Sermon
Soulwinning Conference (Night 2) | February 12, 2026
Publisher transcript
Transcript
-
Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
-
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
-
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
-
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
-
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
-
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
-
If you would turn into your next page here this evening, which is
-
verses to help and encourage the soul winner.
-
We'll start here this evening with several verses from God's
-
Word just to be able to give you a little bit of an overview, a
-
little bit of help here tonight. This is not the Romans Rd.
-
We'll be looking at that more tomorrow night, but just some
-
verses in general to be able to help and encourage you.
-
As we talked about this issue of soul winning, remember last
-
night we talked about the stakes, setting the pace.
-
Remember, a firefighter is in a situation where there's property
-
on the line, but perhaps there are no people that are on the
-
line that they would react a certain way.
-
But if there are souls in that building that's burning that
-
need to be brought out, they're going to give their everything
-
because they're going to do what they can to save those lives.
-
And so in the same way, understanding that there is a
-
lake of fire, understanding there's a heaven to be gained in
-
the hell to be shunned, that it ought to be able to put a little
-
pep in our step. It ought to give us some urgency
-
when it comes to this issue of reaching the lost.
-
And so we spent a lot of time looking at that last night
-
because again, we can give you all kinds of tools tonight and
-
tomorrow we can talk about all these things, but if you're not
-
willing to be able to go out and use them, it really is not going
-
to be a lot of help at all. So we want to see why is it so
-
urgent that we do all that we can for the Lord.
-
And so we'll start here with some of these verses.
-
Proverbs 1130 is really where we get that term soul winning.
-
We talked about it last night. I made reference to it very
-
quickly, that the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and
-
he that winneth souls is wise. One of the wisest things that
-
you can do is being able to give the gospel to someone else.
-
He that winneth souls is wise. Again.
-
That's where we get the term sole winner.
-
Matthew 2819. We just looked at this on
-
Sunday. Go ye therefore and teach all
-
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
-
Son and the Holy Ghost. It's a reminder that this is the
-
Great Commission. But a lot of times for churches,
-
it's more of the great suggestion.
-
It's the idea, hey, if you have some time, will you go out and
-
reach some people for Christ? And a lot of times that's why
-
churches are dying. It's because they're just
-
literally not going out and trying to find the people who
-
were out there. The lost are all around us.
-
You can find them wherever you go.
-
It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
-
They're literally right there. And again, not everyone is open
-
to being able to hear about the gospel.
-
Certainly not. But there's probably a whole lot
-
more that are ready to hear than.
-
The chances that we take to be able to go and give the gospel.
-
And so this is the Great Commission.
-
We have been commissioned. God has given the church the
-
opportunity and has given us the great privilege to be able to
-
reach the loss for Christ. This is what we do.
-
Daniel 12 verse three. I like this.
-
And they shall and they that be wise shall shine as the
-
brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to
-
righteousness as the stars forever and ever.
-
And not to try to twist the scriptures here, but I do think
-
it is interesting that but we call a lot of people stars today
-
that are stars for doing, well, absolutely nothing.
-
Or sometimes they're stars for doing something infamous more
-
than anything by starring in a movie where they curse and they
-
drink and they corrals and do these types of things.
-
We call them a star because they can throw a pigskin a really
-
long way or because they could shoot a basketball.
-
All of a sudden they're a *. But what is the star in God's
-
eyes? Well, it's the person who is
-
willing to go and share their faith with someone else and
-
God's economy, if you will. These are the ones who are the
-
true stars. And I think of the people who
-
have really impacted my life over the years.
-
And the ones that have really impacted me are not those people
-
in Hollywood, not those people wearing uniforms or jerseys for
-
teams, but they are really just humble people that I've met in
-
the churches that I've been a part of, not been a part of many
-
over the years. I've had really opportunity to
-
be in three churches, Westgate Baptist Church twice before
-
college and after college, Southwest Baptist Church for
-
four years while I was in college.
-
And then the years that I've been here at Liberty.
-
And I'll tell you, some of the people have impacted me the most
-
have been humble soul winners, people who have taught me about
-
how to go and win other people to Christ.
-
I think of Sam Gore, I've mentioned many times here before
-
back at Westgate Baptist Church and that he had Parkinson's
-
disease. It was difficult for him to walk
-
and he would go from door to door as many as he could to be
-
able to tell people about Jesus Christ.
-
And when he stopped being able to do that, you could count on
-
Sam Gore praying when the church was out on visitation because he
-
wanted to hear names. He wanted to know about
-
different people that were going out because he wanted to go to
-
the Lord in prayer on behalf of those who were going out.
-
I'll tell you what, that's a real star more than Drake May.
-
That's a real star more than Jayson Tatum.
-
But why? Because these are people that
-
are doing things for eternity. And by the way, Sam Gore was
-
never a pastor. Sam Gore was never on a pastoral
-
staff. He's not one of those people
-
that have been held up on a pedestal.
-
But at the same time, he affected me as a 17 year old and
-
18 year old who just gotten saved not that long ago.
-
And if he can go and share the gospel, well then why can't I go
-
and share the gospel? And so these are the stars, if
-
you will, in God's economy. Romans 116 is ironic for me
-
because it was given to me upon my confirmation, the Lutheran
-
Church as my life first. So my Lutheran pastor, Doctor
-
James R Gilzo gave me Romans chapter one verse 16 and I
-
didn't really understand it until after got saved and I it's
-
amazing to me for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
-
For is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that
-
believeth to the Jew 1st and also to the Greece.
-
What should we not be? We should not be ashamed of the
-
gospel that which saved us. We should not then turn around
-
and be ashamed to be able to share it with other people.
-
Second Timothy 17 has really become for me that the true soul
-
winners verse. It's the one that I really hold
-
on to that I'll remind myself of on visitation quite a bit.
-
I have it written down in various places.
-
For God had not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and
-
of love and of sound mind. And I'll tell you, if you're
-
trying to win people to Christ, what more could you ask for than
-
power and love and a sound mind? What do we need?
-
We need the power of God when we're trying to witness to
-
somebody because it's really not about ourselves.
-
And that's something that we really need to remind ourselves
-
in this whole thing. Well, Pastor, I can't do it
-
again. The power we talked about on
-
Sunday, the omnipotent power of Jesus Christ, His Spirit will
-
help us because he has commissioned us to go.
-
So he will empower us to do that which he's commissioned us to
-
do. Of love.
-
There are some people we talked about last night.
-
They're unlovable in a lot of ways, but yet Jesus Christ loved
-
them enough to die for them. Across and so we need to love
-
them as well even some of those who might be considered unsavory
-
even some of those who are trying to go out of their way to
-
maybe even offend us knowing that we're Christians we need to
-
have. Love.
-
For them, the love of Jesus Christ and then a sound mind.
-
You know, when I was a teenager, I've mentioned this.
-
Before I loved. Debates.
-
I was in a debate team and we went to nationals and we did
-
really well. Me and Pastor David Corley, at
-
least he's now he's a pastor. You know, my best friend, I
-
loved it. Now I realize I don't love them
-
nearly as much as I did back then.
-
And one of the reasons why is that when I'm talking to
-
somebody about Jesus Christ, it's not a debate.
-
It's not, hey, let me talk about you.
-
I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to score points here.
-
It's really not about that. We're talking about a life
-
that's on the line, a soul that's on the line.
-
This isn't about just winning some trophy at some competition.
-
This is about someone whose soul hangs in the balance.
-
You know what I need A sound mind.
-
Because while they're talking, my mind.
-
'S going Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing.
