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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I have maybe a little interesting thing I want to talk to you about today. today is kind of if you wanted a title it’s called Oh My Aiki Breaky Heart. No, I’ve never heard that song that somebody sung about our Aiki Breaky Heart. I’ve heard the title and a lot of people talk about the Aiki Breaky Heart. Well, let me tell you about a few experiences that I’ve had about an Aiki Breaky Heart. You may be here this morning and you have one.

Keep it. Now we want to try to help you. I know that everybody’s hurting. Somewhere along the lines, everybody’s got something they’re going through. You’re either going into a problem, you’re in a problem, or you’re coming out of a problem, but problems are with us. And they shoot up as the Bible says, like arrows, sparks. Turn in your Bible to the book of Luke in chapter 4, the Gospel of Luke, and chapter 4. There’s a scripture that’s quoted in the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah and when Jesus Christ goes into the synagogue he stands up and he reads and this is the scripture that he read from the book of Isaiah and it’s just a couple verses that he read and then he sat down but it was interesting but look there in verse 16 verse 16.

He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Now that’s when they had the synagogue they would go. It’d be like us today’s and as your custom was, you went to Calvary Community Church on Sunday morning, as your custom was every once in a while. Christmas and Easter. But then he says there, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath date and stood up for to read.

There was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. When he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, and this is what he read. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set it liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

And he closed the book, gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say to them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” That would have a pretty powerful sermon. Hey, that scripture that was read back there 700 years ago is now being fulfilled. I’m the guy that it’s talking about. It’s me. You know what they wanted to do to him for saying something like that?

They wanted to stone him to death. They wanted to kill him. He only preached a few verses. Nothing. How many sermons I preached and nobody’s killed me yet? wanted to, or to be stoned, you know, you think your servants ought to be so good that people love them, or they’ll be so bad that everybody hates them. Well, I don’t want to go there. But I do want you to notice this. When he said this in verse 18, he says, because He hath noted me to preach the gospel.

The Bible says, you’re all poor. You’re all naked. God says that we’re all in need. We need a savior. So the good news is that he came into the world, the down the cross to pay for, to pay for, to have as a free gift everlasting life. So the very moment you and I trust in Christ is our savior, God gives us everlasting life and we get to go to heaven whenever we die. But there’s a lot of things that happens.

everlasting life and we get to go to heaven whenever we die. But there’s a lot of things that happens to us in life. And you’ll notice that the Bible seems to say that Jesus is the answer to just about everything. I used to see that all the time. Jesus is the answer. Jesus, I don’t even know what the question was. Whatever the question was, I guess he was the answer. He also says, He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted.

Now how many people do you think in the world has ever had a brokenhearted? I’ve had a few of them. And it means you got to the place where, you know, your expectations are not met. You’re so disappointed. You’re in such despair. There’s so many things that can happen that can break your heart. You know, a husband can break the heart of his wife and the wife can know the husband and the kids and everybody can break everybody’s heart.

Once in a while, the preacher may break your heart. You might come to church one Sunday and you needed a special sermon and I didn’t give it. He said, he posed a meat in my knees and he didn’t do it. Sometimes I’ve had people say, you know, I went to church to get some meat and all he had was milk. And then somebody comes and they just want some milk and I gave them nothing but meat. Do you realize you can’t please everybody?

Have you tried it yet? How you doing? If you can’t do it, don’t thank me to do it. But people have a broken heart and then he makes a statement to preach the deliverance to the captain. Every one of us have an old sinful nature and we’re all captive. We’re prisoners. We’re slaves of sin. You have an old sinful nature and it doesn’t matter how you try to break it. You can’t break it. You’re in prison. You’re a captive.

And Christ said, I come to set you free. So He says, this scripture is fulfilled this day in your ears. This is He’s the one that can do all these things. I’ll have to admit I had a lot of things to learn. How to heal a broken heart. I want to just share with you a little of my broken heart from the beginning of my ministry and in things that God has had to teach me because it’s something that we go through with experiences.

Now take your Bible first of all, but look there in the book of Romans Romans in chapter 5. Romans 5. And notice there in verse 1, chapter 5, Romans and verse 1. I would just see this because there’s some interesting things here. In verse 1 it says, therefore being justified by faith. We have peace with God. You are not justified before God by your works. Your works are not good enough to get you to heaven. It’s not good enough to get me to heaven.

It’s not good enough to get anybody to heaven. There was only one person who came into this world that was perfect and that was Christ. So if you take all of his good works, his righteousness and he gave it to me, well that would make me as righteous as God. I go to heaven on what he did, not on what I did. So 53 years ago I trusted Christ as my Savior. I was given the free gift of everlasting life.

