Alright, in Acts chapter 1, a very familiar chapter, really the only verse that I wanted
to draw from this, and I love the chapter, that's part of the reason why I read it, but
in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 the Bible says,
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall
be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto
the uttermost part of the earth.
Now that sentence is phrased as a command.
He says, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, he says, ye shall be witnesses.
That's the same kind of a command as thou shalt, have no other gods before me.
He's saying, thou shalt be a witness unto me.
He's commanding us to go soloing here.
He's not commanding one person or a select group here.
These are the disciples, these are his followers, these are the men that are gonna carry the
torch to the next generation, and not only that, they're assembled together later in the
chapter with women, with the mother of Jesus, with his brethren, with the women, praying
and begging God for his power, making supplication to God.
Then that power comes upon them that they were praying for, and they receive power
from the Holy Spirit upon them, and they obey God and they're witnesses like they
ought to be.
Those 120 witnesses in chapter 2 see about 3,000 people saved and baptized.
Pretty amazing story.
Now what I want to talk about tonight though, I want to give you, and I do this from
time to time, and I do this periodically, and I don't feel like I could do this too
often because it's so important what I'm gonna talk about tonight, and that's tips for
soloing.
I don't want to just be one of these rock and roll, you know, kind of a preacher.
You need to learn how to win a soul, that's the best thing that you could learn in your
whole life.
I mean if you came to this church and learned one thing, and that's how you personally
can win people to Christ by yourself, that's the greatest lesson that you could learn
in the entire world.
I heard about a church recently, somebody was talking about a church, and they were listening
for me, how great this church was on this, this, this, and this, and they said
there's just one problem with that church, they don't have door to door soul
winning, then that church is worthless, you say, well, there's other ways to win souls.
That church didn't have any soul winning, I mean, good night, if they want to walk
up and down the street getting people saved, that's fine, I'm all for that,
although the Bible does say house to house, but a church that doesn't have an aggressive
soul winning ministry, where people are daily or weekly going out and opening their
mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, is a church that's worthless.
Yes it is.
Because what's the point of it all, is it a social club, is it a Bible study group?
Hey, the local church was established by Jesus Christ to prevail against the gates
of hell, the local church was empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a witness.
Was it empowered by the Holy Spirit to roll around in the aisle like some charismatic
freako?
Hey, the Holy Spirit's empowerment of the local church was to be a witness.
What good is a church that's not a witness?
And I'm sorry, but a Christian who is not a soul winner is not following Jesus, because
Jesus said, follow me and I'll make you fishes of men.
And so this is the most important thing you could learn.
And the sad thing is, first of all, if we were to narrow down churches that believe
the gospel, you know, that's not every church in America, right?
Most of these denominations believe in work salvation, right?
So if we narrow down churches that believe in priesthood gospel, we've just narrowed it down.
Then let's narrow it down further.
Churches that actually go soul winning, that actually have a soul winning program that's
not, I talk to my friend or coworker once in a blue moon, which is every 18 months,
okay?
That's not what we're talking about.
We're talking about churches that actually have a legitimate program where their people
are out winning souls constantly, daily, weekly, monthly, whatever the case may be.
They're seeing people saved.
Boy, that narrows it down, doesn't it?
So we have churches that actually believe and preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ, then
we're going to narrow it down further to churches that have soul winning, okay?
And then let's narrow it down even further.
Within that church that has soul winning, a lot of the people in that church are just
like door-knocking salesmen, you know?
They don't actually win souls.
They're just inviting people to church, hanging something on the door, being friendly and
kind and inviting.
And, you know, more power to them for inviting people to church, but they're not
a soul winner because they invited somebody to church, okay?
So then we narrow it down to people who actually are presenting the gospel at the door.
And then we can narrow it down further by people who actually know how to effectively
get somebody saved, okay?
And I'm telling you, there aren't a whole lot of bona fide soul winners in Phoenix,
Arizona, or in the state of Arizona, or in the United States.
I mean, there are a lot, but you know what?
Compared to the harvest that's so plenteous, there are very few true laborers.
I mean, it's seldom that you meet people who are a bona fide soul winner, who know
how to personally win somebody to Christ, who, not, you know, they won one person
to the Lord in the last five years, or, well, you know, I'm a silent partner.
I mean, somebody who knows how to do it is a rare thing.
And I want the people of Faithful Word Baptist Church to have the skills and to be equipped
with the skills that they need to do this.
It's the greatest blessing that you'll ever enjoy as a Christian.
Hey, the greatest blessing that you'll have in your life.
John said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
And he was talking about people that he'd won to the Lord.
He wasn't talking about a physical child there.
He was talking about Gaius, a man that he had won to the Lord, his convert.
Hey, nothing was a greater joy to him than to know that Gaius was living for God, his convert.
You'll never experience anything greater than winning somebody to Christ, watching them grow,
watching them get baptized, watching them live for God.
There's nothing like it in the world.
It's so much more exciting than the Super Bowl that's going on right now.
And so, we're going to talk about something much more exciting than all that hoopla that's going on in Phoenix tonight.
But let me put it to you this way.
If I'm going to spend my time on something, if I'm going to spend hours a week on something,
go out for several hours knocking doors, I want to know what I'm doing.
I want to do it.
I want to be the most effective I can be.
Now, you can be a terrible soul winner, have no skill, you're not smooth,
you're stumbling all over yourself, you're dropping your Bible, fumbling through everything.
And you know what? You'll still get some people saying,
because God's going to bless you for trying and going out there and working hard and praying
and going forth and weeping, buried, and pressed your seed.
Hey, you'll doubtless come again rejoicing and bringing your seed with you.
But don't you want to be the best that you can be for Jesus?
I mean, don't you want to have the best skill that you can possibly have?
I mean, think about the athletes that are down at the Super Bowl.
They put in a lot of training.
I mean, I'm sure there's some natural talent involved,
but even the person with the greatest talent down there has spent months and years and years
and day in and day out training.
Everything that they ate, every minute of their schedule was just pointing the corner.
Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl.
And it's all just vanity of vanities, it means nothing.
But I'm going to tell you something, winning souls is huge.
I want to spend the same kind of aggressive training, okay?
Don't you think that it would be worthy of your effort to train and become the best somebody to be?
Or do you think that Jesus would be pleased if you say,
Well, I'm going to win souls, and you just haphazardly, sloppily go out there,
you don't know what you're doing, you haven't tried to train yourself or be prepared.
Obviously, God wants you to do your best.
And part of doing your best is going to be to be trained
to know the ins and outs of how to effectively preach the gospel and win souls.
Now, first of all, let me say this, before I even get into the points of my sermon,
you know, it would do everyone well
to memorize the verses that you're going to use for the plan of salvation.
I mean, that would be, to me, that would be a minimum of preparation.
If you want to be the best soul winner that you could be.
Now, I'm not saying that you're going to quote it to them,
you know, you're still going to turn in your Bible,
but you're going to do a far better job presenting the gospel
if you memorize the plan of salvation.
Whatever, whatever verses you're going to use,
whatever you plan, you lay out to preach the gospel,
and you ought to have a plan.
Well, I'm just going to let the spirit lead.
You know, you ought to have a plan of how you're going to show somebody that they're a sinner,
how you're going to show them that Jesus died for their sins, what it takes to be saved.
And if you don't have a plan, you're going to leave things out by mistake.
And so, it's good to have a plan.
At a very minimum, take, well, I don't have time, I don't, look,
you don't have time to go out and knock a bunch of doors
and be unprepared, is what you don't have time for, to waste time.
What you ought to do is maximize your time out soul learning
by knowing what you're doing, memorizing the plan of salvation.
Some people find it helpful also to draw a map in their Bible,
which would be, let's say, the first verse that you're going to start with is Romans 3.23.
You could write next to that what the next verse you're going to turn to.
My personal, typical soul learning plan goes, Romans 3.23, Romans 6.23.
So, next to 3.23, I could write in my Bible, say, in my early days,
and I'm just getting good at this, or learning how to do it.
Right next to Romans 3.23, I'm going to write Romans 6.23.
And then next to Romans 6.23, I'm going to write Revelation 20, 14, and 15.
And then next to, this is just, this is my plan that I use, my basic plan.
And then right next to Revelation 20, 14, and 15, I could write Revelation 21.8,
just to remind me where to go next.
But I'm also going to memorize those verses,
okay, so that they roll off the tongue, so that I'm not misreading them, or stammering and stuttering.
And so, then I could write Romans, or I'm sorry, Revelation 21.8.
From Revelation 21.8, I go to Romans 5.8.
From Romans 5.8, I go to Acts 16.31.
From Acts 16.31, I go to John 3.16, and John 3.18.
And from John 3.16 and 3.18, I go to Romans 6.23.
Now, that might be a little bit different than some people's plan,
or the same as other people's plan.
There's what a very typical plan is known as the Romans Road,
which goes Romans 3.10, Romans 3.23, Romans 6.23,
Romans 5.12, Romans 5.8, Romans 10.9, Romans 10.13, okay?
