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Keep your Bibles open there in Isaiah, that's not a Bible, that's a hymn book. Keep your Bibles open there in Isaiah 52, and I'll just repeat verse number 7 there. Isaiah 52 verse number 7, it says, and these are some beautiful words. It says, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. And so this is a picture in the Old Testament of soul winning. We attend a soul winning church. You know, I feel upset. I don't rejoice about this essential travel and these restrictions that we have. And I'm very thankful when people are like, you know what, I don't care, I'm just going to get out there and preach the gospel. I'm thankful for you. I'm blessed. You encourage me, brethren, when you do that. And we're obviously in some unusual times. You know, this isn't a measure of a spirituality. This is just something that has come into our lives, these restrictions. One day these things will be over. I don't believe we're in the end times. I truly believe that this is just something that several generations will go through once in a while. You know, this might be the world war that we go through. This might be the worst case scenario that we personally go for in our generation. Whereas other generations have had to suffer world wars and famines and significant loss. This might be the greatest trial that we personally have. And so there is some restriction in how we travel, in what we do. But one thing is very clear. The Bible says that your feet are beautiful if your desire is to go and preach the gospel. And so we're continuing our series here on the armour of God. And I'll just read to you. Stay there in Isaiah. But I'll read to you from Ephesians 6.15, which covers about the whole armour of God. Verse number 15 says, And your feet, so the feet there is repeated, right? And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. This is an important part of our armour. It's what you wear in your feet. You wouldn't think that's important, right? What you wear in your feet. And yet it is so important. In fact, I would say this part of your armour, you get your feet ready, is what's going to upset the kingdom of Satan the most. You know, you going out there with the gospel, with this message of peace, this message of salvation, and pulling people out of the kingdom of darkness, and bringing them into the kingdom of the dear son, Jesus Christ. So this is an important part of the whole armour of God. Yet how many Christians actually actively soul win? How many? Oh man, so few. I mean, I don't know how many saved people there are. You know, if I were to look at the stats that I've seen of the door-to-door ministry, I would say, generally speaking, about 1% of the population is saved. And that might just be like, maybe, you know, that's the percentage of people that we talk to, okay? I think that's a pretty good indication that about 1% of people get saved, and as we go and preach the gospel, we get through a community, we may very well add another percentage to that list, okay? Now how many of that 1% actually attend church though? Or even a good church, all right? I mean, it's very small. And then of that percentage that attend church, how many of those actually go door-to-door soul winning? You know, it's very, very few. So if you're a soul winner, you know, if you've gone out there and you've done the work, you have something very special in the armour. How many people are actually wearing the whole armour of God? If soul winning is such an important part of this, you know? Very, very few. And like I was teaching you before, in order for us to be effective soldiers, in order for us to have the best fight we can, we must put on the whole armour of God. There's no point of putting the role on and forgetting your shoes. We need to put our shoes on, we need to get our feet ready, and the important part of this, brethren, is that the reason the Lord describes this piece of armour as feet is because preaching the gospel requires us to go, okay? Now, I don't know about you, but there's been times I've had people come to me and say, hey, what do I need to do to be saved? There's been a few times where I didn't have to go anywhere, where I just stood still and someone else came up to me. You say, who were they? My kids. That's it. My kids have come up to me. I want to make sure I'm going to heaven, what do I have to do, right? Praise God for that. But everyone else, everyone else, I've had to go, okay? I've had to go, and this is the important part, right? This is what gets us moving forward as a church, to go, use our feet as it were, and knock doors, find people that are lost, and give them the gospel. You know the salvations that we've had this week from this church, the four salvations, you know why they were saved? Because you went. Because you made an effort. You were the one to drive that conversation. You were the one that said, hey, this person is lost, I need to give them the gospel, okay? So your feet were beautiful this week, in the eyes of the Lord. And so when we look at Ephesians 6.15, it mentions the feet, right? Shod with the, and these are different words that I want to focus on, the preparation of the gospel of peace. So there's the gospel, and there's peace, there's preparation, there's feet. All of these things are important when we think about putting on this armor, you know, making sure our feet are shod, and prepared to give the gospel. Now, in this passage it refers to the gospel of peace, right? In Isaiah 52 verse 7, it says, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace. So when we go door to door, or we go and find someone, we're trying to give them peace. Now you say to me, Pastor Kevin, actually, since I've gotten saved, I've not had the peace that I had before, alright? Since I was got saved, my family have rejected me. My family have gotten angry. My friends have turned their backs on me. In fact, since I got saved, I've never had so much conflict in my life with people that I love and care about. What kind of peace is this? Well actually, Jesus never promised you peace with other men. In fact, Matthew chapter 10 verse 34, Jesus says, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I am come not to send peace, but a sword. Hey, the sword is a weapon of warfare. It's a weapon of conflict. Here's the guarantee. You believe the gospel, you're going to have to face war. You're going to find that gospel that you're so excited to hear, that same