-
Thinking about what I'm going to say, the next thing thing
-
they're about to say, and I could be missing what they're
-
saying and what they're trying to communicate to me because I'm
-
so busy trying to think of the next thing I'm going to tell
-
them that I'm totally missing out on that which I'm supposed
-
to be doing in the 1st place. What do you need?
-
A sound mind Second Timothy 17 I'll tell you if you are one who
-
marks in your Bible, just circle that whole verse, underline it,
-
highlight it, whatever you need to do the Lord without giving us
-
the spirit of fear. But of power and love and a
-
sound mind. And the last thing I'll say
-
about this, because I said I wasn't preaching tonight, but
-
the last thing I'll say about this is this.
-
If the Lord is not the one who gives, is the spirit of fear who
-
is? See, pretty simple, doesn't it?
-
It's Satan. Satan doesn't want us to open
-
her mouth. Satan doesn't want us to hand
-
out that track. Satan doesn't want us to win
-
people to Christ. And so if the Lord has not given
-
us the spirit of fear, it's pretty simple to figure out
-
who's the one who gave it to us. Why?
-
Because he wants you to be quiet when it comes to the gospel.
-
First Corinthians 916, Paul Speaking of his calling here.
-
But I think there's application for all of us.
-
For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of.
-
For necessity is laid, Yay. Woe is unto me if I preach not
-
the gospel. Paul says, I have a calling upon
-
me, and don't thank me for what I'm doing.
-
I'm just doing that which I'm called to do.
-
Now do we have the calling of Paul?
-
No. Are we apostles?
-
No. Are we missionaries in the way
-
that Paul was? No, we are not.
-
But yet God has laid the calling upon us to be able to reach
-
people for Christ, and woe unto us if we preach not the gospel.
-
In that sense, we can take that. For ourselves as well.
-
Psalm 126, verse six. He that goeth forth and weepeth,
-
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with
-
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
-
What I love about that verse is it talks about the burden that
-
we're to have to be able to have tears for the lost, to truly be
-
sorrowful for the sake of the lost.
-
But it also gives us the idea of a harvest.
-
Of course, Jesus said to lift your eyes because the fields are
-
white and a harvest. But what do you recognize and
-
realize about a harvest? It takes a long time between
-
planting and reaping. It takes a while.
-
I'm not saying that someone couldn't get saved the very
-
first time you presented the gospel to them.
-
I'm not saying that's not the case.
-
But I think all of us would say whether it was ourselves or our.
-
Experiences sharing the gospel with others.
-
It takes a while, it takes a time, but at the end, when the
-
time of reaping has come. There's great rejoicing.
-
And so you. Stick with it, you stay at it
-
and little bits of the time you were able to share the gospel
-
with those who are lost. Jeremiah 20 verse 9 but his word
-
was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I
-
was weary with forbearing and I could not stay.
-
Jeremiah said in the verses before I wanted to quit.
-
I wanted to be done. Lord, just be done with me.
-
I am done with the Israel. I am done with what they're
-
doing. And then the Lord in his rebuke.
-
Got to the. The place with Jeremiah says,
-
you know what, actually, I got to preach the Word.
-
I got to tell the people what they need.
-
In fact, I feel like my heart's going to pound out of my chest
-
if I don't do that, which I need to do.
-
And I could tell you, I recognize that there are times
-
in the study that it's a Thursday.
-
A lot of times I start my messages for Sunday on a
-
Thursday. And there are times that it's
-
just like, man, if I could just go right now, man, I'd be glad
-
to do it because I just want, I know what.
-
The Lord is. Working on me and with those
-
verses, and I know that the Lord can be impactful to you about it
-
as well, but certainly even more so when it comes to the issue of
-
salvation. So these are some verses.
-
Maybe you can write these down in the flyleaf of your Bible.
-
Maybe this is something that you can mark in your Bible.
-
And again, I'm a big marker of Bibles.
-
In fact, I have a a wide margin Bible so that I can write on
-
either side, one column on one page, one column on the other.
-
I love to be able to write notes and different things like that
-
so I can remember later the things the Lord has taught me.
-
But these are. Verses you could just go in and
-
mark every single one of them down as a reminder to you of how
-
important it is to win souls to Christ and how the Lord will
-
help us as we win souls to Christ as well.
-
All right, let's get to the nuts and bolts on the next page
-
because it says I'm on visitation.
-
What do I do now? Let me explain a few things to
-
you before we get here. And we're going to cover both of
-
these both tonight and tomorrow. There's really two different
-
ways that we commonly win people to Christ.
-
One would be corporately that would be on our church wide
-
visitation. We've done this several ways
-
over the years. There was a great while where we
-
had visitation on a weekly basis.
-
But I also recognize that people have different schedules and
-
work obligations and things like that.
-
And they got to the point for a long time that it was really
-
myself, the family and maybe one other person, I think a brother,
-
Vince, a lot of times that he and I would go on visits for a
-
couple years, just me and him by ourselves.
-
And so I recognize over time that maybe, perhaps it would be
-
better for us to go monthly, have a Big Breakfast.
-
Well, have a breakfast, have a continental breakfast.
-
Those Jimmy Dean sausage sandwiches are pretty good,
-
aren't the Dave. So the best microwave sandwiches
-
you can find, we got them around here.
-
Amen. But and then go out once a
-
month. Now, we've had some difficulty
-
with our scheduling the last couple months because the
-
holidays and the weather and different things like that.
-
But it's our desire to be able to go out at least once a month
-
and do this corporately, to give ourselves an excuse to be able
-
to go and tell people about the Lord.
-
We also have different special days during the year.
-
We'll have an open house or a friends and family Sunday.
-
I think of Easter that's coming up here, Resurrection Sunday in
-
a few weeks. These are all special
-
opportunities for us. We have special tracks for
-
Resurrection Sunday week to be able to hand out to people, to
-
let people know that we have a Tuesday service.
-
We have. Well, we don't tell them about
-
the Tuesday service. It's the Lord's Supper.
-
We have a Friday service. Now, I'm not of the belief that
-
Jesus died on a Friday, but at the same time, there's a lot of
-
people that think of Good Friday like the Catholic Church.
-
And so you know what? We have a Friday service.
-
I wouldn't argue with anybody over it, but we have a Friday
-
service because we found that some people from that tradition
-
will come over here and we get to talk to them about the
-
Gospel. And so that's been a wonderful
-
thing. We're doing that again here this
-
year, but we have these opportunities where we can
-
corporately go out. And so we want to learn how do
-
we do that. So for instance, we're going to
-
be going out on Saturday. I hope that you'll come on
-
Saturday. And if you don't come this
-
Saturday that you come the next time that we have opportunity.
-
But you come in, we have breakfast.
-
Everybody knows what to do about breakfast.
-
Amen. But when do you do after
-
breakfast? There's there's cards and cards
-
laying in a table out here. There's three different sections
-
that there are to be able to choose.
-
From there's one with just a bunch of cards from people have
-
visited over the last couple years.
-
There's one section usually with door hangers and maps where you
-
can go out and you can reach people just door to door.
-
And there's another section where people can just write
-
letters. Maybe they can't go out or not
-
able to go out for whatever reason.
-
They stay behind and write letters with tracks inside of
-
them to people who've come in the past and just remind them
-
the Liberty Baptist Church is here.
-
We called all in outreach for reason.
-
Everybody's got something to do. Everybody has an ability.
-
So even if you physically cannot go out for whatever reason, you
-
can still come here. If you're able, you can sit
-
down, you can have some fellowship.
