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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. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the Bibleignmenistries.org homepage. 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.

Glad to see y’all here tonight. I’m gonna run by you. You got a letter in the mail. And the letter really upset me, really bothered me. I didn’t know exactly how to take the letter. I was kind of numb for a little bit, because I got the letter from a good close personal friend. He says, Dear Brother Ralph, in the worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. How are you doing? I’ll think about you often and pray for you.

How I thank God for your ministry and friendship. You have challenged and encouraged me and the Lord. I wish I would tell you more often how much I appreciate you. I get so busy, so pressured, so overwhelmed at times. I always want to remember you. Then he says, I’m sending you a bulletin that I put out in the paper. And when I did, I just kind of stopped reading the letter and looked at the bulletin that he had sent to me.

And this was the bulletin that he handed out in church. And when I read it, I was so disappointed and so discouraged. I called him up on the phone. I’ve traveled around the country an awful lot. I’ve been in a lot of churches, lots of churches. And a lot of preachers are struggling. They’re having troubles. And sometimes the preacher’s doing fine, but the church has gone through a split and all kinds of things happen. And when you’re doing a church, see everything is voluntary.

You can’t make anybody do anything. And preachers usually, they want their people up here, and they’re down here, and so you’re trying to lift them up, and you want so much more for them, because you want God to bless them more. And most of the problems that you have and counseling the people because of sin. And sometimes people just plain rebayous. Anyway, I could relate to what he said. But I started hurting for the guy, and I felt so sorry for him.

This is what he said. He says, you are welcome to worship with us this morning as we gather together to seek the only true and living God. The message you are about to hear is not warranted to make you happy or feel good, and you have the legal right to leave now. If you do not exercise this option, and at some point you feel convicted, please be advised that you have voluntarily waived your right to bring civil or criminal actions against this church, its agents, or its insurance companies for any emotional distress you may endure as result of the sermon this morning.

I thought boy this is going to be Psalm sermon but he goes on. He says come back tonight we are going to change the evening service and make it more enjoyable. After a short devotion by the pastor no longer than five minutes we’re going to bring up into four groups, a robix class, volleyball game, Christian video movie and discussion groups. Afterwards, there will be refreshments and a door prize for coming. Prayer meetings are canceled due to lack of interest.

We have decided to cancel the midweek Wednesday prayer meeting at 7 o’clock. We have finally given into the pressure that you do not want it and it is not needed. You have voted by your absence to cancel it. Thanks for letting us know. what you want. Stopping Monday nights, so winning, they go so winning on Monday nights. This too has fallen on hard times. Since hardly anyone is showing up, since it is so hot, since it is getting darker, since people are not interested, and since Monday night football is on, we are not going door to door anymore to share the gospel.

Let the sinners come to church and we will lead them to Christ here. This is easier and a lot more comfortable. The goodness of God, there is a better way to be a witness for the Lord. From now on, we are not going to preach against sin or the sinner. From now on, we’re not going to warn the unsaved about hell. From now on, we’re not going to threaten the unconcerned with God’s judgment. We’re going to smile and preach only the goodness of God.

We’re going to be positive. We are going to share, not preach, on the blessing of God. No more dress code. Come as you are, we’ll become our theme. Nobody likes being told what to do or what to wear. You’ll feel more comfortable in a t-shirt, shorts, barefoot as you enjoy the soft, funny, easy to listen to message by the pastor. We’re going to make it easy for you. Offerings. We decided not to encourage offering since hardly no one does it.

We will make money the unscriptural way We’re gonna have bingo every Friday night and raffle off a new car to make money for by gambling a Christian rock concert with the new group demon boys will bring in lots of money Charge for seating $100 to set up front $50 sitting in the middle $10 to sit in the back $1 to stand We’re going to stop giving the missions and spend the $60,000 on ourselves. Let the missionaries starve. We will send collectors to your house to collect your offering.

We need volunteers. I read that and that was the end of it. I was sent back in my chair in the office and I was just sick. And I thought I got to call the guy. So I got on the phone and I called him up and I said, I got your letter in the mail. He said, oh, he said, what do you think? I said, well, I was kind of surprised because I really thought, no, he’s a lot stronger than this.

