Alright, we're here in Romans chapter 10, and I want to highlight to you here verse number 2, it was in our bulletin, where the Bible says, actually let's start at verse number 1 where the Bible says,
Brethren, my heart's desire to prepare to God for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear the record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
And so, in Romans chapter 10, what he's highlighting is basically people that are very zealous and very religious and excited about religion, but they don't have the right knowledge of salvation.
And they're actually not even saved, even though they're very religious.
Look, there are plenty of people in this country that are very religious, but it does not get you to heaven, even if you got to shine your feet at the roots of the black Nazarene.
Even if you made it to the front, and you jumped up on top, that doesn't get you to heaven.
Now the people that are there are very religious, they're very zealous, you could go to other countries, I mean, people that nail themselves to crosses, they're certainly very zealous, but that doesn't necessarily get you to heaven.
Now us that are saved, though, you know, we can actually have a lot of zeal, but it doesn't necessarily mean we have the proper knowledge.
And this is true in regards to soul winning.
People can be very zealous to go soul winning, but if they don't have much knowledge on how to do it, then oftentimes they can just be wasting their time.
And that is not something you want to do, I mean, can you imagine coming to the end of your life, and you feel like you've gotten a hundred people saved every year for a decade,
and then all of a sudden God tells you, yeah, only about 5% of the people that you counted actually got saved, wouldn't that be pretty depressing?
I mean, if you spend two hours a week for 50 weeks or 52 weeks, a hundred hours of soul winning a week, and you come to the end of your life, you spend 2500 hours of soul winning,
and God says, yeah, very, very few people that you actually talked to actually got to heaven, because you weren't explaining it thoroughly enough, or you weren't clear enough, you were making mistakes.
That would be very sad, because we spend so much time doing it.
And what I'm talking about here this morning is, sell soul winning without knowledge, okay?
Now turn to Isaiah 55, Isaiah 55.
Now I've actually preached this sermon two times before, but neither one was recorded.
I preached it at the first Red Hot Preaching Conference, and it was a short sermon, it's going to be a full-length sermon here.
But quite honestly, you know, I've been to a lot of conferences with like-minded people, I visited churches, and you know, you go soul winning and you get paired up with people.
And quite honestly, often you get paired up with people and you're the silent partner, and then I'm just in my head thinking, man, this person does not know what they're doing.
Right.
It's sad.
But it's the reality, even within like-minded churches, okay, that a lot of people are very zealous and they're doing the work, but quite honestly, they're just not doing it right.
They're making a lot of mistakes, okay?
Now let me say this, that when people are new at something, of course there's going to be mistakes.
Right.
You don't expect to be perfect from day one, and I don't expect people to be perfect from day one, okay?
And so when people are first starting, I expect them to be learning and making some mistakes, and that's fine, because that's the way you learn anything.
Trial and error, right? Isn't that the best way to learn stuff?
But you know, honestly, this sort of sermon needs to be preached, because I want to help you guys out, because you know, we're going to go through four points.
And if any of these four points fits you, you need to take a look in the mirror and say, man, I might need to make some changes in my soul, because you know, honestly, I'm doing something wrong, according to what the Bible says, because everything's going to be proved straight from the Bible, okay?
Now in Isaiah chapter 55, the first point's kind of obvious, okay?
And that's that if you're not getting anybody saved, you're doing something wrong.
Right.
Okay?
Isaiah 55 verse 10, for as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, the water of the earth, and maketh it bring forth in mud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return on me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please.
It shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
And the Bible says when the word of God goes out, it will not return void.
And if you're preaching the gospel, and you always come back, and you're not getting anybody saved, or you're getting very, very few people saved, something's wrong.
Because it's not about the person preaching the gospel, it's about the word of God.
Right.
And so if I lead somebody to the Lord, then the same person that you talk to should get saved too.
I mean, it's the same person.
If I got him saved, then if you had preached the gospel, they should have gotten saved as well.
Why?
Because it's the word we're explaining.
Right, yeah.
It's not some magical ability.
Look, we're explaining that eternal life's a gift.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand what a gift is.
Right.
You're just spreading the message, and they either accept it or reject it.
And look, if you're not getting anybody saved, and the word is always returning void, you're doing something wrong, especially in a country like this where it's very receptive.
Okay, there's other countries that are unperceptive, but in a receptive country like this, if you're getting people to listen to you and nobody's getting saved, you're doing something wrong because God's word is not returning void.
Verse 12, for you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace.
The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you have been singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
What does it mean when it says you shall go out with joy?
The Bible speaks about the joy of soul winning.
Yeah.
And it says, led forth with peace, the gospel of peace.
That's what it's referring to.
It's using symbolic language of the joy of soul winning and spreading the gospel of peace.
And if you constantly spread forth the gospel of peace, and then nobody ever gets saved, you're doing something wrong.
Turn to Isaiah 52.
Isaiah 52.
Now, as a church, we get a lot of people saved.
That doesn't mean that you individually are getting a lot of people saved, though.
And so yes, you're part of a church that gets a lot of people saved, but you need to be getting people saved.
Because the Bible says, go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every preacher.
Ye is plural.
You want to understand the King James Bible?
Here it is.
Thee and thou are singular for you.
You and ye in the King James Bible are plural for you.
You is always plural in the Bible.
So when it says, go ye into all the world, what is he saying?
He's saying everybody needs to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
Not just for some people.
Not just certain people have a gift to preach the gospel.
No, everybody needs to go forth and preach the gospel.
Every single person.
Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
Now, when it says fishers of men, it's not saying, hey, if you follow me, you'll just throw that pole into the water and just, oh, it's empty again.
It's like, man, I never get any fish.
What?
No, if you're actually living for the Lord, you will actually get fish.
You'll actually get people's sake.
That's what it's saying.
Isaiah 52, verse 7.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of men that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion thy God and reigneth.
And what it's talking about is spreading the gospel upon the mountains.
Look, when we preach the gospel, this is something for all of us to do.
All of us should be able to get people's sake.
Turn to Psalms 126.
Psalms 126.
Honestly, this should be encouraging to all of us.
Because you might say, Brother Stuckey, I don't think I could ever get up there and create sermons.
Well, you know, that's okay.
Because quite honestly, the number one thing that you can do in the Christian life is go solo when you leave the floor.
And that's something that all of us have an opportunity to do.
Every single person in this room.
Look, you know, my role at this church is to be the person who runs the church.
But everybody's got important roles at church.
Okay?
You can be serving God.
You might get moral words and have them in name.
Because it's not about the position you hold.
It's about how dedicated you are.
Okay?
And this is encouraging because no matter what your natural ability is as a speaker, you can still go forth and preach the gospel and win people to go forth.
Okay?
The Bible says in Hebrews 4, you don't have to turn there, but it says the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.
God's word is quick or alive and it's powerful.
And so God's word is powerful and alive and yet you preach the gospel and nobody ever comes alive with everlasting life.
You're doing something wrong.
Because God's word is quick and powerful.
You should be able to lead people to the Lord at least from time to time.
Psalms 126 verses 5 and 6.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
Does it seem like there's any doubt?
