Learn and glean from your word and learn about how to stay away from false prophets and all sorts of false doctrine and also grow in grace and faith, Lord.
I pray that our singing may glorify you as we give praise. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.
Song number 397, "Little is much when God is in it."
Song number 397.
[music]
Song number 397, 397, "Little is much when God is in it."
Song number 397.
On that first verse.
[music]
Before Brother Maury comes up to give some announcements here,
I want to remind everybody about Friend Day next week.
This week, start inviting your friends, if you haven't already, for Friend Day.
We want to make sure we have a big attendance.
Obviously, we've had a lot of visitors as of late.
But we want to make sure you remind your visitors, family, friends, coworkers that Friend Day is next week.
Bring them for the breakfast at 9.45.
Do us a favor, make sure you pray, but also do your part and hand these out.
Lord willing, we'll have a great attendance on Friend Day next week.
I'm excited about it, and so that's pretty much it.
Make sure you do so.
Pick these up over at the guest center there and hand them out to your visitors, alright?
For the morning, what are you coming up?
Good evening everyone, just some announcements before we sing our next song, which will
be song number 188, "The Love of God," song number 188 if you'd like to get that ready.
We'd like to welcome you back to our Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m.
We're currently going through the book of John.
We have our soul winning times in teams here below.
Continue to pray for the expectant mothers as always, and then we have our first work
stats there on the left as well for soul winning.
Great numbers for the month of September.
Corina's baby shower happened today.
It seemed like everything went well, and obviously congratulations to Ms. Corina.
And ultimately we have a pizza party on Friday, October 31st, meeting at the building at 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Then we have our pie baking contest as well, November 9th.
On Sunday, all the details are at the guest center.
And then we have our Thanksgiving banquet on Friday, November 21st.
So, that's it for the announcements.
Please open up your hymn notes to song number 188, "The Love of God."
Song number 188, "The Love of God."
Very powerful lyrics.
Sometimes we sing lyrics, we don't realize what we're singing sometimes,
but pay attention to the lyrics to the song, it's very powerful.
On that first verse.
The love of God is greater far--
Good evening, tonight we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 9.
1 Corinthians chapter 9, the Bible reads,
"Am I not an apostle? Am I not free?
Have not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?
Are not ye my work in the Lord?
If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you,
for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.
Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,
have we not power to eat and to drink?
Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife,
as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
Or I, only in Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?
Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges?
Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not the fruit thereof?
Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not the milk of the flock?
Say I these things as a man, or sayeth not the law the same also?
For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox, that treadeth out the corn.
Doth God take care for oxen, or saith he it altogether for our sakes?
For our sakes, no doubt this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope,
and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
If we have sown unto you spiritual things, it is a great thing, if we shall reap your carnal things.
If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather?
Nevertheless, we have not used this power, but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple,
and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?
Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
But I have used none of these things, neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me.
For it were better for me to die than that any man should make my glorying void.
For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of; for necessity is laid upon me,
yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.
For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
What is my reward then? Fairly that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge,
that I abuse not my power in the gospel. For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. And to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law.
To them that are without the law, as without, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without the law.
To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak, I have made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receive at the price? So run, that ye may obtain.
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.
I therefore so run, not as uncertainty, so fight I, not as one, that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be cast away.
Let's pray. Dear Lord God, just thank you for your salvation, Lord. Thank you for the Bible, Lord. And just thank you for Pastor. Please bless him right now. Fill him with the Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preaches your word unto us, Lord.
And just give us in the congregation ears to hear the message that's prepared for us, Lord. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay. We're in first Corinthians chapter nine and the Bible reads here in verse 16.
"For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. For necessity is laid upon me.
Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel."
I think everyone could agree that when we read the word of God, the main topic at hand, the main subject,
you know, obviously there's a lot of subjects in the Bible, but the main topic that the Bible talks about is winning others to the Lord, right?
We see this clearly in the Old Testament that the nation of Israel was supposed to be a light unto the Gentiles to win them over to the God of the Bible.
And then it's more explicitly laid out in the New Testament as Jesus Christ gives the Great Commission to His disciples.
We see Christians and believers preaching the gospel, which simply means the good tidings of great joy.
The good news that Jesus Christ has come to die on the cross to pay for our sins, that He resurrected on the third day, and that if we believe on Him, we can have everlasting life.
This evening, I want to preach on the subject of soul winning, more specifically, Old Testament pictures or symbolism of soul winning.
Pastor Shelley is actually putting out a documentary on the subject of soul winning, and so he asked if I can preach a sermon on this particular topic.
And it's always good to hit a reset button on soul winning to remind our church what the Bible says about this particular topic.
Now, why do we call it soul winning?
Well, the Bible says in Proverbs 11.30 that the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that win its souls is wise, right?
And obviously, various churches use various terms to describe the preaching of the gospel.
You know, probably one of the most famous ones is just evangelizing, and that's definitely a biblical term.
But I like the phrase soul winning. Why?
Because of the fact that that's exactly what we're doing.
We're going out there, opening our mouths boldly in order to win someone, win a soul to Christ.
And let me just say this is that this responsibility doesn't just fall upon the pastor.
It doesn't just fall upon the evangelist.
It's not just for the deacon.
It's actually for every born again Christian.
We have the responsibility as Christians to preach the gospel and get people saved.
You know what the great thing about soul winning is, is the fact that this is something that every single person in our church, man, woman, boy and girl can strive to be good at.
They can strive to win souls for the rest of their life and live a successful Christian life.
Even if you never become a pastor, even if you never become an evangelist, even if you never become a deacon, you can be a great soul winner for Christ.
And sometimes it's hard for Christians in different churches to measure Christian success based upon their service.
Because they think to themselves, "Well, when am I ever going to go start a church? When am I ever going to go teach the Bible somewhere?
When am I ever going to be a preacher, a deacon of sorts?"
But you know what? When we look at the New Testament model of service, it's centered around the preaching of the Gospel, to win people to Christ.
And this is something we could all participate in, and we should participate in.
In fact, we're called First Works Baptist Church because we're involved in the First Works, which is the preaching of the Gospel, getting people saved.
And quite frankly, this is what our church is all about, right?
Obviously, we train people in various other areas in the Christian life.
We disciple them and being godly people and adding virtue to their lives.
But one of the major things that we always push is learning how to be a soul owner.
And one of the greatest joys for me as a pastor is seeing someone come to our church, they get saved, they get baptized,
they start coming faithfully to church, they start learning how to read their Bibles.
And then they start going soul owning. They go soul owning as a silent partner for a while.