gospel you're so excited to tell your family about, will bring the sword, will bring the vision, okay? Say, well, what kind of peace then is Jesus speaking about? What kind of peace does the gospel bring? Well, it's not peace on earth, right? It's not peace on earth, it's peace with our Lord God. Just like it says back there in Luke 2.14, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. So this is a relationship between God and men. This is what the angels spoke of when Christ was born on this earth. And so the gospel of peace is not peace on earth, it's peace between you and God, okay? And that's the greatest part of the gospel. I would rather have peace with God and division with everybody else on this earth, than peace with everybody on this earth and be an enemy of God, okay? So the gospel brings peace, but it's between us and God, not necessarily between people on this earth. So, you know, this is why church is so important, because church, you know, if it's a soul winning gospel preaching church, you are going to find peace with men in church. You know, if we're all on the same page, we're of one mind, we're all saved, hey, we can rejoice in the unity that the gospel brings us, okay? But don't expect the gospel will bring unity to you in your life. I'm sure you've already seen that. I've seen that, and it's always a surprise. You think, man, the free gift of salvation, 100% sure I'm going to heaven, I don't have to do any work, praise God, now I know I'm going to heaven. Surely my brother wants to know, surely my sister, surely my parents, surely my best friends want to know. And when you tell them, man, they reject it. When you tell them, you realise, did I bring a sword to this conversation? Why are we divided? You know, why has it brought division? This is just the true nature. And brethren, you know, don't give up. I recognise that there are family and friends that you care about that reject you for your faith, but don't give up on them. You know, keep making sure your feet are beautiful feet, making sure that you use those opportunities that God gives you to go out there and give the gospel. You know, be patient with people. You know, maybe even in your case, the Lord needed a lot of patience with you. Maybe you had several opportunities, right, to hear it. So don't give up on people the first time that you give them the gospel. And so the Bible here refers to feet. You're in Isaiah 52, verse number 7. Let's keep going there. And it says in verse number 8. So we finished verse number 7. This is definitely a reference to soul winning because it's repeated for us in the book of Romans. But look at verse number 8. So don't ignore 8. We read verse number 7 a lot, but don't ignore verse number 8. It says, Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice. With the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. What is it saying? This is comparing the soul winner to a watchman. Okay. So when we go, it's not about just putting tracks in the letterbox. All right. It's not about having some, I don't know, how many people invite people? Having a barbecue. Hey, we're having a barbecue on the street. You know, trying to get people to the church. No. When we're given the gospel, we need to be like watchmen that lift up the voice. We're there to preach the gospel. We're there to speak the words of God, right? We're there to help people understand, not just to mail drop, not just to act as a postman and think we're doing the work of God. No. You know, the gospel preacher is a watchman, right? And what were the watchmen used for in the Old Testament? They were set up on walls. They were there to watch for enemies. They were there to, kind of like the policemen, I guess, in those days, right? Not really, but to some extent, right? If there was any danger, if there was any alarm, they were there watching all times of the day, all times of the night. They would rotate and there would always be someone ready, watching to protect the city, okay? And if they have to lift up the voice and say, hey, the enemy's coming, they will lift up their voice. And brethren, we have the gospel. We have the glad tidings and we need, God wants us to use our voice to get that message out. You know, we're the watchmen of the Sunshine Coast. That's what we are, okay? In the eyes of God. And then if you look at 1 Thessalonians, it says, for they shall see eye to eye. That's what we want. We want others to see eye to eye with us to understand the gospel, right? And when the Lord shall bring again Zion. So, you know, the Lord bringing again Zion for us would be, of course, New Jerusalem, okay? The fact that there's a coming, new heavens and a new earth and we want the people that we get saved, of course, and other people, of course, those that are unsaved to get saved so they can enjoy Zion with us, right? To enjoy New Jerusalem. So that's the connotation for us today. And if you can please go to St. Isaiah and go to Ephesians chapter 6. I just want to show you this. Ephesians chapter 6. So Ephesians 6, 15 is the part of the armour that speaks about getting prepared to preach the gospel in verse number 15. But we're going to read verse number 18 because we can't forget verse number 18. This is straight after the armour of God and sometimes when we go through a series of armour of God, I've seen that many times. We don't continue on in the verses afterwards but these verses also play an important role because look at Ephesians 6 verse 18. It says, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Why does Paul want all this prayer to happen? Look at this, verse number 19. And for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. So is Paul prepared? Are his feet shod? Is he ready to go and give the gospel? He is, right? He's ready. But then he says to his fellow brothers, Hey, can you pray for me? I need boldness. Man, Paul seems like a very bold guy. But you know what? He even needs his brethren to pray for him. Say, look, can you give me boldness so I can use my mouth and proclaim the gospel? And that's why, you know, not to give anybody recognition of self because of course it's Jesus that saves, but when Trish messaged us on the church Facebook group, right? Hey, can you pray? My granddaughter's coming and we want to be able to give her the gospel and I'm sure several of you guys did pray. Well, this is why. Because there's a need for boldness. There's a need for the Lord to open those doors and for us to give the gospel. And so