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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. And reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

So are you going to have storms in life? Yeah, you’re going to have some storms in life and you ought to be thrilled to death that you get that opportunity to demonstrate your faith in God. A lot of people run from these trials and tribulations in fear and in trembling. But you ought to welcome like you’re just getting a pot of gold sent to you. Because when you get to heaven, God’s going to reward you richly because of your faithfulness and the time of testing.

Now here in the book of Luke, look there in the book of Luke chapter 8. And look in verse 22, chapter 8 verse 22, Jesus steals the waves. Must have been a storm. Look in verse 22, now He came to pass on a certain day that He went into a ship with the disciples. He said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake, and they launched forth. And as they sailed he fell asleep, and there came down a storm of wind upon the lake, and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.

They said to him, and woke him. Say, and Master, Master, we perish! Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they seized, and there was a calm. When He said unto them, you ought to underline this statement in your Bible. Where is your faith? Where is your faith? Now remember, they must have some, but maybe they have it in the wrong place. You see, there’s a few things mentioned here. One is the sailors.

One is the ship. One is the sea. One is the storm. And one is the Savior. So you’ve got these five things in this verse. The sailors, that was them. They were the sailors. Were they trusting in their ability? And that’s why they were worried because they knew they didn’t have what it takes to deliver themselves from the storm. So evidently, maybe they were trusting in themselves. And if they trust in themselves, what usually happens whenever you don’t see a way up?

That’s produces the fear. And a lot of people are scared to death because they can’t make something happen. They don’t have the wisdom, the talent, the ability to perform. To work those little miracles that they want. And they don’t like to be shown up because of the element of pride. Nobody wants to be humbled. And that’s why the Bible talks about Moses. Moses had made the statement, Lord, don’t let me see how wicked I am. All the people are against me.

And he didn’t know what he was going to do. He said, I’m ready to commit suicide. I’m ready to get out of here. So don’t let me see my wickedness. Nobody wants to be seen to be weak and lack of faith. Everybody likes to put forth that I’m strong in the Lord. And God says, I’m gonna let you see whether or not Are you really strong in the Lord? Or because I haven’t tested you good enough in certain areas?

That’s why the Bible talks about multiple testing, diversity of testing, all kinds to see what you’re made out of. Yeah, that says here. And verse 22, and it came to pass on a certain day that he went into a ship with the disciples and he said unto them, let us go over onto the other side of the lake. Wait a minute, who told them that? Jesus did. Whose idea was it getting a boat? Jesus, whose idea was to go on the other side of the lake?

Jesus. Didn’t he say let us go over to the other side of the lake? Why would they question a doubt that ever arrived? Didn’t he just tell them we’re going to the other side? So what did he do? What did he do? He went to sleep. He went to sleep. Evidently he don’t care about us. I mean, he’s the Lord. He can just do anything he wants to. He can walk on the water. But what about us? Do you believe that God can deliver you?

Regardless of the problem. Regardless of what you need. And so therefore, there’s people who put their confidence in themselves. The sailors. They didn’t have what it takes to deliver them. Then you look at the next thing down here. It talks about that they went in a ship. Well, what if you wouldn’t care about a storm if the ship was big enough? I have been on the U.S. Abraham Lincoln. It’s a huge aircraft carrier. This whole 7,000 people is a city.

And I don’t care what storm came up. I would have slept like a rock. And I watched the waves and so forth, and that thing never moved one eye out. Because the ship was big and I was trusting in the ship. And I didn’t worry about anything. Why? Because the ship was big. But what if God causes your ship to be small? And you see, when it’s small, and maybe the money is small, you ever been where you didn’t have a lot of money?

Not enough money to meet the need. And then God has failed you. and you weep and wail and nash your teeth. And if there’s a God up there, then how come he don’t do something about it? Well, maybe he is doing something about it. He’s watching you squirm. He’s watching you squirm. And wants to see whether or not, are you gonna trust him? Do you love money more? What kind of an attitude do you have? Wine and pine and mornin’ groan.

My God is a wonderful God. He’s an awesome God. He just don’t know how to provide for me. Well, God is going to reveal things to you, and that’s what you’re afraid of. You’re afraid sometime to see how weak you are. And that you know if it wasn’t for the grace of God, you wouldn’t be standing at all. If God allowed certain tests to come your way, do you realize you may not stand? I just got word last night that some preacher up there in Hammon, Indiana, messed up with a 16 year old girl.

