March 30, 2014
Now Ephesians chapter 6 the part of the chapter that I would like to focus on is beginning there in verse number 19 where the bible reads and “For me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly as a I ought to speak.” What I want to preach about tonight is the subject of soul winning and I want to preach about a lot of things that can step in and be a poor substitute for soul wining, alright cheap substitute for soul winning.
You see we live in a day in 2014 where most bible believing, bible preaching churches have forsaken door to door soul wining, they just don't do it anymore. I can tell you that for sure because I have been going down the list of independent fundamental Baptist churches in various states for a project that I’m working on. I’m going to their websites and very few of them have any soul winning. You go to their ministries and they have everything else but no soul winning. They are not knocking any doors, they are not going out into the highways and hedges and compelling people to come in that God’s house may be filled.
You look at their service times and they’ve got Sunday schools, Sunday mornings, Sunday night, Wednesday night. They’ve got other fellowships and bible studies but there is no soul winning time. Thank God there are many that do have soul winning but it’s the minority. When you look at most independent fundamental churches Baptist church today most of them are not doing any soul winning. A lot of times these poor substitutes or cheap substitutes can stand in for soul winning and people can feel like, “Hey we are evangelizing; hey we are reaching the lost. We are doing something big for God.”
When in reality they are not getting the main job done of reaching the laws the best way possible which is through door to door soul winning. See the bible says that the early church in the book of Acts and daily in the temple and in every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. The bible says in Acts 20:20 “”And now I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but have showed and have taught you publically and from house to house.” Luke 14:23 and the Lord said to the servant, “Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled.
We just saw it in Ephesians 6 when Paul said that utterance would be given to him and that he wanted us to pray for him that he would open his mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. He said, “I want to open my mouth and boldly speak God’s word.” Is Jesus ministry He’s going to people one on one and giving them the gospel. You see Jesus with Nicodemus, you see Jesus with the woman at the well. You see Jesus with a blind man here, you see Jesus with this person over here. You see the apostles going out two by two. Not just in the big cities but into the towns and villages preaching the gospel to every creature.
You see the apostle Paul even going down to a river where women are washing clothes and giving those ladies the gospel. You see them going into a synagogue where the lost are, let me tell you something. The people at the synagogue because they are lost I don't care what John Hagee says or these other Zionists, if they don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ they are not saved. Judaism is a false religion; Judaism is the religion of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The synagogue was a place that they would go to preach to the lost and they would give the gospel so often one on one.
You see Paul walking with that ruler of the city and just giving him the gospel. Remember he kept being interrupted by that girl that was demon possessed and so forth. All throughout the four gospels in the book Acts you see a lot of one on one soul winning in addition to just preaching to group. You see going to the houses, you see going to towns, you see going to the villages. The most effective way and this might be shocking but the most effective way to give somebody the gospel is to just open your bible and talk to that person and give them the gospel.
It’s not complicated any man, woman, boy and girl can do it and it’s what God wants us to do he wants us to be a witness unto him. He wants us to be an ambassador for Christ, he wants us to open our mouths boldly. What are some of the substitutes that step in and take the place of soul winning? Because so many churches just aren't going to soul winning anymore. For example in the Phoenix area here they are about 40 independent fundamental Baptist churches that preach out of a King James Bible. They are about 40 of them and it’s a big city about 4,000,000 people in this report.
About 40 churches like that that I know of that are independent fundamental, king James. You know what the minority of them do the soul winning, only a few of them. They are many that do the soul winning but I would say more than half of those don't unfortunately. What are they doing? How do they justify not giving the gospel because church becomes a social club if we are not reaching out to the lost with the gospel. If we are not bringing people in, if we are not doing anything to win the lost … What are they doing? Well I find that one of the biggest substitutes that they will use for soul winning are just tracts.
Now tell me if this is about tracts, are you still there in Ephesians 6:19? “For me that utterance maybe given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.” Is that a tract? Is that hand, does that say, “Give me boldness to hand out a tract? Give me boldness to write out the gospel and please may it be hand it out a lost person” No in fact there’s no verse in the entire bible that commands , “Hey go hand out leaflets, hey hand out little piece of paper.” There are plenty of verses that say, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Again I’m not saying tracts are bad in fact as we go down this list of substitutes they are not really bad things, none of them is really a bad thing. You know what? It becomes bad when it becomes bad when it becomes a substitute for what Jesus told us to do preaching the gospel, giving the gospel.
When it becomes a substitute and I like to compare it to this apples. Two things apples are good for you, apples are one of the best things that you could be eating, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. It’s very good for you now they are on the dirty dozen so buy organic. If you eat an apple you are getting all kinds of nutrition and if you eat the seeds there’s even more nutrition in the seeds. Apples are very good for you but wait a minute, are apple a substitute for meat? No, are apples a substitute for bread? No, are apples a substitute of essential fatty acids that you must eat to be healthy?
No, because if you eat a diet of nothing but apples you will be very unhealthy. Because an apple has very few calories, it has like 60 calories or something like that. It has so much fiber in it that your body is going to probably spend more than 60 calories just chewing the thing up swallowing it and digesting it. You cannot live by apples alone, you must eat proteins and you must have fat in your diet and you need another source of complex carbohydrates. There’s nothing wrong with that because I’m not saying apples are bad but you know what? Apples can become bad if they start substituting for things that you need in your life, like fats.
Like meat, like bread and what I’m saying here is that even though there’s nothing wrong with the tract when it becomes a substitute for soul winning though that’s when it becomes a problem. When you are skipping meals and just eating apples that’s not going to be good for your health, now unless you weigh 500 pounds or something or you are trying to cut some serious weight. Even then you’ve got to eat nutrition from other sources. Now this right, here this is the invitation to our church that we hand out. It does have the plan of salvation of salvation on the back so I guess you could characterize this in the sense as a tract.
Nothing wrong with handing this to someone at all, not at all. If you hand this to someone and then tell yourself, “I have evangelized, I have obeyed the great commission, I have preached the gospel, I have done what Jesus told me to do” That’s where it becomes wrong, because you know what handing this to someone does not absolve you of your duty to witness under them so open your mouth and preach the gospel. So many people get so carried away with this tract that this becomes a substitute actually giving someone the gospel, actually going soul winning. Now it says in 1st Corinthians 1:21 you don't have to turn there but it says, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” The method that God has chosen to save those that believe is through the preaching of God’s word.
