Sailing Life's Sea Well

So passing out those papers, it's just some things that I put together there for you to fill out, maybe something that will stick with you as far as remembering. So our theme today is sailing. As we've been talking about this evening, Joel Hoover from St. Thomas will be here.

And his message will be more on the idea of eternity, sailing in light of eternity. I don't know what it will have for us in that. This saying that's on this painting up here, or this drawing, the full saying, and this saying is done by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

There's two sentences before what we have up here. One ship drives east, and another drives west with the selfsame winds that blow. Tis the set of the sails and not the gales which tells us the way to go.

And so, again, the idea of the same direction of wind can take a ship one direction, or it depends on the sail, take the ship the other direction. I'll take one of those papers up here, Daniel, so that I can follow along with where we're at on that. And so for our paper, if you just want to fill in that first line, tis the set of the sails and not the gales, and Brother John explains some of that to us, which tells us the way to go.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said about sailing relating to life, his title was Don't Drift. And he said this, I find the greatest thing in the world not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind, sometimes against it, but we sail, we don't drift, neither do we live at anchor.

And so I think the ship and sailing represents our life quite well. So once again, yes, thank you, Brother John, for sharing this morning and giving us that challenge on doing the next right thing, making choices in life. So I really appreciate this drawing, and I think maybe the water paints or whatever was used actually enhanced this by making this a little rough, which actually really looks like an ocean.

So thank you very much. And so we're sailing, and we are sailing for heaven. We're sailing for port.

OK. So I would like to connect the idea of knowing how to maneuver a sailboat and to connect the idea with spiritually maneuvering through life as a Christian. And so on our papers, it says sailing requires three things.

If you're going to sail in a sailboat, sail or say you need to know three things. One is scale, sailing skill. Sailing requires skill.

Sailing requires knowledge. No one just jumps into a sailboat and sails a sailboat. And then third, experience.

Sailing requires skill, knowledge, and experience. So you better know what you're doing when you get into a sailboat. There are some things about sailing a sailboat that I would have never thought, but we'll get into those things a little bit later.

Interesting skill and knowledge that has to be put into sailing a sailboat. Now, for sailing a sailboat, it's skill, knowledge, and experience. I would like to liken that to spiritually sailing requires three things.

Grace rather than skill. Spiritual sailing, third line on your paper, requires grace. It requires wisdom.

And it requires discipleship. For a sailboat, it's skill. For our spiritual sailboat, it's grace.

For sailing a sailboat, it's knowledge. For us in our spiritual life, it's wisdom. Sailboat is experience.

For us, it's discipleship. And just consider those three for a little bit. Ephesians 4.7 says, but unto every one of us is given grace.

Every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And so to sail a sailboat, our spiritual sailboat, we need grace. We need God's influence in our life.

Second, wisdom. Proverbs 4.7 says, wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom.

And with all thy getting, get knowledge. Again, emphasizing the idea if we're going to sail our spiritual sailboat, we're going to have to know what we're doing. And then discipleship, 2 Timothy 2.2 says, in the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

I think the fastest way to learn to sail a sailboat is the experience of it. Well, now, in spiritual life, we don't have time to make all the mistakes that everyone else did. And so it's really important that we sit at the feet of other people.

And I think if you're going to sail a sailboat, it would be important that you would go along with someone and learn how to do it. And here, Paul is saying to Timothy, you pass on what you learned of me, pass on to others. OK, moving on, there are three basic maneuvers all sailors must know.

On your paper there, I will give them the three to you as we go here. Number one, the three basic maneuvers all sailors must know, number one is how to sail into the wind. And so the word here that you want to write down there is windward.

If you are sailing a sailboat, you need to know some of these words. So three maneuvers all sailors must know, number one is windward, that is sailing into the wind. The second one is reaching, and that is where the wind is coming from the side.

These are the kind of words that they use. And then third is running, sailing with the wind, running. So we have windward, reaching, and running.

And there are three basic maneuvers every Christian must know. Those are repent, believe, and obey, three basic maneuvers every Christian must know. Repent, believe, and obey.

