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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 concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

The Bible tells us that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who are called those were called according to his purpose. And the reason for that is because God wants you to love him. See, 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 see, 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 Christ as 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’re afraid. He’s going to 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 blessed in the Mount. I mean, years ago, I don’t do that anymore. I learned. But this night I was blessed in God. I said, 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 on two clothes lines out there in the middle of the dark. In the middle of the night, and I talked to God I told God, I said, your testimony is at stake, not mine, nor’s. Because I told people I trust you. And if you fail me, 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 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 them how you think how you feel scared to do that But there’s time when you’ll feel so lonely This is what caused you to have a 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, ah, no world must he have felt. How do you think Jesus felt when he was on the cross and all those people 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 thou forsaken me? Oh, 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 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. were not there yet. And in entrapment, there were times in my life I felt I totally trapped. It’s like, and I’ve used this illustration, it’s like being inside of this church right now and all the lights are off and all the doors are locked.

There’s no windows and all four walls begin to move in on you. And there’s no place to run. There’s no place to hide. You can’t get out of it. There’s times in your life when you feel like because of finances or of health because of this problem, that problem, you feel trapped because you don’t see an opening, you don’t see a way out. And buddy, you talk about your heart can break and you can cry inside, though nobody sees the tears, nobody hears the voice, but inside you’re falling apart.

And mentally you don’t know if you can be able to handle it. Anybody ever been there? Another time is when you’re totally afraid. You don’t know how God is going to deliver you from something that you see coming down the road and you wish you could stop it. It’s kind of like you know you’re in this tunnel and it looks so long and it looks so dark. And finally there’s a light, a glimmer of light and you get closer and closer and it’s a gorilla with the flashlight.

Sometimes you say, it can’t get any worse than this and it does. I can’t take any more. God says, oh, you haven’t even seen how much I can put on you yet. So that’s the last straw. God said, I’ve got a whole bundle I’m on place on you. And you’d be surprised how God has strengthened you by showing you how much you can trust Him. And you’re still here. You’re still alive. And you’ll look back over your life and you’ll see how God has brought you through all these experiences.

Tribulation works patience, and patience is where you learn from the experience. You see, if it doesn’t develop the patience and you don’t learn from the experiences, it’s kind of like going to the restaurant and getting some eggs. I love eggs, I love eggs. But I like salt and pepper in my eggs. Salt and pepper is what spices it up. You see, life without problems is bland. So God spices up your life and gives you a little salt and pepper.

Makes it taste good. Otherwise just blah. How’s your life then? Blah, nothing happens in my life. I am so bored. Listen, I haven’t had time to be bored. I haven’t got time to be bored. I would tell people, don’t be bored, serve the Lord. You’d be surprised what God will do for you. And that’s what produces all these things. It causes grief. And you grieve because of, have you ever grieved over your kids? Grieved over your grandkids? Grieved over your wife or your husband?

Grieved over losing a job, grieved because of the health? You can grieve in a lot of ways. See, God doesn’t remove all those things from us. His responsibility is to give you the strength and the grace that you need to bear it. Not to run from it. Sometimes not to go around it or over it or under it, but to go right to the middle of it. When he says to your soul, clean through, clear through. Have you come to the Red Sea place in your life where in spite of all you do?

There’s no way out. There’s no way back. There’s no other way but through. Then trust in the Lord with a trust serene near the watery walls rolled down. No way can touch you. Nothing. nobody is seeking drowned. Then I’ll trust in the Lord, and you’d be surprised as you go through your life, you’re learning how to walk with God. I remember one time when I was down at Florida Bible College, and down at Florida Bible College, they had chapel, I think it was three times a week.

So when we had chapel, I went in there and I sat down, and I didn’t know who the guest speaker was going to be that day. And lo and behold, Dr. Lee Robertson was sitting down in front of Ray Stanford’s office, sitting on the front row, he was going to be speaking in chapel that day. I went walking down there with a spring in my step and a smile on my face and my eyes were beaming and I was happy as I could be.

And I reached out in my hand and said, Dr. Lee Robert’s and good to see ya! And he got up and he looked at me and he says, I have you down as a quitter. He said down. I went back and I sat down. My heart was broken. It just floored me. He got up here and he preached a sermon. Now that years before he was going to go into singing, have a singing career because the guy had an awesome voice.

