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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 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 teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

You’d be surprised how many of God’s people, even good people, great people, have been brought down by letting one of the things 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. of credence to every rumor, story, or criticism you hear. Keep circulating the story without verifying its accuracy. You ever heard anybody do anything 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 Now 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 the only one you shouldn’t do. I didn’t write these. But there’s a lot of truth in every one of these. Because you see, some people will go home after church service and if they didn’t like something 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 it 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. If somebody tells you opposite of that, you know the devil is working behind the sin. 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 know, you can tell the truth about somebody, but not love them.

And truth sometimes can be very destructive. You say, well, 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, store 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 that.

I’m not going to say anything bad, but I’m going to save this hand grenade and call 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? went. And so the only reason you say these hangernades 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 going to be using this. I don’t need that. And you’ll come out 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 got to 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 and magnify it? The Bible says, edify one another, not edify, edify. It means to beautify what’s there and build them up, encourage 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. The 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. And sometimes a person has another reason for doing what they’re doing, and they may say this, but this is the reason and they don’t line up. So you have to be smart enough or wise enough or discerning enough. As he says in the book of Galatians in chapter 6, ye that are spiritual seek to restore those that are weak. considering thyself lest thou also be tempted to do the same thing they’re doing judgmental and fill with malice and all the works of the flesh.

Number eight, use prayer to unite discontented individuals. I’ve seen some people they want to have their own separate little Bible study and they don’t come to the one that you’re already having. You already have a Bible study. You can come on Sunday morning Sunday school or Sunday church service or Sunday night or Wednesday night. And when we got ranch and we got there. So there’s a lot of time, but they can’t come to none of those, but they won’t have their separate thing.

And generally sometimes it’s because there’s something else that they want or they don’t want to listen to, they don’t want to submit to, they won’t do their own thing. And I’m not saying all of it. I’m not saying there’s a possibility because I’ve been around the block. I look also and I see the end result of what happened. And then when people are discontented with this or that or this person or that person, they always find a way of finding out and they get a whole group together of discontented people and then they feed each other.

And after a while they all think the same way. When one only had one problem. But let’s say you got 10 people and one of them has a problem. And then another person only has one problem. And another one only has one problem. All 10 of them only have one problem, age. Let them get together. And all of a sudden, all 10 will have 10 problems because they share their problem. And all of a sudden, all of their problems became all of their problems.

They could have dealt with one problem, but now 10’s too many. And it destroys. And a lot of time, it’s always under the guise of, it’s for prayer. It’s for prayer. And it comes so spiritual, but underneath it’s not the case. That’s why I believe Dr. Hank Lindstrom here in this ministry, he did not like having ladies’ Bible studies. True or not? True? Now, because he has seen over the years, so have I, so have others, it most times leads to division.

It causes problems. It will breed. Not because it started with that as a motive, but it can lead to things because unless you have a pastor who will be mean enough and strong, I mean enough and strong enough, say, hey, that’s wrong. We’re not teaching that. That’s a gossip. You don’t do that. And you have to have somebody that loves you enough that will tell you and not pull any punches and tell you the truth, whether you like it or you don’t like it.

I will do that. A lot of people will not do that because I don’t want to hurt nobody. I can’t afford the luxury of not hurting people. I because I do love, I have to hurt at times. Not because that’s my motive, that’s not my goal. It’s because sometimes people are not doing like they’re supposed to be doing and what they’re doing is not only going to hurt them. It’s going to hurt families. It’s going to hurt other people in the church.

And they’ll destroy the very thing they say they love. And they won’t even see it. And there’s a devil behind the scene just laughing his way all the way to that new split that’s coming down the road. If I see anything like that, I will deal with it. And if you are guilty, I will face you. You won’t do it with my knowledge. Because if I find out, I believe it’s my responsibility to not only feed the flock, but to warn the flock.

And I hope that you understand and you appreciate that. I don’t know what you do, you don’t. But I’m telling you because I love you so much and I want the best. This is a good ministry, it’s a great ministry, but I don’t want people trying to destroy this ministry. We’re not a perfect church, I am not a perfect preacher, I am just a preacher. I’m just one of millions of preachers. And I don’t have the answer on everything, I can’t do everything, and I don’t do everything right.

And I will make a lot of decisions because I make so many decisions, they’re going to cross somebody. So what do do and I can’t let get a life, get a grip, take your feelings off your shoulders, don’t whine and pine about things, don’t be so easily offended and try to understand the reason for a church because it’s there to help people to become spiritually minded, to grow in the Lord for the unity. And the only way you can stop the disunity is that every individual has to be committed to unity, to peace, to truth.

