7 I have a message from the Lord number 2 5 7 sing it out. I have a message from the Lord
Hallelujah, it is only that you look and live. I have a message from the Lord, hallelujah.
A message, oh my friend, for you. Just a message from above, hallelujah.
Jesus said, and then I know it tastes true. Look and live, my brother, live. Look to Jesus, now and live.
Testify for your name is heard, hallelujah. It is only that you look and live.
Life is offered unto you, hallelujah. Eternal life thy soul shall have.
If you'll only look to Him, hallelujah. Look to Jesus, who alone can see.
Look and live, my brother, live. Look to Jesus, now and live.
Testify for your name is heard, hallelujah. It is only that you look and live.
I will tell you how I came, hallelujah, to Jesus when He made me whole.
Look to Him, hallelujah. I trust Him, He saved my soul.
Look and live, my brother, live. Look to Jesus, now and live.
Testify for your name is heard, hallelujah. It is only that you look and live.
Amen. Great start to sing this evening. I've asked brother Kevin if you want to open this up for prayer.
Kevin, thank you for the opportunity for all to be here tonight. I pray that you fill us all with your spirit as we sing praises to you.
Please bless all aspects of the service and the preaching to come. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen.
Amen. Hymn number 397. 397, little is much when God is in it. Hymn number 397 begins in the Harvest Field.
Now ripen number 397 on this first verse all together now.
In the Harvest Field now ripen, there's the work for all to do. Hark the voice of God is calling to the harvest calling you.
Little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crowd that you can win, if you'll grow in Jesus' name.
Thus the race to cause the labor seems so small and little done.
It is great if God is to win, and will not forget his own.
Little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crowd that you can win, if you'll grow in Jesus' name.
Hark the face aside for service, honor the Lord before the care.
You can still win the battle in the sacred place of prayer.
Little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crowd that you can win, if you'll grow in Jesus' name.
When the month of year is ended, and our race on earth has run,
He will say to all the faithful, welcome home, my child will die.
Little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crowd that you can win, if you'll grow in Jesus' name.
Alright, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, put up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service time.
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week we will be in Ezekiel chapter 12.
We've got the soul winning times listed below, as well as salvations and baptisms.
Across the page is a great picture from the Sierra Leone mission strip.
They did a lot of personal soul winning over there.
Seventeen soul winners were over there.
Some people were over there for one week.
A lot of people were over there for like two weeks.
And they had a total of 502 salvations through personal soul winning.
But not only that, they also had many opportunities to preach to these giant crowds.
This is just one picture. Brother Eric was showing me some other pictures.
And I mean, these crowds were huge.
We're talking eight or nine hundred students in a lot of the pictures that I've seen.
And so, who knows how many of them got saved because they also heard the gospel.
We don't count those because, you know, they weren't actually...
nobody actually talked to them one on one and actually went through things with them.
But, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if many, many more hundreds of people got saved
as a result of all that preaching that was done in the schools.
You know, it was great to get some of the testimonies this morning
talking to people who were over there.
And I could definitely relate because I've been on trips like these in the past
where, I mean, people are just coming up to you and everybody wants to talk.
And it's just so refreshing because it can get a little discouraging sometimes here in Phoenix
when you're knocking doors and sometimes you can go for hours.
Everybody's just kind of shutting the door on your face. No interest.
It can really kind of just recharge your batteries a little bit
when you go to a place like this where everybody's interested,
they want to hear the gospel, and you can see so many people get saved.
And so I encourage you, if you ever get a chance to go on one of these things,
it's really a great experience.
Or hopefully we'll be able to go back to the Indian Reservation soon
because they've been iffy about COVID and everything,
so that's kind of ruined that for us recently.
But hopefully that'll open up wide soon.
But anyway, praise the Lord for just a very successful trip out in Sierra Leone,
over 500 salvations.
And so great job to everybody for all their hard work.
And Brother Raymond Cooper for organizing
and lots of other people who helped with the organizing and working out there.
Really appreciate your guys' efforts.
And what a great success.
All right, Church Picnic is on November 20th.
Don't forget this time it's going to be a lunch thing instead of a dinner thing starting at noon.
On the back, we've got the bridal shower this Saturday for Chandler Young.
Please RSVP at the number provided.
Below that is the note about the portraits for the yearbook.
Keep on signing up. Make sure we get everybody photographed for that.
We've got the chili potluck on October 31st.
And that is about it for announcements.
So let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days.
Going back to Thursday. Anything from Thursday?
All right, got you two guys there.
Anything else for Thursday?
How about Friday? Anything from Friday?
Got it?
Anything else from Friday? What about Saturday?
Anything from Saturday? And then what about...
Actually, you know, I'm just going to put a big whopping 502 for the Sierra Leone trip.
All right? Let's log those salvations.
All right, and then what about today, Sunday?
All right, brother Scott?
All right, three for the main group with brother Scott.
Got two more here. Got you.
Got it.
Okay.
Got it.
All right, anything else from today?
Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning.
And with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us.
All right, you should find Psalm 81 in your hymnals.
If you don't have one, please raise your hand.
Psalm 81, sing aloud unto God our strength.
In the time of good, all I saw of His name.
For this was a special course,
all of the God I take on.
They see your name in Joseph,
for testimony when he went down.
Through the land of Egypt where I heard
the language that I understood not.
I will build a shoulder from the burden.
His hands were delivered from the pause.
Thou called for trouble, and I did live for Thee.
I answered in the secret place of thunder.
I broke the apple waters of the remote.
Sing, ah, hear all my people.
And I will testify unto Thee.
O Israel, thou art given to me.
Let no strange god believe.
Neither shall thou worship any strange god.
I am the Lord thy God,
which brought me out of the land of Egypt.
O that I not mine I will live.
But my people were thou art given to my voice,
and Israel would not love me.
So I gave them up unto their own hearts,
and they walked in their own counsel.
O that my people had hearkened unto me,
and Israel had walked in my ways.
I shall soon have some do their enemies.
And they turned my hand against their adversaries.
The haters of the world should have some hatred.
Should have asked to win, and then sailed on to him.
But their time should have been gone forever.
We should have them have also.
With the finest of complete and with money.
Out of the water I have satisfied.
Out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
Amen. In your song books now, please turn to hymn number 101.
101. Jesus never fails.
Hymn number 101.
Earthly friends may prove untrue. Jesus never fails.
Hymn number 101. On this first verse together.
Earthly friends may prove untrue.
Founts and fears assail.
One still loves and cares for you.
One who will not fail.
Jesus never fails.
Heaven and earth may pass away.
Jesus never fails.
Though the sun be dark and drear.
Fear sets from the day.
Just remember he is near.
And he will not care.
Hymn number 101.
Jesus never fails.
Heaven and earth may pass away.
