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

Father, we're going to gather here again another day to come to hear the words of your priest and pray for you and pray for all of us that you feel God is doing for all the spirit. And we pray and pray for all of us. People seem to have this attitude like, that's so brave, that's so extra credit, right? But it's actually not. It's biblical. We're commanded to do these things. If you're going to a place that's a local New Testament church, or at least if they're saying that, they should have a soul winning program. I mean, that's just part of the Bible. And we took a look at that and we completely destroyed that false idea that it's just extra. It's just something that only we do or only people of our sort do. Totally not true. And really when you study the subject out, there's a long history of people soul winning in this country. In fact, I was given a book by my pastor when I was in Japan several years ago. And it was by Dr. John R. Rice. And it was talking about soul winning. And I was just reading in there and he's telling stories from like a long time ago, you know? And I mean, this goes way back because a lot of people say, well, this is like a new phenomenon, a new thing, because maybe they grew up in church and never heard of it. Right? And for those people, of course it's new, but I can remember him talking in that book about, you know, getting on his knees after, you know, you lead somebody to the Lord and having them repeat the sinner's prayer. Obviously times have changed. It's not something I would do, but you could just tell that, you know, it goes obviously farther back than that. But it was just kind of interesting to read some of the old stories, you know, like back in the 40s, you know, and even earlier than that of people that went soul winning and how receptive it was. So it's not a new thing. It's just maybe new to this area, you know, maybe new to some people, but it's not like a new doctrine that we created. It's in the Bible. It's for us. And then last week we talked about soul warning, right? We talked about this attitude that can often creep into a church where it's like, okay, if we don't get a certain amount of numbers or if we're going through a rough period, we're in a rich neighborhood for week after week. We're not winning anybody. Right? That can often lead to discouragement. We talked about, you know, the fact that it doesn't matter anytime that you go out there and you're ready to preach the gospel. Hey, it's up to the community. It's not our fault. We are ready. We are willing and we are able to give the gospel. It's up to them whether or not they are going to receive it and get saved. And there's nothing we can do about it. But the fact is, we still win no matter what. We're still all winners. Now we're going to start today's sermon off in Ephesians 6, 15, which says, And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We're going to talk about what that means. Now the title of the sermon is Why We Are Preppers. Why We Are Preppers. And so if you were to surf this out on the Internet, you'd be like, oh, what's he talking about? Being in Idaho and prepping and, you know, all that stuff. I don't have a problem with that, but really, you know, we ought to focus more on being prepared with our gospel presentation and with our planning and with so many other things that go into soul winning. We're going to take a look at that. You know, Sunday night, I got a little interesting story here. I was taking Steven home and just right down there, I think it's Fairview. And I want to say Curtis. Right. Go up to the stoplight and hear this commotion. I look over to the right and there's like maybe eight guys, you know, one guy with a megaphone. And they have little signs. Jesus saves. And they're just kind of standing there. And I looked to my left and I was like, oh, oh, there's like eight trannies, queers, whatever you want to call them. And it blew my mind. They're all wearing masks, all look like they're injecting high levels of estrogen. I'm talking the dudes and the girls. And I'm not saying that to be mean. It's just it is what it is. It's what it looked like. And they all had black T-shirts on with very vulgar statements on them. Right. One said slut. Another one was like trans and queer and all this stuff. And they had little cardboard signs. You could tell they went back to Mommy real quick, grabbed their little soda cardboard boxes, tore them off and wrote a little message. So I couldn't see their signs. And thank God, I don't want to see them anyways. But, you know, as we're, you know, experiencing this and I'm thinking about this sermon, I'm like, how much preparation does it take to get a megaphone and actually yell at cars that are going by? Drive by, so anyway. But I mean, if you know anything about street preachers, they very rarely ever preach the real gospel. They're always, hey, you have to repent of your sins. And they're like a broken record. They just have a couple of sayings, a couple of verses. And they'll just start reciting the commandments and just started spewing that out at people. And it doesn't take a lot of preparation. Like I said, it's just the same thing. You don't really have to, you know, face adversity except for stuff like that. And, you know, I thought that I would just help these guys out. So as I stopped, I rolled down the window, and I looked over and I was like, hey, what are these faggots doing over here? You know? And those guys were like, megaphone stopped. And the guy looked at me and was like, what? I was like, I got this. I rolled down the left window. I told those queers, I was like, hey, look, you faggots, you just need to get out of Idaho is what you need to do. You just need to get out of here. Right? And they just stopped dancing, because they were all like doing this little soy boy sway thing, you know? And they all just stopped. I thought it was hilarious. And so for just a moment, you know, I was more prepared than all of them. Right? I had the truth. I had the right thing to say. I shut them both up, because none of them are being productive. They're both a waste of time is what they are. Okay? But with all that being said, like I said, it doesn't take a whole lot of preparation to go get signs and just do this. Right? There's a guy out here on Saturdays, what is it? Fairview and Cole, right? The mattress guy. Right? That guy gets hired by like every business on Fairview, because he's a good worker. He stands out there, whether it's 100 degrees or whether it's 10 degrees, and he's motivated with that sign. Look, that guy gets more work done, I bet you, anything than these street preachers do. Okay? You know, I mean, think about it. He's prepared mentally. He's prepared every single week to be out there. And he's got a route. You know, he does the mattress ranch, and then he does that Goodyear down there. He does play it against sports. He does all those businesses. But, you know, again, with all that being said, you know, we can all probably recognize some areas in our soul winning or just in our Christian life, to be honest with you, that need more preparation. I'm going to show you the value of that. So we're