, here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (12:02):
I want you to notice something with me. Notice in
verse 23 they have the presence of the Lord. Notice
in 22 and 25 they have the promise of the Lord.
Notice in verse 24 they have the purpose of the Lord.
Let me say it again in verse 23. There's the
presence of the Lord in 22 and 25 there's the
(12:24):
promise of the Lord in verse 24, there's the purpose
of the Lord. What should we do? Verse 25 and 26,
three things. Number one, stand on the promise. Surrender to God.
Strengthen your faith. All three of these, that's what they do.
(12:47):
You say, what do you. What do you mean? Well,
with the promise of God, we stand on a promise.
That's what he does. In verse 24, he stands on
the promise. Then 25, Surrender to God. Uh, then 22
and 25. Based on the promise, you strengthen your faith.
God sent an angel. Why? Because when you've done everything
(13:12):
that you can do, God will always do what you
can't do. And so God sent an angel to do
for them what they could not do. Look for your angel.
Look for your. You're going through a storm. Look for
your angel. And so God will not save you until
(13:34):
you quit trying to save yourself. They stopped three times.
Verse 22, the ship will be lost. Verse 26, you'll
be cast on an island. In other words, it won't
be all fun and games. But Imma get you out
of this, huh? I was in the Marine Corps. I
(13:55):
found out the hard way. Uh, because you have to.
You have to qualify to swim. Let me show you
how they do you in Marine Corps. Teach you how
to swim. They throw you in water. So they threw
me in the water and I said, can't swim. You
better start. Start moving them arms or something. So I
move my arms. I'm. I'm beating the water. And then
(14:16):
it's my arm choking. My drill instructor got in and
swam around me. I'm thinking to myself, man, these people
are going to kill me. He's standing around swimming around
me instead of grabbing me, and then I could feel
myself losing consciousness. Then I felt his arm and he
(14:38):
took me out. They pumping water out of me and
I'm saying, man. So I didn't ask him. Then when
we were graduating 13 weeks later, I said, I want
to know why you almost let me drown. He said, no,
I didn't. You say you don't know anything about swimming?
(15:02):
Did I swim? He said I had to let you
see struggling. Because if I would have grabbed you while
you had strength, you would have pulled both of us down.
So I had to wait until you were helpless in
order to help you. You better get tired of helping
(15:25):
God out because he don't want your helping. He don't
need it now. He does want you to do everything
you can do, but the things that you can't do,
he wants you to do those things. And listen, listen,
listen listen listen, listen I love this, I love this,
I love this because when you look at what's going
on here, it's amazing to me. Let me tell you
(15:46):
the story first. I might have told it to you before,
but anyway. Corrie ten boom and her sister. The hiding place.
I don't know if you've read it. Great book. And
they were hiding Jews from the Nazis. Uh, she's Dutch
And they found the Jews, and they put her whole
family in prison, and her and her sister were put
in prison. And in the barracks there were nothing but fleas,
(16:11):
and the fleas were biting them. And, uh, Corrie would
have devotions, uh, with the barracks every day. And when
her sister said, I can't stand these fleas, God has
allowed this to happen to us. And then he brings
us to a place with fleas. She said, we have
to thank God because the Bible says in everything give
(16:31):
thanks not for everything. In everything give thanks. For this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
And so she said, Thank God for the fleas. I
can't do it. I can't do it. So Corrie did it.
She thanked God for the fleas. Well, they found out
later on none of the women in their barracks were used, uh,
in the experiment rooms. They were taking women and doing
(16:54):
all kind of things, experimenting on their bodies. The Germans did.
If you've known anything about the Holocaust, you know what?
Some of the things they did, and then they would
do some things to women and and then murder them
and all that kind of stuff. They were doing all
kind of things, but not one woman from the barracks,
because they found out that the German soldiers didn't want
to come and told those barracks because of the fleas.
(17:20):
And so here you have this. And then here's what
God said. Watch this. Where does God want Paul? Rome.
How does he get there? He gets there on a
prison boat. Not the love boat, Paul. All of this
is designed for you to fulfill your destiny and your purpose.
