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So I want you to look at the passage there in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and look at verse number 20. Verse number 20, it says, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, As though God did beseech you by us, We pray you in Christ's stead, Be ye reconciled to God. The title for the sermon this morning is Ambassadors for Christ. I will be preaching through Jeremiah this afternoon. Now I've often heard a lot of preaching that we're ambassadors for Christ. I'm sure if you've been in church in any length of time you've often heard, you know, that we need to remember that we're ambassadors and of course an ambassador is someone that represents another nation, another country, and we need to keep that in mind as we live our Christian lives and serve God. I'm sure you heard similar things like this, that we need to just keep in mind the back of our heads that we're representing God. And that's great, you know, I think that's a great principle to live by, but quite often during these sermons that I've heard preached, I'm not trying to take any preacher, but they miss the main point of what it means to be an ambassador for Christ. So let's backtrack a little bit there in verse number 18, 2 Corinthians 5, 18, it says, And all things are of God, who have reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Okay, so God has given us this ministry to reconcile people to God, right? Let's keep going, verse number 19, to wit, that means to witness, we're called to be witnesses. Hey, we are the true Jehovah witnesses, okay, whether it's a witness of God, were to wit that God was in Christ, look at reconciling the word unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. So see, we're given this task, we're given this ministry to reconcile the lost to God. And then it says in verse number 20, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. And so, as I told you, quite often, you hear the preaching, you know, make sure you're careful how you live, and you know, live godly and you live righteously because you represent heaven. And I'm all for that preaching. But then to ignore the fact that the main reason this is written, the context, the purpose of this is because we're meant to witness of God, we're meant to witness of the gospel where to be soul winners, that's what it means to be an ambassador for Christ. And so we're up to part five of the soul winning series. And you know, I told this sermon, ambassadors for Christ, and I just wanted to bring that thought to you, you know, in order for you to be an ambassador for Christ, you have to be a soul winner. If you're not soul winning, if that's not in your practice, if you're not used to giving the gospel to people, you're not acting as an ambassador. Okay, so this is this is a role that God has given us. It's not optional. You know, God says, well, if you want to be an ambassador, you know, if you want the Ministry of Reconciliation, no, we've been given, it's already been given to us. So either we're doing the ministry or we're not doing the ministry, and that's between you and God. It's not between you and me. You know, I don't think bad of you if soul winning is not your thing, but that's between you and God. And that's something you need to sort out because we see very clearly here that God commands us to be soul winners. Now, if you're not sure what an ambassador is, I think most people know, I just took a quick dictionary definition just so we understand it. An ambassador means a diplomatic official of the highest rank, sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative, okay. So this is what's wonderful. When you go door to door soul winner, you're just preaching the gospel to a family friend or someone that you know, you are taking on the highest rank of heaven. You know, you are representing God, you are there on the earth representing God, you're representing the state of heaven, you're representing God himself and you're there too. What are you doing there? You're trying to reconcile that person to God. You know, one of the main roles or one of the main purpose for an ambassador, you know, especially when we talk about the nations, you know, if Russia sent an ambassador to Australia for example, one of the main purposes is their job is to work for peace. They're trying to keep peaceful relationships between the two nations. That's exactly what we're trying to do. We're trying to bring peace to man. You know, God does not promise us peace on this earth. In fact, Jesus Christ said he sends a sword, okay. But one thing that we can do, one of our purposes is to bring peace between a man and his creator, that they know they can stand right and justified before God should they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, all right. So this has to do with, you know, when we talk about ourselves being ambassadors, keep in mind that we are a representative of God, you are taking on the highest rank, okay, as you go and proclaim his word. So shouldn't that, you know, just that thought, shouldn't that cause you to consider the way I conduct myself is super important? Because, you know, if a Russian ambassador, as I said, sent his ambassador to Australia and he's sloppy, you know, he's, you know, hard to get along with, you know, all he cares about is his nation, he's got no interest in the nation that he's going to, you know, or he's spying on the nation, or he's not following the rules of the nation that he's living in, don't you think he's going to be a lousy ambassador and not actually cause peace? In fact, you know, being a lousy ambassador might very well cause war, okay. So you know, if we're ambassadors, we have to be mindful, we're there to bring peace between man and God, and if we don't act in the proper way, we might cause further conflicts between that person and God. And so we need to be mindful, you know, no matter if that person gets saved or if they don't get saved, that, you know, we've just acted well as an ambassador for Jesus Christ, okay. So we've got several things that we want to look at when it comes to how we conduct ourselves when we go door-to-door soul winning. Can you please turn to Ephesians chapter 6, please. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 14. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 14. While you're turning there, I'm going to read to you from 1 Peter 3.15, which says, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. So we are called to be always ready or ready always to give an answer to every man that asks for the hope that is in you, okay. The first point that I have in order for us to be, you know, productive ambassadors is to be prepared. We have to be prepared to give an answer. You know, the gospel should be something that's at the front of your mind. You know, I've said it before, when you're soul winning every week, you're constantly prepared. You're keeping the gospel at the front of your mind. And when you have that at the front of your mind, you're going to be better equipped should an opportunity presents itself, you know, not even door-to-door ministry, just opportunity at the workplace, amongst your friends, amongst your family. If you've got that at the front of your mind, when the opportunity presents itself and you're alone with someone, you're going to be more able to be able to give that person the gospel and give a good presentation. Whereas if you've been out of practice for several weeks, out of several months, you know, you're not going to be so in tune when that opportunity presents itself because you've not been sharp, okay. So this is something we need to remember, that as ambassadors, we need to be prepared to go into the battle, right. I'll keep using the example of Russia, okay. But if Russia were to send an ambassador, don't you think he's done the homework about Australia? Don't you think he realises some of the history between the two nations? He understands the trade agreements that might exist between nations. You know, he's got Australia, even though he cares about Russia more than Australia, but he's still thinking about Australia. He's thinking, how can I be an effective ambassador here? Well, the same thing, brethren. If we keep the gospel at the front of our mind, we're going to be able to be better, we're going to be sharp and effective when the opportunity presents itself to cause somebody to, you know, to bring them to peace between themselves and their Creator. And so we need to keep ourselves prepared. You're in Ephesians chapter 6, verse number 14, Ephesians 6, 14. It says, Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness. Verse number 15, And your feet shard with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Say, what's the ambassador's job again? To bring peace between the nations. We're called to bring the gospel of peace. We're called to be there prepared, the preparation. We need to be prepared, brethren. Okay. Now, if you've not gone soul winning, the best thing you can do is prepare yourself. You know, get yourself, you know, get your plan, your presentation plan together. Make sure you know how you're going to present things. Make sure you know where to start. You know how to end. You know, if you've got your, you know, I've gone through seven passages of the Bible when I gave my plan, my presentation plan. You know, make sure you have those verses memorized because sometimes people won't allow you to open the Bible. But if they don't allow you to open the Bible, if you're prepared and you've got those verses memorized, you're still able to quote the Bible. Okay. You're still