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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.

Today’s message I want us to take our Bible and turn to the Book of James and chapter 1, James chapter one. We’ve done a few studies in the book of James, gonna do another one, but I wrote a little poem because and I titled the day’s message tripping over troubles. You ever have any troubles? So now I’ve never had one. We have them from the day we’re born, but there has been times in my Christian life when I thought back about that song.

You remember years ago they had a song called he’s been working on me to make me what I ought to be.” He’s still working on me. You know the song. I mean, y’all heard that song before. Just about everybody in here. Well, I sat down one day at a restaurant after I was having a pity party for myself. Have you ever had a pity party? I stopped having him because nobody would come. But turn to your back page, your back page.

And I wrote a song also called Satan’s been working on me. You know, the Lord’s been working on me to make me what he up, well the devil’s been working on me too. So I wrote this poem and it goes to the tune of that song. Now I’m not going to sing it to youotonin, but I want to go through the song because it tells you what I’m going to be talking about today and how it can help you.

Now I wrote this some time ago but I just never you know I never put it in print but I wrote it I don’t know could be in several years ago. I was down and out the other day and I didn’t have the strength to go God’s way. So I changed my shop to a pout and no friend was there to help me out. I’m so discouraged, what was me? Because Satan’s been working on me. Satan’s been working on me to make me what I shouldn’t be.

It makes me so mad I cannot see the purpose of his working on me. I could criticized who justified defeat. I jumped on everyone I meet. I seem to hurt the ones that I love. People say they care, but no one does. I’m so discouraged. What was me? Cause Satan’s been working on me. You feel like that sometimes? Yeah, you’ve got to rope this. No one cares if I live or I die. I don’t even know why I try.

All the good I attempt I always sin. My whole world is caving in. I’m so discouraged. What was me? Because Satan’s been working on me. Satan is alive on planet earth. Troubles start from the day of your birth. Victory over Satan is your right if you walk by faith and not by sight. I’m not discouraged. God’s with me. Those Satan keeps working on me. Just remember all the Huyala. You’re God’s protected child. They not discouraged nor dismayed, the victory in the cross is love displayed.

Satan’s still working on me, but God has promised victory. All God’s children shall prevail to see the devil placed in hell. Now that was a little bit by how I was thinking. I am never always on cloud nine. Every once in a while I take a dip and go down to the valley. And you know you can have mountain peace if there was no valleys. And yeah, though I walk through the valleys. Sometimes we got to walk through the valley.

We’re not always on that mountain peace. So you know you’re going to have troubles, right? So some people trip over their troubles. Remember, everything can be either a stepping stone or a stumbling block, depending on how you face something. So anyway, if you look there at your scriptures, James chapter 1, I want to start reading there in verse 13.

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin when it’s finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comeeth down from the Father of light. with whom is no veribleness, neither shadow of turning.

I was on will, begat he us, with the word of truth, that we should be kind of first fruits of his creatures. Wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” And then verse 21, Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of not in this and receive with meatness the engrafted word Which is able to save your soul? Save your soul here’s not talking about how to go to heaven.

It’s talking about saving your life how to be delivered from all the troubles that we have because God says that Count it all joy when you fall in a diverse temptation different troubles and testings that you’re not going to go through And he tells us how to deal with them So I wrote down a few things. I wrote this little quote, and I heard this quote years and years ago, don’t trouble trouble until trouble troubles you. In other words, you don’t go looking for trouble.

And you try not to start trouble. But are you going to have trouble? You can have trouble with everything. I mean, your job, you can have trouble driving the car. It breaks down. You got troubles. And you can marry the most perfect woman in the world. And you can have trouble. Why? Because she didn’t marry the perfect man. So anything is trouble, trouble, trouble. So you ought to know that. That’s what the Bible teaches. So look at the first thing that I have here, and I’ll go through these and try to explain them very simply so that you get the impact of it.

