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Alright, we're in Matthew chapter number 10, look down at your Bibles at verse number 13. It says, and if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon him, but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to it, and whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Rarely I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. And the title of the sermon this morning is Confrontational versus Combative Soul Winning. Confrontational versus Combative Soul Winning. Now Matthew chapter 10 is dealing with Jesus Christ deputizing his 12 disciples to go out and preach the gospel in Israel. He says, go not into the way of the Samaritans, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and he gives them some pretty basic instructions that at one point is unique to them at that point, but it's also something that we could actually apply to ourselves today. And we also see that in the middle of the chapter, he begins to give some application for the end times, showing us that, guess what, we're going to be doing soul winning in the end times. Now look down at your Bible at verse number 32, just to show you that this chapter is primarily dealing with preaching the gospel, look what it says in verse 32, it says, whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father, which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father, which is in heaven. Now this verse, or these two verses have been misconstrued a lot. A lot of the Pentecostal, Charismatic, lose your salvation, tongue flapping kind of people, they will use this type of a verse to say, see, you can lose your salvation. If you don't confess Christ before men, Christ is not going to confess you before the Father. But that's not what it's saying. When it talks about confessing Christ, it's not referring to that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. That's not what that's referring to. When it talks about confessing Christ, it's just another word for saying witness. You're witnessing of him. You're preaching the gospel. You don't have to turn there, but Romans 15 verse 9 says, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written, for this cause will I confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name. You know, we have the responsibility to go out and witness. We have the responsibility to go out and confess to others regarding the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now also in that verse 33, it says, but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. And a lot of people have taught that, haven't they? They'll say, you know, if you deny Christ, you know, God's going to deny you when you go to heaven, you know? But it's not talking about eternal redemption. It's talking about eternal rewards. You see, when you deny Christ, when you deny going out there to preach the gospel, guess what? You're forfeiting rewards. You know, you don't get rewards for coming to church. Sorry to break it to you. You know, you're not getting anything for coming here. I'm really sorry about that. I hope you keep coming back though, you know? You say, well, why come to church? Well, you come to church to learn the word of God, to be admonished within the word of God, to be renewed in the word of God, to have fellowship so you can go out and get your rewards. That's what that church is for. Church is to learn doctrine, to learn the word of God, to have fellowship to basically be renewed so that when you go out and preach the gospel, you have the necessary tools. You're equipped to go out and do the work of the Lord. Why? Because you're being sent out from a local New Testament church that's training you how to preach the gospel. So this is not referring to, you know, if you deny Christ, he's going to deny you eternal redemption. No, he's going to deny you eternal rewards, okay? Now the sermon today, I want to talk about confrontational sowing versus combative sowing. And what I'm referring to is the fact that our church does confrontational sowing, but it should never be misconstrued from being combative sowing, okay? Now what is the difference? Well, I'll get to that in just a bit, but when we talk about combative sowing, it's people who just go out, they want to do sowing, but they're so aggressive, they're so mean-spirited, they're so prideful and arrogant that all they do is strive with people. You know, people talk, you know, you go to a door and they talk about how they believe in repenting your sins, and they just immediately jump down their throat for believing in that. That's not the goal. In fact, you don't see in Matthew chapter 10 when Jesus Christ is given instruction to the disciples to say, hey, you know, hey, if you run into someone who believes in repenting your sins, rebuke them sharply. You know, make sure you get on them, give them all kinds of scripture, argue with them, and make sure you walk away from that door knowing that you won that conversation in that debate. That's not what it says. He says, shake the dust off your feet. You know, there's sandals at that time. But for us, it's figurative in the sense of we're saying, you know what, I'm moving on to the next door. Because here's the thing. Here's the thing. The Bible tells us to redeem the time because the days are evil. So it's a waste of time to go door to door and argue with every single person at that door and you don't win anybody to Christ. Yeah, but, you know, I'm trying to, I'm trying to what? We're trying to win them to Christ. And you don't win people to Christ arguing with them. You don't win people to Christ debating them. That's what the Calvinist crowd likes for you to think. Let's get a debate going. You know, barstool here, barstool here, a little bell here, and a referee. And then both parties walking away thinking that they're right. That's wrong. You know? Debating gets you nowhere. And look, I don't want to be characterized as a reprobate. Why? Because the Bible tells us that reprobates are full of debate. All they want to do is argue. I don't want to argue. I want to persuade. I want to win people to Christ. I don't want to strive about genealogies and vain janglings. I want to win people to Christ. That's profitable. It's not profitable to argue with people, so on and so forth. Now, go to Acts chapter 20, if you would. Acts chapter 20. Let me get into this matter of confrontational soul winning. Because when you think about confrontational soul winning, you know, kind of right off the bat, it sounds like an aggressive thing to do. It sounds, it almost has like a negative connotation to it, doesn't it? It's like you're confronting them to the face. And sometimes it is confrontational. You know, when we find out that someone in our church is involved in one of the sins that's highlighted in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, I have the responsibility to go confront that person to their face and say, hey, are you involved in drunkenness? Yeah, I'm involved in drunkenness. Okay, well, here are your options. You