(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, well we're there in Acts chapter number nine, and we've been going through a series, this is our fourth week in a series called Tongue Tied, and this is our last sermon in this series, and we've been learning about our words. And the reason we called the series Tongue Tied is not because we've been helping anybody with a speech impediment or anything like that, it's because we've been learning how to tie our tongues. Usually when we talk about your tongue being tied, we're talking about not being able to get the words out. In this series, we've been talking about getting too many words out, and learning to control our words, and learning to control our tongue. Now for the first three weeks of this series, we've kind of been dealing with our words in a negative way. We've been learning about how to control our words, how to communicate properly within our God-given relationships. If you remember the first sermon in the series, we talked about a bit for your mouth, and we talked about the bit of asking yourself three questions before the words come out of your mouth. Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Hopefully you'll remember that. Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? In the second sermon, we talked about being swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Last week we talked about gossip, and we talked about these two questions to identify gossip. Is it my place, and is it my problem? Is it my place to step into this situation, and is it my problem? Does it affect me or those whom I have authority over? Now in this sermon, what we're going to do is we're going to shift gears a little bit, and we're going to talk about a very positive thing that you can do with your mouth. So we've talked about negative things and not doing negative things, but there's something very positive that you can do with your mouth, and that is the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the message of salvation. This is something that God desires for us to do. He desires for us to open our mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, and I'd like to show you several things here from this passage in Acts chapter 9, and if you're taking notes, maybe you can write this down, but I'd like to begin with the process of reaching people. I want you to notice the process. As you study the book of Acts, and as you read the book of Acts, you might have caught this before, or maybe you haven't caught this, and I'd like to show it to you, but there is a process in regards to reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I want you to notice that in the book of Acts, you find, and the reason we're going to focus on the book of Acts, it's not the only place we're going to be in this morning, but we're going to focus on Acts, is because this is after the local New Testament church has been launched. This is under the New Testament covenant, which is what we live under. We are in the local New Testament church. You are sitting in a local New Testament church, and I want you to notice that God does not use supernatural ways to preach the gospel. It just doesn't happen. You're there in Acts chapter 9. Look at verse 1. We have the famous story of Saul being, and his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, and if you remember, Saul would later on be renamed Paul and become the great apostle, evangelist, missionary who wrote most of the New Testament. Acts chapter 9, look at verse 1, the Bible says this, and Saul, yet breathing out threatenings, and slaughter, against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogue, that if he found any of this way, talking about believers, if he found any believers, anyone that were going in the way of Christ, following Christ, believing in Christ, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. So we see Saul here, he's a Pharisee, and he's received permission to basically go hunt Christians, to go find disciples of Christ, and to bring them bound, to arrest them, and bring them to Jerusalem. Verse 3. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, he's on the road towards Damascus, and suddenly there shines round about him a light from heaven, and he, talking about Saul, fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? So we have Saul, on his way to Damascus, going to persecute the believers and the followers of Christ, anyone that he found in this way, referring to the way of Christ, and then the Bible tells us here, that as he's on this road, this light, suddenly there shines round about him a light from heaven, and he hears a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now I want you to notice the question that Saul asked in verse 5. He says this, the Bible says this, and he said, who art thou, Lord? Because he just got, you know, this glorious, heavenly vision of light, he hears this voice, and the voice is saying, you're persecuting me, and Saul is curious, who is the me that I am persecuting? Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, notice, I am Jesus. I want you to notice that Jesus, and this is after the ascension, this is Jesus appearing after he's already ascended up to heaven, it is a supernatural appearance of Jesus, similar to how he appeared to John on the isle of Patmos. He said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest, it is hard for thee to kick against the prick. So we see Jesus appears to Saul on the road to Damascus, notice verse 6, and he, referring to Saul, trembling and astonished, right? The word astonished means surprised or amazed. He's been persecuting Jesus, and now Jesus appears to him in power and glory and says, why are you persecuting me, Saul? Why are you coming against me, Saul? And he's amazed by that, he's surprised by that. Notice, and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, notice what he says, what wilt thou have me to do? Now isn't that a great question? I mean, that's what we want our converts to ask. When we confront people with the gospel and we confront them with Jesus, we want them to ask the question, what will thou have me to do? That seems like the logical question that Saul would ask. He's on the road to Damascus and Jesus meets him on the road to Damascus, he falls to the earth, the Bible says, he's confronted by Jesus, he's asked, why are you persecuting me? He wants to know who's the me that I'm persecuting, who art thou, Lord? He says, I am Jesus, and then he asks the question, what wilt thou have me to do? Now that question makes sense, that's a logical question. What doesn't make sense, by human standards, is the answer that the Lord Jesus Christ gives, because notice what he says. And the Lord, we're in the middle of verse six, said, believe on me and you will be saved. Is that what he said? Now is that what you think he'd say? I mean, Jesus just took the time, he's already ascended up to heaven, he's sitting on the right hand of the father, he takes the time to come down back to earth in his glorified body to stop Saul on the road to Damascus to get his attention, get Saul exactly where he wants him. Saul is asking, who art thou? He says, I am Jesus. Saul realizes, wow, I've been wrong, I've been persecuting the wrong guy, and I've been persecuting the wrong followers, I've been playing for the wrong team. So he asks a good question, he says, what must I do? He said, what would thou have me to do? He said, what do you want me to do? And you and I would think that at this point, Jesus would say, well, Romans 3, 10 says, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. And Romans 3, 23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But I want you to notice that this is not what Jesus says. Notice what the Bible says in verse six, and the Lord said unto him, arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. Here we have a man asking, what would you have me to do? And he says, I'm not going to tell you, go to Damascus, and someone's going to come tell you. And you know, you've got to ask this question, and if you were there, you might stop Jesus and say, Lord, I know you're God in the flesh, I know you're the creator of all the universe, and you're wise, your wisdom is as far past as any human wisdom, and I just have a question with all due respect, Jesus, why don't you preach the gospel to Saul? Why didn't you tell him what he needed to do? He asked you, what would thou have me to do? And you said, go to Damascus, and somebody else will tell you. And here's what's interesting, is that this is not a unique experience in the book of Acts, because in the book of Acts, you'll notice that there are times when supernatural events happen, where people are confronted with a supernatural messenger, and that messenger does not, does not preach the gospel. Let me give you another example. Go to the book of, you're there in Acts, go to chapter 10, you're in chapter 9, just flip one page over to chapter 10. In Acts chapter 10, we have the famous story of Cornelius, remember Cornelius? Notice what the Bible says in Acts chapter 10 and verse 1, Acts chapter 10 and verse 1, notice what the Bible says. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, this was a gentile, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always. I want you to know this was a good man by human standards, this was a religious man, but if you read the passage, and if you read the chapter, it'll become very clear that this man was not saved, he was not saved. Now he was searching for the truth, he was seeking the truth, he was doing his best, he was trying to be a good person, he feared God, and he gave much alms, I mean he was a generous man, he was given to charity and trying to help people out financially, and he prayed to God always, verse 3, he saw in a vision. So we have Cornelius, this unsaved, good man, who's seeking the truth, and the Bible says he saw in a vision, evidently about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God, a supernatural messenger comes to him, an angel of God, coming into him and saying unto him, Cornelius. So get the picture, Cornelius is praying, unsaved man, but he's seeking the truth, he's trying to live right and do right, and he wants to seek God, and then God actually sends an angel to talk to him, and he says to him, Cornelius, look at verse 4, and when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, what is it Lord? And he, the angel, said unto him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Is that what he said? Now isn't that what you and I think he would say? But the angel said unto him, thy prayers in thine alms are come up for a memorial before God, and now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter, he lodgeth with one Simon a tanner whose house is by the seaside, and he, notice, and he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. And again, if you and I were there, we might stop for a second and say, listen, angel of God, with all due respect, I'm sure you know what you're doing, and I'm sure you're doing exactly what God wants you to do, but with all due respect, I just have a question. This guy is not saved, and this guy is interested, and this guy is asking you, he's asking you, what is it Lord, what do you, he wants to know, what should I do? When you don't preach the gospel to him, you tell him to go find this guy named Peter. And with all due respect, you have to ask this question, why did the angel not preach the gospel? And here's what's interesting, in both stories, in both stories, you have a supernatural messenger show up, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, or an angel of God, and neither preach the gospel to these individuals, but both directed them to someone who would. Go back to Acts chapter nine, let's go back to our Saul story. Notice what happens in verse 10, Acts chapter nine and verse 10, and there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, that's our soul winner. If you don't mind writing your Bible, you can just draw a little arrow next to the name Ananias and just write the word soul winner, soul winner. And to him said the Lord in a vision, so remember, Jesus appears to Saul, says go to Damascus, someone's going to come talk to you, then Jesus appears to Ananias and he said, behold, I am here Lord, verse 11, and the Lord said unto him, arise and go. I like how he says go. When I say that word go, that reminds me of go ye therefore, right? Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. He says, arise and go into the street which is called straight and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayed. And Jesus comes to Ananias in a vision, he said, I want you to go to the street which is called straight and I want you to inquire in the house, there's a guy called Saul, maybe you've heard of him. I want you to go find Saul and Ananias is thinking to himself, yeah, I've heard of him. I know who he is, verse 12. And he has seen in a vision a man, notice, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him that he might receive his sight. Now we could go on and look at the story but I'd like you to flip over to chapter 22 of the book of Acts. You're there in Acts 9, just flip over to chapter 22 because I want you to notice Jesus goes and there's a conversation between Ananias and Jesus, and Ananias says, are you sure about this? Because he's been persecuting people just like me. In fact, I heard that he has permission to bound people just like me and Jesus has to encourage him. He says, just go, it'll be fine, don't worry about it. When we fast forward to Acts 22, we have now the Apostle Paul, the seasoned missionary, the seasoned evangelist, giving his salvation testimony and I want you to notice what he says happened when he got saved. Acts 22, verse 12, notice what the Bible says. This is Paul giving his testimony. He says, and one Ananias, a devout man, notice, a man, just a man, according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, came unto me and stood and said unto me, Brother Saul received thy sight and the same hour I looked upon him. I want you to notice when Saul gives his salvation testimony, he says, yes, I was on the road to Damascus and yes, Jesus appeared to me and yes, I fell to the ground and yes, I asked the question, who art thou, Lord? And yes, he answered, I am Jesus and yes, I asked the question, what wilt thou have me to do? He told me to go to Damascus and then this guy, Ananias, shows up, notice verse 14, and he said, the God of our fathers has chosen thee that thou shouldest know his will and see that just one and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth, for thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard and now, notice verse 16, because today people will have this wrong belief that Paul or Saul got saved on the road to Damascus, but Saul did not get saved on the road to Damascus, Saul got shaken up on the road to Damascus, Jesus got the attention of Saul on the road to Damascus, but Jesus did not preach the gospel to Saul on the road to Damascus, Jesus told Saul to go to Damascus. Three days later, a guy named Ananias shows up who Jesus sent, verse 16, and notice what happens in verse 16. This is Saul giving his sense to me, Paul giving his sense to me, he says, and now, why tarryest thou, arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins? Now some people look at that verse and say, oh so, is baptism required for washing away your sins? No, notice he says, arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. How do you wash away your sins? By calling on the name of the Lord. Should everyone who calls on the name of the Lord be baptized? Absolutely. But how do you get saved? When you by faith call on the name of the Lord, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's what the Bible says. And here, you say, what are we reading? We are reading the salvation testimony of a man named Saul. How did Saul get saved? You say, oh Paul was a unique figure, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus and he fell on the ground and he saw a vision and he heard a voice. And all of that is unique, but you know what's not unique to Saul's conversion testimony? It's not unique how he got saved because Saul got saved the same way everyone has ever gotten saved by a soul winner, opening their mouth and preaching the gospel to them. And what's interesting is that Jesus appears, I'm not going to preach the gospel to you, but I'll send someone who will. I'm not going to preach the gospel to you, but I'll send someone who will. Notice same things happens with our story in Acts 10. Cornelius, go back there. Acts 10. Remember the angel appears, he says, Lord, what do you want me to do? He says, go find a guy named Peter. And we got to ask the question, angel, are you dropping the ball here? I mean, I got to believe that the angels have some sort of equivalent to a soul winning seminar or something, right? Are you a silent partner? I mean, what's the deal? You're not going to give the gospel. And he says, no, no, I'm not going to give a gospel to you, but I'll tell you who will, a guy named Peter, go find him. Notice our