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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 the- 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 year. You can reach us 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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

So whenever you and I understand that our good days, all we talk about how blessed we are of God. But those bad days are the days that God is spending time causing us to deepen our roots into the Word of God. So it’s not wasted time. So every one of us may flower at times, but he says, there’s other time, and he says, I’ve got your root system going deep and I want you to hang on to what the Word of God says and so your faith grips this rock and your faith grips this rock and this one goes down 20 feet and grips a whole of this verse and This one gets a whole of this verse so that whenever you really start to grow He says in the wind start coming.

He says the root system is what sustains you He says when you want to be a strong Christian and we talk about this last Sunday night about standing or hauling I was talking about you can’t stand if you don’t have a deep root system So your roots in the word of God has to go deep and just like that bamboo It might seem like a year go by two years three years for you times of law nothing exciting But it’s not lost time.

It’s because God is spending time giving you experiences So the good things all we love the blessings of God, but the bad days Are not really bad days But we look at them as bad days Now those bad days is where we’re gaining experience that will deepen our relationship with the Lord and cause us to be a stronger Christian. And then whenever your roots go deep, you can grow and be higher. And the man says, Lord, how high can I rise?

He said, well, how high can the bamboo tree rise? He says, as high as it can. He says, that’s what I want for you. I don’t quit on you. I want you to rise and give me glory as high as you can. Just be faithful and God will bless. And I believe that the Lord will. Now, remember this, because we often think about the bad days. And it’s amazing that many times on our calendar, we can’t remember certain days unless something happened on that day that really helps us to remember.

Sometimes good things happen. We can remember that day. Sometimes bad things happen and we remember those days. And we learn a lot of lessons in bad days or bad times, I guess you could say. But remember, there was a boy named Joseph. He happened to have had 11 brothers. How would you like to have been Joseph with 11 older brothers and the older brothers hated you? And hated him without a ca- he hadn’t done anything wrong. They just didn’t agree with what he said.

They just didn’t like him because, well, daddy seemed to like him more, made him a special code of many colors, showed little special favoritism. And he said, that’s not right. Yeah, but look what Joseph had to go through. Did you know that all those years of what happened to Joseph and going down into Egypt? And yet at the same time, God simply was building the root system so that the man Joseph could stand strong and do right. And God blessed him with wisdom because he did do right.

He served the Lord. He put God first. And even when Pharaoh’s wife made advances to him, you know what he did? The Bible says he grabbed his coat and what? Phew, he ran. Now he could have become a wicked man. He said, how can I do such a wicked thing to a God who knows and loves me? How can I do this to Pharaoh? No, he wouldn’t do that. Because he loved the Lord. But all these years root systems are growing.

And it seems like at times it seemed like it’s a waste of time. How many years passed when he was about 16, 17 years old when this happened to him? Did he ask for that? No. And then to think, he was the Lord. He used those 11 brothers and made them tribes. And we have the 12 tribes of Israel because Joseph and an Ephraim and Manassam. And you talking about, look what God did with people that were so messed up.

You know why God didn’t use perfect people? There aren’t any of those. If God didn’t use sinners, say by grace, there wouldn’t be anybody for God to use. So God has figured it all out. I’m so glad he did. Did God make a mistake when he gave you the right to choose? Here’s the Lord. He gave you and made the right of choice. He saved you, gave you eternal life, and then set you free to live. Now you got the freedom to choose to serve the Lord or not to serve the Lord.

How did you do with your choice? You have a choice to read God’s word or not to read God’s word. What kind of a decision did you make? You have a choice to witness for the Lord or not to witness for the It gave you choices. Set you free. You can choose. Did God make a mistake? Did He trust you too far? Did you let Him down? Did you fail? You think it’s worth it? Did God make a mistake when He left you here, said, taping you on home?

Did God make a mistake? I don’t want to live my whole life thinking that God blew it on me. God really messed up when He saved me and left me here. I want to serve Him, and I want to serve Him all the days of my life, and I pray that that is what you want also. Whenever you think about the twelve disciples, Christ spent three and a half years at least with His disciples, taught them, walk with them, did all of this.

