of the knees our brother, out of the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified
in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus
Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you in peace from God our father and from the
Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by
Jesus Christ, that everything you're enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as
the testament of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end that you may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called under
the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you brethren, by
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that
there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the
same mind and the same judgment. For it hath been declared on me of you, my brethren,
by them which were of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now
this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of
Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you
baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you, but
Crispus and Gaius. Lysenia should say that I have baptized in my own name, and I
baptize also the household of Stephanus. Besides, I know not
whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the
gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of
none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish,
foolishness, but unto us which are saved is the power of God. For it is written, I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of
this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to them to save them that believe. The Jews
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ
crucified, under the Jews a stumbling block, and under the Greeks foolishness.
But to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and
the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the
weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, how that
not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea,
and things which are not to bring to naught things that are. That no flesh or
glory in his presence, but of him here in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that
according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
I pray, dear God, thank you for this opportunity to assemble for the preaching
of your word. I just ask that you would fill Pastor Meher with your Holy Spirit now.
Please bless the preaching and give us ears to hear it. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Amen. Okay, we're in 1st Corinthians chapter 1, and the title of my sermon this
morning is "Wrong and Ineffective Ways to Present the Gospel." "Wrong and
Ineffective Ways to Present the Gospel." It says in verse 17 of 1st Corinthians
chapter 1, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not
with wisdom of words," listen to this, "lest the cross of Christ should be made
of none effect." Meaning that there's certain things that people can do to
make their gospel presentation ineffective. In other words, even though
the gospel has power, it's capable of saving people. There's things that you
can do, there's things that I can do, there's things that people who claim to
be preachers of the gospel can do to render the message ineffective. And
obviously we know that the gospel is the power of God into salvation. In fact, it
says in verse 18, "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God." What does it
say? It's telling us here that the world looks at the gospel message, the world
looks at what we preach when it comes to salvation, and they think it's stupid.
It's foolishness unto them, but the Bible's telling us here that to us it is
the power of God. It's capable of regenerating a soul, it's capable of
saving someone from hell, giving them eternal life, placing the new man within
them, and you know the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 1, you don't have to turn
there, it says, "I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to
the wise and to the unwise." He says, "So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach
the gospel to you who are Rome also." And then he says this, "For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Obviously we know as
Christians that the gospel has power, however, people can render it ineffective
by their presentation. And this morning I just want to cover a couple things that
makes the gospel ineffective. Wrong ways and ineffective ways to present the
gospel. Now before I do so, by way of introduction, let me tell you some
things that people claim make our gospel ineffective, okay? And these are not my
main points, this is just by way of introduction. As a pastor I've had people
say these things to me over and over again and in fact if I had a dime for
any every time a person said this, this wall would have come down a long time
ago, amen? These are things that people claim make our gospel presentation
ineffective and wrong. Number one hard preaching, okay? And you say what do you
mean by that? You know people often look at the way I preach in church you know
during the month of June or whatever regarding a specific topic, cultural
issues, abominations of our land and they'll say this your preaching is
turning people away from Christ. That kind of preaching is not going to get
people say preach Christ and Him crucified, don't preach all that other
stuff and they'll often say that hard preaching is making the gospel
ineffective. Now let me explain to you a couple things why that's inaccurate.
Number one, the majority of people who are saying that are not saved. Okay let
me just say that right off the bat in my experience dealing with people who are
constantly criticizing hard preaching, biblical preaching which by the way are
synonymous will often say these things but then when you actually look at
their beliefs about salvation they're completely off. They believe in a
workspace salvation. They think you have to repent of your sins to be saved. They
believe you have to keep God's commandments. Don't stray from the path
blah blah blah. They're not safe. So here's the thing the natural man receive
it not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can you know them for their
spiritually discerned. So how is an unsaved person gonna tell me what is how
to render the gospel to be ineffective or effective? They don't know. They're
not even saved themselves. Now here's another thing I want to say about that
and that is some of them may be saved who saved that statement but here's the
problem they don't do any soul winning themselves. So we always have these
Monday morning quarterbacks constantly telling us as soul winners, Bible
believing Christians who are weekly going out on a weekly basis preaching the
gospel for years on end they're telling us how to do our job when they
themselves can't even get themselves to go out and preach the gospel. They
haven't seen a soul saved in weeks and months possibly maybe even years but yet
they want to comment on the video they want to comment on social media and try
to school us and educate us on how to preach the gospel when they themselves
don't even have the experience on how to do so. I've been preaching the gospel
for 17 years going door-to-door seen hundreds of people thousands of people
say our church has seen thousands of people saved over the course of the
existence of our church but yet you have people out there that will say you
shouldn't preach like that that's going to turn people away from the faith well
here's the thing at least I'm turning them somewhere because you're not even
doing anything and and here's the thing if someone hears my preaching and they
hear you know what I say about abortion about sodomites about the cultural
issues of our day and they get offended at Christianity listen to this at least
I can say with the prophet Ezekiel that a prophet has been among them at least
they know that a prophet has been among them at least they heard the word of God
and at the end of the day if someone gets offended at the preaching of God's
word that's not my fault God has ordained me to preach the word of God and
regardless of who gets offended or who doesn't and most of the people who get
offended and you know they're turned away from Christ let me just say this
they were turned away long before that in their hearts towards the truth okay
and so hard preaching in my experience actually endures people to the truth
actually endures them to the gospel I mean we have a lot of people just in
