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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 Bibleline Ministries dot O-R-G 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.

So if you have a Bible which I’m assuming that you do, I want you to turn to Matthew 28, Matthew 28. In the notes that were given to you, I looked up the word cause because of the great commission, the great cause, the great compassion. And I just believe that every man needs to have a great cause in his life. do you do what you do?” And so if you look at number one, cause is a person or thing that acts happens or exists in such a way that some specific thing happens as a result.

The producer of an effect, you have been the cause of much anxiety. What was the cause of the accident? In other words, what do you mean by cause? And I know that sometimes we know that everything there’s a cause and effect and that everything has a tendency to remain stationary unless acted on by an outside force. There’s got to be a reason why we do what we do. Have you ever had somebody do something to you and you say, well, they didn’t have a cause?

They just did it. Now they may have had a cause, but you didn’t cause the cause. Does that make sense? Number two there, and you note, causes the reason or motive for some human action. The good news was a cause for rejoicing. Number three, cause is a good or sufficient reason to complain without cause, to be dismissed for cause. There was no cause for that. Then you have an illustration that’s used back there in the book of Job, where in Job chapter 2 verse 3, and the Lord said unto Satan, has thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God in the sureth evil, and still he holdeth fat his integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause, without cause.

In other words, Joe really hasn’t done anything to produce everything that happened to him. Now, God had a cause. God had a reason why he did what he did. Satan had a reason why he wanted to do what he did, but poor Job, he suffered without knowing the cause. And he hadn’t done anything wrong to deserve the cause, but God had a higher purpose. God had a reason. in life, we don’t always understand why God does what He does.

But we’re supposed to believe that all things work together for good to them who love the Lord. And if you love the Lord, you’re supposed to believe that everything will work together for good for God’s purpose because God has a purpose, a cause. The next verse, John chapter 15 verse 25, but this kind of to pass that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause because Jesus really never gave anybody a reason to hate him.

But they did hate him without a cause because he was the Lord, God in the flesh. So I wrote a little question down, have you ever seen the hands of God. And the reason I believe that that is important is because the Lord had told Thomas that day. Reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and feel the scars and so on. So I believe that there’s a reason why God does what He does. He had already heard and knew what Thomas had said.

And there was a reason why God showed up and asked Him to do this particular thing. Because God knew he had a question and doubts about who he was and what he had done. He wanted to remove all of those doubts. So God sometimes makes us wait to learn some very valuable lessons. Sometimes it’s the lesson of patience. God doesn’t always jump when we snap our fingers. But God has a lot of lessons to teach. There is cause and effect.

There’s a reason why you are here this morning. There’s a cause. There’s a cause why some people gave to the offering this morning. There’s a reason, a cause why you will pray and talk to the Lord. There’s a cause why you feel the way you do about your children or they do about you. You see, there’s reasons and everybody’s supposed to be taught enough from the Word of God and in light that know how to make intelligent decisions. Because one day when we stand before the Lord, we’re goingparse to give to Him a reason of the cause of our life.

Now God, believe it or not, has given to us a reason for living. So I want you to look at this verse in Matthew in chapter 28. Look what he says in verse 16, then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spaken to them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go you therefore and teach all nations.

Now the reason there’s all power is given unto me. I am who I claim to be. I’ve got power and I’m telling you what to do. This is why these are not suggestions here. Go into all the world if you want to. This is a command. And he says and teach them whatsoever I have commanded you. So he is commanding them what to do. So there is a cause behind this. What is this great cause the greatest thing in all the world has just took place.

Jesus Christ would come unto the world, died on the cross, paid for sin, came back from the dead. Now what? Now He tells His disciples, I want you to go into all the world and preach the gospel to go. See what it says in verse 19, go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even until the end of the world.

Did you know that I don’t believe that he ever asked him, what do you want to do with your life? Today we always ask people, what would you like to do with your life? What do you want to be in your life? And so people can pick and choose. We live in America. The American dream. But let me kind of mention this to you. Do you believe that God has the real dream? I mean, you ever heard of the dream team?

Remember years ago, the limbs, you had the dream team? You know, there’s the choicest ones playing basketball, representing America, the dream team. Did you know that God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the dream team, has just the right thing he wants you to do with your life and with my life. I mean of all the things that we could do, all the places that we could go, everything that we could accomplish, all the things we can accumulate, that the God of all creation has just the dream job.

