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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 regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us to all the people who are here. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org.

We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. See, a lot of people, they want to be used but they don’t prepare themselves. A lot of people love the same, but you don’t prepare the same. He’s been singing in the shower. That’s why I’ve never heard of it. And lo and behold, he, you know, he finds out, you know, he’s up here singing, she’s going, oh, does he serenade you yet?

No. But it’s wonderful to be able to try something. Just because you’ve never done it before doesn’t mean you can’t. What would you like to do? Some people are a good soul and that James is a good soul But you know how come he’s a good soul in her? It just happened one day. It just took over his body and he didn’t He just been doing it for a good while. That’s all you do. I have one thousand and thousand people to Christ But it’s all because I started with just one this one and then got another one and get another one And you just keep on keep on and that’s why you get a whole bunch of them and so you try to prepare yourself to be used fit for the master’s use so that God can use you.

And you’d be surprised that people has got a lot of talent and abilities but just have never ventured out to see just what they can do. Fear will hold you back but after you, you know, you do it for a little while and then it’s not as hard. Just like that first time you got to witness to somebody. You have to have that first time. This one guy, he’d never been bear hunting before. And he said, well, what do I do?

He says, oh, it just comes natural. You just know what you’re supposed to do. So he went with a bunch of guys up into the woods. Well, the guy went out of the house and after a while they heard him. And they heard him hollering. They opened the door and he’d come running down over here and a big old bear was chasing him. He says, open the door. So they open the door and he ran in the bear and run it behind him.

He ran out the back door, slammed it closed. He says, y’all clean out and I’ll go get another one. But you got to have that first one that you got to clean. You got to get that first and after a while. You know, the first one is a rough one. But after you did it, it becomes easier for you.

Take your Bible and look there in the book of Acts chapter 21. Acts chapter 21. Don’t you see this? Acts chapter 21. Now you know the apostle Paul in the book of Acts chapter 20 was talking about going to Jerusalem and he said that didn’t know everything was going to be following me there but he made the statement that bonds and afflictions abide me. Now look in chapter 21 and verse 10 and as we tarried there many days there came down from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus and when he was come into us, he took Paul’s girdle and bound his own hands and feet and said, thus saith the Holy Ghost, so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that own of this girdle.

And shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard these things, both we and they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. There warn in Paul, don’t go. Verse 13, then Paul answered, What meaneth ye to weep and to break my heart? and you are on the line of these words for I am ready. Not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

Now, that’s being ready. He’s not only ready to be bound, but he’s ready to die, prepared to die. That’s taking a big step. Let me ask you to. Everybody knows in this life you’re going to have to… You’re going to suffer. Are you ready to suffer anything, whatever it may be, for the cause of Christ? Have you already resolved that in your mind between you and God, Lord, I don’t care what it is. I don’t care how bad it is.

I’m ready to suffer regardless of what it might be. You’re free to use me any way you want. However you deem necessary for your honor and glory that by my body, whether I live or whether I die, Christ may be magnified in my body. I’m ready. Do you know what my job is as the pastor that gets you ready? I’m supposed to get you ready for heaven. So you try to take and give the gospel so that the lost people can trust Christ as Savior.

Is my job done just because you want somebody to Christ? No, just begun. That’s just the first thing. That just gets them to heaven, but are you prepared to meet the Lord? So we try to get people prepared to suffer. And that’s one of the most hardest things you can do, to try to prepare people to suffer. Now you know you’re going to, right? have no idea I could write a book over all the things that I’ve done and that I mean that brought suffering just suffer not because you did something wrong but because you did something right.

I remember one time I was way down there in the Grand Canyon we’d gone down there there was an Indian tribe there called the Havasu Pai Indian tribe the guy that used to bring in the mail by horseback still does it, named Charlie Chamberlain. He came to our Bible, called his whole family, and his wife was a have a survive. And his kids went to our Christian school. And I met him down in the canyon, when we was having camped down here one year.

And we’re down here in the bottom of the canyon. And four or five of us was checking out the lower parts of the canyon right before it gets to the Colorado River. The Colorado River River is one wild river when it gets into the gorge. Well there’s this waterfall that had two big waterfalls down here. One’s a 60-foot drop and another one’s a 90-foot drop. But it was beautiful down in the bottom of the canyon. Well we had circled around behind one of the waterfalls and when we did my son didn’t go he stayed over there because he was young at the time.

