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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 first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to share a few things with you because all of God’s children got trouble. troubles. All of God’s children got troubles. You don’t have any. Well, wait a little bit. You’ll get some. And if you got some, oh, it’ll lighten up a little bit. But then you’re more coming. As sparks shoot up, man has got nothing but troubles. And those troubles are nothing but opportunities. That’s how you’re supposed to look at it. There are challenges. Well, here’s the book of Psalms and chapter 77, I want you to turn to the 77th Psalm.

It begins with a little sadness, but it ends with a little gladness. There’s a few things that I want to bring to your attention in this portion of scripture. Verse 1 says, I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice, and he gave ear unto me. In verse 2, you are to underline this statement in your Bible, in the day of my trouble. Now you say, well, I’ve had a lot of days, okay, then right above it days.

Because you’re going to have them, they®,re going to come. Can you handle it? Can you handle that? You and God, remember, can handle anything. So He says here in the next part of that verse, my soul ran in the night and ceased not. My soul refused to be comforted. You ought to unline, refused to be comforted. be times in your life or you’ll think things are so bad. It doesn’t matter what anybody says or does. You refuse to be comforted.

You pay yet no mind because maybe you think, well I haven’t been down this road before and nothing helped. So you go to the medicine cabinet and take a couple of pills, try to go to sleep. Well when you read the Bible, the Bible is God’s medicine cabinet. So you go to the scriptures and take these two pills here and call me in the morning. So the Bible, remember, is the medicine cabinet for the doctor, and the doctor applies this medicine for you in different ways.

I’d bet you if I went to your home as if you came into mind, and you’re looking at the medicine cabinet, you’ve got all kinds of medicine stuff. And the older you live, the more medicine you’ll get. Have you noticed that? When I was young, there was no such thing. The native medicine cabinet, Why? I’m as healthy as a horse, don’t need anything.” And then you get a little bit older and you got to have something for everything. I was trying to grow hair one time.

A friend of mine convinced me that if I tried this stuff, I would get some hair growth. Well, it could have worked as far as I know. I mean, I could have been totally bald. So maybe that’s why I got what I got because I took that medicine. One person says, don’t tell me worry and doesn’t solve anything. 90% of what I worry about doesn’t happen. So you see, it does pay off. But look in your notes, and I just wanna show you this at a certain verses here.

Verse two, in the day of my trouble. Verse six, in the day of my search, I communed with my own heart. In other words, I searched myself, trying to find out why, why, why. Verse nine, though God has forgotten me, In verse 10 I will remember him. That was awesome. When you go through here and you read that, see there in verse 6, I remember my song in the night. I commune with my own heart and my spirit may diligently search and…

And sometimes you’re trying to figure out what did I do to cause this? There must have been something that I did. And so you’re looking and you’re searching and you’re maybe blaming somebody, something, but there’s certain things you’re supposed to look for. And then he says that in verse 9, have God forgotten? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Now you know that God’s on the throne, you know he’s in charge, but sometimes we think, well, you know, God is so big and he’s got all these people, he is just so busy, he probably doesn’t even know I exist.

Poor little old me and you have your little pity parties. And then nobody comes to your party. And you just wanted somebody just to come along and encourage you a little bit and nobody did. So you’re going to go out and go out and eat worms. And it’s not your fault your pet rock died. I mean, just nothing goes right with you. Everything is sad. Sad, sad, sad. But he also makes a statement here in verse nine where he said, have God forgotten me?

Then in verse 10, and I said, this is my infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high. I’m gonna remember God, even though God has forgotten me. Poor me. Pity, pity, pityGOP. Complain wine and pine, mone and groan. Well, that’s the way it looks like sometimes. And so he says here in verse 12, I will meditate.

Also of all thy work and talk of thy doing, thy way O God is in the sanctuary. So when you went into the sanctuary, he says, I’m looking at the end result, looking on down the road. How great is our God? See that verse 13, who is so great a God as our God? Now you know, you can also apply this to the story of Israel, down in Egypt, under all this burden. And they cried out to God for deliverance and God, do you know where we are?

And God found him a man. But this man was in kind of like hiding. He was on the banks out of a desert for 40 years. Name was Moses. And God said, I got a job for you. Moses said, I don’t want it. So I want you to get on the age, I ain’t going. Get somebody else. See, Moses didn’t want to do a big God, had to do a number on the guy. How would you like to start serving Lord at 80 years of age?

