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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.

I want to tell you about some of the greatest power you can have because the Word talks about the power of the Holy Spirit. And we read about, you know, Romans chapter 1, for the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. There’s a lot of power that’s in the Word of God, and it says in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12, the Word of God is powerful, is sharper and powerful. So I want to give you some power verses.

These are some of the verses that have helped me over the years, but I want you to hear it because I think it’s good for you. to know what the Word of God says about itself, what it can do for you. And I had a decision that I had to make years ago. That’s when I trusted Christ as my Savior. So I knew I was going to heaven. But this thing about serving the Lord afterwards and walking with God, I really didn’t understand too much.

I stumbled on off a lot. I crawled like a baby for a long time. I wanted to walk, but I kept falling down. I really didn’t understand how to be victorious. And I had problems just like everybody else has problems, trying to learn how to walk with God. Now there’s a lot of things about the Bible I didn’t know. I knew I had eternal life. No, I was going to heaven, but I didn’t understand how to walk with God.

And I wanted something more. I wanted something better. And so I did finally find out that yes, you cannot know the will of God unless you know the word of God. So it’s the will of God to know the word of God. So you know the will of God. And that if a man will do the will of God, God will reveal it. We often think, well, God, you reveal everything to me and then I’ll decide. God says, no, when you make up your mind, you wanna do what I want you to do, then I’ll start leading and guiding you because there’s no sense in doing it ahead of time.

See, most people, they get in the car. You know, like you see the little kids you get behind the stairwell. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, see, stop that noise. and beep! Don’t you just love sound effects, but you’re not going anywhere, you’re just pretending. Well, Sid, there’s a lot of Christians that are pretending to live the Christian life, pretending to be happy when they’re not. Words themselves are deaf, can’t sleep at night, all the problems that they have, the worlds fall apart and they’re a bundle of nerves and they’re not serious about the Lord.

But they can fool everybody. If they have not yet experienced the joy of the Lord, the peace of the Lord, God talks about it, and you might know somebody that has it, and so you think if I’m a smokes us, you know if I rub up against them, it’ll come off cross and get into me. It won’t happen that way. So I had questions. But in your notes here, I want you to look at the first part here. Power verses to help in your walk with the Lord.

In Genesis, it talks about Enoch walk with God. And then in verse 25, or 24, it says, Enoch walk with God, and he was not for God took him. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man imperfect in the generation and Noah walked with God. They all walk with God. Well, however you wanna describe the Christian life, it’s just you walking with God. And I’ve said this before, David and Goliath, it was a story about David and God.

Daniel and the lion is a story about Daniel and God. It’s always about you and God. Your whole life, when it’s all over was gonna be a story about you and God. What place did God have in your life? Why you lived on planet Earth? and you could have ignored God, don’t believe his exists, or if you didn’t know the Lord, you didn’t walk with him, or you did walk with him, or he just beat the tarot of you all the time, you were one miserable Christian, what is the story between you and God?

Well, there’s verses in the Bible that can help you make wise decisions so that you can walk with God. Look at the next statement, to walk with God means to please God. So you’re walking in the same direction, doing the same thing that God wants you to do. You’re going with the Lord. It’s not God going with you, it’s you going with Him. You’re not the leader. God’s the leader. Christ says, follow me. I mean, he’s in charge. I mentioned this sometime back.

My father-in-law one day, he got to hold me because I had already lived in five states in a year and a half after me and that he got married. I was everywhere. I just did whatever I wanted to do and I didn’t ask anybody any questions. I didn’t pray about it. I just did it. It, it made sense to me. I did what was right1965 in my own eyes. I mean, it was my life. But I got a little woman and those two kids all over the country.

