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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, 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 homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Did you know that God is able to take that little talent, that little ability that you have and multiply it and you can become a blessing to a lot of people. Isn’t serving the Lord about being a blessing to people, whether for salvation or service? Titles mean nothing to me. I don’t have to have a title to make me feel good. I don’t need it at all. And if I get to heaven and the guy who invented ties, I’m going to choke him with one.

I don’t care for a time. I just soon have on a t-shirt and a pair of dungarees. I asked Betty how many times I’ve come over here and I’d get my dungarees on. She says, Yankee, that ain’t going to cut it. You’re the preacher. You can’t do that. I have an image to uphold. I hope I’m upholding my image very well. I don’t always feel comfortable with this image, but it’s It’s something that you have to do sometimes. But do you understand that God is working in our lives to do what He wants done?

And God looks at you and you might not think, I don’t have any talent and abilities. All I’ve got is these tutelal old fish and a couple of pieces of bread. Yeah, but in the hands of God, did you know that I’ve seen God look over people who have a lot of talent and abilities and reach down and get some dedicated nobody and use them in a great and mighty way. I was just up there at the Bible study, they asked me if I’d speak.

And of course I’ve been playing the guitar for, you know, 50 years, more than that. And Tim King, I led him to the Lord when I first came there. He introduced me and he says, the guy who God used to reach me and change my life was Yankee Arnold. And I noticed that when they was leading the singing, they didn’t have any song books. He doesn’t play the guitar. He don’t play the harmonica. He don’t play the piano. I don’t even know if he can play a radio without getting static.

But he gets the music right off the internet and does the best that he can. But you know those kids that come, they don’t care. I watched those kids and they were all singing. Most time you never get the boys to sing. You might get a couple girls to sing and everybody else’s firehouse finds a sing in a way and you got a couple kids that don’t sing. They’re all singing. This guy can’t sing. Good. He doesn’t have all the talent and abilities, but he loves the Lord and he loves the kids.

And his love will do what his talent and abilities can’t do. Did you know that God can use anybody who has a good attitude and learn how to smile and be thankful to the Lord and they know that God loves to this guy? somebody really cares and he’s doing a great work. But here in 1 Corinthians, look there in chapter 2. He says in verse 9, but as it is written, I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him.

That God has not shown us everything He has prepared for us. But you see, I have not seen everything. God has allowed us to see a few things. Just think of some of the pretty things that we do have in life. You know what I really like when I walk up or drive into the church parking lot. I love seeing those two plants that are out there that’s got those flowers on them. It seems like I don’t care what day you come, there’s always a flower blooming.

Have you noticed that? There’s flower blooming. And when you look over there, don’t that lawn look so pretty? Don’t it just look pretty? It looks good. They’ve been cutting down some limbs and getting it cleaned so it’ll look good. So that when somebody comes and they got eyes, we want them to see something good. They’re talking about putting some flowers here and there you know, just so that it looks good, because it belongs to the Lord. This place belongs to God.

This is not Yankee’s church. I don’t own the church. I don’t own the people. This is our ministry. It belongs to the Lord. And therefore we ought to do everything we can is unto the Lord. We’re servants together, workers together, We have the other labors together and everybody does different stuff. Everybody does something different. But we need to… need to look. Take your Bible looking 2 Corinthians in chapter 5, just turn to your right, 2 Corinthians and chapter 5.

Because the Bible tells us this body that we have, one of these days is going to be dissolved. You see there in verse 1, we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle word is dissolved, it means it’s going to die. We have a building of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens, we’re going to get a new body. Well, why is talking about this whole house, this whole house. It got came out one years and years ago and it was a great song.

Talking about the body. He’s talking about the body because he wants you to see something in verse 18. While we look, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. Can you see that? Can you see things that the natural eye cannot see? Can you see what God is saying? When God tells us to walk by faith, can you see that? Do you understand? Seeing is understanding. He says, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

He that has eyes to see. Let him see. Do you see what God’s talking about? And if you will, you’ll be surprised what God will reveal to you. But at the things which are not seen, But the things which are seen are temporal, the things which are not seen are eternal. So the older we get, the more you see the eternal things, the more you have something to hold you on. When you look in the mirror, do you look as young as you used to 10 years ago, or 20 years ago?

