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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 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 theottest gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

So John 3 16 is the answer to the man that came to Jesus. See, Jesus could catch fish at night. And they could be somebody, they did better. Nobody else around, that’s okay. He didn’t have to tune his own horn. If I go someplace with you and there’s an opportunity to witness, chances are I will just stay back and let you win them. I want you to catch fish. I do not want to rob the honor or the glory.

You say it because you don’t know how to do it. Yeah, that’s the way it is. I don’t know how to do it. But I want people to learn how to catch fish. Look what he says. In verse 16, this is the answer on how to catch a fish. Tell them this story. This story catches a lot of fish. It’s one of the most used pieces of bait in the Word of God to tell a lost man God so loved the world.

That’s you. That he gave his only begotten son. That’s Jesus Christ. whosoever anybody, you or me or anybody, believe it in him. That’s all you got to believe it. It should not perish because you won’t go to hell but have everlasting life. Would you believe it? He that believeth hath everlasting life. He that does not believe the wrath of God abideth upon him. Now look there in chapter four. Chapter four, well you see chapter three you had this religious man, the up and the up.

And he led him to the Lord because he came to him. Well lo and behold, Jesus says, I must needs go to Samaria. Now why did he have to go to Samaria? Because there was a woman that was going to be at the well at a certain time and he knew it. So he sent his disciples away into the city because he knew you don’t need a whole bunch of people to jump on and attack this woman. A lot of time when I go sewing, I’d rather nobody be with me.

I just want to do it by myself. Sometimes I’m afraid I might get some help that I don’t want. Have you ever seen somebody start witnessing somebody and then somebody else jump in and try to steal the honor and the glory after you got them ready to fall and a person who starts to let him finish you sometime. You may say a little bit here and there, but you want them to catch the fish. Don’t rob it from them.

And also you want to pray and keep in everything else quiet and so forth so that nobody interrupts. Be wise. But Jesus went to a woman who had five husbands. She had had five husbands and was living with a man that wasn’t her husband. And this was in the middle of the day. So can you catch fish at night? Yeah. Can you catch fish in the daytime. Sure.

Well, nobody else is around and it doesn’t matter. Did you know that you and I are not supposed to be a respecter of persons? That it doesn’t matter, they’re status in life. If they’re a soul, God loves them. God loves all those people that are standing on all these street corners asking for a handout. The sometime when you drive by is how I wish they wouldn’t do that. Look what they do to this city. Do you realize that in Israel’s time there were beggars everywhere?

Most countries you go to, you’ll find a lot of beggars. Well, one of the reasons we don’t have as many beggars as we use most countries is because we’ve got a welfare program that they don’t have to beg, they just get it from the government. But what if that none of that existed? You’d be surprised how many people would be out there and begging. When I took my kid down in the old Mexico, 25, 30 years ago. I gave each one of them some money to buy a few things.

We didn’t get two blocks until all their money was gone because there was people asking for it and they just gave everything to him. I was thankful for their compassion, but I had to inform them that daddy didn’t have an unlimited money tree. I gave them a little bit more money and said, you can’t give to everybody. You remember when Peter and John was going down the road there and went and got ready to go into the temple called beautiful?

And says, this year, the guy asked him, arms, arms for the poor. He said, silver and gold have I. Now this was the first pope. Silver and gold have I, none. None. He didn’t have a fancy robe on, didn’t have a pointed thing on his head. And he didn’t have any silver and gold. Well, I could go somewhere with this. And neither did he tell him, Well, you’ll be all right. Just kiss my ring or my toe.” You say, you make me mad.

I don’t care. Doesn’t matter. But he says, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee, give me to drink, thou would have have asked of him and he would have given thee living water. So did Jesus go fishing? You see, one came to him at night and he went to one in the daytime. You’d never know where you’re gonna catch fish. But remember, Jesus was a fisherman. And you and I, he says, follow me.

And the words he wants us to do what he does. And that’s why you find in the Bible about us taking the gospel to the world. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. It means go fishing, go fishing, go fishing. Look in Acts chapter two, the book of Acts in chapter two. Acts chapter two. And look there in verse 41, verse 41 says, then they that gladly received His Word were baptized. And the same day they were added into them about 3,000 souls.

Jesus went fishing and He had His disciples and He gave them the ability to speak in a language that everybody could understand. Why? Evidently, they must have preached the gospel because you can’t get saved without the gospel. So whatever else happened on that day, it was for the main purpose of preaching the gospel and God, God, going fishing. You see, God drew them in and God had the bait and he had a few poles there and he used them and 3000 people got saved at one day.

