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