(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you of Jesus Christ we got the offering totals received through the month of February down there at the bottom of the page prayer requests so let's see the the Taylor family Preston and Courtney pray for them obviously pray for Courtney and her and the delivery of the child it's getting a lot closer to their delivery date for the baby so pray that everything will go well with that the baby's healthy and that and that mom will stay healthy and also pray they're planning on moving closer to the church to be here just a lot closer right now they're traveling from North Carolina so pray that everything will go well with that move this is their last Sunday service here because they can't be too far away when that baby is about to be due so just just pray for them and their whole situation of course we have multiple other ladies who are with child so please pray for their pregnancies as well that everything goes well there let's see if we have any updates is there anyone that has an update on the people here that are on our list we have a lot of people who have very significant health issues yes sir yes I didn't oh okay yeah well well then we'll we'll we'll pray for their health right so if you weren't able to hear brother DJ talk about Liza's parents down at the bottom of the list they asked for prayers for their visa to be approved but they're they're ill they're sick they've got some kind of a virus so they're both really weak and not doing well at all so pray that they get well and then of course it would be nice that they could also get well and be able to make it here for their trip is was scheduled for two weeks from now so that would also obviously though hinder them from being able to enter if they're if they're sick so we'll pray for both both of those things appreciate the update there does anyone else have any updates I do have an update on miss Juana did you did you submit this on Wednesday okay I just saw it this morning actually I didn't see it on Wednesday but she also wrote a note to us as well asking for prayers so miss Juana is slowly getting better just from her she had an accident on New Year's Day after she left our event someone rear-ended her and totaled her car and has been dealing with that whole thing of course she has she was she was not I guess a severely injured but she did have a lot of soreness and and some other issues that came as a result of that and she said I guess the lawyer is helpful but obviously it's a very slow process trying to deal with all of that and dealing with insurance and everything else so continue to pray there but we also want to pray for one of her daughters has had a lot of a lot of problems going through a bad divorce and then dealing with depression and stuff so I don't know is this something that we can share publicly do you know okay so yeah so she's she's really dealing with a lot right now her daughter very seriously so pray for for her and her name is Margaret Margaret Gonzalez so we're gonna pray for for Margaret as well that is miss Lana's daughter so definitely be in prayer for her and let's see does anyone else have any updates for people who are on the prayer list all right well of course continue to pray we got a lot of people to pray for and that is our next challenge by the way too so make sure you bring these home with you obviously we should be doing this all the time anyways very important be prayer for other people as well as for yourself but but being be in prayer for the people on this list you never know one day you might need to be put on that list and I'm sure you'll be coveting the prayers then our March challenge obviously we're almost done with the month of February month of February was to spend at least one hour every day doing something spiritual so we're coming to a close on the month on that but then March begins near the end of the week I forget what exact day March 1st is but that the challenge is gonna be another daily challenges one of the ones you got to do every single day in order complete the challenge and it's our prayer challenge and honestly some of these challenges like the the one that we're doing this month and the prayer challenge I think should just be considered minimums and not challenges and that's just my opinion on that obviously the Bible doesn't tell you specifically exactly how much you should do this or do the you know on different things different aspects of our spiritual life but when we just consider how important the Lord ought to be and Jesus ought to be our Savior in our lives just in general these things are you know I look at this and go can we can we spare 20 minutes in prayer like and is that too much to ask to do in our daily lives and to me it seems like that's such a low number that it shouldn't really be a challenge but I also know how you know human beings I know how people are and I know you know I even know myself right it's not you don't you know you get you get so wrapped up and so many other things in the world and so many other cares that sometimes these things go out the window so we want to focus on these various aspects of our spiritual life from month to month and not to forsake what we've already done with these other challenges you know we did Bible reading in January we're doing an hour of a various you know spiritual things this month and then focusing and making sure that we're praying in March but we don't want to just be like okay March was the prayer month and now I'm just not gonna pray for the rest of the year or something right that's or you know January's the reading month so now I'm not gonna read that's that's not the point the point is ultimately especially with these timed challenges is to get your schedule to incorporate things of God daily like make the changes necessary in your life so that you got that you're setting us aside the time dedicated to doing things that we all ought to be doing so that's that's really one of the fundamental purposes of these challenges is to is to change our lives and change our schedules to do things that are that we ought to be doing anyways and the prayer is super important so to complete this challenge it's not just a time of 20 minutes but you also have to be praying for everyone on our prayer list like like all these people need to be included in your prayers for this time so definitely take these home take a picture of it with your phone so that you can complete this challenge and make sure you're praying for everyone that's on our list every single day all right that's for for March we got the new church plant nothing new to update there other than we're still just we're waiting to hear back on a few different locations that we're interested in and it's just a slow process but still continue to pray for that we we have more opportunities available to us now as I've revised the budget and our scope of what we're looking at so hopefully this will happen soon really excited about that so just continue to pray about that Bible memory passage Hebrews 11 we're on week four so we're getting close to the halfway point if you are participating in this we do two verses a week and if you would quote the entire passage of those 20 verses before the deadline then you can earn a prize for being able to do that we've got the birthdays and anniversaries listed there we've got a birthday today and uh today your birthday you know you know what you get on your birthday when you come to church what do you get you get ice cream yeah you get ice cream you get ice cream from the freezer you get to pick out your favorite ice cream and you get the whole church to sing a happy birthday to you so let's sing a happy birthday to Hannah happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday God bless you happy birthday to you glad to have you here on your birthday all right we can see the rest of the birthdays and the anniversaries through the month of March down there of course we I missed one so occasionally this happens because you know I overlook things unfortunately but if I have missed your birthday just let me know or an anniversary so you know we're not trying to it's not because I don't like you and I'm be like I'm gonna strike that name from from our list we like to just you know give give a little bit of honor for the people and their birthdays and and make note of that so mrs. mrs. Mary Miller has a birthday on the 23rd and so I'll be adding that next week is there anyone else that I missed and again there's still some I think there's still a couple people after the 26th so don't worry if it's not on there yet because there's only so much room on the page to fit everything am I missing anybody's no one wants to speak up all right I'll assume that that I'm good on all these on the back we've got the upcoming