To love. And if you’re not, you’ll allow somebody else to sow seeds into your mind, and sooner lay those seeds are going to grow. It happens as an individual or as a family. When it comes to this prayer thing, to recruit others to your cause and yet give the appearance that you are a spiritually concerned and mature believer, start a prayer meeting in your home as they cover to complain about people in the church. and stating your request, share information no one else in the room has any right to know, discuss details that can’t be immediately verified or denied, reveal just enough facts to leave a questionable impression of another person’s character.

You’d be surprised how much this is done, and that’s why sometimes we would rather not have that problem because some people cannot discern. Number nine, do whatever you have to do to win. Total war is using every means available regardless of how ruthless or immoral to defeat your opponent. You can’t find scripture to justify total war in the church, but if you’re willing to ignore certain passages and take others out of context, you’re gonna accomplish just about anything that you want.

Have you noticed any of you have maybe watched any of the presidential debates. Have you seen anybody attacking anybody else? Have you seen anybody say something about somebody else’s character? You know, I’ve often wondered, OK, here’s eight or nine of them up there. And I thought, well, what if they had just one more up there? Me. Let’s just say I’m standing up there. And they asked me a question. Now, Mr. Arnold, your opponent over there, Rick Perry, says, blah, blah, blah, blah.

What do you have to say about his position? Thank you very much. That’s a very good question. I’m not interested in Mr. Perry’s position. I’m interested in explaining mine, boom. And I don’t need to defend or promote anybody else’s nor destroy anybody else. All I have to do is say, this is my position. And sir, I would recommend that you listen to his position. You listen to my position. I don’t have to tell you mine is better or worse or his.

You decide you’re gonna vote. Why should I mutilate this guy? Because when it’s all over with, the bloodshed is already spelt and half of them are laying dead. And we come out with a nomination. I may have to support that, may I tell you how good he is. True. Now, that makes me look like a liar. I just told you the man wasn’t worth a quarter. Now, I want you to vote for this man for president. I don’t believe you have to attack other people’s character and try to destroy somebody else.

Now, when it comes to a religious belief, you know I’m very strong on what I believe about that and I will definitely say so. I will say, let me tell you, for example, we have a man over here. and I’m not attacking him. I’m telling you this is what he says he believes. He is a Mormon. I am a Christian. They’re not the same. And over here, he does not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the same way I do because he believes he was a brother of Satan and they do.

I do not believe in, there’s a lot of things, but you might say this is what they believe and because of their statements. But I don’t have to try to tell them what’s right and wrong. All I do is tell them this is what I believe. This is who I am. This is what I’m for. This is what I will do. Well, I’m trying to rip and destroy other. And you’ll notice the news media is always trying to get them.

They want these two pit bulls to go together. They want them to fight among each other. True? That’s That’s what gets the ratings up. They’re selling newspapers. With them it’s money that drives. And I don’t believe that God’s people have to do all of that wicked stuff. Anyway, number 10. Remember you are on a mission from God. In other words, when you’re gonna try to split a church, you always do it from the point of view of God told me to do this.

God is leading me. And it’s always a spiritual reason. If it is, and you’re in this church, if I’m the pastor and you wanna do something, if the pastor told you no. Would you obey? Would you obey or disobey? That’s when you find out if he’s your pastor. Not by bit just being a member of the church. Do you support the pastor, the leadership of this church? Do you submit to the authority of this church? This is why a lot of people don’t become a member of the church so that the pastor and nobody else can tell him what they can and cannot do.

So most times the preacher’s just beat his gums and wasting his time. This is why so many preachers quit the ministry. Because they’re dealing with people who don’t want to be dealt with. You’re trying to help people who don’t want help. They’ve already got their mind made up. They’re going to live the way they want. They’re going to do everything the way they want. And it doesn’t matter what the Bible says, but they put on a spiritual air about how great they love the Lord and they love the church and they love Christ and all that.

But if you don’t obey the pastor, you’re all taught. You’re not submissive. You’re rebellious. Because if you can’t get your own way, what would you do? What would you do? If the preacher told you not to do something, what would be your attitude? Now I don’t have to write the authority to tell you to do anything wrong. Illegal or fattening, I only have a responsibility to tell you truth, to lead you correctly. I can’t lead you in the sin.

I can’t teach you to be rebellious to God. So the preacher is not unlimited in what he does. He’s bound by the truth that’s found in the Word of God. So what we try to do is teach you what the Word of God says. And hopefully the Word of God is powerful enough in your life that it will change and motivate you to do the things that God wants you to do. Because the preacher knows he can’t make anybody do anything.