Or does it say doubtless?
It's without doubt.
Doubtless.
What does that mean?
It means if you preach the gospel, there's no doubt.
It's a hundred percent for sure.
You will get some people saved.
Right.
It's a guarantee.
It's not a possibility.
It's a guarantee.
That's what the Bible teaches you.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 3.
Now this should be an encouraging message to you, but honestly if you're a new soul winner you might need to practice to figure out how to do it.
Say, how do I learn how to preach the gospel?
Well here's what you need to do.
Memorize Romans 3.23.
Memorize Romans 3.10.
Memorize Romans 6.23.
Memorize Romans 10.90.10.
Memorize Revelation 20.14-15.
Memorize Revelation 21.8.
But you might not have a Bible in front of you when you're preaching the gospel.
I preached the gospel this morning, and I was talking to a group, so guess what?
I couldn't really look at my Bible.
I needed to focus on all of them.
But I have the verses memorized.
That's how you do it.
Now look, I don't have the verses memorized anymore, but I used to be able to get people saved in Spanish.
And the first thing I did was this.
I memorized the verses in Spanish.
That's the secret, because when you memorize the verses, then you understand what they're saying.
If you're just trying to repeat what I say or somebody else says, you're going to make a lot of mistakes.
But if you memorize the verses, then you're going to understand the verses.
Now you can be saved, but not really fully grasp these verses and fully get what's being said in these verses.
For example, John 3.36.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
What's significant?
Present tense.
Which means you receive everlasting life the moment you believe, not at the end of your life.
Look, that little difference in understanding that verse can make a difference between someone getting saved and not saved.
Understanding that you're leaving the moment you believe is when you receive everlasting life.
You need to understand these verses really well.
You need to memorize so many verses you're going to use.
It says in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 6-8,
I have planted a paulus water, but God gave me increase.
So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God gave me increase.
Now he that planted and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own name.
Now some people suggest that there's certain people that have a gift to preach the gospel,
and other people, honestly, they're just out there basically wasting their time.
They basically preach the gospel, but nobody ever gets saved.
And they say, well, you know, some people are planters, and some people get to reap the harvest.
But I'm just a planter.
That's why I get nobody saved. That's why I'm an evangelist in the country, and I never get anybody saved.
Well, that's a great excuse.
You're never able to get anybody saved, so the words return to the void every single week.
Because Paul says here, I'm planting.
So according to that logic, because Paul says he's the planter, Paul never let anyone in the Lord.
But wait a minute, didn't we see this morning?
No, actually, that was John. But we know of plenty of people Paul has led to the Lord.
He wrote letters for people that he personally led to the Lord.
To suggest that Paul was not winning people in the Lord would be ridiculous.
Because don't we know him as the greatest evangelist who ever lived?
Look, Paul was a planter sometimes.
And he was a reaper sometimes.
Because when you preach the gospel, some get saved and some don't.
Sometimes you're just warning people, so warning or planting.
And sometimes you're so winning, you're reaping.
Some people get saved immediately, other people don't.
And you preach the gospel and they might not get saved.
But look, if you're always just planting.
Say, man, I was out there, I was planting two hours this week, two hours the next week.
And you come to the end of the year, 100 hours, and nobody's saved, you're doing something wrong.
Because eventually you should reap.
Because you'll run into some people that want to hear the gospel.
So this idea that some people plant and some water plant, that's not understanding the passage.
It's saying that all of us from time to time are planting and all of us are reaping.
You're not someone who your whole life, everybody you preach to gets saved.
That's not reality.
But you're also not someone who's preaching the gospel and nobody gets saved.
It's a mix where you preach the gospel and sometimes they believe and sometimes they don't.
Now, I'll tell you the truth, though.
When it comes to preaching the gospel and so on, not getting many people saved is not the biggest problem.
And I'll tell you why it's not the biggest problem.
Because that's a very fixable problem.
Because if people have a lot of zeal to preach the gospel but they're not successful, it's because they just don't know.
But if they're doing the work, then they're going to learn.
They're going to memorize the verses.
They're going to get frustrated if you go soloing a lot and not getting anybody saved.
So they'll learn how to go solo and get people saved.
A bigger problem is when you win too many people.
Say, what are you talking about by the second?
How can you win too many people to work?
Turn to 1 John 5.
I understand what I'm saying here when you're winning too many people to work.
I am not saying that you're actually winning too many people to work.
What I'm saying is you think you're winning a lot of people to work.
There's a big difference.
You have big numbers, but quite honestly, very few of them are actually getting saved.
You say, well, how do you know that?
Because when we preach the gospel, you say, brother, when I preach the gospel and somebody is saying,
I see this big light coming from heaven, like a dove, and I'm like, man, that doesn't happen.
We don't see that taking place.
But quite honestly, though, we're looking at signs today that your soloing needs work,
and there are signs from the Bible that we can look at our own soloing.
And if you're not getting anybody saved, you're doing something wrong.
When I'm saying you're getting too many people saved, here's what I'm saying.
I'm saying we have 25 people that go out soloing on Sunday,
and you go out every Sunday, and every single week you got what most people say.
Why do you have some sort of special gift that just every week you just happen to get everybody saved,
because you're so much godlier than everybody else?
The reality is you don't know what you're doing.
Honestly, I'm not preaching to sermons I think we have a problem,
because I really do think our soloing, for the most part, is pretty thorough.
But these sermons need to be preached from time to time, because quite honestly,
people come from different backgrounds, and quite honestly, most soloing bear that.
Most soloing, especially within Baptist churches, is one, two, three, repeat after me.
It's a joke. Don't explain it. It's a mockery.
And we're going to have a lot of people come to our church,
and quite honestly, I want people to learn how to go soloing. You're right.
But honestly, you'll see a lot of bad soloing techniques,
but if you're always going out, and everyone's going out there,
but you always get the most saved, you are doing something wrong.
Because everyone's supposed to preach the gospel,
but it's just a matter of whether they believe or object.
And if somehow you have this magical ability.
Look, Paul the apostle probably liked more people of God than just about anyone.
But it's not because he had some magical ability,
it's because he just did it more often than anybody else.
That's the reason why he got a lot of people saved,
because he spent a lot of time.
But look, you can only win so many people in the Lord in an hour or two.
Notice what it says in 1 John 5, verse 10.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath a witness in himself.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar,
because he believeth not the record that God gave him the Son.
And see, the Bible says that you either believe God,
you believe on the Son of God, or you're making God a liar.
It's one or the other, you believe you're calling God a liar.
It's like if I told you, you know, I have a son named Nahum.
And he said, brother Stuckey, I don't believe that you have a son named Nahum.
What are you telling me?
You're saying you are a liar.
You're saying I don't really believe you.
When it comes to salvation, we either believe it or we're calling God a liar.
There's no in-between position to take.
Verse 11, and this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life,
and his life is in his Son.
So the record that we must believe is that God is giving us eternal life.
That's one, that he's giving it to us.
It's a gift, the gift of God's eternal life.
That it's eternal life, and that life is in his Son.
You must believe all three of those things.
When you look at salvation verses, they always title these things.
