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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.

I’m gonna do a little rambling this morning. I hope you don’t mind just rambling a little bit. a little thought here and thought there and just so just stay with me. Some of it you might enjoy some of it you may not. I got a couple letters in that I thought I would like to share with you and this is one from Toronto, Canada. Dear Pastor Arnold, I was so tempted to write Dear Yankee as I have come to regard you as a great friend over the past few months all my real close friends call me Yankee.

If I told you how many hours I have spent listening, studying, and being blessed by your online sermons you would be inclined to think I was grossly exaggerating. I have listened and studied all available in audio and video, many sermons I have listened to at least 10 times. I have indicated that my small gift of $200 be directed toward the Church ministry. Please understand that I only did so because the website only gave me three options. We need to increase the options again.

However, without the slightest hesitation, I want you to understand that I am giving you complete and absolute freedom to use the money and absolutely any way you feel the Lord leading. Now I can go to McDonald’s. I hope to continue to contribute whenever and wherever I can. Please keep on file that any further gifts are to be dealt with and exactly the same manner, I am totally persuaded that your choice will be the Lord’s choice, just so that y’all know them.

I don’t touch any money that comes into the church, from any source I don’t touch it. I don’t deposit it, I don’t write checks, I don’t do anything with money. And that’s why it’s been for five years since I’ve been here. We have some good godly men here and I trust them totally. And so I noticed that everybody’s got the new car lately. He also writes, he says, you are over 70. I’m going to why he had to say that.

I am 65. We’re both near the end and the beginning. That all depends on how long he planned on living. He said, I have a very short bucket list, but it definitely includes a trip to Florida to shake your hand. Anyway, he says, I have already told the Lord that I really don’t want him to take either of us home before that happened. Time will tell if that doesn’t happen, I am quite sure you and I will be great friends in heaven.

I thank you and my dad would greatly hit it off really well. He is already there looking forward to our arrival. It sounds like he wants me to get up here and meet his dad. But anyway, from Toronto, Canada, I thought that was neat. So we reached beyond just the four walls of this church. This is one he says, High Pastor Arnold, I had to write and thank you for standing strong and defending the faith. I already spoke this message of eternal security to the youth at our church.

Deep down inside I knew I wasn’t sold on what I was saying. I still had this feeling inside that you had to do something, but I would always reason with myself and say what could I possibly offer God. After I’m teaching the youth for about three months, one night I had a dream and God asked me, out of these three things, which would you rather do? Speaking was one of the options so I thought about it and I said speaking.

A couple of days pass and I came across the scripture 1 John 3 9 in King James Version. That is all I read now. I read it previously in the NIV which states habitually sins. The NIV version had me thinking because I had works and did not sin as much as, at least in my mind, I knew I was truly saved. When I read it in the King James Version, something clicked. I understood what God was sin but at the same time I didn’t if that makes any sense.

No. So I looked on YouTube to see if anyone else taught what I believe God was saying. After searching for a while, lo and behold, I came across Yankee Arnold. The sermon you taught on 1 John 3, 9, lit a fire that will never go out. I have been approaching with such boldness and in love asking, where are you going when you die? There are times when people refuse to believe what I’m saying because they say you have to do something.

That’s not fair. No matter how well I explain it or how much scripture I show them, they fail to understand that they don’t deserve eternal life. I had the privilege to share the true gospel with his homosexual and I let him know how much God loves him and what he did for him. He was so grateful and said, thank you for explaining this to me. No one has ever taken the time to sit with me and explain the gospel.

It makes sense. He had never heard the story of Jesus and always thought you had to give up something and strive to make it to heaven. As we were talking, this man who never opened the Bible in his life began downloading the Bible app as I would explain in the gospel. He said he would read the Bible and it came to cross something. He didn’t understand he would let him know and so forth. So he says, God bless you, Yankim, for making the gospel crystal clear.

And so I will definitely see you in heaven. Keep fighting the good fight by grace through faith, not of works. So a little bit about little people do get the message. And then not only that is they tell somebody else and then tell somebody else. Now I want you to take your Bible and look at a scripture with me. found there in the book of Proverbs, the book of Proverbs, chapter 11 and verse 30, chapter 11 and verse 30.

