All right, good evening.
Welcome to Bible Believers Baptist Church.
I'm going to go over some announcements really quick.
And tonight is a special night.
We're having a special guest preach for us,
Deacon Corbin Russell.
And we are also, I wanted to just take a few moments
before I get into the announcements
and have Brother Rick come up.
Brother Rick, would you come up here real quick?
And Brother Rick is actually Pastor Messler,
but he's going to be from now going forward.
He's going to be Brother Rick, but he's retiring.
So I just wanted to give you a card and a pen and a Bible.
And I just wanted to say congratulations
on your retirement.
Thank you so much for all your service.
Thank you, brother.
Thank you.
Thank you, everybody.
10 years he's served at this church,
and that's no small feat.
I'm coming up on five, and being a pastor is not an easy task.
But it's a great task, and it's a good task.
So thank you so much, Brother Rick, for all your service
here at this church.
Now, as far as what we got going on here,
we have a verse of the week.
So the verse of the week is Psalm chapter 16, verse number
11.
It says, thou wilt show me the path of life
in the presence is the fullness of joy.
At thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.
So you're here visiting us, and actually, I
know everybody here.
I pretty much know everybody here.
But thank you so much for coming, everybody.
We really appreciate it.
And I just wanted to just go over a few things
really quickly.
1030 AM is our new service times here,
and it's kind of been in effect for the last couple of weeks.
But we also have moved the service
to 330 PM for the evening service.
That'll be this Sunday.
I'll be preaching both services.
Tomorrow, we're having a soul winning time from 11 to 2.
But we'll meet up here.
If you want to meet on location, we
could probably put the maps in the WhatsApp group.
The Bible Believing, The Bible Believers Baptist Church,
WhatsApp group.
So we could probably, is there anybody not
in the group that needs to be added?
Would you raise your hand, please?
Anyway, it's not in.
Anybody that doesn't know what I'm talking about, OK.
All right, so we added a bunch of people in here.
And we'll probably, after the weekend's over,
we'll just take people out that are not normally preaching here
or not normal attenders.
So we'll have a map there.
So if you don't want to meet here, that's fine.
Will you just let me know after the service
that you're going to meet on location?
I don't have the maps yet, but I
think we're going to go to the rez somewhere.
So the rez is usually, what, about 10 minutes,
depending on which town.
Wapato is what, 10 minutes from here or something like that.
Seven minutes.
And then I think 15, 20 minutes to Toppenish.
But we're going to find someplace to go.
And it's pretty receptive around here.
You might be able to pick up some fireworks on the way back.
But don't light them off in this parking lot, all right?
But I think they have the special Native American,
Indian fireworks that you can't get anyplace else.
So don't buy any bombs or anything like that.
So anyhow, let's see what else we have going on.
So about 3 o'clock, we'll be serving food here
at the church building.
And you're more than welcome to come here and fellowship.
After the soul winning, I'll probably just come.
I got to drop off Brother Corbin at the airport.
And then I'll come straight over here.
Did anybody bring anything for a potluck?
Or did anybody know we were having a potluck tomorrow?
No?
OK, well, maybe I just need to order Panda Express.
Is that OK with everybody?
Are you guys over it?
OK.
It's been a while.
I've kind of just been putting it on the shelf for a while,
hoping that you guys would come back and repent and come back
to Panda.
But we'll do something.
We'll have some food here.
I know that there was a barbecue in the girl.
Is that barbecue or work that's in the shed back there?
Never been used, and I know it.
Oh, OK.
Well, let's not just assume it does then.
I'll make something that's a little more surely planned, OK?
I'll order some food for us tomorrow.
But we're going to go soul winning.
And if you're going to meet here,
then we're going to just disperse from here.
And we're going to go out and knock some doors.
It's supposed to be hot.
So yeah, I know it's not Tucson hot.
Yeah, I know it's not Phoenix hot.
But it's hot out there, isn't it?
So if you're not from here and you're not used to that heat,
think about putting some sunscreen on,
a hat to cover your neck, and plenty of water.
We got water here that you can load up with.
And if you need to get some Gatorade,
do what you got to do.
But if you're not ready for 97 degrees tomorrow,
because we live in the more temperate climate
of Vancouver, Washington.
So it's not been this hot at our place yet.
And so today is, what's the heat today?
What is it?
95, brother.
That's it?
That's just 95?
OK, that feels like 95.
Anyway, that's all I have for announcements.
We're going to have brother Corbin preach after we,
we're going to take up an offering
after we sing another song.
And then we'll have the Bible reading.
Who's reading the Bible tonight?
Anybody?
Brother Robert?
So we'll have the Bible reading.
Then we'll have brother Corbin come up.
Is there anything I'm forgetting about?
No?
Yes?
No?
I don't think so.
But anyway, all right, let's sing another song.
And then we'll receive the offering.
All right, our next song is going to be a song.
Psalm 117.
We're going to be seeing this one acapella,
because me and Kyle didn't get a chance to practice this,
because somebody bailed out on this song before service.
Not to name any names, keep it private.
Psalm 117, make sure it's KJV.
You're going to have some different lyrics.
Psalm 117.
Let's sing it together on that first verse.
Oh, praise the Lord, all ye nations.
Praise Him, all ye people, for His merciful kindness
is great toward us.
And the truth of the Lord endureth forever.
Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord.
Again on that verse.
Oh, praise the Lord, all ye nations.
Praise Him, all ye people, for His merciful kindness
is great toward us.
And the truth of the Lord endureth forever.
Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord.
All right, good scene.
Brother Robert, would you bless the offering for us?
Heavenly Father of the Lord, just thank you for this great day in church.
Lord, I just ask you to bless this offering, Lord.
Help us give us the show for heart.
Lord, I just ask you to bless this church and bless the preaching tonight, Lord.
We'll dig the corbant up with the Holy Ghost.
And Lord, just give us all yours to hear this message here tonight, Lord.
We love you.
Praise the Jesus name, Amen.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, all ye nations, for His merciful kindness is great
toward us.
All right, before we have the Bible reading, I just want to say a couple things about Brother
Corbin.
He's probably not going to like this because he's kind of an introvert, but I've been friends
with Deacon Russell for quite a few years.
When did we meet?
Was it 2013?
It's been like 10 years.
He came to the Portland Soul Waning, the first Portland Soul Waning marathon that Pastor
Anderson put on, and we've been friends ever since, pretty much.
I mean, we talk on a regular basis, and he's leading a great church down in Tucson, and
he works as the deacon for Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona.
But he's also come up here on a lot of trips.
Is this, what, your third time or fourth?
It's like his third time coming up here.
And he really cares about this place, and he really loves this place.
And he comes up here, and I mean, he's got a busy schedule, just like all the other.
I mean, he does the role of a pastor.
He's not a pastor, but he does the role of a pastor, basically.
And he does a great job, and I love his preaching.
I love his friendship.
I'm very thankful he's here.
I'm thankful that he loves the town of Yakima and the area of Yakima to the point where
he comes up here every time I ask him to come, pretty much.
It's been a real blessing having him.
He's put together all these soul-wanting maps for us, and just really helped our church
be very successful up here.
