God's Purpose in the Storm

[0:00] 8 23 when he was entered into a ship his disciples followed him behold there arose a great tempest in the sea insomuch that the ship was covered with the white waves but he was asleep and his disciples came to him and awoke him saying lord save us we perish and he saith unto them why are you fearful though he of little faith then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm but the men marveled saying what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him god's purpose in the storm i heard that uh storm might be coming in again tonight we have a wintertime occasionally up here storms in the bible always represent the troubles of life the reason you find so many storms given in the bible there are spiritual lessons connected with them and they're always symbolic always are do you believe that nothing happens by accident to a christian how many believe that half of you that's good you believe uh romans 8 28 very famous verse how many believe that well there's a few more hands there all right i woke up the other half i believe it says all things work together for good to them that love god to those who are the called according to his purpose if you've been born again and you're a child of god god has a purpose for you and so he's going to bring various things into your life to prepare you for his purpose is that right then why in the world do we fall apart when something bad happens you see we believe the bible when things are going well but when the dark clouds cover up the sun our faith sort of wavers a little bit sometimes doesn't it may i say that in the middle of the storm romans 8 28 still in the book and it's still true now you're looking at a codger in front of you here i've been around long enough to have seen lots of storm more than you've seen and i have to admit i went into some of them like these apostles did lord help us we're gonna perish and i wake him up i shake him do you see what kind of a mess we're in and he's lying there asleep not worried at all because he knows there's a purpose in it and he knows the outcome will be good may i stand here before you and say something of all the storms that i've had come through my life every one of them finally was over and god was there all the time and brought me through all of them he didn't leave me in the middle of a single one of them with no rescue in sight never did i thought he was going to but he didn't and yet if we didn't have these things jeremy we never learned that i could stand up here and tell you what i have learned in my long life

[4:00] but you're not going to learn it from me like you will learn it if it happens to you once in a while something will happen to one of you and you'll come to me and say preacher i understand now what you're saying but you didn't know it till you experienced it and that's why we go through storms well there's several reasons we'll talk about some of those god always has a purpose though in the trials troubles tribulations that he either brings to you or allows to come to you always has a purpose okay whether your storm is family trouble or children that break your heart or financial trouble or failing health death of somebody close or something else it's hard in the middle of the storm to remember this just like these apostles they forgot that the miracle worker was right there in the boat with them it's hard to remember this but there is a purpose and god either sent it or allowed it for your good romans 8 28 again quote it with me all things work together for what was that word good to them that are called of god that love god called according to his purpose right good watch that word good now even the bad stuff is there for your good don't miss that now right here this first one in romans in matthew 8 rather the storm there is to teach us to trust him he had to he had to these apostles i said in sunday school they were just dull they couldn't learn anything very easily he had to put them through lesson after lesson after lesson before they were ready to take over the church and he could go back to heaven i've put myself in this situation as they're in quite often and i thought man you dumb bunnies i believe i'd have got that before you did i mean he just about had to take it and slap you over the head with it you noticed that haven't you they were slow to learn so over and over and over and over and over sort of like some of us slow to learn let me say this i've learned this if you will get the lesson out of some storm you won't have to have another one like that but if you don't get the lesson here comes another one until you do they wanted him he wanted them to to trust him they were fearful instead of trusting did you know fear is the opposite of faith they were afraid jesus said fear not i will never leave thee nor forsake thee he was right there in the boat with them they should have been standing out on the on the bow and letting the the uh the winds blow through their long curly locks and sniffing up the sea breeze and enjoying themselves while they went up and down on the waves because jesus was asleep things are always calm around him but they weren't like that they were afraid so are you so are you remember the last big problem that came into your life remember it you're afraid weren't you you came out of it didn't you but you didn't think you were going to you got to learn to walk by faith friends not by feeling not by feeling

