This comes from chapter 17, verse 17 in the book of Luke.
This is the story where Jesus heals the 10 lepers.
It says in verse 11, it came to pass as he went to
Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of
Samaria and Galilee.
And as he entered into a certain village, there met
him 10 men that were lepers, which stood afar off.
And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus,
Master, have mercy on us.
And they said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
And when he saw them, he said unto them, go show
yourselves unto the priests.
And it came to pass that as they went, they were
cleansed.
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed,
turned back and with a loud voice glorified God and
fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks,
and he was a Samaritan.
And Jesus answering said, were not their 10 cleansed?
But where are the nine?
There are not found that returned to give glory to
God save this stranger?
And he said unto him, arise, go thy way.
Thy faith hath made thee whole.
And what I want to talk about today is why is it
that many people who get saved, many people who we
win to Christ don't ever end up coming to church or
don't ever end up serving God or doing anything with
their life?
Because a lot of people use this as an attack on
soul winning and say, well, soul winning is a fraud
because you talk about getting all these people
saved, but where are the nine?
You know, where are the majority of the people that
are getting saved?
Why don't they go to your church?
You know, they'll say if you got these many thousands
of people saved, then why do you only have a few
hundred people in your church?
And so I'm going to answer that question and explain
that.
But we see here in this story that this picture is
salvation.
And in fact, even the statement go thy way, thy
faith hath made thee whole, this is a statement that
is often thy faith hath saved thee, like in Luke
chapter seven, for example, because being whole and
being saved are both basically the same concept.
One has to do with the physical body being whole,
being healthy.
And then the other has to do obviously with the
salvation of the soul, not the physical body, but
it's a similar concept.
So when he says here, thy faith hath made thee whole,
let me ask you this.
Was only this one guy who came back and thanked him
and glorified God?
Was he the only one who was healed?
Did the other nine suddenly get their leprosy back
because they weren't thankful enough?
Absolutely not.
Because we see in the story here that 10 of them were
cleansed, but only one returned to glorify God.
Only one was very grateful and worshiping God and
really thankful and going out of his way to thank
Jesus and so forth.
And in fact, he was the most unlikely person because
he was a Samaritan.
So he was the person that Jesus would have expected
the least to come back and be thankful and glorify
him.
Now, here's the thing about this.
When people come at you with this objection and say,
well, if you're getting all these people saved out
soul winning, then where are they all?
Okay.
When they come at you with that objection or when
they say, well, you went out and won people to the
Lord, but did you disciple them?
Or where are they supposed to go to church now?
Are you planning a church in that area?
Oh, you traveled to that city.
Oh, you traveled to that country and won people to
the Lord.
Okay.
So you must be planning a church then.
Well, no, we're not.
Well, what are you doing?
I'm going to show you how extremely, extremely
unbiblical those objections are.
They're not just a little bit unbiblical.
It's not like, well, I can kind of see where they're
coming from.
They've got a pretty good point.
Yeah, they've got a pretty good point.
If you don't read the Bible at all, if you don't read
the New Testament at all, it does make sense to
basically a carnal mind.
It makes sense, but I'm going to show you this
morning how biblically speaking these objections
are absurd and they don't even come close to being
what the Bible teaches.
Let's look at the scripture.
Let's examine it and see what the Bible actually
says.
Turn to John chapter two.
We're going to go through a whole bunch of verses in
the book of John.
We could, we could look at Mark, we could look at
Luke, we could look at Matthew, but we're going to
look at John just to show you how many multitudes of
people got saved through the ministry of John the
Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles.
Now, talk about an all-star lineup.
John the Baptist, Christ himself, the apostles who
would later turn the world upside down, not only just
the 12 apostles, but then Jesus ordains 70 other
apostles and sends them out preaching full-time the
gospel.
And how long did the ministry of Christ last?
About three and a half years.
So for three and a half years, you've got the
ultimate all-star lineup of the greatest preachers and
soul winners probably in the history of mankind going
out and doing great work for the Lord, knocking every
door, basically teaching the gospel in every little
village, every little town of the entire nation of
Israel.
Look at these scriptures, okay?
First of all, we know in the days of John the
Baptist, the Bible said, you're in John 2, but in
Matthew 3, it said, then went out to him, Jerusalem
and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan
and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their
sins.
So we know many multitudes of people were baptized
by John the Baptist, okay?
But look at John chapter 2, verse 11.
This beginning of miracles did Jesus and Cana of
Galilee and manifested forth his glory and his
disciples believed on him.
Okay, now look at verse 23.
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in
the feast day, many believed in his name when they
saw the miracles which he did.
Go to John chapter 3, verse 26.
John 3, 26 says, and they came unto John and said
unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan
to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same
baptizeth and all men come to him.
So obviously that's an exaggeration, but Jesus is
having a huge ministry.
John the Baptist had a huge ministry.
Look at John chapter 4, verse 1.
When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had
heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples
than John, though Jesus himself baptized not but
his disciples, he left Judea and departed again
into Galilee.
Jump down to verse 39.
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on
him for the saying of the woman which testified, he
told me all that ever I did.
So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they
besought him that he would tarry with them.
And he abode there two days.
And many more believed because of his own word and
said unto the woman, now we believe not because of
thy saying, for we've heard him ourselves and know
that this is indeed the Christ, the savior of the
world.
Now after two days, he departed thence and went
into Galilee.
So aren't you going to start a church, Jesus?
Oh, so you just went there and won people to Christ
in Samaria and then you're just going to leave them
there.
Just leave them to fend for themselves.
You're like somebody who gives birth to a baby and
throws it in the garbage can.
Isn't that the kind of stuff that people say to
attack soul winning?
Well, I guess they don't like Jesus' style.
I guess Jesus should just let the Samaritans go to
hell, let the woman at the well go to hell.
He's like, sorry, I don't have a church to send you
to, so I got to go by.
No, he stayed for two days.
Did he stay for his whole life?
