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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 air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I got to think about something that I did a couple years ago, around December time. And we had an open house and I had to say a few words about the greatest need of all times. And I thought if it’s such a great need, then maybe I need to cover it one more time. And what’s the greatest need of all time is love. It’s the greatest thing God has. It’s the greatest thing God is. God is love. And so I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to the first John.

First John in chapter 4, first John chapter 4. There’s a pretty good person of scripture here that just keeps talking about love all the way through this whole book. Keeps calling them beloved. My little children and beloved, beloved, beloved. all over the place in 1 John. Because it’s a book talking to God’s people about the idea of loving the Lord. And God says if you love me, love one another. So evidently that must be one of the most important thing God wants us to do, but it must be one of the hardest things for us to do.

You know some people are just not lovable. You ever seen somebody like that. Did you know that you might be one of those people that have trouble loving other people? You might be one of those unlovable that they’re supposed to love. But you know everybody’s got a problem with somebody, with somebody. Everybody is hard to love. Believe it or not. But look what he says here in verse 7, be loved, let us love one another. For love is of God.

And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that knoweth not, or loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. In other words, you may know him as your savior, his child, but if you don’t love, you don’t know God. You don’t know what he’s like. You can accept the payment he made on the cross for you having turned light because you’re not going to have me because love God. But when you realize as a cell of God how much God loves you and wants you to love others, it’s a whole other world.

You know, sometimes we could do a lot of things but I mean this love in one another, you know, that’s not very macho, you know, that’s okay for the women, you know, they show expressions a lot more but guys, you know, hey, hi, that’s it. Well I told them by then, it’s hard for guides to show love. Just like it is for say you’re a man and the woman getting married and if per chance, I know it’s as difficult for some people to imagine, if per chance the man does something wrong.

We know how rare that is. But the hardest thing for a man to say is I was wrong. It is so difficult. In the other words to say that so difficult is I’m I apologize where you forgive me. Those are so difficult, and yet the Bible tells us that we’re supposed to do it. But love is supposed to be real and genuine, or it’s not really real, is it? Can you fake love? Just pretend like you like somebody. I think you’re a good girl.

But you give them that Christian smile. So it is a difficult thing, but it’s important to know them. And so he says here in verse eight, he that loveeth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. He said, love if not, and that same word is used in chapter two means you don’t know God, you don’t love God. Because if you love God, God said, if you love Him, then love. But you said, well, I love God, but I don’t like people.

I know what you mean. It’s a very difficult thing to do. It’s one of the most difficult things God ever asked us to do. But now look what He says in verse 9. And this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Now God says this is how he manifested his love and that he sent his son into the world to die for.

He must love us so much that he was willing to do that. So when we say we love the Lord and God says, how much do you love me? Are you willing to prove that to me by loving the unlovable. Christians that are not always that nice and sweet. But we are supposed to do it. It’s just that’s the word of God, how you get away. In verse 10 he says, here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us.

And it’s said it’s not to be the propitiation for our sins. Be love it if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Is that in the Bible? Did I just read that out of the Bible? you sure I didn’t make it up. Now I didn’t stick that in there because I didn’t get a hold of your Bible right in your Bible. It’s right there in the book. Now we could take the time and I don’t want to take the time tonight.

Go over there to the book of Psalms 139 Psalm talking about how that God thinks about us and how that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and how that he formed our bodies while they were in the room. You know, when nobody could see what God’s doing, but God’s working to work, and God says how he thinks about us. Now, isn’t it something when you start thinking about it, that God is not a respecter of persons? That means there’s nobody in this world God loves more than me.

There’s nobody that God loves more than you. And he doesn’t He loves all of them. He made this whole world. Not for the angels. He made it for us. And then he made a beautiful garden and put Adam and Eve in the beautiful garden. He had supplied everything man would need. Everything he needed God supplied before he ever put the first man and woman here. Now everything you and I need in this world God’s already supplied. That’s why my God shall supply all, He already has.

Just like we say that, you know, God made the little bird. And whatever that little bird needs, God has already supplied it. But He doesn’t throw the worm in the nest. He gave that bird a desire to want to eat, and He gave him some wings, gave him some eyes, and gave him a beak so he can find the worm and eat it up. That God doesn’t throw it in his nest. God has already supplied everything we need in this life, but you have to work to get it.