Because everyone sitting in this room right now, you will handle anger one of these four ways. One of these four ways, this is what you’re going to do because you’re gonna have trouble and trouble sometimes caused us to lose our cool. True? And then we get a little angry, and then we get hurt, and then we get better and say things and do things. Every person in the room, this is the book telling us that yes, you’re saved by faith.

But we’re supposed to faith and works in our life. So, believe in what God says to the believer is supposed to make a difference in our life. And in our life, we got troubles. But if you understand the purpose of the troubles is to help you to learn, to walk with the Lord, trust the Lord, lean on the Lord and all those things. They go from a man who is double-minded unto a mature Christian. You see, the book of James starts off in a double-minded man or a man that doesn’t know and ends up with the prayers of a righteous man, of the love much.

So from a righteous man and a double-minded man is all this that lies in between. So you know where God wants to bring you and He says, you can’t get there except this way. So there is a way that God has for us. It’s called a course. Like Paul says, I want to finish my course that God has laid out for me. So you are coming from a child in a double-minded man know what to do and how to handle things and then here you go.

And God’s gonna let all these happen but if you understand the purposes we’re trying to take you to then it makes some sense. That’s why I did not see the purpose of Satan always working on me but there is a reason. So number one when anger is expressed, anger expressed immediately is usually explosive and damaging. The solution to a problem is to strike out to hurt someone or something. In other words, it damages somebody else. And so when you are angry, what do you do?

You can explode, and if you explode, that means you’re short fused. It means there’s a stick of dynamite, and you’ve got a little short fuse, and as soon as you light it, boom, it explodes. And it’s kind of like the man that was talking to Billy Sunday one day and he says, yeah, he said, I got an explosive temper, but he says, but once I explode, I’m fine. He says, a shotgun blast on last long either, but it sure does a lot of damage.

And so you can explode, but your explosion could do a lot of damage. So always remember that. That’s why God uses the word long suffer. What does long suffer mean? Means long fused. It means it gives you time to reconsider. You ever heard people say, well, when something goes wrong and you’re going to count to 10, you may need to count to 90 or maybe 500. But whatever it takes for you to cool down before you. So remember that.

Look at the little statement I got here. Learn how to make the most out of your troubles. In other words, it’s like, how can I get everything out of this that I’m supposed to get? In other words, you want to milk it for all it’s worth to get all the time. good out of everything that happens to you because if God meant it for your good, then there must be some good in there somewhere. And you want to get all the good you cannot because it can make you a stronger person.

Different problems are designed to produce different responses. You see, that’s why he says, divers, temptation, different kinds of testing. We don’t all face exactly the same test at the same time. It’s okay for the husband to have his testing and then her to have her testing. But as long as you don’t good at the same time because the last thing you need is for both to be done at the same time. So one falls and the other one can pick them up according to the book of Ecclesiastes.

Now there’s some other scriptures I have done here for reading. But we don’t have time to go through those scriptures. But I want you to do in the week, you read those verses and apply that because you’ll find out God got angry. And you know what he was going to do? The Bible says in his well, his wrath waxed hot within him. And you know what he’s going to do with the children of Israel? Kill them all. And God said, Moses, I’ll start all over with you and build another nation.

He’s going to kill them all. And Moses says, you can’t do that Lord. And then Moses got mad with the same anger God had. He wound up getting mad too. You ought to read that. It’s very good right there in the book of Exodus 32. And then numbers 11, you can read somebody’s scriptures. But look at number two. But number two is, um, it’s very interesting because it’s kind like something bad happens or someone does something to you and you have a mental isolation.

In other words I teach the kids in the college that people who are in different cults, different various religions, it’s amazing how they can compartmentalize things and put okay that goes over here in this compartment and this goes in this compartment but they contradict each other but you see If you don’t think about this and this and try to see them how contrast or the harmony, there isn’t if they isolate them and they can believe something here that’s totally in contradiction to this.

