Bibleline Radio Show – 2019-12-20


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 message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I got a few things I want to say tonight. But there’s two things. One, what I’m gonna read comments right now will be cut out of the sermon because the first 25 minutes will probably be used on the radio broadcast that’s coming Friday. And it’ll also play in Colorado. And then I wanna talk to you about some other things. So to begin with, I’m gonna talk about the radio ministry. Sometimes, you know, it takes as much faith to stop a ministry as it does to start a ministry.

Anyway, I want to give you an update on Bibleline radio ministry. Bibleline ministry was started long before I came to Calvary Community Church. It was started by Dr. Hank Lindstrom. I’m not sure how many years he’s actually been on the radio. I know he’s been on a long time. And while he was on the radio here, I was on the radio in Colorado. I was on, I can run 1975. And then around 79, I had my own radio station.

My brother and I, we had our own station in Pueblo, Colorado. And so it’s something that we have done. And then when I went to Georgia, I had an opportunity to be on WNGC, which was 100,000 watt station. That was a big station, country station. Prime time, or 11 o’clock on Sunday mornings. So I was on air for, I guess, maybe 10, 15 years, something like that. Besides having the television ministry we had for eight years, it came out of Atlanta, and it went all the way up into Chattanooga and around.

So, having that experience as I believe served me well, I got an opportunity to reach a lot more people than you do sometimes knowing just the four walls of a church. And so, when I came here to Calvary about a little over ten years ago now, Dr. Hank Lindstrom had passed away. And so his radio ministry really took a hit financially because Hank wasn’t live on the radio like he was. And he was on for an hour every day and he was one of the best talk show hosts that there was when he came to answering people’s questions who called in and he would let him call him and he’d answer questions and he’ll have to do it long enough, I don’t know if he ever had to open his Bible because he’d know where it is anyway and he could quote it.

But there wasn’t anybody quite like Dr. Hank Lindstrom. But the Lord took him home. He always wanted to go in October because he thought that’s when the rapture is going to take place and so the Lord took him in October. Whether it was the rapture or not, he was raptured. I don’t know if he was quite ready, but he was was looking for the Lord to come and take him home. Most of Dr. Hank Linson’s articles are still upon the church website on Bible line ministries under Bibleline ministries dot org slash articles.

So you can get his articles and his radio broadcast that he had are also up on the website. And so you can go in here and listen to his sermons and I don’t know their thousands of them up there. I think between, I’ve got probably 4,000 up there now since I’ve been here, and you know you have that many every day, and it really begins to add up after, you know, so many years.

So when I came to the church here, I… Had a radio broadcast. I was doing in Colorado and that was on K L T T under the name Send the Light. And so I had that going. And so after about a year and a half, two years, something like that. We had a problem with Dr. Ang Lindstrom’s radio broadcast being, you know, maintaining itself on the air because we had to do a lot of the reruns that he had and we had to cut down the timing and it’s hard to get all that information in there.

And so people know that it was recorded and reruns and so the donations really took a hit. So there wasn’t a support to keep Bibleline on the air. Well, at that time, the elders asked me if I would want to take the Bibleline ministries and put my messages up on the radio station here in Tampa. I was already all in there in Colorado. So that’s what we did as I wound up preaching on the radio here. And we was able to negotiate a little bit better rate, But not too good.

But we did have people that, because I was on it the same time as Hank, there was other people who had never heard me, so that generated a little bit more interest at that time. And so you’re always wondering, well, they’re not at the end of every month. Are we going to be able to continue? You know, because you’ve got to live by faith. Living by faith means you’re living by the confidence that people have in what you’re doing and are willing to support it.

Because even though you mean commit things to the Lord, and you tell the Lord what you need, and the Lord can tell the people, but not everybody obeys the Lord. And so you can still suffer consequences. I’ve had a radio broadcast that I’ve had to give up, and I’ve had a TV ministry that I’ve had to give up. But that’s because you don’t have the support that you need, because as time goes on, people get either weary and worn, lose vision, you know, side of what can be accomplished or what is being accomplished, because you can’t see the results.

You can’t see the people that are either trusting Christ of Savior, people’s lives have been changed. And so there is a lack of concern. And so people get hit by everything that’s out there to support. And sometimes already a broadcast just kind of takes the hit. Well, that happens also in this ministry. And so I was faced with the issue of with Bibleline to just either go off the air or try to get it going. So we worked at it and we were able to generate some support.

And so we’ve stayed on now for about eight years since I took the radio ministry. And I’ve been doing about that long. And so the name for send a light, We changed that to Bibleline so that it would be the same. And Greg, back there, he was donating his time whenever I first came here. And so he went through all of his savings. And next thing, he didn’t know we had to want to pay him to keep him. And I don’t know anybody else who can do quite the job that Greg does.

