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Matthew chapter number 10 is the story where Jesus is sending out the disciples. He calls on them the 12 apostles and he gives them instructions as he sends them out two by two to go into all the cities and villages and to preach the gospel and so forth. Some of these instructions will be changed later in the sense that in Matthew chapter 10 he's telling them to only go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He's telling them don't go beyond the borders of Israel into the coast of the Gentiles. Later in Matthew 28 he's going to expand that and say go teach all nations, but at this point he wanted to first canvas the nation of Israel itself. He's giving these very detailed instructions on what they should and shouldn't do. What I want to preach about tonight is the subject soul winning do's and don'ts. Soul winning do's and don'ts. I've done a lot of sermons about how to win souls, how to go soul winning. I've done sermons that were called soul winning tips part one, soul winning tips part two, soul winning instructions, all different titles. And if you go on our church website and you go to the sermon page and just search the word soul, you'll find a whole bunch of sermons on how to win souls and how to go about soul winning. And the reason for that is that we want to make sure that if we put a lot of labor into something and a lot of effort into something, we want to make sure that we're doing it right and that we're doing our best and want to make sure that we're all on the same page as a church on the most important aspects of soul winning. Obviously everybody's a little bit different and they're going to do soul winning a little bit different. There's more than one way to skin a cat, but we want to make sure that we're on the same page on the important facets of soul winning. Now the best way to learn how to go soul winning is of course to go soul winning. You know, sitting and listening to a sermon about soul winning isn't going to teach you how to do it. What you need to do is show up to a soul winning time and go out there and try it. And honestly, the way that you start is just by being a silent partner and all you do is just show up and you're paired up with an experienced soul winner and you go with that person and you learn the ropes from them. That's how I learned soul winning. I mean, I remember the first time I ever went soul winning, I was 17 years old and I'd been saved since I was six years old, but I'd never been soul winning before and because I went to churches that didn't have a soul winning program. So finally I got into a church that had soul winning. In fact, that's what even attracted me to that church. When they talked about going out and knocking doors and preaching the gospel, I wasn't even drawn to that church because of the hard preaching. I was worldly and I didn't really understand the need for hard preaching. I hadn't really been exposed to a lot of hard preaching. The thing that drew me to that church was the soul winning. And then once I got there, I heard all the hard preaching and of course got a lot of the sin out of my life and accepted a lot of things that that church taught me from the Bible and that church really changed my life. Getting into a good, solid, soul winning, fire breathing type Baptist church. Going out soul winning for the first time involved me just being paired up with a guy who was actually the pastor's brother-in-law and we spent a couple hours out there knocking doors and I just watched and I observed him knocking on doors and giving people the gospel and he was doing a great job and I learned a lot of things from him and a couple hours into it, I said, hey, let me get the next door. He didn't realize I'd never been soul winning before. This was my very first time and I was about two hours into this thing with him. I said, let me get the next door. I want to try this. And I was really nervous, of course. I knocked on the door and a little child came to the door, like a girl that was maybe, I don't know, I don't remember how old she was, maybe like 11, 12 years old or something. And I, you know, talked to this girl, gave her an invitation to church, her parent was there and I basically didn't have an opportunity to give them the gospel but I was able to invite them to church and actually they actually came to church the next day. The little girl got saved at church. Someone else wanted the Lord. So I was pretty excited about that. I wasn't really ready probably to go through the whole gospel with somebody after being out soul winning for only two hours but I knew how to do the first part and I was actually going to just knock the door and if they said yes to hearing the gospel, I would have just turned it over to my soul winning partner and that's how some people get started too. First they just kind of go out as a soul winning partner, just silent partner for weeks or even months, then they might get to the point where they start, you know, the conversation and then might pass it off to their soul winning partner to finish it and then they eventually get to the point where they can do the whole thing themselves. So you don't have to feel any pressure that, oh, if I show up at the soul winning time I'm going to be forced to just go out and just know what I'm doing. No, no, no, you just show up and how hard is it to just follow somebody around and just watch what they do and obviously as the silent partner you should be praying in your heart for the people that are hearing the gospel. The silent partner also has the function of just providing fellowship, just providing camaraderie, just providing, you know, just conversation between doors, also any distractions that come up, you're there and might, you know, pet the dog or run interference on this distraction or that. It's really not that hard and, you know, Pastor David Berzins, who's pastoring up in Prescott Valley right now, and of course now he's a very confident soul winner, he's the pastor of a church, he's spent hundreds of hours out soul winning, he's very effective at it, but I remember when he first started soul winning he was a silent partner for, I believe, two or three months, just coming week after week as my silent partner and then he said, you know, for a New Year's resolution he said, I'm going to start doing the talking, right? And then he finally stepped out and started doing the talking and the rest is history. So it's, that's how you learn soul winning. You know, you learn by getting out there and doing it. But sermons like tonight's sermon that can give you some tips and some pointers are good just to make sure that everybody's on the same page and hopefully if you're sitting there hearing this sermon like, well this doesn't apply to me because I don't go soul winning, well shame on you. You need to get out there and go soul winning and put this sermon into practice. And then another thing I want to point out to you is that we do have this video on the back shelf. Of course everything's free here. We believe that it is a sin to sell anything at church. Everything on the back shelves is always free and it's for you to take as many as you want. This is a soul winning seminar DVD that we put together by our friend Pastor Roger Jimenez Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, California. He did like a three and a half hour training thing. So there are all kinds of sermons that you can download off the Faith Forward Baptist website. There's this DVD you could pop in to get more information. But none of that is a substitute for actually getting out there and doing it. That's the real way to learn. But I'll say this, when I go out soul winning, I go with a variety of soul winning partners and that's what I think you should do too. Don't just go soul winning with the same person over and over again. Show up at different soul winning times and go with different partners each time and you're going to learn different things from different people and you will realize that some people are better at soul winning than others. And some people are using better methods than others and so you want to make sure that you go with a variety of people so that you don't just go with one person and only see their style of soul winning. See a few different styles. I'll say this, I've been going soul winning now for 18 years, consistently, virtually every week for 18 years. I started when I was 17, I'm 35 now. And I've seen a lot of things out soul winning that left me kind of shaking my head or doing a face palm, right? And some of these things should be obvious and some of them are less obvious. And I've been soul winning with a lot of people at our church where I saw things that I didn't feel like they were right. And so this sermon, when I give points, you might sit back sometimes and think, well, no one would ever do that or why is he talking about that or why is he stating the obvious. Look, everything that I bring up tonight is stuff that I've seen people do in real life at this church in the last 11 years. So when you go out soul winning hundreds and hundreds of times, you see a lot of things. And it's not that people are bad or foolish, it's just I've done dumb things out soul winning. I could have a sermon called every dumb thing I've ever done out soul winning and just go through all my mistakes in the early days. So don't feel bad. If I say something tonight as a don't, because remember this is the soul winning dos and don'ts, if I say something as a don't, don't get all upset and feel like, oh, man, he's getting on me or he's talking about me. Everybody always thinks I'm talking about them. I'm not. I'm not talking about you or maybe I'm talking about all of you, however you want to look at it. But it's not personal to you. So don't get upset. Just realize that these are some words of wisdom on soul winning, some dos and don'ts. This is not really a how to win soul sermon. I've already done a ton of those. This is just a sermon just listing a bunch of stuff that I've seen people do that I think is not good and another list of things that I would like to see people doing that I think you should be doing. And the verse that I want to point out in chapter 10, the first thing I wanted to point out is just that this is a chapter where Jesus gives detailed instructions and I think we as a church should give people instructions on how to go soul winning and give dos and don'ts just like Jesus gave dos and don'ts in this chapter. But look what he says in Matthew chapter 10 verse 16. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. God is saying to be wise as you go out soul winning. Don't just go out there and just do whatever. He's saying no, no. Use your brain. Be smart. Be wise. Be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves. Now flip over if you would to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and let me start out giving you some dos and don'ts. I would say the number one thing that I see out soul winning that leaves me kind of shaking my head a little bit or kind of face palming a little bit is when I see people going out soul winning and they're not being friendly when they're out soul winning. They're gruff. They're business-like. They're rude. Yeah, it just doesn't make any sense. I mean we're out there preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're preaching the good news. We're ambassadors for Christ and when you knock on that door and they open your door, remember you're visiting them. You're a guest unto them. You're coming to their house and when they open the door and just see you there all gruff faced and business-like and I'm here to invite you to church. You died today. Do you know for sure you're going to heaven? That puts people off right away. You need to be nice. You need to be friendly. You need to be on your company manners because you're a guest at their home. You're coming to their house with good news and you need to be friendly, all right? Second Timothy chapter 2 beginning in verse 23. This is great soul winning advice. This is a great don't but foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes. Strife's are arguments and the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. This here, it says that we are to instruct those who believe wrong, instruct those who are not saved in meekness, right? And we should be gentle and we're not out there to get in an argument. Says the servant of the Lord must not strive. That strife in this context is referring to getting in an argument back and forth. How do you get in that back and forth type of an argument? By entertaining foolish and unlearned questions, all right? So when we go out soul winning, we want to avoid these kind of foolish, unlearned, weird questions. When somebody comes at me with a weird question out soul winning, unless it is directly related to the gospel and getting saved, I try to blow off that question with something like well, hey, I'll be glad to answer that question as soon as I'm done explaining the gospel but I really don't want to lose my train of thought. It's all right if I just finish showing you this and then we can come back to that, you know, once I show you this. You know, just a polite, friendly way to divert those questions. But if the Bible is telling us to use meekness, what's meekness, humility, gentleness, right? That means we show up and we're nice. We're nice and we're friendly, not rude, abrasive, cold and business like. And I've seen this a lot out soul winning where people just aren't being friendly. They're not being nice. Now, we need to have people skills. Now part of it is that we live in a generation where we have the hikikomori type of a lifestyle, if you remember that sermon, where we've got people that sort of interact online and don't really have a lot of experience talking with flesh and blood human beings. And it's just going to get better the more you get out there and do it. But focus on a big smile. When I go soul winning, and if you've been soul winning with me, you know this is true. I knock on the door and the first thing I do when they open the door is a big smile. Big smile, all right? When my wife sees me smile, she says that I have the smile where you expect yellow feathers to come out of my mouth in a minute. Like I just consumed Tweety Bird, all right? Big smile. And I knock on the door and I have a big smile. And I say, hi, how you doing? You know, I'm from Faithful Word Baptist Church, just want to invite you to church. Do you go to church anywhere? And I'm friendly. And you say, oh, that's being fake. No, I actually have the joy of the Lord, believe it or not. I'm actually happy to be there. I actually enjoy soul winning and I enjoy meeting new people that I can give the gospel and win to Christ. No, no, no. Why don't you make it real by actually being happy? The joy of the Lord is your strength. The fruit of the Spirit is joy. Why don't you show up? And you say, well, I just have trouble being friendly to people. Well, why don't you start loving people? Then it can be real and natural because it's actually coming from the heart, all right? So big smile. And you know what happens when you smile at people? They smile back. And then they're going to feel kind of dumb being really rude to you five seconds later if they just gave you a big smile. So I smile at them. They smile at me and then they aren't as rude or abrasive if they don't want to hear the gospel. You know, you get chewed out less that way by smiling, all right? Be nice. Be gentle. Be meek. Be friendly. Be humble, right? Show up wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Be friendly. Smile. Okay. What else? Do's and don'ts. Don't knock like the police. Right. Amen. Constantly I'm out soul winning. In other parts of the country, I'm out soul winning at these soul winning marathons and I'll get paired up with somebody. That's not how you knock. And if you do knock that way, then be sure to step out of the way for the shotgun blast that comes through the door because when the cops knock that way, they step out. One time my grandfather is actually a police lieutenant for the LAPD. And you know, when you've been at the job for a long time, you don't necessarily always follow the exact by the book protocol, especially not my grandfather who did a lot of kind of, you know, things that weren't really by the book in his police career, you know. But anyway, he was out with a rookie cop that he was training. And so because he's training the guy, you know, he's doing everything by the book and explaining to him. And he showed the guy, he said, here, you know, you knock on the door and you step out of the way. And he knocked on the door and stepped out of the way and a gunshot came through the door literally. And he might not have even stepped out of the way except that he's training this guy. So he's like, see what I mean? Right there is what I'm talking about. So don't come, you know, people will come to the door, I've seen it where somebody knocks the police knock and then literally the people will just come to the door like, they're already mad. You haven't even opened your mouth. You haven't even started talking. They're already mad. You've already made them mad. And it's a real uphill battle to try to win them back over. Look, it's called soul winning. Now why is it called soul winning? The Bible says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise. What does it mean to win someone? It means to get them over to your side. If you say, hey, he won him over. What is it? We believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, don't we? The people that we're talking to don't. We're trying to win them, not to ourselves, but we're trying to win them unto Jesus Christ. We're trying to get them on board with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well guess what? We're the ambassador for Christ. So we better have a winning smile if we're soul winning, right? We're trying to bring people over to Christ and if we're acting like a jerk, if we're beating the door down, we're not going to get very far with people, are we? And this is just being as wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove as Christ instructed. Now I've seen the opposite problem where people go up and they're just kind of like, this just super quiet knock that no one can hear. You know, you want to have a hearty knock, a friendly knock, alright? And everybody's got their signature knock, you know, here's my knock. I mean, does that just make your, you know, your blood pressure go through the roof when you hear that? No, it's just a nice, friendly, basic knock and you know, you can come up with your own pattern and cadence and so forth, but make it a friendly knock that people can hear. Okay, knock on, don't beat on that metal screen. Now in Phoenix, everybody's got that storm door and it can make a horrible noise. Knock on the door and if the screen is locked, there's a wood trim piece around it. Knock on that wood, right? Knock on wood, get a nice knock. Or obviously if they have a doorbell, you can use the doorbell. When I push the doorbell, I listen to see if I can hear it and if I don't hear it, then I knock. And I knock twice. Maybe the second time I'll knock a little louder, but still friendly, not over the top police style knock, okay? Be friendly. Okay, the next thing that I would give as advice is take no for an answer. Take no for an answer, all right? Now the reason that I say that is that when you go out soul winning, there's two kinds of people. There's people that want to hear the gospel and people that have no interest. I don't want to talk to people who have no interest and the reason why is that down the street there's a guy who is interested. So I don't want to burn up all my time on somebody who has no interest when I could be down the street talking to somebody who is interested. Not only that, but there's only so much time I want to spend talking each day. There's only so much time I want to spend preaching the gospel in a day. There's only so many times I can say the same thing in one day or in one week. So I don't want to just waste my time, my breath, my energy and my spirit on people that are not worthy because they're not even paying attention. They're not even listening and they're just tuning out wishing that I would go away. And look, when I first started out soul winning, I would just go to people and just start preaching them the gospel until they just tell me no, until they just told me to leave. I would just not give them the option. But I actually ask people, hey, can I show you from the Bible how to know for sure you're going to heaven? And if they say, no, I don't have any interest in that, then I just leave them with one verse but I don't sit there and just cram it down their throat anyway. Here's why, because in my early days of soul winning, I noticed that the people that got saved were always the people who wanted to hear the gospel and the people who had no interest and are just kind of zoned out, they never got saved anyway and I found myself just wasting my breath, wasting my, getting tired preaching to a bunch of people who weren't interested. Now, even if they're not interested, I still want to plant that seed, all right? Go to Isaiah chapter 55. Even if they're not interested, I still want to plant that seed but I don't want to spend my whole day there. I don't want to spend all my breath and all my energy preaching to people that are not interested. Here's a statement that Jesus made over and over again in the Bible. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Some people don't have ears to hear and you'll never find Jesus cramming the gospel down people's throat that aren't interested. If he went to a place where they're not interested, he says, man, let's get out of here. This is unreceptive. He shook off the dust and went to the next town, next village, next house. He did not waste his time with people that weren't interested. I'd rather spend time preaching to people that are interested. But I want to give everybody one verse as a seed planting, okay? Because I want the next time somebody comes around, that person to be a little closer to getting saved as that seed is watered, you know, God willing the next person might have more success at that door. Whereas if you don't leave a verse, well then you're basically leaving that person in the exact situation that you found them and when somebody else knocks their door in a year, they're going to say the same thing that they said this time most likely. Keep in mind that our church is getting big. We have literally at least 150 people out soul winning on a weekly basis. So guess what we're doing? Knocking doors repeatedly. Now we're often going to new fresh areas and filling in our map in the back. The map in the back represents doors that we've knocked at least one time. But there are huge sections on that map that we've knocked five or six times. Even as we radiate outward, places that are close and places that are receptive, we go back, well listen, if we're going to keep going back and our church isn't closing its doors tomorrow, you know, God willing our church will be here for another decade or two decades or five, who knows? So therefore we need to understand that the people that we're talking to today, we're going to talk to again probably in 2017, 2018, 2019, we're going to see these people again. That's another reason to be friendly. And if they say no, you can still leave on a positive note so that next time they don't have a bad taste. Oh yeah, these are those rude jerks. When I told them I was busy, they were rude. And then they're even less likely to listen, right? But if we can plant a seed, hey, let me just give you one verse and then a couple of years later we come by, hey, let me give you one verse, hopefully that'll germinate and eventually they'll get softened up and get more receptive to the gospel. Look at Isaiah 55 verse 10, for as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. God's word has power and when God's word is planted, the Bible says the sower soweth the word. That seed that's planted is a Bible verse and that has power to affect people's lives and they can get that down in their heart and it can get them thinking and it can cause them to have an interest in hearing the gospel. So sometimes we're just planting a seed. So oh, I'm busy, I'm not really interested, I don't have time now. Okay, be friendly and say, oh, okay, no problem. Let me just leave you with one quick verse because now that you've acknowledged, okay, it's no problem, nine times out of ten, they'll listen to the one verse. And then I leave them with one quick verse, maybe John 3 16, maybe Romans 6 23, maybe 1 John 5 13, whatever verse I feel like doing, I rotate between, you know, several verses. I leave them with that quick verse and then I spend about 30 seconds explaining that verse. Not a big long explanation but I just spend 30 seconds and I just am trying to get across one thought, not the whole plan of salvation, just one thought. Just leaving them with one thought, a verse and an explanation. Now if the person seems really intrigued like, oh, wow, that's really interesting, then sometimes I'll say, well, hey, you know, can I show you the rest? And sometimes they'll say, yeah, because it got their attention. But most of the time, they'll hear the one verse and that's it. And then it's, hey, have a great day, God bless you, see you later, you know, big smile, not being rude. This is what I've seen the don't. Here's the don't, okay. Hey, can I take a few moments and show you from the Bible how you can be saved? No, I'm busy right now, you know, I don't really have time but thanks anyway. I've seen it repeatedly, literally just not just just walking away and then I'm the silent partner so I step in and smooth it over like, hey, have a good day, see you later, you know, as my partner just storms off or just really, really, you don't have time to hear the gospel. Like don't you think this is important? Like your soul, heaven or hell, oh, but you're too busy, oh, you're too busy to hear the gospel, huh? Yeah, I'm sure what you're doing is real important, pal. Well, you know what, enjoy hell, all right, see you later. You know, now, I haven't seen that, okay, that was a caricature but I have seen just some rude, you know, I've seen the really, you don't have time and I have seen the storming off without saying anything. That doesn't make any sense. We're probably going to knock that door again. Don't go around with this attitude like this is the last time this door is ever going to be knocked. Probably not since we have a great big sowing church that keeps going back and keeps going back. We're going to see these people again, folks, so let's not just burn that bridge just now or never. Today is the day of salvation or die because sometimes people need to hear the gospel again and the seed is planted, the seed is watered. Not everybody is going to get saved the first time that they hear the gospel, are they? So smile and be friendly. Don't knock like the police, okay, take no for an answer. Just leave one verse, be friendly, plant a seed, move on and realize you've done something of value. Okay, next, when we go soul winning, we have a soul winning partner with us, right? Don't just forsake your soul winning partner for no reason, all right. Now there are people when we go soul winning who just habitually, they just leave their partner. So, you know, we're going two by two and they go up to the door. I knock on the door, hi, how you doing from Faithful Word Baptist Church. We're just out inviting people to church. Are you a Christian? And then basically as soon as you actually get to the point where you say, hey, more importantly than church, if you were to die today, do you know for sure you're going to heaven? And then you ask them if you can show them from the Bible how they can be saved. And then as soon as you start to open your Bible to show them how to be saved, your soul winning partner is just gone. They just leave. And I'm just going to go knock doors somewhere else or whatever. I'm leaving. You know, don't just forsake your soul winning partner. Stay with your soul winning partner. Be there, be praying, watch, listen, learn. Be there in case you're needed. Be there in case you're called upon. Now look, sometimes there are times when there's a reason to walk away. You know, for example, you might out of the corner of your eye see that there's a bunch of soul winning groups and they don't know where to go. And sometimes I'm leading the whole group or leading the event and sometimes I might have to step away and tell some people, hey, this is where you're going or come right back and be. But I mean, sometimes we'll get to the end of soul winning and we're picking people up and it's like, where's your soul winning partner? I don't know. I haven't seen him in 45 minutes. It's like, what in the world? Plus it's just for safety also. It's better to stay with your group and not to just disappear and just walk away. You know, take being a silent partner seriously. Spend time in prayer. And by the way, don't pray audibly where, you know, I've seen this too, where it's like, you know, the mouth's moving and it's like, you know, I feel like Eli, how long will thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee. You know, when he saw Hannah and her lips are moving and no words are coming out, you know, pray in your heart for crying out loud. It's funny. When my grandpa got saved, my grandpa was a product of soul winning because the pastor of the church and the deacon came by and knocked on his door after he'd visited the church one time. They knocked on his door and they gave him the gospel and my grandpa and my dad got saved on the same day. My dad was about 10 years old and my grandpa was obviously a grown man. And when they got saved, the deacon was kind of hunched over, praying, just really head bowed, just praying intently. And my grandpa told the pastor later, he said, you know what, I thought that guy was asleep. I thought he had fallen asleep because he was all hunched over with his eyes closed, but he was actually praying. You know, you don't have to go through a big dramatic show of praying, you can just pray in your heart. All right. And so, you know, take your position as a silent partner seriously. Here's another tip, silent partner, silent partner. All right. A lot of really zealous first time soul winners, they show up like, oh, I'm here to go soul winning. I'm