never be ashamed, brethren. If you have an opportunity to give the gospel, you're going to get out there and never be ashamed to ask your brethren, can you pray for me? Okay, I'm ready to go, but I kind of need a bit of that boldness. I need the Spirit of God in me. I need God to use me because I know I'm a fallen creature. I know I can make mistakes. And you know what? We haven't been going soul winning week after week and I'm sure some of us are going to get rusty. Once the doors are open, we can get out there. We need to make sure that we pray. In fact, once those restrictions are lifted, I want to make sure that we spend a bit of time of prayer and fasting, praying specifically about the ministry of door-to-door soul winning so we can be used effectively for God. But don't forget prayer. Don't forget prayer. You know, before you preach the gospel to someone, don't forget you need to go to the Lord in prayer to use your power. Go back to Isaiah now. Go back to Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 62. Isaiah chapter 62 and verse number 6. Isaiah chapter 62 and verse number 6. Let's see what the watchmen were doing here. Isaiah 62 and verse number 6 says, I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem. And this is like, you know, I've set watchmen upon thy walls, O sunshine coast. Where are they? It's New Life Baptist Church. Okay? It's other believers potentially that are getting out there and doing the work. So apply this for you, please. And look at this. Which shall never hold their peace day nor night. Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence. Okay? This is our command, brethren, to be watchmen, not to be silent, not to hold our peace. We need to keep using every opportunity we have, brethren, to preach the gospel to this area. Look at verse number 7. And give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Again, the application for us is in heavenly Jerusalem, right? The future events. One day Christ is going to bring that heavenly Jerusalem to this earth. But until then, it says give him no rest. We're not to give God rest. Okay? What's that about? We need to keep going to the Lord. Keep praying. Lord, help us to be effective watchmen. Help us, you know, lead us to someone that is ready to hear the gospel. Lord, help me. Give me your spirit. Which, you know, when it comes to preaching the gospel, God doesn't want us to give him rest. Okay? We keep going to the Lord. Ask him to open those doors till he establish, it says there, right? Give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. And we know that's not going to happen at least until the millennium when Christ comes and rules and reigns on Jerusalem and then again, the new heavens and new earth, the heavenly Jerusalem that descends. And so soul winning does not stop. Soul winning does not stop, you know, until the coming of Christ. When Christ comes and establishes Jerusalem, then, well, I guess soul winning will continue. There will still be people needing to get saved, right? And so when I think about this concept of giving God no rest, you know what I think about immediately? I don't know if you guys think the same thing, but I think of Jacob, right? You know, so we've gone through the book of Genesis, right? And when Jacob wrestled with God, I'll just read it to you in Genesis 32, verse 26. So he's wrestling all day with Jesus Christ. And then he says here, and he said, and I truly believe this is Jesus, he says, and he said, let me go. Jesus is like, let me go. For the day breaketh. And he said, this is Jacob, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. All right? I'm not going to let you go, Jesus. I want your blessing before you go, right? And then verse number 27. And he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel, for as a prince thou hast power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And so we don't want to give God rest in this area. Say, God, use us. Give us wisdom. Help me be a more effective soul winner. Help me find doors of people that are ready to hear your gospel. Give them your power, Lord. You know, help me be a help to somebody else, a silent partner potentially, to train that person up. Lord, we don't want to give you rest until you bless us, until we get some soul saved. You know, that ought to be the attitude that we have, right? And so, you know, a watchman. That's what we are, brethren. We are the watchman. We've been given the words of eternal life. And if you can, please go to Ezekiel 33. Go to Ezekiel 33. So it's exciting that we get this job. It's exciting that we can be on the walls of Sunshine Coast, that we have the words of eternal life. You know, we have the gospel of peace. We have, man, we got it all. We've been given such a blessing by God to be able to communicate this message for him on this place. But because we are watchmen, God will also hold us accountable, okay, if we don't perform the duty of a watchman. And in Ezekiel chapter 33, verse number 1, it says, Again, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman, if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet and warn the people. So that's the job of the watchman, right? To blow the trumpet, to warn the people. Hey, is there a sword coming? Absolutely, right? The wrath of God, hell! You know, everyday people are facing the wrath of God, you know, going to eternity in hell. And so our job as the watchman, and you've been set as the watchman, we've been set as the watchman of the Sunshine Coast, we need to blow that trumpet, warn the people. That's our job, right? We need to make sure that we get out there, preach the gospel, look at verse number 4. Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. So look, all we can do is warn people. All we can do is say, look, you're going to hell, let me show you how easy it is to go to heaven, okay? And if people rejected the bloods upon their own head, okay, we don't need to, we just move on. We find the people that are ready to hear the warning. But look at verse number 5. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning, his blood shall be upon him, but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. Okay? So again, apply this to soul winning, alright? If you hear the warning, I'm going to hell, I need Jesus, then he delivers his soul. He gets saved, alright? Verse number 6. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. You know, and I don't know, this gives me great fear. To think, and I know in my life there's been times where I had an opportunity to give the gospel, I had the opportunity to be a watchman, and I didn't do it. Because I was ashamed of the gospel. Because I was too timid, or whatever. You know, I never forget, there was this one time, I was dating Christina, and we were in Burwood Westfields. And you know, there's a lot of people, right? A lot of people, and everywhere we'd go, there was always this one guy there. Just this one guy, like I'd see him, and there was something about this man, and I just said, Lord, just give me the boldness to tell him the gospel. You know, I was just really timid. I don't know why that thought came to me. Anyway, I didn't, and then we'd go, Christina and I would go somewhere else, and there he was again. Like, he wasn't following us, we just kept crossing paths, right? And I was like, God, I don't know, help me give him the gospel, Lord, right? And then I was like, I don't know, what am I gonna do? You know, I was like, do I have a tract at least? What do I have, how do I start this, right? Anyway, then Christina needed some photocopies. And you know, so I think we had to go to the Australia Post or something, there was a photocopy machine there. And guess who was just before us? The same guy, the same guy, right there in front of us, right, doing his photocopies. I'm like, man, this is definitely from God, I've gotta give him the gospel. And then we'll look, because he needed change for the photocopy machine, and we had no change. And I was telling Christina, like, we don't have any change. The guy in front of me goes, don't worry, I've put too much in there. You know, you can use the rest of my credit in the photocopy machine. And he left and I never gave him the gospel. And I was ashamed, I was timid, I didn't have the boldness, right? And I look at that situation and I go, Lord, I failed as a watchman at that point in time, right? You clearly answered my prayers. You clearly gave me an opportunity. This guy came to me to tell me, I've put more money than I need to. It's for you to use. My hope is that that is someone that the Lord was working on and maybe another missionary came, someone else came, you know, another watchman came willing to open his mouth boldly and preach the gospel. I didn't do it, you know? And I promised myself that's never gonna happen again. It's never gonna happen again. If I get an opportunity to give someone the gospel and the Lord opens the doors like that, you know, I have to take it. And he could have rejected it, I don't know. Maybe it was a learning lesson, maybe it was something for me to learn, maybe it was something I had to go through and feel really bad, still feel really bad about it to this day, right? But it's something that now drives me, that if I get an opportunity one-on-one with somebody, I'm gonna have to give them the gospel. You know, I don't know if you've had an experience like that, but it's not nice, you know? And I don't know, I don't know what, you know, will his blood be upon my hands? Looks like it, right? It might be something that I have to, maybe the Lord's already chastised me about it, I don't know, okay? You know, but, you know, my hope is that the Lord will use that opportunity for me, that I would never make that same mistake again. You know, I never, you know, and if I eat, if I am timid, if I do become ashamed at that point in time, that's when we need to pray. You know, like Paul was saying, hey, pray, pray that I would have the boldness to preach the gospel. Look at verse number seven. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee, a watchman, unto the house of Israel. Therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth and warn them from me. Brethren, we are to warn. Sometimes, I've heard it said from another preacher, I can't remember who, you know, it's not always so winning, but it's definitely so warning, okay? We go there, we knock doors, you may never get anybody saved and you think, I wasn't successful. Listen, if you just warned, if you were just a watchman warning, you were successful, okay? And look, it could just be that, it could be that one warning that you gave them, even though they rejected it, that gets them thinking about the Lord, that gets them thinking about the future danger that might come, that might open up opportunities for them to be saved. Please take your Bibles and go to Romans chapter 10. Stay in Isaiah as well. Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10, please. So we're just going to fast forward now to the New Testament where, of what we read about in the book of Isaiah, in Isaiah 52, how it's repeated for us in Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10 and verse number 12. Romans chapter 10 and verse number 12. And remember how Ezekiel is told that he's a watchman unto the house of Israel, right? But of course the gospel is not just for Israel, because look at Romans chapter 10 and verse number 12. Immediately, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen, that's our desire, right? But then look at this, verse number 14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? So before someone can call on Jesus to save them, they need to believe, right? That's common sense. But how do they believe? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? They've got to hear of Jesus. They've got to hear of the gospel, right? How do they hear it? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Well, that's what we need. We need preachers then, right? Verse number 15. And how shall they preach, except they be sent? Now I don't know about you, brethren. If I didn't have a church sending me soul winning, I don't know how much soul winning I'd get. I don't know how much soul winning I'd get done. I think I wouldn't get much done. Because I'd probably just be like, I'll play a video game or something. I just give into the flesh. But being in church, especially as a pastor now, being in church and knowing that we're all edifying one another, we're all provoking one another to love and good works, and we kind of feel like we're letting each other down if we don't get out there, right? Brother so-and-so's getting out there, and you may not be getting out there. You kind of feel like, maybe I'm letting them down a little bit, right? But this is important. This is not a bad thing. This is something to get provoked about, to desire to get out there and understand when I go out soul winning, I'm actually encouraging others to