What to Do When You'Ve Done Everything You Knew to Do

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge, P.L. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or calling 214-963-8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. ...to Acts chapter 27. And while you're turning there, let me give you the title of my message.

You'll have to listen carefully. I'll repeat it a second time. What to do when you've done everything you knew to do and don't know what else to do.

I don't know if there's enough room for that on the tape. But let me say it again. What to do when you've done everything you knew to do and don't know what else to do.

Now, that sounds like a very ambitious title, but it's a very, very simple message. Acts chapter 27. And tonight, I want to read quite a few verses in order to get the setting of some people who did everything they could do, and there wasn't anything else to do.

Acts chapter 27, beginning in verse 21. I hope you have your Bibles. And when they had gone a long time without food, then Paul stood up in their midst and said, men, you ought to have followed my advice and not to have set sail from Crete and incurred this damage and loss.

And yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there shall be no loss of life among you, but only the ship. For this very night, an angel of God, to whom I belong and whom I serve, stood before me saying, do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar, and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.

Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe, God, that it will turn out exactly as I have been told. Oh, hallelujah for that. But, but we must run aground on a certain island.

But when the 14th night had come, as we were being driven about in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight, the sailors began to surmise that they were approaching some land. And they took soundings and found it to be 20 fathoms, and a little further on, they took another sounding and found it to be 15 fathoms, and fearing that we might run aground somewhere on the rocks, they cast four anchors from the stern and wished for daybreak. And as the sailors were trying to escape from the ship and had let down the ship's boat into the sea on the pretense of intending to lay out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, I wouldn't do that.

Don't do that unless these men remain in the ship. You yourselves cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it fall away.

And until the day was about to dawn, Paul was encouraging them to take some food, saying, today is the 14th day that you have been constantly watching and going without eating, having taken nothing. Therefore, I encourage you to take some food, for this is for your preservation. For not a hair from the head of any of you shall perish.

And having said this, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of all, and he broke it and began to eat. And all of them were encouraged, and they themselves also took food. And all of us in the ship were 276 persons.

And when they had eaten enough, they began to lighten the ship by throwing out the weed into the sea. And when day came, they could not recognize the land, but they did observe a certain bay with a beach, and they resolved to drive the ship into it if they could. And casting off the anchors, they left them in the sea, while at the same time, they were loosening the ropes of the rudders and hoisting the foresail to the wind, they were heading for the beach.

But striking a wreath where two seas met, they ran the vessel to ground, and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern began to be broken up by the force of the waves. And the soldier's plan was to kill the prisoners, but none of them could swim away and escape, that none of them should swim away. But the centurion, wanting to bring Paul safely through, kept them from their intention and commanded that those who could swim should swim overboard first and get to land, and the rest should follow, some on planks and others on various things from the ship.

And thus it happened that they all were brought safely to land as was prophesied. Now, here is a very dramatic story of men, sailors, as well as prisoners, but it was a sailors who in the midst of this life-threatening storm, did everything possibly that they could think of to do in that perilous situation, but it didn't help. They eventually gave up, but not for the want of trying.

They did everything they possibly could to save the ship until there was nothing else to do and they didn't know what else to do. All hope of salvation was exhausted. Now, the most difficult test in my Christian life have been when I've been in a similar kind of condition or situation.

When I've done, and when I'm going through a personal storm, and I've done everything that I should do, and some things that I didn't need to do and shouldn't have done, but still the waters and the storm rages on. These have been my most difficult tests. Ephesians 6.13, Paul says, therefore take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day or the days of trouble or storms.

And having done everything, having done everything to stand firm. Now, the key in that verse is to having put on the armor of God, that's number one, all the armor. That's the equivalent of having done everything.

And then after that, we are simply to stand. But you see my problem and our problem is that it's hard sometimes just to stand and to wait and to trust the armor. The temptation is to try to do something else, like trying to improve on the armor or trying to help God help us out.

You see, sometimes we act like the armor is not enough. And so we go around looking for more spiritual wardrobe, thinking that we can improve on what God has already provided for us. And having done everything for some people means doing my own thing or taking matters into my own hands.

And the result is that we mess things up and we walk around, we look like these Christians who are wearing the armor and then we've got all kinds of stuff hanging on it. All kinds of man-made artificial things. We become an overdressed Christian.