here to be a silent partner, but they get so excited, they want to keep like piping in and interjecting to feel like they're a part of the action, like let's double team this thing. But it's a bad idea, it doesn't work. Number one, your soul winning, the person who's actually doing the preaching, you know, you can really throw them off where they lose their train of thought or maybe they're taking things a certain direction and then all of a sudden you just take it some other direction and it could really throw them for a loop, number one. Number two is it's intimidating to the people that you're talking to, to just be bombarded by two people just doubling, and another thing, you know, and just kind of coming at them from all sides. You know, one person does the talking, now if you're both talkers, you take turns. You know, hey, I'll get this door, you get the next door, whatever. But at each door, one person should do the talking. Don't ever interrupt, step in, interject. Now the only exception I could see to this would be if, there aren't any, no I'm just kidding, but the only exception to this would be sometimes when you're out soul winning, the person who's doing the talking will look at you like, I'm drawing a blank, would you step in? You know, and they kind of invite you, or you know what, do you have anything to say about this? Now, a lot of times when people say that to me, I just kind of look back like, no I don't. Because I don't. It's time to move on, I think, or whatever, you know. But you don't, unless they invite you, unless the talker invites your participation, don't do that. And the only other time I would step in is if I was with somebody who was soul winning and they had done a really sloppy job and had not covered major points and then it got to the point where they're just going to pray with someone and sometimes I might step in, you know, and say, hey, let's cover this one other point real quick, you know, just for that person's sake. But that's a rare thing, that, you know, you need to go into it realizing the silent partner is supposed to be silent, all right? Now turn to Ecclesiastes chapter four, Ecclesiastes chapter four, I have a lot to talk about, I'm trying to do it in a short amount of time here just to get as many key points across as I can. But while you're turning to Ecclesiastes chapter four, which is another verse I want to show you on the silent partner, let me just mention this. When you go out soul winning and, you know, you're given the gospel, don't ask people way too many questions, all right? Now when you go out and you start the conversation, all right, and starting the conversation is kind of the most important part because that's, you know, if you do that right, you're going to have the opportunity to present the gospel. If you blow it, you're going to be sent packing before you even get to Romans 3.23, right? So when you start out, you don't want to ask a bazillion questions. You want to ask as few questions as possible. So here's what I typically do, I show up, I knock on the door, you know, big smile, Hi, I'm Pastor Steve Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church. Just want to invite you to church. Are you a Christian? And the reason I ask them are you a Christian is just because most people say yes to that. So it's kind of just an easy question for them just to kind of get them on your page in a sense. Are you a Christian? Yes. Oh, great. Okay. Well, more important than church, we'd love for you to come to church sometime, but if you were to die today, do you know for sure you're going to heaven? Now if they tell me, when I ask them if they know for sure they're going to heaven, if they give me any answer other than a resounding, oh, yeah, I know for sure, yes, I'm a hundred percent sure, yes, I know for sure I'm going to heaven, anything less than that, and that's all I need to know about that person. Because if they're really saved, they should give a resounding yes to that question. Now let's say they're really saved, but they're just really kind of backslidden and doubtful or mixed up and so they expressed doubt, they still need to hear the Gospel even if they're saved because they need to be confirmed. They need to be shored up on it, right? So look, if the person doesn't give a resounding yes, they need to hear the Gospel, whether to get them saved or whether to confirm them because they're a little shaky for some reason, for whatever the reason, okay? So if they say this, yeah, I'm pretty sure I'd go to heaven, that's not sure. Yeah, I think I probably would, that's not sure. So there's no reason to just do a whole bunch more questioning and ask them five more questions because it can begin to seem like you're badgering them, like they're a witness on a witness stand and you're just asking them question after question after question. They tell me, yeah, I'm pretty sure I probably would. I don't say, well, how do you know? Because they've already expressed doubt. So here's what I say, well, can I show you from the Bible how you can be 100%? Can I show you from the Bible how you can know it for sure, 100% sure? You know, and hopefully they'll say yes and then I can take them through the Bible. Or if they say, no, no, I'm not interested, you know, I don't have time or whatever, then I leave them with the one verse, right? Now let's say I say to them, do you know for sure? And they say, yes, I'm sure, yes, I know I'm going to heaven. Then at that point I would ask the next question of, what do you think a person has to do to get into heaven? You know, just, so what do you think a person has to do to make it into heaven, right? And then if they say, live a good life, go to church, get baptized, whatever, then you know they're not saved because they're trusting all the wrong things, they don't have their faith in Jesus. So then at that point I would just say, well listen, and again, kindly, friendly, gently. I would say, you know the Bible says something a little different than that, is it alright if I just show you from the Bible, you know, what the Bible says how you can know for sure you're going to heaven? Or if they say something that is more directed at Jesus as the way to heaven, such as, well, believing in Jesus. You know, how do you know, what do you think a person has to do to get into heaven? Just believe in Jesus Christ or, you know, well have their faith in Christ or receive Jesus Christ as their personal savior or, you know, ask Jesus into their heart or something like that. Okay, that person, that could be a right answer, but also it could be that they're just kind of just saying stuff and they don't really, so then if they give either a right answer, which a right answer is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, or if they give sort of a, meh, like accept Jesus into your heart, where you think like, yeah, you know, that could be, depending on what they mean by that. Then you ask the next question, which is, do you think there's anything that you could ever do to lose your salvation? Do you think it's possible to lose your salvation? Because a lot of times people will give you the right answer of, oh yeah, just receive Christ as savior, or just, yeah, just believe in Jesus. And then you say, well, do you think there's any way you could lose your salvation? Oh yeah, you can't just live however you want. That's why that's a good follow-up question. But look, you don't need the follow-up question unless they got the other questions right. Okay? At any point, if they give a wrong answer here to these, you know, you just park and say, hey, is it all right if I show you from the Bible a few verses so you can be sure? Or whatever. Don't just badger them. Okay? Look at Ecclesiastes 4. It says in verse 9, two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat. But how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken. So this is kind of the case for why we go two by two, or even in a group of three, and why we stay with our partner, because two are better than one. And it just works out better. So stay with your partner. Don't interrupt your partner if you're the silent partner. Don't ask too many questions, okay? But here's the next thing. Don't use avant garde or strange gospel presentations. Now look, you don't have to reinvent the wheel, folks, and impress us all with your eclectic choice of Bible verses. You know, there's nothing wrong with the good old Romans road. There's nothing wrong with Acts 16 31, John 3 16. You know, there's nothing wrong with just the tried and true verses of just a basic soul-winning plan. You don't have to get all crazy and creative and avant garde. Keep it simple, stupid, all right? You don't need to just come up with these wild soul-winning plans that just take you all over the Bible, because you're going to confuse people. The people that you're talking to know very little about the Bible in most cases. So you want to break it down and make it simple and easy for them to be saved. You don't want to go off on weird tangents either, okay? For example, I was talking to Brother Humanities about this, and we were just kind of, you know, comparing notes about weird soul-winning that we've seen over the years. And you know, over time, weird things creep into soul-winning in our church and his church and any church. That's why you need to have sermons like this just to kind of let people know, look, these methods are not right. They don't work. You know, one person starts doing something weird, and then people look at it like, oh, that's interesting. I'm going to start doing that, you know, or whatever. Now, and here's what's funny. People are like, well, what do you think about this method? What do you think about that? Look, you know what I think about the soul-winning methods because I've preached like 10 sermons about it, and I have a demonstration video online, the basic soul-winning demonstration video. Look, I do it that way because I think that's the best way to do it. And you know, so I don't do a crazy avant-garde, wild presentation. I do just a, you know, I mean, the presentation that I do is pretty similar to the old Romans road. I did some verses to reinforce some points