I just want to thank Pastor Mejia for giving me this opportunity to preach.
You're there in your Vibals in Luke chapter 18, look down at verse number 9.
And the Bible says,
And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted themselves,
that they were righteous and despised others.
Two men went up into the temple to pray the one of Pharisee and the other a publican.
The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with themselves,
God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
I fast twice in the week, I give tides of all that I possess, and the public in standing
afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven, but smold upon his breast
saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
for everyone that exalted himself shall be a base,
and he that humbled himself shall be exalted."
And the title of the sermon this evening
is, reasons why people don't get saved.
Reasons why people don't get saved.
And here in this passage we see a clear example
of two different individuals,
one being a Pharisee and the other being a publican.
And we see their attitude when it comes to God,
one being what we would say is prideful,
simply for the fact that he thought
that he would justify himself saying that he's glad
that he's not as other men are, you know,
that unjust, and he's not like that publican, but if you know, if you read the Bible, you know that the Pharisees, you know, they were wicked, and Jesus called them a generation of vipers.
He called them hypocrites. He called them all kinds of names, and we know that these people were not just men before God, and Jesus spoke this parable to illustrate two different kinds of people.
as a public in that wouldn't even look as much as to heaven
because he was humble, he begot for mercy.
And the Bible says that this man went home justified.
And this is the kind of people that we run into
when we go out soul-wining.
We always run into different kinds of people,
but at the end of the day,
we run into two different kinds of people,
one of them being people that try to justify themselves.
by stating the things that they do, whether they're trusting in their works or in their church
or any religious act that they do, and the other people, they're humble enough to realize that
they need Jesus Christ to save them from hell. And the Bible says that there's two kinds of people
in John 3.36. The Bible says that he that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life,
and he that believeth not the sun shall not see life, but the wrath that got it on him.
So if somebody believes on Jesus according to the Bible,
they have eternal life.
If somebody believes not on Jesus,
the Bible says that the wrath of God abides on them
and that they don't have eternal life.
The Bible is very clear.
You know, if you trust in Jesus,
you're going to go to heaven.
If you don't trust in Jesus,
the only other person that you're trusting in
is in yourself.
And the only other place that you can go to is hell.
And here we see that clear example about the Pharisee.
And just as a way of introduction, you know,
There's a lot of reasons why people won't get saved,
especially nowadays, and I'm not saying, you know,
people obviously are not going to get saved
because they're not trusting in Jesus Christ,
but I want to preach more so on the fact, you know,
what prevents them from putting their faith on Jesus.
And we have a go as a church to get 2000 souls saved
by the end of the year.
Right now we're at like 1100,
which means, you know, we only have 900 to go.
And it is possible, you know, it may seem like a great task,
but if everybody puts their part in reaching, you know,
two or three people a week, you know, we're going to reach that goal.
And it's not so just so we can mark it down that we got 2,000 people, you know, these are
2,000 people that were on their way to hell and now they're on their way to heaven.
And I want it to, you know, to be your goal, I want it to be my goal, you know, to have that
vision to reach, you know, people across the world for Christ, you know, because a lot of people,
fortunately, the Bible does make it clear that more people are going to go to hell
than those that are going to go to heaven. And it's not because, you know,
It's hard to go to heaven. It's really easy.
It's only one thing that you have to do.
But people refuse to put their faith on Jesus Christ
for several reasons, and I want to cover those tonight.
So go to Matthew chapter 7,
Matthew chapter 7, and this is all
introduction, but I'll read to you from Luke 13.
The Bible says in verse 23,
then said one unto him,
Lord, are there a few that be saved?
And he said unto them,
strive to enter in at the straight gate,
for many I say unto you will seek to enter in
and shall not be able.
And you're there in Matthew 7.
This is a similar passage.
It says in verse 13,
enter ye in at the straight gate,
for wide is the gate,
and broad is the way
that leadeth to destruction.
and many there be which goal they're at,
because straight is the gate and narrow is the way
which lead it unto life and few be there that find it.
And notice how the Bible says that the way is narrow.
It doesn't say as the modern version is difficult
because there's nothing difficult about going to heaven
because the person that did all the work is Jesus Christ.
You know, it's Jesus that died on the cross for us.
It's Jesus that was buried, that resurrected.
And through his sacrifice,
we're able to go to heaven and have eternal life.
You know, people want to make it hard.
People want to make it difficult.
brought us away because there's many religions today that would teach you
that you have to put your faith not only in Jesus but also in yourself and
whether that's through your baptism or your church or any other religious act
that you can think of at the end of the day if you're not trusting a hundred
percent in Jesus Christ you're putting yourself your trust in yourself as the
Bible said in the beginning. Now go back to Luke 18 Luke 18
I want to go over this passage briefly where we started and in Luke 18 verse 11, the Bible
says that the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am
not as other men are extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
And here we see this person, this Pharisee, justifying himself before God.
And when we go out there and we knock on people's doors and we ask, Hey, you know, what is it
What's the most typical answer that they give?
You know, well, I'm a good person.
I go to church.
You know, I'm a pastor.
You know, believe it or not, we've gotten that.
And even pastors who claim to preach the word of God,
they get the answer wrong.
You know, I ask them, what do you believe somebody has to do?
And they always try to tell us all the good that they do.
And just mark it down.
Anytime that we hear anything except,
well, I've trusted Jesus Christ.
I've put my faith in Jesus Christ.
They're believing in their works.
They're trusting in themselves and the person is not saved.
So when we ask them this question, it's very important.
And Pastor, cover this in a sermon about how to sow it.
But it's very important that we ask this because then we can engage it, you know,
whether or not this person is saved or not.
And if someone's saved, then we ask them clearly, you know,
what is it that you have to do to go to heaven?
What do you believe a person has to do?
If they're saved, they're going to give you a clear answer.
They're going to say, well, I'm saved.
I put my faith on Jesus Christ.
I believe that you died for my sins.
You know, I believe in his burial, his resurrection.
I have eternal life.
And then we always follow it with, well, do you believe that there's anything that you can do to lose it?