can either repent, get it right, you know, and you can stay, or if you're not going to stay, you need to get out of the church because we can't have you here. You know, hey, are you guilty of railing? Have you been railing against so and so? Yeah, but they're wrong. But hold on a second. Are you railing on them, though? Are you telling lies about this person? Well, yeah, okay, here are your options. See, at that point, confrontation is negative. And look, at the end of the day, most people don't like to be, you know, confrontational. It's awkward, you know. It's awkward for me when I have to go talk to someone about their sin and say, hey, are you involved in fornication? You know, it's kind of awkward. But confrontation is not always negative because another definition to confrontation is simply when you go to someone face to face. And what do we do when we're out there soul winning? We're being confrontational. We're going to the door, knocking on it, and talking to them face to face. You see, a lot of these blow hard lordship salvation type of groups, they want to make themselves look all macho because they have a blow horn and they're yelling at people on the corner street sounding like a jack in the box drive through, right? But that's not confrontational at all. You're just kind of yelling and no one's even paying attention to you. I saw this video by, you know, one of my favorite dispensationalists, Gene Kim. And he literally made a video on how to street preach. Brother Segura from Faithful Word Baptist Church was showing, he's like, you got to see this. And I was crying, I was laughing so hard. He was instructing people how to street preach and, you know, he was showing the cars the red light, right? And he goes, see all these people who get to preach the gospel to? Not one of them had their windows rolled down, by the way. And probably most of them have music on. They weren't looking at him. And it's funny, he's like, look at all these cars. So he's instructing the camera and then you look back and all the cars are gone. It's like, yeah, real effective, Gene Kim. And he literally spends the video explaining to you how to yell. How many saw the video that I made about Gene Kim reacting to dispensation of heresy? That's where I got those clips from. He literally says this. This is how you street preach, okay? You go, the Bible says, and you'll say, you notice how it was inhaling, exhaling? It's like, I know how to breathe. You're instructing me on how to breathe. I know how to yell. You don't have to teach people how to breathe. They know that naturally. And literally this entire video, he's at a corner handing out Chick tracts, repenting your sins Chick tracts, screaming their heads off, using these big old boards with verses that are completely irrelevant to salvation. And then they did the work of the Lord, you know? That's not confrontational. That's stupidity. That's foolishness. That's garbage is what that is, okay? No, confrontational soul winning, if you really want to be bold in the Lord, is to go someone who you do not know because you love them, you knock on their door, and you give them a clear presentation of the gospel, okay? With meekness and fear and trembling. That is confrontational soul winning. You're going to them face to face. Not having this combative spirit of just yelling at people, turn or burn, and all this stupidity that gets nothing done. Look at Acts chapter 20, verse number 18. This is the apostle Paul. He says here in verse 18, and when they were come to him, he said unto them, ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you all at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mine and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying weight of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but I have showed you and I have taught you publicly from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. So what do we see here? The apostle Paul going from house to house. And Acts, we see the disciples going from house to house. They cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. The reason I'm emphasizing that point is because today, confrontational soul winning or house to house door knocking when we're out there preaching the gospel is actually looked down upon. Oh, that's old. That doesn't work anymore. Yeah, maybe it doesn't work to build a church. Maybe it doesn't work to bring in the multitudes, but it works to see people saved. You see, because when you go to a door that is not your own house, if you have any sense within your mind, you recognize that you are their guest. You're intruding upon their lawn, their house, therefore you should come with all humility of mind in order to win them to Christ. You're not there to knock on their door and yell at their, scream their head off and tell them how they're wrong and they're wicked and all these other things. That doesn't help anything. He said with tears, humility of mind, he went from house to house. Go to Acts chapter eight. Hey, confrontational soul winning, going door to door still works. It will always work to see people saved. It will always work and it's a scary thing if it's your first time doing it. That's why in our church, we don't encourage any new believer who has never been soul winning to go out and start preaching the gospel just right away. Even though you've watched Pastor Anderson's video on how to do it multitudes of times or Pastoring Men as a Seminar on how to do it multitudes of times, we encourage you to be a silent partner. Now silent partner in the Greek means you basically don't say anything. I'm kidding here. I don't know what it says in the Greek yet. So that means like what we do is we send them out two and two. One is a speaker, one isn't. One opens his mouth boldly, one shuts its mouth boldly. So you don't jump in and I'll get to that in just a little bit. By the way, this kind of sermon is like a review for all of us. But it's a reminder that we need every couple of months to know how to do proper soul winning. But being a silent partner, there's a reason why it's called being a silent partner. This isn't tag team wrestling here or it's just like you just jump in whenever you feel like it. Now if you are a silent partner and you are a seasoned soul winner, the person who's preaching the gospel may look to you for help. If they're barely learning or something, at that point, you help out. You speak up. You help them. You basically deliver them. But if they know what they're doing, don't come with this attitude like, well, I know how to do a little better than them. Let me just go in and jump in and give them this verse real quick. Or give my opinion or pipe up and throw in my two cents. Keep your two cents. And especially if the person's preaching the right gospel, maybe they do it a little differently than you, just be a silent partner. Now if they do something wrong where it's not necessarily Danbo heresy or it's maybe something just a little off or maybe they're just being a little too aggressive or whatever it may be, wait