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All right, good morning, everybody. We are in Acts chapter one. Look down your Bible at verse number eight where the Bible reads, but you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. The title of my sermon this morning is Excuses for Not Sowing. Excuses for Not Sowing. Now, the Great Commission has clearly found in the Bible multiple times, and this is just another time here where Jesus clearly tells his disciples to go out and preach the gospel, that you're gonna get power from the Holy Ghost, and once Jesus goes up, they're supposed to wait a little while longer, and then, of course, the day of Pentecost comes where the Holy Ghost induced them with power on high, from on high. Now, this, a lot of people say, well, that was just given to the apostles. Only people that are pastors or in the ministry are supposed to win souls, and if that was true, then we would not be here right now because the Bible is very clear that all people are supposed to be involved in this Great Commission. So, and the Bible talks about the faith, being from faith to faith. Go ahead and turn to Romans chapter one, verse number 16. I'm just gonna open up with a little bit of introduction here. While you're turning, I'm gonna pray real quick. Lord, we thank you so much for the scriptures this morning. I pray, Lord, that you'd fill me with your wisdom and the Spirit of God this morning as I preach this sermon. I pray that, Lord, even though our people have heard a lot of soul-willing sermons, I pray that, Lord, you would just especially bless this sermon and your word, Lord, that people would not just tune out because it's just another soul-willing sermon, but that they would tune in and, Lord, this would convince and exhort people to continue to go soul-willing, Lord, and if they've never been soul-willing, that they might convince them that they need to get involved, or for those that have kind of just fallen out of going soul-willing on a regular basis, that they would get back into it and start laboring in your fields once again, Lord. We thank you for these things in Jesus' name, we pray, amen. All right, so Romans 1 16 says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, and yeah, we should never be ashamed of the fact that we're saved. We should never be ashamed when we're out there giving the gospel because, why? Well, it says, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. How do people get saved? Well, they get saved by the gospel, so we should never be ashamed to preach the gospel. We should never be ashamed of the gospel. We should never be ashamed of our Lord. And look at verse 17, it says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. How do people get saved? Well, someone that has faith has to give it to somebody else so that they can have faith. That is how the faith has been passed down from generation to generation ever since the beginning of mankind. That is how people get saved. It's from faith to faith. God just doesn't appear out of the clouds and just go down and personally preach the gospel to people. When he left, he left it up to us. He left us to do the work, and he works through us through the Spirit of God, and when we have the Spirit of God, then we are able to go and give that faith to somebody else by preaching the gospel. It says, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now, I'm gonna read for you just a couple other verses that are clearly talking about this Great Commission. The Great Commission is what Jesus told us that we need to do as his disciples after he goes. Mark 16, 15 says, and he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So, we don't have any excuses to not go to every place we can in this world and preach the gospel. He says, go ye. Now, that word ye, is that plural or is that singular? It's plural, isn't it? So, it's taught, and people go, well, see, he's clearly just talking to his disciples. Well, yeah, he's talking to them there, but if it just ended at the disciples, we wouldn't be here because obviously they gave it to other people. Now, I'll have you turn to Matthew chapter 28, though, and this kinda will debunk that thought process where people will say, well, it's just for, um, it's just for the disciples at that time or it's just only for pastors or something like that. I think I cut out one of the verses that I needed to read here, so I'm gonna turn there myself. Matthew chapter 28, verse 19, and this is a very well turned to passage and should be. You know, a lot of people preach this, but unfortunately, a lot of churches don't participate in the Great Commission the way that it's supposed to be. The Word says, Matthew chapter 28, verse 19 says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. So we're supposed to teach them, we're supposed to baptize them, and then look at verse number 20. And we will come back to verse number 20 again later, but it says, look what it says here, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. So when he's saying in verse 19, go ye therefore and teach all nations, isn't that a commandment to them? Okay, so if that's a commandment to them and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, so then it says, teaching them to observe all things, that means that verse before it is connected with that, isn't it? So teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. So the commandment for them to go is also to teach other people that they're supposed to go also. Does that make sense? That is the Great Commission. So, and then 1 Corinthians 15, one, you can turn there if you want to, but you don't have to, but this is the gospel in a nutshell. This is how Paul explains what the gospel is. We need to teach these things and preach these things to people. 1 Corinthians 15, one says, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. So Paul preached the gospel to people. He didn't hand them cards. He didn't put a door hanger on their door. He didn't invite them to church so they could walk down to an aisle and bow down before the pastor and have the altar workers come and work with them or whatever. And I'm not saying that never works or anything like that. I'm just saying, preaching the gospel is what God prescribed. That's what he said to do. He said, for I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received. So Paul received it also, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. So this is what we are supposed to teach people. Christ died for you. The Bible said he died for you. The Bible says he rose again. Where did he rise from? The Bible says he rose from hell. And then, because that is death, isn't it? And according to the scriptures. So wouldn't that include that you have to show people the scriptures to see where he died? To see the promises that he was gonna come and all those things? That's why we use the Bible. We don't just use our own words to explain to people. And a lot of people say, oh yeah, you just have to explain it in your own words. No. