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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 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 babyhood. But perfect fear casts us out love. Don’t let fear have been 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 aimed at something. And I even shared this with somebody today. One 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, author plate. Not the one, 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 gonna start running over the edges, right? It’s gonna 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. Alright, 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 they 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. Soul the seed and reap the harvest. Now look at this verse, it’s so important. Look in John chapter 4, the Gospel of John. Chapter 4, 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 or 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 got to go by there. And he goes by and sees this woman. Now this woman was the link to reach in a whole bunch of men in a city.

And if he gets this woman, she’s the link to reach a whole bunch more. That’s what happened. The disciples they had already stopped off at Burger King, they got them something to eat. They came back. They said, 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 he says there? verse 31, in the meanwhile his disciples asked him, say, Master eat, but he said to them, I have meat to eat, you know not all.

Therefore said the disciples one to another, had any man brought him out to eat? Did you bring him a sandwich? I didn’t bring him one, did you bring him something? 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 satisfies. This is what really is 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 set up, 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 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 And you say, you really regulate their lives like that?

Yeah. You 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 a man 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, it’s deep. So he was talking about something else. But she trusted the Lord. She ran into the city, told the man 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 ye there yet for months and then comeeth harvest. Behold, I send you, lift up your eyes, look on the fields for 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 in verse 36, and hear that reap it, we see the wages. the Lord promises to pay sowinners. One of these days we’re gonna be paid off. If you really believe this, and remember I said this before, if I was to offer you $1,000 for every soul you win the Christ.

You probably would feel that God is calling you in the full-time Christian work. But remember, when you get to heaven, that soul is worth an awful lot of money, and God is willing to pay soul-winners. He didn’t talk about just paying people just to come sit, soak, and sour. He’s talking about those who want something. Now, if you go to work and you make money and you come to church and you give money to help ranch and the reformers and animals, or the internet or the radio broadcast and you give it for the ministry of the internet so we can render more so.

Your time is what life is made out of. So life is time. So when you spend your life, God is going to pay you because it’s your life that made the money. You spent the time and then Then you use that for the Lord’s honor and glory. God is gonna reward you. One so’s. Somebody else may reap. Is God that saves the soul? I’ve never saved anybody yet, neither have you. But the Lord is gonna reward those, you’re doing it for the Lord.

He talks about for the gospel sake, for Jesus sake. So we do it for those reasons, why we do it. So is it worth it? It is worth it. And see there in verse 36, where it says, and gather a fruit that remain. This is also found in John 15, fruit that remains. Here in his my Father glorify that you bear much fruit. So bearing fruit, much fruit, more fruit, depends on your union with the Lord. And you bear fruit.

Does God expect every branch in Him to bear fruit? You read John 15 and you’ll see. That’s what God expects. Now, this is why we do what we do. It’s for the sake of souls. All right, look at the next statement. Look at number seven. Number seven, see your reward there, producing enthusiasm here and now. You see what in the world do you mean by that? Well, in 1 Corinthians chapter three and verse eight, makes a statement that every man shall receive his own reward according to his what?

His own labor. So you’re going to be rewarded. So picture yourself at the judgment seat of Christ where God is going to reward you. And picture those people that will be there because you preached the gospel, you gave, you helped, you did what you could for the sake of the gospel. The Bible talks about they are your crown of rejoicing. Let that joy that you have at that moment be your motivating power now. Do it now because when you get there you’ll wish you had.

Doesn’t that make sense? You have to learn how to think. If you don’t focus upon the future past this life, you’re not going to have the right purpose in this life. See, there’s a divine perspective and a human perspective. We have to see things the way God says it is. And this is temporary and we don’t have much time left. We may get 70 years, three score and ten. Duh. Me and Al have already done gone over that. Al’s way over that.

He’s in the Twilight Zone. He’s what they call on borrowed time. He’s already 86. Is it, is 86 years old? Still teaches Sunday school class and still going strong. But that’s because he got married chasing him. You know what I see? You ought to see. He tells him about that bullwhip that she has. Number eight, proper environment is the seedbed for growth. Picture for example, and understand this, this world is full of briars and thorns. And we know from the parables of Matthew 13, briars and thorns choke the tender plants.

Here you are, you trust it, Christ is your Savior, but if you stay in the world, you’re going to be choked by the things of the world, and you’re not going to accomplish what God wants. So what you need to do is get in the right environment that is conducive for strong growth. This is why you need church. Did you know that you say, well, if I’m strong today and I didn’t have church, I’ll be just as strong. You won’t last long.

