Your Role in Evangelism: Practical Tips for Effective Outreach

Surprised what our sacrifices of time and talents and treasures yield when we get to heaven.

And, you know, right on the heels of that song, I just want to say, as pastor, well, I just want to reiterate what pastor said last week.

I don't think this is the only way to do it.

I certainly don't.

This is my way of doing it.

And if it helps you, then I'm blessed.

But, man, we're grateful for any way you do it.

Amen.

Get a gospel.

Get the track into somebody's hand.

And I was talking to somebody recently, we were talking about how that some people are absolutely mortified to talk to a stranger, to knock on a door.

And I personally don't get that, but I get it.

There are.

I understand that.

That absolutely does happen.

And so, you know, honestly, if we can take a bag, and I know I'm focusing on the bags, but we'll go beyond that later.

But if you can just take a bag and put it on somebody's porch, they will open that bag.

They will want to see what's inside.

They will grab that track.

They will look at it at least, and maybe they'll read it.

And, you know, you've done more than most christians, so don't stop doing what you're doing.

Please believe me when I say I don't think I have all the answers and my way is the only way of doing it.

It's not.

And I know that this is one way, and if it'll help you, then we've served our purpose.

Amen.

All right, we are going to cover a lot of ground this evening.

Hopefully, everybody has their outline.

There should be on the.

Well, I don't know where they're.

I don't see them back there now.

I don't know where they're at.

Anyway.

I hope everyone has one.

Does everybody have one?

Does everybody have a handout?

Who does not have a handout?

Put your hand up.

Okay.

There's several, but I don't see any on the back table back there, and I had like, 100, so.

Okay, well, I'm gonna go ahead and get started.

Hopefully they'll get these out.

There you go.

Hold your hand up.

Brother Taylor's got some.

We want to get these out, please.

It might be better just to leave them on the back table and let folks grab them.

But thank you, though.

Thank you, guys, for getting them out.

All right, we got some down here.

Go ahead and hold your hands up and they'll get them to you.

So let me just say this to you.

I also have another supplement, and it's not one that we have to go over.

This is actually the really the scenarios that we went over last week when brother tice was up here and I went over it with the bag and I took 1 minute to get to the question and I just actually printed that out for you.

I typed it up and I printed it out.

And, you know, if you just want to look at it right before you go out, if this is something you want to do, if you want to take these new moving bags.

And I was telling somebody today, just today, I still believe that the new moving bag is the best tool that we have at Heritage Baptist Church to reach people.

We have a name, we have a gift.

That is amazing.

That's a warm, warm call.

And so it's a great opportunity, and that's why I'm trying to capitalize on this.

So if you want to look over this, if you say, okay, I want to take the next step in this, I want to knock the door, I want to talk to people.

And I put those scenarios on this page here.

So it's called getting to the question with a new move in bag.

And there's just those three scenarios that we went over last week.

But we're going to go ahead.

We're on page 22 now.

We're going to go on with section four.

And I hope to get through section four and section five, because after this week, we've got five more weeks and we'll be on section six.

Section six is the final section.

It's going to encompass 20 some odd pages.

And it is strictly all about the soul winner's message.

Right now we're talking about the soul.

God throws out a lifeline.

It's kind of a review.

And then section five, we're talking about the components of soul winning.

And then we'll talk about in section six, the soul winner's message, and that will do.

The rest of it will be about really how to use the Romans road, how to use the law in witnessing to people.

So section four, page 22, is mostly review.

And then it's a lot of verses, so I'm not going to read every verse.

And we're going to go through section four pretty quick.

Okay.

Because I want to get to section five.

And so section one, we talked about the wise work of winning souls.

We asked the question, why should we evangelize the lost?

And then who was qualified to evangelize the lost?

And then section two, we talked about man's condition, how that he went from perfect to from hero to zero, I guess, basically is the way you want to say it.

And then section three, we looked at a brief overview of the doctrine of Satan, and then we come up on section four, and it's basically salvation.

God throws out a lifeline because man needs it at this point.