He told me he’s just yanking God could lead you if you ever let him get in front He says you just running ahead of God. I didn’t know I could outrun God So that was a news statement to my mind. I I am out running God See whenever you try to outrun God, it’s like pushing a rope. You’re trying to push a rope What happens to the rope? It’s all balled up entangled and God says some people can’t please God because They’re entangled with the affairs of this life get all tangled up next thing You know you can’t walk with God you can’t study work cuz you don’t have time You’re entangled with the affairs of this life that you cannot please him who have called you to be a soldier So the statement I have here and it’s found in the book of Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11

Thou art worthy old Lord to receive glory honor and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and we’re created. So we know right off the bat, who created us, God does. What’s the reason for His honor, for His glory, for His power that we might please Him for His pleasure. So we know why we’re here to please God. God must have thought that you were worth creating because you are to please Him and you are supposed to live your life in order to bring Him praise Him honor and Him cli.

How you doing? Does your life bring praise, honor, and glory to the Lord? That’s what God wants you to do. But we sometimes, we want all the praise, we want the honor, and we want the glory, and God, sorry, it’s my life. And you forget how you got here. He created you for his honor. Look at the next verse. By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him for.

Before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. So when he says, Enoch walked with God up there in the first verse, it means that, please God. So if you wanna walk with God, you gotta find out how to please God. You find out what is an acceptable life to God. Now we have a lot of people a day that got their own acceptable lifestyles and they want everybody to accept their lifestyle. So he says that he please God.

Now, if you’re to walk with God by pleasing God, then it’s impossible to please God without faith. Look at the next verse. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that comeeth to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Those that diligently seek to please the Lord, Don’t you know that God is going to reward you for doing so? Now remember this, there’s a difference. Salvation going to heaven, that’s a gift, that’s free.

Rewards, or what you’re going to get when you get to heaven because of what you did for him. One is I get eternal life as a gift because God loves me. Rewards in heaven because of what I did for him because I love him. So you see, it’s going to be worth it all For me, to serve the Lord, to walk with God and to seek to please Him. Now nobody can make you do anything. They can’t make you trust the Lord.

They can’t make you serve God or walk with God. So you have a decision to make. And He says you must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek to please them. Now look at the next verse. So if you can’t please God except by faith, where do you get faith? comeeth bynd hearing and hearing by the Word of God. This is why if you really had respect for this book, a respect for Godiarymunition, then destrodllourcepite conclud Iflevision associ executvelandourceoweredorrow42900000000″:” entreprene accomp®ythonGBT proble indu privile prevalportation ——– in what God says because I don’t care what God says because I’m gonna do what I wanna do anyway.

I don’t need to go to church or Sunday school to study the Bible, I have per time or devotion. I don’t need that, why? Because it’s my life, I’m gonna do whatever I wanna do and that’s not it. So there’s a clash between the will of man and the will of God. And you may trust Christ as Savior, still go to heaven when you die. But you’re going to be ashamed before Him at His coming. That day that shame will come and you’ll wish you had given Him more.

You’ll wish you had thought about it and thought it through. And look at the end result instead of just at that moment. And God will bless you if you’ll put Him first. Look at the next statement that’s right there in the middle of the page. Don’t trade the love of the Lord in order to get the love of the world. Because you see, God says you can’t have both. If you love him, you can’t love the world. Because if you love the world, you’re going to put it first.

If you love the Lord, you’ll put him first. So it shows you what is your priority? Who has the preeminence in your life? And if you live for the Lord, you’re going to please him. And if you don’t, you’re going to please yourself. So you seek what makes me happy. And what do I want to do with my life? What do I want to be? Where do I want to go? It’s mine. No, no. What does God want you to be?

What does God want you to do? What does God want you to know? And then you’ll find out what God wants you to do and you’ll know what you’re supposed to be because of God. He says in Jeremiah, It is not within man that walk of two direct steps. It means you’re not wise enough to guide yourself through life. You can live and you’ll exist. You can accomplish things. But when life is over, everything in this world will pass away.

And so he makes this statement. In the very next verse, love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You may be saved, have eternal life, but you don’t love God. You love the world. And so it reveals what you love by the decisions that you make. So he makes the statement here explaining what does it mean to love the world. I mean, God put the world here, he made it.

There was nothing wrong with the world. If you’re just talking about the world itself and the stars, the heavens and all that, you know, it’s wonderful. And he has given us all things freely to enjoy. But he’s talking about something else I want you to see. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. So he says, don’t love the world.