It was the largest church in the world. It was a church where Dr. Jack Hiles was the pastor, his son in law. Maybe he got too big for his britches. Maybe he just saw a 16 year old girl. It’s cost him the ministry. Probably will put him in jail. And you know what? He’ll probably blame God. Did you know that God can allow a person to be tested because he knows where you really are and when you fall it won’t be because of that that that’s just revealed your weakness in advance.

See God already knows whether or not where is your faith is your faith in you and what you can do and when you can’t see that you have the power to do certain things you’re scared to death you’re fearful you tremble, but look what else. You see, evidently the ship must not have been too big because it was tossed to and fro. And so it says here, there’s the sea. You see, it’s okay when the sea was calm. They weren’t worried when they were in the boat, in the water, when the water was still.

This sea, I have been on the sea of Galilee. I’ve been right there I preached on the Sea of Galilee many times. I enjoy it. I’ve also seen it when it’s been a little on the rough side. The rough of the water, the bigger the ship I’d rather have. But you see, when the sea is calm, everything’s fine. They will not be complaining. When things are going easy in your life, you’d be surprised how, boy, is God good. Isn’t God good?

God is just so good. Yeah. Did you know when everything falls apart in your life, God is still just as good. God has not changed. God’s character doesn’t change. He is immutable. He doesn’t change. He’s always good. He is a good God. He is a loving God. He loves you with an everlasting love. He’ll never leave you and never forsake you. He is with you. He walks with you, casts all your cares upon Him. Well, that’s easy preaching and hard living, ain’t it?

Now, what else did they see? What else did they see? They saw themselves. That wasn’t going to be sufficient. Their faith shouldn’t have been there. And it’s all the sea, well, their face shouldn’t have been in that because the sea produced the waves that produced the ship, the ship evidently must have been a problem. There’s the storm. It’s the storm comes. The storm rages and they can’t stop a storm. It’d be like Yankee been out there stopping this last one.

big rain that we had come through here. Lord, keep it out there in the God. Can you see me out here in the parking lot doing that person that are with us? I think there would be a problem. I don’t think I got the ability to do that. There are storms that’s going to come in your light that’s going to shake you to your core. To see what in the world are you made out of. And people always enjoy watching how somebody else handles their problems because you want to know how strong are they, how stabilized are they and sometimes they might need somebody to come along and give them a word of encouragement.

Are you the one that stands back and says, man look at that, he got a storm in his life, he’s got a fall, I just know he’s got a fall. Or you’re supposed to go along and try to help and encourage one and heaven, look just keep your eyes on the Lord, just keep trusting the Lord. I don’t know how God’s gonna do this but God’s gonna work it out a person needs to focus upon Christ and knowing that he will not leave you and not forsake you and God will see you through.

You see, there’s one other thing. The one they thought they should be trusting in, they’re supposed to know who they are and know where they are and love them was asleep. You ever think sometimes God has gone on a vacation? You know, he’s wound you all up and set you loose and say, I’ll see y’all in about a thousand years. But do you believe that God, since He never slumbers and never sleeps, there’s no sense both of you staying awake at night?

You’re not supposed to embarrass God or insult God, I should say. By thinking that your problems are so big, He can’t handle them. Or to insult God by thinking your problems are too small to bother Him with. He says, cast all your tears upon Him, all of them big and small, because God wants your trust in Him all the time. He wants you to look to Him. Look what He says here in verse 24, and they came to Him and woke Him saying, Master, Master, we perish.

Then He arose to rebuke the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was was a calm, there was a calm. And then in verse 25, and He said unto them, where is your faith? And they, being afraid, wondered. Why were they afraid after He calmed the wind, after He calmed the storm, after there was peace? Why were they still afraid because they knew they didn’t do it because they knew the one they had on board was God.

Or even the winds and the waves obey His will. Take your Bible look there in the book of Mark chapter 4, just turn back to the left a few pages, Mark 4. Just look at this very quickly again, verse 35. And the same day when the evening was come, he said to them, let us pass over onto the other side. When they had sent away the multitudes, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other Little ships, little ships.

And there arose a great storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. He was in the hinder part of the ship. A sleep on a pillow. And they awake him and said unto him, Master, care is not thou that we perish. That’s an interesting statement. Lord, do you realize that I need some money and I don’t have none? Don’t you care? Don’t you care about me? Lord, I need this. What is it you need?

