Welcome to Yankee Arnold Ministries. Dr. Arnold will be with you in just a moment, but first, we want you to know how much we appreciate your prayers and financial support. You may help this radio ministry by donating online at yankeearnold.com or by mail at Yankee Arnold Ministries, 7028 West Waters Avenue, Suite 316, Tampa, Florida, 33634.
Feel free to send Dr. Arnold your questions or comments to yankee at yankeearnold.com, and he will respond as quickly as possible. Now, here is Dr. Arnold with today’s message.
The book of Colossians, chapter 3. Colossians and chapter 3. As you know, we are doing some studies in the book of Colossians.
It’s a wonderful book. It’s got so much to offer us, so much that would help us. Now, let me give you three things.
I wrote down three things. These are not things you have to write down, but the three things that I want to give to you that I believe will help you. It helped me years ago when I understood these three little things that I want to give to you.
Number one, if you can get upset because you’re not top dog, can you still get upset because you are? Think about it. If you can get upset because you’re not top dog, can you still get upset because you are a top dog?
Now, I want you to think about this. Let me give you another statement. Do you realize that to some people, your present position is top dog to someone else?
Do you realize that to some people, your present position is top dog to someone else? You once thought that also. You used to think, boy, if I could do what you’re doing right now at one time in your life, you’d be top dog.
You’d be so pleased. You’d be so blessed if you could just do what you’re doing. But there’s something about human nature.
We are always wanting, what, more. We always want more. We’re never satisfied.
We’re always grabbing for more. Well, in the Book of Colossians, it’s trying to help us to get a proper perspective. See, there’s a divine perspective and a human perspective, and sometimes people can’t seem to tell the difference.
But another statement I wanted to give you. If we murmur and complain about the job or position we don’t have, then we don’t deserve the one we do have. You ever heard of a story in the Bible about a guy named Saul, the first king?
Do you realize that Saul was the first king? He was head and shoulders above everybody. He had it made.
I mean, he was exactly what the people were looking for. But did you know there came a time in his life when he despised God blessing somebody else? Do you realize that you ought to be thrilled to death that God is using you?
And you need to be thrilled to death that God uses somebody else. Did you know that part of serving the Lord is being blessed by seeing what God does in the lives of everyone else? You want everyone to be blessed by God.
You want everyone to be used by God, don’t you? You don’t have to be top dog on anything, do you? It’s so easy preaching and hard living, but that is what the Book of Colossians is talking about, this very thing.
Now, God says that when we trusted Christ as our Savior, we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ. We’re with the Lord. When He died, I died.
When He was buried, I was buried. When He rose from the dead, I rose from the dead. When He ascended, I ascended.
And I am seen in the heavenlies in Christ. He is my life. When you and I were born again, we were born from above.
Our citizenship is in heaven. That’s where your citizenship is. You see, we are just down here temporarily.
As a child of God, God allowed us to come into this world temporarily. Just for a short period of time. So that we would have an opportunity to lay up treasures in heaven.
Because see, once you are in heaven, you can’t lay up treasure in heaven. You can only do it from here. But you are supposed to keep heaven in view.
We live on the earth remembering who we are, the child of God, where we came from heaven, and that I’m here temporarily in order to gain rewards, and then I’ll be going back. So if you can understand that, it can help you. God, see, has done some wonderful things for us, given us opportunities to live.
We didn’t ask for it. Just ask the way it is. God gave us the freedom to choose whether or not we would spend in eternity with the Lord or in hell.
I’m so thankful for the person who explained to me how to have eternal life. I was 18 years old. Heard it for the first time.
And so far, in another 52 years since then, nobody has ever talked to me about how to go to heaven. Nobody’s ever tried to win me to Christ. In all these years, except that one man.
Boy, am I glad he didn’t miss me. But he went to be with the Lord in heaven. And before he left, he told me an awful lot of things about heaven.
I didn’t know any of it. But it created a desire within me that I begin to set my affections on things that are above. Because I begin to realize I’m not here for long.
I’m going there. And I want to please the one who saved me. I’m going to see God one of these days, face to face.
And I would love for him to say, Yankee, well done, thou good and faithful servant. So it doesn’t matter if I’ve got money or no money, house or no house, good health, bad health. None of that matters.
All that matters is, did you, with what you have, where you are, were you faithful? Were you faithful to please and to honor God? You see, we think it’s because of all the things in the world you can grab a hold of.
And God says just the opposite. It was everything they could get rid of. Do you know the apostles when they were here?