The bible says for whosever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, how then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed. How then shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard. How should they hear without a preach how should they preach except they be sent. He says, “Then faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God how are they going to hear without a preacher. Look it takes somebody preaching the gospel to get the lost saved. That is the message that God has chosen, that is what He has commanded to do and preaching is open your mouth and giving the gospel.
Now look, I already preached, I don't believe in a woman preacher behind the pulpit in church, I’m against it but let me tell you something. Women and men go out and preach the gospel to every creature; women open the bible and give the gospel. Men go out and open the bible and give the gospel that’s very scriptural and I covered that last week in my sermon already so I’m not going to go into that again. How should they hear without a preacher? That’s easy just give him a piece of paper. You know what, when you go out and hand out a bunch of piece of paper you know where most of them end?
In the trash, that’s where most of them are going to go and in the trash. Then you say, “Well no some people are going to read them but hold a second, a lot of people are going to read them and not understand them. Because remember Ethiopian Eunuch he sat and read the scriptures he was opened up to the book of Isaiah he read a passage that was one of the best passages in the Old Testament as far as a prediction or a prophesy Jesus Christ, he was reading Isaiah 53. Philip said unto him, “Understand is thou what thou readth?” He said, “How can I, except some man should guide me. That’s what’s our job is today is to go out to the lost and yes take the scriptures to them but to guide them to Christ.
To lead them to Christ, to expound to them the scripture and to show the gospel and explain to them the gospel. We need to be spirit filled and through the Holy Spirit we need to preach the gospel unto the lost. That’s what we need to do it, it involves opening your mouth. Today just handing out of tract, you’ll see it on church websites, “On this night we are going to pass out tracts, no soul winning just we are going to go pass out tracts.” I have been to churches that that’s what they did no soul winning just pass out tracts, we are going to hand out tracts. I have done it, I have spent eight hours handing out tracts.
I have spent eight hours doing nothing but handing out tracts and you know what? It doesn’t work. Now let me just give you some math I love math, who here likes math? I was going to be, I was math major in college before I decided to go into the ministry instead. I like numbers; I like math and fundamental Baptist in your numbers. Well there’s a whole book in the bible called Numbers right, so numbers do matter. Anyway I did a little math on this handing out tract thing. People say, “Hey I was going to hand out a bunch of tracts.” Okay it doesn’t make any sense even mathematically and I will prove it to you.
For example how long does it take to go from door to door just leaving a tract on the door? You are not doing any soul winning you are not knowing that door you are just putting tracts on the door. Well I know that answer to that question, it’s about 45 seconds okay and I’ve timed it in a few different neighborhoods and that’s pretty much where I came up with. It will take about 45 seconds to walk from one door, walk to the next door, put the tract on the door and walk away. That means that if you are going out distributing tracts for an hour you are going to hand out about 80 of these.
You are not going to give the gospel to anybody, you are not going to preach to anybody, you are not going give anybody any bible verses or talk to anybody. Just going door to door just leaving this on the door, one hour you are going to leave about 80 of these on the door. Okay now let’s contrast that with soul winning, let’s compare with you went out soul winning for an hour. Here’s a typical hour of soul winning, this is a possible hour. Let’s say you spend about let’s say, in that hour you hit 30 doors where nobody is home, that happens. Well instead of 45 seconds that’s going to take 60 seconds.
Okay because instead of just going up and putting on the door, you know the door right, one 1000, two 1,000, three 1,000, four 1,000, five 1,000, six let’s knock again. 10, 1,000, 11, 1,000, 12, 1,000, 13, 1,000, 14, 1,000, 15, 1,000 nobody is home let’s go to the next door. Okay so 60 seconds right fair enough so I’m going to spend maybe 30 minutes knocking on 30 doors where nobody was home, I’m still handing out one of these, I leave this on the door. Then let’s say I’m planning to run about nine people who answer the door but they are not interested, they don't want to hear the gospel.
I say, “Hey, you know I what to invite you to church.” “Okay.” “You go to church anywhere? Okay if you die today do you know for sure you are going to heaven?” “No thanks I’m not really interested right now, no thanks.”Okay that whole encounter and it’s probably going to take about two minutes when they are not interested. Let’s say you run into nine people that are not interested that’s like 18 minutes of your time and probably out of those nine people I’ll bet seven of them will probably let you give them one verse. Because when I known on the door of somebody who doesn’t want to hear the gospel I always say, “Okay no problem but let me just leave you with one quick verse.”
I might quote them John 3:16 or I might quote them Acts 16:31 or I might quote them and say, “Well the bible does say 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. That you may believe on the name of the son of God.” The bible does say we can't know that for sure and that we so believing in Christ it’s not by our words, “Hey have a great day” or whatever. You could leave them with a thought, leave them with a bible verse and then let’s say you run into one person that will actually let you go through the gospel with them.
Let’s say you spend about 12 minutes going through the gospel with that person and maybe, maybe there’s a 50-50 chance if they are going to listen to the whole thing, they might get saved, they might not get saved, 50-50 chance. Okay or here’s another scenario maybe you go out for an hour of soul winning and maybe there’s 15 doors where nobody is home. Maybe eight people are not interested so you’ve used up 31 minutes doing that and then let’s say you spent 14 minutes giving one person the gospel and 15 minutes giving somebody else the gospel.
Let’s say one of them rejects it and the other get’s saved. Okay so in these scenarios both of those, you are still handing out about 30 or 40 of these in that hour. If you we are just doing tracts you just handout 80 and that’s it, no preaching, no verse, no gospel nothing. If you do soul winning you are still going to hand out about half as many 30, 40 of these and you are giving people bible verses and you are giving people the gospel. You are witnessing to people and you are probably going to have somebody saved every couple of hours. If you go out for two hours you are probably going to have somebody saved.
Chances are, now some areas are really easy, everybody wants to hear the gospel, everybody is receptive. Other areas not so much Gilbert for example but let’s say you are in a rough area. This is a scenario that could be pretty likely you spent four hours soul winning in a rough area. 120 of those doors nobody is home, that eats up two hours of your time buy you give out 120 of these. 50 people were not interested, it’s a rough area okay 50 people said I’m not interested. That’s another 100 minutes of your time. Let’s say 15 of those 50 allowed you to give them one verse.
