Sermon
2-1-23 Service: Soulwinning Training (Part 1)
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Welcome to the Liberty Baptist sermon archives.
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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty, Baptist
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Church in Eastern Massachusetts. You can find out more about us
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or contact us at my Liberty, Baptist dot org or just look us
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up on Facebook. And now, we hope that this
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message from God's word will be a blessing to you.
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There's a lot of talk about Soul winning around our church.
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There's a lot of maybe use of that term of that word, Soul,
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winning winning, Souls Outreach at.
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Maybe you hear these things, but you don't necessarily know what
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it means, or you know what it means, but you don't know what
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it means to you or you think, you know what it means, but
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maybe there is much more to outreach and soul-winning than
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maybe what you're familiar with. That's why here in the month of
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February, we are going forward in Soul winning meaning this
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just as in January, it was my desire.
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That by the time we were done with the month, that you would
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be, further ahead in your daily walk, then you were at the
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beginning of the month. I hope that, by the time we're
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done with February that you'll have a greater burden to win
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people to Christ, a greater burden to see people save but
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also to translate that burden into some tangible ways to go
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and share your faith with Their people and know that you have
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the ability to if someone asked you, as it was said in scripture
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what must I do to be saved that, you would be able to answer the
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question, not just from your opinion.
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But actually what the word of God says.
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And I find this to be true with a lot of Believers.
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And I found this to be true at Liberty over the years.
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And with other believers that I've interacted with that.
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There are many that have a desire to tell other people
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about Christ, but the desire doesn't always translate into
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results. And the reason why is because
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Sometimes people don't know where to go as far as in the
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scriptures. They don't know where to go, to
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be able to present the gospel. To somebody listen, You'll find
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lost people anywhere. I mean walk outside the building
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and you'll find lost people everywhere.
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But where you have the opportunity to actually present
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the gospel to someone and talk to them about the Lord that can
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be something that's difficult. And so for us as a church,
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there's several reasons why we want to win souls to Christ.
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The first is this the Great Commission?
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Us to win other people to Christ.
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You can go to Matthew Mark, Luke John and the beginning of X, all
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of them have a different form of what we would call.
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The Great Commission. That Great Commission was not
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given to individual Believers. That commission, I believe was
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given directly to the institution of the Church of
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which we are a part of today and that we are required.
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We are compelled to have our mission statement, be this to go
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and reach the lost with the gospel.
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I love Jesus Christ. Let me put it to you this way,
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if we don't, who will if those who know Jesus Christ as their
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savior won't win people to Christ.
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And who is Will the Lost reach? The Lost will the unsaved.
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Reach the unsaved, know it's incumbent on us as Believers
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particularly as far as the institution of the church.
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Meaning this that are our church is not here to have.
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Been-- suppers and our churches not here to have fundraisers and
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our churches, not here to his have activities and events
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although we can do those things and there's Inherently wrong
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with them. But if our church is just made
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up of those things that we've missed the mark.
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Even when we do those things, we do those things with the purpose
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of this, we want to reach people, the gospel.
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Now, we want to get them involved in church, so they can
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be discipled and they can grow and then they can reach their
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friends and their family with the gospel.
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And so, when we talk about this need for outreach and soul
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winning, its well, one is because we've been commanded to,
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It's the Great Commission. Can I give you a very practical
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reason? How many of Of you don't raise
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your hand, but raise your hand, raise your heart.
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If you will, how many of you want?
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See, Liberty Baptist Church to grow.
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I think everybody would agree with that.
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We reach people with the gospel and for every time that I've
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said, boy, I wish we had a few more people to church the Holy
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Spirit just as quickly says. Why don't you go find somebody
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because they're out there? Now we know that you plant the
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seed and the Harvest doesn't come the next day.
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That's typically not the way that it works.
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But we go and plant seed and we pray that like more willing this
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Sunday we have a lady who Who received a material at her door,
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23 years ago. We're not exactly sure.
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She's not exactly sure. But she says, I've been holding
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onto this. I know I need to go to church, I
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have materials from you. I want to go to church, that's
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happening this Sunday, that's a blessing.
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And by the way, pray for her that she'll be coming this
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Sunday and I forgot her name. Her name is Julie hold off on
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that but no pray for the wrong name but the Lord will know
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Jessica. That's right.
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I was close. That's why the type it on my
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phone or I'll forget Jessica will or willing be here on
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Sunday because that but how does the church grow?
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Well we invite people and we don't invite them just so a
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church grows but we want to see them get saved but then become
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part of this institution so that we can perpetuate ourselves and
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we can grow and we can Prosper. And it's not just about well,
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what was, I mean? What if we had more people, who
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know what, if we had more people do this then oh, you're moving
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forward. No, don't worry about that.
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Just go and tell someone about the gospel and leave it to the
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Lord. I have stories that I can tell
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you, even even today, which I met at the end of the, the
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lesson, the message. Whenever we call it tonight, I
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talk to you a little bit about how God is even using some of
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the process of planting and watering in the increase, even
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today at Liberty Baptist Church. It's a really exciting thing.
