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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 monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. which is toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calbryoftampa.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.

Let me talk to you about a ministry that you may not like. But it’s a ministry that we’ve all been called to. And if God called you to do it, I’m sure you would be very willing to do it. It’s called the ministry of what? Suffering the ministry of suffering. You say, well, I don’t like that ministry. But believe it or not, there is a ministry of suffering. God allows us to suffer for Him. And he says that he was an example because he suffered for us.

So you can see the parallel, can’t you? So God says that you are going to end this world, you’re going to suffer. There’s a price to pay for taking a stand and doing what God wants you to do with your life. Hearing the book of Revelation, I want you to look at it real quick with me. Revelation in chapter 21, you know, Wednesday night I talked a little bit about the mark of the base. And so this morning I talked about the mark of a believer and how that the mark of a believer is faith.

That’s what separates you apart. That’s the distinguishing mark from the rest of the world. Is it you believe they don’t? So here in the book of Revelation in chapter 21, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was and more see. I John saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither crying or sorrow, there be any more pain, for the form of things are passed away. So all this is going to take place and there’ll be no more suffering. There’s coming a day when the ministry of suffering will be over. Once you trust Christ as your Savior, this time that we live in this world is a time of suffering. We suffer by the mere fact that we’re in this world in comparison to what God has for us just to be here.

And what we go through the things you think about and worry about, and fret about, the responsibilities that we have, the battles that you have to face, and the devil is real. And so you’ve got to go through all of that, but understanding that there’s a reason. And they’re simply, In this life, opportunities for us to gain or to earn rewards. Remember, rewards are earned. So it means if you have to earn them, you’ve got to work. I mean, if you go to work, do they pay you just because you show up?

Well, they probably do. You’re supposed to work. You’re supposed to earn it. The old-fashioned way. You earn it. But with the Lord, God has to give you a work to do. Well, say, His work is totally different from the work that’s in the world. God wants you to do and He’s going to pay you. So God has wages and He pays wages. John chapter 4. So number one there in your notes. Christ’s suffering and death on the cross completely pays for all sin, for all people, for all time.

This is what makes the ultimate reality in the new heavens and the new earth possible because of what Christ did for us. You and I have been called upon to suffer for Him. I said, I want to serve the Lord, but I don’t want to hurt. I don’t want to have to fight. I don’t want to struggle. I don’t want no battles. But I want to wear the medals. Well, it won’t work that way. Some people want to make a six foot splash and a six inch mud puddle.

You don’t want to be something glorious and great accomplishment and do great things for God, but they don’t want to have to put in the work or the labor that it takes to do something for the Lord. So in Hebrews chapter 9, There’s a verse there in chapter 2 in verse 9 that says that he, Christ, he was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

So he did do this for every man, but remember this, there is not divine healing in the crucifixion of Christ. When he died on the cross, his payment wasn’t so that you and I could be healed of every disease in this life. If you want to have total healing of your physical body, just die. And then you’ll get one, a new one, and you will never have to worry about it again. So you are going to have total healing someday, but not in this life.

Otherwise, if we had these perfect bodies and we could just have this divine healing, we would never die. Did you ever think of that? And then if you wouldn’t die, you would never get to heaven. I mean, shame to see some old 500 year old codger still walking around here. Well, how come you didn’t go to heaven? Well, I, you know, healing is in a tome and so here I am. No, I just, Lord, just take me on home.

And if you’re going to take you home, well, I got to die of something. I want to be healthy, but I know I got to die son unless the Lord comes back and takes me out of here. So we believe the Lord is coming back. Gotta believe he’s coming back soon. Look at number two. Number two, human suffering may be due to, now before you blame it, on God. Look at other possibilities. There are other things that could be the reason why you heard or suffer.

One could be because Adam’s sin. You are in a sinful world and therefore you are going to hurt. You’re going to suffer because of that. Because of the environment that you’re in. There’s thorns in this world and you’re going to get hurt. People are going to say and do things. Number two, individual sin. In other words, because of what you bring upon yourself. Did you ever think that you might have to suffer consequences for your own decisions? A lot of people don’t know that there’s a correlation there.

Take out a hammer, hit your finger with it. And then wonder why is my finger hurting? Well, you know, I really don’t know. I don’t know why my finger is hurting. Well, there’s a correlation because of what you’re doing to yourself. And sometimes you will do things and you’re going to hurt for it. You’re going to, you don’t make all the right decision. I know that hurts. You do not make all the right decisions. You are not all wise.

you are not perfect, you still mess up. And whenever you mess up, there’s going to be some consequences to suffering. What you have to be careful is when you make dumb, stupid, idiotic decisions, and then you suffer for it, don’t say, well, I’m just suffering for Jesus. No, I don’t think so. I think you might be deceiving yourself. Because if because you’re making some bad decision because you don’t listen to what God says, well that might be because you make some bad decisions.