-
It you can have a cup of coffee, you can write some letters.
-
And it's amazing to me that we'll get out maybe 1520 or so
-
cards, notes out every time we do it.
-
And you say, pastor, what is the fruit of all the things that
-
we're doing? And the answer is, I don't
-
always know. I don't always know, because you
-
would think if we go out on a Saturday, just a whole host of
-
people just breaking down the door to come in on Sunday,
-
That's the way it is, right? Well, if they're breaking down
-
the door, it's probably because the frost heave at the door more
-
than anything. But.
-
But no, honestly, there are times we'll make visits and
-
people will say, oh, yeah, I'm going to be there on Sunday,
-
Pastor, and nobody shows up. In fact, I love one of the
-
things I love about New England because in the South, everybody
-
tells you they're going to come on Sunday.
-
Oh, bless their heart. I'm going to be there on Sunday.
-
And then none of them show up. A lot of times up here, they
-
don't want to come. They'll just tell you, look, I
-
don't want to come. And it's like, well, OK, I can
-
appreciate your honesty and candor if nothing else.
-
But still, even then we get people that will say they'll
-
come and they don't come. So we'll get some of that.
-
But I've always found that the Lord blesses our efforts.
-
That's really what it comes down to, because we can't force
-
people to come to church. We can't force people to come to
-
Jesus Christ. But we can't control what we do.
-
Just like the fishermen can't control how many fish jump on
-
the line, the fishermen can't control how many times he goes
-
out and fishes in the 1st place. And what are we supposed to be
-
fishers of men, The Bible tells us?
-
And so we have to have the same mentality.
-
So you're going to have sometimes where we together as a
-
church are going to come together and have a visitation
-
program where we have all these different things.
-
So the question on this side is what do we do in this case?
-
But then on the other side, we have the issue of visitation.
-
And really soul winning is not something that happens once a
-
week or once a month for a couple hours a day.
-
The real issue of salt winning is that it is not something
-
that's put on the calendar. It's just something you do with
-
your life. And so we have to ask ourselves
-
this question, how do we win people to Christ when we have
-
brief interactions with them? How do we win people to Christ
-
when we see someone on a regular basis at a coffee shop, at the
-
library, at a doctor's office? And again, I understand you're
-
not going to win someone to Christ at a checkout line or
-
they're going to beep, beep, beep.
-
I mean, it's just not going to happen.
-
Why? Because they got a beep, beep,
-
beep. Keep getting that stuff across
-
the belt, right? You're not going to have the
-
time. But can you move them a little
-
bit closer to the understanding of who Jesus Christ is by the
-
way, that you handle yourself, maybe by handing them a track,
-
Those types of things. These are the things that we
-
want to talk about over the next few days.
-
Those times when we have made purposeful effort as a church to
-
be able to come together. What do we do?
-
How do we do it on this organized visitation program, if
-
you will? But then on the other side, and
-
we'll handle this more tomorrow night as well.
-
So what do we do on a day-to-day basis with those people?
-
Do we come in contact with, even if it's family or friends, it
-
doesn't have to be strangers. It's those people that we've
-
really been wanting to talk to about the Lord, but we just
-
don't know how to do it. So we'll be talking about both
-
of these things. But first we're going to talk
-
about visitation. What, what will we do on a
-
Saturday? Because a lot of people want to
-
be a part. They're just afraid to be a
-
part. And he said, well, are you
-
saying I'm afraid? Well, for a lot of us, yes.
-
That's really what it comes down to.
-
Let's just call it what it is. And interestingly enough, I've
-
been doing this for a very long time.
-
And I will tell you that there's still on a Saturday morning when
-
I'm getting ready to get in the car and I got that first card.
-
I'm thinking, I don't know how they're going to respond.
-
And I'm the pastor. And sometimes that means they
-
could respond really well, or sometimes that could be they
-
respond really not well because they don't want the pastor
-
showing up at their house. And so even for me, there's this
-
trepidation of what exactly is going to happen.
-
So I understand, don't think that I am above, I've reached a
-
spiritual plateau when it comes to talking about Jesus or
-
visiting people that all of a sudden that I'm just super
-
comfortable with it. And you probably are not.
-
Can I put it to you this way? We're all in the same boat
-
because again, Satan doesn't want you to be comfortable with
-
it. Satan doesn't want you to be
-
able to do this. That's where we have to be able
-
to push past that initial fear that we have and say the Lord
-
has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love
-
and of sound mind. So what are some principles that
-
we use on visitation? Let me help you with this.
-
We go 2 by two. First of all, we don't send
-
anyone out by themselves on visitation.
-
That's not something that we do really.
-
If anyone ever goes out by themselves on visitation, it's
-
me. And the reason why is because
-
sometimes there's not enough pairs to be able to do so.
-
And I do feel like a pastor can go up to someones house by
-
himself and people are willing to answer.
-
But even then I have to be careful because if it's a woman
-
that I'm going to visit, I have to stand on the doorstep.
-
I don't go inside. I have to really kind of think
-
about those kind of things. But for the best, really going 2
-
by 2 is the way to do it. And you see there it says, first
-
of all, it's not required, but it is a biblical principle.
-
Do you think there's a reason that Jesus sent the disciples
-
out two by two? I think there's several reasons.
-
Maybe. What would a reason that you
-
would think that Jesus And you just speak up.
-
The microphones will pick you up.
-
Don't worry, everybody's watching hundreds of people.
-
OK, I shouldn't have said that, all right, But what is the
-
reason you think Jesus would have sent out the disciples 2 by
-
two? Moral support?
-
That's a big one. That's a big one because if
-
somebody is not happy you're there, at least you got your
-
buddy with you, you know what I'm saying?
-
That's a big, that's a big deal right there.
-
It's an important thing for us to be able to go out to do that.
-
Now, would you say, John, that's a big one.
-
That's a big one as well. We'll talk about the silent
-
partner in a minute. And the silent partner is the
-
one that really is not taking the lead route, but is in prayer
-
the whole time, praying for the situation, praying for wisdom
-
for the soul winner, praying that distractions are kept at
-
Bay. That's a huge one as well.
-
Were you going to say Dan? The work of the church is a
-
group effort, right? It's.
-
A group effort. Even in those situations, if you
-
don't have two by two at times, you report back at the church,
-
the church, correct? Absolutely.
-
Yeah. And we can end up being a little
-
bit of a lone wolf, have lone wolf syndrome.
-
And so it's good to be able to go out together, to rejoice
-
together. Also, if someone gets saved,
-
guess what? You can't take all the credit,
-
by the way. We can't take any of the credit.
-
The credit goes to the Lord. But having someone else there is
-
just a reminder. Hey, it wasn't just me.
-
That's a very good point as well.
-
All these things are good. What would you say, Lisa?
-
Safety, Safety Boy, I tell you, nowadays that's true.
-
Even then you consider how people would have been to be
-
able to have someone else with you is an important thing.
-
And so that's what we do to be able to go and we always have
-
two by two. Again, I'm not saying that that
-
it has to be this way. There's no biblical command, but
-
we do see the principal and I do think it's a wise principle for
-
us to follow. We just have right here.
-
First of all, I could set the person at home at ease when they
-
see two people there. Usually it would be a little,
-
believe it or not, better than one person there.
-
There have been times we've sent three people to a door because
-
we've had odd numbers. And you get to the point where
-
the group starts getting that big and it looks like, you know,
-
a barbershop quartets coming to your house to sing.
-
And it's it's not really something that you're going for.
-
And so you do have to be careful that the group is not too big.