Remember, he was 40 when he left, 40 years on the backside, 40 years he served God. You think you’re too old, you ain’t too old. That’s all up there. You said, no, there’s nothing up there. But you have got to see yourself the way God sees you. If you saw yourself the way God sees you, you don’t have to be down in discouraged and in despair. You don’t have to go to that. But look what he says in this verse, very important.

He says in verse 15, thou hath with thine arm, redeem thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. The water saw thee, O God, the water saw thee, were afraid the depths also were trouble and lo and behold the waters departed. The waters departed. How is God going to make a path in the sea? They were fenced in. The enemies behind them, all that water in front of them. The Lord led them into a dead end. I preached to a sermon not long ago, well maybe three or four years ago.

dead in the dry holes and detours.” Anybody remember this sermon? You don’t remember this sermon. I poured my heart into that sermon and you don’t remember that sermon. Just you make about 100 copies, they need a copy of that sermon then. But I did fridge it anyway. And then the Lord opens up away and he says here in verse 17, clouds poured out water, the sky sent out of sound, thine air is also winter broad, the voice of thy thunder was in the heaven, the lightning, the lightning at the world, the earth trembled and shook, all kinds of things.

And you know, when you see the water, sometimes there’s, there’s still waters and sometimes it’s turbulent waters. And in your life and your little boat, your whole world can fall apart. But understand that there’s a God that knows and he told his disciples, he says, get in the boat and go to the other side. And they did. He got halfway and God brought a storm. It’s a shame God didn’t know about that storm before he told his disciples to go.

I mean, all of a sudden, you know, The Lord thought that it would be clear sailing for him. You don’t think God would lead his people into a storm. Do you? You don’t think God would lead you into a dead end or a detour. Or even dry holes. But he might. The Lord can lead you right into the mist of trouble just so that you’ll have to praise him for getting you out of it because you couldn’t do it.

God loves faith. And faith is born into spare. When you can’t trust you and you can’t trust anybody else and the Lord has to come to the rescue. You know, I believe that God wants our faith to grow. for us to learn how to love Him more than anything else in the world and He lets you see how many things you can’t handle and It wipes away your pride You don’t know it all and you can’t do it all Don’t that hurt?

We like to feel macho I can handle anything in the Lord’s of what did you say? I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it Do you want your little light shine? Well, it shines the brightest when it’s the darkest. Have you ever felt pretty confident in yourself until you see God’s hand moving toward the light switch and you know what he’s going to do? He’s going to turn off the light and leave you in the dark and he gets scared because you don’t trust you either.

That’s okay, God doesn’t trust you either. it is the man who put of trust in man, put your confidence in your trust in the Lord. Look what he says here in verse 19, “‘Thy way is in the sea and thy path in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known.” When they got up to the Red Sea, now this doesn’t necessarily mean this is referring to, that is just I’m applying it that way. They got up to the Red Sea and God wanted them to go through the Red Sea.

How do you follow the footprints of God when you can’t see the tracks? When his tracks are traceless and God’s going to make a way and you just can’t always follow somebody else. Sometimes God will have a path just for you, a course just for you to run. And it may not be exactly what everybody else is doing. God may want you to do something different. But He wants you to trust Him. So look at it in the last verse there where He says, Thou let us thy people like a flock, and how did He do it by a man, by the hands of a man.

God uses people, and God can use you. And He used individuals at times in history, and there is a time when you may be at the right place at the right time because God’s going to use you to accomplish something great for the Lord. But remember, at the moment, you may not see that as great. The people that God may cross your path, you may not say is that important. But like Peter just sung that song when you get to heaven and you see their faces, the faces of people you’ve influenced over the years.

That you might have thought it wasn’t that important, no big deal. And maybe you left a track, maybe you just shared the gospel and passing with somebody and you don’t know what happened after that. All that’s okay. You just know that it might be because at times when God just wanted you to plant the seed. Look in your notes here, I wanna read this to you. Where has every man experiences fear, famine, and failure? There’s times when you are hungry plainton and you just can’t be satisfied.

There’ll be famine, and as he says in the Old Testament, there’s a famine for the Word of God. When you want answers and you can’t find the answer, when you want light and it seems all dark, and you can open up the Bible and go from page to page and it seems like there’s nothing there. You can’t find what you need. You see, what do I do when I can’t find? And I’m hungry for some truth, hungry for some light.

