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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 home page.

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. Well, this might describe a few of you. You know, some people just plain natural whiners. The monks at a particular monastery took a seven-year-old vow of silence. After which they were allowed only two words. Seven years passed and the newest monk had his opportunity to say his two words.

He was asked by the abbot, well, what are your two words? He replied, foods bad. The next seven years went by and he was asked, what are your two words now? He replied, beds hard. His third seven year period passed and he was asked, what are your two words now? Finally after 21 years he said, I quit. This superior replied, well, I’m not surprised. All you’ve done since you’ve been here is complain. Two words every seven years are done as complain.

I love a little humor. I really do. This is a good statement. My greatest fear is not that I’ll be a failure, but that I’ll be a success at something that really doesn’t matter. Let me read that to you again. You think it’s just been a success in this world where it’s all that, but if it’s not what God wants you to do, it was a waste of time. It doesn’t matter what you become. If God wanted you to be a missionary to the Aborigines and you became president of the States, you miss the will of God for your life.

My greatest fear is not that I’ll be a failure, but that I’ll be a success. It’s something that really doesn’t matter. What? That is a jewel. You know, I do a lot of teaching on the two natures. It finds its way into a lot of my sermons, as you’ll notice, because it’s the key. The gospel is the key of understanding salvation, but the two natures is the key of understanding the Christian life. And so it’s so important. I’ve had this for years in my Bible.

And every once in a while I give that on. I’ll put it right back in. It’s been here for years. Two natures beat within my breast. One is cursed, one is blessed. One I love, one I hate. The one I feed will dominate. Are they good? Let me read it to you again because I know you liked it. Two natures beat within my breast. One is cursed, one is blessed. One I love, one I hate. The one I feed will dominate.

Because the Bible says, make not provision for the flesh. It means don’t make opportunities to get in trouble. Don’t make opportunities to be found running from God. To be going astray from the Lord. We know that there’s some wonderful things that God’s done for us and wants to do through us. I want to share just a few things tonight with you that deal with the idea of the sovereignty of God. Most people you ask them, says, is God sovereign?

That means that God have the right to do whatever God wants to do. Well, God is God. He is all powerful. Nobody over him. He is supreme. He can do anything he wanted. He decided one day to make a world. Just what he did. He did. He spoke it into existence. Just think. Look at the power that’s in all these planets and the solar system and all that. And he just said to word and it happened. Now that’s a lot of power.

I wouldn’t want to make him mad at me. And yet when you look at man and he’s so small, so insignificant, why would God even think? think about us, and yet every one of us are so important in God’s eyes. So I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of 1st Chronicles, 1st Chronicles, and there’s just a few things I wanted to share with you. 1st Chronicles chapter 28, as you know King David was a mighty man.

Kind of got his story started when I guess Samuel came and an ordered him to be the next king over Israel. Saul wasn’t doing too good, and God was going to replace him with somebody else. And so David was a man after God’s own heart. He’s called the sweet psalmist of Israel. And I want to know how many sheep he used to serenade. He said not the only hillside, singing, playing his heart. That’s why I had to get a harmonica, you know, hard, hard, monical, you know.

But anyway, you begin to do the things that God wants you to do and sing and enjoy nature and the things that God has made. And yet there’s so much that God says, I want you to do something for me. Can you imagine that God allowed little old shepherd boy, like David, to go up there to where they were having this, you know, show off of Goliath up there defying the enemies of God. And just bragging about how he can beat Israel and bring me a man, give me somebody to fight.

Of course, little David says, how long somebody go with him? Said, did you see how big he is? And he said, I can take him. And yet he says, I’ve already done beat up a lion, and I’ve already beat up a bear, so I can take this dude. He didn’t say it like that, but probably close. And God allowed him to win by guiding that little stone until it planted deep inside of his forehead, and the giant came tumbling down.

David got his sword and cut off his head. God, a lot of that to happen. It wasn’t long before David was invited to play nice music for Saul because he had his spells. He had his moments where he was just so dotted, discouraged. And the music would lift him up, and so they found out that David would let him do all of that. David was just doing what God says, says he behaved himself wisely. Then he behaved himself very wisely, just a young boy.

