Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to Faithful Word Baptist Church.
It's so nice to see you all here for our Sunday morning service.
Last day of our missions conference.
Find your seats now.
Take a small book and go to Hymn 374.
We'll begin this morning.
Hymn 374.
Send the light.
Hymn number 374.
We'll sing it out on that first verse together.
Three hundred and seventy-four.
Send the light.
Hymn number 374.
We'll sing it out on that first verse together.
Three hundred and seventy-four.
There's a call comes ringing o'er the restless wave.
Hymn 374.
Lift it up together now.
There's a call comes ringing o'er the restless wave.
Send the light.
There are souls to rescue and there are souls to sin.
Send the light.
A blessed gospel light.
Let it shine.
From shore to shore.
Send the light.
A blessed gospel light.
Let it shine.
Forevermore.
We have heard the best of those who call today.
Send the light.
And the golden offering and the glossy legs.
Send the light.
A blessed gospel light.
Let it shine.
From shore to shore.
Send the light.
A blessed gospel light.
Let it shine.
Forevermore.
Let us pray that grace be everywhere around.
Send the light.
And the Christ-like spirit everywhere he bounds.
Send the light.
A blessed gospel light.
Let it shine.
From shore to shore.
Send the light.
A blessed gospel light.
Let it shine.
Forevermore.
Let us not go weary in the work of love.
Send the light.
Let us gather jewels for a crown above.
Send the light.
A blessed gospel light.
Let it shine.
From shore to shore.
Send the light.
A blessed gospel light.
Let it shine.
Forevermore.
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you, Lord, for bringing us here today to sing praises to your name,
to listen to the gospel preached by our pastor, and we just pray, Lord, that you will bless him.
And bless this church in the outreach that has been undertaken here at this church.
We ask, Lord, for your blessings and praise you for all things.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen, 228, number 228.
I'd love to tell the story.
Hymn number 228.
We'll begin on that first verse together.
I'd love to tell the story of unseen things above.
Number 228.
I want to tell the story of unseen things above.
Of Jesus and his glory.
Of Jesus and his love.
I'd love to tell the story because I know it's true.
It satisfies my longing as nothing else can do.
I'd love to tell the story.
It will be my thing in glory to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
I'd love to tell the story for wonderful it seems.
Then all our golden senses of all our golden dreams.
I'd love to tell the story.
It did so much for me.
And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.
I'd love to tell the story.
It will be my thing in glory to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
I'd love to tell the story.
It's pleasant to repeat.
But seems each time I tell it more wonderfully sweet.
I'd love to tell the story for some had never heard.
The message of salvation from God's holy Word.
I'd love to tell the story.
It will be my thing in glory to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
I'd love to tell the story for those who know it best.
Deep pondering and bursting to hear it like the rest.
And when it seems of glory, I'd sing a new, new song.
It will be the old, old story that I have loved so long.
I'd love to tell the story.
It will be my thing in glory to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
All right, at this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
And we'll go through our announcements together.
On the inside we have our service times.
Sunday morning at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6 o'clock.
Wednesday at 7 is our Bible study.
This week we will be in 2 Chronicles chapter number 26.
We've got the soul-winning times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms.
Across the page we're wrapping up with the 2024 yearbook portraits.
So first of all, thank you to everyone who's already participated.
I know we've taken a bazillion pictures.
But please speak to the staff if you still need your picture taken because we want to get it done.
It's almost too late.
So make sure that you talk to us and get your picture taken before it is too late.
Then this coming Saturday, November 16th, there is going to be a soul-winning marathon in the Philadelphia area.
Specifically it's going to be in Camden, New Jersey, but it's in the greater Philadelphia area.
And so if you know anybody who's in that area, please let them know.
Or if anybody's watching online in that area that's within striking distance of Philadelphia, we'd love to see you out there.
And if you need more information, you can reach out to our church through email.
Or if you're here, you can talk to Brother Daniel Reiter for more details.
Also, there's going to be an appreciation dinner this Saturday evening, also November 16th, at 6 p.m. at the church building right here for those who had perfect attendance during the mega conference.
So we have a list.
So there's a guest list.
We don't want to have to cast you out into outer darkness if you try to show up to this thing without being on the list.
But there is a guest list for those who had perfect attendance during the mega conference over the summer.
There's going to be an appreciation dinner for you this Saturday at 6 p.m., catered by Olive Garden.
Okay.
Now, speaking of which, we've had the passports for everyone who's been coming to all the missions conference sermons.
And we're going to have a prize tonight for those who came to all the services and have all the passports.
You've got to have the stamps, all right?
So I want to get an inkling of how many people have done this.
So who would say that you have gotten all the stamps up to this point, you've been to all the services of the mission conference, you got all the stamps, and you're going to be here tonight and get the final stamp.
Put up your hand because I want to count.
All right.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12...
All right.
Very good.
but at least that gives us a ballpark to know what to be prepared for and so if
you get your final stamp tonight we'll have a prize for you but we're not going
to take your word for it all right you got to show us the passport your papers
must be in order if you want to get the prize all right that's the way this
works there's no honor system here it's you got to show us your papers and so
that is tonight the final service and thank you so much for everyone who has
been faithful and for those who came to whatever you could come to I know it's
kind of a lot to cram nine church services into five days and not to
mention all the activities and everything and so it's it's probably I
know it's a lot of fun but it's also a little bit exhausting and so thank you
to everyone for all the hard work that you put in also let's give a big hand to
all of the decorators who did such a wonderful job throughout the week
I know that they put in a ton of hard work decorating every day looked really
cool and changing the decorations and doing everything and so it's it's very
beautiful as always so thank you to all the hard work that went into that also I
just want to say that over here there's like a food table but we're unfortunately
we don't have Christ here to multiply five loaves and two fishes and feed the
five thousand or even Elijah the Prophet to do a similar miracle and so therefore
we've got that stuff there right now just look at it for now but tonight
after the service we'll let whoever wants to just kind of smash that food
table tonight after service because there is a lot of stuff over there but
what are these among so many right but but tonight after the service it'll just
be a first come first serve and you can chow down on all the Armenia stuff the
dried fruit and the lavash and all that stuff over there you can check that out
after church tonight otherwise right now you can just feast your eyes upon it
and so of course we had a great day of of preaching and picnic yesterday and
thanks for everybody who worked so hard to make that picnic happen I know that
was a big undertaking yes all right and then we still do have some of the
lunches so if you want one of the free lunches we've got those available I know
a lot of people took home their sack lunch last night but if you need one of
those lunches we got a bunch of lunches for those who are from especially for
those from out of town but even if you're from in town hey grab a sandwich
and so we got plenty of that to go around at least while supplies last and
then looks like we had over the course of the conference just in the last four
days of soul winning locally here we had 44 people saved just from the local
door-to-door soul winning during the missions conference while we talked
about all the stuff going on all over the world you know we're able to get
some stuff done right here in our backyard so praise the Lord for that and
then below that this this announcement is not exactly right it was my fault I
didn't communicate this but actually Pastor Mejia is actually coming and
preaching on Wednesday night December the 4th so it's just a few days later
he's coming on December the 4th to preach on that Wednesday night so if
you're a Sunday morning only and you don't usually come on a Wednesday night
make a special point to plan on coming to that Wednesday night on December 4th
to hear Pastor Mejia preach I believe that that is about it for announcements
and so let's go ahead and sing our next song come lead us all right you should