You know, they're gonna tell you,
well, I don't believe you can lose it.
It's a gift, it's eternal.
Whatever the answer is, you know, there's clear words.
There's a clear explanation, you know,
when it comes to this answer.
But if they're not saved, most of the time,
even if you ask them, you know,
do you believe that you can lose your salvation?
They say, well, I don't really know.
Maybe if you live a life of sin,
maybe if you commit suicide, you know, whatever it is.
If they don't know the answer,
most likely they're not safe.
right? And sometimes they might be saved, they just go to a wrong church that doesn't teach,
you know, clear doctrine, and then when we explain it to them, you know, the Bible says
that it's eternal, you can't lose it, it's a gift, and they say, well, I believe that, I agree with
that, then I would say that they're saved just because, you know, they don't have clear Bible
teaching, and maybe they do believe that, but they just needed somebody to explain it to them.
Now, go back to Luke 18 and look at verse number 13, the Bible says, and the publican,
so this is a different person, you know, a different attitude, it says,
lift up so much his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful
to me a sinner.
And when it comes to salvation, you know, all of us had to humble ourselves before God.
We had to agree.
We had to believe that we're sinners.
We're not deserving of heaven.
You know, we deserve hell in order to get saved.
And this is the kind of people that you want to run into.
This is the kind of people that you should be praying.
to God to run into, you know, to open a door for you,
to lead us to those that are receptive,
because if somebody is already humble enough to say
that, you know, they're a sinner, they need God's mercy,
then the chance of them getting saved is pretty high.
Now go to John chapter 20, John chapter 20.
And as our church gets bigger, obviously more people are gonna come and we always pray, you know
We want to grow in quantity
but we also want to grow in the quality of the people that we have and as a Christian, you know
One of the goals that you should have not only to you know, be consistent in church be free to thrive
You know be here for the advance whatever you can do to be a blessing to your church
The one thing that you always want to make sure that you're constantly doing is that of being a soul winner
And if you're not a soul winner yet, you know, my prayer would be that you
have that desire, you know, to learn how to give the gospel, to learn how to preach the gospel,
because in reality, our church makes it pretty simple. You know, we have the teams, we have the
team leaders, we have a structure, we have a system in place where we could train people
to learn to preach the gospel so that they can reach their friends and their family
and the people in our city. Now, there in John chapter 20, the Bible says in verse 31,
John chapter 20 verse 31, the Bible says, but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus
the Son of God and that believing you might have life.
through his name. And so we see the purpose of the book of John there and
Pastor has been covering it every week. But we see that the book of John clearly
tells us that these things were written so that we can believe. Because again
salvation is easy and all it takes is to believe on Jesus Christ. First John 5
13 says that these things have a written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son and God that you may know that you have eternal life. So John makes it very
clear you know these things were written so that you can believe. These things
life. So it's not a mystery how to get saved. You know the Bible is very clear that all you have
to do is put your faith on Jesus Christ. Now go to John chapter 5. John chapter 5.
John chapter 5 says in verse 39, search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal
life and they are they and they are they which testify of me. I'm going to read to you from
Luke 18. Well actually go back to Luke 18. Let me read to you some verses.
So they're in John 5. I'm going to read to you again.
It says in verse 39, search the Scriptures for end of me.
Think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.
So the Bible is clear. You know, if you were to read it,
if you were to give the Gospels to somebody, obviously,
it's not our wisdom. It's not our words.
It's not, you know, our own idea.
We go to people with the Bible and we show them clearly from Scripture,
you know, what it is that they have to do in order to believe on Jesus Christ.
And like I said, our goal is 2,000.
I believe that we could even surpass that.
And as a soul winner, we have to pray constantly
for opportunities to give the gospel.
We have to pray to God to give us boldness,
to give us utterance, to give us opportunities
so that we can preach the gospel,
not only to our loved ones,
but to people that we don't even know.
And here's the thing, you know, a lot of us,
sometimes we have all these excuses
why we can't preach the gospel, you know?
I think some of the most common excuses
would be not having time,
or it's just not my personality to go out there
and knock on people's doors.
And I don't think that's anybody's personality, right?
As long as if it wasn't for church, you know,
we wouldn't be out there knocking doors
unless you were like a salesman or something.
But I believe even, you know, like me,
I think I'm an introvert, I'm not that outgoing per se,
but you know, I still gotta do it.
even if you consider yourself an introvert and sure there might be people
that are extroverted and it come might come more naturally as to them talking
to strangers but at the end of the day that commandment the great commission
is for everybody in this room and it's not a thing that you know it's only for
the men it's also for the women for the children you know it's for the husbands
for the wives and we're all at a different stage in our lives where maybe
we have more time than others but at the end of the day you know what's
important to us we make time for it
So number one reason that I want to highlight today on why people don't get saved we can see
there in that in that chapter go back to Luke 18. Number one reason why people don't get saved
as we can see in this chapter is pride in this matter of pride and we see there at the Pharisee
And it says, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men.
And people today are very prideful thinking, you know,
that they can earn their way to heaven.
And the Bible clearly says that as it is written,
there's none righteous, you know, no, not one,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
We're all sinners before God,
and there's nothing good in us that we can do to merit
or, you know, work our way to heaven.
And right here, as we see with the Pharisee,
a lot of times that we run into people,
they're just prideful, you know,
they don't think that they need a savior.
They think that their church attendance
They're baptism, they're the good that they do.
And any question at any point that we make
in our gospel presentation.
You know, if they're prideful, they're not going to agree with it.
If we tell them, you know, the Bible says that we're all sinners.
Do you believe that? Do you agree with that?
I don't think I've sinned.
You know, I don't think I've ever done a major sin.
You know, that's pride.
Or if they agree that they're sinners, we say,
well, because we're sinners, we deserve hell.
I don't believe I deserve hell.
You know, that's pride again.
And the reason why that's pride is because it's prideful to say
that you don't deserve this punishment.
That Jesus Christ himself had to come down to this earth to die for your sins.
And the Bible clear says that Jesus went to hell for our sins.
It's sort of, Jesus had to go to hell for our sins.