That it's faith alone, that it lasts forever, and it's only in Jesus Christ.
That's what you see in John 3.16, John 3.36, and in these verses.
But here's what you have to understand.
Before somebody's saved, why is it that they're not saved?
Because they believe the wrong thing.
If they're going to believe on Jesus Christ,
they must change their mind about whether or not life is only in the Son.
They must change their mind about whether or not he's saved yet.
They must change their mind about whether or not he's eternal.
That it will last forever.
They must change their mind on all of those things.
Look, you cannot get somebody to change their mind on all of those things in five minutes.
It does not happen.
It takes real time to show the verses and explain the verses.
And if you explain in a very short amount of time, you'll get a big number.
You'll get people to pray with you.
But look, they're not actually being saved.
See, how do you know this?
I've been doing this for 14 years.
I've done sowing with a lot of people,
and I've seen some people do a good job,
and more often than not people do a really bad job.
And like I said, I'm not specifically talking about our church,
because obviously I haven't noticed a major problem with this,
but I'm saying in general, most sowing is really bad.
That's the reality of it.
It's not one, two, three, repeat after me,
we're trying to get them to believe on Jesus Christ.
And look, people need time to actually change their mind about what they believe.
If people think that repentance of sins gets them to heaven,
you must actually show them verses and say why it doesn't get them to heaven.
And they must change their mind about it.
You say, well, I got them to listen for 10 minutes,
and then they prayed a prayer.
But did they change their mind about what they believe?
Or are they still praying the rosary in the sport?
I mean, they have to actually change their mind.
They have to actually change their mind.
While they're praying, they're doing the Catholic seven.
It's like, you know, there's a good chance they didn't change their mind about what they believe.
There's a good chance they didn't make it clear enough for them to change their mind.
They must change their mind.
And sometimes you have to be direct with them and tell them,
hey, you know, before we started this conversation,
you said you have to keep the seven sacraments.
You said you got to get baptized.
What do you think now?
Well, you know, I still think you have to get baptized.
Don't pray for that person.
It happens all the time.
Because you're preaching the gospel to people, and you can pray with them.
Look, if somebody is willing to listen to you preach the gospel,
I promise you they're willing to pray with them as well.
So guess what?
You could go out sowing this afternoon for two hours and for sure come back for 20 sacraments.
As many kids as run around here, you could get a group of 10 kids to listen to you.
And you could count all 10 of them saved.
Every single week you could do that.
And we could start having 200 saved our whole team.
Boy, that's over 10,000 a year.
Except for the fact 90% of them, or 99% of them, are going to end up in hell one day.
Unless we preach the gospel again to them.
Because they didn't get it.
Look, you have to actually explain the points.
And look, you know, people kind of have this assumption,
well, you know, if people believe in posture rapture and they're at a church like this,
they must be great at sowing, right?
No, what I've seen is 99% of the time when people come from other churches
and they first start growing sowing, it's not very good.
Right.
It takes work.
It takes practice.
Yeah.
Okay.
Turn to Acts 16.
Acts 16.
I mean, it just is what it is.
When I first started growing sowing, I was 19 years old.
Nobody ever really showed me how to go sowing.
And so I was at the mountain lair and, you know, I learned from kind of campus crusade.
It's like this Christian organization in the U.S.
It's real popular.
And so I remember they have like this four spiritual offices that you go to.
I forgot to bring my pants, but I should have.
But I think the first one is, you know, do you believe that God loves you?
Oh, yeah.
Do you believe that God has a wonderful plan for you?
Not just a plan, but a wonderful plan.
Oh, I believe there's a wonderful plan in my life.
And they got these four points.
And you know what?
It's real smooth.
It's got a nice little picture on here.
It's sort of like a trick track but a little bit different.
And they'll listen and they'll always pray with you.
I remember when I was 19 years old and the first time I started preaching the gospel,
I was zealous without knowledge.
And I remember for about a little bit more than an hour, I preached the gospel six or seven times.
Six or seven times, and I counted eight salvations.
Mountain lairs I get at WVU at college is where people relax and everything.
Now, look, going back, I know that none of these people have said that.
You say, why?
Because you cannot actively present the gospel in a short amount of time.
You have to actually be real direct and real clear.
You can't preach the gospel seven times in an hour.
Good night, man.
I preached to eight people.
They all got saved.
That's what I thought.
And I went through the gospel seven times.
How long was that gospel presentation?
Now, I can just bury my head in the sand and pretend like they all got it.
But you know what?
I don't want to just be doing a lousy job.
Someone can dress my life.
I want to actually win people the Lord and actually bring my shoes with me and be a real thing.
I don't want to get all these false comments.
And so the truth is that if you're not spending enough time preaching the gospel
you're doing something wrong.
Now, you have to understand that when it comes to preaching the gospel
it's not really a matter of how long in terms of time.
It's a matter of how much material you cover.
But the problem is you cannot preach the gospel in five minutes and cover all the material.
And look, this might offend people, but you can't preach the gospel in ten minutes
and really cover everything you need.
My gospel presentations are ten minutes long.
You say, why?
Because I have to explain that they have to change their mind about eternal life
and that Jesus being the only way to heaven and being a gift.
Look, I use more than ten verses in my gospel presentation
and you have to explain to one of them.
You can't just kind of quickly gloss over and say, hey, do you agree we're good?
Oh, yeah, we're good.
We'll show you what Jesus did.
You have to actually explain and make sure they're actually getting it in their hearts.
And if you just quickly go over it, you will get people to pray with you
and you'll get a big number.
A big number.
Are they really getting saved?
Well, look, here's the reality.
If you're getting so many more people saved in the same amount of time as everybody else,
then honestly, most of them probably aren't getting saved.
And that might be tough, but honestly, it's better to notice.
That way you can make the changes.
You don't want to be doing a bad job in your whole life.
It says in Acts chapter 16, verse 30,
And he brought them out and said, sir, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved by house.
And he said, Brother Stuckey, that sounds like a 30-second gospel presentation.
Here's what you need to understand in the Bible.
The Bible does not write down every single word that's said.
It's giving you basically the synopsis.
Basically, what did Paul explain?
Well, it's just by believing.
But that doesn't mean that all it said was believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Let's pray.
No, he actually spent time preaching the gospel.
And so you have to understand in these presentations you're seeing in John 3 or wherever,
Look, there's a lot more to it than just the verses you're reading.
It's just giving you a recap on stuff.
Do you realize how long a chapter would be if every single word in the gospel presentation was presented?
It's giving you the highlights.
But when it says, whosoever believeth in him,
That's something you say during the gospel presentation more than once.
Over and over and over again.
It's just giving you the highlights here in Acts chapter 16.
Turn to John 3.
Now, I'll tell you the people who do the worst job of sowing, and that is the Pentecostals.
Not only because they have a false gospel, but they literally do one, two, three, repeat after me.
Now, usually it's not that prevalent in Baptist churches,
But I'm not really sure because when we had our sowing here on the
My sowing partner, that's not part of our church.
I'm not preaching against anyone in church.
But my sowing partner, their gospel presentation was literally a minute.
It was less than two minutes long.
First time person who came to join us for sowing.
