Description: Paul was given by God all those on the boat he we was on. None heard Paul at first. The storm came and then the man of God’s voice was valued. We have the message the world needs. Stuff has to go as we are carried by winds. Hear from God and His people. They know the way of salvation. (Acts 27)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12462
6:30 PM on 2/19/2023

P. Schaller –

Wow. Beautiful. Turn with me to Romans 15:13 and then 15, 19. I’m reading from the English Standard Version.
Romans 15:13, this is the first verse I want you to notice here. Two things by way of introduction.
We have P. Matti Servio here who just came right from the airport. Good to have you, pastor.
He’s our guest for the week. As a Body, we are going to assemble every night and we’re going
to hear about missions and pray. And this verse is at the heart of revival. Spiritual revival is
something very personal and internal.

Juan sent me a piece from one of Dr. Steven’s devotionals about abiding with God in the secret
place. “When a person really understands revival, he recognizes the presence of God.” This
morning, we had a great service, two services here. Federal Hill also had beautiful and
everywhere I’m sure where the men of God and the people of God assembled. I heard from the
group that was on their way back from Kentucky, and we have seen and heard great things
about what God is doing with a visitation at Asbury University in Kentucky.

Pastor writes, “He recognizes the spoken Word of God, senses the power of the Spirit of God,
enjoys the people of God, receives the constant provision of God. As believers, we have a
secret place. A place where God will meet us at any time. It is the throne of grace. We can come
boldly before this throne because of the perfect love of God which demonstrated itself
tremendously in Christ’s death at the cross. There, on Calvary’s hill, Jesus died for all of our sins
and opened the way for us to be hid with Christ in God. Satan flees from the believer who
abides in the secret place and chooses to be quickened constantly through the Word of God.
The believer who understands revival has had the law of righteousness fulfilled in him and has
the love of Jesus Christ perfected in him. In his experience, the believer allows the Holy Spirit to
fill him, allows the grace of God to be his provision.

Then, perfect love casts out all fear. Revival is simply a process where a believer has fellowship with God in the holy of holies beyond the veil.”
I want to use this verse here in Romans 15:13 to emphasize this truth. That’s the first point. We
have the believer, and we have his life, the internal, the encouragement, the deep, the secret
place with God. We’re going to speak about it tonight when Paul was on that ship going to
Rome and when it fell into so much trouble.

Here in Romans 15:19, we see another portion of this and it is vs. 19-20. Second point. Here’s the
first one, abounding in hope and joy in the inner man and then the second one is missions.
World missions. Others. Reaching others. In Kentucky. In the United States. Around the world
where Christ is not named. Paul is looking at the pagan world and saying I’ve got to go there.
I’ve got to go to Spain. We have people in India, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Korea, and so on.
P. Matti is in Oman in the Arabic Peninsula. Where is Christ not named? Where is Christ not
known?

But this mission that Paul had had a lot to do with the inner man being healthy, the inner man
being built up, the inner man having joy and peace and then his prayer was by the Holy Spirit,
we would go. We would be where people need us. That’s why through these revivals, there
have been so many wonderful things that have happened. All kinds of works of good works and
YMCA and nursing and hospitals and extra athletic associations and university campus
ministries. Teaching children. Teaching women. Teaching the slaves in the 19th

century how to read the Bible and in the dark periods in England, in Europe, when there was so much
gambling, so much drunkenness. All kinds of debauchery and houses of ill repute and all kinds
of problems. You know what is needed? The inner man and then the mission.
Let’s pray this week God will speak to our hearts in our country, in our churches everywhere and
we’ll hear from P. Matti and others words that will encourage us. We believe this and that this will
happen. Amen. Would you pray with me please for a moment.

(Prayer) Okay. Ready for the message? Would you stand with me just for a moment. Just stand
and get happy for a second and just say to your neighbor, so glad you are here tonight. May
God bless you mightily, richly, abundantly tonight. Praise the Lord! Okay. You may be seated.
Alright, so let’s see. This will be a very short – I know I always say this. I always say it but you
know, this is a message of an idea and the Spirit giving words and thoughts with it. Sometime,
we can preach a full message on it. It all depends if God gives it. I feel that a lot could be said
about it. I’m going to help you and maybe ask you to speak to your neighbor about it. When we
get to a point, you’re going to say, wow.

I think that means something. And you’re able to preach that message to your neighbor who is sitting next to you. Okay. So, you’ll follow it with me.Then P. Mark is leading us in praise and worship tonight. Our service will go into praise and worship and then he’ll dismiss you and you can go whenever you want to. But he will lead us in that.
Okay. Turn now to Acts 27. This will be your homework assignment is to read this chapter. Acts
27. This is the skeleton of it. It’s like a life. It’s like a block of time. This story. How many sailors
do we have here? Do we have any sailors? A few. Okay. If you sail, it’s a very real thing what
the wind does to you, how you navigate in the wind. Are you contrary? Is the wind behind you?
Is the wind in front of you? Once the wind takes you, it can take you. You can fly by the wind. It’s
serious stuff.