Now, I think that's a great plan.
Personally, I think that the list of scriptures that I gave is better, okay?
Because I think it explains more, and it emphasizes more,
the most important part about salvation, which is believing, faith.
That's why I've changed it up a little bit, is to emphasize faith.
That's why I like to go to John 3.16, John 3.18, and Acts 16.31,
which I've added in.
But Romans 10.9 and Romans 10.13 can convey that same truth.
And so, if you like to use the Romans Road,
use the Romans Road as fantastic.
I've added some other verses in that work
to help people understand the truth of these matters,
but you can get the same thing from the Romans Road.
Now, whatever plan you choose to use,
you can draw a map in your Bible,
but memorize the verses.
I'm telling you, it's important.
Sometimes, you might fumble, you can't find it,
you can just quote it.
Sometimes, people, I've been at doors,
and I'll try to give somebody the Gospel,
and I'll start to open my Bible, and say,
no, no, no, no.
But they'll talk to you for 20 minutes or a half hour.
But as soon as your Bible opens, nope.
And so, I'll just give them the plan of salvation verbally.
Quote all the verses to them,
and I've gotten people saved like that,
that would not listen when I opened the Bible,
because they would just add something about,
some kind of a hardness toward the Bible.
But as I preached the Gospel to them,
their heart was softened by the Word of God,
and they got saved.
But let me give you my actual points of my sermon.
Those are just some introductory thoughts.
Number one, this is what you need for soul winning.
Boldness.
Look at, are you in Acts chapter one?
Look at Acts chapter four.
Acts 4, 31.
The Bible reads in Acts 4, 31.
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken,
where they were assembled together,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and they spake the Word of God with boldness.
So what was the effect of that power?
What was the power that came upon them in Acts one,
that enabled them to go out and be a witness,
to win souls, to get people saved?
Hey, it was boldness.
When the Spirit of the Lord was upon them,
when they were filled with the Holy Spirit,
the result was that they spake the Word of God with boldness.
Look at Acts 9, 27.
While you're turning there, I'll read another scripture.
1 Timothy 3, 13.
For they that have used the office of a deacon well
purchased to themselves a good degree
and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus,
saying a deacon ought to be bold.
Why?
Because one of the qualifications of a deacon,
according to Acts chapter six,
was that he's filled with the Holy Spirit.
And a man who's filled with the Holy Spirit
is a man who's bold.
Those two things go hand in hand.
One is the byproduct of the other.
And so that's why he's talking about a deacon
having boldness and being filled with the Holy Ghost,
preaching the Gospel, being a soul winner
like some of the first deacons were, Philip and Stephen,
in particular out of the first seven deacons
listed in Acts chapter six.
And so look at Acts 9, 27.
But Barnabas took him, speaking of Paul,
and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them
how he had seen the Lord in the way
and that he had spoken to him
and how he had preached boldly at Damascus
in the name of Jesus.
And he was with them coming in and going out of Jerusalem
and he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus
and disputed against the Grecians.
But they went about to slay him.
Boldness, in spite of being threatened,
in spite of having people wanting to kill him,
hey, he preached boldly
because he was filled with the Holy Spirit,
which is what's gonna make you a great soul winner.
Look at Acts 19, verse eight.
Acts 19, verse eight.
And he went into the synagogue
and spake boldly for the space of three months,
disputing and persuading the things
concerning the kingdom of God.
No need to turn there, but Philippians 1.20.
According to my earnest expectation and my hope
that nothing else should be ashamed,
but that with all boldness, as always,
so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body,
whether it be by life or by death.
He said, with all boldness,
I want Christ to be magnified in my body.
Ephesians chapter six, I believe, where he says,
and for me that utterance may be given unto me,
that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel.
Boldness, he says, wherein I am an ambassador
and bonds, that therein I may speak boldly
as I have to speak, even in jail, he says.
I don't wanna go south,
I don't wanna preach the gospel boldly.
Now, you say, how am I gonna incorporate boldness
into my soul winning?
What's a practical way that I'm gonna be bold
in my soul winning, like Paul was,
like John was, like Peter was?
I wanna have people say I wanna be bold.
Well, let's start with the very beginning
of your soul winning.
Now, I would say that the two most important parts
of your soul winning, and obviously it's very important
that you get the plan of salvation across.
I mean, that's the most important part.
But as far as the delivery,
the most difficult part, I guess,
would be a better way of putting it.
All of it's important or else we wouldn't be doing it.
But the most difficult part is the beginning and the end.
I mean, that's gonna be the toughest part
as a soul winner.
And so, let's talk about the beginning.
You get to the door and we're being very practical.
We want you to know how to do this.
You knock on the door.
Hi, my name is Steven Anderson.
I'm from Faithful Word Baptist Church.
Just wanted to give you an invitation to church, right?
And I hold out the invitation and put it in their hand.
And I say, do you go to church anywhere?
Now, when I ask that question,
I don't care where they go to church.
No matter what they say,
it doesn't affect what I do next at all.
Okay?
I just say, so I say, do you go to church anywhere?
It doesn't matter whether whatever church they list,
whatever or no church or used to go to church,
whatever they say, it doesn't even matter.
Because no matter what they say,
the next thing I say, well,
more important to go to church.
Okay, that's just kind of an icebreaker.
And then I just say, well,
more important to go to church though.
If you were to die today,
do you know for sure that you'd go to heaven?
Now, I asked that question,
they're gonna give me either a yes, no, I hope so.
Maybe not.
Now, here's the thing.
If they say, yes, I know for sure I'm going to heaven,
this is gonna be the most difficult person
to win the Lord.
Unless they're already saved and that's great,
praise the Lord.
But you know, they're a Roman Catholic
or a Mormon or Lutheran or whatever.
And they're like, yes, I know for sure
that I'm going to heaven.
This is gonna be a tough one, okay?
Because they already think they're on their way to heaven,
they don't need you to give them the gospel
in their mind, okay?
So that person who just says, yes, I know for sure,
I just say, well, how do you know that?
And then whatever they tell me,
if it's the right answer, the wrong answer, whatever,
I basically, if they tell me this is why,
and let's do this.
Let's say that they're going to some goofball religion,
you know they're not saved.
I mean, they're a Mormon Catholic, whatever.
And they say, yes, I know for sure,
because of I've been saved.
So it sounds like the right answer.
Okay, well, then the next thing I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna try to get them to expose the fact
that they're not really trusting Christ as savior.
So I'll say to the next, well, you know,
is there anything that you could do to lose that?
Like, let's say you quit going to church
or sometimes I'll say this,
well, what would happen if you just quit going to church
and you got into sin and you can get to the point
where you just, you murdered somebody?
Would you still go to heaven then?
And then usually if they're not saved,
you know, they're gonna say, well, no, you know,
you have to, you can't kill somebody and go to heaven.
You know, and then they say, well, you know,
you gotta live right.
You know, you gotta follow the commandments.
You gotta try and live right.
See, that's where they start exposing the fact
that they're trusting and works.
So if they give the vehement yes,
you try to go further to expose that they're not saved
by using eternal security and saying, can you lose it
if you go out and kill somebody or commit adultery
or quit church and whatever.
But sometimes with those people
that are just really vehemently, they just know for sure.
Sometimes you're gonna try and you might just say,
all right, see you later, go to the next door.
You know, because they're not open to it.
They're not receptive to it.
You know, you wanna try to give them the gospel.
You wanna try to give the gospel to everybody.
But if they're not open to it or receptive to it,
sometimes you just say, all right, see you later.
Now, if they say, I'm pretty sure,
and now you're looking for any doubt, okay?
So if they say, I'm pretty sure,
that's not 100% sure, is it?
If they say, well, I think I would, okay?
If they say anything like that, I think I would,
I hope so, probably, I'm pretty sure, I say this,
well, can I just take five minutes
and just show you how you can be 100% sure?
So I'm trying to contrast being 100% sure
with their slightly watered down answer.
So I say, well, can I just take five minutes
to just show you how you can know 100% for sure, okay?
And then also, if they say, I hope so, I'm trying,
obviously, you know they're not safe,
you say, well, look, can I show you how you can know
for sure?
If they say, no, I don't know that for sure,
again, it's just, could I take five minutes
and just show you how you can know 100%?
Yeah, you're really gonna take five minutes,
it might be more like 10, 15, you know?
But you're saying five minutes
because that's what you want them to give you
and once you get the five minutes,
they'll probably give you a little bit more
so you could continue and finish it off
because once you get five minutes into it,
what you're saying is so powerful, it's so interesting,
it's so powerful that they're gonna continue to listen
for the 10 minutes or 15 minutes or whatever it takes.
Now, really the only way that you're really having
a struggle here is when they say, yes, I know for sure.
Most people aren't gonna say, yes, I know for sure.
