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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 Bibleignmenistries.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 want to share a few thoughts with you you that I think would be at least I hope is a blessing. You know the thing about the Bible is that we know it’s to the whole world and that there’s a God that created a whole world but I’m also glad that I know God personally. I mean I have great expectations for everybody doing all kinds of things and I’d love to see everybody go to heaven but I won’t tell this.

Out of everybody in the world, I’m glad I’m going. I’m glad Yankee Arnold is going to heaven whenever he dies. Now I would love for y’all to go, but if y’all choose not to go, that’s between you and God. But I didn’t make up my decision. I trusted Christ as my Savior and I know I have eternal life. That’s a personal thing that I had to talk and you couldn’t make up that decision for me. I had to do it.

Now when it comes to serving the Lord, there were many times that Christ would say something a little on the hard side for people to understand. So many people just walked away. Multitudes left him. You read John chapter 6. So he looked at his disciple, he says, will you also go away? Well, why did he ask the question like that? He ought to know he didn’t pre-determine that they had to serve him. I mean, you believe in perseverance of the faith.

They had to. They didn’t have a choice, but they did have a choice. He said, will you also go away? And Peter spoke up and says, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the word to be turned to life. So I’m glad that there’s a lot of other people know the Lord. And I’m glad that there are some people who make up their mind to serve the Lord. But I’m God, I’ve made up my mind to serve the Lord.

Because he’s not only my Savior, he’s my a friend and I believe that there’s more precious to me than anything else in the world. So I’ve got a life to live. Everybody’s got a life to live. I didn’t ask to be alive, but he created me and put me here in this world just like he did everybody else. But I don’t want to live your life. I want to live my life. I want God’s will for my life. I don’t want your will for my life.

Because he is a personal thing. As you read the scriptures, you’ll find that there’s a lot of scriptures that talks about these personal decisions that we make and our personal accountability that we have to the Lord. Let me read this to you. In God’s great wisdom, He has given His people the inspired Word of God. We call it the Bible. It is said to be a lamp unto our feet and a light on the pathway. In it are great treasures of spiritual blessing to knowledge, revealing to mankind the way to God and the ways of God.

It is heavenly manna for the soul and a bond for troubled hearts. Furthermore, it is said to make one wise unto salvation. We believe it to be the very word of God, inspired and infallible in all of its ways, and everything that it says. pages contain many words of exhortation, instruction, and inspiration, heartening the reader. Grateful in the distress of one’s soul, relief and comfort are to be found as well. The psalmist declared that the entrance of God’s word bring a flight, bring an understanding to the simple.

Many are the witnesses to the inspiration that’s found in the word of God. I don’t know how low you may get at times, how bad things may seem to be. If you really know and believe that the Bible is true, you know that whenever you get to the place where you just don’t know what to do, he says, and all my ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. And we know that All things can be provided. And I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.

But you’re walk with the Lord. It’s a personal thing and nobody can do it for you. And also I wanted to share this with you just a little bit more. He said, it is said that one of the most comforting and inspirational portions of scriptures, the book of Philippians, I preached from the book of Philippians many, many times. Because remember he was in jail when he wrote the book of Philippians. And he’s encouraged in every day. Everybody, one author has titled his commentary be joyful.

Paul the author was a perennial optimist and that is seen throughout the book. For although he was in prison, he could say rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Many have turned here for comfort and inspiration in distress and found relief, for it is written. I can do all things through Christ who strengthened me. And my God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” You ever heard those verses before?

So regardless of what people say and do, regardless of how things are going in this world, none of it really matters if you stay close to the Lord, because you can just trust Him and don’t have to worry about Him. I am not worried about North Korea. I’m not worried about Iran. I’m not worried about the the Muslims and I’m not worried about the devil because I don’t care whatever it is whenever I die and if they take my life I’ll live again.

I’m gonna live until I die and then I’m gonna live forever and that gives you great hope and joy in the days that you do live so that we don’t have to have the world or the devil or anything about you know what going on in the world and all the problems that there may be so disappointed and discouraging us that we just can’t seem to face today. Can’t face tomorrow. What kind of a God do we have? Did he get sick and fall off the throne?

God is alive and well. Here are some of the most confident and reassuring words to be found in any language. A man’s character may be known by the places he delights to frequent. Can he say, Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house. And the place where thine honor dwelleth, for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God that the dwell in the tents of wickedness.

You ever heard that before? I’d rather be a doormat in the house of the Lord, then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Now I want you to take your Bible in turn with me to the book Psalms, the book of Psalm, the 84th Psalm. This is on page 640 in a church Bible. It’s one thing about all the great things that great men have done over the years, but you’re not going to be rewarded for anything that some great man somewhere has done.

