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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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Oh, God, I can’t wait to see what I’m going to do. say tonight. You and I know that we stress very, very strongly around here, that salvation is by grace and that it is not of works. You hear that all the time. Well, we believe that. And so we just keep saying the same thing because it hasn’t changed. No word to God hasn’t changed, so we just believe that. But we do need to understand that when it comes to discipleship, discipleship is a totally different thing.

A discipleship can cost you everything. Salvation cost you nothing. Discipleship can cost you. Discipleship, though we very seldom ever use the word a discipleship program, when we’re not so winning, we’re discipling. We’re teaching and training people how to so win. How to serve the Lord, how to walk with the Lord. Many of the things that I try to teach on are things that helps you to stay strong in your Christian life because the devil may not get you with soul winning.

You may be a good soul winner, but the devil can trap you in other areas of your life. You won’t be doing it long. So you got to stay strong. And so I’m always trying to figure out things that help you to stay strong by what do I do? What do I know? Things that help me, I believe, will help you. So I just try to pass it on. We’re just cheap radio sets just transmitting the signal. And I can’t take any honor and glory for anything because it’s just what we got from the Lord.

And He says, what have you given that you did not receive? We received everything. It comes from the Lord. So here in the book of Luke, I want you to take a Bible look in the book of Luke. And I want to just cover a few scriptures with you to help you to know that when it comes deserving the Lord, always remember in the back of mind that there’s a price to pay. It’s going to cost you something. That’s not easy.

It’s not cheap. And so there’s some scriptures that Christ refers to. Now you can be a disciple of Christ, a learner, a follower, and never trust Christ as your Savior. And you can trust Christ as your Savior and never be a disciple because you may know the Lord you go into heaven when you die, but you never choose to follow the Lord. And so Christ says, follow me, follow me. And so here in the book of Luke, look down there in chapter 14 and in verse 25, verse 25.

This has to deal with your love and then in verse 27 would deal with your labor. your love and your labor. You see there in verse 25 he says, and there were great multitudes with him and he turned and said unto them, if any man come to me hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sister J in his own life also he cannot be my disciple. He didn’t say you can’t go to heaven you You don’t have to be as disciple to go to heaven.

Disciples is somebody who has disciplined his life. You get the same word. So God wants to discipline you. And to be disciplined, God is very consistent. Because in order to discipline, you must be disciplined. This is why a lot of times parents cannot discipline their children because they don’t have the discipline. If you are disciplined, you can discipline children. But if you are not, you cannot. It will not work. So God will discipline you. Means he’s going to disciple you.

He’s going to teach you, train you. And so he says, if you follow me, I will teach you to do this or this or this. So God wants to use you. But when he makes a statement, if any man come to me and hate not his father or mother and wife and so forth. And in a sense, what he’s simply saying is, he’s going to be a little bit more than a man. If you love them more than you love God, then you will do what you do because of them.

But if you love the Lord more than anything else, then you can serve Him and do whatever He says do, because He means more to you than what somebody else means. If you’re always concerned about what somebody else says or thinks or does, it can cause you not to do so the things that you should do or to stand the way that you should stand. So your love for the Lord must be greater than the love for anything else.

That’s why love the Lord with all your heart. And then others were supposed to love. And then I went to look in verse 27, now it deals with the word labor because your love determines how far you’re willing to go. And the more you love, the more you can produce for the Lord, the more you’re willing to attempt for God and attempt great things for God and expect great things from God. Missionaries said that one time. That’s all that slogan.

About forty-six years ago in a room at Boca Raton, Florida. But anyway, it was a man all over them, the fireplace. And when he says in verse 27, “…and whosoever doth not bear his cross,” should say, fulfill his responsibility that God’s given to you. Or as some people say, mean to die daily. To carry your cross, what are you willing to sacrifice for the Lord? And so whatever word you want to put onto it, it simply means you’re giving up your life for his life.

You’re willing to do whatever he wants, go wherever he wants, be whatever he wants. Now this is going to cost you. See, going to heaven, it cost him. Serving the Lord, it cost you. But God says, I’ll reward you and I’ll bless you. And I’m going to take care of things when you get to heaven. But until then, you may have a life of great sacrifice. Remember, the Lord even made the statement when he told that a nice to go and see the Apostle Paul.

He says, for I must show him what great things he must not not enjoy, suffer for my namesake. God said, I’m going to use this guy, and I want him to see what great things he must suffer, suffer for my sake. So serving the Lord is not always that peachy, rosy, wonderful life that everything’s going to go great. It could be sometimes that seems like the ugliest things that you’ve got to go through. and what you’ve got the weather because of people.

