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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 m- and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can and reaches toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

1 Corinthians 15. In chapter 15, we call it the resurrection chapter. I believe in the book of Ephesians where it talks about be strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It makes the statement about to the believer, being strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And then he tells us that there’s a war going on. There’s a fight. There’s a battle. So you and I, ever since we trusted Christ as our Savior, there’s somebody trying to do it then.

There’s the devil. The Bible says who walks about, seeking whom he may, what? May devour. And sometimes him devour in somebody’s because Christians are devouring one another. He turns you into a little lion and next thing you know you’re chewing up on somebody. Backbiting and sometimes you’re totally deceived and don’t even know that you’re doing it. You see he’s a great deceiver. He lies to us, he saves us. Sometimes we might even think we’re doing the work of the Lord but I can tell you this if it’s envious and jealousy and bitterness backbiting it’s It’s not the work of the Lord.

I want you to understand that God wants us after we trust Christ as our Savior. God wants us to be strong. And the reason we need to be strong is because there’s a battle that’s raging. And when the be needed if every individual was strong, every family was strong and every church was strong. Our church has taken some hits and I’m telling you that it’s devastating when you lose one person. I’ve lost some people and it just breaks my heart.

I never like to lose one person. Just just devastates me because I I don’t I don’t put so much time and work into an individual and I’m not finished with them yet and they leave too soon. I’m not finished with you. I guess it’s kind of like parents who have a teenager and they get ready to leave home and say well you’re not ready to go yet. You don’t mind leaving you just want to make sure that when they do they can stay there.

And if they’re not strong, they’re going to be back. And you know, you just want to be able to take care of themselves, make wise decisions, and so forth, you know. And sometimes they want to jump the gun that they’re not ready yet. Now, when I got married, was I too young? Oh, yes. Did I know what I was doing? Well, no. But the Lord has been good to me, gave me a good wife. So God is really blessed me.

I don’t deserve all the goodness that God. I don’t deserve anything I’m just very privileged and I praise the Lord for You know we talk about Being strong and now we’re getting you know a little bit older and we like to give advice But I found out the best advice that I can live by is the advice that I’ve given to other people and That’s the hardest advice to take. I have found out I have solved many of my problems trying to help people solve theirs, because the advice I gave was the advice I needed, but sometimes we don’t think that way.

Well, one time there was Mother Superior. She was dying on her death bed, you know, there she is, she’s dying. And so the nuns had gathered around and so they wanted to kind of comfort her in her final hours. And they got a warm glass of milk and they brought it to her and and they put it up to her lips and she didn’t want it. So they took it back into the kitchen and one of them remembered that a year ago, somebody had given them a bottle of Irish whiskey.

And they said it aside because you know they didn’t drink. So they, the woman thought, well, I’ll just put a little bit in this one mil. And then she thought, well, you know, a little more hurt. So she gave a generous portion into the one mill. Stored it up a little bit and brought it back and she kind of struck a finger and earned you, put it on her lips and she touched it up. And she took a little bit more.

That was pretty good. It wasn’t long before she had, well, drink the whole glass of milk. And they said, Mother Superior, we know that you’re going to pass away soon. Give us some good advice. Some words of wisdom. She says, don’t sell that cow. Don’t sell that cow. Well we have lived long enough that we’re going to try to give you all a little words of wisdom to try to help you along the way. I don’t know if you have one of those kind of cows or not.

But we need to learn as we grow how to get along with, you know, ourselves, get along with our wives and husbands, children, get along with God. It’s sometimes a very difficult thing learning how to get along with somebody. Well, this woman, she got married. And they were doing all right for a while, but it wasn’t long before you know the man became nit-ticky. It wasn’t long before it she realized, you know, she just couldn’t do anything, right? She was talking to her neighbor friend.

She said, you know, I, I cook breakfast and I cook in stew. But he says, I just don’t do it the way his mama used to do. And she says, I, I make the beds and I I clean the house, but nothing I do is like his mama. I used to do. So I pondered this, and I looked for a clue. Then I turned around and smacked him like his mother used to do. We are learning as we grow older, trying to bring more peace and joy and happiness in the world.

There was a time in my Christian life where I was more like a bull in a china shop. Every time I preached, I didn’t care what kind of a mess I made. I mean, you know, I hit up against the head. It just didn’t matter. But now I’m getting a little bit older and I’m becoming more sensitive. My wife says that I’m getting mellow. That’s the step right before you write. And the Bible tells us that as we grow older, that in our process we should learn how to please our heavenly Father.

