Part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on this morning is beginning in verse 20 there
where the Bible reads,
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think, according to the power
that worketh in us, unto him be glory
in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages,
world without end. Amen. And this morning I want to talk about
a great experience that we just had a couple of days ago.
We did a great soul winning marathon in Dearborn, Michigan
on Friday and there were so many great lessons from that day and so the title
of the sermon this morning is
Lessons from Dearborn and I'm going to talk about the great event that we had
just a couple days ago in Dearborn, Michigan
and honestly this is the verse that kept coming to mind throughout the day
verse 20
where the Bible says unto him that is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we
ask or think according to the power
that worketh in us. That was the verse that kept coming to me throughout the day
because God honestly did more than we had asked or thought that he would do.
It was just such an amazing
success and of course God gets all the glory.
But the first lesson is found right here
in this passage where it says in verse 21
unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus
throughout all ages world without end. Amen. Now first of all before I get into the
lessons from Dearborn let me just explain to you what we did.
We traveled to Dearborn, Michigan, Paul Wittenberger and I
and we assembled together with
just a bunch of people from all over that area. We just put a call out on
the internet, on Facebook, on YouTube
to people who listen to the sermons that are preached here at Faithful Word Baptist Church.
They listen online
and we just put a call out that we were gonna have this great soul winning
marathon
in Dearborn, Michigan. We were gonna spend the day there knocking doors and doing soul
winning
and we had 62 people show up
to go soul winning in Dearborn, Michigan.
Okay, which is amazing because the most people we've ever even had at a soul
winning marathon here
was 50 people a few times. We had 62 people show up,
two of them turned out to be Judases, so we'll say 60
soul winners showed up. We had 46 people saved in the course of the day's
work
and we had seven people baptized and we also handed out
over 1,400 copies of our documentary film Marching to Zion in the Arabic
version.
Now the first thing that I think is a great lesson
from Dearborn is that great works of God
are not done by one person but they're done by
an assembly of people. You know the Bible says here
that God is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think unto him be glory
in the church by Christ Jesus
throughout all ages world without end.
Amen. That means it doesn't matter whether we're talking about the time
of Christ
or whether we're talking about 2015. In all ages
Christ is glorified in the church
and the Bible said that Jesus told Peter upon this rock I will build my
church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. And also the Bible said that the church
is the pillar and ground of the truth.
Now I'm not going to get into a big sermon on what the church means
but we that know our Bibles know that the church means
an assembly. The church means a congregation. It's a local body
of believers that are banded together for the work of God. You are sitting in
a church. Now a lot of people say oh the church is in your heart. No the church
is right here
assembled. It's a group of people. It's a congregation
and God uses the group and just to illustrate that
you know I was there in Dearborn knocking doors doing soul winning
and I was excited and I was doing my best and
you know before lunch in the first few hours of the day
I was literally running up to the doors. I was so excited
and I worked hard the whole day and you know how many people I got saved that day?
Only one. The whole day of working hard
preaching, talking to person after person after person
I had one saved. But you know what we had as a team? 46 saved.
Why? Because there's 60 people out there doing the work
and one person cannot do a great work for God
like 60 people can do a great work for God
and that's why the church is so important and we have way too many lone
rangers
across America today that are not a part of a church. They're not plugged in.
They're not part of the team and on their own
they're not going to accomplish as much as if they would get in
a local body of baptized believers and get out there and do the work of God
with the church which is God's institution
which he designed for his work in the New Testament. The church my friend.
It's about churches. We need great churches to do great works for God today
across the United States of America. The Bible says
one of you shall chase a thousand, two of you will put 10,000 to flight
and so you can do more as a team and that kinda leads me into the second
lesson
from Dearborn is that there's a great lack of leadership
amongst God's people today in the United States of America.
There's a lack of leadership. Go to Romans chapter number 10
Romans chapter 10 and while you're turning to Romans 10 I'll read for you from
Matthew chapter 9
verse 36 Jesus when he saw the multitudes
the Bible says in verse 36 he was moved with compassion on them
because they fainted and were scattered abroad
as sheep having no shepherd. Then said he unto his disciples the harvest truly
is plenteous
but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore
the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.
So there are a lot of sheep today without a shepherd.
They don't have a church. They don't have a pastor leading them. The word pastor
means shepherd.
They're like sheep having no shepherd. They're scattered abroad.
They're not joined in a congregation
and Jesus says the harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few.
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send
forth laborers into his harvest. Look at Romans 10. It says
something similar verse 13 for whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And here's the key verse 15
and how shall they preach except they be sent?
As it is written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel
of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things. See preaching the gospel is always associated with your feet
because the Bible said go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature and that's what you do with your feet
and the Bible says how shall they preach except they be
sent? We need some churches that will send people
out into the harvest to gather and reap
that which the Lord has given us to reap and too many churches today
are not doing the sending because there's a lack of leadership.
There's a lack of pastors that will you know unite and inspire and
encourage the people
and send them out to do a great work for God and if you're not being sent
how shall you go? I can honestly say I grew up
an independent Baptist. I got saved as a six-year-old boy
and from the time I got saved I had a burning desire
to want to get other people saved from the time I was six
but you know what I never did? Get anybody saved.
When I was six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen
all that time I wanted to get someone saved yet I never got anyone saved
and I tried and I wanted to and I even went to my youth pastor as a teenager
and said
let's go out and get people saved can we go out and knock doors or
something you know just from reading the Bible and hearing about things
and they never sent me. They would never take me and train me and teach me
and show me anything.
Then right around the time I turned 17 I got into
an independent fundamental Baptist church and within two weeks
I was out there knocking doors, I was being sent into the harvest
and I was out there learning how to win people to Christ
but it took me you know over a decade to get there
because how could I preach when I wasn't sent and this is the problem
today in America
a lack of leadership amongst God's people. You know why Dearborn shows us that?
