Right, 1 Peter 3 though, I just want to look at the middle verses there again in 1 Peter chapter 3.
So just from verse 10 to 16 there again, let's read those through again, where it says here from verse 10 of 1 Peter 3,
For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.
Let him eschew evil and do good, let him seek peace and ensue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers.
But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good?
But if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happier ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled.
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man,
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
Having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers,
they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
Now this is part two of our How To Win Souls series.
Last week was an introduction to soul winning, including a checklist that you can look at before you get started.
Today it's starting the conversation.
So the title is How To Win Souls.
And number two, starting the conversation.
I'd like to pray and then we'll get going.
Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for the Ministry of Reconciliation.
Help us to listen just attentively now.
Help everyone here to just pay attention to the principles, even the verses here that help us with those as well,
Lord, to just be as effective as possible at trying to get the conversation started.
And knowing that, you know, it might be in the future that people then hear the Gospel.
Lord, help us to just pay attention to that and to just take heed to what your word is saying.
And also to the instruction, you know, from what is some well thought out sort of soul winning principles
and things that we've been doing as a group and as a church and many churches have as well.
Please fill me with your spirit as I preach all this.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
OK, so we're going to come back to 1 Peter 3.
As for me, it's got some great principles here for this part of our soul winning.
But turn to Ephesians chapter six, Ephesians six, where Paul has just listed the spiritual armour,
of which one part is our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
So, you know, like we're not going to a physical battle barefooted.
You'd be a bit mad to do so.
We're not going to the spiritual battle if we're not preaching the gospel, are we?
You're not in the spiritual battle.
If you're not preaching the gospel, you're not showing people how to get saved.
You're not really in the spiritual battle.
OK. And of course, like I mentioned many times, being a silent partner, being part of that,
learning how to do that is all part of that as well.
He then says this at the end from verse 18 in Ephesians six and verse 18, it says,
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
And for me, the utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds,
that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
So Paul said, please pray for me to be bold in preaching the gospel, right?
That I may speak boldly as I ought to speak, as I should speak, basically.
And for me, this is probably the most important part of starting a conversation
when it comes to soul winning is boldness.
It's so important. It makes such a difference if you're bold in the message,
if you're bold in the approach, if you're bold, confident in approaching someone with the gospel,
whatever area of life that's in, especially if you're going up, knocking on someone's door, it's boldness.
However, it's boldness, it's not rudeness.
OK, it's boldness, not rudeness. We could be bold and confident without being impolite.
OK, you are capable. It's not because you're polite.
That doesn't mean, oh, looks like they're a bit nervous. No, you could do both.
You could be bold and polite.
Both are essential for regular effective soul winning, boldness and politeness, especially look.
And OK, you know, I don't want to go too far with this because manners is good wherever you are.
But we do live in a nation where people, the majority of people you knock on doors
generally around here are going to be at least have some form of British culture.
And, you know, Britain, a lot of people, they are quite big on manners.
Maybe not so much in the service industry.
We seem to put up with pretty bad service industry.
But in general, people do want to see manners.
People are manners is important, right?
So we want to be careful with this, especially preaching the gospel around here.
It's boldness. But like I said, it's not rudeness.
OK, it starts from when we get to the front gate or the edge of their property and continues throughout the whole gospel.
OK, being polite to people that you've gone to them.
Remember, you've approached them. You've knocked on their door.
They didn't have a sign outside saying, please come here.
You've chosen to go to their door. We need to be polite.
We need to be bold, though, as we walk up to that front door or when we stop that person in the street
or even approach someone in our personal lives.
But we also need to be polite.
So, for example, not treat the property with disrespect.
You know, when we go up, you don't want to be whispering to your soul when you park.
Nowadays, you're either on Ring doorbell, someone's watching out front window, whatever.
You know, regardless, you know, we shouldn't be whispering about the property or worse, not not not whispering about it.
We should show respect to the property, show respect to the gate you're opening
and shutting and not slapping. And these should be obvious things, right?
Not trampling across their lawn, across their flower beds and things like that.
But it also includes our kids. And that's something we have to train our kids for.
You know, we don't want our kids just, you know, trashing someone's front drive
or we're kind of not really aware what they're doing because people get upset about that stuff, don't they?
You know, if they're grabbing things, pulling things off the trees or picking,
grabbing the plants or the stones off the off the floor, you know, the nice decorative stones, things like that.
Statues. And as much sometimes you want to just grind those statues into powder, you know, you got to
you don't let your kids start grabbing them and messing around with them.
And you don't know if that was a gift from someone, especially in their life or something,
and your kids treating it like it's just a bit of rubbish, not insulting them or their home on the way in or out of the drive as well.
So remember that as well when you let exit a drive as well, not because sometimes, you know, people do this a bit.
We can all do this. You know, you have someone who's maybe a bit rude or a bit funny, a bit weird or something else,
and you start talking about it before you even left their drive.
And there's not a magic barrier where they can't hear you.
And like I said, often the doorbell, the neighbours, the windows, whatever it is, that's not a good testimony, is it?
1 Peter 3.11 says, if you want to see good days, and by the way, that would definitely include soul winning days.
Yeah, we want to see good soul winning days, don't we?
Verse 11 said, let him eschew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue it.
So we're seeking peace. Now, one sort of peace we're seeking is peace between them and the Father through the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we also are seeking peace as much as we can with ourselves and other people as we go knock on that door.
So, for example, you know, on that on that topic, don't knock the door like you're the police or a debt collector.
OK, and that's important. That's more important in this nation as well.
And I got out of funny comments. Someone mentioned it earlier. I said, I'm actually going to talk about this as well.
So what we don't want to do, because I don't know about you guys, but when I when I'm at home and I hear my door knock like this,
I'm so, you know, like this to the door. You know, that's what we get like, don't we?
And that's not what you want when someone answers their door and you want to preach in the gospel.
Or even worse, we had someone recently who came to who came along and suddenly decided they were going to start door knocking,
who put his elbow on a door like boom, boom, boom. And sure enough, within, I think, a couple of knocks, someone came out and rebuked them.
What are you doing knocking on my door like that? OK, now, again, there's some cultural differences, because I think I'm sure I've heard it.
Anyone heard preaching before, I think for the US where they where I've heard someone say that ringing the doorbell is for salesmen.
Anyone heard that before? And I just imagine, yeah, a few people. OK, but we're not in the US.
In the UK, ringing a doorbell is usually a polite way to knock someone's door.
OK, so when I hear my doorbell ring, I'm like, oh, lovely sound, you know. Hello.
When I hear boom, boom, boom, I think it's either the police or a debt collector. What's going on? What's happening?
You know, in reality, right? So we want to start off nicely now.
I'm not saying don't knock. Often I might do both, but the knock can be a bit more like that rather than boom, boom, boom.
