Evangelism Unfinished: The Call to Action

Good. Praise the Lord. I'm glad he touched me. Aren't you glad

he touched you? Alright, if you would open your Bibles to John

John 17 · chapter mention

chapter 17 tonight. John chapter 17. So Sunday night pastor

John 17 · chapter mention

preached on reaching souls and soul winning. He doesn't do that

very often. I mean he does, he always talks about the gospel, always

preaches the gospel. But as far as a message directly on soul

winning, he doesn't do that too awful often. And but we have

friend day coming up and so he majored on it, he emphasized it and

wanted us to get out there and try to get folks in. And the object

of course is to see people saved. Amen. That's the object. And

it is friend day coming up. Sunday is friend day. And so I thought

I would pick up the mantle and I just want to give us one more shot

in the arm and try to encourage us to go out and bring

people in. Now here's the thing. I thought about this. You

know, we have our kickoff Sundays, our saturation Saturdays

and our soul winning kickoffs and stuff. And it's very well attended,

it's always very well attended and praise the Lord for that. And

we see a lot of things happen, a lot of people go out, a lot of

flyers get put out, door hangers, whatever it is that we have,

a lot get put out and that's great. But as you know, and it's

typical, I'm not blaming, I'm not trying to throw guilt on anybody

or anything like that. It just, it wanes, you know, it wanes

after a while, there's excitement the first little while,

while and then it begins to wane and participation falls off.

And so I just want to give you a shot in the arm. I want to try

to get you to come back out. Let's do some more. And even if you

can't make it on a Tuesday night or even on a Saturday, because

I know that people have life, life happens. But I want to encourage

you to grab some tracts and just make yourself available, right?

And tell people about Jesus Christ or just hand them a tractor.

So that's what I'm going to do tonight. I'm going to warn you ahead

of time, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to talk about trying

to reach people for Jesus and I want to encourage you to do a little

more. Okay? So if you would, in John 17:4, the word of God says,

John 17:4

Jesus said in the garden. He said, I have glorified thee on the

earth. He's praying, he says, I Have finished the work which thou

gavest me to do. Now if you would turn over to chapter 19. And

I want to read verse 30. Okay, I'm going to read verse four of 17

one more time, and then I'll jump over here to 1930. Jesus said,

I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which

thou gavest me to do. And then in John, chapter 19, verse 30. Are

John 19:30

you there? He said, when? The Bible says, when Jesus therefore

had received the vinegar, and of course, he's on the cross now,

he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and he gave up

the ghost. Now Jesus said in chapter 17, verse 4, I have finished

the work which thou gavest me to do. But then we stop and we realize

there's a couple things that hadn't happened yet. He hadn't been

betrayed yet. Judas hadn't brought the soldiers, he hadn't brought

the officers, and he hadn't kissed Jesus on the cheek yet. Jesus

hadn't been betrayed. He hadn't gone before Pilate. He hadn't

been beaten yet by the, you know, put on the Roman whipping post.

He hadn't had that cat, o9 tails cross his back yet. He hadn't

been beaten. He hadn't carried the cross up to Golgotha yet. And

yet Jesus said, I've finished the work. But then, fortunately,

in chapter 19, verse 30, when he's on the cross, he says something

else. He says it is finished. And that put a period on it. That

was the end. Aren't you glad that at this point. Aren't you glad?

Let me ask you something. Aren't you glad that Jesus didn't

leave off what was necessary in chapter 19, verse 30? Where would

we be if he hadn't finished this second part? If you hadn't finished

this second part? First Corinthians 15:17 says, if Christ

1 Corinthians 15:17

be not risen, then you are yet in your sins. Your faith is in vain.