able to give them the gospel even if they don't allow you to open the book. All right. So you've got your plan and, you know, how else can you prepare? Well, you don't have to speak yet. You know, that's why we have the silent partner. That's why we go two by two so somebody can be silent, you know, someone that's inexperienced or someone that's not comfortable. Or maybe English is not even your first language and you know you're going to struggle at the door. But you know what? If English is not your first language and you have another language, God can use you as well. I mean, Brother Ramzan, you've got someone say what language do you have to speak yesterday? Assyrian. Okay. So we have the gift of tongues operating right now, right? I mean, if you've got another language, praise God, you know, English might not be your first language. It might be the hardest language you can communicate with, but you don't know. You might come across somebody that does speak your language and you can step in, you know, being fluent in that language and help that person, you know, but the point is you're prepared. Okay. And if you go to someone's door and you knock on someone's door and you're not prepared, you're not going to be very effective. Okay. You're not going to be a very good ambassador. Okay. Prepare yourself. I prepare myself. Number one, pray. Ask God to give you the Holy Spirit of God. Ask Him to give you boldness. Ask Him to give you wisdom. Okay. Number two, know your plan. Number three, know your verses. Memorize your verses. And number four, if you've not gone soul winning, become a silent partner. Learn the ropes. I promise you, if you go as a silent partner after several weeks, you're going to be itching to speak. You're going to get to the point where you're like, yeah, I'm tired of not saying anything. I want to take the next door. It's going to happen. At some point, it's going to happen. I promise you that. Okay. We need to be prepared when we give the gospel to people. Can you now please turn to Mark chapter six, Mark chapter six for me, verse number seven. And Sebastian, could you get me a cup of water, please? You turn to Mark chapter six, verse number seven. The next thing I want to talk about is the method, the method by which we go and preach the gospel, especially in light of our door to door ministry that we have in this church. Okay. Mark chapter six, verse number seven. It says, and he called unto him the 12, that's the 12 disciples, the 12 apostles, and began to send them forth by two and two and gave them power over unclean spirits. So I'm not sure if you ever wondered, why is it that we commonly go two by two, right? We like to send somebody with another person, right, either a silent partner or someone else that knows how to preach the gospel where you can kind of just take turns between yourselves. Well, the reason we do that is because we see there is a principle that Jesus Christ started with when he sent his disciples to go and preach the gospel, right? And so that's, you know, we need to, you know, ideally, we want to go with somebody else. There are several reasons why we would go with someone else. Now it's, I'm not saying that it's ever wrong to go by yourself. You know, we've looked at Jesus Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well. We know that Jesus Christ sent his disciples away to buy some food and then, you know, he stayed behind and he just had a one-on-one ministry with that woman at the well. I'm not saying that's ever wrong, okay, but the practice that we see of Christ, most often than not, you want to be able to go with somebody else, okay? I would even take, rather take one of my kids with me and there are several reasons for that, okay? Number one, there's accountability, there's accountability. So, you know, I don't expect this ever happening in our church, but, you know, if you have someone with you, it's not like you're going to be like, all right, I'm going soul winning for an hour, then you go to McDonald's, you have a Big Mac meal or something, and then you come back after an hour, man, I had such a great time with soul winning. Obviously, with someone else, there's some level of accountability, right? You're going to get out there, there's someone that's going to be a witness of you having gone out there to preach the word, so you've got that. You've got that accountability with somebody else. And also, you know, in case you, you know, find yourself getting into the flesh, because sometimes, you know, when you go soul winning, I've had it happen, where I feel like getting into the flesh because this person at the door has irritated me, when you have someone with you, you know, you're more mindful about the people that are around you, so, you know, it's helpful just having somebody around with you. The other reason it's good to go with somebody else is just for the fellowship. You know, some of the sweetest fellowship I've had with brothers and sisters in the Lord is just going soul winning. Just having somebody there with you between the doors, you can talk about things, talk about the Bible, talk about your life. You know, I've gotten to know people better during the door-to-door soul winning ministry, okay, and just, you know, you become, you know, you develop friendships, you realize the things they're struggling with, so you can pray with them, and so just the fellowship, it makes the soul winning a lot easier. You know, going soul winning for an hour by yourself is kind of tough for an hour by yourself, but going two hours with someone else is a lot easier, because you can just chat along, you know, you have, you know, the time goes faster, is what I'm trying to say, when you have someone with you. The reason why it's good to go with somebody else is it's a learning opportunity. You know, and look, I'm the pastor of this church, I don't know, I could be wrong, but I think I've probably been soul winning the longest in this church, but when I go with somebody else, I always look at it as an opportunity that I might be able to learn something from someone else. You know, how they answer a question, how they, you know, approach this topic, or what kind of examples they've used to give this, you know, I've refined my gospel translation multiple times. I mean, the core verses have remained the same, but how I explain them, you know, have always just over the years, you know, the way I explained in 2021 is not going to be the exact same way I explained in 2022, because I'm going to have learned something, I'm going to have developed certain things, and just refine myself more and more, well, when you go with someone else, you know, don't be so prideful and thinking, well, I'm the only one that knows how to present it properly, hey, you learn from me, no, you learn from them as well. There's probably some great things, one of the best things I remember learning, I went to soul winning with somebody, and, you know, I would never give John 3.16, you know, someone was not interested, I would just move on to the next door, and I remember going to soul winning with someone for the first time, and, you know, I was soul winning longer than this person, but whenever somebody was not interested, he would always say, well, look, you know, and he'll take a step back so they know that he's about to leave, well, look, just before I go, if I could just leave you John 3.16, you know, the most famous verse in the Bible, would that be okay? And most often than not, they see that you've taken a step back, and they're like, oh, this guy's leaving. Okay, just give me John 3.16 before you go, right? And you can get the word of God into that person, you know, you can summarize John 3.16 so well, you can give them the gospel in a nutshell, and I just thought, man, that's so awesome, that's so good, and then I started to do it myself, you know, so you can always learn from somebody else, it's a learning opportunity in that way, but also, if you're a silent partner, you can learn, you know, I won't mention that again, but, you know, you can learn as a silent partner as well. The other reason why it's good practice to go two by two is for safety reasons, you know, if there's ever some type of, you know, if someone's kind of wanting to attack you or hurt you, they're less likely to do it if there's someone else there, okay, they see two people, they're less likely to do that, you know, or if there's some type of dog attack, or just, or you know what, even if you just sprain your ankle and you can't walk, I mean, just having another brother there that can help you, you know, for safety reasons, it's so important. But let me just say something, you know, as an ambassador, if you're going by yourself, you know, knocking doors by yourself, please never enter someone's house alone, never go into someone's home alone, I don't even like going to someone's house, I just, I generally don't like it, you know, even if I'm with someone else, but sometimes like yesterday, we had an old lady who said, you know, come into our house, sit down in our couch, I was with brother Anthony, we walked in there, you know, it wasn't my preference, but she wanted us in there, so we walked in there, in about, you know, 20 seconds later, her grandson runs in, Nan, why did you let these guys into your house? You know, and she's like, what's the problem? And I told her, you know what, if I was the grandson, I'd be concerned as well, you know, having two men, I didn't know she was by herself, you know, I didn't know if her husband was home or things like that, but generally speaking, you know, especially if you're by yourself, do not enter someone's