going to back up here to verse number 11. I want you to see what this says. Actually, look at verse number 10. Ephesians 6, look at verse number 10. It says this, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And he's going to give us the recipe on how to do this. And keep in mind when you're reading this, this is not optional. This is not something that you just, okay, great, I'll be strong. And just tell yourself, I'm strong. You know, I'm strong in the Lord. I'm strong in the Lord. No, there is a process to actually becoming strong in the might and in the power of God. And he's going to give us that recipe. And this is very important to understand. I want you to look at verse 11. He says this, Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. So what Paul is telling the Ephesians, what this is telling us to do is to be ready because the devil is going to come at you with his tricks. And you say, well, that's cool. I haven't gone soloing in a while. I don't have to worry about it. No, you're missing the point here. If you are saved, if you were born again, the devil is going to come for you or his minions will come for you. It's a fact. It's a guarantee. And so let me ask you a question. Who has the better chance at winning against the devil and his minions? The person who is prepared, who is in the Bible, who is soul winning, who has these things regularly flowing throughout their spirit, or the person who just throws caution to the wind and says, you know what? That's just not really for me. I don't really need to be that zealous towards God. I think you know the answer. I think it's pretty obvious here. Okay, so the thing to understand here is that his wiles, his tricks, they will come at you. And as you go soul winning and as you study more and you prepare more, you know what? It seems like the levels just keep getting harder, right? Then you have people coming at you with all kinds of crazy things. So don't ever think that you've arrived. Don't ever think, oh well, I'm prepared. I'm good to go. I've got the soul winning presentation down. You know, I'm getting people saved on a regular basis. Hey, if that's you, praise God. Thank God for that. However, don't ever neglect the fact that you still need to prepare because people will come at you with strange things. You never know when you're going to be sharing the gospel with somebody and somebody else comes in and they interrupt that and they've got one of those hardcore questions and that person that you're talking to all of a sudden stops and says, yeah, what about that? What about that? Right? You want to be able to answer that or you want to be a silent partner that has been preparing and has the right answer and the ability to deal with that. Look at verse number 12. It says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. And sometimes we just need to stop and read this and just kind of think about this, right? Just kind of mull this over in our minds and in our hearts. Because a lot of times, you know, and I see myself doing this, you know, somebody will just be kind of snap at me and I've had a bad day at work and I'm just like, oh, man, I just want to slap that person. You know, but that's wrong. That's not okay. I have to understand, you know, there's a spiritual battle going on out there and when you knock on people's doors, guess what? You are right in the middle of that battle, right? That is what this is saying here. And so we just need to understand that. I mean, think about it. How often do these, you know, spiritual wickedness in high places come out for us and try to throw us out of a complex or throw us out of a neighborhood, right? Who do you think motivated them to do that, right? Who do you think motivated them to do that? And that's exactly what Paul is teaching us here. The battle that we face is not like other battles. It's not physical. It is completely spiritual. Look at verse 13. He says, Wherefore, so for that reason, he says, Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. So no matter the outcome of your battle while you're soul winning or in your Christian life, right? You will have peace regardless of the outcome when you know that you've done all that you can do to actually be prepared, right? When you're preparing, you're studying, you take a couple of black eyes, you can just rest and say, okay, you know what? I'm going to learn from that. I'm going to improve from that and I'm going to make sure that it does not happen again. Look at verse number 14. It says, Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness. Now, keep your place there because we're going to kind of flip back and forth a little bit, but I want you to turn to Proverbs chapter number 30. Proverbs chapter number 30. I always think it's very interesting that Paul says to the Ephesians, he says, you know, make sure that you have on the breastplate of righteousness after telling us to have our loins girt about with truth. Well, how do we get righteousness? Well, according to Romans 4, right, it's imputed unto us from God. It is a gift that we receive from God when we're saved. What does that teach you about the next verse? Well, you can't have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace if you have no capability to produce righteousness. You know, if you are not saved, you cannot get someone else saved, right? And I'm not, you know, going to make this like a super battle where I just go out there and fight that doctrine, but it's so true, and I see it on literally every page of the Bible, if you're not saved, how are you going to get somebody else saved? How is an apple tree going to produce an orange tree? You know, it just doesn't make any sense. Things breed forth after their own kind. And so he's stating the obvious here. Hey, take that breastplate of righteousness and go forth, use the new man, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and produce some fruit. Okay, so what we're going to do is we're going to talk about verse 15. What does that really mean, you know, to have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace? Well, it just means to have your feet clothed. And we talk about this all the time, right? The reason why the verse includes your feet instead of your backside is because we are supposed to go into all the world and preach the gospel to the, you know, to the entire world, right? We are supposed to go with our feet to preach the gospel. And you say, well, what's preparation? Well, preparation is the action or process of making ready or being made ready for the use of something or consideration, right? And that's exactly what makes the difference between a successful soul winner and somebody who's not successful. It all boils down to preparation, okay? Do you think that God's going to use somebody who's just kind of taking this thing not so seriously but just kind of like, ah, just kind of, ah, just go a little bit here and there, you know, whatever, you know? And then all of a sudden that same person just gets an attitude like, well, you know, how come I'm not getting anybody saved? Well, the reason why is because you're not prepared. So why would God consider to use you mightily if you're not being serious, if you're not