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

Now, note to what he says in verse 24, Father, I will that they also whom thou hath given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hath given me, for thou lovest me before the foundations of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hath sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hath loved me may be where in them, that God’s love may be in you.

You take away this love and you have taken and killed the desire for so winning, the desire, the importance of reaching other people. Did you know, and I’ll be honest with you, I get physically tired worn out. But I can’t find description that says quit. I’ve looked high and low. And I can’t find the words that says quit. I guess I’m supposed to just keep doing it until I can’t do it no more. Would you think that? But there’s times when I get tired, I keep thinking, you know, if we don’t have somebody that’s going to drive the bus for those kids, I’m like, no, at 75, I’m not sure that’s the smartest thing in the world I’ve ever done.

I’ve driven a lot of buses all across America. I’ve driven big old motor homes. I’ve driven diesel buses. I’ve driven just about everything. And I still look forward to what another exciting adventure God may have for me. And I know that if I have to drive a bus, you know what I’m going to do? Drive a bus. Just whatever the Lord opens up. And if whatever you got to do, just do it. Don’t worry about it. Just do it.

and see what God will do. But you can’t run from the responsibility that God has given to us and says, this is what I want you to do. So he’s praying to the Father and he’s praying for those who are gonna be reached by those who heard him. And on down the line, 2,000 years later, you and I have been blessed. Somebody gave us the gospel and we believed it. And we know we have eternal life and we know that we’re going to heaven when we die, and we shouldn’t want to go alone.

And there’s a lot of people that’s never heard. So this is why we do it. The prayer of God’s people is a very important part of our Christian life. I’ll look there in chapter 16 of the Gospel of John. In chapter 16, he talks about some of the things that happened because of just God’s children, God’s children not being found faithful. The worry and all the things that goes, you know, in our life and there’s a lot of sorrow that we have.

But just look at this very quickly. Look in verse 20, very, very I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and ye and ye shall be sorrowful. But your sorrow shall be turned and do joy. Now there’s times in this life. And even though he was going to be leaving, and you’re gonna be filled with some sorrow, he says, oh, see, he’s going to the cross. And they’re gonna be scared to death, and they were.

But to realize that, he says in the book of Psalms, go forth weeping, and you shall come bringing your sheaves. With joy, weeping for tonight, but joy comes in the morning. There’s things that we may go through in life that brings a lot of heartache and pain and grief and so forth, but look beyond all of that. And realize at the end of our race, you’ll be so glad you ran the race. You want to finish and you want to finish well.

So run your race and run your race well. finish well and God will bless you for doing so. Look in chapter 14 of the Gospel of John and look in verse 13. When he makes the statement in verse 13, and whatsoever you shall ask in my name, this means for God’s honor, for God’s glory, for God’s work. It’s not for you to take and just try to manipulate God to get what you want out of life. This is if you are going to serve the Lord, you can ask God whatever it is you want me to do Lord and God is going to fulfill that will because you’re doing what God wants and whatsoever you asked then he’s going to supply because you’re asking for his honor for his glory that’s what he mean by in his name don’t just think because I tacked on the name at the end of a prayer that’s

automatic and I’m supposed to get my request Lord give me a million dollars in Jesus name I want to paint Cadillac in Jesus name and that’s supposed to be the miracle that gets you that, no, no, no, no. You’re misreading the scriptures. What’s wherever you shall ask in my name? That what I do, get to that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You’re doing it for His honor and for His glory. If it’s not for Him, you might as well just shut up.

It ain’t gonna happen to him. Now He says He knows what you need before you ever ask, but He also says you have not because because you asked not. And then sometimes he says you asked a mister you can consume it upon your own lust. It’s not for the Lord. It’s because you just wanna get out of a jam. I don’t always pray that people, God’s people, get out of all of their problems and all of their troubles. God may let you have problems and heartaches and all these things in order to build you.

So my prayer is that you will be strong because of whatever’s happening in your life. I pray that you will be able to have the strength the grace that you need to weather whatever storm you’re going through. Not to do away with the storm, not to solve all of your problems. You need these problems. Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptation. All these testings and problems. Count it all what? Joy. Lord, take me from having any problem.

Lord, I don’t want any problem. If you love me, don’t let nothing happen to me. Because you go through life, scared to death. Because you don’t want to be tested. Let God test you however he wants. And you just love him and don’t worry about it and just trust him to walk you through life. And then you’ll learn some things. Otherwise, when things happen to you, all you think about is how to get out of it. Instead of, Lord, what do you have for me to learn?

