So the topic today is staying focused.
As we're going out to reach a law,
staying focused in our soul winning efforts.
In 1 Corinthians chapter one, verse 17,
the Bible reads, it says,
for Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel,
not with wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
So number one this morning is we're going out,
focus on preaching the gospel.
You say, well, isn't that what we're going to do?
Yeah, but a lot of times we go out
and obviously we invite, right?
We're giving out an invitation.
And sometimes we get hung up there
and we don't actually get to preach the gospel,
but we should be geared up to ask that question
when it's ever possible.
Ask that question to preach the gospel
and to stay focused in that.
Cause we see here, Paul says,
but Paul says, I came not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel.
And seeing when you get that opportunity.
So say you ask the question and someone says,
yes, I want to know that.
I want to know how I can be on my way to heaven.
And you get your Bible out and you get into your plan.
And this has happened to me.
And maybe it's happened to you
where you start going through it.
And they ask a question that has nothing to do
with the gospel.
You know, maybe it's about end times.
Maybe it's about some other doctrine
that they have heard about.
And they get you off track.
And a lot of young soul owners will, and I've done it.
You follow it.
You go to, oh, I know how to answer that.
And you go and you answer it.
And then pretty soon you're just answering
a bunch of questions
and you're no longer preaching the gospel.
And that's where, you know, follow up.
Say, hey, I can come back and talk to you about that.
Or, hey, better yet, my pastor's preaching on that.
Come to church, right?
That's where you get to push that.
But usually what I'll tell them, I'll say,
hey, I don't want to get lost in what I was showing you.
So we'll come back to that at the end.
And hopefully they're going to forget about it.
But so number one this morning,
stay focused on preaching the gospel.
Romans 1, 15, you don't have to turn there.
So as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel
to you that are in Rome also.
So Paul was always ready to preach the gospel.
And that's what our goal is to go out
and preach the gospel.
Number two this morning, stay focused on using God's word.
Look at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17 again.
The next part of it, it says, not with wisdom of words.
You see that?
Not with wisdom of words.
That means your words.
Where again, you're going to use your words
and try and get them saved
or try and get them to believe.
And see, but we're going to see that
that's not where the power's at.
And that's definitely not what Paul did.
Turn to Acts chapter 17.
Keep your spot in 1 Corinthians.
Turn to Acts chapter 17, if you would.
Verse two.
While you're turning, I'm going to read out of 1 Peter 123.
It says, being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever.
See, being born again,
that's what we're trying to do, right?
We're preaching the gospel to get them born again.
But by what?
By your words, your words of wisdom?
No, by the word of God.
So here in Acts 17, verse two, we see Paul.
He's doing what he always does.
He goes into the synagogue and let's see what he does.
Look at verse two, Acts 17, verse two.
It says, Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them.
And three Sabbath days, look at this,
reasoned with them out of the scriptures.
See, I'm sure there was arguments with these Jews.
Paul presented logical reasoning
why they should believe on Christ.
But see, Paul didn't just take things out of his head.
And you notice that the scripture says
that he reasoned using what?
The scriptures.
He didn't use his wisdom of words.
He didn't use his own logic.
He goes, I don't think this.
He goes, this is what the scripture says.
And you notice also,
he probably didn't debate their thoughts and emotions.
Because you know, when we talk to people,
a lot of people have a lot of feelings
and you'll hear them say, well, I think,
or this is what I believe
based on their emotions and feelings.
You can't argue with someone
on their emotions and feelings, right?
You can't sit there and say,
well, you shouldn't feel that way.
Because that's not gonna end well for you
in your conversation.
You need to say,
almost like when pastor gets up there and say,
hey, this is what the Bible says.
I tell you, I scream about it a little bit.
This is what it says.
Now you do with what you want with it,
but this is the truth.
And that's what we're doing.
We're going out reasoning with other scriptures.
Go back to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17.
So as you're doing it,
I'm gonna read 2 Corinthians 3, 12,
while you turn back.
Seeing then we have such hope,
we use great plainness of speech.
See, great plainness of speech.
So as you're preaching the gospel
and as you're using the scriptures to preach the gospel,
use great plainness of speech.
Keep it simple.
All right, keep it simple.
As you're reasoning out of scripture,
stay focused on keeping it simple.
Because you know what, people are confused enough.
And I know I've done this.
I've actually went to the door
and I probably confused them more
by you trying to get too fancy,
trying to use great swelling words
of the show your wisdom.