story, Acts 10, verse 30. And Cornelius said, and Cornelius said, so we're fast forwarding the story a little bit. Cornelius sends his guys. He finds Peter. He brings them. There's a whole vision Peter has to have because Peter has some whacked out thoughts about the Gentiles and God has to deal with that. We're fast forwarding. Peter shows up to the house of Cornelius, verse 30, and Cornelius said, he's talking to Peter, four days ago I was fasting until this hour and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house and behold, a man, talking about an angel of God, stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius, thy prayers heard and thine arms are had in remembrance in the sight of God, send therefore to Joppa and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter. He is lodged in the house of one Simon, a tanner by the seaside, who when he cometh shall speak unto thee. Notice he says, the angel says, I'm not going to preach the gospel to you, but go find Peter and he shall speak unto thee, verse 33. Immediately therefore I said to thee. And thou has well done that thou art come, now therefore are we all here present before God and to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. Then notice, notice the consistency in scripture, verse 34. Then Peter opened his mouth and said, and if you keep reading, you'll find that he preaches to him the gospel, the resurrection, the good news of salvation. And what's the result? Verse 48. Go down to verse 47. Go down to Acts 47. Notice the result. Notice what Peter says. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized? Now why are they getting baptized? They get baptized because they got saved. Because the first thing you ought to do after you get saved is get baptized. That these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we. Look, they got saved. They got the Holy Ghost, verse 48, and he commanded them to be baptized. And by the way, baptism is a command, not an option. God commands you. And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, then prayed they, him, to tarry certain days. And here's what I want you to notice. In the Bible, God does not use supernatural means to get anybody saved. In fact, when God feels the need to bring in a supernatural messenger, that supernatural messenger never preaches the gospel. Keep your place there in Acts. We're going to come back to it. Go to 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. So keep your place in Acts. Go from Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians. That supernatural messenger never preaches the gospel. And there's a reason for that. You say, what's the reason? The reason is that there is a process. There is a process for reaching people. And the process is this. Saved people reach unsaved people. Believers reach unbelievers. In the Bible, you never find some supernatural angel showing up and giving the gospel to anybody. In fact, if somebody says to you, oh, I got saved with Jesus. He appeared in my room and that's how I got saved. Or I got saved, an angel appeared in my room. They're lying to you. First of all, the next time anybody sees Jesus is when we all see Jesus coming in clouds with power and great glory. But let's just say that an angel, if an angel, see if somebody said to me, an angel showed up in my room and that's how I got saved. I would say, so what did they say? Did they tell you to go to Verity Baptist Church? There you'll find the soul winner. What did they say? Did they tell you go on veritybaptist.com and watch the Bible's Way to Heaven 14-minute video? What did they say? Because here's what they didn't do. They didn't preach the gospel to you because God does not use supernatural ways to preach the gospel. God has a program. God has a process. And that process is that saved people reach unsaved people. Lovers reach unbelievers. So we see the process for reaching people. But let's talk about the program. Why is the process there? It's there because there's a program that has been set. There is a system that has been put in place for preaching the gospel. What is it? Look at it in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Now we can go to many passages, but let's just go to 2 Corinthians, this is a good passage for you to understand. 2 Corinthians 5, 18. Notice what the Bible says. 2 Corinthians 5, 18. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. We were separated from God in our trespasses and sins. That's what the Bible says. And we have been reconciled unto God through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice what it says. And have given to us saved people. The ministry of reconciliation. Here's what he's saying. Jesus came to this earth to reconcile man with God, and then Jesus gave to us that same ministry to reconcile unregenerate man, unsaved man, with God. He says he's given to us the ministry of reconciliation, verse 19, to which, because remember, Jesus came to this earth and he said, I'm here to seek and to save that which was lost. Then he turns around and says to us, as my Father has sent me, so send I you. So send I you to do what? To seek and to save that which was lost. Notice verse 19. To when that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and, don't miss this, has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Verse 20. So then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray. Don't miss these words. Sometimes we read these passages and we kind of just go over them and we don't really look at the words. He says, we pray you in Christ's stead be he reconciled to God. Here's what he says. He says, God gave us the ministry of reconciliation, and when we go out and we preach the gospel, it's as we are doing it in the place of Christ. That's why we're ambassadors. We are representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are there in his place, and he says, look, we pray you in Christ's stead be he reconciled to God. You say, well, why do we have to go in the place of God? Because he's given us the ministry of reconciliation, and God is so committed to his system that even when Jesus appears to Saul, he says, I'm not going to give you the gospel. Go down in eyes. He'll give you the gospel. I've given to him the ministry of reconciliation. The angel of God appears to Cornelius and says, I'm not going to give you the gospel. Go to Peter. I've given to him the ministry of reconciliation. God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. The process is that believers get unbelievers saved, saved people get unsaved people saved. People reach people with the gospel of Christ. The program is that he's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Now you're there in 2 Corinthians 5. Go to the book of Ephesians. You're in 2 Corinthians. The next book is Galatians. Then you've got Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 6. So how does this tie into a tongue-tied series? Here's how it ties in. Because God will not use supernatural means to preach the gospel, because God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation, the apostle Paul said this in Ephesians 6 and verse 18. He said, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, he's talking about how he's been praying for the church at Ephesus and he's praying for all these believers. He says, and for me. So I want you to understand the context. He said, I've been praying for you, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. And he said, I've been praying for you guys, now let me put in my prayer request. So he's filling out his communication card. He's writing in his prayer request for the ones that I prayer to see. He says, if the church of Ephesus is going to pray for me, Paul says, here's what I would like you to pray. He says, and for me, that utterance, you see the word utterance there? What utterance means, a spoken word, a statement, a vocal sound. When you open your mouth and sound comes out. He says, he says, here's what I'd like you to pray, and for me, that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. You say, why is he calling it the mystery of the gospel? And we don't have time to develop this, we've talked about it recently, so I'm not going to do it. It's called the mystery of the gospel because the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God. The unregenerate man cannot understand spiritual things. They cannot understand the word of God. They cannot understand. They need someone with the spirit of God to open their mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. And here's what I'm telling