All right, if you all want to get seated, and we'll get started with this evening portion.
If you all want to take a seat and get settled.
So Brother Dylan has some more worksheets and another handout.
If you want one, you can lift your hand.
He can come by and get you something.
I think he has pens as well.
And there were still a handful of those New Testaments over there.
I don't know if they're all taken now.
All right, we'll go ahead and get started.
And sorry for being a little late.
I do want to start with a word of prayer, and then we'll get started.
Just an update, please be praying for the Goodwin family.
There was an accident that they were in, and so if you'd just be praying for Jeff and Wendy and their family, just FYI.
But we'll get started with our conference, and I'll start with a word of prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us this evening.
Thank you so much for our church family.
I pray that you bless this time of learning.
I pray that you would just help us to have a desire to be better soul winners.
And that you would be with us as we go out to preach the Gospel.
That we would be reminded of things in your Word.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
So if you have one of these worksheets, I'm going to kind of go through it as a little bit of an outline this evening.
Yesterday, I talked a lot about the introduction.
And this evening I'm going to kind of focus on closing the deal.
But I do want to kind of quickly address just a few parts of giving the Gospel, and then getting to that point.
So if you didn't hear last night's instruction, I would encourage you to at least check it out.
I talk a little bit about the introduction, and this worksheet does have a few questions here.
That I think really make a lot of sense when you go out and preach the Gospel, especially in America.
Now I will say one thing.
When you go to preach in a different country or foreign area, sometimes you'd want to change the way some of these questions are.
But for the most part, this is a tried and true.
Even in other countries, this is still going to typically work.
The great thing about these questions in other countries is when you ask, are you 100% sure you go to heaven?
Most people in other countries say no.
And you're just like, that's kind of refreshing that they don't already believe a false plan of salvation.
But in America, these are some really good questions to ask.
So this evening, I'm focusing on someone's already accepted your invitation to preach the Gospel to them.
So someone's already said, yes, I want to listen, I want to hear, will you show me how to go to heaven?
We've already gotten to that point, and this person wants to hear the Gospel.
So that's basically the context.
If you go to page 2, it talks about sin.
Now, here's the thing.
When we go out to preach the Gospel, there's only one thing you have to do to be saved,
is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the only thing you have to do.
It's very clear.
But there are some crucial stair-stepping moments that need to happen
in order for someone to truly understand what that means and why they're doing that,
why they're believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And of course, the first one is the fact that they're a sinner deserving of hell,
because if you don't deserve to go to hell, why would you need to be saved?
So the whole point of us showing some of these first verses is just to establish some very clear facts.
But I'll say this.
It really should not take you long to establish to someone that they're a sinner deserving of hell.
If you're spending five, ten minutes on this section, you're probably doing something wrong,
or you're just arguing with someone that's not interested in getting saved.
So I'm just saying that to make it clear.
Someone that's taking ten minutes to prove to someone that they're a sinner deserving of hell
is probably not being very efficient in their Gospel presentation,
because honestly, I would say this first page,
I typically will get through in about 30 seconds to one minute
with almost every single person I'm preaching the Gospel with,
because that's all that's necessary.
In fact, most people already agree with you.
I would say 99% of the people I talk to will admit that they're a sinner.
The 1%, good luck getting that person saved anyways.
I'm not saying don't try, but unless you're talking to a small child,
pretty much everybody even already knows what a sin is and has that idea.
If you're talking to a very young child, maybe you need to explain to them what a sin is,
and try to help them there.
But point one, just explain they're a sinner.
There's other great verses you could use. Romans 3.10 is a great verse.
It talks about the fact that no one's perfect.
But I just think Romans 3.23 is a great way to start,
because it just says, for all of sin.
I'll even do this. A lot of times when I'm preaching the Gospel,
I'll explain the verse as I'm going to it.
They've agreed to hear me preach the Gospel.
I say, hey, you agree no one's perfect, right?
And they're like, yeah.
And it's like, yeah, right here in the Bible it says, for all of sin.
You would agree with that, right?
And they're like, yeah.
And then I'll be flipping to the next page, and I'll just say, do you know what a sin is?
They're like, yeah, breaking God's commandments, lying, they'll bring something up.
Yeah, exactly.
Romans 6.23 says the punishment is the wage of sin is death.
Now, here's the thing.
You could spend a lot of time on this verse.
I honestly don't think that it's profitable.
I typically just give them the answers.
And let me tell you something.
When you're preaching the Gospel, it's better to just give them the answers to every single question,
rather than giving them this, like, test that they can't pass.
And I've seen some people that'll ask this question, do you know what a wage is?
Okay.
And typically what people will say is yes.
And then you say, okay, what is it?
And they're like, I don't know.
But here's the thing.
That's not that important to define what a wage is for someone.
It'd be better just to tell them, right?