events so March 9th is our next event that's in a couple weeks we have a soul winning marathon and that's gonna be local we're gonna meet up right here at the church building same routine as we've done in the past so approximately nine nine thirty we'll be having some breakfast here some pastries whatever and then we'll go out and hit the streets by ten o'clock and go soul winning until about twelve twelve thirty we'll have some lunch and then continue going soul winning for the rest of the evening rest of the afternoon until we have dinner in the evening so love to have you join us for that but the meetup place is gonna be right here on that Saturday March 9th so try to make it here for that if you can ladies so a sewing fellowship is gonna be on the 16th so in one week following that at 11 and then the 17th that Sunday we'll have a baby shower from mrs. Bostic and then all the rest of the events you can see are listed there homeschool field trips that's what HSFT is if you don't know homeschool field trip are listed there and then of course our church camp so you haven't registered for the camp do so online at that website there make sure you get your request in and because I am a little bit behind on getting to that stuff but so get to get your name in there because I'm gonna make a video real soon and making it public for any spots that are not taken as of now to open up for more people to come and join us on that camp all right that's about it for the announcement so I'm gonna have brother Austin lead us in our next song Oh Jesus Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh once again that is second Corinthians chapter 5 follow along silently as we read second Corinthians chapter 5 the Bible reads for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God in house not made with hands eternal in the heavens for in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven it so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked for we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life now he that have wrought us for the self-same thing is God who also have given unto us the earnest of the spirit therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord wherefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he have done whether it be good or bad knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men but we are made manifest unto God and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences for we commend not ourselves again unto you but give you occasion to glory on our behalf that ye may have somewhat to answer them with glory in appearance and not in heart for whether we be beside ourselves it is to God whether we be sober it is for your cause for the love of Christ constrain with us because we thus judge that if one died for all then we're all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again wherefore henceforth no we no man after the flesh yay though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth no we him no more therefore of any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things have become new and all things are of God who have reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation to it that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses onto them and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God for he have made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him let's pray father God we thank you for eternal life we thank you for this whole entire Bible we thank you for this church we thank you for all that you have done for us fill pastor verses with your spirit allow for him to preach your boldness allow for ears to be attended to your word allow for us to learn something new and to be able to take something home with us we praise you and we thank you you say this in Jesus name amen all right as I mentioned in announcements I've shifted a little bit the sermon order in which I was I was preparing to do the Bible study this morning of course but I felt this is more important to preach this morning and we have to do this from time to time in general just with a lot of different things in Scripture right there's a lot of areas of our life where we generally know maybe what we're supposed to be doing we kind of know some things we end up getting a little sloppy or kind of get relaxed in certain areas spiritually so we need to just revisit them and address them and this morning the specific topic I want to focus on improving is our soul winning okay our soul winning and again if you're here and you're not familiar with that term you don't know what that means we have that announcement where we try to keep track of people that we lead to Christ soul winning is winning a soul to Christ and and when we win a soul it's we're going out to try to convince people to persuade them to put their trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior all right that's that's our mission that's our objective and that's something that Jesus Christ commanded right at the at the end of the Gospels you'll see this called the Great Commission where he commands people to go forth and all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and that's that is incumbent upon every single person who already is a believer to do that work everybody man woman boy girl this is our look if you're saved you have now a duty of responsibility to go forward and preach the gospel and tell other people how to be saved and and that's how all of us have been saved it's through the work of other people who have shared that same truth that same message from the Word of God no one here is saved this morning without having heard the truth from somebody else without somebody sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with you faith cometh by hearing the Bible says in hearing by the Word of God so we all that are saved had to have heard the gospel from somebody at some point and it had to come from the Word of God in order to get saved I mean it's literally what the Bible teaches so we all have that it's incumbent upon us to do so so when I talk about soul winning that's what I'm talking about is that us going out being sent out as Jesus sent out his disciples two and two to preach the gospel we do the same thing here in this church and this is the most important thing that a Christian can be doing with their time and it's something that isn't just a good suggestion it's not just oh what's the best thing I could do it's it's a commandment okay this is something that that has been committed unto you as a believer from the Lord from God look down there in verse number 17 the Bible says therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature so just pausing right there when you get saved you are born again you become a new creature and come back tonight first John chapter 3 ago really in depth on this subject of the new man a new birth a new creature because that's really contained a lot in first John chapter 3 but when you're born again there is a new creature it's born again inside of you which is different than the old man it's different than who you have been your whole life until the moment of salvation that new creature that new man is born of God and that's why you can be called a child of God is because you were born again and clearly the world and the ways of the world are different than God in the ways of God the things of the father and the things of the world are not the same so before someone's saved you're living in the world you're of the world you do the things of the world because you have that natural man it makes sense it's just it's part of who we are as human beings naturally in this flesh but when you get saved look there's now there's a new creature now there's a new birth now behold all things have become new and because they all things have become new you there's gonna be things that are expected of you as a new creature that God is gonna require of you to do through that spiritual man that as a child of God now look you are part of God's family now you have different expectations that are laid upon you and and different you know life that you need to live according to the Word of God so the Bible says therefore if any man be in Christ he's a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new and all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation so before we continue this word reconcile comes up quite a few times in this passage we need to be reconciled to God and what that means is that we have a problem with God as being a sinner right so we're on bad terms with God as human best sinners as human beings because we break his laws we break his commandments therefore we deserve to be punished for our sins and the ultimate punishment Bible says the wages of sin is death we deserve that death penalty we deserve the the