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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. 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 prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us at 813-884-4328, or you can donate on the homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now go back there to verse 12, verse 12, a Philippians chapter two. Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence, only but now much more in my act. In other words, there was certain alert when Paul was there and there’s certain alert when Paul isn’t there. Have you ever heard of people called preacher lovers? Preacher lovers. In other words, as long as the preacher’s there, they come to church, but if the preacher’s not going to be there that Sunday, they don’t go.

They only just love the preacher whenever he’s there, they’ll go. If he’s not there, they’re not going to church. I don’t think we have that problem here. I got people who don’t come, whether it’s on Sunday morning, Sunday night or Wednesday night. But I would rather everybody just love me to death. But everybody doesn’t love you to death. But don’t worry about it. You know who you are. God loves you. Doesn’t God love you? God loves you in regards to whether anybody else does or doesn’t.

Now look what else he says here. In verse 13, for it is God which worketh in you. Now this is to the believer. Both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Is God free to accomplish his will in your life? Or do you hinder the working of God? Do you let him teach you? Do you let God raise you? Do you let God instruct you? Are you willing to do the will of God for your life? How important is God to you?

So he says, verse 14, do all things without murmuring and disputing. In other words, a lot of things will happen to you in life you can just murmur about, not a complainant. But in the book of 1 Corinthians and chapter 10, he talks about the people in the Old Testament, they murmured, consistently murmured, complaining, they didn’t like the food, they didn’t have water, sun’s too hot, sure been a long time I heard desert and they would complain and so God sent little snakes among them and those little serpents bit the people and they got poisoned and they died.

So he told them it says put you a brazen serpent upon a pole and lifted up and whosoever would look would live. He didn’t say whosoever looked and keep looking. You got to keep looking. Got to keep looking. Okay we’re walking through the desert. Where’d that pole go again? No look and live. Look live one time. When you trust in Christ’s Savior, you don’t trust Christ and then trust Christ and then trust Christ and then trust Christ and then keep trusting Christ.

But if you stop trucking, no, no, no, no, no, one time. He said, He that drinks this water will never thirst. It means you never have to do it again. And if you eat this bread, you’ll never hunger. See, that’s all eternal security. Once you trust Christ’s Savior, He gives you eternal life and will never cast you out and never lose you. Best news in the world. I want to finish with these two verses down through here. Look in verse 15, that ye may be not saved, but blameless, concerning the will of God for your life.

And harmless, the sons of God, you already have son that you may be harmless as a child of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. This world is wicked, and you’ve got to live in this whole wicked world. And so he says, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, and you ought to underline this statement in the Bible, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Now if you want to know what is God’s purpose for you in this world, to shine as lights, let men see your good works that they may glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Your good works that men may see is the light of the gospel so that they can trust Christ the Savior. If they just see your good work but you don’t tell them why, you get all the honor and the glory and the credit. But if you do it for the Lord, you want to give the honor and credit to the Lord. Now, get what he says in the next verse. Verse 16, holding forth, now how do you shine his lights in the world?

Holding forth the word of eternal life. I wonder what that is. That’s the gospel of Jesus Christ. So the Bible tells me how I’m supposed to live. So regardless of how many people who won’t do it, it’s not going to affect whether I do or I don’t. I’m going to do it because I believe it’s the book. I believe it’s right. I don’t try to be faithful because Hank Lindstrom was faithful. Ray Stanford, he was a soul in it.

I don’t want to be that because they were. I want to be because that’s the book. That’s the will of God for me. It’s also the will of God for God’s children. So he says that I may have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. In other words, it’s not in vain to teach others. but it may be in vain for other people who will not heed what God says. Here in the book of Philippians, and I want you to look there in chapter two.

And we’ll look there in verse 17, verse 17, you know, you couldn’t do much if you didn’t have people who worked so hard. Just like a woman, it goes home and she has to clean the house and what so wherever thy hands find it to do, do it with all thy might. So God, he sees everything that goes on. He sees all the work that you do, and all the work that we do for the Lord is not just, I’m witnessing to somebody.

