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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 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 teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. I have had times in my life when it seemed like the bottom has fell out. Everything seems to go wrong. And at that moment, can you pray and say this to the Lord? Lord, thank you so much. For all that could have happened, for all that could have gone wrong, didn’t.

It could have been worse. I don’t care what you’re going through. could have been worse, couldn’t it? So we should be thankful to the Lord for the things He didn’t let happen to us because He delivered us from some things that He knew would probably be more than we can bear. And so because of His love for us, He is allowed some things and yet not other things. I’ve often wondered why I’ve never been in a wheelchair, I haven’t been paralyzed.

At this stage of the game I’m thankful that I’ve never had a stroke, I’m thankful I don’t have high blood pressure. I’m thankful to the Lord. But did you know that et al could change tomorrow? It can all change tomorrow. You need to be thankful to the Lord for what you have not suffered. Because sometimes we can become so dejected and so discouraged and so down in despair because of what we don’t have. The thing that didn’t work out the way we wanted to.

But you realize that when we get to heaven we’ll probably see what God delivered us from that could have happened to us, and that we were spared only by the grace of God, not because of intelligence of our own, or because even those smart decisions that we made, but only because God interrupted our lives and blocked this and blocked that and protected us. I’ve tried my best over the years not to worry so much about my reputation. I just want to be concerned about my character and let God take care of my reputation, what people think about me.

I’ve had people that loved me to death and I’ve got people that don’t know why and all I’m alive. Well, I’m one of those. But now what I want you to see is these two things. In learning to pray, it’s not always about keeping yourself right what you need to do, also to pray for other people. You know the Bible talks about interceding for others, praying for one another, encouraging one another, exalting one another. Look at the illustration that he uses here.

And if you look there in verse five, he says, and he’s said unto them, which of you shall have a friend? A friend comes to you and he has needs. and you don’t have anything by which to meet that need, but because he has a need, his need becomes your need. And he says here, and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me and I have nothing to set before him.

I have nothing. I don’t have anything. So I have a friend and I have a need and I want three loaves of bread. Now he says here that It was midnight. Going to him at midnight. Anybody know what time midnight is? It’s midnight. It’s in the middle of a night. He said, look, back in those days they had their children, sometimes it slept in the same room with them. They had animals that were really close. Everybody’s bedded down for the night and he knocks at the door.

And when he knocks at the door, he’s like, oh, he’s going to be a little bit more than a little bit. He goes to the door and he says, look, it’s midnight. My wife and my kids, we’re in bed. Leave us alone. What do you want? No. But you see, in verse 7, and he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not. In other words, you are a problem. You’re troubling me. You’re bothering me. And he says, the door is now shut.

My children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. I can’t do this. Now go away, go home, see me tomorrow. But he needed some bread that set before his friend. Now there’s a story here to teach a person how to pray. So he says in verse 8, and I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needed.

In other words, if he keeps asking and keeps knocking, the man will open the door. And he doesn’t want his children to be awake. He doesn’t want those animals to be awake. You imagine what it would be like in the middle of the night for all the animals and the kids that saw Holland and Yellin and Screamin. It’s not worth the problem. So because of that, his friend, Lyndon, all that he needs. He gives them the three loaves. He’s happy and he does it.

Notice what he says. He will rise and give him as many as he and you are to underline this word. He needed what he needs. So what is praying? Knock and it shall be opened. Ask and you shall receive. So you see, he sought out his friend in the middle of the night. But do you know when you do most of your really heavy, serious praying, when you can’t sleep at night, when things seem to fall apart in your life?

When you wonder why, and you just don’t have answers, and nobody can, it seems like they can help you. You go to the Lord. So He’s given them a lesson on knock, asking, seeking. You’ve heard those three things before. This is the illustration that goes with it. You see that? I didn’t make it up. It’s right here in the book. So we look what he says. He says in verse 9, and I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you.

