My prayer man.
Amen.
Tonight I am continuing the sermon that I preached this morning where I was going through
the nuts and bolts of how to do soul winning.
Of course our church is big on soul winning.
We have a huge number of people out every single week knocking doors, preaching the
gospel to everyone who's willing to listen, and we've been doing this for our church's
entire existence of 17 years.
We've knocked the doors of literally well over a million people.
That's probably a major understatement to say that we've knocked the doors of a million
people in that time.
And so we want to make sure that as we're going out soul winning, we're doing the best
job that we possibly can.
And so this morning I was going through the methods that we use and kind of just pointing
out some things that I've seen people do out soul winning that I don't particularly care
for and just trying to kind of tighten things up and tune things up as far as our methods
are going.
And I'm going to reiterate the disclaimer that I gave this morning that there's not
only one right way to do soul winning, okay?
What I'm teaching you is a way of doing soul winning that works, that has worked for decades,
and that's easy to teach to other people, that lots of other people have used and had
success with.
Thousands of people have used this method and had success with it and seen tens of thousands
of people saved.
So it's a good method, it works, but it's not the only method.
Also I don't want you to get the idea that you have to do soul winning exactly the way
that I do soul winning or exactly the way that I'm explaining it to you, but rather
I'm explaining what I believe are the best practices.
If you hear me say something on a particular point and you know you understand what I'm
saying and you still think that you have a better way, then go do your better way,
you know?
I'm just trying to teach and help people do the best that they possibly can.
And so I'm not demanding that everyone be exactly like me or do soul winning the way
I do it.
Now I will say this, when you first start out soul winning especially, it's smart to
just do it exactly the way that you're taught and get good at that, and then later once
you're good at it, once you are comfortable doing soul winning, then you might personalize
the method a little bit, tweak it a little bit, because we all have different personalities
and different ways of doing things.
And let me say this as well, that even someone using really poor methods, if they're preaching
the right gospel, if they got the right Bible and the right plan of salvation, even really
poor methods can still get somebody saved.
Thank God.
Because you know when we get people saved, it's not with enticing words of man's wisdom,
it's actually the power of the Holy Spirit that's ultimately going to get people saved.
So don't worry too much if you're not so great at soul winning, because guess what?
God can still use you as long as you have the right Bible and the right plan of salvation,
you're doing good.
Don't discourage anybody or drag anybody down by picking things apart.
But at the same time, when I see certain trends of people using poor methods, I want to try
to help people do better and explain and teach why we can do better.
I've seen people give the most horrendous soul winning presentation where it was just
all over the place.
I mean it was like I was getting confused and I'm already saved.
And I mean they're jumping all over the place and you know they're going from A to D back
to B, E, C, F, G, it was just all over the place and the person still got saved.
So hey, I just rejoice that Christ is preached and that the gospel is preached.
But that being said, the better that we can do at making it clear, explaining things in
a way that's easy to understand, the more effective we're going to be and the more people
we're going to get saved.
So let's get into the material tonight.
Now this morning where I left off, we were about halfway through the gospel presentation
because we talked about the opener, which I spent a lot of time on that because that's
really important.
Then we got into the part that you're a sinner, we got into the part that you deserve hell,
and then we started to talk about the crux, no pun intended, which is the gospel, the
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and how we need to emphasize that and preach
that to people.
So that's about where we are in the gospel presentation.
So far the verses that we've used are Romans 3, 10, Romans 3, 23, Romans 6, 23, Revelation
20, 14, and 15, Revelation 21, 8 to get through those first couple points, then we come back
to Romans 5, 8, but God committed his love toward us and while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us.
We go through the story of who Jesus is, we explain his death, burial, and resurrection.
Okay.
Now the next thing that we want to do after we've covered that is go into what it actually
takes to be saved now, right?
Now that we've explained what Jesus did for us, now we need to explain what it is that
we knew need to do to be saved.
And I think that the best place to do that is Acts 16, 30 and 31, right?
That's just a great place to take people to, and if you want to turn there in your Bible
right now, you can, you might have it memorized, but it's just such a great place to go after
you've explained what Christ did for us on the cross because it flat out asks the question,
what must I do to be saved?
And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house.
And so right here is where you begin to preach to the person that salvation is by faith,
not of works, lest any man should boast.
So the answer to the question here, what must I do to be saved is believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Another verse that I like to use to drive in this point of salvation by faith is John
3 16.
And the reason that I like it is because almost everybody has heard it before.
In fact, as you preach this verse to people, they will typically jump in and finish it
for you.
They'll be finishing it in their mind, or maybe they'll even audibly just finish the
verse for you.
But yet it's so sad how many people have this verse memorized and they still aren't saved.
I've had people sit there and quote this verse to me.
Oh yeah, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
So what do you have to do to be saved?
Live a good life.
Go to church, get baptized.
Do you even know what you just quoted?
But because it's familiar to them, they already know the verse, even if they haven't grasped
its meaning.
Then when you show them the meaning, it's like, oh, wow, there it was all along.
And it's like it's always been there in their mind.
And you're just activating this verse that was already kind of in the back of their mind.
And that's powerful because it's not like you're just hitting them with a new verse
that they've never heard and it's kind of like, oh, well, I need to think about that.
It's like, wow, that is what John 3 16 has said all this time.
So I really like to use John 3 16 for that reason.
Now here's the thing.
When it comes to each point of presenting the gospel, you want to take as much time
as necessary, but there's no reason to ever kick a dead horse.
When someone gets it, I move on to the next point.
If I feel like they're not quite getting it, then I will dwell on that point, right?
So the Bible says that we should redeem the time.
I want to make the best use of my time.
So I'm not just going to sit there and preach to them that it's believed for 10 minutes
straight if they already got it after a minute, right?
So at a minimum, I like to show them act 16 31.
I like to show them John 3 16, maybe one other verse.
And if it's clear that they've got that point, then I'm ready to move on.
But if I feel like it needs a little more reinforcement, then I could show them John
3 18 right there on the same page, I could show them John 3 36 right there on the same
page.
I could take them to, uh, for example, John chapter six, verse 47 verily verily.
I say unto thee, he that believeth on me has everlasting life.
You know, I could take them all manner of verses in the book of John.
So it's good to just have a bunch of faith, salvation versus underlined in the book of
John throughout chapters three, five, six, 11.
You know, wherever you find the really strong salvation versus have those underlined so
that if necessary, you can reinforce that idea.
Another good one to reinforce if you feel like it needs reinforcing is Ephesians two
eight and nine for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Here's what I love about Ephesians two eight and nine is that it says that our salvation
is by faith and that it's not of works.
So many people will say, well, yeah, salvation is by faith, but you know, faith and works
just go hand in hand.
Is that what Ephesians two eight nine says?
You know, Ephesians two eight nine is drawing a distinction.
It's saying this one saves you.
This one doesn't.
That's pretty clear, my friend.
It's like, well, you know, faith kind of is works, you know, I mean, you know, if you
have the faith, that means you're doing the worst.
That's not what it says.
It says you are saved by faith and you're not saved by works.
You know, and again, if people are struggling with this, you can always pile on more verses.
