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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 with me to the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John. John, the book of John, chapter 16. Jesus had been with the disciples for a number of years now, about three years, and so he says, I’m going to go away. I’m going to go away. And they were very sorrowful because he was going to be leaving them. So he makes this statement here in verse 20. Book of John chapter 16 verse 20, Verily, Verily, I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoice.

And ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. In other words, Jesus is letting him know it’s not over yet. Yes, he was going to leave. The world is going to rejoice. You’re going to be sorrow, but today isn’t over yet. In our life we often have roller coaster rides. We’re happy, we’re sad. Then we’re happy, and then we’re sad. Well, if it were joy, and then we’re in misery, we just go from one extreme to the other.

But one of these days it’ll all be over, but not yet. And so he says here in verse 22, and you now therefore have sorrow. And I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man take it from you. The day is coming when you’re going to have joy, but then you’re going to have it from then on.-+ But right now that’s not the way it is, because you have it, near not. You’re going to have sorrow.

As long as we’re in this world, we have troubles. Take your Bible and turn to the book of James, the book of James. I want you to look there first of all in James chapter 1 because when joy turns into pain, many of us have great moments of joy only to see later on that the same thing it causes sometimes joy can cause us a lot of pain later on. Now James talks about a person being a double-minded man.

In other words, you can’t really make up your mind. The fence straddler, the one that can’t decide which side of the fence to get on. So he just tries to straddle the fence. And that’s where a lot of people are. They know they should serve the Lord. They know it’s wrong to serve the world, but they can’t make up their mind. So they just do a little bit of both. They’re not hot. They’re not cold. just lukewarm. Does anybody have an idea of what God thinks about a person who just lukewarm?

Makes him one of vomit. You say, I thought I was just being a happy medium. So what’s a happy medium, a Jolly Fortune teller? In the book of James, it talks about in verse 2, my children or my brethren counted all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. And when you you have something comes up and you don’t know what to do, it says, let him ask God in verse 5, let him ask God. But let him ask believing as though he wants to correct the problem and he will listen to what God has to say.

But if you don’t, then you’re like praying but you’re not expecting God to do anything. So he says in verse 7, let not that that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord, and in verse 8 a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. There’s a lot of Christians that are just like that. But being double-minded means that you allow the things of the world to control your life. You’re happy sometimes and filled with a little joy, but then it turns to misery very quickly.

Now the book of James is a warning to God’s people how they’re supposed to live, how we’re supposed to take the mirror of the Word of God and look into it and correct what we see. But some people, they look into the mirror and they see what God tells them, but then they make no corrections in it. It’s like a person who goes to church every Sunday and they hear the word of God and then they live the rest of their weight like they never been to church and heard anything.

They make no corrections in their life. Do nothing different. Never carry tracks. Never witness. Never getting about it to trust the Lord and that goes on and on and on in their life. So this is what he says in verse 22, but be he doers of the Word and not hears only deceiving who. Ah, we fool God on that one, didn’t we? Now it says deceiving yourselves. Is it possible for the devil to deceive God’s children? Wouldn’t it be a shame for you to get to heaven and find out you have been deceived most of your life?

And there’s so many things God wanted to do for you and through you and the way you could have been, the joy you could have had, the success you could have had, the faithfulness you could have delivered, but you got deceived and you didn’t even know. Because you, being deceived means you didn’t know it. You’ll see if you do it and you know what’s going on and you’re not deceived. You purposely in rebellion, but some people never learn. So he says, be ye doers of the work.

See there in verse 25, the last part, be ye doers of the work, this man shall be what? Bless that word, bless me, he’s happy. He shall be happy in what he’s doing because he’s doing the right things and God’s gonna bless him. Now you get in chapter two and it tells you you’re supposed to live. Chapter 3 talks about how you’re supposed to talk and the control of the tongue. But TheNitrome when you get to chapter 4, oh my stars, what if a child of God doesn’t want to listen to God?

Your child of God, you have eternal life, he comes in this ear, goes out that ear, and nothing stops. Nothing in your life changes. Does there have to be a change in your life to go to heaven.” No. You trust Christ to save you. He gives you eternal life and you go to heaven and go to what He did for you. But He didn’t take you home yet. He left us here because there’s things He wants us to do.

There’s a way He wants us to be. So He tells us in His Word, He says, there’s judgment going to come. So you look there in James chapter 4 and you’ll you’e going to notice there’s a few things here. Look in verse 3. He asked, but see that was in James chapter 1 where he says, when you don’t know, ask. But if you do become a double minded man, then you ask that you can consume it upon your own lust, then there’s a price to pay.