So this is what I do.
I just say, for the wage of sin is death.
I say the Bible says we're all going to die one day.
And this is not just talking about physical death.
It's talking about a spiritual death.
And it's a place called hell.
And they're just like, yep, yeah, I agree with that.
Pretty much everybody just already agrees.
Or I'll say, hey, there's two places you can go after you die.
Heaven or where?
And they'll say hell.
And I'm like, yeah, is hell a good place?
And they're like, no.
It's terrible, right?
And then I just go to Romans, or I'm sorry, Revelation.
Now, in their worksheet, I have Revelation 20-10 and then 21-8.
You don't have to use Revelation 20-10, OK?
Some of these things are just good suggestions.
I like to use Romans 10, Romans 20-10,
especially if they give me kind of a weird answer on what hell's like,
just to make it clear what the Bible says.
If they're already telling me hell's like fire and torment
and it's horrible or whatever,
I don't know if I need to belabor the point.
But if they're just kind of like,
I kind of feel like I'm in hell right now, man,
then I'm like, OK, well, let's see what the Bible has to say about hell.
You know, it's a lake which burned of the fire and brimstone
and they're tormented day and night, forever and ever, right?
That's a little bit different than right now.
And I kind of want to heighten that point
just to help them realize that hell's way worse than any suffering
you could ever experience on this earth, OK?
But then we go to Revelation 21-8.
Now, you could read the whole verse.
Sometimes I don't even feel like reading the whole verse.
I'll just start with all liars.
Because here's the thing, the only point that I'm making
is that we're sinners deserving of hell.
And as soon as they can get that point, I want to move on, right?
There's no need to belabor these points.
I'll show them all liars shall have their part in the lake
which burned of the fire and brimstone which is the second death.
And then at that point, I'll just say,
hey, if I told you I've never lied before, would you believe me?
And everyone always says yes.
I don't know if I just look like a liar.
No, I'm just kidding. They say no.
They say I would never believe you. Of course, right?
Because you look like a liar. No.
Here's the thing.
It's easier if you ask people questions that condemn yourself, right?
To condemn yourself rather than them.
And I just say that from personal experience that
I typically never get tripped up.
If you're kind of being like, I bet you've told a lot of lies, buddy.
You know, this is like, the guy is going to kind of feel weird or awkward.
It's really easy for people to condemn you.
It's a lot harder for them to condemn themselves, right?
So I typically just make myself the bad guy
or make my soul winning guy my partner the bad guy.
It's really easy, especially if it's Ryan.
Okay, it's like no effort whatsoever.
It's really easy for me to pick on him.
And so any bad examples I have, I'll just use my silent partner, okay?
Now obviously, if you're silent partner's like first timer,
you may not want to just throw them under the bus, okay?
But Ryan, throw them under the bus, okay?
In fact, you could be like, there's a guy named Ryan at my church.
Now, that'll just really help you, okay?
No one's naming their kid Ryan after this.
No, I'm just kidding.
So again, I'm just trying to get to the points that
these points quickly, because these points aren't the make or break deal.
Almost everybody believes they're a sinner deserving of hell.
We're just getting you to basically admit that you agree there
and identifying there's a problem.
If someone cannot believe that they're a sinner
or cannot believe that hell even exists
or that anybody would go to hell,
I typically end the gospel there.
I don't even wait.
I'm not going to sit here and try to prove to you that hell exists.
You know, I'll show you a few verses from the Bible.
I'll show you where Jesus brought up hell.
You know, Mark chapter number nine,
he brings up hell very clearly
and talks about where the fire's not quenched.
So, you know, that'd be a good place to go to.
But if you can't get them on a one or two verses on these type of things,
typically you're arguing with like a Jehovah's Witness
or some kind of a cult that's not going to believe the Bible anyways.
So you just want to move on.
Just basically say, okay, well, the Bible does say this place is a little hell.
Check out this video when you get a chance.
So we've got sin and hell.
Now is where we're getting to the important parts, okay?
So now we're going to like Romans chapter five, verse eight in this handout.
And I think it's really important that you take the time to explain the gospel.
And what is the gospel?
It's the death, burial, and here's a really important point,
resurrection of Jesus Christ, okay?
And you know what? You're not, you should never skip any of these.
It's never cool. It's not awesome. It's not fun.
Of course we want to be efficient, but we don't want to take anything out of the gospel.
So we always want to preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now there's a lot of important doctrines that are related to salvation
that I typically don't feel the need to explain to them in great detail while preaching the gospel.
What I do is I just sprinkle them in with my gospel and just basically see how they react to them, right?
Basically see what they think about them.
Like I'll say, okay, Romans five, eight, but God committed his love toward us.
And that we're yet sinners. Christ died for us.
So the Bible says that God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for all of our sins.
