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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

So you need to know why we have trials, because God uses trials. You see, look there in verse 3. three. Knowing this, the trying of your faith. See that phrase? Your faith is on trial. Your faith is on trial. Do you love the Lord? Do you’re going to be tested to see if you really do? Do you want the will of God for your life? Well these tests are going to reveal whether you really do or not. Can you trust Him in all areas of your life?

Well these tests is going to reveal whether you do or not. These tests are very revealing and that’s why God allows you to be put under pressure. And if you are under pressure, you’re either going to bend or harden your neck, and then be stiff. And God says that they’re suddenly cut off. Because you see, God can work with you as long as you’re workable and you’re pliable in the hands of the potter. And so the clay has to be sensitive to the hands of the Lord, and God will work on you.

But load this way, says there in verse three, knowing that the trying of your faith worketh but let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect or complete, lacking nothing. And if there’s anything in your life that’s lacking, that’s not Christ-like, then God wants to have a test to reveal that to you. So God uses problems so that it will reveal to you where you’re lacking and what you need, so that you go to the Lord, you talk to the Lord, and God can meet that need.

It’s just like in the Old Testament, God used the law to show a man that he wasn’t righteous. It wasn’t to save him. It was like a mirror that he looked into. Well now you and I that we trust the Christ, I say the problem with life is our mirror that we look into and they can either destroy you or drive you closer to the Lord. So don’t curse the darkness. Light a candle. See that God has a reason for it because God knows where you’re weak in your life and God can allow a test to reveal that to you because you don’t have the answers.

And we don’t have the answers and you need to go to the Lord. So let him ask of God who give up to all men. All, it’s the same. All of us have problems. All of us have grief. All of us can have joy. And all of us can have peace. And all of us can trust the Lord in every area of our life. We can, but not everybody will. Now look down to bottom of the page. James 4 means that if this trial works, the way the Lord intended for it to work, the net result will be your maturity.

You see, God’s gotta take you from being a child to being an adult, a mature adult. The only difference between a child of God and a man of God is the word of God that lies in between. And the word of God is to be applied in your life and that’s where you gain your wisdom from. Now you can do away with all of that and just try to use your own mind. Most people think they’re smart enough. I don’t need to study them.

I don’t need to go to science. I don’t need to church. I don’t, yeah, pry, pry, pry. The middle letter of pride is I. That’s your problem. If God says you need it, do you need it? I believe God’s word will be true. Anyway, down to the bottom of the page, trials are the teaching tools that are necessary for our training, for our development. Wisdom is not the accumulation of knowledge, but the application of biblical knowledge to our experiences.

So you learn the Bible, And you don’t know the Bible until you live the Bible, until you apply the Bible. You’re going through trials and tribulations. Well, wonderful, I’m glad to hear that. You know, I have people call me up all the time and they got problems and so forth. And I said, well, what’s the problem? We’re having a problem. If you understand the purpose of the problems, get you closer to the Lord, just go ahead and get closer to the Lord.

I can’t do that for you. I can tell you this, God can use it or you can become hardened and critical and bitter hate God. Because if God is God and He’s sovereign, well then why did He let me go through all of this? Well, don’t you understand, and you read the book of James? He says he wants to mature you. He don’t want you being the little whiny baby all your life. Grow up. Be a spiritual mature adult in the Lord, where you know what the word of God says and you can apply to every area of your life.

Now, on top of the page, never let a good trial go to waste. I heard somebody say, never let a good crisis go to waste. I thought that’s a good statement. Never let a good trial go to waste. That means that I got a big problem. Man, I can learn a big lesson from this. But this is an opportunity for me to shine the way God wants me to, because the darker it gets, the brighter the light should shine.

And don’t you want God to use you? No, you’re that little light he puts here and there, because people are living in darkness, and you’re the light that he may put so that people can see how you handle the problem, and you’re gonna look, Lord is more real to me than the clothes I’ve got on my back. Look at the top of the page. Problems are not to impair you, but to improve you. Problems are to help you to see where the flesh has control in your life.

And you need to correct that problem. He said, be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever man so if that shall he also read. How do you mock God? Mocking sin. You mock sin by thinking I can sin and get away with it. No price to pay. Surprise, there’s a great price to pay. You just don’t know what it costs to you yet. You haven’t yet suffered the consequences of your bad decisions, but it’s coming. Look at the next statement.

