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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Good evening everyone! Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all find our seats. As you go ahead and find your seats, please grab a song book. Turn to song number 44. 🎵Music🎵 As our first song, song number 44 will work till Jesus comes. Let's all stand together for this first song if you're able. 🎵Music🎵 Song number 44 will work till Jesus comes. All together nice and strong on that first verse. O land of rest for thee I sigh, when will the moment come? When I shall lay my armor by hand, dwell in peace at home, will work till Jesus comes, will work till Jesus comes, will work till Jesus comes, and will be gathered home. To Jesus Christ I fled, for as he bade me cease to roam, and lean for succor on his breast, till he conduct me home, will work till Jesus comes. Will work till Jesus comes, will work till Jesus comes, and will be gathered home. I sought at once my Savior's side, no more my steps shall roam, death's chilling tight, and reach my heavenly home. Will work till Jesus comes, will work till Jesus comes, will work till Jesus comes, and will be gathered home. Amen. Wonderful singing. Let's stone up our service with a word of prayer. Lord God, Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us this day that we can come to your house and hear the preaching of your word, Lord, and especially to be here with our pastor. I thank you for bringing our pastor back safely, and I thank you for all the people that are here in this church tonight, Lord. I thank you for every precious soul here in this building, and I just ask that you would please bless this service tonight, Lord, that you would please fill the pastor with your spirit, and that you would give us your spirit as well in the congregation that we may leave here edified. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Please turn your songbooks to song number 191. Song number 191. In my heart there rings a melody. All together nice and strong on that first verse. I have a song that Jesus gave me and was sent from heaven above. There never was a sweeter melody. Tis a melody of love. In my heart there rings a melody. There rings a melody with heaven's harmony. In my heart there rings a melody. There rings a melody of love. I love the Christ who died on Calvary, for he washed my sins away. In my heart a melody, and I know it's there to stay. In my heart there rings a melody. There rings a melody with heaven's harmony. In my heart there rings a melody. There rings a melody of love. It will be my endless theme in glory. With the angels I will sing. It will be a song with glorious harmony when the courts of heaven ring. In my heart there rings a melody. There rings a melody with heaven's harmony. In my heart there rings a melody. There rings a melody of love. All right, great singing. Thank you for being here this evening. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song, which will be 63, What a Day That Will Be. Song number 63 in your songbooks if you want to get that ready. Just a few announcements. Of course, our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030. Sunday evening at 5 p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. Going through the book of 2 Samuel during our midweek service, so hope to see you there. Of course, on the left there is the fall program schedule. Today was the fall family photos, and you'll be getting your photo tomorrow, or not tomorrow, excuse me, next week, next Sunday for the Sunday morning service. We'll have all the photos for you. As we mentioned this morning, the Christmas programs have already begun. That will be every Sunday at 1230, so if you could do us a favor, just make sure you clear out of the auditorium at 1230 to give the Christmas program team time to practice up until one. And then the ladies prayer meeting and cookie exchange will be on Saturday, October 29th. Ms. DJ's baby shower is on Sunday, October 30th. I do want to mention, just to reiterate, that Tuesday, November 22nd is our annual Thanksgiving banquet, and yes, we will be dressing up for that. 1800s style, okay? Now here's the best way for me to describe what that looks like. Tombstone, that's all I got. That or a little house on the prairie, okay? And so that's the style, and we're all going to be dressed up like that. And you're going to be the weird one if you choose not to, all right? It's not us, okay? And so hope to see you there. And of course we give out a prize for the person who looks the best, and looking forward to that Thanksgiving banquet. And of course that will be the night that we give out the rewards for the fall program, whoever gets the most points for these weeks leading up until the annual Thanksgiving banquet. And so keep that in mind. No food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Make sure you're not loitering in the foyer or fellowship hall during the preaching service, and make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. Let's go ahead and take some soul-winning numbers from this past week. Salvations from Monday for the barstool was good, so we have 11 for that, right? Salvations, how about from Tuesday to Thursday? Any salvations from Monday to Thursday? Monday to Thursday, how about Friday and Saturday? Salvations from Friday and Saturday? One, okay. Anybody else? How about this afternoon? Salvations for this afternoon? One, two, okay. Who took hikes group? Oh, okay, hike went out. Does anybody have numbers for that? It was any? Ooh, no, just kidding. It happens, guys, it happens. He's watching on the live hike. Yeah, so he's probably watching on live right now. Anybody else for this afternoon? I want to encourage you to come to barstool if you do have a chance to. We're going out every other week, and it's actually really receptive in that city. We went last Monday, and man, it was really good. A lot of receptive people, very open to the gospel. And I'm not saying that every area of barstool is going to be like that, but the particular area we're going to is just really receptive. And a lot of heartwarming stories, if you want to say, just people who are just going through a hard time. And it's the season of the soul, and so they're open to the gospel, and they end up getting saved, and so that is a blessing. I want to encourage you, it's not tomorrow, but the following Monday is when we go out for barstool. So if you're interested in that, you can see Brother Ulysses for more details. All right? And that's it. Let's go to sing our next song. Song number 63, What a Day That Will Be. Song number 63, What a Day That Will Be. It's our third song, There's Coming a Day. All together nice and strong on that first verse. There is coming a day When the heartache shall come No more clouds in the sky No more tears to dim the eye All is peace forevermore On that happy golden shore What a day, glorious day that will be What a day that will be When my Jesus I shall see When I look upon His face The One who saved me by His grace When He takes me by the hand And leads me through the Promised Land What a day, glorious day that will be There'll be no sorrow there No more burdens to bear No more sickness, no pain No more parting over there And forever I will be With the One who died for me What a day, glorious day that will be What a day that will be When my Jesus I shall see When I look upon His face The One who saved me by His grace When He takes me by the hand And leads me through the Promised Land What a day, glorious day that will be Amen. Wonderful singing. At this time the ushers will come forth to collect the offering. And you can turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter number 2. Good evening. Tonight we're in 2 Timothy chapter number 2. 2 Timothy chapter number 2 and the Bible reads, Thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man thou wareth entangleth himself at the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husbandmen that laboureth must first be partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say, and the Lord give the understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord, that they strive not about words of no prophet, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun provain and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity, but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do dangerous thrifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this church you've given us, Lord, and the people within this church, Lord, and we thank you for your pastor, and pray that you bless him right now and fill him with your spirit as he preaches your word, Lord. And I pray that we in the congregation are edified by the preaching, Lord, and that we take away these truths from your word, and we're attentive to the hearing, Lord, and just bless the service and every aspect of it, Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in 2 Timothy, chapter number 2, look at verse number 23. It says here, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strives, and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, the Bible says, patient and meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God's prayer adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. And the time of my sermon this evening is ineffective soul-winning habits. I want to talk about some ineffective soul-winning habits this evening. And one of the reasons I want to preach