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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 m- and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can And reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. One line 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. If you will, take your Bible and turn to the book of Psalms, a hundred and fifth Psalms. I’m not going to cover the whole song tonight, but I just want to get a couple of thoughts from it to share with you and then show you some things that really can help you in your life.

I believe people ought to focus on the future. Focus on the things that are ahead. Don’t look back. You can’t go back. You can’t change the past. But you can start today and make the right decisions of whatever it may be for you to have a better relationship between you and the Lord. What I want you to do is look there in Psalms 105 and verse 7, verse 7, look at this verse, says, He is the Lord our God.

His judgments are in all the earth. The word judgment here means that God has made decisions during the lifetime of man and is making judgments carrying out sentences, executing his divine justice. Now we know that one day it will be when we get to heaven and we stand at the job and say, the Christ God’s gonna reward us for what we did. So that’s a judgment, it’s a rewarding stand really. We know that there’s a great white throne judgment where God is gonna issue his everlasting decree about those who have never trusted him as savior and they’ll be cast into the lake of fire.

So that’s a judgment that is coming. But you and I sometimes lose sight of the fact that during our lifetime, God is still on the throne and he’s still making decisions. For example, when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, did God make a decision during the lifetime of man? Yes, he judged one sin. So one sin got him out of a garden. So what do they have to do in order to get back into it? Well, if one sin took him out, the only way they could get back is not to have any.

Think about it. If one sin could take them out of the garden, then that’d have to be perfect to get back in. And that’s exactly the way it is. That’s why no man can get into heaven or into the presence of God without being perfect. That’s why we needed to trust Christ as our Savior. But God made a decision. And that was doing the lifetime of Adam and Eve. But not only that. When he brought the flood was at a decision that God made and God executed His judgment in the earth because of what the people were doing, how they were living.

Yes, God made a decision. Wasn’t God actively involved whenever the children of Israel went down into Egypt? God’s the one that sent them there. And whenever they were there and they multiplied to two and a half million people, was it not God that worked in the lives of Moses down there in Egypt and bringing on these plagues and so forth and brought the children out of Egypt, God was actively involved. It was the Lord that raised up David to be the king of Israel and down the line whenever they disobeyed the Lord, God said he would send in the heat of the nations and they would whoop them and then Israel would cry out to God and he would bring peace in the land and then they would keep going into the cycle and that’s what you read in the book of Judges.

So as you go down through time, you’ll find out God has been actively involved in what’s going on. But unless you know the Bible and can see things from God’s perspective to you and I are the natural man, it’s like God isn’t busy. God isn’t doing anything. I mean it’s just like a dull, boring life and God is not God, he might have created it, but he even took a vacation and left us here to struggle through this thing.

I believe personally that God is personally involved in my own life. And you’re supposed to believe that in your life, that God has opened up doors, and you’re supposed to believe that God closes doors. You’re supposed to believe that God blesses and that God chastens. You’re supposed to believe all of that. Why? Because it’s taught in the Bible. Many people live their whole lives and never see the hand of God working in their life. He said, I will give them the land of Canaan.

A lot of your inheritance, this is what he did. Verse 12, when they were few in number and they were few, there’s only about 70 that went down in Egypt. Then in verse 14, he suffered no man to do them wrong. In other words, God would not permit anybody to wrong. them wrong. In other words, God would not permit anybody to wrong his people. You remember whenever they wanted to take Abraham’s wife and God intervened. God says, oh no you don’t.

You can’t have her. God protected. And you’ll find out that God was at work and God was making decisions and his judgments are in all the earth. And that even today you’re supposed to believe that God is working in your own life. Now only by reading and studying the Bible can you find out what He is doing. I see clearly now, or I should say more clear, looking back over my life and how God has done things, then I was back there looking forward because I couldn’t see nothing.

I had no clue where anything would ever lead. But now I can see how that Lord has used that illustration in my life and God used that problem and that problem and that problem and that trial and that experience and all these tests, I can see how all of that God has been able to use because I have been able to use those illustrations to put some salt and pepper upon the eggs. Make your life flavor. In other words, your life is not a dull, boring existence when you can see how God is actively involved in what’s going on.

But if you don’t see that, you don’t want to get up sometimes and face the day. Because you don’t see anything happening. We’re living in a time where there’s a lot of things that happen. I’ve got three emails this week from lawyers warning me about what’s going on in Washington because now we have some new people up in Washington with some new power and they’re trying their best to clamp down on people voicing their opinion about what’s going on in government.

And I was driving someplace and they were talking about how that they’re trying to shut down the talk radio because they’re conservative and they warned the people about decisions that they’re making up in Washington. So now they got about, they want to take and put a fine up on them that they can’t say anything about what’s going on in Washington. Now that is silencing a person’s First Amendment rights, the right of free speech. And it won’t just apply to them, but it’ll also apply to preachers.

