[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: I am privileged tonight to be able to introduce our speaker.
I'm going to go ahead and share with you the biographical sketch that he sent Julie. He starts off by saying, I am the much younger brother of Ronnie Misseldine and I can attest to the fact I was my mother's baby for 17 years and then he was born and took it away from me. So but I am glad to have my brother here tonight for us as our speaker.
He has been at the Prattville congregation just north of Montgomery as the pulpit minister for 25 years.
How many years have you preached?
Right. At 40 years he has preached. So he has good experience and you'll enjoy him, I'm sure.
He is married to Lisa. Lisa is with him tonight and they have been married for 41 years. Right.
And by the way, Lisa is the sister of our Beth Pratt, so we're glad that she is here. And also their mother Sherry is here. Glad to have Sherry here tonight as well.
Brent and Lisa have two daughters, Sarah and Laurie just left me and three grandkids.
Brent has done quite a bit of mission work out of the country. He and I have worked in Ukraine together and he's also worked in the Philippines. So I would have to say this about my brother. He loves souls.
He loves to be able to teach people the gospel, not just from the pulpit but to sit down with them with the word of God and help them to come to know God's will for their lives. And I appreciate him so much for that.
Even though Brent and I did not grow up together, we have become very, very good friends and and I love him and appreciate him a lot.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: It's a great honor to be introduced by my much older brother, especially since he's one of my all time heroes.
And I want to begin first of all by saying thanks for the opportunity to be with you all this evening. It's a great honor to get to speak to the Madison congregation, but I want to tell you thank you for loving my family.
Ronnie has spoken so many times about how good and supportive this. This congregation has been to him and Sandra, to Ron and to Jennifer and their whole family in these hard years that they've been through.
And that means a lot to me, not being able to. To be with them on a regular basis, to know that they're being cared for and loved and. And that you continue to love and support them. And I just. I appreciate that more than words can say. I really, really do.
The title for our lesson tonight is I Believe God.
And many times we talk about believing in God, but it's a little bit different to say I believe God.
You can believe in God that He exists and that. That. That he created the world and that sort of thing, but it's a different thing to look at something God has said and say, yes, Lord, I believe what he said.
And we're going to see tonight the Apostle Paul making that statement and how it can impact our lives as we. Especially when we go through storms of life. Now, I heard that here in Madison, not too long ago, there was a tornado that came through.
Back some years ago, we had a tornado come through Prattville. It was only about two blocks from our house. We didn't wind up getting any damage from it, but it just tore Prattville up right through the middle of town.
But there's. There's one thing about tornadoes. They are very destructive and they are very powerful, but they're short.
Many times a tornado can hit and it's gone in a minute or less. Now it's left a lot of destruction, but it comes and it goes.
Some storms of our lives are like that, too.
They're difficult, they're hard. But maybe it comes and it goes. And it seems like we can handle those a little bit better because they just don't last so long. We can kind of buck up and have strength and ride out that storm and deal with the destruction afterwards.
But there are other kinds of storms like hurricanes.
And I lived for 10 and a half years down in Pensacola, Florida, and on the coast. You. You think about those hurricanes, and those are the big storms, and many times they last a while, especially if you're right in the middle of the path. I remember back in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina came through. Now, we didn't get hit with that one in Pensacola, but my sister and her family lived right Outside of Gulfport, Mississippi. We were concerned about them because it was predicted to be a bad storm.
And we were watching tv and of course, we had told them we were praying for them. My niece and her family went to my sister's home there to be with them. They had a little bit stronger house.
Well, while the storm was going through, I got a call from my niece and she said, brent, our power's out at our house and we are just getting pounded. And we just have been being pounded for so long. Could you look at the radar and tell us where is that storm? And, and we're hoping that it's about gone.
Well, I had bad news for. I said, I'm sorry to say you guys are on the eye wall right now and you still have about half the storm to go.
And I could hear the discouragement, the, the, the weariness in her voice as, oh, no, we've got to continue to deal with the storm for so much longer.
And storms get wearisome.