Seek ye shall find. Knock, it shall be opened unto you. So in this little lesson, he’s trying to teach his disciples how to pray. But not only how to pray, but why to pray and what to pray for. So you see in verse 10, he makes this statement for every one, you ought to underline those two words, every one that asks us, receive us. And he that seeketh, findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. But you notice in other scriptures it talks about they went time and time and time again.

Opportunity. It means that he was shamelessness. It means at the wrist of Ben made ashamed that he would do this for his friend. He did it anyway. Did you know one of the greatest things about humbling someone is it causing you some time to be ashamed to be in need. It’s humbling experience. Because we always like to have that image that… Everything’s under control. I don’t need anything. I don’t need anybody. And yet there’s times in your life where God’s gonna see to it that you need somebody.

You’re gonna need something bad enough that you’re gonna have to humble yourself and say, I need your help. I need help. Would you help me? Would you pray for me? Now, it’s important and it doesn’t talk much about the friend, but he had a friend. He’s interceding on behalf of a friend. And one of the reason he doesn’t have anything, he couldn’t meet the friend’s need, but he went to somebody on behalf of a friend so that he could.

It’s called interceding, intercessory prayer. For sometimes people say, look, would you pray for me? Yeah. And then you never do. Wouldn’t that be a shame? Pray for people. We put names in the bulletin and they’re there because we want people to pray for them. Prayer works. Don’t try to figure it out, just that it does. God says to do it. You see, that’s the part that comes because you set at the feet of the Lord. This is why I try to tell people and they don’t seem to get it sometimes.

You can be busy, you can work in a wana. You can sing in a choir. You can teach and send it to go to Rancher. You can do all the things that if you don’t come on Sunday night and Wednesday night and study and set, it’ll cost you sooner or later. It won’t cost me nothing. Because I do what I do anyway. But it will cost the person because you can’t stay strong. You have to be ministered unto. You have to be fed so that it causes you to think the way you should think or you just keep giving out.

And unless your intake is greater than your outflow, your outflow will be your downfall. Now follow what he says. In verse 10, everyone, everyone that asks a receiver and he that seeketh findeth him that knocketh shall be open. Does God always give us what’s good? No. Sometimes God holds off because he wants to give you what’s best. Sometimes God says yes and sometimes God says no and sometimes God says wait a And I say, wow, because I have something better than that for you.

And if I give you this, it’s not going to help you because God knows the desires of an individual. Sometimes it’s not good to get some of the things that we ask for. God is wise. He knows what we need. Learn to sit at His feet so that you’ll learn the Word of God so that you can pray, ask according to the will of God. And then you can expect to receive from God because prayer is asking and receiving.

Now notice the last few verses here because it’s still part of the prayer on how to pray. If a son, now you see up there in verse five, it’s talking about you have a friend. Then he uses the illustration about a father and a son, father and a son. If a son shall ask bread of any of you, that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asked a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

What’s the point of that? It sounds like almost that God wants to give to you what you ask for. Did you know that you have not because you asked not? We ought to ask God for things. What do you want? Meet the criteria. In other words, God will not bless disobedience. God will bless obedience. God will bless those who want to honor Him. And if you’ll serve the Lord and be honest and faithful to the Lord, pray according to his wealth, then you can expect to receive like God promised in his word.

What if a son says, I want an egg and so he makes him an egg sandwich. Never have an egg sandwich. I love egg sandwiches. A little lot of man is in it. And he gives it to his son and he opens it up and behold, a scorpion. Wouldn’t that be a nice little trick to play on your boy? No. Well, look what it says. In verse 12, or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

Will he do something to hurt? You see, God is not the ziress of hurting his children. He’s designed life where you need and others have need and they may come to you with a need and can you help them? And if you don’t have it yourself, will you go to bat for them? you try to do what you can? And that’s why the Bible talks about us going to the Father on behalf of other individuals. See not everybody has strong faith.

Not everybody’s at that level of maturity. The closer you get to God because you spent time with the Lord and you said at his feet, you’ve learned some things. God’s taught you some things. Be a blessing. Be a blessing to people. And notice what he says in verse 13, if he then be an evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children. You’re gonna line these three words. How much more? Did you know that there’s something that’s more precious than bread, something more precious than wealth of the world or fame?

