In Mark chapter 16, the Bible reads in verse 15,
He said unto them, Go ye into all the world that preach the gospel
to every creature. You know, I haven't really picked out a title for this morning's sermon, but
really what I just want to talk to us about this morning is just some
just to encourage you to participate in the soul winning that's here at Tucson.
We're going to see why it's important for them to go to soul winning, and then just maybe some practical tips about
things to consider if you're new to soul winning, or maybe you've been soul winning for a long time.
You know, what is soul winning? What is it that we're doing?
So I just want to talk a little bit about soul winning because
soul winning to this church, to Faithful Word Baptist Church, is a huge part of what we do.
I mean, it's the main work that this church does. There's of course the preaching
that goes on behind the pulpit to help those that are saved
and attending the local church to grow in Christ and the grace and knowledge of Him.
But what we do, the reason why we learn, the reason why we come to church, the reason why we
want to develop our Christian life is also that we can go out and reach others. I mean, that's
the main thrust of what we're about here. And I would mention also that that's the main thrust of
God. That's what He wants done. That's the work that God wants done. That's why Faithful Word puts
such an emphasis on soul winning is because God puts a very big emphasis on soul winning. If you
look there in verse 15, and He said, and this is one of the last things that Jesus Christ commanded
His disciples, one of the last things He told and gave them the Great Commission. You know,
often people, they remember the last thing, if you hear it go to a meeting or a seminar or even
preaching, often it's the last thing that you hear that makes the biggest impression.
So what was it that Jesus Christ wanted to impress upon His disciples before He left this earth?
And He said to them in verse 15, go ye into all the world. Go ye into all the world. See,
it's God's will that every person in the world hear the gospel. He didn't say go ye into the
immediate area, go to wherever you feel like. He said go into all the world. God wants the gospel
to be preached throughout the entire world. That's His goal. That's His vision. And that's what we
strive to do here at Faithful Word. That's something that we would love to see accomplished. Now,
no one church is going to accomplish that goal. No one person is going to accomplish that goal.
The world is just too big, too vast. But we have a part in accomplishing this task.
And if we do our part, maybe others will catch on fire and do their part. You know, as a body,
in a church, you know, individuals, you could say that. If you're going to church and you see
people going so many, it might rub off on others who are not. And then that church will rub off
on other churches and they'll get inspired and motivated to go out and to win souls.
That just spreads. And you can see that if people would just understand the importance of God's
vision for preaching the gospel to the whole world, that they might all, that it might actually
be accomplished. If people would just understand that God wants the world to hear the gospel. He
wants us to preach to every creature. You know, not just to a certain nationality, not just to
a certain group of people, not to just where it's convenient or where it's easy. He says He wants
the gospel preached to every creature. Every creature needs to hear the gospel. You know,
a big part of the problem that we have not accomplishing that is that first word there is
not being obeyed. Go. You know, we've all had this Calvinistic thinking creep into our Baptist
churches where they had this idea that God is just going to send the lost to them. That He's
just going to bring them into the church house and sit them down and they're just going to be
able to preach them down an aisle and get them to bow down at an altar and pray a prayer. And that's
all fine and great if that would happen, but you know, the model that I see in the Bible,
the commandment that Jesus Christ gave His disciples, is us going out there.
He's telling us to go. He's telling us to leave the church house and go out on the highways and
the byways and compel them to come in, not into the church but into God's kingdom that His house
may be full. God wants us to preach the gospel to every creature. Why is it that God wants the
gospel preached to every creature? Well, simply it's because God, it's God's will that every
person believe the gospel. God wants us to preach the gospel to the entire world because God wants
all men to be saved. He wants all men to be saved. Go ahead and turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 2.
And this is important because this will help diffuse, as I said before, this Calvinistic
thinking that if God wants somebody saved that somehow they'll just get saved. Well,
let me tell you something, God wants the whole world to be saved. But is the whole world going
to get saved? I mean, that's what Calvinists will say. They'll think, oh, you know what,
if God wants them to be saved it'll happen. Well, guess what? God wants the whole world to be saved.
So why aren't they all saved? It's because we're not doing our part. We're not going
into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature, which is what we ought to do
because of the fact that God wants every person to believe the gospel. God wants every person
to be saved. Look at there in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 4, who will have all men to be saved,
all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to
be testified in due time. Jesus died and paid that ransom for sin, for everybody, for everybody. He
wants everyone to be saved. Go ahead and turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 4. If you're turning over to
1 Timothy chapter 4, I'll read to you from 2 Peter 3. The Bible says in 2 Peter 3, the Lord is not
slack concerning his promises as some men count slackness, but his long suffering to us were
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. How many does God want
to come to repentance? All. How many people does God want to be saved? All of them. He doesn't want
anybody to perish. 1 Timothy chapter 4, look at verse 10, for therefore we both labor and suffer
approach because we trust in the living God who is the savior of all men. Why is it that we labor?
Why is it that we'll go out as a church? Why is it that Faithful Word Baptist Church is just,
you know, dedicated to going out into all these different places, spending hours, you know,
reaching Phoenix, hours trying to reach Tucson, hours a week, all these different soul winning
times, pushing people to go out, holding soul winning marathons throughout this country,
going out into the, you know, the reservations and preaching in some of the most obscure,
just distant places in this state, the most rural, hard to reach places you could find.
