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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

So, he says here, for unto whomsoever much is given of him much be required. to whom men have committed much of them, they will ask them more. So I believe the scriptures overall because the Lord called His disciples and He taught them and expected something from them. I expect every student that comes to college to serve the Lord. I expect every one of them to love the Lord with all their heart. I expect them to do all that they can for the cause of Christ.

And if they don’t, I will be greatly disappointed, greatly disappointed. Because I know that that’s what God wants him to do. But is the devil real? Does he work on your mind? Try to discourage. Get your side tracked. I’m going to go back to fishing. Or do you believe God has taught you something because there’s something God wants you to do, but it only applies to a few people. With those disciples, what God wanted one to do, doesn’t it appear that he wanted all of them to do it, to serve him?

They may be in different places, but wherever it is, they would have served a Lord and honor the Lord. Look in chapter 12, verse 54. the book of Luke and chapter 12, verse 54, down to the bottom of the page. And he sells, so to the people, when you see a cloud rise out of the West, straight away you say, they’re coming up the shower. So it is. And when you see the South wind blow, you say, there will be heat and it coming up to pass.

You hear the crit? You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth. But now this line right here, I want you to underline it in your Bible. How is it that you do not discern this time? You see, especially in the book of Luke when he talks about, you wish not the day of God’s visitation. God comes to the earth and you could not discern the time in which you live. Now in the Old Testament it talks about men who understood the times and knew what they ought to do.

If we can discern the times in which we live and discern what is it that God wants me to do, you only get one trip through this life. No instant replays, no reruns, just one trip through them. And so this is why we should study the word of God. But how is it that you do not discern the time? Did he expect them to? He expected them to discern it, to know it. But they didn’t. So they missed out on the great blessing because it says, they whisked not who it was.

They whisked not who it was. Now, Look in chapter 14, chapter 14 and verse 25. And notice what he says here because this is so important. When we talk about being a disciple, we’re talking about being disciplined. De-cy-ple, discipline, come from the same word. It means that there’s two kinds of discipline, imposed discipline, self-discipline. If you will not discipline yourself, then the Lord may have to impose discipline. When I went into the Navy in the boat camp, They didn’t care whether you had self-discipline or not.

They weren’t going to impose discipline upon you. Now Bob over here, he went into the Marines, which is a little harder than the Navy’s. I’ll admit that. But I had two terms of duty in the boot camp. I went five months in boot camp alone because of some problems and so on. And it ain’t funny. But they impaled me. they’ll impose their will upon you and make you. Wish you had listened. So when it comes to the Lord, isn’t it better to discipline yourself?

While you’re here, we get to watch you. When you leave, we can’t watch you. But should we expect you to live as holy as you did while you were here? nobody has to watch you. You’re not going to become ungodly and unholy just because, well, the teachers are not around to watch you. If it’s the Lord you love and the Lord you serve, it won’t make any difference where you are and where you go. Because you know the Lord is always watching me.

And He’s the one I’m trying to please. So wherever you go, you don’t have to have somebody hold your hand. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. You know what’s right. And you should expect yourself to do what’s right. And always maintain a good testimony because that’s so very, very important. But here in verse 25 when he says, and there went great multitudes with him and he turned and said to them, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brother and sisters, yea, and even his own life also.

The thing that catches me is not how much I’m posed to love the Lord or how much I’m posed to hate everybody else is that if you don’t, you can’t be my disciple. Well, what about me just being a casual disciple? You know, what about a 50% disciple? What about a 75% disciple? It looks like he wants me to be a total disciple in every area of my life. Well, can I reserve a little bit of me for me?

I mean, after all, what does he want? Blood out of a turnip? Don’t I get to do something that I want? He cannot be my disciple. In other words, if there’s some areas in your life that you are not going to commit to the Lord. That one area in your life could keep you from serving the Lord. God wants to have the control of our life. So in verse 28 he says, count the cost. See in verse 28, for which of you intended to build, said if not down for count the cost.