this room who heard some hard preaching online that ended up getting them to a
gospel presentation video they end up getting saved and then they develop an
appetite for hard preaching okay soft preaching gets you nowhere my friends it
doesn't get you saved it doesn't get you anywhere why because deep down inside
everyone knows that soft preaching is just another form of flattery okay
flattery it just doesn't sound biblical whereas when you're given the truth then
you understand this is the source right here this is the message that I need to
listen to so hard preaching does not render our gospel to be ineffective
most people who say that not even say they don't have the right gospel
presentation they don't even have the right gospel or they're saved but they
don't do any soul winning themselves you know our church virgin goes out every
single week multiple times throughout the week and in fact after church today
many people in our church are going out to preach the gospel door-to-door Bible
in hand to open their mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel
and this is not anything that's like you know crazy or you know extreme it's just
what we do just how we roll okay and so this is something that happens every
single week but yet you have people who don't preach the gospel at all trying to
tell us how to preach the gospel I mean it's kind of ridiculous but also let me
just say this you know people often make this statement that hard preaching
renders our gospel ineffective because they think that the only preaching that
should ever be done is that which pertains to the gospel you know I'm
preaching about a particular topic tonight which you don't want to miss and
those people will say this they'll say well you know don't preach that you
should only preach the gospel why aren't you preaching the gospel well this is why I
don't only preach the gospel in churches because churches for safe people and the
vast majority of people in here are saved and you know if there's someone in
here who's not safe don't worry we'll approach you after the service to make
sure you understand that you're saved okay that problem can be taken care of
but that's done in a matter of 12 minutes 15 minutes or so and so you know
the Bible tells us Paul the Apostle said for I have not shunned to declare unto
you the entire counsel of God you know he then is shy away from teaching what
the Bible says about all matters and this is why it's important that churches
not only emphasize the gospel the gospel should be emphasized door-to-door out
there to the unsaved but they should be preaching the entire counsel of God in
the Church of God because then if you don't then you have a generation of
believers quote-unquote saying this stuff hard preaching turns people away well
that's because you've never had hard preaching you know hard preaching turns
people away from sin hard preaching cleans up lives amen it makes zealous
Christians and so no hard preaching does not render the gospel to be
ineffective and if that was the case then we wouldn't get anybody saved if
hard preaching biblical preaching turns people away from the faith then why do
we get a lot of people saved why do we why don't we get a lot of people
baptized we went to Belize and got a ton of people saved converted a ton of
Catholics baptized a ton of people even after and during listen to this while
I'm preaching a hard sermon to them I mean I'm out there we had a church
service I'm preaching hard people are literally walking out of the service
during my preaching and for every three that walked out another three came in
like literally throughout the service is just a revolving door of people but yet
even after the service what happened a ton of people got saved and then we just
transported them all to our Airbnb and baptized them in our pool and none of
them were like I really want to get baptized I just didn't really like the
way you said that stuff but go ahead you know no because it doesn't affect
anything you know it's what God wants us to do heart preaching does not render
the gospel ineffective here's another thing that they bring up is that they'll
often say believe it or not preaching one saved always saved renders the
gospel ineffective well the only people who say that are people who preach a
false gospel and the reason they say that is because of the fact that they
believe that the gospel should be coupled with living a godly life and no
it should not okay but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness and you want
to know why there's so many churches out there that are always questioning their
salvation members out there that just wonder if they're saved or not and
they're constantly doubting whether they're saved they're constantly
wondering if they lost their salvation and they're constantly living in this
perpetual doubt of whether they have it or not it's because whoever preached
the gospel to them makes works makes the godly life makes all of this keeping
of the commandments and loving the Lord your God let me just explain something
to you you don't have to love the Lord your God with all your heart so man in
strength in order to be saved because it takes a safe person to even know what it
means to love the Lord your God with all your heart so mind and strength it takes
actually reading the Bible to know those things you say well are you serious I
don't have to love God no because the Bible actually says that he so loved
you that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him should
not perish but have everlasting life and that's not to say that we shouldn't love
the Lord obviously we should but those things should be kept separate from the
gospel message and a lot of times people will say oh you're preaching that you
could never lose your salvation that's scaring people away that's preaching a
false gospel wrong you're preaching a false gospel which is why your so-called
converts are always wondering if they're saved or not the vast majority of the
people in our church don't doubt they don't wonder they're not like hmm I
wonder maybe maybe I'm not saved because I committed this particular sin
X Y & Z you know that he may know that you have eternal life and that he may
believe on the name of the Son of God most people here that especially that I
spoken to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're saved and it's
because of this doctrine of one saved always saved eternal security you
understand here's another reason here's another thing that will say renders the
gospel ineffective going door-to-door renders the gospel ineffective you know
these are the people that want us to have like a concert at the church and
you know purple lights and all this stuff and all the the bells and whistles
but folks you know the Bible tells us that the Apostles went door-to-door
preaching Christ and you know that's all they did two thousand years ago and
that's still how we do it today and we still get a lot of people saved because
of the fact that when you go to them you knock on their door in humility with
meekness and fear and you present the gospel to them if they don't want to
hear you don't you wipe off the dust of your feet you go to the next door it's
one of the greatest ways to do it now obviously there's different areas and
different geographical locations where maybe door-to-door isn't the most
effective way to preach the gospel right we go to Mexico once a month to go
zoning over there and we don't really knock on doors because you know
sometimes they don't have doors it just looks kind of weird over there so you
know what we do is we just go to the park you know where they're playing all
the music and people are just out and about and we just approach people and we
still get a lot of people saved that way it's just an effective way to do it
right now obviously you know in the future we're going to be going to
different areas of Mexico where they do have doors and apartments and houses and
we can go door-to-door but in general that is what is effective that's how
fundamental Baptists have always done it and it helps us to be systematic in our
approach to what geographical location we've already covered and what still
needs to be done okay so these are things that people will say will render
our gospel presentation ineffective but they're wrong this is completely
inaccurate and I'm speaking of someone who has done it for many years and to a
church that has done it for many years okay now let me actually give you some
