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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 You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

If you do get married, do you think it’s important to kind of a person you marry? Think about it. Well, it really doesn’t matter as long as she is good looking. Well, you might fall in love with the temple, but you get the whole thing. And that pretty little face, you’re going to get her bad attitude too. You’re going to get her temper too. You get all of it. And you don’t just get her, you get her mama. Ask the man one time, are you married?

Yes, I am. Do you have a wife? Well, I don’t know. Now, there’s a dumb man that gets a mother-in-law and doesn’t even know if he has a wife. So you see, you have the whole family that becomes part of your family. And so does it make a difference if say you’re a man and you want to go to Bible college and your wife says, God may call you to be a preacher, but he hasn’t I said a word to me and I’m not going, what are you going to do?

And I’ve watched a lot of men grieve because they wanted to serve the Lord, they wanted to do something, but they married somebody who doesn’t want to be part of that. It’s like another world to them. And then you find yourself sometimes thinking it doesn’t matter what she really believes what he really believes because we just love each other because the day that it’s not about doctrine, it’s about just love. Well if you really love you’ve got to love according to doctrine because there’s things God says to love and things God says not to love so we’re not to love everything.

So every child of God got big decisions to make and there’s these guys that are always looking for of this perfect wife. I had a guy tell me what that means. He says, preach, I want you to pray that I can find just a perfect wife. I says, why? He says, so I can marry. I says, wouldn’t she be looking for the perfect husband? Why should a perfect wife marry you? Are you perfect? Well, that’s not what I mean.

I said, yes, it is. You want her to fit in every area exactly I like you one of them. I says, don’t you know opposites attract and then attack? I mean, you’re supposed to grow in the Lord and learn together. God doesn’t give you everything in advance, but it does help you when you know that wife of yours or that husband of yours is going in the right direction. They don’t have to mean they have arrived, but you can say they’re walking with the Lord.

Not promise. I promise you, honey, I’ll walk with the Lord. I’ll take it in church. Is he going now? Well, he says he will. You drop him like a hot potato. It’ll affect your whole life. You see, you got to find somebody. And that’s why this verse is so important. Look at there in Genesis in chapter 2 and verse 20, up on the screen, for Adam, there was not found a help me. He means God made everything, but for Adam he made Adam and lo and behold, he has to have a companion.

I think it’s just wonderful that God made a woman. Do you realize what this world would be like with just guys? Ah! But get this. The next verse says, and the Lord God calls a deep sleep. They come up on Adam. Some people when they get married, they go into a deep sleep. Like this girl, she says to the guy, she says, I can’t wait till we get married. So I can help you carry all of your problems and your burdens and your heartaches.

And he says, I don’t have any of those. Well, we’re not married yet. But he calls him to sleep and he took one of his ribs. Genesis 2, 22 says, and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the mint made he a woman and brought her unto the Lord. the man. So who made the woman? God made the women and he brought her to the man. So it is the will of God and there’s nothing wrong with a man getting married, but God didn’t make the choice for you.

Don’t marry this little girl, this little angel. And later on you said, look what God did to me. God did not make you get married. That was your choice. And hopefully you can learn to live with your mistake with your marriage. Because you’ll think down the road, boy did I really mess up. You go from where you are. And both of you need probably a lot of help. Learn to walk with God. Did you realize if a man and a woman both dedicated their life to the Lord that they wanted God’s best for each other, how much more easier it is in life.

to go through life knowing that you’ve got somebody to walk with you and knows the way you really are and loves you for the way that you are. And you don’t have to put on a face or, you know, impressed, that’s do you. My wife treats me like a king. Hey boy, no, no. I treat her like a queen and she’d treat me like a king. And now we’ve been going on 54 years and I thank the Lord. God give me a good wife.

But she’s not a perfect wife because she married me, because I’m not perfect. That would have been her first mistake. Her dad told us she did. But anyway, her dad got to where he liked me a little bit. But her mother, she’s in heaven now, and she still doesn’t. She called me, she’s called you hula. You are hula. I didn’t know at the time what that was. I thought it was a compliment. I was at North Side one day and I came walking down and there was these two girls sitting in front.

One was Gina King. And what I have walking down this island. And I came by there and I said, yank him. He said, yeah, you are so autistic. Wow, thank you. I’d say that. I had never heard the word before. Understand that now. I did not, and I’m making fun of, I did not understand. And they, but they giggled. They giggled. They thought that was funny. I thought not. And then they explained to me what they said. So it was not a compliment.

Did you know between husband and wife, you have to be careful of everything you say, even in jest. Because words are like arrows. Once you’re in flight, you can’t bring them back. And that why we need to be so careful of everything that we say and everything that we do. I wanna go on with this ship because I got something I want you to see. If you don’t serve the Lord, if you don’t, you’ll see nobody can make you do it.