Most people are gonna say, I hope so, probably,
I think so, I'm not sure, I don't know,
I'd like to think so, no, I'm not, okay?
And those are all great answers
because then you just say, well, can I show you 100%?
Now, let's bring in the boldness element.
One way that I mean by bringing boldness
into your soul is you wanna expect them
to want to listen to you.
Don't expect them to say no, don't be like this.
Well, I mean, you wouldn't wanna let me
show you this now, would you?
I mean, is it all right if I just show you this
in five minutes?
You don't wanna be weak like that, okay?
Because that's not boldness.
The opposite of being bold is being timid.
Can I show you this?
They're gonna say, no, I don't have time for this.
No, see you later.
But see, when I ask somebody, I say to them,
I say, can I stay five minutes and just show you this?
You know, and I'm like, probably not, right?
Yeah, huh, can I show you this?
You know, and to be honest with you,
a lot of it's psychological.
I mean, when I ask that person if they wanna know,
I'm expecting them to say yes.
You know, let me put it to you this way.
It's called faith, right?
You know, it's like you're believing
that God has sent you here.
You're believing that God wants you to be here
preaching the gospel and that God's gonna help you
and that God is gonna work in this person's heart
and you're gonna be surprised if they don't listen.
That's the attitude that I try to have also.
I wanna have a boldness that doesn't say,
wow, is somebody actually gonna say yes to me?
I'm just expecting them to say yes.
And if they say no, I'm surprised about that.
Does that make sense?
And so I wanna have the confidence of saying,
can I show you this?
Take like five minutes, can I show you this?
I'm expecting them to be like, okay, sure, yes.
It's funny, I was talking to my sister
and she went out soul-winning
with somebody who'd never been soul-winning before, okay?
She was telling me some of the stories.
It was great, you know,
she took out this new soul-winner
and somebody got saved, you know.
Whatever you take somebody new out,
you always want somebody to get saved
to help excite that person
that they'll wanna keep coming
and keep being involved with soul-winning.
And so she takes this girl out,
this girl's all excited about soul-winning, you know,
and never done it before.
And so she's following my sister
and they go to the door
and a lot of doors were being slammed
and nobody was really listening.
Well, they get to this one door
and my sister says, you know,
do you know for sure if you died the day you go to heaven?
And on and on and goes through it
and she says, well, you know, can I show you this?
And the girl, you know, steps outside
and shuts the door and says, sure.
And as soon as she said, okay, sure.
Then the girl that was with my sister
just went like this, yes!
Look at that!
So my sister's embarrassed, okay?
Because my sister has the attitude like I have,
like, well, she's expecting people to say yes.
She's acting like it's perfectly,
of course they're gonna say yes, yes,
they're gonna show you this, you know, boldness.
But this girl, you know, she said, can we show you?
Yeah, sure, you can show me.
This girl's like, yes!
She literally did that, like, yes!
Because then my sister's embarrassed,
like, now this girl thinks that, what,
one in a thousand people say yes.
It's like we just won the lottery or something,
you know, somebody's gonna listen.
It's not, I thought that was pretty funny, you know?
She's like, yes, score!
Somebody's gonna listen, you know?
And so it ought not be that way in your soul winning,
you know, you gotta have confidence and boldness
that people need, I mean, people need to hear it.
You've got the good news, I mean,
why shouldn't they wanna listen to you?
It's shocking that they don't care
if they're going to heaven or hell.
That ought to surprise you,
and so y'all can just be ready and expecting,
of course people wanna hear it,
of course people wanna get saved,
people need to hear this.
Of course they got five minutes to take to listen to this.
So that's one way that you can be bold,
but you know, other ways, sometimes people are timid,
you know, and they don't wanna mention hell,
because they're too timid or afraid,
they don't wanna offend anybody.
You know, have the boldness
that is laid out on the line the way it is.
Look, you're a sinner and the punishment is hell
for all of our sins.
Now I don't beat that into the ground with people.
You know, I get them to realize it and admit it.
As soon as I get somebody to realize it and admit it,
look, you've committed sin
and you deserve to go to hell.
I move on, you know?
I've been with some people so many,
and they just run that into the ground.
I mean, they'll go through each of the 10 commandments,
showing the person how they violated each and every one.
Have you ever done this?
Have you ever lusted before?
Huh?
You know, the guy's wife is standing
like five feet behind him.
You ever thought a dirty thought?
Huh?
You're an adulterer, you know?
Have you ever lied to your wife?
She's like standing right behind him, you know?
Have you ever stolen?
Huh?
You cussing?
Have you ever wanted something that didn't belong to you?
That's covetousness.
Have you ever done that?
I mean, just going through and just ripping somebody's face.
And I mean, literally saying like,
you're so disgusting in the sight of God,
you're like a filthy rag.
You know what I mean?
You know, and if you take that verse in context,
it's a person saying it about themselves.
You know, humbling themselves, saying,
all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
And I've shown that to somebody,
but you know, I say it the way the Bible says it,
all of our righteousnesses, okay?
That's in the first person plural.
It's not all your righteousness.
You on your best day is a filthy rag, you piece of trash.
Okay, that's not a good way to go soul winning,
and that's not the good news.
But at the same time,
hey, the good news is you're going to hell.
Hey, the good news is you're wicked as hell,
you dirty, filthy pervert, rotten scumbag.
It's all by the grace of God
that you're gonna go to heaven
because you're such a piece of trash.
That's not the way you should go soul winning,
and you can't show me that in the Bible
for a soul winning technique.
It's not right.
But that's the movement, that's the trend now.
You know, you gotta go out and people should be
like shaking when you're talking about conviction,
and they're gonna be like shaking and crying.
Yeah, they probably will be crying
after you tell them how worthless they are.
But that's not the right way to do it.
But at the same time, you don't want to be a wimp,
not mention hell, not tell them they're a sinner.
But you know what?
Somebody doesn't have to be a scum dirtbag
to go to hell anyway.
They just have to be a sinner.
So all you have to do is prove that they're a sinner.
The sin that I usually use is lying
because the Bible says that everybody has lied.
Not everybody has committed murder.
Not everybody has committed adultery, okay?
And so the sin that everybody has committed is lying.
And so I just show them in Revelation 21, eight,
and I mentioned that earlier in my list of scriptures,
I just say, look, where does it say that liars are going
when they die to hell?
Okay, and so that's all it takes.
I mean, I show them,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And I say, come short, not fall short.
That's the NIV.
It's come short.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
There's a difference between falling short and coming short.
See, coming short means you're moving
from the bottom to the top and you don't get there.
Fall short means you were up there
and then you fell down here, okay?
We're not Mormons.
We don't believe that we fell out of the sky
and we used to be in heaven before we were babies, okay?
And so we come short of the glory of God, okay?
And come short, this is how I explain the term come short.
I say, look, I point at the phrase come short
because the first verse I go to, Romans 3, 23.
I say, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
I said, do we measure up to what God expects us, you know?
No, we come short.
We don't measure up.
We don't reach, we don't attain God's standards.
And then I say, well, there's a punishment for our sin.
I take him to Romans 6.3,
I show him the wages of sin is dead.
Then I take him to Revelation 20, 14, 15,
and explain to them that after you die physically,
there's a second death, okay, hell.
And I show them that, you know,
even lying will send you to hell.
It lists all these sins,
the fearful and unbelieving.
Being an unbeliever sends you to hell.
Tell them a lie sends you to hell and out of this.
Fearful, unbelieving, liar.
I mean, these are things that we've all done
or are guilty of right now, even.
You know, people are unbelieving as you talk to them.
People have lied and they continue to lie
throughout their life.
And so you can show them that they're a sinner.
Look, if a person already understands
that they're a sinner,
it's time to move on to the next point.
If they already understand that hell is the condemnation,
move on.
Because I've watched people convinced,
somebody's just like, yep, I believe that, yep,
we're sinner, we deserve to go to hell.
And then they'll spend like 10 more minutes on that.
What is the point?
They already understand that they already believe it.
They've already agreed to it.
Let's get to the gospel.
You know, let's get to the good news.
Why would you sit there and run something into the ground?
And even the other points,
once you've got them to believe it and agree,
hey, let's move on and finish the job here
and not just spend hours talking to somebody
just for the sake of spending hours talking to somebody.
There's no point.
And so boldness.
Expect them to listen.
Don't be timid and shy about it.
Come out of your shell, be bold, expect them to listen.
Have confidence.
When somebody comes to me and talks to me about something
and they're not even confident in themselves
in what they're saying,
why would I be confident in what they're saying is true?
They don't even seem confident.
So have boldness.
You say, I'm a shy person, I'm a timid person.
Pray for boldness.
The Holy Spirit will give you boldness, okay.
And so you have boldness in your beginning.
You start out, they want to listen.
You got the good news and you're ready to give it to them.
Also boldness, don't leave out hell.
Don't leave out the fact that they're a sinner.
Give them the straight talk.
Just, this is the way it is.
This is the bottom line, okay.