So that’s the only thing that counts. No, everything counts. Why God’s going to have us give an account of ourselves. Everything matters. And so we’re always making decisions. And if you have to wash your car because you want it to look nice, because you just think as a Christian you should, washing your car can be honoring the Lord and cutting your grass, making your yard look nice, couldn’t be honoring the Lord. So, well, I’m a Christian and God let me have this and I want to, I just love it when Betty gets out there and cuts the grass.

She doesn’t cut the grass. I just thought I’d just throw that out there. I know there’s always somebody who believes everything I say. Would I lie to you? I don’t answer that. So, looking for 17, yay, if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith. I joy and rejoice with you all. Isn’t it wonderful to know that sometimes you’re sacrificing in order for somebody else’s faith to be stronger? Because Paul says if I don’t do what I’m doing, somebody else won’t do what they’re doing.

And you’ll see that in Philippians in chapter 1 where he made the statement in verse 12, just look at verse 12 again. He says, I would you understand brethren that the things which have happened to me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. So it’s always getting the gospel further to somebody else, reaching somebody else. He says, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. Many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident get this by my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear because of what I’m going through and I’m not afraid then they all do it and they won’t have to be afraid because you see you always encouraged by what somebody else says and does and I believe that it’s even beneficial for the missionaries to come together because sometimes you know they get isolated and

and think that, well, nobody else is doing anything. And they come and lo and behold, they see somebody else is going through the same thing they are. And they got the same, you know, suffering they got to go through and medical issues. They got kids and sometimes your kids will serve the Lord and sometimes your kids won. And they got to battle through all of that. And sometimes people will support them and sometimes they just drop their support. Anyway, it gets rough on them.

And I just think it’s wise for us be a blessing to people. But he says in verse 16, the woe one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add afflictions to my bond, but the other of love, known that I am set for the defense of the gospel. So he says in verse 18, he wasn’t then not with standing every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. In other words, regardless of their motive, he was glad he’s motivating people to go further, to do more.

And that’s what we’re talking about is always trying to challenge and motivate people. And if you’re trying to do that, say, you know, you can’t afford to quit yourself. You can’t stop. Because if you did, you think, well, what happens to all those other people? So he looked back here in Philippians in chapter two, and he says in verse 18, for the same cause also do ye joy and rejoice with me? So because of what Paul went through and because of what they’re going through, everybody rejoices together.

And then he says in verse 19, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly under you that I also made me of good comfort when I know your state. Now we know there’s two positions. You’re standing in Christ, never changes. That’s your position you have in Christ. The way God sees you right now is that you’re already in heaven. That’s how secure you are because that’s where Christ is and God sees you in him. So when Christ died, you died.

When he was buried, you were buried. When he came back from the dead, so did you. So as far as God’s concerned, you’ve already died and was buried and you rose and you’re in heaven with the Lord. That’s how God sees that’s your position in Christ that can never change. But we’re still here lo and behold. And because you’re still here, Paul said, I want to know your state, how you’re doing from day to day, the know of your affairs.

That’s why in Philippians chapter 1, look in verse 27 where he says, only let your manner of life be as it become of the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see your Eltsby absent, I may hear of in these two words your affairs, that you stand together in one spirit. This is how you’re doing. And then he says in verse 28, and nothing terrified, you got an adversary. And so you’re going through this thing. Then he’s saying it’s also not just to believe on the Lord, but also to suffer for him there in verse 29 of chapter 1.

And you’re going to go through the same conflicts that everybody else pretty much does. Did you know almost all of us goes into the same problems? Well, I’m going to say problems because you live in a sinful world. You’re going to have problems. You’re going to have problems with yourself. You’re going to have problems if you’re married. You’re going to have problems if you’re single. You’re going to have problems if you’ve got kids. You have some more problems if you’ve got grandkids.