find the insert in the front of your hymnal with the hymn entitled here am I
Lord you don't have an answer you can raise your hand and you'll receive one
we'll see it on that first together Lord I give my life to you
Oh
Man good thing everybody take your hymnals now go to him four hundred and thirty seven him for thirty seven
battle him of the Republic him number four hundred and thirty seven lift it up
on that first verse now mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
him four hundred and thirty seven sing it out now mine eyes have seen the
glory of the coming of the Lord he is trampling out the vintage where the
grapes of wrath are stored he hath loose the faithful lightning on his
terrible slits Lord his truth is marching on
glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah his
truth is marching on I have seen him in the watchfuls of a hundred circling
camps they have filled it in an altar in the evening news and that I may read his
righteous sentence by the dim and blaring lights his day is marching on
glory glory hallelujah
his day is marching on
he has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never sound retreat
he is circling out the hearts of men before his judgment seemed
oh he slipped my soul to answer him he drew and my feet our God is marching on
glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah our God is marching on
in the beauty of the lilies Christ was born and must have seen with the glory in his
blows and that's what's bigger here with me as he dies to make them holy let us
guide to make them free while God is marching on
glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah
glory glory hallelujah our God is marching on
good singing this morning
alright at this time we'll quickly pass our offering plates around as the plates go around
let's turn our Bibles to James chapter 1
James chapter number 1 as we always do we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1
follow along silently with brother Nick as he reads James chapter 1 starting in verse number 1
James chapter 1 the Bible reads
James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad
greeting my brethren count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations knowing this that the
trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect
and entire wanting nothing if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men
liberally and afraid if not and it shall be given him but let him ask in faith nothing wavering
for he that waver is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed for that not that man think
that he shall receive anything of the Lord a double minded man is unstable in all his ways let the
brother of low degree rejoice and that he is exalted but the rich and that he is made low because as the
flower of the grass he shall pass away for the sun is no sooner risen with the burning heat but it
withereth the grass and the flower thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth so
also shall the rich man fade away in his ways blessed is the man that endureth temptation for
when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him
let no man say when he is tempted I'm tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither
tempteth he any man but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed then
when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bring forth death do
not air my beloved brethren every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down
from the father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow with turning of his own
will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures
wherefore my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath for the
wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God wherefore lay apart all filthiness and
superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save
your souls but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves for if any
be a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass
for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forget what manner of man he was but
who so looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful
hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed if any man among you seem to
be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart this man's religion is vain
pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this to visit the fatherless and widows
and their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for an amazing missions conference. We pray that you would just
build pastor with the power of your Holy Spirit and have blessed your children to be edified.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Men, this morning we're talking about the country of Armenia and before I get into the sermon
I just want to give you a little bit of information about Armenia because I know some people may be
totally unfamiliar with this country, where it even is. You might not know anything about it
but Armenia is a country in Asia and is bordered by Georgia, Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey
and one of the most famous things about Armenia is Mount Ararat which is what this picture is behind me
the greater and lesser Mount Ararat there and of course it's very significant in the Bible
because it's where Noah's Ark landed after the flood. It was in the mountains of Ararat
Another interesting thing is that the word Armenia actually occurs twice in our King James Bible
and the underlying Hebrew word for Armenia in both of those places is Ararat
and so the King James is translating it as Armenia because those two things have been synonymous
in many ways throughout history and so that's one really interesting thing about Armenia
So the people in Armenia are very proud of this fact that humanity started right here
you know, the entire human race comes from Armenia because this is where Noah got off the ark
and so the imagery is just everywhere, a lot of businesses will have Ararat in the name
the bottled water that people were drinking said Noah on it, like that was the brand name
You'd go to art museums and there are just pictures of Noah's Ark everywhere
and it's a big thing over there, Mount Ararat, that's huge
Another famous thing about Armenia is that it's the first country in history to make Christianity the state religion
all the way back in AD 301, so that's before the Roman Empire adopted Christianity
they have a totally unique alphabet, first of all the language is its own branch of the Indo-European family
so it's not really related to any other language except just that it's part of the giant Indo-European family
so it's a very unique language, they have their own unique alphabet that is only for Armenian
and it was invented all the way back in AD 405 by a guy named Mesrop Mashtots
and he actually then used that alphabet in order to translate the Bible into Armenian
and this is one of the reasons that I actually really wanted to learn Armenian
was because of the fact that I've been really interested in biblical languages over the last many years
trying to become an expert on all things King James Bible related
and getting into the original languages and the history of the text and everything like that
and it turns out Armenian is of course very significant for that
because of the fact that they have one of the oldest Bible translations that's still around
so besides Greek, Hebrew, Latin, other important biblical languages believe it or not
are Armenian and Georgian and Syriac because those are languages that have early Bible translations
and so that evidence can be important for backing up the fact that our King James Bible is the word of God
and that the modern version crowd is wrong
and so that's one of the reasons why I picked, actually one of the other reasons was back in 2016
when we were dubbing Marching to Zion into a whole bunch of different languages
I came across the Armenian language and I just thought the writing looked so cool
I just thought to myself, man I would love to learn that someday
and so you know eight years later I had the opportunity to study the language, learn the language
I spent a few months learning the language before I went over there
and I knew about 1,000 words really well
that was my goal, like a thousand words that I knew like the back of my hand, I learned the grammar and everything
so I wouldn't say that I was fluent at all but I was definitely able to get by and say whatever I needed to say
and obviously I learned more while I was there
also over there, that's kind of the language section over here
if you get a chance to check it out after the service
you'll see that we have that book there on the table
which is really cool because that is sort of the par excellence manuscript of the Armenian Bible
it's the four gospels from 900 and some odd AD
so we're talking about something that's about 1,100 years old
so obviously our King James replica is pretty cool, that's 400 years old
this is like 1,100 years old
it's an exact facsimile, really interesting, it's got interesting pictures in it and stuff
so I hope you'll take a chance to look at that
also on the wall we have those big giant poster boards
I wrote those Bible verses in Armenian so that you can see what the handwriting is like
because the handwriting is a lot different than the printed language
so at this time, before I get into the sermon, at this time I would say
you really have to know some Armenian in order to be effective over there
if you're just an English speaker
this is probably not going to be a good place to go do a mission strip
