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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.

Sometimes ago I gave you a copy of what I’m giving you right now. But tonight I want to approach it from a different perspective. One of the most difficult things in the Christian life is view and eye maintaining a proper attitude and image about ourselves and the Lord. Some people are so easily intimidated or offended and sometimes just don’t feel like they’re qualified. Now I’ll be honest with you. many a time that I have set up you on the platform and I see the people and I’m thinking to myself, self, who do you think you are to get up there and tell them anything?

What qualifies you? If you were not you and you were somebody else, would you come out to hear me? And that’s scary because if I wasn’t me, I don’t know if I I would come out on a regular basis to hear me. And I think, you know, you don’t wanna waste people’s lives. You want them to, when they come, they least learn something. So we always try to teach something old and something new, trying to stir up your mind and try to get you to apply things.

And you know that one of the most stressful jobs in the world has been a preacher. There’s more people quitting the ministry than the other ministry. That’s what they told me. because they get what they call burnout. Because you’re trying to get people to do something that you can’t make them do. You’re gonna be trying to motivate them and then most people are not motivated. Oh, they are motivated to do what they wanna do but now you gotta try to get them motivated to do what God wants them to do.

Have you ever heard of people that are getting older and they say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? What do you think that means? You know what it means. Because you’re sitting your ways, you got habits, it’s ingrained in you, it’s part of your life. And remember this, a rut is nothing more than a grave that’s open on both ends. And you slowly walk into it. So you need to be very, very careful about what you’re doing with your life.

So something that kind of give you a little levity, you know. This is something about politics. Well let’s just get this out of the way, alright, we’ll get this out of the way. A man said this, if God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates. Now there is a wise statement. The problem with most political jokes is they get elected. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. If we got one tenth of what was promised to us in these states of the union speeches, there wouldn’t be any inducement to go to heaven.

Because when you listen to what they promise you, how they’re going to produce a utopia, you’ll have no more health problems. They can give you all the money you need, their raising their rates of the working wage, and nobody’s going to be poor, and everything’s going to be one of them. Nobody’s going to go to heaven. Aren’t you glad they’re failures? are succeeding. Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.

You know who said that? Nikita Khrushchev. He said that. Now, when I was a boy, I was told that anybody could become president. I’m beginning to believe it. Why pay money to have your family tree traced, go into politics, and your opponent will do it for you? If there’s anything missing, they’ll dig it up for you. I guarantee you. Come and imagine me, this one woman, she became an archeologist. She said she’d do anything to dig up a man.

Did you like that? You like that? Okay. Politicians are people who when they see the light at the end of the tunnel, they go out and buy more tunnel. Politics is the gentle art of getting boats from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other. I offer my opponent a bargain. If they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.” I like that. I thought that was super.

A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country. I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. There ought to be one day, just one day when there is open season on Congressman. Will Roger said that? And another man said, my biggest fear is not that I might fail, rather that I might succeed at something with no eternal value.

Now here you and I are, and we’re supposed to believe that we have value and we have something worth living for, so that we have a good frame of mind, so that we can understand. So take your Bible look in the book of Psalms, the book of Psalms chapter 8. Psalms chapter 8 and just very quickly, I just want to remind you of a verse here that’s pretty good. When you consider the heavens and all that God has made and see His handiwork and then you think to yourself, what is man that thou art mindful of him?

See there in chapter 8. Notice here in verse 3, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hath ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visited him? For thou hath made him a little lower than the angels, and hath crowned him with glory and honor. So Jesus Christ was made lower than the angels for the suffering of death. He brought chapter 2 and verse 7.

So we have tremendous verse about the Son of God, but when you talk about man, have you ever been up in a nerve plane and realized his house, small man is? And like he was one guy, he made the statement, he looked out the airplane, he said, look down there, look down there, those people, they look like ants. She says, arts, but we haven’t took off yet. But if people get so small, they look like little ants running all over the place.

But one of these days, it’s all going to be over. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Philippians in chapter 3, Philippians and chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3, and you’ll notice there in verse 3 and 5, there are times when we think so highly of ourselves. The Apostle Paul thought he was something at one time. He bragged about, look who I am and what I have done. I mean, I was a Pharisee. And so, above many my own age, I mean, I was for my youth, I was so intelligent.