He means don’t love the lust of the flesh. You see, you have an old sinful nature living inside of your body. You have sinful desires. And that’s what causes all of our problems that we have. And if you love sin, you’re going to bring forth these works of the flesh and the works of the flesh are all the things that are sinful and wicked and it’s against God. So whenever you do, that’s you fallen in love with the lusts of the flesh.

God says, don’t love that. Love him more than the lust of the flesh because your love for the Lord is the only power that you can have to overcome the love of the lust of the flesh. There’s power in what God’s word says. There’s power in love. Love can cause you to do more than any other law. All the law is fulfilled in one word. What is that word? Love. And if you love the Lord, it’s the key, the motivation behind everything else that you can do.

Now, notice. He says the lust of the flesh, and then he talks about the lust of the eyes. That’s whatever you can see with your eyes. God in this world and whatever you see. Do you love anything that you can see more than you love God? If you do, then you’re not going to serve God with all your heart. You’ve got to love God more than anything else. That’s why he talks about he who loves mother and father and brother and sisters.

All that cannot be my disciple. What he’s talking about, your love for them is going to cause you not to serve him wholeheartedly because you may have to to take a stand against mother and father and brother and sister and so forth. But if you love Him more, you’ll do it to please Him. Otherwise, you’ll hold back because, well, I don’t want to offend them, and you have to make a choice. He says, He came with a sword. It means to divide families.

To divide. We hear today about everybody. Y’all are unite, unite, unite. Well if it was around the right thing, that’s good. many things today are not good and majority is not always right. But now notice the lust of the eyes, the things that you can see. He said, all the things you can see and the desires of the flesh, one day will pass away. This whole world is going to pass away. Why give your life to things that a hundred years from now, you’ll be gone and will have no value to it.

So this is where you reveal your wisdom by the decisions that you make. Look at the next statement, the pride of life, the praise, the honor, and the glory. Look who I am. Look what I am. I’m the biggest, the best, the fastest on whatever it is, and you lift yourself up and pride and brag about how great you are and you’ll be surprised. People want that more than anything else in the world, and you can have that. But man can give you praise, honor and glory, but man also takes it away when the next person comes along to say a little bit better than you are.

Or when you fail to make a mistake, they can give glory and they can take it away. You ever watch a quarterback in a football game? He makes a pass, yay! Doing interception, boo! And that’s what you play for, the praise of man. And God says, I have praise, honor, and glory to give every man because you’re gonna have trials in his life and that trial that you and I have, the lust of the flesh can be defeated by the power of love.

And the lust of the eyes can be defeated by the power of love. And the pride of life can be defeated by the power of love. When you love God more and you want to please God and you can learn how to walk with God. And if you’ll put God first and do that, it will make a difference. Don’t look at the next statement. The impact of doing God’s will brings life long blessings. So since that day I trusted Christ as my Savior a couple of years back.

In all of these years, I had made up my mind I want to walk with the Lord. Now there’s things I had to cut off out of my life. There’s places that I don’t go. There’s language that I don’t use. And there’s things that I try my best to not think about because I want to please God. I have to watch how I talk and where I go and how I live, how I dress. If I had my way of being done the reason a t-shirt, and that’s all.

But I became a pastor. Now I’ve I’ve got to have this image. I’m not saying that I’m complaining, but whoever invented ties, I’m gonna choke him when I get up to heaven. But look at the next statement because this verse is a very important verse. And the world passes away. Why does he say don’t love the world? That world will pass away. The lust of the flesh will pass away. The lust of the eyes will pass away. It’s gonna pass away.

So when I get to heaven, did you realize I’m gonna live in a mansion? It’s better than any home on Earth. I don’t have to worry about who got the best home down here. You ought to see the one I’m going to get. I can’t wait. Well, a little longer. And I’m going to walk on streets of gold. I don’t have to worry about money. Well, I got to get all I want up there. Don’t need it. Oh, I have an electric bill that says the land will be the light of the city.