You ask and receive that because you ask him, it’s that you may consume it upon your own, in other words you’re not going to get the answer to your that’s mentioned over there in the book of James in chapter 1. Then he says in verse 4, you eat adulterers and adultresses? No, you’re not. Let me tell you something. Maybe you don’t know this. Don’t you know, don’t you understand?, now you’ll read that phrase mentioned a number of times in the book of Corinthians.

Where’s no you not that you are the children of God that you have the Holy Spirit living within you, therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit which are gods. don’t you know this? Well, I love it in a lot of children, doesn’t know a lot of things and maybe that’s why they do some of the things that they do. But he says don’t you know and see this is the verse that’s talking about God’s children. This is written to believers.

This is not written to the lost man. Here’s believers and he says, he adultresses, adulterers, that the friendship with the world is empty with God. Don’t you understand? You see, they were believers, but didn’t think, well, that’s not that bad. You know, this is something everybody does. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You don’t justify disobedience. You said, possible. You don’t do that. Look what else he says. He says, you’re not being a friend of God. You’ve been a friend to the world.

And then in verse 5, do you think that the Scripture sayeth in vain, the Spirit, that dwelleth in us lust of Twendy? Can you believe that God is a jealous God? In other words, jealousy is with mankind fear of being replaced. God doesn’t want to be replaced by anything. God sees your heavenly Father and he loves you. God doesn’t want you loving somebody else more than him. He doesn’t want you to love anything more than him. That’s why Jesus says, unless a man loved me more than mother, father, brother, sister, and somebody cannot be my disciple because you don’t love him that much.

There are some people who love him a little, but if they want to do something else, they’ll do that instead of love never fails. Really loving the Lord means you keep serving God with all your heart, all your life, if you love him. But if you don’t love him, then you’re a yo-yo. You’re up and you’re down. You’re in and you’re out. You’re unsteady. You’re a double-minded man. You’re unfaithful. So he says, the Holy Spirit lost to envy. In other words, the Holy Spirit that lives within you is envious.

That somebody else got more love than what he’s got. got you to do more obedience than what he can get you to do. That’s why you can greed the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is a person that lives inside. That’s God living inside of you. So he says here, submit yourselves unto the Lord and in verse eight talk about giving more grace of those who will submit themselves. But in verse eight he says, draw night of God and he will draw night of you.

Cleanse your hands, centers and purify your heart. She double-minded. See that double-minded goes back to chapter 1 when he talks about you’re a double-minded man. Think not that man shall receive anything from God. God’s not going to answer your prayers. He’s not going to lead you. He’s not going to guide you. Why? Because you’re not listening. You just want to see and then go on your way and nothing happens. Nothing changes. So he says in verse 9, he says, all right, you want to play that little He said, be afflicted.

Morn, weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. There’s things that you and I do in our life that we produce the pain. And then there’s sometimes there’s things that happen in life that we had nothing to do with. You couldn’t run from it. You couldn’t stop it. It’s out of your hands. But there’s a lot of things that happens in life. Now look at some of the little reasons that I gave down here because it’s important though, joy is having a feeling of great pleasure and great happiness.

Now God tells us that when it’s all over with and we’re in heaven with the Lord or wherever God is, that’s where I’m gonna be. There is gonna be a continual great pleasure and a great happiness for all eternity. But we’re not in eternity yet, we’re here. So when joy turns into pain, is when the joy of a newborn baby is lost with the pain of a disobedient son or daughter. Have you ever seen the joy? What is it, a boy or girl?

That’s one of them. You’re either a boy or a girl. That’s the only kind of God made. And if you don’t know the difference, you need to mature. But the joy, but also there is a pain when that child grows up and becomes a heartache to the mom and the dad. How many parents have had children that the joy, a little boy, a girl, a goo goo and gugu and guga, all that kind of stuff. You’re trying to teach them how to walk and how to talk and then the rest of the life set out and shut up.

And then they grow up and then they break your heart. And the joy that turns to pain. I was in Colorado one year in this one teenage boy. I had led him to the Lord and he didn’t want to serve the Lord though. He was 19 years old and a lot of kids were going to Bible columnal and he says, I’m not ready for that yet, I’m not going to do it. So anyway, I walked into this restaurant and I saw him sitting there and I walked up to and I says, he saw me coming.

And he’s, you know, that’s how you feel when you see the preacher coming. And you know you’re fixing to get a sermon, you know, you can tell. And he didn’t want to talk. And I said, well, how you doing? All right. I said, mind if I join you. He said, you’re going to do it anyway? That’s what I said. I talked to him about why he should serve the Lord. He said, Yankee, when I get your age, I was a young man then.

He said, when I get your age, I’ll think about it. He said, right now I got things I want to do in this, my life. I said, you know the God’s going to chase in you. Nothing can be that bad. Well, anyway, he got his dad truck and that weekend he was. old the truck and he was dead and I was doing this you know. Now it didn’t have to be that way. And I told him I said, now you can play the game.

