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box of everything that we believe and so i thought i think the time to remember that and the lord jesus i just pray you bless the sermon now and fill me with your powers i preached a gun in jesus name i pray men now i talk to you about a subject in the bible it's mentioned several times about this word is used many times and i think it's a word that a lot of people maybe don't understand and so i want to preach subject on this work confirmation confirmation now what is the word confirmation mean? now turn to first corinthians one keep your finger in acts fourteen because we will be coming back there but go a few books toward the end of your bible to first corinthians chapter number one and let's begin reading verse number four the bible reads i thank my god always on your behalf for the grace of god which is given you by jesus christ that in everything here enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge the word utterance there talking about preaching the gospel soul winning if you study the context and and learn the word utterance even as the testimony of christ was confirmed in you so that you come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our lord jesus christ who shall also confirm you unto the end that you may be blameless in the day of our lord jesus christ god is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his son jesus christ our lord now i beseech you brethren by the name of our lord jesus christ that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment now what does it mean to be confirmed or confirmation well the bible said in uh... first corinthians one eight that god will confirm you unto the end it reminds me of the verse uh... famous verse philippians one six knowing this that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of jesus christ see confirmation let me let me read a few verses for you don't have to turn there isaiah thirty five three the bible says strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees so we see here the word confirm used with strengthen as a synonym the bible says strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees so to confirm means to strengthen notice the word firm something that's firm is something that's tough or rigid and so the bible talks about being confirmed it talks about being strengthened daniel eleven one the bible says also i in the first year of darius the mead even i stood to confirm and to strengthen him you see the word association there confirmation means strengthening now look back where we were in acts chapter fourteen the part that we read and we'll see confirmation being practiced on and on in the book of acts what do i mean by that the bible says in verse twenty two i'm sorry verse number twenty one will begin reading and when they had preached the gospel to that city and it taught many they were turned again to lystra and to iconium and anika you see they went back to three places where they had already been soul winning they had already won people to christ they had already preached the gospel there were already churches even established there and it says in verse twenty two confirming the souls of the disciples confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much and enter into the kingdom of god and when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting they commended them to the lord on whom they believed so what does it mean when they went back and confirmed well you see to them it wasn't just enough to win people to christ it wasn't just enough to preach the gospel bow their head and see somebody trust christ their savior they had another purpose in their life they had another mission in their life they had another great calling in their life which was to not only win people to christ but to confirm those that they won to christ to confirm believers to confirm people that other people had won to christ to strengthen them and exhort them to continue in the faith and to understand that they must through much tribulation you know live the christian life and so we see here that not only was soul winning a priority but also confirmation was a priority we'll talk a little more about that but but flip over if you would to the next chapter we'll see it again in acts fifteen the bible says in acts fifteen verse thirty two we'll see this word again and judas and silas being prophets also themselves exhorted the brethren with many words and confirmed them look down if you would at verse number uh... thirty five paul also in Barnabas continued in Antioch teaching and preaching the word of the lord with many others also and some days after paul said unto Barnabas watch this let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the lord and see how they do look down if you would at verse number forty and paul chose silas and departed being recommended by the brethren under the grace of god watch verse forty one and he went through syria and silicia confirming the churches now i want to talk about this tonight because there's a lot of misunderstanding about this and i have a very distinct philosophy about this and i believe that my philosophy comes from the word of god or else i wouldn't have that philosophy but i have a very distinct belief and a very strong conviction about what it means to confirm what confirmation is what it means to confirm the brethren to confirm those that are believers now in our day there's something that's very popular and very common and it's something that people of our stripe and the soul winners if you will