I said, I really didn’t know how to take your letter. I said, it really bothered me. I said, I wish you’d just call me before you got so discouraged and so down. He says, Yankie. He says, didn’t you see that part of the letter where I had on there? I thought about you as I did something for the first time, the first fake bulletin I have ever created. I says, what? He says, it’s a fake bulletin. I says, you’re telling me that it’s not real?

He says, no. He says, on the bottom of the letter, he says, it says, fake bulletin. down there, right down there, that I can’t see if I had my glasses on. It says, fake bulletin. I says, Lee Patton, I don’t believe you would do this to me. But Lee Patton, my good friend of 46 years, sent me this letter. And I did not know it It was fake. I was just heartbroken because I’ve traveled enough to see that a lot of preachers have done exactly this.

They have done that. And for him to say that he’s going to do that, I wanted to reach all the way through the phone line. Get a hold of him by the neck. Lee Patton, I can’t believe you did this to me. So let me tell you something, because it’s so important that you understand this. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians in chapter 4. There’s something that God has mentioned here, because either you are working toward unity in the church, or you are seeking to divide the church.

you may not know exactly that that’s what you will do, but do understand there is someone that wants to use you to unify the church and there is someone that wants to use you to defy the church to split it. In verse 1 it says in chapter 4, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you ought worthy of the vocation wherewith year called. In other words, God says, not only have you trusted Christ as your Savior, your His child, but you have been called to be a love slave or a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Greek word, doulas.

And that’s why He calls us here the prisoner, the word prisoner. A love slave of the Lord. And then he says in verse two, without loneliness, humility, and meekness and long-suffering for bearing one another in love, endeavoring. Now what’s the purpose of verse two? To keep the unity, the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. So God wants more than anything else his people to get along. For there to be peace, there to be unity. Now remember this, whether it’s the church or whether it’s a family or whether it’s just you as one individual, do you realize the unity that God wants between you and the Father, what God wants?

God doesn’t want anything to come between you and Him. In your family, you shouldn’t want anything to come between you and your family. You should want all the unity and the peace that can possibly be there. Because the church is simply made up of individuals. Now notice what else it says here in verse 4. There are seven things mentioned here for the purpose of unity. One body, one spirit, even as you’re calling one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one father.

So all of these one, one, one, one, one, one is talking about their unity. It’s all one. God wants His children to learn, to grow, and to think as one. So that we’re all on the same page. We all think the same way, feel the same way. And that’s why in the book of 1 Corinthians and chapter 1 it talks about let this mind dwell in you. Talk about having the same thing, the same judgment. And you can’t do that unless you all agree on this is the Word of God, this is the will of God.

So whenever he says about this unity, then he says in verse 7, see in verse 7, but under every one of us is given grace for the purpose of the unity. According to the grace of God, so God gives to every one of us the grace that we need to bear one another, to endeavor for the sake of peace, for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Think of what we can do for the Lord if all of God’s children, all of the Lord, all loved each other, and worked together for His cause.

It would blow your mind. But so many of God’s people are divisive, are scattered. Even if they come to church, they double-dog dare the preacher to say anything they don’t like. Because most are already looking for an excuse not to come. Because majority of God’s children don’t even want to go. But sometimes out of duty they do, but they don’t have the heart for it. And so they wear their feelings on their shoulders and double dog dared the preacher to offend anyway, or anybody else to offend them.

Do you realize how easy it is to make Christians mad? how easy they are to turn into a little amalek or a little Arab. So quick and it can happen. But now look down there in verse 12, verse 12, and he says that he has given to the church for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the, and here’s that word, unity of the faith, so that we all believe the same way, the unity of the face and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the Statue of the fullness of Christ.

That in other words, like all the believers all working together, we’re like one man, a mature man in the Lord. And then he says in verse four, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and cared about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, speaking the truth in love for the sake of unity.

Now I’m not talking about peace at any cost, but I’m talking about we speak truth in love. Now, unless a person wants truth, it won’t matter how loving you are, sometimes it ain’t going to matter. Some people, you can’t say anything to them in the right way that they will accept it, because sometimes people don’t want to accept anything, and alcohol you try, you’re not going to succeed. But in verse 16, he says, from whom the whole body, fitly joined together, compacted by that which every joint supplier, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, make an increase of the body unto the edifying of itself, in love.