Or something. Yeah, like a polite knock, a nice knock, you know.
And again, you know, if the doorbell, you can clearly see a light shining up or you can hear it go or whatever else,
you don't have to bang the door as well.
They've heard the doorbell. If they don't want to answer, they don't want to answer.
If they're not in, they're not going to be in. OK, now, I believe it does sound less aggressive with the doorbell,
but by all means, knock as well. But just make sure it's not aggressive.
OK, now with the ring doorbells, for me, it's the last resort.
So I will generally knock the door, ring the normal doorbell if there is one first,
because I just don't want to get fobbed off on the ring doorbell, you know,
and then I'll ring the doorbell kind of afterwards, you know, ring the ring doorbell.
Because some people are kind of sitting there waiting for the ring doorbell to answer the door anyway.
That's what they get used to, because you obviously hear it inside as well.
It's not just come up on your phone. So again, for me, it's kind of the last thing I then press.
Now remember that we have limited time, OK?
So if you've knocked or rung loud enough, so you've clearly knocked and it, you know, it's made of good enough noise.
You've heard a doorbell ring, maybe the dog bark or not, you know, and there's a lot of dogs, but maybe not.
You don't have to stand there for ages before knocking again.
OK, we're trying to reach as many people as we can in the time.
We're on a limited time. So we don't want to be like, right, knock the door and then stand there for a minute,
then knock the door again and stand there for another minute.
Look, at the end of the day, usually if they're going to answer, you're going to see them anyway, you know,
and sure, you don't want to literally knock the door and leg it, OK?
But a reasonable time can, depending on the size of the house, how empty it looks,
whether or not you can hear motion and stuff like that.
Yeah, so obviously that's down to your own sort of way of doing it.
But I wouldn't just be standing there for ages and ages and ages waiting
because you're just going to knock off the amount of doors.
You know, we want to knock, we want to knock multiple doors, especially if your silent partner's a talker.
If your silent partner is able to talk, then you can be even quicker with going to the next door,
because if they do answer, your silent partner can deal with it if you've already knocked on that next door.
OK? OK, so if there's no answer, OK, we post it through the letterbox in this nation.
So again, I say that because there's a funny thing out in the US where you're not allowed to,
we would laugh at you about it.
You carry around guns, knives, you know, kids with flick knives, everything else.
But you put an invite in someone's letterbox and I mean, you get fined or something, OK?
So they've got some sort of rule there.
OK, that's why they like push, you know, put them in the cracks, the door and stuff like that.
However, here in this nation, you can put it through the letterbox.
We do put it through the letterbox.
It's the safest place to put it.
But watch out for four legged beasts behind the door.
Watch out for the two legged ones as well, especially the four legged beasts behind the door.
Obviously, if I hear, I don't take a risk with this.
You know, a lot of letterbox with a draft excluded, you're not having to push your fingers through to get the thing through without trashing it.
And if I hear a load of like scampering of hooves behind the door, I'm more likely to just put it at the outside of the letterbox or maybe in the crack,
because people do get their fingers bitten.
OK, so be careful for that.
Obviously, if in doubt, just put it in the crack of the door.
Right, if someone answers.
OK, so someone answers.
This is what I like to say, OK?
And again, you don't have to say, well, we've got to say exactly what past tense is.
However, if you're new to it, you've never done it before.
You watch this in the future.
Nothing wrong with starting here, but you might find something that sounds a bit more natural to you.
But I'm going to tell you why I say it like this.
I'll say something something along the lines of this.
Hi there. We're from Strong Tower Baptist Church.
We're giving out some Baptist church invites.
Would you like one?
Or and then from there I might say, you know, you're Christian, do you go to church?
But I do try and make a big point of being a Baptist church.
And I've got in a habit now of generally saying it twice.
OK, because a lot of the time you'll do that.
And what will be the answer?
Are you Jehovah's Witnesses?
So that now, if you said it twice, it seems to be I'm getting less of that right now, because I make your point twice.
So they haven't kind of just glossed over the first part, not heard you correctly and then thought, must be Jehovah's Witness,
because then you said the second time as well.
So that's what I do.
It doesn't sound too weird.
I'm not just going Baptist Church, Baptist Church, Baptist Church.
You know, it says, hi there, we're from Strong Tower Baptist Church.
Not from Strong Tower Foundation anymore.
I've been out there, knock your doors for sure, Foundation, you let me off.
We're from Strong Tower Baptist Church and we're giving out some Baptist Church invites.
Do you go to church?
I might say or I might say, you know, you're Christian or something like that, right?
OK, now, if they're willing to chat and I want to and when I say willing to chat,
if they're not just like not interested at all or something else and I might see an angle, just go, OK,
well, we are also just trying to show people the gospel, how to go to heaven or something like that.
If I think I'm on limited time and I might have a chance.
If it's clear and obvious that they're just not interested,
I'm not trying to put my foot in the door and leave a verse while the door's shutting.
You know, we need to pick up on cues and things like that.
A lot of people just learn to read body language.
That's something that comes with time as well.
But if they're willing to chat, at least stand there.
You know, they're not just trying to just fob me off straight away.
Then I don't go straight into, well, what if you died today?
And I'll tell you why, OK?
I'm going to tell you why. Firstly, let me just tell you what I generally do.
What I generally do is point out the information on the card. OK?
So I'll say, I, we're from wherever, you know, are you a Christian or do you go to church or whatever they're answering.
I'll generally go next to something along the lines of, well, you know, this is our church invite.
These are our service times.
This is the the information on the card.
You know, this is we have a live stream as well.
You can check us out on YouTube. This is our website.
Please have a look at it. I'll tell you why.
Because straight away, they think you're weird.
OK, so when I'm standing there and I'm and I'm showing them just something, it's not just bizarre small talk.
I'm not just going, well, isn't it lovely weather today?
Oh, I do like your lawn and everything else.
But when it's something that's actually the point of why I'm knocking, firstly, they think, well, there is an end in sight here.
He's just showing me the invite.
But secondly, I'm trying to I'm trying to show them that I'm not weird.
And I'm trying to show them just some normal communication skills and some normal chat.
But it's not just completely pointless stuff.
It's what I'm knocking on the door and giving them an invite to reassure them that I'm not a weird Jehovah's Witness or someone else.
Before I then ask that question, because just put it on the other.
Say you've never been a church.
You have no idea what we're doing.
Someone knocks on your door, says, hi there, we're from blah, blah, blah.
Well, more important than any of that, what if you died today?
It's it comes across as weird.
OK, and we are we are very more unchurched culture, at least unchurched when it comes to kind of Baptist churches and the gospel and things like that.
So for me, getting some sort of if if possible, if they look like they're open for a bit of conversation, just a small doesn't have to be five minutes.
