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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 air. 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.

This is some good thoughts. But to pass on to those that maybe you want to win people to the Lord, maybe you do. But to me this is something that we always need to keep for most in our minds. The soul winners steps to success. We often say that we don’t have to worry about being successful, just be faithful. But being faithful is being successful in God’s eyes. And the Bible talks about in the book of Joshua chapter 1, and the verse 8 about meditating upon all those things that He’s told us to do.

And thou shalt have good success. He’ll make your way prosperous. Well, if what we’re after is souls, I believe that if we pursue that, we can succeed. So we should be faithful, and faithfulness always pays off. But I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Philippians in chapter 1. Philippians chapter Here in the book of Philippians in chapter 1, we often think about our thought life, the things that we think about when we’re not around somebody else.

What do you ponder in your mind? What is the purpose and the gold of your life? Notice what Paul said. The Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 1 said this there in verse 20, according to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that will all boldness as always. So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death. Paul wanted the Lord to be magnified in his life whether he lived or whether he died.

I believe that there’s times when God can take a person home and God will get glory from that person’s life because there’s a possibility that we may give the gospel to reach people that would have never darkened the doors of a church and you get an opportunity. So therefore I always consider memorial services or funeral services as a fishing hole. They are ripe. Generally they’re ready to be told something that can help them cope with this thing called death that they don’t understand and nobody wants to talk about it because it’s a more to thing and not.

And yet it’s something that’s real and comes to all of us. Now, notice what he says in verse 21. He says, for me to live his football, for me to live his money, fame, popularity for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. And while we live in this body, the body is to be like a magnifying glass where people see the Lord. That Christ may be magnified in my body. That’s also mentioned in 2 Corinthians in chapter 4 down around verse 9 and 10 where he’s also talking about this same thing.

So So look there at number two in your notes. You remember years ago a guy by the name of Paladin have gun will travel? How many of you remember that? Let me see how many. Alright, so you’re not that old are you? Paladin have gun will travel. Well you and I have gospel will travel. We have a reason for going. when you have the gospel is like having a six gun on your hip. You should be ready to fire at any time.

And so… God has sent us into the world, we’ve got a tremendous message, a ministry, an opportunity, this side of the grave to do all that we possibly can for the Lord. And this verse, 2 Corinthians 4, 7, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels. that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Why does God give such an important job to people who have such a poor body that you’ve got to take care of and it’s fallen apart the longer you live in it, aches and pains because God wants to get the credit?

And you didn’t do it because God gave you supernatural, you know, Superman abilities. Now you’re going to have to suffer. And what’s interesting is what does the value of a soul mean to us? We know what the value of the soul meant to the Lord. He was willing to die for the person. The value they mean to us is what we’re willing to pay to go through to reach them. Now many people are stopped by a lot of things.

Well, I couldn’t because, because, because, and they never get it done because, and whatever the reason may be, they seem never to reach the goal. And years and years can pass by and they never win the soul of Christ. But now, not everybody is as fluent as everybody else. But He did talk about a hundredfold and sixtyfold and thirtyfold, but there was time when He would come by and He would look for some fruit on the tree, any fruit.

And some Christians have never had any fruit on their tree and we’ll take a look at that also because it’s so important. What is the purpose of your life? Number two, have gold, will travel, have gospel, will travel. Look at number three, this is called do you have a-tree of life. Now take your Bible and look at this verse over in the book of Proverbs, the book of Proverbs, and there is a wonderful verse there in Proverbs in chapter 11, and you’ll see it there in verse 30.

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. Now you are saved, you are considered the righteous, you are what the Bible called the just. The just you have to be part of a tree of life because you are the fruit from somebody else’s labor. Somebody got the message to you. Whether it was because you said to anerida Bible but that Bible came from somewhere. You’d listen to it on a ready you heard a preacher you got a track.

Maybe you said to him you listened in somebody in a camp. You either saw something or heard something but because of the importance of that wonderful message. You trusted Christ as you’re Savior and you are somebody’s fruit. The Apostle Paul talks about in the book of Philippians in chapter 4, he says, there were times when you were able to support me as a missionary. He says, but there’s been some time when you were not able to do so. But now your care of me has flourished again.

And he says, not that I desire a gift but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. So Paul’s talking about I want fruit that abounds to your account. This is why you don’t support missionaries that are not so winners because if they’re not so winners and they’re not sowing the seed and they’re not winning people there’s no fruit that’ll abound to your account. When you give money, money is a compensation of your time. You gave time to make the money.