No, he stayed for two days.
He won a bunch of people to the Lord and then he
left.
Okay, but I'm getting ahead of myself in the sermon
here.
But what do you see so far in John chapter two, John
chapter three, and John chapter four?
You see a lot of people getting saved.
Is that what you're saying?
Oh, many believed.
Many got saved.
Many believed on him.
Look at chapter seven, verse 31.
John chapter seven, verse 31.
And many of the people believed on him and said,
when Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than
these, which this man doeth?
So in chapter seven, many believed on him.
Flip over to chapter 10.
While you're turning to chapter 10, it says in John
chapter 830, as he spake these words, many believed
on him.
John chapter 10, verse 41.
And many resorted unto him and said, John did no
miracle, but all things that John spake of this man
were true.
And many believed on him there.
Okay, go to John chapter 11, verse 45.
Many believed on him.
Many people believed on him.
Verse number 45, chapter 11.
Then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had
seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.
Okay, go to Acts chapter one.
And then of course, John 1211 says, because that
by reason of him, many of the Jews went away and
believed on Jesus.
So we see, many believed on him.
Many believed on him.
Over here, he's preaching to a multitude so huge, he
has to get on a ship and stand on the ship and
everybody just crowds on the seashore and he
preaches across the water.
Another instance, he feeds the 5,000, not counting
women and children.
5,000 men show up to hear Jesus preach.
4,000 men show up to hear Jesus preach.
John the baptized is baptizing multitudes of
both men and women.
Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.
Is there any question in any rational person's mind
at all that literally tens of thousands of people
got saved?
Right?
I mean, you can't read this and walk away saying
thousands of people didn't get saved.
Tens of thousands of people didn't get saved.
Multitudes of people are getting saved.
Okay.
Well, let's see how big the church is in Acts
chapter 1.
I mean, this church must be huge.
I mean, if they got all these tens of thousands of
people saved, multitudes and multitudes, every
chapter is just many people getting saved.
Many people getting saved.
Oh, I guess the church is going to be huge.
Acts chapter 1 verse 14, these all continued with
one accord and prayer and supplication with the
women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his
brethren.
So look, this is everybody, folks.
This is all of the disciples.
This is the church.
This includes Jesus's immediate family, the
women, men, everybody.
And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of
the disciples and said, the number of names
together were about 120.
So this, see, welcome to the world of the Bible.
So everybody can come up with all their objections
of, well, if you got a thousand people saved, you
ought to have a thousand in church.
Really?
Is that how Jesus did?
Did Jesus have a thousand in church?
Did Peter have a thousand in church?
Did John have a thousand in church?
Did John the Baptist have a thousand in church?
No, they didn't.
At the end of it all, when the dust settled, after
soul winning every day virtually for three and a
half years, they had 120 people in the church.
They had a church with 120 people in it.
Now people look at our church, which by the way,
our church has 400 people that come on a weekly
basis because we have about 350 on Sunday mornings,
250 on Sunday nights, 250 on Wednesday nights.
And some people only come to one or the other.
It's not all the same people.
So we have approximately 400 people come through
the doors of our church every single week.
And here's what people say, well, but if you got
10,000 people saved, or if you got this many
thousands of people saved, why do you only have
400 in church?
Well, because I'm not greater than Jesus, John
the Baptist, and all the apostles rolled into one.
I mean, think about that.
After I'd been pastoring this church for three
and a half years, the church was running about
35 people.
But I'm not Jesus.
I'm not John the Baptist.
I'm not Peter.
I'm not James.
I'm not John.
And not only that, but I was also working a full
time job.
In addition to being a pastor, I had to go to
work and work my full time job and juggle both.
These apostles were full time.
Jesus was full time.
Okay.
These guys were just day in, day out.
This is what they did.
I mean, they just went from town to town to
village to village.
So if people are going to say, oh, all the people
that get saved are going to come to church or they
didn't really get saved, you would have to believe
that Jesus and John the Baptist and all the
apostles in three and a half years only one
120 people to the Lord.
Is that what anybody actually believes?
That makes no sense.
That's ridiculous.
It's nonsense.
And that's what I mean about this doctrine that
says, well, if people really get saved, they're
going to get baptized.
They're going to join the church.
They're going to persevere under the end.
It is an absurd doctrine in light of scripture.
It's absurd.
It does not reflect the reality that we see in
the real world.
And it certainly does not reflect what we see in
the word of God.
It's not the way it played out.
Now, look, I would love it if that would happen, if
every single person who got saved, got baptized,
joined the church, kept on coming, but we would be
meeting in a sports stadium right now.
We'd be having to let sports teams use our
facility for their events.
Okay, but that's not the reality of what we see in
the Bible or in real life.
Now, go to Acts chapter five.
Let me give you some of the reasons why people who
truly actually get saved don't end up coming to
church.
I mean, do you really think John the Baptist was
just dunking 99% unsaved people?
He wasn't just dunking indiscriminately.
Just anybody who wants to get dunked, hop in.
When he saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming, he
didn't believe that they were actually saved.
He rebuked the scribes and Pharisees because he
didn't think they were saved, because they were
false prophets, and he rebuked them and says,
you're going to have to basically convince me that
you're actually saved.
Bring forth fruit, meat for repentance, because he
knew then that they're vipers and whatever.
Now, when the average Joe came to him, you know,
he's baptizing them, but he didn't just indiscriminately
baptize people.
He's also preaching the word of God.
He's preaching the gospel.
He was baptizing people.
I'm sure he baptized some unsaved people.
There's no question about that.
I'm sure I've baptized some unsaved people, because
we can't see within the heart, but I guarantee you
that the majority of the people that John the
Baptist and Jesus baptized are in heaven right now.
These people, when the Bible says in chapter 2 of
John they believed, chapter 3 the people who
believed, the people who believed in chapter 4,
7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, those people are in heaven
right now, friend.
But were they at church in Acts 1?