till you guys walk away from the door. Don't correct the person right then and there. And by the way, wait till you get off of that person's lawn. Don't walk away. What in the world are you doing? And the person's like, man, these people are arguing? Wait till you like are far away. Just use common sense, okay? Look at Acts chapter eight, verse 26, it says, and the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip saying arise and go toward the south until the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza which is desert. And he arose and went and behold the man of Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot, read as I asked the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet as I asked and said, understand this thou without readest? And he said, how can I? Except some man should guide me and he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with them. By the way, this is a good text verse to prove that people don't get saved just from reading tracts or invitations. We have invitations, we have tracts. We leave that invitation with the person, not in hopes that they would get saved by reading it, but in hopes that they would read it and a seed would be planted because they need someone to give them the gospel to expound the word of God and teach them what those verses are talking about. Look at verse number 32, the place of the scripture which he read was this, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb done before his shearers, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away and who shall declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. What do we call that? Confrontational soul winning. He goes to the eunuch face to face with Bible and scripture in hand and he expounds unto him the word of God. And look, here's another thing, when we're out there preaching the gospel, we're not out there preaching post-trib pre-wrath rapture. We're not out there preaching, you know, replacement theology. We're giving the gospel. Yeah, but that's my only chance to really show people like the goods, you know. I've been wanting to talk about this, yeah, but this is not the time. You don't have a pulpit in front of you, okay? This is not the time to discuss irrelevant things that are not, that don't pertain to salvation. Okay? Now, again, I'll get to that in a little bit. If they ask you regarding an irrelevant subject, stay the course and say that's a great question. Let me get back to that later on. Let me finish what I'm telling you right now. And then you do that. Now, there's times when I've had people ask me about the reprobate doctrine. And I will say this is that there's certain doctrines in the Bible that you can use as a stepping stone to segue into the gospel. And honestly, the reprobate doctrine is one of them. And I know people probably think that's crazy, but it's true. I've had people tell me, hold on a second, you know, you're saying everyone can believe? What about a rapist, pedophile, faggot, you know, whatever? And it's like, well, you know, it's funny you mention that. And now we show them the scriptures, and honestly, more often than not, I've had a lot of people saved because of that doctrine. You know, I can answer their question. They're just like, okay, now I understand. But you know, do you believe the earth is flat? I'm glad you asked. And then you just start chasing rabbits and get nothing done. And by the way, if they say what about the flat earth, don't say that's a good question. Like you know what, let me get to that later on, but let me finish what I'm saying here because really the most important thing is where are you going to go when you die? You know, what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole flat earth? I'm just kidding. If he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul, this is the most important thing right here. And then you stay the course, you stay on track, you give them the gospel because that's what we're out there to do. Now go to 2 Timothy chapter 2. What is combative soul winning? Well, it means you're looking for a fight. You're aggressive. Yeah, but you're being aggressive right now, but I'm not soul winning right now. You know, we're in church, we're preaching the word of God, we're edifying the brethren. We have to rip face every once in a while and you know, lift up my voice like a trumpet, cry out loud and spare not and show my people their transgression. This is the time and place for this, not out there, especially if you're at someone's house. Don't be an aggressive soul winner. That's not what we want our church to be characterized by. Let me just say this. Our church has a couple of soul winners that are a little too aggressive, all right? You know, maybe some of you are like, is it I? Is it I, Lord? You know? I'm not gonna say who it is, okay? Because I'd rather you think that maybe you are a little aggressive and then you'll tone it down even more. Because we want people to be as humble, as kind as possible when we're out there because we're trying to win them to Christ. You know, their soul is hanging in the balance. And not only that, but you know, our church is being represented. We don't want to knock on someone's door five months out and then, you know, they have this bad taste in their mouth because of some aggressive, pompous soul winner from our church who was mean-spirited to them, who yelled at them, who was arguing with them. You know, finally, go to hell, you know? I'm not saying that happened, but you know, lest it would happen, that's not the kind of attitude we want to have. And look, if someone is like, has a really bad attitude towards you and they're just yelling at you, this is what you do. Okay, well, have a good day and just walk away. That's pretty easy. Yeah, but you know, I just want to, want to what? You want to win someone to Christ and if you waste more time at that door, you're probably not going to win the person at the next door. I've heard multitudes of people who they potentially would have gone to an argument with someone at a house and they decided not to. They moved on and they ended up winning the person right next door. And that was kind of a wake-up call to them and say, man, I'm glad I didn't stay there because if I would have stayed there, I probably wouldn't have been able to win this person at Christ. Now, look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 23. It says, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes. Another word for strife is like debates and the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves if God's prayer adventure would give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. Let me ask you a question. Do you want to be a servant of the Lord? If you do, here's qualification number one other than salvation, don't strive. Be gentle, apt to teach. What does that mean? Know how to preach the gospel. Don't make the gospel so complicated that they leave more confused than the termite with the yo-yo. You're just like, I thought I knew what you were talking about but now