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So, if we want the church to grow, guess what?
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You got to be a part of telling other people about Jesus Christ.
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That's just a practical part, but when we get down to the
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nitty-gritty, it's not just about being commanded to.
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It's not just about a church growth program.
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It's really something much deeper than that.
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You got saved because you realized you were a sinner that
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was going to split hell wide open.
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If you died without Jesus Christ, if you died without the
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gospel message, Human compassion and the Holy Spirit who lives
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inside of us should compel us to go when people to Christ because
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listen, I want to win someone to Christ whether they'll ever
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attend our church or not. It's not that I only try to win
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people to Christ or I'm in Easton.
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Well if I'm in another town, they'll never come to our
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church. So forget it.
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Well know if they have a spiritual need, I want to be
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able to win them to Christ and try to help them be involved in
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a local church without help them find a church.
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If it's not ours because it's not just about a church growth
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program, or it's not just about being compelled by God to
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perform this Great Commission. It's there are lives that are on
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the line, how could you not do something?
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And it's This culture that we live in today, where something
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bad happens to somebody and nobody wants to help.
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And everybody just wants to do this.
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Everyone just gazes. Or records and nobody wants to
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help you like me have probably seen videos in Subway's or in
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just other areas. We're someone is getting beaten
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by a crowd or a mob or whatever the situation may be.
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And there's more people just watching And won't help.
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And there's just something inside of me that just Says I
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got to help them, you know, and I've never been in a situation
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like that, that's of that serious of a nature.
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But just a couple days ago, I was driving down the road,
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taking Peyton to school down, West Bridgewater, right?
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Past where the Market Basket is over there.
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And I see right ahead of me as I'm driving towards West
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Bridgewater Center. I just see plastic go
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everywhere, just an explosion of plastic.
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Now, that's the way cars, you know, Collide.
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Now you don't hear much of a sound other than just the
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crunching of plastic and The pieces go everywhere.
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There was a probably 17 18 year old boy, who I would assess from
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what I saw was not paying attention.
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And rear-ended someone who was trying to make a left, turn onto
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a side street. The trunk of the front car was
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completely collapsed. I could see into the backseat of
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his car was completely just sitting, you know what, I was
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thinking at that moment, get the car off the road, I got
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somewhere to go. No, my thought was this and I
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hope they're okay. And you know what I did, when
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the car didn't move, I put the hazards on and I'm not, you
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know, I don't want to strain too hard to Pat myself on the back
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because I have a feeling a lot of people here would have done
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the same thing. If you're in the same situation,
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I got out of the car, and I asked this young man, are you,
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okay? And he was shell-shocked, he you
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could tell he was on the verge of tears, just talking to me.
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As I said, it's okay, it's going to be.
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Okay, don't panic the police come and I check out the people
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that can really help our here. It's time for me to go and get
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paid In school before she gets to tardy.
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And so we are good to go, but you know why?
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It just I want to help that's something very small.
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I'll talk about someone's soul. Let's talk about the fact that
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there's eternity' on the line that people that we know and
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maybe people that we don't know, are going to go someday to
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either Heaven or Hell. There is no between there is no
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limbo, there is no state that lies in the middle for those
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Souls who weren't quite bad enough for hell, but weren't
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quite good enough for heaven. As some of you were taught when
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you were growing up no there is none of that everyone is going
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to die. Unless Jesus Christ comes first,
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the Bible says been appointed unto man.
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Once to die and after this the judgment.
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And so just the fact that there is this difficulty in life,
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compels us to want to tell other people about Jesus Christ.
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But here's what I often find the desire is there. but there's
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This disconnect of not knowing what to do, or maybe not sure
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how you fit into the grand scheme of things.
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Well, I've had people say this pasture.
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I couldn't win souls, I'm not available on Saturday, at 10:00,
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Like will you have missed the mark of what we're trying to
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accomplish because soul don't just get saved on Saturday from
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10 to noon. It's far more than that, it's
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more than a program. It's a lifestyle of looking at
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people as Souls that need a savior.
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And so I want us to go through actually go through some
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paperwork and some lessons here. Some of these are things that we
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have gone over in the past and we have a couple videos.
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I might be able to show you here in the next few weeks as well.
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But what I really want to do On these Wednesday night's is give
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you some tutorials on how to win people to Christ.
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How did walk people through the Romans road?
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If you will, and then also on Sunday morning, to really, just
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encourage the heart. And really speak to the heart
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about why this is something that we all should do why we want to
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move forward in Soul winning. So First, Peter chapter number
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3. This is where we're going to
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kind of jump off from here tonight before I give you your
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handouts. 1st Peter, chapter number three, let me get a drink
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of water. Look at verse number 12.
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For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous.
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Sometimes we think about the eyes of the Lord, holy Lords
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watching, like, it's a bad thing, because the eyes of the
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Lord are over the righteous, it's not just when we do wrong,
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he's with us when we do, right? He's protecting us.