penalty of hell for our sins so this is a problem we need to be reconciled we need to get things right with God as a sinner though the only way you get things right with God is through Jesus Christ because once you've already broken the law you've broken the commandments there's no making up for that there's nothing else you can do you can't do a whole bunch of good works to try to make up for what you've done that's bad and as I'd like to mention to people especially when we go out sowing you know when you do good you're just meeting the minimum requirement anyways look you're not you're not doing extra every time you do good you are you are meeting the minimum you are not going above and beyond when you do good the Bible says to him that know what to do good and do with it not to him it is sin so you think oh I'm gonna do all this good stuff to pay for my sins no if you know you're supposed to do good and you don't do it it's a sin so so when you say hey I'm gonna do all this good stuff great you're you've met the commandment you've met the minimum you you're not paying for anything that you've done which is why we need hey we owe a debt we've sinned we need someone to now erase that debt for us to pay that debt for us and thank God Jesus Christ did that for us and that is how we are reconciled to the Father were made right through the blood of Jesus Christ through what he did for us now whereas we had this problem as a sinner we had this this this debt of sin that we owed hey he paid that debt for us so great now we're back in good standing with God because we're saved because we're born again because Christ paid everything for us so he reconciled us to God Jesus did but look it also says in at the end of verse 18 and he's given to us the ministry of reconciliation verse 19 can we'll explain expound further on this to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself right so when Christ was physically literally walking around on this earth right he was preaching the gospel God with Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing the trespasses under them because that's what it means to be saved by the way is that your sins and your trespasses now are no longer going to be imputed unto you it means you're not going to be held responsible for those because Christ has already made the payment you're washed clean of those trespasses but then it says this and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation so Jesus was doing this when he's on the world but then he also did this while he was on his earth was committing unto us this word of reconciliation of course he sent out his disciples he sent people out to preach the gospel and said hey look this is your job I want you doing this it wasn't just him doing that verse 20 says this now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God so Jesus Christ lived he died on the cross he rose again from the dead he ascended up into heaven okay and that's where he is now sitting on the right hand of God the Father he is no longer personally individually talking to people to get them saved as he did when he was alive on this earth physically speaking right so because he's not here doing that he has ambassadors he has people to speak on his behalf in order to do this job and that's what he says look we're ambassadors for Christ so Christ isn't here right now physically right spiritually yeah of course we know he's God he's everywhere but but physically speaking carnally speaking he's not here so we're gonna be his ambassadors and was an ambassador do you don't relay your own message you don't talk about yourself an ambassador literally is representative of somebody else and I mean this is the case and in human governments we have ambassadors from other countries that are here to express their interests for their country for their government for other people back home and we have obviously ambassadors US ambassadors in other countries that are there to express the interest of someone else not just themselves it's for they're there for someone else or representing someone else and when we as believers we've been committed this job this ministry this ministering is serving other people by representing Jesus Christ here on this earth and sharing with people how they can be reconciled to God how their sins can be atoned and paid for look tell them what would Jesus did we already know how we got saved we need to tell other people how they could be saved too we are ambassadors for Christ verse number 21 says for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him now with this in mind as an ambassador for Christ this is all most of you have come into the church for a while you already know this right we talk about this often enough this is the the heart and soul of our church is going forth and do this but I want you to internalize and take and consideration for this term ambassador as a representative of Christ when we go for the preach the gospel you are representing Jesus Christ so this is definitely an area where we don't want to get super relaxed and just super you know like like treating it like it's nothing you get so comfortable out there where you just get really sloppy in your representation of Jesus Christ now it's such an easy concept to understand we could look at the world and when you look at ambassadors and you look at representatives and you see people that are going to other countries what you will always see is the gravity and the seriousness of the representation it's going to show in the way that they dress in the way that they speak in the way that they carry themselves in all that they do they want to have integrity they want to be respectful I'm not look I'm not saying all politicians have integrity but this is what an ambassador should at least be putting forth that they have right they they need to be respected they need to be able to bring and be able to voice their concerns to where people are going to want to listen and hear and have respect for them I mean imagine how ridiculous it would be if some representative just showed up and they're in flip-flops and shorts and they're like you know using a bunch of slang and saying oh you know like like is this who you like is this how you want to be perceived is this how you want to be seen just completely unprofessional completely just like almost like a joke like you're just on vacation or something as opposed to actually performing a serious job and we need to remember when we go soloing you are in a position as an ambassador and you're not representing a president you're not representing some wicked corrupt government you're representing a Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so if there's ever a time to ever take a job of an ambassador seriously it's when you're representing Jesus Christ the way that you carry yourself when you speak to people you are representing Christ so think about things like how should I speak should I be using filthy language and just you know cutting up jokes and all this other stuff when I'm giving the gospel to people oh man yeah but you just got to reach him where they are no hold on we're gonna get to that later don't ever forget though you're representing Jesus Christ I'm all for reaching people where they are but I'm also all for maintaining standards while you do that you don't you don't go into a bar to reach a drunkard and then be like yeah man give me a beer and start and start drinking up and boozing up with them when the Bible teaches us not to do that you're not being a good representative of Jesus Christ now look that's a pretty extreme example but I want you to take this thought of being an ambassador for Christ and say how should I be carrying myself when when I go around and talk to people am I going to be saying things that are really not becoming of a Christian am I gonna be doing things that's gonna cause people to be upset or angry with me maybe even before I get a chance to talk to them and these are some of the things and and look it may seem like trivial or small things but when we treat this as an important job we ought to be paying attention to the details because we want to be a good representative we want to be a good ambassador and I'll tell you this much you know especially maybe your new there's a lot of thought that goes into our soul winning into the technique into what we do because it's such an important task because it's people's souls are on the line and we need to do the best job that we possibly can to help people and look we're imperfect right but if we could do better why wouldn't we right and we should always be analyzing and thinking about hey what can I do better because I mean first of all hopefully you care about the people you're talking to you care about the souls right you're not just being a robot I was