Bibleline Radio Show – 2017-10-03 – Unreached Because They Are Unloved Pt.2
Transcription:
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
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.
I got a book in the mail the other day. other day. Great Steer had called me up and told me about a book that he had wrote. And so I’d never found out the name of it or knew anything about it, just that he wrote a book. And he always calls me and tells me when he wrote another book. So I was on the computer and there’s this name that caught my attention called Gospelize. I thought that’s interesting. And they had a red chili pepper on it.
What in the world is a hot chili pepper got to do with the gospel? And he was talking about been on fire for the gospel. So I thought I would just look at it because you could download the first two chapters. So I thought I would just read that and see what it says about it. And of course I saw it on there. Greg Steer wrote it. That’s that book he was telling me about. So I started reading the book and it let you have the first chapter for free.
So I read the first, it’s about our ministry. It was all about what we did in Colorado. And I thought, this is interesting. I got to get me a copy of the book, I got to finish and see what else he says. So I called him up on the phone and I said, great. I said, you wrote a book. You know, if that’s the book I’ve been telling you about. I said, but I didn’t buy one because I know you’re going to send me one in the mail.
He said, all right, what’s the address of the church? So I told him. Well, last week I got the book. And I read the book and I had to read the whole thing. So I want to know how you still stand on the gospel and things like that. But I thought in the intro part of it, it talks about what Yupa Christ says about it and about the Billy Graham’s Crusades says about it. Josh McDowell says about it, and Fuller Seminary, and I don’t know, several others, the people that had to read this book and write what they thought about the book.
And it said, all in the front of it. And I thought, I could never get those people to listen to me. They don’t know who I am, could care less. But I thought, what if I’d never went to Bible college and went to ending camps, wound up in Colorado, and got Greg Stewart coming to our Christian school, and then the finishing graduate from our school. And then he goes into the ministry, and he’s reaching more people, more teenagers, than I ever did in my life.
And I thought, now, here’s, he’s got the book, and he’s going to all of these people, and they’re reading, they’re studying it, and then on the clarity of the gospel, and he tells them an awful lot of stuff is very good. So I ordered 20 of those books. They’re a hundred dollars a piece. No. They’re $10 each. So he gave me a little bit of a break. But I’m going to have 20 of them. And I know there’s a few people I want to give them.
But I thought, what if I had never gone to camp? What if I never had a camp? And Greg Stewart never went to camp? He went to all of our camps. That’s why he’s doing what he’s doing today. And now, if I was to die today. The work is still going on because somebody was influenced because of camp. Camp not only reaches the kids, but it trains the ones who goes to camp and works. It helps all the speakers.
It helps the counselors. It helps the team captains and all the co-counsel. All of them, they grow in the Lord because of it. It gives them a vision. This is why some churches want to have missionary projects so that the people can get to vision of what it’s like to go to the foreign fields. Surely somebody has to do this. Somebody has to do this. True? Somebody has to do this. If we don’t do it, who’s going to do it?
That’s why it’s so important. We’ve got to find some of these kids so we have a ranch meeting where you can try to train as many as you possibly can, teach them to trust Christ as Savior. You may have to reach a thousand of them to get a hundred to go to camp. And then you have to have camp where we can get maybe ten of them to go to Bible College and hope one of them will graduate. It’s a lot of work.
This is why Jesus whenever he had trained those 12 for three and a half years. gave him the final exam and every one of them failed the test. The officer shook him. All of them did. They denied him. Now all he had to work with was a bunch of dedicated nobodies. But lo and behold, after they saw him after the resurrection, those lands were turned into a bunch of lions. And they hit the world running because they were no longer afraid.
They knew there’s nothing else in the world worth living for more than what that man wanted me to do with my life. And that’s why it’s so important. Mildred, are you in here? You want to say it? Come on up here, Mildred. I love it when they just scared the death. But she’s not scared anymore. She used to be afraid, but she’s not scared anymore. But anyway, she came from Wally Marillo’s work. Wally and Jane way down there in far Texas.