this is because, you know, our church is a soul-winning church. It's a church that emphasizes the importance of preaching the gospel and fulfilling the Great Commission and going out there, opening our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel. And, you know, the longer we do it, the more ground we cover, the more souls we see saved. You know, we want to refine our preaching. We want to get better at preaching the gospel. We want to remove hindrances and things that are just ineffective from our presentation because we want to become better at zoning. By the way, this is a principle that you can apply all across the board in your Christian life. You know, you want to be a better employee, and therefore you want to refine your skills as an employee. You want to be a better husband. You want to be a better wife. You want to be a better cook. You want to be a better employee, a better student. You always constantly have to work on the areas in your life that you're striving to be good at and not just kind of be satisfied with, well, I kind of already arrived. I know how to do it. I know how to fulfill this job correctly. You know, we want to get better at it the longer we do it. We want to become more effective. And, by the way, when I say ineffective, I'm not saying that people don't get saved. It's just certain habits that soul winners can adopt that can render them ineffective in their ability to see people saved, okay? Now, before I get into the points here, you know, first and foremost, let me just mention some, let me give some dishonorable mentions of ineffective soul winners, okay? You know, how about lifestyle evangelism, okay? Now, what is lifestyle evangelism? Well, lifestyle evangelism is for churches and Christians who basically are ashamed of the gospel of Christ, okay? You know, they don't have boldness or they're not spirit-filled, and they think, well, just by my life and by my light and by my, you know, ability to just live the Christian life, I'm going to draw all types of people to Christ through the foot of the cross, but that's not true. Now, obviously, we understand that the Bible tells us, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. And, obviously, it's important to have a good testimony before the lost and make sure that you have a good reputation to them which are without. But, folks, the Bible specifically says that we have to open our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel. We actually have to preach the gospel to get people saved. Our lifestyle doesn't get anybody saved, okay? Now, our lifestyle can maybe be an icebreaker for someone. They can look upon us and say, maybe this person's a Christian, maybe this person goes to church, maybe this person knows something about the Lord, but at the end of the day, it can't stop there. We need to make sure that we actually preach the gospel to them. But a lot of churches will partake in lifestyle evangelism, and they'll use that as an excuse or as a substitute to actually preach the gospel with their mouth. Number one, because of the fact that they're afraid. They're scared of rejection, they're not bold, they're not filled with the Spirit, and they feel like confrontational soul winning is ineffective. It's like, how are you just going to go up to someone and tell them that they're going to hell? I'll show you how, you know what I mean? By telling you first, right? Because a lot of most of these people who practice this are not even saved. They go to some liberal church, some mega church that doesn't really preach the gospel, or they have a false gospel, they believe you have to repent of your sins. It's funny, I was in Texas, and I was preaching for Pastor Shelley, and right next to his church is this massive church, right? It's this huge church, and I was with my son out there, I was with Bruce, and we're going to Pastor Shelley's church, and I was passing by, I was like, Bruce, look at this building. I said, I promise you, this is a false prophet. I was like, this church is probably wicked as hell, I was telling him. He's like, why, Dad? And I was like, because whenever you see a church like this, a building like this, more often than not, some false prophet behind the pulpit, he probably has a false gospel, he's probably just a really wicked person. He's like, really? I'm like, yes. So then we get to the building, and I was telling Pastor Shelley, I'm like, hey, that church right there is huge. He's like, oh, that's Todd White's church. Now, if you know anything about Todd White, I mean, he's as false prophet as you can get. He's the dude with the dreadlocks, and he's healing people or whatever. He always looks high. He looks like he just came out of a drug addiction program or something like that, and he's pastoring, but that guy has a false gospel. That guy's not saved. But you know, a lot of the churches that are like that, they talk about this lifestyle evangelism, getting people saved by means of your life or whatever. It's nonsense. Obviously, we need to have a good reputation and have a good testimony before the Lord, but that cannot be a substitute for preaching the gospel. Here's another dishonorable mention. How about track drops and door hangers? Now, obviously, it's not wrong. It's not sinful to drop off a track at a door because sometimes we knock at a door. People don't answer, and we just leave a track there, right? But sometimes there's churches out there that only depend on that, and in fact, they'll call their soul winning. They'll call their track drops soul winning times. Well, they'll literally go to a neighborhood, and they say, Yeah, we're going to do some soul winning, but literally all they do is drop off a track. They're just a group of 50 mailmen who go to doors and just drop off a track and just leave it there. That's not preaching the gospel, okay? Now, that's not to say that someone might not grab a track and look at it and see the church address and want to come to church or whatever, but let me just say this is that in order for a person to get saved, they can't get saved reading a track. Let me just make myself very clear on that. An unsaved person, the Bible says that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned, and therefore they need a regenerated believer to show them from the scriptures on how to be saved and lead them in calling upon the name of the Lord, okay? You say, Well, isn't the Bible powerful enough? Of course it's powerful enough, but you know what? If all we needed were tracks, if all we needed was the Bible, why don't we just saturate our neighborhood, our city, and our state with a bunch of Bibles and just call it a day? I'll tell you why, because God has actually commanded us to actually explain it to them. There's plenty of examples, of course Acts 8 is a big one, where unsaved people, when they look at the Word of God, they can't decipher what it's saying. They don't know what it's talking about. They don't know how to interpret it. They need a saved person to show them, and so it's ineffective to drop off a track, drop off a door hanger, and allow that to be the substitute for soul winning, okay? And then, of course, the last one is probably my pet peeve is street preaching. That is ineffective, okay? Now, look, yes, it's very annoying, okay? This is what I call the jack-in-the-box drive-through type of preaching, okay? And, you know, they stand in the street corner with the blow horn, and they're just yelling in there. They have a sign that says, turn or burn, and they're just annoying every person that comes to the light. You know, that's not effective. And let me just say this, is that the vast majority of street preachers, I'm not saying all of them, but the vast majority of them preach a false gospel. They all preach a repent of your sins gospel. They're not getting anybody saved. I'm sure there might be a few out there, a handful maybe, who actually preach right on salvation, but I guarantee you the vast majority of them aren't getting people saved. Because even if you're preaching the right gospel to like a ton of people that are just driving by, which one of them are calling upon the name of the Lord if you don't spend time actually talking to them, okay? Now, thankfully, our church doesn't partake in any of these, or should we say our church doesn't substitute soul winning for any of these, okay? Now, we do lifestyle evangelism in the sense that we want to have a good testimony. We do track jobs in the sense that if someone doesn't answer the door, we leave the track there, but we don't do street preaching, okay? We do neighborhood preaching. We do door to door preaching, but we don't stand in the corner, look like an idiot with a blow horn, annoying every Tom, Dick, and Harry that walks by. And it is annoying. I mean, you get yourself a Pentecostal street preacher. That's a Spanish Pentecostal street preacher? That's annoying, my friend, okay? You don't know what he's saying. All you hear is hallelujah every once in a while, and amen, and all these things, and people are just like, look at that. That changes no one's life, okay? But you know what it is? A lot of it is just self-glorification, vainglory, just look at me and how bold I am to stand in the corner and be willing to put myself out there for the cause of Christ. That's not bold, my friends. That's idiotic. It doesn't work. And I don't care what anybody says. It's wrong, okay? And you don't see examples like this in the Bible, by