But if you love people, more than you love the Lord, then you’ll wind up not doing what God wants you to do because well that I might offend this one. That offends this one, that offends this one. And you’re concerned about them more than God. The one that I don’t want to offend is the Lord. So make sure that He is your priority. He should have preeminence in your life. And if you look down there in verse 27 where he says, he cannot be my disciple.

Because there are gonna be limitations as far, you’re not willing to go all the way with the Lord. Whatever God wants you to do, something will stop you. You’ll use people or things, problems, as justification why you can’t stay faithful or keep going. And you’ll let little things get under your skin and so era takes you that you fail to be faithful and to grow strong in the Lord. So he says here in verse 28, for which of you intending to build a tower set if not down first, and here’s those three words, counting the cost.

See, we’re not talking about salvation here. This is something that’s gonna cost you something. So when you say, I wanna serve the Lord, are you willing to pay the price to serve the Lord? Are you willing to pay the price to be used? majority of Christians are not. And so we don’t know how much. We have to pay where we’re going to lead us, and all we know is that some people, they start like a flash of brilliancy, like the space shuttle taken off, and then they land just boom, and they don’t last long.

When you observe the Lord because of the right motive, it gives you enough fuel in the engine to get you where you’re going, and it lasts a while. If it’s just for show, it don’t last long. There’s not enough power there. You can be a flash for a little while, but you take somebody like Dr. Hank Lindstrom. He was here for 42 years. That’s for the long haul. That’s running the marathon. That’s not being brilliant for a year and then fizzling out.

That’s because you have some fuel in the tank that can keep you going. There’s gotta be a stronger, more powerful motive in your life that keeps you driving. And there’s a price to pay. And who knows? I mean, he could have kept going and it maybe things break his health. I mean, it can break yours. And you don’t take time to watch yourself and so far because you can get so caught up in what you’re doing. That just means so much to you.

You just, you don’t care. You just gonna keep going for it. And I used to wonder why in the world I was able to stay awake all those hours driving a bus with a load of kids. I can get 15 minutes outside the city limits and I’m ready to pull over and take a nap now. But years ago to be able to drive all those hours and never fall asleep, I cannot believe that I could do it. But I did it over and over and over again.

But the Lord can give you strength and guide you and so forth and protect you even in some of our foolish moments. Look what he says in verse 30. This man began to build, but he wasn’t able to finish. You’re able to start the race, to run your course, but can you finish? Or is something gonna stop you, something gonna get in your way and keep you from doing what God wants you to do? Well, that’s between you and the Lord.

See, when we talk about counting the cost, it means how much faith do you have? I told kids that years ago, they wanted to go to Bible college. I said, you go on your faith, not mine. You’ve got to go on your own faith. How much faith do you have? And they would be driving all the way down to Florida Bible College, you know, that making that long trip. And I said, how long are you going to stay? Are you going to finish?

Finish what you start. You start, you finish. Don’t have enough faith to start. You finish, finish what you’re doing. And he makes a statement down here in verse 33, so likewise, Whosoever he be of you that forsakeeth not all that he had, he cannot be my disciple. So that means as a disciple, you’re talking about what you love and what you’re willing to do. It’s your love in verse 25 and 26, and it’s your labor thereafter. And that’s why in the book of, it does a long time, you’re labor of what?

Your labor of love. Because if you really do love the Lord, there’s something inside of you to make sure in a labor for him. And so what you do is because you have a motive and that motive must be pure between you and God. And I’ve had people that question my motives. I’ve had people say, well, I know he’s real motive. And I thought, if you only knew my real motive, you wouldn’t think of me some of the things that you do.

You wouldn’t be so mean and ugly and unkind to me. I know why I do what I do. And sometimes I’ve had people think, well, he’s just doing it for the glory. I know why I do it. My father knows why I do it, and you just think whatever you want to think, because I can’t convince everybody of everything. But God knows my heart, and he knows why I do what I do. And I want you to be convinced that between you and the Lord, you know why you do what you do.

And everybody doesn’t have to always agree with you, and they’re not going to, and they’re not going to see it your way and they’re going to question you that you just make up your mind for sakin’ all that you have. He says you cannot follow him. You won’t be able to follow him totally, truly, in every area of your life because there’d be some areas of your life you were not willing to let God have victory in those areas.

Those are some areas that you reserved for yourself. But with the Lord to truly be used in the greatest way there There can be no reservations. God must be free to do to you and with you anything He wants without lip. And most people are not willing to do that. And most adults are there. That’s why you got to reach down sometime and get a hold of a bunch of young people that are still able to be challenged and molded to what God wants them to be.

