Man, tonight I'm preaching on the subject of soul winning. I want to talk about some practical teachings on soul winning. Some different methods and first before I get into that I just want to go into some of the philosophy behind soul winning. Why soul winning? Why do we do soul winning? Why do we believe in it? Why do we make such a big deal about it?
First of all, I would point out that the term soul winning is a biblically derived term. Some people attack that term and say, "Soul winning? What are you talking about? Where do you get that?" But the bible says in Proverbs 11:30, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise." When it talks about the fruit of the righteous, bringing forth fruit, that has to do with reproduction. Everything brings forth fruit after its own kind and when we as Christians multiply, by reproducing ourselves in other people, that's soul winning. When we win someone else unto Christ, and when we get someone saved. Other people will act weird about you using the term getting someone saved. But these are all biblical terms.
For example, you're in First Corinthians 1, go to First Corinthians 7. First Corinthians chapter 7. There are a lot of scriptures like this, but for example this is talking about a saved person who's married to an unsaved person. It's explaining that just because you're saved and they're not, you shouldn't divorce that person or leave that person. You should remain with that person if they're willing to be with you. You need to stay with them. And it says in First Corinthians 7:16, "For what knowest though oh wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband. Or how knowest thou, oh man, whether thou shalt save thy wife."
Now flip over to First Peter 3 verse 1 and you'll find a similar thing about a wife who's saved and she's married to an unsaved man. They use that term there. Hey, wife, you don't know if you're going to save your husband. If you're a husband that's saved and your wife's not saved, how do you know if you're going to be able to save your wife? A lot of people just freak out if they heard that term today in 2015. What do you mean? We don't save anybody. You're so prideful and arrogant to think that you got anybody saved or that you saved anyone.
What does the Bible teach? Over and over again you'll see Paul use this kind of terminology. When he says, "I've become all things to all men. That by all means I might save some." He said, "I want to provoke to emulation them that are of my flesh that I might save some of them." The Bible says in Jude, "Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Hating even the garment. Spotted by the flesh." How knowest thou, oh wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? If we give somebody the gospel, that saves them. Since we're the one that gave them the gospel, we saved them.
People will try to say that that's blasphemous, but wait a minute. If that's the wording that the Bible uses, you're blasphemous to criticize it. Because anybody who stands in judgment of God's word is being blasphemous. Okay. God's word uses the terminology of. And here's what people say, "Oh Paul didn't mean it that way." Well neither did I. It doesn't make any sense. The bottom line is, whether you like it or not and whether the Calvinists like it or not, getting people saved is a job that takes 2 people. It takes a human being and it takes God. Working together to get someone saved. Because of the fact that God does not just go out and save people without our help.
God is not going door to door today, through Phoenix, Arizona. Jesus is not bodily going to the doors and knocking on the doors and getting people saved. No. The Bible says, "He is committed unto us, the ministry, of reconciliation." And Jesus said, "As long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world." But he's no longer physically in the world. Now he says unto us, "You are the light of the world." And we have Jesus Christ in us. And we are ambassadors for Christ. We go to them in Christ's stead and beseech them to be reconciled unto God.
But you see, Jesus said, "Without me, you can do nothing." If we were to go out without the help of the Holy Spirit, without the word of Christ, we're not going to get anybody saved. We can't do it without him in our flesh. But here's the thing that people choke on, but it's true. He can't do it without us. He's relying on us. He needs us to do it. He's sending us and that's why the Bible says, "If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost."
The bottom line is that the Bible says that there are ministers by whom we believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. Everybody who's saved had someone give them the gospel at some point, and that person saved them in a sense. Obviously we all know that Jesus is the savior. Obviously we know all glory goes to him, all praise goes to him. He takes all the credit. But there's nothing wrong with using the biblical terminology of saying, "Hey I was able to get somebody saved." Or, "Hey I saved someone." That is a biblical term. And it's not said in pride. It's not said to somehow glorify ourselves because of course we know that without Christ we could do nothing. He gets all the praise. It was all done through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the power of God's word.
But you see, the people who don't like that terminology are those who are envious. Because they're doing nothing for God. It makes them feel bad when they hear about people getting saved because it pricks their conscious and makes them think, "Well wait a minute. Why am I not getting anybody saved?" Think about that. When you're not doing anything for God, you're not getting anybody saved, and you're hearing about people who are getting someone saved, there are 2 reactions you could have. Number 1, your reaction could be, "I need to be doing that. I want to start. Sign me up for that. When can I start? And then the other reaction, by those who are lazy or those who are fearful or for whatever reason don't want to do it, it's to try to explain it away, like, "Oh that's not really happening. That's not legitimate." Or, "They're not really getting anybody saved." Or, "Soul winning doesn't work."
But listen to me. Soul winning works. Soul winning is God's chosen method to get people saved. When I use the word soul winning, all I'm referring to is walking up to an unsaved person with a Bible in your hand and showing them how to be saved from the Bible. That's what we're talking about. Or having the verses memorized, walking up to an unsaved person without Bible, and using memorized scripture and preaching the word of God to them verbally. That's what I mean by soul winning. It has always worked. It always will work. It is the biblical method, it is the best method, it is the most effective, and it is the method that God has chosen in order to get the most people saved.
Now let's look at the Bible and see if that's true. Look at First Corinthians chapter 1 where we started. Why soul winning? Soul winning is biblical. The term is biblical, the concept of saving people or getting people saved, pulling people out of the fire so to speak, is a biblical concept and it is something that we do in tandem with the Lord. We work together with the Lord to do this. It's a team effort between man and God. Sort of like bringing a child into this world. Takes 2 people, doesn't it? And it don't take 2 men to do it, okay? It takes a man and a woman to do it. A man and a woman are both necessary to produce a child. You say, "Well who's more important in that process." It's a ridiculous question because they're both necessary. It can't happen without either one.
Well when it comes to soul winning, there's 2 people that are involved. There's God and man, and that team effort produces a new life that's born again, and the Bible uses that illustration many times. Paul talks about begetting sons in the faith or travailing in birth and birthing souls. Those are terms that the apostle Paul uses frequently. Look at First Corinthians chapter 1, verse 18. And the Bible reads, starting verse 18, whoops I'm in Second Corinthians, no wonder that didn't look familiar. First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18, "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is-" What's the power of God? The preaching of the cross. "For it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Have not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 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 believed."
Notice that it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believed. What is the method that pleases God to get people saved? What's the method where God said, "You know what, it will please me if this is the method that people will use to get people saved." He said it's the preaching of the cross. God chose preaching in order to get people saved. Now the world looks at preaching as foolish. It's not that it actually is foolish. When the Bible says "the foolishness of preaching" you've got to get in the context where a few verses ago he said, "It's to them that perish foolishness." But unto us which are saved it's the power of God. God chose preaching to get people saved. That's the method he- It pleased him to use that method.