But again, if they get it, most people just get it after act 1631, John three 16, maybe
one of the verse, you're ready to move on.
But if they're struggling, then you can pile on with Ephesians two eight nine.
Or how about Romans 11 six, this is another powerful one.
If by grace, then is it no more of works?
Otherwise grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then is it no more grace?
Otherwise work is no more work.
It cannot be both works and grace.
It has to be one or the other.
Are we saved by grace?
Are we saved by works?
We're saved by grace through faith.
And then you get some bozo that says, well, faith is a work.
You're a bozo.
It says you're saved by faith, not by works.
And if it's works, it's not grace.
But then over here, it says you're saved by grace through faith.
Sounds like grace and faith go real well together.
Works and grace, nope, Ephesians two eight nine is like, well, you're saved by faith,
but not by works.
You got works over here, you got grace and faith over here.
So anyway, you can always pile on extra verses to drive in that point, but usually just three
verses is enough to just really drill that in with just those few.
Then the next point after teaching that salvation is by faith alone, I think it's very important
to spend time explaining that you cannot lose your salvation.
Now here's why I say this, because even though you showed them three verses that said that
salvation is by faith, some people still have it in the back of their head that there's
some kind of a works component or that maybe, well, maybe I get saved by faith, but I have
to sort of maintain my salvation by living a certain way or, or if I do something really
bad, I'm going to lose it.
Or if I, if I stop following Christ with my life, I'm going to lose it, which those are
all just backdoor ways of saying that it's workspace salvation.
Because here's the thing, if it's a free gift, that doesn't just mean that Jesus made the
down payment.
It means that Jesus paid it all.
So if Jesus paid the down payment, but we have to make the payments every month, that's
not really a gift, okay?
That is something that we are still paying for.
Jesus didn't pay part of our salvation.
He paid all of our salvation.
And so you cannot lose your salvation.
And I think it's so important to preach this point because most people have been so indoctrinated
in some kind of a workspace salvation.
And I feel like this more than anything else, clears that up for people.
Once they understand that you can't lose your salvation, then they know it's is by grace
through faith because those two things go together.
I mean, if it's by grace through faith, how could you lose it?
When I was never good enough to be saved in the first place, how could I be bad enough
to where I become unsaved?
It was all based on grace in the first place.
It was all a free gift in the first place.
So we want to show people that you cannot lose your salvation.
And there are a lot of good verses that you could use to do this.
One of the simplest ways is just to take them back to Romans 6 23 and use the illustration
about the gift, right?
So it says for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
And I ask people, you know, is a gift free or do you have to pay for it?
A gift is free.
Okay.
Who pays for the gift, the giver or the receiver?
The giver.
Okay.
Who's giving us eternal life?
God.
How did he pay for that?
By dying on the cross, right?
And then, okay, how much do we have to pay?
Nothing.
It's free.
It's a gift.
We just have to believe, right?
Then what's the name of this gift?
Eternal life.
Well, if God gives us a gift that's eternal, eternal means that it never ends.
So if God gives us a gift that never ends, how many times do we need to receive that
gift?
One time, because the gift of God is not temporary life.
The gift of God is not conditional life.
The gift of God is eternal life, okay?
And of course the Bible says in first John 5 13, these things have I written unto you
that believe on the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have have eternal
life and that you may believe on the name of the son of God.
So we, it's not that we will get eternal life, it's that we have eternal life right now.
John 6 47 says, verily, verily, I say to you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
Not had, not will get, but present tense, hath, has everlasting life right now.
Okay.
If we have eternal life, obviously if it's eternal, you can't lose it because if you
lost it, it was never eternal to begin with.
Now some people will say, well, you know, eternal life starts when you die, you know,
so we don't really have it right now.
It's like, it's like we have the promise of eternal life, but you know, we have to endure
unto the end and then if we make it to the end, then you know, the eternal life starts.
But no, that's wrong.
We already have eternal life right now, according to the verses that I just quoted you, we already
have it right now.
And, and here's a really powerful verse to prove that John chapter 11 verse 25 says,
Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection of the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
Watch this and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Because some people will try to play games with this concept of eternal life and they'll
say, well, you know, eternal is not talking about how long it is talking about the quality.
It's like a really eternal life, you know, like it's this kind of life that, you know,
has been around a long time and it's going to be around a long time.
And they say it's a quality thing, folks, that's garbage.
The word eternal just means it doesn't end.
It means not ending.
It's synonymous with everlasting, lasting forever.
So here's the thing Jesus said, whosoever liveth present tense and believeth in me shall
never die.
So you can't really play games with the meaning of eternal life when there's a verse that
says you shall never die.
That's what eternal life means.
Existing forever is equivalent to never dying.
So if I believe in Jesus, I will never die.
So how could I lose my salvation?
I'm never going to die.
Now is my body going to die?
Of course my physical body will die, but that's not really me, right?
The soul is going to go straight to heaven when my body dies.
So I will never die because the moment that I breathe my last breath, right, then I'm
going to go to heaven.
And so I'm going to continue being alive there instead of here.
But either way, I'm still alive.
So that's why Jesus could say, uh, that whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Now another great verse on this is John 5 24.
Okay.
And this is the verse that was shown to me when I got saved as a six year old boy to
explain this point to me.
John 5 24 verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed
from death unto life.
What a clear verse.
You know, I'm not going to be condemned.
I've been passed from death unto life.
I have everlasting life right now.
If it ends, it was never everlasting in the first place.
So that's one illustration, just the gift of eternal life.
Another great illustration is that of a father and a son because the Bible says in John one
12, but as many as received him to them gave me power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name.
So if I believe on the name of Jesus, I become a son of God.
Okay.
So if I'm God's son, that is something that lasts forever.
Just like my earthly son will always be my son.
So once you're God's son, you'll always be God's son.
And he said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.
And here's the thing about this.
Okay.
When you explain to people this concept of eternal security, again, some people are going
to get it right away.
They're going to believe it right away.
Some people, you're going to have to double down on this a little bit and go into more
illustrations.
You say, well, you know, which of these illustrations do I use?
You know, you use one and if they get it, great, you can move on.
But sometimes people need the other illustration.
And I'll tell you that a concern that a lot of people have when you explain this to them
is that you're basically telling them that they can live however they want with no consequence.
That's typically the objection to this, right?
Like, oh, so you're saying that we can just go out and do whatever and just murder, rape
and pillage and it's all fine.
You know?
Now here's the thing about that, okay?
Because that's an objection that comes up so often, I typically like to deal with this
right away.
Every time I give the gospel, here's what I say.
Every time I give the gospel, I say, here's a hypothetical.
You know, let's say after I got saved, I went out and did something really bad.
I committed some awful sin.
And let's just get crazy and say that I murdered someone, right?
Huge sin.
If I did that, I will get punished for that on this earth.
Because the Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth.
And so if I were to commit some huge sin, like murder, I'm going to get a huge punishment
on this earth, such as maybe I'll go to prison, you know, maybe someone would kill me or someone
that I love, you know, something really bad is going to happen.
It's not that I'm just getting away with it, okay.
