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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 Bibleignmenistries.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.

Alrighty, tonight we’re going to discuss a few things. Years ago, and I had mentioned this to you, that I had heard a man that was at Tennessee Temple, and he preached the sermon, and this was in 1964, and I still remember the sermon that he preached. I remember part of his outline. God’s plan is God’s man, and God’s man is God’s plan. So get with the plan. And I remember that, and I thought that’s a good sermon. I don’t remember anything else he said.

I just remember God’s plan is God’s man. Then somebody else came along and they preached another sermon. I don’t remember who it was. It says that God doesn’t bless a ministry. God blesses a man. The ministry is just God’s blessing upon a man. God blesses people. There’s got to be people who are doing right that God can bless a person. It’s not so much like he blesses their desire or he blesses the community. He blesses the people that are in the ministry that are doing the right things.

He blesses the decisions and the wisdom of leadership that trusts the Lord. And so whatever we have, whatever we do for the Lord, kind of keep that in mind. And you and God the bless, your ministry, God needs to bless you because you’re honoring him. So I think that’ll help you. If you look there at these simple little thing, I had a message that I preached in 1964 and I put it in a little green folder that I had for the Rocky Mountain Christian Youth Ranch when I started it out there in Colorado.

And they had on there the message, the motive, and I had on there the means and the mission and just a whole bunch of that. But it went together. It’s just so good. Because God uses a man and God has a plan. So if you will look at this, and I wrote this down this afternoon because I kind of went together. Divine produces the message because understand that the message we have is not the message that we designed. It was not our idea.

was the message that the Lord produced. He produced this message that He gave it to us, and He told us this is the message then. This is what we preach. So we’re not left up to just picking shoes, whatever we want to do. No, there is a specific message that God says, preach the gospel to every creature. And we don’t go into all the way. I’m preached the book of Daniel and the whole book of Revelation and the book of Leviticus and the book of of Malachi and all that.

We’re supposed to teach what is the gospel, the good news on how I’m a lost man can be justified by faith. If that is not the crux of the message, then there is no message, but that is what I believe it is. And the divine reveals the mission. What is the mission? He’s given us a message. He’s told us what he wants us to do, and that is to get the message to people who’ve never heard. So we know what our mission is.

And God develops the man. See, God uses a person. So there has to be a person who comes along and hears the gospel and trusts Christ as Savior. And then somewhere along the line, it may be yet in the future that some young person is going to read the Bible and believe Good. And God’s going to use them in a great way because he’s simply by faith. Has this, I guess, whatever I used to call it, a reckless abandonment to faith.

You just, have you ever seen somebody just drive recklessly? Well, sometimes they might need somebody like that in faith. Just driving with that security, that confidence, that boldness, as they used to say on the ground. start to go where no man’s ever gone, but to go as no man has ever gone. To live as no man has ever lived. To accomplish what no man has ever done. I just love the challenge of it all. And then the divine presents a method.

There is a way to get it done. And so the method is in the Word of God, and it’s a person telling a person how to get it done. And then when you have all of that, you need to have the method and the means by how to get it done. Of course, the motive behind all of it should be the motive of love. And we spoke on that just recently. Look at the center of your page. There, and I wrote this down.

The church is a divine institution to do a divine ministry. The church is not a man-made institution. It is a divine institution. Christ founded the church. He’s the one that organized it. He’s the one that declared what it is and what it is not. And He’s the one that gave to the church a mission and He told us how to fulfill this mission. And so I believe that it’s something we need to keep in mind. The ministry we have within the ministry as a whole is a divine calling.

It is a high calling. It is a precious calling. And one that we ought to accept willingly, excitingly about it, and do all that we possibly can. Now look at the next portion. We’ll be looking at some scripture in just a minute. All this is just introductory, renotes. God’s method is for the saved man to reach the lost man. Now is that hard to understand? Can you follow that much? God wants the saved man to reach the lost man.

Man’s methods of fulfilling this responsibility are unlimited. There are many different ways to get the job done, yet the results are to be the same. You still need to reach the lost man. However you want to define it, whatever it is, however I’m supposed to live, whatever this purpose of my life is, it should be a saved man reaching the lost man. Somehow this has got to be the priority. Now there’s a lot of ways to get a job done, but that’s the job that’s supposed to be done.

The next point I have done here is, the Lord does not honor the philosophy that says, It’s okay to do wrong to get a chance to do right. In other words, the ends do not justify the means. We have to do what is right and honoring to the Lord because people will see the way we do things. And whatever the way is that we do it must be honoring to the Lord. So we can’t just do whatever we please.