Just a few several seconds of pointing out the invite and talking about what church they go to or anything like that before then going, well, you know, more important than any of that stuff, then asking that question.
OK. It obviously shows that it's not going to be an allow a long chat when I do that as well.
So I'm just showing it's not going to be our long.
I'm just showing them what's on the invite as an ended site.
Now, then it will be something like but more important than that.
But, you know, what we're asking everyone and you know what?
I've just asked your neighbor and we just ask everyone this question.
It's more important is something along the lines of.
Are you sure that you're going to heaven one day, for example?
Does it now again?
There's nothing you can say.
What if you die today?
I'm a bit wary of that with certain people because I don't know, I try and read body language and I have had quite a lot of people when I say, well, if you die today, you just see them prick straight away.
You see the back go up, you see the hairs go up on their neck or so, because especially when I'm just with a guy at their door, especially when it's late at night or maybe not late at night, but it's dark outside.
They've got two guys at their door.
And within a few seconds, the person's asked them what's going to happen if they die today.
And people, it's weird.
You know, it does come across weird.
And look, again, if it works for you and everything else, but try and read people and see, because especially if I've got a single lady on her own, you know, especially or something like that, I'll often just say, well, you know, when you die, are you 100% sure you're going to heaven?
Or when you die one day or God forbid, someday in the future when you die, where do you think you're going?
Or something along those lines, something that sounds natural, that sounds normal.
If you want to say if you die today, sure, but just make it sound very friendly when you do and not like a bit menacing or something else.
Because you'll just get a bad result, because what we're trying to do is keep this conversation going, not have their backs up and not have them just be like, well, I don't like questions like that.
Slam the door and say, oh, what a shame.
Maybe that person could have got saved, right?
So again, you're trying to read and see what comes natural to you, what comes out well.
OK, depending on what they say, OK, maybe it will be, well, do you mind me asking what you believe someone has to do to go to heaven?
So what we want to be careful not to do is say, for example, you know, if you die today, you know, you're 100% sure you're going to heaven and then go, so why is that?
What makes you so sure?
Or, you know, again, we're just polite, polite manners.
Yeah, be polite.
You know, do you mind me asking what you think someone has to do to go to heaven?
You know, sometimes I'll say, especially, you know, when you have to go into a few questions because they're kind of not so clear, they're not really explaining, oh, well, it's just kind of a faith thing or something.
And you're like, OK, OK, so what's that?
You know, is it, you know, is it faith in something specific, et cetera?
Because, look, sometimes it can sound weird.
So I'll say something along the lines of, sorry to keep questioning you, but we knock doors, we knock a lot of doors.
A lot of people who say they're Christian give a different answer to this.
And it's important to know what someone believes, right?
So something just, you're trying to soften it and not just sound like you're interrogating someone.
You know, it can get weird, can't it?
When they're just going, oh, faith, oh, yeah, well, it's just kind of believe.
Well, believe what?
Well, you know, believe in God.
OK, well, OK, is it just, you know, you're trying to get to the bottom of what they believe.
It can come across a bit weird.
So just sorry to interrogate you on your doorstep.
You know, I know I've just knocked on your door.
However, you know, just trying to get to the bottom of what you, you know, just find out what you do believe and see if maybe there's anything you want me to explain for the Bible for you or just see what you understand, what you do believe, you know, before getting into the gospel.
Now, something I sometimes say to people rather than themselves, because then it gets even more awkward and confusing when you go, what if you went and did this?
And then they're like, well, I wouldn't do such a thing.
And then suddenly you've got this weird debate going on about whether or not they would or wouldn't do that.
So I just say, well, what if I believe today and then next week or next year I went and did a really bad sin and instead of just going, well, what if I go, what if you went and killed someone?
You know, just again, it sounds weird, right?
So something that's a bit less weird is what if I believe today, then next week or next year I went and did a really bad sin.
It sounded something completely crazy and God forbid I killed someone or something.
You know, we'll still be going to heaven.
And that's a good way of understanding what they really believe without it sounding really weird where they just say, what are you talking about?
Who goes around killing people?
I just think I'm a murderer, you know, or something else.
They start getting their back up and what are these questions?
So there's ways of doing it.
Right. And that's what we're trying to do, because we're trying to get it, trying to act normal and polite and have a nice conversation with them instead of just sounding a bit weird.
And look, some of those people are just going to get their backs up anyway.
Right. As we know, when you ask these questions, I don't want to answer such a question.
OK, well, whatever. You just said you're a Christian.
You want to tell us what you got to do to go to heaven.
But there are people I think we can avoid that if we're a bit more polite, if it comes across a bit more natural, a bit more normal, et cetera.
OK, so now when we're asking that, why are we asking that?
OK, so just to give you an example, if I'm knocking on the door and I say, hi there, we're from Strong Tower Baptist Church.
Just giving out some Strong Tower Baptist Church invites.
Are you a Christian? And someone says, maybe yes.
OK, well, OK, well, you know, if you're interested, we've got some online stuff here.
This is where we're at. We're just down at where Allegro Music used to be in London Road, blah, blah, blah.
Here's our invite. You know, you're welcome to have a look at some of our stuff online.
These are our live stream things. But, you know, a question that we ask everyone is that, you know, more important than any of that stuff, more important than going to church.
God forbid, say you died one day, you're 100% sure you're going to heaven.
OK, now, if someone says something like, yes, no, not sure, whatever else, it's really important now.
This is a point where you need to be remembering making mental notes of what they say.
Why? Because what happens at the end of a gospel presentation when they've clearly said it was works, they weren't sure, etc.
I already knew that. I already believed because the pride goes up and it's very nice to be able to say it, but you did say this.
But what is important is not to put words in someone's mouth.
Well, you said that or whatever else.
No, what do they believe? Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
So don't say, oh, so do you think you've got to do the commandments and stuff like that?
Well, it is another thing. They might even be saved and just be completely weak on the gospel.
You know, I heard false prophets for years and everything else.
And then they just just like, you know, they're a bit like of a yes man type who just kind of doesn't want to get in a debate on the door.
So like, yeah, yeah, whatever. Yeah, you probably got to do the quorum.
But deep down in the heart, they might not believe that.
Do you know what I mean? There is such a thing.
So ultimately, when we preach, when we're asking, so at the beginning, we're trying to find out what they believe.
Don't put words in their mouth, ask them what they believe in it.
And like I said, you can soften it so to interrogate you, etc.
So that you're it's still not you just trying to this getting uncomfortable now, just put the words in their mouth, you know, try and get them to answer.
And ultimately, the murder one, the what it God forbid, say you went and killed someone or say I went and killed someone and I believe I'm still going to heaven is usually that's a key thing.
That's a key question.
Someone said, oh, yeah, it's just belief.
Just, oh, they must be saved.
We know better than that, right?
