ATTN: We started this series on trusting God saying, “We can trust God because God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.” Shortly put, we can trust God because He loves us, He is wise and He is all powerful. For love, we referred to the story of Lazarus and his two sisters – how Jesus displayed love in this difficult circumstance involving a death of the beloved. And for wisdom, we referred to Job’s story of how he trusted God even though nothing made sense to him. Today, we will refer to the story of Paul’s journey to Rome in order to demonstrate how God’s sovereignty works and what it looks like to trust this God who is all powerful. We will delve into  how God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility go together. I can’t tell you how often the question of God’s predestining and the free will of man comes up in ministry. We will touch upon that today.

But the main point of the message is very simple: We can trust God because God is in total control (sovereign) and thus He can and will bring about what He promised for us.

When I say God is sovereign, I mean that God is in control. Nothing happens outside of His decreed will. He is never caught off guard. He is never at a loss as to what to do. He never says, “Give me a moment to think on what to do. I never expected this!” That’s because God ordains either directly or indirectly all things that happen – including the birds of the air falling and dying, and dice being rolled in Las Vegas, and the very hair on our heads being numbered and cared for by Him.

BACKGROUND: Acts 27. Paul is an amazing man with an amazing story. He was initially an enemy of Christianity, going around imprisoning and persecuting Christians to root them out. But he meets a resurrected Jesus on the way to another murderous assignment and becomes dramatically converted and becomes a Christian. Now, he makes it his mission to do exactly the opposite of what he used to do – he travels the world to proclaim that Jesus is God and it is only through Him that we can be saved. Now, he gets persecuted by his former clan – the Jewish religious leaders. He is accused of spreading a false religion and there is a death warrant on him. He is tried before the king of Israel, king Agrippa, but he chooses to appeal to the highest authority in the known world back then which was Caesar, the emperor of Rome. So, he is escorted by a cohort of soldiers so that he can be tried before Caesar and he gets on a ship to Rome.

Now, Paul knew that it was God’s will for him to go to Rome and testify about Jesus. Acts 23:11, “11The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

So, Paul knew it was God’s sovereign will for him to stand before Caesar. Several things I want to share regarding God’s sovereign will from this instance. I. Two things God’s sovereign will does not mean. And II. Three things that it does mean.

1. Two things God’s sovereign will does not mean:
2. Everything will go smoothly and easily if it is God’s will.

True? False! Not always, anyway. I have often heard people, including pastors and teachers, who said something like, “Don’t worry. If it is God’s will, He will work it out and everything will be smooth and easy. If it is difficult and you run into obstacles, then that’s a sign that it might not be God’s will.”

I accepted that as truth most of my life because I myself have heard it from other spiritual leaders. And it makes logical sense. But carefully perusing the Scriptures, I have changed my mind. The truth might be almost the opposite. If it is God’s will, then you WILL run into obstacles and difficulties. If you don’t (if everything is easy and smooth), that might be a sign that it’s not God’s will…

Prime example is today’s passage. Paul knew clearly that it was God’s will for him to go to Rome. God told him so. However, from the beginning, they ran into difficulties. In Acts 27, notes these words, “the winds were against us,” “we sailed slowly,” “coasting along with difficulty,” “voyage was now dangerous,” “a tempestuous wind,” “we were violently storm tossed.” And there are many more…

Although it was God’s will for Paul to go to Rome, the journey was very difficult and they ran into a ton of obstacles. (There is a similar episode with the disciples who were told by Jesus to get to the other side of the lake and they run into a storm!)

APP: Don’t expect everything to go smoothly when God tells you to do something. And don’t conclude that it must not be God’s will because you run into obstacles. You may have finally decided to quit drinking or quit doing drugs and you know it’s god’s will. But obstacles will come. That drinking buddy will buzz your cell phone, for example.