-
But at the same time, it could set them at ease.
-
Who was on the inside, Fend off possible distractions I have
-
dealt with before having a dog come.
-
And this dog is just rambunctious, honestly, the
-
silent partner, that person, excuse me, we'll talk more about
-
that in a minute. Could play with the dog you say,
-
well, that's that's kind of dumb No, it's not because if that dog
-
is barking the whole time you're not getting anything across and
-
so that dog can that person can talk to the dog that person can
-
talk to the child maybe there's a child that's kind of there.
-
And I think of a visit we had just recently from the back to
-
school bash with a family that's here right now and I could sense
-
as we were talking that my wife was really making the connection
-
with the family. I'm not saying that I wasn't,
-
but I could just tell that she was kind of zeroing in on some
-
of the needs and they were talking about special needs and
-
those kind of things. And then the kid comes out and
-
he is, he's excited. Like he's excited, we're there,
-
he's excited, the pastor's there, the pastor's wife there,
-
and he's full of energy. And so the next thing I know,
-
I'm on the ground playing toys with him.
-
Here's the pastor and I'm playing.
-
You know why? Because somebody needs to talk
-
to him about the Lord. And if one of us didn't take the
-
step back, then what was going to happen?
-
Nobody was going to be talking about the Lord at all.
-
And so there's a recognition that that is part of it as well.
-
And then again, can be in prayer, the silent partner and
-
you probably had training in this before, John and and that
-
your experiences before is that typically we'll look at this in
-
a second. There is someone who takes the
-
lead because if not, it's two people talking over one person.
-
That can be intimidating. I've also found that if I'm
-
talking more primarily, but then someone else starts talking as
-
well, I could be going One Direction and that other person
-
go the other direction and all of a sudden maybe the groundwork
-
that we're laying gets overturned because of the other
-
person's random thought that comes in.
-
And so it's always good to be able to have a lead even as you
-
go 2 by two. Now ask yourself this, what kind
-
of visit are you making on visitation?
-
We have all kinds of different visits that need to be made.
-
All of them can be about Jesus Christ.
-
All of them should be about Jesus Christ.
-
But there are different kind of cards that you will find on the
-
table. If you are making a visitation
-
visit. You have to ask yourself this
-
question, is this someone who you know has a testimony of
-
salvation? Because on this table could be
-
someone that is saved, but maybe it's been out of church for a
-
while. We do have benevolence visits,
-
the type of visits where someone is sick, someone has been laid
-
up and they just need someone to come by and just encourage them.
-
We have those kind of visits. But sometimes, especially those
-
visits we have from the Back to School Bash.
-
We have 40 some families that came to the Back to School Bash
-
in August. We've already visited them all
-
one time, but, or at least we've attempted to visit them all one
-
time, but the idea is we have no assurance that these people are
-
saved. So what are we gonna do?
-
We're gonna go to them and talk to them about the church.
-
But that really is a way because for us to talk about the Lord.
-
Because I wanna remind you, the visitation is not about Liberty
-
Baptist Church recruitment. It is not about, hey, let's get
-
a bigger church and let's just get some people to come over
-
here. If we're going to do that, we
-
might as well just join Amway because that's probably the best
-
thing that we can do. This is an Amway.
-
You know what this is? If we're building anything,
-
we're building the Kingdom and if the Lord sees fit to build
-
Liberty Baptist Church at the same time, we thank the Lord for
-
that. But it's all about their soul.
-
But we do talk to them about the church and we don't apologize
-
for that because we want them to be able to come and hear the
-
gospel on a regular basis and we want them to be able to come
-
here to do that. So you ask yourself, is this
-
someone that I know has a testimony of salvation and take
-
the card. Talk the card over with your
-
soul winning partner. Don't just consider the card
-
when you pull in the driveway. One of things that I love about
-
Marsha, for instance, is not able to be here tonight as an
-
appointment, but one of the things I love about her is that
-
she'll get her cards and she'll ask me.
-
Pastor, tell me about this one. Pastor, tell me about this one.
-
She wants to know before she gets there a little bit more
-
about that person. Because you imagine just walking
-
up and I try to put notes on the cards about who you're going to
-
visit. But Can you imagine?
-
Just go in there and you have no clue who they are.
-
You've never seen them before. You don't know if they came to
-
the church last month or 10 years ago.
-
Hey, I'm from Liberty Baptist Church.
-
Now if someones been here 10 years ago, we still go visit
-
those people. Sometimes I'll put cold call on
-
there. And the reason why is because,
-
well, it's, it's going to be cold possibly.
-
But we've had people from cold calls who have said, you know
-
what, you came at just the right time.
-
I've been going through some difficulty right now and, and
-
the Lord, you know, I've been thinking about going back to
-
church. So we got a name, we got an
-
address. Until they tell us, don't come
-
back. Guess what?
-
We're going to keep coming because we want to at least be
-
able as the spirit allows for us to visit those people.
-
Don't if you got a visitation card, don't just pull up in the
-
driveway and say, all right, now who's, what's their name?
-
What are, what are we visit them for?
-
It's a little bit late because you're going to see as soon as
-
you pull up in their driveway in front of their house, they're
-
already looking at you. They're wondering who you are.
-
They're wondering why you're there.
-
This is a conversation you have way before and at times when I
-
have neglected that, I'll pull over maybe a block away before
-
and I'll have the conversation with my wife is usually who I
-
visit with. But I visit with pretty much
-
everyone here at some point or another and I have a
-
conversation about that visit before that time takes place.
-
Are you going door knocking? This is different procedure
-
altogether. If you're just going door to
-
door, a lot of times we do door hangers instead of actually
-
knocking on doors. But I would love for us to get
-
to the place where some people, not everybody can do this, but
-
where we actually go and knock on some doors.
-
I think that's a blessing to be able to do.
-
I know it's hard in 2026, there's so many people just
-
won't open their door. Even 20 years ago, you'd have
-
someone knock on your door almost every day.
-
You'd have a salesman, you'd have a kid selling magazines.
-
You have a kid, you know, girl selling Thin Mints, you know,
-
those kind of things that would be happening all the time
-
nowadays, unless it's Jehovah Witness or a Mormon, nobody's at
-
your door. And so a lot of people are very
-
hesitant to open the door. And so that's been a little bit
-
of a difficulty for us even in Easton from us door knocking the
-
first few years that we were here.
-
But if you're just going and laying a door hanger, a lot of
-
times we like doing that because if nothing else, you see people
-
in the outside in the warmer months, you're able to interact
-
with them and talk with them. And we'll talk about more about
-
how you would interact in those areas a little bit differently.
-
And then the soul winners appearance, say, pastor, you're
-
going to talk about how I'm dressing.
-
Well, yes. And the only reason I'm going to
-
talk about it is this is because when you are going up to
-
someone's door, they're looking at you, they're staring at you,
-
they're wondering who you are. You say, pastor, are you saying
-
I have to wear a three piece suit to be able to go visit
-
somebody? Oh, I sure don't wear a three
-
piece suit. I go visit somebody because they
-
won't answer the door. If I do, they'll probably think
-
I'm the funeral director trying to check them out for who knows
-
what what. So no, we don't do that.
-
But I say this dress to represent the Lord in your
-
church. When you go out, you just make
-
sure that you're wearing something that you know is
-
clean. You're making sure you're
-
wearing something that's pressed at least or something that's not
-
too wrinkly. Because when we're going out, we
-
are literally ambassadors of Christ.