Don’t you think that you used to really look pretty good years ago? You look like a million dollar, didn’t you? If you looked in the mirror lately Now I’m not talking about to your mom now or your wife. I’m talking about to you. I got a better better clarify that So we have some wonderful things that God has given us to see even with the natural eye But he says there’s some things that We cannot see I I have not seen, ear have not heard what God has prepared for them to love him.

So there are some things and you are supposed to keep focused upon them. But I want you to go down down here and look there in verse 6. Look in verse 6. Therefore, we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body, we’re absent from the Lord. Now we know the Lord lives within us, but we’re talking about that place called, place called heaven, where our Father is living on setting on a throne. When we leave this world, we’re going to be with Him in heaven.

But He says in verse 7, 4, we walk by faith. You ought to underline this verse in your Bible. We walk by faith not by sight. So whenever you and I get disappointed in this life, it could be because of what you’re looking at. What are you looking at? Are you looking with the natural eye or are you looking with the spiritual eye? If you look with the spiritual eye at spiritual things… You don’t have any reason to be dishearted, depressed, always down in the dumps like God and fell off the throne and died.

He still rules. He still reigns. We mentioned while ago, some that were sick. God doesn’t get sick. He never misses a day. He always He shows up for work and heads watching over me. He never fails. He watches over us. He protects us. And there’s going to be some time when He may let us suffer. But He says that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

That day is coming. So He says here in verse 7, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Did you see that? what we’re supposed to see. Look there in John chapter 4, just turn to your left to the gospel of John. John chapter 4, and notice there in verse 34, John chapter 4 verse 34, and see if you can see something here. You see in verse 34, this is on page 1119 in an old school to a reference Bible.

But verse 34 says, Jesus said unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work. Ask yourself, what is your purpose in life? What is your goal? What are you seeking to do? You should say, My meat, that means My desire, that which satisfies me is to do the will of Him that sent me. Are you content with doing that. Every one of God’s children, if you serve the Lord, ought to be the happiest people on earth.

God’s people ought to be the happiest people on earth, because we understand. We see what’s going on. We see the reason for trials and tribulations. We see what even though a man die, yet shall he live. We see beyond this life. We have a lot to be thankful for. We can see things that others can’t see and therefore we should rejoice in that. But now look what he says in verse 35, say not ye, there are yet four months and then comeeth harvest.

Behold I say unto you, lift up your eyes. Lift up your eyes. Why would he have to say that to his disciples because he wanted them to see something. What did he want them to see? Is he talking about the grain out there in the field really? Now if most people, that’s what they see is they see the grain. It’s time to go reap that harvest out there in the field. But there’s something more that’s mentioned here and it all relates back to, well, what was he doing in Samaria?

Why did he say he must needs go through Samaria? Because there were some people there that didn’t know him. And how did it start? You see, he didn’t go after the crowd. He focused on one person. That one person got a crowd. You see, sometimes you wanna be greatly used in a big way. But maybe God just says, hey, just take care of this one right in front of you. This little thing that I’m giving you right here. That woman, well, she’d only been married five times and was living with a man that wasn’t her husband.

She must not be able to be saved. You can’t save her, she’s too bad. That anyway, Jesus said to her. He says, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith and that they give me to drink, thou would have favask of him And he would have given the living water. And she says, evermore, give me this water. So she believed on him. She went into the city and told all the men. Didn’t say she told the women she wouldn’t tell all the men.

She went and told them. She says, he told me everything, the ever I did. That’s just like a woman. She exaggerates. All he says is you have five husbands, but you know how women are. Exaggerate. She told all the men and here they come. They believed on Him not because of the woman’s testimony, but because they said they heard Him themselves. And said, this is the Christ, the Savior of the world. But see, Jesus wants us to see more than just with the naked eye.

There is a purpose in life. There is a cause, a reason for living. You see, if all you see in this ministry is a bunch of people who come together, We sing, we give some money, we play the game, we listen to the Bible stories, and then we all go home and we play church. Well, if that’s all you see, then you didn’t really see anything. That’s not worth going to church for. That’s not worth giving money for. That’s not worth being faithful for.