This happens often mission trips. I think it’s Mr. Taylor who likes to say, “Real mission trip starts when something goes wrong!” Thing to do would not be, in most cases, “well, since it is so difficult and hard, God must not be in this.” No. Persevere. Press on. Stay put. Stick it out. If you are doing God’s will, you will run into obstacles. You are going against the current when the whole world is going with the current. Of course it will be difficult.

2. No responsibility on our part. God’s sovereign will does NOT mean that! God being in absolute control of every details of life does not mean that we just need to stay still and let God do everything. No! God uses our effort as a means to accomplish His will. What we do matters! Paul knew he was going to end up in Rome. God said so. So, does he just sit on his hands and watch God do everything? Somehow he will be teleported miraculously to Rome from Jerusalem? No! He appeals to Caesar when he didn’t have to. King agrippa, after cross-examining Paul, says if he hadn’t appealed to Caesar, he would’ve let him go free because he determined that he had done nothing wrong. So, paul essentially made things more difficult for himself because it was God’s will. And when they meet the storm on the way to Rome, Paul doesn’t say to the sailors, “Just don’t do anything. Don’t jettison anything. Don’t try to steady the ship. We will get there because God told me so!” No. He and the sailors are doing everything they can to survive! He gives instructions to the sailors on what to do with the load and the ship so that they can stay afloat and not ram into the island. More on this later. What Paul is against is what’s called “fatalism.” Fatalism simply means that since everything is predetermined and inevitable, you don’t need to do anything. What will be done will be done. Yes, God not only knows but determines all things, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a part. God uses us as a means to bring about His will. Again, more on this later.
3. Three things God’s sovereignty does mean:
4. We can be confident in what God will provide. (v. 22, 25)

Confidence, not in our ability but in God’s ability to bring about what He said He will. In vv. 22-25, Paul says to the beleaguered and discouraged sailors, “[22] Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. [23] For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, [24] and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ [25] So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.”
            How comforting and peace-inducing to know that God is in charge! Paul doesn’t say, “It’s all up to you! It all depends on your skills! Let’s get out of predicament through our own effort! We can do anything if we put our mind to it, men!” Rather, Paul comforts them by telling them God is watching over them and no one will lose his life on this trip. This must have so encouraged the sailors and the prisoners because by this time, they were all thinking that this is beyond them. It’s outside of their control. God’s sovereignty means comfort and confidence in those who trust Him!

ILL: I think the happiest times in my life was when I was 9 or 10. I still remember, living in Korea, there was a thunderstorm one summer night – thunder and lightening all night! And I was afraid. My whole family slept in one room because well, we only had one room, and my mom just put her arms around me, covered my ears and I remember thinking, “no matter what happens, as long as mom and dad are with me, everything will be alright.” Of course I was wrong. We could’ve all been zapped and burnt to crisp even with my mom and dad there. But that feeling of comfort and peace as long as my parents are with me, I never forgot…

That is the quiet confidence we can have in God. Paul was literally in the midst of the storm. Not only a physical storm with heaps of water all around him but also a religious and political storm of the trial that he would face in Rome. But he was able to stay calm and confident. Why? Because he thought, “As long as my Father, my God, is with me, everything will be alright. He is in control!”

That is what God’s sovereignty does for us. It induces quiet confidence in the midst of turmoil. Long life is not guaranteed. Physical health is not guaranteed. But eternal life is. Eternal rest is. It WILL happen for those who are his children. Take comfort in this. There is no power greater than God to veto his plan.

2. Even our mistakes and miscues will not thwart it. (v. 21)

Perhaps you think, “God had a plan for me but I messed it up because of my stupidity! Now, I will never have God’s best!” Well, you’ve heard me say, “God is the Master at turning our mess ups into His triumph.” Somehow God has a knack for turning our garbage into His treasure. God’s sovereignty means that nothing will foil His plan.

1. 21 [21] Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. [So, you are all doomed. You will die in this sea because you did not listen to me who represent God? No!] [22] Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.