Now, you get into the plan of salvation.
You've convinced them that they're a sinner.
You've convinced them that they're on their way to hell.
Now it's time to give them the gospel
the good news, the death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So from there, this is what I say.
After I've shown them this, I say, but,
I said, God loves you.
So if God loves you, does God want you to go to hell,
do you think?
And they say, well, no.
And I say, well, look, but doesn't the Bible say
that you deserve to go to hell?
I mean, and sometimes I'll say this,
you think God just says that, but he doesn't mean it?
You think God just says, well,
they're all gonna go to hell,
but I guess they can go to heaven
because I'm a nice guy.
No, I mean, God means what he says, but I said,
but God wanted to, because he loved you,
he wanted to find a way to save you
so that you wouldn't have to go to hell.
Here's how he did that.
And I take him to Romans 5-8.
But God commended his love toward us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
And I explained to them how Jesus Christ
is God in the flesh, came to this world,
lived the perfect life that none of us can live.
And then he was beaten, he was lied about, spat upon,
the rest of you know, nailed to the cross.
And I say to them this, when he was nailed to the cross,
the Bible says that he himself bare our sins
in his own body on the tree.
So every sin I've ever done,
every sin you've ever done,
every sin that anybody in the whole world has ever done,
when Jesus was on that cross,
it was as if he had done it.
And so when Jesus was dying on the cross,
he was not being punished for any of his own sins
because he had no sin,
he was being punished for your sins.
He was dying for you,
as in he was dying in your place.
And I explained that to him.
And I explained to them how he died on the cross,
his body was buried in a tomb,
his soul went down to hell for three days
and three nights.
And then I asked them, what happened three days later?
Cause usually they didn't really answer.
He rose again from the dead.
And then I asked him this,
do you believe that Jesus died for everybody?
And usually they say, yes, I believe that.
And I'll say, well, you're right.
Because the Bible says that he died not for our sins only
but also the sins of the whole world.
But I say, do you think that everybody's going to heaven?
And they usually say, well, no, probably not.
And I say, you're right again.
There's only one thing that separates
who's going to heaven and who's not.
Who's going to heaven and who's going to hell.
I said, it's very simple, let me show it to you.
And I take them to act 1631.
And I show them where it says,
what must I do to be saved?
And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved in my house.
And I say, does that say that you have to go to church?
No.
Does that say that you have to live a good life?
No.
Does that say that you have to repent of your sins
and turn over a new leaf and change your life around
and be willing to quit your sins and quit drinking?
And I'll just list these things on.
They say, no.
I say, what does it say that you have to do to be saved?
They say, believe.
And I say, let me show you the most famous verse
in the Bible.
I take them to John 3.16.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life.
I say, does it say whosoever is good enough?
Whosoever goes to church?
Whosoever is sincere?
Whosoever lives a good life?
No, it's whosoever believeth.
Whoever, as I explained, if they're not,
whosoever means whoever believeth.
And then I take them down to John 3.18.
He that believeth on Him is not condemned,
but he that believeth not is condemned already
because he had not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God.
I said, look, isn't that clear?
Those who believe are not condemned.
I say, can you see from these scriptures I'm showing you
that it's all based on what you believe,
whether you believe on Christ or not?
And usually it's very clear to them at this point.
Then I say to them this.
I say, well, let me show you one last verse that
kind of puts it all together.
And I'm going to spend a lot of time on it.
I don't tell them this, but I'm
going to spend some time on this verse.
But I say, hey, this is the last verse.
This is going to tie it all together.
I take them to Romans 6.23.
That's where I finish off every time.
A lot of people finish off with Romans 10.9, Romans 10.13.
I prefer to finish with Romans 6.23 because the thing
that I want to spend my time on and emphasize
is that salvation is by faith, and that it's a gift,
and that it's eternal.
Because that's what they need to believe in order to be saved.
That's what they need to understand.
That's what they need to see.
So that's where I'm going to spend my time.
And so I spend my time on Romans 6.23.
Sometimes I'll use it.
And I'm not going to belabor this because you know this.
But I'm going to show them illustrations about a gift, who
pays for it, the giver or the receiver, of course,
the person who's giving the gift.
I'll role play with them.
Let's say I'm going to give you my car, keys to my car.
And I say, here, I'm going to give you this car,
but you owe me $5 for that car.
And I say, well, look, the car is worth $20,000.
$5.
But it's still not a gift because you're paying for it.
Even one cent, I mean, it's only a gift if it's free.
And then I'll say, once I give it to you, whose is it?
Or sometimes I'll use my Bible and say,
if I give you this Bible as a gift,
this is a gift from me to you, but I just need $5.
It's not a gift.
And usually people can understand this.
If you're paying for it, then it's not a gift to you.
It's a purchase.
And I explain to them that Jesus paid it all.
Jesus paid for the gift of your eternal life
with His blood on the cross, with His death, burial,
and resurrection.
All you have to do is receive it.
I explain to them that once He gets it to you, it's yours.
And I say to them this, if I were to give you a Bible,
and I said, here, I'm going to give you this gift,
this Bible as a gift from me to you.
And not only that, but I'm promising you
that I'm giving it to you forever.
I mean, it's yours forever.
I said, if I came back two weeks later
or two years later, and I took that from you,
was I telling the truth when I said it was forever?
They say, no.
And I show them, I said, what does eternal mean?
In Romans 6, 23, they say forever.
I say, if God gives you a gift that's eternal,
how many times do you have to get it?
Just once.
And how long does it last?
Forever.
Could He ever take it away from you?
No.
And if they're having trouble understanding it too,
I'll quote some other verses, like Hebrews 13, 5.
Let the conversation be without covetousness,
and be content with such things as you have.
For He had said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Or 1 John 2, 24, where He says,
and this is the promise that He had promised us,
even eternal life.
Titus 1, 2, in hope of eternal life,
which God that cannot lie,
promised before the world began.
Or, you know, on and on, you can go.
I mean, how many times does the words everlasting
and eternal occur?
You say, Pastor, why is it that you emphasize
eternal security so much in soul winning?
Because the Bible emphasizes it by saying,
again and again, eternal, eternal, eternal,
everlasting, everlasting.
How many times are those words used in the Bible?
Again and again and again, it's vital.
So to understand that, and I'll tell you what.
Let me just stop right here and say this.
A lot of independent fundamental Baptist soul winning
is not really getting people saved.
I'm telling you, I've been soul winning with people,
and I've been in independent fundamental Baptist churches
for years, and I mean, I think a lot of these
independent fundamental Baptist soul winners
are not really even getting people saved.
And they're just spinning their wheels,
because here's what they do.
They go around and they get people to admit
that they're a sinner.
They show them that Jesus is the only way to heaven,
and they take them to Romans 10, nine,
and they show them, you know,
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and believe in thy heart that God is raised from dead,
thou shalt be saved, Romans 10, nine.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
And they'll pray with that person,
and pray with them, and have them pray
that they're receiving Christ as Savior.
But the problem is that that person,
you could ask that person when they're done.
And I would challenge anyone,
anyone maybe who's listening to this
from a CD or something in the future,
anybody who is, you know,
you go soul winning with somebody
who's not from our church or something,
I would challenge these people
to when they're done winning somebody to Christ,
to ask them whether they believe that you could lose it.
And a lot of them would say,
well, yeah, I mean, you still gotta live right,
because it's not being emphasized in soul winning
among independent Baptists, I'm telling you.
They'll go soul winning,
and they emphasize praying the prayer,
instead of emphasizing believe on Jesus, okay?
And so, sometimes they'll ask me,
well, why are you going to heaven?
Because I prayed.
You know, that's what they'll answer.
But if you ask that same person,
could you ever lose it?
Like if you killed somebody,
or what if you never go to church,
or what if you don't get back up?
A lot of times they'll say,
well, you do have to live right,
you do have to follow the commandments.
Did they get salvation?
They're no better off than when you got there.
You didn't win people to the Lord.
If you go out and run through the Roman's road
with somebody, and pray a prayer with them,
and they still believe that if they don't live right,
they're gonna go to hell,
and if they do live right, they'll go to heaven,
how is that person saved?
Explain that to me.
And I mean, it's been scary for me,
and it's been very, very disturbing to me
to see how many independent Baptists go soul winning,
and it's kind of a one, two, three, repeat after me.
It's disturbing.
Okay, they'll talk to a Roman Catholic.
They'll show the Roman Catholic they're a sinner.
The Roman Catholic believes they're a sinner.
They'll say, believe Jesus died and rose again.
The Roman Catholic says, I believe that.
Pray with me and receive Christ.
They pray.
Did they get saved?
No, because they still believe in works,
and that's not salvation.
You understand what I'm saying?
I mean, it's crucial that you understand
that an unsaved person, in order to get saved,
it's not that they didn't pray the prayer, right?
There's all these people around
that just believe the right thing,
but they just never prayed that prayer.
Do you think that's their problem?
