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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 Bible line 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. Look what he says here in Luke, chapter 22 and verse 39. And he came out and went as he was want to the Mount of Olives and his disciples also followed him and when he was at the place he said unto them, Pray that you enter not into temptation.

Now you will be tempted, but pray that you will not enter into the temptation. Everyone is tempted. Christ was tempted, but you pray that you do not enter into the temptation. So would that be a good thing to pray? And then if you pray not to enter into a temptation, the best thing for you and I to do is try to stay as far away from the temptation as we possibly can. When he says, make not provision for the flesh, it means so that you don’t get tempted to do the wrong.

So you have to be careful. That’s what He says in verse 41 and he was withdrawn from them about a stones cast and kneeled on and prayed saying father If thou be willing remove this cup from me you see that word if If if thou be willing remove this cup from me Nevertheless not my will but thine be done So is this mean that Jesus didn’t want to go to the cross? He didn’t want to die to pay for our sins and he said, Lord, if you were willing, would you please change this?

Do something else? If you be willing to remove this cup from me, does it mean Jesus doesn’t want to go and die and pay for our sins? Over and over again he says, the hour has not yet come, the hour has not yet come. Then he says, the hour is come, when the Son of Man shall be lifted up. And he absolutely showed no fear whatsoever. And then all of a sudden it looked like, well, when they got down there close to it, Jesus chickened out.

But he knew he has to go through this, but he didn’t really want to do it, but he did it. And then he prays to the Father, says, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. No, why? I believe that there’s another answer. saying I’m right, but it just didn’t set good with me. So I began to look. I thought, well, it couldn’t be referred to something else. So take your Bible. Look in Matthew in chapter 26.

Look in Matthew 26. And look in verse 36. In verse 36 it says, then comeeth Jesus with them into a place called Gethsemane and Seth unto the disciples. Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. So he said, I’m going to pray. There’s times in your life when you just want to have some private prayer. There’s other times when you want to pray with a group. But however it is that you pray, make sure that you’re talking to the Lord and that it’s real and you’re submissive to him.

But then notes what he says in verse 37, And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful, very heavy. Then sayeth he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto what? Now this is in the garden. He hadn’t got to the cross yet. This was in the garden. The Bible says he had great sweat drops of blood, which I’ve read from doctors report this is right before death. You can die with great sweat drops of blood.

And so he says here. Even unto death, tear ye here and watch with me. And he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed to an O Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. So it was, I believe, in the garden, will the devil done his greatest work upon Jesus Christ. Now, when you go there to the book of Hebrews, look what he says. Look in the book of Hebrews chapter 5, Hebrews in chapter 5.

There’s just one little verse there, but I think it might shed a little light. I’m not saying this is really where it belonged, but I believe it might be. So that when Jesus prayed, He had no desire to have a premature death in the garden. He knew I came and this he says, Lord if I’ll be willing I’ll do this but I believe his goal was get to the cross but let me show you this in verse 7 he says of chapter 5 who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplication strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from what?

And was heard in that he feared. And I believe that this was in the garden and is a possibility that he was praying that not to have a premature death. So remember I believe it was Satan’s goal to try to kill him and maybe even before he got to the cross. I don’t know. I know it’s just a little yank-yology, but when he prayed, take this cup from me, it’s almost like it destroyed the purpose of becoming. He came for that reason.

He came to die. He knew all of this. But as a man, the pressures, all the toll, all the of the bombardments of evil spirits upon him, how weak he was, and he asked for some to even pray, what would have been the value of these disciples praying for him? How would you have prayed for him? What would you have said to God on the behalf of Jesus Christ? If you were there and you were one of those three and he asked you to pray, how would you have prayed for the Son of God?

I had to confess something to Dr. A. Ray Stanford one year. You see, back in 1975, after he had sinned and rebelled against God and he had to leave the college, I told him a few years later, I says, Ray, I owe you an apology. I never prayed for you. I took you for granted because of look who you are. You’re the president of Florida, Bob of College. And I just took it for granted. You’d never fall. And lo and behold, he did.

And I look back on it and I thought, what difference would it make? Now remember hearing Hillary Clinton saying, what difference does it make? Oh, just there’s four people dead now, months of stuff. But I thought, what difference would it have made if a bunch of people had prayed for Ray and Florida Bible College would still be standing today? The biggest, most powerful Bible college in the world, reaching the world for Christ, what could have been the difference? If you had been in the garden that night And Jesus says, pray, my soul is heavy.

