Three common mistakes when in trouble…

We are looking in Acts 27 at a trip by the Apostle Paul on a ship when some trouble came up.  The guys decided to sail the ship into the Mediterranean Sea and Paul said, “Don’t do it or we’ll go into a storm", and they made three common mistakes.  They are the exact three mistakes we tend to make that get us into trouble.

1.  We listen to bad advice.  Verse 11 (TEV), “...they followed the advice of the pilot...” 

GOD had already said not to do it.  Paul had warned them.  But because the “expert” said it was OK, they did it.  There are a lot of experts in the world.  They are on every talk show.  They’ll tell you all kinds of stuff.  If GOD tells you to do one thing and all the experts in the world tell you to do differently, don’t listen to the experts.  Listen to what GOD says. 

2.     We follow the crowd.  Verse 12 (TEV), “the majority decided that we should sail...”

  

There were 276 on the boat.  The vote was 273 to 3 to sail.  The majority is often wrong.  One of the phrases you hear “but everybody’s doing it”.  So what?  Everybody can be wrong. 

Don’t base your morality on some popular opinion poll.  Peer pressure keeps a lot of people from doing what GOD wants them to do.  Peer pressure causes a lot of people to get into problems. 

3.  We rely on circumstances.  Verse 3 (TEV), “When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted...” 

They thought it was a nice day for sailing.  Paul said, “Don’t do it, we’re heading into a storm.”  But they went anyway and they shipwrecked.

Satan can arrange circumstances.  You should not go through every open door you see.  You should not take advantage of every opportunity you have.  You should not accept every job offer given to you.  You should not date everybody that asks you out on a date.  You need to ask if this is what GOD wants. 

Just a thought from the front porch…