Because of the fact that 60-some people
showed up and they're driving in from Ohio, they're driving in from Toronto,
Canada
driving in from all over Michigan. People literally came from as far as Virginia
and South Carolina and many of them had never knocked a door in their life.
Never been soul winning. A lot of them
but they wanted to do it, they're zealous, they're excited
but they're not being sent. You know they had to go and travel
to Michigan, to Detroit you know to be sent out soul winning. It's a shame today
that there aren't local leaders in their area that are leading them to the
charge and firing them up
and getting them out there soul winning and saying like Jehu of old
come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.
That's the leadership. Not go but come with me and see my zeal
for the Lord. Another great lesson
from Dearborn and if you would flip over to Matthew chapter 10
but while you're turning there I'll give you another great lesson from Dearborn
is that you should not believe what the media tells you
or what you read on the internet. There are so many lies
and so much disinformation out there
in the news media today. You can't believe everything you hear
and that lesson was very powerfully illustrated in Dearborn on Friday
because if you read the media reports about Dearborn
here's what they say. Oh you can't go soul winning in Dearborn
they're under Sharia law. Who's heard that before that Dearborn is just
under Sharia law. Yeah that's why they have a honey baked ham.
That's why they have a pot belly pig sandwich shop. That's why they have a
Catholic Church and a Baptist Church and a bar and a strip club
because they're under radical Islamic Sharia law.
But if you're one who's really tuned in to the conservative talk radio man
you know that the Muslims have taken over and brought in Sharia law in America
and Dearborn is the city where they're testing it and all this stuff.
Look it's a complete lie. I was there. I walked the streets of Dearborn
and I boldly made known the gospel of Jesus Christ
without any problems whatsoever.
The Bible says in Proverbs 14 verse 15
the simple believeth every word
but the prudent man looketh well to his goings.
And just when we announced that we were doing this soul winning campaign in
Dearborn
So many people were writing to me saying you know we're worried about you.
We're scared for you. You know you're going to get killed. You're going to get beheaded.
You know they're going to kill you there. You can't do it. It's horrible.
And some of them brought up you know it's Detroit.
You know and literally the way that the way that America perceives Detroit
is like it's some kind of a post-apocalyptic
you know like from a sci-fi movie or something where it's like it's a
failed state or something. You know like a failed state in a third world country.
You know enter Detroit at your own risk.
You know the police have just completely pulled out of Detroit
and the gangs have just taken over and run things. But honestly
you know it's it's all hyped up
is what it is. And you can see why the devil
likes to hype that up so that the gospel won't get to Dearborn
and so the gospel won't get to Detroit when it's white unto harvest.
Okay now one other thing I saw a video on YouTube because people are
people are sending me videos. Look you're you're you're crazy
going in there to Dearborn. You know you're on a suicide mission
and they sent us this video. Christians
are stoned in Dearborn and the police just stand by and let it happen.
As Christians are stoned in Dearborn. So I click on the video and watch it
and here's what the video here's what the stoning was.
They were throwing empty water bottles at them.
That's not exactly a stoning you know when somebody throws an empty water
bottle at you.
I mean what are they going to throw next? Raw hot dogs? You know and pummel you with raw hot dogs?
So but here's the thing. If you watch the video
and they try to film it in a way that's really deceptive
just as the title of the video is deceptive, Christians stoned in Dearborn
and then there are just thousands of comments of people saying oh yeah this
is real
wow they're being stoned I saw it's right here on the video. And you're like are you
insane it's water bottles.
That's not what it means in the Bible when it says stone them with stones.
Okay but basically in the video what they do is
these Christian groups go in there and
they go to a Muslim parade. It's their Muslim event that they hold
once a year.
They show up at their parade basically holding
signs that say you know Mohammed's a pedophile.
Okay then they had which he is but you know it doesn't make any sense to
go there
and hold up a sign at their parade. And then they had
a severed pig's head on a stick
and they're carrying a severed pig's head on a stick
through their Muslim parade and then somebody cusses them out and throws water
bottles at them.
But think about it what if you were having a church picnic at a Christian
church
and you know a bunch of Jews or something came
with blasphemous signs about Jesus saying hey you know
Jesus is blankety-blank this and that and and whatever I mean you'd
probably throw an empty arrowhead at him yourself.
So what I'm saying is you can't just believe
everything that the media tells you. You know when we were there
literally 60 soul winners going out and knocking over 1400 doors
and listen we didn't trim the message we didn't water down the message of the
gospel.
I flat out told these people I said look you're not saved and you know
according to the Bible you will go to hell unless you receive the Lord
Jesus Christ as your savior.
But I told it to them nicely in love I wanted them to get saved.
I wasn't doing this bullhorning, sign holding, obnoxious
in your face stupidity but actually love people
and want them to be saved and go preach to them in love, speaking the truth in love.
Not trimming the message boldly proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God
but not going there with the intent of just grandstanding, chest pounding and
making a YouTube video.
No the goal is is more souls. Not just
making a big show and and and you know fueling people's fear and and
whatever.
Which leads me to my next lesson from Dearborn and by the way when we were there
the Muslims would we'd go to their door and and go to preach the gospel to them
and they came to us with trays of cookies. You know far from being beheaded
far from being stoned we were offered trays of assorted cookies
and they're giving us cold water bottles. Paul Wittenberger
had a lady get in her car and drive around the block
to chase him down to give his group water and everything. You know far from
being stoned or whatever.
And I'm gonna get more into that a little bit later in the sermon. So don't jump to
conclusions about what I'm saying
but honestly you can't believe everything you hear in the media.