Did they show up on Sunday morning?
No.
Now what are some of the reasons why?
Well, the number one reason why a truly born
again saved person doesn't go to church, the
number one reason is fear.
Okay?
Look if you would, and this is why most people
don't serve God in many areas of life.
Fear paralyzes us from serving God.
Look if you would at Acts chapter 5, verse 12.
And by the hands of the apostles were many signs
and wonders wrought among the people, and they
were all with one accord in Solomon's porch, and
of the rest durst no man join himself to them.
Now that word is a hard word, but it's the past
tense of dare.
It's saying they dared not.
They durst not.
So it says here of the rest dared no man join
himself to them, but the people magnified them.
And believers were added, were the more added to
the Lord, multitudes, both of men and women.
And here's the interesting thing.
Sometimes you'll see where it talks about
believers being added to the church, and the
church getting bigger and growing, and people
coming to the church.
But, you know, it's interesting the choice of
words here is that believers were added to the
Lord, because a lot of them weren't added to the
church.
They were added to the Lord, but they weren't
added to the church.
Why?
Because they dared not join themselves under
them.
They were afraid to join the church.
You know, there was too much action happening at
the church.
There were miracles going on.
There's hard preaching going on.
People fell over dead earlier in the chapter,
Ananias and Sapphira.
So some people, they want to admire it from a
distance.
They're magnifying it in their heart.
They're enjoying the show, but do they want to get
in the fire?
Do they want to get there where the action is?
No, they can't take the heat, so they're getting
out of the kitchen.
So we see here that a lot of people did not join
the church out of fear.
Go to John Chapter 12, and I'll give you another
reason.
John Chapter 12, and this is related to fear, but
this is a different kind of fear.
A lot of people don't join the church because of
embarrassment or shame.
They're embarrassed, or they're ashamed to go to
church.
Look what it says in John Chapter 12, Verse 42.
Nevertheless, among the chief priests, excuse me,
nevertheless, among the chief rulers also, many
believed on him.
But because of the Pharisees, they did not
confess him, lest they should be put out of the
synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more
than the praise of God.
So these people believed on Christ, but they don't
want to be open about it because they're ashamed.
They'd rather be praised by men.
They want men to speak well of them and to think
that they're great.
They don't want anybody to say negative things
about them that, oh, you're a Christian, you're
following Christ, you're part of the church, and
look down on them.
They would rather look good to society and look
good outwardly than to join the church.
And they love the praise of men more than the praise
of God, and they don't want to be put out of the
synagogue.
They don't want to be kicked out of the social club.
Maybe they don't want family to treat them badly
or reproach them in some way.
So this is related to fear.
This is embarrassment or shame or even shyness.
Some people are just too shy, too timid to show up
to church and be a part of the church.
Does that mean that they're not saved?
So they trust Christ as Savior, but if they don't
go to church and suddenly they're not saved, that's
a workspace salvation if you believe in that.
If you believe that they have to go to church to be
saved and get baptized and continue serving, that
would be salvation by works.
Salvation is not by works.
You can believe and be ashamed and shy, and God's
not pleased with that.
God's not going to bless that.
The Bible says He's ashamed of you if that's how
you are.
You're going to be ashamed of Him, but it's the
reality that most people, they love the free gift,
don't they?
But do they want to take up the cross and follow
Christ?
There's a big difference between accepting the free
gift and picking up the cross and following Jesus.
And look, if somebody only wants to accept the free
gift of salvation, but they don't want to pick up the
cross and follow Jesus, you know what?
I'm glad to help them get that free gift of salvation
because you know what?
I just want that person to go to heaven.
I'm glad that they're going to heaven.
I'm not going to sit there and say, well, if you're
not going to even serve God, what's the point?
Hey, the point is to get their soul to heaven.
The point is not to go to hell, and that's pretty
important.
Pulling them out of the fire is pretty important.
But the reality is that people will line up to get
the free gift.
People love to get a free gift.
When things are being given away for free at stores,
you have a line outside the building.
When something is getting out, true or false?
When something is given away for free, people are
beating down the door to get it.
But when it comes to actually suffering, being
persecuted, going through shame and reproach, working
hard, rolling up your sleeves, serving God, making
sacrifices, that is a smaller group.
Now look, if you believe that the only people who
are truly saved are the people who are willing to
make those sacrifices, why don't you just admit it
that you don't believe in salvation by grace or
faith?
Why don't you just come out and admit that?
And go join the Catholic Church, go join the
Orthodox Church, go join Church of Christ or one of
these charismatic churches that teaches openly, and
at least they have more respect for them.
At least they admit that they believe in work
salvation.
At least they just come out and say, hey, works are
required for salvation.
You know, it's better the devil you know than the
devil you don't know than the one who pretends and
says, oh yeah, salvation's by faith, but, but, but
you have to do all these works or you're not saved.
That's a false doctrine.
And it does not jive with scripture.
And look, even logic, anybody who knows math
should know that that's a false doctrine.
Let me help you with math, okay?
If every single person who's saved in this world
is going out and serving God, if they're all doing
the works, pretty soon this whole world would be
evangelized like a hundred times over in our
lifetime.
Otherwise, you just don't understand the math.
I mean, how many people are saved right now in this
world?
Nobody knows, obviously, because we can't see
inside the hearts of men.
We are not God to know exactly how many people are
saved or not saved.
But I'm sure that anyone would agree, anyone would
agree that there are at least, and I'm sure it's way
more than this, that there are at least like 10
million people in the world that are saved, at least.
And I'm sure it's way more than that.
But let's just take the number 10 million.
Well, if you have 10 million people out there
going to church and serving God and actually
evangelizing, because isn't one of the commands, go
preach the gospel to every creature?
So if everybody who's saved is going to actually
love God and serve God and go out and do the work,
we'd have 10 million soul winners right now out
serving God and waiting people to Christ.
How long would it take to evangelize the world?