When you sail, you go down on your knees before you get in the boat. This is what I do. I don’t
go on a boat but on a board. I get down on my knees and I pray, God, I want to come back. I
want to come back. I ended up miles away from here but I want to come back. So, it’s a real
thing. I have a little feeling of it because of doing it, and I like this chapter because I think it
represents life in a broad sense.

The ship starts with 276 people on it. I’ll just draw. I don’t know what it looked like but it was a
sail. A big boat, 276 people. Paul is a prisoner. You can follow the route cause it’s there defined
and they get in trouble. They go like this. This isn’t a literal diagram of their journey but you get
the idea. This is how your life might go.

At the end of the story, what happens to the ship? It’s destroyed. What happens to the people?
They are all washed up ashore. Anybody who knows about the sea, about a disaster at sea, will
tell you you will not have 276 people wash up on shore alive but they did. Cause God said I’ve
given you – Paul, I’m taking you to Rome. This is where Paul is going to end up. And I’m giving
you these people with you. They will all be saved in this disaster.

Now, in the story, we see one fundamental element and that is Paul in the story. Paul and his
words. So, I want to make that point here to look at chapter 27:9-10. I forgot to say one part
before we go to this – I jotted down a few things we have seen in the last years in our lives here
in the United States and the world. Climate change, earthquakes, wars in Europe, covid 19,
breakdown in moral structures, immoral living, struggling families, addictions, and institutions
that we once trusted are now misleading us and we’ve lost our trust in many of them.
This is a good time for God to send a revival.

It’s a good time for somebody to be on the boat and say something. It’s a good time for somebody who knows God. It’s a good time for a church to be on fire for God. It’s a good time for us to live by faith in God and to have God in the secret
place in our heart because in the beginning of our story – let’s see over here – when he says
this, this is our timeline. He says we shouldn’t go. It’s dangerous. It’s not the time of year. It’s
hurricane season. I’m adding my words. This is just to help you. It’s hurricane season. A storm
will come or it doesn’t look right. I don’t believe we should do this. This is a man of God
speaking and he’s speaking from his heart and they are not listening to him.

vs. 11. The centurion listened more to the pilot and the owner of the ship. Of course, he did.
First of all, he’s a Roman soldier of high rank. It’s the pilot, the experienced pilot and the owner
of the ship said, no. We have a load of wheat. We have a load of cargo. We have many
prisoners here and we’ve got to move. We cannot afford to stop at an island and be there. Let’s
go. It’s a hard decision but this is how the world operates. They have what’s called conventional wisdom. We have money. Everything is about money. Sometimes, it’s about money. It’s about
politics. It’s about the popular opinion, but is anybody listening to God? Is anybody have a
capacity to hear from God because this journey is an important journey.

We could say it’s the journey of your life. Have you had struggles in your life? Yes. We have
problems in our society. Yes. Is there a message for us beyond money and conventional
wisdom? Good question. Now, at the end this changes because the centurion changes in time
in the voyage. I just want to make a point to you. At the end of the story in chapter 27:43. They
were going to kill all the prisoners. When they saw the ship was out of control, they are making
a run for the beach. The ship crashes. Part of it gets stuck. The storm is beating on it, ripping it
apart. And this soldier sees what is happening, so they said we need to kill all the prisoners. But
the centurion said, no, because he wanted to save Paul.

Why? Why did he want to save Paul? Isn’t that beautiful. So, it’s a good word. He changed. He
saw something. He recognized something in the process, in the journey. He recognized
something. They started to hear Paul. And when you recognize that Paul has the confidence
and the courage and the hope, it’s like in the process Paul has hope. And he has confidence.
He has a word. An angel appeared to him and told him what would happen. Okay. So, just for a
minute if you want, explain this so far. This is phase one. Stop. You may talk to your neighbor for
a minute. Say to your neighbor, what is he talking about?

Okay. Here’s a question. What happens to you when you are not listened to? What happens to
you when they are not listening to you? What happens to you when they don’t care about what
you are saying? What happens to you? What happened to Paul when they wouldn’t listen to him
and yet he somehow knew and understood what was going on? What do you do with that?
One of the reasons why I think they changed during the journey and they started to listen to him
because it didn’t bother him that they didn’t listen to him. Cause when you have truth and it’s
deep in your heart, when the Spirit is your minister, you have it whether the world listens or not.
You can say the same about Christ. Christ is here and they are not listening to Christ.

Is Pontius Pilate listening to Christ? Is the Roman Empire listening to the church or are they burning the
Christians and they have to go underground in the catacombs. Are they listening to the
Christians? They are not. What happens to us when people are not caring about us? We’re just
saying we’re on the ship with you. We’re with you but we are listening to God. We have
something from God in our hearts.

It’s okay. Decades may pass. The world may fall apart, but you don’t fall apart. The world may
disintegrate. There may be incredibly difficult times that are coming ahead for us. It could be but
that’s good. That’s part of our life. We’re on the ship. We’re in this world. They may not listen to
us or care at all. But we are there to be a minister.