And we've had a few times where we've had over 100 people saved in a short span of time.
So it's just been great having him, and I'm very thankful to have him here preaching for
us tonight.
So hopefully everybody pays good attention to what he has to say tonight.
Brother Robert, come on up and read the Bible for us.
All right, go ahead and turn your Bibles to Revelation 21.
Revelation chapter 21, the Bible reads,
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away, and there was no more sea.
And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband, and heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold,
tabernacle, God is with men, and He will dwell with them.
And they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all the tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are
passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
And he said unto me, Write, these words are true and faithful.
And he said unto me, It is done, I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,
and I will give unto him that is the thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
And he that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my
Son.
But the fearful and the unbelieving and the abominable and the murderers and the
whoremongers and the sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the
lake which burnt the fire brimstone, which is the second death.
And there came out unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the
seven last plagues.
And he talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride and the Lamb's
wife.
And he carried me away into the Spirit to a great high mountain.
And showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of the heaven from God, having
the glory of God.
And her light was like unto a stone, most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear
as crystal, and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gate twelve
angels, and the names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the
children of Israel.
And on the east three gates, of the north three gates, on the south three gates, and
the west three gates, in the wall the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names
of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof,
and the wall thereof, and the city lieth fourscore, and the length is as large as a breadeth
and the measure of the city which the reed, twelve thousand furlongs, and the length of
the breath and the height of it are equal.
And he measured the wall thereof in a hundred and forty and four cubics, according to the
measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
And the building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like unto
clear glass.
And the foundation of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious
stones.
And the first foundation was jasper, and the second sapphire, the third, and celestion,
the fourth emerald, the fifth sardinox, the sixth sardus, and the seventh chrysolite,
and the eighth beryl, and the ninth of topaz, the tenth a chrysopheres, the eleventh and
jack chin, the twelfth, and the amethyst.
And the twelfth gates were twelve pearls.
Every gate, every several gate, sorry, every several gate was of one pearl, and the street
of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass, and I saw no temple thereon, for the
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it.
For the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof, and the nations
of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the King of the earth do
bring their glory and honor unto it.
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there.
And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations of it, and there shall be in
no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or
maketh a lie, for they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Brother Cody, you want to pray for us?
You can just bless everybody, and that they have saved our lives, and that they have blessed
us, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Well, it's great to be here.
Thanks, everybody, for coming out.
I appreciate Pastor Thompson, those kind words, and I do appreciate his friendship, and I
appreciate even the friends here that I've made with Sure Foundation Baptist Church,
and it's, you know, getting, it's feel like I almost have a home away from home at this
point.
It's great to have like a second church family.
You know, I've spent so much time with Sure Foundation, it seems like, and I'm excited
about what's going on here in Yakima, in this church.
I'm excited for what the Lord has in store for this church.
You know, I'm not exactly sure everything that's been taking place lately, but I'm sure
that it's good, and everything that's, it's headed in the right direction, you know.
And I mean, what could be wrong with the church wanting to, you know, breathe new life into
it, and to go out and reach their community with the gospel.
I mean, that's, that's what we're here to do.
And I'm going to preach about that tonight, preach about soul winning.
And we'll get, we're going to start there in Revelation 21, but we're going to end up
over in, over in Genesis chapter 24, if you want to go there.
I feel like I'm missing an entire page of my notes at this point, so we might have to
wing it a little bit.
I don't know if you can find a piece of paper right back there on the top of that
bookshelf.
I'm going to need that in about 20 minutes.
So I'm, I'm not that good.
So I'm working on it, right.
But hey, at least I got the first page, you know, so we can get things going here.
You know, if I did, was missing the first page, this would probably be a lot more awkward.
But we've got, we've got a few, we got a few pages.
Thank you, brother.
Someone was testing me tonight.
So as you get, you know, you're wondering where are all these pages coming from?
Well, you know, I'm just trying to keep up with Pastor Thompson.
You know, you got to have a lot of pages if you're going to preach in Pastor Thompson's
church.
So anyway, that's a little joke.
But anyway, we're going to, we're going to end up eventually in, like I said, Genesis
chapter 24 there.
And we're going to, I want to preach a sermon tonight entitled A Bride for Isaac.
A Bride for Isaac.
But we're there in Revelation 21.
And first thing I just want to point out here is just kind of deal with this issue of who
is the Lord's bride?
You know, who is the Lord's bride?
There's a lot of different opinions out there.
And I think every, you know, position probably has some valid points to make.
My personal opinion is that the New Jerusalem is the bride of Christ.
That's what I believe.
But, you know, regardless of whether you believe it's the saints or whether you believe
it's the city itself, ultimately the bride is with whom Christ dwells.
I mean, that just kind of makes sense when you look at it, you know, from that marriage
relationship.
Obviously, if you're a husband and wife, you're spending a lot of time together.
You're dwelling with one another.
So the bride of Christ is with whom Christ dwells.
You know, whether that's Him dwelling in the city and being the light of that city or Him
indwelling us as the believers as, you know, with the Holy Ghost.
Okay?
But when you look there in Revelation 21, in verse 1 it says,
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away, and there was no more sea.
And I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, excuse me, from
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.
So notice it's the New Jerusalem that has been prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Right?
If you look at verse 9, it says, And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which
had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come
hither, and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
So he's saying, I'm going to show you who the Lamb's wife is.
I'm going to show you.
And what does he show him?
Verse 10, And he carried me away in the Spirit in a great high mountain, and showed me that
great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of
God.
And her light was the light likened to a stone most precious.
Then it goes on, of course, that describes the beauty of that city.
So, you know, this is a great proof text to show you that, you know, the New Jerusalem
is that bride.
Okay?
And that we, as the believers, we are actually those who adorn that bride.
Okay?
Now, obviously, the believers are also likened unto the bride in, you know, John talks about
the bridegroom, the children of the bridegroom.
You have the parable of the virgins.
There's other places you could turn and say, Hey, believers are also likened on the bride.
And that's, that, you know, there's, there's, that's a valid point to make.
But to me, it just seems like Revelation is really clear on this point, that who it is.
Okay?
And that'll make sense in a minute.
You know, it has to be this way because I'm making application at the end of the sermon.
So just, just bear with me.
All right?
It has to be this way.
Right?
But no, I generally believe that's the way it is.
If you would go to Revelation chapter 9, 19.
Revelation chapter 19.
You see, the saints are those that adorn the bride of Christ.
Okay?
If you look there in verse 6, it says in Revelation 19, verse 6,
And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude.
Okay?
So this is obviously the church.
Right?
These are the saints.
These are the believers in heaven.
And these are the ones that are speaking.
The saints.
Right?
This great multitude and a voice of many waters and the voice of mighty thunderings saying.
So what are the voice of the great multitude saying?
Hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the Lamb has come.
Right?
So this is what they are saying.
The saints.
That great multitude.
And his wife hath made herself ready.
So he's referring to the wife, you know, that bride in the third person.
You know, it's not them that they're referring to.
The marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife hath made herself ready.
Now, we have made ourselves ready.
She hath made herself ready.
And to her was granted.
So they're done talking in verse 8, right?
