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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. Go back there to the book of Colossians chapter 4. So heCruz says, as I ought to speak, verse 5, walk in wisdom toward them that areUSER without redeeming the time. So219 whether it’s believers or unbelievers, you’re supposed to walk in wisdom.agascar Walk in wisdom concerning those that are without is giving FANTASTIC what they needulnerghed And that’s having the boldness to preach the gospel because that’s what Paul is talking about.

Will you do it? And then how you do it? So you might just haul somebody, you can walk up somebody, hey, where are you going when you die? I’m going to hell. Good. Well, I witness to him. Well, not exactly. That’s how I used to witness. Where are you going to die? I’m going to hell. See you there. And I’m, yeah, I didn’t even think what I’m saying. I’ll pray for you. Well, if you go into hell. And I thought, you know, I could go in here and explain to gospel, but I didn’t know how to do it right.

And that’s why you have to learn. Look what he says here in verse six. Excuse me, I want you to look at the other scripture with me. Hold your place here and go all the way over there to the book of Ecclesiastes in chapter 12. Ecclesiastes in chapter 12. This is the last chapter. So I’m talking about trying to use one hand. I can’t, I don’t want to let my pages go. So then I won’t be able to find them back.

But in the book of E.C. the Aschis chapter 12, look there in the last chapter on the right hand page, and look in verse nine. Look in verse nine. This is a good little portion of scripture because it deals with even preachers when they get old, that you still have a purpose and you still have a reason. And it’s important to know what to say, and you always working on how to say it. You see, they’re verse 9, and moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge.

Yet he gave good heed, sought out, said in order, many proverbs. Now, of course, we know he’s talking here about O Solomon himself. Yes, he did get old and yes, he had made a fool of himself. But you know, you can learn a lot of things. And so even when you get old, remember, still reading, keep studying, keep searching, put things in order, helping people to understand. See, that’s one of the things that we do as teachers or workers in various ministries.

And look in verse 10. He says, the preacher sought to find out acceptable words. Not just saying things, but trying to figure out what am I saying? What words am I using? Well, they understand what I’m saying. Remember that time I told you about when I was with Dr. Stanford over there in Egypt and he was up there in Alexandria? And one night I look over there and Ray has got a light on under the covers. We’re in the same room.

What are you doing? And he pulled the cover down and picked up at me. He’s 85. He had a flashlight and he was studying the Bible and writing some notes, but he didn’t want to wake me up. And he was trying to find the acceptable words that he could use it the next day when he has to speak. And I thought. That’s wonderful. That is wonderful. Good night. I’m going to bed. But that was Ray. Ray was always doing that, but he was trying to find just the right thing.

Now look what he says here in verse 10. And that which was written was upright, even words of truth. So it’s what you’re saying, but you’re looking for the right words. We’re always struggling for that because words is how we communicate things. And then he says in verse 11, words are like nails. build a house and you got nails. I went down my ass this guy. He was sitting there and I told him to get me some nails and he went over there and he was separating all the nails and he was putting some on this side and some on this side and some on this side and someone said, what are you doing?

He says, well, these here got the head on this side so that must be for this side of the house and they head on the other side they have to be for this side of the house. So what? No. That’s as much sense as some people got. You and I are to redeem the time, trying to take advantage of everything that we can to try to help people to see and to understand. And so he says here in verse 12, and further by these my son be admonished by making many books there is no end and many books there is no end.

He said, and much study is a weariness of the flesh, amen, and amen. The studying of the flesh cannot stimulate the spirit. And so he then he gives us the conclusion of the whole matter. When he says down in verse 13, fear God and keep his word. This is the whole duty of man. And so as you get older, we keep learning, trying to find just the right words and just the right way to say things. Well, that’s the way I am.

It may not be the way you ought to be. The reason for reading and studying the Word of God is because God wants to change us. If the Word of God does not change you, God cannot use you to change anybody else. And that’s why a lot of people have no power of influence in other people’s lives because God’s Word has no power in their life. Remember that. It’s not just a joke. It’s the truth. Back in Colossians, I want you to notice there in verse 6 where he says, let your speech be always with grace.

Always with grace. Gracious man is not a weak man. And so you want to realize always seasoned with grace. That’s what we was talking about. There’s a reason for trusting the Lord, And this is why it’s so important. Is there any reason for not trusting Christ when you’re talking to somebody, you can put them down and say, you know, and I had to say something strong to a person today at our Bible study. I’ve already been as nice as I could possibly be.