But if you do, God’s gonna bless you and you’re going to be productive. But if you don’t serve the Lord, you’re not gonna be productive. You see in the book of John and chapter, he talks about very much fruit. Hearing is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit. You will not bring forth much fruit You may have a little fuel of sprinkle here and there but not the way God intended So it is going to cost you something the next statement Your greatest problem is that you don’t realize That you have a problem Do you know I believe and I’ve been doing this for a while now That a lot of people don’t realize they have a problem I’ve had to have other people sometimes make me aware of things that I say and do that I shouldn’t have done.

But I didn’t know it at the time. So, because now I’m old enough I can say, hey, I’m seeing all of them. I didn’t know that, but I don’t know if I got that. I’ve been taking these little memory pills and their own problems with it, I keep forgetting to take them. God counts it a great problem when his children will not serve him. Because you’ve got to understand why don’t you serve him? Why wouldn’t you serve them? Is God’s best good enough for you?

It should be. If you don’t serve a Lord, your decision may be based upon what somebody else is doing. See, we often talk about the kids in school and the peer pressure they’re under because they’re under such peer pressure to be like all the other kids, and that’s why sometimes you don’t want your kids to be around other kids that are doing wrong because you know they’ll influence your kids, and yet as an adult you do the same thing.

If you’re not faithful to talk about the kids, you’re not faithful to the kids. church, you’re not faithful to be around the kind of people that God wants you to be around. Did you know that Christians are supposed to influence other Christians? You’re supposed to influence others. You and I are supposed to have an impact in other people’s lives. We’re supposed to know and love one another in such a way that if we had to we could rebuke one another.

But today nobody wants to say anything that’s going to cause anybody any, you don’t have to be uncomfortable. Because we want everybody to like us. But a good friend who loves somebody, sometimes we have to say things that we don’t want to say. Sometimes the preacher has to say things he doesn’t want to say. You know a lot of times I preach sermons that I don’t want to preach. I teach things from the God’s Word. I really sometimes, I don’t want to because I know this isn’t going to be a good day.

And I have to remember when number people leave the church, if three people say, preach it, that was the greatest sermon in the world. If I had a hundred people, ninety-seven never said a word. And if three people says that was the worst sermon I’ve ever heard, I still got to remember. Ninety-seven never said the word. But sometimes we think everybody feels that away. If somebody says anything against you or about you, everybody feels that away. No, that’s what the devil…

Look, two bullfrawls in a lake and make it sound like a hundred. So you just got to be careful. Your decision may be based on what somebody else around you, not really what is best for you. Don’t make your decision based upon what somebody else says or does unless they’re good God to be people. And you see, God be counseling. You want to do what God wants you to do. Number four there, when people are free to do as they please, they tend to intimidate or I shouldn’t say imitate what another in the book of Ephesians in chapter 5 the Bible talks about in verse 1 be imitators of God imitate God you’re his child as a child imitate God make sure you find out what direction the crowd is going before you join them you want to be different all those alligators that I saw there was a nickel worth a difference in them

some more bigger than the other. But they all did exactly the same thing. Nothing. If you want to be different in a Christian life, you’re going to have to do something. I learned a long time ago that my future was going to be like my past unless I made a change. I had to decide, do I want to continue the way I am? Or do I want something better? Do I want something different? Did you know that serving the Lord will make you more different than anything else in the world?

You can go ahead and try to love the world and gain the world and you’ll be just like everybody else. I found out years ago I could serve the Lord that I’ll be totally different because I don’t have much competition. Not many people want to do that. But I do believe that it’s the most important thing that we could do. Here are five questions to ask yourself about certain alert. Do you really care? Do you really care about being dedicated?

And then I thought this is a good little statement. Does it bother you when it doesn’t bother you? If you’re not certain to the Lord, does that bother you? It ought to bother you if it doesn’t bother you. When I don’t do exactly what I’m supposed to do, it bothers me. And it would bother me if it didn’t bother me. Does that bother you? Do I need to say it again? Or do you get my point? You get my drift a little bit.

Every once in a while my convictions leak out and you find out what I’m really thinking. The next statement does fear of ridicule keep you from doing what you know you should do. You’re afraid of what somebody’s gonna say. Afraid of ridicule. You see, I had to make up my mind. Do I want God’s approval? Do I want it more than I want people’s approval? These are things you have to think about. The reasons why you should believe that God’s best would be the thing that you want.

Do you always wait for someone else to suggest what is right? Do you know what’s right? You see, discernment is when you study the word of God and you know what is right and what is wrong based upon what God says. That’s what gives you discernment. You can make your decisions based upon what you know about God. Otherwise, you’re going to have to depend upon what somebody else says. Sometimes I have people call me and say, Yankee, what do you think you ought to do?

