["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
it is well, it is well with my soul.
Ladies, sing it out.
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Good.
We're going to sing it out on the second.
The ladies did really well on that one.
I thought they did good.
And the guys, not so much, but we can do better next time, all right?
So ladies, you keep it up, and guys, you come in and sing it out on the second.
Though Satan should buff him, though trials should come,
Left his class, was sure and strong, That I, saith he, guard it, my helpless estate,
And hath shed his own blood for my soul.
Ladies, sing it out.
Good.
It is well.
That was good, man.
With my soul, it is well, It is well with my soul.
Now the ladies are going to have to step it up, all right?
On the third.
My sin, oh the bliss of its glorious thought,
My sin not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, And I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Oh my soul.
Here we go, sing it out.
It is well, it is well, With my soul, it is well,
It is well with my soul.
That was good.
Sing it out like a choir.
And Lord, haste the gate, When my faith shall be sunk.
The clouds we hold back, As the storm,
The drums shall raise out, And the Lord shall be set,
It is well, it is well, With my soul.
Amen.
Good singing.
We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering.
At this time, after the offering,
we'll have the reading of God's word,
and then Pastor Thompson will come up and preach for us.
And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you
for allowing us to gather together this evening.
Lord, we pray that you would bless the offering.
Lord, we pray that you would anoint Pastor Thompson
with your spirit as he preaches to us tonight.
Lord, help us to hear from your word
and to draw closer to you as a result.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Let's open our hearts to Judges 15.
Judges, chapter number 15.
If you need a Bible, put your hand up,
and I'm not sure you might bring your Bible.
Judges, chapter number 15.
If you need a Bible, keep your hand up,
and I'm sure you'll come by.
Judges, chapter number 15.
We'll read the entire chapter as our custom.
Judges 15, beginning of verse number 1.
But it came to pass within a while after,
in the time of wheat harvest,
that Samson visited his wife with a kid,
and he said, I'll go in to my wife into the chamber,
but her father will not suffer him to go in.
And her father said, I've ever seen you
I rarely thought that thou hast utterly hated her,
therefore I gave her to thy companion.
Is not her younger sister fairer than she?
Take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
And Samson said concerning them,
Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines,
though I do them a displeasure.
And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes,
and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail,
and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
When he had set the brands on fire,
he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines,
and burnt up both the shocks and also the standing corn
with the vineyards and olives.
Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this?
And they answered, Samson, and the son-in-law of the Timnite,
because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion.
And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this,
yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter,
and he went down and dwelt on the top of the rock Etum.
Then the Philistines went up and pitched in Judah,
and spread themselves in Lehi.
And the men of Judah said, Why ye come up against us?
And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up,
to do it to him as he hath done to us.
Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etum,
and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over this?
What is this that thou hast done unto us?
And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.
And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee now,
to bind thee, we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines.
And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me that you will not fall upon me yourselves.
And they spake unto him, saying, No, but we will bind thee fast,
and deliver thee into their hand, but surely we will not kill thee.
And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.
When he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him,
and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him,
and the cords that were upon his arms became his flax that was burnt with fire,
and his bands loose from off his hands.
And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it,
and slew a thousand men therewith.
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps,
with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
When it came to pass, he had made an end of speaking,
that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramoth-Lehi.
And he was sore of thirst, and called on the Lord, and said,
Now I was given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant,
and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised.
But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water there out.
When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived.
Wherefore, he called the name thereof Anhekori, which is in Lehi unto this day.
And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening.
God, I thank you for our church, Lord, and for your word.
I say please give us the tender hearts of the message, God.
I say please be the passage of Thompson.
Just strengthen him from our spirit.
We love you.
Jesus' name, pray. Amen.
Amen.
It's great to be back in Sacramento amongst many good friends,
and I always feel like I'm a member of the family when I come here,
so I really appreciate everybody just hanging out today and saying hello.
I just wanted to say thank you to Pastor Jimenez and Miss Joanne and all the church family
for having us out here, and we really appreciate it.
We love this church, and our church is doing really well up in Vancouver.
We had 97 people in service last Sunday, and so we've been doing well.
I know we have a lot of great things planned for this year,
so we're excited about lots of different soul-winning trips.
We planted a church in England not too long ago.
A year ago, actually, was their one-year anniversary last week,
and they had a record of 77 in attendance, and so 13 salvations that day.
But they also did a European soul-winning to kind of kick off
for the celebration of the one-year anniversary,
and so I think they did so many marathons in Romania,
Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, and there was like a total of 30 salvations in Europe.
And then in London, they had 27 salvations, so they had a great day soul-winning,
and so that church is doing real well, and so we're really happy about that.
Today in Vancouver, B.C., we had a record attendance up there of 34,
and so the church is doing real well up there, as well as our other church in Spokane.
So yeah, we have a lot of churches, don't we?
But anyway, I just wanted to kind of give a little update,
you know, where the first church plant sent out,
and so we'd like to do you all proud up in Vancouver,
and we're trying to do our best to win the world of Christ.
And today I'm preaching, tonight I'm preaching a sermon called
Four Calls to Soul-Winning, Four Calls to Soul-Winning.
And so there'll probably be four points to this sermon,
and the pastor said I can preach till midnight if I want.
He doesn't care.
No, he didn't really say that, but I won't keep you here that long.
I promise you.
Or, you know, I can't promise, but no.
Anyway, so now you probably have maybe heard a sermon called Four Calls to Soul-Winning,
and it's a Jack Hyles sermon, and he preached it many times.
And, you know, to be honest with you,
I'd never heard the sermon until about two weeks ago.
And I was like, you know, I'd seen it rolling through my YouTube,
you know, and saw it just was like, oh, Four Calls to Soul-Winning, you know.
And I finally watched it.
And when I watched it, like, I thought that was the greatest outline I've ever seen preached.
I mean, it's a great outline.
And so I'm definitely stealing this outline from Jack Hyles tonight.
But, and I'll try to do it a little bit justice.
It's kind of, you know, an homage to the sermon.
I thought it was so great.
But one of the reasons why I was kind of looking into Jack Hyles' sermons,
because he gets accused even as he's, you know, passed on and gone to be with the Lord,
he gets accused of a lot of false accusations.
And there'll be people that will just still, even after he's dead, try to trample his name.
And to me, that's just a sign that maybe he was probably a great man of God.
You know, I mean, they call Jesus Beelzebub and nailed him to a cross.
So, you know, they're going to do the same types of things
to preachers that are doing great works for God now.
And it's so weird because people just make up the weirdest and most baseless lies.
You know, and being in the ministry for, you know, the short time I have been, I mean,
I've watched my pastor friends get accused of a lot of things that are just untrue.
I've been accused of a lot of things that are untrue.
And I really want to look into this thing about Jack Hyles.
There are, you know, people have said all kinds of things against him.