But I would not lose my salvation.
Because again, it's eternal.
I'm a child of God, he'll never leave me nor forsake me, nothing to separate us from the
love of God, etc.
I'm not going to come into condemnation, as far as my soul is concerned.
But on this earth, I'm going to be punished for that.
And you know, that typically sets people's mind at ease, they realize like, okay, there's
a consequence on this earth.
So we're not just giving people a license to sin, because there will be chastisement
and punishments that come upon this earth for the sins that we do.
Now that some people say, well, it doesn't make any sense because you know, people get
away with murder all the time.
Not save people.
Yeah, you're right.
People do get away with murder, because they're not saved.
See, unsaved people, they could go their whole life without receiving chastisement.
You know, I think a great example of this is Joseph Stalin.
You know, Joseph Stalin is probably one of the most evil, wicked people of the 20th century.
Just responsible just for millions and millions of people's death.
Just a super sick, evil, depraved individual, head of one of the most wicked nations ever,
the Soviet Union.
And so Joseph Stalin was super wicked, yet, you know, he lived to be an old man and died
in peace.
He didn't end up like Ceausescu being executed on live TV or anything like other communist
dictators, but rather, he ended up, you know, just going in peace to the grave.
So what about, but here's the thing about that is that he's burning in hell right now.
So did he really get away with anything if he's roasting in hell at this very moment?
And I guarantee you that he's in one of the hottest, super lowest parts of hell because
of all of his wickedness.
Because by the way, hell is not the same for everybody.
You know, there's different degrees of hell based on how bad you were and based on what
you knew and what you did.
And there's a judgment upon the unsaved.
And hell is not the same for just like heaven is not the same for everybody.
You know, there are different levels of rewards in heaven.
Jesus said, Behold, I come quickly.
My reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be.
Jesus will reward based on our works.
People will be punished in hell based on the things that are found written in those books.
The things that they've done in their lives are going to come back and get them.
And so, of course, unsaved people perhaps will get away with something.
But if you're saved, you will be punished on this earth for your sins, because the Bible
says that whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
And it says, If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
For what son is he when the father chasteneth not?
But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards and
not sons.
He's saying, you know, when you get chastened, don't let it grieve you.
Don't despise the chastening of the Lord.
But when you don't get chastened, be afraid, be very afraid.
Because you want to get chastened because it means that you're not a bastard.
If you don't get chastened, that's scarier than getting chastened, right?
Because the people who don't get chastened, they're not saved.
So of course, people get away with things because they're not saved.
But saved people, if they committed some huge sin, like murder, or adultery, or whatever,
they're going to get chastened big time, period, not maybe, for sure.
Okay.
So typically, once you explain that to people, it helps them grasp this concept of eternal
security, when they realize, okay, there's consequences on this earth.
Okay.
Not that we're just saying, yeah, you just you do whatever, and it doesn't matter.
Well, it matters in this life, because you know what, I'm really glad I'm going to heaven.
But I kind of want to live a nice life until then too.
I don't want to live a miserable life and then go to heaven.
I want to live a happy life and go to heaven.
Okay, so that means I don't want to be constantly whipped up on by God, because I'm out there
committing these major sins.
And if we commit a little sin, we get a little punishment, big sin, big punishment, but guess
what?
You're going to get punished for stuff as a Christian, you're not just going to go through
life doing whatever and getting away with it.
So that usually sets people's mind at ease about that.
And so that's really the final point in the presentation of the Gospel message.
You know, again, quick recap, you're a sinner, you deserve to go to hell.
God loves us, right?
Jesus died on the cross for us, he was buried and rose again.
It's believing in Christ that saves us.
And once you're saved, you're always saved, right?
That's the message.
That's really all of the main points that you want to make sure that you hit.
You want to make sure you hit all that when you give the gospel, you're a sinner, there's
a punishment, Jesus paid it all, believe on him, and you're saved forever.
That's it.
Those are the main points.
Okay, so where do you go from here?
Because as I said this morning, the most difficult parts are different are typically starting
and ending, right?
The beginning and the end are the most challenging.
That's why I spent so much time on the beginning this morning.
How about the end?
How do I wrap this up?
Well, typically, what I like to do at the end is to just ask people a few questions,
just to make sure that they've understood what I've explained to them.
And again, as I emphasized this morning, I never want to trick people, or try to ask
really hard questions and get all tricky and try to trip them up.
That's just foolishness.
We don't want to confuse people, okay?
So ask straightforward questions.
So these are typically the questions I'll ask.
So once I'm confident that they've understood everything I've explained so far, then I say,
okay, let me just ask you a few quick questions then, okay?
Do you believe that you've sinned?
Yes.
Do you believe that according to the Bible, the punishment for sin is hell?
Yes.
Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for all your sins and that he rose again from
the dead?
Yes, right?
What do you think personally that a person has to do in order to be saved?
I like to put in that word personally, because I want to make sure that they know that I'm
not just trying to get them to repeat back what they've heard from me.
But I kind of want to know that this is what they think now.
Now that I've explained to them that they've adopted this view as their own.
So I say, you know, what do you personally think that it takes for a person to get to
heaven?
Now sometimes I could have thoroughly explained this and had the person tracking with me the
whole time, or at least I thought they were, right?
And you get to this point and you say, what do you personally think it takes to be saved?
And they'll just say, yeah, go to church, live a good life.
Now if they, if I've just spent the last 10 minutes explaining the gospel and being
thorough explaining, using illustrations, going through everything, and I say to them,
what do you personally believe that it takes for a person to get to heaven?
And they say, live a good life, go to church.
That shows that they have not listened to anything that I said at all.
So why should I believe that they're going to listen to anything that I say after that
point?
They haven't listened to anything that I've said.
I mean, it's not like they got it a little wrong.
I mean, they bombed it.
I mean, they're just like, it's just, I mean, they're just like, oh, live a good life, go
to church.
I mean, wow.
Where have you been for the last 10 minutes?
You weren't even here at all.
If they just totally bomb this question, then I, then this is what I'll do.
I'll typically tell, first of all, I'm done with this person at this point.
I'm done.
If I spend 10 minutes preaching the gospel and I haven't even gotten anywhere, then I'm
done.
Today's not their day.
I hope they get saved on another day and maybe they will, but clearly this isn't your day.
So what I'll do is I'll say, well, you know what?
That's not what the Bible says.
The Bible actually says that it was by faith.
Remember?
No, no, I'm just kidding.
But I just say like, I just say, you know, that's actually not what the Bible says because
remember the Bible asks, what must I do to be saved?
The answer was believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that shall be saved.
So here's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to leave you with this YouTube card.
There's a video on here.
Check this out.
Watch this documentary.
You know, it's about the end times and you know, and just, you just hope that if they
watch some videos, maybe eventually there's a click with them, something will sink in.
So I kind of leave them with some homework, you know, because when I say I'm done with
that person, I'm not saying I'm done with them for life.
I'm just saying like, I'm done with them today because I've spent 10 minutes preaching
to them and they didn't get it at all.
So it's like, okay, I'm going to leave this card with you and, and give you some homework.