And God can work in their life. Take your Bible, look in the book of Luke chapter 9. Just turn to your left there. Luke in chapter 9. Luke chapter 9 in verse 57, I want you to look at this verse, it’s very good. Because when you’re talking about discipleship, verse 57 he says, as they went in their way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee wherever thou goest. Now that sounds like total commitment. Don’t that sound like total commitment?

Sounds like it. God. Jesus said unto Him in verse 58, Foxes have holes, birds of the year have nest, but the Son of Man does not have a Ramada in or a Holiday in to Leshead. You want to follow me? I think some people think that God’s going to give them guarantees of a life of ease, and it’s not going to work that way. You see, I have to be willing to serve the Lord without any guarantee in this life of all that comfort that I want, that ease that I want, that recognition that you may desire, the wealth that you may desire, the health you may desire.

See, God then is free to do with you whatever He wants and break you wherever He needs to break you. And God knows the pride that we have and how that He may They have to humble you, bring you to your knees. Do you still want to serve Him? I’ll follow you wherever you go. Somehow, other than the Lord knew, I don’t think He’s serious yet. I need to make sure He understands, hey look, I don’t guarantee you a place to sleep because I’m the Son of Man.

And I don’t even have a place to lay my own head. I bet he slept out in the open half the time under some trees, out on the hillside, going from place to place. We don’t know what all he went through, but I believe his disciples had some hard lessons to learn. I bet at times they thought, what in the world are we doing out here with this man? We had a regular job, we all met ready-catching fish, we had a business of our own.

And then this stranger comes along and says, follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men. And we left our nets immediately and started following them up. We ain’t caught nobody yet. I mean, they had their dreams, and they thought he was going to set up his kingdom right then. And they’re going to get the ruling right because he, they even came to him and says, hey, we want to know if we can sit on one side of you, and the other one sit on the other side in the kingdom.

He says, are you willing to be baptized with the baptism that I will be baptized with? Sure! They did, that’s what they said. He says, you will. You will. He says, but to give that position is not mine to give, but my father’s. So yeah, there’s some things that you and I are gonna have to realize that in this life, there’s some things that God’s gonna have to do to you. And it’s not maybe always going to be perdium.

You have no idea what God may do. I’ve read a lot of things about missionaries and how that’s a missionary will go to the foreign field and while he’s there, his wife dies of some disease, malaria, then his kids die. And then next thing you know, he comes back to the states and gets married again and goes back to the field and then she dies. I read in one place what that happened about 10 times And finally, a man was able to start building the work.

After all those seeds were planted in the ground, of individuals who gave their life, and then, lo and behold, one plant began to grow. I read about Hudson Taylor and William Carreyen, David Livingston, and some of these guys, and I would used to sit and dream of, dream of, man, I wish I could do something like that. God has allowed me to live long enough to see some things just like that. But look what he says here in verse 59.

And he said and another. Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Now, it was normal for the man that he’s the first one. He has to take over for the dad. Well, my dad ain’t dead yet, so I’ve got to wait till my dad died. I’m willing to go, but I’ve got priorities. I’ve got other things. I’ve got to wait until my dad dies and then I’ll be free to do this.

You’re always going to have an excuse. There’s always something that comes up. Why you can’t do what you really want to do. Now, there it takes a little bit of wisdom, but you have to go according to your faith. That’s why you’re going to have a little bit of faith. you see over and over again in the Scriptures, be it unto you according to your faith, what you really believe. Because see nobody else can live according to your faith.

You have to find out where do I stand, what do I really believe, what do I trust God for, what do I believe God wants to do with my life. And so he made the statement here in verse 6 to 1. And another said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go and bid them farewell what you’re at my father’s house or at my home. In other words, I don’t have a dad to be. I just want to go out and say bye.

He says, forget it. Forget it. And verse 62, and he says, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. You know what God wants? He’s looking for some people that won’t keep looking back. Thank you, Noah. I shouldn’t have done this. God wants you to think things through, count the cost. So that whenever I make up my mind, this is what I want to do. I don’t look back like the children of Israel did when they cried about everything and moaned about everything.

And then finally when God brings them out by mighty hand and to the Red Sea. And they say, all of a sudden those onions and garlic and leeks begin to look good back down there in each other. He doesn’t want you looking back. He wants you looking ahead at what God has for you. And some people can’t forget the past and it becomes a drag upon them like chains and they can’t go forward because they’re still in love with something.

They got too much baggage. They can’t let go of things. If you want to serve a Lord, let go of the things of this world and then you become I’m a free man. And then you can go and you can do what God wants you to do. But as long as the things of this world mean so much more to you, you can’t go. I like my home up in Georgia, but I don’t love it. And when I believe God wanted me to come down here, I could come down here without a home and live in my motor home if necessary or rent a home and then drive all those miles.

