Hope In The Storm — Acts 26-27

0:00 Let's pray. Father, we're very, very thankful that you've brought each one of us here today. We pray, Lord, that you will give us the opportunity to learn from your word. Lord, yet not through me, but through Christ in me that that these who listen may learn, Lord, that I may learn too. Help us, Lord, as we as we walk through this this passage and try to pull out that which you've left here for us.

0:27 It's in your son's precious name that we do pray. Amen. It's good to see everybody. The... I'm calling this Paul's testimony part two.

0:41 If you remember where we left off, we left off with Andy last week. We weren't in Acts, but Andy went through chapter 26 and he got close to the end with these four thoughts. He said, Paul, his testimony, if you will, or what he was talking about, sort of could be summarized in these four statements. I truly thought, and then I encountered, or Paul encountered the Lord Jesus Christ. I was not disobedient to that heavenly call, and now I continue on.

1:14 I thought that was a good summary and really helpful, but I think we're gonna move forward with this a little bit and talk a little bit more about Paul's testimony, okay? I'm reminded of this portion of first Peter. You all know this one. First Peter three fifteen and sixteen says, but sanctify the Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you to a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. And so here we have this first part here.

1:55 It says, give a defense. And in some ways, I think that's what we heard from Paul. And as we read forward in the scripture, we'll talk about his defense. Okay? And I think I could call that his salvation testimony, you will.

2:08 This is how the Lord brought me to him. This is what I'm doing for him. This is the way I've reacted to that. But there's this other part here. It says that your good conduct in Christ may be known.

2:22 Okay? And somebody has called this or I've heard this called a walking testimony. Matter of fact, there's even a song out there that says something. Let me see if I can quote it right. A poet here would say that I'm a living, breathing, walking testimony.

2:40 I am the living proof of what the Lord has done. May call it crazy, but they can't take away my story in the chorus. Y'all y'all remember that song? You know that song? C C Winans?

2:52 Maybe it's an old one. I don't know. But at any rate, there it is. It's a walking testimony. It's the way we live our life.

3:00 Certainly, there is this what... How did the Lord get ahold of you? What have you done to respond? What are you doing for him? But then there's a way we would live our life.

3:08 And a lot of what we're gonna talk about today will be focused around that related to Paul. So we're gonna talk first about the response that he got to his, I'll call it, his salvation testimony. And then next, of some evidence of his walking testimony. Let's let's start reading in verse 24 of Acts chapter 26. It says, now as he, Paul, thus made his defense.

3:37 Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you're beside yourself. Much learning is driving you mad. But he said, I'm not mad, noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason. For the king before whom I also speak freely knows these things for I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention since this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?

4:08 I know that you do believe. Then Agrippa said to Paul, you almost persuade me to become a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for those... Or except for these chains. When he had said these things, the king stood up as well as the governor and Bernice and those who were sat with them.

4:37 And when they had gone aside, they talked among themselves saying, this man is doing nothing deserving of death or chains. Then Agrippa said to Festus, this man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar. So I... In order to... This is a really nice narrative and it's good to just walk our way through this wonderful story.

5:01 Many of us who've read many times, right? But I'd like to sort of stop and pick a way through it. And and and also to try and make make this become a little more real. Like these are real people that had real things happen to them and people that were there could remember them, right? In a picture, if you will, in their mind.

5:21 And so we searched back into the caves of AI in faraway land called Cyberland to pull up some pictures. Okay? And I I hope that helps us today. So here it was, you know, Paul giving his defense, if you will. Just one idea.

5:38 Right? I'm not gonna die on a hill that was exactly like this, but to help us think about it, remember Paul giving a defense. And he gives his defense. Right? It's not just his legal defense, but really it's about his his salvation testimony.

5:52 What the Lord has done in his life and where he's going today. So there he is before them all. And what does Festus say? Festus says, you gotta be kidding me. Right?

6:03 You must be mad. Your learning has caused you to be mad. Now, with all due respect to those of us who have college degrees and advanced college degrees, even sometimes you can study so hard and so far and so fast, you don't make sense to a lot of people. Right? Or you may...