[8:02] i was reading about a an old methodist circuit riding preacher down in georgia years ago and he had learned a whole lot more than most of the people in his church they were having a drought had rained in months all the crops in those days the crops were their life life blood and they were dying drying up and this old preacher had he had weathered so many of these and he said now i think maybe we've learned the lessons that we should have learned in this drought god is in charge of the rain he could have sent it two weeks ago if he wanted it to i feel like we have learned the lesson i'm going to call a prayer meeting for rain tomorrow night all of you gather here and we're going to ask the lord send us rain stop this drought they all gathered the next night and the old preacher got out of his buggy reached back in and got an umbrella that long put it over his shoulder and walked in the church and he said where's your umbrella am i the only one that brought an umbrella that's what you're supposed to learn to trust the lord maybe we haven't learned it yet let me ask you a question when you pray for rain do you take your umbrella it was tom williams wasn't it you ought to get the books of tom williams if you if you get a chance and read those the guy is amazing about trusting god and this story i've told before when he went to somebody took him to the airport one time to catch a plane and he left his bag in the back seat he got out of the car and waved goodbye and his car drove off and he turned around and he looked and he looked and he didn't have his bag and he said oh man my bag's in the back seat of the car so he just said lord i can't make it without that bag it's even got my toothbrush in it i've got to have that bag so just tell that fellow that it's in his car and get him back up here with my bag and then tom williams was telling this story himself and he said then i told the fellow that was with me just go in there and sit down i'll be in there in a minute and i walked out at the curb where the cars came to let you out and i said the guy inside said he's standing out there at the curb pretty soon the car comes circling around pulls up he opens got his bag thanks sir went on in and tom williams looked at the crowd and he said you know the difference between me and you you don't stand at the curb now folks you're going to keep having the storm that teach you to trust him until you learn to stand at the curb you can trust him he's going to do what he says i've been telling him lately lord all those prayer promises every one of them stands by itself you don't have to have 15 to prove that you mean it when you said asking it should be given you

[12:02] if there was no other bible that would be true so i'm going to just pick out one of them and hang on to it when i need something i don't need 45 promises i've got to learn to trust him now the reason you're in storms and problems is because you haven't learned to trust the lord properly that's what was wrong with these apostles he's lying there asleep and they're fearful and fretting and afraid and they're worried and they're they say well i just have to let it blow a while they've got to learn to trust me that's the first and probably foremost reason that you have problems man i'm glad we've got them behind us aren't you we have weathered some of these storms and i look back and i think some of those times when you and i just looked at each other and said what are we going to do how are we going to get through this one we got through every one of them and every time we had one and got through it we were stronger for the next one and i believe please don't test me but i believe that the next one that comes i'll just calmly say the lord giveth the lord taketh away blessed be the name of the lord i'm just going to trust you through this one like i have all the others that's what you're trying to that's what he's trying to get you to learn most of the time let's go to another one now matthew 14 let's turn it over to the right in your bible to chapter 14 verse 22 matthew 14 22 straightway it means immediately jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship go for before him under the other side while he sent the multitudes away when he sent the multitudes away he went up in a mountain to pray and when evening would come he was there alone but the ship was now in the midst of the sea tossed with waves for the wind was contrary and in the fourth watch of the night jesus went unto them walking on the sea when the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were troubled saying it's a ghost it's a spirit that's what it means it's a ghost and they cried out for fear what chapter is this 14 what was the other chapter we read which one comes first what were they in in chapter 8 a storm how did it turn out did they learn the lesson in another one now in chapter 14 just like the first one except this time jesus is not in the boat he said now you ought to go to the next lesson i'm going to let you go through this storm for a while without me there now they're out in the middle of this lake and the storm is blowing the boat is filling and they're thinking i know how they're thinking because i know how you and i think what are we going to do we thought we were in trouble last time and he was back there in the boat asleep he's not anywhere near now and how's he going to get here this time there's no way we've had it we're going to be sinking to the bottom of this lake hadn't learned the lesson yet had what happened how'd he get there walking on the water he comes walking across the lake i don't care