This is where they’re going to the place where she came from. This is Mildred, and we’re thankful for her. We’re very proud of her, too. Come on up here, Mildred. It was back in 2012, my freshman year of high school, that I went to my first Bible camp. That Wednesday morning, I heard the gospel and I trusted in Christ. That same day, it was just kind of a reminder of what Christ did for me on the cross, that He died for my sins.
And because of that, I couldn’t have eternal life. So that’s saying that we had dedication. And I just really, I knew that I had to serve the Lord because of what He did for me. And the reason why I continued to do camps and I love it so much is because I could have an impact on these kids the same way that my counselors and my mentor did for me. And yeah. I’m not. God bless you, girl. But we’re thankful that these kids have seen an impact in the lives of those that they work with when kids dedicate their lives to the Lord.
It’s such a moving, a powerful thing. You have no idea how many times in these years I have told that Jim Tengen story. And I was going to maybe speak on something else and they will always say, tell the Jim Tengen story. I said, you didn’t hurt it five times. You have to tell it one more time. Because you just want people to dedicate their life to their lives or to serve a Lord. We wanted to do something with their lives.
I mean, everybody can live and make money and live happily and so forth. Okay, now you die. They don’t be dead now. Now when you get to heaven, where’s some of your fruit? Do you have any fruit? Remember this, you can get to the top of a note tree, either by climbing it or sitting on an acorn. And you wonder why you don’t get anywhere. Well, you could, you may be sitting too long. You have to put some effort in.
But remember, don’t be afraid to get out on the limb. So that’s where the fruit’s at. And if you get out on the limb, there’s always somebody wanting to cut it off. Because you see, just by the mere fact that you do it, is a rebuke to somebody else who doesn’t do it. Those who serve the Lord, those who don’t, going to have to give an account. Why didn’t you? Why didn’t you? You see, there was this preacher one time and he made a appeal for people to go to the mission field and he had everybody stand and he was pleading with people to dedicate their lives to go to the mission field and a couple of them got up and came down there and this one girl got up and she came all the way down and she was just a sobbing.
And the preacher says, honey, I didn’t mean you. You’re my daughter. I didn’t mean you. You see anything wrong with this? See anything wrong with that at all? So you’ve got to understand there’s there’s consequences of why we do what we do. It’s kind of like this. I was told there’s this man in this woman who was going to get married but he got called into the military. She promised she’d wait. Say he’s gonna get married. So he’s over there and you know, time makes the heart wander.
I’ll go find her. I wonder. And so her heart began to wander. So she writes a dear John letter. And when he got the letter, she says, I found someone else and we want to get married. And could you please send me? My pitcher back is the best one that I had. It broke his heart. He’s over there sacrificing, serving his country, and she refused to wait. So he shared it with a couple of guys and they were just broken hearted for him.
You know to be jilted, rejected, it’s a hard thing. So he says, y’all got any pictures of your ex-girlfriends and so forth, so a bunch of them did, they had some girlfriends. So he collected a whole bunch of these pictures of these girls. He took her picture and he put it in the envelope and he sent that tour in the mail with a little note. Please go through these pictures and find yours and send me the rest of them back because I can’t remember for the life of me what you look like.
There’s a cause. We do some things to people because if they hurt us, but has the Lord ever hurt you that you ever want to get even with God, get back at Him. Wouldn’t it be neat if all of God’s children just loved the Lord and just wanted to do what God wants them to do with their life? Well, Tyler, the rest of them are cringing. They know what’s coming. He’d been writing notes. Jesse told us the other day to get something ready, and I totally forgot about it until you mentioned it.
And so I was like, I probably should write something down, but I don’t think I needed it. Camp is a very big part of my life and I can tell you why. I was 17 when I went to my first camp and it was in 2011. And I went there and it was Freddy Kool’s camp, Camp Grace. And I wasn’t able to have my phone, but even if I did, there was no service. I didn’t, there was no TV, there was no internet, no computers, it was just me and God.
