All right, well, we're there in Acts chapter nine, of course.
And if you've read this chapter, if you're familiar with this chapter, you know that
this is, of course, dealing with the conversion of Saul.
And leading up to this chapter, we have Saul, who is actually at the beginning of chapter,
you'll notice there in verse one, it says, And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest.
And of course, Saul is leading the persecution against the church in Jerusalem.
And then, of course, on the Damascus Road, he meets the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ actually appears to him and he doesn't get saved on Damascus Road.
He's instructed to go in to Damascus.
And then we see that God sends Ananias.
And that's what we read in verse 17 to go and preach the gospel to him.
Later on in the Book of Acts, when Paul is giving his testimony,
he clarifies that Ananias had him call upon the name of the Lord.
And of course, we see here that he was filled with the Holy Ghost and then he got baptized.
And this is when Saul got saved.
And what I want you to notice about Saul is that in verse 20,
the Bible says this, well, if you notice verse 19,
and when he had received meat, he was strengthened.
Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.
So we see Saul just got saved here.
And then verse 20, the Bible says this.
And straightway, he preached Christ in the synagogue that he was the son of God.
Now, I want you to notice that that word straightway means immediately.
And what we see is that when Saul got saved, he basically just immediately
took the step of going out and getting involved in evangelism,
getting involved in soul winning.
Straightway, he preached Christ in the synagogue that he is the son of God.
Now, we understand that Saul, who later on became Paul, was a unique individual.
He was a confident man.
He was a competent man.
He was someone that knew the scriptures, even though he wasn't even saved.
But he understood the scriptures.
And once he got saved and got the Holy Spirit, he was able to make those connections.
And he preached Christ boldly.
But I want to encourage you that in your Christian life, and I realize I'm kind
of preaching to the choir because you're all here for soul winning.
But in your Christian life, and especially when it comes to soul winning,
you got to be taking that next step.
You know, here we see Saul who could have just said, hey, I just got saved.
I'm a new Christian. I'm a babe in Christ.
You know, I don't know if I'm ready for this.
But notice one of the reasons I believe that Saul was so mightily used and Paul
was so mightily used of God is because in verse 20 and straightway,
he preached Christ in the synagogue, even though he was new.
He just got saved. He wasted no time.
He immediately got involved in the work and he started preaching the gospel.
So for some of you, I want to encourage you.
Actually, for all of you, I want to encourage you to just take the next step.
Whatever that step is in your soul winning journey, take that next step.
Now, for some of you, you are taking that next step.
And this is your next step.
You just show showing up to this meeting and being a silent partner.
That's your next step.
And if that's you, I'm not trying to put pressure on you.
And we're glad you're here and you be a silent partner as long as you need.
So you're comfortable to do something else.
But for some of you, you've been a silent partner for a long time.
And maybe now it's time to kind of take that next step
and begin to preach the gospel at the door.
For some of you, you've been preaching the gospel door for a long time.
You've been getting people saved, but maybe you haven't been following up.
This is not something you've been doing.
Maybe it's time for you to take that next step and start getting people's information.
You know, good converts and people you got saved, get their information
and begin to preach to follow up with them and try to get them in church and get them baptized.
But usually when we talk about taking the next step,
what we're talking about is going from being a silent partner to talking at the door.
So let me just give some instructions in regards to that,
because we do have, you know, kind of what we try to help people with that.
OK, when it comes to going from a silent partner to giving the gospel at the door,
let me just say this.
If you haven't gone through our sowing seminar, it's on our website.
If you go on our church website and you find soul winning,
you'll find all the videos for a sowing seminar.
There are lessons connected to each video with fill in the blanks.
If you haven't done that, I would really encourage you to do that.
We're going to be doing a sowing seminar here soon.
And if you're able to take the time off and be part of that,
we want you to be part of that.
But when it comes to being a partner, just be ready.
Have a plan for what you're going to do.