So that’s time is part of your life. So when you give some of your life in funds to get something you want to have something that will amount for eternity. The Bible talks about the fruit that remains and the fruit in this world that remains are the people that are led to Christ. So that’s why it’s so important. So he says here the fruit of the righteous is a tree of light. Now you are someone else’s fruit. Now do you have any fruit from your tree?

And then it’s not just that it’s getting somebody else to trust the Lord from those people. We just keep passing it on, passing it on. You know what was so interesting? When I got to the restaurant today I felt this little buzzer go off on my cell phone. So I looked at it and it was a nice little letter from Sherry and Robert. And they said, thank you. Thank you, thank you. Because you chose to live like you please.

We came to church and heard the gospel and they trusted Christ’s Savior. Because you chose to live like you please. And we’re so thankful that you chose to live like I thought this is awesome. This is awesome. It made my day. Because see, if you do live for the Lord and you give the gospel, then there’s people that are in the Lord. that can trust Christ’s Savior because of it. Such a wonderful thing, but you want a tree of life.

And he says, he that when have sold is what? Who said that? God says, he that when have sold is wise. Are you a wise individual? Are you wise? See, being wise means he says like this, be wise redeeming the time because the days are evil. the days are short. There will come a day when no man can work anymore. We will have all of our opportunities may be gone. Now I don’t know what’s going to happen. We get our glorified body and get into the kingdom.

We still may have a few more people we can win. I think it’ll be great. But he does talk about the increase of his kingdom. There will be no end. No end to it. That’ll be interesting. Look at the next statement. Number four, preparation is your opportunity. This is the reason that I’m so thankful that I took four years out of my life. I went to Florida Bible College to prepare for the ministry, whatever that meant. I had no clue at the time, no dream, no desire to ever be a preacher or pastor of a church.

I just wanted to tell people how to go to heaven. That’s the truth. I did not know until the very last month of Bible college what I was going to do and where I was going to go. And I found out that Cliff Taylor and Sonny Blue Eye, missionaries to the Indians, needed a can’t speak her. And going to the Indians, bows and arrows, TPs, you know, ponies. I’m going. I hope Betty, I was about as stable as the last person I heard speak.

They were from Africa, I’m on my way. South America, I’m on my way. Heard about the off the Indians at that time I’m going to South America and then I heard about going to the Indian camps. There I went. You know, sometimes God uses things, you know, I can’t help the way I am, just the way I was. And when I think about something that’s what I want to do, I do it. And I’ve learned to slow down a little bit and think about it a little bit more, but I’m still, when I want to do something, I want to get it done.

So preparation is what causes you to be able to take advantage of opportunities. We often say opportunity are on wheels. And here comes one. Here comes one opportunity. There it comes. There it comes. There it goes. And unless you’re prepared, you can’t take advantage of opportunities. And the same thing happens with so winning. There comes a lost man. There comes a lost man. There comes a lost man. There goes the lost man. They go. Well I don’t know if he’s lost or not.

I just look at it. everybody’s lost until I know they’re saved. Everybody’s lost until I know they’re saved. That’s why whenever I travel on the road and I preach to different churches, it didn’t matter how famous that pastor was or how big the church was or little the church was. I considered all of his people and all of his deacons. Everybody on his board, everybody was lost, including him. And I’m going to make the gospel clear as a bell.

So just in case that preacher happens to be lost and trusting in his work for salvation. I want to make it clear. You say, you shouldn’t think like that. Yes, I should. Why should I believe they’re safe until they tell me, I want to know what are you trusting in to get you to heaven? And that is so important. And I find out sometimes people are not always trusting the right thing. And so they’re trying to earn their way.

So 2 Timothy 2, 15, study to show yourselves approved unto God a workman that that need if not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the world of terms. Study. Why do you study? So that you can be a workman. You want to study so you can be prepared. And some people are not fit for the ministry because they’re not fit for the ministry. They haven’t prepared themselves. Second thing with the chapter, you just read the rest of that chapter and you’ll see this is what he’s talking about that are vessels fit for the master’s use.

A vessel fit for the master to use. Now you can be saved, but not be a vessel that’s prepared. So, God can use you. And so you study and that’s why we want the Bibleline Institute. That’s why we want to have things online. That’s why we want to do everything we possibly can. I was told about this, you know, this boy that didn’t have any money, but he wanted to get something for his brother and sisters, mom and dad and didn’t have any money.

So, he went down the street and lo and behold, he saw a whole bunch of clothes on the clothesline. So, he picked out what he thought was going to be, you know, it fit everybody and got a sample of it. and went home, he box everything up and had it under the tree and everybody opened it up, and everybody was so happy. And his mother says, where did you get all these says online? But preparation is something that everyone has to do.

