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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 the Book of Luke, the gospel of Luke, gospel of Luke chapter 17. I got a funny little title for today’s message. Just living on the edge. You ever feel like you’re just living on the edge? Another thought I had was how to make God look good. So you think about it, you want people to serve a Lord. Okay, there’s people who trust you Christ as Savior. We have to make serving God look good.

But if you look like you’re not having a good time, like you’re really miserable, There’s not really much to pull a person into what you have. So therefore, if you always keep that in mind, regardless of what’s going on, regardless of how you feel, do I make God look good? What I call somebody else who want to know the God that I know, the God that I serve. And if you’re always walking around like you’ve been baptized in lemon juice, you know, he’s just not gonna cut it.

So I thought about this, you know, it’d be nice to be able live on the edge, live on the edge, because I feel like my own personal life is kind of like a constant, continuous Indiana Jones life. Always something exciting going on. My life has really been exciting. I wouldn’t trade it for anybody’s in the world. And neither should you change yours. You should be so thrilled and excited about what God is doing in your life that you just love it, love it, love it, love it.

It’s very cool, we’ll say, ain’t that good, ain’t that good, ain’t that good? Did he ever say that when he went up there, He didn’t take good, ain’t that good, ain’t got it. He copied it from me. No, no, he didn’t. But anyway, when you stop and think about a man named Joseph, you ever heard of a guy named Joseph in the Bible? Yeah. He went from the pit to the prison to the palace. That’s a good little outlining.

And all those things, you know, it would have been so great if that had been us, God tell me what you’re going to do. And then tell me why you’re going to do it. That would have taken away all the suspense. Have you ever watched the TV broadcast of Murder Mystery? Now, she loves these murder mysteries, you know. Some of them, I think they’re stupid, but these little murders, it builds up to the excitement. And you’re always trying to figure out who did it.

Well, you know, it’s the suspense of something that really makes it exciting. You got to have some drama in there. Well, in your personal life, do you want to live a purely non-exciting existence? Cold? Everything’s calculated? Everything’s laid out? And no suspense. I love suspense. Wondering how in the world is God going to get me out of this? And he doesn’t tell you how he’s going to do it, but living by faith is you believe he will. You just don’t know how he’s going to do it, and you don’t know when he’s going to do it.

So I love the suspense. All those things that happened to Joseph, it would have ruined it if God had told him in advance everything he was going to do in his life. He had to keep trusting the Lord all the way through. here for somebody named David in the Bible. Remember King David? Before he took on Goliath, had he already had some past successful experience? Had he already taken a bear and killed a bear with his bare hands. Then, oh, before I would tackle this bear, I’d like to know who’s going to win.

Wouldn’t you like to know who’s going to win? I wonder who’s going to win. But if you knew in advance, it takes away the fun, the excitement, the trust, the drama. And so you’ve got to fight with all your might. The Bible says whatsoever thy hands finds to do it with all thy might. And so he took care of a bear and then he took care of a lion. And all the other people that were of the most there on the day of Goliath, they were all a bunch of cowards.

They were afraid. Afraid of what? Well, he’s going to kill me. You have to think about the excitement for the moment. People might read about you forever. But it’s the thrill. Now get this. If God did that in the Old Testament and he did it in the New Testament, he never told all of his disciples everything was going to happen to them. All things are going to go wrong. you realize that some of us probably would not serve a Lord, but we serve the Lord because we trust Him.

And sometimes you don’t know how it’s going to pan out. You don’t have to know just for that thrill guiActive the moment. What do you think? If there was no excitement in getting married, people wouldn’t even get married. But it’s because people, you know, they want it, they never been married before. They never had children before. They never had to work before. But anyway, here in Luke, look what he says here. He says in verse 5, and the apostles said unto the Lord, and you ought to underline these three words, increase our faith.

There’s nothing like a crisis, nothing like a problem, or nothing like living on the edge that is more exciting than the Lord, increase my faith. Why should God increase your faith if there’s nothing to trust Him for. If you’ve got it all figured out, if you can handle it. See that’s the honor of being a child of God and knowing that your heavenly Father is making a way. He just not telling you how He’s going to do it and you’ve got to just keep walking with Him.

That’s fun. Then He makes a statement. He said, if you only had the faith the size of a a grain of mustard seed. You might say to this sickened mind tree, he said, be thou plucked up by the roots and be thou planted in the sea and it should obey you. Now, buddy, that’s a lot of faith. I haven’t told a tree to do that yet. I will say this. I told my daughter one time she was a little tight and was done in Miami.

