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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.

Alrighty. I want to talk to you about something. something I had a sermon that I did some time back. We call prayer for the journey, prayer for the journey. This is similar to prayer for the journey, because we may not have asked to be in this race, but here we are. We didn’t ask to be in the sea of humanity, but here we are. We didn’t ask to be born, but we were. And we didn’t ask to live where we were born or who our parents were or nothing.

It was out of our hands. So just by the mere fact that we’re here is an opportunity that God has given to us. Our whole life is one great big opportunity to do many things. You can do so many things with your life. You stop and think about it. So many places you can go. So many places now you can choose to live and go anywhere. You can choose any job you want. Boy, isn’t that freedom? Opportunities. The reason some people want to come to this country is because they’re looking for an opportunity, an opportunity to fulfill their dream.

What their desires are, to be what they want to be, to have something. And we were born here. So I titled today’s message, sufficient grace, get sufficient opportunities. Because when you stop and think about, what is grace for? Why do I need to go to the throne of grace? Well, to get something, what? Grace, okay? How do you know when you got it? I mean, is it something tangible? I believe that a certain amount of this truth can be explained in the word opportunity.

The throne of grace is a throne of opportunity. You can always go to the throne of grace, the throne of opportunity, because one thing you’re looking for in life is the opportunity. Now some people live life and they never have the opportunity to do certain things that other people get to do. But look at the first word, their opportunity. A set of circumstances that make it possible to do something. Some Some people do not have certain opportunities. Now they’ll have some, but not everybody has all exactly the same opportunity to do certain things.

They may desire to be able to sing like Peter Amato, but their voice just will not cut it and they just can’t do it. It’s not possible. And then somebody else may wish they could play the piano like Jan Hall over here, that expert piano player. And she worked hard at that, but not everybody can just do that ARTICLE. And so you have to sit here and listen to her play, and Peter is saying, and all the firehouse, and yet every one of them took advantage of an opportunity.

When you want to serve the Lord, then you’re looking for an opportunity, a way to get it done. All the ministries that we have are opportunities for people to serve the Lord. And so without these ministries, we don’t have opportunities. That’s what they are. That’s what they’re for. But some people say that opportunities are, well, boy, he’s just lucky. Boy, is he lucky. I was watching the U.S. open, and it seems like the people who practice the most work the hardest, it seems like they’re luckier than other people who don’t do it.

Now, so far I’ve only been playing golf for about 65 years because I was a caddy. That’s how I learned. I caddyed for everybody else to golf. And they didn’t have golf carts back in those days. You carried them on your shoulder. And if I only carried one bag nine holes, I got 90 cents. But since I’m going to walk and go that way anyway, I might even carry two bags. And then I get a dollar 80 cents. Then if I go 18 holes, I can make three dollars.

dollars and sixty cents for a whole day’s work. Of course, when I got through my shoulders were blistered, I was tired, worn out, and up in Pennsylvania, it was up the hill and down the hill, up the hill and down the hill. And they always, Kenny, watch this ball. Where’d he go? Where’d he go? Did you sit? I said, I did it. Where’d he go? Oh, down that way? And you were looking for it as you go, and hoping you could find a ball before they do.

And then I go to this guy because I got his bag. And the other guy on the other I said, hey, Katie, where’s my ball? It’s over there. I had no clue sometimes. So you bluff it. But by the days over, that $3.60, surely. But I had to take an advantage of an opportunity and go, Katie. Now, there were some times I could not Katie because it wasn’t an opportunity. I wasn’t in a place where I could. But it was always a nice way to make a little extra cash.

Luck, a chance, favorable time, occasion. a moment, time, occasion, moment, opening, option, window of opportunity, a turn to go, possibility, a shot. I need a break, I need a new lease on life. And but it, you can just hear about here everything. And as you go through life, some people are just plain luckier than others. Some people get all the breaks. Nothing is ever easy for me. I have to work myself to death and keep my nose to the grindstone.

And other people is just so easy for them. Life is just not fair. So I wanna discuss that just a little bit. Take your Bible and turn to the book of 2 Corinthians chapter three, 2 Corinthians and chapter three. And chapter three, and you’ll notice there in verse five, it’s a great verse. And it’s a verse that you ought to unline, especially a part of this verse. But look what he says in verse five. not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.

That little statement, our sufficiency is of God. Because it’s God who gives us the life to live. God is the one who’s given us this opportunity to live, and He’s given us the indwelling Holy Spirit so that whatever it is God wants us to do, did you know that God can prepare you to be fit to use, prepared under every good work. God is able to do all of this for a submissible clay, and know that God can mold and shape the way he wants, and so God is able to do this.