They don’t care. See, that’s nothing. I believe God has something for me, then that means more to me than anything else in the world. If I lose that, lose that, lose that, who cares? Everything’s temporary in this world anyway. If I die right now, I’m going to lose it all anyhow. My son just called because my little grandson, Jordan, he’s ten years old. So he called up and says, well, we’ve gone to the lake in your motorhome. He said he talked to them, said they were having a good time.

And I mean it, wonderful that my son and my grandson, my granddaughters, having a good time in my motorhome, it really is. But when you commit yourself, I’ve had people ask me, she’s thinking, do you have a regret leaving Colorado? No, after I left, I never looked back. Or what, when you left Georgia, no? No regrets. I don’t look back. I’m just thankful for whatever God says. I’m looking forward. Because whenever you keep looking back, it kind of gets a hold of you.

It can even become little pugs on your heart and pulling your back. And next thing you know, you can’t go forward like you want to. See, I’m still young enough to dream. I still got things I want to accomplish with my life yet. If God should let me live long enough, or give me good enough help for whatever. I don’t know where it’s all gonna end. I don’t care. I have enjoyed my walk with the Lord. But there’s a price to pay, but it doesn’t cost so much, and it doesn’t hurt so much if you can love the Lord more than anything else.

But if you can’t, it’s gonna be hard for you to rip away from things. And when it rips away from you, that’s when it tears you apart. And so you’ve gotta learn to just love the Lord and don’t love the world. And love Him more than you do, your husband, your wife, your kids or anything else. It doesn’t mean you don’t love them, but there’s gotta be a stronger love. I believe that me, loving God, more. He helps me to love my wife better and my kids better and my grandkids better.

I think they have a better, she has a better husband. I think my kids have a better daddy. I believe my grandkids, they have a better granddad because they’ve got one that loves the Lord. And I believe it’ll work that way. I believe that’s God’s way. And it’s so important. But he says here, no men having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit to be a servant. for the kingdom of God. So you got to decide for yourself.

Will you follow Him? Do you really want to be a disciple? Discipleship will cost you. Salvation is free. Take your Bible looking in the book of Colossians in chapter 2. The book of Colossians in chapter 2. And look there in verse six, Colossians chapter two and verse six. And notice what he says here, in verse six, as you have, therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. So how did you receive Christ by faith? Well how you suppose to walk?

Well by faith. You see when you heard the verses on salvation, you believed them and you received eternal life and you became God’s child. Why do you think a person should go to Bible school or Bible college? Was there an advantage of Dr. Hank Lindstrom going to Bible college? Was there an advantage for me to go to Bible college? Freddy Coyle to go to Bible college? What was the advantage? Well because it increases your faith. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

So when you spend three to four or five hours a day studying the Word, five days a week for about four years, look how much knowledge you’ve gained and your faith is greatly increased in every area. Otherwise, you can be strong on the gospel and you can do the little wallet illustration, but you’re not strong in all the other areas and the devil will trap you somewhere along the line because you don’t know, you are not aware. And so a lack of knowledge of the Word of God will cause you not to have the faith that you need in every area of your life.

So that’s why it’s so important to study the Word of God and all the stories in the Bible and going through the Old Testament and the New Testament and putting it all together, you have a better picture. And that picture helps you to see life better and understand. You’ve got all all these stories and illustrations of people who are, or who have face things, just like you have to face. And you know what God did for them. I know what God did for them.

I know what God did for them. Well, when I get down in my heavy heart, I can read the Psalms and all of a sudden, I can begin to understand that God knows exactly how I feel because somebody else has already wrote how I think and how I feel what I’m going through. And when I want some wisdom, I can study the book of Proverbs. And when I want to do something, I can read the book of Acts. When I want to know the future, I can study the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation, and you can picture it, and it does something for you.

Your faith is increased. See it’s not that you don’t have enough money to finish the race. It’s that you don’t have enough faith to finish the race. So in all of by getting get wisdom, in all by getting get faith. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God, and so as you study the Word of God, faith is greatly increased. And so the more you know, the more you can do. And when you’re limited in knowledge, you’re limited in ministry.

So that’s why it’s so important to study the Word of God so that you can do what God wants you to do. Because he says, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in it. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arne, 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 toll one, eight hundred, five, seven, six, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, seven, seven, one.

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It’s a great work, I’m not worried about you. It’s a great work, but it’s going to be a great work. It’s absolutely a thing. It’ll be a great work, isn’t it? Yeah, it’s a great work. It’s a great work. It’s a great job. It’s been a long process just for her. It’s a good work that’s been a little complicated. 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 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, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.