(17:43):
Remember what happened. Why is he on that ship? Because
they wanted to kill him. And he said, I'm a
Roman citizen. He was wise as a serpent, harmless as
a dove. I'm a Roman citizen. So he had to
appeal to Rome. I'm appealing to Caesar. So he gets
on a boat. That's a prison ship that to go
to Rome, huh? Isn't that amazing? God used his haters
(18:05):
to become his elevators. That he gets him to Rome.
But he uses people that don't even like him to
do it. That's another sermon for another day. Yeah, God
used the folks that were against Paul to get Paul
where God wanted him to go. I saw that movie life,
and at the end I wrote it down. I said, oh,
(18:28):
that'll preach one day because Eddie Murphy and and and
Martin Lawrence, Ray and I forgot the other guy's name. Uh,
but anyway, uh, there is a fire. Next thing you know,
he runs in Ray Ray, and the place burns up
and falls down. Next scene, they're in Yankee Stadium, and
they're watching the game. Here's what I wrote down. They
(18:52):
got where they had been talking about where they want
to go all those years in prison, Risen, but they
had to go through the fire to get there. Y'all
ain't going to pray with me. Mhm mhm mhm. Yeah yeah. Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego who remembers who remembers what happened. The
only thing was burned was the ropes that bound them.
(19:16):
So while they were in that fiery furnace, the only
thing God allowed to be burned is the ropes that
the world had on them that bound them. God burned
them off. He set them free in the midst of
the fire. God's trying to set you free, in other words,
(19:39):
to strengthen your faith. The old song used to say,
keep your head up and never give up. Verse 22
good cheer. Do you know that the nightingale only sings
in the darkness? But it's the sweetest song in the night. Mm. Yeah.
(20:07):
And so there it is. We begin to understand God
is doing something in our lives. Well, my time is gone. Uh,
but when you look at what's going on here, let
me quote the Harvard Hooper again. I love this guy.
This is not original with me, but I love quoting
him because what he said was so powerful. I just
(20:29):
use it all the time. And at the Harvard, Hooper
is at a church in Detroit. Uh, he went to Harvard,
and he's a hooper. That's why they call him the
Harvard Hooper. And here's what he said. Now, I can't whoop.
I'm just going to read it. Well, he starts off
by saying, uh, that all of us go through trials
to get us somewhere that storms are designed by God
(20:53):
to carry us somewhere. And then he begins his little run.
It was not until John Bunyan was in Bedford Prison
that his mind broke free to etch upon the pages
of History of Pilgrim's Progress. It wasn't until J.S. Bach
was stone blind that he was able to see how
to write the B minor mass. It wasn't until Rembrandt
(21:16):
was flat broke that he made the world rich with
his art. It wasn't until Beethoven was death that he
heard the Ninth Symphony and wrote it down. It wasn't
until George Frideric Handel was paralyzed on the right side
that he was able to reach up with his left
hand and pull down the Hallelujah Chorus out of the clouds.
(21:36):
And it wasn't until the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King
Jr was jailed in 1963 that he became eligible for
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. In other words, we
look at this thing. Here's what the Scripture says that
you need to study it for yourself. I am, you know,
I said, okay, I've been quoting it, but I never
(21:57):
studied that. I need to study that verse. Here's what
it says. Hebrews five eight even though he were the son,
yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered.
Now the thing I do know that's talking about his humanity,
not his deity, that Jesus in his humanity learned obedience
(22:19):
through suffering. Now, if Jesus can learn it through suffering,
don't you exempt yourself from it? And the Bible says,
And Jesus grew in wisdom, stature in favor with God
and with man. Let me ask you something. If there
were 14 words to summarize your life, uh, 18 years
(22:40):
of your life, what 14 words would they be for Jesus?
It was. He grew in wisdom and stature and favor
with God and with man. Perfect storm.
S2 (22:55):
Why wouldn't all of us want those 14 words to
describe our lives. You're listening to Treasure Truth, a message
called The Perfect Storm. Really? A look at the majority
of acts chapter 27. And we're going to continue this
teaching on our next broadcast. But if you can't be
by your radio, come to the website right now. Sign
up for the podcast or download the Moody Radio app.
(23:17):
Both of those are free, and it makes it possible
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(23:38):
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Thanks for doing that and for listening today. Thanks also
to our producer, Amy Rios, I'm Steve Hiller. Treasure truth
is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody
Bible Institute.