home, okay, just say, look, I can give you the gospel right here. Sometimes I've gone, doors are so winning, and the parents aren't home, but there's a child, and I'm saying like, you know, if a child's like 12 or plus, I would still give them the gospel, you know, if they're very little, I'd rather not just give them the tract or something, but if someone's, you know, a bit of an older child, and no one's home, I often say to that child, look, I'll just stand back here, and I'll take a step back, just in case there's neighbours watching, you know, I can speak to you behind the door, I can speak to you from this distance, you know, and, you know, especially if there's children, do not go into the house if they're alone, okay, you know, just keep yourself safe from any kind of false accusations, and that's the other reason why it's so important to have a second person with you as a second witness, just in case there is a false accusation, just in case you go knock someone's door, and someone tries to, you know, just lie about you, oh, this person tried to do this to me, this person tried to do that to me, right, if it's just you and someone else, it's your word versus their word, okay, but if you have a second person with you, you've got a second witness with you, it's going to give you protection from any kind of false accusations, okay, so there are many, many reasons why a second person is so helpful, let me just go through one more that just come to my mind, you know, sometimes you're giving the gospel to somebody, and they're listening, you're getting through it, and then someone else from the house steps in, or someone else from outside, you know, comes into the house, and they start to disrupt the conversation, well, that's where the second person can step in and, you know, intercept that person, you know, intercept them before they interrupt the gospel conversation, and that's happened many times, there's many times where I've had, you know, someone was giving the gospel to someone else in the house, someone else steps in, or someone steps outside, starts to interrupt, I've gone to intercept, and I've started to give them the gospel, the best ones are when that person gets saved, and the person you intercepted got saved, you know, that's like the best outcome, instead of it being interrupted, and potentially nobody getting saved, so there's many, many reasons why a second person is so helpful, okay, the next method that we use, can you please turn to Luke 14, please turn to Luke 14, Luke 14, and while you're turning to Luke 14, I'm going to read to you from Acts chapter 5, Acts chapter 5 verse 42, you go to Luke 14, I'm going to read to you from Acts 5 42. One of the criticisms that we often receive is, why do you go house to house? You know, sometimes people aren't happy that you've come to the house, and people will say to me, you know, stop going house to house. Well, the reason we do that is because in Acts chapter 5 verse 42, it says, And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. And so you can see that they went to every house, whatever house was available to them, they knocked that house, they preached the gospel, okay, so that's another reason why we have a house to house ministry, that's why we don't just stand on a corner and just hand out tracts, okay, hey, come to church, hand out tracts, that's not, that's not what they did. All right, they went to every house, preaching the gospel. So this is, we see this happening in the Bible, we want to pattern ourselves after the Bible, after the practices that they used to do. Okay, so that's why we do that. And listen, you know, anytime anybody criticizes our church or criticizes a soul winner, look, I get at least one phone call, maybe multiple phone calls a week criticizing our soul, whether it's here or it's up there, okay. And I promise you this, I always back the soul winner, always. I never give in and say, oh, yeah, you're right, maybe we shouldn't have knocked your door. Never. Okay, never, never. I always back the soul winner, I always back the soul winning, the only time that I would ever take something on board, but actually, you know what, we'll get to that later, we'll get to that later. You're in Luke chapter 14 verse 21, please. Luke chapter 14 verse number 21. There's another principle that's really important for us to consider when we go door to door soul winning. It says Luke 14 21. And this is, of course, a parable that Jesus Christ gave, but we'll just pick it up there in verse number 21. It says, So the servant came and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servants, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind. So the teaching here, the parable is that this Lord was doing a wedding for his son, and they had invited all their special guests, but they, for one reason after another, they did not want to come. They just were too busy to come to the wedding. So he gets angry, but he says the servant, let's just go everywhere. Go to the streets, go to the lanes, and he goes, bring in the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind. You know, one effort that we should be striving to do, and it's a little bit hard in Australia, I realise this, but you know, there's a reason why we don't like knocking the rich areas. Now, look, we're going to have to knock the rich areas one day, okay? But it is proper practice to go to the places that are poorer, to go to the lower social class areas if possible, okay? Because generally speaking, the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind, they're going to be more receptive than those that are just fine in life. Now, the reason I say it's hard in Australia is because no one in Australia is truly poor, okay? Especially the Sunshine Coast. I'm telling you, everyone's rich up there, okay? Everyone, okay? And so you sort of have no option, alright? And people often say, you know, go to the poorer areas. What poorer areas? Everyone's got a house, everyone's got food, everyone's doing just fine. But listen, there are some places that you would say, you know, might be a lower social class than others. Well, we should prioritise those areas. You know, if we go into an area and it's a rich area and just it's so unreceptive, but there are other areas that we've not knocked that we know are going to be more receptive, well, the wise thing to do is to leave that place for now and go to the more receptive areas and knock those areas, okay? So there's nothing wrong with changing our plans halfway through. We go to a block, we go to an area, man, this place has mansions. This place, we can't even walk through the gates. None of these people are interested. Well, let's change our plans midway. Let's go to another block of houses where they might be, you know, not as well off as the others. So that's proper practice, you know. Look at verse number 22, Luke 14, 22. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said, unto the servants, go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. The next thing that we want to understand here in our method of soul winning is that there's nothing wrong with continually knocking doors. Like, we'll never get to the point, brethren, where we've just knocked every door, we've knocked every house, and we've already knocked this block. Listen, all right, sometimes it happens where, you know, we mark out where we've gone door to door soul winning, but then accidentally we go back to the same place. And someone says, oh, yeah, we already knocked that area, okay? Well, you know what, if you've knocked the area a second time, guess what? People move. You know, people that were not home might be home this time. And I always rejoice when we accidentally knock an area that's already been knocked. And then they come back, oh, so-and-so got saved. This person got saved. Praise God then, right? Because, you know what, we want God's house to be full, okay? And so there's never a time where the soul winning ends. It's not like, oh, we've done it all, we've done this area. I mean, great, if we've done an area, great. But there's nothing wrong with going back to that area again because things change over time, okay? So look, the point is this, is that, as it said in verse number 23, it says, and compel them to come in. You know, we go there not as timid people. When we knock a door, we ought to have boldness. I'm not talking about pride. I'm not talking about being arrogant. I'm just, you know, you got to be there and you got to be sure of your message. You know, someone sees behind the door that this person truly believes this message. They've got confidence in what they're saying. They're confident in the way they present themselves, okay? Then that's going to help us be able to compel them. That means to put a little bit of pressure on them, hey, this is an important ministry, you know? Please listen to what I'm going to say because this is a matter of life and death. This is a matter of hell and heaven, okay? Where are you going to be for eternity? We ought to be a little bit strong, right? When we go, confidence is what I'm talking about, right? Strength of character, strength of the Spirit, and put a little bit of pressure on people. Now, not to the point where someone's totally uninterested and you're still there at the door. You know, you stick your foot out between the doors as they're trying to close the door. I'm not talking about that, okay? But listen, if you carry yourself with composure, with confidence, with boldness, people are more likely to listen to what you have to say, okay? But again, this is something that you develop over time. You develop over time. Can