Go watch this video and I'll point them to one of our documentaries or something just
to give them something to watch because the documentaries have the plan of salvation at
the end and, and hopefully they can watch that and eventually something will sink in.
And then I just try to leave them on a positive note.
Hey, we'd love to have you visit our church.
You know, here you go.
Thanks for listening.
Have a great day.
See you later.
And you know, and I move on.
Now what some people will do is they'll go through the entire gospel for 10 minutes.
The person just has no clue and then they'll just give them the gospel again and then it's
like, and then just keep going until eventually they get it.
Now okay, on the surface, this could seem like a good idea, but here's what I fear.
I fear that if I can go through the whole plan of salvation and do a really good job
and then have them just like not get it at all, then I feel like if I keep circling back
and hammering it until they tell me it's by faith, I feel like at that point they're just
repeating what I'm telling them because I just keep, it's like, like even a monkey,
you know, if I, if there's like two buttons and one of them says like by faith, the other
one says is by works and like he pushes the button that says by works is like and he gets
shocked a little bit or something or I'm like, no bad monkey.
And he puts it in, works, bad monkey, works, bad monkey, faith, good monkey.
You know, but is that, does that, is that really getting saved or is that finally me
just wearing someone down by just repeating something to them so many times that finally
they're going to give me the answer that I want.
Now here's the thing, if I give them the gospel and then during the wrap up they get a question
a little bit wrong, but they're in the ballpark, then, you know, then I might take the time
to go back and review some things and shore up some things, right?
If I feel like, well, we made progress, but we're not all the way to the finish line,
then yeah, let's back up and clear up and figure out where we went off the track and
fix things.
What I'm talking about is the situation where it's just, what do you personally think someone
needs to do to go to heaven and just live a good life?
You have gotten nowhere.
You are not even to square one.
Agreed?
I mean, you've gotten nowhere.
Well if you didn't get anywhere in the last ten minutes, why do you think you're going
to get somewhere in the next ten minutes?
You might be able to just eventually get them to push the right button because you just
keep on rebuking them when they get it wrong.
I don't see a point in that, okay?
I'd rather just say, hey, a seed's been planted, here's your homework, take two of these videos
and call me in the morning than to sit there and just feed them the right answer so many
times that eventually they just give it back to me.
You know, I don't think that that's profitable, okay?
But again, if they get it just a little wrong, then yeah, then I'll back up and help them.
So again, review questions are, you know, do you believe you've sinned?
Do you believe that there's a punishment for sin in hell?
You know, do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and that he was buried
and physically rose again from the dead?
And then, you know, what do you personally believe that a person has to do to be saved?
Hopefully they're going to say it's believe on Jesus.
It's believing in Christ.
And then if they get that right, then I'll say to them, you know, and you know, if you
believe in Jesus, how long are you saved for?
Hopefully they say forever.
Is there anything you could ever do to screw that up?
Nope.
Now we're good to go, right?
So now I'm confident that I've explained everything about the gospel and they've repeated back
to me that it's what they personally believe and that they understand everything.
Now here's what some people would say.
They'd say, well, but you know, how do I really know that they got it though?
I need to drill deeper.
And then they start asking these really tricky questions, really complicated, difficult questions,
hitting people with these really bizarre scenarios and stuff.
Here's the thing about that.
Why are you so worried about that is what I want to know.
Okay.
Because here's the thing.
If somebody just lies to my face, that's their problem, not mine.
And this, let's go back to what I was saying this morning about asking too many questions
at the beginning.
Let's say I knock on the door and somebody says, oh, I'm from the church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints.
My first thought is just like, kill me now.
No, I'm just kidding.
Just kidding.
My first thought is gag me with a spoon.
That's the worst door for me.
Okay.
But let's say I knock on the door.
I just, I have a thing.
I don't like knocking the doors of Mormons, but I knock on the door and they say, oh,
I'm from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
And I say to them, okay, well, you know, more important than church, we're asking everybody
question.
If you were to die today, do you know for sure you're going to heaven?
And they say, yes, I do.
Okay.
How do you know you're going to heaven?
Because I have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, my savior, I've got all my faith and
trust in him, which is the right answer, but it is not what Mormons believe.
But is it the right answer?
And then I asked him, Hey, do you think there's anything you'd ever do to lose your salvation?
Nope.
You can never lose your salvation.
Now look, you take it to the bank.
That person is not saved.
I don't care what they say because no Mormon is saved.
Mormons aren't saved.
It is a cult.
They are not even close to being saved and they are trained to lie.
They're literally taught in their seminary, they call it lying for the Lord and they will
tell you if they know the answer that you want, sometimes they'll just give you the
answer that you want.
You'll look how I can't even count the thousands of times I've talked to a Mormon and said,
you know, well, you know, you guys believe that there are other gods on other planets.
And then they're just like, I don't know where you heard that.
That's crazy.
We don't believe that.
We only believe there's one God.
I don't know where you heard that.
And then I'll be like, okay, well, you know, cause Brigham Young said, I'll pull out a
Brigham Young quote about there being other gods and then they're like, well, the Bible
says there's other gods.
And I'm like, you just said you don't believe that?
You know, so this is, they will lie through their teeth to you.
Okay.
That's the thing.
If I walk up to them in good faith and ask them what it takes to be saved and they give
me all the right answers, I just go, yep, that's correct.
See you later.
Because what do I, what am I going to do with that person?
First of all, I'm just so happy just to get out of there anyway, because I don't want
to waste my time with stinking Mormons anyway.
So get me out of there.
Now you say you're being a little harsh.
Okay.
You go soul winning for 24 years straight.
Every week for 24 years and 22 of those years in a place that's filled with Mormons and
find out how they almost never, they virtually never get saved.
Virtually never like one in a hundred thousand might get saved.
Okay.
They virtually never get saved and they love to waste your time, lie to you and yeah, okay.
Don't even get me started.
Sorry.
But the point is, the point is, is it my fault if I asked them the questions and they give
me all the right answers and they're not actually saved?
Let's say for a minute that they're not a Mormon.
Let's say they're a Baptist.
Let's say I knock on the door and they're a Baptist and they say it's by faith alone
and you can't lose it, but in their heart they're actually trusting works.
Is that my problem?
No, that's not my problem.
You know, you need to learn in life that not everything is your problem.
You can't fix the world.
You can't fix people.
All you can do is just preach the gospel.
All you can do is just be the messenger.
And here's the thing, if somebody is going to lie to your face, you can't really have
a conversation that's profitable with that person.
You know, if I ask people what they believe and they just lie to me, that's not really
my problem.
I don't really care and I'm going to move on to someone who actually wants to have a
sincere conversation with me, not somebody who wants to lie and play games with me because
that's just not worthy of my time as an ambassador of Christ to play games with somebody who's
not interested in having a real conversation.
You know, and so, uh, people may disagree with me on that and maybe you want to play
games with people who lie to you, but I'm not interested.
If somebody just lies and says, oh, it's totally by faith that, you know, I'm just like, okay,
great.
Yeah, that is.
That is.
Yeah.
It's by faith.
All right, cool.
See you later.
