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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 today, I’m going to talk about the Bibleline. 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 Bibleline website at calvaryoftappa.org.

We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. 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, the love with the people, and love with the Lord, and they just wanna 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 them 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 gonna 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 is going to understand. I know that. And I years ago accepted that. I don’t have to have everybody agree 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 the Lord. Let me just throw this thought out. Here’s a scripture found in the book of John, chapter 13, 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 ye 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 for me or for me or the things that 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, then 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 happens to be.

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 hurts you to the 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 done? 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 life.

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 of the day I said live like you’ve come back from the dead and you don’t have a sinful nature he said 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 and 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. Doesn’t 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 with me we have an insatiable desire appetite God had 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, with eating 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 love. 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. 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 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 has been successful because God says it is required in the store 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.

The quitters are quickly for God. of them the world’s been a little time. And if you care that you’re not the courage or patient to climb, so give up and quit a despair. Take your place back on the shelf and don’t think the world’s going to care. Don’t you get it? You only hurt yourself. I read that probably 30 years ago, and I’ve always kept it in my notes. I wanna remember that. If I fail in this world, who cares if I will?

Nobody. Have you ever wondered if anybody cared what you lived or what you died? How important do you see yourself? And if you don’t think the way God thinks, you won’t have the proper view of yourself. There’s a human perspective and a divine perspective. So if you look at yourself to the eyes of the Lord, you must be very important, very valuable to God. valuable to God for Him to leave you here. Now you may not serve the purpose for which God intended, but you should.

And you can waste your life. But you don’t get a rerun or replay. You get one trip through life. And as you go through life, what are you doing? If you waste time, you waste life because time is what life is made out of. And the time that God gives you to live. How have you invested it? Invest yourself in something that will amount to something a hundred years from now. And that is for the souls of men. And by Christians working together you can have a church.

And church working together you can support the mission. Church working together you can win souls. A church is made up of a body of believers who think the same way and love the Lord and want to get something done, you’ll accomplish so much more working together than you ever will on your own. You see, whenever you get away from God’s people, you lose the warmth that you ought to have. You’ll be hotter, longer, burn more brilliant for the Lord when Christians hang together, encouraging one another, praying for one another.

But if you don’t and you start getting out into the world, the world is cold. If they don’t have the love of the Lord, and it won’t be long before you’re not gonna be strong at all. You see, I know enough to keep myself and fall into this thing. That’s one of the biggest things is, if you’re strong, you won’t leave a church. You stay and you do right. You put God first in the love of all your heart.

Here in the book of Corinthians, He starts off in the chapter 15, and he makes this statement there. And I want you to see this in verse two, by which also you are saved. If you keep in memory, what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. How can you believe in vain? You can believe in vain if Christ didn’t come back from the dead. Because then you’re trusted in someone that’s still dead. Christ didn’t come back.

There’s no resurrection. Christ didn’t come back, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain, and you’re still in your sins, and we are of all men most miserable. But you see, our faith is not in vain, because Christ did come back from the dead. The strongest thing that you’ll ever have in your life is the knowledge, and really believe Christ came back from the dead. He conquered the grave. That means that there is life after death.

Not only is there life after death, but he makes this statement in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 in verse 23, but every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits afterwards, they that are Christ, and those three words add to him. See, he can’t come back if he never left. And if he didn’t leave, he is coming. And if He is coming, then it’s not in vain. Everything He said is true. It means that I am going to heaven.

I may die and He’ll put my body in a grave. But I may not die because in the same chapter in verse 51, He says, Behold, I show you a Mr. Wichan, I’ll all die. He says, I show you a mission. We shall not all sleep. We shall all be changed in a moment. The twinkling of an eye caught up to meet the Lord. And yet so that our service is not in vain. I am not living in vain.

I’m not preaching in vain. My faith is not in vain. Christ came back from the dead. You see, if you want to be a strong Christian, you cannot let your foundation be shaken. You have to know what you believe and why you believe it. Why? Did you ever dedicate your life to the Lord? Many Christians have dedicated their lives to the Lord said, I’m going to serve the Lord. And then little by little though, world kind of beats upon you not, not shadown.