you please turn to John chapter 19? John chapter 19, please. The next thing I want to discuss is the way we dress. Our dress when we go door-to-door soul winning. Now, you might think that the way you dress means nothing because it's the gospel, right? But don't forget, when someone sees you at the door, that's going to be their very first impression of you, how you look, okay? Now, one thing I recognize, look, if I'm dressed like this for church and I go soul winning with my tie and my jacket and I go soul winning, so be it. I'm dressed like this already, okay? One thing I found is that, you know, obviously when I go soul winning, I'm not always going to dress up like this, okay? The reason being, when someone sees me dressed up like this, maybe in America it's different. I'm just saying in Australia, okay? They're going to be like, ah, one of those religious guys once again. And they're probably not, might not even open the door. It's one of those JWs. They're at the door, okay? So, look, I don't have a dress code. I'm not going to tell you this is how you dress. Put on, you know, blessed hope after church uniform. You know, put this on so you, no. But there's a few things that we can learn about dress code. And, you know, first of all, don't forget you're an ambassador, okay? So, the first impression they get of you at the door, do you look like an ambassador of heaven? Or do you look like just a sloppy, unkept, unwashed, unshaven, if you shave, right? Or if you have a beard, unkept beard, right? I mean, what do you look like? I mean, don't forget there was a time when you were not saved, right? There was a time where, you know, maybe for some of you, you just weren't interested in religion. You weren't interested in the things of God. And if someone comes to your door, an uninvited guest, you know, think about, put yourself in their position. What kind of person are they going to want to interact with? If they just see this sloppy guy, right, with one sock, one collar, one sock, another collar or something, right? And his shirt has stains, right? His pants are ripped or something, right? Do you think he's going to take your message seriously? Is he going to look at you, man, this guy's an ambassador of God, man, wow. You know, we've got to be mindful about the way we dress, right? So we need to be, first of all, modestly dressed, okay? Secondly, we need to be clean looking. And thirdly, we need to look neighborly, neighborly, okay? So my advice, and I don't have a dress code, I don't have a rule. If you don't want to follow this, you know, fine. But you're going to lose the effectiveness, I'm telling you, all right? When someone sees you and you're not dressed, and it's like, who's this guy here? They're not going to want to listen to your message, okay? So I reckon you want to look neighborly, okay? Kind of like a smart, casual look. You look clean, you look neighborly, you know, you don't have to dress like this because this is a formal attire, okay? But just looking clean, neighborly, people are going to like see you, they're going to go, this is an uninvited guest, who is this person? There's going to be some curiosity, what does this guy have to say? But if you look like a slob, they're going to get, I don't care what this guy has to say. Hope he goes away before I open the door. That's going to be their attitude. So be mindful about the way you dress. Look at John 19 verse 23. John 19 verse 23, about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It says, Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts to every soldier apart, and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. When it says that it's without seam, it means that it's one whole piece of fabric. When you've got a seam in your clothing, it's because two or more pieces have been sewn together. If you don't, I guess some of the men, you don't even know what that means, right? But the ladies, you know what I'm talking about, okay? And so to have a piece of clothing without seam, one piece as a whole, is obviously more costly. It requires more effort to put a piece of clothing like that together. Look at verse number 24. It says, They said among themselves, they said therefore among themselves, let us not render, he goes, let's not destroy his clothing, right? But cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled, which say, if they parted my garment among them, and for my vesture, they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. So what do we learn about Jesus? Was he dressed appropriately? Yeah. In fact, some of his clothing was, it was the best clothing he had. The soldiers wanted it. They said, man, this clothing, even though it's stained with blood, right, even though there might be some, I don't know how much damage there was, you know, while Jesus Christ was being led to Calvary and all these kinds of things, it was still valuable clothing, okay? It was without seam, okay? Jesus Christ dressed himself appropriately. There were at least four parts to his clothing. I don't know exactly what they are, you know, maybe he had some pants, maybe he had a top, maybe he had a belt. I don't know what four parts of his clothing were, but you can see that Christ, he did not walk around looking shabby, okay? He did not walk around looking like a hobo. He was dressed appropriately. Why? Because he was an ambassador on the earth, okay? He was reconciling people to God. And of course, you see, you know, why else would God put this information for us in the Bible? Like, what's so important about the fact that he had clothes and he was cast and divided amongst the, you know, cast lots and divided amongst the soldiers? But to show us how Christ dressed. He cared about the way he dressed. He made sure he was well dressed, okay? So much so that other people wanted his clothing. Now, I'm not saying put on the most expensive clothing, you know, put on, I don't know, what are the most expensive brands out there? I don't know, all right? You know, whatever has a, you know, certain brand or certain look, that's not what we're talking about. But being clean, being tidy, being a good representative, you know, before you go soloing, what I want you to do is step in the mirror, have a look at yourself in the mirror and say to yourself, if this uninvited guest came to my door and I was not saved, would I even want to open my door to this person? And if you say no, I wouldn't, then you need to fix it up a little bit, okay? You need to fix it up. Be mindful, okay? Even Jesus Christ was mindful. He did not dress like a slob. And don't forget, this is going to be the very first impression they have of you. They're going to already decide whether they want to listen to you or not by the way you look. All right. Next thing I want you to turn to, please go to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10 and verse number 12. Matthew chapter 10 and verse number 12. And again, the context here, I won't read it all, but the context here is when Jesus Christ is sending his disciples to preach the gospel, sending them to different cities, to different villages. And Matthew chapter 10 verse number 12, Jesus Christ says, And when ye come into an house, salute it. That seems obvious. That seems obvious. But notice that Jesus Christ had to tell his disciples, when you come to a house, salute the house, okay? Say, what does that mean? Well, that's salutation. To salute, the definition to salute is a gesture of respect or polite recognition, especially one made to or by a person when arriving or departing, okay? So the next point that I have here in order for us to be good ambassadors of Christ is make sure you greet the person that you talk to and you introduce yourself. That's what it means to salute, okay? You're greeting that person. You're being polite. You know, you're recognizing that person at the door. You know, you're introducing yourself who you are. And if you just come and they open the door, are you 100% sure you're going to heaven? Hey, you forgot to salute. And they're going to be like, Who are you? You know, when you come to the door, they open the door. Hey, good morning. That's a salute. Good afternoon. How are you? My name is Kevin. I'm with David. Okay, that's our names. You know who we are now, right? And very quickly we say we're from this church or whatever. That's just that's what it means to salute. Okay, when you meet, listen, isn't that common sense? I mean, if you were behind, again, think of yourself, you're opening the door to some stranger, uninvited. And you don't even salute. Or you don't even give your name. You don't want to, it's like, what are you doing? Who are you? I mean, listen, if you're okay, if you're like my best friend, you just come around. You know, even my best friends, I would expect them to salute. But okay, if they just don't salute, and they just come in, they just go to our guy, I know he's my friend, right? I know who he is. But if they don't know who you are, and you're not going to even say hello, you're not going to say good morning, you're going to say how are you? Right? If it's hot weather, man, it's hot today, isn't it? You know, just start and be polite, right? Greet, you know, introduce yourself. Jesus Christ had to make this a point to his disciples. I don't know why, but he had to, you know, he always made a point. When you come into a house, don't forget when you talk about a house, many times in the Bible, you talk about a family as well. It's not just the bricks. Salute the house. My house? No, the people that live in the house. That's who you're saluting to, okay? That's being polite. That's being an ambassador