A couple days?
Am I right?
I mean, think about it.
How long would it take if everybody just said, hey,
this week, just for one week, hey, we're going to
witness to people this week?
Couldn't each person easily attempt to witness to
100 people in one week?
Like, just attempt.
I'm not even saying that they even, because a lot of
people don't want to talk.
A lot of people say, hey, can I show you the gospel?
Nope.
Not interested, right?
So typically, I mean, how long does it take to knock
100 doors?
I mean, you know, if it's an unreceptive area, two
hours.
If nobody's talking to you, if everybody says no, two
hours.
Awatuki, anyone?
Okay.
Right?
Two hours, right?
So look, if every Christian in the world just went
out for like four or five hours this week, just
once, I mean, we'd knock a lot of doors, wouldn't
we?
I mean, just all over the world, all over the planet.
I mean, we'd be on top of each other.
It'd be like, sorry, this street's been hit five
times today.
We'd be like, where do we go?
We'd like drive five hours to get to some remote
Indian reservation, and there'd already be like 10
soul winners there.
We'd just be like, ugh.
We wouldn't even know who to witness to.
Is anybody home?
Folks, guess what?
99.9% of saved Christians are doing nothing, nothing
to reach the world with the gospel.
Zilch, zip, nada.
You say, well, are those people really even saved?
Well, you know, I don't think they're really saved.
Really?
Because you know what?
I got saved when I was six years old.
You want to know when I won somebody to Christ?
When I was 17.
So what did I do for those 11 years?
Not much.
Not much, right?
What was I doing?
You say, well, you were just a kid.
But you don't think I had opportunities?
And you know, sometimes I sit and think back through
seventh grade, eighth grade, ninth grade, tenth
grade.
You know what?
I lament the lost opportunities.
I think, I picture the faces of my friends, and I
think to myself, if I went and gave the gospel to
that person now, they probably won't get saved.
But they would have back then.
Back then, before they'd been so corrupted.
Back then, they would have been more open, more
receptive.
I'm just thinking to myself, man, I could have won
so many people to the Lord.
I won zero to the Lord.
Zilch.
Okay?
And you think I was alone in that?
You think I was just me?
I'm just the worst Christian ever?
Guess what?
That's the story of 99.99% of Christian adults and
teenagers and children and senior citizens.
That is what most Christians do.
They're lucky if they win somebody to the Lord in
their lifetime.
I used to pray every night before bed as a teenager,
Lord, help me to get one person saved in my
lifetime.
I prayed that prayer probably over a thousand
times, literally.
And God answered all of them separately.
You know what I mean?
Seriously.
It's like every single time I prayed that prayer, God
answered it again.
But I didn't mean it that way, though.
I meant, God, I just want to get one person saved in
my whole life.
Because you know what?
Everyone around me was doing zero.
So I thought to myself, if I can win one person to
the Lord, that would be amazing.
And it is amazing.
But how much more amazing to win 10 people to the
Lord?
Or 100.
Some 30, some 60, some 100.
My point is anybody who has any common sense can look
around and see in this world churches filled with
saved Christians who are not even keeping the main
commandment, the great commission, go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature at all.
Zilch.
Does that mean they're not saved?
Of course they're saved.
Why don't they do it then?
Because they're not being sent, because the spirit
is willing, but the flesh is weak.
There are a multitude of reasons why people don't
engage in evangelizing.
I don't think there's anything unclear about
Christ telling us to preach the gospel.
Is there something unclear like, well, maybe he
doesn't want us to preach the gospel.
Maybe we're not supposed to witness to our family.
Maybe we're not supposed to witness to our friends.
Maybe we're not supposed to witness to people that
we work with.
But guess what?
We end up not doing it, don't we?
Because we're human beings, because we're sinners,
because we're in the flesh, all the different reasons
why we don't do stuff that we're supposed to do.
If Christians who were saved actually did what
they're supposed to do, we'd have the whole world
evangelized by the end of the month.
Okay?
A fact.
Even just simple math would tell you if 10 million
people are out burning it up, soul winning, boy, we
would turn this place upside down.
It's the fact that only a very small percentage of
saved Christians are willing to take up the cross
and follow Jesus.
Because he said if you follow, you say, well, why
emphasize soul winning?
Maybe they're just great Christians and they don't
go soul winning.
Really?
Because Jesus said if you follow me, I'll make you
fishes of men.
That tells me anybody who's not a fisher of men
isn't following Jesus.
Because following Jesus, you will eventually, and
look, was I a fisher of men as a teenager?
No.
But did he make me one?
Yeah.
Eventually, you're going to get there, right?
I mean, if you're following him, you'll get there.
Otherwise, you bailed at some point and stopped
following.
Or you're like Peter where you follow afar off and
next thing you know, you're going to be denying that
you even know him.
Okay?
So the point is that if we study the Bible, if we
look at math, if we look at reality, if we look at
scripture, we have a bizarre expectation if we
just expect every person who gets saved is just
going to get baptized, get in church, and start doing
all the right things.
You don't even do all the right things.
You don't even do all the right things, but then you
expect your convert to do all the right things.
And you've been in church for years.
Are you saved?
Yeah, you're saved.
Well, I'm saved, you know?
Yeah, but I don't do that.
Well, okay.
Everybody's got their different sins.
Everybody has their different weaknesses.
Everybody has different lacks and deficiencies in
their life, but it's a fact that God wants us all to
open our mouth and speak the gospel, man, woman, boy,
and girl.
That should be obvious to anyone who reads the New
Testament.
So why don't people, that was a little bit of a
tangent there, but why don't people come to church
after they get saved?
Sometimes it's fear, embarrassment, shame,
shyness.
These are natural human emotions.
We need to be filled with the Spirit so we can have
the boldness to overcome those things and get in the
battle, serve God.
Everybody wants the free gift.
Ten million, I'm sure way more than that.
I'm just using a low ball number, are willing to take
the gift all day long.