What have you talked to God about? Can you trust the Lord to come through in the nick of time? Trust Him. And you’ll be surprised what God will do for you. But He’s looking for you. a person with faith. And God knows whether or not you have faith in Him when you have the peace of God. Now we’ll keep Him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon, they trust you in the Lord Jehovah, and the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

There is strength and there’s joy in trusting the Lord. And when your joy isn’t gone, it means your faith isn’t in Him. It’s limited. Therefore, God says this, let it be under you according to your faith. Well, I don’t see God. God’s going to do this. Well, based on that, he might not. I don’t know how God’s going to do it, but I know He will. Probably will be it under you according to your faith. What can you trust God for?

Where is your faith? Look what else He says here. When he makes that statement there in verse 38, carers, not that we perish. Doesn’t the Bible say some player about cast all your care upon him or he careth for us? And then you’ll ask the question, God, don’t you care? Don’t you care? Well, he says in another person, remember who he is? What he said. There’s none greater. He cannot lie. Does God care? Does God care about you? Does God care about this church?

Does God care about your family? God does care. You can’t love your husband more than God does. You can’t love your wife more than God does. You can’t love your children more than God does. You can’t love this church more than God does. You can’t do it. It’s impossible. The only love you have is what you’ve got from him. Do you think you have more than him? Do you think that your desire to please God is greater than God’s desire for you to please him?

Don’t overestimate God or underestimate God by thinking that God doesn’t care. Does God care? Does God know every problem that you now have? Does he know the ones that you’re going to get? Yeah. But there’s something God wants that’s so very important. There’s a story about a woman who had an issue of blood and she was coming up behind Christ and the doctors couldn’t help her. And she touched the hem of his garment. And he turned around and said, who touched me?

Remember the story? He says, Master, everybody’s touching you. Not with faith. Not with faith. Somebody touched me that believes that I can do something for them. And he says, virtue has gone out of me. You see, God knows who believes. In John, the Gospel of John, chapter two, it says that Jesus knew what was in man. Do you know that God already knows whether you trust Him or not? A lot of times the testing is to reveal it to you.

Because God already knows, God is God. So God wants to reveal to you that your trust is not in Him. Because He trusts in the Lord produces the peace and the joy and the happiness that you ought to have. Now, as I’m teaching this, I’m also preaching to myself. Don’t think just because, well, you’re 70 years old. You don’t have to face the decisions like we do. Yes, I do. I could write a book. There’s all kinds of things, all the time.

It never stops. But you want to keep your eyes focused upon the Lord, lest the decisions of life and people and things get you so sidetracked and you lose who you really are and the important things in life. God wants you and I to walk with Him and to trust Him. Look what He says there in verse 39, And he arose, rebuked the wind, and set unto the sea. Peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

He said unto them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? Didn’t he already tell them, Let’s get in the boat and we’ll go to the other side. Then don’t you think that if their trust was in the Lord, they’ll get to the other side. They were worried for their own life. I didn’t ask to be born. Nobody did. So here we are. I didn’t ask for all the things that happens in my life.

But God has seen fit to bring things into my life and take things out of my life. It doesn’t really matter what it is. Because I know at the end of the road and when I get to heaven, God is going to reward me for being faithful. in a steward that a man be found faithful, not rich, popular, good-looking, ugly, it don’t matter, faithful. So that’s something everybody can do with what God’s given to you. Everybody can be faithful.

You can put your trust in the Lord after you trusted them as your Savior and you can walk with the Lord. But what else he says verse 41. And they feared exceedingly and said one to another, what manner of man is this? That even the winds and the sea obey Him. What kind of a person is this? He’s the Lord, is God. You know why these stories are in the Bible? So you and I can have great consolation. Look who we’re talking about.

We’re talking about Him that entered into the veil, into the Holy of Holies, and we are anchored to Him, we’re anchored. And that’s why your faith is to be in the Lord. And He is unloved, that He is my rock. He’s my rock, my sword, my shield. There’s a song about that I wish I could remember, but I don’t remember. I hope you don’t mind my singing every once in a while, it won’t hurt you none. You can endure anything for a short period of time.

So look up here. This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. It’s all the bad things that we do. I want you to know that God loves us. God loves you, He loves me. He hates what we do wrong. He hates our sin. And the Bible says that we have all sinned and come short of God’s perfection. See God is perfect. We’re not. We’ve all come short of His righteousness. But to go to heaven you’ve got to be perfect as righteous as God, just as if you had never sinned.

Well, God says you cannot save yourself. You need to save you. And the Bible says you cannot earn your way to heaven by your good works. So this hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because he loves us. Hates our sin because it separates us from him. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die, but he took all of the sins, paid for them on the cross, came back from the dead.