I don't. You know, don't try to wax so eloquently the gospel, they actually leave more confused than when you first came to their door. Be apt to teach, patient. Now one thing that I always tell people is as a soul winner, you should learn how to read people, okay? What does that mean? Read them simply means be able to discern if they're understanding what you're telling them or not. Because if you're not careful as a soul winner, you can just go through the motions and you just want to get you through your bomb presentation that you got going, you know? This legit presentation you got going and you're not even paying attention to see if they're paying attention. You know, you just want to get and then you just want them to say the right answer so you just give them all the right answers. That's not the goal. You know, I'm for giving people the right answers but we want to make sure that we probe them or investigate to see if they really understand what we're talking about, okay? But we have to be patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, not yelling at them, instructing them. Now look, my gospel presentation is about seven to 10 minutes long. I honestly don't know to be honest with you. I would estimate it's about that long. I've never had a timer with me and say, all right, go, you know? And then just like preach, start preaching. I would guess it's about seven to 10 minutes long for someone who's really open to the gospel. Now, one time, Brother Milan and I, we're preaching the gospel to this guy and we're there for about 35 minutes. That's like maybe more. It was a very long gospel presentation. And I remember thinking to myself, in the middle of that, I'm going to ask him one more question. And if he doesn't understand this, I need to move on. But I asked him and he understood it and I read him and I understood, okay, this guy actually sincerely wants to know. He's not just asking questions just to fight. And at the end of those 40 minutes or whatever it was, he ended up getting saved. Tears in his eyes, just humble, thankful, and grateful for the gift of salvation. Hey, that was worth my 40 minutes. You know, that's not every door, okay? So we need to be able to read people and understand that the servant of the Lord must not strive. Go to Titus chapter three, Titus chapter three. But you want to avoid foolish questions, genealogies, okay? Look here's a good tip. Watch your tone. You know? Don't sound mad when you're talking to someone and they approach you with a doctrine that you hate. I just think you have to repent of your sins to be saved. Well, you know, that's not what the Bible says. I'm just like, sorry man. Well, you know, you're wrong. Throw the Bible at them or something. You need to learn how to answer people. You know, a soft answer turneth away wrath, the Bible says. Okay? You know, if they approach you with a doctrine that you hate, that we hate, you say, okay, you know, the Bible actually says something a little different. You mind if I show that to you? You're trying to persuade them. You know? And you need to learn certain phrases and tones of your voice that will really accentuate your gospel presentation and make it palatable for someone to want to hear. You know, because right off the bat, if you're just like, well, you're wrong and that's not what the Bible says, then their contentions are like the bars of a castle. Okay? And they're just like, this guy's pride. I don't want to listen to this guy. You know? Look at verse number eight. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men. But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain. Now verse 10 and 11, you need to apply this, okay? This will save you a lot of time. A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition, reject. Now what does that mean? Well, a heretic is someone who you're telling the truth but they're just rejecting the truth and they just want to stick to what they say, you know, that's something that's contrary to the word of God. A person's a heretic. And the Bible says here, after the first and second admonition, what is an admonition? It's when they tell you something that's wrong and you show them from the Bible what is right. That's an admonition. So let's say you give them one verse, you say, well, actually the Bible says this, and you give them one verse and they say, no, it's still repentant of your sins. Okay, well, let me show you another verse. You show them that second verse and they're just like, no, it's repent of your sins, no, I believe in tongues, no, I believe that you can, you know, whatever. Then you say, okay, well, there's the invite, you know, if you have any questions, give us a call. Have a good day. See you. You reject them. That's it. Yeah, but that's not as cool, though, you know. I want to like leave with the bang. You leave with the bang when you win them, not when you like prove them wrong, okay. It says there, knowing that he that is such is subverted in sin is being condemned of himself. Someone weighs 15 minutes at a door just going over and over. The only time I do more than two admonitions is if I'm discerning that this person is genuine in his questions, and they're just trying to overcome their false ideologies and doctrines that they've been, you know, that's been, they've been taught throughout their lives, and you're trying to help them to overcome those false ideologies and teachings. At that point, I recognize, okay, he needs more than two admonitions. The two admonition is for the heretic. After the second admonition, move on, okay. Go to James chapter three, James chapter three. So we want to avoid foolish questions, genealogies, contentions, genealogies, you know, like the Israel United in Christ, a bunch of racist fools, you know, who claim that I'm from the tribe of Issachar, because I'm Guatemalan or whatever it is, you know, once I find out that I'm talking to one of those guys, I'm done. As soon as they tell me, you know, I'm a real Jew and all this stuff, I'm just like, all right, see you later, you know, he's subverted. What does that mean? He's undermining the authority of God's word at that point. You know, you say, well, you're prejudging them. How do you know they've undermined the word of God? Because of the fact that they know what we believe. So they study what we believe in order to combat our doctrine. So at that point, they're approaching me already with those bars up. They're approaching me with that false doctrine, knowing what I already believe. What have they done? They've subverted. That's why it says a man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject. He's already a heretic. You give him two admonitions and then you reject him, okay. Look at James three, verse 13. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good debate, sorry, let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. So it's not saying, hey, you know, just shut him down. It says you should show out of a good conversation your works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envies and strife in your heart, glory not, and light not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. You know, these Calvinists think they're doing the work of the Lord. No, you're a devil. It says that the wisdom so-called that you have is devilish. From where envy and strife is, there's confusion in every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality, without hypocrisy. And the fruit of the righteous is sown in peace of them that make peace. That's soul winning right there. We're trying to create peace when we go out there. We go to war when we're here, okay? We go to war when we're in church, when there's false doctrine that needs to be exposed, some devilish heretic out there that is subverting the minds of the simple. We go to war, not when we're out there though. Out there is a different ministry. Out there is the ministry of reconciliation. Here's the ministry of war, okay? Now there's times when we're not going to war here, we're just simply teaching the Word of God. Tonight I'm teaching on the priesthood of the believers and how that parallels the priesthood of the Old Testament and what are the relation between the two. You know, tonight I'm teaching the Word of God. I might rip a little bit. I don't know. I might talk about Catholics a little bit. I'll throw that in there a little bit, you know? But for the most part, I'm instructing the believers of Bible doctrine. But there are times when we have to go to war, but here's the thing, it's never when we're out there, okay? Now go to Philippians chapter one. Philippians chapter one. You know, we're looking to be here for a very long time, okay? And so our city here in Omani and the surrounding cities are going to get to know us, okay? And one thing that we don't want is for them to know us as the soul winners that are just jerks, you know? That's not the kind of reputation that we want to have, okay? Now if they know us because they saw our sermons on YouTube, how we hate fags and stuff like that, you know, that's whatever, you know? They're just testifying of the truth, you know? They're not railing on us, that's true. But if they're just like, if it's more of like a personality issue because of some soul winner who went to their door, that's a different story. You know, I was blessed on Thursday when we went, who did I go with? I went with Chad, we went out soul winning and ran into this guy and his name was George. And by the way, don't prejudge someone based upon their personality or how they're wired. You know, this guy, he came to the door and I was like, hey, what's your name? George. Hey George, nice to meet you. Just want to give you this invite to our church. I know who you guys are. Okay. Well, are you 100% sure? This is the reason why we're here. Are you 100% sure that if you die today, you go to heaven? Yep. I already talked to you guys. All right. So what would you say to that? I'm going to heaven. All right. Why would you say that? Because I believe I have eternal life. Oh, good. Yeah, I got the whole shebang already. No smile. Right? Just monotone. Okay. Can you lose your salvation? Nope. It's eternal. All right. Shut my mouth. You know, like, what are you saying? So I wanted to make sure that he, it was our church. And the way you make sure that it's our church is you ask him, you know, did you get a DVD? You know? And I asked him, I said, did you get, did that person who won you to Christ, did they give you anything? Yep. They gave me a CD. Okay. What was it? Old man versus new man. I mean, he's like just answering everything. I'm like, all right. Well, have a good night. Have a good night. Let me give you another gift and be on our way. Now that's a good reputation. That shows that whoever won that person to the Lord was very thorough. To the point where he, it made an impression on him that he even knew, he remembered the gift that he got. Now, not everyone's going to be that way, obviously. But I'd rather have that than a person who is just like, you guys are jerks. You guys are rude. You know, all these things. I'd rather have the person who's just monotone as the day is long, but they're saved and they know us because we got them saved. That's the kind of reputation we want to have. And not only that, what about the people who didn't get saved? I still want to have a good reputation before them. Because if they're going to live here for years on end, so are we. And when their mom or their dad dies, when they go through a trial or a difficulty, I want them to have Baked Word Baptist Church, the invitation on their dresser, so when they're looking for God for consolation and comfort, they'll say, I remember there were some people who came that were very kind to me and I want to get saved, you know, or I want to look for the Lord or whatever. And that could open the door for them to be saved. That's what we want. Not some, all these guys are just like jerks, man, I don't want nothing to do with them. Look at Philippians 1, 15, it says, some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife. Some also of good will. The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. Now, here, verse 17, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. Now, look, when you're out there preaching the gospel and you've run into a Christian, so-called, you know, don't waste your time with them trying to convert them to be a Baptist or, you know, if they're trying to argue, why? Because they're trying to add affliction to your bonds. It's like they're sent by Satan to waste your time, is what they're doing, you know. Go to 1 Timothy, chapter 6. We're just going to look at a lot of scripture here in this aspect. 1 Timothy, chapter 6, and verse number 3. You know, we're for the defense of the gospel, but this is how we defend the gospel. Number one, by doing the right gospel, by preaching the right gospel while we're out there but doing exactly what I'm doing right now. This is the defense of the gospel. This is teaching you what the right type of gospel and soul winning is. That's what it is. Defense of the gospel doesn't mean getting into some argument or debating with someone outside of these doors, okay? Look at 1 Timothy, chapter 6, verse 3 says, if any teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing but doting about questions and strives of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness. From such withdraw thyself. So grow in discernment to the point where you recognize these characteristics, and when a person at the door is exerting those qualities, withdraw yourself. I was thoroughly impressed. I don't want to make them proud right now, but Jacob, we're out soul winning in India, right? Yeah, yeah, Jacob's trouble. This is the time of Jacob's trouble right now. You know, we're out soul winning, and we're in a dry, I mean, Chad's area was like blooming. Our area was just like dry. As raining as it was, it was really dry. And like no one answered the door, and I remember we went to this door, this lady opened the door, and it was Jacob's turn to talk, and he was giving her the