They're knocking on doors. They're learning their introductions.
And a couple months into like, pastor, I got my first soul saved, right?
Pastor, I got this many people saved.
And then they start augmenting salvations by the dozens throughout the year.
That is a successful church.
When a person is fully mature in the Lord,
and they have the capability of actually witnessing to others,
whether it's their friends, family, and just complete strangers,
that is a successful Christian in the eyes of God.
That is a successful Christian according to biblical standards.
The fact that you're able to just open up the Bible
and show someone what the Bible says about eternal life,
not fumble around like, let me start in Genesis or something like that,
let me just, Psalms or something,
you know, let me just read a proverb real quick.
No, they just know how to take someone through the Roman's road
and systematically show someone how to be saved.
It's one of the greatest accomplishments ever.
You know, I'm thankful for fundamental Baptist churches
that really center around this ministry, right?
When I first got saved, I remember going to church
and they had a soul-winning program.
They had something called summer saturation.
And I was thinking to myself, like, what is summer saturation?
It's like when we go onto the community
and we saturate that community with the gospel.
And I'm like, like door knocking?
Like Jehovah's Witnesses?
Like, yeah, but we're actually giving the gospel
and we're getting people saved.
And I went with my pastor, you know, he's my father-in-law now,
but you know, my pastor then,
and I remember him leading people to Christ that door.
And I was thinking to myself, like, this is like the real deal.
I've never met anybody who's able to just, like, witness to someone.
I've never even run into a pastor who's able to do something like this, right?
This is not even common even amongst pastors sometimes.
And they quit me, they showed me how to preach the gospel,
and I've been winning souls ever since.
And that should be your goal as a Christian for the rest of your life.
Regardless of what your goals are as a Christian,
in your marriage, with your children, at your job,
one of the major goals that you should have is winning people to Christ.
Being a great soul winner, right?
Getting people saved, refining your soul to do so.
Now this evening, obviously I've preached many sermons on the subject of soul winning,
but this evening I want to talk about Old Testament pictures of soul winning.
We can obviously point to various stories in the New Testament
that explicitly teach on the subject of soul winning,
but I want to go through some of the stories in the Old Testament
that symbolize and foreshadow this matter of soul winning.
Go with me if you would to 2 Kings chapter 7.
2 Kings chapter 7, I have three stories tonight
that I want to go over that in my opinion,
as we're going to see tonight,
symbolize the ministry of the gospel,
the ministry of soul winning.
And the first story we're going to look at this evening
is the story of the four lepers in Samaria.
The story of the four lepers in Samaria.
Now, what does this story teach us?
Well, it teaches us that God uses unlikely candidates
to make a huge difference, right?
Uses unlikely candidates.
Now in second Kings, chapter seven,
actually starting in chapter six, you're in chapter seven.
Let me just give you some background story here.
There's a major famine in the land during this particular time.
And obviously this is during the time of the prophet Elisha.
The Syrian army under Ben Hadad had laid besieged
or had besieged the city of Samaria.
The capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.
And basically what a siege was is that
a foreign army would come and surround the city
and essentially stop any resources from going in
or anybody from going out to gather resources, right?
And the goal to besiege the city was basically
to create a famine so they would essentially just give up.
And this is what was taking place under Ben Hadad.
The siege was meant that no one can go out,
no food can come in, no trade, no resources.
And of course, as the days turned into weeks,
the weeks turned into months, the people of Samaria
would essentially starve in desperation.
And when you read the story, it's actually really sad.
I mean, it got to the point, the starvation was so severe
that they were selling donkey heads, right?
They were willing to eat doves dung and donkey heads.
And even to the point where they resorted to cannibalism
of children during this particular time.
I mean, this is really bad, right?
Just extremely wicked, a lot of bad stuff taking place.
The famine became so severe that items that normally we would consider
to be absolutely worthless were sold as commodities, right?
Donkey heads, doves dungs, they're sold at exorbitant prices.
And this essentially reveals the total collapse of this nation
as a judgment for their betrayal of the commandments of God.
The fact that they forsook God, famine came upon the land.
They fell economically and morally.
And quite frankly is one of the darkest times in the nation of Israel.
Cannibalism has taken place and such.
And it shows how utterly depraved and broken a nation can be when they forsake God.
Mothers, as I mentioned, will resort into cannibalism.
And so we see a lot of bad stuff taking place here.
Now eventually, you know, Elisha foretold that basically God would restore
and help the nation of Israel
and would provide the resources necessary, food and resources,
to essentially come back into Samaria and that they would be delivered.
Now look at verse number three, if you wouldn't.
It says, "And there were four leprous men at the entering end of the gate.
And this then went to another, 'Why sit we here till we die?'"
Now the four leprous men, leprosy is obviously a very severe disease that would lead to death.
And we don't know exactly what type of leprosy this was,
but obviously it was enough that they had to essentially be isolated from the city
because leprosy was very contagious.
And leprosy in the Bible is a picture of sin, right?
And we see here that they are essentially, you know, exiled from the city.
Four guys just kind of hanging out, you know, they're part of the famine too.
They're not getting anything.
And they're thinking to themselves, you know, why are we just going to sit here
until we just completely decay and die and atrophy?
We should just do something, right?
He says in verse four, if we say we will enter into the city,
then the famine is in the city and we shall die there.
If we sit still here, we die also.
So in other words, it's like, you know what?
Instead of just sitting out here in the desert, not doing anything,
we should just go to the city.
What are they going to do?
You know what I mean?
They're starving like we're starving.
And quite frankly, if we stay here, we're going to die.
So no matter what, we're kind of damned if we do, damned if we don't.
That's what he's saying, right?
So you might as well just try something, okay?
He says, now therefore come, let us fall into the host of the Syrians.
If they save us alive, we shall live.
And if they kill us, but we shall die.
So I like this attitude because they're basically saying,
look, we might as well go to the enemies of Samaria.
And who knows? They might feed us or something.
Or they might just put us out of our misery because they're lepers, right?
What does it show? It shows us that these lepers have faith.
They're willing to step out in faith to see who knows what's going to happen.
You know, maybe God will deliver us.
We might as well just try something. And what does it show us?
It shows us that God chooses for leprous outcasts, men who essentially were despised
and cut off from society to be the recipients and proclaimers of God's deliverance.
Because we're going to see in just a moment what takes place.
And let me just say this is that, you know, God often uses unlikely people to make a huge difference, right?
And in the context of salvation, God uses unlikely candidates to get a lot of people saved.
You know, these unlikely messengers of salvation, so to speak.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 127, but God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.
