The title of my sermon is this, and if you would turn to Acts chapter 5.
Acts chapter 5, the title of my sermon is this,
The Necessity of Door-to-Door Soul Winding.
And I'm going to show you some things from the Bible about this, but the title is,
The Necessity of Door-to-Door Soul Winding. Now look at Acts 5, 42
if you would. The Bible reads,
And daily in the temple, and in every house,
they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
What did God, that could be a motto that could be hung over the door of this
church, and every independent Baptist church in the world, that
daily in the temple, and in every house in Stavanger,
every house in Norway, every house in Phoenix Arizona,
every house in whatever the town, they ceased not to teach and preach
Jesus Christ. What does it mean to cease not? They didn't quit!
They ceased teaching Jesus Christ in every house. There are many people today who are ceased
to teach and preach Jesus Christ in every house.
Because it's not the fashionable thing, or it's not the popular thing, or it's not
today's method for building a church.
My Bible says that Jesus Christ said upon this rock, I will build
my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. We're not in the
church building business, we're in the soul winning business.
God will build his church, and so I don't care whether it's the new method to build
a church, I don't care if it's the best method, or a good method to build
a church, hey, I am not going to cease to teach and preach
Jesus Christ in every house. If every Baptist in this world ceases,
I want to obey this verse, and I want to not cease to teach and preach
Jesus Christ from house to house, and in every house. Look at Acts 20.
Acts 20.
Acts 20, 20, just a few pages to the right in your Bible.
The Bible reads in Acts 20, verse 20,
and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you,
but have showed you and have taught you publicly
and from house to house. Now you say, what is publicly? This right here
is a public church service. I mean, everybody's welcome, anybody can
come in, we're not privately meeting here, this isn't a private meeting, this isn't
an elite club. There's a sign out front, invitations
were given out all afternoon, out on soul wedding, and this is
a public preaching and teaching of God's work, but he said not
only did I teach you publicly, but I also went
from house to house. And watch what he says a little bit later, so he says
I've taught you publicly and from house to house.
And he says, I'm sorry, I lost my place.
Where is the person I'm looking for? Good night.
I wanted the one where he says that I'm free from the blood of all men.
Wherefore I take you to record this day
that I am cured from the blood of all men, for I have not
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
And then he goes on to admonish them, take heed therefore unto yourselves
that I am cured from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you
take heed therefore unto yourselves. He says, I'm free from the blood
of all men, but take heed unto yourselves and to all the flock
over which the Holy Ghost had made you overseers to feed the church of God
which he had purchased with his own blood. And he goes on, but the point is
that he was free from the blood of all men
because he preached the gospel in every house, because he
along with his fellow workers and fellow, no one man can knock every door
in this city, no one person could even put a dent in this city
but with a church of people that are going to go out and not say
well that's the pastor's job or well that's the assistant's job, but to say
I'm going to go out there, we're going to be with one accord, they
not he, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ in every house
and if you want to be free from the blood of all men, hey I want to
not everybody in this city is going to be saved, no matter what you do
no matter what anybody does, broad is the way which leadeth the destruction
many there be which go in their act, but at least could everybody
in this city at least to hear the gospel one time, clearly
explain from the Bible, that's God's will, at least if people
could hear it and get a chance. Now, number one, here are my points
that was the introduction, but number one, why is door to door soul winning
necessary? Number one, because door to door soul winning is the only way
to get the gospel to everybody, I'll read this for you, you don't have to turn it
you know, Mark 16, 15, a very famous verse
go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature, the only way you're going to get to every creature is by
going down these streets and going to every house, there are people who are handicapped
who never even leave the house, how are they going to get the gospel
if you don't bring it to their house, you say well I just witnessed
my friends and my loved ones and my poor, not everybody works at your job
not everybody is your friend, not everybody is related to you, but everybody lives
somewhere in this area, they're in a house, they're in an apartment somewhere, and if you
can go up and down the streets knocking every door, that's how you can preach the
gospel to every creature, is by preaching it in every house, now a lot
of people mix up and misunderstand what the purpose of soul winning is
now I've had people tell me that soul winning doesn't work, or
house to house visitation doesn't work, has anybody ever heard somebody say anything like that?