do the same thing. And so it's important to be sent by a local church, especially as a pastor. You've got to set an example. People wouldn't want to see you get out there going soul winning, right? I mean, it'd be a bad thing if your pastor never goes out soul winning. How bad would it be if you go with a pastor and he doesn't even know how to give the gospel? People are like, man, I've been sitting with this guy for several years learning the Bible. He can't even give the gospel, right? And so it's important that as a church that we get sent. You know, we're here to encourage one another. And then it says in verse number 15, as it is written, where was this written? Well, what we read in Isaiah 52, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. And then look at verse 16. This is kind of the watchmen part of it, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. So, you know, once again, we're there to preach, we're there to warn, we're there to be watchmen, but not all of them are going to obey the gospel. They're not all going to believe. They're not all going to receive it. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world. We're part of a global vision of God. You know, you may feel like I'm just winning my local area just the Sunshine Coast or areas that live. Look, you're part of a big team, okay? God has preachers. God has beautiful feet across this entire world, all right? And you need to do your part. We need to do our part. You know, our part here is the Sunshine Coast, all right? And for the church down in Sydney, hey, we got that church started. Guess what? We were able to arrange some beautiful feet to encourage one another and win souls down in Sydney, okay? So it's good that we know, we start building a vision, right? A local vision, a national vision, hopefully one day a global vision, I don't know, all right? But that's what God wants from us, right? God wants us to be part of this big team to reach the ends of the world. And of course, if you can now turn back to Isaiah, Isaiah 53, go to Isaiah 53, because the question there in Romans 10 was, for Isaiah saith the Lord, who hath believed our reports, right? What is that report that needs to be believed? Well, go to Isaiah 53 and verse number one, that's what I love about the Bible. I love it when it all just comes together, all right? As it's written, you go back and it's written, it fleshes this out a lot more, right? You go back to the reference there in Romans 10, and then it's saying, hey, go to Isaiah 53, where it's written, right? So we go to Isaiah 53, verse number one, which starts off by saying, who hath believed our report? What's this about? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Now listen, when it says that the arm of the Lord, you must notice this reference found in the Bible several times, it's talking about the power of God, the power of God's arm, right? Look at verse number two, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground, he have no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. What's this about? What's this arm of God here? What's this report about? Well, we're not just talking about Jesus Christ, okay? Verse number three, he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Okay, so we won't continue reading, but of course this goes into the sacrifice of Christ, his suffering, the fact that he took his sins upon us, his crucifixion, you know, his offering, and so that is the report. You know, when we go out there, brethren, the most important part of your gospel presentation is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, okay, what Christ has suffered. I personally take the point that if someone's struggling to accept maybe the beginning of your gospel presentation, but if they're willing to hear, get to the gospel, okay? Get to the gospel, you know, because that is the power of God unto salvation. The Bible says in Romans 1.13, you don't need to turn there, it says, Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposely come upon you, but was let hitherto, that I might have some fruit among you also, that's people getting saved, even as, among other Gentiles, I am a debtor both to the gospel, I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise, so as much as is in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. Then he says this, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. What is the power of salvation for gospel? What is the gospel? The suffering of Christ. His death, burial, and resurrection. That is the gospel message. That's what you want to get to. That's the key part of the message. If all you can do is drop off John 3, 16, as you go into next door, well, that covers the sacrifice of Christ, the fact that God sent his son for us, and you can just touch upon the fact that he took on our sins, that he died on the cross, and that is the power of God. When we're looking at Isaiah 53, verse 1, we see who have believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. That's the power of God. That's the gospel message, right? The gospel message, the suffering of Jesus Christ. And so, you know, I want to reinforce that because, you know, I think soul winning can cause somebody to think highly of themselves. You know, I think preaching behind a pulpit, if you're an effective preacher and people are enjoying your sermons, it can cause you to be lifted with pride and a bit of ego. I think soul winning can have the same effects. If you're someone that's getting out there and you seem to be having great success, you know, sometimes in our flesh, we may feel, well, you know, of course it's me. It's my charm. It's the way I speak, right? I mean, I'm just a friendly guy, and, you know, and I'm just able to convince people. But don't forget, it's not the power in your flesh that gets people saved, right? It's the power. Now, can we get out? It's preparation of the gospel of peace. Can we prepare ourselves so we can be more effective? Absolutely. Should we prepare? Absolutely, right? If we're not good communicators, let's work on our communication, right? If we're not good at our plan, hey, let's work on putting our plan together, right? If you haven't memorized the verses, well, memorize the verses. You know, get prepared for the situation. That's fine, but never get to the point where you think you're so good because of my flesh, because of the strength that I have in me. Understand that the power of God the power of the gospel comes