What would you have prayed for the Son of God? What did it have made a difference? I don’t know. But as it did in the book, didn’t it say that? And so it says here in the last part of verse seven and was able to save him from death. Well, if he saved him from death, he didn’t save him from the death of the cross. So it can’t be talking about the cross, can it? Doesn’t it look like it could be that he’s talking about a premature death in the garden?

And he says that he feared that it… He didn’t want to premature death. I don’t know. It just sure looks like it when I look at the scriptures. Now look at that in your notes. When he says here, if it be thy will and thy will be done. In the book of Matthew chapter 6, the Bible talks about thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thy will be done. Jesus says this is how you pray.

You want thy will to be done. Now is it your will to be done? your will that you pray for, and what you want that has absolutely maybe nothing to do with the purpose of God. Well, there’s things that we want to pray for. And I believe a godly person, fervent prayer, can avail much. See, you’re the one that has to figure out just how important is it to you? How real is it to you? What do you want to trust God for?

Do you believe that if you ask God, He might do it? If it be His will, but remember this, if it be thy will can become an escape clause. If it be thy will. So if it doesn’t get done, it’s not your fault because it was if it be thy will. Did you know there’s something that is the will of God? But because you didn’t meet the conditions, God didn’t do it. that sometimes God will do things if you meet the condition.

If you will do this and this and this, God says, I’ll do this, this and this. But you say, well, I’m not cleaning up my life. I’m just gonna, well, Lord, if it’s your will, then a lot of sin can be committed that same way. So look at a few of these questions. Which would you pray if you were not sure, if it be thy will or I will be done? You see, even if you don’t know what the will of God is, you want thy will to be done.

And if you want his will to be done, and you know that God does not bless your disobedience, then maybe you need to be obedience. Even you don’t know what else to do, or sometimes all the ways in which to pray, still do right. Next question. What would you give? Which would you give as an escape clause, in case your prayers are not answered, you don’t look too bad. If it be, I will. See, it can be if your heart is right and your purpose is right, and you’ll do whatever it is because you really want the will of God whatever it may be.

But if it’s an escape clause because you’re not doing right and you don’t believe God really will, then it’s a way for you to escape if it doesn’t come through. my fault. I believe that we take the flashlight and turn it on ourselves and see no. Is there anything in my life that would keep God from answering my prayer? Anything. Search me, O God, and see if there’s anything in my life that would keep you from answering my prayer.

Now, nobody can make you do that. Nobody can make you be honest. Nobody can make you search, and nobody can make you submit. It all depends on what you want. Look at that question. What would you use if you really didn’t care? You really don’t care. Whatever will be, will be. You don’t really care. I care about everything. And therefore, if I want something to be good, you know, like, for example, on Tuesday nights, night school.

I wanna, we said in the board meeting, Well, just a few of us, discussing the things that we wanted to have concerning certain topics for Bible-ion at nighttime. And Peter came up with this thing about the unseen world. It wasn’t my idea, was it? I think it was yours, but it might not have been. But I thought that would be a good topic. And I thought, you know, that would be a good topic. So we had it down and some people said that that they didn’t like that idea.

But do you realize I could have said, Lord, if it be your will on Tuesday night, when I get ready to speak, let it all come to me. And if you don’t, then I know it wasn’t your will. Or do you believe it would be better off if I prepared a little bit ahead of time? Maybe had some notes to follow. Which do you think would probably be the will of God? Me to prepare or just trust the Lord, which one sounds more spiritual?

Oh, it sounds so spiritual. I’m just going to trust the Lord. Well, sometimes there’s old Baptist Treachers up there in North part of Georgia and South Carolina and around. They don’t really like the people who go off the college and get learning. If you call of God, it will tell you what to say. And all you got to do is stand up, open your mouth, and let her fly. And God will give it to you in the same hour.

And most of them have never studied the Bible. And most of them when they speak, there’s nothing but hot air. And is it pre-to land the Bible saying, go away God, the glory to be the God, amen. And the Bible says, don’t worry to be the God, no, when they say, all that glory to be the God and praise Jesus, they don’t know whatever they’re gonna say. They do that until they think of something. It’s not because all the Holy Spirit’s got to hold me.