and here's what they say
it doesn't work, because it doesn't grow the church, is what they mean by that
but let me ask you something, if you go out there and get
somebody saved, it worked, whether that person comes
to church or not, I mean I wish that they would come to church, but some of the people who went to the Lord
are teenagers, and they don't even have the choice whether they can come to church or not
some of the people I went to the Lord in Phoenix speak Spanish, and they don't speak a word
of English, they're probably not going to come to my church, but I still went to the Lord
in Spanish, they're still saved, and so the only way to say that
soul winning doesn't work, is if we went out and knocked door after door
after door and no one ever got saved, then you'll convince me that it doesn't work
I mean if we go out there and nobody ever gets saved, then you'll convince me that it doesn't work, but I'm going to tell you something
if you go out there and roll up your sleeves, hour after hour
day after day, and work and work and work, you will
eventually get somebody saved, the Bible says, he that goeth forth and weepeth
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing
bringing his sheaves with him, without a doubt
you will bring your sheaves with you, eventually, we must be patient
and not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall
grieve, if we faint not, but many
people faint before the harvest, good night, we
spent, Seth and I, spent five hours approximately yesterday
knocking on doors and had nobody saved in that five hours
now it would have been easy to faint at that, to quit at that and say
well this is Norway, this isn't Arizona, this isn't the United States
this is different over here, but yet we came back again
today, we got up again, we went out and had a bunch more doors slammed
again, but eventually we found two people that got saved
praise God, eventually we saw somebody get saved
that to me is worth the whole trip
I mean, imagine, if you came to this church and you came to every service
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, you read your Bible every day
you prayed every day, you were involved in church, you were filled with the
Spirit, you went out and knocked doors every week and one person got saved
in a whole year, that one person being saved will be worth your effort
what's that worth, I mean, what if it was your mother
that was the one that got saved, what if it was your best friend that was the one that got saved
what if it was your father, that person is that important
to God, whoever they are, and so when that one person gets saved
it's worth going out and struggling and trying
and working and toiling, you will reap in due season if you
faint not, you will come rejoicing eventually, bringing your sheaf with you
and so number one, and so the purpose of soul winning
if you don't understand the purpose of soul winning, you will cease
to go soul winning, and the purpose of soul winning, I know this is shocking
I know this is a radical idea, but it's to get people saved, and if you go into
it with that goal, if you go into it with the right expectation
and the right purpose, then you will go away rejoicing
eventually when you get that person saved, but if you go into it thinking, this is the way to build
the megachurch, this is the way to fill up the auditorium
this is the way to bring in money, you know, you have the wrong goal
you're going to say, well there's a better way to fill up the auditorium, get a rock band in here
and that leads me to my second point, turn to Ephesians chapter 4
Ephesians chapter 4, so number one
the necessity for door to door soul winning is that it's the effective way
to make sure you get everybody, you know, you get the gospel to everybody, you don't miss anybody
but look at Ephesians chapter 4, the second
necessity of soul winning, the second reason why soul winning is so necessary
that is, is that it keeps the church from becoming
worldly, you say, well how does soul winning keep the church from
becoming worldly, well, look down if you would at your bible in
verse number 11 of chapter 4, and it gave some
apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers, now
this right here, you know, these guys right here are your pastors
and your teachers and your preachers that God gave you
but what is the purpose of this preacher, what is the purpose of this teacher
what is the purpose of these men being here to preach and teach you
look at the next verse, he tells us why, for the perfecting
of the saints, so who are the saints, is that
the believer or the unbeliever? The believer, right?
The bible says that we are sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ
once for all, and so we are made saints when we believe on Christ
when we're saved, he said that the purpose of preaching and teaching in the local
church is for the saints, it says
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the
edifying or building up of the body of Christ, which is this group
what is the church? It's this group here of born again
baptized believers, that's who the pastor or the teacher ought to be building up
that's who the preacher ought to be edifying, that's who the preacher ought to be
perfecting, and what happens is when a church stops going so
many house to house, they begin to gear the service toward unbelievers
which makes for a worldly church
because if you're saying, well, our method of getting people
saved is to bring the unsaved in, preach them down the aisle
get them saved, well then pretty soon you're going to have to gear the church toward
unbelievers, because they're not going to like a church that's geared toward the saved
because they don't like this music, unbelievers
aren't going to connect with this music, you know, unbelievers aren't
going to connect with bible preaching necessarily, they're not
going to understand a lot of the preaching, they're not going to understand these songs
they're not going to fit in, in a group of Christians that are
spiritual, if they're an unbeliever, they're not going to quite get it
and so what happens is, today we've got a philosophy that says
the method for evangelization is to bring the unbeliever in
but then let's get music that the unbeliever likes, right? So we can
bring in as many unbelievers as we can to hear the gospel
and they say, well don't you want these people to hear the gospel? I mean shouldn't we have a music
that they like so that we can bring them in so that they can hear the gospel?