You were able to plant that seed and then let’s say after hours of soul winning you find one guy and you spent 20 minutes talking to that guy and he ends up getting saved in that rough area. In four hours you’ve handed out 170 of these and you’ve got somebody saved. You gave 15 people a bible verse that you preached unto them that God can use and that can germinate. Let’s contrast that with four hours of giving out tracts, you gave out 320 tracts that it, that’s all you accomplished. You say, “Well okay Pastor Anderson but what did you accomplish with those 320 tracts?” Well let me tell you something, I have been in the ministry long enough, I’ve been in Baptist churches long enough to understand the effects of tracts. I grew up as a Baptist I got saved as a six year old boy. I grew up from the time I was born in Baptist churches. I will tell you this if you hand out 10,000 invitations to church or 10,000 tracts you are lucky if one person will come as a visitor as a result of that, one person will show up.
I’m not just making that up I’m not just pulling that number out of thin air. I’m saying hand out 10,000 of these one person will show up. If you are lucky because you know what I have handed out 10,000 of these and had nobody show up multiple times ... Handed out 10,000 fliers nobody showed up, 10, 000 of these nobody showed up. I remember one time at our church that I went to that was a fundamental Baptist they handed out they had a big campaign, “We are going to hand out 20,000 of these invitations at church in one month.” Two people came and that was considered great. We handed out 20,000 two people showed up great.
Okay so now let’s do the math, in four hours I’m going to hand out how many? Who’s paying attention, I know this math is getting a little crazy but 320 right I spent four hours 320 of these. I’m going to have to do that 31 times to get one visitor to come to church on average. Think about that now and you know what probably most people if they go out and hand out tracts like a robot they probably only want to do it for two hours. If you go to one of these tract passing out nights or tract, they are not going out for four hours they are going for two maybe.
That means that if I go out every week for two hours handing out tracts in over a year maybe like a year and a couple of months, I might if I’m lucky get a visitor to show up to church. Okay now let’s spend that same time out soul winning. Now let’s go out soul winning for two hours a week right for a little over a year instead of handing out 10,000 of these you know how many I handed out? 5,000 by soul winning. Because there’s still people that aren't home you hand it out. There are still people that aren't interested you hand it out. There are still people who are interested you hand it out.
In a year’s time of being dedicated about two, two and half hours of soul winning a week, instead of handing out 10,000 I handed out 5,000. I also probably gave the gospel to people about 100 and sometimes and I also probably got about 50 people saved. If you think about it just on average and obviously some areas are harder than others. If I’m going out and just spending hundreds and hundreds of hours of soul winning, I’m probably going to get 50 people saved and I probably gave a bible verse to about 450 people or so. I probably planted the seed with three or 400 people where I at least gave them a powerful verse like John 3:16 from the mouth of a spirit filled soul winner.
That God could use that seed and water that seed and that they could think on those things and one day eventually hopefully somebody could reap that seed for Christ … Look I’ve got probably 50 people saved, I probably gave at least a bible verse to another 400 people and I probably gave 50 people the gospel that rejected the gospel. At least they had a presentation and I still handed out 5,000 of these. Or instead of handing out 5,000 he’s going to hand out 10,000. If I’m lucky I might get a visitor to show up once. It doesn’t make any sense folks and you will say, “This isn't a math equation stop confusing me with the facts.”
Let me tell you something, it doesn’t make any sense to go out and do something that’s inefficient that doesn’t work, that doesn’t even make mathematical sense especially in light of fact that God never told us to do it and God did tell us to go out and preach the gospel. Why would I do something that God said not to do that doesn’t work when I can do something that God did say to do that does work? It’s pretty simple folks but I’ll tell you exactly why, because you don't have to be spirit filled to do this. You don't need any boldness, how much boldness does it take to …
Look I’ve literally I’m not kidding, I’ve literally been sitting in my living room true story. My wife is not in here because she was there, I’ve been sitting in my living room by the front window that was open, three feet from the front door, window open sitting on the couch by the window. Had an independent fundamental Baptist pastor come to my door put this on the door and sneak away. I saw him living and I’m like, “I know who that is and I recognized him.” He’s like a ninja; he’s just like … Trying not to be detected. That’s the opposite of boldness. Okay now look is soul winning easy?
No, anybody who does any soul winning where he you actually give the gospel they know its hard work. It wears you out it’s hard work, I mean and it does take boldness I remember when I first started soul winning I was nervous and that’s why it’s good to just start out as a silent partner. I remember I would say at least the first year of soul winning for me the first door I would knock I hope that the people were not at home. Who’s been there, I would knock on the door and I was so nervous I would be like, “Man I hope they are not at home just because I’m not ready to talk yet.”
I would be nervous and usually after I got through the first, talking to the first person, then it was, okay I could do this and then I would feel pretty good for the next few hours of soul winning. I remember the first door was you are always nervous you are hoping they are not home which sounds silly but you that have been out you know what I’m talking about. Because it does take courage just to confront strangers and especially to actually ask them if they know for sure if they died would they go to heaven? It’s even easier just to knock the door and just say, “Hey come to my church I want to invite you, see you later but when you are going to open your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel it takes courage. It takes a little more preparation, you got to learn the scriptures you got to know what bible verses you are going to turn to you got to learn that Romans road, learn those verses in Revelation or John that you want to use.
Whatever verses you want to use you got to learn scriptures, you might tab up your bible, memorize all the verses whatever you do, it’s going to take some preparation. It’s going to take being spirit filled it’s going to take boldness, it’s going to take courage and it’s a lot harder of work than just walking around. Listen there’s a guy who just hands this out he’s called the mailman. In fact you can just pay him to do it and he is not even saved, he’ll do it and he could be just as effective at it as you. Because any robot could hand this out but it takes a spirit filled Christian to open up the bible and open the mouth and preach the gospel.
Paul said, “Pray for me, I need boldness. Pray for me that I will have the opportunity and the power to give the gospel and to preach under the law.” I think that’s the number one substitute that can just take the place of so and then they feel like, “We’ve evangelized.” I’ve seen advertisement for tracts that said, “If you give up three tract today you’ve reached a 1,000 people for Christ.” You’ve reached 1,000 people for Christ just by handing this out, most of these are going in the trash. Most of them are not going to be read and the people who do read them most of them aren't going to understand it.