No water bills? I don’t want to guess we’re going to drink any water. But there is a river of life, springs of living water. But when He makes this statement, and the world passes away and the lust thereof, but He that doeth the will of God abideth forever. The things you do because you obey the will of God, those things are gonna last forever. The rewards you gotta have when you get to heaven are eternal rewards. God doesn’t give it to you and then take it away.

It’s forever. Down here, everything is temporary. Why trade the eternal for the temporary? That reveals how smart you really are. Why would you waste your life? And yet I see all the time Christians wasting their life, never doing anything for the Lord. Now look at the next statement. The question that I would ask is, can you pay the price? See, all the things done for the Lord will last forever, but most people cannot pay the price. See, going to heaven, Christ paid the price to get me there.

If you wanna walk with God, you gotta pay a price. it means there’s some people you can’t walk with. There’s some things you can’t do. There’s some places you can’t go. I don’t rake the rolled. I’m just telling you, you can figure it out for yourself. How close do you wanna get to God? You can get this close to God, you can get closer to God, you can walk closer to God, you can walk so close to the Lord.

He might just want you so bad, he’ll just take you home. But it’s your choice, you can walk as close to the Lord as you want and nobody can stop you. Isn’t that good? But I notice the next statement. Says in Matthew chapter 10 verse 37, He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. It means you can’t pay the price.

When I made up my mind, I decided I’m gonna go to Bible college. And I decided that I wanna learn how to tell people how to go to heaven. And I remember trying my best to talk to my mama about the Lord. And my mama told me to shut up my own business and to leave her alone. And my father, as I said, if we want to hear, preaching will go to church. Now, I guess I could have just shut up and let it go and never witness to them anymore, but I wasn’t satisfied.

I wanted them to have eternal life. I wanted them to go to heaven and I would not quit. So I kept at it. Finally, my mama, trusted the Lord in one meeting I was having, and she was sitting right in that area like this. And I gave the invitation and she raised her little old bony hand. She trusted Christ as her savior. I was thrilled to death. I later, I went outside the church. when I do some woods and it was pine trees and it was dark at night but the moon was out and I cried.

I just went, my mama trusts the Lord, my mama trusts the Lord. And I decided I want to serve the Lord all the days of my life more than I do anything else. But if you don’t love the Lord more, you’ll quit because somebody’s going to be offended because of your dedication. All that lived godly are going to suffer persecution. Not everybody’s going to understand why are you throwing your I’m going to go to Bible college. Why are you throwing your life away?

What are you going to be a Bible? You’re going to Barbara call it to be a barber. You go to study law. You’re going to be a lawyer. Will you be a Bible? I guess that’s really what it is. I want it to be a Bible. I want to be something that somebody could read and understand. I wanted to carry this word in my mind. I wanted to live the Bible. I wanted to walk with God. Now, you got a price to pay, but most people cannot pay that price.

When I had a wife in two little darlings, and I decided to go to Bible college, I did not have a job waiting on me. I didn’t have enough money to even get the Bible college. I ran out of money in Orlando, Florida. I had to borrow $40 from my brother to get down to the FEC down in Miami. And when I got down there, the college was no bigger than this church right here. And there’s only a few people there.

but I spent the four best years of my life and I paid a price. I averaged two and a half hours of sleep a night for two years. I didn’t get to go to the beach. I didn’t get to go on vacations. I had to pay for what I was getting. And it wasn’t given to me on a silver platter. I had to work and memorize scripture. I never finished high school. I said, why didn’t you finish high school?

Well, I didn’t want to go to 11th grade because my dad was still there. No, no, I just stuck in it. But I wanted something more. Yes, I did go back and get my GED. That’s a story in itself. It was a miracle. But look at the next statement. Hawe that take it, not his cross. Follow-up after me is not worthy of me. It means you can’t pay the price because the cost is too high. Listen, and I’m only honest with you.