I mean isn't it important enough that they get saved that you can just lighten up
a little bit on your music standards? But what you've got to
understand is that those people can get saved without ever coming to church
and then we can keep church the way it ought to be for God's people
you see, I don't care whether unbelievers like my church
I like my church, Jesus likes my church, the most
spiritual member in my church is who I want to gear the service toward
I want to build them up, I want to perfect them, I want to edify them
and often times a church that's not a soul winning church starts gearing it toward unbelievers
I remember one time I was in a church and the pastor had written
I knew what he was going to preach on, I knew what he had planned to preach
two unsaved people walked into a church filled with
50 people on a Wednesday night and he changed his message
he did not preach what he was going to preach
he preached a salvation message because of two unbelievers that walked in
and he said, isn't that great? No, because why would he gear his whole
message toward two people who walked in who aren't even saved
when the people of God have come to be edified, they've come to
be taught, they've come to be preached to, there's more to the Bible than just
salvation. Now salvation is the most important thing but there's a lot
that you need to learn and when you come to church Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday
night, there's a lot of things that need to be preached and if we're constantly
just preaching only the plan of salvation, only the plan of salvation
you're not going to be fed. The music becomes
worldly, the message becomes salvation only and then you're
missing out on the preaching and teaching that you need as a Christian from God's
Word. And so the necessity for door-to-door
sowing is to go out and get the gospel done and you know what I
do? In my church if two people walk in that I know aren't saved
I don't change my message at all. I mean my sermon may not even mention
the gospel and I keep it that way but at the end of the sermon as soon
as I run to that person and I can't even get to them fast
enough because one of my other church members has already gone to them and said to
them, do you know for sure if you die today you go to heaven? And personally one on one
gives them the gospel. One time this guy came to
my church. A young guy in his early twenties
and he was brought by some people that were Baptist but he was
just a young college guy who was not in church, not saved
not really been in church. Well this
couple brought him because he lived near
our church so they came and they knew him and they brought him to our church to try
to get him in church. Well I preached a sermon and they did not like
my sermon at all. I mean they didn't like it at all
they were mad the whole time. It was just a little too hard
preaching for them. They couldn't take it. But this young guy he was
enjoying it. He was okay with it. Well after
the service they were gone. They wanted to get out of there fast before anybody talked them
and they dragged this guy out with them. So I motioned to another guy in our church
I said, brother Dave, don't talk to that guy before he leaves
give him the gospel before he leaves because we don't want anybody to come and leave without
any God. So I said, hey go get to that guy. And he couldn't get to him because you know other people
were kind of blocking him in and our old
building was kind of crowded and everything and so he was kind of crowded
and they said I can't get to him. So I'm jamming my way over there
and I finally get to the door. He's already in the back seat of the car. I literally
ran across the parking lot and knocked on the back window. You know the people
in the front of the car were mad at me. Well I knocked on that back window
he opens the door and I said, hey thanks for coming, good to have you. And I asked him
do you know for sure if you died today that you'd go to heaven? And he paused for a minute
and he said, you know what I don't
know. And I said, can I show you? You know, it'll just take a little bit.
And I went through with him and he ended up getting saved in the back seat.
So, but did I have to leave my people
that I love that come faithfully every week out in the cold and just
preach to one person? You know what I mean? And here's the thing, my people
know that I love them because they come to church and they know, hey this service for me
is being preached to me. You know, he cares about what I
need and not a visitor who may never even come back. I've been coming
here for years. I'm a die hard. I come Sunday morning, Sunday night, I'm out
souling. Hey, preach to me for a while. Teach me, edify me, build me
up. And they know that I love them and that I'm preaching to them.
And I preach to the most spiritual person in my church. That's what I want to preach to.
I want to preach to the people that love God, that are faithful, that come to church
and everybody else can listen in and get the same teaching and education
but when you cease to go door to door souling, all you're left with is
to have an idea that, well, I guess when people come, we'll preach
in the Gospel, well then everybody else is a missed hand. You say, well don't you
think it's good for Christians to hear the Gospel again and again?
Sure, that's why come souling with us. You'll hear us
give the Gospel hundreds of times, you know, as you come souling
throughout the course of a year. If you come out, you'll hear me preach the
Gospel again and again and again and again, but when you come to church
it's going to be edification and teaching and preaching that you need
from the work out. I mean, I've had a guy get angry
he came and visited our church and he had such boldness
that he just left really fast and then wrote me and asked an email about
what he thought about our church. You know, it's just a first time visitor. And this is what he said. He said
I can't believe you did not even mention the Gospel one time
in your whole sermon. He said, are you even saved?
You know, I was preaching on another subject. I was preaching on
something completely different. And so I don't feel the need to mention
the Gospel in every sermon. I mean, you know, if I can tie it in, great.
And I love preaching on salvation doctrine to strengthen the believers, but that's what I'm doing.
Strengthening the believers. Church is, I mean, we lost sight
of the fact that church is an assembly of born again baptized believers. Isn't that what
the church is? That's who I want to preach to. That's who I'm preaching to tonight.
I'm preaching to people that are already saved. And so number two
it does happen. Number three,
door to door soul winning will keep you humble
and having a loving heart and a loving spirit.
You see, the Bible says for us to be not high minded
but condescending to men of low estate.
The Bible says we're not to be so high and mighty that we can't
come down and get on the level of those that are
unshamed, those that are worldly. Have you ever known people that are Christians
but they cannot relate to unbelievers at all?
Because they're so wrapped up in
this facade that they have, and sometimes they use this very hyper spiritual
vocabulary, and they can't just get down on the level
with somebody that's in the world and talk to them on the level and
relate to them and be their friend and helpful. Now I'm not saying you should be a friend of the world
or that you should be palling around with unbelievers, but when you walk up to somebody's door
or when you walk up to somebody at work, you shouldn't try to say
like it says in the book of Isaiah, come not near to me for I'm holier than
that. Jesus Christ ate with publicans and sinners.