And they said, I had two different lawyer groups that’s in us email saying to pray and seeing emails warning about how they’re trying to silence the preacher so that we can’t say what we want to say without being fine. We would get one year in jail and about five thousand dollar fine or something like that. It was on up there. Can you see that if they passed a law like that that I wouldn’t say what I think I ought to say?

You know what they’d be doing to me? They’d put me in jail. No, I ain’t done nothing to nobody. But I should have the freedom today that I had a year ago or we had 200 years ago, why did we have the same freedom? Who gave them the right to take away our right? They don’t have a right to do it. So it is the will of the American people or should be the command to them from the Constitution to defy the law that they make that prohibits us from enjoying our freedom.

That’s the last hope that we have as we learn how to say that word that nobody likes to say to government. No, no. I will not obey. The government is not my God. The government is not my God. The state is not my God. The God of this Bible, He is my God. And I will serve Him, and therefore, this is where I will stand, and if suffer the consequences, I must, then so be it. But what I want you to also see, He’s looking for 16 where he says, moreover, he called for a famine upon the land.

Who did that? God did. God’s when he called that famine. So why did Jacob have to send his sons down into Egypt? Because of what had happened, there was a famine. Well, who brought the famine? God said, I did that. Notice what else he said in verse 17. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant, who sent Joseph? God says he did it. But notice Joseph in his family, he had all these brothers, these Levon brothers that hated him.

How would you like to be in a family and love it? I’m hate you. Have you ever been in a family where your brother or your sister, you know, just couldn’t get along? You just can’t you fight all the time? I had sick kids in our family. And most times if you got brothers and sisters, you do get to subscribe. But if somebody ever picked a fight on one of the other ones, then we all jump in and kill them.

We’d have a fight. It’s okay for us to fight against our own, but now don’t you pick on them. Now whenever it came to Joseph, all of his brothers turned against him. Did you know that they sold him to a caravan, the Ishmaelite going down into Egypt? But who’s the one that did that? God said, I’m the one that I sent him down there. God uses the wickedness of man to also fulfill as well. In other words, there’s things that’ll happen in your life and you don’t see that.

Joseph did not see that what he had done. What did he had done wrong? He can’t help he had those dreams. He had a dream and he told him this dream. And they said, who do you think you are better than we are and holier than we are and they got mad I’m get jealous because the daddy made him a coat of coat of many colors. So they got jealous and envious well Did God know all of this whenever he?

Gave that young kid these dreams with God knew all that did he know what his brothers were gonna? Yeah, and that caravan will come by to right time. You got to do that God said I sent him down there to get ready for y’all to come down here so they would have a place to live and grow as a nation for about 400 years. 400 years they were down there. God said, I did all of that. And see in verse 19, until the time until the time.

God said, I did all of that until the time that His word came. And then the word came Moses. Good honor and tell him Pharaoh let my people go. So God was actively involved. Now just because Joseph couldn’t see what God was doing, But God was born working and he had to trust the Lord. We don’t understand all this stuff. Oh we’re supposed to know as it is working and God is real and I want to be on his good side and not his bad side.

I want you to take your Bible look in Proverbs chapter 3. Proverbs chapter 3 just turn to your right there a few pages. Proverbs in chapter 3. There are many many promises in the Bible, many promises of which God says that He will now be working and doing things. God can give guidance and also direction in your life. God does that. One of the greatest things that I have enjoyed over the years is trusting that God is guiding me, that God is direct.

That doesn’t mean I made all the perfect decisions. When you drive down the highway, Do you drive perfectly? I mean, when I’m driving behind the wheel, I mean I’m over this way and I’m over this way. Sometimes I even go across the line. Sometimes I’ve even gone off the road. But I try to keep it inside those things and drive down the road. You don’t have to drive perfectly, but you can stay in the side of the thing and you try to keep them getting hit and somebody from hitting you and sweeping and weaving and all that.

What have you got to do? But I managed to get the church every Sunday. I’ve been doing it for how many years. But I didn’t do it perfect. But I got here. You see, God can be directing you and leading you, but that doesn’t mean you made every decision, right? Because you’ll go this way and then you’ll decide to go this, and then your side and decide, decide, decide. All those are decisions, just like you’re driving a wheel. You decide to do this, you decide to do that.

Can God interrupt and close the door? God can do all these things. But that’s what God does. But I look there in Proverbs in chapter three, and look in verse five, verse five, where he makes this statement, trust in the Lord with all mine heart. That means with all of your being, everything that you have trust in the Lord. And give what he says, lean not. Have you ever leaned on something in a giveaway? I have. I’ve leaned on a poll and they give way.