You realize how poor they were? I remember a statement made by Peter when they went into the temple, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. Silver and gold have I none.
Well, they must have been a failure. All just some of the most successful people in all the world. It all depends on perspective.
You see there in verse 1, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Look in verse 2, set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For if ye are dead, for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ and God, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.
Now, we know that one day, Jesus Christ is coming back in the air, and he’s going to take us out of this world. That’s called the rapture. We’ll be caught up and meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Seven years later, he’s coming back in power and great glory to the earth. And he says, then shall we appear with him in glory. We’re going to have glorified bodies, perfect bodies.
He says, you’re going to change these old vile bodies. We have no sinful nature. We’re getting old.
We get sick. We get aches and pains. We start losing body parts.
Everything seems to go downhill. See, this is my hope chest. Someday, I hope that it will be a chest.
It ain’t happened yet. I have to tell James Hayslip, he needs to do a little work on me. But I wouldn’t mind looking like that, but it just seems like an awful lot of work.
Just too much work. So I just hope that God will just let me stay healthy enough until I can get done all that He wants me to do, and then I don’t mind. See, I don’t want to live forever.
I just want to live long enough to bury the rest of y’all, and then I’ll be ready to go. I mean, somebody’s got to bury you. And he makes this statement here in verse 4, Then shall you also appear with him in glory.
That day’s coming. We’re not there yet. We’re still down here on planet Earth.
And look what he says in verse 5, Mortified therefore your members which are upon the earth. Now here in verse 5, we have what is called the perverted love. You see, there’s things that you love, but it’s perverted love.
Did you know that it’s a perverted love that loves the things of the world? The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of the… That’s perverted love.
It’s not the way that God intended to be. God wants us to love him more than the things of this world. But most people love the world and the things of the world, and they work all their life just for the things of this world, and you’re going to lose them.
You’re going to die one day, and you can’t take anything with you. Naked you came into the world, and naked you shall return. And in between, you’re going to get a little bit and lose a little bit.
And when the Lord really blessed Job, he says, The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. You see, when God gives you something, bless the Lord, oh my soul.
When the Lord takes it away, I’m sorry, this was your song.
Blessed is the Lord, who giveth and taketh away. What kind of an attitude would you have if God took away your health? What kind of an attitude would you have toward God if He allowed all of your money to be gone?
You say, that’s already happened. What if He took away a loved one? Will you turn against God?
What could God allow to happen in your life to reveal to you that you don’t really love Him like you think you do? You see, God is a jealous God. It means that He doesn’t want to be replaced.
Idolatry is when you put something in place of God. You see, here’s you and here’s God. Anything you put between you and God, God can take and remove it.
God doesn’t want anything between you and Him. And He can take anything and everything out of your life. Do you understand the power that God has?
And that all of life is temporary, and you need to focus upon that which is heavenly. As He says in verse 1, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Look at verse 2.
Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. But if you go ahead and you violate that, let’s just say, Okay, I’m a Christian. I have eternal life.
I’m going to heaven when I die. And know you can never lose your salvation. You can’t go to hell today.
You can’t go to hell in the future. You can never go to hell. But you can, as a child of God, you can fall in love with the world.
You can love yourself and make yourself God. And you can have a form of idolatry, where you worship you and your will and your way, and not God’s. But did you know that God says there’s a price to pay?
You may not have known that, but let me explain it to you. You see, God says that you and I have an old sinful nature. We got it when we were born into this world.
It’s in our body. It’s the desires of the flesh. We are naturally children of rebellion.
We want our own way. We are stubborn. We are hard headed.
We lie. We cheat. We deceive.
You name the sin, and every one of us in this room is capable of committing it. You say, well, I would never do that. Don’t ever say never.
You’d be surprised what you are capable of doing. You just have some restraints upon you, but you can lose those restraints just like that. I know people who have been married for 40 and 50 years, and all of a sudden, I don’t want to do no more.
I’m going to trade you in for another model. That’s why Henry Ford was so successful. He says, I did my marriage like I did my business.
One model. Y’all will get that after a while. My dad used to have his old model T.
Well, anyway, look what he says in verse 5. The word mortify is where we get the word mortician or mortuary. It means to put to death, to render as dead.
The desires that you have for the things of the world, because if you love the world, you’re not going to mortify the deeds of the flesh. You’re not going to take those desires that you have for the things of the world. You’re not going to count them as dead.
You’re going to make sure they stay very much alive. Can you still love pornography? Yes, you can.
