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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 prayer… Your 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. the next statement I have down here. It would be a miracle if God didn’t answer because God sees is working and getting things to do and get you to where He wants you to be so that it is consistent for God to do what He wants to do anyway.

See, there’s thing God wants done but He wants a vessel that’s yielded to Him and if that person will yield to the Lord God will be able to use that person to do what God already wanted to do. Look at number three there. There are basics to the mastery of answered prayer, answers to a faithful child or not promises held out as rewards. John 3 16, what does it say? For God so loved the world that whosoever believe it than him should not perish but have everlasting life.

If I believe on Jesus Christ, does God now have a choice whether to save me or not? Do I have to beg him to save me, plead with him to save me? Or there’s a possibility he won’t save me? No. If I believe on Christ, God must save me. It’s a law based upon promises that he made. He gave his word and his word is law. For example, and I got a little example here. Water, you cool water to 32 degrees.

If it turns to ice, is it a reward, a promise, or is it a law? It’s a law. You mean it works even if the lost man gets some water to go to 32 degrees? It’ll work for whoever it is, right? I told some people up in Minnesota, I said, I can walk on water. I said, I’ll be back in January. I can walk on water. I just got to wait until it freezes over. But you see, it’s something, I see this here.

Now, if I let go of this, what’s going to happen to it? Now, it would be a miracle if it didn’t fall, right? So, if I let go of it, it falls. Why? The law of gravity. So, it’s not, oh, a miracle! No, that’s not a miracle. That’s a law of gravity. Did you know that God has laid down principles in his word, principles that are almost like laws, that if you do this, this will happen. Sometimes we call it cause and effect.

That for everything, there’s an effect that is caused by something. And that everything has a tendency to stand still, let’s act it upon by an outside force. Now look what he says, whatever we have down here. In this little statement, at letter B, same with gravity. The laws of our body, you can violate the laws of physiology and there’s consequences to pay. You can take a little arsenic and put it in your body. Well, that tastes good.

But the consequences may be devastating. It could leave you totally dead. Kind of like I told you before about the preacher. He was so sick and tired of people in the church he couldn’t get them to straight now. So he quit and went to work at a funeral home. So at least now when he straightens them out, they stay that way. He says he’s the one that put fun in funeral. But 2nd Chronicles 7, 14 talks about if my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and forsake their weary way and their wicked way, he says, worship me and I will heal their land and so forth.

Now a lot of people take that verse and say, well that applies to us. Now you can apply it, but its primary application is to the nation of Israel. But they don’t always seem to understand this. Not only if you call upon the Lord and ask the Lord, but He also says, and turn from your wicked ways. Did you realize that there’s consequences to living a wicked life? And that certain things that are not right between husband and wife can hinder their prayers?

If it hinders the prayers, it hinders the result of the prayer. And God says his ears are open unto the righteous. And there are some people that are double-minded, and so God says, I think not that that man shall receive anything of the Lord. And even though God knows what you have need of before you ask, does not mean that you’re going to get it. And that’s why He says, you have not because you ask not. So there are certain things and just understand them.

Let’s say for example that I’m in God, I’m God, I’m up in heaven. And I have this little trap door up here. And I open this trap door and I’ve got all these blessings that are going to come down from that trap door. But the only thing is though, is you’re in the wrong spot. If I open them up here, you’re not going to get them caught because you’re back there. So God and his wisdom may work in your life and get you to turn from your wicked ways and stop doing some of the things that you’re doing.

And he works and maneuvers and he can only do that if you yield to him. If you don’t yield and harden yourself and you don’t move, then he can’t get you where he wants you to be. Because he knows if he can get you here, he can open up that trap door and all these wonderful blessings will come down upon you. But no, you want to play hard to get and hard knows and be rebellious and stiff-necked and seek your own way and you’re struggling in things God would have given to you for free.

And you want peace and you want love and you want joy. You want all these good things from God. And yet you’re doing the things and you’re not where God wants you to be. You’re not doing what God wants you to do. There’s probably probably. Some of you here that may have known years ago God wanted me to be a missionary and you wouldn’t do it. You should have went to Bible school and you wouldn’t do it. You could have been a preacher and evangelist and you wouldn’t do it.

You could have been a son’s school teacher and you didn’t do it. You could have worked in a wand and you wouldn’t do it. You could have worked in helping reformers unanimous but you wouldn’t do it. There’s a lot of things you probably should have been and you wouldn’t do it. There’s probably money that you had that you should have invested in the Lord’s work and you wouldn’t do it. So God’s just taking it some other way. You’d be surprised how God will make you wish you had of.