I’m going to Bible college and it was pouring down raining. It was raining so bad I couldn’t see and there’s traffic and I’m talking about I couldn’t see but I’m if all the cars are I said, honey, I can’t see, but I couldn’t stop either. So I had to keep moving. And, look, training, she says, why don’t you ask God to stop it from raining? I thought, oh, I know you don’t. Now, why didn’t I say, sure, honey, that’s what I’ll do.

I’ll ask God to stop it from raining because I already figured it out. See, if it doesn’t stop raining, it makes me look bad. I said, you pray. She bowed her head. God stopped it from rain and Jesus named Amen and stopped. I mean, not another drop. And she just… Everything’s cool. I thought, boy am I glad I didn’t ask. And I thought, it was just a coincidence. Sometimes, you know, you don’t get to have that honor. God answered my prayer because you were afraid to pray because you were afraid you just get let down and he wouldn’t come through.

That’s why a lot of people are afraid to get out of the boat and walk on the water because they are figuring out, I’m not going to sink anyway. I’m not getting out there. You know what the other disciples said as soon as he got out there and started walking on the water, I was just fixing to do that. I could have done that. Liar, liar, liar, pants on the fire. Here he talks about increase our faith. Why do we want kids to go to camp?

Increase their faith. Why do you want kids to go to college? Increase their faith. What about kids that people who come to Sunday school or church or increase your faith? Everything’s about increasing your faith. Don’t be satisfied with the status quo. Always something to do. And then the Lord tells us down here in some of these verses, after you have done everything God wants you to do, you have only done that which you were commanded. So don’t pat yourself on the back.

After we have worked for the Lord for say 50 years And you sacrifice, you’ve done all the things you’ve done. Just say, I’m a profitable servant. I’ve only done that which one I should have done anyway. See, there’s a guy in verse 10. So likewise, when ye shall have done all those things, which are commanded, you say, we are unprofitable servants. We have only done that, which was our duty to do. So that you don’t get too high minded.

Just be thankful that God has given to us the privilege, the opportunity, the serval or the side of eternity. Now, won’t you take your Bible and go back to the book of Ecclesiastes? The book of Ecclesiastes. In the book of Ecclesiastes, right after the book of Proverbs, there are any Ecclesiastes. There’s an interesting portion of Scripture around chapter 9. Chapter 9. Man says, accident, God says incident. Man says disappointments, and God says appointment. Did you know when God says it’s appointed under every man wants to die?

It means you got out of appointments you got to make. There’s things that God has appointed for us in our life. There’s things that are going to come into our life because God knows what it takes to increase our faith. And sometimes we don’t want to grow. or just, everything’s cool. Just, Lord, don’t you rock the boat. I used to have people say this, Yankee, don’t rock the boat. Just leave it alone, don’t rock the boat. I’m always been a person who rocks the boat.

I just don’t like things, that’s quote. You gotta cause something to happen. But I always heard that if you have both hands on the oars, it’s hard to rock the boat. But sometimes we’re not always doing what we’re supposed to do. But what I want you to see there in chapter nine, at Luke what he says in verse nine, live joyfully with the wife whom thou leveth all the days of the life of thy vanity.

Can you imagine Solomon saying this? He says live joyfully with the 900 wives that I’ve got. No. Oh, it’s 700 wives and 300 porcupines. I think that’s where it was. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou leveth all the days of the life of Thy vanity, which he hath given thee unto the sun, all the days of Thy vanity, for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labor which thou takeeth unto the sun. You’ll find the phrase mentioned over and over again, under the sun, under the sun, as a lost man without God, as a man without God, as a man who lives his life without seeing spiritual truths, without discernment.

Then you go after everything to make you happy live life joyfully. There is no one who wants us to be happier than it is the Lord. No one wants you to have more joy than the Lord. Because the Lord, the one that came up with this plan, is just that people have a different idea on how to reach that goal. And he says in the book of John, he says, happy are ye if you do them. If you do what God says do, you’ll be a happy person.

and you’ll have a life field with joy and joy that God can give and the world can’t take it away from you. So you’ve got to learn though, to live on the edge. And I’m not talking about the edge of sin. I’m talking about where you’re talking about your faith so that your faith can grow. Have you been to the extreme, the limits of what you consider to be my confidence in God? What can I trust God for? What can’t I trust God for?

What are your limits? and a man limits himself by his own limited thinking. But he makes a statement here in verse 10, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, doeth all thy might. For there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave where the thou goeth. In one of these days we’re all gonna be dead. You can’t serve God once you’re dead. There’s nothing more you can do in this life or we’ll be with the Lord, but this is my dream, this is my opportunity.