gospel, he was trying to give her the gospel, and come to find out she's a Jehovah's Witness, okay? Now look, when someone tells you they're a Jehovah's Witness, don't just write them off. Because quite frankly, they could be a backslid in Jehovah's Witness. And by the way, here's what you can tell if this is a backslid in Jehovah's Witness, okay? If when you give them the invite, they take it. Why? Because their false cult teaches them not to take any propaganda, okay? And so if you give it to them, if they say they're a Jehovah's Witness, and you give them the invite, that's like, that's kind of the telltale sign, okay, this person doesn't really know a whole lot about Jehovah's Witness doctrine. Because they're taking the invite, that's like rule number one. That's Jehovah's Witness, false Jehovah's Witness 101 right there. Don't take other people's propaganda, why? Because they don't want you to come to the knowledge of the truth. So Jacob, you know, he tries to win, and she's like, well, I'm a Jehovah's Witness. You know, like, okay, well, more important than that, are you 100% sure that if you die today, you go to heaven? And she got into the whole, oh, no, I'm sorry, he said if you die today, that you have eternal life. And she was kind of taken aback on that, because obviously, she's not, she's probably expecting for him to say that you're going to heaven, right? So after a while, you know, he starts giving her some scripture, and then she goes, wait a second, let me get my Bible. She grabs her Bible on her phone or whatever, her false version of the Bible, and she starts reading through the scriptures, her scriptures, and the surprising thing is, I don't remember what scripture Jacob was showing her, but to be quite honest with you, the one that she had was almost similar to it. It wasn't like a whole lot of false doctrine, and she was just kind of like taken aback, like, oh, okay, this is kind of like similar to what he just said. And then she started getting into some vain janglings. You know, she goes, well, let me show you scripture. And Jacob just went, no, thank you, have a good day, and he just like walked away. He walked away so fast, I was still standing there. He walked away, and I was just like, and she looked at me, she goes, can I show you scripture? I was like, oh, no, and I just like, and I like walked away. It was fast, you know, but you know what, that's how you do it. And he's just like, back in the day, I used to argue with people, but not anymore. That's a waste of time. You know, you get no rewards for that. You get rewards for the person you're going to win afterwards. And I'm going to throw this story in just because it was funny. See, I'm going to puff them up, and I'm going to humble them, okay? So we want a lady to Christ, right? This is an indio. We want a lady to Christ. I went to Christ, and then she looks at Jacob, she goes, I know you. And he's like, this is my first time in indio. She goes, no. She goes, you're from like that rehab home. He's all, no. He goes, yeah, you're from that rehab home. I just went along with that one, Jacob. No, I'm just kidding, I didn't do that. But it was pretty funny. Now go with me if you would to, go to Acts chapter six. You know, there's a brand of Christianity that thinks that debates are good. That the disputing with people are good. And they'll often use verses in the Bible to talk about reasoning with people. And they try to kind of blend the lines between reasoning with someone and debating someone, okay? This is not biblical, okay? Now look at Acts chapter six and verse number nine. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and of them of Cilicia and of Asia disputing with Stephen. So they're arguing with him, they're debating with him. Verse 10, and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. So notice it makes the distinction where they're disputing, but they're not able to resist his wisdom and his spirit. Why? Because the power of God is on his life, okay? Then they suborn men which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council. What does that mean when it says suborn men? They hired people. You know, these sons of Belial, just like we see in the Old Testament where they would hire these sons of Belial to basically bring up a false witness against him is what they were doing there. But we see that they are disputing whereas he was giving wisdom and they couldn't resist that. Verse 14, skip down to verse 14, it says, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Go to Acts chapter 15. So they had to come up with a false accusation and a false witness to try to make him look bad. Look at Acts chapter 15. Now let me just be honest with you, I've gotten into debates before. So I'm not innocent of this crime here. I've gotten into arguments. I've gotten into debates. I've gotten into arguments with homos and I've been guilty of a lot of that. That's why I'm telling you this because I know it doesn't work. Now the whole thing with the sodomites is best to just walk away. I've had times when the person just, I'm trying to give them the gospel and have an inkling that it's a fag, but for the sake of potentially that they may not be, I just try to keep going with the gospel until they tell me I'm a homo. And at that point I'm just like, see ya, I'm out. And I don't care what they think of that. At that point, here's the exception to the rule. I don't care what kind of reputation I have before the homos because they're going to hate me anyways. They're going to hate Christians. They're going to hate God anyways. You know, I was with David one time and he was like, I'm gay, and he's not talking about being happy either. He wasn't talking about being happy. Dude had a lisp. And he was just like, I'm gay. And I was just like, well, see ya. He said, I'm going to call the authorities on you. You know, hate group and all this, and I'm just like, whatever, you know. At that point, who cares? I'm talking about people who can still be saved, amen. Okay, look at Acts 15 verse 5, it says, But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. This is irrelevant. And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So they're disputing about an irrelevant topic. And what does Peter do? He just goes back to the main topic at hand, which is the gospel. So this is a good tip when we're out there sowing him. If someone gets into some weird doctrine, they want to learn about something that's completely irrelevant to the Bible, try your best to segue back into the gospel. Because that's the most important thing, okay. You know, don't get into disputes, don't get into arguments regarding irrelevant things that don't matter. Now, I'm gonna get into this topic of silent partners again, okay. Because you know, especially babes in Christ, they have this tendency to just jump in when they're not supposed to jump in. And look, I'm just telling you right now, especially when we go out sowing you right now, if you're a silent partner, stay silent, okay. If you want people to like you, to like going