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He's helping us. He strengthening us the eyes of
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the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their
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prayers. But the face of the Lord is
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against them that do evil. And who is he?
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That will harm you. If ye be followers of Of that,
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which is good. You know, the point that's being
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made here if we do, right, who can touch us If we do, right,
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who can stop us, say, well, Pastor didn't you remember on
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Sunday night, you read at the end of Hebrews chapter 11, that
Hebrews 11 chapter mention
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some were burned and some were Saudis under and all those
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things. Well, it sounds like they were
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stopped, you think that stopped him?
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They were absent in the body and present with the Lord?
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The very next moment. There were sure that their
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Earthly time may have been cut short by the way, man reckons
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years. But in God's eyes.
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Listen, they went from speaking. His name to being in his
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presence, what an amazing. Thing that is.
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And so sometimes it without getting too far ahead of where
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we are. Sometimes there's a level of
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fear that comes into sharing our faith with other people.
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Well, what are they going to do? What are they going to say?
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What are they going to think? How are they going to react?
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Listen if God be for us, who can be against us?
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I don't want to oversimplify it because I don't want to pretend,
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like those fears aren't real things because they are real and
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we do deal with it. The devil tries to stifle our
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voice when it comes to talking about the Lord.
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But listen, who is it? He the no harm you.
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If he be followers of that, which is good, but, and if you
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suffer for righteousness, sake, happy are ye and be not afraid
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of their Terror, neither be trouble, just going along with
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what we just said, but look at verse number 15.
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But sanctify, the Lord God in your heart said sanctify
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yourself. That set him apart in your
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heart. I could preach a whole message
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just on this idea of sanctifying the Lord God in your heart,
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because that's such a rich thought, right there
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sanctification is the process of not just cleaning but also being
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set apart for a specific surface.
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A purpose, just like the vessels in the Tabernacle and Temple
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would have been Sanctified. They were set apart for specific
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service. That's why when Delta shatters
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Feast use those things that were Sanctified set apart for Lourdes
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use, and all of a sudden they're drinking out of it and have it,
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a drunken orgy, with these things that were Sanctified, the
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hand of the Lord rights on the wall that have been weighed in
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the balances and found wanting. And so that we're to set apart
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the Lord, God in our hearts sanctify, the Lord God in your
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heart. And here's here's where we need
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to kind of get down to tonight and be ready.
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Always to give an answer to every man that asketh you.
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A reason of the hope that is in you With meekness and fear.
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When I ask you this question tonight, don't answer it out
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loud, but answered in your heart.
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Can you always be ready to give an answer to every man?
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That asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with
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meekness and fear. Even if we could say, yes, I am
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able to in any moment at any time I can give a testimony of
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how Jesus Christ Save Me. Maybe you can't say that
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tonight. I'm not saying it's impossible,
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but I'm saying, is this There's a great deal who cannot but
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maybe want to and there are also the rest of us who I would say.
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This know we could do it better. There are some who maybe could
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not explain exactly how the Lord save them as far as taking
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someone through the gospel and explaining it.
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All sure. They went through the gospel,
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but they're having trouble explaining it to someone else.
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It that's understandable. There are things that we do
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that. Sometimes we can do, but we have
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trouble explaining to someone else, how to do it.
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And so, There are those who need to work on them but the rest of
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us would have to say this. I mean, I could take someone
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down the Romans road. If someone came up to me right
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now and said, what must I do to be saved?
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I would be able to through the scriptures.
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Be able to teach them and show them what the Bible says.
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But here's it could I do it better?
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Absolutely, because most of the time of the people, I've led to
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Christ. It's not been them.
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Walking up to me saying, what must I do to be saved?
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There's a lot of stuff you have to cut through.
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Do we get to the point for them to be interested in?
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In understanding. And so, what I want to go
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through through these Wednesday night, sessions is to be able to
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try to encourage you to exhort you, to be able to Give people
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an opportunity to understand what God has already done in
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your heart. You know, in many ways,
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witnessing and soul winning are two different things.
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We use, those terms, almost interchangeably.
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And I will say, I use them interchangeably to, but in a lot
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of ways, they are separate entities.
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If you are a witness. For instance, if I was to be
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cold to a court, to witness be a witness for what I saw at an
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accident yesterday. Well, all I would be doing,
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would be recounted. Ting.
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What I had seen and witnessing is a very important thing.
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You know, sometimes we can't get out a whole gospel message to
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somebody, but you know what you can do, you can be a witness.
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You can speak of the Lord. You can speak of his goodness.
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You can just talk about maybe What the Lord Has Done in your
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life and you can do it very quickly.
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Sometimes you may only have a few seconds and you can just
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slip that in, you know what that is?
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That's being a witness. I think a witness it being For
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the Lord. I'm not downplaying that at all.
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That's an important thing because there are many times
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that's about all you can get in because the situation I've told
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you before, you're not going into a long missive on the
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Romans road at the checkout line at Walmart.
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First of all, yet to find a check at all.
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Don't want to go back there again.