Jesus never fails.
In life's dark and drear.
One will still prevail.
Trust his everlasting power.
Jesus will not fail.
Jesus never fails.
Heaven and earth may pass away.
Jesus never fails.
At this time we will pass offering plates around and as the plates go around
let's turn in our Bibles and read 2 Kings chapter number 5.
2 Kings chapter number 5. As we always do
we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with brother Dan
as he reads 2 Kings 5 beginning in verse number 1.
In 2 Kings chapter 5 the Bible reads
Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master,
and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria.
He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper.
And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel
a little maid, and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress,
Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover
him of the leprosy? And one went in, and told his Lord, saying,
Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said,
Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took
with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes
of raiment. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter
is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee,
that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king
of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God to kill and to make
alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?
Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh the quarrel against me.
And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel
would rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent
thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
So Naaman came with his horses, and with his chariot, and stood at the door
of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger under him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan
seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold,
I thought he will surely come out to me, and stand and call in the name of the Lord his God,
and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
Are not Abana and Farpa rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel?
May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in
a rage. And his servants came near, and spoke unto him, and said, My father,
if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?
How much rather, then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
Then he went down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan,
according to the saying of the man of God. And his flesh came again, like unto the flesh
of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned to the man of God,
he in all his company, and came, and stood before him. And he said, Behold,
now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now, therefore, I pray
thee, take a blessing of thy servant. But he said, As the Lord liveth
before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it,
but he refused. And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee,
be given to thy servants two mules burdened of earth? For thy servant will henceforth
offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but
unto the Lord. In this thing the Lord pardoned thy servant, that when
my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on
my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow down myself in the
house of Rimmon, the Lord pardoned thy servant in this thing. And he said unto him, Go in
peace. So he departed from him a little way.
But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said, Behold,
that my master has spared name in this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which
he brought. But as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.
So Gehazi followed after Naaman, and when Naaman saw him running after him,
he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well?
And he said, All is well. My master has sent me, saying, Behold, even
now there be come to me from Mount Infraim two young men of the sons of the prophets.
Give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of
garments. And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents.
And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments,
and laid them upon two of his servants, and they bare them before him.
And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house.
And he let the men go, and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his master.
And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy
servant went no whither. And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee
when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money,
and to receive garments, and olive yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and men servants,
and maid servants? The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee,
and unto thy seed forever. And he went out from his presence,
a leper as white as snow.
Father in Heaven, thank you for the Bible
and this church. I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson as he preaches your word, and help us, your children,
understand your word, and apply it in our lives, so that we give you praise, honor,
and glory in all that we do. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
In 2 Kings chapter number 5 we have the famous story of Naaman the Syrian.
And Naaman, the Bible says in verse number 1,
was a mighty man and valor, at the end of the verse there,
but he was a leper. Now leprosy in the Bible
often pictures sin because it's a great illustration of sin. It's something
that will eventually kill you. It's a disease that's used throughout
the Mosaic law to make a lot of points and another place in the Bible.
It's eventually going to kill you. It's contagious to
other people. And it's the same way with sin, right? I mean sin can
spread amongst a group and people can be a bad influence on someone
else. And then also just within your own body it spreads.
Just like we can get a certain sin in our life and then it can contaminate
other areas of our life. And so leprosy is a picture
of sin and in this passage the healing from leprosy
is a picture of getting saved, having your sins forgiven
and washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ. And so Naaman the Syrian
is a mighty man and valor but he was a leper. The first thing we can take from
verse number 1 there is that even though he's a mighty
man of valor, he has no control over the fact that
leprosy is destroying him. This isn't something that he can beat. You know, like he could
go out on the battlefield and he could fight off enemies and he's a powerful
warrior but this has brought him to his knees. There's nothing
he can do about this. And part of the picture here is that there's nothing
that we can do in our own strength or in our own might or in our own ability
to save ourselves from our sins. We must
be saved through the blood of Jesus Christ and so this guy's a mighty
man of valor. That does nothing to fix his leprosy.
He's going to have to fully rely on someone else to fix that,
okay? It says in verse number 2,
A couple things we can take from this are that, first of all, all things work together
for good to them that love God. Obviously being abducted
as a young maid is a pretty horrible thought, isn't it? I mean,
an army comes through and they're taking POWs
and you get abducted and made a servant in some
stranger's house in a foreign country. I mean, that's a pretty terrible fate,
right? But I'll bet you right now up in heaven this little girl probably
doesn't really have any regrets about the way that her life turned out. And so a lot of times
bad things are going to happen in our lives and we don't really understand why they're happening, but God
can often have a bigger plan and all things work together for good
to those that love God. So this little girl is in the right place
to point Naman to where he can go to get his
leprosy cured. And she says if he were with the prophet
that is in Samaria, he would be recovered of this
leprosy. And so he takes this seriously.
I mean, it says in verse 4,
And the king of Syria said, go to, and I'll send a letter unto the king of Israel.
And so I mean, this climbs the chain of command all the way to the top
just from this one girl's word. And again, this goes to show
that any of us can be used by God
to point people to Christ or to win souls unto Christ because
man, woman, boy, and girl, we can all tell someone about Jesus and God
will often use the little things in this world and he'll use the
weak things to confound the strong, the little things to confound the great.
And in fact, this always reminds me of my own grandpa's
testimony. And my grandpa and my dad both
got saved on the same day and it all went back to a little
five-year-old boy. A five-year-old boy
witnessed unto my grandpa on his street. He had just moved on
to a new street and this five-year-old boy came and gave the gospel
to my grandpa and was just rattling off Bible verses and preaching to him.
Now, my grandpa didn't get saved right then and there, but he was so impressed
by this little boy that when he found out where he went to church,
he went and visited that church, Faith Baptist Church in Canoga Park, California,
still there right now. And he went to that church and then a
couple days after he visited, Pastor Rasmussen came and visited him
at his house and won my dad and my grandpa
to the Lord in the living room. My grandma was already saved at that time, but
my dad and his dad both got saved because of a little boy.
And basically, this girl is the same way.
She isn't able to recover him of the leprosy, but she could at least point him
to the one who could. And so he ends up going to Samaria,
going to Israel to find this prophet of God. Now,
of course, when the king of Israel gets this letter, he thinks it's some kind of a prank.
When he gets this letter giving all this money and gifts
saying, hey, I've sent you my top military guy so you can recover
his leprosy. He thought he was just trying to pick a fight with him and mess with him
like, because obviously I can't recover people of leprosy, the king
of Israel is thinking. So what is, what does he, what does this mean?
He thought, is this just an excuse to declare war? Because, you know, governments, they're always
looking for an excuse to declare war and it's, it's often this flimsy, okay.
So that's what he's thinking. But then Elisha hears about it in verse 8.