You think people are gonna go to hell
because they didn't pray the prayer?
They believed it all right,
but they didn't pray the prayer.
But that's what these independent Baptists,
it seems like what they're doing,
because they go around and ask,
they ask them if they believe things
that they already believe.
Well, pray this with me.
Okay, now you're saved.
That doesn't make any sense.
Where does the Bible say,
pray a prayer and thou shall be saved.
Whosoever prayeth and hath Jesus saved
shall be saved.
It's whosoever believeth in him.
Not believing in their church to save them.
Not believing in baptism or their own works.
You gotta believe on Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.
And I'm telling you, soul winners in America
need to quit doing this one, two, three,
repeat after me and understand
that a person's gonna get saved.
They have to change what they believe.
They believe one thing when you get there.
You walk up, you talk to them.
What they believe's gotta change
if they're gonna go to heaven.
If what they believe didn't change,
either they were already saved or they're still not saved,
because salvation's based on what you believe.
I mean, pastors all over America,
let's bring it into another arena.
They preach behind a pulpit,
every head bowed, every eyes closed,
the ritual that they go through,
and they say, there's people here,
they've been coming to this church for years,
and you've never been saved.
You need to come down the aisle and get saved right now.
And you've never prayed to receive Christ as Savior.
Now look, the reason people aren't saved
is because they believe wrong.
What they oughta be saying,
if they wanna get their unsaved church members saved,
maybe they should get up and preach and say,
hey, you don't believe right.
You think it's by works.
You think you can lose it.
You think it's because you gave up your sins.
Hey, trust Christ alone as Savior
and get on your knees and pray
and confess Jesus Christ as your only way to heaven.
Hey, that oughta be salivating.
Pray and ask Jesus to save you,
but change what you believe, okay?
If you don't change what you believe,
if you believe the same thing you believe,
then you're still not saved if you still believe.
And people say, well, they have a head knowledge
but not a heart knowledge.
I've had all kinds of examples of people touted to me
who turned out later not to be saved,
and they said, well, they had a head knowledge
but not a heart knowledge.
You talk to those people, you find out
they never believed that it was by grace
through faith plus amount.
They were either trying to say
you have to give up your sins
or they thought you could lose it.
They never believed that it was all through Jesus
because guess what?
People who believe that it's all Jesus are saved.
And we need to get back to emphasizing faith,
what the Bible emphasizes.
Believe, believe, who's gonna believe it?
He that believeth not, he that believeth.
Who's gonna believeth on me?
That's what the Bible emphasizes, not praying a prayer.
Now, do I believe in praying a prayer?
Of course.
As soon as I'm done preaching the gospel to somebody,
getting them to change what they believe,
then I say, pray with me.
I'm gonna help you tell God that that's what you believe
and ask for salvation.
And if you ask, you'll receive,
but you gotta believe in your heart
or you're not gonna receive it.
I'm telling you what, I'd say a lot.
And I mean, I dread to think
and I'm not even gonna speculate right now,
but I'm telling you a huge percentage of soul winning
is just people going out and praying with people,
but they didn't get them to change what they believe
because they didn't even tell them
about eternal security half the time.
They didn't even tell them,
they didn't even emphasize to them that it's not works.
They just said, well, you just gotta believe this,
pray this, both.
Did you tell them that it's not of works?
I'm saying you managed to boast.
Did you tell them that they can't lose it,
that it's not based on them,
that it's not based on church,
that it's only based on what Jesus
has already done on the cross?
That's how you're gonna make sure
that somebody gets saved.
Now listen, Pastor Anderson, here's a question.
Pastor Anderson, do you believe
that you could win somebody to Christ
without explaining internal security to them
before you pray with them?
Yeah, of course it's possible for somebody to get saved
without me specifically explaining to them
eternal security.
You know, if I just explain to them
that it's all through what Jesus did on the cross,
you gotta believe on Jesus alone
is your only way to heaven.
You know what, but I'm gonna tell you something.
I think that the vast majority of people,
if you don't explain to them eternal life,
probably will not understand the gospel.
And you say, well, I think you're off on that.
Well, you know what?
I've been soul winning for thousands
and thousands of hours,
and I've seen thousands of people saved.
And I'm telling you that if you don't explain
eternal security to people,
when you're done praying with them,
they still think that they have to live right, okay?
I'm just telling you that.
Now, there are exceptions to that,
but I'm just telling you the way that works.
I'm telling you that when you don't emphasize
that it's eternal and everlasting,
then people walk away thinking
that they still have to do their part.
And the best way, and yes,
there are other ways to teach people this,
but the best way to show somebody who's not saved
that they're not saved,
the best way to show them that the gospel is free
and that salvation is all through Jesus,
the best way is by talking about eternal security.
That's the best way.
It's the best way to show Catholics
that they're not saved,
to show Mormons, Jovis, witnesses,
anybody that they're not saved
is by emphasizing eternal security.
It's the greatest soul winning method
that I've ever learned from anyone.
And it is the most effective thing
that I've ever taught to anybody,
everybody I've ever taught that to,
it has revolutionized their soul winning.
And so we could sit here and debate it all night.
The 1 John 5, 10 says,
he that believeth on the Son of God
hath to witness in himself.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar,
because he believeth not the record
that God gave him his Son,
and this is the record that God
hath given unto us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son.
The record that people have to believe
in order to be saved is that
God has given to us eternal life.
If they don't believe that, they're not saved.
You can debate me all day long on that,
but that's what the Bible says.
If you don't believe that God has given to us
eternal life and this life is in his Son,
you are making God a liar
and you are not saved, period.
And arguing with me,
and you know, that's a rare doctrine.
You know, most people think that
all these Pentecostals are saved,
they just think they can lose it.
You know what, you can argue that with me all day long.
I don't care.
It's not gonna take one Pentecostal out of hell
for you to pretend that people who believe
you can lose your salvation are saved.
You can pretend that all you want,
that Nazarenes and Assemblies of God
and all these people who believe
you can lose your salvation are saved.
Go ahead and pretend that all you want,
but it's not gonna take one Assemblies of God
or Nazarene out of the pit of hell
because you tell yourself that they're saved.
Why should this face up to the reality
that people have to believe the record
that God has given of His son in order to be saved?
And then when you,
when the first step is recognizing the problem,
and then you can get them saved and win them to Christ.
Just face it.
Just face up to it, you know?
You're a relative that Assemblies of God is going to hell
because they think you can lose your salvation
because they don't believe it.
They don't believe what Jesus did is enough.
They think it's what they do and what Jesus did
working in tandem, and that is not salvation, period.
And so emphasize eternal security.
Now, let me give you some other tips.
I'm trying to hurry.
Whenever I preach these kind of sermons,
I run out of time
because there's so much that I want to say.
And I apologize to people who've heard
some of these things again and again,
but it's good to emphasize them again,
and some people might not have heard them
or got it the first time,
so we gotta go through this thoroughly
because I want you to be a thorough soul winner.
Get people saved.
I'm not just trying to put a bunch of numbers
on the bulletin.
You know, who cares?
You think I care about these numbers?
Look, Brother Dave has been my soul winning partner
a lot for the last year and a half, okay?
And Brother Dave knows that if we talk to somebody
and pray with somebody, but we walk away
and we're really sure that they got it,
Brother Dave will tell you
that I never count that person.
Isn't that true, Brother Dave?
I mean, if we pray with somebody
and they pray and get saved,
but we're like, hmm, you know,
we did the best we could, we preached it to them,
they wanted to pray and get saved,
but I'm not really sure that they even got it.
You know, because there were some red flags or whatever.
We don't count those people.
I mean, we're not just looking for
ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching.
It's dumb.
You know, numbers are,
the whole point of putting the numbers in the bulletin
is just to motivate us.
It's just to give us goals to reach
so that we can aim higher and win more souls.
It's just something to encourage us.
Not everybody goes souling.
It's for, you know, people to be blessed
to see the people being saved through our efforts.
And that's why we put those in the bulletin,
and we're gonna keep them in the bulletin.
I like having them in the bulletin,
but it's not a numbers game, right?
It's about getting people saved.
All that really matters is how many people are in heaven,
not how many people are written on the page.
And so, that's that.
But anyway, let me say this,
and I'm gonna skip over some of my points,
but let me just give them to you
without elaborating on them.
Emphasize eternal security.
I can't emphasize that to you enough right now.
And emphasize believe, not the prayer.
The prayer is important,
but believe is 10,000 times more important.
So believe, believe, believe, faith, faith, faith.
I'm gonna skip that point, okay?
You can just think about that.
But here's something that'll really help you
with your soul winning.
Use basically the same methods
for everyone that you talk to.
Don't try and get all elaborate and creative with people.
And don't think that winning a Mormon
is different than winning a Jehovah's Witness,
is different than winning a Catholic, is different than...
And a lot of people go down this road
where they study all these false religions.
Well, I'm gonna read the Book of Mormon
so that I can know how to win Mormons.