Preaching is in vain. And so it's a good thing that he finished

the work. And the truth of the matter is there's a lot of doctrine

here that I don't really want to give you a complete lesson on

this particular subject, but pastor has covered this before. Lord

Jesus Christ. Those all three mean something. That's not his first,

middle, and last name, right? Those mean something. And so Jesus

in the garden at that point had finished the work that God gave

him to do. But as Christ, he had not finished the work. So there

had to be some things finished before he could actually say on the

cross now as Christ. So again, I'm not going to get into all of

that. Please take it up. It's a great study. It really is. So what

I want to talk to you about is this subject. Unfinished Business.

Unfinished business. I'm glad that Jesus finished everything that

he came to do. Let me give you just a couple of things. First of

all that he finished. And then we'll talk about a couple of things

that are unfinished. First of all, some things that were finished.

When Jesus said, it is finished. Salvation was finished.

Salvation was finished. You think about this and you can even

sing it with me. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Angels

rejoicing because it is done. Amen. Because it is done, it's finished.

Angels are rejoicing because it's finished. Jesus finished the

work of salvation for us. It is done. Aren't you glad that he

didn't leave just a little piece for you to do? It's done. It's

finished. Salvation is finished. Redemption is finished.

I've been bought back. I mean, it's done. How many of you have been

to the pawn shop? How many. Let me put it another way. Some of

you may have been to purchase. How many of you have ever taken something

to the pawn shop? All right, there's one, I'm sure. Come on now,

y' all be honest, alright? I can't tell you how many good guitars

I lost in pawn shops. And you know, they always, you know, there's

something they always say, Brother Johnson, and since you've

gone to the pawn shop, how many times you gone? More than once?

Several times. I can't even remember how many times I've gone

to the pawn shop. But they'll ask you something. When you hand

it to them, you say, here you go. What do you give me for this?

And then they'll ask you a question. You remember what it was?

Pawn or sell it? Do you want to pawn it or do you want to sell

it? That's right. If you want to sell it, you take the money. It's

theirs. But if you just want to pawn it, they'll tell you how

much they'll give you. And then they give you a. A ticket. We

call sometimes it's called a pawn ticket. But what else is it

called? The proper term is what? A redemption ticket. It's called

a redemption ticket. And what they're saying is, here's your redemption

ticket. So when you're ready to come back and get this guitar,

you come on back, pay the price that you owe plus the interest

and present that redemption ticket and it's yours again. Again.

Well, that's what happened when. Hey, look, I've been redeemed.

When Jesus died on the cross, when he finished the work on the

cross, he finished redemption. Of course, I still had to believe,

but once I did and he gave me the Spirit of God. The Spirit is

the earnest. It's the earnest until the redemption of the inheritance

when Jesus is coming back. The guarantee the Holy Spirit was given

to me as a guarantee by Jesus that he's coming back to get me.

Amen. He's coming back to get me. Now, I lost a whole lot of stuff

in the pawn shop that I thought I was going to come back

and get. But I'm glad Jesus, he told. He said, I'm glad you gave

me some and I didn't lose any of them that you gave me. Didn't

He? He said, I didn't lose any of them that you gave me. And I'm

glad that I'd love to preach on salvation, eternal security. I

love preaching on eternal security. I love teaching on it and

preaching on it. And I'm telling you, you couldn't lose. You

can't lose your salvation. Can I get an amen right there? It doesn't

depend on me. It depends on Jesus. My salvation is dependent

on him, not on me. Because we're the bride, right? And the Old

Testament in Romans, chapter seven. I told you, I said I wasn't

going to do it, but I'm going to do it. In Romans chapter 7, Paul

Romans 7 · chapter mention

was using the Old Testament law and the law of marriage and divorce.

And he said, a woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives,

according to the law. And he said in Romans 7, Now I speak to

you that know the law. The Roman church was full of Jews and

Gentiles. And so he said, I'm speaking to you that know the law.

You know how that a woman is bound to her husband according to

the law as long as he lives. He said, but when her husband dies,

she's freed. She's loosed from her husband and free to marry who

she will only in the Lord. And then he said, therefore. And he was

making the context of that is not marriage and divorce. The context

is eternal security. You read that thing and he said, therefore

you were loosed. You were loosed. You were bound by the law.