And it was so when Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent
his clothes, rent means tore his clothes, that he said to the king saying, wherefore
is thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me and he shall know that there's a prophet
in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and
with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
And again, remember, the way that we're reading this, obviously this is a literal
story that happened, but we're reading this as an allegory, right,
where the leprosy represents sin and, you know,
getting cleansed of the leprosy represents salvation.
And, you know, this reminds me of basically going to the wrong
people to try to get the gospel and they can't help you, right. You know, the king of
Israel is like, well, I don't know, I can't help you, right.
Not everybody has the right answer on salvation, okay.
It's going to take somebody who actually knows the Bible and knows the gospel
and they don't necessarily have to know a lot, but
they have to be saved and know the gospel. The king of Israel
can't help him, okay. And so Elisha
steps up to the plate and says that he's going to help him.
And so it says in verse number nine, so Naaman came with his horses
and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha
and Elisha sent a messenger unto him saying, go and wash in Jordan
seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee and thou shalt be clean.
Now this sounds pretty easy, right. Jump in a river
seven times and you're healed. Piece of cake, it's easy.
But Naaman gets angry in verse 11. It says Naaman was wroth.
Wroth is an adjective, wrath is a noun, but it's the same word.
Naaman was wroth and went away and said, behold, I thought
he'll surely come out to me and stand and call in the name of the Lord his God
and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper.
Or not, Abana and Farpar, rivers of Damascus,
better than all the waters of Israel, may I not wash in them and be clean.
So he turned and went away in rage.
He's infuriated because he has what
attribute? What attribute would make someone infuriated
because the man of God won't come and meet them personally.
You showed up with your horse and your chariots and what's the deal?
What's the attribute? Pride, right. He's prideful.
He thinks he's too good for this. The Jordan River's not good enough
for him and I'm a big shot so I want the pastor
to come talk to me personally. I don't want to talk to his staff.
You know, I don't want to talk to the assistant. How dare you send someone else
I'm a big shot. I'm important. Right? That's pride.
He has to humble himself before he can get saved.
The biggest obstacle to people getting saved is pride. They're too proud.
Because it sounds too easy, doesn't it? Just dip in the Jordan River
seven times and you'll be healed. That can't be. That's too easy.
So then, thankfully, his servants take him aside.
In verse 13. His servants came near and spake unto him
and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great
thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather than
when he say it to thee, wash and be clean. I mean, they're just being logical with them.
Look, you should be happy that it's something so easy that you have to do.
That it's no big deal. Go swimming. Take a dip seven
times. Why are you so mad? If he asked you to go on some
quest and take some journey and do some difficult task
you would have done whatever it took. If he told you, hey, you gotta climb that mountain
and there's a certain plant growing on that mountain and I've gotta make
the cure out of that plant and so you're gonna have to climb into this ravine
and do all this treacherous rock climbing to recover this plant
and it only blooms one day per year and you gotta time this right
and by the way, it's the dead of winter, you know, and you're gonna have to do this in the
ice and the snow and you're gonna have to retrieve this
and then bring it back to me and then I'm gonna make this special ointment that's gonna
you know, he would be willing to do anything. I mean, he's doomed, right?
How much more just wash and be clean?
And so he gets the message. But you know what
is so funny about this story is how real it is because how many
people have you seen literally get mad when they hear the gospel?
I mean, the gospel, the good news. I've
had people get angry and start yelling at me because I told them salvation was free
and they got mad. You need to tell me that you can just
live however you want and you know, what are you talking about? You gotta
keep the commandments. How dare you say that Jesus paid it all? How dare
you say it's faith alone? I mean, you know what I'm talking about. If you've been out
soul-willing long enough, you've had people literally get mad that salvation's free.
Quit offering me free stuff. How dare you? It doesn't make
any sense. But yet, that's how people have
often reacted. They want to earn it. They want to pay for
it. They want to go on some difficult quest to get salvation.
Why? Because of pride. They want to earn it. They want to feel like
they did something to get it. They don't want to just humble themselves and accept the
free gift. There's so many wonderful things that we can take out of this
passage just if we look at it as an allegory because
notice how the servants take him
aside and correct him on this. You know what that makes me think
of is that people don't always get saved the first time they hear the gospel.
Right? The first time they hear the gospel, maybe they do get mad. But
yet does that mean they're just a reprobate? Somebody hears the gospel one time,
gets mad and rejects it. That doesn't necessarily mean they're a reprobate because a lot of times they
hear it a second time or a third time. And so these guys
in the story that take him aside and explain to him, look,
just wash and be clean, buddy. You should be happy it's so easy. To me,
these are the people that are watering the seed. These are the people
that are giving him the gospel the second time, the third time. And a lot of times
when we go out soul winning and get people saved, that's what we're doing. The Bible
says that we're entering into other men's labors.
A lot of times when we knock that door, somebody's already given that person the gospel.
The seed's already been planted. Somebody might have even been praying for them.
They might have heard the gospel many times and we just get the privilege
of actually seeing that harvest reaped. But it's
a lot harder when you walk up to a door and someone just has no knowledge about Christ.
Sometimes they'll get saved in one shot, but
typically the people that were getting saved out there are people that have already heard
it a little bit or maybe they've heard part of it and they didn't hear the whole thing and we're
finishing. So some doors that we knock, we're just planting a seed. We're the first one.
And a lot of times we're just there to kind of till up the ground
a little, put a seed in, and that's it. Sometimes we show
up and we water a seed that's already been planted, but it's not quite ready for the
harvest. And then other times we walk up and boom, they're ready
because they've probably already heard the gospel. Somebody else has watered the seed
and we're there at the right time to see them be
saved. So you know when you're giving people the gospel, if they don't get saved today,
don't just think they're doomed. It's over for them.
And I've been out soul winning sometimes with people where they have this attitude
and they tend to get really upset or flustered easily because
they feel like this is their last chance.
Now look, I get it. Today is the day of salvation. Now is the day of salvation. I want people
to get saved today too, but I also realize
that some people aren't going to get saved today. It doesn't matter what I say,
they're not getting saved today, but they might get saved down the road.
And so I don't want to just burn that person or be rude to that person or
blow that person off. I'd rather leave them on a positive note.
You know, when I'm done planting the seed, you know what I
want to do? If today's not their day and it's clear that they're not getting it,
then you know what I want to do? I want to just kind of gently just kind of put the dirt over
that seed and just kind of pat it down a little bit and just
alright, see you later, have a good, you know, kind of leave that. I don't want to be like
GROW YOU IDIOT! And then I can dislodge
the seed that I've planted just by getting so violent around it.
It's better to plant the seed because look,
I'm telling you, I constantly have this thought in my mind when I'm out soul winning and talking to somebody
and they're just not getting it. I just think to myself, today is not their
day. Today is just not the day for this person. It doesn't mean they're
never going to get saved, but you know, when you've been doing it for a long time,
you get to a point where you kind of realize this person's not getting saved today.