Because a lot of people you ask in that question will be like, then I'm going to hell.
Or they'll say, oh, well, as long as I ask for forgiveness, is that the gospel?
Do you have to ask for forgiveness?
Because if you have to ask for forgiveness for every for serious sins like that, you have to ask forgiveness for every sin you've ever done.
And who's asked for forgiveness for every single sin they ever do and ever will do?
What a load of nonsense, right?
OK, but that's false teaching stuff.
You're just trying to find out.
So once they say that, you can then show them from the word of God.
OK, well, and now here's a couple of important bits as well.
Wrong answer.
OK, obviously not.
Yeah, but in the same way, people just don't like being told they're wrong.
Don't like being told, well, no, you're wrong.
So it's nice to say something like, well, you know, the Bible says something a little bit different, actually.
Can I show you quickly?
I'll show you what the Bible says about that, you know, because the Bible does say something slightly different.
It's not it's a little less harsh and just like wrong answer.
OK, and people a lot of the time, they don't like being told that.
And that's the end of it for them, you know.
So if they say, for example, well, no one knows.
You have people that say that no one knows where they're going.
Oh, a good a good verse to have either on the tip of your tongue already in your Bible is first John 5 13.
These things are written unto you that believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
You may believe in the name of the son of God.
And what I often say to someone is I know for sure, but I quickly add, but it's not because I'm any better than you.
Not because you know who usually is knocking on the door.
Pride for puffed up Jehovah's Witnesses, and that's what they don't.
And obviously, that's not what we're teaching, are we?
So usually it'll be something along the lines of, well, I do know for sure.
You know, we know for sure who everyone with as well, but it's not because we're any better than you.
We'd like me to show you how you can know for sure, for example.
If they say, well, I don't believe that we go anywhere, then I usually say something along the lines of this.
And again, you might have your own ways of doing this that you think are effective.
And I think a lot of this stuff is individual as well.
It's what works for you, your train of thought, how you explain it to us.
I usually say something like, well, OK, well, do you believe we have a soul?
Do you believe you have a soul?
Or, you know, surely you don't think we're the, or something along the lines of, you know, or do you think we're just the same as, you know, the dog?
If they've got a dog or someone else, be careful if they're real like doggy doggy.
They'll probably be like, yes, you know, a little fighter, we're just the same.
If our fighter's much better than us, you know, OK.
But if they're not like that, it's like, you know, you know, do you believe we have a soul, though?
OK, well, I think for me, the majority of people say yeah to that.
And I say, OK, well, you know, the Bible teaches that, yeah, we have a soul, our souls either going to live forever or die forever.
You know, would you like to live forever?
That's what the Bible says. Would you like me to show you what the Bible says?
Again, it's polite. I'm not trying to force it.
I'm not trying to push it. I'm giving them the choice, OK?
Sometimes I point out Romans 10, 17.
So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
So someone's going, oh, I don't really know what I believe or anything else.
I just point out, well, you know, the Bible says that when you hear the word of God, you know, it's the word of God.
You can make a choice to put your faith in it or not.
Would you like to just hear what the word of God says and you can make an informed decision?
Sometimes I say for the sake of several minutes or maybe if we're talking about the video for the sake of 10 or 15 minutes or something like that.
You know, I might even ask him, how long is eternity?
Well, for the sake of 10 or 15 minutes, wouldn't it be worth just knowing at least what the Bible says about that?
You know, something like that, that could work.
Sometimes it's worked for me over the years because our goal is for them to want to hear the gospel, OK?
But this is a key point here.
Look at verse 15, where you are, if you did go back to I think you did go back to 1 Peter 3.
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you.
A reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
Now, we don't take this too far and wait for people to approach us.
OK, so we don't just hang around and wait for people to come up and say, what must I do to be saved?
However, all we're doing is we're offering people to agree to hear the gospel.
That's what we're doing. We're going out and offering people to basically say, yeah, I'd like to know.
Yes. What do you have to do? What's that one thing you have to do?
OK, how do you receive that gift, whatever it is?
And once you understand that, OK, once you really understand that,
it takes out so much of the weirdness because all you're really doing is knocking on someone's door and asking them,
would you like to know how you can be sure you're going to heaven?
Would you like to know that? Would you like to know how it's a free gift?
Wherever you want to word that.
And obviously, you know, we do that by asking them, well, you know, do you think you're going to heaven
in whatever way you ask that?
And then really soon after, once I've understood what they believe, would you like to know for sure?
Or would you like to would you like to know that really ultimately the one thing you really all you have to do
to be saved or would you like to know how to receive the free gift?
Because whatever it is, and it's not really weird, is it?
You ask, would you like to know? And if they say no, don't be offended. Move on.
You know, and here's the thing is when I say it takes out the weirdness,
because trying to force people on their doorsteps is weird.
Trying to force people in the street is weird.
Trying to force people in the park is weird.
And trying to force people in your personal life is weird.
And if you carry this into your personal life, it will help you to still have a chance
in the future with family and friends.
If every time you see them, you're trying to force the gospel to them in one way or another,
you're going to get to the point where they just switch off.
They either don't want to see you or they just switch off as soon as you start talking about things of God.
Really, all you're offering them is let me know if you'd like me to show you how to get saved.
And if they want to hear it, they're going to hear it.
They're going to ask you or say, yeah, OK.
And if they don't, they don't.
And you can't force someone who want to hear the gospel.
He said here in verse 10,
For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips,
that they speak no guile.
So we're not trying to con people.
We're not, you know, trying to con people to, oh, can I just leave you with a verse
and then force them to hear the whole gospel and then lead them in prayer before they get a chance to say no.
And honestly, you might think, well, that sounds a bit silly.
I've been around people, usually false prophets that do that or just just force someone to hear, force someone to hear.
That's not what we're there to do.
You know, when he said preach the gospel to every creature, you know, we're offering them the gospel.
And you've got to be able to, you know, divide between the word of truth there,
because ultimately we're asking when you see the examples, they're asking them.
For example, when Philip the evangelist, even the guy's reading Isaiah 53 and what he say to him,
he desired him to come up to speak to him.
And then he asked him, of whom is he speaking?
He asked him to explain it to him.
And that's ultimately what we're doing.
We're trying to find people that want to hear.
OK, we're giving them the option.
We're showing them what we're ready to explain to them.
But they need to agree.
So we don't want to con them.
And on that, something I need to try and remember, because I've got a way I like often just rolls off the tongue.
I'll say, oh, you know, take a few minutes or have you got a few minutes?
I'll show you, but I'm trying to change that to have you got several minutes?
Because the reality of it is I'm not going to spend a few minutes with them, you know, and it's just guile, isn't it?
Really? Because then after a few minutes are gone and you're still on, you're a sinner.
And they're just thinking like, what's going on here?