I guess you could say He had a youth group, and He spent time with them. And then whenever it was all over with it, the big test came, they all fell. They all fell their final exam because it says in the scriptures that they all forsook him, every one of them did. But Peter, remember him, God bless Peter. He said, Lord, though everybody forsake you, I won’t. I will never forsake you. The Lord says before the night’s over, you’re going to deny me three times.

Nah, not me. I don’t know what everybody else is going to do, but I’m rock solid. You know, Peter’s roots were not very deep. It didn’t last the night, did it? It didn’t last the night. Because before the night was over with, he’d done messed up, done messed up. And can you believe that Jesus and Peter exchange a glimpse at each other? You know, I often thought that he was, he was Peter and he denied the Lord. But Jesus was out of sight and he was set by the fire and somebody says something that says, hey, you’re one of them.

I don’t know the man and he cursed, cursed. I don’t know the man. You remember right before this, he was willing to die for the man? No, I don’t even know the guy. And it happened three times. Did you know on the last time, and it’s only mentioned in the one gospel that Jesus looked Peter, look at him. And Peter saw him after he denied him three times. And it came into his mind and he wept. Because he knew what he had promised.

And literally he knew that within a few hours he was going to let the Lord down so bad. You talking about failure. Did God make a mistake with Peter? Did He make a mistake with him? Look how bad he blew it. And yet God still used Peter on the day of Pentecost. What a great honor to use this man. See, God didn’t use a man because he was perfect. God used a man because he really, I’d have messed up, I accepted, and then make things right with the Lord.

And when Jesus came to him, He says, Peter, they says, do you love me? How many times did He ask Peter, do you love me? Three times. Oh, no, I did it three times. You got any clue? How many times did He be named? Three times? I think there’s something there. Now you know, I want you to take your Bible look there in the book of Luke in chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. You know, one time there was a girl.

She was blind. A girl was blind. She hated herself. She hated the world. She hated everything and everybody hated God because she was blind. She hated everybody and everything except her boyfriend, except her boyfriend. And he asked her, says, Will you marry me? me? She says, if I can see the world, if I could just see the world, I’d marry you. Somebody miraculously donated her some eyes. The surgery was a success and she could see. Totally changed her outlook on life.

And a boyfriend asked her, says, Now that you can see, will you marry me?” And she looked at him and she was shocked. She didn’t know he was blind. And she says, there’s too much of the world that I want to see. I don’t want to spend my life tied down to a blind person. And he wept, walked away. Several months later, after he got over some of his grief, he wrote a little letter. He says, take care of yourself and take care of my eyes.

Wouldn’t it be something to look one day into the face of Jesus Christ and you realized who has done so much for you and how little we respond in a good way to the Lord. Now notice here in the book of Luke in chapter 22, looking verse 54, then took they hymn and led him and brought him into the high priest house. Peter followed a far off. When they had kindled a fire in the mist of the hall and were set down together, Peter sat down among them.

But her certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire and earnestly looked upon him and said, this man was also with him. And he denied him saying, woman, I know him not. And after a little while, another saw him and says, thou art also of them. And Peter says, man, I am not. And about the space of one hour after another confidently affirmed saying of a truth, this fellow also was with him for he is a Galilean.

And Peter says, man, I know not what thou say it and immediately, O, while he yet spake the cock crew. And the Lord get it, the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. What that look must have done. Did you know one day we’re gonna stand before the Lord and we are going to look into the face of Jesus Christ? I’ve often tried to picture what Christ really looks like, but I just can’t seem to do it. It’s just a mist.

But all I know about the Lord is what the Bible describes about his character. I know what he’s like because the word of God tells me this is Jesus. He is God. And this is what he’s like and this is who he loves. And this is what he promised and all the things that he will do and things he won’t do. So I said, can God do anything? Can God do anything? No, there’s a lot of things God can’t do.

That might sound surprising but see God can’t lie and he can’t send me to hell. And a third thing I know is that he can’t make a rock so big he can’t put it anywhere. I was trapped on that one time. Not since. And then he makes the statement here in verse 61, and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him before the cockroach, thou shalt the naimi thrice and Peter went out and went bitterly.