But God used that young boy. And the Lord allowed these things to happen, but he had already been anointed to be the next king. Even though Saul tried to kill him and had hundreds of guys out there looking for him, trying to find him so they could kill him. David didn’t ask for all that trouble. So, David didn’t ask to be born. David didn’t ask to be king. He just was doing his thing. But God has a plan. Maybe somewhere along the line, you have just done what you’ve done.

You didn’t think about it. You just did it. And then all of a sudden, it’s like, God gets a hold of you and there’s a plan. God has something to say, I’m ready for you, boy. I got something I want you to do. So, David got to be used of the Lord, and it wasn’t long before the women got into the act. Oh, the women loved the same. And they would say Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands.

Now, don’t you know that that would cause a little problem with jealousy and envy and and bitterness and hatred and murder. Well it did. They did cause all of that. You know, I never thought about this before but it all started because the women singing the song. Maybe they should have watched the words that they sung. But God allowed that to happen. And now David says that, you see, he wanted to marry this certain girl. When it’s all his daughter.

It wanted to marry her. He says, you go out and kill me 200 felistines. Now he was thinking, David’s going to get killed. I mean, if he goes out there and try to kill 200 felistines, he got to kill him. So David goes out and fights him and kills 200 of them. And he brings the evidence back. We won’t get into that. And David has blood on his hands. David has fought in battles and wars. Therefore he’s, he’s not a man of peace.

He’s a man of war. But God’s the one that set it all up for him and told him what to do. He knew and brought it into his life, and David had to just go with the blue, but God had a promise, and God had a plan. A time came when David became king, he wanted to build a house for the Lord. He lives in a nice house, he wanted God to have a nice house. He wanted to build this beautiful temple, and so verse 1, and David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes and the captains of the companies that ministered to the king by course, and the captains over thousands and captains over the hundreds and stewards all over all the substance and possessions of the king and of his sons, with the officers end with the mighty men and with all the valiant men under

Jerusalem. Then David the king stood up on his feet and said, Here me my brethren, as my people. As for me I have in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God and have made ready for the building. So David had a dream. He wanted to do something. He wanted to accomplish something. In verse 4 he says, How be it? The Lord God of Israel chose me before all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever, for he hath chosen Judah to be the ruler and of the house of Judah, the house of my father, and among the sons of my father, he liked me to make me king over all Israel.

In other words, it please God to choose David, and it please God for him to do what he was going to do. So God is sovereign to choose who he will. You see, when God wants to get something done, Sometimes God plants a dream or an idea into somebody’s mind. It’s not always yours. Sometimes the devil may interject thoughts into your mind. He said, I got an idea and it came straight from the devil. Or you may say something, it didn’t come from God.

See, there’s a devil who wants to use you and you can’t see him. There’s also the Lord that wants to use you and you can’t see him. So God chooses the work of the man. God chooses the man and God chooses the work that He wants the man to do. See there in verse 2, then David the king stood upon his feet and said, here me, my brother and my people, asked for me, I’ve had in my heart to build a house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant.

This is what I want to do. But He was gonna have a man do it. A man was gonna do this. See there in verse 10, take heed now for the Lord hath chosen. She where has that word chosen? You’re not underlying it. Chosen, thee to build on house for the sanctuary, be strong and do it. See that Nike commercial, they didn’t come out with that. That was already in the Bible. Just do it. You notice there in verse five where he also made this choice and of all my sons, for the Lord hath given me many sons.

He hath chosen Solomon, my son, to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said, I’ve got a lot of sons, but God chose this one. So God may be in the thing, but not in our plan. See, God didn’t mind there being a house, but there was so limitation. He was not gonna let David build it. So David spent the last remaining years of his life gathering all the material, everything that he needed, the silver and the gold, all the valuable stuff.

put it all together so that whenever he died, Solomon would have everything he needed in order to build this temple for God. So he decided that that’s what he was going to do. So in verse 5 and 6, let me read that to you. And of all my sons, for the Lord hath given me many sons, he hath chosen Solomon my son to set upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. And he said in me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my court, for I have chosen him to be my son and I will be his father.