because the lingua franca over there for a long time has been Russian
because Armenia used to be part of the Soviet Union
so a lot of people there speak Russian as a second language
but the young people are switching over to English
and so I think in about 10 or 15 years you could do an effective trip over there
as an English speaker talking to the young people
but unfortunately they are not there yet
so when I was over there I was able to win people to the Lord using a mix of Armenian and English
and let me say this, that's how I started out soul winning in Spanish as well
and so I know there are a lot of people out there that are interested in learning Spanish
so that they can go soul winning among Spanish speakers
and long before I ever won somebody to the Lord 100% in Spanish
I won probably about 15 to 20 people to the Lord using Spanglish
and Spanglish is something we kind of joke about and laugh about
but Spanglish is a real thing
if you actually go to border towns in the United States and turn on the radio
they will be talking in Spanglish
just indiscriminately going back and forth between English and Spanish
and so long before I was able to get someone saved 100% in Spanish
you find the people who speak a little bit of English
and then you can use a lot of Spanish, a little English
when you run into problems you can go back and forth
and between your knowledge of Spanish and their knowledge of English
you can actually get the point across and get through
and that's actually very effective
like I said I won almost 20 people to the Lord that way in Spanish
before I ever was able to get through the whole thing
so that's a good way to warm up to that process
I did the same thing when I was in Cyprus
like a mix of Greek and English, mix of Armenian and English
that's what I was doing when I was over there
so first of all let me give you a bunch of positive things about Armenia
and then I'm going to give you some negative things about Armenia
then I'll get into the preaching
so positive things about Armenia
my favorite thing was just great tasting water everywhere
the best water I've ever tasted in my life
and I'm talking out of the bathroom faucet
and so you know you think about how you're always having to buy bottled water
when I was over there I just drank straight out of the tap
because everybody told me oh it's the best water
you taste it and immediately you can tell this is good water
water fountains are everywhere and when there's no water fountain
you just go into a bathroom literally
I mean can you imagine America just going to a public bathroom
just flipping on the faucet
well those of you who grew up in the 80s that's how we lived back then
but anyway it was just wonderful just being able to just carry around an empty bottle
go into any bathroom fill it up and it was just ice cold wonderful tasting water
the food was also just really fresh and healthy everywhere
and as long as you're not in a touristy area the food was really cheap
I ate pretty much the same breakfast every morning
these two pastries one filled with potatoes the other filled with bananas
and for two pastries like that that stuffed me to the gills 50 cents
okay pretty much everything there was a quarter
it was like pastry quarter ride the bus one quarter ride the metro one quarter
okay so that was a cool thing
another thing that I love was the traffic lights over there were really cool
now I know this might seem like a weird thing
but it had this thing where it always had this little countdown
telling you how many seconds until the light turns green
and then there were countdowns telling you how many seconds until the light turns red
so they were just like living in the year 2032 when it came to their traffic lights
you know for a poor country they had some killer traffic lights
so it was like yeah this lights gonna turn green in 53 seconds
and you just knew that all the time it was really cool
so I like that the taxis and bus rides were really cheap
like I said 25 cents to ride the bus
and then taxi rides you could pretty much go anywhere in town
they had an app that was sort of like Uber but it was called Gigi
and you would just fire up the Gigi app
where's Gigi?
alright yeah they got an app for you over there
and it was literally just to go like anywhere in the city is like four bucks
so it was just a great it was like Uber but just way cheaper okay
another thing I thought was pretty cool over there is that the Bible in their language
the word for Bible literally means the breath of God
that's what they actually call the Bible
so talk about believing in inspiration
I mean they just call it's the breath of God
it's God breath
and everybody that I talked to over there said
oh yeah the Armenian Bible matches the KJV in English
and so I did read a lot of the Armenian Bible
so far I think I've read like 60 some chapters
I'm trying to read the whole New Testament
but I'm like 60 some chapters in
they have a great translation
and I'm also studying that old manuscript and everything
and I went to the Armenian Bible Society while I was there
and usually when you just go to a country's just sort of generic Bible Society
usually they're promoting wrong versions
modern versions
modern texts right
usually we have to rely on like a good Bible Society
like the Trinitarian Bible Society
to help us out with stuff right
but you just walk into the Armenian Bible Society
they had Greek New Testaments
it's all Texas Receptus
they had the Armenian Bible which is a good Bible
and then every English Bible that they had was a KJV
they didn't even have the New King James
it was just all KJV
so that was really cool
and by the way here's a side note
it's funny how you go pretty much anywhere in the world
and it's all KJV everywhere
in America you got modern versions all over the place
but if you go to South America like Guyana
you go places in the Caribbean
you go places throughout Africa
and the King James dominates
everyone those of you who have gone on mission trips knows
know that the King James is everywhere
so praise God for his word
doing great works all over the world
okay so here's some negative things about Armenia
people just stare at you for no reason
they just glare at you
you know I felt like for the most part
it was a pretty unfriendly place
there's a lot of people staring at you
and glaring at you and I'm just like
take a picture it'll last longer
why are you staring at me like that?
people are rude
customer service was horrible
like you walk into a store
and ads like hey do you have
I don't know
do you have this product
I don't know go ask somebody else
it's like what what in the world
okay people constantly just cut in front of you
in line everywhere
you'll be waiting in line for the register
somebody will just jump in
oh sorry I'm in a hurry
and just take your spot
what just happened?
when I first got to Armenia
I'm at the airport
and it was just a super long line for passport control
so I ended up having to wait a little over two hours
in this line for passport control
which isn't really normal
usually it's like 30-40 minutes
so I had to wait like two hours
now look I'm a super patient person
with stuff like that
like I don't mind waiting for two hours
you know it's no big deal at all
except this was like the most stressful two hours of my life
and let me tell you why
because it wasn't waiting for two hours
it was fight to keep your place in line for two hours
because people are just
if you if you didn't fight for it
everybody's just going to flow by you
and you never advance
so it was like
it was like strategic foot hand placement
just kind of blocking
and just kind of knowing when to make eye contact
when not to make eye contact
I would say that I did a pretty good job
because over the course of two hours
I probably lost about like five places in line
which I thought was pretty good
like a score of negative five
you know other people were getting like a plus 20
okay
because everybody's just
everybody's just
if you literally just turn your back
this little woman goes back
zip
and she just looks at you like
sorry sucka
so it was a super stressful two hours
and then while we were doing that
a couple people just started screaming at each other
about the cutting
this old man and this like 20 year old woman
got in a screaming fight
and you know the old man was in the right
because he's the one that got cut off
later in the day
there were people screaming at each other
screaming at each other in public
and everything
so yeah
there were some rude people cutting you off
okay the driving was just insane
now thankfully I didn't drive
I just walked everywhere
took buses
used gg
but I did not do any driving
but everybody just drove like an absolute maniac
but even just walking around
it was dangerous
because you'd have a green crosswalk
and cars will still run you over
and I remember there were a couple times that I jaywalked
and I was just thinking to myself
this jaywalking is identical to using the crosswalk
because like nobody's gonna stop anyway
so it's like what's the difference
they're like wait it's red
that doesn't seem to stop these people
I actually got bumped by a car
I wouldn't say I got hit by a car
but I got hit by a car
I got bumped
you know I didn't get hurt or anything
but I mean
and I saw cars bumping other people
like you gotta watch out
and basically what you had to do
you had to take like a leap of faith
because what would happen is
if you're just waiting
you're just never gonna get to walk across
so you kind of had to step in front of cars
and look at them like
and then they stop
and it's like okay