To sit there and say, “Well I handed out 1,000 of this imagine the rewards in heaven.” Not happening buddy sorry to break your bubble but it just doesn’t work that way. Number two another substitute for soul winning that a lot of churches will do is they’ll just have evangelistic services. Basically on Sunday morning at church they’ll just preach the plan of salvation every Sunday morning. Now there are couple of problems with this, first of all the bible always associates giving the gospel with the word go. Like he says, “Go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
“Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and son and the Holy Ghost.” When he talks about soul winning in Ephesians 6 he says, “Have your feet showed with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” Look having your feet showed means you are going somewhere it means that you are going somewhere; it means that you are taking a journey. You are going, you are not just walking across the room you got to have your shoes on and be ready to cover some mileage to go and give the gospel. He says have your feet showed with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Turn to Ephesians 4, Ephesians chapter four and I’ll show you the second problem with this substitute for soul winning. What they say is, “Well instead of going out and giving the gospel door to door house to house or in the streets” they say well, instead of that we are going to just basically just wait for them to come to us or just invite them to come us and then when they get here we are going to give them the gospel when they show up. Here’s the problem with that most of them are never going to show up and I have been into church before where I knew for a facts that the pastor had something different plan to preach.
Because I knew what he had planned to preach on a Wednesday night. Two visitors showed up changed his whole sermon and just preached the plan of salvation. Here’s over 100 people that have come out to learn the word of God that have come out to be built up in their Christian faith and to be edified as believers and instead they get to listen to the plan of salvation for the benefit of the two people that showed up as visitors. Okay you say well and I have had them defend this, I’ve had people who teach this thing of, “Hey lets preach on salvation every Sunday morning.”
I almost want to tell this pastor somehow you, it turns like, “I’m saved, we are all saved. We all know this, we are all saved.” There’s a whole bible there’s all these, there’s 1189 chapters that we need to learn and you are telling us how to get saved and we are already saved and we’ve been saved for a long time. I have heard them say, “Well” and people will complain about it and say, “We are saved, why do we keep reading the gospel feed us.” People will say, “I left that church because I wasn’t being feed, feed us.” Here’s what they’ll say, “Well if you ever get tired of hearing the gospel something is wrong with you, you should want to hear the plan of salvation every Sunday morning.”
Here’s the thing I don't get tired of hearing the gospel but I already hear it out soul winning. You want to hear the gospel; you want to hear Pastor Steven Anderson preach the plan of salvation? Would you like to hear me preach the sermon on the gospel, let’s go soul winning you will hear me preach the gospel. In fact you can hear all kinds of gospel preach from all the different people that go out in soul winning, men, women, boys, girls but you know what when we come to church we need to be edified as believers. 99% of the people who are at church are saved on Sunday night, Wednesday night. On Sunday morning still at least 99% of the people are probably saved already. Are there unsaved people who come in as visitors?
Sure are there some people that could be a Judas Iscariot? Sure but we can give those people the gospel after the service. Why would we sit there and give our whole service towards unsaved people? This leads to a bad philosophy where we start giving the music toward the unsaved and we start giving the preaching towards the unsaved and we give the whole atmosphere toward the unsaved. Church is for the saved it’s a body of born again baptized believers and look what it says in Ephesians 4:11. “He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints. Of the saints the saved or the unsaved, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and if the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect man.”
“Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we hence forth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive.” God says, “I gave you pastors and teachers that you might learn doctrine, that you might not continue to be children so that you can grow up in him so that you can be strong in the Lord and the powers of might and when someone tries to preach false doctrine you’ll know it’s false.” Because you’ve been taught doctrine but you can't be taught doctrine when you just keep hearing the same sermon of the gospel over and over.
There are things we need to learn besides the gospel, we need to go to church and learn about marriage. We need to go to church and learn about child rearing, we need to go to church and learn about reading our bibles. We need to go to church and learn about prayer, we need to go to church and learn about how to work at our job. We need to go to church and learn about how to be a soul winner, we need to go to church and learn all manner of things about the Christian life and not just keep learning the gospel over and over again. I love the gospel but I’m not going to preach the gospel every service.
Because there’s too much else to preach in this book that’s too important that we need to hear. God wants us to preach the whole word and not to give our services towards the unsaved, He said it’s for the saints, it’s for the body of Christ it’s to edify them. Let’s keep reading it says in verse 15, “Speaking the truth in love may grow up into him and all things which is the head even Christ from the whole body” talking about the church the body here. Fiddly joint together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part.”
Watch this, “Maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” God says that the body needs to edify itself; we need to build each other up. We need to be strengthened we need to be taught. Not turn it into an evangelist crusade of just week after week, let’s preach the plan of salvation let’s have every head bowed and every eyes closed. Let’s get one person maybe two to walk down the aisle if we are lucky well 100 people are not learning how to get the sin out of their life. Are not learning about the marriage they are not learning about child bearing, they are not learning biblical doctrines that are important.
That are crucial about heaven, about hell about the crucifixion, about the resurrection about things that we just need to learn doctrinally about all kinds of subjects. Whatever the subject, you name the subject that we need to be learning about. Just look at the titles of my sermons for the past few months. Look at all the things that we’ve talked about besides the gospel, isn't that important stuff? Of course it is or we could just quit soul winning, quit going out and then we got to do something to get people saved so let’s just preach the gospel every Sunday morning.
It’s a poor substitute it doesn’t work. Thirdly this so we’ve talked about tracts. Again our tract is bad are they bad? No, okay is the service where preach the gospel or plan our salvation is that bad? No. There are services occasionally where a gospel type preaching is preached, great. When it becomes apples for breakfast lunch and dinner that’s a problem … When it becomes a substitute for soul winning, when we tell ourselves, “We are reaching the lost.” Most of them aren't going to come to us we need to go to them that’s what the bible says. Number three street preaching.
Now when I say street preaching don't get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with witnessing to somebody on the street or even preaching the gospel outdoors. Okay I’m not against that, when I say street preaching I’m talking about the typical bull horning and sign waving. Because 99% of the people who say street preaching here’s what they really mean, bull horning and sign waving. Holding up a big sign that says, “Turn or burn repent or perish. Prepare to meet thy God.” They hold up these signs like that and then they’ve got the megaton and just nobody is listening.