Now a lot of people want to use a whole bunch of other different methods, but that's the method that pleased God. To save them that would believe. It says in verse 22, "For the Jews require a sign." These are other, alternative methods for getting people saved. "The Jews require a sign." If they just see a miracle, they'd be saved. And the Greeks seek after wisdom saying, "Hey you need to prove it to us logically. You need to rationalize it and give us evidence. We're atheists. We'll see it when we get the evidence. We believe in science. We want to see the evidence." They say, "The Greek seeking after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block. And unto the Greeks, foolishness. But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men. And the weakness of God is stronger than men."
So he says people might want something different and people might think, "Oh well if we're going to reach the Jews we've got to show them a sign. If we're going to reach the Greeks we've got to use the wisdom of the world. We have to logic with people and rationalize." No. God says it doesn't matter whether we're talking to a Jew or a Greek or anyone else, we preach Christ crucified. That is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. But look at these encouraging verses that come right after that. It says in verse 26 "For you see your calling brethren, have it not many wise men after the flesh. Not many mighty. Not man noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen. And ye things which are not, to bring to not, things that are. That no flesh should glory in His presence,"
What's he saying? He's saying look around at who's serving God. Look around at who's doing the soul winning. Look around at who's doing the preaching and pastoring the churches. He's saying typically it's not the most talented people. It's not the most noble people. It's not the best looking people. It's not the most talented or even super witty or intelligent. He's saying, "You know what, God uses people as they are and he'll often use the base things of this world, people that are weak, people that aren't that mighty, maybe they're not that cool. They're not really that suave." He'll use people where, when you see them being used by God, you don't think to yourself, "Oh well it's obvious why that guy's being used by God because look how good looking he is. Look how smooth he is. Look at the talent. Look at the silver tongued oratory skills. Of course people are flocking to this guy's church."
Is that what it says He uses? No. He uses people where you look at it and say, "You know what the fact that this guy's church is growing at all must be God." Or, "Hey the fact that this guy goes out and gets people saved, that's the power of God." Because why? He gets the glory that way. I've noticed that God can use anybody to be a soul winner who's just willing to go and do it. Even people who are not social butterflies, even people who are not talkative, outgoing, bold kind of personalities, I have seen God use all kinds of people to get people saved. The timid and shy. The outgoing. People that are real intellectual, people that are not as intellectual. He uses all kinds of people and God gets the glory.
I don't want to embarrass anybody in our church, but I'm going to. But here's the thing. There are some people in our church that are quiet people, and there are other people in our church who are real talkative. Right? And if I asked you to name some of the people in our church that are more quiet, you might mention Scott is pretty quiet. But you know what though, I've been out soul winning with Scott and Scott transforms. Who's been soul winning with Scott? He transforms and he does a great job. All of a sudden he just starts talking. He does really well.
And I remember the first time I went soul winning with Scott I was just thinking, because I'd already spent a lot of time with Scott, but I hadn't been soul winning with him, and I just remember thinking to myself, "I can't even picture this. How's this going to go down?" Because I just couldn't see him just going up and just boldly confronting somebody and giving them the gospel. But you know what, I saw him do it. I was impressed. Does anybody here really think that Scott was just born to go out and just confront strangers and boldly speak to them? No. But here's the thing. How does he do it? Because he does it through Christ. The Bible says, "I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me."
A lot of people, when you talk about soul winning, that's what they'll tell you, right? "Oh that's just not me. I'm a shy person." If anybody would actually come to our church, spend time with the people that do the soul winning, they'd realize, "Hey you know what? These are all kinds of people that are being effective at soul winning." Not just a certain type of person that has that talent and that skill. A lot of times when people see the pastor going soul winning, they'll kind of think to themselves, "Oh that's the pastor. Of course he can do that, he's the pastor."
And I remember, I was talking to brother Jimenez, and he went through a period at his church where there were a lot of people in the church who wanted to be a silent partner and he didn't really have enough talkers yet. When we go soul winning, we go 2 by 2. People that are new, people that haven't really learned, they come as a silent partner so they can come along and learn and so forth. Basically, he had a lot of silent partners and he would have to schedule with them different times and rotate them through because there were more silent partners and very few talkers. I told him "Listen brother Jimenez, this is how it works. You'll go overnight from having very few talkers, all of a sudden you'll just have a ton of talkers." And I told him, "This is why. Because right now, because you're one of the only guys that does the talking, people are intimidated to do the talking because they're thinking, oh well brother Jimenez is doing the talking, he's really good at it, he's really knowledgeable, he's the pastor of the church."
But I said to him, "As soon as they see some of their fellow church members out there start doing some talking, when they look at them they're going to say, you know what, I can do this too. I mean if he can do it, I can do it." When they look at the pastor they don't always have that attitude of if he can do it I can do it because they just tell themselves, "He's a pastor. This guy's been studying for years. This guy's been saved and soul winning for a decade or whatever and he knows his Bible." But here's the thing though. When they see average church members going out and doing great things for God, they want to get in on the action. They want to do it too.
And he told me it was just like I said. Once he had a couple people talking, then other people saw that example and it emboldened in them. And they said, "Well if he can do it I can do it." All of a sudden it just starts multiplying to where you have a lot more talkers. Then you can get more silent partners, you can double the efforts and get out there and really do great work for God. Preaching the gospel in the highways and hedges, compelling them to come in, that God's house may be filled.
I love the Bible verse that we have, I don't know if you notice, but on the window here, in the window lettering where it has the times of the services and everything. There's a bible verse, "And daily in the temple and in every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." And God forbid that that verse would ever cease to apply to our church. I want that church to apply to hey where they did not cease to go to every house and teach and preach Jesus Christ. But let me tell you something. A lot of people are ceasing today and moving on to newer more modern methodology. We need to never cease house to house, door to door soul winning. Just to pick on another person besides Scott. Brother Jimmy Wright is not somebody that's super talkative and outgoing in our church, but he told me that he literally, because he's been counting his soul winning ever since he- How long have you been soul winning? I'm not trying to embarrass you.
Jimmy: 4 years.
Pastor Steve: 4 years. He just hit 300 people that he's won to the Lord in the last 4 years. He writes down every single person that he wins to the Lord. And you know what, he's not somebody that you would think of as somebody who just walks into church, "Hey everybody." Real loud and outgoing. But you know what, he gets out there and he does it and he's going week after week and he's seen over 300 people saved. That's more than a lot of pastors have done or a lot of other people.
I'm just trying to point this out. I hope I'm not embarrassing specific people, but my point being there's no excuse not to do it. God can use all of us the way that we are and he'll use us in different ways. And look, if you're outgoing, great. God can use that too. Because with certain kinds of people that's what it's going to take. Other people are going to respond better to a quieter person. Other people are going to respond better to this personality or that personality. That's why we all need to go. We can all be ourselves and we can all be used by God. But there's no excuse to sit there and say, "Hey that's not my gift."