It still has to be right. And this is why I believe Paul says that This is why I believe Paul says that if you’re going to run a razor, run to win. And if you’re going to run to win, then you strive for the mastery. And if you’re going to do that, then you have to learn to discipline the body. Because the body is the tool by which we carry out our responsibilities. So you’re not to let your body be your master.

You’re supposed to master the body. And there’s rules by which God is laid down and we don’t want to be disqualified as we run our race. So we’re to know the word of God, trust the Lord to lead in the guidance and get the job done. So there’s a lot of freedom within the boundaries of the will of God. So look at the next statement. The believer is encouraged to be creative and innovative in his pursuit of souls. The pastor’s vision is to be large enough for those under his ministry to have freedom to grow and expand their ministry.

And the people that are in the ministry, see they also have to have a vision. But if my vision is too narrow and there is under that leadership and they want to expand it nothing. Nope, we can’t do that. Nope, and then nope. And their desire is greater than mine. There’s going to be conflict, right? So what the preacher has to do is if it was a table up here, and I started pouring sand on the top of this table, of this desk, it can only get so high before it starts falling off the edge.

So what am I going to do? If I wanted to go higher, I’ve got to enlarge my borders. I’ve got to lengthen the stakes on the tent and get it bigger so you can get more accomplished. So, what I’ve tried to do is have a lot of little ministries under the scope of the big ministry. So, I have a vision of what I’d like to see accomplished. But in the midst of that, I have to have those who are also with a vision who fulfill their ministry that God’s given to them.

And I believe that it is to be creative, to seek to do all that you can. And I have to make sure that I keep enlarging the scope of our ministry so that more people can do more things. And so the last thing that I ever want to do is to hold somebody back that has a great vision to do a great ministry. But I believe that things can be done through the local church and it should be. But anyway, if you look down at the bottom or in the middle, what do you believe is the best method for you to fulfill your vision?

So do you believe that the pastor of the church is the only one that’s supposed to have a vision and fulfill in that responsibility? Or do you believe that all of God’s children should have a vision? What do you think? You think everybody should have one? You’re right! You win the grand prize! Now here are some examples in the scriptures, but now surely, surely one of these, will fit you and be tailored to you. So everybody needs to have, what is my ministry?

How am I going to fulfill the ministry God’s given to me? So I want you to take your Bible look in the book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke in chapter 1. Luke chapter 1, Luke in his effort to reach the nobleman named Theophilus, and that’s one of the most Theophilus names I’ve ever heard. But Theophilus gave and historical accounting of Christ and his followers. This is a method that some people like to do. They love to write stories.

They love to write books and And have you ever seen any Christian book spin published? Does anybody write any books at all? Does anybody read any other books outside of the Bible? And there’s stories galore. And some people are good at it and they know how to articulate just the right story. Remember I told you this. Now I love to tell stories. Writing them is a different story. But when I used to take little Jordan and Abby and I’d sit them on my lap and I would tell them stories.

They said, tell me another story. Tell me another story. Now I tell them stories. Finally, whenever she got seven years old, she says, Papa, you need to write a book. Well, that was good. And I told her, I said, if I have to write a book, I’m going to dedicate it to you on Papa, tell me another story. And it’s Christmas time. She’s now nine years old. She says, Papa, don’t forget I want my picture on the front of the book.

A little smarty. I thought, I’m 72. I better get busy on this book before I run out of time. Because I would love to see a little book that I’m going to write with all my stories in it, dedicate to my little granddaughter. Now you can put messages that way and this is what Luke did. use Luke to write the book of Luke and God used him to also continue what Jesus began to do and finished it with the acts of the Holy Spirit.

But you’ll notice here in the book of Luke in chapter 1, look there in verse 1, for as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to right under the in order most excellent theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hath been instructed.

I want you to know perfectly clear the sequence of what took place. So I believe the look. It gives us a good sequence of the order of how things happen when he starts with the birth. But this is how he was able to reach and to educate a person. God used him. He could do this. There’s a lot of people that’s got a lot of talent. This is what Phil is doing. Phil is writing little things for children to help them.

It can be a ministry. It’s a method. Everyone needs to find out what is this method God wants me to use. Look at number two, Levi’s method. Levi, look there in chapter five, we’re here in the book of Luke, just look there in chapter five. The book of Luke and look in verse 27. And just a couple verses here, but he was a tax collector. But look what he did in verse 27. And after these things he went forth and saw a publican, and that’s a tax collector, named Levi sitting at the receipt of customs and he said to him, follow me and he left all, rose up and he followed him and Levi made him a great feast in his own house and there was a great company of these tax collectors.