commanded to do this so I guess I'm gonna do it you ought to care about hey I want I want this person to have eternal life I don't want to see this person burn in hell and it's so easy to be saved so I want I'm gonna share that with them and then when you love the person enough to share the gospel with them say you know what I want it I wanted to at least make sure that if they reject the gospel it's because they understand the gospel it's because I've used the Word of God I've done everything I could to show them that this is true this is right now look it's on them if they choose not to but what I don't want to have happen is someone reject the gospel because of something that I'm doing because they don't like me because they don't like something that I've said or something I've done coming up them now look if you're doing what's right and they still don't like you because of that there's that you're not at fault because you're doing right but if you're doing even little things that's gonna set someone off or trigger people yeah you know we ought to be paying attention to that and and here's a real simple example of that and this is something I teach all the time when we go out and knock on doors because we're going up to someone else's house be respectful of their property their house everything that at their door you're going to don't do things that might upset people and the most basic concept is you know found in Scripture where Jesus said it as ye would that men should do to you do ye also to them likewise right so that's a real good principle just to say hey let me think about if someone came to my house what would make me angry what would I not like if they showed up and did XYZ right well consider that when you're going to someone else's house but we also need to consider is maybe you wouldn't be upset by I don't know one thing something in particular but you know that other people get upset by it then you still don't do those things and here's a real a real simple example is like cutting through someone's yard now personally like I don't I don't care that much at my house you know but some people really care a lot about that and it doesn't matter if it's right or wrong we're going to try to reach people with the gospel right so what you don't want to have happen is someone come to their door when they just saw you walk like right in front of their window maybe they feel like it's an invasion of privacy or something because you're walking like right in front of their house or whatever whatever the reason is right and just have them angry with you before you could even open up your mouth and look it happens why I'm bringing it up and and isn't that something that's just so simple that we could just easily say you know what I won't be lazy and cut corners here I'm gonna show respect I'm gonna walk in the the path that looks like they have set up for walking walk down the driveway walk out to the street or the sidewalk and then go to the next house and do the same exact thing and show respect to the people that you're going to their house just because you see people throwing flyers on doors and they're cutting across and trying to make it as fast as possible look that's not what we do and that's one sim and and that's just such a it's such a small thing it's such a small detail but here's the thing we're ambassadors we need to be paying attention to the details and we need to be serving Christ and thinking about all these things and say hey how can I be the best representative the best ambassador and going you know what can I do it's worth putting forth the effort into the soul winning it's an important job put forth the effort being respectful right so we think about just being respectful to people you talk to people with respect being courteous allowing people to speak you're not there just to preach at people and and you know tell them everything you want to tell them and then don't you know cut them off and don't let them finish a sentence and things like that that's not very respectful and you're not gonna reach people by doing those things you gotta you gotta have tact and know how to talk with people and here's the thing we actually care about the person and we want to engage with them dialogue is important we don't go out to preach the gospel to preach at people that's what the street preachers do they just go out and they yell at people and they hold signs and just yell at people that's not effective because every individual needs to understand the gospel and in order to do that it's gonna require some level of communication right because different people have different hang-ups and different things that that either they don't understand or they've heard differently or whatever that's gonna that's gonna help engage and be able to make clear well what does the gospel really mean like oh people have preconceived ideas all the time and we need to talk to understand and be in and relate to people say hey where are they coming from what do they believe and show them wait if something's in error no wait no this is why it's an error because the Bible says this right here right and be able to show those things but you always have to be respectful of the people that you're talking to also consider this you know part of being respectful is having conversations with your soul-winning partners when you're out and so any and look I think it's great to talk and get to know people and fellowship and and have that nice communion brothers and sisters of Christ going out and preaching the gospel also being able to have conversations but I'll tell you what when you what when you show up to that door and you knock on that door ring that doorbell you can't just be having these loud obnoxious conversations and laughing and joking and doing all this stuff when you're at the door it's business time you're an ambassador you're representing Jesus Christ it's not just social hour when you're at the door now here's the thing you can talk and you can talk louder when you're out on the street you're walking between house or something but when you get up to that door you keep it very quiet you should be look this is go time it's serious time and here's the other thing too you should be focused on being able to present the gospel not just focused on your conversation has nothing to do with the gospel it's when you walk up to that door it's time to be mentally prepared and be thinking already of what you're going to say when a person opens up the door and I'm not saying you can't have conversations but look you need to do so appropriately and if something needs to be cut yeah the conversation could be cut because that's not as important as the job that you're doing out preaching the gospel it's not as important so you need to be able to show a little bit of common sense when you're approaching someone's house because also think about from their perspective you just got people showing up and they're just talking and jabbing and stuff and you haven't even knocked on the door it's like what are these people doing just walking up to my house and just talking real like you know it's just like what are you doing now another consideration and yet you need to keep in mind also and this is you know I don't have a problem with this but there's almost everybody has those ring doorbells now and those things record so keep your conversations appropriate anyways it should happen whether you're being recorded or not we ought to be living our life as if everything that you say and do is being recorded I mean that's you know if you're going to be above reproach that's how you have to live but sometimes there's things you might make a comment about and look I've had this happen and I've had someone contact our church and they were right and they said something about being recorded and someone made some comment about their Halloween decorations or something that was up so like like why they've got you they're hearing you say this stuff about their decorations that are up on their on their yard on their property whatever you're gonna start off offending people that probably aren't even saved right over something so stupid that you know what maybe it is wrong so what you're not there to point out every single one of their problems and how they decorate their house or whatever you're there to preach the gospel to them so so keep that in mind when you go out and you preach the gospel that like look everything needs to be appropriate you have to have the person in mind at all times that you're not there to offend them in something silly now if they get offended at the gospel that happens sometimes there's nothing you get I mean you're teach you're telling them the truth about the Word of God and about Christ dying for their sins we're not there just trying to you know start off