so it was a little bit of faith required there
for using crosswalks
um another thing that was kind of weird
was you go to a restaurant
no napkins
at any restaurant
I ate at fancy restaurants
I ate at cheap restaurants
the whole time I was there
I never saw a napkin
the entire time I was there
instead there's a tissue box
on the table
so I mean
little thin little tissue
and you're just kind of like
is this supposed to be a napkin
like disposable tissues
instead of napkins
that was kind of weird
and then the women wear way too much makeup
like they wear a ridiculous amount of makeup
but I will say this though
that the whole time I was there
here let's end on a positive note
before I get into the message
the whole time I was there
I didn't see any freaks
or weirdos
queers transvestites
lesbians
like they just didn't exist
and it was kind of refreshing
that just all the men
you know were normal
all the women were feminine
like it was just
everybody was just a normal person
and I remember just
when I landed at my layover
in Chicago on the way home
just already at the airport
there were just these weird lesbians
I was just like all right we're home
a bunch of weirdos
but I did not see a single weirdo
the whole time I was there
let me just kind of describe
the way the kind of the clothing
and the culture a little bit
you know everybody puts a lot of work
into their appearance
they're probably a little too into their appearance
okay because I mean we're talking
just everybody's in designer clothes
this is a poor country
and everybody's in real nice clothes
name brands
men have the haircut
and everything
everybody's very groomed
which in some ways is good
I mean everybody's looking nice
and presentable
and everything like that
and then I would say that the ladies
pretty much had one of two looks
they either wore like the modest
the long dress down to the knee
modest type feminine dress
and they pretty much just look like
they're going to the prom all the time
like I mean just really
putting a lot of work in to that
just they're just everybody's
super dressed up all the time
or I would say about half the girls
were dressed in feminine dresses like that
and then the other half
wore what I would call like a tomboy chic
that's what I kind of came up with that term
of basically like wearing like baggy jeans
and a t-shirt and a baseball cap
but all like really fancy designer version of that
so those were kind of the two looks
that I saw on the ladies
and then this is something I've never seen in the United States
I saw like three different women
just in the short time I was there
that had a bandage on their nose
because they had just gotten a nose job
so there's just a lot of nose jobs going on
and a lot of women like inflating their lips
I don't know what they do
I don't know what that is
some kind of injections or something
where they make their lips swell up
that seemed to be a thing over there as well
but anyway that was kind of the things I liked
things I didn't like
but 95.2% are members of the Armenian Apostolic Church
so when it comes to religion of Armenia
let's get into the sermon now
Matthew chapter 24
Matthew chapter 24 in your Bibles
95.2% are members of the Armenian Apostolic Church
which is similar to like East Orthodox
or Roman Catholic type of thing
a bunch of incense and candles
and hocus pocus and this kind of stuff
and you know worshipping Mary and the saints
and all that stupid stuff
so that's pretty much the main religion 95.2%
so the first guy that I got saved when I was there
was a guy named Michael
and after he got saved I gave him a New Testament
and we ended up talking for like a really long time
and he told me, he said
most Armenians are nominally Christian
but they don't know or care what they believe
he said people in Armenia
members of the Armenian Church
they pretty much don't know what they believe
and don't care
he said I'm interested in what you're saying
I care about this
but he said the vast majority of people
simply don't care
so here's an appropriate scripture about that
because of course Mount Ararat
is associated with Armenia
look at Matthew chapter 24 verse 37
but as the days of Noah were
so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be
Matthew 24 38
for as in the days that were before the flood
they were eating and drinking
marrying and giving in marriage
until the day that Noah entered into the ark
and knew not
watch that
they knew not
until the flood came and took them all away
so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be
in the parallel passage in Luke 17
it says the flood came and destroyed them all
and until the flood came and destroyed them all
they didn't know
they're just eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage
they're buying, they're selling, they're living their lives
people just not caring about spiritual things
not caring about the things of God
but guess what
the flood is coming
and once God destroyed the entire world with water
but the same heavens and earth
that he destroyed with water
one day he's going to destroy with fire
and of course Christ is going to return
in flaming fire
taking vengeance on them that know not God
and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
and many people today are like
you know what Michael said about these Armenians
that basically they just don't know what they believe
and they don't care
they're just living their lives
and they don't care
well guess what
it's appointed unto men wants to die
but after this the judgment
and it's important
that people know for sure
that they're going to heaven when they die
and not caring about that is a big problem
of course Romans chapter 3
famously says
there is none that understandeth
there's none that seeketh after God
they're all gone out of the way
they're together become unprofitable
there's none that doeth good
no not one
and so there's a lack of seeking for God
now when it comes to the book of 2nd chronicles
that I've been preaching through on Wednesday night
seeking the Lord is a big theme
in the book of 2nd chronicles
if you would turn to John chapter 5
but I'm going to read for you some verses from 2nd chronicles
chapter 11 verse 16 it says
after them out of all the tribes of Israel
such as set their hearts
to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem
to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers
2nd chronicles 12 14 he did evil
because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord
speaking of Rehoboam
chapter 14 verse 4 he commanded Judah
to seek the Lord God of their fathers
and to do the law and the commandment
chapter 15 verse 12 they entered into a covenant
to seek the Lord God of their fathers
with all their heart and with all their soul
and that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel
should be put to death whether small or great
whether man or woman
2nd chronicles 20 verse 3 Jehoshaphat feared
and set himself to seek the Lord
and proclaim a fast throughout all Judah
and Judah gathered themselves together
to ask help of the Lord
even out of all the cities of Judah
they came to seek the Lord
so just again and again
in 2nd chronicles it's saying
people sought the Lord
these people didn't seek the Lord
and they got destroyed they're wicked they're ungodly
these people did seek the Lord
folks we've got to seek the Lord
and the people of Armenia
they need to seek the Lord
what does the word seek mean?
it means to look for
to search for
and we need to know what we believe
we need to care what we believe
we need to figure out what we believe
and we need to figure out what the Bible says
so that we can know for sure that we're going to heaven
based upon the Bible
of course those of us who are here in our church
obviously we already know that
but there could be some people here today
that don't know that
we better seek the Lord while he may be found
and so the people of Armenia
need to seek the Lord
the Bible says ask and it shall be given you
seek and you shall find
knock and it shall be opened unto you
for everyone that asketh receiveth
and he that seeketh findeth
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened
look at John chapter 5 verse 39
John chapter 5 verse 39
it says this search the scriptures
search the scriptures
for in them ye think ye have eternal life
and they are they which testify of me
Jesus is talking to people
who think that they have eternal life
he says you think that you have eternal life
but you know what you need to do?
you need to search the scriptures
you need to see what the Bible actually says
because your little ritual
and poofoo dust and candles
and idols and images and rituals
and your little song and dance
isn't going to get you to heaven
you need to search what the Bible says
you need to know how to go to heaven according to scripture
it's funny I went to a church there
and the pastor's son at the church
I was talking to the pastor's son
and he told me that he had asked other Armenians
why do you cross yourselves?
he said why do you do this sign of the cross thing?
why do you do that?
where is that in the Bible?
and they said well I don't know
nobody could tell him
nobody could tell him where that came from
nobody could tell them where that is in the Bible
and he said you know what I'm not going to do it then
he said why should I do that then?
tell me one reason why I should go like this right now
show me that in the Bible
and so he's not going to do it
because he's not going to do just some man-made
ritual that's not in the word of God
read the Bible
follow the word of God
Roman Catholic
East Orthodox
Armenian Apostolic
you know what?
