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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. 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 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.

I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Peter, 1 Peter, chapter five, first Peter and chapter five. Regardless of how healthy you feel right now, tomorrow you could be in the hospital or you could be in glory. And so because you don’t have any control over what’s gonna happen to you, some things you cannot control, they are out of your hands. So the best thing you can do is learn how to prepare for things.

The reason you have car insurance is in case you have a car accident. Some of you have health insurance, in case you get sick and have to go to the hospital. And so you’re always preparing, but many people never prepare for the most important thing of all is one of these days You’re going to die. You’re gonna leave this world But until then God calls this time that we live a time of suffering So here in 1 Peter chapter 4.

I want you to look at a verse before we look in chapter 5 look there in verse 12 Verse 12 tells us beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened into you. Don’t think it’s strange because what happens to you? I mean all of a sudden you get lung cancer or the next thing you know you’ve lost your job or next thing you know you broke a leg or next thing you know your kids ran away or next thing you know your husband ran off with somebody there’s always something going to happen.

You’re going to be filled with nothing but problems because you live in a sinful world. Not everything that’s going to work and not everything is fair. Well, in this life it’s not fair. Nothing’s fair in this world. That’s why there’s a great white throne judgment. That’s why there’s the judgment seat of Christ. And that’s why the righteous God who lives in heaven is going to be the judge of the quick and the dead. And now I know what the quick and the dead refers to.

That was over in Egypt when you tried to cross the road. If you weren’t quick enough, you were dead. It’s so important for you to understand that in this life you are going to have troubles. You’re going to have sufferings. And your teenagers might as well understand that everything ain’t gonna work out your way. Your parents ain’t gonna let you do everything that you want to do. The teacher ain’t gonna always grade your paper fair. They’re gonna make mistakes and you’re gonna get a D when you should have deserved an F.

And sometime you’re gonna get a B when you should have thought you should have got an A. And nothing is gonna happen to you just perfectly. You’re gonna have a girlfriend, you’re a lover to death, and then she won’t like you and she’ll choose somebody who looks twice as ugly as you and you won’t figure it out. And you can’t have whatever you want and get whoever you want. It’s not going to work out. Life isn’t fair So I want you to take your Bible look there now in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 1 As you read some of this the whole book is talking about the sufferings that we go through and that Christ is our Example of what suffering is all about Then he gets to not just the people in the church He’s talking now a son about leaders in the church talking about the pastor talking about the elders

But it talks about the older preachers and the younger preachers. And there’s some interesting things in here that you should understand about us. Preachers as you know are perfect, right? Yeah. And everybody knows that everybody makes mistakes, but a preacher needs a better excuse than that he’s just human. But the Bible says that the apostle Peter puts himself in the same class, and the word elder here is used as a presbytery or the office of a God called man.

That’s to be a pastor. In Scissor v. 1, the elders which are among you, I exhort who am also an elder and a witness of the suffering of Christ and also of a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. This is really like an exhortation chapter. Now, when you read the book of Hebrews in chapter 3, It talks about exhort one another. We should not provoke one another to do evil, provoke one another to anger, but the Bible does say provoke one another to love and to do those things that are right.

So in your Christian life, if you’re not winning somebody to the Lord, you should be trying to challenge and motivate Christians to serve the Lord. motivated by what you do. Now if you took a list, made a list I should say, of the ways in which God shows you that He loves you. Nobody loves me. Well some people are very unlovable but if you made a list on what has God done to manifest His love for you, well you could put down or He died for you, doesn’t that prove God loves you?

Well yes, you could put that down. And God forgave you of all of your sins when you trust Him and say, yes, you could put that down. So God had manifest His love for you. God made you His child. Yeah, that proves that God loves me. And you could say that God has left you in this world so you could serve Him. All was not be a big old proof of that. God loves you. And the Bible says, go on down to Him.

God loves us. God gave you a body in which you could use to serve Him. I’ll never prove God loves you. And God gave you not only the free gift eternal life, but He gave you the Holy Spirit to indwell you, to lead you and guide with that ought to prove to you that God loves you. And you can go on that and make a whole list of things. And then still people are, I don’t know if God loves me.