6:19 He may think that there has to be some reason. This guy's a smart guy and he comes up with this. You know, he believes in this guy. He actually... Nah.

6:27 Not not Festus. So Festus, this is not an uncommon response to the gospel, is it? People would say, I can't believe it. This is crazy. This is just a story written down.

6:38 It's a myth. It's a legend. It's allegory. Whatever it is, it's not, it can't be true. Agrippa then says, woah, know, as they say down south, you're getting up next to me.

6:50 Right? Or you're starting to step on my toes. Right? I think I've heard all this. He's sort of admitting what Paul's accused him of.

6:57 You know this, don't you? You you know these things. You believe the prophets. You've heard of this. It's history.

7:03 You... You're real close to it, aren't you? And would you believe? And and Grippa says, yeah, no. This is another common response.

7:12 Right? Okay. I think I understand it. I think I understand what it means. I can understand what it would mean for me, but I'm unwilling.

7:22 There's too much. I I have to give up too much. What would he have to give up? His kingdom maybe. His his his rule.

7:29 His what... Whatever. His his fame. His fortune. There's something that we have to give up to be part of Christ.

7:36 And so Agrippa has that response. Right? Of course, we know what Paul's response is. Right? Paul says, I'm all in.

7:44 Lord, you got me. What is it that you would have me to do on the road to Damascus? And then he continues on. We've heard a lot about Paul, and we know a lot about Paul and his then walk. Okay?

7:56 So there are there are the common three, if you will, or a common three responses to the gospel. Ones that you would see. More important thing, or the most important thing to just pause and say, what's your response? What's your response to the gospel? And I'm gonna assume that most of you have have, like Paul said, I accept Lord, I have faith in your salvation.

8:33 Now you can read a lot about Bernice in terms of she was actually Agrippa's sister and there was some conjecture that they were living... Yeah, don't know I'm not going into all that but but still she's sitting there listening right alongside them and we're not told what her response is. Okay? It may have been like the response of Pontius Pilate's wife, right? Who was convicted, afflicted, overworn by it.

9:00 Maybe that was her response. I don't know. But here, like like dandelion seeds in the wind, Paul gives his testimony and it blows throughout, if you will, the court because there were others there. Right? It says that there was commanders and nobles and others that were listening to this testimony.

9:19 So we don't know when we give our testimony who is actually listening. And that becomes even more important as we move on. But he's stuck here, isn't he? He's stuck because while none of these appear to agree to... In the response to Paul's testimony, right, they do agree on one thing.

9:43 If he hadn't appealed to Caesar, we... He would be able to get... To be let go. So what do you think about that? What do you think about this appeal to Caesar?

9:53 Is it is it Paul saying, I chicken out, I wanna appeal to Caesar? I'm a Roman, you can't treat me that way, those kind of things. Or is it something a little bit different? You know, you remember in Acts chapter 16, we talked about this when he's in Philippi, the the leaders of the city say, hey, go back and tell him he can sneak out of town. It's okay.

10:14 Right? And what did Paul say? No. I'm not doing that. You treated me this way, and you're just gonna cast me aside.

10:22 That's not right. In a sense, that's what Paul is saying here. And Agrippa is in a real tight bind politically because Paul has been held without conviction for two years. Now, he didn't do it, but there's Felix who had done it before him. Right?

10:43 And so now Festus has this problem. What do I do? Do I undermine my my previous governor here or the previous prefect? Or do I take the role myself? If I let him go, what's gonna happen?

10:58 The Jews are not gonna be happy and I don't want an uprising in my first few weeks here. If I don't let him go, the Romans are gonna be upset with me because I just treat him against Roman law. I'm stuck here. And so he's in a bind and Paul is saying, I'm not gonna let you off the hook. What's right is what's right.

11:24 You either pardon me and tell me I can go free or I appeal to Caesar. See, it does more than just let Paul off the hook. It puts the church, if you will, on a firm foundation moving forward. These are not criminals that are hiding and doing wrong things in the eyes of Rome. They're doing good things.

11:45 They're not doing what's wrong. They are legitimate. And that's what Paul's, I believe, trying to, if you will, trying to make by appealing to Caesar among other things. He wants to see Caesar as well. So let's take up another portion here.