So it really doesn’t matter whether I go or I don’t go because there’s nothing there. But then if you look with some spiritual eyes and you see the importance of the Word of God and the importance of meeting with God’s people and encouraging other people. I had a man that called me up today. And he says, I’m looking for a church that has fellowship. He says, I am just sick and tired of preachers and churches that don’t really give fellowship.

He said, I’ve been going to church after church and checking them out. He says, and they, they’re terrible. He says, the preacher is not really interested in me. He doesn’t really care about me. He said, they’re concerned only about their little flock, but when I come and visit, he says, nobody cares about me. He went on, he was in bad shape and he was just chewing my ear off of here. I don’t even know where he was at and what state.

But he said, I’d have been listening to you on the radio. He said, I wish you would take and teach more Bible instead of all those stories you tell. I thought I’d use a little scripture every once in a while, and then you’ve got to try to say, okay, can I apply it? So before he got through, I told him, I said, can I just tell you something? I said, my brother and I, we decided to go down to Pueblo, Colorado, and because we was building a radio station, and we needed to find us a good church to go to while we’re down there, because I didn’t have a desire to start one at a time.

So me and Betty went down there, we went to this church and we’re going to see just how friendly they were. So we went in, we sat down and there were some people standing around. Nobody came up to us, nobody talked to us. Nobody said hi. I don’t think anybody said bye. They didn’t even say boo. The preacher preached, they got through and we walked out and said that’s one of the coldest churches I’ve ever been in. So anyway, my brother, he goes down there to come and we had to go back up there to Denver and I just going down there to do some things.

So he had to go down there some things. So he got with me later and he said, he said, I think I found just the right church. He said, well, I walked in there. They talked to me. They came up to me. They shook my hand. They made me so welcome. Everybody was friendly. And lo and behold, we were talking about the same church. We were talking about the exact same church. See me and Betty walked in there and we were just to see how friendly they were.

So we just sit down and waited to see who’s going to come up to us and who’s going to talk to us. We were waiting to receive all this adulation about how wonderful we are and how thankful they are that we darkened the doors of their church. My brother went in there, took over. He goes in there and first thing he does, he walks up to everybody and he shakes their hand introduces himself and he smiles and he cuts up and he laughs, he jokes and he had a great time and that was the friendliest church in town.

What made the difference? The Bible says, if you want friends, you must show yourself to be friendly. You want a friendly church? Yeah, be a friend. Be friendly and lo and behold, there you are. I told the guy, he says, preaching to me, aren’t you? He says, you’re preaching to me. I said, well, I’m just trying to help you to see that maybe when you go to the church, you need to be a little bit more friendly. He said, I’m lonesome.

I am so lonesome. I said, sir, if you don’t change your attitude, you’re going to get more lonesome. Then I meant that. I said, it’s going to get worse because he says, you’re sarcastic. He says, you’re not very friendly. I said, sir, I don’t think I can help you. He says, I don’t either. Good bye. I’m glad he was doing the call to me. I didn’t call him. And I can see why he was not getting along with all the preachers and the churches that he went to.

He don’t take any kind of correction. Anything is looked upon as you’re judging me, you’re criticizing me, you’re putting me down. It’s all about me. It’s all about me. Here I am. Make me happy. Please me. And that’s not going to happen in life. I don’t care who you are. Nobody is going to play the music for you to have your sad song. Most people got more things to do. And so therefore, Christians should not be going around whining and panning and moaning and groaning.

We have too much to be thankful for, too much to rejoice for. So he says here in verse 35, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and do what? Look on the fields. They’re wide already to harvest. What’s he talking about? Souls. You’re not talking about wheat, but see, if you don’t see spiritually, you can’t see that. And this is my meat. This is what satisfies. Lose yourself in the will of God, and you’ll be the happiest man on earth.

But if you’re not, it’s because you’re mad at God with something. Or you use people sometimes I do too. We get upset. But make sure I always tell people, this is what I’m like. I bend, but I snuck back to my original position. I always bend with people. But my basic principles of life, my character, it doesn’t change. I bend with people in order to work with people. I want to help people. But I want to try to help people by bringing them to where I am, but I must go to where they are.