I can’t find it. Trust the Lord in spite of everything. Praise the Lord anyway and you’ll be surprised how God will just walk you through things and all the fears that comes upon you you’d be surprised how God can remove so many things and you can I can worry about him and kill us destroys us but also to look at this when you have a problem when you have a problem and you will and you probably are going through something even now and maybe you see something coming down the road and it’s not to scare you to death.

So here’s a few little questions I asked yourself. This problem that I’m facing is this trouble from God? Is it from God? Did God bring this to me? And if He did bring it, rejoice with thanksgiving. See the Versa, Philippians chapter 4, verses 4 through 7, you can look at those verses later. But the Lord tells us that, you know, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, in thanksgiving, and let your requests be made known unto God, and God will keep your mind and guard your thoughts and so forth.

forth and if you have the right way of thinking, think upon these things and the God of peace will be with you. So he does tell you how to think but remember sometimes God will send you a problem, special delivery, designed with you in mind. Don’t you feel blessed? You say well I don’t like all these problems, it It wouldn’t be a problem if you could handle everything. Then you don’t need to trust God if you can do it.

So God sometimes will let you face things that overwhelms you that you can’t handle. Praise the Lord anyway. Look at the next question. Is this trouble from the devil? Did you know that there is a devil? Did you know that the devil doesn’t like God? And did you know that the devil doesn’t like you? The devil doesn’t like your family either. And the devil doesn’t like your wife. This man says, you believe in the devil? He says, I sure do.

He says, how do you know the devil is real? He’s our marriage sister. Marriage sister. So is the devil real? Yes, the devil is real. Can the devil cause you problems? Is there any case in the Bible where problems will create it because of the devil? Remember someone who made this statement to? thou shalt not surely die? I wonder who said that. And who did he say it to? So is it possible? Yeah. Can remember a time when Jesus is now, for this big moment, the hour has come, and it was Peter that said, not so.

It shall not be like this. And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. He was being used by the devil. Judas was used by the devil. They can cause you problems and trouble. And you’re going to have trouble in this world. Sometimes you try to figure out did this come from God? Did this come from the devil? If it came from the devil, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Resist him. Stand fast, stand firm and what you know is right and true.

become foolish. Don’t charge God foolishly. Well, God must not love me. That’s a stupid statement to make. Wouldn’t you think so? That is being naive. God loves us. The next one is, is this trouble from my sin? Did I sin against God? And I have produced this problem because of air in my own judgment. Is it possible that you could be suffering consequences because you sowed wild oaths and you’re reaping wild oaths? You sowed something and now you’re reaping it?

Can it be because of your own decisions? What do you do when if that’s the case? How do you handle it? Well you know there’s a verse in the Bible in 1 John chapter 1 and verse 9. I wonder what it says. Anybody got a clue what that verse says? 1 John 1 9, every child of God in this room ought to know that verse. If we what? If we what? If we confess our sin. That’s the Christian talking to God.

So can Christians sin after they’re saved? Yes. And when you do, you don’t go to hell, you can’t go there. The penalty has already been paid for the sin and that has been forgiven. But your fellowship that you have with God and with people is something that you take care of on a daily basis. So you look at a problem that you have and say, now did this come from God because God wants to correct me or discipline me in some area to help me to grow stronger in my faith because you don’t know if anything had done wrong.

You can’t prove that it came from the devil. So you just go ahead and keep doing what’s right. But don’t let the things of this life turn you against God. Look at the last statement. Is this troubled just from the storms of life? You’re having the storms of life. Because as you live life, we live in a sinful world. They’re sinful people. We have a sinful government in case you didn’t know that. Simple people are in government. And they don’t always do right.

Some people get power hungry and they like to show you just their authority. And buddy, do they ever? And make all kinds of rules and regulations to make you jump through so many hoops so that you’ll remember a person. who was in charge, but they forget. We’re supposed to be in charge. We’re letting the servants tell the kings, us, what we can and cannot do. That’s not the way God designed it. But there is a way of escape. In the book of Corinthians in chapter 10 verse 13, though temptation has taken you but such as is common to man, but will with the temptation make a way of except God is faithful.

It will not allow you to be tempted above that which you’re able, but will make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. God promised that. Believe that. Look at the next statement I have here. Fear may be produced by the following. Now, worrying or running from problems that reveal a cowardice may be seen as a least desired trait of man. Most people do not like a coward. I mean if I was playing football and you hiked a ball to me and here’s a great big old guy’s coming after me.

