In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith recounts the story of Paul's journey on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship was caught in a severe storm, and the crew did everything they could to survive. Paul, however, received a message from the Lord assuring him that they would make it through the storm safely, although the ship would be wrecked. Despite the crew's despair, Paul encouraged them to have faith and trust in God's promise. Eventually, the ship ran aground, but everyone on board survived.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today The broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture Through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be continuing with Giving Thanks to the Lord As we pick up in the 107th Psalm Beginning with verse 17 And now, with today's message Here's Pastor Chuck Smith The next group that we come across Are fools Because of their transgression And because of their iniquities Are afflicted Now, when you transgress the law of God When you give yourself over to Living a sinful, riotous life It has its natural consequences upon you And they were afflicted It was their fault Now, they are so sick This affliction is a physical affliction They are so sick that their soul Abhors all manner of meat They just don't want to eat They're so sick The thought of food is loathsome to them So their soul loathes or abhors food And they are drawing near to the gates of death They're dying Now, their sickness is the result of their own iniquity Maybe a sexually transmitted disease And they're just about ready to die Now, it's their fault You can't really blame God for the condition It's because of their transgression And in this state They cry unto the Lord in their trouble And He saves them out of their distresses Again, here they are, ready to die, their own fault But the mercy of God endures forever And another demonstration of God's mercy Though it is your fault Though you are to blame Yet when you call unto the Lord Because His mercy endures forever God will be merciful unto you God will forgive you God will deliver you God will heal you Oh, how good is God! And so He sent His word And healed them And He delivered them from the destruction Glorious! Even those who are there No one to blame but themselves And their own rebellion against God And yet God is so merciful When you call upon Him He'll heal Sent His word and healed them You know, how many times Has God brought healing to my life Through the word As I prayed There was just a scripture that would come That would minister to my heart God would send His word And I would lay claim to that word And I would find healing Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness And His wonderful works to the children of men Let them offer to Him The sacrifice of thanksgiving And declare His works with rejoicing In Hebrews we are told to offer to Him The sacrifice of praise Even the fruit of our lips And I think that that's what the psalmist is Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving That is, just our giving of thanks Let that be a pleasing and acceptable offering unto God Now He's talking about sailors They that go down to the sea in ships That do their business by crossing the great waters of the Mediterranean These people see the works of the Lord And His wonders in the deep For He commands and He raises the stormy wind Which lifts up the waves And I've seen that Mediterranean really churn In the storms They mount up to heaven, that is, on the top of the wave As the little ship is carried up on the top of the wave It looks like they're going to go right up to heaven Just huge waves But then they go down into the trough between the waves And looking at them from the beach And you see them way up on a wave And then you can't see them They're lost in the trough between the waves And so they go down again into the depths And their soul is melted because of their trouble They reel to and fro They stagger like a drunken man And they are at their wit's end We read how that when Paul was on the ship there in the Mediterranean The storm came up How that they did everything they knew to ride out the storm They threw out all the cargo They then threw out all the tackling Got the ship as light as possible so it would ride high on the water And they were doing their best to ride out the storm And finally they were at their wit's end They finally despaired They said, well, you know, we've had it, this is it Fourteen days being tossed there in the Mediterranean And on that evening The Lord stood by Paul and said, Paul You're going to make it Tomorrow the ship is going to be wrecked But there will be no loss of life Because you've got to get to Rome I want you to witness to Nero So in the morning Here they are, they've all despaired of life And Paul says, cheer up fellows We're going to make it The Lord stood by me last night The one that I serve And he assured me that we're going to make it There won't be a loss of life We'll lose our ship and all, but there won't be a loss of life And shortly after that They thought they heard the waves crashing on a beach And they sounded and they found that the water was getting shallower And there were some sailors Who decided to get into a little boat, one of the lifeboats And make it towards shore And Paul said to the centurion, if those guys leave You know, we won't make it So the centurion ordered them, cut the ropes of the little ship, let it go in the sea And then the ship ran aground The waves began to break it up But every guy grabbed on to a plank or whatever And they all floated into shore And not a loss of life Though the ship was wrecked there on the island of Malta But at their wits end It was then that they cried unto the Lord, why is it We wait until we get to our wits end No place else to turn, no one else to go to It's hopeless, try God You know, it's amazing how we'll try everything Stuff that we don't even have much confidence in But, you know, tried it all, might as well try that Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble And he brings them out of their distresses He makes the storm a calm So that the waves are still Then are they glad because of the quietness And so he brings them into their desired haven Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness And his wonderful works to the children of men I sometimes wonder If God doesn't let us Just expend ourselves and get to our wits end Just so we'll call on him You know, some of us just never call upon the Lord Unless we're in trouble So the Lord says, well I haven't heard from them for a while You know, let them alone Let them go to their own devices for a bit And man, things begin to fall apart and disasters Lord, Lord, it's oh, hi, haven't seen you for a while Nice to hear from you, you know Sit down, let's talk Oh, what needless pain we bear All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer Let them exalt him In the congregation of the people Let them praise him In the assembly of the elders And so the congregation of the people, when we gather together Our purpose is to exalt the Lord Our purpose is to praise him In the assembly Now, the rest of the chapter is devoted To just the works of God His marvelous works And his powerful works He turns the rivers Into a wilderness And water springs into dry ground There are areas of the earth Earth that were once Very lush Beautiful areas That are now