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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 1-800-5-7 Here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air.

You can reach us toll free at 1-800-570-875. 763-771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampup.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. Isn’t it difficult for you to be found faithful in witnessing? It is for me. And yet, we have to struggle through a lot of things. We go through a lot of trials and tribulations.

We still have bills to pay. We still have to worry about our health, then we have to concern ourselves with our jobs and everything that goes on in life. All that why we’re here and all the suffering that we go through, such difficulty to get a person to trust Christ as their Savior, but is it gonna be worth it? All the difficulty that you’ve gone through, all the sacrifices that you made, all the money that you’ve ever given. You think about how much to get a soul saved.

Well, is that so worth that? If that was, if that’s so was you, whether it had been worth it, if you were lost and you get to the great white throne judgment, you don’t care what people had to pay. You just want to make sure, why didn’t you get the gospel to me? I don’t care what sacrifices you had to make. I don’t care how much money you had to spend. I don’t care how much I had to, you should have reached me.

I’m lost for all eternity and you’ve played games while I’m going to hell and it’s going to play on your mind and God says he’s going to have to wipe away all tears from our eyes because we just didn’t see it. So look what he says in verse 18 and while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal. That’s with the flesh, the natural eye.

But can you see beyond this to the eternal, to the day whenever you’re glad? There’s a song that they used to sing called Thanks to God or something like that. It was in ways to talk about when you get to heaven and God shows you to people and they say, no thanks for what you’ve done in reaching me and so forth. And I like the words to the song. And he says, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

And that’s the spiritual things. But that’s what God wants us to see. That’s what He wants us to focus on. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew 11. Matthew and chapter 11. Jesus said that there’s a lot of people in this old world that have a heavy, heavy yoke of iron upon their shoulders. In the book of Deuteronomy it puts it this way, but if I will not serve the Lord thy God with joyfulness of heart, I will put a yoke of iron upon your neck until it destroys you.

Unless you serve the Lord with joyfulness of heart, the yoke of iron upon your shoulders, upon your neck until it weighs you down. Isn’t the shame that a Christian has to wear a yoke of iron doesn’t have to. Look how he puts it in the book of Matthew in chapter 11. Look in verse 28, this is where you take a rest by taking a burden. You take a rest by taking a burden. Do you ever get physically tired? When you get physically tired do you want to rest or work?

You want to rest? What do you mean by rest? You don’t want to work. You don’t want to do anything. But look at this, this is just the opposite. In verse 28, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. And I will give you what? Rest. I’ll give you rest. Verse 29, okay Lord I’ll come to you And I want that rest you’re talking about. And the Lord says, take my yoke upon you. No, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

I’m tired. I want rest and the Lord wants you to put you to work. He says, if you’ll take my yoke upon you, you shall find rest under your soul. So we’re not talking about rest for the body. We’re talking about rest for the soul. Did you realize that you inside of this body, you can get all the rest physically you want and desire and have no rest for your soul. Because you have no peace, no happiness, and no joy.

And you can have a living hell on earth as a child of God. You can get all the rest you want physically. But you have no rest for the soul. You’re troubled. Remember when he told these disciples, you believe in God? Believe in me. He said, be not troubled. He says, in my Father’s house, or many mentions, if it were not so, I would have told you. So you and I have a good message right here in this little verse.

Let me show you the verse 29. Take my yoke up on you and learn of me. There’s a lot of things you can learn in this life, but one thing that’s most important is to learn of him. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly and hard and ye shall find and you ought to underline these words rest unto your souls.” And then he says, for my yoke is easy. It means that if you will lose yourself in the work of the Lord, you’ll find rest for your soul.

You know what most people say? I don’t have time to do the work of God. I don’t have time to do what God wants me to do. I don’t have time. I don’t have time. I don’t have time and they have no rest for their soul and making wear themselves out and that’s what they call me Oh, well, I’m just burn out. I’m just burn out my plate so full. I can’t do anymore I’ve been certain or for almost 49 years.

I have never come close to burn out Well, I just had enough. I can’t serve God anymore. He ain’t going no more old fiddle fattle Get a grip Get a life Stop whining and panning and moaning and groaning. I wish Christians would just stop belly-aicking. It doesn’t have to be that way. God says, you’re gonna work while you’re here. He says, take up on you my yoke. My yoke is easy and my burden, my burden is like. It doesn’t mean no responsibility doing nothing, but when you get involved in doing what God wants you to do, you’ll find rest unto your soul, because you know you’re doing what God wants you to do.