But it’s here. And God gives us all kinds of opportunities. So how much does God love us? How valuable are you? But when God looks at you, what kind of value does He put upon you? You must be pretty valuable in the eyes of God. Look what He paid for you. So So that is a pretty good price. You’re worth a lot. So you need to see yourself the way God does. Now look at the first statement here. The God of all wisdom would never create the world to waste time.

God just one day said, you know, I am bored stiff. I think I’ll do something. The angel said, what are you going to do? I don’t know. I think I’ll just make a world. Well, what’s that? So he made the world, but he didn’t even think about what it’s for. You think God did that? I think God had a plan, had a purpose, and he moved in that direction. That God doesn’t waste time. And I don’t believe God wants to waste my time.

I don’t think God wants to waste your time. But one of the things that he says that he wants us to do is to learn this thing about L-O-V-E. What in the world does it mean? And explain it to us. So, number one, he needed someone to love and for someone to love him. Now whenever He made Adam and Eve, He made them with the capacity to love. God wanted love, but God also wanted someone to love. And that’s why He walked with them in the garden and they talked, but then sin.

And that separates us from the Lord. And that’s what’s happened over the years. Look at number two. He needed to show his wisdom and his power. Now he can do that by the things that he made and he has shown us that. You get a chance to you read the 19th Psalm where it says that the heavens declare the handiwork of God. What the fingers of God can do and create. And he made the sun, the moon, the stars and everything that he made.

And so he proved to us that he has power and we know that he has wisdom because he has a power. wisdom because everything is done decently and in order and everything works. Everything works. There’s laws because there’s a lawgiver. There’s design because there was a designer. There’s a plan because he planned. So there’s an intelligent God who has done so much for us. And then in the 19th Psalm, the last part of it, he talks about how that he’s given us his word.

than honey.” And so he said that by the study of God’s Word and knowing what the word of God says, he says, we can know just about the blessings of life, we can know about the forgiveness, we can know so much more if we take God’s love letter at face value and really believe that he loves us. Now the next statement I want you to see there, number three, he needed to reveal his every attribute that makes him God.

See, God is not just powerful, he’s not just wise. See, not just intellectual. He’s all of those things, but God is so much more. And he’s very creative. He loves diversity, but he also loves unity. He loves peace. God is love. And because of all the things that God is, He wants us to know Him. not just as a Savior. So whenever you and I realize that we’re lost and Christ not on the cross paid for our sins and we can trust him as our Savior and he gives us eternal life and we can know that we’re going to heaven because salvation is free.

It’s not something you earn or work for. It is truly the gift of God. But there’s so much more that God wants us to know and we’ve mentioned this before that we would never know about the forgiveness of God, you know, the compassion that God has, if you had never allowed sin into the world. So God did allow that. And through these things that are so ugly in this world, we can learn to appreciate beauty. And we can appreciate God’s justice when we see God’s wrath upon sin.

Because God is holy, but He’s a just God. Shall not the God of all the earth do right? Who said that to who? shall not the judge of all the earth do right. Abraham said that to who? To God. To God. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right because it’s good for God to remember that huh? So Abraham helped God to remember. So he pleaded because he knew God was good. God is gracious. But look at the next statement.

Here is proof that God needs me. Would God make me if he did not want me? one of you in this room probably at some time or other, believe that God made you for a special reason. You sent something that I was created for a purpose. God must need me. He must want me. If God doesn’t waste time and God is perfect and God is just and God’s all these things, why would He waste His time making a little yankie or a little lo you?

So God must love you. He must think about you. He must care about you. Or why did God make you? You must be valuable to God because He says, what if He gains the whole world and lost His own soul? So God must think you are more valuable than all the world. And remember He made this whole world and then He put us in it to enjoy. He didn’t make the whole world just to make the whole world. He made it for a reason.

He prepared everything that we would ever need and then He made us. So yes, I believe that we have proof that God not only loves you, He wants you. Did you know that many people commit suicide because they don’t feel like they’re worth anything, have a bad image of themselves, nothing to live for, no purpose in life? And And yet God wants them to know love more than anything else in the world because God wants people to know, I, God, love you, sinner.

God loves sinners. Christ died for sinners. And we’re supposed to know that and share that with other people. Look at the next statement. I would cry die for me if he didn’t need to. Why would he die for me if he didn’t love me? Why would he die for me if he didn’t need me? So therefore, I believe that we have proof that we are of value to God. Now ever since I’ve really come to understand this, I have not had a big problem with a bad self-image.

