<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

Decree to Destroy Turned to Deliverance

Well, on Wednesday, April 10, 1912, at noon, the Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage with approximately 2, 220 passengers and crew.

The largest and most luxurious ship ever built up until that time perching a double bottom hole and 16 watertight compartments which were believed to be unsinkable.

Many had tickets but for various reasons were unable to board.

Interestingly, Elizabeth's great-grandmother, this is Ted's mother's mother, Teresa Berterek, I believe is how you say it, was coming to America.

She was a single lady hoping to start a new life here, but was denied passage.

Whether or not she had tickets, We don't know, but her intent was to get on the lowest class she could to board the Titanic and come to America, but it didn't happen.

But there are many other documented cases of those that were scheduled to be on board.

1 of those was Reverend John Stuart Holden.

He had purchased a ticket but was delayed because of his wife's illness and so he never got on the boat.

David Blair was originally assigned to be the second officer on the Titanic but last minute there was a change and they replaced him with Henry Wilde from 1 of Titanic's sister ships, the Olympic.

And their reason was they wanted someone more experienced.

And so it was reported that David Blair was quite upset, actually, at this last minute change.

He was looking forward to this prestigious voyage and so on, but he had to write to his family and say, alas, it won't be me.

Gustav Leslie was a young Englishman who planned to sail on the Titanic, but he missed the ship due to getting lost first in London.

There was a time that I was driving over in Europe and we missed our off ramp And the next 1 was literally like 30 minutes down the road.

By the time we got there, got off, got back on, and drove the 30 minutes back, that was a tense hour.

I tried to be calm and practice my deep breathing, but there's nothing you can do.

But then there's another family, Alfred and Ida Simmons and their 2 children, they had purchased third-class tickets for the Titanic.

He was a Baptist minister with plans to immigrate to the United States and start a new life there, but because of miscommunications and delays they arrived late at the dock only to watch the ship pull away and leave without them.

You're running to the gate to catch your connection and you see the plane back away and you say, it's right there, just let me get on board.

People are yelling and shouting and we're crying, ah, we missed our boat.

Even the cost, I mean, they're getting a third class ticket because they can't afford anything else and now their ship has sailed.

I'm trying to wrap my mind around the frustration, packing, getting the family ready, everything that you own essentially, the emotional build-up and then left behind.

When just 5 days later The boat sank in the Atlantic and took 1, 500 lives.

I imagine in those moments, their disappointment and frustration turned to a strange sense of relief and thankfulness and the turn of events.

What seemed to be a curse for this family and for others turned out to be a blessing.

It reminds me of other stories in the Bible.

You remember the story of Balaam and the wicked prophet who out of greed sought to curse the people of God.

And he wrote this, nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you.

Taking the chapters, the challenging chapters of your experience and turn them into a blessing?

The verse here tells us, because the Lord your God loves you.

And so I wanna take a few moments this morning looking at this idea of God turning a curse into a blessing.

I think of Joseph, sold as a slave, sent off to live in a secular and foreign land, never to see his family again, he's supposed.

Cursed, if you will, suffers for God as a slave, suffers for him in prison, accused.

But over and over again, God turns the curse into a blessing.

In fact we read in this story at the very end Genesis chapter 50 verse 20, you meant evil against me, talking to his brothers, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many alive.

You intended it for evil, but God used it for good.

God took the curse of his brothers and turned it into a blessing.

For thousands of people crossed the land, including his own brothers and family.

I think of this story of Mordecai and Haman.

Mordecai refused to bow down before the evil and wicked Haman, and so in infuriation and frustration Haman resolved to put Mordecai to death, but also all of his people, the Jews, to death.

And as that story unfolds, Haman has these huge gallows built for which he intends to hang Mordecai on.

But as the plot unfolds and in the twist of the book, rather than honoring Haman, the king honors Mordecai.

He lives in Haman's house, and of course, Haman is hung on the gallows that he built.

And the Jewish people are able to defend themselves and overcome, And it's yet another story of how God turns the curse of Mordecai and the Jewish people into a blessing.

I think of Saul on the Damascus road, knocked off his horse, a bright light and a voice, Saul, Saul, Why are you persecuting me?

Acts 9, 9 says for 3 days he didn't eat or drink.

Essentially Saul wanted to die, take my life.

But then you remember the story, Ananias comes and says, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you came has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And it says, immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales and he received his sight at once and he arose and was baptized.

The curse towards Saul, the curse through Saul, was turned miraculously by God into a blessing.

And he became 1 of the most influential forces in building the New Testament church.

Only God can do something like that, incredible.

Nevertheless, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.

And so at this time I wanna invite up no stranger to this congregation, Kevin and Shannon Johnson, as I've asked them to share their story, but you guys have been through an awful lot.

And this church is not unfamiliar with your story, but I'm not sure they know all the pieces of your story as we got bits and pieces.

And as it unfolds, you know, there's a lot happening in your home that you're trying to process that you're not necessarily putting out there.

But let's go back to the end of 2021, right before Christmas, what happened?

I'm glad Pastor Wright has equated the Titanic with my story.

It was a joke kind of in our family, it has been for a long time, that I was kind of like the Titanic unsinkable, I was unsickable.

I, during COVID, I was always willing to go out because I was like, I don't get sick.

But in December of 2021, we're about to go the next day to leave on vacation on a trip with my family, and our oldest son was really sick.

So we wanted to make sure that he was already asleep, but we wanted to make sure not to give it to the rest of the family.

And so the next week, all 4 of us were pretty sick, Shannon and I the most.

But when the week was over, I felt a lot better.

Her parents actually came down because they were getting COVID and she wanted to take care of them.

So I was running errands, getting things for them.

And about 2 weeks after I had gotten initially gotten COVID, I got COVID pneumonia and my oxygen level dropped really low.

Tron said, you got to go to the emergency room immediately it's it's bad they need to check it out we're afraid of blood clots and so I went into ER and they did a CT scan had me walk around and once I got to the hospital my oxygen was fine could not get it to stay low.

We'll just have to wait on the results of the CT.

They came back with the CT scan and said, nope, everything looks good.

Obviously, you just want to continue watching, keeping an eye on that aneurysm that you already know about.

Back to Menu

Decree to Destroy Turned to Deliverance

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Norman McNulty Weekend

On the Border of the Heavenly Canaan

44m

No Trial Wasted

39m

The Anchor Holds

52m

God’s Perspective of Trials: Why You’ll Want More

1h 9m

ASI 2014 Plenary Sessions

Lessons on Loss

45m

The National Reform Movement & The Mark of the Beast

1h 3m

Got Thinking Problems?

When Life Is so Unfair - Part 2

1h 12m

Talking Points 3rd Quarter 2022: In the Crucible with Christ

03 The Birdcage

26m

The Battle Against Discouragement and From Roots to Harvest

46m

Joseph

Passivity is the Enemy

43m

The Three Angel's Messages

02 The Everlasting Gospel

1h 7m

The Sanctuary

07 The Sanctuary: Light in the Darkness

56m

Sound Doctrine