[16:03] what your problem is he got a way to get there he'll show up if he has to walk on the water isn't that good and everything turned out good just like it did the other time and maybe they learned a little bit but there's another lesson here that's not taught in chapter eight you see when jesus got close to that boat one of those apostles in that boat said lord if that's really you and not a ghost you let me come walking out there to you let's just prove whether you're you're the lord or not i mean it's dark and lightning flashes and they can't see very well and it looks like a ghost to them and peter said let's just find out bid me come to thee on the water jesus said come on and peter bailed out of that boat would you we give him a lot of trouble man for what happened next oh that's old peter he thought he could do it and he sang yeah but how many people ever walked on the water besides the lord just one he got out and walked to jesus i wish i had a movie of that can you see that chad a mortal man walking on that water but hadn't quite learned it completely and then he got to noticing around and he took his eyes off the lord started sinking the lord reached down with his hand pulled him up chided him a little bit why are you why didn't you believe why are you such little faith but what what hold it watch this then you hadn't you hadn't thought about this did you know peter walked on the water again after he sank he pulled him up and both of them walked back to the boat give him credit he walked on the water again but come here a minute cody come here this is a lesson in this one come here all right cody i'm gonna be jesus and you're gonna be peter okay we ain't happy the other way all right now you come slowly now you look around and get scared if you see those faces i don't frighten you now you start sinking okay say ah help me yeah he didn't scream that very loud did he now then i got you buddy all right look down there do you see you're standing on that water because i've got hold of you so you're standing on that water peter you see that all those people that made fun of you for sinking they didn't see you right now did they look at that there's the boat let's go over there to the boat shall we he's walking on water look at that give him credit he's walking on water but i want you to notice the lesson did you know in all of the years that peter and jesus worked together and jesus tried to train him to be the leader this is the closest peter ever was to jesus in those ten feet or whatever it was when they walked back to the boat that was the epitome of peter being close to jesus he was never that close before thank you sir you made a good apostle peter except you

[20:05] didn't yell loud enough do you know what the lesson is here he wants you to walk closer to him he wants you in the middle of that storm to fly or flee to his side and ask him to help you and weep if you have to but let him throw his arms around you and start walking with him you and i go too many places by ourselves now in that storm peter learned something that he it stuck with him the rest of his life you can get closer to jesus in a storm than you can any other time did you hear what i said i mean a church looked at me one time and said we don't want what you're preaching get out and they voted me out because i was taking a stand on that bible and that church was going to the left and i was going to the right they decided they wanted to go to the left and they wanted a preacher to take them to the left and i was taking them to the right so they said get out did you know that in those hours following the lord showed up and threw his arms around me and led me into the independent baptist movement people that want to go to the right people that want to be strict and conservative and transformed my ministry and got me out of that group that didn't want to do anything and that by the way kept going to the left did you know that those hours after that terrible storm were the closest i ever was with jesus that's the second lesson he wants you to walk closer to him so he puts you in a storm walks up beside you throws his arm around you and let's go to the boat together don't miss that that is so very very important some of the apostles were close to jesus but peter wasn't that close i've got a list of things that long where peter and jesus just butt heads and he said there's something something i'm going to have to get you to understand man you're too independent you're you're too stubborn self-willed you argue with me when i try to teach you he even called him satan a couple times because he's a stubborn i've got to teach you something i've got to teach you that you need to be with me and there should be nothing no division at all between us and on that short walk on the water the closest that peter ever came to jesus and it transformed him never was the same after that now john laid his head on jesus bosom and john was always close to him but not peter peter was a sort of office kind of a guy i don't know what kind you are but you're going to have to learn to walk close to jesus you need to get a relationship with him real close relationship you don't have that you're you're going to keep having storms till you get it that's all there's to it well i've got several illustrations of that i just wanted to i'll take a moment to tell you one that i might have told you before there's a great preacher that i met in the late 60s early 70s named jim vineyard he's retired now and he's having a lot of health troubles and probably towards the end of his days but in his day jim vineyard was a tremendous tremendous worker for god i've heard jim vineyard preach many times and one story that he told and i've heard it more than once was that he