Now, here's my standard.
If I go sowing with someone and I don't think they're doing a good job,
I don't break their head off.
Because honestly, when people are new, they're trying to learn, it's fine.
They're trying to learn. If they need to be more thorough,
My philosophy is this, that if somebody doesn't do a great job preaching the gospel,
Then I basically kind of pray in my head, help them hear a good gospel presentation.
And usually right after that, I actually get to spend time giving the gospel,
And it requires me to be more thorough, and it kind of helps them understand,
Oh, maybe I need to be more thorough.
When people are new, they're going to make mistakes.
But see, there's three types of sowing.
Outside of preaching a false gospel, three types of sowing.
One is a good job preaching the gospel.
Another is one where you're trying if you need work.
Another one is making a mockery of sowing.
See, I won't stop somebody if they're trying, but maybe they can do a better job.
I won't stop someone if they make a mockery of sowing.
And look, if you're my sowing partner here,
And your gospel presentation is less than two minutes,
Then I'm going to stop that real quick.
And I haven't noticed that at this church, but I've never one of those.
A two minute gospel presentation is a joke.
And I've seen it many, many times in my life.
I remember when we went sowing in West Virginia,
Me, the assistant pastor, and someone who wanted to be a missionary.
And so our standard was we take them out sowing.
Usually they try to get out of sowing.
I'm so busy, my schedule begging for money.
I don't have time, even though I'm here for this week and doing nothing else.
I don't have time to go sowing.
We would have forced them to come sowing with us if they wanted to get sowing.
Because that's what you're going to be doing on the front field.
And we would always have them take the first stool.
I remember one time, the person we took out sowing,
He's the one speaking.
Me and the assistant pastor are silent partners.
And this woman says she's agnostic.
She's not sure if there's a God.
And he kind of starts going through the verses and he says,
Hey, the Bible says we're all sinners.
We're all a sin.
And he kind of half goes through the verses.
And he spends like five minutes.
He tells this story about his life.
And then he's like, well, would you like to pray right now?
Except Jesus Christ is your savior.
It was embarrassing.
It was literally embarrassing being the silent partner.
I'm like, oh my goodness.
Because this person said they don't believe in God.
And you spend five minutes and show basically zero verses
and you think that they're going to end up getting saved.
It's like, have you ever done this with me?
Because when I first started doing it with someone,
I didn't do it with a job.
But you learn through trial and error.
And over time you figure out, oh, wait a minute.
I thought this person got saved, but I just ended.
And they said, wow.
Yeah, I think as long as you're a good person
and you believe in God, you go to heaven.
Maybe I need to be a little more thorough.
People that are new though, they're
going to make those mistakes.
John 3, verse 3.
Jesus answered and said unto him,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man
be born when he is old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb
and be born?
Does Nicodemus understand what Jesus is saying?
No.
You know, when you preach the gospel,
very often they don't understand what you're saying.
You have to spend more time.
When I say my normal presentation is probably
around 18 to 20 minutes, I would say.
Because it's been time before by other people.
And it was right around that time frame.
But if they're having trouble understanding, guess what?
It's 25 minutes.
It's 30 minutes.
I preached the gospel to a group of people
yesterday, year by year, in the park.
And my presentation was probably 35 minutes yesterday.
You say, why?
Because they weren't understanding it.
They needed more time.
And so a perfect scenario is going
to be still north of 15 minutes in Miami.
A perfect situation is going to take basically 15 minutes.
But you know, honestly, oftentimes you
can tell they're not getting it.
They're answering questions, but they're
still kind of like, well, you said, what does it take
to get to heaven?
They say, well, you don't just believe.
You can tell by the way they said that that they don't
really believe that.
They just know that's the right answer that you want.
And you need to learn to perceive what they're thinking.
Now, this takes time.
It takes time because when you first start going so
in, you're so focused on just getting through the verses
that you're looking down at your Bible.
But if you're doing a good job, you're looking at them,
and you're paying attention to their body language.
You're paying attention to how they answer.
And they might give you the right answer,
but you can tell whether or not they're getting it or not.
I mean, it's like this with anything.
If you ask your son, hey, did you break that over there?
You can tell by the way they respond, by the way
they're acting, whether they get it or not,
no matter what they say.
It's the same thing with preaching the gospel.
We need to learn to perceive what they're saying.
This is tough for new soul owners
because they're so focused on getting through the gospel
that it's really hard for them to pay attention
to what the person's thinking.
But that is the end goal, that you're honestly
paying attention and thinking about, hey,
are they understanding this?
Are they getting it?
I've had times in the gospel where somebody
will get an answer and I'll say, actually, just this morning.
I mentioned this as a preaching the gospel
that the one person said that it was just belief.
And I said, well, you answered correctly,
but I don't think you really mean that.
It sounded like you're not sure.
And then he said, well, here's the thing.
I've heard that if you commit suicide that you go back.
So basically, he didn't believe it.
But he answered right because he knew
that's what the answer was because I'm
going through the gospel.
To the best of our ability, we don't
want to feed them the answers because we
want to find out what's in the heart.
But sometimes, it's impossible to avoid.
For example, you're going through the gospel
and at the end, you talk about suicide.
And they say, well, suicide will send you to hell.
So what do you have to do?
Well, you have to explain to them,
well, actually, that's not true.
And then you ask them the same question two minutes later.
I mean, you are feeding them the answer.
Originally, you did, but you kind of have to correct
what they did wrong.
So you hope at the end they actually believe it.
It is still possible, though, they'll
say they believe it, but in reality, they don't.
That's going to happen to all of us.
But to the best of our ability, we want to be thorough.
Nicodemus doesn't get it.
So Jesus keeps going.
Let's go down to verse number nine.
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these things be?
You know why he used the word how,
like he does in verse four?
How can a man be born when he is old?
Or how can these things be?
What is he saying?
He's saying, I don't get it.
That doesn't make sense.
How can he be born the second time?
I was already physically born.
He doesn't understand what Jesus is saying.
Was Jesus a bad soul winner?
No, but when you're preaching the gospel, some people get it,
and some people don't.
And so honestly, when it comes to getting too many people
saved, look, your presentations should
be enough time where they actually change
their mind about what they mean.
And if you're always getting more people saved
than everybody else in the same amount of time,
you're doing something wrong.
Now if you go out slowly in 10 hours during the week
and you come back to the most saved,
well, yeah, you spent 10 hours sober.
But I'm saying if you spend the same amount of time
and you always get the most saved, there's something wrong.
Now obviously, there's some neighborhoods that
are more separate than others.
If you get assigned to the park today,
you're probably going to need more people saved
than door to door.
It is what it is.
You can't send everybody there, but you're probably
going to get more people saved than go there.
It doesn't matter whether you got one or five saved.
But what I'm saying is, yeah, certain areas
are more receptive than others.
But if you're always just getting tons of people saved,
you should really stop and say, well,
you're doing something wrong.
Why is it that I'm getting all these people saved?
Usually, the people that get the most saved
are people that are going sober.
Now turn to Acts 24.
Say why?
Well, because honestly, they're not being thorough.
That's usually the reason why.