And sometimes there’s things in the world and the devil is, you know, after us. We have the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. And it sometimes makes it a little difficult, trying to discern what really places God. And we get all mixed up sometimes. And we don’t always say and do the right thing. What our primary goal should be is that we want to please our heavenly father. Well Willy one day, he lived on the farm with his dad.

Anyway he had a load of corn and a wagon and he was going down the road and it hit a big old bump and turned that thing and it flipped the load of corn over. So Willy got out there not hot blazin’ son, tried his best to straighten up that wagon and he just couldn’t do it, couldn’t budge it. So the farmer next door came down and says, look, go. Well, he said, I can see you got yourself a problem here.

But look, it’s almost noon. Why don’t you come on up to the house, sit a spell, and we’ll have the wife fix us something to eat. We hit the wheat. And he said, I’ll come down here, and I’ll help you get that wagon up. He says, I really appreciate that. But I don’t think Paul is going to like that. He said, well, I don’t think it’d be wrong. He says, you’re pawing on the mind. you just come up to the house and Mrs.

She’s already got food ready. All you gotta do is just take a little bit of time and relax a little bit. It’s this hot sun and I’ve come down here and I’ll help you. Each of all I don’t think Pa’s gonna like it, but okay. So anyway, he went up there to the farmer’s house and sat in the shade for a little spell and she finished getting everything ready to eat. Anyone in there and sat down and just go, he had everything.

Oh, he will just, just feed me the space. Drink some ice cold tea. And he says, well, I really appreciate this. The food was excellent. But I got to get back down there because I don’t think Paul’s going to be happy about this. He said, look, don’t worry about it, son. Don’t worry about it. I’m going down here and I’m going to help you. He says, and by the way, where is your dad? He says he’s under the coin.

See, somebody else may not know the seriousness of the situation. You’ve got decisions to make and they may not understand that You know God has told you to do certain things and you have to do what God says to do And it may not be pleasing to everybody else. They may not understand I’m sure that over the years there’s things that I’ve done that people just did not understand But I believe that’s what my heavenly father wants me to do and so that’s what I’ve done.

I I want to be a strong Christian. I want to be able to run my race that God has set before me all the days of my life. You know, a rock, a rock of hard, rock strong. But you can take iron and split a rock. Now iron is strong, but you can take fire and you can melt that Now fire is strong, but you can take water and quench a fire. Now water is strong, and if it wasn’t for water, we wouldn’t be able to live.

Think of all the things on the earth that need water. Water in the ocean can support a big old ship. Think about a hurricane that’s out there in the Gulf. Water is strong. But you know that clouds can lift the water. Clows can cause that water to come up here and you’ve got these great big old clouds. You ever wondered how a cloud can carry so much weight? What if the water all came down at one time instead of little diddy drops?

It drowned everybody. What about clouds that came down on top of your house? But aren’t you glad that God has designed a way for it to come down and little rain drops? Yeah, clouds are strong. can lift a lot of water, hold a lot of water, but when to move a cloud, any direction it wants it to go. So when is strong? And when may be strong, but you know a man can resist the wind. Man is strong, but you know that sin can bring down any man.

I don’t care who the person may be and how strong you think you may be. Sin can bring you down. sin can ruin you. But Christ came into the world and Christ is stronger than sin. Christ is stronger than the devil. Christ defeated the devil, sin, and Christ defeated death. And Christ broke open the gates of health and Christ came back from the dead. And so far I haven’t found anything that’s stronger than God. I guess God is the strongest.

So if I want to be like anybody, I’d want to be like Him. When God says, be strong in the Lord, the power of His might. So many of us, sometimes we’re strong in a lot of things in a lot of ways, but are you strong in the Lord? Have you ever had somebody call you a strong, willed individual? That’s not God by the way. One of the things that I learned years ago was that there’s is God and there’s me and that I’m not God.

You will be very wise if you learn at a very young age. You ain’t God. God is God. You’re just a man. And therefore because you’re just a man, that regardless of how big you get for your You’re still, you’re just a man. And I don’t care how rich you get, you’re still, you’re just a man. And I don’t care how many possessions you have, you’re just a man. And some people get lifted up with pride and they think there’s something that they’re not.