So, you know, if you think you're just a foolish person, you just don't have a whole lot of talents, you're just not very gifted.
Hey, you're a great candidate to be used of God.
You're like, oh man, I just, I feel like I'm not eloquent. I feel like I'm not a great orator.
I'm not very gifted. I don't have a lot of talents. I'm ugly. You know, I'm just, I'm just not fit.
I'm just, you know, according to worldly standards, I just don't seem like a likely candidate.
Well, guess what? You're the most optimal candidate for God to use.
Because he says here that God will use the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.
God had chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the world and things which are despised.
Hey, if you don't have friends, even better.
You know, if people don't like to really be around you, you're just kind of awkward, introverted, you're a likely candidate.
He says God had chosen the things which are not to bring to not the things that are.
What is this teaching us?
It's teaching us that if you're a person who lacks talents, you lack giftedness, you lack the orator type of speech to be able to lead others to Christ.
Well, you know what?
You're going to be the one that God uses to get the most people saved.
Why?
Well, verse 29 says that no flesh should glory in his presence.
That's what first Corinthians one is telling us.
It's telling us, you know, the reason why God uses unlikely candidates is because he gets more glory from them.
You know, if someone was just a great orator, they were just an amazing Christian.
They had everything put together.
You know, people could just point to that person and say, oh, yeah, I can see why you would get a lot of people saved.
But when it's a person who was just like, wow, I never would have expected that from this person.
You know, what happens is like God must be the one using this individual, which, by the way,
should motivate us to humble ourselves before the side of the Lord, right?
And not think yourself to be something high and mighty, some person of great talents.
And, you know, obviously, if you're a person of knowledge, you're a person of success,
you're a person of wealth, God has blessed you with those things, but remain humble, because God exalts the humble, right?
How does he exalt them? By using them in great ways and in the context here to get more people saved.
And look, you know, we all struggle with a little bit of pride, and sometimes we just need to go before the Lord
and say, you know, at the end of the day, I'm not as talented as I probably think I am.
I'm not as smart as I think I am. I'm not as gifted, talented.
You know, I know that I'm not as high and mighty as I might think myself to be at times.
And you know, we need to humble ourselves so that God can use us because God wants to use humble,
meek individuals so that you don't glory in His presence when He does use you.
And look, if you're sitting here tonight, you're just like, well, I'm just kind of like an introvert.
I don't really like to talk a whole lot. You need to start getting out there and preaching the gospel
because God is just going to use you, you know, I just don't think I'm just really awkward.
I have a, I have social anxiety, you know, I just have a hard time in groups.
Then you're the most likely candidate to be used to preach the gospel.
I've learned in the Christian life that the most talented person is often the person that doesn't do anything for God.
That's often how it is because they just think, you know, oh, you know, I'm all that in the bag of chips.
I can just be successful in other areas and, you know, and they become sort of lazy.
Whereas the person who is not as talented, not as gifted is often begging God to use them in spite of their deficiencies.
What's the point that I'm making here?
Just remember it was four lepers, the despised of the city, the sinners of the city, right?
Who are essentially going to be used of God to do something great.
Look at verse five, if you would.
So they're like, why are we going to stay here until we die?
And let me just ask you this.
Why are you going to sit there till you die?
You know, obviously, there's times when we need to take it slow.
You need to take a break.
But don't sit there till you die.
You need to get up, go out, and preach the gospel.
It says in verse five, "And they rose up in the twilight
to go into the camp of the Syrians.
And when they were come to the outermost part of the camp of Syria,
behold, there was no man there."
So they're just like, all right, here we go.
We'll see if we die or not.
And they're just like, where is everyone?
It's like the rapture took place or something, right?
They're all gone.
So just picture this grand army just completely disappeared.
All their stuff is still there.
Their garments are there.
The food is there.
The treasures are there.
And it's all for these four lepers basically to take, right?
And I want you to notice that it says that they rose up in the twilight.
And this is kind of symbolic of the fact that the night cometh when no man can work.
So the guys are just like, you know what?
Last ditch effort.
Let's just try this.
And you know what?
We need to have that same attitude when it comes to preaching the gospel that you're
not presumptuous and thinking that you're always going to be here in this world.
You're not going to be here till next week.
You need to take advantage of today to go out and get someone safe.
Right?
The night cometh when no man can work.
Night just not referring to literally the night, but just referring to when you die.
Okay.
When you can no longer work.
And you know what the Bible says awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not
the knowledge of God.
I speak this to your shame.
Okay.
Look at verse six.
For the Lord have had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots and a
noise of horses.
Even the noise of a great host.
And they said went to another load.
The king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the
Egyptians to come upon us.
So this is really cool.
What God does here is he creates this illusion that they're going to be taken over by the
Hittites.
He gives them this strong fear that causes them to just run, you know, because they think
they're going to be taken over.
Verse seven says, "Wherefore they rose and fled in the twilight and left their tents
and their horses and their asses, even the camp as it was and fled for their life."
What does it say here?
It's saying here, they're just like, you know what?
Just leave everything.
Because if not, we're going to die.
And by the way, this kind of shows us that you should never jump to conclusions if you're
going through a hard time and think it's just over with.
Oh man, donkey said it's over with.
Oh man, doves dung.
It's over with.
So obviously I have a tendency to be a little fatalistic in my attitude, but at the end
of the day, God can turn things around overnight.
Right?
I mean, this look hopeless.
You have the city that's being besieged.
You have it seems as though they're going to win.
The country is in dismay.
It just seems completely hopeless.
And then God just turns it around, right?
He places this illusion, this delusion in the, in the hearts of the enemy to the point
where they're so frightened, they're so scared that they leave all their possessions and
they flee for their lives.
Look at verse eight.
And when these lepers came to the, at almost parts of the camp, they went into one tent
and didn't even drink and carry then silver and gold and Raymond and when it hit it came
again and entered into another tent and carried fence also and when it hit it, then they said
one to another, we do not well.
So what's going on here?
I mean, now they're just got buffet.
They got all the jewelry they could ever want, food, drink, silver, gold, Raymond, all types
of clothing.
So they're just carrying this stuff and they're hiding it, right?
I mean, this is it's more than they can handle and as they're eating and drinking and collecting
their favorite clothing, one of them says, wait a minute, wait a minute, we're not doing
well here.
Why aren't they doing well?
Because they're taking the treasure and they're hiding it, right?
He said, why aren't they doing well?
Didn't God provide this for them?
Of course, but there's a city, there's the capital that's starving.
There's someone out there who needs to be clothed with righteousness.
There's someone out there who needs to be given water so they never thirst, right?