before we could even get to talking about the gospel just whatever whatever stupid thing is that you don't like about their house or about whatever there's no point to that you're not you're not starting off on the right foot you're not being very respectful of that person you want you want to be able to speak and engage and if people get upset over the content of the Bible and the way that the conversation goes with you preaching the gospel again that's part of the job but at least you're representing Christ appropriately as an ambassador also we need to know how to show humility again we're in treating people with the gospel of Christ now you can be confident and we all should be confident in the Word of God we know that we're teaching truth so you don't have to preach the gospel in a questioning way of like as if what you're saying might not be true it is true so we're gonna present it that way but there's a difference between having the confidence in the Word of God and showing someone factually from the Bible like hey this is how you could be saved versus being arrogant and cocky about what you're saying and about them and about you know kind of just being real judgy on them and being like oh yeah well you you know of course you're not going to heaven and you know saying things and just a rude disrespectful manner as opposed to because like you can say that you can show someone that they're gonna go to hell in a tactful way versus being a jerk about it there's two different ways of saying things right and when you're trying to entreat people and show them hey look you know maybe use a little more compassion and care about the fact that look you're gonna you know you're gonna go to hell when you die if you don't believe this right this is this is important you got it you got to see this as truth and the whole point and the whole spirit that we need to have is one of caring for people and representing Christ the way that he would have you to represent him and not being ashamed now as I mentioned before because of the importance of the job being an ambassador it's important we ought to be putting forth an effort so part of improving our soul winning is also going to be doing things like spending time memorizing verses for example right getting the Word of God in your heart memorizing the verses that are good that you're good that you'd like to share with people so that you have those words in your heart it's gonna help you one to be able to better explain those verses when you've been meditating on you've been memorizing them you're thinking about them but also in case you you are in a position where you don't have a Bible handy on you or something like that you could still share the Word of God because it's memorized because you know it because you could then bring that up from memory and quote verses to people to share with them the gospel of Jesus Christ you know put forth your effort into knowing how you're gonna present the gospel to people it requires effort it requires you to take the time on your own time to go through the Bible and think and study and just be like how am I going to present this to people and put forth that effort always trying to improve again it's more effort it's work this is a job you're an ambassador you look at past failures you look at times where you should always be look to this day I question my interactions with people in the sense of could I have done anything better all the time all the time if you think you've just got the perfect presentation everything you do is right you need to humble yourself and look I've been so winning for 18 years and I am constantly looking at what I can do to improve there's self-analysis going back in my head replaying conversation could I have said this different could I've said that different what I've done different as well as going so winning with other people other partners I love doing that look I encourage you to do that and and and lately here I've been allowing everyone to kind of pick their own partners and go out so in with whoever you want to it's a great idea to start choosing other people occasionally at least to get to be able to learn from other people as well and hear what other people are saying and be able incorporate oh man I really like the way they explained it I think that's a great example or that's a great Bible verse I never really thought about using that in my presentation and I think that makes a lot of sense these are all areas where we can help one another to just become better and I've incorporated many people like like so many different people have had different things that they've done that I've incorporated in my soul winning to one capacity or another that has been very helpful so it's a great idea to not just continually always go with the same person every time because then it makes it a little bit harder to grow when you're not experiencing you know just going out with other people hey it's a it's a good opportunity also as you're as you're putting forth this effort into being an ambassador and being a good soul winner learn how to support the vital doctrines okay there's gonna be some things that come up regularly periodically just just pretty normally at the door when you're talking to people and if you don't know how to answer those questions make a note of those things write it down and then study it out later so that the net you know you might not be you're not gonna be able to answer everyone's questions all the time but there's something that you don't know if there's something that you get something or something you're not quite sure how to answer write it down so you can study it out later so that the next time someone asks that question you can answer that question for them but it requires effort make the notes and you know before I had a much better memory on where things were in Scripture in the back of my Bible and you know you can do the same exact thing or do whatever is gonna work for you but the point is put forth the effort in the back of the Bible you always have these blank pages so what I did when I was still trying to remember where everything was as a as a newer younger believer I would write down like I'll put JW here and then I would have all these verses that I would use if I talked to a JW or a Mormon or a Pentecostal or I would write a topic like hell I would write a topic about eternal security all these different things I would have little categories of stuff so if that if that came up I need to explain it more than I had verses and I could turn to and there's nothing wrong with having those AIDS with you to help you out and just be like oh yeah but you know what over time the goal is to not even have to rely on that right you know the Bible well enough to be able to just turn to wherever you need to to explain all these basic truths right now now obviously like like I've grown in over the years to handle all of the common stuff but it's not like I could just necessarily answer every single question that ever might possibly come up I'd you know I wish I had that mastery of the Bible to be able to just answer anything okay but I don't but you know what that's what we're striving for I want to be the best ambassador I could be answer as many questions as possible be able to to to give a reason for the hope that's in us right and be able to show people that and be very effective at showing them the truth so learn study know how to defend these things yourself learn how you can prove eternal security how you can prove the deity of Christ how you can prove that hell is a real place how you can you know all these things need to be proven to people you need to show it to them you need to explain and expound be like this is what the Bible teaches and here's the evidence for that because we never expect people to believe you just because you say it that's why we bring our Bibles with you and by the way bring your Bible with you and this is look I just mentioned about memorizing verses may use them but have your Bible with you and there is a lot of power to showing people's passages in the in the scripture I don't always turn to every single passage in the Bible when I'm preaching the gospel to people because I have them memorized however even though I have all of the verses that I use memorized it's rare when I will only ever just quote the scripture and not open up the Bible and show people and the reason being is because you're showing people what the Bible says and then it's clear look see what the Bible says right here that's the word of God obviously you can quote the word of God to people you can do that but it's you're going to be showing them something I think it's a little more powerful for them to see it for themselves it's it's going to add just a little bit more of them being able to see it and