I said, God will chase you. My son one time he was about 17 years old. He had his other friend that he had led to the Lord. He brought him over to the house for me to check him out and make sure he understood. So I’m sitting here and I got these two kids in my room. My son and there’s this kid here he’s 17 years old and I asked him where are you going to go any day? He said, I’m going to heaven.

I said, how you know? He says, because I believe Christ down on the cross, pay for all my son and said if I trust him he’d give me eternal life and I know I’m going to heaven. I said you really understand? He said yes I do. I said well good. I said now you know you’ve got a lot of friends that don’t know this. He said yeah now you’re not going to tell them either. I said but you know you need to tell people how to have eternal life.

He says I’m not. He said I’m not going to do that. I says do you know that let me make sure you understand. There is a blessing that God wants to give His children because you’re an obedient child. And I says, and if you don’t serve him, then it says your father wants to have to chase you. He’s going to have to spank you. He says, and he didn’t know anything about chasing. So I kind of gave him a few little ideas.

I says, kind of like a father who has children, they obey. They get to drive the car and they get to go to this place and they get a little extra money or whatever. I said, but when you don’t, I says, they tighten up to them because you got to be worthy of trust. And I says, if they don’t trust them, Anyway, he wasn’t going to serve a Lord. I said, now remember, it’s just a warning. Well, anyway, he was driving a pickup truck.

There was five of them in the pickup truck. He was drinking, he rolled it, and nobody got hurt. Except him, he was dead, I did his funeral. And his dad worked for the fire department, and over 100 fire department people came to that service that day. And of all the people there, there must have been 75 or 80 or so that trusted Christ is their savior. See, God can get glory out of your life, whether you serve Him or you don’t.

He said, it doesn’t hinder God from getting something done. More people trust the Christ to save you because of His death than if He’d have probably lived. But God told me, don’t play games with God, but that goes on all the time. And people just think, it just happened, or that was an accident, so I get to, there are no accidents with God. There is none. God didn’t say, oh, oh, I didn’t know that was gonna happen. Look at the next statement.

When the joy of a new husband or a wife is lost with the pain of death or divorce, I have done a lot of weddings in my life. I hope God forgives me. But I’ve done a lot of weddings. I’ve talked to them and I’ll spend time and I’ve done it from 1970s on up to this date. I’ve had a lot of weddings. And I try to warn them about some of the things that’s gonna happen in married life and so on.

And in spite of all that I’ve done, they still get married. And I try to tell them about the horrors of marriage. And the joys of marriage, it’s one of the greatest things in the world, he that find that the wife find that they good thing. So whatever she is, she is a good thing. Truth says, so anyway, I try to tell them a few things to watch out for. I says no opposite usually attracting in the attack. And I says, love is blind, marriage is an eye-opener.

And so they fall in love and everything is wonderful. She sees no fault in him. He sees none in her. They are two perfect individuals and then they get married. Well, I don’t know if she was like that. Did you ever look at her mother? You would have known. You should have looked at his dad. You would have known. Most of the time they’re like their parents. But anyway, I try to tell them. But then the joy they have, and then all of a sudden, something happens to this joy because now, one of them’s dead and they’re miserable, sad, blaming God, or the one of them getting divorced.

What happened to all the love they had? What happened to all this joy? And because when sin gets in, it destroys. And a lot of marriages are ruined. You know what the biggest cause of divorce is? Marriage. But anyway, as we’re moving on along, while when the joy of all needs being supplied. In other words, when you have everything that you want, it’s a joy to have money in the bank and have a nice home and have a nice car and your kids are finally obeying you.

They moved out. No, no. And you’re doing fine. You’re thrilled. And then all of a sudden it’s like somebody turned off the spigot. All the funds are gone. You can lose your house. You can lose all your wealth. How’d you like to have been up here in the panel and all of everything you have gone totally wiped out? Now you can be happy one day because of the joy of what you’ve got and all of a sudden how fast can it be taken away from you.

And you need to live with understanding that. Whatever you possess today, when you leave this world, you’re not taking anything with you. You’re leaving every bit of it. This year one man, he was going to die and told his wife, his son, take all my cash, put it upstairs in the attic so whenever I die I can pick it up on my way. So she did. Put everything in the own. Take all the paint, put it up in the attic.

When he died she went up there and it was still there. She said, I know I should have put it in the basement. When the joy of a healthy body is lost with the pain of terminal disease or just growing old, you remember there was a time when we were young, we could get out, we could run, go all day, all night long, and just, you know, we didn’t worry about the body because we were healthy. And now every day it seemed like, you know, you got doctor’s appointments.