Repentance is an ongoing maneuver. We repent when we sin. Is that correct? We repent when we sin.

We repent when we get born again. So repentance is an ongoing work. Believe, believing is more than a once and done belief.

Belief is an act of the will every day, being able to believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of all them that diligently seek him. Believing that God loves me, God cares about me, has my best in mind, and a lot more need to be a strong belief in every Christian's experience. And then we have obey.

We need to obey every day, all the time. Jesus said, you're my friends. If you do whatsoever, I tell you.

Few things about an actual sailboat. So we have these three maneuvers. It's sailing into the wind.

It's sailing when the wind is coming from the side, and sailing with the wind to your back. And if you would have asked me, I would have guessed that sailing with the wind should have been the most effective and fastest way of sailing. But if you ask anybody who knows how to sail, the most fastest way to sail is when the wind is coming from the side.

I thought that's very interesting. And I asked Hosea, because he knows how to sail a boat. I said, is that true? And he said, yeah.

The wind coming from the side, just the way you set your sails, it's the smoothest. When you're running with the wind, there's a certain amount of drag that goes with that, which I thought is interesting. There's a lot of spiritual lessons we can get from that.

Wind coming from the side, you heard the term already, someone said something, it crossed my grains, it crossed the grains, it went the other way. And we think that makes life hard. But if we take the difficulties of life and we allow them to actually be a help to us and a hindrance, it actually can make our sailing actually more effective.

And so the fastest way to sail is with the wind coming from the side. When you're going into the wind, you can sail directly. You can sail towards the wind, but they call that tacking.

And so if this sailboat wants to get up here into this harbor and the wind is coming directly this way, a sailboat, they will what they call tack or zigzag. They'll go at a 45 degree angle this way. They'll go at a 45 degree angle this way.

And they'll zigzag, catching the wind to go into the direction the wind is coming. When we were in the Bahamas and they had the sailboat, I was on the motorboat. And we just went shortcut where we wanted to go.

And they went way over here. And then they went way over here. And then they went way over here.

And eventually, they come to where we were. But they got there going directly against the wind by zigzagging. Let us consider for a moment this idea of reaching.

That is the wind coming from the side. Another word for that that they use is wind a beam. Wind a beam.

Wind a beam a reaching. It's a little bit hard to believe that crosswinds actually is when the sailboat can sail the fastest. But the Bible actually tells us that the winds that cross us, the winds that come against us, seemingly the wrong direction, are the ones that are going to help us the most.

I got a little saying here. And on your paper, there the line that starts with trouble is. I want you to write this down because I think this is something good to remember.

It's a little saying. It says, trouble is permitted by God. Permitted in that line.

Trouble is permitted by God, at times sent by God. Are we OK with that? Sometimes it's sent by God. Sometimes it's permitted by God.

It's not like he made it happen, but he allows it. Sometimes it's actually sent by God. And it goes on to say, they are neither above or beyond.

They are neither above or beyond God. That is something we need to remember. These winds that come from the side, those winds that cross our path, those situations that seem difficult, God wants to use them as stepping stones, just like the sailboat sails the fastest when the wind come from the side.

We know what the scripture says. Romans 828, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. So we can take even the simple challenges of life and turn them into stepping stones in our life.

James 1, 2 to 4 says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. It's the set of the sails, not the gales, or not the winds.

That will determine where we end up. And so let's take these crosswinds as it gives them reaching, or wind of beams, these crosswinds that come. Let's relate to them properly so that they can be stepping stones and not hindrances to us.

I wonder sometimes if we tend to choose the easiest route too much. I think Brother John referred to that. Sometimes the harder choice is going to be the right choice.

And I think we spend too much time trying to find the easiest way. And it's probably not the best. Someone said it like this.

Affliction comes to the believer not to make him sad, but sober, not to make him sorry, but wise. Even as the plow enriches the field so that the seed is multiplied 1,000 fold, so affliction should magnify our joy and increase our spiritual harvest. I heard it put this way one time.

If you have two choices, both of them are OK. They say if you choose the harder of the two, it'll probably be the best one. Two choices, either one is OK.