And I know that some of you here tonight are dealing with some of those storms. Some of you may be dealing with the short storms that come and go, but there's some of you here that are probably dealing with those long storms that just come and they stay and they stay. And you just wonder, how long am I going to have to ride out this storm?
We're going to join the Apostle Paul on a ship where there's a storm going on. Now, you probably remember the story of Paul as he was arrested in Jerusalem and he had been held as a prisoner. He came before different officials and, and because of his Roman citizenship, he said, I appeal to Caesar. And he, he was transported to Rome. And in the process of that, he had to go by ship. And he's on one of the legs of the journey. And he actually tried to talk the people out of taking this, this leg of the journey to go from one side of the island to the other, because it was a bad time of year and it was a stormy time of year.
And but the, the, the folks that own the ship and were in charge of the situation decided, no, we're going.
And so they got into a storm.
And basically what happened is that storm just pulled them out to sea and they're just stuck right in the middle of that storm, and the situation has gotten extremely serious and it's not looking good for them. We're going to pick up with Acts chapter 27 if you want to follow along in your bible.
Acts chapter 27, we're going to start with verse 18 where the Bible tells us, and because we were exceedingly tempest tossed, the next day they lightened the ship. On the third day, we threw the ship's tackle overboard with our own hands.
Now, when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up.
Now we could read more in this chapter to see all the things that they did to try to take care of the situation.
They did everything they knew to do.
They were experienced people who sailed ships and knew what needed to be done. But everything they did did no good whatsoever.
And they all came to a point where we're not going to make it.
We're going down.
Now, Paul is not talking here about his soul being saved. He's talking about their lives being saved. And obviously Luke was with them on this, this, this voyage because he's the writer of this. And when we see him using the term, we, we know that he was a part of it. So he was on the journey with Paul.
So obviously Luke and Paul even had come to the conclusion that we're going down. This is it.
Some people get to that point as they're dealing with storms in their lives.
They get to the point where they feel like there's just no hope.
And things have gotten so bad and they are either hurting physically or hurting emotionally so much, they just don't think that they can take anymore. They don't see any light coming.
And that can be a very, very dangerous situation. And that's the kind of situation which some people choose to take their own lives.
Maybe you've gotten to a point at some point, maybe not choosing to take your own life, but are thinking about it. But maybe you had the thought there's just no hope of things ever getting any better.
But suddenly things changed.
Let's begin reading with verse 21. But the Bible tells us, but after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, men, you should have listened to me. He couldn't pass up the opportunity to say, I told you so. You should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss.
But now he's got some good news for them. He says, and now I urge you to.
To take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, do not be afraid, Paul, you must be brought before Caesar.
And indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you, therefore take heart, men. And here's our key phrase here. For I believe God that it will be just as it was told me.
Now he does go on to say, however, we must run aground on a certain island.
God sent an angel to Paul with a message saying, nobody's going to die on this voyage.
Don't give up hope.
And when Paul had this word from God sent by an angel to him, he believed it.
He actually believed what God had to say to him. And it made an incredible difference in his outlook on everything.
Now think about this. When he comes up to tell these other people what's happened, I'm sure they're probably thinking, the old man's cracked under the pressure here, you see, in angels and that sort of thing.
But Paul's telling the truth.
He says, I believe God when he says, nobody's going to die on this, on this ship.
Now, nothing had changed about his circumstances.
The sky wasn't clearing up.
The winds weren't dying down. The waves weren't getting smaller.
Nothing had changed, except he had a word from God.
And he believed God that it would be just as it was told him nothing had changed. In fact, God's letting him know, and he's telling the others, it's actually going to get worse before it gets better.
We're going to lose this ship. We're going to go down here, we're going to run aground, and the ship's going to be destroyed. But we're not.
Nobody's going to lose their lives.
Now, at this point, the other people that he's talking to, they didn't have the same confidence that Paul did.
They're still scared to death. They're still in a hopeless situation. They think in their minds.