And I'll just tell them to watch new world order Bible.
I'm like, Hey, here's a documentary about why the King James is the only right Bible.
And they're like, yeah, you know, I will watch it, you know, maybe they'll pick up something
from that.
Okay.
So again, we're at the end here and I'm asking the review questions.
What do you personally believe that it takes to get to heaven?
If they say it's faith and they say you can't lose it, I've explained everything to them.
It's clear they understood it and they're claiming to believe it.
You know, at that point I'm confident and I believe that this person is telling me the
truth.
Now in the rare event that someone's lying to me, that's not my problem and I don't care.
But 99% of the time they're telling me the truth because why would they lie about it?
Right?
Well, sometimes they might.
Well, so what?
Who cares?
People lying to me doesn't really hurt me as long as I don't lie to them, right?
I'm not responsible for other people's actions.
So therefore, if I get the right answers from people, I don't feel like I need to smoke
them out and, and dig deeper and interrogate them.
You know, those basic review questions that I gave you, I believe are enough that if they
get those all right, I'm confident that they got the message.
You know, I don't think you need to hit people with all these really radical scenarios and
possibly, you know, risk confusing people.
So if they get the answers right, then what I want to do is I want to lead them in prayer,
right?
Because if I just preached them the whole gospel and they understood it and believed
it, now what I want to do is I want to lead them in prayer to basically call upon the
name of the Lord and be saved so that they can actually pull the trigger on salvation.
You know, and actually call upon Christ to save them.
And so how do we do that?
Well, here's how I do that.
I would just say to them, if they get the questions right, I don't ask them, so do you
want to pray?
Do you want to ask Jesus to save you?
Because to me, that's kind of a silly question because any idiot who actually understood
what I just explained wants to, no, no, thanks.
I'd rather just, Oh, I understand everything.
I believe everything, but I'd just rather go to hell.
I just don't want to partake of this salvation.
That's stupid.
That makes no sense.
So I don't ask people, do you want to pray?
Because what I really care about is, did they understand the gospel and do they believe
the gospel?
Because salvation is by faith.
So I want to make sure they get that down.
If they've got that down, then what I want to do is lead them to pray and ask Christ
to save them right then and there.
So here's what I will typically do.
I will say, well, look, before I go, I want to just pray with you and help you tell God
that that's what you believe so that you can know for sure that you're on your way to heaven.
That's what I say.
I just say, look, before I go, I want to pray with you and I'm going to help you tell God
that that's what you believe so that you can know for sure that you're on your way to heaven.
And the vast majority of the time, the person will say, okay, great.
And then I'll say, okay, let's bow our heads.
You're just going to repeat after me and I lead them in prayer.
And it doesn't have to be anything fancy, anything special, anything complicated.
You know, just something along the lines of, dear Lord, I know I'm a sinner.
I know I deserve hell.
I believe you died for me and rose again.
Please save me.
Take me to heaven when I die.
Amen.
Now I do that just because it provides kind of another review even in the prayer.
But really you could just have them bow their head and say, dear Jesus, save me.
Amen.
You know?
And if they mean that from their heart and if they believe the gospel, that's enough.
So it doesn't have to be any certain prayer.
Sometimes I'll include a little more in the prayer just as a, as another review, just
kind of driving it in even more so that they know what they're, what they're doing.
But honestly, just Christ saved me.
Amen.
I mean, that's enough right there.
Okay.
So I will lead them in prayer and then after they're done praying, then I will ask them,
hey, do you know for sure you're on your way to heaven?
Yes.
Why?
Because I believed, hey, isn't that great?
And then I'll rejoice with them, leave them with a Bible, leave them with whatever materials,
invite them to church, talk about the service times and whatever.
So that's pretty much it.
Now, now let me back up a little bit and talk a little bit about the prayer because a lot
of people will say that is bad to lead people in prayer.
And I remember especially like 25 years ago, around the time that I started soul winning,
it seemed like the prayer was really under attack.
And then it seems like it kind of comes under attack, like every few years it comes under
attack and it's something you constantly have to deal with.
And obviously it's outside the scope of this sermon to really show you all the scriptures
about calling upon the name of the Lord and why we lead people in prayer and everything
like that.
So I would just point you to other sermons that I've done on the sinner's prayer or calling
upon the name of the Lord and things of that nature because this isn't really the time
in this sermon to do that, okay?
But here are some things that are pertinent to what we're talking about right now, okay?
Sometimes people will say this, well, you know, I don't think that having them repeat
after you is really a sincere prayer.
I think if it's a sincere prayer, they have to compose the prayer themselves.
Like it has to be their own words.
They have to come up with it themselves because if they're just repeating after you, then
I don't think it's sincere.
Now here's the problem with that logic.
Number one, you're overemphasizing the prayer at that point.
Because like I said, the prayer doesn't have to be anything special.
All it is, is that if they really believe in their heart, then they're going to just
cry out to God in some way for salvation.
It doesn't have to be a certain thing.
It could literally just be like, ah, you know, save me.
It doesn't have to be some special, I mean, look what the thief on the cross said, Lord,
remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom.
That doesn't really make a lot of sense, okay?
If you took him really super literally, he'd be like, okay, well you go ahead and die and
go to hell, and then a few thousand years from now, in the millennium, I'm going to
remember you.
You know, if you wanted to just take him super literally.
What did he really mean?
He doesn't know what he means because we don't really know how to pray as we ought.
And so a lot of times when we pray, we don't necessarily word things perfectly, we don't
really say, you know, the thief on the cross, his heart was in the right place.
He believed in Jesus and he said stuff.
And he got saved, because he said something to Jesus, because he believed in Jesus, right?
So some people would say, well, you know, have them word their own prayer, or, you know,
why don't you let it come from their own heart?
The problem with this is that, number one, you're overemphasizing the prayer, what's
really important is that they believed and understood everything that I preached to them,
so now I just want to just give them that nudge to seal the deal, pull the trigger,
and make it official by calling upon the name of the Lord.
So it's not really about whether they're repeating it or coming up with their own, it's just,
I'm just giving them that push to finish the process right there.
Let's finish this right now, so that you don't get distracted and think about something else
and not reach out for salvation, okay?
So that's the main thing.
Now I've used this illustration before, but I'm going to use it again because it's just
so true.
You know, I was in a hotel room with a work buddy one time, and I had been giving this
guy the gospel throughout the day at work, and he'd been interested and kind of listening
and taking it in, but I hadn't really gotten through the whole plan of salvation completely,
and I'd not let him in prayer or anything like that.
So you know, I'd been giving the guy the gospel as we worked, we hit the gym, lifted
some weights, I was giving him the gospel a little bit at the gym.
We get back to the room at night, we go to bed, turn out the lights, and then he says
to me in the dark room, you know, hey, I was thinking about what you said earlier, and
he started asking me more questions about the gospel.
So I answered his question about the gospel, about salvation by faith and everything, and
then finally he just jumped out of bed, flipped on the light, and he said, you know, Steve,
can you just help me do this right now, because I don't, you know, I just want you to help
me because I don't really know what to say or what to pray, like, what do I do?
Can you just help me?