He's the son of God, but he's also God in the flesh.
The Bible teaches a trinity. Is that what you believe?
You know, if they're like, yeah, move on.
I don't have to necessarily sit here and prove the trinity to this person.
I've already covered that the deity of Jesus Christ, that there's a father,
there's the son, the son was sent from the father.
So a lot of things were covered in just 10 seconds of kind of explaining this.
And in fact, if you look at this little paragraph, it's kind of a pretty simple paragraph that I kind of have.
And this would be something that you pretty much just have memorized.
Like this is pretty much the same. You're just given the same spiel every single time.
What you think is really important about the gospel, what maybe touches your heart,
but you want to make sure you at least have the death, burn, resurrection, right?
So we've covered that Jesus Christ, the son of God, he was sent by the father.
I say he's born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless and perfect life.
The Bible teaches he preached the gospel, but the Jews didn't believe in him.
So they crucified him. But when he died on the cross, he didn't die for any of his sins because he had no sin.
He died for our sins. Almost everybody agrees with all of this.
Okay. It doesn't matter. Catholic method is doesn't matter.
Okay. They all pretty much agree. We're just kind of covering a lot of these bases.
At that point that he's died.
I'll even ask them this. Do you think he died for some sin or all sin?
And I've been using this recently a lot in the gospel because I think it helps in the later portions
by reminding them that you can't lose your salvation because Jesus died for all of your sin.
So a lot of times I even show them first John chapter one, verse number, I believe it's seven.
Let's check. It's either seven or eight.
It says, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleansed us from all sin.
So, you know, I just show them that verse. You don't have to, but I just think it's a helpful verse
because I'm going to constantly bring it back up to them about how he paid for all of our sins.
And so that's kind of an important point. Now I'll say now that he died, the Bible says his body was buried
and his soul went where? Heaven or hell. Almost everyone says heaven.
That's why I find it really beneficial to then go to Acts 2 31 and show them that he actually his soul went into hell.
And I'll just say he took our place on the cross and in hell so that we wouldn't have to go there.
And a lot of people say, I never knew that. And when you show them Acts 2 31,
I'll even sometimes stop on the word hell and let them say it.
And you know, it's a really easy point for people to just flip their mind on.
And what I like about this is if they've already changed their mind about something,
it kind of in my mind softens them to change their mind about something bigger in the Bible.
But it helps them realize, oh, if I was wrong about that, maybe I'm wrong about something else in the Bible.
And that's a pretty easy one to show them. That's why I show them that is because I think it's helpful
in just identifying that doctrine. Does someone have to understand that doctrine to get saved?
No. But I just find it really beneficial in my soul and presentation.
I've always done it and I always will do it. And it always seems to work.
I've never personally ever had anybody get mad at me for showing that verse.
The only time I've ever seen someone get mad at this is James White on like a movie.
OK. Or like a documentary film or whatever. It's like I've never really met someone that actually got mad about this.
It was kind of bizarre. So it's really simple.
It's not a big deal. I've heard some preachers make a big deal about it, but they're wrong.
So, you know, they can be wrong after I show them that.
Then I say, but he wasn't left there. And that's what it says in Acts two thirty one.
And this really helps me get to the last point. What happened? He rose again from the dead.
They usually get that point as well. It's pretty easy. Now, I explain this as a physical resurrection,
so I don't have to really belabor the point. I say, hey, his soul returned to his physical body in the tomb.
He came back to life in the tomb. He walked out of the tomb and show the disciples the holes in his hand.
So I explain the physical resurrection to the person and then basically get their agreeance,
make sure they believe that they understand that. At that point, now I'm ready to read,
readdress the very beginning of our gospel. And this is important.
You want to think about what is it that they said that was wrong when you first approached them at the door?
Because I'm going to say now what Jesus did, does that mean everybody automatically goes to heaven?
You paid for every sin or is there something we have to do? And they're like, yeah, there's something we got to do.
And I'll be like, now, what you said is that we have to do works. What you said is we have to go to church.
What you said is we have to repent of all our sins. What you said, I'll remind them of what they said before I'm about to show them the next verse
so that I can make a really strong contrast in the next part.
If you did not get a clear statement from someone, sometimes you're doing what I call a backwards gospel.
This is a great place to then figure out what they believe. You've just shown them everything, but you haven't given the answer yet.
So you can basically say, now do you think everybody automatically goes to heaven or is there something we got to do?
And they're like, where's something we got to do? And they'll be like, what do you think that is?
So basically, even if you got kind of didn't get a clear answer, you weren't sure or you started in a weird place
or maybe you only showed them one verse, right? Let's say you knock on the door and they're like, I'm not that interested.
Can I show you one verse? You basically show them one verse and you start getting into a lot of gospel verses.
But you never had a chance to even ask them what they believe. This is a great place to then revisit that question and say, oh, OK.