He was going to be a singer. God called him to preach, he said. So I gave that up to be a preacher. He says, sometimes in your life you have to make choices, hard choices, difficult choices. Sometimes people don’t understand why you do what you do. He says, and this is what I did. So he challenged all the college students, do what you believe God wants you to do with your life. And after the sermon was over, I meandered up.

And And so kids were around and I couldn’t get close. And so I just kind of said it. Dr. Lee Robertson, I did what you preached. I did what I believed God wanted me to do. And I turned and walked out of the audience. I was so brokenhearted. I had him up here. And he just, I felt like, stomped me. I was so brokenhearted. It took a while for me to get over that. It wasn’t long before we had a summer break, and I had a chance to go to see a friend of mine, the name was John Freeman.

He was going to summer school at Tennessee Temple. I went by to see him, and he asked me, and he says, you want to go to chapel with me today? I said, sure. It’d be great. I’d been there in a couple years. So I went to the summer school, and inside they had, I guess it was packed. It could be a thousand people there for summer school. And Dr. Lee Robertson, he always goes on the gospel dynamite, his radio broadcast, which he did every morning from the auditorium.

So when he’d get through, he would go to his office in. So he had chapel before he was going to do his radio broadcast. And he had everybody stand that brought somebody as a visitor. And I was sitting right down here with my friend John. And people were standing up and they introducing their visitors that they brought. And so as he went through he got through everybody and then he turned and sat down. My friend was still standing. My friend, he still standing.

He brought, he got me to come. Dr. Lee Robertson turned and John says, Dr. Robertson, I have a friend here and he went yes and he’s a black sheep here. And went over there and sat down. My friend, he looked at me and he just sit down. Do you think I had an achy, breaky heart?” I thought, what did I do to deserve this? I had no clue, no knowledge of anything that I had ever said or did that would produce that.

So I went down the hallway and I told John he had to go to class. I went in the hallway and I knew what he did. So I went down and I sat in a chair and I waited in the hallway kind of knew and he finishes, he’s got to right down his hallway to his office. So I sit there and I weigh in. He finished on the radio broadcast. He come walking down the hallway. I saw him, he saw me.

And I stood up and he was going to walk right past me. He looked straight ahead like he didn’t even see me. I said, Dr. Robertson, can I talk to you? And he has stopped and he looked at me. He had tears in his eyes. I said, why did you do that? He says, because you have no idea how much I loved you, how much I cared about you. He says, and I had no clue what you did or where you went until I saw you done it for the Bible college.

He already talked to his board and they were hiring me to be a first-full son. He had gone out on a limb for me. I had no no clue I hurt him and he had an achy, breaky heart. And I was having mine little pity party. Because at the time, see, I wasn’t mature enough to understand. I didn’t think. I was dealing the habit of just doing whatever I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it, and never considered how it might have hurt somebody else.

It was years later when I had a church in Colorado. He came to Colorado and he was preaching in this church. And I brought about 15, 20 people over because I wanted them to hear Dr. Lee Robertson. And I introduced them to him and by then we had become friends again. But it took time. Did you realize that sometimes not only do you have a broken heart, have you ever considered the times you’ve given one? Have you ever given one?

Have you ever broke somebody’s heart? And then you never say, I’m sorry. Forgive me. Or I love you. It was wrong. I had to explain to him what had happened, but it was too late. Several years of hurt that went by and it didn’t have to happen that way because Iyip just didn’t think. I looked back on it and I said, boy, I wish I could something that could go back and change. It could have been better. It could have been different.

When I went down to Florida Bible College that one night when I was going to finally get a chance to go to ranch. See, I was there for two years and never been to a ranch meeting because I had to work all the time. I averaged two and a half hours of sleep a night for the first two years. I thought it was going to die. I think several times I did. And it was so bad. And finally, I got a chance to go to ranch one night and I told the guy where I was working, I said, can you just watch my machine?

And I walked down the train tracks about a mile. And I walked into the hallway and ranch was on for their own site where Ray has a ranch and the college kids and all these kids, everybody talked about ranch. It’s a teenage bible study. They played guitars and all that. Hank Lindstrom was in that ranch meeting that night. and they were in there having a great time. And so I walked into the hallway, and this one kid walked down the hallway at college kids.