To the law. You were bound by the law. But when Jesus died, he

took the law with him and he freed you from the law. And it says,

and you were free to marry. And we chose Jesus Christ to be our

new groom. I was free to do whatever I want, but I chose Jesus

Christ. And he said, behold, I am he that liveth and was dead. And

behold, I am alive, what evermore. And so I'm his bride until

he dies. Did I read that correctly? If I read that correctly,

the Bible says that our relationship is contingent upon him,

whether he lives or dies. He said, I am he that liveth and was

dead. And behold, I'm alive forevermore. I'm telling you, that

is good stuff. That is eternal security, the epitome of. It's on

him. It's not on me. I'm only going to. He's going to divorce me.

I'm going to lose that relationship if he dies. And you

can't say amen right there, because you're not. Okay. You're

saying, salvation was finished. Redemption is finished.

But I want you to notice something else here, and this is

what I'm getting to. The plan for world evangelism is finished.

The plan. Look at Matthew, chapter 28. You know the verses?

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Matthew 28. Let's go ahead and read it. Matthew 28. Preacher was

here on Sunday night. This is where he parked. And I'm going to

use this particular passage, but I'm coming at it from a little

different perspective here. Matthew 28. Man, I'm glad I'm saved.

I'm glad that it doesn't depend on me to stay saved. We are

kept by the power of God. Matthew 28. You know the verse 18

through 20? Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power

is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore. Now, this

is after the resurrection. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of

the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever

I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the

end of the world. The plan for world evangelism is there. It's there.

It's there. There's no plan B. This is it. He said, I want you to

try to reach the world. I'm going to give you. I have all power

in heaven and earth now. I'm giving it to you. Now go. Go tell

every creature. Mark 16:15. Go ye into all the world and preach

Mark 16:15

the gospel to every creature. Every creature. Evangelism to every

creature. Everybody. That's his plan. And I'm telling you, the

church today thinks he messed it up. Because we're trying to figure

out Some other plan. Well, that's right. We don't believe he

got it right. We think he may have missed it. Well, he wasn't.

He wasn't thinking about 2025. That's what it was. He was thinking

about, you know, ad something. No. 2025. The word of God transcends

time. Amen. It's just as good today as it was back then. And it'll

work. It'll work. He. He gave us the plan for world evangelism,

and he gave it to us. He didn't give us a second plan. He

didn't say, if that don't work, try this. He said, here's option

one. No, he didn't say, here's option one. He said, here's the plan

right here. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every

creature. He said, I want you to baptize. I want you to teach them

and to observe all things. And lo, I am with you always. All right?

So I want you to look at something else here. There's something

else that's finished. Not only the plan. Not only salvation and

redemption and the plan for world evangelism, but I like this

one here. The plan for financing the work is finished. It's

absolutely finished. How did he do it? What's the plan? Go ahead.

You know the answer. Go ahead and tell me. Come on. Let's some

dialogue here. What is the plan for financing the work of God?

Tithes and offerings. That's it. That's it. Tithes and offerings.

You know this is absolutely true. If every child of God would

give just the minimum, the reasonable service of 10% of their

income, the church would never lack for anything ever. Never have

to do a car wash. Teens would never have to sell candy. Never have

to do a yard sale. Never have to do any. The church would never

have to sell bonds. If every Christian and every member of every

independent Baptist church, every church, every local church,

if they would just tithe. And if that's not true, then God's a

liar. The plan for financing the work is finished. God said, here

we go. Let's do this thing. And here's how you do it. And 10%.

10%. Some people think 10%'s a lot. 10%. Well, it's only a lot if

you make $10,000 a week. I guess that's a lot, but it's proportionate.