Jesus Christ sat down and he could relate to them and
talk to them on their level. Don't be so high minded
that you can't condescend to men of low estate. But you see the person
who is isolated from the world because all they do is go to
church and they don't go out into the highways and hedges
talking to unbelievers, opening the Bible, preaching them the gospel, they get
warped and imbalanced because they're only around Christians
hey you need to get out there, go to the ghetto, I know you don't have a ghetto in Norway
because everybody has money here, but you know, go somewhere
where you live, somewhere where the ghetto, go where the unbeliever is, go where the worldly
people are in their home and talk to them like they're a human
being like you're a human being. You ought to not be so high
minded that you can't, you say well I don't believe that. Okay, we're not what Paul said.
He said unto the Jew, I became as a Jew
to reach the Jew. He said I became as a barbarian
to reach the barbarian. He said I've become
all things to all men that I might by all means
save some. He said, look at
Jude chapter, Jude verse 22
You see people go into false doctrine
when they lose touch with soul winning because they become uncaring
unloving and prideful. They become so
prideful and unloving, like I've heard people say that, I've heard people say well you
should never ever lead somebody in a sinner's prayer
when you preach the gospel to them. If they really, really
want to get saved, they should just fall on their knees and just
pray of their own accord. But you see, when you actually go out and do the soul winning
you're looking in the eyes of a human being. You have love for that person.
Hey, you want to do anything you can to help them get saved.
Why would you want to see if you're unloving and uncaring
and prideful? You want to make it difficult for people to get saved. But if you're
loving and caring and humble, you want to make it easy for people to get saved.
Let me give you a quick story. I was in a hotel room with a co-worker of mine
and we were working together out of town and I was talking to him throughout the day
giving him the gospel, giving him the gospel, trying to get him saved, his name was Ed
and we finished work, went to dinner
and we were in a hotel, went to the weight room and we were playing around in there and everything
and we get all done with everything, we're talking and having a good time.
We went back to the hotel room and we went to bed and it was late, you know
it was 11 something and we went to bed, the lights were out
you know, we were kind of talking to each other across
the room though as we were going to sleep and it got silent
for a while but neither of us had really fallen asleep and
pretty soon he calls out to me across the room and just started talking to me again
about the gospel, he brings it up again and I answered his questions
and so forth and then it was quiet again
and then he brought it up again because it was, you know, he was thinking about it
and he just said to me, he said, Steve
he said, you know, I believe this
he said, and you know, he flipped on the light and he said
can you help me do this? I mean, I don't know what to do
and so I said, sure
you know, he said, I don't know what to pray, he said, help me, he said, help me do this
that's exactly what he said, so I said, okay, so we turned on the light and we got on our knees
by the bed and I said, you know, why don't you just repeat after me and just say this to God
and I told him what to pray and he prayed it and God said it
but I'm never going to do that again because, you know, praying the center
of prayer with people is totally out of control, I mean, come on
what kind of an unloving person would say, don't help people get saved because they've got to
want it bad enough, I want it bad enough for both of us
and look down at Jude, verse 22, the Bible says
now some have compassion, making a difference
and look at this, and others save with fear, pulling
them out of the fire, take hold of them
you know, compel them to come in, God said
you know what, Agrippa said to Paul, almost thou persuadest me
to be a Christian, Paul was seeking to persuade him, he was trying to
we talked to a guy yesterday, we gave him the gospel, he said, I'm not sure
I don't really know, I'm not ready, I really tried
to persuade him, I mean, I really tried to compel him
and I tried to just talk him into it and I'm showing him more verses
and I'm trying to explain it, and I tried to, you know, and he ended up just, he said no
you know, like Agrippa, it was kind of like almost, you're not always
going to persuade people, but can you try? I mean, don't you want to try
to pull them out of the fire, don't you want to try to get them saved, do you love them, if you really love
people? And so he says, if some have compassion, making a difference, and others
save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted
by the flesh, now look at Romans 11, 14, Romans chapter 11, verse 14
you see, people that are prideful
and arrogant and unloving and they don't care about
lost souls, they're always trying to find a way to pick at
those who are doing the work, you know, find something wrong with what we're doing
now, is our soul-winning method perfect or
probably not, is every single person 100%
time that we ever pray with, saved? Probably not
you know, Jesus had somebody in his church that wasn't saved
it was Judas Iscariot, it was 1 in 12, but I'm going to tell you
I'd say that the vast, vast majority are saved if you do a thorough job
if you explain it to them well and if they believe it and say they believe it, I believe that
but look at this, people will always try to criticize them, and I'll say something
like this, hey, I won somebody the Lord yesterday
hey, we got somebody saved
and they say, oh, I can't believe you saved that, that's prideful, you didn't
get anybody saved, you didn't win anybody the Lord, give God the glory
now wait a minute, does God get the glory? Of course
is Jesus the Savior? Jesus is beside me, he said there is
no Savior, Jesus is the Savior, God gets all the glory
God gets all the praise, but let me tell you something, I won somebody the Lord
look down at your Bible, it says in Romans 11.14
if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my pleasure
and might save some of them, Paul said
I might save some of them, he said I've become all
things to all men that I might by all means save some
June 22, others saved with fear, he's saying you
saved, implied you, it's an imperative sentence, others saved with fear
now we know that Jesus is the Savior, we know that God gets all
the glory, God's the one that's allowing me to breathe air right now, God's the one that
saved me, God's the one that gave us the Bible, God's the one doing the work
the Holy Ghost is the one who regenerates, but I'm going to tell you something, don't deny
the word of God by saying that I don't win people to Christ and that
I don't give people the Savior, because God says that I do, because let me
and listen, this may shock you, but what I'm saying is true
Jesus said without me you can do nothing, right?