wrong and ineffective ways to present the gospel and some of this you already
know you've already heard in times past but I want to stir up your pre reminds
by way of remembrance to make sure that we don't develop bad habits in the
future because we are a gospel preaching church meaning that the pastor is not
the only one who preaches the gospel the evangelist isn't the only one that
preaches the gospel we talk we're talking about the just a regular layman
in our church knows how to preach the gospel and not just the man the woman
also knows how to preach the gospel right we have preachers of the gospel we
have soul winners in our church that do this on a regular basis and so a message
a sermon like this is important to prevent bad habits from coming about okay
so number one wrong and ineffective ways to present the gospel number one by
using your testimony as a substitute this is both wrong and ineffective and
let me just say this is that a lot of cholo churches are guilty of this you
know you have victory outreach and what's the other one called set free you
know just these types of churches where they emphasize their testimony above
the testimony of Jesus Christ okay and they often mix the reformed life with
the gospel and salvation their fight thereby giving a workspace salvation
message and you know one of the reasons I thought about this is because earlier
this week on Instagram I'm on Instagram quite a bit just putting out content and
you know seeing your videos also liking your stories you know you you who
document your lives and everything that you do you know I see Celsius every
single you know day of my life you know sorry to think that Jose works for
Celsius but I saw something on Instagram where you know there's this woman on
Instagram and by the way what I'm about to say don't be offended by this because
we are not against women preaching the gospel there's plenty of women my wife
preaches the gospel there's plenty of women in our church to preach the gospel
to get people saved all the time but this particular woman is preaching to
this guy or this person and you know this is her gospel presentation and
throughout her gospel presentation she doesn't even mention Jesus she doesn't
mention salvation she doesn't mention that it's a free gift she doesn't
mention you know what did she talk about she literally talks about all the
disgusting perverse things that she did in the past in detail by the way and I
can't even repeat some of the things that she said because you know it's just
we're trying to keep this PG but you know the stuff that she was saying was
inappropriate it was of sexual it was of a sexual nature and she's saying hi she
used to do this and do these drugs and all these things and you know what these
are the these this is the group that wants to elevate their past life glorify
their past life thinking that that's gonna convert the person but folks
preach Christ amen you know she's literally turning the grace of God into
lasciviousness and folks that's wrong wrong you say why would it be wrong to
give your testimony when you're preaching the gospel well how about the
person who just grew up in a good home right what about the person who grew up
in a good home both parents never drank alcohol never smoked weed never
fornicated was just kind of grew up in a bubble they get saved what kind of
testimony they had they can't be like God saved me from bubblegum and sugar I
had you know organic food and you know I didn't have organic food back then but
God saved me from all the junk food and he saved me from veggie tails and all
the false doctrines it comes with veggie tails what can they say let me think
about it what are my kids gonna be able to say when they grow up if it was if
the salvation message was based upon the testimony what is he gonna say you know
God saved me from you know vaccines and and all this stuff you know yes he did
amen because you never got vaccinated what I'm saying is that no you know that
only works and it doesn't work but it only works for those who actually have
a really bad past or something but most of these people who have a wicked you
know horrible past want to talk about that because they want to have like an
Apostle Paul type of testimony okay and this is what they'll say they're like
well are you trying to say that that's wrong you know the Apostle Paul gave his
test I mean you've heard that the Apostle Paul gave his testimony well let
me just go ahead and explain some things about the Apostle Paul's testimony okay
first of all he only did it twice we're talking about the road to Damascus right
he only did it twice now the event is recorded three times but as far as him
speaking about it he actually only does it twice okay and you know the higher
percentage of instances where he's actually preaching Christ and him
crucified is far higher than the percentage of times that he actually
talks about you know the road to Damascus experience and in fact you know
the first time that it that he talks about it it's when he goes back to
Jerusalem and they're trying to kill him so he begins to recite the events that
led up to that point and guess what happens tons of people get saved no
actually they want to kill him still actually absolutely nobody gets saved
and they actually want to kill him so then they have to extradite him and and
you know send him to Rome and you know the whole debacle but then he goes
before King Agrippa which is the other time that he gives his testimony and the
reason he's given his testimony is because that's what you do in court you
testify of what took place okay and even then what does King Agrippa say thou
almost persuades me to be a Christian so both times where he's preaching his
testimony it actually gets no one saved however there are many more times when
he's actually preaching the gospel preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified
showing from the Word of God that Jesus is the Christ and multitudes were being
saved so if we're to use the book of Acts as an example of whether we should
use our testimony or not oh I mean the vast majority of the instances show that
we shouldn't because it's ineffective go to 1st Corinthians chapter 15 1st
Corinthians chapter 15 now let me just clarify something because I don't want
people to think that you know if if you did have a sinful past and through
salvation through the preaching of God's Word you got right with God God cleaned
up your life he did a miracle in your life I'm not downplaying that at all
because praise God for that amen you know if you were an alcoholic if you're
involved in fornication you just lived a sinful life and you know through
salvation and righteous living you're able to kind of get rid of that stuff in
your life amen to that and that is a testimony of the grace of God working in
your life the preaching of God's word working in your life what I'm saying is
that that's not the message you should be preaching when you're trying to get
someone saved you say why not because there's a greater message than that and
that is Jesus Christ who died on the cross was buried and resurrected to save
okay now I have no problem people just kind of talking about that within church
like yeah you know I used to do this or I used to be this I used to be really
effeminate or you know I used to be hey because it's out there right you know I
used to I used to just be involved in drugs or maybe I was an alcoholic or I
was involved in this particular scene but you know through salvation and
righteous preaching I just cleaned up my life and you know what happens we
glorify God on that behalf right but that's not the message so I'm not
discouraging you from sharing that stuff what which by the way you shouldn't
overly share also you know if you've lived an extremely sinful past we don't
need all the details okay and defile the minds of the people you're speaking to
you know like this woman was doing who's getting millions of views going viral and
just you know just being a bad testimony actually to Christianity but you know
often people who give their testimony end up self being self glorifying okay
they glorify themselves now let's look at the message that Paul the Apostle
preached he says in first Corinthians 15 verse 1 says moreover brethren I
declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you which also ye have
received and wherein you stand by which also ye are saved if you keep in memory
