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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 1-800-800-800-800-800. 800-576-3771. snippy made through the Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.org. 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.

Look at John chapter 4 and look down there in verse 20. Here’s a statement that sometimes we make is called, to be or not to be. To be or not to be. Well, I believe to be a child of God or not to be a child of God is a decision that every person has to make. Are you or are you not? And as Christ was born into the world without a sinful nature, you and I, the only way we can live forever and to be like the Lord is to be born without a sinful nature.

Well, that’s the purpose of the New Bird. the new birth is you being born again without a sinful nature, so that you can be like God and be with God forever in heaven. So we do have a very important decision to make. The part of telling the good tidings to all men is so that every man has a chance of deciding for himself, do you want to be born again? Do you want a new life? Do you want to have eternal life?

Do you want to be a child of God? Do you want to be born without a sinful nature? What kind of a world would it be if every person in the world today did not have a sinful nature? Wouldn’t it be wonderful? The families would be different, the kids would be different, the government, I don’t know if we’d need any laws, everybody would do right. Wouldn’t have a sinful nature. We wouldn’t have any nursing homes. There’d be no hospitals.

Everybody would be perfect. If we could be all born without a sinful nature. Now that’s the purpose of Christ coming to the world so that things would be changed, that things would be different. So he makes a statement here in John chapter 4, Jesus Christ had been to see a woman at the well. And he came down here and says in verse 20, she said to him, Our fathers worshiped in this mountain. Now, the other statement, I guess, instead of just simply saying, to be or not to be, and if it is, I like to just say, to be a child of God or not to be a child of God is one of the most important decisions a person can make.

The other statement is to worship or not to worship. To worship or not to worship. What is worship? We say, I worship God, or a man worships his wife, or worships his little grandchildren, worship. What do we mean by worship? Well I think you’ll see that as we go. But to worship or not to worship, that is a good question. To worship the Lord as we should, should mean that we not only say, but we do the things that please the one that we say we love and that we worship that person.

We give him honor and respect, do reverence and total obedience to worship means to please that individual of that person in everything that you do. And because there are people who do that with people, yes, there is those who are guilty of people worship. God is the only one that is supposed to be truly worship. We’re not to worship angels. We’re not to worship Mary. We’re not to worship the apostles. We’re not to worship our families. We’re not to worship our country or our homes or our possessions.

We’re supposed to worship God. So to worship God or not to worship, that is a good question. So who is to be worshiped? It says here in verse 20. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain. I wonder who they worshiped. Well, it says over there in verse 20, God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and interest. So we’re talking about worshiping Him, God. So even though God made the heavens and the earth and everything therein, He wants from mankind one main thing.

That’s worship. God wants to be worshiped. But he says here in verse 21, Jesus said unto her woman, believe me the hour coming when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship, you know, not what? So is it possible to be religious and not be right with God? To worship and yet have nothing to do with God. Yes. Ye worship, you know, not what? Ye know, we know what we worship. For salvation is of the Jews.

So in this statement, who is to be worship? Well, God, where were they to worship? She says they worshiped in these mountains. Jesus says they worshiped in Jerusalem. He says, but he says, God must be worshiped in spirit. It’s not so much a place. We may come to church, to worship, but we can worship outside of church. You can worship God at home in your car, on your job. You can worship anytime, anywhere. You can worship because he says596 in spirit, that’s yours.

In truth, that’s God’s. According to his truth, you see, you are to worship in your spirit, the true and living God. According to truth, it can’t be a made up religion. You’re on opinion. You’re on way of worshiping God. You worship God God’s way according to truth. And the truth is revealed in His Word. And what are we supposed to worship God for? We can worship God because of the great creation that He created upon this earth. We could worship God for our families, but the thing that he’s talked about here, as though the one main thing that we’re supposed to worship is found in verse 22.

Look in verse 22, ye worship, you know not what, what are you worshiping? Worship God for what? We know what we worship for, and then he says the reason, salvation is of the Jews. Salvation. So we should worship God because of salvation. When you stop and think all the things that are connected with salvation, you understand the purpose of worship. We worship Him because of His saving our soul. And because of Him saving us, given His eternal life, making us His children, He deserves to be worshiped.