There's someone out there who needs that meat that will essentially satiate their souls
for all of eternity.
And you know what?
When we get saved, we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We also come upon that spoil, do we not?
We have the spoil of everlasting life, we're clothed with righteousness.
We are satiated by the blood of Jesus Christ.
We are eternally secure within the Father.
We have the Bible now.
We have church.
We have so much.
But you know what?
If all you do is sit there and not give it to those who are starving in Samaria, you
do not well.
You do not well.
You know what?
Churches are filled with people who are enjoying the spoils of what God provided and they just
hide it.
Just hide it under a bushel.
They get the garments of righteousness, they get all the meats and the drinks, they have
all this, all this stuff that God has provided for them richly to enjoy and then they hide
it.
And you know what?
That can be said for the majority of Christians in the United States of America today.
There's today, folks, today churches were filled with Christians.
America was filled with Christians.
Churches just filled to the brim with Christians and I guarantee you the majority of them are
taking the spoils and hiding it.
Oh here's the message for you today.
You do not well.
Why?
Because Samaria is starving.
America is starving.
You know there's a famine in the land and it's a famine of the word of God.
It's a famine of truth.
It's a famine of the gospel.
There's people who are starving who are going to die and go to hell.
They're going to split hell wide open and you are as a leper have all the treasures,
all the necessities provided just handed to you.
You do not well if you're not sharing the wealth with someone else.
Right?
He says we do not well.
I want you to notice this, this day is a day of good tidings.
What does the gospel mean?
Good tidings.
And we hold our peace.
If we tear it to the morning light, some mischief will come upon us.
Now therefore come that we may go and tell the king's house.
You know, whoever this, this leper was thinking, right?
He's eating that chicken.
He's having that, that, that lamb.
He's like clothing himself and he's thinking to himself like, I'm not doing well by just
enjoying this just for myself.
I'm doing out well.
I have, I have such good news and I'm not sharing it with anybody else.
We hold our peace.
And obviously the lepers can easily be like, yeah, but they threw us out though, right?
Samaria, they exiled us.
They told us to sit outside because we're the lepers.
Yeah, but now God's using you to preserve life.
You know, Joseph went through a lot of trials and tribulation, a lot of difficulties, but
at the end he became the vice Pharaoh.
And what did he say?
God sent me to preserve.
You may be a leper, but you're a leper with a lot of treasure.
And what does the Bible say?
If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them.
It says whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine into
them.
He says, for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord and ourselves, your servants
for Jesus sake, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And I want you to notice this verse seven says this, but we have this treasure, you
know, like the lepers, we have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellency of
the power may be of God and not of us.
We can learn a lot from those lepers.
Can we not?
And look, let's enjoy Christianity.
Amen.
Superior.
It's awesome.
The Christian life is great.
Get our prayers answered.
God's hand is on us.
He blesses our marriages.
He blesses our children.
He blesses our jobs.
He just blesses our life.
There's so much to be thankful for.
But you know what?
If that's all we do is just kind of hoard it to ourselves, we do not well.
We do not well.
This is why our church is constantly talking about going and preaching the gospel every
single week.
Look, folks, we offer different soul winning times for everyone to be flexible with everyone's
schedule.
And, you know, I mean, most churches don't even have a whole lot of soul winning times
even throughout the week.
They don't have a lot of soul winning times.
And if you if none of them fit your schedule, we'll we'll work with you and find something
that works for you.
You know, if you can only go out midnight, we'll definitely send Brother Ulysses to go
with you at midnight to go and preach the gospel.
And if he's not available, Brother Maury's available.
He's not going to hide that under a bushel.
You know, and if he's not available, Brother Christian's available.
I need a fourth leper here.
And Brother Adrian's available right here.
These four lepers.
I'm going to say this.
The Bible says I saw for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in
the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it, but I found none.
It may not be said of our church that there's no one here that is not willing to stand in
the hedge and make up the gap to go share the earth and treasure that we've gotten from
the Lord through the salvation to give to someone else.
Folks, there's a famine in California.
There's a famine in the United States of America.
There's a famine in churches.
And you know what?
We have what they need.
And I'm just going to tell you right now, the mega churches aren't going to do it.
They got the laborers.
But I'm telling you right now that most of them don't even have the right gospel.
And even if they did have the right gospel, they can't even motivate their people to go
out there and preach the gospel.
Why?
Because it's a bunch of lepers just kind of hanging out in their own tents, eating and
drinking for tomorrow we die.
That's the attitude that they have, right?
But be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners.
We need to make sure we take the treasure to a lost and dying world and share it with
the inhabitants of Samaria and let them know God has brought deliverance through Jesus
Christ.
John chapter four, if you would, John chapter four, John chapter number four, one of my
favorite stories in the Old Testament, just in general, but especially when it comes to
this matter of soul.
When he look at John chapter four, if you would, and verse 31, John chapter four, verse
31 says, in the meanwhile, his disciples prayed him saying, Master, eat, but he said
into them, I have meat that you know not of.
Therefore said the disciples once another, hath any man brought him ought to eat.
Jesus sayeth unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish
his work.
Just as we have the meat, just as the four lepers have the meat, we have meat that they
know not of.
He says, say not ye there yet for months and then cometh harvest.
Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white
already to harvest and he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal
that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
You say, what's the best time to go sowing?
Anytime.
Say not ye yet, you know, I'm going to wait till the harvest comes.
The harvest is already here.
I'm a receptive now.
And in fact, let me just say this right now is, I mean, it's always going to preach the
gospel, but it's definitely in season right now.
More people in our society are more open to biblical truths than ever before.
At least within the last couple of years, in my opinion, a lot of the younger generation
are open to the gospel.
And you know what churches that fumbled the ball in that regard, they fumbled it, it becomes
so fake and so, you know, filled with flattery and fakeness in their churches that the younger
generation wants nothing to do with it.
We need to be as the four lepers to bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ
and capitalize on the famine that's taking place in other churches.
They're hungry for the word.
Let's feed them.
But what are we among so many?
Oh, God can multiply the work.
And if you're willing as these lepers to just put yourself out there and tell yourself,
you know what, why sit we here till we die?
Why are we going to focus on all these other churches that are not doing the work?
Let's focus on the fact that we're going to do the work and get the job done.
He says in verse 37, "Hearing is that saying true once soweth and another reapeth."
I sent you to reap that wherein ye bestowed no labor, other men labored, and ye are entered
into their labors.
And so we see here in the story of the four lepers that they stepped out in faith and
you know what maybe you need to start stepping out in faith too.