If you remember, last section, we talked about man's condition.

It was horrible.

And then we talked about why it's horrible because of Satan.

And Satan is real, and we believe in God, we believe in heaven, we better believe in the devil, and we better believe in hell because it's just as real.

Every page on the Bible is equally important and carries the same amount of weight.

So the devil's real just as real as Jesus is.

So now we're going to talk about how that God throws out a lifeline to this lost man, this lost, undone, hopeless and helpless sinner.

And so God throws out a lifeline.

So before we get to that, let's look at the review.

Sin.

Basically, number one, man is God's crown jewel of creation, and I'm not going to read these verses.

I have them all right there for you.

Genesis 126 and 27.

Number two, God gives them dominion over all the earth.

Genesis 128.

And he gives them one mandate, only one.

The Lord commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.

For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

Number four, Satan enters upon the scene and deceives Eve.

Deceives Eve.

We can't really blame Eve.

She was deceived.

The Bible tells us she was deceived.

But Adam walked into it, eyes wide open.

Adam just flat disobeyed.

They were both wrong.

But Adam walked into it, eyes wide open.

Genesis three, four, six.

So in number five, then page 23, their perfect sinless nature is corrupt, has corrupted their perfect sinless nature because of their sin, is corrupted.

And then number six, God's first promise of a redeemer in Genesis 315, the first prophecy of the Bible.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed.

It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.

And then, number seven, God pronounces a curse upon man, the serpent and the earth.

And then number eight, God provides a substitute to cover their nakedness or to cover their sin.

God.

In Genesis 321, unto Adam and unto his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them.

A sacrifice was made for their sin and then, number nine, fellowship between God and man is severed next to the verse that says, man is hopelessly lost without God, without Christ in this world.

This has got to be the second saddest verse.

Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, so he drove out the man.

Fellowship between man and God is severed.

And then, number ten, Adam passed his sinful nature to his offspring.

Wherefore, as by one sin or by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men.

For that, all have sinned us, all of us we talked about.

There's nobody in here that would deny that anyway.

We're just rotten, man.

Some of us just smell better, but we're all rotten.

We're all rotten to the core.

Completely and totally depraved.

Absolutely depraved.

All right, so number one, then, roman number one, God's plan of salvation did not begin in the garden of Eden.

Now, I'm going over this for a reason.

You'll see in just a minute.

God's plan of salvation.

This is good for us to know as we go out and as we.

Whether we take the bags and knock on the door and have people come to the door, or if you're talking to your kin, you're talking to your relatives, you're talking to your neighbor, you're talking to your coworker, this is information that you really need, the God's plan of salvation.

They don't need it, but you need it.

God's plan of salvation did not begin in the Garden of Eden.

It began before the foundation of the world.

Ephesians one three four says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

And then one.

Peter 118.

Look at verse 19 with the precious.

No, let me go.

Verse 18.

For as much as you knew that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who was verily foreordained before the foundation of the world, and in revelation 13 eight, all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life, of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Why was he slain from the foundation of the world?

Because we needed a sacrifice.

We needed somebody to pay the debt for our sins.

This was done before the foundation of the world.

It didn't happen in Bethlehem.

Jesus didn't just appear in Bethlehem.

He is the eternal son of God.

Always has been, always will be.

Amen.

He is.

He was, he shall be.

So, number two, salvation is wholly and unequivocally God's plan.

Salvation is wholly and unequivocally God's plan.

It is not based on God's foreknowledge.

Pastor talked about that right before we started this series, as he did the Calvinism series, that it's not based.

We're not saved based on God's foreknowledge of who will and who won't believe.

Letter B.

That would be putting God's decision of who gets saved into our hands.

We would really be determining that God would almost be.

His hands would be tied until we actually got saved.

That's not the way it works.

So it's not based on God's salvation is not based on God's foreknowledge of who will and who won't believe.

And I wish I had time.

Pastor did such a great job.

If you didn't hear the lessons on Calvinism, go back in time on the website and listen to those.