12:40 And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him liberty to go to his friends and rescue and and receive care. When we had put to sea from there, we sailed under the shelter of Cyprus because the winds were contrary. And when we had sailed over the sea, which is off Sicilia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, city of Lidea of Lycia. There, the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing to Italy and he put us on board. When we had sailed slowly many days and arrived with difficulty to Sidious, the winds not permitting us to proceed, we sailed under the shelter of Crete off at Salmone.

13:24 Passing it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens near the city of Lacia. Verse nine. Now when much time had been spent and sailing was now dangerous because the the fast was over, Paul advised them saying, men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much lost, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also our lives. Nevertheless, the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things Paul... Spoken by Paul.

14:00 Verse 12, and because the harbor was not suitable for... To winter in, the majority advised to set sail from there. Also, if by any means they should reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, opening toward the Southwest and Northwest and winter there. Again, wonderful prose and good story but why did Luke write this down? I mean really?

14:24 Did he just write it down so that we could enjoy the end the story, the end of Acts? Did he write it down to to give veracity to those that would call him a historian and say this must be true because he had such good information and the way that he wrote it was important? Or did he write it down because there's something for us to pull out of this and to take home today? I think all three are true. It's important that we try and dig into it a little bit.

14:51 So until we consider this just another boat ride, let's consider the people on the boat ride. So there there we have it. Is this another day in the service of Rome or or is this just a boat ride? I don't know. I don't think so.

15:07 I don't think it's just a boat ride. But Julius took this picture right before he got on the boat. I think before Paul and others were with him. But at any rate, there's this guy, Julius. So it's interesting that he is named.

15:21 He is shown to be an honorable person throughout this story, and he's named by name. It's as if he has a relationship with Luke and Paul, and I believe he did. Okay. But here he is. And this guy was what what was he?

15:39 Well, anybody. He's a centurion. Right? He's a centurion. That means that he was trained and accomplished in commanding a 100 soldiers or a 100 fighting men.

15:50 Okay? Now a 100 men would have been made up something like this. Probably 10 groups with eight soldiers and then two servants. Probably slaves that were here to serve these guys. I mean somebody had to cook their food, somebody had to run messages, somebody had to carry the heavy load, somebody had to pack up the pots and pans, and so it was eight and two.

16:11 So 10 times 10 makes a 100. So anytime there would be 80 fighting, 20 serving, somewhere in that category. So did he have a 100 people with him? I don't think so. But I'll bet he had at least 10.

16:24 I think he had one group with him at least. Okay. And that meant he would have eight soldiers and two people serving him as he walked on. He didn't travel alone. This guy was important.

16:35 He had decisions to make. He couldn't be guarding the prisoners the whole time. And he traveled with a group. So there they are, a bunch of guys supporting him in order to to guard prisoners. Two people around the clock probably needed two people every six hours or maybe two people every shift, something like that.

16:54 So four groups of them could have been done that way. So I'm gonna say minimum of 10 people traveling with Julius. Some prisoners, we don't know how many, and then Paul, Luke, and this guy Aristarchus, who we'll talk about in a minute. So there's the soldiers. They were trained.

17:12 They were trained to the level that they said, if any... If you fail your mission, what happens? You die. You are killed. Maybe maybe the honorable thing would be for you to kill yourself.

17:25 We know that the the guard in Philippi, that's what he was willing to do. And and Paul said, no, stop stop. Don't do that. Right? But but here they were.

17:34 They were trained to that level. We know that for sure. I won't go into Rick, I'll bring it up next week, but I will tell you that they even said, look, we're ready to kill these prisoners. We don't want them to escape because then it's on us, then it's our heads. And so that's the level to which they were trained.

17:50 We talked about the servants and then of course the prisoners. So back to the map. You can't walk through Acts without looking at this map over and over again. Right? This is the Western Basin if you will, the Mediterranean.

18:06 Over here is Jerusalem. Paul has been imprisoned in Caesarea. Right? So they put him on a boat or or the Julius decides this is the boat we're gonna get on. And he jumps on his boat and they go up to Sidon.