what I've preached unto you unless ye have believed in vain for I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose
again the third day according to the scriptures so he's plainly telling them
what got you saved was the death bearer the message of the death bearer and
resurrection of Jesus Christ he didn't say anything about the road to Damascus
he didn't say anything about how God changed his life there when in context
of the gospel of salvation he says this is what I preach them to you okay and
this is what we should be preaching go to Acts chapter 14 if you would Acts
chapter 14 I'm gonna reach you from 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7 it says
for God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power love and a sound mind
listen to this be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord now I think
sometimes that people who just want to talk about their testimony are ashamed
of the testimony of the Lord because they don't think it's powerful enough or
something just preaching salvation how it's free that all you have to do is
believe all you have to do is call upon the name of the Lord and simplicity
which is in Christ it's almost as if people are ashamed of that message and
they feel like they need to add a little more cherries on top or something like
that which is why they give their own testimony you know I don't want to be
ashamed of the testimony of Jesus Christ it is the power of God and to
salvation it is that which is sufficient to save a person and you know what if
people are bored of that message then that's on them but the Bible commands me
not to be ashamed of the testimony of Jesus Christ and by the way let me just
also say this is that I'm not saying either that when you're knocking on a
door and you're preaching the gospel that there's something wrong with you
saying you know what I was in your position at one time where I did not
believe I did not understand this particular concept until someone came to
me and explained it and I also had those roadblocks and those hindrances
that I had to overcome as far as understanding the gospel that's a great
way to testify right but you know what go back to the gospel presentation and
stick to that because that is what's gonna save them look at what Acts 14
verse 3 says long time therefore a bold day speaking boldly in the Lord which
gave testimony unto the word of his grace and granted signs and wonders to
be done by their hands so aside from the fact that we shouldn't be giving our
testimony we should be testifying of Jesus Christ we should also be using the
Bible which is where the testimony of Jesus Christ is found right search the
scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life but they are which
testify of me that's what Jesus said use the Bible when you preach the gospel
okay go to Acts chapter 18 look at Acts chapter 18 this is the story of Apollos
and Apollos people often get kind of mixed up about his story he wasn't a
person who wasn't saved in fact I believe he was saved but you have to
take into consideration that this particular interval of time in the book
of Acts is a transitional period between Old Testament and New Testament
and one of the biggest changes between Old and New Testament is not the
salvation message it's not salvation because we're not dispensational as the
Bible is not dispensational it's the fact that in the New Testament the name
of the Lord whom people believed in for salvation is now revealed to be Jesus
you understand so in the Old Testament people would call upon the name of the
Lord they'd call upon Jehovah God the Lord God but Jesus was the name of
Jesus was revealed in the New Testament and that's exactly what he commanded
them to preach okay and this is the case here
Apollo's was already saved he had already believed and he was already
preaching but he wasn't preaching the name of Jesus okay look at verse 25 says
this man was instructed in the way of the Lord being fervent in spirit he
spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord knowing only the baptism of
John and he began to speak boldly in a synagogue whom when Aquila and Priscilla
had heard they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more
perfectly and when he was disposed to pass into Achaia the brethren wrote
exhorting the disciples to receive him who when he was come helped them much
with which had believed through grace listen to this for he mightily convinced
the Jews and that publicly showing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ so
Aquila and Priscilla came and he was already saved I mean he's bold already
he's preaching boldly but the only thing that he lacked is the name of Jesus now
if they came to him and said hey the guy you're preaching about his name is Jesus
and Apollo said no it's not it's something else then Apollo's was not
safe but obviously he agreed with that and he began to preach that and he's
using the scriptures to show what's the point that I'm making you know when we
preach the gospel use the Bible use the Bible not your testimony not your
elaborate illustrations the Bible there's nothing wrong with illustrations
as long as it's coupled with the Bible and that would require for you listen to
this to memorize your gospel presentation because I don't know about
you I'm not always gonna have you know a New Testament obviously we all have
phones and we can show from our phones but you know what my mind is quicker
than my phone when it comes to the gospel presentation you know I'm going
through the apps and you know trying to figure out where everything is at I can
just quote Romans 3 23 Romans 6 23 Romans 5 a revelations 21 a you know
Romans 6 23 we can quote Acts 16 32 31 John 3 16 just quoted off the top of the
head use the scriptures because that's where the power of God lies okay the
Bible tells us in 1st Peter 1 23 you don't have to turn there go back to 1st
Corinthians chapter 2 if you would the Bible tells us in 1st Peter 1 23 being
born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God
which liveth and abideth forever the Bible tells us that we're born again by
the incorruptible seed and then he clarifies what that is the word of God
so if we're going to convert people get people saved have people born again into
the family of God we have to do it through the incorruptible seed meaning
the Bible itself the Bible even tells us in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 17 to take
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God okay
I look at 1st Corinthians chapter 2 so wrong and ineffective way to preach the
gospel number one using your testimony as a substitute okay don't do that
don't be this cringe tick-tock generation this cringe social media
Instagram tick-tock generation that is only concerned about self glorifying
themselves and their sinful past and putting some music behind whatever it is
that they're doing and just kind of glorifying and lifting up themselves we
must decrease that he must increase and the way we do that with the gospel is we
preach Christ and him crucified that's the greatest testimony than anybody
could hear okay number two wrong and ineffective ways to preach and present
the gospel with Bible topics that are irrelevant to the gospel okay with Bible
topics that are irrelevant to the gospel this is often done by people who don't
have a clear-cut systematic approach to preach in the gospel you know sometimes
if people haven't learned how to preach the gospel but maybe they know some
Bible you know you'll have instances where they go out and start in Genesis
or something you know in Genesis in the beginning and it's just like you're and
then the gospel presentation ends up being like 30 minutes long 40 minutes
long or whatever because they're just kind of all over the place so it's
often done by people who don't have a clear-cut systematic approach to preach
in the gospel or by people listen to this who just want to flex how much
Bible they know you know they don't really have an opportunity to preach very
often in church or whatever church they're going to so they just want to
just regurgitate all the Bible doctrine that they know but that's not you know
at the door is not the place to do so okay you know when we're at the door so
when we're preaching the gospel and obviously there are instances where
maybe someone might kind of take you off track a little bit and you can answer a
question quickly and get back on track but I'm telling you a lot of people