So let's just kind of leave what we've done
here, we've put the seed in, put some water in, let's
pat it down and leave it gently so that someone else can come along.
You know, especially at Faithful Word Baptist Church because thankfully
you live in a city with a big soul winning church.
So there's actually a pretty good chance that that person's going to hear the gospel
again. We're not going anywhere. I mean, we've been here for 16 years.
We've knocked the doors of literally millions of people
and guess what? We're going to keep knocking those doors. We're going to keep coming back. We're going to
keep coming back. People move. We redo neighborhoods again.
We soul win in our personal lives and so chances are this
is not that person's last chance. Now look, obviously we want to do our
best to preach the gospel and get people saved and if people can get
saved today, let's get them saved today. But don't get this attitude that
it's today or nothing. Realize that sometimes they might need to hear it from
someone else. And by the way, on a side note,
when you're witnessing to family, realize that sometimes they need to hear
it from someone else because sometimes we're just too close to family.
And so we give family the gospel and they're not necessarily
ready to receive it from us, especially if say you're
their younger sibling or you're their child or something. You know,
they might kind of look at you as someone who's not necessarily an authority
because they kind of remember just wiping your nose and changing your diaper or
whatever or goofy stuff that you did as a teenager or something.
So they might not take you as seriously. So realize that just
because you gave family the gospel and they didn't get saved, it doesn't necessarily
mean that they're an unreceptive person. They might just be unreceptive to you.
And I'm not saying that they don't like you. I'm not saying they don't love you. I'm not saying
that they don't think you're a great little sister or little brother.
But what I'm saying is sometimes people just need to hear it from a third party.
They just need to hear it from an outsider. That's just what I've observed.
And so a lot of times people really struggle to get family saved, but when an outsider
comes in, then the people will pay attention and get it
and get saved. So we need to understand that sometimes people
just need to hear things a few times. And that's what we see here with Naaman.
He has to hear this a few times. He hears it from the girl
in his homeland. He hears it from Elisha's servant.
And then he hears it from these
other servants. Another thing that we can take away from this, there's so much
great stuff in this story, is that just as Elisha
does not actually bodily appear before
Naaman, Jesus Christ is not going to bodily appear before people
in order for them to be saved. Wouldn't that be wonderful
if we could say, hey, I'm here to tell you about Jesus. If you're interested,
I can summon him and Jesus Christ will be here
in bodily form. We can examine the hole in his side together.
We can look at the holes in his hands. Are you interested in meeting Jesus?
I mean, that'd be a different kind of soul winning.
But that's not the way it works. And so there's faith required.
Faith in the word of Jesus Christ.
Faith in what Christ has spoken. Faith in the word.
And so just as Elisha does not bodily appear, you have to believe
the word of Elisha here, which Elisha representing Christ
in this situation. And so this is another great parallel.
So, you know, they reason with him,
just wash and be clean. And by the way, that's what salvation is.
Wash and be clean. Right? It's just look and live.
Believe in Jesus. I mean, it's easy to be saved.
Just, you say, well that sounds easy, dipping in the Jordan seven times, that's exactly
how easy being saved is. In fact, being saved is even easier.
You don't even have to put your swim trunks on to be saved.
You know, you don't even have to jump in one time. You just literally call upon the name
of the Lord. As long as you believe the gospel, that's enough.
You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's a piece of cake.
And so it really is that easy.
And so it says in verse number fourteen, then when he down and dipped himself
seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God,
and his flesh came again like under the flesh of a little child,
and he was clean. And this pictures the fact that when you believe on Christ
and get saved, you're born again. You're a newborn babe
in Christ. The Bible says as newborn babes, desire the
sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby, and so his skin becomes
like under the flesh of a little child, and he was
clean, and he returned to the man of God, he and all his
company, and came and stood before him. Isn't it interesting, after he believes,
after he's saved, then who does he see? Now he sees Elisha.
And again, the picture here is that, you know, blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. Okay, now I've never
seen a physical appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, but I am going to see him
someday in heaven. Okay, but I will say this,
I definitely see God a lot more than
an unsaved person, because we see God through the word of God. We
perceive God, we understand who God is through his word,
but it's through faith that we understand. You have to believe in Christ
before you're going to understand the word of God and really see God in that
sense, in that metaphorical sense. You don't see God until you're
saved. When you're not saved, you've got to take a step of faith in order to get
saved. So this is a great story to illustrate that. There's another story, just a couple
pages to the right in your Bible, go to 2 Kings chapter 7, because
we're still in the book of 2 Kings, we're still talking about leprosy,
and we're still reading about it as an allegory of salvation
or this is kind of a similar idea here in this story.
And in fact, we just touched on this story a couple weeks ago, if you remember,
but it says in verse number 3 of chapter
7, and there were four leprous men at the entering end of the gate,
and they said unto one another, why sit we here until we die?
If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city,
and we shall die there, and if we sit still here, we die also.
Now therefore come and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians.
If they save us alive, we shall live, and if they kill us,
we shall but die. So here is a way
to read this Bible story as an allegory for coming to Christ
and being saved. In this story, we can picture the camp
of the Syrians as the Lord Jesus Christ.
So coming to the camp of the Syrians is basically to find salvation,
because here the real problem is that they're starving to death.
Now they have leprosy into the bargain, but they're also starving to death.
That's going to kill them faster, the fact that they have no food to eat. So they're saying,
you know, what are we going to do, just sit here and then we die? Let's at least
fall to the Syrians, because worst thing is they could reject us.
Worst thing is they could kill us. We're going to die anyway if we do nothing.
And the point that I would draw from that is the fact that
Jesus Christ is truly the only way to heaven. Without him,
you are doomed. There is no other option. There is no other option.
Every other option is a for sure damnation.
Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism,
atheism, it's all garbage. It's all going to take you straight to hell.
Period. Okay. So there's one option for salvation,
Jesus Christ. That's it. That's the only hope. Now these
guys aren't really too sure about it, are they? They're saying, you know, hey, let's at least
check it out, because anything
else we do is for sure doomed. If we stay here, we die, we go in the city, we die.
This is at least hope here
to go to the camp of the Syrians. And so it says in
verse 5, they rose up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians
and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold
there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians
to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host
and they said one to another, lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us
the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us.
Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight and left their tents and their horses
and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their lives.
So in the literal story here, what happened is that
the Syrians had been besieging
the city and nothing could come in, nothing could go
out, and so the people are starving because there are no supplies
coming in. And when these lepers go to
effect to the Syrians, when they get there, they find
that the Syrians are totally gone because God had miraculously
just caused them to hear
a sound of just many armies and chariots coming toward them.