It's proportionate. It may not be a lot to some. So some people

might say, wow, man, I'm giving $200 a week. And I saw them,

they're only giving 100. Well, it's proportionate, but praise to

God. Praise God. You are giving 200 a week or whatever. It's

done. This thing. The plan for financing the work is tithes and

offerings. It's done. It'll work. It'll work. If we'll do it,

it's finished. The Lord gave us those things. He gave us those

things. He said, I want you to hear salvation. You're saved forever,

so don't worry about it. He said, now I'm going to get. Here's

the. Here's the work that I want you to do. I want you to go

out into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I want

you to win them. I want you to wet them. And then preacher said,

what? I want you to work them. And. And don't worry about it. There's

a plan in place to finance this thing. He finished. It's all

done. It's done for us. He finished the work. Now, here's a

couple of. There's some things that are not finished, some things

that have been left undone. Our part. Jesus has done everything.

Do you ever go so any. Have you ever talked to somebody about

Jesus Christ? And when you're trying to win them to Jesus, you're

trying to talk to them about their soul and you tell them this.

You say, jesus did everything. It's all done. All you have to do

is believe. All you have to do is just believe what the Bible says

about Jesus Christ. But you've used that phrase. I've used that

phrase so many times. It's all been done for you. Jesus did it all.

Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Right? It's all done. He did

it all. Then why in the world aren't we packed out in here tonight?

If it's all done, how come we don't have standing room only on

Sunday morning? Because there's a part that's not done. There's

a part that's been left unfinished. That's our part. It's

our part. And our part is. First of all, it's believing. Believing.

We read this Bible and we hear it preached and we kind of know it,

but we have a hard time believing. First of all, and I have

a couple things here that the Great Commission is personal. You

follow me? Now, many of us don't believe that the Great Commission

is personal. Matthew 28:19. Look what he said. You're still there,

Matthew 28:19

right? Go. What's that next word? You didn't say it loud enough.

Come on go ye. Now, in Texas, that means y'. All. That means you,

Tennessee. Wait a second, Yuns. Go you. Go you into all the

world. And then the understood subjects are in the rest of that

phrase. Go you, therefore. And you teach all nations. You baptize

them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. You

teach them to observe all things which I have commanded you.

It's personal. The Great Commission is personal. It's a command.

Now, the majority of church members believe that it's the pastor

and the staff job to grow the church. It's not even the pastor

and the staff can't even grow the church. We can only be obedient

to what the Lord says. He's the one who grows the church. All

we can do is tell people. All we can do is hand out a tract. All

we can do is just invite all we can do. Our part. Our part is

not to grow the church. Fact of the matter is, if we wanted to,

we could fill this building up in a few weeks, dip our colors, change

our standards, advertise some hot new CCM band that's going to

be with us. We could flood this place. But it ain't about getting

numbers in here. It's about seeing souls saved. But it's a command.

It's a commission. This is a calling. It's a calling. I think

I brought this out not too long ago. I believe it was here.

Maybe it was in our Sunday school class. Many are called, few

are chosen. Now, that's not talking about salvation. He's talking

to Christians. You want to know why many are called and fewer

chosen. Many are called and few are chosen because the called

count the cost. And they either say, whoa, that's too much

to pay, or they don't count the cost. And then when it comes,

they don't want to pay it. Many are called. It is a calling.

This is a calling. And the Lord tells us quickly, he tells us

in his word that if you're going to live for me, if you're going

to be my disciple, if you're going to live like this, there is

a cost. People are going to turn against you. Your own family

will turn against you. You might lose some things. You might

lose your. You might lose your job. And I'm not. Look, there ain't

no sense in painting it pretty. Ain't no sense in painting

it pretty. It is what it is. Jesus said, if they persecuted me,

they're going to persecute you. Do we believe that? We believe

that's what he said, it's a command, it's a commission, it's

a calling. So we have to believe that the Great Commission

is personal. We have to believe that his promises are sure.