18:20 It's just a quick hop up the coast. And so he... They're in Sidon when this next portion happens. And we're looking at Paul and his testimony, if you will. So there he is, right?

18:34 He gets liberty to go and be with his friends. And that's an interesting thing, right? In two respects. Number one, Paul knew so many people. And what does Paul always try and do when he's around people?

18:49 Or when he goes to a city, he goes and looks for the believers. He wants to be in fellowship with the believers. He has a relationship all over the place and in company of the believers at all times. So here he is in Sidon and says, you know what? I know a guy.

19:04 I know a family. I know somebody there. Let's go. He needs... He apparently needs some care too.

19:10 He's been in prison for two years. He may have been a little bit rough and and needing some some help. Who knows what it was? But I can imagine these three guys, Paul, Luke, and maybe Aristarchus going up to see these, the Christians in Sidon. There's Aristarchus.

19:29 I don't know, this is a Greek name. Thessalonica was where he was from, but maybe he knew or maybe Theophilus knew this guy. And so you wouldn't believe who we met on the ship with us. Was this guy Aristarchus? And and so that's why...

19:42 Maybe that's why Luke puts him in there, but it's certainly to record his name for some purpose. And here we have it to see today. He goes to these friends, his car, and he wants the fellowship. We know that's that's Paul's mantra. It's who Paul is.

19:58 He's generous, if you will, in fellowship. He's generous. He wants to be with people all the time. What's more surprising is this. If we low...

20:10 If we low... Blow past this point, we are in trouble. Okay? The fact that he was given liberty by Julius and the soldiers is incredible. The fact that he would be left to go and see his friends in Sidon here really makes you have you have to stop and and wonder about that.

20:31 Why is that? Right? Well, he had a reputation. He'd been in prison for two years and this guy Julius was probably in some sort of what do wanna call it? Like a a political role.

20:43 He had risen to that level and they trusted him very much. I mean, don't forget, he sent them... They sent them from Caesarea to Rome with a bunch of prisoners and a bunch of soldiers. He's got to pay for them. He's got to find passage for them.

20:57 He's got to guard them with his life. All this, he's, you know, an important guy, but he probably also knew folks that had knew Paul. He probably had seen Paul and the reputation Paul had when he was imprisoned, if you will, the way he conducted himself. So Paul stood on his reputation, I believe. He let him go at the risk of his life.

21:20 At the risk of his life. How many people are you willing to say, know, if you don't come back, I trust you with my life. That's that's not insignificant. Okay? And it may have been against his orders.

21:34 There were soldiers went to kill the others as if they knew what the orders were, but he may have done it you know on his own account, on his own merit, if you will. So here's Paul living his life at a at a point where people would be ashamed to talk wrong of Paul. Ashamed to talk wrong of Paul, just as we felt in first Peter, because he was above reproach. There was nothing that was going to make Julius believe that he wasn't coming back. Okay.

22:24 Okay. That's that's the important part. He's gotten this far. He wants to get up here to Rome in Italy, and he looks for another ship. But they're coming from Alexandria.

22:35 It says this is an Alexandrian ship. Okay. Alexandria is down here, a big city in Egypt. And what happened? What was happening between Egypt and Rome at that time?

22:47 Anybody? There's a huge trade. Okay. Egypt is a very fertile area. Land is fertile, and they grew the wheat, if you will, and other things.

22:59 They grew the produce that was feeding this whole region. Okay. And Rome had big ties. If you read any of the history of this time and even since then, there's a significant amount of trade coming out of here to Rome. Okay?

23:15 In ships. It was too hard to get this all the way around this way. People did walk this way. We know Paul walked a lot of that land. Right?

23:22 But in order to get all this produce and all this volume of trade, it had to go from here up to Rome. Okay? Unfortunately, this is kind of a bad time of year because the winds normally come out of the South. So when you want to travel from Alexandria or Egypt up to Rome, the winds are behind you on normal circumstances. Okay?

23:45 In this time of year, it had a tendency to come from the other direction And that's going to play into our conversation a little bit going forward. So he jumps on this other ship and they're having problems with the wind. Why do they have problems with the wind? Well, there's a couple reasons. These old ships were built a certain way.