taking the time to actually study these things out and make sure that you are prepared? So you're there in Proverbs chapter number 30. So what we're going to do here is we're going to read from verse 24 to 28. And the reason why I'm going to have you read this is because it's going to give us some great insight on what it really means to be prepared. So look at verse number 24. It says this. There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise. Now, as I was reading this not too long ago, it really jumped out at me because first of all, our church, for example, is small. In fact, I would take any new IFB church, whether they've got 300 people or 400 people, that's small in comparison to a lot of other churches like say Treasure Valley that run a thousand people, right? So we need to realize that we are small in numbers, but that does not mean that we cannot be exceeding wise and have great impact and great victory out in the community, right? So look at verse number 25. And as we read 25 to 28, I just want you to kind of think about preparation as we read these verses. Look at verse 25. It says this. The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer. Verse 26, the conies are but a feeble folk, yet make their houses in the rocks. Verse 27, the locusts have no king, yet go they forth, all of them by bands. Verse 28, the spider taketh hold with her hands and is in kings' palaces. Now, keep your place there, but real quickly go to Proverbs chapter number six. Proverbs chapter number six. So I'm going to take verses 25 through 28 and basically make each one of those verses a point and show you how that can exceed, or I'm sorry, accelerate your soul learning and help you to prepare because this is very important here. It says that these things, these people, these feeble folk here are small, but yet they're exceeding wise. So they're not just wise. They're exceeding wise. What does the Bible say a soul winner is? It says a soul winner is wise, right? It says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. So we want to understand exactly what that means and how to keep being wise. And look, if there is a way that we could be exceeding wise like these feeble folk, then let's do it. Let's make sure we implement that in our own lives. So we're going to take a look at verse 25 where it says the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat and summer. So you're there in Proverbs six. Look at verse number six. There's some additional insight on what the Bible says about ants. It says this in verse number six, go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. I always find this very interesting here because if somebody struggles with being lazy, we all do from time to time. It's a part of life, but the Bible has a recipe here for the sluggard. If you know you're lazy or a sluggard, you know what? God's given you an easy task to start yourself off with so that you can go beyond that and turn yourself away from being a sluggard. And it's simply just to lay down out in the backyard, find a pile of ants and just watch them for a while. It's not that hard. In fact, it's kind of entertaining. You know, every time I see a bunch of ants coming through the ground, I always stop and I look at them, just kind of see what they're doing, you know? And it seems like they're highly organized. It seems like no matter how many times I have the pest guy come out, they always find a way to come right back. You know, the Bible's true. They really are exceeding wise. But he says, go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. Look at verse seven. Now, turn really quickly back to Ephesians chapter six. And so what do we see about the ants here? Well, we see they don't have somebody harping on them and telling them exactly what to do. And it says that they are prepared, that they understand, okay, it's harvest season. It's actually time to go out and work. This is the best time to do it. And so what they do is they go out and they work and they store food for the time of winter, right? When they cannot work. Kind of reminds me of that verse in John chapter number nine where Jesus said, you know, the night cometh in which no man can work, right? So what does that mean for us? Well, that means that we need to realize that our time here is short, it's precious, and it's valuable. And the harvest is right now, right? It's right now. Remember, I always say this. There's one thing you can't do in heaven, and that's go soul winning, right? But you can do that now, and you can be prepared now, and it is a wise thing, right? And I mean, look, we want to be smart like these ants, right? We don't want some little bug being smarter than us, so we need to remember that. So again, let's look at verse 15 again. You're there in Ephesians chapter six. It says this. It says, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. A lot of times when we read that, we just kind of harp on feet and then gospel, right? Take your feet, carry the gospel, and just go forth and preach gospel, and that's great. But what is it really saying? It's saying that we should have our feet shod with the what? With the preparation, right? Which means what? It means preparation is extremely valuable. Extremely, extremely valuable and extremely important. Look, some people, when they get introduced to solany, they just pick it up like glue, and they just go out, and they just get it done. Other people, not so much. That's okay. There's nothing wrong with you. Everyone is different. Nobody is on the same level mentally at all. The idea here for everyone, whether you're smart or whether you're not so smart, doesn't really matter. The idea is to have your feet shod with the preparation, to focus on preparation, making sure that you know where to go in the Bible to answer questions, making sure that you have a script, making sure that you have a plan in place. Because look, we've all seen the guy. Well, some of us left in this church have seen the guy that used to go out with no plan, no plan. And you think I'm joking, and it's not the first time I've seen it. It happens all the time. I've told you the story about the guy that I went solany with in Sacramento. And he's like, you know what? I think I've got this down. It was his first day. And he's like, hey, you know, let me go next. I'm like, okay, great. What are you going to say? You going to do the intro? He's like, I'm not going to say any of that. I'm just going to basically walk up to them and say, hey, I'm here and I'd like to share the love of Jesus with you. And I said, no, you're not going to say that. And that's exactly how we talked to him. We have a program here at this church and you will follow it. You will follow this program. And he is like, oh, okay. And you might think that's kind of harsh, but that's reality. We don't want to negate the importance of preparation. So when we go out there and we knock doors to get people saved, we need to make sure that we have our feet, that we have our person prepared. It is very important. Don't just take the gospel and try and wing it. It doesn't work very well. And I'm not saying that you can't do it because, look, in the past, I'll be honest with you, I did it. In fact, that's