We missed that third one.

Maybe you finished that up one of these days.

Letter C.

And I think that we'll get an amen out of this.

No one deserves God's saving grace, mercy or love.

No one deserves it.

Amen.

You know what the wrong question is?

Well, why does God send those people to hell?

Well, number one, God doesn't send them to hell.

But the better question is, why does God save anyone?

None of us deserve to get saved.

None of us.

Not a one of us deserve it.

These are, you know, I want to read these because it just speaks so loudly about our condition and I know I hit it on it good last two weeks ago.

But let's go ahead and read these.

You have them right there.

Romans chapter three, verse ten through 18.

As it is written, there's none righteous.

No, not one.

There's none that understand, there's none that seek after God.

When you're talking to people and they'll tell you, well, I was looking for God.

It's a matter of semantics.

We don't have to correct them on that.

If they're lost, we don't have to correct them on that.

We know the truth.

They weren't seeking God.

God was seeking them.

And if they had a heart toward God, it's because goddess, in some fashion, was drawing them to him.

Because the word of God tells us there is none that seek after God.

I don't have any problem with that word.

None.

Do you?

God said, there's none that seek after God.

None.

They are all gone out of the way.

They are together become unprofitable.

There is none that doeth good.

That's a hard pill to swallow.

There's none that doeth good.

We all think we're do gooders.

There's none that doeth good.

And it's hard.

I mean, Mother Teresa does good.

My grandma, my grandpa, your grandma, your grandpa.

And I'm not trying to make light of anybody's grand.

My grandma died without Jesus Christ.

She wasn't a bad person.

And it's hard.

Some people, they don't.

Once they even accept the fact that the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ.

Many times they'll reject it just because they realize that by accepting it they'll also have to accept the truth that their grandparents or parents are not in heaven.

And that is a hard pill to swallow.

But the word of God says, there is none that doeth good.

No, not one.

Now look at the commentary on man, verse 13.

Their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues.

They have used deceit.

The poison of Asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood.

Destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of God before their eyes?

Brethren, listen.

We may say before we got saved, I know that I grew up in a home that was not christian, but it was quote unquote, God fearing.

And I use that term extremely loosely, as a lost person would use the term God fearing.

We had a big old family Bible sitting on the table beside the, you know, in the living room beside the chair.

And my parents had used every word in the book except the Lord's name and faith.

So we were God fearing, went to, dutifully went to church.

I mean, my parents shuttled me, shoved me into the church van on Sunday and Wednesday for a couple of years when I was like eight, nine years old.

And they dutifully went on Christmas and Easter.

We were God fearing, but we lived like atheists the rest of the year.

Like God didn't see God, didn't hear God didn't know what we were doing.

Unfortunately, there's a whole lot of christians that live like atheists, don't we?

There's no fear of God.

No fear of God.

Before I was lost.

No fear of God.

I may have known his name, I may have known the stories in the Bible, but I had no fear of God.

And I guarantee you, I promise you, it doesn't matter.

People who are not saved have no fear of God because God said so.

God said so.

Ephesians, chapter two, verse one through 13.

You hath quickened who were dead.

I.

You were dead in your trespasses and sins wherein in time pass, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

Okay, I'm not gonna read all of this.

You have it right there.

The fact is, he says, we walked according to the path of Satan.

We followed in his steps.

We did his bidding.

Letter D.

I'm on page 26.

Letter D.

For God so loved the world.

Why?

John 316.

God so loved the world that he gave his only.

Why did God so love the world?

Because he is loved.

He didn't love us because we were so lovely.

He didn't love us because there was anything worth loving.

He loved us because he is love, period.

He chose to love us despite our ungodliness, he chose to love us first.

John 410.

Here in his love, not that we love God, he tells us right.

Not that we love God, but that he loved us.

His love for us is not based on anything from our past, present, or future.

We see that in romans nine, verse eleven through 13.

As he gets down to in verse 13, he says, jacob, have I loved, and esau, have I hated.

I honestly don't have time to get into all of that.

