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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. You can 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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

You know there are stories in the Bible that illustrates people who go through hard times. And even though you had like a man like Elijah who did seven miracles and you have Elisha that did fourteen miracles, they picked and choose who they helped. Not everybody was cured of leprosy. Not everybody had their children raised from the dead. Not everybody had everything that God did for certain people. It just didn’t work that away. Take your Bible and turn to 2 Kings and chapter 4.

Kings in chapter 4. I want to share with you a couple of ladies that were really having a hard time. Sometimes women really do have to go through it. This is talking about a widow, now she lost her husband, still had a kid to raise, and things were really rough, really bad. So sometimes that happens in life and even happens a day. But one of the things around in the but we are going to be doing If something happens, you know, the wife or the kids will have some way of seeing their way clear.

a little bit more, we are going to be doing a good couple of looks. And once you have these little books on you, we can know. I mean, when you go into the home or do you have a little little bit more books on This is one of the reasons why you should seek not to try to get so far in debt because if something happens to the person who… you? Yep, sure. In this case, we’re going to say, we’re going to continue to see a little bit more of this little bit.

Right now, let’s start with this, we’re going to be doing a little bit more of this little bit more rooting to get a little bit one that passes away and they’ve made no arrangements of any kind in advance. And yet you know you’re going to die but you don’t want to plan on it because well if I plan on it I’ll probably die. It’s like for years I didn’t have a spare tire so I never had a flat. So as I got a spare tire I had flats.

Moral of the story is don’t have a spare tire. No. In 2 Kings in chapter 4 look there in verse 1. Now this This is a little story about a woman who comes to see a man of God. Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets. Now she is the wife of the son of the prophets and they had like a Bible school. And she came to Elisha saying, Thy servant, my husband is dead.

And thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord. the creditor is come to take from him my two sons to be bondsmen.reement. So evidently somewhere along the line times were hard. Some believe that they borrowed money in order to send the preachers could go to the school, you know, to a Bible college. The sons of the prophets. Anyway, he was in debt. But what did he put up for collateral? His kids. Now doesn’t that make a lot of sense?

put your kids up for collateral. If they’re worth anything, you know, don’t mortgage your house. Don’t mortgage your land. Put your kids up. I think it sounds great to me. So, you know, if you don’t make your payment, it’s all on kids. I mean, it’s been nice to know you. So anyway, she says in verse 2, and the life is set under her, what shall I do for thee? Tell me What has to out in the house? What do you have?

And she said, thine handmade half not anything in the house. I mean, the cupboards are bare. There’s nothing there. They’d have anything to eat. They didn’t have money to pay the bills. Creditors were banging at the door, coming to get the kid. Says, except I got a pot of oil. And sometimes the pot of oil was what they kept in case They died, they had oil for anointing the dead and things like that. And maybe left over from Baron Erhus, but…

She said, oh, I got left as this little pot of oil. So he told her he sold her to do something. Now remember, it seemed like God does for you what you can’t do, but he does expect you to do what you can. And always remember God promises they do not fail, but our faith at times will fail. But God doesn’t fail. His promises doesn’t fail. So anyway, he says in verse three, then he said, go, borrow the vessels abroad and, of all thy neighbors.”

Now, evidently they’ve already done borrowed more than they could afford. Now they were in debt and he says, go borrow vessels from all of your neighbors. Then that’s not a good clue. He had something that he was going to have her do. So she could go and get all of that. He said, and don’t just get a few. He told her, get a lot, not a few, but a lot. So it says there in verse 4, and when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thy sons and shall pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.

So she was supposed to go get all these vessels, and she’s to take that one little thing of oil that she had and start filling up these vessels and fill them up full. I would like to have a source that doesn’t run dry. You ever heard of a money tree? You ever heard of a woman who marries a man because he’s a sugar daddy just for the money? Well anyway, poured it in there and then sent all these vessels.

Now, if they had told me to do that, that wouldn’t have been room left for any more vessels in the house. I borrowed bathtubs, big buckets. Who knows? I don’t know if she knew in advance. It’s just exactly what he was going to do. But then naturally she got them again. He said, now, fill them up. And look what he says. In the last part of verse four, “‘And thou shalt set aside that which is full.’ So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her and she poured out.

It came to pass when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, bring me yet at a vessel.” He says under her, there is not a vessel more, there’s not any more vessels. Then you’ll notice and the oil stayed or stopped. So the oil stopped because there was no more vessels. And sometimes we failed to picture that what God says in His Word is, open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. Do you ever ask God for anything?

