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Good to have you out here today. I want to talk to you about a few things and maybe help you to remember. Can you recall what was it that brought you to Christ? Did God have to hit you over the head with the two before? Did He have to bring a crisis in your life? Or even after you trusted the Lord? Has there been times in your Christian life there whereby you’ve drifted from the Lord and God had to get your attention?

He had to kind of give you a wake up call. Can you remember that? And you said, I’ll never do that again. I’m gonna walk with the Lord from here on. Has that day come where you’ve determined in your mind? I am determined I’ve made up my mind, I will serve the Lord. How you doing? How you doing? If you see, there’s a time coming in the future we’ll have to give an account to the Lord for everything that we’ve done, good or bad.

Now our sins are taking care of, but God says that we’re gonna stand at the judgment of Christ, be rewarded for what we’ve done, something lost of what we could’ve had. So every day of our lives is affecting eternity. We learned a statement in college years ago, your future is being determined by your obedience to God today. So would you take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Amos, the book of Amos?

This is on page 936 in an old school for a reference Bible or in one of the Bibles that’s in the pew and funny you’re there. And turn to the book of Amos in chapter 4, page 936. As you know, God, He loved His people. He loved the nation of Israel. He wanted to use them for his honor and for his glory. And there were times when they weren’t well too honoring of his glory. And God had to deal with him.

He was on the verge of really destroying the whole nation. Going to have them taken into captivity. All these things were done. They were warned. But some people just never get the message. They never get that wake up call. They just don’t listen, don’t pay any attention. We’re living in a country today where I don’t know if God’s people really understand the seriousness of us living right. It really doesn’t matter to much about how dark it gets. It’s just are we shining the way we should.

This is the perfect time for us to want to be used by God because the opportunities are unlimited. The world needs us. The world needs a good Christian example of somebody who has confidence in the Lord walks with the Lord and wants to be used by God The world doesn’t have the answers But we do so hearing the book of Amos in chapter 4. I want you looking verse 6 and I have also given You cleanness of teeth in all your cities and want a bread in all your places places, yet have you not returned unto me, say, the Lord, in other words, I’ve even brought famine upon you.

You think, well, that would get you to come to me. He says, that didn’t work. You’d be surprised how many times the preacher may say certain things as a warning. No, don’t do this. Don’t do that because it’s going to hurt you. Anytime God says, don’t do something if you call this gonna hurt you. And so you tell a little child, I’ll put you hand in the fire. Why? Because I don’t love my child. No, because you know the fire’s gonna hurt him.

So when God says, don’t commit a doctor, it’s gonna hurt you. Don’t lie and steal and cheat because it’s gonna hurt you. All those things that are sinful hurt somebody. You say, well, long as it doesn’t bother me, it bothers everybody. Sin is like a disease that you catch. And you have an old sinful nature and it’s hard to refuse. And everybody stirs up that old sinful nature in somebody else. Are you that just get angry and you can make somebody else angry?

Get discouraged and you can discourage somebody else. Walk into sin and you can get somebody to follow you. But it also works the other way. Look what he said in verse seven. And also I have withholding the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest. And I caused it. You ought to underline those little statements. I caused it to rain upon one city, cause it not to rain upon another city. One piece was rained upon and the paster were on it rained not withered.

So two or three cities wandered into one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied yet. Yet have you not returned to me, saith the Lord? Look, look what I’ve done to try to get your attention. You see, because you and I can’t see God, doesn’t mean that God is not working. If these scriptures are true, things are not happened by accidents. There’s a lot of things that God is doing and working in your life. You just sometimes don’t see it.

And God may want you to do something wonderful for him, but you won’t listen, you won’t give him a chance. Sometimes you start wandering away from the Lord and it seemed like so far so good, like the guy that jumped off the Empire State building. So far so good. But you knew he had an appointment with the concrete.

God says there is an appointment coming. God will deal with us. We’re not free to just do whatever we want to do without consequences. As I’ve said before, we are free to rebel against God. And God then is free to chastise him, however he pleases. Sound like a pretty good deal? you can live any way you want, and God can chase in you any way he wants. So therefore, I think it would be wise to serve the Lord. I would rather have his blessings than his chasting.