He makes a statement, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. Now that’s a verse in the Bible stuck way back here, and I believe that was one of Hank Lindstrom’s favorite verses. It’s also one of my favorite verses. But you know what people say is that if you learn how to win people to the Lord, well you’ve got the gift of evangelism. I had that told to me about 10 times this last week, you’ve got the gift of evangelism.

And I thought, I didn’t know that. I got the gift of evangelism. I do know the Bible says that the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and that everyone who obeys God should have people, trust, Christ, and Savior. That is, if you witness, unless you don’t witness. Now, nobody can make you do that. But I had some interesting things happen this week that I wanted to share with you. But first of all, I want you to look in your Bible to the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.

1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 4. Chapter 2 verse 4, this is on page 1268 and one of the church’s Bibles. The interesting verse here doesn’t say anything about the gift of evangelism. As a matter of fact, I don’t find that phrase mentioned anywhere in the Bible. I believe that whether you are a pastor, evangelist, a teacher, whatever it is, do the work of an evangelist. So all teachers and all pastors and elders are supposed to do the work of an evangelist.

And the reason is because he commissioned every one of us, go into all the the world and preach the gospel. So we can’t say, well, that’s the preacher’s job. That’s just the missionary’s job. As I read the scriptures and I’ve only been doing it for about 55 years, I come up with the conclusion, it’s all of our job. It’s everybody’s job. It all depends on just whether you want to do it or not. But here in verse 4, it makes a statement, but as we are a lot of God, we were a lot of God to be put in trust with the gospel even so we speak if we have the gift of evangelism.

Is that what it said? It didn’t say that. It says even so we speak not as pleasing men but God which try at the heart. This is why Paul preached that God would give him boldness to open his mouth as he should. It’s not easy. It’s sometimes the most difficult thing in the world to talk to somebody about the Lord. As we got on the plane, I had an interesting thing that happened. As you know for 50 years at least, as I’ve given my testimony, I’ve always said that people asked me, how did I get the nickname Yankee?

Well, I say the same thing all the time. And that my dad said that I was born, I looked like a little monkey. Well, he did. And that I had long, straight black hair all over my body. Sideburns, hair’s going down my back. Well, I did. My momma verified it. And that my dad said I was the ugliest kid I’ve ever seen in his life. Well, he did. And he was going to put me in a burlap sight, go in the river and drown me.

That’s true. People said, well, you’re joking right now. No, no, no, I’m telling you the truth. And I’ve never had any problem with that. until I got on the plane the other day to leave. I get on the plane and I mean the seats, he almost had to have a shoehorn to get in it. And I had to sit between these two people. And this lady sitting right beside me was a Korean lady. So I struck up a conversation and was talking to her.

Then next thing, you know, I pull out my little track and I offered it to her and I turned it over and I said, see there? That’s our church. And this is where we’re located, Ralph Yankee Arnold. She says, Donkey? She said, Yankee, Yankee Armoune. She says, Donkey, how you getting named Yankee? So I proceeded to tell her how I got my name, Donkey.

And when I got to the park, well, I says, well, when I was born, my daddy says that I was so ugly, she says, you know ugly? I’m certainly gonna play this. I mean, five or six rows, you can hear everything. You know ugly, you handsome, you handsome man. Well, this is no time to argue. I could see there was nothing wrong with her eyesight, but it was a little on the embarrassing side because she just bladed it out.

I said, you know, I’m a, my daddy said I was so ugly. And then she comes up with that difference. She trusts a Lord just like that, just as easy as pie. And I thought, this is interesting. I could sense, I can’t prove it, but I can sense, this is gonna be a great trip. I’m going to California. I don’t really know what’s going to happen. But all I know is I’m just going to be me. Just do the things that I naturally do.

Because if they wanted somebody up, they should have got somebody else. They wanted me, they’re going to get me. So anyway, I had interest in times talking to people about the Lord. And I had just one experience with her. I got there and there was a young lady behind the counter. And I talked to her about the Lord and just, he’s just pie. I said, do you know where you’re going to go, Nita? She says, I hope I’m going to heaven.