The promise of power, divine power. He said, all heaven, all power

in heaven and in earth and its delegated power from media. All powers

given unto me. Go ye. Therefore, he said, I'm giving it

to you. God gives us power when we take up a track, brethren,

when we grab a track, and the Holy Spirit speaks to our heart and

we hand that tract to somebody. You might not see electric

bolts flying from your fingers to theirs. But I'm telling you, there

is power. God promises divine power when we do his work, when we

avail ourselves to what he tells us to do. I'm not saying that

you've got to tackle somebody in the parking lot, hold them down

and repeat, say, repeat this sinner's prayer after me. There's

no power in that unless he punches you good, and we deserve

that. But Jesus said that if we would just do his work. He says,

all power is given unto me. All authority is given unto me. I'm

giving it to you now. Go and share the gospel. And it's amazing

what will happen. It's absolutely amazing what will happen

when we just obey the Lord. And I've heard this and I've seen

it and I've said it, I've preached it and I've tried to encourage

our people. In the churches I've pastored, I tried to encourage

it, and they have seen it play out over and over. And this is. This

is what I say, if you go after some, God will give you some he didn't

go after. It happens all the time. All the time. If we'll be faithful

to go after some people, God will give us some people we never

went after. You can't. People would ask me, how do you explain

the church growth? I can't explain it. I can't explain church

growth. It's crazy. Sometimes it'll be way down here, and then

all of a sudden, it'll take a leap. Well, what'd you do different?

Nothing. Nothing. Just keep doing what I've been doing, doing

what God told me to do. His promises are sure, divine power,

delegated power. But he also gave us not only the promise of power,

he gave us the promise of a plan. This plan I quoted just a minute

ago. It's not secretive, it's not even complex. This plan to reach

the world, or at least our world, or at least our sphere of

influence. It may Seem like a lot when you. When you look and you

say, man, Jesus is sending me a huge plan. I mean, he gave me a

whale of a job. Well, he gave the church a whale of a job. And

if you're part of the church, you only have to take one bite of

that whale. That's it. One bite at a time. You've got a sphere

of influence. You've got a sphere of influence. You really do.

There are some people that you can talk to that I'll never meet.

There are some people that you're going to influence that will

never have the opportunity to influence. I'll never have the opportunity.

But you do. That's your world. Going into all the world. Your world.

It's not complex. You know what kind of people pass out tracts?

Brother Daniel Martinez said this just the other day when he was

here. Do you remember him saying this? I wrote it down. It's

so simple and yet so profound. He said this. He said. He said, you

know what kind of people hand out tracts? Actually, it wasn't Daniel

Martinez. It might have been Brother Russell. Russell James. Do

you know what kind of people hand out tracts? Do you remember

what he said? The ones who carry them. You can't hand them out

if you don't have them. It was one of those two. I can't remember

which one it was. Brother James. Yeah. And so what's the secret,

then? Go get a tract. That's not even our church. There we go.

That's Brother. That's not even Brother. I was down with Brother

Moore, and this wasn't even his church. This is. There were some.

There were some visitors there. They had. There was a visiting

family just moved there from. From Center, Texas, and they go to

a good Independent Baptist church in Center, Texas, and they

had tracts, and they were passing them out in the restaurant.

Amen. And I said, I want one. But you know what kind of people

hand out tracts? People who carry tracts. If you don't have them,

you can't pass them out. And once you do start passing them out,

I'm telling you, there's just. It's just amazing what God does.

And you, some of you, I'm speaking to you, and you know this.

You know this. You know how wonderful it feels. And I'm not even

ashamed to use that word, feeling. You know how wonderful,

wonderful it feels when you know you've obeyed the Holy Spirit

and all you did was just pass out a tract. You think that's so

simple. It is simple. But I've known people, and you've known people

who just read the gospel on the back of a track and got saved.

