I’ve been on a lot of in touch cruises, And one of those that I remember most of all is when I took my mother.
And so we took her on the cruise to the Bahamas, I believe, at that time.
And we had a terrible storm.
The storm was so bad. You could hardly stand up. You couldn’t walk around.
It was very, very difficult and very frightening.
So the next year, I said to her, I said, why would you like to go on a cruise?
And she said, I don’t think so. I said, I’ll come on. So I talked her into it.
So we were on the ship in the afternoon, still dark.
And, um, so she called my uncle, Jack, who was taking care of her, said Jack, come over here.
I’m not feeling good. I’m really feeling bad.
So he went to her cabin, and she said, I’m seasick again.
I’m I’m I don’t think I’m gonna be able to handle this. He said, okay, Becca.
He said, maybe it would do you well if you just walked over and looked at, no.
I don’t think well, come on. We’re gonna try anyway. Let’s look outside. Maybe that’ll help. Looked outside.
We never left port. And so
it was the awesome impact of a remembrance that she’d never forgotten, but she was in the same atmosphere that made her think Now I’m going through this terrible cruise again.
Well, when I think about where we are today, We are in something worse than our crews at sea.
We’re in the midst of a killer.
People are dying every day about time we think we’ve got this thing licked, it gets worse.
And so nobody can predict where we are, where we’re going to be. We just have to stop
to think about where we are, what’s happening.
And you know, the more I’ve thought about that, the more I’ve thought about this.
How many times have you said to somebody
I just wish I had more time to read the Bible. I wish I had more time to pray.
So let me ask you a question.
But the last, at least, almost 6 months, you’ve had time to pray, and you’ve had time to read the Bible.
You’ve had time to listen to the word of god on radio, watch on television.
You’ve had lots of time for you and god.
What have you done with all these hours that you used to didn’t have?
But now you do.
And you thought about how much of the world of god you could have sobbed in your mind and heart if you’d taken the time?
If you thought about, well, I got time to pray.
Now I have time to open the word of god, and I can pray and I can read the scripture, and I can sort of catch up with myself.
But Have you rather turned on the television and watched some program that didn’t do you one bit of good spiritually or any other way?
In other words, have you wasted some wonderful, wonderful god at given time?
I’m not saying he caused the virus so that you’d have more time, but it it has happened that way.
And we’ve all had more time for the word of god.
We’ve had more time to talk to him, to listen to him.
So how have you spent these days and now these months, and that could be over a year?
It’s a
time to stop and think, where is Jesus in your life? How much time have you spent with him?
Have you laid your Bible down and complained and mourned and groaned about how bad things are and wondering where god is?
God’s where he’s always been. He’s waiting for you to be wise enough to recognize that though he did not send this in order to give you bible time study, He sent this for some reason.
We have to leave to his wisdom. And therefore, the issue is how do
I respond to a wonderful opportunity time wise, not disease wise, wonderful opportunity
to catch up with my relationship to him.
To build my relationship to him, to build an intimate relationship with him so that god can do what he desires to do in my life.
I think all of us have to stop and ask the question.
Lord, have I spent my time wisely?
So when I think about that and think about where we are, think about this passage of scripture that I want to read, It is one that most of us know suddenly, and the scripture says immediately, Jesus made the disciples, get into the boat, go ahead of him and the other side, while he sent his disciples away.
And so you remember the story.
He’d been healing people, people being saved, and, uh, people’s lives being changed in lots of different ways.
So he needed some time alone. And so Jesus sent them away.
He went back up at the mountains to pray, and it happened that
while he was up there praying, and they were out
on the sea. If you gotta be, storm came up. And this storm challenged them. They were frightened.
They were scared to death. And what did they do? They cried out to to almighty god.
And ask him, I’m sure, to help him and to save them.
And, um, as he thought about as Peter, especially thought about all of that, the last thing you would think that he would do would be to challenge Jesus to let him jump out in the water and see what Jesus can do.