It's not a gift, it's a command. There are gifts within the church. That's not one of them. It's a command to get out there, and God can use every man, woman, boy and girl to present the gospel. To show someone how to be saved. Go to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. Here's a saying that I've heard that I really like also, and I found this saying to be true. The longer I live my life, this is proven true over and over again. I always tell this to people. There's always a prepared place for a prepared person. There's always a prepared place for a prepared person. I've studied different things and learned different things in my life and gained different skills and I have never learned anything that I didn't eventually use. Even things that you learn and think when am I ever going to use this? But you use it, though. Because whenever you learn and grow and gain skills, there's always a prepared place for a prepared person.
Instead of going out and seeking opportunities, a lot of times it's better to work on preparing ourselves and being ready and then the opportunities will be there. Like for example, preaching. Man I want to get opportunities to preach. Learn how to preach. Get the ability to preach, get prepared to preach, have a sermon ready and God will give you opportunities to preach. He'll strike me with sickness that way other people can come and fill in and preach. When brother Corben preached a few weeks ago, or a week and a half ago, I was feeling great the day before and then I just got really sick. And then he preached that sermon and then as soon as he was done preaching I started feeling better. I was wondering, did God just make me sick so that you would preach that sermon? The point being, God will give us opportunities. It's not that hard to find opportunities to preach. But you know what's hard? Learning how to preach and getting prepared to preach.
If you learn a foreign language, God will give you the opportunity to preach to souls in that language. There's always a prepared place for a prepared person. You learn how to play the piano, learn how to sing, learn how to preach, learn how to go soul winning, and God will bring people across your path and he'll give you a church that tells you, "Here's the time to go soul winning. Here's a place. Here's a group. Here's a guy to go with." And make it easy for you so that you can go out and win souls to Christ.
But what if you're not prepared? What if you don't know what you're doing? What if you haven't learned? I can tell you this, I got saved when I was 6 years old and I wanted to win people to Christ throughout my life, and I would always fail at it because I didn't really know what I was doing. No one had really taught me how to do the soul winning. It wasn't until I was 17 years old that I actually started going out and knocking doors and seeing success of winning people to the lord. But from 6 to 17 I didn't get anybody saved, 6 to 16, because of the fact that I didn't really know what I was doing. I was unprepared.
If you're prepared, if you're ready to preach the gospel, God will bring people across your path. If you're ready to preach the gospel, show up at a soul winning time and there's all kinds of opportunity to go out and win people to the lord. Look at Romans 1 verse 15. It says, "So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also." When he says "as much as in me is" I think he's just talking about all the preaching he's heard, all the Bible that he's read, all the things that he's been taught. He's saying, "Look I'm ready to preach the gospel." Let me ask you this. Are you ready to preach the gospel today?
If somebody came across your path, let's say you were at work or let's say in your neighborhood, and it does happen. It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens, where somebody will just walk up to you and literally ask you how to be saved. Now, it's pretty rare. And if that's your whole soul winning program, that's pretty lame. If you're waiting for that to happen. Because the soul winning command, over and over again, is go. Go ye, into all the world and teach all nations. Go and preach the gospel to every teacher. It's always go. We need to go to them.
But honestly some people will. Can you imagine how rotten you would feel if somebody walked up to you and said, "Hey listen I've been thinking a lot lately. I think I need to be saved. Can you tell me how to be saved? Can you show me from the Bible how to be saved?" And you just are ... You don't know where the verses are, you don't know what to say. Wouldn't that be a horrible feeling? Just to feel like, wow I lost this opportunity. And then maybe a few days go by, that person might be hardened by the events of life, they might not be in the same frame of mind. That was the chance.
I've had people come up to me, and sometimes they don't always do it like the Philippian jailer, where they just fall on their knees and say, "What must I do to be saved?" But I've had people come up to me and just say, "Hey you're a pastor right?" "Yeah I'm a pastor." In my neighborhood a guy walked up, he said, "You're a pastor right?" I said, "I'm a pastor." He said, "You know what, I want to be baptized. Would you baptize me?" Now look, this guy didn't need baptism, he needed to get saved first. He's not even saved. But he didn't know that. This guy doesn't know. He's not a guy who knows the Bible or knows the gospel. He's just thinking, "I need to get some religion. Something's wrong with me. I don't know if I'm going to heaven, I don't know if I'm going to hell. I want to figure something out." And so he came to me and just said, "I want to be baptized." And I said, "Well you know, before you get baptized let's make sure that you're saved." And I was able to give him the gospel, pray with him, he got saved.
God will bring opportunities like that, and I think if you're a prepared person, he'll send you more people like that because he knows you're not going to mess it up. He'll send you people because he knows you know what to do when they get there. When we talk about opportunities to present the gospel, here is a good rule of thumb also. If you're ever alone with someone, give them the gospel. Any time you're alone with someone, give them the gospel. I remember one time I went to this really liberal watered down type Baptist church and I remember the pastor talking about how every Saturday morning he goes golfing with his neighbor. They go golfing together, the 2 of them. And here's what he said: "I'm still waiting for an opportunity to give him the gospel." I mean, you're going golfing with him once a week. That's your opportunity. But I guess he's waiting for this guy to bring it up or something. That's ridiculous.
If you're alone with somebody, that's your opportunity. And I hope that the next time you're alone with an unsaved person, you remember me saying that and it makes you think, "Hey I need to do this." And it prompts you. Because you know what somebody said that to me and I remember, every time I was alone with somebody after that, that phrase would always pop into my mind. If you're alone with someone, give them the gospel. And it's a great rule of thumb because it's a lot better to give people the gospel one on one than in a group. And this is why door to door is such a great way to do it, because you, more often than not, are talking to people one on one.
See you get people in a big group, a big crowded place or in a church environment, people don't listen the same as when it's one on one. One on one is the best. And you know what, sometimes I've successfully walked up to a group of people and talked to 3 or 4 people and give- But it takes a lot more boldness and it takes a lot more skill and you know what, all it takes is one of those people to throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing and start being obnoxious and ruin it. Thankfully, thank God, sometimes you get in a situation where everybody wants to hear it, everybody wants it. Or where the scorner just kind of walks away and you can keep giving the gospel to that group.
But one on one is the best. Are you ready to preach the gospel? Do you know what you're doing? Tonight, obviously, it's not really within the scope of one sermon to give you all the tools and preparation for going soul winning, but I just want you to think about that. I've done a ton of sermons in the past, and they're usually like a part 1 and a part 2. Soul winning tips 1, soul winning tips 2, soul winning instruction 1. If you go to our church website and just type in on the sermon page soul winning, like 20 sermons will come up that are how-to instructional type sermons. Why? Because it's something that we carry about. It's something that matters, that's important. It's the main thing. It's the big thing that we do around here. It's what our church is all about.
