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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 Bibleignmenistries.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.

I have a class that I teach on leadership. And so because of the conference and all that went on, I was not able to do this one. Solution I figured I’ll just give you the notes that I was gonna have for the class and go ahead and teach it anyway. And that way we still got a lecture for the leadership class. I don’t think it’s gonna hurt you any. But I want to have you start off with take your Bible and turn to the book of Joshua.

Joshua in the Old Testament. Now, you got Deuteronomy in this very next book. But Joshua, it’s on page 259 in a church Bible. And I wanna read there from verse seven through nine because today we’re discussing the subject. The key to successfulness is faithfulness. In other words, if you’re faithful to the Lord, that is been successful. It’s not looked that through the eyes of man that away because they figure you’re successful. If you got a lot of money and you got a lot of this and a lot of that and you can go wherever you want and all those things that you consider to be successful.

Well, this is what God says about success. Look there in verse seven. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded thee, turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper, whether so ever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but shall not meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do, according to all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shall have good success.

Verse nine, have not I commanded thee, be strong of a good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee with us so ever thou goest.” It’s a good promise. It was made to Joshua, but it’s one that you can also apply to yourself. God’s Word tells us to meditate in the Word of God. We should do that. We want to have a prosperous journey. That is nothing wrong with that. Another verse that I have down here is in 1 Corinthians in chapter 4 and verse 2, where the Bible says, Moreover, is required in a steward that a man be found faithful.

And if you’re faithful, that’s the key to being successful with what God has called us to do. So I want to briefly mention each one of these points, and then I want to talk to you about them. Now, attitude determines your altitude, but that’s something that a leader is supposed to know and understand, because when the Bible talks about us being an example of the believer that means that somebody should be following your example. So you want to be an example not just in so winning which is the most important thing but if you’re not writing these other areas you won’t be doing so when very long because you burn out you will still have the strength to keep going.

So a leader knows or attitude determines your altitude. Number two a leader knows that you got to have a goal. You got to where am I going? What do I want. Number three, a leader has to know how do I plan to succeed? How do I plan for profit? Number four, a leader knows that he has to depend upon a big God. He has to know that he has a big God that’s bigger than any problem that he may ever have.

Number five, you’ve got to know. And a The leader needs to know that fear can totally destroy your life. And number six, a leader knows that you have to sow before you can reap. And so that’s a very simple thing that you know. Now turn in your page to number seven. See how fast we’re going through this? Man, this is awesome, man. We’re flying. Number seven, a leader knows that you’ve got to have some enthusiasm about whatever you want to do, because you can’t light another candlebyss an unlit candle.

So you have to have some fire in you to set little fires and fire somebody else up to encourage people. Number eight, a leader knows that your environment is very important. Where you go and where you don’t go. And if you don’t keep that straight, now we’re looking at just a minute in the book of James and chapter four and verse four. Don’t look there yet. Number nine, a leader knows that you have to share and bear other people’s burdens because that’s what you’re going to need.

Number 10, don’t procrastinate. Leaders know that if you you want to get anything done, you can’t always put things off. You have to do it as soon as possible. Otherwise things build up on you and you don’t get anything accomplished. So a leader note, you can’t procrastinate. Number 11, adversities are God stepping stones to success. So a person who wants to be a good leader has to know that he cannot always blame everything, just realize that all the problems that you may ever have can either be a stumbling block or a stepping stone depending upon your attitude toward it.

And number 12 that a leader knows that run away emotions, run away emotions, think that you do not control your own emotions is going to be like a car jumping out of gear. Now most people today don’t have a car that jump out of gear but I learned this and I’ve preached this back in 1975 when many people still were driving sticks. You see driving us stick. Well, that was, you know, in gear and out of gear manually. Today everything’s automatic, but it used to be, it would kick out of gear sometimes.