How is it that a person doesn't deserve to go to hell?
And again, that's what's called pride.
Now they may agree that they're sinners.
They may agree that, you know, they deserve hell.
But then what about when we tell them, you know,
Jesus is the only way, you know,
Jesus said to put your faith on him to trust only in him.
Well, I believe it's much more than that.
You know, that's pride again.
And any point that we give them, you know,
whether it's your sinner, you deserve hell,
you know, Jesus paid for your sins,
you have to put your faith on him.
If they don't believe on any of those,
it's because they're prideful.
And a lot of times they say, well, I do believe on Jesus,
but I still think you have to do this and that,
and whatever the case may be, that's called pride.
And we got to make it clear to them, you know.
The Bible says that in order to go to heaven,
you have to put your faith exclusively on Jesus Christ.
He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man come into the Father but by me.
So there's no other way to heaven.
You know, you can't say, well, I'm gonna go this way.
You know, I'm gonna take a different route.
No, the Bible makes it clear.
In order to go to the Father,
you have to go through Jesus Christ, the Son.
Now go to Romans 10, Romans 10.
As we see in this passage too,
We see in the beginning in verse number nine,
you're going to Romans 10,
but let me read to you from verse number nine in Luke 18.
It says that he spake this parable unto certain
which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others.
And the Pharisees were known for this, right?
They thought that they were holier than dowels.
Well, they believed they were holier than dowels.
And, you know, they would say one thing and do another.
And a lot of people are like that,
that they go about establishing their own righteousness.
And we see right here in Romans 10,
looked at in verse number three,
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law,
for righteousness to everyone that will leave it. And so people, when they go and they say,
you know, well, this is why I'm going to go to heaven, that if it's not the faith of Jesus Christ,
you know, it's their own righteousness. And, you know, we got to make it clear to everybody,
once we go to their door,
that, again, it's not of works, it's not, you know, what you do at church, it's not, you know,
whether or not you're baptized, although all those things are good, but we always draw that clear
distinction that it's not based on any of these things, it's only based on our faith in Jesus Christ.
Now the Bible says that it's not of works, lest any man should boast, and you know, I kind of like
surprised sometimes because we tell people, you know, um, do you know what boastiness is? And they
say, I don't know what boastiness is, but then we got to clear it up for them, you know, what
And once they know what brightness, you know,
that's what they were doing before we made it clear
to them that it's only by faith.
And they always say, well, you know,
I believe that I was going to go to heaven
because of the things that I'm doing.
Now, here's the thing.
So winning in 2025 has been made easy.
And back to that point of having to reach people,
back in the day, I believe, you know,
sometimes we had to go out of our way,
go to knock doors, which I believe we should still do.
But there's this thing called Omi TV, right?
And you've been hearing us talk about it all the time now.
And I'm thankful for such, you know,
an app that exists today because it allows us to broaden,
you know, our influence.
It allows us to reach people in other countries
at any time of day, you know,
South of Africa. The app has the option of reaching people in Israel, but not that you
want to do that either way, right? But it has that option. It has the option of reaching
people in Ukraine. It has the option of reaching people in Brazil, in Mexico. Any country that
you could think of is on that app. And if you have time, you know, to be on your phone,
to just, you know, dead scroll, which we all do, you know, I'm guilty as well. We have
that time, you know, that we can invest in winning somebody to Christ. Now go to James
So on that point of Omi TV, I just want to plug that in because if we're going to reach
a certain amount of salvation, it's going to take a lot of effort.
And a lot of us, maybe we only go once a week, which is fine.
I encourage you to at least do that, be consistent once a week, but if you can go more than once a
week, you know, we do go so many on Tuesdays, we do go so many on Thursdays, we do go so many on
Saturdays, and those are official times, but in reality, you can go so many any time of the week.
And if you don't have time to go out physically, you know, you have time to sit on your phone and
you know, talk to strangers, you know, it's the same exact thing. Instead of knocking doors,
you're just literally connecting to people by the minute. If they're not receptive,
And, you know, thankfully, you know, praise God for this app
because every week we're just able to reach a lot of people
in South Africa, you know, Brother T.J. does it.
I think Brother Chris, Brother Mori, a lot of people here
in this church have, you know, hopped on this app
and it's super receptive.
And the thing about South Africa, and I keep reading
in South Africa because that's one of the most receptive
countries that I've seen on the app.
I've done Mexico, but I run into a lot of trolls, you know.
I've done...
The states, you know, I've gotten people saved in Alabama at random times of the day
I've gotten people saved like in New York, whatever the case may be
Anything, you know, when you make something a priority, you know, and it's important to you you're gonna make time for it
So I want to read to you from James chapter 2.
Look down at verse number 10.
The Bible says,
And this goes back to the point where people think
that they're able to keep the commandments.
You know, they might not be a drunk.
They might not, you know, smoke weed.
They might not be committing adultery,
but they're guilty of something.
And when people say they've never even told a lie,
you know,
They're lying at that instance, right?
So the Bible makes it clear, you know,
whosoever shall keep the whole law,
yet, if in at one point, he's guilty of all.
So no matter which way you cut it,
you know, you've committed one sin at least.
And we, if we're honest, you know,
we've done more than just one sin.
We've broken a lot of God's commandments,
whether it's lying or anything else.
And because of that, we're guilty of that same punishment
as everybody else, which is hell.
Now go to Proverbs 29, Proverbs 29.
And again, this all falls under the point
of being prideful, thinking you could save yourself
And unfortunately, that's a lot of people today, you know, they think that they can save themselves by keeping the commandments
And I always like making this point when I'm talking to people, you know, what do you think it's easier, you know
Getting saved going to heaven by putting your faith on Jesus Christ or by keeping the commandments
And if they're honest, you know, obviously to go to heaven
It's a lot easier to believe on Jesus Christ because it feels based on keeping the commandments
I wouldn't be going you wouldn't be going. I don't think anybody would be going
now
In Proverbs 29, verse number 23, the Bible says,
A man's pride shall bring him low,
but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit.
And the Bible also says that God resisted the proud
and gave it grace unto the humble.