I was so bright. I was the shining star. I was rising in the political realm of these andhedron. I’m somebody? I’ve said it to the feet of Gamaliel, look at me. I’m highly intellectual, and yet in spite of who he was, and God says, I got some news for you. And this is what he learned in verse three, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and get this statement, have no confidence in the flesh.

Now I know that we need to have a proper evaluation of ourselves, and so if you listen to what God, how He describes us in the Word of God. And you’ll notice that in the very next statement on your notes. There is no value in trying to improve your own inward self-image in your own eyes. I am a sinner, deceitful, wicked, undone, lost, unrighteous, vile, and a liar. Now how does that make you feel? That’s not very good for your self-image.

So this is enough to give a man a bad image of himself. Now you read Jeremiah 5 and 7 and you’ll see a couple chapters there. How the heart is deceitful above all things and the Bible even talks about cursed is the man who put it his confidence or his trust in man. So we’re just not to do that. But there is this thing about how to you improve your image. Well, best way to improve your image is to get a new one.

And you know how you can get a new image of yourself? is to have a new birth. So when you have a new birth, birth you have a new birth in the image of God created in His image, the new birth without a sinful nature. So now you’re supposed to see yourself the way God sees you. Now in Philippians in chapter 4, while you’re right there, look in verse 8. Learning how to think. In verse 8 says finally brethren.

I like the way he says finally. Then he’ll go on for another chapter. Usually when I say finally I’ll say yankie. That’s it. That’s it. I cut it. In verse 8 finally brethren what’s over things are true? What’s over things are honest? What’s over things are just? What’s over things are pure? What’s over things are lovely. What’s the other things of a good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise? Think on these things. This is telling you how you’re supposed to think because if you think right you can live right.

You don’t think right you can’t live right. And the reason for telling you how to think here is so that you won’t do what it says up there in verse 6. Now I’m looking in verse 7. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful or anxious for nothing and the only way that can take place is not just with prayer but on how you think because you’re to pray and ask the Lord, Lord, how do I think?

And God says, this is how you’re supposed to think. Think on these things and it can change your life because attitude is everything. Attitude means an awful lot. Your attitude determines your altitude. Remember I had a whole sermon on that one time. Ten steps to proper thinking on how to think. And so you’ve got to stir up your remembrance. Otherwise you’ll let the old devil little by little and he’ll leave you nothing with two legs and an ear. So you’ve got to learn how to think the way God wants you to.

Now I want you to look there in your notes. I am somebody. I am somebody. Now you tell me, what scripture would you use to talk to somebody who don’t think they’re much? I’m a nobody. I’m nothing. I am somebody. How would you use the Word of God? And what Scripture would you use to say, look what he says right here. I am somebody. How do you know you’re somebody? How do you know you’re something? What verse would you use?

Or is there a verse that you could use that says something about your value. Nobody Ephesians 2, 10, quote it or read it. Alright, go ahead. For we are going to read it. Stand up and read it loud. Now that is a good verse. I wasn’t even thinking about that verse, but that’s a good verse. That’s better than the verse I was thinking about. But it’s a verse that says you have been created by God for something. So you have a values unto you.

So when he says, I am of great value. I am of great value. What value would you place upon? How much do you think you’re worth? What verse in the Bible would say, he are more value than even the sparrows that fall to the earth. And your father knows everyone that falls And you’re valuable to God. Where is that verse found? Where’s the verse found? You don’t want to be just milk fed all the time, do you? You’ve got to think.

Reason. What? How in your own mind, what would you say that says in the Bible, I have value. I got value. I’m worth something. Is there any verse in the Bible? Do you know of anything? You don’t have to be that one in Matthew. you. It could be any verse. But something that you say, this is what helps me to know that I have value. Yes, Louie? I can draw a briefer’s thing, valuable stuff to the kids. That is the verse I was going to have on the last one, but that’s a good verse.

How would you think… John 3 16 proves to you you’re valuable. What does John 3 16 say that makes you think you’re worth something? Yes. Yeah, right here. Yes. Yeah. Or explain it to me. How does that show that you have value? If you didn’t have value, he would not have died for you. There would have been no reason to. So you have value because He was willing to die for you. That’s what makes you worth something. Anybody else got another verse?