So then what do you think someone has to do? And they'll bring up, go to church, be a good person, follow the rules, whatever.
And you can basically revisit that portion. And now you're going to show them a very clear statement that's the different, right?
Acts 16, 30 and 31 serves what must do to be saved. And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
So that's a great place. Now, another important tip and this is where we're going to focus this evening is closing the deal.
I want the person to understand what it means to believe in Jesus. OK, so here's the thing.
Almost everybody that's going to agree to hear the gospel believes Jesus is real.
And when they hear the word believe in Jesus, that's typically what they think that means.
So we must help them realize there's a difference between trusting in Jesus and believing he's real.
OK, so that's why at this point or maybe John 3 16, somewhere when I'm showing them a lot of believers, I want to then clarify to them what it really means to believe in Jesus.
How it's different than thinking he's just a person or he's in heaven or he's God.
OK, because a lot of people believe that the devils believe that God's real. Devils believe Jesus is real, but they're not trusting him.
That's a huge difference. Right. So I will often just use a pretty easy example.
And it almost always works. I say, hey, if there was a cop over here standing in the street and I could see him,
it's very easy to believe he's real, but it's much different for me to trust in him.
And they're like, oh, yeah, you know, nobody trusts cops. Right. And so it's really easy.
And that's that's completely different, isn't it? They're like, yeah, I said the same things with Jesus.
Many people believe he's real, but they're not trusting him alone for salvation.
They think they're going to church or bringing up what they're saying is going to get them to heaven.
And I'll say, if I told you I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person, go to church and and I read the Bible every day.
Does that sound like I'm trusting Jesus or myself? And I'm hoping they finally get this.
They're like, oh, that's you trusting yourself. Now I know they know there's a difference between these words now.
And I can move on to my gospel. If they're saying, oh, you're trusting in Jesus, then I'm like, whoa, I need to stop.
I need to just completely just slow down and explain this point even further so they really understand it.
OK, because I do not want someone to think that just accepting Jesus or facts about Jesus gets them saved.
It's a full reliance upon his death, burn, resurrection that gets them saved.
And I find that most people have a problem in their gospel because they don't stop here and address that.
They just keep going. And then later they start doing all these hypotheticals and the person keeps failing.
And they don't know why the person's failing all their questions and hypotheticals is because they never help them realize there's a difference between believing Jesus is real and trusting alone and what he did to save you.
OK, so it's a really important step before you get to eternal security to explain to them what it means to truly believe in Jesus, what that looks like, having faith in Christ.
OK, so if you don't do that step, what you end up having to do is explain it way later when you're not on those verses and not thinking about that or it's gotten confusing.
So you might as well just do it now and just double check, make sure they really understand what it means to have faith in Christ.
You know, even in Spain, it doesn't matter what language it is, Spanish as well. It's very important to make that distinction.
I'll say that it's comfiar, which is like confidence or trust, not just creir.
OK, which creir means to believe. So it's not like this is a language specific thing.
It's universal that people, when they hear the word believer faith, they don't understand it.
Sometimes people hear the word faithful when they hear the word faith. They think that it's like a lifestyle of doing works.
And so you have to kind of unravel that false doctrine in their mind and help them realize that difference.
I'll also say this. I think it's important to show at minimum two believers.
OK, and right in a row, I would say typically I show four or five because I don't want them.
I mean, what's the one thing they got to do is believe, right? I don't want to show them 30 verses and I didn't show them but one believers.
It's like I'd rather emphasize believe, right? So I'll use Acts 16, 30 and 31, John 3, 16, John 3, 15, John 3, 18, John 3, 36.
I don't even have to go anywhere. I'm just sitting here just hitting just believe, believe, believe, believe.
Why? Because they didn't understand that before. So I want to hammer that point home to these people.
I want to just show them, look, the Bible's not unclear. It's very clear. Believe, believe, believe, believe, believe, believe, believe.
And once you help them realize that, it's going to be a lot easier to get them saved at the end.
Now once they understand that it's believe, you cover that, you want to cover eternal security, OK?
And I'll say this. There's a lot of ways to explain eternal security but I've never found a better way than using the son and father analogy.
It always works the best. That's why since I'm right here in John 3, I just go to John 1 because I don't even have to do anything but turn the page once and I'm right there.
Verse 12 says, but as many as received him to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even them who believe on his name.
So now that I've, they understand believe, I'm going to really hammer eternal security.
I already gave them a lot of eternal security verses with John 3, 16 because you have everlasting life. You can't lose that, right?
But the son analogy is really good because now you're going to explain how works have an important role but has nothing to do with salvation.
And this is important because most people are trusting in their works and it's confusing to them to hear, oh, you don't have to follow any of God's commandments.
Just believe and go to heaven, bro. You know, just be a wicked murderer, rapist, whatever, and just believe and go to heaven.