A Christian is like a tea bag, not much good unless he’s going through some hot water. I love to be able to see people in hot water. Whenever you as an individual, and you say, well, everything’s wonderful, everybody thinks it’s fine. Listen, you’re either coming out of a problem, going into a problem, But there’s always a problem. And so you need to understand it and realize that God loves the smell of the tea, that sweet smelling saver that comes up because of what you’re doing for the Lord.

God wants his children to serve him, because you love the Lord. But you see the things of life, he says love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Well, how do you know you love God more than the world? Well, let him take something away from you and see if you still love the Lord as much as you always did. See, God doesn’t like any competition. He’s a jealous God. He don’t want you putting anything in front of Him.

You see, He wants to be number one. He wants to have preeminence in your life. And God can take things away from you in your life that you love. And lo and behold, you find out you don’t love the Lord as much as you thought. I’ve seen people get totally bitter toward God because God took their little loved one. or God took their wife, he took their husband. Usually stop because they took their husband, you know, anyway. Look at the next little story.

When the tea kettle gets hot, what does it do? Whistles! Well, you say, I don’t know how to whistle. Well, same. You don’t have to, well, hum. But you don’t have to go around looking like Jonah. You know, he was down in the mouth. But you know you can’t keep a good fellow down. Came back. Look at the little story I put here for you. And man was walking through the woods when he saw butterfly breaking out of the cocoon.

So he thought he could help the butterfly. It flew to a limb and died. The botanist told him that the butterfly needed to struggle to develop his wings so he could fly. You see, have you ever heard parents say this, I just don’t want my kids to go through what I went through. Why? If what I went through helped develop me, then I want my kids to go through what I went through because I wanted to develop them. And we want to make sure we give them everything.

I told my kids y’all can have anything you can afford. Now, you can try to make it easy on everybody, but listen, let people struggle a little bit. I’m not so quickly trying to dissolve all of their problems. Sometimes people call me a little bit of a phone, oh pastor, you just don’t know what’s going on in my life. I mean my having this problem with my husband and I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I need help and I need help right now.

I said, yes ma’am, I haven’t opened on my calendar in three days. Usually by the time their day rolls around, they didn’t solve their problems. And they found out they’d rather not have the preacher know all their problems. You don’t have help people help solve from their problems because they know it, and I know that they know that I know they go to some other church after I’ve helped them. Because you don’t want everybody to know what all your problems are.

That’s why I thought about opening up a confession booth. So all of y’all can come and see me. You say, you just don’t know what kind of problem I got, find, keep them. I want you to learn how to go to the Lord. It doesn’t say run to the preacher every time you’ve got a problem. You run to the book. You get on your knees and talk to God. And you’ll find out that’s a better way to go than always taking the preacher to his word.

I’m just a man like you, I got problems like you, but I don’t come to you with all of my problems. I want you to pray for me all the time. You can always pray for me and I pray for you. And that’s the truth and I do. And I pray all the time. Look at the next statement here. James 1 2, counted all joy means to think, to consider, to make up your mind because you know it’s for your benefit.

Now listen, you have to be convinced of this. Whatever the problem is, this is for your benefit. You’ve heard of a verse that says, all things work together for good to them who love the Lord to those who are called according to them. into his purpose? You ever heard of that verse before? Where is it found? Romans 828, very good. It’s a great verse, but these things can work together for your good. They can make you better, make you stronger with a better perspective of what’s going on in your life, giving you told by which you can help more people solve their problems.

That’s why you want to teach them the word of God. The Bible deals with all the issues of life and that’s why yes, there’s answers in the the Word of God. And the more you learn, the more stable you can become. Look at the next statement. James 1, 3, knowing patience means you are learning to trust the Lord by waiting on the Lord to lead you, to guide you, to direct you, to develop patience. You don’t have to jump the gun, take things into your own hands.

Do you learn how to just trust the Lord? I’ve had people who have wronged me. Instead of me jumping on the case that I’m going to beat the daylight side of the room, I can say, Lord, you know that person? You know where they are? You know what they did? I’m your child, get them. And I’ll leave it with God. I don’t have to be, you know, a vengeful individual. I’ll let God get them. You know how I deal with my critics?