They got saved from reading the gospel. Nowhere in here does

it say that it must come from your tongue, the gospel. There's

power in the word of God. Amen. And if all you can do, if that's

all, if you only have the ability to pass out a tract, pass

out a tract, give it to somebody, anybody. Our churches are

to be multifunctional churches. What does that mean? And

by the way, we have this balance here. We do have this balance

here. I'm not saying we don't. And like I said, like I said in the

beginning, as I was, As I was, I guess, introducing the message,

I said that when we have our soul winning kickoff and saturation,

y' all come out. There's a but. So I'm not saying you don't.

I'm just trying to give you a shot in the arm. Say, come on back,

keep doing it, don't stop. But our churches ought to be multifunctional.

They ought to be these three things. Incubators for babies. We

ought to have new Christians in here, and we do. And then there

ought to be a hospital for wounded saints. And it is. There

are multi. There are an abundant of people that come in because

they've been. It takes a lot for them to come back into a church

sometimes because they've been so hurt. But then when they do come

in, they are loved on by you. They're loved on. I've heard this

is not an unfriendly church. I've been in some unfriendly. How

many of you have been in an unfriendly church? How many of you

ever been in a church? Nobody shook your hand? Amen. I'm telling

you, no one will ever walk out here and say that church. I'll never

go back there. They just shook my hand the whole time I was there.

I bet 20 people shook my hand. No one's going to say that, but that's

exactly what happens. Everybody that comes in here, new

people, they'll get their hand shaking. They'll get loved on. They'll.

I could show you my text. I could read several texts. I send

texts out every Monday to every visitor. If they. If they give

me their number, if they fill out a visitor's card, I send a text

out to every member, every visitor. I got like three back this

week, and they said you all were so friendly, I can read them

to you. I turned it off, but I could read them to you just Trust

me. I promise you that. It's amazing. I love that I got them.

And they said, we'll be back. Because you're friendly, because

we're friendly, because we genuinely love people. Because we

genuinely love Jesus Christ. And what I'm saying is, don't stop

that. Don't stop that. And do it even more by grabbing tracts and

just let the Holy. If you have tracts in your pocket, I promise

you the Holy Spirit of God will prompt you to give them out.

He will. But if you don't have them in your pocket, he can't. He

can't, because you don't have access to it. Every creature, evangelism.

And then he said, the promise of his presence. The promise of his

presence. He said, I am with you. I am with you. And we know that

that's in the person of the Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit,

when you put that track in your pocket and you're saying, in

essence, you're saying, I'm available, tell me who you want me

to give it to. Tell me where you want me to put it. I like to

put these in cars. Y' all put them in cars. I don't put them under

windshield wipers anymore. I used to do that. I don't do that

anymore. So what I'll do, if the door handle will allow me to.

I always put it on the driver's side. I fold it up like

that right there, and I stick it in their door handle. I didn't

like it being on my windshield when people put stuff on my windshield,

because sometimes I don't see it until I'm driving away, and I'm

like, ah, man, I got to stop and pull that stupid thing off. And

usually I just threw it away, right? Just stick it. And I don't

do it to every car in the parking lot. I think now that's called

vandalism. I think it is. I think they can actually make a case

out of that. But if you just put it. I get out, there's a car

right there. I'll walk over there, and I'll put it in their door,

and I'll walk on. I'll put in one. I'll put in one. But if you

put it in one every time you park, you just. You never know. Now,

the church has never. And I have never had anybody file a lawsuit

against me for putting that in their car. So I'm going to keep doing

it. He'll convict us. If we have them in our pocket and we don't

pass them out when we're prompted. And you will get prompted.

How many of you know you've had. And here's how I know he'll

prompt us. Because sometimes I get intimidated. Or else I'm like,

man, I ain't got time for this. I don't have time for this.

And then so you walk away and you go away and you're like, ah,

all right, all right. And you turn around, they're not there. Ooh.

Conviction sets in. And the Holy Spirit prompted you to do that.

He said, I'm with you. I am with you. I am with you. We know

the verse. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is in us. But prior

to him saying, and he will be in you, he says he will be with you.