But the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 519,
Now, a witness is someone that actually sees somebody do something
or there's evidence that would be considered a witness.
So when someone accuses a pastor of something, you know,
their word against that pastor's word is not good enough to accuse that pastor.
And we should not receive an accusation against an elder,
but before two or three witnesses.
And then if they do try to accuse an elder of something like that
or any whatever thing that's a false accusation,
it says them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear.
So, you know, if people come up to me and say something like
Jack Hyles was this or Jack Hyles was that, I'm going to rebuke that person.
Because I kind of watched something that one of his accusers was just
accusing him of all these things.
But all that was just his word against this guy who's already been dead.
You know, dead people can't defend themselves in case you didn't realize that.
So I know this has nothing to do with the sermon, but, you know, it just,
it bothers me to see great men of God have their names dragged through the mud.
But, you know, Jesus said that that was going to happen.
You know, if they call it the master of the house bails above,
you know, they're going to say a lot of bad things about us also.
So the title of the sermon again is Four Calls for Soul Winning.
So do you remember the first time you ever won someone to Christ?
Anybody remember the first time they ever won someone to Christ?
It's a great moment in your Christian life.
You know, and maybe you don't remember the first one you got,
but have you, you know, have you, do you remember, you know,
the feeling that you had when you first got saved of how you wanted to get people saved?
Anybody have that feeling?
I had that feeling when I first got saved.
Everybody wants to see their family members get saved.
That's the first thing they usually try to do is tell other people, you know,
because when you get saved, you're like,
I can't believe that I was fooled all these years into believing something that wasn't true.
And then, you know, you get on fire for God because God fills you with the Holy Spirit.
You know, He gives you the Holy Spirit when you get saved.
And, you know, you want to tell other people.
That's the natural reaction of a Christian.
And so, you know, do you remember, or do you remember maybe the first time
you were a silent partner and saw someone one to Christ?
The feeling that you had when you saw someone realizing their need for a Savior
and actually calling upon Christ to save them.
That's one of the greatest moments that you can have in your life.
But we see that kind of stuff all the time.
You guys had a soul winning marathon yesterday, did you not?
And he had, I think, 40 soul winners and 15 salvations.
And I'm sure that everybody that participated in that has a great story
of something great that happened, maybe some miracle that happened amongst,
you know, maybe you had to, you know, stave off some dogs.
You know, you had to fight some pit bulls as a silent partner.
So that person is, I mean, there's just, you know,
someone is such a fun thing to do.
It's work though.
You know, sometimes it can be work.
Sometimes it can be a drag when you're going and you're knocking
in those doors and nobody wants to talk.
But when you're in a fairly receptive area, it's fun, isn't it?
You know, it's fun.
It's good.
And there's a passion that you should have for souls.
And obviously this is a soul winning church.
And so this is a great soul winning church.
But, you know, I had to turn, I had the chapter Judges chapter 15 read
and you're probably thinking, like, what does that have to do with soul winning?
Well, look at Judges chapter 15 verse number 4.
Look at Judges 15 verse number 4.
The Bible says, And Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took firebrands
and turned tail to tail and put a firebrand in the midst between the two tails.
And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the
Philistines and burn up both the shocks and also the standing corn in the vineyards and olives.
Now, I realize that there's, you know, this actually happened.
But, you know, there's a lot of spiritual truths that are within the Old Testament.
And to me, this is a picture of soul winning.
You know, Samson does represent Christ in a lot of different passages in Judges.
You know, he's a lot, you know, and obviously there's a lot of things he did that were not
like Christ, but, you know, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson more than anybody else.
And there's a lot of different things that he is a picture of Christ of.
And I would say that this is a picture of Christ sending out the few, you know.
He said the laborers are few.
300 foxes is not really a lot, is it?
You know, he sent 300 men with Gideon to destroy the whole Midianite army.
God does a lot of work with few people.
And the Bible says the laborers are few.
And so if you think of it that way, and it says he took firebrands and turned
tail to tail and put firebrands in the midst between the two tails.
What does that make you think of?
Well, Jesus sent them out two by two, didn't he?
And he sent them out into the fields.
Didn't he say the fields are white unto harvest?
And so here you have Samson, you know, catching these poor foxes' tails on fire.
You know, he puts his firebrand on them.
And you know, when the apostles were waiting for the Holy Spirit, fire came down.
And the cloven tongues of fire came upon them.
And they had the power of the Holy Spirit put upon them.
And then they went out and just barnstormed for Christ.
They went out everywhere, the highways and the hedges like they were commanded to do.
And did great works for God.
And they were set on fire of the Holy Ghost.
So, I mean, I just think that this is a picture of, you know, soul winners going out two by two.
Jesus Christ puts a fire in us.
And, you know, we can't help but go and speak the things that we have both seen and heard.
And so, you know, and then it shows them going out into the standing corner of the Philistines,
burns all the fields up.
Well, when we go out and preach, you know, it's multiple purposes.
You know, some people might get, that's their last chance.
And they reject the gospel.
And then, you know, some people, it's salvation for them.
So either way, when the Word of God goes out, it's accomplishing what God wants to be done with it.
Now, that word fire brand that's in your King James Bible right there,
it means, it has two meanings to it.
One is a person who is passionate about a particular cause,
typically inciting change and taking radical action.
Again, a fire brand is a person who is passionate about a particular cause,
typically inciting change and taking radical action.
Well, you know, a lot of people think we're radical because we go and knock on people's doors
and try to present the gospel to them.
Don't, don't, do your family members think you're weird for that?
They call you like Jehovah's Witnesses.
You guys are in a cult, you know.
You're going and knocking on people's doors.
Well, hey, you know, when you have a passion about something,
when you're on fire for the Lord, you know, you want to go and you want to reach other people
so that other people can get what you have, which is salvation.
Right?
And so if you want to be one of the Lord's fire brands, you know, when you get on fire,
you're going to want to go and win souls.
Now, the reason I love this outline so much is because it's an unforgettable outline.
It's an unforgettable outline.
And by the end of the sermon,
one of my goals is that you'll know the outline for the rest of your life.
And so hopefully, you know, I'll come back and quiz you and you'll,
you'll still remember the outline for this sermon.
Because let me give you the second definition before I give you the outline.
The second definition of a fire brand is a piece of burning wood.
A piece of burning wood.
And, you know, you all are soul winners in this room.
Most of you, I mean, I don't know if everybody is for sure.
You know, maybe you're just new to this church,
and you haven't quite got plugged all the way into the soul winning program.
Let me tell you, there's no better thing that this church does than goes out and wins the lost.
And you're like, well, where are the 15 people that got saved down in South Sac?
Are they all here today?
I don't know.
Is anybody here?
I don't know if they are.
You're like, well, did they really get saved then?
That's, that doesn't matter.
God told us to go out and preach the gospel.