So I'm like, okay, yeah, let me just help you, and we both knelt by the bedside, and
I just said, repeat this after me, and just say, don't say it to me, say it to God, and
I had him repeat the prayer.
Isn't that terrible?
Isn't that awful?
I should have just said, well, no, you need to figure it out, because if you're for real,
you'll figure it out.
Folks, we're trying to pull people out of the fire, trying to help people.
Why not help people?
Now here's the thing, I've seen this method that says, let them pray their own prayer,
and in my opinion, 99% of the time, you can disagree with me if you want, it's awkward.
When you get to that point, and you're like, okay, go ahead and pray, okay, okay, so you
understand everything?
Okay, well, you know what, why don't you pray right now and ask Jesus to save you right
now?
And obviously, I'm exaggerating, but it's awkward because they're like, what is, what?
I don't know.
A lot of, you don't know what these people's background is, you don't know if they know
anything about prayer, they could be intimidated.
And plus, I've even seen this, where someone asked the question, hey, would you like to
pray and ask Jesus Christ to save you?
And people will be like, oh, no thanks.
But it's really just because they think they have to word it themselves, and they're scared
and they don't know what to say.
That's why I don't say, would you like to pray?
Because they're like, pray?
Whoa, you know, they're thinking of some presidential prayer breakfast, where some Presbyterian
pulls out some fancy prayer that he wrote down and reads it off a paper, okay?
When you say, would you like to pray, they're thinking like, oh, man, you're putting me
on the spot here, you want me to do public speaking.
That's why I don't say that.
Here's what I say, hey, before I leave, I want to pray with you and help you tell God
that this is what you believe.
And the vast majority of the time, they will say yes, almost always.
Okay, why?
Because if they've actually understood everything to that point, if I've explained everything
well and they've gotten all the questions right, of course they want to pray and ask
Jesus to save them.
And so 99% of the time, that's what happens.
Now I've had people come to me and say, well, you know, Pastor Anderson, I'm constantly
getting down to the end, and the people don't want to pray.
I'm constantly getting through the whole plan of salvation with people, everything's going
great, and then they just don't want to pray.
And my answer to that is, you're doing something wrong.
Because I haven't experienced that, you know?
I go soul winning, I go soul winning with other people, and when people do this right,
that's not really a thing.
Every once in a while I'll get somebody who's like, oh, no thanks, I don't want to pray
right now.
And then I just tell them, okay, I say, well then here, you know, I've explained everything
to you, I've preached everything to you, you've said you believe this, you know, just go meet
with the Lord on your own and just cry out to the Lord on your own and just ask for salvation,
you know?
Because you understand everything, you got it, you believe.
If you believe, then confess with your mouth and call upon Christ.
And so I just basically will just send them to go do it on their own.
I don't count that person as a salvation, but it doesn't really matter whether I count
people or not, because guess what, our number is never accurate.
I think it's pretty accurate, but it's never going to be perfectly accurate.
I guarantee you that there are people that we count as saved that aren't actually saved,
and there are people that we don't count that are saved.
Sometimes I'll even pray with somebody, but I'm a little doubtful whether they got it.
I don't count it.
I only count people that I'm pretty confident that they got saved.
If I have any doubts about someone, I don't count them, but guess what, they still might
have gotten saved.
And I personally believe that people we count and the people we don't count and we're wrong,
that it kind of balances out and that our number is very accurate.
But is it 100% accurate?
It can't be.
It could never be 100%, because we can't see inside the hearts of people to see whether
they actually believe in Christ, right?
But I would say to the critics that even if a tenth of the people that we preach to are
actually getting saved, it's more than a lot of these Baptist churches down the street, amen?
But the thing is, I believe that our number is pretty close to being accurate, because
of the fact that we have good methods and we're thorough.
So the point is that if you do this correctly, and then you ask them, hey, can I help you
and pray with you right now?
Then basically they'll typically say yes, virtually every single time.
Now I want to cover one more thing, and this kind of goes back to what I was talking about
this morning again.
But this obsession that some people have with trying to prove to the person that they weren't
already saved, which I find totally meaningless and unprofitable.
All that matters is if they believe right now, at the end of the conversation they believe
everything right, and I pray with them, I feel good about that salvation.
If they've got all the right belief and then they call upon Christ, we're good to go.
I don't sit there and worry too much about proving to them if you would have died yesterday
you would have gone to hell.
That is totally meaningless, and it's just opening a can of worms that doesn't matter.
Now here's what I mean by that.
When people get to the end, they will sometimes say to the person like, well when I got here
you said it was by works.
And that can come off a little bit confrontational or rude, and there's really no point.
Now here's how I gently will bring that up with people.
I will gently say to people, I'll say, now you know what, I don't ask it as a question,
because I don't ask questions that I already know the answer to.
So here's what I say to people, I say you know what, whenever I first got here you weren't
sure if you were going to heaven, and I think the reason why is probably because you thought
I've done some good, I've done some bad, and so you weren't really sure if you're going
to heaven.
99% of the time when I say that to people they're like, yeah.
Because I say it nicely, and I don't say it like they were dumb or wrong or something,
I just say like you know when I got here you weren't sure because you're probably thinking
you know I've done good, I've done bad, and you're thinking that it's based on how good
you are.
But now you realize that it's all by faith, and they're like yeah, okay, well you know
now what I want to do is pray with you, and I'm just going to help you tell God that that's
what you believe.
But I'm not going to sit there and try to badger them or prove to them, like so, where
would you have gone if you would have died 10 minutes before I got here?
You would have gone straight to hell.
There's not really any point in saying that.
The point is that they know that they're a sinner, that they deserve hell, that without
Christ they're going to hell, that if they believe on Christ they're saved, they get
all the doctrine right, and then they pray and ask Christ to save them.
I don't feel like I need to make some big point about the fact that they weren't saved
or something.
Because it can just open a can of worms, it can be confusing, what's the point?
I don't get it.
Now we have a little bit of time left, I just want to briefly open this up for questions,
and ask, is there anybody that has a question, like a soul winning question that you want
to ask me right now, to clarify something that I've said this morning or tonight, or
maybe just a totally unrelated soul winning question, maybe some sticking point that you've
run into?
Yes, Eric.
What if when you ask them what they believe it takes to go to heaven, they give you an
answer or something, like you have to have a relationship with Christ, what would you
respond to?
Okay, so that's a great question.
He said, let's say you get there, and you ask them, what does it take for a person to
go to heaven, and they don't give you a really good answer like, believe, or faith, or receive
Christ as savior, but maybe they say something like, personal relationship with Jesus.
Let me say this, if you would have asked me that question when I was 12 years old,
I would have said, personal relationship with Jesus.
And I was saved, and I knew that it was 100% by believing, that it was by faith, and that
you could not lose it, and I was saved, and I would have said that, because I would have
just been repeating something that I'd heard tons of times in church and in Christian school,
and to me, personal relationship with Jesus meant like, that I'm his son and he's my father,
and that he's my personal savior.
That's what I meant by that.
But I think a lot of people that aren't saved would use that same term.