Now look in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. I’ve been wondered a little bit about why this was so important. In verse 9, and He said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. So grace and my strength must have some connection there. And so whenever you go through the throne of grace to get this strength that you need to keep doing what you should do. Sometimes it’s just a big, deep, burning desire because most people live according to their desires.

What do you want? I can see sitting there in my easy chair. And I can say, honey, bring me a cup of coffee and she says, get it yourself. Now, she doesn’t do that, but if I had a wife that wouldn’t get me my coffee And if I wanted it bad enough, what would I do? I’d get up and go get it. There’s a lot of things in life. People aren’t going to bring it to you. You’re going to have to go get it.

And you need a strong desire and power to do the will of God. So isn’t it wonderful to know that God has got this throne of grace, a throne of opportunity? Where you go to the Lord and the reason for going to the Lord pray into the Lord so that you can ask God for an opportunity. Most of our prayers are just for something like that. Because even if we want somebody to get well, because you want them to have opportunity to do more, to live longer.

Whenever you want something, the reason you say I go to Bible college, well then you’re looking for an opportunity to learn the word of God. Why? Because you want an opportunity to do more for the Lord. You want an opportunity to have a ministry. You want an opportunity to be successful. You want an opportunity to earn rewards. You want. So God has given to us in this life one great big opportunity to live for him. He says here, my grace is a sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Now, you and I know that we are supposed to serve the Lord, and that it takes the grace of God, and we talk about living by grace. I think another way you could look at it is living by the opportunities that God gives to us, because grace has to be something. It has to be something and it helped us to fulfill the will of God for our life.

Now take your Bible and turn to First Corinthians in chapter nine. If you are going to run in a race, then blessed be God we ought to run. We didn’t ask to be in this race. I don’t remember volunteering for life. I don’t remember God asking me, would you like to live on planet earth, oh Lord what’s it going to be like? Well, it’s going to be a lot of heartache, a lot of misery. You have a lot of pain and suffering and then when it’s all over you’re going to die.

Anything else? Now I’m glad that God never asked me because if he had done so I probably would have never chosen to live. But God is good and look what he says in verse 24, he says, no you’re not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. We’re all in the race and we’re going to run. So if you’re going to run, then run to win. Now there’s another verse that I want you to see and I believe it’s in 2 Corinthians and not sure where it is right now.

My mind just went blank. Every once in a while that’ll happen. That doesn’t I mean, I’m losing my mind. In the scripture there, I want you to notice. Luke 22, six, this is where he says, and he promised and sought, and here’s the word that’s mentioned here, opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude. The Judas was gonna betray the Lord. So he was now looking for an opportunity. You see, even when you wanna walk away from the Lord and you wanna live in sin, you’re looking for an opportunity to fulfill the lust of the flesh.

When you want to rebel, you’ll find all kinds of opportunities to do just that. And if you wanna serve the Lord, you will find opportunities to do just that. It all depends on what you’re looking for. The next scripture, Galatians 6, 10, right there in your notes, as we have therefore, and here’s that word again, opportunity. Let us do good unto all men, especially in the then who are of the household of faith. But see, you’ve got to have the opportunity.

Now when you dedicated your life to the Lord, it means you dedicated yourself to fulfill the opportunity God gives to you. This is why we try to tell college kids even. Success is when preparation meets opportunity. You see, a lot of people have the opportunity come their way, but they’re not prepared to take advantage of the opportunity. And when somebody is prepared, they can take advantage of an opportunity. If you don’t know how to win people to the Lord and someone else does, you may have as many opportunities come your way, but you can’t take advantage of them because you don’t know it’s an opportunity because you don’t perceive it that way and you’re not sure how to do it so God must not be asking you to do it because He wouldn’t ask you to do something you couldn’t do.

But you could have done it if you’d have prepared. So we need to have an understanding of we’re having opportunities. I’ll look at the next scripture in Philippians, but I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me have flourished again wherein you were also careful but you lack opportunity. Sometimes you’re just not able to do certain things. You don’t have the means to do certain things. You may want to give a million dollars to the missionaries, but you don’t have a million dollars, so you lack opportunity.

So you do what you can with what you have. Take advantage of whatever opportunities you do have. And God will bless you for doing so. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 15. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have return. I didn’t know that verses in the Bible. I was reading there in the book of Hebrews one day and I thought, I wonder if Abraham, if he could have gone back, would he have done so?

And I had thought about that and I read this verse. He might have gone back if he’d known how to get to where he came from. Do you know that’s one of the good reasons why you burn the bridges behind you and you don’t look back? I’ve had people ask me, says, Do you miss the work in Colorado or do you miss the ministry up there in Georgia or miss traveling around in the motor home and all that? If I think about it and dwell on it, yes.

