This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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 a Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage.

We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this This teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. But look at number two, the false guilt. First John 3-20, I want you to look at this verse, it’s a very good verse and you need to know where it is and that it’s in the Bible. First John and chapter three. And look in verse 20, because it’s talking about your own conscience, your conscience.

And you can have a good conscience, a clear conscience, a defiled conscience, a guilty conscience. But it makes a statement here in verse 24, if our heart can dim us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Now in verse 21, if our heart can dim us not, then have we confidence toward God. So there’s things that you and I do that we give ourselves permission to do. If you give yourself permission to do it with all the scripture that you know, and it doesn’t bother your conscience because you believe it’s right, then believe it’s right.

And don’t have a false guilt that you place upon yourself that it’s nothing wrong with it. You see, you can weigh yourself down because of things that can happen beyond your power to control. And it may have nothing to do with what you have done or haven’t done, so you don’t condemn yourself for that which somebody else does, like a child believing that mom and daddy got divorced because it was my fault. And maybe they’re only five or six years old or eight or 10 years old.

I talked to when Kitty came from a broken home, he said, yeah, I broke it. But you need to understand And that there’s some things that can cause depression that you were not the cause of it. And if you don’t learn how to handle some of these things, it will take its toll upon you. So look at number two, guilt feelings that arise when no sin has been committed. Have you ever had an accident, a car accident, anything? I have turned around quickly and bumped right into people.

the thing I say, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. Now, should I feel guilty for the rest of the day because of what I did? Yes, I should. I knew he was going to say that. If it’s an accident, it means you didn’t plan it. You didn’t plan it. Accidents, mistakes of common human air committed without pre-planning, or stressful decisions. There’s a lot of decisions you have to make in life and you may not want to make them.

But after you’ve made them you feel guilty for having made it. But you have to do it. And sometimes that takes place with loved ones. For example, you love your mother or your father as some relativists real close and Well, you may find yourself because of certain circumstances, you may have to put them in a nursing home because you’re not able to take care of them, for whatever the reasons. But then you feel guilty because you did it. But why would you condemn yourself for doing what you believe was the right thing to do?

So you can lay guilt up on yourself That’s not the result of a sin that you’d committed, but because of stressful decisions, sometimes you have to make. There’s times when I had to tell Supplementary Children, no. No, I’ll have to admit now, they had a hard time learning what the word meant. So even when they were 16 and 17 years old, I still had a hard time convincing them what INFO the word NO meant. And it can be very stressful at times because they want to do something and I didn’t think it was a wise thing to do and I would say NO.

then I would feel, I hate to have to say that. I wish I didn’t have to do that. But you see, sometimes you have to make decisions that are filled with stress because you don’t wanna have to make it, they don’t wanna have to hear it. You don’t know how they’re going to accept it. Do you think that as the pastor of a church that sometimes I make a lot of decisions under stress, that I’d rather not make. Sometimes I deal with people and I’d rather not do.

Sometimes I cancel with people I’d rather not do it. And sometimes it can be very stressful. Why? Because you don’t know the outcome. You don’t know how people are going to accept things. I’ve talked to married couples and single people and you name it, I’ve had to do it. But it’s a part of the responsibility. Now I can just stress myself out until I’d have to have a weak vacation. This sounds good. I think I need a cruise. I think I need to go on a cruise.

Just to get my senses back and rest a little bit and because of the stressful situation, Did you know there’s stress a little bit with just having a summer camp? When you think about what it cost, the money you’ve got to raise, the speakers you’ve got to have, all the workers and counselors you’ve got to have, and dealing with the people you’ve got to deal with, and you haven’t got a clue how it’s going to work out. What about just when there’s Sunday school that can produce stress?

I want to produce stress. Saturday night can have stress. We can be under a lot of stress. I’ll bet you that those little ladies that were playing the piano and the organ for the first time were stressed out. You think so? When Peter had to direct the choir, I’ll bet he had some stress upon him. You don’t think that he got it down. It didn’t bother him at all. But everybody has stress. You’ve got to go through it. That’s what reveals what kind of strength you have.