You say, well, I’m not interested in numbers. God is. He even wrote a book in the Bible called Numbers, didn’t he? And who’s the one that wrote these numbers in the Bible? The Holy Spirit of God? Why do you think this is in here? To give us examples. When you read the book of Acts, it is the continuation of book of Luke. And it’s the beginning of what Jesus began to do. It’s like a continuation. It’s a history. And in the book of Acts, it tells you what happened.

It is an evangelistic book about some evangelist who was fulfilling the Great Commission. Now going into the world, and that’s why you find all these soul-winning stories in the book of Acts. Acts. Even the word itself, things like it means I’m supposed to do something, doesn’t it sound like action to you? Maybe it is. Because you see, if the Holy Spirit is involved, there should be action. You and I have been blessed by God to be given the indwelling Holy Spirit to call us to action, to do something.

Now, I like the various ministries that we have, but the greatest ministry in this church is individual soul winning. Nobody knows about it. In other words, you don’t have to always toot your own horn. But there’s nothing wrong in letting people know that, yes, you had somebody trust Christ to save you. But you know, you know that you’re given the glory in the honor to the Lord. You’re just thankful God is able to use you. I think it’s a great thing.

Some of you will give out CDs. Some of you’ll give out tracks. Some of you talk to people. Some of you give money to make things possible so you get on the radio and so on. But the reason that I want you to do it is because I want you to do it for the Lord. You’re doing it for the Lord. This is what the Lord wants you to do. You have been called under this. You that are missing Sunday school on Sunday morning, you’re missing some good teaching.

It will help you tremendously. Remember when you’re limited in knowledge you’re limited in ministry. So the more you know, the more you can do, the more you can explain to help people to see God wants you to do this. Look in Acts chapter 10, the book of Acts in chapter 10. Acts chapter 10 and look in verse 24. Acts chapter 10 verse 24. Peter had gone to talk to a man by the name of Cornelius who was a leader of an Italian band.

See, they had bands back in those days. And it’s a good story. See, they’re in verse 1. There was a certain man in, a cesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band. See, there’s, they had a firehouse fire back in those days. Called the Italian band. But anyway, we’re moving right along. But this man was a devout man, a religious man. He was just a lost man. and he was searching. So God had to find him a fishing pole.

He already had the bait. He just needed a fishing pole. So he found Peter and told Peter, this is what I want you to do. And Peter went to his house. And the Bible says there in verse 24, and tomorrow after they entered in the Caesarea and Cornelius waited for them and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. So he got everybody together in his house and here comes Peter that’s got a prey to him. In verse 25, and as Peter was coming in Cornelius made it, fell down at his feet and worshiped him.

But Peter took him up saying, I’m not the pope, stand up. Well that was in the Hebrew, agree. He said, I myself also am a man and he’s no more than a man. He’s never been more than a man. We’re just people. We don’t fall down to worship any man. There’s only one that deserves to be worship and that’s the Lord. And he makes the statement here in verse 27. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many that were come together.

Now, what do you think all this is going on? God wants Peter to go fishing. And there was a man that was lost and he called them to come together. Now up in Georgia when I got down there I was on the radio and our services was broadcast live, one hour every Sunday morning live. A hundred thousand watt radio station, FM covered all of North Georgia up into the mountains and parts of Tennessee and North and South Carolina and Alabama.

So I was talking to a lot of people every day. small church, but we had a big mouth and we were reaching a lot of people. Well, there were some people that had asked me if I would come down and have a little Bible study with them. It was on a Monday or Tuesday night. So my brother, I asked him if he’d go with me, he says, fine. So I went down there and lo and behold, they had about 15, 20 people together and they met in his house.

We out there in the boonies and there was no church around close enough on them, but so they had gotten their relatives and so forth to come together. Now I wonder what I should talk about. I wonder what I should talk to them about. All great I am. No, I don’t think so. I talked to them about how great he is. And I gave him the gospel and we had some people trust the Lord and they wanted me to come down again.

I said, I can’t do that. I said, I got too many things going. So my brother says, I will. So my brother went down there and lo and behold, they wind up starting the church and still going on now, all because of somebody who heard the radio broadcast and wanted me to come down here to it. I was out there one day I came through Georgia and I had a great concern for all of my relatives, all my relatives.

And buddy, I have a lot of relatives up in the flatwoods of Georgia. And most of their parents were just like mine. They were bootleggers. My daddy was called Shine because he was a moonshiner. And anyway, they had been out there in the bunnies. They asked me, they knew that Yankee was a preacher. So we agreed on, we’d get that old Methodist church, there’s no Methodist church. Little white church, right out there in the cemetery all around it. My dad is buried there now.

I am. I said, I’ll come. And I went there and we got the relatives together. I had my aunt and my aunt did everything. She knew everybody, knew where everybody lived, and she got together. And buddy, we packed that little church. And I pleaded with them. I told them what I found that I had come to know Christ as my Savior and I wanted them to know what they knew my dad. They knew my mom. They knew my sisters.