I don’t have to be God and I don’t play God. I’m not the Holy Spirit. But after a few years I’ve noticed how He works. Remember these years were 35 years ago. So I haven’t changed it too much. I still go by pretty much the same thing that I’ve changed on these. I didn’t because I believe it’s the truth. And I believe that if it’s truth, then it ought not change. So anyway, look at where I have 2 Chronicles 7 verse 14, then will I hear?

Then will I hear? So there are some things that God says, when He says, I will hear. just to hear it, meaning I’ll answer the prayer. Nobody has to know exactly how much you pray and all that, but when you are prayerless, you are powerless. There is power in prayer, and so therefore you and I are commanded in scripture to cast our cares upon the Lord. That’s a form of prayer. To humble yourself unto God, that’s a form of prayer.

Walk in independence upon God, that’s because you’re talking to God. You know you need God and you want his desire. You want him to use you. And there’s something that will be different about you. Look back there at the notes. Faith is a seed. You may have seeds, but have you ever planted. And learn how to play the fervent prayer of a righteous man of valeth much. James chapter 5. And it means it would not have happened without prayer.

If it avails much, it means something that would not have been done had you not prayed. I don’t have to know what it is, but I believe that it is God’s will for everyone of God’s children to pray and talk to the Lord. You should walk in an attitude of prayer all the time. Pray always and be yielding to the Lord. Don’t try to understand all about prayer. I don’t even understand it all today. I just know that it’s true and it’s real.

I had a young man that was doing his best. He was praying to the Lord to answer his prayer because he was a young man that had a desire to go to Colorado Bible College, but he had a couple of questions he had to have answered and he needed answers right away because he was getting ready to get on an airplane and fly to Florida. I was talking to the kids there in a college class, personal evangelism class, and I told I said, I’ve got to bring a prayer request to you.

I said, I appreciate if you pray for me. I’m running out of time, and I need an airline ticket to get to Florida. And I said, I just appreciate if you just pray good, but I got to get going. And so I left the class, I left a few minutes early, I went through the auditorium, and about four or five kids follow me. Some of them never get the message. I turn and I say, oh, I don’t have time to talk.

I don’t want to be in kind. I don’t want to be at rude. I said, but I can’t talk to anybody right now. Thank you. And I turned the rock to my office. Here comes a couple of them. And I knew, and I walked in my office and they walked right in behind me. Now, they better be thankful that I am a Christian, that I knew of the Lord, and I love the Lord. Or I’d have slapped their jaws.

But maybe not, they were both bigger than me. But anyway, these two guys, they walking right behind me. And one was Rick Preyshaw. And the other one was a guy named Dave Cannon. Rick Preshaw was a student. Here’s Dave Cannon with him. He says, Yankee, can we just talk to you just for a minute? I said, Rick, I don’t have time. I mean, what I said, I don’t have time. I’ve got to hurry and get this thing done, because I’m supposed to get on the plane.

I got to leave. He says, Yankee, just a minute. All right. They had been praying too. They had really been praying because Rick wanted this guy to stay for college. He wanted to, but he had questions. And so I stood there and said, OK, what? He said, he wants to come to college. But he asked me a couple of questions, and I answered a question. And so I said, well, did that help? It didn’t take more than three or four minutes.

He said, I’m coming to college. He says, by the way, I have this ticket here. I’m not flying to Florida, so I don’t need it. I says, where is it to? Right where I was going. He gave me his ticket and I got on my plane. All of us were praying. I was praying. They were praying, but we were clashing. And awesome. And it met the need. And one day I came out of the class, I told the kids, I said, look, I have a $10,000 no-do-it-the-bank today, and I’ve got to get down to the bank quickly.

And I said, I don’t have any money. So I appreciate if y’all would just pray. And so I’m the president of the college, the great mental faith. And I started across the auditorium and it happened again. Here they come. And I said, I don’t have time to talk right now. I got to get down to the bank because I have to figure out what I’m gonna do. And so they come more following me. And I turned that stop them again.

I went into my office and this one college girl, she followed right in there. And I says, I don’t have time to talk right now. She said, how much do you need? I said, I need $10,000. She said, OK. I said, what are you doing? She says, I’m going to write you out a check for $10,000. I’m the president of the college. And I don’t want to have $10. And she’s got $10,000. She can set it right up to me.

I said, it’s something’s wrong with this picture. I said, I can’t give that back to you. She says, I didn’t want it back. Give it here. She gave me the check and I went down. I’m praying. I’m praying Lord, how am I going to meet this need? What are you going to do? And Lord is trying to help you. You’d be surprised. I’ve got storage to tell. I’ve got a track record. One man reached into his safe and he pulled out $70,000 cash and gave it to me one day.