So when we look at these two individuals,
we see two kinds of people, one being prideful,
you know, trusting in themselves,
and then the publican, who despise not only of the Pharisee,
but probably despise of other people,
he's humble enough to say, you know,
God, be merciful unto me a sinner.
And I'll go back to Luke 18, Luke 18, look down at verse number 14, the Bible says,
I tell you this man went down to his house justified.
rather than the other,
for everyone that exalted himself should be a base,
and he that humbleth himself should be exalted."
So out of these two individuals,
the only person that the Bible says was justified
was the publican.
And it wasn't because he did anything great,
it's simply because he believed on the Lord.
The Bible says,
but to him that worketh not,
but believeeth on him that justified the Angali.
What does it say?
His faith is counted for righteousness.
Any verse that we read to people about salvation,
faith, right? John 3.16, Mosheh and his verse in the Bible,
for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believed it on him should not perish but have everlasting life.
And these people that always claim, you know, that they've read the Bible,
that they go to church or, you know, they're a deacon, they're a pastor,
they haven't read the Bible because a lot of times, I don't know if it's ever
happened to you guys, sometimes we get people where we say, well,
what do you think you have to do to go to heaven?
And they're like, oh, I already know, I already read the Bible.
And they're like, okay, well, what is it that you believe?
And then what do they say? Works, you know.
They might not say it plainly, but they say some type of work.
And that just shows that they're prideful.
They haven't taken the time to see what the Bible says.
Now go to Matthew chapter 5.
Matthew chapter 5.
Now the contrast between the public and the Pharisee is what that the public and went home justified because he humbled himself before God
Now in Matthew 5 3 like that verse number 3 the Bible says blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
You see poor people and I'm not talking about, you know
Monetary right because there's some poor people there, you know poor
financially, but they're still prideful. But we're talking about people that are
poor in spirit, and these are the people that recognize, you know, their need for
a savior, and there's people that are, you know, are prideful, and they do the
opposite. You know, they don't see that they have to believe on Jesus Christ. Now
in Romans chapter 4, or actually go to Titus 3, Titus 3, you see the Pharisee
was convinced that he was a good person by the things that he did.
Obviously, he wasn't, and in Titus 3, verse number five,
the Bible says, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the holy ghost.
So he probably will keep us from getting saved
because it has us trusting in ourselves.
And go to that Luke chapter 18,
we'll look a little further down in that chapter,
because it has two examples I wanna highlight here.
Look down at verse number
15 and says, and they brought unto him also infants that he would touch them, but when
his disciples saw it, they rebuked them, but Jesus called them unto him and said, suffer
little children to come unto me and for.
Bid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.
Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive
the kingdom of God as a little child,
shall no wise enter therein."
And I believe here, Jesus is likening the faith of a child
and saying that we have to have a childlike faith
in order to get saved, because a child, children,
they believe whatever an adult tells them
when they're really small.
And my kids are small right now,
and anything that I tell them, they just trust me,
they just take my word for it.
And it's the same thing with God.
faith and we believe what the Bible says. You know, we just take him at his word. We're not
there doubting. We're not there questioning because children are like that. You know,
you tell him something, you tell him, I don't know, whatever we tell children, right? We always,
I give my, I tell my children, you know, I'm going to take you tomorrow to McDonald's, right?
And I end up not taking them, but they believe it, right?
That's the example I want to make it.
They believe it, they take me out of my word.
Whether I'm going to do it or not,
they're not saying, well, based on every time
that he's done this or that, he's not going to do it.
No, they just believe it, right?
And that's the kind of faith
that we have to have, child-like faith.
Now, if you continue down in that passage,
look down at verse number
18 the Bible says here's another example of somebody that was
prideful it says in a certain ruler asked him saying good master
what shall I do to inherit eternal life and Jesus said unto him why call us
thou me good none is good save one that is God
thou knowest the commandments do not commit adultery do not kill do not steal
do not bear false witness honor thy father and thy mother
and he said all these things have I kept from my youth up now when Jesus heard
these things he said unto him
yet lack is thou one thing, so all that thou has, and distribute unto the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come follow me."
And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful, for he was very rich.
And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said,
enter into the kingdom of God for it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And there's another clear example of somebody
who we would say is prideful and simply because of the fact that he had too much. You know,
he believed that he had kept all these commandments from his youth up and a lot of people are like
They've learned to just trust in themselves because they've never had to really rely on God to
bail them out of the situation. And people that have money, unfortunately, you know,
they've relied on money. They think that they could buy their way out of certain situations.
And many times that that might be true. But when it comes to salvation, you can't purchase salvation.
When it comes to, you know, having the Holy Spirit,
you can't purchase a Holy Spirit.
And that's why for that reason, you know,
a lot of times when we go out so many,
what do we target?
We target the poorer areas.
We target, you know, the ghettos.
We target, you know, where there's people that are poor,
you know, not only financially, but just poor in spirit.
You know, there's a reason why we don't do
most of Anaheim Hills.
You know, if we were to go door knocking up in the hills,
I doubt we'll get anybody saved.
If we go in Yerba Linda, you know,
There is safe people in Yerba Linda because one of them and a couple of people are in our church
But you know for the majority right if we go out so many in Yerba Linda
We're probably gonna come back with no
Salvation's but the truth is you know one day we are gonna reach those people one day
We're arguing to knock in the doors
But they're not the priority at the moment because we have to go to the areas that are more receptive and Jesus Christ said it himself
You know how difficult is it for those that trust in riches to get saved now go to Hebrews chapter 11 Hebrews chapter 11?
So the first point I want to make is that people do not put their faith on Jesus Christ because they're prideful
They think they're not a sinner, you know, they don't think that they deserve hell
They don't think that Jesus is enough and then lastly too
They don't you know regarding the points that we cover or giving them the gospel
They don't believe that salvation is eternal
Now, go to Hebrews 11, the Bible says in verse number six,
but without faith it is impossible to please him for he that
comeeth to God must believe that he is and that he is a reward
of them that diligently seek him.
So God wants us to come to him with faith, right?
Not doubting, not questioning anything like that.