God, amen. That’s junk. That’s slop. That’s pigsty. And I’ll tell them so to their face. It is the will of God that you study the Word of God. Prepare. Enough of that. Number four, which better reveals your understanding of God’s will that I will be done? Well, if it’s your will, if it’s your will may not require me to do anything. But when I say, I will be done, I may have to do something about it. Number five, can both be used with a submissive will?

Well, yeah. Can both be used with a submissive will? No. Because when you say I want thy will to be done, you have to be submissive to it. Because it’s the will of God for you to walk with Him, to talk to Him, to prepare yourself, to study. Look at the next statement. The secret is to discern God’s will before you pray as much as possible. Learn the word of God and pray within the boundaries of the word of God.

Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16 talks about coming boldly to the throne of grace that you may obtain help in time of need. Get all the grace you need in the time of need. So God says there’s a throne and you come to the throne of grace. But what is that doing? You ask praying. When you come to the throne of grace, You don’t really see a throne. You don’t even see. How do you see grace? I saw grace. No, it’s a place where you can go and pray and get some grace, the strength, the power of God to do what you ought to do with your life.

They help in time of need. So the scripture in Isaiah 45 and 11 is great. Where you can say, command me. God wants us to hold him to his word. You see, God makes promises, and he wants to bless. But he is honored by a thing called faith. And when you pray, it’s supposed to be an evidence of your faith in the Lord. You’re talking to him. You believe in him. You want something. You need something. You’ll do something.

And so if it be thy will can be done. Bless this offering. But generally you don’t say, well, if you really want to, we want him to. We know that he will Lord. I’m going to go so and bless if it be that will. Something won’t fit. Blessed is service. So let’s say that if you don’t fire the preacher lock the door to spend the church and forget it. There’s a lot of things that we should do. Matthew chapter 13 verse 58.

I want you to look at this verse. This is a good verse. It’s a powerful verse. Matthew chapter 13, Matthew 13 verse 58, it’s the last verse in this 13th chapter. But look what it says, and he did not many mighty works there because he didn’t want to, it was not his will. Is that what it said? Did I change it just a little bit? because of their unbelief. He would have done something else. He would have done more if they would have only believed.

And you and I believe or not God could have done something more if we would only believe. We could have been used in a greater way if we would only believe how great is your faith in the Lord. I don’t know. I’m not even sure of my own. That’s why I told people when you come to college you don’t come on my faith, you come on yours.

Come on, how much do you believe that this is what God wants you to do? Whether it’s coming to this church or giving money or helping in ranch or whatever, I want people to have some faith in what they believe God wants them to do. I like to believe that those guys that work back there in the back and middle of the booth, you know, they do it because they believe this is what God wants me to do. It’s the way I can serve.

I want to be used. I like to believe that Ryan up there is doing what he does because he wants to be used. I like to believe that everybody works and acquire. Singing is in the choir. I like to believe they’re doing it because they want God’s blessings. They believe they want to be used by the Lord. And everybody works in ranch or Sunday school or Wanna. Are they doing it because they want to be used or because of the big fat paychecks we pay you around here?

I can tell you this, pay day someday. Payday’s coming. Payday someday. Look back down to notes. Or we have the word plane crash, ting killed. It must have been the will of God, not necessarily. God allows consequences for man’s decisions. Sometimes people make bad decisions and God allows people to suffer consequences of their bad decision. Let’s say you make a bad decision. It must have been the will of God. It’s not the will of God for you to make bad decisions.

It’s not the will of God for you to live in sin, but can you choose to live in sin? And then because you chose to live in sin, you messed up, you got on drugs, you hurt your kidneys, you did this wrong, you got age, you’re blah, blah, blah, you lost your family, whatever it is, well, it must have been the will of God. No, it wasn’t the will of God. That’s not what the will of God is. That’s contrary to the will of God.

Don’t believe that everything that happens in your life, that was the will of God. No, it’s not. If you’re serving God and honoring God, and you’ve got him number one in your life, and you’re trying to walk with him, and things seem to go wrong, just chalk it up, I’m being blessed by God. And then things can happen, yeah, God can allow a lot of things to happen in your life. But God’s more interested in you maintaining your integrity.

