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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.

Take your Bible and turn to the look of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians and chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, a couple of little thoughts I want to give you here and then we’ll look at the notes over here. So the last thing you want to do is look at your notes while I’m talking. If y’all see anybody doing that, elbow them. Worn you to a far away from anybody. 2 Corinthians and chapter 12, look what he has here in verse five.

Now he had already made the statement, he says, it’s not a expedient for me doubtless to glory. He says that I knew men in Christ above 14 years ago, whether in the body or out of the body that cannot tell, but such a woman was caught up into the, you know, the third heaven. And he says, but whether in the body out of body, I can’t tell. He was caught up in the paradise. And saw unspeakable things, things that I couldn’t tell you about.

But whatever it was that he saw while he was in heaven must have been awesome. It must have been something. And so because of the visions and the revelations that he had, he says, God gave me a messenger to buffet me, to buffet me. In other words, somebody just to go run and antagonize you all your ministry. Wouldn’t you like that? It’s called husband and wife. No, I’m just talking to son. But somebody just antagonizes you all the time and just causes doesn’t but trouble in trying to chew you and spit you out and shame you, humiliate you, whatever it is, it was so that he wouldn’t brag.

So that he wouldn’t get too big for his britches. So he wouldn’t be lifted up with pride. So he says, I want to glory. He means I want to brag about a few things. But I can’t brag about all the good things that I’ve done, though he says a few things, he says. But if I’m gonna brag, I’d rather brag in my infirmities. How I hurt and how I how I suffered. So you read the chapter 11 and it tells you what he went through.

So you kind of get the feeling of what price he paid and how he had been so humiliated at times. And he says, and all the things that happened to me, plus the care of all the churches. So he says here in verse 5, of such a one, will I glory? Yet of myself, I will not glory. In other words, I’m going to brag, but I’m going to brag on the Lord. But he says, if I have to play the fool for a moment.”

He said, I’m going to do that in order to teach you a lesson so that you’ll understand where I’m coming from. Because they had lost a lot of respect for Paul. And so he was kind of laying the groundwork here. He says, I will not glory. He said, but in my infirmities. For though I would desire to glory, or you could put the little, we’re bragging there a little bit, the boast. He mentions that in other places. You can see say that in verse 16 of the 11th chapter.

But now noted him. He said, I shall not be a fool. For I will say the truth, but now I forbear. Last any man should think of me above that which he saith me to be, or that he heareth of me. In other words, I don’t want to make the man bigger than the shadow or the shadow bigger than the man. So sooner or later you’re gonna see the man and you saw the big shadow and you thought he was a bigger man than what he really is.

I was thinking the other day, I am so thankful that I am able to serve the Lord. But you know, if it had not been for God doing this and this and this and this and blocking this and this and this and helping you with this and God and you here and everything, what would you do? He said, without me, you can do how much? Nothing. So we don’t have any reason to exalt ourselves and put ourselves up. We all have troubles and we got problems.

And so he says here in verse 7, and lest I should be exalted above measure, where people thinking of him more than they should, but they shouldn’t think less of Paul than what he really was. Because they had questioned whether he was really an apostle and so forth and they didn’t want to listen to him and just broke his heart. He says, and the more I love, the less I’d be loved. Just hold your place right there, but just look at this.

See there in verse 15, and I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I’d be loved. That’s what I’ve told you. You’ve got to serve the Lord like you’ve never been hurt and you’ve got to serve the Lord like you’ve never been loved. because a lot of people do not return love. They don’t return the affection that you gave. And when you read in the book of Thessalonians when he talks about how that we were among you and gentleness like as a nurse and as a father over the children, all these things that he talks about.

But he says here, I in verse seven, unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation that was given to me a thorn in the flesh. the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. In other words, God did what He did to keep Paul humble because the worst thing in the Christian’s life is PRIDE, is to be lifted up in pride. And it’s a sin that can be said every last one of us.