You gotta go there and see things for yourself and take
anything the media tells you with a grain of salt. See a lot of God's
people realize that the liberal media is lying to you
but a lot of them still think that the conservative media is telling the truth.
They don't realize that all of its controlled by the devil. Okay both sides.
But anyway look at Matthew 10. The Bible says in verse 26
Fear them not therefore, and I want you to notice those three words, fear them not.
Fear them not therefore for there is nothing covered that should not be revealed
and hid that should not be known. What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light
and what you hear in the ear that preach ye upon the housetops
and fear not them. Notice those three words
fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul
but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell
are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them should not fall on the ground
without your father
but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore
ye are of more value of many sparrows. So we have
fear them not, fear not them
and fear ye not therefore. Three times anyone, don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid. And in the context here he's sending them out soul winning.
That's what Matthew 10 is about. He's sending them out two by two
to preach the kingdom of God. And he's saying don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Look God's gonna protect you.
These people can't harm. They can kill the body. They can't kill the soul.
God's gonna go with you and even when Jesus Christ gave the Great
Commission
he said lo I am with you always even at the end of the world.
And so we have nothing to fear.
And so my next lesson from Dearborn is don't let fear
stop you from serving God. Because even though we had an amazing turnout and we had
60 people show up I know that there were a lot more people
who thought about showing up and didn't show up because they were afraid.
Because they were nervous about it. Because they bought into some of the fear mongering
and they heard some of this stuff and said hey I better just play it safe
and just kinda sit back and see what happens. But you know what? Praise God for
the people
who overcame their fear or didn't have the fear in the first place
and just showed up to boldly make known the mystery
of the gospel. They earned the crowns.
They went out and were a part of a great work for God. They got to be a
part of an
epic soul winning event. But
fear held back many. Don't let fear stop you from serving God.
Preachers today are afraid to preach what's right. People are afraid to go
out and knock a door.
People are afraid to give the gospel to their family members, to their
co-workers, to their loved ones.
And fear is paralyzing us today as Christians.
And the Bible says the wicked flee when no man pursue it. But the righteous
are as bold as a lion. And the Bible says God has not given us
the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Fear is not coming from God. The only fear
that we ought to have is of God himself. And God said go.
He said go into all the world. He said go to every creature.
He said go into the highways and hedges and compel them to command
that my house may be filled. But I learned another lesson
in Dearborn also. Romans chapter 2. Go to Romans chapter 2.
Another great lesson from Dearborn on Friday,
Romans chapter 2, is that Christians have ruined their testimony with Muslims.
Christians have ruined their testimony
with Muslims. You know I was out soul winning and for a couple hours there
was a reporter
that wanted to go soul winning with me. He wanted to tag along with me and I said sure,
come along. And a lot of people said you know you take unsaved people soul winning with you?
Absolutely. Because sometimes they get saved. I've taken
unsaved people out soul winning. And then I'd give the gospel to somebody
and finally pray with them. And then they'd say you know what I just prayed
that prayer too.
I need to be saved and God saved. You know I had a good friend come out one time
and his dad was not saved. And he took his dad soul winning all
afternoon.
His dad was going to the United Methodist Church and he wasn't saved.
And he took his dad soul winning all afternoon. And at one of the doors his dad said you know what
I prayed that prayer too.
I just got saved. And then he got baptized that night at the Sunday
night service. You know praise God for that.
You know why wouldn't we bring more the merrier? Who wants to hear the gospel?
Come along.
So I had this reporter coming along. He's a young guy who's 24 years old
and he was a devout Muslim. And he was soul winning with me for hours.
So he heard me preaching the gospel and presenting the gospel.
And then between doors I'd preach the gospel at the door.
Then I'd preach to him between doors. So but you know he was getting it
double, triple, quadruple.
You know I'm talking to him and trying to convince him and preach to him
between every door.
And you know as I was preaching to him some of the things I was saying seemed
to resonate with him.
But then here's what he brought out. As I'm making sense to him
and the things I'm saying are resonating with him
here's what he fell back on. He said this, well let me ask you this.
He said, do you believe that it's okay for people
to you know go to bed together before they're married?
And I said, absolutely not. Of course not.
And he said, well we don't either. But he said, eighty percent of the Christians
that I know that's what they do.
And he said, he said, I'm a virgin
and I'm going to be when I get married, he said. And I told him, I said, well
you know I said I respect that and I'm glad that you kept yourself pure and I
said you know for your information when I got married
I was a virgin as well, you know. So not all Christians are going out and
committing fornication. It's not everybody's doing it.
But I told him, I said, you know what, I respect that. I appreciate that you kept
yourself pure and I said
but you're kidding yourself if you think that all of your fellow Muslims are
just keeping themselves totally pure because that just isn't true.
You know, there's a lot of corruption amongst the Muslims as well.
But in his mind though, in his inner circle of friends and people
they are keeping it pure. He's keeping it pure. And then he looks at Christianity
as being a fornicating, permissive,
promiscuous religion. And then
I'm sure that the Supreme Court decision
on Friday probably didn't increase his view of Christian America very much
when our country is institutionalizing
and condoning the most vile, filthy,
disgusting behavior on this planet, you know,
while his buddies over in Syria are throwing him off the roof of a building.
And he looks at us as saying you're condoning this filth.
You're condoning this smut. You're promoting this garbage. He said look,
you guys believe that fornication is wrong? He said you're all a bunch of fornicators.
And that shows how Christians can ruin their testimony
where here's a Muslim who's here in the gospel, but in his mind he's thinking, you know what, no,
this is the religion of permissiveness and promiscuity.
This is a dirty religion. We're living a clean life. That's what he's thinking in his mind.
You know, isn't that terrible though, that we don't have the reputation for being pure
and for being righteous where they could look at us and say, you know what,
these people are living a clean life. And look, don't get me wrong, I'm not praising Islam this morning.