with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And even our 1 Corinthians, actually, I'll get you to turn to Matthew, please. Go to Matthew chapter 4. Get to Matthew chapter 4. We'll get ready for that passage a bit later on. But even, you know, when it comes to Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 17, he says, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. You say, Pastor Kevin, I don't have the authority to baptize. Well, that's all right. You don't have to. Okay? But one thing you definitely can do is preach the gospel. Then it says this, Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. We don't want people to get saved because you are so convincing in your eloquent speech and great words and, you know, your logical reasoning. And they're like, Yeah, I better be a follower of Jesus. Okay? That's, if you're doing it that way, you cause the cross of Christ to be made of none effect. Then it says in verse number 18, For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. Power of God. The death of Christ. And you might say, What was the weakest place that Christ was ever, you know, that we ever found Christ? You know, you definitely say when he's on the cross, you know, he's suffering, he's dying, he's bleeding, his body's giving up, right? He's taking on the sins of the world. It's the weakest state that we see Jesus Christ. And yet the Bible says this is the power of God. Say, Man, this is how weak Christ can be, but yet it's our power. It's amazing. It seems contradictive. You know, I'm sure Satan when he saw Jesus on the cross was thinking, I finally got him. I can finally have some victory over God. And yet it is the same weakness that caused us to have the power that allows us to be saved. There's great power in the sacrifice, the cross of Jesus Christ. Now, you guys are turning to Matthew chapter four, and it's easy to preach on soul winning because I think most of us are passionate about it. You know, we love it. It's an easy topic to preach on. And you know, another thing that's also easy to preach on is just, you know, desiring to be more Christlike. You know, that's one of the key things that I want to come across when we preach behind this pulpit is that we make the necessary changes in our life so we can be a little bit more like Jesus Christ. And quite often, even when you go to churches that may not go soul winning, churches that may not really promote that ministry, they're always just preaching. You've got to be more Christlike. And you know what? I've been working on the life of Christ for some time, going through the different gospels and trying to figure out the timing of everything, trying to put it together. One day I hope to preach on all that, but it might take a few months of work, right? But when I look at Jesus, and I want to be more like Jesus, and I look at Jesus, his whole ministry is just preaching the gospel. All right, you say, let's be more like Jesus. Well, you know what? Jesus was always preaching the gospel. Every opportunity he had, he was preaching the gospel. Now, I'm going to read some examples of Jesus here. I'll start off with Mark chapter one, verse 14. You guys just say in Matthew four, we'll get to there. Mark chapter one, verse 14. It says, Now after that John was put in prison, that's John the Baptist, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye, and believe the gospel. So his own cousin. His own colleague in the faith that's working in the kingdom of God gets arrested, and we know that he loses his life. It's easy, I suppose, when we see believers suffer, it could cause us to get downcast, a little depressed, right? Brought down a little bit low. But no, for Jesus, it was like, well, that's part of the suffering of Christ. I'm going to just get out there and teach repentance to believe on the gospel, to go from unbelief to belief. It didn't stop Jesus knowing that John was in prison. Then as we fast forward a little bit more into the ministry of Jesus, in Luke chapter 4 verse 17, it says, And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. So we've been looking at Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it is written, and then he says this, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. So Jesus says, this is about me. This passage is about me. You know, he's been anointed to preach the gospel to the poor. Aren't we desiring to be more like Jesus? Hey, then what do we need? We need to be anointed by the Spirit of God, right? We need to go to the Lord, ask him for his strength, for his Spirit to be able to preach the gospel. We want to be more Christlike. You guys are in Matthew 4, Matthew 4 verse number 23, Matthew 4 verse 23, Matthew chapter 4 and verse number 23. Further on into his ministry, Matthew chapter 4 and verse number 23, it says, And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. So what's he doing? Yes, he's healing. You know, sometimes we focus on the great healings, we focus on the great miracles, but he did it. He was preaching the gospel, right? He didn't just do it without preaching the gospel. The gospel was vital to the ministry of Jesus Christ. Go to chapter 9 now, Matthew chapter 9 verse 35, Matthew chapter 9 and verse number 35. Again, a little bit further into the ministry of Jesus, Matthew chapter 9 verse 35 reads, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, all of them, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. So it's basically the same thing that we read in Matthew chapter 4, okay? So later in his ministry, he's still doing the same thing. So we're not going to miss any villages. We're going to go to all the villages, all the cities. We're going to find all the people and we're going to preach them the gospel. Hey, that's the heart of Jesus Christ. That's why he came. Yes, to die on the cross, but he came preaching the gospel. Let's go to Matthew 11 now. Matthew chapter 11 verse number 4. Matthew chapter 11 verse number 4. So this is the time of doubt that John the Baptist has. And it says here in Matthew 11 verse 4, Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see. The blind, so what's going to encourage John? John's depressed, he's in prison, right? Go and tell John what you see. What's important to Jesus here? The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lame walk, the lame walk, the lame walk, The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. You know what? We have all these miracles. Imagine going from blind to be able to