This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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. 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.

A lot of people are not satisfied with their life, but generally it’s because they don’t like the crop. That’s a result of what they said. You sow wild oats when you’re young, chances are you’re going to reap wild oats when you get older. Many adults are suffering consequences of bad decisions they made years and years ago. So if you want to have something good coming down the road, sow something good today. Do you know he says you reap what you sow?

In other words, if you want peace, sow peace. You want to reap joy? So joy. You want to reap love? So love. So anger and see what you get. So bitterness and see what you get. So malice and envy and jealousy and all those things. See what you get. You see, you reap what you sow. Regardless of what people do, you do right. You do good. One thing I said about Jesus in Acts, It says that everywhere Jesus went, Acts chapter 10, He did good.

You may not always get the chance to win somebody to Christ. Maybe just teach the Bible, but wherever you still do good, you still do right. Do right by people and be kind. Be loving. But while you’re right there, just look in that chapter 15 and verse 1 where it says, a soft answer turneth away rep. Grieveous words stir up what? So you see, if you sow grieveous words, you’re gonna reap something. And you may not wanna reap that.

So how do you save yourself from these things? Remember God does give us some good counseling. Proverbs chapter three, you’re right there. Proverbs chapter three, And look what he says in verse five and six. You’ve probably never seen these verses before in your whole life. You probably have them underlined in your Bible. You probably say, we need one of my favorite verses. You know, it’s very difficult sometimes to recall what you want when you want it, because you forget at the moment the heat of anger and so forth.

And after it’s all over, we’re just like, oh, I wish I remembered that. Oh, what did I remember? Well, in verse five, trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord, with almost all your heart, all your heart. Leng not unto thine own understanding. In the Lord’s, don’t trust yourself. I do not trust myself in a room with a beautiful woman. I don’t trust her either. I don’t trust me. I have a sinful nature. Therefore, I try to keep the door, make sure it’s unlocked or cracked, or somebody knows where I am in, or my wife is close by with a ball bat.

Now, you’ll find out you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble. That’s where wherever I go, I do my dead level best to have my wife go with me. Now, there’s times when it doesn’t work out that way, but most times, yes. So I have to watch myself all the time, because you know my whole ministry of 53 years can go down the drain in 15 minutes. Do you understand what I’m saying? It takes you all those years to develop a testimony of faithfulness.

I have wanted to and desired to that my life would be an example of what does it mean to be faithful. Well, to my wife, to my kids, to my ministry, to the Lord, I want to be an example of faithfulness, because the Bible says, moreover, it is required in a store that a man be found faithful. And faithfulness is something that every person can do. Everybody can be faithful. You may choose not to be, but you can be.

You can be faithful. Faithfully do the things God wants you to do with your life. Then he says in verse 6, and all my ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. Do you know this is talking about acknowledge him and he thank God. And all my ways you thank God. What does God want me to do? Where would God have me to go? What color of tie should I wear?

You can get a little nitpicky on that if you wanted to. Like I said, I don’t have to worry about that. I just ask my wife and she tells me what I should do. And so I know that if I just keep, listen to my wife, we’ll make it to 54. So learn to walk with the Lord. Trust Him. Just trust the Lord He’s going to work things out. He doesn’t have to tell you how He’s going to do it.

We should, well, I could trust Him if I knew what He was going to do. No, then it, the, a null is the purpose of the testing. And that eliminates all the fun. He may do your light job, not tell you anything, and let you squirm. Job didn’t curse God, but he should curse the day he was born. God had to let Job see not only how far he’s come, but how far he needed to go. There was so much more that God had for him to learn.

says it, God didn’t owe him an explanation. Godidth had to explain everything to him. And so the test was, can the devil get Job to lose his integrity, his trust in the Lord? And the Bible says, in all of this Job said not, nor charge God foolishly. He simply said, the Lord giveth and the Lord take it way, blessed be the name of the Lord. Sounds good to me. Take your Bible look also there in 1 Samuel 8. 1 Samuel in chapter 8.

You got 1 Samuel and you got 2 Samuel. So 1 Samuel will be 1 Samuel in chapter 8. And look in verse 5, Israel demanded a king. Because you You see, one of the signs of living for yourself is that you really don’t want God as an authority over your life. You don’t mind a man being over you because you can get a man to change his mind. You can get a man to make bad decisions. You can control a man, but say, God, God, he’s permanent.