Look at the little design that I got down here. It’s pretty cheap. I wasn’t a good artist. But I did draw it 35 years ago. Now what I’m telling you are some things from my note 35 years ago. Prayer changes you. That change turns God free to bless you. And God will use you if you make yourself usable. So it’s like this morning I said about the trap door in heaven and here’s all these blessings. But you notice I got two things down here on the bottom.

You see, prayer has pull with God and your testimony has pull with God. Do you believe you need both of them? And see if both of them are right and you’re in the right place doing what God wants you to do, then you trust the Lord, the bless your life. And you don’t have to care when or how. And sometimes we’re not very good judges of what a blessing is. A lot of the things that God never answered for us could be a blessing.

I have lived long enough to be convinced that God was right and not answering all of my prayers. I think it would not have been maybe the best decision. So I’m thankful to the Lord for the way that God has worked out in. I don’t mind it at all. So the flashlight, and there’s other scriptures that you can go home and you can look at some of these other scriptures, and they will help you when it comes to prayer.

Nobody, no preacher is going to be able to tell you anything you know about prayer and do it. The best thing to do is do it. Pray to God about everything all the time. Just stay in an attitude of prayer. I wake up in the morning and I’m thinking about some sermon. I’m preaching. I got something on my mind. I talk to the Lord before I ever get out of bed. Then when I get out of bed and I’m shaving, oh, I got it.

I’m still thinking about all kinds of stuff. Then I go get my Bible and I’ll read. And I’ll get a cup of coffee and drink and study and think. It’s almost like it’s never out of my mind. That’s all I think about. Trying to figure out some other thing that we can do. and what we need to get done. And Lord, help me to be wise in making right decisions that can be a blessing to people. And so when I say I want you to pray for me, you pray for me that I can be wise enough that I don’t make dumb decisions that you’re gonna live by.

You want to do right? I want to be a blessing. So that’s why I said this morning. You pray for me because I needed and you need to practice. Don’t you need to practice a little bit more? Pray all the time. Pray for yourself. Pray for one another. Look up here. This is still the greatest news in all the world of how to explain the gospel. Letting this hand represent you and me and letting this wallet represent sin. We all have sin up on it.

us. God loves us. He hates our sin, but He loves us. That’s what we want people to know, and God loves them. And to pay for sin, since everybody has sinned, is eternity in hell. But God loves us and wants us to have eternal life and to go to heaven. And to do that, we’d have to be perfect. Because you see, you have to be perfect to live for eternity. And if you’re not perfect, you can’t ask for eternity.

Otherwise, everything falls apart. That’s why what we need to describe Hell in heaven he says in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 4 that you’re saved from something being born again to an inheritance, an incorruptible and undefiled that fate of not away reserved in heaven for you. Incorruptible, fate of not away. It has to be perfect to last forever. So the Bible says we’re not perfect and we can’t live forever with God and we cannot earn eternal life. This ends in Jesus Christ, he’s the Lord God in the flesh, came into the world because he loves us, but he hates our sin because our sin separates us from him.

So Jesus Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross, and came back from the dead, and said, if we believe he did it for us, he would give us as a freak, you have to ever last in life, and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. That’s good news. Let’s pray, shall we? We had bow nice clothes and no one looking around. If you’re watching by internet tonight, or if you’re here in the auditorium.

The only thing you have to do to go to heaven is believe that when Christ died, he did it for you. He paid for your sins. Say this in your own mind, say these words. Christ died for my sins. Think what you just said. Christ died for my sins. That means you don’t have to pay for them, he paid for them. And only thing you have to do to make this real to you is to say, I believe that.

I believe it. And so that payment is put to your account the moment you believe. He that believe it on me have everlasting life. And that’s how you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die. So the hit by a nice close, is there anyone here tonight saying, yes, that made sense to me and I want to trust Christ as my savior. I want to know that I’m going to heaven when I die and preach a life to pray for him.

Anyone know before we close. Our Father, we thank you again for your blessing. Thank you for each person here. And Father, we don’t understand all of this about prayer, but just knowing that you’re our Father and we’re your children, you want us to talk to you and you want to bless us. We pray that we would be wise to heed, to submit, to humble ourselves before you and depend upon you for all things. 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 by the line 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. 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. Friends, 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.