God knows how to bring you back to himself and
some of us right now, what we're going through. It
is a storm that has divine design on it because
God wants to push you back to himself.
S2 (00:21):
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford Jr,
senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm
Steve Hiller. Glad that you're with us today as we
continue our look at acts chapter 27 and a message
called The Perfect Storm. You know, we began to look
at last time how God very often will allow storms
into our lives for a number of different reasons. One
(00:42):
of those reasons may be to bring us to salvation.
Other times, it may be to get us, in a sense,
back on track with him when things are going well
in life. It can be very easy to, in a sense,
hit the cruise control and just coast for a while.
We're no longer spending the time with God that we
once did. Maybe our hearts begin to feel a little
(01:04):
bit calloused. We begin to unintentionally, slowly kind of grow
in pride because you're thinking, look at how well my
life is going here. God must think I'm doing things
right because he's allowing all these good things in my life.
And at other times, it may just be flat out
rebellion that we begin to drift into. And so God
(01:26):
very often will allow some sort of storm into our lives,
so that we begin to recognize that our dependence really
needs to be upon him and him alone. You know,
for the person who's struggling with pride, when that storm
hits and you come to the end of yourself and
you realize you don't have it all together, that might
(01:47):
be just the very thing that God wanted to have
happen and why he allowed that storm into your life.
For the person who maybe has been slowly walking away
from their faith, and the rebellion seems to be growing
a little bit each and every day. It may be
that storm that causes us to recognize that what we're
actually experiencing is God's loving discipline. Yeah, loving discipline because
(02:12):
he wants what's best for us. Sometimes he does have
to discipline us, just as a parent may discipline their
child to bring them back into right behavior and relationship,
to ultimately be getting good consequences down the road, they
may have to experience some short term negative consequences. Very often,
God will allow us to go through negative consequences and
(02:34):
storms of life because he ultimately loves us and has
our best in mind. He wants to conform us more
into the image and the likeness of His Son, and
he may just use a storm to do that. We're
going to continue to look at that today from acts
27 as we continue the message, the perfect storm. Here
is Pastor Ford.
S1 (02:55):
What is missing in chapter 34 that you have in
chapter 33 and chapter 35. God speaking because God is
not going to speak when we're in disobedience. He's silent.
When we're in disobedience. You say, how do you know
that every passage we've looked at that has that? Like
(03:16):
when we looked at Abraham, right. He was in Haran
five years and God didn't say anything. That's at the
end of chapter 11. But then at the beginning of
chapter 12 and the Lord said unto Abraham again, God
speaking to him. Now why? Because he's on his way
to where God told him to go. And the person
(03:38):
who was impeding and stopping him from going was terror.
His father. And it says, And Terah died, and Abraham
looked to the Negev. Wonder who or what gotta die
in your life for. You're ready to listen to what
God has to say. And so what happens? God says,
okay now. And God said unto Jacob, Jacob begins to obey,
(04:03):
and God continues to answer. And so what happens? Because
when we are being corrected at least two two areas
in this text, uh, it affects us emotionally and it
affects us experientially. Let me just walk through the text
here and let me show you what happens there, designed
(04:26):
to emotionally correct us and to experientially correct us. If
you are taking notes, just write these down. I want
to walk you through real quick. Uh, 14 through 20
and show you what's going on. So then what are
they designed to correct? Because the storm, uh, they were
lost totally for 14 days. They had no destination. And
(04:52):
problems do that to you? You can lose all your bearings.
You know, they're coasting, going in the wrong direction, but
you can't coast uphill. And so what happens here it is.
Storms want to correct us, to stop us from drifting
like we don't have a compass. Here's the second one.
(05:12):
Storms correct us by causing us to be desperate. These
guys get desperate. Look what they're doing. Uh, in verses
16 through 18. Look what they're doing. They're doing all
these kinds of things to try to help themselves and
is not working. Verse 20. Because storms cause you to despair.
(05:36):
Here's the last one. Storms cause you to draw in.
That is to prioritize. So they tighten up on some
stuff and they discarded some stuff. So they threw some
baggage overboard. They threw aboard overboard all the non-essentials. Wait
a minute. They threw over their cargo. What's their cargo?