We believe the Bible, but do we also believe this? We have an extra-biblical source of authority and they don’t agree at all. But see, we don’t want to think about this and this at the same time. When some things happen in your family, husband, wife, kids, it don’t matter on the job, when somebody really doesn’t, you can either compartment like put it over here as though it never happened. It didn’t, it didn’t happen. I don’t have to deal with it.

I don’t have to accept it. I can just deny it. Have you ever seen a drunk? Says, are you drunk? Yes, I am. Do you drink? No. But let me ask that question again. Are you a drunk? Yes, I am. drink no. You’d be surprised how many can be in denial that they never, no I never touched stuff. And they’re drunk as a cougar. I’ve often heard that say but I’ve never seen a drunk cougar. But my daddy used to make the stuff.

My mom used to haul it and my sisters, they drank it and I preached against it. But let’s look at these notes here. Clam up to prevent feelings, desires or ideas from being expressed, not to think about or consider as though it does not exist. Usually these two types of people marry. The one that, boom, and the other one holds it all in and denies areas in the middle problem. And the one that exposable, don’t you see what’s going on?

Why don’t you do something about, I don’t know what you’re talking about. And they want to, I don’t want to deal with that. I want, no, no, no, no, no. I’ve been around people, And I said, can I talk to you? But, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I know you don’t know anybody like that. And you have, some people, you have to tip toe around them like walking on eggshells, because you know if I say this wrong, they explode.

And so there some people, you don’t know how to react around them because you don’t know how they’re gonna respond. You know anybody like that? You say yeah, it’s me, no. Look at the next statement. Usually these two types of people merit. This type of anger is usually physiological damaging. They fail to face reality pretending it will just go away. It damages yourself with stress which can cause physical ailment. You see how you think can affect your physical health.

I’m not saying now everybody’s got a physical problem because they’re, no, no, it can. And doctors will tell you if you’ve got this or this now, don’t be under any stress. Me and Betty used to travel on the road. And you know what the doctor said? She had to go to the doctor. The doctor says you’re just under too much stress. It’s moving around in places like that, in a motorhome, and you want here now. Too much stress, you need to settle down one’s place.

So we got a church. You talk about stress. Before, when I went to different places and spoke, I caused them stress. Now when you come and take a church, does anybody have problems in a church? Nobody like that here. Then you have a hundred problems and it can produce a lot of stress. But now get what we have here. The Bible says be angry and say, not there’s nothing wrong than getting angry. It’s a justifiable anger, but you don’t let the anger cause you to commit a sin.

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Me and Betty read that right after we got married. We didn’t sleep for the first six months. Look at the next one. A fool out of all his mind. Have you ever heard somebody say, I’m gonna give him a piece of my mind. Well, you shouldn’t give anybody a piece of your mind when you’re in most desperate need of it. If you ever seen somebody who’s wanna make a mountain out of a molehill, what’s the difference between a mountain and a molehill?

It’s just more dirt. Just more dirt. So you have to be very careful. A fool out of all his mind, but a wise man keeps it in till after. He gets more back, think things through and try to make a wise decision. We are all faced with these very same things. These verses in the Bible, I didn’t write them, but buddy have I had to try to go buy them and that’s not the easiest thing in the world to do.

Now look at the next one. When anger is suppressed, it means to prevent the development, action, or expression of a feeling impulse or idea and so on to restrain yourself. Now, you know it’s there, the pressure’s there, but you’re campaigning it and it could explode at any time. You just don’t know when. And so, the more you think about something and that pressure builds, next thing you know, is gonna, you may explode not on the person that’s wrong or a thing, you can do it with somebody else.

You can walk up somebody and say, how you doing? It’s not in your business, how I’m doing. You think, well, all right. And see, it’s not what that person did, if because of something else, and you explode. Now look at the statement. It means without some satisfactory facts, it will tend to build up uncontrolled pressure. It damages yourself with stress, which can cause physical ailments and emotional distress, so that you know when you don’t deal and it’s all built up pressure, and you’re gonna have problems, and problems not dealt with can become pressurized, to where somebody, somewhere, is gonna cause an explosion.