His name was Herb Painter Jr. He had taken some pictures, and he was showing his picture. He was talking loud. I hadn’t said a word. All of a sudden here comes Ray Stanford out of the side room. He came out there and he chewed both of us out royal. He says, you kids. He says, dude, you get out of here, and don’t come to the ranch. He says, I can’t stand it when people don’t have no compassion for so I’m in there trying to conduct a youth meeting and you’re out here hollering and talking and making noise and interrupting my meeting.

Now get out. So my first ranch meeting I was kicked out by the president of the college. It already didn’t happen at Tennessee Temple by the president of the college. Now here I am with Dr. Ray Stanford, the president of the college. I walked out of that room. I hadn’t even said a word. Never even got into the ranch meeting itself. I didn’t even get that far. And I walked down those train tracks and I had tears in my eyes.

My heart was breaking. And it caused me to wonder, what did I do wrong? Why does that have to happen? I hadn’t done anything. I’ve waited two years. Finally, I get a chance to go. Somebody else says something. I get blamed and I get kicked out. Have you ever felt that you have been wronged, suffered because you have been defrauded? You didn’t get your justice? Welcome to the club. Now somewhere in there, all things work together for good. I thought, yeah, right.

How can anything good come out of that? It was a very next morning Friday because Rance was always on Thursday night. He called me into the office. He says, I found out what happened last night, Herb told them, that I hadn’t said anything. And he was so impressed with my attitude that I demonstrated such control. I was fixing to quit. I quit every Friday. He had talked to Jack Weaver, told me to contact Jack Weaver, so that I could get a job working for Jack Weaver and not have to work so many hours.

And because I got the job with Jack Weaver, because of Ray, he asked me if I would be the co-director of the Youth Ranch. Now I got a job whereby I can go to the ranch every night when they have it and be the co-director of the youth ranch would raise Stanford. You see, I can look back now and I can see how God has done marvelous things. I could not have planned it. I would not have planned it the way it happened.

If I was in charge, that’s definitely not the way I want it done. What if I hadn’t and went to ranch that night? And what if I hadn’t have been chewed out that night that Ray fell a little obligation to make it right? I probably would have never got that job. I’d have never been in ranch. I’d have never went to Colorado and started the youth ministry. We sit over 200 the Bible college from youth ranch alone. At the time, see, you might have a lot of broken hearts in your life.

You can’t piece it together. You just don’t see a continuity there. where it’s any good at all. But just be patient, give it time. You be surprised all the things you’re learning. One is God is stripping you of all your pride. By allowing things to happen, you can’t handle it. You can’t control it and you don’t know how to get out of it because God wants you to trust Him. Trust Him to walk you through it. And then when you get down the road, maybe 50 years or more, you’ll look back and you say, how God has opened that door.

What’s that happened? What if that hadn’t happened? What if that hadn’t happened? Look how good God is. You see, God wants to make us look good, but he wants also, does to realize, look how good God is. God is good. So we are headed where we’ve never been before. You remember when Star Trek first came out? Going where no man has ever gone before. My whole Christian life is going where I’d never been before. Every experience was different than anything I’ve ever experienced before.

And God has done all that, and He still left us here because I still have a few more galaxies to conquer out there. Few more worlds to see. Few more experiences that I haven’t gone through yet. And the older we get, we keep facing things we never face before. God got a few things in your life that you’ve never seen before. You haven’t understood before because you haven’t been there before. God may have something wonderful waiting for you tomorrow.

Maybe you’re going to be in a hospital with cancer. Maybe you’re going to lose your job. Maybe you’re going to have a loved one pass away. See, it doesn’t matter what the experience is. It’s what you learn from it. God didn’t change because your experience has changed. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. supposed to believe all of this. So God is working in your life, whether you see it or you don’t see it. But he says it’s true.

Paul says the things that have happened on the main are for the furtherance of the gospel. I was talking to this guy up there in the camp, not camp, but at the Grace Conference. His name is Jim Musorino. He has a church up there in Minnesota. One night he was driving him and his wife through Indianapolis. As they were driving through Indianapolis, they were listening to the radio. I just happened to at that time come to Indianapolis, Indiana, and we’re going to speak for Dr.