Christ came, God’s gift. He died, paid for sin, came back from the dead. He is God. So we should worship Him because He is God. And we should worship Him because of what He’s done for us. Does God deserve from you and I to be worshiped? Yes. Can we make somebody else worship God? No. You can try to help somebody be religious, but you can’t make somebody worship God because it’s in the Spirit. It means that you are connected to God in such a way that nothing else comes between you and him.

Look in Revelation chapter 13. Revelation chapter 13, I want you to notice down through here that there is someone else, someone else that wants to be worshiped. That someone else is someone who tried to steal the worship from God. And he wanted the angels to worship him. His name was Satan, O Lucifer. He’s the one and one of the honor that only belongs to God. He said, I will be like the Most High. I will send him to the sides of the North, and I will be lifted up, and the congregations shall come unto me.”

Well, that’s what he wanted. What do you think is Satan’s main focus upon the individuals in the world is for people in the world to worship him. He wants to be worship. And the best way you can worship the devil is simply to obey Him, surrender to Him, yield to Him, bow to Him, look to Him, trust in Him.

That’s worship. There is someone who is very jealous of this. Satan is jealous if you worship God, and God is jealous if you worship Satan. God is a jealous God. So here in Revelation in chapter 13, I want you to look there in verse 4. In verse 4, he says, and they worship the dragon which gave power unto the beast. Now from chapter 12, we know who the dragon is. Anybody know who the dragon is? The dragon is the devil, Satan himself.

And so this is the tribulation period of time right ahead of us. But notice what he says in verse 4, and they worship the dragon gave power unto the beast and they worship the beast, saying, who is likened to the beast, who was able to make war with him? So they are in awe. It mentions in chapter 17 how the world will be in awe of this beast and just like spellbound because of the power that he’s going to have.

And to be able to bring down fire from heaven and do miracles in the side of the people, they’re going to worship Him. Now bow to Him. They will receive His mark upon their forehead or from the back of their hand. The Bible says that the people of the world will not be able to buy or to sell unless they have the mark of the beast. So they’re going to worship the beast. That’s what Satan wants from you and I.

So they are vie for our attention. God wants our attention and the devil wants our attention and if you follow light it will lead to truth. If you follow darkness it will lead to Satan. Understand that. Look what he says now. In the verse eight and all that worship upon the earth shall or dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the land slain from the foundations of the world.

So according to this verse, those that worship Him are not those who know the Lord, because those that have their names written in the Lamb’s book of life is because they had faith in Christ. So I don’t see anybody who has trusted Christ worshiping the least. I may be wrong, but I don’t believe it. I don’t see it in the scripture. But the think of everybody in the world worship in the devil. What about now?

Is it possible that Satan can so deceive you that you think you’re worshiping God and you’re not worshiping God at all? Is it possible that whenever Christ was talking to the woman at the well that he says, you worship, ye know not what? So did they worship? Yes. Did they think they were worshiping God? But they weren’t worshiping God. Because God’s the one who says, I’m God and they weren’t worshiping me. So they were deceived. And I believe there’s a multitude of people that are deceived about who is God and how do you worship God?

The way you and I are to reveal that we worship God is by our obedient to God. We do what God says. We obey Him. We live the way that is our way of saying thank you to the Lord for His unspeakable gift, which is Jesus Christ. So Christ was God’s gift to us, but the way we live our lives is our gift back to God. Also look there in verse 12. And He exercises all the power of the first beast before Him and causes the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beat, whose deadly wound was him.

Chances are these people, they are deceived because look- look what he says in verse 14- and deceived them that dwell on the earth. They probably are not saying, we’re worshiping the devil. They probably think they’re worshiping God. WARNY Remember the anti-Christ is a false Messiah. HeDenver claims everything that Beetles Christ is. He even goes to Jerusalem and claims to be God,Highes himself in the temple as God, demands people to worship him as God, and the people do, and they’re wrong.

Well SolidGoldMagikarp he could do that then. Do you think he’s doing it?limits. Now, yes. There’s people who live their whole lives totally in Cunningham. I believe that it’s so important for people to ffenter into the real world. I used to have people say, wow, Yank, you know these kids, they need to get out to the real world. I says, that’s exactly where I’m trying to take people into the real world. This is real. Not knowing God. Not knowing Jesus Christ.