you know well i mean what are we if we're not soul winners at faithful word baptist church this church is zealous about going out i mean we were out after this afternoon for hours you know what two three hours or so out soul we were out last night for hours okay we're about soul winning this week i want to do extra soul my job's a little slow this week i plan to go out soul winning throughout the week extra soul winning we love to go out and win people to christ we love to go out as jesus did and to seek and to save the loss that's why we're here we are all about winning people to christ now many people will accuse us oh yeah well you win people to christ but you don't disciple them now i don't really like that word and let me tell you why i don't like that word you say goodnight why don't you like the word disciple people well the reason i don't like it is because you know the NIV that's a word that comes out of the NIV now we know that jesus had disciples disciples are those that are being taught the bible says the disciple is not above his master nor the servant above his lord okay so the disciple goes with the master jesus was the master he had twelve disciples and he had many other disciples that he was teaching and that were following him now the bible in uh... matthew twenty eight and i'm just explaining this to you i'm not saying that anybody who uses the word disciple is bad or that's a horrible word to use i'm just saying i don't use it and here's why because in matthew twenty eight nineteen the bible says go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son of the holy ghost and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i command you the NIV in the modern versions they take out that go ye therefore and teach all nations you know which is referring to teaching them the gospel because you teach them then you baptize them and then you teach them everything else obviously the teaching there is teaching them the plan of salvation teaching them the gospel all modern bibles they go against everything and they just change it go ye therefore and make disciples go make disciples okay so i'm sorry you say what's wrong with that what's wrong with that is it came out of the NIV and so that means the devil put it there and so i'm not going to go around making disciples i'm going to go around teaching people the gospel because that's what the bible says and i've heard people say you say i still don't get it i still don't understand well i've sat in a denominational baptist church growing up as a teenager i was fifteen years old and they said there's nowhere in the bible that says to preach the gospel to everybody that's what they told me in the class and i was flipping through my bible i was like i know it does you know but unfortunately i was a little bit ignorant of my bible and so i didn't know the verse mark sixteen fifteen where it says go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature so i was you know but i didn't know that i was a teenager and i i wasn't reading my bible as much as i should have and so i was flipping around you know i was mad you know because they're lying and i'm searching i couldn't find it but i knew that verse but i couldn't find it so i found uh... matthew twenty eight nineteen i said the bible says you know this is what i had you know go ye therefore and teach all nations they said no it says make disciples and they had their NIV they said it says make disciples so really our job is just to get a few people and train them and teach them to be like us not just to give the gospel to everybody now i don't believe that i believe we're to give the gospel to everybody preach the gospel to every creature that's first teach all nations teach them what teach them that they're a sinner teach them that jesus loves them teach them that jesus died and was buried and rose again teach them that if they call on the name of the lord jesus christ and believe on him they will have eternal life that's what we have to be teaching them that's the first and foremost thing you teach them then after you teach them that you baptize them and after you baptize them you teach them everything else discipleship is something that we're criticized for not doing fundamental baptists don't disciple anybody they just go out and win people the lord and they're done with it here's what i've often told people i said you know what our discipleship program is sunday morning sunday night and wednesday night because people always ask what do you do for discipleship what's your discipleship program sunday morning sunday night wednesday now i don't personally and this is kind of my disclaimer before i get into the sermon of what i mean by confirmation i want to say this i don't go around to every person who i've won to the lord who doesn't come to church who isn't interested in coming to church and just keep going back to their house over and over again now let me tell you why because i work a full-time job you know i mean i install fire alarms okay and i do that about fifty sixty hours a week uh... i spend a lot of time out soloing winning people to christ i spend a lot of time a lot a lot of time memorizing the bible and studying the bible okay i'm not going to waste my time with people who don't want to come to church why would i go to their house and have a discipleship program with them where i go to their house and teach them the bible one-on-one when i'm teaching the bible right now and i would talk the bible this morning and i'm gonna teach john chapter two on wednesday night why not have them come