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, but we do have to explain it from the Bible, okay? And we do that. And so that's just kind of introduction. So number one, the first excuse that some people will use of why they don't win souls or why they don't wanna go soul winning, because they'll say I'm a new Christian. And I just don't, you know, I'm just new and I don't know that I'm equipped to do that or whatever. So, but let's turn to a familiar story in John chapter four. And there's instances of people in the Bible that they get saved and right away, they're already just winning souls right away. Automatically. It's just what people automatically wanna do. Now obviously, you don't have everything together. You don't necessarily know everything you're supposed to say. But once you're saved, you have the Holy Ghost. So you can point people to Jesus. You can help other people point people to Jesus. You can help do soul winning in some way, shape or form. And I don't expect you to just jump out there and start knocking doors and talking to people instantly. But getting out there and learning how to do it and being trained to do it, I think is what God prescribes for us to do. So excuse number one, I'm a new Christian. Well look at John chapter four, verse number 28. And then, can I get, Brandon, can you bring me that water bottle that's right next to my backpack there real quick? John 4 28 says, the woman that left her water pot, so this is talking about the woman at the well. So Jesus' disciples go and they buy some, they go to buy some food because they're all hungry. And Jesus is left at this well, Jacob's well, and this woman comes to draw water. And so he uses this time to speak to this woman and give her the gospel. So she ends up getting saved. And look at verse 28, it says, the woman left her water pot and went her way into the city. This is right after she gets saved, mind you. And saith to the men, so women can get men saved, right? Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? So she goes immediately and starts preaching to people. To what? To get them saved like she saved. Then they went out of the city and came unto him. And so that's what she's doing. She's pointing people to Jesus. She might not know everything and how to get the people saved, but she's saying enough to get other people to listen to what she's saying and point them to Jesus who's still there hanging out by the well. And it says, and many of the Samaritans of that city on him, or excuse me, believed on him for the seeing of the woman which testified he told me all that I ever did. So now skip to verse 41, it says, and many more believed because of his own word. So they actually came and Jesus got them saved, but she still participated. They would've never got saved had she not gone to the city and told her friends or told the other people in the city and pointed them to Jesus Christ. And she's a new believer. So please don't use the excuse that I'm a new believer and I can't help, I can't do these things. Yes you can, yes you can. Verse 42 says, and said unto the woman, now we believe not because of thy seeing, for we have heard him ourselves and know that this indeed, this is indeed, excuse me, the Christ, the Savior of the world. Turn to Mark chapter five. So day one, she has souls saved to her account. Obviously Jesus got a lot of them saved, but we are co-laborers together with God, co-laborers. So we help bring forth the harvest. We are laborers in the field. Jesus is not going door to door, knocking every door. I mean, could he do it? Of course he could. I mean, he's God, right? But that's not the method he prescribed. He wants us to do it and use his power to do those things. Mark chapter five, verse 15. So this story is about the maniac of Gadara. And I really would like, I love this story. It's really interesting and it's kind of funny in some parts, but basically this guy has a legion. So he has multiple devils he's possessed with. And he can break chains. He's got, you know, he's like possessed. Literally possessed. And Jesus asks him what his name is. He says, I am legion for we are many. And then he casts the devils out of them, casts them into a herd of swan. They run off violently into this cliff and into the water, right? Now, this guy ends up getting saved. And it says in verse 15, and they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting and clothed, because he was naked before, and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And they that saw it told them how it be felt to him that was possessed with the devil and also concerning the swine, and they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. So he wants to go and join Jesus with his disciples and be part of his group. But look what Jesus does. It says, howbeit Jesus suffered him not. He didn't allow him to come with them. But saith unto him, go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed. So what did he do? He did what God said, didn't he? He did what the Lord said and began to publish it into capitalist how great things Jesus had done for him and all men did marvel. So day one, he wants to go and hang out with Jesus but Jesus had other plans for him. He said, hey, go tell your friends. Go tell people in your homeland, in your home city and tell them what great things Jesus has done for you and people marveled. They knew he was a maniac. They knew he was possessed with devils and all of a sudden he's back preaching Jesus and that's a great testimony. He's testifying, he's publishing the gospel to other people. And so day one, yes you can have an effect and just because you're a new convert it doesn't mean that you can't get people saved. And you can be a brand new person and win souls from day one or at least be participating in those things. So if you've never been so wanting before, get with our program and just start trying to learn. I would just exhort you to do those things. Excuse number two, and people will say this outside of probably our churches, but they'll say, I don't have the gift of soul winning. This is a common thing outside of our IFB world, right? In old IFB churches, people will say this kind of stuff. I don't really have the gift of soul winning. And it's like, well, did Jesus say, well go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel if you have the gift of soul winning? Did it say that? No, it doesn't say that. Turn to First Corinthians chapter 12. This is the chapter on spiritual gifts, right? First Corinthians chapter 12, verse number four. First Corinthians 12, four. The Bible says, now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit. So there's a lot of different gifts. That's what it's saying. But the same spirit, one holy spirit. We all have the spirit, we all have different