None of them are wrong. Choose the harder, and it will probably be the better one. And so here on our paper, African proverb, I'm going to have you write it out.

There's an African proverb. It says this, smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.

So if you're going to be a sailor in a sailboat, you'll never get skill unless you've weathered a number of storms. Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. The next line there is another saying, the greater the trial, the more he reveals himself to us.

Reveals is the word for in that blank. The greater the trial, the more he reveals himself to us. Do we believe that? The greater the trial, the more he reveals himself to us.

Do we want to get to know him? And then we shouldn't be running and trying to run from all of our problems. Are we OK with it? When we get up in the morning, and we're so excited about what we're going to do, and then it rains and it spills, our old plans, are we OK with that? Are we OK if we really were looking forward to doing something, and then our parents step in and say, you know what, I don't want you doing that? Are we OK with that? Can we get to a place to see that those things are actually going to make us skillful sailors, and that he can reveal himself in a way that he doesn't otherwise? The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. When we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.

It is dearness only that gives us everything that's valuable. I love the man who can smell in the storm, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. I love the man who can smile in the storm, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.

OK, another thing about a sailboat is, and this is something I learned from Hosea, is if you ever saw a sailboat sailing or were in one, they can really tip far, scarily far. But most sailboats, not all of them, most sailboats are made with the very bottom heavy. And so the bottom of the boat is really heavy, and so it's not going to just flip over easily.

And so they can go really far, because they got that weight down there. Very different than a canoe. A canoe is so light, I think they can almost float as well upside down as right side up.

And the first time I ever rode in a canoe, I didn't know how to maneuver a canoe. It was right before we got married. My friends said, we're going to go.

We went up to Pine Creek upstate. And it was, I think, April or May, and the spring rains, and the water was high, and it was moving. And I don't know why they did this, but two fellas that didn't know what they were doing in a canoe.

The other fellow didn't know any more than me. Well, it went fine, as long as we were going. You know, it wasn't anything abnormal.

But we come to a place where there was an island, and the stream went out around. Well, as we got in there, it took our canoe sideways. And once you're sideways, you're done.

It'll flip right over. And so it flipped us over into that cold water. The canoe went down the creek so fast, and we had to run about a half a mile to catch up to it.

Canoes don't do well, because they don't have that foundation. They don't have this heavy at the bottom of the hull. And so I would like to hear on your next line, sailboats are made with the bottom of the hull weighty.

Just want to emphasize that. The bottom of a sailboat is made heavy or weighty. And I think there's a principle in that also.

Christians need a good foundation, or they're going to flip over. We need a solid foundation, a valuable lesson. We need a good foundation of obedience and faith and trust in God.

In Luke chapter 6, 47, Jesus says, whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built an house. He digged deep and laid the foundation on a rock.

And when the floods arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, could not shake it. And why was that? Because it was founded upon a rock. And so here in your next line, Christians need a good foundation so they are not flipped over.

A good foundation. First Corinthians 3, 11, 13 says about a foundation, for other foundation can no man lay, then that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest.

For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. God has placed Jesus, him, to be the foundation of every structure which shall stand firm in all the tests of fire through which we are destined to go.

We must go on building day by day. Whatever we do, whatever we say, is another stone or rock in our foundation. It is for us to choose which heap of material we take it from, whether from that of the wood, hay, or stubble, or from that of gold, silver, or precious stones.

And so it's just an encouragement to continue to build a solid foundation in your life so you don't wash out when the storms come. Too many wash out. Too many face the sea.

Too many become disoriented. They no longer know what's up or what's down, because they don't have that good foundation, that weight in the bottom of the hall. Ephesians 3, 17 to 19 says that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Another thing that most sailboats have is what they call a keel. I think they called it something else. But it sticks down here in the bottom below the hull.

And it's supposed to help from the sideways movement. And I thought that was an interesting part of a sailboat also. So what I would like to do here is spend some time looking at a number of words that we have in the Bible and looking at their meaning and see how we can apply them to sailing in our sailboat on the sea.