You’re not going to be given account for all those people you envy or or jealous of, you see, you are going to give an account to God for what you did or did not do. Now, get more personal. Don’t worry about comparing yourself with what somebody else is doing or not doing, judging yourself and commending yourself by others, God says, is not wise. people do it. So that’s why Paul says in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 4, he said, I do not judge something before the time because he said, I don’t know anything against myself.

He says, but I’m not the judge. He says, but when he shall appear, then he will give to every man prays, honor and glory because God is going to judge every man. You see, going to heaven is free. That’s the gift of God. We go to heaven because He loved us. But now, living in this life, we get to show God how much we love Him. Now He showed us how much He loves us. Now we are supposed to show Him how much we love Him.

So if you serve the Lord it’s revealing how much you love the Lord. When you don’t serve the Lord it means that you don’t love the Lord. Because if you love the Lord he said if you love me serve me and then man serve me him with my Father honor. So you’re going to serve the Lord according to who you love and how much you love him. And some people can take the free gift of eternal life because that shows you how much God loves you, but then they may never love God.

Because many people fall in love with the pleasures of the world. They love the world. They want their plows of the world, and they live for the world to get whatever the world has to offer. And because there’s a devil out there that wants to use these trinkets, he lures God’s people away from the love of God. And that’s why you have to be careful. But in the 84th Psalm, he makes his statement here. Look in verse 2, he said, My soul longeth, yea, even faineth for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and my flesh cry at that for the living God. Now remember, they had the tabernacle David did in his day. Solomon who came after him, they built a big beautiful temple called Solomon’s Temple. But David says he loved going into the tabernacle. He loved meeting with God’s people. Then he makes a statement in verse 4, blessed are they, and you ought to underline this, blessed are they that dwell and thy house. They will be still praising thee.

The thing that keeps you praising the Lord is keep being where you’re supposed to be. Did you know that I look forward to every Sunday morning? I can hardly wait a Sunday to show up. I love coming on Sunday night. Did you know that every Sunday afternoon, they put stuff on TV trying to get a little low gankie? You know they’ll show golf and they’ll show the tournaments and the masters and the PGA and they do it on a Sunday afternoon, the climax is always ending at six o’clock.

Have you noticed that? And what time did our church server start? Six o’clock. Oh, just a minute. I want to see who won. But there is a temptation in all the ball games on Sundays. You know, do you ever notice how many people are sitting in all the stands around the world, around the United States, especially? all those people and most of them if the game starts at 12 or something like that, well, they are most of them, mischurch.

Do you think there’s a possibility that the things of this world can become an idol, that you worship the pleasures of this world, things of this world, and it can take the place of your love for the Lord? Anyway, I’ve always thought it was wonderful and interesting watching how people demonstrate whatever they love, whatever it is. And so he makes this statement also down here in verse 10. He says, for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand.

I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than the dwell on the tents of wickedness. And then notice verse 11, he says, for the Lord God is a son and a shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. Now, on the line, this part of the verse, if you don’t have this part of the verse on the line, shame on you, you ought to have it on the No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusted in thee. Learning the trust God. Now nobody can do this for you. It’s an individual thing. It’s something that every one of us has to decide. Who do I love? And how do I show God that I love him? And one of the best ways is of course being found faithful to serve him. doing what He wants us to do, where He wants us to do it, for as long as He wants us to do it, and love the Lord more.

You see, most of our problems come because the things of the world are hard to get, hard to keep in great sorrow when you lose them. And those are where most people’s griefs in sorrows comes from, because they’re trying to get something that maybe they don’t need, trying to hang on to something they don’t need, and they get sorrow when they lose something that, well, if it’s loseable, Why not latch onto something that is not loseable? You see, Christ says, I’ll never leave you and never forsake you.

Doesn’t know what he said? So the most important thing in all my life is the Lord himself and I can’t lose him. So if I lost everything else, I hadn’t lost him. I still got the main thing. I got God, I got him and I can trust him. He’s the one that determined whether I lived or died. And he’s the one that sent his son to down the cross and pay for my sins. No man, I don’t owe any man that loyalty.

I owe it to him, the one who died from me. So when you put it in the right perspective, certain Lord is such a blast. I’ve heard that people get on drugs and trying to get a high. I’ve never been on drugs like that. When I was in a hospital and I had surgery, they gave me some stuff that sent me out of this world. I mean, I had weird dreams that you wouldn’t believe and scared me half the death.

I couldn’t get out of it. I’d have a crazy dream and then I’d wake up and then I’d go back to sleep and dream the same dream all over again. It was like there was no end to it. And I went to sit with my mama one day when she was in the hospital, after she had opened her heart surgery. And mama, she said, Jake, get me out of here. Get me out of here. I said, mama, why? She said, they’re trying to kill me.

