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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.

Once you take your Bible and turn to the gospel of John in chapter 13. I was thinking about what makes you happy, what makes you happy. You know, it’s different things that makes different people happy. One thing to make somebody happy is something that makes somebody else unhappy. Two boxers get in the ring. The one that wins usually happier than the one that didn’t. What wouldn’t you say? So the same fight makes one happy and makes somebody else unhappy.

As you go through life you’ll find out there’s a lot of things that happens And generally what happens is to one happens to everybody. It’s just a matter of time. So we all suffer loss, we all gain something, we lose things, you know, that’s all pretty much the same. Everybody gets sick one time or the other. Everybody has more money than they need. Well, maybe not that. Everybody has too little money sometimes. But everybody goes to that. So what do you actually go through that nobody’s ever gone through before?

before. Have you faced anything nobody’s ever faced before? I don’t guess so. And yet some people can go through life very happy and there’s some people that just they’re not happy. I don’t care what happens. They’re never happy about anything. But what makes you happy? If you had to give the preacher one good thing that makes you happy, what is that? One good thing. Am I happy because of what is happening to me? Think about it for a minute.

I am happy because of what is happening to me. Okay, what’s happening to you? There’s things that happens to you, right, that makes you happy. I think, well, what is that? Then there’s another way of putting it. What am I happy about because of what I am doing? See, there’s sometimes we’re happy because of what’s happening to us and then sometimes we’re because of what we’re able to do, right? So if you don’t do anything, you won’t be happy.

And if nobody ever does anything to you, then you’ll never be happy. You could be one sorry miserable individual all your life, couldn’t you? If something didn’t happen, so there’s always things that are happening. And some of these things that happens to us are not pretty, but let me ask you another question. What is the sin of omission? What is the sin of omission? Invite them. Raise your hand. Yes, Louie? Not doing what you’re supposed to do. That’s a sin of omission.

You omitted something out of your life that you should have done. So the sin of omission, should that make you happier, unhappy? Huh? Unhappy. It makes you unhappy. But was that a choice? It could be a choice. This happiness a choice. Well, it can be, I guess it is. What is the sin of commission? The sin of commission, yes. Doing something you know is wrong. Would you agree with that? Doing something you know is wrong. Committing something, omission, leaving out or commission doing something.

So there’s things that we do and there’s things that we don’t do and both can affect our attitudes. True? They’re going to affect our attitudes, whether we’re happy or whether we’re milked. Let me ask you another question. What is exegesis? What is that? Here’s the Bible. What is exegesis? Give me a little definition of what’s exegesis. X, think of Genesis, Exodus, the children of Israel were coming out of. So what would that mean when we apply to the Bible?

Getting out what is there? It’s already there, generally referred to of ancient text, getting out of it, but it’s getting out of something that’s already there. Now what is is isegesis? Yes. Putting into the Bible what we wanted to say. Putting into a text. But it’s not there but we’re putting it in. So as you go through life you’re either getting out or putting in. Now let’s say for example here’s a ranch program. No you go to ranch right.

You’ll find Sometimes happiness can be because of what you’re getting out of it. But happiness can also be because of what you’re putting into it, right? Some people put nothing in and therefore they get nothing out. You go to the grocery store and I was always told be careful what you put in the bag because when you get home, that’s what you take out of the bag. So you go to ranch and you always want to be happy. All right, what are you putting into ranch?

You think go to ranch? What are you putting in that will make you happy or help you to be happy because of what you’re putting into it? You know, you’re putting into it, yes sir. Brain new kids? Brain new kids, that will make you happy. All right, now what are you gonna get out of the meeting? You’re gonna, you’re going, you wanna get something out of it. don’t you want to learn something to, you want to be blessed, well not only works in rent, but it wouldn’t work for church, right?

When you come to church, do you come to because you want to put in or take out? Put in, take out. Do you want to just be blessed or do you want to bless? Is there a difference? And some Some people, they’re always waiting to be blessed. Bless me. And there’s other people who just can’t wait to meet somebody, talk to somebody, encourage somebody, and there’s always somebody. Nobody here wants to make me happy today. So you’ve got choices to make.

Let me ask you another little question. What are you getting out of life that should make you happy? What are you getting out of this life? I mean, aren’t you here? Did you know God has given you life to put into something? So what are you putting into this life of yours that’s going to help you get something out of this life of yours? And if you want to be happy, a lot of it depends upon your perspective. Are you always waiting for somebody to make you happy?