the way, of people who are street preaching like that. Now, let's get into some things that this evening in regards to soul winning, some habits that people who do preach the right gospel and do do it the right way, some habits that can render them ineffective and, you know, kind of essentially hinders them from seeing more people saved or preaching the gospel to more people. Here in 2 Timothy 2, it says in verse 24 that the servant of the Lord must not strive. Now, in context, I do believe this is referring to soul winning, okay? He's just kind of addressing the servants of the Lord, those who preach the word of God. He says that they must not strive. They must be gentle unto all men. And then he says, apt to teach. Now, obviously, this is a requirement for like a pastor, an evangelist, but even for a soul winner, okay? Because soul winners have to know how to teach the word of God to an unsafe person in such a way that you're putting the cookie on the bottom shelf and you're explaining these eternal truths to a point where they understand what you're saying and they're willing to believe on Jesus Christ and make that profession of faith. So the Bible says that we have to be apt to teach. We need to be patient. We need to instruct those that oppose themselves with meekness. And the goal is that they would get saved and recover themselves from the snare of the devil. Now turn with me, if you would, to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, by way of introduction, I'm going to read you a couple of verses here. Proverbs 16 verse 22 states this, Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it, but the instruction of fools is folly. The heart of the wise, listen to this, Teaceth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips. My prayer tonight is that when you listen to this, you don't just balk at it and say, Well, I already knew these things and I don't need to improve my soul winning. You know, if you are a righteous person, you're going to teach your mouth and you're going to add learning to your lips. You're going to add this to your repertoire. You're going to add this to your artillery, to your instruments that you use to get people saved. And you're going to say, It's learning time. I want to become a better soul winner and therefore I'm going to listen. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 1 says, He says, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. So here's the next thing I want to mention, is the fact that obviously with the points that I'm going to give you tonight, they're very practical. A lot of it is practical. But I want to make sure that you understand that the most important element that you could possess as a soul winner is to be Spirit filled. Okay? You need to be a Spirit filled Christian and not just depend on these practical points and these practical factors that we're going to discuss tonight, but rather understand that you need to couple them with you being Spirit filled. The practical point that I'm giving tonight is you doing your part as a soul winner to improve on your soul winning. Okay? Now, go to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter number 10. Romans chapter number 10. Let's talk about these ineffective soul winning habits that sometimes people can be guilty of. Number one. Now, we're going to be very practical tonight, and even some of the points that I have I don't have verses for, because they're just simple practical advice that I'm going to give you from my experience as a soul winner from the last 15 years, things that I've learned from others, things that I've observed in our church. And if you feel like I'm talking to you, and you feel like I'm talking about your habit, you're right. Okay? If the shoe fits Cinderella, then it fits. Okay? Don't get offended. Don't get mad at me. Just improve, amen? I've had to improve. I've had to work on things, and even to this day I'll hear something, I'll hear preaching, or I'll go soul winning with someone. I'm like, you know what? That was a good idea. That was a good way of saying something. I'm going to add that to my artillery. I'm going to add that to the instruments that I use as a soul winner. I'm not just going to say, well, I already know it all. I'm a pastor. No, I want to continue to improve as a preacher of the gospel. So ineffective soul winning habits, number one, listen to this, becoming too mechanical. What does that mean? Treating your presentation like a script. Okay? You say, oh, man, you're already hitting on it. Yes, of course. Now, you say, what's the problem with learning a script? There's nothing wrong with learning a script. I think everyone should learn and memorize verses. I think they should memorize phrases. I think they should memorize a lot of these things. The problem is sometimes they become so dependent on just getting all the information out there, they essentially forget the element of just having feeling. You understand? You become like a robot, and you're not really reading the person. You're not taking the person into consideration. You don't see if the person is genuinely interested, if they've rejected you. You just want to get through your presentation. You want to get through your script because this is what you learn. You want to see how far you can get in your script. Don't be mechanical in your soul winning. Now, look at the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 10. In verse number one, it says this, Brethren, my heart's desire. Did you read that? My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. So what do we see here? We see that the Apostle Paul genuinely wanted people to be saved, and his heart had a desire, which would mean that he genuinely had love and compassion for those whom he was preaching to. You see, when you go out there and preach the gospel, it shouldn't be like, OK, I've memorized all this. I'm going to quote it verbatim. I don't want to get off course here, get off track. I just want to say everything I need to say right now. Then you don't have the right desire. The right desire should be, Lord, use what I've memorized coupled with my compassion for this person to get this person saved. OK, he says, I bear the record that they have the zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. So you have to memorize the verses and you have to memorize the points. But you need to avoid the urge of just getting through your presentation. OK, it's just like, well, I just want to get all five points across, all six points across. I want to make sure I quote all these verses. Avoid being mechanical. Now, the goal, listen to this, the goal should be muscle memory. OK, so what do you mean by that? Well, if you have a list of, let's say, 10 verses that you're memorizing. OK, the goal should be that you memorize those verses to the point that they're just come like second nature to you. You're not really struggling to quote them or you've memorized your presentation in such a way that you can just freely speak to that person using your script, using what you've memorized. But then you can also focus your emotions on the person, period. Do you understand? You can actually like interact with the person. You can actually, you know, like love the person. You understand? You could actually, you know, involve your heart in the conversation with the person. You see, you don't want to become a cold hearted soul. It's the last thing we want. We want to get a lot of people saved. We want to preach the gospel to a lot of people, but we don't want to become cold hearted. Or it's just like you just see the next door as a number. You just see it as another person. You don't really care. You know, you got to understand these are people who are going to hell. They're not saved. You know, their life is just completely destroyed and damaged. They're on their way to hell. And so make it muscle memory so that you don't have to worry about, oh, man, what's the next verse? Oh, man, what am I going to say next? Make it muscle memory so that you can focus on the emotion of the conversation. The goal should be muscle memory where you're so familiar with your presentation that you can focus on the emotions. This helps with starting a gospel presentation at any point in the conversation. I think this is a problem that some people have is they don't really know how to talk to people. Some people, I think, struggle like talking to people. Like they'll talk to people and then it's just like the person's already told you, you know, just off the cuff, yeah, I'm a sinner. I know, you know, hell's real. So obviously that tells you they already know a couple points. But sometimes soul owners think, well, I got to start at the very beginning now. You know what I mean? I got to, I got to, whoa, don't get ahead. It's just like, hey, you're not following the plan here. You know, I'm supposed to teach you that. You know, so let me start at the very beginning. I don't want to know about your family and your life real quick, okay? You got to focus here. And it's just like Romans 3, Romans 3, 10, like I got to start right there. You know, you should familiarize yourself with the gospel so much that you can start anywhere. You could just pick up at any point of the conversation because of the fact that you already know how to use your weapons. You already know how to use your tools and your instruments. You know, you're actually, how about this? You're actually paying attention to what