I’ll say if you want the ball you can have the ball but I realized I’m supposed to run and the scared I am the faster I’m gonna run. Now there’s times in your life when you have this thing call fear. It’s a great motivating factor, but so is love. Are you motivated by fear or love? You’re motivated by both, but you have to learn how it works. But understand this, in 2 Timothy chapter 1, I want you to look at this verse.

Look during the Bible, 2 Timothy chapter 1, 2 Timothy chapter 1 and look in verse 7. Remember this, the fear did not come from God. He says here in verse 7, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Now the Bible also tells us that fear produces torment, produces suffering. When you’re afraid, it causes you to hurt, causes you to be afraid. You know it’s costing you something.

Fear is going to cost you something. One way or the other, cost. I’m afraid to serve God and I’m afraid not to serve God. I have a fear of being a failure in serving God. But I also have a fear of not serving God and being a failure. So I would rather attempt and fail than not to attempt at all. Some people don’t like the man that you know if you aim at nothing, chances are you’ll hit it. But it’s better to aim at something and miss than aim at nothing.

So you got to make up your mind, what do you really want out of life? What does God word say that we should do? So look there in this statement underneath that last scripture reference that we just looked at. What can cause you to be afraid? What I could not see scared me? What I could not see. See, you can’t see everything. You don’t know everything. You and I are very limited. We cannot see what’s coming down the road, and that fear can cause you to be tortured.

Did you realize that if you simply say you didn’t know the Bible, didn’t know God? You’re like looking at the things that are coming up on the earth is enough to cause fear in every individual. wasn’t about a week ago, they showed that a man having his head literally cut off from his body. Anybody see that? A few of you did. I’ve watched him. I’ve seen him take a man and just cut off his head. Now, that’s what they want to do to us.

Whether we like it or not, that’s their stated purpose, their stated goal. We either become a Muslim or die. There There is no other alternative. Muslim or Dye? And we have them in America. I love our country, and I love our freedom. I love life. But I don’t like it when we don’t take and stop that stuff being taught in our own country. There ought not be one mosque allowed in this country. It’s a beachhead to produce the people with the philosophy to destroy our country.

We want to have a dialogue with them. Let’s talk them out of it. They don’t want a dialogue. They want your death or surrender. But anyway, I don’t want to get sidetracked this morning. So I’m going to refrain from saying what I really believe. Look back at your notes here. What I could not see can scare you. What I did not know, see there’s things that you don’t know not only what’s going to happen, you can’t see some things, you just don’t know, you don’t have all the answers.

And sometimes you don’t know the people that know the answers. What I could not do, what I could not do, you and I are so limited to the ability, the talent, the nature of our bodies. And there’s something that we just can’t do. You may wanna do a lot of things, but you can’t do it. And you know that the longer you live, you’re running out of time. And you’re not gonna be able to do all the things you ever wanted to do.

You can’t go to all the places you’d like to go. And you may never be what you really wanna be. Because just because the mind can conceive it doesn’t mean that the body can achieve it. That’s not a true statement. Look at the next point. What I could not control. You’re gonna live long enough to find there’s a lot of things you can’t control. You can’t make certain things happen. And there are some things that you can control. You can be afraid of what you can control because you know it’s your responsibility.

It might be the responsibility of providing for your home, of having the money that you need, the job that you need, the health that you need. And you see things coming down the road and you can’t always make things happen, even though you are in control of your own life. But all these things produce the fear. That’s why the Bible says, and all of these things that can so destroy your life, that’s why you need to trust the Lord.

Because just because you can’t see it, I’m going to trust in somebody who does see it. And just because there’s some things that I don’t know, I’m going to trust the one that does know. And just because I can’t do certain things, I’m going to trust the one that can do them. And just because I can’t control everything, I’m going to trust the one who can control it. You see how that trusting the Lord can take away a lot of the things that produce the fear because you and I cannot always control everything that happens to us.

Hello this is Peter Amato and from all the staff at Bibleline we want to thank you for tuning in to today’s program. This month we’d like to send to our listeners and supporters the book The Declaration of the Gospel. This is yet another book authored by Dr. Arnold and it addresses the concerns over what is called the crossless gospel. Is it enough to simply tell someone to believe in Jesus for them to be saved? Does the topic of sin need to be addressed in order for someone to understand what the gospel really is?

What are the essential points that a lost man must be told in order for him to be saved and what does believing in Jesus really mean? These are just a few of the topics that are covered in this book. So for the month of May, when you send a gift in any amount, we’re going to give you the book, The Declaration of the Gospel. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well.

God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bible Army. 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 4081 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. Cut up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.