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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 BibleInmenistries.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 have something I wanted to run by y’all just a little bit. Sometimes you may think in your mind Wouldn’t it have been neat to have been Abraham? Well, if I could have been Moses or David, you know, one of those Bible characters that were really great for the Lord, you know, Paul or Isaiah, John the Baptist, and then God made you you. Do you know the Bible says they were men of like passion, just like us? You know all of those great men you’ve heard about?

They all had a sinful nature, just like yours. They struggled in life just like we do. They’re just men of flesh. The greatest man of all, outside of Christ, had problems. Everybody who lives in this whole sinful body has problems. That’s why we do so many things wrong. We air in judgment. We don’t love exactly the way we should. don’t walk the way we should. We don’t talk the way, well, it’s times when we may have a little spell, you know, kind of like those guys that play golf and they want to, a stretch of about four or five birdies in a row, but they can’t maintain it.

It’s just like people trying to, well, I’m not going to sin anymore. I make a pledge today. I’m not going to sin anymore. Well, how you doing? Man asked me that one time. He says, well, you saved it. Yes, I am. He says, you’ve been born again. I’ve been born again. He said, you’re still sinned. I said, yes, I am. I wanted that decking right there on the spot. Give them what they call a whole Hawaiian punch. I didn’t know much about the Bible and loving your neighbor.

Well, I wasn’t good about that. But anyway. Yes, I have an old sinful nature just like you do, and we still have wrong thoughts. We get down, we get discouraged. So I titled this the giants of the Lord were told not to fear. Now why would God have to tell them that? Because they were afraid. They had fear, they had worries, they fretted, and you can check almost every one of them. They had to go through the same things, just like you and I do.

So it’s good sometimes to see not just all the good that somebody’s done, but what did they worry about? So anyway, I want you to take your Bible and turn to Genesis chapter 14. In Genesis This is chapter 14, Lot who was Abraham’s nephew, he didn’t get in trouble again. And this time some kings came in and took all the people and took all their wealth and vacated this country there. So somebody got back and told Abraham about it.

So anyway, he got all of his people together and got 318 of them and they took out after them. Well, they overtook them and anyway they conquered them, got the people back. They went back into Sodom and he got the wealth back. So he had a great victory. And even the Bible says in the book of Hebrews chapter 7 that Abraham paid tithes on to Melchizedek. So whatever he had, he gave 10% to the high priest there, Melchizedek. And that’s mentioned right there in verse 18 of chapter 14.

And it says, and Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine, and he was the the priests of the Most High God. And he blessed him, said, blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. So he knew that God so wanted to deliver them into his hand. And he gave him, Abraham gave him tithes of all. So the king of Sodom, he came up there and he said, hey, look, look, look, we don’t want much.

Just let us have the people and you can keep the money. And he says there in the last part, give me the pot. than take the goods to thyself. And Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up my hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread, even to a shoe legend, and that I will not take anything that is thine. Less thou should have say, I have made Abram rich.”

Now that’s pretty good convictions in it. I’m not taking anything so that you can’t say you made me rich.” So I guess he was concerned about where the money was coming from. And he didn’t like what they were doing. Abraham didn’t want no part of it. So it goes down here in chapter 5. Now you just had a great victory. I mean, he was on cloud. Now he just had a great victory. But what about all those people do?

What if they get together and come after Abraham? What if they do that? They can come after him and do him in? But don’t forget, it was God that gave him the victory. At least that’s what Melchizedek called him. And so he says here in verse 1, after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision. Now, when you’ve had a great victory, it’s so easy right after a great victory to get down in discouraged and depressed.

I’ve noticed that in my own life. Sometimes I get so, if I like I’m empty after I’ve gone someplace, had a great meeting, great revival, and then right afterwards, it’s dead. There’s nothing. I’m sitting in my motor home, or I’m sitting in some part, sitting here by myself. Now what? Because what happened is past. Now it’s like nothing’s going on. Great victory, great results, harvest, now nothing.

And you can be surprised how quickly you can get discouraged and depressed. Well, he says here, the word of the Lord came to Abram. The word of the Lord came to Abram. It’s like God says, Abram, I saw what you did down there. I saw what you did. And I know what you risk. And I know what you gave up. You could have took all that wealth if you wanted to. And you might be worrying about what those guys are going to do.

Did they get to get in come after you again? I mean they’re a lot bigger than you. There’s a lot more of them too. But he says, came to Abraham in the pheasants and says, you see those words fear not. Fear not means Abraham, don’t worry. Don’t worry. When you see fear not, fret not, it’s the same thing as saying, hey, don’t worry about it. Don’t worry. Now, as you go through the Bible, you’ll find out this phrase is mentioned to an awful lot of God’s people.

