Matthew Stuckey here and I want to give you another soul winning tip and in this
video I want to talk to you about the importance of living a godly, holy, and
separated life. And so in the last video I talked about the importance of praying
and asking for boldness as you go out soul winning. And another thing that can
give you boldness is when you're living a godly life. Because living a godly life
is what's going to help you get filled with the Spirit. And when you're filled
with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit will give you boldness that you would not
normally have in your flesh. And so it's a very important thing that we live a
holy and separated and godly life. In Luke 8 verse 14 the Bible reads,
And that which fell among the thorns are they which when they have heard go forth
and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no
fruit to perfection. The Bible speaks about a group of people when it talks
about the peril of the sower who are choked with cares and riches and
pleasures. We would say somebody who's a worldly person, someone who's concerned
with the things of this world and the result is that they do not bring forth
fruit to perfection. It prevents them from being a fruit bearing tree and
winning souls to the Lord. And see a lot of people have this idea that I can
basically, you know, live just as worldly in the exact same way I used to live but
still end up getting lots of people saved. But the reality is you're gonna
have to make a choice in life. And you know what, when I got saved and I started
going soul winning, I realized that one thing that was hindering other people
from getting saved and hindering me from doing more for God was that my
lifestyle just needed to make some changes. I needed to get rid of the music
I listened to. I need to get rid of the movies. I need to clean up my mind and my
activities and my hobbies. And the result of that is that you're gonna get more
souls saved. You're gonna be more bold to preach the gospel. You're gonna be more
filled with the Spirit. Throughout the Bible we can actually see this. We see
that with Jonah, he disobeys God's command to go and preach to Nineveh and
he is in a ship and he has the perfect opportunity to preach the gospel to
these people crying to a false god. We see this in Jonah 1 and yet he doesn't
preach to them. And you say, why is it that he's not preaching them? In fact it
says that he was asleep while they're crying to their false god. And the
indication is this, those who want to practice, you know, lifestyle evangelism
where they're just gonna preach the gospel when the opportunity arises, they
actually wouldn't preach the gospel when the opportunity arises. Because here's
Jonah rejecting God's commandment to go preach like we're all commanded to
preach and then when he has the perfect opportunity in his personal life he does
not take it. But what's going on is that he's not living a godly life and so an
opportunity he probably would have normally taken he chooses not to take.
Another great example is in Psalm chapter 51 where David has been rebuked
by Nathan and he's asking for his joy to be restored. Now he did not lose his
salvation but he lost his joy and he asks for his joy to be restored and he
said, then why teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be
converted unto thee. What he's saying is if I get my joy back, which is what comes
by living a godly life, then what's gonna take place is I am gonna convert sinners.
I'm gonna be a soul winner. I'm gonna get people saved. So we see a link between
living a godly life and winning souls to the Lord. And so the realization is this,
that when, point number one, when you live ungodly and worldly you're not gonna
take the opportunities to preach the gospel when they come. And Jonah is the
great example of that where he was normally very zealous but he had become
worldly during that time period in his life and then with the perfect
opportunities he didn't take them. Point number two is this, even zealous soul winners can
become worldly. So we must all take heed to this warning. You might be godly now but
Jonah was a very godly person and then he became worldly. And Demas is a great
example. The Bible says of Demas in 2 Timothy 4 verse 10,
For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. That's worldly, having
loved this present world. And has departed unto Thessalonica, Christians to
Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. So Demas was once a mighty soul winner. He was once one
of the right-hand men of Paul the Apostle but then he departed having
loved this present world. The sad reality is a lot of people that used to do mighty
things for God become worldly and they can no longer be used by God like they
used to be used by God. The sad thing is as far as we know Demas never started
living for God again because 2 Timothy we believe is the last book Paul wrote
because he said the time of my departure is at hand. And so that is really our
indication that Demas never ended up living for God you know with all of his
heart and all of his effort again but he had become a worldly person. This is a
warning we all need to take heed to and we need to realize that you know what if
we are living a worldly life we're just not going to win as many people to the
Lord. And I remember coming to that realization when I was a new soul winner
that you know some people I might have been able to get saved if I was just a
little bit more zealous I know a little bit more and I realized my lifestyle
needed to change. But one thing that we might forget over time once we've been
soul winning for a while is the importance of this. So whether you're a beginner I
mean it's very important as a beginner to give you that that extra boldness but
it's something we need to keep in mind if we're experienced soul winners that
living a godly life goes hand in hand with being a soul winner and winning
people to the Lord because the Bible says those that are choked with the
cares and riches and pleasures of this life do not bring forth fruit to
perfection they do not win souls to the Lord. We see that when Jonah was
backslidden he wasn't winning souls to the Lord when David was backslidden
wasn't winning souls to the Lord and then you know what but once David got
right with God all of a sudden he's converting sinners again and so it's
very important to be living a godly life in order to be a good soul winner.
Thank you and God bless.