I’ll live them. I had a bunch of the people who really hated me. They’re dead. I’m so alive. You’d be surprised what he can do for your mind, your peace of mind, stability that you can have. Look at the next word, endurance is learning to work while you wait. Endurance work while you wait. You see the Bible says, wait upon the Lord and you shall be renewed like the wings of an eagle. But that word wait doesn’t mean no, it’s like waiting on tables.

Stay busy doing what God says do and he’ll take care of things and you’ll man up with wings as a vehicle and you’ll be able to fly into shore. Well all the people are grounded, they can’t do anything. Well I can, I can, I can, I can, I can, I can, I can. I can do all things through Christ’s strength. I can, I can, I can, I can. A lot of difference in how you think. Look at the little story.

Two boy goes out for football. Coach had them run five laps, work out, no plays, and no football. One quits. The other gets to play football. The quitters says, you know, that’s not fair. But have you seen God a blessed one person and another person, it seemed like, well, they’re always whining and pining and moaning and groaning, always down in the mouth about something. The coach knows he’s got to prepare you to get you in shape. And then lo and behold, you might even throw a football and get the run.

Now I never took a great liking to football. I mean if I got to football and you come up to me and I see you come, if you want to You’re gonna have to football. You’re gonna football. I’m not even loving to football. You’re gonna have it. And there’s some people who don’t want to do what God says do. They don’t want to run. They don’t want to practice. They want to, you got to prepare, prepare to serve the Lord.

There. James went for it. Human nature is to run from pressure. We don’t like the pressure. We want to run from it. And sometimes this is what teenagers do. They run from their responsibilities. You see, when you go from childhood to adulthood, the teenagers are in between and they don’t want to go forward and they can’t go back and so they’re like on the swinging bridge and they see adults, I don’t want to go there. Well, I don’t want to go there.

They think they’re going to stay a teenager all their life and so they sew their while alone, try that young and have all the fun they can have by because they’re not going to live anyway and, Lord, we hold they lived and the consequences, they don’t like them. But now husband and wives run to divorce court to escape pressure because it’s a sin. It’s wrong, but God says because of the hardness of sin, because there’s people who don’t want to do the will of God.

Look at the next one, Christians run from the Lord to escape spiritual pressure. Because see, if you learn what the Bible says and you know that you want the will of God through your life, you might have to correct some things in your life. And there’s some people who I don’t want to do none of that. I’m not ready to live that Christian life yet. But I’m so glad that you don’t have to live the Christian life to go to heaven.

Going to heaven is a gift, that’s totally free. But since you’re gonna go there, why not learn as much as you can before you show up? Why not accomplish as much as you pop the can with your life? Why you can? Because, you see, all your opportunities have begun. Every problem you have, all the temptations are nothing more than opportunities for you to demonstrate you love the Lord and that you love Him more than anything else in the world and that you believe that whatever it is, God can walk me through it.

And He’s going to reward me when I get to heaven because I endured. See that verse 12 again, look at verse 12 again one more time. Blessed is the man that does what? Enjoys temptation. No, it says endured. You may not enjoy everything, but you are to realize the joy of the different testings. You realize that this is something that God can use to make me stronger, to make me more godly, to make me more Christ-like. There may be some other people that because of the experience I go through, I can help somebody else.

And this is why you read the second Corinthians in chapter one where he talks about the father of all comfort, who has comforted us in our misery that we might comfort others who are in their misery. And God can use you in a great and wonderful way. Number four, perfect means too mature. God uses these divine, these things of the world, but problem, God shouldn’t say they’re divine, but in a divine way, to make a child of God the way God wants you to be.

So I don’t always pray that God removes all my problems. I want God to give me the strength and grace to go through my problems, because I always know on the other side I’m gonna get blessed and rewarded because of what I’ve gone through. And buddy, I can write a book and all the things God has brought in my life. No, I’m glad. God has been so good to me. Look down there at the next one. James 1, 5, if you lack wisdom means you do, that word if there means you do, If any man lack wisdom, you do.

Otherwise you wouldn’t have a problem. Cause you’d always have the wisdom to solve it. If you lack wisdom, means you do. Lack wisdom, let him ask of God. This does not mean to only ask God how to get out of a trial, but what to learn from the trial. Are you going through anything? Got a problem? How you handling it? I’ve been doing it. Oh, you’re crazy. I’m going crazy. Now you’ve already been there. You ain’t going there. You are there.