I said, I think you ought to make the decision. Sometimes I don’t want to tell a person what to do because then they do what I do, and not necessarily what God does. I want to give them some things to think about so that you can come to the conclusion yourself. I don’t want to thank for you. I am not your Holy Spirit. You have a Holy Spirit. I want you to seek the will of God because if I am doing anything right is that I want you to do exactly, exactly what you believe God wants you to do, whatever that might be.

The next statement, has anyone ever asked you why you serve the Lord so much? He said, no, nobody’s ever asked me that. There might be a reason why you do live the way you do. And it should make some kind of an impact on somebody’s life. Somebody ought to know, hey, You know, there’s something different about that person. You see, all these things doesn’t prove your say, but once you trust the Christ’s Savior, is it the will of God for His children to serve Him?

Yes. Do you think more about what you can do or more about what you can get out of? I’ve asked the people sometime, let’s say, look, we need help doing this, this, this, this, and this, and this, and this. And sometime I have people who have, well, my plate’s already full. I never heard that until about ten years ago. My plates for them. I said, what? I said, what do you mean you’re plates for? In the words, I don’t have any more time to do anything else.

I said, well, what are you doing? Well, I’m just, you know, my plates for them. What’s on your plate? I thought, I got it. If that’s okay, I got a full plate. I’d like to give something that’s on my plate to somebody else to help. What are you doing for the Lord? Are you busy doing things for the Lord? Do you live for the Lord? That’s so important. How do I dedicate my life to serve the Lord? First step is dedicating your life is to realize that it’s time to grow up.

Have you ever seen kids that never seem like they’re growing up? I’ve seen adults that haven’t grown up. They never assume spiritual responsibilities. So you can accept adult responsibilities where you might go to work, you make your money, you pay your bills, you feed the family, that’s great. But spiritually, are you doing anything? Do you go to work spiritually? And do you give spiritually? Do you feed spiritually? Had you grown up? Are you still a child? You see, a child is somebody that just falls apart in the flesh.

Whereas there’s among you are carnally minded. It means you mind the flesh. It’s always your way, your will, your emotions. It’s all about you, and most people never think about other people, and how they can affect other people’s lives. This is why this statement is so important. See, they’re in Ephesians 4 and verse 15. we read it just a moment ago, but speaking the truth in love, speaking truth in love. Now where do you think you’re going to learn truth?

That’s the reason God established the church, which is the pillar of truth. You’re a come to learn the word of God so you can know what the truth is so that you’ll know how to speak, but not just to speak. Matureing in the Lord is not just learning and having knowledge. Wisdom is knowing how to apply knowledge to experiences in life. That’s what makes a person a wise person. You’re not wise because you know what to do. You’re wise if you do it.

So therefore it is the will of God that you speak the truth in love, make grow up. And if you don’t learn how to speak the truth in love, you can’t grow up. Can’t you see that? Did I write that verse? That’s the word of God. And this is what God wants His children to do. So make an agreement between you and the Lord. I did this years ago. But the Bible also said to be Ecclesiastes, it’s better not to make a vow than to make a vow, not keep the vow.

I keep remembering I made a vow to God. And I know God says, don’t you make a vow and then break it. I decided I’m going to keep my vow. I promise God, Lord, if you’ll reveal to me your will, I’ll do it. You tell me what to do? Where do you want me to go? I am not going to argue with God. I’m not going to fight with God. I will do whatever you want me to do with my life because I believe that God’s best is good enough for me.

And I hope it is for you. Make an agreement with the Lord that as He shows you what to do, you will do it. Romans 6, 13 says, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead. So I wrote this little statement and there I hope you appreciate it. You are alive unto God and dead to the world, or you are dead to God and alive to the world. Don’t that make sense? You’re either dead or alive.

You’re either dead to the world, or you’re dead to God. And you’ve got to make up your mind. I want to be alive unto God. I’ve been raised crucified with Christ in the life that I live. I live by the faith of the Son of God who led me and gave Himself for me. And he says, no ye not to whom you yield, you’re the one that decides who you live or yield to. Follow the clear instructions that God has given you.

Philippians chapter 3 says, nevertheless walk according to that which you have already attained. In other words, what you already know that is right obey that truth. Don’t worry about what you don’t know. Take all that you do know and obey it. You see, some people are wanting God to give them additional light when they don’t obey the light they already have and they wonder why they do not grow. Decide is God’s approval enough for you. Is God’s approval enough for you?

You make a vow with the Lord tell them that you’re going to serve Him. That’s the decision that you make. And if a man, it says in 2 Timothy, therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet or fit for the master’s use and prepared. You see, those are the things that are the results of your making the right decision. But you see, you can’t get to go to heaven and enjoy all the wonders of heaven if you don’t first of all, trust Christ.

not going to yield your body as an instrument that God can use if you don’t study to show yourself approved and you make the decision, I want God’s best for my life. And if that’s what you want, that’s what you should do. And the last statement that I have here, because we’re going to have communion this morning, let your hearts desire during today’s communion service, be that I am going to serve the Lord. I know Christ is my Savior.