Turning your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3, and this is the verses that we here at Harmony are memorizing right now, Philippians chapter 3. And I want to look at verse 14. And the word, specific word, we're looking at is this word mark. It says here in verse 13, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended or gotten a hold of.

But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And I looked at this word mark and looked it up in the Strongs, and this is what I found. And at first, I had a hard time figuring this out.

How does this definition fit with this phrase here? It says to peer about. That means to look about, to peer about. It's the idea of concealment, something that's hidden, something that's concealed.

A watch, and then it says a goal. And so it's this idea, and I think I have here on our paper, I press for the mark, Strong's definition for mark, and let me give you those words. The first line there is peer about, P-E-E-R, peer about.

That's look about, peer about. The next one is concealment. Next one is watch, and that could be like a person who is given a responsibility to do a watch, to be observant.

It could be like a sentry or a scout. And the last one is goal, which that's what I would have thought of specifically when I read this, I press toward the mark or I press toward the goal. But it's interesting that this definition, the first part of the definition, is talking about peering about, concealment, watch, or yeah, and then goal.

It seems like there's a study or an observation that needs to go into this of when Paul says, I press toward the mark. So it's more than just saying, well, I'm going to go, here's the destination, I'm going to go there. It's peering into, it's discovering, OK, I'm here and I want to go there.

How am I going to get from point A to point B? And in a sailboat, that would be pretty important because you're going to have to figure out which way the wind's coming before you start sailing. You're going to have to determine a lot of things about the sailing to get to that point. And if the wind is coming directly to you, you're going to have to know 45 degrees this way, 45 degrees that way to zigzag to get to where you want to go.

And so it's this idea of bringing out of concealment. This mark or this goal is something that is well thought. It's thought through.

And for any one of us, it has to be well thought through. I'm going from point A to point B. I'm going to live as a Christian. What does that mean? We have to bring it out of concealment.

We've got to figure out what does it mean to be a Christian. I want to get to heaven. Well, what does that mean? We just have a goal.

We try to get there. We're not going to get there. We need to bring it out of concealment.

The goal, the mark, it's a mark. It's more than just a goal. It's a mark.

Someone has marked it. I am going there. And I'm going to figure out how to get there, what it means to get there.

And I'm going to bring things out of concealment to do that. Sailors must go to the sea prepared. Unprepared sailors bring casualties.

It's important, I think, that sailors sit with salty sailors. Salty sailors is a term used for sailors who've been on the sea a long time. Young sailors sit with salty sailors to try to press for that mark.

What do I need to know? How do I get there? What do I do in this situation? Bring it out of concealment. Anyone can sail a boat in fair weather when the seas are calm, but it takes a prepared sailor to face the storms. It was in the last PC.

I always get that mixed up, that book. They had that article in there. How many read it of the, what did they call him, Lawn Chair Larry? Did some of you read that story? A few of you did.

I thought that was interesting. So as a little boy, Lawn Chair Larry, as he's termed since, he had this interesting desire to fly. And so he observed planes.

And I think when he got older, he wanted to be a pilot, but his eyesight wasn't quite good enough and he didn't pass the test. And so he couldn't be a pilot. But one day, as a little boy, he was at a zoo and he saw this woman holding what he called a zillion balloons with helium in.

And he just thought that that should be able to help a person fly. And so that's why he was dubbed Lawn Chair Larry. Anyhow, in July 2, 1982, he took 45 helium weather balloons.

Those weren't just any balloons. Those were helium weather balloons filled with helium. And he tied these 45 balloons to a lawn chair.

He took with him a sandwich, soda, CB radio, a camera, and a pellet gun, a pellet gun to shoot the balloons when he wants to come down. And his idea was he's going to float up. He's going to float across his town.

And he's going to wave to everybody from his lawn chair. And then he's going to go out into the desert. Here's one with southern states.

He's going to go out in the desert. And he's going to land. And everything's fine and dandy.

He's going to make a name for himself. And he's going to have the fun of flying. Well, it didn't work out.