All the filthy movies, you can love all of it, every bit of it. You can still commit adultery and fornication. You name the sin, you’re capable of doing it.
He says, even as a Christian, as a Christian. Now, most preachers will never tell you the truth. They’ll lie to you because they don’t understand it.
You see, God loves me. He died and paid for my sin so that I can go to heaven whenever I die. I’m not going to heaven because I love God.
I’m not going to heaven because I stop all my bad things. I’m going to heaven because 52 years ago, in a little old living room, I believe Christ died and paid for all of my sins. There’s no sins for me to pay for.
I’m going to heaven. Some people say, well, that just gives you a license to sin. It’s not a license to sin.
It’s the freedom to do right. I still have the old sinful nature. And yes, I can live like the devil and still go to heaven.
And any preacher that tells you otherwise, he ain’t worth a quarter. Don’t support him and don’t go to the church. He’s lying to you.
Eternal life is the gift of God. It’s not of works before or after. But should I, as a child of God, should I do right?
Should I serve the Lord? Yes. What I should do and what I must do is not the same thing.
God will allow His children to still live a rebellious life. You can resist the Holy Spirit. You can do wrong.
But God says it’s a choice. And I want you to make the right choice. I want you to set your affections upon heaven.
Think about where you’re going. Because this is so short. You know, it wasn’t long ago.
I was just a little baby. I remember as though it was yesterday. The first thing I remember after being born was hitting a bottle and being behind bars.
Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth. This body you have is a flesh body. You are upon the earth.
But God wants you to live thinking about where you’re going, to heaven. And there’s things that God is going to reward you for if you obey Him and serve Him. So God says, when you get through down here with this life, you’re going to be there.
And when you get there, I want to reward you for what you did for me while you were here in this body upon the earth. So He says, even though you have a body that desires the things of the world, He said, I want you to set all of that aside and live by faith. Take me at My Word.
It will be worth it. And you can think about the sex drive that you have. You can think about all the pornography and so forth in the world.
And you can dwell on all that junk and trash if you want to. But there’s something that’s costing you. The things that you could have had when you get to heaven, that will be the treasures or the rewards or the positions that God has for you.
The praise and the honor and the glory that you faithfully served the Lord and He meant more to you than all that trivial junk that’s down here. Serve God. Put Him first in your life.
Live now the way you’ll wish you’d lived when you get to heaven. And so He says here, fornication, He says uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Concubiscence, that’s just lusting.
And when you talk about the fornication, all that is all manner of evils that you can think of, where you get the word porno. It’s all the sexual sins and so on. God knows the desires of your flesh.
God knows that. God knows. See that?
When you see that good-looking bomb shell walked by, you know something on so tight, you don’t know if she’s outside getting in or inside getting out.
You can’t see clearly. You can’t see, you know, like the blind snake fell in love with a rope. You’re learning to fall in love with the things that is junk, trash.
And you don’t use your discernment. You’re just letting your natural desires of rebellion control your life. And some of you are going to ruin your marriage because of it.
Some teenagers are going to go for this hunk. Listen, all that muscle is going to go to the bottom, just like all that beautiful hourglass figure she has. All the sand goes to the bottom sooner or later.
And you’re going to give up everything God has for you for this junk. Think about what you’re doing. Set your affections on the things that God has for you.
And you’ll be surprised what God will do for you. Look what else he says here. You see, in verse 5, it’s kind of giving you the idea about the impurities of the mind.
The impurities of the mind. And it talks a little bit about sometimes the actions that are the result of the motives. And then in verse 8 and 9, you’re talking about the motives that produce the actions.
And so, you’re looking at this, and you’re dwelling and trying to think about it. You see, some of these things are like in verse 5, talking about personal sins. And then in verse 8, talking about your social sins.
You see, against other people, things you do to somebody, but there’s all these results that comes from it. And he makes the statement there in verse 6, for which things sake, the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. See, you still have an old sinful nature.
You still have a body that desires the things of the world. And whether you’re saved or lost, God hates sin. And God says that his wrath comes upon the children of disobedience.
You may be a child of God, but if you’re going to act like a child of disobedience, you need to understand. God will not force you to love him. He won’t force you to serve him.
You can live like you please, but there’s consequences to it. Everybody in this room can do exactly what you want to do. You can live any way you want to do, and you know it.
I am a Christian. I am going to heaven when I die, and I can live any way I please. I can become as rebellious as I want to be.
I can live as mean and ugly and as dirty as I want to. And I’m still going to heaven, not because I deserve it, but because of grace. God loved me that much that he paid for all of my sins, and he’ll give me eternal life.