We all went on the back side of the waterfall and so we decided that we’d just dive through the waterfall and each one dove through the waterfall and went on the other side and I just waited everybody gone I’m the oldest you know I should let them go first big mistake so I’m there all by myself and I just didn’t feel like this diving through the waterfall I just eased into the water and thought I just swim through the But as I began to swim thirsty and I went under the waterfalls so I closed my eyes and I just kept swimming and I kept swimming and I realized it’s getting darker.

I didn’t push off enough to get through the waterfall and a 90 foot waterfall coming down will push you down. on. It was pushing me down into the lake. But I didn’t know it at first and I didn’t take a lot of air with me. I wasn’t planning on staying for a while. But I would begin to hurt and it was dark and I couldn’t go up. I was doing everything I could to go up. I’m trying to go up and water is pushing me down.

It just wasn’t working. And it came to me what was happening. And so then I started going forward and get out of the waterfall. And when I got out then I started going up and then I could start seeing it started lightening up. And then when I finally got to the top of the water and I busted through my lungs were burning and I was hurting. And I looked over there and all four of the guys were sitting on the thing a hundred yards away from me, looking the other direction.

They had no clue what almost happened to me. How close I came to being taken out of this world. Later on they was telling us in the village of it some guy. We’re on an expert professional diver from Colorado dove off of it and the waterfall got him and he drowned. He didn’t come out of it. And he was a professional swimmer. I thought, the Lord has to look out for me. There’s no reason I should be alive. But I believe the devil has been after me over and over again because there’s so many little stories that I’ve got that if it hadn’t have been for the Lord.

I’d have been dead. I don’t deserve to live. But since I am alive, I want to give it all I got to the Lord. I want to be ready when the Lord comes back. I want to serve Him as faithfully as I can because He has been so good to me. And I realize I live only by the grace of God. Did you realize if it wasn’t for the Lord, you’d already be dead? God is keeping you alive. He is protecting you.

And we don’t even know how many times we could have been killed in some car wreck, but God has blocked us here and there and protect us and put a hedge about it. That’s what he said. You know, he did the Job. And I believe that he does the same thing for us. But he says, oh, yes, I’m ready. Looking at Romans in chapter one, Romans in chapter one. This I really love. It’s so simple. It’s just a simple little thing.

But look there in verse 14. Now the Apostle Paul has wrote a letter to the Roman Christians and he says, I want to come there because I want to have some fruit among you. In other words, I want to win some people to the Lord there. Oh, he did get there. But he went in captivity. He went there and eventually they chopped off his head. But look what he says in verse 14, I am deader, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise.

I am deader.” You gotta underline those three words. You see, this is how Paul saw himself. You see, I am a deader. It means I have something that belongs to somebody else. I owe somebody something. We see, we have been trusted with the gospel. we owe the gospel to the lost man. That’s why we try to figure out every way possible that we can get the gospel out. In verse 15, so as much as in me is, as much as in me is, I am ready.

In your underlying those three words, I am ready. What was he ready to do? To preach the gospel. I’m ready. If he’s ready, that means he’s prepared. It means he’s ready to suffer whatever it takes to get there. I believe the reason the Apostle Paul appealed to Caesar when he stood before King Agrippa was so that he could get to Rome. And they took him to Rome. Now you’re reading the book of Acts where the ship was broken apart.

You come 100 guys, we’re going to drown. And they assured them, he says, nobody’s gonna die. Everybody’s gonna be cool. And even whenever they finally got out of the shipwreck and finally got to shore, they was cold, they built a fire, and then when they built a fire, a snake bites him, a poisonous snake. And the rest of the people just wait to see, this must be some bad man. He’s got to be a bad man for all this bad stuff to happen to him.

So they waited to see him die. And then when he didn’t die, they went from a bad man. He must be God. So boy, that people’s attitude can change quickly, can it? But see, Paul was ready to suffer. He was ready to die. He was ready to preach the gospel. And that means that nothing would hold him back. They didn’t matter what he has to go through. Does it matter how much you have to suffer? Does it matter how much you heard?

Now remember in Paul’s day they did not have Medicaid, Medicare, they didn’t have Social Security, they didn’t have hospitals on every corner, they didn’t have the VA, and look what he-he did. Forty Jews at one time took out a vow. Go what? They killed it. They said, we will not intersleep until we kill that man. Now how long has it been since somebody said there’s gonna do that to you? We’re afraid of saying something because they might say something to hurt my feelings.