We know that doctrine of him being in us, but we forget about

the fact that he is with us as well. He's with us. It is finished.

It is finished. Jesus part is finished. Our part is not unfinished

business. Believing. Believing these things, believing that his

promises are sure, believing that the Great Commission is personal.

But the other part that's not finished is the doing. Because if

we don't believe it, we won't do it. Because you do what you believe.

We do what we believe. We came to church tonight because we believe

it's right, and it's what the Bible says to do. Am I right? Everybody

in here believes that a Christian ought to go to church.

Therefore, you go to church. You do it because you believe it.

Now, I don't know about every Christian, but I believe that hopefully

most, I'd like to think all, but that's probably not the case.

Tithe. Everybody in this room, I hope, tithes. And the reason you

tithe and give is because you believe it's right. You believe that

the Bible teaches it and that it's right to do. You believe it,

and so you do it. Now, I believe that everybody sitting in

here believes that God wants us to reach others with the gospel.

He wants us to take the gospel, whether it's in written form

or whether we speak it. He wants us to tell others or to give

that gospel tract to others. I believe that everybody in here believes

it. But I wonder, what's the percentage of those that are actually

doing it? One little story and I'm done. I'm going to give you,

if you don't mind, just a little personal illustration. When

we were in Tacoma, we first we rented a house, and then we bought

one. Oh, my goodness. The one that we bought. It was the largest

house I've ever lived in. 3,275 square feet. And that didn't

even include the basement because the basement wasn't finished.

It wasn't finished out. It wasn't livable. It wasn't living

space. It was just a basement. And so it was dark and dank, damp.

You know, sewer lines you could see in the rafters. You know,

there was nothing covering the floor. Cinder block walls. It wasn't

pretty. I. Only. We didn't even store stuff down there because

it was just humid, damp all the time. And fortunately, it didn't

leak. It was well built. But we didn't want to go down there.

We just didn't want to. We didn't use it. It was. It was a big

old. I mean, you could. You could imagine a house, 3,275 square

feet, and you have a basement downstairs that the same size as

the house was big, but unusable. It's just. We didn't want

to go down there. I had four kids. Kids didn't want to go down

there. We had one light with a pull string. Kids didn't want to

go down there. I didn't want to go down there. Wife didn't want

to go down there. Nobody. We just didn't want to use it. One day,

I don't remember which birthday it was, but on my birthday,

the men of the church said, pastor, for your birthday, our gift

to you. The men of the church, our gift to you is that we're going

to finish out your basement. Labor and materials paid for now.

I helped them, and we made three rooms out of that. Four, really,

but three real good, usable rooms. Carpet, walls, put sheetrock

on the ceilings, paint. It was so nice. It was so nice, man. My

kids got in there. I had three daughters. I cannot believe I don't

know how many little girls slept over at our house. Downstairs

in the basement, slumber party after slumber party after slumber

party. And I was upstairs, and you could hear, hee hee hee hee hee

hee hee. And they just had a good time. They just had fun. It

was a wonderful place. I actually took one of those rooms

and started using it as a media room. Media, as in making cassette

tapes, Copies of cassette tapes for the preaching. Amen. Amen.

That was the way it worked back then. And so, I mean, it became

very usable. It became extremely usable. We used it. We

loved it. The kids loved it. It was usable. Afraid that even often

in my own life, and I'm afraid that many of us in our lives, we

have an unusable room in our life, we have The Holy Spirit dwelling

in us. But there's a part that he can't use because it's unfinished.