They get, they're just like thinking, this is weird. Okay, a lot of people are confused.
So it's beneficial to still explain the father-son analogy so they can understand its complete difference.
So after explaining 1 John, I'll just say, hey, can I change my parents are on this earth? Can I change my mom?
Can I change my dad? They're like, no, of course not. No, you can't. And I'll say, and here's the thing.
I say, can I change my mom? Because sometimes you're like, hey, can you change your mom?
She's like, yeah, she kicked me out of the house, bro. And it's like, now you're going to go on a rabbit trail, you know, that you didn't have to go down.
Okay. Or they'll bring up, you know, maybe you'll look at a woman, she's like mid-twenties, and you're like, so do you have kids?
And she's like, no. And it's like, don't go down the rabbit trail. Here's the thing. Can I change who my mom is?
There's no question of like, do I have a mom or what? And like, nobody's going to go down a rabbit trail on those type of questions.
So that's why it's important when you think about questions you have, you want to have questions that no one can get tripped up on no matter what their situation is.
It's a lot of times better to just have universal questions and statements that you don't have to chase some kind of a rabbit or re-explain yourself or come up with a new analogy on the fly.
No one likes cops and everybody has a mom. Okay. So it's really easy. You know, I even tell this to cops and they like that analogy.
They were like, this makes a lot of sense, you know. So try to pick things that make perfect sense that are universal.
Can I change my mom? Of course not. Right. And I use my mom because my mom's actually passed away. And I even say this, my mom's already passed away, but is she still my mom?
And they're like, yeah. I say, if I die, would you still be my mom? Yeah. I say, so there's nothing that I could ever do to change that. And they're like, yeah.
And I said, the same is with God. Once you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a child of God. And no matter what you do, you'll always be his child.
So while it's important for God to be pleased with you, it's important for your parents to be pleased with you. It's important to follow all the rules. No matter how much you follow the rules, you'll never stop being their child.
Okay. This is important because they'll then be like, oh, okay. So it is important to follow the commandments. There is a reason. Hey, I can get punished on this earth.
If I lie, still cheat, commit adultery. Hey, I could get a lot of punishment. I go to jail, get the death penalty. God could cause a lot of bad things to happen, but I can't stop being his son.
This is where everything's going to really click with this person. Okay. So I really, really emphasize this. I've heard other eternal security verses.
Like you go to Romans 6 23 before this, they'll explain like an eternal light bulb or something. I don't like it just because I've seen a lot of people go down rabbit trails with this.
They're like, you know, well, I don't know what that is. And it doesn't explain works if you think about it. Like if I said, hey, I'm going to give you a light bulb that lasts forever.
And they're like, okay. And it's like, if it went out, was that really eternal? They're like, no. And I'm like, so then if I, you know, commit murder, am I still going to go to hell? And they're like, yeah.
Because they, it's hard for them to like connect all those dots. The light bulb didn't go off. Okay. For them, it didn't, it went off. It didn't stay on. Right.
So it's easier to use the sun, the sun analogy, because people are never gonna stop loving their kids, normal people. And, you know, it still makes sense why you should follow their rules, even though it has nothing to do with being a child.
I'll, if they're struggling with this, I'll even just kind of jokingly say this. Now, if I came and lived with you and followed all your rules, would I be your child?
And they're like, no. And I said, the same's with God. You can't start going to church saying, God, I'm going to go to church and follow your rules. Now I'm your son. That's not how you get in the family. You get in the family by being born again.
Okay. Just like I can't get into your family by promising to follow all of your rules. It has nothing to do with being your child. I could be your friend, but I could never be your child. So that helps them really solidify those things.
Once I've gotten to this point, I'll go back to Romans 6 23, and I'm pretty much ready to finish. At this point, often I have no idea what this person's name is. So I usually like to ask. All right.
And the reason why I like to ask at this point is very purposeful, because I'm about to ask them a bunch of questions and I can keep saying their name over and over. Because if I ask for your name and I don't say it like a bunch, I'll forget immediately. Okay. I don't know why. I just can't remember anybody's name.
So this is the point when I ask them. I say, now I'm going to go back to where I started. Please remind me, what was your name? Or, hey, what was your name? And they'll tell me their name.
We'll look at Romans 6 23, the last part. It talks about the gift of God as eternal life to Jesus Christ our Lord. And I'll say, now, Ryan, you know. Hey, I'll use it as a good example. Ryan, if I were to give you my Bible, but you had to give me $100. Is that a gift?
I use $100 because it's so extreme. Nobody can get this wrong. Okay. They're like, no, you know. And then if you want to, you could go down to a lower amount. What about $1 or something? Right. But then I'll say, Ryan, if I said, here's my Bible, wash my car first. Is that a gift? No. Right.