Greg Dixon. Dr. Greg Dixon and Jerry Falwell started this more majority years ago, but I was preaching for him that night. night. Eddie was singing and so they were celebrating something, I think, 35th anniversary of something. So I’m speaking, but I really didn’t know it was on the radio. I was live on the radio that night. This guy’s going to town and he’s listening to the radio and he tells his wife, says, honey, he’s clear. If he says, take out your wallet, he’s going to blow a gasket.

And all of a sudden I said, let this hand represent you and me in this wallet represent sin. And he couldn’t believe it because he had never heard nobody else say that except Dr. Scudder. And now here he is and he winds up after he dedicated his life to the Lord. He led somebody to the Lord. The first person that he ever led to the Lord, I believe I’m getting this right. I hope I am, was a lady by the name of Jane Vazquez.

trust the Lord and it changed her life. She became the secretary for Dr. Scudder and their whole ministry up there. Boom, boom, boom, boom. You can’t believe the length and how God works in strange and mysterious ways. The contact you’ll make. It’s awesome. Believe God, trust the Lord. Look up here. This hand represents you and me, the wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us. But He hates our sin. But He loves us. He says that if we…

Pay for this sin. It’s eternal separation from God. We’re all in the same boat. We’re all sinners, but God loves sinners, aren’t you glad? He says to go to heaven, you have to be perfect as righteous as God. None of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. We’re all sinners. We’ve all come short of God’s perfection. So the Bible says that we can’t save ourselves. You see, you don’t go to church to go to heaven. You don’t give money to go to heaven.

You can’t buy it. Don’t waste your time. eternal life is the gift of God. You see, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world. He was perfect. He had no sin. He didn’t have to die. But because He loved us, He didn’t want us to have to pay for those sins. Eternity, inhale. So He took all the sins of all the world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead, OHN said, all that you have to do, not by your words, all you have to do is believe I did it for you.

If you’ll believe that I did this for you, then this payment is put to your account. You go to heaven on what I did. All you have to, will you believe He did it for you? And God said, if you’ll believe it, He’ll save you and give you eternal life. And you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die. It’s the gift, it’s free. He’ll never cash you out and never lose you. That’s the best news I ever heard in my whole life.

Still is the best news I’ve ever heard. Let’s pray, shall we? With heads by a nice close, no one looking around. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your savior, Or if you’re watching by internet, would you just right now in the quietness of this moment, just talk to the Lord? Say something simple like this, Lord, I’m a sinner. I got questions, I got doubts, but I know I’m a sinner. And I don’t understand at all, but I believe that when Christ died, I believe He died for me.

And if you’ll believe He did that for you, He came back from the dead. Instead, if you’d trust Him, He would save you. So with heads piled nice and closed and no one looking around, I’m going to ask you just a moment to raise your hand. Raising your hand does not save you. It only lets me know that what I said made sense to you. And you’re saying, preacher, that made sense to me. And I’ll trust Christ as my Savior this morning.

I’m not going to embarrass you. I’m not going to point you out. I just want to have prayer for you. So is there anywhere that I’ll say, preacher, that made sense. And I will trust Christ as my Savior. And I’d like for you to pray for me. Would you just slip it up very quickly and put it right back down? Yes, God God bless you, sir. God bless you. God bless you. I appreciate that. Anyone else? Just slip it up and put it right back down.

There’s no tricks to it. I’m not God. I can’t save you. I can only tell you about what Christ did for you. Would you believe it? Anyone else before we close? Yes, I do want to trust Christ. I want to be certain I’m going to heaven. God bless you, man. That’s just a smart decision. Only a fool would turn down a free gift. It’s the best news in all the world. And once you trust them, He saves you. It gives you eternal life.

And you can know that you’re going to heaven. Father, we thank You so much for this time together. And Lord bless each one to send the Creator by an uplift at hand that they would trust You, Savior. And Father, we also pray for each person here that over their life they’ve had many broken hearts. Many moments of despair and trappings, the fear, the grief. Or to help them to see that you’re working in their life. They help them to be stronger.

Draws closer to you. Thank you so much. In Christ’s name we pray. 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 Bibleline. 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. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. And we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.