and make them a little stronger, but nothing too wild or crazy. You say, well, you're not very original. Well, I'm not trying to be original. You know, I'm just trying to do a good job of getting people saved, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. You know, I took the soul-winning that I was taught. I made a few adjustments to it, a few tweaks to it to make it a little better, to improve upon it, not to be different, but to be better. See, there's a different way of doing things than there's a better way of doing things. You know, I remember when I first got my commercial fire alarm job, my supervisor took me aside and he said, listen, I don't want to hear ever, this is my first day on the job, I don't ever want to hear how you did it at your other job. Your other alarm. Well, we did it. He said, I don't want to ever hear that unless it's substantially better than the way we're doing it. Don't just tell me some different way that you guys did it. I don't want to hear it. This is what he told me. He's kind of an abrasive guy. This is the first day and I hadn't opened my mouth. I didn't tell him any different way. He just, this is the speech he gave to every new guy and he said, you know, you're not going to do it the way you did it at your other job. You're going to do it my way unless you can prove to me that your way is better. You will do it my way because there's different and there's better and you know what? He's right. Don't just be different for the sake of being different. Just to stand out, you know, what's the point? I mean, why don't you just serve God and do it the way that works and if you come up with something better, if there's something that, oh, this is a little weak, I'm going to strengthen this or I'm going to do a little better, great, but don't just be different for the sake of being different. Okay. What else? Don't kick a dead horse when you're out soul winning. Now I'm all for people being thorough, okay? I'm thorough when I go soul winning. What does it mean to be thorough? It means that you cover all the points and you make sure that the person you're talking to understands all the points. Now there are people out there, not at our church, that I haven't really seen this at our church ever. If anything, I've seen people go overboard in the other direction of being too thorough, quote unquote, but I've been to other churches where people are not thorough, okay? And if you've been soul winning at other churches, you've seen this kind of one, two, three, repeat after me where it's just a slipshod, blast through a couple verses, all right, let's pray, A, B, C, repeat after me, one, two, you know, and it's just you're blasting through it and the person doesn't really get anything or change what they believe or anything. Obviously we don't do that. We've never done that. We don't believe in that, okay? But what I often see in churches of our stripe is people going overboard in the other direction where they just beat a dead horse because they're so afraid of not being thorough that they go too far in the other direction and they beat a dead horse. Listen to me, longer is not always better. Oh, your gospel presentation took 10 minutes, well mine took 20. That means I did twice as well and I was twice as thorough as you were. No, that's not necessarily true. On an easy door where the person is just kind of ripe on the harvest and it's just easy, I can get somebody saved in 10 minutes and you say, ah, I can't believe you get somebody saved in 10 minutes, you know, you're not being thorough. You know, I had a guy one time say to me, a fellow pastor, he said, oh, I saw your basic soul winning demonstration video and he said when I first saw it, I saw it was 10 minutes and I said, oh, this is one of those one, two, three, repeat after me. But then he said I watched the video and I couldn't think of anything that you left out. So I realized that it was thorough. That's what he told me. He said it was thorough because you didn't leave anything out. So here's the thing, being thorough means you're not leaving out anything necessary and you're making sure that that person understands. So look, if it's an easy door, if it's a receptive person that's just ready to hear the gospel and catches on quick, it can take 10 minutes, friend. And you know what? You can go out and criticize me and say, oh, Pastor Anderson is only spending 10 minutes. Well, you know what? Why would I spend 20 minutes if I can do a better job in 10 minutes than somebody else could do in 20 minutes because they're beating a dead horse? In fact, here's why 10 minutes is better, because of the fact that you're less likely to get interrupted, you're less likely to lose the person's interest, lose their attention. Why would I beat a dead horse? Now look, if the person is not as receptive, not as smart, then it takes longer. I mean, you know, I won somebody the Lord a couple weeks ago that just wasn't that smart. Really nice person, really receptive to the gospel, but just not the sharpest tool in the shed. And so it took me like a half hour just to get through my basic, and it wasn't because there were any objections or any hangups. There were no hangups. It just took 30 minutes because I had to explain everything repeatedly and give lots of illustrations because of the fact that this woman just wasn't really that smart, okay? So yeah, I mean, I've given to the gospel to people who had Down syndrome, where it took 45 minutes or an hour to explain the gospel. I've given the gospel to people who were, say, a dyed in the wool Mormon or a dyed in the wool Catholic, where they have all this baggage of false doctrine, where I've spent literally an hour or two hours with somebody going over this stuff and kind of dismantling all this false doctrine they believe. You know, I rode around with a guy for my job one time in the fire alarm business. I rode around with this Pentecostal guy for like seven or eight hours, just going from location to location, testing fire suppression systems with this guy, and it was just a lot of driving, and I mean, I was preaching the gospel for like seven hours, and then he finally got saved. And he said, my Baptist in-laws are going to be real happy, he said, because they've been trying to convert me to this doctrine for years, and I'm thinking, praise the Lord, I could be an answer to prayer to his in-laws because he was a Pentecostal. He had false doctrine about tongues and losing your salvation. So yeah, sometimes it becomes a marathon with people where you end up talking to them and you need to, but look, being thorough does not mean kicking a dead horse and just going on and on and on for no reason. Look, these are the basic points of the gospel. Number one, we've all sinned. Number two, we all deserve to go to hell. Number three, Jesus loves us. He died for us. He was buried. He rose again. He was our sacrifice. He's God in the flesh. You know, just the basic, who is Jesus, our Savior. Okay, number four, salvation through believing on Jesus. It's not through our works. It's not through our deeds. It's not through being good. It's not through giving up our sins. It's through faith in Jesus only, right? Not by our works. And then the final point I would say is really critical, is that once you're saved, you're always saved. You can never lose your salvation. You'll never leave us or forsake us. We have eternal life. Okay, so here's the thing. I don't spend five minutes or seven minutes or eight minutes telling someone that they're a sinner because 99% of people already know that. How often do you really run into somebody that says, I'm not a sinner. I don't sin. You already have people at hello on that point. They get it instantly. That's why I show them Romans 3.23 and I'm done. Hey, we've all sinned, right? Oh yeah, of course. Next point. I'm not just going to park it there and well, let's go through each of the 10 commandments just to make sure that you really know how many times you've sinned. Let me just show you sins you've never even thought about or heard of. I just show them we've all sinned and they say, of course. Okay, time to move on. Next point. There's beating a dead horse and there's being thorough and they're very different, okay? Number two, I show them that we all deserve to go to hell. Now this is something that most people don't believe out of the gate. Some do, some don't. I take them to primarily on this point, Revelation 21.8 because it lists a whole bunch of sins and everybody has done something on that list, especially when it says all liars and I usually just say to the people, hey, I know I've lied before. Have you ever lied? Of course. Well, where does the Bible say that all liars are going? To hell. So if we got what we deserved, we'd all go to hell. So I show them, this is the order that I show the verse. I go Romans 3 23, 6 23, wages of sin is death, Revelation 20, 14 and 15 and then I show them Revelation 21.8. So I spend a few minutes on the fact that the punishment is hell, we all deserve it and then I say, but God loves us. If God loves us, do you think God wants us to go to hell? Of course not. But was he just kidding when he said this? No. How can we be saved? And then I go into the whole thing of Jesus died for us, Romans 5 8. Okay, I explain the whole story of Jesus, the Gospel. I explain that it's only by faith, by going to verses like Acts 16 31 and John 3 16. Now if I show somebody Acts 16 31, I've already shown that we're all condemned, we all deserve it. I show somebody Acts 16 31 and John 3 16 and they just right away see, yeah, it's just by believing in Christ. What must I do to be saved? Believe and they just get that right away and it's obvious that they get it. Next point, they got it. And then I move on to the eternal security point and I spend, well how much time? As much as is necessary. Not less time than is necessary and not more time than is necessary. And obviously if you're going to err to one side or the other, it's better to err on the side of being too thorough. Obviously if you have to choose between being a little too shallow and a little too thorough, it's better to go a little overboard and be a little too thorough, okay? So don't