-
And I'm not trying to tell you how you were supposed to look,
-
but I'm just saying that when you think about what you were
-
doing, just consider that as you're going to represent the
-
Lord. That's all I'm saying with that.
-
But do dress to be comfortable. If you're going out from doing
-
door hangers and those kind of things, make sure you're wearing
-
the right kind of shoes to be able to go out.
-
I've seen more slip and falls over the years.
-
That's why even I'm hesitant to send people out on Saturday
-
because we've had people that have said, oh, it's OK, the ice
-
is melting or whatnot. And we had people slip and fall
-
and it's been a bad thing. And so we do want to be careful,
-
but dress to be comfortable. And I put this for the men
-
specifically, wear colorful clothing if at all possible.
-
You know what, you ought not to wear a short sleeved dress white
-
shirt. Now, why would I say that?
-
Because every single person, what was that?
-
Sweat stains. That's it.
-
Oh, that's true. Like, is it hot here?
-
Is it just me, but Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, I mean,
-
that's that, that's the look right there.
-
You know, Elder Rivero, come by on my bicycle to come see you.
-
And so I, I, I don't wear a tie on visitation.
-
The reason I don't is I just try to be more casual.
-
Wear a polo shirt. A lot of times I wear a polo
-
shirt with the church's name on it that I have because it just
-
identifies me. But at the same time, you don't
-
have that. That's OK, but you don't want to
-
look like a Mormon. You you just don't want to.
-
We don't want to be the the Jehovah Witnesses do wear some
-
more colorful clothing at times, but the Mormons are usually
-
white shirt dress, you know, slacks, khakis, those kind of
-
things. And so we avoid that all
-
together. All right, just a little bit of
-
overview. Why don't you go ahead and go to
-
the next page? Anybody any questions about that
-
before we move on? We have any questions just
-
talking about the very basics of other than AJ.
-
All right, so we're not talking about witnessing to your cats.
-
All right, What do you do when you go visit somebody at the
-
door? You know, this has changed so
-
much over the years. This has changed so much.
-
And I'll be honest with you, I've had some very interesting
-
stories about this. I'm going to go ahead and tell
-
the story because Dan Dave wants me to go ahead and tell the
-
story. I could see it on his face.
-
Dave has a very interesting way of visiting people, including
-
visiting vets, because he could talk to them in a way he doesn't
-
talk to other people. We went to see a gentleman who's
-
been here several times before, went to go visit him about a
-
year or so ago. And I remember knocking on the
-
door. We drove probably about 30
-
minutes to get there and we knocked on the door and he
-
didn't answer. And I said, well, you know, I
-
guess he's not here or whatever. He says, Pastor, stop that, hold
-
on a second. And so he pulls out the phone
-
and he calls this guy and he calls him by name.
-
He says, hey, hey, are you home? And he says, he says, I'm, I'm
-
home. He goes open the door.
-
The preacher's here. And the guy comes out and just
-
starts talking to me. I'm thinking if I do that,
-
somebody smacked me right across the jaw.
-
This guy does it because he's in the military.
-
And all of a sudden people are like, oh, yes, Sir, OK,
-
whatever. You know, look, we all can't do
-
that, you know what I'm saying? We got to have some kind of
-
ability at the door. What do we do?
-
Well, we make a good impression before the door opens.
-
Before the door opens, recognize that people were probably
-
watching you come up the sidewalk.
-
I'll tell you this, and I live in an apartment building, but if
-
I had someone coming up my driveway, you can be sure as
-
soon as I saw them, I'm going to be staring a hole right through
-
them from behind a curtain or something because I want to know
-
who they are and what they're doing.
-
And so just recognize that as soon as you walk on somebody's
-
property that there's probably somebody watching you the minute
-
you're on their property. Be constantly aware of that.
-
And this is really the big game changer right here.
-
Understand the reality of doorbell cameras today.
-
That's the game changer. Going up and doing door hangers.
-
It's not unusual for me to go up to see a camera.
-
I'll put a door hanger there and I'll look at the camera and I'll
-
wave, I'll give a thumbs up, something like that to let them
-
know I'm non threatening. But there have been times I have
-
been walking up to put a door hanger up and I'll hear who is
-
this? They've already patched in
-
through their phones and are talking to me through the
-
doorbell before it. It is weird, let me tell you,
-
but I would say probably about one out of every 5 or 6 houses
-
in Easton will have a Ring doorbell or some kind of
-
equivalent. And so you have to be aware of
-
that, that even if somebody's not watching you go up, there's
-
probably video evidence of you walking up to their door that
-
they're going to look at. And so you want to make sure
-
that you are handling yourself well.
-
Another thing, don't walk across the lawn.
-
Never walk across somebody's lawn.
-
Make sure you're using their sidewalk.
-
Make sure you're using their driveway.
-
You really don't want to do something to be offensive.
-
You say, well, that grass doesn't look like they've cut it
-
for about 3 months. Well, listen, they probably
-
don't care about it until you walk across it.
-
And now all of a sudden they care about it again.
-
We're trying to find reasons to not be offensive.
-
Why? Because the gospel is already
-
going to offend people. And if somebody's offended, I
-
want them to be offended because we gave them the truth and the
-
right spirit, not because I walked across their lawn and
-
they're already mad because I got there.
-
That's not what I want. If look, if they're upset at the
-
gospel, that's on them. But if they're upset because I
-
did not respect their property at the beginning, then that's
-
something. I'll say this as well.
-
If you get to a house and there's a thing that says no
-
soliciting there, we typically don't knock on those doors.
-
If you have a visit and it says no soliciting, go back to your
-
car, give them a call first, shoot them a text.
-
The reason why is if you say, you say, well, we're not
-
soliciting anything and we're not soliciting.
-
The the Supreme Court has been clear over the years that we are
-
not soliciting in the traditional sense of trying to
-
sell Amway or Girl Scout cookies.
-
I'm not the Avon lady. OK, so this is not who we are.
-
But at the same time, if it says no soliciting and someone knocks
-
on the door, you think you're going to be happier there?
-
Nope, probably not. The best thing you could do is
-
leave a track there and then move on or leave a track, go out
-
to the car. I was making a visit.
-
You know, we're from Liberty Baptist Church.
-
We saw you visit a couple weeks ago.
-
We just wanted to talk to you. So there's no soliciting sign.
-
Is it OK if we come see you? That's what I would do in those
-
kind of situations. A smile at the door again.
-
They'll probably be looking at you through the peephole or
-
camera. Don't just stand there doing
-
this, Frank. I hope they don't answer the
-
door. I hope they don't answer the
-
door. I hope they don't answer the
-
door. And don't tell me you don't do
-
that, because I've done that, too.
-
All right? You're not going to.
-
I hope they don't answer the door.
-
I hope they don't answer the door.
-
Like that's going to wear on your face.
-
OK. Be pleasant there.
-
When you're at the door, keep the conversation between you and
-
your partner to a minimum. I'll be honest with you, I've
-
been with brother Vince for a very long time.
-
We have a good rapport with one another.
-
We talk with one another, and it's very easy at the door for
-
us. Just continue the conversation
-
that we had in the car all the way up the driveway, all the way
-
up the door. We knocked the door.
-
We're still talking about. Yeah.
-
You know, the veal parmesan over at AJ's Grill is really good,
-
you know, and he's like, yeah, no, I don't think so.
-
I think that's trash. You know, And I'd say, and we're
-
talking, then they open the door like, oh, hey, Liberty Baptist
-
Church, we're here. Just kind of keep that to a
-
minimum and understand that you're focused on what you're
-
trying to do in that moment and decide before the door opens,
-
who's talking. You need to know before you get
-
to the door who is the one that is going to be the primary
-
speaker. Of course, you both want to
-
speak in the sense that you don't want the other person to
-
think that you can't speak or not able to speak.