And is that person still saved whether they come to this church or not?
Absolutely.
So, the first point of this sermon is that there must be a call from within.
A call from within.
So, number one, you know, four calls to soul winning.
The first call is there must be a call from within.
A passion for you to get out and save souls.
And, you know, when you're one of the Lord's fire brands,
he burns, you know, he burns his spirit within you,
and you just can't help but go be a soul winner.
So, number one, there's a call from within.
Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14.
2 Corinthians 5, verse 14.
And, you know, me and Pastor are both in the same book in our Bible studies on,
he's on Wednesday and I'm on Thursday,
so I get the advantage of getting to see his sermons before I preach mine.
But I kind of caught up with him because he's like
18 parts into 2 Corinthians chapter 6, so I'm just teasing.
But I'm doing actually three sermons out of that one, but I'm just teasing.
But 2 Corinthians chapter 5 is a great chapter also.
And one of the things it says, look at verse 14.
It says, for the love of Christ constraineth us.
That word constrain means to compel or force someone to follow a particular course of action.
So, the fact that we know the love of Christ,
we want to give that love to somebody else, right?
And so the love of Christ constrains us, the apostle Paul said.
It's forcing us, it's making us go and win a world to Christ
because Paul was the greatest evangelist that ever walked the face of the planet
besides, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And, you know, he said the love of Christ constrains us.
Does the love of Christ constrain you tonight?
Does it compel you to go out and tell people?
You know, you have to have a call from within to go and reach people with the gospel.
Is there a fire within your heart?
Is there a fire within you today that says, hey, I get help but preach these things
because the love of Christ compels me.
It's forcing me.
It's making me.
Now, look at verse 15.
It says, and that he died for all that they which should live
should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again.
See, that power of Christ, that love of Christ constrains us
that we should not live henceforth to ourselves.
Hey, you know, there should be a time in our week where we go live for somebody else,
where we go live for someone else who's, you know, sinking and they don't know what's going on.
They're confused by all these different religions.
They're confused by all these different things
because the devil has people fooled with all manner of different evils.
You know, he has everybody captivated and captured with football and basketball
and all these sports and all these different religions.
And, you know, all they need is someone like a soul winner to come and tell them how to be saved.
Look at, let's turn in our Bibles to Romans chapter 12 verse 1.
Romans chapter 12 verse 1.
See, there has to be a call from within.
And, you know, I know every, you know, at least most of the people in this church
have that call from within.
You know, and sometimes you don't feel like going.
I get that.
Everybody gets there.
But, you know, are you still compelled to go soul winning?
Are you still compelled to go out and reach people?
Hey, when you get that, you know, sometimes you go through dry spells, right?
You go through dry spells where you haven't gotten someone in a while
and it's kind of, you know, a little deflating.
But when you get that one, it's pretty exciting, isn't it?
And then it like gets you back on fire again.
You know, sometimes we go out of duty and we should still go out of duty.
But, you know, there should be a love in our heart that constrains us.
You know, the love of Christ should constrain us and compel us to go.
Look at Romans chapter 12 verse 1.
It says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Now, I don't know about you, but in the Old Testament, didn't they burn the sacrifices?
So we're supposed to be a living sacrifice, on fire for God, but yet not consumed.
You know, it's a spiritual living sacrifice.
We're supposed to live for God and be a sacrifice for him with our lives, with our bodies.
It says, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
It's reasonable, since he saved you, that he would ask you to go out and work for him.
Isn't it reasonable?
Someone saves your life.
You know, it's like, you know, in movies sometimes they'll be like,
you know, I owe you what's called a life debt or whatever.
You know, I mean, they say stupid stuff like that in movies.
Not that I watch them.
I'm just saying I've heard it.
You know, somebody told me about it one time.
But anyway, but we, you know, we owe Christ a life debt, basically.
You know, we're supposed to work for him.
Obviously, we don't have to do works to be saved.
But we should do works because we are saved.
Amen.
Then turn to Acts chapter 4, verse 18.
Acts chapter 4, verse number 18.
There's four calls to Saul.
The first call is a call from within.
Look at Acts chapter 4, verse 18.
And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all,
nor teach in the name of Jesus.
And we get that happen to us a lot, don't we?
You know, the apartment manager is from hell.
You know, I think they have to like sign their,
they have to sell their soul to Satan in order to work for these apartment complexes.
You know, and they, you know, you can't be coming in here.
You're, you know, no soliciting allowed.
You're trespassing, all this stuff.
You know, there's nothing new under the sun.
We're still going to get told, hey, you can't be here.
This is private property.
You know, you can't, you know, you're not supposed to be here.
This is against the law.
And that's what happened to the disciples.
You know, they were commanded not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.
But look at verse 19, it says,
But Peter and John answered and said unto them,
Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.
For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
They had a passion within them, a passion within their heart,
something burning inside them that said, hey, we have to speak everything that we've heard of Christ.
We have to tell people how to be saved.
He gave us the power and we have to go.
Look at verse number 31, it says,
And when he had prayed, the place was shaken, where they were assembled together,
and they were filled, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Why?
Because they were compelled to go.
They were compelled to preach the name of Christ.
They couldn't help but speak the things that they had seen and heard.
So they had a call from within.
There's got to be a call from within to want to go and be a soul winner.
Look at Acts chapter 5 verse 27.
Acts chapter 5 verse 27.
Should be one page over in your Bible.
And they were always trying to stop the disciples from going and preaching the gospel.
Look at verse number 27, it says,
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council,
and the high priest asked them, saying,
Did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name?
And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine
and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said,
We ought to obey God rather than man.
And so see, the apostles were dedicated because they had a call from within.
The Lord had called them and told them,
This is what you're going to do.
You're going to go and preach the gospel for me.
And you know, it's funny.
You know, people will say, Well, Jesus didn't really come back to life.
Okay, well, then why are these people that lived with Jesus for three years,
now all of a sudden just tearing it up with soul winning and preaching?
Why would they do that over someone who was still dead?
Why are they going and hazarding their lives to do something
that, you know, is contrary to what the human flesh wants to endure?
You know, they were beaten.
They were killed.
They were threatened with, they were imprisoned.
They were threatened with many threatenings, and yet they still did it.
You know why?
Because they had a call from within that they could not resist,
but to go out and preach what they had seen and heard.
So, and let me just tell you this.
When I first got saved, I started going to a Baptist church.
I've never gone to anything but a Baptist church.
I went to an independent, fundamental Baptist church.
But you know what?
They didn't have a soul winning program.
They didn't teach us how to go soul winning.
I started on the bus ministry.
And look, I'm not trying to knock the bus ministry.
I know people get saved at the bus ministry.
Obviously, we don't do that in our type of churches,
but I wanted to go and see people saved.