And I saw his truth more clear than I ever saw it. And I’d already trusted Christ when I was eight years old, but I didn’t know anything else. I grew up not really going to church, but when I saw his truth and I learned so much about service and so much from him, they created a hunger for him and for his word and for his service. And so much that I got so excited that I dedicated my life to Christ that year.
And every year after that, I wanted to go back to that camp and then I got too old to be a camper, so I started serving there. And the past two years, or the past two years, I’m so excited by camp that I told the Lord that this summer Lord I want to do as much as I can, as much camp as I can because I know how much it affected my life and I want to be a part of it affecting other people’s lives.
And again the camp is so much that after Bible college you know you’re supposed to think in art what am I going to do after Bible college? Well I can’t ministry is one of the biggest one that is the more and more I think about it and more time goes by it’s a big burning desire that’s growing and growing that I I want to pursue that after college. But I want, Camp is such a big part, and what Trent said, and what Jesse said, and Mildred is a huge part of why I’m here.
If it wasn’t for Camp and what I learned and what I was challenged to do, I would not be here at this college. So thank you. Thank you. Come on up, Justin. Out of his head like I didn’t see him, but I saw him. He’s a big fella. But him and Tyler have been friends for a long time. And it’s nice that they can come together to college on the buddy pass. So this is a buddy. Yes, and today I’m going to be speaking from the second half of Tyler’s notes that he didn’t get to.
And yes, I’d like an 8 by 10 of that if you don’t mind. Well, for those of you who don’t know, camp is a week that really just beats you up. I mean, coming to the close of the week, your sun burnt, and you’ve had early mornings and late nights all week, and you have a ton of sweaty, nasty, dirty laundry to get to whenever you get home. And then a lot of the times you have a long drive home, sometimes 500 miles coming from Tampa, but campus, you get that mindset at the end of the camp, like, I’m never doing this again.
I don’t wanna do that. God, please don’t make me do this again. And then that following Sunday, whenever you get up here, You know you talk about your camp experience. You’re like camp is the greatest like you have to go no matter what you’re going next year And I don’t know where that transition occurs But it does and camp really does work it worked on me and in 2011 I had dedicated my life to serve the Lord. I told God I want to live the remainder of my life bringing more honor and more glory to you And I was sitting in a barn when I said that to God.
And it truly is amazing. And I can honestly say, just like the ones who were up here previously, that I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for camp. It wouldn’t work. I’m just so thankful for the counselors. I’m thankful for Freddy Kewil, camp directors across America who preached a clear gospel. It really does work. And I really appreciate the people of this church who have funded our trip to Texas camp. And I’m just really excited to allow God to work through me in the lives of these kids, helping them experience the same thing that I experienced in Mike Woodcock camp.
Thank you. You bet. He scared me for a minute when he says I was just sitting there in the bar. And this hearing aid, it went out. And so I were like, maybe he said, barn. Did you say barn? Was it barn? Barn, barn, I just wanna make sure that’s corrected. I thought he served him and I was sitting there in a bar. Why do I do this? I don’t know why I do this.
But the Lord is so good. Now, isn’t it something, these guys, when they first came down here, they would not been able to get up here and give a nice testimony like I do now. But they’re learning, they’re growing, they’re maturing. And I can see tremendous things in their life since they’ve been here. See, growth is so, it’s not all of a sudden, it’s a little by little, little by little. And I’m glad that we got some students that love the Lord and are growing in the Lord.
They’re maturing in the Lord. They’re getting a burden for the things of the Lord. Cause if we don’t do this, then we won’t produce, then they won’t be so interested. They won’t be more patient. I’ve got people that want preachers right now. I got another one this week. I’d have been Michigan. Do you know anybody from your college that’s ready to become a preacher? But they ain’t going yet. So anyway, there’s a lot of work to be done. But I am going to ask John John.