But are they willing to deny self and take up the
cross daily and follow him?
No, they're not.
The evidence is that they're not winning people
to Christ.
They're not evangelizing, which shows that they're
not following closely to Christ because he would be
making them a fisher of men if they were.
Okay?
Number three reason would be geography.
Now if you would go to John chapter 40, I'm sorry,
John chapter four, verse 40.
In John chapter four, if you remember, this is where
Jesus was at the Samaritans and he had that wonderful
follow-up program where he abandoned them after two
days.
Right?
That was his follow-up.
And he wasn't even planning on staying at all.
He was just going to win one person of the Lord, the
woman at the well, and be out of there.
They came to him and begged him and said, will you
please stay with us?
Now his main mission was to Israel.
His mission was not to Samaria.
His plan was we're going to reach Israel during his
earthly ministry, you know, get, get, get the gospel
to all the towns and villages.
And then after he dies on the cross, is buried and
rises again, then they're going to go to Judea,
Samaria, uttermost part of the earth.
So the plan was we're going to canvas Israel during
the life of Jesus and then go everywhere else after.
Right?
So Jesus is really focused on that goal.
So that's why when he sends him out, so when he says,
don't go to Samaritans, don't go to the Gentiles.
Let's go after the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
He's saying, let's start here.
Let's do Israel.
Okay.
Then at, in Matthew 28, he sends them out to all
nations.
So because this isn't the focus of his mission, he's
just passing through Samaria and he only went through
Samaria because he had to, because it said he must needs
go through Samaria, meaning he's required to get there
because he's got to get from Galilee to Judea.
Samaria is in the middle.
While he's there, he preaches the gospel.
And you know, it's a great example for us that
sometimes we're, we have other plans, but every once
in a while, a great opportunity will come up to
give someone the gospel.
And sometimes we need to just take that opportunity
and put other plans aside and say, okay, you know,
here he's at the woman or he's at the, well, the
woman's here.
Boom.
He wins her to the Lord.
They begged him to stay.
And he said, okay.
He stayed two days, but then he had to go.
I mean, they would have loved for him to stay for
three days a week, a month, or even just set up shop
there.
But that wasn't the plan.
That wasn't the mission.
Is there something wrong with Christ's mission
because he just wins people to the Lord and then
leaves?
No, but, but some pastors and churches, they, they
think they're better than Jesus.
Jesus program is not good enough because there's not
enough follow-up, you know?
And so they've got their own plan where they're
going to have a little Jehovah's witness Bible
study with somebody for eight weeks.
And look, guess what?
If somebody is not willing to get their carcass down
to the church, I'm not going to go to their house
eight times.
Why should I go to your house eight times?
You know, you know where to find me three times a
week.
I'm here to disciple you on Sunday morning.
I'm here to disciple you on Sunday night.
I'm here to disciple you on Wednesday night.
I'm discipling hundreds of people at once.
I'm not just going to come and make a house call.
Your doctor won't even make a house call.
I'm not just going to keep making house calls.
Okay.
Jesus, you know, had to go.
He had to move on.
But look what it says in verse 40.
So when the Samaritans were coming to him, they
besought him that he would tarry with them.
And he abode there two days.
Verse 43.
Now after two days, he departed thence and went
into Galilee.
So why aren't all these people coming to church?
Because they live in another country.
They live in another area.
So the number three reason why people don't come to
church after they get saved is geography.
Many of the people that we get saved, in many cases,
more than half of the people that we get saved are
saved in a different geography.
Because we'll fly to Jamaica.
We'll fly to Belize.
We'll fly to Guyana.
We'll fly to Botswana.
And we'll get a whole bunch of people saved.
And we'll come back with the numbers of, hey, we got
this many hundreds of people saved.
So they're all coming to church.
Well, they have an issue with their visa.
You know, they don't have a passport.
They don't have the money.
How are they going to get here?
Look, when we drive three and a half hours away to
the Apache Reservation, you think those people are
going to be in church on Sunday morning?
But see, the mentality is, oh, well, then we're just
not going to give them the gospel.
Look, I have talked to Baptist pastors in this city
where I said to them, hey, we went up to this Indian
reservation.
We had all those people saved.
Oh, great.
So now they're just like sheep without a shepherd.
Instead of saying praise the Lord, wow, that's great
to hear.
They're receptive.
How can I get involved?
Do you think if I take my church up there, we'd be
able to get some people saved?
Or, you know, you guys have got the Apaches covered.
Is there a tribe that we could work on?
Is there a way I can get involved?
Is that what he said?
No.
He just said, well, now they're just like sheep
having us.
Yeah, just like the Samaritans.
I mean, it's just, it's wicked.
And you know what it does?
It shows what's in their heart.
The abundance of the mouth, the heart speaketh.
You know what it shows is in their heart?
Hey, if they're not going to join my church, I'm not
interested.
If they're not putting money in my offering plate, I'm
not interested.
If they're not going to build my ego by building a
big physical crowd that I can preach to, then I'm not
interested.
If I can't tell my preacher buddies how big my church
is and build a big fancy building with a big steeple
and stained glass windows, then I'm not interested
because if they're not going to do anything for me,
I'm not interested.
Well, you know what?
I am interested in just getting somebody out of hell
and never seeing them again.
Actually, I take that back because I'm going to see
them when I get to heaven.
And what a day that will be.
And so look, it's sort of like when Jesus said, you
know, when you put on a supper, invite the poor, the
blind, the maimed, the halt because they won't be able
to ever pay you back.
And if you do things for people that will never pay
you back, God has to pay you back in the resurrection.
So here's the thing, by winning people to the Lord
that do nothing for you, nothing for your church,
nothing for your ego, nothing for your friendships,
hey, when they do nothing for you, then that's the
maximum rewards that you're going to get.
Winning people to the Lord that do nothing for you in
return is a maximal reward because God's going to
recommend you for that.