When he knew he had blown it, he had failed the Lord. I believe Peter loved the Lord but I believe he took his eyes off of him. I believe he got scared but I believe he still loved the Lord. But he didn’t realize how shallow his roots were. You see the roots didn’t go very deep because a big test come along and he wasn’t able to stand. But see, God doesn’t just forget about it and let you alone. I believe there’s some of these teenagers and even adults that you pour a lot in and say I watered and I gave sunshine and I did all these things.

And some Christians will just seem to take off and grow. And then some of them look like they’re never going to grow. And then I see years later, all of a sudden there’s a little sprout. But in all those years, they’re still going through experiences of life, and their roots are still going down. And then one day, you’ll be surprised how God will just bless a person, and that person begins to make wise decision. And then down the road, there could be 10, 15, 20 young guys who’ve come and goes into the ministry that came out of our youth group.

But right now, you wouldn’t give a quarter for them. Because we won’t see things the way God sees things. Think it’s not worth it is it is worth it Because see their God’s children and God can do a better job raising his kids than than I can and God’s word is true now take your Bible looking Ephesians in chapter 3 the book of Ephesians and chapter 3 phasians chapter 3 And notice what he says here. I want you to see this look there in verse 13 verse 13 Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That ye, and you ought to underline this phrase, being rooted, grounded in love. Now the only way sometimes God can root you and ground you in love is to have a lot of hateful things happen to you.

A lot of ugly things, bitter things, because if God’s going to teach you love, it’s not just going to be by showering you with love. It’s going to be because you learn how to love the Lord in a situation that’s bitter, because things are not right, because people can be ugly. That’s to bring out the sweetness in you. How is God doing? Did God make a mistake with you? Did God send you some bitterness that you didn’t respond to very well?

What have you been facing lately? What do you think God wants you to do? How do you think he wants you to be? You see, outwardly sometimes we can fool everybody, but God knows the inside of an individual, how they’re thinking. And you can carry a lot of bitterness and hatred on the inside because you don’t like the circumstances, because God has given us some things that we don’t understand. But the Lord is working on you because He wants you and has made you something special.

And He wants you to sink your roots deep and rise as high as you can in your honor and glory to the Lord because of what He’s done. But look’-at that verse one more time in verse 17. that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able. See the reason for being rooted and grounded in a certain thing is because there’s something God wants you to do. You may be able to comprehend, to understand with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the depth and the what’s that word height so that it goes deep, that it goes wide, it goes high because of what God is doing and working in your life.

And that’s why he says all these things on in verse 20. Now, on to him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that work within us, there’s power working in your life whether you understand it or not. There’s experiences that you’re going through, not just the good things, Sometimes they so-called bad things because God has a purpose. God is working in our life to develop us into something good.

And who would have ever thought that Peter could have done what Peter did? Who would have ever thought Joseph would have been like Joseph was, but they each had different experiences, bitter times, trash bells. But they were simply experiences that sunk their roots deep, that they were able to flower for the Lord, to grow and to blossom out, and to be what God wants them to be. Now. Look at the last verse I wanted to show you in the book of Colossians in chapter 2.

The book of Colossians chapter 2 just turned to your right. And look in verse 4, verse 4. He says, and this size say, lest any man should be golly with enticing words because we can be enticed. With enticing words to be led astray. So I verse eight talked to us about beware, lest these vain philosophies of man should lure us away from the simplicity that’s in Christ. So he says there in verse five, for though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, join and be holding your order and be, get the steadfastness of your faith in Christ, the steadfastness of your faith.

whether you’re steadfast or not, depends on the root system. You see, the fruit reveals the depth and the strength of the root. And it’s not so much that we have a fruit problem, we have a root problem. You ever hear somebody say, we need to get to the root of the problem. Well, this is the root of the problem. And it says in verse six, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in and how did you receive him by faith?

How do you walk by faith? So look in verse seven, now you ought to underline this part of the verse. Rooted and built up. Before you can go up, you’ve got to go down. You have to have your roots of faith deep in the Word of God and picture the Word of God and all these verses as little as their stone, They’re rocked, they’re bolders, they’re granted. And the word of God doesn’t change, the word of God won’t move.