Now we go on to see that when the 14th night had come, as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea about midnight, the sailors sensed they were drawing near some land. They took some soundings, found it to be 20 fathoms. And when they gone a little farther, they took soundings again, found it to be 15 fathoms. Then, fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come as the sailors and as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship. When they had let down the skiff into the sea under the pretense of putting out anchors from the prow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. So then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skip and let it fall off. They had some kind of confidence in Paul here, obviously, but they knew they needed sailors to help them in the things that were about to happen.
Now, Paul had his attitude completely changed because he had a word from God. Now, I'm sure you see where we're going with this, and you may be thinking, okay, Brent, you're going to tell us we've got a word from God. But I'm letting you know I haven't had an angel come and speak to me and tell me how my situation is going to work out.
Maybe I could have the same kind of confidence that Paul did if God sent an angel to me to tell me exactly how my circumstances are going to work out. And I will tell you, I can't tell you exactly how your circumstances are going to work out. Specifically, I can't tell you that the diagnosis that you got of a deadly disease is not going to take your life.
I can't tell you that the financial problems that you're having is not going to result in you having to sell your home and move somewhere.
I can't tell you that the relationship problem that you're dealing with is all going to turn out to be fine in the end. I can't tell you that.
But that doesn't mean that we don't have a word from God.
Okay?
And I like to share some of those messages that we have gotten from God.
Now, maybe you're dealing with financial issues and you don't know how you're going to get out of the financial mess that you're in right now. You don't know how it's going to turn out. I don't either. But I do know this.
We do have a word from God through his son, Jesus Christ in Matthew, chapter 6.
And you remember when Jesus said in verse 33 of Matthew 6, 30, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
And when he says these things, he's been talking about not worrying about having food and clothing.
Now, he didn't promise that we'd be rich or have all the things that we wanted or that we would always maintain our current standard of living.
But he said, you're not. If you seek God and his kingdom first, you're not going to go hungry.
You're not going to go without clothing. Your children you have in your home are not going to go without clothing. You have a word from God better than if an angel came and spoke to you, because it's right here in the scriptures. Now the question is, do you believe God, that it will be just as he said it would be?
Many times we see those words from God, we remember those promises and we think, yeah, but I'm going to share a story with you that Ronnie and I experienced together. We took our first mission trip overseas to Ukraine back in 1992. It was an amazing experience, some wonderful memories.
We were allowed to go into a language institute, into the English classes, and we were able to reach and baptize some of the students. But Ronnie got the opportunity to study with and to baptize the teacher in his class.
And she went from not believing in God to believing in God, Christ, the Bible, and it changed her life.
And it was amazing thing to see.
But not long after she was baptized one day she came to visit us in the dormitory room where we were staying and she began to express some concerns that she had. Now, at that time, the economy in Ukraine was just terrible. The exchange rate, in comparing that with what a teacher in a language institute made it, was the equivalent of $8 a month.
And they were dealing with all of these things. Ukraine had just recently gotten their independence and trying to get their economy rolling. And it wasn't rolling very well. Inflation was extremely rampant. But she was worried. She was a single mom, and she was worried about, literally about food and clothing for her and her son to get through the winter.
And she said, I just don't know what I'm going to do.
Her concern really was about food and clothing.
Ronnie said, I've got got something I want you to read.
And he took her to Matthew chapter six.
And she started reading and she was reading this section for the very first time in her life.
And she read it in a beautiful Russian accent.
And she read about not worrying about tomorrow.
She read about God taking care of the birds and the lilies of the field and not worrying about tomorrow. And she read until she got to that passage in Matthew 6:33, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to to you.
I'll never forget the look on her face as she lifted up her eyes from reading those verses in the Bible for the very first time. She looked at us with a smile and a look of peace on her face. And she said, I don't have to worry, do I?
You see, she had decided that she believed God and she believed what was written in this book.
Nothing had changed about her circumstances. We had not offered to give her any money. Nothing had changed about Anything else? She only. Only thing she had was a word from God.
And she believed God that it would be just as he said.
Now, we've kept up with this lady down through the years. She made it through the winter.
She was fine. Her young son grew up to be a fine man, family of his own. Now she was in Ukraine during the start of the war and she was able to get back to the United States and she went around sharing with people about what was going on.