I said, I only need 60. And then I remember it, no, I need 70. So he gave me 70. And gave me cash. I walked out of his office with $70,000 cash. You It’s awesome, but just the thing that will happen, it will build your faith. But the Bible says this is what we should do. Look very quickly down here. I’ll probably never finish this, but you’ve got the notes here. What is a prayer of faith? Confidence that God will answer your prayers.

If you trust Christ as your Savior, does God have a choice in saving you? No. When you understand it, know the will of God, then you can pray and expect it. Is it God’s will to use me? Yes, then I can pray for that. And no, He will answer my prayer. And He also has some that He has stipulations on, like meeting a certain condition. Yanki, I want you to purge yourself of this, this, and this, and this, that you may be a vessel fit for the Master’s use.

And so I know that if I clean up my life and I live the way God wants me to live and I make the right decisions. They weigh God wants me to. God has to bless me. God has to use me. He doesn’t have a choice. It’s a law. If you dedicate your life to God, whatever it is and you do right, God must bless you. He has to use you. He promised and that’s within his will. Now, he did not say that I’m gonna give you a pink Cadillac or I’m gonna give you a million dollars in the bank.

It’s all has to deal with the will of God. What does God want? And I want to enter into His will. I don’t want God entering into mine. That’s where we have a lot of conflict and things don’t work out because, Lord, this is what I want, I want, I want, I want, I want. Bless me, okay? And it doesn’t work quite that way. Look down at the next statement. We can often bring more to pass by prayer than we can by any other form of word.

Faith is trust in the honesty and the truth of another. Do you believe that God is honest and will do what He says He will do? If you believe that, then why wouldn’t you pray? The next statement, our trouble, we believe God can, but we don’t believe God will. And then I have this underlying, little is accomplished because little is expected. The Bible says something. Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. Open thy mouth wide. What have you been asking for God lately?

Asking for something. Sometimes you have to be a little specific. What do you really want? And then trust that God’s going to bring it to pass. I’m not the God. I don’t have to guarantee anything. I’m just telling you what he said. I had a man tell me one time, who do you think you are judging me? Tell me I’m going to hell. I’m just telling you what the judge said. I’m not judging. I’m not telling you anything. This is what God’s word says.

Now you figure it out. What do you believe? I know Christ said over and over again, so he says, be it unto you according to your faith. Be it unto you according to you. See, love you don’t have any confidence in God at all. They don’t believe him. You may have trusted him as your savior because, you know, that doesn’t depend on you. It just depends on you. Just trusting Christ is savior. But answer to prayers can also depend upon your obedience to God, your walk with God, your faithfulness to God.

And that’s what you’re not sure of. Look down at the bottom of the page. Faith is not desire. Not how much you want something, but according to your faith, bid unto you. I may want money so bad for the church. It’s a little statement I got on the side there. But one in it is not necessarily going to get it. Like the preacher told his congregation, he says, got some good news and some bad news. Good news for our new building that we’re going to build.

We have all the money we need. The bad news, it’s still in your pocket. Well, doggy, faith is not goodness. Answers to our prayer do not come because we feel like we deserve something. Lord, I deserve that million dollars. Lord, I went and I gambled and bought a ticket for the wind of lottery. Oh Lord, help me win that lottery. Somebody says if somebody won the lottery and wanted to give the church some money, is that tainted money? I don’t know, it’s tainted enough.

Look at the last statement on this page. Christ reprimanded the disciples because of their faithlessness, because they failed to trust, failed to believe. You know, He says, if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you can remove mountains. Have you seen the mountain been moved lately? You know a mountain sometimes in the scripture refers to, you know, just a big old problem. And sometime it refers to a kingdom. But it did say going to all the world and preach the gospel to every region and teaching all nations.

So it’s possible that a person with a lot of faith can shake a kingdom by shaking the mountain. That’s a nation by the gospel. How much do we believe? What do you want to accomplish? You really want to shake somebody, do something. Sometimes I feel like, I sometimes wish I was 30 years old again, so I still have another 40 years to go. I look at it now, I think, eight more years, I’ll be 80 years old. That’s old!

But when I get 79, I’ll probably change my mind. It won’t be so bad. Now, our own Marshall, now how old is our Marshall? 85. 85? And he’s back here teaching Sunday school class. You said, well, I’m too old. Oh, really? He’s 85, back here teaching Sunday school. And I went to Israel and Egypt with Ray Stanford at 85 years old. And then some people said, well, I’m just too old. You’re just ready to shine. You finally learned something.