In John 15, I'm telling you to do that, but let me tell you something, without me
and without you, God can't get anybody saved.
I can't believe you're saying that. How's God going to get somebody saved without
you and without me? How's he going to do it? Is he going to
physically appear to the people of Stavanger, Norway and give
them the Gospel? No, he is committed unto us, the ministry
of reconciliation, and if you don't go, then perhaps
no one will go. If I don't give them the Gospel, if you don't give them the Gospel
they're not going to get the Gospel. Why else are you even here?
Why else come across the world? Why else stop everything on Sunday
if God's going to do it without us? God has chosen
to work with us, to get in the yoke with us, and you'll never
be closer to Jesus than when you're yoked up with him.
Doing the work. He says take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. I mean, when you put the yoke on, you're
trapped in right there with Jesus. Jesus is in the yoke. He's waiting
for you to get in the yoke with him and do the work. You see, just as it takes
a father and a mother to have a child,
you say, well, who is the one who is more important
in the process of having a child, the father or the mother?
It's a silly question, right? They're both necessary. They're both
needed. Now look, Jesus paid it all. Jesus is blood on the
cross. Jesus is the Savior. But if we point people to the Savior,
in a way, we've saved them as well. That's what it says in the Bible. If you don't
like that, you can read Romans 11, 14, June 23,
where Paul said I'll save some of them. Because look, if I throw
somebody the life raft, you know, the life raft saved them, but I'm the one who threw it to them.
And so don't get this idea that God's going to do it without you.
God wants to use you to do it.
God wants to do it working with you.
Because God never has appeared to someone
and the only time God got people saved without man
was when Jesus Christ was in the flesh, because he was man.
He was man and God. And so Jesus won peace with the Lord while he was
on the surface. Jesus praised the gospel of the woman at the well.
But I'm going to tell you something. Since then, God has used believers
to get other people saved. And so if God's going to do it without me,
then I might as well stay home. But God says, no, I'm going to use you.
And I need you to go out so that I can do my work.
Otherwise, how's he going to do the work in Norway
if he doesn't have a vessel?
It's not going to get done. I mean, it's just a fact.
And so the first thing was what? Number one, door-to-door soloing
is always necessary to get the gospel to every creature. Number two, it'll keep the church from becoming
worldly or geared toward the unsaved and not feeding the true believer
who's in the pew. Number three, it keeps you from becoming puffed up,
unloving, prideful, arrogant,
where you can't condescend to men of low estate. You can't love somebody
enough to say, oh, I don't go to that part of town.
You know, that's prideful.
There are people in this world who look down on
people of other races, but they're not a soul winner.
Because when you become a soul winner, you love all races. Because when you're not
a soul winner, hey, you want to get anybody to say it. And when you win
the person of the Lord that's the nationality that you don't like, hey, that
is going to create love in you for those people. I'll guarantee you, there is no such
thing as a soul winning racist in this world.
There's nobody in this world who's a soul winner who hates black people or hates whatever
kind of people. Because if you're a soul winner, you're going to love all kinds
of people. It's true. And you know, these people who want to
segregate the church, hey, God's house is to be the house of prayer for
all nations, for all people. And so
they're unloving. They're uncaring because of a lack
of soul winning. That's what I say it is. But number four,
look at Acts chapter two. I'm trying to hurry along here, Acts chapter two.
Number four, and this one may surprise you,
I believe that when a soul winning church, I mean when a church ceases
to preach the gospel in every house, ceases to go door to door
soul winning and go from house to house, I believe that it leaves
women, okay, listen to me, it leaves women
out of, left out of the loop of the local church.
They're left out of the program. Now look, do
women get up behind this pulpit and preach in this church?
No. Do we have a woman leading the team?
No. Paul said I suffer not,
we have women walking out of the service right now along the streets, no I'm just kidding.
Someone can't take it, you know, that's just the way it is.
Anyway, I've got to preach it anyway. But anyway, the point is
that women, Paul said I suffer not a woman to teach, nor
they serve authority over man but to be in silence, you know, to learn silence. And so you say
oh, so what, women are just left out in the cold, right, they can't preach, they can't
teach, hey let me tell you something, this may surprise you, I believe in women preachers.