And sometimes you have a problem. So sometimes you have to have, if you had an older mate like I had, you had to put it in gear and hold it there while you drive. So we’re gonna look at this. Now, I like to tell you what I’m gonna tell you and then I tell you and and I’ll tell you what I done told you. Now, number one, I want you to take your Bible looking chapter four, Philippians and chapter four, the book of Philippians and chapter four.

When we look at this verse, the statement is made here, attitude determines your altitude, because if you’ve got a bad attitude, you’re not going to go very far. You’re not going to accomplish very much because you’ve got a bad attitude. Most people do not like to stay around a person who’s got a bad attitude. So if you whine and pine all the time, then people don’t want that. They don’t want to listen to it. So if you’re more positive, then a lot of people want to be positive.

They want to have hope. They want to have something they can look forward to. But look here in the book of Philippians in chapter 4 and look in verse 8. Finally brethren, what’s ever things are true, what’s ever things are honest, what’s ever things are just, what’s ever things are pure, what’s ever things are lovely, whatever things are good. Report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, on the line those four words of think on these things.

Because you see, you got to learn how to think because your actions are a byproduct of the way that you think. So actions are born within the mind. So it is important that a child of God learn how to think and he says in the God of peace will be with you and then he says there in verse 9, those things which you have both heard and learned and seen in me, and here’s the biggest word in the whole verse, a do.

And the God of peace will be with you. So that’s important. Now look at number two, Philippians chapter three and verse 13, just looked there in chapter three verse 13. Because now you’re talking about have gold will travel. Now in the most of y’all have heard years and years ago, there was this cowboy on there named Paladin. Remember, paladin? Have gun will travel. Remember that? have done what you’re, well now you’ve got to have a goal will travel. When you don’t know where you’re going, in your road will take you there.

In other words, you have no directions, you’re not going to accomplish things, you don’t know when you’ve arrived, you don’t know what success means to you because you haven’t defined what is your purpose. Every person has to have a purpose in life. So what is your purpose, why are you alive? Now I always say if you have a pulse, you got a purpose. You got a pulse, I got one, I got one. But then what are you alive for?

What are you living for? What is consuming your time, consuming your life? What really means the most important thing to you? Well, this is something that you have to have. So in verse 13, he says, brethren, my, he said, I cannot not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things what you’re behind and reaching forth into those things what you are before, you cannot go back and change your life. It’s already done. Only thing you can do is work with what you have now until the rest of your life.

accomplish as much as you possibly can. But you have to forget some things and to remember other things, the things that God wants you to do, looking verse 14. I press or I run toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. If God walked into this room right now and He says, I want you to follow me, you say, well, I’ll have to check with my wife. I’ll have to check with my husband.

I’ll have to check with my parents. If God Almighty walked in here and told you what He wanted you to do with your life, you said, well, I already have my own career. Well, I’ve got my own plans. God says, I want you to be a missionary and I want you to go here or there or there or there. Well, I can’t do that. Lord, you just don’t understand. Yeah. Don’t you wish God was smart as you and you could see and understand all this.

So now the next thing I want you to look there, 1 Corinthians 9, 1 Corinthians and 9. Turn in your Bible, 1 Corinthians and chapter 9. Because here in these verses it talks to us about, well, running a race. In verse 19, for though I be free from all men yet have I made myself serve on the wall, I made myself serve on it. You see, some people that say, Lord, just go ahead and do with me anything that you want to do.

And then they don’t do anything. I guess God didn’t want me. me. Lord, make me a soul winner. God says, you make yourself a soul winner. So if I don’t become a soul winner, it’s not my fault. It’s God’s fault because I asked him to do it. Lord, if you want me to go someplace, go ahead and send me there and I’ll wait until you do and they never move. You can be a car on the right road, on the right direction, on the right lane and no gas in the car and you’re going to sit right there.

You know what will happen if you watch the world go by? It will. It will. And opportunities are on wheels. And if you don’t learn how to take advantage of opportunities, they’ll just pass you right on by. And then one day you’re going to stay before the Lord, Lord, you never gave me any opportunities. I could have done something if you’re, yeah, God, if God is God, but it’s always God’s fault. That ain’t God’s fault. You see, you can be as grateful the Lord as you choose to be.