And then you get great-grandkids. You even got more problems. Isn’t that wonderful? Because you see wisdom is learning how to solve problems or how to live and adjust the problems without you losing your mind. I had a person tell me, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind. Well, I wouldn’t give anybody a piece of your mind when you’re in most desperate need of it. And so that means if you give somebody a piece of your mind you have less of it.

Well, you’ve ever seen somebody make a mountain out of a moill. Well, what’s a moill, dirt? What’s a mountain out of the mill, we’re dirt. And so some people, all they do is just make dirt hills. That’s the wrong life, making a mountain out of nothing. But anyway, look what he says here. In verse 20, for I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state. In other words, he’s talking about what he mentions in chapter two when he talks about being like my seeing chapter two and verse two, fulfill you my joy that you be like-minded.

In other words, you think the same. You’re on the same page. This is why I like the missionaries to come because it shows that, hey, we’re like-minded. And we encourage each other to stay strong on the gospel, to keep the gospel clear, and understand we’re trying to motivate some college kids to do what these missionaries have done. And I asked one night, I said, do you have any regrets? And a couple of them told me later that I didn’t start sooner, that I waited so long.

I wish I’d have done it sooner. Joe and Terry was almost 40 years old when they finally got to the mission field. They did something? And then spent 15 years down in Guyana. Well, they worked for us for a number of years and then they went up toward Pennsylvania and a few other places, but he finally got to the mission field because that’s where he was going to go when I first saw him. And he just didn’t know where he was gonna go.

I said, well, then come out and work with us and call our rod until you find out where you want to go. So he did. Next thing you know, he was one of our principal. And then became one of our bus captains. Him and Lil’ Meen was always having a competition about who could get the most kids on their bus. And this is when we’re running four or 500 on the buses. Just think every Sunday morning you bring in four or 500 kids.

Not talking about the adults, that’s just the kids. And Terry, I bet she’s had probably 75, 80, 90 kids in her class with maybe one or two other helpers. That’s all they had. but they knew how to control those kids. And they did a great job. And so that’s how they got a lot of training of going out and reaching people. It became a tool by which they honed their skills to reaching people and praying for people. And I said, every bus route you have, and I told the ranch guy, I said, every ranch man, it’s like you’re passed on a little flock and you got to look after those people and you got to get them and win them and you got to teach and train them until they’ll do them.

do something with their lives. It’s so wonderful that after almost 40-something years, they’re still doing it. And it encourages, that encourages you. That’s why I have such hope with these other teenagers. Sometimes I get tired and weird and I just think, I’ll let somebody else do it for a change. Then I think, well, well, I’m not dead yet. Just go ahead and keep going until you, you know, you can’t do anymore. But he says, I don’t have anybody that’s so naturally like, some people can do it because it’s just like a doctor, see more, put it this way.

He says, be natural in your spiritual life and be spiritual in your natural life. In other words, just be natural. Be the way you are. In other words, you don’t put on the show. You don’t come to church and put on a fake Christian smile and act like everything. It’s a holy, holy, and you go home and you’re a dirty rat. And you’re just mean and ugly. No, no, no, no. Be the way you are. Be whatever you are.

But just be that. Be natural. Be real. Be genuine. Be sincere. He says that will naturally care for your, because he cares for you. If some people just know how to express care and concern and love for others, better than others, some do it just naturally. And some people have to really work at it, just like there’s people who got a natural singing voice. And then there’s others. They want a singer, but they’re not a singer. They love to sing, but they’re not a singer.

In other words, they can sing and carry a ton of little bit, but there’s others that you can just say, and be so blessed by listening to them. And then you have some people have a voice It’s like a potato grater, just grates on you. And you have others that can hit those high notes. And I’d love to hear her sing when she’s up here in the choir and you can hear her voice. And it’s like everybody’s singing the help behind.

And she’s got a dominating voice. And other people don’t have a dominating voice. But there’s other people who can do things like picking up the guitar and playing it naturally. Jesse, he wasn’t playing the guitar, I don’t know, four or five years ago he started to learn how to play the guitar. Now we’ve got some of the college kids who don’t know how to play the guitar. And Jim Blevins back there is trying to show some of them how to play the guitar.