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All right, now, going back there again, you're not going to be
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able to do that, but you can be a witness to somebody just by
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the way you handle yourself or buy a conversation that Comes up
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or you just say something about the Lord, praise the Lord,
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something like he said well what difference does that make?
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Well it's certainly better than probably what they've heard from
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the two people before you in the checkout line.
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If the lord's name was used, it probably wasn't prays before it
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and so you're just being a witness and so we need to do
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better at just being a general witness of the Lord everywhere
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we go. But to actually win a soul is
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the next step. It is to say, not only do I
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recognize as best as I can tell, from what you have told me, you
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are not saved, but I want to actively convinced you from the
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word of God. To be saved.
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Could you see the difference between those two?
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Not every opportunity, they soul-winning opportunity.
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But I would say this, there are a lot more people here tonight
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that would probably be comfortable witnessing then they
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would be Soul winning. Oh, I'll be a witness for the
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Lord, I'll hand out of track. I'll give praise to the Lord.
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I'll even talk about how, What the Lord Has Done in my life to
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somebody. But if they said to me, you know
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what, I love, what the Lord did to, I love hearing that, and
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I've been thinking about that myself.
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So what should I do? And you'd say, well, let's call
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my pastor. No, I hope you can and I hope I
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can help you. I'm not downplaying.
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That that certainly better than nothing.
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But don't you think? Every single one of us should
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have quarter this verse have, an ability to give an answer for
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the hope that hope that's the gospel that's within us.
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And by the way, not doing it with the wrong Spirit, or the
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wrong attitude, because what's the attitude?
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At the end of the verse with meekness and fear.
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Now, I'm afraid the fear that we have is mostly the fear of like,
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Not giving the gospel, but I don't believe that's what it's
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talking about. I believe it's talking about.
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Well, the only kind of fear that makes this Boulder and that's
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the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, is the beginning of
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knowledge. The fear of the Lord is
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beginning of wisdom. With the end of the
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Ecclesiastes. Tells us a fear God, and keep
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his Commandments. For this is the whole duty of
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man meekness is not weakness. Weakness is not this milquetoast
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type Behavior, meekness is power under control.
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It is saying I have power that can be Unleashed but I am
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actually leasing it for the proper use for God's glory.
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And Moses was a Meek man. And I'll tell you this, he had
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no problem getting words out at least once Brian wants to the
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Lord. Got a hold of him, right?
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Like we were talking about before church, right, because it
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first, he was slowed speech. And God says, I'll send you are
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in after a few chapters. Moses says, it's alright Erin, I
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got this now because you don't ever hear from Erin again,
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unless he's complaining. About something or building a
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golden calf. So what do we do?
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We have to understand for our nature.
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How to be a witness but also how to win a soul to Christ.
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What would happen and what would happen if we preached on a
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Sunday morning and three people walk the aisle to get saved.
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Man, I tell you what, I that's what I pray for and I pray that
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we can continue that way. But who would be able to take a
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Bible and just show someone let me take you through what it
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means to be saved. Say, well, that's what the
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church workers do or that's what the people who go to Bible
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College student, honestly, that's what any of us should be
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able to do. And what I want to Endeavor to
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do over the next few weeks is to talk to you about how to do
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that. And you don't have to be an
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expert at it. You don't have to have all the
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answers. And by the way, this doesn't
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mean this verse doesn't mean you have to have every answer for
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every question. It means that you are willing to
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be able to have the conversation and that you studied it up
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because I found this to be true. A lot of people can tell you A
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lot about movies and television and sports stats.
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But they can't tell you a lick about how someone else should
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get saved. Let doesn't seem right.
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I mean, if you do more Tom, Brady stats and you don't know
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how to lead someone to Christ you flip probably the level of
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importance there. We talked about that on Sunday,
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didn't wait the corruptible Crown versus The Incorruptible
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Crown. So I want us to take some time
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and to over the next few weeks and really have a burden about
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this and to grow that burden into a call.
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All. So I'm going to give you some
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handouts here. I'd we're not going to get
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through all of these tonight. But there is for I didn't staple
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these because some of you may want a hole punch them if you
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want. That's fine, there's four page
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but events put you to work since you've been in been around for a
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while. It just four pages a piece.
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I think you'll see it's too. That's the that's the last one
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right there. All right she's a hand these to
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just bring them back every week. I'll try to have some extras.
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Bring them back with you. I will be able to help you now
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on Sunday and over the next couple weeks on Sunday mornings,
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I want to talk to you about some of the ways that we can
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Implement Soul, winning here, at Liberty, Baptist Church, and
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there's some some tweaks that I want to make to some of the
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programs that we run. Because I think there's some
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things that we do, but there's things that we can do better.
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But one of the things that was vitally important is that we
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need as many people as possible. Just telling people about the
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gospel. And again, if you're already
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thinking, look, pastor this A morning thing it doesn't, it
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doesn't work for me. You're missing.
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What is really at hand here? Because I know Saturday morning
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doesn't work for everybody. I know some of you work.
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I know some of your other commitments that's fine but
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everyone comes in contact with people that need the gospel.