Or are you doing something that will cause you to be happy? There is a difference. just look here in the book of John in chapter 13. Now, there’s a little story here about Jesus washing everybody’s feet, you know, and he says here in verse 10, Jesus said to them, he that is washed, needed not safe to wash his feet, but he’s clean everywhere and you’re clean, but not all. But he knew who should betray him. Therefore said he you’re not all clean.

He knew that one was lost. Who was that? Jesus is good. So after he had washed their feet and had taken his garment and was set down again, he said unto them, Know you what I have done to you. Now if it was just a matter of washing feet, and he says, Do you know what I just did? Yeah, you wash my feet. There must be something more to it. It must have been a lesson here somewhere. So he says, in verse 13, You call me master and Lord.

And you say, well, for so I am. Now there’s another scripture talks about where a lot of angels came to take him out of Sodomiah. He says, not so Lord, not so Lord. Lord, not so. That sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it? You call me master and Lord and you say, well, So I am. You say, well, have you ever said something but you really didn’t mean it. You said something but you never did it. You said something. You didn’t follow through with it.

Have you ever had a sense of guilt in your life? Where you wanted to do something so much and you didn’t do it all. And then you have a little guilt complex. Well, anyway, now look in verse 14. See that big old word is a big word there. It’s only made up of two letters, but buddy is it powerful? It’s a big word. If. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet because you learned that from your example, right?

You had an example. That’s what He did. That’s what you do. And it’s also about forgiving one another. Wouldn’t you find that somewhere in these verses that you forgive one another? Give what else, he says. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I send you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. Neither he that is sent greater than he to send him. Now looking verse 17, if you don’t have it underlined in your Bible, you ought to unline it because that’s what we’re talking about tonight.

If you know these things, if you know these things, what’s the next words? Happy YAH and it ends right there. Happy YAH and there’s a period there and there is no other word written after that. You see those other words? Well, they’re so small. Look how small they are if ye do them. That’s not a lot of words, is it? But do you think they have great meaning to them? If you do them, happy are ye. If you do them, happy are ye.

If you do them. So in other words, sometimes happiness should be because of what you’re doing. And it’s greater than what you’re receiving. So who’s the one who determines what you do? Others are you. You’re the one that determines what, so your happiness depends on who? Depends on you. Because see, people can do all kind of things for you, but your perspective is wrong, you won’t take it right. You can find wrong and I don’t care who does what for you.

If you’re of a mind bent, I don’t care what they say, what they do, I refuse to be happy. Nobody’s gonna make me smile. This is not gonna be a good day, I can tell. Have you ever thought that you got up on the wrong side of the bed and you need to go back and start over again. Every time I think about that, I wouldn’t just get into bed and get right back up. I want to go to bed and wait till the next day.

Sleep all day and all night. But it is a great verse. Happy are ye if you do these things. So these are things that we should do. Let me ask you this. Can you pull good out of seemingly bad experiences. Can you pull some good out all, seemingly bad experiences? Have you ever had anything supposedly bad that happened to you? Anybody ever do you wrong? Is it possible that you could be of a mindset, now I know there’s something good I can get out of this.

Just like the little boy that was so enthusiastic, optimistic, and so he sent him down to the barn and cleaned out the barn. One day or later, and checked out on him because he knew that who in the world can have fun, she’ll not manure. He looked in there and the boy was habous, a lark-tho and stuff all over the place. He said, the hot come, you’re so happy. He says, hello, all this manure. There’s got to be a pony in here somewhere.

So you can look and try to find something good. Now some people won’t, they won’t find it anywhere because it’s just kind of like a thief who can’t find a policeman. What would be the reason for that? They’re really not looking for one. They’ll see y’all are different than that. But remember, I don’t care what happens in life. We say good, bad, or indifferent. You’re trying to find something, I can get out of this because all things work together for good and there must be some good I can get out of this.

I’ve had experiences, you’ve had experiences. Not everything that we would deem at the beginning is bad, but you can always either put something good into something or something out of something. You’d be surprised how many people that you can meet in life and they’re having a rough day, having a hard day. This is one of the reasons, believe it or not. A lot of the time when I go someplace, and I meet people that I don’t know. I’ve never seen before in my life.

But I’ll try to say something humorous, something a little funny. I do it the rest of the time I go to, I did it today when I talked to somebody, I never saw them before. But I’m always trying to think of something that will cause them to smile about something. I even went to the VA and I was trying to figure out something I could say nice about the ladies was fixing to give a needle into my arm. And I said, make sure it’s a little needle.