they're saying. And here's another thing. When it becomes, when people become too mechanical in their soul winning, you know, the soul winner often agrees to or compliments things that should not be agreed or should not be complimented. Like, yeah, we were going to a Catholic church. Well, that's good. Well, you know what? More important than church, though, it's like, dude, that's not good. What do you mean that's good, you know? And sometimes, but what it is, and look, this even carries on even not even in soul winning. Some people have conversations with people and they can't wait till that person finishes what they're saying just to talk themselves. Like, they're ignoring everything that person is saying because they have this idea, they have this sentence, and they just want to, like, overlap you with that. Don't be like that as a soul winner. You shouldn't be like that as a person, period. That's a horrible conversation to have, okay? And most people can sniff you out, like, this person's not interested in what I'm saying. They just want to get across what they're saying, okay? But especially when it comes to soul winning, okay? Because you actually have to pay attention to what people are talking about, you know? Because what if someone is just like, yeah, I just lost my father. Well, that's good. Well, you know, more important than church, though, it's like, that's not good. You know, lost your father, you know, you got to, like, condescend to men of low estate. And you have to make sure that you have compassion, that you're genuinely listening to people, okay? And not just go through a script and, you know, just try to get through your presentation. Don't neglect the love you should have for people. And when you become too mechanical in your gospel presentation, that's an indication that you're just too mechanical. You need to make sure you slow your roll. You need to make sure that you listen. You're like, well, if I'm listening, I'm not going to remember what I'm trying to say. Well, then, you're probably not ready then. Or, you know, you need to write it down somewhere, or you need to pray and say, Lord, bring these things into my remembrance. But I've learned this, is that it's actually easier to preach the gospel when you already have it in your heart. It's easier to quote the verses when it's already in your heart. I have an easier time, I have a better time getting someone saved or preaching the gospel when I'm just genuinely, like, interested in the person. I'll just be honest with you. You know, because this person seems cool, they seem nice, they seem open. I just want to talk to them, and you just talk to them. Instead of just like, all right, what do we got here? You know, and you're just kind of going through the motions. You don't want to go through the motions. Don't become mechanical in your preaching. Jude 22 states, and of some have compassion, making a difference, and others saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. And I think this could be a temptation for some of our people in our church, just because there's a lot of testosterone in our church, to just kind of be cold towards people. You understand? And, you know, obviously you're expressing a lot of love by going out there and actually taking time out of your schedule and going out there and preaching the gospel, but you need to make sure you go out there with a tender heart. Okay? You are not so manly and so godly that you just can't have a tender heart. In fact, you're not manly or godly at all if you don't have a tender heart. Understand? Because the heart of God is soul winning. The heart of God is getting people saved, and God loves that person. Don't lack that genuine love that you can have for someone. And I'm not saying that every single time you go out there, you're just going to have that mushy feeling or something. You're just all, you know, a tear in your eye. You know, sometimes you do it out of discipline, but make sure you check yourself at the door and say, all right, now it's time to put myself in the right frame of mind. Make sure that I'm not being mechanical here. These are real people. And here's an example that I like to give. Here's a good way to help you put yourself in the right state of mind when you're talking to people. What if that was your relative? What if that was your mom? What if that was your dad? What if that was your son? What if that was your daughter? What if that was your sister? What if that was your brother? Think about it like that. Do what you can to put yourself in the right state of mind. Now, here's another thing along with that is, don't keep the conversation one-sided. Where it's like, you're the only one talking. I've seen some Gospel presentations where it's like, I don't even think I've even heard this person talk once. And the soul owner is just like, just like shooting out info. And it's great and everything. However, you want interaction. It's not a one-sided conversation, my friends. We need to make sure that we observe the people and see if they're actually understanding what you're saying. You know what I mean? And one thing I just do from time to time when I'm preaching the Gospel is I'll stop and say, does that make sense to you? You understand that? Does that make sense? And if they're like, yeah, that makes sense. Okay, then I can move on. Or if they're like, I think so. I'm like, okay, well, let me show you another verse. Let me give you this illustration. Let me try to help you with this. Don't just plow through your presentation. You just kind of want to get through it. Interact with the individual. Ask questions. This is all under being mechanical, okay? Don't take too long. You say, what is too long? Well, I'm not going to put a time limit on it, but I would say like 30 minutes is too long. I'm joking when I say I'm not putting a time limit. Obviously, you know, I've had instances when I preach the Gospel to someone and they're genuinely interested, but they're just kind of very simple-minded. And so they have a hard time getting these truths, but they're not subverting the Word of God. They're not becoming argumentative. They're not becoming rebellious. They're not trying to waste my time. They really want to know. They're just having a hard time grasping these truths. And I had one instance, and it's been a while since I had a person like that, where I was with Brother Milan Knezevich. He's at Faithful Word now, but we were out sowing. And there's a guy, I'm just preaching the Gospel to him, and literally it took me like 40 minutes. But the only reason I stood there, it wasn't because I was giving him two admonitions and he was rejecting them. He genuinely did not understand, but he wanted to understand. So he's like, I don't really get that. What do you mean by that? Can you explain that a little more? Or does that mean this? So he wasn't pushing me away. He wasn't rejecting what I was telling him. It was just a matter of he just didn't get it. And I took the time, and it took me about 40 minutes, but then the guy ended up getting saved. Now, I will say this. That was a grown adult. And there are instances when I'm preaching the Gospel maybe to a 12-year-old or a 10-year-old, or maybe even someone who's younger than that, and they just don't get it, I'll stop after a while. Because sometimes with kids, a lot of that stuff just goes over their heads. And their retention is not very good. They can only pay attention for so long, and so I sow seeds and I move on. But if it's an adult who's interacting with me and they're just talking, then obviously they don't understand and they want to understand, I'll spend time with them. But let me just say this. You shouldn't be taking 45 minutes at each door. And I'll get into that, more into that later. Don't become too repetitive where you just hit one point or you're just repeating that point over and over and over and over and over again. You're going to render yourself ineffective in your soul wanting. Don't answer for them all the time. You ask them a question, it's like you can't lose your salvation. Right? Right? It's just like, they're all right. Make sure that you answer some questions, but not all the time. You want them to interact. You don't want them to be like, yes, no, give me a genuine answer. And then some people just don't know how to move on. You need to learn how to take rejection. Don't be the creep. Where it's like, the girl's already rejected you, man, just move on. And you're just being weird about it. You know, that's kind of like the same thing with soul wanting. It's like the person doesn't really want to talk to you anymore. The door is about this wide open and you're like, point number three, point number three. And then you just, don't just force it. Don't put your foot at the door and be like, where do you think you're going? People don't want to spend time talking to me. I don't want to talk to them. You know, I'm supposed to be a steward of my time and I can better spend it elsewhere preaching to someone who actually does want to listen to me, who actually does open the door. No, obviously, you know, in the day and age in which we live, people are afraid of COVID and stuff and whatever. And they're just like, they barely open the door. You know, if they're there listening to you, yes. But if they're just like, okay, yeah, yeah, sure. And they're just closing the door and you're like, you're still trying to get your word in? Just move on. Learn how to take rejection. Know when to move on. So don't become mechanical in your soul wanting, okay? Don't lose the feeling. Don't lose compassion. Don't lose your love. Make sure that you have genuine interest in the person you're talking to, okay? Now, you shouldn't be crying at every door either, though. You know what I mean? Don't just like have a breakdown every time you talk to someone. I'm just saying like, you know, the way you would genuinely love a person the way you would is the way you should talk to that person, okay? Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, if you will. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. And then we'll go to Proverbs 17. So don't become too mechanical. Don't just treat it like a script. You're like, man, that's kind of confusing because I feel like my team leader is telling me to learn this script. Well, then you better spend Monday through Saturday learning the script. You better spend a sufficient amount of time memorizing that. And practice with your spouse. You're like, I'm not married. Practice in front of a mirror. Practice with some, you know, practice with a brother in Christ at church. Practice with someone. Say, I need to practice real quick. Can I just go over this with you? Because I want to be able to learn it so that I'm not mechanical when I go out there, okay? Ineffective habits of soul winning. Number two, listen to this, being too thorough. Yes, you heard right. You can become too thorough in your Gospel presentation. Now, let me explain what I mean here. Look at 2 Corinthians 11, 3, it says, But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Now, let me just harp on a couple things right now, okay? These are just different points. Using every illustration you've just ever learned. Because look, you go to a soul winning church, you listen to pastors of different churches that go soul winning, and you have access to a lot of content. And you get yourself, you get your hands on a lot of good illustrations, right? And look, there's some creative people in our church who have created illustrations, and you're like, man, I like that one. But here's the problem, it's just like, when you go and knock on the door, you don't need to pull out all these illustrations. You're just like, I want to use every single one of these, okay? Proving every doctrine with five scriptures or more. Chasing unnecessary topics, okay? You say, what do you mean? Well, let me say this, spending unnecessary time on necessary doctrines. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, I call this flexing, okay? You say, what do you mean by that? Well, sometimes because you're not here or you're not preaching, you learn something and you kind of want the person to know what you're talking about, you purposely question or give a question in such a way that you want that person to express that they don't know about it and you're like, well, let me spend some time talking about this then. And I'll give you an example, okay? When I preach the gospel and I talk about the fact that Jesus has died, I just say, you know, He died, He went to hell for three days and three nights, and then He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And they nod their heads and we move on. However, I've seen people, and I know this exists, where it's like Jesus died on the cross, He went to hell for three days and three nights. Did you know that? And they're just like, no, let me just show you real quick. And it's just like they show you every script. They go to Jonah, they go to like Acts chapter 2. And it's just like they just want to show that they have that knowledge in the Bible, okay? Now, let me explain something, okay? If you have a closet full of rifles and different guns and knives and you have grenades, you're not going to use all that on one enemy. You know what I mean? Like you want an array of different weapons for different occasions. You're not going to use a missile launcher on one person, you know what I'm saying? Well, when you learn these different verses and different phrases and different illustrations, you're adding this to your repertoire of instruments and weapons in case these questions come up. But if you're constantly using all of them all at once, what you're doing is you're flexing. You say flexing before who? More than likely your soul winning partner. Just want to kind of show how much you know of the Bible right there. Now look, when I talk to people and I say, hey, Jesus went to hell for three days and three nights, and they're just like, what? I'm like, yeah, have you heard that before? Like, no, okay, let me just show you real quick. Then I'll show them. However, if they don't even bat an eye at it, then I just move on. Why spend unnecessary time on necessary doctrines if they already believe it or they don't even question it, right? But sometimes I think soul winners will word certain things or just like, did you get that? You don't believe that, huh? Well, let me just show you real quick. Let me just prove this from the word of God. Do you believe the word of God? I'm going to show you from the Bible right now. Let me just show you. Let me take a couple minutes right now and just show you. But then the gospel presentation turns into like 30 minutes or whatever because you're chasing these rabbits of something of a person that they don't even doubt that doctrine, okay? Let me say this. You know, you don't really have to spend a whole lot of time convincing people that they're sinners. I think people know that. Most people know that. So you don't have to go through 10 verses proving them. Let me just say this. A lot of pastors out there who are great soul winners, I've been soul winning with them and sometimes they don't even show them verses about being sinners. Sometimes it's like, yeah, we're all sinners. You agree with that? Yeah. And we deserve hell. And then they just jump right into Revelation 21a. I'm not saying that that's what you can do or you have to do. I'm just saying to some people that's like a no-brainer. You know, I spend time going through my different instruments when people seem to not understand or not agree with something. Which, by the way, that's why it's important to be able to read people. So when you say, you know, we're all sinners and they're just like, you agree with that? It's just like, I mean, I'm not a bad person. It's like, I do good things. It's like, okay, well, let me just show you a couple of verses from the Bible. You're not trying to flex here. Look, we all know that you know the Bible. Okay? You go to a church where soul winning is emphasized. You already know the verses. You don't got to prove it to your soul winning partner how good of a soul winner you are. Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 17. Proverbs 17 verse 27. He that hath knowledge, spareth his words. And a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. What is he saying? When you have knowledge, you're not looking to just throw it all out there. You use it sparingly when it's needed. Okay? And look, sometimes because, you know, in a sense the new IFB, we're kind of like leading the way and believing that Jesus went to hell. Like we preach that a lot. You know, sowners have this tendency to want to be like, you know, I want to show you this because this is what we believe or whatever. But the reality is this, is that a lot of people believe that. It's just that the old IFB don't believe that. When you're talking to old IFB, they'll fight you on that one. Old IFB, the vast majority of old IFB just reject that doctrine. But we're not preaching the gospel to old IFB people. And let me say this, let me just drop a bomb on you. Catholics all believe that Jesus went to hell. It's actually the easiest group of people you could tell that Jesus went to hell with and they just don't react to it at all. And in fact, anybody who just hasn't been ingrained with dispensationalism, even if they never heard it, it just makes perfect sense to them. I've told that to people and they're just like, they're just kind of like, yeah, that makes sense. And so discern when people understand and move on. Don't spend unnecessary time on necessary doctrines. You know, when we talk about the Trinity, you don't have to go deep on the Trinity either, unless of course you're preaching the gospel to what? I heard a whitewash. What? A white person? What in the world? Yeah, you guys need to serve bad. A Jehovah's Witness, for example. Which, by the way, that's why it's important that when you are breaking the ice by asking them what church do you go to, you actually pay attention to what they say. Because based upon their answer, you go to your artillery and say, okay, I'm going to need this one. I'm going to need this one. I'm going to need Hebrews chapter one. I'm going to need John one one. You already know what verses you're going to go to. And by the way, I'm getting ahead of myself here, but when you're comfortable preaching the gospel, you're able to modify it to that specific person. Because the Jehovah's Witness struggles with the Trinity, the Pentecostal struggles with eternal security. And so you kind of, you know, the Jehovah's Witness also struggles with not believing in hell. So you kind of know how to modify your gospel presentation to emphasize certain aspects of what you know they don't believe in, to help them to believe in that, to place their faith in God's Word. Okay? That's why