wilderness The area of Sodom and Gomorrah Glorious, beautiful, lush Jordan Valley And yet because of the sin God turned it into a wilderness Dried up the rivers, the springs And the place became a barren wilderness The fruitful land Into barrenness For the wickedness, or because of the wickedness Of those that were dwelling there And surely Sodom and Gomorrah is a classic example of this He turns the wilderness Into standing water And dry ground into water springs God can work one way or the other He can take a wilderness and turn it Into a lake And dry ground into water springs Where he can make the hungry to dwell That they may prepare a city for habitation And sow the fields And plant the vineyards They always felt that the two essentials For life were bread and wine The vineyards for the wine, the sowing of the fields For the wheat, for the bread That it may yield the fruit of increase He blesses them also That they are multiplied greatly And he suffers not their cattle to decrease God's watchful hand over his children Again they are minished and brought low Through oppression, affliction and sorrow And he pours contempt upon the princes And causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way Yet he sets the poor on high From affliction And he makes his families like a flock The righteous shall see it and rejoice And it shall stop the mouths of those Filled with iniquity Now the psalmist closes by saying Whoever is wise Will observe these things How that God is in control How he can bring down The wicked And sustain the righteous Whoever is wise will observe these things Even they shall understand The loving kindness of the Lord Psalm 108 Is a compilation of two psalms Psalm 57 And Psalm 60 Psalm 57 Beginning with verse 7 Is very similar To verse 1 of this psalm Verse 8, 9, 10, 11 Of Psalm 57 Are the same as the first five verses here Psalm 60 Beginning with verse 5 Going through verse 12 Are similar or exactly alike To verse 7 Or rather verse 6 through 13 Here in this psalm So having covered Psalm 57 and Psalm 60 We've already looked at these However it is interesting The similarity as the psalmist is Picking out songs for the hymnal He puts a couple of the psalms together And makes this psalm out of two Of the previous songs Oh God my heart is fixed And that is something that we need A stable commitment To the Lord We sing I have decided to follow Jesus To make that kind of a commitment Lord my heart is fixed I've set my heart on Thee I'm going to serve You Lord No matter what my heart is fixed And therefore I will sing and give praise Even with my glory Awake psaltery and harp And I myself will awake early For I will praise Thee Oh Lord among the people And I will sing praises unto Thee Among the nations So I've determined to praise the Lord My heart is fixed I'm going to just declare His glory Sing His praises For Your mercy is great above the heavens And Your truth reaches Under the clouds Be exalted Oh God Above the heavens and Thy glory Above all the earth And so a repeat of Psalm 57 But it's worthwhile repeating It's the declaration, the determination I'm going to praise God I'm going to exalt Him for His mercy And His truth Now beginning with verse 6 we have Psalm 60 Beginning with verse 5 That Thy beloved may be delivered Save with Thy right hand And answer me God has spoken in His holiness And I will rejoice For I will divide Shechem And I will measure out the valley of Sukkoth Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine Ephraim also is the strength of mine head Judah is my lawgiver So the declaration of God's delivering the land Unto His people The area of Shechem That became part of Ephraim Sukkoth to the east Gilead on the other side of Jordan where Gad And Manasseh And Reuben half the tribe of Manasseh settled Ephraim the power Of the northern kingdom Judah the lawgiver The tribe from which the king David came Moab is my washpot They were the enemy The washpot is a term of scorn or derision Moab they're enemies They're my washbasin Over Edom I'll cast my shoe The idea is just The disdain for the enemies Over Philistia the Philistines I will triumph Who will bring me into the strong city Who will lead me into Edom Will not Thou O God Who has cast us off And will not Thou O God go forth with our host And so who is going to lead us And then the prayer God will you lead us Will you go with us As we go out against the enemies Give us help the prayer Give us help from trouble For vain is the help of man Oh that we would learn that That we would learn to turn to God for help How often we turn to man But vain is the help of man You see all of us are in the same boat We need God's help In another psalm the psalmist said Lord it's time for you to work The help of man is vain And the psalmist ends through God We shall do valiantly God will lead us Through him we'll do valiantly For it is he That shall tread down our enemies Oh the Lord is my strength the Lord is my helper The Lord is with me If God is for me who can be against me And so through God we'll do valiantly We shall tread down the enemies When you take God As your fortress as your refuge as your strength You can stand against all Powers of darkness Jesus said The gates of hell shall not prevail Against his church You are his you belong to him And through our God We'll do valiantly for it is he Who will tread down our enemies Oh how thankful I am That he's on my side The Lord is with me I shall not fear what man can do We'll return with more of our verse by verse study Through the book of the Psalms in our next lesson As we find David speaking out against his enemies And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you That if you missed any part of today's message Or 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Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters of this station With your correspondence And now on behalf of the word for today We'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse by verse venture Through the Psalms That's right here on the next edition of The word for today And now once again Here's Pastor Chuck Smith with today's closing prayer Help us Lord that We will be doers of the word and not hearers only And Lord help us that we might praise thee Fill our hearts and our lips With praise as Lord For your goodness And your wonderful works Unto us for us Thank you Lord for being there When we need you Thank you Lord for answering when we call Thank you Lord for delivering us out of our trouble And out of our distresses Because Lord we do admit That so often our trouble and our distresses come From our own disobedience Our own self willed ways And yet Lord you're so merciful Your mercy endures forever We thank you for it in Jesus name Amen Children love stories So it is with great honor to tell you about a children's book Written by Pastor Chuck called The Story of the Ten Commandments Just listen to what people are saying I love the word of God and I love my Pastor Chuck So whenever there's a book for kids To assist them in knowing what to do What to think what to say I recommend it I love these stories And it's a pleasure for me to know that you get to hear my dad Tell you the very same stories that he told me As a child I am so blessed to be part of this book By Pastor Chuck I love it when kids read in their own level I hope parents take advantage of this And may the Lord bless you This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California