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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.

I often wondered, what’s the point? Have you ever had your wife ask you a question like, should I wear these shoes or these shoes? And you would say, honey, it doesn’t matter to me, they both look good. But which one goes the best? Well, I think these over here, you don’t like these over here? No, I think that would be better. Yeah. Well, what was wrong with the other ones? Have you ever had that happen? You never had that happen.

You never had that. And you’re thinking to your mind, it does. doesn’t make any difference. Why don’t you wear these this week and next week you wear the other ones? And I think what’s the point? And you’ll be surprised there’s a lot of people that have this what we call a I don’t care attitude. And sometimes in life that can be pretty irritating, especially when you have some, say teenagers. Why don’t you clean room. What’s the point? It’s going to get messed up again.

My mom always tried to tell me, Yankee take a bath. I’m just going to get dirty again. I took a bath last Saturday. So what difference does it make? Well there’s a lot of lost people that have that kind of an attitude. Don’t you know there’s a literal fire burning hell, I don’t care. Well, don’t you know you’re going to go there if you don’t trust the Lord? I don’t care. Just I don’t care. And then you can even talk to those who do know the Lord.

And you say, don’t you see the importance of serving the Lord? Yeah? Well, then why don’t you serve the Lord? I don’t care. I just don’t care. And it’s so hard to motivate people who have I don’t care attitude. They just don’t care. Well, turn in your Bible to the book of Jude. The book of Jude chapter 1, it might be chapter 2, was starting chapter 1. When I was on the road and I’d go to different churches, I would do something that I had to stop doing because, you know, I’d be the guest speaker and not saying, take your Bible and turn to the book of His of Kaya and all the people in there just going through trying to find the book of Hezekiah and the pastor would be so embarrassed, so embarrassed because his people were trying their best to find the book of

Hezekiah and I felt sorry for them. I’ve got to stop doing that. And so until one day I did it in my church and there was a few people trying to find Hezekiah too. But finally John John he found it. In the book of Jude, look in verse 20, but ye be loved, building up yourselves, building up yourselves. Now sometimes we like to have a little help, but you really, how strong you get to be depends upon you. Can you build yourself strong in the Lord?

Well, if you can’t build yourself, how you want to help build somebody else? But building up yourselves on your most holy faith, not on the holy Father, on your holy faith. And as he says here, praying in the Holy Ghost, praying according to the will of God, and of course you use the word of God to build yourself up, to build yourself strong. Then he says in verse 21, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

And And some of you have compassion, making a difference. Now, people who have an I don’t care attitude don’t have much of a compassion. Now, we read in the book of Matthew chapter 9 where Jesus looked upon the multitude and he was moved with compassion because they were like sheep having no shepherd. So we’re supposed to have compassion. I’ve often wondered why do some people have a compassion and some people don’t have a compassion? Where does desire come from?

come from. If you desire what determines desire. And if you will just kind of cheat just a little bit, look at the last two lines in your notes there. To walk in the Spirit must be the action of a desire. You’ve got to have a desire to walk in the Spirit. What does some have it and some don’t? When He makes the statement, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust or the desires of the flesh.

We all have the desires of the flesh, but you got to have something that’s stronger than the desires of the flesh. And some people have, I don’t care. Don’t you know you’re walking in the flesh? I don’t care. Don’t you know God’s going to chase in you? I don’t care. And there’s just, I don’t care about anything. Well, if you don’t care, you can look at every one of these things that I mentioned here, seven of them. And you look at it from a point of view that I don’t care.

Then you can go back and look at it from the point of view, I do care. What determines care? I care. I don’t care. What is that if I could find it? Wouldn’t it be great if I could find out exactly what causes some to be motivated because they care, they have compassion, and others that don’t have it at all. And I wish I could find out what it is. But after 55 years, I can’t find out what it is.

I do not know. Because if I could, I’d get everybody motivated to serve the Lord. Then I found out that maybe you really can’t motivate anybody to do anything. Everybody’s motivated to do what they wanna do. Some people are motivated to waste their life. Some people are motivated to be a beachcomer. Some people are motivated to be lazy. What are you doing? Exactly what I want to do, nothing. And then you have workaholics, they work all the time. Motivated.

And then those people could care less. But I was told that everybody’s motivated to do whatever they want to do. And then you find some people don’t know what they want to do. Motivated to do nothing. Well, I have in a sense been motivated all my life to do something, even if it’s wrong to do something. But now look at the top of the page here. How do you motivated person who just doesn’t care? When you can figure that out, you can do a lot of stuff.