Why is it that we labor? Why is it that we suffer approach? Why is it that we're allowing
ourselves to be criticized by the naysayers who say, soul winning doesn't work, door to door
gossiping, soul winning doesn't work. Why is it that we do that? It's because, as it says there,
we trust in the living God who is the savior of all men. We understand that every single person
on this earth has a savior who died for them, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and he wants them
to be saved. So we see that we have a big task and we have a very important task to accomplish.
We are to reach the whole world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But how are we going to accomplish
that task? As I said before, no one church is going to do that. But what we have to learn to
do as a body here in Tucson is understand that Tucson is our responsibility, that God has given
us a charge, that we have a great work before us, and know we might not reach the whole world,
but let it not be said when we reach out to heaven, when we get the glory, that our Lord
will look at us and say, you didn't reach who you could. Let it be said of us that we at least
attempted to reach our portion of the world, that we at least reach out to those that were in our
area and see Tucson saved, as many as will receive him. You'll see Tucson is the responsibility of
Faithful Word Baptist Church Tucson. That's why it's here. Of course we want people to come out
to church and grow and learn, but we also want to inspire and others to go out and do the work
that we've been given to reach Tucson with the gospel. You see, people have to take responsibility
if you want to turn to Titus chapter 1. People have to take responsibility for evangelizing
certain areas. People have to take responsibility. Somebody has to say, I'm going to carve out this
little section of the world and take responsibility for it. We've got a pastor,
Pastor Anderson, who's got a big vision. He wants to reach all of Phoenix. He wants to reach Tucson.
He even wants to reach all the state of Arizona. Let me tell you, those plans are in effect,
and they're being carried out. I mean, we just knocked the Tahota Odom reservation.
We've knocked every single door on that reservation. That's the second largest reservation
in the state of Arizona. We've got, I think, 12 more to go. I mean, we're just knocking the place
out, and we're going to get it accomplished by the end of this year. Why? Because people are
understanding that they have a responsibility to go out and preach the gospel to every preacher
in their area. That's what we need to have done. You see, people have to take responsibility. It
says there in Titus chapter 1, verse 5, for this cause left IAV and treat, that thou should
have set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I appointed
thee. Of course, we have Paul here telling Titus, you know, he wants him to stay and
create, and he wants him to establish churches and appoint elders, but to what end? That the
gospel might be preached. He said there was a cause that I left thee there. You know, there's a,
if we're saved and God didn't have anything else for us to do, why did he leave us here?
Why are we left here in Tucson? Why are we on this earth? Why don't we just go home with glory?
Because God wants us to set in order the things that are wanting. He wants a church established,
and he wants us to go out and reach every city. Amen. Now, we see, I don't think anyone here is
going to question the task that we've been given from scripture. I think just Mark 16 alone is
enough. I mean, how much more proof do you need from the words of Jesus Christ that he wants us
to preach the gospel to every preacher? I think we all understand that. But he also gives us,
and if you would, turn over to Luke chapter 10. He gives us a biblical example, I believe,
and how we're going to accomplish this practically. You know, because it's a big job.
It's a big job, but there's a practical way to get it done. Luke chapter 10, if you would.
Luke chapter 10, beginning of verse 1. The Bible says in Luke chapter 10, verse 1,
After these things the Lord appointed others seventy also, and sent them two and two before
his face into every city and place, whether he himself would come. If we're going to accomplish
this goal of reaching Tucson with the gospel of Christ, the first thing I want us to notice is
that you have to have an appointment. You have to have an appointment. Notice it says there that the
Lord appointed them. He said, this is what I want you to do. This is where I want you to go. This is
who I want you to go with. There was an appointment. There was a set time that they went out and did
this. He didn't say when you get around to it. They were appointed. You have to have an appointment.
If we're going to reach the city of Tucson with the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have to have a
scheduled time for soul winning. You're more likely to get something done if you actually
sit down and schedule a time out. If you say at this time during this day, I'm going to do this
no matter what. People find time to get things done that they want to get done. If we get a burden
for the lost and desire to fulfill the great commission, then you know what we would do? We
would sit down and say, I am going to go soul winning at this time. Now here at the church,
as I mentioned in announcements, we have two dedicated times that if a person wants to help
fulfill the great commission, there's already a time established that you can go out and do that.
Sundays at 1 30 or right here at the building 1 30 afternoon, we meet every Sunday faithfully.
There's always someone here that's going out and going to preach the gospel. Then again,
Thursdays at 5 30. These are consistent times that you can count on. As the church grows,
I believe that we'll have more times added and not everyone's schedule works with those times,
but I'm sure that if they didn't, we could probably find a time. We could probably find
somebody that would be willing to take you out and go soul winning. But you can count on Sundays
at 1 30. You can count on Thursdays at 5 30. And this is a big reason why people need a local
church. People want to get on fire. Remember when we first found Pastor Anderson online back in
Michigan, we were part of a church. They did other means to go out and try to reach others with the
gospel, but they didn't have a time set aside where they went out for the express purpose
of asking a person at their door within the first 10 to 30 seconds, do you know for sure that if you
die today you go to heaven. Baptist churches have all these other means today that they want to do.