it's pretty much all the same unbiblical idolatrous religion
you need to get saved by trusting Christ
to save them by faith alone
it's the same solution for them all
but step one of that is to start actually caring
what you believe and figuring out what you believe
and why
because if you don't care if you're just going through life
eating, drinking, buying, selling
marrying and giving in marriage
and then you just don't know
until the flood comes and destroys you
oh I didn't know
well guess what? the truth is out there
it's available
the word of God is available in your language
seek ye out in the book of the Lord and read
search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life
but they're going to tell you
about the real Jesus
and the real salvation through Jesus
so it's very important
so number one, Armenians need to seek the Lord
through his word
and number two, the word of God
has the power to save
the word of God has the power to save
go to Luke 24
so five days later
after Michael got saved
I was talking to Michael again
and I had given him a New Testament
the first time I talked to him
and he came to me and told me that he started reading
the New Testament
and he was reading in the Gospel of Mark
where I had him reading
and I ended up being able to give the Gospel
to a friend of his
while he was there
and it was a big long conversation
but it was cool because as I was talking to her
and giving her the Gospel
Michael, who was just
newly saved himself
he was backing me up the whole time
and basically reiterating to her
and telling her
that what I was saying was true
and obviously helping out with a little bit of the language
and stuff because we're all kind of
working here with a couple languages
because they spoke a certain amount of English
I spoke a certain amount of Armenian
both of us weren't quite there
but over time and through patience
we were able to communicate pretty well
and so, you know
we're all having this conversation
and he's helping me out
he's explaining to her, and it's funny because
as I'm preaching the Gospel to her
and she's giving me objections, he says
that's exactly what I said
and he showed me where I was wrong about that
but that's what I said the same thing
so that was kind of cool
just having him there to back me up
as I was talking to her
so she had gone to an Evangelical church
in Armenia, she was actually not
Armenian Apostolic church, she'd gone to
an Evangelical, like non-Dinam type church
since she was three years old
but she did not know for sure she was
going to heaven because she said that she knew
that she was guilty about some things
that's why I don't know if I'm going to heaven because
you know, I'm guilty
of some things. Well aren't we all?
Right? We've all sinned
and come short of the glory of God
and she said that she
believed that in order to be saved, you had to
believe but you also had to live a good life
so it was like a works-based
salvation, no surprise
so I start giving her the gospel
and as I'm preaching the gospel to her, she's talking to me
and she says, wait, can I record you?
because she said
the words that you're saying to me right now
are melting my heart
and so I just want to record
this right now and it made
me think of this, Luke 24 verse 27
beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, this is Jesus of course
he, Jesus, expounded
unto them in all the
scriptures the things concerning himself
and look at verse 32, they said one to another
did not our heart burn
within us? while he
talked with us by the way
and while he opened us the scriptures and look of course
you know that when I was
preaching to her and she said, hey
can I record this because my heart
is melting
okay, it's nothing that
I was saying, I wasn't saying anything clever
or interesting or I didn't
have some special illustration, it's the
power of the gospel of Jesus Christ
the word of God
and she's been going to an evangelical church
her whole life but she's hearing something
different, she's hearing something
powerful from the Bible
that just melted her heart and she said
I want to record this, I said
don't record this, I said, I already made
the video, here you go, let me send you the link
so I just said
there's no reason to record me because I said
I'm just going to send you a link
and so I ended up sending her the links to the Bible way to heaven
and stuff, I said, that way you can go back
and listen to this again, review
this, share this with other people
of course, you know, ultimately
she ended up getting saved, but in the process
of giving her the gospel
uh, the subject of
chastisement came up
a lot actually of those who are saved
so if you would go to Hebrews chapter 12
Hebrews chapter 12, but while you're turning there
the Bible says
faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God
and you've got an unsaved person and they hear
the word of God, their heart
burns within them, right, their heart
melts as she put it
in her English that you know
because I looked up melting
heart melting in the Bible and it was all people being scared
I found like
you know, 12 verses or something where people's
hearts melted, I was like, none of this is going to work for my
sermon because that's not what she meant
you know, what she meant was just that
her heart was touched, her heart was
stirred, her heart was moved
by the word of God
why, because the word of God has
power to save
and faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God, you've got people that are not necessarily
seeking after God, but then the word of God
comes in and it stirs
their heart, it stirs their soul
and
so obviously Michael and his friend
they were actually ones who did care
and they were somewhat seeking after God
and their heart was stirred as well
but we've all
had situations where people were not interested
I mean those two were interested, but
we've all had situations where people were not
interested, but then when they start hearing the message
they get interested
we've all seen that as well
James 1.18 says
of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth
that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures
God begat us with the
word of God, the Bible says
being born again not of corruptible
seed but of incorruptible
by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever, the word of God
is that seed planted in our heart
that saves us
Acts 11.14 he shall
tell thee words whereby
thou and all thy house shall be saved
it's the word of God that has the
power to save people
so we're talking about this issue
of people who are
saved being chastised
for their sins or that
God would chasten and chastise the
saved after they have received
Christ as savior
and I tend to talk
about this a lot in my soul winning
because a lot of people have this attitude
of well if the gospel is free
if salvation is free if you just believe on
Jesus and you're saved
well then what if you go out and do all this bad
stuff afterward and they have this
wrong idea that you can lose your salvation
and so
typically if I explain the chastisement
of the Lord to people
this clears that up for them right away because then
they understand okay it's not
that you just go out and sin and do all this
stuff and have no consequences
but whom the Lord loveth
look down at your Bible if you would there
in verse 6 whom the Lord loveth
he chasteneth and scourges
every son whom he receiveth
and so you see here that it's not
that you just go out and sin and have no consequences
if you're a saved Christian if you're a
child of God and you break God's
rules he's going to discipline you
he's going to chastise you he's going to
scourge you but he's not going to send you to hell
he's not going to take away your salvation from
you you're still saved because
Jesus paid for all of your sins
so when we first started
talking about this issue of
God chastising his children
you know she demanded
to see proof of this because she
was skeptical she acted like
I've never heard of that I don't I don't
know if that's true I want to see
that in the Bible she said she said
show me that in the Bible about God chastising
people because you know
yeah that that just it didn't it didn't
really click with her right away so
I took her to Hebrews 12 showed it
to her and after I showed it to her in Hebrews 12
she just immediately accepted it
and embraced it why because
of the power of God's word
God's word has power
in the sense of power like
dynamic power but it also has
power in the sense of authority
well hey if that's what the Bible says
that's what the Bible says
and so once I showed it
to her in the Bible then she
immediately embraced it and the reason
why she was struggling with it
after she'd already a little
bit later on prayed and received
Christ as savior she
brought up the fact that she didn't feel like
she'd ever been chastised by God when she did
wrong things that's why she wasn't familiar with that
concept and I said well that's because you weren't
saved I said you know buckle up
because from now on you
are going to get chastised
you know you didn't get chastised yet
because you weren't saved so I thought that was
kind of funny
so number one Armenians need
to seek the Lord through his word
many of them
think they have eternal life but
they need to search the scriptures
they need to start caring about what
they believe and and why and let me
just tell you this I felt that people there
didn't know the Bible the members of the
Armenian Apostolic Church didn't know the Bible
this doesn't really surprise us because when we
get around Catholics in America
do Catholics typically know the Bible
pretty well? No in fact
I was just soul winning a few months ago
and had a Roman Catholic tell us
hey our religion one of the
things we're bad at is we don't read the Bible
like our you know as members
we don't read the Bible and of course Catholics
will brag about how in their services
they read portions of the Bible out loud