Now the most extreme examples I have of this are,
I was at a church, and I have a lot of stories.
So many stories of people doing a bad job,
so many I'm sure I've told before.
But there's this church that would basically once a year
have a teen activity where they would be out
preaching the gospel.
And basically once a year, the teen would spend
all day on Saturday.
And then the next Sunday, the day after, they'd
give testimonies on Sunday night.
And so these young guys are going up, young ladies,
young men are coming up, giving their testimonies.
And I remember distinctly this one guy who came up.
I don't remember his name.
This kid was 16 years old.
And he was the most arrogant kid in the church.
I mean, he was just obnoxious.
Nobody liked him.
Super arrogant.
And he's given his testimony.
He's got this big smile, kind of smirk on his face.
He's real proud of himself.
And he counted, I can't remember how many it was,
but it was over 100 salvation in one day.
It's like 140 salvation.
He counted a ridiculous amount.
It was crazy.
And one story he had was he preached the gospel
to a bunch of college baseball players,
like a team of like 36 people or whatever.
And every single one of them.
Wait, don't use Christ in gospel.
Every single one of them.
I was angry.
I was mad at my seats.
I'm mad when it comes to bad soul.
That's what making them mock for your soul.
I'm not mad at this kind of soul.
When people are trying.
And as far as I know, everybody in this room,
even if you're new, you're trying.
You're not doing a bad job.
You're not making them mock for your soul.
I'm mad when people make them mock for your soul.
When somebody's spending two minutes, and then,
hey, look, I've seen these techniques.
Let's do an example.
I've literally seen these demonstrations.
You see these ones on YouTube, but it's real.
We're basically, you know,
I don't really explain anything to you and say,
well, hey, man, I'd like to pray for you.
Is there anything you need prayer about?
And then you'll mention something and say,
well, let's pray for you now.
And then I'll say, well, let's spread this.
Bow our heads.
And I'll start praying.
Hey, dear God, and thank you for allowing me
to come to you all this life.
It's going through a lot of trials right now.
I want you to help her.
It's a family situation.
Right now, we're going to pray to receive Jesus Christ.
Just repeat these words after me.
Dear Jesus.
And if they don't do it, basically,
just repeat these words.
Say it again.
And then, all right, that's it.
I appreciate it.
But literally, I've seen that in person.
It's so obnoxious.
Because it's one thing if somebody's just trying
and they're messing up.
That's called making them mock for your soul.
And it's like, go down to the Pentecostal church
down the road where they do that.
You can count 20 times as many people save as we do.
That's fine.
Whatever.
You're not really doing soul work.
Right.
And so the thing I like in a bulletin
is we get a lot of salvation.
But we put in a lot of time to give them salvation.
Right.
Look, I don't count crazy numbers with soul work.
I praise the gospel.
I mean, yesterday, I had three salvations.
But I praise the gospel to like eight or 10 people.
I don't count these crazy numbers.
But honestly, a lot of people, they just count crazy numbers.
And it's like, well, why is it you're getting so many people
saved and nobody else is getting the same results?
But you know, honestly, another sign
you're doing something wrong with your soul winning,
not only if you get very few saved versus many saved,
but if you get too high of a percentage of people saved,
you're doing something wrong.
Right.
Not right.
You say, well, how can you be doing something wrong?
Because of the fact probably none of those people
get saved.
If 95% of people increase the opportunity to get saved,
it's because you don't know what you're doing.
Yeah.
You say, prove that to me from the Bible.
I'm glad you asked.
Turn to Acts 24.
That's what it says in verse number 24.
Let me ask you a question right off the bat.
Was Paul the apostle of God's soul winner?
Yes.
Does anyone want to say he was a bad soul winner?
Nobody's going to say that.
Acts 24, verses 24 and 25.
And after certain days when Felix came with his wife,
Jucilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul
and heard him concerning the faith of Christ.
Does he reason to righteousness, temperance, and judgment
to come?
Felix trembled and answered, go thy way for this time,
when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.
Did Felix get saved?
No.
No, he did not.
Did Paul screw up?
No.
Because I've heard people say that, well, it's not my words.
It's not that I'm so powerful.
Well, you know, the word of God is powerful.
Right.
That's why 99% of people I preach the gospel to get saved.
Well, Paul the apostle didn't seem to have the same love.
Because here he preached the gospel,
and I guess he did something wrong.
I guess it's not that powerful, his words,
because even though Felix is trembling,
which means he gets it,
he's scared of going to hell.
He's actually literally shaking because he's afraid to try.
You can't force somebody to believe.
Right.
Paul the apostle preaches the gospel,
they do not get saved.
Why?
He doesn't believe it.
Mm-hmm.
If everybody preached the gospel to get saved,
you're doing something wrong.
So that's only one verse turned to Acts 26.
Let's just look through the life of Paul the apostle.
This is throughout the Bible.
Throughout the Bible, you'll see that some people
hear the message of salvation and some believe and some don't.
So I really don't understand
because this is common in Baptist churches.
Many of them believe that basically 95% of people
who preach the gospel to get saved.
It's like, what Bible are you reading?
And I'm like, what are you doing out there?
Because that's not my percentage.
Right.
I preach the gospel to a lot of people that don't get saved.
It says in Acts 26, verse 23,
that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first
that should rise from the dead
and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.
He's seen less faith for himself,
best to send with a loud voice.
Paul, thou art beside thyself.
Much learning doth make thee mad.
Now, what is he saying?
What's Festus saying to Paul?
He's saying you're insane.
You're crazy.
That's what he's saying.
Now, that's what the word is, mad.
The mad hatter you've heard of.
You're basically crazy.
So basically in the middle of the gospel,
Paul is preaching the gospel and Festus says you're insane.
But here's the thing.
Paul's not really preaching the gospel to Festus.
Festus happens to be the person listening
that Paul is basically trying to ignore,
but not making it all that obvious.
Isn't it true that sometimes he preached the gospel
to two people and one person has no interest whatsoever?
They just got him along for the ride.
They'll do whatever they can to interrupt the conversation.
Paul is trying to get King Agrippa saved,
but he's a very seasoned and mature soul winner
because he does not publicly just rebuke Festus.
He rebukes it, but not in a way where it ends the conversation.
That's what that verse only got.
But he said, I am not mad at most noble Festus,
but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.
So basically he gives a quick answer to Festus
and he's focusing on King Agrippa.
Now he couldn't just argue with Festus for 20 minutes,
but what's the purpose of that?
Because King Agrippa is who he wants to be saved.
Festus, he would have quit wasting his time with,
except for the fact he just happens to be here.
Verse 26,
For the king knoweth of these things before whom also I speak freely.
For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from them,
for this thing was not done in a corner.
King Agrippa believeth thou the prophets,
I know that thou believeth.
What is Paul saying?
He's saying, I can tell you're getting what I'm saying.
You're thinking about it.
He's like, I know that you believe.
He's hoping he gets saved.
What does it say in verse 28?
Then Agrippa said unto Paul,
Almost thou persuadest me of the efficiency.
This is one of the saddest sentences in the Bible.
You say, why?
Because if you've been sobering for a while,
you've had these conversations.