it's important, you know, learn the script, but you need to learn the content far more than just the script. So that you're comfortable enough where it's just like, well drop anybody on me. I can show them from the Bible at whatever point. It doesn't matter who it is. I can just modify my presentation to this person's beliefs to help them overcome that specific false doctrine that they bought into. Okay? Don't have an improper use of knowledge. We're just like, you just want to drop every single verse that you've ever learned on that topic. You want to drop every single illustration. You're just flexing. You don't need to flex. You know, your soul wanting partner knows that you know the Bible. That's why you're out there soul wanting. You don't need to prove that to anybody. Folks, when we go out there, literally the goal is to help them to understand. And you know what? They don't necessarily need 10 verses if they've already agreed the first time. It's just like, they struggle with Jesus going to hell. You show them Acts chapter 2 and they're just like, oh okay, that makes sense. Alright, let me show you Jonah though, chapter 2. Alright, let me show you some other verses in case you're questioning or something. You just want to flex your ability to go through the word of God and show that, but you don't really need to do that. Okay? You say, why not? Well, what's wrong in that? Well, then you spend too long on your gospel presentation and let me just say this. People's retention is very short and they get bored with talking to you or they just start spacing out because you just took too long. And this is especially true when it comes to children and teenagers. Okay? You need to learn how to put the cookie on the bottom shelf and recognize, you know, I need to help this person understand and I can't just drop all these verses on this person, on this teenager because I'm going to lose them. And I've had instances like that in my personal life when I'm out sowing and I just went too deep on something and I already knew by the end of that, I'm like, I already lost this person. This kid's not even paying attention anymore. Because they're just not interested. You just dropped too much knowledge. For us, it's just like we go through like 50 verses in a sermon, but for the common Joe Shmoe out there, they're not used to that. Okay? And so, don't set up questions in a way where you have to explain it. Ask them to see if they really believe it or here's the thing, you can just pay attention to their expression. Some people, you know, they're very expressive and they'll either like, you know, kind of like look at you weird or they'll just kind of look to the side and be like, anytime someone does one of those to me where it's just like, like, do you believe you're going to hell? Yeah, I guess. Or do you doubt that? Because it sounds like you kind of still doubt that. You know what I mean? But if they're just like, yeah, I believe that. Okay, then be satisfied with that answer and move on. Okay? And so discern when people understand and move on. You know, be careful using theological terms too. Or it's just like, you know, he's our propitiation. They're like, what? What was that? Or, you know, we need to believe in the doctrine of imputation. He imputed his righteousness unto us. No one knows what that means. There's Christians who don't even know what that means. There's safe people who don't even know what imputation means. Okay? And obviously, if you're quoting from Romans chapter four where that term is used a lot, explain to them what that means. Okay? And don't make them feel stupid by making yourself look superior in your understanding of these theological terms either. Don't show off to your soul winning partner. The Bible says, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. Okay? But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Now, you might have a soul winning team leader who has shown you all these things and they're telling you you should do these things. I'm the balance of this view, saying there's nothing wrong with these things, but you need to make sure you keep them in check. You know, your soul winning leader is there to say, learn the knowledge, get all these illustrations, learn these verses, learn these phrases. I'm here to say, just don't use it all in one setting. It's good to have a cabinet of all types of spices and, you know, all these ingredients, right? But you have that variety of ingredients, you have the variety of ingredients and spices so you can make different types of meals for different types of occasions. Not going to just throw it all in one, you know, batch and make some smorgasbord, whatever. I don't know anything about cooking or baking, okay? I'm just saying. You get what I'm saying though, right? You know, you could have a variety of different ingredients, you don't want to just throw that all in one bowl or whatever and just eat it like that. I know it doesn't work that way, I get it. But I don't cook for myself, so be merciful to me. You know, the purpose of having all those ingredients is to use them for special occasions, okay? And, you know, if you really want to flex, you just be ready to give an answer. That's actually a legitimate flex right there. Instead of pouring all your knowledge into one person who's never fought you in any of those doctrines whatsoever, you're just like, alright, I get it man, you know. Why don't you use it when necessary? When, you know, the Pentecostal comes to you and they're like, well, God won't leave us but we can leave God or whatever. Pull out those verses. Pull out those phrases. Did you get someone like that earlier today? Or your mom? Yeah, I mean, that happens, right? And, you know, pull out those verses at that point and use it and, you know what, that's a flex. Because you can say it off the top of your head and you can pull out that instrument, you can pull out. You're like, oh, you know, I got that spice right over here actually. I got that ingredient right over here. And it's just like, you know, people come up with weird, stupid questions sometimes and it's just nonsense. And let me just say this, don't get caught up in just vain jangling either. Where, like, you're halfway through your Gospel presentation and you're like, let me ask you something. And they close the door. What do you think about the flat earth? And you're all like, now I was hoping you would ask me that. Let me just show you these verses real quick. You know what, I've had a lot of people talk to me about that while I'm out soloing. And I'm just like, you know what, I don't believe that but I don't think that's really important right now. Because if you believe the flat earth or you don't but you're not saved, you're going to go to hell. So I always try to redirect them to that which is most important. You understand, just say like, really, that doesn't really matter though. You know what I mean, because if you're not saved, you know, you're going to go to hell. And it's just, it's worthless. Okay. Overuse of illustrations, not being satisfied with their answers. Now I will say this, you know, I think everyone can attest to this. We're not satisfied with our family's answers. Right? I mean, they can tell us they believe on Jesus Christ and like, can't lose your salvation. But if they don't have the right intonation, or they're not like, you know, they don't sound sincere, then they're not saved. Because we want them to be saved so bad, we want them to just react exactly how we want them to react. But you know what, you're not like that with people out there though. Or at least you shouldn't be. When you go out there, you know, you should be satisfied with the people's answers. And not every person is going to break down and cry. Not every person is going to have an aha moment. Some people are very monotone in their personality. And you have to be satisfied if they're verbally, you know, giving confirmation to that belief. Just be satisfied with that and move on. Don't be this Calvinist where it's just like, oh, you know, they have to be sorry and they're hard, and they have to break down, and they have to have all this emotion with it. That's nonsense. Because that doesn't happen sometimes. That doesn't happen a lot of the times actually. And so sometimes you can be too thorough. How do you know you're being too thorough? Well, if every door it takes you like 30 to 40 minutes to preach the gospel, number one, you need to speed it up a little bit and stop being so monotone. Oh, here's another thing. I think this is one of my points. Yeah. Unenthusiastic and rude. Number one, don't be unenthusiastic at the door. Hi, I'm just here from the church. Are you busy? Oh, I just want to ask you a really important question. Oh, okay. They don't want to listen to it. They're just not even interested. And then unenthusiastic people, and again, I'm not saying you have to be like me because I'm way over the top when it comes to enthusiasm sometimes. I have no problem with enthusiasm at all. Okay, thank you, Brother John. He's like nodding. He's like, yeah. But sometimes people do want to listen and it's just like, okay. And then there's all kinds of dead time. Be considerate of other people's times. Be ready. And if you have to put tabs on your Bible, if you have to put the little colorful things going on, you know, if you need that, then do it. Or you could just memorize it and just be like spit the verses. Here's what I