That's not a good answer, but it doesn't mean that they're not saved, because a lot of saved
people could still use that kind of terminology, because it's so vague and it can mean so many
different things.
That's why at our church, we try to stick with stuff like believe, faith, stuff that's
really clear.
And I do get that answer a lot.
I'll ask somebody, what do you think it takes to get to heaven, and they'll say, well, it's
a personal relationship with Jesus.
Then I would typically ask them, okay, and they've said, I know I'm going to heaven because
I have a personal relationship with Jesus.
I would ask them then, hey, do you think that there's anything that you could ever do to
lose your salvation?
And if they say no, there's nothing I could do to lose my salvation.
Then I would say that that person's probably saved because, you know, clearly they're not
trusting in something that they're doing, but rather they're standing with the Lord
Jesus Christ.
But if I, if they say personal relationship with Jesus, then I ask them, well, you know,
do you think there's anything you ever do to lose your salvation?
And they say, well, you know, yeah, if I don't keep up that relationship or something, you
know.
And usually I would think that the person is saved if they get the eternal security
question right.
And then I might just kind of rejoice with them and say, hey, it's great, that's great
that you're saved, you know, I'm glad you're saved.
And then I might just gently maybe explain to them why that terminology is not the best.
And maybe I would say to them something like, yeah, you know, you said personal relationship,
you know, uh, sometimes people could misinterpret that and think you mean that you have to,
you know, maybe, uh, be a good person or go to church or follow the commandments to kind
of, you know, keep up your relationship or something like that.
But you know, really salvation is just by faith and then kind of see, maybe see how
they react to that.
But yeah, that, that's, that's, that's what I think can go either way, you know, because
like I said, I'm just being honest.
It's embarrassing to say that, but that's what I would have said when I was 12 years
old.
The question is, you know, what do you do for the people who maybe are younger and they
literally just have no clue who Jesus is.
They've just vaguely heard something about, he's the son of God.
Maybe he died on the cross, but they don't know anything about who he is.
Well then what I would do is just, uh, when I, if I'm on the story of Jesus part where
I'm kind of talking about his life and Chris, I would just take more time and just explain
more about the story or if I was talking to some guy with a bone in his nose or something
in Africa, that's probably what I would do too, you know, is I would just, I would just
take more time explain it.
You know, thankfully in America, most people have some basics, which is why we can win
somebody the Lord in 10, 15 minutes because they are already familiar with the Trinity.
They're already familiar with Jesus dying on the cross.
They have a lot of basics and, and so at least there's a starting point.
But if you have somebody who just has no clue, you're just going to have to take more time
and just, and just explain more.
You know,
I think you answered it already.
How do you catch the people who give you all the right answers?
But if you were to pin them down on James too, or repent of your sins in general, they
would go off on course.
Okay.
So he says, how do I catch the people that they give all the right answers to my questions?
But if I were to pin them down on a subject like repent of your sins or, or James chapter
two or something, then they would go off and kind of show that they're not saved.
Here's how I catch those people.
I don't, I don't because here's the thing, I'm not trying to catch everybody.
The methods that I'm using are the best in most situations.
They're never going to be perfect.
So am I going to sometimes walk away thinking that somebody saved and really they weren't?
I'm sure I will.
But here's what I would answer that if I knock on somebody's door and they give me
all the right answers, but then if I were to just ask questions six, seven and eight
and drill down, then they would reveal themselves to be not saved.
There's probably a one in 10,000 chance that that person is going to get saved because
somebody who's lying and saying that it's all by faith and you can't lose it when really
they have some deep seated belief in some other repent of your sins crap, well then
you know what, they're probably not getting saved anyway.
So I probably would have been a lot happier if I just didn't know that and went to the
next door.
You know, so, and here, here's the, because, and I'm glad you brought that up because like
this morning I was kind of talking about how, hey, you don't need to ask a bazillion questions.
You don't need to drill down that deep.
You know, ask a couple questions to see if they're saved and because you don't want to
interrogate people.
Are some people going to slip through the cracks in this way?
Yes, you're right.
There are going to be some people that give me the right answers, but if I were to drill
down deeper, but here's the thing, I don't want to sit there and just interrogate and
confuse 30 people for that one person that would have slipped through the cracks who
probably isn't getting saved anyway.
So that, that's, that's the way I look at it.
You know, does that make sense?
Yeah.
So it's a good question, but it's just that, um, I know that, that, that, uh, no, no way
of testing people's salvation is ever going to be perfect.
Now the old IFP, here's what the old IFP does.
The old IFP asked people what it takes to get to heaven and if they say it's believe
or faith, they just declare the person saved.
I take it one click further by asking them, can you lose it?
Because I feel like that that really gets a lot of people right there.
So here's the thing.
I take it one click further than the old IFP.
Somebody might want to take it a click further than me and a click further than that and
a click further than that, but there's a law of diminishing returns.
I feel like that if I go one click further and ask them if they can lose their salvation,
now I'm getting a lot more people saved.
If I go beyond that, I'm probably just starting to irritate people for very little benefit.
It's not worth it.
Just kind of see what I'm saying.
So Dominic,
Yeah, so that's a good question.
So after the person gets saved, what do we do with them?
They're saved.
What do we do?
Do we try to get them to get baptized?
Do we try to get them to come to church?
Do we follow up with them?
What do we do?
And here's what I would say is that any of those things are good things to do.
So if I win somebody to Christ, I think it's great to then talk to them about why they
should get baptized or to talk to them about why they should come to church or to, you
know, you say, well, pastor, should I get their phone number or their email address
or follow up with them or whatever?
And look, I am 100% for follow up as long as I don't have to do it.
Okay, so I've never been against other people doing follow up.
Now the reason I'm not personally into follow up is because I've done a lot of follow up
in my life and usually it didn't really pan out.
Usually it's kind of a waste of time because I find that, you know, people are gonna, if
they want to come to the church, they'll come to the church.
If they don't want to come, they're not going to come and going back and some people, if
you keep going back, you can kind of drag them into church.
But here's what I find about people that you drag in.
As soon as you stop dragging them in, they quit coming.
So I don't really want to spend the rest of my life dragging people into church.
A lot of people, they want the free gift of salvation, but that doesn't mean that they
necessarily want to get serious about serving God.
I wish I knew a way to get people to love God because if I could have one superpower,
it would be that I could somehow convince people to love God.
But I can't.
I can't make people go to church.
I can't make people love God.
I can't make people do what's right.
Here's the way I see it.
A lot of people will say that I'm required to do follow up and that I'm a bad person
if I don't do follow up.
That's a garbage doctrine that I've disproven in many sermons.
But that doesn't mean I'm against follow up.
All it means is that follow up is not required of me because at the end of the day, I'm providing
discipleship classes every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night right here
at Faith Forward Baptist Church.
And here's the thing.
I've had people come to me before and say to me, hey, Pastor Anderson, can I meet with
you during the week and you can tutor me in the scriptures or tutor me in the word of
God or, you know, I can ask you questions and you can ask and I always tell people no.
And the reason why is because I'm up here preaching three times a week.
I'm putting all my ideas and thoughts and study into these sermons that the answers
are in the sermons.