And I go to heaven on what he did for me. I do not deserve that. But because I am God’s child, I know that if I become a child of wrath, if I become a child of rebellion, he’s my father.
I’m God’s child. And if I rebelled against the will of my heavenly father, I know that my heavenly father, because he loves me, is going to beat the living daylights out of me, maybe even take me home before my time. So, you can’t live as you please and get away with it.
Understand that. But you can live as you please. Many adults’ problems today is because they sold wild oaks when they were young.
And now years later, they reap wild oats. You reap what they call the law of the harvest. You reap what you sow.
Same thing you sowed much later than you sowed. But a lot more, of course. So God says, I got something so much better for you.
But I want you to put off something. In other words, there is responsibility. God holds us responsible for the decisions that we make.
You can’t hide behind, well, I just have a so sinful nature. It’s just the way that I am. Yeah, everybody has that.
But God doesn’t accept that as an excuse. You’re to be responsible for your decisions. You can also make right decisions.
You can make godly decisions. And so he makes this statement in verse 7, in the which you also walk sometimes when you lived in them. You used to be a lost man.
You had an old body with a sinful nature, and that’s what you did. But it looks like God wants you to live a different life after you’re saved. Not to be saved.
Not to prove you are saved. But because of what Christ has done for you, what He’s done for me, God wants me to serve Him. And He says if I would serve Him, He promised that He would bless me.
I’ve looked over my life for the last 52 years, and I can say God has blessed me. I don’t have regrets, because I’ve tried to give the Lord all of my years. And if He gives me another 10 years, I like to give Him those or whatever He else has left for me.
You should want the will of God for your life, but you’ve got to set your affections on things that are above, not on things of this world. You’re going to lose things down here. People aren’t going to please you.
People are not living to worship you. Chances are, their life doesn’t revolve around you. If you die, they’ll keep on living.
I mean, they’ll mourn for a little while, a couple of days, and then you know. You’ve got to understand, people have something about, it’s me, please me. Everybody make me happy.
Nobody makes me happy. I’m down and I’m down. I’m miserable.
Go out in the garden and eat worms. Little pet rock died, you know. But look what he says.
In verse 8, he says, But now, but now, but now, that’s the way you were. That’s what you did. But now, he says, I want you to know this.
I want you to put off all these anger and wrath and malice, blasphemy. You see, anger and wrath and malice, see, that deals a lot with the way that you’re thinking. It deals with your feelings.
When you get hurt, you become bitter, and you get bitter, and you get angry, and angry you say things you shouldn’t say, and it builds up into malice where you want to hurt somebody. And God says the external part of that there is the filthy communication out of the mouth. Because you see, how you think and how you feel, it’s got to come out sooner or later.
And it’ll come out. But it’s because of the focus in your life. That’s what you love, what you’re thinking about, what you’re dwelling on.
And so God says, out of your mouth. Look there in Ephesians in Chapter 4. Just turn to your left just a few pages, but the book of Ephesians and Chapter 4.
And look at verse 29. See, this is talking to the Christian, to those that know the Lord, those that are going to heaven when they die. Not all of God’s children automatically do right.
That’s why they have to be taught, to be trained. They have to be warned. They have to be rebuked at times.
But in Ephesians Chapter 4, verse 29 says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. But that which is good to the use of edifying, not edifying, edifying, get this, that it may minister grace unto the hearth. You should say and do the things that you’re trying to help and build up a person, not tear them down.
You see, your light doesn’t become brighter because you blow out everybody else’s light. When you try to destroy someone else’s character, your doesn’t become better. But some people, they get blind, they can’t see.
Is it possible to trust Christ as my Savior without making him Lord of my life? Is it true that if Christ is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all? Pastor Yankee Arnold has prepared just the right book with answers straight from the Bible.
The book is called Gospel Driven Man and Pastor Yankee wants to send it to you free of charge. Simply write to PastorYankee at Yankee Arnold Ministries 7028 West Waters Avenue Suite 316 Tampa, Florida 33634 and request the book or write by email at yankee at yankeearnold.com. That’s yankee at yankeearnold.com.
Jesus is coming, so keep looking up.
Thanks for listening to today’s broadcast. We pray that today’s message was a blessing to you and your family. You may help support this radio ministry by donating online at yankeearnold.com or by mail at yankeearnoldministries7028 West Waters Avenue Suite 316 Tampa, Florida 33634.
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 and just keep looking up.