for the Lord. And you know, even when you leave, you know, if the person was unreceptive, thank you for your time. Have a good day. God bless you, unless they're a reprobate. Okay, but God bless, look, you've left them something, God bless you. Okay, you want that the word of God that you've left them to develop in their heart, to grow in the heart, you're hoping one day, somebody can come around and witness them. Listen, if you leave a sour taste in the mouths of others, you know, before you leave, they're going to be less likely to want to hear the next preacher, hopefully a, you know, believing preacher, come to the door because they think, oh, man, this person is just so rude. Sometimes, you know, people say to me, are you a JW? Are you a Mormon? It's like, no, I'm a Baptist. Oh, man, I'm so sick of those JWs. Because you know what, they don't care about the person at the door. You know, they're preaching a false gospel. They're causing these people to become, you know, twofold more the child of hell. They're leading people to damnation. And so they're not good at greeting. They know, you know, they seem robotic. They seem like they have no care. I don't know if you've come across these people, they don't care for you. You know, you ought to come across as somebody that cares about that person. Hey, I'm enabling, I'm polite, I'm greeting you. My name is Kevin. That's who I am. I've got nothing to hide. I'm an ambassador. I don't have to say this because it's going to sound weird, but you are an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Make sure you greet and say, well, that's common sense, but it's not really. It's not really. We need to work on this. Again, besides the way you look, this is going to be the next first impression I have of you. You don't say hello. You don't greet them. You know, you don't introduce yourself. They're going to be like, what are you doing here? Who are you? Okay, and you're just going to, you're not going to be, you know, you're already setting up a boundary from them here in the gospel. Let's keep going there. Verse number 13, because it leads to the next point. Verse number 13, and if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. All right, so basically if the person that, you know, you come to the house, they want to hear what you have to say, then, you know, spend time there. All right, let your peace come upon it. You know, we're there to, again, bring peace between man and God, right? But if someone doesn't want to hear, they're not worthy, they don't want to hear what you have to say, let your peace return to you, just move on, okay? You don't have to be this bully, hey, you've just got to listen to what I have to say here, right? You put your door before they close it, listen, I've come to your door, this is such an important message, you've got to listen. Listen, if they don't want to hear it, just move on, okay? Just leave peaceably. Just take your peace, off you go, okay? Thank you for your time, you know? Someone says they're not interested, that's fine, okay? Move on to the next house. Be polite, all right? That leads me to my next point. Their house, their rules. Their house, their rules, okay? And I know what I'm about to preach is going to be unpopular for some people, okay? Listen, if someone, anybody just comes to my house, and I've got certain rules around my house, I expect them to follow it, okay? You know, if I go to someone's house, I don't have this rule in my house, but some people have a rule where if you come into their house, you've got to take off your shoes. I don't like taking off my shoes, okay? I don't like taking off, you know, but you know what? Their house, their rules. I come into their house as someone that's invited, I'm going to take off my shoes. I'm not going to go, well, you know what? That's not what I do, okay? You know, my personal conviction, I need to keep my shoes on here. So if you want me here, I've got to keep my shoes on. You know what? Their house, their rules. I've come to their house, I'm going to follow what, you know, they require from you. Can you please, actually no, you're in that passage, look at verse number 14. Matthew 10.14. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, then ye depart, sorry, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Again, just be respectful when someone does not receive you. Be respectful when they don't want to hear your words. Don't get worked up. It's their house. It's their rules. I don't want to hear it. Go then. Stop wasting time. There's some, there's another house down the road that's probably going to want to hear you, okay? Don't get offended. You know, actually, you know what? One of the best things about soul winning is you learn, you learn how to be rejected, okay? We need to learn how to be rejected, okay? If you're not used to it, you're going to be worked up every time somebody forgets to say hello to you. You're going to be worked up every time someone forgets to, you know, oh, they invited this family to my house. When are they going to invite me? You know, you, listen, rejection is part of life. You want a job? You're going to have to apply and apply and apply and get rejected and rejected and rejected. Eventually someone's going to implore you, okay? If you're a single man, guess what you're going to have to do? You're going to try to apply, apply, apply. Sometimes you're going to get rejected, rejected, rejected. Eventually someone's going to accept you, okay? And you hopefully can get married one day. Listen, rejection is part of life. There was no one more rejected than Jesus Christ and we're his ambassador, okay? Someone rejects you, shake the dust off your feet, don't let it bother you, have some thick skin and just move on to the next house, okay? Their rules, their house, their rules. And look, and I know this, this is part that's going to be unpopular, but, and look, I'm not going to tell you what to do exactly here because I don't like just having all these rules, okay? But I say use common sense. If someone, if you go to someone's house and they say, you know, no salespeople, are you going to knock that house? I'm going to knock that house because I'm not a salesperson, okay? I'm going to say, and I often, sometimes I'll say that to them, hey, saw your sticker, but I'm not a salesperson, okay? Just sometimes I just respect the fact, especially if they look like they're a bit cranky, okay? Or if they say, did you not see the sign? I'd be like, yeah, yeah, I'm not a salesperson, don't worry. You know, I saw the sign, but I'm not a salesperson, right? Trying to keep things calm. But you know what? If I go to a house and it says, no religious, what do they say? No, anyway, something about religious, sorry? No religious groups, stuff like that. You know what, brethren? I know some of you guys disagree with me on this and you're going to knock it anyway, but I'm just, look, it's their house, their rules, okay? That's it. I'm going to move on to the next house. I see that sign. I'm just going to respect them. They don't want that. I might leave a, I still might leave a track on the door, okay? But if they don't want to be, you know, if they have something, I don't want to talk to someone from a church or something like that. I'm just going to respect that and move on to the next house. I'm not going to waste my time. And you say, well, Pastor Kevin, you know, there's a time when I saw that sign, I knocked the door and they still got saved. I said, praise God. Praise God. That's why I don't want to make these rules. But I'm just saying as a general rule of thumb, we ought to be mindful about their rules. You know, we go to someone's house and the gate is locked, right? And, you know, you can't get in. Sometimes that happens, doesn't it? You're trying to get into someone's house, you can't get in. Well, what are you going to do? Are you going to jump the fence? No, it's their house, their rules. They don't want anyone in. Just move on. Move on to the next house. Leave a tract in the letterbox. That's when you do some tracting, brethren. Leave a tract in the letterbox, move on. You say, what about if the letterbox says no junk mail? Well, I was advised by another pastor that if you hand-deliver mail, it's not considered junk mail. Okay? If you employ a company to go out there and do a mass distribution, that's junk mail. But if you personally hand-deliver in a letterbox, it's not junk mail. Okay? So yeah, leave one in the box, even if it says no junk mail. Okay? But again, their house, their rules. All right? Now, you might say, well, you know, what if the person at the door is a reprobate? Now, first of all, I don't know why, like, I think we're mature enough soul winners that, you know, there was a time when I would go soul-winning and there were people that were like, oh, man, I came across this reprobate. This person was a reprobate. This person was a reprobate. It's like, how do you know? They rejected me. It's like, they rejected the Bible. We'll grow some thick skin. Okay? Grow some thick skin because you probably rejected the Gospel a few times before you understood it. Okay? Not everyone is a reprobate. All right? But again, if the person, if you can confirm this person is a reprobate, you say, how do I know? If they basically come out and say, I'm a homosexual. Okay? I've had it happen to me a few times. Okay? And they say to me, look, I cannot be a Christian. I'm like, what are you talking about? It's like, I'm a homosexual. Okay. Well, thanks for letting me know. Move on to the next house. Okay? Oh, Pastor Kevin, you should condemn that person. You should tell them. They've