So, you know, make sure you have your introduction kind of already set
and in your mind know when I'm going to knock on the door, when they open.
Here's what I'm going to say.
Hi, I'm coming from Verity Baptist Church.
I want to give you and your family invitation to church.
And then what's the next thing when they take the invitation?
What am I going to say after that?
You know, we're on your neighborhood and we're asking everybody this question.
Do you know for sure you died today?
Are you on your way to heaven?
And when they answer, what am I going to say?
And I'm going to follow up in the sowing seminar.
We'll walk you through that and kind of give you those answers.
But be ready in your mind.
And then what if they say, yes, I want to hear the gospel.
Well, then be ready. What am I going to do?
I'm going to go to Romans chapter three, verse 10.
I'm going to go to Romans three twenty three.
I'm going to go to Romans six twenty three.
Have a plan for when you begin to speak at the door.
And let me just say this.
Don't don't plan on just I'm just going to give the introduction.
Just if you're going to talk, just plan to do the whole thing.
Now, here's the thing.
When you're a new speaker, you're probably not going to do the whole thing.
You're probably going to get to the place
where you're lost and you're not sure what to do.
That's OK. We've got a system for you to help you with that.
But don't plan to just give the introduction.
And then I'm going to hand it over plan to, with the help of God,
to go through the whole gospel presentation and to do the whole thing.
And only when you get to a place where I'm not sure what to do.
They ask me a question and I'm not really sure what the next step to do is.
Then you can go ahead and tap out. All right.
Now, here's how that works. All right.
When we go soloing at Ready Baptist Church, we partner people,
either two individuals that are able to give the gospel or if there's someone
who's a silent partner, we always partner you with someone who can give the gospel.
So if you're a silent partner and you're going to start giving
the gospel for the first time, make sure you tell your partner, hey,
I'm new at this and I'm going to try this and I may need some help.
And here's all you need to do.
You knock on that door.
You start the conversation.
You ask the question, you know, for sure that's the only way to heaven.
No, I'm not sure.
Can I show you from the Bible? Yes.
All right. You open your Bible, you start explaining.
And when you get to the place where you're just not sure, I had a mental freeze.
I can't remember what the next thing I was supposed to say.
Or I just got really nervous.
All you need to do is look back at your partner and partner.
Be ready.
If your soul winning,
silent partner is trying to give the gospel the first time and they've told
you this, be ready, all you do is look back at your partner and they should
just step in where you landed and you just step out of the way and let them take over.
But look, we want you to try.
We want you to do your best and we
want to give you a safety net to help you with that.
All right. So here's what that means.
That means that you have a conversation
with your soul winning partner if you're new and say, hey, I'm going to try this.
And if I look back at you, you're going to be there, right?
Here's what that means.
Silent partners or the partners that are
with you, you need to be paying attention to when they're giving the gospel.
If they made it to Romans 623, you need to be and they look back at you.
You need to be ready to just step right in and say, yeah, you know,
here's what they're trying to explain to you and just keep going with that
conversation. Here's what we don't want.
We don't want two people talking at the same time.
OK, so if you're giving the gospel and you tap out, right, you look back,
then you're done, you just step out of the way and let them take over.
And, you know, oh, yeah, that's what I'm saying.
No, once they step in for you, then you just let them finish.
OK, but this is all part of a growing
process and this is all part of being able to take the next step.
Now, with all that, let me say this, all right.
We do not want you to give the gospel until you are ready to do so.
So if you're not ready, you say, man, that's nice and maybe one day.
But right now I just feel like I'm
too new and I'm too nervous and I'm too this and I'm too that.
That's fine.
We want you to know that you can be a
silent partner as long as you need and as long as you want.
And we don't want you to feel any pressure from us to have to give the gospel.
So don't take this lesson as me trying
to pressure you, but for some of you, the Holy Spirit's already been dealing with
you and the Holy Spirit and your own conscience has already been saying, man,
maybe it's time I start talking, maybe it's time I start taking that next step.