And thankfully you know this is a church that in my opinion just thoroughly equips you to
be a preacher of the gospel.
I mean we hold your hand through the whole process, right?
Help you with the introductions, help you to memorize the verses, to the point where
you're just such an expert at preaching the gospel you can do it at any given moment.
And then you have the liberty to just win your friends to Christ.
And you don't have to say like, "Do you believe in God?" or "I don't know, just come to church."
Look, if you're not equipped to preach the gospel bring them to church and we'll win
them to Christ.
But you know what?
We want to get you to a point where you can just preach the gospel and you can quote the
verses, someone can just hand you a Bible, you take it and you're just like, "Let me
just show you what the Bible says, how you can be saved."
That's what we need to do, amen?
And I think it's great when young people in our church start learning how to preach the
gospel, they're getting people saved.
I think it's awesome.
I love it!
That's like a fiery church there when young people are just getting a bunch of people
saved that are taking soul winning serious.
Turn with me if you would to 2 Samuel chapter 18, 2 Samuel chapter number 18.
We talk about Old Testament pictures of soul winning.
One of my favorite pictures is the story of the four lepers that essentially teaches us
that God uses unlikely candidates to get people saved.
But it also shows us that we as those four lepers have this treasure in earthen vessels
and we need to make sure that we don't hide it from the public, hide it from the lost.
We need to go out there and take personal responsibility to get people saved.
Let's talk about another story here in 2 Samuel chapter 18.
Let's talk about the story of Cushai and a high mass, Cushai and a high mass.
Now in 2 Samuel chapter 18 this is the story that we see here is the story of the war between
David and his son Absalom.
And it's an ongoing conflict between the two and it kind of comes to a head during this
particular time.
And what this story is going to show us between Cushai and a high mass is that it communicates
urgency and preparation when it comes to the preaching of the gospel.
Urgency and preparation.
Now before I get into the actual story, let me give you just a little background regarding
what's taking place here.
Absalom, who's the son of David, would essentially picture the Lord Jesus Christ, believe it
or not.
Okay.
Why is that?
Well, think about this.
How did Absalom die?
He died hanging on a what?
A tree.
Jesus Christ also died on the cross.
What happened to Absalom?
He was pierced through just as Jesus Christ was pierced through.
What do they do to Absalom?
They took him and threw him into a what?
A pit.
Jesus Christ not only went into the tomb, but according to himself, he went to hell
for three days and three nights, which the Bible also communicates as the pit, right?
And so we see a lot of parallels there between Absalom being the son and Jesus Christ, his
death and of course how he was pierced and so forth.
But we also see that it pictures the messengers, okay?
And this is the main principle here that what we're going to learn is the messengers who
are sent to bear tidings.
Look at verse 19.
It says here, "Then said Ahimaz the son of Zadok, let me now run and bear the king tidings
how that the Lord hath avenged him of his enemies.
And Joab said unto him, thou shall not bear tidings today, but thou shall bear tidings
another day.
But this day thou shall bear no tidings because the king's son is dead.
Then said Joab to Cushai, go tell the king what thou hast seen.
And Cushai bowed himself unto Joab and ran.
Now I don't have time too much time to develop this, but obviously Cushai and Ahimaz kind
of picture Peter and John, right?
And how one outran the other, kind of see that same parallel there.
But the first thing we're going to learn here regarding this story is that Ahimaz though
going to bear tidings is essentially not ready to bear tidings.
Look what it says in verse 22, "Then said Ahimaz the son of Zadok yet again to Joab,
but howsoever, let me, I pray thee, also run after Cushai.
And Joab said, wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing thou hast no tidings ready?
But howsoever said he, let me run, and he said unto him, run.
Then Ahimaz ran by the way of the plain and overran Cushai."
So what do we have here?
We have the story of two messengers coming to the king to bear tidings of the victory
- one knows what he's talking about and the other doesn't.
Both of them are running, but we see here that Ahimaz, Job is telling us, "Why are you
even going to go?
You don't even have any tidings prepared.
You don't know what you're talking about.
Yeah, you outran Cushai, but you don't know what you're talking about, bro.
You have a platform, but you're not even prepared to actually preach the gospel."
Now what does this teach us?
It teaches us that people need to be ready to win people to Christ at any given moment,
right?
Meaning that, you know what, thank God there's videos out there that preach the gospel that
we can show them, but how about we be the video, right?
How about we open up a New Testament and walk people through the Roman's road, we're prepared
at any given time when you're at the gas station, at the grocery store, with your neighbor,
with complete strangers, just be ready at any given time to preach the gospel boldly
to anybody.
Could you do that?
That's an important quality to have.
All right, oh man, I believe in the gospel, but you ain't got no tidings ready though.
What do you mean?
You're like, oh, I'm a fundamental Baptist, I'm a Christian, I'm a Bible believer, but
bro, you ain't got no tidings ready.
If I place a lost person right in front of your face, could you win that person to Christ
if I gave you not your Bible, someone else's Bible?
Well, as long as I have my tabs in my Bible, I could, hey, you know what, thank God for
the tabs, but you know what?
You need to just start memorizing those verses.
Okay.
I'm all for the training wheels on the New Testament, but there comes a time where, bro,
you just get yourself a King James Bible, no matter, you know, what, you know, what
it looks like.
It has the right content and you're ready to actually communicate the gospel with someone
else.
And let me just say this.
What if you just don't have a Bible?
Right?
What if you just don't have a Bible?
Can you get someone safe?
Look, folks, it's important for us to know where the passages are, but how about just
quoting them?
We need to be able to just quote the Bible and look, the gospel message is extremely
simple.
The Bible Baptists have essentially consolidated the message to one book known as the Book
of Romans.
It gives us a systematic way to be able to communicate the gospel.
Memorize that.
You know, you memorize all kinds.
I mean, I don't even know if people memorize stuff anymore, you know, they don't memorize
phone numbers, they don't memorize anything.
You know, they use Google Maps for everything.
They can't even get home without Google Maps anymore.
They don't know streets.
They don't know anything, you know, and but, but here's the thing.
Okay.
So that should make it easier for you to memorize the gospel then, because you ain't got nothing
else up there.
Bible says in Ephesians, you don't have to turn to chapter six, verse 14 says, stand
there for having your loins girded about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness
and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, meaning that your feet
are ready to take you to go preach the gospel at any given moment with the preparation of
the gospel of peace.
Now look, you're going to run into people at the door.
They're going to ask you something that you're just not ready for.
That happens all the time.
Right?