You can be as dedicated to the Lord as you choose to be. Now, this little statement plan for profit, That means every day you should plan something to be successful. Something you’re going to be faithfulTracker today because you know that down the road that faithfulness today is going to pay off tomorrow. Because you understand the simple little thing called, your future is being determined by your obedience to God today. You’re not faithful today, it’s costing you. You just don’t know how much it’s costing you.

Don’t waste any day. I don’t like wasting time. I lift so much by schedule. If I want to do something wrong, I’d have to schedule it. But the next thing, number four, number four, now that ninth chapter, you need to read the whole thing because you’re talking about running a race, and setting aside certain things, and striving for the mastery so that you can get on an incorruptible crown, but you’ve got to have something in, you’ve got to run.

You can’t say, Lord, just give me the rewards. Well, I’d have done something, but I just turned it all over to the Lord and told the Lord to. I know they needed somebody to drive the bus, so I asked God to drive it. I know they needed a Sunday school teacher, but I asked God to teach it. God works through people. And that’s why it’s so important. But there’s very few leaders today because they don’t lead in all these areas we’re talking about.

So you got to plan for profit. That means a short pencil is better than a long memory. And you write things down. What is your purpose in life? What do you want? Now, look in Hebrews in chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10, and verse 30, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 35. I tell the people that think big, act big, do big. Why? Because we got aowa big God. Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is. It’s just somebody might cut it off.

I would rather attempt and fail than not attempt at all. It’s better to aim at something and miss than to aim at nothing and hit it. These things are good things to remember. The Hebrews in chapter 10 verse 35, cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. In other words, because of your confidence in what the word of God says, you’ll do some work. And the work is gonna produce results. And the result is what God gonna reward you for.

So you wanna be rewarded and every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labor. If you don’t do anything for God, you’re hurting yourself. I heard nobody, I can be hurting yourself. Now, get this. In number five, fear, not control will destroy success. In second Timothy in chapter one, in verse seven, for God hath not given unto us the spirit of what? Fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind. If you don’t do some things for God, because well, I’m afraid, I’m afraid, I’m afraid, I’m afraid, I’m afraid, you don’t have a sound line.

You say I’m losing my mind? Could be. Because God says he didn’t give it to you and you were not born worrying. You learned how to do that. Worry, fret, all those things. You had to learn how to do all of that. And then after you’ve learned it, isn’t it wonderful? Just keeps you up at night. Worrying. So you don’t have to cast your cares upon the Lord because you can handle all yourself. And when it breaks you down, live what God did to me.

And so God takes the blame. So number five, a leader must know how to handle fear, because if you don’t, fear will stop you. You’re not gonna serve over because you’re fearful, afraid, afraid you’re gonna be a failure. Boy, I had to battle this year. Like I said, first time I taught all of this year was in 1975. I went down to Florida Bible College and then, you asked me to speak, and so I talked on this. Of course, they gave me a lot of time.

today, I’ve only got two hours, so I’m not gonna have to hurry. Number six, sowing before reaping. Do the farmers reap the harvest before they plant the harvest? That’d be backwards, wouldn’t it? That’d be great. But you see, when it comes to children of God, we know we have to plant before something grows. And it has to grow before we can have a harvest. So if you want good results down the road, you better start planting the right thing now.

just because you messed up down in the past and you don’t have good results or fruit from it, doesn’t mean you should not plant today because tomorrow on down the road, you’re gonna wish you had. Read the good results down the road from the good seed you’ve thrown today and watch things grow in your Christian life. Many of God’s children are barren. Means they’re not fruitful and that’s so very important. So in Galatians and chapters, He talked about, don’t mock God.