Almost they get saved.
They're thinking about it.
And man, if you could force them to, you would.
And you're just hoping sometimes they'll spend a couple extra minutes,
or five extra minutes, or ten extra minutes.
They're thinking about it, they're thinking, they're thinking.
They just won't believe.
Paul wants King Agrippa to get saved.
But King Agrippa's close.
He can tell he's close because he says, I know that you believe.
But King Agrippa says, almost.
He does not quite believe.
Did Paul screw up in this conversation?
Because Paul, in this conversation, has two people.
At least there might have been more that heard the Gospel.
But these people don't believe.
Now Festus, you're never going to get a person like that saved.
But Agrippa's very close.
So in a couple chapters we've seen failed conversion, failed conversion, failed conversion.
I don't think Paul was bad at 99%.
He was God.
I don't think he was bad at 90%.
I don't think he was bad at 80%.
I don't think he was bad at 70%.
I don't think he was bad at 60%.
Now I don't know what the exact percentage is, but I'll say this.
If you have a conversation one-on-one with someone, there's a good chance they're going to get saved.
But when you're preaching the Gospel to four people at one time, it's very unlikely all four are going to get saved.
Very unlikely.
It's possible, but it's unlikely.
Because if people aren't interested in hearing it, they're not going to get saved.
Festus just happens to be there.
We preach the Gospel all the time and there happen to be people there.
But they're never going to get saved.
Don't we know people in this world that, you know, they're never...
And obviously, I'm not even talking about reprobate, but just people that just aren't interested.
And they just happen to hear it, and they're not going to get saved.
Here's another failed conversion from Paul.
Didn't Paul bet 95% in his life? No.
Does that mean the Word of God is not powerful because he had a false conversion?
No, because the Word of God, it's not that it's taken none effect, as the Bible says,
because of the fact some believe and some don't.
That's the context of that phrase.
It's not that it didn't take any effect, because some people believed.
Not all of them.
See, the promise of God's Word is that some will believe, not that all will believe.
We're not Calvinists.
It's whosoever will. They have the free will to believe it or not.
And they sometimes hear the Gospel, and they don't get saved.
Now, let me read this to you from the NIV.
Isn't it pretty clear that Paul was a seasoned soul and everybody knows what he's doing?
Isn't it true when you're preaching the Gospel that you can sort of tell if they're getting it or not?
Now, there's times you get to the end of the conversation like Paul,
and you hope they're going to get it, but they don't.
That happens.
But I never have situations where I think someone's going to get saved,
and then five seconds later said, whatever, this is a joke.
I'm a Mormon. I told you that. That never happens.
When I think that they're going to get saved, it's because they're close.
Because when you have experience, you can tell.
Well, the NIV, though, completely changes this.
In verses 27 and 28, King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.
Then Agrippa said to Paul, do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?
Does that teach the same thing as the King James?
Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?
What's the NIV saying?
The NIV is saying it's impossible to go out someone for 20 minutes and expect to get somebody saved.
That's exactly what they're saying.
In a short time, in a 20-minute conversation,
do you guys really think that soul-willing actually works?
Do you really think that number of your bullets is real? That's what the NIV is saying.
Oh, yeah, it's just minor differences between King James and the NIV.
That teaches something completely different.
That makes Paul look like a fool.
Paul thinks that he's going to get saved, but he's really close,
and then King Agrippa is like, do you really think that you're going to get saved in such a short time?
I'm a king. Whatever. I'm not going to get saved.
That's what the NIV is teaching.
It's making a mockery of soul-willing, is what it's doing.
In a backhanded way, that's what it's literally doing.
It's making a mockery.
No, I don't even remember actually doing this badly.
But it's real.
But we want to make it as real as possible by doing a good job.
Turn to Acts 28.
Once again, Paul has false conversions.
Not false conversions, but he preached to God so he didn't get saved.
In Acts 28, we're going to see the same thing with Paul.
Either he's the worst soul winner ever, or this Baptist attitude that everybody who preached to him gets saved is ridiculous.
Acts 28 verses 23 and 24.
So he's preaching the Gospel all day long.
God gave him that opportunity.
Verse 24.
And some believe not.
According to the Bible, is it going to be almost everyone you talk to ends up getting saved?
No.
And the truth is that if everybody you talk to is getting saved, then you're not preaching the same Gospel the way that Paul the Apostle was.
And I'm going to trust in what Paul the Apostle is doing.
You say, well, that's Paul the Apostle.
What about Jesus?
He preached the Gospel to the rich young world.
I don't remember the salvation of the rich young world.
Now, we can debate about whether Nathan's got saved later in life, but I don't see the salvation of John chapter 3 of when Nathan's getting saved.
Right.
And so don't tell me that when you preach the Gospel, everybody you talk to gets saved.
You say, man, this is your brother's prophecy in seven months.
I preached the Gospel to 55 people, and 50 have gotten saved.
I vote five of them got saved, if that's your percentage.
And I'm not joking. That's the reality.
Because if you're preaching to that many people and everybody's getting saved, that's not biblical.
That's not my opinion.
That's my opinion.
I showed you clear verses to prove you're going to have people that just don't believe.
We're not Calvinists.
You've got to choose to believe it.
And some believe the things you say, and some don't.
And look, when you preach to large groups...
Look, this weekend, I preached the Gospel to about 50 or 60 people at one time.
So my wife's family.
I didn't count a single one of them.
You say, why?
Because I don't know if they got it or not.
Right.
I need to individually ask one-on-one questions.
Why would I count any of them?
I don't have any idea.
To know if somebody got saved, I need to ask them questions.
Say, hey, what do you think it takes to get to heaven?
Hey, do you still think that you can lose your salvation?
Hey, have you changed your mind on what you believe?
When I'm preaching to 60 people at one time, I have no clue if any of them are being saved.
Right.
And quite honestly, since the method in the Bible is really talking to people one-on-one or in very small groups,
very few are going to get saved when they're preaching to large crowds.
Right.
It's just not the method you see in the Bible.
Yeah.
I love when people show me the place where Jesus stops a great multitude of listening to him and says,
I'm just going to preach the gospel.
Because in my Bible, when he preaches the great multitude, he never preaches the gospel.
Now, he touches on the gospel in the Sermon on the Mount, but he does not preach the salvation sermon.
Why?
That doesn't really hurt people.
Right.
It's not an effective method to get people saved.
It's just not the best way.
One-on-one is the method you're always really seeing in the Bible.
Yeah.
That's the reality.
You could just gather a crowd and get tons saved.
But here's the thing.
I could go to Rizzo Park, and I could start yelling and get hundreds of people to surround me.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Yeah.
Especially as a white person.
Let's be honest.
I can get tons of people to listen to me.
And I can just stand up and just scream about salvation.
Is that an effective method to get people saved?
No.
Now, I hope somebody got saved.
Obviously, whenever you're preaching, it's obviously good.
It can water.
It can be helpful.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing.
But do I think a lot of those people got saved in those 50s, 60s?
I probably don't think anyone got saved, to be honest.
Even though I spent my time on it thoroughly.
You say, why?