No, purge of a feather plucked together, they were the same. He got other ones. He said, I want to come and he says and there was a great company of Republicans and of others that sat down with them. So here’s a person who feeds everybody and they have a good meal and invite others to come. Do you know of anybody that maybe has a dinner that invites people to come for the dinner? Is that a wrong thing to do?

No, they did that. That’s the, it’s a good method. And if you’ll look there in your notes here, this is how I help to begin a ministry in Dora Lake, Minnesota. I attended a hunters banquet as a guest speaker in Colorado. So they invited me to come to a hunters banquet up in the Walden Colorado at Browns Ranch and I went up there in 1968 and I got to speak and a couple people trusted Lord and that’s where I met some of those, I thought first of all they were meant, they all had veers, you know, because they wasn’t going to shave until they got their elk.

I haven’t gotten it yet. And I went to Minnesota and you can’t believe all the stuff that happened up in northern Minnesota. It wasn’t long before Dick Hange went up there and got a church founded with those people that I had led a whole bunch of them to Christ. But they needed a pastor up there and so Dick Hange went and later on Max Younts went later on Dan Adams that I led to the Lord became the pastor there.

A doctor Cameron got went up there. Dr. Seymour went up there and Dr. Stanford went up there. And the Indian camps, they all went up there. Al Saford and Ben Darlington and just a whole bunch of people. But all started because I went to a Hunter’s banquet. And I thought to myself, that’s a long way up there into those mountains. And it’s only going to give me a half an hour to speak. It’s not going to be worth it.

Boy, that would have been one of the biggest mistakes I would have ever made. And I don’t recall them telling me that they going to pay me anything. Come to think of it. I don’t know what they have yet. I need to go back and see them. That was only a few years ago. But you see, there’s things that God will do and it’s a method in order to reach somebody. So what you do is you try to find out what is it that I can do.

Now take your Bible and turn to Gospel of John, the Gospel of John. And look, here is another method, one that I used an awful lot. And the reason is because there’s nobody as close to you and dear to you as loving to you that should be is your own family, your own relatives. What if everybody who wants somebody to the Lord only reached their loved one, do you know we could win the world? If that was all you reached was just your relative, your family.

And it’s just a Lord. And eventually, you could win the world. But it won’t happen because people didn’t really don’t love their family too much. But look here in the Gospel of John and look up there in verse 40. In verse 40, it makes a statement. Oh, let’s just start in verse 38. And then Jesus turned and saw them following and said unto them, what’s he key? They said unto him Rabbi, which is to say, be an interverent master.

Where dwellest thou? He said unto them, come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt. and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter’s brother. He was always known as Simon Peter’s brother. He first findeth his own brother. Simon, and sayeth unto him, we have found the Messiah, which has been interpreted the Christ. And in verse 42, you ought to underline this little statement.

And he brought him to Jesus. That is a very good little statement. He brought him to the Lord. He brought him to Jesus. You see, all we can do, we can’t make a person believe, but it’s a good method. method if everybody would just concentrate upon their own family. Make sure your children and all of your relatives as much as possible, make sure they get in. Sometimes they are the hardest people to talk to. Depends on how you’ve been.

It could be the easiest people to talk to. But you’ve got to have that concern where you want to do that. Look down at the next statement. Number four, Philip’s method. Philip followed the leading of the Holy Spirit to the one who was already investigating God’s Word. Here he is in the Ethiopian unique was out there and he’s reading he just came back from Jerusalem and he was in charge of the finances of where he came from Ethiopia and next thing you know he’s he’s reading from a scroll.

I don’t worry got it maybe got it in Jerusalem, but he was reading and it’s what’s interesting is the villain know that he was up there having a big old revival and God told says, I want you to go down here. And it’s about 80 to 100 miles. And all we know is that he came running. I don’t know if he ran the whole 100 miles, or God just took him and dropped him there, and he caught up to him.

I don’t know. I know afterwards he disappeared, but before that, he says he ran up to him. And here’s a man that’s sitting there and he’s reading and he says, understand of what thou read is? He says, how can I accept some man should guide me? And he found the passage that he was reading and he used that as an opportunity. But see, sometimes the Lord, God Himself, will direct you. And I’ve told people a long time ago, I said, if you will be faithful in giving, God can bring them.

And it’s amazing how that God is able to bring somebody who wants to know truth and somebody who’s willing to give truth and bring them together. You talk about there are some things I believe are like a divine appointment. It doesn’t mean the man will believe it and doesn’t mean that you will necessarily tell it, but I believe God gives us opportunities all the time. And some we take advantage of, and some we fail. And I just cringe when I think about all the opportunities that I miss.