He just said a few minutes.
So, you know, I want to be honest, don't really don't have guile try and do anything honestly.
You know, I want to see good days that, you know, let him refrain his tongue from even his lips that they speak no guile.
So it'll take me several minutes.
Several minutes is a fair enough because several minutes is just a multiple amount of minutes, really, isn't it?
And it gives the impression that we're going up into the seven plus 10, 15, even longer.
Right. OK, so something I try and do or, you know, just want to show you some verses from the Bible.
You don't have to give a time limit because it's not really a time limit, is there?
But sometimes before I might have said, well, take a few minutes, show you some things and, you know,
but you can always tell me now if you want me to, you know, if you if you get bored or whatever else.
I just want to show you what the Bible says.
Or, for example, saying there's only one thing you need to do.
This is another way it can be a little bit guilely when someone says, well, OK, yeah, you know, like you get someone's attention sometimes
when you say there's only one thing you got to do, you know, when they go, well, OK, well, I'm interested.
What do you think someone has to go over? Well, there's only one thing you got to do.
But then without saying, however, you need I like to say, however, there's a few things you need to understand first
because they're expecting you to just go, OK, this is all you got to do.
And then suddenly it's like, right, so as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
They're thinking like, when is this one thing? When is this? I've been conned here.
Where's this one thing? Now he's telling me I'm going to hell.
Where's the one thing that I need to do?
And again, like we're trying for it not to sound weird, aren't we?
So often I'm saying, well, there's only one thing you got to do.
However, there's a few things you got to understand.
And I'm kind of introducing why I'm now going to these different passages for them not to just wonder,
why is this guy reading all this about sin and hell?
And he just said, you know, do you want me to show you that one thing you got to do?
So we're just presenting it, you know?
Yeah. Well, let me explain a few things.
I need to explain a few things first.
There's a few things you need to understand before you know what that one thing is.
And often when I say that, they'll be like, OK, I'm not interested.
No, I don't have time.
So, OK, well, better that than them just being like, OK, yeah, OK, not OK, right.
And I'm off and shut the door halfway through.
No, I could just say, OK, well, this is it in a nutshell.
Sometimes I do that, quote a verse, something where it's just nice and simple,
Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, if they've said you've got to be good to go to heaven or, you know,
maybe, you know, John 3, 16 is nice and clear.
You know, Romans 6, 23, just if they're kind of a bit kind of flippant about the whole thing,
you know, and just show, look, the wager sin is death.
OK, yeah.
And we're all sinners.
One sin will take you to hell.
But the gift of God is eternal life for Jesus Christ the Lord.
It's a gift. It's really easy.
Can I just encourage you to watch this video?
15 minutes of your life, you know?
OK, so what happens if you don't do that?
I just think you just waste so much time and ruin further opportunities to preach them in the future.
Most of our soul winning is places we're going back to.
Even if you're like, well, I, you know, I do a lot of my soul winning in the midweek,
soul winning times.
Yeah, you know what?
We'll probably always go back to Tilbury.
OK, Basildon as well is a close receptive area and they're getting good results in Basildon.
We're going to keep knocking doors round South End.
And even our soul winning marathons, we're going back to Harold Hill,
which we were at a couple of years ago.
You might knock doors of people that got knocked by someone from our church before
from the only other people that were knocking, saying we're Baptists.
Even if we went under Shaw Foundation before, it's still like, yeah, I've heard this sort of talk before.
I got knocked by some Baptists who said similar a couple of years ago.
So ultimately, we want the opportunity and we also want them to go away
and maybe have a look at the video that we're presenting to them as well.
We're leaving an invite, OK, that has a Bible way to heaven on it.
And I don't know if I've talked to some people about this before.
I go on the analytics for our website and every soul winning day and the day after,
we have a tonne of visits to our website, by the way.
I mean, you know, sometimes 15, 20, sometimes over on just like a normal soul winning time.
On that day and probably similar the next day a lot of the time as well.
OK, that's just our website.
The YouTube channel as well, a lot of people visit and watch the Bible way to heaven on YouTube.
So look, people are definitely going on and doing that.
They're not doing that if we're being rude, if we're being weird,
if we're being funny, it's less likely to go away and listen.
OK. And obviously this whole point of not forcing us, etc.
is just as important with kids and with people in parks.
So I notice over the years now, I'm not against park soul winning.
OK. And in some nations, it seems that door knocking is much less receptive and harder.
I'm not against it, but I have noticed it is a particular favour of false prophets
because it's much easier to find three, four kids together and impress everyone
that you're getting five, 10, 15 salvation by just finding some kids who kind of have nowhere to go.
They don't really have an excuse because they're sitting around lounging around in a park.
There's no door to shut and make an excuse that they're doing something
and to just lean over them and do that, force them to listen to you,
then at the end tell them to pray with you.
And kids a lot of the time more likely to do as they're told like that. Right.
So we need to be careful to give people the option, make sure that that kid really wants to listen.
And with kids, this is a hard one.
I don't have like an out and out rule on that, but just be appropriate with it. Right.
If I'm with just another guy, I'm less likely to just be bearing down on a young child.
So if it's on their door, I'll ask if their parents are there,
because all that's going to happen is mum and dad's going to come down halfway through and kick you out.
And you know what? A lot of the time parents might say, yeah, no, it's OK, actually,
because the kid wanted to listen. Right.
And then if they're not there, I'll preach to them.
If they're old enough to answer the door, they can hear the gospel.
I just make sure I'm not leaning through the crack in the door.
You know, I'm giving them distance.
The same when I'm outside on the street.
I just give them some distance. Right.
Because then it's not like I'm just leaning over, bearing over a child.
It looks weird. Right.
If I've got kids with me, more likely if I've got kids that can preach the gospel,
better that they do it and you can be there to deal with any people coming up and giving grief,
which they rarely do.
If you've noticed, if you've got older kids that can preach the gospel,
people generally leave you alone to it.
But if you don't, if it's just a couple of guys, just try and be sensible.
Make it not look weird.
You know, really young kids is a bit weird, really.
And there's a school of thought, which is the parents are letting them out on their own down the street.
And the worst thing that's happened is they've bumped into a soul winner with a Bible.
I mean, you know, let's be honest.
It could have been a lot worse.
And praise God, they bumped into you.
But on the other hand, just be aware that the reality of it is people generally will interject to find a reason to give you a load of grief for that.
So again, you've got to gauge that.
But I will ask parents, ask if parents are around and stuff, obviously in the park and stuff as well, if you're ever in a park and you preach to kids.
Now, if someone says no, not interested, OK, unless they seem friendly and chatty.
OK, I just move on.
You know, don't get me wrong.
If someone's like, no, no, you know, I might say, oh, do you already go to church somewhere?
If they say, yeah, then I can get on to.