And when we come to him for salvation,
that's the way that we come to him.
You know, we don't doubt, we just believe his word.
And we believe it by faith now go to Hebrews 11 again look down verse number 1 now faith is a substance of things
Hope for the evidence of things not seen
And so again faith is what saves us now go to mark chapter 10 mark chapter 10
So those are two prime examples that we see in that passage
One being the Pharisee who was trusting himself the other being the young ruler who was trusting his riches
And again, this is the point of why people don't put their faith on Jesus Christ and that's because of pride
So if someone's gonna get saved, you know, they have to put their pride aside and humble themselves before God
Just like the public and did
Now, in Mark 10, verse 24 of the Bible says,
and the disciples were astonished at His words,
but Jesus answered again and saved them to them.
Children, how hard is it for them that trust in the riches
to enter into the kingdom of God?
So again, Jesus is making the point
that those that have riches,
it is difficult for them to put their faith on Jesus,
simply for the fact because they've lived the life
and just trusting in their money and themselves.
Now, go to Jeremiah chapter 13.
Actually, go to,
Yeah, go to Acts 24, go to Acts 24.
I'm going to read to you from Jeremiah 13,
the Bible says in verse 15,
hear ye and give ear, be not proud
for the Lord has spoken.
So God already spoke to us through his word,
that it's only by faith, that it's only through his Son.
And he's saying give.
Ear, be not proud because somebody that rejects what the Bible says is somebody that is prideful.
That's why it's important to learn to not waste your time with people that start off by saying,
you know, I don't really believe the Bible because if you're trying to preach them the gospel
and you tell them, well, do you believe in God? They say yes. But if you tell them,
do you believe in the Bible? And they say, I don't believe in the Bible.
You're pretty much wasting your time and you're better off just moving on to the next person.
So in order for somebody to get saved again, they have to set off their pride aside.
But second reason why people don't get saved, aside from, you know, not putting their faith in Jesus Christ,
is because they procrastinate, you know, they procrastinate.
So you're there in Acts chapter 24.
Look down at verse 24, the Bible says,
and after certain days when Felix came with his wife,
Jerusalem, which was a Jewish, he sent for Paul
and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.
And as a reason of righteousness, temperance,
and judgment to come, Felix trembled and answered,
go thy way.
For this time, when I have a convenient season,
I will call for thee.
And here we see Felix, you know, calling for Paul,
telling him, hey, I want to hear of this matter.
But then when Paul preaches to him about, you know,
the judgment and temporary said, well, go away,
I'll call for you at a better time.
And that's all a lot of people are, you know,
they procrastinate salvation.
A lot of people today procrastinate in all areas of life.
But one thing you can't procrastinate because at one point
it's just too late, you know, you die, right?
salvation is getting saved and people today they procrastinate all kinds of
things you know they procrastinate getting tasks done they procrastinate you
know getting married you know some people here are procrastinating I'm
just kidding but you know they procrastinate getting a job they
procrastinate you know paying their bills they procrastinate you know getting
in shape right but you know that's another sermon I'm just kidding but you
It's detrimental to, you know, our life.
And a lot of people won't get saved
because they just put it off.
They think that they're gonna live a long life.
They said, well, because they believe
that it's essentially by works,
they say, well, I'm not ready to commit my life to Christ
when they could just get saved, right?
You know, they don't have to live a good life
in order to go to heaven.
They should, right, in order to please God,
to get rewarded.
But if they were to just take care of that,
you know, they could seal their faith,
They're on their way to heaven, regardless if they do good or right.
Obviously, we would want them to come to church,
you know, learn how to live for God, learn how to get other people saved.
But whether they do that or not, you know, as long as they get saved,
that's the most important thing.
But people will procrastinate this simple thing,
which is salvation, and just put it off for another time.
Go to James chapter five, I believe.
I'm going to read to you from verse number 13.
The Bible says,
Go to now ye that say,
Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city
and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain.
Whereas you know not what shall be on the moral
for what is your life?
It is even a vapor that appeared for a little time
and then vanished it away.
And so here we read that, you know,
our life is not going to last forever here on this earth.
And a lot of people
take it for granted, they think they always have more years than they actually do in order to get
saved. And unfortunately, yeah, we do read about people getting saved, you know, like at the last
minute, like the thief on the cross, or people, you know, getting safe on their deathbed. But
do people really want to bank on that? You know, do your family members really want to bank on that?
You know what, one day I will get saved. No, because they just might die before that time comes.
Now go to Acts 26, Acts 26.
So here's the second point people don't get saved because they procrastinate just like Felix even though he called
For Paul to explain to him essentially you said you know go that way
You know I'll call for you when when he when he wanted to
And a lot of people are like that and fortunate, you know, that they hear us, you know, when it comes to the gospel, they agree with it, but they're like, you know what, I'm not ready today.
And it's not something that you have to get ready for, you know, you just put your faith on Jesus and you're safe, right?
But a lot of people will say, well, you know, I'll pray at a different time. I don't feel like I should pray right now.
Whatever the case may be, they're just procrastinating.
Now in Acts 26 and verse 27, the Bible says, King Agrippa, believe is thou the prophets.
I know that thou believest, then Agrippa said unto Paul,
almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou,
but also all that hear me this day,
we're both almost and all together,
such as I am, except these bonds.
And so King Agrippa, another example of somebody,
you know what, that almost persuadest me to be a Christian.
And there's always people that get so close to getting saved.
You know, our friends, people that we run into at the door,
people at work, they're so close to getting saved,
but then they put it off.
You know, they procrastinate.
They say, later at a different time, I'll get saved.
And perhaps they never hear the gospel ever again.
And it's a sad thing when that happens.
Now go to Ephesians chapter two,
actually go to Jonah chapter three, Jonah chapter three.
So I like how our church, you know,
constantly we're seeing new people.