Most of them knew who I was. And whenever I gave the gospel, I had a bunch of them trust Christ to say. I’ll never forget the day that one of those guys that sat there was a guy named Crazy Luke Graham. Crazy Luke Graham, he used to be a wrestler, a professional wrestler, a mean wrestler. He was blonde headed and years ago he was even on television and they would get in the ring and they would wrestle and fight and throw each other out of the ring and all that stuff and but he got beat up sometime.

Now my mama, she couldn’t stand him. go to the wrestling and she’d watch that stuff. I said, Mom, most of it’s fake. I said, most of it’s fake. I said, they got to be in good shape, but it’s fake, huh? And Mom wouldn’t believe it. That’s real. And she’d go there and she’d sit on the front row because of my cousin. That was, he was my first cousin. And he was in there and he’d rassel. And they’d tried to pick him up and throw him out of the ring and all this stuff, you know.

And my mama, she was hollering, yelling, screaming. And I thought she’s going to die. And others that went with my mom. And he couldn’t believe it. My momma would get so excited about this. Well, that ain’t nothing. My momma’s sister, ain’t I lean? She was watching it on a Saturday night, watching the wrestling. And my aunt, even though she’s sitting in the living room, she’s like getting in the rain with them. And she says, and they always do something dirty in the wreaths, always on the other side.

And never can see what the guy’s doing this dirty. He’s He’s right, it’s wrong. And my aunt’s trying to get the referee to see what’s going on. Do you realize she died of a heart attack watching that? I did her funeral. My aunt died watching the wrestling that was fake. Died of a heart attack. Can’t believe it. Well, there’s always something that goes on, but the key thing is you want to reach your family. And here’s this great big rastler.

He had trust the Lord. I believe I led him to the Lord. And his kids asked me if I would do his funeral. So at the funeral, here’s all his relatives, all his kids. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to them, but they got them together and I gave the gospel and they trusted Christ as Savior. One of the highlights was after I had told my mom that that I had trusted the Lord, she’d get up and walk out of the room and she wouldn’t listen to me.

Just broke my heart. And I wanted my mom to know how to go to heaven and she just wouldn’t listen. My stepdad told me, he UKIP and if I want to hear preaching, I go to church. I guess I didn’t do it right, but I was trying. See, a poor attempt is better than none at all. But my stepdad, he wound up having heart trouble and he was in the hospital in Atlanta. And I went up there and I didn’t know if I’d get a chance to get in to see him.

And I was standing outside looking through the glass. And my stepdad, he had tubes all over him, heart machines and stuff. My mom was standing there beside the bed and I looked in and I could see him and he saw me and he pointed to my mom and he says, he said, you want Yankee to come and pray for you? And he was moving his head like this. So my mom asked me to come on in and he was the same one that told me to shut up my mom business Leave me leave him alone, and I went in there and talked to him and he trusty Christ of Savior It wasn’t long after that that he died But I’m glad he’s but he’s in heaven That big old wrestler.

No, he died. I did his feet. Well, he’s in heaven. I got a lot of relatives that have passed off And I’ve had funeral for about 20 of them But I went fishing I went fishing some of y’all have got a lot of relatives Don’t take it for granted that somebody’s gonna win him. It may not happen that way. I told him in ranch last night that I had an Ant and uncle. I drove over 450 miles one way to talk to my ant and uncle and they told me to leave him alone.

I Got in the car broken hearted and I drove all the way back 900 miles, but I tried I tried. Have you ever gone fishing? If fishing a certain hole not catch anything Do you quit fishing or you just move to another spot? You just move to another spot. My catch went here. My catch went over there. And sometimes lo and behold, you get your whole bunch. I’ve been with my uncle and he always let me paddle the boat while he fished.

But he would give me a quarter for everyone he caught over three pounds. I didn’t get many quarters. I did a lot of fishing, riding a boat. But some of you are missing out on the greatest opportunity in the world and that’s to talk to somebody. If you can’t do with a lot of people around, then get somebody when there’s nobody else around. And just share it with them. Have you ever had somebody explain to you how to have eternal life?

And a lot of people say, well no, no I haven’t. Do you mind if I take just a moment? tell you what happened to me or what I found out. So if you keep it personal, you’re not preaching at him, you’re just talking to him. Because you want to be a fisherman, you want to explain things to people. Well, he went and he did this and lo and behold, people trusted the Lord. Look what he says in verse 34, we’ll just see that.

Then Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. But in every nation, he that feared him and work of righteousness is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all. That word, that word is what He’s talking about. And down in verse 40, Him, God raised up from the dead and so forth. In verse 42, and He commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick in the dead.