But, you know, they didn't have a program to teach you and to show you,
and they didn't have seminars where they come bring you in and feed you lunch
and teach you how to go soul winning,
or, you know, a program where they would send people out
and send you with a silent partner
so you could teach that silent partner how to go soul winning.
You know what?
You ought to thank God that you're in a church right now
that will send you soul winning.
And not only will they send you soul winning,
but they will teach you how to do it.
You know, and then when more people come, more people get,
you know, I remember when I first started, you know, coming and visiting Verity,
I think the goal at that time was to get to 70 soul winners.
And I preached like a little short sermon that I was really nervous,
and I don't even remember it really.
It was bad.
But I remember pastors saying that, you know, they were working their way up,
and I'm not sure how many souls they had,
but how many do you have on a regular basis now?
A hundred?
A hundred.
So that goal has been smashed.
You know, what's the goal now?
120!
Amen?
So, you know, the goal is always going to go up.
You know, we can always do better, amen?
But the goal is not just about to say, hey, we have 120 soul winners.
The goal is that those 120 soul winners go and get more disciples
and get more people saved,
because, you know, it's a multiplication that happens,
and that's how the kingdom of God grows.
Amen?
So, you know, you should thank God that you have a church like this,
because not a lot of people have it.
There's people all over this country that will love to come to this church.
There's people all over this country,
and they might not even know this church exists.
But hey, there's a lot of people that they get saved,
and they have no program to help them.
They have, you know, they have this inner want to go and get people saved,
but they don't have the program to do it.
And so it took me a long time before I actually learned how to do soul winning correctly,
because I wasn't in a church that would teach me how.
You know, and so thank God that there's a church like Verity Baptist Church
that's going out and, you know, teaching and preaching and all these things.
They're training people how to become that next generation also.
Turn to Matthew chapter 9 verse 35, Matthew 9 35.
You know, we're supposed to be like the Lord.
We're supposed to, you know, try to walk in His paths, right?
We're supposed to take up our cross daily and follow after Him.
What was Jesus like?
He was a hard worker, wasn't He?
When everybody else is still sleeping, He's up praying on a mountain
before it even gets light.
You know, they're like, hey Jesus, let's take a break.
Let's go to a desert place and rest a while.
He's like, psych, because all the people follow Him there.
And then Jesus is just feeding them and teaching them all day long.
And you can tell they're kind of irritated with Jesus at that point.
They're like, all right, we're in a desert place.
You know, what's for us?
And there's no rest, because Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost.
Look at Matthew 9 35, it says,
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages,
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom
and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them,
because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep, having no shepherd.
Now Jesus was moved with compassion.
That means that He had a call on the inside to, you know, feel bad for these people
and to help them and to heal them and to what?
To preach the gospel to them.
And that word compassion means a feeling of deep sympathy
and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune,
accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.
That strong desire comes from in here.
And Jesus had that, He had the compassion.
So He isn't asking us to do anything that He didn't do Himself.
He loved people.
He had compassion on them.
There were sheep as sheep, having no shepherd.
And in verse 37 it says,
Then saith the end of the disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous,
but the laborers are few.
There's only 300 foxes.
You know, there's 100 foxes here.
You know, I'm sorry if I'm calling it foxes.
But you know, that's, you know, the laborers are few.
That's just the facts.
There's not a lot of churches that are sending people out sowing these days.
You know, and the battle's hard.
But the laborers are few.
And what did Jesus say?
He said,
Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest,
that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.
Now recently someone had said,
Well, you just think that, you know, old people and crippled people,
they're just, they're not right with God
because they can't go and sow in like you do.
I've never said that before.
I've never said that.
And you know what?
I wouldn't expect that.
You know, but you know what you can do?
You can pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers.
Can't you do that?
You know, you can be a prayer warrior.
You know, maybe you can't, you know, get up and down like you used to.
But you know, I use this illustration sometimes,
and I'm not trying to offend anybody because, you know, everybody has,
you know, everybody has equal use in this room here.
Everybody has, you know, something that they can do for the Lord,
regardless if they can physically do it or not, okay?
But how many 100-year-old soul winners do you have in this church?
How many?
Is it zero?
How many 90-year-old soul winners do you have in this church?
Probably zero.
You know, how many 80-year-old soul winners do you have in this church?
Look, we have a shelf life, people.
You know, you can't keep going like you did when you were younger.
I'm not saying just stop soul winning when you turn 50 or something like that.
I mean, I got three years left, okay?
So, but what I am saying is that we're all going to slow down at some point.
And yeah, it makes for good preaching to say, you never retire.
Okay?
Well, there's going to be a time when your knees don't work as good as they used to.
Your back doesn't work as good as it used to.
Your legs don't work as good as they used to.
And you just can't get up and down the three flights of apartments
that you used to be able to get up to.
Maybe some of us can't even get up now.
But I'm just saying, you know, we still can do something for the Lord.
If you can't go soul winning, if you physically can't do it,
then you can pray for someone to go out.
We can pray for more laborers to go out.
So number one, what was the first point?
There's a call from what?
What is it?
Okay.
And number two, there's a call from without.
There's a call from without.
So number one, you know, there's a call from within.
Number two, there's a call from without.
Look at Acts chapter 16, verse 9.
Acts chapter 16, verse number 9.
See, not only do we have to have a call from within that burns and just says,
hey, I got to go get people saved.
I got to go give people the gospel.
I got to love people.
I want people to have what I have.
I think it's 2 Corinthians chapter 6.
It talks about, you know, being poor, yet making others rich.
You know, we might look like we're poor scrubs or whatever,
or, you know, maybe we look okay when our soul winning best or whatever.
But, you know, people don't look at us and think we're like,
hey, Donald Trump's here, you know, he's got a lot of money.
But you know what?
When someone gets saved, they inherit everything that we get to inherit
and everything that we inherit is what Christ inherits also.
So guess what?
We are rich.
We're just kind of waiting for the inheritance.
Amen.
So there's got to be a call from within and a call from without.
Look at Acts chapter 16, verse 9.
It says, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.
There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying,
come over into Macedonia and help us.
And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia,
assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.
So in Macedonia, Paul has this vision in the night and there's a man.
And he's saying, come and help us.
But what does that dream mean?
What is the interpretation of that dream?
Well, after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia.
Paul knew what the dream meant.
The dream meant there's people over in Macedonia that need to be saved.
Okay?
There's people in Macedonia that need to be saved and he assuredly gathering
that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel unto them.
It wasn't to go build, you know, concrete buildings for their schools.
It was to go and preach the gospel unto them.
See, a lot of churches, they do missions programs and they're building,
you know, schools out of cinder blocks.
And they say, we went on a missions trip and they get like these,
you know, bright colored shirts and, you know, all this other stupid stuff.
It means nothing.
It's just a bunch of fluff.
They're not really doing anything.
You know, if you're going to go to another country and you're going to do something,
preach the gospel.