So if you’re last on to this verse and last on to this verse, you’re solid. Makes you steadfast. And regardless of what comes in life, you’ll be able to stand. You’re steadfast because you got a good root system. Verse seven, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as you have been taught. Abounding therein with thanksgiving. Now abounding, who with thanksgiving, is the result of a good root system. You ever see a lot of Christians that are never abounding in the things of the Lord and they’re never thankful.

They can’t seem to find a smile, they’re not filled with joy, because the present circumstances are always got them down. It’s like God fell off the throne and he can’t get back up. We’re getting old, but God doesn’t get old. doesn’t fail and he doesn’t fail you. And so regardless of what you go through, there’s a God in heaven that says, look, not everything grows at the same speed because he may be working on one person in a different way that he’s working on someone else.

And some of us go through many of the same problems but just different times in our life. And God, I believe, sends every one of them, allows them to come into our life because stop thing. You picture all the good things that happen to you in your life and you say, boy, am I God was so good to me. You know God’s characteristics doesn’t change. When all those so-called bad things happen, God is still just as good. It’s not God changed.

God was good. God was bad. No. God is good. And so those bad things that we consider bad, is that we don’t understand and see the fruitfulness of it yet. We don’t see the cause, the purpose of it yet. But like the bamboo, nothing for the first year, the second year, the third year, the fourth year. But the fifth year, a little sprout. But in six months, it can grow to be a hundred foot tall. And who knows how everything is going to flourish in the end.

because we can’t see down the road. And you have not a clue what great things that God is doing in your own personal life because right now say you may be sinking some deep roots that your faith is strong because the wind is about to blow. It’s about to come. It could be a tornado coming, but you’ll stand strong because your faith is in the Lord. And God will bless you because of that. Look up here. This hand represents you and me and the wallet represents sin.

We all have sin upon us. Now God says that He loves us. God’s the love of the world. He hates our sin because you see it separates us from Him. And He says the wages of sin is death and since we committed the sin we have to pay for it. We got a debt. And that is eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us. He wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven we have to go to heaven.

be perfect as righteous as God and none of us are perfect, none of us. We’re all sinners. The Bible says that if we want to go to heaven, we got to get rid of it. On our way is by death. This hand represents Jesus Christ, he’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because he loves us. He hates our sin because it separates us from him. Now did God make a mistake and give man a choice.

Look what you get to choose. Christ took all of our sins, paid for them on the cross, came back from the dead and says, now, if you will believe that I did that for you, if you’ll choose to believe it, I choose to give you as a free gift eternal life. So we choose to accept the payment he made, believe that he did it for us. And he chose to give us as a free gift everlasting life. Our sins are paid and we We get to go to heaven on what Christ did for us.

You didn’t earn it, you didn’t work for it. It’s by grace. Are you saved through faith? That not of yourself, it is the gift of God. It’s not of works lest any man should boast. Did God make a mistake? God don’t make mistakes. God is perfect. God is righteous. And I would appreciate it if you can tell me what the title of my sermon is today. I still couldn’t figure it out. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bow and every eye closed, no one looking around.

If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, why not right now? the quietness of this moment, just say something simple like this. Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died, paid for my sins, and right now I will trust Him to take me to heaven whenever I die. If you’ve never trusted Him, but you will right now, and you’re like for me to pray for you, and I love to, to thank the Lord for a person having such good judgment, good wisdom, to accept that payment He made.

And God said, He’ll never catch you out in every little reason. So is there anyone at all the cold because he says, yes, pray for me. I’ll trust Christ as my Savior and I just slip you in it very quickly and put a right back down the zine one of all. If you have trust that Christ is your Savior, remember your God’s child and as God’s child, God is working in your life. Even sometime when it doesn’t appear that everything is flourishing the way you want, God is using this time for your roots to go deep into His Word.

He may want you to develop a love for Him that’s stronger than the love of the world. He may be working something that needs to be separated in your life. Remember the book of Psalms in chapter 1, the separated and the saturated and the situated. Our Father, we ask your blessings upon each one here and Father for the free gift of eternal life. We thank you for the use of us for your honor and glory and help us to rise as high as you choose to let us go.

To bring honor and glory to you in all the things. Christ’s name we pray. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771. 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, calvaryuptampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Cloak of the National Park 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 believe in that the Lord is coming soon just keep looking up