gifts. That's clear, right? Skip to verse eight. The Bible says, for to one is given the spirit by the word of wisdom. To another, the word of knowledge by the same spirit. To another, faith by the same spirit. To another, the gifts of healing by the same spirit. To another, the working of miracles. To another, prophecy. To another, discerning of spirits. To another, diverse kinds of tongues. To another, the interpretation of tongues. What did you not see on that list? Did you see the gift of soul winning there? No, it doesn't say the gift of soul winning there. It doesn't say the gift of evangelism there, does it? You don't see that because that's not a gift of the holy spirit. Because everybody is commanded to go soul winning. Go ye therefore and preach the gospel. That'd be like saying, not everybody has the gift of tithing, Pastor Thompson. Not everybody has the gift of baptism, Pastor Thompson. I'm not gonna get baptized because not everybody has that gift. There's a difference between a commandment and a gift. Okay, the spiritual gifts are gifts that the holy spirit gives you and commandments are things that God tells you to do and they're not negotiable. They're things that he commands us to do. Turn to John chapter 15, verse 16. John chapter 15, verse 16. John 15, 16. The Bible says, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go, and what's it say there? Bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. So when we go and bring forth fruit, that fruit is another Christian. That fruit remains. What does that mean? Well, that fruit is saved forever, isn't it? It's preserved forever. And it says that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. So we're supposed to go bring forth fruit. He ordained us to do that. So it's a commission, an ordination for us to do those things. It's not a gift. And so Proverbs 11, 30, very famous verse. Go ahead and turn there, Proverbs 11, 30. It says the fruit, well, let me give you a second to turn there. Proverbs 11, 30. The Bible says, Proverbs 11, 30, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. So the fruit of the righteous, so the righteous are who? People that are saved, right? And so when Jesus says bring forth fruit, he's talking about people that are saved. What are we supposed to do? Bring forth fruit. Fruit of the righteous is what? A tree of life. And what did the tree of life do in the Garden of Eden? It gave people eternal life, didn't it? They, if you eat of it, they live forever, right? And he that winneth souls is wise, so when we win someone to Christ, we are winning that person to eternal life, right? Now turn to Romans chapter one, verse 13. Romans chapter one, verse 13. See, a lot of people get confused between the fruit of a Christian and the fruit of the Spirit. They're two different things. The Holy Spirit, you know, the fruit of the Holy Spirit is not our fruit. That's the fruit of the Holy Spirit. But people will automatically put these fruits and say, well, if you don't have fruit, then you're not really saved. That's what they'll say, right? But the real fruit is supposed to be the fruit that we bring forth, which is other Christians, right? That's our fruit. We're supposed to bring forth fruit. I ordained you that you should bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. Romans chapter one, verse 13 says, Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oft times I purposed to come unto you, but was let hither to, that I might have some fruit among you also. What's he talking about? Even as among other Gentiles. He's saying that he wants to get other people saved in Rome there, right? Don't confuse the fruit of the Spirit with the fruit of the Christian. The fruit of the Christian is to bring forth souls, to bring forth other saved people. The fruit of an apple tree is what? Apples. This is gonna be interactive, okay? The fruit of the peach tree is what? Peaches, right? What's the fruit of the pear tree? What is the fruit of the righteous tree? Yeah, what is the fruit of a Christian? Other Christians, right? So, sowing is a command, it's not a gift. Some people might be better at talking than other people, but I've seen some of the most introverted people ever give the Gospel and get people saved. There's a lot of introverted people, even in our church, that have gotten people saved. There's a lot of quiet people that get people saved. Because you know what? With the power of the Holy Spirit, God can get, you can win souls. God will help you. He'll bring those things into remembrance in your mind, the verses to go to. He'll help your tongue, just like Moses said, I can't speak, I'm not very, he was trying to tell God, I'm not very gifted in oration or whatever. I'm definitely paraphrasing there. But he says, I'm of a slow tongue. And God said, who hath made the tongue? And he said, I know your brother speaks well. But God said, I will be with your tongue. And you know what? God will be with your tongue also if you'll just get out there and do what he says. You know, and you might fumble and stumble through a gospel presentation, but you know what? With anything, you'll get better as you go along. The more you do something, the better you're gonna get at it. So, not soul-winning though, is disobedience to the clear command to go. It's not a gift, folks, it's a commandment. Now, excuse number three is, I win souls through my local church. Obviously, I don't hear these excuses, but just suffer with me as I go through this point because there are people that believe this way also. And look, I've been an independent Baptist my whole Christian life. I've never been a non-denom or a Presbyterian or anything like that. I've always been a Baptist. But I've heard this excuse a lot. And this is really the model of most independent Baptist churches that aren't soul-winning. And let me tell you, most of them aren't soul-winning churches. So, what they consider soul-winning is inviting people to church. This is what our pastor used to say almost every time he closed a service. Get out there, invite somebody to church. Why did he say that? Because he wants you to invite someone to church so that they'll come and they'll listen to the same salvation message every single Sunday morning and that he'll do an altar call and do multiple stanzas until someone comes up and puts their hining up in front of everybody on the altar and then someone will repent of their sins and get saved, quote unquote. Because that's what they'll teach. You gotta repent of your sins. Or they'll say, well I give to my local missionaries or I give to the missionaries through my church and they get people saved. I do that through, you know, our church gets a lot of people saved through missionaries. Well, you know, a lot of missionaries are actually muchinaries in reality. They're not really doing anything. But I would say, if you're getting behind missionaries in our church, that's