If people really believe you have to be good to go to heaven, why aren’t they? Don’t they want to go? They say, you got to be good to go to heaven within why aren’t they? Why aren’t they at least trying to be good? And yet almost everybody talked to you, you like to go to heaven? Yeah, yeah, everybody wants to go to heaven. And they think, well, you got to be good. But they’re not. And they don’t even try.

What do you got to do to be good? Well, you got to go to church, read the Bible, pray like that. Are you doing it? Well, no. Well, don’t you want to go to heaven? Well, yes. But if yes, what you believe, then why don’t you do it? Look at the next statement. If people really believe you will go to hell if you drink smoke and chew and go to girls who do, well, why don’t they quit? I mean, are you willing to risk going to hell?

But if you want to go to heaven, you can’t drink smoke and chew. What if that’s the truth and you really believe that? Well, don’t you go on to go to heaven more than you want to drink smoke and chew? Then why don’t they? They say that’s what you got to do. Do they really Do you believe that? Do they really understand the consequences of not caring? Don’t you know you’re gonna die so what? Don’t you know you’re gonna have to answer before God?

Who cares? Some people could care less. I’ve met all kinds of people. And I can’t sometimes figure some people out. Some people wanna make a difference. Some people wanna have compassion. But look at the next statement. What makes one man care another not the care? I think about things like this. If you desire the will of God for your life, everything matters, true? If you don’t want the will of God for your life, you don’t desire the will of God for your life, nothing matters, it doesn’t matter.

Cause you’re not gonna do it anyway. You’re just gonna do whatever you wanna do. But what causes one man to want the will of God and another man not to want the will of God? What makes you different from those other people that don’t want to serve God? Why are you different? You ever try to figure it out? What has God done for you that he didn’t do for them? He saved them. He saved you. Gave you the Holy Spirit.

Gave them the Holy Spirit. There’s God’s child. You’re God’s child. You would seem like all of God’s children would want to serve the Lord. But they don’t. Some just don’t care. Some seem like they have absolutely no desire. But if, according to the Scripture, God cannot renege on His promise once He gives you eternal life, He can’t take it back. You’re His child forever. Now look at number one. one, lay up treasure in heaven. Does the Bible say to lay up treasure in heaven?

Oh, what’s the point? I mean, if you don’t want to lay up treasure in heaven, why tell me to? I don’t want to, but there has to be a reason. So let’s go to the Scriptures there and look there in the book of Matthew, Matthew in chapter 6. And notice what he says in verse 19, live treasure in heaven. What’s the point? What’s the point? Why should I lay up treasure in heaven? Why? He says, so you don’t lose it.

Yeah, but what if I don’t care? I don’t care about rewards. So why should I care? And yet the Bible talks about, and Jesus is the one that says it. Do you think that he may know something we don’t know, that it It might be far more valuable than anything we can think, and he just wants us to take him at his word that we’re going to wish we had. But look what he says, lay up not for yourselves treasures upon earth.

We’re mothin’ rust up corrupt and where thieves break through in steel. Let me as you can lose it if you lay it up here. But in verse 20 lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where neither moth of corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where you’re treasured, there will your heart be also. What if I don’t care about my treasure? What if I don’t care one way or the other? I don’t care about this world, I don’t care about heaven, I don’t care when I die.

And there’s some people who have absolutely no hope and don’t care. What makes you care? What makes you different? Because all of his boils down to is because God asked us to pray. That’s really where I’m headed. Why pray if you don’t care? Why pray for anything if you don’t care? If you don’t want anything changed, why pray? And then you don’t change anything anyway. You have no hope. You don’t believe God on anything. So what? What’s the point?

We’re alive. Okay, what’s the point? We’re gonna live. Okay, what’s the point? We’re gonna die. Okay, what’s the point? Where you’re gonna spend eternity somewhere or so? What’s the point? You’ve been trying to figure out all the answers. As soon as I figured out the answers, they changed the questions. But now notice in Matthew chapter 10 verse 42, look in Matthew chapter 10 verse 42, the Bible says in verse 42, and whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, I see unto you, he shall and know why he’s lose his reward.

So what’s the point? Well, if you do this, God’s going to give you rewards. So, well, there has to be something inside of the person that says, I want it. I want that reward. Whatever that reward is, I want it. But why does one person desire it in another person that care less? Isn’t it true that a lot of Christians know that Jesus is coming soon, and they believed in the rapture, and even believed that they’re going to stand at the judgments of the Christ, and they’re going to be judged, rewarded.