Maybe takes a loved one or this happens in financial problem. And after a while you begin to question God. You be question, God must not really love me. God really doesn’t care. And for some reason you become bitter toward God. But you may not use God as the object of your bitterness. You’ll blame it upon a person. You’ll focus it upon an individual. All bitterness is toward God. All bitterness is toward God. God says, how can you say you love one another when you can’t love God?

If you can’t love God, then you can’t love one another. He says, we suppose to love God because he first loved us. Some people have never learned how to love, how to sacrifice, how to give, but what somebody else wants, because you can feel with the compassion their hurt in your heart. And as you looked upon the world, do you have at burning desire of wondering where people are going when they die? I told somebody just this recently, I said, when it comes to people, I consider every man a lost man until I know differently.

Somebody else may picture everybody as a Christian to find out it is lost. I judge just the opposite. I don’t know who saved and who’s not. But I want people to trust Christ as Savior. I want them to go to heaven. But I also know that in my desire to serve a Lord, if I take my eyes off the Lord, no man, me included, can stand. You’re going to go down. And you get weak and discouraged and you get greatly disappointed.

Have you lived long enough to have the death of a vision? Have you had a vision of doing something great and it seems like you’re still waiting on that day to come? Lord, do you remember who I am? Do you know where I’m at? Don’t you realize how great I am? Don’t you know that I ought to be doing something greater than what I’m doing right now? There’s a song that I had never heard before until a guy came to our church one time and he did a thing for us.

And it was a song called Little as Much When God is in it. You ever heard that song? Little as much when God is in it. Even the place where you are called to serve. But I remember the song. We sing it all the time now. Because little as much when God is in And you don’t have to worry about where your labor and just be faithful to serve God where you are with what you have and Trust the results to the Lord Here’s one great thing to keep in mind as a child of God You and I can choose what sin to commit.

Isn’t that wonderful God to give us a choice? You can choose to lie Well, you know, I don’t want to do that. Okay. Well, you can choose to steal. Okay. I like that one You can choose to commit adultery. You can choose to commit murder. But here you and I are, and we are, you know, going through a lot of things in our life then. There’s just some things that is going to happen. But if you and I would just realize that as his child, there are things in this world that are going to just totally rip us apart.

And sometimes it’s a loved one. Sometimes it’s something that happens, that you can’t explain it. But regardless of whatever it is, God wants you and I to be strong in the Lord. Strong. And to be strong means you’ve got to stay close to the Lord. And here’s a part. Nobody can be strong for you. They can help you and encourage you. They lean on me. There’s only singing, lean on me, lean on me. Lean on the Lord. That person you lean on might give way, but it’s good for them temporarily to try to help, but your permanent source of strength with the Lord.

Have you ever heard this phrase? Ah, joy of the Lord is my strength. There is strength in the joy of the Lord. So when you’re down in the story, there’s not much strength in that. So you have to, like David did, encourage yourself in the Lord. Because sometimes somebody else doesn’t encourage you. It is good that a man has a friend because if he falls down according to Ecclesiastes, a friend can be there to help him up. And it’s good to have somebody that you can depend on.

But the greatest friend you’ll ever have will be the Lord. I used to wonder why did God call Abraham his friend? He was a friend of God. When you study the book of James, it talks about being a friend of the world. If you’re a friend of the world, than you’re an enemy of God. So if Abraham was a friend of God, then he must have been an enemy of the world. And the Bible says that he knew, according to Hebrews in chapter 11, that he was just a stranger and a pilgrim, and that he looked for a city whose builder and maker was God.

And Christ says in the book of John chapter 15, he said, I have called you friend. And the reason because God wants us Not to love the world, not to be a friend of the world, to be his friend. He’s a friend that sticks us closer than a brother. It’s a great thing to know Christ is our Savior. And it’s also a great thing to learn how to walk with the Lord, but nobody can do it for you. There are steps that you take little by little.

That’s why it’s so important for you to be here every time the doors are open to learn some more of the word of God so that you can grow a little bit stronger. Because if you’re not strong in the Lord, when the winds of adversity come and they will, you have no idea what’s going to happen. And you today might think that you’re in the eye of the storm and nothing is happening. Do you realize how fast your world can be turned upside down?