Well, if God gave me eternal life 53 years ago, then would I still have it today? Well, of course. And 53 years in the future, will I still have it? Well, of course. Because you see, eternal life is eternal. And if it was a gift, he doesn’t take it back. He said, well, you can give it back. You can’t give it back. Because see, eternal life is the Lord. Christ is eternal life. And when you have Christ, you have eternal life.

And he said, I’ll never leave you and never forsake you. Can’t get rid of him. You can’t lose eternal life once you have it. So once you’re a child of God, you’re his child. You’re his child forever. That’s why you can know you’re going to heaven when you die. If it depends upon how you live, well, then you can’t be secure. You really don’t know if you’re going to make it or not. Because if you could lose it, you might.

And if you might, how do you know you won’t? So you can’t really say you know you’re gonna make it. I know that I have eternal life. I know I’m going to have them when I die, but I’m not there yet. I’m his child. I’m going to heaven when I die, but I don’t know how long God’s gonna give me to live so far 53 years since I trust the Lord. But look here in verse two. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand.

See, that’s your new position in Christ. When you are born into the world, you are a lost man. You trust Christ as your Savior. Now you are a saved man. That’s a different position. I once was lost, but now I’m fine. I once was blind, but now I see. I’m over here now. I’m a saved man. And once you are saved, you are saved forever. He saved me from hell forever. Not until I sin again. If he’s saved me until I sin again, don’t even waste your time giving it to me because you’re going to lose it.

It’s a gift. It’s free. And that’s how you can know that you’re going to heaven. Now look there in verse three. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations. You said not me. You ever heard the statement, tribulation, work with patients. Do you feel like you have enough patients? You don’t want no more patients do you? Because you’re asking for what? More tribulation. Tribulation, work with patients. And we are not too patient, but it doesn’t end with just that statement.

Tribulation, work with patients. Okay. And then you go through one tribulation after the other and you become more impatient as you go. If you fail a test, you have to take it over. And that’s why some Christians never grow because they never got out of kindergarten. They can’t pass their test. test. They mumble and gripe and grumbly complain about every little problem, the thing that goes wrong and God says, okay, you didn’t pass that test, you got to take it over again.

And again, and again. And that’s why 20 years later, they’re still running around in their diapers. They’ve never grown up. But whenever you trust Christ to say to God expects you as His child to grow in the Lord. Well, in order to grow, you live by faith, taking God at His Word. So God says, I’m going to let you have a little of this and you’ve got to grow and little of this and you grow some more and I’ll give you some of this She grows some more and you grow in Faithfulness can you be faithful with all these things that seems to go wrong?

So you’re not really faithful to God if there’s no opposition Pulling you against being faithful So God allows the old devil the old sinful nature and all the problems of life to try to get you not to be faithful and God says, I want you to be faithful, and I’m gonna bless you if you do. So some grow and some don’t. But notice what he says here. Knowing that tribulation work is patient, patience, experience, and experience hope. And that hope in verse five, make if not ashamed because the love of God is shit abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is giving them.

And love is what God is after. You see, once you have gone through some trials tribulation, you learn by experience and you learned that God did what He’s promised and you got stronger and stronger and stronger. Now this word hope is a joyful anticipation. You know what he’s going to do tomorrow because you know what he did before and God doesn’t change. You’ve gotten stronger in the Lord. You can trust the Lord for the future and you don’t worry about that and you’re not ashamed of it.

And that’s why He says now see you’re able to spread the love of God. Whenever you’re going through trials and tribulations and you don’t accept it the right way, you don’t spread love, you show bitterness and hatred and you turn against God and you get matted God and you blame God for everything that goes wrong in your life. And you’re going to reap what you sow. So there’s a reason for the process that God takes us through. Well I found myself in my little darling, my kid, we were living out there in Shreveport, Louisiana.

And at the time I would go down to the rescue mission and while I was there I would hope that somebody wouldn’t show up and I get a chance to speak. And once in a while that would happen. So the guy said, you want to speak? Sure. I didn’t know what to say. I was doing the best I could. I murdered the linguist language. I’m smooth now. But back then, I mean, I was rough. Oh, I was rough. And after I got through preaching and preached my my heart, I’m pouring out my heart.

The guy says, I need to talk to you in the office, so I went in the office, he says, you need to go to Bible school. I didn’t know there was a Bible school. I didn’t have early Bible school. I said, why? He said, because you sound like you want people to go to hell. I just poured out my heart, told him the best that I could, and he says, you sound like you wanted people to go to hell.

And he just took a knife and just stabbed me with it. That hurt me. If I hadn’t have been a good, strong, dedicated Christian, I’d hit him. And I would go home, and I’d go out there, and I’d lay on the ground between the offense and the house, and in the middle of the wintertime, and then snow. And I would talk to the Lord. I said, Lord, when I get to heaven, don’t you dare point your finger at me.