I counsel some people and after outlining some things that they should do, they have a look in their eyes that tells me that they didn't really hear what I said. And they're not willing to take their place. They're not willing to come to the place where they've done all and to do nothing more but to stand firm and believe that the armor will work.

Or I counsel others who've done everything in the Word, but still they wanna try something else. They wanna do something else. Why? Because they're impatient.

They're tired of standing. And they wanna remove themselves from that place of standing in place. Oh, how hard it is to just stand in place and wait.

But oh, we wanna help God out. We wanna control things to get God to hurry up the answer. But look at what the Saviors did to try to save the ship, but to no avail.

They cast in four anchors and they wished for daybreak or they prayed for daybreak. They probably prayed to their gods. They pretended in another situation to put out one of the small boat from the ship to lay out anchors from the bow of the ship.

But they really were trying to sneak away and abandon their duty to save their own necks. Now I'm gonna talk about those little ships in a bit. Then they threw out some cargo to lighten the ship.

They took soundings, thinking that, well, there's a rock here, we're gonna try to miss it. They also finally saw a beach and they lifted the sail and said, all right, let's head to the beach. Nothing they did worked.

They struck a reef running the ship aground. They got stuck, one end of the ship got stuck in the mud and the other one, the stern was broken out by the force of the waves. You see, this is called having done everything wrong, having done everything in one's own power to save the ship, but neglecting to remember the most important thing and that was the word of the Lord that came through Paul.

They were to save themselves a lot of sweat, a lot of anxiety and a lot of fruitless toil if they just believe what Paul had prophesied when an angel of the Lord visited him. And let me ask you tonight, I want you to see yourself on board this ship because when the storms are raging against you, many times we act just like those sailors in the ship. We do everything we possibly can.

It says that fear overtook them and fearing that we might run aground somewhere on the rocks and so fear will drive you to desperate moves. Or in this case, they kept taking soundings, meaning that they felt that there was a big rock over here and so they took a sounding and hoped to miss this rock here and to hear some people talk about their storm is to hear the soundings of panic, the soundings of defeat, the soundings of discouragement and they see rocks that nobody else sees and they said, oh, I'm sure that there's something there, I'm sure there's a rock here and there's a rock there and so they're trying to maneuver their own ship. But all human efforts in this story were unsuccessful.

Paul said in verse 22, and yet now I urge you to keep up your courage for there shall be no loss of life among you but only the ship. He told them the ship was gonna be destroyed but they were determined to try to save it. They should have believed Paul's word.

They should have stood on the word. They should have trusted the ship or thrust the ship into the sea and entrusted themselves into the God in whom Paul trusted. The old hymn says, oh, what needless pain we bear.

And oh, what sweat we perspire when we do not stand and just believe God. Here's the word that you and I need to stand on. Therefore, keep up your courage men.

I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told, hallelujah. That's the word to go on. The only man on board the ship without a life jacket was Paul because he had the promises of God wrapped around him, hallelujah.

They sweat and he sang. They tried to save themselves, but he trusted God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told. They threw in anchors to save themselves.

He threw himself upon the mercy of the Lord, hallelujah. Someone has said the highest pinnacle of the spiritual life is not joy in unbroken sunshine, but it's absolute, undoubting trust in the love of God. Turn with me if you will to John chapter four is a wonderful example of faith and trust.

It's the story, it's the second miracle of Jesus and the healing of the centurion servant. Remember it was that centurion, it was of that man that Jesus said, truly I say unto you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. And what happened is that this man came to Jesus and he said, now listen, I'm a man under authority.

And if I say to my servant, go, he goes, if he says, come, come. And this man recognized that Jesus was a man with power and authority. And he said to Jesus, he said, all you have to do is say the word and my servant will be healed.

Now look at John chapter four and verse 50. And Jesus said to him, when he saw this man's faith, Jesus said to him, go your way, your son lives. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and he started off.

I like that. I like that. He said, the man believed, Jesus said, go your way.

The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and he started off. Started off where? For home. Why? To see the servant whom he believed would be healed.

Now that's trust, that's faith. That's the same as when Paul said, I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I've been told. Now, if some of us were in similar situation and the Lord said that to us, we would say, would you repeat that one more time? But Lord, but what if? Followed by all kinds of questions.