To Him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever, believe it in him, shall receive remission of sin.” You know what soul winning is? Is people having their sins taken away. See, the payment’s been made, but it’s not put to their account. Eternal security is the forgiveness of sins. See, all my sins have been forgiven. That’s why I am eternally secure. When Christ died, He died for me. And He did that a long time ago, 2,000 years ago.

And He loved me. He paid for my sins. And I’m going to heaven because of what He’s done for me. Jesus Christ was a fisherman. And the stories are about fishing, about so winning. You see, the book of Acts is to show you and I what He meant. And he says, going to all the world, I’m preaching, this is what he meant. You can see what the apostles understood by what they did. What did they do? They did what he said do.

Well, I wonder if he meant that just for them, just for them. If he meant it just for them, how come if I believe that I can do that too, I can fish? And because I believe that, how come I’ve caught a lot of fish? And a person who doesn’t believe it hasn’t caught a lot of fish. Sometimes it depends upon what you really believe. Do you really believe you can catch fish? Now I’ll admit, when it comes to catching real fish out here in the water, I’m not a very good fisherman.

I’ve caught a few, but not like some people do. I think the devil goes down to him, yank is out there fishing, don’t bite on his. And he’ll bite on everybody’s mind. But everyone’s in the wild, I’ll catch a fish. And it makes me so happy I was fishing with my brother one time up there in the lake up in top of Buneavista in Colorado and In him and somebody else was fishing and they were just a pull on the man.

I couldn’t get anything And so I would take theirs off and throw it down and throw the hook back out and I’d do the same thing with him And I finally caught a fish and I got the fish put it in my hand and put thing off of him through the fish up I threw that I threw the wrong thing I finally caught a fish and then through the only fish that I caught back in the water. I know, I know, I know.

I didn’t tell you I was a bride this kid. My mama said I was good looking, but she never said I was smart. You see, mama was wrong on both accounts. But that is even I was born. I was the eggless kid who had never seen in his life. That’s on. My dad never seen Peter. Said I had long, straight black hair all over my body. He said, he’s going to put me in a burlap sack and throw me in the river and drown me.

Can you believe that? Sweet in us and a little baby like me. I was just born. And I remember that happening. My mama told me the story. Now what am I fixing to do? I’m fixing to fish. See some of y’all didn’t get too smart for your own good. I’m fishing. In other words, if you’re here and you’ve never trusted Christ to save you, did you realize There’s a God in heaven who is fishing for you. He means he wants to catch you.

And he wants to give you some bait. So listen up because… I want the Lord to catch you. He caught me. I want him to catch you. How many of y’all in here have been caught? How many of y’all have been caught? Let me see. Look at that. See there? They heard something. Here’s what they heard. This is you and me. This is sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us, hates our sin. And for us to pay for sin, eternal separation from God in hell.

God loves us, wants us to go to heaven. But to go to heaven, you have to be perfect. perfect is righteous is God and none of us are perfect. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection because of this sin we can’t get in sin. So God says you can’t earn your way to heaven. You need a Savior. This hand represents Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loves us. He hates what we do wrong.

Our sin separates us from God. So Jesus Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead. This little love story is because God wants you to know, I love you. I love you. And everybody wants to be loved. But He said, I love you so much. I’ll pay for your sins. And I will give you as a free gift everlasting life. Isn’t that some pretty good bait to catch a person? Because most people want a happy turn of life.

Most people want to go to heaven. people don’t want to die and go to hell. So why not tell them the story that they would love to hear? Love to understand. This week, let’s all go fishing. I want you to fish. I want you to try to catch somebody this week. Just think how many we would have trust, Christ to save you. If everybody in here only had one person that you led to Christ this week, but like how many of that would be?

I think we can do it. I believe it’s the will of God that we’re fishermen. Now you may not always catch the fish, but I think you ought to fish. Y’all at least try fishing. Let’s pray, shall we? With the headbound nice clothes, no one looking around. Why not right now? The quadrants of this moment just say something like this between you and the Lord. Lord, I’m a sinner. I know I’ve done things wrong, but I believe you love me and that you paid for my sins.

And friend God says right now that if you would except Him as your Savior, He would save you and give you as a free gift everlasting life. Would you do it? Would you trust Him if you will? Then I’d like to know and I’d like to have prayer for you. So I’m going to ask you in just a moment to raise your hand, but raising your hand doesn’t save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you.

So before we close in prayer, is there anyone else who says, yes, I’ll trust Christ as my Savior this morning and preach a life for you to pray for me. We just slip you in a very quickly and better affect down, Zane, we’re at all. And we’re at all. Our Father, we thank you again for your blessings to us. We’re thankful that somebody one day went fishing, and we were caught. They told us the greatest story that’s ever been told.

And help us to share that with others, bless each one here. In Christ and 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 are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771.

To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bible line programs, just go to our home page at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the radio broadcast link. 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. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcasts of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, 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, and just keep looking up.