And say, Yankee, why didn’t you do it? They’re like what I wanted to do. I says, because I don’t know what to do. And I didn’t. I knew there has to be something more than what I was doing. I’m only gonna live one time and I got to do something. I didn’t know what it was. And then when that guy told me, he says, you need to go to Bible school. I said, where? Well, he told me about Tennessee Temple.

And off I go. I told Betty. I says, I’m going to Bible school. What? I’m going to Bible school. Chatter New York, Tennessee. Got in our car. I had $35 total to our name. No job. Wifing two kids. And we boogie up there to… Georgia and I dropped the kids off and with Betty and with her parents, I was always taking them back home. And I took off with $15 left and I went to Chattanooga. And when I walked in there, it was on a Wednesday night, they were having Wednesday night church service.

And Dr. Lee Roberson, he was a very distinguished looking fella and he was like Moses over the flock of Israel. Very impressive individual. Great speaker, great singer, he was just, he was awesome. And I was 22 years old. And I sat on the front row and I listened to him preach that night. I don’t know what he said, but when he got through, I walked up to him and I said, I came from Sreaport, Louisiana, and they told me at the rescue mission that I come up here to give me a place to stay.

He said, sure will. He said, we have a rescue mission here too. So he sent me to the rescue mission. And I stayed in there with those, I don’t know, 25, 30, 35, 40 drunks. Why knows from off the street. And I mean, I was in a great crowd. So I ate the food and I slept there. My wife and kids are not afraid. Now I’m telling them, I was having a time in my life where I was really down and discouraged.

I mean really, really down. And I really didn’t know what in the world am I going to do. But there was this one song that they sung one night, and I’m 22 years old. I’m away from my wife and my kids. I don’t have a job. I’m living in a rescue mission. All I know is that there’s got to be something better out there than what I’m doing, but I didn’t know what it was. I really didn’t know how to serve the Lord.

I knew I wasn’t going to hell. I can’t go to hell. I’m going to heaven. But I was miserable in my life. And the guy Paul Roar, he got up here one night and he sung this song, The Haven of Rest. Listen to the words of this song. My soul and sad exile was out on life. See, oh, this is talking about me. So burdened with sin and distress, Till I heard a sweet voice sayin’ make me your choice, And I entered the haven of rest.

I’ve anchored my soul in the haven of rest. I’ll sail the wild seas no more. The tempest may sweep for the wild stormy dee. In Jesus, I’m safe evermore. He sung that song, I’m sitting there and I’m listening with all these drunks. And half of them are asleep. I think the other half were drunk. But I’m sitting there and I’m listening. And the tears begin to come down my chair. Because I felt like the Lord is my haven of rest.

I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how it’s going to work out. I don’t have a job. I’m living in a rescue mission. But all I knew is he promised. And I had one tribulation after the other. And then this verse here says, I yielded myself to his tender embrace and faith taking hold of the word. My feathers fell off and I anchored my soul. The haven of rest is my Lord. O come to the Savior, He patiently waits to save my power divine.

Come anchor your soul in the Haven of rest and say my beloved is mine.” In other words, all I had was just me and the Lord. Me and the Lord, that’s all I had and it would get me through one experience to another experience. I had Dr. Lee Robertson get me into the bus ministry and so I got a few experiences working in the of bus routes and I won a lot of people to the Lord and I got him to church.

Dr. Lee Robertson was impressed that I was a young kid. I gave it all I had. I just kept thinking about there’s people that are going to go to hell and I don’t want them to. I don’t want people to go to hell. And it was my driving motivation. And so he had me come in his office and he would talk to him, would have prayer, and talked about, you know, working with the ministry of the school. And so he even talked to me about being the first full-time soul winner for Tennessee Tampa.

They didn’t have nobody to do that. He was going to hire me to be the first full-time soul winner for Tennessee Temple. It was the fastest growing, largest, independent, fundamental, Bible- He gave me this book. This little book right here is called Crowded to Christ. He gave me this book. you Lee Robertson, Chattanooga, Tennessee. And he gave it to me and says, read this because he knew what I was going through. And he was an older pastor, so he had compassion on this little squirt.

And so he had me read it. I read this poem that was in this book. And it really blessed my little peeping heart. You see, when your heart’s broken, it’s got to be put back together. And it don’t happen all over at one time and one night. It’s a process because your heart doesn’t break all of it. Once it’s because it’s a process, you just get further and further away from God or you don’t know what’s going on and things happen in life.

But this is what it says. And this is kind of like how I felt I was because I didn’t know how it was going to work out. But have you come to the Red Sea place in your life where in spite of all you do, there’s There’s no way out. There’s no way back. There’s no other way but through. Then wait on the Lord with a truss serene till the night of your fear is gone. He will send the wind and He will heap the floods when He says to your soul, go on.

