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Matthew Stuckey here and I want to give you another soul winning tip and in this video I want to talk to you about the importance of living a godly, holy, and separated life. And so in the last video I talked about the importance of praying and asking for boldness as you go out soul winning. And another thing that can give you boldness is when you're living a godly life. Because living a godly life is what's going to help you get filled with the Spirit. And when you're filled with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit will give you boldness that you would not normally have in your flesh. And so it's a very important thing that we live a holy and separated and godly life. In Luke 8 verse 14 the Bible reads, And that which fell among the thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection. The Bible speaks about a group of people when it talks about the peril of the sower who are choked with cares and riches and pleasures. We would say somebody who's a worldly person, someone who's concerned with the things of this world and the result is that they do not bring forth fruit to perfection. It prevents them from being a fruit bearing tree and winning souls to the Lord. And see a lot of people have this idea that I can basically, you know, live just as worldly in the exact same way I used to live but still end up getting lots of people saved. But the reality is you're gonna have to make a choice in life. And you know what, when I got saved and I started going soul winning, I realized that one thing that was hindering other people from getting saved and hindering me from doing more for God was that my lifestyle just needed to make some changes. I needed to get rid of the music I listened to. I need to get rid of the movies. I need to clean up my mind and my activities and my hobbies. And the result of that is that you're gonna get more souls saved. You're gonna be more bold to preach the gospel. You're gonna be more filled with the Spirit. Throughout the Bible we can actually see this. We see that with Jonah, he disobeys God's command to go and preach to Nineveh and he is in a ship and he has the perfect opportunity to preach the gospel to these people crying to a false god. We see this in Jonah 1 and yet he doesn't preach to them. And you say, why is it that he's not preaching them? In fact it says that he was asleep while they're crying to their false god. And the indication is this, those who want to practice, you know, lifestyle evangelism where they're just gonna preach the gospel when the opportunity arises, they actually wouldn't preach the gospel when the opportunity arises. Because here's Jonah rejecting God's commandment to go preach like we're all commanded to preach and then when he has the perfect opportunity in his personal life he does not take it. But what's going on is that he's not living a godly life and so an opportunity he probably would have normally taken he chooses not to take. Another great example is in Psalm chapter 51 where David has been rebuked by Nathan and he's asking for his joy to be restored. Now he did not lose his salvation but he lost his joy and he asks for his joy to be restored and he said, then why teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. What he's saying is if I get my joy back, which is what comes by living a godly life, then what's gonna take place is I am gonna convert sinners. I'm gonna be a soul winner. I'm gonna get people saved. So we see a link between living a godly life and winning souls to the Lord. And so the realization is this, that when, point number one, when you live ungodly and worldly you're not gonna take the opportunities to preach the gospel when they come. And Jonah is the great example of that where he was normally very zealous but he had become worldly during that time period in his life and then with the perfect opportunities he didn't take them. Point number two is this, even zealous soul winners can become worldly. So we must all take heed to this warning. You might be godly now but Jonah was a very godly person and then he became worldly. And Demas is a great example. The Bible says of Demas in 2 Timothy 4 verse 10, For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. That's worldly, having loved this present world. And has departed unto Thessalonica, Christians to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. So Demas was once a mighty soul winner. He was once one of the right-hand men of Paul the Apostle but then he departed having loved this present world. The sad reality is a lot of people that used to do mighty things for God become worldly and they can no longer be used by God like they used to be used by God. The sad thing is as far as we know Demas never started living for God again because 2 Timothy we believe is the last book Paul wrote because he said the time of my departure is at hand. And so that is really our indication that Demas never ended up living for God you know with all of his heart and all of his effort again but he had become a worldly person. This is a warning we all need to take heed to and we need to realize that you know what if we are living a worldly life we're just not going to win as many people to the Lord. And I remember coming to that realization when I was a new soul winner that you know some people I might have been able to get saved if I was just a little bit more zealous I know a little bit more and I realized my lifestyle needed to change. But one thing that we might forget over time once we've been soul winning for a while is the importance of this. So whether you're a beginner I mean it's very important as a beginner to give you that that extra boldness but it's something we need to keep in mind if we're experienced soul winners that living a godly life goes hand in hand with being a soul winner and winning people to the Lord because the Bible says those that are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life do not bring forth fruit to perfection they do not win souls to the Lord. We see that when Jonah was backslidden he wasn't winning souls to the Lord when David was backslidden wasn't winning souls to the Lord and then you know what but once David got right with God all of a sudden he's converting sinners again and so it's very important to be living a godly life in order to be a good soul winner. Thank you and God bless.