And to her was granted.
The narrator of scripture takes back over that she should be arrayed in fine linen.
Who?
The bride should be arrayed in fine linen.
Clean and white for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
So who is it that adorns the bride, the new Jerusalem?
It's the saints.
It's the righteousness of the saints.
Okay?
Notice again, it's the multitude that is saying this about the bride.
They're not saying that about themselves.
It's the bride that is descending out of heaven from God.
So we adorn the bride of Christ through our righteousness.
Now you say, what does this got to do with soul winning?
Well, think about this.
When you go out and get somebody saved, essentially, you are adorning the bride of Christ.
Because what is the adornment of the bride of Christ?
It is the righteousness of the saints.
So we preach a lot about soul winning.
And if you would, go to Genesis chapter number 24.
Genesis chapter number 24.
We'll be there for the rest of the night.
We preach a lot about soul winning.
We try to really encourage people to go.
We really promote this because what we're doing has such far-reaching implications.
For all of eternity.
It's going to change people's eternal destination.
There's just so many things that are wrapped up in soul winning.
And it's so hard for us sometimes on this side of heaven to see beyond just the here and now.
You know, just see beyond just the person that we're talking to.
The person that doesn't want to hear it.
The person that does want to hear it.
Whatever.
And we kind of might even fall into this rhythm where soul winning is just something we kind of
go through, you know, repetitiously.
It's not something that we really have any passion for.
Or maybe it's something we've just given up all together.
And that's not something we want to lose a love for.
Because as we see here in scripture, when we get someone saved,
when we turn someone into a saint of Christ, they are adorning the bride of Christ.
I mean, what a great thing.
You know, what a marvelous thing that is.
So I want to kind of keep that in mind as we look at Genesis chapter 24.
We're talking about the adorning of Christ's bride in Revelation.
Now we're going to look at a bride for Isaac.
Okay.
If you look there in Genesis chapter 24, of course, this is a story we're probably all very familiar with.
It says in verse 2, Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house that ruled over all that he had.
Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh.
And I will make thee swear by the Lord God, the God of heaven, the God of the earth,
that thou shall not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell.
So if you know the story, he's telling his servant, hey, you got to go back to my land.
You have to go back to where I'm from and take a bride for Isaac.
And don't take Isaac there, right?
He's really adamant about that.
When he says beware, do not take him there, okay?
Now before we really get into it, let me make this point too.
Is that Abraham and Isaac, I believe, are a picture of God the Father and God the Son, right?
When Isaac was offered upon the mount, obviously that was a picture of Christ.
And who's offering him?
His own father, right?
He's giving up his only begotten son.
So you can see in scripture, it's very clear that Abraham and Isaac are kind of picture
of God the Father and God the Son.
Obviously Abraham being the father, Isaac being the son.
So you can kind of take that same picture, that same analogy, and carry it into this chapter
and make application when it comes to soul winning.
And he's telling him here, hey, don't take a wife of the Canaanites.
And again, this is a great picture of Christ, right?
You know, Christ came and dwelled among us.
You know, Christ came and, you know, he was among sinful men, yet he was separate, right?
You can kind of see how the son here is separate from those around him.
Like he wants him to be separated, okay?
And he tells him again, and Abraham said in verse 6, and Abraham said,
And beware that thou bring not my son hither again, the Lord God of heaven,
which took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred,
and which spake unto me, and that swear unto me, saying unto thy seed will I give this land,
he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shall take a wife unto my son from thence.
So Isaac was not to marry among Canaanites, right?
And nor was he to take Isaac to Abraham's former country.
And you say, what has this got to do with soul winning?
Well, let me just point out the fact that, you know, Jesus isn't coming back to save souls, okay?
Isaac was not supposed to go back to his father's country.
That's not, he was not put, you know, his responsibility to go and get his own bride, right?
That was something that was given unto Abraham, the father's God's servant, right?
And, you know, in the same way, we are that servant.
We are that elder servant of Abraham in the story.
You know, and God has put it upon us, God has given us the responsibility.
God, you know, in a way has told us to put our hand under his thigh and swear
that we will go and get the bride for Christ, that we will go and win and adorn that bride,
right?
That's a responsibility that we have.
Jesus isn't coming back to save souls, you know?
He's given unto us the ministry of reconciliation.
If you would, in fact, go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 5.
I know we know this chapter, you know, especially those of us that go soul winning,
that understand what a great privilege it is to be a soul winner.
You know, this is one of the most encouraging, you know, passages about, you know,
being that ambassador for Christ.
You know, when you're going out soul winning,
you're not just going out trying to invite somebody to church,
although we're inviting people to church, I get that.
You know, we're not just out there sweating for no reason.
We're out there representing the Lord Jesus Christ.
I mean, if Abraham, you know, is, you know, putting this responsibility upon his servant,
wouldn't that servant feel like that was a pretty big deal?
When you have a guy like Abraham who has become a great man, you know,
very wealthy man, very powerful man at this point in his life,
and he's giving him this great responsibility about his son,
about finding a bride for his son.
I mean, that's a big responsibility, something the guy took very seriously, right?
Well, you know, we ought to take the role that's been given to us very seriously.
We ought to be very serious about the fact that we have to go out and win the souls,
that Jesus isn't going to come back and do it.
It's our job to do.
Look at verse 16 of 2 Corinthians 5,
Wherefore, henceforth, know we no man after the flesh,
yea, though we have no Christ after the flesh,
yet henceforth we him no more.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature,
You know, so many Baptists, we love this verse.
We love verse 17.
Old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new.
I mean, there's so many great sermons that have been preached about that.
But you know, the really powerful stuff comes even after that.
You know, this is where some really good stuff comes in.
And all things are of God,
with reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ,
and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
And let me point out there, he says, you know,
he's reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.
You know, it always amazes me when I see people kind of
cop out on soul winning.
When they give up on soul winning, they quit on soul winning.
It's like they've forgotten what God has done for them.
They've forgotten the fact that God, you know, before he gets into all of the,
you know, we've been committed this, we're ambassadors,
it's given unto us to do it, it's our job.
Before he even gets into all that and lays that on them,
he says, let me remind you, let me point out the fact
that God has reconciled you unto himself by Christ.
That somebody came and preached you the gospel.
That somebody came and, you know, took time out of their day
and went out in the heat and did what they had to do
to bring you the gospel.
That's why you're reconciled to Christ.
Somebody took the time to, you know, make the video,
put it out there, promote it, share it, whatever,
however you got saved, you know, somebody preached the gospel to you.
And so before he gives this, you know, great commission to us,
before he lays this on us about being ambassadors
and going out and beseeching others, he reminds us
that we have been reconciled to him by Jesus Christ
and have given unto us this ministry of reconciliation.
I love how he puts it, he's given it unto us.
You know, he didn't just, you know, throw it at us and say,
hey, it's your problem, now deal with it.
It's not like he laid some heavy burden on us.
No, he said, you know what, here's an opportunity.
Let me give you something.
Let me grant you something.
Let me give you this great privilege to go out and win souls
and take on this great role as an ambassador
for the Lord God of heaven and the Lord God of earth.