be like oh yeah that is what the Bible says and it's right there and you know you're bringing the Bible to them so you know all of these things are important now I'm going to shift gears just a little bit here to something that that I'm happy is come up a lot recently and has to do with sharing the gospel in other languages and I'm glad that there's actually a lot of people in our church that are really interested in being able to do this and being able to share the gospel especially because we run across so many Spanish-speaking people in our area here in Gwinnett County and specifically in Norcross in our area there's a lot of Hispanics a lot of people who only speak Spanish right and we have a heart and desire to reach those people and that's awesome but I want to give a little guidance when it comes to those who don't speak the language that want to reach these people with their language okay and this is just a little instruction and a little bit of guidance on what to do because there's been various people have come up with their own plans of like I can say this and I can see say this I know brother Devin has something brother Preston has something you know different people have different and look I use the same thing when I was out soul winning with helps and guides and things in Spanish and things you can say but I want to make sure we're very careful with this one because it could be you know people who don't know a language can end up ultimately just kind of wasting their time if you can't understand what people are saying to you don't engage them in a conversation there's not enough things you can write down in another language when it comes to presenting the gospel now if you wanted to go to a restaurant or some other public area and you're going to another country and you write down some things that you can say to try to to get somewhere or order something yeah great of course do that but when we're preaching the gospel there's more to preaching the gospel than just reading a verse right I mean you know English do you ever just go so and just be like I'm just gonna read this verse this verse this verse verse verse and then like maybe have them repeat a prayer and then walk away and be like yeah they got saved never you never do that you never do that you have to gauge your conversation you have to talk to people you have to see where they're coming from see what do they actually believe do you believe this or not you have to have communication with people to know where they're at now it doesn't mean you can't share a verse with someone great share a verse with someone you could read a verse in Spanish and share that with them maybe learn what to say to give a little explanation for that but if you don't know the language you're just going to be spinning your wheels and wasting your time doing too much of that now learn the language study the language and the more you learn the more you'll be able to do and be effective at the door okay but if you just can't understand anything that people are saying to you don't waste your time trying to go really far with a gospel presentation in that language it it just it just doesn't make sense so if you're extreme new beginner and you don't really know anything about the language here's something that you can learn that will be helpful and that's going to be to only speak what you know and maybe learn how to direct people to a video we have the cards learn the sentence or two that can say I don't know very much Spanish or I don't you know but here's a video explaining how to be saved please watch this when you have time and maybe you can say a verse or learn John 3 16 or something and leave them with that and there's a balance we have to strike between obviously our desire and our you know we want to get people saved and oftentimes when you're speaking a foreign language people will tend to listen to you more so you can get their attention but we want to make the best use of our time also so that you're not just you're not just an audio bible right because soul winning is not being an audio bible soul winning is communicating and explaining and talking about things so if you can't do that then just save your time say hey here's someone that can stay these things way better than I can right here's what's very experienced and they're going to be able to give the explanation do all this stuff and it's recorded and they can listen to that leave that with them and then continue on because you know hopefully you'll run into someone whose language you can speak and then you have more time to spend with them instead of trying to just you know follow a script and I'm not saying all scripts are bad but if you're just reading a script that's that's not really how we go soul winning there's an order there's verses we want to present things logically to people but it's never just a script don't go soul winning by just you just say this this this this like a like a new salesman that's trying to learn how to sell and be like okay customer says this I need to say this and you know let me get my manager for you and whatever right effective soul winning requires conversations requires dialogue requires you to engage with people so if you can't do that in the language recognize that for yourself learn study right do do everything you can to try to be able to do more and here's the thing as much as you can do I was talking to brother Devon before service about this and um you know he made a really great point which I believe wholeheartedly when he tries to give the gospel in Spanish he only will go as far as to where he could understand what the person is saying and as soon as you can't really understand what they're saying you know what that's a good time to say okay well I don't really know that much Spanish so here you can you can watch this and then move on right so I'm not saying don't try but but give spend the amount of time as is appropriate for your knowledge and understanding of the language you're trying to show people and if you know nothing just direct them to the video right and like I said maybe share a verse with them or something but but move on and then put forth the effort and learn more so that you can communicate better with people and then the more advanced you get in your understanding of a language obviously then spend more time and like now if I don't understand something someone says I could communicate enough to say hey I don't understand exactly what you said can you say it a little bit different right and and ask for some explanation because I've I've grown and to be able to understand more than that right but still even then if there's a point where I'm still just not getting what they're saying I'm done I don't really understand well okay thanks for your time so great continue to pursue foreign languages right but let's do so in a way that just makes sense right we're not just spinning our wheels at the door because our time is limited right another thing you can learn how to ask is does anyone here speak English and I'm serious about that like that's it's such a simple thing but think to ask that first because if someone speaks English and especially they could then translate help translate for you could still communicate and find someone there that can hey let me talk to them I could give them the gospel in English and then maybe they can help communicate also in Spanish or whatever the language right so so learn how to ask for that in addition to learning how to show people hey here's how you watch this video please right um let's continue out here turn if you would to act chapter two now all of these are very general principles and general things to help us improve our soul winning but there's also some some topics in some areas where I think specifically stronghold Baptist church needs to improve our soul winning okay and obviously the language thing is something that's come up more recently so I want to give guidance and direction on that because it's a great thing for a lot of people to want to do that and and I encourage that and I'm not trying to throw a wet blanket on it either like like learn the languages and learn how to communicate with people absolutely but let's just do so wisely so we're not wasting our time similarly to in English you're speaking to someone you don't want to waste your time you know debating a heretic right just just hey one or two verses right you'd manage them you give them the bible if they're not going to receive it and they're not going to hear it then just move on right we don't waste our time just arguing and arguing and arguing fine another day maybe right and and move on well I treat the language kind of similarly say okay well I don't really know that much about this so I'm going to here's a little bit here's a little something but