Like guys are going by people are walking by, they don't have an audience they are not talking to a particular person or group of people. It’s more like just a general bull horning. Now I don't know about you but bull horning annoys me. For example I was staying at a hotel and these guys are just standing outside like really early in the morning you know, “Boycott Hyatt Hotel.” I just thought to myself, “This just makes me want to stay at Hyatt more because these guys are obnoxious and annoying.” Now those guys didn’t have a spiritual message but I just found them to be obnoxious and rude and annoying that they are just bull horning people who are trying to sleep and whatever.
I think that this bull horning and sign waving is obnoxious and annoying to a lot of people. I don't think it’s the type of loving preaching the truth and love giving the gospel to people because we love and care about people type of preaching. It seems more like just an obnoxious like macho like, “Let’s go out and preach.” It’s not about, “Hey let’s win people to Christ. Hey let’s get somebody saved.” Because if you really wanted to get somebody saved you know what you do, you just walk up to that one person and take your bible and give the gospel. Look I’d rather do one thing well than 60 things poorly. I’d rather walk up to one person and give them a clear presentation of the gospel than to just scream at 60 people that are walking by. “Prepare you are going to hell.”
Then even worse sometimes they are not even preaching the gospel. Sometimes they go out and just go to like an adult theater and just, “You are wicked you are filthy you are not going to this place.” Or they’ll go to like a bar, “They drunk and” just ripping on sin. They are like, “We are on the frontlines and I’ve asked people I just ask them, “Okay you do a lot of street preaching? How many people would you say gets saved in about a year of street preaching?” I didn’t tell them like I’m for it, I’m against it I like it, I don't like it. I just walked there and I said, “Okay you do a lot of street preaching.”
“You go by there every once a week?” Okay find out how many people get saved in like a year of street preaching? He say, “Probably one or two” it’s just like it doesn’t work. How many people are you annoying, how many people are you screaming at? Now you say, “Well Pastor Anderson every bible prophet was street preacher. Jesus was a street preacher.” Okay go to Mathew 12 let’s see if that holds up, let’s see if that holds up. Because everyone of these people who promote street preaching and by the way let me say this again, I’m not even saying that street preaching is wrong. I’m just saying that it doesn’t work and 90 something percent of people that I have see doing it were obnoxious.
Now one time let me tell you about my experience of street preaching. Okay, when I was in Bible College it was, I had a list of things that I had to do for a preaching class and you had to check and it’s in order to get an A in the class you had to do everything on this list. One of them was preaching in a bar, they wanted us to just walk into a bar and just say, “Hey, can I get everybody’s attention please” and just preach. I refused to do it because I was scared I was a baby. No I refused to do it because I told the teacher I said, “Well I have never been in a bar and I’m not going to start going to one now.”
I said, “I don't need to go to a bar” I can do that, I can go to those peoples door I don't need to go to bar I said, “I don't think it’s right for me to go to a bar” so I took a B in class. One of the things on the list was that I had to go street preaching three times. I had to do three times I had to street preach. I was like, “Okay I don't really want to do it” but I was thinking like, “I’m going to do the best I can and get something out of this.” I figure well I’m not just going to go on some random street where there’s nobody around. I want to actually have an audience; I want to actually talk to somebody.
I knew about this really big, this really big bus stops or maybe it was a train so I believe it was a bus stop but whatever it was, it was a place where like 20 people would gather waiting for this bus or train I forget what it was. I knew about a couple places in south Chicago. I said, “Okay that’s what I’m going to do.” I remember I went to one of them and there’s like 20 something people over there and I said, “Hey everybody let me get your attention I just want to share something with you real quick.” I just start preaching the gospel to like 20 people and everybody is just avoiding eye contact like nobody would look at me. I’m preaching away and they are all just pretending like I am not there. I preach for like five minutes or whatever, I’m preaching and it felt weird but I’m like, “Whatever it’s homework, nobody like’s doing homework.”
I’m sitting there preaching then I get done and I walk up to one person after I’m done preaching to 20 people. I walk up to one guy and say, “Hey did you understand anything that I just said?” “No.” “No? Were you listening?” “Not really.” I said, “Well do you know for sure if you died today you would go to heaven?” He said, “No.” I said, “Well can I just open the bible and show you?” He said, “Sure” and I won the guy to the Lord just by … I’m just thinking to myself, “Okay maybe I could have skipped this step here.” Screaming at 20 people who thought I was a psycho who were just trying their hardest not to make eye contact with me to look at me.
Just actually walk up to people and talk to them like a normal human being. It’s probably more respectful to it that way you just walk up and talk to people. Again I’m not against just an outdoor service; I remember our church one time in when I was in Sacramento did something that I thought was pretty cool. It was called the gospel in the park and basically they setup a big like grand sand of chairs and the whole church came out to the park and basically we just had a church service in the park. Then people, who were in the park and we bring them over to the service and everything.
It was like, “Okay we are having an outdoor service so that people could hear the gospel just who are at this park.” “Okay great.” That’s a little different than just getting on the street corner with your sign and your bull horn and being obnoxious. Let’s see if Jesus was a street preacher. Let’s see if He owned a sign or a bull horn. Okay the only sign Jesus ever had was the one that somebody else put above His head that said, “This is Jesus the king of the Jews.” Anyway look at Mathew 12:18 that say, “Behold my servant whom I have chosen” this is about Jesus Christ. “My beloved in whom my soul is well pleased I will put my spirit upon him and he shall show judgment to the gentiles.”
“He shall not strive nor cry neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.” Now according to verse 19 there, is He going in the street and crying out, yelling and striving in the streets? According to that verse, now we know that Jesus did cry out when He was preaching in the temple when they were all gathered to him in the temple. I’m sure he raised his voice and cried out when he was in a boat and they pushed the boat out from the water and He had thousands of people gathered on the sea side and he preached and the water helped carry his voice. He preached to those thousands on the sea side, I guarantee he lifted up his voice when he preached on a mountain side, he preached on a mountain, he preached at the sea of Galilee he preached from a boat, he preached in the temple. He opened His mouth and preached in a house where people had gathered in the house and people were hanging off the windows to hear him preach.