great. Well, we don't do missions like other churches do. We just give to missions through our general fund. We don't have like some kind of mission drive or faith promise where we have a thermometer of what we're trying to meet for the year. Because we're not supposed to promise things that we can't keep. What if you lose your job the day after you make a faith promise missions? Like, I'm gonna give, you know, you get all these missionaries to come in for the week. And they give all these heartfelt videos of, you know, Africans playing in mud holes with flies swarming around them or whatever. And they play this sad music to pull on your heart strings and then you're like, I'll give 500 a week to missions. And then you lose your job that week. Well, you just broke your promise. You just went, you just said something out of your mouth that you were gonna do or wrote it down on a piece of paper and turned it into the offering and you're counted on to put that money in the plate every week. So these faith promise missions things are unbiblical. You know, you're promising to do something that you can't necessarily keep. And you can kind of go into debt doing that. But if you don't pay, then what? You're angering God, big time. So another way that people say they're giving through their local church is by handing out tracts or bullhorning on some street corner. That's not what God said to do. Yelling and screaming at people how wicked they are on a street corner with a sign that says, repent or perish is not soul winning. You're just pissing people off. You're just upsetting people. It doesn't work. I've never seen people just walk up to some repent of your sins moron and get saved because they were yelling and screaming about how wicked they are because they went to some movie or whatever they're protesting or whatever. So that doesn't work. Or I didn't see where Paul said, hang something on your door. Or people will say, well I tithe and that goes towards invitations and people that go out soul winning. Look, all those things are, some of those things are okay. Yeah, they're fine. But it's not a replacement for actually going door to door soul winning. It's not a replacement. No matter how you justify it in your mind, it's just not. So the individual has the responsibility to go. Look at Psalm 126 verse six. Psalm 126 verse six. We do have a personal responsibility. You can't just say, well my church does a lot of soul winning. You can't ride the coattails of your church. It's just like at work, what if you're just like the laziest worker there and you're like, well my work does a lot of work. We do a lot of great work and you don't. It's like, yeah but you don't. So how are you part of the equation? You're like the bad percentage of why they're not meeting their goal or something. You know what I mean? So you can't just ride a good church's coattails that's doing a lot of work. You have to be part of it. You can't say, well my church is great because we do a lot of soul winning, but you don't do it? So how are you helping? The Bible says in Psalm 126 verse six says, he that goeth forth is that, it's not only supposed to be he, but this is an example. He that goeth forth, is that an individual? He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again, with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. So this is an individual that's, they're weeping, they're preaching the word of God. It says they shall doubtless come again. They're going to get people saved. If you go preach the gospel, you preach the word of God, you're going to get people saved. That's what it's saying. And you're gonna bring your sheaves with you. But the point is, this is talking about an individual person. So every individual has this promise, don't they? So that just kind of shows you that as an individual, you are responsible to do this yourself. You can't ride on other people's coattails. Look at Daniel chapter 12 verse two. Daniel chapter 12 verse two. Daniel chapter 12 verse two. The Bible says, and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine. So are there some people that are gonna be wise? Yes. And what will happen to them? They will shine, right? As the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever. So this is talking about individuals. Now is it saying everybody's gonna shine? Is it saying all people are gonna shine? Is that what it says? No, it's they that be wise. They are going to turn, they that turn many to righteousness. Now what if you have never won a soul your whole life as a Christian or you go through your whole Christian life and you never turn one person to righteousness? Are you gonna shine? Does it say you're gonna shine? No, they that are wise, they that turn many to righteousness shall shine forever. Maybe you will shine, but you know those stars out there that you can, when you really zoom in, you can see a lot on like a telescope or something, but when you're looking up at a starry sky, maybe even out in the woods or something, there's some that are way dimmer than the other ones, some that are really bright. Well, maybe you might just be the dimmest one or something. But, you know, and I'm not saying that, you know, you're no good or something, you're like, you know, some people just don't do anything for God. You know, the thief on the cross didn't do a lot, did he? But he did confess and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and he saved. But while he was on the cross, he had one work that he did. He kind of stuck up for Jesus at the end. But he didn't save anybody. He didn't, you know, but he's still in heaven, and that's great. But what I'm trying to illustrate for you here is that there are certain people who are gonna get different types of rewards, and our individual effort means, they mean something. There's merit involved in them. There's individual rewards that we receive. Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter two, 1 Thessalonians chapter two. 1 Thessalonians chapter two. Says, for what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy. Now a lot of people would say this is the soul winner's crown that you get for being a soul winner. And I understand why people say that because look what it says. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye. So he's talking to certain people that he's gotten saved is what I'm getting out of this. In the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. So it sounds to me like there's gonna be some kind of rejoicing because of the people that they got saved. It says for ye are our glory and joy, right? So a crown is given to individuals is the soul winning crown. But does it say the church gets that? Or is it talking about individuals? Talking about individuals, isn't it? Cause not everybody gets people saved. Now obviously there's dividends involved with things that we help with, with missions and tithing and all that stuff. I understand all that. But that doesn't diminish your responsibility to be a soul winner. It just doesn't. Turn to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. Bible says, and look, there's a lot of churches with this mentality that the pastor does all the work when it comes to evangelism. The pastor's the one that's supposed to calm and do the altar calls and all this other stuff. Look, you don't see altar calls in the Bible. You just don't see that. You know why? There's no altar calls in the New Testament because there's no altar in the New Testament. It just does not, it's just not there. So an altar was to burn animals on and do sacrifices. So I don't really get the correlation necessarily. But anyway, Ephesians 4.11 says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Why, why did he do that? For the perfecting of the saints. The saints, the saved people, right? For the perfecting. And that's to help the saints to be a well-rounded and complete Christian, right? For the work of the ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ. My job as a pastor to help try to perfect you and to preach the whole counsel of God for the work, to do the work of the ministry and to edify the body of Christ, to build up the body of Christ. Our job is to equip the believers and prepare and train not to do all the soul-willing, not to do all the evangelism, not to just tell you to invite people to church so I can preach that salvation message. That's not what the Bible teaches. God wants us all to be involved. And if you look at that term, the saints, that includes all manner of different believers. If you just say the blanket statement, the saints. There's a lot of different people in here, right? There's a lot of different saved people in here that look different, that are different ages, and all different types of things. Well, I mean, there's new, there's seasoned, there's old, there's introverts, there's extroverts, there's women, men, children. I don't know about any, yeah, there's some teens here. Et cetera. The saints encompasses a lot of different things. So, the point is is that I'm supposed to equip you to do these things and look, so everybody is responsible to learn and to get all these different things. And when it comes to soul wanting, I'm supposed to equip everybody to do this. Now, let's turn back to Matthew 28, verse 20 again. Matthew chapter 28, verse 20. I wanna show you a different point out of this verse. Because this is the Great Commission. And was it given to churches? Of course it is. But it's given to the disciples. You're supposed to give it to the churches that they start and teach it to the other disciples, right? It says, Matthew 28, verse 20 says, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you, I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, let's say there, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So, how long is personal soul wanting going to continue? How long is the Great Commission gonna last? Till the what? The end of the world. So how long are we supposed to go, you're like, when's soul wanting gonna end, pastor? The end of the world. That's how long. So how long do I have to teach messages like this? Till the end of my life, probably. Till the end of my ministry. And so you're like, well, I'm tired of these soul wanting messages. Well, you're gonna get them till the end of the world. If you're in a good church. A good pastor's gonna tell you, hey, get out there and go soul wanting. He's gonna encourage you. Look, I'm not trying to be mean. I'm trying to help. I'm trying to build you up. I'm trying to help you to get on board the program. Now, I heard this quote, and I'm not sure if this is, this is not 100% verified through first document sources or anything, but I thought it was a good quote anyway. So it may or may not, this might be Baptist lore, I'm just saying. But a missionary to India was questioning whether or not it was of any use to preach the gospel to the Hindus. The Duke of Wellington asked, what are your marching orders? Now, the Duke of Wellington, of course, is famous for the Battle of Waterloo, where he defeated Napoleon, right? But he also was stationed in India at a time, so I could see why this might be a real quote, okay? But he said, what are your marching orders? Our marching orders are go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He replied, how they receive us is not our responsibility, but getting the gospel to them is. So, I mean, whether that's a true quote or not, I don't know, someone might come along and fact check me, that's why I wanted to make sure that I caveated that quote, so. But it is true nonetheless. Our marching orders are to go. Whether they receive it or not, that's not up to us. We're just supposed to do what we're told to do, right? Excuse number four. I'm waiting to be led by the Holy Spirit. Here's another weird and dumb excuse that people like to give, and really it's, I think it's just a cop-out excuse, honestly, but this is an excuse I've heard for many years, this is an excuse you'll hear at an old IFB church, but, you know, I'm gonna go through it anyway. I'll debunk this. So, look at 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 10. Look, 2 Corinthians five, verse 10. Okay. 2 Corinthians five, 10 says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Now, I do wanna explain this a little bit here. The judgment seat of Christ isn't a jumbotron where they're gonna play all the sins that you've done, and God's gonna make you feel bad in front of everybody, but what is going to happen is that he's going to judge the things you've done in your body according to what you could've done that you didn't do, and then you're gonna lose rewards that you could've had. So, the opportunities you could've gone soul-wearing and you chose to do something else or whatever, those are things, you're gonna be judged by those things, but you're not gonna be condemned as far as like, there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Once you're saved, there's no more punishment for sin, right? It says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We know that God is gonna terrorize the unsaved. He's gonna torture them in hell for all eternity, and so because we know those things, we persuade men, that's what Paul's saying, we persuade them because we know what's awaiting for them and so our motivation, aside from the rewards we get, because we will get rewards, but aside from that, just like compassion and empathy for other people, to know that that person's gonna die and go to hell for all eternity should be enough motivation for us to have at least a weekly soul-wearing time where we go out and care for other people, because we were once just like them. We were once unsaved and headed to a devil's hell and we should have compassion on other people and quit thinking about ourselves so much and