Why would you wanna fill your mind with lies?
Oh, I'm gonna study all the Mormon literature.
I'm gonna study the Jehovah's Witness magazine.
You don't need to know what they believe.
Know the truth.
I've heard that people who are trained in banks
to study counterfeit, to recognize counterfeit bills,
they study the true bill.
They don't spend just days and weeks
studying every kind of counterfeit bill.
There's too many different kinds
and they're always coming up with new counterfeits.
They're always coming up with new counterfeits
for Christianity.
Study the real bill.
Study the watermark, shine the little blue light
to find the little seal.
Okay, hold it up and see the stripe.
You know, do all this stuff.
Okay, that's what you do to see
whether that bill is real.
And you only need to know the true gospel
and be able to present that.
I remember, I was talking to my grandma the other day
and she was telling me how,
because my grandpa's family, a lot of them were Mormons.
They were kind of Jack Mormons, if you know what that means.
They weren't really that into it.
Didn't really believe in it much,
but a lot of my relatives were Jack Mormons.
Some of them, later on down the line,
became just these dyed in the wool Mormons,
you know, just hardcore.
But he had a burden to try to win all these Mormons,
his relatives and his family, the Lord.
He wanted to see them saved.
So he went out and he bought the Book of Mormon
and he said, you know, I'm going to read this
because I want to be able to have
an intelligent conversation with them,
you know, and get them saved.
And so he got the Book of Mormon.
He read like two pages of it.
He got mad, started yelling at it.
He started yelling at the Book of Mormon.
He's like, this stupid piece of trash.
He'll throw it in the trash.
So then like a couple of years later, he said,
he went out and bought it again.
He's like, I'm going to read this
and I want to be able to, you know,
to talk to them and show them what's wrong with it.
He got it and read a page or two
and he said, this stupid piece of junk.
He just threw it in the trash, got mad.
He's like, this is why this stupid thing
belongs to this.
Look, he had it right.
Reading the Book of Mormon is not going to help him
be a better soul winner.
People ask me all the time,
have you ever read the Book of Mormon?
No.
To this day, I've never read it.
I've never even read a whole page of it.
Oh, you're ignorant, blah, blah, blah.
Look, the part that I read was stupid enough
for me to see that it was bogus.
Okay, look, let me just bury,
put the final shovel of dirt on Mormonism
for how wicked and bizarre it is.
Mormonism is all I have to say
and whenever I talk, when I get the gospel to a Mormon
and they don't get saved,
this is the thought that I leave them with.
Once I give them the gospel,
I just tell them, you know what?
I said, you believe in more than one God
and I believe in one God, one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
You believe in hundreds and thousands of God.
That's not Christianity.
I mean, that's all you have to know about Mormons.
Wow, could there be saved Mormons?
They don't even believe in God.
They believe in multiple gods.
Did you know that?
It's polytheism.
And so, that's all we need to know about it
that it's wicked and the wrong religion.
But listen, what I want to emphasize to you right now
is you don't need to study Mormonism, Catholicism,
Jehovah's Witness, all these different doctrines.
Have fun trying to learn what they all are.
It's too much and you know what?
You're gonna pervert your mind in the process.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 10, too,
learn not the way of the heathen.
The Bible said in Romans 16, 19,
but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good
and simple concerning evil.
Be simple concerning the Book of Mormon.
Who cares what it's about?
If it contradicts the Bible, we don't need to read it.
If the Apocrypha contradicts the Bible,
I read about two or three pages of the Apocrypha.
I said, this is stupid.
It's junk, it's contradicting the Bible.
I didn't feel the need to finish reading it, okay?
I don't want to fill my mind with junk.
You can tell that the spirits are not of God.
Nuts to them, okay?
And so that's all.
But here's what I want to emphasize about that.
When I'm giving the Gospel to a Catholic,
a Jehovah's Witness, or a Mormon,
I start out the same.
I give the Gospel the same.
I finish the same the only time that it changes, okay?
Because there are some specific concerns
that you may need to address with Mormons,
Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Assemblies of God.
But it doesn't affect the way I start.
I start out by giving them the same plan of salvation.
Here's why.
All false religions have one thing in common.
They don't believe in eternal security,
and they don't believe that it's through faith alone
without works.
The Catholics don't believe that.
Do the Mormons believe that it's by faith alone,
no works, no repent of your sins,
it's all Jesus, Jesus paid it all,
they don't believe that.
Do the Jehovah's Witnesses believe that?
Do the Seventh-day Adventists believe that?
Do Assemblies of God.
So do you see how it doesn't matter
who you're dealing with?
Is this the same thing that you go through with them?
But then, let me give you a perfect illustration of this.
There was a Jehovah's Witness guy
that I won to the Lord in Chicago,
and this man, I won him to the Lord,
he got baptized in church after he got saved.
So this was a great victory
to give the Gospel to a Jehovah's Witness,
have them receive it and be saved,
and then to come to a Baptist church the next day
and get baptized.
Praise the Lord for that, right?
That's the power of God.
And so, let me tell you how I did it, okay?
I talked to this guy, I sat down with him,
I went through the plan of salvation
exactly like I do with everybody else,
the way that I explained.
You're a sinner, you know, blah, blah, blah.
I'm not gonna go on, no, no.
When I got to the very end,
I proved to him that it was eternal.
It's all Jesus, and I said, now, wait a minute.
I said, before you get saved,
I said, there's one more thing that you need to believe,
because I knew that you believed wrong on this
because he, you know, born and raised Jehovah's West.
I said, there's one thing that you need to change
about what you believe.
I said, you know, you don't believe that Jesus is God.
You believe he's the son of God,
but you don't believe he's the only one God.
You know, they also believe in a multiplicity of God,
if you will.
And I said to him, I said this, I said, listen,
if I could just show you in the Bible
where the Bible just flat out says that Jesus is God,
I said, would you believe it if you saw it in the Bible?
And he said, if you can show me in the Bible,
I'll believe it.
And I said, okay, you know, because he's already softened
because I've already gotten through the powerful part.
Because I'm telling you, when you talk to Jehovah's Witnesses
about eternal security, you know, it's news to them.
And it's a powerful message that Jesus paid it all.
And that it's all through Jesus,
by grace through faith, not of works.
That's powerful.
And so once you get through that,
you're going to have an easier time
tearing apart some of their false doctrine.
But if you start right in,
just in an argument about whether Jesus is God,
before you've even given him the Gospel,
you're not going to get anywhere.
You start in ripping on Catholicism
before you give the Gospel, bad move.
Now, you've got to tear it apart,
but wait until you're done giving them the Gospel,
then tear it apart, then pray with them
and help them receive Christ as Savior
and turn away from that wickedness.
You got to do it in that order, I'm telling you.
If you just walk in,
let me show you everything that's wrong with Catholicism.
They don't want to hear it.
It's not a powerful message.
They're not going to, you know,
they're just going to argue with you and push you.
I'm just telling you the truth about it.
And so what did I do?
I took him to a couple of real clear verses.
I showed him Hebrews 1.8 as a good verse to Jesus as God.
I took him to the part where Jesus says,
why callest thou me good?
There's none good but one that is God.
And the reason I like that one
is because Jehovah's Witnesses will often use that
to try to prove to you that Jesus is not God.
See, he's rebuking someone for calling God.
I say to them, wait a minute.
Do you believe Jesus is good?
Well, of course.
I say, you're saying that Jesus is not good?
Because it says right here,
there's only one good and that's God.
And then they just look at me like,
oh man, I never thought of that.
But I just showed them about three scriptures.
I don't remember exactly which three.
I know it was Hebrews 1.8 and, you know,
two or three others.
I showed them just one place after another
where Jesus is God.
You know, there's John 1.1, John 5, 1 John 5.7.
Of course, those are changed in the Jehovah's Witnesses Bible.
But then you got Isaiah 9.6 is the same in their Bible.
Hebrews 1.8 are two really good ones for Jehovah's Witnesses.
Hebrews 1.8, Isaiah 9.6.
I show them those and he said, I believe that.
So then at that point I prayed with him
and he trusted Christ.
Now, if I would have just went through everything else
and just said, let's pray.
If he's still not believing that Jesus Christ is God,
Jesus said, if you believe not that I am he,
you'll die in your sins.
You know, you can't believe in multiple gods
and go to heaven, period.
That makes sense?
I mean, you can't believe in the multiplicity of gods
and go to heaven according to the book of John
and other places repeat.
You must believe that I am he, Jesus said.
Not I'm one of them, okay?
And so you have to understand that.
And so he got saved, he prayed and got saved,
picked him up for church the next day.
You know, that's part of why he came
because we picked him up.
When you pick people up,
they're a lot more likely to come to church.
We picked him up, he got baptized, praise the Lord.
We tried to win his brother to the Lord,
give his brother the gospel
many times his brother did not get saved.
Hopefully he'll get saved one day.
We planted the seed and watered it.