Or did you really mean that? Oh, well, if he's not well, can I bring him back here tomorrow? Or will you come to my place tomorrow? You see, the centurion didn't say, what else must I do? Jesus spoke to him and he started off, hallelujah, taking the word, believing the word. There's an interesting little insight to this from Luke's account. And let me read it to you out of the King James.

Don't turn there, but it says, when Jesus heard these things, meaning the man's statement of faith, he marveled at him and he turned him about. He turned him about and he said to the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great a faith, no, not in Israel. And you see, I get a picture here that this man was so quick to believe that he started off that Jesus reaches out and grabs him and says, wait just a minute.

And he turns him to the crowd and he points to him and he said, see this man, I've not seen such great faith. Now, those who do not trust, those who do not believe God's word and do not start off to walk in obedience in the word, they're the sweaters, sweaters. Is that a word? I don't know.

They perspire a lot. They worry a lot. And they keep trying everything they can think of to save themselves.

For example, the workers on the ship, they cast out four anchors, which provided temporary relief, but it really didn't help them. Later on, they just threw the anchors away. Now, I've heard a lot of preachers talk about those four anchors as being faith and being repentance and all kinds of things, but that's not what it was because those anchors didn't work.

And I wanna talk to you, this is not the main part of my message, but I wanna talk to you about four anchors that we trust in, that we cast out, trying to help ourselves out, trying to help God out. Let me list four anchors that we throw out. First of all, there's the anchor, what I call the anchor of a borrowed testimony, the anchor of a borrowed testimony.

Do you remember when little shepherd boy David went up against the giant Goliath and they made fun of his credentials? They made fun of his qualifications. They made fun of his weapon, a sling. So what did they do? They put on him a borrowed helmet, a borrowed coat of armor belonging to Saul.

And this is what David said. You're familiar, you don't need to turn to it. It's 1 Samuel 17, 39.

He said, I cannot go with these for I have not tested them. Or in the King James, it says, I have not proved them. Now here is an anchor that we mistakenly can turn to in a troubled storm.

It's the anchor of a borrowed testimony. It's trying to fit oneself into somebody else's testimony. It's trying to fit into somebody else's experience.

I'm referring to looking at another Christian thinking, if I only were in that person's shoes, if I was only in his shoes, if I was only in her shoes, if I could only be like that person, if I could only be like the pastors, if I could only be like so-and-so, I'd be able to face my problem. Listen, my friend, never envy somebody else's armor or testimony. Don't try to copy somebody else's experience.

Don't try to fit into Saul's armor. You've never tested it. God wants to reveal himself to you.

He can reveal his will to you. Quit trying to borrow truth from somebody else. God wants to reveal his word to you.

So it's not somebody else's conviction, but it's your conviction. Turn with me quickly to John chapter 21. Remember, Jesus, after his encounter with Peter, when he asked him, Peter, do you love me more than these? And after that exchange, verse 21, Peter therefore seeing him said to Jesus, Lord, and what about this man? He was referring to John.

Jesus therefore, Peter therefore seeing him said to Jesus, Lord, this is John 21, 21, Lord, and what about this man? And Jesus said to him, if I want him to remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow me. You know what Jesus was saying to Peter? Mind your own business. Get your eyes off of John.

Get your eyes off of what God's doing with somebody else. Get your eyes and follow me. Go to John chapter four real quickly.

Remember after the woman at the well who encountered Jesus and found living water. John chapter four, verse 39. And it says, and from that city, and from that city, many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word that the woman who testified, he told me all the things that I have done.

So when the Samaritans came to him, they were asking him to stay with him and he stayed there for two days. And many more believe because of his word. And they were saying to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard, oh hallelujah, we have heard for ourselves and know, we know that this one is indeed the savior of the world.

Now, listen, it's all right to look on other people when God's blessing in them and they're pursuing the Lord and get stirred to action, but don't get envious of them. Just let it stir you unto the Lord so that you can press into the Lord and that you can say, we have heard and know that this one is indeed the savior of the world. We've experienced the same thing.

Hallelujah. Don't live on a borrowed testimony. A second anchor that some throw out to save themselves is an anchor made of fig leaves.

That's the anchor of self-effort. Listen, you don't need to turn to it. Genesis 3, 7. It says, then the eyes of them, this is when Adam and Eve had sinned.

It said, then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Now, I don't know about you, but I've done a lot of sewing, of making loin coverings for myself in my day. They made loin coverings, but verse 21 says, and the Lord God, and the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed him.