get up and say, oh Pastor Anderson's promoting shallow soul winning. You know, the people who come at us with that garbage are usually people who don't even go soul winning. Why don't you come soul winning with me and tell me what I'm leaving out? Why don't you go soul winning with me and tell me who I'm not being thorough with? Because like I said, I'll slow down and take 20, 30, 40 minutes if needed but if they're getting it, I move on. I don't beat a dead horse. So my minimum on the point of that it's by faith alone, my minimum, the least that I would show anyone, I always show them Acts 16 30 and 31 and John 3 16. I like John 3 16 because everybody's heard it before so it resonates with people. Oh, that's what that's saying. But if I don't get the feeling that that point has fully clicked with them, then I'll show them John 3 18, 3 36. It's right there. It's on the same page, 3 18, 3 36, flip them over to 5 24 in the book of John, 6 40, 6 37, 10 28, you know, 11 25 and 26 if they need it, I'll support it with more. But as soon as they get it, we move on to the point about eternal security. My primary point on eternal security, the believer is about the illustration about the gift in Romans 6 23. And I also use the illustration about a father and a son from John 1 12 where if, you know, if your child disobeys, you're going to discipline them, but you're not going to throw them out of the family. Right. And it's the same way with God. If God's our father and if we sin, he'll discipline us if we break his commandments, but he's not going to send us to hell once we've been saved. Right. So I use the gift illustration, how a gift it's free, you get to keep it. It's eternal. I explain what eternal means. I explain about the father and the child and I go through all that. And if I explain all that properly and thoroughly and the person is clearly with me and understanding and getting it, OK, then that's the end of the gospel presentation. So then what I do is just a quick wrap up where I say, OK, let me just ask you a couple questions. Do you believe that we've all sinned? Oh, yeah. Do you believe Jesus died for your sins? Yes. You believe he rose again? Yes. What do you believe personally that a person has to do to get into heaven? Sometimes at this point they'll say, be good, live a good life. That tells me everything I told them just went over their head and I just say, you know what? All right. Hey, it's been great talking to you. That's not, you know, it's not that. It's believe. All right. It's by faith alone. But hey, you know, come visit our church sometime. If it just completely just went over their head, right. OK. I'm done here. You know, be friendly. At least I planted a seed. But if they say, yeah, it's just it's believing. It's just faith. And then I say, you think there's anything you could ever do to lose your salvation? Is there any way to screw this up? Nope. Once you're saved, it's a done deal. Well, once I've confirmed all that with them, now I have confidence. This person understood the gospel. And then I pray with that person and I help them call upon the Lord as their savior. OK. And that's the end of the story there. So here are some points about and I realize I'm blasting through this, but it's for sake of time. Here's, you know, we got the three and a half hour DVD. You know, go download the other 10 sermons on this or better yet, show up at a soul winning time and get your butt out there and learn how to do this the right way. But go to Romans chapter 10, if you would, Romans chapter number 10. OK. Do's and don'ts. OK. How about this one? Don't use bizarre or extreme illustrations about losing your salvation. This is stuff I've seen that I don't, I see this and I think, you know, this is a bad soul winning method. OK. Don't use bizarre or extreme situations. Now when I'm explaining eternal security, my goal is to get across the point that you don't lose your salvation by sinning. Why? Because Jesus paid for all of our sins. Jesus died for all our sins, not just the little sins. He died for the big sins. And I tell the person, that would include murder, adultery, suicide, fornication. These big sins are paid for. You know, you can't lose your salvation. OK. And when I give an illustration about that, like I'll say, you know, for example, what if I were to go out and, you know, and I'll even acknowledge this is an extreme. I say to them, hey, let's get crazy and say I actually went out and murdered someone. I don't just say to them, yeah, you just murder people and you go to heaven. Would you like to pray with me? You know, because then you sound like a crazy person. Is that your goal? Is your goal to just sound crazy or to actually win that person over to the truth of the gospel? Right. OK. So what I say is, I say, you know what, let's get, let's say after I believe in Christ, I go out and do something really bad. Let's just get crazy and say I actually murdered someone. Well, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to be punished for that in this life. And I use the illustration about a parent disciplining their child. God's going to discipline me. And I tell them, hey, I could go to prison or worse. God's going to make sure I get caught. God's going to make sure I'm punished. If I, or sometimes instead of murder, I'll use adultery. Hey, let's say I went out tonight and committed adultery. God's going to punish me on this earth. I could get a disease. I could lose my job. I could lose my family. But I'm not going to go to hell because I've already been saved because I have eternal life. OK. That's a good way to do it. That's the do. Here's the don't. OK. What if I came back and murdered your whole family? Would I be going to heaven or hell? I've heard it. What if I murdered your family? Would I still be going to heaven? Just these kind of crazy extremes. What if I just went out on a killing spree? What if I'm just raping and murdering and pillaging? You know. Am I still going to heaven? I mean, you sound like a crazy person. OK. Obviously, we believe that there's nothing you could do to lose your salvation. But you don't have to just list the most radical, craziest, wildest scenarios just to make really sure that they know that there's nothing you could do to lose it. I mean, I could go out and cut people up. I mean, just was like, what? Good stinking night. It's enough to just say, hey, even if you committed a huge sin like murder, you know, there's nothing that could separate us from the love of God. There's nothing we could do to lose our salvation. Don't just go off on these weird, crazy stuff. That doesn't help. That's hindering. OK. Don't. OK. So don't use weird, extreme illustrations. OK. Here's another one. Don't go off on weird tangents that have nothing to do with the gospel. You know, again, when Brother Jimenez and I were comparing notes, he said that there had been people, and you know, we weren't naming names. We were just talking about we'd seen stuff. OK. Just because you want to know, like, what do we need to cover from the pulpit, you know. He saw people who part of their salvation presentation at every door was to just go verse by verse through Romans 1 and expound the reprobate doctrine at every door as part of the gospel. It's like, what in the world? Don't get off on these irrelevant tangents and say, oh, I'm real thorough. I spent 30 minutes. Yeah, because you spent 20 minutes talking about reprobates. You spent 20 minutes talking about all these advanced doctrine that has nothing to do with getting saved. Now, are there times when you need to turn to Romans 1? Sure. They bring it up, and they say, well, you mean to tell me that all these pervert pedophiles, they just believe in, you know, Jeffrey Dahmer's in heaven. Then you might need to show them, no, they're not, and here's why, and go to Romans 1. And I've shown people Romans 1, and then they got saved. Do you think I'm just bringing that up at every door? I mean, look, if they take you down a rabbit trail, first of all, if the rabbit trail is not relevant, you don't go down it. You avoid foolish questions. Now, that's a legitimate concern if somebody's really hung up saying, hey, don't tell me Jeffrey Dahmer's in heaven. That could be relevant, and then sometimes it pays to, you know, to go down that road and help them with that hang up. So if it's a hang up that has to do with the gospel, okay, go down that road. If it's a question about the JFK assassination, the moon landing, Area 51, you know, let's talk about that later. Let's talk about 9-11 a little later, okay? You know, let's stay on the gospel. Okay, so don't go off on weird tangents. Don't bring up strange issues unless they take you down that road and it actually has something to do with being saved. You know, for example, another thing that I've seen people do is asking people trick questions. Trick questions when you're out soul winning. Ask straightforward basic questions. Don't just try to spin people around and I'm going to be real thorough. So I'm going to get real tricky just to make sure they're, you know, like, well, I mean, if you committed a really bad sin, I mean, you wouldn't go to heaven then, would you? And they're like, um, no. Yes, you would. I got you. Look, it's out there. I've seen it. It's out there in this church. Yes. And look, the majority of people don't do this kind of stuff, but there are people in this church who do stuff like that from time to time or when they first started, they did stuff like that. I'm not saying they're still doing it. Don't use trick questions like, oh, I just really want to be sure. So I'm going to come up with the most crazy violent scenario and I'm going to ask the question backwards just to trick them and see if I can trip them up. See if I can catch them making a mistake to show that they don't really understand. Look, what in the world? That doesn't make any sense, folks. Don't ask trick questions. You're trying to make it easy. You're not trying to confuse people, bringing in confusion or bringing up strange hypotheticals and strange scenarios. And look, here's another thing that I see a lot and look, I'm not mad at you. I'm not trying to, I don't want to discourage anybody