They want to say that our church is all about hate or it's all about- No, no, no. It's about soul winning. But it's about the whole Bible. But I would say, if there's the one thing that characterizing our church more than anything else, it's the soul winning. I think that's the most important distinctive of Faithful Word Baptist Church. If you really wanted to set it apart from other churches, the thing I would put out there first is the soul winning, number 1. I think that's a good thing to keep as a main distinctive of our church. Now there are other things that characterize our church, but soul winning is a big one.
How do we do soul winning? Let me just give you some tips first of all. If you were to train for an athletic competition, if you were to learn how to play basketball, if you were to learn how to play baseball, there'd be some training involved. There'd be some practice involved, some exercise involved, and you know what, that stuff is all vanity and meaningless compared to soul winning. They do it to win a corruptible crown. We do it to win an incorruptible. And so you have to think of it as something that you're going to put a little work into.
God wants us to do good works. The Bible says that we're not saved by works, but it says we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works that God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So go into soul winning and go into learning how to be a soul winner with an attitude of: let's get to work. I'm ready to work at this thing. Now one of the things that I would recommend right away is to memorize the soul winning verses. Memorize the soul winning verses. Now listen, don't use this as an excuse not- Well I'm going to do everything on Pastor Anderson's list before I go out there. No, you get out there as a silent partner. That's the best way to learn. And here's your preparation for being a silent partner. Are you breathing? Okay, you be a silent partner.
Seriously. Being a silent partner, you just stand there. Now hopefully you're praying in your mind and in your heart that people will be receptive, hopefully you're giving fellowship and encouragement to whoever you're with. Hopefully you're petting the dog and doing whatever to get rid of distractions. But honestly, if you're breathing, it's time for you to show up at a soul winning time and get out there and be a silent partner. You say, "Well I don't know if I can do 3 hours." Hey, show up on Wednesday night. Let's go to Little India and do 1 hour in Tempe. Show up on the other nights that are the shorter soul winning times. There all different times that are available for you. Show up and be a silent partner.
The best way to learn is by getting out there and doing it. It's just like anything else. You don't learn how to be an electrician or a plumber sitting in a classroom, you learn by getting out there and wearing the tool belt and doing the work and being a grunt. You start out as a helper, right? Well you're an apprentice, you're a helper, you're a silent partner. But here are some tips of things that you can do to fast track yourself to being a talker, to being a soul winner in your personal everyday life and out door to door soul winning. You need to memorize the Bible verses that you're going to use for soul winning.
Even if you're going to show people from the Bible, memorize the verses anyway. Because then you'll be able to preach it more smoothly without making mistakes, plus sometimes you're not going to have your Bible with you and you might miss a primo soul winning opportunity because you didn't have your Bible with you when you could have just quoted it. Romans 3:10, "As it is written there's none righteous, no not one." Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." People who've been soul winning for a long time I could call on probably half of this church to stand up and they could probably recite all those verses. Probably half the church right now could stand up and we could go around and have them each recite and they could probably give us 10 or 15 soul winning verses off the top of my head, off their head.
You know what that means? They're ready to preach the gospel. And that's where you want to be my friend, you want to get to that place where you have the soul winning verses memorized. You say, "Hey I'm thinking about starting to memorize the Bible a little bit. Where should I start?" Memorize the plan of salvation. That's where you start. If you don't have Romans 3:10, Romans 3:23, Romans 5:8, Romans 6:23, Romans 10:9, Romans 10:13, Revelation 21:8, John 3:16, John 3:18, John 3:36, John 5:25 - I'm not saying you're going to use all of those. You're going to pick the ones that you want to use. But you know what, if you don't have those memorized, man that's where you start. The soul winning verses, the salvation verses. You say, "Well I don't know what the salvation verses are." Well you know one good place to start is the- Who's got the church invite handy? Hand me one.
See, these are some prepared people. Everybody's shoving it. On the back, this is kind of a real basic, abbreviated version. It's real short just so that it could fit on the back of this little church invite. But here's a great place to start with some verses to memorize. Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 10:9, Romans 10:13. Just a few verses, but that's a start. Revelation 21:8. Then you could go online. We have on the church website the basic soul winning demonstration video. Just a 10 minute thing of just a basic going through the gospel with somebody and boom. There you go. There are the scriptures. Memorize them. Learn them.
Go out soul winning with somebody and write down every verse that they use. There's your bible memory list for the day. What are some tips for soul winning? I think when it comes to soul winning, and I don't have time tonight to go into the whole nuts and bolts of presenting the plan of salvation, okay. I've done that in other sermons, you can go out soul winning with somebody to see that done, you can watch the basic soul winning demonstration where I do it. Honestly, the way that I do it in the basic soul winning demonstration, I think that that is a very effective way to do it. That's why I do it that way. If I thought that there was a better way to do it, I'd do it a different way.
I don't think everybody should do it exactly the same. Everybody's got their own personality and that's why God can use us all in an individual way. But I think that the way I do it in that demonstration is a great place to start because of the fact that it's been tried and true and proven for well over a decade, not just by me but by many people who've used that exact method. And that's not a method that I made up, my own, mine. I actually compiled that from years and years of going soul winning with other people, and I kind of took elements that I liked from different people and I formed and fashioned that plan as a way that works for me, and it's a way that's easy to teach to other people, and frankly it gets the job done and it's got the job done for over a decade. Tried and true and proven.
That's a great way to do it, is to get that demonstration. But besides the nuts and bolts of actually explaining the plan of salvation and showing them they're a sinner, talking about heaven and hell, talking about Jesus. Who he is. His death, burial and resurrection. The fact that salvation's by faith alone and the fact that once we're saved we can never lose our salvation. What I just said there is the basic skeleton of what you want to get across to somebody when you're soul winning, and proving each point from the Bible and elaborating on each point in your own words. But aside from that meat and potatoes, of how to present the gospel, I think that the most difficult part of soul winning is the very beginning and the very end.
Wouldn't you agree with that? Those who go soul winning. It's the very beginning and the very end because once you're into it, once you're out there and you're going through the verses, it's pretty easy just to kind of explain the gospel once you've done it before, once you have the verses down and you know where to go next. That part's pretty easy. I think that the part that is the most difficult is the very beginning and the very end. That's what I want to talk about tonight, is the hard part. The rest you can get from the demonstration. The rest you can get from going out and doing it. The rest you can get from the other 20 sermons I've done like this where I teach it.
Tonight I just want to briefly, in the time that we have left, talk about the very beginning and the very end. Here's why the very beginning is so important. If you get this beginning down, you'll not only be a door to door soul winner, you'll learn to be a soul winner in your personal everyday life. Because if you can learn how to bring up the subject, that'll help you. Think about it. Picture it. You're in the work truck. You're on a long drive out to a job site, you and your co-worker. Then you hear this voice remind you, "Hey when you're alone with someone give them the gospel." And you're like, "Oh man, I'm alone with somebody. I'm supposed to give this guy the gospel." I've been in that situation many times where that came into my head of a pastor that I heard say that. When you're alone with someone.