OK, well, you know, aside from church and stuff like that, although you're welcome to check us out, you know, we've got this stuff on, you know, have a look.
This is our website channel, et cetera.
Try and show that I'm not just jumping straight into where you go when you die.
And then it might be.
But more important than that is to make sure you're going to heaven one day or something like that.
Right. But some people, it's just obvious and trying to put your foot in a door or, you know, leave a verse as the doors getting narrower.
It's just a waste of time.
OK, that verse ain't going in.
They're not listening to it and you're wasting valuable time.
Just think if you did that every time you went soul winning and you're going for three hours a week and you and over that three hours,
you're leaving a verse with every single person that clearly doesn't want to hear the verse and they're not listening.
They're not paying any attention to what you do.
Think how many doors over that week you've missed out on, let alone over the month and over the year.
Yeah. So, again, we're trying to be sensible with it.
Don't call verses as they're shutting the door.
It's just weird. But John 3 16 says, you know, they want to they need to want to hear it.
Some people want to hear a verse and be like, yeah, I'm happy.
Sometimes you ask, you know, they might come into conversation like a quick verse like Romans 6 23.
You just roll off the tongue as you're talking about the things of God, you know, in terms of the gospel that you'd ask them if they wanted to hear.
OK, so here's the thing, though, if you leave your verse, what's it important that you do as well?
Explain the verse. You might be like that John 3 16 is clear as anything, isn't it?
No. How many people how many people do you knock on the door?
You preach the gospel, you get to John 3 16 and they're quoting it with you.
But what did they just tell you? You got to be good to go to heaven.
They just told you got to follow the commandments.
They just told you whatever else, because even though they know the verses, it doesn't mean that they understand the verse.
So even if you just leave one verse, try and just give a quick explanation.
But don't then go into a full gospel presentation with someone who had only agreed for you to leave them a five, 10 second verse.
And I often will say, can I just leave you with a quick five second verse or 10 second verse?
Because most unchurched people don't know what a verse is.
They're thinking in their mind, they're thinking a verse of a song.
And that could be pretty long when you're going, can I leave you with a verse?
They're thinking he's about to serenade me on my doorstep for like for a minute, you know, or something.
So just I'll leave you with a quick five second verse from the Bible and then just quickly explain it.
Then sometimes I might say, unless you want me to I might pause them before I go and just say,
unless you want me to show you now on your doorstep, just give them that one last chance,
because maybe you might have got their attention there a little bit from that verse.
It does happen sometimes you get someone goes, well, I'll ask you a question about it and then you can lead into the gospel.
But don't make it weird, right?
Look for cues to keep talking.
You're not so body language.
And also, look, some people are just having a hard time and, you know, someone's died or something or something.
They just need some empathy this time round, right?
As long as you just need to remember that and just give them a bit of sympathy.
Show them that, you know, we do actually care, right?
And we're not just like, you know, more important and more important than, you know, your spouse has just died.
You know, God, obviously, you know, I don't think I should have to be saying that to people.
Just leave a good taste for people.
That's what we're looking to do if they're saved.
What about if they're saved?
And now now we're more and more we're coming across people that are saved on our soul many times, aren't we?
Because they're people that may be preached to before.
They're people that have got saved.
Now, for me, look, if I can remember, I like to ask them how they got saved, because I just find that interesting.
It's quite interesting to hear, isn't it, how they got saved.
Also, sometimes you're a bit unsure about that.
And then they might be like, well, I just read the Bible and I knew.
And you're like, hmm, OK, this sounds a bit suspect now.
But ask them how they got saved, whether at church and encourage them to get involved.
Yeah. And encourage them to get involved with soul winning and whatever else.
But don't just spend like 20 minutes having a gasp for them, because we are soul winning.
We want to encourage them, give them some stuff, encourage them to get involved with us.
But, you know, ultimately, just because they're saved, that doesn't mean, oh, right.
Well, now they know our church is there, they're going to turn up.
That's not the truth of it.
And we're going out and trying to pull people out of the fire, first and foremost.
Now, what about if they're an obvious reprobate?
OK, now, when I say an obvious reprobate, I mean an open sodomite.
OK, clear as day, they're an open, it's come out of there.
And when I say an open sodomite, I don't just mean they're a little bit fishy.
I'm putting them down as a reprobate.
I mean, someone that's just said, yeah, I'm a sodomite.
And often if someone says something like that to me, I'll just be like, oh, OK,
has that been a long time?
Because if they're like, well, I've just started thinking about it or whatever else.
Or, you know, it doesn't, you know, if they've said they're a sodomite, it's clear as day.
They're not just messing with you.
They're not just trying to wind you up or something else.
Just move on. OK, if they say that they're a pastor, bishop,
priest, vicar or whatever else from a false church, just move on.
Right, who here has got the local Pentecostal pastor saved?
The Catholic priest, the C of E vicar, 20 hands?
No, just winding up the people on camera.
There were no hands, all right?
OK, it doesn't happen, does it?
And many of us have in the past, maybe thought, oh, I'll try and show them a verse here.
It ain't happening.
It ain't getting saved.
Here's another one. The Jehovah's Witness.
OK, now, just to make this clear, these are two questions to ask a Jehovah's Witness
when they go, well, actually, I'm with the Watchtower or whatever else, or I'm a witness.
I'll just say, OK, how long have you been a Jehovah's Witness for?
Now, anything over a year or regardless, the second question is always this.
Do you go out and evangelise?
And if they say yes.
Oh, yes. I mean, Jehovah's Witness for 30 years.
We go out every week.
See you later. That's it.
Now, what am I going to do?
You think I'm going to get a 30 year long false prophet saved?
It's not happening.
I mean, preach a false gospel for however long.
Now, unless they said to me, well, I've just started, I've had people before
where the witnesses have been coming round,
they're starting to call themselves a witness.
They've never been out with them.
They're just being indoctrinated at this point.
And you might be able to pull them out of the teeth of the wicked to pluck them out.
But other than that, if they're evangelising regularly,
it's any sort of normal period of time, a year plus, et cetera.
For me, like, there's no point even trying, you know,
and I'm not going to get into a debate because it's just a complete waste of time.
They just want to time waste you, don't they?
Pretend they want to hear what you've got to say and try and try
and just have a debate with you.
In Matthew 15, 14 Jesus said, let them alone.
Talk about the Pharisees. Let them alone.
They'd be blind leaders of the blind.
If the blind lead, the blind both shuffle into the ditch.
Just leave them. Leave them to it.
You're not going to get them saved.
It's not happening. OK, just move on.
You're not going to convince a Catholic priest
to suddenly put his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
It ain't happening.
And you just wasted valuable time.
We have limited time, you know, don't waste your time with it.
You're also not going to get someone saved via a debate.