It’s when we become hard-headed, stiff neck, we want our own way and we don’t listen. And so God had Paul put this in here, then He says here, I prayed that God would have it removed it didn’t. So in verse nine, and he said, I mean, my grace is sufficient for the, my strength is made perfect in weakness. So if he bragged about his weaknesses, then he has to brag on the Lord and how he brought him through. If you brag about all your strengths sometime, now, it’s not talking about being a false humility or a false pride and all that stuff.

No, just be real. Whatever you are, just be real. But anyway, the introduction here, suffering is part of our earthly journey. It affects every part of our earthly being. We all suffer in body, mind, soul, and spirit. Now see right now, your mind might be clear as a bell, but you can be hurting in your body. And sometimes your body feels healthy and you’re just depressed, discouraged. And a lot of people get down, they get hooked. I feel like everybody’s beating up on them.

And so the question, why do I have to suffer so? This is what this guy was writing in here. From Adam until the rapture, if you know the end game, just get to it. Get us out of here. Why don’t we have to, I mean, I’ve been saved now for 58 years. Why didn’t he just go ahead and take me on home when I was just the Lord? Just think if I mean problems would have been solved. And I wouldn’t have had to hurt and go through suffering.

I wouldn’t have to get old. I still realize if God doesn’t come back, I am anticipating that down the road, I’m not gonna be as healthy as I am right now. I may be as healthy as I’ll ever be for the rest of my life, and you’re the same way. It could be downhill, right? Chances are we’re not gonna get better and better and better, it could get worse and worse. So that’s just the fact. Now look at number one, why does God cause or allow us to suffer?

Now it could be. Now I’m not saying it is, but in the book of Psalms, it says, before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now have I kept thy word. Have you ever had children that disobeyed and you’d have to correct them or spank them or punish them in some way? Well, it’s not because that’s what you want to do. It’s because you know that this may hurt for a little time, but it may save you a lot of hurt down the road.

See, the problem we have in America is that the kids don’t know the consequences of doing wrong because there is no consequences of doing wrong. They can rebel against parents, rebel against schools, rebel against the law of rebel. And it’s like they get away with it. They used to have a little thing that says, crime does not pay unless you’re running for office, unless you’re a politician. Crime, people say, look, it does pay. I know somebody was in the White House and now they’re millionaires.

And all they got was the salary they got while they were working for the government. How does that happen? Interested. Boy, they made some lot of good investments. But anyway, before I was afflicted, what did I do? I went astray. What does it mean to go astray? I thought all of God’s children will automatically serve the Lord, right? No. So it’s so easy for us to go astray. Even though we know we have each other, know that we’re God’s children.

And we can know the things that are right, we can know the things that are wrong and still do wrong anyway, because that’s the way we are. We don’t all live this perfect life that we should, and God says we should, and He has ordained that we should walk in good works, but we still don’t always do what God wants us to do. Look at the next statement. Thy work good and doeth good. Teach me thy statutes. In other words, .

You have to be sold in your mind. God is a good God. Don’t ever get to the place where you think God is bad. God is evil. God is wrong. God’s not fair. God’s not right. Because when you begin to question all those things, you begin to look at a life on the verge of one astray. Because you have justification for not trusting Him. So you can do your own thing. Go your own way. Why? Because what God did.

surprise I’ve seen parents because if they lost a loved one, a little child, a little boy, whatever, little girl, and they get mad at God and never go back to church again, become totally rebellious and you’d be surprised what goes on because they prejudge God. Because if God is God and he has sovereignty, why did he let that happen? So God’s a mean God and so you can’t believe that. You have to believe God is good. And he also says, for all things work together for good to those who love the Lord.

If you love Him, you’ll have a totally different attitude toward whatever happens. But when you don’t love God the way you should, your attitude is totally different concerning things that happens to you. Look at the next verse. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. That’s 1 Corinthians 11. When we have communion service, that’s the verses right there and that group of verses that we always talk about. And so there are consequences. Look at the next statement.