What else he said to him first time, I have smitten you with blasting and mildew with your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased. The pom-a-worm devoured them, yet have you not returned to me, say, if the Lord, you still won’t listen. And God says, when you came into the land, if you’ll serve me, I will bless you. I’ll take care of your enemies. I won’t put any of the diseases of the Egyptians upon you.

What a healthcare program. Obamacare’s nothing like this. And it wouldn’t have cost him anything. All you had to do was just serve God. But when you don’t serve God, God sends all kinds of diseases upon the people. All kinds of problems. And buddy, don’t we have it today? I could get lost right on this subject, but I’m not gonna do it. I live it. Look at verse 10, I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt.

And your young men have I slain with the sword and have taken away your horses and have made the stink of your kimps to come up into your nostrils, yet have you not returned to me, Santa, Lord? You see, the one thing after the other, what would it take to bring you to God? Now see if God does this to Israel, God teaches us examples in the Old Testament about how he works in our own lives. You see God is very patient with us, but he gives us warnings.

And sometimes if you don’t hate it and then all of a sudden, and then you wonder, what happened? Listen, you stumble before you fall. You don’t just fall, you stumble before you fall. Oh, I’ve got to understand. There was a trail you took before you got there. There’s things that you disobeyed before you got there. There’s things that you watch in places you go, friends that you have, that influence, the next thing you know, I don’t know what to happen.

Oh yes you do. Try to remember. Try to remember. You’ll never become a drunk if you never take his first swallow. I ain’t never seen a person become a drunk. They didn’t take his drink first. You I’ve never had a drink of strong drink in my life Therefore for 71 years. I’ve never been a drunk You see you have to do something in order to accomplish that You don’t have to do some things just because well, that’s everybody does everybody doesn’t So that doesn’t satisfy.

It’s an addiction and everybody is addicted to something. I became addicted to the cause of Christ. God and His Word got a hold of me years ago. And I wanted to serve the Lord. I watched enough people mess up their lives and I thought, now why should I do the same stupid thing they’re doing? If you think, I want to be different. different, then be different. Serve the Lord. There’s no competition there. Most people aren’t. They just play little games.

Even people that just go to church, even bring a Bible occasionally. Even once in a while they’ll even say, rub a dub dub. Thanks for the grub. Yay, God. And you’ll think, well, that’s the end of my prayer life. Y’all look down to that little crack. while we eat our snack amen John Ben shot a rooster killed a hen she can die and rooster cried and then she satisfied. Well there you go and that was on the depths of your spirituality.

Well so the Lord says here in verse 12 therefore well I do unto the oh Israel and because I will do this unto the prepare to meet God. In other words as last resort and you’re not going to listen to me prepare to meet God. Did you know that all of life is preparation to meet God. You’ve never met him yet. We know him from the Word of God, and except Christ is our Savior, we can have eternal life and know that we’re going to heaven.

But one day, face to face, we’re gonna meet God. It’s appointed unto every man wants to die and after this, the judgment. That’s a judgment coming. Now, I don’t have to worry about the great white throne judgment, that’s for the lost man. But I am gonna have to stand to the judgment to Christ where I will be rewarded for what I’ve done and suffer the loss of what I could have done and didn’t do. So the Lord kind of tells us all these things.

Now I want you to take your Bible and turn me to the book of Jude in verse 14, the book of Jude. All the way over there in a no Testament believe it or not, the book of Jude verse 14. A brief little comment, just a brief comment about a man named Enoch. Man named Enoch. You often wonder, I wonder what happened in Enoch’s life that caused him to be so dedicated that he had the testimony that he pleased God and God took him.

A man that didn’t physically die, walking along, and all of a sudden he disappears. What would it be awesome? Just walking along and gone. But what he says, now you wouldn’t know this if you read Genesis, but you’ll notice this in the book of Jude. And he says there in verse 14, Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints. And then he tells them why he’s coming with ten thousands of his saints and he’s going to execute judgment upon the earth.

People are not going to get away with murder. God is a righteous God. He’s just. If it was just justice that we wanted from God, all of us would die. So So God balances that justice with love and mercy. And because of His mercy, we’re not all consumed. Now take a Bible and go to the book of Genesis in chapter 5. Genesis chapter 5, and you’ll notice there’s a couple things before the flood, the great flood upon the earth.