They want to do everything else but soul winning and they want to call that evangelizing. They've
got the bus routes. You name it. There's all kinds of things out there. But we believe here and going
out and knocking on the door and asking that person to their face, not after having getting
to know them, not after taking time out of our schedule, being their friend, sitting down with
them. Those are all fine and good things to do. We go out there to confront them with the
gospel of Jesus Christ. To ask them that question, do you know that you go to heaven if you die today.
That's what we wanted to do. When my wife and I found out about Pastor Anderson, we saw somebody
that was serious about soul winning. I mean we were very involved in a local church that wasn't
doing that. And we thought well maybe we could start that here. Maybe we could do that here. But
let me tell you something, it's hard to get that done. It's hard for you to go ahead and do it all
on your own. To go out and take on that task of soul winning if you don't have a local church.
You need the local church to send you out. Notice there again in verse one it says,
after these things the Lord appointed others seventy also and sent them. You see with somebody
else it was another authority. When somebody else appointed them, what did he do? He sent them.
He sent them out. Don't underestimate the importance of the local church. This is huge.
This is something people need to understand. And people today, even saved Christians,
are forsaking the assembly. They're saying, you know what, we're just going to do house church.
And they've got all these crazy reasons why they don't want to be in God's house.
But we need to be in the local church. Why? So that we can be sent.
If you would turn over to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10.
I want to just read to you from Ephesians 5. Just, you know, as kind of a side note to
at this time just kind of impress upon your minds the importance of the local church.
You're turning over to Romans chapter 10. The Bible says in Ephesians 5,
husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church. Jesus Christ loves the church
and gave himself for it. I mean the God of all glory, the Son of God came down and gave himself
for the local church. That he might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of water by the
word. That he might present it to himself. He did that so that he could, he bought this church,
he purchased the church, he sanctified the church, he cleansed the church. Why? That he could present
it to himself. A glorious church. Not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it
should be holy and without blemish. Jesus Christ paid a great price for the local church. That's
how important it is. And people ought not be forsaking the assembly of the local church.
Why? One, because it cost our Lord his own dear life. But also because there's a work to be done
and that work is most effectively done when it's done through the local church, the work of soul
winning. You see, soul winning is much more likely when it is done under the authority and direction
of the local church. The apostles were much more likely to go out and do some soul winning when
Jesus sent them. When he pushed them out the door and said, I mean think about it, if you're walking
around with the Lord, you know, as one of these apostles and these disciples, what do you want to
just hang around Jesus all the time? What's he going to do next? See a miracle? Maybe get a free
lunch? You know, he's always feeding people. I mean, who wouldn't want to just stay with Jesus
all the time and just dwell there? But he said, hey, you know what, I'm glad you love me, I'm glad
you want to be with me but there's also work to do. You need to go. And he sent them out. That's
what we need. We need a local church to send us out. Look at Romans chapter 10. If I had to turn
there, Romans chapter 10 verse 14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? You know, you're a lot more likely to get
something done, soul winning, and go out and preach the gospel as someone's there to send you.
If a preacher's going to get up and say, hey, you need to go out, soul winning. Here's when we go,
soul winning. Let me show you how to go, soul winning. Let me show you what it takes to do
some soul winning. You see, the local church doesn't just send you out. It also helps you,
soul winning, in several different ways. The local church will provide you with partners
for soul winning. He will provide you for partners. And if you would, just keep something in Luke 10.
I should have told you that. We're going to be looking at Luke 10 verse 1 because there's a lot
just in that one verse that we can learn about soul winning. Luke 10 verse 1, the local church
provides partners for soul winning. Notice when Jesus sent them, he didn't send them out as
individuals. He didn't send them out one by one. What did he do? He says there that he sent them
out two and two, two and two. After these things, the Lord appointed the other 70 also and sent them
two and two before his face. That's how he sent them out. That was the model that Jesus Christ
gave us. When he sent out his disciples to preach him. I believe that model is very important. I
don't think he just came up with that number just to have a number. There were some very good
reasons why he chose to go two and two. One of those is because of the fact that I think it's
much more effective to have two people. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes that two are better than one
because they have a good reward for their labor. When you have a soul winning partner
to go with you, they kind of keep you from getting distracted. You understand it's not
just your time that you're out there. You're out there with somebody else's time and then you need
to be effective. You need to be efficient in your soul winning and not waste time.
You can learn a lot of things from other people. You can learn what works and what doesn't work.
He goes on there and says in Ecclesiastes 4,
for if one fall they will lift up his fellow. Another great thing being sent out two by two
is the encouragement that you receive. But one of them that is alone when he falls for it,
there has not another to help him. You might be out there soul winning and you have a bad
door and somebody's got a bad spirit. Don't let that scare you away. I remember when I first
started I would be so nervous about that. About having some jerk at the door. Is he going to say
something nasty or just be annoyed that you're there. That's going to happen.
But you know what? You got to just learn to shake the dust off your feet and move on.
And a soul winning partner will help you do that. That's one thing I always try to do. If I ever
am out there and somebody, it's the other person's turn to talk and they knock on the door and they
have a bad experience. Someone's just being nasty at the door, rude. The temptation is to walk away
and get in the flesh and just think all the things. But as a soul winning partner when I
see that happen to my partner, when they go through that, I immediately try to get their
mind on something else. I try to talk to them, try to keep a conversation going so you can forget it.