and whatever but but the thing is the people
aren't reading the Bible on their own
and they're typically not
paying attention I think when they're in church
anyway hearing this stuff read because
when you talk to Catholics they typically don't know
the Bible very well you know and and so
I found that even talking
to some people in Armenia who were
lifelong members of the Armenian Apostolic
Church and and
even made statements about how
oh yeah my family
is really into the Bible
and we read the old ancient
Armenian text and we're into
it and we know stuff but then finding out
that they lack even just like a basic knowledge
of Bible stories you
know obviously they know about Noah's Ark
but I'm saying there are you know there was just a
lack of knowledge and I had to explain a lot
of things about the Trinity
I had to explain a lot of just basic
Bible stories and Bible teachings
uh they need to seek the Lord through the
word of God in Armenia number two
the word of God has the power
to save the word of
God can melt those hearts
right and and get
through to people it has power
and number three this morning
is that God will lead us
to people who are ready to receive his word
God will lead us
okay so I was on the bus
riding into town with a buddy
of mine whom I had been trying
to win to the Lord so I'd already preached
to this guy for hours he hadn't
got saved but he was he was close
he even told someone
days later he said hey I'm close to getting
saved
somebody asked
they asked this guy are you saved and he said
he said well I'm not he's like I'm not quite saved but
I'm getting close
he's working
on me
and so he's just funny that he
just expressly said that
but we're
sitting on the bus and this is a guy that
I'd been you know working on and
trying to get him saved and he was almost saved
and so I
was actually reading the Bible
with him on the bus like we
have a Bible open and I'm
reading the Bible with him on the bus
and then this other guy
sees that and
comes over to us and says hey you know what
do you guys what Bible are you guys reading what are you doing
there and so that was just
one of those situations where God
just has the fish just jumping right
into the boat right
that's what you love when they're coming to you
and asking you about
it so this was obviously
a divine appointment especially because as I began
to talk to this young man that asked me that
turned out that he had
been on some kind of exchange to the United
States briefly and while
he was in the United States he stayed with an
evangelical Christian family
so he was kind of familiar with
evangelical Christianity
and while he was over there
they had kind of exposed him to the idea
of creation
and things like that and I guess he had gone
to the Ark experience you know it makes sense you're an
Armenian in America you know
check out the Ark experience so he'd been
over to the Ark experience which I believe is in
Kentucky is that right
so he went over to that thing in Kentucky
so he'd already had some seeds planted
from
some evangelical Christians so he was
he was almost there but he did not
know if he was going to heaven he didn't know
that it was by faith and stuff like that
but I ended up winning him to the Lord
and it was just so obvious God
brought this guy across my path
because it was just like
perfect I mean the guy's just
right there we're just reading the Bible
he comes up to us and
then he ends up already
having a background where people
are probably praying for him that family that he
stayed with had probably been praying with him
or praying for him I should say and
you know the seeds had been planted
somebody else had watered
and he said oh yeah I've been watching
a lot of stuff online I've been watching
answers in Genesis and this other
stuff you know here's the thing all that
stuff that he's watching and hearing is
sort of planting the seeds in his
mind he's getting exposed to the
Bible getting exposed to evangelical Christianity
but he needed a clear presentation
of the gospel right he needed somebody
to break it down for him
clearly
salvation the Romans wrote
how to be saved
and so the thing
that I took away from that was
that God had led that guy across my path
and that if we go out
soul winning or if we go on a missions trip
God is going to lead us to those people that
are ready to receive the word of God
here's some
verses on that first of all
the famous verse proverbs three five and six
trust in the Lord with all thine heart
and lean not unto thine own
understanding in all thy ways
acknowledge him and he shall
direct thy paths
right I believe that
in life in general God is directing
my paths you know
because I'm trusting him I'm not
leading in my own understanding I'm acknowledging
him constantly and therefore
God is directing my paths
I don't believe God's directing everybody's paths
right nope but if you're trusting
the Lord God's
directing your paths
and so this is why we pray
when we go out soul winning and we say
Lord God please lead us
to that one person
who wants to get saved lead us to that person
who's receptive lead us to the ones
that want to hear the gospel and
I'll sometimes even pray Lord
let the time wasters not be home
people that aren't interested people aren't receptive
let them be gone let them not
hear the doorbell
so that they don't waste our time and
guide us to the ones
that are ready to hear the gospel and
you know that if you've done soul winning for any
amount of time you've had situations
where you showed up
and it was like wow God
brought me to this person
at the exact time in their life
where they're just ready you're running
people they're like wow we were just talking about this
and then the doorbell rang
or something like that right or or you know
what I was just talking to my Baptist
uncle yesterday or something and
then boom you're here today what you know
and it's just like God leads us
to these people or how many times I've showed
up soul winning in a random area
first door somebody gets saved
even in an unreceptive area that just happened to me
like two weeks ago I knocked a door in an unreceptive
area first door
person's safe whenever that happens I always think to myself
I don't know if anybody else is getting saved because
I was clearly here for this guy
and this ain't a receptive neighborhood
but I'm going to do all the other doors anyway
you know
but God leads us
and you know this is what this is what I think
is so dumb about
people who kind of poo poo
soul winning and they
kind of think that soul winning is a big
joke or that we're just going through
the motions ah you're just going around
praying with people right just these
kind of non-soul winning losers
that not only do they not do the work
but then they criticize those who are doing
the work uh
you guys are just going around just praying
with people blah blah blah you know
stop and think about it my friend
does God want people to get saved or not
I mean is God serious
when he says he's not willing that he should
perish is God serious
when he says that he loved the world
okay so
God wants people to get saved
okay he's telling us
go into all the world
go preach the gospel go out
into the vineyard go out of the
pray the Lord of the harvest and he'll send
for laborers into his harvest
so then a laborer shows up and says all right
I'm here let's go
and then that laborer prays and says God
lead me
to people that are receptive
right then we go out
and we find that receptive person
we present them a thorough presentation
of the gospel we
we don't just wham bam
one two three repeat after me no we do
a good job around here
we're thorough we teach our people we
teach each other to be thorough and
explain everything and we get through the
plan of salvation we pray with that person
oh God like God's up in heaven just
oh it's just all a big joke you're just praying with people
and they're not even getting saved
what what is that
like how stupid do you have to be to actually believe that
that God's up in heaven wanting people
saved we're down here wanting
people to get saved we're praying for
God to lead us God says he's going to
answer all our prayers according to his will
and then we're praying God lead us to the
people that you want us to talk to
then shouldn't we assume
that God actually is leading us
to the people that he wants to talk to
I thought when we pray we're supposed to pray believing
because the
double minded man is unstable
in all his ways and let him pray
without doubting nothing wavering
right hey if you pray
believing
that you receive your petitions
I thought God answers those
prayers so I just thought
that when I knock on somebody's door and they're actually
receptive and want to talk about Jesus
and then they actually listen
to the gospel and agree with it and
bow their heads and pray and receive Christ
I consider that an answer to prayer
but then you got a
bunch of bozos
who are lazy who won't
do the work of God and then they're just like
uh you just went and just prayed with people
oh so what you're saying
is God doesn't care about
souls he doesn't answer my prayer
he's not taking my prayer seriously
he's not taking my work seriously
he's not taking our church seriously
and it's all just a big joke
and it's all just a big game
what kind of a doctrine
is that
well where are all these
people that you went to the Lord
well some of them are in freaking Armenia
where are all these people
that you went to the Lord I don't know
the Bahamas
where are all these people you went to the Lord Samoa
where are all these people you went to the Lord
Columbia
where are all these people the Dominican Republic
I don't know
where are all these people Vanuatu
Tuvalu
Fiji
I don't know
where are all these people Germany? I don't know a thousand of them are in
Germany
where are all these people
I don't know why is your church microscopic
Where are all these people? Why do you run 20 on Sunday morning? Can you explain that?