That's a study all in itself.

I'd encourage you to look at it.

The truth of that is that neither one of them did anything to merit God's favor or his hate.

And that hate again, do the study yourself.

The word hate's not how you and I think it is today.

All right, so letter f, then.

Understanding this particular truth that we're talking about, it's vital when we're out soul winning for several reasons.

Here's why.

Number one, because people will rely heavily upon their good deeds for entrance into heaven.

Do you hear what I'm saying?

When you talk to your coworker, when you talk to your family, who I was the first one saved in my family.

And, man, my mom had a hard time getting past.

What do you mean?

I don't have to do anything.

And then there's the opposite.

Well, I'm jumping ahead of myself.

So people will rely heavily upon their good deeds for entrance into heaven.

Now, number two, I've run into this so many times, and you may have as well.

And if you haven't, you will.

Usually when people begin talking about their good deeds as a means into heaven, Jesus is never a part of that equation.

Never.

People will start talking about how good they are and why they should go to heaven.

Because of this.

About two months ago, I sat at the kitchen table with an adult daughter, the mom and the Father, and I asked him.

I went around the room, and I asked the girl.

I went around the table, and I asked the young lady, I said, do you know if you'd go to heaven?

And she said, no, I don't have a clue.

I asked the mom, do you know if you'd go to heaven?

She said, yes, I do.

I said, why do you think you'd go to heaven?

She said, because Jesus Christ is my savior.

I accepted him as my Lord and savior.

Da da da da da.

I said, okay, I got to the dad.

I said, are you 100% sure you'd go to heaven?

He said, well, of course I'd go to heaven.

I said, why would you go to heaven?

And then he went into a plethora of things that he had done, literally.

And it was a lot.

His community service, his benevolence, his.

What's the other thing?

Philanthropic endeavors.

All the things that he had done, all the money that he had given, all the time that he had donated.

And this guy was impressive.

And when I said, sir, the Bible says that none of that will get you to heaven.

I'm telling you, he all but kicked me out of the house.

I am not joking.

He did not like it.

Not a little bit.

I quoted scripture.

I was showing him from the Bible what the word of God says about how that we cannot get to heaven based on our works.

And I even flat asked him, I said, do you know why Jesus died on the cross?

And when I ask that question, most people say, yeah, for our sins.

And I'm like, well, if he died for your sins, what is there left for you to do?

Why do you think you have to earn your way to heaven if Jesus died for your sins?

And I kept trying to talk, I should have shut up a long time ago.

But he said probably five or six times that night, that afternoon, he said, okay, look, we got you, okay?

We got your story.

We got it.

We.

All right, we heard you.

You made your point.

You made your point.

He was saying to me, you can leave now.

You can leave now.

He wasn't saying those words, but he was saying, you can leave now.

Every time he said, all right, you made your point.

You made your point.

He was really irritated.

And it's really sad.

It's really sad because he's a great guy.

Honestly, any one of us could sit down here and talk with him and enjoy the conversation, but he's lost as a ball in high grass.

Lost.

Others, on the other hand, they'll reject salvation for the exact opposite reason.

They are convinced they are not good enough because they've done horrible things in the past.

Has anybody ever run into somebody while you're talking to them about Christ?

And maybe they're a veteran, maybe they're a Vietnam vet.

And because I've run into this particular situation on a number of occasions where a person says, you know, I.

I can't go to heaven.

There's no way I can go to heaven.

I've killed too many people.

Has anybody ever run into that?

Yeah, they just.

They think the opposite spectrum.

But the fact of the matter is, there's nothing that you've done that will earn God's love and favor.

I don't care how good you are.

So it doesn't matter what we've done or haven't done.

We don't deserve.

He chose to love us despite all of those things.

He chose to love us in our worst state and in our best state.

Well, there is no best.

It was all horrible.

One Peter 315 says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is within you, with meekness and fear.

So two Timothy four two, preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhortanization with all longsuffering and doctrine.

And the key there is with all long suffering.

We have to tell people the word of God.

