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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.

Take your Bible and turn to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 17 and verse 40. You’ve heard the story about, well, David when he was just a little feller, and he was a shepherd boy, and God had used him in a great way to do some things. He brought a lion and a bear along, and he was able to with his bare hands, you know, take care of them. Now as he was watching the sheep one day and probably be nice and peaceful and he’s playing his heart and singing and then another day he’s having to defend those sheep against from a bear or a lion but you never know what another day is going to bring for it and then lo and behold he’s just feeding the sheep and daddy says hey take some of this grub up there to the front line so that your brother’s got something to eat.

So he goes up there, well, it wasn’t long before he heard this big old loudmouth. God by the name of Goliath. So you reason that you prepare today is because there could be a giant facing you tomorrow. So you don’t know and you think everything is wonderful, surprise, and all of a sudden you’ve got to face Mike Tyson, no problem. You’ve got to fight a giant. You can’t be like David and go through life without problems because it was those situations that makes the man.

And so big problems help you to have big faith, little things, little faith. So do you want your faith to grow in the Lord? Then you have to have something that really challenges your faith. Anyway, David did not come looking for trouble, but he saw trouble and he realized that trouble has to be faced. And he was wondering how come nobody would take this problem. Nobody could solve this problem. See, the problem wasn’t… Well, it was too big for David.

It was too big for any one man. But remember, it’s not too big for you and God. If you can always remember, between you and God, you’re big enough to handle any problem. It doesn’t matter what it is. Between me and God, we know everything in the world. You know that? Between men God, we can walk on water. Between men God. Men God, we can do anything. Now without Him, I can do how much? But with Him, I can do all things.

And so there’s not supposed to be these problems in life that causes us to live in fear, only to give us courage to trust the Lord. So courage is just prayer. I should say fear that says its prayers and then goes ahead. But what I want you to look at, look in verse 40. This is in 1 Samuel chapter 17 and verse 40. It says in verse 40 and he took his staff in his hand, chosen five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in a shepherd’s bag, which he had.

Now he had the bag, but you got to put something in it. You have your life, not what you’re going to put in it. You see, there’s thing God wants you to put into your life, and there’s things the devil wants to put into your life. There might be things you want to put into your life. And God says, I don’t want you to have that in your life. I want you to have some of this and some of this and some of this.

So you see, the Lord has like a spiritual store, and the devil has his store, and you’ve got to decide which store you’re going to go to. And if you go to the Lord’s store, he got all kind of good things for you for your life. And if you go to the devil’s store, he got all kind of things for you to maybe enjoy for a season. And you’ve got to have some discernment. But what you put in is what you’re going to take out.

I have lived long enough to see that there is an advantage of going to the Lord’s grocery store, his spiritual store, and putting spiritual things into your life. And you’re going to like the results of it because they last. They’re not temporary. The things that God has for you will last and you can enjoy them over and over and over again. God’s kind of fun doesn’t have any sorrow that follows it. But He says here, He chosen five smooth stones and we often make the statement, well that’s because you know Goliath had some brothers.

And so He was getting more than just what He needed. He was preparing for future success. Not only to take care of this one with this one stone, but he got five stones and he was prepared that if need be, he could take out a few more. Now, that’s just a little yank-yology reading into it just a little bit, but I kind of enjoy doing that at times. But I do not try to say, well, the scripture definitely says this, but I can see that why would he have picked up five if he thought one was sufficient?

Only because in my mind, I believe that he was preparing for some more success in case there’s other guys, these other brothers that he has to take care of. I believe that what you should do, and you’ve heard me make this statement about, you can have a a well. My daddy used to dig wells. Sometimes wells go dry. See what God does is He gives us what we need for every day, but you’re not supposed to run dry. You see, you put water into the well.

That’s the studying of the Word of God. And sometimes you see, when you put the Word of God into your well, this is the living water. This water then And it refreshes you. And so spiritually speaking, you come to Sunday school, so you learn a little bit, and then you drink a little bit. And the Bible talks about this, about the Word of God. If sinners entice the consent, I’m not. You see from Proverbs. There’s things that you’re not supposed to do.