don't do that they just kind of veer off and then they just get off the gospel
presentation and they start talking about Lot so I talk about Abraham Isaac
and Jacob and all this other stuff which is good stuff but that's not when
we're preaching the gospel okay using Bible characters as illustrations that
the person is completely unfamiliar with you know you know Jeconiah at one time
you know just like they don't know who that is you know going through Old
Testament stories now obviously if there's a story in the Old Testament
that reinforces a particular point and you can briefly insert that that's a
different story what's an example of that someone give me an example Saul
right because Saul is a great example to use when someone brings up the subject
of suicide so someone brings up the subject of suicide oh man can we lose
our salvation because of suicide you can use the Old Testament example of Saul
and most of the time we don't even go to the Old Testament physically to show
them that we just tell them what the Bible says right but we're not here to
give a character analysis on Saul though you know you know in the third year reign
of and then you just kind of go through the history or something look at 1st
Corinthians chapter 2 and verse number 1 what I'm showing here is biblical it
says in verse number 1 and I brethren when I came to you came not with
excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God
I want you to notice this for I determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and him crucified now let me ask you something you think the
Apostle Paul was just completely ignorant of Bible doctrine but he's
saying here I've determined to not know anything among you that means he
actually made a concerted effort he intentionally acted like he didn't know
anything else at when he's preaching the gospel because he wants to talk about
only the gospel and he says when he's at a door when he's talking to
someone he's preaching the gospel he wants to preach Jesus Christ and him
crucified he has to intentionally talk to people and intentionally not try to
talk about the other subjects and times Bible prophecy you know Israel which
you know sometimes there's people you know in our church back in the day they
just want to kind of insert replacement theology into their into their gospel
presentation you know because they just need their fix or whatever but folks
it's unnecessary it's not wrong but it's ineffective though because never wrong
to talk about the Bible it's never wrong to talk about Bible doctrine but we're
talking about the fact that it's ineffective though to go through those
instances and through those verses in order to get something across look at
verse number six of first Corinthians chapter 2 so he says you know I
determined not to know anything among you doesn't mean he didn't know anything
but he's intentionally withholding back Bible doctrine information because it's
irrelevant to the gospel presentation look at verse six because you know
sometimes many people may think well you know you saying that the Apostle Paul
didn't want to talk about the Bible well no because look at verse six this is
how be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect so what is he saying
obviously I'm gonna talk about the wisdom of God but I got to speak it
amongst them that are perfect those who are saved and spiritually mature right
you know you read second Corinthians you read the book of Hebrews you read the
other epistles and some of that stuff is deep and it's basically only for church
ears people who are actually perfect maturing in their faith etc he says yet
not the wisdom of this world nor the princes of this world that come to not
go to Titus chapter 3 Titus chapter 3 if you would so ineffective way to preach
and present the gospel with Bible topics that are irrelevant to the gospel as
returning to Titus chapter 3 I'm gonna read to you from 2nd Timothy chapter 2
verse 23 it says here but foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that
they do gender stripes what does it say when you're at the door avoid let me
foolish in the Greek means stupid there's no such thing as a stupid
question the Bible says there is there's foolish questions out there unlearned
means uneducated questions right so foolish and unlearned you know someone
tells you okay yeah but what do you think about the earth being flat though
that's a foolish question now you don't have to tell them that though you know
be like that's stupid you know because obviously we're trying to tread lightly
with people and you have to be able to answer you know teach your mouth how to
answer people in a way that's not offensive because we're not trying to
offend people out there we want to get them saved right so you know what do you
think about NASA though and what do you think about the flat earth what do you
think about the Nephilim all these foolish what about the book of Enoch you
know and you can say well it's not true but we can talk about that later let me
just finish up what I'm telling you right here about salvation because
salvation is the most important thing that you you need to learn at this
moment okay look at Titus chapter 3 verse 8 so it's telling us to avoid
these things it says in verse 8 this is a faithful saying and these things I
will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be
careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men
verse 9 but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and
strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and vain so not only should
we avoid dumb questions unlearn uneducated questions but even
strivings about the law the Bible itself you know just wanted to discuss a
particular topic in the Bible they just want to argue with you the Bible says we
should avoid those things and the temptation listen to me for a seasoned
soul winner is to just smoke people because you know Bible but you have to
kind of restrain yourself and just be like well you know you have a couple
more minutes I can just finish up here and if they just want to talk about
whatever Bible topic then say well there's the invite if you have any
questions contact us God bless you we'll see you later and walk away because we
got a job to do and our job is not to debate people out there and fight
people and argue with individuals obviously if you have the discernment to
know that if you answer a particular question it'll help them to readily
receive the gospel that's one thing but the vast majority of times they just
want to argue they want to debate they want to waste your time and the Bible
says that we shouldn't cast our pearls before swine okay and so it's very
important that when it comes to our gospel presentation we don't do these
wrong and ineffective methods one being that we just talk about Bible topics
that are just irrelevant to the gospel okay that's why we have fellowship you
want to talk about the Bible talk about it amongst people here amen you know
well yeah but you guys know the Bible I like to talk to people who don't know
the Bible you know or something you're go back to first Corinthians wrong and
ineffective ways to present the gospel number three listen to this with
unbiblical terms that further confuse the listener okay unbiblical terms that
further confuse the listener using words or terms that mix salvation with works
like what relationship with God I can't tell you how many times I've knocked on
the door of a person going to like a megachurch for example and you ask them
if they're saved like yeah and you say well how do you know you're saved they're
like I have a relationship with God but you know there is no clear-cut
definition of what that means though right like a relationship with God you
ask five different people get five different definitions whereas there is a
biblical definition to what it means to believe on Jesus Christ though and whom
you also trusted after that ye believed right so obviously to believe in Jesus
Christ means to trust in Jesus Christ but to say relationship with God well at
that point you're confusing people if that's the terminology that you're
using use Bible terms amen follower of Christ what do you got against being a
follower of Christ I don't have any I am a follower of Christ what I'm against
is using terms such as follower of Christ to get across the message of the
gospel because the the the message that you're given when you say follower of
Christ is that you have to obey Christ right if you love me keep my