You don’t stay as strong. You don’t stay as focused. Because who’s the one that says not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together? As some have, and they’re still saved, but they’re not going to be as strong as the ought of being. says in chapter 10 of Hebrews in verse 35, cast not a way therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of reward. Because you see, rewards is a result of what you do and what you do is a result of your confidence.

Don’t cast away your confidence. Always keep believing what God says to keep yourself strong. Keep yourself strong. This is what Paul wrote the Timothy, keep yourself strong in the grace of God. He also makes the statement in the book of Jude, building up your holy faith, building up yourselves, having compassion, pulling them out of the fire. This is how we’re supposed to think. So you see, to be a successful, consistent, soul-winner, there has to be steps in your development, steps in your understanding so that you can keep doing the job year after year after year after year so that you don’t change.

I was talking to somebody not long ago and hadn’t seen them in about 30 years and they heard me speak. And they said, you ain’t changed a bit. You’re just like you used to be 30 years ago. I said that was 40 years ago. What’s interesting is I’ve been going through some notes because of the doctor that I want to get. And so I got to redo this book called The Gospel-Driven Man. So going through that, did you know it’s like being refreshed on how I used to think?

What’s 32 years ago? It was in 1982, I think. She’s going through all my money. She’s typing and really helping me out tremendously. I couldn’t get it done without her. But to see see how I used to think 30 something years ago. And then I taught it for about 10 years before I wrote the book. And it seemed like this is exactly where I am today. Like nothing has changed. But truth doesn’t change. Our purpose and our goal in life is shouldn’t change, just because we’re getting older.

But your environment is so important. Stay around people that help and challenge you to do the things you ought to do. Whatever you’re supposed to do with your life, stay around that. Otherwise, you are going to have problems. That’s the reason for number nine, because if you don’t, you’re going to stumble. A man who stumbles is because generally, he’s a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways.

Living in Colorado, we used to say, you know, it’s not those great big old boulders. That’s the problem when you’re trying to climb a mountain. It’s those loose pebbles. I’ve climbed a minion. And it’s those loose little pebbles on the side of the hill that you’re trying to walk and your feet just slip, slide and swing. And if you didn’t watch yourself, you could fall all the way down that mountain. But there were big boulders. You know what I did with those?

Nothing. They were too big. I just won around them. They were never my problem. It’s those little bitty stones. It’s little bitty things in your life that will cause you to stumble and fall. It’s not gonna be the great big thing. Well, I’ll never do that, I’ll never do that. And so you just start, you don’t read the Bible like you’re used to. Don’t witness like you’re used to. Don’t pray like you’re used to. Little thing, little bitty things.

You know, just got so busy with life. You know, I just don’t have the time, you just don’t know. If you’re too busy that you don’t have any time for God, you are too busy. You need to cut out something, but not the things that make you strong. Never cut out things that make you strong. Even when I was going to Florida Bible College and I averaged two and a half hours of sleep a night for the first two years, I was constantly on the job working, a full time job and going to school full time and then trying to keep my grades up.

I thought I was going to die. I did several times. But it became hard, it was so strenuous. And then I sometimes seemed like I couldn’t see down the road. I couldn’t see what’s the value of this. How’s this going to help me? Little did I know that it was preparing me. For 50 years of ministry, I’m so thankful that I went ahead and stuck it out. But you know, there were little bitty things that I let get into under my skin as they say, a burr on the saddle.

Things that would irritate me. Not the big things, it was the little bitty things. And it’s so easy to get sick. Every Friday I quit Bible College. But we’d go to church on Sunday and I promised that I’d be there to teach. So because I gave my word, I’d be there. And because I told Dr. Stanford, I’ll be there to take that class on Sunday nights, the youth director. I was there. After church was all over with, we’d go down to Coconut Grove and Hank Lindstrom and me and several of the others.

We’d play guitar and walley and males and all of them. And we’d sit around with the benches down there at the lake and we would sing songs. We call it after glow. You know, you need a time to glow a little bit. So we would sing and give testimonies, and one after the other would give a testimony. You know, I’m so thankful for Yankee. If he can make it, I can make it. They didn’t know, just quit Friday. Monday I’d be back in college.

We kept each other going. All of us were a bunch of quitters. We just can’t go anymore. But when we got together we encouraged each other, prayed for one another, and everybody was having problems of all kinds. But all we had was each other. We had the Lord. And they figured because Yankee was married and had two kids and I was the oldest one there. I was 22 when I went. They were 18-19 years old, but was it worth it?