John John, why don’t you come up here? Try to find something that you might be able to say, John John. You notice I say the best for last. I’m just kidding. No, I first of all like to say, I know I’m going to heaven when I die. I have everlasting life. Jesus Christ died on the cross. He paid for my sins. He was buried in rose again. And he said, if I would merely believe in him, he would give me eternal life as a free gift of his grace.
And I’m thankful for that. I’m a late bloomer. I didn’t even know camp existed when I was a teenager. I didn’t have the opportunity to go to camp. My first camp was at 30 years of age. And it was the most amazing, the most powerful, the most difference making thing I’d ever witnessed in my life. Never seen anything quite like it. And it affected me. It’s the reason why I’m doing what I’m doing today. We are losing our young generation.
We’re losing them. And if camp is a way to make the biggest impact, the most powerful difference with kids, I’ve witnessed it with my eyes. And if we don’t send kids to camp now, we’re gonna lose our generation. There are future generation. We have to reach them. And camp is a way to do that. I wrote a few things down, I don’t want to miss anything. A lot of missionaries said that they are missionaries because they went to camp.
And I understand that because I would not be at Florida Bible College of Tampa today if it had not been for camp. Because camp makes the Bible real. Truth is that which corresponds to reality and kids get to see the Bible work where the rubber meets the road and I got to see that. Camp provides an atmosphere like no other. We have ranch here, but camp is different. Camp is ranch on super mega steroids. That’s what it is. It’s an electric dynamic atmosphere.
It’s not just for entertainment. It has a purpose. It has a cause. We are there for two main reasons. We want kids to trust Christ as their Savior. And it’s a powerful thing when you get to see the gospel clearly given that everlasting life is by faith in Christ alone plus nothing else. If you believe in Him, you get everlasting life. And kids that may have never heard that in their life, hear it, understand it and place their faith in Christ.
That’s a powerful thing to see that. It has a purpose to it and we want those kids who trust Christ as their Savior to dedicate their life. To serve the Lord like Justin said, we want them to say, hey, what the Lord did for me is worth me living for, not to get to heaven, but because of what he did for me. And that is powerful. It’s a electric atmosphere. You know, they say excitement breeds excitement. Camp is pure excitement, but it’s for the Lord.
It’s the Lord. You know, a lot of kids are being told today that God is dull. God’s not dull. And kids come away finding out God’s not dull. God is cool. He’s really cool. They find that out. Also, not only is the atmosphere contagious, it’s very contagious to kids. It’s concentrated. These kids are pulled away from a world of Facebook and cell phones and TV, which is what kids are just being absorbed by today. They’re pulled away from that and sin, there’s a God that loves me.
And he wants to be a part of my life. And he wants to use me. And you get a kid that’s on fire for the Lord. I’ll take one kid that’s on fire for the Lord than a hundred adults. Don’t you all take that against you now. But I’ll take one kid that’s on a fire for the Lord because they’ll move, they’ll shake the world. I’ve seen it happen. We need to to reach teenagers. But it’s contagious, it’s concentrated.
We focus on God’s Word. They get a lot of God’s Word. It’s fun now. We have lots of fun. We have competitions. I’m always trying to beat the young Tyler and Justin, you know, we competitions. But it’s concentrated. They get God’s Word. And I’ve seen them eat it like an athlete would eat a steak. They just dig into it like a kitty ice cream. And that’s powerful. When you You get a kid who will take God’s word and say, hey, that’s for me.
I can understand that. God has a plan and a purpose for me. So it’s contagious, concentrated, and it’s, they’re challenged. They’re challenged to serve the Lord. They’re challenged to be fishers of men, to go out and win their friends to Christ. A lot of the kids, you’re so charged up after camp. When I come away from camp, I’m ready to charge hell with a squirt gun. But you know, the kids are too. And it doesn’t just affect the kids.
The kids get that, but I get it too. When I walk away from camp, I’m ready to charge hell with the squirt gun, but I’m also something else. I’m ready to dig into God’s Word more than ever before. And I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and do more than I’ve ever done before for God. And kids get that vision. They get it. We need to reach them. It affected me, but it affected kids. If you want to really make a difference at this church at Calorie, support this camp.