He said, he has given unto us this ministry of reconciliation
to wit that God was in the Christ, reconciling the world on himself,
not imputing the trespasses unto them,
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
I mean, who has it been committed to?
Us.
Meaning if we don't do it, who's going to do it?
Nobody.
Mormons aren't going to do it.
They don't have the right gospel.
The JWs aren't going to do it.
They don't even believe Jesus is God.
They believe he might be a God, which is complete blasphemy.
You know, all these other people that are going out there
and spreading their false religion,
they're not going to get the job done because they can't.
It's something that has been committed unto us.
The only people in this whole world that can go out
and get somebody saved is another saved person.
We're the only ones that can do it.
It's been committed unto us.
He can't find somebody else.
There is no other servant that Abraham is going to take and say,
Hey, go, go get that bride for my son.
There is no, he's not there.
It's us.
We're that servant.
We've been given that responsibility.
It's been committed unto us.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us.
You know, that's what's going on when we're preaching the gospel.
That's what's going on when we're sharing Christ,
when we're opening up the Bible and preaching Jesus Christ to somebody.
God is beseeching that individual through us.
That's a powerful thing.
For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Go back to Genesis chapter number 24.
Actually, you might want to keep something in Corinthians.
We're going to be back in 1 Corinthians a little bit later.
But go to Genesis back there to Genesis 24.
So we see first of all in the story that the servant has been sent by Abraham,
the father of his son, right?
To go and find that bride.
That's a job that he gave him.
Isaac was not allowed to go.
Isaac, he's not going to be sent.
He's saying beware that thou, you don't take him there.
Don't do it, right?
Christ isn't going to come back here and preach the gospel.
You know, he's already done his part.
He already came here once.
He already came here and was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
He already came here and lived that perfect life
and ended up dying on the cross for our sins.
He's already done the hard work.
He wants to beseech sinners through us.
He's just given us that great ministry of reconciliation.
He's committed it unto us just like it was committed unto that servant of Abraham.
Now look at verse 8 here of Genesis chapter 24.
It says,
And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee,
then there shall be clear from this my oath,
only bring not my son thither again.
So this is a kind of a great point, you know, for all the Calvinists.
Not that there's any here, right?
But, you know, because you remember the story, the servant's kind of like,
well, what if she doesn't go with me, right?
What if she says no?
And I love this because obviously if, you know, if we're looking at this tonight,
like Abraham represents the father and then Isaac represents Jesus Christ
and the servant represents the soul winner,
it shows you that the bride, you know, the potential person who's going to get saved,
you know, is or has the ability rather, I should say, to say no.
They have free will, right?
He didn't say go club her over the head and just drag her along with you.
Like against her own will, just drag her by the hair back here, right?
Let's go full Neanderthal, full caveman and just say,
ooga booga, come with me, you know, and just drag her back here.
You know, but that's what a Calvinist might believe.
Just go, whoever she is, don't even ask her.
Just go grab her and say, you know, you have no choice in the matter.
It's been, you know, foreordained.
It's predestined to be the bride.
You know, and spoiler alert, if you haven't read the story,
Rebecca does say yes, okay?
But what I love about the fact that Rebecca says yes to this,
that she goes along with it, you know, it's a great picture of the fact that,
you know, if we are that servant, if we go that distance, if we do that work,
if we're faithful to that which has been given unto us,
there will be people that say yes.
There will be people that get saved.
You say, why do you preach so much about soul winning?
Why do you get so excited about soul winning?
Why are you coming all the way up here to Yakima to preach to people about soul winning?
Why are we getting together tomorrow?
We're going to spend that money and go out there and,
you know, keep this church going for soul winning.
Why are we going to do that?
Because there are people that will get saved, period.
There's people that are going to die and go to hell that didn't have to go there
because people didn't preach the gospel to them.
But on the same token, there's people that are going to die and go to heaven
because somebody did go to them.
Somebody did take the time to go and preach to them the gospel and they said yes.
Just like at this story, at the end, Rebecca says, I'll go.
I'll go.
We need to never lose sight of that.
You know, and especially if you live in an unreceptive area,
a place where it's not, you know, and people get these,
I, you know, they go to these great soul winning marathons,
you know, they go to Detroit, they go to some Indian reservation somewhere
and they just, they're at like the pinnacle of soul winning.
I mean, I remember going to the White Mountain Apache and just,
I mean, I pulled off one little dirt road.
There's like four little trailers.
I got like, I got this lady saved and I got the whole family saved next to her.
And like the course of two hours, you know, I got like several people saved
in just one little tiny little trailer park in the White Mountain Apache.
You know, we're coming back with just dozens of people getting saved.
It's extremely receptive.
But you know what?
That's not everywhere.
And you know, those aren't the only people that we're sent to.
You know, we have to go find that one person on that one block,
or maybe that one area code.
You know, I don't know how receptive or unreceptive it is.
You know, we got to go find that one or two people that are going to get saved.
Maybe, you know, once or twice a month, we're going to get that salvation.
You know, maybe we're only going to get, you know, a few here and a few there,
but we have to go find them.
You know, he didn't say go, go get a whole bunch of brides.
He didn't say go back there and get a whole multitude.
You know, he's not a polygamist.
He's saying just go find the one.
You know, that's the mentality we have to have,
that there's at least one person out there that will get saved and will go.
It might not be tomorrow.
Although, honestly, it probably will be tomorrow.
As far as I, from what I've heard, you know, Yakima is pretty receptive.
You know, I'm sure it's just like any place else.
It has its receptive and unreceptive areas.
But you know, I know one thing for sure is that, you know,
the gospel is the power of God and salvation.
I know that.
I know that if it's preached, people will be brought under conviction.
People will be brought under the power of the Holy Spirit.
People will be spoken to by God's Word.
God will beseech them through us if we'll go preach.
I know that much.
And I know that there will be people that will say yes,
no matter how unreceptive a place is.
You have to keep going.
And look, even if you're in an unreceptive place, you get cool stories.
You know, you get to run into a witch, right?
A witch or necromancer.
Which was it?
Which it is?
I don't know.
No, but we could probably all go.
Anyone who's done any kind of soul winning is probably could have a few stories to tell.
I know I've got a handful.
You know, maybe we'll get together later over at Peppermint Sticks and we can share soul
winning stories.
And all the times I've gotten chased out of the yards by dogs.
I mean, one guy down in Tempe had a gun drawn on him.
I guess that's not what you want to tell people when you're trying to encourage them to go
soul winning.
But I know this crowd.
You know, I know this crowd is already, they're already after.
I feel like I'm preaching the choir tonight.
But you know what?
We all need to hear it, you know, and we need to be reminded of what it is that we're doing
because even great soul winners, you know, they can have lulls.
You know, they can have lows and it's just part of life where they can get discouraged
and kind of fall a bit, you know.
But it's really hard to get back into soul winning after you've been out of it, even
when you know all these things.
So if that's you tonight, hopefully this is, you know, lighting a fire under you.
If you would go to look, if you're still there, look at verse 10.
It says the servant took 10 camels of the camel of his master, you know, because he's
going to get, you know, a woman.
You know, she's got all that luggage.
She's going to bring it back.