If you’re wishing to find just that dream job, I found it right here. It’s whatever lies within the will of God. So God has told us what He wants us to do. Now in your notes there you’ll also know ahead of time that we’re going to go to the book of Acts and chapter one. The other night covered a few chapters in the book of Acts showing how that of all the things in the book of Acts It talks mainly about the gospel because he told his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel, but they were to wait in Jerusalem until they were in dude with power from on high.

So they waited until the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost was come upon them. So in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, he says, and ye shall be witnesses unto me. This was their goal. This is what Christ wanted. cause, the greatest cause in all of the world. People are lost. They’re born into the world, they live, and they die, and they’re going to go somewhere. It’s either heaven or hell. The greatest cause any man can ever live for is to keep people out of hell.

People are unreached because they are unloved. Because so many of even God’s children have fell in love with the world, fell in love with themselves. Well, whatever they want, their dreams. But what if your dream is contrary to the dream team, to what God wants you to do with your life? And most people never ask, Lord, what do you wantin my life and you’ll find out your life will be lived. You can accomplish great things, but one day we’ll have to give an account of ourselves to the Lord.

So look in verse 8, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in some Mary and unto the uttermost part of the whole earth. Jesus never asked them, you You want to set up your own business? I mean, what would you like to do? Every last one of them was commanded to go. Like it or not, they were commanded by the one that created them, the one that saved them, the one that came back from the dead, the one that has all the power and all the world, told them what he wanted them to do.

Now, just understand the cause of what he’s doing. Why is he doing it? Cause God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Why? Because God so loved. He gave his only begotten son. There’s a cause behind that. That whosoever, there’s a cause, whosoever believe it, there’s a cause. Should not perish. There is a cause. Have everlasting life. There is a cause. There’s a reason why God did what he did. Now there’s a reason why God wants us to do certain things with our lives.

There’s a reason behind it. And one of the greatest things a child of God can ever learn is to find out what is the reason for me living. What does God want me to do with my life? How can I be the most influential? How can I live for the greatest cause? Now you’ve got super right causes, you’ve got abortion causes, you’ve got, you name there’s a thousand causes you can live for. But what’s the one that God asked you to live for?

Find it out. Because everybody’s going to have to give an account of himself one day to the Lord. And we also mentioned the other night that if you took all the soul-winning stories out of the book of Acts, it’s just a shell of a book. And yet this is the book that talks about the not of the apostle, the acts of the Holy Spirit. It is what he began to do and continues to do. This is why it’s so important.

So look there in your notes at the next statement. In Isaiah 59, one, we’ll just look at the scripture right there in your paper. Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. Neither here’s ear heavy, that it cannot hear. I believe one of the greatest things is, And I mentioned this before, if you put everything you have into the hands of God, after a while you’ll see God’s hand in everything that you have. And some people have never seen the hand of God.

And they don’t know what you really mean by the hands of God. But I want you to look at this verse on John chapter 20, verse 27, right there in your notes. Then said, he to Thomas, reach, and be healed by my finger and behold my hands. Reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but believing.” In other words, believe, reach forth. God wants you and I. As we live in this world, we are to be reaching.

The purpose of Calvary Community Church is to always be reaching. of your individual life is always be reaching. We’re reaching, trying to reach more people. Every time we turn around, we can never be satisfied. We can’t say, well, we’ve reached all the people we need to reach until the day we die, we keep reaching. We always reaching. It’s the reason behind everything that we do because you and I are the hands of God that He uses to reach the lost.

We’re the ones that take the message so that they can hear. And when He says, the arm of the Lord is not too short. His hand reaches up, He’s using you and I as individuals. And we should not be limiting ourselves because we have all the power of all eternity behind us. We have the right to do it because God says so. I asked a couple of the kids and it started all because one of them asked me. says, can I give a testimony about what camp means to me?

I says, no. No, I said yes. So I’m going to start off with the guy that started this, Trent coming up here. Tell everybody here why you like camp or what camp is done for you. Why do you want to go down there to Texas? Well, I asked Dr. Arnold because I have a real burden for Camp, you know, Camp has meant a lot to me. It was about six and a half years ago, I trusted Christ as my savior at Camp.