As human beings, I remember being told this when I was working in customer services that we always
tend to remember the bad experiences. If you work with customers, you never remember that great
customer who came in and was very helpful and kind and patient and was appreciative of your work.
You always remember that mean nasty person who came in and had nothing to do but complain and
go to the manager and give you a hard time. I mean, those are the people you remember.
So when we're out soul winning, often that's easy to do. We get a bad door. We get discouraged. We
say, man, what a jerk. We're taking that spirit to the next door, that attitude, that discouragement.
As we go and knock on the door, here, is it going to be another one of those jerks?
That's why as a silent, or not a silent partner, but as a soul winning partner, when you go with
somebody, you can make it a point to encourage them. Say, hey, don't forget about that guy.
And the more you do that, the more natural it becomes. I mean, I've gotten to the point now where
people are a jerk. I didn't see it and I just go on and it really doesn't even faze me
hardly anymore. But that's something that you grow into and I believe that's something that a good
soul winning partner will help you with. That they won't sit there and they'll encourage you
to just move on. They won't say, you're right, that guy was a jerk and he just carries on. But
that's some good reasons why the model of going out two by two is important.
Another reason would simply be because of safety. I mean, simply because of safety. I mean,
we were out soul winning out in Peridot yesterday. I've had a big group out there and we're out on
San Carlos Indian Reservation. Let me tell you, those people are living a rough life out there.
There's some people out there that need to hear the gospel. I mean, if you've never been on one
of these soul winning reservation trips, I at least need to take one. Take one trip with us.
You know, we always schedule them out and I'll try to start, I'll be including that schedule
in the announcements and things and we'll be able to schedule that out. We got one coming up on
the 21st of this month, on Monday. You know, everyone's going to have the day off
and you can go out there too. There's one real close to Fountain Hills in Phoenix on the
Fort McDowell. You have a pie, you know, we could go out there and do it. But you get on some of
these Indian reservations like we did yesterday, man, it's important to stay safe. I mean, I
remember I went to one neighborhood the week prior in that same neighborhood out there in that same
reservation and I found the drug house. I found where the rez was buying all their drugs at.
I found out where they were getting all the meth that's being smoked out there because we're soul
winning and they're right in the middle of this neighborhood. I mean, they got this one house. I
mean, the guy's knocking on the door, a guy pops out, you know, they're doing this, back turn and
the guy turns around and leaves. He wasn't there for a cup of sugar. Every 30 seconds someone's
pulling up and pulling away. I mean, in just five minutes I must have seen half a dozen people come
and go from that one house. Had a car of young guys pull away from that house, saying
something to me, you know, and, you know, I try not to provoke people or anything like that. I'm just
looking away and then they come up to where we were at the driveway, rolling down the window and,
you know, eyeballing me. It could be dangerous. You know, I don't want to scare anybody, you know,
so an intern is going to go, but it is something to be aware of. You know, you need to stay safe
out there. That's why it's important to go two by two. You know, when I said the guy, after that, I said
when we came back the following week, I said I'm putting two teams in there, so I got four guys in
there, you know, and we're gonna, if anything goes on, we're gonna have four guys. We're gonna be able
to watch out for each other. We're gonna leapfrog the houses so that we're all in proximity.
You know, we need to think about how we go soloing. There's a reason why we go two by two.
There's a reason why we leapfrog in certain areas. There's a reason why, you know, certain areas
should be done by, you know, maybe the men. I think this is very important for ladies, you know, that
if women are going, I would even like to see three, you know, three teams or, you know, at least two
groups of two women going out soloing. I think if they're going to go out soloing together, and they
should, that they need to stay safe, and maybe the guy who's kind of planning out the soloing should
keep that in mind. That if there's some ladies that want to go soloing at some time, if they can
carve out some time in their busy schedule, you know, these mothers and things like that, that want
to go out and do some soloing, that they should send to one area where they're not going to have
to worry about, you know, knocking on the local crack house. They should go up and place maybe
it's not as receptive, but at least they're going to be safe. So that's another big reason why we
send people out two by two. It says there are Ecclesiastes, and if one prevail against him, two
shall withstand him in a threefold cord. It's not easily, not quickly broken. It's always good to have
that partner there in case something goes on. So we see, first of all, you know, that we see this
biblical example that Jesus is giving us in Luke chapter 10 about how, you know, how we ought to go
soloing. One is, you know, one thing we ought to do is we ought to determine when we're going to go
soloing. What soloing time are we going to go to? When? During our lives. What time during the week
are we going to carve out and do an hour of soloing? And once we figure that out, we get to
learn that we're going to go out two by two. But I also want us to understand, you know, that's great.