So God wants us to think the same way, to be the same way. Now if I was the devil, I’m not. If I was the devil, then I would do everything I could to cause disunity, especially to you between you and God, between you and your wife or you and your husband or you and the kids. Just try to disrupt it, try to destroy any way I can. Because remember the devil is destructive. He seeks at whom he may devour and you can become totally devoured with anger and jealousy and envy and bitterness until it destroys you and it’ll eat at you like cancer.

And then if it happens to the individual, it happens to the family, it happens to the church because the church is made up of people. And so when you come to church, you bring all of your problem, however you think and what’s ever going on in your life. And hopefully the pastor will say something that will help you to know how to deal with it. So how to heal some of these things and how to heal broken hearts and how to get over some of the conflicts that we have in life.

Sometimes the preacher will succeed, sometimes he won’t. But if you’re looking for a way to split a church, I’m going to save you a lot of trouble. I’m going to tell you how to do it. Because I’ve gone through it so many times. I’ve gone with preachers and I’ve listened to them pour out their hearts. I know how they’re thinking how they feel. But let me just kind of give you this because this is not an original with me.

Robert Mueller who wrote a book in 1994, he gave 10 reasons, 10 things. A lot of times when you’re trying to heal, you can’t heal if If you don’t know what caused the hurt, sometimes you have to get out the infection. What caused the problem? One time I was playing as a kid and I was always into something. And I always like to play Tarzan, Superman at times. I’d put a thing around my neck and I would run. Man, I was like Superman flying.

I was so fast. Man, I was the fastest kid. I liked tires a little bit better because it swung on monkey vines. I never was able to superman to get off the ground, but we did have a monkey vine. And I got that monkey vine and it would go out over this dump. Everybody dumped their trash there. And I never wore shoes. I did. I’m timed I did, but this time I wasn’t. And I got on my monkey vine and I got way back.

I had cut off and tied to a great big old tree, leaning out over this dump. And I got back as far as I could not run out there. Oh, I come back, you know. Man, I was looking around and, oh, I felt great, because there’s nobody around. And I could holler the tires and yell as good as tires and could himself. And so I’d get back and I’d get a run and I’d go, oh, I holler and yell and scream.

But one time I did it, but I must have went too far, jumped too hard, whatever it was, but it came down. And when it came down, I came down. And when it came down, I got briars in my feet. I had thorns in my feet. And one time I got a big old gash in my leg. Cut me real bad and I was bleeding pretty bad. But I tried walking and as I walked, my foot kept hurting. Now I could have tried to just baby that lump, but I sat down and looked at bottom of my foot and had a thorn in my foot.

Now if you have a thorn in your foot, what should you do? You gotta get it out. By the left it there, what it got worse, and worse and worse. And so sometimes, unless you get rid of the thing that’s causing the pain, it’s gonna hurt for the rest of your life and probably get worse. You’d be surprised how many of God’s people, even good people, great people, have been brought down by letting one of the thing fester inside of them.

Something simple, something small, and it festers and festers inside of you. And you never get it taken care of, And;;;;;;;;;;;; it eats at you like cancer. Number one, focus exclusively on your own desires. He said, insisture viewpoint is the only one permissible when it comes to minor matters. Refuse to listen and attack others with a judgmental heart. It will pay off. Become very judgmental on something that doesn’t seem to matter at all. You know, you make a mountain out of a molehill, it means it’s just more dirt.

Step number two, listen to every criticism. Give credence to every room, story, or criticism you hear. Keep circulating the story without verifying its accuracy. You ever heard anybody do a thing like that? They spread gossip. They destroy others. Don’t let people use your mind to dump their garbage. Don’t let your mind become a garbage dump. Where anybody knows they can always run by all the latest gossip by you because you’re so willingly ready to accept it. And then you pass on the garbage to somebody else and then somebody else.

Always remember people that will gossip to you will gossip about you. If they’ll gossip to you, they will gossip about you. Just remember it because this is the truth. Number three, focus on your pastor’s weaknesses, not his strengths. Target him for discussion and continual criticism. Point out all that he does wrong in a given week. Don’t do that. This is only one you shouldn’t do. I didn’t write these, but there’s a lot of truth in every one of these.

So you see, some people will go home after church service and if they didn’t like something the the preacher says they have what we call potted pastor for dinner or roast reverend pickled pastor you know roast reverend it doesn’t matter there’s always something you can have and I told parents this I said look I said some of y’all have little children I says if you want to ruin your kids you go home and criticize the pastor or the church in front of your kids and those kids will grow up and they’ll hate the pastor, they’ll hate the church, and they may be hating the only thing that can help them in years to come.