see, unable to walk, to be able to walk, lepers, they didn't have a cure for leprosy. Jesus was able to just cure leprosy, heal people that can't hear, he can make them hear, he can raise the dead. You go, man, these are amazing miracles, amazing works of God. You might say, I wish I was there in those days to see Jesus do all these miracles. And yet amongst all those miracles, he says, I was also preaching the gospel to the poor. It's just as important. In fact, it's more important. The salvation of the soul rather than just the physical body. But you can see how Jesus, for him, it's all important, it's all the ministry. He doesn't say, well, the gospel's over there, but I'm doing this massive work over here, all these miracles. No, that's part of the work, that's part of the miracle. And brethren, when you preach the gospel, you're performing a miracle, a miracle. This person was on his way to hell. He was lost without Jesus Christ. He'd be suffering for all eternity, but you step in, you go, you have your feet prepared, you preach the gospel, that person gets saved, it's a miracle. And it's the power of God. So you know what? John the Baptist, for Jesus, he would believe that John the Baptist would be encouraged in prison to hear these miracles. He would be encouraged in prison to hear these great words. You know? And I personally, when you guys tell me you've gone out soul winning, you get people saved, I'm encouraged. We need to learn to be encouraged. We ought to learn to rejoice when other people preach the gospel and see people saved. Okay? What an honor. What an honor that we have from God to do such an amazing work that he's left us with. Let's go to, you guys are in Matthew, aren't you? Go to Matthew 24, and I'll just read some other passages to you. I'm going to go to Luke 9, verse 5. Luke chapter 9, verse number 5. It reads, And whosoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them. And they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Okay? Preaching the gospel. So not only was Jesus preaching the gospel, then he sent others. You know, he trained up his disciples. He says, all right, now you get out there. If they reject you, so be it. But go out there and preach the gospel. Then in Luke 20, verse number 1, Luke 20, verse number 1, it says, And it came to pass that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders and spake unto him, saying, Tell us by what authority dost thou these things? And who is he that gave thee this authority? Who gave you the authority to preach the gospel? Who gave him the authority? Who gave him the authority? The Heavenly Father gave Jesus Christ the authority. Boy, if you ever get told that, hey, who gave you authority to come to my door and preach the gospel? God gave me the authority. All right? God is the one that empowers me. This is the message of God. This is the power of God. You know, we have the authority of God to preach the gospel, to see people saved. What an amazing thing. Mark chapter 16, verse 15, a bit later into his ministry, Mark 16, verse 15, it says, of course, actually, let me clarify that. So what we just read there in Luke 20 is the week of his crucifixion. All right? So we know that he goes into the temple. He's preaching. He goes to the Mount of Olives at night. He teaches his disciples. But then what happened that week? He gets crucified, dies three days later, rises from the dead. And of course, when we get to Mark 16, verse 15, this is part of the Great Commission, and he said unto them, his disciples, Go ye into all the world. That includes Australia. That includes the Sunshine Coast. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every preacher. Was the gospel important to Jesus? Absolutely. Not only did he do it, he trained people up to do it. Even on the week of his death, he was preaching the gospel. After his resurrection, it's all right now, we've got to go throughout the whole world and preach the gospel. Was gospel preaching important to Jesus Christ? Absolutely. Absolutely. If it's important to Jesus, if we're trying to be more like Jesus, then it's got to be important to us as well. And then lastly, you guys in Matthew 24, verse number 14, so now we're fast-forwarding future events, right, to the end times. We're familiar with Matthew chapter 24. It says, And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. Okay? So will we ever get to a point where the end comes and preaching the gospel is not important to Christ? Because right till the end, we've got to make sure we go out there to all the nations and preach the gospel. In fact, Jesus is saying it's going to happen. And I want to be part of that. I want to be part, when Jesus says those words, I want him to be thinking of New Life Baptist Church. Okay? I'm sure he did. He was thinking about all his disciples, all the believers that would get out there, preach the gospel. Once again, how many Christians are doing it, brethren? You know, the laborer's a few, Jesus Christ said. And so we see that it's important to Jesus. We want to be more like Jesus. And what we saw in the armor of God, it was also the preparation, right? Our feet shod with a preparation of the gospel of peace. That means we have to be prepared at all times. Okay? Any opportunity that comes to us where you can be one-on-one, maybe it's a bit hard when you're surrounded with a lot of people. It's not like you need to be a soul winner 24-7. Like if you're just doing something else, you're not right with God or something, right? No, that's not. But listen, when you have the opportunity, you're one-on-one with somebody. Okay? And they're talking to you just like that guy I told you at Burwood Westfields. The opportunity comes up, we need to be prepared, prepared to give that person the gospel, right? So let me just give you some tips on how to be prepared. You know, number one, I think you should try to have some gospel tracks around. It's helpful. It's a bit of an icebreaker. You know, if you go to someone that you just met on the street, and you just start giving them the gospel, it's going to be a little bit awkward. But hey, if you've got one of those tracks, that's part of your preparation. You just pull out and say, hey, just want to give you one of these. You know? Do you go to church anywhere? You know, this is a church invitation. It just, it's an icebreaker. It makes things less awkward, right? It's part of the preparation. Number two, you know, you can mark your Bible with your key Bible