how I got my mom saved. I had a pastor and he said, hey, if you ever want to get somebody saved, write these verses down, read them and explain them in this way. And you know what? Like what? Three weeks before my mom died, I did that. She got saved. But you know what? She also had stage four cancer. And I'd already been harping on her for years about the Catholic church, years about repenting of sins and all of that stuff, and it finally sunk in. It literally took me years to get to that moment. Now, if I had been prepared, if I had been in a good church that actually taught me how to go soul winning, taught me the right things to say, the right things to focus on, I think I could have got the job done a little bit sooner. And more thorough, if you will, as well. So just remember that. It doesn't say, and your feet shod with the gospel of peace. No, there's a whole process here, and that process is preparation. It is very important. I want people to know when we are out in the community, hey, that's a group of people that are prepared. And I wish you guys could have watched Brother Oliver while he was here. And he was talking with this Mormon guy for like a half an hour. He got introduced to how they are here, the missionary types. And it's funny because it's a guy that some of us have talked to twice because we've been back to his apartment like three times. And, I mean, everything that that guy said, Oliver just completely and pleasantly told him he was wrong. I mean, it was perfect. It was absolutely brilliant. I mean, there was no time where he didn't know. And obviously he's been at this a while and, you know, he's a deacon for a reason. But that is a guy who is highly prepared for the gospel. And you know what this guy said? He said, in all my time, in my mission, I've never been prepared like you are. He's like, I've got nothing left that I can ask or even throw at you, but I don't agree with you. And of course, because the guy is a reprobate concerning the faith. Okay. But, you know, Oliver, he didn't know that. And honestly, I didn't know that because, you know, usually when we knock on his door, he's just like, oh, I do what you do. I'm good. And he closes the door. Well, this time he wanted to talk. Okay. And so I'm just saying this guy is highly prepared. There's value in preparation. You know, you got that soul winning plan down. Good. Now you need to start thinking of questions, thinking of things that have stumped you or other people and say, gee, if that were asked of me, would I know where to go in the Bible to solve that problem? Now let's look at verse 16. This is our church verse here. He says, above all, taking the shield of faith with you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. So again, he tells us this point here. These darts, these tricks, these attacks from the devil and his wicked army, they are coming for you. You cannot avoid it. The only thing you can do is to be prepared so that you can block them. But look, if you're not prepared, you will fail. It is a 100% guarantee. Look at verse 17 and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now go to Acts chapter number 11, Acts chapter number 11. So again, if you see somebody saying, you know what, I'm just going to go up to this door and I'm going to hand them a DVD. I'm not even going to talk to them about the gospel. You know, you just need to understand that you're dealing with somebody who's a fool, somebody who has just basically take taken Ephesians 6, taken Proverbs 30 and chucked it right out the window. They say, I don't need to be prepared. I can just do this. You know who else says stuff like that? The Pentecostal. That's what they do. Those street preachers and those types of people, they've got no script. They've got no plan. They got a couple of sentences and they go out there and they just shout at moving cars. Think about that for a second. When was the last time that a Ford truck got saved? Okay. When was the last time you saw a Suburban pull over and bow its tires and ask, you know, for salvation? It doesn't happen. When was the last time you saw a van full of people pull over and be like, oh, what are you saying? Oh, let's get on board with that. It never happens because, you know, think about this in the summertime. Most people have their windows up. They've got the AC on, the radios. You know, they can't hear what's being said anyways. Right? There's no preparation involved in that, but yet that's what the world pictures Christians as. They say, okay, well the Mormons and the J-dubs, they go knock on your doors and they're really annoying. And the Christians just yell at cars that go by. That's insulting. That is highly insulting. And you know what? We need to be a people that they can explain, hey, look, what you're doing is ineffective. It does not work. In fact, it makes us look bad and you need to shut up and you need to stop. Look, when I was like 10, we used to go out and yell at cars because we thought it was cool and funny. And when they stopped, it gave you a rush of adrenaline. And then we'd run into the woods and, you know, they couldn't catch us. Right? And now it's like you got people that are 50 years old doing it every single week. It's ridiculous. Anyways, let me figure out what I'm talking about here. Acts chapter 11, verse number 4. Application time. Talking about preparation. So, you know the story. When Cornelius had been praying unto the Lord, the Bible says his prayers went up his alms before the Lord. And he heard him and he sent Cornelius and his men to hear a message from Peter. And what was that message? It was the message of salvation. What did Peter use to provide that message? The Word of God. Because without the Word of God, you cannot be saved. But with all of this going on, Peter knows, hey, when I get back, I know the Jews are going to come out and say, ah, you're hanging out with these Gentiles. What's wrong with you? You're unclean. You're dirty. And so he's got something very important that he wants to tell them. He wants to tell them that, hey, what just happened here was of God. And so I want you to see something here. Look at the verse. It says, but Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning and expounded it by order unto them saying. So you see what just happened here? When Peter had a message that he in his own heart realized was so valuable, so important that he did not want anybody to misunderstand what happened. What did he do? He rehearsed it. That's right. He rehearsed the matter. He didn't just go out there and say, you know what, if they say this, I'm just going to blast them with all this stuff. I've got this. No, he rehearsed it and he lived it, didn't he? He talked to Cornelius. He had the vision. But yet he still rehearsed his message. Look, rehearsing the script, practicing your soul winning plan is vital to your success as a preacher of the gospel. I cannot say that enough. Now, look, you can go back to Proverbs chapter 30 now. We're done with that. But look, we have some of you guys were here when Pastor Menes came when the church was in brother Mike's house and he did that soul winning seminar. Right. And he has these these soul winning packets here. And, you