It’s just like whenever they wanna put a gas line into a house or water line, they usually test a certain amount of pressure they put it in to see if it’s got a leak. Well, why are they doing that? Cause they wanna put a lot of pressure on it. And if it doesn’t leak with all the pressure, they’re putting on it. It’s not going to leak with the pressure you put on it. So therefore it should be okay. All right, God will do a lot of that same kind of testing upon you and I with pressure, pressure.

And we talk about time, heat and pressure. And you and I are under that as we go through life and it causes us sometimes to be so discouraged and so depressed. And so there are some things that we cause because of our mind not being right and we harbor ill feelings and our emotions are all run away. But this is so important. Look there at this statement, children who blamed themselves for parents’ divorce, having to place a family member or a close relative in a nursing home.

Have you ever done things for somebody because you love them? They take everything that you do, that you do that’s good and you do that’s right, and they find a way to twist it to hurt you. And if you didn’t love them, it wouldn’t hurt. But it hurts. Why? Because you love them. And sometimes people are not even aware of what they’re saying and doing. I mentioned to you that time when my sister had come to Colorado, And I had to put her in a locked up facility for almost a year.

And I’ll never forget when I watched her when she went into that room and she looked at me. She said, I hate you. I hate you. And I’m thinking, I love you, Liz. I love you, Liz. I really care about you. And she’s looking at me saying, I hate you. I hate you. Just the opposite of how I thought. And I’m making decisions under so much stress. But the time came after about a year, I said, Lizzy, I said, you want to go home to see Mom and him?

She said, I thought it was ET. me go home. I said, you want to go home? And she just started to balling. And when I brought her back home, let’s see mama, she’s in heaven now. Mama’s in heaven too. Mother, sister, she’s up in heaven too. One of these days we won’t have no more stress. But that will happen when we get to heaven. As long as you live in this world, you’re going to face pressure and a lot of stress.

Look at the next statement, things that happen beyond our control. There are some things you can’t control. It’s out of your hands. And I don’t know what it is because with every individual it’s different. Number three, rejection, betrayal and unfair criticism is solved by our security and God’s love. How secure are you that God really loves you and that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and you’re securing that. If you’re securing that, then your life is not going to be all shook up based upon whether other people accept you or don’t betray you, don’t abuse you because you know who you are and who you serve, where you belong, and you’re securing his love.

Because in people’s eyes it comes and goes, it comes and goes. So if you stop and think about this, the epitome of all of this victim of sin was Jesus Christ. You’ve never found anybody who was more victimized than that individual. You think of whatever can happen to people, it happened to him and yet he committed everything to the Father and they even put him on a cross, took his life, but he came back from the dead. He’s in heaven now in case she didn’t know that.

And there might have even been time when Jesus was discouraged or depressed. Read how he thought and felt in the garden and how that his soul was sorrowful even under death and how that he prayed even great sweat drops of blood. And he asked his disciples, cannot you pray with me just for one hour?” And they wouldn’t do it. They just went to sleep. How do you think he felt? Could not you have prayed for me one hour? Didn’t they understand the seriousness of the situation?

Evidently not. So there’s nothing you and I are going to do or go through that will ever come close to what he went through as far as been a victim of somebody else. We’re going to be victimized in this world. Look at number four, number four, broken dreams. Or as you’ve heard me preach before, the death of a vision. You ever have a vision, a dream of what you wanted to do or be or accomplish or something? And you know at this point in your life, it’ll never happen.

It’ll never happen. You kind of like give up a broken dream. Did you know that you can work toward something and pour everything you have into it and then it not materialize? Not materialize. I’ve had a few of those over the years. I’ve thought At times when our ministry was going the best in Colorado, I thought it’ll never end, it’ll never end. But just that quick, the economy changed and people had to leave our ministry to go get jobs.

And I lost my workers and I lost 40 students in the Christian school and so many of the teachers had to go and get jobs. And all of a sudden as fast as we went up, we went down. And you couldn’t stop it. It was beyond your control. It didn’t matter what you did. You couldn’t stop it. Just like a lot of businesses today. A lot of schools and colleges and churches dry up. And sometimes it’s nothing to do with anything they could have done.