And that’s the presence of the Lord. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come upon individuals for a ministry, and then depart. But one of the things that makes the New Testament so different is that when Jesus said in John chapter 7 verse 39, where it makes the statement, If any man thirsted, let him come into me and drink. And as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This bake here the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.

So now when we believe on Christ, He has given to us, given to us already, something that’s greater than bread itself. He’s given us Himself. If you could pray for all the wealth of the world, I guarantee you what you have, living inside of you is of greater value. To know that you have the Holy Spirit of God, the great comforter living within you. You see, Mary was covered about with much service, but she was also worried and troubled, cares on her mind, anxious about things.

Maybe all of her service was a way of covering up how she thought and felt. Maybe she didn’t know how to deal with some of it. I’ve seen that happen in Christian work, where people, they involve, but they don’t have the peace of mind. They don’t have the joy. The love is gone. They’re going through the motions, the actions, that something missing. So you need to always be examining yourself because an unexamined life is not worth living. So you look at your life and talk to the Lord and learn how to cast all your cares upon Him so that you don’t think that all of my service is going to make up for this lack of knowledge when you’re limited in knowledge, you’re limited in ministry.

Learn how to make wiser decisions in a short period of time and you’ll make better decisions and you’ll learn how to rest and trust to learn. But what I like about this, he says, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? See, they had asked back then, because we know of anybody outside of a woman named Mary that did so. But here you’re talking about something that’s the greatest thing that you’ll ever possess.

And that’s the Holy Spirit living within you. and the Holy Spirit living within you will go to bat for you. That’s why when you read in the book of Romans in chapter 8, the Holy Spirit enters seeds for us to the Father. With groans it cannot be uttered. But where sometimes you don’t even know where you stand and how, what you need and what’s coming down the road and you have someone that’s going to bat for you. He intercedes on your behalf.

Where does he live? He lives inside of you. But does God want you to pray? The Bible talks about praying in the spirit. Praying in the spirit is just praying in accordance or in obedience to the Word of God. The Holy Spirit will never lead you contrary to the Word of God. The Holy Spirit will always lead you toward holiness, toward godliness. The Holy Spirit does not lead you to walk in the flesh. To perform the works of the flesh, it’s always about the love and the joy and the peace and so forth.

And it’s about serving God in the way that God wants us to. There’s times when you need to come apart before you come apart. It says they went up into the mountains apart. So there’s times when Jesus knew that they need rest. They need time to think. Jesus would get by himself and go up into the mountain just to pray. Everybody has to have time. Everybody needs to figure out, what do I need to keep me strong? Don’t try to copy somebody else’s.

I remember when time Dr. Hudson was talking about, he was throwing paper. And as he threw paper, somebody had put in there about a sword of the Lord he saw in the paper. He was a postman up there in Atlanta, Georgia. And he had a little church. But he read this thing about the sword of the Lord and decided he’s going to go to the sword of the Lord. He got challenged and motivated. I’m going to serve the Lord and I’m going to build me a church and blah, blah, blah, blah.

And he went after it. But he read somewhere that some people get up in the mornings at six o’clock. He said, well, my job is just as important as theirs. I’m getting up at six o’clock, too. And then he read how the paper boy was getting up about 3.30. He said, well, his job is no more important than my job. If he can get up at 3.30, I’m getting up at 3.30. So he got up at 3.30. But little did he know that that guy was going to bed at 8 o’clock.

It’s not what time you got up. It’s what time did you go to bed. But when you try to base your life off of what somebody else does and doesn’t do, you’re going to be in the heap of trouble. You’ve got to find out what does it take to keep you strong. How much time do you need to spend with the Lord? It’s a personal thing. Nobody can legislate that to you. Nobody can dictate to you which scripture you have to read and how much do you have to read?