Islam is a wicked false religion that's taken people to hell.
But you know what, it's sad when Christian America has lower morals than some of these other countries.
It's really an embarrassment to the cause of Jesus Christ.
Look what Romans 2 says. It says in verse 21,
Thou therefore which teacheth another, teacheth thou not thyself?
Thou that preacheth to man should not steal, dost thou steal?
Thou that sayeth to man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery?
Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law, dishonorous thou God?
For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
Now the context of this is speaking to the Jews.
Paul is talking to the Jews and saying, you are a bad testimony to the Gentiles
because of your stealing and adultery and blasphemy.
You have spoiled your testimony to the Gentiles.
But couldn't we also apply this to modern Christian America and say the name of Jesus
is blasphemed among you throughout the world as it is written.
Isn't that sad?
And this scripture applies.
Go to Psalm, actually go to Matthew 13, go to Matthew chapter 13, I'll just read for you from Psalm 126.
Here's another lesson from Dearborn.
The lesson from Dearborn is that soul winning works.
Soul winning works.
And so many people are down on soul winning and they don't think it works.
And there were so many naysayers going into this thing.
There were so many people who said it's going to be a failure, it's going to be a flop,
you're not going to accomplish anything, you're not going to get these Muslims saved,
you're not going to get anybody saved, you're wasting your time, nobody wants to hear you.
And I got so many emails saying, you know, I live in Dearborn and I don't want to hear
what you have to say and we don't care about this and blah blah blah.
And so many people trying to discourage you and bring you down telling you it's not
going to work, it's not going to work.
And look, whenever you try and do something for the Lord, you know, some things work
better than others and sometimes things don't work that well.
But you know what, you never know unless you try.
And you get out there and work and try things.
But you know what, in the end, you're always a winner if you're preaching the true
gospel of Jesus Christ.
God always gives us the victory.
He always causes us to conquer, in the end, spiritually.
But there were so many naysayers, in fact there was some guy who wrote an article for
the Huffington Post, which is a pretty big news organization, mocking our efforts
to go to Dearborn and go soul winning.
And he said, these people in Dearborn, they don't even speak Arabic.
They're third, fourth, fifth generation.
Fifth generation, they didn't come in the 1800's people, okay?
Get real.
But he's like, oh these people are third, fourth, fifth, none of them even speak Arabic
and blah blah blah.
Look, in the neighborhoods we went, 90% of the people who answered the door were Arabic
and 100% of them spoke Arabic.
There was not one Arab that came to the door that was not fluent in Arabic, not one.
So the movie that we were handing out in Arabic was perfect, I mean they wanted it,
they said they were going to watch it and everything like that.
And we talked to them, and oh these are third, fourth, fifth generation.
We talked to people that said, I was in Palestine two weeks ago, I was in Syria
a month ago.
I mean a lot of them were freshly there.
But the naysayers will tell you, hey soul winning doesn't work.
And even the Christians will tell you, oh soul winning doesn't work.
And you know who is saying, soul winning doesn't work, it's the Christians who don't
want to get off their lazy behinds and go out and do something for the Lord.
So they want to tell themselves, oh it doesn't work, so I'm just fine sitting on
my lazy rear end because it doesn't work anyway.
No, it works, you don't work.
Whenever anybody says to me, soul winning doesn't work, I say, no you don't work.
Because if you work, it works.
And the Bible promises us that it will work because the Bible says in Psalm 126,
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again
with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with them.
And I love what I heard a preacher say once.
He said, if you're not seeing people saved, either the gospel's not being preached
or the gospel's lost its power.
Those are the only two options.
If people are not getting saved, the gospel's not being preached or the gospel has lost
its power.
Amen to that.
Because the Bible says, he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with them.
Now, the people that we got saved, we got 46 people saved as a team, as a group
effort throughout the whole day.
Yeah, but how many of them were Muslims?
First of all, I say, who cares?
A soul's a soul's a soul.
I don't care who I want to the Lord.
You know what?
A lot of people that we want to the Lord were black.
Praise God.
So what?
A soul is a soul.
But you know what?
Many Muslims did get saved.
I don't have the exact number of how many of the people we got saved were Muslim.
I don't think it's that important.
Just to go real conservative, at least 10 of the people that we wanted to Christ
were Muslims.
Just to be real conservative.
But it might have been a lot more than that.
I don't know the exact percentages.
But many of the Muslims got saved.
Now most of the Muslims that got saved were young adults or teenagers.
They're not going to be the dyed in the wool, 40, 50, 60 years old.
Most of the Muslims that we got saved were teenagers and young adults.
But you know what?
That's the best time to reach them.
And most of the Muslims that I've wanted to Christ in my life were in that age group
of early 20s to young teens because that's the best time to reach them.
I heard another preacher say this.
He went out soul winning and somebody asked him, how many people did you get saved?
And he said, two and a half.
And they said, oh I get it.
Two adults and one small child.
He said no.
Two small children and one adult because the adults already wasted half his life.
Because it's better to get people saved.
The younger the better.
Thank God I got saved when I was six.
I wouldn't want to get saved when I was 60.
I'd get saved when I was six.
And so you get to them when they're kids and teenagers and young adults and guess
what?
They've been less brainwashed by the lies of their religion.
And so thank God many people did get saved that were Muslims.
But you know what, I wouldn't give a rip if we went in there and preached to a bunch
of Muslims and then the only people who got saved were agnostics or Catholics or
whatever because a soul is a soul.
And I just want to get people saved.
And I even told people, I said, you know what?
I said if I spend the whole day in Dearborn and I don't get anybody saved, then I'm
going to the Detroit ghetto that night and I'm going to go get somebody saved in the
Detroit ghetto.
I'm getting somebody saved by hook or by crook.