You know, it's just like, where are all these people? Where are all these people?
You know what? They're in other churches. Do you think that everybody that we've won
to the Lord goes to our church? In fact, we just recently had some people that I won to
the Lord leave the church. Hey, thanks for giving me sound. Guess what?
Other churches have people in them that we won to the Lord. Amen? And you know, we don't
care because we're not trying to win them to faithful word. We're trying to win them
to Jesus. We don't care where they are. We don't care where they are. I know I care where
they're going to be, which is heaven. That's what I care about. But folks, if you don't
think soul winning is real, then you must think God is just kidding when he said he
wants people to be saved. You must think he's just kidding when he tells us to go out and
get people saved. You must just think that he's just kidding when he says that the Word
of God, he that goes forth and weepeth bearing that precious seed, will doubtless come again
with rejoicing, bringing his seeds with him. I guess that's just a big joke to you because
I thought that if I go out weeping, bearing precious seed, I'm going to come back with
results. That's what I thought. Now look, obviously this isn't Burger King. You're not
going to have it in 90 seconds or something, but sometimes you got to put in work. You
know, I love what Brother Anselm said about going soul winning for a year without getting
people saved because he was in an unreceptive area. You know what? That's not even crazy
because here's the thing. I can tell you that right here in Arizona, there have been times
when I went up to 50 hours of soul winning with no salvations in unreceptive areas. That's
life. Other times you're getting people saved one after the other, you know, and it's like
he said, there are seasons of fruit bearing. There are seasons where it's a dry spell,
but you know what? Everybody who goes soul winning gets people saved unless they're not
saved. Eventually you're, if you're saved and you go out soul winning, you will eventually
get people saved. And if you put in a lot of time, you will eventually get in a lot
of people saved. Now, look, I remember when Dave Berzins first came to our church and
we went out soul winning and the first several times we went soul winning, like I would say,
I don't know, we probably went four, five, six, maybe even seven times and no one got
saved. And I kept telling him like, stay with this. It's eventually going to work. Like
somebody's going to get saved. But I'm telling you, it was just like nobody was getting saved,
you know? And then, you know, a different example, Brother Segura, the first day that
Brother Segura showed up and I went soul winning with Brother Segura. I wasn't even planning
on going that night, but he called the church and was like, hey, I'm here to go soul winning.
And we had changed the soul winning time. There was some mix up or something, but I
said, hey, I just live a half mile away. I'll come down there and I'll go soul winning with
you. And so I came down here. This is it isn't like 2009 or something. Yeah, 2009. I come
down here and we just last minute we just go soul winning. And, and I kid you not, we
literally had like 20 some people saved. It was, it was insane. It was the most insane
soul winning experience of my life to this day anywhere. And I've been on a lot of these
missions trips. I've been to Botswana, I've been to Guyana, I've been to Aruba, I've been
to some of these places. And I'm telling you, we had the most incredible night of soul winning
that I've ever had in my entire life, anywhere in the world. And it was literally a mile
from here. It was one mile. It was literally just right across 48th street in that neighborhood.
I walk up, start preaching the gospel to some teenagers and people just, people just started
crowding around and people just kept, people were just coming over and just all the whole
neighborhood kids were coming over. Teenagers are coming over people. And I told him, I
said, it's not normally like this. I say, this doesn't happen this way every time. I'm
like, this is something special, you know? And you know, and, and it was just the most
incredible soul winning I've ever seen. It was just like so many people got saved. And
then it, like, it was, it got to where it was dark and it was kind of, it was later
than I would normally knock doors. But I just told him, I said, I don't want to stop because
we're on fire. I'm like, we can't stop. It was like when, uh, Joe Ash is like smiting
the earth and Elisha is like, don't quit, don't stop. I was like, dude, I don't even
want to stop. And so we ended up going soul winning until like, I don't know, nine 30
or something crazy. I don't remember what time we stopped, but it was like, we, we pushed
it a little bit until, until we could tell that things were kind of dying down. But wow.
But then another time you can go and it's just, I've look even years later after that,
I've gone months without getting someone saved, but I was going soul winning every week. Okay.
That's life. But let me tell you something. Soul winning works. It just does. Okay. People
who tell me that soul winning doesn't work. My response always say, no, you don't work.
So it does work. You don't work. You don't work is what you really meant to say. I don't
work. That's what you meant to say. Soul winning works. And if soul winning doesn't work, I
don't even know why we would even go to church or even read our Bibles or even believe anything
that it says because the Bible is constantly talking about evangelism and if, and if, and
if we're supposed to believe that God's plan for America or that God's plan for the world
is that just some pastor gets somebody saved every 10 months or something and that churches
get one person saved a year or three people saved. How are you going to evangelize the
world like that? Hey, I believe that the power of God is available to get people saved. And
most importantly, I believe that if I show up for soul winning, God's going to lead
me and that if I show up on a mission strip, God's going to lead me. Right. God's got a
plan. And again, sometimes we don't know what God's doing because some of those dry spells
like brother on zone, you know, you went out and preach for a year without results. You
know what? How do you know that some of those people didn't get saved later? Did you give
the gospel to anybody during that time? A lot of people didn't even want to get saved.
People want to listen. Yeah. Hey, I went out so only one time for eight and a half
hours straight. No one even let me present the gospel for eight and a half hours in Norway.
Not a receptive place. Eight and a half hours of soul winning in Norway didn't even give
the gospel a single time, but over the course of a week, 10 people saved over the course
of week. I had six people saved. The pastor had four people say, you know, through our
collective efforts, we had 10 people saved over the course of a whole week, but one day
of that was eight and a half hours of not even giving anyone even, I don't even think
we even gave out a Bible verse for eight and a half hours. But you know what? You never
know what you're even accomplishing. Even just the track that you leave behind could
at least plant a seed, get people thinking, get a Bible verse into somebody's mind. You
know, just the fact, what about just the fact that other Christians might see you evangelizing
and they might just get a little bit inspired because I remember being a teenager doing
nothing for the Lord and seeing someone evangelizing and I said, I should be doing that. That should
be me right now. You don't know what you're accomplishing. Folks, if you show up, God
will use you. But if you don't show up, God can't use you. If you're not there reading
the Bible, ready to preach the Gospel, doesn't matter if the guy on the bus is receptive
and been primed and prepped for you because if he comes up to you and you don't even know
how to give the Gospel or he's not even going to come up to you because you don't even have
Bible in hand. Right? And so the point is that if we show up and we make ourselves available
for God to use us, he's going to use us. You know, Psalm 32 verse eight, I will instruct
thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye.