So then comes into your head and here's your question. How do I bring it up? It's awkward. I'm embarrassed. I'm nervous. I don't want to just seem random. It's just weird. "Do you know for sure if you died today you'd go to heaven?" In the work truck, just kind of burst out with that. Whoa, where did that come from. Right? Okay I asked him. Remember the simulator. The question is, how do you get it started? How do you get it going? It's like anything else, once you get into it. It's like water skiing, right? What's the hardest part? Getting up. Once you're up, you're woo. Once you get up it's easy but it's getting up that's the challenge.
It's the same thing with soul- It's getting into it. It's getting the conversation started. Here's the thing, it's real similar door to door versus in your personal life. It's really not that different. One of the great things about door to door soul winning is that you're never going to see these people again. That's what's so great about living in a city with 4 million people because you can just totally make an idiot out of yourself and you're just never going to see them again. Now with your friends and family and co-workers, the stakes are a little higher because you are going to deal with these people, some of them for the rest of your life.
Therefore, it's great to go out door to door, get some experience on strangers. Practice on strangers. Then you'll be real comfortable and confident when you go to your loved ones. I remember I gave the gospel more to my loved ones in all of my failing years. Then once I turned 17, got in a soul winning church, went out door to door, I learned how to do it from doing it hundreds of times. Then I went back to friends and family and had success because I'd learned out there.
What's a good way to bring up the conversation? Let's say you're out soul winning, okay. We'll start with the door to door because I think that's the easier of the 2, is with strangers door to door. You go up, you knock on the door. Now, step 1, don't knock like the police. That's just- You're starting things off on a bad foot. But I've been with people from our church who that's how they knock. If you're going to knock that way, if you're going to knock like the police, just be sure you do like the police do and go, just in case the shotgun blasts comes through the door, you better step out the way. Don't knock like the police. Get a friendly knock. Something friendly, gentle knock. Don't do this. All right? Just do a normal, friendly, gentle knock.
Is everybody getting this down? No I'm just kidding. I'm just saying, you knock however you want but just a friendly gentle knock, not. "Frank from Word Baptist Church. If you died today-" You want to start out- Here's the thing, what's your goal? Ask yourself in your heart, what's your goal when you go out soul winning? Because do you know what my goal is? To get people saved. That's the goal. Everything I'm doing is geared toward getting people saved, which involves not just trying to make people mad or start out on a bad foot. Honestly, I want everybody in the church to listen to what I'm saying because I've been soul winning with a lot of you and some of these tips that I'm going to give in the next 10 minutes or so, some of these are for you. Okay?
And if you're wondering, "Is he talking about me?" Yes. I am. These are things that I've observed. Number 1, don't knock like the police. Number 2, when they open the door, smile. Smile. I think one of the biggest mistakes that I see people making sometimes, with this beginning part, is they start out being real rude and gruff, and a lot of times it's just because you're nervous. You know, when you're nervous sometimes you come off as rude. But you come off as rude. You can sometimes burn people where, right away, they start out with a bad impression. First impressions are pretty important. I always try to smile real big when they open the door because why am I there? I'm not there to get in a fight. I'm not there to call them out. I'm there in love. We're speaking the truth in love. We're going forth in weeping, bearing precious seed.
We're not there to be adversarial, we're there as a friend. And in fact, we're bringing good news. The Bible says, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel, that bring glad tidings of good things." Isn't that something to smile about, if you're bringing glad tidings of good things? I show up, friendly knock, and then I smile, okay? Not a fake, cheesy smile. Not a cat that just ate Tweety bird smile, but just a basic friendly, from the heart smile. The joy of the Lord is our strength, the Bible says. Find a happy, joyful feeling in your heart and express it and smile. People can tell whether you like them or not and people can tell whether you're just going through to motions or whether you actually care and are actually being friendly and whether it's genuine. Make it real. Say, "Well I don't feel that way." Well then shame on you. You should love people and want them to get saved and put a big smile on your face and bring the gospel.
Be glad about it. Glad tidings. Knock nicely, big smile. Tell them right away where you're from because there's nothing more irritating than when somebody shows up at your door and they beat around the bush and don't really tell you why they're there. Because then it's like, come on. The Jehovah's Witnesses are notorious for this. They knock on your door, "Hey we just kind of wanted to talk about the times that we're living in." It's like what? Who invited you over? I don't remember looking for a new friend or anything. Who are you? Well who are you guys? "Well we just want to talk to you." Well who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?
This is what I do. I knock on the door, "Hi I'm Pastor Steve Anderson. I'm from Faithful Word Baptist Church. I just wanted to give you an invitation to church." Real straight forward. You know right away you're giving them an invite. Here's the thing, by handing this to them it's a nice ice breaker. You'll realize this when you run out of these and you knock on the door and you're just kind of like, "Hi." And you don't really have- It's nice to have something, like "Hey I came to give this to you." Okay? You stick this in their hand and then right away that's a good way to start the conversation. Now you're not the pastor, you just say, "Hey my name's Chris. My name is John. I'm from Faithful Word Baptist Church. Just want to give you an invitation to church."
There are a couple of ways that you can go from here. The question that I like to ask at that point is: Are you a Christian? The reason I like to ask are you a Christian, is because of the fact that anybody who's even halfway churched is going to say yes. And if they say yes, then at least they're getting 1 question right. Even if they're about to get the next 10 questions wrong, or whatever. At least it gives you a common ground with that person right away, of just, "Hey are you a Christian?" "Yeah I'm a Christian." "Oh okay, great." Then right away there's a camaraderie, you're not starting out adversarial right away. Most of the time, in the United States of America, 3/4's of people when you say, "Are you a Christian?" Are going to say yes. Most people are going to say that, at least in Phoenix, Arizona.
Then I say, if they say, "Yes I'm a Christian," I say, "Well if you were to die today, do you know for sure that you'd go to heaven?" And if they say anything- Listen carefully to this point. If they say anything other than, "Yes I know 100% sure," then at that point I just say, "Well can I show you how you can be 100% sure?" For example, I ask them, "Hey how're you doing? I'm brother so and so from Faithful Word Baptist Church, just want to invite you to church. Are you a Christian? Oh great, okay. Well listen, more important than church is just, if you were to die today, do you know for sure you're going to heaven?" And what if they say this, and I want you to interact with me tonight, okay. Tell me, do I- Well okay I don't want to get too complicated, I'm sorry.
If I say to them, "Hey are you 100% sure you're going to heaven?" You say yes or no whether this is 100% sure. "Yeah I'm pretty sure I'd go."
Group: No.
Pastor Steve: "Yeah I think so."
Group: No.
Pastor Steve: Unless they say, "Yes I know for sure." Then it's a no. So if they say, "Yeah I think I would. Yeah I'm pretty sure. Yeah probably, I think I probably would." Those are all no's. Here's what you say to the no answer. When you say, "Hey do you know for sure you're going to heaven?" And they say, "I think so." I say, "Well could I show you from the Bible how you can be 100% sure?" That way it saves you asking them like a million questions because sometimes you can badger people or be irritating to people by just grilling them with questions. "Are you Christian? Where do you go to church? Do you know for sure you're going to heaven? How do you know? What does it take to get there?" And ask them too many.