Because it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks about me and I know that. Because I already know what God thinks about me. God thinks that I’m something. I’m needed, I’m wanted, I’m loved, and I have a purpose in life. Now, when you get to that middle age, you’re already here about the middle age crisis. I don’t even know when it starts and ends. I don’t know where it is. It must be after 73, because it hasn’t happened yet. But whenever this middle-aged crisis is from what I hear, I hope I never see it or go through it.

Because some people have already lost their will to live, their desire to do and to create and to build a bee. And I don’t want to go down that trail. And a lot of people commit suicide because they have nothing to live for. But when you really understand simple basic things, what it can do for you, In other words, a child of God shouldn’t have to be down and discouraged and depressed and despair. Do you know who you are?

In Christ, you have been seated in the heavenlies. You’re a treasure to God. You’re a trophy of God’s grace. You’re something. And I don’t care what other people say and try to put you down. God doesn’t need you. You’re not worth anything. You’re never mounted to a hill of beans. You’re no good. unlovable blah blah blah blah blah. Well God says that I’m lovable. He loves me. Look at the next statement. Why would God look for me if he didn’t need to find me?

You know in 2 Corinthians it talks about the eyes of the Lord run to and throw throughout the whole earth seeking for a man that God can make strong on his behalf. So you think God is looking for somebody that he can do some great things for. See, God is looking for this thing called faith. Now, he doesn’t look for people and try to find out who’s got the most talent, who’s got the most money, who’s the best looking, who’s this, that.

No, he’s looking for a commodity called faith, F-A-I-T-A, somebody that has faith in him. Because God can look down and he makes his statement, when he cries come, will he find faith on the earth. There’s one thing he’s looking for is do you have faith in Him? Do you believe Him? Do you trust Him? God is looking for somebody to demonstrate His power in person’s life. Just like He used Christ to demonstrate His great love. Now God wants to use you and I to demonstrate love to others and His power.

You know that one of the greatest things you and I can never show God as a changed life. A person that because of the Lord and the love that God has for us, his love motivating us, that if we were dead, then all were dead, and the Christ died and paid for all of our sins, that they which live should not henceforth from not one live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again. So is is it the will of God that you and I live for the Lord?

We’re supposed to manifest Christ. Didn’t you possible say whether by life or by death Christ may be magnified in my body? Well I live in this body upon this planet I want to magnify the Lord. So God has left us here like little magnifying glasses and we’re to magnify the Lord. How are we doing? I believe that’s what God wants. Then he also made this statement that God is looking for somebody to feel the gap. He was looking for somebody.

Here’s God and there’s people and God’s looking for a man, God’s looking for a man that he can use. And then Ezekiel, he says, he said, I found them. Would that be a shame that in our time that God is looking for a man, that he can use to shake America and it says I’m looking for a thing called faith. I’m looking for my children and it says I can’t find anybody I can use. When that be a shame, don’t you think I’d be a shame?

Don’t you want the devil to get a big old black eye? Do you want him to win? You know that he’s on your trail. You know that the devil is like a roaring lion seeking who he made of our. See God’s looking, but the devil is looking too. And so, who ends? Which one are you looking for? You better watch out for the old devil because he wants to destroy you and devour you. Look at the next statement. Who will go for us if he didn’t need someone to go?

Isaiah chapter 6. Whenever he says, when I saw King Uzziah die, then he says I saw the Lord. In the year that King Uzziah died. And then he says that I… saw his train to fill the temple. Then he talks about, yeah, holy, holy, holy, how righteous God is. And when he saw how righteous God was, he saw how sinful he was. Then he says they flew a hot coal from off the altar, touched his tongue, and he says, I am a man of unclean lips.

And then God says, who will go for us? Evidently God needed something. He needed somebody. And Isaiah says, Lord, hear my sin, man. So we know and believe. And I do. God not only loves us, he wants us, he needs us, and you’re valuable to the Lord. See yourself the way God sees you. And if you do, you shouldn’t have a bad image of yourself. You shouldn’t be always putting yourself down. Why? You’re a child of the king. If you’re a child of the king, you ought to act like a child of the king.