And the reason it didn't work out so good is because he wasn't prepared. I mean, if you're going to do it the first time, I guess you have no salty sailors to ask how to do it. So he had these 45 helium balloons.

And he had his lawn chair tethered to the car bumper while he gets everything ready to go. But he didn't plan right. And this thing tore the tether.

And off he goes. And he wasn't quite ready. He wasn't planning to go so high.

But he had enough balloons. He went, what's this, 16,000 feet? 16,000 feet in the air. And the planes that were from the local airport taking off and landing, they were saying, hey, there's a fellow in a lawn chair out here with balloons at 10 o'clock position.

This is the big deal. He was up 16,000 feet. And it was cold.

And so he was shivering. It didn't go quite the way he wanted. He floated for an hour and a half.

And then he started shooting the balloons to come down. But he didn't do a good job in landing. He ended up entangled electric wires.

And people lost electric for, it wasn't real long, maybe 20 minutes till they got that repaired. Anyhow, when he got down, the police were there and fined him $4,000. They later reduced the fine to $1,500.

The whole point of the story is he went unprepared. He did not have that one figured out quite right. That was quite a brave thing to do.

But spiritually, there's a lot of people that jump in this ship. And we know it says, press for the mark. We're going to have to bring it out of concealment.

You know, Larry Lawn Chair, Larry would have been good to take a little more time to figure out how this is going to go, how high he's going to do, what he's going to do when he gets up. I mean, he did not float across his town and wave to everybody. He went way too high.

So it didn't work out quite the way he wanted. Be prepared. Press toward the mark.

Well considered and pondered. Not foolish, not haphazard. Actually, Jesus says, for which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it.

Lest, happily, after he hath laid the foundation, is not able to finish it, all they that behold it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build, was not able to finish. And it's a little bit that way with Lawn Chair Larry. If that really would have worked out the way he wanted to, he would have just went up and floated across his town, waved to everybody, got out into the desert, and landed nicely, it would have been really impressive.

The story today is kind of funny, because he hadn't really counted the cost. And so we're called to count the cost. Bring it out of concealment.

Press for the mark. So what did Jesus mean when he said, not everyone that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven? We've got to bring it out of concealment. What does it mean? This is about not just floating along in our sailboat haphazardly, this is having a mark, and this is bringing it out of concealment.

What did Jesus mean when he said, he that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery in his heart already? What did Jesus mean when he said, if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off. If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. We need to bring it out of concealment and make it a mark.

It is the set of the sail, not the gale, that determines our destiny. So what does it mean when Jesus said, agree with thine adversary quickly whilst thou are in the way, lest he hail thee to the judge? The judge sticks you in prison, and you pay the uttermost. Bring it out of concealment.

And so I think that there's where we have the privilege to sit at the feet of other salty sailors, other men who have sailed the sea of life. And so we can, we have the privilege to sit at the feet of Abraham. And the Bible said he was the father of the faithful.

What made him the father of the faithful? And here's where this idea of bringing it out of concealment. Try to understand what is being said there, because we want to make it a mark. Some of the things God told Abraham was move to a different location.

And it says he got up and he moved. God told him to take his son and to sacrifice his son. And the Bible says he got up early the next morning.

He was obedient. God told him that he would have a son when it was, from human standpoint, impossible. And it says he believed what God said.

And so it's this idea of bringing out of concealment, sitting at the feet of other salty sailors. We can look at Jacob. What about Jacob? Jacob's name meant heel catcher.

And he lived up well to his name, lying to seat. And it followed him through life. It was first him.

It was his father-in-law. It was his own family. And so, again, if we're going to sail a sailboat, we are going to have to mark well where we're going and how we're going to get there.

On your paper, the next line says, aim for and you will get. Two words, the same word. Aim for nothing and you will get nothing.

Aim for nothing and you will get nothing. Okay, that's our word mark. Press for toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Let's go on to another phrase as we think of sailing well. Let's go to 1 Corinthians and chapter nine. 1 Corinthians chapter nine.

And we'll read 24 to 27. And then there is at least one phrase, maybe two phrases that we're going to pull out of here. In verse 24, it says.