know, we've got some copies left. We need to make more. But I mean, this booklet here, this has everything you need to be a successful soul winner from what to do as a silent partner, from the script itself. I mean, everything, how to dress, how to talk, how to answer certain questions. I mean, rules for kids. There's all sorts of things in here. But you know what this has? This has a script for you because you might be thinking, OK, well, I'm not just not sure exactly what verses I want to use. We'll just start out with what's already been written in this script here. And then as you learn that, as you get experience using that, then when you're doing your own Bible reading, you can stop and say, you know what? I'm actually going to use this verse instead. There's nothing wrong with that. But hey, the point is the importance of having a script. This has an entire plan which covers all the bases, all the bases of the gospel presentation, a thorough understanding. And look, if you want this, you could just come see me. This is Jessica's copy. So, well, you have to go see her. But I'm sure she'll go over with you. I'm sure she'll have you sign a piece of paper saying you promise on your life you'll give it back to her. But the idea here is it's available and we're here to help. I'm not preaching that because, you know, we're going to eventually have a whole separate time where we go through, you know, the actual soul winning presentation. Just kind of like Verity Baptist Church does it because that's how we learn to do it. So right now, Archer, we kind of just train people like on the job. You just show up to soul winning and say, hey, here's your opportunity. You know, just watch what we do. We're not going to make you do anything that's uncomfortable. Unless you're a guy and you're with me, I might. But that's a whole other sermon in and of itself, right? Well, for example, like Steven's been going now for like a month, right? Last Thursday, you know, we just asked him, hey, you know, would you like to, you know, just do the intro? And he did. He did like five or six of them. Did a good job, you know? And that's how it starts there. You just take a leap of faith and just say, you know what? I'm going to do this. He's watched us. He understands the questions, you know, that we initially ask. And he understands the importance of a script. And we're going to get him set up to where he can give the gospel himself at some point. Now, you know, when I first started going soul winning, that's how I learned. So I learned from a Baptist church, old IFB church over in Japan, believe it or not. And these people were a little bit more aggressive. It was kind of funny. But they would basically just throw you to the wolves and say, hey, look, show up on Saturday for soul winning. And you know what they do? They would practice on each other. That's what they would do. And there's some value in that. I learned to preach the gospel very quickly by doing that. But like if you show up and they're like, hey, have you ever talked before? Have you ever given the gospel? And if you're like, no, they're like, well, you're doing it today and you're practicing on me right now. We don't do that to you. We kind of work you in slow. We got a little more grace than that. But seriously, they come up to you and be like, all right, Anthony, guess what? Give me the gospel. Oh, you can't do it? No problem. I'll give it to you. Right? And I would give it to him and then be like, come on, repeat back to me. That's how they were. They were a little bit forceful with it. But, you know, at least they understood the value of preparation. At least they had a time where they, you know, practice on each other. And I noticed this one thing, too. A lot of the senior guys and gals would often practice on each other right before it was time to go soul winning. And I know some people say, you know, that there's no value in that. And that's fine. You don't have to do that. Right. But you know what? It helped me out. It helped me out tremendously. You know, back when I started soul winning, there was only like two soul winning videos that seemed like on YouTube. It was Pastor Anderson's. And I think there was one by Brother Stuckey, if I'm not mistaken. And I watched those things hundreds of times. And I even practiced on the wall. I was like, I'm getting this down. I'm getting this down. I'm not letting anything stop me. And I showed up to soul winning. And I practiced on those guys. They practiced on me. And very quickly I grew into being able to give the gospel. And you know what? I'm just saying there is value in the script. There's value in preparation. When you are prepared, you know, it takes away that anxiety. It takes away those nerves that you have. You say, well, I'm nervous. Everybody's nervous. If somebody says they're not nervous, they're lying to you. At least the first door is going to make you nervous. You know, after a while, you know, you just kind of get into the routine. You kind of know what to expect. But every once in a while you have a bad door. Right? And you know what? The very next door you're going to be a little gun shy. You know? And that's just the way it is. But when you are prepared, fully prepared, you know what? You are not going to have any problems. You're not going to be like, oh, you know, having the super shakes. Because you know what you're going to say. You've actually practiced it. You have rehearsed it. Right? Peter rehearsed. It's okay to rehearse. There's no problem with it at all. So just keep that in mind. Right? That's what the ants did. They were prepared. They realized the time is now. The time to prepare is right now. Well, you know what the time to prepare soul winning? Is when you have any time off after work, in between church services. Even if you don't have that time, if you just show up, we will prepare you for you. Hey, watch us do it. That's preparation. That all goes into preparation. So let's move on here. Look at Proverbs 30 and verse number 26. We'll move on. So verse 26. The second group of many people, that are very wise, says this. The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks. And if you don't confuse what a conie is, you can spend light years reading people's opinions and commentaries and stuff like that on what a conie is. It doesn't matter for the point of the sermon. It doesn't matter for the principle. Okay, if you go to, what is it? Deuteronomy 14 and Leviticus chapter 11, it says that the conies chewed the cud. Okay, so they chewed the cud, but they didn't have the right hoof. So they were unclean. It says that they did not divide the hoof. That's what it says. They did not divide the hoof. So they were unclean. But they chewed the cud. Do you know what chewing the cud means? So when a cow chews the cud, it's basically chewing what it's already eaten again. And obviously, there's wisdom in that. That's rehearsal. Rehearsal for the final digestion. Learn the script. Give it to somebody. And then get feedback and do it again. And obviously, I could preach a whole sermon off that verse alone, thinking before you speak, contemplating and mulling things over in your head. But the point is that they are feeble, the Bible