They're going to preach the gospel, but then someone asks you a question about another
subject of the Bible, and you're like, "Uh, I don't really have an answer for that."
But you know what?
You go back home, you go back to the drawing board, you learn that subject, and now you're
ready for the next time that that subject is presented to you.
Right?
The point is, we need to be ready to preach the gospel at any given moment.
You know what?
I've been meaning to just kind of like grab a New Testament one day and just go around
our church and say, "Give me the gospel right now."
I think that'd be good.
Just say, "Hey, how's it going?
Give me the gospel.
Repent of your sins.
Give me..."
Look, a gospel presentation is approximately 12 to 15 minutes, right?
It's about 12 minutes.
No interruptions.
Obviously, you've got people who ask questions.
It can go up to 20 minutes, 30 minutes.
But in general, with no interruptions, it's about 12 to 15 minutes.
So I'm thinking about just carrying a gospel and just kind of throw it in your face, "Give
me the gospel right now."
Why?
Because it's important for us to just be ready at any given moment.
And look, I remember when I was in Bible college, I know I'm sorry I went to Bible
college.
But they actually taught me how to preach the gospel and I remember they would get up
and say, "You need to be ready to preach the gospel at the drop of a hat.
At the drop of a hat, you need to be ready if you're preparing for the ministry, you
should be ready to preach the gospel at any given moment."
Don't be a person that doesn't know how to open up the scriptures and show someone from
the Bible how to be saved.
Aren't you saved?
Right?
Like we're saved, we should know how to communicate salvation.
And you know what?
I'm not buying the whole introverted thing on that particular topic.
Doesn't matter if you're introverted, the responsibility still falls upon you to get
people saved.
And you know what? if you're introverted, then pray God that fills you with your spirit
with his spirit so you can be bold in your witness and God can use you to communicate
the gospel.
Okay.
Bible tells us to have our feet shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
And then he goes on to say, praying always in verse 18 with all prayer and supplication
in the spirit, watching their answer without perseverance and supplication for all saints.
And for me, this is the apostle Paul speaking, that utterance may be given unto me, that
I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
Now, that's kind of crazy if you think about it, because the apostle Paul, we would consider
to be an expert in the gospel.
Bro is bold, but even he said, I need you to pray for me though, that I would be given
utterance, and that I would be able to boldly proclaim it.
And you know what?
I know exactly how that is.
Because you know, I've been a Christian for 18, going on 19 years, and I still get a little
nervous to go and preach the gospel.
You say, why?
Just nerves.
I get nervous preaching behind the pulpit.
So what do you do to overcome them?
I'll tell you what I do.
I pray for boldness.
I don't really have to pray for boldness.
I just got it down packed.
Well, then, you know, good luck on having God use you.
I rather be able to preach the gospel because God enabled me through his power to embolden
me to give me the courage necessary to preach the gospel so that people could get saved.
The point that I'm making here is that we need to be ready.
Don't be like a high mass that's running, running his mouth, you know, running to the
king but has no tidings to bear.
We need to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks us of the reason of
the hope that is in us with meekness and fear.
Look at verse 24, verse 24 says in the servant of the Lord, I'm sorry, that's a different
chapter here.
Verse number 27, the watchman said me think at the running of the foremost is like the
running of a high mass, the son of Zadok and the king said he was a good man and cometh
with good tidings.
So keep in mind a high mass outran Kushite, meaning he found some secret, some shortcut
or whatever.
He's cutting corners to get to the king first.
He gets there and they recognize him.
They say I think he's coming with good tidings.
Verse 28 a high mass called and said unto the king all is well and he fell down to
the earth upon his face before the king and said blessed be the Lord thy God which hath
delivered up the men that lifted up their hand against my Lord the king and the king
said is the young man Absalom safe and the high mass answered when Joab sent the king's
servant and me thy servant I saw a great tumult but I knew not what it was it was like why
are you even here then he's like I don't know what is Hebrews 10 mean I don't know can you
lose your salvation I don't think so but I can't really show you what about Hebrews 6
I don't know what about Matthew 7 you know I heard that's the scariest verse in the Bible
I don't know I'm good enough right he's like I don't know I don't know and we're not talking
about secondary tertiary doctrines we're talking about like salvation there's too many people
out there especially on the internet who can't give a clear answer when it comes to salvation
these so-called apologists online these so-called people who are experts at debates they're
experts in arguments but when someone asks them hey do you believe in eternal security
can you lose your selfish I don't know maybe you can I don't think you can but maybe you
know other people differ on that maybe you can maybe you can't bro you're not saying
how do you how do you call yourself an apologist of the word of God and and you know you don't
even know the most clear doctrine in the Bible which is eternal security are thou a master
of Israel and know it's not these things are there a master apologist and know it's not
these things and folks it exists out there people constantly make excuses you know there
are passages seem to indicate you can lose your salvation no there's not what Bible you're
reading there are no passages that indicate you can lose your salvation because that's
not even a concept in the Bible the concept of losing your salvation is non-existent in
the Bible period you know what we need more people not just at the door but online speaking
with absolute confidence regarding these things and not just like maybe okay a high mass sit
your high mass down and let someone else get up and actually tell the people what the Bible
actually says he's like great to me but I knew not what it was the king said to him
turn aside stand here and you turn aside and sit still oh yeah you're really good at running
to the king but now he's like all right go sit over there and he's just like the old
Kushite came and Kushite said tidings my lord the king for the Lord has avenged thee this
day of all them that rose up against thee go to Acts chapter 8 if you would Acts chapter
8 this story teaches us that we need to be prepared and but it also tells us here we
could also what one principle that we can glean from this story is that you don't send
an unsaved man to do a saved man's job right you see a high man can run but the guy had
no tidings he didn't know what he was talking about Kushite was the man for the job even
if he got there a little late he actually had the message and let me just say this when
it comes to soul winning saved people are the only ones who get people saved unsaved
people get nobody saved now can unsaved people sow seeds of course absolutely but they can't
lead anybody to the Lord why because it takes the Spirit of God to empower someone to get
someone saved an unregenerated person can't get anybody saved why because the natural
man received it not the things of the Spirit of God neither can you know them for the foolishness
that's him he can't know them for the spiritually discerned how in the world can an unsafe person
get someone saved if they themselves don't even know how to get saved this is a biblical
doctrine my friends God last time I checked God didn't commission unsafe people to get
people saved right he commissioned those in whom his spirit dwells in to go out and embolden
them to go give them the gospel because we're the only ones who could understand the things
of God because we have the Spirit of God dwelling within us and look there's a ton of unsafe
people out there thinking that they're getting people saved thinking that they're preaching
the gospel but you and I both know based upon the biblical standard it's not happening why
because you need saved people to get people saved period and you know what Judas didn't
get anybody saved because he wasn't saved now let's look at an example of this in Acts
chapter 8 verse 26 it says here and the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip saying arise
and go toward the south unto the way that goes down from Jerusalem unto Gaza which is
desert and he arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia a eunuch of great authority
under Candace queen of the Ethiopians who had the charge of all her treasure and had
come to Jerusalem for the worship was returning and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah as
the prophet then the spirit said unto Philip go near and join thyself to this chariot Philip
ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said understandest thou
with thou readest and he said how can I except some man should guide me.
