Straightway they were sick their nets and followed him now
We have this really iconic verse here about becoming fishers of men
And that's really what I want to focus on this morning on is this idea of being a fisher of me now
I've said this a lot of times
I'm going to continue saying it that Jesus Christ uses carnal truths to expound
Spiritual truths now when we talk about fishing for men, what's really at play here? It's soul-winning
It's going out and preaching the gospel and getting people saved, but he likens it unto fishing
And so that's what I'm going to do this morning is liken soul-winning unto fishing and try to help you understand
How to do this better and the title my sermon is soul fishing
Soul fishing I know we do a lot of soul winning, but we need some full soul fishing
All right now go to John chapter 21 John chapter number 21
I'm gonna try and make this sermon very practical this morning
And so we're gonna still look at a lot of Scripture
But you know it's gonna be really heavily based on a gospel presentation and so
Even if you are a really good soul winner, and you've been so winning for a while
I still think you can learn a lot from this sermon
But especially those that feel like you're struggling or you want to try and improve in your soul winning
I hope you pay really close attention and try to think about the things that I'm saying
Because I'm gonna try and help you get better at
Preaching the gospel and really fishing for the souls of men now the Bible says in John 21 verse 3 it says Simon Peter saith
On him I go fishing they say in him we also go with thee
They went forth and entered into a ship immediately and that night they caught nothing
But when the morning was now come Jesus stood on the shore
But the disciples knew not that it was Jesus then Jesus saith unto them children
Have you any meat they answered him?
No, and he said unto them cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find
They cast therefore and now they were not able to draw it in for the multitude of fishes
So notice again, he likens this
analogy of
Fishing to what they're supposed to be doing spiritually
Which is getting the souls of men and we kind of have this interesting
Parallel where the fishermen go out and they can't catch anything. They go out all night. They're toiling
They're working hard. But here's the problem. You can't win the souls of men by doing it by yourself
It's not based on how hard you work it's not based on how good you are. These guys are expert fishermen
They're going all night
They know how to catch fish and they can't do it why because they're not doing according to what Jesus had told them
You got to take the spiritual picture here, obviously from a carnal perspective
they could catch fish but Jesus is not allowing them to catch fish to help illustrate a
Spiritual example of the fact that you can't do in your own strength and might you need the Lord Jesus Christ
And notice as soon as he gives them commandment as soon as they follow his instructions
They immediately catch more than they can even bring in their nets gonna break
I mean if you just follow Jesus Christ simple instructions your net will break with the souls of men and
Really? I think there's a lot of churches out there
They're trying to basically preach everyone that's saved in the audience to come down the altar and get saved and it's like you're gonna catch
Nothing that way, you know, if you go out and you follow Jesus Christ instructions, there's more than you can catch
There's this whole multitude out there. That's ready to be caught
You just have to follow Jesus Christ instructions to what go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature
He does not say invite everyone to come down the altar
It doesn't say, you know, hey wait until they come and show up at your door
It doesn't say just invite fish to jump in the boat
Okay, you have to go out and you have to find the fish and we have to do it according to the Word of God
Now go to Luke chapter 10. I'm just gonna show you a few verses this morning and we're gonna get straight into the application
but Luke chapter number 10 also is gonna give us some more information about
instructions for soul winning and
Really liken it unto you know fishing says in Luke chapter 10 verse 1 after these things the Lord appointed other 70 also and sent
Them two by two two and two before his face and every city in place whether he himself would come
Therefore said he unto them the harvest truly is great
But the laborers are few pray therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth both late forth labors into his harvest now
Here's some instructions that we've already learned. First of all, our goal is to find them. That's why it's fishing
Okay, number two we're supposed to go notice what Jesus Christ is telling
Hey go into every city go into every village go into the town go and talk to people
So we're supposed to go out notice how he organizes it two and two. He says hey, here's a guy. Here's a guy
They have even numbers at 70 people and they're sending them out. Here's another thing
You have to think about he sent 70 and notice how he quantified that
He said the labors are few
You know, we have a lot of soul owners go out. We don't even have 70 that typically go out for a soul-winning time
So obviously if we were to take Jesus Christ perspective, he would still say that it's view
We need to have more people going out and preaching the gospel
Hey and back then population counts were even smaller than they are today
I mean
I I would venture that the whole Dallas Fort Worth area has more people than all of
Israel did back in their day and
They're sending out 70 and he's saying we need more guys to go out in labor
we need more people to go out and preach the gospel and so our
Job, our goal is to be soul winners and encourage other people to go so winning and you know
There's more than 70 people in this room
And so why not take from the people that we already have and try to encourage them and make them better
fishers of men, okay
Now go to the back of chapter 1 this is I'm gonna take this completely out of context
But I think that this really just helps us get an idea for fishing
Okay
Because when it comes to fishing
There's different ways to fish now the way that the disciples were fishing is
Not the way of fishing that I'm going to expound on to you this morning
Okay, they are basically just taking a net and just letting it down and just trying to grab fish out of the water
Okay, that's one method of fishing another thing. It would be called a drag you say what's a drag a drag?