The entrance of thy word, giveth light. So you want light, you’ve got to have the entrance of God’s Word. If it doesn’t enter you, it doesn’t help you. You may know the Bible is there. Have you ever tried to go to the Bible when you have a problem and you have not a clue where to start? And it’s trying to like, you know, you’ve got to have somebody tell you where to find this or how to find that. When you’re trying to find an answer, some light, some direction, and there’s nobody that seems like they know.

And I had a guy call me last night, well he emailed me, gave me his phone number, so I called him up. And he says years ago, years ago, he said, I got in a fight. He said, I’ve listened to you talk about it on your radio broadcast, how you got to fight one time. That was 50 years ago. And he says, I thought you could help me. He said, I beat this guy pretty bad. He says, it was eight years ago though.

He says, and I have a hard time with forgiveness. And that still bothers me. I’ve talked to the Lord about it, and I don’t know how to deal with it because it still bothers me. I says, you have years ago, I said, you had a bag, and you put some guilt inside of this bag, and you’ve been carrying this guilt around with you, Because see, we often do things wrong and because we’re all people who make mistakes and do things wrong purposely or otherwise.

So we have a bag and we put all of our sins in this bag that we remember. And so we’re carrying around all this guilt because of what we’ve done. And I says, you can confess that to the Lord. It says, Lord, in my bag here, I’ve got the guilt where I beat this guy up. And God can forgive you, but it doesn’t take it out of the bag. I says you still have to forgive yourself and put it behind you.

Take it out of your bag. I says if not, you still care and around with you and you care for the rest of your life. I says now there’s three things about forgiveness. One is getting it from God. And get it from yourself. And then if you can find that guy that you beat the tar out of, if you can go back and tell him, look, I’m sorry. If you can, I said, you’ve got to let it go and go on with life.

You know, we had a good conversation. But a lot of people don’t realize what you put in the bag is what you’re going to carry out. And sometimes you put things in the bag and you’re carrying around with you a bag of unforgiven sins. And we’ll take a look at that in just a moment. But I want you to take your Bible and look there in the book of Hagii. Isn’t that a wonderful book, Hagii? The book of Hagii.

All the way over there on page 962 in an old Scofia reference Bible. And the book of Hagii, I want you to look in chapter 1. Because as God’s children, there’s some things that we need to look at. See, David put some good things into his bag because he wanted to have success. He wanted to win. That’s why you come to Son and school and church and you have your time with the Lord. You’re putting some stones into your bag that you can use down the roof because that helps you to be prepared.

And the thing that hurts sometimes is when you’re not prepared. And you don’t know what a day will bring forth. And you might be really surprised if what comes and you’re not ready to handle that day. That’s why it’s always good to start off with even before you get out of bed. You can mentally say, Lord, help me today. Help me to lean on you today. Make sure that you’re putting some water into your well scriptures and so you can draw out what you need because you don’t know what a day will bring forth and you could be greatly surprised.

So here in the book of Haggai, I hope I gave you enough time to find it. Anyway, in Haggai, I want you to look there in verse five, verse five. Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of Host, And you ought to underline this word, consider. Consider your ways. Consider your ways. You say, well, why? Well, because there’s a reason to consider your ways. And there’s things that people do. See, these people had been over there in the Babylonian captivity for 70 years.

And now they’re coming home. And of course, you’ll read more about the incidents with Ezra and Nehemiah. But here Haggai is also one of the prophets and he’s got problems with the people not considering their ways. He says, don’t you realize what just happened? They were taken out of a land and put into captivity. Now you’re back. Don’t you think you ought to consider something here? They were taken out of a land for 70 years because they didn’t consider their ways.

Now here you are and you think what people will learn. Not always. People don’t always learn. They don’t always consider. Look there in verse 18 of chapter 2 where he says, consider now from this day and upward, as we would say forward, from the four and twenty of day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider it, consider, consider. Now I always like to bring in the verse that I know so that in the book of Isaiah, consider thy ways and to consider what the Lord has done and to let us reason together, say the Lord, because a lot of people don’t consider that whatever you put in the bag is what you’re going to take out of the bag.