And they'll say, Ryan, if God says I'll give eternal life, you got to go to church, read the Bible, be a good person. Is that a gift? And I'm testing to see if they kind of understand what we've shown them. Right.
If they don't get that, you want to sit and belabor that point. Just make sure they're understanding. There's like, oh, that's a gift. I'm like, okay, then I want you. I want to give you my Bible. You just have to wash my car and mow my lawn and call me every day. And they're like, well, that's not a gift. It's like, exactly. So you kind of explain it.
And then I say, God didn't say that salvation was something you work for. He said it was a gift in Romans 6 23, didn't he? That's because Jesus paid for it.
Now at this point, I personally, in the past, I've gone to some other verses, but now I tend to just like Ephesians 2 8 and 9. That's the last place I like to go to.
And I like to go there because it's just going to really hammer the points that we've shown. And I really emphasize that it's not of works, but it's more of just a recap.
Once the person has gotten to this point, you feel like they've understood everything you said. It's important to test their comprehension, okay?
And I see some people not testing comprehension. And here's the thing. Someone could be saved, and I pray with them, and I didn't test their comprehension, and they got saved.
But here's the thing. I don't know if they got saved necessarily. And I just don't find it profitable to pray with someone if I don't feel confident they got saved.
So I think it's really important to just test and see where they are at so that I'm not praying with someone and they were just going through the motions.
Look, Catholics will pray with a pedophile priest every week of their life. So how will they not pray with a normal person?
And a lot of people will just pray because they want to do it. It sounds good. I remember when I was young, my dad had me go out and talk to just random strangers and give them a gift and ask if they wanted prayer.
Every single person wanted to pray with us. And I wasn't giving the gospel. It wasn't offensive. It was just a free gift, right?
So it's not hard to pray with people, actually. So don't get confused and thinking like, oh, well, if they're going to pray, they definitely got it.
Now, people will just pray. Think about how many people walk an aisle and pray a prayer and they're not saved. I mean, think how many people...
And in fact, a lot of these people have already prayed to get saved a lot of times, but they didn't believe right.
Okay, so we want to even distinguish that in their mind that we're not just praying a prayer to pray a prayer.
You changed your mind and that's why we're going to ask God for salvation. Okay, so I'll say now what I just showed you is different than what you believed.
Once I've gotten to a rapid point, I'm going to say this. What I just showed you is different than what you said you believed or than what you believed, okay?
And I'll ask them something similar. So would you say you've changed your mind? Or I'll be more clear. I'll say, so would you say it's still faith and works?
Or is it faith alone like I just showed you? And I'll get them, I'll have them pick like, which one do you believe at this point in time?
If they're Catholic, I'll even say this. Now what I just showed you is different than what the Catholic Church teaches.
You told me that it was faith and works like the Catholic Church teaches, but the Bible says it's faith alone. Which one do you believe?
And the reason I do this is because I don't want someone to not get saved. My whole goal is to get someone saved.
And I want to make sure they had a real repentance. I want to make sure they really change their mind. And if someone does not change their mind, I'm not going to pray with them.
I'm just telling you my philosophy, how I think it's the best to do a presenting of the gospel.
Now, this is why it's also important to have gotten a bunch of clear statements at the beginning.
Because if you didn't get any clear statements, a lot of them would be like, oh, I always believe that.
And then you're like, and here's the thing, sometimes you'll get a really clear statement, you'll get to this point, and you'll say, now this is different than what you said earlier.
And they're like, no, I always believe that. I don't pray with that person. Because either they're lying, meaning that they don't actually believe what I just showed them, and then what's the point in praying with them?
Or they're telling the truth, and they're already saved. Why would I pray with that person?
So there's really not a good hypothetical why you would even pray with that person.
So that's why I typically get some kind of indication from them. Did you change your mind? Do you believe differently?
Do you see what I showed you is different? Something to that effect.
If they say yes, then I'll say, okay, I just want to review. We're all sinners, right? Yep.
Without Jesus, where would we deserve to go? Heaven or hell for our sins?
They say hell. Yeah. But Jesus did what for us?
And I'll have them explain to me. He died on the cross. What happened? Did he stay dead? Nope, he rose again from the dead. Amen.
And then at that point, I'll say, what's the one thing we have to do to be saved?
And they're like, trust in Christ, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If they get that right, then I'll say, could I lose it for any reason?
They say no. A lot of times I'll then bring up an example. And you can do this to your own discretion.
I don't think you have to, but at this point I'll simply say, okay, let's say you believe in Jesus today, but you commit the worst sin tomorrow.
What do you think the worst sin is? Almost everybody says murder. I even bring it up if they don't.
If they're struggling for words, just give them the answer. How about murder?
And they're like, okay, would that person go to heaven or hell? And again, we're testing their comprehension.