Verse 15 there said, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts
and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you
a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
So we're looking for people that want to hear the gospel,
not that want to row, that want to debate.
OK, now, some are just obvious, right?
Some are just like they're going, well, what do you think about this
and everything? And it's just a waste of time.
You know, if they're if they're not willing to listen to you, just go look.
And I just make it clear.
I just say, look, we don't we're not here for debate.
Just if you'd like to hear the gospel, I'll show you.
If not, you know, it's fine.
Try and do it politely as well.
How do we know with the sneaky ones?
Well, in Titus three and verse nine, you don't have to turn there.
Paul said it like this,
but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions
and strivings about the law for their unprofitable and vain.
A man that is an heretic of the first and second admonition reject.
So if they're arguing and rowing, I'll give them a couple of chance to move on.
So I'll give them like the first chance.
OK, I might like maybe just answer that argument with with a scripture.
Yeah. And again, you don't always have to
you have to go off on tangents if they claim to want to hear the gospel,
especially at the beginning.
I might give them one answer.
Give them a second as I'm trying to just get to the point of preaching the gospel.
Well, if I'm preaching the gospel, I try and just say, OK, look,
you know, maybe just listen to the gospel first.
And we can talk about that afterwards.
And then after a couple of guys are just trying to argue,
just trying to say the whatever you're saying is wrong.
The word of God is wrong in one way or another.
It's just time to move on because you just waste time.
Who gets saved for it?
Anyone just had a row debate with someone on their doorstep
and ended up with and call your name the Lord.
It doesn't happen.
And what happens is we get pulled in
because the flesh likes the idea of it.
And sadly, probably a lot of people do watch some of that speaker's corner
rubbish and other stuff.
And yeah, let's smash those Muslims out preaching the gospel and show them.
And who's getting them saved?
They don't. And what will they do a lot of the time?
And you've got to be careful.
And, you know, you guys know when it comes to England and Muslims,
let's be honest, they just want to suck you in
and just have a debate with you.
And they pretend they want to hear the gospel.
And halfway through, they start hitting you with their, you know,
whatever they've been trained in to try and hit you with.
And even when you answer it clearly,
I've answered their arguments before.
They don't want to hear.
They're just there to have an argument around.
They're not going, well, I just need you to explain this for me,
for me to really understand.
And you should with time start to learn that and get an idea of that.
Let's put it this way.
If he's wearing a dress and a silly hat on his doorstep,
OK, and going, oh, yeah, I really want to know what the Bible says
with all his Muslim family behind him.
He ain't getting saved.
OK, that's sadly the reality.
Now, again, we have to try and gauge that.
And you've got to kind of start to learn people and read people and stuff.
But in the end, you'll get better at that.
Or for them, obviously, if someone says they want to hear the gospel,
I generally preach the gospel, try to do someone that I feel like they want to hear it.
But as soon as I start hearing that, just trying to row,
trying to debate and stuff like that, I give him a couple of chances and I'm gone.
And don't get pulled in.
Don't let the pride pull you in.
Well, I've just got to answer this one.
I can't let him think that he's got me with that one.
It's just like, look, man, we're off to find people that want to hear the gospel.
We're not here to debate.
This ain't Speaker's Corner.
OK, now I'm still polite as much as I can with people. Why?
Because it's easy to be to be so it is easier to be polite.
OK, and I want to avoid soul winning stalkers where possible.
OK, you don't want a soul winning stalker.
You don't want to.
And I was talking about this earlier.
Something just that I generally do as well is if I'm going to maybe a block
and there's like 10 doors and the exit is on that side.
I will always knock that door first, because what I don't want to do is knock
this door and then have the stalker stalking me all the way up to these guys,
all the way back.
I try and just work my way away again and just showing that I'm on the way back out.
But because so many stalkers ruin your soul winning, don't they?
They put people off.
They don't want to hear because you've got someone who's so angry
that you said this to them or said it like that to them,
or you kind of cut them with this remark or cut them with that comment
and they can't take it.
Now, it's tempting
and it can be very tempting to just smash them with a comment,
smash them with a remark, smash them with a verse.
But you want to try and avoid that where possible.
We're trying to seek peace and ensue it, because really,
we want to find people that we can then preach the gospel to,
not have someone just harassing us the whole time
and putting them off and shouting and everything.
Sometimes it happens, doesn't it?
Sometimes you can't avoid it, but sometimes we can avoid it.
OK, if you're bold with the gospel, sometimes you're going to get stalkers,
harassers, you're going to get people angry.
That's the reality.
If you're bold with it and you're confident with the gospel,
you're going to get that.
Verse 14 says,
So it does happen, but don't fear it.
It's very rare that we end up in actual danger, really, isn't it?
I think how much soul winning has been done by this church
over the last few years in various areas, rougher areas,
you know, places which are like people think are no go areas.
I mean, soul winning abroad in places where,
you know, it sounds scary.
But the reality of it is God protects us, doesn't he?
We don't really have to be.
We don't have to be troubled.
We don't have to be afraid of their terror.
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.
Be ready. Always give an answer to every man.
Ask your reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
So the fear is of God here.
But still, don't forget the meekness, OK?
The boldness is in Christ, in the gospel, in the message,
not in ourselves, not in our skills, not in our debating.
We're just relaying a message.
But we can be bold about it, yet still polite and respectful.
But like I said, verse 14, you will sometimes get grief for it.
So just because someone's ended up harassing you,
someone's ended up getting angry,
someone's ended up following you and giving you grief,
that doesn't mean that you necessarily did anything wrong.
OK, so don't just cast all, oh, well, it must be me.
It must be so and so, because they've got some grief this time.
Look, if you're bold and you're confident in preaching the gospel,
you will sometimes get people just giving you grief for it.
However, we want to be able to assess ourselves and say,
could I have said something differently that wouldn't have ended in that
for next time, because we don't want that as a regular, OK?
But it does sometimes happen.
You said in verse 16, having a good conscience,
that whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers,
they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
So we're going to get criticized.
The complaint emails will keep coming.
I get regular complaint emails, OK, just from sole winning times
that I generally ignore.
The angry people will keep popping up.
Just happens, isn't it?
But we still want to try and leave a good taste in their mouth
to be able to say that they're falsely accusing our good behavior.
So can you, hand on heart, go, OK, I got grief there,
but they're falsely accusing my good behavior.
Oh, well, I did say something a bit cutting now.
I did try and have the last word with this,
which I knew would irritate them, really.
I was trying to hit back with my word, something else.
And again, look, if some false prophet, some like God hater or something,
it's not the end of the world.
You must be a wicked person, but it's just a waste of time, you know,
and it can affect salvation in the possible in the in the process.
And of course, this applies in our personal lives, too.