to church and be taught with everyone else that makes a lot more sense than to go around and make house calls i don't make house calls okay i'm not a door-to-door bible teacher i'm not a jehovah's false witness i don't go in and bring church to you oh you don't want to come to church let me bring church to you no come to church part of the part of the reason why we don't do that is just because number one it's it's a waste of time people who don't come to church the first time in the second time you buy them you know a lot of times they're not going to come third four six time and so i don't go around and do it i'm just being honest with you and you know we you know that people have been so when we whenever we went to make rise we we try and get him to come to church we always give a bible if they don't have a key we ask him where's your bible show me your bible we make sure it's a king james otherwise we give a bible how many bibles did we give out today couple couple last night you know we're giving out bibles to people that we went to the lord we show them read here come to church do this get baptized we try to teach them everything that we can but i'm going to tell you something i'm not going to go chasing after somebody who won't come to the house of god i'm not going to do it church is where it's at church is what needs to be lifted up church is the discipleship program church sunday morning sunday night and wednesday night is how you are going to be confirmed and strengthened in the faith the bible says in uh... verse forty one of chapter fifteen and and that's why i like the word confirmation better than the word discipleship because the bible word the bible says in acts fifteen forty one he went through syria and silicia confirming the churches okay the bible says in acts fifteen thirty six let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we preach the word of the lord and see how they do you know they went around and they checked on the churches the bible says they preached to the churches they ordained elders in the churches but what are we talking about confirmation why am i preaching on confirmation tonight you ought to have in your life a goal and a mission to not just win people to Christ but to take people that have already been saved that you've won to the lord or that others have won to the lord and to confirm them what do i mean by confirming them well has there ever been anybody you've run into that's already saved but they're not a soul winner good of course have you ever run into people who they're saved but they don't read the bible you know maybe they've read it a little bit here and there but i mean they don't they don't know anything of sitting down and reading several chapters of the bible or reading through the bible twice a year or whatever you know once a year whatever your job is not just to get people saved your job is to confirm people but what what i'm trying to get you to understand is that confirmation is something that's best done through the local church look if you would at john chapter one i'll tell you what i'm talking about here john chapter number one and while you're turning there i'm going to read a verse for you while you're turning to john chapter one i'm going to read you daniel chapter twelve of course the bible says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that win its souls is wise let me read for you daniel twelve verses two and three the bible says and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt verse three of daniel twelve and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever malachi chapter two you don't have to turn that i'll read you this scripture as well malachi chapter two this is speaking of levi the bible says the law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips he walked with me in peace and equity and watch this and did turn many away from iniquity that's why god chose him okay so we see uh... where did i have you turn john chapter one okay john chapter one verse forty the bible says one of the two which heard john speak and followed him was andrew simon pete his brother he first findeth his own brother simon and saith unto him we found the messiahs which is being interpreted the christ and he brought him to jesus look down if you would at verse number uh... forty four now philip was a best say to the city of andrew and peter philip findeth nathaniel and saith unto him we have found him of whom moses and the law and the prophets did right jesus of nazareth the son of joseph and nathaniel said unto him can there any good thing come out of nazareth philip saith unto him come and see now what do you notice about these two men and their stories that they tell you notice the excitement you notice how they're making it sound exciting to someone else hey we found him of whom moses and the law and the prophets spake jesus of nazareth the son of joseph they're getting excited they're telling them how great it is they're saying come with us to church because that's what this became the first church jesus and his disciples come with us to church come learn the bible come learn about jesus you know if you're not saved and get saved and get baptized and learn how to go soul winning with me let me teach you soul winning you see our job as christians is not just to preach the gospel and you know that we're all about preaching the gospel you know that we're all about getting people saved but our job is a job of confirmation if you find somebody that's saved but they're not a soul winner why don't you take it upon yourself