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And so I want to go over some of these materials with you.
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And again we are not by any shape or form going to miss this
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or going to get all of this here tonight.
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And this will be online as well if you want to go back and
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listen to some of this. Again, we should be able to have
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these recorded and have these online for you even if you miss
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one of them in years past, we used to do these on Saturday, to
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kind of get you into the ability to be there on Saturday, but I
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want to try to do something a little bit different and get a
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greater amount of people here and I think this will do it.
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So here's here's the first page and this is maybe all we get to
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tonight. How to have a greater burden for
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the Lost. Maybe you would say this
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tonight, Pastor, I just really don't have a great burden for
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Lost. I don't I know I should I know
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that at some level that I should have more of this desire to win
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people to Christ, or at least to share my faith but I don't feel
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that And there can be a disconnect sometimes with that
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in our lives. And I remember times early on in
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my Christian life that I would just pray because I had a pastor
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who preached on Soul winning. I feel like brother Turner about
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every message about winning. If it wasn't two months that he
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was at Matthew chapter, 28 preaching on the Great
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Commission, something was wrong about every 2 months.
-
I feel like we were back in Matthew chapter 28, going over
Matthew 28 chapter mention
-
the Great Commission over again. And there were times that I
-
would just pray, Lord, give me a burden for the Lost.
-
Just I want to see the lost like You do just give me a burden for
-
the lost and there's nothing inherently wrong with that
-
prayer. But at one point, brother,
-
Turner was preaching and he said something along these lines.
-
He says, you know, God doesn't just give burdens like they just
-
float down from heaven and you know there's a burden from
-
Heaven just kind of floats back and forth like a feather, it's
-
like oh if I could just grab a burden and I've I'll get one
-
eventually and then, you know, I got it.
-
I finally, I got my burden, I'm ready to go.
-
That's typically not the way it works.
-
I would say when it comes to having a burden for the lost,
-
it's a lot like a fire. It's a lot like a fire.
-
A fire can be stoked. A fire can be diminished.
-
Depending on what you put in it. Or you don't put it and I feel
-
like a burden for the Lost does have some prerequisites that
-
come before it, some things that will help you burn hotter for
-
the loss to win them and some things that honestly Kukui off
-
from wanting to win other people to Christ.
-
Now I will say this, this little chart here, this little pyramid
-
that you have here not Egyptian or any of that nature but it is
-
not necessarily given to you in a Biblical order.
-
I would I would say that that's not the case but I would say
-
there's a general principle here that I think will be helpful to
-
you even if it's not necessarily found in this order every single
-
way, but how to have a greater burden for the Lost?
-
What's the very bottom of this pyramid?
-
What's the very bottom of the triangle could put it this way.
-
What's the base? Well, here it is.
-
Salvation. Hey, you want to win?
-
Souls to Christ, get saved. That's a start.
-
Now, I've heard that there are people who unsaved have led
-
people to Christ, and then later on, they realized that they were
-
unsaved and and can God do that. Well, sure.
-
Can who's going to muzzle the Lord?
-
And his, his word is, what saves, isn't it?
-
And so, it's not the person that say that.
-
I love it with little kids who come up to me, sometimes,
-
specialized, youth pastor and they would say, oh, no, brother
-
Rivero, brother, Adam, thanks for saving me and like, oh, you
-
don't want that honey, you really don't want.
-
Brother Adam to save you but I know what they mean.
-
It means that I was the one that led them to Christ and that's a
-
sweet thing. I mean, I just got a call.
-
I got a call from Chuck. Yeah, there's a week or two ago,
-
probably took you to the first time you got to leave Sola
-
Christ at the team rally and he was just over the moon.
-
I said, I said, you know, you get one and I said, you get a
-
taste of one. You said you, you won't want to
-
stop and he was just so excited about that.
-
Sound like he just won, you know, a state championship or
-
something, he won someone to Christ.
-
Not tell you, that's a great. Like, but you know what?
-
You really got to start with salvation and that's the basis.
-
And so I would just say here tonight, even though I know the
-
crowd that I'm talking to just know that, you know, that you're
-
saved if you don't know Jesus Christ, as your savior, I mean,
-
oh, I know him. I've heard of him, I talked
-
about him to know that you have gotten saved the gospel way.
-
Meaning this that, you know, that you're a sinner and that
-
you've called Upon Jesus Christ to save you in Repentance
-
knowing the only, he can save you that it's not your works.
-
It's not church membership. It's not being a good person.
-
None of those things. Listen, that's the basis of it.
-
If you don't know that tonight, can I tell you?
-
You probably got about 20. People would love to lead you to
-
Christ right now. So what we'd love to make you a
-
test case, all right but what really tonight is the night of
-
salvation for you. And so I don't want to dwell on
-
that other than to say that that really is the basis.