Constantly we're seeing somebody that gets saved and then later on they bring, you know, their friends their family
And then their group just gets bigger and bigger, you know
I think of brother geo bringing Adrian and then I think about like the jiu-jitsu crew
You know that it started off with v-tor and then now she's like this giant
Crew that sits on that side on Sunday mornings, but you know, that's how
it works. You just reach your friends and thank God that they decided to get saved and not put
it off and procrastinate when it comes to that. Now the third point I want to make, the first
being that people don't get saved because of pride. Secondly, they don't get saved because they
procrastinate. And then thirdly, they don't get saved because they have preconceived ideas,
preconceived ideas. And I think this is one point that all of us
struggled with because we all thought that it was a different way to get saved, right?
Nobody out there naturally just believes, you know, it's only by faith.
Somebody had to explain it to us, show us from the Bible, that it's just faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, growing up, obviously,
Many many of us grew up in church some of us didn't but we had an idea of you know
Maybe if I'm good enough
I'll go to heaven maybe if you know I go to church or maybe if I pray maybe if I get right
Maybe if I ask for forgiveness whatever the case may be
There's something that you believe that wasn't what the Bible taught that you have to do to get saved
And that's a lot what a lot of people believe today, you know one of them being repenting of your sins to be saved
You know, well, if I stopped being a drunk, you know, if you're a drunk, right?
Well, you wouldn't be here if you're a drunk, but if a person is a drunk and they believe, you know,
I had to repent of that sin and get saved, that's the preconceived idea that they have,
or they have to get baptized, or, you know, they have to keep the commandments, they have to go to
church, they have to study the Bible. I've gotten people say that, you know, I'll get saved when
I've read the Bible cover to cover. And unfortunately, you know, a lot of times that's not going to
happen at all. Now, people have these preconceived ideas, but at the end of the day,
All this could be summed up in works.
And the Bible says in Jonah 3, verse number 10,
I like how the Bible makes it very clear,
and God saw their works that they turned from their evil way
and God repented of the evil that he had said
that he would do unto them and he did it not.
And so when people say, well, in order to go to heaven,
you have to believe and repent,
and tell them it's not of works.
Well, they say repenting is not of work.
We have a clear verse here that says, you know,
in God saw their works that they turned from their evil way.
And now the Bible again says not it works as any man should boast.
A lot of people have, you know, this conceived idea that they have to...
You know work their way to heaven whatever it may be maybe they're part of a different religion and they were taught false doctrine
Well, they have to you know forsake that repent change their mind of what they were trusting in and believe on Jesus Christ
Romans 11 6 says and if I graze then it is no more of works
Otherwise grace is no more grace, but if it be of works, then it is no more of grace
Otherwise work is no more work, and that's kind of a tongue twister, but you know essentially just saying you know if it's by works
it's not of grace. And if it's by grace, then it's not of works. It can't be both. You know,
you can't mix the two. Now, go to X-17, X-17. Another preconceived idea that people have is
that the Bible is written by men. And, you know, we obviously know and believe that God inspired
the Bible, and it was penned down physically by man, but when they say that, you know, the Bible was written by man,
they mean that it has a human author, and they say, well, I don't believe the Bible because a man wrote that.
But how is that the Bible, you know, everything that is in the Bible goes against our nature, right?
Now, when they say that, a lot of times, you know,
If they don't believe the Bible, there's not much that we can do other than show them what the Bible says.
But if they reject that, we just move on.
First Thessalonians 2, I'm going to read to you from verse 13.
It says,
not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God,
which is effectually worketh also in you that believe.
And here we see the people at Thessalonica,
you know, they receive the word.
The Bible says not as it is, you know,
not as the word of men, but as it is in truth,
the word of God.
So if someone's gonna get saved,
they have to receive the Bible as it truly is,
that it's the word of God.
And the word of God has power, you know.
A lot of times,
Something that has helped me throughout my Christian life as far as like preaching the gospel
It's just realizing and just believing that you know
It's not me that it's gonna get somebody safe in a sense that I don't have to come out with like these fancy
You know words or a fancy plan of salvation if I just call to them scripture
I just show them what the Bible says the power is in the word of God
So if someone's gonna get saved is because it's not because of me is because of what the Bible says
and it's because they're putting their faith in what
God has said. Now go to Acts 16, I think I told you, go there, look down verse number 11,
the Bible says, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word
with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so.
And sometimes, you know, it has happened to me and I've seen it happen to other people when I'm
out so many with pastor or with other people here where you tell them, like, hey, can I show you
what the Bible says? And they're like, hold on, let me go get my Bible. And they're receiving it
Well, the Bible says we're all sinners you give them the verse they're like, okay
What verses and they're falling along you know these are people that believe the word of God
They're receiving it with all readiness of mind and you'd be surprised out there. There is people
You know, they're just waiting for somebody
to preach in the gospel.
You know, a lot of times we do run into those that say,
you know what, I was just praying yesterday
that somebody would show me, you know, how to go to heaven.
Or I was just praying, you know, searching on YouTube,
you know, what is it that I have to do to go to heaven?
And we're an answered prayer to them.
You know, the fact that we showed up to the door
that we're saved, we're Baptist, you know,
we're part of this church and that we have the truth
and then they get saved.
Now go to Matthew chapter nine.
Matthew chapter 9. So I preached already on why people don't get saved. Obviously, there's many reasons why, but
Tonight, I just covered number one, being pride,
number two, because people procrastinate,
and number three, because people have preconceived ideas.
But what can we do to get people saved?
Because obviously, we all play a role in this fact
of whether or not people are gonna get saved.
It's not like God is coming down himself
and preaching to people.
He uses us.
We're his vessels, we're his instruments
in order to reach people.
Now the same points could be applied to us and the fact that you know a lot of times people don't go out so many because they're
Prideful and you say how so because they worry too much about what people are going to say about them, right?
A lot of times people they're like, well, you know
They put it off and they don't want to go reach other people because
They're fearful in a sense and they're worried if they're gonna get judged or like they say well
I'm gonna go so many when I got it all down, right?
When I know all the verses, when I feel comfortable,
when I feel like I could speak really clearly.
No, if people wait too long, they're never gonna go.
And here's the thing, we want everybody to be, you know,
fluent in their gospel presentation.
We want everybody to be apt, you know, to give the gospel.