to confirm them to build them up and to teach them to be a soul winner if you find somebody that's saved but they don't go to church why don't you get them in faith for a baptist church why don't you bring them to church why don't you make it sound exciting to them and say come to a church where the bible's preached where souls are saved where we go out and preach the gospel just like in the book of acts come to a church where you'll learn the bible sunday morning sunday night and wednesday night and make it exciting to them get them in church confirm them you know if you win somebody the lord that's great that's exciting that's a reward in heaven but can you imagine if you not only win people to christ but what happens if you just take one person who's already saved and what if you could teach them to live for god what if you could take them and and confirm them and teach them to win souls like you win souls teach them to live a clean life like you live a clean life and so you ought to be living a clean life you know you ought to be winning souls yourself in order to confirm someone else why don't you take someone and uh teach them how to win souls teach them to live right teach them to read and study and memorize the bible like you do did you know that that person could maybe win a thousand people the lord in their lifetime you say a thousand people that's crazy well what if they just won one person to lord per week for 20 years that's more than a thousand people or what if they won one person the lord every other week for 40 years that's over a thousand people you see uh if you could train a soul winner if you could confirm somebody who's already saved you say well i didn't win the lord yeah but you're the one who confirmed them you know god's gonna bless you and you're gonna get rewards in heaven for all the soul and think about the souls that be saved if you could take people that are already saved and confirm them if you win somebody to the lord don't let it stop there turn to matthew 28 if you would matthew chapter 28 you're in john just back a few books look at matthew 28 and look at verse number 19 where i was just quoting from see don't just let it that person that you won to the lord at work don't let it stop there confirm them paul said i'm not just in the business of getting people saved i'm in the business of confirming those that are saved now if you have somebody at work that you've won to the lord why don't you take it upon yourself to confirm them pray for them try to reach them with not just the gospel but also with the rest look at look at you what at verse 19 go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son of the holy ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i've commanded you and lo i am with you always even under the end of the world amen so we see here you haven't really obeyed the great commission of jesus until you win people to christ and get them baptized and teach them to observe all things whatsoever i've commanded you as a church we're only obeying the great commission we're only uh being obedient to god and being successful as a church when we do the whole cycle of not only winning people to the lord not only baptizing conference but teaching them to observe all things preaching the entire bible to them teaching them to win souls teaching them to do what we do to to preach what we preach to live a clean life to be godly and righteous and pure like we're pure that's what the bible says you see confirmation should be part of your lifestyle not just soul winning but confirmation you pass up the opportunity to see hundreds of souls saved when you don't confirm somebody confirming somebody could lead to a hundred people being saved you ought to take the people that you win to the lord at work and talk to them about being baptized you gotta be after them to come to church you say how am i gonna do it should i should i tell them uh they're not right with god they don't come you don't come to church they're not right with god you know you could try to make it exciting instead like in john one where they said hey come and see for yourself you know nathaniel began to question and say i don't think jesus is all he's cracked up to be i don't think this church that you're going to is really all that it's cracked up to be what did he say well why don't you come and see come check it out for yourself and boy when he came was he impressed boy when he came was he excited when he came he stayed with jesus he abode with him he followed him why because uh philip talked him into it philip wanted to confirm his own brother and get him in church and get him living for god look if you would at psalm 126 right in the middle of your bible is the book of psalms psalm 126 we'll read verse 5 psalm 126 psalm 126 verse number five the bible reads in psalm 126 5 they that sow in tears shall reap in joy they that sow in tears shall reap in joy he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his seeds with him doubtless i mean isn't that a pretty strong word doubtless i mean if you go for the weeping if you have a heart that that beats inside you a love for people a love for lost souls a burning desire to see people saved if you have that love in your heart that'll put a tear in your eye it'll say oh god help me to win somebody to christ and if you go forth weeping bearing the precious seed the seed of the word of god the bible says the incorruptible seed the word of god which liveth and abides forever if you're bearing the precious seed with a tear in the eye the holy spirit upon you you will doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing your sheets with you you see the sheep is when you harvest wheat once you've harvested the wheat you know of course the seeds planted the plant grows up you harvest the wheat well then a sheep is when you bundle them together okay and then you've got that sheep and you bring it with you you bring it back to you i mean can you imagine harvesting a bunch of wheat and just leaving it out in the field you know that that's not that's not ideal you know they're going to be pieces they get left behind but ideally you want to bundle it up and take it back and do something that's the whole point and so what god is teaching is not bringing the seeds bring all your seeds you know bring the seeds to church no uh bring the sheets and so we bring the sheets is when we go out and we win somebody to christ the bible refers to uh winning people the lord is reaping the harvest truly is plenteous but the labors are few pray therefore the lord of the harvest that he will send forth labors into his the bible says one sows another waters another reef but god give it the increase and so when you reap that lost soul and they get saved the the goal is to then bind them up and bring them to church you know take them and bring them with you and bring them to the house of god with you and he says if you go forth weeping if you put in the hours bearing the precious seed working out in the field so to speak soul-winning knocking the doors on the job friends family loved ones co-workers whoever the case may be he says you'll doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing your sheaves with you don't go out and just win somebody lord and then not bring them with you now some people you're not going to bring you know you try i try to bring everybody that i went to lord some people are just not going to come they're still saved okay you don't have to come to church to be saved and so just because they never come to church doesn't mean they're not saying they may go to some other liberal church you know they may go to some other church that their friends go to or whatever but you have to try as hard as you can that when you win somebody lord to get them to come to church with you because that's the only way they're going to get baptized and learn to observe all things whatsoever jesus has commanded us and so you ought to be in the confirmation business i want i want this word to become a part of your vocabulary in your mind this is a bible word where you say i want to be like paul i want to be like barnabas i want to be like saul i don't want to just win people to christ but you know what i want to take somebody and teach them and confirm them and make them make them a soul winner and to teach them to follow jesus christ there are people in this church that were already saved long ago you were saved what 10 years ago but see he'd never been confirmed okay he was uh being tossed to and fro he didn't have a church that he went to he wasn't a soul winner never even been baptized and that and you know that was 10 years ago or so that he that he got saved now i took brother dave and i confirmed him okay i took him out i taught him how to win souls now look brother davis seeing people saved constantly okay uh same thing with other people in the church for example you know amanda how when did you get saved 20 years ago or something i can't i don't know how long ago did you get saved well you're not saved not 17 yeah 17 years ago okay but there wasn't any kind of a confirmation she wasn't very firm in what she believed that's do you understand what confirmation means see if you don't confirm somebody they're not very firm they don't know which church to go to they don't really know what they believe i mean they know what they believe about the gospel they know it's by faith but they may not know everything else of course they don't you know they haven't been taught uh they they're not very firm they're not steadfast and unmovable it's going to be pretty easy to shake them but what you ought to do is be in the confirmation business because if you could take somebody like one of these two or or many others that are in this room if you could take somebody like that and if you can train them to be a soul winner teach them to live for god teach them what's right you've accomplished just as much as winning souls because you're making somebody a soul winner and they're winning all kinds of souls and you know there's only so many people i can win to christ personally one person but the purpose of this church is to train as many people as we can not that pastor anderson is some kind of a one-man show i'm the soul winner just bring your unsaved people to church and i'll get them saved because i know how to do it no the goal is that you become a soul winner you become a fisher of men and you can win people to christ and you know what the only way that this church is really going to grow where it needs to grow is if many of us are laboring together you know uh recently we had like 18 people out soul winning in that one week okay that's what's going to make this church grow that's what's going to make a lot more people get saved i mean we're going to have a lot more people saved this year than we had last year why because last year for a great part of the year i was one of the only people going out soul winning toward the end of the year many more people started going we had a few people going throughout the year but i'm going to tell you something this year has been a lot different than last year