[24:07] was kind of like peter kind of hard-headed and stubborn and wanted to do his own thing and jesus didn't really have control of him like he should and he got saved all right because his wife got saved first finally got him saved he was an old old reprobate old rough and tumble kind of a guy and he said this is good man this is fine i'm going to heaven now i like this being saved but he wanted to do his own thing like some of us i want a fire insurance policy but i want to run my own life the lord won't do that he won't do that he wants to run your life too jim vineyard said no god called him to preach and he said no look at my background i mean i'm as rough as i'm as rough as as chris curry and i there's no way there's no way that i could be a preacher and jesus said i don't want you to be a preacher he said no you don't do that vineyard said this my six-year-old boy i think his name was matthew had to have a tonsillectomy i was in the waiting room waiting for a routine tonsillectomy for my little boy and the doctor came out with an ashen face and said mr vineyard i don't know how to tell you this but your little boy got the bleeding and we couldn't stop the bleeding we did everything we knew to do but your little boy's dead and vineyard said it hit him like an elephant standing on his chest if i just said yes to god i could have kept my little boy and i've got other kids and he learned his lesson he said i went out of that hospital not only a tree-covered hillside out in the lawn of that hospital and under those big trees i looked up in the face of god and i said i hear you whatever you want i'll never say no again whatever you want now that's a tough price to pay but that man still walking close to jesus what a price to pay what kind of a storm is it going to take to get you to realize that your relationship with him is the most important thing in your life some of you are sort of independent minded like to do it your own way don't you watch out watch out you know when i was coming up when my little kids were coming up and i had all these little children in my home i was very careful because i knew man he has a ready ready key that he can turn in my heart to get my attention all he's got to do is reach down and touch little lisa's heart cause it quit bleeding i was very careful all he had to do i mean he in the moment's time he could have anything for me he wanted he knew it i knew it are you careful you have a little children you have a wife or husband now i'm not saying that he's running he's a bully running around taking people's loved ones i'm saying he will allow storms that work into your life if you're if you're not close enough to him watch it that's lesson number two go to jonah chapter two for lesson number three in this why that storms come what are what's the purpose in these storms i only chose two or three there's there's no way for that for me to get them all

[28:07] where's jonah you girls know where jonah is how you girls doing memorizing your books in bible doing good huh doing good that one over there is not looking at me there's hosea i know i'm getting close jonah chapter two hey who's jonah what do you know about him preacher good preacher bad preacher bad in the beginning wasn't he what was bad about him okay disobeyed god right yeah yeah he told him to go preach to the Nineveh and he said i don't want to go over there i hope they all go to hell that's really what he was thinking jews didn't like the assyrians he didn't want to go over there and get them saved he's glad they were all all the way from god so he went the other way got on a boat he was taking off to spain across the mediterranean that's where he's going did god get his attention how did he do it in a storm in a storm right the winds begin to blow and all that they're throwing everything out of the boat about to sink and son jonah said fellas it's my fault if you throw me out of the boat everything be okay the storm will cease because i am the one that's disobedient to god and they said well sir we're sorry to do this whoa and he's struggling and watch this now watch this he's struggling trying to breathe and he's back he's gonna he's gonna he's gonna drown and he thought he had some terrible problems he just his problem was just beginning because he looks up and he says a yawning big mouth and he's about to be swallowed by some kind of sea monster he wasn't having problems yet he's about to be eaten and he was and that thing swallowed him but the thing that he thought was his worst trouble became the means of his salvation is that right let's read chapter 2 now then jonah prayed unto the lord his god out of the fish's belly and said i cried by reason of my affliction unto the lord and he heard me out of the belly of hell i cried out and thou heardest my voice then thou hast cast me into the deep for thou hast cast me into the deep and in the midst of the sea the floods compassed me about all thy billows that's waves and waves passed over me then i said i'm cast out of thy sight yet i will look up again toward thy holy temple the waters compassed me about even to the soul i was about to die the depths clothed me around about the weeds were wrapped around my head he got swallowed and seaweeds seaweeds wrapped around his head that that old whale had been eating thank god that was him and not me wow he said i went down to the bottoms of the mountains that sucker took me to the bottom the earth with his bars were about me forever but you brought me up my life out of corruption oh lord my god when my soul fainted within me i remembered the lord and my prayer came up unto thee into thine holy temple they that observe lying vanishes forsake their own mercy but i will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of what oh my goodness chad that crazy preacher with seaweeds wrapped around his head down in the bottom of the ocean