You’re somebody. You’re in the royal family. You’re in God’s family. You are His child. Now, act like it. And don’t let the devil get the best of you. Look at the next statement, the word man. We know what God wants, but what about a man? God needed a man to need him. God has created in every one of us the desire to want to know God. And you may not find the answers you’re looking for. And so therefore people make up a God.

They devise their own God just. We get on all those people that make up all these thousands of God’s and God’s and well let’s Christian do the same thing. You can trust Christ as your Savior and never recognize, hey the Lord is supposed to be my God. I mean, He’s supposed to be the Lord of my life. That is true, not to be saved, but He still is the Lord. And therefore I have a God. So I’m not supposed to let fame be my God, money be my God, and popular to be my God, and people to be my God, and things to be my God.

God’s supposed to be my God. So God designed a man with that little impiness inside of him. We often talk about that needs to be filled with the presence of the Lord where you you can sense the presence of God in your life all the time. So every man is created with an insatiable desire to know God. Even though you know Christ is your Savior, don’t you want to know him better? Don’t you want to know more about him?

So God revealed all this in his word. Can you say I really want to know the Lord? I really want to walk with God. I want to close your fellowship with God, but you never read his word. Somebody like thinking it. I don’t believe you. I want God’s will for my life, but you never go to church never support God’s work. You don’t do this. You don’t do that. Somebody’s just a lot of thinking. You know, you’re all talk.

You’re a hypocrite. Now you can be saved, have you turn life and you’re going to heaven when you die, but you may not give any evidence that you love the Lord. If you love the Lord, then serve the Lord. Turn into Bible 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. Do others see when you show a lack of respect? Look what he says right here in verse one. Thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

And the things that thou have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Did you know that you’re supposed to teach others by your life? What are you teaching? Do we teach only when we’re teaching the Bible? Do I teach when I’m not in the pulpit? Do I teach when I’m at home with just my wife? Am I teaching when I’m in a board meeting? Am I teaching when I’m anywhere, do anything?

College class, am I teaching? We’re teaching all the time. What if somebody was to listen, watch, learn from our actions? Or we’d have to give an account to God for even that. Should we teach and be aware of it in every area of our life? So this is why this is so important. I wrote down something on my little note here. Do you love the lovable or can you love the unlovable? It’s easy to love the lovable, but you know the people that are sweet and kind and nice.

Can you love them? What about the ones that are not so lovable? Do you struggle a little bit with those? You know, when we get right down to it, aren’t there people that we like better than others? We like some people better than others. Can you like somebody and not love them? Can you love somebody and not like them? I’m not going to answer the question because I haven’t got a clue. I’d just like to ask questions. But you know what I was thinking about?

I was thinking about, oh, Tom back there. See, Tom, I can see Tom, but Tom can’t see me. But did you know that that guy prays for me every day? He calls the church here, is that every day? Well, whether I’m here or not here, he’s been ordered to make sure he prays for me. Do you do that, Tom? He prays for me all the time. You know what I like about Tom? He does what he can. He can pray, can’t he?

Now, we won’t let him drive the bus. He’s blind as a bat. So, we don’t let Tom drive the bus. All right? Do you think Tom needs somebody to need him? Does Tom need somebody to need him? Does Tom need somebody else? Tom needs and we need. You know what I have to admit this? I am impressed that he gets here because he walked all the way. That’s Josh. You didn’t walk? No. How’d you get here? Well, Louis, you’re out of here, and I used one of the cars called Park Plus on Sunday, and I come in and I’ve heard of the CD of this.

Oh, I like saying that you walked here. But we know that generally Louis picks him up. Now, you stop and think about this. Is that really? When you get right down to it, that takes time to do that, don’t it? That means going out of your way to do that, doesn’t it? That means that if Louis is not getting paid to do that, and he isn’t, he must love Tom a little bit, huh? But he’s showing it by what he’s doing.

Is that good or bad? So not only am I impressed with Tom, but I get impressed with Louis and what he’s doing in the sacrifice you make, you realize how that requires faith in this and given up your time that you could do something else and so forth. Now I’m not saying that Tom’s a bother, but he probably is. Now, never mind Tom, you can’t hear either. But that is a sacrifice for somebody. But Tom needs somebody to help him at the time.

Donnie, somebody has to help them? You know, it’s not the easiest thing in the way. That might not be a lovable act to do, but it’s still an act of love. Does the Bible say anything about your work and labor of love? 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 free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply Paulus at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the gospel-driven mane. 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.