Number two, why do I have to suffer? Well, it could be that I did not examine myself. An unexamined life is not worth living. So you and I are supposed to learn the word of God so we can discern right from wrong, so we can examine our own life. Well, how am I doing? Am I walking according to the will of God? Am I going contrary to the will of God? Do I justify that which God condemns? You know, you got to learn how to think and examine yourself.

See, if you examine yourself, well, then God won’t have to. If you and I, if we would judge ourselves, well, then God don’t have to do it for us. And that’s why in this verse, you’ll notice, but let a man examine himself. No, not let a man examine all of his neighbors. Let every man examine everybody else. That’s where you get your fruit inspectors. You deserve to be what? Boy, God ought to send you home. God ought to get you.

And sometimes, I think there’s Christians who rejoice when bad things happen to somebody who wronged them. Oh, I can’t wait for God to get him. And have you ever thought, I think I should be God’s avenging angel. God’s just using me to get everybody. I don’t think so. But let a man examine himself. Look at the next verse. or he that eateth and drinketh unwordily, eateth and drinketh and drinketh damnation or judgment to himself, not discern in the Lord’s body.

So that’s the reason we do what we do and study the word of God so that we can be able to examine ourselves. You see, part of maturing in the Lord is being able to, well, like we have done here, examine ourselves, am I going astray and what am I doing that’s wrong? And what can I do to correct it? Because you see, that’s what he talks about in the book of James in chapter two. Be doers of the word and not, here’s only.

You can hear, oh, I heard that. I heard that. We have a girl up there in Georgia at the North Side Baptist Church and that was her favorite words. She was always, I heard that. I heard, I don’t hear what I said. I heard that. You ever heard anybody just, that’s her favorite statement. I heard that and do absolutely not, she does, she’s a good one. But there’s somebody, I heard that and they, I don’t know if they heard it or not.

Or if you heard it, it’s like you’re telling a little boy, go to bed now. I heard that and he says right there in place. When you say I heard it means that I heard it, but I mean I’m gonna obey it. And that’s why Mama usually says, did you hear me? Right? Did you hear me? And when she says that a certain way, you know it, there’s a limit. And you may not go past it based upon the tone of over, because see the kids, they go crazy trying to raise us adults.

And they teach us how far we can go and all that before they do this or that. It works out of way. Look at the next statement. Number three, it could be that I would not judge myself. So you can examine yourself. I saw something wrong. But I will not judge it. I will not correct the problem. That’s what he’s talking about. And if we would correct it, then God won’t have to correct it. See what I try to do, whether Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday is try to teach you how to counsel yourself so that you don’t have to always come to me about every little problem.

I’m telling you how to diagnose a problem and then how to solve that problem. Because see, you really want to try to figure out how to determine your own walk with the Lord, how to look at it yourself so that you don’t have to have somebody always correcting you. Do you love it when people always correct you? Then you correct you, then they won’t have to, right? So if you are not walking right, shouldn’t somebody be able to see you’re not walking right?

Isn’t it possible? So if you don’t want somebody to say something, then you go ahead and examine and judge it for yourself. Look at the verse I have here. If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. For this cause, when you’re sick and weakly among you and many sleep. So that’s what happens. Now look down at number four. It could be. Now see every one of these says it could be because see I’m not the judge in your life.

I don’t know all the things that you do right and wrong. And even though you’re in church, you can still suffering be doing right. Just because something bad happens to you as we say, something bad happens to you. It doesn’t mean you’ve done something wrong and you deserve that. No, it could be a reason. But there’s some reasons in here that I think would help you to understand because see if you can’t sometimes discern some of the other thing, you can get down so quick because of all the suffering you can go through in this life.

So look at the next statement. It could be that I should suffer to be an example of my love for Christ. In other words, your suffering could prove how much you love God. Because suffering in this life is always called to us to make decisions. It affects our attitude when things don’t go our way. So look at this statement here and it says, for what glory is it? If I suffer, Who gets glory out of that? Well, you say, oh, I didn’t get any.