But I try not to dwell on it. Why? Because now is more important than then. Because I can’t do anything about what’s already been done. I can’t go back, change nothing. I can’t increase it. I can’t diminish it. What was done is done and whatever I’ve laid up in heaven has been done and whatever I lost is lost. those things which are behind I press on. So from this day forward that’s all I’ve got to concern myself with. And everything else has already been done that’s done.

Those opportunities are gone. Every day you wake up and you fill a pulse and you’ve got a purpose you’re going to have a day of opportunities. So it doesn’t matter how the opportunities come or what the opportunities may be. You see, every trial that you have, every problem that you have, every heartache you have, all those are nothing more than opportunities to demonstrate the grace of God in your life because it’s not what happens to you that’s so important as the way you respond to those things that happens to you.

Everybody has opportunity. Everybody has problems. Everybody has troubles. everybody, but everybody don’t handle it the same way. So you’re looking for God to use you in the midst of this problem, that problem, that problem, that problem, and everything can either be a stepping stone or a stumbling stone. Depends upon your attitude. It can be an opportunity to rise or an opportunity to fail. It all depends on your attitude toward So this is why these attitudes that we have are so important.

And you look at everything that happens today, everything that happens tomorrow. The rest of the week, you ought to pray that God will give you every opportunity that it takes to build a character you need and to fulfill the will of God he wants accomplished. Now, isn’t that a pretty good little prayer? So you go to the Lord and you make your request known unto the Lord. and you’re requesting that God brings just the right problem, testing our trial your way, because God knows all of your weaknesses, and those trials is to strengthen that weakness, to show you where you’re weak at, and so that you know the strength and those areas in your Christian life.

So he says here, truly, if they had been mindful of that country, but once they came, they might have had opportunity to have returned. Now look at the next statement. This is in the book of James, and we’d cover this so many times, but just very briefly, take your Bible and turn to the book of James. The book of James in chapter one, right after the book of Hebrews, James chapter one, and look in verse two. Look at the value of your testings that you’re going to have.

that you’re going to have. And the little note that I wrote down here, prayer, believing and opportunity will come. See, when you want to serve the Lord, the reason you prepare is because you believe, you believe there’s gonna be an opportunity to use it. I study the word of God because I believe there’s an opportunity I’m gonna get a chance to teach, what I’ve learned, what I know. A chance to do something for the Lord. So in verse two he says, my brethren, talking to the believers, counted all misery when you fall into different testings, different temptations.

Remember, God tends to know man, but God allows you to be tested. He says, my brethren, counted all joy when you fall into the divers temptation because all of these testings and problems, if you’ll see them as opportunities, then you don’t have a problem with it. problems or opportunities. Say that out loud with me. Problems are opportunities. I can’t hear you. Problems are opportunities. Now, you’re not gonna curse your problems, are you? Some people want to go through life.

No problem. I just don’t want no problem. Just protect the Lord. No, no problems. Well, how are you gonna learn? How are you gonna learn to depend upon the Lord? How do you know God will walk you through it? He can’t walk you through it if you don’t bring it to it. We had a contest at church one time. We were talking about these little things that we gave away, and it was a little round. It had TU-IT on it.

It was a round to it. Because all of the body always says, I’ll come to your church when I get around to it. Here’s one. It was around to it. We had a whole bunch of them we hadn’t bought. Everybody was passing them out. You give it to one, it has nothing on it, but it was a round and it had to it on it. You did give them to people wherever you met them. and you invited people, what’s that for?

Well, wouldn’t you get a chance when you’d like to come and say, well, when I get around to it, well, there it is, you got around to it. He says here in verse three, knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience, trying, testing, produces something, patience, learning to wait upon the Lord. There’s things you can’t make happen. But let patience have a perfect work that you may be perfectly completed in an entire wanting or lacking nothing. If any of your lack wisdom let him ask of God, they give it to all men liberally and that bread, if not, and it shall be given unto him.

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering for he, that waver like a wave of the seed, driven with a win and tossed. Let not that men think that he shall receive anything of the Lord, double-minded men’s unstable in all of his ways. So here you are, it’s a child of God, and you’ve got nothing but problems and heartache. So what? Big deal. Just see them as opportunities but you learn some opportunities for years to grow And you need all of those things because that’s what your whole life is about.

You’re learning how to solve problems. And that’s where wisdom comes from. Remember, wisdom is when knowledge and circumstances go together and you’re learning how to make the wise decision. You’re applying knowledge. and you need all of those things. Because that’s what your whole life is about. You’re learning how to solve problems. four, one through three, don’t have because you don’t ask for opportunity. Don’t have because you ask a miss of the opportunity. In other words, if the opportunity is just for you to make yourself big, fat, and rich, and it’s just your life and nothing about the Lord, but say God is not interested in him being used to do whatever you want him to do like He’s a little battery packed to care around where in case this he weren’t drained out, I can just play it in and get some more.