So, we see here that even through our mistakes and rebellion, God’s decreed will is still executed. God’s plan, in other words, is not fragile. It’s not that we make one wrong move and God’s sovereign will is now foiled. No. God’s sovereignty is such that even through our mistakes and sins, God works all of that for our good.

Josephs says to his brothers, “You meant it for evil but God meant it for good.” Pastor Piper let me see that it doesn’t say, “You meant it for evil but God turned it for good.” Rather God meant it for good. In other words, all the calamities that happened, even the baker forgetting to mention to the king that Joseph was in prison, even what seemed like a mistake was in God’s will.
Warning: “But that sounds like fatalism, pastor. Even though they didn’t do what Paul said, God’s will was still done. So, what does it matter if they obeyed God or not?” Good question. The next point covers this.

3. It means that we should obey his instructions. (31) – dependent responsibility

God’s sovereign will is revealed to us so that we will obey His command. Not go against His command to see how He will turn it around!

31. 31. [27] When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. [28] So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms. [29] And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. [30] And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship’s boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, [31] Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”

It is stunning what is written here. I think it’s really beyond our intelligence to understand this. God said everyone will live! And yet, they have to obey God’s instruction to stay in the ship. If they jump out and swim for it, they will die. Well, what would’ve happened if a sailor jumped out? Would that foil God’s sovereign plan that none will be lost? But the fact is that none jumped out and none jumped out because Paul told them not to jump out!

What this says is that we have a part in fulfilling God’s sovereign will. And if we don’t take part in it, it won’t be done. However, we will take part in it not because we are somehow forced to but because we want to. So, we willingly take part in it, out of our free-will, and yet God’s sovereign plan is also accomplished.

All this stuff will make your head spin. Theologians and philosophers had been wrestling with this god’s sovereignty vs. man’s free will for thousands of years and still have not come a definitive understanding of it. What are we to do? Do we throw out the whole thing because we don’t understand it? No. We stick with what God says in his word – no more, no less. We know that God is sovereign. His will stands. No one can thwart it – not our sins, not Satan – and therefore we can find peace and comfort in Him. But it does mean that we should gladly obey His revealed will. Gladly, because it will work out toward our own good – God works all things for our good.

CONCLUSION:  We can trust God because God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.         I can see a glimpse of how trustworthy God is to us when I think about how I care about my girls. I took the girls to Target and I was looking at electronics and my girls were looking at Lego Friend sets in the toy section right next to electronics. And I was overhearing their conversation from behind. Sennah, whose birthday was coming up, said she really wants two of the Lego sets there to Serrie and of course I was making a mental note. They were fairly cheap items we could easily get, but I noticed that she kept on looking at this one set that was really big and expensive. I knew that that’s what she really wanted but she didn’t say it. Now that she’s grown a bit, she knows money and she knows when things are too expensive and so she wouldn’t even ask from me. But that endeared me even more and made me want to get it for her even more. So, i made mental note and told Janet which ones she wants and several days later a package came in the mail from her aunt and uncle in california containing what? Exactly the ones I made a mental note of. No. I don’t mean that it was a miracle. Janet of course communicated with them what she wanted and they went and bought them and sent them to her. At least I think that’s how it happened – i haven’t talk to my wife about it. I just assumed it.

The point I’m making is, as a dad, not only am I listening for what she says she wants, but also what she hasn’t said she wants but in her heart, what I know she wants. I am listening for her groaning that she doesn’t express with words. And that’s how God cares for us. Romans 8:26, Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” This God, who loves you so dearly, so sacrificially, is sovereign over all things.

I’m so happy this kind of fatherly God is in charge of my life and yours. Yes, temporary harm might come. We may be persecuted and even die. But ultimate triumph is promised. He WILL resurrect our bodies and give us the earth as our inheritance. You will become like His Son Jesus, holy and joyful. That is God’s sovereign will. But we have work to do. Trust this God. Do the hard thing. Obey.