because I'm bringing up trying to hurt anybody's feelings. I'm just telling you where I stand on these things that I don't think that these are good methods at all or what I do think is a good method. But look, I don't, I don't think that it makes any sense to be bringing up at every door. Well, this strange hypothetical that most people never bring up and which does more to confuse people than anything of, well, what if you stop believing? Okay. Okay. Now a lot of people go down that road of, well, look, even if you stop believing, you're still going to have, now look, first of all, let me just tell you where I sit. I don't believe that it's possible for a safe person to stop believing in Jesus because when you get saved, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you and the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're the children of God. He guides us into all truth. Now I do believe that everybody who is saved has doubt enter in at one point or another. We don't have perfect faith. We have doubts, but I don't believe it's possible for someone to stop believing. There's two kinds of people in this world, according to John 3 18, there's those who believe on the son of God and there's those who have not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. So I personally don't believe that it's possible to stop believing, but hypothetically, if you could stop believing, of course you would still be saved because you can't lose your salvation for any reason because it's eternal life. And every once in a while I'll have somebody bring that up when I'm out sowing, but it's not coming up at every door, maybe one out of 15 doors or one out of 20 doors. Somebody might say, Hey, well what if you stop believing? And here's what I say when they bring it up, I say, well personally, I don't think it's possible for a person to stop believing once they believe in Christ because the Holy Spirit lives inside them. But hypothetically, even if they stop believing or doubted, they would still be saved. And I use the example of a child because I've already talked about the parent child thing. I say to them, what if my son came to me and said, dad, I'm starting to doubt that you're really my dad. Of course that'd be an extremely inappropriate and offensive thing to say, but what if he said, dad, I don't believe that you're my dad. I'm doubting that you're my dad. Would I stop being his dad because he doubted? No. Is that going to remove my DNA from his body by him doubting? Or what if he just says, I've come to the conclusion that you're not my real father. Well, is that going to remove my DNA from his body? No. Well, when you got saved, God's DNA is inside of you. You are regenerated. You are born again. You are a child of God. And just as much as our DNA from our physical father is a part of us, it's literally entwined with our mother's DNA inside of us in every cell of our body. My dad's DNA is there in every cell of my body. That's why they could just swab my cheek and do a test down at Walgreens, figure out if my dad's really my dad by swabbing the inside of my cheek. Why? Because every cell in my body has that fit. Well guess what? Spiritually every cell in your spirit and every cell in your soul has God's DNA and you going out and committing a sin or you doubting or whatever is not going to change that. Nothing can change that. You're saved. You're sealed. You're secure. It's done. But you don't need to take people down this hypothetical that's probably not even possible. Now look, am I 100% sure on that? No. I'm telling you that I believe that once a person's saved that they're never going to stop believing. You say, well maybe somebody could stop believing. Well maybe so. I don't think so. But maybe so. So why do I need to bring up this rare hypothetical that might not even be true? You say, well we just need to make sure that people understand. That's confusing because you just finished explaining to people over and over again that the thing that saves you is believing and now you're talking about people not believing but still going to heaven. You see how that could confuse people when they're not even the one who brought up this strange hypothetical? That's why I would say don't do it. You say, well, you know, okay, you know what, you do what you want to do. You want to beat a dead horse. You want to ask tricky questions. You want to spend 45 minutes spinning this person's head with just all the deep doctrines of being a reprobate and everything. Go ahead. But you know what? I've been soul winning for 18 years and I've taught hundreds, yay, thousands of people how to go soul winning and they're doing it and it's effective and it works. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Let's not reinvent the wheel here folks and go overboard. You know, I'm not saying that I'm the best soul winner in the world. I'm not saying that my soul winning presentation or that my methods are perfect, but I will tell you one thing for sure, the method that I teach works. So you know, take some advice from the pastor of the church, okay, that's been doing this for a long time and has taught a lot of people and they've taught people and they've taught people. Okay, I got to hurry up because I'm out of time here. You know, yeah, be thorough, but don't beat a dead horse, okay? Now go to Proverbs chapter 6. Here's one of the do's. Or did I have you go to Romans 10? Okay, we're going to have to skip that for the sake of time. I was just going to emphasize with Romans 10, do pray with people and lead them in prayer. And listen to me, here's the policy of our church. Don't come to church saying, hey, I had two people saved, unless you led them in prayer. If you have a goofball soul winning method that doesn't involve leading people in prayer, whatever, but don't come to me and tell me, hey, I had two people. I don't want to count that. And that's a whole other sermon and I've already preached that sermon multiple times. I don't have time to go into that tonight, we're going to skip that tonight. But do lead people in prayer. Do help them call upon the name of the Lord. Romans 10 is crystal clear, verses 8 through 17. You have to have a blindfold on to not see that calling upon the name of the Lord is tied in with salvation and, you know, I'm not going to beat a dead horse, amen? You know, Romans 10, 8 through 17, I've preached it many times and I'll preach it again. But look at Proverbs 6.23. Here's a do for soul winning. Do correct people that do bad soul winning, okay? If you're out soul winning with someone and I'm not saying if they just do it a little different or a little bit wrong or a little bit off, don't pick people apart. Don't be nitpicky with people. But if you're out soul winning with somebody and they do something seriously wrong out soul winning, you should correct that person. You should gently and kindly tell that person, hey, I think here this would have been a better way to handle that. Don't just say, well, I didn't want to say anything as they're just a rude jerk at every door, as they're just, you know, going into strange bizarre illustrations, as they're just, you know, or skipping, they're skipping eternal security and just, hey, let's pray. Yeah, it's believe in Jesus, right? All right, let's pray. And they're not even teaching eternal security. They're spending five minutes and they're ready to pray with people and they didn't cover the main points. They didn't make, you know, yeah, okay. You need to step in and say something gently, obviously after you leave that door, you know, say to that person, Hey, you know, you really need to be covering internal security, right? You're you know, you, you left out some important information there or, Hey, you know, you were kind of rude to that guy. You know, he's just probably try to be a little friendlier. Now what does the Bible say? Proverbs six 23, we're going to blast through six verses in Proverbs. Look at six 23 for the commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Reproofs are when you tell people that they're wrong. Reproofs of instructions are the way of life. Chapter 10 verse 17. He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction, but he that refuseth reproof earth. Go to chapter 15 while you're turning to chapter 15, I'll read you chapter 12 verse one who so loveth instruction loveth knowledge, but he that hateth reproof is brutish. Now brutish means stupid. He's saying if you hate people telling you that you're wrong, you're stupid, you're brutish. Look at chapter 15 verse 10. Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way and he that hateth reproof shall die. Verse 31, the ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. Verse 32, he that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul, but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding. Here's what that means. If you're out-souling and someone gives you advice or corrects you, be humble and take the hey, thanks for the tip. You know what? That's a good point. I appreciate that. Now if somebody gives you reproof and you feel that they're wrong and you're right, you could just kindly say, you know what, I think that the way I'm doing it is right. I'm going to stick with the way I'm doing it. You can be friendly. You know what? Don't wear your feelings on your sleeve. Be thick-skinned enough to tell somebody that they're wrong and if they don't take your advice, you don't freak out. Well, Pastor Anderson said that if I reprove you, you better do it. First of all, if somebody tries to gently correct you, don't get mad at them. If you try to correct somebody and they don't take the correction, don't get mad. Just chill out. Just be able to communicate. Have some communication skills where you can talk without anybody panicking and freaking out. Right? Reproofs are an important part of our lives where people give us correction and it should be done gently, okay? But if you see people, and again, not because they didn't cross a T or dot an I, but if you see people using bad soul-winning methods, correct them. Correct them. If they just blow you off and keep on persisting, then come tell me. You know, you say, well, should I come tell you? Yes, you