how much fun we need to have and how much family time we need to have and all this other stuff. Yeah, we do need to have those things. We do need to have hobbies and all that stuff, but we should also persuade men because we know, therefore, the terror of the Lord. But it says, but we are made manifest into God and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. Look at verse 17, skip down to verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new and all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. So what is this talking about? Well, reconciliation, that means when you make peace with somebody else, right? So God's given us the ministry of reconciliation where we want to reconcile someone that's not right with God and make them friends again, basically. And how will we do that? Well, we preach them the gospel. They get saved. It's a clean slate with God and that person. The blood of Christ is applied to them through faith. They receive the Holy Ghost. God passes over them and does not destroy them and does not throw them in hell because the blood of Christ has been applied to them. And so he's given to us the ministry of reconciliation and the word of reconciliation is what? Where we tell people the word of God and that reconciles. It says now then we are ambassadors for Christ. So we are like, say he's the president or the king. And we understand this because we have ambassadors of our country that go and try to make good with the other nations so that we have peace with them. So that's real familiar to us, right? And so we are supposed to be ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you and Christ did be reconciled to God. So we are, you shouldn't just wait for some feeling I feel like God is calling me to finally do something. A lot of people are gonna go to hell while you sit and wait for your little fuzzy feeling from the Holy Ghost to go out and go soul-winding. You know what? You don't need some feeling to tell you to do something. You know what? Look, you don't need feelings to tell you anything. We got the word of God that tells you what to do already. Have you been listening? I mean, it's like people just, you know, they see these verses like, well, I just don't really know what God wants for my life. Read the Bible and you might finally understand what he wants from your life. He wants us to get out there and reconcile people to God. That's why he left us here, literally why he left. I mean, you know, it'd be nice if we could just get saved and go right to heaven, right? That'd be nice. But that's not what, he left us here for a purpose and so people just need to quit waiting for some mystical calling from God. It's never gonna happen. That's not how he works. I mean, how many verses have we gone through about it? Multitudes of verses here. And really, it's just a bunch of lazy Christians that are waiting for some fuzzy feeling to happen. You know, what, are we Pentecostals all of a sudden? I'm waiting for the feeling, I just don't. I'm waiting for God to speak to me. He does. He spoke to you through his word. If you're waiting for, you know, your house to start quaking and the doors to fly open and some angel to come tell you some, you know, you're in the wrong religion, buddy. You need to go to the Mormons or something. You need to go become an Islamist or something. Obviously, I don't mean that. I don't want you to do that, but. It's funny how people start saying, well, God said this to me. No, he didn't. The only thing he said to you was the things in this book. Other than that, you're hearing voices in your head and you need to go get some medication. So just quit being scared. Quit being a coward. You know, if you're just apathetic and you don't care about people, why don't you just say that instead of saying you're waiting for some fuzzy feeling to how you're waiting for the Holy Ghost to lead you. I don't think that's gonna be a good excuse. It's not a good excuse now. It's not gonna be a good excuse tomorrow. It's not gonna be a good excuse on the judgment seat of Christ. It's not gonna be a good excuse any time that that's not why you don't go soul winning. It's ridiculous. Excuse number five, I don't know how to win souls. Learn. It's really simple. We have multiple soul winning times at this church, multiple people, plenty capable of training you how to win souls. Get ready. How do you do that? Well, Romans 1.14, I'm a debtor. Go ahead and turn to Luke chapter 12. Romans 1.14 says, I'm a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise, so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome also. What did Paul say? He's ready. Ezra was a ready scribe in the Lord. Hey, if you don't know how to win souls, we'll learn and then be ready for your opportunity. When you're out there, then you can learn, put everything together, start talking, even if you're just at the inviting stage. You can always just go to your comfort level and then just keep pushing yourself to do more. So, I had you turn to Luke chapter 12, verse 47, and how do you get ready? Well, you gotta get prepared first. Luke 12, 47. And that servant, which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. Hey look, if you know your responsibility and you're not doing it, then what does the Bible say? You're gonna get beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given of him, shall be much required, and to whom men have committed much of him, they will ask the more. So, God's saying, hey, if you've been given a lot of knowledge, and you know what you're supposed to be doing and you're not doing it, you're in trouble with him. So, be prepared. See, the servant that did not prepare himself, that person, you know, that's not a good thing, that's not good to be not prepared. Turn to First Peter, chapter three, verse 15. First Peter, chapter three, verse 15. So we need to, what? If you don't know how to win souls, well, learn. Get ready, get prepared. In First Peter, three, 15, Peter exhorts us to do this. It says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always. So, how often should we be ready? Always. To give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with making us in fear. So if you're just out on the street, and you happen to have some encounter with someone, would you be able to lead someone to the Lord? Say you just left your Bible at home. Could you lead someone to the Lord? Well, you know, I mean, I know that a lot of people in here could, but, you know, if you're not ready to do it, then you wouldn't be able to, and what a shame that would be if you lost an opportunity when you could have got someone saved, but you weren't ready, you weren't prepared. And I would say, one way to get ready is to memorize some verses. Get the Gospel memorized, and it's really not that hard to do it. The Bible says in Psalm, go ahead and turn to Psalm 119, verse 11. I'll read Psalm 37, verse 31. Psalm 