It's not finished out. We leave it dark, dank and damp and

not suitable for use. And what a joy it's going to be when he can

actually use it. When he can actually use you to reach others

with the gospel. I'm sorry, I have to tell you one more, but it's

not really a story and it's more personal even. And you've heard

it before in two instances, really. When I first got saved. I've

told you my story many times, and you know it. How that when I

was in the van, you know, I was not doing what I was. I was smoking

that dope and my co worker, and he knew who I was and using dope

and stuff and needles and all that, and he knew who I was. And

he still witnessed to me. He still witnessed to me. In spite of

that, he witnessed to me. I got saved that very day. After I

got saved a couple of years later, after I was in Bible college,

I had a bus route and I was going to. I was canvassing the neighborhood

down in South Fort Worth. I was canvassing the neighborhoods

there, looking for kids to ride my bus. And of course I saw

a bunch of Asian children in the yard. And so I stopped and the

Asian kids ran to the backyard. And I wasn't going to follow

him to the backyard. So I looked over and I saw this really,

really pretty, pretty, pretty girl sitting on the front porch.

I was like, whoa, she looks like she needs the gospel. I'm telling

you, she was pretty. So I went up to her and sure enough, I shared

the gospel with her. And God allowed me to lead her to Christ.

And now I said that to make this point. She grew up in a Buddhist

home, born in Cambodia, refugees to Thailand, and then sponsored

by a church in Texas to come to America in 1979. So they came

to America and her parents really wanted. They brought their

tradition, their Cambodian tradition with them, and that included

the Buddhists. But the thing is, the whole time that she was living

with mom and dad and going to the Buddhist temple and doing all

these Buddhist things, she kept asking, what's this for? Why

do we do this? Just do it. You just do it. Don't ask questions,

you just do it. No answers. Here's a young lady that had a spiritual

need. She had a spiritual, you know, just some questions that were

getting unanswered, she didn't have. But when I came up to her that

Day. I didn't know she had those needs. I didn't know she had

those questions. But God led me to her. And I'm telling you that

there are a lot of people out there. You don't know. You know what?

There's a lot of. Where's Mr. James at? I saw Mr. James. There's

a lot of Indians that are moving in here, a lot of Eastern

Indians. And we have this preconceived idea that they're all

Hindu. And the fact is, maybe they grew up that way, but maybe,

just maybe, they've got questions that went unanswered and

they're just waiting for somebody to come with the truth.

We don't know that. But we'll never know if we don't take them

a track, if we don't go to the house. How many of y' all remember

the McNeil's? When I was here in 2009 as the associate pastor,

we were having new members at the pastor's house. And brother McNeil,

I believe at the time, was on. I believe was the deacon. And I leaned

over and I asked him one time, because I was heading up Soul Winning

then as well, and I asked him, I said, Brother McNeil, what is.

How do I reach the black community? And he looked at me just

as solemn and serious as could be. And, boy, I leaned in. I thought

he was. He said, let me tell you how to do it. I leaned in. I

was waiting for something really profound. He said, here's

how you do it. Don't skip any houses. That's all he said, don't

skip any houses. He said, as far as you're concerned, when you're

soul winning and when you're passing out tracts, there is no bad

side of town. Don't skip houses. 753. Let's all stand together

tonight. I tell you, the one who gives out tracts are the people

who carry tracts. The people who win people to Jesus are those

who tell people about Jesus. So tonight, I hope that you'll. I

hope I wasn't mean. I wasn't trying to be mean or guilt anybody,

anything like that. Just want to give you a shot in the arm and.

And say, let's get back at it or let's stay at it. And so I want

to encourage you, grab some tracts and just wait. Just grab some

tracks and just wait. And I promise you the Holy Spirit will

say, matt, give one to that person. I promise you he'll do it

if you'll just make yourself available by carrying tracks. Father

tonight we just ask you to please take this simple truth, apply

it to our hearts and help us to apply it to our life. For our

good and for your glory and for the expansion of the kingdom

of God. Lord, we know you didn't die in vain. We know that.

And you gave us a job to do. Help us to be available. And I pray

that you'd help us to finish the business you gave us to do. Finish

the work. I pray there'd be no unfinished rooms in our hearts. Lord,

have your way in our life. We pray it in Jesus name so for just

a few.