Yes, God is teaching you things. So, watch the little decisions. Little things that you don’t think really matter, or things you’ll stumble over. Number 10, the crown of Rejoice in will produce eternal joy. Did you know that those things that he mentioned about the judgments of Christ, when the Lord appears and we see the people, He says, for ye the people, you are my crown of rejoicing. Well, if they are his crown of rejoicing, how long would they be there forever?

And you can have eternal joy, forever, just seeing the people that were reached by your labors here on earth. God has given us on this side of the grave the opportunity to do wonderful things for Him. And so therefore we ought to be so thankful and forget about all the problems we was talking about in Sunday school class this morning. Here’s Mary and Joseph, think about all the problems that the first family had. They had a child, the Son of God, and look how their life began and all the problems they went through.

Then they had to lead the country, go down into Egypt. God brought them back. The things that were said about them, isn’t it wonderful that the Lord was just able to bring in those three wise men of how many they were and give them the gold, the frankincent, the murals, the viebles that they needed just so they could go down into Egypt and have something to live on for a while, you know, for years. Isn’t that wonderful? How God provided in such a wonderful way.

That’s what God does. So do you want to be successful in God’s eyes and be faithful? Be faithful to do the thing God wants us to do. What do you think is the closest thing to the heart of God? I believe so winning is the closest thing to the heart of God that there is. There’s nothing greater, nothing better. Why did he come into this world? You say to die for the sins of the whole world, doesn’t help anybody if they don’t know it.

If I had never been told, it wouldn’t have profited me one iota. Somebody had to tell me. And that was my father-in-law. And so in 72 years, Only one man has ever witnessed to me. And look how many churches I’ve been in. All these years, how many seminars I’ve been to and revival meetings that I’ve been to, and nobody knew if I was saved or lost, because they don’t consider me as being lost. Most people just look at everybody’s saved until we know differently.

And I look at it, everybody’s lost until I know differently. So just in case, all of y’all are lost. I will give the gospel all the time as much as possible, faithfully, just in case you might say, that’s what he means. No, I get it. And I’ve had people do that, that have heard it for years, and all of a sudden, like a little light went on. Ding-dong. Uh-oh. And they trust the Lord. This hand represents you and me.

The wall of represents sin. We all have sin on us. God loves us. He hates our sin. But for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God in hell. But God wants us to go to heaven. So for us to go to heaven, we have to be perfect, but we’re not perfect. You see, we have sin. God won’t let sin into heaven because that’s a perfect place. And we’re not good to go. God cannot let us there.

He even had Adam and Eve leave the garden for one sin. So one sin will keep you out of heaven. And God says, you cannot earn eternal life. You can’t work your way to heaven. You can’t work your way to perfection. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. Came into the world because He loves us. hates our sin because our sin separates us from them. So Jesus Christ who had no sin, didn’t have to die.

So why did he die? For us, he took our sins and paid for them. Now why did he do this? So we wouldn’t have to pay for them. He paid for our sins and came back from the dead. But this payment is not put to your account until you believe. He did that for you. He did this for me. So when I believe he did it for me, he puts this death payment to my account. I go to heaven, oh what Jesus Christ did for me.

That is the gift of God. It came back from the dead. And one day he’s coming back again and he’s going to take all of those people who have trusted Christ as Savior out of this world. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. Would you write down? And the quietness of this moment, we just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this, Lord, I don’t understand it all.

I know I’m a sinner. And I believe that when Christ died, I believe He died for me. And right now I will trust Him as my only hope of going to heaven. Friend God said, if you would trust Him, He would save you and give you the free gift of eternal life. So with head bow, nice close, is there anyone at all? So yes, that made sense to me. I will trust Christ right now as my Savior. If you will, would you slip in a very quickly and put a right back down?

Anyone at all? If you’re watching by the internet, right there on the screen, if you’ll click it down to a small screen, it says, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. If you’ve never done so, I pray that you will. Let us know. Father, we thank you again for your blessings, and I pray, Lord, for this coming year, each one of us who realize the importance. It’s just another year gone here. But maybe you’ll give us one more year to work.

And time is so valuable, so important. Help us to be wise, to always care, to watch our testimony because we wouldn’t want a lost person to reject this wonderful gospel because of something in our lives. So help us to guard our testimonies at all times. each one for being here. Give us some fruit for our neighbors in Christ’s name. Amen. 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 Bible Life. 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. Friends, one day it will happen.

The trumpet will sound and we will be changed. Cut 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.