Whatever it is, you have to learn. Have you ever been to a restaurant where the person that usually does it comes up and somebody else, a little shadow comes walking up and they stand right beside him and just watch? And I say, what are you doing, checking up on this one? And she’s, no, I’m training her. And what’s she doing? I’m training her. As though she doesn’t know how to walk up somebody, can I take your order? This takes a lot of training.

And they learn about an hour. And so somebody else can do the job because they’ve been trained. Well, we believe in training everybody and everything else. Do you think it’s good to learn from somebody else on how to do what you want to do? Learn how to be a good soul winner. And the best way to do that is listen to what soul winners talk about how they open up a conversation, how they give the gospel. You can go with them on Friday night.

I don’t think Jesse would mind. Number five in your notes. Number five, look in first John chapter four. First John chapter four. Everybody has a little problem with being afraid. And Paul even made the statement, I was among you in fear and trembling. And evidently he wasn’t the most eloquent speaker. He says because they wrote, he says, and you say that his speech is contemptible. I mean, Paul must have had a problem. You know Moses had a problem. God wanted to use him in spite of, Well, I just can’t talk in public.

Okay, talk in private, get one on one. But stop giving God excuses. Well, I don’t know what to say. If you know how to go to heaven, you know what to say. Now, if you don’t know how to go to heaven, then you got a problem, that’s true. But if you have trusted Lord, then you know what to say, because if you know how to go to heaven, then you can tell somebody else that. But in the book of 1 John 4, you look down there in verse 18, there is no fear in love.

Now if you had perfect love, you could have the absence of fear. Perfect love passes out fear, but we don’t have perfect love. So we always have an element of fear. Fear produces torment. And sometimes we torment ourselves because we don’t trust the Lord. We just don’t see how God’s gonna do something. But trust the Lord in every area of your life. And that takes time. God’s gotta bring you through some things. And we have to tell people, you know, you need some successful past experiences.

And the way to get successful past experiences is getting some failures. From those failures, you learn what not to do, how to improve it, and you have another experience. And you learn how to improve and keep on improving until you get to where it’s just a part of your life. It’s just natural to you. And then it’s not hard. I was telling y’all not long ago, I said, remember when you were just a baby and y’all said no. Do you remember when you used to crawl on the floor and y’all said no.

Now I remember all of that. From the day I was born I remember being behind bars and hitting the bottle. Well anyway. But whenever you’re crawling and then you try to learn how to walk, standing up and falling, standing up and falling. Now a little man was born running. He could walk when he was seven months, run when he was nine months. And he’s never slowed down since. But the Bible talks about us learning how to walk with the Lord.

And once you’ve learned how to walk naturally in this old body, you probably don’t even think about it now. Except the older that you get, it’s easier for you to stumble and fall over in tables, fall out of bed, you know, all kinds of things. Because the older we get, it won’t be long before somebody would be putting us in nursing homes and having to take care of us. You’re talking about getting back to your childhood. We’re going to buy the babyhood.

But perfect fear casts us out love. Don’t let fear of being a failure, ruin your life. I’ve said this before, but I didn’t originate it. I would rather aim at something and miss than aim at nothing and hit it. At least I aim at something and I even shared this with somebody today Someone once told me not to bite off more than I can chew anybody ever tell you that I Said I’d rather choke on greatness than nibble on mediocrity I’d rather choke on greatness Striving biting off more than I’d rather have a plate.

That’s too full Running over Then I have a plate with nothing on it. As some people get older, they want to take more off their plate, more off their plate, more off their plate. Not that while there’s nothing on the plate. You got a plate? We got time to live. But don’t take everything off the plate. Ask the Lord to give you more strength and grace to bear more of what you want to get done. Remember I mentioned this one time.

We started pouring sand up here on this podium. And we poured the sand and it gets higher and higher and higher. Now you know you can only put so much sand on it because soon or later it’s going to start running over the edges, right? It’s going to run over the edges. So what should we do? Start pouring sand or broaden the base. If we broaden the base we can keep pouring on more sand. You can keep doing more if you can believe that God will give you the grace to do it.

And it’s better to burn out than rust out. You ever heard that before? Well, just burn out, just burn out. What are you doing? Nothing. Do all that you can, why you can, because there will be a day when there’s nothing we can do. They may become the time when the body just refuses. The alarm goes off. All right, body, time to get up. I’m not moving. Get out of this bed. I will not. And you’ll try to throw your leg over the side of the bed, and it won’t move, because it knows what you want to do, and it don’t want to go.