It’s kind of like having kids. When they finally get 18 years old, they can get a good-paying job and bring some money home, they leave. And here you are, God has taught you so much for 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years, and then you quit. It might be just the time, remember in the Bible, the Bible talks about a guy named Caleb, 80 years old, and he says, I want that mountain. I want that mountain. Where the milk and honey flow.

Where are the grapes of escrow grow? I want that mountain. You all ever heard that song before? I mean you’ve heard that song before. An 80 year old man sung that song for the first time and this is why it’s so important. Don’t lose heart. Don’t get down and discourage. You have at your disposal the greatest power of It’s not money. It’s not help. It’s prayer. That’s something you can do. Don’t talk about what you can’t do. Talk about what you can do.

When’s the last time you prayed for the preacher? Do you think I need prayer? You need to practice. I need to prayer. You need to practice. So you pray for me. Well, what about the leaders here in the church? Do you think they need prayer? Do you think Jesse needs prayer? He just doing the thumping, I really know those teenagers. You don’t have to pray for Him because that’s not very serious work. Try it. What about the Sunday school teachers to pray for them?

Do you pray for the radio ministry, the internet ministry? He’s, well, I don’t know what to pray for. I’m trying to help you. When’s the last time you prayed for yourself? Pray for your family. Pray for your relatives. People that you know and love and never trust the Christ Savior, what have you done recently to reach them? Well, somebody will. Oh, yeah, who? And how do you know? Maybe God wants to use you to answer your own prayers. I’ve had people say, pray that my husband gets saved.

When’s the last time you talked to him about the Lord? What about your kids? Do it. You’d be surprised what God will do for you. Look up here. Here you are. The most important decision you can ever make in your life is where you’re going to go when you die. You mean all I have to do is agree with God on something? Yeah. Agree with what God said. You don’t have to do anything. Just agree with God. Where do I die to God agree with?

This is you and me. This is sin. We all have sinners. Will you agree with God that you are a sinner? Can you go that far? You’re gonna agree with that. And everything you’ve heard is that God is perfect and righteous and holy in heaven and all that, you know. Can you agree with that? That God is perfect? Have you ever heard of him doing anything wrong? God is perfect. He’s righteous. All you’re doing is agreeing. Now, this is the hard part.

He says that you cannot save yourself. You cannot work your way to heaven. You cannot earn eternal life. Well, you agree to that. You have to agree to this. You say, you can’t get to heaven if you don’t agree with this. Because see, if you believe you can earn your way to heaven by your good deeds, then you’re not listening to what God says you can’t. It’s not by works of righteousness which we’ve done. For by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works.

You have to agree to that. that you can’t save yourself. That’s why you need a Savior. And this hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord. God in the flesh. Came into the world because He loves us. He took our sins and paid for it. And you have to agree to that. You have to agree. I believe He died and paid for my sins. He said He came back from the dead. And He can’t save you if He didn’t come back from the dead.

You have to agree and trust Him. Now see this not anything you have to do you have to stop something or join some Are you got to do is mentally agree with what God says and he said if you’ll believe that he did it for you He would put the payment he made to your account and you can know that you’re going to heaven How do I know I’m going to heaven because God said He that believeth on me half everlasting life Will you agree with that?

If you agree with God on that you can know you have eternal life know that you’re going to heaven But see, believing what God says is just as faith, believing what He said, taking the man as word. The best news in all the world, it’s the simplest thing in all the world for a person to do. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head, dog, and every eye, clothes, and no one looking around. I’m not going to ask you to come forward.

I’m going to ask you to sign a card or give any money. It’s a decision you need to make. Right now in the quietness of this moment, would you just talk to the Lord and say, Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I know I’ve done things wrong. And I believe that when Christ died, He died for me. And I will trust Him right now as my Savior. And friend, if you will do that, God said He would save you and give you eternal life.

And if it’s eternal life, it lasts forever. And if it lasts forever, all of your sins are paid. You’re going to heaven when you die. That’s the best news in the world. I’m going to ask you right now in just a moment to ask you to raise your hand And if what I said made sense to you, it’s just to let me know that what I said made sense to you, and you said, in preacher, that made sense to me.

I want to be certain of one to heaven when I die. And so today, right now, I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. Not friend, I’m not going to have you forward, not going to embarrass you. It’s over and done when you trust the Lord, right where you are. Is there anyone at all before we close? Just slip it up very quickly and put it right back down. Is there anyone at all? If you’ve already trusted Christ as your Savior, your God’s child, as a child of God, it is the will of God that his children talk to him and he wants to talk to you.

Learn to pray. Pray every day. Pray every day. Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to share these thoughts. And I pray, Lord, it would be a blessing to each one here. You’ve been good to us. You blessed us. We ask you a blessing to bond the food now in Christ’s name. 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. 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bible line 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. live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.