And Camp has taught me so many different things, like Mr. Freddy Coel, he’s the one who led me to the Lord. He told me that I’m a sinner and I deserve to go to hell, but God loves me and he wants me to go to heaven. And he died on the cross to pay for all my sins so that I could go to heaven. And Camp has taught me how to be bold. It taught me that I have eternal security in Christ Jesus.

It taught me how to be a man. It told me how to be a leader. It told me how to share the gospel. If it wasn’t for camp, I wouldn’t be here. I don’t think Tyler would be here. I don’t think Justin would be here. I don’t think Jesse would be here. I don’t think John would be here. Now, how many of you raised your hand if you’ve been blessed by all those people? Raise your hand. Yeah. Imagine if they hadn’t been here.

If they hadn’t have gone to camp and wouldn’t have been here, you wouldn’t have been blessed by them. And camp has done so much for me. I just love camp. And I just, I thank you guys for supporting us, going on the Texas trip, and just pray for us as we go. It’s been, camp is such a blessing, and it helps so many people, and so many people are led to the Lord through camp. No, I did not ask him to do this.

He wanted to, because something that affects your life, affecting other people’s lives, is worth talking to people about. But isn’t nice to have some college kids have a burden to want to reach others because that’s what it’s all about. See, we want to train them so that they can reach somebody got to reach, always reaching. And so that’s why all this is so important. So I’m gonna ask Jesse, where’s Jesse? See, he left church. Now you know I’m running a great risk turning this microphone over to Jesse.

Alright Jesse. Alright turn your Bibles to you, no I’m on the clock. I just want to say as far as camp goes, this was an opportunity for me to see what serving the Lord was like. In 2011, I had just married Kyla. We had been married in May. We went to camp in July. And I was very ingrained in the corporate world. I was getting ready to start a new job at Bank of America. And there’s nothing wrong with those things.

But I was putting those things as the number one top priority in my life. As in, if I can make enough money, I can provide for my family, I can be able to retire, then I will have been a successful husband and a successful leader. And while those things are good to be able to do, according to what God’s Word says, those things will not be what matters when it all is said and done. And I saw kids from Chicago that had a purpose.

They were singing for the Lord. They were studying. They were learning and growing and making bonds with each other and leading people to the Lord in Chicago. And I said to myself, that is the void that is missing. And that day we made a decision, my wife and I did, that we will do whatever it takes to serve the Lord. And we will do whatever it takes, wherever that takes us, and however much it costs, whatever needs to be done, we will do it.

And so we got ready to go to Chicago. We bought an electric blanket. That’s commitment. It was here in Target. I don’t even know how they sell that here. But we were ready against a lot of what our family said was that we shouldn’t do. We were ready to go and drop everything, go to Bible College. And serve the Lord, and then Florida Bible College happened here. But if it wasn’t for camp, I don’t think that I’d be here today, or I don’t think I’d be here today in the capacity that I am.

Camp is an opportunity for kids to see. There’s something else out there that is so much more important. Souls, people need to hear the gospel. And sometimes they don’t even know it. Ephesians 4, 15 says, but speaking the truth in love. We can share the gospel until we’re blue in the face. But if we don’t have that love for the lost, missing something, and can’t teach us in that, I think if there’s two back there, Erica and Robert. Can y’all raise your hand real quick?

Those two are our product of ranch and faith and Maxwell are here as well. Those four right there, two of them, they’re gonna become into college hopefully in fall. These two right here, one of them is in middle school, faith is in middle school. She’s already said I’m coming to Forte Bible College of Tampa. Now that’s great. We need to pray for these four, but they’ve all been to camp. And camp is so important. That’s why we get up here and say we need a bus.

That’s why we get up here and say we need to have a sweetheart banquet. My time is running out. But I do want to say if you’re looking for something to pray about, pray for camp. Pray for this next week where we’re going to go down real, real far in Far Texas. And we’re going to be there and we’re going to be with kids that we’ve never met and we’re going to be working with individuals that we can have a chance to have an impact in their life.

I sweated it out when I had a wife and two kids and I was 22 years old when I decided to go to Bible College. I did not know there was a thing called ranch. I never knew about doing missionary work or evangelistic work or starting a church. All those, that was nebulous. I didn’t care. All I wanted, I just wanted to learn how to tell people how to go to heaven. I wanted to be better. And I tried and I floundered so much and I didn’t have enough answers.