One of the things that I have really enjoyed since I’ve been here is the willingness of the people to get involved and do things they haven’t done before. Now you may not appreciate it as much, but I do. Just to have these ladies playing the piano in the organ, that is a blessing to me. Because I know they were scared to death. Still are. But they’re practicing. They were over here Saturday for two and a half hours yesterday just working on this thing.

on this thing and the choir came, why? Because we got a new song leader and he simply asked the people to come. If he’s a new choir director and they’re going to sing in the choir, don’t you think they should do that? He’s the leader. Follow the leader. And if he says, this is the song we’re going to sing, well, then that’s the song you’re saying. You say, well, what if I don’t like it? Complain to everybody. No. No.

He’s the leader. Give people a chance. We got these guys playing to get tar. You know what? Most of them been sitting right here and they haven’t been doing anything. I enjoy having it. I like it. I like seeing people involved. Now just because Roger is not able to be here tonight, isn’t it great that we got Ryan up there running how to do that? We had over here, Mary Ann can’t be here, but you had Greg over there this morning, he was working on it.

And James is over there doing this. James would do, well he does everything. And whatever needs to be done, there’s people who have a volunteer spirit. They like it and they want to get involved. We had some new people that joined the choir. Did we need them? Didn’t it sound good? But it takes work. And if long as you have an attitude like that, we can build a tremendous ministry for the Lord. And we will give the Lord all the credit, all the honor, all the glory.

Because we’re just people, we’re sinful people, but we’re God’s people. And we’re just trying to do God’s work God’s way because we want God’s blessings upon us. And so I’m thankful for those that work and ranch. You’re like some of these guys that go on every night of the week it seems like now. But they want to be used. They want to help. And a preacher that just about puts a preacher in the cardiac arrest when everybody really wants to do something.

Somebody comes to me and says, says, picture, what can I do? Most times you have to beg somebody to do anything. And so I just want to say thank you for the unity that we have in this church. At this point, I don’t know anyone in this ministry, this guilty of anything that I’ve said. But when I got Lee Patton’s letter, it threw me for a look and I said, now’s the time. Maybe I need to say something before I have to write this bulletin.

You don’t want me to write this bulletin, do Yeah, I mean, you don’t want me to say, well, we had to just miss our choir because nobody wanted to come Or we’re not gonna have prayer meeting anymore on Wednesday night because well nobody thinks it’s important And we’re gonna do away without Friday night So wouldn’t because you know after all there’s a ballgame on and we just don’t have time and nobody wants to come anymore You Some preachers have had to.

I don’t want to. Tonight I have talked only to God’s people in this church, but there might be somebody watching on the Internet that’s never heard how to have eternal life. So if you’ll give me just about two minutes, I’d like to explain it to you. Let this hand represent you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. Now God says he loves us. He hates our sin. And the Bible says, for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in hell.

But God loves us. He wants us to have eternal life go to heaven when we die, but we have to be without sin. And no one’s perfect, but God. So God says you cannot save yourself. There’s nothing you can do to earn eternal life. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord, God in the flesh. He came into the world because you see, He loves us and He loves His Father, but they hate sin. And we can’t go to heaven and be with Him unless we do something about this.

And there’s nothing we could do. So the Bible says Christ took all the sin, paid for it all to cross and came back from the dead and said if we would believe He did it for us, He would put this payment He made to our account and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did. You see whenever you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior you and I are joined together with the Lord There is no sin to separate us nothing can separate you from the love of Christ That’s why once you trust Christ is Savior.

You are his child forever and nothing can ever separate you from them. I Have eternal life. I’m God’s child. I I want God’s people to have all the blessings that God wants them to have. Let’s pray, shall we? Every headbound, every I close, no one looking around. If you’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, I hope that you understand that is a gift that is totally free. And if you trust Him, He will save you from hell and give you eternal life as a gift.

If you’ve never done so, would you do it right now? And if you will trust Christ as your Savior, I’m going to ask you to let me know by raising your hand. It doesn’t save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you. And I’d like to have prayer for you. So whether in the auditorium or what’s known on the internet, well, you right now trust Christ as your Savior, and you that are in the auditorium, would you let me know by just raising your hand, slip it up, put it right back down.

If you’ve never done it before and you’ll do it right now, then what at all? Our Father, we thank You so much for Your word You’ve given us, and I thank You, Lord, for all the preachers across this country that are seeking to be faithful. No doubt there are many that are very discouraged and just down in despair. And Father loved their people, and yet their people may not be responsive. We just pray that You give them all the strength and the grace that they need, And we pray, Lord, that You would watch over our church.

Protect us, help us to do right. We thank You such unified body of believers that love You and want to get so much done. We thank You for it in Christ’s name. 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 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 broadcast 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 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.