That's what we're supposed to be doing.
You know, Paul was called over to preach the gospel.
He said, come over and help us.
Now, the Lord gave us specific instructions, you know, before he left to heaven.
Matthew chapter 28, if you'll turn over there.
Matthew chapter 28, excuse me.
Matthew chapter 28 verse 19.
We don't have to pray about going to preach the gospel.
You're like, does the Lord want me to get people saved?
Does the Lord want me to be a soul winner?
Does the Lord want me to go and be a soul winner?
You know what?
If you go, he's going to bless it.
Obviously, don't try to sneak into, you know, North Korea or something.
That's a bad idea.
Let's go to where it's receptive, where we're allowed to preach, right?
But look what Jesus said.
Go ye therefore and teach how many nations?
All nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you.
And lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world.
So there was a call to the people of Macedonia, you know, early on.
But there's also a call to go to all nations, isn't there?
Does all mean all?
Yeah, all means all, doesn't it?
Every nation under heaven.
Mark chapter 16, verse 15.
Mark 16, 15 says, and he said unto them,
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Is there a call from without?
The Bible says that there is a call from without.
Jesus said to go to all nations.
He said to go into all the world.
Turn to Acts chapter 1, verse 8.
So he said, come over to Macedonia and help us.
That was a direct dream to the apostle Paul, telling them,
you need to go preach the gospel to these people.
They're ready.
So when people modern day are saying, hey, come,
will you come and preach the gospel over here?
Should we answer that call?
Absolutely.
You know why?
Because there's a call from without.
There's a call from within, but there's also a call from without.
There's people that are calling and asking to be saved.
Acts chapter 1, verse 8 says, but ye shall receive power
after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you,
and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem,
and in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.
So there is a call from within, but there's also a call from without.
Now, this is your Jerusalem here, Sacramento.
I don't know if South Sac would be considered Samaria or Judea.
I'm not sure.
Maybe it's still part of your Jerusalem, but you know,
this church goes and goes soul winning in different places,
and you all do soul winning in different places,
and that's good because you know what?
We're supposed to reach everything.
We're supposed to reach everything, but you know, it's not only this church,
but there's other church of like faith that are doing the same thing.
That should be the goal is to just reach as many people from without as we can.
Now, there's a Macedonian call over this whole country and over the world.
You know, they're calling for help.
Are you going to answer the call though?
Are we going to answer the call?
You know, because there's been generations
where the church has been a soul winning church, and that church died out.
The pastor, the next pastor came in.
He's like, repent of your sins.
He doesn't even believe it's soul winning, and then that church dies.
You know, the devil has a lot of devices that he uses to cripple churches.
And getting a bad pastor in that believes false doctrine
is one of those things he does to destroy Baptist churches.
Now turn to John chapter 12 verse 20.
John chapter 12 verse 20.
Even when Jesus was on this earth, people were seeking him.
People followed him everywhere he went.
He was the most famous man in the world at that time.
You know, a lot of those people turned their backs on him later on,
but for a while he was like more popular than Tom Brady.
Tom Brady is not that popular.
He's weird.
But anyway, there's people that are very popular in the world,
and people throng them everywhere they go.
That's basically what Jesus's life was like.
He couldn't even really go into the cities at a certain point
because people would just, you know, go right to him.
But look at what it says in John 12 20.
It says, and there were certain Greeks among them
that came up to worship at the feast,
and the same came there therefore to Philip,
which was a Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him,
saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
You know what?
There's a lot of people out there that would want to see Jesus,
but you know, Jesus is gone right now.
Jesus is up in heaven on the right hand of the Father,
and he left us here to do the works that he was doing while he was here.
But obviously, you know, none of us are walking on water.
We're not bringing people back from the dead or anything like that,
but you know what?
We do bring them back from the dead and away.
If they get saved, they've changed from death unto life,
and they're going to live forever regardless of what works that they do later on.
Now, there was a call in Sacramento,
and Pastor Mendez was like, hey, here am I.
And he started the church in his house,
and he answered that call.
There was a call in Sacramento,
and now look, how many years has it been, Pastor?
11 years in the ministry.
You know, he's got one gray hair for every year,
which is not very many.
No, I'm just kidding.
But he answered the call, but you know what?
There was a call from Vancouver,
and I was like, hey, Pastor, come over to Vancouver and help us.
And you know what he said?
Let me pray about this.
I'll get back to you.
But when I talked to him again, he's like, let's do it.
You know, I listened to a sermon of his,
I think it was in Titus, right?
Where he was saying, you know, in like the next five or ten years,
we'd like to plant a church.
I was like, how about the next six months?
Let's do this.
So there was a call from Vancouver,
and you know what?
We have a great church up there now,
and you know, they're zealous soul winners.
They love the Lord.
They love the Bible.
They love soul winning.
Excuse me.
They love getting people saved.
And you know what?
There was a call to the Philippines.
They're like, hey, come over here and help us.
There was a call to Boise.
They're like, hey, come over and help us.
He's like, I'll send you Pastor Jones.
He'll help you.
He'll straighten you out.
You know, there was a call to Boise.
There was a call to Fresno.
There's a call to Singapore.
There's a call to Hong Kong.
There's a call to Canada.
There's a call to Spokane.
There's a call to Hawaii.
There's a call to England.
There's a call to Europe.
You know, we have a call, and we must answer it.
We can't just keep saying, no, no, I don't want to do this.
No, I don't want to do this.
Hey, is that what the apostles did?
No, they just went everywhere.
What did Paul do?
He just was like, let's just go start a bunch of churches.
Now, people call me crazy because I have all these churches.
I would agree.
Sometimes I feel like I'm crazy, but you know what?
There's a call from without.
There's people out there that want a great church,
but they don't have a great church to go to.
They're like, hey, come over here and help me.
But the laborers are few, and the people that want to step up
and do it are few, but you know what?
When people call for me, I want to answer that call.
Someone answered the call for me.
Someone answered the call for Vancouver.
Someone answered the call for the Philippines.
Brother Stuckey, I think he's got like 10 churches
over there right now or something.
I think it's three, right?
What's the new place?
Peacole?
What is it, Brother Jeff?
Where are you at?
Peacole.
New church plant, amen.
You know, I was listening to Brother Stuckey's year-end report.
He's like, yeah, we got this place.
We're kind of, you know, they're not churches.
Like the one in Singapore is not a church,
but it's kind of being overseen.
Like maybe you guys are sending them so many materials
and they're just like getting all these people saved.
You know, Hong Kong is still hanging on,
still trying to get people saved,
and there's like just all these places that are being overseen.
We're kind of doing the same thing with Europe.
We're like, you know, we're trying to help them.
You know, obviously they're not quite ready yet for a church,
but they're on their way.
But you know, when someone calls from without,
we should answer the call and not just leave them
and say, hey, sorry, we got other places to go.
How about here?