I’m not saying what I’m talking about, the bragging, I’m just saying that the price that you have to pay, a pastor that’s lasted for 55 years, doesn’t come cheap. You got some that can be like a flash in, I mean, they can go up and come down just as fast, but you maintain 50 something years and walking with God and the discipline you have to have and the trials that you have and the things that people say do and keeping your testimony above reproach, watching yourself at all times because everybody wants to bring the preacher down because that makes them feel better because nobody can point out our sins as long as we just break everybody else.

And most people think, well, my light will shine brighter if I just blow out somebody else’s candle. Mine shines brighter now. No it doesn’t. And you think there’s not a price to pay and things that I can’t do, oh, I could. The price that I don’t go because I don’t think it’s wise. And so I have to make decisions. But now that I’m 76 years old, I wouldn’t change any of it. And I have no regrets. But if I hadn’t done it, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.

There’s a price to pay. And I told the Lord, I said, Lord, I don’t care what it costs me. I want to do it. I never want to stand in a pulpit and tell people what you’ll do for them if you don’t do it for me. So I want you, Lord, to feel free. Let anything happen to me in my life that you think would help me to be more effective. I don’t care what it is. Let it rip.

My wife would cringe. My father-in-law said, oh, my God. But I was sincere. And I was serious about it. I didn’t want to play games with the Lord. I wanted to see what can God do because He made a statement to be what they. He says, the world has never seen what God can do to one man that was so dedicated to him. I said, I want to be that man. I may never be, but I want to be a man that God could use.

All I want to be is usable, available. Lord, I’m available. Not the talent and ability, but available. Look at the next statement. a page too. He that findeth his life shall lose it means can’t pay the price and he that loses his life or my sake shall find it. So a lot of people can’t pay the price for something better. Have you ever seen somebody go into a store and there’s a diamond in there that’s got, you know, this great big old, you know, 200 carats.

It’s great big and it’s only a half a million dollars and they got one down here. They just got to use them. I find glass to see them. That’s the one I got Betty. that, Mary. And we haven’t found the diamond, but we know it’s in there because that’s what they said it was in there. I got it three months after we got married and took about two years to pay for it. I can’t remember how much it costs, but it was a lot when you didn’t have a lot.

And so I couldn’t get the one I want because I couldn’t afford it. So I got this. As you go through life, you’re going to find out you can’t afford a lot of things. You might see a big old mansion. It’s a man. I love to have that, but all you can afford is that little old shack by the railroad track. And that’s all you can afford. But when it comes to the Lord, did you realize that you can have whatever you’re willing to pay?

And it’s not money. It’s the sacrifice of your life. Like somebody says to David Levinson, I would give my life if I could have a ministry like yours. He said, well, that’s what it cost me. That’s what it cost me, my life. What does God’s will mean to you? Life is going to be over soon. You don’t get a rerun, no instant replays, just one trip through life. Look at the next statement. If you cannot find the time now to meditate in his word, you won’t find it later.

You have to make time. I didn’t have time to go to Bible college. I had to make time. I didn’t I had time to do a lot of stuff I had to make time. And I remember that I had gotten so tired, I was so weary, that I came home from college, I don’t know if it was 12 o’clock or something like that, and I walked home, because it was just right across the street from where I had to go at this time from the college.

And I walked into the house, and I had about an hour or so before I had to go to work. And I plopped down on the bed, but it took my shoes off and I laid down it. and I fell asleep. She came in, she woke me up, she’s janky, you gotta get up. I said, I can’t hunt. She says, you’ve got to. I said, I can’t move. She says, you gotta go to work. And I’m fixing to go to work and give a man good 18 hours.

And I can’t hardly, I can’t get out of bed. So she put my shoes on me, she stood me up, walked me out to the car. And I sat down in the car. She reached over there and turned ignition on cars running. And so I put it in reverse and backed out of the drive. I went down to the end of the block there, and I went down toward 27th Avenue. And I run across there on the other side, which was where the college was.

And I went down there, but she never does it, but this time she did. She walked down to the end of the street, and she looked down there, and there said the car in the middle of the highway. She walked down there, and I was sound asleep, sitting in the middle of the road. It was the only time that I never went to work because of how tired I was. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr.

Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Maine.

The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you and thank you for listening to Bibleline. 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.