If you’ll look at all the problems in life, all the obstacles, all the trials, those are simply ways to invest in the future. It means God’s gonna reward you in eternity for how you handle your investments. How did you spend your time? What did you invest in? And all these problems we have is a way to demonstrate your wisdom. So you can accumulate knowledge, kids go to college, I went to college, You go to college and you accumulate knowledge.

Knowledge is not necessarily wisdom. Wisdom is the application of the knowledge. So God gives you trials, problems to solve. So that’s where you find, I got a little knowledge and you apply it and see how wise am I. And you reveal your wisdom by the decisions you make. So everybody makes decisions every day of the life. Life is a life of choices. But he makes a statement here in verse 11, and I return and saw unto the son that their race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bred to the wise nor yet riches to men of understanding nor yet favor to men of skill and underline this last phrase, but time and chance happen to them all.

In other words, in life, you’ll find out that you have so much time and during that period of time there’s things that God has appointed. And you may not like those things, but God is the one that designs the obstacle course for us to run. Run the race that is set before you. And God says when you get tired and weary and you want to stop, consider Him because He didn’t quit, who endured such contradiction of sinners. A lot of people don’t care what you do with your life, they don’t give you a liver die.

A lot of people don’t care what kind of problems you have, they don’t care whether you succeed or fail. But you see, God does. God wants you to be successful and being successful, all you have to do is be faithful. So increase your faith and all God’s doing is trying to bless you by giving you things that help you to grow and become more spiritually minded. Take your Bible look in the book of Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 and there’s an interesting verse there. Because the Bible tells us that you and I are the salt of the earth, we are the light of the world. We sing that song, this little light of mine. I’m gonna let it shine. And we say, I don’t know. God does not want to hide you. He doesn’t want to stick you underneath a bush or someplace. If you will be faithful to serve the Lord and put Him first, God will put you where He wants you.

And you never know where it is. Sometimes He might put you in the darkest places. You see, sometimes we want to where it’s all light, but then the light doesn’t shine as bright as it does in a dark place. the darker it is, the brighter you can shine. So sometimes God puts you in a very terrible place because he wants you to shine, but not get this. In verse 14 says, You are the light of the world, a city that is set on the hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candle stick. And they give a flight unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Now the question is, when should you do that? When should you let people see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven? Your good works is your light.

So when are you supposed to do that? When you get at least 70. I think you ought to at least start when you’re 70. Or can you do it when you’re a teenager? Can you do it when you’re a college agent? When should you so let your light shine? All the time. Always, that means in every situation with every person, with every problem, you are supposed to make God look good. Is though, hey, my confidence in God, or do you fall apart?

Wine, pine, and complainin’, moaning, groan. Everything’s going wrong. God doesn’t love me. He got sick this morning and died. And you’d be surprised how pitiful you can be. A lot of Christians are playing pitiful. They are miserable in their life and nothing goes their way in their office. That’s because you forgot who you are. You forgot how your father is trying to increase your faith. It’s because he wants you to have that suspense in life, the thrill of God coming through at the last minute.

And so sometimes he doesn’t let you see everything. He doesn’t want you to. You see, that’s why you have to walk close to the Lord all your life, not just parts of it. Well, I don’t need the Lord today. Everything’s going cool. And you think God is just a, you know, he’s a life preserver when I need him. You ever have a life preserver put it in a boat but never put it on? You fall in the water and wish you had it on.

I’ve had that experience. you’re supposed to always have your lifers ever with you, but you won’t be some other kind of excitement, but we’ll leave that go for right now. But here, glorify your Father. Isn’t that why you’re here? You know Him, and it pleases your heavenly Father for the way you discipline yourself, the way you correct yourself, the way you humble yourself, the the way you walk, the way you deal with all the problems of life. But if you just fall apart because of everything, then you and the Lord aren’t tech close.

When you worry, worry, worry yourself sick, then you’re not as close to your heavenly Father as you think you are. And the problems of life simply reveal that. So, now you know, turn to Acts chapter 10, the book of Acts, and chapter 10. Acts chapter 10, Peter had gone to the household of Cornelius and he was sent there to preach the gospel so that people could be saved. So Peter goes and he starts off and he gives the gospel and he kind of does it around the back way and it wasn’t just he didn’t just tell him believe in Jesus for eternal life.

No he has some content to his message. So he starts off there in verse 34. Peter opened his mouth. That’s one of the first things we have to do. open thy mouth wide. And God says, and I will fill it. But it says, He opened his mouth, and that is sometimes the hardest thing to do is to get started. You know, sometimes, you know, seeing people that just, they just don’t like to talk this shy and timid, you know, kind of like I am, introvert.