But thank God we got a bunch of people saved in Dearborn itself.
We didn't have to go into the, you know, enter at your own risk, you know, Detroit.
I've gone soul winning in places like that.
You know, if you show up at 11 a.m., you show up at 2 p.m. and you're wearing a
suit and a tie and a Bible, they're not just going to blow you away.
The people that are getting killed in Detroit and the people that are getting killed in
South Chicago and Gary, Indiana, you know what they are?
Gang members and police officers.
It's not, you know, if you're not involved in the drug war, you just, you know, you're
usually going to be fine.
People are afraid of their own shadow.
And God will protect us.
He's a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
But look at Matthew chapter 13 because I really want to emphasize this thing that soul
winning works.
And you say, well, what do you mean by soul winning?
Here's what I simply mean by soul winning.
Bringing up to someone and opening your Bible and showing them how to be saved.
Just opening your mouth and telling them the gospel using scripture.
And it is a biblical word because the Bible says the fruit of the righteous is a tree
of life and he that winneth souls is wise.
Bringing forth fruit unto the Lord, winning souls.
The Bible also talks about the unbelieving husband being won by the wife.
You know, it is a scriptural terminology that we use.
And let me tell you something.
It works.
How could it not work?
How could preaching the gospel not get somebody saved eventually?
I mean, that's what the Bible says would happen.
But a lot of people are mixed up on this thing of what it means to go forth and weeping
bearing precious seed.
Because there is even an organization known as bearing precious seed.
And this organization bearing precious seed, you know, I thank God that they print good
Bible versions.
They print the King James and they print other good Bible versions in foreign languages.
But you know, a lot of the people associated with that ministry, they think, oh yeah, here's
the answer.
We print a bunch of Bibles.
We print a bunch of tracts and give them out to people.
And that's how we get the gospel out.
But you know, when the Bible says bearing precious seed, you know that it's talking
about opening your mouth and preaching, right?
It's not talking about handing out a leaflet, my friend.
In fact, I'll prove it to you.
What does the Bible say?
Matthew 13, let Jesus interpret the parable of the sower.
What's the sower?
Sowing the seed, right?
The Bible said bearing precious seed.
Okay, Jesus will interpret it for us.
Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
We're in Matthew 13 verse 19.
When anyone what?
When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the
wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.
This is he which received seed by the wayside.
But he that receiveth the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word,
and anon with joy receiveth it.
Yet hath he not rooted himself, but doereth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution
arises because of the word, by and by he's offended.
He also that received seed among the thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the care
of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
But he that receiveth seed into the good ground.
Is he that heareth the word.
Group one hears the word.
Group two hears the word.
Group three hears the word.
Group four hears the word.
What does it mean my friend to sow the seed?
It's when you preach the word and somebody hears it.
Somebody hears it today.
And too many people are using this cop out of a gospel tract.
And I know this isn't popular and people get real offended when I preach this.
But you know what?
You don't get it or lump it.
It's the truth and somebody needs to stand up and say it.
That going up to somebody and giving them a tract is not preaching the gospel.
And it's a cop out where you say, oh I gave that person the gospel because you
give them a tract.
Because most of those tracts go in the trash and even if people read them they don't
usually understand them anyway.
You know the best way to get somebody saved, the biblical way to get somebody saved,
biblically bearing the precious seed is to walk up to you and open my mouth and
talk to you and you hear the word of God.
That's what it says, hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing,
hearing, hearing.
Oh here, read this.
Not what the Bible says.
See God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
And so we need to go out and open our mouths, man, woman, boy, and girl.
Open your mouth and tell people about Jesus.
And it's a lot easier to hand them a piece of paper and then run away like a
coward than it is to open the Bible and say let me show you how to be saved.
Open our mouth and talk to them and say hey, Romans 3, 23, Romans 3, 10, John 3, 16,
John 3, 18, John 3, 36, John 6, 47, whatever, you know, and preach to them and speak
to them and the Holy Spirit upon you.
This is what gets the job done.
He that goes forth and weepeth bearing precious seed.
But you know what we see a lot of today?
First of all, there's no going forth and weeping because you know what the weeping
there represents?
That you care.
You know, why would you weep?
Because you care.
Because you love people.
Now here's the thing.
If you love someone, you know what you're going to do if you love someone?
You're going to walk up to them and you're going to explain to them lovingly how
to be saved, right?
You're going to talk to them.
You're going to be nice to them and you're going to try to convince them to get saved.
Think about someone that you love that's not saved.
How would you talk to them?
You know, maybe it's a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a friend at work.
How would you talk to them?
You would be nice and you would try to plead with them and beg them to be saved and
you'd show them scripture and you'd be nice.
Okay, would you walk in to Thanksgiving?
If you really wanted to get your extended family saved, would you walk into Thanksgiving
with a bullhorn?
Hey everybody, you're going to hell!
You need to repent!
You're going to hell on your way to hell today!
You're deceived by that!
You know, here's why you wouldn't do it, because it wouldn't work.
And you know what?
If bullhorning worked, if holding up obnoxious stupid signs worked and bullhorning worked,
you know what?
I'd do it.
If it worked, let's do it.
You know why?
Because I care.
Because I love people and want them to be saved.
And if it takes a bullhorn to get them saved, I'll use a bullhorn to get them saved.
If it takes an obnoxious stupid sign, I'll take an obnoxious stupid sign.
But you know what?
It doesn't work.
It's stupid.
It's not biblical.
No, it's nowhere, it's not found in the Bible.
It's not the example we see in the Bible.
You know, we look at the great soul winners in the Bible.
Did they ever trim and sugarcoat the message?
Absolutely not.
But you know what they did though?
They spoke the truth in love.
And you know what?
They did point out sometimes common ground, but they didn't trim the message.