He even told his disciples that fear not, be not afraid. Don’t worry. Why? Because we worry. In spite of all that you know And how many years you’ve been in church studying the Bible, and in regards to how strong you are, you’d be surprised how fast something can happen and you fret and worry about it, in regards to how godly you may be. Now, when you finally reach my stage, it won’t happen anymore. No. There’s no end to it.

As long as you’re in this physical body, you’re gonna have times of weaknesses and despair, discouragement, and you’re gonna fret. You’re gonna worry. And then he says this, Abram, I am thy shield. Abram, I’ll protect you. Don’t you worry, Abram, I’ll protect you. Didn’t God already make Abraham some promises about how great he was gonna be? And didn’t God already tell you, you’re gonna have a son. God already told him that. You’re gonna have a lot of nations come from you.

Well, that hadn’t happened yet. I will protect you.” And then he says here, I am thy shield and I am thy, and you are on the land, great exceeding reward. I’ll be your reward. I got something for you that’s special. All that you gave up because of Sodom and don’t, hey, don’t worry about that because I got something I’m going to give you. So now look there in the next verse or he says, and Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me?

I mean, I gave up so much. I didn’t take it because I honored you. Have you ever made decisions and later on which, well, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that. Maybe you spoke too soon. Or do you make decisions and later on your second guess in yourself. You know, one of the things that you will struggle with more than anything else in your Christian life is I know the will of God. I know it’s the will of God.

And then you do it. And then something goes wrong. Well, I’m not sure this is the will of God and begin to question whether it is or it isn’t. And you’d be surprised how it can just rob you of your peace of mind, your joy, your happiness, because you don’t know it. Is this the will of God? Remember what the devil does? He always wants to get you to question whether you’re in the will of God or not. What did he say to Adam and Eve?

Half God said. Half God said. I mean, did he really say that? Well, like he remembers, kind of fuzzy. Well, you’d be surprised how many times that’ll happen in your Christian life, and you’ll go over these things. So he says, what am I going to do? He said, what are you going to give me? See and I go chalet. Lord, now I know you’re a possessor of heaven and earth. you’re my shield and great reward. But what are you gonna give me?

Now, if I’m understanding you, Lord, correctly, I’m gonna be the father of a great nation, but I got a problem. I have to have a son, and all I got is this servant of mine who is the Eliezer. He says, that’s all I got. And the Lord says, well, it’s not him. Believe it or not. And so he makes the statement in verse three. And Abram said, behold to me, thou have given no seed. You haven’t done it. Look, you promised, you haven’t done it yet.

You have not done. What you said is going to do. You ever get tired waiting on God, patience? Oh, we need patience. What produces patience in a person’s life? Tribulation, work of patience. So God can’t teach you patience if He gave you everything you wanted when you wanted it. So he wants you to learn, hey be patient, trust me. God has a time table, God has timing. Some of us may not be ready for the trial that’s coming or the testing that’s coming.

So we may have to learn a few things, wait a little bit. God knows what he’s doing, trust him. So he made this statement here in verse three. Lord, one born in my house is my near. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, and now he needs the word of the Lord again. It didn’t say I am thy shield and I am thy exceeding great reward. But Lord, you know, you said I was going to have a son that I don’t have one.

You said it. And all I got is this, he’s an azeron. He’s my servant. But when born in my own household, well, he’s supposed to be the one, it says, what am I going to do? It’s like he’s worried over how to fulfill the will of God. Well, wait a minute, wasn’t it God that told him what he wanted to do? is it up to God or is it up to Abraham? But he worried just like everybody else was.

He fret just like everybody else did. Later on you find out that his wife got tired of waiting and says, maybe you’re supposed to take Hagar. So you take Hagar and have a kid by, that’s all we need is a good womanly advice. And it seemed like the right thing to do. There is a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof of the ways of destruction. myself personally, I wished he had never done that. We’re still suffering consequences to this day.

Ask Israel. By the way, they just knocked on the doors in Europe. He says, hello, we’re coming. And so he says here in verse 5, he says, God, look at the stars. Count all the stars. You’re going to have a seed as many as the stars and the sand upon the earth. That’s a whole bunch. And he believed God and it was counted in him for righteousness. Now I want you to take your notes and look at your notes.

Now you and I know already I will never cover all of these will I? But I will make a stab at some of these things but I have to give you a little intro but look at the next statement. Now the 37th Psalm is a tremendous Psalm it really is but it starts shut off with, as a sum of the fret, not thyself because of evil doers. Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. If you ever seen somebody else that live wrong, do wrong, and it seemed like they prosper, and you try to do everything right and you struggle all the time, trying to find out how you’re going to make ends meet, how to keep body and soul together.