And he didn’t want to listen. And he won’t trust the Lord. But he wants to take up most of my time by asking questions and they’re not listening. And so I have to stop it sometime. I said, sir, do me a favor. Don’t die. Just don’t die. Because if you die the way you are right now, if you die, you’re going to hell. Now, I wanted to hit him hard. But most of the time when somebody really doesn’t understand, or if I get to gospel to him, and they don’t trust a lot of it.

Is there any reason why you would not trust Christ as you’re Savior right now? What’s your reason? I want to try to get a person to do it and I’m always trying to search for a way to say something that’ll help him to think. And so he says in verse 6, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. Every man’s different. So you listen and you study and sometimes You know, you may not always answer everybody the same way because people are on a different level of understanding and some people got a lot of knowledge and some people don’t have much at all That’s why something people you’ll be more patient with than what others is and you’re reading and you’re doing all this at the same time You’re talking to them.

So it’s so very important. I Won’t you see this very quickly in verse seven all my state? He says, declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. This is a person who is a comforter. He is a beloved brother, a fellow servant in the Lord. As you go through and you serve the Lord, you’ll find out that God’s going to bring certain people into your life. Some of those people are going to be people that you led to the Lord.

Some are going to be rich and some are going to be poor. I haven’t got to the rich ones yet. But you know, you always got people of all walks of life. I have found that over the years that many of those people that I led to the Lord, The Lord always says,NetMessageThe money is in the fishes mouth. If you need money, go fishing. Go fishing. Go sow winning. Put God first, and it’s miraculous how God seems to come along and take care of everything else.

If you put that first. So I always believe that if I just become a sow winner, a lot of things I may not be, If I can do that, I think God will take care of everything else. But if I seek everything else, then I’m going to rob myself. And I don’t want to be robbed. I don’t want to be stripped. I want to see what God can do. So as you go through life, you’re going to find out.

You’re going to have some faithful. Look what it says. A faithful minister, fellow servant in the Lord. God will send some people alongside of you to be a comfort to you. It amazes me how that sometime when I need something, Somebody come along just at the right time, just in the nick of time. And I didn’t plan it. God does that. And you’d be surprised in your darkest moment. Sometimes the right person seemed like they’d come along and they just got that right word of encouragement.

You know the other day I was sitting near in my study. And I’m thinking about a lot of things because I think, okay, I just finished camp. And I don’t feel good right now. I really didn’t. I felt terrible. And you ever get just down just a tad, you know, and you begin to wonder, no, what am I doing? What am I doing? It just seems like I got, okay, now I gotta try to do this thing with the Bible college and so many decisions to make.

You know, it’d be easy to make some decisions, see, some decisions are so easy. For example, I think one of the easiest places to serve would be like on a parole board for Charles Manson. He comes up before you. We show, if I was to give you a parole, who would you do? And Charles Manson says, I would kill you and you and you and your families and everybody that I possibly can. But he makes my decision so easy.

Lock him up. Isn’t that easy? But are all your decisions that easy? Sometimes you just can’t seem to make an easy decision because some things get complicated and you can’t always understand what God’s got in mind. And so as you read and study the Word of God, you find out that God will teach you a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Somebody come along and they’ll have just the right thing for this and the right thing for that.

And……………… He guides you in the midst of all of the stuff. Sometimes it seems like it’s so dark and you’re going through a maze. God said, He’d never leave us alone. He’d never forsake us. And it’d always be there for us. So anyway, in verse eight, the last three words, comfort your heart. In other words, He was a comforter, an encourager. You see, sometimes you’re not always everything, but you can encourage people. You see, in all these things He had just told them to do, think about heaven, but you’ve got to live on earth.

And then you got to live with that husband, you got to live with that wife, You gotta live with those kids, you gotta live with that boss. Problems go lower and there’s no end to it. It says, pray a lot. But it’s a pray for me. And trust the Lord might come along and send you some good people to be in encouragement to you. You know, even as you look at each other time to time, everybody needs to be encouraged.

And I’m sitting there in my office going to my, You know, a little downtime, not really bad, but just I thought, man, I could sure use an encouragement. And all of a sudden the email came on and it was by a guy that was the owner of this broadcasting, Crawford Broadcasting Network. And I looked at it and I thought, well, I wonder what he wants. So I clicked it on. Came on there and says, Pastor Arnold, I’ve been thinking about you.

I’ve never met the guy. I don’t know who he is. And I went on that later and I checked the thing and he has, I don’t know, 30, 40 radio stations across the nation. And I read his letter and he says, I heard that you have been asked to help restart for the Bible College. He says, whenever you take on a project like that, there’s going to be a lot of questions. A lot of people bobbing for it. position of authority and all kinds of stuff.