We're just gonna stay here.
What happened when they tried to stay in Jerusalem?
God's like, let them get persecuted
so they'll go out and do what I asked them to do.
Because you know what?
Number one, there's a call from within.
There has to be a fire within us that says,
hey, I must win souls.
I must go soul winning.
I can't help but to preach what I've seen and heard.
And then there's gotta be a call.
There's a call from without.
There's other people besides you that need to be saved.
And you know what?
Guess what?
It's the whole world.
The whole world is looking for the Savior.
And they're asking and they're calling for us to come.
And we need to answer the call.
Excuse me, I've been having a cold
and I knew this was gonna happen
so just bear with me for a second.
I just started coughing.
I'm not still sick, so I'm not still sick.
I just sound like it.
All right, so let's turn to Hebrews chapter 12, verse one.
Hebrews chapter 12, verse one.
What's the first point?
There's a call from, what's the second one?
There's a call from without
and there's also a call from above.
There's a call, there's four calls of soul winning.
Number three is that there's a call from above.
Look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse one.
It says, Wherefore, seeing we are also
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight
for the sin which doth so easily beset us
and let us run the patience, the race that is set before us.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame and is set down
at the right hand of the throne of God.
See, we have a call to run the race
but the Bible says we're compassed about
with so great a cloud of witnesses
and it says, Wherefore.
Now if you go back to chapter 11,
what is that chapter about?
It's the hall of faith, isn't it?
Who are those witnesses?
Well, it mentions them.
Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Jacob, Samson,
all these different great men of faith
and great women of faith, Sarah,
and these people are witnesses.
What is a witness?
Someone that sees something happen, right?
So we do have a cloud of witnesses,
you know, according to the Bible,
that see what we're doing.
But who else has seen what we're doing?
God has seen what we're doing.
We have a call from heaven to run the race,
run with patience the race that is set before us.
Part of that race is, you know,
of the Christian life is soul-willing.
It's part of it.
There's no doubt about that.
And let's turn over to Luke chapter 19 verse 8.
So we got people, these great people of the faith,
people of the faith, these great people of faith in the Bible
that are a compass, they compass about us
a great cloud of witnesses.
John the Baptist has seen what we're doing.
You know, all these great men,
you know, Gideon has seen it, Abraham's seen it,
Isaac, you know, Rebecca, Sarah,
all these different great people of the faith
are seeing what we're doing.
But the most important thing is that we're supposed
to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
He's the one that is actually sent us to do
what we're supposed to be doing.
But we have all these witnesses.
What about your loved ones
that have gone home to be with the Lord?
You know, some of us have loved ones
that have gone on to go someplace else,
you know, to hell, unfortunately.
But I'm sure some of us in here have family members
that have passed on, they're in heaven.
And they're seeing us, right?
Look at Luke chapter 19 verse 8.
So Zacchaeus just gets saved here.
Verse number 8 says,
Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord,
Behold, the Lord, behold, Lord,
the half of my goods I give to the poor,
and if I have taken anything from any man
by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
And Jesus said unto him,
This day is salvation come to this house,
for as much as he is also a son of Abraham,
for the son of man is come to seek
and save that which was lost.
What was Jesus' primary purpose for coming here?
To seek and save that which was lost.
When he died on the cross,
what was he doing it for?
To seek and save that which was lost.
Now, not everybody accepts that gift of eternal life.
Not everybody accepts Christ as their savior,
but he came to die for all of mankind, did he not?
That was his main mission.
Now, what's he want us to do?
He wants us to do the same thing.
You know, we're partners with God.
You know, of course, you've been going through Corinthians.
The Bible says that we, you know, are co-laborers with God.
You know, we have to go and say and speak
and preach the truth to people or they're not going to get saved.
We have a call from within.
There's a call from without,
but there also is a call from above saying,
hey, I want you to go and seek and save that which is lost.
You might have family members up there.
I bet you anything that they want you to go
and seek and save that which is lost.
Your other family members.
And I know that this is one of the most painful things in Christianity
is that when your family members reject it,
your mother rejects it,
your father rejects it,
your brothers and sisters reject it.
You know, it's heartbreaking.
You know, and I'm not saying give up on those people
because people can come around.
You know, things can happen in their life.
Some people are hard cases like this guy right here.
I was a hard case.
I didn't get saved until I was 25.
And, you know, it's like God had to show me a lot of things
and I had to go through a lot of heartbreaking things
in order for me to get saved.
Some people are just, you know,
it takes something dramatic in their life
that they'll actually seek after the Lord.
So don't give up on your family members.
You know, there's family members
probably that you have in your family that are in heaven
that want you to reach those family members.
We're compassed about with such a great cloud of witnesses.
And, you know, the most important one is Jesus.
We have a call from above.
That call is from God.
And where did Jesus come from?
He came from heaven, didn't he?
So turn to Daniel chapter 12 verse 2.
Daniel chapter 12 verse 2.
It says that many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake, some to everlasting life,
some to shame and everlasting contempt.
And they that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament
and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars forever and ever.
What we do makes a difference.
And it makes a difference for eternity.
You know, and the times when we just, you know,
don't feel like going, you know, we got to suck it up.
We got to go out of duty sometimes.
Hey, but, you know, it's not, you know,
your guys' toughest months are probably in the summertime,
I would say.
But I don't know, you guys are wearing parkas and stuff
and it's like 60 to 68 degrees outside.
So I almost brought my sweatshirt and I was just like,
I never wear it.
Whenever I come, I never wear it.
It doesn't matter how cold it is.
So, but anyway, brother Montel was out there shivering today.
So I was just kind of making fun of him.
Anyway, but yeah, what we do for God matters.
And it matters for eternity.
And you know what's the unfortunate,
you know, there's a lot of people,
some to everlasting life,
some are going to awake out of the dust of the earth
to everlasting life.
But you know what?
Some to shame and everlasting contempt.
And, you know, there's a lot of times
when we could have done something.
We could have said something.
We should have said something,
but we didn't say something.
I'm sure everybody in this room has a time
that they just regret a moment they wish they could get back
or they could have given someone the gospel.
They could have done something.
They could have just opened their mouth.
And we all have to live with that guilt, don't we?
And that moves me on to my fourth point.
Number one, there's a call from where?
Within.
Number two, there's a call from?
Number three, there's a call from?
Number four, there's a call from below.
This is going to be the hardest point to preach here
because, you know, it's just sad.
This chapter's sad.
Look at Luke chapter 16.
We've all had that person that we regret not talking to.
Maybe it's a family member.
Maybe we were too zealous when we first got saved
and we pushed that person away because we didn't know,
you know, maybe we should just kind of ease into this
or at least know what we're talking about.
You know, you can't just hit people with biblical truth
when they're not even saved.
I mean, you have to just get them saved first.
That's the number one thing I could say.