But at the end of the day, sometimes you just gotta do it.
right? If you wait till it's perfect, if you wait for, you know, when the right opportunity comes,
you're never going to do it. And it all comes down to pride because people are afraid, you know,
what are my peers going to say? Are they going to laugh at me, you know, when I, you know, stutter
or where I mispronounce a word or, you know, when I don't, you know, a quote-diverse, you know,
word by word, you know, you know, we're here to help you. We're here to teach you, to instruct you
Also, people do procrastinate when it comes to so many.
You know, as a Christian, obviously we didn't procrastinate
when it comes to salvation, because we're saved,
but we could procrastinate when it comes
to getting people saved.
You know, we could put it off for next week, next month,
next year, and eventually you just never go.
And here we wanna, you know, train people,
but we also want them to commit.
You know, the best way to not procrastinate
when it comes to so many is by choosing a so many time.
Like I said, we have
Plenty of official so many times that you can be a part of, but even if you don't, you know, you can talk to somebody, you can talk to me, you can meet up with your friends, you know, people that live in your area and go so many with them.
You don't necessarily have to come with us in order to preach the gospel. You can meet up with your friends in your area and reach the people in your area.
Like, one thing I like is that all of us, we all live in different cities.
And that's a great way to reach people
in different communities, right?
And if you don't know where somebody lives,
you know, you could ask me, I have everyone's address,
no, I'm just kidding, but that's why it's important
to make friends, you know, like, hey, you know,
where do you live?
And you're like, what, we live in the same city.
I live in the same city as a couple of people here
and we go out so many on Saturdays.
You may live close to somebody,
you just may not know it.
But that's why it's important to make friends
so that you can see where they live.
And if you both wanna have that goal
in reaching people for the gospel,
you can meet up on a different day.
Now, another thing is that people have preconceived ideas
when it comes to preaching the gospel,
and they just think that there's a specific way,
or there's only one way to do it,
but like I said, you could go door knocking,
you could reach people at the gas station,
you could reach people at work, at school,
you could reach people through Omi TV,
and the way that you do that, I find it,
what Pastor has said is that you pray for opportunities,
because if you're always out looking for opportunities,
they're gonna come, they're gonna present themselves.
I went to pick up, you know, my wife got injured at a hike, you know, pray for her, but she
injured her foot, right?
And so I had to get her this knee scooter, so you see her riding around, you know, that's
what happened.
But I had to pick this up for her, and I went out there, and this was through OfferUp,
and then, you know, I'm just purchasing it, and then the lady just mentions it to me.
I got this because I had a tumor in my head and, you know, I used it for rehabilitation.
And I was like, okay, well, you know, is everything all right?
Just, you know, just talking to her.
He's like, yeah, thankfully, you know, thank God I was able to survive.
But now, fortunately, I have cancer.
And she mentioned God.
And a lot of times when people just mention God, that's a great way to say like, well,
I noticed that you mentioned God. Do you believe in God? And she says she did.
And then I was like, dude, you go to church and she says she didn't. But obviously that's how we
roll into that question. More importantly, they're going to church. Would you be 100% sure going to
heaven? And she wasn't. And those are the opportunities that I'm talking about that I didn't go out there,
you know, buying this thing, hoping that I was going to get this person saved, which I did.
You know, praise God, but those are the opportunities
that God always gives us to those that, you know,
know how to preach the gospel,
that those are seeking opportunities
that we're able to, you know, encounter these people, right?
And it was a sad situation, you know,
a little back story about her.
Her name was Kenya.
She had this tumor, she had got into this car accident,
and unfortunately now she has cancer.
But because we met that day, you know,
whether or not, hopefully, you know,
Lord willing, she beats cancer, but if she doesn't,
we know that she has a home in heaven.
And then another thing too that I think about
as far as opportunity, sometimes, you know,
I'm setting up for pastor,
because he's gonna do Omi TV.
I was like, let me set up the mic.
Let me check the cameras, you know,
let me check the sound works.
And I just hop on there, just trying to check the audio.
And I tell people like, hey, I'm just testing out the audio.
How's it going?
Where are you from?
They're South African.
And I'm not really trying to preach the gospel, you know,
because I'm just trying to like set up the mic.
And then they're just wanting to talk.
And then the end of getting safe.
But this is the kind of things that I'm saying, you know,
you pray for those opportunities,
God is gonna give you those opportunities,
is what I'm trying to get across.
Now, lastly too, here's some things
that we can do as homeowners that would help us reach.
Not only the 2,000 mark, but also just reach people in general number one is that we can pray
What can we pray for? We can pray for labors. You're there Matthew chapter 9 looked down in verse number 36
The Bible says but when he saw the multitudes
He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered or brought as sheep having no shepherd
Then say he unto his disciples the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few pray ye therefore
the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labors into his harvest. And so here we see the
prayer of Jesus Christ that you know there's a lot of people out there that want to get saved
but the labors are few and we're not we're you know we're a big church as far as like we have a
lot of people that come and we have a lot of people that go out soul winning but here's one
thing that we can pray we could always pray for more labors if you're not a soul winner
you know, pray that God would make you a soul winner.
If you're married, you know, pray that your wife
would be a soul winner.
If you have kids, you know, pray for your children
that when they grow up, they learn to give the gospel.
You know, we're not just here to meet up,
to read the Bible, to sing praise unto God.
We do all that, we wanna glorify God,
but essentially we're here, you know,
to reach more people for Christ.
Now again, I said pray for opportunities.
You know, the opportunities are everywhere
if you look for them.
If you're never looking for opportunities, you know the door is always going to be closed people may want to talk to you
They may be somebody at your work at your school at your gym, you know, those are you that train, right?
Anywhere that you can think of, you know, if you're not looking for opportunities, there's always they're not going to be there
Right is what I'm trying to say now go to Colossians chapter 4 Colossians chapter 4
The Bible says in verse three with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of
utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bonds that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak and
So Paul was always praying or open us a door of
utterance to speak the mystery of Christ. So the first thing that we can do
as far as what we can do to reach people is to pray.
Pray for more labors, pray for opportunities.
The second thing that we can do is preach.