God don’t bend. He’s truth. He does right. He’s just. But it says down here in verse 5 and said unto him, Behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel. And when they said, Give us a king to judge us and Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And verse 7 and the Lord said unto Samuel, Harken unto the voice of the people and all that they set unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, they have rejected me.

And here’s the reason that I should reign over them. You see, when you don’t want God to rule over you, you want to set up your own king. Somebody that’ll maybe let you do what you want to do. Someone that won’t maybe eat quite as hard. that you can get to bend with the wind. You see, they offended God. And also I want you to look over there in verse 19. Verse 19 says, nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel.

For they said, nay, but we will have a king over us that we may be like them, all the nations. So he said, we want, we want to be like everybody else. Isn’t that the way it is, I didn’t want to be like everybody else. I didn’t want to be one of all the humanity who was born, lived, and die like everybody else. I want to be different. I had somebody tell me, says, you are. But I wanted to be different because I wanted to be what God wanted to be.

And I couldn’t compete with the people in the world. There’s too many of them. But I know if I serve the Lord, I don’t have any heartless competition because not many people want to do that. I want to serve the Lord. And I knew that if I serve the Lord God who made me different will keep me different. I want to be different from the world. I don’t want to be like the world. I don’t want to live like the world.

Think like the world. I want my thoughts to be different. I want my thoughts to be like God. I want my ways to be like the Lord. Am I bad because of that? Does that mean I’m lifted up with pride because I want that? But isn’t that the will of God? for all of us is that we not only know Him as our Savior, but we love Him and want to walk with Him and live with Him. That is so important.

So we won’t take time, but you can go through the book of Judges and there’s one statement that will kind of stand out. Every man did that which was right where? In his own eyes. People just doing what’s right in their own eyes. And so that’s the way society is today. And so whatever is right is whatever the majority says is right. But you and I know that if you go by the Bible what’s right is what God says is right.

And it doesn’t matter what the majority of the people say, it’s what does God’s words say. God says this is right, this is wrong. But you see today they want to make everything a dirty gray. There is no right, there’s no wrong. Let’s do whatever he wants. Just don’t hurt nobody. So you can do anything that you want to do as long as you don’t get caught. So that is a philosophy. Look in Isaiah 65, the book of Isaiah in chapter 65, Isaiah 65, and look in verse 2.

Verse 2 says, this is on page 769. Verse 2 says, I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, talk about Israel, which walked in a way that was not good after their own thoughts. Do you believe that God wants to save us from our own thoughts? Remember in the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 10, we talked about having vain imaginations, talking about that we don’t fight our battles with with guns and bazookas and tanks and hand grenades, but ours is a spiritual battle.

And it’s talking about pulling down the strongholds out of our minds so that we could be captured, talking about our thoughts, captured by the Lord. And so that’s where real freedom is, is when you become a prisoner of the Lord. When the Lord has captured your mind. And like Paul says, I am a bond slave, do you lost a love slave of the Lord, a prisoner of Christ. And he had his ears bore through as I am a lifelong prisoner of the Lord by choice.

Voluntary love slave of the Lord for the rest of my life. And I believe that’s what God wants us to do. Now, in Matthew chapter six, verse 21 says, where your heart is, there will your treasure be also. So God wants to help us to realize how to save you from the things of this world. Because see, if you focus on this life and this world as though this is all there is to it, then it might as well just be dog-eat-dog.

Get all you can get, doesn’t matter who you walk over, who you hurt, as long as you get your way and you win and you got it, and you lose it all. Or is it better to lay up treasure in heaven where you can’t lose it and it lasts for eternity? Eternal rewards that God wants to go because you see if that’s where your heart is then you got to find out Well, how do I get these treasures? How do I get these rewards?

And so God allows all these troubles and trials and tribulations to come and gives you a chance and me a chance to prove our love to Him by allowing us to have all these other things happen in our life and we get a chance to prove. Do I love God more than anything? Do I love God more than anybody? Do I love God more that whatever He can do with me and whatever He wants to make me, I’d rather have that.

I don’t need fame, honor, power, glory here because He says that the trial of your faith been much more precious and gold and silver. They’ll be tried with fire, may be found in the praise, honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Can you wait till then? Can you with patience, wait until you get to heaven? And the Lord gives you all the praise, the honor, and the glory. Will it be worth it then? That’s… Where the rubber meets the road.