Well, maybe God did though. Is it possible that God can get glory out of your life or out of your death? God can get glory out of your life. And when you go astray and you correct the problem, you can give God glory for that. That’s why that verse up here, before I was afflicted that I went and said, that’s a way of praising God. and giving God thanks for His correction in your life. So done here at the bottom of the page, for what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults, you did something wrong and you take it patiently, oh big deal, what have you done?

But if when you do well and you suffer for it, you take it patiently. This is acceptable with God. Why? Because it’s for Christ. Glory. Can you as a child of God suffer in a lot of ways? Lot of ways. Our whole life is a life of suffering. And that’s why the Bible talks about, you know, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that we’re gonna have one day. In other words, whatever bad we go through down here, if we call it bad, is gonna be glorious for us later.

That’s why I am. at somebody mentioned to me just recently, a couple days ago, and said, I got some bad news. I said, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, not so fast. I said, it’s news. I’ll decide if it’s good or bad. And I have sometimes said bad news was good news and good news was bad news because of how I was thinking at the time. I’ve lived long enough to realize that I don’t know if you really can have too much bad news or good news, it’s just it’s news.

The key is how do you accept news? Because you know that all things work together for good to them that level are, if it’s good news. Right? Only if it’s good news. But if it’s bad news, that can’t help you at all. Or can it? So you see, it does make a difference. So in this verse, what glory is it? If when you are buffeted for your faults and you take it patiently, But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

It means not everything is going to be pleasing to you. You’re gonna hurt at times. People gonna say things, do things. You’re gonna lose jobs, you’re gonna lose health. You’re gonna get cancer, you’re gonna lose a loved one. This whole life that we have is life of suffering. Look at the bottom verse, the bottom of the page, for here unto. Were you called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. Now we’re not in heaven yet.

So in this light that God’s given to us, we’re gonna suffer. Did you know that Christ suffered a lot of things before he ever got to the cross? He suffered a lot of stuff. I think one of the things I heard of when is none of his brothers believed on him. They didn’t believe him. When he supplants miracles and it says he did not many miracles here, because of their unbelief. They didn’t believe him. And then when they saw that, we did not come from fornication, which was an accusation against him having a mom who had a child and they weren’t married, whatever he went through.

I am the light of the world, you are not. My father’s gonna tell you who he I am and no he ain’t. They didn’t believe him. How off would I have gathered you together and you would not. You will not come into me that you may have life. Do you think you ever got rejected? What about Peter, not him three times, but also all of them did. It wasn’t just Peter that every one of them did it, and they all forsook him.

And how long did he live upon this planet Earth 33 years and he suffered. Now it says we are supposed to suffer because if he was our example and if we suffer because he suffered then we’re suffering because there’s somebody else that’s going to learn something from our suffering. You read that in 2 Corinthians in chapter 1, tremendous portion of Scripture. All right look there on page 2, top of the page. Now why do we have to suffer? Not a one of these reasons may suit you, but you do know you’re going to suffer, and this may be some of the reasons on why we do.

And part of your maturing in the Lord is, can I handle that? Does God have to always explain to me why I’m suffering? You’re gonna find out, God may not tell you any reason. Lord, why? God says, I’m not telling. Trust me. But anyway, the Lord will not lie to you and he will not deceive you. But a lot of things that God does not explain, do you think he wants you to trust him anyway? Even though you don’t know why?

So you tooth faith to the Lord and serve the Lord as when it appears that God has let you down. And then you still remain faithful. When it appears that God has failed you. Because every time in your Christian life, you just know God has let me down. God did not come through him, but that God has the reason why he does what he does, but he doesn’t always have to tell you. But now look there, it could be that I need a lesson in humility.

God was not only pleased with how far Job had come, but showed him how much farther he needed to go. Now, I’ve given you all that statement many times, but I wanted to put it down. Job, he was considered, and God said he was a good man, a godly man, a just man, made sacrifices for himself and for his family, his kids, lest they had done something wrong. You know, there’s a good possibility they might have. They might have been rebellious, but we don’t know all the details, and that is a reason why.