Yes. 1 Peter 1 19. 1 Peter 1 19. Verse 18 says they’re not ready and with corruptible things. The verse 19 says, but with the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb and the Lamb of what God paid for me was the price, the price, the price. It’s what was the value of the price that was paid. If somebody paid a great price for you, then you must be worth whatever it was, somebody was willing to pay. I’ve had a chance to say, okay, like I got a house that’s worth $1,000.

You’ll take it. You would think that house is not worth very much, but if I had a house that was worth a million dollars, But if somebody only offered me $5,000, and that’s all I took for it, then I got a $5,000 home. Doesn’t matter what the value of it is, it’s what was you willing to take for it. Now, this is what Christ was willing to take for us. He paid, and I love that verse, 1 Peter chapter 1, 18 and 19, talking about the value of the precious blood of Christ.

You were not redeemed with silver and gold and corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. very good. When he says, I am greatly loved. I am greatly loved. There’s verses in the Bible that talks about beloved, beloved. How do you become a beloved? By being loved. Let God love you. So where is a verse in the Bible that calls us the beloved? Beloved. Where is that verse found in the Bible. First John chapter, you got to find it.

Four and verse 11, read it out loud. Very good. Now, I am a child of God. I’m a child of God. Therefore, I learn to think as a child of God. I should learn to think because I am a valuable individual in God I am loved by God. Now this is how God sees me because see he saw me like this and was willing to pay a great price for me so you are a great value. Think about it this way there’s not one person in the whole world God loves more than you.

Think about it. Nobody in this world God doesn’t love anybody in this whole world more than he loves me but he don’t hate anybody He loves us. Now, where does it say in the Bible, I am a child of God by faith. We are the children of God by faith. I want to know where is it found? Galatians chapter 3 verse 26, who got it and who can read it? Who’s got it? Jan, you got it? Who has it?

Yeah, go ahead, Lin. When you trust in Christ as your Savior by your faith you became a child of God. All of God’s children go to heaven. None of God’s children ever go to hell. I had some people say, well I don’t see how God could send His children to hell. I said, He doesn’t. He won’t. None of God’s children go to hell. Now those who have not trusted Christ as Savior, they are not the children of God. So now look at the next statement here.

Therefore I know it. Therefore I know something. I know that my sins are all forgiven. But now tell me, where does it say, what verse would you use to say, my sins are all forgiven? What verse would you turn to to prove that point? You’re talking to somebody and you make a statement. All my sins have been forgiven. They say, where does it say that? And you will say, you will say, and you won’t say, but you know it’s in there somewhere, right?

You know it’s in the Bible somewhere. Course, it’s in 14. All right, look in Colossians chapter 2 verse 14. In your church, Bible, it’s on the left end, paid, left end, column halfway down. But look what he says in that verse. Are you looking at it? Colossians in chapter 2. Verse 14, read it out loud. Alright. Where is, what would you say over here? Yes. And also now, what about Acts 13? Any verse in Acts 13 that you might be able to use?

Acts 13, 13. Acts 13. So on the right hand page in the right hand column. 38. Read it, Bob. That through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believer justified from all things from which you cannot be justified by the law of Moses. are tremendous verses, but you need to know what they are because that’s the description of yourself. I am a forgiven man. All my sins are been forgiven. That ought to do something for your attitude.

Do you know when you do something wrong it makes you feel guilty, don’t it? Makes you feel ugly inside and maybe a little rotten, but did you know when you realize God knows that I’m a sinner? Christ died for my sins. forgiven me of my sins. And therefore I can claim what he did on the cross for me. And now as a child of God, remember up to the time you trust in Christ to say, you were not a child of God.

Once you trust them now as a child of God, God deals with you as the Father, before as the judge. So the penalty has been paid and now you’re talking about your walk with the Lord and now you’ve sinned against your Father. So you’ve got to deal with your Father. And we might sin against each other so we have to ask each other to forgive us what we do against each other. Has not do the penalty of sin. That’s been paid.

He forgives us because it’s been paid. All of the sins been paid. I am going to heaven. Here you are and you say, you know I’m so glad I trust the Christ is my Savior and I know I’m going to heaven when I die. Alright, somebody wants to see that verse that says, you’re going to heaven when you die. What verse would you show them says, I know that I’m going to heaven when I die. Go. First Peter chapter 1 is a very good scripture.