And we're inviting them to the great supper of the
lamb.
You know, we're inviting them to eat and drink in the
kingdom of God, right?
The great marriage for the son of God.
That's what we're inviting them to.
And so I just want people to get saved.
But these guys, they have something in their heart
where they don't have the faith is what it is, too.
If they can't see a physical result right now, they
won't believe in it.
Doubting Thomases who have to see the people live the
whole rest of their life before they believe that
they're actually saved, instead of just believing
that the gospel has power, instead of believing that
God's word's not going to return void, instead of
believing that if someone confesses with their mouth
the Lord Jesus and believes in their heart that God
raised him from the dead, that they'll be saved.
I believe that.
I don't need to see physical results.
And you know what?
I'm glad that our church has 400 people in it, but
you know what?
I'd be just as happy if our church had 200 people in
it.
You know, if half our church is left and we're down
to 200 people, you know what?
It wouldn't really mess up my day.
I'd just be like, okay, whatever.
Because it's not my problem.
It's not my issue.
It's not my job because Christ said I'll build the
church.
Christ didn't say go build my church.
He said upon this rock I'll build my church.
All I'm here to do is just win people to Christ,
preach the gospel, be faithful, let the chips fall
where they may.
Look, if our church a year from now is running 500,
great.
If our church a year from now is running 300, great.
You know, Jesus went from running 5,000 to 4,000 in a
very short time.
I heard a sermon one time, how to grow from 5,000 to
4,000 in your church.
Because Jesus preached into 5,000 and the next time
he's only preaching to 4,000.
What happened?
Look, people are going to leave.
And look, obviously we've never had that problem
because even when we've thrown people out or had a
faction leave the church, we immediately recovered.
We've never had a year where we had less people than
the year before.
We have steadily grown for 13 and a half years and I
hope that we steadily grow until Jesus comes.
Amen?
Wouldn't that be great?
Just keep growing.
Every year, more people, we break attendance records
every single year.
But you know what?
Whether we grow or don't grow, get bigger, get
smaller, you know what?
I don't even care.
All I care about is am I doing everything I can to
get people out of hell?
Am I doing everything that I can to feed the flock?
Am I doing everything I can to teach accurately and
faithfully the Word of God and try to inspire people
to work for God and try to model the way of, hey,
let's go evangelize and here's how you go soul
winning.
I can't control the results.
All I can do at the door and all you can do at the
door is win somebody to Christ and put a Bible in
their hand and show them where to start reading,
leave them with a preaching CD or a video or a flash
drive or something.
At some point, they're going to have to do something
for themselves.
At some point, they're going to have to decide, okay,
I'm going to church.
Or okay, I'm going to pop in this video and watch it.
I'm going to open this book and read it.
Because look, if they watch the video, they're going
to watch another video, they're going to watch
another video and pretty soon they're going to be
watching hundreds of videos.
Next thing you know, they're going to be here.
But you know what?
Some people aren't going to put in that video.
They can't even put in the video and push play because
they're too busy watching Hollywood's garbage.
They can't even open the Bible and read it because
they have everything else to read.
So the point is that you can't control what people
are going to do.
You know, the one thing I can't give you, I can give
you the gospel, I can give you doctrine, I can preach
to you and teach you.
The one thing I can't give you, the one thing I can't
give to my children spiritually or my children
physically, the one thing I can't give you is a desire
to serve God.
You have to provide that.
You have to decide, hey, this is important to me, this
is a priority for me, I want to do this, I love Christ
enough to do this.
I can't do that for you.
I can't control other people's heart.
Okay.
So that's, now there are lots of other reasons.
I got to hurry up for sake of time.
Like number four, how about a language barrier?
A lot of people that went to the Lord don't even speak
English.
So we don't offer services in Spanish.
We don't offer services in other languages that we want
people to Christ in.
Number five, you know, often they just go to a different
church.
You know what I always say to these people, if I say,
hey, we went to this and that city and we got a bunch
of people saved.
Oh, well, where are they supposed to go to church?
Are you planning a church?
I always just tell them there's already a Baptist
church there.
Because there's already a Baptist church in every city
in America.
There is not a city in America.
There's not even a town or a village in America that
does not have a Baptist church within striking distance
where they could easily conveniently get to a Baptist
church.
It's a lame church.
Not my fault.
Not my fault that they're lame.
Then go get in there and make it better.
I can't control that.
There are 10,000 independent Baptist churches in America.
There are 18,000 Southern Baptist churches in America.
And look, I'm against most of them because most of them
are lame.
But you know what?
There is something where people could go to church.
There are non-denominational churches where the people
are actually saved depending on where they fall on the
doctrinal spectrum.
The point is that they often get saved and go to a
different church.
I can't even count how many times I've won somebody to
the Lord and then tried to get them to come to our
church.
And then they'll say, oh, no, I'm going to church with
my uncle now.
I'm going to church with my cousin now.
I'm going to church with my brother now.
Because as soon as their buddy or friend or relative
that never gave them the Gospel hears that they got
saved, it's like, oh, great, you're saved now?
Here, come to our church.
You know, they're not any good at getting people saved,
but they love to swoop up on the saved convert and bring
them in.
Now, are you there in John chapter 4?
Here's an important concept that I want to finish on.
This is a key concept.
And let me just give you some of the material I don't
have time for.
I wanted to take you to Acts chapter 8 and show you the
story of the Ethiopian eunuch where the Holy Spirit leads
Philip into the desert to witness to one guy.
Philip gives the Gospel to one guy, the guy gets saved,
he baptizes him, and the moment he's done baptizing
him, God performs a miracle because they're out in the
middle of the desert.
He had to, like, travel through the desert to get to
this guy.
God literally just whisks him away and he's just gone.
So if you're the eunuch, right, you're the Ethiopian
eunuch, you're riding down the road, you're reading the
book of Isaiah, a guy comes running to your chariot,
running toward it, in the middle of the desert.