-
Like you can't have a burden, a real burden for the lost and
-
you're lost yourself. I think that's just common
-
sense. Next is baptism, is baptism why
-
is baptism important? Well, I preach in this a few
-
weeks ago but baptism is the next logical step of obedience
-
in the Christian Life that you're saved and you're
-
baptized. And so I have found this to be
-
true. That there are some people who
-
have resisted baptism. There's some people who have
-
decided, you know, for whatever reason to not be baptized or for
-
whatever the reason may be. And there are sometimes the
-
things in the life. They just don't click until they
-
are able to take that first step of obedience.
-
And so, Them is very, very important as well.
-
Again, I'm not saying that only people who are baptized can win
-
people to Christ. That's not what I'm saying.
-
I'm saying is this, is that this is part of obedience and well if
-
we don't obey the lord well then we do lose some of our natural
-
fire to do his will. And so I think that's important.
-
Here's what's next. That third level their Bible
-
reading, Bible reading. Study to show thyself what
-
approved unto God a Workman that needs not to be ashamed rightly
-
dividing. The word of Truth.
-
The Bible tells us that we are to be ambassadors for Christ.
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And what, how are we ambassadors.
-
We're bringing the word of God to people.
-
It is very hard to have a burden to give the word of God to
-
others, when you're not regularly reading.
-
It yourself. And I can tell you that the
-
periods that I have gone in my Christian Life, where I'm not
-
reading the word of God, like I should or maybe I could put this
-
way. I'm just going through the
-
motions just so that I can check off the box or someone asks me.
-
If you don't listen to it we're doing this at our house this
-
year. We've never done this before
-
that. We're all in.
-
The same Bible reading plan for the year.
-
I'm enjoying it but I'll tell you, it puts the feet, the fire
-
a little bit because if Diane says, Hey in our reading today,
-
what did you think about XYZ? And I'd say Try to go back in
-
the memory bank. I know I've read that before.
-
What does it say? No, I need to read it that day
-
and so, but the problem with that can be is that maybe I've
-
read it so that if she asked me, I have an answer instead of just
-
reading it, so that I can be blessed and have the Lord speak
-
to me and help me encouraged me and and change me into his
-
image. And so I would say this, if you
-
are not in a regular Bible reading Habit in your life,
-
you're not going to have the bird.
-
That you ought to have to give the word of God to other people
-
because it's like you saying here, this will help you.
-
I just don't use it very much myself, you understand what I'm
-
saying? So so so having Bible reading
-
that Bible time for yourself. And I don't want to belabor this
-
point too long either because we talked about this as well,
-
during going forward in our daily walk.
-
But have that time of Bible reading next prayer.
-
We're in again. These These are are not even
-
necessarily in an order that I would say or scriptural, but I
-
just think each of these are important prayer.
-
Do you know why prayer is so important?
-
Well, I mean we could go all night talk about why prayer is
-
so important. But in the context of what we're
-
talking about here, why is why is prayer important one?
-
Because there are people that we need to give the gospel to that,
-
we need to pray for. You might have a list of people
-
that you are praying for receive Jesus Christ as Savior.
-
Some of them are in our prayer bulletin.
-
Some of them are just maybe personal lists that you You have
-
of people that you are praying that the Lord will save family
-
members. Longtime friends, acquaintances
-
people that you come across at the at the coffee shop or at the
-
store. It seems like you see him a
-
couple of times a week and these are people that you're praying
-
for your just trying to witness here and there, you know, put a
-
little witness in and then see where the Lord allows you to
-
bring a greater conversation in. But what we really need to do is
-
pray for the loss and I have a list of verses.
-
I don't I'm not going to give it to you tonight.
-
But how often the Bible talks about us praying for the lost
-
and that is such an important thing for us to do to pray for
-
the loss. We pray on Sunday mornings.
-
One of the things we pray for God, bring the lost here, to
-
Liberty, Baptist Church so that we can give them the gospel, so
-
that they can get saved. And so we want to pray for the
-
loss, but you know what prayer is also important?
-
Because we need to pray for opportunities.
-
To talk to the Lost. And I will say this, it, I have
-
found and Paul calls it. This adore of utterance, a door
-
of utterance a place where he could just speak freely about
-
the gospel. There are just times that you
-
don't think you're gonna be able to talk to someone about the
-
Lord, but maybe you've been praying that God would give an
-
opportunity to all of a sudden in the strangest place.
-
Someone wants to talk or someone wants to have this conversation
-
with you. Well, what happened?
-
You've been praying that God would give that that door of
-
utterance and I will say this, when I pray for God to help me
-
find Souls, I seem to find a way to find him and when I don't,
-
I'm not looking for him. And so, and this isn't just a
-
mental trick, by the way, there's just, you know, psyche
-
myself it putting too fine. And so let's kind of kind of
-
talk about like a mantra. I just keep saying it over and
-
over again. Lord, Give Me Your Soul.
-
Give me your soul. Give me your soul and I just
-
find somebody. No, we're talking about the Lord
-
enabling you. And the Lord, who is the creator
-
and ruler over all super naturally, allowing you to cross
-
paths. With people, that maybe you
-
wouldn't normally cross paths with, for the opportunity to
-
give them the gospel. I'll tell you.