[32:08] in the belly of that fish said thank you lord for this fish can you imagine that without that fish he'd have been in a pickle wouldn't he can you thank god for the thing that looked so bad can you and i always have a spirit of thanksgiving regardless of what kind of whale swallows us the lesson here is even in the midst of the storm you get thankful you quit whining and complaining and start thanking god job said the lord has given the lord taken away blessed be the name of the lord and all of his ten kids are dead can you thank god in the middle of the whale's belly can you realize that when it seems the darkest god is actually delivering you folks we don't really trust him we don't really believe him and because we don't because we're so human he has to let these things come to us so we learn how to trust him so we learn how to get close to him so we learn how to be thankful to him don't miss that verse i will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving i'll pay that which i vowed i'll do whatever you say salvation is lord what happened in verse 10 then after he got thankful for that whale what happened to him he turned into a piece of vomit didn't he oh that's a bad way to put it the lord spake unto the fish and it vomited out jonah up on the dry land right out there where he got on the boat said now jonah you want to go back that way you want to go this way where i told you to go dr rice used to say he went to nineveh where he was supposed to go said he was sort of pale smelled like a lot like fish but he went there how thankful are you for the storm follow suit was hard for me a few times to say thank you lord this is wonderful my daddy used to take his old belt and wear he was left-handed i never get i never even learned how to dodge that left hand he worked me over and i never did say thank you dad that was a wonderful experience hit me again never did but i should have because today that discipline that i got when i needed it transformed my life and the reason we got so much problem with the younger generation is they don't have any discipline because this stupid country has outlawed a father spanking his and they're reaping the the results now some of you are too young to believe this but all of us old codgers we know i'm telling the truth most kids that i know are not adhd they just need a good licking thank you both of you why adhd i never heard of that if my dad had said doctor i think he has adhd the doctor said i know what will fix him ritmo do you think that that would have that conversation would ever pass between the doctor and my dad no no good hickory tea is what cures adhd that's the truth man it'll do the job we're not allowed to do that anymore brother west and i had our first school

[36:09] 25 years ago we still had a paddle still used it didn't have much problem with brother west in fact brother west would would would take a guy in another room but he'd take it close enough that the people in the big school could hear it brother west could son did you disobey yes sir what am i going to do to you spank me do you deserve it yes sir what all those kids in school you didn't have to spank them all you just spank one real loud isn't that right when god works you over i'm going to learn from it when god works me over you ought to learn from it cheapest lessons you'll ever learn at somebody else's expense let them pay for it if i'd have been in the school of the prophets that day and watched that whale puke don't jump out on the ground i'd have thought oh boy if he ever says go to nineveh i'm going to hightail it to nineveh i'd have learned from that well we learn from other people's mistakes you're going to have to have you have your own whale isn't he we perfect our prayer life through the storm we learn how to pray you don't pray when the storm's not blowing but that's the first thing you do i'll never forget the picture in my mind after nine eleven was all of those congressmen out on the steps of the of the what building it was what was it capital building all out on the steps of the capital building they're all going to pray to god sing god bless america and pray sorry rascals only time they ever prayed rest of the time they're trying to get their hand in your pocket that's when you'll pray too when you're in trouble perfect your prayer life brother nothing drive you to prayer like trouble will tough the hardest reprobate will pray then but you need to learn to pray with thanksgiving you haven't learned how to pray let thy requests be made known with thanksgiving philippians 4 6 and the peace of god passes understanding will keep your hearts and mind we're not thankful folks i'm one preacher that talks about thanksgiving more than most things the reason i do is because we haven't learned to be thankful i got some statistics here how many of you have a little money in your pocket just a little bit the rest of you don't have anything in your pocket hey treasurer close your eyes a minute how many have a little bit of money in your pocket just a little bit what's wrong with you why don't you raise your hand the first time we got a hard-headed bunch here james i'll tell you that i know you have anybody's got a dime or a nickel i've heard the expression i don't have two nickels rubbed together that's a lie these days i got a statistic here i read if you have any money in your pocket any money in your pocket you are among the top seven percent richest people in the world because 97 percent of the world doesn't have two nickels to rub together and yet you you gripe because you don't have three nickels we're not thankful for anything don't don't tell me