Now, there is a way of dealing with everything. God knows all of these things. He’s the one that designed these bodies. He knows our minds. He knows what we go through. He knows there’s the devil, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of the life. God knows all of this stuff. So he gave us a book and says, this is what you do. Well, I don’t need somebody to tell me what I can’t even not do.

Yes, we do. God says in Book of Jeremiah, it is not within man that walk up to direct steps because we think we know how to handle everything until we have a problem that we can’t solve. You don’t have a problem, you don’t know what to do with, you don’t know how to solve it. Well, we have these things happen. Look down at the bottom Then it lacks the paragraph right there before number four. The person will lock it up for the short haul.

Like trying to close a suitcase that is too full. Now we’re getting ready to go to Israel. Have you ever put all the stuff in a suitcase and then try to close it, it won’t close? But it says lean on that corner and I get on that corner and mash it down and she’s, finally get it caught. Now we still got the element to go. And if you get that one down and then finally get it snapped, What are you going to be afraid of happening?

BAM! And whatever happens happens. But you don’t know if it will or if it will hold or if it’s going to explode. Now there’s people like that who hold things in and they can even give the appearance that they’re cool and calm. Doesn’t bother me, doesn’t bother me, doesn’t bother me, doesn’t bother me, and then all of a sudden it bothered them. and they quietly build up this pressure. And it’s only a while, but sooner or later, it’s going to explode.

And sometimes you’ll be the recipient of that. If somebody else is angry, if they got somebody else, it can happen because we’re all guilty of how do we solve this pressure problem that builds up in our lives. Ahh. Look at the next statement here. Sometimes an innocent person becomes the recipient of uncontrolled explosions. And you get hurt because you’re just with that, what’s called when the explosion to play. How do you handle this explosion? Well, I’m glad you asked.

Look down at number four. The Bible has a great verse for all of God’s children. You need to know it’s in here because it’s like a little relief valve. It’s a way to let some of the pressure out. And so I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 John, the book of 1 John in your Bible, and notice this. You see, once you trusted Christ as your Savior, you’re His child, you’re going to heaven when you die, but we’re not there yet.

So God says, between now and then, I want you to walk with me. God says, I want you to spend time with me, and I want to teach you some things as we go through life together. So after I trust the Lord, it’s just me and the Lord, me and the Lord. We’re walking through life together. And my heavenly Father wants to teach me His child how to be like Him. And so the more time I spend with the Lord, the more you’re going to be like the one.

You hang around. If you hang around people that pull you down, you’re going to be pulled down. If you hang around people that will help build you up, you’re going to be built up. because you see most people are not any stronger than the friends they have. So be careful what kind of friends you have. You want people that can lift you up, encourage you and help you in the right direction. So you and the Lord, you stay close to the Lord, He will teach you things nobody else can teach you.

Now He can use people to teach you but it cannot eliminate. No one can walk the spiritual walk for you. Nobody else can walk with God for you. There’s no substitution here. You have to learn how to walk with the Lord. Toton, look what he says here in verse 3, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us. Now very seldom do you find the words in the Bible about having this relationship, that’s relationship.

You hear fellowship, fellowship, because see, your relationship, replica wise, is based upon your birth. When you’re born to God’s family, you are His child, He is your Father. And all those who trust Christ as Savior are the children of God. So we are brothers and sisters in the Lord. And because of that, God wants us to have fellowship. And if we have fellowship, our fellowship can’t be any closer than the fellowship you have between you and God. See if you’re not right between you and God, you won’t be right with the fellowship.

So what is fellowship? Two fellows in a ship. Hopefully going in the right direction. Now get what he says here. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. So does God want me to have, now remember this relationship based upon birth, but fellowship is based upon your walk with the Lord. Am I, in my Christian life, I’ve been saved on 57 years, is walking with the Lord. I’m going to walk with him. So my walk with the Lord can be a wonderful thing, a sweet thing.