There could be reasons why God did all of this stuff here, and it was time for God to lay down some judgment. It might have been time for Job’s wife to learn a few lessons. What did she say to her husband? You know, this helped me that come the long side to encourage him in his moment of despair. Well, why don’t you curse God and die? Isn’t that a wonderful thing? Thank you, honey. I appreciate that. That really cheered me up.

Well, you know how God got even with her? They were 10 more kids. No, that’s the ideology there. That’s not in the Bible. Let’s do that in there. All right, look at the next statement. Anyway, therefore he says, I have whored myself and repented us and ashes. In other words, it taught him humility because he could boast about how great and faithful and righteous he was in the eyes of these friends that he had to come see him. But he said, if I could just get a word with God, if I could just have a counseling session with God, I’ll tell God something.

And God says, hello. And so in chapter 38, he started asking him some questions and Job said, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. A lot of things Job didn’t know. But God gave everything back to him and he learned some great lessons. And how encouraging is that example that we have of a man who was patient, the patience of Job. And then when you read the book of James in chapter five, it talks about the patience of Job, right?

The patience of Job. Look at number six, it could be that God desires to prove His all-sufficient grace. In other words, God may He wants to teach you something. You know, we just read a verse that says, my grace is sufficient, right? Did we read that? Yeah. How do you know? How do you know that God’s grace is sufficient? Because it says so. Have you lived it? Whatever you have faced, or maybe going to face, is his grace sufficient for you to maintain a good, godly attitude, spirit and maturity and trust in the Lord and a good example?

Can you do it? Is God’s grace sufficient? Look what we wrote here. My suffering is one of God’s ways to prove. His grace is sufficient. He said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, while I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. In other words, when you realize there are some things in life you can’t change. You can’t alter and you can’t do anything about it.

You can’t get yourself out of it. Some things you just have to go right through it. And so you’ve got to trust the Lord that He’s going to bring you through it. You always see me doing this? What does that mean? What am I doing? The Lord is walking me through it. The Lord is walking with me. So is God grace efficient? Well, as long as I keep walking with the Lord, His grace is sufficient. It’s when I’ve had people say, well, I’m going to have a nervous breakdown.

I just can’t hang anymore. I can’t take it anymore. Why? Why? Because God’s weak, because I can’t trust the Lord, because God’s gonna fail me. Oh, what a pity party we have when we take our eyes off the Lord. Look at the next verse, the very next verse we have here. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities. Something might not happen good tomorrow. You You might get some news tomorrow, whatever it is. Don’t try to figure out how to go to bed.

Don’t you hate sometimes when the phone rings, oh boy, who could that be? Who’s on the phone? It’s Peter Amato. Oh no, oh no, oh no. No, no, I’m just joking, honey. It was Jesse. Oh no, oh no. I know it’s bad news. Grab my wallet. No, you’d be surprised how It doesn’t have to be true. It’s just that we think and imagine things. And we always try to imagine the worst. I used to tell people, I said, now what’s the worst thing that can happen?

What’s the worst thing that can happen? And they give me somehow, that it can happen. I said, the worst thing that happens, you could die. Right? Now, go ahead and accept the worst. Anything better than that? Gravy. Right? If you’ve already accepted the worst thing that can happen, anything and anybody, and me and the Lord is a majority and we can handle that. Or everything else is better than that. If you’re going to accept whatever, it’s the worst. But if you can’t, there’ll be one whoop little puppy.

Don’t miss out on all the fun. Join Pastor Jesse and Kyla Martinez on Thursday nights from 7 to 9 PM 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 in the Bible with their friends. Check it out online at tampayouthranch.org and see the cool pictures from past activities and all the fun you’ve been missing. No right, no problem.

Call 813-334-4655 today for information on getting a ride to Tampa Youth Ranch. Thanks for joining us on Bible Eye. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church He 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.