But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. 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 even as it was told me. (Acts 27:21-26)
20 Faith is just as positive as your eyesight or my feelings to know this desk is here. You don’t have to be educated. Frankly, it’d be good if you’re just a little more simple about it than what you really are. That’s right. Just you… You… It’s just something that you know it’s going to be. That’s all. It just the positive… Why, there couldn’t nothing move it out of your way. You know it’s going to happen. You just…
Nothing can take it out. If the doctors stand, say you’re going to die the next hour, and you knew that you was going to get well… He might tell you had for—covered all over with cancer and leprosy eaten through you. That wouldn’t scare you one bit. No, sir. Now, that’s faith.
21 Look at when Paul was shipwrecked out there. Why, he’d lost hopes too. All hopes they could be saved, Paul said, was gone. The little old ship was water-logged, and fourteen days and nights no moon, stars, or nothing, the little boat tossed about in the waters and everything, and Paul said, “Well, I guess all hopes gone.” So he didn’t know.
But standing down in the gallery that night, praying, a vision come before him. And he saw the Angel of the Lord come, said, “Don’t fear, Paul, for you’re going to be brought before Caesar.” That’s right. “And lo, God give… All these that sail with you, is given to you. So therefore, you be of a good courage. And you go on out and have a good courage.”
22 And little old Paul, right in the middle of the storm, run on the outside, shaking his hands and screaming top of his voice, saying, “Be of a good courage, brother, for there stood the Angel of God before me last night, saying not to be scared. We was going to come right on in before Caesar.” Said, “Now, I tell you there’s not one of you going to die. Not one hair of your head is going to perish, but we’re going… The ship’s going to be wrecked somewhere. In the vision I seen it setting on the shore wrecked somewhere, but there’s nothing going to harm us.” Said, “Let’s take something and eat.”
And they… Oh, they was afraid to do it. And Paul went and got the sandwich, and made it, and started eating. Why, he wasn’t scared. Why? God done said so. Anchored in Paul’s heart…
I don’t care; the ship was a pitching just as hard as it could. No stars, no moon, days passed on by, didn’t worry Paul a bit. I imagine one sandwich after the other one, walking up and down the deck saying, “Glory to God, we’re not far from land, brothers.”
23 There you are, no matter how dark it got. The whale might’ve come up to turn the ship over, the sharks following them by the hundreds, that wouldn’t faze Paul. No, sir. He knew what God had said. He believed what God had said. Said, “Wherefore, brethren, be of a good courage, for I believe God, that it’ll be just as He showed it to me.” There’s faith.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Order your own copy of the Family Altar at http://store.bibleway.org
Appreciate what we do? Consider supporting us: https://anchor.fm/ten-thousand-worlds/support
