(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Hello, good evening fellow offscouring of all things, as Paul said. Let's talk tonight about the importance of the silent partner of soul winning. The importance of the silent partner, the role of the silent partner is very important and it's something that's underestimated and undervalued in the minds of many people, especially people who are interested in soul winning, but don't know how to give the gospel yet. And they don't understand that they can be a big help and a blessing and do some important labor just by being a silent partner, just by going out and pairing up with the guy who does know how to give the gospel. And it's important for many reasons and I'm going to do my best to remember all the reasons that I thought of before I made this video. So number one, the more silent partners you have in a group of soul winners, the more pairs you have to send out soul winning. I mean, hooray for basic math. So if you have, if you have a soul winning event and you have six guys who know how to give the gospel and they all show up to that event, well that's three pairs of soul winners right there because Jesus Christ did what? He sent out the disciples two by two to preach the gospel. We'll say you have four guys who are interested in showing up to the event, but they're nervous. They don't want to show up. They think they don't know how to give the gospel. They don't show up because they're not an experienced soul winner and they think they're not going to know what to say. Well, you're in luck because thankfully it only takes one person to preach the gospel. However, Jesus sent his disciples out two by two and that's how we go out soul winning generally two by two, unless you have to go alone for whatever reason. Well, if those four guys decide to show up, well now you have five groups of soul winners to go out and talk to people as opposed to three pairs of soul winners to go out and talk to people. So it's important you show up. The more, the more, the more silent partners show up, the more soul winning will be done. And you might not, you might think, well, you know, initially if you don't think about this, well, I'm not really going to contribute, but you do contribute because more pairs can go out if you show up. The silent partner is important for many reasons. The silent partner has some important tasks to carry through while soul winning. Number one, it's his job to be an encouragement and a vessel of fellowship and camaraderie for his partner. So on those days where you are knocking doors and no one's answering or it's discouraging or people are slamming the door in your face, you know, you have a partner with you and you have fellowship with him and you can use the time to have fellowship with each other. But what's a silent partner's job out soul winning? Well, number one, it's his job to pray while his friend is giving the gospel. So, and I know it's easy to let your mind wander while your friend is giving the gospel, while your partner is giving the gospel, but really we shouldn't be looking at our phone and dozing off while our partner is giving the gospel. It's not a time to let our guards down. It's a time to pray, pray for many things. You can pray that the Holy Spirit will work greatly in both the soul winner and the heart of the listener, the potential convert. So we should be praying that the Holy Spirit is there and working, that the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of the listener and that the Holy Spirit gives the soul winner utterance and the words to say and the proper, that he takes the proper scriptural route in explaining this person the gospel and preaching the person the gospel. Also, if you'll just listen, you'll learn, you know, don't think like, well, I'm an experienced soul winner, you know, I'm just going to tune out and we can all learn from each other out soul winning. I learned from everybody that I go soul winning with. And also, for those experienced soul winners, you know, appreciate your role as a silent partner when it's time to be a silent partner. It's not always time to preach, you know, there's a time to speak and there's a time to keep silent. And the time to keep silent is when you're a silent partner. So number one, don't interject when your partner is giving the gospel. It's not your time to interject and give your thoughts. A soul winner generally knows what direction he's taking his gospel presentation. So unless he turns to you and asks for your help, you are a silent partner. It's in the name, silent partner. You should be praying and you should be there as an encouragement. The silent partner, when two people knock your door, even if you're not saying anything, you're also there as a second witness. You're there to affirm the testimony that the preacher of the gospel is giving to that person. So when somebody knocks their door and the homeowner answers the door and one guy is giving them the gospel, well, he has a second guy there who's a second witness. That's two witnesses showing up with the same message. And the Bible says in the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established. And don't under appreciate your role as a silent partner. Don't wander off. Stick with your partner out soul winning. And I know this can be tempting, but it's something that we should not allow ourselves to do for several reasons. First of all, it's for just common safety measures. You often go soul winning in low income neighborhoods, high crime neighborhoods, poverty stricken neighborhoods that are not the most comely or the safest neighborhoods to be in. Two are better than one. You're supposed to be there to have each other's back and have each other's backs when you're out soul winning. Another important role of the soul winner, it's the silent partner. It's the silent partner's job also to ward off distractions and to kind of olay any distractions from any heretic or barking dog or husband who wants to get in the way of you giving his wife the gospel or something. What will happen often out soul winning is you'll have a group of like two or three people and you and your partner will approach them and one person will be very interested and is very receptive to the gospel. But then their friend is somebody who is very opposed to what you're saying and they have all kinds of heresy and false doctrine and they're trying to interject and they're trying to derail the conversation and go down all these rabbit trails. Basically your job as a silent partner is to take that distraction aside, basically just let him blow off steam to you. So there's been times where this happens, the friend is just completely opposed to the gospel by grace through faith alone, whereas his buddy that he's with is listening and is genuinely interested. All you have to do as a silent partner in order to give your partner the free way to preach the gospel without any distractions, just take that guy aside a little bit and just let him blow off steam to you. Let him run his mouth to you. Just let him speak and speak and speak and give you his heresy and preach the gospel to him if you can. But often the reason you have to bring him aside in the first place is because you're not able to preach him the gospel because he's not receiving it, he doesn't have ears to hear. And that's another thing that you can pray as a