You know, body and soul all instead together, you what? Did I? So you’re trying to figure out how to stay alive. And sometimes it just doesn’t seem fair. But remember we read this morning in Sunday’s school that Abraham said to God, “‘Shall not the God of all the earth do right. Shall not the God of all the earth do right. God can’t do wrong. He can only do right.” And if his characteristic never changed, hey, you’re in good shape.

God is on the throne. And he knows who you are, he knows where you’re, knows what’s going on. But it says, don’t worry because of evil people that seem to prosper. David says, my foot had well nice lit when I saw this prosperity of the wicked. So then he says here in Psalms 37 and verse 7, rest in the Lord. Now verse 4, it’s not in your note, but verse 4, simply says, delight thyself in the Lord, and I will give thee the desires of thine heart.

Learn to trust the Lord. Be light yourself in the Lord. But that’s in verse 4 of Psalms 37. But here in verse 7 it says that all over again rest in the Lord. See worry in fretting about things means you’re not resting in the Lord. And don’t we despise when we really mess up and we realize that I’m not really trusting the Lord like I’m supposed to. We wished that we could just always live, you know, holy. Never have any signs of weakness in our life.

When you always like to be on top of cloud nine, always exhibiting, manifesting, all the attributes of a child of God that’s mature in the Lord, walking with God in the Spirit. And then sometimes we let the flesh get the best of us and it makes us so sick at our stomach like somebody in there playing ping-pong back and forth, makes you just sick at yourself. And can it happen at any moment? Just how quickly you’d be surprised how you can lose it.

And worry and fret. But those are signs of a person who’s not trusting the Lord. So he says, rest in the Lord. Wait patiently for him, fret not thyself because of him who prosper in his way. Because of the man who bring us wicked devices to the path, just because there’s wicked people in the world and they might even be wicked towards you and do wicked things to you. Learn just trust the Lord, just learn to trust the Lord.

Look at the next one. Psalm 37 verse eight. sees from anger and forsake wrath, fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Now, I’m not talking about it, and I’m not a pacifist, by the way. I do believe that there’s a time when you are supposed to protect that which belongs to you, like your wife or your children, and you have the right to life and liberty and pursuit happiness if you want. But there’s a place where you have to be careful that you don’t just out of vengeance when anger controls you and you say and do things you should not say and do.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with somebody trying to break in your house. What would you do? Open the door and says, I mean me, no harm stranger, but I’ll stand it’s right where I’m about to shoot. So you got to give him a chance. Nah, but anyway, be wise on that. Genesis 21 17, look at this. Now, hey, she’d already, she was this bondwoman, the slave of Abraham that came out of Egypt. And Sarah told Abraham, why don’t you have a child by her?

Well, he did. And next thing you know, the kid’s 13 years old. And the kid, well, he always was picking on their child that they had. You have Abraham and Isaac, Isaac. And he would always, there was a problem between them. And so finally, Sarah had enough of that. She says, you’re out of here. So Abraham made her leave. So here’s this woman, the slave lady, with her son and out there in the desert. She’s gonna die, sons crying.

So she put him down and she goes off from him. And the Lord says, I heard the cry of the son. and he’s gonna be the head of a lot of nations. He’s not gonna die, and he didn’t die. So he says here in verse 17, and God heard the voice of the lad and the angel of God called a hager out of heaven and said to him, what a lift thee, hager? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is, don’t fear.

Well, what would you do if you were dying? And your son was dying and you didn’t know what you’re going to do and everything looks dark. It’s hard to trust the Lord when you can’t see clearly. See a lot of times even for you and I, it’s easier to trust the Lord when it’s daylight. But whenever the Lord turns out the lights and it seems to be a little on the dark side. When you don’t see it’s clear and you begin to wonder, You begin to have doubts, you begin to fret, worry, and have grief.

Sometimes that you can’t seem to get over. Well, those are things. Remember that happened to all of God’s people. As you go through the Bible, you’ll find out, hey, they were just like you, just like me. They went through these things. Look down at Exodus 20, verse 20. Yeah, here just talk about Moses. Moses said unto the people, fear not, for God has come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces that you sin not.

So God wanted his people to do right. Thanks to this chapter 20, he gives them the law. Told them what to do. He says, don’t be afraid. If you break the law, well, there were sacrifices that had to be made, appropriate sacrifices for appropriate sin. I don’t get any sins appropriate, but I mean, if he said that, there was a sacrifice to me. Look at the next one, Deuteronomy 1, 21, Behold, the Lord thy God have set the land before the go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers had said unto thee, Fear not neither be discouraged.