do. I like to be very efficient when I go sowing and quote a verse as I'm going to a verse. That's what I like to do. You know what I mean? Quote a verse as I'm giving a verse because I don't want to waste this person's time. And you know what? I don't know how much time they're going to give me and so I want to be able to make sure I explain clearly. I want them to know that I'm serious about what I'm talking about. And so there needs to be some level of enthusiasm. And I know this is hard for the introverts in our church. I get that, okay. Introverts are not, you know, they're not into that. But you know what? There has to be some fervency in spirit, the Bible says. You have to be fervent in spirit, right? Which means you've got to be excited. You've got to be alive, awake and enthusiastic and don't be like a Jehovah's Witness at the door. You're just dragging your feet and you're just uninterested. And you say, well, give me a point. What can I do to be more enthusiastic? Well, how about this? Smile. Smile at the door. You open the door and you're just like, hi. You're just like mad or something. You're going to look like that guy who served me on Thursday or something. You know what I mean? Just like, oh, I'm mad. That guy probably sucks at soul winning. He probably preaches the gospel the way he serves people. He just comes and he just drops off the track at the door. I'm praying for you. That's probably what he does. If he does any soul winning. You know, when the person opens the door, put a smile on your face. Like, I don't really feel like smiling. Then fake a smile. Just do what you got to do. And if you don't want to smile, then you got other issues. Because we have joy in the Christian life, my friends. And you know, I don't know about you, but when I go soul winning, I have a good time. Because I'm with someone that I like to be with, I like to fellowship with. We're sharing stories. We're doing God's work together. We're yoking up with the Lord Jesus Christ. We're getting people to say we're doing something significant. And we're sharing jokes along the way. We're laughing a little bit. We're having a good time. You should have a smile when you go out on soul winning. This is God's work though, brother. It ought to be serious. You know what? It is serious, but that doesn't mean you can't smile and have a good time doing it. Okay? And there's something about a person opening the door and you're there with a smile on your face saying, hey, how's it going? You know, I'm Bruce Mejia. I'm from First Works. By the way, the Bible says that the light of the eyes. What's the verse? The light of the eyes. I don't remember. It's about the light of the eyes, though. Here, let me look it up right now. Talk amongst yourselves. No, I'm just kidding. Oh, the light of the eyes rejoices at the heart. And it's referring to someone who looks at you with bright eyes, you know? It feels like they're bringing good news to you. You know, if I come to you, I'm just like. You know, you're going to think, like, what's wrong? But if I come to you, like, it's like I got good news for you. You know, you just kind of look you look happy. You look bright. You look enthusiastic. That's how you ought to be at the door. Like, well, you know, I'm not that enthusiastic. You've got the good news, my friend. What do you mean? You're bringing good news to someone who doesn't have it. And it's just like, hi. You know, you don't have to say it like that, but just like, how's it going? I'm Gio Francheschini from First Works Baptist Church. I want to give you this invite to my church. You have a church you go to by any chance, you know? And it's just like, no, I don't go to church. Well, you're always welcome to come to our church. But we're out here asking a more important question than that. And that is, are you 100% sure that if you die today, you go to heaven? You know, actually, like, look bright. Have that countenance about yourself. Be enthusiastic. And don't be rude. And in fact, let me just say this. If you're a rude person, I'd rather you not go somewhere. Because then you put a bad taste in people's mouths about the church and about the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, you say, give me an example of how I can be rude, you know? It's just like you get to a door, you knock on the door, you give them an invite. They're not interested. Like, are you 100% sure that if you die today, you go to heaven? I'm not interested. Oh, you don't want to know? Oh, you don't have time for that? You don't have time for everlasting life? It's out there, my friends. There's people who do stuff like that, okay? Or it's just like you just want to guilt trip this person. That's rude, okay? If someone doesn't have time to talk to you, this is what you do, all right? Well, thank you so much for your time. Read that invite, and hopefully we'll see you sometime soon, all right? God bless you. Move on. Even if they're mean to you, okay? Now, obviously, if it's some faggot, some tranny or whatever, throw up real quick and walk away, you know what I mean? Just like, ugh, and then just move on. But that's rarely going to happen, okay? But, you know, if it's someone who is just like, okay, like, for example, it was a couple weeks ago. I think I was with Brother Cody's team. I might have been with Brother Cody's team, and I don't remember who I was going soloing with, but I knocked on a door, and I'm like, hey, I'm from First Works Baptist Church. I just want to give you this invite to our church, and it's one of those screens where you can't see anything, and it's just like, we worship Satan here. We don't believe in God. I'm like, well, you know, more important than church. And I was just like, I just want to show you what the Bible says on how you get to heaven, and then he was just like, F Jesus. I'm not interested. And then I was just like, all right, see you, and I just walked away. I wasn't like, you know what, well, F, you know. I didn't say that. That would have been wrong. I was just like, okay, and I just walked away, and that was it. But that didn't make you mad? Not really, because that guy's going to go to hell, and it's just like, it doesn't, there's no skin off my back. I tried the best that I could. And I'm not going to get into some argument with this person. Come and say that to my face. Why are you hiding behind a black screen? You know, it's just like, why do that? It's not worth it, you know, because here's the thing. You know, obviously, that person was probably really wicked, but you never know. Maybe he's just doing that just to kind of bother Christians, just the message trolling. And you know what? He might meet a season of the soul where he comes to Christ. Who knows? Hey, it can happen. Okay. And so, you know, if he ever does, I want him to remember our conversation and him think, you know what? There was someone who came to my door, and they didn't revile me. They weren't mad at me. They didn't yell at me. They were kind, you know what I mean? Now, I'm not talking about sodomites here, okay? I'm talking about people who are just, you know, they're just trolling. Sometimes you get people who troll you, okay? And here's the thing. Don't feel like you need to get the last word in or vindicate yourself at the door because, you know, we're getting rewarded when we get reviled. We're getting rewarded when people curse us or whatever. And so be enthusiastic. Don't be rude. Don't be a person who's just, you know, you just don't want to be out there. You're just kind of dragging your feet, and you just have your arms crossed at the door. You're just looking at the watch. You're looking at your clock. You're just looking because you just, you know, you just want to leave or something like that. It shouldn't be that way. A little dead time here. Go to 1 Corinthians 14. Here's another problem. Here's something that will make you ineffective in your soul. A habit that can render you ineffective is not being thorough enough, okay? So I don't want to leave that out. Because I'm not saying, you know, you just don't be thorough. Don't be diligent in going over the Scriptures. No, you should be thorough. And, you know, sometimes, unfortunately, even with independent fundamental Baptists, they have a tendency to just not even be thorough at all. I mean, I've seen churches where they don't even give verses. They just kind of give the points, and they don't even give verses or anything like that. That's not thorough, okay? I've seen other churches where they do like a one, two, three, pray after me type of a thing. Where it's just like one, two, three, pray after me, and they're not thorough in their Gospel presentation. That's not right either, okay? Be thorough where it's necessary. Be thorough where it's needed. You know, if a person's not understanding a specific doctrine, be thorough, okay? And don't be guilty of just kind of breezing through your presentation because you just want to get it over with or something like that, and skipping a lot, okay? The Apostle Paul said, how I kept back nothing that was, listen, profitable unto you. So we should give them that which is profitable, right? And not just get into extra doctrines that's not profitable. You know, you shouldn't be going through like the series on revelation in your Gospel presentation. Where it's just like they get confused about, you know, losing their salvation. You give them the verses, and you say, you know, we do get chastised