I said, if you could know, wouldn’t you like to know? Oh, yes. So I proceeded to give up the gospel, and I explained to her how that you know, you can know you have eternal life, and the Christ died and paid for all of our sins. And so when I got through, I said, does that make sense? She said, yes it does. I said, right now, when you trust Christ, she says, yes, I will. And so one of the guys that had picked me up and was driving me around, he says, did you talk to her?

I said, yeah. And she dressed the Lord, doesn’t it? Yeah? Just like that. And he got ahold of his wife. Honey, let me tell you something. You won’t believe it. He just let somebody to the Lord. He said, I’ve never seen this before. Now, this is a meeting that I’m going to win souls. And he had never seen that done. I didn’t ask the lady on the other side of the counter. Would you walk down this aisle? I didn’t ask her to pray.

I just asked her would she believe it? So she did. Well, there’s a couple of people that he shared because he told him. He was all excited. He really was. He was excited. Somebody led somebody to the Lord. So I went into the meeting that night where we were going to get something to eat. The lady that I had talked to was standing there. So when I walked up and he was with me and then come by three, four of the people around, I walked up and I looked at her and she smiled and she says, Hey, how you doing?

And she was beaming. Just beaming, just happiest can be. She says, you explained that to me. And I says, okay, where are you gonna go in your eyes? She said, I’m going to heaven. I said, how do you know? Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for all of my sins. And I believe it. Well, they were blown away because I didn’t stage this. I didn’t make this happen. I could sense the people at Calvary must be praying for me because it was just so unreal.

You could not have made some of these things happen the way that it happened. Sometimes I’ll talk to people and nobody will trust the Lord. And then sometimes it seemed like a little speckle here and there. But everyone out there that I witnessed who trusted the Lord, every one of them, I felt guilty for not just staying there. And it didn’t matter. The situation, how it worked, it was just awesome. And so whenever they saw it and they walked away and said, did you see that?

Did you hear that? She was, you were beaming. I mean, she was beaming. I never heard the word beaming so much in my life. all because she’s trusted Lord. And so the guy that I was staying with, his name was George. And George was just thrilled to death. He had been a coach for many of those that played in what they call the final four. And he’s a little bigger than I am, but he’s a couple years older than I am.

But he’s a good godly man. And him and his wife were thrilled. They picked me up and took me everywhere I wanted to go. They drove to the airport and brought me back. and it was wonderful. There were some great people. But he said, I’ve got to learn how to do what you just did. I’ve got to learn how to do that. So I told him about the website and how you can go to the website and he can learn how to do that.

He said, I’ve never seen this in my life. Never seen in my life. The guy that was heading up the meeting was seven foot one inch. His name was Ralph Drolinger. He was a player from the Mavericks. I think it was a Mavericks. I can’t, I don’t know those teams. But also he played at UCLA and was in this final four something, but this was years ago. And so I couldn’t relate to him about basketball, nothing like that. And it was about three or four of them there.

They’re all huge guys. And they were there because they knew the Lord, they loved the Lord, and they wanted to see people Trust the Lord. We went to a Mexican dinner that one night. And so this Mexican dinner and the guy was in there playing the guitar and he was a singer. Well, one of our guys came, he worked at the government down there in Mexico. And so he was one of the representatives, he came up. But he knew the songs that this guy that was singing with, so he gets up there and he bellows it out and he sings right along with them.

They had a great time and then everybody plotting them. So we got through eating, it was good food, fellowship and sitting there, and I had one of the senators sitting across with people from you. So we talked a little bit. And then I got up and I kind of walked around and they were kind of talking and so forth. And I looked over there and the lady at the counter, not her soul was over there, except the lady at the counter.

Just a young girl. So I just kind of walked up and I said, So you’re enjoying all of this? Yes. Real sweet voice. I said, can I ask you a question? Now you don’t know what I’m going to ask her to do. I said, can I ask you a question? She said, yes. I said, did you know where you’re going to go when you die? She said, I hope I’m going to happen. I said, if you don’t know. No.

Wouldn’t you like to know? Yes. I said, nobody’s around. I said, you’ve got a minute. She said, yeah. So I told her, I said, I want you to understand this. I said, God loved you so much. He would rather die than live without you than just that quick, because it’ll tear you in the eyes. Just that one statement alone, you’d be surprised what that does to a person. And I said, he died on that cross. You’ve heard that, haven’t you?