Not knowing the truth. And living according to the truth, you’re not living a real life. Yours is all based upon that which is false and deception upon lies, but to live a life based upon truth, that’s the real life. That’s the real thing. It’s not Coca-Cola. This is the real thing. It talks to them about they need… To worship this image of the beast that was set up and deceived the world. Look in verse 15, and he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause, that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be what?

Would be killed. Is there a price to pay for not worshiping Satan and his image that he set up? a great price. Did you know I’ve had people say, well, I can’t afford to serve God. There’s a price in serving the devil and there’s a price to pay if you don’t serve your Lord. And the way we worship God is not coming to church just on Sunday morning and singing a few Christian songs and think, well, I worship God and then go out and you think, well, the other six days are mine.

No, they’re not. True worship of God as God owns all of me and all that I have and all that I am or all that I ever will be. Then you begin to learn how to worship God. I should be obedient on Sunday but should I be obedient on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday I should be obedient to God every day of my life. That’s worshiping. Take your Bible look in the book of Luke chapter 2.

It says in verse 8 and there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field. Keep in watch over their flocks by night. Low the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shown round about them, and they were so afraid. The angel said unto them, fear not. For behold, I bring you good tidings.” That’s what we refer to as the gospel. I got a good story to tell you. It is good tidings, and you ought to underlined the next two words, great joy.

We’re supposed to believe that every person that hears the gospel and understands it in his great joy, but it’s the devil that tells you they don’t want to hear and you’re wasting your time. They’ve already heard and can talk you out of witnessing or giving tracks or explaining the gospel to anybody. But we’re supposed to believe that it’s a good message and it will bring great joy. This great joy may not come in this life as well as it will when they get to heaven.

Every person who wakes up in heaven, don’t you think that’s going to be a great moment of great joy. It’s great that you trust the Lord. And the Bible says there’s joy in heaven over every person who trusts the Lord. But what about the moment you get to heaven and then you see all that you’re believing got you. That’s gonna really be a great moment. But you see it’s supposed to be something in our mind that burns in our minds that this is a message that everybody really wants to hear.

Don’t let the devil tell you that nobody wants to know that. Think just the other way. It’s the devil who lies to us. Aren’t you glad you know it? Aren’t you glad you heard it and somebody explained it to you? Then don’t you think there’s other one just like you out there? I believe that. They get what he says, which shall be to some people. It’s great joy to all people. They may not accept it, but we’re supposed to believe it and explain it.

Now get what he says, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a millionaire, and he’s going to give everybody some money. This is one of the greatest things you could ever have as boy a millionaire to be born and give you some money. You know a million dollars don’t go very far today. But see if that was the greatest need in all the world was for people to have money, well then Christ should have come in here as the multi-millionaire just to give people money, but that’s not what was supposed to be this great good news.

And yet everybody’s got physical He could have come as just a great doctor, but he is the great physician. And he did have the power to heal. And yet when he came into the world, it says, Behold, in the city of David, is born unto you this day a Savior, which is Christ. Evidently, this is supposed to be the greatest news in the world. This is why everybody should rejoice. This is what Christmas is all about. God so loving the world that he gave his only begotten son to whosoever believe it in him You should not perish, but have everlasting life.

And this is the good news that everybody would have great joy, because, behold, it’s born unto you this day in the city of David, a Savior. Not a trailblazer, not a Daniel boom or a Davy Crockett. Somebody show you away. No, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. I think it’s awesome. The way the Scriptures are laid out and what God has done for us. Now, don’t you take your Bible and turn there to the book of Matthew 2.

Matthew? In chapter two, when you talked about worship, remember the Bible says that they followed a star. Let’s just consider that the star is light. They saw a light and they followed a light. You’ve heard me say that the Bible makes a statement John chapter one of this is the light that light of every man that cometh into the world. Inside of every individual is a desire to know God. What is the source of this? life, this truth. There’s a God.

Where is God? How can I know God? And the Bible says, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. Even though a man may seek God, it is because God is drawing him. God’s the one who takes the initiative. No man seeks God without man being drawn by God. And there’s people who will follow some amount of truth and it will lead. I believe that’s how I came to know Christ as my Savior because I wanted to know God.