you. The only way that anyone ever gets saved is when a saved person opens their mouth and preaches the gospel to them. Say, well, I just thought that maybe I would live my life in such a way that people would just see the fact that I'm different and then they would get saved that way. Well, here's the problem with that. And look, you got to live a good life. You got to live a righteous life. I'm not saying live like the devil and go preach the gospel. The best thing is to live right and preach the gospel, but let me tell you something. Say, well, I'm just going to live a good life and then hopefully people will see that I'm different and they'll come get the gospel to me. Here's the problem with that method. The problem with that method is that that would work for a Muslim. That would work for a Mormon. That would work for a Catholic. Can you really say that Mormons, I mean, look, the religion of Mormons is false religion and I'm not preaching a Mormon, I'm using it as an example. It's a false religion, but you know what? You talk to Mormons, they're pretty good people. I mean, they live pretty good lives. They live pretty clean lives. The religion of Islam is a false religion, but there's many Muslims who live a very good life. And you know that no one's really paying that much attention to you, right? I mean, I know that we're naturally arrogant, but you know, I mean, what do you think? You're going to be out mowing your lawn and your neighbor's going to just walk up and say, you know what? I've been observing you mow your lawn. Not just today, but for years. Every month you go out there and you do it with such the spirit of Christ. I mean, I've just been watching you mow your lawn and you've done it with such dignity and such love and Christianity. What must I do to be saved? I mean, how many times has anybody actually walked up to you and said, what must I do to be saved? When that happened in the Bible, it was connected to a supernatural event. The truth is that no one's really watching you that hard. No one's really watching you that closely. And what the Bible says is that if anyone gets saved, they're going to get saved the same way everyone's ever gotten saved, by a soul winner opening their mouth boldly and making known the mystery of the gospel. And here's the thing. Over the last several weeks, go back to Acts, Acts chapter 8, over the last several weeks we've been learning about all the mistakes we make with our mouth. We've been learning about all the sins that we do with our mouth. We've been learning about all the stupid things that come out of our mouth. But as New Testament believers, we have an opportunity to do one great thing with our mouth, and it's to preach the gospel. It's to open our mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. So we talked about the process of reaching people. What is it? Save people reach unsafe people. Believers reach unbelievers. People reach people with the gospel. We talked about the program. He's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors in Christ's stead. We must go and confront them, open our mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. So let's just real quickly talk about the practice of reaching people. Let's talk about the practice. I want to give you six practical things that you can do. Because look, whether you like it or not, whether you understand it or not, whether you want to admit it or not, you've been given the ministry of reconciliation. God has given you the ministry of reconciliation and he expects you to open your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. So look, if I'm going to do something, I want to be effective at it. If I'm going to do something, I want to be good at it. So let me just give you six practical things, six practical things you can do to be effective with your mouth and preaching the gospel. Number one, go to Acts chapter eight, Acts chapter eight. Six practical things. Number one, learn to give the gospel. Learn to give the gospel. People say, oh, well, I don't know how to give. I can't go soul winning. I don't know how to give the gospel. You know what? Shame on you. You don't know how to give the gospel. Are you saved? I mean, did you get saved? He says that we are to be witnesses. You know what a witness is? Is someone who gives a testimony of something that they've seen or experienced. If you're saved, then you ought to be able to tell somebody how you got saved at least. If you're saved, and it's not Jesus appeared to me or an angel walked into my room at night. No, look, if you came to the place one day where you realized that you were a sinner and your sinner condemned you to hell, but Jesus loved you and he died on the cross for your sins and you called on him in faith to save you, realizing that there's nothing inside of you that could have saved you. There's no good work you could have done. There's not any good thing you could have done. There's not enough good deeds you could have done to save you. And you asked him to save you. If you've done that, is it really that hard to explain that to somebody else? I'm not trying to beat you up. I'm just telling you. Learn how to give the gospel. Are you there in Acts 8? Look at verse 30. Acts chapter 8 and verse 30, notice what the Bible says. And Philip, that's our soul winner. You want to draw a little line next to the name Philip there and write soul winner. And Philip ran hither to him and heard him. Read the prophet Isaiah's. In this story, and we're not going to read the whole thing. In this story, this man, the Ethiopian eunuch is reading the book of Isaiah and he's reading Isaiah 53. If you're familiar with Isaiah 53, it is one of the most clear prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ. And look, if there was anyone who was going to get saved by reading the Bible, it was going to be this guy. Because this guy was interested. He was seeking for the truth and he was reading the right scripture. Notice verse 30. And Philip ran hither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah's and said, understand as thou wilt thou read us? If anybody was going to get saved by reading the Bible, it was going to be this guy. One problem. The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God. He wasn't saved. He can't understand it. Which is why Philip says, understand as thou wilt thou read us? Verse 31, and he, the sinner, in verse 30, you draw a little line to Philip and you put the soul winner. And in verse 31, you can draw a little line to the he there and write the sinner. And he said, notice what he says, how can I accept some man should guide me? You know that there are people all over this community, all over the city, all over the state, all over this country that would like to be saved? That would like, they're searching, they're seeking. Some of you got saved because you were searching and seeking. You didn't know what you were looking for. You just knew you needed something. You're just typing in random stuff about Jesus and the Bible into Google and YouTube and came across a video that preached the gospel to you. And he said, how can I accept some man should guide me? And he decided, Philip, that he would come up and sit with him. So skip down to verse 35. Notice the consistency in scripture. Then Philip opened his mouth. Notice, it doesn't say, and then Philip sat there and just lived a good Christian life and then, and the guy saw how good of a life he lived and he came to church. No, no, no, Philip opened his mouth. I mean, isn't the Bible consistent? Every time we see somebody getting saved, we see a soul winner opening their mouth and preaching the gospel to an unbeliever. Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. And the story ends with a guy getting baptized. Why? Because he got saved. You say, how can I be effective in my witness? Well, number one, learn to give the gospel. You say, how can I do that? A couple of ways. Number one, you can go through our soul wing seminar. Look, on our website, we've got a seminar. I can't think of the number right now. I think it's 10. There's 10 lessons. Every lesson is like 10 to 18 minutes long. And we go through and just systematically go through and show you how to present the gospel from, I mean, from start to finish. What we do, how we do it, why we do it. You can watch videos, you can click and get the PDF, fill in the blanks, and follow along and fill in the blanks. Look, here's what I'm telling you. We've done everything in our power to make things available and resources to help you. Take the time. Learn how to do it. I didn't know you guys had a soul winning seminar. Okay, talk to us. We'll show you where it's at. It's on our website, readybaptist.com. Soul winning training, click on it. Watch all the videos. Click the PDFs. Take the time. Go through the lessons. Learn how to give a gospel. I don't know about that. Okay, how about this? Just go soul winning and be a silent partner. Go soul winning and we will partner you with someone who knows what they're doing. You don't have to do anything. You just sit there and watch and learn. And what you'll learn is that when you go with a multitude of people, that everybody does it a little different. And you'll see some things you like that people do. You might see some things you don't like that other people do. But every time you go out, you learn something. And you learn and learn and learn and learn and learn. And look, don't let anybody pressure you into talking. If you're not comfortable talking, you just want to be a silent partner, we are okay with you being a silent partner. And we win when you come, you say, well, I'm not doing anything. I'm not doing anything being a silent partner. Here's the thing. Just this week, just on Thursday this week, we had a soul winning time and we had two groups of three go out. If two silent partners would have showed up, we could have had two more groups. We could have knocked more doors. We could have reached more people. Here's what I'm telling you is, when you show up, even you say, well, I'm not saying anything. Yeah, but you give us a partner to send another group out. And you can sit there and learn and listen and watch. And you watch for a little while. And you watch for a little while. And you watch for a little while. And you watch somebody say something and say, I like that. You watch somebody say something and say, I don't really like that. And you learn and learn and learn and learn and learn. And here's what eventually happens. And it might take a few weeks. It might take a few months. It might take a few years. But eventually, here's what happens. You go soul winning someone and you say, I can do what he's doing. I've already heard that question. I know how to answer that question. And you start to begin to build the confidence to go soul winning. But look, just start by being a silent partner. But here's the point. Learn to give the gospel. Here's another application. Take advantage of divine appointments. Take advantage of divine appointments. You say, what's a divine appointment? Here's a divine appointment. And you are out just in your regular day. And you come across people that are interested in spiritual things. In Acts chapter 8, the story we're looking at, notice how it begins, verse 26. And the angel Lord spake unto Philip, saying, arise, go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia in eunuch of great authority, under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship. I want you to, this guy's just riding in his chariot in Jerusalem. He's not saved, but he's there to worship. He's seeking the truth. Verse 28, was returning and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah as the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot. And here's what I believe. I believe that if you prepare, there's a prepared place for a prepared man. There's a prepared place for a prepared woman. When you prepare and you sit there and you learn how to give the gospel and you highlight the verses in your Bible and you learn how to explain them and you write notes for yourself and you study and you think and you pray, when you prepare yourself, you know what God will do? God will direct you through your life to people who are interested and willing to hear the gospel. You have to be spiritual enough to identify those. From time to time, God will lead you to people and you'll have those opportunities for a divine appointment and take advantage, be looking for those. Now look, those are not our only soul winning program because that's not the soul winning program found in scripture. Those are bonus. Those are frosting on the cake. The major soul winning program is to go out on purpose to reach people with the gospel. If you want to be effective in your testimony, you ought to learn to give the gospel, you ought to take advantage of divine appointments, but number three, you ought to be faithful to weekly soul winning times. Be faithful to weekly soul winning times. Go to Mark chapter six. If you start at the beginning of the New Testament, you have Matthew, then you have the book of Mark, Mark chapter six. We have soul winning times at Verity Baptist Church where we as a body of believers go out on purpose and we preach the gospel. We try to separate into groups of two and two and go from house to house. You say, oh, did you get that from the Jehovah's Witnesses? No, we got that from the word of God. You get that from the Mormons? No, we got that from the Bible. You know what Satan always does? He tries to take what God does and he tries to warp it, he tries to change it so that Christians will be discouraged to do it because they'll say, well, I don't want to do it because the Mormons do it. I don't want to do it because the Jehovah's Witnesses do it. Well, let me show you that this is a very scriptural thing. Mark chapter six, verse seven. Look, aren't we New Testament believers? Aren't we followers of Christ? Aren't we supposed to be doing what Christ did? Well, what did Christ do? He gave us the ministry of reconciliation, right? He said, as my father sent me, so said I you. So what is it exactly that Jesus did? Well, look at it. Mark chapter six, verse seven. And he called unto him the twelve and began to send them forth by two and two and gave them power over unclean spirits. So he starts with his apostles. Now he gives them power because they're apostles. I don't have time to go into that. I preached about the gifts of the Spirit last Sunday night. You can check out that sermon if you'd like. But he starts with twelve and he sends them out two by two. When we first started Verity Baptist Church for a long time, it was just me and my wife out in Zona for a long time. And we were just praying, Lord, give us some soul owners, give us some soul owners. And my first goal, my first stated goal for soul owners was I wanted twelve soul owners. I wanted to be like Jesus. He had twelve and he sent them out two by two. And you know, eventually the Lord gave us twelve. Look at Luke chapter ten. You say, what was your goal after you had twelve soul owners? Well, after we had twelve soul owners, my next goal was to have seventy. You say, why? Well, because Jesus, that's what he had. Look at Luke chapter ten and verse one. He starts off with twelve, right? But then later down the road, Luke chapter ten, you're there in Mark, just the next book over Luke, Luke chapter ten, verse one. After these things, the Lord appointed other seventy also and sent them two and two. Notice he sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whether himself would come. Now his soul went in a group. He went from twelve to seventy, but notice he's always sending them out two and two, two by two, in groups of two. Ah, the Mormons made that up. No, Jesus made it up. The Mormons stole it from him. He said, well, if I go soul winning, then people are going to think I'm a Mormon. You know what? Then shame on all of us. I'm sick and tired of going out two by two, known as something that Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses do. What's a God that in the city of Sacramento, when someone knocks on your door and they look like they got a Bible in their hand and they look like they're religious, the person on the other side won't say, oh, it's the Mormons, won't say, ah, it's the Jehovah's Witnesses. What's a God? Verity Baptist Church again. That Verity Baptist Church, hey, we should have that title. We should have that name. But Jesus sent them out two by two. He had seventy. Say, Pastor, now you guys have more than seventy soul winners. What's your goal now? Well, in Acts 2, they had 120. That's my next goal. 120. Say, what are you going to do once you have 120? I'm not sure. 144, I guess. I'm not really sure. You know? But we're just going to grow and grow. We just want a soul winning army. Notice they went out two by two. But I want you to notice, not only that, not only did they go two by two, but they went from house to house. Go to Acts chapter five. You learn in Luke, John, Acts, Acts chapter five. Acts chapter five, look at verse 42. Acts 5, 42. Acts chapter five in verse 42 says this, and daily in the