says. It says they are feeble, they are weak, but they actually build their houses, their dwelling places in the rocks. So you say, what does that mean? How do we reconcile that? Go to Matthew chapter number seven. Matthew chapter number seven. Another verse in the Bible about conies. Psalm 104, you don't have to turn there, but in verse 18, it says, the high hills are a refuge for the wild goats and the rocks for the conies. So it's interesting. Though they know that they're feeble, they're not a strong folk, but yet they see the value in building their dwelling place and surrounding themselves with rock, with something that is very strong. Well, what's the application there? We need to surround ourselves because we are weak. We need to surround ourselves with people that are founded on the rock, i.e. people that are safe, people that are taking this thing serious, like people that come to this church. The more time that you can spend with each other, the more you're going to grow. It's just the way that it is. One thing I love about this church and about other churches that are like ours is we take fellowship serious. It's not like the service is over and you're just, boom, right out the door. That's how a lot of churches are, and they miss so much value in that because those types of people, to be honest with you, they don't realize that they're feeble, that they're weak. We all carry the flesh. We all carry the old man, and that's a struggle. And I say this all the time because it's so true. You will struggle. We all struggle, everybody, everybody. But you know what the solution is? To look at somebody who's not even human that God says is exceeding wise, not just wise, but exceeding wise, and think about what they do. They don't just build their dwelling places out in the woods right next to where they get food. They actually go away to a place of refuge and surround themselves with rocks, with something that is stronger than they are. And you know what you want to grow as a soul winner? You want to be prepared as much as possible? Surround yourself with people that have been doing this longer than you, and you know what? You will grow. Your wisdom will excel beyond what you always thought that it could be. So Matthew chapter 7, look at verse number 24. And it's interesting that the verses that precede this are the ones that we always use out soul winning. Well, when we get into tough situations, you know when you get the Sunday school teacher, right, and you show them, hey, there are people that taught that. There are people that, you know, were part of churches, and they're going to hell because they trusted in their works, right? He says what? Look, if you're saved, you're indwelt with the Holy Spirit, then guess what? You have that foundation. You can actually learn the dark sayings of the Bible. You can learn the truths that the Holy Ghost has for you in His book, and you can build upon that rock. Look at verse 25. It says this. And so, again, what do you constantly see surrounding soul winning? Attacks. Attacks. Always attacks. If you're saved, you will get attacked. If you're saved and you don't go to church, you will get attacked. It doesn't matter. The attacks are coming. And the solution is to realize that you're feeble, to realize that you don't have it figured out, that you're not a superhero. You're not going to go out by yourself and just do this magnificent work for God and say, I don't need church. I don't need God's people. Yes, you do. You totally do. That is what Jesus is saying here. He's saying, hey, be like the conies. Surround yourself with those that are stronger than you. And you know what? By doing that, it's going to help your preparation tenfold. Look at verse 26. It says this. And you know what? That is a picture of these street preachers out here, because let's just be honest. Most of the time, they don't get saved. That's why Jesus said, hey, many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and cast out devils in thy name and in thy name done many wonderful works? And I'll profess to them, I never knew you. He says, depart from me. I never knew you. Right? Because we have to understand that these people out here who think they're doing such a great work for God because they yelled at 500 cars on a Sunday night, they're literally building their houses on sand. And the Bible says that they're absolutely positively foolish. They do not have their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. So go back to Proverbs chapter number 30. Proverbs chapter number 30. This is why I say it is so important that we have silent partners. Some people get this idea in the head, well, I'm just a silent partner. I'm not of any value. And you know what? Nothing could be further from the truth whatsoever. We need silent partners. We need talkers to be silent partners. But you know what? We need silent partners that haven't talked yet because we want you to experience the wisdom of surrounding yourself with the rocks. OK, so we need to understand that. So I just want to give you a couple of tips here in regards to being a silent partner. So the importance of following a script, like I said, say, well, what's the value in that? Well, obviously, we've already seen it's to get somebody saved. The message that we have to deliver to the community is the most important message in the entire world. It's more important than what Joe the pedophile Biden's working on and his stupid vice president and all those idiots in D.C. You know, whatever it is that they're working on, not important at all. What is written in this book that gets people saved week after week after week, that is what's important. And we need to treat it like that's important. But you know what? Sometimes you'll be out there giving the gospel and something will happen. Some idiot's going to come up and try to interrupt. Or, you know, you're talking to a mom who's super interested, but she's got five kids and two of them have brown hands. You know, they're playing in the mud. They're just out of control. You know what? You as a silent partner need to learn how to minimize those distractions and say, hey, you know, maybe play with the kids like right there in front of the mom. You know, I'll entertain them while you guys finish talking. You know how valuable that is? Or what about the dog that comes up and just wants to jump on you? It's not biting, but just wants to jump and put his paws on you and just, you know, barking and stuff. It's just like, man, get out of here. You can kick them like you want to, you know. So what do you do? Just try to distract and play with them. Hey, is it okay if I take the dog over here? Maybe just play real quick. You got a bone or something? Figure out a way to minimize that distraction because that conversation that's going on right there is the most important thing on the planet at that time. And you know what? Sometimes, I've been in this situation before where I was a silent partner and my partner was giving the gospel. I'll never forget this one time. This guy turns to me. He goes, you know what? I ain't got it today. I'm done. He goes, you're going to have to take over. I had to pick up right in Revelation where he left off and