-
But the one that's going to be the primary, I've always done
-
it, either you take turns one between the other, or if you're
-
with somebody who's new or somebody's not done it before,
-
then you just tell them, well, you'll be the silent partner
-
today. Why don't you pray and you'll
-
observe and let the other person do that.
-
That's really what you can do. Either of those.
-
Any questions about any of those, Any comments, maybe a
-
situation that you've had before, Anthony?
-
Another thing is when you knock on the door, keep looking at the
-
door. Don't turn around, look at the
-
yard. Don't.
-
Because then they open the door and he's not, you're not facing
-
them anymore. It's like, oh, you didn't even
-
care. Yeah.
-
Yeah. We're looking at the door, wait
-
for them to come out. One of the things I love doing
-
is looking at that peephole because I love when the peephole
-
goes dark. I know they're looking at me and
-
then it goes light again and they don't answer.
-
It's like, I know you're home, man.
-
OK, so, and I'll add this as well, I understand there's some
-
people who are uncomfortable. I'm just showing up to somebody
-
house. What if they're mad?
-
What if they get angry? I just show up.
-
Should I, should I call first? Shouldn't I text them first?
-
Here's what I do, and this is what I encourage you to do.
-
This mindset is helpful. These are people that have
-
already come to Liberty Baptist Church.
-
We're not just going through a phone book, not that we can find
-
one, but we're not just going through a phone book and say,
-
hey, who can we go visit today and just randomly visit people.
-
The people that we give you visits for here are people that
-
come to Liberty Baptist Church before they've given us their
-
name. They give their address, they
-
give us their phone number. If they didn't give it to us, we
-
wouldn't be able to go see them. So they've already said in
-
essence, you know, we don't mind you coming at some point.
-
But in your mind, I've said people, people told me, but a
-
pastor, they might be offended. They won't it.
-
Here's the thing, just go to the door, knock.
-
If they don't answer, then you don't be offended about it.
-
Don't worry about it. We'll go back another time.
-
It's not a big deal. Maybe you caught them.
-
They just woke up, they had a long night shift.
-
They know they're home, but they're not going to answer
-
because they just got up. I get that we, I, I barged into
-
your territory. I get that.
-
I'm not going to be offended by it.
-
Maybe it's a bad day. Maybe they're not feeling well.
-
Maybe they just don't feel like answering the door.
-
They don't know who I am. That's OK.
-
Don't be, don't you be offended by that.
-
That's the way I handle is like, look, if you answer or you don't
-
answer, I'm not offended. I'm just, I'm just happened to
-
be in the area want to come see you and we leave it at that.
-
And so that's a way that I have. But yeah, keeping your face
-
forward is, is definitely a good thing because you don't want to
-
be turning around. Go.
-
Well, look at that. Yeah, look at those.
-
Look at those. Look at those petunias over
-
there. They turn around.
-
They're standing there one foot away from you, just staring at
-
you. So be aware of your surroundings
-
because safety is a key nowadays.
-
It's a it's a big deal. I guess it always has been, but
-
even more so now. You need to be aware of your
-
surroundings. What to do when the door opens
-
again? Immediately identify yourself
-
and where you are from. You don't want them to guess who
-
you are, you know, Are you selling solar panels?
-
You know who Who are you? Oh wait, I know that guy, but so
-
are you are you selling solar panels?
-
Are you are you with the the Boy Scouts of America?
-
Are you from doing a fundraiser? Your kid is over at the local
-
elementary school. Hey from Liberty Baptist Church.
-
My name is Adam. This is my wife Diane.
-
You know we're from Liberty and we want to come by and see you
-
today. Honestly, if soon as if this is
-
something that you have met through a visit here, they've
-
been here before, there's immediately going to be a
-
connection. I'm not saying it's always going
-
to go well, it usually does at least, you know, for the most
-
part, but you got to identify yourself or who you are.
-
And that's why I loved having church polo shirts.
-
We really should probably do that again.
-
Dave and I were working on that and then I kind of dropped the
-
ball on that. But it's nice to be able to go
-
to somebody's house and have that right on your chest to be
-
able to identify you're from Liberty Baptist Church and not
-
from Verizon or not from Bill Pay Company or Bill Collection
-
company. You're not the repo man or
-
anything like that. Let them know immediately why
-
you're there. We're in the area inviting
-
people to church. That's true.
-
Maybe if you're just doing door hangers, you're going from door
-
to door. Somebody's out in the garden,
-
they're working. Don't if we're doing door
-
hangers and those kind of things and you're trying to, if
-
someones in their garden, don't just walk past them and go to
-
the door and then walk away. Okay, That is the opposite of
-
you want to do. In fact, we're praying for those
-
people to be out. That's why I love doing that
-
outdoors once it's warmer, because people are outside the
-
gardens. People are outside doing
-
different things. Don't say why.
-
I really don't want to interrupt you, you know, so I'm not going
-
to, I'm just going to leave something on the door and walk
-
away. They're going to think you're a
-
creep. All right, Don't do that.
-
Say hey, hey, I'm I'm sorry to interrupt you.
-
Being a garden's beautiful. You're doing a great job here.
-
But you know, I'm, I'm from Liberty Baptist Church and we're
-
just inviting folks to church in the area today.
-
I'll just wonder if you have a church that you go to, you'll be
-
able to strike up a conversation just from that.
-
These are things that you could do.
-
I we're in the area inviting people to church.
-
You could say, hey, we, you came to visit our back to school bash
-
and we just want to come visit and see how your family's doing.
-
Want to see if there's anything we could pray for you all about.
-
That's a wonderful thing to be. You know, a lot of people can be
-
offended about a lot of things, but when you tell someone you're
-
going to pray for them, all of a sudden the defenses go down and,
-
and, and I want to be careful how I say this.
-
This is not a trick like let's let's ask them.
-
About praying for them so we could.
-
Well, if you say that, you really need to pray for them.
-
Right then and there on the doorstep.
-
But a great way to be able to talk to people about spiritual
-
things. Hey, we, we, we noticed you came
-
to the back to school back bashed in August.
-
You know, it's been a few months since the beginning of the year.
-
Our church is stopping by. We want to see if there's
-
something we can pray for you about today.
-
And of course they might say, well, you know, I have, I have
-
someone who's very sick, my grandmother's and not in good
-
shape. Well, what's her name?
-
If do you mind if we could pray for her right now?
-
We would like to do that. And you can do that.
-
And then as the defenses have gone down and you show that
-
you've cared about them, you could say there's one other
-
thing I mentioned because really the greatest thing that anyone
-
could really have is the gift of salvation.
-
You can start by that or just ask them, you know, while we're
-
here, you know, I would love to be able to talk to you about
-
Jesus And if you were certain you're going to heaven someday,
-
these are the ways that you can actually open up a conversation.
-
A lot of times people don't want to make the ask because they
-
feel like they can say, hi, I'm from Liberty Baptist Church.
-
Are you going to heaven someday? You start talking to people like
-
that, they're thinking, are you going to send me there?
-
Why are you, Why are you asking me this question?
-
You know something I don't know. And so these are things you
-
could say, hey, you visited church last Sunday.
-
We really try to make sure that everyone who visits who gives us
-
a card. And a lot of times we don't get
-
a card back from people. But if someone gives us a card,
-
the next time we have visitation, we want to go see
-
them and just tell them, hey, we're glad you visited.