24:05 Okay? Number one, they had this kind of sails, a big square sail, and it was really good to travel when the wind was behind you. It caught a lot of wind and it pushed you forward as the wind pushed you forward. But if you tried to go against the wind, like when the wind is on your face or when you're trying to go north and the winds coming from the north, it was a real problem. Matter of fact, these ships would go sideways when when you did that.

24:34 Okay? A modern day ship or a modern day sail uses the principle of Bernoulli's principle and creates a foil like an airline airplane wing. And that's what pulls the the sail or the boat through the water. This one was getting pushed all the time. Not only was it getting pushed only, it didn't have a keel down here so that when it got pushed it could easily go sideways.

24:55 So if the wind came out of the north, guess which way this boat was going? West at the best. Maybe... No. You're probably right.

25:06 South is probably a good way of looking at it, but west at the very best, south more likely. Good way. Good good point. This one has a keel over here and that keeps the boat from sliding sideways. Okay?

25:18 These boats were not built to go into the wind and the winds coming out of the wrong direction in this particular case. Okay. So the winds coming here, They get as far as Fair Havens. They're still trying to get up to Italy, but they can't make it and they're trying hard. But it's it's...

25:44 They fought their way this far. They get over here and there's... It's like a powwow to say, what are we gonna do now? Where are we gonna go next? These are the possibilities.

25:55 You know, they could have beautiful weather or it could be a big storm. They know that because this is the time of year. It says specifically that this is a bad time of year to be sailing up this way with the winds going the way they're doing it. So they start... They talk about it a little bit.

26:11 And on one side, have the helmsman and the owner of the ship. Now they're sailors. They know what they're talking about. They have an opinion. And it would appear that all other 275 people on the boat had an opinion too.

26:25 Whether they were a sailor or they were like trying to get home. Right? I wanna get home. I paid on this ship to go to Rome. So I wanna go.

26:35 So there's two seventy five of them and they start doing some rationalization, which we'll talk about in a And there's Paul, the prisoner, right, in chains to say, I think we shouldn't go. So if you're the other people and you're listening to this one guy with his theory, what are you gonna do? Okay. Here are a whole bunch of reasons why they should go on. And they took all of them and figured out what I want to do is go forward.

27:06 And all of these reasons point in that direction. We're going forward. And so here's this guy. We we've... All this is now blocked out the whole memory of the possibility of what could go wrong because they want it to go the other way.

27:19 And this is a bad way for us to make decisions. It's bad for us to, like, rationalize our way through. What do we think the outcome should be? And I will make sure that it happens here. So there's Julius.

27:33 And Julius, I take it, is not necessarily saying the ship can go, but we're gonna get on the ship for sure. And so there we have it, the next portion of our story here. We'll move along here. Verse 14 it says, When the south wind blew softly, supposing they had obtained their desire putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete. But not long after, a tempestuous headwind arose called Euroclydon.

28:29 We were exceedingly tempest... Tempest tossed... Wow, that's a tongue tie. The next day, they lightened the ship. On the third day, we threw the ship's tackle overboard with our own hands.

28:41 Now, when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, since no small tempest beat on us all hope that we would be saved was finally given up. But after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. Verse 22. And now I urge you to take heart for there will be no loss of life saving... Life among you, but only of the ship.

29:15 For there stood by me this night an angel of 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 for I believe believe God that it will be just as he told them... Told me. However, we must run aground on a certain island.

29:39 Now when the fourteenth night had come, we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea. About midnight, the sailors sensed that they were drawing near some land. And they took some soundings and found it to be 20 fathoms, and when they had gone a little further, they sounded out again and 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 the day to come. So there they are.

30:11 They're blowing across, almost going south. There's Assertas Sands here. The wind, we want it from that direction. They're able to make it a little bit this way. A big wind comes from this direction and they're going south.

30:23 Right, Mason? They're going in the wrong direction. They're thinking they're gonna end up down here. This is like a whole bunch of sand that's blown in from the desert and there are sandbars down there. And if the the worst thing...