And so at the end, you'll get to a point
where you've given a Catholic the gospel.
Then that's where you step in and say,
now wait a minute, does this say
that you have to confess your sins
to the priest to be saved?
Does it say that you have to be baptized?
You know, and I usually,
sometimes I'll just tell them
and I'm not just going to rip their face,
but I'm going to tell them,
look, the Catholic church is, you know,
is teaching that you have to do these things,
but is that what the Bible says?
Okay, that's a tactful way of putting it, you know.
I just say, you know,
the Catholic church teaches a lot of things,
you know, that you have to do in addition to this,
but does the Bible say no?
The Bible says it's just belief.
Then I pray with them and get saved.
And then when I'm done, okay.
And again, let's emphasize this quickly.
The wrap up is important.
Just like the beginning is difficult,
the end is difficult.
You've given them everything.
You've taught them everything they believe right.
I ask them questions, right?
This is how I wrap it up.
I say, okay, this is my review.
I say, do you believe you've sinned?
Yes.
Do you believe Jesus died for your sins?
Yes.
Do you believe he rose again?
Yes.
And then I ask them this.
Do you believe that if you were to ask Jesus
to save you right now, would he do it?
Okay, a hypothetical.
Would he do it if you asked him?
Yes.
And how long would you be saved for?
Forever.
No matter what?
No matter what.
I'm just making sure that they really believe.
And I say, okay, then let's pray.
And I'm going to help you tell God
that that's what you believe.
That's what I say to every person.
Verbatim.
I say, okay, let's pray.
I'm going to help you tell God
that that's what you believe.
You can just repeat after me.
You say, oh, I just repeat.
They're just repeating a prayer.
Look, I just asked them what they believe
like five different ways.
And they said they believe it all right.
It doesn't, well, I used to just ask them,
do you want to pray?
Look, what person who believes all that
doesn't want to get saved?
Let's just do it, okay?
The main thing is, do they believe right?
If they say, yes, I believe, I believe, I believe.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
I say, let's pray right now.
I'm going to help you tell God that's what you believe.
You can just repeat this after me.
Let's bow our heads right now.
I'm going to help you pray this and tell God
that's what you believe.
We bow our head and pray.
And I say, dear Jesus.
They say, dear Jesus.
Now, if I say, dear Jesus, and it's just silent.
Is that what happened to you, right?
You're just like, all right, let's pray.
Dear Jesus.
And I just say, I just look up and say,
hey, repeat this after me.
Dear Jesus.
Okay, that's what I do.
Brother Dave, Gabriel, you guys have seen me do that.
You know, I just, I just say like, dear Jesus.
Repeat this after me.
You know, slap him a little bit.
Hey, repeat this after me, you know.
All right, I'm forcing you.
Look, I just gave them the gospel for 20 minutes
and they said they believe it all.
They need to pray, okay?
So we bow our heads, dear Jesus, dear Jesus.
I know I'm a sinner, I know I'm a sinner.
I know I deserve to go to hell.
Please save me right now and give me eternal life.
I'm only trusting you, Jesus, amen.
Now, see, I kind of did a little bit of a brief recap
just to make sure that they know what they're doing
while they're praying and ask Jesus
that they're telling him, I'm a sinner,
I deserve to go to hell,
but I believe that you died on the cross for me.
Please save me, give me eternal life, amen.
Just a short prayer.
You don't want to get too fancy with it.
Okay, there's no point.
If a person has a speech impediment or is very nervous
or is poor with the English language,
I don't lead them in some elaborate prayer.
I'll just pray like this.
I mean, if I went through it real thoroughly
and answered all the questions and they're real clear
on it, I'd just say, dear Jesus,
please save me right now, amen.
Oh, they must not be really saved.
It doesn't matter what they say, right?
I mean, it's just that they believe and that they said it.
And then as soon as we say,
dear Jesus, you know, in Jesus' name, amen,
I look up at them and I say,
now you meant that, right?
I don't say, did you mean that?
Because then you're automatically trying to put
that out in their mind.
Did you mean that?
And they're like, well, I thought I did.
Did you point your finger at me and ask me?
And so I say, you meant that, didn't you?
And they say, yeah, of course.
Say, well, if you believe that, if you meant that,
then you're saved, you're going to heaven.
Now, then I explained to them maternal security, eh,
because I already did that before they got saved, right?
See, like 99% of soloing program would tell you,
you pray with them and then you explain
to them maternal security.
Oh, really?
Wow, you mean I can't lose it?
I mean, even if I don't live right,
it's like, maybe they didn't get saved.
If you're just not telling them that,
they just now understand that, that it's not their life.
So, no, I don't start telling them
about maternal security because they already told them that
before they got saved, okay?
So here's what you can do after that.
You say, okay, they got saved.
You meant that, you're going to heaven, great.
See you later, okay.
Now, it's good to leave them with something.
Now, let me give you three options
that you could leave with them.
Or maybe you could leave them with all three.
You know, read the situation.
If somebody's in a hurry or busy
or how much you want to talk to this person more,
you know, you be the judge.
Let me give you three options.
You could do one of these or two of them
or all three of them or whatever.
I'm just giving you three things
that are good to talk about
after you want somebody to Lord.
Number one, do you have a Bible, right?
Great question.
Do you have a Bible?
Now, on that bookshelf over there,
we have just tons of King James Bibles
and when they run out, we'll buy more
and they're free, we don't sell anything here.
It's against the Bible to sell things
in the house of God and so we don't sell anything
and we provide a Bible free of charge
to everyone that we win the Lord
because that's, you know, oh man,
you know, that's expensive.
It's four bucks.
Those Bibles cost four bucks.
King James Bible, it's nice, you can read it.
Four bucks.
So, let's say we win 300 people to the Lord,
okay, it's 1200 bucks to get 400 people,
or to get 300 people saved
and to put a Bible in their hand.
Hey, that's a small price to pay.
You know, for the one person a week
that you win to the Lord,
you know, you can spring the four bucks
and you don't even have to spring the four bucks
because we already spring the four bucks
and they're on the bookshelf.
Just take a bunch of them, okay?
And so, it's that simple.
But here's what we do.
We have the silent partner, you know,
and silent partner is so important
because you're doubling your productivity.
If you have two people that are good soul winners
going together, you know,
you got somebody who's not doing the talking
that could be doing the talking.
It's better to split that group in half
and have them each be training somebody new,
taking somebody out slowly.
So, the silent partner carries a gift and award Bible
because they're not gonna use it anyway
because they're not doing the talking, okay?
Or sometimes, you know,
the silent partner, if they talk some of the time,
could carry both a gift and award
and their own Bible, okay?
And then we ask the people,
do you have a Bible?
They say, no.
I put it in their hand and say,
now you have a Bible.
And I usually show them where to start reading,
start reading the book of John
or wherever I feel like showing them.
And then I, sometimes I even give them
a Bible reading chart if I have one.
Read through the Bible in a year.
Then another thing is,
if they say, yes, I have a Bible,
I say, can you show it to me?
You say, why do you want me to show it to you?
To see if it's the King James Bible
and not the wrong Bible.
So I say, do you have a Bible?
Yes.
Bring it to me, please.
Can I look at it?
Can I see it?
They go get it, they go bring it,
it's the wrong Bible.
I say, here, let me trade you.
Or no, no, no, I'm sorry.
First, here's what I do.
They bring out the wrong Bible.
It's the new King James.
It's the NIV.
It's the new American Santa.
They bring the wrong Bible and say, yep, here's my Bible.
I say, can I show you something real quick?
And I show them one of the blatant contradictions,
maybe that Acts 837 is missing
or just some blatant mess up in their Bible.
And I say, look, this is the old original Bible.
These new Bibles are changing things.
They have an agenda, blah, blah, blah.
And I don't spend hours on it.
I just spend a couple minutes
just showing them one contradiction, maybe two.
Hey, if they don't see it after one or two,
they're not gonna see it after 200.
So I just show one or two things
and then I'll try to trade them.
I'll say, hey, look, can I just trade you?
I'll give you this brand new King James Bible
for that old new American Santa.
Let's just swap them out.
Or if I feel like they're not the type of person
that's gonna swap me out, okay,
then I'll just say like,
well, here, let me give you this one.
Read this one.
This is the right one.
But even better is if you can say,
hey, let me trade you.
Here's a brand new one.
Let me trade you.
And then if I trade them,
you know what I do with that stinking thing?
I go, boar.
No, I mean, I take it down
and just throw it in the next trash can.
I just go next door and just use their trash
and just throw it in the trash where it belongs.
The NIV, the HIV, whatever it is,
I just throw it in the trash, okay?
And then, so if they say yes,
I look at it.
If it's the King James, I say, great.
You got the right Bible.
Praise the Lord.
Read it, you know?
And if they say, well, it's not with me.
It's in my aunties, you know,
or I don't have it with me, okay?
Then I say to them,
I say, is it the one with the these and the thows?