You do have to ask a few questions to get things going, but you don't want to go too many questions. The fewer questions you can ask the better. That's why I just go with: Are you a Christian? Are you 100% sure you're going to heaven? Hey, can I show you from the Bible how you can be 100% sure? It'll only take like 5, 10 minutes. Have you got just a few minutes?
If they say yes, then I'm in. Present the gospel. And if they say, "Oh no I'm busy. No thanks." Then I say, "Okay, no problem. But let me leave you with 1 verse." That way you're always planting a seed, even if you don't get to give the full plan. I always just say, "Okay well that's all right, but let me-" And be friendly. Don't be like, "Oh so you don't really care whether you go to hell or not?" I've met so many good people, that's how they act. I've been soul winning with people from this church where that's how they act. If somebody says, "No." It's like, "Really? You have a video game controller in your hand, you're telling me how busy you are?"
But anyway, don't just get all- You can't re-raise these people. You can't go, "Don't you understand you're going to go to hell." They don't understand. Otherwise they wouldn't be blowing it off. Be nice. It's their loss. I say, "Look can I show you?" They say, "Oh no thanks man, I'm busy." "Okay, no problem. Let me just leave you with 1 quick verse." Because by the fact I said no problem, now they're going to be more receptive to listening to the 1 verse because they're thinking, "Oh this guy's not jamming anything down my throat. He's totally ready to let me go, he just wants to leave me with 1 quick verse."
If you do it that way, like 90 some percent of people will always let you give them the 1 verse. Right? Like 99%. If you're nice about it and just say, "Hey let me just leave you with 1 quick verse. John 3:16, 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.'" And then I just give a quick explanation of the verse. I say, "You know it doesn't say whosoever goes to church or whosoever lives a good life. It just says whosoever believeth. Because being saved is based upon whether or not you believe on Jesus Christ, not based on anything else."
And then I say this, after just a real quick explanation, not like entering into a real long lengthy thing, but just a brief explanation, then I say this, "Hey are you sure you don't have just a couple minutes? I could just go through it with you, it'd only take a few." And then if they say, "No, I'm good," then I say, "All right have a great day. See you later." Big smile, no problem. Not like. I've seen people literally, I've been out soul winning with people where literally they'll tell them, "Oh no thanks. I don't have time." And they'll just go- And just literally walk away without even saying bye. You have to understand, our church does a lot of soul winning. Look at that map back there, of what we've done. That represents, on that map, like 3/4 of a million people.
Not only that, there are areas in the surrounding areas that are close to our church that we have knocked 5 or 6 times. Whole giant neighborhoods. We have knocked the doors of over a million people, okay. We knock a lot of doors. These people, that you're talking to, that aren't interested today, we will be back. You're not through with me yet buddy, I'll be back. We might not be back this week, but you know what, a year from now, 2 years from now, 3 years from now, we will be back because our church is only getting bigger and we're doing more soul winning, not less. We will be back. Therefore, you don't want to just burn these people because we're going to come back and we're going to water that seed that was planted.
Leave on a high note if you can. Basically, you leave them with one verse. "Hey are you sure I can't just go through it? It'll only take a few minutes." And if they're adamant, then move on. You say, "Well why do you even ask people? Why don't you just give the gospel to everybody?" And here's the thing, that's how I did it when first started. But you know what I realized, I was wasting a lot of time with people who didn't care what I had to say and they would just glaze over and then I'm spending 10 minutes talking to somebody who's like, "Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah." And they're not listening. My time and my energy and my breath is more valuable than that.
I don't want to just write people off if they're not interested. I want to plant a seed and I want to move on to the guy who wants to hear it because you know what there are plenty of people who will say, "Sure. Yeah I would like to know." Just go to that person. And the other people, we're not just writing them off. We're planting a seed because that's what they're ready for right now. They don't want to hear the whole thing. We'll plant a seed and move on. Everybody understand that? Soul winning is easy. It's not hard. One of the biggest things when people go out soul winning for the first time as a silent partner, they walk away like, "Whoa that was way easier than I thought. I could do this." It's just people are scared to get out and try but once you get out there and try you'll see it's not that hard. It's pretty easy.
Okay, let's back up and do an alternative scenario. That's if they say that they don't know for sure, and remember if they say, "Yeah I'm pretty sure." What is that an answer? No, they're not sure. Let's say, let's back up and let's say you ask him, "Hey do you know for sure?" And they say, "Yep I know for sure I'm going to heaven." Then the next question is: What do you believe it takes to get there? What do you believe it takes to get there? Here's the thing, some people will say, "Oh I know I'm going to heaven." Oh well they're saved then. No. Not necessarily. Because a lot of times people will say that and then you'll say, "Oh well what do you think it takes to get there?" And they'll say, "Live a good life." Or, "Well I've sheltered 11 animals. I've rescued 11 cats. That's got to secure my place in heaven."
People will give other answers so you ask them friendly, nice, not like, "Well how do you know that you're going to heaven? What makes you think you're going?" Actually being nice is what I'm talking- The Bible says, "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. Be ready to preach the gospel- speak the truth in love." So basically, if they say that they know for sure, you ask them, "What do you think it takes to get there? What do you think a person has to do to get into heaven?" However you want to ask that question. And then if they say- Let's do another kind of interactive. We're going to have 3 choices on this one. Is this right, wrong, or meh of an answer? Right, wrong, or eh.
"What do you believe a person has to do to get to heaven?" "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."
Group: Right.
Pastor Steve: Yeah that's great, right. Well you know that, it's all through faith. It's believing in Jesus. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Group: Right.
Pastor Steve: Okay. What about this answer? "Well you know I live a good life?"
Group: No.
Pastor Steve: "I got baptized in a Baptist church."
Group: No.
Pastor Steve: "My dad's a pastor."
So these are all wrong answers. What about this answer: "Oh just ask Jesus into your heart."
Group: Meh.
Pastor Steve: Meh. I wouldn't say that that's necessarily wrong in the sense that even though it's not really using the right terminology, even though they're not really saying it using biblical terms, does that really just mean that that person's not saved? No because there are a lot of people who are saved who will say that. What if they say this: "Oh it's just a relationship with Jesus." Meh. Because even though technically if you really boiled that answer down it's a wrong answer, but a lot of people who do believe salvation's by faith alone will use these terms just because they picked them up in their big mega church fun center. They picked it up through Christian TV or whatever, where they'll give these answers like: "Well you know you just have to accept Jesus." Or something. They'll just give kind of a vague-
Those answers are kind of like, you don't really know where they're coming from yet. Right? What if they say: "Well you just have to repent of your sins."
Group: No.