What you put into your life is what you’re going to get out of it. And that’s why you need to go to God’s place and learn and grow spiritually so that you can be prepared because you don’t know what a day will bring forth. And so as you go through this, you can find out there’s a lot of good things here in this book. But what I want you to do is look there again in verse 7 of chapter 1, verse 7 of chapter 1, where it says, one where he says, thus saith the Lord of Host, there’s that word, consider your ways.

So as a child of God, do you really consider your ways? You think about what you’re doing because you cannot just do whatever you want to do without consequences. You cannot live as you please without the consequences, without results. Something’s going to happen as a result of whatever you do, cause and effect. makes a difference. Now look there in verse 6. In verse 6 he says, you have so much bringing little. You eat and you have not enough. You drink but you’re not filled with drink.

You clothe you but there is none warm and he and you’ll need to underline this first. I’ve covered some of these at some time in the past but I want you to see it again. He says, but he that urneth wages, urneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. So what is the point of all of this? Consider how you’re living your life because when you don’t live for ================================================================= the Lord. It’s like a person who works all day, makes the money, puts it into a bag, and it’s got holes in it.

Working for nothing is the same as living for nothing. And so you can live for 40, 50, 60, 70 years for nothing. God has given to us the gift of life. What are you doing with this wonderful gift of life that God’s given to you? And many people live their whole lives in total misery and there’s others who seem to enjoy life. It means that, well, that’s because they just don’t know what I go through. They don’t have the problems that I have.

Oh, really. You ought to sit down and talk to other people and you’ll find out that a lot of people go through the same things you go through and feel the same way you do. And yet there’s some people that can just keep on, keep it on. And their faith is strong in the Lord because see they put water into the well. That when they stop alongside that book they didn’t just get one stone they got five stones because you never know down the road what a day will bring forth.

And so there’s these things that that we need to consider. Take your Bible and turn over there to the book of Micah. Don’t you look in the book of Micah. Chapter 6 and verse 11, this is on page 950, verse 11. There are some people who have in their heart an evil heart, a deceitful heart. Now we all know that we all have an old sinful nature, But I’m talking about you and me. Do you have within your heart, as he says right here, a wicked balance in which, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

You see, God talks in a lot in his word about people dealing wisely, just weights. In the word something that’s accurate, truth. air is truth out of balance. Air is truth out of balance because it seemed like in every air there’s always a little bit of truth. Enough to deceive other people and enough sometimes to deceive yourself. Do you honestly truthfully really want the best God has for you. Do you sincerely want the best for other people? Or do you just want to use people?

Or do you really care about other people? Or is there a wrong motive? I had someone give me a call yesterday on the phone from another state. He said, Yannick, in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 10, where it says, and we must all appear before the judgments of Christ to receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad.

He’s, what is this bad? I know we don’t have to account for our sins because God Christ paid for our sin. So when I get to heaven, am I gonna have to worry about that again? I says, not as I know of. I says, now over there in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and in chapter 4, where he says, just nothing before the time, because the day will declare it. And it talks about just nothing until the Lord shows up, then shall God do several things.

Also discern the intent or the motive of the heart. You see, you can do the right thing with the wrong motive. Say, can you do that? Doesn’t the Bible tell us in the book of Matthew in chapter 6 that if you do these good works to be seen of men, verily I say unto you, you have your reward. You know what he said? So did they do the right thing? Yes. But with the wrong motive. Did you know you can come to church?

That’s a good thing. But if you came to church because you’re trying to save yourself from hell by doing something good, it’s not a bad thing. Then it’s a bad thing. It’s not a sin to go to church. What was wrong is the motive. See, God says that everything that we do here is not going to only be judged for rewards in heaven because of what you did but because of the reason, the motive of why you did it.

There’s more than meets the eye. So as a child of God, we know that we have various bags and we can put into them. But what do you put in into your heart that causes you to think of certain things, things that you put into that bag? It’s kind of like you got these two bags up here. You know, this serves up, put all these good things in this bag, this is from the Lord, because I want God’s blessings upon my life so I do all these things.

But I also love the world just a little bit so just so I can enjoy a few things with the world, I put these in this bag. And then there’s always somebody doing you wrong. Well, I got another bag for that. And I always remember all those people who did all these wrong things. So now I’m carrying guilt of even people who wrong me. And then there’s people that I wrong and I never made it right. So I’ve got all this guilt.