Don’t take much, don’t take long. And next thing you know, your wife that you love for all these years to be in the hospital or dead, and your kids that you almost worship can be antennway683 incorporator. So quickly, your health that You Presently Enjoy, Be surprised, Next Week You Could You could be in the hospital with some serious surgery or have any radiation treatments for cancer. Your work can be turned upside down quick. But you’re confident in your faith in the Lord should stayWeak steady Because the Lord is real to you and he can sustain you and bring you through Whether you stay or whether you go you’re a winner either way like Paul says I Have a great desire to depart and to be with the Lord, but it’s more needful for me to stay here for you But you don’t have any idea neither the idea neither the time we’ve got to live

in this old world. But whatever it is, whether it’s today or tomorrow, the next 18 years from now, don’t throw in the towel. Don’t be a quitter. Don’t stop now. Wouldn’t it be a shame for me to serve the Lord for 45 years? And now the older I get to throw it all away, wouldn’t it be a shame that my salvation can never be touched? I’m going to heaven because of what Christ did for me. But the longer I live, if I stay right, the more I can accomplish for the Lord because I can gain more, multiply myself because I should be, as I get older, a wiser individual.

I should have greater knowledge to impart to other people. I can give to other individuals a little bit of that fire that I’ve had in my gut for all these years. I’m not about to stop or to quit, but I also know that if people don’t pray for me, there could be times when I’ll be a little weak and devil is going to jump on me and that could be all she wrote. Look up here. This hand represents you and me.

Waller represents sin. We all have sin upon it. God loves us. He hates our sin. And the Bible says that the pay for the sin is eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven and go to heaven we have to be perfect because righteousness is God and none of us are perfect. We’re all sinners. And we can’t go to heaven because God won’t let sin in heaven. So sin keeps us out because we’re not perfect.

We got to pay for it. You said, what do you got to do? Well, you couldnegie just go to wait. Just get rid of it. You know, whatever you can do with it. Just get rid of it. You can’t because he’s sitting on the inside. It’s only inside. And so God says that the paper of the sin is eternal separation in God in hell. And since everybody sins, everybody’s condemned. We’re all in the same boat, but there’s a God in heaven that loves us.

He loves me loves you. And the Bible says that God doesn’t want us to go to hell, but he wants us to go to heaven. But we can’t save ourselves. This hand represent Jesus Christ. He came into the world because He loves us. He hates our sin because it separates us from Him. So what Christ did, or whatever He did for one person, He did for everybody, took the sins of all the world, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead.

God said if we’ll believe He did it for us, He’d put that payment to our account and we get to go to Heaven on what He did for us. See, that’s free. That’s a gift. All that you have to do, what’s all that you can do, is to believe that He did this for you. See, I believe that years ago, when I believed that Christ did that for me, paid for all my sins, then God put that payment to my account and God gave me eternal life and I get to go to heaven.

Not because I’m good, because He’s good. God keeps His word. So I know that I have eternal life. I know I’m going to heaven whenever I die. I’ve known that for all those years. What about you? If you will accept Christ as your Savior, believe he did this for you, well then he’ll put that payment to your account and you get to go to heaven or what he did for you. So he did it for all of us. But the payment is not put to your account until you tell God you believe he did it for you.

So that’s why I’m going to ask you to bind your heads and tell God that you believe it. Let’s pray, shall we? Whatever he had bound every act closed and no one looking around, would you just talk to the Lord? See, he knows your thoughts. He can read your mind. So you don’t have to say it out loud. Don’t even have to move your lips. But in your own mind, would you just say something like this, Lord, I know I’m a sinner.

I don’t understand it all. Offering, none of us do. But you do understand enough to go to heaven. That is Lord, I’ve done wrong. I’ve sinned. And I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for mine. And right now, the best I know how, I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. And friend, if you’ll trust Christ right now as your Savior, God said He would give you as a gift eternal life. If you’re not sure, you’re not positive of going to heaven, would you right now trust Jesus Christ as your Savior?

You that have trusted Christ as your Savior, your God’s child. Do you believe that God want you to be a strong Christian. Then be strong in the Bible, strong in doctrine. Learn to do right. Love your heavenly Father with all your heart. Let God use you to get others under the sound of His word. Our Father, we thank you so much for all that you’ve done for us. The Father, we want your will to be done. We ask Father, your blessings are found as church.

We pray the great things will happen. Christ, and we pray. Amen. We’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 1-800-576-3771. 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 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 Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Hot up to meet the Lord in the air.

live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.