Sailing too low in the Water
Acts 27:13-20

The apostle Paul was being sent to Rome here in this scripture setting.  He had 
been placed on a ship, sailed to Myra, a city of Lycia, and then placed on 
another ship to finish his voyage to Rome.

They had been battling a storm for several days barely making progress, at times 
making no progress at all.

Then there was a break in the storm as they sailed near the island of Crete, but 
their smooth sailing was short lived.

For not long after they had set sail they met another storm.  This was a 
tremendous storm with dangerous winds.

The kind of storm that all sailors dread.  A storm in which you have no control of 
your vessel.  

In this kind of storm, anything could happen, and the worst was expected.

In verse 15 we find where after doing everything they possibly could to bring their 
vessel under control,  they gave up and let the boat go on it's on.

It was a very scary and dangerous situation to be in.  The ship could run  
aground, or worse yet, it could be bashed against rocks protruding out of the 
water and be smashed to a million pieces.

In verses 16 and 17 we find where they were able to find a small island where 
they were able to do some repair to the ship.

Fearing lest the winds blow their vessel into the sandbars and be hopelessly
stuck there they set sail again even though the storm was still raging.

Verse 18 tells us they were exceedingly tossed with the tremendous force of the 
winds and huge waves.

Hope was just about gone!  We can imagine by this time their sails were tattered 
by the winds!  The strength of their vessel was being weakened more and more 
each moment by the bashing of the waves.

So in verse 18 they began to lighten the ship by throwing the ship's cargo 
overboard.

Verse 20 tells us all their hope of being saved were gone!!  

They had toiled until they could not toil anymore!  They were exhausted!  All their 
human strength was gone.  They just gave up.

Now, the reason they threw all that cargo out of the ship, was to make the ship 
lighter.

Also, with a loaded ship, the vessel would sail low in the water, or the railings of 
the ship would be near the surface of the water.  When the winds blew the 
waves, they would come over into the ship, causing the boat to take on water 
and eventually sink!!!

So they threw all the cargo out of the ship, so the ship would sail high in the 
water.

Some of that cargo may have been very important to them, but  their safety was 
more important now.

Some of you here this morning have set sail intending to make it to heaven 
someday.

You started out on your journey with the sun shineing and smooth sailing.

But then you began to face a storm.  You battled that storm, but then along came 
another storm.

Then along came another, and another, and now you are facing a tremendous 
storm that is threatening your very own walk with God.

It is the kind of storm that you do not have any control over.  You have pretty well 
made it through those other storms, but this storm is bigger than any storm that 
you have ever faced.

I want everyone to listen to me this morning and get this message in your heart.

You may not be facing a storm at this moment, but before you get up in the 
morning you may come upon the greatest storm that you have ever encountered 
in all your life.

You may be facing the kind of storm you have always dreaded would come.

After Job had been knocked off his feet by all this troubles, he said the thing that 
I feared the most has come upon me.

Maybe your storm that you are facing, or will face, is so big that you have no 
control over it.  You expect the worst!!!

You see that kind of storm is scary.  Most of our little storms that come our way 
we feel we can somehow control it.

We can see a silver lining behind the clouds.  We feel we are in control and 
somehow we can make it through it!

But then comes the big one!  It's more than we can handle!  We feel that all 
that's left to do is just give up!

Satan comes and tells you, "I've got you this time!  I'm going to bash your vessel 
against the rocks  and you won't be able to sail again."

"You might as well give up!  You're going to loose your mind.  You're going to 
loose your family.  You're going to loose your home, your children, your family."

So there you are in that big storm.  You are sailing too low in the water.

Because you are carrying too much cargo, and the waves of doubt and dismay is
coming over inside your ship.

The winds of discouragement and dispair are tattering your sails!!!  You are 
about to sink.

But it is time to unload your vessel!  It's time to lighten the ship.  You are sailing 
too low in the water.  

You see, you are loaded down with Fear!  But Jesus says "Fear not, It is I, be not 
afraid."

And Paul said, "For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of 
love and of a sound mind."

Power to overcome!  Power to be victorious!  Power over the storm in your life.

Jesus said, "In this world ye shall have tribulation, BUT BE OF GOOD CHEER,
I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD."

1 John 2:13, "............ye have overcome the wicked one."

So throw fear out of your vessel this morning, it will lighten your ship in the storm.  
And remember that Jesus is in the ship with you!  And as long is Jesus is in my 
ship, there's no way I'm going to sink!

Throw out all you doubt.  Satan wants you to doubt God's care for you.  To doubt 
God's love for you.  To doubt that God will deliver you from the storm.

Satan will tell you, "Why God doesn't even know you are in the storm."  

Oh yes He does.  And when you think He is no where around, and you can't see 
Him through the wind and rain, He'll come to you walking on the top of the water!

And He'll say, "Oh thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

Don't doubt God in the midst of your storm!  Trust Him!  He will make a way 
when there seems to be no way, and He will calm the troubled waters of your 
soul.

Don't sail too low in the water, you'll sink!  Get rid of your fears and doubts and 
let God take control of your vessel and He will guide you safely home!

Throw out your anxieties.  Turn loose of the steering wheel.  You already know 
you can't drive!  Let God at the wheel and sit back and enjoy the scenery!!!

Throw out all your guilt!  You can't trust God in your storm because you are still 
feeling guilty over some sin, or some failure, or some short-coming, or something 
you've said or done.

But the Bible says "There is therefore NOW no condemnation to them which are 
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit...."

When you are in a storm Satan brings to your mind all your failures to make you 
think that's why you're in the storm in the first place, so there's no need to call 
upon God.

But you listen to me!!!  You remind the stupid, ignonant, narrow-minded, devil of 
the GRACE of God!!!!  

Yes I have failed.  Yes I have sinned.  Yes I have come short.  But where sin 
abounds, grace doeth much more abound!!!!!

And greater is He that is within me than He that is within the World!!!

God knew I would fail!!!  God knew you would sin!  God knew you would come 
short!!!!!

That's why Paul said in 2 Cor. 9:8  "And God is able to make all grace abound
toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things........."

So throw out your guilt this morning.  It's making you sail too low in the water, 
and it will make you sink in the time of storms.

Throw out all your unbelief.  Unbelief is the heaviest cargo on your ship!!!

Get rid of it!!!  It will sink you right in the middle of the storm!

"Well Pastor, my storm is so big.  My storm is raging!  I cannot go on!"

"I just cannot believe God!  I guess I'll have to try to make it own my own 
somehow!"

But Paul said in 2 Cor. 1:9 that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God..."

1 Tim. 4:10, again Paul writes, "....we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour
of all men, specially to those that believe."

Unbelief will bring you a downfall!   Unbelief will cause your boat to sink.

Unbelief will cause fear, and doubt, and anxiety, and guilt, to pour over into your 
vessel in the time of the storm, and you will sink into the mirey waters below,

But trust in God.  He will stand by you when the storm is raging.

He can see ahead of the storm.  He can control the winds.  He can calm the
waves.  Just lighten your ship and stay in the boat, and He will carry you through.

Keep these words in your heart this morning.  It is the Word of God.  It will help 
you through when the storms come.