We have to be able to show them the good, the bad and the ugly and.

But you have to do it with long suffering and with doctrine.

We can't just say, well, bless God, because that's what the Bible says.

No, show them the Bible, and do it with love and do it with patience.

And maybe, just maybe, the Holy Spirit can use that in their heart and break up fallow ground and they'll get saved.

But we have to do it in love.

So on page 27, we're about done with this particular section.

The questions, the challenges, the criticisms, the arguments and self made theology will be endless.

There's no end to it.

This is why I say that soul winners are some of the most biblically astute christians I know.

And so I want to encourage you to not allow the questions that you cannot answer keep you from being a consistent soul winner.

Sometimes the best answer is, I don't know, but I'll find out.

Be honest about it.

I don't know, but I'll find out.

Okay.

And so.

All right, so let's move on to section five.

And I hope I can get through this.

I really want to because I want to start up fresh on chapter on section six.

So if we get down to the end, I may just give you the blanks.

Section five, the components of sow winning.

Number one, the word of God.

First and foremost, the word of God.

I mean, we can't stress that too strongly.

The word of God is number one.

The word of God is the primary tool or weapon, if you want to call it that, of the Holy Spirit.

And so it ought to be the primary tool of the soul winner.

That's why I want to encourage you to take that outline that I gave you on the simple outline of the plan of salvation and memorize those particular verses that I have highlighted.

And if you don't have that, please let me know.

In fact, I'll just say this right off the bat, too.

If there are any of this, if there's any of this that you don't have, just let me know, and I will make sure you get copies of it.

But memorize those simple verses the Romans wrote.

It's not hard, honestly.

Most of you can probably do it very simply, and it's the primary tool to winning people to Jesus Christ.

The word of God.

The word of God.

Ephesians 617 says, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

One Peter 123 being born again.

How not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

It's the word of God that will save people.

It's the gospel.

Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

It is the power of God unto salvation, to all that believe.

But they have to hear it.

They have to know it.

They have to be able to make a decision based on it.

Hebrews 412.

The word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword.

One verse will do more.

One verse given in 3 seconds or 5 seconds will do more than all of our illustrations and presentation given in an hour, because it's sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The word of God will look deep, deeper, deeper than I can look.

All I can see is the outer shell.

And most of the time it looks pretty good.

I mean, sometimes we'll get into the down and out, you know, sometimes my inner city ministries, we're always with mostly down and outers, and they look rough, you know.

But I always found the word of God is what did it.

Not Brother Stone's illustrations, not Brother Stone's personality.

You can always say, amen to that.

Let her be.

All right.

So let me get to you.

The Lord Jesus Christ uses illustrations in a very powerful way, and we will use illustrations as a secondary tool in evangelism, okay?

Because what I say on letter a, the word of God is the primary tool, and we'll use illustrations as a secondary tool.

But we must never forget that an illustration is simply a window that we open to shed light on a spiritual truth in the word of God.

That's all.

And illustrations are great.

Jesus used them and we'll use them, but that's not what's going to win them to Jesus.

They may have an aha moment, say, oh, now I understand what that verse means, because you shed light on it through this illustration.

Letter B.

We cannot separate God from his word.

We cannot separate God from his word.

John one.

Verse one and two.

In the beginning was the word.

The word was with God.

The word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

Verse 14.

The word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

The glory is of the only begotten of the father, full of life and truth.

I want to read Hebrews on the other.

I'm not going to read all of these verses, but I'm going to read a portion of each one, just a line or two.

But in Hebrews, chapter one, look at verse one.

For God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time, passed unto the fathers by the prophets.

He hath in his last day spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world.

Now watch this verse, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image, now express, that's just the root of expression.

Expression.

When we want to say something, we express ourselves.

When we want to get something out there, we express ourselves.

Look what he says.

He is the express image of his person.

That's why Jesus is the word.

He is the expression of God in human form.

He is the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power.

When we.

This is living.

This is the living word of God.