If you're trying to deal with a family member,
don't just bulldoze them with all this doctrine.
Number one, they're not going to understand it
because they're not saved.
The first thing you need to do is just try to get them saved
and you've got to be gentle.
The thing with family, there's a weird dynamic there
because they know you, you know them,
they know what you've done, they really know what you've done.
If anybody knows what you've done,
it's your mom and dad, right?
They're like, and you're trying to tell me I need to be saved?
It's like, no son, you need to be saved.
But anyway, look at Luke chapter 16 verse 19.
It says there was a certain rich man
which was clothed in purple and fine linen
and fared sumptuously every day.
There was a certain beggar named Lazarus
which was laid at his gate full of sores
and desiring to be fed with the crumbs
which fell from the rich man's table.
Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores
and it came to pass that the beggar died
and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom
and the rich man also died and was buried.
So you have two different people here.
You have Lazarus who's, you know, having dogs lick his sores
and he's begging every day
and you have this rich man who is living his best life now.
He's got everything he needs, you know,
and look at verse 23, it says,
and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments,
talking about the rich man,
and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.
So the moment you close your eyes and you're not saved,
what's the Bible teaching right here?
That you lift up your eyes and you're in hell instantly.
You're in hell, you're in flames.
It says being in torments.
See, a lot of people say that, you know,
you're just trying to scare people with hell.
Yeah, because hell's scary.
You know, if I can scare the hell into someone,
maybe they can get saved.
The Bible says some say with fear,
pulling them out of the fire,
hitting even the garment spotted by the flesh.
There's times when it's necessary to just scare people
into getting saved because you need to be afraid
because who wants to lift up their eyes in hell,
being in torments for all eternity?
Nobody does.
You don't want that for your family members.
You don't want that for your friends.
You don't want that for your neighbors.
You don't want that for people in another country.
Who would want anybody to die and lift up their eyes
in hell being in torments?
Nobody wants that.
It says that he cried and said,
Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water
and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame.
So there again, he's saying he's tormented.
It's something that never ends.
Day and night, it never ends.
Hell is an eternal punishment.
Heaven is an eternal reward.
It's eternal life.
Going to hell is eternal death.
And we shouldn't want anybody to go there.
Only sadistic people would want someone to die
and go to hell.
Unless, caveat, they're a false prophet, okay?
Or some kind of molester or homo or something, right?
That's the caveat.
Whoever God hates, we should hate, okay?
That's a different sermon.
I'm not preaching that right now.
Anyway, verse number 25.
It says, but Abraham said,
Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime
receiveth thy good things,
and likewise Lazarus evil things,
but now he is comforted and thou art tormented.
Beside this, all this, between us and you
there is a great goal fixed,
so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot.
Neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.
Then he said, I pray thee therefore,
Father, that thou would send him to my father's house.
What do the people in hell want?
Do they want you to come, their family members
to come to hell with them?
No, they don't.
Because once they realize where they're at forever,
they're like, send someone to my family members
and help them, help them get saved.
There's a call from below.
Also, the people that are in hell
that are your family members
or other people's family members,
they're somebody's family members,
and you know what?
They don't want their other family to go to hell.
They don't want their other family members
to go to the place where they're at
where they're suffering in torment for all eternity.
There's no rest day or night.
They're tormented in this flame.
He said, I pray thee, I pray thee therefore,
Father, that thou would send this to my father's house.
For I have five brethren that he may testify unto them
lest they also come into this place of torment.
See, Lazarus, you know, we can say,
well, those people in hell, they deserved it.
They should have chose different paths.
They should have got saved.
I get that.
But even those people down there,
this guy sounds like he still cared.
Too late for him, but he's like,
send someone to my five brothers
so that they can be saved.
But look at what Abraham says.
Abraham saith unto him,
they have Moses and the prophets,
let them hear them.
And he said, nay, father Abraham,
but if one went unto them from the dead,
they will repent.
But didn't Jesus rise from the dead?
Does everybody believe in him?
No, they don't.
But look at verse 31, it says,
and he said unto him,
if they hear not Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
though one rose from the dead.
Here's where we come in.
We gotta give them Moses and the prophets.
We gotta give them the Bible.
We gotta teach people the Bible.
We gotta go to their doors
and try to warn them at least
that they don't have to go to the place.
Nobody wants their family members
to be in hell with them.
At least Lazarus didn't.
I mean, excuse me, the rich man.
But that reminds me of something.
The rich man had no name.
Lazarus and the rich man.
Once you go to hell,
it doesn't really matter what your name is anymore
because you're not gonna live forever.
You're gonna die forever.
And we have to answer that call from below
because there's people that are going there
every single day in droves.
Look at Romans chapter 10 verse 14.
It's the last verse I'll have you turn to.
Romans chapter 10 verse 14.
Remember in Luke chapter 16 verse 31 it said,
if they will not hear Moses and the prophets,
look at what Romans chapter 10 verse 14 says,
how then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed?
How shall they believe on him who they have not heard?
See, people, if they don't hear,
they're not gonna have a chance to believe.
And it says, and how shall they hear without a preacher?
There's a call from below.
And they need, those people want you
to go preach the gospel to their family.
Those people want,
they don't want people to go there with them.
I think that probably anybody that goes to hell
probably feels this exact same way.
I can't believe I was so fooled.
I can't believe I let the devil trick me.
I can't believe that I let my lust and my pride
turn me away from the truth.
They don't want you to go,
they don't want their family to go there.
They don't want their friends and loved ones to go there.
But you know what?
They can't hear without a preacher.
Look at verse 15, it says,
and how shall they preach except they be sent?
This church is sending people.
You know what?
Never lose sight of that fact.
You're going to a great church that sends people.
You know, our church is a great church.
We send people.
You know what?
I want to continue to do great works for God
at Sure Foundation Baptist Church.
I know Pastor Menes wants to continue to do great things,
but we can't lose sight of the fact
that there's a call from within to go soul-wanting.
There's a call from without.
There's people that need to hear without.
There's a call from above.
The Lord wants us and the multitude of witnesses up there
want to see us do great soul-wanting exploits
and there's a call also from below.
The rich man wanted his five brothers to be saved
and so there's four calls of soul-wanting.
You might say, well, you know,
I don't think I'm called to preach.
Well, not everybody's going to have the Samuel moment, okay?
I think Samuel is the only one that had that moment.
The call to preach, I just gave you four calls.
There's four calls.
There's the call within.
There's the call from without.
There's the call from above.
There's a call from below.
Are you going to remember this?
Are you going to remember this outline?
It's an easy outline, isn't it?
But it's one that we should all well remember
because we're going to have regrets
and we should try to minimize those regrets.
My wife was talking to me yesterday about a lady.
She was an old lady and she felt like she missed an opportunity
to give her the gospel.
And she let the lady close the door
before she was able to ask the question.
Is that right?