People were born, they lived to be of great age. one is not a great age, just thought I’d throw that in there. These fellows lived a long time. I mean, long time. Louis says they’re in Genesis chapter 5. See there in verse 5 and all the days at Adam lived 930 years, 930 years. How would you like to live 930 years? Man, that’s a long time to live. But then what happened He died. He died. Still died. Still died.

Still died. Still die. And you’re going to have to look at this and look at verse 8. And all the days of Cepha are 912 years and he died too. In verse 11, and he died. Up in verse 12, a 14. And all the days of Canaan were 910 years. Ah, he’s still croaked. He died. How long do you want to live? You’d be surprised how long we want to live. When we’re stressing out there as far as we can and we can get to 70.

Wow, I got 70. Man, if I can just make it to 80. And it says, if you do make it to 80, more heartache and more sorrow, and then you still fly away. Psalms 90, you’re still going to what? You’re still gonna die. So the question is, where are you going, when you die? That’s the important thing. I know that I have eternal life. You say, how do you know? Because I’m so good. No, no, no. It’s because God is so good.

He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to down the cross to paper, all those things that I’ve done in my whole life. From the time I’m born to the time I die, he’d pay for all of my sins. All I have to do is believe he did it for me. And he would put that payment to my account. I go to heaven on what Christ did. You don’t earn it, you don’t work for it, you can’t buy it. Now, that’s preparing to meet God.

So, regardless of how long you think you’re going to live. And even though you taught a good clean life, you’re still going to die, there’s still gonna be judgment. And are you prepared to meet God prepared? So all of life is preparation to meet God. So I know I’m gonna meet him at the Jesuit seat of Christ. Some are gonna meet him at the Greywhat throne judgment. But I want to be prepared and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

So he may come today, and if he does, the Bible says, my little children, abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. Because I believe a lot of Christians are going to be ashamed that they did not do with their lives what God wanted them to do. As a pastor, my only dream for you is to do exactly what you know God’s Word says you ought to do.

That’s all. And I simply want to help you get there. Look there at this verse. See there a man had a son and his name was Enoch. Verse 21 says, says an Enoch lived 60 and five years in begot Methuselah. You ever heard of old man Methuselah? Now he’s told me the man lived the longest. 969 years, that’s almost 900 years long with a knife lived so far. I don’t know if I’d want to live that long. But it says he was 65 years old and he had a kid.

And he makes this statement. In verse 1 to Enoch walk with God after he begat Matusla. Now I know he didn’t say he walked with God before he had him. It was after he had a son. And think about his son and the name Matusla is when he is dead. Judgment will come. So whenever you figured out at the time of his life, at the end of it, the flood came. Something got a hold of Enoch because he lived another 300 years Because he walked with God and see in verse 23 and all the days of Enoch were 360 in five years That’s all he got 365 the other guy got 900.

No, we got 900. No, we got 900 and his son got 900 and he only got 300 Well, he got Rob Yeah, but he got to go to heaven without dying. I would rather go to heaven and not live long than to live long and go to hell. But every man going to live, he’s going to die. And are you prepared to make God? Are you prepared? Was it because he had a son that did something to him? I think family sometimes, the husband or wife, and they just always had each other.

Then God will bless with a little precious little child. And that precious little child can call the dad to wake up and says, you know, I need to be the right kind of a father. That mom says, you know, I need to be a good mother for my baby. And something bringing together, come and wake some up. Maybe they see a dream for that child. And they want God to help them. And so they dedicate their lives to raising their children and the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.

Do you remember you did that? You You remember you did that. And then after a few years, you became a bad testimony to your kids. When you didn’t walk with God and you went astray, you’d be surprised how many do that. What would it take for God to bring you back to him? Did you know that God can take your wife? God can take your kid. God can take your husband. God can take anything. See, God is free to do whatever God wants to do.

But everything God does is for a reason, for a purpose. Don’t ever think that regardless of what happened in life that God doesn’t love you. He does love you. He loved Israel and he says, I did this and that didn’t help. I did this, that didn’t help. And it seemed like it just no end to it. All these things happen. Take your Bible looking second chronicles, chapter 26. Second chronicles, second chronicles in chapter 26. In chapter 26, there was a king that wasn’t doing too well.

He didn’t mess up. His name was Usaya. And he was about 16 years old and he was made a king. And he’d done a pretty good job, but in verse seven says, and God helped him against the Philistines. So he did a few things, right? And he was a little on the zealous side. He did some things he shouldn’t have done. Look at verse 16. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. He got too big for his britches.