And he actually got there by natural, there was nothing
supernatural except that God led him.
But Philip actually just went on this desert hike and
he's just hiking through the desert because God wanted
him to go to the desert.
And Philip had been getting all kinds of people saved
and everything.
God leads him into the desert.
He's probably thinking, like, why am I here?
The people are over there.
But as he's going through the desert, he sees a chariot
way off in the distance and the Holy Spirit leads him
to go to that chariot, okay?
And so you're, you know, you're the Ethiopian eunuch,
right?
You're driving the chariot, reading your Bible, all of
a sudden this guy, you're out in the middle of nowhere.
Where did this guy come from?
This guy just comes running toward the chariot and
says, hey, understandest thou what thou readest?
You understand what you're reading?
He says, how can I except some man should guide me?
Gets up in the chariot.
He preaches him the gospel.
He starts in Isaiah, preaches the gospel to him.
The guy believes on Christ, gets saved.
He says, hey, here's water.
What's the tendency to be baptized, right?
If thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
I believe Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Great.
Jumps out of it.
Well, let me watch it for the next 10 years and make
sure you really believe that.
Great.
Oh, wait.
I'm sorry.
We have a six-week baptism class.
We're starting the next enrollment in September.
It lasts for six weeks, so we can get you baptized in
the middle of October.
Is that what he said?
He said, no, let's do it.
They stop.
He baptizes them.
And then all of a sudden, the eunuch is just by
himself.
It's like, where'd that guy go?
Who was that guy?
What's the eunuch do?
He gets in the chariot and says, I got to go back to
Jerusalem now to prove that I'm saved.
Is that what he did?
I got to get back.
I got to go prove I'm saved.
Because if I don't show up for church on Sunday
morning, nobody's going to believe that I'm even
saved.
Is that what he did?
No, he keeps going where?
To Ethiopia.
Okay.
That's far.
Back then, people thought of Ethiopia as like the ends
of the world back then.
Okay.
He keeps heading for Ethiopia.
He's rejoicing.
He's real happy that he's saved.
He didn't start crying and saying, I'm like a baby in
a garbage can.
Nobody's helping me.
Nobody's here to guide me.
Look, before he was saved, he needed somebody to guide
him.
You know what?
He didn't go back alone.
You know who he brought with him?
Who did he bring with him?
The Holy Spirit.
And you know what?
I'm thankful that every single person that I've ever
wanted to Lord has the Holy Spirit with him to guide
them into all truth.
Now, sadly, most of them are not going to take
advantage of that.
Most people, just like most Christians that you know,
just like most Christians I know, they're too busy,
caught up in the things of this world to really take
full advantage of the Holy Spirit.
I mean, do any of us really take full advantage of the
Holy Spirit in our lives?
No.
But, you know, some people are majorly quenching the
Spirit.
So that's another example of a lack of follow-up in the
Bible.
And I could do a whole sermon just showing, I could
just do a sermon called lack of follow-up.
Just show, just lack of follow-up.
But let me close on this thought, okay?
Because this is a key thought.
Look at John chapter 4 verse 35.
Say not ye, you like how I said I wasn't going to do
the story of the Ethiopian Union and I just did it
anyway.
But anyway, John chapter 4 verse 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're 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.
And herein is that saying true, one soweth and
another reapeth.
And here's the key verse, verse 38.
I sent you to reap that whereon you bestowed no
labor.
Other men labored and ye are entered into their
labors.
Other men labored and you're entered into their
labors.
Here's how the Great Commission works, okay?
And this is a key point.
I don't want you to miss this.
Your root beer float's coming soon, but just focus,
all right?
Here's the key point, okay?
You're entered into other men's labors.
Here's how the Great Commission works.
The Great Commission has three parts.
Save them, baptize them, and then teach them to
observe all things that Christ commanded.
Those are the three phases, right?
Get them saved, get them baptized, and then teach
them to observe all things.
In a perfect world, you do that all with the same
person in an unbroken chain.
You just get somebody saved, immediately get them
baptized, and then just immediately begin teaching
them and just teach, teach, teach.
And they're just coming Sunday morning, Sunday
night, Wednesday night, and just growing like crazy.
But here's the reality, though, is that these three
things are going to be done on separate people.
And part of that is that you are going to enter into
other men's labors.
So what does that mean for me to enter into other
men's labors?
It means, for example, someone's already been
given the gospel, but they didn't get saved, and then
I come and water the seed, and then the person gets
saved.
Well, I wasn't the only one responsible for their
salvation because somebody else had already been
working on them.
Somebody else had already been preaching to them,
praying for them, and then I can just come in and
finish.
So I've entered into their labor, right?
How about this?
What if somebody gets saved, but they've never been
baptized, and then I show up and baptize them?
I'm entering into other men's labors, okay?
What if somebody's saved and baptized, but they
haven't been taught doctrine, and then I show up
and teach them to observe all things that Christ
commanded me?
So here's the thing.
A lot of people have this weird idea that to fulfill
the Great Commission, every single person you get
saved, you have to baptize, and every single person you
baptize, you have to teach to observe all things, or
you're not doing the Great Commission.
That's false.
Because actually, the way it works is you're going
to win it.
This is how you fulfill the Great Commission.
You win a bunch of people to Christ, you baptize a
bunch of people, you teach a bunch of people
doctrine, and it's not all the same people.
Now, let me give you an example.
Whenever I go to an event, and the Make America
Straight Again Conference was no exception to this,
whenever I go to an event, I have multiple people
come up to me every single time and say, I got saved
through watching your videos.
Or, I got saved listening to your preaching online.
Okay?
I mean, I had a bunch of people say that at this
conference.
Every event, it doesn't matter where it is, where I
preach, where I go, people walk up and say, hey, I
just want to thank you, I got saved through your
ministry.
Now, let me ask this.
Did I baptize that person?
Am I going to baptize that person?
No, I didn't baptize anybody over the last couple
days when I was at that conference.