finish that presentation. And she got saved. Okay? She actually got saved. And it's happened to me a couple times or where somebody gets a phone call, they're on call, or they, you know, they get a call and they could tell, you know, it's pretty important. They need to stop the presentation. You know what? You want to be able to step in and finish that presentation because you know what? You may not get a chance to go back the following week. They might be moving. They might lose interest. There's all sorts of things that can happen. So just keep that in mind. Silent partners need to have strength to minimize distractions from kids, pets, and other people. And we've seen this situation plenty of times where somebody comes up and they're just like, oh, by the way, let's talk about the kings in Matthew chapter number one. Did you know there's a couple missing? You know what? You want to say, oh, that's a great question. You know, they're talking. Let me just take you over here. Even if you're not sure, look, I've given you plenty of recipes on how to deal with these people. Just start asking them questions. Show me the kings. How did you come to this conclusion? Right? And you just start grilling them. You become the investigator. You put them on the spot. Remember, they made the claim. You make them back it up. So you say, I don't know the answer. That's fine. Right? While that presentation is going on, just jump them. You know, just bring them over here and just start grilling them, you know, and just, just, just deal with it and just get them. And you will be glad that you did. So let's move on here. Verse number 27, Proverbs chapter 30, verse number 27. So again, the application there with the Koneys is to surround yourself with strength. Surround yourself with people that are stronger than you. The word of God, meditation, all of these things, prayer. Right? That's why Paul finishes off the chapter in Ephesians by saying, hey, pray that I might be able to give the gospel boldly. Okay? That is wisdom there. That is exceeding wisdom. So let's move on here. Look at verse number 27. It says this, the locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands. That means by a multitude, not by one person. Oh, I'm just going to go soul winning by myself. I'm just going to knock on these doors here. Don't mind me. Don't mind the fact I don't have a Bible. I don't even have a DVD, but I got this one business card here with a QR code on the back. No. Okay. Absolutely not. That is not wise. This is wisdom here. And notice what these locusts here don't have. They don't have a boss. They don't have a king. They don't have somebody saying, hey, I want you guys to band up by 50s and by 75s and by hundreds and go forth and, you know, ravage the fields and terrorize people. It doesn't say that. They have no king. And guess what? They go out and get the job done anyways. They don't have somebody continuously harping on them. And what did the Bible say in Proverbs 6 about the ant? Same thing. Have no ruler. They're self motivated. Why? Because they can see the value in preparation. They can see value. Oh, now is the time to go out and get the food. Now is the time to go out and execute this plan. They can see that. They don't need somebody constantly harping on them saying, hey, do this. Hey, you know, don't just go straight for Romans 10. You got to give them all this other stuff first. Okay. You know, there's a reason why this reads the way that it does. Okay. And so these folks here have been prepared. Now you say, well, how does that relate to soul winning? Well, think about it. You and your soul winning partner are on the same team and you have the same goal. Right. It's not, you know, I'm just the pastor. It's not like I go around and command you what to say and what to do. So when you go soul winning with me, look, we have the same goal. I'm not saying we have the same position in church. I'm just saying, but we have the same goal. Right. We go out. We don't have somebody that's a superintendent, you know, calling. Did you go soul winning for exactly 60 minutes today or not? You know, we don't have that. We're self motivated. We realize, hey, this message is important. We need to prepare. The time is now and we go out and we get it done right there. There are rewards for the talker. There are rewards for the silent partner. It's the fact that you took the time and you offered up a spiritual sacrifice unto God and said, you know what? I'm going to go get this done because the time is now. This is very, very important. Okay. So again, they have no king over them, but yet they go to the same place. They get the job done. And that's exactly how we need to be. You know what? I'll just go back to the silent partner thing, right? You know, you shouldn't have to be told to be praying for that situation that's taking place, right? We shouldn't have to be told to go and minimize these distractions. This should be a given. Now, obviously, when people are new, they need to be top, right? I understand that completely. But after a while, it's like, look, hint, hint, you know, help me out here, right? Help me out. And by the way, the silent partner also needs to be aware of the surroundings. Right? So here's a perfect example. You're out there, there's a conversation, you're the silent partner, and all of a sudden a car rolls by real slow, loud music, and they're looking at you and they're all laughing, you know, and doing this kind of thing. You need to have the discernment to understand something is going to happen, right? Or the car's going around real slow and there's somebody looking up in all the little corridors of the apartment. Right? You need to realize that's probably the manager coming and trying to get ready to shut you down. So just have situational awareness. Be aware of your surroundings. Because your partner is fully engaged in giving that message. They're trying to get that person saved, right? But you could be praying and you could be watching and just ready to either jump in and be of use. You say, well, I can't give the gospel. That's fine. You can still be a watch. Look for, you know, anything that's going to come and interrupt that conversation, okay? So that is the application here with the locusts. They have no king, yet they go forth, all of them, by bands. They do what they are supposed to do. Look, Jesus doesn't come down here and have like, all right, we're going to have a meeting at 10 o'clock on Saturday. Here's exactly what you're going to do. No. He's given us his word and said, hey, my spirit dwells in you. Get it done. Get it done. And it's up to us to actually be motivated and go out and do it. So yes, we do have a king over us, but yet he doesn't like harp on us. He doesn't force us to go do anything. It's completely voluntary. All right, so let's move on here. Last one. Look at verse 28. Proverbs 30 and verse 28 says this, The spider taketh hold with her hand, and is in kings' palaces. Now, I can attest to this one. I go to people's houses that are rich. Look, I went to this house, it was like six months ago. It was at the end of cold. This house was so big that the lady is like, just text me if you need to go back to your vehicle, and