Am I right about that?
She had a chance to,
she felt like she had a chance to maybe say something
and didn't say it.
And she said, I'll never forget that.
You know, those are things that you have a hard time
forgiving yourself for.
My friend that I went to high school with, his dad,
you know, a long time ago,
I tried to give him an invitation.
You know, at that time, I thought tracks save people, right?
So I like left one in his car.
And I thought, well, you know,
maybe he'll read this track and get saved.
But he didn't.
He ended up getting cancer.
And when I was, you know, the satellite leader in Vancouver,
I was really busy.
I was really overwhelmed.
And he was dying of cancer and he had expressed
that he wanted me to talk to him.
And, you know, he died before I had a chance to do that.
And I could have done something and I didn't.
And I will never forgive myself for that ever.
And so I just, if anybody ever wants me to talk to him,
I said from this day on,
I'm never gonna allow that to ever happen again
because you don't get another chance once they die, it's over.
And, you know, I mean, I knew him for a long time.
And I hope that maybe he got saved before he died,
but I don't know that he did.
You know, the reason I got saved is because one
of my best friends got killed.
But I just want to tell this one last story
and then I'll be done.
But I asked, my sister lives in Pennsylvania.
And her husband was a Roman Catholic, same as Joey.
And, you know, I tried to get him saved a few times
and he just didn't want to hear it.
And Father Stuckey was living
in Pennsylvania before he moved here, if you remember.
And he lived, I was just like, you know,
when someone lives in the same state, you're like,
hey, will you go visit my relative?
And it's like, you know, you think that everybody just lives
like right around the corner or something.
I think Father Stuckey said he like drove for hours to get
because it wasn't anywhere close to where they lived.
But I asked him if he'd go to my sister's house
and preach the gospel to them.
My sister was saved.
She was already saved.
But like she has triplets.
Yeah, she's at her wits end.
No, she has triplets though.
And then she has my nephew, Ethan, who's older than Joe
who were not saved.
And so I just asked Father Stuckey,
would you go and preach some gospel?
But he took his time right before he moved,
drove all the way over there, and none of them got saved.
And I was like, well, thank you, Father Stuckey, for going.
And it was a big sacrifice for him.
I know it was.
He'll probably never admit that or whatever,
how much of a sacrifice it was, but I knew it was.
And I was like, well, thanks for trying.
I really appreciate it.
But because Brother Stuckey went there,
he planted a seed in my brother-in-law's heart.
And because of that seed, he ended up getting saved
not too long after that.
He got baptized and he joined the church.
And he's not going to such and such community church.
He's not going to Spring Creek community church.
He's going to an independent fundamental Baptist church.
And he's leading their family.
And I mean, he hasn't been saved for a long time,
but long enough to where they've made a lot of changes in their life.
But you know what?
That's the kind of...
Brother Stuckey had a call from without.
I said, please, Brother Stuckey, will you go and reach my family?
And I believe that because of what he did,
that Joey ended up getting saved.
Praise God.
That's what it's all about.
Because Brother Stuckey could have just said,
well, you know what?
I really have a lot of things to do before I go.
And I would have understood.
But that's the difference between someone that answers the call from within.
They answer the call from without.
They're answering the call from above.
You know what?
So that they didn't have to go down below.
And I really appreciate that.
I don't think I've ever had the chance to...
I mean, I've thanked him for it, but it's a big deal.
And they're going to come out and visit us this coming summer.
I'm really excited about that.
But thank God that Brother Stuckey answered the call because, you know,
and he's answered a huge call.
He's over in the Philippines.
You know, it's not as easy as it is for us.
We're like whining over the mask thing.
They couldn't even go out and get groceries, I think, at some point.
You couldn't even take your kids into public.
He loves those people over there.
And he's doing a great work.
And I know you guys all love Brother Stuckey.
But, you know, I really appreciate that he did that.
But you might say, well, Pastor Thompson, I'm not called to preach.
I've showed you four different places.
I've showed you four different calls.
So you might be able to escape a couple of them,
but you can't escape them all.
You're called to preach.
Ladies, two.
You're called to preach the gospel.
We're all called to preach the gospel.
And, you know, are you going to answer the call?
Are you going to continue to answer the, you know, like when a fighter gets into a fight
and sometimes they quit, right?
And it's called, they didn't answer the bell.
When the bell dings for them to get out of the corner and go fight again.
And we're in a fight, aren't we?
Every day.
We're in a fight.
We're in a battle.
But we need to answer the bell.
We need to get back up and fight again.
You know what?
The devil's going to bring everything he can against us.
You know, circumstances are going to happen.
We're going to get old.
We're going to get older and not be able to do as much as we can.
But, hey, can you be a prayer warrior?
Can you pray for the Lord of the harvest to send forth labors into his field?
Now, I said that my goal at the beginning of the sermon was what?
To get you to remember this outline.
What's the outline?
Number one, what is the outline?
A call from?
What's number two?
Three.
Four.
All right, you got it.
Well, God bless y'all.
I appreciate you coming tonight.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for the ability that we can go and do something
great for your kingdom, Lord, and soul.
Lord, I pray that we would continue to answer the bell, that we continue to answer the call.
It's a great sacrifice sometimes, Lord, but you sacrifice more for us than we could ever
imagine.
And we just thank you, Lord, so much for our salvation tonight, Lord, and pray you'd help
us to continue to just care about people, Lord, care about those people that are without,
care about those people that need you most.
I pray that you'd help us, Lord, to always just in some way, shape, or form help preach
the gospel.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Turn to song 138.
Song number 138, sing it out on the first.
My soul inside exile was out on life's sea, so burdened with sin and distress.
Till I heard a sweet voice say, make me more tricks, and I entered the haven of rest.
I've reared my soul in the haven of rest.
I'll savor that season, Lord.
The tempest may sleep, for the wild soul may dream.
In Jesus' life saved by the Lord.
I yielded myself to a separate place, and faith, taking hold of the world.
My feathers fell off, and I aed to my soul.
The haven of rest was my own.
I made my soul in the haven of rest.
I'll sail the wide sea east of home.
But in this may sleep, for the wilds will redeem.
In Jesus' life saved by the Lord.
The song of my soul says, the Lord may be new, as many old stories are blest.
From Jesus, you'll see, who so ever will have a home in the haven of rest.
I've reared my soul in the haven of rest.
I'll sail the wide sea east of home.
But in this may sleep, for the wilds will redeem.
In Jesus' life saved by the Lord.
Home come to the Savior, he patiently waits, to save by his power divine.
Come and carry your soul with the haven of rest, and save by me one more time.
I've reared my soul in the haven of rest.
I'll sail the wide sea east of home.
But in this may sleep, for the wilds will redeem.
In Jesus' life saved by the Lord.
The rest of this week, Lord, we need that you bring us back to church safely on Wednesday.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
.