Who knows, one of these days they might be able to play better than Jim Blevins. I don’t know if that’s possible. You’re always teaching somebody how to do something. That’s what makes your life important. What he says here in verse 21, for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. In other words, most people are self-centered. You ever heard of self image, self, self, self? Well, the first four letters ought to tell you what mainly the problem is, self, flesh, self, me, my, I.

You watch little children, when they’re born and they can learn how to play with toys and look at it, mine, mine, mine. And if somebody else wants to play with them, they could be mean and nasty, quick. And you don’t even have to teach them how to do it. But they learn what mine, mine, me. And you don’t think that they’re little babies and kids, they don’t care about what adults want or think. It’s all about them. The whole world revolves around them.

Well some kids never grow up all physically, but not spiritually. Now look what he says in verse 22, but ye know the proof of him that as a son with the Father, he has served with me in the gospel. He says he’s been like a son to me. And he says he has served with me in the gospel. So that means evangelistically speaking. It means as far as reaching people, the purpose of winning souls, it’s for the gospel’s sake.

And that’s like Paul says, the furtherance of the gospel. So the purpose of the Christian life is about that. You take the gospel and reaching people out of the mix, and you don’t have much to live for. What’s the purpose? But if you keep that as the primary issue, the goal, then everything else falls into place. I try to tell the kids, I said, you know, you talk about the four talks, where you know you talk to God and he talks to you.

So you talk to God through prayer and he talks to you through the word. So you read the word so he can talk to you. See a lot of people they don’t mind talking to God but they don’t want God talking to them so they don’t read the Bible. And then talking to other Christians then that’s good fellowship that’s what you ought to do and then talking to the lost. Now these three here we can do all of that in heaven.

There’s only one thing we cannot do in heaven. Talk to the lost. So I wonder why we’re here. So that we do these three, talk to God, read His word, and talk to others, so we can do this one. Take this one out of the mix, you lost the purpose for this. It’s like having a flagpole. And a flagpole has got guide wires on it to hold it nice and steady and straight and so forth unless you put it way down deep and you you have a flag.

Well, the purpose of the pole is to have the flag. Now, if you’re not going to have the flag, you don’t need the pole. Well, see, that’s kind of like a Christian in this world. You’re like, you’re the flag pole. And these guide wires are that’s your character that keeps you standing straight and strong. But the reason for all this character is so you can stand straight and wave your flag, which is the gospel. take away the gospel, you’ve lost the purpose for standing straight and strong, and you’ve lost the purpose of character.

But when you want to wave the gospel and you want people to trust Christ as Savior, you have a reason for all the discipline you go through, because you want to reach people. If you don’t have any character, nobody’s going to listen to you. That’s why you are supposed to watch everything you say and what you do and where you go. because you need the guy wires to maintain your standing position, your states keep strong so that you can keep doing what God wants you to do.

But you take the gospel away and there’s no purpose for you being here. You’re just living your life and you’ll live your life in vain. What’s the purpose? And many Christians live their lives in vain. Look what He said up in verse 16, holding forth the word of life. There’s your flag that I as the flagpole may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain neither labored in vain. In other words I didn’t, did I stand for nothing?

What do you stand for? If you don’t stand for something you what? Fall for anything. So anyway go down here now to verse 23 him therefore I hope to sin presently. As soon as I shall see how it will go with me.” See, sometimes we always, well, if I serve the Lord, God’s gonna tell me everything that’s gonna happen. He’s gonna reveal everything. And everything’s gonna go, no, no. Paul had to wait and see, he had adversaries. He was in prison.

He didn’t know how long he’s gonna be there. He was hoping he could get out. He said that I wanna see you again as he makes a statement. He says, in verse 24, But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly. And was he wants to do that. See up in verse 19, Timothy, shortly and down there and shortly. In the words, pretty soon, pretty soon. I want to be able to come pretty soon, but he kept saying, you know, rejoice and be glad and be filled with joy, all these things.