He just, like he was reading my mind. And he just went on and on. He said, I’m praying for you. And he tried to encourage you and blah blah blah. He gave me some good advice. And I, look, he’s the owner of the station also that’s in Colorado. But he’s in a place in Pennsylvania or Indiana or someplace like that. And that’s just one station. and he has, I don’t know, 20-something, 30 stations. And I thought, how did he even know?

You know, because he did not own my mailing. But that came at just the right time that I needed a word of encouragement. God has people, he may use you. And the people may not tell you that at the time, but always try to encourage people. People are having a hard time. People have a rough time. I want you to see this real quick. In verse nine, Onesimus, remember that’s the runaway slave. That’s the book guy in verse 10 of chapter of Philemon.

That’s the guy that ran off stole money. He was a slave. Paul led him to the Lord and sent him back. And now he says here, A faithful and beloved brother who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here. I didn’t come into see ya. Treat him right. This is that runaway slave. You see, you never know that people are going to make contact with you and the power of your life that can change somebody’s life.

Do you want God to use you to change people’s lives? That’s what this whole book is about. I urge you to spend that hundred dollars and buy that book. A little commercial in on the sideline. The other one down here, looking verse 10, are his talkus. He said, my fellow prisoner, salutivu, and Marcus, sister, son, despar, and of us, which we’re talking about, I didn’t believe it, he’s talking about Mark. He said, Mark is the one that, hey, he left them.

He left them hanging. He was a quitter. But evidently now he’s not anymore. I always believe that even when he comes to God’s people, people, they can follow flat on their face, but God can manage to them, lift them up, and give them another chance. We need to believe that because it might be you that follows next time, and you’re going to wish somebody to give you a second chance, or a third chance, or a fourth chance. In verse 11, and Jesus, which is called justice, who are of the circumcision, these three.

These three are my fellow workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been eight, and you on the line these three were comfort for me, a comfort unto me. Or the word comfort means a encourager to me. They encouraged me. But in verse 12, Epaphras, now he was the one that was the pastor of the church here at Colossians. And he’s now over there with Paul, and he’s the one that told Paul all the stuff is going on in the church and he needs help.

And so Paul had wrote this letter. He says, Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluted you always. And now look what he says about this simple little thing, this whole thing is about prayer. Always from the very first verse up here in verse two. But look down here in verse 12. He says, always laboring perfectly for you in prayers that you may stand perfect or mature and complete in all the will of God. Now see, in the very first chapter it talks about that we want you to know the whole will of God so that you may do the will of God and walk worthy under God and all pleasing.

Oh, this is what he’s talking about. So they had somebody that cares about them and he says he prays for you fervently. I have not yet after 52 years figured out how prayer really works. But there’s got to be some rules to this thing. There’s almost like a football game or a playing the game of golf or something. There’s do’s and don’ts. There’s something about it that we may not totally understand, but it works. God says, do it. I may not understand how that light switch works, but if I turn it on, the lights come on, I’m gonna still turn it on.

I don’t have to understand all the stuff about electricity. I have not yet figured out how to work at thermostat over there. That’s more complicated. I only have so much storage space up here. And so at this stage of my life, see it’s I almost have a full Ram, I mean, it’s full. And I don’t have much of a hard drive left. So I’m going to have to delete something to make room for more knowledge. And so I’m just about at my limit unless I get some more memory things to go in here or the thing up here.

You know, and they say, out of all of that, we only use about 10% of our brain. I mean, that’s what they did about how do they know? never check my brain. I may use more than they know. But you’ll find out that as you go through this, God has some great things for us. And in the 9th verse, he says, a great zeal for you. And then they’re at Laodicea and then they’re at Hierapolis. And Luke, the medical missionary, the beloved physician, and Demas.

See, Demas here, he’s a good man. But you read a little bit later In 2 Timothy 4, 10, it talks about demonth after saking me, having loved the present world. You never know who’s going to be around. Some God’s going to take home and some going to love the world. I would venture to say that since I’ve been here, there have been probably people that not everybody loves me to death. I don’t know why I’m lovable as can be, but see, people love different things.

They may love another preacher better, another church better, another choir better. Just do the best you can with what you have, where you are. And don’t worry about it. Just keep getting up. And I want to show you this before we close in verse 16. And when this epistle is read among you cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans over an Ephesus and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea and say to our Chippos evidently he could have been somebody that was there.