because we've had so many more people out so winning for so many more hours that's why we're seeing greater success and next year we'll have even more people out soul winning putting even more time out there and you know it's going to grow when when it's not one person but when we're all with one mind in one accord we're all going out and preaching the gospel to every creature think about this in your life put this in your in your spiritual vocabulary who are you going to confirm this week who are you going to strengthen in their faith this week somebody that you know who's saved who maybe maybe they don't come to this church they need to be confirmed and brought to this church and they can learn what they need to learn this church but not only that there are people in this church that uh that maybe you're friends with okay maybe they're not here tonight maybe they come on sunday mornings or they come uh different services sporadically and you're you're kind of their friend right i mean let's face it you know as the church grows we're all one you know body here and we're all one church here but you know there are people that are friends maybe because they live in the same area or maybe the person that you brought to church is has a special connection with you or maybe the person that you won to the lord now my goal you know as a pastor i would love to just go and visit every single person who comes you know my schedule doesn't always permit me to do that but i would love to just visit every member of our church on a regular i wish i could just come over to your house every week every person in this church i'm serious i would love that i'm not even kidding i love to show up at your house every week and just spend time with you and talk to you i mean that you know because i love it you know i i love everybody in this church i'd love to spend time and talk to you know i can't always do that you know that's why i look forward to sunday morning sunday night wednesday night we all get to see each other but you know you ought to take it upon yourself maybe there's some people in this church who are maybe a new believer or maybe it's somebody that you want to the lord or maybe it's just a new believer you know or or maybe it's a friend of yours or somebody who maybe lives in your area or something you know you want to take it upon yourself to befriend them now i'm not saying not preach to them and not try to straighten them out that's not what i'm talking about i'm talking about just loving somebody and being their friend and encouraging them in a positive way i'm not talking about a negative way tell them what they're doing wrong straighten them out okay i'm saying why don't you just pick people in this church that come and just love them and strengthen them and help them to grow help them be faithful you know if you just said to somebody hey you know i'm excited about you know seeing on wednesday you're gonna be there on wednesday or or hey you know i'm really missed on wednesday and something like that you know just some kind of a a sign that you care and i hope you really do care and if you don't care then don't say it but you know personally i'm sad when when people that normally come don't come because i didn't get to see them and i'm sure you feel the same way when when people don't come that are usually always here and then you don't seem like man you know where's so and so and you wish they were there you know you want to see them i encourage people you know and many people in the church are very good about this many people in this church you know give rides to people bring them to church you know that that's probably a lot of what keeps them coming in some ways because you're giving them a ride because you're spending time with them because you're taking an interest in them because you love them and you you care about them you know you have to love people you have to love the people that come to this church and care about each part it's not just another number another body let's get as many people in here as we can fully on that the goal is to take an interest in each person personally to help them grow and to confirm them and strengthen them and build them up and encourage them you know who who are you encouraging in this church who have you spoken a word of encouragement to or written a note of encouragement or taking the time to strengthen somebody or or uh compliment somebody encourage somebody help somebody give somebody something that could help them out or that they need or give them a ride or or tell them that you that you miss them or that you want to see them on sunday night or on wednesday or on sunday morning hey take an interest in people love people confirm the brethren in the church that's what the bible's teaching i wish i could be the the the soul winner extraordinary that preaches the gospel to every single person in maricopa county it's not going to happen because i'm only one person and there's almost four million people in the county here i wish i could be the the mr confirmation going around confirming every person who comes to this church every visitor every new person every new believer all your friends and loved ones and everybody who comes this church i can't do it all we've got to work together as a team confirming them strengthening them encouraging them helping them who is it that's saved that's not in church that you could go confirm who is it that does come to this church maybe they come sometimes or that you could take it upon yourself to encourage them or how about to pray for