So, I won them to Christ.
So here's my question.
Who baptized them?
Because they've been baptized.
I mean, if I asked them, are you baptized, I'm sure
they'd say yes, because they're faithful church
members.
So, who baptized them?
Someone else.
Right?
Okay, who's teaching them to observe all things that
Christ commanded?
Not necessarily me, because now they've joined a
local church.
They might still listen to me online or whatever, but
they're also getting a lot of teaching in their local
church.
So the point is, just like that pastor baptized
somebody that I won to Christ, sometimes I baptize
people that someone else won to Christ.
And sometimes we might win somebody to Christ.
Let's say we go on the Indian reservation, we win
someone to Christ, and then we never see them again,
but then five years later, they get baptized.
Seven years later, they're in the church somewhere,
thriving and serving God.
We don't know where people are going to end up, and
we have tons of people in our church that got saved
way before they ever came to our church, but they
didn't start serving God until they got here.
Or they didn't get baptized until they got here.
The point is, these three components of the Great
Commission, salvation, baptism, and growth in
knowledge, and growth in grace, are three separate
things.
So if we are delinquent in any of them, then we're
not fulfilling the Great Commission.
Let's say we only won people to Christ, and we
only baptized people, but we didn't teach the Bible.
Would we be delinquent on the Great Commission?
Yeah.
Now, that's clearly not the case since we have
crowds of people coming to get taught every week,
and we have 120,000 subscribers on YouTube
getting taught.
So do we have a teaching ministry here?
Is there any teaching going on?
In this church?
Is there teaching going on?
Yeah.
Okay.
Do we baptize people?
Yeah.
Do we baptize people?
Yeah, we baptize people.
We've baptized in the history of our church, I
think almost like 600 people or something that we
baptize in our church.
So are we baptizing people?
Yeah.
Are we winning people to Christ?
Yeah, we're winning people to Christ.
But here's the reality.
The biggest number is going to be the people you
win to Christ.
The baptisms and the people that you teach to
observe all things are going to be a lower number.
But just because I didn't baptize them, does that
mean no one baptized them?
No, because I'm running into people every single
time I go anywhere who got saved through our
ministry and got baptized by another ministry.
So there are some churches where their numbers
will look like this.
Hey, we had five people saved and five people
baptized.
Oh, man, 100%.
Now, do we want to be a church that has 100%
success in getting people baptized?
I don't.
You want to know why I don't want to be that
church?
Because that would mean we're probably getting
very few people saved.
And the reason why they have 100% baptism rate,
where you see nine salvations, nine baptisms,
that's how it should be.
Oh, really?
Yeah, that's going to get the world saved.
Nine salvations?
Nine people have died since I started preaching in
this area.
Probably in the state of Arizona, nine people
probably died since I started the sermon.
Right?
Or at least in this region.
So how's that going to work, getting nine people
saved a year?
Yeah, you're really going to win the world to
Christ with that, buddy.
You're really going to, you know, make a
difference?
No way.
So the point is that the reason why they have 100%
rate is because the only time anybody gets saved
is at church.
That's a church with zero soul winning.
Take it to the bank.
Zero.
So what that church has is an altar call where the
only time anybody gets saved is by coming down the
aisle and getting saved at the end of the service
and then they say, okay, now we're going to get
you baptized immediately.
And they're already there.
The clothes are there.
The water is there.
The towels are there.
The person's there.
And then they baptize 100% of their converts or
90% or 80% or whatever.
Right?
But when you drive three and a half hours to the
Apache reservation, walk up to some dilapidated
mobile home with no working vehicle and knock on the
door and win somebody to Christ, you're not going
to have 100% baptism rate.
You're not going to have 75%.
You're not going to have 50%.
When you're driving 45 minutes away to the ghetto
and winning people to the Lord, a lot of them
aren't going to get baptized.
So what?
So quit caring about what carnal man thinks.
Well, how'd you get all those people saved?
You're only running 400.
Oh yeah, only 400.
Yeah, that's five times the average church size in
America.
So apparently we're reaching somebody.
Somebody, I mean, somebody's getting discipled.
Who here feels like you're kind of getting
discipled a little bit in this church?
Yeah.
Okay.
So some kind of discipleship is happening
right now.
Some kind of follow up has taken place.
Okay.
So quit being on the defensive.
Put, put these bozos on the defensive and say,
Oh, okay.
So you don't approve of Jesus ministry when he
sent them out two by two to go preach in a village
and then leave the next day.
So you don't think that was right when they went
from village to village, to village, to village.
You don't think I was right.
So you don't think it was right for Jesus to win a
bunch of Samaritans Lord and leave two days later
because that's what we did in that town.
That's what we did on that small town.
So that's what we did on that missionary trip to
Jamaica.
We want a bunch of people to Lord and then we left.
So what about when Jesus did it?
Was it okay when he did it?
And tell me about all the people that you're
winning the Lord.
Tell me about how your church is bursting at the
seams with converts.
And you know,
if somebody could show me a better way,
I would love to do it.
If somebody shows me a better,
more biblical,
more effective way to win the loss,
I'll change now.
I'll change tomorrow.
I'll change immediately.
But let's just stay faithful and not have
unrealistic expectations.
Amen.
Where are the nine?
Weren't 10 cleansed?
The answer is yes,
10 were cleansed and all 10 of them are leprosy free.
All 10 of them are saved and on their way to heaven,
but only one came back to give thanks.
So where are the nine?
I don't even care.
Jesus, Jesus never told us where the nine are
because it didn't matter.
The thing that mattered was that only one came back.
So what do you expect?
Let's borrow a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word and
Lord, we thank you for every single person
that's willing to receive the free gift.
We thank you for every single person who's
willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ,
their savior.
But Lord, I pray that we would raise up a
generation of people that are also willing to
deny self and take up the cross and follow you,
Lord.
Help save Christians today to get off their
blessed assurance and get out there.