We don’t need to challenge Jesus to do anything. He can do anything and everything in all things.
And when I look at this passage of scripture and think about when the storm’s coming out of life.
And this virus is a storm. It is a deadly storm.
And as we said, people are dying every day. People are coming down with it every day.
And so this is a challenge, but it’s also a spiritual challenge.
Will I take advantage of the time god has given me?
Will I take the time to examine my life? My heart?
Well, take time to examine my whole situation in life about time, money, relationships, whatever it might be.
It’s an awesome, awesome time to think. You said, well, you’ve already said that. Yes.
I have because it is so very important. Because we could have months. We could have another year.
We don’t know how much time we have, but the wisest time you can spending your life is in this book, the word of god, asking god to show you his will for your life, not just lord save me from this.
Show me your will for my life. What are you saying to me during this time?
You say, well, I don’t know exactly what to read. I tell you what you do.
You take your Bible and you start in the book of Psalms of the book of proverbs and just start reading and telling god, first of all, forgive me for my complaining.
Help me to understand, dear lord, that you’ve given me time to spend the loan with you, which I used that bag for.
Now I do have, but I’ve, otherwise, suspended Forgive me, lord, and show me where to start reading, and I can help you.
Start in Psalm 1. Go all the way through Psalms to the proverbs.
If you just stay with those two books, god will do an awesome work in your heart.
We don’t have any reason to say We, uh, just don’t have time for the lord and all of this.
Yes. You do. We all do.
We could all we could all take time if we chose to to say god, I need I need to hear from you.
I need to have a personal relationship with you. I need you to clean up my life.
I need you to change the things that need to be changed vote.
Just let me bear my soul openly so
you can show me exactly what I need to do. God will change your life.
And I think what will happen for many people is this, You look back from now years years back, and, uh, you’ll say that that virus was terrible.
But something happened to me.
In the midst of it all, god changed my life.
He taught me to pray, He told me to read the word of god.
He told me to stop complaining and taught me how wonderful he is and how wonderful it was to have time to ponder the truths of god’s word and to ponder the truths that have changed my life.
He’s given me time to pray for other people, not just myself, and help me to understand that people dying all around me.
But I still have the good mind to be able to read the word of god to understand it and to grow in my Christian life.
So When these storms come in your life, what do you think about?
So one thing we should think about is this.
We should think about how god has worked in a life in times past.
And with those disciples, They knew that the lord Jesus Christ had performed miracle after miracle in their life.
When you go through difficult times, do you stop to think about Not how bad it is, but, lord, what have
you done in the past?
For example, how many times has god healed you in the past?
Answered your prayer for things that you needed, whatever it might be.
It’s a time to stop and ponder and wonder. And ask and seek and yield and listen
and be
quiet. God, what are you saying to me through all of these things?
And so When I look at this past scripture, I think about it from Jesus pers perspective.
From Jesus perspective, he’s up in the mountain praying, catching up with himself, resting.
And then he knew there was a time that he needed to leave the mountain come down to check out his disciples because he knew the storm had already begun, and he knew they was frightened to death and they desperately needed him.
What do you do when you know a storm’s coming in your life? You complain
You called your friends. You pray. You make god promises.
Are you ponder why and complain and mourn and your own? How much time do
you spend intimately with Jesus Christ, the son of god?
And when I look at this passage of scripture, and I see what was going on in their life.
Uh, I see also not only that they’re gonna be storms, and they’re gonna be more storms.
But when I look at this past scripture, Here’s what I noticed.
When g watched this carefully, when Jesus saw and knew that they were facing a storm, What did Jesus do?
Don’t forget this. He went to meet him.
Not only did he do that, He met him in a way they would never never forget when I’m thinking about that.
Lord, hallelujah praise god. You did a awesome thing walking on the water.
You scared him to death, but then you performed a miracle.
Have you ever had an experience
with the lord why he was so real to you?
When they first saw Jesus walking on the water, He feels like a phantom.