Is where you basically let down the net and then you start row you start going with motion in your boat
Whether you're rowing or letting up a sail or whatever and as it drags along
It's supposed to catch fish and then you eventually pull up the drag
So it's kind of two different net types of fishing here, but there's another method and the Bible brings this up
look at a back in chapter 1 verse 13 or 14 and
Makest men as the fishes of the sea as the creeping things that have no ruler over them
They take up all of them with the angle they catch them in their net and gather them in their drag
Therefore they rejoice and are glad now. I'm not gonna explain the context
It has it's like actually negative context all I'm wanting to pick out here is that there's different methods of fishing
Okay, and I brought that out and one of them is called the angle now if you don't know anything about fishing
That sounds weird, right? I don't you know
I'm not a big fisherman
But there's a type of visioning called angling and all of you know exactly what type of fishing I'm talking about
It's with a hook. All right
It's where you actually throw out some kind of a hook into the waters whether that be the river sea ocean
It doesn't matter and you're trying to catch that fish on your hook that it's called an angle because they just it's not a hook
Okay, but that's basically what it's referring to now
I'm gonna focus on this type of fishing and then give you some instruction when it comes to
Soul winning and if you would go to Matthew chapter 7 Matthew chapter number 7
But what I have with me this morning is I have an angle all right
So I got my hook and so when it comes to fishing, you know, and I've got some fishing line
You can't see that. Okay, you probably can't see the fishing line
But maybe maybe it glimmers off the light fishing lines not that easy to spot per se
But there's some fishing line on this hook. All right now here's the thing
when it comes to fishing
One thing you don't want to do is you don't want your hook to just drag on the ground
Okay. Now if you're in the ocean, it's gonna be hard to maybe get there but a lot of people that you know
They fish in rivers or a shallow bank or something like that. You don't want your hook to just be on the floor
Especially if your boats moving because you know when you're when your hooks just dragging on the ground
It's gonna catch on things like the trash out there, you know
There's all this trash on the bottom of the of the ground and that's not gonna be effective
Fishing especially since it'll get caught and you know, like it'll trick you
You'll think that you got to catch but it's really just caught on a bottle or some kind of trash or seaweed or just
Something on the bottom of the river floor or the bank or whatever now
Why do I say that because some people they go out soul winning and they let their hook just drag on the floor
And what I mean by that they run into atheists and they spend like five minutes talking to an atheist
And I'm like why?
He's on the bottom of the floor. This is not fish. Okay. This is not something that you should be trying to catch
They waste so much time
Talking to people that aren't interested and they just go to the bottom feeders. Okay. Now, here's the thing
We go to the ghetto and we go close to the bottom
That's where some good fish are but you don't want to be dragging on the bottom
You're gonna catch a lot of trash. And so when someone's not interested in hearing the gospel, you know what I do
I move on
There is a lot of trash that you can drag this against on the bottom of the floor
I'm not interested in the trash. I'm interested in the fish. I'm interested in those
Above the floor above, you know, basically the bottom of that riverbank
And so look if someone starts closing the door, you know what I start doing walking away
You
Know some people they're like they're like trying to put their foot. Hey, can I show you one bird?
Hey, can I get a verse? Hey, let me just give you the one verse more important the church
Let me and they're just like trying to shut the door and you're just like look walk away
Hey if I start walking up to someone and they're like not interested, you know what I do. Bye
This is it. Well more important than church though. Hey more important than church
Can I can I tell you about you know, can I ask you another question and I'm just like
Look, I don't drag my hook on the bottom of the floor and you know, there might be a fish that's injured
That's laying there. You accidentally catch one in a million times, but that's not effective. So
Effective soul winning is letting your hook be free and loose and finding a fish that's interested
Okay, finding a fish that wants to do it and specifically a fish, you know, not everyone
I know we're supposed to go out and preach the gospel every creature and I'm not saying that you shouldn't but here's the
Reality, you're not gonna get people saved that are not interested
The Bible emphasizes this let me give you a verse here Matthew chapter 7 look at verse 6
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs
Neither cast ye your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you
Look when I walked out to that trash out there that dog out there and I said, hey, what do you think?
It takes to be saved. I don't believe in God. I hate Jesus. I hate the Bible
I'm a former pastor and I rejected God. Bye
Well more important than that, you know
Have you ever heard John 3 16? Yeah, I think the pastor of 17 years of the Baptist Church has heard John 3 16
Okay, it's not like coming off of your lips. It's gonna magically just be like, whoa. I've never heard it like that before
He's a reprobate
And look he's not the only one
Okay, once you recognize or identify this is a bottom feeder this is what this is just trash laid on the floor
Okay, then just move on this will improve your soul-winning
This will improve your morale. This will improve your mental
Look, I don't like arguing with freaks and and people that hate Jesus and God and everything like that
I don't interested in trying to talk to people that are not interested themselves. Go to Luke chapter 14 go to Luke chapter number 14
And I can't emphasize this enough. It's
Okay to move on
You are not gonna get every person saved. I
Just you know, I know there's four pit bulls and I know they have like ten rainbow flags
And I know the gates like ten feet tall, but I'm gonna find a way to get in there
I don't care if it takes me an hour and it's like skip the door
It's okay
Hey if they have barbed wire on the fence, they're not interested
Okay, just move on just go to the next door and you say Pat, but don't you care about every soul?
Yes, I do. But here's the reality. You can't knock on every single door
So why don't you worry about the doors you can knock on?
Why don't you try and find the people that are interested instead of trying to you know?
Throw your angle at the floor and just like, you know, what am I gonna catch? Oh
Nothing, you're not gonna catch how many fish have I caught so far? I feel like I've caught nothing
You know just getting on the floor. There's nothing here. It's all dead. It's all seaweed and trash and whatever. Okay
Now Luke chapter 14. Let me give you more information on this or more scripture here. It says in verse number 16
Then said he unto them a certain man made a great supper and bade many and
sent a servant at supper time to say to them that were bid and come for all things are now ready and
They all with one consent begin to make excuse the first said to them
I have bought a piece of ground and I must needs go and see it
I pray thee have me excuse another said I bought five yoke of oxen and I go to prove them
I pray thee have me excused another said I've married a wife and
Therefore I can't like I don't get this one. This is weird. You know, can't she come or we need to just blaming his wife
Right, who's the man of the house, you know?