commandments thereby mixing works there you know we want to dissolve doubts when
we're at the door not further confuse people okay and we want to have a
hundred percent confidence when we're preaching the gospel not become even
more confused ourselves because of the message that we're giving now let me
also say this is that using biblical terms that may be too high for the
person listening is also ineffective soteriology you don't even know what that
Christology you know because you just want to like look cool in front of the
person you're talking to look like you know where you're talking about or even
terms like imputation I think that's an ineffective way to preach the gospel I
know you sound cool saying it and it is a biblical term we see it in Romans
chapter 4 taught extensively right very explicitly what that means but we need
to speak wisdom to them who are perfect though and if you say imputation to a
person at the door folks you know you're gonna confuse they don't know what that
means and let me just say that most people don't even know what propitiation means if
they didn't just watch it on a tik-tok video they're not gonna know what it
means if it's not that the current Gen Z lingo they're not gonna know what it
means like yeah but it's right to use it it's biblical to use biblical terms
absolutely but the Bible also tells us to exercise wisdom and again the Apostle
Paul said we speak wisdom to them who are perfect meaning that there's
certain things that only mature people can understand and those that's why when
the Bible talks about salvation consistently in the book of John it uses
the term what belief that's pretty much everyone knows what that means it's
literally putting the message of the gospel on the bottom shelf for everyone
to understand okay and so look at first Corinthians chapter 1 and verse let's
see here look at verse 19 this is for it is written I would destroy the wisdom of
the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent where is
the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of this world hath God has
not God made foolish the wisdom of this world for after that in the wisdom of
God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe now this reminds me of the Calvinist okay the
Calvinist who just is a walking thesaurus of biblical terms that when
they present their gospel presentation they make it so high and lofty that it's
hard for the common man to hear it gladly but the common man heard Jesus
gladly and you know what the originator of languages who walked on this earth
Jesus Christ did not say all these you know wild and and very highly sophisticated
terms when talking about salvation how do we know because the common man heard
him and received what he was saying okay and so you know we don't need to be
don't don't be a Calvinist here in vocab when speaking to a person about the
gospel presentation just make it simple we want to remove the barriers we want
to remove the walls we want to remove that which is hindering them from
understanding the gospel and the best way to do so is just use simple
terminology okay but at the same time don't make it so simple that you just
say well you know just have a relationship with God because that's not
a biblical term either okay and that further confuses the listener look at
chapter 2 again a lot of these passages are found in 1st and 2nd Corinthians
look in verse number 3 he says and I was with you in weakness and in fear and
much trembling and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith
should not stand in the wisdom of men what does that mean it means like wow
James why is just so amazing that's people were putting their faith in the
wisdom of men you know we don't want to glorify ourselves when we present the
gospel we want it we want people to say I've never heard it like that shown from
the Bible because most often more often than not the people that I speak to who
get saved they're just like I've never seen that before no one's ever showed me
that before the Bible is being elevated not the person themselves right that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God
how be we speak wisdom among them that are perfect look at verse number 12 now
we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God which things
also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth but which the
Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual the Bible says so
there's obviously a list of words so to speak from the Bible that we should be
using that the Holy Ghost is teaching us to use especially when it comes to
salvation let me also say this you know when we're preaching the gospel part of
our gospel presentation is to talk about hell you know what we should call hell
hell not eternal separation from God that doesn't communicate hell enough it
doesn't communicate it at all actually okay we need to talk about hell the way
the Bible describes hell which is fire and torment where the worm dyeth not
the fire is not quenched the smoke of their torment ascended up forever and
ever that is what the Bible teaches okay and you say well I just think that'll be
offensive hell is offensive of course it is we yeah that's what it's meant for
it's not supposed to be roses and daisies where people eternally burn
forever that's what God's wrath is don't be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord
who's testified of hell of the lake of fire as being eternal torment where they
have no rest day or night okay and not just try to soften the message of hell
just because we don't want to offend or something you know God wants us to
clearly explicitly talk about hell not be ashamed of it and not try to sugar it
up and have all these extra terms it's a separation from God well how can it be a
separation from God when literally it says that people burn before the
presence of the Lamb forever and ever that's not necessary how can it be
eternal separation from God if the if David the sweet psalmist said if I make
my bed in hell that are there sounds like he's there watching it all happen
okay go to Matthew chapter 12 Matthew chapter 12 we're talking about wrong and
ineffective ways to present the gospel okay using your testimony as a
substitute we said in the beginning we also said with Bible topics that are
irrelevant to the gospel with unbiblical terms that further confuse
the listener here's a big one by street preaching this is often wrong and
ineffective and wrong and I'm not saying that there are not street preachers out
there that have the right gospel that are saying the right message salvation by
grace through faith you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ plus nothing
minus nothing but let me just say this the vast majority of street preachers
are preaching a false gospel okay now let me explain to you why this is wrong
and ineffective one wrong because it's the wrong gospel but ineffective because
holding up a sign that says turn or burn yeah it's just not not necessarily gonna
work screaming at oncoming traffic does not work holding up signs screaming at
people as they're driving I don't know about you you know I'm a preacher of the
gospel I'm a pastor but if I see those people on the on the corner I roll up my
window I don't want to listen to that you know what's the difference between
the street preacher and the jack-in-the-box drive-thru the jack-in-the-box
drive-thru actually delivers what you came there for those people don't
deliver all they do is yell at you they make people mad okay and they're a bad
testimony of Christianity you know holding up signs and you know yelling at
people you said well you're yelling at me right now but this isn't the street
though this is you chose to come here under your own volition you chose to be
here to sit there and listen to me scream at you for an hour okay whereas
people over there they're not asking for that when we approach people we
approach them with meekness and fear in here we're teaching the entire council
of God and you know you should know what to expect when you come to a Baptist
church amen street preachers are often false prophets preaching a hardcore
repentant of your sins gospel and they often cast their pearls before swine
anyways they like to go to these gay parades and like witness to
sodomites that's that's you're casting your pearls before swine show me the
instance in the Bible where Jesus was preaching to a bunch of homos it's not
like there were there wasn't any there either this is Rome we're talking about