But sorry, ladies, just a little joke.
And he departed and for all the goods of his master were in his hand and he rose and went
to Mesopotamia onto the city of Nahor.
And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of
the evening, even the time that the women go out to draw water.
So he says, hmm, if I'm looking for a bride for Isaac, where should I go?
Well, I should probably go where the women are, right?
Of course, I've got, you know, the one parameter is I have to go to where, you know, to where
Abraham's from.
I have to go, you know, where I'm going to find somebody, you know, relative of Nahor,
his brother.
I have to go there.
That's the one thing.
But the only other parameter is it has to be a woman.
Okay.
And I feel like you have to emphasize that even today, right?
Man and woman.
Okay.
Man, I don't want to go off on that.
All right.
Although I could.
I could get something off my chest right now after some of the things I saw flying through
Seattle.
All right.
I saw a freak in Seattle.
I was, I literally, there was this freak.
Let me just go off.
Okay.
I saw this freak in Seattle wearing, it was a man.
Okay.
And he's got, you know, he's a real big guy and he's got these overalls and they come
up to here and they're pink and they got hearts on them and his hair's dyed pink and he's
got his headphones on and they have little pink kitty ears on them and he's still wearing
a mask, but you know, that's a different story.
But it's just like, and I'm looking at him and there's like kids running around.
I just, I'm just disgusted by this freak, you know?
And, and I'm thinking, and he's in the same terminal as me.
So I'm like, Oh man, I'm like, I'm looking up.
How long does it take to drive?
I literally looked up Alaska airlines, like policy on dress code.
I'm thinking, I'm looking at the lady behind the counter, the ticket agent.
I'm saying, if I go and make a stink, is she going to side with me?
Are we going to have to put this to a vote whether this guy's dressed appropriately
for flight?
Cause you know, there is a certain dress standard for flying.
I don't know that's ever been enforced, but I'm thinking all the ways I'm going to get
out of having to sit next to this guy potentially.
Thankfully ended up flying to Portland.
Ooh, go figure.
Anyway, I don't know what they had to do with the story.
I think I was just, in fact, I had nothing to do with the sermon at all.
It just, it happened on the way out here.
And sometimes you just, it's therapeutic for me up here.
Okay.
So, but notice here in the story, where is he going?
He's going to the women are.
No, I don't know if there's any single guys in the room tonight.
You know, maybe there's one or two, I don't know.
But you know, that's a good tip for single guys.
Go where the women are.
Right.
I've pretty much kind of given up, given tips to single guys anymore, but that's the one
tip I always give them.
You know, every now and then a guy I'll say, Hey, what should I do?
Where should I go to find a wife?
Well, obviously church is a great place to start, but you know, that demographic's kind
of missing right now.
You know, but, uh, another great place I've told people to go is, Hey, go get a job at
In-N-Out.
Go get a job at Chick-fil-A.
I already got a job.
I know you're not looking for a job.
You're looking for a wife.
Go to one of these fast food places are, you know, a couple of things are going on that,
you know, that's an advantage to you.
One, they're there.
Okay.
There's, there's girls there.
And you ever go through the drive-thru, you notice there's young ladies there.
Right.
And if you've got a job there, they're stuck with you.
Right.
If you're on the same shift, they can't just walk away.
You can start talking to them, you know, while you're working everything and get that relationship
going.
They can't leave.
Two, you know, it's a second income.
You're already saving up for the ring and the honeymoon and everything else.
Right.
And this is the best part of it all.
You know, she can make a sandwich.
So that's, that's my advice, you know, that I give to people, but you kind of see it in
the story, huh?
It's just kind of common logic.
You know, if you want a wife, go where the women are.
Right.
But how would you apply that to soul winning?
Because that's what the sermon is about.
You know, if we're going to go and adorn the bride of Christ, if we're going to go ahead
and get that bride for Isaac, in a sense, we have to go where they are.
And this is something that Baptists have lost sight of.
And this is why churches die.
This is why churches wither up and die because they don't bring in any new blood.
Because what a lot of them want to do is just sit back and say, okay, here we are.
Come to us.
That's not how it works.
It doesn't work that way.
I know Christ builds the church and God, I believe God will engineer circumstances.
He'll put things on people's heart.
He'll get, we'll get the word out there and let people know we're here.
And if we're faithful going, we're supposed to be going, knocking those doors, that God
will start to send people here.
People will just be compelled to come in here.
People will become and become part of the church.
But we have to be going.
We have to go out and find them.
We have to go out and knock their doors, get them saved.
Tell them to get baptized.
Tell them to get a local church.
Tell them to read their Bible.
You know, we have to go where they are.
Just like this servant, he couldn't just, you know, stop halfway there in the middle
of the desert and say, well, I'm sure a bride will come along eventually.
You know, maybe she'll stumble down the aisle and fall down at the altar and just get saved.
You know, that's what a lot of Baptists are waiting for today.
They're waiting for people to just kind of stumble into church and just, you know, get
saved and just become members.
We have to go where they are.
Just like this servant had to go find them.
And where are they?
They're not in here.
They're out there.
You know, that's why, you know, you always hear that saying, the first two letters of
the gospel are what?
Go, right?
Go into all the world.
We have to go where they are and find them.
Go and teach all nations.
You know, I'm really excited about Sure Foundation Baptist Church and what you guys are doing
here.
And it's not like this is a new thing.
You know, I think Pastor Thompson has an addiction to starting churches or something like that.
I don't know what it is.
It's like he can't stop himself.
You know, he just keeps making more churches.
Like, you know, he's got so many churches.
He'll start talking to me about a guy somewhere.
I'll be like, who is that?
He's like, oh, that's that church I started, you know, five years ago.
You know, I'm like, I can't keep track of them all.
Right?
There's just so many of them.
You know, but I'm excited about that because, you know, Sure Foundation Baptist Church,
you know, I was thinking about this.
I was writing a sermon there.
You guys are on your way to knocking every door in Washington.
I believe that.
I believe you're on your way, but, you know, it's not going to happen next year.
But you say, I don't know.
I mean, that's a pretty big task.
Well, I mean, think about it.
You know, you got Vancouver, right?
Isn't most of Vancouver knocked?
I mean, have you knocked a lot of Vancouver?
If you haven't knocked at all, you've knocked probably the majority of it.
I'm just guessing, you know, I didn't talk to Pastor Thompson about this.
I'm just shooting from the hip.
I could be, you know, get this completely wrong right now.
But, you know, that's one thing that's going on, right?
You got the church up in Spokane, right?
They're knocking a lot of doors up there.
It's the Tri-Cities area, right?
Is that what that is?
No.
Okay.
Just dismiss that.
All right.
But the point is, is that, you know, they've got a church up in Spokane, right?
Well, didn't you just start another one in Seattle?
Now you say, well, Seattle is a big city.
Yeah, it's about 8 million people, you know, amount of doors.
Now, granted, it's taken nigh on to 20 years to get that far.
But let me just remind you, you know, this church down in Tempe
wasn't running 300 to 400 people in its entire life.
You know, I moved there 10 years ago, right?
And they hadn't even broken 100 by the time when I was there.