I said, who’s trying to kill you? The nurses, everybody in the doctors, they’re trying to kill me. Get me out of here. That was my last night of staying with my mom at the hospital. I got my sisters and brothers and brothers. She saw things running around the room, and all kinds of drugs will do crazy things to people. And yet there’s some people that get on drugs. they give them a high. Now I don’t know what this high is, but I can’t think of anybody having more joy in their life, more pleasure than what I’ve had, just knowing the Lord is serving God.

Do you realize the peace and the joy, the love, the happiness that you can have by putting God first in your life? There’s no drugs that can give that to you. It may lift you up, but it’ll let you down. God has never let me down. But anyway, I could get carried way here. When I get carried away, there’s a song that used to sing that. When I get carried away, what are these days I’m going to get carried away?

Next Sunday, don’t let me forget. Next Sunday, I’m going to do something that Hank Lindstrom always did. That’s what I was told. It’s that everybody stands up and they put their arms out and then you go like this because the rapture could take place at any moment. And I want everybody to be ready to fly away because we’re We’re gonna fly, fly away. What a big rig. But now, I want you to notice in Psalm 85.

Let’s go to Psalms 26, Psalms 26. Just turn over there to 26 Psalm. In the 26 Psalm, you’ll notice the word I mentioned an awful lot because as David writes here, see, whenever you want something to feed your soul, when you want something to warm your heart, Well, that’s why you read the Psalms. But whenever you want to do something, you want some activity, read the book of Acts. If you want to gain wisdom, study the book of Proverbs.

You see, different books are to work up on your mind in a different way. And there’s a lot of things that seems to go wrong. So God allowed a man like David that everything went wrong before he became king and he had to run for his life, but we wanted to kill him, and then later on, the sun turned against the head, all the heart and the sorrow. Well, God used all that and told him write it down and how God got him through it.

So when you face all these difficulties, then read the Psalms and what does somebody else do? And you’ll find out that God can protect and defend you. But notice what he says in Psalms 26, He says, judge me, oh Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity. I have trusted also in the Lord. Therefore I shall not slide. You ought to underline that phrase. You don’t want to slide. You don’t want to fall. Keep trusting the Lord. Put your eyes upon the Lord.

In verse two, examine me, oh Lord. Remember we ought to say an unexamined life is not worth living. So you always want the Lord to examine you, examine your life. And it doesn’t hurt you ever once in a while to look at yourself and examine yourself. How am I doing? Am I close to the Lord? Am I walking away God? Is there things in my life that are not right? This is why we wanna know the word of God, study the word of God because God wants you to live a godly holy life.

And you can’t do that and please God if you don’t know what places God when you don’t know His will because you don’t know His word. So he also says down through here, I and verse four have not set with vain person. either have I go in with dissemblers. He said, I hated the congregation of evil doers. And verse six, I will wash my hands in inattency. So will I I compass thy altar, O Lord, that I may publish with, you see, whenever you make up your mind and you’ve dedicated yourself to the Lord about what you are going to do, you can’t answer for everybody else.

Over the years, I love trying to get kids to dedicate their lives to serve the Lord. But I gotta make sure that I serve the Lord. However close I want those kids to be and you gotta memorize verses. I gotta make sure, did I? Do I memorize verses? Do I know the word of God? And so he says here in verse eight, Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honor dwelleth. Isn’t that a good verse?

Verse 11, he said, but as for me, I will walk in mine integrity. This reveals your character. It’s not only when people can see you, which is how you get your reputation, but your character is what you will do when nobody else is around. A godly man still does what is godly when nobody else knows. When he can take a vacation to go 3,000 miles away and nobody knows who he is. What’s your character? They say that your reputation is what you’re doing.

is what people know you to be in the daylight, but your characters reveal when things go dark. That’s why we sometimes watch people to see how they handle pressure because it reveals your character that you have. Do you really trust the Lord? Oh, I’m just trusting the Lord and then you cry yourself to sleep every night and you worry yourself sick. But I’m trusting the Lord, but you’re fall on the part. Something’s wrong with that picture. Now, I want you to look there in the 27th Psalm.

The 27th Psalm, we covered this about seven, eight years ago, but there’s something that I want you to notice. In this Psalm, I want you just to notice these words. The word me, the word I, the word my, the word mine, it’s if you find any of those words down through here. Because see, serving the Lord and walking with the Lord is a personal thing. What does God mean to you? You see, if you love the Lord, you’ll love His Word.