You God loves you. And then all God did all these things. But when something goes wrong in your life, somebody up here don’t like me. God got up on the wrong side of the bed. He looked over the banister of heaven and looked down at you and says, I’m going to get you today. And there’s people that think that God is out to get them. God isn’t a bad God. is a good God. The Scriptures tell us this. But now let’s just change it just a little bit.

Suppose we took this piece of paper. Now I want you to list ways in which you demonstrate you love God. How do you demonstrate you love the Lord? And what ways do you demonstrate you love God? Well, and then, well I go to church. Okay, that really demonstrates you love the Lord. Okay? You don’t beat your wife. That really helps demonstrate that you love God. And you feed your kids. Well, that’s good. And you’re faithful to your mate. Well, that’s good.

And you’re doing all this because you love God. Well, no, I just ain’t found nobody better yet. No, no, no, no, then wait a minute. You see, you would have trouble if somebody was to put you on the witness stand and says, now, let’s see if we have any evidence in your life that you love God. What would they refer to? How would you prove that you love God? The Bible says in the book of 1 Corinthians 8, he says, them that love God, the same shall be known of them.

It will be revealed if you do love the Lord. But do you love God? One of the ways you demonstrate you love the Lord is your faithfulness, your steadfastness to God in the midst of trials and tribulations. Now, when everything is going wonderful, your proof and the evidence that you’re strong in the Lord is how can you stand when everything seems to be going wrong, when nobody loves you and everybody’s blaming you and accusing you and this happening, that going wrong and you’re sick and your bills are not paid and you’ve got all the problems in the world.

Now, do you really love God? Now it’ll be revealed in your attitude or whether or not you’re going to get mad and bitter and curse God because everything’s not working right in your life. You should manifest a love for the Lord every area of your life all the time. Okay, now we got that out of the way. There’s three things here. Number one, there is a challenge to the elders in verse one to four. There is a challenge to the youngers in verse five to seven.

And then there’s a challenge to be sober and be vigilant because your devil is after you. So there’s a lot of challenges down through here. So I want you to look at this, first of all, in verse one, where he says, I was a witness of the sufferings of Christ. You see, the apostle Peter, he saw Jesus Christ being crucified. He saw him being whooped. He saw him being nailed. He saw him through all the stuff that happened to him.

He was an eyewitness. He also was there, the Bible says, on the Mount of Transfiguration, Whenever Jesus Christ was upon the Mount and the Bible showed Jesus Christ in his glory, the way he’s going to be when he comes and reigns upon the earth. Saw him in his perfection and his honor in his glory. He said, I was a witness. So I saw the suffering of Christ. And I also saw the glory of Christ. And you and I need to understand that first of all, there is going to be the sufferings and then the glory.

So we are in this life going to suffer for the Lord. And then you’re supposed to believe the glory will follow later. And the glory will be because of what you suffered for Him. So don’t look at the sufferings of this life as some bad thing that’s happened to you. All of the suffering that you have are opportunities for you to demonstrate faithfulness for which God is going to reward you for all eternity. He says a crown of glory that fade if not away.

Remember he says this in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 4, he says, When you are saved you are saved from something to something, from hell to an inheritance, incorruptible. That fade if not away reserved in heaven for you. So the place that I’m going to get will never fade away. And the crown of glory will never fade away. That’s mentioned there in verse four, looking verse four very quickly. He said, but when the chief shepherd, which is a reference to Jesus Christ, shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory, and you got on the line this in your mind, that faded not away.

It will never fade away. In other words, an eternal weight of glory. So the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with what you’re going to get. So serve the Lord, serve Him faithfully because it will be worth it. Now look there in verse two. Verse two says, fleece the flock of God. Is that what it says? The job of the preacher is not to try to fleece the flock. Many preachers, their only goal is, all they want is to fleece the flock as much as he possibly can.