And they'd already been in existence, I don't know.
I should have thought about this more, you know?
Not, you know, they were around, I think, nine, 10 years, maybe?
No, that would have been less than that.
Six or seven years, right?
But they'd already knocked a huge portion of the map down there.
So it is possible.
You know, if Little Old Faithful Word can do everything that they've done,
you know, we're knocking a lot of doors in Tucson,
we've knocked nearly every single door
and every Indian reservation in Arizona,
which is saying something,
because Arizona has more Indian reservation
than any other state in the nation.
And that's where they sent them all, to the desert.
That's like, hey, go live there, you'll love it.
Right?
But we've knocked, we've knocked on nearly every door.
You know, Brother Raymond right now is, or next week,
he's going to be finishing up the entire town of Payson,
which is like 17,000 people.
And that's just one of the many small towns that we've knocked down there.
And I'm not saying that to brag.
I'm not saying that to say, oh, look at us, we're so great.
What I'm saying is, that's what you guys are going to end up doing.
You know, if you keep this mentality of going where they are,
of seeing the importance of what it is that's been given unto us,
the job that we have to do,
I have no doubt that if this church stays faithful,
the one in Vancouver stays faithful,
the one in Seattle stays faithful,
the one in Spokane stays faithful,
and whatever ones are to come, because we all know Pastor Thompson,
if all those churches stay faithful, that job will get done.
Maybe in 20 years, maybe in 30 years, but so be it.
And you know, I believe that's something that this church can and will accomplish,
is knocking, I'm excited about this church.
So why are you concerned about a church up in little old Yakima?
Because it's going to knock every door in this town?
Because people are going to get saved?
Because people are going to come to this church and become soul learners themselves?
And you know, who knows what's going to happen?
Who knows the potential of this church?
If you look there in verse 12, after he goes,
and he goes to that well of water,
at the time when the women go out to draw water,
he begins to pray, and he said in verse 12,
O Lord God of my master Abraham,
I pray thee, send me good speed this day.
Good speed, just meaning good success.
Make me successful in my mission.
Help me to succeed.
And show me kindness, and excuse me, and show kindness unto my master.
Behold, I stand here by the well of water and the daughters of the men,
of the city come out to draw water.
And let it come to pass to the damsel to whom I shall say,
Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink,
and she shall see drink, and I will give thy camels drink also.
Let the same be she that she appointed for thy servant Isaac.
And thereby shall I know that thou has showed kindness unto my master.
So he's praying, hey, you know, I'm going to,
he's kind of looking for a sign here, right?
He's kind of looking.
I've done my part, Lord.
I've gone.
I've showed up.
I'm where the people are.
I'm out there.
I'm obeying the command to go.
I'm looking for this person.
I'm seeking after them.
Would you bring them to me?
Right?
That's what he's saying.
Saying, bring the bride, you know, bring Isaac's bride to me,
and help me to know that it's her, because I'll say this,
and she'll say that, right?
I'll say, give me drink, and she'll give me a drink,
and my camels also.
Look at verse 15.
And it came to pass that before he had done speaking,
while he's still wrapping up this prayer,
that behold, Rebecca came out, who was born to Bethuel,
the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother,
and her pitcher upon her shoulder.
Jump down to verse 17.
And the servant ran to meet her.
And I love that.
You know, he sees who this is, and he runs to meet her.
It's all, here comes one.
Let me run it over to her.
You know, that's the mentality we have to keep as soul winners.
You don't want to be like these Jehovah's Witnesses out there.
You know, there's a Baptist church,
independent King James only Baptist church,
supposedly soul winning Baptist church,
five minutes from where I live in Tucson.
They've never knocked my door.
How do you know?
Because my wife is a stay-at-home wife.
You know, she's a stay-at-home mother.
And you know, I work from home.
And I've got a door hanger around Christmas,
inviting me to their Christmas service.
They've never knocked my door that I know of.
But you know who's been to my door several times
in the two years that I've lived there?
Jehovah Witnesses.
And you know how they come to my door?
In droves.
I went to the door one day, and there was like six of them.
And I'm like, are you going to jump me into the church?
I'm like, I didn't ask him that.
I just said, not interested.
It's like, didn't you see the giant church van in the driveway?
It's a Baptist church on it.
You know, get a hint.
They really think you're not going to convert me, man.
I don't care how many you come, right?
But think about it, all six of them at the door.
Right?
It's going to take more than that.
But you know, why are there six of them there?
Because they're not into what they're doing.
They're not into it.
You know, if I was leading a soul-willing time,
and I saw six of my church members at one door,
I'd say, what do you think you're doing?
And there's three teams here, right?
Yeah, three.
There's three teams here.
You guys need to keep going,
and you need to go on that street.
I wouldn't have six of them,
but you know the Jehovah Witnesses are all there,
because they're just kind of,
let's just all go to the same door and stand there.
Or maybe they think, you know, they saw the van like,
we need everybody.
You know, I don't know.
But I've seen those, and you know,
that's not the only time.
And I've seen them in my,
I've seen them all the time out there in my neighborhood.
I don't know where I was going with that.
Where were we in the story?
Oh yeah, he ran to meet her, right?
That's such a great picture of the way we need to be
as soul winners.
Be excited about it.
You know, we'd be more excited about going out soul-willing
if we believe that people were going to get saved.
If we knew that in every fiber of our being,
that the gospel has power,
and that God is going to move,
and that God's going to answer our prayers,
like God's going to guide us to these people.
You know, when you believe that,
when you know that, you'll run out there.
You'll show up early to soul anytime.
You'll be ready to go.
You won't wait till it's time to get in the van
and go, I gotta use the bathroom.
It's like, are you Jehovah Witness?
That's a JW move.
No, he runs to meet her.
And she said, drink my Lord.
And she hasted and let down her pitcher upon her hand
and gave him drink.
And she had done giving him a drink.
She said, I will draw water for that camels also
until they have been drinking.
So she answers the exact prayer that he prayed.
Isn't that what he prayed?
He said, let her come and I'll say this
and she'll offer me drink and she'll drink to my camels.
And she hated entering your pitcher into the trough
and ran again into the water to draw water
and drew for his camels.
The application I want to make is this,
is that, you know, if you'll go,
if you'll run, if you'll pray, if you'll get out there,
God will bring people your way.
I absolutely believe that.
You know, just the other day, you know, in Tucson,
Tucson is kind of a rough town to go swimming in.
You know, it's receptive.
You know, it'd be a lot more receptive
if we had more Hispanic speakers down there
because that's a very large portion
of the community down there.
And there are very receptive people.
Okay.
You know, that's one thing I love about Catholics
is they got a lot of things right.
We just need to shore them up, you know, on salvation.
But they've got a lot of the other things right.
But, you know, it is still kind of a rough town.
You know, and the reason is,
especially the areas we want to go
where it's more receptive, a lot of, there's a lot of,
you know, it's more of a high crime area.
So there's a lot of gates and there's a lot of dogs,
not just any dogs, pit bulls.
I mean, there's a lot of pit bulls, which I despise.
Okay.
Sorry if that upsets anybody in the room,
but that's how I feel about them.
Don't go there.
Okay.