Pastor Steve: Eh. But if they say, "Accept Christ. Ask Jesus into my heart. Personal relationship." Even though those aren't the answers that you'd really want to hear, those are kind of like meh. You don't really know what they mean by that. So don't just write those people off as just for sure not saved. But if they say something like: "It's by faith. It's not of works. It's whosoever believeth." Those are great answers. It's all by His grace that we're saved. It's not our works. That's the answer you want to hear.
Here's the thing. If they give you a wrong answer, now remember. What's the wrong answer? That's something that's just explicitly works based. Oh it's baptism. Oh it's living a good life. It's doing works. Then at that point you say, "Well listen, can I show you how the Bible says?" Because at that point you know they're not saved if they give you that answer. Just say, "Well can I just take a couple minutes and show you how the Bible says we can know for sure?"
Then basically, because they said something wrong, you don't want to just go like eh. But basically you just want to tell them, "Well hey can I just take a couple minutes and show you what the Bible says we must do to be saved?" Because by emphasizing the word Bible you're kind of contrasting like what the Bible's saying versus what you're saying. That's what I would say to that. Let's say they give you either a right answer or a meh answer. Then the next step is to ask them this: "Well do you think that there's anything that you could do to every lose your salvation?"
This is a great question because believe it or not, you'll run into people who give you not even a meh answer, they actually give you the right answer, and then they'll just completely blow this question. You'll ask them, "Hey what do you have to do to be saved?" "Oh just believe on Jesus Christ, it's all faith." And you're thinking yes, they're saved. Praise God. Hallelujah brother. But then you're like, "Hey do you think there's anything you could ever do to lose your salvation?" And they're like, "Oh well you can't live however you want. You've got to obey the commandments. You've got to go to church." You're like, "You just said it was by faith, what are you doing?"
But it's because people sometimes will just say it's by faith because they know that's the right answer because they've heard it. But that's not really what they believe. They think that you actually have to do works, go to church, repent of all your sins, continually ask forgiveness every time you mess up to not lose it, or whatever. So that's why that question of: Do you think there's anything you could ever do to lose your salvation? Is a great indicator. Because if they say it's believe, it's faith, and then they say there's nothing you can do to lose it, that person is- You're 99.9% sure that that person's saved at that point because they're nailing it. They've got it. They get it. You believe in Christ, you're saved. It's done.
That's great. At that point, then, you don't just go, "Well good." At that point, you should be happy and rejoice with that person. Instead of just, "Okay good because I was just making sure. I just want to make sure. All right. Okay." Here's my reaction when somebody nails it and says it's by faith or they give a meh answer but then they're like, "Well no you can't lose it. It's all through Jesus." I say, "That's exactly what we believe. Great. It's so good to run into somebody who's saved. It's encouraging. Great to meet you. Let me tell you about our church." And be real friendly and excited and rejoice with them. It's sincere when I do it because I'm happy to run into people that are saved. It's real encouraging when you knock a bunch of doors- I've seen some people come back a little deflated from soul winning. "Everybody was already saved." Well great, good.
Even if everybody is saved, it's not like you've wasted your time because you know what you've taught these people? Saved people are out soul winning. Why aren't you? That's the kind of silent sermon that you're giving them. As soon as you shut that door and they go back in their house, they're going to think to themselves: "Why wasn't I out doing that? Why doesn't our church do that?" It's a great testimony to the saved.
Basically, that's how you get into it with somebody with the gospel. Now let's back up further. Let's say the person basically, you get to the door and you ask them: "Do you know for sure if you died today you'd go to heaven?" And they say, "No I don't." Then basically, at that point you just say, "Can I show you from the Bible how you can be 100% sure? Just take a few minutes."
Okay let's back up even further. Are you a Christian? "No." What do you do then? "Hey are you a Christian?" "No I'm not, I'm an atheist." I've seen some people just walk- Well what do you with that? See ya. That's the perfect person we want to talk to. Why not? Here's what I always tell them, because a lot of people are like, "Well what do you do if they say they're not a Christian? I mean they're a Muslim, they're a Hindu, they're an atheist. What do you tell them?" What I say at that point, is I say this: "Well what we're doing is we're showing people from the Bible, if they'll let us, how to know 100% sure you're going to heaven. The Bible talks about heaven and hell. We want you to go to heaven. It'll take 5, 10 minutes, just want to show you what the Bible says it takes to get to heaven. Can I show you what the Bible says?"
That's a good way to do it. A lot of people who are really staunch type atheists will just say, "Well I don't believe the Bible." Or even a staunch Hindu or Muslim will say, "Well I'm Hindu. I'm a Muslim. I don't believe the Bible." So then a lot of people are kind of like, "Well where do I go then? If they don't believe the Bible, what do I do?" Here's a method that I've used and this has actually worked and I've won atheists to Christ using this method. I've had this work many times to give atheists the gospel and I've even had it work sometimes where they actually got saved. Here's what I always say to the person who just staunchly, especially with an atheist, who will just kind of staunchly say, "Well look, I don't believe the Bible." Here's what I'll say: "Well listen. Why don't we just pretend for a minute that the Bible's true and then I'll show you what the Bible says, it'll only take a few minutes, and then you can decide whether or not you believe it."
That way you're kind of appealing- Because these atheists, they think they're really smart, don't they? We know that they're fools, but they think they're real smart so you kind of appeal to- Yeah I'll decide. You kind of appeal to that by saying, "Let's just pretend for a minute that it's true." Because the Bible is one of the most influential books in the world so even an atheist should know something about the Bible just to be an intelligent person. We can just pretend for a couple minutes that it's true and I'll just show you. It'll take 5, 10 minutes and then you decide, once you've seen what it says, you decide whether or not you believe.
I've had a lot of them say, "Okay. I'll look at it." And sometimes they get saved. It works. Somebody taught- I didn't make that up. Somebody taught me that and I've been using it ever since. Over a decade ago. And it does work. And then what'll happen is you'll start showing them the Bible verses and you'll get a couple verses in and then they start hitting you with some science or falsely so-called, and you say, "Wait a minute, remember we're pretending." Serious. I'm not kidding. This works. They'll start trying to, "Well wait, but how do you know?" You get 3 verses in, it's like, "Well how do you know the Bible's even true?" We're pretending it's true, remember? And then they'll be like, "Oh yeah that's right."
People have been soul winning with me and seen me do it and it works. I just say, "Well no remember we're just going to pretend for a few minutes that it's true. Let me just show you what it says, then you decide whether or not you believe it." You give the guy- "I'm a staunch Hindu." "Well let me just show you what the Bible says for a minute. Just take a look at what the Bible says and then you can decide whether you want to stick with Hinduism or go with this. You don't want to just- I was born a Hindu. Look at both and then decide."
That's how you get things started. Now let's quickly- I don't think we're going to have time to how to finish things, we'll talk about that a different sermon. How do you start it in your personal life? You're not exactly knocking the door of your co-worker that's in the passenger seat, right? How do I adapt these principles to everyday soul winning? To the thanksgiving get together with family that I haven't seen in years? To the neighbor? The co-worker? Whoever. Repairman, whatever. How do you bring it up in your personal life?