thank you until you could learn and do better right but another area here and we're you're in Acts chapter two Bible reads in verse number 17 and it shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy and I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath blood and fire and vapor of smoke the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come verse 21 and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved now this is the day of Pentecost and this is when people were preaching the gospel the disciples were preaching the gospel to the people who were in attendance there God gave them the ability to speak with other languages to communicate with all these other people that were there but the prophecy from Joel that's being quoted here and saying hey look this is happening right now was in regards to them preaching the gospel and then whosoever shall call upon in the name of the Lord shall be saved but he says that God's going to pour out of the spirit on your sons and your daughters on the servants and my handmaidens it's men and women alike and what we're lopsided on in this church is the proportion of men that go sowing to women men that give the gospel versus women that give the gospel and look it is all of our duties as believers to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ women get saved the same as men get saved call the name of the Lord put your faith in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ women are sinners just as much as men are sinners we need Christ the same well you know what we also need to give the gospel the same now there are some differences in regards to families and having children and some of the things that might prevent the amount of time or how you go soul winning understood understood but that should not prevent soul winning altogether it can always be done and look i'm an example i'll lead by example and i was talking to leslie about what i was preaching today she was like well yeah you took me out soul winning and i'll say this i believe that husbands ought to train their wives if your wife doesn't know how to go soul winning preach the gospel it's your job husband to teach your wife how to go soul winning it's your job it's your duty you are the spiritual leader in the house you ought to be doing that and you know there's gender roles are taught all throughout scripture the husband being ahead of the house but in first corinthians chapter 14 and stay in acts stay in acts if you would first corinthians chapter 14 it talks a lot about speaking in tongues how things ought to be done in the house of god decently and in order but it also says this in verse 34 let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under obedience as also say at the law and if they will learn anything let them ask their husbands at home for the shame for women to speak in the church now i'm not talking about speaking in the church this morning but the what what we see the principle going forward here is look if if if the wife has a question ask your husband at home why because your husband's the one that's going to teach you he's that's his job he's supposed to be not just the the provider the financial leader of the house but he's also the spiritual leader of the house that's been that is a duty that god has given to husbands to be the head of the wife in all things so also spiritually you need to be the spiritual head of the house and and at the end of the day yes wives mothers have a lot of responsibility for rearing children and guiding the house and doing all these things but you know what there's an authority above that who's ultimately responsible for all of it and that's the husband so if things aren't being done appropriately at home husband it's your job to make sure that they are and that's that's your duty and if if you know you're a soul winner and you spend all this time and but your wife doesn't know how to go so you need to teach her you need to be able to help present the bride present your wife spotless as ephesians 5 talks about blameless right all of these things like like christ wants to to help the church and get the church in to be into a position of you know getting rid of sins and and being able to be presented spotless and blameless before him well that's also the duty of the husband with the wife and you could read ephesians 5 further for more information about that if you want that proven to you but we need to be uh especially the ladies understand one it's your job we see in acts chapter two it's your job we see in acts 21 verse eight i'll read this for you turn to first corinthians chapter nine first corinthians chapter nine acts 21 8 the bible says in the day and the next day we were we that were of paul's company departed and came unto caesarea and we entered into the house of philip the evangelist an evangelist is someone who preaches the gospel which was one of the seven and abode with him he was one of the this is philip that was one of the seven men that were chosen to take care of the the widows and other things he was man of good report but he was an evangelist it says and the same man had four daughters virgins which did prophesy he taught his his daughters to preach the gospel we saw in acts chapter two that that it wasn't just the sons it was also the daughters it wasn't just the servants it was the handmaidens that were also god poured his spirit out on them god can work through male and female because you're in christ it doesn't matter it's a spiritual thing that we're doing preaching the gospel it's not a carnal thing so some of the differences between men and women have more to do with with just living your life carnally with with different responsibilities but when it comes to preaching the gospel look that's a spiritual thing we all are subject to god so even though the wife may be subject to her husband the husband is subject to christ and christ to the father but that order of of authority the top reigns supreme so if anyone underneath that top authority is doing things or commanding things outside of the scope and and in contradiction to the greater authority then you're not bound to that immediate higher authority you're bound by the ultimate authority and it's what what i'm saying here is it's similar to to you know even our human government we've got a constitution of the whole united states of america and then you've got individual states now a law every state has their own laws and stuff but there's this one big overarching rule of law that can't be contradicted right there people say that's unconstitutional so states can't pass laws because there's a that would contradict the greater authority of the constitution of the united states so similarly right that we understand that that kind of makes sense well within a family if a husband is commanding his wife to do something but it's it's in contradiction to what god says then the wife is not bound to obey her husband in that in that area where that's that is not lawful that's not what what is right it's not what god says because because everyone individually is responsible to god we're all responsible for our own actions we all uh whatever our sins are we have our own responsibility to god look at verse number 16 in first corinthians chapter 9 the bible reads for though i preach the gospel i have nothing to glory of for necessity is laid upon me it's like i need to do this right it's a necessity yay whoa is unto me if i preach not the gospel so speaking about the duty of giving the gospel to people and preaching the gospel he's saying look this isn't just like well if i feel like doing it then i'll do and if i don't then i won't this is this is necessity like god has laid this burden on me i'm an ambassador this is my job i need to do this and in fact woe unto me if i don't do this if i don't take up this job if i don't preach the gospel the way i ought to look he's entrusted us with his word he's given us this ministry he's given us this job we need to do this and woe unto me if i don't do it verse 17 says for if i do this thing willingly i have a reward it's like hey god will reward you god will bless you god god you'll receive or earn rewards at the judgment of christ when you go forth and you serve him and you're doing good and you're bringing forth good fruit god rewards you for that so amen that's great so if i do this thing willingly i have a reward but if against my will hey a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me he's saying but but if even if i don't want to it's still been committed unto me this job is still mine to do if i go forth and do this willingly great i'm gonna get rewarded but even if i don't want to it's still my job it's still my job and that's male and female this isn't just unique to the apostle paul this is every believer has this