got a reprobate mind. And they're on their way to hell. Isn't that why women, no. I'm going soul-winning. Okay? I'm not going soul-damning. All right? If someone comes out and they just tell me I'm a homosexual or something like that, you know what? I know you're a reprobate. I know you rejected God. God's rejected you. I'm not going to waste my time. I'm just going to move on to the next house. Okay? If you just spend your time, I've got to call them out, and then you come to church. Man, I came across this reprobate. Someone said, oh, man, I chewed them out. Listen, there's no glory in that. Everyone's going to think you're just foolish. Okay? Hey, you're meant to be soul-winning. What are you doing? Why are you wasting your time? You're not arguing with reprobates. Just move on. Right? I mean, quite often, I'm telling you, quite often I've had people just say to me, I'm a homosexual. I can't believe. They know they can't believe the gospel. They know their lifestyle is incompatible with what God requires for someone. Okay? They know it. You don't have to show them. They know it. Remember, they hated God. They already rejected God. You don't have to tell them they hate God and they rejected God. They know it. Okay? So you just might as well move on. Thanks for letting me know. You move on. Okay? Don't engage with reprobates. Again, you're there to soul-win. You're not there to soul-damn. Can you please turn to Luke chapter 9? Turn to Luke chapter 9 verse 51. Luke chapter 9 verse 51. Listen, if you're soul-winning, you're getting into arguments, you're doing something wrong. Okay? Now, people might yell. I've had people yell at me. I've had people threaten me. Okay? I've had people, you know, say all kind of profanities at me. You know what I do? Do I retaliate? Nope. Cool, calm, collected. Thanks for your time. I hope you read the leaflet sometime. Move on to the next house. Okay? If you're there just in an argument, you're doing something wrong. You're doing something wrong. Okay? You're not being a good ambassador. Remember, you're there an ambassador of peace. Okay? Of peace. Luke chapter 9 verse 51, please. Luke chapter 9 verse 51. And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face. So Jesus Christ is sending messengers before himself. And they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. And they did not receive him because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, we'll doubt that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did. What's he saying? Right? These guys come, they say, we don't want you guys here. We don't want Jesus to come here. And so the disciples are like, oh, man, let's pray. All right, is this the time? Can we pray that fire will come down and destroy them all? Hey, that's you getting into an argument. That's you going, well, you know what? You're just going to burn in hell then. That's not, well, how does Jesus, does he go, yeah, let's pray. You're right, brethren. Let's pray. Okay, let's condemn these people. What does Jesus Christ say? Verse number 55, but he turned and rebuked them and said, you know not what manner of spirit ye are of, for the Son of Man is not come to destroy man's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. That's the proper approach. They don't want to receive you. They don't want Jesus. Okay, you know what? You go to another village, you go to another house, you move on. Okay, you don't get into arguments. You don't start yelling back. You're an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Okay, and if you find yourself getting into arguments, damning people to hell, you know what? If Jesus was your soul-willing partner, he would have rebuked you. Okay, he would have told you, what are you doing? We're here to save souls. We're on a mission of soul-willing, not soul-damning. Okay, we're following after the steps of Jesus Christ. They're damning themselves already. You move on. Okay, if someone's rejecting the gospel, okay, it could be the last time of hearing it. They're damning themselves. You don't have to damn them. You don't have to pray down fire in judgment. Just move on. Okay, and just hope, you know, that one day these people will have another opportunity to be saved if they're not reprobate. Please turn to Romans chapter 1. Actually, can you please turn to Titus chapter 3? Turn to Titus chapter 3 for me instead. I'll read to you from Romans chapter 1. You turn to Titus chapter 3. I'm going to read to you from Romans 1.28. It says, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. So you can see the reprobate has been given over to this mind. Then this is in verse number 29. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder. Now the next one I want you to focus on. Debate. Debate. Listen, when you go door to door sowing in, you're not entering a debate. Okay, you're not there to just win an argument. There's no point. Alright? If someone just wants to argue back, and I'll give you some pointers here about your time. If someone wants to argue back, give them a couple of opportunities, okay? But if it's just becoming a debate, what he says, what you say, what he says, what you say, what he says, you say, listen, it's becoming a debate. That's what reprobates love. Don't you live the reprobate lifestyle? Okay? I'm not interested in debate. I'm not interested in winning a debate. I'm interested in winning souls. If that person wants to debate me, obviously he has no interest in the gospel. I'm not interested in winning an argument. I'm just going to move on to the next door. Okay? They're like, how do you know God exists? I'm like, give him a few examples, maybe. Ah, but you know, modern science. Okay, give him a chance. Again, they're going on. You're not getting to the gospel. Alright. Not interested. Move on. Thank you for your time. Please read the leaflet when you have time. Alright? Just move on. Be polite. Okay? Greet them on the way in, greet them on the way out, you know, move on with your time. Don't get into debates. Titus chapter 3 verse 9, please. This is something else that's very important. It says, but avoid foolish questions. You know, when we go door to door soul winning, we have a plan. We have a presentation we want to get to. Ask some questions good. Yes, you know, they're going to ask you questions sometimes. It's good to ask them. But when they become foolish questions, okay, avoid it. Avoid it. Either you tell them, look, let's address that at the end of the presentation, or if you feel like they're just mocking you, they're foolish questions in that sense, listen, don't waste your time with that person. Okay, move on to the next person. It says, avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions, there it is again, no contentions, and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain. So, whenever you've spent a long time at someone's door, just arguing back and forth, I'm sure we've all done it. Guess what? It was unprofitable and vain. It was a waste of time. Okay, verse number 10. A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition rejects, knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of himself. Listen, we learn a really good principle here. Okay, a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition rejects. What are you talking about, Pastor Cameron? Well, when we go in there to preach the gospel, someone becomes argumentative a little bit, or tries to trip you over. Okay, they're trying to get you off topic. All right, you know, hey, we can deal with that later. Or maybe if you think you can bring it back to the gospel, do it. Okay, you get back to the gospel. They do it again. Okay, it's like, okay, well, you know, let's leave that for later. And let's get back to the gospel, try to get back to the gospel. They do it again, Reverend, it's time to reject them. Okay, reject them. Okay, all they're doing is wasting your time. They're wasting your time with foolish questions. They don't want the next person down the road to hear what you have to say. You know, they're just wasting your time. They're holding you up. You've got to learn this. Okay, if you've given them one chance, two chance, go. Okay, you're not going to get through the gospel, you're just going to keep wasting your time. Okay, reject that person, move on at that point in time. All right. So this is what I'm referring to here, Reverend, as an ambassador, you need to be mindful about your time. Your time is so important. The Bible says in Ephesians 5 15, see then that you work circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Okay, redeeming the time. God knows there's a lot of things that's going to waste our time. He says, look, redeem it back. Don't waste your time. Don't let it be unprofitable. Okay, you're at someone's door, you're just wasting time, but I'm having a conversation. You're not going anywhere. You're not getting anywhere. So what? You're wasting your time. Move on to the next person. Colossians 4 5 says, work in wisdom toward them that are without. Redeeming the time. This is a biblical doctrine. Redeem your time. Don't waste your time. This has to do with wisdom. If you find yourself at the door, you know, how long does a gospel presentation take? You know, a good presentation, you know, where you've been clear, you've been thorough, and you've been able to go back and forth. You know what, no more than 15 to 20 minutes. No more than that. Okay, and even 15 minutes can be a little bit long sometimes. Okay, but you know what, you do a good presentation, you'll be done in 20 minutes, max. Alright, if you find yourself at someone's door half an hour, 40 minutes, okay, listen, you're