But you know what's interesting about this group of people that was their one opportunity
There is no more opportunity and look when I go out to preach the gospel. I give everybody at least one opportunity
That's me coming to them. And as soon as they say they're not interested by
Notice in this parable what happens next he says in verse 21
So that servant came and showed his lord these things then the master of the house being angry
Said to his servant go out quickly in the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the
Maimed in the hall and the blind and the servant said Lord it is done as thou commanded and yet there is room and Lord
said in the servant go out on the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that
My house may be filled. So notice he goes out. He's like, hey, you're not worthy
I'll just get the poor and the blind and the main I'll just find them and get them in here
And then after I'm done with all of them, I'm still not gonna give you a second chance
I'm gonna go to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in
But notice who are you compelling not those that made excuse?
You know, it's funny
I tested this the other day at pure words because me and brother Jeffrey
he likes to go so anything a lot on Thursdays we go down there and we run in this lady and
She's like, you know what? I'm just really busy right now
Maybe another time, you know, and I knew we were gonna come back to those apartments
I said, you know what? We're gonna come back to that door the next time and see what she says
She's sitting there on the porch doing absolutely
Nothing we walk up. Hey, it looks like you have some time now and it's not interested
Like isn't it funny how the ones that make excuse and now look sometimes you can have a legitimate excuse
I'm not gonna say that that's not possible
I've had someone say hey
I just answered the door when my kids are in the pool and I don't want to not keep an eye on them and I
Was just like no problem. Here's the card. Check it out. Later
I don't want to put someone at risk or in danger or something like that
But at the end of the day the people that are interested are gonna be interested
The ones that are making excuse or not move on
You know who I do not compel people that are not interested
The person I compel is
interested and
Perhaps some other person's trying to distract them or attack them or get them off or there's some other weird circumstance
You know a good example of this was I always think of this with brother Ryan
He's preaching this young guy the gospel and he's literally about to pray
It's like one minute left and then a car pulls up and he's got to go
And I'm like, it's not like the kid wasn't interested and he's like I got to go and he's like give me one more minute
He was compelling that kid to give him another minute so that he could finish the prayer
Get the kids saved and then he could go it's not like he just lost interest or whatever
He just legitimately had to go but Ryan compelled him
That was a good person to compel not the atheist at the door saying I hate God in the Bible
Well, let me make sure I can you know, give you this verse look, even if they are an atheist
I'll still give them an opportunity. I'll say hey
Okay, well if I could prove to you that
God exists from the Bible and that salvation is a free gift. Would you be interested? Would you change your mind?
And if they say no, then I say, okay. Bye
If they say sure, I'll at least listen then I'll show them the gospel
It's not that there's somebody that I wouldn't preach the gospel to but when they're just showing themselves to not be interested
They don't want to hear the things of God. They're making fun of the Bible. It's time to move on
Go to the next door now, I'm dry. I'm really driving that in
I'm gonna drive a lot of these points in okay, because I just want them to sink in and you know
Get hooked on you. Okay a little bit and get a good bite. All right now
What's the second point that I have with our hook? Well, we're not going to let it hit the ground
Okay, we're gonna just keep it out there and we're gonna make sure we're gonna try and entice some fish this morning. Okay?
but here's another thing is
You're not gonna catch that many fish with a raw hook
Okay, I know a few kids in here like would like to catch this right now
They might be a little bit interested in it, but the raw hook is not as
You know tempting this doesn't have as much, you know desire to be caught and look
I think some people their soul winning is kind of like a raw hook
Now if you know anything about fishing, what do people do to change the raw hook? They add stuff, right?
They add what bait and they add a lure and what do these things do they try to entice you?
To bite on the hook and look some people so winning. I
Just it's like you have no interest in giving them the gospel. It's just like
Hey, we're from steadfast or Baptist
What do you when you go to do you go to a church or something cool?
Catholic Church, where's that at?
Yeah
Well, you know the Bible says something a little bit different. You think you'd be interested maybe
Okay, no problem. See you later. It's just like
What are you doing? Like you need to be compelling you need to lure them
You need to bait them and wanting hear the gospel
You have some confidence when you're going out and you're preaching the gospel don't beat around the bush
It doesn't improve anything just get straight to the point just get right in there and just say hey
it's more important than church if you were to die today, are you a hundred percent sure you go to heaven and
they say
Who cares? It doesn't really matter what they say because then what I say after that as I say
well, what do you think it takes to get to heaven and
Then from there you're now trying to bait them. You're trying to lure them a little bit
You're trying to get an understanding of what they're doing and and really whenever you put some good bait on there
It's going to help now. Here's some good bait
You being confident and telling them exactly why you're there
Okay, because if you don't make it clear what you're trying to do or what you're trying to show them it could be confusing
Well, we just want to show you some things out of the Bible
That's not that luring
Most people if you if I just walk to be like hey, do you just want to see some stuff in the Bible?
They're like not at all. Hey, you know not interested. Hey, do you want eternal life?
Do you want a free gift of salvation?
Do you want to know for sure that if you died you'd go to heaven?
Those are things that a little bit more luring they have a little bit more bite to them
They have a little more bait on the hook so as to try to attract
Potential men to try and get their soul saved now whenever I'm talking with somebody
I'm gonna put some bait
I'm gonna put some lure on it so as to try to attract them and really I think it's this
Making it clear that you want to show them something
You know like maybe putting some
Some snacks on there right now. The kids are even more interested, right?
I mean, they're they're thinking like hey if you toss that to me. Hope I
Might get it. I might get an interest party
You want you want it?
Let's see. Let's try again. All right
The fish got a little nervous at first. Okay, they didn't know what was happening
You want it you can take it
All right, I'm gonna throw my head this is fly fishing, okay, you got to keep throwing it out there. All right
Catch it. Here you go. All right now take off the bait
Perfect you can throw it back if you want throw the hook back. I'll reel it in. Thank you. All right
So now it's a little bit more appealing whenever you have something on the hook, right and you can get them to bite into it
Maybe they're a little bit more intrigued, you know, if I start putting hundred dollar bills on this
I think people might start getting a little bit more
interested, I don't know we'll see but
Why do I put that on there because I want them to bite firmly onto the hook now when I liken this unto soul-winning
This is what I like in the introduction is for one purpose. It's to get a good bite
Okay, and what do I mean by that?