(05:58):
This is how they make their money. Okay. So let's,
let's let's walk through this real quick before I go
to the next one. Um, number one, God send this storm.
And at first, this storm causes them all kind of trouble. Why?
Because when you are in disobedience, you lose your moorings
(06:21):
in the word of God. Now they're desperate. Hey, look,
somebody say that's a good thing. Why is that a good?
The storm made them desperate. Okay, see? See y'all looking
at me like y'all don't know what I'm talking about.
But you done been in a storm where you didn't said, God,
(06:42):
this thing is really bad. I can't deal with this.
If you get me out of this, I will. That's
what the storm is designed to do. To make you
so desperate that you're ready to do what God and
I tell people all the time. Like, like a lot
of times it's the ladies. Sometimes it's the man. But
most of the time it's the lady. He won't come
to counseling. He won't do this. And he won't do that.
(07:03):
He ain't desperate enough yet. It's still going too well
for him. Let God have him for a little bit more.
Well how long? I don't know, but God knows how
to bring you back to himself and some of us
right now. What we're going through. It is a storm
that has divine design on it, because God wants to
(07:27):
push you back to himself. That storm is designed to
bring you back to him. That's what he's trying to do.
And so what do they do? Let me get to
the cargo for a minute. The cargo is their livelihood.
But when the storm comes and there's a danger, they're
(07:50):
willing to throw away their provision so that they can survive.
Now get this. This is why I want to bring
it out. Because what at one time was so very important.
We can't let this go. God can put you in
(08:11):
a situation where it's not as important to you as
it used to be. And some of you know what
I'm talking about. He is not as important to you
as he used to be. She is not as important
to you as she used to be. That thing, that job,
(08:32):
that car, that house is not. As you begin to realize.
What should it profit a man if he gained the
whole world and lose his own soul? You begin to
realize I have to seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto me. It's like this storm is designed to correct us.
(08:57):
Storms change you. You're no longer to be who you are,
but you can't become who you're supposed to be until
you let go of who you are. Mm. Go ahead,
look back, take a retrospective analysis and see you wouldn't
(09:20):
be who you are now or where you are now
without them storms. Mm. So the storms help them to
cancel what was behind them so they could get what
was ahead of them. How many of you your past
is keeping you from your future? They threw some baggage overboard. Yeah. Yes.
(09:49):
He takes from us to give to us. And so
then he takes something from them and they get something
that they've never had. Here's the third one. Then I
got to stop. So God has storms to inspect us,
to correct us. Here's the third one to protect us.
(10:10):
So notice what goes on 21 through 25. But after long. Abstinence.
Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, sirs,
you should have hearkened unto me, and not loosed from Crete,
and to have gained this harm and loss. In other words,
some loss is because we didn't listen. Then he says,
(10:30):
and now I exhort you to be of good cheer,
for there shall be no loss of any man's life
among you but of the ship. For there stood by
me this night the angel of God, whose I am,
and whom I serve, saying, fear not, Paul. Thou must
be brought before Caesar. And lo, God hath given thee
all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of
good cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be
(10:53):
even as it was told me. Wow! He says the
storms come to protect us. Here's what I find about storm.
In the storms of life, God is still in control. Amen.
I know it's Bible study, but Amen. Remember, it may
(11:15):
be over your head, but it's under his feet. And
so sometimes we see their problems can be blessings in disguise.
S2 (11:30):
I know it is so hard to have that perspective
as we're walking through storms, but Pastor Ford is so right.
And we're going to get back and explore this a
little bit more deeply in just a moment. But if
you're walking through a storm right now, you may want
to listen to this teaching again. You can do so
by coming to our website, Treasure Truth Radio. Stream the
programs download or order copies of the broadcast on CD. Again,
(11:53):
you'll find that at Treasure Truth Radio. If you're just
joining us, we're in acts 27 Again, here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (12:02):
I want you to notice something with me. Notice in
verse 23 they have the presence of the Lord. Notice
in 22 and 25 they have the promise of the Lord.
Notice in verse 24 they have the purpose of the Lord.
Let me say it again in verse 23. There's the
presence of the Lord in 22 and 25 there's the
(12:24):
promise of the Lord in verse 24, there's the purpose
of the Lord. What should we do? Verse 25 and 26,
three things. Number one, stand on the promise. Surrender to God.