He got to the place where I’m the king and I’m not a priest, but I’m going to do the work of the priest. I’m going to go in there and grab ahold of the horns of the altar and I’m going to do this. And they told them to say, you got no business in here. overstepping the boundary button. This belongs to the priests. This is their office. This is what they do. That is not your job. And he defined them.

You can do it anyway. So he says for that he transgressed against the Lord his God, went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. Zachariah, Azariah, the priest went in after him and with him four score priests of the Lord at eighty of them that were valiant men and they would stood Yuziah the king and said unto him, it pertaineth not unto the Yuziah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the priests the sons of Aaron that the priests the son of Aaron that are consecrated to burn in sin go out of the sanctuary.

Well thou hast trespassed neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God. You are in the wrong place during the wrong thing. It’s not your responsibility. Get out of here. You ever heard of being hard-headed, setting you ways, and that God can’t get through to you and he’s going to have to take a two before two yet. Did you know, women, listen to me, if you’ve got a hard-headed husband, turn him over to the Lord. He’ll do a better job than you ever will.

Don’t you try to straighten him out, just let God, Lord, He’s all yours. Have fun. And I can guarantee you, God will. God can deal. Look what else He says here. Down here in verse 19, then you Ziah was wrought. That means his countenance was changed. He was angry, mad, upset. And he had a censure in his hand to burn in his hands. And while he was wrought with the priest, the leprosy He even rose up in his forehead before the priest in the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar.

lees areiah the chief priest and all the priests looked upon him and behold he was leopress in his forehead and they trust him out from thence, ye himself hasted also to go out because the Lord had smitten him. The Lord smitten him. Now did that have to happen? All he had to do was do right. He brought this upon himself. You ever heard the story about Jonah and the whale? He brought that on himself. Is he God told him to go to Nineveh?

He says, I will not. He ran. And when he ran from God. Did he get away from God? Mm. God sent a storm. God sent a big old fish. Took him to the depths of the earth, and all kinds of things that God did. But it didn’t have to be that way. You’d be surprised how many things probably that you haven’t had to go through and face in your life. It didn’t have to be that way, but you made some bad decisions.

You see, when you sow wild oats when you’re young, Guess what you’re gonna read when you get older? Wild odes Except the law of the harvest is you read more than you so lots more and you’ll read later and the same thing So when you sow wild odes when you’re young you’re gonna read wild odes when you get older and a lot of older folks are Shuffling the consequences of decisions they made when they were not in the will of God and Then they pray for a crop failure And it don’t work that way God says in the book of Galatians in chapter 6 verse 7, be not deceived, God is not mocked whatsoever.

A man soeth that shelly also, you see, you’re reaping, watch yourself, you want peace, so peace, you want love, so love, you want joy, so joy. But you sow to the flesh and you’re gonna have the flesh reap corrupt, it’s gonna destroy your life. They can destroy your family. They can destroy the church and also a nation. But this is their inverse 21 and Isaiah the king was a leper unto the day of his death. Now it makes a statement in verse 22 that some of this is talked about by the prophet Isaiah.

So go to the book of Isaiah in chapter 1. Isaiah in chapter 1. It’s amazing that now Isaiah is looking at the nation of Israel and he sees the same thing of the nation that he saw of Josiah. The leprosy was incurable. Now he looked at Israel and their problem is incurable. He says from the soul of your foot to the top of your head. See there in verse five, why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more.

The whole head is sick. The whole heart is spain from the soul of the foot, even unto the head. There’s no soundness in it. And spite of all of that, spite of how bad it is. He says there in verse 18, come now, looking at verse 18, very good verse. come now and let us reason together, say, as the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be rid like crimson, they shall be as warm.

And then he says in the very next verse, if you’ll be willing and obedient, God says, look what I’ll do for you, but you bring in these things upon yourself. It’s not what God wants. God doesn’t enjoy beating his kids, spanking his kids. He wants us to be, have an enjoyable life. He should even pray for those that are over us that we may lead a quiet and a peaceful life. But sometimes the things that we do, we create the very turmoil we despise because we don’t trust God.

You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free, 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. 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 1030 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 Bible Eye, 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.