Now the Ethiopian eunuch had a very clear passage of scripture regarding the Christ
and he went to Jerusalem he was there somehow he acquired a copy of the word of God he's
open to the truth he has it right there he's reading the scriptures but he has no idea
how to interpret it why because unsafe people can't interpret the Bible and folks when you
have an unsafe person interpret the Bible that's how you get what's called heresy when
unsafe people interpret the Bible 100% of the time you get heresy that's not to say
the unsafe people can't regurgitate biblical information right they can regurgitate the
chronology of the Bible the names of the Bible they can regurgitate the culture of the Bible
they could quote verses but if they're not saved they can't get that which is only spiritually
discerned as noted by the fact that the Ethiopian unit said I can't understand what I'm reading
how can I need someone to show me what this is saying he says and he desired Philip that
he would come up and sit with them and the place of the scripture which he read was this
he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before his shears so opened
he not his mouth in his humiliation his judgment was taken away and who shall declare his generation
for his life is taken from the earth and the eunuch answered Philip and said I pray thee
of whom speaketh the prophet this of himself or of some other man then Philip opened his
mouth and began the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus and of course we know that
this man ends up getting saved he gets baptized but the point being he needed Philip who's
a saved person to get him saved we can't say we can't send an unsaved person to do a saved
man's job that's not the biblical model we need to go out there and preach the gospel
we're the ones who have the spirit of God dwelling within us unsaved people can get
people saved okay turn with me if you would to go to 2nd Kings chapter 2 2nd Kings chapter
number 2 2nd Kings chapter number 2 look folks this is a biblical concept since the book
of Genesis everything brings forth after its own kind physically and spiritually you know
a dog brings forth a dog albeit some dogs are just uglier than others smaller than
others freaks of nature's you know but it's still a dog it's never going to produce a
cat it's never going to produce a bird why because everything brings forth after its
own kind which is why angels can't mate with women because they're two separate creations
right and aside from the fact that angels can't procreate period they're a separate
quote unquote species or whatever of God's creation and they can't intermingle with
people it doesn't exist well in like manner in a spiritual sense you know unsafe people
can't produce safe people why because there's a transmission of spirit there when someone
gets saved through another safe person preaching the gospel we are essentially transmitting
biblical truths and the spirit to that individual right how is it that an unsafe person who
has not come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ either by rejection or confusion leads
someone else to believe what they themselves don't believe it's not a biblical concept
and you'll never be able to find a verse in the Bible to substantiate the claim that an
unsafe person can get someone safe okay now again let me make myself clear unsafe people
sow seeds of the Bible all the time and the seed can be sown but you know what that same
person cannot take that person to the scriptures and tell them about the treasure and tell
them about the gospel and help them to call upon the name of the Lord because they themselves
don't even believe it okay we're talking about Old Testament pictures of sowning we saw the
picture of the four lepers we saw the picture of a high mass and kushai don't be in a high
mass be a kushai you know pace yourself pace yourself but at least know what you're talking
about don't be that high mass who is not prepared to preach the gospel don't be that high mass
in a sense of like you know make sure you're saved if you're going to actually go out there
and preach the gospel and look folks just because some youtuber some social media content
creator has a ton of followers doesn't mean that they're actually getting people saved
that's the fact okay how do we base it off of well you know listen to this morning's
sermon and you'll find out all right here's the last story and that is the story of Elisha
taking over after Elijah and what this teaches us is that believers are to take up the mantle
of preaching the gospel from those who came before us look at 2 Kings chapter 2 and verse
number 7 of course by this point people have been telling me Elisha hey your master is
going to be taken up from you right he's going to be taken from you and you know Elisha is
like yay I know hold your peace in other words like all right shut up I don't want to hear
that but yeah I already know that already and this is happening like a lot but look
at verse 7 it says and 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar
off and they stood and they too stood by Jordan and Elijah took his mantle wrapped it together
and smote the waters and they were divided hither and thither so that they too went over
on dry ground and it came to pass when they were gone over that Elijah said to Elisha
ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee and Elisha said I pray
thee let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me now this is an incredible request
right because Elijah is just a magnificent prophet this guy just did a lot in his ministry
and Elijah knows this and Elisha is just like if I could ask one thing let me do what you
do but doubly the miracles that you perform allow me to perform but doubly okay you know
the single burger that you're getting I want to double whatever you do I want double of
it and that's a that's a that's a grand request that he's asking right he says he wants a double
portion of his spirit to be upon him he said verse 10 that was that's the hard thing nevertheless
if thou see me when I am taken from thee it shall be so unto thee but if not it shall not be so
came to pass as they still went on and talked that behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses
of fire and parted them both asunder and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven and Elijah saw
and he cried my father my father the chariot of Israel horsemen thereof and he saw him no more
and he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces and he took also the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank of Jordan now what do we see with the story
of Elijah he did get a double portion because if you study Elijah's life in comparison to Elijah
he did double the miracles that Elijah did why because he received that double portion
and why did he receive it because he saw Elijah be taken up by a whirlwind right well what does
the bible say in the new testament regarding Jesus Christ and his disciples luke 24 verse 48
you don't have to turn there it says and ye are witnesses of these things and behold I send the
promise of my father upon you but tear ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power
from on high and he led them far as led them out as far as bethany he lifted up his hands and
blessed them and it came to pass while he blessed them he was parted from them and carried up into
heaven we see just as Jesus Christ was taken up into heaven they received the power of God in
their lives to do doubly what the Lord Jesus Christ did within history in a half year ministry
and look Jesus performed a lot of miracles he got a lot of people saved but according to the story
thereafter the disciples did doubly they did twice as much you say isn't that kind of sacrilegious
though to say that the disciples or anybody else can do more than what Jesus did when he was here
on this earth no it's actually God's will for us to do more and in fact the Bible says in John 14
12 Jesus speaking here says verily verily I say to you he that believeth on me the works that I do
shall he do also and I want you to notice this and greater works than these shall they shall he do
because why because I go into my father this is a promise from God that because he's he's gone up
into heaven to be with the father we have the potential to do that much more and I'm not
talking about the healings the snake handlings the you know all of the supernatural miracles
we're talking about the greatest supernatural miracle which is getting people saved and Jesus
got a lot of people save our heels here on this earth for sure but the promise is that we can do