You see, here's the contrast of self-redemption and divine redemption. There is a God-made garment and then there are fig leaves. Adam and Eve were trying to cover themselves and to save themselves.

This was a picture of the utter fruitlessness of self-effort and human effort. This is the fig leaf of self-effort, of trying to piece together your own way out of your troubles. And as I said, I, in my day, have been a very busy sewer at times in my life, trying to piece together a solution, and trying to figure my way out of difficult waters, trusting in my own knowledge.

First Corinthians 8.2 says, if anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know. Now that tells me that I'm dumb. I don't know anything.

And that I better not sew fig leaves together. The worst thing that you can do in a storm is trust your own judgment. Matthew 6.27 says, who by thinking can add a single inch to his height? Jesus meant it when he said, without me, you can do nothing.

I used to be a lot smarter 20 years ago. If you knew me 20 years ago, I was God's answer man. I had every answer for myself.

I had every answer for everybody else. But I wanna tell you, the older I get, the dumber I get. And the more I realize, as Jesus said, without me, you can't do anything.

Isaiah 44.20 says, he feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him. He cannot save himself. Quit trying to sew your fig leaves.

Quit trying to cast that kind of an anchor. It'll not save you. There's a third anchor thrown out by those who are not fully prepared to trust the Lord.

And it's the anchor of riches. But let me explain it. Matthew 19, you don't need to turn to there, but Jesus gives us this story of the rich man who came and said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And the Lord cited some commandments.

And he said, well, I've done all of those. And then he said, well, go and sell all that you have and give to the poor. And he was sorrowful.

Now, the parable, that parable teaches us, it's not really about wealth or riches as we think of it in the natural. The parable is not directed primarily to rich persons, but what it is about, it's about possessions. And it's about what possesses you and what possesses me.

It's about what your hopes and your dreams and your faith and your heart is tied to. So you can be poor, but yet be possessed by your possessions. If you don't believe that, you just go out.

I was talking to my family about this the other night, going home from church. We were talking about the street people and how they have their own little world. And I see them going along and some of them carry these little carts and they've got cardboard papers in there.

They've got rags. They've got stuff that's worthless and penniless, but dare you try to take it from them. They hold on to that.

That's their possession. And so Jesus is not talking in this parable about what you have or don't have, but he is teaching about what has you. You see, it's not what you own, but it's what owns you that's important.

Jesus said to the rich man, if you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me. In other words, don't be anchored to anything but Jesus.

Don't put your trust in anything but him. Hebrews 6.19 says, this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered, hallelujah. Some of us have this false concept.

If I only, they're trying to throw out an anchor and say, oh, if I only had that job. And so they're trying to hook a new job or someone saying, oh, if I could only anchor in a new home or anchor in a new apartment, or if I could only anchor her or him or anchor this or anchor that. Listen, do not try to hook your anchor into a person, a place or a thing as a source of your joy.

It's all fig leaves. It's all fig leaves. Other people are trying to cast, it's called the, I don't know what to, I guess you call it the geographical cure.

I used to see this when I worked in Teen Challenge and I used to, some of the Teen Challenge, you fellows you're here tonight, you know what I'm talking about. The drug addicts have this thing, it's called the geographical cure. They're always gonna go here and kick their habit.

And I remember, especially those that were Hispanic, I'm going to Puerto Rico. I'm going to Puerto Rico and everything will be all right. Once I get to Puerto Rico, I'll be all right.

Others say, well, I'm gonna go here. As soon as I get here, I'm gonna be all right. And listen, I keep seeing this all the time in the body of Christ.

I have people, some of you just think if you could just cast your anchor to Florida or cast your anchor somewhere else. But I want to tell you, if that could be something that it's got an anchor that's around your neck and it'll pull you right down because you're casting your anchor, you're hoping to strike it rich here or there. God deliver you from geographical cures.

Now, some of you may be called away, moved away by the Lord, by your job or whatever, but some of you are looking for a geographical cure. And remember my proverb. You'll hear it from me many, many times from this pulpit.

Wherever you go, there you are. You think about that for a while. Wherever you go, you have to take yourself with you.

And if you don't get it resolved here, you won't get it resolved in Florida or wherever else you're going. There's a fourth anchor. It's what I call the old worn out rusty anchor.