Those are the logistics that are involved. But something that people need to understand is that
you are responsible for your preaching of the gospel. You're responsible for how you preach
the gospel out there. You know, we went out there and had a great day yesterday on the Indian
Reservation up there in Paradise. I had about, I think I had eight teams out there. We got 31
people saved. You say, well, how could that, how is that possible? Well, you know, when you go out
for five hours with people who know how to preach the gospel and everyone's a talker in a receptive
area, that's not uncommon. I mean, it's, I mean, that's the simplicity that is in Christ. That is
the, that's the love that God committed toward us, that he had made the gospel so easy to believe
that if a man would just, with the Holy Spirit inside him, would just open up the book
and just preach to him the gospel of Jesus Christ, you know, that it's by belief, you know,
it's by grace through faith that we're saved and out of works. And the gospel is easy. You'll live
in the Christian life's heart. It can be difficult, can be the struggle. We'll go to heaven. God made
that easy. Why? Because he commended his love toward us. That's how much God loves us. He made
it easy. So if you go to an area, you can get numbers like that. But let me say this. I trust
every last one of those people that are reporting me are reporting me an accurate number. But as
somebody who leads so many, I'm not going to go around and make sure every, you know, follow up
with all of these numbers. I just say, you know what, if you're going to go out and preach the
gospel, you're responsible for how you preach it. And whatever you come, number you come back with,
that's on you. You are responsible how you preach the gospel before God. Notice there it says in
Luke 10, after these things, verse 1, after these things the Lord appointed other 70 also and sent
them two by two before his face. You see, God sees everything we do and your soul winning is
no exception. When you're going out there, he's paying attention to how you're preaching the
gospel. You know, you're going to give an account one day for your works here. Lord, keep something
in Luke 10. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 3. We will give an account to God for our works here.
We will give an account.
So that's why it's important that we understand how to preach the gospel.
That we're thorough, that we're effective, and we take the time that needs to be taken to make sure
a person understands what it takes to believe and understands the gospel. 1st Corinthians
chapter 3, look at verse 13. Every man's work shall be made manifest. You know, all the numbers
that are coming in, I pray every last one of them is accurate. And there might be people that
we count that were just telling us what we wanted to hurt here, but there might have been other
people that we didn't count that actually did get saved. People that, you know, we couldn't lean to
the Lord right then and there, but maybe later they did get saved. These things all balance out
and we get criticized for counting. You know, and counting to me is not the biggest deal in
the world. I don't feel the need to make sure everybody knows how many people I got saved or
didn't get saved. You know, but I'll tell you what, I'm all for counting and so is God. I mean,
he's got a book called Numbers. He does a lot of counting in the Old Testament and there's not any
accounts in the New Testament. You know, there's five thousand added on the church, three thousand,
you know, such as should be saved. God's given the numbers. So I'm not against it, but I'm just
saying that you're responsible for that number, whether or not it's right. And every man's work
shall be made manifest. You know, I got 12 people, I got 10. Praise the Lord. One day God's
going to try that and see if that's really true. For the day shall declare it because it shall be
revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. So we're not going to,
it's not that we just get to report a number here and just, you know, because I believe, you know,
it's possible. I don't know anybody that does this. I don't believe anybody does. I always
give people the benefit of that. But is it possible someone just likes to report a number?
When the preacher calls out and said, you know, at the beginning of the service and says,
let's count up our soul winning for the week. They just like that feeling. They'll raise their hand.
I got five, you know. Hey, praise the Lord. It's a good feeling to have soul winning numbers report,
isn't it? It's a blessing to that you went out during the day and won somebody the Lord and
that you have, you can come back, you know, knowing that you've helped somebody escape the fires of
hell. That's what the blessing is. It's not to be seen of men. So it's possible there might be
somebody that does that, but I'll tell you what, one day their work shall be made manifest.
So that's, you are responsible for your preaching the gospel. And to that end, you need to learn
how to give the gospel. That's why it's important to learn how to give it because you're responsible
for how you do it. And if you don't know how to give the gospel, this is a great praise to learn
how to go out and do some soul winning. If you've never done soul winning before, you are a great
church to learn how to go out and reach the lost with the gospel. The best way to learn is by
learning how to give it from how other people are giving it. Go out and observe how other people do
it. And that's why we encourage people here to be a silent partner. You know, we send out people two
by two, but that doesn't mean both people have to do the talking. You know, if you're someone who's
maybe not comfortable doing the talking, you don't know how to give the gospel yet, you're trying to
learn, you know, go out and be a silent partner. That's how I learned. You know, when I got here
six years ago, my first soul winning partner was Pastor Steven Anderson. And I had many others
after him. And I learned something from every one of those people. I took my time and I did
everything that I needed to do until I gained that confidence or I felt like, you know what,
I am ready to preach the gospel to these people. And I started to do talking. Now let me say this
about silent partners. First of all, I emphasize the silent in silent partners. Okay? A silent
partner is to be a silent partner. You know, and people try, and I understand people get excited
and I, you know, I've been out with people and I've been preaching and I'm talking to the
individual and then this guy's kind of like, yeah, yeah, you know, he's piping up, just throwing in
a few words here and there. That's not silent. Okay? A silent partner is there to watch how it's
done, take notes, and to be quiet until they're ready to talk. That's why when I go to, you know,
if I'm going with somebody else who talks, we trade off door to door. You know, when it's their
turn to talk, I, you know, unless they look at me and act like, hey, what do you think, you know,
or the person doing the talking asks me to interject. I don't say anything. I mean, not a word.
I pray, you know, silent in my heart. I don't pray out loud. You know, I don't take a knee.
But I'll pray and, you know, and that's how, that's what it means to be a silent partner,
to be silent. Let me say this about silent partners. There's no time limit on being a
silent partner. You know, I was talking to a guy recently and he was asking about how long, you
know, he's allowed to be a silent partner. I said he could be a silent partner the rest of your life.