And that’s why in the book of Nehemiah, and Nehemiah chapter eight and verse 10, he talks about the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength. You see, but when you’re not doing what God wants you to do with your life, you won’t have joy and you won’t have strength. The strength to keep going because awake in the cares of this world will weigh you down and destroy you. It’d be like a yoke of iron.

That’s why he says if you will not serve the Lord with joyfulness of heart. But the joy of the Lord is your strength. That’s where you get your strength from. That’s why you can rest in the Lord. But there’s no rest for your soul when you don’t do what God wants you do with your life. And I love that first 30. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. My burden is light. So we rest by taking a burden.

Take care of my book in the book of Romans in chapter 6, Romans in chapter 6. We conquer by yielding. We conquer by yielding. And you’ll notice there in chapter 6, look in verse 11. We think that to conquer is in our power, our wisdom, our strength, our talent, our ability, whatever it is, it depends on my smartness and it doesn’t. It means that you are yielding yourself to Lord and let God work things out. I can’t solve everybody’s problems.

I already know that. It’s too many for me. I am not the smartest guy on the block. I don’t have all the wisdom in the world. I don’t have to have it. I just know the one who has it. You see, I don’t have to have all the wisdom in the world and all the books and so forth. But if I got a library down there, I can go down there and find out most whatever I want. Or you can Google it I guess today.

But a child of God knows that I don’t know. have to be the smartest kid in the block. My daddy is. And I can go to my daddy and my daddy can teach me whatever I need to know. I’m going to learn of him. And you can’t learn from him unless you spend time with him. And so that’s why Christ says, learn of me. Take my yoke upon you. Lift for my reason, for my purpose. What I called you to do.

That’s why Paul says, I’m free from all men, but I have made myself a servant of the law that I may please Him who have called me and so forth to be this soldier. You see there in verse 11, likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed in the sin, but alive in the God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin, this whole sin for nature, therefore reign in your mortal body, this physical body, that you should obey it in the lustor realm.

In verse 13, neither yield yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness on the sin, But, and you ought to underline these verses, this phrase, yield yourself unto God. And when you yield to God, you can become victorious. You win by surrendering. You win by yielding. But when you fight God or try to do whatever you do because of the strength of the flesh, you will not win. It will wear you out. get so tired being faithful to God and it doesn’t have to be that way.

You see I have one main goal to the people here at this church. I want you to keep serving the Lord to endure whatever trials and tribulations may come our way as a body of believers or even individually. You’ll keep serving the Lord because I want one day and it may not be too far away. We’re going to be in heaven with the Lord. And I want God to give you everything that He could have given you. I want Him to bless you.

Now, true love means I want the best for you. So that’s why because if I want the best for you, I am going to try to do everything in my power to be a faithful individual. I’m going to try to see that I don’t do something in my light that would cause you to stumble over my lackadaisico, have heartiness, callous feeling, I care. I want the best. That’s why I may say something you won’t like. I might get on your case.

I may preach a hard sermon because I want you to do right. And I might have to even rebuke you sometime. Why? Because I care. Now, if I don’t care about you, I’m not going to say anything that’s going to ruffle your fingers, because I don’t want to make you mad at me. That’s when I don’t love you anymore. But as long as I love the Lord and I love you, I’m going to try to hit you as much as I can right between the eyes.

And I think I think that you’re doing something you ought not do. I’m going to tell you so. Why? Because I care about you. If I don’t, parents who love their children, do you let them just do whatever they want to do, however they want to do it? Never say anything, never correct them, ever discipline, never rebuke them? No, because you love them. Sometimes you have to beat the tar out of them. No, I don’t have a bullwitt and pit and I do not want to use this as a bull pit.

But I want the word of God to take effect in your life. And so I want to teach it in such a way as he says in the book of Nehemiah in chapter 8 that he read the scriptures and caused them to understand. I want you to understand what God says because I can’t play God in your life and I can’t walk around and hold your hand all day long. You can’t do it with me either. I want you to know the word of God in such a way that you can walk with the Lord all by yourself and you can examine yourself through the eyes of this book.