You got prescriptions, you got to get feeling. I never worried about Obamacare or Medicare, or I never worried about anything like that. And it wasn’t until I was 55, I even thought about, you know, if something happens to me, I wonder where Betty’s gonna live. Betty was gonna be thinking, where am I gonna live? He dies. She has an insurance policy on me. It’s up in January.

Something happens to me between now and January. I’m just making you aware. I’ve got a hundred thousand dollars. But one of these days we’re all gonna we’re gonna die. Like two of the grandkids, they came up to Grandpa. Grandpa, would you um would you make a sound like a frog? Would you cook like a frog? No I’m not gonna do that. Please Grandpa, please oh please. He says He said, well, because mommy and daddy says, when you croak, we’re going to Disney World.

By the way, that’s not in my notes. I don’t know where they come from. Look at the next one. When the joy of having a good Christian ministry, you know, people can be involved in the ministry and they’re serving God and great things are happening. And then because of sin can destroy their life, destroy their testimony. And the pain that comes because of disobedience, Joy can be turned into this pain. Remember at the top up there, the text I have, be afflicted and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaven as what? Because of your rebellion to God. Because you will not obey the Lord. You will not serve the Lord. And there’s a price to pay. And then as we get a little bit older, we’re gonna find out we’re gonna lose a loved one. And you can have so many years of happiness together and great joy, but there can be great pain when one of them passes away.

Many of y’allartney this room have already lost one of your loved ones. And you’ve lost children. I lost my son when he was 28 years old. A man killed him. But there was a great sorrow. But you can’t let it stop you because you still got to live. That’s what my husband said, how do you get over that? You don’t get over it. You get on with it. You’re still going to live with it. is that time does heal a lot and you don’t have as much pain.

But the sorrow, you’ve got to remember we can replace joy. Which sorrow, hell you can replace sorrow with joy. I know I’ll see my son again. I know he’s in heaven with the Lord. So your loved one, that’s why you want to reach him, why you can. It’s so very important. And look at the next statement. When the joy of the first the glimpse of Christ is lost with the pain of shame. See in 1 John chapter 2 of verse 20, it says, about his brother, he says, and not to be ashamed before him at his coming.

Because there’s so many of God’s children to say, when the other Lord comes, if he came today, you may have to go through the pain of shame. I think that whenever you stand there and realize the loss of what you could have had when you seemed what you could have done. Don’t take sin in your life lightly. Look at it from God’s point. See everything from the face. the result. Now this year in bold is a very important statement.

The results of fulfilling sinful desires do not bring lasting contentment or satisfaction it never does. You cannot sin and win. You can’t purposely sin against God and win. Don’t you ever think for a moment if you’re married some other woman will be than the one you got. If you got one, you love the one you have. You made a promise, you made a vow. You love the woman you got. And don’t think about the one you don’t have. You better listen to what I’m telling you.

Or you’re gonna be doing that up there, that text we just read. And your joy is gonna be turning to heaven. You won’t win, you will not be glad. You keep your words of that woman you got right, right now. And in woman, you keep yourself faithful for the man you do have. Yeah,883 I’m married to a bomb, butAverage you chose him. And was he like that when you married him? No, he was like that then you did it.

No. Maybe not. Now, in Proverbs it looks as if, Folly is joy toifferent that is destitute of wisdom. When you I’m doing wrong, when you’re mocking Godvu and you’re playing with sin, And folly is joy because there is pleasure in sin for a season. But that means your destitute of wisdom, it’s not because you’re so smart. It’s because you’re dumb and you’re playing the idiot role. And don’t think people ought to admire you because of how many women you can conquer or how many men you’ve been with.

That’s not a feathering you’re kept to be proud of. The God about sins, instead of being ashamed of rebellion to God. You’re supposed to be, and I’m supposed to be, we’re supposed to be a testimony of whatever we want people to do. We’re supposed to be an example of the believer in word, indeed, in attitude, in spirit, in truth. Look at the next statement. Now this is found in the book of Deuteronomy, and I try to tell people all the time, you know, Jesus says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Doesn’t it say that? Come into me, oh ye, that laboring are heavy laden. I will give you rest. But if you will not serve the Lord with joyfulness of heart, he says, I’ll put a yoke of iron upon your neck until it destroys you. Look at that verse. I quoted that verse because I’ve been learned a long time ago because thou serveth not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things.

Then he says, I’m gonna put a yoke of iron upon your neck until it destroys you. And this is that text that we just read this morning. Your laughter will be turned to morning. And your joy to have it is because you will not honor God. And serve Him the way you should. 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, where teens 13 to 18 get to know God and the Bible with their friends. Check it out online at tampayouth ranch.org and see the cool pictures from past activities and all the fun you’ve been missing. No ride, no problem. Call 813-334-4655 today for information on getting a ride to Tampa Youth Ranch. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us.

The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.