Because that's an easy way right away
because the King James only has these now.
I say, is the one with the these and the thows
or is Jesus saying like, hey, what's up, dude?
And they're like, yeah, it's the these and the thows.
Okay, good, then you have the right one.
If they say no, it doesn't say the and now,
I say, well, you need the King James.
I put the King James in their hand.
Or if they're not sure, we just give them one.
It's four bucks, we can afford it, okay?
That's option number one, I'm trying to hurry here.
Option number one, you get the Bible in their hand.
Tell them to read it every day, explain that to them.
Number two, option number two,
remember, you can do one, two, or all of these.
Number two, talk to them about winning people to Christ.
Tell them, hey, look,
don't you think other people need to hear this?
Your family that's not saved, your friends,
and then I show them on the back of our invitations
how it has the plan of salvation on the back,
and I say, look, see these verses?
Read this, learn these verses,
look them up in your King James Bible,
and you can learn how to show this to somebody.
You can just take this
and sit down with someone that you love
and show them this step by step
and lead them in this prayer
and do it just the way that I just showed you.
You could show them how to be saved.
So that's another thing that you can encourage them.
Option number three, you could talk to them about baptism.
Very good idea.
Do it every time, do it sometimes, whatever.
That's up to you how you want to do that.
Explain to them baptism.
And you don't have to go too deep with it,
but just explain to them that it's by immersion
and that it must be after salvation.
You could show them Acts 8, 37.
You could show them Matthew chapter three
where Jesus is baptized
and how he goes under the water
and then he comes up out of the water
at the end of Matthew chapter three.
You can show them that they that gladly received his word
were baptized in Acts chapter two.
You could show them Acts chapter 10 is one
that I really like to show them.
Look at Acts chapter 10,
and this is where we'll close tonight.
We'll look at Acts chapter 10.
The Bible says in Acts chapter 10,
verse number 48, Acts 10, 48.
And he commanded them to be baptized
in the name of the Lord,
then prayed they him to Terry certain days.
Now does it say,
and he recommended that they should be baptized.
And he said, if you want to get baptized.
No, it says he commanded them
to be baptized in the name of the Lord.
Now you're not gonna force somebody to be baptized,
of course, but it is a command of God
just as much as thou shalt not steal.
Now we still have the choice
whether we're gonna steal or not,
but you should say to people,
God is commanding you to be baptized.
And so this is a first step of obedience
where you could obey God's command to be baptized.
And then I sometimes explain to them
that baptism is just a picture.
It's not salvation, it's just picture salvation.
You know, it pictures the death when you're standing up
and you go underwater, the burial,
come up out of the water, the resurrection.
Sometimes I explain to people that there's so many,
baptism is a very deep subject.
So you can explain any one aspect of it.
You can explain them, it's a first step of obedience.
Sometimes, depending on who I'm talking to,
I like to go a little bit further
and explain to them how baptism pictures
them burying their old man.
And they're gonna walk in the new man.
You know, just as Jesus Christ would raise the dead,
even so, we also should walk in his life.
And sometimes I'll approach it from that aspect.
Sometimes I'll approach it from the aspect
of it pictures Jesus dying and being buried and resilient.
It represents both, okay?
And it's a first step of obedience.
However you wanna explain to them briefly,
you don't have to teach them everything in the world
that the Bible says about baptism.
But just explain to them the need to be baptized
and I usually just tell them this.
I say, if you come to our church, you can be baptized.
And I say, we're ready to baptize you, you know,
whenever you wanna be baptized.
We're always ready to baptize people.
And I'll explain to them, you don't have to take a class.
You don't have to jump through a bunch of hoops.
You don't have to prove anything to us.
We baptize anybody who believes on Jesus Christ
because the Bible says,
if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest.
And believe it or not,
their baptism starts all over America
where you have to take a class
to be baptized the last six weeks long.
Boy, I wonder how they did that class
in the middle of the night with that Philippian jailer
that was baptized in the same hour that he got saved.
What did they do with that verse?
It says the same hour he was baptized.
You know what that hour was?
Midnight to one in the morning.
Same hour.
What about what we just read in Acts chapter 10?
He commanded them to be baptized.
They just got saved five minutes ago, 15 minutes ago.
He said, baptize them.
Let's get baptized.
This stuff where you wait,
well, we've got to watch them for a while
and see if they're really saved.
What's that Philippian jailer?
Well, he knew he was saved.
What's the difference, man?
I thought if you believe on Jesus,
you're saved no matter who you are.
Whether you're a Philippian jailer, an Ethiopian eunuch,
or somebody in Phoenix, Arizona.
Hey, if you're saved, you're saved.
The sooner you get baptized, the better.
So get baptized tomorrow, get baptized today,
get baptized this hour, whatever.
Hey, we're ready to baptize them.
We're not going to make people wait.
If they wait, that's up to them.
It's not going to be because of us.
Well, we baptize people once a year on baptism Sunday.
It's a big event.
Invite your mom and dad and brother.
No, we baptize people.
As soon as they're willing to get baptized, we baptize.
We don't hold people up.
I got saved when I was six.
I got baptized when I was nine.
Guess what I wanted to get baptized when I was six.
Guess when I got baptized when I was nine.
Why?
Because they got to watch me,
make sure I'm really saved.
You know what I mean?
I don't believe in that.
I don't agree with that.
Now, if somebody turns out they were not,
even a child gets baptized, they weren't really saved,
baptize them again, after they get saved.
And of course, when we do our numbers,
again, back to the numbers,
when we do our numbers,
we don't count somebody that we re-baptize, okay?
We baptize somebody twice.
We only count it once, okay?
Because one of the times wasn't for real.
So, you know, one of the times we just got wet.
And so, that's what we believe about baptizing.
I mean, you know, sometimes these people are like,
well, I've already been baptized.
I'm like, well, you know what?
I've taken a bath.
I dove into the, is it dove?
I have dove.
Dive dove, is that what it is?
Dive dove do.
Have dived, dive, dive, dived, dove?
I don't know.
Anyway, this isn't an English class.
But anyway, I've dove in.
Okay, let's just stick with dived.
I have dived into a pool before.
I've gone completely underwater.
I've dunked myself all the way
under the soap suds in the bathtub.
But that doesn't mean I was baptized.
I said, there's no difference
between meeting in a bathtub and going underwater,
or jumping in a pool,
than when you got baptized before you were saved.
It means nothing.
That's what I explained to them.
And when you got sprinkled on the forehead,
by some guy in a skirt,
that's not baptism.
You didn't come up out of the water.
That's how they baptize people, right?
They shake something off their hand or something.
That's not baptism.
And so you can talk,
just quick review, you can talk about baptism,
get the Bible in your hand,
get them reading the Bible,
or the greatest thing that you could do
for your newcomers,
if you didn't get them soul-winning.
Part of getting them soul-winning is,
if you get them saved in church and baptized,
that's what we're going to teach them how to win souls,
like win souls like we're doing tonight.
Because that's what this church will do.
I mean, if you come to this church
for any length of time,
you will end up going soul-winning with me
or somebody in this church,
no matter who you are.
I mean, there's nobody in this church,
who's gone to this church for any length of time,
that didn't end up having somebody
take them out soul-winning
at least once or twice or three times.
Or at least, well, not even, or anything.
I mean, that's just a fact.
That's just true about every person
who comes to this earth for a length of time.
And you know what?
Other than that, people also who come to this church
begin to talk to people that they know
and win souls in their personal life,
because that's what this church is about.
Don't tell me about some church
that's weak on soul-winning.
If they're weak on soul-winning,
they're weak on Jesus, period.
We're not weak on soul-winning,
we major in soul-winning.
Are we just all about soul-winning?
No, we're about a lot of things,
but the thing that we major in is soul-winning.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much
for these people that love you,
and that's why they're here.
And they love lost souls,
they love their fellow man and woman,
even people that they don't even know.
They love them enough to go give them the gospel.
Maybe they don't feel like it,
tired, embarrassed, shy, timid, it doesn't matter.
Their love has compelled them to say,
I'm gonna overcome whatever it is that's stopping me,
and love is gonna compel me to give the gospel
to the lost souls of Tempe, Arizona,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Father, give us the tools and the skill that we need.
Help us to learn.
It's not a math problem,
it's gonna take the power of the Holy Spirit,
but God, that's no excuse for us being unprepared
and unskillful and not knowing what we're doing.
And so please help us to learn these techniques
and to learn what works from somebody
who's been winning souls for years and years,
and go soloing with other people in this church
who successfully win souls
and learn everything we can from them,
and learn the Bible, memorize the verses, dear God.
Help us to take it more seriously
than the people tonight
that are trying to earn a corruptible crown
for the Super Bowl,
trying to earn a ring that they can put on their finger
that's gonna be someday on their dead body in a coffin,
they're gonna have that ring on their finger,
and it's gonna rot with them.
God, help us to understand that we're running for a crown
that does not perish.