Strengthen your faith. All three of these, that's what they do.
(12:47):
You say, what do you. What do you mean? Well,
with the promise of God, we stand on a promise.
That's what he does. In verse 24, he stands on
the promise. Then 25, Surrender to God. Uh, then 22
and 25. Based on the promise, you strengthen your faith.
God sent an angel. Why? Because when you've done everything
(13:12):
that you can do, God will always do what you
can't do. And so God sent an angel to do
for them what they could not do. Look for your angel.
Look for your. You're going through a storm. Look for
your angel. And so God will not save you until
(13:34):
you quit trying to save yourself. They stopped three times.
Verse 22, the ship will be lost. Verse 26, you'll
be cast on an island. In other words, it won't
be all fun and games. But Imma get you out
of this, huh? I was in the Marine Corps. I
(13:55):
found out the hard way. Uh, because you have to.
You have to qualify to swim. Let me show you
how they do you in Marine Corps. Teach you how
to swim. They throw you in water. So they threw
me in the water and I said, can't swim. You
better start. Start moving them arms or something. So I
move my arms. I'm. I'm beating the water. And then
(14:16):
it's my arm choking. My drill instructor got in and
swam around me. I'm thinking to myself, man, these people
are going to kill me. He's standing around swimming around
me instead of grabbing me, and then I could feel
myself losing consciousness. Then I felt his arm and he
(14:38):
took me out. They pumping water out of me and
I'm saying, man. So I didn't ask him. Then when
we were graduating 13 weeks later, I said, I want
to know why you almost let me drown. He said, no,
I didn't. You say you don't know anything about swimming?
(15:02):
Did I swim? He said I had to let you
see struggling. Because if I would have grabbed you while
you had strength, you would have pulled both of us down.
So I had to wait until you were helpless in
order to help you. You better get tired of helping
(15:25):
God out because he don't want your helping. He don't
need it now. He does want you to do everything
you can do, but the things that you can't do,
he wants you to do those things. And listen, listen,
listen listen listen, listen I love this, I love this,
I love this because when you look at what's going
on here, it's amazing to me. Let me tell you
(15:46):
the story first. I might have told it to you before,
but anyway. Corrie ten boom and her sister. The hiding place.
I don't know if you've read it. Great book. And
they were hiding Jews from the Nazis. Uh, she's Dutch
And they found the Jews, and they put her whole
family in prison, and her and her sister were put
in prison. And in the barracks there were nothing but fleas,
(16:11):
and the fleas were biting them. And, uh, Corrie would
have devotions, uh, with the barracks every day. And when
her sister said, I can't stand these fleas, God has
allowed this to happen to us. And then he brings
us to a place with fleas. She said, we have
to thank God because the Bible says in everything give
(16:31):
thanks not for everything. In everything give thanks. For this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
And so she said, Thank God for the fleas. I
can't do it. I can't do it. So Corrie did it.
She thanked God for the fleas. Well, they found out
later on none of the women in their barracks were used, uh,
in the experiment rooms. They were taking women and doing
(16:54):
all kind of things, experimenting on their bodies. The Germans did.
If you've known anything about the Holocaust, you know what?
Some of the things they did, and then they would
do some things to women and and then murder them
and all that kind of stuff. They were doing all
kind of things, but not one woman from the barracks,
because they found out that the German soldiers didn't want
to come and told those barracks because of the fleas.
(17:20):
And so here you have this. And then here's what
God said. Watch this. Where does God want Paul? Rome.
How does he get there? He gets there on a
prison boat. Not the love boat, Paul. All of this
is designed for you to fulfill your destiny and your purpose.
(17:43):
Remember what happened. Why is he on that ship? Because
they wanted to kill him. And he said, I'm a
Roman citizen. He was wise as a serpent, harmless as
a dove. I'm a Roman citizen. So he had to
appeal to Rome. I'm appealing to Caesar. So he gets
on a boat. That's a prison ship that to go
to Rome, huh? Isn't that amazing? God used his haters
(18:05):
to become his elevators. That he gets him to Rome.
