One of my favorite parts of the book of John is when Jesus said, you know, you're from
beneath.
He says, I'm from above.
You're from beneath.
You're of this world.
I'm not of this world.
And then you fast forward several chapters and here he says, they're not of the world
even as I'm not of the world.
Verse 18, as thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
And for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the
truth.
And again, sanctified just means set apart, different, holy, set apart.
And for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the
truth, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word.
The reason that we're in the world is to reach people, right?
Because he said, look, I don't want them out of the world.
I just want them kept from the evil.
And I'm not just praying for them, but I'm going to be praying for the people who believe
through their word.
So the reason why we're in this world, the reason why we're sanctified is so that we
can reach people.
You know, that's why Jesus says a couple of chapters after this in chapter 20, as the
father had sent me, so send I you.
Well, why was Jesus sent into the world?
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, am I right?
He came into the world to save sinners.
Well, guess what?
We're sent into the world to do, to save sinners.
You know, Jesus Christ said, I came to seek and to save that which was lost.
What's our job?
Seek and destroy?
No, it's seek and save that which was lost.
The same mission Jesus had in that sense is the same mission that we have, to seek and
to save the lost.
And you're not going to win the lost by indulging in all their sins with them.
That's them reaching you.
You know, you can go out in this world and be reached by the world.
Now, thank God you're still saved.
They can never take that away from you, but they can reach you to their way of life.
They can evangelize you the gospel of hip hop.
They can evangelize you with the gospel of the love of money.
They can evangelize you with the gospel of fame and popularity and fornication and these
are all things that a Christian could get sucked into.
No, you're not going to lose your salvation, you're not going to stop believing in Jesus,
but is it possible for a Christian to get sucked into the world of gambling?
Is it possible for a Christian to get sucked into the world of hip hop?
Is it possible for a Christian to get sucked into premarital whatever?
Yeah, all day long.
And so let him that think of his stand take heed lest he fall.
You've got to be careful that you're reaching them and that they're not reaching you.
And by the way, quoting a token Bible verse every six months or making a little reference
to Jesus every once in a while or God or a quick look, hey, that's not going to cut it.
You know what you need to do?
You need to open the Bible and show people the Romans road is what you need to do.
You know what we do out soul winning every week?
That's what you need to do with your unsaved friends.
Now, obviously there's a time and a place that's appropriate, but you know what?
At jobs that I've worked at, obviously there are a lot of times when you just need to shut
up and do your work and go with the flow because you're on the clock.
But let me tell you something, at jobs that I've worked at, I've had a lot of good opportunities
to give the gospel to people.
When you're alone with them, there are opportunities in the work truck where you're on that long
drive out to the job site and you can present the gospel to them.
It's not enough to just always be planting the seed.
I'm glad you plant the seed, but you know what?
Planting the seed, planting the seed, planting the seed.
You know, every once in a while you got to reap that harvest and not just be a full time
seed planter.
I don't know of any farmer on this planet who's just, I just plant, that's all I do.
Most farmers are more interested in the harvest.
They plant the seed because what they're really into is the harvest.
I'm into planting the seed too.
I'm all for planting as many seeds as we can, but you know what I'm really into?
The harvest.
You know what I'm really into?
Actually seeing people get saved.
And you know, why not take what you're learning out there door to door, soul winning, and
take aside some of your friends and loved ones and win them to Christ.
And I'll tell you this, you know, I always had a burning desire to get people saved when
I was a young person and especially when I was in public school and around unsaved relatives,
but I was very bad at it.
And I continually failed at it.
You know, I would try to talk to relatives, I would talk to friends, and I didn't know
what I was doing and I did a bad job and I did it poorly.
I didn't use the Bible.
I just didn't know what I was doing.
Then I got into a church like ours where I was taught how to win people to the Lord door
to door.
I showed up to teenage soul winning on Wednesdays and adult soul winning on Saturdays.
And I would show up soul winning and I learned how to go soul winning.
And then you know what I did?
I took what I learned at the door and then I took that to family and I took that to co-workers
and I took that to friends.
The skills that I learned out there knocking doors, you know, I used that and then I started
having success and I was able to win some relatives to the Lord, win some co-workers
to the Lord.
And the great thing about winning a co-worker to the Lord is that often you can disciple
that person and help that person grow because you have a continued relationship with that
person.
But you know, and like I said, you obviously have to be wise about when it's appropriate,
when the time is right, but let me tell you something, you know, there are opportunities
out there to win people to Christ at your job and at school and in other situations
in the neighborhood.
You know, love people and care about them enough to give them the gospel.
And you say, well, I don't know how, I just don't know how to witness to people.