Sometimes we think what will save us is something that once worked for us previously. What I call a rusty anchor. Go with me, if you will, to Acts chapter nine and don't ask me where I got this because I didn't get it out any book because no one would dare make an application like this, but I'm gonna try.

No commentator, nobody would do this, but Acts chapter nine, verse 20. I was trying to figure it out today. I said, Lord, how did I ever have this in my message? Where'd this come from? But here it is.

Verse 25, verse 23. And when many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with him. You know, Saul had gone to, was on the road to Damascus to make havoc on the Christians there and the Lord saved him.

And instead of going in to make havoc, he went in to make disciples of the way. Instead of going in to, you know, to keep people out of the way, he went to get them in the way. And of course it caused no small stir in the city.

Verse 22, but Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ. And when many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with him. But their plot became known to Saul and they were also watching the gates day and night so that they might put him to death.

But his disciples took him, I don't know how many there were, but here came along some helpers, his disciples, and they let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket and he was saved. Now, I don't know, at that time, those disciples did not know that this young convert, Saul, was gonna become Paul, the greatest missionary the church had ever known, the greatest apostle the world had ever known, the greatest teacher in the New Testament. They didn't know all of that, but nevertheless, if they had, I'm wondering if they would have said to themselves, my goodness, isn't this marvelous? We have this basket, this basket here.

Look what this basket did, my goodness. Let's just save this basket because we've discovered a new deliverance ministry. And you see, people today would take something that God has done and make a relic out of it and say, oh my goodness, here we go.

My goodness, I've got just the thing. And so they go to the next village and say, where's the next Saul? We're in the deliverance ministry. Come on, here's our basket and fit into this basket.

The point is this, you see, whenever God works a certain way, you can be sure that somebody will try to franchise it and package it and strategize it and turn a move of the spirit into a methodology to try and perpetuate something by the works of the flesh that can be only done by the spirit of God. And listen, we're not gonna have any old dusty anchors around here. We're not wedded to buildings.

We're not wedded to anything but Jesus Christ, hallelujah. I've tried to hold on to certain old anchors that at one time were helpful and important. But listen, yesterday's anchor is not today's solution.

I preach sermons in one place. That were flops in other places. I've given some people a word of advice and gave it to the next one.

And my goodness, it was the worst thing I could have done. I didn't have a fresh word. You can't use old anchors.

Beware of the danger of going back to an old rusty anchor during times of your testing. It may be an old teaching. It may be an old doctor and it may be an old counselor.

It may be an old spiritual experience that you're trying to resurrect. There are churches I can take you to that are trying to get people through the storms of life. They're casting out the same old anchors.

Throw out those anchors. God's about to blow in a fresh wind, hallelujah. You don't need those anchors.

Now, another way that the satyrs on Paul's ship tried to save themselves was by a little boat. Look at verse 30 again. It says, and the satyrs, as the satyrs were trying to escape from the ship and save their lives, and they let down the ship's boat into the sea on the pretense of intending to lay out anchors from the bow.

And actually, they were trying to sneak away and to save themselves in that little, you know, every ship has what, a little boat or dinghy or whatever they call it, like a dinghy. A lifeboat. And I see Christians who keep trying to save themselves in their own storm by putting their hopes in some little boat.

Do you know what that little boat represents? It's when we come to God for an answer, but before we do, we always wanna have a backup solution. We always wanna have a little boat in the background to help us out just in case God's way is not the way that we like. And you see, having or trusting in a little boat is called plan B. God's word is plan A. God's way is plan A, but just in case A doesn't work, we like to have plan B to revert back to.

I know that, listen, I know some people, they go to a pastor, they go to a counselor, and if they didn't like A, they'll go to B. And listen, there's always a B counselor around somewhere who tells you, you can keep your boat. You don't have to give up everything. You don't have to trust everything to the Lord.

You can hang on to your little boat. You'll always find a counselor somewhere that will agree with your plan B. Remember King David, when he ran from Saul, had a plan B. He occasionally reverted to it. He would go down to Gath, and he would trust in some human ungodly source.

Remember when Abraham went to Egypt and he told Sarah to act like his sister? Because he said, if they know you're my wife, they will kill me, but they'll let you live. And you see what David did in going to Gath and what Abraham did in lying about his wife, it's called having an ace in the hole. It's called an unwillingness to completely trust in the Lord, and it's trying to have a backup plan in case things don't work out.