You see, the whole world is in a mental case, in an insane asylum. Only those who go into this book are you coming out of being insane. It’s not within man that walk of two directest steps. This is where you become sound, might be because of sound words that give you sound doctrine. And God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, power, sound, mind. I didn’t make that up. That’s the book. Look at the next statement.

A little story. Mother was sowing in the den and asked her son to get the scissors. Son asked, what do I get if I do? Mother says you’ll get a whoop and if you don’t. You say what do I get out of this if I do what God wants me to do? You wanna see what you’re gonna get if you don’t do it. I cannot afford not to serve God. I’ve had people say, I just can’t afford to go to church.

I can’t afford to get my life to do that. I can’t afford, I can’t afford not to. because I don’t want to have to be chasing by God. I believe that whatever I go through for the Lord will be a lot better than me going against the Lord and resisting the Lord and then God deal with me. Do you realize God has the power to shorten my life? God can put me in a hospital today. He can put me in a wheelchair.

I can be crippled. I could go blind. All kinds of things can happen. The God that I serve. Last thing I want to do is make him mad. One day I’m going to preach the sermon on the fear of the Lord. We always like to talk about the love of God, the fear of the Lord. Look at the statement down here. What if I don’t obey these commands? In verse six to eight says, it is a guarantee that you will be unsettled.

Look in verse six. But let him ask in faith nothing wavering, for he that waver is like a wave of the seed, of the sea driven with the wind and taught. You are at the mercy of the world to toss you to and fro because there’s nothing to hold you solid, to settle you down. There’s no anchor for you. Look at verse seven, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. So much for asking because you really don’t believe you didn’t ask in faith.

You’ve got to put some confidence in your heavenly father, your heavenly father loves his children. And he wants to bless his children. He wants the best for his children. So all the things that you’re going through is for your good. Lord sin, this is for your own good. You see, you have right. And you have questions and doubts, and you don’t trust God, you don’t believe God. And did you know that if you got so involved serving the Lord, how many other things would fade away?

That you don’t need any way and you’ll have greater peace of mind, love, and joy. You just don’t know what you’re costing yourself. Look at the next statement I have here. It is a guarantee that you will be unwise. Well that’s what the Bible says isn’t it? If any of you lack wisdom, let him come and ask of God, who gives to all men liberally and he will not upgrade your shite or make fun of you. God doesn’t do that.

He wants you to be wise. But wisdom comes from the Word of God. And if you don’t know the Word of God, then you’re going to have a lot of knowledge maybe you can gain from a lot of sources and whatever somebody else says, but you don’t have the confidence, the peace of mind, the assurance this is what God says to do. This is how God says I’m supposed to be. And you’ll do what you see everybody else doing.

And pride is, I can do it myself. I can do it myself. I can handle it myself by myself. And you’d be surprised. God can pull that rug after you. And God can turn off all the lights in your life. And God can darken all the windows and lock all the doors and make those four walls start moving in on you. And you won’t know what in the world to do, which way to turn. Look at the next statement.

What if I do obey these command? If I do. Well, verses nine through 10, one is exalted and one is brought low. You see, the problems of life, it can either exalt somebody if they take it right, and it can humble somebody if they take it wrong. God’s Word is so powerful. That’s why I told you last week. I’m not interested in trying to keep up with the Joneses. I just catch them on their way back because it’s just going like this.

And that’s why the Lord, you just stay like this. Whether you have or you don’t. The Lord give it and the Lord take it the way. blessed be the name of the Lord. Look at the last thing here. In verse 11 and 12, there’s things that pass away and there’s things that last forever. And the problems of life is to help you to have wisdom, to always seek what’s the will of God, what’s the best choice that I can make concerning this particular problem.

Or there’s testing and temptations that come to life and you’ll be tempted to do a lot of things, but always think, is that the best decision I could make? Is yielding to this temptation really the will of God for me? Or should I just resist and do what God says do even though you may want to do something contrary? My heavenly Father, I don’t want to hurt my heavenly Father, I don’t want to shame my heavenly Father, I don’t want to do anything that would bring any dishonor to my heavenly Father.