How do you mock God by mocking sin? It doesn’t matter. I’m gonna get away with it, it’s not that bad. There’s no consequences to it. What’s whoever man soeth that shall he also reap? So the law of the harvest is that you sow now, you reap later. And whenever you reap, if you sow the wrong thing, you’re gonna reap the wrong things. So the law of the harvest is you’re gonna reap later than you sow, and you’re gonna reap the same thing you sowed and a lot more of it.

So that’s important to keep in mind. All right, number seven, look at number seven. Colossians chapter three, let’s look at that verse. Colossians and chapter three. You’ll notice this is a wonderful verse about the two natures that we’re not gonna discuss right now, but it does talk about that. But it talks to the wives on what they’re supposed to do. It talks to the husbands and what they’re supposed to do. The children and what they’re supposed to do. and the servants and what they’re supposed to do.

So you finally get down here in the verse 23 and says, and whatsoever you do, do it heartily and to the Lord and not on the men. And here’s the reason why. Verse 24, knowing that the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. Whatever you do for the husband and the wife and the children, the servants, Everybody, you’re serving God. So serve the Lord with all your heart. As unto God, you’re serving God.

Come to church this morning, if you did it to honor God, then God’s gonna reward you for it. If you do whatever you do for the Lord, then God’s gonna bless you. Don’t worry about it. How God’s gonna do it, He’ll take care of that. You just do the serving part. You see, this is not written on how to get to heaven. None of these notes here has anything to buy. How to go to heaven, because going to heaven is free.

You have to do anything. It’s a gift. Only thing you have to trust Christ is your Savior. And when you trust Christ, it gives you eternal life, you’re His child and you’ll go to heaven whenever you die. So number eight, I want you to see this. In number eight, the book of James. The book of James in chapter four, I mentioned to you a little bit earlier, but I want you to see this verse. And the reason is versus so important because it’s talking about your environment, the environment that you have.

And you need to be careful kind of people you hang around. You hang around negative people and it’s gonna influence the way you think. And that’ll influence the way you live. It’ll influence whether or not you’re positive or you’re negative, whether you’ll be found faithful or unfaithful. So in chapter four, look there, he’s talking to Christians. He’s not talking to lost people. Book of James is two believers. He says he had daughters and adulteresses. No, you’re not, that the friendship of the world.

You’re gonna underline those words, friendship of the world. That’s having the wrong environment. wrong friends. You see, I had to make a decision in my life. I had to learn how to choose better people to hang around. And I really didn’t have to drop any of my old friends. Number one is I didn’t have many. Number two, they left me because every one of them I tried to get to trust the Lord and they’d see me come and they’d run the other way.

So I didn’t have to, you know, break off from my friends. They broke off from me. And it’s not because I was so holy. It was because I was a rude and crude. I didn’t always do everything the way I should have done it. I just didn’t know how to be nice sometimes. I would say this truth, but the way I said the truth, well, it rubbed some people the wrong way. And I always feel like, you know what I can’t.

If I rub you the wrong way, turn around. But it didn’t work. Look at number nine. Number nine is talking about in the book of Galatians, bear ye one another’s burdens, and he’s talking about ye which are spiritual. Try to help those that are carnal. In other words, in chapter five of the same book, it talks about walking the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So some of God’s children will walk in the spirit.

Some of God’s children are gonna walk in the flesh. So he says, you that are walking in the spirit, try to help those that are walking in the flesh. Restore them to where they want to walk in the spirit. And you gotta watch how you treat them lest you become guilty of the very same thing you’re talking about them getting guilty because you become lifted up with pride. And I’m not gonna lower myself to that. That’s what servant Lord is.

And then he talks about bury you one another’s burdens. So you’ve got to bury yours, and then you gotta bury somebody. We often tell people on third Sunday dinner, cook enough of your family and what? And a little bit more. And a little bit more, what’s the other little bit more for then? Well, that’s for somebody else. You gotta do what you have to do. You got responsibility, but then you gotta try to help somebody else. Maybe you can’t do that.