Maybe he’s down on a little bit discouraged. Maybe he’s not doing all that he’s supposed to be doing. I don’t know, but Paul kind of gives him a little shot in the arm. He says, take heed to the ministry which thou hath received in the Lord and the thou fulfill it. In the words, do it. And then he says in the last part of verse 18, remember my bonds. Remember, Paul had more freedom in jail than most people have outside of jail.

Because freedom is when you’re free to do what God wants you to do. And wherever he was, he could do what God wants him to do. See, there’s a lot of people, even today, they can’t do what God wants them to do, because you see, they are trapped by this, and trapped by that. They got all these habits in their lives that have got them prisoner tied down, and they can’t ever do what God wants them to do. Well, I even like to, but I can’t.

I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. And they build a wall around themselves a little bricks made up of, I can’t. I can’t. And they can’t even hardly see anymore because they can’t move. They can’t do anything, but God can’t use them because of all these I can’ts. A child of God is to be free. God says, I want you to do this. I can. I can do this. I can. God, I want you to do this. I want you to do it.

I can. Somebody sit this to me just the other day about the Republican and a Democrat. And I looked at it and it has on there. American, Republican, Democrat. American, the last four letters I can, Republican, the last four letters I can, Democrats, the last four letters, rasp. And then they told me, it says, He says, did you know in the Old Testament it talks about those that are wise, are to the right, and those that are not are to the left.

I thought that isn’t that wonderful. All this stuff, politics is right there in the Bible. Look up here. This is so important. Don’t ever take it for granted. Everybody knows this. No, everybody don’t know it. But if you’re here or watching by internet tonight, you know we had in just the first couple weeks of this month, we’ve had right at 50,000 hits on our church website. 50,000. Last month we had a total of 97, I think it was, 97,000 hits from about 55 different countries.

So you never know where somebody is watching a little old service here tonight. This is you and me. This is sin. We all have sin on us. God says that He loves us. I hate what we do wrong, but He loves us. And for us to pay for the sin is eternal separation from the Lord in hell. And I like to make sure that people understand if you don’t trust Christ as your Savior, you’re going to hell. You See, I don’t need a Savior if there is no hell.

There is a hell, a literal fire burning hell. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven. To go to heaven, we have to be perfect, and none of us are perfect. God says it by your works, you can’t be perfect. God says even our works are sin in His sight. All of our righteousness is filthy rags. So God says you cannot live a perfect life. You can’t earn eternal life. This hand represents Jesus Christ. the Lord, God in the flesh.

He came into the world because He loved us, hates our sin because it separates us from Him. So Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross, and came back from the dead. And God said that if we would believe that He did it for us, He would put this payment to our account. We get to go to heaven because of the payment He made. He, Christ, shed His blood, gave up His life as a payment for our sins.

Christ is the payment. So when you accept Christ, He’s your payment. The nails in His hands, that is the proof of payment. He is the living receipt that we have for all eternity. I have a payment. This is my payment. My sins are paid. That’s why I can’t go to hell today and I can’t go to hell tomorrow. I can never go to hell because I’ve got proof of payment. He died for me. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bow and every eye closed, no one looking around.

if you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you right now? If you’re here or watching by internet, remember, that’s the only thing you can do. It’s the only thing you have to do is to believe that when Christ died, He died for you. He was the Lord, God in the flesh. He paid for your sins, paid for them in full, came back from the dead and said, if you would believe that He did it for you, He would give you as a free gift ever lasting life.

Would you believe that? If you will, God said he would save you and give you eternal life. That he had never cast you out and never lose you, would you believe it? If you’ve never trusted Christ and you’ll do it tonight with heads about nice clothes and no one looking around, is there any one at all? I’ll say, yes, that made sense to me. I want to be certain of going to heaven when I die. And if you’ve never trusted Christ, if you’ve already done it before, you don’t have to do it again.

But if you’ve never done it before, one at right now say, Lord, I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died, paid for mine, and I will trust him. That’s my only hope of going to heaven. Friend, would you just slip you in a very quickly and put it right back down, then we’re gone. If you’ve already trusted the Lord, you don’t have to. Never do it again. But if you haven’t trusted Christ to save you, you will spend an eternity in hell if you don’t trust him.

Then we’re gone. Our Father, we thank you so much for this time together for the opportunity you’ve given us to study your Word. We pray Lord for wisdom and doing all the things you want us to do. We’re so limited. Our minds are not always clear. Most times we have a perverted idea of love and understanding. We don’t see clearly. But Father, we pray as we look to You and walk with You that You’ll help our discernment. Help us to do right.

You tell us to pray all the time. And I pray that every person here, every day, every night, they’ll walk with You and talk to You. Blessed Christ and 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 toll free.

1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-37 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.