here on this earth, the Bible tells us. And then you start getting into the millennial reign. You're like, you know, you're going to wear crowns, and you're going to rule over cities. Let me show you what the Bible says about that. And then there's a new heaven and a new earth, and you just start getting, you know, that's the kind of stuff that kind of goes over people's heads, okay? And so avoid those things because we don't want to hinder someone getting saved because they just receive too much information. But also make sure that you're thorough in that which is necessary for them to learn. Here's another thing. Preaching in a language you're not fully fluent in. That's a bad habit, okay? If you don't know a whole lot of Spanish, don't preach the Gospel in Spanish. Okay? You, oh, are going to hell, oh. So, oh, you need the Gospel, oh. Or something, you know, it's just like you're just trying to navigate your way through Spanish. Don't do it. Okay? Now look, if you know enough Spanish to give an invite, to invite them to church, leave it at that. Okay? Just leave it at that. But if you're not comfortable and you definitely don't know how to respond to someone or to answer their questions, don't get into that with them. Okay? And I know there's certain folks that have used even my Gospel presentation, they've showed them that and people have literally like prayed. Let me just say this. I think that's great but I wouldn't count that. So if someone's willing to watch a video of me preaching the Gospel to them in Spanish, I think that's awesome and I think that's wonderful. But I would not count that because you don't know if they really got it because of the fact that there's no interaction between you and that person. Okay? The Bible says here in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 6, Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you except I shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by doctrine? Stick to what you know. Don't get into other languages that you don't understand or, you know, you're just like, well, I learned a couple words in Spanish. I think I could get through the Romans Road or something like that. Don't do it. Okay? It'll render you ineffective. We already talked about being argumentative. Make sure you're not arguing with people out there. And here's the thing. You know, if you run into someone like a Jehovah's Witness, for example, and they're, you know, you guys are crossing paths and they greet you or something like that, I rebuke them. I have no problem rebuking those people because they preach a false Gospel. Okay? I have no problem rebuking the Mormon, rebuking the Jehovah's Witness, rebuking the person who's preaching a false Gospel. I have no problem with that whatsoever. But we shouldn't get into an argument with them because we're already right. Okay? Right? We don't need to prove to them. We just need to rebuke them sharply, etc. And here's my last point for ineffective sowing habits. Let me say this. Preaching to groups. Let me talk about a couple of things when it comes to preaching to groups. Okay? And mainly talk about, you know, it could be teenagers, it could be kids. And this is actually something that you see even in Belize sometimes. You'll run into a group of kids. My personal preference and in my experience, if you run into a group of kids, let's say five kids, okay? And they're all willing to listen to you. You have to understand what your cap is. What I mean by what your cap is, how many eyes can you pay attention to in one moment or in one setting where you know if they're listening to you or not? What you don't want is just, well, I got five here, so I'm just going to preach to the Gospel to all of them and just assume that all of them get saved because all of them are going to copy one another, call upon the name of the Lord, and I'm just going to assume all of them get saved. The safe way to go about it, okay, is you understand your cap. You say, what is that? Well, if you know you can pay attention to two children, their interaction, their reaction to what you're saying, and if they're understanding you, focus on those two children. And this is what I personally do. If I ever run into a group, I'll start preaching the Gospel and I'll look at all of them, and then I'll look at the one who is like, what's awful? You know, they're just kind of like doing other stuff. And then my body language will go directly to the ones who are still listening. And then it'll narrow in on those who are just watching me intently, listening intently, and I'll just ignore the other ones, okay? Because at least you know these two are listening or three or whatever. Now, let's say, for example, if there's six of them and all of them are just listening intently, I mean, your cap is so good, you're just like, bam, bam, I got them all. Okay, well, this is another thing you could do. Even if your cap is six, because you're going two and two, as you should, you break them up. You say, I'll take these three. You take these three. I'll go over here so we're not overlapping here. I'll preach the Gospel to them. You preach the Gospel to them. It was like, whoa, you know, I want to get all those six, though. Don't be vainglorious. I want to get all ten. Don't be vainglorious. Be effective. Don't be vainglorious. Just observe who's listening here. Focus your attention on them. Ignore the other ones. And by the way, if the other ones come back around, then talk to them afterwards. I've had times when I preach the Gospel to two kids and I'm preaching the Gospel to them and their friend comes up, this happened a couple weeks ago, and said, hey, can I listen in on this? And I said, absolutely. And I start preaching the Gospel and my body language turns to him and talks to him at the same time, but he was just kind of like looking around and so I automatically closed the circle and just began to talk to the two because this one was not paying attention. And eventually he just walked away. So I don't want to waste my time. I want to make sure that I'm paying attention to the body language of the people who are actually listening to me, interacting with me. And if there's ten of them, I'm not just going to say, well, you know, I'm just going to do it to all of them, all at once, and just assume that all of them get saved. That's not effective sowing. Now, will you be placed in situations like that sometimes? Yeah, maybe, because maybe you don't have a sowing partner. But then you can narrow it down if you wanted to. Or you can take the risk and say, I'm just going to preach it to all and just assume all of them get saved. But I don't think you want that. I think you want to know who actually gets saved and who's actually listening. Because go back to the point on being thorough, right? Part of being thorough is knowing who's actually the one paying attention, who's actually the one calling upon the name of the Lord, okay? And so something that can render you ineffective in your soul and a habit that you can build is that you get these clusters of kids and teenagers and you just want to give the gospel to all of them, but then you don't really know who's getting saved, okay? It's better to focus your efforts on those who are paying attention to you or break them into two, three groups amongst the soul owners so we can just all preach the gospel to them and we know that they're paying attention. We know that they're calling upon the name of the Lord. Does that make sense to everyone? And so I hope that helped these tips here. I know I might have stepped on a lot of toes here, but you know what? We're a soul winning church. This is First Works Baptist Church. So every once in a while, we just need to refresh ourselves on these principles and just keep sharpening our sword. I'm just, you know, we're just taking our sword tonight, sharpening it, making it better so that we can just be more effective for the cause of Christ. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We're so thankful for the privilege we have as your people, Lord, to be stationed here in California and to preach the gospel to the neighboring cities and neighborhoods, Lord. I pray that you continue to bless our efforts, Lord, and we're trying the best that we could. Please fill us with your spirit and your power to get as many people saved as possible, Lord. And may you show yourself strong on our behalf as a church that we would see multitudes saved, not just here in California, but in the United States and the rest of the country and also all around the world. I pray you bless our missions, trips, Lord, to Belize. And of course, we're going to Barstow and help us to implement these principles in our soul wanting to integrate them into our repertoire so we can become more effective for you, Lord. We love you. We thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Please turn your songbooks to song number 261. Song number 261, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. Song number 261 as our last song. All together nice and strong on that first verse. O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see. There's life for a look at the Savior and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting, He pass and we follow Him there. Over us in no more half dominion, for more than conquerors we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. His word shall not fail you, He promised. Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.