They know that, but I don’t care. And they go ahead and they live their life however they want, as though none of this makes a difference. So you have this teaching in the Bible of what we’re supposed to do, supposed to believe. Who’s when it told us these things Jesus did? So there has to be something that this is going to do for us that’s going to be well worth it, whatever it might be. Whatever ruling and reigning with Christ is going to be.

If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him. So that means in this life this is a time of suffering. From the time you trust the Christ till the time you die in this world, this is a time of suffering. And because we’re gonna suffer while we’re here… It must be something worth it all. But because we can’t see it, he doesn’t tell us everything, he wants us to take him at his word. Care, because he cares.

Desire it, because he desires it. Does he desire me to lay up treasure in heaven? What do he just give him to me? What do I have to earn him? I mean, he can make anything he wants, give me anything he wants. So why don’t he just wait till I get there and give me all those rewards? What do I have to go through this process of earning them? Well, I guess he made heaven. He determines who gets there.

And he determines who gets the rewards. And rewards have to be earned. But why don’t we all have that burning desire to want to get them? Whatever they may be. Look at number two, every man must give an account to God. I look in Romans chapter 14, Romans chapter 14. I love it when people get a chance to think about some of these things because you may not have thought about them and I’m gonna help you think about them.

Because I want you to know it is so easy, so easy to develop an I don’t care attitude. You let a few people hurt your feelings. I mean, really hurt you. And you’d be surprised how quickly you can stop serving God, stop being faithful, because you just develop, well, that’s the way they feel about it. I don’t care anymore. I don’t care anymore. And you can change your whole life and develop an I don’t care, just that quick. So what kind of thinking do you have to maintain in order to maintain in your life?

So in Romans in chapter 14, look there in verse 7, where he says, for none of us liveeth to himself and no man dieeth to himself. No man’s an island unto himself, you’ve heard that. Okay, none of us lives to himself and no man dies to himself. Okay, what’s the point? Why is he saying that? Is he trying to tell me that every man has a certain element of influence in somebody’s life and that you are being influenced by somebody.

Everybody’s influenced by somebody. Did you know that you will be judged by the people you hang around? And you hang around people that pull you down and discourage you and get you in despair and always negative, negative. You’d be surprised how you might think. And you won’t even know what’s happening. all of a sudden you’ll lose the desire and you just loaves your compassion and you just don’t care anymore. You don’t care about going to church anymore and you can, I don’t care about giving anymore.

I just don’t care about praying anymore. I just don’t, I just don’t care. Can that happen to a Christian? Can it happen to a Christian that used to be totally dedicated to the Lord and love the Lord with all their hearts and then get away? You just don’t care. I’m afraid it can happen. Look there in verse 12. Verse 12 says, so then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. Do you care? Do you care about that verse?

You realize what he just said? He just says right there never. Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. This is two believers. I don’t care. What causes one person I don’t care and they just live however they want to live. And then there’s somebody else that that verse right there reminds me over and over again, I’m gonna give an account to God. How does that affect you? So do you think about that? What is your desire?

I’m gonna have to give an account to God. What kind of an account do you want to give? What do you think he’s going to require? What’s he going to require of me? I mean, I didn’t ask to be born. Well, the second birth you did, didn’t you? Your second birth. So now that you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior and you know you have eternal life, what are you going to do with that? So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.

And my supposed to have a desire, that’s supposed to create within me a desire to do something. Well, what’s the point? You see everything you read in the Bible is written for a reason and Never know what verse it is that creates within you that desire I believe the greatest desire you can have is when you read the scriptures and you see what God says and you understand What he means and you realize I desire that I want more out of my life than what I’ve had I want more so when I get to heaven I want to hear God say, well done, thou good in faithful servant.

Don’t you desire that? If you desire that, then you’re going to have to do something about that. But if you don’t desire that, nothing else matters. You can hardly motivate people who really don’t care. People who have no motivation, no compassion. Some people, you’ll never change them. So you take the ones who do and you feed that desire. And somewhere along the line, you hope that you can get somebody to wake up. You know there’s verses in the Bible that says, wake up out of sleep.

Some Christians are asleep. Some are dead in the sense that they’re not doing anything for the Lord. So it’s in the Bible and it’s very important. Now take your Bible look there in the book of 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6. Do you understand that these two verses are written for a reason? They’re supposed to cause you to make a decision. Cause you to think when He makes the statement, what? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God and you’re not your own.