37, verse 31 says, the law of his God in his heart, none of his steps shall slide. So when we have the law of God in our heart, you know, we're not gonna slide when we are trying to take a step. When we're trying to step forward in faith and preach the Gospel, you know, if we have his word in our heart, you know, we're not gonna fail, we're not gonna slide, we're not gonna miss our steps. In Psalm 119, verse 11, the Bible says, thy word of I hidden mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. And you're like, well, you're kind of misusing the scripture, Pastor, because it's about not sinning. Well, isn't soul winning, not going to soul winning sinning? So if you're not going to soul winning, you're sinning. But if you have your word hidden in your heart, then you're able to give the verses and get someone saved. So, you know, it's a win-win, right? So memorize the Roman's road, mark out your Bible, learn the path and the steps that it takes to lead someone to Christ. Excuse number six, I'm too busy. I'm just too busy. That's not a good excuse. That's actually a really bad excuse. Because you need to get less busy then. If you're so busy that you don't have time for the things of God, you're too busy. You're like, well, you just don't understand, Pastor, I am too busy. Well, then get less busy. Make time at least once a week. Go out, preach the gospel, and put everything you have into it. Even if it's just for an hour a week. 59 minutes and 59 seconds. Hey, it's better than nothing. Right? Luke chapter 14, verse 28. Go ahead and turn to Luke chapter 14, verse 28. I'm almost done here. Luke 14, 28. Because, look, a lot of people give excuses to why they won't do things, right? But we shouldn't make excuses like that. And look, if we're gonna serve God, we gotta be able to count the cost. And part of that cost is, hey, when we're gonna serve him, we gotta be all in, and we gotta be able to provide for ourselves a time that we are gonna serve him. So if you have way too much things going on where you can't serve him at all, then you're just too busy. So don't let that be an excuse for you. Luke 14, verse 28 says, For which of you intending to build a tower shouldest not down first and count the cost, whether you have sufficient to finish it? Lest happily after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and he was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make a war against another king, sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an embassage and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Look, you have to be willing to forsake all that you have to be his disciple. So to say, I'm too busy to serve God is not really a good excuse. And then what are you saying? I don't wanna be his disciple. I can't be his disciple. You know what I mean? That's just not something that should be in our mind. And if you've made a choice to be too busy to serve God, then you're not his disciple. Isn't that kinda what it's saying? God forbid that we should have that as something that is in our mind, that is in our life. It says, salt is good, but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dung hill, but men cast it out, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now look, if you just become unsalty, because we're supposed to be the salt of the earth, a city on the hill cannot be hid. We're supposed to give our light and shine it before men, so that people can see our good works and glorify our Father, which is in heaven. And if they never see your light, then what use are you? As far as, what use are you to God? How are you his disciple if you're not doing anything that would be considered discipleship at all? You said, hey, Lord, I'm willing to follow you, I'm gonna be your disciple, and then you just stop doing it because you've made yourself too busy. You better cut some things out of your life then. And I'm not saying cut your kids out, or your wife out, or your job. Obviously you need to do all those things, you need to support your family, but you might need to cut something out of your life, or just quit making excuses while you don't have time. Maybe you just need to cut out something that you're doing that's taking up time that you are doing that you don't realize. If you really just go over your schedule, you could probably find some time to do a little bit of soul-willing, right? Excuse number seven, I believe in lifestyle evangelism. That's the last point. So I could probably come up with a lot more points. But this is the last point. I believe in lifestyle evangelism, and look, I hope nobody in this room believes this, but there is this excuse. This is a thing out there that people believe that if they live a good life in front of people, that someone's gonna walk up and go, what's your secret, brother? What must I do to be safe? How can I be more like you? How can I? Most people look at Christians, if you're living the Christian life, they go, there's that weird Christian that he doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't chew, he doesn't run with girls that do. He's straight-laced, he reads his Bible at lunch or whatever on his lunch break. They don't look at that and say, I want that. Generally, okay? They think, you're the weird one. Because before I was saved, when I saw people doing stuff like that, I thought they were weird, okay? But obviously I don't think that way anymore. But even when you're just talking to someone that's unsaved, if you're just talking to them about your life in general, they're gonna think that you're extreme and weird when you have Christian principles in your life. Because they don't understand what you believe. So that's why it might be best to just not share those things with people. It might be best to just try to get a time where you can spend alone with them, where you can just get them saved so that their mind can be free from the constructs that they already believed, and then they can start, God can start changing their mind through the Holy Ghost, right? Now, living a good life in front of others is not sowing, it's just not. It no doubt will give you more credibility, though, when approaching them with the Gospel. But just thinking someone's gonna come up and ask you how to be saved because of how you live your life is a bunch of baloney. Turn to Romans chapter 10, Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10, verse 13. This is our ultimate goal, right? To get people saved. For whosoever shall call upon, the name of the Lord shall be saved. And I think it's just so funny, these lifestyle people, they'll be like, oh yeah, this is how we do it. We invite them to a barbecue, we invite them to church, and we just, we show them our good life. Well, look what the Bible says. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? Don't people have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved? Yeah. And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things? How shall they preach except they be sent? My job as a preacher is to send other preachers out there to preach the Gospel. Not to lifestyle evangelism up, everybody. Go around and show them how good your life is or whatever. And look, again, I think we should live a good life in front of people. And your walk is gonna talk. I get that. But God says your feet are beautiful because you go out and preach. Why does he say your feet are beautiful? Because when your feet are moving and going different places, talking to people, that's what he wants. He doesn't say that your lot, he doesn't pick other things. He doesn't say how beautiful are the houses of them that show how great of a lifestyle they have. Is that what it says? No, how beautiful are the feet of them. Because feet move. Feet walk. Feet go places. Like he said to do, go places, right? John 5, 24 says, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life. But let me tell you something else. The person that never hears the Gospel never gets saved. That's just a fact. Jesus said, he that heareth my word, not he that looketh on everybody's good life. He that heareth my word. Now they hear without a preacher, they don't. 1 Corinthians 1, 21. Go ahead and turn there. I got one, two. I should have had you keep your place in Romans, but I'll just read it again. 1 Corinthians 1, 21, then we'll go to Revelation 22 and then we'll be done. 1 Corinthians 1, 21 says, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So how did God choose to save people? By the foolishness of preaching. And what are we supposed to do? Preach the Gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. We need to tell people the Gospel message, we need to preach it to them, that's how they get saved. Not it pleased God by godly living to save them that observed. Right? That's not what it says. Romans 10, 17 again says, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Not faith cometh by observation and observing people's good lives. Lifestyle evangelism is a trash doctrine, it's not what the Bible teaches, that's what all these, you know, rub-a-dub-dub, back scrub Baptist churches, or Baptist, maybe not Baptist churches necessarily, but a lot of neo-evangelical churches, a bunch of churches out there are just teaching this trash, feel good Ted Talk sermons, a bunch of rock concert lights and smoke, and all the glitter and glam, and you know, they have rock walls in their churches and Starbucks. They got everything but the Holy Spirit, they got everything but a soul winning program, they got everything but the Gospel right, they got everything but a good King James Bible in their church. It's just a place devoid of the Holy Spirit, devoid of true teaching, devoid of, you know, a program that tells you to get out there and get saved. And look, this isn't really necessarily a feel good sermon in every way, shape, and form, but look, I want our church to always be rock solid on this, and look, the reason why I'm teaching this, why am I preaching this? Well, to encourage new people to get out and go. To light a fire upon those that have not been going. I want people that have not been going to get back out there and get into it again. Look, maybe you've lost your fire for it, and look, everybody understands that. I understand that, because there's times when I don't wanna go too. But that is not a reason to stop completely going. And I want to encourage the faithful to keep it up. Because I don't want you to quit. Look at our last verse, Revelation 22, verse 17. The Bible says, and this is like the final invitation for salvation in the whole Bible right here. Revelation 22, 17. And the spirit and the bride say, what do they say? Come, come get saved. And let him that heareth say, come. And look, we're the people that have heard and got saved. So what are we supposed to do? It says, let him that heareth say, come. We're supposed to be the ones that heard, the ones that are saved, say, come. Because the spirit and the bride say that. Let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Everyone that heareth are the people that get saved, right? Should invite people to trust Christ as their savior. And look, we have no excuses. We really don't. Young, old, ugly, pretty, fat, skinny, whatever category you want to, maimed, not, you know, whole, whatever you want to say. We don't have any excuse. We can do something. And yeah, I get it. If you're 99 years old in a wheelchair and blind and deaf, you're gonna have a tough time. But like, why waste the times that you can do it? And then say, when you're in that state, go, man, I wish I would have really went soloing. Man, I wish I would have really done it. I really wish I would have got plugged in. I really wish I would have just opened my mouth. It wasn't really that hard. I really wish I would have said something to my coworker when I was driving on that long drive across town. I really wish I would have told my mom how to be saved. I really wish I would have told my dad. I really wish I would have just reached out to my grandparents and said something. I really wish that I would have just gone out and just knocked doors with my church. But there's coming a time when we won't be able to do that anymore. So these types of sermons are important for us and we need to just keep these things in mind because, look, in a generation, this church could be gone. This church could be gone and nothing like it to replace it in this area. There was nothing like it before it came, I'm pretty sure. I mean, maybe there was a great soloing church here before, I'm sure there might have been. But do you know which church it was? Because nobody else remembers. So we're in a generation, we're here, you're part of this church. Get involved and if you've never been someone before, hey, make today be the first day you go out. Even if it's just for an hour. And hey, it's not as scary as you think. There could have been another category which would have been like, I'm afraid something's gonna happen when I go out. And I'd be lying to you if I said that's not a possibility, but no one's died yet. So we're good. So anyway, let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this great day and pray that you just help us. So Lord, stay on fire. Lord, we've been in church now for a while and I've seen people come, I've seen people go, I've seen people on fire, I've seen people fall out, I've seen people come and go and we've seen a lot of new people. And I just pray that you would, Lord, help us as a church to keep our fire lit and to not let that Holy Spirit be quenched in our lives. Pray you'd help us to get our zeal back for soul winning if we've lost it. And I pray, Lord, that those that have it, to keep that zeal and to keep our fire burning. And I pray that you just bless us as we go out today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.