There was nobody attacking them, nothing was happening. But they heard
this sound, God basically just messed with their minds and caused them to hear this sound
you know, the earth is shaking and they hear horses and chariots
and they thought that some huge army is attacking them and they just
fled, they just got out of there. God caused that spirit of terror to come upon them
and they just got out of there. So when the lepers come up to the camp of the Syrians
what they find is just all this bounty. It's just
and it's all free. They don't have to worry about buying anything
they don't have to worry about being judged by the Syrians or condemned
as traitors or you know, brought before a firing squad
as the enemy or something. They don't have to worry about any condemnation
everything's free, it's just easy, it's just walk up and just
start eating. It's all right there. I mean it's just gold, silver
food, drink, whatever you want. I mean it's four guys
and this whole army has left everything. So they've just got everything
that they need and more. And again
let's say we were to use this as a picture for
salvation, right? You know a lot of people are apprehensive
about coming to Christ because they think that
in order to be saved they're going to have to give up their sins.
They think they're going to be sent on the difficult quest that Naaman wanted to go on.
They think that they're going to have to, and how many times have you
talked to someone about Christ and they said something along the lines of, well I'm just not
ready for that yet because you know I still kind of want to party
more, there's still more that I want to do, maybe when I get older I'm just not
ready to give up my sins. And they don't understand the fact that
salvation's free. But they think that if they come to Christ
it's going to be a commitment, it's going to be dedication,
it's going to be Sunday mornings, it might even be Sunday nights, you know
it might even be Wednesday night and they're going to have to, you know, get new friends
and get rid of this sin and get rid of that sin and
they're just kind of maybe thinking, I don't know. So sort of like
these lepers, they don't really know what to expect, they don't really know what it's going to
be like and they think it could be that if they show up to church looking
for salvation that they might just get condemned.
You know, they might think that if they approach a Baptist pastor, approach
a Baptist church and ask, you know, what must I do to be saved
that, you know, maybe they're going to get some harsh answer from somebody like
who do you think you are? You think you're going to be saved?
You rotten piece of trash. You know, they don't understand
that the answer is going to be just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And you know, Jesus Christ said
that he came not to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved. But he said
he that believes not is condemned already. And so people
are already condemned when they come to Christ, they might think it's going to be hard,
they might think it's going to be difficult. Sort of like Naaman's expecting to have to do
something hard, he was willing to do something hard. But some people aren't.
And so they just think, man, I'm not even going to try that, forget that,
I don't know what those Syrians are going to do to me. But then when they find out when they get
there is that it's just free. I mean, think about
if people only knew how easy it was to get saved.
That's our job is to go tell them how easy it is to get saved.
If only people knew how easy it was to get saved. But you've got a bunch of false religions
lying to people, a bunch of false denominations
and false churches and false religions getting up and telling people that they have to
turn from all their sins to be saved, they have to keep all the commandments to be saved,
they have to live a good life to be saved, and an honest person realizes
that there's none that do with good, no, not one. As it is written,
there's none righteous, no, not one. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And so they're thinking to themselves, I don't know if I can live up to that. And my answer to them is
join the club, because we're all sinners. None of us
can make it into heaven on our own merits. That's why salvation is by faith,
alone, it's the grace of God. And so
what they find if they actually come to Christ,
if they actually come to hear the Gospel, if you knock on their door
and they actually say, yes, I have a little bit of time, go ahead and show me
in the Bible how to be saved, you know what's going to happen typically is that they're going to be pleasantly
surprised with what you show them. Because your average person
out there in America thinks that salvation is harder than it really is.
The average person in America
thinks that it is harder to be saved than it actually is, because being saved is actually
quite easy. Jesus did the hard part. When he died
for us, when he was buried and rose again, that's the hard part. All we have to do is
receive a free gift. How hard is it to receive a gift? How hard is it to
eat bread? How hard is it to drink water? How hard is it to go through
a door? How hard is it to do a cannonball into the Jordan River?
It's a piece of cake. It's fun. It's easy.
People don't realize how easy it is. Our job is to bring them the good news,
to bring them the Gospel and show them how salvation has
already been paid for. I mean people are saving up, saving up,
saving up and they got that penny from that good deed
that they did and then they quit that sin, they put in another nickel and they put
in a dime for all the times that they walked little old ladies
across the street and gave money to bums by the side of the road
or whatever and they've got this little jar of change and they don't realize
that salvation is way out of their price range and that their little
jar of money is a complete joke. But here's the good news,
when they show up with their stupid little jar of money to be saved, you know what
the guy says at the door is basically like, oh well salvation is for free. It's a free
gift. You should have just left that at home. In fact, we had
a metal detector at the door. That jar is not allowed in here.
You're not going to buy salvation with that. In fact,
you're insulting salvation when you try to buy it with that.
Because you think that that's going to pay for it? But I'm telling you
people out there, they're saving up their quarters and nickels and dimes
but what we need to tell them is that it's free and that they don't have to wait.
They have to wait until they've saved up enough. They can have it right now.
It's right there. All they have to do is reach out and take it by
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so these guys, they basically
step out in faith. It's really the only option, just like Christ is the only option.
They come to Christ and when they get there, they're pleasantly surprised to find what?
No condemnation. No condemnation.
Because Christ didn't come to condemn the world. He came to save the world. They were
condemned. Now they find justification, salvation.
Not only that, they find that everything's free.
Because salvation's free. So let's keep going with the story here.
It says in verse number 8, and when these lepers came to the uttermost
part of the camp, they went into one tent and did eat and drink,
carried thence silver and gold and raiment,
and went and hid it. And came again and entered
into another tent and carried thence also and went and hid it.
Say, wait a minute. What are these guys doing hiding stuff?
Why are they hiding stuff?
Well, they're just afraid that, you know, the party's eventually going to be over
and they want to have kind of a long-term deal going on.
But here's the thing. But let's go back to our allegory here.
This is what Christians are doing when they
basically have believed on Christ and found all the
bounty that's in Christ. They found eternal life. They found salvation.
They found no condemnation. They found all the joy
and peace and everything that's just into the bargain with salvation.
And they're not telling anyone else about it. That's the
equivalent of what these guys are doing. Basically hiding it under a bushel.
Like people who know the Gospel and hide it under a bushel, right?
And so that's the equivalent here. So what did they say after verse 9?
So they do this to the first tent. They do this to the second tent.
But then, after a little bit of Christian growth, what do they realize?
This is bad. This is bad. Okay, great. We're saved.
Great. At first, they're just so happy that they have food
and that they survived. But after that wears
off a little bit, it's like, wait a minute. What about everybody else?
There's a whole city here starving to death. We're out here chowing
down, going back for seconds and thirds, and everybody in the city is
dying of hunger. And you know what? We in our Christian lives, we have to get to that point too.