And when we talk about Christ died for me, that means he paid for my sins. What that means is I don’t have to pay for my sins. What that means is I don’t have to go to hell. I don’t have to go to hell and pay for one sin. He paid for all my sins. And all I have to do is believe he did it for me. And he puts this payment to my account. I go to heaven on what he did, not what I do.

Now, after you trust Christ as your Savior and you have eternal life and you’re going to heaven when you die. God wants us to learn how to walk by faith. You see how we were saved. We were saved not because of any good works that we did. We were saved because we believed that he, there’s an ungrader, paid for our sins. And he gave us his word that if I believe he did it for me, he would put this payment to my account.

He promised to give me eternal life and he cannot lie. So I am born into God’s family and I get to go to heaven on what he said. Now, if we can trust him to take us to heaven, can you trust your heavenly Father? for a hamburger from day to day. He said, but what if I die? You still go unto heaven, aren’t you? Death isn’t the worst thing that could happen to you. The worst thing that could happen to you is to stay down here forever, like this.

The best thing that could happen to me is to drop dead, absent from the body present with the Lord. And the older I get, the better it looks. Christ died for me. Now that I know Him as my Savior, I want to see just what it’s going to be like when I get to heaven and what He’s going to give me. I can’t wait for the surprise. He says He will honor and praise and glory. You know, you’ve been watching the Olympics and you see them standing up there and they’re for their country and all the tears and their victory.

That illustration is what’s taught in the book of 1 Corinthians 9. When we run in a race, you run to win, but they are corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible crown. Because one day when it’s all over and we stand before the jebbins of the Christ, the rewarding stand, God is going to give us the praise, the honor and the glory because you were victorious because God allowed you to be challenged. All these things in the Olympics, they don’t just give out those awards.

They have to earn them, and they work and they sweat for years for maybe a minute or a two or three minute ordeal. And some of them are broken-hearted because of all the labor they put into it, and then they come crashing down or one little mistake and then they lose it all for their country. But when you serve the Lord, you don’t lose. Every man shall receive praise of God that deserves praise of God. You may not get it from man down here, but that’s not why you’re doing it.

You’re doing it for the Lord, and when you get there, it will be worth it all. Let’s pray, shall we? If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, if you’re listening, if you’re never really understood, would you right now the best you know how? Say, Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died that He paid for my sins and I’m gonna trust Him to take me to heaven when I die. And friend, if you will trust Him, God said He will save you and give you eternal life.

You’ll go to heaven on what He did for you. Would you trust Him? Does anyone at all say, yes, that made sense to me and I will trust Christ as my Savior tonight and preach your life for you to pray for me. If you’ve never done it before, would you do it right now? Would you slip your hand very quickly and put it right back down? Anyone at all? If you have trust that Christ is your Savior, Where’s your faith?

You’re already going to heaven. You know that. You know that the Lord, He’s your father. You’re His child. He knows who you are. He knows where you are. He knows what you’re going through. Can you trust Him? Can you put your confidence in Him? And say, Lord, I don’t know how you’re going to do this. I don’t know when you’re going to do it. But I believe that you will. And maybe you’re having a rough time right now. You say, preach of that made sense to me.

And I needed that message tonight. And I am struggling. I do have some things. And I like to have special prayer tonight. Would you just slip your hand very quickly and put it up back down? And let’s God bless you and you and you and you. God bless you. There’s a million. I appreciate that. It’s just a science in Lord. I’m needy. I need help. Our Father, we thank You so much for all that You’ve done for us. And Father, there’s many here tonight that said, Lord, I need this.

I need encouragement. I want to put my confidence in you. Lord, I don’t know how you’re going to bring me through this or whatever it might be, but I’m going to trust you. I’m going to walk with you and cast my cares upon you and believe that you’ll do what you promised that you would do. We thank you for the Christ name. Amen. You’ve been listening to another great lesson from Pastor Arnold, and we hope that you’re growing in the knowledge of the Lord through this ministry.

To help you continue your growth and maturing, we are going to give those who make a financial donation in any amount, the DVD teaching series, How to Witness to a Jewish Person. You know, most Christians think Jews really know the Old Testament, but in reality, most know very little. Though most are familiar with some terms of the Bible, very few know any details about how Abraham, their patriarch was saved. Most have never read Isaiah 53 and have no idea it’s all about Jesus.

So for this month only, for a donation in any amount, we’ll send you this DVD teaching series on how to witness to the Jew. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634.

And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.