And when What can you do? Is it something really simple and small and you couldn’t tell if you ever answered your prayers or not? Or do you ask for something really gigantic that if he did it, you know God had to do that? Well that’s kind of like stories in the Old Testament that helps us to understand in the New Testament some things that God promises to us. Look what else he says. This says in verse 7, and she came and told the man of God and he says, go sell the oil, the dead and lived thou and thy children on the rest.”

Now, wouldn’t you like to find that little thing of oil that she had? But you know, he did what she couldn’t do. But God does expect us touggest what we can do and look for a miraculous way for God to work. I kind of wrote down on my little note here, God may not send you a miracle, but mercy if you trust Him. Mercy if you trust Him, and we should trust Him. Sometimes we expect, you know, God, well, he’s not gonna do anything anyway, so you don’t ask for anything, don’t expect anything.

Now, in the very next story, is a story about another woman. Don’t look what he did for this woman. You see, the Bible says that God says you’re supposed to look after the widows and so forth and those that don’t have a husband. And there’s just certain things in Scripture that says, did that? And so here’s a man of God and he has been given the ability by God to perform miracles. So look there in verse 8. And it fell on a day that Elisha passed through Shunim, where was a great woman and she constrained him to eat bread?

Now, we don’t know exactly how great she was, but there’s some things in history that the rabbis got a few things, but we don’t have time for that right now. But believe it, she was a good woman, a godly individual. And so it was that as off as he passed by, he turned in there to eat some bread. And she said unto her husband, behold now, I perceive that this is unholy man of God, who passes by us continually.

So she must have some spiritual discernment. I perceive this as a holy man. Remember now, he’s the one that had the school of the prophets. So he taught these young prophets, you know, the word of God, and thing to do, not to do, and so on. And so she says, let’s do something special for him. Come when he come by, you know, he didn’t have a place to stay, but they’d give him something to eat. So she says in verse 10, let us make a little chamber.

I pray thee on the wall and let us sit for him there a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick and it shall be when he come to us that he shall turn into there. But notice those little items that she prepared for a bed, a candlestick, as a table, a stool. So that whenever he comes by, he’s got a place to stay. So here was a woman that was taken care of this man’s, she believed, to be a holy man of God.

And let’s let him have a place to stay. So it says there in verse 11, and it fell on a day that he came to the other. and he turned into the chambers and he lay there. And he said to Gahazi his servant, call this a Shuna might, and when he had called her, she stood before him, he said unto him, say now unto her, behold thou have been careful for us with all this care. In other words, you’ve taken care of us, you’ve met our needs and blah, blah, blah, blah.

What would you like? You want me to put in a good word for you to put a king? Or maybe somebody else, I can put in a good word for you. I’m Elijah. So he says there in verse 13, behold thou hast been careful for us with all this care. What is to be done for thee? Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king or the captain of the host? And she answered, I like where I’m at. I’ll just stay right here and this is fine.

So anyway, you think that, okay, well what can I do for a person doesn’t want anything. And she says, you know, my husband is old and she’s maybe younger, I guess. It says that he was old. So in verse 14 he said, what then is to be done for her? And Daha’i answered, very, she hath no child and her husband is old. And he says, call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door and he says, got some good news for you.

It didn’t say that she wanted this good news, but she was going to get some good news. According or about this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she says, what? She says, no. Nay, my Lord, thou man of God do not lie unto thy handmaid.” Now it’s not so much that she didn’t want a child, but she didn’t want at that stage of life to have a child and then lose the child.

If you’re going to give me one, let me have one that can carry on after I’m dead. And so it was interesting. In verse 17, and the woman conceived and bear a son at that season that Elisha had said into her according to the time of life, which is what? Nine months. I’m glad y’all do that. Now there’s a problem. It seemed like good things turn into bad things. So in verse 18, it says, and when the child was grown, and when the child might be grown, grown, grown, maybe six years old, something like that, you’d never know, but it was still a child.

And when the child was grown, it fell on a day and he went out to his father’s to the reapers. So he had to be big enough to go out. And maybe in the hot sun, maybe he got a stroke. Nobody knows exactly what the problem was, but he says, my head, my head. Got a headache. Hurting. Maybe dizzy. But anyway, he said to a lad, carry him to his mother.

So he had a lad who was not a grown man, carry the child. So I don’t think a little lad would carry a grown man. But anyway, says in verse 20, and when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon and then died. So if the scripture says he died, guess what? He died. I’ll have some Well, I don’t know if it was really dead. The Bible says he died, and the Bible says he died.