See the problem with people like Rick Warren, they'll get up and talk to the Muslims
and find the common ground, but then they forget to tell them the part about how
they're all going to hell and how they need to repent of their Islam and believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
That's the problem.
But you know, we see the Apostle Paul on Mars Hill, and what does he do?
He says to them, you're too superstitious.
Is that a compliment or an insult?
He tells them, look, you're too superstitious.
And he says, you have an altar to the unknown God.
He said, him therefore you ignorantly worship.
I'll declare unto you.
Let me tell you who the unknown God is.
He's the only God, okay.
But he also will point out, hey, here's what some of your poets have said.
And basically he'll find common ground and talk to them.
For example, Stephen, you know, when he preaches to the Jews, he talks about all
the stuff that they agree on and everything, but then he says, look, here's where you
guys are wrong.
And we see all throughout the Bible examples of people like Jesus and the apostles talking
to people and giving them the gospel and so forth.
And you know what?
There's nothing wrong with being nice to people.
And there's nothing wrong with saying, hey, here's something that we agree on.
Here's what we both agree on.
But now let me show you the part that we don't agree on, you know, and that you need to
see here from the Word of God.
But this obnoxious, stupid bullhorning, not only does it not work, this street preaching,
open air evangelism, street preaching and tract distribution and sign holy.
You know what?
These bunch of fools, not only do they not get people saved, even if you talk to
them, they'll tell you, oh, it was so amazing, we got two people saved last year.
Yeah, there's somebody dying every few seconds and going to hell and you're getting two
people saved a year.
That ain't going to cut it.
You're failing.
But then they say, oh, you know, well, we're doing it and we go out there and
we suffer persecution.
No, you're going out and making people mad because you're being an idiot.
And then you're saying we're being persecuted.
They're throwing water bottles at you because you're acting a fool.
And what you're doing makes no sense.
And then it poisons the well for people like us who want to come in and do the real
big boy soul winning.
You know, we want to come in and do the big boy soul, the real soul, the mature
Christian soul winning, the real thing that actually works with the actual tear
in the eye.
And then a lot of people are heartened and we have to undo the damage that these
other idiots have done.
And they're hurting the cause of Christ.
It's really a joke, my friend.
But honestly, soul winning works.
A tear in the eye works, bearing precious seed works, using the word of
God and preaching house to house, every house, highways and hedges.
It works today.
And that's why the devil hates it.
I don't think the devil even cares about these fools going to a queer pride
parade and screaming and bullhorning and holding signs to a bunch of people
that are already reprobates anyway.
What he does care and want to stop is when people actually go forth weeping,
bearing the precious seed and go house to house and go with the Bible and
the true gospel and a tear in the eye and love in their heart and the Holy
Ghost upon them because they get things done because it works.
Tracts don't work.
Street preaching doesn't work.
Obnoxious signs don't work.
And I'll say it till I'm blue in the face.
And your tracts, your tract ministry is a cop out where you make people think
that they're getting all these people saved because we handed out 10,000 tracts.
No, you need to open your mouth and preach and not be scared and
shy of doing what God told you to do, my friend.
But here's the biggest lesson of Dearborn.
Here's the biggest, most important lesson.
I'll close on this lesson.
Go to John, Chapter 4.
John, Chapter 4, here's the most important lesson from Dearborn.
I'll give you a quick review of the lessons learned in Dearborn.
Number one is that God uses the congregation, He uses the church, He uses the assembly
of people to get great works done for Him.
Sixty people teamed up.
Forty-six people saved.
Seven baptized.
You say, how did you baptize seven people?
You know, you better not have been sprinkling like a Protestant.
No, we baptize them in the hotel swimming pool.
You say, a sea here is water.
You know, who can forbid water that these should be baptized?
We paraded into the hotel swimming pool, we went to this fancy hotel, the Henry.
We walked into the Henry autograph collection and we marched into the indoor swimming pool
at the Henry with like 40-some people and we lined up seven people and there were
other people just swimming there, families on vacation and the kids, all the kids were
playing and joking around.
Next thing you knew, all the kids were just lined up on the edge of the hot tub and it's
like, I baptize you my brother in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
and we're baptizing seven people in the swimming pool.
It was exciting.
Oh, the Baptists are dead.
Hey look, I don't have to roll in the aisles and act like a chimpanzee up here and
act like a two-year-old just to prove, hey, this isn't a dead church.
I'm going to act like a two-year-old to prove it and run around and hoop and holler and
act like an idiot.
No, and you know what, barking like a dog and rolling in the aisles, that's not exciting.
Being a holy roller.
You know what's exciting?
Baptizing seven people in the hotel swimming pool.
You know what's exciting?
Getting 46 people saved out on soul-wooding.
You know what's exciting?
Giving the gospel to way more than 46 Muslims who didn't get saved today but we planted
the seed.
And God presented the full plan of salvation to Muslim after Muslim after Muslim.
And you know what?
God's word's not going to return void.
And so we planted the seed and prayed to God that somebody else will water.
I know that there are a couple of Baptist churches in Dearborn that from what I could
tell are soul-winning churches.
There are a couple soul-winning churches.
You know, I prayed to God that they would get a vision to go back and knock those
doors again and water those seeds and get these people that didn't get baptized,
get them baptized and get them in church and teach them to observe all things whatsoever
Christ has commanded you.
You know, that's what big kids get excited about.
That's what real men get excited about.
Not a bunch of spiritual two-year-olds who just get excited about it.
You know, I don't get excited going to church that it looks like the price is right.
I get excited about going to church where people are being saved and baptized.
And where people are growing in the Lord and their lives are being changed.
Hey, that's where the excitement is.
But the next lesson is that there's a lack of leadership amongst God's people across
America where, you know, you can just show up and round people up that have never been
soul-winning and just get them going.