Paid all the sins of the world, you’ve heard that. I said, if he paid for all of our sins, why should we have to go to hell and pay for our sins If he paid for them, never thought about that. I said, the only thing God wants you to do is the only thing you can do. Would you believe he did it for you? I said, you can handle that, can’t you? She said, yeah. I said, will you believe it?

She said, yes, I will. I said, right now, will you trust Christ? She said, yes, I will. I said, where are you going to go, and you’re down? She says to heaven. And so then some of the people that got through and they kind of gathered, the next day, no, I had about five or six people standing there. Nobody was there until I started talking. But by the time I got through, here comes George. And then some of the other guys I walked up there, and they looked at her, and she had to, she was payment.

She had a beautiful smile, she was happiest to be. And so I told her, I said, look, would you tell them what you just did? She says, I believe, I believe. I says, where are you gonna go now? I’m going to heaven when I die. I says, when did you learn this? She says, now, now you tell me. And they couldn’t believe that you can lead somebody to the Lord. These are soul winners that want to shape the country and they were totally blown away by somebody just presenting the gospel and somebody walked off and said, he’s got the gift.

He’s got the gift. The gift of evangelism, I thought all of y’all are supposed to be doing this. But you say, well, nobody knows how to do it. And it does take some effort to learn what to say and what not to say, but you can’t beat the Christian life for so many. There’s nothing that will satisfy you as much. Study in your Bible, all you’re praying, and your obedience to church and giving money will never satisfy you like winning people to Christ.

Can’t happen. winning souls is the meat of the will of God. Everything else is just milk. It’s whenever you grow up and mature enough that you can tell somebody how to have eternal life and go to heaven when they die. Well, I will tell you this. They had one night this roast beef, and this roast beef had horseradish, smooth, hot, and I usually like hot stuff. They had and potatoes had all kind of stuff, shrimp. I mean, it was a beautiful layout of all the food you could eat.

Well, this was a dignified place. We were all dressed up, dignified. And this was a dignified restaurant. These were dignified people. And I sat down at the table with these dignified individuals. So everybody is acting dignified. But the lights are down low. You can’t see too good. I made a mistake. I made a big mistake. I put a big old spoonful of that horseradish next to my mashed potatoes. Don’t do that. So I was eating and I was doing fine.

And I thought, oh, that mashed potatoes sure looks good. So I got me a big old spoonful of that mashed potatoes that I thought was mashed potatoes. And I put it into my mouth. and it blew the top of my head. Fire came out my ears. Smoke came out of my nose. I couldn’t breathe. The guy beside me was saying, I’m just about ready to go into action and he said, I know how to do that. Hemilec Maloover, whatever it was.

He thought I was choking the death and I leaned over my plate in this dignified place with these dignified individuals. Well the Senator said in here, and I had to spit it out right into my plate. I couldn’t get my breath. If you want to experience this, get a hot spoonful of horseradish and try it. They didn’t know what to do because I was hurting. I was, I mean, this is bad. And so finally after I drank about this much water, I kind of got my composure and Everybody felt sorry for me.

I was feeling sorry for me. I can’t believe it’s dignified as I like to give them the impression that I am. But God has a way of always humbling me so that I don’t get too big for my britches. And I thought I was going to die. I went into this other hotel. We was between two big rooms. I went in there and I talked to this lady behind the counter. And I, but it was in there and we just brought in and our luggage and so forth.

And so she was, and I talked to her about the Lord. So she trusts the Lord and it was just so easy. Just like picking the flute off the tree. It’s just so easy to talk to her. So she trusts the Lord and I forgot all about it. And later on I came back in the next night. I thought it was the same lady. So I walked in there and said, Hey, how you doing? She looked up at me.

I said, you know, last night I talked to you last night. I said, you don’t remember me? No. I talked to you about how to go to heaven. I gave you one of those little tracks with my picture on it. You don’t? No. I said, I didn’t talk to you last night, did I? I wasn’t here last night. I said, I’m sorry. I told this girl that was here last night, how to have eternal life and how to be certain of going to heaven when she dies.