But God says, now, if you say you walking with me and you’re doing this and this and this and you’re not walking with him. He says you lie and do not the truth. And if we say, and we can say anything, that doesn’t make it true. So God lays it down how you can know when you are walking with the Lord. So the book of 1 John is about a Christian having fellowship with the Lord. Now look what he says here in verse 4, because if you have fellowship with the Lord and you’re walking with the Lord, then it’s easier if you do have fellowship Well, the others who are walking with the Lord.

So he said to verse four, and these things right, we unto you that you’re what? Joy may be full. So we’re not talking about how to get to heaven. We’re talking to God’s children who are already going to heaven. It says we haven’t got there yet. So God tells us how we’re to get along before we get there. So then in verse five, this then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you. And God is light and him is no darkness at all.

In other words, God does not walk in the dark. God does not walk in the flesh. God is the light. And if we walk in the light, then me and God can have good communion between us, fellowship. And he says in verse six, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. In other words, look up here. My first birth is darkness. That means it’s away from God, it’s a low sinful nature, and it’s the flesh, and it’s not right with God.

God said I need a new birth. Told me, I trust that Christ was saving, he gave me a new birth. Light, darkness. Now I’ve got these two births. As a child of God, I can walk. In the dark, or I can walk in the light. God has fellowship with me when I walk in the light. But when I walk in the flesh, then I’ve got a problem. You see, God doesn’t restore my walk. I’m the one who walk in the flesh and I’m the one that has to correct my walk.

Now I can confess to the Lord, Lord, I’m walking in the flesh. And God said, he is faithful and just to forgiveness. And now your walk can be restored. when you restore your walk, the fellowship can be restored. So it’s not that I just confessed my sin to now I’m fellowship with God, no? Not until you restore the walk. You don’t restore the walk. You don’t have fellowship restored. So he makes a statement here in verse six. If we say we have fellowship with him in walk and darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son continually keeps you clean. Now, look what he says in verse nine. This verse is something that is a special verse for God’s children on how to relieve all the pressures of life because he guilt in your life builds up pressure. And it can become like a yoke of iron until it destroys you. That’s what guilt does.

But if you do what God says do, you can take things to the Lord. casting all your cares upon him. And trust the Lord that walk you through. But with the Lord through it. But what he says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is to the Christian who’s walking in the flesh. He can correct the problem by admitting the problem and go into the Lord and accepting God’s forgiveness because God is just and faithful and he has to.

He has to forgive his children because he’s already paid for their sins. And because sins had been paid, I never have to worry about going to hell because he paid the penalty of my sin. But if you want to have this fellowship between you and the Lord, then you’ll have to correct the walk. And you can walk in the flesh or you can walk in the Spirit, but it’s your choice. And God says, if we confess our sins, then God is like a release valve that relieves that pressure.

Now, when people wrong you, is anybody ever going to wrong you? Yes, they are. Now, what are you going to do? I told people to say, it’s like, yes, I go fishing with my $5 lure and I’ve done this. Throw it out there and lo and behold, it’s hung on the bottom. Now, don’t that be it all? Wars would you? And I’m, now, what am I going to do? I can’t get it loose. I can sit here with this for the rest of my life or I can cut my losses, right?

And go on and give me another thing to do again. Hopefully be a little bit smarter the next time, maybe a different lure. But you can learn from every experience that you go through. And God will bless you. This is your invitation to join us for our third Sunday dinner held in the Florida Bible College of Tampa building on the Calvary Community Church Campus. The dinner is a family-style, covered dish dinner and a great way to showcase your favorite dish and pick up new recipes.

Each month you have the opportunity to invite your family and friends to join us for our Sunday morning service at 1030 and then stay for our third Sunday dinner immediately following noon. Third Sundays at Calvary Community Church, where you’ll be fed spiritually and physically. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The 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.