That's fine with me and I believe that's a blessing and I believe that there will be a reward
for the person who's willing to at least go out and be a silent partner. There's no time limit on
it and we should never put pressure on people to do the talking. You know, I've been guilty of this
in the past of just kind of prodding people. So you ever thought about doing the talking?
You know, but I don't ever want to come across as like, hey, you should start talking soon and
I'll get a little wore out. You know, we need more people to talk. What's up? What's taking you so
long? You know, this kind of just, you know, putting pressure on people. I mean, try to
encourage people. Say, hey, what have you thought about it? What are your concerns? What can I do
to help you to feel more confident doing the talking? But never this, you know, I'm going to
give you a deadline or it's time for you to start doing the talking. There is no time limit on being
a silent partner. And I'll also say this about silent partners. I'm wary of anybody who starts
soul winning without having been one. Somebody who just comes out and just right out of the gate,
you know, they show up at church and they're just, they've never been soul winning.
They've never, they've never done on a consistent basis. They've never learned how to do it from
somebody else. They're just right out of the gate. Now I'm not saying people can't go out and do a
great job and learn, you know, right away. But I'll tell you what, I'm wary of somebody who
skips that step, who doesn't have enough humility and to say, well, maybe I need to learn a few
things about how to go soul winning. We need to learn how to go soul winning. One great way is
to be a silent partner and to go out and see how somebody doesn't. We've got men in this room,
self included, that's exactly how they did it. You know, ladies too that have gone out and I've even
watched men in this room go out with me that were silent partners and now today they're doing the
talking. Praise the Lord for that. Because you can't undervalue, you can't underestimate the
value of a silent partner. I mean, just do the math. We have two people that are talkers,
two people who can both preach the gospel and then we have two people show up who don't,
who are silent partners. Well now instead of two teams we've got four. Now we've got more people
to go out and preach the gospel. That's the value of a silent partner. Oh, I'm just a silent partner.
No, you are a helpful element, you are, you know, somebody that can be used of God to reach
the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't underestimate. Now to help you learn how to preach
the gospel, this is what I always tell my silent partners, and I hope people do this, is you need
to listen to sermons that have been preached about solanine. I mean, praise the Lord we have a pastor
who's on top of technology, who's leveraging, you know, the technology that we have available
to the glory of God. And would to God that more Baptists would get this through their head at
these churches and start putting their preaching out and start putting out more resources for God's
people on the internet and things like that. I mean, I don't know, I mean the world's using it,
the world's taking that stuff by storm and using it for their own ends. But you need to go and
listen to sermons that have been preached about solanine. We have a pastor who's preached multiple
sermons about how to be a better solaner, where to start with going solanine. And here's the two
sermons I recommend that every silent partner listen to. And I've been meaning to and I need to
remember to ask Pastor Anderson if we can burn off some copies of these and just have them ready
on hand at all times, just put in somebody's hand. And that's Soul Winning Instructions 1 and 2.
Soul Winning Instructions Part 1, Soul Winning Instructions Part 2. How do I find this sermon,
you ask? Well, if you go on Faithful Word Baptist, just google it, you'll find the website,
it's on our invites. You go there, you go over to the preaching tab on the main page and you click
on that, you'll see the whole list, all the sermons that have been preached going all the
way back to 2006 with MP3 that you can download, with YouTube links, with SoundCloud if you use
that. It's all there, just one click away from a sermon, just a couple clicks. Just get to that
preaching page and you say, well that's a lot of sermons to have to go through. You're right.
And that's why right at the top of that list there's a little search bar. And if a person
were just to go to that page and go to that search bar and type in the word soul, you would
see it would filter out all the titles that have the word soul in it. And you would find Soul
Winning Instructions 1 and 2. You'd find several other sermons that are directed towards learning
how to go soul winning. And again, it's important that you learn how to go soul winning because
you're responsible for your soul winning before God and how effective you are and how well you're
doing it. And it's your responsibility as it is all of ours to go out and preach the gospel to
every creature. So I don't have time to go listen to that sermon. Well you know what?
There's a great job that's been given to us. We need to be effective at it. People need to learn
how to go soul winning and this is a great way to do it. And it blows my mind how many people
they just don't want to do it. They just don't want to learn how to do it. And I'll tell them,
go listen to these sermons. Because I'll tell you what, you know why I learned to go soul winning?
Those sermons were probably one of the biggest things that helped me. And I've been soul winning.
And I do a lot of the same things. I mean, the way I go through the gospel is almost identical
to that. And we're going to get to that in a minute. And when you listen to those sermons,
here's what I recommend. Do what he does. What he tells you to do. Map out your Bible.
How do I remember where to turn in my Bible? Well, you know you're going to Romans 3 10, right?
Romans 3 10. So people go right to Romans 3 23. You know, that's the first place. If you could
just remember that. Put a bookmark there. You know, highlight it. Highlight the verses you're
going to use. Well, I go to Romans 3 23 and I have it highlighted. And then in pencil right next to
it I have the reference Romans 6 23. So now I already know that after I'm done reading that
and explaining that verse, I'm just going to turn to Romans 6 23. And Romans 6 23 is highlighted
in my Bible. You know, right next to that is my next scripture reference where I'm going to go.