Just kidding.
Let me tell you about pit bulls.
Anyway, I can't go off on that.
Don't go off on that.
So tempting.
But, you know, there's a lot of gates there
and everything's high, everything's locked.
It's hard to even get to the door sometimes.
And a lot of times the people,
they don't even speak English, they're not interested,
whatever, you know.
And it can be kind of discouraging.
I've been there.
I know what it's like to kind of,
oh, here we go again.
Let's go out there and spend an hour and talk to no one.
Right.
And if we're not careful, you know,
if we don't remember and remind ourselves
that there are people out there that we'll hear,
you know, and if we don't pray before we go,
if we don't pray up and make sure that we're going
in the right spirit, if we're not running through it,
you know, we could become discouraged.
Because, you know, God might not be so inclined
to move on our behalf.
You know, and I've been going soloing down there in Tucson,
you know, practically every weekend for years now.
And, you know, this year I keep track of the people
that I get saved.
I write down their names and where they got saved.
I finally, last week, got my first salvation in Tucson,
not in five years, just this year, okay,
since the year began, you know.
But I've been going out and I finally got a guy.
But you know what's great about the salvation
is the guy was out there, he saw us coming
and he didn't go indoors.
He was out there sitting, smoking, doing whatever,
looking at his phone.
He saw us coming down the street, you know,
Thai, Bibles, and he didn't go,
I just want to talk to these guys and go inside.
Now, after he got saved, he did say, I thought about it.
I thought about, you know, I'm just going to go inside.
He said, but something told me to stay.
And the conversation we had, I mean,
it was just like heaven sent.
And the guy was just so receptive
and he was just so eager to hear what we had to say.
And he, you know, it's real genuine.
That's a divine appointment.
I believe that.
I believe God, you know, will cause people to, you know,
Hey, go outside right now.
Something will just take over me.
You know, I haven't gone outside on the porch
and done anything, you know, it's a commercial break.
Let me go outside, you know, or they'll leave the gate open.
I've had that happen.
You know, normally I close that gate when I come in,
but for some reason today, I just forgot to close that gate.
You know, we know why,
because God will answer prayers like this.
God will answer the prayer of that servant and says,
Hey, send me the person I'm looking for, you know,
but doesn't do any good to pray that prayer,
sitting on the couch.
Doesn't do any good to pray that prayer,
just sitting in the pew.
We need to pray that prayer while we're out there.
Go where they are.
Pray that prayer.
Ask God to send them.
They will come.
It's kind of like that, you know, if you build it,
they will come, right?
If you pray for it, they will come.
I believe that.
You know, that's what we see in the story.
Divine appointments will be made for the faithful soul winner.
I've experienced it.
I know it's true.
And anyone that's been faithful,
anyone that's gone out there,
has had the exact same thing happen.
The person's gotten saved, you know,
and I'm not saying this is every single person gets saved,
but there's going to be people that get saved.
They're saying, you know, it's so funny
that I ran into you today.
I was just thinking about this.
It's exactly what that guy said on Saturday.
You know, I was just, you know,
I was just wondering about, you know,
why it is that, you know,
people have taught me my whole life
that you have to be good enough to go to heaven
or something like that.
I was just thinking about this and you had the answer.
I mean, the guy got choked up, you know,
this big grown man.
I mean, he didn't let me out, you know,
but I could tell, you know,
he had a little misty on me, right?
Because it was moving him.
Like he was seeing it like,
hey, God has moved in my life.
God has made something happen.
God brought this man to my door
to beseech me unto him through him.
That's what's going on when we're out there soul winning.
And if we're faithful, if we'll run to meet
and we pray, we're going to have these encounters,
I believe that.
Verse 16,
And the damsel was very fair to look upon.
A virgin, neither had any man known her,
and she went down to the well
and filled the pitcher and came up.
So it talks about her physical beauty.
You know, when you go soul winning,
a funny thing happens is people look prettier.
People you might kind of look down on,
people you might kind of just dismiss,
people that you would kind of just say,
eh, whatever about,
people you might have an attitude towards,
you know, you start to develop a compassion for them.
You start to actually look at people
and think about, you know, their soul.
You look past the flesh,
you look past the outward appearance,
you look past that,
you see the really beautiful thing
that they can be saved.
See, you know, they become prettier in a sense.
You know, they become fair to you.
You know, going back to, you know,
preaching on the Indian reservation,
and I don't mean this despairingly,
I certainly don't.
But there's a lot of people that live and squalor
on those places.
I mean, you go knock on some of those doors
and you're thinking, nobody lives here.
There's no way anyone's living in here.
And yet they're in there.
And sometimes even just the smell
that comes out of some places,
they're so hard to even stand in front of the door
and try not to let show on your face.
You know, just the rot that's going on there,
the booze that's just been spilled
and all kinds of things.
It's just squalor.
It's filth that some people live in.
You know, but when you're preaching the gospel
and they're listening,
you kind of forget about all that.
And that person, you know,
maybe doesn't have the best physical appearance.
All of a sudden, you know what?
They smile, they're listening.
Maybe they're moved by the fact that God loves them.
The emotion shows up.
And it's like you have a bond with them.
It's like you have more compassion for that person.
And you'll start to carry that around with you
everywhere you go.
Every person you start to look at,
you'll start to see that way.
You know, because people are always kind of
sizing one another up, aren't they?
Especially if you're among dudes.
You know, you're walking to the airport.
I don't know anybody that's done that recently.
You know, and every guy you look at, you're kind of,
is he going to get in my way or am I going to get out of his way?
Saw one like that, toss it.
I'm getting out of your way.
Respect, you know.
Well, you start to, you know,
you size people up in certain ways.
You might look at someone and just have an initial thaw.
You might just think something about a person that's,
you know, have negative thoughts.
Oh, I'm sure I'm the only one that's ever done that.
Come on, come on.
Come on, can I get an amen?
All right, thank you.
Like I'm the only one that's ever had a bad day.
That's had an unspiritual moment out there in the world.
You know, you start seeing some of the freaks.
You know, the good thing about seeing a freak,
like I saw in the terminal today,
is that everybody else started to look a lot more normal.
It's like, you know what, maybe that person,
you know, wearing, I would certainly never wear that.
I never let my wife wear that.
I'm glad that they're wearing that and not that, you know.
But you know, if we go out there and we're soul winning
and we're knocking these doors
and we're meeting these people
and God starts to send them our way,
you know, they're going to become fair to us.
Someone who does that for us.
Look at verse 50, I'm almost done.
It says, and then Laban and Bethuel answered and said,
of course, this is after, let me catch you up real quick.
This is after, you know, he greets Rebecca and they go
and he talks to her family,
explains everything that's taking place in the story,
how Abraham has sent him and tells him who Abraham is
and yada, yada, yada.
And says, hey, I'm here for the bride, right?
Then Laban, verse 50, and Bethuel answered and said,
the thing proceedeth from the Lord.
We cannot speak unto thee, good or bad.
Behold, Rebecca is before thee, take her and go
and let her be thy master's son's wife
as the Lord has spoken.
It came to pass that when Abraham's servant
heard their words, he worshiped the Lord,
bowing himself down to the earth.