Where we say, you know what? We do not well. This isn't good enough
for me to be saved. I've got to get other people saved. Everybody needs to hear about this.
This is too easy. Other people need to know
about this. You know, I guarantee you that even if you
just found some grocery store that was giving away free stuff,
I mean, look, if Panda Express were giving out free orange chicken, I hope
you'd come tell me about it. You know what I mean, right? If Chipotle
was giving out free burritos, you'd tell me, wouldn't you?
Well, you know what? How much more should we tell people the good news
about the gospel? That's what you're doing when you're soul winning. You're not telling
people about a free burrito. You're telling people about something far greater than that.
Salvation, eternal life, a home in heaven, all your sins
forgiven. And so he said, we do not well. This
day is a day of good tidings. By the way, which is exactly
what the gospel means. Verbatim. That term
is used interchangeably with gospel in the
Bible. Good tidings equals gospel.
So this is a beautiful picture. This is a day of good tidings, good
news, gospel. And we hold
our peace. Here we are not saying anything. We ought to be telling people about this.
If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come
upon us. Now, therefore, come that we may go and tell
the king's household. And you know what they're basically saying there when they say, you know, if we tarry till the
morning light, some mischief is going to come upon us? They're basically saying, you know what, what
if something happens to us before we have a chance to tell other people
about this? You know, something bad happens to us, some mischief comes upon
us in the night, and then it's too late for us to tell everybody else
about this. You know, let's not wait, is what they're saying. Let's not wait till
morning. Because they thought about, hey, maybe we should just wait till morning. Because remember,
when did they go to the camp of the Syrians? Twilight. Just as the sun's
going down. So, you know, let's say they go there and it's
seven, eight o'clock in the evening or whatever time it was, and
they're going through the tents. It gets to be nine, ten, eleven, midnight.
And then they're like, you know what, we do not well. We need to tell other people
about this. You know, and I wonder if one of them has suggested,
let's do it in the morning. Because what is he
saying? Well, you know, if we tarry till the morning light, if we wait till morning,
some mischief's going to be fought. Let's just go do it now. And by the way,
it's always easy to have an excuse of saying, well, you know what, I'll do
soul winning later. I'm going to wait until I get more mature
in my Christian life. I'm going to wait till I know the Bible more.
I have to memorize the whole Romans road first. You know, I've got to get the sin out of my
life or whatever. Dumb excuse. No, folks, just get
out there. And you know what, by the way, you can always just be a silent partner on soul winning.
You can always just show up for soul winning and say, hey, I'm not a talker. I'm a
silent partner. I just want to tag along. And you know what, we'll pair you up with a loud mouth.
We've got plenty of people that can give the Gospel in our church.
We like silent partners to show up. Come on down.
Get trained. And you know what, it's okay to be a silent partner for months.
Hey, you can be a silent partner till Jesus comes, as far
as I'm concerned. I'll just be glad that you're going out soul winning and participating in the soul winning program.
But I bet you that if you go out
as a silent partner long enough, you'll be wanting to do the talking.
You'll be wanting to say, okay, let me have this one.
You'll get sick of just standing on the sidelines. But you know, we should never pressure the silent partner
to start talking. Give them time. I mean, Pastor Berzins
is a great man of God, great soul winner, great preacher.
And yet, he was a silent partner for months. You know, for months
at our church, he came to our church and started soul winning
and for months he was a silent partner. And I remember
like it was yesterday, the first door where he talked and he was
so nervous and he dropped his Bible and he, you know,
went through it and was stuttering and
we were talking to a child. You know, and I mean
what? Because I mean, obviously, it's hard.
I mean, here's a confident adult man
basically talking to a child and still nervous
but you know what? That's soul winning. That's how you start, my friend.
And now, look, I wonder how many people Pastor Dave Berzins has personally
won to Christ. A lot. So, you know, there's no reason to rush
someone to be or pressure someone to be in a talker because you know what?
When they're ready, they'll do it. But I want to say this too. Anybody who
goes out soul winning as a silent partner is part of the team and part
of the program and earning rewards and doing great work for God
because you know what? Without, if the silent partners all stayed home, we'd have
half the soul winning force. You know, if we had a bunch
of talkers and a bunch of silent partners show up, we just doubled the force.
And so, your job is important as a silent partner anyway
because guess what you're providing as a silent partner too. You say, well, I didn't
even do anything. You know, I just tagged along. I just did that. No, no, no.
Here's what you did. You provided fellowship,
companionship, camaraderie, friendship.
That's what you're providing. What is that worth? Because I'll tell you right now,
I don't want to go out soul winning by myself. I'd much rather go with someone else.
It's much easier. I've gone by myself but I don't like going by myself.
I'd much rather go with someone else. I'd much rather have
that support of having somebody with me. And you know, when you go soul winning
as a silent partner, that's what you're providing and that is something real.
That is something genuine. And hopefully you're praying in your heart
while that person is giving the gospel
that you're paired up with. You know, you're praying in your heart. Don't pray out loud.
But you know, be praying in your heart
that that person would, you know, be receptive and that no distractions would interrupt.
And you know, I joke about the praying out loud but I've heard stories about this.
But in fact, you know, back to my grandpa.
When my grandpa got saved, you know, the pastor was giving him the gospel. There was this other deacon there
and he actually had like his head bowed and eyes closed, the deacon, while
the pastor was preaching to him. And later, my grandpa said, I thought that
other guy that was with you fell asleep. Like, I thought he got so bored that he
fell asleep but it was really that he was praying. So you don't have to bow your head and close
your eyes for the praying because that could be a little, you know, just
distracting to your soul winning partner. It's probably better to just pray in your heart
with your eyes open. And then brother Hiles told a soul winning story
one time that he went soul winning with a guy and the guy literally like, he's in
the living room on the couch giving somebody the gospel and the guy gets on his knees and
starts praying, the other guy. And the guy got so into praying that
he was like, he was like smiting the floor and like begging God
for this person to be saved and it was just really weird. So, you know,
pray in your heart. But, pray. Because, you know,
when you're a silent partner and you're praying and you're providing
companionship, I mean, you're part of the team. You're
encouraging. And you're learning. You're being trained so that
someday you'll be the one doing the talking. And so get out there and go soul
winning. And it's easy to say, well, you know, it's the middle of the night.
Let's wait till morning. Now, again, don't take this part literally either. We're not
going soul winning in the middle of the night tonight, okay? But what are we saying? It's an
allegory for putting soul winning off to some future time.
Well, you know what? You don't know that you're going to be here next
year, right? You know, you could sit there and say, oh yeah, you know,
we're going to continue there a year. We're going to go soul winning in a year.