And she said, I’m gonna get the biggest one I can find. But her response was because of what I said. And you think it really bothers me what size ladle they stick me with. Sure does. So she came, rubbed my arm and next time I said, well when are you going to put it in? Well she was already wiping it off, she’s only done it. And I said, I didn’t even feel that. Now I might have shaded that just a tad, but it made the person feel good.

And you know you can always say something that helps everybody have a rough time. And you can let your problems overwhelm you sometimes, that you just wanna do nothing but just complain to everybody all the time. And I have a trouble with this, because I’m sometimes, you know, I get a bad case of this me firstitis, I’m always thinking, but it’s me. And I think it’s a lot of other people that are also hurting and so forth. So you try to be a blessing.

Can you pull some bad out of some good things that have happened to you? You think of some of the things happening, they’re good things. But instead of thinking about the positive, the good, you just try to find something wrong with it. Try to find something wrong. Just to be negative, just to be negative. Have you ever been around somebody just, oh, it’s negative. Oh, it’s gotta pull the rug off of Monday. In the words, isn’t it bright today?

I’m gonna turn off the light. Oh, yeah, what it is, they gotta do something that takes away that joy that you have. Well, I’m glad there’s nobody like that here our church. Now I do want you to look at this verse here in the book of James. Go to the book of James in chapter 1. The book of James in chapter 1. Now there’s many verses that you can look at because the word bless means sometimes happy. You’re blessed individual because something happens, it blesses yourself.

I said one day, you’d be surprised when I was trying to do. I was trying to figure out how do I describe in my own life, I am thrilled, I’m thrilled. What caused me to be thrilled? What is thrilled? Are you thrilled? How do I feel when I’m thrilled? Okay, you feel a joy. What causes the person, the mind, the soul, the body to react to? What is joy? What is it really? Is it tangible? And you can’t put your hand on it.

You can’t go into the grocery store and get any. Well, except there’s joy. So, do you get that? So, you gotta find something that’s always a. But anyway, in the book of James, look what he says there in verse eight. This is what happens sometimes when you’re just, you don’t know really how to see life. How to picture God working in your life. Here’s this wonderful life that God’s given us to live. And in this life that God’s given us to live, what are you putting into it?

What are you expecting to get back? I think about these kids. I might bring this point up, but that’s a good point. Here’s these kids that come down here and they come to college. They study four or five hours a day, the Bible and studying and memorizing. And I think, look at all this work, studying, putting in to their little brains, getting from out of those teachers and out of the Bible and putting it in here and packing it in there.

And you think of all the time that spent doing that, you would think somewhere along the line, this has got to be worth it. am I going to get for what I put in? Is it just to make me happy or am I getting something to give? Is all of my getting so I can give? Because it ought to be worth it. Now the difference we have in the things of the world, people go off to a college or university and they learn all kind of skill.

They go to different text schools and learn different techniques particular job so they can make money doing a particular thing. And so they want to be able to accomplish something. But all of that knowledge, wisdom, application, whatever it is for their whole life of 40, 50, 60 years, when they die and all of that work, okay, it’s all gone. But a person who comes and studies the Bible, not only is it a tool that can be used the rest of their life, but the work they do last beyond this life.

So which is the greater decision that can produce happiness beyond this light because one of the greatest hindrances to true happiness and joy and peace of mind is the purpose for why you do what you do and if you do for the sake of your life here that you’re going to lose It’s all in vain But what you do for the Lord is not in vain So a Christian can be happy, better, longer with more reality, more sincerity, than the world can even come close to knowing and understanding.

Because we know that regardless of what happens to us, because of my mindset, what I’ve gotten out of the Word of God, I can see better, I can understand better, and I can get more good out of things than most people. And I can put into this world something that the world can’t put into it. I hope y’all are following me or my in a dream world of my own. In the book of James, you’ll notice here in chapter 1, it makes the statement in verse 8, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

And that’s right because he doesn’t know how to control his thoughts. He’s more affected by the things that happens, all the things that don’t happen. And so that makes a difference in his thinking. Look what he says here in verse 12, blessed is the man that endures temptation for when he has tried he shall receive the crown of life. But see, everybody is tempted, but the Christian knows that if he endures temptation, there’s something eternal waiting for him. The man here doesn’t have that waiting on him.