-
Do you have any questions? And of course, the real issue we
-
want to get to is do they know Jesus Christ their Savior?
-
Because again, we're not just the welcome wagon going by and
-
saying, hey, isn't liberty great?
-
And you like liberty? We like liberty.
-
OK, well, see you at Liberty sometime.
-
Well, we've completely missed the boat of what we're trying to
-
do again. Do we want them to come back?
-
Absolutely. We want to come back.
-
But they could come here for 20 years.
-
They don't accept the gospel. They're no better off.
-
And so the real issue is that they need to understand the
-
Gospel. Invite them back to church.
-
This is a great question to ask people.
-
Do you go to church anywhere? Do you go to church anywhere?
-
It's a great question to ask because you will find that
-
people will immediately answer in a variety of different ways.
-
They'll tell you why I'm a Catholic.
-
I'm a Catholic. That doesn't answer the
-
question. They'll say I'm a Jew.
-
Now, remember how I answered that a few weeks ago?
-
Somebody says they're a Jew. You say, oh, you're 1 of God's
-
chosen people. Our church loves the Jewish
-
people. And all of a sudden, once their
-
heart, you know, starts beating again because they're so
-
surprised that you would say something like that, you might
-
be able to have a conversation with them.
-
But a lot of times people will say, oh, yeah, I go to church
-
Ohio. Which?
-
Which church do you go to? It's that one over.
-
It's over. I'm 44.
-
No, it should be maybe a one O 6.
-
It's amazing to me. People will tell you they go to
-
church and they couldn't even tell you what the name of the
-
church is. But I've met people like that so
-
many times. You go to Liberty, like what's
-
the name of the pastor? I don't remember.
-
I've been going for six months. I don't remember his name.
-
You know, Revivio, I don't know something like that, but you
-
say, hey, do you go to church anyway?
-
That's a very non threatening question, honestly, to ask you
-
go to church anywhere. You know, they know you go to
-
church, you go to church anywhere and you know they'll
-
answer that a host different ways and you can respond
-
accordingly. Hey, we're not trying to take
-
you from your church. I say that to people sometimes
-
and we're really not trying to steal people from churches.
-
If they're going to a good Bible preaching church, I'm not.
-
I don't want them to come here just because of that.
-
Really. I want people to know Jesus
-
Christ their savior. Now, if someone is going to
-
some, you know, Pagan church or something like that, I guess you
-
could say I do want them to steal them from the church
-
because we want them to get saved.
-
Amen. But so, so be honest about it.
-
But, but you could say we're not trying to steal you from your
-
church or take you from your church.
-
We love to have you visit our church this Sunday.
-
If possible, strike up a conversation while you're
-
talking to them. What I try to do is I'm walking
-
up the I'm not very observant about a lot of things.
-
There have been several guys here who have shaved a beard off
-
and I didn't notice like until two months later or changed a
-
haircut and I didn't realize it till a couple months later.
-
That's just the way I am. But I would tell you, I zero in
-
when I'm making a visit. I want to know the cars that are
-
there. I want to know what they're
-
driving. I want to know what's on the the
-
porch that they have, if I'm able to go in the house and make
-
a visit. I'm kind of looking around now.
-
I'm not trying to be a Snoop. I'm not Colombo or anything like
-
that. But the idea is I do find things
-
to make conversation and listen. Sometimes you'll swing and
-
sometimes you'll miss. It's OK.
-
I remember going into a visit several months ago.
-
It was actually the same visit I was talking to you about a
-
little bit earlier with the child and I saw one of the cars
-
had a veteran plate on it. And so I thought, here's a great
-
point of conversation right here.
-
And so the gentleman was in there and I said to him and part
-
of conversation I said, I saw you're a veteran.
-
I just want to thank you for your service.
-
And he goes, I'm not a veteran. And I said, well, I saw the
-
veteran and, and, and, and the woman there, she says, well, I'm
-
a veteran. And I was like, Oh, well, I
-
guess I just assumed the man was a veteran.
-
So thank you for your service. I was like, wow, I felt about
-
this big. I really did.
-
But I would tell you, and I say this to say, Pastor, this is not
-
a good illustration to tell us about why we should be more
-
personal people. When you work with people, you
-
can either just clam up because you might make a mistake, or you
-
can just do your best and people will appreciate you.
-
Do your best. There are times I get people's
-
names wrong because I'm trying to remember their name.
-
So I could just say, hey man, hey buddy, hey brother, buddy.
-
But you know, you can do that. That's the cover for everything
-
is hey buddy, how you doing? Or you can swing and you can
-
miss and you can make a joke about it.
-
You can laugh about it and then hopefully the next time you do
-
get. Now, if you just keep swinging 3
-
or 4 times in a row and missing like you got to, you got to get
-
a better system. But I think a lot of people are
-
afraid to make the mistake in being conversational with people
-
so they don't make conversation. But you're better off just
-
trying your best. You know what's funny about that
-
family? That we still I've laughed about
-
that with them several times since.
-
And honestly, talk about observance.
-
As I left, I looked at the license plate again and it had a
-
pink frame around it, and so I probably should have noticed
-
that pink frame probably doesn't belong to him and it probably
-
belongs to her being a veteran. But I swung and I missed.
-
But you know what? I still showed that I cared and
-
I tried. And that's what you need to do
-
as well. Don't let your fear of not being
-
able to make a connection or doing something wrong stop you
-
from trying to make that connection Now.
-
If possible, transition to talking about salvation.
-
You'll be able to tell how the conversation is going fairly
-
quickly. I've been at people's doors
-
before and the door is closing as I'm talking to them, and
-
unless I put my foot in the door, that door is going to
-
close on me. I can tell pretty certainly that
-
I'm not going to be able to make a gospel presentation there.
-
In fact, I would be better not to in the sense that maybe if I
-
can give them a track or something to hold on to, but if
-
I try not to handle myself like a fool there, that the next
-
person who does talk to about Jesus will have an opportunity
-
as long as I don't make it harder for that next one to come
-
by. Again, I'm not talking about
-
being not being emphatic. I think it's important that
-
we're passionate about what we're in, but we also need to
-
understand that, you know, some plant, some water, but God gives
-
the increase. There's many people along that
-
journey, Lord willing, who'll be able to impact them for the
-
Lord. And so you want to make sure
-
that you do do your best with that.
-
Very quickly. We'll go to the next page.
-
We'll we'll stop in the middle of this here.
-
And then we're going to get to really the nuts and bolts of the
-
verses and talking to people by the handout.
-
I want to give you tomorrow. It's not in here.
-
I mentioned it before because it's the perfect size to be able
-
to cut and put in front of the flyleaf of your Bible to be able
-
to answer questions. And I want to give that to you
-
tomorrow. But we'll get through some of
-
this. I'm going to give you a story,
-
then I'm going to be done here for tonight.
-
And then we'll take some questions if we have any, a
-
transition from your previous conversation, once we get to the
-
place, want to talk to people about the Lord.
-
Now you're not talking about veterans and now you're not
-
talking about the teams, and now you're not talking about those
-
different things. Now you want to really get to
-
the place we're talking about the Lord.
-
Because what if you're there for 30 minutes and you're just
-
talking about all these other random things and you never talk
-
about Jesus? We kind of missed the boat.
-
So you want to make sure you transition that conversation.
-
You can't ask. Do you mind if I ask you a
-
personal question? But it's not necessary.