God’s not used like that. God wants to use you. Look at the next statement. There are prayers that involve purpose of life, opportunity. In other words, when you determine, I want God’s will for my life, then I want this opportunity to do something full of Lord And that’s my purpose in life is to be whatever God wants me to be. So there has to be this main goal. And then when you know where you’re going like, if I was to take and leave here, and I mentioned this before, and I wanted to go to Georgia, well, not just anywhere in Georgia, I want to go to Athens, Georgia.

Well, then I got to get on the right road to get there. On the way, I may stop at a rest area. On the way, I might stop at Cracker Barrel. On the way, we might just say, you know, that’s too far. Let’s just get us a motel for the night and then we’ll continue tomorrow. But I know what my destination is. And so then I determined my little stops in between. When you know what your purpose is in life and I want to honor the Lord, then I’ve got a study, the Word of God, and got to go to Bible college and I’ve got to spend time studying and reading and preparation and all the…those are little stops along the way that helped me reach my ultimate goal.

You see, there’s one main responsibility. And then between here and fulfillment of my life’s goal, I’ve got a lot of little opportunities to help me to learn and to grow. And all the problems and things like that, that’s to help me fulfill his purpose. When you understand that, then life becomes a little easier and you won’t curse all the bad things that happened because that gives you a bad attitude. You don’t perceive life the way it really is. You’re living in a dream world and you need to understand this.

There are prayers that involve points in time. There is the ultimate goal and then there’s points in time. Inside of this little box that I got on your paper, I had preached this sermon one time on the children of Israel as they came out of Egypt going toward the Promised Land. Going to the Promised Land was where they were headed. That was their ultimate goal, their destination. But on the way, they had to get through a Red Sea, and then they didn’t have anything to drink in the wilderness.

They didn’t have anything to eat. And then it was cold at night, and it was a fire, and it was hot in the daytime, and there was a cloud, and God miraculously took care of them. But they got to see something that other nations never got to see because you see this was an opportunity for them. God brought them to a place where there was a dead end. They couldn’t go no further. And so this dead end became an opportunity for them to see what God can do.

And that’s why in this scripture, there are things that happens to you in life. unless you understand there could be a reason why God does what He does. You’re going to be upset, mad, and angry because we have little patience with things like detours. Because see detours destroys my opportunity to succeed. It keeps me from getting where I want, when I want. And we think that God is supposed to be on our timetable and sometimes God doesn’t obey you.

Isn’t that a scary thought that God doesn’t just do everything we want but he does want us to do everything he wants the next point There are going to be dead ends and the words a dead end destroys my opportunity to succeed Because you see most people have in their mind what they want to do or be and where they want to go and all that and They don’t like it when something hinders them from succeeding in life So if I can’t get what I want, it’s your fault.

It’s somebody’s fault. The luck just doesn’t go my way. Everybody else is lucky, but me. Everything’s against me, poor me. I’m gonna have a pity party for me. And so some people, they’re rocks and they’re rock garden, they died. You ever have a pet rock that died on you? I had an obedient pet rock and I say, stay it stay. So don’t you move, you wouldn’t move. There you’ll be. Now I could tell my kids don’t move and it didn’t work.

Now get this and the next thing, dry holes. That means that you’re expecting something, refreshing, cool, blah, blah, blah, and the waters were bitter. And so there was nothing that they could drink. So in your Christian life, you know already they’re gonna be dead-ends, detours, and dry holes. And it’s gonna leave you disappointed because it’s gonna interrupt your schedule. So see, you got your schedule, and sometimes God interrupts it. And God may just set you aside for a little while to cool down.

And it seems like you’re not being used. And so, while you’re there, be patient, and wait up on the Lord. And as time goes on, God will open the door and give you an opportunity. There are many doors of opportunity that God will open for you. And you’ve got to be patient until sometimes he opens up that door, and then you can walk through that door. Don’t miss out on all the fun. Join Pastor Jesse and Kyla Martinez on Thursday nights from 7 to 9 p.m.

for Tampa Youth Ranch and Calvary Community Church. Tampa Youth Ranch is a great mix of live music, games, Bible study, food and fun, 13-18, get to know God and the Bible with their friends. Check it out online at tampayouthranch.org and see the cool pictures from past activities and all the fun you’ve been missing. No right, no problem. Call 813-334-4655 today for information on getting a ride to Tampa Youth Ranch. Thanks for joining us on Bible Eye. 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. Taught 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.