text me when you're done, and I'll come get you, and I'll escort you out. That is how big her house was. I'm walking to this fireplace, and I'm like, I'm not going to be able to get out of here. There's no way I can remember this. I'd be getting lost, going places I shouldn't be, whatever. They had like a full gym, and it was insane. But you know what was in her house? Spiders. You know what was in her fireplace? Spider after spider after spider. Dead spider. No joke. It doesn't matter. These things find their way everywhere. And guess what's special about them? The Bible says they're exceeding wise. They don't announce their coming, do they? It's not like a dog where it's like, oh, you hear that dumb dog coming, you know? Dogs are kind of, you know, they're annoying, but it's like, most of the time, it's like, all right, I can hear that dog coming. I'm going to have to do something about this. The spiders? You don't know until you walk through their web. And that's frustrating to everybody, right? Why? Because they are wise. They are exceeding wise. You say, okay, I get it. What's the point here? Well, here's one application. You know what? We don't want to like make a big scene before we go into an apartment complex, especially one that's known to not like our church, which is about 20 of them in this area who have told us over and over again, don't ever come back. I'm just saying, you know, when you guys are out there, especially when we go to these apartments, it's best to kind of like have the meeting aside, kind of out of sight and trickle in. If possible, if there's two entrances, go in two entrances, have a plan and get it done. Say you're going to take this side, you're going to take this side, we're going to leapfrog, whatever the case is, right? Because the more that we can do that, you know, we can be like the spider. You know, we can actually wind up in these places that think they're king's palaces, that think they're special, that think they're all, oh, you can't come in here. We've got gates. No problem. What you do when they have a gate, you wait till somebody drives through and you run right through it. And you get in there and you sow that web of Shield of Faith Baptist Church with the right gospel. Hey, it's not by works. It's by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, right? And then what? Then they call us after we leave. That's the best. That's the best. And that happens a lot. We actually do that a lot. You know, we go to these places and they'll call at nine o'clock. It's too late for you to be here. If I would have known you were here, I would have kicked you out. Too late, sucka. We're exceeding wise and you can't catch us. And you're weak and you suck and we're coming back next year just to throw that out there, OK? Again, the spider taketh hold with her hands and is in king's palaces. OK, look, we're born. We're we're on our way to our king's palace. And, you know, we want to bring other people with us and we have to go in and sow a web. We have to be undetected. Right. And the same thing goes for these trailer parks, too. Look, there's this trailer park off Five Mile. And I haven't forgot what they did to us a couple of years ago. I'm waiting till our church grows to average about 30 soul winners per week. And we're going to get two people that are going to drive us into that thing. And we're going to have so many people knocked out that they can't kick us out. Look, we talk about this all the time, me and David, because he was there when we got kicked out with force. And I've been I've been mad ever since. And they're going to get it. They're going to get the gospel and they're going to be like, how did you get in here? You know, and then after they try to kick us out, say it's too late, we're already leaving anyways, we already got all these doors. We don't need you to call the cops. So let's wrap this thing up here. I'm almost done. Go back to Ephesians, chapter number six. So, again, the ants, right, they prepare and harvest. They understand the necessity of now. The time is now. The time is coming when no man can work. Right. And so the ants see that they see, hey, there's coming there's coming a time when that harvest is going to be over. We're not going to have anything to eat. So we need to take the chance now and work. Right. And we applied that to ourselves. We need to make sure that we are prepared now before we go out and give the gospel. But always having preparation, preparation of the gospel of peace, preparation of the gospel of peace. Always preparing, always growing, always learning more. We talked about the conies. Right. The conies. What are they? They are feeble. The Bible says they are weak. But yet they build their dwelling place. They build their houses in the rocks. We said, you know what, that's exceeding wise. We need to do the same thing. We need to realize, hey, we need to be humble, realize we're feeble too. And we need to surround ourselves with strength, with those rocks, with people that are like us and stronger. And we talked about the locusts. They don't have to be told what to do. They assemble in their bands. They go out, they get it done. They realize, hey, we are on the same team here. We have the same goal, the same mission. We're going to just go ahead and get it done. And then we talked about the spiders. Right. The spiders. You say, well, how does that prepare us? Well, it gives us the recipe for success. Undetection. Right. We want to be undetected. We want to be able to get into these places. Sow our web of truth and get out with our catch. That's the goal. That is the idea there. And then I'm just going to finish this off here. Again, in verse 15. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. So it is so, so important that when we as a church go out and go soul hunting, and we're preaching gospel, that we actually have ourselves prepared. We don't minimize the importance of being prepared because the bottom line is this. The more that we prepare as a church to go out and soul hunt, guess what? The more success we're going to have. That's how this thing works. The more that we prepare, the more success that we're going to have. And look, this is true in every area of life in your job. The more you read about your job, the more you study these things out, the more you can learn to behave yourself wisely at your place of employment, just in your life, amongst your families, amongst the people that are not like us. You know what? The more success you will have as a Christian. Because what? The darts are coming. Just need to realize that. Your zeal level doesn't matter right now. You just need to understand the darts are coming. So you might as well just get prepared because you know what? You can deflect. You can be exceeding wise even though we are exceeding small. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church, Lord, and for giving us and trusting us with this area of responsibility, Lord. And just pray that you would help us to continue going out, getting people saved, Lord. Soul winning, soul warning, and making disciples, Lord. And just pray you bless your efforts this week and keep us safe. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.