It’s amazing how many times you’ll hear preachers make the statement, you know, the demonstrate your faith in God, you give me your money. And you listen to the radio and all the TV things and you’ll be surprised how many of them all they want is money, money, money, money, grabbing preachers. And it turns people away from those who are real preachers who really love the Lord and want to do God’s work. You should support God’s work when you see God’s work being done.

And if the people are not doing the work of God, then just keep your money. Find a place where you can put it, where you believe that they’re reaching somebody for the Lord. But understand this, you should, when you give, realize that I’m given for the work of the Lord so that people can use the money to reach people for the Lord. Then you’re having fruit that will abound to your account. And the reason you give it, because you know that in the long run, God is going to bless you for whatever you’ve done.

I don’t believe it’s my job to try to find out how much you have and make sure you have just enough to get by on. I don’t care how much you make, I don’t care how much you give. That’s between you and the Lord. You should understand that whatever you do, there’s an eye upon how watching you and God is going to reward you and bless you. Your giving will be in direct ratio to the caliber of a love that you have for the Lord based out of what God has blessed you with.

If you give nothing, it perhaps will mean either you have nothing or you do not love Him. But if you love Him and God has provided, then you should give to the Lord’s Word. Nuff said on that point. Look what he says in verse 2, feed the flock of God. The Bible says feed my sheep. It does not say feed my giraffes. You want to put the food down on the bottom table so that even the children can understand it.

in such a way that everybody can understand what you’re saying. Feed the flock. Remember to feed the flock, it’s the flock that bear the sheep. Many people think it’s the shepherd that’s supposed to have all the babies. No, it’s the sheep that bear the flock. We’re supposed to teach and educate and try to help in every way we possibly can to try to get people to, when more people to the Lord and more people to the Lord. Or this morning they’ll probably have some little children, trust Christ the Savior.

We have teenagers on Friday night, that trust Christ the Savior. And once in a while we have some adults that trust Christ the Savior. But do you know who’s the easiest it is to win? It’s easier to win the children. And then it’s next gmaxwell it’s easier to win the teenagers. And you know who’s the hardest to reach of all people? The adults. Because you’re setting your ways. You’ve been living a long time. Nobody is going to tell me what I cannot do.

Nobody is going to preach to me. And they’re hard-hearted. Very seldom do you have many adults who trust the Lord or challenge to serve the Lord. Unless you get some new blood, people who just recently trusted Christ’s Savior and more of them are easier to set on fire than people who have heard it a thousand times all their life and they’ve become complacent and don’t want to hear it no more. They become cold, like one person says. Our church is as clear as ice and just as frozen.

Here he makes the statement. Feed the flock of God which is among you taken the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy looker but of a ready mind. That filthy looker means shameful or dishonorable gain. In other words, you don’t do it just for money, not for dishonest gain just because you can say, well I’m somebody look at me, not because you want to be a lord over God’s heritage or you want to take and just be over somebody’s flock and act like you’re a king dictator?

No. A pastor is supposed to be a servant of the people, not to be the Lord over the people. We’re supposed to serve you and the more people we can serve and help, that’s what you’re supposed to do. Remember Christ came into the world. He says he came not to be ministered unto but to give his life and to minister unto others. We’re supposed to try to find out how can I serve? How can I help? What can I do for you to be a blessing?

He makes a statement in verse three, neither as being Lord’s over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock. Go to Andak, line that word, examples to the flock. Those in place of leadership, I suppose, be an example of the believer in word, in deed, in love, in attitude, and prayer. All these things are to be an example so that you know how to follow. The shepherd is the lead and the flock is to follow. I have done my dead level best to try to set an example of what faithfulness is all about.

I will be here on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. When I’m half dead, I will be in church. The Lord goes first, and then everything else falls into place. Look there at verse five. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourself unto the elder. Now whether this is a reference to younger pastors honoring older pastors, I’m not sure. Or that just the younger people in the churches show honor and respect to theiraged individuals. Those who are older in the Lord, you’ve gotten up in age.

I believe that there should bentil should be honor and respect to our older generation. What? your citizens. Whether you want to call them the aged or seniors or whatever it, I couldn’t stand it for a long time. Because, well, see when I was about 45, I couldn’t wait until I became a senior citizen because at Denny’s and I hop, it was always you got a discount for seniors. So when I got 50, they changed it to 55. So I couldn’t wait until I was 55 because when you go to play golf, if you are a senior, you got a discount.