You want a clear statement of what they believe that is the only goal and it does not take a long time
It doesn't honestly take very long and I've seen some people they take a really long time to get there. So let me
Help you and and getting there because I think everybody asks
Hey
If you were to die today, you're 100% sure to go to heaven
People are like who know a million different answers and then people say well, what do you think it takes to get there?
now
Here's the thing
virtually
No matter what they say
I'm probably gonna say another thing after this
But it just kind of depends on what their answers are and some people give a vague answer they'll say accept Christ or
You know, they'll say repent and and I think what happens is people end up taking their bait and they say what does that mean?
The reason they gave a vague answer is because they don't know what they mean, okay
So I'm not gonna go for their bait
I'm just gonna then try to make it clear to them what they believe if they give me any kind of vague answer
I'm saying they here's a not a vague answer. I believe it's totally of works not of faith. That's not a vague answer
You're like, oh the Bible says something different. Could I show you you just got a huge bite. They were just like BAM
I want those snacks. All right, they weren't even questionable about it
Or just salvation's by faith in Jesus Christ. It's not of works
It's a free gift you're just like I mean that's a clear answer
Okay, I'm saying anywhere in between that which is the majority of what people say, right?
Because they gave a vague answer this is what I'm gonna say
So do you think salvation's faith alone in what Jesus did or living a good life?
Because now I'm gonna help them drill down to what they really believe a
Lot of people will say both
Okay, whenever I say that and I'll say well do you think someone could lose their salvation and
Then basically, you know depending on how they answer that question
I might go straight in the gospel if they say it's both and they say yeah
You definitely can you can't just live however you want then I'm just gonna say well the Bible says salvation is a free gift
It's only by faith. Can I show you that how it's different and
I'll just go straight into it and I'm not gonna say like maybe if you want to I don't know
I'm just gonna say hey, can I show you a few verses how the Bible says something different?
Hey, can I show you can know you can have eternal life. Hey, can I I want to show you the Bible right now?
I'm interested in you. I'm interested in changing your mind. I have a clear statement, you know exactly why I'm here
It's not just like you know, we're just kind of out just opening the Bible to people, you know
No, I've identified you have something wrong that you believe
You know that you know what you believe now because we've kind of I've kind of helped you and guided you and to figure out
What you believe I didn't give you an answer. I'm just helping you figure out what you believe and now I'm contrasting it with what the
Bible says and
so if they continue to give me a vague answer then I might have to
Give a little bit more of an indication about this example. I just gave you so if I say hey, it's by faith alone
Or being a good person they say both I said you think you lose your salvation they say no
Now you're kind of like in this weird scenario, okay, but you're gonna get there either way I just say then okay
so if I believe in Jesus as my Savior and
I don't follow any of his commandments. Will I make it to heaven?
And then based on that answer
But there is some people and I'll say this there's some people they think the only way you can lose your
Salvation is if like you're an atheist or something. Okay. I am NOT gonna say that person's unsaved per se
It's probably just a misunderstanding of eternal security
but if they think they can lose their salvation based on any kind of a sin or
Backsliding or not being faithful or whatever that's a green light that they don't really understand the gospel and we need to explain to this
person if they're kind of just saying I've had some people they say the only way you can lose your salvation is if you just
Become like an atheist or a fag or a Buddhist or whatever
and I'm just thinking like
Well, that person's not saved. I agree, but it's not that they lost their salvation
And so maybe I'll just try to show them a verse or two on a serial security
but if they're saying I believe in Jesus Christ my Savior and there's no sin that can keep you out of heaven and
The only thing they're confused upon is like the reprobate doctrine or something
Then maybe I'll just show the reprobate doctrine see how they respond to that and then I'll just kind of move on
But I'm not gonna say just because someone is confused on that aspect. Like I've had some people say
Well, if you blaspheme the Holy Ghost, you never have forgiveness. It's like well, that's what the Bible says
But it's just not that they lost their salvation. No one who saves is ever gonna do that
So I'm not gonna just send someone to hell for that quote unquote
But if they say that they can lose their salvation based on anything to do with sin
Then that's another green light. And again, my goal is for them to say something to the effect of it's not faith alone
You can't live however you want you can definitely lose your salvation if you commit those sins
You're definitely going to go to hell because that's a clear statement that I can help them repent of
We want men to repent and believe the gospel today
And if they're trusting that has something to do with their works or how they live their life
That's the goal and I would say this it only takes maybe 20 to 30 seconds to get this
So I know I'm spending a lot of time talking about this
But I see people taking seven eight nine ten minutes in the introduction and that's precious time that you're wasting
By trying to entice them you want to just quickly assess where they're at what they believe offer them
Something different and see if they are interested because otherwise you just want to move on to the next fish
You don't want to just keep throwing the hook and they never bite. Okay. All right, you want them to be interested?