So why not take advantage of the temptation? Because that’s happiness now. That’s pleasure now. That’s joy now, but it never lasts. The things of this world never doom. And so, happy is the man who has grace to endure. So whenever you and I come from getting out of the Word of God, those things that we need for our life to help us to make better decisions, we’re able to have the grace that we need to endure the trials and tribulations, and we can learn more from every trial that we go through.

Some of us laugh in just a moment to go by a little accident that happened with a vehicle. Do you know, I was so thankful, not for the accident, but what I can learn from it. It could have been a lot worse. When it smashed my door and the fender and pushed me up against the curb and destroyed my Mercedes, and I liked my car. I really did. But it’s only a car. And now I’ve realized, Biddie still got a car.

Do I steal her car? She says, no. But I realize when you have a contest with a dump truck and you can walk away, you’re a winner. He took my car, but I walk away. I can be thankful. Wobble my head a little bit, bounce me around and say, but that’s okay. But I got a head that can wobble. I got a neck that can hurt. I still got some time to live. It’s not over. I can get more things out of it and you’ll be surprised.

It doesn’t matter about the trials and the trimitation. We all have them. But the trial of your faith has been much more precious than gold and silver, though it be tried with fire, maybe found in the praise, honor, and glory at the appearance of Christ. Down the road you will get more blessings because you’re endured more testings. So remember that. Now look there in James chapter 1 and verse 22. But be doers of the Word and remember that verse that we started off with.

Happy RE if you do them. Philippians chapter 4 talks about Paul says, those things which you have seen and heard and so forth in me do and the God of peace shall be with you. The God of peace will be with you because you’re not only saw and you heard but you did what you’re supposed to do because you do it. Peace comes because you’re doing what God says do. Peace does not mean set around and do nothing. And so he says…

Verse 23, for if, see that word, if, if any be a hear of the word and not a door, he is likened to a man beholden his natural face in the glass. And he beholdeth himself, goeth his way in straight way, forget is what manner of man he was. But who so looketh into the perfect love of liberty? The word of God. and continue with it. If you look into the Word of God, you’re supposed to see something in the Word of God and you’re supposed to take something from the Word of God.

So, exegesis is getting out. What does it say? What difference is supposed to make in my life? And so he said, be a doer of the work. This man shall be miserable in his deeds. He shall be blessed. He shall be happy. And what he’s doing. And so you see, there’s a lot of ways of looking at life and everything that happens to you. The last thing you want to be, as I’ve mentioned this before, is you don’t want to grow up to be a mean old man.

You ever see anybody that’s a mean old man? Or a mean old woman? Who do I look at them like a little, don’t look at everybody. Just look at the clock. There are no such things. They don’t exist. I mean, no women don’t exist. See, where’d you learn that from? Wisdom. Wisdom. See, how do you get wisdom? What making the right decision? How do you get to learn to make the right decision? What making a few wrong decisions? And that’s the way it goes.

Look there in Romans chapter 4. Romans in chapter 4. Romans chapter four, this ought to make everybody happy. Everybody ought to be happy. So I don’t have anything to be happy about. One day, and I mentioned this year, I don’t think so mine, my daughter, Trina, came to me. She was about 17 years old and she sat down at the table and and she looked at me and she just started crying. Just started crying. I says, what’s wrong, huh?

She says, I’m miserable. I’m not happy. I’m miserable. And she acted like she was miserable and very unhappy. And I thought, if you would only fall in love with the Lord, He could make you a lot more happier. If you’ll fall in love with the Lord, now I don’t like to use that word fall in love. Use you grow in love. love. Love fell in love. Like it wasn’t my fault. I fell. It was an accident. And we blame a lot of things on love.

But now look at this verse in Romans in chapter 4. He makes a statement in verse 7 saying, blessed are they whose sins or iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. You mean I sin and God doesn’t impute it to me, no, he puts it to Christ. I should be happy about that. If you don’t have anything else to be happy about, isn’t that something to be happy about?

My sins have been paid. My sins are forgiven. I’m not going to hell. I’m happy. I’m going to heaven when I die. Think of all the problems you could have in the world. The worst problem in all the world is that you go to hell. Not that you die, but that you go to hell. That’s the worst thing can never happen to anybody and it can’t happen to me. The worst thing in the world can’t happen to me. I can’t go to hell.

Should I be happy about that? So I, it’s right, everything else that happens real, I’m one to heaven. 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 floridabiblecollege.us or call the Registrar Bob Gilbert at 8502275325. It’s 850-227-5325. 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. He told us that today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep in looking up.