And His hand will lead you through, clear through, air the watery walls roll down. No foe can reach you, no no wave can touch, no mightiest sea can drown. The tossing billows may rear their crests, their foam at your feet may break, but over their bed you shall walk dry shod in the path that your Lord will make.” I love that. I memorized that poem too. And that was in 1964, all those years. Do you know that I have still, since those times, still had a few little experiences, tribulations, still working on me developing more patience, and that patience is causing me to learn from my experiences and that experiences has helped build my faith, though I have strong hope in the Lord about what He will and will not do?

I know God. That’s how you learn Him. And because of that, the love of God is shed abroad in your heart because you knew God loved me all the way. He didn’t just love me on the cross. He didn’t love me because it says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. But since the day I trusted Him, I have learned that God’s loved me all the time, but it has to be proven to me.

It has to be proven to you. You want God, Lord prove you love me, prove you love me, prove you love me. And it’s going to be the hardships of life where God wants to prove to you, hey I still love you, I’ll never leave you and I’ll never forsake you. The Bible tells us that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who are called according to His purpose. And the reason for that is because God wants you to love Him.

I wasn’t saved because I love God. I will say because God loved me. My living for the Lord is because I am sold that God still loves me and He wants me to love Him. And so it’s going to be the tribulations and such that you go through that is really going to help you. This is a little bit about how I felt at times. Maybe you’ve been there, I don’t know. I felt total failure, failure. You see, I saw years begin to click by and I haven’t done anything, accomplished anything and I felt like a total failure in life.

And the thing that most people have within them is the desire to be a success at something. I’ll never be a great lawyer or president of the United States. I’ll never be a banker. I mean without me they would fold. But there’s a whole bunch of us little folks. But you say, you may never be that. You may never get the fame and the honor and the glory and be a big shot. But did you realize that whenever you trust the Christ is your Savior, God can give you new talents and abilities that you didn’t know about?

And the Lord can do things with you that you never dreamed. I have not seen ear have not heard, neither has entered to the heart of man. The things which God has prepared for them that love him. So if you will love the Lord, you haven’t seen, you haven’t heard all that God can do for you and through you. It’s the most wonderful journey in all the world learning to walk with the Lord. And a lot of people are scared to death to trust Him.

They love their security so much they afraid, He’s gonna fail them and let them down. I know, I’ve been there. Because I always put myself in a place And I told the Lord this one night. And one night I was talking to God, and I was blessing them out. I mean, this was years ago, I don’t do that anymore. I learned. But this night I was blessing God. I says, God, I told everybody in this whole college that I love you and that I’m trusting you.

And if you can’t meet my needs, I’m gonna tell. I’m gonna tell them. I’m gonna tell them you let me down. You failed me. You are on the verge of ruining your testimony. And that night as the tears roll down my cheek and I’m holding two clothes lines out there in the middle of the dark, in the middle of the night. And I talked to God and I told God I said, your testimony is at stake, not mine, yours.

Because I told people I trust you. And if you fail and you let me down, don’t you ever expect me to stand in a pulpit and tell people that you’ll provide and you’ll do this and you’ll answer the prayer and all if you don’t do it for me, you’re not going to do it for anybody. You say, you shouldn’t talk to God like that. I know. But at that time, I didn’t care. But I was being honest between when the last time you really had a good, honest talk with God and talk, tell him how you think, how you feel.

Don’t scare to do that. But there’s time when you’ll feel so lonely, this is what caused you to have an achy, breaky heart. You can be here this morning. And no matter how many people, you can still feel all alone, like nobody really cares about you. Like David says, no man careth for my soul. No man cares for my soul. I thought, I know, world must hear felt. How do you think Jesus felt when he was on the cross and all those people mocking him, mocking him, when all of his disciples had forsook him and fled all alone.

And then while he’s hanging on the cross, he cries out, my God, my God, why has stopped forsaken me? Now you can understand what people, but look, he had taken the sins of the world upon himself because he loved us. And you and I think that our leader can go through that and we’re We’re not supposed to have to face anything. We just want a nice little bed of roses for our life and everything to be wonderful and peaceful and happy.

That’s when you get to heaven. We’re not there yet. We at Bibleline would like to extend a free offer to those who support this ministry financially. This month we are sending a free copy of the book The Gospel Driven Man for a donation of any amount. It is a small way that we can show our appreciation for your support of this radio program. Without your thoughtful gifts and prayers, we would not be able to remain on the air. The book explains the basic doctrines of the Bible and can help you to be more confident in leading people to Christ and for understanding the driving principles of the gospel itself.

So during the following month, we would like to send to you a free copy of The Gospel Driven Man by Dr. Ralph Yankiano for a donation of any amount to Bible on. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And don’t forget to include your mailing address. Thank you again for your continued support and prayers in helping us bring the clear gospel message to the world. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us.

The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. 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. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.