What do you want me to accomplish? What do you want me to be? Who do you want me to talk to? Lord, use me for your honor and your glory. And whatever’s going through, just give me the grace to parrot. Not run from it. And so God says here, If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. But in His name, it’s for His honor, for His glory. It’s for His will, not your will. And you pray that God’s will be done.

And the reason I know that that is true. is true. Have you ever heard this statement? As people pray, thy will be done as it is in heaven as it should be upon the earth. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So when you’re praying you want God’s will to be done here. God’s will, not yours. God’s will. Since you mentioned chapter 6, Matthew, take it by when we turn to Matthew chapter 6. You said, I didn’t mention chapter 6.

You showed it. Chapter 6 and notice a few things in this wonderful chapter. Now you’ll notice that there is a word that’s mentioned, if you just take a quick glance there at chapter 5 and verse 46, chapter 5 verse 46, for if you love them which love you. What reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same? Rewards. Now, a lot of chapter 5 in Matthew is talking a little bit about the kingdom time upon the earth and the way it’s going to be, but reward the rewards.

Something that you earned and worth for it and you deserve. And then he makes a statement in verse 48. Be there for perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect. Now, if you really have to be perfect, there’s only one way. And he makes the statement in verse 20, where it says, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. You shall know wise, enter into the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is at per the time upon the earth.

So God still wants you to have eternal life and to have a righteousness, which is by faith, and not a righteousness, which is by your works. But then once you’re in the kingdom and there stays, it wants you to do that God can still reward. But now look in chapter six. Take arms or take heed that you do not your arms before men. What is arms? Alms? Alms is your good works. It’s getting something. You know, you’re good deeds or giving money to somebody.

Have you ever heard, you know, the poor man and to gain alms, alms for the poor, alms for the poor. I was thinking about doing it one day after the church service will send you one, get out there and they’ll send you, everybody comes out of your alms for the poor, alms for the poor. Look what he says, do not your alms before men get this to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward of your Father, which is in heaven.

But doesn’t he also make the statement in verse 16 chapter 5. It looks like a contradiction. Verse 16, let your light so shine before men. See there? And then over here, do not do it to be seen. And the aunts is talking about your good works. Now what’s the difference? A contradiction in the Bible. He holds in one verse in verse 16 of chapter 5 that they may see your good works. And then in verse 1 of chapter 6, do not your own before men.

To be seen of them. Now how do you harmonize these two? Well one in chapter 5 where it says they may see your good works and glorify your Father. In other words they know why you did what you did. You see if you don’t tell people why you do what you do you get all the honor of the credit and the glory because you’re doing it to be seen of men but the other you’re doing it because you want people to see what you’re doing because of your love for the Lord and you want him to receive the honor and the praise and the glory.

Otherwise it’s just for yourself. There is a difference and there’s a big difference. He says, if you’re doing just to be seen of men, he said, well then you have your reward because you did it for people’s, you know, people to see you. But if you do it and people see you, that’s fine. That’s fine. That’s fine. I don’t know what that. But that’s why you can’t just live a good holy life in front of people and think, well, that’s all I have to do.

I just live a good life. No, no, no, no, no. Why are you living that good life? Why do they think you’re doing what you’re doing? Are you doing it because you just want the praise of man or are you doing it because I’m a Christian? I’ve trusted Christ as my Savior and I know the Lord and I love the Lord and I do what I can to honor my heavenly Father. You better tell why, or you may be limited a lot of rewards that maybe you could have had.

Now get this. He says in verse two, Therefore when thou doest thine arms, do not sound in trumpet. You know, hey, look at me, did you see what I did? I sung in the choir. I take up the offering. If you do what you do to be seen, just to be seen, and you don’t do it because you love the Lord, do you think God knows the difference? The one that’s gonna reward you knows the motive. And this is what he’s talking about in his last part of verse two, that they may have glory of what?

Glory of man. See, people down here, they are willing to give you praise, honor, and glory. But they can take it away from you just as quick. The reason for waiting till you get to heaven is because God will give you praise, honor, and glory that will last for eternity. To know that when you get to heaven and God brags on you and says, well done, thou good and faithful service. And he brags on you and he gives you rewards and honor and glory.

You’re going to be so glad you waited and got it from him. Then you’re stripped because you did it for people. You did the same thing but the wrong motive. That’s why it’s so important. So he says here, when it comes down to this thing about praying, he says in verse 6, but thou when thou prayest, he says enter into thy closet. And thou have shut the door pray to thy Father, which is in secret, and thy Father which saith in secret shall reward thee openly.