I’ve leaned on a wall and have you give way. You can lean on people and they give way. But the Lord says lean not and get what he says. Lean not unto thine own understanding. Now what do you think that means? Think about it for a second. Don’t just read that verse. Oh, I know that verse. I can quote that verse. Think what it says. Lean not. He says, trust in the Lord. But when he says lean not, it means don’t trust your understanding.

Because the lean not is not to lean upon what you understand. Trust in the Lord means to lean on Him. Lean on Him. Trusting Him. So he says, lean not unto mine own understanding. Get in verse six. And how many of your ways? All of thy ways do what? All of thy ways acknowledge God. The word acknowledge me to think God. Think, think, in all your ways. Every decision you make try to think, before you act, think. One of the consequences of my decision.

Where’s this leading me to? So think God. Think about the Lord. And that’s why he says this. And all I raise, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. Look at that last promise. Is that a promise? He shall direct thy path. When, when I get to heaven, I don’t need it then. Before I was born, I don’t need it then. I mean it now. So is God willing to work in my life now? Yes. And he says, don’t trust yourself.

Lean not until I don’t understand it. And all my ways acknowledge God and he shall direct thy path. So you suppose to believe that the Lord has got a path you and that you’re walking according to the path that he’s laid down. Get what he says in verse the first part of verse seven you ought to underline him. Be not what? Wise and thine own eyes. Fear of the Lord and look at those next three words. Depart from evil.

You ought to underline it in your Bible. Now when we talk about trusting the Lord lean not unto my own understanding and then when he says be not wise and thine own eyes, depart from evil. What do you think he means by that? Depart from evil. I would translate that as depart from evil. See how easy it is to understand the Bible? It’s not hard. It’s not complicated. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Hebrews chapter 13.

The book of Hebrews in chapter 13, way over there in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 13, as you live your life and you can’t go back like I said but you have this year. This is a new year. It ought to be better than last year. Well it won’t be any better than last year if you don’t make the changes necessary for this year. And so in Hebrews in chapter 13, look what it says in verse 5, in verse 5, This has to deal with you and I living our lives, every day of our lives, believing that we are in God’s presence.

Do you believe that you are in the presence of God? Adam and Eve used to live in the presence of God. And then whenever they sinned, then he had to kick him out of the garden. And only by sacrifice they were able to have communion with God. Now look in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5. Let your conversation, that means your behavior, be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have, for he has said, I will never leave the norper safety.

Now understand what he’s saying here. Many people, their happiness, their joy is based upon what they have. They have a lot, well, I’ll be happy. If I don’t have very much, I won’t be happy. That’s not what this verse says. It says, be content with such things as you have. Be content. And the reason was the last part of the verse says, because you have not lost the most important thing. What are your priorities? Let’s just pretend. Look up here.

Here’s the Lord. Here’s all the things of the world. Which one should bring you the greatest joy, the Lord’s presence or all these presence? What would you rather have? Careful. And he says, you cannot lose me. He said, I will never forsake you and never leave you. I have him with me how long. Always. So if I don’t have this, I still got him. And if I got him, I got the best. He can give me everything else I need.

But if I have these and I don’t have him, I can lose these and still don’t have him. Get it? So it’s better to have him and be content with nothing. Because the greatest thing is to have the Lord. Because if I’ve got the Lord and he’ll never leave me and never forsake me and he promised me certain things, I can trust him to give me whatever I need. So many people they fall in love with their things and not the Lord.

So as you go through life, God is going to give you and pay from you because it’s testing whether or not are you completely satisfied if all you had was the Lord. That’s easy preaching and hardening living. I’ll tell you right now. Now look there in John chapter 14, the gospel of John and chapter 14. We’re going through life. We want to make sure as we go through life we have the most important essentials in our life to help us to do what we’re supposed to do.

What is the most important thing? Knowing the Word of God so that you can know the promises of God. God’s made a lot of promises to us. So there’s greater things that we can do. Look there in John chapter 14 and verse 12. Verse 12. He says, barely, barely, I say unto you. He that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do, and you ought to on the line that word, also. Greater works than thee shall he do, because I go unto my Father.

Christ says, I’m going to my father. I’m going to leave you here. And I talk here mainly to his disciples. But there’s truth that we can learn from these principles that he laid down. When I leave, I’m going to let you have the indwelling Holy Spirit to live within you. And he will teach you comfort you, guide you, bless you, power you, whatever. And you’re going to do some mighty things. So, if it says here and greater works, shall you do, that’s future.

You should always look and dream and dwell upon the fact that, you know, God can use you in a great way. Always believing that your life doesn’t have to be a boring, dull existence. It can be as exciting as you choose to make it. Believe it that God is able to take anything in life and work it for His honor and glory, you may not see the full value of it until you get to heaven, but you can believe it now because it is now that it’s being done.