I would say a lot of times people get that right. If you do a good job preaching the gospel, they've already got it right, and then you're ready to pretty much pray with that person.
If they get it wrong, I don't feel like you have to necessarily go through everything again.
But bring up the verses you showed them, explain to them why that's not accurate, and see if they finally get it.
They say, oh, you go to hell. I'd say, wait a minute, did Jesus pay for some of your sins or all of them?
They're like, all of them. And did you become a child of God when you believed? Yep.
So can you change the fact that God's your father? Like, no. So then you'd actually go to heaven, wouldn't you?
And they're like, oh, yeah, you're right. And I say, see how that's different than what you believed earlier?
And they're like, yeah, I do see how that's different. And now you're kind of primed and ready to go into helping them pray a prayer, right?
So if they've got it, I've tested them, I'll say, all right, the Bible tells us how to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And at this point, you're really golden. I'm just saying it's really important to cover these steps of what?
Making sure they understand that believe is not just He's real, right? Second point, they understand the father-son analogy of eternal security.
And then thirdly, they've changed their mind, and they now see how that's different than what they believed before.
They can't lose their salvation. Some people want to go through every hypothetical.
It's like, what if you robbed a bank, killed 10 babies, and, like, killed yourself or whatever? And I'm just like, well, that's weird.
Like, why would you say that? That was, like, wicked, you know? Like, why would you bring up an evil?
I don't even bring it up. I let them bring it up, right? If you really feel like it's absolutely necessary to bring up suicide, you can.
I typically don't, because I don't think it's necessary for them to get saved. But if you believe that it is, do it.
And sometimes I do. Sometimes I say, even if you took your own life, you can't go to hell for any reason, and I want to make that abundantly clear to them, okay?
But once they've got this, once they realize there's nothing to lose their salvation, they've said that over and over, you know, and we've gone through this, then I'll show them Romans 10, 9, and 10.
Just to give you an idea, if someone's very receptive to the gospel, okay? I would say I typically spend 30 seconds to about a minute on sin and hell.
I'd probably spend two to three minutes on preaching the gospel to them, probably another two or three minutes on belief, and about two or three minutes on eternal security.
It really could only take 10 minutes, maybe, if someone's pretty receptive. I would say it's probably not going to happen much sooner.
You know, you're probably not going to be able to do a thorough presentation faster than 8, 10 minutes, okay? That's like, absolutely.
I would say average about 10, 12 minutes, maybe 12, 15 minutes, just to give you a rough idea, because there's a little bit of back and forth, maybe they didn't get a point, I have to re-explain it.
If it's taking you 45 minutes, there's something kind of off, okay? And I'm just not saying that you're doing a bad job, but maybe you're just not being very efficient, or maybe it's someone that you really should have probably walked away from, okay?
But I don't want to walk away from anybody that's interested. If they're interested, and I can keep preaching them, I'll preach them for 40 minutes, I've done it, and I'll do it again, but I'm just saying, you shouldn't, that shouldn't be normal.
It should not be normal. And you don't want to have a 45 minute presentation, because you're going to lose a lot of people on the hook, right? When you're fishing, and the Bible says that we're fishing for men, okay, when you get a catch, you want to reel that thing in as fast as you can.
Now you don't want to reel it in so fast that it snaps the line, okay? But you also don't want to just like, lackadaisily try to pull that thing in, because it'll get off the hook.
So you have to have a good, steady pace, efficient pace, and that's basically what we want to do with our soul winning. We want to have a good, steady, proficient pace, okay?
Once I get to the prayer part, and they've already answered all, you know, my basically test the comprehension part, then I just explain to them, one more time though, why we're praying.
And I think this is also important. So this is not the same kind of comprehension. This is a different level of comprehension. I'll say, you know, I'll read Romans 10 and 9, and then I'll say the Bible says if you believe this, you just pray and ask God to save you.
Now if I pray and ask God to save me, but I do not believe, will that save me? And they'll typically say no, because they understand what you're showing them.
Second question I'll ask them is this, if I pray and ask God to save me, but I believed it was plus going to church, being a good person, following His commandments that's going to save me, would that save me?
Another time when I use their words, what did they tell me? I'll say if I pray and ask God to save me, believing and then ex whatever they said, will that save me?
And they'll be like, no. That's a great indication that they changed their mind, okay? And it's really helpful that they realize it's not both.
The last question I'll ask, if I thought I could lose my salvation and I asked God to save me, will that save me?
And some people get this right away, some people don't. If they don't, then I just explain to them, now if I think I can lose my salvation, am I trusting what Jesus already did?
Or am I trusting myself to be good in the future? And they're like, well you're trusting yourself. So would that save me? They're like, no.
So I said, what you have to do is you have to put 100% faith in what Jesus did, that's what saves you. If they get to that point, pray.