God says it is not within man that walk up to direct his steps. There is a, a God that has ways of dealing with us, where we get lifted up with pride. pride. I have become convinced that all sin, I don’t get what kind of sin it is, you name the sin, that all goes back to pride. And that’s what Paul Satan’s downfall. Pride and lifting himself up against God. That’s not a sign of strength. That’s a sign of weakness.

A person in rebellion to God is not a sign of strength. The Bible says Moses was a Meet Man. It means that he was in submission to a powerful God and that God was able to use him in a great way. God wants you and I to submit to his authority, to his strength, and to be strong in the Lord. One of the chapters, if I was to ask you, what is the resurrection chapter in the Bible, you would say 1 Corinthians 15, wouldn’t you?

You’re supposed to. That’s what I said for you. I knew you was going to say that. But in case somebody who didn’t know that, I wouldn’t let tell you anyway. First Corinthians chapter 15 is a resurrection chapter. I want you to look in verse 58. Verse 58. This is the last verse in the chapter. And I’m going to read it first because I want you to see where we’re going to go. When the Bible makes a statement in verse 58, therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Now you’re going to have to be pretty strong in the Lord to be steadfast. You’ll have to be pretty strong in the Lord as the Bible says here, unlovable. And you’ll need to be strong in the Lord to always be abounding in the work of the Lord, for He says here, for as much as you know that your labor in is not in vain in the Lord. One of the things that can destroy your zeal for God and your faithfulness to God, destroy your steadfastness, cause you to be moveable is because you are not convinced.

You’re not sure that what you’re doing for the Lord is worth it. You think after a while it’s just in vain. I’ve been doing the Lord’s work for 40-some years. There has been times in my Christian life when I have wondered if it’s worth it at all. You say, you’re not supposed to think like that. Don’t tell me how to think. I said, I thought that it was totally in vain Because you can work and work and work and you labor and you try to get people not only to trust Christ to save you But you want them to serve the Lord And you pour your life into them you pour your soul into them because you love them you want them to have the best You want them to know what you know?

You want them to have the victory that you have you want them to have the peace and the joy that you have and Then when they don’t do like I know they could do and should do I don’t know why is how come that person that is so weak robbed me of my peace and my joy and my happiness and my steadfastness because you see there come the time in your life where you wish you could just make people do things and you can’t you have to win them that’s what makes it difficult for the Lord’s work we have to work on your mind we have to be able to convince you with the word of God that what we’re saying is the truth.

And can we get you to see that if you obey this truth, it can revolutionize your life. When we take the Bible, like it says in Romans chapter 12, and verse 1, he says, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies of living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable servant. You’re going to have to be strong to do that. You know not just any Christian can present his body as a living sacrifice.

Because see, they’re not strong enough to do it. They want to use their body as a tool to get out of this world what they want, not what God wants. And so they’re not seeking to please God. They seek to please themselves. So you’re going to have to be strong in the Lord just to present your body as a living sacrifice. And then He makes the statement there in Romans chapter 12 and verse 2. He says, and be not conformed to this world.

You’re going to have to be strong in the Lord not to be conformed to the world. If you’re a live like the world and you think like the world and you’re in love with the world, then you’re not strong in the Lord. Are you? You’re not strong. Because not to be conformed to the world means you got to resist the world. And the world is trying every way possible to disappoint you, to discourage you, to get you not to serve the Lord, not to be found faithful.

Why is it that sometimes Christians, they can go to church, they trust Christ as Savior, they fall in love with the church, they love with the preacher, they love with the people, and love with the Lord, and they just want to be found faithful. And after a few years, all of a sudden it’s all gone and they’re gone. What happened? God doesn’t love him anymore. No, God didn’t change. You see, to stay strong in the Lord. You have to stay close to the Lord.

And to stay close to the Lord is going Bolshevik to be a result of what you believe. And this is why the Bible talked about being strong in the doctrine, strong in doctrine, knowing what God says. See, the one of the biggest assets that I’ve got in my life that have helped me over the years is the Bible doctrine that I know I understand. I know I’m going to be tested. I know that. I know the devil is after me.

I know that. I know he wants to ruin me. I know that if I serve the Lord, not everybody’s going to understand. I know that. And I years ago accepted that. I don’t have to have everybody agreeing with me or loving me as I pay back for whatever I do for them. I believe you need to understand that God will give you the strength and the grace you need to be found faithful. You see, I didn’t just want to start a race.