temple, notice, and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. And daily in the temple and in every house. Go to Acts chapter 20 and verse 20. Acts chapter 20 and verse 20. Just flip a few pages over. Acts 20, 20. Sometimes this is called the Acts 20, 20 vision. Acts chapter 20 and verse 20, notice what it says, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house. You said, what did they do? They went out two by two, house to house. They went two by two, house to house. They went two by two, house to house. Why do we go at Bay Area Baptist Church, why do 80 to 90, sometimes 100 of our church people go out into this community and go out two by two and house to house? Because that's what Jesus had to do. He's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. And don't tell me it doesn't work. I don't want you to tell me it doesn't work. Oh, really? It doesn't work? Because you know what I've noticed around voting season around here, I have a whole lot of politicians knocking on my door asking for my vote. Now, look, politicians have a lot of money. They've done a lot of research, they don't waste their time doing things that don't work. They realize that they can send flyers, they can put mailers, they can do radio ads, they can do billboards, and I'm for doing all those things. But they have found that there is power and knocking on someone's door and communicating with them eye to eyeball to eyeball for their message. And look, if they'll do it for their corruptible crime, we should do it for an incorruptible crime. We should be willing to get out face to face in the community, not be rude, not be mean, but confront them with the gospel. Open our mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. And look, here's how you get better at soul winning. You become a faithful soul winner to a soul winning time. Let me just tell you the major mistake. I've been doing this for a long time. I've been doing this for over eight years now, and we've led a church with a lot of soul winners in it, and I praise the Lord for it and I thank God for it. Let me tell you the major problem that happens with new soul winners is that they are, and this is natural, burdened for their loved ones. So they want to go and give the gospel to their loved ones. The problem is they go and give the gospel to their loved ones and they fumble it all up because they don't know what they're doing. And they're kind of mean and they're rude and they're rough around the edges and they don't know what verses to go to and they mess up. And then their family doesn't want to hear it. You say, well, what should I do? You know what I'd do? I'd go work on some guy I don't know. I'd go fix my learning curve on some guy I've never met before. I'd go preach the gospel to as many strangers as possible, and then once I know how to give the gospel, then I'm going to go to my aunt that I love. And I'm not saying you ought to wait to go. I'm just telling you, hey, do both. Go wait for those divide appointments when you've got an opportunity, when the coworker is going through something tough and they're right and they're open to hear the gospel and you take the opportunity. Hey, be open to that. But also make sure you have a time when you go out every week to preach the gospel in the community in a systematic fashion, two by two, from house to house. Look, that's why we got maps, that's why we got maps covering the whole city. Why? Reach the whole city with the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I'm giving you some ways to be effective in the practice of soul winning. Number one, learn to give the gospel. Go through our soul winning seminar if you haven't done it, and maybe it's been a while since you've gone through it. Go through it again. It won't take you that long. Go out soul winning and be a silent partner and listen to other people give the gospel. Number two, take advantage of the divide appointments. When people are coming to you with their problems, with their issues, coworkers, neighbors, family and friends, take the opportunity to preach the gospel. But also be faithful to a soul winning time. When you are partnered with someone to go out into the community two by two from house to house. Number four, take advantage of special holidays. Take advantage of special holidays. Now let me just explain something to you, and let me explain something to you that I have found that most soul winners have the wrong mentality when it comes to this. Because they hear preachers like me preach about soul winning, and look, I'm all for soul winning. If there's one thing I'm for, it's soul winning. If there's some area that I'd like to be imbalanced in, now I'd like to be balanced. I want to be a balanced preacher. But if I'm going to be imbalanced in any area, I'm going to be imbalanced in soul winning. One of the reasons I force myself to preach through books of the Bible and to series through series is because I know that if I just get up every Sunday and decide on what I want to preach, some topical sermon, 90% of them are going to be soul winning sermons. Because I love soul winning. I'm for soul winning. I'm about soul winning. But listen, our goal at Verity Baptist Church is not just soul winning. Say, what? Matthew 28, you don't have to turn there, let me just read it for you, you should be familiar with it. Go to Acts 2. Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20, we have the great commission of the Lord Jesus Christ. The great commission is the work he gave to the church. This is what he said, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. I want you to notice that the great commission is not soul winning. Soul winning is the first part of the great commission. He says, teach all nations, referring to go ye and preach the gospel to every creature. That's soul winning. But that's not it. Number two, baptizing them. Number three, teaching them to observe all things. You know what that is? That's discipleship. Look, it's not enough to get them saved. Let's get them baptized and let's get them growing in the Lord. Let's get them walking with Christ. And here's what I'm trying to tell you, and I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, but I do want to make something clear. When you realize that the goal is not soul winning, and you realize that the goal is the great commission, when you realize that the goal is not just to get somebody saved, but it's to get somebody saved, and to get that individual baptized, and to get that individual growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. When you realize that the purpose, the goal is the great commission, it will change how you go soul winning. It'll change how you go soul winning. You say, how? Here's how. Here's how I know. People who are focused on the great commission, people who are focused on getting people saved and then getting them in church and then getting them baptized and then developing a relationship with them, encouraging them along the way, writing them notes, praying for them, getting them in church, helping them to observe all things whatsoever they have commanded. Those people, you know what, they act different when they're soul winning. One thing they do, I've noticed, they remember people's names. Most soul winners, you know what they do? Get somebody saved. Come back to the soul winner, high five, praise the Lord, got somebody saved, got somebody, oh great, let's pray for them. What was their name? I don't know. Did they go to church? I'm not sure. Look, I'm not downplaying soul winning. Soul winning is needed. And if all we do is get people saved and praise the Lord for it, at least we'll see them in heaven. But that's not our only goal. Our goal is to get them saved and get them in church. That is the great commission. That is the goal, to get them baptized and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded. That's what Jesus said. That's the ministry of reconciliation. So you know what, yeah, let's get them saved, but let's get them in church. Let's get them saved, but let's get them baptized. Let's get them saved, but let's develop relationships with them. Let's love on them. Let's pray for them. Let's get them. We're going to start up our discipleship program here soon after Easter. Let's get them in that discipleship program. Let's help them grow and grace and knowledge of our own theory, because that's the goal. And look, if that's the goal, then you'll start looking at soul winning different. You know what you might do? You might take advantage of holidays. We have Easter coming up. Great holiday to take advantage of. Great holiday to take advantage of. I don't know. That sounds a little liberal. It's funny to me. Fundamental Baptists are so stupid. How stupid we are. It sounds a little liberal. Focus on a holiday. Well, here's the problem with that. Do you know that God focused on a holiday? Do you know that God developed an entire big day around a holiday? You know that God actually launched in a big way the local New Testament church on a holiday? Prove it to me. Go to Acts 2, look at verse 1. Acts chapter 2, verse 1. Acts chapter 2, verse 1. And when the day of Pentecost, that was a holiday, that was a special day. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Say, what was so special about the day of Pentecost? It was a day when all of these Jews migrated back into Jerusalem to be able to partake in the special day. And notice what it says in verse 5 as a result of this holiday. God could have launched the local New Testament church, and we understand it had already started, but he launched it for the first time in a big way. He could have chosen any day. He chose this day, the day of Pentecost. Why? Because at the day of Pentecost, he knew it was a holiday when there was going to be a lot of people in town and a lot of people having nothing to do. Look at verse 5. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout men, notice, out of every nation under heaven. They weren't just men out of every nation for no reason. They were there for the day of Pentecost. Now when this was noise abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, behold, are not all these which speak out in. And out here we, notice the emphasis, how here we, every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born. And look, he gives us a whole list of where they come from, Parthians, Medes, Elamites, as well as Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, and Postures, and Asia, and Phrygia, and Pamphylia, and Egypt, and in all parts of Libya, and Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews, proselytes, creeds, Arabians, notice the emphasis. We do hear them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God. And what's the result? What's the result? Look at verse 41, Acts 2, 41. Then they that gladly received his word, they got saved. But notice, that has never been the sole focus of the local New Testament church. Notice what it says. Then they that gladly received his word, they got saved. But notice, were baptized. And the same day, they were added unto them about 3,000 souls. It wasn't 3,000 souls that got saved, it's 3,000 souls that got baptized and added to the church. Because the great commission is to teach all nations to baptize them, and to teach them to observe all things. So you say, I've heard about the church, we focus on big days from time to time, absolutely. Because if there is a big day, that makes it a little easier for an unchurched person to come to church, for a new convert to come to church, then we want to take advantage of it. So we push Easter as a big day. We push Mother's Day as a big day. We push Christmas as a big day. We push our family and friend day, which is a day we just made up, but we push it. You say, why? Because we have found that sometimes there are some holidays where some people are going to be more willing to accept your invitation. And here's all I'm saying, if we focus on those days, the reason we've always had a big soul-winning push on the Saturday before Easter, here's why. Because here's what we know. You are more likely to speak to someone about the resurrection on the Saturday before Easter. You are more likely to get somebody saved on the Saturday before Easter. And you are more likely to have a visitor come to church that you got saved on the Saturday before Easter. So take advantage of the special holidays. And don't tell me it's liberal, God did it. Number five, pray that God will bless your soul-winning efforts. Pray that God will bless your soul-winning efforts. Go to Acts chapter one. Let me just talk real frankly to some of you. And again, I'm not mad at you, I'm just trying to help you out. And this is something that I hear, I've heard, I haven't even heard this recently, so I don't want any of you to think I'm talking directly to you, because honestly, I haven't heard this recently, but I hear this. And I've heard it for years now. And what often happens is sometimes we go through times where we don't get people saved, we go through those low times, through those dry spells. And sometimes people get discouraged and say, I haven't gotten anybody saved in a long time, I'm kind of discouraged, I'm thinking of quitting on soul-winning. But let me ask you, let me tell you something, let me just tell you something. In the Bible, they prayed for their soul-winning. In the Bible, they prayed for their converts. And here's the only question I have for you. Before you start complaining about how hard it is to preach at the hospital in Sacramento and California, let me just ask you this, how much time do you spend in prayer for soul-winning? I wish we would have a big day, like the book of Acts, like chapter two, like the day of Pentecost. Wouldn't that be amazing? Yeah, but you know, before you had the big day in chapter two, you had prayer in chapter one. Acts one, look at verse 13. And when they were come in, they went up into the upper room where both Peter and James and John and Andrew and Philip and Thomas and Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, Simon, Zelotes, Judas, the brother of James, verse 14, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. How much time do we pray, look, how much time do we actually pray for our soul-winners, for soul-winning? The Bible says ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, ye lust and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. And look, the Bible says that when we ask, we'll receive. And when we seek, we'll find, and when we knock, it shall be opened unto us. And here's all I'm telling you. Maybe we need to learn to spend some time in prayer before we go soul-winning. Maybe we need to learn to spend some time in prayer before the big day, spend some time in prayer that God will use the mega soul-winning marathon, that God will use the Easter service, that God will use a special holiday to bring converts to church, and not just to get them saved, but to help them grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. How much time do we pray? Let me speak to those of you who say you can't go soul-winning, and I realize there's some of you who cannot go soul-winning for physical reasons, your age, and I'm not mad at you, I'm trying to help you out. Say, I can't go soul-winning. Okay, can you pray? Pastor, I cannot go soul-winning for two hours on the soul-winning mega marathon, but here's what I bet you could do. I bet you could pray during the mega soul-winning marathon. I mean, think about what might happen if 80, 50, 60, 70, 80 soul-winners went out into this community on Saturday morning, the day before Easter, to preach the resurrection, and there was a group of people who said, I can't go soul-winning, but I'll pray for you while you go. I mean, what might happen if there was somebody on their knees praying, someone at their table praying, Lord, help the soul-winners, give them wisdom, give them the sermon, fill them with the Spirit, give them boldness, help them, Lord, to be able to lead them to the right place. What if someone was praying while we were out soul-winning? Here's what I'm telling you. We need to work hard, and we need to do the work, and I'm all for the work, and let's work, but let's involve God in this. Let's involve the Holy Spirit in this. Pray that God will bless your soul-winning efforts. Number six, let me give you the last one. Invest and invite your friends and family. Invest and invite into your friends, invest into your friends and invite your friends, invest into your family and invite your family, invest into those who are close to you and invite those who are close to you, invite them. Go to John chapter one, we're almost done, this is the last place I'll have you look at. I'm gonna have you look at this one place, I'm gonna say a couple things, and we'll finish up. You say, how can I be effective? Here's how you can be effective. Learn to give the gospel. Go to our soul-winning seminar, be a silent partner. Take advantage of divine appointments. When people are coming to you with their problems and issues, realize that God might be leading you to something you can give the gospel to. Be faithful to weekly soul-winning time. Take advantage of special holidays like Easter. Pray that God will bless your soul-winning efforts, and if you can't go soul-winning, pray that God will bless the soul-winning efforts of others. And then number six, invest into and invite your close friends and family. You know what's interesting about our church is that the best way to get people to come to this church is through our door knocking, especially on days like before Easter and Christmas and things like that, and then it's when we do things like family and friend day where we motivate and mobilize you to invite all your friends and family, or like Mother's Day when we get all the moms to guilt trip their kids and to come to church. Father's Day is not that big of a day around here because I guess nobody cares about dads. I don't know. But you know, there's power. There's power in inviting your friends and your family, and look, this is scriptural. Are you there in John 1? Look at verse 40. We're almost done. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew. Notice one of Jesus' disciples was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. Notice what Andrew does. Verse 41. Jesus findeth his own brother, Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah's which is being interpreted, the Christ, and he brought him to Jesus. Look, you know how Peter came to Jesus? His brother brought him. His brother brought him. And he brought him to Jesus. When Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonas, that shall be called Cephas, which is my interpretation of stone. Notice verse 43. The day following, so the next day, Jesus would go forth unto Galilee and find it Philip. Jesus finds a guy named Philip and sayeth unto him, Follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew, and Peter. Notice what Philip does. Verse 45. Philip findeth Nathaniel. How does Nathaniel become an apostle? His friend Philip invited him. Say, how did the 12 apostles become the 12 apostles? Brothers invited brothers. Friends invited friends. You know, have you ever thought about that? You ever thought about that? Now the names of the 12 apostles are these. The first Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother. Look, you've got friends, you've got family, you've got people you care about. Use these special days and say, hey, I want to invite you to Easter. Say, well, pastor, why do you say invest and invite? Here's why I say invest and invite. Because you ought to invite, but you ought to invest. Hey, I want to take you out to lunch. Really? Yeah, after our Easter service. I'd love to take you out for coffee. Really? Yeah, right before Easter service. And if you're cheap, I got coffee and donuts for you. Really? Yeah, at church for Easter. Here's what I'm telling you. There's power in your relationships. There's power in your connections. There's power in the people you love and you care about. So invite and invest into your friends and your love ones. Now here's what I'd like you to do, and I don't want to take too much time, but I'd like you to do this. If you have a bulletin, you should have a communication card in it. I'd like you to pull out the communication card. We're going to be done in like two minutes, I promise. I just want you to do this. And if you say, I already turned my communication card in, if you need a communication card, raise your hand for the David to come by and give you one. If you need a pen, he'll give you a pen as well. But here's what I want you to do. And I'm not trying to pressure you into anything, but I do want you to consider a few things. On the back of the communication card, we have a few things for you to fill out, and I'd like you to just consider filling out a few things and consider making some commitments for this week, because this is a big week. We're taking our Lord's Supper, we're having a major soloing marathon, and we're celebrating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'd like you to just take a moment. You might have already filled this out and turned it in to the offering. That's great. But if you didn't, I'd like you to consider filling it out. And as you walk out of the building this morning, as you go through the foyer, you'll see a little basket set up, and you can drop this into the basket. You can hand it to me after the service. You can hand it to any of the ushers after the service. But I'd like you to consider. It says, I would like to attend the mega soloing marathon in Sacramento on Saturday, April 20th. If so, how many? Here's what I'd like you to consider. If you have not decided to be here on Saturday, would you consider coming? I don't know what to do. We'll partner you with someone who does. I don't know what to say. You don't have to say anything. You can just be a silent partner. Now some of you, you've been trying to decide, I was thinking of going to San Jose, I was thinking of going to Fresno, I was thinking of going to Sacramento. Look, if you've already made your decision, you've got your hotels, whatever, that's fine. I get it. I'm not mad at you. Go for it. Have family time. Praise the Lord for it. I'm never going to be mad at you for going soloing. But if you've not decided yet, if you've not decided yet what I'm doing for this weekend, would you consider helping us here in Sacramento? Because it's not just a soloing marathon, it's Easter, and it's a great tool to reach people in this community and bring them into this church. And here's the thing, nothing against Fresno and nothing against San Jose, but the problem with Fresno and San Jose is there's no church there. Now we're going to try to change that, but there's no church there this Easter. So if you would help us, if you would help us, if you would come in and say, I wasn't planning on coming, would you consider coming, would you fill it out, would you turn it in so we can have breakfast for you, so we can know how many people to expect? There's another box. I will commit to pray every day this week for the Easter weekend. I'm not asking you to pray for an hour. I'm not even telling you how much to pray. I'm just asking you, would you commit to say, you know what, every day this week, every day this week. Some of you might take five minutes, some of you might take an hour, some of you might take 15 minutes or 20 minutes, but would you commit and say, every day this week I will pray, every day this week I will do my best to involve the Holy Spirit of God and to involve spiritual work, and I will pray, I will commit to pray every day this week for the soul winners, for the soul winning, for the resurrection Sunday, for the Easter sermon, for all those things. There's another box that says, I will pray about inviting a friend. Would you say, you know what, I'm going to pray that God will give me clarity, and I'm going to take my Easter invitations, and this week I'm going to pray about inviting. I'm going to pray about giving these Easter invitations out, and I'm going to pray about inviting a friend, a coworker, a neighbor, someone that I've developed a relationship, someone that I've developed a rapport with, someone that's not going to be shocked that I'm a Christian, someone that kind of knows me, and I'm going to say, hey, I'd love for you to come to Easter service, and we can have lunch afterwards, and get a coffee afterwards. We can hang out. What do you consider? What do you consider opening your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your Word. Thank you for the Bible, and thank you for these events that give us the opportunity to get excited about preaching the Gospel. Give us the opportunity to get excited. Sometimes soul winning becomes a duty, it becomes a thing we do every week, and sometimes we just need to freshen up a little bit and realize, hey, there's a big day coming up. There's a great opportunity coming up to preach the Gospel, and not only to preach the Gospel, but to get someone in church, to get them baptized, to get them connected. Lord, I pray that you would help us, pray you'd help us to pray, and to be ready for this weekend. I pray that you would bless to make a soul winning marathon. I pray you'd bless all the soul winners, anywhere and everywhere, not just in Sacramento. Lord, I pray that you would do a great work in Sacramento. You would help our soul winners to be burdened with getting people saved, but not just that, that we would get burdened with getting people in church and growing in grace. Lord, I pray that you would do a great work amongst us. In the matchless name of Christ, we pray, amen.