This is for all practical purposes, we're giving them Jesus, and I can't save anybody, but he can.

So we cannot separate God from his word.

When we're giving the word of God, we're giving the God of the word.

Hebrews 613.

Just verse 13.

At the last there, he says, he swear when he was made.

When he made a promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater.

He swear by himself.

Verse 17.

Wherein God willing, more abundantly to show unto the heirs, had promised the immutability of his counsel.

He confirmed it by an oath.

Verse 18, that by two immutable things.

What were those two immutable things?

His name and his word.

His name and his word.

And then two, Peter one, verse 16 through 19.

It talks about when they were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Verse 16.

When they were up on the mount and they saw with their own eyes, they saw Jesus, they saw him glorified before them the transfiguration of Christ on the mountain.

And then verse 19, he says, we have a more sure word of prophecy.

Even more sure.

I mean, look, you go to a court of law, there's nothing more powerful than an eyewitness.

But Peter said, I have something even more powerful than an eyewitness.

His word.

I'm going to do this one more time.

His word.

We must never forget the power that's in the word of God when we are out witnessing.

All right, number one, while witnessing.

At the bottom of page 29, while witnessing.

If people refuse to give credence to the fact that the Bible is the word of God, then really, all we're doing is casting our pearls before swine.

If we continue.

I mean, that's the way I feel.

Some of you may, if you feel impressed in the spirit, to continue on, but I have.

I used to argue that fact.

I used to try to prove, no, this is God's word, and you can't.

It's just written.

I get that all the time.

I still get it all the time.

That's just man's.

It's just.

A bunch of men wrote that.

I'll discern.

I will try my best to discern the spirit that they said that in.

If I can discern that they're saying it in a spirit of ignorance, but yet willing to learn, then I'll proceed.

But most of the time they don't want to know.

Most of the time it's just argumentative.

At that point.

I've finally come to the place where I'll just shut it down, pastor, because any further than that, you're just casting your pearls before swine.

Because the fact of the matter is.

Look at page 30.

Fact of the matter is, Matthew seven six says, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you.

They have no clue of the value and they can't really, unless the Holy Spirit is working on them.

And if the Holy Spirit's not working on them, go find someone that the Holy Spirit is working on.

We truly have no authority upon which to stand.

If they refuse to believe the Bible is the word of God, what's the point?

I mean, if they're going to say, yeah, get that thing away from me, there's no point.

I actually had somebody run from the Bible at one point.

That's powerful.

I'm not joking.

I'm gonna tell you that little story.

I don't know how much time.

Yeah, I do.

I do know.

I was in Tacoma.

I have to tell you this.

I was in Tacoma and I came up to a porch.

I came up to a yard that was fenced in.

The gate was closed, so I didn't walk in.

There was a lady sitting on the porch, sitting on the steps.

And it was obvious that she was a lesbian.

But I don't care.

They need the word of God.

She needs to get saved.

That's exactly how I feel about it.

And so I began to.

I asked her.

I just began to witness.

And in about 15 minutes, 20 minutes into it, she began to cry because I began talking about.

We got to the part of the wages of sin is death.

Death and hell.

And hell is real.

And I expressed that very strongly and she began to weep.

She began to cry and then she began to cry uncontrollably.

And I was like, oh, man.

I kind of got worried.

And she got up and she went inside and she just left me standing there.

And I said, okay.

Well, that didn't go how I had hoped it went.

It would go.

So I went to the next house.

Next house.

I walked in.

Gate was open.

I walked up to the door, door was open.

There were three guys sitting in there drinking a beer, young guys.

It was college town.

It was close to Pacific, whatever college that is over there, university.

And they were drinking a beer, and I was standing in the door, and I was trying to talk to them, and they were cordial.

And all of a sudden, I heard that gate slam open slang, and I turned around, and here comes another lesbian.

Mad.

Mad as a hornet.

And she came up to me and she started thumping me in the chest.

Who in the blankety blank do you think you are?

You blankety blank blank blank.

Who do you think you are, telling my wife she's going to hell?