You don't know what is going to happen in the next year. You know, get out soul winning
this week. Witness to somebody this week. I mean, you're not really guaranteed
the future. And so the idea here is
let's start telling people about Jesus now. Let's not wait until
down the road to do it. Because something could happen to us and we might not even be here
to tell people the good news. And so they go and they
tell. They say at the end of verse 9, now therefore
come that we may go and tell the king's household. So they came and called
unto the porter of the city and they told them saying, we came to the camp of the Syrians
and behold there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses
tied and asses tied and the tents as they were. And he called the porters
and they told the king's house within. And the king arose in the night, because remember this is
the middle of the night that they're telling them this. The king arose
in the night and said unto his servants, I will now show you what the Syrians
have done to us. They know that we be hungry. Therefore
they've gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field saying, when they
come out of the city, we should catch them alive and get into the city. So this is the naysayer.
Right? The naysayer who says
it can't be that easy. Salvation sounds too easy.
It can't be. It's a trick. It's a trap. It's not really that easy.
And so one of the servants
in verse 13 answered and said, well, let some take, I pray thee, five
of the horses that remain which are left in the city. Behold, they are
as all the multitude of Israel that are all that are left in it.
Behold, I say that they are even as all the multitude
of the Israelites that are concerned. He's like, look, why don't we just send five
horses? I mean, there's only five of them. They're
dying just like everybody else is dying. Like, look, oh, you don't want
to risk your five stupid horses? You've got nothing to lose, buddy.
We're all doomed. The horses are doomed. We're doomed.
There's five of them. Send them. Go check it out.
What have you got to lose? At least check it out.
And so therefore, um,
they say, you know, take five horses.
Verse 14. They took therefore two.
Dude, take five. Well, okay, how about two?
And the king sent after the host of the Syrians saying, go and see. And they went
after them unto Jordan and Lo. This is like, hey, you know, can I
show you the gospel and, you know, can you give me ten minutes?
I'll give you five.
Okay, you know, you know, when
they give me five, I'll take five because usually I can turn five into ten without them
really realizing that I've turned five into fifteen.
Okay, so, you know, well, we'll send two. This reminds me of when
Jesus told, uh, Peter to let down the nets, plural,
and he's like, we'll let down one net. And then it gets so full
it breaks because you're supposed to let down two and you only let down one.
That's why it broke. And so, you know, it's, it's basically
like, okay, I've got a little bit of faith to at least look into this.
I'm not going to commit all five of my dying horses, but
I'll commit two of them. And, of course, they get there, they find
that it's just as the lepers have said.
And, and so here's the thing, you know, if you look into salvation,
if you examine the word of God, if you actually listen
and look at the proof and see the verses and
listen to what the messenger is telling you, you know, you're going to,
you're going to see that it's true. You're going to see that it's real. You're going to see that salvation
really is that easy, that Jesus Christ is ready to save you,
that it really is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, that it really
is that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. I mean, you're going to
find out that it's real. So what's the hardest thing about getting people saved is
really just getting them to listen. You know, getting them to look at it, getting
them to actually see what's there and listen and look at it.
Now, some people are going to be stubborn and, and they're going to refuse to be saved.
Obviously, there's a reason why broad is the way that leads to destruction.
Many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the
way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. Obviously, there are a lot of people
that are just not going to get saved. They'll just reject the message. They, they don't have the faith.
They won't believe the Gospel. But, you know, there are a lot of people out there that
would get saved if they knew what the Bible said.
If I could just push a button right now, okay, and if I push that button,
don't laugh, it's a different button, okay? I got all kinds of buttons, I got all kinds of buttons up here, okay?
You're thinking about a different button. Some people aren't even listening to the sermon.
They're like, oh, wait, I got to hear this part. Oh, wait, hold on, what?
You got the button out again? You know, I need one of those buttons from Staples or something, you know.
But anyway, you know, if I had a button right now and I could just push a button
and all of a sudden, the knowledge
of what the Bible says about salvation, just basically, if I could just push
a button and like, just basically do like a data transfer
into everyone's brain, you know, this is probably,
you know, technology's probably coming. But anyway, you know, if I could just push a button
and do like a data transfer into everyone's brain, where,
where they would just at least hear what I have to say about the Gospel,
they'd hear like the way that we explain the Gospel
out soul winning, right? And that information just went into their brain and they just,
they knew, they heard all the verses and they heard my preaching somehow
on it, right? Or your preaching on it, right? Anybody who's
saved, you know, explaining it to them. Then, I mean,
wouldn't you say that a ton of people would be like, oh, wow,
I've never had it explained that way. I've never seen that, you know. And you know, it would
lead to literally millions of salvation. If 340 million people
in America heard a clear presentation of the Gospel and actually paid attention
to it and listened to it and went into their brain, you know, obviously many would not
be saved, but many would be saved. And so what I'm saying
is that the biggest hurdle to getting people saved is getting them to
listen to the Gospel. And that's what we're doing when we go soul winning.
Why do we go soul winning? Because what we're trying to do
is take the Gospel to people. Now look, we put stuff online
and we reach a lot of people that way. We hand
out DVDs and CDs and
post links on social media and we reach a lot of people that way.
But let me tell you something, there are a lot of people out there that you will never reach in a
million years through those electronic methods. You just won't.
Why? Because first of all, a lot of people aren't hanging online all day.
They actually are living life in real life, actually.
I know it's hard to believe, but it's out there. Some strange people out there, my friend,
actually living in the physical real world and not plugged
into social media all day. But they do exist. I've seen them. I've met them.
But here's the thing. Not only are a lot of people not
necessarily living on social media, but even people that
are living on social media, you know what they're not typing into YouTube?
The Bible way to heaven. I mean, what do you think
your average teenager is typing into YouTube right now? How to be saved?
Bible way to heaven? Preaching against sodomites?
You know, after the tribulation? King James
version? What does the Bible say about Israel?
You think that's what the average person is typing in? No, because I guarantee you
that if we were to look at what the top search terms on Google
and YouTube and, you know,
what other type of websites would people be surfing for content?
Reddit.
Don't even bring that. Who was that? Was that you, son?
Don't worry. He hates TikTok, too.
But, you know, what are people going to be searching for content
on? They're going to be looking for whatever the music that they're into,
the movies that they're into, the bands that they're into,
or the comedy that they want to laugh at, or whatever.
That's what they're looking at, and they could literally watch
YouTube for the next million years
and not necessarily click on the Bible way to heaven
or even have YouTube suggest that. You know, YouTube used to suggest
stuff like that. Now YouTube's just like,
might I suggest, and it's like Joel Osteen, if it's anything spiritual.
And, you know, and by the way, any time I watch
one of my preacher friends' sermon, as soon as their sermon ends,
it just, like, auto plays me on to, like, John MacArthur,
Joel Osteen, or Kenneth Copeland, or one
of these, like, TD Jakes or whatever. And here's what I do.