One of the things you read in the book of John 1 verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Meantie Tappernackled among us. He came to where we are. We have to go where people are in order to bring them to where they ought to be. And sometimes we don’t want to do that. So God, you’d be surprised how God may work in our life to get us to the place where He wants us to be, to minister to the people that we should.

I did not cover half of what I wanted to, but it’s okay. There’s always a few things that we can learn. You got a Bible? I know you got a Bible. We’re going to study a couple things that we were talking about Wednesday night. night, we were talking about some of the things that we see with the eye. And we sung even a little song, but we won’t sing it again today. But here in the book of Ephesians, turn into the book of Ephesians in chapter 1.

And Ephesians chapter 1, there’s some things that God tells us that he wants us to see that he wants us to know. And you and I, after we trust Christ as our Savior, that’s not the end of it. That’s just the beginning. Trust in the Lord gives us eternal life. We become God’s child. We’re going to heaven. And if you look there in verse 12, that we should be to the praise of His glory. That’s why salvation is by grace.

That we should be to the praise of His glory. See, we can’t take any credit for salvation because we didn’t do it. He deserves all the praise, the credit, because of what was done. And that’s why in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, when he says, for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. This is because God doesn’t want man to get credit because man couldn’t do it.

God gets the credit because only God could do it. And that’s why he makes the statement that he deserves everything that’s coming. Now look in verse seven of chapter two, I want you to see this. In verse seven of chapter two, it says, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace. See, we haven’t really understood, even though we know we’re saved by grace to understand that, to livemerga race. We stand in grace, we’re unmigraced, all of that.

And yet we don’t fully understand it all. It’s just a miracle what God has done for us. Just to think, here you are, you are alive, and you didn’t do anything to be born into this world. God created us, put us here at this time. And yet he knows everything about us before we were ever born, what we’re going to do and not do, how we’re going to think, how we’re going to obey or disobey. And yet in spite of all of that, God loves us.

That in the ages to come, He might show forth the exceeding riches of His grace. In other words, as though we were little trophies of God’s grace, it reveals things about God. But now look what he says. In verse 13, in whom ye also trusted, referring to Christ in verse 12, after that ye heard the word of truth, the good news, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, the guarantee that what God has begun, God will complete.

And you have the down payment. You have the Holy Spirit. living in dwell and within you. And then he says in divisions 4.30 that grieve not the Holy Spirit of God were by your sealed until the day of redemption. So the body is yet to come until then we got to live here in this world. And he talks about the body of Christ, you and I, the family of God. See there in chapter 3 where he makes a statement in verse 15.

He says, of home, the whole family in heaven and earth is named. We’re a family. You may not have thought about it that way, but we are. There’s the family of God. Now, we have families down here and every once in a while, we like to go see our families, and then we like to get away from our families. No. But we love to see them for a while, and then we like to be home again. Isn’t it wonderful to go home?

Sometimes we just can’t wait to get away from home, but it’s so wonderful to go home. And he says, we have a family. But look what he says there in verse 16. That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. So God has given to us, yes, the indwelling Holy Spirit, to strengthen the inter-man. So the inner man is strengthened by the Holy Spirit that lives within us.

So the Holy Spirit that lives within us is to teach us the word of God, so that we’ll know how our Heavenly Father thinks. So God has not left us alone. He’s given to us the most precious thing we could ever have himself, and he wants to lead us. He wants to guide us. But he says, some of God’s children, they go to sleep. They go back to sleep. And live as though they’re not in the family of God.

They live like a lost man, act like lost people. And so they have no hope. Now, Now, look what he says there in the book of Ephesians in chapter 2. And look what he says there in verse 12, that at that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope. It’s a shame that after you have trusted Christ as your Savior, to live your life as though you still have no hope.

And that’s where the Holy Spirit is grieved when there’s so much He wants to do in you to you, for you, through you, that we don’t accomplish what God has for our life. Because He God has made an investment. 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 You have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free, 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the radio broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening.

Live broadcasts 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.