I mean, just like that, mad, fierce.

And I said, the Lord gave me the words because I freaked out.

I've never had anybody, let alone a girl, thumped me in the chest, and I freaked out.

And I said, I didn't tell her she was going to hell.

And I reached into my back pocket and I pulled out my New Testament, and I said, let me show you what I told her.

She saw it said new Testament on there.

You get that thing away from me.

And she ran.

I'm telling with my hand up before the Lord.

She ran away when she saw me pull out the Bible.

God did something or the devil did something, I don't know, but she ran.

She ran.

She literally said, get that thing away from me, and took off running.

Left.

And I was like, whew.

Glad I didn't have to fight her.

The word of God, it's powerful.

It's powerful.

I can only explain that as the Lord because I was freaked out by that.

Okay, where am I?

Number three, be ready always to help them understand what these verses mean.

Two, Peter one, you get this all the time, too.

Well, men just wrote that.

That's your interpretation.

You'll get that a lot.

That's your interpretation.

You probably get that from your family, your coworkers.

You don't have to be outdoor.

You can get it from a lot of people.

But two, Peter 120 says, knowing this verse, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

You know what?

You don't have to break that down.

Dissect it and explain it.

Just quote it because it's the word of God and you don't have to say, well, I don't really understand that verse, pastor.

I really don't know how to break that down.

You don't have to just quote it, mark it in your Bible and know where it's at and go to it and say, look, the Bible says right here there is no prophecy of scriptures of any private interpretation.

I can't have one interpretation and you have another.

That's what that's saying.

Okay?

Now look at letter C.

This is important.

If we must leave off portions of our presentation for lack of time, leave off the illustrations and present the word of God.

It is a thousand times more powerful than our presentation.

Okay.

Above all, we must have the utmost confidence in the gospel of Jesus Christ to do its work in the sinner's heart.

Again, Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the jew first and also to the Greek.

I kind of was reminded of something last night.

It was a tremendous visit.

I visited with that brother last night, a man who came on Sunday.

And I went to his house last night.

Sim and I did.

And, oh, it was a wonderful visit.

Is he here tonight?

Are you here?

Is he here?

I thought he might come.

Anyway, a good reminder to me.

I was telling him about all the different people and how this place is growing like crazy and, man, the houses are just popping up.

And then I said, and one of the things that is happening that I'm not sure how to deal with yet is the amount of Hindus that are moving into the area.

And he said, yeah, you're right there.

And I made the statement.

I said, I don't know how to deal with that.

I don't know.

I have no.

I don't know the doctrines of Hindu.

I know that they believe in Nirvana, some altered state of consciousness or enlightenment or something like that.

I don't really know.

And he told me this.

He said, you don't have to know.

I mean, let's just be simple about it.

He said, you don't have to know.

All you have to do is give them the gospel.

He said, that's what's going to save them.

That's what's going to convict them.

If they get it, they get it.

And it wasn't you who caused them to get it.

If they don't get it, then they don't get it.

And it wasn't your fault.

You did your part.

I'm telling you, when we understand that, it takes a huge load off of us because we go up and down and you guys get those, you get the new moving bags.

And I'm telling you, there's a whole lot of them that are indian names.

I can't even pronounce the names.

Brother Tyson and I have gone up.

We've gone.

And they're hindu, but they're nice, huh?

They're nice people.

They're super nice and sweet.

And they'll talk to you, so why not?

If you've got their ear, give them the gospel.

Amen.

Give them the gospel.

All right.

Number two.

Roman numeral two.

I'm gonna have to quit here in what, ten minutes?

What time do I need to quit, preacher?

Okay.

Okay.

I'm looking here.

Okay.

We're not gonna get done, so it's okay.

You knew that when I started anyway, didn't you?

It's okay.

It's okay.

We'll do this one and we'll stop.

Roman numeral two.

So we're talking about the components of soul winning.

Number two is the Holy Spirit.

So number one is the word of God.

Number two is the Holy Spirit.

These are.

These are, you know, essentials.