So it’s important. Look at the next statement. Number 10 in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 16, you have to turn to it. But just simply me talking, redeem the times for the days are, redeem the time for the days of evil. You don’t have much time to live. Life is short. Just the other day. Just the other day. I was only 50 years old. Just the other day. And when I came down here, I was only 51. And look how all I got in just nine years.

Now math was not my forte. I went to a public school. But number 10 is don’t procrastinate. Don’t procrastinate. That means don’t always put off things. You got things to get done, try to get it done as soon as you possibly can. And it means do it now. That’s redeeming the time because you see, we may not have tomorrow. Do what you can do and what you’re supposed to do, day. Number 11, adversities are God stepping stones to success.

So in the book of Romans in chapter 5 and in verse 3, it talks about tribulation work and what’s that word that everybody needs but you? Patience, that’s it. Everybody needs patience but me, but everybody needs patience. And so tribulation work and be, what does it mean? It means it forces you’d have to wait because God doesn’t always do what you want when you want it done. And so you’ve got to sit and pout for a while and learn a few little lessons in humility and you can’t be everything you want to be and you can’t do everything you want to do and you can’t go everywhere, you want to go and you can’t have everything you want to have.

It kind of, well, it kind of helps a person grow up a little bit. And I’ve had parents say, well, I don’t want my child to go through what I did. I do. I want them to learn just like I learned. What, doing without? I told my kids you can have anything you can afford. Now, what’s wrong with that? I’ve had people say, you know, my dad left me this. Trump said, but he only left me 100 million. Man, you know, I might be able to start a business if I had 100 My daddy, you know, he was a bootlegger and he willed it to me and lion.

Do you hear about this year of Joshua and he got picked up for do all my daddy did? He had to go before the judge. The judge says, are you the Joshua that made the Sun stand still? He said, no, I was the Joshua made the moon china. What you’re going to have, adversities and you know it. Now in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 18, look at that verse very quickly. First John chapter 4 and verse 18. Verse 18 says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

Love and fear are emotional things that we go through. I love you. Now we know that The heart does nothing but pump blood. But we always say, I love you with all my heart. You really mean I love you with all my mind? But think how that sounds to say, I love you with all my mind. You still don’t have a ring to it. So you can go ahead, I love you with all my heart. I just tell the teenagers, it says, look, whenever two teenagers look at each other, they just kind of googoo eyes.

I says, it’s just puppy love. But it’s real to the puppy. But you have to be careful because you can lead to a dog’s life. But whenever you look at each other, that guy looks at you and he goes, you run and don’t look back for 30 years. Just keep moving. Now, number 12, runaway emotions is life jumping out of gear. It means that the gear stick is not staying in gear. It’s jumping out of gear. And runaway emotions, that means you have to watch how you receive things.

I guess you have to watch a little bit tell things. So people whether they’re happy or sad depends on how they’re thinking and that thinking can be good and it can be bad and so you have to be very careful. And the last line down there is when you throw mud you lose ground. I thought you’d like that little statement. Now let’s go back to number one. Now the reason I did that because if we don’t finish I’ve already finished.

Now we’re gonna take a look at the sub points. Number one a leader know that attitude determines your altitude. All actions are born within the mind. Your potential is established by your positive, biblical attitude. Do you have that? Renew the caliber of your thoughts to renew the caliber of your life. If you don’t like the way things are in your life and you want to learn how to live better and differently and exalted a little bit more than change the caliber of your thoughts and you’ll change the caliber of your life.

And the thing that can cause you to, when God says be not conformed to this world that be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. There is something better. Now some people you probably could live, eaten out of a garbage can, but you are taking good smoky bones and eat a juicy mistake or long-born. But if you had one of those and if you had a choice, I wouldn’t need that of the garbage can.

But see, that’s what a lot of God’s children are doing. They’re living in a garbage can because they just don’t know how good it can be because they never gave God a chance to really serve the Lord and go out on that limb andimei be so afraid knowing that if I do what God wants with God, not only is going to bless God, must bless my life. He has to bless me because he promised. And we can either believe God or not.

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 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 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. Taught 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.