Don’t do that. If you have a problem with the pastor, what should you do? And you know what people will tell you? You can’t talk to him. He won’t listen. That is a lie. Let me tell you. This pastor will listen to anything you have to say. And if somebody tells you differently, they are lying. I will listen to anybody, and that doesn’t mean that I listen with my ears closed. I will listen to anybody who has any problem because I am here and I want the help.

And that is the truth. When somebody tells you, no, his mind’s already up, you don’t do it a bit, good. That person doesn’t have the courage or the guts to come and see me and face me, eyeball to eyeball. That is a coward because I will listen. I do want to help. But when somebody tells you that they are lying to you, I have talked to people all the time and I’ll do it in your home if necessary. I’ll meet you at a restaurant, if it’s necessary.

I’ll meet you within the office if it’s necessary. And I will not mock or make fun of you. And I will listen to your problem. It tells you opposite of that. You know the devil is working behind the scene and that is not right. If someone wants to tell you something about the preacher, you asked him, have you talked to the preacher about this? He said, well, no, look, I will. And I’m going to the pastor and I’m going to tell him what you said and you give his name.

If you don’t do that, you’re wrong. I’m talking about you want to help that person stop spreading gossip, face them down. Tell them the truth. Do right by them. You’re not doing right by a person keeping quiet about somebody gossiping. It’s not right and it’s not wise because it’s divisive. It destroys. It kills. Now, number four, speak the truth or practice love, but never combine the two. That is very destructive because you can tell the truth about somebody, but not love them.

And truth sometimes can be very destructive. You see, I just always tell the truth. Yeah, it may be the truth, but it doesn’t need to be said. So you got to be careful. Churches that stress love to the exclusion of speaking to truth will eventually collapse under the weight of unaddressed problems. And in churches where people pound hard on the truth but fail to see the value of compassion, members will eventually devour each other. Number five. grievances for future use.

Store grievances for future use. A lot of time when I’m talking to Mary couples I always use the illustration about the hand grenades. And what the hand grenades is is simply that whenever you know if she does something wrong to you… She just gave you a hand grenade and you have the right to throw the hand grenade back at her. Because look, she did. So I got a hand grenade, but I have control and I have patience and I’m not going to get mad at back.

I’m not going to say anything bad. But I’m going to save this hand grenade because if I need it down the road, I can use this hand grenade and buddy I can do a lot of damage. And then I can say, look, but you remember two years ago? Well, and remember six months before that? No, well. And so the only reason you say these hangernades is because you’re storing up for a war. But forgiving somebody is giving them the hangernade back.

So I don’t need that. I’m not gonna be using this. I don’t need that. And you’ll come up better if you do that, but if you don’t, you’re storing up for a war down the road. Number six, forgive only those who ask you to do so and only if they deserve it. Demand that others beg for their pardon, requiring them to prove they deserve it. Never forgive and never forget is foolproof and that’ll help you destroy a church. How?

Because you’ll destroy the people. When people do that, they’re not because they love the people, they’re hurting people. When you don’t forgive, you’re not only hurting yourself, you’re hurting those people also, because you become very judgmental and you look down on people and you become critical of other individuals. Did you know you can always find fault with somebody? All you gotta do is look long enough and you’ll find fault in everybody here and in me, every person in this ministry has faults.

You already know that. So what honor is there in trying to dig them all up magnify it. The Bible says, edify one another, not edify, edify. It means to beautify what’s there and build them up, encourage in people and challenge them to do the things that they should do. Number seven, he said, hide your own sins behind harsh attitudes. Do you know that sometimes when you’re guilty of something you speak hard and rough and mean against something to throw people off that that’s what’s bothering you.

You see there’s a so-called a surface problem and there’s a root problem. Sometimes the root may be over here and it comes up like this and all of a sudden it goes over here and it comes up and you think the problem is over here. No, the problem isn’t over here. problem is over here. There’s a root problem. This is only the surface problem. And what you see might be throwing you off from what is the real problem. And so you have to be very careful not to believe everything you see in here.

You’ve been listening to Bible Life, 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 2 of this teaching will conclude with Tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by 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 home page 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 broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org O.R.G. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed.

Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.