These are the absolute essentials.

The Holy Spirit.

So letter a, the Holy Spirit brings conviction to the heart.

And while in a church setting.

And I say that and pastor says that, and your Sunday school teacher will say that and we'll all say, amen.

And we know that.

But I promise you, when we get out there, we will feel personally responsible for them to get saved.

And then they won't get saved.

And then you get upset and you say, well, this doesn't even work.

I'm just a horrible soul and I'm just not even gonna try.

It's not up to you.

Our responsibility is to give them the gospel.

Tell them the death, burial and the resurrection.

Of course, yes.

We have to tell them they're a sinner.

You've got to go there and just, you know, go over this portion of the, you know, the simple outline of the plan of salvation that's in its simplest form.

When I got saved, folks, I knew nothing.

I didn't know diddly.

I was not a Christian.

I didn't grow up in a christian home.

I had that big old bible there and that was it.

I didn't know anything about anything.

You don't have to know a lot to get saved.

We were talking to.

I was talking to Savannah.

Are you here this morning?

Are you here, Savannah?

No.

I was talking to her and she said that we were talking about being saved as a child and how that a lot of times children will come and they'll say later on, well, I'm not sure that I understood, and I'm not sure that I.

Right.

Well, wait a minute.

What makes you think you have to understand a lot?

Now, I'm not entirely on board with, you know, child evangelism in as we know it today.

I think you should be careful with children and be extremely thorough, and especially if they have christian parents, let the parents do it.

However, if a child is, if they understood it when they were six, if they understood it enough to ask Jesus Christ to save them and ask God to be their savior, how much more do they really need to know?

A lot of times people will come and they'll say, when they're teenagers.

Well, I just didn't understand it all.

How much do you really need to understand?

I understood I was a sinner on my way to hell and that Jesus died on the cross for me and that he rose the third day.

And I accepted that.

I didn't know anything else.

I'm serious.

That's all I knew, and I learned along the way.

Amen.

They that know his will shall do.

They that do his will shall know of the doctrine, the Holy Spirit brings conviction to the heart.

Number letter b, the spirit brings life to our dead spirit and makes us a new creation in Christ.

Letter C, the Spirit seals the believer.

Letter D.

The Spirit teaches the believer.

The spirit teaches the believer.

Not all of us will agree on this.

I'm not even, I hadn't even talked to pastor about this, but I used to be very big about, as soon as I led someone to the Lord, I would immediately start giving them all kinds of verses of assurance.

Well, the Bible says here, look at Romans, John 316.

For whosoever are you a whosoever?

For God so loved the world.

Does that include you?

Are you in the world?

Yeah.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten.

Said whosoever are you a whosoever?

Yeah, I'm a whosoever.

Whosoever believeth in him.

Did you believe in him?

Yes, I did.

Shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

And I would give.

But the problem with that was many times my approach to winning them was flawed, and so they really, truly never got saved, and I just inoculated them to the true gospel when someone else was gonna try to win them.

And so it's fine to give them assurance of salvation if you have done your dead level best to thoroughly explain the gospel to them, because if we're gonna give them assurance about something that didn't happen, that's dangerous ground because they may never hear another gospel presentation again.

Well, I prayed that prayer with brother Stone.

I heard the story about a man who came up.

I guess I'll just say, Moody, I don't know who it was, but I read it many times, in fact.

Preacher, a guy came up to.

Moody.

Drunk.

Drunk?

Hey, doctor Moody.

Brother Moody.

Mister Moody.

I'm one of your converts, Mister Moody said.

I can see that you're certainly not one of God's.

And while we laugh at that, we have to be very careful now.

It doesn't mean everybody we witness to and who prays are sincere.

That's the sad part of this whole thing, is that not all of them are going to truly mean it, but some will.

So I'd rather have someone tell me he's saved rather than me tell him he's saved.

Does that make sense?

But I'm not against.

I'm not against giving assurance.

Because doubts happen.

And the devil's good at causing doubts to come into our minds.

All right.

753.