They they couldn’t possibly believe this is who he was, but listen to me carefully.
Whenever you are in a storm, Jesus knows about it.
He’s closed by and he’s waiting for you to ask for help.
I’ll never leave you nor forsake you as his promise. Think about that.
Jesus has said to every one
of us who are his children, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
So when you go through these storms and I think about so many millions of people who are in nursing homes are confined in so many different ways Have you been calling on Jesus?
Jesus is in every nursing home. Jesus is in every household. He is in every place.
He has been invited into your heart, into your soul, into your spirit.
So asking something question, how much time have you
spent talking to him, asking him to save you,
and I wanna say to you who are in the nursing homes, You are probably in the most difficult position
you have ever been in your life, but I wanna assure you of something.
No weapon formed against you
will prosper. That’s the promise of almighty god.
And I want to encourage you to pray I want to encourage you not to give up.
I want to encourage you not to listen to negative stuff.
I want to encourage you not to turn on the television, listen to bad news, and all the things that I haven’t opened the word of god.
You say, well, I can’t pray then.
You find somebody who you can pray with, find somebody who read the scriptures to you or give you a tape or whatever it might be.
You don’t turn to the world to encourage you when you are facing death.
I wanna tell you that God may call you home.
And if he does, look how much better it’s gonna be. But don’t give up.
And don’t quit and don’t say, well, god this god that god that I’ll tell you what god is.
He’s an awesome loving heavenly father who knows exactly where you are and listen to me carefully.
He will change that when he chooses. He will change that on his time scales you.
Don’t give up on
god. So when I look at what happened to these disciples, right in the midst of the stone, here comes Jesus.
And watch this carefully. You may have the same sense of the awareness of
god in your life. Whoever you are probably in your home, or in a
nursing home with some other place. If you’ve ever trusted Jesus, it should save you. Listen carefully.
He’s there waiting for you. I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.
No weapon formed against you is gonna prosper.
And oftentimes, we listen to the television and hear all the bad things that are happening, you you should you should switch from the from the television to the word of god.
And here’s what happened. When they looked and saw Jesus, there was hope.
As long as they were out there by themselves, they were feeling hopeless.
When they saw him, they knew there was hope.
And if you will open the word of god, or if you will ask someone to read the word of god to you, or if you will turn on your television and watch in touch.
If you will listen, if you will watch If you will say, yada, I I want you to speak to my I need you to speak to my heart, lord.
I I need you to encourage me, then here’s what you’re gonna hear.
You’re gonna hear a message from the word of god
and listen to me carefully. God’s not prejudice. It doesn’t make your
names who you are, What your language, where you live, what your color, and none of that makes any difference.
He’s a sovereign almighty god. Who loves you cares for you.
And for some reason, on and on to him, he has allowed you in this place for one thing I know for sure.
He intends to strengthen you, help you, watch carefully, either heal you and take you home to awesome heaven, or He may hail you and change your life in an awesome way.
God loves you. He cares for you.
And when they saw him, the scripture says, uh, of course, first, they were scared to death.
And then as Jesus came along, the storm began to quiet down.
And then there was Peter. Who decides to to say, lord,
if that’s really you, you call me. Let’s prove it.
Prove it, lord, call me and let me walk on the water. You know how far he got
when he saw the waves. Watch what happened to him. When his focus went from the waves and the sea.
The Jesus back and forth, what he saw of the waves and his focus on them, he began to sink.
There’s a message in this. When you were praying and crying out to god, don’t allow your focus to drift from almighty god, the sovereign god of the universe who loves you eternally.
Don’t let your focus drift from him to the virus, to this, to
that, to people who are dying to the
t don’t don’t let your focus drift those things. Keep your focus on Jesus.
You say, well, I I
I don’t feel like that.
I don’t think I’m gonna make it. Watch this carefully. You’re going to make this.
If you ever trust the Jesus Christ as your savior, he’s gonna get you through this.