soul, you know, to go sowing with you, you need to learn how to be a silent partner. You know the worst reputation you could have at our church is I don't want to go sowing you with that guy because he cannot keep his mouth shut, or she cannot keep her mouth shut, you know. You need to learn to be a likable soul winner. Amen? In other words, this is like, I like going with this guy. He knows what he's doing. He, we work well together, you know, and he helps me out. He said, well, what am I supposed to do? Pray? You know, pray thus within yourself, not as the publicans of course, you know, or like the Pharisee, you know, pray thus within yourself unto the Lord that this person would be saved. Minimize distractions, you know, be kind, look like you're in agreement, well what's going on, but don't jump in. Unless the person is looking to you like, can you help me out, throw a dog a bone, you know, at that point, don't be like, don't be like, you're her brother Bruce, got to keep my mouth shut, you know. No, at that point, jump in and try to make that transition even at that point as smooth as possible. Just say, what he's basically trying to say is this, you know, and pick up where he left off and at that point, when you know you've gotten to a point that you know he can take over, hand it over to him because people need training obviously, you know what I mean. But, don't be the type of person that people don't like to go sowing with. Be the kind of person where people, they enjoy going sowing with you, because sowing is not just work, though it is work, it's not just work, it's good fellowship. You talk and you hang out, you have good fellowship, by the way, here's another tip, okay, you know, when you're at a door, sowing partners, when you're at a door, don't like talk loudly up until the person opens the door and just continue on with your conversation. Yeah, that show was funny, it was just like, and the person opens the door and you're like, yeah, hold on anyways, hey, how's it going? That's like rude. Whisper if you have to. You know, what I try to do is when I'm talking, I try to listen to footsteps, the door unlocking, oh, that's just too much, but you know what, the small things matter. I try to listen to that and when I hear that, I'm like, oh, hold on, hold on, just wait for them to come to the door, no, I won't do that, because I want to be ready, you know, I don't want them to come halfway into my conversation, you know, so don't do that, you know, don't knock on people's windows, yeah, but they didn't hear the door knock, a door's for knocking, not the window, like, and then you just like go to the window and just start knocking on them, hello, oh, they're right there, I see them, don't do that, look, if they're hiding from you, it's because they don't want to talk to you, don't force them to talk to you if they don't want to talk to you, if they peek through the window and they're like, I saw them, no, just be like, okay, they don't want to talk, leave the invite and move on to the next, here's something very profound, you want to talk to people who want to talk to you, you understand that, that's what you, I know that's profound, you would want to talk to people who want to talk to you, not are hiding from you, okay, so and by the way, if they reject the gospel or if they're just like, no, thank you, oh, so you don't want to know how to go to heaven, so you rather than go to hell then, that's because that's basically what you're saying, right, don't do that, if they say no, thank you, say, okay, not a problem, well, here, there's the invite, if you have any questions, let me, let us know, move on, just move on to the next, there's hundreds of people out there and you're going to end up talking to this person again, someday, okay, you know, I'm all for persuading, let's persuade people but persuading should be filtered through the lens of discernment whether they're apt to listen to you or not, you know, I think Marcos ran into someone yesterday where they said, no, thank you and Marcos said, can I leave you with one verse and he said, sure, he gave him the verse, you know, you expound it upon that verse and Marcos looks like he read him and he said, are you sure you don't got a couple more minutes and the guy's name is John, he said, yeah, why not and John ended up getting saved, you know, meet the severe, are you sure, yeah, I don't have time, okay, not a problem, you have a good day, you know, God bless, move on, okay, now, what do I have you turn, Acts 15, oh, did we already read from Acts 15, yeah, we did, right, go to Acts chapter 19, Acts chapter 19, look at verse number 8, it says here and when he went into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God but when diverse were hardened and believe not but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus, now, people would look at that and say, see, that's what you got to dispute, we got to argue, we got to debate, well, let's look what he's disputing concerning what, look at verse 10, and this continued by the space of two years so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jew and Greek, go to Acts chapter 24, now, remember, the Bible doesn't contradict itself so if it's telling you not to dispute, not to strive and you find a passage that may sound like that's exactly what they were doing, it's probably not the same thing because God's word is perfect, it's not going to contradict itself, look at Acts 24, verse 10, then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, for as much as I know that thou has been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself, because that thou mayest understand that there are yet but 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem for the worship, and they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city, neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me, so he's saying, look, I'm not disputing with anybody, I'm not raising up the people, what that's referring to is basically getting them riled up, okay, but I confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I, the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written into the law and in the prophets, and have hope toward God, which they themselves allow, also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. Go back to Acts chapter 17, Acts chapter 17, look at verse 16, it says here, now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, and when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry, therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them, that met with them, then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some said, what would this babbler say, others, some, he seemed to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. Look at verse number one of Acts chapter 17, it says here, now when they had passed through, or excuse me, verse number two, and Paul as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preached unto you is Christ. So what does it mean to reason? When it says reasoning, it means to make sense of