not redeeming your time. You're wasting your time. Either that person's wasting your time or your presentation is so sloppy that you're having to go back and fix it up again and go back and explain this again, go back and explain that again. Listen, this is why we need to be prepared. You need to have a clear, you know, plan. You know, you start with somebody who's a sinner. They're on their way to hell, but the good news is that Jesus Christ died for you, alright, and he's paid for your sins, he's done everything necessary for you to get saved. Next point, how do we receive that salvation? You have to believe. It's not of works, not of good deeds, not of church going, it's just by believing on Christ. Okay, I mean, that's really, I mean, is it more complicated than that really? Of course, you know, giving presentations is going to be a lot more complicated than that. You've seen my other sermons, right? But really, the plan of salvation is easy, okay? If you're spending 40 minutes, 50, half an hour even, you're doing something wrong. You've got to fix your presentation or you're wasting your time with people that are there to waste your time, okay? There are actually plans about the devil there, you know, the devil's worked in them to cause you to stop going to the next person, alright? This is why keeping time is about wisdom. You've got to learn, you've got to ask this way, before we go to do something, we often pray, you know, Lord, give us wisdom so we don't waste our time. You know, Lord, give us wisdom that we can redeem our time. You know, honestly, if you're spending more than 20 minutes, 15, 20 minutes with the whole, I'm talking about the gospel presentation, okay? You're doing something wrong. You're definitely doing something wrong, okay? And, you know, not only are you wasting your time, you're wasting the person at the door, behind the door's time, you know, if you're doing that. Now, you say, well, you know, I've got examples where I spend a lot of time with someone and I've gotten them saved. Me too. You know, I can think of three examples where I've spent, you know, there's probably more, but I can think of three where I spent an hour with somebody and they got saved, okay? But let me give you what those three examples were. Number one, the first person that I remember was mentally handicapped, okay? And so I had to repeat many times, okay? They weren't argumentative. It's not like they were not interested. They were, but I could see they were mentally handicapped, okay? And I needed to really be very slow and focused with that person. Did I get a little bit agitated? Yes. Did I think I was wasting my time at times during that time? Yes, I did, okay? But I was getting through the gospel, okay? And I was hoping, man, I'm here for an hour. I could have knocked probably another, you know, five, ten doors, but I hope this person, hey, they got saved. Praise God. The other time I spent an hour was when there was a lady and English was not her first language. She was an African lady. She had a whole bunch of kids in her house. So, you know, English was a bit hard and so, you know, trying to explain things different ways, trying to simplify things for her. Her kids were coming, interrupting her, but she was interested. She wanted to hear the gospel, you know? We sat down there. Guess what? I took an hour. She got saved. So think about those examples. Mentally handicapped and English is not her first language. The third time was more recent, you know, spent an hour with somebody, is because this woman was indoctrinated in Jehovah and his doctrine. So literally every single thing, every single point, okay, you're a sinner on your way to hell. Listen, they don't believe in hell like we do. They believe you get annihilated, okay? There's no eternal torment, okay? They don't believe Jesus Christ's body resurrected from the dead. They don't believe that Jesus Christ is God. I mean, it seems like everything, okay, saying that, you know, when you die, you're going to go to heaven. They don't believe in that. They believe in soul sleep, that your soul remains in your body until some judgment day in the future. Like literally every point that I would come to, you know, and she wasn't being argumentative. She wasn't saying, but, you know, that's wrong. No, she was asking about, hey, I was taught this. And so, you know, thankfully I was prepared. Thankfully I was able to turn to other passages, okay, and show her where the Bible teaches eternal torment, where the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is God, where the Bible teaches that of a bodily resurrection, you know, but all these things took up so much more of my time. Listen, I did spend an hour because I had to unbrainwash her from JW, okay? Because everything, everything about the gospel she had a misunderstanding of. She didn't know it, okay? I spent an hour. She got saved. Okay. Now, listen, those are exceptional circumstances. Wouldn't you agree? All those three things are exceptional circumstances, okay? But the average person at the door, listen, 15, 20 minutes, if you're able to get them the whole gospel, that's enough. That's going to be enough, okay? And if you're spending more time than that, there's something wrong with your presentation. You've got to clean that up. You've got to streamline it, okay? Focus on the things that are important. Don't waste your time on things that are not important in your presentation. Next thing, can you please turn to Colossians chapter 4 verse 6. Colossians chapter 4 and verse number 6. Colossians chapter 4 verse number 6. The next point that I have here is you need to be personable, personable. See, what does that mean? Well, let's have a look at Colossians chapter 4 verse number 6. The Bible reads, Let your speech be all way with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Listen, your speech ought not to be abrupt, rude, okay? No, your speech needs to be with grace. What's grace? Remember what grace was? It's unmerited favor. Hey, this person at the door does not deserve my favor, okay? But you know what? I'm going to give them my favor. You know, I'm going to speak to them nicely. I'm going to speak to them neighborly, all right? When they say something wrong, I'm not going to, you know, smash them and tell them how wrong they are. You know, personable means you're kind of, you know, people can get along with you. You're a nice going person, all right? Listen, if you show yourself personable, if you show yourself being able to speak with grace, they're going to again want to interact with you more, okay? If you're rude and abrupt, they're going to say, get out of here. Who are you? What are you doing here at my door, okay? You've got to be careful about the way you speak. Don't forget, you're trying to get that person saved, okay? This is not about you, okay, and my feelings. It's about them going to hell. Who cares if your feelings get hurt? Who cares if you have to humble yourself a little bit, okay? Listen, you're going to be all eternity in heaven with God, okay? If you mess things up, you might cause that person to have no desire to know anything about God. That person's going to hell. We go door to door because we care about the person at the door, okay? So be careful about the way you speak to people. Can you please turn to 1 Corinthians 9? 1 Corinthians 9. Now, this one's kind of similar to be personable or be pleasant. This one is be relatable. Be relatable. You know, there are some Christians that pride themselves in how different they can be. Now, I believe in biblical separation, okay? I believe that as believers, we ought to be different from this world. But you know what? I'm not trying to shove, you know, in the faces of the non-believers how different I am from them, okay? I'm trying to be relatable to people at the door. 1 Corinthians 9.19, please. 1 Corinthians 9.19, Paul writes, for though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more. Paul says, look, in order for me to be an effective soul winner, to get more people saved, I have to make myself a servant to them. Is that how you think when you go door to soul win? When that person opens your door, however they look, you need to say to yourself, I'm a servant to this person. You know, if I'm going to win them all, if I'm going to gain them all, I need to humble myself before this person. Even though I know my way to heaven, I'm a child of God, they're lost, you still need to humble yourself before that person. Look at verse number 20. And unto the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. So you know what? You need to learn how to, you know, people, you know, you get saved and you clean up your life and you get sanctified and you live more godly, but don't forget, you know, you're not there to put on a show of how different you are, you're there to get along with the person at the door, okay? You get along with them, they're going to want to talk to you. If you just show how different you are, look how holy and righteous I am, they're not going to want to talk to you, okay? It's not saying do the sins they commit, but learn how to relate to people. You know, sometimes someone might be watching a game, like some, I don't know, let's say state of origin or something, I don't know, probably not state of origin, but you know, some game on the TV, I'll be like, oh, you know, who's playing? Why? Do you care about who's playing? Not really. I care about them, I want to be relatable, okay? They might have something on their shirt, sometimes, you know, it just stands out, I'll be like, oh, hey, what's that on your shirt? You know? Just, you've got to