-
You start praying for the loss, it will increase your burden,
-
it'll increase your fire, pray for visits.
-
Pray for people. You have visited in the past
-
people that you've given tracks to.
-
I don't know their names, that's fine.
-
You just pray for them and pray that God would use those
-
distributions or that God would use.
-
A track that you gave to that waiter or that waitress, or
-
whoever it is, or at the checkout stand, that God would
-
use that and that's what we pray.
-
Here's what's next? Holy living, not a popular
-
conversation today, but what is it?
-
What, what does the Lord say? Be ye holy for.
-
I am Holy. We are to live lives that are
-
wholly, by the way. That word, sanctify, the Lord
-
Jesus in your hearts. How can you sanctify?
-
The Lord Jesus in your heart and refuse.
-
Holy living. I mean, that would be like
-
saying in the Tabernacle. Well, you know, clean the
-
vessels. Don't clean them.
-
Does it really even matter? Well, I don't know.
-
Need a by who brought down Strange Fire from the Lord they
-
died and so I would say it probably did matter that that
-
the house of the Lord was Sanctified.
-
And so here's here's I was going to put this just as plainly as I
-
can. If I'm in my own little world of
-
sin, I don't care if other people get saved or not.
-
If I'm just living in my own little world of saying, I don't
-
care whether people get saved or not.
-
And to be honest with you, I'm losing opportunities to be able
-
to tell people about Christ because of where I'm going, or
-
what I'm doing, or what I'm posting.
-
And so because of that, all of a sudden, those opportunities are
-
they Imagine This? Imagine that someday.
-
I feel like at the Judgment seat of Christ, there's going to be
-
tears before we get to have him because he's wiping all the
-
tears away from us. So somewhere from after between,
-
after we pass. And when we enter the gates of
-
pearl, someone's going to cry. And I have a feeling some of it
-
is going to be, you know, by and by when I look on his face,
-
beautiful face Thorn shadowed face by.
-
And by when I look on his face, I wish I had given him more that
-
song that I love so much that we sing sometimes.
-
But can you imagine being shown? And and this is the thing that
-
if everything's quiet and I meditate on this that really
-
gives me pause and causes me to think Because I was so busy
-
indulging in something that I knew.
-
I had no business, indulging him or partaking in a lifestyle that
-
I knew that I shouldn't have partaken in, especially when I
-
was younger. When I first, when I first got
-
saved that, there would be people, that wouldn't get saved
-
because of my testimony. Because if I went to them with
-
the gospel, they'd say you You. That's a hard thing.
-
Not long after I got saved. I got discouraged.
-
I had a lot of people tell me, I'll go back to the Lutheran
-
Church. Know that the Baptist's, you
-
know, the whole salvation thing they were just they were just, I
-
went through a time of confusion for for many months and I went
-
back to watching whatever kind of movies I wanted to watch and
-
going out and partying. However, I wanted to and all
-
those things I never got into a lot of trouble.
-
The Lord protected me from a lot of it, but I'll tell you this,
-
there was a lot of people that once I got right with the Lord,
-
Had no desire to hear anything from me about the Lord, because
-
it will, who are you? You say?
-
But you do this, you see. Do the you talking about, you're
-
talking about Jesus, but you're doing the same stuff we were
-
doing like, three weeks ago. so, if you want to have a burden for
-
the Lost, I mean, I know we can't live a perfect life.
-
I mean certainly we could if we always listen to the promptings
-
of the Holy Spirit, we do have that ability but let's just be
-
honest that we understand first. John 1:9 makes clear.
-
We're going to need to confess our sins. but at the same time,
-
if holy living isn't a priority, there are people that we are
-
going to miss The people we're going to miss, you know, the
-
drinking buddies need to get saved.
-
And that doesn't mean keep drinking with them.
-
The old gang needs to get saved. That doesn't mean you get to run
-
around with the old gang, the way that you used to the people
-
at the office, need to get saved.
-
But that doesn't mean you talk like everyone else in the office
-
talks. Well, you know, I just got to be
-
like them and that's how I'm going to win them to Christ.
-
No, that's exactly the opposite way to him Christ.
-
And that's what Satan wants to tell you.
-
And even, listen and friend, we're on our social media and
-
some of us have it some of us don't we want to be careful.
-
What we put on there. What we posed I'm Talking about
-
being fake. But I'm saying is this, if we're
-
singing the Praises of the Lord, one day and then we have cursing
-
and all kinds of stuff other days, we got to be careful about
-
that or what we link onto. And so these are things that are
-
so easy to get a part of, but what happens in Heavens that,
-
you know, the everyone's individual responsible to get
-
safe. Everyone's individual
-
irresponsible, but if I'd known that, I could have been a better
-
testimony to somebody, but I was so busy indulging in something.
-
I didn't need to indulge in. I know the term that is used in
-
ezekiel's. You Blood on the hands.
-
Blood on the hands. Meaning that if you had, if you
-
saw the enemy approaching and you didn't sound the trumpet,
-
then you were blood guilty for everyone who died in that City.