You want them to get that treat so I still have more out here if somebody else wants to try here in a second
All right
But as soon as you get the good bite, okay
So we've talked about a few things talking about where we put our hook
we talked about the importance of getting the bite as soon as you get the good bite you need to start reeling immediately and
This is throughout your entire gospel. Okay, as soon as they understand any point that you make keep reeling
Keep reeling don't continue to just dance with them on the line because when you dance with a fish on the line
Bad things can happen. Okay, the line can snap
You know the fish can get unhooked from the you know
Basically, they just take the treat from you. Like I got you know, I got suckered out of my my last treat
I didn't even get a fish, you know
But as soon as you get that bite, so as soon as I get a clear statement from for repentance, I'm going to move on
Now here's some things that are not clear statements
They said I don't know for sure if I died today, I'd go to heaven
That is unfortunately not a clear statement and people will back out of that all day long
You need to get something clearer than I'm just not really sure. I'm not a hundred percent sure
Now obviously we think that that's most likely an indication that they're not saved and I agree with you
That's just not clear enough or I think an atheist would lose their salvation or you should follow the commandments
Well, we should follow the commandments. That's just so I see people they'll hear something
That's not quite a clear statement and then they just move into like trying to get them saved and I'm thinking like we should have
Dug in just a hair deeper get a little bit more solid of a bite before we move on to presenting the gospel
But as soon as they have a clear bite, I'm ready to dive in there. I'm not gonna ask them any more questions
I'm saying can I show you how the Bible says something different and
Then I want to have a steady pace as I'm reeling them in and have a logical order now
I brought the board up here with me for a second because I want to
Talk about a few aspects of the gospel here
And we basically have I have six sections in
which your gospel presentation should follow this logical order, okay, and
So I'm gonna kind of write them up here real quick
You
Now let me say this
You could probably just throw a hook into the into the river and every once in a while hit a fish and pull it out
But that's not the most effective method. So whenever I'm explaining you how to preach the gospel
I'm not saying you have to do this method to get someone safe. I'm trying to help you do it really well
I'm trying to help you improve on it and I believe you should follow this progression every single time
Without exception. The only thing that I would say is if you don't get to start here
Okay, you but you should still follow this logical progression and I will explain why now you have sin hell the gospel
Then you have believe eternal security and the prayer
now the Bible says that everything should be line upon line precept upon precept here a little there a little and
When I notice people not follow this progression, you know what? I noticed them doing they still follow this progression
Just really ineffectively. They'll go like sin hell eternal security and then like gospel
And then believe and then you know what they end up doing they end up going back to
Eternal security at the end because they didn't get it yet
So like if you don't keep this type of a progression you're gonna end up doing it anyways, so you might as well not waste time
giving people the answers before they can handle them before they're gonna fully comprehend them or
get them and and I think this is the most common one because
People like to use Romans 6 23 the second half of that too early in their gospel presentation
Okay, and look it's a good verse and I love you
I use it every single time
but I don't use it until I'm ready to use that verse because otherwise I think it just goes over their head because you just
Haven't explained everything fully enough for them to be prepared for it. So we talked about our first category sin
This should be like 20 seconds of your gospel presentation
You know why because ninety nine point nine nine nine nine nine nine percent of people already
Agree and believe this point everyone I
Say hey for all of sin and come short of the glory of God. Do you believe everybody's a sinner? Yes
I'm already going to this section
Why because as soon as I get a bite, I'm reeling. Hey, you got it. We got it. Let's move on
I'm not gonna just sit here and waste time now. I go to Romans 6 23 and I make the transition
It's kind of a transitionary verse. I said well, there's a punishment for our sin or the wages sin is death. I
Also believe this section should be as short as humanly possible now I can say this all day long people don't really care
But I don't think it's beneficial to sit here and take five minutes to explain what a wage is to somebody
You know how many how much time I spend explaining somebody what a wage is zero seconds. I
Never explain it. It has no benefit if you want to just give them the answer. That's fine
But I say for the wages sin is death. This means we're all gonna die one day
you
Done
Hey, we're all gonna die one day and there's one of two places I can go heaven or where and they always say hell
Now all of a sudden I'm already going and explaining, you know who deserves to go to hell and it didn't even take me long
I see people I am NOT joking. They they're like seven minutes at the intro and
There's seven or eight minutes into sin and hell we're there for 15 minutes and we haven't even gotten past this
Stop this this step at the door. Look you're gonna lose a lot of fish
after 15 minutes
My intro if it's successful if it's a pretty good one. It's like 30 seconds 20 seconds and then another minute
I'm only two minutes in the door and I'm already going to the gospel. Okay, and this is important because
99% of people already believe this side of this board
I'm
Just being honest most people that we get saved they already believe this entire section agree with it or will agree with it
very quickly
Now there are some aspects of the gospel that are important to kind of bring up because some people get confused and and I'll explain
That in a second, but when it comes to this list
You want to go through quickly now when it comes to hell?
One thing that I do and and I think that this is just kind of beneficial some people always use a hypothetical person
In their gospel presentation. I think it just slows down the process. I just use myself
Because I say hey if I lied to you, what would you call me?
Liar, they're like, hey, there's this guy named Tom
What if Tom lied to you? What would you call him? It's like a little bit. They're like Tom who's Tom?
You know, what are you talking about? Like it just it's just an extra layer that doesn't need to be there
Just make yourself the bad guy, you know, it's easy say hey if I lied you what you call me a liar, right?
So where would I deserve to go hell, but wouldn't that be everybody? Yep, okay
Now I can move into the gospel and I like to go to Romans 5 8
Because it's a good transition verse from the fact that we deserve hell, but God didn't want us to go there
So I love using Romans 5 8 here because it says but God commended his love toward us and that will orient sinners
Christ died for so it immediately
Contrast the fact that we're deserving of hell God's showing his love by sending that substitute of his son the Lord Jesus Christ
And then I'm gonna explain the gospel and you know
Not everybody does this but I've seen a lot of people do this, too
They ask so many questions about the gospel. They're literally begging the fish to jump in the boat
I've watched people say hey, what is John 3 16 and
They'll quote it. Let's say so
What does that say you have to do to be saved and they're like go to church be a good person and they're like no
Let's read it again. What does it say?
And they're like, you know, they read the verse and they're like, so so what do you have to do be saved?