This is the Lord speaking. Be not ye as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding
whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle lest they come near unto thee. He's saying,
look, I'm going to guide you. I'm going to lead you. But God is saying, I don't want
you to be like a horse or a mule where I have to put a bit in your mouth and pull you and
shove you. You know, he's like, just do what I say. Go into all the world and preach the
Gospel to every creature. Show up. Be available. Who will go for us, the Lord says. Here am
I. Send me, says Isaiah. I love what Brother Hiles said. There's always a prepared place
for a prepared person. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 1 15, I am ready. So as much as
in me is I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also, I'm ready to
preach the Gospel. Can you say that? Could you say right now that if someone approached
you and said, what must I do to be saved? Would you be prepared to show that person
the Gospel from the Bible, from the word of God? I mean, it's a good question to ask yourself,
right? Are you ready to preach the Gospel? Because there's always a prepared place for
a prepared person. You know, not only that, while I was in Armenia, God led me to a good
church while I was there. You know, and there were, there were a bunch of Baptist churches,
bunch of evangelical churches. I didn't really know which is the good one or I don't know.
I didn't know anything about it, but yet I just happened to just first church that I
tried ended up being a great church and I ended up getting to preach there four times.
So I actually got to preach four full length sermons. I was in Armenia for four weeks.
I thought I was getting a break from preaching, you know, four weeks in Armenia. I preached
four full length sermons. I loved it. It was great to have that opportunity, but you know
what? That's just God leading me to the right place at the right time so that I could be
used in that way as well. So here's the moral of the story. Show up and God will use you.
Learn how to present the Gospel and God will use you. Go and God will lead you. How can
God lead you if you're not moving? If you're not going, you know, sit in the car and just,
you can just turn the steering wheel and you just sit in the parking lot. You just
turn in the steering wheel, turns it and you know what? God's just turning your steering
wheel and you're like, I don't know why I think nothing's happening because you didn't
step on the gas. You see what I'm saying? And you know, all this criticism of soul running
and you know, I don't know if these numbers are real and whatever. You know what? You're
right. The numbers aren't real because we actually got more people saved than what we
claim. We actually got way more people saved than what we claim because whenever we have
doubt about salvation, we don't count them because when we go and preach to a school
in these countries like, uh, weren't there some schools that were preaching even this
year in 2024? Where do we preach in schools this year in 2024? Somebody help me out. Tuvalu.
Yeah. So how, like how many students, 30 students each in three different classes. They preach
to like a group of 30 students and they preach the gospel to the whole class and they don't
count the salvations unless they deal with the people one on one. Right. Okay. I went
to, when I was in Botswana, we'd go to like a classroom, 30, 40 students, preach to them,
have them raise their hands and you can watch those videos. You can watch me giving the
gospel to those students and you can see their faces, you can see them reacting and
everything like that. And then you can see the ones that raise their hand, pray, receive
Christ, you know, and you can just look at them and look at me and watch the interaction.
And you know, some of them are getting saved. Like I'm not saying they're all getting saved.
You know, some of them are getting saved and we don't count any of those. We, when we're
in a Guyana, sometimes I'd preach to the entire school assembly in one shot. Other preachers
did the same thing where we preached to literally 500 people at a time, 600 people at a time,
700 students at a time, give them all an opportunity. We'd preach the gospel, give them all an opportunity
to pray and receive Christ. Like, like, like half the crowd would repeat the prayer. And
look, I understand that a lot of those people aren't getting it because we're not dealing
with them one on one and actually gauging their understanding and tailoring it to them,
personalizing. But I guarantee you a lot of them did get saved. We're preaching to 600
people and you know, 300 of them are praying the prayer. You know, I don't know how many
of them got saved, 50, 100, 150, new to, we'll get to heaven and find out. But let me tell
you something we don't count. We, you know, we count zero. All of our soul winning numbers
are based on people that we personally talk to either one on one or in a small enough
group where we could interact with each person, gauge their reaction, dialogue with them,
talk to them, make sure that they understand and that it's, you know, paced and set for
them. And that's what we count. And then, and then a lot of times I'll go through the
whole plan of salvation with somebody, pray with somebody and just be like, ah, I don't,
that was, I don't know if that person really got it. Not counting them. I prayed with people
in Armenia that I didn't count because I'm just like, ah, I don't know for sure that
they got, but you know what? Someone probably did. You say, yeah, but you probably prayed
with some people that didn't actually get saved. Yeah, I probably did. I probably did
because sometimes there could be people who are just going through the motions with us
and they're just saying that they believe and they don't really believe and they're
just playing along. Absolutely. Obviously we won't really know until we get to heaven,
the exact count. But you know what? I'll tell you this right now. Our numbers are legit.
Okay? Either if anything, if anything, we probably got a little bit more people than
that say because for every faker that didn't get saved, there's another person that we
doubted that actually did get saved or another person in a crowd of 500 that we preached
to that did get saved. But you know what? It's so funny. All the critics out there,
you know that the critics though, they're usually doing nothing and they got the beam
in their eye of doing nothing and then they're trying to critique our soul winning program
like, oh, well, are you, you know, oh, you want somebody Lord, are you going to disciple
them for the rest of your life? I don't know. That's a good question for Philip and the
Ethiopian eunuch though, because Philip won the Ethiopian eunuch to the Lord, baptized
him and then he was teleported away. Scotty just beamed him up. The spirit whisked him
away. Zero discipleship. Okay. Look, my friend, if you go, God will lead you. But if you're
sitting in the parking lot criticizing all the other drivers on the road and you don't
like the way they're driving, you don't like the way they maintenance their vehicle or
whatever and you're sitting there and, and, and, and God is, you're just sitting there
and you're like, why does the steering wheel keep moving? That's God trying to direct you.
But the problem is you don't have the key in the ignition. You haven't started the vehicle.
You have the parking brake on. You're still in park. You haven't shifted into drive. That's
why you're not going anywhere. But let me tell you something. If you shift your spiritual
vehicle into drive, release the parking brake, check your mirrors, put your hands on the
steering wheel. God's going to direct you. That's enough. Word of prayer. Father, we
thank you so much for your word, Lord. We thank you for the power that it has to save.
Lord God, I pray that the people of Armenia as well as Catholics and Orthodox everywhere
would understand their need to seek you through your word. And Lord God, we know your word
has the power to save them. And so please, Lord, lead us to the ones that are ready to
get saved or lead us to people in whom we can at least plant a seed or water that seed.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Take your hymnals together. Go to hymn 322. Hymn 322. Living for Jesus. Hymn number
322. We'll lift our voice together on that verse. 322. Living for Jesus. A life that
is true. 322. Sing it out together now.
Living for Jesus. A life that is true.
Striving to please Him in all that I do.
Giving the patience that are in and clean.
This is the pathway of blessing for me.
O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee.
For Thou with my atonement is given myself for me.
I own no other master. My heart shall be like home.
My life I give and swarf to live.
All rise for Thee alone.
Living for Jesus would guide in my place.
Bearing on Calvary my sin and disgrace.
Such love constraints me to enter His home.
All hope is leading and given by all.
O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee.
For Thou with my atonement is given myself for me.
I own no other master. My heart shall be like home.
My life I give and swarf to live.
All rise for Thee alone.
Living for Jesus wherever I am.
Doing each duty in His holy name.
Willing to suffer affliction and loss.
Believing child, a part of my part.
O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee.
For Thou with my atonement is given myself for me.
I own no other master. My heart shall be like home.
My life I give and swarf to live.
All rise for Thee alone.
Living for Jesus through earth's little while.
My dearest treasure, the light of His smile.
Seeing the lost one, He died to believe.
Bringing the weary to my breast and head.
O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee.
For Thou with my atonement is given myself for me.
I own no other master. My heart shall be like home.
My life I give and swarf to live.
All rise for Thee alone.