Because when you trust Christ as your Savior, you’re saved from something to something. To an inheritance that’s incorruptible and undefiled, that faiteth not away reserved in heaven for you. Isn’t that a good verse? That is a good verse reserved in heaven for you. Alright, give me another one. Give me another one. 1 John 5, 13, it doesn’t say that you go into heaven. Heaven’s not in that verse. Or doesn’t say anything about heaven and that verse. First John 5th 13 lets you know that you have eternal life But the verse that you can show somebody you know you’re going to heaven.

Yes, sir Yes sir. I like John Fortin to his brief. He’s a said in my father’s house and many men. I know where his father’s house is by the way. Have you been there before? I go to prayer a place for you and if I go to prayer a place for you I will come again and receive you under myself that there where I am there you be also. So that is a good verse that can be used to show that there is a place, not a state of mind, there is a place for us.

Now one time I was talking to Jehovah’s Witness and Jehovah’s Witnesses, well they didn’t want to go to heaven anyway and they’re just going to get into the Kingdom. So when I said, well, about the kingdom, upon the earth, the kingdom of heaven, the Bible says that unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. I said, they were the law keepers, you’d have to be better than them.

I said, so the righteousness, you still got to have, and you don’t have it, because you’re not by your works. So anyway, I explained to the gospel, but I didn’t read them to the Lord. I like to say, I’ll let them do the Lord, but Jehovah’s Witnesses are very difficult. They are ingrained. Unless you get a whole of the one that’s just learning. So I was talking to one, he says, you know, you can’t, there’s not a verse in the Bible that says that we’re going to go to heaven.

And I said, oh, no verse, huh? That whenever we leave here, that we can go to heaven. He said, no, there’s not. I said, take your Bible and let me show you something. And he had a Bible. It was the New World translation. I used it anyway. didn’t have mine with me. And I told him I said, now look at this over there. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 I want you to look at it. 2nd Corinthians in chapter 5.

2nd Corinthians chapter 5, look in verse 1, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, what do you think that means? If this earthly house was dissolved. It’s gonna die. When this body dies, this is what he says, we have a building of God and house not made with hands, where? Eternal in the heavens. So in this, this body, we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. He just said it was in heaven, and that I’m gonna get it.

And then look what he says down here in verse eight. We are confident I say in willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So the Lord is in heaven. My house, I got another one there. I might be temporary, I gotta get my new body glorified. I don’t know, I’ll let God figure out all the little details. But I know that I’m going to heaven, heaven when I die. All right, look back at your notes here.

I need not worry. I need not worry. What verse would you use not to worry, not to worry? Philippians chapter four verse six, I had verse seven down, verse six is good. Read it for me. Stand up when you read. There you go. Be careful for nothing but never think by prayer and preparation. So thanks to any matter of But you may know that it got him. All right, go ahead and read that next verse also. And the peace of God would pass us all over the standing, so I’ll keep your heart in mind, because that’s the peace.

Now, that means pass all human understanding. You see, the world cannot give you the peace that God can give to you. And you don’t have to worry, that’s why he says, and care not about, and be anxious for nothing. Means don’t worry about things. Now, I know we had to be concerned about things here and there and so forth like that, but you don’t have to worry like the world worries. We don’t have to have sorrow like the world has sorrow.

We can even grieve, but we don’t have to grieve like the lost people grieve. But there’s something that’s special about God and he says, I’ll give you my peace, I’ll give you my joy, which we talked about the other night. Now look at the next statement, I need not fear, I need not fear. Does God cause us to be afraid? God wants me to be afraid. No. The Bible does talk about how that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

But that’s a different word that we’re talking about that comes from God, is that God wants me to have a high, holy, reverential respect for God. I also know that if I don’t serve God, I know that my Heavenly Father could do what to me. Chastize me. And I have a fear of being chastised because I don’t know at what extreme it will be. So a little bit of that fear makes me move away from the edges because I believe love is a stronger motive than fear.

But God uses both motives in a person’s life. God can guide you by love and He can also guide you by fear. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if 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 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 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.