something. A modern term would be, a modern phrase would be to put the cookie on the bottom shelf. So disputing is not the same thing as reasoning. Disputing is arguing and debating to try to prove the person wrong of what they believe. Reasoning from the scriptures is to teach people what the Word of God says, and to put the cookie on the bottom shelf. To use scripture from the book of John in regards to belief and faith alone to help them to understand the Word of God. Go to Nehemiah chapter 8, and we'll finish off right here. Nehemiah chapter 8. See a lot of Christians like to rack up the dust. You know, they go on Matthew chapter 10 when it says shake the dust off your feet. There's a lot of Christians out there who just have dirty feet. Just dusty, dirty feet because they're not shaking it off. Here's another tip, by the way. If you're with a soul winner, okay, and you're the silent partner, you need to allow your soul winning partner, the one who's actually preaching the gospel, to lead. To lead the entire conversation. This means if the one speaking has discerned that this person is a heretic or it's time to walk away, you walk away with them. Okay. So it's not like, you see what, okay, well what about this? And then you start giving them more verses and stuff. You know, even if you don't agree to show unity. You know, if your sowness has discerned, okay, enough is enough. Let's move on. And you walk away and you're just still standing there, you're a bad silent partner. You know. Now the reason I still stayed there when Jacob did that is because he did it so fast, it made my head spin. You know. And then I was like, oh yeah. And then I walked away. But I wasn't trying to share any verses with her. He just caught me off guard to be honest with you. But if you just stayed there because you want to continue to just like argue with them or talk to them, you know, follow the leader. Follow the soul winning leader. And if that person has discerned, this person's a heretic, it's time to move on, you move on with them. Show unity with your soul winning partner, okay. So here you see that they're reasoning up. Look at Ezra. This is a good, we need to sow in like those in Ezra's day. Look what Ezra says, or excuse me, Nehemiah. Let's read verse number, let's see here. We're not going to read all this, but from verse four all the way to verse seven, it talks about the people who were causing the people to understand the law of God. And look at verse eight. So they read in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. That is your goal as a soul winner. You read the word of God distinctly, you give the sense, and you cause them to understand the reading. So you read the word of God, you tell them what it means, and then you help them to understand what that means. And here's a way you can help people to understand the gospel, by asking questions. Okay, I always, throughout my gospel presentation, I always say, does that make sense to you? You know, and if they say yes, I move on. But I try to put the cookie on the bottom shelf because I'm not trying to go at them with excellency of words, I just want them to understand. And what I do is throughout my gospel presentation, I make sure that they understand each point. At the very end, when I'm done, when I go to Romans chapter 10 to lead them in prayer, I say, I got one more verse to show you, but I just want to review with you real quick, just to make sure you understand what I just explained. And I go through each point, making sure that they understand the concept that they're sinners, that they deserve hell, Jesus Christ died for them, the whole thing, and then I give them the illustration to make sure that they understand they can't lose their salvation. Now obviously, if they hit a stumbling block and they still believe they can, then I have to park it there for a little bit and give a little more scriptures to expound on that to make sure that they understand. Okay, but look, during this time, this is not the time to just, does that make sense? Yeah, it makes sense? Okay, and then you just keep going, just so you can get them to pray. Look, it's not worth anything to come to church to glorify yourself and raise your hand, say you have a salvation, yet the person never really got saved. I'd rather have, I'd rather raise my hand for one salvation who really got saved, than for supposed five, six, ten, and maybe none of them got saved. Okay, let's not have this superficial number where you just try to glorify yourself. Look, by the way, if you raise your hand tonight and there's five, I'm not gonna be like, hold on a second, is it really just one? Come on, you know, I'm gonna believe you. I'm just gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and say, well yeah, this person saw five people saved, ten people saved. Now don't tell me you saw ten people saved in one hour, though. Don't bust the unjust LeBlanc on me and say you saw 18 people saved in one hour. I'm gonna write you off. Okay, but you know, if I'm not gonna say, you know, oh you saw five or whatever, but what I'm saying is this is, we want to make sure that we're thorough and that the salvation that we're getting are genuine salvations. Okay, not just so you can glorify yourself, make yourself look like the best soul winner in the church. We're not looking for the best soul winner in the church, we're looking for the entire church to just know how to do some good soul winning. Okay, now that's pretty much it. So the sermon today is simply this, look, we believe in confrontational soul winning, but confrontational soul winning doesn't mean you're gonna go fight with someone out there. That's combative soul winning. We want nothing to do with that lordship salvation method of soul damning, okay, which is exactly what that is. Don't bring that garbage into our church where you want to argue with people, well I don't have a blowhorn. Yeah, your mouth is a blowhorn. Okay, you know, we want to make sure that we're as kind as possible while we're out there giving people the gospel and getting some good salvations, amen. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word, we're thankful for those soul winners in times past who won us to the Lord. They were kind to us, they were meek, they were sweet-spirited, and Lord, potentially it was their attitude or maybe their personality or whatever it may have been that they really caused us to open up to the gospel. We got saved because of it and we're thankful for that. I pray God that you'd help us to be meek and humble as we go out there and recognize that this isn't a race to see how many people can get more saved than others. This is a race to make sure we win those people who are on their way to hell. And Lord, help us to go out there with a tender heart, to love the people we're gonna speak to today in Compton and see their heart, see their soul as a soul that could potentially go to hell one day. And I pray God that you continue to grow us in our love for them and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.