during the Roman Empire there's tons of them and you don't see Jesus Christ and
the Apostles going to a sodomite parade trying to win them with signs didn't
anybody think of a book chapter and verse on that no you can because it
doesn't exist Jesus didn't do street preaching look what it says in Matthew
chapter 12 verse 18 behold my servant whom I have chosen this is referring to
Jesus my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased I will put my spirit upon him
and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles I want you to notice this he
shall not strive nor cry neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets
sounds like he was against free preaching he wasn't striving he wasn't
crying nor did you hear his voice in the streets a bruised reed shall he not
break in a smoking flag shall he not quench till he sent forth judgment unto
victory go to second Timothy chapter number two second Timothy chapter two you
know doing street preaching is more so to just kind of like boast of themselves
and look how bold they are look how cool they are whatever you know whereas you
know going door-to-door is not as glamorous going door-to-door with your
soul-winning partner under the hot Sun sweaty back and all getting kicked out
and just kind of you know try not to look like Jehovah's Witnesses or whatever
it's not very glamorous right you know there's no theme music playing behind
you you're not the main character you know how you don't have music playing
behind you and you're not moving in slow motion it's not glamorous that's why
people don't want to do it because it's hard work right let me tell you the
story from from this last week with brother Hernandez and I went soul
winning and we're out preaching and we run into this guy and brother Hernandez
starts preaching the gospel to him and the guy's like well I'm not interested
he's like all right you mind if I just leave you with the verse he's like sure
yeah I'm willing to listen to the Bible you know I was like okay why don't you
listen to the gospel but anyways you know so he leaves him with the verse
right and the guy's like alright well hey I appreciate you guys I love what you
guys are doing I support what you guys are doing and he says this he says this
he says just remember though for every you know for every 20 doors you'll get
one that's what he told us you know what I mean he's like for every 20 doors you
knock you might just get one you know and and we're like joking saying like
well are you the one though like you do you want to be the one you know but he
wasn't interested he's like for every 20 doors but literally 20 doors after we end
up getting one so you like Balaam the son of Bolzor he he prophesied he
prophesied correctly because the broken clock is right at least twice a day
right but you know what you know we've run into contentious people on the
street we've run into people who want to fight with us and argue with us but look
we're not looking to strive we're not looking to cry we don't want people to
hear a voice in the streets we're coming meekly right with meekness and fear to
come to present the gospel because people's lives are at stake their souls
are at stake and in fact look at 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 24 says here the
servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach
patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God per
adventure will give them the repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and
that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken
captive by him at his will you know it's important for us not to fight and
argue with people when we're at a door because of the fact that they just may
not understand what we're saying so patience is required I remember instances
where I'm preaching the gospel to someone and at the end of the day like a
thorough I guess you could say a thorough gospel presentation can range
anywhere from like 10 to 15 maybe 20 minutes right that's like pushing I
would say maybe 10 to 15 minutes is a good gospel presentation with no
interruptions but I'll preach the gospel to this guy and he wasn't being
contentious he wasn't trying to strike wasn't trying to fight he just didn't
understand and it wasn't like I don't understand so have a good day he just
like helped me to understand so you know my soulmate partner and I were there for
like 40 to 45 minutes just trying to explain this to him and there came a
point where I was just like I'm kind of tired of just explaining this in my mind
I was thinking I was like he's not getting it but then like you know brother
Milan was my partner at the time he was just praying like God please help him to
understand and then like I was just showing him verses and then boom it's
like the light bulb turned on and it's just like a tear rolled down his eye and
he's like I get it you know and you know praise God for that you know when you're
out sowing you know why it's important not to turn or burn because that
actually turns people away from Christ actually that nonsense turns people away
from Christ but you know what when you're patient with people when you're
instructing them with meekness trying to help them to recover themselves out of
the snare of the devil we're trying to tell them like you know Jesus Christ
all you have to do is believe this is what the Bible says and that's how it works and you're just
constantly showing them that's patience okay and so it's important for us to
realize that because you know street preaching is popular unfortunately not
getting anything done they're just making us look bad and I try my best to
tell people that's not us we don't do that we actually preach the gospel we
actually get people saved and how many people do these people even get saved
no no nobody you know I remember I saw a video of Gene Kim one time and they had
signs then you're yelling at oncoming traffic and saying amen and this that
and the other but nothing happened people are like avoiding eye contact
they're like the homeless people that you don't want to make eye contact with
right they're like the spiritually homeless people on the road though and
they both have signs one says we'll work for food the other one says we'll work
for salvation and then you know I would rather give to the homeless guy than
give my attention to the false pre false preacher though and so street
preaching ineffective wrong the most effective way is to actually open your
mouth boldly actually go out there door to door with meekness and fear not with
pride arrogance wanting to strive here's the next one go to first Corinthians
chapter number four if you would first Corinthians chapter four I'm gonna
breeze through these next last two points wrong and ineffective ways to
preach the gospel number five with lifestyle evangelism this is code four
I'm too scared to talk to people face to face okay and I'll often quote this
verse you know the Bible says let your life so shine before man that they may
see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven and to that I
say amen but here's the thing folks is that we are supposed to shine the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ it's actually what the Bible actually says
right and you know lifestyle evangelism in a nutshell you know is basically
wearing a Christian shirt and hoping that it will spark up a conversation
about the gospel right and you know obviously there's nothing wrong with
wearing Christian clothing I wear Christian shirts all the time some of it
has nothing to do with the gospel you know some of it's just controversial
stuff that we just like to wear and get a reaction out of people but even if you
were to wear a gospel shirt I'm just gonna tell you right now because I wear
it all the time it never sparks up a conversation I mean someone might say
nice shirt and just walk away or something or they'll give me a thumbs
up or something you know when I have my straight pride shirt or Adam and Eve
not Adam and Steve people are like you know or the one that the one that Geo
has the whatever I was that the one you have or you're showing me that one
where it says like whatever and it's like a bundle of sticks you'll get that
at lunchtime you know those are cool shirts King James shirts but I'm just
gonna be real honest with you and I know this it doesn't really spark up a
conversation about the gospel the majority of the time okay and so you
know or relying solely on godly living to reach people that doesn't reach