30:35 The only thing worse than a ship that's bobbing in the ocean when it's blowing and really rough is when the ocean is really rough and the ship is on the ground. Because then the waves just beat it up and smash it up. So there's many shipwrecks down here and these guys are thinking, that's where we're headed. If we keep this up we're not going to do it. They take some big measures.

30:57 They pull in this gift. They throw out the tackle I think to be a windsail or a sea sail to slow them down and let them steer a little bit. They take down the sail because they're going the wrong direction. Maybe maybe there's some hope that this will go by. Now have you ever been in a storm that lasted fourteen days?

31:23 No. It's hard to do that. Right? Even even the hurricanes blow through. But why is that?

31:29 It's because you're standing still or you're going the other direction. Right? And the storm blows through. When you're bobbing along with the storm, it just continues to blow and you're in the middle of it the whole time. They're in the bad shape because of this and just bobbing along with the storm.

31:46 So there they are. Now they can't remember what they thought it was going to look like and they they do all these things that they think they need to do. Paul gives them this gentle reminder. You know, you should have listened. You should have listened, but since you didn't, that's okay.

32:04 We're still gonna be okay. I've been praying there is hope. And then he gives credit to God for the hope that will happen. Okay? This is the wisdom of revelation.

32:16 You know, we find wisdom in our experience. We find wisdom as we walk through our daily life. Right? Wisdom comes from usually from making mistakes and making mistakes give you wisdom. It's a vicious cycle.

32:28 But I've made a lot of them, so I hope I have a little bit of wisdom. And we kinda rely on our wisdom, don't we? Don't we? The experiential wisdom. But we need to rely on this wisdom of revelation.

32:41 When the Lord reveals something to us through his word, through that prayer, through others, the revelation comes to you is important. Now all they can see is this this storm. Right? They've been fasting. Paul says, not one of two seventy six people is gonna lose their life.

33:02 I'm going to see Caesar. I've been praying for you and not just me. Paul didn't just pray for himself. He was praying for every soul on that ship. And he says, it's been granted to me.

33:14 My prayer is answered from this angel told me that none of us will be lost. But what they were trying to protect, their time, their cargo, their livelihood at the ship, if you will, is going to be lost. What they were trying to predict they lost and what they couldn't, they're they're gonna gain. So Paul is doing what is very hard. He he calls the shot.

33:39 He says, I know what's gonna happen. He knows what's gonna happen. He says it as if I know what will happen. Right? What is he calling for?

33:48 A flat out miracle. 276 people are gonna get from this boat to somewhere that's gonna be safe. Now is that... When you listen to that, and you're sitting here looking out at this, what are you thinking? He's crazy.

34:18 The the water's getting shallower and shallower. Right? And so instead of going in in the dark, they drop four anchors. And they hold on to what they know, the ground that is there. They're gonna hold on to that until the last minute.

34:31 And then it says they dropped four anchors from the stern and they prayed for a day to come. Do you think that they didn't think the sun was coming up the next day and that's what they were praying for? Is that what they meant by for day to come? Or were they at the point where they had nothing else but prayer? Have you ever been there?

34:52 Have you ever been on your knees thinking, I hope I can make it to tomorrow? I've been there. I fell out of the chair because the chair swiveled and I fell over when I fell asleep. If you've not been there, this is where they were at. It's the end.

35:13 I don't know. I know that I have a promise from Paul. But can I be sure that it's true? Think about these people going to bed that night, laying down on the ship, the fifteenth night, if you will, and wondering. I wonder if...

35:30 I hope it's true. I hope it's true. But Paul could say it was true because he had a hope that was certain. He had one that he knew he could depend upon. He had one that he knew could carry him and 275 others to safety.

35:53 So I'm gonna leave you on that cliffhanger and let Ray pick it up from there. So don't read ahead. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful that we have this story to learn from, Lord. We're so grateful that we have your word to give us wisdom.

36:11 Lord, we're so grateful that you seek to reveal your heart to us in many ways. And so Lord, as we we walk forward here, we pray that we might take this story as just... Not just another boat ride, but one that affected our lives. The one that changes the way we think about things. The one that changes the way that we walk so that others might see it, Lord, that we might be a walking testimony on your behalf.

36:37 We pray these things in your son's precious name. Amen.