Have you opened up that refrigerator and you look at that thing, and there’s a big old slice of chocolate pie in there. And that thing looks at you and says, eat me, so no I can’t do that. Come on, just a little taste. I’m gonna eat Claire. And you know that your body can dictate to you what you’re gonna do. It is a good servant, but it’s a bad master. Don’t let your body become your master. Look at number six, so the seed and reap the harvest.

Now look at this verse, it’s so important, look in John chapter four, the gospel of John chapter four. Now you know that Jesus had just went to Samaria to see the woman there. She was coming about in noontime to get some water. Now generally they would come early in the morning in the evening, but it’s, well, she had a certain, maybe a reputation I don’t know. She just happened to be married five times, living with a man that wasn’t her husband.

And Jesus says, I gotta go buy there. And he goes by and sees this woman. Now this woman was the link to reaching a whole bunch of men in a city. And if he gets this woman, she’s the link to reach a whole bunch more. It’s what happened. The disciples they had already stopped off at Burger King, they got them something to eat. They came back. It says, you need anything to eat? And he says, no, I’m full. He said, I have meat to eat that you know not of.

See what it says there? In verse 31, in the meanwhile his disciples asked him, say, Master eat. But instead of them, I have meat to eat, and you know not of. Therefore said the disciples, one to another, had any man brought him out to eat? Did you bring the sandwich? I didn’t bring it. What did you bring? Some? Evidently, he was talking about something else. Jesus said unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work.

You ever hear people talk about, well, I go to church, but all I get is that milk. I want some meat. But you want meat, that’s sold out there. That’s reaping the harvest. If you’re mature in the Lord, that means you don’t have to be spoon fed. You see, the meat is the doing the will of God. That’s what really satisfied. This is what really, really, It’s worth, it gets deep in the Word. So the more you know, it should motivate and challenge you to do this more than anything else in the world.

This is what Jesus was saying, this is what satisfies me. This is what I came for. God only had one son and he was a missionary. I wonder what he wants us to be. Follow me and I will make you, you don’t believe that. You don’t believe that do you? Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. I had a girl in our college, she said that’s my favorite verse. Because often we would have them stand up and give their favorite verse.

One said, greet one another with a holy kiss. So we had to work on a few people, you know. You remember Michelle’s, I can’t remember her last name now, but it was Michelle. She came to school and she was blonde, cute girl. And she was standing outside the church and I walked out the door and I looked over and she was standing there. I said, you stand out of trouble? And she didn’t say what to smile. She said, I’ve never been so out of trouble in all my life.

I beheld a student that was giving me the impression that she wouldn’t mind getting in a little trouble. Because you know we watch everything they do, everything, who you date and don’t they again? And you say, you really regulate their lives like that. Yeah. Don’t you trust them? No. Well don’t you learn to trust them? Yeah. When they leave college, they’re on their own. If while they’re there, we watch them. Like a hawk. Here this woman comes to the well and Jesus says, you know, if you knew who I am, do you know who I am, if you knew who I was and the gift that I have, you would have asked them in, I would have given you living water.”

She says, give me some of this water that I didn’t come here to draw. She says, where’s your bucket? Where’s your rope? And this well, that’s deep. So he was talking about something else, but she trusted the Lord. She ran into the city, told them in, they all come running out. The disciples showed up and he used that they’re hungry so they wouldn’t got something to eat. It’s showing that there’s something more important than that. So he says here in verse 35, say not eat there yet for months and then comeeth harvest.

Behold I send you, lift up your eyes, look on the fields with their white already to harvest. This is the food for the Christian to eat too. See we eat and feed from the word of God and then we go get the meat and it’s the people we receive verse 36 and hear that reap it, we see the wages the Lord promises to pay soul winners. One of these days we’re going to be paid off.

What another great message from Dr. Arnold. Friends, we hope more than anything else that you know you’re saved by believing Jesus died for your sin and that Bibleline is helping you grow stronger and stronger in the Lord. Would you know how to witness to an atheist? What do you start with if a person doesn’t even believe there is a God. For this month, all who send in a financial donation in any amount, we will mail to you Dr. Arnold’s DVD teaching lesson on how to witness to an atheist.

You’ll gain some great insight on reaching people who may just need someone to explain the truth to them. This DVD series is yours for this month only with your financial donation in any amount. Again, we’re so grateful to those of you who support this ministry. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bibleline. 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 4081 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.