And so when I got 55, they changed it to 60. And now it’s moved up to 62. And you say, well, that is just not fair. It’s just not fair. Nothing in this life is fair, I guarantee you. But we are to honor those that are older. I think teenagers honor your mother and your father. of them. That means that whatever you do should honor your parents. You should never do anything that brings shame or disgrace to your family.

And then when you get older, you still should honor your parents. I still should not do things that would dishonor my mother or my stepdad. I still should not do anything that would dishonor them. It doesn’t mean I always perfectly will obey them because I may disagree with them. They may want me to do something I should not do, but I will always honor them in the sense I will always try to do right and not do anything that I believe is a wrong thing for me to do that would dishonor my family.

If my mama wanted to today she wanted to whoop me after church servant I would let her whoop me. God forbid that she would want to whoop me. The last time she tried to whoop me and she took the belt and she swung it at me and she missed and then she swung at my leg and then I moved it just in time and she missed and she did that about four or five times each time she missed. Not to one and she got tickled I got tickled and she never did it again.

I’m sure I’ve needed a few more weapons along the way just like you have. But he says submit yourselves unto each other, submitting yourselves. Look at the last part of verse 5. He says, yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. That means in subjection. In the word subject me, you can serve somebody. You can serve them. See, there’s some people that always want like I’m the dictator, I’m the head honcho. Everybody serve me.

Everybody make me happy. It’s whatever I want. The whole world revolves only around me. And I’m the big eye. I’m first in line. I’m the first in everything. I’m the greatest. And you’re nothing. And now everybody bow to me. No, that’s not God’s way. That’s not what God’s talking about. He says, be clothed with humility for God resisteth the. He’s proud and he also says this and he says in the last part of it, give it grace to the humble.

Now how do you know when you’re filled with pride and when you’re humble? Well it’s simple. God’s going to send you problems. A man who’s filled with pride doesn’t cast his cares upon the Lord. He triesissance himself. That’s pride. I can handle it myself. I don’t need no help. And you don’t talk to God about anything. You’re a big, you know, self-made man. Well, you quit too soon. He makes a statement and he gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.

Did you know that if you will submit yourself to God, God will exalt you. Because see, God is looking for people he can use. But the big shot, the know it all, the I’m somebody. Yeah, God’s gonna just set you aside and God’s looking for a dedicated nobody and God can use you if you’ll let God use you But God cannot use the proud But he’ll use the humble those who are submit themselves to the will of God look what else he says here In verse 7 casting all your care upon him for he cared for you is a sign a pride Not to cast your cares upon the Lord a sign of humility it’s when you’re humble enough to realize I cannot bear my burdens alone and you can cast your problems upon the Lord and God says that if you cast your cares upon

Him He will take care of those things. You see if you take everything and put it into God’s hands it won’t be long before you see God’s hand in everything but if you don’t do it you’re gonna have some heavy yoke of iron up on your neck and it’ll keep on until it destroys you. Look what he says in verse 8, be sober, be vigilant because you’re adversary the devil. Start your wife, be vigilant because you’re adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he made of our roaring lion is because a lion does when it’s hungry.

And a roaring lion is looking for you. A roaring lion wants to devour you to satisfy his hunger and you are food for him. And the lion is the devil and the devil is after you. You’re the one that determines whether he gobbles you up or not. You say what do you do from the lion? Run? No, devibed and say run. It says something else. In verse 9, home resist, steadfast in the faith. In other words, stand up to the devil.

Stand up to him. I know that there’s sometimes incidents where you see some great big fella and you gotta stand up to him. I remember one day before I married Betty, she had this big dude that went over to her house and I saw him walking down the street. Nine knew he’s going to see Betty next door. And I watched this dude. This is a big dude. I mean, he was a big feller. And he came down the sidewalk and he went up the door and he knocked on the door and he went in the house.