You know, we want to do this in other parts of the country just because we had such a
great success.
But not only that, we learned, you know, hey, don't believe everything the media tells
you.
Don't believe what you read on the internet.
You know, take it with a grain of salt, okay?
We learned that fear can stop you from serving God and we should never allow that
to happen.
The lesson is that Christians ruin their testimony with Muslims in so many ways.
That was just one example that I gave you.
We learned, of course, that soul-winning works, as it always has and always will.
And last but not least, we learned that the mission field is right here in America.
This is the mission field.
Look what it says in John 4.35.
Say not, ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest.
Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white
already to harvest.
And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that
soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
Don't tell me that, hey, three months from now is when the soul-winning is going to happen.
Or three hundred miles from here or three thousand miles from here or wherever.
You know, hey, lift up your eyes.
Look around.
The mission field is right here.
And it's not just here in America in the sense that it's in Dearborn.
It's here in Phoenix.
It's here in Tempe.
It's right here.
Now here's what's so silly.
People will go through so much effort and spend so much money and time and energy to
go to a distant country to do soul-winning, and then they won't do any soul-winning here.
Save a few hundred grand.
Save a trip.
It's all right here.
I mean, why don't we do what we have right in front of us, and then let's talk about
taking it somewhere else.
Why don't we do what's here?
The mission field is coming to us every day.
People are moving to this country every day from all over the world.
You want to reach India with the gospel?
It's right here.
It's Tempe.
You want to be a missionary to China?
No.
You need to quit talking about China and start talking about Chinatown.
I want to see you in Chinatown before we talk about you going to China.
Don't tell me about going to Africa until you go to what I affectionately call
Little Africa.
You know, what places in Phoenix where there are all kinds of African immigrants and refugees
constantly cycling through from all over Africa.
Don't tell me about you wanting to be a missionary to Mexico until you can be a missionary
to the Mexican parts of town right here in Phoenix, Arizona.
It's all right here.
What country do you have a burden for?
It's all here in America.
Most of it's here in Phoenix.
Now listen to me.
Earlier I talked about the fact that there were no beheadings on Friday.
There were no stonings.
There wasn't even so much as an empty water bottle thrown.
No one even yelled at us.
No one even threatened us.
Nothing.
I mean, even when we told people, you're not saved, you're going to go to hell.
You know, we did it nicely and gently and explained them from the Bible.
It was still, hey, have a good day.
God bless you.
But here's the thing, my friend, the reality is that if we were over on their turf in Iran
or something, they would kill us.
So I don't want you to misunderstand me that I'm up here saying that Islam's a religion
of peace because it's not.
And you say, well, how do you know that they'd kill you if you were in Iran, Pastor
Anderson?
How do you know that's not a lie like Dearborn was a lie?
Here's how I know it's not a lie because number one, the Quran flat out says in many
places, I've read it myself, slay them.
You know, and over and over again about how any Muslim who's going to convert needs to
be slain and the people who are trying to convert them need to be slain.
It's in the Quran itself, number one.
But number two, because I have communicated with people living in Iran and I've communicated
with them very in-depth and spoken to people, multiple people unrelated to one another,
who live in Tehran itself, the capital of Iran, who said that if you are a Christian
and you've always been a Christian, then you're totally fine to live in Iran.
They're not going to kill you or persecute you.
If you're a Christian and you've always been a Christian, you're allowed to be a Christian
in Iran.
Because if you look at the demographics of Iran, there are Christians in Iran.
But here's what they said.
If you try to convert Muslims, you will be hanged.
And if you are a Muslim who converts to Christianity, you will be hanged.
So the persecution is real.
The danger is real.
When the Muslims take power, they are violent.
They do kill people for soul winning or for converting.
And other parts of the world, I've heard the same thing from people who actually live
there, not just some media source or some right-wing radio host or some mainstream media.
So here's my question then.
Because the Bible real clearly says in Matthew chapter 10, if they persecute you in this
city, flee ye into another.
He said, look, shake the dust off your feet, right?
If they won't receive the Gospel, if they don't want to hear your message, then shake
off the dust and go to the next place.
That's what Jesus said in Matthew 10.
He said if they persecute you in this city, flee you into another.
So here's my question then.
Why would you want to go over to their turf and risk your life and risk your neck
and literally risk being killed and have to learn a foreign language and have to travel
to an unfamiliar place and go over there and be lucky to give the Gospel to a few
people or maybe sneaking around and underground and you're going to give the Gospel to
ten people.
Why don't you just go to Dearborn, Michigan and witness to them on our turf where it's
totally safe, where there's no danger of being beheaded, where there's no danger of
being hanged, where there's no danger of violent reprisals.
Why are we not doing it here where we can do it?
And guess what?
Here, most of them speak English.
What are we doing?
It's right here.
But people would love to just throw their money at something.
They don't want to go across the street to witness to somebody so they throw money
in the plate to send some bozo to another country who you don't even know if that guy
is even a real soul winner because a lot of these missionaries are total bozos.
I wish I could tell you that all these missionaries are just, they're tearing it
up and they're lighting the world on fire with the Gospel but a lot of these missionaries
are a joke.
I'm not trying to be cynical, I'm just being realistic, my friend.
And you know how I know they're a joke because they don't go soul winning here.
You try to get them out soul winning, it's like pulling teeth.
You know missionaries, hey brother, God bless you, praise the Lord, hallelujah, can I come
display my slide show in your church?
No but you can go soul winning with me.
Let's go soul winning.
I want to see you in action.
I want to watch you, give the Gospel to people, I want to see what you can do.
Oh well I'm busy, I'm washing my hair.
But you know what?
If they won't do it here, they won't do it there, period.
End of story.
Because it's harder there than it is here.