Now obviously if people are gonna get saved,
we have to preach them, right?
Now go to 2nd Corinthians chapter four,
2nd Corinthians chapter four.
And the Bible says in verse three,
but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,
in whom the God of this world
have blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
who is the image of God should shine unto them.
For we preach not ourselves for Christ Jesus,
the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
And so the second point, as I said,
the first one being,
praying for opportunities, for more labors.
The second is to preach.
You know, if you're a soul winner,
you have to go out there and preach.
Now, we're not all gonna preach behind this pulpit,
but we all preach every single week.
And like I said, soul winning is for everybody
in this room, not just the men.
the ladies, the children, everybody has that capability of preaching the word of God to somebody that is lost.
So if you're going to get people saved, if people are not getting saved, like the Bible says, is because our gospel is hid.
There may be people out there close to you, you know, your family members. A lot of us pray for our family members to get saved.
But we don't know who your family is.
Perhaps we're never gonna go to your house
because you don't invite us, not just kidding.
But we may not meet your family,
but if you're a soul winner, that's your opportunity.
You're the man for the job to reach your mom,
to reach your dad, to reach your siblings.
If you're not gonna reach them, you know who is, right?
Cause you're the one that's there constantly.
And so you have to pray, you have to be the one
to preach them essentially.
Because none of us here, whether we get along
or not. None of us want our family to go to hell. You know, all of us want our family to get saved,
to go to heaven, but if they're going to get saved, it's not us keeping our mouths shut,
it's because we're willing to preach to them through the gospel.
And I go to Romans one, Romans one, I'm old Zenith,
it says in verse number five.
So as much as in me is I am ready to preach the gospel
to you that are at Rome also,
for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God and salvation
to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek.
And so the gospel has power, but are we using, you know,
the power of God to reach people?
You know, you
are probably in school, some of you are in school,
you can reach people in your school, right?
I know Christian would reach a lot of people in his school.
You may be at a job that's only,
you have a lot of coworkers,
do your part in reaching them.
If it's not you, then who's gonna reach him?
We're not, all of us have a different circle of friends
outside of this church, as far as we work
with different people, we see different people.
But it depends on us whether or not they're gonna get saved now if you get you did your job already and gave them the gospel
They didn't receive it. They didn't get saved. Okay. Well, you did your part, right?
But if you haven't even done your part if you just been holding out if you just been waiting for the right opportunity
That opportunity may you know be gone, you know
Sometimes you work with somebody and you put it off you procrastinate and you say I'll just try to get them saved next week
And then what happens they get fired or they move or they leave they quit the job
And you just never see that person ever again
Now, the last thing that we can do,
number one, I say is that we pray
for opportunities and labors.
Number two is that we preach.
But number three, we need to prioritize soul winning,
prioritize soul winning.
And too many Christians today,
unfortunately, they have the wrong priorities.
You know, they prioritize everything but soul winning.
And I'm not saying, you know,
you're gonna be soul winning 24 seven, right?
Because none of us do that.
Let's just be honest, but if you don't have the priority,
at least so many once a week, you know,
then what are you doing?
You know, you prioritize work.
Obviously work, we have to work, right?
We have to show up.
If we don't, we get fired.
But here's the thing, you prioritize that.
And how do you do that by getting ready every night
by showing up to work?
A lot of us prioritize, you know, the gym.
How do we do that?
You know, we eat good and some of this, but no, I was saying,
but we try to eat the best that we can, you know,
we show up to the gym, we do the workout.
Things that are important to us,
we prioritize and we make time for it.
All I'm saying is that if so many is important to you,
which it should be, you need to prioritize it.
And if you're going to prioritize it,
the way that you do it is by showing up, by getting ready,
by prepping, by learning the verses,
by, you know, participating, by praying.
So-winning needs to be a priority in our lives.
And I remember when I first got saved,
somebody told me at my old church,
the most important thing that you should do
as a Christian is so-winning.
And it's true because so-winning keeps you in church.
So-winning keeps your heart soft.
So-winning keeps you loving people.
And I'm not saying, so-winning,
we always have this burning heart for the loss, right?
Because sometimes we go through phases,
where we're just doing it out of duty,
we're just doing it out of discipline,
which is still better than not doing it, right?
but pray that God would soften your heart to love people because at the end of the
day, you know, this life is too short and
the only thing that's gonna matter
is the things that we did for God.
And I wanna end on this verse, you know,
the Bible says in Acts 1-8,
in the most famous verse, it says in Acts 1-8,
but you shall receive power after that
the Holy Ghost has come upon you,
and you should be witnesses unto me,
both in Jerusalem and in all Judea,
and in Samaria, and unto the older,
most part of the earth.
And I believe as a church,
we are fulfilling the great commission.
Obviously, we reach our Jerusalem,
we go to Anaheim, we go to Santa Ana,
Fullerton, you know, all the surrounding cities,
we've done it and we're continuing to do it.
We do, you know, all of Judea.
We go to Fontana, we go to San Diego,
we go to, you know, cities that are further.
We've gone to Barstown.
We've done, you know, Samaria,
which I believe would be like TJ.
This is a two-hour drive.
We're doing that as well.
And now through Omi TV, because of that,
we're able to reach the uttermost part of the earth.
All I'm saying is that, you know, as a church,
we should do our part.
Obviously, we have that goal of 2000, but I just want to challenge you to do your part
in helping us reach the 2000 and even surpass that number.
Let's pray.
And we follow your Lord, thank you for this day,
thank you for allowing us, Lord, to gather tonight,
to hear your word, being preached.
I pray, Lord, that you continue to bless
our so many efforts, Lord, in this city
and in the surrounding cities.
Please continue to bless Pastor
and his vision that he has for our church
in reaching 2,000 souls.
And I pray, Lord, that you would help us, Lord,
get that vision, get motivated, Lord,
help us to have a heart for the lost
and to pray for opportunities, Lord,
and that we would pray for our door of utterance
to be opened unto us.
Please bless the remainder of our night.
Help us to get home safely
and continue to bless a pastor's family
in Jesus' name, amen.