I don't need to wait any more time. I find that these last three questions are really important and I feel like they really help just seal the deal.
I don't have a lot of other issues. And so I think you should try to at least consider implementing some of these testing comprehension or testing their understanding of what you're even doing with the prayer.
Because I've seen just a lot of people, they'll be like, now why am I praying? I already prayed. Or I already believed this. Or I already did this before.
Or you have people back out. Or you have people stop in the middle of a prayer. You know what I mean? Who's had somebody stop in the middle of a prayer?
I mean, all these kinds of things happen to me. After doing these methods that I've explained to you, I almost never have any of these things happen anymore.
People are not stopping me or getting confused or I'm having to go on rabbit trails or whatever. It really, it makes a lot more sense to them why you're praying.
Because you just, I don't want to pray if I don't even understand why I'm praying.
And they've gone their whole life doing this probably. They've walked the Nile, they've had someone pray with them and they didn't even understand.
I want them to realize why we're praying, what we're doing, how it makes sense. And sometimes you will have people walk away.
Sometimes you will have people not interested. But I'd rather them walk away having fully understood what we were doing than hoping that they really got it and just prayed with them anyways.
Just so I could come back and have, I got this many saved in five minutes. You know, it's like, whoa. It's like, uh, I don't think so.
And you know, if you've ever preached the gospel to a group, it's kind of depressing because you preach to a big group like this that's unsaved people and then you walk up to them and you ask them. None of them are saved typically.
So that's why it's important that we do a good job on the one on one interaction because this really is, you're standing in the gap between death and life for these people.
This might be their one opportunity to hear a clear presentation of the gospel. So we want to do a really good job. We want to be really thorough.
And we want them to really understand what they've done, what they're doing, that they're trusting in Christ alone for salvation. Okay.
And I know a lot of you do a lot of great soul winning and I'm, I'm only sharing these things because I want to help you guys.
If you find something's better, I don't want to discourage you from doing something that you believe is better. Okay.
So if you find something is better or more efficient, please do that. I'm just trying to do this to try to give you my experiences, what I find works really well and helps.
In this packet, it has, you know, some other thoughts, a few things that you can kind of think of. It has a sample prayer.
After you get someone saved, you know, I don't really care exactly what you do. I think there's a lot of good options.
I typically just pick one that I think is important and just go with that. Whether it's, you know, coming to church right now, that was not that important to me.
Number, just because I don't know where to point them. Number two, maybe baptism. Baptism is a great one since we have a competition.
Maybe King James onlyism is a really good one. You can get their number, try to give them a ride, something like that.
But I think it's good to just have like one thing that you like to emphasize. Maybe have a verse on it if you want to show them.
A lot of times I just show them 1 John chapter 4 verse 1 because I do want them to come to church and I'm explaining to them why their church sucks.
So I'm like, 1 John chapter 4 verse 1 says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out of the world.
And I'll say, look, most churches are bad. Most preachers are bad. The Catholic Church are going to preach his lies and they have a false gospel.
Don't go back. You know, I don't want them to be like, we don't want to take you from a good church, you know.
It's like, no, no, no, we want to take you. Whether you get saved or not, don't ever go there.
You know, like I'm not interested in you ever going there again or believe you should ever go, right?
So I don't want to give them a bad response or plant the wrong idea in their head. Let's plant some good seeds when we go out there.
Anybody have a question over what I covered? This latter portion? A thought or something?
So what I would like to do is break up again, try to pick a partner, pick someone to kind of just practice with.
And, you know, what I would do is I would just try to practice on giving the gospel.
OK, maybe one time, maybe you can give it once to each other and try to get some feedback.
Think about testing their comprehension and think about double checking that they've changed their mind.
Because those things are really, I think, important steps when trying to close the deal and making sure they really get saved.
And we want to make sure that every fish we get on the hook, we bring them into the boat, too.
OK, so I'll say a quick word of prayer and then we can kind of partner up.
Yours dismissed so you can leave whenever you want. But if you want to stick around, grab a partner.
Try to stick with your partner for at least 20, 30 minutes if they want to talk to you and let them give you a gospel presentation.
OK, thank you guys so much for coming. Tomorrow we'll be meeting at 8.30.
OK, early bird gets the worm. All right. So, you know, not everybody gets a worm.
The early birds get the worm. OK. No, we're meeting at the location emailed to you.
OK, so whatever whatever we're emailed, we're meeting, we're meeting there.
And then we'll go out soul winning from here or from the location that we're at.
OK, so we'll say a quick word of prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us this opportunity to be gathered this evening.
I pray that you would just bless us all, get us home safely.
I pray that you would help our conversations, that you'd help us as we go out soul winning tomorrow and in the future.
That you would allow us to just have wisdom, that we'd have boldness and courage to preach the word of God and that we get many people saved.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.