And typically if people ask me a Bible question, I can point them to a sermon where I covered
that.
And typically my staff can answer 99 percent of questions.
So by the same token, I'm not going to sit there and do an in-home Bible study with somebody.
Like if I win somebody to Christ, I'm not going to go back every week for the next six
weeks doing an in-home Bible study.
When we got the Bible study right here at seven o'clock on Wednesday nights, we got
10 30 Sunday morning, we got six o'clock.
The ball is in their court, my friend.
If they're saved and they've got the Holy Spirit in their breast and I've given them
a YouTube card, I've given them a Bible, I'm giving them an invite to church.
It's got the address, it's got the phone number, it's got the website.
Here's the YouTube page.
Here's everything.
Here's a Bible.
You know, at some point they need to do something for themselves.
And if they don't care, well then I don't either because I got hundreds of people on
Sunday morning who care.
I got hundreds of people on Sunday night who care.
I got hundreds of people on Wednesday night who care.
I got hundreds of people tuned in online that care.
Thousands of people tuned in online that care.
And you know what?
That's good enough for me.
Who doesn't care?
Nuts to them.
Yeah.
What about like distractions?
Like when you're with your partner and there's a crazy person following you around and everything?
Yeah.
Distract.
So what about the cop situation?
Yeah.
How do you handle distractions?
The cops are called weirdos, following you around or whatever.
You know, hopefully the silent partner can run interference.
That's the best way to handle that.
Part of the silent partner's job is to run interference on distractions so that the guy
who's doing the talking can keep talking.
So I see some angry person coming up and my partner's doing the talking, I try to intercept
them far away and create a diversion.
If the apartment manager or the cops come, then I want to just keep the cops tied up.
I just want to keep the apartment manager, just kind of waste as much of the apartment
manager's time as possible.
Because if I could waste their time, then they're not harassing the other soul winners
and the other soul winners are finishing while I create a diversion.
Does that make sense?
So the silent partner should run interference.
Ramon, did you have something real quick?
The ring doorbell, you know, I personally don't present the entire gospel through the
ring doorbell.
So I typically, if they just come on the ring, I just say, hey, we're from Faith Ford Baptist
Church dropping off an invite and they say, oh, we're not here right now.
I just say, okay, I'll leave this on the door for you.
Have a good one.
I'm, you know, I'm, I, it's too, it's too sci-fi for me.
So Kevin, okay, great question.
As a silent partner, is there any time when I would step into the conversation?
The answer is virtually never.
So don't be that silent partner who's jumping in and getting excited and interrupting.
It's better to just let one person do the talking because it can be overwhelming.
And a lot of times the person who jumps in will take it a different direction and then
it's confusing.
Let one person do the talking.
A lot, I'll take it a step further, even when I'm out soul winning, a lot of times my partner
will look at me and say, do you have anything to add Pastor Anderson?
Ten times out of 10 I'm like, nope, cause I don't.
Cause usually the person's doing a real good job, you know, that I'm with.
And so I'm just like, no, I don't have anything to add.
You're doing great.
Just not everybody's going to get saved.
You know, it's not that you're doing anything wrong or people ask me, what would you have
done differently?
A lot of times I'm like, nothing.
They just didn't get saved cause they didn't get saved.
That's up to them.
So the only time I would jump in is at the very end when it's over.
Like let's say my partner is starting to, is done and they're ready to walk away.
And I think this person will get saved if I, if I explain this one more time because
I felt like maybe something was left out.
I don't ever interrupt, but if my partner's totally done, then at that point I would sometimes
jump in and say, Hey, let me just give you one more thing.
And then I've won somebody to the Lord like that.
But I really try not to interrupt and I try to encourage other people not to interrupt.
Now if someone I was with was like preaching lies or something, then I'd probably jump
in, but that doesn't really happen.
So yeah.
What if you're giving the gospel to somebody who is optimally disabled?
So yeah, great question.
What if they're mentally disabled?
You know, I've won people to the Lord that were mentally disabled.
It might take like 45 minutes or an hour or something, but if I feel like I'm making
progress and moving forward, I'll keep plowing forward unless I just feel like there's no
way this person can get it.
I'll be patient with people and plow ahead with them and it might just take a really
long time and you know, for the mentally disabled.
What did you have?
When giving the gospel to people from like Hindu or Muslim religion, like Hindus feel
like it's a good thing for them to listen to, you find someone who understands the gospel
and they'll give you the right answers.
They live in reference to the gift and all of that, but they believe that they're adding
that to whatever they already believe.
So is there something to make sure that they're not just giving you the right answers because
they believe they're adding that?
Yeah, so he was talking about, he's asking about giving the gospel to a Hindu or a Muslim
and you know, is there anything special you need to add?
Here's what I would say.
First of all, the same plan of salvation works for everybody.
So don't feel like you need a totally different plan of salvation for each group of people,
but there's typically like a little add on feature for these religions, maybe like a
little bonus feature so that like if I'm talking to a Muslim, you know, obviously once I get
down to the end, I try to get through my plan of salvation first, but if I get down to the
end, I'm obviously going to have to bring up something about, hey, this isn't Islam.
And so, you know, the Quran says that Jesus is not the son of God.
You have to believe he's the son of God.
Which one do you believe?
And I'll kind of bring them to a crossroads where they would have to, they would have
to renounce, you know, the fact that Jesus is not the son of God and they would have
to confess that he is the son of God.
And I would bring up, hey, that goes against Islam.
So I would do that at the end.
Same thing with Roman Catholics.
If I give a Catholic the gospel at the very end, I'll say, hey, you know, I know you've
mentioned you're a Roman Catholic.
They teach something totally different.
They teach that you have to do X, Y, and Z, but the Bible just said it's all belief.
Which one do you believe?
And I'll do that during the review, you know, the review questions instead of saying, what
do you personally think it takes to get to heaven?
What I'll do instead is word it like, hey, you mentioned you were a Roman Catholic.
They're teaching that you have to go to church, confess to the priest, do the sacraments,
but the Bible said it was all by faith.
Which one do you believe?
Forcing them to choose.
That way they see that this isn't, that you can't add Jesus to paganism.
You can't add Jesus to Islam or if they're a Hindu or something, you know, during the
wrap up, during the review, I would mention, hey, this isn't what Hinduism teaches.
You know, this isn't the God of Hinduism, this is the God of the Bible.
And I would drive that in.
So that would kind of be a whole nother sermon of itself.
All the little maybe add ons for different religions that people are doing.
But I would say that those things would happen like during the review, because I would still
give the same plan of salvation.
But during the review, I would kind of make sure that they realize that Jesus is not being
added to their false religion, but that he's replacing their false religion.
And that's what repentance is in regard to salvation.
It's not repenting of your sins.
It's repenting from Hinduism to Christianity.
It's repenting from Islam to Christianity.
It's repenting from work salvation to faith salvation.
I think we're out of time, so good questions.
Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you so much for a church filled
with people that love the lost and that go out faithfully and preach the gospel to every
creature.
Lord, help us to get as many people saved as we possibly can and keep our swords sharp,
Lord, for that purpose.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.