So if you see something in your life that’s not right, you’re grown up, you’re mature enough. You can correct it without somebody having to always look over your shoulder and tell you everything. You don’t want that. Neither do I. The next thing I want to share with you is we gain wisdom through foolishness but I’m not going to spend any time on that one. It mainly from the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 2 and talking about by the foolishness of preaching.

That’s how God chose to save people. See it. It sounds like it’s such a foolish thing that just by believing on Christ. Well, at that ought not work. Surely you got to do something. So in the mind of man, he always feels like he’s got to do something. Like I can’t really just take God at his word. I can’t trust him completely. I’m going to help just in case. Well, when you help just in case he doesn’t come through, is all I’m going to do some good works just in case, Then you don’t trust Him.

Then you don’t trust Him. So you can’t help God out. And it’s such a foolish things in the minds of some people. And how many churches are there that teaches you got to be good? You got to be good. Because the natural man just can’t believe that it’s free. And yet, it’s free. But that’s the way God is. See, it’s like a paradox. doesn’t make sense to some people. They can’t see it. And if it is so easy-believism, why can’t everybody believe it?

You say, well, that’s too easy. How do you believe hard? If I told you that this was a baby grand piano, would you believe that? No? Well, because that would be hard to believe. What if I told you it was a microphone? That would be e. Oh, that’s not fair. That was too easy. And so God says, going to all the world and preach the gospel to everybody who is totally, highly, intellectually educated so that they can be saved.

Mom, he says, feed my sheep, not my giraffes. Put the food down on the bottom shelf so everybody can add it. Even little children can understand, hey, God loves me. He paid for my sins. I trust him and he saves me and gives me his a free gift. everlasting life. Take your Bible and look at Mark 10. You’ve got Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Mark 10. Mark 10 in verse 42. And look at this verse. Verse 42, this is Jesus talking to them, and he’s saying something here that’s really good.

There’s always people who want to know How can I be great in the kingdom of heaven? You know, whenever God sits at home, you know, I want to make sure that I’m one of the top dogs. You know, they even had James and John and the mom come to see Jesus one day. And he says, Lord, when you get into the kingdom, I want my two sons who said in the kingdom, would you one on the right hand and one on the left hand?

God bless mamas. It ain’t up to mama. And they thought that it would just be a promotion that Jesus would just give to them. He says, are you willing to be baptized with the baptism that I’m going to be baptized with? Sure. He says, you sure are. And buddy, they had to really go through the fire. And buddy, they died for this little honor. But look what he says here. verse 42, but Jesus called them to Him, and said unto them, ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles, exercise lordship over them, and their great ones, exercise authority upon them.

But so shall it not be among you, but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your master or your minister. And whosoever of you will be the cheapest, shall be the servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.” Did you know that most Christians think that everybody else is here to minister to them? Did you know that Christ came into the world not to be ministered to, but for him to minister and to give his life for them?

Did you know that serving the Lord is ministering to other people? Serving the Lord is not everybody served me. Do you realize that in this ministry it may look in your eyes like I’m head honcho. I am the mean dictator and I got a boy where ever and everybody hears my servants but you know in the gods that ain’t the way it is at all. I’m here to serve you. You are not here to serve me. I am here to serve you.

And any person in place of leadership, it means that they become servants. We’re not here to be served. We’re here to serve. And Christ says in the kingdom, if you want to be somebody there, this is the only time that you have to earn the right. And your exaltation there and you’re ruling with him there means that you’re the greater servant here. So the greater you want to be there the greater the servant you have to be here not ruler not just in place of authority Did you realize that as a member in this church?

If you faithfully serve the Lord and you serve and you minister to others When we get into the kingdom, if you were more faithful to your job than what I was to my job, you might be ruling and I might not be. You see, it doesn’t matter about who has what position now. Are you serving the Lord and serving the Lord is serving people? So when we ask for people to Wanna serve in the ministry we’re talking about are you willing to help others?

Not to be served Because whenever you have in your mind that people are here to serve me and make me happy make me complete Do things for me and they don’t do it when I’m mad at them. I hate them. I’m You don’t get it you don’t get it You’re here to serve now your serving has nothing to do with their response But if you don’t get it, you won’t get it. And so you can be found faithful doing what you can, where you are, with what you have.