Support us going to Texas. Support the camp we’re fixing to have in Georgia that we’ll be going up to to God’s country. But if you really want to make a difference, if you really want to make a difference, you’re going to do it by reaching our young generation, our young generation. Thank you. Let me ask you something. Didn’t they encourage you? listen to them. And so some of you may have had those same desires years ago. And you probably thought that maybe you should have, but you didn’t.
And you have some regrets. From here on out, you can’t go back in time to do what you can. I still, I love camped. Now I’m moving the 75 now. We got to get as much done as we can while I’m still young because one of the days I’m gonna get old and I’m not gonna be able to go but I’m about ready to turn camp over.
Campers can be a killer but I’m so glad that we’ve got some good shock absorbers around here. These are some people that can carry the weight and they give you a smooth ride. Is it worth it? it is it worth it? Because sometimes you don’t have the parents won’t be behind you. Sometimes the kids fall away and you just get wind up with just a handful that goes to Bible college and does something. And all the costs is involved, all the sleepless nights.
And I wonder so many times when I wasn’t able to spend all the time that I needed to with my own kids. And if I had to do it over again, I would probably try to do a little bit better job with my kids, but I felt if I don’t do this, nobody’s going to have to reach them. Nobody’s going to take these kids to camp. And I’ve got to do it. And I did it. And I had to pay a great price for doing so.
But anyway, I could talk on and on and on. You say, yeah, you sure couldn’t. Let me show you something. Now you notice it when John John got up here because he was the last one. You know, he told you he gave you the gospel didn’t he? He was explaining the gospel. I don’t know why he does that. This hand represents you and me. The wall represents sin. We all have sin upon us. God loves us, but he hates our sin.
And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from the Lord. But God loves us once to go to heaven. go to heaven we have to be perfect. Nobody’s perfect. We’ve all done things wrong. Nobody’s good enough to go to heaven. That’s why we needed a Savior. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord. God in the flesh doesn’t have any sin. He didn’t have to die. But because He loves us and He hated our sin because our sin separated us from Him.
He took all the sin of all the world. He’s already done that 2,000 years ago. He took all the sin, paid for it. That doesn’t mean everybody He’s not going to go to heaven now, but those that believe, He did it for them. So you can believe He did it for the world and not go to heaven. You have to believe He did it for you. And when you believe that He did it for you and you accept this payment as your payment to go to heaven, you’re not going to try to earn your way to heaven because you know you’re already going.
You’ve already accepted the free ticket. And that’s why when you trust Christ as your Savior, He gives you eternal life and you can know that you’re going to heaven. things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. So important. So yes, this church and all the ministries, these are the hands. Ranch is a hand of this ministry. It’s the hands of God. These people are the hands of God.
These are what God is using and we’re always reaching through the internet. We’re reaching and through the radio ministry. We’re reaching. We’re always reaching. And when we stop reaching, there’ll be nothing more than just a shell. There’ll be no substance to our life. There’ll be no substance to you individually or corporately as a body of believers, because everything else is just a shell. When their substance, the great cause is missing. Let’s pray, shall we? With heads bound, eyes closed, no one looking around.
If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, I pray that you will. And I’m going to ask you in just a moment if you’ll just raise your hands and yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior This morning and preach our life for you to pray for me. Is there any one of all just slip it up very quickly and put it right back down If you have already trusted Christ as Savior God gives you eternal life, you’re his child forever But there’s a lot of things God wants us to do with our lives There’s a cause for your life seek the Lord’s will.
All I want you to do is exactly what God wants you to do. Talk to him. Follow we thank you so much for all that you have done for us. We thank you Lord for the many hands we have in this ministry. Let’s seek to reach in various ways so that we can bring people to Christ. Thank you so much for all you’ve done for us now in Christ’s name. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr.
Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Mail.
A mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you and thank you for listening to 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 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.
Hot 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.