It’s being done by the decisions that you and I make at this time. When He makes the statement, works, greater works shall we do in talking about doing this in the future because He says, I’m going to my father, but there’s things I want you to do. You and I are supposed to believe God has a work for us to do. And the work that He has for us to do is greater than the work that we choose to do on our own.

Because there’s always things that we want to do, places that we want to go. But God says, if you will put yourself in my hands, I will bless you. Now let me give a simple illustration. used this recently, had a person from the audience come up and told that person says, a young lady, would you please come up here? And so the lady came up here and said, bring your purse. So she brought her purse. So she came up on the platform.

He said, now we’re going to pretend I’m the Lord and you’re my servant. You trust the Christ is your Savior. Have you dedicated your life to the Lord? Yes I have. And you want to serve the Lord? Yes I do. With all your heart. Yes I do. He says, so everything that you have you’ve given it to the Lord. Yes I have. Sounds good so far, huh? He says, give me your purse. So she put the purse up there on the podium.

He says, take out your money. He said, now remember you are going to go back to your seat, better off than when you came up here. Open up your wallet. So she opened up, she had a couple a couple hundred dollars now. He says, give me that money. He gave me the money. Thank you. I appreciate that. He says, I think I’ll just have your whole purse. Can I have your whole purse? Yeah. Thank you. He says, that’s a beautiful watch you have right there.

I want that watch too. Okay. Okay, take it off, gave me watch. Oh, that’s a beautiful necklace. I want that necklace. So she gave me the necklace. Oh, I like that ring you have on your hand. You’re married? Yes, I want that ring. You can’t have my ring. I want the ring. On and on. You can’t have my ring. She says, you have a husband? Yes, I got a husband. And you can’t have my ring. I’ll just take your husband.

No, you can’t have my husband. Well, wait a minute. I thought you said you would give everything to the Lord. Yes, but. And she began to kind of retract from what you were saying. And by the way, that’s a beautiful little daughter you have sitting back there. I want the daughter too. You can’t have my daughter. You see, it’s so easy to say words. I surrender all. They say that, you know, when there are two people who are fighting.

And finally the one says, I surrender, I surrender. Means that I surrender, means that I’m allowing you or giving you you can take from me whatever you want. But when you commit yourself to somebody, you’re giving to somebody what you want. What the Lord is that we give up to His will, whatever it may be. But what God does is set us free.

And so he wants us to voluntarily give to him everything, but if we have to surrender to him, it means that he’s free to take everything. So even though the Lord can take everything she has, the Lord wants you to surrender and to commit everything that you have and give it voluntarily. One is taking and the other one is giving. Now, in your Christian life, you have to make a choice. Do you want to give to the Lord? Or do you want the Lord to take from you?

Now remember when he takes from you, he can take a lot more than you was willing to give. He can take your very life from you. Did you know that Lord, whenever we work, we make certain amount of money, we can give whatever we want to give to the Lord. But the Lord is the one that has emplaced upon our hearts how much we should give. And if we don’t give what we should, did you know that God is free to do what?

Take all of it. chnology. Because you didn’t do what you should have done, with a little, I can take all of it. So as you live your life, can God take your help? If God gives you good health and you don’t use it for the Lord, can God take your help totally? Yeah. If you don’t use your job as an opportunity to serve the Lord and the witness and so forth and take a strong stand, then you know God can take away the job.

God can do all kinds of, God can work in our life and I can see the judgment of the Lord in all the earth. And there are some people that say, I’m just having a hard time. It’s just always hard. This is always, I know, but do you see God working? Can you see it? Maybe there’s something or some lesson God wants us to learn, something that we’re supposed to correct, but we don’t see it because we’re not sensitive.

We’re not really listening. We’re not really looking. We’re not really trusting the promises of God that He’s laid down in His Word. But anyway, look there in verse 13. In John 14 and verse 13, there is the promise of answered prayer because there’s times you’re going to have to talk to somebody. God will always see to it that you cannot always share everything with somebody. That would be great if somebody could always be there to deliver you from a devastating dilemma.

But sometimes you just got to go to the lower. So that’s what God wants. So look at verse 13, and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name. This is why we always say at the end of a prayer in Jesus’ name. We pray in His name. But it means more than that, it means that God we’re asking you to sign the check. I’m trying to make a withdrawal from heaven because I need something and God the Father won’t let me have it out of the bank unless Jesus puts a signature to it.

So we’re always saying, I need this. Lord, would you sign it? Would you okay then? You’re always asking Christ for permission to have whatever you’re asking because Lord, this is for your honor and this is for your glory. I need this because there are a lot of you. Now when you ask only to consume it upon your own lusts, it says, and Jamie says, then you’re asking a miss. But all that we ask from the Lord should bring honor and glory to the Lord.

Lord, I need a brand new pink Cadillac, like Elvis Presley had. 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 two 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 Dye-Link 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. Life 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, and 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.