-
You don't have to be able to do that, but I know some people
-
that do. And you can say something like
-
this. Even more important than church
-
is having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
-
I find that that's a good way for me to transition because I'm
-
talking about the church. I'm talking about the church
-
like, hey, we would love to have you at Liberty Baptist Church,
-
But you know, there's something more important than coming to
-
church, and that's having a relationship with Jesus Christ.
-
He said, well, that doesn't sound very natural.
-
It doesn't sound natural if you've ever said it before.
-
But if you get to the place where you are able to have a
-
conversation with somebody, you will find that it will become
-
more natural than it has before You could even say this.
-
I used to have some of the same doubts, but I've asked Christ to
-
be my Savior. My life has changed.
-
You can relate to them. Really, the best way that you
-
can relate to somebody is to tell them your testimony is to
-
be able to talk to them about what the Lord did to you.
-
I think of being outside really the first time I met you guys, I
-
think with Bill, with your dad, and we were outside talking and
-
you could tell the Lord was really working in his heart.
-
But at the same time, he just really wasn't want to make that
-
next step. And so, you know, you can only
-
ask somebody, you know, do you want to get saved?
-
You want to get saved so many times.
-
And they say no. But I really just felt like in
-
my spirit that there this conversation shouldn't be done
-
yet. And So what I did was instead of
-
just asking him the same question over and over again
-
from different angles, I just said, you know what, I kind of,
-
I was in a situation very similar to you.
-
I mean, I was only 16 years old, but, and what I did is I just
-
started, I just gave them a testimony.
-
And I've found that being a Lutheran, I can talk to a lot of
-
people, have a high church background, a Protestant
-
background, even a Catholic background and talk about the
-
sacraments and those kind of things.
-
And then able to do that. And it's amazing how many people
-
don't want to have the personal question about them, but they
-
will let you talk about you. And so that's a great place to
-
start about how the Lord has worked in your heart and in your
-
life. And there are two very important
-
questions to really understand where somebody is spiritually.
-
I think this is where we'll lay off here in just a moment.
-
And the first is this. If you were to die today, are
-
you 100% sure that you would go to heaven?
-
There's a lot of people that will say no to that question.
-
They'll say, I hope so. I think so.
-
I want to listen. Those are not the same as yes,
-
hope. So salvation is not what the
-
Bible says when it talks about having the hope of eternal life.
-
That's a firm confidence in eternal life.
-
That's not what this is talking about.
-
I, I, I hope so. I, I might, I, I, I don't know
-
that I can. I've done too many things.
-
These are things that I've had people say to me in the past,
-
but there are a decent amount of people who say absolutely,
-
absolutely. And now if you're not careful,
-
you'll automatically think, well, they're saved.
-
But there's more to it than that because you have to understand
-
if they actually understand the gospel message or not.
-
What if they've been in the Catholic Church all their life
-
and they firmly now, I don't know how they could in the
-
Catholic Church because they never have assurance.
-
That's why they keep working. But I have heard people say of
-
that fate, Well, yeah, well, I'm, I'm sure I'm going to
-
heaven. But they're relying on their
-
works. So the next question that I ask
-
is, well, you know, I imagine that you got to the gates of
-
heaven. I said, you know, it doesn't
-
work this way. It's not this way in the Bible,
-
but but just for us to be able to talk about this today,
-
imagine you got to the gates of heaven and there was someone
-
standing there and says, why should I let you into heaven?
-
What would you say? And that answer to the second
-
question is the most revealing of all because that's when
-
they'll say, well, I've been a good person.
-
Well, I've I've tried to help people.
-
I was in a church for 40 years, I was a founding member, and
-
that's when you could all of a sudden get to the point of, OK,
-
now I understand where they're coming from and I can better
-
understand how I can give them the gospel in their situation.
-
And we'll talk more about that tomorrow.
-
I will readily admit this is not an easy process and you may not
-
always have all the answers, but I'll tell you the one thing that
-
will overarchingly help everything is to love people.
-
Because if you love people, you will find that there will be
-
more opportunities that you can imagine.
-
And if you love people as Christ loved people, that you will be
-
able to, even if you don't have an answer for them right away,
-
that they'll be open enough for you to follow up with them and
-
talk to them again in the future.
-
Because people will ask you some very weird questions and you may
-
not have the answer. You say, again, Pastor, this is
-
not a good thing to tell us about wanting to share our
-
faith. What I'm telling you is this is
-
reality and don't let the fact that you don't have all the
-
answers stop you from giving the gospel.
-
I, I appreciate so much. I appreciate Charlie Kirk and,
-
and the videos and the things that he stood for.
-
Very much so his mind worked in a, a way that it's hard for me
-
to even fathom. People would ask him very
-
difficult questions and he could answer with grace and authority.
-
In a second. I don't get it.
-
I don't understand how we did it, but I think a lot of times
-
we think that the only way we can be a real soul winner is
-
that we have to be the exact same way.
-
I have to answer every question, every moment the right way.
-
And if I don't, no one will ever get saved.
-
Now what you really need to do is just let the spirit lead love
-
on people. And if you don't have the
-
answer, say I don't have the answer to that, but we can talk
-
again. I know where the answer is for
-
the Anthony. I have some fellowship today and
-
he asked me a question. I'm almost embarrassed about
-
this. I've been a pastor for 12,
-
almost 13 years. I've been in the full time
-
ministry over 20 years. He asked me a question,
-
obviously came from some some soul winning that he's doing
-
with some working with somebody and he want to get my opinion on
-
it. He asked me this question and I
-
just sat there for about 15 seconds and I kind of felt dumb,
-
to be honest with you, Anthony, because they're like, why don't
-
I have an answer to this? Because it was a little bit kind
-
of out there. I don't know that anyone had
-
ever framed that thought in that way to me before.
-
And I kind of worked through it. After a few minutes, I just kept
-
talking until I finally was like, Oh no, that's it.
-
I think that's it. That's what I would do.
-
It took me a few minutes. But if I study the Bible for a
-
living, not just getting sermons, but then also for
-
study, for personal and just my own edification.
-
And I could admit to you tonight that there are times that I
-
don't just have the right answer right away.
-
It's true for all of us. Don't let that stop you from
-
being a witness. That's Satan trying to tell you
-
now. One, we can sharpen our tools.
-
We can learn more. There's some of the stuff we
-
talked about today. It's like I got to dig into that
-
after I dig into some of the other stuff that I have on my
-
list of things I need to dig into.
-
But at the same time, you can look at somebody in the eye and
-
say, I don't know the answer to that today, but I know where the
-
answer is. And if we can meet another time,
-
we can meet next week. If I can call you during the
-
week, I'd be glad to tell you what the Bible says.
-
But I'm not going to try to pretend to give you an answer
-
that I don't know. I'd much rather be honest and
-
tell you I don't know. Because The thing is, when it
-
comes to soul winning, this is again not, we'll go full circle
-
here. This is not a debate to win.
-
Well, I answered the question fastest and most articulate.
-
So I win. Though this is an issue of truth
-
against error. Truth always went, and so we
-
need to make sure that we are being truthful in what we say
-
and how we say it. And if you don't have the answer
-
right away, don't be embarrassed, don't be ashamed.
-
You're not a failure. You should never go share the
-
gospel again. You just go back to the word,
-
find out where you missed it, find out what the answer is.
-
Go to another soul winner. By the way, it's another reason
-
to have two by two, because the other person might have the
-
answer when you don't, but you can go and get the help that
-
they need. Thank you for listening to the
-
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
-
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
-
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
-
[email protected]. Or you can visit us this Sunday
-
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
-
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.