people now it might people might you know come and talk to you and and ask
you what church you go to whatever but to rely solely on those things to get
people saved ineffective does not work okay you need to go to them that way
for them to come to you the Bible says in first Corinthians chapter 4 verse
number 3 for if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost and whom the
god of this world had blinded the minds of them which believed not lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine
into them listen to this for we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord
and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake for God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ but we have received but we
have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be
of God and out of us what is the same it's simply saying that the gospel
message is in here and you know living a godly life doesn't necessarily get it
out to the masses I'm for living a godly life obviously wearing a Christian shirt
awesome but that's not gonna get the gospel message out okay now will it help
to kind of like you know scan a QR code on your shirt yeah absolutely but at the
end of the day we have to actually in order for the message to get out you have
to open your mouth it needs a vent understand to get it out and so
lifestyle evangelism I'm all for living a godly life but not as a substitute to
preach the gospel and lastly number six of wrong in and ineffective ways to
present the gospel with door hangers and church invites now we have church
invites and door hangers are a great way of getting the word out about your
church invites are great icebreakers and a good summary about the church but they
cannot preach the gospel for you go to Acts chapter 8 if you would
actually number eight too many churches listen to me and Christians think that
just by handing out invites their job is done no you are a mailman the real
estate agent does that the lady who's trying to grow her cleaning service does
that any person who is trying to promote their business does that right you ask
anybody we have a lot of people here who have their own businesses they go door
to door putting flyers or whatever that's a that's a great way to get a
word out about your business but that will get no one saved and often churches
and I'm speaking by experience because I've been a part of churches that do
this they quantify success in salvations or preaching of the gospel not just by
how many people come out to go and preach the gospel but just how many
invites got out they actually count how many invites get out and they base
their success rate off of that but folks that does nothing okay and in fact you
know we preach the gospel a lot around here and sometimes we overlap areas
that we've done before and how many times have we gone to a door where you
just see a faded track right you go there is just a faded washed out track
of first works Baptist Church and it's still on the door you know that means
they never grabbed it they just walk in and out of the door they never grab it
you know and obviously we've had and sure enough someone's gonna come tonight
who got an invite on the door I get that okay and then we can preach the gospel
because that happens but I'm telling you a lot of churches rely solely on that
and I told the story before I remember at the church plant that we I helped
start years ago the satellite pastor was just like we need to get 20,000 I think
it was like 15 to 20,000 tracks out for Easter you know 20 to 15,000 tracks out
for Easter and so he was putting the responsibility on me so I got it done I
mobilized the people I did also a lot of work myself and we got those 15 to 20
thousand tracks out and on Easter you know me visitors had zero but I'm
exaggerating a little bit because we did have one visitor who found us on the
internet he was and he came in and like the satellite password was just like oh
did you get an invite he's like no I just looked you guys up you know looked
it up on the internet you know so it's just like 15 to 20 that all those man
hours just down the drain because it doesn't do anything okay obviously
there's nothing wrong with putting we tell our people to put a track on the
door if the person doesn't answer but in the context of salvation though in the
context of getting people saved it doesn't do it he said prove it look at
Acts 8 verse 29 then the Spirit said unto Philip go near join thyself to this
chariot and Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah's
and said understandest thou with thou readest and he said how can I except
some man should guide me and he desired Philip that he would come up and sit
with him so you have this Ethiopian eunuch that somehow was able to purchase
or get a copy of the book of Isaiah you know a track and he's interested in
salvation he's interested in the things of God he's coming to Jerusalem for this
particular reason and he's reading it and when we read further you see that
it's about Jesus Christ that he's reading about but because he's not saved
he doesn't understand what it's talking about he says verse 32 the place of the
scripture which he read was he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a
lamb dumb before his shears so opened he not his mouth in his humiliation his
judgment was taken away and who shall declare his generation for his life is
taken from the earth and the eunuch answered Philip and said I pray thee of
whom speakest the prophet this of himself or of some other man then Philip
opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus
and we're not gonna finish the story but he gets saved and then he wants to be
baptized thereafter why because Philip Philip wasn't like well just make sure
you keep reading that and you will eventually get it you know oh you know
it the instructions are right there go ahead and just go through the verses
yourself you know obviously we tell people to do that to plant seeds but
folks unsaved people can't save themselves they require some sort of
person like Philip to guide them through the scriptures and teach them what the
Bible actually has to say about it and so we use church invites don't
misunderstand or misinterpret what I'm saying you know I haven't used door
door hangers but they're basically the same thing right put them on the door to
get the word out about the church or whatever but at the end of the day in
effective way to actually get someone saved okay and so what's the message
this morning nothing you haven't heard of as far as I know things that you have
heard but just by way of remembrance stirring up your pure minds to make
sure that we as a church don't develop these bad habits let's keep learning how
to refine our gospel presentation let's keep keep getting better at soul winning
keep getting better at preaching the gospel let's instill confidence in the
members of our church and let them know that I'm not the only one who can
preach the gospel you can preach the gospel you can get people saved the
mothers in our church can get people saved the daughters in our church can
get people saved the teenagers in our church can get people saved you know
everyone can get someone saved you have the Holy Spirit of God living within you
it doesn't matter if you are 10 years old or if you're 80 years old you can
get someone saved right you have the capabilities of doing so you don't have
to rely on these wrong and ineffective ways to present the gospel we have the
sure way of doing it it's been done for hundreds of years and especially within
our quote-unquote movements been done for decades and it's worked we've seen
a lot of fruit because of it so let's avoid these wrong and ineffective ways
let's pray father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the
soul-wonder that came to us and with just meekness and fear with simplicity
was able to explain to us how to be saved Lord and thank you for those of
times past you put in the work to give us the Romans road Lord and give us that
systematic manner in which we can get someone saved and I pray Lord that you
help us to take these things to heart to avoid these wrong and ineffective ways
these these habits that can potentially be developed in the church and eventually
just hinder the work that the gospel can do in someone's life and I pray you
bless us as we go on our way bring us back safely here tonight in Jesus name we
pray amen please turn your songbooks to song number 145 song