Some of you’re working for people, then you might lose a job. And your health may be good today, and it’s pitiful tomorrow. And it’s beyond your control. You can do all the right you want to do. And it seemed like everything can be done. fall apart. That’s life. And what are we supposed to do about all of this? Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, laying not unto thine own understanding. All thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.

Just keep getting up. Under number four, I wrote down big dreams, dream big, but honor God above the dream. Because you see, your dream may not materialized, but the God, he hasn’t changed when I order. And he’s just as big and powerful as he’s always been. Because see, if I don’t get my dream, it’s because God had a bigger dream for me. I just couldn’t see all of it. God uses sometimes the depth of my visions to give me a better vision, to help me to see something I would have never seen no other way.

Because you see, it always seems to be easier to challenge and motivate people that are in good spirits and in good shape. But what about all those people that are not there? How many more people you can relate to and help and encourage? Look at number five. Number five, trying to please everyone is solved by first seeking overall to please the Lord. Galatians chapter 1 and verse 10, you got to see this verse. You got to see this verse.

Knock your socks off. In the book of Galatians in chapter 1 verse 10, the apostle Paul had told those people there in Galatia, he says, I marvel that You’re so soon removed from him, they called into the grace of Christ into another gospel, but there’d be not another gospel. He said, but there’s some that would pervert the gospel of Christ. And he said, though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel, then let him be accursed. And then I said before, even so say I now did.

And then he gets down there to verse 10, and he says, does it sound like I’m trying to please people by what I’m saying? No, for do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men, for if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Your gold in life is not to please people, it’s to please the Lord. People may not be pleased by what you say and do. They come and they go.

They have different desires at different times, and you never know where they’re going to land. But God is sure He’s rock solid. He tells you what pleases Him. So seek to please the Lord. And buddy, that will help your attitude. That will help you more than anything else. Is it, am I pleasing God? Because you may not please people. And not everybody’s going to be pleased with what you say and what you do and the way you are. But I love that verse.

He says, do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. You see, you can’t please both. You can’t please God and man. And so if you’re pleasing God, be satisfied. If you’re seeking to please man, you’re wrong, right off the bat. And you ought to be discouraged because you have just chosen the impossible path. True? It is impossible to please people all the time.

The last statement I have down here is, grace involves tolerating other people’s flaws. I’m going to live by grace, then tolerate other people’s flaws. The Bible talks about love covers a multitude of sin. I didn’t say it covers all of them, but it does cover a multitude. There are many harsh critics and trying to please fuss people can cause depression. They can impose impossible expectations on you. True. Now, you may not need this today, but I assure you sooner or later you will, because all this is nothing more than just plain or common sense, just common sense.

Well, they say that common sense isn’t very common anymore, but it’s the Word of God. Principles found from God’s book. Look up here. Welcome to our service. We’re glad to have you. But we want you to know something more than anything else in the world. You can be discouraged. You can be depressed. Not knowing the Lord, not knowing where you’re going to go and you die. Not knowing who you are and what you are, what you’re doing. When you don’t know what happens after death, it can be very discouraging to anybody.

But all of those questions got resolved with me 51 years ago When I heard the best news I ever heard my whole life You know what was interesting today somebody called on my cell phone from up in Georgia somewhere and When I saw the first three numbers I thought oh it’s probably one of my kids, but I didn’t know for sure because the rest of it I didn’t recognize so I said hello may I help you I was in a game good mood.

And the first thing she says was, uh oh, I think I dialed the wrong number. I said, well, who did you call? She says, Patricia, I said, you know what? You are right. You dialed the wrong number. But you might have dialed the right number. She says, what do you mean? I said, well, let me tell you. I said, I know I have eternal life and I know that I’m going to heaven when I die when I want to die.

So wouldn’t you like to know? And she says, well, yeah. And so I talked to her a little bit and I led her to the Lord of the telephone. So I said, see there, you didn’t dial the wrong number after all. And I says, now, if I saw you 10 years from now and I asked you, where are you going to go in your dias? I said, what would you say? She said, I’m going to heaven. I said, well, how do you know?

She says, because I believe he died for me. She said, just like, she said that he died for me. He paid for my sins. And I says, if I never see you in this world, I’m going to see you. when I get to heaven, she says, I’ll see you in heaven. I thought, oh, that was so neat. It’s a wonderful story that God has given to us. Regardless of the problems that we may have, one of the biggest mistakes that we make is saying, well, when I get all of my problems solved, then I’ll think about the other people.