The story goes on as you can read it with me. I want you to see a very interesting series of
details here and everyone of these details kinds of smacks of things that you could say. vs. 13.
How did it blow? Gently. What does that mean? Like it’s like now is the time to go. It’s gentle.
Now is the time. There’s no problem now. It’s time to move on. We are drawn to it. The gentle
wind is saying let’s go. vs. 13. But soon it changed. vs. 14-15. listen to this phrase, “could not
face the wind.” You cannot sail into the wind. You have to go to an angle to it. Once you are
caught and the wind is catching you, you have to go. It moves. You are moving and it says we
gave way to it and we are driven along. We are flying at high speed. Cruising. Maybe not where
we want to go, but we are losing control.

We don’t have control over our life. There are times in your life when you are going to wake up
one morning and say, how did I get here? How did I get here? I remember I was windsurfing one
place and I ended up a couple miles away from where I left. I had to walk. I had to go – it was
one of those things. It happens. How did I end up here? How did it happen?

There’s more detail. vs. 16-18. Get rid of the cargo. Isn’t it called 1-800-JUNK? Get rid of the
stuff in the attic and in the garage. Get rid of all the cargo. Get rid of the stuff. Be careful what
you get rid of when you are in the storms of life. Don’t get rid of your church. Don’t get rid of your
faith. Don’t get rid of obedience to God but be like Paul on the boat. And Paul is listening. And
there’s stuff that has to go. They’re throwing it overboard. And so it happens.

I want to finish the message here. I told you it would be short and I think I made the point
anyway. vs. 31. They were going to cut a life boat free. The sailors that were in charge of the
ship and other dignitaries or authorities, they felt we better get off. Let’s cut loose the life boat
and we’ll go. Paul said, no. Maybe he knew they were needed to be on the ship. For whatever
the reason, he knew they had to stay.

Here’s the thing about it. Somewhere in this process, they obeyed him. That’s amazing. Maybe
some people in the United States of America seeing the revival in Kentucky and maybe other
churches in the country that are awake to the gospel, maybe people in the neighborhood will
wake up and say we better listen to what God has to say to us because it doesn’t look very
good. We need help. We need a message. We need the gospel. We need a church to raise our
family. We need the little kids up on the stage to say something about God. And the teenagers
that were with P. Pete and P. Love and so on. There’s a time when people start listening and the
revival that is happening in Kentucky that stirs my heart so much and the life that we have in our
church here and the things we have seen happen abroad; and the work of God where people
are willing to obey and follow God and trust him.

This is all salt and light in a dark world. People are wondering, anybody have any other message? And when God visits, they start to say obey Paul. Do what they say. They’re not perfect people, but there’s something going on.
We need what they have. We need that kind of love. We need to learn to forgive. We need
prayer. We need faith. We need to love each other. We need something.

The history of revival is simply this: that people start to pay attention to what they have not
payed attention to before. So, they stayed on the boat. Troubles increased. Paul says that an
angel appeared unto him and told him the ship wreck is happening, vs. 39. They run the ship
ashore. They cast off the anchors in vs. 40. They left them in the sea. They left the anchors
there. They loosened the ropes. They tied the rudders. They hunkered down. They are ready for
the ride of their lives. They’re heading for the beach. They’re making a run for it. It’s like crazy!
They’re making a run. They are in a storm and it is bad. It’s the end. The rudders are fastened.
Everything is there. They’re in the storm and they are making a run for the beach. It’s like it’s
over. It’s over. But it isn’t. God is with them. God is with them.

God is with us. God is with us. It’s not over. The ship is destroyed. Everybody’s washed up on
shore. You could count them. Everyone of them is there, 276 people. And the centurion knew
who Paul was. Yeah, he got beat up like everybody else. He’s not any different. But he’s got
something on the inside and so do you. You have it when you live in this world. People are
going to come to you and say, I got a problem. I got to talk to you. You’re a secretary. You’re at
the water cooler in the hallway at Hopkins.

You’re in a cafeteria. You’re in a factory shop. You’re in a gas station. You’re working with mechanics or whatever. You’re delivering stuff for UPS. You’re working in an office somewhere. Somebody is going to come and say do you have anything to say? You’re going to say, come to church with me. You’re going to say, yeah. I’m
going to pray for you. I’m going to say, yeah. We lost a lot of cargo. A lot of stuff has gone
overboard. But don’t give up. God is with us. Don’t stop. God is with us. God will save you. God
will help you. God will answer your prayer.

Look at our country and what does God do? He sends a revival to Kentucky and he says, I am
here. We go, Lord, we knew you were here. We’ve always known you are here but show
yourself more. Please, help us. Answer us. Because we know you are the answer for the human
heart. Wake up people to realize that the living God saves souls, forgives sins, loves people,
puts their name in the book of life. Speaks to them. Amazing. Amen. Would you wrap up the
message by talking to your neighbor for a minute and P. Mark will come up.

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