I just always give it a dislike real quick before I leave.
100% of the time. So that's all they're getting from me, is just a quick dislike. And then it's like,
alright, look for the next sermon that I actually want to hear. But my point
is, you know, going to the door is the only way some
people are going to get the gospel. And here's what I like about door-to-door soul winning, is that
everybody, you get everybody that way. Everybody lives somewhere.
Okay. You say, well, you know, I could just talk to
people out in the street. I could just go to downtown Tempe, or, uh, I could go
to, you know, the ASU campus. I could go to downtown Phoenix. And look,
that's great. You know, if you just want to go to downtown
areas and parks and up and down the streets and
talk to people, that's great. I'm for you telling people
about Jesus anywhere, you know, as far as just
it doesn't necessarily have to be door-to-door. But let me tell you
why door-to-door is essential. I'll tell you
why. Because if we've got 400 people in our church,
how's it going to work if we're just, if we're all going to downtown areas,
we're all going to the parks, we're all doing this week after
week or on a daily basis? You know what's going to happen pretty fast? We're just going to
keep running into the same people over and over again. We're going to get irritating really fast
to those people. Because it would just be like, okay, hundreds of people
hitting the same spots over and over again. It'd be cool the
first few times but eventually, you know, you're going to end up talking to the same
person 20 times and then you know what? Meanwhile, there's a
ton of people that you're never going to get to because they don't go to downtown areas. Not everybody
walks up and down downtown Scottsdale or downtown Gilbert or whatever.
Right? Because different people have different habits
and different places that they go. Whereas, if I go door-to-door,
I'm getting all kinds of, I'm getting the people who go out and the
people who don't get out, the people who are online, the people who are not online.
I'm getting every kind of person. Plus, it's
usually a better environment for giving the gospel because you're
kind of on their turf so that makes them feel a little more comfortable
than maybe feeling exposed in public. Everybody's looking. And look,
don't misunderstand me for one second. I am for you giving the gospel in public.
I am for you walking up to somebody in the street, walking
up to somebody in the park. I'm for all of it. Okay? Do not misunderstand
me. But what I'm saying is that for a church our size,
it just makes logistical sense
to go door-to-door because then we can make sure
that we actually talk to everybody once versus talking to one guy
ten times and one guy zero times. You know, and let's face
it, certain neighborhoods, we have knocked seven, eight, nine,
the town of Guadalupe here, it's been hit
nine or ten times every single door. And I've been
there so many times personally that when I have gone
there so many in the last few times, I'm just like, I like know everybody.
Like I don't know their names or anything but I'm just, I'm just like recognizing people
because I'm just, and I'm knocking doors and having deja vu because I've been
there over and over again. You know, there's a law of diminishing returns
after a while. Guadalupe was awesome the first time. It was awesome
the second time. The third time it was kind of like, you know, by the time we got seventh, eighth, ninth
time, either everybody's kind of already saved or they're still not interested or
whatever. And you start getting very few people saved. Well, it's going to
be the same thing if you just keep hitting these like outdoor areas and
doing that. Plus sometimes people in an outdoor area, they kind of have a plan. You know, they're kind of
going to a restaurant or they're meeting people or they're on a date or something. You know,
whereas at home a lot of people, you know, might be relaxing
and you can talk to them, give them the gospel. And so door to door
is essential because it's really the only way to preach the gospel
to every creature. It's really the only way to systematically
get the gospel to every single person in your town as opposed
to just the people who hang out in this one area. And again,
I'm for doing the street stuff as a supplement. I'm not
for street preaching. Let me just say that right now. Going out and
just yelling publicly at no one in particular
with a bullhorn or something, I'm not for that. I think it's a waste
of time. It's ineffective. It's a joke. Door to door soul
winning is about a hundred times more effective. That's why I'm for door to door soul winning.
Talk to people who do street preaching. Compare it to the results of the door to door soul winning
church. It's not even close. They're not even in the same league. It's
orders of magnitude different. The results that you get door to door versus
the results you get with the bullhorning. Okay.
I'm not for that. But I am for witnessing
in the street as far as just, you know, walking up to people and giving them the gospel.
A hundred percent for that. And we've had a lot of people from our church have
great success at that. I've participated in that and enjoyed it and had success.
But the door to door is really the meat and potatoes of
our evangelism because of the fact that it allows us to talk to
people that already haven't been talked to five times. And we're not just
on top of each other running into the same people over and over again. And we're getting
all 4.7 million people in our county that way.
I'm sure it's probably more than that now because our county is growing so fast. So
we want to make sure that we come to the place that these
lepers came to where they said, you know what? We do not well.
Let's share this with someone else. And so we saw
from the Naaman story just how easy salvation is.
How sometimes it can take a few people to bring someone to Christ. It can take
hearing it a few times to get them saved. And then it's easy
but some people have a hard time grasping how easy it is. So they need a few
people to preach to them and talk to them. And then they get saved.
And then it's great. And then in this chapter 7 story, we get the
idea of, again, how free it is. How easy it is.
But we understand the idea that, okay, now I've got it.
Let's share it with somebody else. And let's get other people
to realize how free it is. And some people are going to scoff at it and say, it sounds
too easy. This is too good to be true. It's a trap. But you know
what? If they'll just send the two horses and check it out. If they'll just listen
and check the Word of God, guess what? You know and I know that if they really
are sincere and really open and really want to know the truth,
if they seek, they shall find. And if they look at what the Word of God says
and listen with a good and an honest heart and being receptive,
they will get saved. Because the Gospel
is clear in the Word of God when you have someone
who's saved explaining it to you. And the Holy Spirit's at work.
Boom. You can be saved. And so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you
so much for the free gift of salvation. And Lord, help us to be diligent
about preaching the Gospel to the lost. Help us to be consistent,
Lord, weekly, getting out there on a weekly basis, knocking doors.
And Lord, those that walk up and down the street giving the Gospel to
people that they speak to or giving the Gospel to friends and loved ones
and relatives and classmates, Lord, I pray that they would have good success with
that as well. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Amen. Take your song books, please, and turn to 147.
Hymn number 147, leaning on the
everlasting arms. Hymn number 147.
Number 147,
what a fellowship and what a joy divine, number
147.
What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
What a blessedness, what a peace of mind,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
Lean in, lean in,
safe and secure from all alarms.
Lean in, lean in,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
Oh how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
Oh how bright the cloud grows from day to day,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
Lean in, lean in,
safe and secure from all alarms.
Lean in, lean in,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
I have blessed peace with my Lord's fear,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
Lean in, lean in,
safe and secure from all alarms.
Lean in, lean in,
leaning on the everlasting
arms.
Amen. Great singing tonight, you are dismissed.
Thank you.