Did you know as a Christian you can go through life and you’re weighted down? I believe that you should balance your life. You should be in a sense natural in your spiritual life and spiritual in your natural life. In other words, whatever you are, it’s the way you really are. You ought not be one way at church in another way at home or another way at work. another way, you know, someplace out. The way you are is supposed to be the way you really are.

That’s you. And you don’t have to put on a show for anybody at any time because you’d be real. Balancing the Christian life where you get the walk and the talk to agree. Where you live your faith and not just somebody who can, like a bull in a china shop, you can go after somebody, but But are you also temperate in other areas of your life? I had some people that Colorado and also in Georgia, that it didn’t matter how they lived.

I’m a soul winner. And they would pass out tracks, talk to anybody they could. But when they weren’t talking to somebody about the Lord, they could be as mean and as ugly and ungodly and critical and bitter and just hateful. But, almost all winter, something’s wrong with the picture. It’s not that that’s bad, because that’s good that you talk to people about the Lord. But do you think that God also wants you as a soul-winner to be disciplined in your life so that people will be challenged and motivated to serve the Lord because of your faithfulness, your godliness, your holy?

You see, you’ve got to have a balance in your life. And if you weigh yourself down with the things of this world and you’re putting into your life things that are no good, you’re not going to be blessed because of it. I want you to look at this. Look in Luke chapter 12, the book of Luke, and chapter 12.

And look in verse 33. Here the Lord is saying a few things to his disciples. You know that from verse 22, But look there in verse 33. In verse 33, sell that you have, give arms, and underline this statement. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old. A treasure in the heavens that fail if not. Where no thief approaches, neither moth the corrupted. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. In other words, as you and I go through life, we’re supposed to be putting treasure into our bag.

So that whenever you get to heaven, God is going to reward you for what you have done for Him. That you can’t lose. See, you can have a bag that has holes in it. And you can have a wasted life. Didn’t know it is true to me. It’s a shame that you had somebody who has such tremendous talent and ability. And I’ll even say like Elvis Presley or this Whitney Houston and from what I’ve heard that a lot of people enjoy and loved them.

They meant so much to so many people and they are impressed because of their talent and their abilities and what they can do and their performances and all. But isn’t it a shame that they get so sidetracked and began to put drugs into their bag and It takes their life As though they didn’t know what was going to happen. They didn’t know what they were doing. I Believe that people when if you use drugs You’re committing suicide little by little.

You just don’t know the day. It’s going to happen and it’s not a wise thing to do It’s a foolish thing. And so you know that something’s wrong in their thinking. And the reason is you’re not happy about something. There’s something in your life that’s still missing. Because you see, you don’t have to have drugs to enjoy life. That’s because you don’t enjoy life. It’s because something else is missing that’s more important than all the things. That’s knowing the Lord and serving the Lord.

I don’t know of a pure, godly individual who really loves the Lord that has to get out on drugs and alcohol and all that. Don’t have to, you don’t need that. It’s junk. It’s trash. It’s a bag full of holes and it leaves so many people empty and it doesn’t satisfy. There’s a lot more to life. But you don’t know what a day is going to bring for it. What will tomorrow bring? We don’t know. You know not. You don’t know.

So it’s better to prepare. Get some of those five smooth stones out of the brook. In the word, and put your hope and your confidence in the Lord. And that between me and the Lord, I don’t know what’s coming tomorrow. There might be a big old giant. I may have to face a goliath tomorrow, but me and God, called my faith is in Him, we can face whatever it is. And I don’t want to waste my life putting all my life into a bag full of holes.

Let’s pray, shall we? Our Father, we thank You so much for all You’ve done for us. We’re thankful for Jesus Christ, who loved us so much, who came into this world in a short life. Thirty-three years, he lived a perfect life. He had no bag full of holes. He was perfect. Did everything right. And Father, you used him as the perfect sacrifice. He died and paid for the sins of the whole world so that we only by faith in what he did can have the free gift of eternal life.

We ask to blessings upon each one here for those that watch by internet. We ask to blessings upon the service to follow. We thank you for it 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, 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 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. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.