And look at all the things he was going through. So we as God’s children, sometimes we don’t have everything going our way. And just like you may not know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Look what Paul says. He makes a statement, as soon as I shall see how it will go with me. He doesn’t know the future. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen. And that’s why he makes a statement in the book of Acts. He says, neither count on my life dear unto myself that I may finish my course with joy and the ministry that God has given to me.

He says, I just want to finish my course with joy. In other words, when you finish, you should be filled with joy up to the day you finish your course. And some people, they get unglued and fall away from serving the Lord and don’t finish well. You want to finish well. Keep serving the Lord. Have a little life in you. Put a little spring in your step. Put a song in your heart. Don’t go around showing people how miserable you are.

How everything is going against you. Do you like it when people would just pour mouth all the time? Just pour mouth. Never have anything. I can’t go nowhere and just whan, whan, whan, whan, whan. Somebody said, you want some crackers with that? No, crackers go with wine. I don’t drink wine, so I don’t. But I have a lot of crackers. I’ve had a lot of crackers. And so you got to go through life, learned to encourage. Lift up your spits.

It’s been an encourager, not somebody always moaning and groaning. Look up here. Letting this hand represent you and me and the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God says that He loves us, He hates our sin, and for us to pay for it is eternal separation from God. But God loves us. He wants us to go to heaven. But to go to heaven we have to be perfect. His righteousness has got a none of us are perfect.

We’ve all sinned. come short of God’s perfection. So God says, you cannot earn eternal life. You can’t work your way to heaven. Unless any man should boast. So God says, I’m going to do something for you, and I’ll make it free. That sounds pretty good. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He was the Lord. See, He came into the world, lived 33 and a half years, didn’t sin. So He didn’t have to die. But because He loved us, He took our place.

He took our sins. He paid 14 back from the dead, said that if you and I, if we would believe he did it for us, he would give us as a free gift everlasting life. His death for my sins would become my payment. I don’t have to make. So now I have eternal life and I’m going to heaven whenever I die, but I’m not there yet. So the Lord in order to live here gave me His power, the power of His mind, the Holy Spirit to indwell us.

And if you will yield yourself to Him, He will teach you how to live. The Lord can teach you how to live. How to handle every trial, every tribulation, and every trial. every temptation, he can teach you everything you need to know. But you got to let him. He will take you through his word and he will highlight things as you read and study. And a lot of it, you won’t even get it. It won’t make any sense. You won’t understand it.

But all of a sudden there will be a verse that says, this is for you. This is for you. This This is all you need right now. And then next time you’ll read it, ah, I didn’t see this before, and it’ll teach you something else. It is the living Word of God. Let’s pray show you. Every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. If you hear it tonight and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, you can do that right where you are.

You don’t have to stand up, you don’t have to come forward, you don’t even have to raise your hand, all you need to know is, I’m talking to the Lord and God sees and He understands. He knows those who will believe it. Will you believe it? If you will believe that when Christ died, He died for you. He’ll give you as a free gift ever last in life and you get to go to heaven on what Christ did for you.

Would you trust Him? And if He will, God said He would save you. You can know you’re going to heaven. If you’re watching by internet on the screen, there’s a little button up there and says, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. Would you do that? Would you trust the Lord? Would like to know. It just sends us a message that says, yes, I trust Christ as my Savior. And that’s such a blessing. So it has about a night before we close.

So yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior tonight and pray to my life for you to pray for me, anyway at all. If you have trustly Christ as your Savior, how are you doing in your spiritual life? Are you growing spiritually? Are you getting stronger and stronger? Did you know that you have within you the Holy Spirit to teach you, to lead you, to guide you, and helping you to do everything he wants you to do? He can walk with you through all of these trials that you have, and we have them.

We have a lot of lust on the flesh. He can give you the strength to desire the right things. Father, we thank you so much for all you’ve done for us. Thank you for your word. We ask you to strengthen us as we need to be. Each one of us are different, but same always. 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 than 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 floridabiblecollege.us or call the Registrar Bob Gilbert at 8502275325. It’s 850-227-5325. 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. 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.