But once they start talking, you can’t shut them up. Sometimes I’ve seen little kids like that. There is a way to win the hearts of other individuals. Did you know we have opportunities to be kind or to be mean? How are you known? Oh, don’t say that around her. If you say that around her, she’ll explode. Bloom! Or it doesn’t matter what you say, and when you say it, they’re always cool. They can handle it. Do you have to tip toe around certain people because of their attitude.

I like to give them an attitude adjustment. But anyway, as we’re looking right here, he says, he opened his mouth instead of a truth I perceive. God is not a respecter of persons. See, God wants everybody, Jews, Gentiles, to hear the gospel, everybody to be saved. And he says in verse 35, but in every nation, it doesn’t matter who it is, everybody who wants to know, they can know. But he also goes down here and he makes this statement.

He gives the gospel and he says in verse 39, and we are witnesses of all these things which he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem whom they slew and hanged on a tree. So he goes through and he gives the content of the gospel. But you know the verse that I like out of all of these? Well, I love them all, but look verse 38, where it says everywhere Jesus went, He went about doing good.

Now you may not have a lot of money, you may not be the most brilliant there is, and maybe you can’t solve all the problems in the world, but there’s nothing that says you just can’t go about and just do good. You see what He says there went about doing good and look at the last part of that verse, you ought to underline the last part of that verse, before he says, for God was with him. Let me ask you this, is God with you?

Is God with you? You God with me? Then if he could do good because God was with him and you want to make God look good, you don’t want to say and do things that would turn people off to God to reject the gospel because of the way we are. There’s nothing wrong in being sweet and kind. Now there’s times when I’m hard, I mean, well not really me mean, you know, but I’m firm, lovingly firm. I say whenever you’re trying to raise teenagers, it’s like having a bar of soap.

If you try to squeeze them too hard, they square it out. But if you hold it too loose, then they fall off. But how to get a loving grip? I haven’t figured it out yet, but I know that it’s out of being there somewhere. There’s got to be a, you know, that you love them but you’re firm and it’s the same time time to tell them no and rebuke them and I love you. No, I love you. No. They think if you say no you don’t love me.

Is that how you think about God? If God doesn’t give you your own way God doesn’t love me because you know if God loved you, he’d let you do whatever you want. He’d give you anything you want Lord. Elvis first I had a pink hat like I I want one. Well, I mean, if you can give me a mountain and move that one for the here to there, surely why can’t I just ask the Lord for a million dollars and he give me that?

You see, God says you ask some things, a mist to consume it upon your own lust. It’s not for the Lord. It’s not for the Lord’s work. I believe that if I serve the Lord, it’s his responsibility to pay my way. If you’re going to serve a Lord, it’s God’s responsibility to take care of you for as long as you serve Him. And if you stop serving Him, come on home boy, He could. Or He may just put you on His shelf and never use you.

Wouldn’t it be a shame to live 20, 30, 40 years and never be used by God? The joy of a Christian is knowing that I am being used by God. See, the power of God in your life is determined by the influence that you have in other people’s lives. When it comes to the gospel, it’s the powerful, powerful message. But you see, a lot of people have no power in anybody’s life because they don’t give the gospel, so therefore they have no power.

When it comes to serving the Lord, the Holy Spirit living within you is the power that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead and He lives within us. So we’re supposed to have all the power we need so that we can influence others the way that we should. Now their response to that is up to them, but we ought to be able to influence people to trust the Lord and challenge Him to serve the Lord. And that’s why we say, do you want God to use you?

You should do what? And that’s why you have to nail it down. What is the purpose of my life? To win and to train and train them to win. And they win them to train. Look at another good verse. I want you to see this one. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. You probably already know the verse, but that’s okay. Look at it anyway. should live on the edge of excitement, of suspense, where we don’t know how God going to do it, but we want our faith to be increased, and therefore we don’t run from problems, run from situations.

Let me kind of put it to you this way. When there’s something going wrong in your life, that’s not a time to run from God. It’s not a time to run from the church. not a time to run from the preacher. Those are times you need to run to the Lord and to the church and to the preacher. So you can get the help that you need. So here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, you’ll notice there in verse 58, therefore my beloved brethren be a steadfast every once in a while, when you feel like it.

You see, if you read the scripture, I believe you’ll come to conclusion This means my whole life. Therefore my beloved brother be a steadfast all your life, unmovable all your life, always a bounded and lurk of the Lord all your life. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Why? Because I know my labor is not in vain. I’m not wasting my time. I’m not spending my wheels. I’m not shadow box.

And this is for real. And I enjoy serving God. And if you don’t give the impression that you enjoy serving the Lord, some people, they’re not going to want to be around you. You ought to be the happiest, joy-fellest person in the world, even though you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. You have a burden to reach everybody. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, with Dr. Ralph Arnold.

We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free, 1-800-576-3771. 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.