So he has determined. You see, there’s a thing that God wants to do in this God’s dream. God has a plan. You often hear somebody say, I’ve got a dream. Well don’t matter if you do or you’re not. God warned about people who have dreams that said, God said, and God didn’t say. Or you have dreams, sometimes they turn into nightmares. But when God places a vision within a person and they see and believe that this is what God wants them to do, then understanding that there is the sovereignty of God and he uses a man.

So God has a pattern that He wanted to have followed. You see, in 1 Chronicles 28, look there in verse 11 and 12. In the verse 11 and 12 where He makes a statement, then David gave to Solomon, his son, the pattern of the porch and of the houses thereof and of the treasuries thereof and of the upper chambers thereof and of the inner parlors thereof and of the place of the mercy seats. In other words, God already had the architectural drawings.

So that Solomon, all he had to do was build it. But God had given this to him, and you’ll notice in verse 12, and the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, and of the trayseries of the house of God, and of the trayseries of the dedicated things. All these things he had. You’d notice there in verse 19, where he says, also all this said, David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me even all the works of this pattern.

So God had given him the design, gave him a pattern of what he was supposed to do, showed him the architectural drawings so that he would know how to build this thing. God did that. See, this wasn’t just David’s idea. God gave it to him, told him what he wanted him to do. See, sometimes we run ahead and get ahead of the Lord because we’re so impatient. We take matters into our own hands. Whenever God had told Abraham, you’re going to have a son from you, from you and your wife.

You’re going to have a son. He said, I’m already old. Well, his wife says, well, maybe he means to you to take Sarah. the bond slave and have a child by her, and that’s how God’s gonna fulfill as well. So we had a child by her, how we’ve been doing since then. And it says, many are the children of the flesh. Few are they of the Spirit. So anyway, jumping ahead of God and trying to fulfill God, his will in the wrong way is not really good.

If God gives you something, let it be done in His timing. You never have to do wrong to do right. And it’s always wrong to do wrong. If it’s right, you can always do right. I believe that’s what God’s word teaches. Looking first chronicles now in chapter 29. Look in verse 1, Furthermore, David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son whom alone God hath chosen is yet young and tender and the work is great. See, I had great desires, even when I was young and what I wanted to do for the Lord.

I was young. I was only 26 when I graduated, but I was 22 and I went Bible college. Sometimes, you know, God has used young people to do great things. Do you know the apostles, when never Jesus had his 12, they were probably all teenagers. Maybe Peter was a little bit older. But he had a youth ministry. That was a youth ministry that he had. He was training young kids on how to shape the world. You’re not going to really shape the world with old folks.

They’re going to shape the earth all right when they dig it up and make a grave for them and put their bodies in there. But God wants to, He says, serve the Lord in the days of thy youth. Why you’re young? Solomon was a young man. Young. And his Bible says, young and tender, and what’s those other words it says after that? The work is what? The work is great. When I was young, I knew that I was about a great work.

I was doing God’s work, and God’s work is great. As you serve the Lord, you and I are supposed to believe we are involved in a great work, in a great ministry. helping to build people’s lives. We use the ministry to build people. We don’t use the ministry or the people to try to build bigger buildings and more of this and more of that. Use what we have to build people to help them to be strong so that they’re the way God wants them to be.

Now I want you to notice this. In verse 3, he also he sacrificed David sacrificed because he says, I can prepare the work and when he said I did it, I did it with all my might. Just look there in verse 2. Now I have prepared with all my might. Why? Because this is the The Lord’s work, it is a great work. And if you believe that what you are about, doing a great work for the Lord, then you should greatly prepare that whatever it takes, you will prepare yourself to do God’s work.

Even though David himself did not get to build the temple, he made it possible for others who came after him to build the temple. And then he says here about his own sacrifice, more over in verse 3, because I have set my affection to the house of my God. I have of my own proper good, of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of my God over and above all that I have prepared for the Holy house.

I have given an awful lot for this project. In other words, when you realize that God has a purpose, that God is sovereign, that God has a plan, and a plan needs a man. So God’s plan was to use a man to accomplish his will and to give him a desire, a burning desire where he wants to do what God wants him to do. Then he said, when I saw this and realized this is a great work, and maybe I won’t be be able to finish it, but I can help get things started.

