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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 BibleInemistries.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 speak on something that’s possible but difficult. There’s many things that we go through that sometimes we have to, but it’s difficult. I imagined that this morning when Autumn had to get up and take somebody to the airport, it was a little difficult. Some of you may find it difficult to get up altogether. Some of you find out that when you’ve lost a loved one, that’s been difficult to go through, but you had to go through it.

You can’t stop. You just got to go through it. difficult. Even when you got married, you thought everything was going to be roses from here on out. But there’s a good possibility that things got a little difficult. I’m the preacher. I have to deal with people of all kinds and I don’t care what the problem is. There’s a lot of things just plain difficult. Some of you probably got the ideal job and yet the ideal job at times can be very difficult to put up with, people that you work with, the boss, maybe you’re the boss.

But things get very difficult in life. Lo and behold, you had some children. There were probably some difficult times there too. And then when they grow up and become teenagers, then it really got difficult. And then they get married and have kids. And you thought you were through And then it really, really gets difficult. But there’s a lot of things that we go through. Some of y’all are getting a little bit older. Your health is going to be a little difficult.

You’re going to find out that keeping your weight under control is going to be difficult. Keeping the body from aching so much, going to get a little difficult. And some of them trying to make plans and You find out that you’re running out of money and you have life left, it can get difficult. But I want you to think about something that was very difficult. You and I, as we face life, realize that the decisions that we make sometime are very difficult.

We don’t always make the right one. we think we are. We strive to, but it doesn’t always work that way. So I want you to take your Bible and turn me to the book of Acts in chapter 9. Acts in chapter 9. There was one man who was doing something he thought was the will of God. And then God had to knock him to his knees and he found out that what he was doing wasn’t the right thing. So God had her enter, beading his life and hid him over the head with a two before, well maybe a beam of light.

But I could say, well, he saw the light. And I want you to look there in verse 13. Verse 13 of chapter 9, and then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy name, or thy saints at Jerusalem. And here Here he hath authority from the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and the kings and the children of Israel.

Where I will show him how great things he must enjoy for my name’s sake. Did I read that right? Just one little word makes a lot of difference, doesn’t it? We think that if we serve the Lord, it’s going to be peaches and cream, everything will work out great, and you find out how difficult it is. Now, remember this. You trust Christ as your Savior. Some of you had probably difficulty coming to the realization that all you had to do is believe.

And you may be struggled with that because you’ve heard all your lives. You have to be good to go to heaven and you knew you weren’t. And you didn’t want to be a religious hypocrite. And you thought somebody’s just trying to trick you into getting you to promise that you’re going to straighten up and fly right. And so you’re very cautious. Even on the message of grace. You don’t do anything, don’t have to do a thing. One day I let this guy to the Lord up there in Minnesota.

He trusted Christ to save it. It took me forever to try to convince him that it was by grace alone. And finally he says, no worse, no worse. He finally got it. So they all met over at this guy’s house in Patchett’s house and a whole bunch of people. And So it was hot, sweaty mosquitoes. They raised them up there. They shipped them to other places of the country. And he was working on this ice cream machine. It was one of the little things and you had it and you put the stuff in it and somebody got a turn it, turn it, turn it, turn it.

And the Swiss just pouring off of him. And I walked up and I looked down at him, He says, you, you, you in this gospel of grace. You said it was free. I’ve never worked so hard in my life since I met you. Squaresh, it’s a porn off of them. Now salvation is free. Just like they say sometimes water is free, it’s just it costs to pipe it in. And the gospel, it’s free, but it costs to pipe it.

To get it to the people. And there’s a price that has to be paid. In Colorado, I very seldom, or even in Georgia. And since I’ve very seldom say much about discipleship. You know, got a disciple, we just do it. We don’t even tell them that being done. But it’s everything that we do. When and train, when and train. But a lot of people get the misconception about this thing of serving God. I think that it’s not going to be as difficult.