Something so simple keeps us from saying anything. And yet he would do it and they’d beat him half to death. One place they stoned him to death. Now he was ready. Now let me ask you a question again. Are you really ready to serve them on? Are you ready? Is God free to do anything in your life to get you wherever he wants you to be? Is he free to take all of your wealth away if it might be for his honor and glory?

Can he do that? And you won’t get mad at him. Are you really ready? I don’t know if most Christians are really ready to have everything wiped out. I’ve given up homes. I gave up a motor home one time. Those were about $150,000. Just give it up. Took the money and gave it to a bunch of people. I saw Betty, I said, we can start all over again. We don’t need it. Don’t matter. And then a couple of years later, 20 years later, God gave me another home.

You can take that one away if he wants to. See, it don’t matter. But when you fall in love with the things of this world, there’s great sorrow when you lose them. And then you’re always in trouble trying to figure out how to keep things. If you don’t have anything, you don’t have to worry about it. You say, well, I don’t want to get quite in there. I told my father a lot one time. I said, I want God to use me.

He says, in time he will. All right. I mean, I don’t want God to hold back. He says, what do you mean? I don’t know. I just don’t want him to hold back. I mean, I want God that’s free or free to do anything he wants to me. He teach me any lesson that he thinks I need to know. However, he wants to do it. He says, you’re married to my daughter. He says, this is all well and good for you, but you got a wife and you got couple kids.

He says, I want you to consider that. Oh, you know, sometime I never think about that. I think, Lord, just whatever you want to do, however you want to do it, let her rip. And I think, now if I was the wife, my husband said something like that. I’d kill it. Well, maybe I’d quite kill it. You know, just half dead. Because you know, you’re thinking about it. Wait a minute. You don’t know what you’re saying. And I’ve seen the Lord do a lot of things in my life.

And sometimes I think, I ask for this. This is my fault. I ask for this. But sometimes you have, you have, He got to the place where he said, well, I don’t mind you testing me, but not so bad. Because there’s some things I’m ready and I’m trying to anticipate what God’s going to do next. And he ain’t never done what I thought he would do. He fools me every time. Something will happen that will take me to the death’s door a way that I never thought about.

I’ve been there in an emergency room and I watched my wife looking at me because they didn’t know if I was going to make it or not. And I come so close to dying two times in the last ten years. And didn’t know if I’d pull through. But the Lord had just given me so many interesting stories. But it makes life exciting. Now, at this stage in my life right now, because right now I feel as healthy as I’ve ever felt in my life, I feel good, but I also know tomorrow can be a different story.

You can have everything go wrong and everything fall apart so quick. And it won’t matter what you’ve done, you’ve got to face what’s in front of you today or tomorrow. And you don’t know how bad or not severe it’s going to be. So I would recommend, don’t get too high on that horse. Don’t think you can handle everything. Because there have been several times when I just didn’t know how I’m going to handle this. And I didn’t think it could get this bad or this worse.

And God has some lessons to teach you in humility. You think, I’m ready, I can handle anything. And God says, oh, you think so, huh? And they won’t be long before God can bring you to tears and bring you to your knees. And Lord, I guess I wasn’t really that ready. But I can guarantee you this. God is preparing you today, even by the things that I say, sometime off the cuff. You might need it tomorrow next week or six months from now.

Or you say, man, I wish I’d have had that six months ago, because you are going to be tested. God is going to see just how much character and integrity you have because it’s The way God does things. God is alive and he’s working. Look what he says, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome. Also, for I am not ashamed. Here’s why. I’m not ashamed of a gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God in the salvation to everyone that believe it to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

So in his gospel message, he always presented in verse 17 the righteousness of God verse 18 the wrath of God and That’s why when Guys like me and Hank and others when we present the gospel We always try to show the wrath of God against sin and The love of God the righteousness of God because see the gospel message has to be explained. You have to say what it is and what it is not. Look up here. Now this hand represents you and me and the wallet represents sin.

Now we all have sin on us. When we explain that, yes God says that he loves us but he hates our sin, the wages of sin is death. That reveals the wrath of God. And the wages in being death is eternal separation from God. So you explain in God’s wrath and hatred for sin. Now, when he talks about we have to be perfect to go to heaven. You’re showing the impossibilities. You have to be as righteous as God to go to heaven.