[40:11] how many of you went through the day yesterday never stopped and said thank god for this this this we're not thankful are we we're not grateful are we sometimes the lord has to take something away from us to show us how much he's given us look at this if you have a house if you live in a house of any kind a solid house you're in the top 20 percent of this world eighty percent of the human beings on earth do not have a house now some of them have grass huts or live in a jungle outdoors you're in the top 20 percent but you know what you do you gripe because the gutters leak or when we get a rain basement leaks a little bit twenty percent have a home to live in we're not thankful see the storms come to make us thankful every day on earth twenty seven thousand people starve to death yesterday today tomorrow seven days a week every week twenty seven thousand people starve to death

[41:26] I'm afraid it's going to happen to me I'm afraid I'm going to starve to death are you no no we're not afraid of it we're not thankful for it either we don't know how to be thankful now that storm happened to Jonah to get him out of his rebellious attitude I'm going to do what I want to do and you don't know best for me but brother when he got in the whale of that belly he turned to thanksgiving didn't he man I tell you what when I saw that mouth yawning toward me I thought my trouble's over I'm dead but now I'm thanking you for that whale thank God for the storm and it'll transform your life transform your life your prayer life's not going to be effective until you go through some storms you know what I've learned when I say thank you

[42:30] Lord more than I say give me Lord my prayer life picks up here's another thought that I just added into this outline at the end I read a story about Moody he was on a ship and it didn't get into a storm but a fire broke out in that ship and there's not anything much worse out in the middle of the ocean than a fire on a boat because if that thing burns where are you going to go you better hope you get the fire out right and so there's people traveling with Moody get to praying we know God will hear you we got to put this fire out get to praying he said praying nothing give me a bucket Moody Mr.

[43:18] Moody you want a bucket yeah give me a bucket and he got out in the bucket line and the fire was put out and somebody said why did you why didn't you just pray and he said I have learned that my prayers for God's help are much more effective when I've done all I can do when I sit around and ask him to do what I can do he hasn't done it but when I do all I can do and say now Lord that's it I don't I can do then he comes and he takes over from there somebody put it like this God's man's man's extremity is God's opportunity have you learned that do you believe in doctors yeah well pray for the Lord he'll heal you I will

[44:20] I'll pray for him I'll give him a chance I think you should first I think you go to the Lord first many times he'll take care of himself but I say Lord you're you're on a leash I'm going to give you a certain amount of time and I tell it to the doctor I mean use common sense folks right our prayer life is in shambles we don't know how to pray so God puts a storm in our path with a big whale in it to straighten us out now I've got one more time to fly turn to Acts 27 some of you emaciated starving people are probably wanting some lunch aren't you that preacher keeps preaching I'm going to starve to death you think maybe I'm being patronizing with this but the last message in a storm is you better listen to the preacher did you know

[45:27] I've found all these years people don't listen to me unless they're in trouble you yawn and sleep and oh it's a good sermon that was a bad sermon he was on today or he wasn't on today and you don't change not 10% of you come in here saying Lord change me today we don't listen to preacher and don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about I happen to be the preacher if you were the mechanic you told me what's wrong in my car I wouldn't with you I'm the preacher and you're arguing with me I know how it's accepted Acts 27 let me see where I can start here shorten this thing Paul is on a ship and it's in a storm alright Paul the greatest Christian on the earth at that time was on a boat in a storm about to sink and here's what he said verse 10 of

[46:29] Acts 27 sirs I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage not only of the lady in the ship but also of our lives nevertheless the centurion that's the soldier in charge of a bunch of prisoners believe the master and owner of the ship more than those things which are spoken by Paul hadn't changed much in 2000 years has it they believe they believe everybody but the preacher God's the last one I turn to well it's just a message maybe for somebody else well it goes on to say that they that they almost they almost were lost and finally they began to listen to Paul and they all got out alive see in verse 21 after long abstinence Paul was off praying by himself he stood forth in the midst of and said sirs you should have hearkened to me oh I like that I told you so