And I said, it made such sense to her. She said she’d trust Christ as her savior. And then she knew she had eternal life. And I’m so sorry. I thought that was you. And you know where I’m going, don’t you? I said, can I just simply show you what I showed her? Yeah, I said, do you know where you’re going to die? She says, I hope I’m going to heaven. I said, but if you could know it, wouldn’t you like to know it didn’t take that long?

She trusts the Christ as her savior. all because I thought I led her to the Lord the night before. It wasn’t her. It was somebody else. One of the things that happened was the guys that were doing the video, they had three cameras there. And there was a girl and there were three guys and they were kind of rotating around you know. And so one guy told me, he says, you know, I don’t think these people are saved. But of course nobody witnessed them.

So I said, nobody’s talked to them as far as you don’t know. He says, you got the gift. So we finished eating and I walked in early and lo and behold, the girl was down at the camera getting ready for the meeting to start, but nobody was in there, nobody. So I kind of moored it around, looked out the windows and I got that tattoo and I said, can I see a question? She said, yeah. I said, are you enjoying doing all this?

She said, yeah, I enjoy it. I said, don’t you get tired standing here all day long? She said, yes, tired. So that time I kind of leaned against the ledge right here. And I said, what can I ask you a question? I said, do you know where you’re going to go in your diet? She said, well, I hope I’m going to heaven. I said, did you listen to what I said yesterday? She said, I was listening. I said, but do you know where you’re going in the diet?

She said, no. I said, can I explain it to you? Yeah. I explained it to her, and she says, that makes sense. I never thought about it like that. So she trusts the Lord. And I thought, I need to talk to the other one, but I didn’t have to have to have any people start to come into room. And I thought, Lord, I need an opportunity to talk to a couple of the other ones. And then when we’re going to get them together, they’re always either running the camera and we’re eating in meetings and it’s just not going to work out.

So they’d finish the one night and they’re going to take a 15 minute break. So I got up instead of going out the regular way with the curtains. I thought it’s short of this way. If I just pull the curtain back here from this wall and make it short cut. because you didn’t have a lot of time, and I didn’t have to wait in line, you know how I am. So I pulled the curtain back, and I didn’t know that they had about 15,382 wires laying across the floor there.

So I pulled the thing out of an octro-caught across there. Well, I almost did a three-point landing, and I caught myself, and I didn’t knock over anything, but if I hadn’t stopped when I did, there was a table setting there, and five of these workers that run the cameras were sitting right there. And I liked, hello. It was pretty much like that. So I stood there and I asked them, I says, and the girl was sitting there. And I looked at her and she looked at me and she smiled and then the other guys were sitting there.

She was the only girl. I says, I want to remind her, where are you going to die? And she says, I’m going to heaven and she gave me a big smile. And I said, had you ever heard that before? No. But you know what now? Yes, I do. And I looked at the guy that was sitting beside her. I says, I got to ask you a question. I says, where are you going when you die? He says, I didn’t know until I heard you speak yesterday.

But I do now. I said, so now you know you’re going to heaven. Yes, I do. And I looked at the guy that was sitting beside of him. I says, Let me explain it one more time for the rest of y’all. So I explained it again. And I asked the other guy, I said, will you trust Christ right now? He said, yes, I will. And the other two, I didn’t get a chance to talk to it because we had to get back into the meetings, but at least they heard.

But everyone that I talked to, trust the Lord. And I felt there has to be such power of people that are praying, that it doesn’t make any difference. What I do if it’s the worst radish, it doesn’t make a difference on the plane that wherever I am, the stumbling over something, everything worked together. I could write a book, this one experiences, of people that you can talk to when people are. Hello, this is Peter Amato from Bibleline. We hope you’ve enjoyed the message from Dr.

Arnold and pray that Bibleline is helping you to grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And thanks for your donations and support of Bibleline, we’d like to send Dr. Arnold’s complete teaching on the book of Revelation. Compiled on one disc are 27 lessons in MP3 format of all 22 chapters of the revelation of Jesus Christ that was given to the Apostle John. Dr. Arnold provides clear insight and understanding to this often misunderstood book and for a donation in any amount we’d like to send this gift to you today.

You may contact us by calling 1-800-576-3771 or by mail to 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. Once again, thank you for supporting Bibleline, and may God richly bless you. 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.