And I've seen people leave Times Square Church, and I know exactly where they went. They went because they have a little boat hidden out in their house, in their closet somewhere, or back in their apartment, or wherever. They got a little boat they revert back to, whatever that is.

Paul warned these little boat people. Wait a minute, folks. Hey, listen, you got to cooperate here, because sometimes when I try to be funny, you know, you're not laughing.

Listen, what Paul said, Paul said, listen, if you go with plan B, you're done for. You're done for. He said, stick with plan A and be saved.

Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, unless these remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved. Paul says the same thing in Ephesians, and having done everything to stand firm, because God will see you through. In the case of the sailors, they were doing everything, they had done everything, but they'd done everything wrong.

And you know, one way to learn that plan A is the only way is to have tried and failed so long with plan B. And aren't some of you tired from casting anchors in the sea to save yourselves? Aren't you tired of sneaking off in some little boat to get out of the storm? If you have a history of having done everything which is not God's way and God's will, and you're no better for it, isn't it time that you believe what Paul said? Unless these men remain in the ship, you cannot be saved. It says, then the sailors cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it fall away. They let it fall.

Well, that's verse 32. Look at it. If you have your Bibles open, I want you to see it.

I don't know what it says in King James, but it says, then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it fall away. Another thing that they had been trusting in. Now the anchors didn't work.

Now the little boat doesn't work and they let it go. And the Holy Spirit is saying to some of you tonight, cut the ropes. Cut the ties to an old habit, an old relationship, to old ways.

Some of you need to cut loose from a circle of people who bring you down. Quit calling them up on the phone. Quit going to try to see them because they'll try to put you in their own little boat and it's going nowhere.

Cut away the ropes of that boat and let it fall away. And I see somebody tonight in a little boat and if you don't let it go, you're gonna go down with that boat. Listen, I'd rather be in a rocky boat with a calm captain than to be in a calm boat with a rocky captain.

And some of you are in a little boat that's under the influence of a rocky captain and it'll lead you right to hell. Cut it loose, let it go and trust yourself in the hands of the living God. Okay, number three.

What should we do to get through a storm or a severe test? What do you do? Oh, and I like, this is the part, I've been waiting for this all evening. This is the good part. And it's amazing what happened in our prayer meeting today.

The brothers, they didn't know what I was preaching about tonight. But what do you do if you tried to do everything you know to do, but you don't know what else to do? You know what Paul did? Paul threw a party. Paul called up, he had a party on deck.

He threw a party. I mean, he didn't throw a person out. He threw a party.

It was a praise and thanksgiving party. Listen to it, verse 33. Paul was encouraging them all to take some food.

Verse 34, therefore, I encourage you to take some food for this is for your preservation for not a hair from the head of any of you shall perish. Now, I hesitate to talk about a party because some of you do not need any encouragement. And of side one, you may now turn the tape over to side two.

Distress and was with me the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strings, gods that were in their hand. He never thought, Jacob never thought of separating or disconnecting himself and his going back to Bethel without his family going with him.

And the result was in verse five, two were having a party. But I'm addressing myself to some of you tonight that are down or you're discouraged or you're going through a severe test and stuff. You've done everything you know how to do and you don't know what else to do.

At such a time when you've done everything you know and you don't know what else to do, I wanna tell you, throw yourself a praise and thanksgiving party, hallelujah. The time to rejoice is not after the storm. Anybody can be happy after the storm is gone and you're out on the beach, my goodness, anybody would be happy there.

The time to rejoice is during the storm in anticipation and thanksgiving for the victory that the Lord will bring you through. And listen, it made sense for Paul to tell everybody to eat. If you think you're gonna die, why eat? But if you know you're gonna live, hallelujah, you eat and you praise God, hallelujah.

I encourage you to take some food, Paul said. Let's have a party, why not? For not a hair from the head of any of you shall perish. And Paul and his mates rode out the storm giving praise and thanksgiving to God, verse 35.

And having said this, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of all. And he broke it and he began to eat. And I believe one night, Pastor Bob was talking about that in the celebration of the Lord's Supper.

It's a time of rejoicing. Listen, what happened? Notice what happened. It says, Jesus took some bread and after a blessing, he gave a blessing.