learn how to just get along with people, okay? Even though they might have different interests than you, okay? But listen, to a Jew, Paul became a Jew, he was a believer. Very different from the Jewish religion of this time, of a Christ-rejecting religion, he was still able to get along with these people that reject Jesus Christ. Verse number 21, to them that are without law, as without law, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law, to the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. Listen, if an old lady, old fragile lady opens the door, you know what, I'm going to be soft in my approach to her. I'm going to say, hey, this is a woman that I can't just, you know, are you 100% sure? You know, heaven, right? I'm going to have to be a little bit softer with that older lady, right? You got to think about who you're interacting with. And this is, I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. Why do you do it? For the gospel's sake, that's why you do it, right? You do it because you want to win souls. So learn to be relatable. You don't have to put on this high religious, look how I am, I've come from the church, you know, get along with people, okay? Just find some common ground. That's what I'm saying quite often, right? When we're given the gospel, if I know they've got some type of Christian background, I just try to find some common ground. Try to be relatable. I'm a Catholic, you know, I'm a Catholic and, you know, I don't want to hear, hey, you know what, you know, whether you're Catholic or you're Baptist, guess what, we're all going to die one day. You know, are you 100% sure that you're going to heaven? I don't just like, oh, Catholic church, full of pedophiles, you know, and false, listen, whether we're Catholic or Baptist, guess what, we're all going to die one day. You know, are you 100% sure that you're going to heaven? Just find something relatable with that person, okay? Lastly, I better hurry up. Can you please turn to 1 Corinthians, you're there already, verse number 2, 1 Corinthians 2, 14. Don't forget that early in this series, we looked at Acts 8, 31, which said, you know, how can I accept some man should guide me? We saw that an unbeliever who does not know the gospel requires a man to guide them, okay? Now, this is important for an ambassador as well because guess what, we use the ambassador from Russia, if he's going to come to Australia and serve as an ambassador, don't you think he's going to have to learn English, okay? Like, he can't just turn up, you know, in Australia and just be Russian and go, hey, you guys have to speak Russian to communicate. No, you're the ambassador, you've got to learn English to communicate with the country you're interacting with. Well, that's what I've covered before, you know, don't use the big Bible words, the churchy words, you know, you know, on righteousness and you know, the imputed righteousness of Christ and what are the big words out there in the Bible? Justification and do we have any other? Sanctification and, you know, repentance and what else? What are the big words? I don't know, okay? Guess what? You're speaking Russian to them. You're speaking Russian to them, you've got to explain what you're saying, you've got to simplify things, you've got to speak their language, okay? That's the whole point, you've got to be a translator. Are you in 1 Corinthians? Yeah, 2.14. 1 Corinthians 2.14 and you guys know this passage, but the natural man, that's the non-believer, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned, alright? So, you know, one bad example that I've seen and I've seen this with several soul winners. Sometimes, listen, there's nothing wrong with getting someone to read a portion of the Bible with them. You know, one of the main portions that I get someone to read with me is Acts 16 verse 31 where it says, and they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. Quite often I'll do that, like if I feel like that person's really invested, you know, and it says, you know, what must I do to be saved? Hey, what do they say? Do you want to read it? Oh, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. Now, you hope when they read it, it got absorbed, but don't forget, they're the natural man, okay? To understand the passage, they have to be spiritual, it's spiritually discerned. Guess what happens many times? You show them, hey, it says, you know, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. So what do we have to do to be saved? Oh, go to church. How many times does that happen? I've got to be a good person. Now, this is what I've seen, okay? Now, if you do this, you need to fix this. Oh, read it again. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. So what do you have to do? Yeah, be a good person. And then you're like, you show them again. You show them again. What's happening? You're not being an ambassador. You're not translating, okay? Listen, if someone reads it and they don't get it, don't think they're stupid. The reason they don't get it is because they're not saved. Even something as black and white as believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, guess what? They're not going to get it. That's why you're there. That's why you're there. And I've seen some soul winners show them passage and it's like, oh, you didn't get it, okay. Another passage, you know, for whosoever shall believe on him, see, believe. What's it say? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do believe in Jesus. I do go to church. I do do the sacraments. It's like, what? And people lose their cool sometimes or they don't know how because you forgot you're the ambassador. You have to speak their language. It's Russian to them, okay? You got to go and speak English to them and explain to them what that means in the spiritual book. That's why you're there. If they could just read it, you wouldn't need to be there, okay? You're there. You've got to be a translator. Don't get frustrated if you show someone a passage and they don't get it. That's why you're there to show them, all right? I'll just end on this one again. Father Ramzan had one salvation. What language was it again? Assyrian? Assyrian. I mean, you were translated many ways, right, in that. But listen, the feedback that she gave to Ramzan was, this is the first time someone has shown me the Bible and explained what it said. Was that right, brother? Explained it. She was orthodox and she was like, you know what, the priests, the people that preach there, they don't teach you anything. They don't explain anything in the Bible. They just read it. But you've come along, you've explained it. It's the first time I understand. Why? Because the Bible is spiritually discerned. You need a spiritual person to translate it to someone who is not saved. So keep that in mind, brethren. Don't get frustrated and don't use big words. Understand, they're not going to get it. You're going to have to explain it to them. You're there to bring peace between them and God. Now, I better wrap it up. I've gone longer than I wanted, okay? Now, you might say, well, Pastor Kevin, you know, I'm not very well prepared. How can I prepare myself? Come out soul winning. It's the only way. Come out as a soul importer. It's the only way. You can't be like, I've got to prepare myself to the point where I know I can answer every question that ever comes out the door. Listen, I used to think that. I used to think I need every argument for every false religion. I need every argument for atheism. I need to find out when I went soul winning, I barely get asked those questions. Sometimes they come up, but then you learn how to deal with them, okay? In time, you gain experience. You might say, well, you know, I'm not very, you know, I'm not a very good speaker. You know, I'm not very, well, you know how you're going to get good at speaking? You go soul winning. That's how you get better, right? You go and you interact with people. You say, I just don't have a love for the lost. You know where you get a love from the lost? You go soul winning. Eventually, when you knock on something, you know, you knock on people's door, door after door, and you realize this person doesn't know what they have to do to be saved. This person still trusts in their false religion. This person trusts in their works. Guess what's going to happen? You're going to get emotional a little bit. If you're going to grow in love for that person is what I'm trying to say, when you realize that there's so many people that don't know what they have to do to be saved. You know how you develop that love for people? You go soul winning, right? So I don't know how to be relatable to people. How do I gain that? You go soul winning, okay? It's all about the experience, okay? When you go soul winning, you're not going to be perfect the first time. That's why I got to preach sermons like this. We keep sharpening ourselves. We keep learning, okay? We keep learning how to relate to people and, you know, interact with different questions, different challenging questions that come. You only get it if you go soul winning, okay? If you never do it, brethren, you're not going to develop as a, you know, effective soul winner, you know? And I want most than anything for you to be the best ambassador for Christ that you possibly can be. So I hope there are some pointers here that you can think about, some things that you can adapt to your soul winning presentation. And don't forget, you know, you're there to bring peace. You're not there to soul damn. You're there to soul win, okay? And be wise. Be mindful about the time you spend with people. Okay, let's pray.