I believed that there was a God and I was searching. I did want to know, but I believe it God who was drawing me and drew me right to the place where I could be told by an individual that God could freely use. And he explained to me the gospel and I trusted Christ as my Savior. Now here in Matthew chapter 2, look there in verse one. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King, behold, there were wise men from the east to Jerusalem.

Now we really do not know how many wise men there were. And some say that they were kings from the east. Well we don’t know if they were kings. The word comes from the word maggai. It simply means wise men or they could have been those who study astronomy or even astrology because chances are they came from Daniel’s place over in Babylon. That’s probably where they came from in the east in Babylon from Iraq. And so here they came all this journey about 930 miles.

That’s a long way. You’re almost a thousand miles. But they saw a light and they follow the light and word of the truth lead. It leads to the source of light led to Christ. And it says here in verse two, saying, where is he that is born? King of the Jews, for we have seen his star these and are come to in your underlying this word. We’re come to worship him. Come to worship him. Now this little baby laying in a manger hadn’t done anything for anybody yet.

Even when the wise men got there, Jesus Christ, they believed was about two years old. So the wise men didn’t come to the manger scene. They came about two years later. Now I know that ruins a lot of the manger scenes, but it’s okay as long as you understand it. Here you have them coming to a house. the wise men did not come to the major where Jesus supposed to be born. See there in verse 9 when they had heard the king they departed and lo the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young young child not a babe now young child was and then they saw the star and then in verse 11 and when they were come into the house just a total a different story, totally different time than when he was born.

But that’s okay. This is why he was killing all the babies from two years old and under because that’s about how he was. When you read this and you find out that, okay, these wise men, they came from the East, there’s several things that they did. They followed the star, they followed the light, were led to the truth. They knew who he was. How do you know they knew who he was? Where is he that is born? What? King of the Jews.

They knew this was no ordinary child. And yet this child had done nothing for them yet. It’s because they knew and they believed. This was the king of Israel and the travel 930 miles one way and in turn I go back again. Would you travel that way by camel or by foot just to see a baby? This was not just a normal child. They believe this was the Son of God. This is a perfect little child. This was the Lamb of God that was going to make a payment for the sins of the world.

But now notice what he says up there in verse 11, they saw the young child would marry his mother and fell down and did what to him. They worshiped him. They were led to him. They knew who he was and they gave to him. And the Bible says that this is really how you and I learn to worship. We should seek God. And it will lead us to God if we follow truth. And he says, Thy word is truth.

God must be worshiped in spirit and in truth. The other point I wanted to make was you have to honor him for who he is he’s God. You honor him for what he has done, that salvation. to obey Him in spirit. That’s why the Bible talks about it’s been mighty in spirit. Because you see your body is only a tool that is used. Your soul that’s you. Your spirit is the connection you have between you and God. God is a spirit.

And God says that your connection to Him is through your spirit. And when you were spiritually dead, it was like a phone line that had been cut. But now that’s been restored. Now you’re made spiritually alive. And because you’re spiritually alive, you and I are supposed to worship God. To me, it was God that said for us to come together on the first day of the week. And it was God that says that, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

I believe that coming is a way of worshiping God. To me personally, I find it very difficult for me to worship him, be obedient to him and not be found faithful and doing the things that he says to do. Worshiping God means obeying means that if I’m supposed to give a certain amount or believing that he wants me to support this ministry, that my worship to God is my obedience to God. If you’re not obedient to him, you don’t worship him.

Some people don’t trust Him. They believe God will let Him down, or that He doesn’t really mean what He says. But really believe it, and let it become a part of your life. I believe it’s the greatest thing in all the world. So on Christmas day, should we worship the Lord? Worship the babe and the manger. As many say they do. And never obey Him in their life, the one that died on the cross. The one that was born and the one that died.

See, they’re the same one. They’re the same one. But many people worship the babe in the manger. They talk about it. They sing about it. But like that’s the end of the story. That’s the Christmas story. No, that’s only the beginning of the Christmas story. The Christmas story is the whole thing. The good tidings. Just to rejoice that a baby was born. Big deal. We’re even that it was the Son of God. So what? But what he came to do, we worship.

You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll-free 1-800-576-3771. 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

If you’re 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 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be ch- be changed.

Hot up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.