How long do you think it will be before you talk to anybody if you wait till you solve all of your problems? It’ll never happen, why? because you’re always having problems. You’re either in the midst of a problem, coming out of a problem, or getting ready to go into a problem. You know, somebody sent me an email about something that was on YouTube. So I went on the YouTube and I thought, man, it sure would be nice to be on YouTube.

Then that way people could just click on and, you know, anywhere in the world and be able to see my little messages or whatever I’ve got and a little gospel presentation and all that. So Betty walks into the room and she says, Yankee? Why don’t you type your name in there and see if you are on the YouTube? I said, well, I’ve never put anything on YouTube. So I typed in Ralph Yankee Arnold and lo and behold, I mean all these videos.

I had no clue any of them was up there and then it has so many 100 and something clicked on to this one and 90 on to this one and 60 on this one and 50 on this one. And all these people that had been, and this one was three weeks ago, and the other one was a month ago, and I didn’t even know I had anything on the YouTube. Somebody’s doing this. I have taken a lot of my messages, and they put them on the YouTube, and I had no clue.

You go home and you get your little computer, and you type in Ralph Yankee Arnold on the YouTube, and you watch, and see, it just all comes out. And it knocked me for a loop. I had no clue. And here I am preaching the gospel of the people around the world, And I couldn’t believe it. And one of them made a nice comment. It says, powerful message, great sermon, somebody in North London. London. What a wonderful life. What a great God we serve.

What an opportunity. So you never know what is going to be done and how far it’s going to go, but I just get excited about the things of the Lord. God is sure being good to us. Well, anyway, this hand represents you and me, the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. You see, God, He loves us. He hates our sin. And because of sin, well, we’ve got to pay for it. The wages of sin is death.

So we all sin that, we all have to die. So that’s just accepting the facts. Everybody lives, everybody sins, everybody dies. Now to go to heaven, you have to be perfect as righteous as God, and none of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. So we have built in a natural depression, discouragement, because the greatest place in all the world is heaven, paradise. a perfect place and we’re not. This is why there’s so many religions in the world because so many are frustrated trying to figure out how to get there.

So everybody’s making up their own religion because they haven’t found the truth. You see, you don’t have to make up a religion or join a religion. God says you cannot save yourself. This hand represents Jesus Christ, he’s the Lord, God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us and he hates our sin. And the Bible says that our sin separates us from the Lord. So Jesus Christ, who had no sin, did not have to die.

He took all the sins of all the world, paid for it on the cross, and came back from the dead. And God said that if you and I, if we would believe that he did it for us, he would put this death payment that he made to our account, a death payment for my death, substitution. And I get to go to heaven on what he did. He died and paid for my sins. If he paid for my sins, it means I don’t have to pay for them.

I don’t have to pay for one sin. Of all the sins I’ve ever done from the time I’m born to the time that I die, I don’t have to pay for one of my sins. That’s grace. I deserve to die and go to hell. But I’m going to heaven because of his love for me. And God said he’d give me eternal life as a free gift and would never cast me out and never lose me. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

Now who so ever believe it in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Best news in the world. I’m going to heaven when I die. Let’s pray shav’im. Every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. If you hear tonight or watching by internet, would you right now just talk to the Lord and said, Lord, I don’t understand at all. I have been discouraged. I’ve been depressed. I don’t have the answers. I don’t have any hope.

I realize I cannot save myself. But I believe Jesus Christ died for me and paid for my sins. Tonight I trust Jesus Christ as my Savior. And bring God, said that if you would trust Him, He would save you and give eternal life, and you can go to heaven whenever you die. Would you trust Him? If you will, God will save you. Father, we thank you so much for this time together. Bless each one here and help us, Father, to look to you and to trust you and lay not unto our own understanding.

You said in Your word, trust in the Lord, Jehovah. We’re in the Lord Jehovah’s Everlasting Strength. That will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon thee. Thank you Lord for your word and all you’ve done for us in Christ and we pray. 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 tool free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the radio broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcasts of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.