But see there in that verse 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. So the gospel message that we reveal, and preach, it should tell about the righteousness of God. See, they’re versating for the wrath of God is revealed. So, in our gospel story and our presentation, we should always try to include those two things. And this is why we always call it the bad news, the good news. The good news is you can have the righteousness of God given to you as a free gift.

And because you and I cannot save ourselves, we need a Savior. And there’s only one. That’s Jesus Christ. to the world, took our sins, paid for to form the cross. Now, Christ dying for our sins shows the wrath of God, even upon His Son, and He paid for our sins. But after the payment for the sins was made, God brought Him back again from the dead. For it says in the book of Acts 2, He was not holding the dead.

In other words, it wasn’t His sin. It was paid for. God can bring His Son back to life. the Bible says that God would give us his righteousness and we would go to heaven on his. That’s good news. So the gospel should have these two things in Paul said, I am ready to preach the gospel to those in Rome also. In the word he willing to go there. One thing that I’ve tried to keep is whether it was in Colorado or Georgia or even here, ready to go wherever God wants me to go, whenever God wants me to go.

And you have to be very careful how tied down you get. But I told you all this, I love this ministry here. I love you people. You didn’t work your way all the way into my little peeping heart. And I want to help prepare the people here at this church to be used by God. I’d love to see this church accomplish as much as any church can ever accomplish for the Lord because of their love for the gospel, our love for souls, and where everybody knows how to witness.

They’re ready to do so. They’re ready to give their will. They’re served. Do whatever has to be done for the cause of Christ. I used to always hear my father-in-law tell me, he says, the world has never seen what God can do to one man that’s totally given to God. I’ve often wondered, has the world ever seen a church that’s totally yielded to the Lord? Has the world ever seen a church like that? Are we just a church like everybody else?

Are we different? Are we different? Are we unique? One thing that I was talking to somebody earlier about Ray Stanford or Dr. Hank Lindstrom and I was influenced by him. He gave to us something really different and unique of any one man that I’ve ever known. One was the clarity of the gospel. That was always in the Bible, but it wasn’t brought out like it was until we heard him. He influenced our lives. He really did. That’s been a long time.

So we got the clarity of the gospel. He also gave us the wallet illustration. Nobody ever had that. Except Ray Stanford, he saw a man named Ari Torrey who was written in a book and I saw it in there, but never explained like Ray did it. Ray took the seven steps, the principles and applied it. So he gave us an awesome message and then explaining it with the seven steps in the Walla illustration. He gave us the youth ranch ministry, which most people have never heard about the youth ranch ministry.

It was a way for people to serve on where it was, a teenage Bible study, a way to reach the teenagers with the gospel. And then he also gave us the two natures. And the two natures is that teaching where we understand why we do what we do. So he gave us these things and the fifth thing was the outline of the gospel. But it was just all so powerful, so unique. And whenever you left Florida Bible College, you felt like you have something that’s different and unique.

And even in this ministry, y’all still have that love for the gospel, the simplicity of it. We still use the seven steps in it, in the wall of illustration, in the two natures. But anyway, I enjoy talking to you, but I just want you to be ready. If I was to ask you this Sunday morning, I want you to give a three-minute testimony. You should say, preacher, I’m ready. You ought to be able to give a testimony if it takes three minutes or if it takes five minutes or if it takes an hour.

You always tell them what you thought, what you found out, what you did. He said, and give your testimony. If I say, get up here and give me a gospel presentation, you just go through all seven steps. Step number one, you go right through the seven steps. And you can do this. Alrighty? Let’s pray Shiahiah. Father, we do thank you so much. You’ve been so good to us. And Lord, we know that wasn’t for your strength, your grace. Lord, none of us would be.

He was in contact with us, brought us together, and we prayed Lorded. We would prepare ourselves to be used. And Father, we want to be ready when you come. And for the opportunities you’ve given us, they come in all different ways and disguise some time even as work. But help us to be wise and do right. Let’s see the person here. Some people are having a hard time. were told to pray for one another and to exhort one another, encouraging one another.

And Father, because I want everybody here to have every blessing that they can get. And when they get to heaven, I want them to have every reward they could have received. And I thank you for those who have worked in labor back there in the O’wanna program, bless each one of them and all the kids. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa. Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bible line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download to free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, Calvary of Tampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed.

Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, every day believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.