them by name call their name in prayer and then tell them hey i was praying for you you know send them a note encourage them love people express your love to people that's part of what confirmation is and so you ought to take it upon yourself and not just think well pastor anderson's going to greet the visitors pastor anderson's going to visit people pastor anderson's going to get everybody in church pastor anderson is not god okay and pastor is not the only christian in this church i'm just one of the crowd here you know i'm just like you you're just like me why don't you take it upon yourself and say i want to make this church grow i want to make sure that that the people who've come under you know our influence that we can love them and and keep them keep them confirmed you know keep them continuing you know paul said i want to confirm them because i want them to continue i want to keep coming to church i want to keep on winning souls i want to keep on living for god it's a shame or sad thing that some if somebody could you know come to this church for months and months and then they disappear and you know nobody really cares or nobody really thinks about it or prays for them or calls them or visits them tries to help them encourage them this is something that that we need to do as a church i'm not talking about going around and having bible studies in people's homes and you know trying to bring church to them that's not what i'm talking about i'm not talking about some discipleship program outside the local church i'm talking about bringing people into the fold i'm talking about strengthening people teaching them what they need to learn bringing them to church getting them excited are you excited about this church are you excited about jesus are you excited about soul winning excited about the bible why don't you let your excitement rub off onto somebody else why don't you pick somebody that you know that's saved or get somebody saved and then decide you know what i'm going to confirm them you know i i'll use this example i remember when gabriel first walked into our church on a sunday morning i remember uh i walked over and i gave him the gospel and i went through the plan of salvation with him he got saved and i didn't know gabriel at all you know i mean i didn't know him from adam i didn't know anything about him i'd never heard anything about him you know i mean i heard some bad things from some of his family you know no i hadn't heard anything about him i had no clue what he was like i didn't know his personality didn't know him at all i sat down with them i wanted the lord i gave him the gospel he prayed and got saved he went on his way he went home and you know what i went home and i didn't just say oh there's another one another salvation mark it up i i thought to myself you know what i want gabriel i just remember thinking you know this guy just got saved i don't know who he is i don't know how old he is i don't know who he is i don't always like i said you know what i want gabriel to be a soul winner i want gabriel to come to this church faithfully i want him to learn how to preach i want him to to read the bible and say the bible i want him to be a godly christian i want to be righteous i want him to follow me as i follow christ i want him to be like other people in this church that win souls that love god i said i want gabriel to be confirmed in the faith and to not just be somebody who's saved but never comes to church never does anything with their life i want gabriel to come to this church and be a soul winner and to do something for god with his life that's what i wanted and i prayed to god and i asked god to make it so and i said god please help me to help me to do what i need to do to confirm him and you know what uh i've spent time trying to confirm him that's why he's out soul winning with us every week this guy's addicted to soul winning okay we try and tell him like we're done you know he wants to keep going i'm not kidding we went on the soul winning marathon uh thursday friday saturday he's like we're still going sunday right i'm like you're nuts we just did all this soul winning now look why don't you have a vision for people you say oh this guy you know this guy's never gonna do anything for god you know all right i'm not talking about him you know but you may look at people and i've literally looked at people i mean i've looked at people that were hard people and i mean i'm thinking of a certain guy right now this guy had the filthiest mouth i mean everything out of this guy's mouth was just bad i mean it was it was cursing it was dirty stuff i mean it was bad and i remember i won this guy to the lord and i remember thinking to myself you know this guy i'm glad he saved praise god that he saved but i said to myself this guy's never going to be like us i mean you know i mean i'm just being honest with you see that was my lack of faith and my lack of vision i said you know i praise the lord that this guy saved but he's never going to be a this guy's never going to go soul winning there's no way this guy's ever going to live a christian life you know uh and you know what years later i mean he is a soul winner he does live a christian life i mean he he he's he's a very righteous man i'll tell you right now he's a very godly christian see you don't know what god can do if you would take the time to try to confirm somebody and try to teach somebody and try to train somebody and try to try to help somebody grow in their christian life every person that you went to lord i mean and i i'm just