He died. And verse 21, and she went up and lay on the bed of the man of God, laid him on the bed of the man of God. And shut the door upon him and went out. Now evidently she hadn’t told her husband yet. So in verse 22 she called on to her husband and said, send me, I pray thee, one of the young men and one of the ashes that I may run to the man of God and come again.

And he said, where for it will they’ll go to him today? It is neither new moon or Sabbath. And she says, it shall be well. Now she may have heard about somebody else that got her son raised from the dead. But see, this is what she was worried about in the beginning to have a child and is to lose the child. So sometimes in life, you know, it doesn’t always come with roses. It’s just sometimes there’s thorns. and then you live your own life and you seem like a lot of things go wrong and you don’t plan.

And why did this have to happen? But remember this, in verse 24, then she settled an ass and said to her servant, drive and go forward. Slack not by writing for me except I bid. In other words, we’re in a hurry. Make this thing. So she jumped in her Ferrari and She sped down the highway and says in verse 25, and she went and came unto the man of God, the Mount Carmel. And it came to pass when the man of God saw her, a far off of that he said to God’s in his servant.

Behold, Yonder is that Shunamite. Run now, I pray thee, to meet her and say unto her, is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, it is well. Everything’s fine. Now she’s telling the truth. No, she’s not telling the exact truth. Now she’s outwardly she’s saying the right things. Have you ever asked somebody, hey, how you doing? Fine, fine. And they’re not doing fine. But they don’t want to tell you how they really think or how they really feel or what’s really going on.

No, it’s sometimes just a standard greeting, fine. and sometimes underneath your turmoil. Everything’s not fine and you’re hurting. So what’s going on in her little mind? It doesn’t really say but knowing that she was no doubt grieving. She was hurting. In verse 27, and when she came to the man of God to the heel, she caught him by the feet. But Gahazi came near to thrust her away. Now remember, she didn’t want to tell her husband, she didn’t want to tell this servant.

But now she’s going to tell the man of God because she remembered I Told you this at the very beginning I Said no Don’t do this to me By bringing something into my life. It’s wonderful and joyous and then take him away from me So he says here in verse 26 it is well And when she came to the man of God and it says and the man of God said let her alone for her soul is vexed within her so he could perceive more than the servant could.

Outwardly it is well. Inwardly it was not. And that’s why sometimes you have to try to read people, sometimes you can read them wrong, but trying to discern really what they’re going through, even though they sometimes tell you. A lot of people are hurting. I believe we have people in the ministry here that are hurting in a lot of ways. And you may not know that if you don’t get to know some people and talk to them, you can share things.

And so it’s just confident to know that somebody does know and is praying for you. But look what he says here. And he says, and the Lord hath hid it from me and hath not told me. The Lord has not told me. So the man of God doesn’t know everything. He doesn’t even know yet that the son is dead because she didn’t tell him here. And all she wanted was, I want you to come to my house because I want you to see my son.

But he told his servant, you go with her. And she says, I want you. So it says in verse 28, and she says, did I desire a son of my Lord? Did I not say do not deceive me? Didn’t I say that? So he knows there’s a problem, right? Verse 29, then he said to God, if gird up thy loins and take my staff in thine hand and go thy way, if thou meet any man, salute him not. And if any salute they answer him not again, and lay my staff upon the face of the child.

Lay my staff upon the face of the child. So he wasn’t planning on going. He wanted the servant to go. But what did she want? Well, let’s not exactly what she wanted. So he says in verse 30, And the mother of the child said, as the Lord limits and as thy soul limits, I will not leave thee and he arose and followed her. You know, some women are just persistent. They’re just plain persistent. And here’s a man of God.

And he did what this woman said to her. He went and she said, and remember, I told you, I told you, because she evidently, you know, the Bible says something in a book of Job, where Job says, the things that I feared have come upon me. So sometimes in the Christian life, things that you fear comes upon you because God wants you to deal with that fear or that lack of trust that you need in your life. And those were Yelty says down here.

And so he says there in verse 31, and Gahadi passed on before them and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him and told him, says, the child is not awakened. And when Elijah was come into the house, behold, the child was dead and laid upon his bed. He went in, therefore, and shut the door and upon them too and prayed unto the Lord. Don’t you think that’s a good idea when you don’t know everything?