He broke it and he gave it to his disciples. And when he had taken the cup and given thanks, given thanks, and then after they had finished, it says, and after singing a hymn, they went out. You see the blessing, the thanks, the hymn singing was before the cross.

Can you imagine singing a hymn at a time like that? Oh, my friend, that's the time to sing hymns, glory to God. We need to learn how to praise our way through the storm. Glory to God.

Psalms 42 and 11 says, why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him the help of my countenance and my God. The psalmist said, I shall yet praise him. That means regardless, in spite of the disturbing situation I'm going through, I will yet, I will still, I will keep on praising him while I ride out the storm, hallelujah.

Now, let me interject this. I'm not talking about the so-called faith people who think the way to praise the Lord is to deny the storm even exists. I keep running into these charismatic Christian science people who think the way to overcome sickness or trouble is to deny its existence.

Paul did not deny the storm. True people of faith do not practice denial of their problem but they do praise God anyhow. Listen to Psalm 74 and 11.

Don't turn there, but listen to it. It says, let the afflicted and needy praise thee. Let the afflicted and needy praise thee.

Now, I thought the afflicted and needy need comfort. Don't they need somebody else to pray for them? Well, yes, they do at times, but also the afflicted and the needy are to do more than just dwell on their problem. They are to praise the Lord.

No matter how great our trials may be, every saved sinner can always find reason for thanksgiving. Hallelujah. I remember doing one of the most severe trials of my life.

All kinds of fears and things coming on me in the midst of it. God just lifted me up by it and I just started, it just dawned on me. I don't know what took me so long, but I just began to shout and praise the Lord and I just kept saying, I'm saved.

I'm saved. I'm saved. Hallelujah.

Fear him that can kill body and soul, but hallelujah, he can't. I've got the living God in my soul. Psalms 116, 48.

Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel from everlasting even to everlasting. And let all the people say, amen, praise the Lord. I said, let all the people say, amen, praise the Lord.

Oh, you know, the Lord was showing me, you know, I got to tell you, when I was preparing this message, it was going to go in a different direction and it didn't. Because as I started to get into this, I opened my concordance to praise and I started following all of the words of praise and thanksgiving down to the Psalms. And I got so blessed.

I got so excited. I had to lay my studies down. I had to go walking through my apartment and just raise my hands and just begin to praise the Lord.

I threw myself on the bed and I just began to weep before the Lord. And I said, oh Lord, thank you, praise you, forgive me. Forgive me.

I have not been praising you enough. I've not been giving you thanks enough for all the things that you've done for me. And you know what came out of it? What came out of it was a short little praise list.

A short little praise list. And I really prayed and debated tonight whether I was going to share my short little list with you. And it's a list not of obvious things.

You know, the obvious things that we would praise the Lord for the most spiritual blessings and so forth. These are some of the not so obvious things. And I'm going to share them with you.

If you promise me that you won't laugh at any of them. Well, we'll see. The first thing that I began to praise the Lord for was my toes.

Folks, he's going to miss the good part. How many of you remember that I told you that when I was little, David used to say, you're really not from our family. I know he wants to say it now.

I know he's going to bring out some papers to prove that I'm not. Listen, Psalms 139, 14 says, I will give thanks to thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You see, the reason I said toes is because Sunday we had a group from a Bible school came here, they left about four o'clock in the morning.

They got to the city about six o'clock and they come here with Billy White, one of our members that attends here. He's in Bible school in Pennsylvania. And they come in and they work on the street and they had a burden.

They have a burden for the street people and they go down lower Manhattan and so forth. And they're praying for being able to bring a van because they told me about a man down there that they're witnessing to who has lost his toes and he cannot come to church. He can't go on the subway.

They want to bring him. And you see, that was in my mind when I began to think about some of the things that I'm thankful for the body that God gave me. And listen, you may have disease, you may have ailments, you may have problems and so forth, but nevertheless, thank God for your health.

Thank God for what is, the Bible says, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are thy works and my soul knows it very well. Last night I went for a walk with my wife and lo and behold, I'm coming across 72nd Street and here's a man laying on the street and his foot's out there and he has no toes.

I got it twice in one day. So I say, Lord, I thank you for my toes. I thank you for this creation.