Let me help you listen to that. The Christian life, serving God. Yes, you just trust the Lord, but there’s going to be a lot of difficult decisions to make, difficulties in life. Some things you’re going to sweat through and you’re going to grieve about. It’s not going to be a better roses, not a piece of cake. It’s things that you have to endure and you’re not going to enjoy it at all. There’s parts of the Christian life that I do not enjoy.

I remember when I first came down here and I would speak, everybody thrilled enough that I would come down. Even voted me in to be the pastor. And did you realize that it became difficult for people to tolerate me after a while? You know, even people left the church because it was difficult for them to sit there and listen to me week after week after week. Now I ask me, did that hurt my feelings? Do you like being rejected?

Do you think I like being rejected? Do you want to be loved by all? you think the preacher wants to be loved by all, especially when you’re as lovable as I am. But there’s things that will be difficult. Making the payroll every week can be difficult at times. Making our budget and all the time can be difficult at times. Maintaining these buildings and the lawn and everything that we do in the gym, it’s difficult at times. Working with people.

That’s never difficult. At times it is. It’s difficult. It’s not a piece of cake. But that doesn’t mean that we stop and quit because something is difficult, and it’s going to be difficult for you. Take your Bible, look in the book of Romans in chapter 8. Romans in chapter 8, I want you to see this verse. Now some of this is old and maybe a little bit of this would be new. But there’s things that you have to go through.

I have to go through them. So will you. 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. There is suffering and there is glory. This time in our life is not the glory time. This is the suffering time. This is the difficult time. This is the enduring time. This is the heartache time. This is the grieving time. And everything in our lives is not going to be with a smiley face.

There’s a burden that we carry. There’s heartaches that we put up with because we’re living in a sinful world. We have an old sinful nature. Seeking to serve the Lord with this old sinful nature, dragging unto us, it’s difficult at times. Your life will have time when it is so difficult you don’t even want to live anymore. want to face the next day. Things can get hard and difficult. The Bible talks about that. And sometimes we’re always asking God to remove the difficulties.

And the Lord says, no, I’ll just give you the grace to bear it. I just want you to trust me. Walk through it. Glory is coming down the road. In the Old Testament, they had difficulty distinguishing between the the times of suffering and the times of glory in reference to the Messiah. They couldn’t distinguish it of when it’s going to happen. So when Christ came, they thought He would be coming in glory to the earth and He didn’t come that way.

He came meek and lowly as a lamb riding on a donkey, born in a stable. That wasn’t how they envisioned it. It was difficult for them to wrap their minds around what was going on. And yet he says, the glory that shall follow. So by the time we read in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12 and verse 1, 3, down to verse 3. He talks about, consider Him who endured such contradiction of centers against Himself. But for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross.

He says, whenever you get tired and weary and worn and things get a little on the difficult side, consider Him. And the reason He says, consider Him is because He had difficulties when He was here. There’s things that hurt Him. people turned against Him. He was rejected. Even though He spent most of the time with they all forsook Him and left. He was despised, rejected of men. He had difficulties and yet He did not quit. He endured those things and endured the cross because you see there was something on the other side of all of this that was going to be worth it all.

And this is what you and I have to consider. Is it worth it? Because see, some of you have a difficulty in getting up and coming to church faithfully every week. You should probably struggle with it. It’s difficult sometimes to. When you’re, you’re strained trying to make ends meet and then you come to church and you give to the Lord’s work. And a lot of people, when they don’t come to church, well, they just, they don’t make up for it.

You know, I had a man come up to me the other day and he says, I am so sorry that I haven’t given my donations lately. So he put it in a brown bag and he gave it to me out there in the parking lot. He says, and this is for the church. So I put it in a drawer for the guys to go through. He’s just one of the keepers constantly. Something get difficult. You’re going to face a lot of difficulties in life.

And when he makes a statement here for the present time, it’s the time in which we live. So you’re gonna struggle. You’re gonna have difficulties in every area of your life, all the days of your life. We’re living in a sinful world. You’re living with an old sinful nature and everybody else has one too. We’re not in heaven yet. We’re here laboring. We’re working. But there’ll be a day when no man can work anymore. looking to book of 1 Peter, the book of 1 Peter in chapter 1.