One thing he didn’t do was walk down the street screaming at people. That’s what the bible say, he didn’t strive or cry or lift up his voice in the street. This is a quotation of Isaiah 42 here’s the original from Isaiah 42 verse 2, “He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.” Yet Jesus was a bull horning shine waving street preacher and look a lot of these street preaching they say, “Go to the gay pride parade.” “No thank.” I’ve been insulted by these people they say, “You just don't have the guts to go preach at one of these gay pride parades. We are going to go preach …”
You know what? You are right I don't because I’m homophobic. No I do not want to confront 1,000 sodomites I do not, you are right I do not have the guts to go confront 1,000 homosexuals who the bible says are full of murder, who the bible says are perverted. Look Sodom and Gomorrah had one Christian living in what’s his name? Hey he was probably homophobic when they surrounded his house. Thank God for God’s protection but why would I want to look at all that garbage? To say there, “You scared.” You know what? I don't want to look at the filth, you are right I’m scared of having my mind infected with that.
Why would I want to go to some filthy gay pride parade and look at all the queers and transvestites and freaks why would I even want to be exposed to that filthy and smut and disgusting thing so I could go scream and bull horn and then I get together with my buddies, “Buddy we did it give me a high five, we are awesome.” We went to bars and we preached, we went to the gay pride parade and we preached, we are street preachers we are like Jeremiah, we are like Elijah.” Wait a minute, “How many did you get save?” “It doesn’t matter man we are awesome.” “What are you talking about?” “Saved what?”
“You are one of those easy believers of people that thinks people actually get saved? No okay. No we believe getting saved is hard. Right it’s hard you got to, people got to classes, they got to come to church for years, they got to be discipled 5,000 times. “We believe it is really hard to get saved, you are one of those easy believers that thinks that people actually get saved when you just give them the gospel.” We are, because that’s what the bible says. Paul preached to people a lot of them got saved the first time they heard it. Other said, “Hey we need to hear this again.” Other’s said, “You guys are nuts.” One of them, there was always a group that got saved immediately, wasn’t there?
Weren't there a lot of people who Jesus just preached they got saved immediately? Paul preached, a lot of them didn’t but some of them did. You know what? This macho, “We are going to go on street preaching. My sign is way more obnoxious than yours buddy, you need to pray for boldness buddy.” Look being bold is not equivalent to being obnoxious. We need to love the law since speak the truth and love not just go out and scream and yell and hold up signs and look that’s what most of these street preaching is. You say, “Well I know somebody who goes street preaching and they do it right. they go out and do it right.
I still guarantee you its way less effective that doing it the way we see it in the bible happening in the New Testament it’s going to be much more affective. Lastly, man I’m running out of time but I really want to cover this last point. What shall I more say for the time would fail me to tell of lifestyle evangelism as being a poor substitute for solely I don't have time for that. The fourth point I want to cover tonight is supporting missionaries. Now again I’m not against supporting missionary, do we support missionaries? We support a few missionaries; I’m not against supporting missionaries.
You know what? A lot of people and go to Acts one if you would. A lot of churches think well, supporting missionaries is a substitute for soul winning. I could name for you plenty of churches that don't do any soul winning but they support 735 missionaries. They support all kinds of missionaries out at the Waazoo and you walk into their church and it looks like the United Nations there are so many flags and prayer letters and we are missions minded. Wait minute have you done any soul winning here in Phoenix or here in Arizona? No but man there are reaching, they are sending people to Nigeria and they are going to Africa and Asia they are going to Europe.
We’ve got 735 missionaries. Now what does the bible say in Acts 28? It says, “But ye shall receive power that the Holy Ghost come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me” and what’s the next word after unto me? Both, he says both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and unto the utmost part of the earth. Does he say just go to the utmost part of the earth? No he says both in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Now when I was a teenager I went to this church that was, this was the NIV rock and roll church this is before I became a fundamentally Baptist and we were going to a more liberal church.
This church had no soul winning none, zero they didn’t even hand out tracts, they were just zilch. I remember they organized this big soul winning thing where they are going to go Oaxaca Mexico. They said, not only are we going to build some houses for poor people but they said, “Listen guys we are actually going to knock some doors and give people the gospel.” It was like, “What?” “Yeah we are actually going to knock a few doors oh man.” Suddenly they have all these training they spent like weeks and weeks training them of how they are going to go door to door and just like, “Oh man this is unbelievable, this is awesome.” They raised a bunch of money, they saved up all their money and time and they trained just a few, there were only a few people that were going to do the talking. They trained a few who are going to do down and they travelled thousands of miles they get down there, they knock doors for one day.
Give the people the gospel and then they just talked about it for months and months how amazing it was. We could have saved you some gas, we could have saved you some money, in fact you can walk across the street and you don't even need an interpreter they had an interpreter. They went door to door with an interpreter that would translate it into Spanish. Here’s an idea talk somebody who speaks English right across the street from you. No, no that was unthinkable but somehow magically if we go a 1,000 miles away in capacity and land and we go into Mexico and we speak a foreign language we can all of a sudden a little bit of soul winning now.
Now does that make sense to anybody that’s here? No. We should be witnessing both in Jerusalem and Judea, now here’s the thing about missionaries most of them don't go soul winning. Sad hard fact number one. Most missionaries don't go soul winning. Okay and I remember back when I was in a real missions minded church and missionaries would come through and then Saturday morning soul winning time rolls around they are not there. Then you would ask them, “Hey do you want to go soul winning with me?” “We are busy we are booked and everything” like that and they don't want to do the soul winning here.
I remember a guy came to our church and he said, “I’m going to be a missionary to Utah, to Brigham City Utah.” He said, “I’m going to the most hardcore moment’s city in all of Utah.” He said, “Its 90 something percent moment. It’s the most mermen.” I walked up to him after the service and said, “How many more moments have you won to Christ?” He said zero. “ Are you sure God’s calling you? Are you sure you know what you are doing?” Man he’s going to raise all kinds of money, he’s going to raise all kind of supports so that he can go fulltime and go win those moments to Christ.
So far he’s won zero but he’s going to turn Brigham City upside down. Brigham City I don't know we should check the statistics; it’s probably down to 30% moment because this guy has been there. Okay we need to check and see if it’s still 97%. What I’m saying is bizarre to think that if you are not going to do the soul winning here why are you going to do it over there, why can't you do it here. Listen if you want to win the world to Christ go soul winning right here at home. Look just today in church this morning, we had people this morning that we visiting from Romania.