So then maybe you shouldn’t act like you are the owner. If He makes the statement in the next verse, you’re bought with the price, therefore glorified God in your body and in your spirit, which are God. Why did He say that? Well, what’s the point? given us a reason why we should do the desire of God. We don’t belong to us. But how many Christians know that verses in the Bible? They can quote that verse. In spite of what they know, violate it.

As though it wasn’t even written. Like it’s not even there. Have you ever had children that you tell them to do something and it’s like talking to the wall? Never had that, huh? All your children were perfectly obedient little darlings. Now be honest, at times they act like little brats. But you love them, you love them. You want to beat the tar out of them sometimes, but you still love them. And you wonder when are they going to wake up and see the importance of doing right?

You just want the best for them in life. You want them to be able to make it in the world and stay strong and you worry about them. You’re concerned about them. That’s just because you love them and you want the best for them. Is it possible for you to desire things for your children that they don’t desire? You want things for them. You want them to be happy and they do just the opposite. Have you ever loved them and they tell you, I don’t love you.

You don’t love me. You don’t care about me. You’d be surprised what kids can say, what grandkids can say, what people that you know the best can say, your brothers and sisters, you’d be surprised all kinds of things can happen. What is that that causes that thing to change, that desire? So you’re always going to be fighting and battling that yourself because there’ll be days when you had this desire, I want to do so much for God, and then there’ll be days when you can’t figure out, what am I doing?

Why am I doing this? What are you doing here? What are you doing here? Said, you told me I had to come on Wednesday night. That’s why I’m here. But you know that I would desire you to be here because you love the Lord and you have compassion, right? Right? Right. But in verse 20, when he says, you’re bought with a price. Therefore glorify God. Otherwise, there’s a lot of these people that were not glorifying the Lord. So then what must be the desire of God for His children?

Is that they glorify the Lord? And why should I? What’s the point? Because I bought and paid for you. You belong to me. I loved you. Therefore, when He says in the book of Romans in chapter 12 and verse one, I beseech you therefore many brothers and in birth by the mercies of God that you present your body, their living sacrifice and so on. So there’s a reason why. I believe God is more concerned with our desires than we know, and that we serve the Lord because we have accepted what God says and we read the word and we believe it.

So what makes the difference between a Christian who reads the word and another Christian who reads the word and one believes and one does not believe. One desires and one does not desire. Is it possible for those who have had no desire? Somewhere down the road, all of a sudden they wake up and realize I’m wasted a lot of my life, and they desire something better. Some people realize I’m cramming for exams. I’m getting older. I’m going to have to see the Lord pretty soon.

I better get things right. We got an immediate. And all of life is preparation for a one-on-one with the Lord. You’re gonna, not with the Pope, you’re gonna be one-on-one with the Lord. You’re gonna be with the Lord. Face to face with God. Now, if you know that and believe that, that should, ooh, wake you up. Realize, maybe there’s some things I need to get right in my life and corrected. Look at number three, he who loses his life shall find it.

Look at that verse, Matthew chapter 10, Matthew and chapter 10. There’s a couple of wonderful verses here, but realize that this is Jesus speaking. And so he says there in verse 38, and he that takeeth not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. In other words, you can’t pay the price to follow me. Salvation is free. Some people can’t pay the price to follow the Lord. Why? And there’s some people who are willing to give everything they have for the cause of Christ.

But you’ll notice he says something very interested about this worthy, worthy, worthy in verse 37. He that loveth Father, our mother more than me is not worthy of me. It means that you can’t afford it. You don’t have enough faith to finish. See in the book of Luke in chapter 14 when he’s talking about discipleship, he says, because some don’t count the cost. The discipleship cost. Salvation’s free. But there’s a price to pay when it comes to discipleship. It means you’re going to have to discipline your life.

discipleship is disciplined and a lot of Christians won’t discipline themselves because well, they can’t pay the price. They don’t have that desire within them and it’s the desire that enables you to pay that price. And if you don’t have a strong burning desire and you don’t feed that desire, you’re not going to be able to keep going. But he says in the last part of that verse, and he that love of Son or daughter, more than me is not worthy of me.

My cost is supreme love for the Lord. So there is something that God has here about loving the Lord more than mother and father, brother and sister, son or daughter. Do you love your family? I love my family. But I’ll make a great mistake. thinking that I love my family more than I love God. So you’ve got to find out what does God want? What does he desire for me? So you have to figure that out. 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 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. And one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound, and we will be changed.

Cut 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.