I know that I’m going to heaven when I die and I want to serve the Lord and have God’s best for me. Look up here just a moment. This hand right here, let it represent you and me. The wallet represent all of our sins. We all have sin upon us. And God says since we have all sinned, well we’re all condemned to an eternity separated from God. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven you have to be perfect as righteous as God.

And none of us are perfect, none of us are righteous. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection. Because of sin we can’t get in. So God says you cannot save yourself, but we can be saved, but we can’t save ourselves. We can’t even help save ourselves. So this hand represents Jesus Christ, He’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us. because he loves his father. He says that the world may know that I love my father, even so I do.

I’m doing what I do because I want the world to know I love my father. So world, listen up. This is what he did so that you would know that Jesus Christ loved the father and that the father that God, he loved us. So he sent his son, Jesus Christ, into the world. He had no sin, didn’t have to die, but all of our sins say we separate ourselves from God. So Christ, if He does anything for anybody, He has to do it for all of us.

Took all the sin of all the world, paid for it on the cross. Came back from the dead and said that if we would believe He did it for us, He would put this to payment to our account. We go to heaven. So I trusted Christ as my Savior. I know I have eternal life. I know that I’m going to heaven when I die. See, I can’t go to hell today, and I can’t go to hell tomorrow. And I can’t go next year because, see, I don’t have any sense to pay for it.

Christ paid for all of my sin. Not some of them, not most of them. Not all of them but one. No, he paid for all of them because if he didn’t, he didn’t help me out at all. So he paid for all of my sins. That’s why I can say I know I’m going to heaven because I don’t have any sins to pay for it. It has nothing to do with what I’ve done since I’ve trusted Christ as my Savior.

You don’t earn it, you can’t work for it, and you can’t buy it, you can’t lose it once you have it. That snooze in all the world. Let’s pray show him. With every head, bottom, every eye, close and no one looking around. If you hear this morning and if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, that’s the most important decision you will ever make in your life is to trust the Lord. That’s what saves you from hell. That’s what gives you eternal life.

That makes you a child of God. That gets you into heaven. And so if you’ve never done so and you’ll do it right now or if you’re watching by internet this morning. Just make that decision. It’s all you have to do. It’s all God requires. Well, you believe that when he died, he died for you. He paid for your sins. And if you’re making that decision, I’d like to know it. I’d like to have prayer for you. And I’m gonna ask in just a moment to raise your hand.

Raising your hand does not save you. It just lets me know that I, what I said made sense to you. I’d like to know it so I can include you in prayer today. So is there anyone at all before we close? So yes, pray for me. trust Christ is my Savior this morning. Would you just slip you in a very quickly and put it right back down? Yeah, one at all. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, the next most important decision you could ever make is, well, you decide I will serve a Lord.

I made that decision. I want you to make that decision. I can’t make it for you. I can desire it for you. God may want you to do it, but sometimes God’s children defy the will of God. Don’t be one of those. Do you believe that God’s best is enough for you? If you believe that, would you determine this morning that I’m going to serve the Lord with my life? I’m going to dedicate my life to him. God will bless you for doing so.

Our Father, we thank you so much for all that you’ve done for us. Thank you for your word that you’ve given us and we pray Lord for those that are watching by internet and those that are here. That as As your children, we know that once we have eternal life and we know we’re going to have and it’s your will for us to come to your table. That’s why it’s called the Lord’s Supper. It’s a divine command. It’s what you want your children to do to examine themselves.

And we pray, Lord, that each person here, we know that you’re not looking for the perfect individuals here, but just those who know you and love you and realize the direction that their going. And Father, we pray that they would look to you and believe you and seek to honor him to serve you. Be assured, now, for each one of Christ’s names. Amen. Due to the generous offer of an anonymous Colorado supporter of Bibleline, we want to make you an offer you cannot refuse.

He has purchased 68 copies of the book, The Gospel-Driven Man, by Dr. Ralph Yankee-Arnold. To be given to anyone who donates any amount, as they thank Thank you for helping to keep my Bibleline on this station. He writes, What would be the most important item one could receive that would be appreciated, which would answer many questions, which would be easy to read, understandable, and uses God’s Word as the source. What came to mind was your book, The Gospel Driven Man.

This book has helped me and my wife considerably. We have given the book out as gifts before and continue to do so. All the basic doctrines you hear me teach on the radio is found in this book. One book per donor, so remember, mail your gift up any amount today and we will send you your copy of the Gospel-Driven Man. Be sure to include your mailing address. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. 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. 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, just keep looking up.