And notice verse 53, and the servant brought forth
jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment
and gave them to Rebecca.
What's he doing?
Adorning the bride.
He goes out and he finds that bride
and he's adorning the bride.
But that's what we're doing when we go out
and find these people.
We adorn the bride of Christ.
We bring jewels of gold.
We bring jewels of silver.
That's what we're bringing back to the kingdom.
You know, when we stand before God
and have our works tried, what's gonna remain?
Jewel, gold, precious stones.
The woodhay stubble, the things that we have to go through,
the things that are just kind of day to day,
the things that we all are useful,
woodhay stubble, useful things,
but they're gonna burn up.
The things that you did at your job,
the things that you did just your responsibilities,
you're not gonna get rewarded for paying your bills
or a lot of just the mundane things we do.
They're useful, they're necessary,
but they're gonna burn up.
The things that are gonna remain for eternity,
the jewels of gold and the precious stones.
It's the silver, right?
It's the things that that's what we're gonna bring to God
and adorn the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem way.
Look at verse 54, it says,
and they did eat and drink,
he and the men that were with him and carried all night
and they rose up in the morning and he said,
send me away unto thy master.
And her brother and her mother said,
let the damsel abide with us a few days,
at least 10, and after that she shall go.
And he said to them, hinder me not,
seeing the Lord has prospered my way,
send me away that I may go to my master.
And they said, we will call the damsel and quiet her mouth.
And they called Rebecca and she said unto her,
will thou go with this man?
She said, I will go.
And they sent Rebecca, excuse me,
and they sent away Rebecca, their sister and her nurse
and Abraham's servant and his men.
And they blessed Rebecca and said unto her,
thou art our sister,
be thou the mother of thousands of millions
and let thy seed possess the gates of those that hate them.
You know, they're sending her away with this blessings.
Now, you know, eventually because of Rebecca,
because of that union with Rebecca and Isaac,
they did eventually become a great nation, didn't they?
In a sense that was fulfilled.
She has become the mother of thousands of millions in a way.
You know, a lot of people came from that union.
You know, the bride bears fruit, right?
And the last point I want to make is this,
is that you'll never know whose door you're going to knock.
Another reason why you should go soul winning
and be excited about it and be eager to go
is you don't know whose door you're going to knock.
You know, you don't know the impact
that you're going to have on somebody.
Obviously, you know, not every single person we get saved
is going to become, you know, some great Christian
and, you know, join the church
and become some, you know, powerful soul winner themselves,
but some of them might.
How many does it take to be worth it?
Think about if just one person came.
Think about if every person in here, you know,
who could go out soul winning
went out and just one time you just won one person
who also became a soul winner.
Just one.
I mean, it's exponential
because that person you won would go and do the same thing
if they're a soul winner like you.
If you bore fruit after yourself,
if you reproduced yourself a faithful soul winner
who wins at least one other faithful soul winner here,
I mean, then that idea of knocking every door in Washington
doesn't seem so far-fetched, does it?
So why isn't it happening?
Because a lot of people don't go.
Because a lot of Baptist, a lot of church members,
they just want to sit around and not preach.
They don't want to go out there and do what they're supposed to do.
They don't want to take the responsibility that's been given them.
They don't want to take the opportunity that's been given them.
They don't want to go out and be that ambassador.
They don't want to go out there and be that emissary for Christ.
They don't want to do it.
I mean, how else do you explain it?
Well, the only other option would be is that the gospel doesn't work.
It's either that or the gospel doesn't work.
Either people aren't preaching it or the gospel has lost its power.
Which one do you think it is?
I think we all would agree the gospel has plenty of power in it.
The bride bears fruit.
And you know what?
And you never know whose door you're going to knock.
You never know who's going to be behind that next door, right?
I mean, I think about the fact that our church in Tucson,
people would say it's a smaller church.
We run in the 40s on Sunday morning.
But we got some quality people.
There's people there whose whole lives have been
just sent in another direction.
That were going one way and now they're going another.
I mean, that's a powerful thing.
And you know, it might not be the entire city of Tucson,
but there's a few people there who are going to go on,
whose reach is going to extend beyond my ears.
You know, young men, young women who are going to go out there
and continue on doing what we're doing long after I'm in the grave.
You never know whose door you're going to knock.
You never know if you're going to knock on the next, quote unquote, Rebecca's door.
Who's going to end up being, you know, the mother of, you know,
hundreds of millions or whatever.
What did they say?
Thousands of millions, even more, right?
You never know.
You might knock that next door and the next, you know,
it could be the next pastor.
It could be another pastor who, you know, somebody who shows up and says,
hey, you know what?
I want to be a pastor.
And years later, you know, they've got some church star that's winning,
you know, multitudes of all because what?
Because one person went.
Because one person said, you know, I'm just going to obey the gospel.
I'm going to go out there.
I'm going to pray.
I'm going to run to meet these people.
I'm going to go find them where they are.
And I'm going to bring back that bride.
I'm going to adorn that bride.
But you know what?
I can't tell you whose door you're going to knock tomorrow.
It could be anybody's.
You never know.
But I could tell you exactly whose door you're going to knock if you don't go.
Nobody's.
Whose door did you knock today?
Nobody's.
I never met nobody.
What's he like?
What kind of name is that?
You know, is that Korean or what is that?
What is that European name?
Where's he from?
Nobody.
You know, that's a lot.
That's the door that a lot of people are knocking today.
They're knocking nobody's door.
Yeah, well, you knock nobody's door, nobody's going to get saved.
And nothing's going to happen.
You know, we don't want to fall into that.
And praise God for this church.
And praise God for the people that are here.
Praise God for the people that have driven up here for the preaching
and for the soul winning tomorrow.
Praise God for the people that live here and have come out tonight on a Friday night.
And people who are going to be with us tomorrow and who are going to be members of this church
and be faithful to it and be faithful to the commission that has been given unto us.
To go out and win souls, to bring back that bride for Isaac.
Let's go ahead and close the word of prayer.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for this church.
Thank you for all the men that have been involved in it over the years, Lord.
I thank you for the folks that are here today, now, Lord, who are looking toward the future
and not the past.
Lord, I pray you bless this church and use it mightily to spread your word and your salvation
to this area and even beyond.
We ask that you would bless us now in Christ's name.
Amen.
Thank you.
Hello.
Test, test.
Oh, I think it's working.
Song number 361, Sweet Hour of Prayer.
Let's sing it together on the first.
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
that calls me from a world of care
and bids me at my Father's throne,
make all my wants and wishes known
in seasons of distress and grief.
My soul has often found relief
and oft escapes the tempter's snare
by thy return.
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
sweet hour of prayer,
thy wings shall my petition bear
to him whose truth and faithfulness
engage the waiting soul to bless.
And since he bids me seek his face,
believe his word and trust his grace.
I'll cast on him my every care
and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer,
sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer.
May I thy consolation share
till from Mount Pisgah's lofty hide
I view my home and take my flight.
This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise
to seize the everlasting prize
and shout while passing through the air.
Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer.
Amen. Good to see you, Brother Bill.
Could you just mention a word of prayer?
Thank you.