should come tell. If there are people that are just habitually soul-winning and they're doing it wrong, you should come tell me because then I can either, A, preach about it in a sermon and then nobody has to get embarrassed or anything, but at least I can get the message across to people, you know, of how they can improve or fix problems, or B, I might go to that person and talk to them about it. But you know what? We don't want this kind of stuff just spreading, especially if it's really bad doctrine or really bad methods. We don't want it just spreading and infecting a whole bunch of people. You know, we'd rather get it corrected. And again, I'm not talking about people who are just doing it a little different. Everybody's got their own style. Everybody's gospel presentation's a little different and they use a few different verses. I don't expect everybody to be just like me. There are lots of people in this church that use different verses than me and I go, so I think they're doing a great job. Not saying to just be a robot or a clone, but I am saying that you need to do it right. You need to cover the main points. And if people are not covering key points and people are using dumb methods, you know, somebody needs to say something about it. That's what I'm saying. Let me know about it. You know, I don't like to just always be the last person to know about serious problems in the church. Okay, don't badger people. Don't be rude. Again, I'm out of time. Don't badger people. Don't be rude. Be friendly, okay? Don't count people that are doubtful. If people are real shaky and you pray with them, don't count that person. They still might go to heaven, hopefully, but don't count them. Try to keep the number accurate of the people that you feel actually understood and got saved and prayed and got it. And you know, and don't get emotional if people reject the gospel. If people tell you no, don't get all mad and upset. Just shake off the dust and go to the next door. Now in the closing moments, I just want to cover one last point, okay, about, you know, not badgering people, okay? When I get to the end of the soul-winning plan, okay, and this person has told me the wrong answer when I got to the door. I got to the door and they gave me all the wrong answers. Oh yeah, it's by works, or oh yeah, you can lose it, or oh yeah, you have to live a good life, or whatever. Or they were Catholic or whatever. You know, at the end of my soul-winning presentation, I needed, I want to deal with that, right? But I don't want to be a rude jerk and badger people, okay? So here's how I deal with that. And I've been, I've done this method hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times and it always works great. This is a method that works. I get to the end and here's what I say to the person that told me the wrong answer at the beginning. I gave them the whole gospel. I went through the whole plan of salvation. They answered all the questions right. I'm ready to lead that person in prayer. Sometimes I'll just say something like this. Now when I got here, you said that it was by living, or no, no, no, I'm sorry. Back up. When I got here, because you want to be gentle. When I got here, you said you weren't sure if you were going to heaven. And here's why. Because you're probably thinking, I've done good, I've done bad, you know. Every time I say that to people, the people nod and say, yeah, you're right. Every time. Virtually 100% of the time, I say to people, when they said they weren't sure at the beginning, I say, hey, when I got here, you know, you said you weren't sure you were going to heaven. It's because you were probably thinking, I've done good, I've done bad. Every time I say that, they say, yeah, you're right. And then I say, but now you see that it's all by faith. It's all by believing in Christ. It's not based on how good you are. Yeah. Okay. Well, let me just lead you in prayer real quick. I just want to pray with you before I go and I want to help you tell God that that's what you believe and just get it settled with God and just make sure that you're saved right now by just asking Jesus to save you. And then it's friendly, it's nice, they do it, but here's the wrong way to do it. Well, when I got here, you said you didn't know. I've seen that a lot. No? And then the person kind of, you put them defensive, like, well, no, I mean, you know, it's like, no, no, I, when I got here, you said it was all works. I mean, you were completely wrong. You're totally wrong when I got here. Just badgering them, just making them look stupid. You know, it's more friendly to just say, hey, here's probably what you were thinking, right? And then they're like, yeah, that's what I was thinking virtually every time. Okay. That's a more gentle, better way. But people have this idea that they need to just really drill into that person that before I got here, you were on your way to hell, buddy, and if you would have died yesterday, you would have split hell wide open, buddy. It's a good thing I came along and showed you this. Here's the thing, you don't, that's not a necessary point to make to just, to just go into, well, you were going to hell yesterday and, you know, what, what is the point? What does that accomplish? See, why am I telling them that they're a sinner? Because they need to know that to be saved. Why am I telling them about hell? Because they need to understand that, to understand that they even need to be saved. Okay. Why am I telling them about the death, burial, and resurrection? That's what saves. That's the power of the gospel. Why am I telling them it's by faith? Because that's what they need to know. Why am I telling them they can't lose it? Because they need to believe the record that God gave us eternal life and trust by faith. Okay. But what is the point of badgering the person about the fact that they weren't saved yesterday or getting them to understand? Look, you say, well, they have to understand that to be saved. Oh, really? Why? We had a guy that came to our church that was a key member of our church. He was a zealous, soul winning, great member of our church. When I first met this guy, I gave him the gospel and when I asked him the questions, he gave me the wrong answer. Not kind of wrong. He gave me a completely wrong answer. I went through the gospel with him and he did not get saved on the spot. He was not sure about what I preached to him. He was raising an eyebrow. Not quite sure. Then he came and visited our church. Somebody else gave him the gospel at our church. He didn't get saved right away but after being at our church a couple services, he ended up getting saved and then he was sure on it and he prayed and, you know, got saved. Then we baptized him. Okay. And he was a zealous, great church member. Well months later, maybe even a year later, this guy said to me, he said, you know what? I actually think I got saved about two months before I came to Faithful Word Baptist because I started going to this other Baptist church and they went through it with me and I prayed. Actually now I think that's when I got saved. I said to this guy, well no, because when I talked to you, you gave me all the wrong answers and even when I explained the gospel to you, you didn't even receive it right then and there. You had to hear it a few more times. He said, yeah, but I think I was just a little confused. I still believe that I got saved a few months before. Now look, I know that that's not true. The guy got saved the third time he heard it at our church. But here's the thing, does it matter? Does it really matter whether the guy got saved here or two months before? Now look, I know that he didn't get saved until he was here. He thinks he might have got saved about a month or two before that. Either way, he got baptized after he was for sure saved. So it's not any question about his baptism. So do you think I just badgered the guy and said, whoa buddy, you were on your way to hell before I came along, buddy. What's the point? It doesn't matter. Look, you know how I know that you were born physically because you're here. I'm looking at you. That's how I know you're physically born. I don't need to know your birthday. You might not even know your birthday. Now everybody in America knows their birthday. Some people from Africa don't know their birthday. Some people from Asia don't know their birthday. Does that mean that they weren't born? Who cares when you think you got saved or they think they got saved? All that matters is that you believe on Christ and that you're fully trusting Christ. That's the evidence that you're saved. It doesn't really matter when that happened. Don't badger people. You don't need to make a big point about that. So again, I know I covered a lot of points tonight. I know I hit you with a lot of information. It's just kind of a dos and don'ts. Get out there and learn it. Listen to some other sermons where I was a little more methodical, but I'm just going to leave you with a three-point outline for this sermon, okay? Three points. If you say, well, you gave me too much information. All right, here's three things for you to take home with you, okay? Three points. Ready? Number one, be friendly. Number two, don't badger people, and number three, keep it simple, stupid, all right? That's it. There's the three points. Get away and get those three points. That'll solve about 90% of the problems that I see out soul winning. Be friendly. Don't badger people, and keep it simple. Don't feel like you need to reinvent the wheel and get all crazy. Keep it simple. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for giving us the most important job in the world, which is to preach the gospel to the world, Lord. Thank you for giving us that ministry, Lord, and making us ambassadors of Jesus Christ, Lord. Help us to be a good ambassador, to do our best, and to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, Lord. Help us to take the time to study our Bibles, to memorize verses, to listen to preaching about this subject, and most importantly, to get out in the field and do it, Lord, and do the best job that we possibly can, Lord. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.