We had an Africa, Cameron we had a young lady in the church this morning from Cameron okay and Catherine went through the gospel and got her saved. We got somebody saved from Africa this morning. We saved all the boat ticket and the money and the time. Look there are, I can take you to neighborhoods here and we’ve done it where everybody is straight from Africa. I’m not saying that they are black, I’m saying that they are from Africa like they are literally from East Africa and they are wearing the garb of East Africa. Many of them speak Swahili or Somali or all manner of other languages and we go there and go soul winning and lot of them speak English.
We are able to get a lot of them saved, we went there and we handed out bibles in Swahili language and we are talking to people we are giving them the gospel. You want to be a missionary to Africa it’s 10 minutes away I can show you where it is. Its refuges they come to this certain huge apartment complex. You want to be a missionary to China? China Town is about five minutes from here 44th Street right here around the Chinese cultural center. You want to be a missionary to the Native Americans? Let’s go to Guadalupe it’s a mile and half from here. You want to be a missionary to Mexico I could take you to neighborhoods where everybody speaks Spanish, where everybody …
What it is, is that people who don't go soul winning now want us to believe that if we give them a bunch of money and send them really far away man they are going to do all kinds of soul winning and they are going to start churches. Whoa man, because I know starting one church is pretty hard, I always just say to them, “Start one and then we’ll talk. I’m going to go there and I’m going to start churches and I’m going to do” it’s like whoa tiger just start one it’s a little easier said than done.” Then here’s what they, the modern mission’s movement is a joke I’m sorry, it’s a joke, it’s a ridiculous.
Look forget missions, get out there and give somebody the gospel this week. “I just really have a burden for this one nationality.” “Why?” “I’m burdened for all nationalities.” Red and yellow, black and white they are precious in His sight, let’s go on just get everybody saved.” I remember there was a guy who’s a missionary to German and he was a winning a lot of Muslims to the Lord. Because he found this neighborhood kind like we have little Africa and China Town, there was a place where all these people had come from the Middle East and they were all these Muslims and he was winning all these Muslims.
They are like, “You are supposed to be a missionary to Germany what are you doing?” You know what? He just found out that he could get more people saved and more people come to church if he went unto the Muslims. Then go to the Muslims” at least the guy was doing something at least he’s winning souls and getting people saved but today’s missions movement and by the way ask these missionaries what gospel they are preaching to? Its funny missionaries call me and they are like, “We want you to support as this and that.” I say, “Okay well let me ask you a few questions.” “Alright okay.” They are like, “I know what you are going to ask we are King James.” I’m like, “No, no what does a person have to do to be saved?” “Excuse me.”
Let me tell you a story, there was a missionary that came to visit our church and he has given me literature, he’s given me. I said to him I said, “Great you are a missionary awesome. Let me ask you this, what does a person have to do to be saved?” He’s like, “Believe in Christ.” “Okay great.” Well I said, “Let’s do this” I said, “Missionaries they go to a foreign country and they give people the gospel?” He said, “Right, you are going to go there and win people to the Lord right.” I said, “Well I just want to see in action.” I said, “Let’s pretend right now that I’m a lost person and you just confronted and just give me the gospel.”
Isn't that what they are trying to say that they are going to do so I said to this missionary and this guy had been a missionary for like a decade. I said, “Just give me the gospel.” He literally began to tremble, he began shaking okay. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tract he opened the tract, he looked at me like this looked down. “Have you ever smelled a newborn baby?” That’s what he said to me honest to goodness. He said, he looked at me and he want to go, he said, “Have you ever smelled a newborn baby?” I was speechless, I said, “Yeah.” I do have five children because at the time I only have like five.
He’s like, “Have you ever smelled a newborn baby, fresh out of the bath?” He said, “That baby, that clean fresh, new smell of a baby” and I’m paraphrasing at this point I hadn’t memorized the tract. He say, “That baby has stamped up on it an expiration date.” It is a pointed unto men wants to die and he just reads me this tract and that’s him giving the gospel. Here’s what’s funny just imagine waking up to some stranger, “Have you ever smelled a newborn baby?” No, I’m like, “Get away from me.” What I was saying is that just because somebody is a missionary doesn’t mean that they know what they are doing.
I’m not against missions today but I think it’s sad when churches think, “Man we are getting so many hundreds and thousands of people say because, look at all these missionaries?” How do you know that they are really getting that done? I know that what I’m doing is legit. I know that what you are all doing is legit, I have been out soul winning you, I have knocked doors with you I know that what you are is real. I know you are not going around talking to people about some baby’s bottom and reading out at some tract. I know that the people of our church are actually opening the bible and both will be preaching the gospel.
I know that’s what I’m doing, I know that’s what you are doing but today most missionaries they are not doing it. They go out, they play games, they spend years in some language school learning a foreign language that they can never figure out. Look it’s ridiculous it doesn’t make any sense go soul winning here and I’m not against paying somebody to go be a missionary. I’m not against funding somebody and paying somebody to go to a foreign country. You know what, they should be made sure that they are actually doing it here that they preach the gospel here, that they do the soul winning here that they know what they are doing here. That they are actually going out and doing what they are expected to be doing …
Let me ask you this if a church that does no soul winning, just stop and think about this because I know some people might be offended by what I’m saying right now but just stop and think about what I’m saying right now. If a church that does no soul winning but they have 50 missionaries right but they don't do soul winning in their town. They have not even one night of going out and knocking doors. Do you think that the missionaries that they are sending out are soul winners? Just stop and think about that, because if our church sends out a missionary they would be a soul winner right because we are soul winners.
If a church that has no soul winning is supporting 50 missionaries what are the chances that all 50 of those guys are great soul winners when the churches that they being sent out of aren't doing the soul winning. What do you think they are doing over there the same thing they are doing here? A whole lot of nothing. I had a friend who became a missionary and this guy, I considered this guy a pretty good guy and this guy even did go soul winning. He spent years on deputation raising tens of thousands of dollars he went over to the mission field, he spent the first two years just in a language school not doing any of the soul winning, not getting anybody saved just in the language school.
It’s funny I had this mission when I was a young person, when I was a teenager a young adult in my church we had a missionaries come through every few weeks. I would always take the missionary and say to the missionary I would say to them, “I really love foreign languages. I have learned several languages I really like languages.” I said, “Let me teach you how to learn a foreign language.” I said, I will go to Barns and Nobles with you and I will buy you materials on learning a language and I will show you some tips and everything. I remember I took a guy and I took him to Barns and Noble and I bought him CD’s and books and I said, “Look you are driving down the road in this RV on deputation listen to this CD’s.”