There’s a price to pay, it’s a price to pay for anybody doing anything for the Lord. It doesn’t mean just college students, it’s anybody. And so you count the cost. But I count the cost this way. What is going to cost me if I don’t? What if I don’t serve the Lord? Is it going to cost me something? It’s going to cost me greatly. I was always afraid of what it was going to cost me if I didn’t do what I should do.

I wasn’t so much scared of God spanking me. It was just that I would be disappointing to him. I didn’t want to disappoint the Lord. After all these done for me, I want to please him. So then you look down in verse 30 where he says, this man began to build and was not able to finish, not able to finish. You think God wants us to finish? Remember Paul made this statement in Acts, chapter 20, but I want to finish my course with, in my other word, joy.

Finish my course with, I wanna finish the race. Finish. You see, it’s one thing to start, it’s another thing to finish. Many people start a race, but never finish, and they should. Then you look down there in verse 31, where he talks about making war and consulting, whether he’d be able to accomplish the goal and be able to take the personnel that you’re gonna have war with, or if you’ve got a desired conditions of peace. So he says in verse 33, so likewise, who so ever he be of you, that forsake if not all that he hath cannot be my disciple.

In other words, you’ll never know the true joy that you could have by truly trusting the Lord. You don’t have to see how God’s gonna do something, I just believe he will. And it’s a great walk with the Lord. He’ll sometimes make him scare you, plumb, slap the death. Because you step out and you don’t know how it’s gonna end up. But you know, you just trust the Lord. And you don’t know how God’s gonna use you down the road.

I never figured it out. I’m still doing things that I never dreamed I’d ever do. But sometimes, like I said before, serving the Lord is not always doing what you want. It’s doing what God wants. It’s not doing what you like, it’s what needs to be done. I would venture to say you probably don’t really enjoy all that studying you got to do or papers you got to write. But in the long run, you’ll learn something from it. It’s going to be a blessing to you.

Because someday you might be teaching in a Bible college and you’re going to say, oh, and I’ll get you just like they got me. That’s what we said, no. But I take your Bible looking, chapter 16, chapter 16 of the book of Luke, and look in verse 10, 16 and verse 10. He talks about a servant, a steward, and verse 10, he that is faithful in that, which is least is faithful also in much. Does God know what we know?

God knows what I know. then I can’t use a lack of knowledge as an excuse not to be faithful. So when God has given to us a certain amount of knowledge, God expects something from us. He expects our walk with the Lord. So he says here in verse 10, he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much and he that is unjust and the least is unjust also and much. In other words, if you can’t be faithful in little things, you won’t be faithful in big things.

Well, if I had a thousand dollars or a million dollars, boy, you ought to see what I do for the Lord. Yeah, but it’s what you’re doing with what you do have, not what you don’t have. Be faithful with whatever you have, wherever you are. Be faithful to serve the Lord. Wherever you go. So some of you are going to be traveling and some of y’all might be blessed to stay home and not be out there on the road with a million people that are driving this weekend, whatever.

Whether you’re here or whether you’re there, you never take a vacation from your testimony. You’re always responsible to the Lord to do what’s right. And if you will, the Lord will bless you. So he says here in verse 11, If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? Now look in verse 13, no servant can serve two masters. That’s why men’s only have one wife. Just joking. Not done enough.

For either he will hate the one and love the other. In the words, if you love the world and love the Lord too, you’re going to be a divided man, an unstable man because you’ve got split loyalty. So God says, if you love me, you can’t love the world. But if you love the world, it means you don’t love me. It seems like God is a jealous God. God doesn’t want to be replaced. He wants all of our devotion.

He wants us to love Him more than anything else in the world. So you have a good verse there, but now look in chapter 17 and verse 10. All these are things about being a servant of the Lord. God expecting something from us. See in verse 10, so likewise ye. And you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do. When it’s all over with, we’ve just simply done what we’re supposed to do.

When you give everything you have to the Lord and you sacrifice your time and money and all the rest of it and you studied God’s Word, you did what you’re supposed to do. isn’t it neat though that on top of doing that God being gracious enough to reward us when we get to heaven and bless us while we’re here. So I remember talking about some of the time when the special the first two years held that I didn’t get much sleep.

