OMBS7/ Don’t Look at the Storm

PRAYER - "We Are Your Rejoicing, And You Are Ours" Every soul-winner prays for the sacred opportunity to preach the Gospel to someone who is open-hearted and willing to receive it. Paul said, "our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, ...not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward." When God answers that prayer, the preacher and his convert become a cause for joy and great rejoicing for each other. 2 Corinthians 1:14 "We are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus." PRINCIPAL - "Purebred Christians" We do not need a worldly education to be saved. Charles Spurgeon said, "instead of improving the gospel, carnal wisdom pollutes it, until it becomes another gospel, and not the truth of God at all." Genetically modified seeds produce sterile fruit. Christians who are begotten by philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, or popular -ologies cannot reproduce divine fruit. The seed is corrupt. Preach the Word of God! The Bible contains about 1200 pages of potent truth - pure seed - that needs nothing added to or subtracted from it. I Corinthians 4:15 - "...in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel."  PRINCIPLE - "It Is A Very Small Thing That I Should Be Judged Of You" Did Paul have detractors? What minister does not? But he did not allow them to divert his ministry. He told them that they should consider him to be a minister of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God. Whatever else they might have thought of him, Paul dismissed it. 1 Corinthians 4:3 - "With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord." PROPHECY - "Faith And Action Should Be Based On God's Sure Word" Faith is about future expectation, and future expectation is based upon the sure word of prophecy. Every Christian lives his life in expectation that God will always do everything he said He would do. Paul fully believed that every man will face God in judgment, so that compelled him to firmly discipline a wayward saint. All our choices and actions should be with complete confidence in God's revealed plans.   1 Corinthians 5:5 - "To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." Don't Look at the Storm

But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? - Matthew 14:30-31

If there's any way the devil can get your eyes away from the Word, he'll do it. He'll cause trouble. He'll make the circumstances around you pitch and roll like a rowboat in a hurricane. He'll do anything he can to get you to concentrate on the realm of the physical senses and the situation around you instead of on the promise of God—because he knows that if he doesn't, you'll take that promise and beat his brains out with it. That's what he did to Peter. When Peter first jumped out of the boat that day in response to Jesus' word, what happened? He walked right across that water without a problem. His whole being was fastened on that word Jesus had spoken to him, "Come!" But when he took his eyes off that word, he started looking at the storm. He started looking at the impossible thing he was doing. After all, he was a fisherman. All his training and experience told him when the waves were that high, you were going under. He started to focus on what he knew in the natural instead of what Jesus said. When he did that, his faith slipped out of gear and he started to sink. Don't let that happen to you. Once you get a revelation from the Word of God, hang on to it. Don't focus on anything else. The devil will do everything he can to get you to turn loose of it. He'll stir up things around you. He'll try to get you into fear. He'll push every button he can from the past to get you back into your old way of thinking. But don't let go. Keep your eyes on the Word of God until it's more real inside you than anything else. If you do, you'll be able to walk your way across the water just fine.

Plan of Salvation read acts 2:38