I want to finish the race and I want to finish my course with joy. I enjoy serving a Lord. Let me just throw this thought out. There’s a scripture found in the book of John chapter 13 that where Christ is washing the feet of his disciples and he says, what I’m doing right now you don’t totally understand but you will and he says, these things that I’m doing, he says, if ye do them, happy are ye, happy are ye if you do them.

I know that many times people think that happiness is a result of happenings. If things happen toward me that I like, I’ll be happy. But if things happen that I don’t like, then I won’t be happy. So my happiness is based upon what somebody either does to me or for me, or the things that happen in agreement with me, then I can be happy. But Christ didn’t say that. He says, if you do these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

So my happiness can be a result of what I do, not what somebody else does. And see what I do can cause things to happen. If I make up my mind, I am going to serve the Lord, than I should be happy that I’m serving the Lord. If I want to go to church and I go to church, then I should be happy that I am able to go to church. If I want to read the Word of God, and I read the Word of God, then I should be happy that I can read the Word of God.

So not my happiness has nothing to do with what you do to me or for me. God has given us his word. Happy are ye if you do it. Blessed is the man that not only sees as he looks in the mirror, but does what he sees. And if you will do them, God says, blessed is that man in his work. So if you go through life and you’re miserable, good. You deserve to be. Because he, happiness is a choice.

And we make choices. If you want to be strong in the Lord, being strong in the Lord is not allowing other people to make you angry. Being strong in the Lord means that you don’t let somebody else’s cause you to be hurt and bitter. I told somebody not long ago, love other people like you have never been hurt in your life. How many have been hurt in your life? You ever had somebody say or do something that really hurt you too quick?

Have you ever made stables online, but I’ll never help another person. I’ll never do that again because I did that when I and I got hurt. I got burned. So you mean you didn’t expect to get hurt serving them on? You didn’t expect to get burned. You didn’t expect somebody to persecute you. And so now you put your feelings up here on your shoulder and you dare somebody to knock it off. shame. Love like you have never been hurt.

Love like you’ve never been hurt before in your love. Because see you’re a God’s child and you’re supposed to realize that when Christ came back from the dead so did you and you’re now to walk in newness of life. Like I told somebody the other day, I said live like you’ve come back from the dead and you don’t have a sinful nature. He says that’s hard. I said, I know, but pretend like you don’t have one. And I said, most Christians live like they don’t have a new nature.

Instead of living like you have a new one. They live like they all have an old one. And then they wonder why they’re not satisfied in the work of the Lord. You know there’s a word we call insatiable. Insatiable desires. It means that you just can’t get satisfied. In this life God has so designed life that it cannot totally satisfy us. God do a wonderful thing for us by supplying us with food, but every time you sit down and you eat, you have what we call an insatiable desire.

When you get through eating, you say, man, I can’t eat for a month. In about two hours, you’re ready to go at it again. So not me. Okay, well me. We have an an insatiable desire, appetite. has designed life upon the earth for no man to totally permanently be satisfied in anything. Otherwise, we would not have any idea what it would mean to be in heaven and know that we will be totally 100% permanently eternally satisfied. You’re not going to be down here.

But some of your biggest problems comes because I’m just not happy. I’m just not satisfied. Well, whippy dang down. Who said you’re supposed to be? What do you want God to do? Stop the earth so you can get off. I don’t want to run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, this thing. I want to laugh. I quit. And a lot of people quit. Let me read something to you that I found a long time ago. This is only to you if you are a quitter.

I don’t like quitters. The world won’t care if you quit. And the world won’t whine if you fail. The busy world won’t notice it. No matter how loudly you will, nobody will worry that you have relinquished the fight and gone down, where it’s only the things that you do that are worthwhile and get you renowned. Many Christians are successful at nothing of value. Only the things that you do for the Lord is of great value, that some Christians never learn it till it’s too late.

You see, whenever you get to heaven, God is going to reward you for what you did for him. And being faithful is success. If you’re not faithful, you’re not successful. I don’t care what business you have, okay, how much money you make. In God’s eyes, faithfulness is being successful. Because God says it is required to destroy it, that a man be found what? faithful. Are you faithful to do the things God wants you to do? And I believe that’s one of the most important things.

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. Part 2 of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. 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. 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 Vital Line, 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. Just keep looking up.