And so when it came down to this year, we had to make some decisions. And the value of Bibleline will not or cannot be truly determined until our race is over. So we won’t know till we get to heaven, you know, the value of what we’ve done, the money that has been spent. Tampa area is about three to five million potential. Depends on how many other cities you add with that and where the radio broadcast reaches to. So that’s a lot of people.

And Denver It’s between 10 and 15, because it’s a bigger station, and it reaches more people, almost a whole state of Colorado. But it also reaches up in like Cheyenne, Wyoming, and other places like parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and parts of Nebraska, and also down toward New Mexico. So it reaches an awful lot of people. And so they contact me and ask me if I would go on their stations, which is what I did. In the last 10 years, we have probably raised way over a million dollars.

Now that’s outside of the ministry here. Now there’s people in the ministry that also gives to the radio broadcasts, but the bulk of course comes from outside. People who listen to the broadcast like what we have and support it. And when you stop and think about it, it’s an awful lot of money. that we thank the Lord, that we… Can do it because when the Lord says, go into all the world and preach the gospel, that’s a good way of doing it.

Paul says, by all means, so that’s a way of fulfilling our responsibility. I wouldn’t mind if we had a TV broadcast, but now with the YouTube ministry, it’s almost like having a TV broadcast. Because you’re on TV here, whatever you see here, been videoed, it goes up on there and it’s like having a TV broadcast. and it reaches around the world. So we thank the Lord for it. So we have a great relationship with both parties, WTBN and KLTT, within Colorado and WTBN here.

And I have had a chance to talk with, you know, the managers of the station. And here it’s Barb Yoder. And before her was Chris Gould and he went to California and he’s working with Salem Communication. and do their radio ministry is why you hear guys like Mike Gallagher. Anybody heard of Mike Gallagher? All right, some of you have. Well, now he’s also right down here at the same station that I have. And sometime when I’m talking on my broadcast live, he’s sitting right in the next room and I’m looking at him and he’s on his station.

And he’s going all over the world, though. But he’s a broadcast from here. So we have a chance to reach a lot of people, and we have. But about four months ago, I imagine, I’m always asking Dr. Polson how I was Bible-lined doing, because I really don’t keep track of all the money that comes in for the ministry, whether it’s the church, and all I just see the total of the times. So I said, just kind of let me know.

And so there’s been times when we thought, well, this is it. We can’t go another month. But about four months ago, I imagine, something like that, I asked him, I said, well, how are we doing? And so he brought me a print out and showed me where we stood and what we had in the bank. And I’m just supposed to come in. I’m just supposed to go out. And it didn’t look too good. But we had a little reserve.

So I said, well, let’s just wait another month and see if it picks up, because I’m not interested in borrowing money. I don’t want to go into debt. If we want to get to it, we can’t pay it, we go off the air. It’s always to it. That doesn’t mean that’s what I want. I would rather be on every station in America all around the world. I wouldn’t mind it because I don’t believe there’s many preacher that make the clarity of the gospel and issue like we do.

We’re always honing in on grace versus works when it comes to salvation, trying to keep it clear. But anything that the Lord is in, the devil is also in. The Lord wants us to do things, but He works through people. And the devil is always working through people too. And He uses people. He even used Christians believe it or not. And so I had the next month Dr. Bolton and I met together and he showed me another printout. It didn’t look any better, just less a reserve.

And so we know that it’s getting down to the place we’re going to have to make a decision. Well, I got this week a contract from the radio station here. And so I usually have to sign it, committing ourselves to another year. And that commitment is for approximately $50,000. And so that’s a lot of money. And if it doesn’t come in, that’s not good. we always expect that it will. Now I have seen it before in the past where you anticipate it will and it doesn’t.

Then you’re tempted to say or to think God, fail me. God let me down. No, people fail us. People let us down. God doesn’t. God does speak to people. God does tell people what they should and should not do. but do God’s children always do what God wants them to do? Do you always do what God wants you to do? No, we don’t. So we do fail, but we have to live with the consequences of it. And so I have a contract in my office that supposed to sign so that we start the next year.

And then I got a phone call. a phone call from one of the people who is a very good donor for helping us keep on the air. And so he young informed me that he’s not going to be able to commit himself this coming year. And so that means that I can’t count on what he was giving. So between the two of them and the The balance that we have, we have to make decisions. So Dr. Polson and I decided we need to call a board meeting.

So we had a board meeting last Wednesday night. And the Wednesday night board meeting, and we always liked Jesse to set in our board meetings, one so that he knows what’s going on. So in case something happens to me, he knows what we’ve been talking about, what we’re doing. So we met last Wednesday night and discussed what we needed to do. So now it was if we don’t have enough to support the radio broadcast, which is approximately about $11,000 a month.

Isn’t that true, Dr. Polson? And that includes paying Greg. His salary never comes out of the church budget. He has always come out of Bibleline, because he works totally for the Bibleline ministries. And of course, this is of great concern. To Greg, he likes his job. And we like Greg. He does an excellent job. I never worry about the quality of the programs that he puts up because he does such a good job. And so we decided between these two things.