Somebody told me today says, I’ve only had two and a half hours sleep lately. I thought that is funny I am so glad to hear that oh I’m like glad to hear that I want them to suffer just like at it. You know, whenever her’s a mama and she got trouble with her daughter or something like that, she says, oh, I hope you have children just like you. Ten of them. And then they have grandkids and then everything’s straight given, it’s all over.

But here in Luke 19, now look in Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19, look in verse 42. Verse 42, when Jesus came, they missed a great opportunity. The Son of God is here, the Messiah, that promised one, that holy one of Israel, he’s here. And verse 41 and when he was come near, he beheld this city and wept over it, saying, if thou hath known, Do you think he wanted them to accept him, to believe on him? How do you think he felt that he would weep because they didn’t recognize who he was?

And in spite of all the miracles that he did, the things that he said, how much more could he do without overriding their will? And they would not believe. I believe it broke his heart. He wept. Now I don’t want to be, I don’t want to be, I don’t want to cause the Lord to weep over me because I rebelled against the Lord. I don’t want to betray his trust. Didn’t he entrust us with something even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God which try out the heart.

We have this treasure in earth and vessels. Do you want to disappoint the Lord? So I just don’t want to do it. I’m not saying I’ve lived a perfect life and all that. I’m just saying that there has to be a motive inside of you. Something that says, I don’t want to bring shame to the Lord. I don’t want the devil mocking God because of me. Because I know the devil wants to hurt God as much as he can and the only way he can get to God is by getting at the ones that he loves and that’s us.

We’re the ones that God loves and Satan will try to turn us against the Lord. Just remember that. So he says here in verse 42, if thou hath known, even thou at least in this thy day, remember we read that before, the things which belong to thy peace, but now they are hid from thy night. In other words, opportunity is on wheels. Opportunities will come and opportunities will roll away. As a child of God, you are to prepare yourself so that when opportunities come, you can take advantage of it.

And if you don’t, it will roll right on past you. And many of God’s children miss out on a lot of opportunities because they’re not prepared. They cannot discern opportunities. And the reason they can’t discern opportunities sometimes is because they come disguised as work. An opportunity to come disguised as work. Work, oh that’s a nasty word. No it’s not. And if you’ll work for the Lord, you’ll be surprised at how many more opportunities you’ll have. If you’ll utilize the knowledge that God has given to you, I wrote in that little letter.

You know that one that came from the devil. I thought afterwards, Yankah you wrote that letter. And you told me it was from the devil. You lied. I just told them a whole bunch of lies. I probably just put thoughts into their minds. They would have never thought about some of those things. And then I thought to myself, self, they will think of this and devil does do this because he’s done it before. So I just went ahead and told you ahead of time so you can deal with it and get yourself prepared so that you don’t have to worry, don’t have to question them.

So when you get home, you walk up to Tim King, Some of y’all are going that direction, you say, Tim, if you need somebody to speak in ranch, I’m ready. If you need somebody to speak in Sunday school, I’d love to do it. If you need somebody speaking church, let me do it. They shouldn’t have to ask you or beg you. Be aggressive. Let them think you really want to. Now they may never ask you. They may probably say, no, we’ve got it covered and you’ll be so relieved, but you got to do it.

Give them that opportunity. Don’t be afraid. You have been taught what to say, what to do, and you’d be surprised at the lives of other individuals that can be challenged and motivated. It will be worth it all. So of the 12, what happened to them? They all went. Every one of them, oh, I said, Judas, but of course you don’t want to do what he did. What did he do? He betrayed the Lord. He betrayed the Lord. Is it possible for a Christian to betray the Lord?

Is it possible? Do you want that if God was still writing the Bible, would you like to have seen your name written there? He betrayed me. And it’s in there for all eternity. Wouldn’t it be terrible? Wouldn’t it be terrible? think ahead of time discern all the time between right and wrong. Things that will bring honor and glory to the Lord and things that will not. Look down in verse 44. He says, and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within the and they shall not leave in the one stone upon another.