They're like go to church be a good person. Look, they're not gonna get themselves saved
You're not gonna show up and say fish bite the hook and it's like and there's like jump in the boat
He's like jump in the boat and it's like now what do you do fish and he's like jump in the boat
You're like, yeah jump in the boat, you know, it's like no you got to tell the fish what to do
You're out there fishing for men. You got to explain the verses to them. Here's a good rule of thumb
If your questions do not have a 95 or higher percent success rate with every single person. It's a bad question
now
There's two questions that I they get wrong here. Okay, and those are the ones that you want them to get wrong
But the one question they usually get wrong for me is after Jesus died on the cross where did his soul go and
They'll use to say heaven I can show them that it's hell
But that's a softball thing to show them that they're wrong on because the next statement that I'm gonna show them is act 16
Which is what do you have to do to be saved?
And that was the one thing they were wrong on that I'm trying to show them that they're different
Okay, but I see people ask all kinds of crazy questions. You know, what a wages. Yep
What's a wage I
Don't know
It's like something that you earned at your job or it's something that you go and you try to earn
And it's like minimum wage
And it's just like, you know, if they always get it wrong and you're always explaining to them. Just give them the answer
Any part of your gospel presentation that people are struggling to understand give them the answer every single time
Any area just give them the answer the only exception I have is this is belief
Okay, and I'm gonna explain that why but whenever I'm preaching the gospel, I go Romans 3 23 Romans 6 23
Then I go to Revelation
2010 and Revelation 21 8
Then I go Romans 5 8 so I've only showed them a few verses here
Most people follow that same progression or very similar and I think that's fine
I'm gonna preach the gospel to them and I'm gonna check a few different things. Do they
Understand that Jesus is the Son of God they understand that Jesus Christ is God to
That there's you know, the Father the Son of the Holy Ghost and Jesus Christ is God yet
He's not the Father, but he is the Son. That's a pretty easy point to move on from
I'm gonna make sure that they believe Jesus sinless
I'm gonna make sure that they believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross not for any of his wrongdoing
For our wrongdoing that he was buried and very importantly he rose again
Okay, and you know
Often when I say this I just explained to them the bodily resurrection. I don't ask them about it. I just say this
That his soul went to hell and then three after three days and three nights
He rose again
What that means is that his soul returned to his physical body and he walked out of the tomb and he showed
The disciples the holes in his hand, so I'm not like do you believe it's a bodily or a physical or spiritual?
Well, my cat one time was dreaming and you know, you just like open the door to like weird scenarios or whatever
I just give them the answers give people the answers and don't try to like confuse them and look
These are important things to cover
But I just tell them the whole gospel. I don't sit there and constantly like so what did Jesus do next and
You know, why do you think Jesus went to hell?
You would think that but let me show you another very like you just it just takes a lot of you just eat up a lot
Of time asking them to preach you the gospel. I'm not there to have them preach me the gospel
I just preach them the gospel. Okay, I tell them what the Bible says
I tell them what Jesus did and you know
I get a gay I gauge them for if they understand or believe or agree with me, right?
I can kind of see you know, are you are you paying attention?
I can ask if you know, is that what you believe is that kind of where you're at?
Is that how you understand it just so I understand I know that they're getting it
I don't have to ask them every question under the Sun
Now I believe you should try to get through this section as
quickly as possible while still being thorough and
Again, this takes 20 seconds. This takes like a minute
This for me would probably take about two to three minutes
But honestly, I'm only spending about four minutes on this side of the board
Why because I want to spend as much time as I can over here and most people will get done with you after 12 15
20 minutes, I mean you're gonna lose a lot of people
After that amount of time, so I want to have as much time to explain all this as humanly possible
and I know a lot of you know how to preach the gospel, but
one thing I just find to be as less effective as this is
giving people the answer to
To basically how to be saved before you get there
okay, and why I say this is because sometimes people say I believe in Jesus and
I'm gonna let me let me word this differently
Every single person that you virtually preach the gospel to if you said do you believe in Jesus? They'll say yes
Before you even showed up. Okay, and isn't that the way you get saved is believing in Jesus
So there's there's some kind of a communication gap here
Right, and I don't want to constantly reiterate how you believe in Jesus through all these stages and way before I get to this this
Point what I'm gonna explain to them because they don't get it yet
They're speaking a different language than you are and let me prove this to you for a second
But go to Ephesians chapter 1 Ephesians chapter 1
What do we mean by believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? We mean to trust
Okay. Now if I looked up the word believe in the dictionary the Miriam
Webster's dictionary, you know a word is not used to explain the word believe ever trust
Let
Me give you the definition of believe according to Miriam Webster's dictionary to accept something is true
Well, how many people don't accept that Jesus is a person I
Mean atheists will accept that that's true. Okay. So when you say believe in Jesus a lot of times
That's what they think you mean by that
Or to consider to be true. They're gonna say it is true. They say you just think that it's true
Or to accept the word or evidence of to hold an opinion
To suppose so when you use the word believe and their mind they could be thinking well
I'm I'm pretty sure that Jesus exists that could be literally what they think when they say they believe in Jesus
Is that gonna save you? I think that Jesus might be real
No
So we have to make a clear
Distinction between what the Bible is saying about believing in Jesus Christ and what most people think the word believe means now, this is how I
Differentiate these two I say believe does not mean exists
Believe means trusts and I think it's important to show them
Clear example look at verse 13
It says in whom you also trusted
After that, you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and whom also after that you believe now
I don't show them that verse but we have to understand that to believe means to trust
that's what the Bible clearly teaches and so I give three examples and
And I don't use all three these are three different examples that I've used at this point
So I've already proven that we're sinners deserving of hell. I preached the gospel to this person. I
Told them that Jesus Christ died on the cross was buried rose again, and I say does everybody automatically go to heaven
They say no, I say so it depends on something doesn't it and they say yes, and this is what I do
I remind them of what they said at the door. That was wrong and
I have not told them what they what the right answer is yet
Outside of just saying the Bible says by faith alone at the door, but I didn't really explain to them what that means
So I'll say well when I first asked you you said it was getting baptized
You said that it was going to church you said as being a good person and since you haven't contrast anything
They're gonna just say yeah, that is what I believe
Yeah, well, let's see what the Bible says acts chapter 16
It says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved see how that's different
Than what you said see how it's saying something different than just you know be or it's just by faith here
Now what it means to believe it means that it's not that you believe that God exists or the Lord Jesus Christ exists
It means that you're trusting in him
So this is the number one example that I use and I'm going to show you a couple others
I say this we all believe cops exist, right?
do you trust every single cop and
Look, this is above the 95% acceptance rate
Okay of them saying no
They do not trust every single cop and so then I'll say this is the exact same difference with God
Many people believe that Jesus Christ exists, but they're not trusting him to get to heaven
And I say let me let me make this plain if I told you I'm going to heaven cuz I'm a good person go to
Church and I'm using what they said. Okay remind you again, whatever it is that they said
Does it sound like I'm trusting Jesus or myself and they say yourself?