It’s like an option to just go off both radio stations and just forget about it. Or see it by going off one of the stations we can keep the other station. And so we thought, well, one would be better than none. But it’s still cost an awful lot to just keep one, and then we still got to keep Greg. Because right, Greg, we can’t do either one. So which one should we keep? We looked at the possibilities of the one here in Tampa and realized that, well, this one doesn’t reach as many people as it doesn’t, the one in Colorado.

Plus the one in Colorado is about a thousand, the $1,200 a month cheaper for us to reach more people than we do here. So we came to the conclusion we would rather keep that one in Colorado than we do the one right here in Tampa. We also are on in Colorado on two stations or three stations or different times. Two or three times that we’re on, three times every day in Colorado. And so we felt that that would be a better move for us, is to be on that radio station.

That way we can keep a close eye for another month and then see how things develop. If it gets to the place where we have to go off the air totally, then that’s what we’re going to have to do. is not what I desire, but I’ve lived long enough to know that I don’t get everything I want. But I tried to do. Now I told them, I’m not going to get on the radio and beg for money every time I turn around.

It’s just not in my nature to do it. I’ll let the need be known and that’s it. And I am not going to borrow money. I’m not going to commit myself to something I don’t see and to believe that the people are going to back it and make it go forward. Our church cannot do everything. The people in our church, I’m always trying to get y’all to support the missionaries. This was going on at the same time we were having our missions conference.

So do I push the radio or do I push missions? So we push missions. We didn’t push the radio. But we could see the handwriting on the wall, so to speak. So we decided to make that decision. And I wanted you to know also that it doesn’t mean that we’re totally off the air. Jesse is going to say just a couple of words if you’ll come up here and mention to it about how the radio broadcast can still go forward.

So as Pastor mentioned a moment ago, the radio station is not necessarily going away. Greg is still going to be producing a show for Monday through Friday. And we are on KLTT. And so there are two ways that you can listen. We’ll try to put this in the bulletin for next week, and probably for the rest of the year until we go off of WTBN in the area. So you can make sure that you bookmark these on your computer.

The first one is www.670KLT.com. When you go there, you click to the Listen Live Now. I don’t think that KLTT has a replay. do they Greg? I don’t think that they do so you’re gonna have to listen during the times that we’re on. You don’t have to write these down now but this message is being recorded so we can have it for you later. It’s weekdays 4.30 a.m., 8.30 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. Saturdays 2 a.m., 6.30 a.m. and Sundays 3.30 a.m.

and 10 a.m. so you can still listen to the show that way from their website they have a player. The other option, which is an option that we do here at the church, is BibleLineMinistries.org, and you can click on, when you load that up on your cell phone, on your computer, you can hook it up on the Bluetooth in your car. When you click on latest radio show, there is a link that comes up and it shows every show we’ve ever done going back to Dr.

Hank Lindstrom. You can even look at special teachings which are categorized in a certain way. Do the live shows go up there, Greg? The live shows do not go up there, but all of the shows that Greg produces throughout Monday and Friday, we’re going to have an additional show now to substitute the live show because that will be going away. Yeah, so we’re going to be able to have that and that’s updated daily. That goes up the same day.

So that’s BibleLineMinistries.org. You can click on the latest radio show tab and you’ll be able to find it there. Okay? Thank you so much. I wrote a letter to Barb Yoder, and this is what I said. As per our agreement, I am given a written notice that Bible and radio were no longer air on WTB and here in Tampa. Our board voted last night when it’s the 11th, 2019 to discontinue our daily broadcast with this 30-day notice. your discretion, we can finish our December 2019, or terminate our broadcast on January the 10th, 2020.

WTBN has treated us fairly, professionally, and with great consideration due to our prime airtime. Your staff has been great to work with and you in particular. Perhaps in the future we may partner with you again. Thank you and God bless. to Ralph Yankee Arnold, host of Bibleline. The final date has not yet been determined as when we will no longer be on the air, but it’s going to be within that time period that we mentioned. So I want to say this, to those that are listening in Tampa, thank you for all the support you gave all these years.

I pray that you have been blessed. I believe many of you have trusted Christ as your Savior and that you have grown to love the Lord. We would be blessed to have you visit Calvary Community Church at 4811 George Road each Sunday at 1030. To those that are listening and Denver, I pray that you have come to believe that Bibleline has earned your prayers and financial support. We will continue on the air as long as we have the resources to do so.

Special thanks to those who have given sacrificially. This week, one of our major donors called to make us aware that his generous support cannot be counted on to continue after the first of the year for personal reasons. Pray God’s will to be done, which means we do not believe it is his will for us to borrow money or go into debt. Thank you, and God bless you. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr.

Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free, 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link. 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. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at six o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, 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, and just keep looking up.