So before you just automatically blame God, you might look in the mirror and say, no, is there something that I’m doing that’s causing this? Is it because I made wrong decisions? Now you can correct some things. Look at letter C, satanic attack. Do you honestly, in reality, do you really believe what it says in 1 Peter, chapter five. Look there, 1 Peter chapter five. This is a good verse that you need to see. You need to know where it is in the Bible.

And look there in verse eight. In verse eight. 1 Peter chapter five, verse eight, Case 1315 in an Oscoka reference Bible, or one of the church Bibles. And look at verse eight, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he made devour. Did you know that the devil might use your wife? Did you know the devil can use you? And the devil can use your kids. The devil can use that man where you work.

So be very slow and careful. There might be more than meets the eye. Learn discernment as much as possible. Live peaceably with all men. Don’t look for an opportunity to be mean and ugly and you can blame it on somebody. God be very careful. Now look in verse 9. He says in verse 9, whom? Who? The devil. You can resist the devil by standing steadfast in the faith. Just stand strong on what God’s word says, and that’s resisting the devil.

You don’t move just because the devil wants you to. You aren’t not supposed to think wrong just because the devil wants you to think wrong. You don’t do wrong because the devil wants you to do wrong. You know what’s right and stand there. And be strong. Be strong in the power of his might. And God will bless you for doing so. Now, look in John chapter 15, the Gospel of John and chapter 15. John 15 talks about bearing fruit and the friendships that we have and how that God has made us his friends and all that.

But it’s also a warning. If you look there in verse 18, he says in verse 18, and he’s talking to his disciples. If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. Now if he is the master, look what the world did to him. Well if you’re his servant, well you know what they did to the master. What do you think they’ll do to you? Now you have to be careful when the world loves you.

I just can’t fathom this world loving me to death. I mean, if they love me to death, like I’m some great guy, then I must be doing something wrong. The world is not supposed to let me know. I’m not supposed to purposely try to make the world hate me. But I do believe that we’re supposed to live according to truth, and living according to truth is going to offend people, and they’re not going to like you because of that.

You live godly on your job and try to do right, and there’ll be somebody that could accuse you of something or lie about you deceive you because they can’t stand a person who shows them up. There’s a price to pay for living a righteous life. The look where he’s in verse 19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own but because you’re not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world Therefore the world hated you.

Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my sins, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me. So yes, there is a price to pay, just because you want to pay. you want to serve the Lord. And you know what the world did to Him?

Don’t expect any better treatment in this life. You say, well, I don’t want to suffer, so I’m going to compromise a little bit. Your choice. But your compromising is going to cost you greatly. Because when you get to heaven, you find out what you could have done. If you’d have stood fast, you’re going to bring a lot of grief. And then that’s why God said, He’ll wipe away all tears from their eyes because there’s going to be a lot of people that’s going to be weeping.

They’ll look back over their life with a lot of regret of what they could have done for the Lord and did not do You’re going to suffer in this world Expected and when you understand it it eliminates that the whining business Here’s the Christian all the doors wine about everything just wine What you don’t have to do that when you understand all you know is all the hardships that I go through are nothing more than places For me to spend my money Remember I like I said I gave my wife a million dollars to go buy something and then there was no stores Wouldn’t it be frustration So what would she want if she had a million dollars to spend what would she want?

She want all the kind of stores she could find what because she wants to spend the money Well a Christian who has wisdom Must have problems to spend the wisdom on Problems to solve So that’s… Money to spend. But see, a lot of Christians are bankrupt. They don’t have any wisdom. They don’t have any money to spend. They can’t solve people’s problems. They can’t help anybody. They’re bankrupt, themselves spiritually. So you don’t want that. So as you go through life, God is putting money into your well by the things you learn and how deep you can go.

Now, some people go down so deep and they stand out so long and they come up so dry, but you want water and you will. That means wisdom that you store up, that you can use when it’s needed. So letter E, God’s known or unexplained purposes. Did you know that God may let you suffer and he doesn’t tell you why? Did you know this? God does not owe you an explanation. God doesn’t have to explain everything to you. Isn’t it true that one of the most asked questions when something goes wrong is why?

Because you think I can handle it better if I only knew why. Well, let’s just say this, because there are some things that God will not explain to you and you’ll never figure out. Some things you’ll never get all the answers to. But you know overall God has given to me the ministry of suffering. And it’s part of God’s will for me. So I don’t have to worry about it. Now I know God’s will for my life. I’m just suffering this life.