See, I don’t know how long I’m going to live, but I do believe that we are on the journey of a great thing. I don’t see how God’s going to work out everything yet, but I do get excited about it. But I believe a vision to do what God wants us to do. And even though there will be others that will be younger, that might be able to carry on the very work that we set up. So he says, I’ve sacrificed.

You see, if the leader will do it, then others will do it. See there in verse five, the gold for things of gold and the silver for things of silver and for all manner of the work to be made by the hands of the artificers. He says, and who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord.” So he asked the people, this is what I’ve done. I have made a commitment of my own. I have taken money of my own.

I have given. I’ve sacrificed. I have given it all that I have with all my might because this is a great work. This is for the Lord. Oh, I’d love to have heard his sermon when he was preached into the people. Wouldn’t that have been something, something Awesome. To hear David pouring out his heart to the people about what we can do, what we ought to do. And he knew that he couldn’t do it all by himself. See, there in verse 6, then, then, then.

The chief of the fathers and princes of the tribes of Israel and the captains of thousands and of hundreds with the rulers of the kings were, you ought to underline those two words. Offered what? Willingly. God doesn’t want you to feel like you’re a force to give. this ministry, I support the Lord’s work. And after I support the Lord’s work, I give an awful lot to other things. I will give to people, I will give for other projects, I give to other things outside of this ministry.

But I do believe in giving, I believe in giving. I believe in sacrificing. I will say this because it won’t matter to you anyway. I usually don’t have a day off. My wife can verify this. I go every day. Every day. I don’t have days off for myself. Sometimes I’ll have a few hours here and there. But if I go even play a game of golf, I’ll come back and I’ll work here at the church. Or I’ll get up early and come over here and work at the church and then I’ll go play golf.

And I do that maybe once in the last four months. I’ve been twice. But I enjoy it. I love. But there’s some things that burdens you because you think, I need to get this done. I need to get this done. I got to get this done. And I figured that when me and Betty get to heaven, we can sit around the river of life and dangle our feet in the water and eat the fruit off the tree. And we’ll just have some maybe some good precious memories of all the time we didn’t have together down here.

But you’ve got to find and believe that what I am about is a great work. And I want to be involved. I want to have a part. I want to do something and I want to sacrifice. And because David did it, the other chief of the fathers, the leaders offered willingly and gave in verse 7 and gave for the service of the house of God of five of gold, five thousand talents, ten thousand drums, all this that they gave.

Look at all that sun real, not in verse 9. See when David decided what he would do, then the leaders decided, hey, we can do this too. And then in verse 9, then the people rejoiced for that they offered willingly because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord. Isn’t that how you and I are supposed to give to the Lord’s work willingly? Not begrudgingly. I’ve had people say, you know, I don’t believe in Titan. Most of the time they don’t believe in giving at all.

I believe Titan is just a simple a good way to give, but I don’t think it all be the limit. I believe it’s just a good system. In other words, as you have been prospered, but some people will find a way to get out of anything. If you don’t want to give, don’t keep it. It’s better not to give it and then to give it begrudgingly. God loveth a cheerful giver, somebody who’s first of all given themselves and then if God got He’s got everything I have.

If God got you, what you have is no problem. The problem is that you haven’t given God all of you. That’s why you want to struggle and you’ll fight about supporting God’s work. That’s not wise. It’s not good. What if every Christian did the same thing that everybody else did? Okay, somebody don’t give us, nobody do it. You’re going to just tip the Lord of the quarter when the plate comes by, then everybody just give a quarter. How long do you think we’d stay here?

How long do you think the radio ministry would go? You think we’d have ranch? You think we’d have any ministry, a wana, nothing? No radio ministry? We don’t have anything. Only because there’s some people who give sacrificial because they want to because there’s nobody holding the gun over anybody saying that you have to do that. You don’t have to do anything. But I do believe that if you love the Lord, You love the Lord and you believe that the cause is great.

You will do what you have to do and nobody could stop you. 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. 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 Watch Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll-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