And whether you do that intentionally or not,
you gotta keep it simple.
Look at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17, the last part.
Lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
See, by you using your words,
what you're doing is you're basically saying,
what, the cross of Christ isn't enough?
Drop down to verse 23.
Because look at Paul says, verse 23, it says,
but we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block
under the Greeks foolishness.
See, the cross is enough.
I mean, it's simple.
It's not more complicated than that.
And explaining that to somebody,
that that's what we're preaching.
We're not preaching great swelling words of some wisdom.
That's why when people don't wanna speak at the door,
it's well, you know how to be saved, right?
You've gotten saved.
Just preach that.
How'd you get saved?
Why are you saved?
Look at verse 24.
But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks,
Christ, look at this, the power of God
and the wisdom of God.
See, that's where the power is gonna come from.
And when we get away from using the word of God,
we start talking about the word of God.
I've done that.
I've sat there and talked about the blood.
I've talked about the cross.
And it's just, all it is is just me just talking,
having a religious conversation.
And I'm not actually using God's word
because that's where the power is.
And that's why I failed many times doing that.
And use simple illustrations.
I mean, a lot of us use a pen, a phone, the Bible
to say that this is a gift to try and explain that.
And those are all good.
Don't use complicated things
that are gonna confuse people.
And don't use difficult words.
If you say the word doctrine to people at the door,
a lot of times they might nod their head
and act like they know what that means,
but a lot of times they don't know what that means.
And they're not gonna tell you that
because they don't wanna seem foolish.
So realize we use a lot of words around here
because we're in church, we're in a good church.
We know a lot of things,
but people at the door do not know those.
They don't understand those words.
Now, obviously, if it's in your texts
and you're reading the word of God,
you're gonna have to expound that to somebody.
But don't use a lot of fancy words that we use.
Use words that are simple that they can understand.
And definitely, here's another thing.
Don't introduce false doctrine.
I mean, I've seen people preaching to a Catholic
and they're going through their plan of salvation.
Next thing you know, they're bringing up purgatory
where the guy at the door, the Catholic at the door
wasn't even thinking about that.
Now, guess what?
You got them thinking about purgatory.
And now you gotta unload that.
And now you're talking about something
that's not even in the Bible.
So we wanna stay focused
on not only just preaching the gospel
and using the word of God, but keeping it simple.
Romans 1 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it, the gospel, is the power of God and the salvation
to everyone that believeth,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
That's where the power is gonna be.
So anytime you start getting away from the Bible
and getting away from using the Bible,
because I've actually knocked on the door
and the guy would sit there and talk to me all day long.
He didn't want me getting the book out.
And say, I've had to learn.
Well, wait a minute.
If you won't let me get the book out,
and yes, I could quote scripture to him,
but you'd better do it verbatim.
There'd be quoting every word of God that you're using.
But I can't help you.
I go, if you won't let me get the Bible out,
I can't help you.
Only God can help you.
Only the word of God can help you.
So just be aware of that
as we go out and interact with people.
So stay, number one, stay focused on preaching the gospel.
Stay on your plan.
Don't let someone just rail you.
Don't derail yourself.
Stay on your plan and try and get through it.
Number two, stay focused on using God's word,
using the scriptures.
As we saw in Acts, Paul uses scriptures.
I'm sure he had a lot of head knowledge
because of who he was,
but he went in and he's saying,
here, Jews, here's the scripture.
So let me show you Christ in the scriptures.
That's what he did.
And number three, focus on keeping it simple.
We want to leave them.
Even if they don't get saved,
we want to leave them further along.
Because sometimes I'll ask people, I'll go,
has anyone ever showed it to you this way?
Even if they don't get saved.
And I had a guy a couple of weeks ago,
last time I was here, he got saved.
And you know what he said to me
when I asked him about the followup question,
about eternal security?
He said, no strings attached.
And I go, I like that.
I go, you understand it.
You realize that there's no strings
attached to this free gift.
And that's what he said back to me.
So that led me know that he understood it.
And I kind of liked it.
He said, yes, there's no strings to the gift.
It's a free gift.
And that was a simple illustration.
No strings attached.
So as we depart, let's go out there and do these things.
Let's get focused and preach the gospel to the lost.
Let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Father, you thank you for the word of God.
I thank you for allowing us to go out and preach, Lord.
And may you help us, give us the words to speak
out of your word and let's keep it simple, Lord.
And see many a one to you today.
In Jesus' name, we ask all these things.
Amen.