Hey, if you can't do it, if you can't run with the footmen, you're not going to be
able to contend with the horses the Bible says.
And you know what, first before we talk about your big expedition into the heart
of Iran with the Gospel and into Iraq and Saudi Arabia with the Gospel, first tell me
about how you witnessed to all the Arabs in Dearborn first and now you ran out of
them and now you're going to go take it over there.
Because you know what, that's what Jesus did.
Jesus ran out of cities.
Jesus and his disciples in three and a half years went to all the towns and villages
and cities of Israel, they went to all of them.
Then once they, and he said, go not into the way of the Gentiles and in any city
of the Samaritans, and are ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
and they finished the task, they finished the job, and then they said, okay, now go
into all the world.
You know what, I'm all for missions.
I love missions.
When I grew up as a little kid, I wanted to be a missionary.
I was studying foreign languages, I wanted to go to the mission field.
Then I went to the mission field and I was a little disillusioned by some of the things
that I saw over there.
There are good missionaries, but there are more bad missionaries than good missionaries,
sad to say.
But I realized, wait a minute, it's right here.
The home base has fallen apart.
Look, why do we think that we need to have a church send out 50 missionaries all over
the world, when your own city is going to hell in a hand basket, you've given
over your city to the filthy sodomites.
I mean, you're failing miserably at home.
And I just decided, I'm starting a church in America because the home base needs help.
And it needs help more than it did when I started this church.
And look at all the sheep without a shepherd.
Look, we need, instead of me traveling to Michigan and rounding up 60 people, you
know what, we need some pastor in Michigan that will round up 60 people and let's go
to Dearborn and do it, and round up 100 people.
And we need a pastor in every city in America to get excited, to get on fire.
And you know what, I pray to God that our church can train out, you know, we've trained
three pastors and we hope to train many more in the future.
I hope we can just train them and send them out, send them out, send them out.
I want to train and send out 100 preachers out of this church to go all over America
and to go big and to make big sacrifices and to do great things for God and to see
many thousands and millions of people saved and to do something great for God because
it's so easy.
It's right there.
I mean, God has set before us an open door.
You know, all the, you know, but let's go beat our head against the wall in some distant
country where we don't know the language and spend years in language school and hand
out tracts because we don't know how to talk the language and bla bla bla and invite
people over to dinner 500 times before we can build their confidence.
You know, you can't just, every missionary you talk to is like, oh well where I'm
at, soul winning doesn't work.
And then you go there and try it and it works.
Oh you can't, soul winning doesn't work here in Germany because they have these intercom
systems just ruin soul winning.
I'll push those intercom buttons and say get down here and listen to the gospel.
I don't say it like that, but I'm saying, look, you know what?
Sometimes you talk on the intercom and say, hey, I'm from so-and-so, you know, sometimes
they'll come down and talk to you through the intercom.
Or guess what?
Forget the intercom.
Walk down the street and find people that are walking down the street.
Or go to the neighborhood that's so poor they can't afford the intercom and knock
all those doors.
Where there's a will, there's a way and losers just make excuses about how it can't
be done.
And oh, in this part of the world, you don't understand pastor, you can't just walk
up and give them the gospel.
That just doesn't work.
No, you got to get to know them.
You got to build their trust, you got to build their confidence, you got to bring
food over to their house, invite them over 5,000 times, and then you start out just real
soft by like maybe praying and saying, in Jesus' name, amen.
You know, kind of see how that goes.
Let that sink in for a while.
You know?
Look, I'm sorry, I grew up an independent Baptist, this is how missionaries talk.
I know I'm exaggerating, but you know, the essence is there.
But you know what works?
Everywhere on this planet, walking up to people and giving them the gospel.
No, I tried it, it didn't work.
Yeah, you didn't try long enough.
Go do it for 10 hours.
Go do it every day for two weeks straight, and if you don't come back with somebody
saved then I'm a monkey's uncle.
Because you know what, or maybe you're not saved or you don't know what you're doing
or you don't know the Bible or the gospel or you're not filled with the Holy Spirit.
I don't know what.
The problem's not the gospel, the problem's you.
Telling you my friend, it's not necessarily always easy, but it can always be done.
But you know what, in America it is easy.
The door is wide open.
And we, you know, and again, I'm not saying, hey, I don't believe in missions.
You know what?
I know some guys right now that are talking about how they want to start churches in the
Philippines and other parts of the world, and you know what, I think that's awesome.
I think that's great.
You know guys of our style of soul winning and our style of church planting and preaching,
and they're talking, hey, we want to go start churches in the Philippines.
You know what?
That's awesome.
I want to see that happen.
That's great.
All over the world.
Let's do it.
But you know what?
Let's not get so into that that we just ignore what's right in front of us, what's
right around us.
The mission field is right here in America.
You go to their turf, you know what?
It's true.
They are going to chop your head off or hang you.
So why not do it here where they're on our turf and they have to be nice to us?
It just makes sense.
Sorry to confuse you with the Bible and make so much sense this morning, but these
are the true sayings of God.
Let's all rise and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the amazing day that we had on Friday, Lord, and you
really did, exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think, Lord.
If we would have had half the success, if we would have had thirty people show up and
twenty-three saved and three baptized, Lord, I would have been thrilled that you did
exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think and just brought in an
amazing group of wonderful, nice people that love you, that wanted to do the work,
Lord, and you brought in the harvest, Lord, and you get all the glory.
It doesn't go to any one person, Lord.
It was you that got glory in the church by using the team, Lord, through your Holy
Spirit.
Thank you so much for that, and Father, I pray that the lessons that I was able to
share this morning from that wondrous event would sink in, Lord, and that people here
in Phoenix and people around the world who are listening to this sermon, Lord, would
be motivated and inspired and would learn the lessons from Dearborn.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.