As I do what God wants me to do, I’m going to be hurt. I’m not going to be loved by everybody. But by the very fact that you belong to Christ, and the world hated Him, and the world persecuted Him, the world will do the same thing to you. Understand it. Look at number three. Look at number three, suffering for Christ can be expected in a godly life. You see, in Timothy it makes the statement in chapter three, it says, be holy.

Be holy. Be pure. Because those that live godly shall suffer persecution. If you live holy, you’re going to pay a price for it. Because it’s difficult talking to certain people because there could be a backlash. And you don’t sometimes want to suffer that backlash. Nobody wants to be or to feel rejected or to be unloved. We all want to be accepted. We want to belong. This is one of the hardest things for teenagers. Junior high kids, they have this peer pressure.

They want to be accepted. They want to be on the end group. Whatever the kids do, they want to do and be a part of it. They don’t want to stand out. They don’t want to be different. They want to be like. They want to feel like somebody cares about them. And they don’t want just mom and dads approval. They want the kids that are their peers. They want to be light. That’s why they want to look like them and act like them, talk like them, because they fit in.

And it’s hard for them to take a stand and to have different moral standards and what the other kids have. And so it’s difficult. And more godly they want to live, the harder it is on them. Parents need to understand that. Because it’s very difficult, especially in the times in which we live, when you have some parents that don’t care what the kids do. Or where they go, or how they talk, or who they date, all those things. They don’t care.

But when you do care, man, it breaks your heart when you see something happen that you don’t want to happen, do something or go someplace. All these things are so important. But in 1 Peter chapter 4, it makes his statement. He says, you have been called to suffer, but in the suffering there is fellowship with the Lord. And he says, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. As though some strange thing happened to you.

He said, don’t think It’s strange because it’s going to happen and you’re going to have to pay a price. Look at number four in your notes there. Human affliction can cause believers. You see, what will it do for me? What can I gain out of this? What’s the purpose of it? Do you know there’s things that God may want you to learn by the things that you go through? Now, it wasn’t long ago when I became 60. I thought of it was going to die.

Thought I could have died. I almost did twice. And it’s a miracle that I’m here today. And I have suffered. I had to take pain pills for over a year and a half. One Sunday I had to take five pain pills to try to get through the day. And I hadn’t got a clue what I was preached on. I couldn’t remember. I was like in the days, but I had to go through it and I heard, I suffered. I suffered physically suffered.

And I remember when we had this western day. Now I’m not against western day. I love western day. But we had the dunking booth. You ever seen a dunking booth? You know where the guy sits on the little edge. And somebody out there throws the little ball, here’s that little round thing. Well, we’ve been playing horseshoes and so forth, but they holled and says, preacher, preacher, it’s your turn. All righty, so I go over there and I take off my coat and I’ll take off my tie and you know, and I got into the dunking boot, took off my shoes.

And so I’m climbing up on the ledge and by now half the water’s gone. It’s been splashed out of there. So it was only half full. So I got in there And I’m crawling up on the little ledge, and it’s kind of shaky, so you’ve got to be slow and careful. Or it’ll go down before you’re ready. Well, I finally get up on there and I’m leaning sideways, and I got a scoot over on it, and I saw this guy, he was my brother-in-law.

He’s winding up. And I says, and I’m, everybody’s hollering for him to throw, throw, throw. And I thought, no, don’t, don’t, don’t, not yet. I’m not ready yet. And then I thought he could hit the broad side of a barn. Well, he did. He hit that little round thing over there, dead center. And when he hit it, I was leaning on the side and buddy, I went down into that tank and my foot hit up against the corner of that metal bin.

And there wasn’t much water and so there wasn’t much support. And I hit that thing and it twisted my ankle and I’m talking about excruciating pain, shut up through my leg, and oh, it hurt. Now if I hadn’t been a grown man, if I hadn’t been in that tank and hadn’t seen people watching me, I’d have cried. I suffered, that hurt. But I laughed and got up there and I crawled back on the limb again and they put me down again.

And I hid it again. I crawled back up there and I laughed and so forth. I said, you can’t hit, you can’t They had seen them gone again. They delight in seeing the preacher suffer. They didn’t know how bad I was hurting. That night when I got home, I could hardly walk. So I thought, I didn’t tell my wife, I took two ibuprofen, 800 milligrams. But I didn’t know you were supposed to have a four-mill or anything like that.