How much do you have to pray? Find out what works for you. Find what works for you. Just stay strong. Love the Lord and love His Word and then serve the Lord and do what God wants you to do and always keep talking to Him. So that you don’t get buried down in so much activity that you don’t have time to breathe. Now you’ll hear me talk about I go seven days a week and I do. But I’ve learned how to pace myself.

I learned how to rest. I learned how to trust the Lord. And I don’t worry about it. I just enjoy doing what I do. Now maybe one of these days I’ll change all of that and just lay around on the beach and sip on my lemonade. Not yet, not yet. I’m gonna retire. I really am one of these days, but not yet. I almost got there before I got here, but I enjoy doing what I do. When the joy is gone, then maybe I’ll stop, but there’s joy in serving the Lord.

There’s strength in serving the Lord. There’s peace of mind and happiness. When you know that you’re doing what God wants you to do with your life, you can’t hardly wait for the next day. It’s already Sunday night. I can’t wait for tomorrow morning. I can’t hardly wait. Larma go off, don’t go off at six o’clock. I’m ready to go. And I’ll lay there another half an hour. And then it’s one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.

And then the other I lit, and then one, two, one, two, one. So anyway, you’ve got to learn how to pace yourself. Learn what you need to do. and then do that, but then don’t feel guilty about it. Don’t condemn yourself and that which you gave yourself permission to do. Anything other than that, the Bible says it’s not a faith but of sin. Look up here. This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us.

God loves us. Have you ever wondered how many times I’ve done this? told this story. This will probably be the last time I ever tell the story. I don’t think so. But isn’t it a wonderful story? Let’s think about this story. A story of you and me. Committing sin. Now that’s not good part of the story. That’s the bad part. But we understand God loves us. He doesn’t like what we do wrong, but He loves us. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in hell.

And since everybody’s a sinner, everybody’s condemned. In heaven, a perfect place, it’s a perfect God. And because it’s forever and it’s wonderful and it’s paradise, I’m not a good person. I want to go there. I want to go there. But I can’t get in because of sin. God says I’m condemned. I cannot save myself. Not by my works. I’ll never be good enough. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because he loves us.

He hates what we do wrong, but he loves us. But you see, our sins separate us. what Christ did for one person. He did for everybody. He took all the sin, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead. Said that if we would believe that he did it for us, he would put this paymentar account in where you get to go to heaven or what Jesus Christ did for us. It’s the gift of God. It’s not a works list.

Any man should boast. That’s the best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? We had bow nice clothes and no one looking around. You’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior. Maybe you’ve heard about you’ve got it all your life, but you just never trust the Lord. Wouldn’t it be a shame to come here for years and years and years, and yet you really never trust the Lord? That would be a shame of all shames.

But if you haven’t, or if you’re watching by the internet tonight, right where you are, all you have to do, it’s the only thing you can do, is where you believe that when Christ died, He died to pay for your sins, so that you wouldn’t have to pay for them. God said, if you’ll believe He did it for you, put that payment to your account and you don’t have to pay for one of your sins. I know that sounds a little hard to believe, but that’s just because He loves you so much.

He did that for you. It’s not hard, is it? Would you believe it? If you will believe it, I’d like to know and I’d like to have prayer for you. If you’ve never done it before, so that made sense to me. And I want to make sure I’m going to heaven when I die. And so tonight I will trust Christ This is my Savior. I’m going to pray to our life for you to pray for me. We’ll just slip you hand it very quickly and put it right back down.

Zayim, wan’tah. Zayim, wan’tah. You that already know Christ is your Savior, how you doing? Are you a Martha or are you married? But remember, you can’t set at his feet all the time either. Some people just want to sit and study and never get involved. Never work, never become active, never serve. You see, you’ve got to have both. When Christ says she’s chosen the best part, it wasn’t the only part. Our Father, we thank You so much for this time together.

Bless each one. Each person has special needs. And Father, help us to be encouraged to bring our cares and petitions before You, not only for ourselves, but also for others. 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 are 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 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.