Now they understand what it means to believe in Jesus. This is one of the most important steps of preaching the gospel
Because they already get all this and these things are important too
But this
Understanding the difference between believing that Jesus exists and it means to put your trust in Jesus
Christ is the most important aspect of preaching the gospel in my opinion because that's just not that's just something that they don't get yet
That's something that they haven't figured out
Here's my second way that could articulate this if there's a tall building and you're at the top of it's on fire
There's no escape but a fireman comes down along and he says if you jump down
I'll catch you and save you. Do you believe in me is?
The cut is the fireman asking do you believe I exist or is he saying trust me?
I'll catch you and they're like trust me. I'll catch you and I said that's the same thing with the Lord Jesus Christ
He's not asking you for acknowledge that he exists
He's wanting to put all your trust in him to save you from going to hell and then you could grow back into what I?
Just said so if I said I'm going to heaven cuz I'm a good person and go to church and live a good life
Is that me trusting in what Jesus did or what I'm doing and it's like what you're doing
Here's my third way that I articulate that
hey, I need to go across town and
I say hey, I need to get over there. I believe in you to get me there. I say who's gonna drive and
they say I am and
I said what if I just get in my car and just drive by myself. Am I really believing in you?
Am I trusting in you to get me there and they're like no
I said the same way with Jesus Christ if I say that I believe in him
But I'm really not trusting his death run resurrection to get me there. Am I really trusting in him now?
I just gave you three different examples in what like two minutes
people take a long time in this in this section to to explain what the Bible saying and and I've seen people they say
All you have to do to be saved is a believe in Jesus
Not not the other stuff and they say oh, I believe in Jesus and they say well if someone commits murder
Are they gonna go to hell and they're like, yeah
no, no, I said the Bible says I have to just believe in Jesus and like why believe in Jesus and
They're like, well, no you don't believe in Jesus like yeah, I do believe in Jesus
Well, you just said if they go to hell if someone commits murder, they're gonna go to hell
Yeah, because that's yeah, that's what I believe and they're like, but I but you just have to believe in Jesus
And it's like they don't know that you're making a difference between trust and believing that Jesus exists
You have to speak a different language to them. Otherwise, they're not going to understand or
Get it
now
I'm gonna have two last points here quickly, okay
After I get them to understand what it means to trust in Jesus Christ
I will hammer this point with a few more believe verses, please please please show at least two or three believe verses right in a row
That's why I always show act 16 30 and 31 and then John 3 16 right after immediately and then I might even show 3 18
336
524 I want to hammer believe believe believe because that's the one thing they have to do to be safe and now they have a new
Understanding of what it means to believe it's by trusting
Okay
Now once I feel that they they fully grasp this concept I can move on to the eternal security aspect and I always
Show the Sun analogy and I think this is very important and let me explain why?
If I go to Romans 6 23 at this point, or I go to other
Analogies like the gift or something the gift does not explain why works are important
Think about the gift analogy, right? I say hey if I want to give you my Bible we have to give me $100
Is that a gift and they'll say, you know, hopefully they'll say no, but here's the thing
Does that explain why works are important in the Christian life at all?
Can you use that analogy to explain the importance of works alongside with your faith? No, so the Sun analogy is actually
Superior to that example because
Not only does it help articulate the freeness of it since who gave birth your mom or you
Your mom did who did all the work your mom did it was free, right?
Did you have to pay for your birth? No, I mean they did
But here's the thing you can illustrate the free part
But more importantly you can illustrate the difference between works and faith because people are still hung up on this the second most important thing
Beyond understanding that believe means trust is understanding that your works are important is different and
This Sun analogy is perfect at articulating this because you say hey is it important for me to follow my parents rules?
Yep, will they ever change my parents are by me not following them. No
And they're like, oh I get it now
So if I'm God's son, no matter how good or bad I am. I'm always God's son
This is one of the most important and crucial steps and since I was in John 3 16
Like I told you, you know, I just lit the page John 1 12
But as many received unto them gave you power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name
Now you say I can't remember all your references
Just go to pure words Baptist comm or go to our website and you can print out
I have the exact verse references of how I go in my gospel presentation that order
So if you want to follow that, but I'm just kind of giving you a few extra points here
For me when I go to the gift analogy when I finally go back to Romans 6 23
I'm just testing their comprehension if they've understand everything I explained to them that it's a free gift
It's just by faith that it's not something you have to add to it's not something you could lose and
After I show them Romans 6 23
The only verse I really show is Ephesians 2 8 9 just because it emphasizes not of works emphasize the gift again
It pairs well with Romans 6 23 because they both talk about the gift and that it's free and I think that that's good and important
But as soon as they understand the gospel it's time to get the fish in the boat
Okay, once you've reeled that sucker in and you're ready to go. You need to get that fish in the boat as soon as
Possible and so I'm going straight into the prayer and I always say this
What was the one thing you have to do be saved believe?