I just took to them and swallowed. Believe it or not, my ankle felt better. But the next night it was still sore a little bit. I thought, I’ll just take two more. So I took two more on the empty stomach right before I go to bed. Well, the next day I was in Hertzville. I didn’t know that I had a bleeding ulcer.

And I was in bad shape. And I couldn’t hardly walk. I lay down on the floor and I couldn’t hardly get up. I finally got up enough and I called Betty on the phone. I said, honey, I said, I think you need to take me to the doctor. At this time, I still had no clue what I needed to do. I didn’t know what was wrong. I said, I’m coming home. I want you to take me to the VA.

So I drove home, and it seemed like I was flying. And I looked down at the speedometer, and I’m going about 20 miles an hour down that road. It took me, seemed like forever to get there, but it seemed like I was flying. But I couldn’t hardly adjust things, and my knuckles were turning white. My hands were all turning white. And by the time I got to the house, and I didn’t know if I’d ever make it, Betty, she jumped in the car and she was going about 110 around the bin and got down there.

And they tried to stand me up, but I couldn’t stand up. I was so weak, they said, well, you’ll have to sit in this chair. I said, I can’t, I’ll lay down on the floor. They said, you can’t lay on the floor. I said, man, I’m laying on the floor. They said, well, get him a, they moved me in there. And they next to me know, they said, oh my God, he’s got a bleeding ulcer. and they did immediate surgery, right off the bat.

It was interesting. And my wife’s wondering whether or not is am I going to live or am I going to die. You know, she suffered just as much as I suffered. Even though I was the one that was in the bed, and they were having to give me some blood, and I was crying because, see, it was Thursday and Friday. I said, I’ve got to get out of a hospital on Friday. And they said, you’re not going anywhere. I said, I’m getting out of here Friday.

I said, I’m supposed to be in Egypt. I’m leaving for Egypt on Monday. I’m going to Egypt with Ray Stanford. And I said, I’ve got to get out of here. And so they gave me some more blood on Friday. I got out. I was preaching on Sunday morning in church. At Monday, Betty was pushing me through the Atlanta airport in a wheelchair, because I couldn’t walk up. And they finally got me on the airplane, and I had just enough strength each day to do what I needed to do each day.

Egypt is the last place you want to go when you have stomach trouble. But I like to die. No, I don’t know whether the devil, all I know is that I did make some stupid decisions. I shouldn’t have took the ibuprofen on an empty stomach. It ate right through my stomach. And I could have died so easy. And they said I got down to the hospital just in time. And then another time after that, I got there and they said, another 12 hours, you would have been either in a coma.

This was six months later. You would have been in a coma or you would have been dead. And they had to do emergency surgery on me again. So I am lucky to be here. I am fortunate to be here. I could have been in heaven. That would have been so bad. But you in this life, you’re going to have something that’s going to hit you upside down. You can’t explain it. Lord, why? I don’t know why. I don’t care why.

I think, well, God, you’re God and you could stop this or you can allow it. So whatever. I didn’t ask when to be born and I don’t care when I leave. I am at your disposal. I’m going to try to do whatever the leave is right. And if you let me live, praise the Lord. If you want to take me home, praise the Lord, whatever you want to do, I really don’t care. And so I guess he doesn’t want me yet.

Eight, nine more years has passed. And maybe one of these days I’ll be standing here telling you, hey, I’m 79 now. And who knows? You don’t have any clue just how fast something can hit you. My mama, she went through just about everything you can think of. And I really don’t want to follow that trail, but sometimes we, we’re going to have to suffer. But there’s lessons to be learned. Look at number, letter A, to learn God’s word. Psalms 119, I believe he’s talking about when I was afflicted, when I was afflicted.

He said, before I was afflicted, I went astray. And so God’s affliction sometimes can bring you back. Sometimes it causes you to search yourself and say, is there something that I’m doing that’s wrong? And sometimes there is, sometimes there’s things that you need to correct. But you don’t think about it until something happens and then you wonder why God doesn’t answer your prayer and then you think, well, maybe it’s because of this or maybe it’s because of that. God does want you to search yourself.

God does want us to search. An unexamined life is not worth living. Always examining yourself. See, where am I spiritually? What am I doing? What’s my attitude to the things that are happening in my life? Let her be to learn to trust and obey the Lord. Always remember that. To learn patience. Romans chapter five, tribulation, worketh, patience. It’s the hard time because you can’t make it end. You can’t solve all of the problems. It’s beyond you. So you have to let God do it.

Have you had situations that you have come to the limit of your own wisdom and ability? And you say, if God, you don’t get me out of this, I won’t get out of this. I am at my wits and I don’t know what else to do. God says, great, that’s where I’ve been trying to get you. 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 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 link below. the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, 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.

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