You heard me right. I believe now not behind the pulpit,
not in the church, but look at Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two
of course the day of Pentecost, you want to talk about soul winning, 120 people
in Acts chapter one, it was the twelve disciples
or the eleven disciples plus, you know, Matthias was added to be the twelfth
and then it was Jesus' four brethren, his sisters,
his mother and all the women it says, the disciples and all the women were there.
120 people in number went out in Acts chapter
two and got about, it doesn't say exactly, it says about
3,000 saved and baptized. I mean probably more than that saved, but
it says that they gladly received his word and were baptized. And the number of things
together was about 3,000 souls. So that 3,000 people
saved and baptized, 120 people out preaching the gospel.
You say wait a minute, I thought Peter preached and had 3,000 people.
No, it was 120 people preaching over 17 different languages.
That's what it talks about. But look at the interesting part here and
I'm going to prove to you that the women were involved here. I'm going to prove it to you from the Bible.
Look at this, it says in verse number 14, but Peter standing up
with the eleven, are you in Acts 2.14?
Lifted up his voice and said unto them, ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell
at Jerusalem, so he's addressing not those that are from around the world, but right now
he's just talking to the Jews that are there. He says, be just known unto you
and hearken to my words, for these are not drunken as ye suppose,
seeing it as but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was
spoken by the prophet Joel and it shall come to pass in the last day saith
God. He said let me explain to you what you're witnessing right now. You are
witnessing the fulfillment of the prophecy in the book of Joel that says
I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh
and your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy. That was fulfilled on this day.
He says your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and
your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream
dreams and on my servants and on my what?
Handmaidens, I will pour out
in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy.
You see that? God said I'm not just going to pour out my spirit
on the men, I'm going to pour it out on the ladies. I'm not just going to pour it out on the
young, I'm going to pour it out on the old. You see, being filled with the Holy Spirit
is for man, woman, boy and girl. Preaching the gospel
to every creature, you say well prophesy, that means tell the future. No it
doesn't. Proverbs chapter 31, the words of King Lemuel,
the prophecy that his mother taught him and then there's a whole chapter about the virtuous woman
about not drinking. No future event is prophesied in Proverbs
31. Prophesy means to preach and he said this
preaching of the gospel to the multitude in Jerusalem was a fulfillment
of Joel saying upon my servants and
my handmaids I'll pour out of my spirit. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
Look at Philippians chapter 4, Philippians chapter number 4.
But you see a church that's not a soul winning church
leaves ladies out in the cold because what can they do really
to really serve God? I'll tell you what they can do.
The greatest thing that can be done in this church is soul winning.
I mean I tell our people at my church all the time, I say the person
who wins the most souls to Christ in this church is the MVP.
Not me. I say the person who's going to get the most rewards
is not me just because I'm the pastor. It's going to be the person who's out doing the work.
Winning the most souls to Christ. And let me tell you something, recently in our church
the men have really just passed up the ladies and now the men dominated
soul winning lately. But you know what, for years and the ladies are
still very strong in soul winning. Now it's like neck and neck. But I'm going to tell you something.
For years, my church is only three years old, less than three years old
since we started the church. But for the first few years
a lot of the time the ladies were the dominant force
of soul winning in our church. And that's nothing against the men.
It's just the ladies were very zealous about soul winning.
And you would not believe how many ladies were out there winning people to Christ.
It was unbelievable to see ladies going out and preaching the word
of God boldly. Why? Because they're filled with the Holy Spirit.
You say, oh, I'm left out. I'm a lady. I can't preach.
You can do the most important thing that there is and that's to preach the gospel.
If you're a lady. You say, well, I'm left out. You're left out if you're not
in a soul winning church. But this is a soul winning church. You're not left out. You're not out in the cold.
There's something great that you can do for God. In fact, I firmly believe
the Bible says the first shall be last and the last shall be first. I firmly believe
from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet that there will be ladies in line
at the judgment seat of Christ that will be rewarded far greater than many men
if the lady was a soul winner and the man was
sitting on his duff and not going out in wait. I don't care if he's a pastor.
Oh, I've pastored faithfully for 40 years. Yeah, well, this lady that sat
in the pew quietly and listened to you rattle your cage every week.
Hey, she was out doing the work. She was out winning the soul. Hey, that's
the one who's going to get the rewards. The Bible says in Christ there's neither
male nor female, Jew nor Greek, pawn nor free. Hey, the ladies
will be rewarded in heaven someday for winning souls
just like you will, just like I will. And so don't leave the ladies out in the cold.
Look at Philippians chapter 4. The Bible reads, I beseech you,
Odeus, and beseech Syntyche, these are women's names, believe it or not,
that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true
Yoke of Philip, help those women which labored with
me in the Gospel. Did you hear that? Those women
which labored with me in the nursery? No. Those women
which labored with me cooking and cleaning? No. Those women which labored with me
greeting at the door? No. And those are all great things. I'm not saying they're
bad things. They're wonderful things. But he said, no, these particular
women didn't just help with the menial tasks. Hey,
they labored with me in the Gospel. They were
filled with the Holy Spirit. And by the way, let me just throw this in right now. You don't have to be filled with
the Holy Spirit to invite somebody to church. You don't have to be filled with the Holy Spirit to
put a tract in their mailbox. You don't have to be filled with the Holy Spirit to put an ad in the yellow pages.