Now they were going to go into the land, the promised land. They sent twelve spies into the land. Ten of them came back with a terrible, terrible report. giants in the land. Children of Anak there. We’re like grasshoppers in their sight. But there were two of them that says, God promised us the land. God says we can take it. God says He will be with us. We don’t have to be afraid. But those ten that came back with the bad message, defeated attitude, convinced the rest of the people.

And so now they were mad at Moses, bringing us out here into the desert to let us die. It’s all Moses’s fault. But it all started back there whenever God says, I’ve heard the cry of my people that are in bondage. They cried out to me, I’ve heard their voices. I’ve come to deliver them. Oh, how quickly they forget. Now they begin to fall apart and weep and well, fret, worry, giants in the land. Those giants were nothing more than problems.

They’re just big problems. But it all depends on what’s the size of your God. Is God bigger than your problems? God, anything is possible. And if God says, I’m I’m going to give you this land. I brought you here. You can take it. And then they worried and fret and cause of the people to be the same way. You see, all of us affect somebody. We’re either encouraging people in the Lord or we’re discouraging people. But not everybody is excited about the things of the Lord because some people are just worrying about something.

I bet you this. We were not going to take a toll. But I would bet you to say that some of y’all are sitting here listening to me and you’re worried about something. You got something that’s on your mind and you’re worried. Now we won’t never know because you’re not going to tell us. But should you talk to the Lord about it? If God walked into this room right now and He told you, now I know every one of you in here, I know every one of your problems.

Fear not. Be not afraid. I am the possessor of heaven and earth. I can move heaven and I can move earth. With me, all things are possible.” And then he says, will you trust me? And he said, well, I don’t know. You know, you can’t trust anybody these days. Could you trust them? But you’ll be surprised how easy it is to walk out those doors. A worried individual fretting about tomorrow. All kinds of things that can happen. Learn to cast all your cares upon him, for he careth for you.”

Look in verse three down here of chapter 20, Deuteronomy, and shall say unto them, Oh Israel, you approach this day in the battle against your enemies, let not your heart faint fear not and do not tremble, neither be terrified because of them. Why? Because they did tremble and they were terrified in their hearts, we’re faint. And he says, don’t be afraid. Because. Hey, these people of Israel, they’re just like you and just like me. These are some of the greats.

These are the ones you say, I, boy, I wish I could have been there. I wish I had been like them. Oh, you are like them, more than you know. And there’s moments in their life they probably shined as a great leader. But there’s also times when they were down on the bottom. Look down at the bottom of that page. Joshua chapter eight verse one. and the Lord said unto Joshua, fear not, neither be thou just made. Take all the people of war with thee, arise, go up to A.I.

See, I have given into thy hand the king of A.I. and his people and his city and his land. Don’t be afraid. Go ahead and do it. Do what I tell you to do. And Joshua chapter 10 and verse 25, now you’ll notice that whenever you read some of those things in the book of Deuteronomy where Moses was told, fear not, I am with thee, be not afraid, be strong, be courageous when Joshua came along in chapter one, he told him the same thing.

As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. Why did he have to tell Joshua that? Because he says, be thou strong and very courageous. Because sometimes God knows how we think and feel on the inside. Nobody else knows it on the outside. They may have been, hey, Joshua, He never gets afraid. He’s never, you know what courage is? Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is fear that says it’s prayers and goes ahead. If there’s no fear, there’s no courage.

You can’t have courage without fear. When he said be courageous means in spite of your fear. That means generally because of your limitations. You can’t do it, but you’re going to trust God too. So you step out and you trust the Lord. And some people never get to see what GodFax do because they’re always too afraid to trust the Lord because you know what? He liable to let me down. Remember I said this before when they were out there in the boat and they saw Jesus walking on the water.

Peter says, can I come to you on the water? Jesus says, come on. He get out of the boat and what did Peter do? Walked on the water. You know the rest of them it was in the boat. You know what they said? I was just fixing to do that. I was going to do that. I could have Saban it too. I mean, he’s not the only one. Yeah, but how many of them got out of the boat and FANTOM the water?

Justupuncture. Alvini did it. Now when he took his eyes off Zur what happened cigat.172ysical.resents wipModLoader But you see, it’s better to attempt and fail than never attempt at all. Some people want to stay in the boat all their life. They just feel safe there. But they never get a chance%” to see what can God do with my life because I’m afraid, afraid he will let me down. He’s not going to keep his word. Are you a new listener to Bibleline?

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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 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 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.

Cada can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.