Do you ever compare your life to that of an athlete, like God compares it, or that of
a soldier?
Think about the boot camp.
Think about the training.
You know, my dad told me about when he was in boot camp, and he had to memorize, he had
to memorize long lists of rules and regulations about his particular branch of the service,
and they'd walk up to him and say, you know, I don't remember how that exactly worked,
but they'd say like, quote, paragraph number four, or, I don't remember what it was, but
I've never been in the military, but, you know, they'd say like, quote, paragraph number
five, or whatever, and he'd just have to be like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I mean,
you had to say it fast, you'd be like, sir, blah, blah, blah, blah, sir!
And I remember my dad telling me that every single person, they went up and down that
barracks, and every single person, in order to pass boot camp, and if you didn't pass,
you got to do it again.
And some people were there for the third time, okay, in boot camp, literally, but you will
pass this, you must pass, and they'd go down the barracks, and they asked each guy just
one question about this book that they had to memorize, this book of the code, or whatever
it was that they had to learn about their rules and regulations of this branch of the
service, and I remember he told me that they got to my dad, and they asked him like six
questions, I mean, they asked everybody else just one, and so, I mean, he was just, you
know, sweats in front of his face, he's riding around like six different guys, and he got
them all right, and he passed, and he thought maybe the guy didn't like him or something,
he was just trying to make him fail, because if you make one mistake, sorry, don't tell
me that you can't memorize the Bible, you know, don't tell me that you can't memorize
the verses that you need to know for soul winning, you know, don't tell me you can't
memorize what you need to learn, because, I mean, if these worldly guys in the military
can memorize some stupid little book of rules or whatever, anybody must be able to memorize
anything, and think about this, think about for soul winning, you've got to train yourself
to be a good soul winner, I mean, it took me years to where I was even comfortable going
out soul winning, I mean, I would go out and just stammer and stutter, I was nervous every
single time I went soul winning, probably the first year that I went out soul winning,
I mean, you know, 75 times, probably, I went out soul winning, just nervous, didn't want
to knock that first door, but you know what, I trained myself, I got my Bible and I underlined
all the verses, I learned where everything was at, I memorized the verses, I would practice,
you know, hi, my name's Steve Anderson, you know, I'm from Regency Baptist Church, and
I just want to invite you to church, I mean, I practice, you know, that's kind of silly,
I mean, you just show up at that, no, I trained myself, because why, I was trying to become
a good soul winner, why, for the Gospel's sake, because I want people's sake, you know,
I've got to become a good soul winner, I mean, I've got to become, you know, when I went
to the start of church, I tried to learn how to preach, why, because I was trying to become
a preacher, so I trained myself, you know, get the sermons that I preached, I preached
two sermons on the soul winning techniques, hey, get those sermons and listen to them,
get those sermons and listen to them, and learn the techniques and those sermons that
are straight out of the Bible, that have been used by people all over to win souls effectively,
hey, get those tapes and listen to them again, and listen to them again, and then get out
the Romans road, and the verses out of the book of John, whatever verses stir your heart
about soul winning, about salvation by grace through faith, about how Jesus paid it all,
hey, learn those verses like the back of your hand, hey, train yourself, get yourself,
you know, note cards or whatever, and learn how to do it, become a soul winner, become
who you need to be, if somebody can train for a corruptible crown, you can train for
an incorruptible crown, have you ever looked at your Christian life like a race, like an
athletic competition where you have to train yourself, I mean, don't be, here's what I'm
trying to say, here's the problem, don't be casual about it, be a professional, I'm
not an amateur preacher, I'm not an amateur soul winner, I'm not an amateur Bible student,
I'm not an amateur anything about the Bible, this is professional, this is the most important
thing that I do, and so I'm going to just treat it like I would treat my job at work,
do you show up for your job every time, or do you just not come because you don't feel
it, I mean, you show up every single time, I mean, why, because it's important, why,
because it's something that you have to do, look, the love of Christ constrains us to
be a soul winner, the love of Christ constrains us to be faithful to church, the love of Christ
constrains us to live a holy, clean and decent life, hey, get serious about it, get zealous
about it, be like, put yourself in spiritual boot camp for the next six weeks, and say,
I am going to make myself into an effective soul winner, I am going to make myself into
a godly, righteous, fiery preacher of the gospel, I'm going to make myself a loving,
kind, friendly person, I'm going to make myself act like Jesus Christ, I'm going to make myself
greet the visitors, be friendly, I'm going to become all things to all men, I'm going
to train myself and work out myself so that I can be what Jesus Christ and what other
people need me to be, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer, God, I just pray
that you would help all of us to never resign ourselves and say, well, that's just the way
I am, God help an attitude that says, that's just the way I am, and that's not willing
to repent, that's not willing to change and say, you know what, maybe this is the way
I am, but I'm willing to take the steps necessary, as Saul did, to become another man.