God hasn’t told you everything. You sometimes just need to maybe talk to the Lord about something. And when the Lord told him everything what to do, it’s amazing that some of the things that he did I think has some medical values that people could hate even to the state. So he says here in verse 34, remember, there’s natural means are in our power and supernatural means are in God’s power. So sometimes God wants you to do what you can do and he does what he can do.

So he says here in verse 34 and he went in and lay up on the child and put his mouth upon his mouth. Now what would we call that today? about resuscitation. That’s what Elijah was doing. And then he said, and his eyes upon his eyes and his hand upon his hands, and he stretched himself upon the child. Now why would you do that? Because he the body is getting cold and he’s laying his body on the body of this child.

Then he returned and walked in the house to and fro. Have you ever seen a cat to and fro, a dog to and fro, a person to, have you been to a waiting room? I hate sitting by the hour. I got to give them not pace. I walk. Well anyway, it’s interesting if you look at verse 35, then he returned and he walked in the house to and fro and went up and stretched himself upon him and the child sneezed seven times and child opened his eyes.

You know, I got a thing in the mail one day that said if you feel like you’re gonna have a heart attack, start coughing. You may have heard that. Start coughing because it jars your body and jars your heart and jars everything and it can revive you and keep you from having a heart attack. Now I didn’t know that if I read that. And they also say that sneezing can help do something to the head. When I start sneezing almost every time I will sneeze four times.

I don’t sneeze just one time. Very simple one time. I’ll sneeze four times. Because if I sneeze three times I know I got another one coming. It’s not here yet but it’s on its way and sure enough I will sneeze four times. That means I was over halfway to death and I sneeze four times and came back to life. So sneezing revives the disorders in the head. That’s what I’ve heard medical doctors say. I don’t know. But whatever happens, remember Elisha did what Elisha could do, and God does what God can do.

And he says he opened his eyes, and in verse 36, and he called Gahazah and said, call this Eunemite. So he called her, and when she was come in unto him, he says, take up thy son. So we know it was a young child. Then she went in and fell at his feet, bowed herself to the ground and took up her son and went out. Now, they’re just nice little stories in the Old Testament. But do you realize that as you live your life, it’s also in little blocks of stories?

And yet, if you stand back from all of these little stories and incidents that happen in your life, the further you get back, you begin to see a pattern. You see how the Lord has worked and moved in your life. When I used to be going through some trial and tribulations, I didn’t think about that past and I didn’t think about that future, but in the beginning of my Christian life, all I saw was this moment. That’s all I saw, this little block of time.

And that’s why the Bible talks about it. And in the process of time, time has been processed. process. God’s even cut it down to days and years, months, weeks, hours. So there’s little blocks of time. But you see, all these things here is time. And when you step back and you begin to look at your life and you realize, look how God has worked in my life. And you see where these stories in your life all fit and they can run together.

And you have learned things throughout your life that by the time you get over here to what we call old age or as most people like senior citizens we’re supposed to be wise but what I don’t go in the coronary artery. We’re supposed to be wise. Do you think it’s wise for people when you get up in age or write motorcycles?

All of a sudden, he said, oh, you hit home. I told Ben, I said, honey, I want to get a motorcycle. She says, when I’m dead, you can have one. But she’s going to live to 90, and what put her the 90-year-old man going to do with a motorcycle? I’ll have to have one with the trainer wheels on it. Stay out of this. So you’re going through your life in periods of time. And the older we get, we’re supposed to be wiser because of all the experiences God has brought us through.

So don’t curse any of these experiences in life because that’s how you get to be wise. And that’s where you’re headed, that’s what you want, right? So God is working in your life. He is putting things into your life because he knows what he wants to make out of you. So understand that God did the same thing in the Old Testament, he’s doing it in the New Testament, and he’s still doing it today. Pastor Yankee here, let me ask you a question.

Did you appreciate today’s message? I know, I don’t often have the chance to ask you that question. But, dear friend, the answer to that question is very important. The answer to that question, what kind of impact is this program having on you, is why we bring this program to you every day here on this radio station. We do not hear from many listeners, but today I’m talking to you. If Iberlein has made an impact on your life, would you let me know?

Recently, the overall response, your letters and emails as well as your financial support has been down and we really could use your help today. If this ministry has been a blessing to you, would you please consider helping us. We greatly appreciate your prayers and financial gifts, especially during this time of year. Contact information is coming up in just a minute, but please, consider supporting Bibleline today with your prayers and financial support. Thank you. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr.

Ralph Arnold. You can reach by the line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free. 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. 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. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.