But he uses people that don't even like him to
do it. That's another sermon for another day. Yeah, God
used the folks that were against Paul to get Paul
where God wanted him to go. I saw that movie life,
and at the end I wrote it down. I said, oh,
(18:28):
that'll preach one day because Eddie Murphy and and and
Martin Lawrence, Ray and I forgot the other guy's name. Uh,
but anyway, uh, there is a fire. Next thing you know,
he runs in Ray Ray, and the place burns up
and falls down. Next scene, they're in Yankee Stadium, and
they're watching the game. Here's what I wrote down. They
(18:52):
got where they had been talking about where they want
to go all those years in prison, Risen, but they
had to go through the fire to get there. Y'all
ain't going to pray with me. Mhm mhm mhm. Yeah yeah. Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego who remembers who remembers what happened. The
only thing was burned was the ropes that bound them.
(19:16):
So while they were in that fiery furnace, the only
thing God allowed to be burned is the ropes that
the world had on them that bound them. God burned
them off. He set them free in the midst of
the fire. God's trying to set you free, in other words,
(19:39):
to strengthen your faith. The old song used to say,
keep your head up and never give up. Verse 22
good cheer. Do you know that the nightingale only sings
in the darkness? But it's the sweetest song in the night. Mm. Yeah.
(20:07):
And so there it is. We begin to understand God
is doing something in our lives. Well, my time is gone. Uh,
but when you look at what's going on here, let
me quote the Harvard Hooper again. I love this guy.
This is not original with me, but I love quoting
him because what he said was so powerful. I just
(20:29):
use it all the time. And at the Harvard, Hooper
is at a church in Detroit. Uh, he went to Harvard,
and he's a hooper. That's why they call him the
Harvard Hooper. And here's what he said. Now, I can't whoop.
I'm just going to read it. Well, he starts off
by saying, uh, that all of us go through trials
to get us somewhere that storms are designed by God
(20:53):
to carry us somewhere. And then he begins his little run.
It was not until John Bunyan was in Bedford Prison
that his mind broke free to etch upon the pages
of History of Pilgrim's Progress. It wasn't until J.S. Bach
was stone blind that he was able to see how
to write the B minor mass. It wasn't until Rembrandt
(21:16):
was flat broke that he made the world rich with
his art. It wasn't until Beethoven was death that he
heard the Ninth Symphony and wrote it down. It wasn't
until George Frideric Handel was paralyzed on the right side
that he was able to reach up with his left
hand and pull down the Hallelujah Chorus out of the clouds.
(21:36):
And it wasn't until the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King
Jr was jailed in 1963 that he became eligible for
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. In other words, we
look at this thing. Here's what the Scripture says that
you need to study it for yourself. I am, you know,
I said, okay, I've been quoting it, but I never
(21:57):
studied that. I need to study that verse. Here's what
it says. Hebrews five eight even though he were the son,
yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered.
Now the thing I do know that's talking about his humanity,
not his deity, that Jesus in his humanity learned obedience
(22:19):
through suffering. Now, if Jesus can learn it through suffering,
don't you exempt yourself from it? And the Bible says,
And Jesus grew in wisdom, stature in favor with God
and with man. Let me ask you something. If there
were 14 words to summarize your life, uh, 18 years
(22:40):
of your life, what 14 words would they be for Jesus?
It was. He grew in wisdom and stature and favor
with God and with man. Perfect storm.
S2 (22:55):
Why wouldn't all of us want those 14 words to
describe our lives. You're listening to Treasure Truth, a message
called The Perfect Storm. Really? A look at the majority
of acts chapter 27. And we're going to continue this
teaching on our next broadcast. But if you can't be
by your radio, come to the website right now. Sign
up for the podcast or download the Moody Radio app.
(23:17):
Both of those are free, and it makes it possible
for you to listen at your convenience. Just come to
treasure Truth Radio. Hey, quickly before we go, this is
a listener supported ministry, which means we depend on your
financial generosity to keep this program on the air. Would
you give a gift? If you'd like to stand with
us as a giving partner, come to Treasure Truth radio.org
(23:38):
and click on the link that says make a donation.
Thanks for doing that and for listening today. Thanks also
to our producer, Amy Rios, I'm Steve Hiller. Treasure truth
is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody
Bible Institute.
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