Some of these things are similar but I wanted to run a few of these things by Him. Understand this, because of the importance of our life, the difficulties are more strengthened upon God’s children than the children of the world. They have difficulties, we have difficulties, saved and lost a light, rained upon the just and the unjust. But we have pressure upon us they don’t have. You see the devil’s got them but the devil’s also working on us. But there’s the pressure that comes from the Lord of wanting us to do the things that we’re supposed to do.

Then we have the devil working upon us trying to keep us from doing what God wants us to do and make the right decision and to live the godly life is a difficult thing. I don’t want you to be misunderstood or me to be misunderstood. Let me just share this with you. Satan rushes you, frightens you, pushes you, confuses you, condemns you, stresses you, discourages you, and worries you. That’s what he does. How’s he doing? more people can see the devil working in their life and they can see God working in their life.

But remember this, God steals you, the verse that we just read from the book of Psalms 23, reassures you, leads you, enlightens you, forgives you, calms you, encourages you, comfort you. You see there’s the positive and there’s negative. The Lord is also working in your life and the devil is also working in your life. Sometimes you wonder, well I ever win. It ain’t over yet. But payday someday. Peter just sung about when we get to heaven and see all the faces.

The faces of the people that we through much difficulty reached. You see these people that trust Christ is their Savior with great difficulty they are reached. Most of them it’s not easy. When I think about my own life, 73 years, one man witnessed at me, one man. I will scarcely ever reach with the gospel by the skin of my teeth out of all these years. One man came into my life and left my life, but he gave me the gospel.

And it was great difficulty he did that, because he was struggling in other areas of his own life. And a lot of things going on, but one day he set me down and explained it to me. And I thought, what if he’d have missed me? So here in chapter 1, look there quickly in verse 6, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be your unhappiness through manifold temptation, right now at this time you may be under a lot of pressure and life has become difficult because it requires a lot of decisions and you don’t know what the future holds.

you and I know who holds the future, but we still have to go through it. And there’s no easy way. I want you to also notice that in verse 9. Receiving the end of your faith. In other words, what is the end result of you living by faith? Now it’s not just that I’ve already been saved. I already have eternal life. I’ve already been saved by faith. But for me to be here, even though I know, as he says in verse 4, I have an inheritance it’s incorruptible and undefiled that fate if not away reserved in heaven for me, I’m already saved.

But at the present time we may be in heaven is through manifold temptations. But then He makes a statement there in verse 7 that the trial of your faith been much more precious and gold and and sure that those things, they pass away. But what God has for you is the praise, the honor, and the glory. He says, I’m going to give to you at the period of Jesus Christ. Right now in this life, we suffer, but the time will come when we’ll stand before the Lord.

And God is going to honor you. He’s going to make it worth your while. It will be worth it all. But between now and then, The Lord is going to be very difficult for you because you have within you an old sinful nature and you’ve got a new birth and these clash and you’re always battling. You’re battling all the days of your life. But the end result of this is that we want to see people know the Lord. And so we work at that.

But the end result of us living by faith should be the people that we reached. And then when we get to heaven, we’ll see all their faces, all the faces of the people that we reached. But it was difficult. Do you realize how difficult it is just to find time to study God’s Word? How difficult it is to on a weekly basis be faithfully and given to the Lord’s Word? How difficult it is at times. How difficult it is at times to get out of that bed and your only day off and you deserve you’ve worked hard for six days and just to spend that one day that you have and you give that to the Lord and you come and you sit and you listen and you learn so that you can have the strength to go for another week.

It’s so difficult when it’s the only time you have and that you give that up for the Lord. You sacrifice that for the Lord. So yes it’s difficult sometimes to talk to people about the Lord. Just think how rare the opportunities are that most of God’s children even have or take for those people that pass their way or the context that you come across.

How difficult it is for most Christians to share their faith with someone else because it’s difficult. We don’t know how they’re going to accept it. We don’t want to be rejected. And the devil’s always saying, not now. It’s not the right time. And maybe it’s not the right time, but their battles go through. And you’re looking for opportunities to serve a lot, and how rare it is. But we have to go through that. Look there in verse 11. And verse 11, it says, searching what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that Roose should follow.