And for those of you, I want to say, hey, if the Holy Spirit's leading you,
do it, take that step, we'll help you, we'll be there for you.
But if you're new at this, you're like, I'm on my first step.
My first step is just being here.
Don't feel any pressure from us.
All right. And please, please, please,
let me say this to all of our soul winners.
Do not, do not, do not, do not ever
pressure someone to give the gospel when they're not ready.
All right. You are not helping.
You are not helping me.
You're not helping this ministry.
You're not helping this church.
All you're doing is discouraging people from wanting to go soul winning.
All right. So let me just say this out loud.
If you've ever felt pressured from any of our
soul winners to give the gospel and you weren't ready,
please tell me, please tell my wife, all of you soul winners out there,
if you've ever heard any other soul winner try to pressure someone to give
the gospel when they weren't ready, please tell me, please tell my wife,
because you're not helping anything. All right.
We don't want people to feel like
they're being pressured to do something they're not ready to do.
If they're, if they're on their first step and they're just a silent partner
and they just took a lot of courage and a lot of prayer and a lot
of boldness just to be a silent partner, then we want them to be a silent partner.
But for those of you who've been doing it for a while and you've kind
of been feeling like, I bet I could do that.
You say, well, how do I know if I'm ready?
Here's how you know if you're ready.
When you're listening to the person give
the gospel and you're thinking to yourself, why did they say that, man?
They should have said this.
Why didn't they go to that verse or why didn't they do?
When you're critiquing your person,
then it's time for you to start talking, you understand?
So you say, well, I need help. We're going to help you.
You start.
Make sure you have a plan.
Go through the soloing seminar.
Make sure you know what you're going to say.
And what if what if they say this, then I'm going to say this.
And then I'm going to ask them the question.
Do you know for sure that today I earned way to heaven?
And if they say I'm not sure, then I'm going to say,
well, can I show you from the Bible or if they say yes, then I'm going to ask,
well, what gives you that confidence? What are you trusting in?
Or if they say, you know, be ready, have a plan.
And our soloing seminar will help you through that.
And then go as far as you can.
And when you get stuck, when you feel like I'm not sure where I'm supposed
to go, I had a mental freeze or I'm not you know, they've asked me a question.
I'm not sure what the answer is.
Then all you have to do is look back
at your partner and let them step right in and partner.
Make sure you're ready to step in.
All right, don't drop the ball and be ready to help and to step in.
And this is how you learn. This is how you grow.
This is how everyone who's ever done soloing started off.
They started off with somebody helping them along the way.
So let's make sure that we're taking the next step.
All right. And here's and here's the goal of the lesson.
You want to push yourself, but you don't want to push others.
All right. Push yourself, but don't try to push others
to do things that they are not interested or they're not able or they're not
confident enough yet to do so, because here's what I know about silent partners.
If you're a silent partner long enough, you hear it long enough.
If you hear people say it long enough,
eventually you'll start thinking yourself, I could do better than that guy.
I could do better than her.
I'm not sure why she used that illustration.
I was a dumb illustration. I would use this illustration.
And as soon as you start having
that mental conversation, it's time for you to talk.
All right. Let's go ahead and bow our heads in that word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your work.
And Lord, I pray that you would help us
to just be sensitive to to a new soul winners, Lord, and help us.
I know our hearts in the right place
sometimes, but help us not to pressure people when they're not ready.
We don't want to do that at the door to people that are preaching the gospel.
And we don't want to do that with our partners who are trying to preach the gospel.
And Lord, I do pray that you would help all of us, though,
to take inventory when it's time for us to kind of take that next step.
And maybe for some people,
that next step was showing up to this meeting and just being a silent partner
and for others it might be to start giving the gospel for others.
It might be to start following up actively.
And Lord, I just pray wherever we need to take that next step, help us to do that.
In the matchless name of Christ, we pray.
Amen.