Because honestly, when I was in college, I used to invite people to hear me preach.
And I always preached on salvation because I was able to bring visitors, family, and
friends.
I said, hey, just come to church and hear me preach.
So what did I do?
I always preached on salvation.
And guess what?
They never got saved.
I preached for an hour about salvation and they never got saved.
Why?
That's not the method you see in the Bible.
People get saved because the gospel, you're asking questions.
It's not that you're giving them a lecture.
Right now is a lecture.
I'm not asking you questions.
I'm just telling you how it is.
But when you're preaching the gospel, you're not telling someone how it is.
You're asking them questions to find out if they believe it or not.
It's a dialogue, back and forth.
If the person you're talking to and you preach the gospel never says a single word,
you're doing something wrong.
It's not even one of the points.
But I'm just telling you that you see Nicodemus saying things when he talks to Jesus.
You see the woman at the well in John 4 actually saying stuff.
Why?
Because Jesus asks questions and finds out does she believe it or not.
Right.
It's a dialogue between two people.
But when you're preaching to a crowd of 60 people, it's not really a dialogue.
And so, honestly, most people, they need to specialize attention.
I know when I got saved, I needed it.
Somebody preached the gospel to me for a long time, and I asked a lot of questions,
and it didn't all make sense at first.
And honestly, that's why you see that within like-minded churches,
people will listen to sermons for years on a line, and you assume they're saved.
Quite often, they're not saved.
You say, can you really listen to Pastor Menes or Pastor Anderson for a year and a half
and not be saved?
I've seen it so many times.
People listen for a really long time.
Guess what?
They're not even saved.
I know a friend of mine that lives in West Virginia that goes to a like-minded church
that I led to the board.
He had been listening to sermons on a line for a few years,
and I went and preached the gospel.
I went with him so many, and he was a silent part.
And he told me a few years later, hey, actually, you're the one who led me.
And I listened to sermons on a line for a long time.
I never got saved.
You say, why?
Because the way people get saved is usually a one-on-one conversation.
That's the way it works.
And so when it comes to preaching the gospel,
if you're not getting anybody saved, you're doing something wrong
because God's Word doesn't return the void.
But at the same time, God's promise is that, you know, as some will believe
and some will object, if you're getting too many people saved
or too high of a percentage saved, you're doing something wrong.
Because when you preach to people, they don't always believe.
If you preach to a group of five people, it's very unlikely you all are going to get saved.
Now, we do have those times where we come back and then we're excited.
We got seven right saved.
That happens sometimes.
And praise the Lord for it.
You know, you also have those times where you go out for a long time
and get very few people saved.
I've had days in Rizal Park, especially during the missions trip,
where I hit double digits, and it was just a great day.
But I also had days where I had like two saved in the Philippines
in five or six hours.
You know, honestly, when it comes to our soul and ethos church,
I've noticed that people are pretty thorough on check.
I've been very pleased with the soul and ethos.
Honestly, this is like my biggest pet peeve, shallow story.
But honestly, what I've seen is people have done a pretty good job,
people are confident.
But I can honestly tell you that even though we counted 2009
during the missions trip, I promise you, we didn't get anywhere in 2009.
I say, why? Because some people had some crazy results.
It's like you, who speak zero Tagalog at 35 people saved, resolved hard today.
It's like, maybe they just didn't understand what you were saying.
It's like, yeah, they listen.
It's like, oh, it's a white guy from America.
Yeah, I'll listen to him.
I don't believe we got 35 people saved in Rizal Park.
I don't believe people had these crazy results.
Now, I'm sure they believe that,
and I'm not saying that they were trying to make them awkward.
So only I don't think they were making them awkward,
but they talked to large groups and they counted everyone,
when in reality, hopefully some of them got it.
The reality is, some people accept and some reject.
There's no secret formula to getting a tonsay.
The only way you do it is just with lots of soul.
That's the way you do it.
This number doesn't come from one person up here preaching the gospel the other way.
No, this comes from a whole church full of people.
That's why we need everybody preaching the gospel.
That's the only way we're going to get big numbers.
We have a lot of people looking for you.
And the last thing I want you to see is this,
that if you are always getting to the end of your presentation
and you're having trouble getting somebody to pray with you,
like you say, hey, let's pray now, and you don't want to,
it's because you're doing something wrong.
Say why?
Because if you believe, you will pray.
That's what it's about.
John 4, verse 10.
Jesus answered and said unto her,
If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith it,
that he give thee the drink,
thou wouldst have asked it,
and then he would have given thee the water.
So Jesus says, if you know the gift, what's the gift?
Eternal life.
If you know that it's eternal life and that it's a gift,
and you know who it is who's asking you,
what is it saying to me?
You would have asked if he would have given thee the living water.
Okay, I'm paraphrasing everyone.
He says, if you believe this, you would have asked for it.
Say why?
Because if I was drowning in water,
and I knew I was going to die,
and somebody was standing beside the water,
and I believed that he could save me,
you know what your natural reaction is?
Help.
That's what everybody's going to do.
That's what 100% of people are going to do,
unless they're trying to kill themselves.
I mean, they're going to ask for somebody to save them.
It's logical.
It makes sense.
And the truth is, when we preach the gospel,
if you believe that Jesus is your savior,
and you need to be saved,
and you're going to die and go to hell without him,
it's natural that you're going to ask Jesus to save you.
And look, when it comes to us at the end of our conversations,
the prayer is just kind of confirmation to God.
But look, at the very end,
it's very easy to get people to pray with you.
You don't have to beg them.
And if you have to beg them to pray with you,
it's because they're not getting it.
They're going to get it.
It's very simple.
It's very easy.
You say, why?
Because if they believe it in their heart,
it's going to be really simple.
If they really believe it, they're going to say,
yeah, you're going to love to pray.
So if this happens to you a lot,
where people just don't want to pray with you at the end,
you're doing something wrong.
It should be very easy to get people to pray with you.
Now, in this conversation,
this woman actually wants to pray.
Notice what it says in verse 11.
The woman said to him, sir,
thou hast nothing to draw from the wells deep,
and whence it hast thou that leavened water.
Art thou greater than our father Jacob,
which gave us the water,
and drank thereof himself,
and his children, his cattle?
Jesus answered and said unto her,
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again,
but whosoever drinketh of the water,
that I shall give him shall not have thirst.
The water that I shall give him
shall be in him while the water
shall bring up the everlasting life.
The woman saith unto him,
sir, give me this water,
that I thirst not,
neither come hither to draw.
She wants the water.
Why doesn't Jesus try to lead her in prayer again?
Because he can tell she doesn't get it.
This is something you need to discover as a soul winner.
You need to be able to tell
if they're understanding you or not.
You say, well, they always understand you.
No, they don't.
Many times they do not understand what you're saying.
Sometimes they're not even rejecting you.
They just don't get what you're saying.
You're asking somebody to completely change
what their belief of getting to heaven is in one minute.
It's obviously a miracle that people do it.
The word God truly is powerful,
but at the same time,
they have to be willing to change their mind.
That doesn't just happen automatically
because we're not Calvinists.
We're everyone we talk to.
Everything I touch turns to gold.