-
And imagine for us because we were so busy being involved in
-
our quote unquote stuff. Maybe we can put a Hebrews 12:1,
-
you know, one and two, the weights and the sins.
-
They were so busy in that that we didn't have the opportunity
-
to win people to Christ. That's a that's a heavy thing,
-
that's a heavy thing. And so to live the way that God
-
wants you to live. That's that's an important
-
thing. And that's part of having a
-
burden for the lost and then next, right near the top is
-
church attendance and that's probably the longest one in the
-
shortest box. So I'm sorry about that.
-
Church attendance. Oh Pastor you saying people only
-
people go to church can win people to Christ.
-
What I'm saying? I'm saying this is when you're
-
going to church when you're a part.
-
When you are, when you were part of the mechanism that God has
-
instituted to fulfill the Great Commission.
-
When you are part of it, you are naturally going to have a
-
greater burden than if you were separated from that same
-
institution. God wants us as a church as an
-
organization as an organism to go out.
-
Living breathing organism to go out and Reach people for Christ.
-
When we are outside of that, we just don't have the same
-
wherewithal to go and Reach people for Christ.
-
And so that's why it's so vitally important.
-
I've seen, we had people sitting in this room right now.
-
We've got saved on a Wednesday night.
-
I'm glad we have Wednesday night church.
-
We've had people who got saved on Sunday night or come to
-
church first on a Sunday night. I'm glad we still have Sunday
-
night church, their churches that don't have Sunday nights
-
and some of the don't have Wednesday nights.
-
Don't we feel like so much more as we see?
-
See the day approaching. Why?
-
Because there's a great need out there for us to be able to reach
-
people for Christ. And so I'm going to leave us
-
here tonight where we got really far with me through one page.
-
But but that's okay because I do want to set some ground work,
-
but I want to ask you this tonight and And then I'm going
-
to give you a story, then we'll be done.
-
Are you prepared? For someone to ask you.
-
How do I get? Say the pastor doesn't happen
-
that way. You know, it's funny.
-
You say that? Well, you didn't say that but
-
just for for argument sake, it's funny you say that I've been
-
preparing this knowing that this is the direction we're going
-
Wednesday night for a few weeks and it's I knew this is what I
-
want to do. Even though I knew her supposed
-
to get in a revelation, but I knew in I want to have as many
-
people as possible on Wednesday nights for this and this was the
-
way to go. So the last couple weeks I've
-
really been assured, this wasn't do in preparing this this
-
morning and my wife texted me about 1:00 today and she said
-
this, I'm talking to and she said the name and I'm not going
-
to say the name of the person. Because I pray this person will
-
come and give their testimony, not me telling their story for
-
them. But I do want to say this, we
-
pray for. So, and so, right now, right now
-
and so, well, here in the office and of course, I took some time
-
to pray over the situation. Well, Diane calls me few minutes
-
later. And and she says this, she says,
-
the name of the person she says She just got saved.
-
And I kind of like, one of these.
-
What did you say that? She got saved.
-
So we were literally just talking on the phone.
-
She texted me and said, could we talk?
-
And we were talking small talk for a few minutes and she said
-
something along these lines that I'm going to get as close as I
-
can. To what Diane told me and she
-
said this, I've really been thinking that I need to have
-
Jesus. Be my savior.
-
Really been thinking that I need to have Jesus be my same.
-
Heard the message here, many times.
-
That's awesome. That's why we're here.
-
That's why we're here. And so what did she do?
-
She was able to through the scriptures over the phone.
-
It's, by the way, people can get saved outside of turkey over the
-
phone. It just so happens that that she
-
made a profession of Faith this afternoon.
-
I'm praying that she continues. It moves on and and and what a
-
wonderful thing that will be. But it's got saying what if
-
somebody came up to you and said I really been thinking about
-
This getting saved thing. Really been thinking about it.
-
Would you be able to give an answer to every man?
-
That asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with
-
meekness and fear? That's not a pastor question.
-
That's a Peter inspired by the Holy Ghost question.
-
Are you able to? Not that, you know, all the ins
-
and outs of every doctrinal issue.
-
All the way from Genesis to Revelation because you never
-
going to get there. But that you can just patiently
-
lovingly. Take someone threw some
-
scripture, show them you're lost.
-
There's a penalty for that, which is death and hell, but
-
there's a remedy, Jesus Christ who died on the cross, for your
-
sin and that you can accept that free gift of Salvation by
-
repenting of your sin and calling upon the stadium.
-
Are you able to do that tonight? If someone came up to you and
-
saying, well, well no one's ever come up to me, well, maybe God's
-
not sending them because you're not ready.
-
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 info. At my Liberty Baptist dot org.
-
Or you can visit us this Sunday at eight hundred Washington
-
Street and East and Massachusetts may the Lord bless
-
you as you grow in his word. God's not sending them because
-
you're not ready. 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 info.
-
At my Liberty Baptist dot org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
-
at eight hundred Washington Street and East and
-
Massachusetts may the Lord bless you as you grow in his word.