And whenever the kingdom comes, God may exalt you, hidden shoulders above everybody, because you faithful and did, what you could with all your heart. And there will be others that down here looked like men, they are a shoe in. Did you know you take, for example, a man like Billy Graham, because of one of these people to the Lord and the greater evangelist and all that? Did you realize that when he gets to heaven, God knows when the night he did it for his own honor and glory?

Did you realize that he might not even be there if he really didn’t believe what he preached? But if he really believed what he did preach, I would have questions. because in most cases he was not clear on the gospel. But I’m not the judge of that. I don’t really know. But you see, he may have done what God gave him the talent and ability to do, but he didn’t do it wholeheartedly. We’re not the judge. We don’t know.

And there could be some little housewife that’s raising four little kids, and daddy’s gone off and so forth, and she had to sweat and labor and did what she could. She went to church and she gave what she could and faithful and serving and cooking and whatever she could do and God’s gonna raise that person up Because she humbled herself and she became a servant. She worked behind the scenes It’s not the person that’s up in the front all the time that God’s going to honor We’re only servants and everybody here is to be a servant to each other To help challenge and motivate people to do their best for the Lord See, God in heaven has blessed you a talent and abilities by which He wants you and me to encourage one another, to be a blessing to each other, to challenge and motivate one

another. And at time, yes, we beat one another for the ministry’s sake, for it to be servants. So whoever will be great is to be the servant of all. If you’re not willing to be a servant, you’ll never be able to rule. Cause the way up is down. That’s a paradox also. The true way and the best way to stand for the Lord is to kneel. Look up here. representing you and me. And the wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us.

God says that He loves us and He hates our sin. And because of our sin, we have to pay for it. Eternal separation from God in hell. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven. But to go to heaven, say you have to be perfect, as righteous as God and no sin. And God says that we’ve all sinned. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection. The Lord says you cannot save yourself, you cannot earn eternal life.

This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. Came into the world because He loves us. Hates our sin because it separates us from Him. So Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead, and said that if we would believe, He did it for us. He’d put this payment to our account and we’d get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. Even though I know that probably most of you have already trusted Christ as your Savior, I made a commitment to the Lord years and years ago that if I could, and if I could remember to do so, I want to try to give the gospel, especially when there’s a possibility that there might be little ears listening that I’ve never heard and understood.

Now if this was a closed session and I already know that, then I can give and take a little bit on that. But see, if you don’t understand where I’m coming from, did you know you can get to the place where you can despise this? Oh, here he goes again. Is that all he knows? All he knows is John 3, 16 in the Ephesians 2, 8, 9 on that little wallet trick. And you don’t understand that you’re fishing for souls.

And the only way you can keep doing that faithfully and faithfully over the years is that you’re strong in all these other areas in your life because if you’re not strong there you will not be steadfast on this. So I pray that you have trusty Christ as your Savior and you’re going to heaven when you die. But if you’re here and you never trust the Lord I urge you to do so. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around.

Would you right now just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this, Lord, I’m a sinner. Friend, we all are. But, but God love sinner. He died on that cross paid for our sins. Now, I believe that He did it for me. Would you believe that He did it for you? God says, if you’ll believe it, He’ll save you, save you from hell, and give you eternal life. And you can know that you’re going to heaven because it’s a gift.

It’s free. He offers it, You accept it, you have it. It’s a done deal. He that believeth on me, hath, present tense, right now, hath everlasting life. Would you trust Him? If you will, God will save you, and you can know that you’re going to heaven when you’re dying. So with hedge bomb nice clothes, is there anyone that also says, yes, I will trust Christ right now. It’s by Savior. And if you’ve never done it before, you’ll do it right now.

Would you just slip your hand up very quickly, put it right back down, anyone at all? Anyone at all? You that know Christ is your Savior. Do you feel like you’ve been living with a yoke of iron upon your neck? Does it seem like faithfully doing what God wants you to do is such a burden anymore? Have you seen yourself drifting? That where you’re losing your desire, your heart for the Lord? Do you see that you may not be as faithful as you used to be?

Trade it for His yoke. My yoke is easy, my burden is lame. The joy of the Lord, the joy, knowing that you’re doing what God wants you to do will give you strength. Our Father, we thank You so much for this time together. We thank You for Your Word and pray Your blessings upon us in Christ’s name. Amen. 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. broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvary of Tampa dot org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. 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.