I was furious. I was furious. I went out of that house. I didn’t know the Lord now. I didn’t know the Lord. And I went down the sidewalk and I walked up and I banged on that door. And this big dude came to the door and Betty stuck her head around. He says, Yankee, what do you want? I says, him. I says, get out of this house. It wasn’t my house. We weren’t married. But get out of here. That woman is mine.

You leave her alone. Get out of here. Don’t you ever come back. I stood up to him. He could have crushed me. It’s like a chihuahua that doesn’t really understand the situation when it’s barking at a rock-wiler. But did you know that a Chihuahua can kill a Rottweiler? If it gets caught in his throat. But sometimes you just gotta stand up for what you believe in and what you think is right. And so I would stand up for what I believe was right.

I remember one day, and this was a long time ago, but one day I was just a 17 year old kid and down here in part of your apartments, would you believe that I was a president of the youth group? And in walked one of the biggest men I’ve never seen in my life. His name was William Allen. Big dude. I mean he was big and strong. Built like myself. Well not exactly. But he walked in and my little brother, little man was only 13 years old.

But little man would stand up to anybody. He was the Chihuahua. And this was the Rottweiler. And little man, yankie, yankie, kick him out. I said why? He didn’t pay his dime. He cost a dime to come into the youth group that night. He didn’t pay his dime. He says, man, it’s all right. He says, you didn’t pay your dime, mister. You ought to get out of here. Yankee, kick him out. Man, it’s okay. It’s alright. He was 19 years old.

I was 17 years old. Little man was 13 years old. I said, it’s okay, man. Everything’s fine. He was getting ready to leave. And little man, he wouldn’t let it drop. Have you ever seen somebody who just don’t know when to quit? Don’t know when to quit. Don’t know when just to let it alone. He says, Yankee, kick him out. That guy, Rick Storver, got a hold of my little brother and picked him up. Straight arm, just picked him straight up off the floor.

Drew his hand back and I was fixing to let my brother So you know what I did? Let him. No, I didn’t. I jumped over this chair and I hit him and I hit him and I hit him. When I got up off the floor, I realized that my nose had been replaced. It had been placed over here on my cheek. It was broken and just totally crushed. And so I got up and somebody didn’t call the police and they said, Yankee, your nose looks funny.

Well, you would too, if you had a nose transplant. I didn’t have it here. It was laying over here on my cheek. But there’s a time when you need to stand up and sometimes you get crushed. And I thought, man, I wished I had a friend always walk with me. Did you know I now have a big brother and I doubled all dare you to pick on me anymore? Because, see, Jesus Christ, He’s not only with me, He is in me.

And he says, he’s going to watch after me and he’s going to protect me and he’s going to take and get anybody who messes with me. And I really believe that. And the Bible says that he will always be there and you get a chance. You read the book of Hebrews in chapter 4 and it says there that we come to the throne of grace that we may get what we need and the nich of time. He’ll always be there and he’s always on time.

I want you to see this because He says in verse 9, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. In other words, you’re not alone. There’s other ones just like you that are going through hard time just like you. But He says this in verse 10, but the God of all grace who had called us into His eternal glory, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, established, strength and settled.

In other words, this is only temporary and you’re going to suffer a little bit and they may get in a few little blows and you’re going to have a little persecution down here but the little while that you’re here, this light affliction, worketh for us an eternal weight of glory in 2nd Corinthians in chapter 4 that you’re going to win in the long run that there is a righteous judge and he’s going to take care of you and you don’t have to always live in fear.

You don’t have to be afraid. And who cares what the world can do to you? And he says, fear not what man can do you. What can a man do to me? The worst he can do to me is to kill me. I’m so glad I know the Lord. You don’t know him. Oh, you’re missing out. Serving the Lord after you know Christ is Savior is the most exciting, dynamic life in the world. There’s nothing like it. I wouldn’t trade my life for anybody that I’ve ever heard about, ever known.

I don’t know of a man I want to be. I want to be me. But I want to be all that I can be for the Lord. 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 Bible Line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3.

3-7-7-1. That’s 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 1030 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 Bible Live. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. we will be changed. Caught 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.