And I do, I put an ad in the yellow pages. I invite
people to church. I'm not saying it, but I'm going to tell you something. You've got to be filled with the Holy
Spirit to preach the Gospel and see somebody saved.
Anybody can go out and invite people to church. But you know,
I don't want to go out like some kind of a salesman trying to sell the church to people.
I want to go out and, like Paul said in Ephesians 6, open my mouth
boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel.
And don't let so many degenerate to just inviting
them. Hey, let's go out and get them saved. Then we can bring our sheaves with us.
Look, remember the song, bringing in the sheaves? It's not bringing in the seeds.
You know, all of them will finish it when they get here.
Bringing in the seeds, bringing in the seeds. No,
bring in the sheaves. What is a sheep? A finished product. That's somebody that's
already been harvested, right? A sheep is when it's been planted, it's been watered,
it's been reaped. And then let's bring it to church.
Now if unsaved people come to church, great. I hope unsaved people show up at my church
so we can win them to Christ. But I want to bring sheaves with me.
I want to go out and get them saved and bring them already saved. Because let me tell you something, when unsaved people
come to church and they hear the preaching, a lot of times they're offended by it,
they don't understand it, it might make them upset, it might confuse them.
But it's amazing, even somebody who got saved five minutes ago
can sit in church and listen to the preaching and comprehend it because the Holy Ghost
will teach them all things. It's amazing.
And so that's another thing about, now look, we're moving backwards.
All the way back to point two. I'm almost done. I know it seems like we're going backwards.
Point two. You know how I said that soul winning can help a church not to become
worldly or geared toward the unbeliever? You know, think about this, who is
it, think about this for a minute, who is it that doesn't like hard preaching?
Who is it? You say, oh, well, somebody told me,
when you start a church for the first year, you can't preach hard
because, you know, it's new believers and they can't take it yet. They can't handle it.
Well, I thought about that and I thought, wait a minute, if for the first year I can't
preach hard because they're new converts and they can't take it, well
for the rest of my life I'm going to be winning people to Christ and bringing them to church.
So I should be having new converts in the church all the time
even after the first year. So according to that philosophy
I guess I can't preach hard the second year, the third year, the fourth, because we're always going to
have new converts coming. But I find that new converts are not the ones who can't take the preaching.
New converts can take anything. You know who can't take it?
Back certain Christians. The old, moss
back, dead as a doornail Christian is the one who can't take
hard preaching. Seriously, I remember I won this guy to the Lord
at my job, this is years back, and I brought him to church on Sunday morning
and the Sunday morning ceremony was just a little bit mild, a little watered down
and I asked him, I said, hey, how'd you like church? You know, I just won this guy to Christ.
How'd you like it? He said, it was okay. He came back with me Wednesday night
and the pastor just ripped it up on Wednesday night. I mean, he was preaching
hard. I mean, really tearing it up and really saying
a lot of controversial things. I mean, really a lot of hard things and I'm thinking a lot of
this applies to this guy, you know. We walked out and I said, how'd you like
dessert? He said, that was great! Love it! Now he didn't
agree with half of it. He wasn't doing half of it.
But he said he could take, you know, when I walked in
to a fundamental Baptist church for the first time in a really long time, when I was
17, I've been saved at age 6, but I've been worldly, back, never wanted anybody to Christ.
I walked in when I was 17 years old, my hair was bleached blonde,
sticking out, I was dressed worldly. I mean, if anybody
looked at me, they would have thought I was just the most worldly teenager. I walked in there
and I listened to the pastor just preach hard on sin,
preach against everything I was doing, and yet I stayed with it.
Yet I stuck with it. Part of the reason was because I desired to win
people to Christ. I knew this was the sole voting church I was sitting in, so I stayed with it.
But I could take it. I could handle it. I could take it even though
it was directed at me many, many, much of the time. I could handle it
and stay with it because I was growing, because I loved God, because I
even though I was a baby Christian, I wanted to grow, I wanted to be what's right.
And so people that are either a new believer
or a baby Christian, they can handle the preaching
if their heart's in the right place. They can take it.
And the mature Christian can sure take it, of course. You know who can't take it?
The backslidden, the worldly Christian who is going backwards in their life.
Who is moving backward. Who is going the
wrong person. They're the ones who can't take the hard preaching.
And so when you have a soul in each church, though, and you're bringing all these people in,
you can keep the pulpit hot.
You can preach hard because you're bringing all these people in that are saved.
Even if they just got saved, the Holy Spirit is going to say amen to everything the preacher
is saying. He's preaching the Bible. And they can handle it. Now, unsaved people,
can they really handle hard preaching? No. Unsaved people hear
hard preaching, they can't receive it. They can't handle it. And so then you say,
well, I've got to tone this down because otherwise if I don't tone down my preaching,
we're going to have to install a revolving door at the back of the auditorium.