Down at the bottom of page wherein ye greatly rejoice. You mean know that you’re having to turn like, you know know that you’re going to heaven. You got a place reserved in heaven for you. Though now for a season, that little now for a season that mean just a little period of time God’s given us to live. We only have a few years to live. If need be you are in heaviness. Through manifold temptation, some people they get a few little problems and a few little problem and then sometime it seemed like when it rained it pours.

Like man it just seemed like the bottom fell out and all of a sudden everything’s going wrong all at one time. You just patiently wait upon the Lord and solve this one and then solve that one and then solve that one and then solve that one and then solve that one and you’ll find out take things one at a time. Just trust the Lord he’ll walk you through it, don’t panic. God knows all these things are going on in your life and how easy it is for you to fall apart.

But see it also reveals how strong you are. Well then not do you really trust the Lord? Does He really mean everything to you? See God wants you to love Him more than anything else in the world. Last verse here, that the trial of your faith, see those words? Trial of your faith, being much more what? Precious. You, under trial, you are under pressure. You’ve got problems. God says this is more important than gold that pears us away. Because this is working for you.

Greater treasures in heaven than you can ever find upon this earth, passing those tests that you have. And that’s why when you You understand it, you just thank the Lord for all the problems you have because it’s just another opportunity for you to shine. It’s another opportunity for you to humble yourself to the will of God and not to lift yourself up in price. Sometimes God will give us things we can’t get out of and we can’t solve and we don’t have the wisdom.

And we know that if I ever get out of this, God did it. And then years down the road, you’ll be surprised all those good stories that you’ve got to share because I was in this problem and you ought to see what God did. You ought to see what God did. We often talk about David and Goliath. It’s not David and Goliath, it’s what God did in the life of David. Daniel and the lion’s den is not about Daniel and the lion’s den, it’s about Daniel and his God.

It’s always about the man and the God and the man and God, the man and God. And it’s when it’s all over it’s going to be, what did you do for God after you trusted him in your Savior? But trusting the Lord is your Savior, that’s the most important thing you can ever do. Now I want to show you something I want you to listen, pay attention. This is you and me. This is sin. We all have sin on us.

God loves us. Now he hates our sin, but he loves us. And for us, the pay for sin is eternal separation from God and him. But God wants us to go to heaven. And to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God. None of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. We’re not good to go because God don’t want sin in heaven. Because we’ll do up there what we’re doing down here. So God says, the wages of sin is death and we are all condemned.

Man cannot save himself. He needs a Savior. This ends in Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the face. Came into the world because he loves the hates our sin, because our sin separates us from him. So what Christ did for one, He did it for everybody. Christ had no sin, but He took our sins, paid for them to cross and came back from the dead. And it says the only thing He wanted us to do is to believe He did it for us.

So 57 years ago, I believe Christ did this for me. So I trusted Him as my Savior and He gave me what kind of life. How long does it last? If He gave me eternal life and it lasts forever and He paid for all my sins, where am I going when I die? to heaven. So I don’t have to wait till I die to find out where I’m going. I already know I’m going to heaven. So just knowing that truth gives you great joy for the rest of your life because the worst thing anybody can do in this life is kill you and then that’s a blessing.

If you look at it right, they take my life. I’m in heaven with the Lord. Look where I’m at. And heaven is just one long eternal day. We all get there the same day, just maybe different time during the day. So if I’m going I’m gonna enjoy it so good, I’m not holding back. I’m gonna stay here as long as God wants me to. And if he wants me to die of cancer tomorrow, this tomorrow, that tomorrow, that tomorrow, that’s the God.

Just do what’s right. But don’t whine and pine and moan and groan because of all the sorry things you gotta go through in life. Look at it as a challenge, an opportunity to show God how much you love him and God will walk you through it. No temptation taking you but such as a common demand God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted above that which you’re able, but will make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.

You can bear it. You can handle this. You and God can handle everything, right? Let’s pray, Shari. Father, we thank again for your blessings. For this time together, bless each one for being here. Thank for all you do for us in Christ’s name we pray, Amen. 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 florida-biblecollege.us or call the Register of Bob Gilbert at 8502275325. 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 4011 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 can meet the Lord in the air so live today and every day believe in that the Lord is coming soon just keep looking up