Back to your home or to your heavenly home. Either way, you’re in great condition.
I know you’re hurting.
I know it’s easier for me to say that than for you to feel it, but listen to me carefully.
The most important thing you can understand at this point in your life at this moment in your life is that god loves you God cares for you.
If you’ve ever trusted him as your personal savior, your name is written in the lamb’s book of life, and he’s gonna take you home to heaven.
If you’ve never been saved, this is the time for you to stop and think, lord, how have I spent my life?
And here I am now facing death. I’m asking you, lord Jesus, to forgive me of my sins.
I believe in the truth of the word of god, I’m asking you to forgive me of my and cleanse me and save me and wash me clean and write my name in the lamb’s book of life.
Lord, I’m giving myself to you absolutely unquestionable as my savior. What will happen? He’ll answer your prayer.
That’s who he is. He’s a god who answers prayer.
In the midst of this storm, he came to their rescue. In the midst of your storm.
He’s coming to your rescue. In fact, he’s there today.
He’s right here in this program, saying to you, don’t give up, don’t quit, trust the lord Jesus Christ, It’s two ways.
He’s gonna take you home to heaven, which is far better than this, or he’s gonna leave you here, heal you, work in your life in an awesome way.
Heaven or your household, which will it be? Only god knows that.
But what I want you to say is this, when these disciples were desperate, scared to death, Jesus showed up, Listen to me carefully.
Jesus is showing up wherever you are right now.
In your house, in the hospital, in a nursing home, on your job, wherever you are, he’s showing up.
He’s inviting you to receive him as your savior.
He’s inviting you to turn your eyes from the world into Christ.
He’s inviting you to stop complaining and start praying and start trusting him and believing him that you are in the hands of almighty god.
Your name is written in the lamb’s book of life. No doctor, no nursing home. No you name it.
You’re in the hands of almighty god.
And I want to pray with you in just a few months so we make sure that you’ve made a commitment to Jesus Christ.
It’s no telling what god may do in your life.
If you trust him, a god who can calm the waves of the sea is a god who is in the process of healing people everywhere.
So we’re not trusting what the doctors can do, though. We’re grateful for them.
We’re trusting what Jesus is going to do.
So if you’ve never trusted him as you say, do you wanna go through this again on purpose?
Would you pray this prayer? Lord Jesus, I’ve sinned against you.
I’ve neglected you. I have not been on your side.
I’ve done things I’m ashamed of.
I know I may be facing death, but I do believe the word of god’s true.
You said, believe on the lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved, which means by surrendering your life to him, asking for the forgiveness of your sins, He forgives you.
When you ask him to forgive you, it’s a subtle issue.
Your name is written in the lamb’s book of life. And you have become a child of god.
I understand. Yeah. I repeated it on
purpose. Because when this program’s over, I want you to remember. Things can never be the same.
If you were unsafe, you are now saved.
If you were trouble, you ought
to have hope. And assurance and confidence that the god of the Bible, the Jesus of the word, who walked on water and saved those disciples as same Jesus who saved me.
And when you think about all that he’s done through your friends, for example, your people that you know who have been saved.
And today, you’ve asked him to save you. Your name is written in the lamb’s book of life? Trust him.
And when we shut this program down, thank god.
Your name is in the lamb’s book of life, and you are forever.
A child of god.
Nobody can change that. So let’s pray together.
Father, how very, very grateful we are that we’re not desperate.
We may feel it at times, We may feel like maybe that nobody cares,
but when I pray that you’re in love, will fill the rooms wherever people are all over the world
who are listening to this program.
I pray that your spirit will bring calmness and quietness and assurance and blessing to every person who listens and who shares this.
We want to say thank you, lord, for loving us.
Not on the basis of how good we are, but on the basis that you are an eternal loving god who keeps his word.
And you said, believe on the lord Jesus Christ, then you will be saved.
And today, we’re believing, lord, and we’re trusting you in Jesus’ name, Amen, and amen, amen, amen.