Because you want to please the Lord and you won’t mind studying it to find out how can I please the one I love. So you studied the Scriptures. Now just notice what He says here. You see, the first point that I just want to make out over all of this is is the Lord is the light of my life. The Lord is the light of my life. And then because of that truth, therefore down in verse six, therefore will I offer in his tabernacle, sacrifice of joy.

And I will sing, yay, I will sing praises unto the Lord. In other words, verse six and the rest of this chapter It’s because the Lord is the light of my life. And no one can make this happen to you. No one can make you fall in love with somebody. You know, words, it’s like you fall in love with this person.

You just don’t make that happen. You see each other and there’s just certain things that happen if you need, oh we’re in love. All right, then that leads to marriage the baby carriage and all that you know this song. Look at verse 1, verse 1, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid. Bob, are you going to sing that? First time I heard that song was Bob Brooks sung this song.

But I believe it was in Colorado. I don’t know if you haven’t sung it since you’ve been here have you? I don’t think so. But the Lord is the strength of my life whom then shall I fear. If I had Bob’s voice whom then shall I fear. It’s a great song and so you got to get that down Bob they need to hear you sing that song because it’s a powerful song and he’s the strength of my life. But you see a a lot of people are living a weak Christian life because the Lord is not the strength of their life.

And remember he talks about the joy and happiness and all of a sudden. Well that’s because the joy of the Lord is my strength. So when you’re happy in the Lord, now you may not walk around every day with a smiley face but you can find something to smile about just about everything that happens in life. I remember some guy called me up not long ago. He says that a pastor? He says, I got some good news and I got some bad news.

I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. I said, no, you just got some news. I said, whether it’s good or bad, depend upon whether or not you accept it as a stepping stone or a stumbling block. So everybody has news. Something happened all of them. Have you ever, you know, the phone rings? Oh no. Bad news? Why? Because the phone ring, you know it’s bad news. It’s automatic bad news. Sometimes I’m not in my door. Can I talk to you?

I think. Uh-oh. And it’s always bad news, right? No, it’s not always bad news. It’s news, but it’s not always bad news. You see, we are built to be negative. But serving the Lord sees what caused you to be positive. Positive. I know it’s bad news. I don’t know. So you learned to put your confidence in your trust in the Lord. And so whenever we would sing that song, of course, you know, right across the page is another song.

See, there are the 25th song. song. Look in verse 1, onto the old Lord. You know how that goes? Do I lift up my soul onto the old Lord and bla bla bla bla however it goes. I just know there’s song. Oh my God, I trust in thee, let me not be ashamed, let not my enemies triumph over me. But there’s people who write songs from the Word of God and there’s beautiful songs. But one of the that helped you the same is because you can see the rainbow through the rain.

You know that I’ll write a song about that. See the rainbow through the rain. In other words there’s always problem but you see a rainbow, a silver lining. You just know something good is going to come out of this and you believe that and you keep going. Otherwise you let the things of this world just get you down and so discouraged, so depressed. Man I don’t want to live. There’s people that I want to check out of this world.

Lord stop the earth, I want to get off. Well, but notice that verse one of chapter 27, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear the Lord of the strength of my life. Now he may not be for you, but he is for me. And you can’t make that work for somebody else. That’s something they have to grow into learned the word of God. But notice what he says, when the wicked even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell because the Lord is my protector.

Verse three, though a host shall encamp against me. Are they going to be things against you? Then the Lord is my comforter, my heart, my shall not fear. The Lord should rise against me and this will I be confident. It’s going to be confident. And so all these things regardless of what happens, see we think we’re supposed to have all of that if nothing’s going wrong. Nothing’s going wrong. Everything is going wonderful. Well, some things are not wonderful in life.

There’s wicked people and we live in a wicked world and some things just, well, can maybe upset you and disappoint you and all that. But how are you and the Lord getting along? You see, when you’re really getting along with the Lord, it doesn’t matter. Because some things you can’t change, but you don’t have to let the things of the world change you. That’s why he says, be not conformed to the world means the world changed them, made them like the world.

But you transformed means it’s an inside job. Conformed by the world, it’s an outside job. So when you have the Holy Spirit living within you, He conforms you to the image of His Son. And so He says, be it transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may consider or discover what is that good and acceptable and perfect what? Will of God. So you have to renew the mind to transform your life to the will of God. Are you ready to learn how to live your life as a strong Christian, lead others to Christ, or excel as a church worker or ministry leader, then look no further, then Florida Bible College of Tampa.

With traditional and online classes taught by instructors, with years of experience, Florida Bible College of Tampa can help you grow in your Christian life. Whether taking individual classes or working toward a one-year degree, Florida Bible College of Tampa is here for you. To learn more, visit online at florida-biblecollege.us or call the register Bob Gilbert at 8502275325. That’s 8502275325. 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.