Once you get it started it goes exactly the same, but here's a good way to get it started. A question like this is very casual, very easy, there's nothing awkward or weird about saying: "Hey so and so, are you a Christian?" That's a great way to start the conversation. You're not going to say- You know, you're riding in the work truck, "Hey I'm from Faithful Word Baptist Church." It's like, "Well I work with you everyday." What you're going to say though, is just go straight to- Let's say I'm working with Trent. "Hey Trent, are you a Christian?" Is that just a crazy weird question to ask somebody? I've never felt embarrassed or awkward asking that question. Just like, "Hey Trent are you a Christian?" Or, "Hey Ramone, do you go to church?"
Those are pretty reasonable- That's the kind of stuff you ask people. Like, "Hey are you married?" "Hey what do you do for a living?" "Hey do you have kids?" "Hey are you from around here?" Those are just real easy openers so it's really not any different than that just to say: "Hey Ramone, do you go to church at all?" Let's say Ramone is working on something in my house or something. He's fixing stuff at my house, he's a repairman that's been called in and we're kind of shooting the breeze and we're alone so I'm thinking, "Hey I need to give this guy the gospel." "Hey Ramone, do you go to church at all?"
Totally natural as rain way to start the conversation. So are you a Christian or do you go to church I think are great ways to bring it up. In every day life, I think do you go to church is probably the easiest. Just, "Hey do you go to church?" That's probably the best. Door to door I like are you a christian. But just everyday life, just hey do you go to church is a great way- It's not that hard folks. You just ask them: "Hey do you go to church?" It's a normal, easy, comfortable question to ask. And if they say "Yeah I go to church." "Oh what church do you go to?" They tell you what church they go to. "Well hey more important than that, do you know for sure if you died today you'd go to heaven?" And then boom you're right into it, you're into the door to door same deal.
Just "Do you go to church? Oh what church do you go to? Oh okay, I go to a Baptist church, I got to Faithful Word Baptist. More important than that though, do you know for sure if you're going to heaven?" Or let's say they say, "Oh no man I don't go to church." You can still say, "Well hey more important than church, though, do you know for sure that you're going to heaven when you die? Have you ever thought about that?" Here's the thing, if I'm in a car with somebody driving on a long drive, at that point I wouldn't even ask them, "Do you want me to show you?" If they're under my sink working on my sink, I don't ask them "Do you want me to show you?" The reason why I ask that at the door is because I've got a whole bunch of other doors to go to if they say no.
If I'm on that long drive, if I'm on that airplane flight sitting next to the person, strapped in, they're not going anywhere. It's not, "Hey do you want me to take 5 minutes?" It's just, turn to Romans 3:23. You're there, you do it. At that point you just say, "Hey do you know for sure you're going to heaven?" "No I'm not sure." "Oh well listen the Bible says we can know for sure. For example, First John 5:13 says, 'These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the son of God.' So the Bible says we can know. Here's why we can know."
And then you go into it and explain it and go through "Here's why it's so important that it's through believing, because back in Romans 3:23 it says, 'For all have sinned.'" And you just go through the whole thing. You're a sinner, everything. It's outside the scope of this sermon. But honestly it's really not any different in personal life and door to door. I want to leave you with this one last thought, okay?
If you want to be effective- This is the best tip I can give you for winning people to Christ in your personal life. Friends, family, co-workers, loved ones. This is the number 1 tip that I give people, is that when you give the gospel to somebody that's a friend, co-worker, loved one, somebody that you know, do it the same way that you do it door to door. That's the best tip. Because a lot of times what people do is, when it's someone that they know, they treat it totally different and what they do is they just kind of get in a dialogue or a discussion that can sometimes easily degenerate into an argument or a debate, and they kind of go back and forth and just do a chit chat style of just kind of a give and take chit chat. It doesn't work. The way to effectively- Because then you get on rabbit trails and then they're going to take the conversation all these other places.
You want to keep it focused like a laser beam on the gospel, on salvation in a logical a, b, c, d. Not a, h, g, z, y, aliens, evolution, outer space, just all over the place. You want to just stay with the theme and the best way to do it is honestly go out there door to door, get good at it, then fire up the conversation with your friends, co-workers, loved ones, and do it the same way. Just boom, you're at the door now. Go through it the same way. That's the best tip that I've seen. That's why, if you really love the people that you come into contact with, go out there and get the experience. Get the preparation and you will be effective and you can win those people to the Lord that you really care about. People that you really know. People that you see everyday at work and family.
We love the strangers out soul winning that we talk to, but who do we love more? Our parents. Our brother, our sister, our cousin, our co-workers that we work with every day. We have more love for them because we know them more. They're more important to us. It's like when people talk about where we want to send people to start the next church. I'm thinking like California. I'm thinking areas around me. I'm from California. When they want to start a church really far away, I'm like, "Oh yeah that would work." But honestly, my heart is for Phoenix, Arizona. California, it's where I'm from. We love the people that are close to us because we know them and we care about them, but honestly if you're going to be effective, you need to get out there and learn how to do it and there's so many great people in our church that can show you how to do it.
And don't just go soul winning with 1 person. Go soul winning with like 10 different people in our church, see the different styles. Some people you're going to walk away saying, "You know what, that might work for that person but not my style." Some people you're going to be like, "That didn't even work for that person." No I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Some people you're going to look at it and say, "You know not really my style." But hey you can still pick up a pointer or 2. And then you'll find some people where you're like, "Wow this person's doing a great job. I could do this." Check out the demo, go soul winning with me personally, go with other people in the church. Learn how to do it, memorize the verses, roll up the sleeves, and then get out there and win those people that you love unto the Lord.
You can do it. It's possible. Souls are hanging in the balance between heaven and hell and God has committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation, and he chose tracks to do it. Eh. What did he choose? He chose the foolishness of preaching to save them that would believe, and preaching is opening your mouth and proclaiming the gospel. Every man, woman, boy and girl needs to preach the gospel one on one, out there in the highways and hedges, and amongst friends and family. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father we thank you so much Lord for soul winning. It's such a blessed ministry. It's such an exciting thing to be a part of, Lord, and it's what makes Faithful Word Baptist Church an exciting church. Just the people that are constantly being saved, people are getting baptized, people are hearing the gospel, the streets are being covered, the map's being shaded in, and we're doing the work that you've called us to do Lord. Please just equip the saints Lord. I pray that this sermon would have helped equip the saints a little bit and I pray that this sermons would have just kind of opened people's minds a little bit to the fact that, "You know what, maybe this is something I can do. Maybe this isn't just for the loud mouths. Maybe I can go out and do this and be used."
And Lord I know that you can use anybody in this building who's saved and so I pray that you would just stir in the hearts of your people and help them to have the discipline to memorize the verses and show up at the soul winning time and get out there and do the work and in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