silent partner, it's a good prayer simply because it's biblical terminology. You know, God, please give the person that my friend is preaching the gospel with ears to hear, eyes to see, understanding, wisdom, soften his heart. The silent partner is important. He's an encouragement. He's there as, you know, he's there as backup. He's there as, he's there to be the, you know, basically, you know, I want to take any shots that any, you know, the heretic friend wants to throw at the soul winner. I basically want to take him aside and I want to be the one to take those blows, you know, so my friend isn't the subject of them while he's trying to give the gospel to somebody. Also, being a silent partner, that's how you're going to learn to go soul winning, you know. It doesn't make sense for you to say, well, I'm not going to go soul winning because I don't know how. Well, that's like saying, you know, I'm not going to learn how to do any number of things because I don't know how. It's like anything else, you know, in order to learn, you have to go. And it's not as hard as you think to learn how to go soul winning. Being a silent partner for a little while, you'll learn to go soul winning. And eventually you're going to have the urge yourself to, and you know, to preach the gospel and you're going to want, and you're going to say, I want to get in on this now. I never had the really luxury of being a silent partner because the church that I started in, it wasn't really that big on soul winning. And when I started going soul winning, I went out alone often and the way I learned to go, I started preaching the gospel right away. And the way I did that was by learning different gospel presentations that I learned on YouTube from people like Jeff Futzler, Pastor Steven Anderson, Pastor Roger Jimenez. Pastor Roger Jimenez really taught me how to nail down my soul winning. So I would attribute a lot of what I learned from him and also Pastor Steven Anderson. And like I said, people like Jeff Futzler. So, but basically what I did, I saw their gospel presentations. I wrote a map in my Bible, you know, just know what verses you're going to use. Guys, in order to become a soul winner, all you have to do is prepare a little bit and you'll be able to be a soul winner. There's always a prepared place for a prepared person. The horses are prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord. So if you're prepared, God will use you, you know, know, know your verses that you're going to use. All you have to do is have the verses, know how to explain what the word believe means, meaning to completely trust, meaning to completely rely upon and have your faith on what Christ did in the death, burial, and resurrection. Explain what eternal means. It can never, you can, it means forever. You could never lose it. Have a couple illustrations about what a gift is. Have an illustration about what it means to believe and trust and preach the gospel and do the best you can and start seasoning yourself and your soul winning. Not everyone gives the gospel the same exact way, but you know, if you just get out there, you'll see that God is going to use your specific, given, created personality and your soul and spirit that he's given you to be a soul winner. It doesn't take much to just go out and teach people that Jesus died and rose again and that whosoever believed in him should not perish, but everlasting life. Just know where John 3 16 is, know where Romans 3 23 and revelation 21 eight is and Romans 6 23 and maybe one more verse, you know, uh, John 3 36 and then like John 10 28 or any number of verses and just go out and preach them, just see what happens. But until then, be a silent partner. If they're a soul, if you have the opportunity to be a silent partner, don't pass it up. Even if you are a seasoned, experienced soul winner, don't look down and scoff at the role of being a silent partner. It's important. Don't wander off and leave your partner alone. Who knows what's happening in those apartment buildings? Who knows what's happening down, uh, you know, by that stoop or on that corner or in that neighborhood. You know, don't just leave your partner in a strange neighborhood all alone. Take some, some pride, so to speak, in the role of being a silent partner and don't underestimate it. Show up at soul winning events and be a silent partner. Just, there's no shame in it. Just humble yourself and just, you know, there's, there's no shame in not knowing how to do something. You know, I didn't know how to swim until I learned how to swim. I didn't know how to ride a bike until I learned how to ride a bike. I didn't know how to catch it and throw baseball until I went and tried to learn how to catch and throw baseball. And um, that's how you learn soul winning. You just go and you'll learn quicker than you think and you will be rewarded for your labor as a silent partner. You know, the disciples were silent partners. You think that you think they were always just speaking over each other, talking over each other, preaching over each other, struggling for the next door and, and you know, trying to one up each other out soul winning. You know, sometimes they were just silent and in prayer while there, you know, you know, John and Peter, you know, Peter was silent while John was giving the gospel or, you know, whatever permutation of the disciples, you know, whatever, however they're, they were paired up. Um, so silent partners, be silent, be a silent partner. Don't speak over your partner. Let him talk. Let him take the gospel in the direction he wants to take it. Unless he turns to you, unless he really needs help, you are a silent partner. Pray for the Holy Spirit. Pray, you know, pray diligently. Don't let your mind wander. Pay attention. Learn something. Don't leave your, your, uh, soul winning partner alone. Jesus sent his disciples out two by two, therefore don't just split up and wander off. Stay with your soul winning partner and don't, you know, stay within eye shot of each other and don't be ashamed to be a silent partner. Be a silent partner. Go soul winning. Just that's, that's how you start going soul winning by being a silent partner and there's no shame in it. It's a good role. It's a, you'll, you'll be blessed and it's a necessity out soul winning. The silent partner is a necessity because you're an encouragement. I'd much rather have a silent partner with me out soul winning than going alone. I don't often like going alone. I've learned to enjoy going alone more because, and I would say this, this is another like tip within this soul winning tip. If you find yourself having to go alone, look for it as an opportunity to be like, all right, Christ is my partner out soul winning today. Christ is my partner. I'm going out with him. So I even like to say to God when I'm alone out soul winning, like I say, okay, God, it's just me and you. You're my partner today. And that actually encourages me and because it's the absolute truth. The Holy Spirit is with you and Christ said, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen. So, um, you know, you're providing more encouragement and, uh, you're, you're fortifying the work more than you know, by being a silent partner, be a silent partner, enjoy it, love it, pray and encourage your soul winning partner. Just go soul winning. That's all. All right guys, God bless you. Thank you.