Because people are coming in, you know, they're going so fast. They can't take it.
They can't take it because they're not saved. People that are saved can take it even if they just
got saved five minutes ago. Now, Mr. Backslidden Mossbag
can't take it. And the unbeliever can't take it. But I'm not preaching to
the unbelievers. And I want to preach to Mr. Deadhead out the door.
So that he doesn't leaven my whole church and corrupt my
whole church with his dead Christianity. Hey, I want to preach him out the door.
And I want to preach to the new believer and the consecrated,
separated, Christian who loves God. Hey, that's the right atmosphere for a church.
Water down preaching
is not going to save America. It's not going to save Norway.
You can preach the whole counsel of God, preach the Word, be instant, in season,
out of season, popular, unpopular, reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all long suffering and doctrine, teaching,
learning, doctrine, the Bible. Hey, what is going to make this church,
the church I'm in, what is going to make my church, the church it ought to be,
is soul winning. Door to door soul winning will help all these pieces
fit together. But you take away the door to door soul winning. You take away the house to house.
You take away the public being in every house. It will fall apart.
It will be wrong. And so we've got to have soul winning. It's necessary.
Let me tell you why I came here.
I came all the way to Norway. You say, oh, you came here to preach.
I didn't even know I was preaching. Right? I mean, when I was coming, I didn't know
I was preaching. I didn't come here with a plan to preach.
Why did you come here? I came here to go out soul winning.
That's why I came. What did I do on Friday? I went soul winning. When did you go out Saturday? I went soul winning.
And when ice skating was fun. And what did you do on Sunday? Soul winning. Soul winning.
That's why I came here. You live here.
I came here. Somebody said, why Norway? Why are you going to Norway? I said, because
there's 4.6 million people and so far I've found one good church
that's really a soul winning church that's really preaching it right.
Now I'm not saying that's the only one in this country, but I'm saying I looked into it.
I couldn't even find another church that was using the right version or
I don't know everything. I'm not the know all, end all, be all, but I said
that's a shame. That's a tragedy. Somebody's got to go out and I said
I just want to go there and go out soul winning and just see whether people will get
saved. That's why I come. I said I just want to go out and see if people will get saved.
I want to go out and win some souls. I want to learn how to do it because someday
I'd love to send some young man out of my church to come here and start
another soul winning church. I want to see this church grow and win people
to Christ. And hey, I believe that it's possible. I believe it's
God's will that every person in the country of Norway will one day
hear the gospel. Now are they all going to get saved? No. Are the majority going to get
saved? No. But would to God that everybody in this country could hear the gospel
clearly presented at least one time. Isn't that why you're here?
That's why I'm here. That's why I came here. I didn't come here to preach.
I came here to win souls. What's the most important thing? You know what I'm going to be talking about when I come back?
I'm not going to be talking about preaching in the morning service. I'm not going to be talking about preaching in the evening.
When I come back, I'm going to be telling people about soul winning. Man, we
win soul winning. We won this guy to the Lord.
It's great. To me, that's the greatest thing that I've done all day.
The highlight was this afternoon. The highlight was with you out there talking about
that was the highlight for me of the trip. The highlight was yesterday.
And I love church. Thank God for church. But you know what? For me, the highlight is soul winning.
And so I hope that you'll let these
things like Jesus that sink down into your ears. See, I don't agree
with everything you've said. Maybe you don't agree with everything I've said. That's fine.
But I'm going to tell you something. You know that what I'm saying is right
about giving the gospel to every house in this country. You say, well, I don't
agree with point number X. Well, I gave you five. Just pick the one
you like. And any one of the five will prove to you that soul winning is necessary.
So you say, man, I didn't like point one. I didn't like point two.
I didn't like point four. Did you like point three?
Alright, then what else do you need? Go soul winning.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we love you and I thank you that I have the chance to be here.
And while I had a great time and
I appreciate those that are here that are like-minded and
people that love God, people that love soul winning, people that love preaching, they love the
Bible, they love church, the local church, they love sound doctrine.
Father, help us all to be more vigilant. Help us all to
do more. Help us all to stir ourselves up about this thing and
understand that this is not optional. This is necessary. It's necessary
to us personally to keep our heart in the right place and it's necessary
for this country and it's necessary for this church to be the right kind of church.
Help us understand that soul winning, house to house, it's not optional. It's a necessity.
And Father, we love you and thank you so much
for this church, dear God. Thank God when I did the research I didn't walk away saying
I can't find a good church in Norway. Thank God I found a church that I said
there we go. There's somewhere I can go and win some souls. Thank God
for Brother Turpin. Thank God for this church. And Father, I pray that you'd
help soul winning in Norway to go to a new level
in the future, dear God. Someday and
one door at a time, one person at a time, one soul winner at a time,
one church service at a time. And we love you and in Jesus' name we pray and bless you. Amen.
Amen.