Well, this is how you believe in Jesus and I go to Romans 10 9 and 10
I show them those verses and then I ask them these few questions
Okay
I'm gonna move this out of the way for a second
You go to 1st Chronicles chapter 12 and that's the place last place I'll be friend it turn to but
Once I've identified that this person gets it they know they're a sinner. They know they deserve hell
They believe the gospel they believe salvation's by just trusting in Jesus Christ and that you could never lose it
Once we've gone through that they've gotten this, you know, they're real receptive
It probably only takes about 10 minutes to explain these different concepts to them 10 12 minutes
Then I'm gonna you know, try to compel them to be saved
I'm gonna compel them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ now to call upon the name of the Lord in faith and know that
They're saved right now
So I asked them these few questions
I said this is how you believe but let me make sure you understand this if I
Pray right now and ask God to save me, but I do not believe in him. Will that save me?
And
They almost always say no, but it's an important thing to ask them because I'm helping them realize that it's not about a prayer
It's about what you believe
Because I'll even I'll just kind of as a follow-up be like if I prayed it a thousand times wouldn't matter would it and they're
Like no, it's Catholics pray every single day
And I didn't put this in my notes
I just thought of it if you talk to a Catholic before you pray with them
You tell that you say what I showed you is different than what the Catholic Church believes
Which one do you believe you believe the Catholic Church what the Bible just said and
Make them pick because you can compel a Catholic to pray with you every day of the week without being saved
Okay, and so, you know people are just just be careful
I've had Catholics agree with them at every point and
Ready to pray and then I say now do you believe what I showed you in the Bible or the Catholic doctrine? Oh, I'm Catholic. Oh
I I don't I believe what the Catholic Church teaches and I'm just like what in the world
So you make them pick, okay
But then I say this if I pray
But I believe being a good person is gonna get me there. Well that saved me
And again if they can answer these questions correctly
it's because you've explained the gospel very well to them and they understand the difference now than what they originally believed and though that the
Most likely they if you've done it. Well, they say no
Because it's not that's not trusting in Jesus. That's not believing Jesus and I asked them one last follow-up question
I say if I pray and ask God to save me right now, but I'm
Believe that I could lose my salvation by committing sin or not being faithful
Will that save me?
And most of the time they can get that right away
Sometimes I kind of have to reiterate that point but if they can understand that salvation is not by my prayer
It's not by being a good person. It's not by losing your salvation. It's all faith in Jesus
They're primed up and ready to go and then I this is what I say
Let me just help you word of prayer right now and tell God you believe in him so you can know you're saved
Would you maybe want to pray I
Don't ask the fish, you know politely I tell the fish to get in the boat
Okay, I say let me help you word of prayer right now and tell God you believe in him so you can know you're saved
I
Don't even want to open the door of a window. Like you don't have to pray with me
So I'm here like you don't have to pray with me, you know, it's not even words
This is something you could just do you think maybe you'd like to and it's just like the person's like maybe later
Just say no
Hey
I want to help you say a prayer right now and tell God you believe in him so you can know you're safe
I've already identified this person's changed their mind and they believe the right things
So now I want them to make that sure and you know, I always do I do say this somewhere in that interchange
I say this is this a little bit different
Or do you see how this is different?
Than what you believe before you see how what I just showed you is not what you said earlier
Do you see how you just something along that line and they're like, yeah
Yeah, I did change my mind. Yes
Repentance unto life repentance from dead works and faith toward God faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ now
When I pray and I'll this is the last point I'm gonna make and you know, I've made a lot of points here
Hopefully you were able to pick up some of it
But when I pray, you know, I don't think that the prayer like I said, there's not a special formula
By any stretch of the imagination. I mean you have people say Lord be merciful me a sinner, you know
And they get to go to heaven right, but I don't think that's the best prayer
I think we should put in our prayer what we just showed them
So and whenever I pray I just address it to God the Father
I just say dear Heavenly Father because every prayer you see Jesus is praying to the Father. I say dear Heavenly Father
I know I'm a sinner
Check mark and I deserve to go to hell
Check mark, but I believe you sent your son
Jesus Christ to die in the cross for all my sins. He was buried and rose again gospel
Right. I mean we've checked it was checked off all three of those right and then I say please save me and give me eternal life
I am only trusting in your son and
Not in my works in
Jesus name I pray amen now that's exactly what I just showed them there and that's what I even tell them
Hey
Let's just pray right now and tell God exactly what you just said you believe so you can know that you're saved
And then I just pray that exactly with them and really when it comes to the specifics of the of your prayer
These are the two things that I think that are really important
Okay
The entire gospel and that you're asking for salvation
Okay, if you don't have those elements, I will try to instruct you to put those in there the death bear resurrection and
That you're asking for salvation and you're putting you know, you're trying to get eternal life in some way
So those are the things that I think are really important to make sure you incorporate in your prayer
And why did I go over all this? I know a lot of y'all are definitely dedicated soul winners
I've been doing it for a while
But here's the thing
I want you to be able to slay with your right hand and your left hand look at verse number
One it says now these are they that came to David to zik lag
While yet kept himself close because of the saw the son of Kish and they were among the mighty men helpers of the war
They were armed with bows and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow
Even as Saul's brethren Benjamin now, that's impressive
To be able to shoot a bow out of both to throw stone look if you see me throw something on my left hand
It's bad. Okay, I'm not that great at it and we've been talking about soul fishing. Look not all fishing is is equivalent
there's better fishing than others and so we should always be willing to improve on our soul winning and
Improve on our fishing technique so that we can catch as many fish as possible. Let's close in prayer
Thank you father so much for giving us these clear instructions and these guidelines
I pray that you would just be with us as we go out
That you just remind us of the scriptures that we need to use
That we'd have a zeal and a heart to improve on our soul winning so as to get as many people saved as possible
I pray that you just give us more laborers that you would help increase our labor force
that we could go out and we could just bring in as many fish as possible for your honor and for your glory and
We thank you for the gift of your son Jesus Christ