doubly than that we can have a double portion of the Holy Spirit upon our lives to get people
saved like I don't know about that yeah you won't yeah because you're doubting it and he that comes
to God must believe that he is and he is a reward of them to diligently seek him I just think it's
sacrilegious all right then sit down shut up don't preach the gospel and I'll do the work right
because God has promised us that we can do double the work greater works than these and you know
what it doesn't matter if you know you feel like you're uh incompetent you feel you're not
talented the promise is there he's been taken up into heaven we can do double the work we can get
a ton of people saved you know thank God that at the end of this year we'll have more than 2000
salvations for our church but let me just tell you right now next year we're shooting for for 3500
3500 and you know what the year after that 4500 and the year after that 5500 then 6500 and we're
just going to keep upping up the ante why because we can do doubly we can do more we can pray it
down we can go out there and preach the gospel and you should have it within you to say you know
what this coming year you know 2026 I want to get a ton of people saved I'm going to intentionally
go out there on a weekly basis I'm going to get on Omi TV I'm going to take advantage of every
single opportunity there is to preach the gospel I'm going to go on some mission trips I'm going
to do everything I can on my part to be a part of the mission to get people saved why because you
got doubly of the spirit you have the holy spirit dwelling within you why not the point that I'm
making here is that Elisha took over after Elisha and was able to do greater works and you know what
we could look at yesteryear's preachers and they did some pretty great works but according to the
promise we could do more than them it's not a prideful thing to say that's a biblical thing
to say and you know we pray to God that the generation that comes after us does more than
us as well you know churches should get better with time not worse we should raise this generation
of children in our church teenagers in our church that when they take over when we're long and gone
they're preaching the gospel they're getting people saved they're getting tens of thousands
of people saved every single year why because they have a double portion of the first works
baptist church spirit that should be the goal what's the point that i'm making here the point
that i'm making is obviously sowning is explicitly taught in the new testament but it's beautiful to
look at the pictures of the old testament that promote sowning as well that teaches some great
principles regarding preaching the gospel and at the end of the day you know if we're going to
save america right you know a lot of people out there they want to save america they were only
going to do it through political means not going to happen we got to get the right president not
going to happen we got to get the right mayor not going to happen we got to get the right governor
well i mean maybe that might help a little bit you know what i mean newsom's got a you know that
guy's uh that guy should jump in the lake of fire amen but you know what just to stay consistent
you know what really saves america is saving individuals within america preaching the gospel
the greatest difference that a christian can make is not getting into political realms
the greatest difference that you can make in god's eyes is opening your mouth bulging
and getting people saved throughout your lifetime the greatest difference that you can make
that's the greatest accomplishment that anyone can ever and you know what at the end of the day
that's the only thing that's going to matter when you die and go to heaven that's all that's really
going to matter is how many times or how many people you preach the gospel to how many people
are going to be in heaven because of your efforts because you took time learn the gospel you took
time to memorize the verses you took time to get on your knees pray god use me please get someone
saved this week you took time to go out there and knock on doors you took time to open the
scriptures and show some of what the bible says about heaven then you know what you walked away
from that door gaining that person say you forgot about that person but i'm just telling you right
now it's not a forgotten thing you know how many people in heaven if you're a consistent soul owner
are going to come to you and probably going to be like i'm here because of you you may not remember
me but i remember you i'll finish with this when my wife's uncle he is a preacher and he's a
missionary right now but when he was in bible college he had a bus route like many others and
he used to tell his story how he would go into chicago and go preach the gospel and the projects
and you know and get people saved bring kids on the bus bring them to church and get them
discipled and all that and there was a he said he was like really good at doing it like
getting kids on the bus and just doing a really good job with that but there's this one little
girl that their parents their parents her parents would just never let her ride the bus and he would
do everything he's just like I'll stand on my head I'll you know we'll offer whatever you need
we'll feed her and they're just like no we're not going to let her ride the bus no there's a little
Puerto Rican girl and you know he just tried and tried and finally they're having like a fall
program and and he said that you know he finally went and I can't remember exactly how he motivated
them but somehow he just like convinced them to let her ride the bus and they're like okay she can
ride this one sunday and he's like yes so then she rides she comes on sunday and she was like a cat
they're like catholics so she had like her her her first communion like dress outfit or whatever
you know because she's going to church and he rides she rides the bus she ends up getting saved
right they give her the gospel she gets saved it was a great day and and and my wife's uncle
was just really excited about he's like man this is so awesome because i've tried so hard to get
this girl to come to church and obviously you know you know he's just really thrilled about it
so on typically for bible colleges and bus routes they go and visit the kids on saturday
so to get them to come back on sunday so he goes there he does his visits and he goes to the little
girl's house and they said we have bad news she's like missing he's like what do you mean she's
missing they're like she's been missing for the last couple days and we're trying to find where
she's at and and she was murdered she was brutally raped and murdered and they ended up finding her
and he recalls this story he says that he knows that when he gets to heaven he's going to see her
she's going to say thank you important you just never know what kind of difference you might make
you don't know how many people how many seeds you've sown how many people you've gotten saved
and quite frankly you don't know how many of those people have died you have no idea
and you know sometimes we see it as a number and it is a number sometimes right just don't know
the eternal difference you can make don't take it lightly that person will see you in heaven say
because of you that i'm here thank you for giving me the cost let's pray lord thank you so much for
this for this truth lord help us to keep tender hearts before you not soon forget the importance
of getting people saved lord so many little girls little boys teenagers that are relying upon them
they don't really know we know we know that many people out there are one step before death we as
the four lepers we as kushai we as elijah have the responsibility to go out there and get them
saved bring that treasure to them give them eternal life pray that we never take it lightly
lord such an important thing and i pray that you bless our church that you continue to help us to
see a harvest of souls as the years go by help us to keep a tender heart for the lost and when
we speak to people at the door i pray that we would be conscious of our message that we would
want to get them saved but also that we'd walk away recognizing that was a soul that will be
an eternity with god forever because of our efforts pray father god that we never soon forget
privilege and honor we have change someone's eternal destiny love you we thank you pray these
things in jesus name amen on number 325 trust and obey song number 325 on number 325 trust and obey
on that first verse