“You are going to preach the gospel unto Germans, learn German learn that.” I bought a guy Romanian materials, I bought another guy German, talk to the same guy six months later, “Hey have you learned any German? Have you been using those materials?” “No. I was told that it’s better to learn once you get there because it’s going to confuse you if you try to learn it now.” Well let me explain something to you if a CD from Barns and Noble that’s called Teach Yourself German confuses you, you are probably never going to learn how to speak German. If a book at Barns and Noble that says beginners German confuses you maybe you are not called to go to Germany.
They want to go over there and sit on their rear end in some language school and get nothing done for years and people are putting money in the plate, “The thousands that are begin saved oh man thank about all the rewards in heaven I’m earning by putting all these money in the plate.” It’s going to be a rude awakening for you one day when you forget where all that money went. You know what go out soul winning you will never regret it, never regret, when you open your mouth yourself and give somebody the gospel never regret. A missionary called Br. Dave Bazins it’s funny he’s starting a church he’s working hard they are already asking him for money.
He has missionaries calling him and the missionary call them and he’s like, “Okay you are going to so and so the countries so do you know the language?” “No.” “Are you learning the language?” “No I was told that it’s better to learn it when you get there.” Okay so what are the stupid things do you believe when people tell them to you? Because listen oh thou 24 year old young man, it’s going to be harder to learn when you are 26 than it is when you are 24 and it’s going to be harder to learn when you are 29 than it is when you are 26 and it’s hard to learn when you 10 than it is when you are seven and it is hard to learn when you are 32 than it is when you are 30.
Because the younger you learn the better off you are because it gets harder and harder to learn a foreign language and you are going to sit here and do nothing, you are not going to soul winning, you are not even learning the language but you are going to go over there and turn the world upside down. You are lazy that’s why you are not learning the language you are lazy. You want to be a fulltime student, you want to go over there and go to school for a couple of years full time. I have never been a fulltime student except when I was a kid and when I became a man I put away childish things.
People don't want to work and let me tell you something, the missions movement needs some help, it’s falling apart man. There are very few and thank God the missionaries we support are actually good missionaries that do the soul winning they work hard and I’ve been soul winning with them, I know this guys. You know what? Just putting money in a plate just throwing money at the problem, just throw money at it, lots of rewards in heaven and millionaires and they just put all kinds of money in the plate. Look why don't you do it yourself and why don't you win people to Christ yourself. Is our church missions minded?
Well I don't know, show up on a Sunday at 1:30 and find out. Is our church missions minded? I don't know show up at 5:15 on Wednesday. Show up at one of the regional soul winning clubs that we have. Well we are going out and knocking the doors of thousands of people every week and giving them the gospel does that count? We won somebody to Christ from Africa this morning does that count? I know that out auditorium is not plastered with letters and flags from all over the world of people that we don't even know what they are doing. Of people who are sitting in school all day, my friend that went to become a missionary … He wasn’t a friend he was an acquaintance but he went over there and he’d been there for a years and it’s like, okay he finished language schools it’s like finally do something now.
He’d been in language school for years and then he started an English class to teach the people in his country English. I’m thinking to myself, “Okay wait a minute you just went to school for years to learn their language, now you have to teach them English to communicate with them what in the world.” I guess you both have to know both languages before you communicate. Look the whole time, this guy was there for years okay for years. Won a handful of people to Christ and all them of getting paid fulltime going over thee won a couple handful of people to Christ and then died.
He’s dead, I preached about this guy back in 2006 because I just recently spoken to him in my sermon, Money is not the answer. Several years after I preached that sermon he died. Basically this guy he had a certain opportunity he had a certain chance to serve God he spend it sitting in school, he spend it doing nothing he got very little done and I feel bad for the guy but he’s dead. Look you can't just sit there and expect to just pay these guys and they are going to do it for you, do it yourself. You just can't hand out a tract and you went soul winning. You can't just bull horn and scream at people and think you are getting people saved.
You can't just say, “Well when people come to church we’ll preach the gospel sermon.” You can't just sit there and say, “Well we are putting money into play and it’s going to missions.” We need to follow Christ command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature both as a church and personally. That’s why out church is a soul winning church and I don't care if every independent Baptist church quits soul winning and says it’s outdated and doesn’t work we will never quit soul winning. This church will never quit soul winning never. “Well it’s all done online now.” No.
“Well evangelism is all done through TV and radio and all” “No, no.” We will never stop soul winning at this church and I will never stop soul winning personally. It is the way to get something real done, it will never be outdated to open your bible and give somebody the gospel. Say well I don't appreciate this sermon, it seems like you are down on the other churches. I am down on people who call themselves a church and aren't reaching the lost. Because Phoenix is going to hell tonight that’s why, because Arizona is going to hell tonight because the United States is going to hell tonight and we need some independent fundamental King James Baptist churches to actually get a burden for the loss and to actually take it upon themselves and say, “Here I’m my Lord send me” and get a bible and go out and win the lost to Christ.
People are dying and going to hell why won't we be upset about it? Why wouldn’t we be upset when they tell us, there’s all these alternatives that are going to do nothing? Man let’s get fired up about soul winning and God can use us. God can use, anybody in this room can be used by God not everybody in this room is going to pastor but anybody in this room can be used by God to give somebody the gospel anybody, anybody can do it. We have some shy people at our church that are great soul winners, is that the truth. We’ve got some very shy people and I mean you might look at people and just be like, “Really? They are like a lion of soul winning.”
Shy people, I have seen the shyest people become great soul winners and you know what it’s a testament to the power of God and the fullness of the whole spirit. It’s not done in the flesh, let’s bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for our church Lord and for people that go soul winning Lord. We thank you so much that you have give us this ministry and Lord please just help things to change, it’s been sad Lord just noticing how many churches have quit soul winning, I didn’t realize it was this bad till I started doing the research.
Lord please help every person in Phoenix to get a clear presentation of the gospel before they die Lord that’s all I … Lord I know they are not all going to get all saved Lord but please just help every person in this area to get a clear presentation of the gospel Lord. Help us not to rely on other churches to do it, I praise God for, I think they are probably other 10 churches in this greater Phoenix area that do some soul wining that I know of. Lord help us not to rely on them, Lord help us to do it ourselves and make sure that we get everybody in the Phoenix area a clear presentation of the gospel in Jesus name we pray, amen.