I don’t think too much about the ones that I took advantage of. I think about the ones that I didn’t take advantage of because that’s going to be terrible. I’ll turn the page over and look at this. Peter’s method, Peter was preaching on the street corner in a very public place was the way Peter drew the attention of the crowds. And he was what we call a high eye. He was an influential type of a person, but he was a talkative individual.

He was always saying some things that he didn’t need to say. But when it did say something that he needed to say, he was that way to him. But God used him in a great way. And so the street preaching as they pass by, or as I have down here, like our Friday night so when it is done, and booths that can be set up at fairs, is getting out where the people are and where you can do it.

We will not get the job done only inside of the four walls of a church. It’s going to be where you live. And everybody needs to have some kind of a contact with somebody that you can witness to. If we was to go by only those people that came into these doors and trust the Christ to save you here, that’s not going to be very fruitful. I like to believe that all of our people are spreading the gospel and sharing and will find a ministry like they’re doing in the, like there or tomorrow night or the Friday night, so when in the, or whatever.

These are ministries and just like whether it’s the internet. I’ve gotten letters, some of them I’ve shared them with you, of people who have trusted Christ as Savior by simply watching online. And when I do the little wallet illustration, there’s people that trust Christ as Savior because of that. And on the radio, the same thing. So we thank the Lord for all the opportunities that He gives us. Look at number six, Paul’s method. Go where they are. Some people will come to you.

you have to go to them. Go where they are and engage them in conversation was Paul’s method of evangelism. And most of the time wherever he went, he’d find the synagogue and he’d go there and he’d preach. And it’s either a revival or a revolt, but something happened. Some people loved him and wanted to worship him, and then some people wanted to kill him. And that might be one of your experiences you may have one of these days too.

Number seven, Lewis and Eunice Method. This is mama and grandma. Mama and grandma. Well, what did mama and grandma do? Can I remember? Well, that reading the scripture. What did they do? Nobody knows. Timothy, yes. And then chapter 1, yes. But it’s talking about that even from a child thou hast known the scripture because somebody was teaching it. So mama and grandma are working together and helping the teach. The Roman Catholics say that if they can have your child until they’re seven years old, they’ll keep their child.

Now, we’re thinking indoctrinate them so well. And this is why you’ll find out a lot of communist countries. They want the children so they can indoctrinate them. I would be fearful of what all the government wants to do and it gets lower and lower and lower where they get the children and it’s slowly going to become an indoctrination to the children and in parents will wonder whatever happened to their kids because humanistic philosophy been sewed into the minds of the children and it’s come be a devastating thing.

So it’s good to reach the children. Like I said the Bible makes the same. Just look over there I won’t just see this in Timothy and notice there let me see if I got the right idea here. In first First Timothy in chapter 2, first Timothy chapter 2, there was a reason why God says that the woman was to be in subjection. In verse 11 of chapter 2, let the women learn in silence with all subjection in all things.

But I suffer not a woman to teach her nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence. So that means they can do a lot of teaching in a lot of areas, in a lot of ways, and I I don’t have no problem with it. But to be in silence, for Adam was first formed then Eve, and Adam was not deceived. But the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in ch ABE.

If they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. A woman, though she cannot teach the men, can teach the children. So it’s very important for women to learn the word of God and how to teach the Word of God so that they have a greater ministry in the lives of children. And whatever the woman does, do you remember that those little boys and those little girls, they grow up to be men and women. And the women can mold a nation if they can mold the child.

And that’s why putting truth into them. And this is how a woman has a greater ministry, actually, than what a man can have. if they were diligently, faithfully, consistently teach the children. So anyway, I just wanted to pass that on to you. Well it’s almost Christmas and we’d like to give every listener a Christmas gift. Just for listening, we’d like to send Dr. Arnold CD on understanding difficult passages of the Bible. No donation is required. We’ve compiled on CD Dr.

Arnold’s teachings on difficult passages. For example, does James chapter 2 teach that true faith will produce works? Does 2 Corinthians 5 17 mean that a true believer will no longer desire to sin? These and many other verses are explained in their biblical context so that you can have confidence in the agreement of all the Word of God. Call us today toll free at 1-800-576-3771 or you can write us at 4811 George Road Tampa, 33634. Again, no donation is necessary.

Just your address so that we can send to you this important teaching. God bless you and Merry Christmas and thank you for listening to Bible line. 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 believe in that the Lord is coming soon just keep looking up