[47:30] Jeremy when you hit a broad bottom somewhere and I preached against what you're doing I'm going to say I told you so don't you like for people to say I told you so that's what Paul said told you so sirs you should have listened to me not have to lose some creed to have gained this harm and loss now I exhort you to be of good cheer for there is no loss of any man's life but of the ship we'll lose the ship because of your ignorance but we're going to all get out of life there stood by me this night the angel of God whose I am and whom I serve he said fear not Paul you're going to be brought before Caesar God has given thee all them that sail with thee wherefore sirs be of good cheer I believe God's going to be even as it was told me now you know what that big storm did for them when they were throwing everything overboard about to die it caused them to listen to the preacher because later on when a bunch of those fellas got the lifeboat and were going to run

[48:35] Paul said okay let them go but if they go we all die we all have to stay on the boat for God to help us and some others went over there and cut the ropes of the lifeboat they believed him now and they all got out safely you know one of the bad parts of the ministry people always come to you after the fact after the fact pastor you know you probably said something before and I didn't pay any attention now everything is broken apart would you help me put it back together folks I don't I don't get up here and talk to hear my head rattle I don't I don't want to hurt you I have nothing but good intentions for you but why in God's name don't you listen sometimes I mean if I'm talking right out of this book and reading it to you it's not me talking it's

[49:37] God talking now if I'm giving you my opinion you can take it or leave it I might be wrong but if I'm giving you God's word this is the way God speaks to people he takes a preacher and gives him a message and people don't listen much like they used to God calls he burdens with a message he speaks to the preacher and he's going to hold the hearers responsible for how they listen you know that so my last little thought is this God destroyed Israel he sent them all over the world you'll find Jews in every part of the world today he scattered them throughout the world he gave up on them they didn't have a nation until 1948 for 1948 years they didn't have a nation more than that 400 before that and he gave the reason he said I sent my prophets to you over and over and over and over and you didn't hear them you didn't listen to them that's the reason they were destroyed because they didn't listen to their preachers pretty serious isn't it preachers sometimes have what people need sometimes they have what people need

[51:00] Spurgeon preached a sermon one time there's an invalid lady and someone came home from the service and was trying to tell the invalid lady what Spurgeon had preached about this invalid lady had been thinking about salvation she just didn't understand it but as she was told about this sermon it sounded like it would be exactly what she needed to explain salvation to her and she got really hungry to know well they didn't have recording machines back then however they did have stenographers and all of sermons were taken down by stenographers by secretaries and later on typed out transcribed and printed most all of his sermons were printed somewhere usually in newspapers now listen to this story the preacher had what the lady needed okay she wanted it but how are you going to get it a lady that she knew that lived in Australia sent her a package at just a few weeks after this incident sent her a package wrapped around that thing inside that package was a newspaper on that newspaper was the very sermon that

[52:35] Spurgeon had preached that this woman wanted so badly in its entirety wrapped around that package from Australia the woman in the letter with the package said I didn't have anything else to wrap this around this is a religious newspaper that someone from America sent me and maybe you can find some good in it too I'm wrapping my gift in this newspaper you hear what I said Spurgeon preached it in England it was printed sent to America someone from America sent it to Australia someone in Australia wrapped something sent it back to England a few blocks from where it was preached the lady read it and got born again and told that story the preacher sometimes has the answer if God would go that to that much trouble to get a preacher's message to somebody that would follow it and use it don't you think he speaks through his preacher sometimes maybe he does and I think that's one of the reasons one of the four reasons

[53:50] I've given today that we have troubles if you just listen to that man in the pulpit brother Griffin is preaching a wonderful series on demons on Wednesday night this thing can transform our lives we're learning more about how the devil fights us than any other series I remember are you taking it to heart are you still watching those stinking movies or bringing in demons have you gotten into your music collection gotten rid of the stuff that brought in demons you know what I'm saying we need to listen to the preacher God speaks to the preacher sometimes that's one of the ways God uses the storm let's stand please out of time out of time so