Do you go soul winning?
Because that's where you learn.
And you say, well, yeah, I go soul winning all the time, but I just don't really know
how to witness to people in my personal life.
Here's the best tip I could ever give you on how to win people to the Lord in your personal
life.
Do it as much like you do it at the door as possible because the tendency is that when
we're with someone that we know, when we're with a friend, sometimes we just kind of do
it like this dialogue.
Next thing you know, we're talking about ancient aliens and you know, we're talking about the
book of Enoch and you know, all kinds of crazy stuff.
You know, what you got to try to do is try to have a conversation like you have at the
door where you're preaching to them and you keep it on point and you just ask them to
just give you some time to explain it and stay on topic and try to get them to let you
go through the whole deal, you know, the whole thing, the whole gospel, get through the whole
Romans road and explain the gospel because that was the mistake I was making too is I,
you know, I'd have a, I'd have a two hour conversation with somebody and we all walked
away confused and then I'd be at school.
I remember being at school, giving the gospel to one person, then somebody else walks up
and starts bringing up and then some Mormon walks up.
It just got so all over the place.
It got so convoluted that I walked away saying, man, I don't even know if I accomplished much
at all.
Whereas if you can just get somebody to just kind of chill out and just hear you out, you
know, and you can be polite about this, but you know what I'll do sometimes I'll start
explaining somebody the gospel and say, Hey, you know, if they want to get off on everything,
I'll just say, Hey, you know, that's a good question.
I'd love to get back to that, but I want to just present this one thing that, you know,
let me just explain this one thought to you.
It's going to take me like five or 10 minutes.
Let me just get this across to you.
And then if you still have a question and then you just pray that that question never
comes back.
You know what I'm saying though?
It's the same thing I do when I'm at the door.
If I'm at the door and somebody jumps in and says like, I have a question, you know, are
we experiencing the end of the world right now with coronavirus?
Is this a tribulation?
You know, you know, I'm like, Hey, hold that thought.
All right.
And, and I'll say to them, you know, Hey, I'll be glad to answer your questions at the
end, but is it all right?
Let me just, I don't.
And sometimes I just say it like this to be humble.
I just say like, Hey, I don't want to lose my train of thought.
And I really want to explain this one thing to you.
Let me just get this across to you.
Then we can talk, whatever you want.
And you know, once I started applying those skills that I got out there, so when, and
look, we've got a whole soul winning seminar DVD series that we did.
That's free back there on the shelf.
Just grab one and take it and listen to it.
Brother Jimenez did a phenomenal soul winning training series, like a three hour deal.
And that's another great resource for you.
You know, obviously there's no substitute for just getting out there and doing it.
And you take those skills.
You can win some people to the Lord and your personal life, friends, loved ones.
And you know, I love hearing from church members and friends of mine that they got a relative
saved.
You know, that's, that's always a cool thing, right?
Or getting a coworker saved, it's great.
But you know what?
It's not because, Hey, I had a beer with my coworker and I got them saved.
You know, the people that are having success winning their loved ones and friends and coworkers
to the Lord, you know, are the people that are sanctified, the people that are living
a godly life.
And none of us is perfect.
We're all sinners.
Look, I'm not trying to say that I'm just so holy and so sanctified, but you know what?
Just by virtue of being in Christ, I am part of that holy nation and so are you.
I am above all nations of the earth and so are you.
Okay.
We are part of that group because we're in Christ.
It's by grace.
Not because I deserve it or earned it, but it's by grace through faith.
And so are you.
And the way that we're going to reach people is by being real as Christians.
And God said, we're going to reach more people by, by good works and letting our light shine,
not by, you know, debasing ourselves and saying, all right, let me just get down here and have
a beer with you.
And let me just get down here and just tell dirty jokes.
Let's just see how low we can go.
No, because the light needs to be higher to reach more people.
The higher the light goes, the higher our standard of Christian living.
As long as we don't become the mistake that some people make, they go so high, they go
through the roof and they're not even in the house anymore.
You know, some people are so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good where now they're
just, they're so holy that they can't even live in Phoenix anymore because Phoenix is
too evil.
We have to go, you know, live out in the wilderness and just flog ourselves all day or something.
You know, I'm just going to go.
All I do is just read my Bible for five hours, pray for five hours, flog myself.
I mean, it's like, no folks, we want to be in the world.
We want to live normal lives, but we want to be peculiar and different so that we can
shine the light and reach the people around us so that they can see the difference.
We want to demonstrate a difference.
We want to reach people by showing them the love of Christ.
Go if you would to Matthew chapter six, the last place we'll turn is Matthew.