Your heavenly Father can reward you according to how you pray and why you pray. And if you pray, is it possible to pray just to be seen of men? He says, some people stand on the straight corners and they would lift up their voices and pray real long prayers because they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. God says that’s not, that’s what heathens do. He says, don’t be a hypocrite. You’ll learn how to pray in public if you’ll practice praying in private, but it will help you.

Now notice what else he’s saying. says here. Look in verse 7, but when you pray, use not vain reputation as the heathen do. So do heathen pray? The Bible says the heathen can pray. For they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. God says, that’s not what’s headed. You don’t have to spend 15, 20 minutes telling God how wonderful and great he is. He probably already knows it. But there’s nothing wrong in honoring the Lord. But whenever you do, don’t think that that’s what opens the door for you to get in.

You see, God’s, your prayer, don’t have to make a trip. Like, you know, God’s up there on the other side of the universe and I’ve got to send my prayers all the way there. And you hope there’s enough power between here and there that can transmit your message all the way up there. You see, God doesn’t work according to email. He works according to an email. A lot of difference. So He makes a statement here in verse 8, being not, therefore, like unto them for your heavenly Father, know of what things you have need up before you ask.

But the Lord lives inside of you. See, my prayers don’t have to make a trip. Where does God live? My body is the temple of God. God lives inside of me. So he can hear my prayer. He knows my thoughts. He is with me. He said, I’ll never leave you and never forsake you. That’s some great stuff. But look what he says here in verse 9. He says, when it comes to this thing of prayer, he says, after this manner, therefore pray you.

Now he just told them not to just wrote memory and vain reputation, which a lot of people just vain reputation, quote this prayer, our Father which art in heaven, I know you go through the whole thing, but He just said, don’t do that. In other words, it’s a way to pray. It’s a model on how to pray. Well, what to include in your prayer? And He makes a statement here after this manner, therefore praying, our Father which art in heaven, hello, be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it in heaven.

Now it’s one thing to pray that God will meet your needs on a daily basis. And this is one of the things that he says in his word. I was told that whenever you hear about the shepherd and the sheep and the Lord talks about the sheep and it’s all of me and he will lead them into green pastures and so forth. And in most of our minds, we probably think of acres and acres of nice big fields of clover and grass and all over the place, you know.

And really they say it’s nothing more than the sheep on the side of a hill that looks like a desert. And yet they follow these little trails and they will be on the side of a hill and they will have a row and a row and a row and they eat the green grass on the side of the hill because they never get to this flowing green grass that you hear about. But that’s being provided and they have to depend upon that grass to grow every day.

And so he supplies our daily needs. He gives us what we need. And so every day we should be dependent upon the Lord. So this is why you got to watch that you get too much of the material wealth in the world that you think, I don’t need the Lord like I used to because I can pay my way or do whatever. Remember, you can lose health very quickly. You can lose wealth very quickly. Live every day depending upon the Lord.

Always knowing I’ve got to talk to the Lord and I need to walk with the Lord. And He says, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Well, this is yes under the law and we should forgive our debtors if we wanted to be forgiven under the law. But we are supposed to forgive others because we have been forgiven in the book of Ephesians in chapter 4 and verse 30 and 32 because God has forgiven us, we forgive others.

Out of the law, if you want to be forgiven, you You had to forgive others. A lot of different. And he says, as you go through here, all these things about your heavenly Father, your heavenly Father, looking verse 18, that thou appear not unto men too fast but unto thy Father, which is in secret. And thy Father which saith in secret shall reward thee openly. There’s a lot of verses in here that talks about rewards. And God rewarding you for doing the right thing with the right motive.

You’ll also read that in the book of 1 Corinthians 13 when he’s talking about, you know, I get my body to be burned and so forth and I can speak with a tongue of men and angels and he said, but if you don’t have love, you have nothing. God wants to bless us. He wants to reward us. And he’s going to do that because you did it for his honor, for his glory. This is why if you serve the Lord and you sacrifice the Lord and nobody appreciates you, oh wait a minute, who did you do it for?

Now if you’re doing it just for people, you’re in for heartbreak automatically because people are going to fail you, they’re going to let you down and they’re not going to be. If you’re dependent upon me to remember your name, forget it. I haven’t even figured out who all the deacons are yet. I cannot remember people’s names. I just met a couple of people back there. I don’t know their names. Some of y’all, I could not go through here and tell all of y’all’s names.

You say, well, when did you lose your mind? I never had it. I’ve always been like that. I’ve been like that from as far as back as I can remember. How far back can I remember? But see, some people people will get offended because he took my hand. Don’t even know who I am. I asked somebody the other day, I says, where are you going to church? He says, Calvary, you said you didn’t do that. You said it. Raise my right hand.