It's like, man, this is now a gold pulpit.
We've got all of a sudden this turns to gold.
No, not everything you touch turns to gold.
Sometimes you're like all the apostles
and you risk the gospel and they just don't get saved.
Sometimes you're like, Jesus,
you preach the gospel and they just don't get saved.
If you're coming to the end of your conversation
and you say, well, they believe it,
but they don't want to pray.
They don't believe it.
You say, well, how do you know that?
Because in John 4 it says,
if they believe it, they'll ask for it.
Are there exceptions?
Very rare, very rare.
I mean, it's like a one in a thousand exception
where maybe they're in front of their mom or whatever.
It's rare because I've seen people that preach the gospel
to a boyfriend and a girlfriend.
The boyfriend prays and the girlfriend doesn't.
There's one belief and one doesn't.
Usually they do in those situations too.
Even in embarrassing situations,
they usually are willing to pray if they're willing to leave.
If they're willing to listen to you,
they're going to be willing to pray with you.
Right.
Because if they were embarrassed,
they would have just walked away
and they just didn't want to have anything to do with it.
But when you're preaching the gospel,
it should be very easy to get people to pray with you
at the end if they believe.
And if at the very end they just oftentimes
feel like half the time I preach the gospel,
I get to the end and I ask them,
hey, if you were to ask Jesus to save you now,
do you think he'd save you and say,
well, I'm not really sure, you know, no.
It's because they're not understanding what you're saying.
Right, right.
They don't believe what you're saying.
Okay.
And notice what Jesus' reaction is in verse 16.
This is a woman who wants to pray.
Verse 16.
Jesus saith unto her,
they'll call thy husband and come hit her.
Now you see, that's a weird response.
Well, because she doesn't understand who he is.
She doesn't understand that he is the savior
and she must understand who Jesus is and be saved.
And so he's basically showing her
he's gonna explain how she's had many husbands
and the person she's living with is not her husband.
He's trying to explain it in more detail
because she does not get it yet.
That's the reality.
Now when it comes to preaching the gospel and soul-wearing,
the truth is that most soul-wearing is pretty bad
when it comes back to scripture.
That's the reality.
And you know, honestly,
one of the things that's tough as a soul-wearing
is because we all want to get people to say it, don't we?
Right.
And when some people do a shallow job
preaching the gospel,
there's like that little thing in your flesh
that wants to outdo them.
Right.
You know, they're doing a bad job.
They come back and they got about nine people saved
and you know they didn't really get nine saved
and there's like that tempting thing in your flesh
to kind of shorten your gospel presentation.
That way you can get this big number
or have an impressive number or whatever.
Don't let that creep into our church.
Yeah, go ahead.
Our number, you know, we don't know 100% exactly or not.
It's not like we know 100% for sure that we're gonna say
we're doing the best we can,
but I can promise you that our pastor
is not so concerned with the exact number we can take
as if we're actually doing work.
Right.
That's Pastor Menes' personality
and that's what I want at our church as well.
And quite honestly, you know,
when it comes to people that are zealous
and preaching, you know, at other churches, you know,
fine, they can do things the way they want
and their pastors can preach sermons on it
if there's an issue.
And maybe other churches will get far more people saved
than us, but maybe they are getting a lot more saved than us.
But honestly, I know from the years of 14 years of zoning,
I preach the gospel with a lot of people
and I've heard a lot of presentations
and even in like-minded churches,
very often I'm listening thinking,
oh man, this person doesn't get it.
And they're going through and they pray with them
and I'm thinking, this person did not get saved.
And I know it, but it's like I'm not gonna try
to be disrespectful and cause a problem
in a church that I'm visiting or whatever.
But honestly, there's a lot of bad zoning out there.
And if you go solo with someone and they do a bad job
and they say, hey, I've got five saved,
then you know what, just let them do a bad job.
You just do a good job.
Even if your partner got five and you got nobody
because you're trying to do a thorough job.
Now, here's the thing about this.
As I mentioned, I consider there to be
three types of soloing.
Basically, a thorough job, kind of a job
where it's not as good as it could be,
but someone's trying.
Because when I first started preaching,
I guess when I first started preaching
with the four spiritual laws, it is kind of a mockery
of soloing, but I learned that after like two weeks.
I was like, I don't know if these people are getting saved.
I think it's kind of the Holy Spirit telling you,
no, I don't want you to keep making a fool out of yourself.
But basically, there's three types of soloing.
And honestly, I would have appreciated somebody coming
to me and said, hey, you know what, you're zealous.
That's great, but this is actually a better way
to preach the gospel.
I would have loved that because honestly,
I read a lot of books.
I watched a lot of videos.
And look, I'll take this one story I read in a book
from an independent fundamental activist
in the Romans Road.
And he talks about preaching the gospel to this woman,
and he's going through it, and she prays to receive Christ.
And he gets to the end of the conversation,
and he asks her, so according to the Bible,
if you were to die right now, where would you go?
And she says, I don't know.
And he says, well, let me ask you a question.
Have you ever lied before?
And she says, yes.
Has God ever lied?
And she said, no.
Well, according to God, and according to the Bible,
you're going to heaven.
So don't you think you ought to believe God as opposed
to yourself?
And she said, well, I guess I'm going to heaven.
What kind of soloing is that?
I read that in a book when I was trying to learn how to go
soloing, and I didn't know how.
And I even knew at that time that that was going to start.
I even started watching Red Comfort for a little while,
because I was like, something's wrong with the soloing.
And that's why some people watch it, because they realize
that they're seeing all this joke out there, soloing.
We need to do things right at our church.
So however many we say, you know, that's fine.
As long as we're doing the work.
But look, don't spend five minutes at the door
until we've got something to say.
And if somebody's making an awkward soloing,
that will be put to stop direction.
If somebody's just trying to learn,
you know, don't work with them and make them look foolish.
They're going to learn if they have the humble attitude.
Because we all start out when we're struggling,
and we can get better.
If somebody's making an awkward soloing,
I do want you to tell me about it, though.
And say, hey, you know, so-and-so is not,
he's doing a really bad job.
And then maybe I'll go with them,
and then try to help them out or whatever, or find out.
But if someone's just kind of struggling,
they spend like 10, 15 minutes or whatever,
and they're kind of hesitating, they're trembling,
they're kind of scared.
It's because they're a new solo.
It's like, yeah, do they need time to grow?
I don't want to kill somebody's seal.
So the name of the sermon is zealous soloing without knowledge.
Because quite honestly, when I was young,
I was very zealous, but I did a lot of things wrong.
And honestly, the worst thing would be
if somebody just destroyed my seal
and made me look like I was poor.
So I don't think we should do that.
If somebody's doing a bad job soloing,
I don't want to kill their seal, okay?
But if somebody's making a mockery of someone,
well, that's something we obviously need to do.
Let's close our work here.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today at church.
It helped us to apply this to your lives.
It helped us to be thorough with our soul.
It helped us do a good job.
And I know that the people in this room, God, we love you.
We're trying to serve you.
We're trying to do the best we can.
But I think we all have the attitude that,
hey, if I'm making mistakes in my gospel practice,