But recently, she and the American man that she married as her husband, they went back to Ukraine because they felt like they could be helpful. And just recently, there was an article in the Christian Chronicle magazine about this lady and the amazing work that she has done for the Lord.
She believed God.
Do we.
Maybe there's some other problems that you're struggling with. And you might say, I would give anything if my. My storm was just about financial problems.
Maybe there are relationship problems or maybe there are health problems or all those kind of things that we can think about that bring worry and struggles to our heart.
I want to share with you a word from God. And you know this. You could probably even quote it, many of you, From Romans chapter 8 and verse 28, where the apostle Paul writes, to the inspiration of. Of the Holy Spirit.
And we know, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
Now, he didn't say that everything would be good.
A lot of bad things happen in this world.
But he said, for the one who loves God and is called according to his purpose, that your purpose in your life is to fulfill God's purpose, whatever that might be. You can know because you have a word from God that it will eventually work out for good.
It's going to be okay.
Ultimately, in the end, God has said it. Now, do you believe that now? Sometimes it's hard to believe that. I don't. I don't see how God can take this situation and bring any good about from it. And I'm not promising you. You will see that even in this lifetime. You may even get to the end of your life and look back many times. We can see how things work together for good. And God was using that for even greater purposes. Sometimes we may not, but we don't have to because we trust the God who said this and we know he's going to do that.
You may feel like that you can't see God working in your life right now. You may feel abandoned because of the struggles that you're in and you wish you could see some kind of indication that God was working to try to bring something together.
There's another word from God I want to share with you. From Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 5, where God says in His Word, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Now, we could make the foolish decision to leave God, and that would be the most foolish thing we could ever choose to do.
But God will never leave his children.
That is a word from God.
The question is, do I believe God, that He really means what he says?
The song that we sang, Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord, unto me. And I know many of you. As you were singing those words, you were thinking about times in your life when you saw God's faithfulness. Maybe right now you're struggling to see that you have a word from God. Even though nothing has changed in your circumstances right now, he will not leave you nor forsake you.
I hope you believe that.
Now, we need to remember that these promises all are conditional.
And it's interesting that the apostle Paul, when he. When he reveals this message to the. The ones he's. He's sailing with, he said, an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve said this.
So my question to you tonight.
Is God, the one to whom you belong, have you given your life to the Lord?
Have you submitted to him in faith, repenting of your sins, confessing your faith, joining him spiritually in his death, burial and resurrection in baptism?
If not, those promises are not to you.
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. For I will never leave you nor forsake you. But see, those are conditional promises on our commitment to God. See, for Paul, he knew he belonged to God and he knew he served God. And if an angel of that God, the only true God, said this to him, then it made a difference in the way he felt immediately because he believed God, that it would be just as it was told him.
Now, I want us to share one other thing with you this evening.
In Acts chapter 27, beginning with verse 33, the storm's still going on and they're still concerned. In fact, they're so upset, they're not eating anything and they need to eat something.
Their nourishment. And the Bible says. And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, Today is the 14th day. You have waited and continued without food and eaten nothing.
Therefore, I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.
And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God and in the presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat.
Then they were all encouraged and also took food themselves.
I want you to notice here that Paul's firm faith and his confidence in the face of this deadly storm gave others courage as well.
He's saying to them, you need to eat something. It's for your nourishment. Nobody's going to die. So he takes bread and he gave thanks to God in the presence of them all.
And they're watching him, and they're seeing this man with a calm spirit, praying to God, giving thanks to God for this bread in the midst of this deadly storm.
And they're thinking, that doesn't make a lot of sense.
But something about Paul's demeanor was able to influence them. And it says when they saw him do it, then they all influence sat down and they began to eat. They needed that nourishment.
Here's what I want to say to some of you who have been going through storms and maybe are even doing that right now.
Others are watching you.
Others are seeing how you're dealing with your struggles and trials.
And I'm sure that there are many of you who have been a tremendous example of faith.
That doesn't mean that you always deal with it like a superman or a superwoman. You've got your times when you struggle. You've got your times when you grieve, when you hurt.
There's times when you feel overwhelmed, but you still continue to be faithful.
