Living in troubled waters - Audio

The Costa Concordia had made her voyage in the Mediterranean Sea many times, but on this particular occasion, she ran aground due to an unauthorized course change made in the navigational system. She ran aground in familiar waters, because she deviated from the approved coarse. All indications were that the captain changed the ship’s course to bring it closer into the coast in order to show of his skill, or to provide a better view to the passengers. When she hit the reef, the passengers were assured that it was nothing but a minor electrical problem. It was a full hour before measures were taken to safeguard the passengers. Too often we live in troubled waters, and we do not take measures to assure our safety. This morning, Bro. Hughes comes as a messenger to someone who may not be in trouble but the course they are navigating is treacherous. In our text the ship Paul was in ran aground and began to break apart. They lost all their cargo. Like the captain of the Concordia, the captain of Paul's boat ignored good advice. Paul's boat ran into trouble at the coming together of two different seas. Two different currents pushing in different directions caused it to wreck. The storm added to the danger, but the real problem was the opposing forces that caused the chaos. What brought them to that place? Not only were they dealing with the storm on the surface, they also had to deal with the currents under the surface that had even a greater affect on their journey. What brought them into troubled waters in the first place? Bro. Hughes identifies three things that led Paul’s ill fated voyage into troubled waters. Before they even left port, Paul advised the captain of the dangers ahead, but the captain did not heed the warning. The captain chose to ignore the advise of the preacher in favor of his desire to explore. This discontented spirit put the ship and all aboard into danger. The captain's eyes were not on the situation, but on where he wanted to be. He risk his life, his ship and the lives of all aboard because of a discontented spirit. It is extremely important to be content with what we have. This discontented spirit led them into troubled waters. Not only were they in discontent, but they also misjudged their circumstances. They made the decision to leave port because it was not suited to them. They misjudged the winds. When they started out they were headed in one direction, but by the time we find them in our text, they were 500 miles off course. The misjudgments in life can cause people to miss the signs of a journey going off course and into danger. When we only hear what we want to hear, we are certainly headed into troubled waters. If we get to the point where the man of God or God Himself speaks a word of warning to us and we ignore it, we are surely headed for troubled waters. Finally, when the storm began to increase, the captain surely tried to outrun it. The real problem for those headed into troubled waters, is that they think they can outrun their problems. There are some things that we cannot out run. We cannot outrun poor decisions. Why try to outrun it? Why not go back to a safe place? We all meet with cross currents in life. When those cross currents are the result of our own poor decisions, it is time to take a step back and change coarse. It is time to look inside to find the source of the problem. It is time to exercise the spirit of discontent, to not misjudge the signs of trouble and to listen to the warnings from the man of God.