sharing with you my heart a little bit okay what's up what's going on in my mind what's going on my heart like i told you well what i was thinking about gabriel when i was praying for him when i first wanted lord before he's even baptized i was picturing him preaching soul winning and i had that plan to to confirm him okay well i'll tell you right now and i'm being totally honest with you when i go out soul winning when i win somebody to christ i look at that person and i just i pictured them you know let's say they got you know long hair down their back i picture that short haircut i'm serious you know the bible says that men are supposed to have short hair sorry to shock you with that you know here's a shock women are supposed to have long hair men are supposed to have shorter it's in the bible first corinthians chapter 11. uh you know i picture i picture him i mean i'll see a guy maybe maybe he's got tattoos and piercings or whatever and he gets safe i picture him out soul winning i'm not kidding i mean in my imagination i look at him i picture him with a bible in the sand to preach in the gospel giving the gospel to somebody i mean i hear his voice talking to me and in my imagination in my mind i can hear that same voice going through the roman's road and giving somebody to plan salvation i'm i'm being i'm not i'm being totally honest with you right now i mean i'll all win uh some lady to the lord and i'll get her safe and and i'm listening to her voice you know saying thank you for stopping by and and thanks you know uh whether she's going to come to church or whatever and i can hear her voice in my mind giving the gospel to somebody else i can hear her being a soul winner maybe she's dressed in a in a sleazy way i'm picturing her wearing that that modest dress and looking like a lady and being clean and decent that's what i picture that's what i believe huh that's that's a vision have a vision for people that you went to the lord have a vision for people that you meet that are that are christians hey if they're saved if they have the holy spirit living inside of them there's no telling what they can become paul said i can do all things through christ which strengthened me and if they're safe if they have the holy spirit in them they can do all things through christ which strengthen them and so when you see that person who's the carnal worldly christian the backslidden christian or the person that you just wanted the lord five minutes ago you gotta look at them you gotta have a vision to make them a soul winner to bring them to church and let the holy spirit speak to them through the preaching to make them what they need to be have a vision for people love people look at people and don't just see them as just another number another person that you want to look paul and barnabas you know yeah we got all these people saved paul said you know those are real people why don't we go back and and try and teach them some more and strengthen them why don't we uh why don't we confirm them why don't we build them up and teach them to continue and be like us but see you're going to have a hard time teaching people to be like you if you're not worth being like now nobody's perfect i'm not perfect i have all kinds of faults and flaws and weaknesses i'm just a human being i'm just a man you have your human faults and flaws but you know what i'm a soul winner i win souls i get people saved i teach you know i could i could tell you about all kinds of people that i wanted for it i could tell you about all kinds of people that have been baptized and then that are living for god okay now i have faults and flaws so do you god's not looking for perfect people because he's not going to find any god's looking for people like me and like you who are soul winners and he wants us to say to others follow me as i follow christ let me confirm you let me be a leader to you let me help you let me teach you something so this week yes win souls yes open your mouth and preach the gospel this week but you know what why don't you think about doing something else also like confirming somebody that you know confirming somebody that you know who's saved and confirming somebody that you win the lord why don't you make that a part of your life confirmation let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father thank you so much for the people in my life that have helped to confirm me i can think about so many people in my life that i'm very thankful for that taught me so much out of the bible i think of uh a previous pastor that i had who who taught me much about the bible i think of my own dad and my own mom who taught me much bible much uh confirmation that came from them god i thank you for other friends that i've had just people that i've been soul winning with that i've learned from and friends that i that have sharpened me and and strengthened me and confirmed me dear god i thank you so much that people have confirmed me throughout my life and god you're the one who's really done the confirming in the largest part of my life dear god and father i pray that you would help us now as a church faithful word baptist church to be in the confirming business jesus said i must be about my father's business and this business not only involves soul winning but involves confirmation father bless us now as we go our separate ways for the week help us to do what you'd have us to help us to grow and let you confirm us and then help us to confirm others and in jesus name i pray amen all right let's go ahead and sing one more song as we go let's just sing one