You still continue to move forward, and you still keep giving thanks to God and praising God even in the midst of your storm.
Some of you just the fact that you show up for assemblies is an incredible encouragement to other people.
They see you knowing what you're dealing with, if that is known, and you share that with others.
But yet you're still coming to give praise to God, to worship him and to learn more from his word.
People are watching you when you do that.
And when you have an opportunity to sit down with someone who may be going through the same kind of storm. Maybe you've already been through your storm. You've gotten to the other side of your storm, but now you see somebody else who is dealing with something similar to what you were dealing with.
Please take advantage of the opportunity to sit down and talk with them and share with them how you held on to your faith even through the struggles and the trials and your love for God is going to get somebody else through their storms.
The biggest example I know of that around here is my big brother.
And I know that you saw him and Sandra as they were going through their difficult days, and yet they continued to be here for worship every time they possibly could.
They continued to sing, they continued to, to praise God.
And even when it came to the point that my brother had to say goodbye to his precious wife and then only seven weeks later, say goodbye to his precious son, you saw him continuing to be faithful.
And I guarantee you that there have been people strengthened by his faith.
But he's not the only one.
There are others of you that I don't know what all you've been through. I do know what my brother's been through.
And I know that, that he struggled.
I know that he's hurt.
And I know there's been times when he just didn't understand why God didn't give him exactly what he asked for, for complete healing permanently for Sandra, for Ron.
But he didn't turn his heart away from God.
He kept pouring his heart out to God.
And he knew that no matter what happened, that the end of the story is salvation with God in heaven for eternity.
No matter what happens to us as faithful Christians walking with Christ and serving God, the very worst thing that can happen is our lives end and we go on to be with the Lord in his glorious presence forever, which is what we want more than anything else.
Do we believe God?
Do we believe the promise of Jesus as he said to his apostles when their hearts were troubled in John chapter 14. And he. He looks at them and says, let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, Believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many rooms.
If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also.
And where I go, you know, and the way you know, they still didn't get it. And Thomas voiced the thought that everybody was having at the time.
Lord, we don't even know where you're going. How can we know the way?
He said, I am the way, the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
Do we believe Jesus that what he said is exactly what's going to happen?
And that day will be just as real as today is, and the greatest desire that we have, because we love God more than anything else, that we love Jesus our Savior, and we want his presence more than anything else in our lives, that there is no storm that can defeat us. There is no storm that can take that away from us.
So I don't know how much longer your storm is going to last if you're still in it.
But I hope you know that you have a word from God and hope and pray that you can say, I believe, God, that it will be just as it was told me.
Let's pray together.
Oh, Lord God, our Father in heaven, we come to you tonight.
And we know that there are those here in this audience and in this congregation that are facing storms.
Some of them may be short, some of them may be long and drawn out, and there are people who are weary of dealing with them.
But Lord, help them to trust in your word and realize that there is no reason to lose hope.
That yes, things may get worse before they get better, but you've told us what the outcome will be.
And Father, help us to believe you when you say these things in your word and help us to take it to heart and let it lighten our hearts and make us want to serve you better. Father, I thank you for the people in this room who have been that example to other people of faith in the midst of storms, that they have seen faithfulness even in the midst of trials, that when others of us go through similar storms, we can remember how they showed that strength and that courage, and we can be more prepared when our storms come.
Father, thank you for those people and thank you for the faithfulness of your word.
And Lord, we know that your word is true and faithful.
Help us to believe. Help us to trust even when we can't see things getting better at the moment, even when the storm has lasted a long time.
Help us, Father, to hold on to faith and to hold on to you. We love you, Father, and. And we look forward to what we believe that you have in store for us.
And that's the glory of your presence for all eternity, where all the storms will be over and all the trials are past and we can just glory in your presence forever and tell you thank you and how much we love you.
Father, we thank you for sending Jesus to make that possible because we know we could not have these promises any other way except him going to the cross and dying for us and taking our sins upon himself.
Thank you for what he did to make it possible for us to be your children and to call on you as our Father and Father, we bring you this prayer in Jesus name, Amen.