That can change your life. And it makes a difference on how you observe things. How you see life. How you respond to all the problems of life. The tribulations and the trials. They’re all there. But remember, when you talk about what is a sign that a man has finally found the way that God wants him to go. Remember this statement? Somebody made this statement. for me to live is Christ, the die is gained. Now, who said that? Daniel. No.

Paul said that. The book of Philippians in chapter 1 is so important to understand that he knew the purpose of a life and he says that I counted all joy. He said, and the ministry that God’s given to me that I can fulfill this ministry with joy. But do you value your life? Do you value your time, the opportunity that God gives to us? We’re running out of time. You see, some of us have already gotten up and close to the 70-year bracket.

How many of you are in here are 70 at least and older? One, there’s a few of you. You know, 70 is supposed to be you’re allotted time. But if you behave yourself, you might live another year or two. But not necessarily just God grants us some time to live. But we don’t know how much time. But use that time for the Lord. I want you to see this. Look there in the book of Psalms 81, the 81st Psalm back there in the Old Testament, the 81st Psalm.

And look in verse eight, in verse eight. What happens when we seek our will? Understand, there’s consequences. In verse 10, we’ll start there in verse eight. Here, oh my people, and I will testify into thee. O Israel, if thou will hearken unto me.” Now remember, there’s thing God wants you to do, but he won’t make you do them. God does not make us little puppets in his hands. We’re not robots.

So he says there in verse 9, there shall no strange God be in thee. Neither shall thou worship any strange God, I am the Lord thy God, which brought the out of the land of Egypt, open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.” Isn’t that a wonderful statement? Open thy mouth wide. When you want something from God, ask Him for it. Make it big. Make it good. So that if it happens, you know God had to do it.

And then He makes His statement here. Verse 11, “‘But my people would not hark unto my voice. Israel would none of me. They didn’t want no part of me. They didn’t want me to rule over them.'” Do you think that sometimes the decisions we make offense God hurts God? So He says in verse 12, So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust, and they walked in their own councils, which is what we’re talking about. This is what Paul was trying to tell Timothy.

Study sound doctrine, sound words that you may have a sound mind. And if you want people to have a sound mind, it comes from sound words that are found in sound doctrine. But here he makes the statement. He says in verse 12, they walked in their own councils. All that my people had, and I get the sort, had, they didn’t, but God wished they had them. Had, hardened them to me. And Israel had walked in my ways. I wanted them to.

I canceled them to, but they chose not to. Then he says here in verse 14. the word should. Now we don’t see the word should here about five times. This is what we should do. You see, you don’t have to serve the Lord, but should you serve Him? Yes. So he says here in verse 14, I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries. He’s there. I would have done it a lot sooner. I could have done this.

I would have done that, but Israel walked in their own ways. So next thing you know, they’re taking out of the land for 70 years and now look for 2500 years. Israel hasn’t been in control of their own destiny over there and they’re still on the United Nations control or they’re also with a split divided part of the land as God says they parted my land which is not right for them to do but they’ve done it. And so he makes a statement here in verse 15, The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves onto him, but their time should have endured forever.

He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee. They forfeited so much of the blessings of God. It didn’t have to be that way. So when Jesus stood over the city of Jerusalem and you went and He said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered thee together as a hen gathers her chick and you would not, you would not. Not that they couldn’t have been, they would not.

And Jesus made the statement, you will not come into me that you may have life. wasn’t that they couldn’t come, they wouldn’t come. Some people are just plain hard-headed. Now isn’t it a shame for those who know the Lord, you trusted Christ as Savior, you trusted Him to take you to heaven when you die, and you believed that He will. That same God that did that miracle and produced that new birth in you and I gave us a miraculous divine book and indwelt us by the Holy Spirit.

Has so much more for us. It’s not just getting us to heaven. There’s so much more that God wants. See, all eternity will be the chance of you showing what you did for him while you were here because those are eternal rewards, eternal. Positions of service, when God gives you praise or glory or honor, it’s eternal praise, eternal honor, eternal glory. Somebody will win the Super Bowl, but it’ll be short lived. It’ll be on for a while. And a few years down the road, they won’t even remember what quarterback did what or what team went there.

Oh, there’ll be some nuts at will. But there’s more important things in life than sports, jobs, nothing more important than the Lord. And that’s why he is important. Now let me give you this one last thought. Acts chapter 13, we get it real quick. Acts chapter 13, And verse 21, verse 21, talking about David in the Old Testament. He preached a pretty good sermon here, but he makes a statement in verse 21, and after they desired a king, God gave unto them Saul, a man of the tribe of Benjamin by the space of 40 years.