Because I, for some reason or other, it’s just not there. Now, I can remember scripture, but if I had a choice, I’d rather remember this. I know where this verse is and where that verse is, but kind of, you have no idea. He’s sitting back there, but Connie, you’re two girls. It’s taken me two years to learn their name. And the only way I can remember Jessica is I think of Jesse. And she don’t look anything like Jesse. But there is a connection there somehow.

And I can remember her name. Well, anyway, is God good yet God is good. But He’s blessed me in a lot of other ways. But hey, look, nobody’s perfect down here. We get to heaven, everything will be wonderful. And when we get to heaven, don’t worry about it. I’ll know your name if you’re there. And if you’re not there, then you can see Dan. I remember your name, would you say?

All right, look at this in more clothes. Look in verse 30. Verse 30, Therefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, Shall he not much more clothe you? You see those five little words, O ye of little faith, little faith. Believe the Lord, talk to the Lord. He knows what you have need of, go to Him and pour your heart out to the Lord. And there’s things that’ll happen in your life and people are not gonna be able to always deliver you from a devastating dilemma.

Some people are not gonna be able to say just those words to bring you comfort. And so like David said, he encouraged himself in the Lord. Sometimes you have to encourage yourself in the Lord. If there was nobody else and just you and the Lord, wouldn’t you have to do that? It’s nice when there’s people who won’t help. That is true. But sometimes all there is is just you and God and you’re just walking through life. And sometimes you’ll carry burdens that nobody else knows about.

You’ll have feelings and you’ll have hurts and pains and grief, nobody knows, but God does. But the last thing God wants you to do He says, do not murmur, don’t complain. And he also teaches the thing about the needs and so forth. He says, be content with such things as you have. If tomorrow you would only have what you were thankful to God for it today, would you have much tomorrow? If you only had tomorrow what you were thankful to the Lord for today, would you have anything for tomorrow?

You see, sometimes we’re not thankful for what we already have. We’re always complaining about what we don’t have. And you realize how good God has been to you. You may be sitting here and God is being given you good health, maybe a good job, a good mate, good children, good things. And there’ll be one little thing that you’ll complain about. That’s one little thing. And it’ll just ruin your whole day. One little bitty thing. Learn how to set that aside.

Look at the whole picture and be thankful to the Lord for all that He’s done for you. Look up here. Let Him this hand represent you and me. And the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. All of us have done wrong. We have all failed. You see, God has a sign of perfection. It is perfect. Well, we have never kept God’s hands. perfect law. We’ve all come short. We have transgressed. It means we’ve overstepped the boundary.

We went out of bounds. And God says the wages of sin is death. And since we’ve all sinned, we’re all condemned. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God. And none of us are perfect. We’re all sinners. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. Came into the world because he loves the whole world. He hates our sin because our sin separates us from the Lord between you and Christ, between you and God.

And that’s why Jesus Christ took all the sin paid for it on the cross. Why? So that we could come to the Father through the Son. And when you believe that he paid for your sins and he came back from the dead and he says, now would you believe I loved you so much I did that for you and the only thing you had to do is believe it and trust him as your Savior and God will give you as a free gift ever lasting life.

That’s the best news in all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? With heads bowed, nice clothes and no one looking around. If you’re here tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior why not talk to him right now and just get it settled. Lord, I’m a sinner. I don’t understand at all but I know that you’ve done on that cross and pay for my sins. And right now I’m going to trust you. It’s my Savior. And friend, if you’ll do so, God will save you.

And while you’re at it, if you trust Christ as your Savior, God said He would save you. And I’d give you eternal life. You become God’s child. You get to go to heaven when you die. Yes, there’s a lot of problems that we have in life. But when you trust the Lord, see, you become God’s child. He becomes your daddy. He’s your father. And God wants you to come to Him. The one that created the heavens and the earth, He wants you to come to Him.

He knows all the things you’re going through. But He wants you to come and talk to Him, share things with Him. He knows how you think, He knows how you feel. People don’t always understand what the Lord does. You would honor your heavenly Father by bringing your cares to Him and casting your cares upon the Lord because the Bible says He cares for you and He does. If you’re watching by internet right on the screen says, yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior.

If you’ve never done so before and you say, I will trust Christ as my Savior tonight. From the right now, would you accept Christ as your Savior? Would you just click on the button it? Let’s us know that you trust the Lord. We don’t know who you are. We don’t even know where you are. But we know that you trusted the Lord. And that’s such a blessing to us. Our Father, we thank You again for Your blessings. Thank You for each one here.

And I pray that You’ll use each one of us for Your honor and for Your glory. We thank You for what 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. 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. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep in looking up.