And I was kind of rude and crude and how I presented it. And so I’m so glad. But when I went to Florida Bible College with a wife and two children, it was not easy. I mean, it was not a piece of cake because I couldn’t see how it was going to affect down the road. I didn’t know what I would be or do. And I realized I’ve got a wife and these kids. And how am I going to support myself?

How am I going to pay a college bill? All I had to do was just, this is what I’m going to do. And then pay the price of whatever it was to finish. Because I realized, if I don’t do this, if I don’t do it, What else is there for me to do? What else is there in life that’s better than doing this? So I would just hang in there and just stay at it. And I got a book in the mail the other day.

Greg Steer had called me up and told me about a book that he wrote. And so I’d never found out the name of it or knew anything about it just that he wrote a book. And he always calls me and tells me when he wrote another book. So I was on the computer and there’s this name that caught my attention called Gospelize. I thought that’s interesting and it had a red chili pepper on it. What in the world is a hot chili pepper got to do with the gospel?

And he was talking about been on fire for the gospel. So I thought I would just look at it because you could download the first two chapters. So I thought I’ll just read that and see what it says about it. And of course I saw it head on there. Greg Steer wrote it. That’s that book you were telling me about. So I started reading the book. And it let you have the first chapter for free. So I read the first, it’s about our ministry.

It was all about what we did in Colorado. And I thought, this is interesting. I got to get me a copy of the book. I got to finish and see what else he says. So I called him up on the phone and I said, great. I said, you wrote a book. Yeah, that’s the book I’ve been telling you about. I said, but I didn’t buy one because I know you’re going to send me one in the mail. He said, all right, what’s the address of the church?

I told him. Well, last week I got the book. Then I read the book and I had to read the whole thing. So I wanted to know how you still stand on the gospel and things like that. But I thought. In the intro part of it, it talks about what Yufa Christ says about it, and about the Billy Graham’s Crusades says about it. Josh McDowell says about it, and Fuller Seminary, and I don’t know, still others, the people that had to read this book and write what they thought about the book, and it said all in the front of it.

And I thought, I could never get those people to listen to me. They don’t know who I am could care less. But I thought, what if I never went to Bible college and went to ending camps, wound up in Colorado and got Greg’s tear coming to our Christian school, and then the finish and graduate from our school. And then he goes into the ministry and he’s reaching more people, more teenagers, than I ever did in my life. And I thought, now, here’s he’s got this book, and he’s going to all of these people.

And they’re reading, they’re studying it. And then on the clarity of the gospel, and he tells them an awful lot of stuff is very good. So I ordered 20 of those books. They’re $100 a piece. No. No. They’re $10 each. So he gave me a little bit of a break. But I’m going to have 20 of them. And I know there’s a few people I want to give them. But I thought, what if I had never gone to camp?

What if I never had a camp? And Greg Stewart never went to camp. He went to all of our camps. That’s why he’s doing what he’s doing today. And now, if I was to die today, the work is still going on, because somebody was influenced because of camp. Camp not only reaches the kids, but it trains the ones who goes to camp and works. It helps all the speakers. helps the counselors, that helps the team captains and all the co-counsel, all of them, they grow in the Lord because of it, it gives them a vision.

This is why some churches want to have missionary projects so that the people can get a vision of what it’s like to go to the foreign fields. Surely somebody has to do this. Somebody has to do this. True? Somebody has to do this. We don’t do it. Who’s going to do it? That’s why it’s so important. You’ve got to find some of these kids so we have a ranch meeting where you can try to train as many as you possibly can to teach them to trust Christ as Savior.

You may have to reach a thousand of them to get a hundred to go to camp. And then you have to have camp where we can get maybe ten of them to go to Bible College and hope one of them will graduate. It’s a lot of work. This is why Jesus, whenever he had trained those twelve or three and a half years, gave the final exam and every one of them failed the test. The officer shook him. All of them did.

They denied him. And that was all he had to work with. It was a bunch of dedicated nobodies. But lo and behold, after they saw him after the resurrection, those lands were turned into a bunch of lions. And they hit the world running because they were no longer afraid. They knew there’s nothing else in the world worth living for more than what that man wanted me to do with my life. That’s why it’s so important. 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 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.