Now here’s the reason You’re unlinen because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. You didn’t not take advantage. He says, this was for you. Look up here in verse 41 again and wept over it. Now as a child of God, I don’t think we should try to bring grief to God. Is it possible that, doesn’t it say somewhere in the Bible? We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and grieve not, grieve not, grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you’re sealed into the day, we didn’t grieve not.

God is a person. He has feelings. He gets hurt. He talks about the joy of the Lord. That means the Lord has joy. Joy of the Lord has come from the Lord. He also talks about the weeping. I believe that God loves us and He wants so much more for us and wants us to honor Him to serve Him with all our hearts. Well, I do believe that we need to pray for our kids and these other prayer requests, but first of all, in case somebody is watching tonight, and we were looking at the stats the other day.

brought some of the college kids in there and showed them a few things on the Calvary Community Church website, how that we’ve had over a hundred thousand hits last month, just on the church. That’s not talking about the YouTube and all that, just the church. And to see how many countries have hit the website, and it was around a hundred countries, right? About a hundred countries. So, and they was all these countries from all over the world. It’s just exciting.

So you never know who you’re talking to. And just like we had somebody that came all the way down from up there in New Jersey, Causal. Listen, and people heard the only radio. We’ve had some indifference date just this week. This is week. One I’ll just mention to you just a minute ago about from California. But anyway, this hand represents you and me. The wallet represents sin. all have sin on us. Now God loves us, but He hates our sin.

And for us, to pay for sin is eternal separation from the Lord. Inhale, but God loves us. Once us to go to heaven, to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God, and none of us are perfect. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection. We’re sinners. We can’t get in. The sin has to be paid. We’re in debt. This end represents Jesus Christ. He’s God’s son. Perfect. Came into this world because he loves us. H.R.

sin because our sin separates us from him. So Jesus Christ, who had no sin, didn’t have to die. But because he loved us, he took all of our sins, paid for them on the cross, came back from the dead and said that if we would believe he did it for us. He would put this payment to our account and we get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. That’s the free gift. It’s not a works list.

Any man should boast is the best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? But heads bowed nice and closed, I won’t look around. If you are here tonight, or if you are watching by internet, and never have trusted Christ as your Savior, right where you are. Say, Lord, I don’t understand at all. I know I’m a sin and I believe Christ died and paid for my sins. And I’m going to trust Him right now as my Savior.

And if you’ll trust Him, God said He would save you. I pray that you will. Our Father, we do thank You so much for this time together. We pray especially. Father for the students and we love them. We’re just thankful you’ve given us an opportunity to get to have a partner lives. We care about them and we’ve been very impressed because of their dedication to you and their steady habits, their involvement and Lord their testimony. And Father, we’re proud of them.

We’re not ashamed of them. And Father, we want them to please you in everything they do. So we’re acting as they go with their separate ways for a couple of weeks that you’ll watch over and bless them. And use them for your honor and glory. They keep them safe as they travel to meet all their needs and bring them back safely. And Lord, we are also thankful for the teachers that you’ve given us. Teachers that have given time, spent money, given their efforts in order to have a partner lives by teaching.

You’re giving us some good teachers. We thank you for them, every one of them. We thank you for Lord for this church that stands behind the college that loves the kids and wants to see us train as many as we possibly can. We also pray Lord for tomorrow night for ranch and pray that a lot of kids will come and if there’s anybody that comes that’s not saved, that they’ll trust your Savior. Bless them all the preparations of whatever they’re getting done, whether it’s the food, the music, the speaking, everything, and the boss and for those that make it possible to get the kids there.

We ask you a blessing upon those that will maybe go on Friday night and also Lord for Sunday, we pray for a good day. We want people to come. Not just to eat food, we want them to feast upon your word and to trust your Savior if necessary. And Father, dedicate their lives to serve you. We ask Your blessings upon those that are be singing specials. That Lord, they’ll do it with all their heart that plays You, and they do it for You, for Your honor, for Your glory.

We’ll just ask You to bless. So we commit this day to You this night, and we thank You for all You’ve done for us in Christ’s name. 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. A 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.