Revelation 20 14, Revelation 21 8, Romans 5 8, and so on and so forth.
But I have a map in my Bible. And if you don't understand what I'm trying to explain,
just come see me at the service and I'll show you right from my own Bible how I've done it.
The other thing people need to do, especially when you're starting out,
is use a proven presentation of the Gospel. Don't feel like you have to reinvent the wheel.
Don't feel like you have to have your own unique way of preaching the Gospel.
You know, why not use a tried and proven method? You see, it's effectiveness and efficiency is
what matters about soul winning. That you have an effective and efficient gospel presentation
that covers the points, that explains the points thoroughly, that can bring a person to the
understanding, to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. That's what you're trying to do. You're
not trying to impress your soul winning partner. I'm not impressed. When people have their own way
of doing things, I'm not impressed. I remember one of the first times, years ago, in fact,
it was the first Indian soul winning reservation we did. It was with Pastor Jonathan Shelley. At
that time he was brother to Jonathan Shelley. And I remember I gave somebody the Gospel
and we were walking away from the door and he said, man, that was really refreshing. I said,
what? He said it was nice to see somebody just use that plain old Romans road. And I said,
hey man, I wish I'd seen more of it too. There's nothing wrong with it. It works.
You know, everyone thinks, well, that's the way Pastor Anson did it. It's true, but you know what?
He didn't make up that. He didn't make that up either. He learned it from somebody else.
He probably learned it from somebody else. You know, you don't have to sit there and come up
with your own unique, just impressive way of presenting the Gospel. The important thing about
presenting the Gospel is it needs to be efficient and it needs to be effective. And that's why I
strongly recommend that you map out your Bible and that you listen to soul winning instructions
one and two. And another great thing too is once you have that mapped out and you've listened to
these sermons and you're starting to get a feeling you've been a silent partner and you kind of get
a feel for what needs to be said and how certain questions that need to be asked, practice at home.
Practice by yourself. Practice with a spouse or a loved one, somebody in your family to say, hey,
can you pretend to be unsafe for a second and see if I can win you a Lord? You know, you don't need
to go knock on your own door, but you can sit there right in your living room and say, hey,
you know, just go through it. I mean, my wife, when she's getting ready to go soul winning,
I'll see her over in the front and say, what are you doing? She's like, I'm going through my soul
winning. And she practices what she's going to say, how she's going to say it. They don't praise the
Lord for that. That's what we need. Why? Because not because she's trying to impress anybody,
because she wants to be effective. She wants to be efficient. That should be the desire
of our heart when we go soul winning.
Let me see where I am at for time. I'll move on to my next point here in this, is that
when you're preaching the gospel, you know, to the point of, you know, using proven presentations,
something else I want to say about that is use the same gospel for everyone. You know, of course,
we know what I mean by that is we don't believe in there's, you know, seven or four different
gospels like dispensationalists. And we believe there's one gospel that there's one name under
heaven. We're giving them a man where we must be saved. But what I mean by that is use the
same gospel presentation. You know, I got caught up in this early on. Well, when I run into a Mormon,
I'm going to address this. I'm going to address this. I'm going to address this.
I'm just going to break them down and pick apart. You know what I found out? Mormons are really
hard to get saved because they're incredibly agreeable. You know, you really, it's hard to
pin them down. They're some of the squirreliest people. I think, well, when I'm preaching a Mormon,
I'm going to present my gospel like this. When I'm preaching to, you know, a Catholic,
it's going to be like this. If I get a Jehovah Witness, I'm going to cover this.
If you want to realize real quick is that they all believe the same thing.
Oh yeah, their doctrine might be different. They might say different things and have different
practices, but they all believe the same thing. They all believe in work salvation. They all
believe that you got to be baptized and catechized and homogenized and pastorized.
You got to do all the isms and this and that and take the sacraments and, you know, do good works
and be a good person and follow the commandments and repent of your sin and do all these things
they have to do, all these things that they add to works or add to salvation. That's what they
believe. So all I need to preach them is the gospel of grace through faith. That's it. They
all get the same presentation. You know, I ask them, well, what do you believe a person has to
do in order to go to heaven? I don't ask that question in order to try and, you know, dismantle
their thinking. I just try engaging where they are in their understanding and most people say
the same thing. Be a good person. There's something to that effect, you know, which, you know, it all
comes down and boils down to it if you want to interpret that answer that they give you. Be a
good person. Work salvation. That's what it always comes down to. So I give the same gospel
presentation to everybody. Now sometimes, of course, people are different. You develop a feel
for it and you have to address certain things at different times, but by and large just preach the
same gospel to everybody. Just the same gospel presentation. Excuse me. Just moving along real
quick. I want us to turn over to First Corinthians chapter one because I want to drive this in
with some scripture. You know, it's the same gospel presentation for everybody.
And it doesn't have to be your, you know, everyone, I don't see anything wrong. You know,
the person's got an effective and efficient means of presenting gospel that differs from mine
or somebody else's, fine. All I care is that it works. But I just don't want people to feel like
they have to come up with their own thing. You know, I've been preaching using the same method
for years now and I learned it from somebody else who's been doing it for years. I learned it from
somebody else that's been doing it for years. So I don't feel like fixing what isn't broke.