verses, right? Start learning. How do I teach the gospel? It's not, you know, once you've got it, it's not actually that hard. It is, there is a bit of a learning curve, I understand. You're trying to work it all out, and I'm sure when you first preach the gospel, you're going to be nervous. You're going to feel like you're going to mess up, right? But listen, just be a watchman. Just open your voice. Just be loud and just say, look, without Jesus, you're not going, you know, you can't go to heaven. Without Jesus, you're going to suffer in hell. At least you get that point across. That's something. You know, it's, I'd rather the watchman that just lifts up his voice, right? Even if it's not clearly communicated, at least he's doing something rather than the watchman that keeps quiet and doesn't warn anybody when the enemy comes, right? When the danger comes. We all need to, we need experience. We need to grow. I know that for me, part of the reason I didn't go so far part of the reason I didn't go soul winning for so long is I just thought I could never do it. You know? But then, you have to do it. Like, you will never get to the point where you can just be like, now I'm ready to go soul winning. You just have to start. You know, you go as a silent partner. You listen, you watch, and you might think, well, I'll be happy to be a silent partner the rest of my life. No. Eventually, you're going to get itchy. Eventually, you're going to go, you know what? I can do that. You know, so, you know, even if you do a poor job, I've used this example I think several times on my sermon, but I remember the first time I went soul winning. I was put together with a guy that was slightly younger than me. I think I might have been like 22 and he might have been 19 and boy, he was stuttering. The first door, just stuttering. I'm like, I kind of get what you're saying, but this guy, the door's not going to get it. I mean, it was just a mess. I mean, he was going for the golf presentation. He was shaking. He was stuttering, but the guy got saved. Somehow, the power of God, okay, wasn't in the stuttering in his mouth. The power of God was in the gospel presentation, right? The power of God was in what Christ has done for him and the guy got saved and I remember thinking, man, if that's how easy it is, I want to do it. You know, it's not that complicated. You know, even if you stutter, even if you can't communicate all that well, can we work on these things? Absolutely. That's why it's called preparation. Prepare yourself. Try to get better. Okay. Don't be rude at the door, by the way. Don't be rude. You know, just be a watchman. Just open your mouth, explain the situation, and understand. People, if they reject it, okay, the blood's on their head. You don't have to get emotional about it. You don't have to get, you know, offended about that, okay? So, you know, use the opportunity to be a silent partner and lastly, can we please go to John chapter four? John chapter four. Let's have a look at the sole winner at work, Jesus Christ. That's the one we're looking at, okay? John chapter four. So, we're going to the story. I think this is like the, this is my favourite story of Jesus Christ. Like, it seems like whatever I'm preaching on, I come back to this story. I don't know. For some reason, I just love this story, but it's Jesus Christ and the woman at the well, right? The Samaritan woman. I just love it. I don't know why. I just do. But, what we learn with Jesus is that he's someone that can actually engage someone's interest with a bit of small talk. You know, before he just, he doesn't just say, all right, let me tell you the gospel, right? So, we see Jesus Christ in verse number seven here and so we know the story. He sends his disciples away and to get some food and he stays behind near the well. And then it says in verse number seven, then cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water, Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink. So, he's saying, look, okay, I'm at a well. This woman's coming. Okay, she's coming to get water. How do I start this conversation? Hey, can I have a drink, please? All right. Did Jesus just get straight into it? You're going to hell with that Jesus Christ. All right. No, he says like, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to find that icebreaker, something that can just open up that conversation and then through that, Jesus doesn't waste a lot of time. It's not like he continues small talking, okay, how deep's the well and, you know, where are you from? No, no, you know, he uses that. He uses, now they're communicating, all right, and verse number nine, sorry, verse number eight, for his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat, verse number nine, then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, thou, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have now no dealings with the Samaritans, verse number 10, and this is, that's it, that was the opening that Jesus needed, right? He's effective. He gets straight to the point, verse number 10, Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water, and then he goes on and she gets saved, of course, all right, and then he gets other people, other men in the city, and brings them to Jesus so they can hear what he has to say, okay, so she becomes a sole winner, maybe not as a, you know, she's not giving the gospel, but she takes them, hey, you know, take it to Jesus, he can tell you all that I've heard about him, and so what we say with Jesus, right, he sees the opportunity, hey, I'm one on one with this woman, that's what we need to look for, be prepared, hey, I'm one on one with this person, now this is someone I can give the gospel to, all right, start with a bit of small talk, whatever opportunity, whatever it is, right, you're not gonna waste a lot of time either, right, the small talk start, we're communicating, hey, are you 100% sure you've been going to heaven, right, hey, here's a track, I'd like to invite you to my church, do you attend church, you get straight into the topic of spiritual matters, and so we see the master at work, all right, if we wanna be more like Jesus, we see his heart for soul winning, and then we need to be people that put on that whole armor of God, we get our feet ready to go, okay, we get them prepared, and, yeah, we get prepared for it, you know, we work hard to make sure that we can be effective communicators, effective preachers of the gospel of peace, let's pray.