Matthew Stuckey here and I'm giving you another so any tip in this video and I
want to talk to you about the importance of learning when to throw in
the towel as you're preaching the gospel and this is an expression that
comes from fighting sports where maybe two guys are boxing and you know
a boxer's getting beat up in the ring and his corner man throws in the
towel saying we throw the fight and so this has happened in some
famous fight before in the past and as we're preaching the gospel what I'm
talking about is as you're in there preaching the gospel to them you need to
be aware of when to just basically give up on that conversation and realize
they're not going to get saved
I'm wasting my time we need to learn when to throw in the towel so I want
to give you three quick points about this and I've talked about this a
little bit in an earlier video but you know there is some crossover
material but it's not the exact same and number one you need to end the
conversation if they're just unwilling to believe the Bible and so the Bible
says in Matthew 10 as it's talking about preaching the gospel it talks
about if the house is worthy then let your peace come upon it and what it
means is let the gospel of peace come upon it if they are worthy and in
the context it's when they're willing to receive your words so if
somebody's willing to receive your words you preach the gospel but if
they're denying the Bible and denying what the Word of God says and denying
you know the the the soul winning presentation and saying they don't
believe it you need to throw in the towel
the Bible says a man that is in heretic after the first and second
admonition reject so for example if you show somebody a couple verses on
hell and they say I don't believe in hell
you're basically wasting your time they are declaring themselves unworthy as
the Bible says to hear the gospel or if they just deny Jesus being God
you know what yours you you basically just move on you've given them a
couple verses move on you show them it's by faith alone and they still think
it's by works and they just deny what you're saying it's time to move on in
your gospel presentation now one mistake people make is they sometimes
use this mentality of not wasting time at the door however if they talk
to a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness or someone from a strange religion they'll
spend an hour and a half arguing with them and saying well I've got to
do this because you know what they don't believe Jesus is God they're a cult so
I'm gonna give them a hundred at admonitions but see the Bible does
not say that the Bible does not say give them extra chances if they're from
some strange religion the truth is that people that are from different
religions apart from Christianity there are some people in those religions
that when they hear the gospel they are gonna be willing to listen to
the gospel of course you're gonna have to spend more time and give more
verses but you're gonna be able to tell whether or not they're willing to
receive your words or not receive your words and so don't make the mistake of
spending an hour at the door if they're Jehovah's Witness that's
denying the Bible you know if they're denying the Bible after the first and
second admonition the Bible says reject that person just move on so
number one if they refuse if they if they won't believe the Bible and
won't receive the words you just move on number two if they refuse to stay
on topic and you sometimes you run into people that are willing to listen to
you but they just want to talk about all of these strange things they'll
bring up aliens they'll bring up stories from their childhood and if
you've been soul winning for a long time you've experienced this
sometimes where you talk to someone and they're telling you about when
they were five years old and their mom took them to school and you're
just thinking what does this have to do with the gospel and you know what of
course you can try to get them to stay on topic but if you cannot control that
conversation and they refuse to stay on topic you need to move on to the
next door and when I run into those situations and they're people that are
not denying the Bible but they just refuse to stay on topic I end the
conversation nicely I invite him to church but I'll say something like you
know hey I'd love to stay here and talk with you but you know I really
don't have a lot of free time and we're just trying to talk to everyone who
might be interested in this but please visit church sometime but you know you
might think that sounds rude but you know what our time is very precious
out soul winning and you have to be willing to throw in the towel if
they're just not gonna stay on topic and not willing to listen to you and
point number three you end the conversation if you're finished with
your gospel presentation and they don't believe it and this is something that
happens a lot where you you're explaining the gospel and they're
answering correctly but then you get to the end and you ask them do you still
believe that you have to live a good life to get to heaven or do you
believe what I'm saying you believe it's by faith alone or are you not
sure and there are going to be plenty of people that say they're not
sure plenty of people that answer the questions correctly but you can sense by
the way they're answering you can sense that they're not a hundred percent
for sure and when you get to those situations you can ask them would you
like me to show you a few more verses or just think about this I just had this
happened two days ago as I was preaching the gospel to these two girls
and I went through the gospel presentation and I could tell that they
weren't denying the Bible but they just weren't sure and see the Bible
speaks about people with a parable of the sower that hear the word of God
and they do not understand it they're a bit confused they're not denying the
Bible but they're actually confused and they're not quite sure so I asked
them when I was basically done I said would you want me to show you a few more
verses or do you just want to think about it now usually when I ask that
people say they just want to think about it because you know they've
heard what I've said and they're just not sure but these two girls you
know they didn't really give an answer to that and so I said let me
just show you a few more verses and I spent an extra 10 maybe even 15
minutes than I normally do it was a long conversation probably 30 minutes you
know usually I spend less than 20 minutes but it's 30 minutes and they
ended up getting saved you know both of them and so it took them a while to
comprehend this because you know people believe something false their
entire life it's hard for them to change their entire belief just
instantaneously and it's amazing that the the gospel and the word of God is
so powerful that people can do that but they needed some more time and so
they weren't denying the Bible they just weren't sure but if you get to
the end of your conversation and they just won't believe it well just you
know let them know I can show you a few more verses or if you just want to
think about it but you cannot spend just all day talking to someone
because there's other people that want to hear the gospel there's other
people that are ready to hear the gospel there's other people that are
ready to get saved and if you waste your time on someone who's not
interested someone else is not going to get saved that could have gotten
saved and I've experienced this before where someone wants to waste my
time and argue with me and sometimes you end the conversation and they might
even make fun of you and say hey you're not willing to talk about this you're
not willing to debate you know I'm right I proved you wrong and it kind
of irritates you in your flesh but then just a couple doors down you knock
on it and someone's very nice and respectful and they listen and they
get saved and you realize you know what it was worth it to throw in the
towel with this conversation because they were never gonna get saved we need to
find the people the Bible says that are ready to hear the gospel if not we
just shake off the dust off our feet just move on to the next door it's
okay to lose the battle in order to win the war because you can spend all
day on one battle and disprove them and make them look like a fool but you
know what you lose the war when you do that because the ultimate goal is to
win souls of the Lord and winning a debate does not win people to the Lord
anyways thank you and God bless