Suffering of Christ came first, then the glory that should follow and in 1 Peter we have a tremendous example given to us of the Lord. He came into this world and he died on that cross. He suffered but the Bible says God has raised him from the dead and given him a name which is above every name that nobody, nobody, can ever take away any of the glory that belongs to him and that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess to Jesus Christ as the Lord to the glory of God the Father.

But the point is in this life we suffer. We’re not here to see how happy I can be. It’s not my turn, time to see how joyful I can be, though at times I will have happiness and at times I will have joy. But there’s also a lot of sorrow in life. There’s a lot of grief in life, but we keep serving God and doing what God says to do because if we don’t do it, there’s a world that will never hear the gospel.

They’ll never get to be in heaven. heaven. But because of the difficulties we were willing to go through, the price that we were willing to pay, there will be people in heaven for all eternity. When we get to heaven, you ask all those people. Was it worth all the sacrifices that people made while they were here? I’m glad that my father law took the time to tell me about how to have eternal life. And since then I thought, man, I want to spend the rest of my life telling people this, believe it’s the best news in all the world.

Also look there in chapter 2 in verse 19. Chapter 2 verse 19. For this is thanks worthy if a man for conscience toward God endured grief, suffering wrongfully. You mean in this life, I could suffer grief. In this life, I can suffer wrongfully. Yes. There’s people in this world that will do you wrong. And there’s people in this world that God will not stop them from doing you wrong. suffer. You see, it’s not fair. Who cares about being fair?

It’s the way it is. When you get to heaven and God rewards you for your faithfulness in spite of how things were, regardless of all the difficulties you had to go through, do you think your heavenly Father is going to let you lose out? Or is he going to bless you? And he’s going to give you praise and honor and glory when you get to heaven. It will be worth it all. And so he makes a statement here in verse 20, for what glory is it?

When you be buffeted for your own faults, you take it patiently. But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. He’s describing the Christian life. In this life, you’re going to suffer. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to faithfully do what God wants you to do. You may be struggling because there’s conflict in your marriage, and you want to do right, and maybe the other person doesn’t. You may be trying to educate your kids in the principles of the Word of God, and they don’t care anything about it.

Maybe you got teenagers, or grandkids, and they turn you off, don’t want nothing to do with it. And you struggle with how can I reach them, how can I help them? And it’s going to be difficult at times, and it’ll hurt you, and you’ll grieve because of it. And maybe you’ll lose a loved one, or maybe you’ll lose one of your children. Menbitties not getting younger, we’re getting older. One of these days she may be without a husband. One day I may be without a wife.

But whatever comes down the road, and there’s going to be difficult times, but I do believe that God still wants us to be faithful. And not to doubt in the dark what God gives us in the light. Serve God with all your heart. And though it may be difficult at times, so what? You stop and think about the disciples. Do you think they had any difficulties? Think about the Apostle Paul. Did he have difficulties? When Christ was here, did everything go just like he had planned that he wanted?

He came into the world and He came because He so loved the world, but He allowed the world to treat Him as they wanted to. To me it would have been very difficult for them to spit on me without spitting back or to pull my beard on my…well I’d be wanting to clobber every one of them. Jesus would have had to do that. I couldn’t have done that. That was too high for me. I don’t have that temperament. I have a fight back, get even temperament.

I’m just like you. Some things just are not fair, but you’re going to have difficulty in your life. Remember that because it’s true. Look in verse 21 where it says, for even here on two, word you called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. Follow his steps. You in this life, me in this life, we’re going to hurt and we’re going to suffer and we’re going to grieve. There are going to be difficulties, but the price you pay, it will be worth it all because as the day come and when God is going to reward you for everything you’ve gone through, and it’s a lot of difficulty that we have.

Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a a free copy.

There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Man. The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address and God bless you and thank you for listening to Bible Mind. 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. Believe it that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.