OK, so when we preach the gospel, when we're trying to
and like I said, just trying to find family members that want to hear it,
find a moment when maybe they want to hear the gospel
and they're happy to hear you preach the gospel.
Same thing, you know, we don't want it to be forcing it, guile,
pushing it and obviously behaving in weird ways, stuff that they can falsely accuse.
And when we do find that person, it says, yes, I want to know.
And that's ultimately what we're doing.
We're trying to knock doors as quick as possible, get to doors
like I spoke last time, silent partners can help with that,
speed up the process, et cetera.
We're trying to just find that person that says, yeah,
I'd like to know how to be sure I'm going to heaven.
Yes, I want to know.
Yeah, we give time to the ones that like, OK, I'll listen.
But ultimately, the best person we want to find is someone that just said,
yeah, I'd like to know.
I'd like to know how to be sure I'm going to heaven.
I'd like to know that one thing.
I'd like to know that gift. I'd like to know how easy it is or however
you want to kind of try and encourage them to hear the gospel.
Then next week, we're going to look at what to do
when we get to that person. Right.
But just to recap, last bit. OK, so
in an ideal situation, it will be something like this.
Yeah, you knock on a door, not too loud, et cetera.
You're just going to you're going to knock on a door,
ring on the doorbell, whatever, you know, hi there.
We're from Strong Tower Baptist Church.
Just give me out some Baptist Church invites.
You know, do you go to church at all?
And yeah, maybe I go to church or yeah, I go to the
I sometimes go to church or I haven't been going to church for a while.
Well, OK, well, look, we've got some stuff online.
We've got some information about our church.
If you'd like to look at our website, look at our channel.
These are some interesting documentaries and videos
you might want to look at online, especially this top one,
you know, called The Bible Way to Heaven.
You know, but look, more important than any of that stuff
is a question we're asking everyone, you know, God forbid
when you die one day, you're 100% sure you're going to heaven.
And it doesn't have to be all weird.
It doesn't have to sound like a robot.
Just just normal.
Right. And then depending on the answer, you know,
and then we want to try and get to the point
where they're happy to hear the gospel.
OK, would you like to know how you can be 100% sure?
Or would you like to, you know, you know, or in fact,
actually, the Bible says it's actually even easier than that.
The Bible calls it a gift.
Can I just show you how to receive that gift or whatever?
But you want to make sure that you get out of them
what they really believe. OK, first.
So don't be like, well, I've done this before.
Wrong. I've said, oh, well, the Bible's actually the Bible says
when they're like, well, can you really know?
Well, the Bible says there's only one thing you got to do.
Oh, you have belief.
Did they really believe that?
Probably not.
But I've kind of I fed them that answer, haven't I already?
So I I'm not trying to like prompt and prompt.
I just want to hear what they believe.
Well, what do you think?
Because then it's like, oh, oh, what's the belief in there?
Trying to remember what is it that they've told you?
But they don't really believe that.
They're just trying to like they think they're in a test.
Now they've got to win.
So what do you or what do you believe?
Don't give them clues.
I'll give them answer. What is it?
You know, just because it is an important thing.
You know, make sure we're going to heaven and not hell is really important.
So, you know, it's important that we that we know that what,
you know, we know what we have to do to go there.
You know, what do you think someone has to do?
And OK, well, would you like me to show you what the Bible says?
Because the Bible actually says it's even easier than that.
The Bible says it's a free gift.
And if you like, take me several minutes.
I can show you a few, few verses.
You know, show you the few things you need to understand
to do that one thing you have to do to go to heaven.
It's really easy.
You like me to show you?
And that's kind of somewhere along the lines of where we want to get to.
Isn't it?
And it's like, OK, and then we can start with the gospel.
And is it offensive?
Not really.
It should someone be really upset by that?
Not really.
You know, if someone said, why you ask me such a question?
OK, it's just because, you know, obviously, you know,
eternity is a long time, isn't it?
You know, there's a ways you could deflect the anger a lot of the time.
I had someone the other day that said to me,
they said to me something.
I think they said, yeah, I'm a Roman Catholic.
I think I was out with brother Ben Bella.
I'm a Roman Catholic.
I go to the Catholic Church.
I said, OK, well, you know,
you know, we're just independent Baptist churches or details, et cetera.
But we just ask everyone if they're 100% sure they're going to heaven.
I've already told you I'm a Catholic.
Yeah.
And something along the lines of, so I don't want to hear it.
And that could have been easy to just go.
I just so I know it's just because, you know, I've looked on
I've spoken to many Catholics before, I've actually said they are interested
in knowing how they can be sure they're going to heaven.
I thought maybe you might be.
Oh, OK. Anyway, that was it, you know, very easy.
Just send it in again.
I get this wrong a lot.
I'm not trying to say everyone copy exactly what I do.
I never get it wrong.
Sometimes the flesh gets pulled into the row to the debate
to like saying a little cutting remark and everything else.
But ideally, we don't want to want to be able to just go, OK.
I think I even said, oh, you know, I think I even actually said to her
something along the lines, oh, so I didn't mean to offend you just a lot.
I've spoken to many Catholics who say something like that.
And then that was it.
She didn't start stalking me and shouting at me when I knocked her next door.
And there are ways, often, not always.
Sometimes I guess I'll give you grief, right?
But often we can.
And then next door, maybe you can leave a verse.
Maybe you can leave more.
Maybe they're going to go away and look at it or maybe get someone saved.
Right. But that's our goal.
So what are we doing? We're going out.
We're trying to get that conversation started.
We're trying to break the ice.
We're trying to get to the point where we find someone that just wants to hear the gospel.
And like I said, next week, we'll look at what to do next.
On that, we're going to finish in a word of prayer.
Father, thank you for the gospel, Lord.
Thank you for the opportunity.
We have the responsibility.
We have to go out and find people to preach the gospel to help us to just be
to just be as effective as possible when we're knocking on doors, when we're
when we're, you know, approaching people in the street,
when we're approaching people in our in our personal lives.
Lord, to just to just do it in a way that's, you know, as effective as possible.
No, many people are just going to say no.
It's not that there's a magic trick.
There's not like a magic way of getting them to say yes and want to hear the gospel.
However, we can fine tune how we do that and try and come across in a way
that doesn't upset people, that doesn't anger people, that
that gives us the opportunity to show them that all we're trying to do is
show them how easy it is to go to heaven.
Lord, that free gift, the gospel, the good news, the glad tidings.
We're going out preaching the good news.
Help us to be confident in doing that, to be bold in doing that.
And Lord, help people to just do it, do it obviously in their way,
but in the right way, Lord, and and want to just be as effective as possible.
Help us to all, you know, get opportunities this week to do that.
Lord, whether it's soul winning times or in our private lives and help us all get home.
Safely sound tonight in return for the midweek service.
Jesus, thank you for all of this. Amen.