Verse 22, when he had removed him, he raised up another unto them. David to be the king. To whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse a man after my own heart. Which shall fulfill those three little words you ought to handle on the line of all my will. God is looking for somebody that doesn’t pick and choose how they’re going to obey God. You just report for duty, you said, Lord, I’m not here to argue with you.

I’m not here to debate it with you. I will be whatever you want me to be and I’ll go wherever you want me to go, I’ll do whatever you want me to do and I don’t care what it is. Most Christians never get to that place in their life because they’re afraid God’s gonna ask them to do something that’s impossible for them to do. But it may be impossible but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible for him because God can enable you to do whatever ministry he’s called you to do.

Trust him and believe him. And don’t be afraid to get out of that boat. Remember when they were in the boat the storm had ceased a little bit? Well there were some waves and stuff going on and all of a sudden they saw Jesus and Peter says, bid me come unto thee on the water. You know what Peter wanted to do? He wanted to have a miracle. He wanted to walk on the water. He got out of a boat and walked on the water.

You know what the other disciples in the boat said? I could done that. I was just ready to do that. I mean he’s not the only one you know. I mean I got faith too, yeah but they didn’t get out of the boat did they? But Peter did. People were doing fine for a while, wasn’t he? Until he took his eyes off the Lord. And when you take your eyes off the Lord, it’s kind of like a near plane that if it stops, it drops, you’re going down.

Put your eyes on the Lord and keep looking up. If you ever listen to my radio broadcast, every broadcast ends with that statement. Keep looking up. Keep looking up. Now I know Mel’s carbonyls like to say, Keep looking down because we’re seated in the heavenlies in Christ. Seek looking down. So how are you doing today? Well, under the circumstances. Well, what are you doing under there? Yes. Look to the Lord. Trust the Lord. Remember that verse in Psalms 118, verse 8.

Cinev verse into Bible. Put not confidence in man. Put your trust in the Lord. Look up here. This hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us. Now, Bible says that God loves us, but He hates our sin. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from the Lord. But God loves and wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God.

And God says that we can’t save ourselves from the penalty of sin. So the Bible says that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to pay for our sins. He came back from the dead and said, if we would believe that he did it for us, he would put this death payment to your account. And you and I get to go to heaven on what Christ did. All he asked us to do is where you believe I did this for you.

And when you believe it, God knows those that believe and he don’t need you to prove it any other way. You trust him. He gives you eternal life and you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die. And you’re there watching by internet. I want you to know God loves you. He’s paid for your sins. Will you trust Him? Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed, no one looking around. But right now in the quietness of this moment, would you just talk to the Lord?

Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died, paid for my sins, and I’m going to trust Him as my Savior. Friend, God said, if you would, He would save you, give eternal life, and you’ll get to go to heaven on what Christ did for you. That’s the best news in all the world. No tricks to it, no gimmicks. Would you trust Him? I believe you that are here in the auditorium have already heard you’ve already trusted Christ’s Savior, but just for chance someone may be listening.

If you will trust Christ right now as your Savior God would save you and I’d like to know. But you that are here I’m going to ask you would you just slip in ever quickly if you have never done it before but you see yes I will trust Christ as my Savior right now and preach I’d like for you to pray for me in closing. Is there anyone at all before we close? Our Father we thank you so much.

Help each one of us to realize the importance of of learning how to save ourselves by walking with you, talking with you, by learning sound doctrine, learning to love you more than anything else in the world, by desiring to fulfill your will, all of your will in our life. We think of each person here, bless each one, and help us follow to have that desire to wanna be used in a great way. In Christ name we pray, Amen. Hello, thank you for tuning into today’s program.

We hope that Bibleline is truly a blessing in your life. During this month to every person making a financial donation in any amount, we’re going to send to you the DVD series, The Poison of Bitterness. In this series on bitterness, Dr. Arnold will explain how we poison ourselves, those around us, and especially our spouses with bitterness. Everyone can relate to the bitterness because it’s a human reaction to being hurt. But bitterness is a poison that can ruin your life, and this DVD series is yours this month with a donation of any amount.

This is one of the most powerful teachings on the Christian life that Dr. Arnold has ever taught, so contact us today for this valuable lesson series. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bibleline. 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.