But some people, if they want to do their own, that's fine. But I think we should all probably
start from the same place. You know, if you're a beginner coming into it. I mean, that's kind
of an overwhelming task. I'm just going to come up with a brand, my own unique soul-winning
presentation as a brand new soul winner. That might be a little bit more intimidating than it
needs to be. It's the same gospel for everyone. Look at First Corinthians chapter one verse 20.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?
Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For that after that the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom, knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. He says in verse 22, for the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom.
You see, there's these two people. This is what they want. This is what it takes for them to
believe. This is what they're looking for. The Jews want a sign. You know, that's not what they
said to Jesus. You know, show us a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom. You know, they're all
into their philosophy and all these other things. But what did he say in verse 23? So we give them
signs and we give them wisdom. He said no, but we preach Christ crucified. Under the Jews the
stomach block and the Greeks foolishness, but under them which are called both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. We preach the same gospel to everybody,
no matter what they believe. Lastly, on our last point, is I want us to understand the seriousness
of soul winning. I want us to understand how important it is that we get involved in soul
winning in our local church. This is what we're here to do and this is important. Look at Luke
chapter 10 again if you would. Hope you kept something there. Luke chapter 10, verse 1.
After these days the Lord appointed unto others seventy also and sent them two and two before
his face into every city and place whether he himself would come. And isn't that a beautiful
picture of what we do? God sends us out and we go out and we preach the gospel to these people
and then he himself comes and through the power of the Holy Spirit, through the power of the
preaching of God's Word, he comes and indwells them. Just as Jesus came behind his disciples,
he comes behind us today and resides in the hearts of those that believe the gospel that
we preach. That's the importance and the seriousness of soul winning.
We're literally preparing the way for Christ to come to these people and abide in them.
It says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and have committed unto us the word of
reconciliation. God has committed unto us, me and you, the people in this church, the word of
reconciliation. It's our job to go out and reconcile Tucson, Arizona to God. That's what has been
committed unto us. That's a big task. It's a serious task. Soul winning isn't just a hobby.
It isn't just something that we do to feel good about ourselves. It's something that God
has committed unto us. It's an important task. It's serious. It goes on and said,
now that we are ambassadors for Christ. I mean, think about an ambassador to the UN,
somebody that we would send him there. You think that's a, you know, you just pick up any old guy
off the street and just say you're going to be the ambassador. I mean, you have to have some serious,
you know, letters behind your name probably. You probably have to have some serious education,
be a real professional and know how to handle yourself. You have a very important job
representing the most powerful nation on earth. You know, we're going out and we are representing
the most powerful kingdom in the world and the universe. We're representing the King of Kings.
We're his ambassador. So that's how important it is that we're doing what we're doing. We are
ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. You know, when you're out there and
you're opening up the Bible and you're going through your presentation, it's not just you
just, you know, going through some motions. At least it shouldn't be. What that is is God
beseeching that person at the door by you. God is using you to beg that person, to beseech that
person, to be saved. And that ought to be in our heart when we go to that door, not just let's get
it over with, let's get our hour in so I can get back to what I'm doing. Understand when you're
going out solely, God is beseeching the lost through you in the preaching of his word. Amen.
It goes on and says, we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God. Jesus Christ isn't
going to come down here and preach the gospel of the world. We're going to do it in his stead.
We pray you in Christ's stead. You know, he's already done all the hard work. He's the one
that came down here, lived a perfect and sinless life, was tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin. He is the one that when he was tortured and crucified and rose again,
he's already done all that work and once he asked us to do, just go tell them about it.
Just go tell them what I have done and we get all timid because someone's gonna, some atheist is
going to get mad at us. So scary. I'm more afraid of God disapproving me when I stand before him.
Why didn't you go and reconcile? Why didn't you go in my stead and beseech them as I appointed
you to do? I'm more afraid of that than what some God-hater is going to say to me at the door.
Get out of here. See ya. I love it when they get mad right away and blow their top and tell me to
leave because I don't want to waste my time because I tell you what, there's somebody out there,
there's somebody out there today that if someone would just bring them the gospel and preach it to
them effectively and efficiently and thoroughly, they would believe. God would beseech them through
us if we would just go. You see, we are gone before him today. We are gone before the Savior
today. We are gone before Christ. We've been appointed. We've been sent. We are gone before him
and we are trying to bring them, him to them and have them meet here through his Word.
I'm telling you something, the seriousness of sowing is that one day they will come before him.
One day they will stand before him. He would turn over to Revelation chapter 20.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 9, it is appointed unto men once to die and after this
to judgment. It is appointed unto men once to die and after this to judgment. If they don't meet
Christ here through us, they will meet him one day in judgment. Revelation chapter 20, the Bible says
the devil, verse 10, and the devil that deceived them was cast in the lake of fire and brimstone
where the beast and false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever. And I saw a
great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and
there was found no place for them and I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the
books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were
judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works and the sea
gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them
and they were judged every man according to their works and death and hell were cast into the lake
of fire. This is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. My friend, the gospel, the preaching of it is important because one day they
will all stand before God. Let's have them meet now. Let's go and introduce them to the Savior
today so they don't have to meet them then. Let's go ahead and pray.