The number two on my praise list is white clouds and blue sky. This is by way of saying that we are to thank God for his handiwork on the earth, the land and all the beauty of God's creation. I love to look out my apartment window and view white, fluffy clouds against a background of a deep blue sky or the view of the sunset or to see the colors of the fall foliage because this is my Father's world and it makes my soul rejoice in the Lord.

Psalms 19, one says, the heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the works of his hands. Psalms 89, 11, the heavens are thine and the earth also is thine and the world and all that it contains, thou has founded them, hallelujah. Psalms 135 says, give thanks to the Lord, to him who made the great lights, the sun to rule by day and the moon and stars to rule by night.

I don't know about you, but God's creation turns me on. Listen, you know, it's hard to see it in all this brick and mortar in this city, but looking and through it all and beyond it all, I thank God, hallelujah, for his creation. And then number three, I thank God for salad bars.

Salad bars. It makes sense. Now listen to me, follow me.

It makes sense. I'm thankful for salad bars. It's my way of saying God is a God of provisions, of variety, of material and physical blessings.

Just look at the variety on a salad bar. And remember, you know, God told Israel, Bob mentioned his message Sunday morning for the day of Sunday night. He told them about this land that was flowing with milk and honey that was only symbolic of all of the blessings that God was bestowing upon them.

And when you look at a salad bar, listen, oh my goodness, those green, I love green olives, I love radish. Hey, that came from God's hand, my friend. I'm thankful.

I'm thankful for his precision. Listen, Psalms 148 says, praise him from the earth. And then it mentions fruit trees.

It mentions cattle, steak. And the next time I go to a steakhouse, I'm gonna remember Steve and I'm gonna drop him off at the church while I go to the steakhouse. Creeping things and winged fowl, that's chicken.

You see what God did for Israel, he does for us. Give thanks to the Lord who gives food to all flesh and for his loving kindness is everlasting, hallelujah. And then I thank God, I'll go to one more.

I thank God for certain people who've crossed my path and left an impression upon my life. Jesus had a Simon of Cyrene to help him carry his cross. Paul had a Barnabas.

Timothy had a Paul and we've all been helped or perhaps entertained even by an angel unaware. I've had men of God in my life. I'm thankful for teachers and pastors and women in Zion and others.

I remember a man, when I was praying about this, the Lord brought a man to my remembrance. David will know what I'm talking about. An old evangelist who's gone on before to be with the Lord already.

But I just began to thank God for him because he contributed something to my life. Brother L.K. Dodge, an old evangelist, a man who was always in victory. And the thing about this man that I remember, he used to come to Teen Challenge and minister and he must've spent two or three thanksgivings with us.

And every Thanksgiving he'd never eat. He wouldn't eat, he would fast. And I'd say, Brother Dodge, come on, we made all of this.

He said, no. He said, I'm so thankful. He said, I can't eat.

I'm just so thankful to everything God's. And here I'm in there eating away. I'm eating my turkey and I can hear Brother Dodge in the chapel saying, thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus. Praise you, Jesus. And I'm feeling so convicted.

People who've crossed my path. I thank God for them. You see, the point is this.

When you've done everything you know to do and don't know what else to do, begin to count your blessings and name them one by one. It will surprise you what the Lord has done. And if you're having a pity party, turn it into a praise and thanksgiving party.

Praise your way through that storm, hallelujah. Colossians 2, 7, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude, overflowing with gratitude. Oh, my friend, God wants us to praise him.

God wants us to thank him. I don't know if you've got a long list or a short list, but you need to begin to thank God. And then one last thing, and I'll not go into it.

One more thing, I'll just mention it. Regarding what you do when you've done everything you know to do and don't know what else to do. And there's a lot of scriptures that go with this, but I'll just simply put it this way.

Keep your eyes on the prize. Keep your eyes on the prize. I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Moses did it. Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter because his eyes was on the prize. He was looking.

He was looking for the reward. He was looking to Jesus. Stephen, when he was stoned, the Bible says that he gazed.

He looked, it's all the same word in the Greek. He gazed steadfastly. He had his eyes on the prize.

And because of that, it doesn't matter that the stones hit him because his eyes were fixed on Jesus. Hebrews says, looking unto Jesus, fixing our eyes upon Jesus, having your eyes on the prize, hallelujah. Not on how you're gonna be saved, not anything else, but knowing that God will carry you through.

Hallelujah, hallelujah. Let's stand together. Let's stand together.

Thank you, Jesus.