obligation to preach the gospel of jesus christ and if you think about it you know there's so many ways to understood to look at this you're saved from hell i mean just think about how awesome that is anyways what great news it is that god saved you can you at least show some compassion some love for other people that you'd be willing to say you know what i'm gonna try to show the same exact thing that i've received the the good news the awesome news that i'm saved and and share that with somebody else so that they could have the same thing that i have it's not like you have to hoard the gospel to yourself like i got eternal life you can't have any no it's available to everybody it's not it's not limited eternal life it's it's infinite eternal life right it's there for all the whole world christ paid for everyone sins it's not like christ i only died for 100 million people sins and then after that it's it's done we've reached the limit like no all sins all people so let's share that with people love people enough to do that a few more points and i'll wrap this up um improving our improving our soul winning okay so so you know i encourage ladies and you know families especially work out a way for this to happen and you know the bigger our family's gotten sometimes the harder it is to to have everyone go especially when you have real little ones and little babies and stuff but you know what husbands work it out with your wives to be able to go so winning sometimes and even if it's not as often as you go work it out i mean there's times where i'll hang back so that leslie can go and do so winning on a day it's like hey i haven't you know and i'll go to say hey look you haven't gone soloing very much in a while why don't you go and and and you know we we could take turns but you know what else you could do is you also bring the whole family with you and we do that sometimes too and again everyone's situation might be a little bit different some things depend more on the weather you got a brand new baby you're not going to bring a brand new baby out and like freezing ice sleet rain or whatever you know like like you're going to be considerate of the health of of your whole family but there's plenty of still opportunities to be able to make things work there's always a way to make it work there's always a way always but it has to be important enough to you to make it work improving our soul winning transitioning to being a talker if you've been going out and being a silent partner for a long time you need to think about transitioning to speaking okay and i'll encourage you with this it gets easier a lot easier once you actually start talking so you have to have the courage or the boldness to be able to open up your mouth okay but once you get over that hurdle once you do it even the first time it only gets easier it might be slightly easier at first but after a few times of of putting yourself out there opening up your mouth saying i'm going to do this i'm going to try to share the gospel with someone it will get increasingly easier over time and we've well i don't know if we've all been there i've been there as someone who is super shy never you know never wanted people to even open the door i would go soloing because i knew i had to necessity was laid upon me i saw from scripture personally i saw that i went to church it was preached and i saw that and i was like well hey i have to go no doubt about it like i have to go i have to do this so i want to be right with god so i'm going to go soloing but then you go out there and it's like i didn't really want to talk to people because why because i was scared i was scared it's kind of embarrassing to say that i was scared but you know what he did it anyways and then after a while you realize why was i scared seriously like there was no reason for it it's irrational okay it's irrational but don't feel like if you have anxiety if you're scared if you don't know what to say if you're if you're nervous we've been there and just let me be proof to you that god will use you you have to yield yourself to him though and you have to be able to take the step and and take the step on faith that even though you may not be a good speaker even though you may not feel that comfortable even though you might not think you're that good at giving the gospel or something that god will still use you and here's the other point to that too again drawing from my own experience it took me i don't know how long months and months and months and months and months and months of being a silent partner before i would say anything and and here's what happened in my experience i was i learned soul winning directly from pastor anderson and here i am an immature young christian not knowing a whole lot going with the pastor of church that has immense knowledge and wisdom from the bible and it's been going out soloing for a super long time really good at it knows how to speak we would know how to handle every situation and here am i going man i don't even know what i would say for some of these you know like like i'm just kind of blown away i'm just thinking like wow this is awesome and i was learning and i was listening and everything but every time we'd go to the door i would just think like i don't want to screw this up for that person i want him to give the gospel because he's better at it than i am this is my thought process but look it's a faulty thought process and hear me out it wasn't until i actually went with someone from a whole different church that didn't do so in the same way that we do where i actually got the courage to say oh wait i could do this because now i'm with someone who wasn't pastor anderson that that wasn't doing as good of a job and not explaining you know not not even really getting into the gospel they're kind of more just inviting people to church so that's where i drew the courage to be able to say well hey look i think i could do this and you know what i was able to do it and was i perfect i didn't know i wasn't perfect i didn't know of course like i stumbled around and fumbled a little bit but after that then the next time i went i was hoping for inspiration then i was able to start talking again like as soon as you open up your mouth it just gets a little bit easier but here's what you have to understand too is what if i mean here i am today pastoring a church in georgia and we have a great amount of people here that are also soul winning and serving god and doing everything here what if i just never opened up my mouth to be a soul winner if i just stayed a silent partner the whole time well none of this would happen at all there's no way i'd be an ordained pastor of a church if i can't even open my mouth and preach the gospel of jesus christ right but it all has to start from somewhere right and the learning and the growth and everything and here's the thing now how many more people instead of just leaving one man to do all the work and say well he's better at it than i am well you know what you just need to get better then and just put yourself out there because you know what you're gonna get a lot more accomplished with two people that could preach the gospel than one and let's say we have 20 people that could preach the gospel here well we're going to do a lot more work if we have 40 people that could preach the gospel here and as we grow look you silent partners you need to start speaking so that your partner can now go soul winning with someone else who's new who doesn't know and has never been soul winning before and then ultimately you'll be able to take people with you and show them the ropes too and that's how we grow and that's how things get done and you need to just be able to you know overcome whatever it is in your mind that's preventing you from trying to give the gospel and just do it and look we don't make it any easier for you because at any point if you have any trouble with preaching gospel just turn your partner and ask them for help and let them finish but but start talking you'll you'll grow that much faster and you know in in retrospect i wish i had started earlier because i could have done what i had done you know instead of waiting six months i could have waited maybe one month or something you know what i mean like like if i would have just because the growth happens so much faster once you get started doing it the learning by the experience is is way better than just learning by hearing doing do it and and let your and let your partner guide you too if there's anything that they could help you ask your partner get done preach your gospel hey what can i have said i've done anything different that's what they're there for now i have this written down to improve our soul and here be diligent with your maps please we're trying to do everything decently in order we got a big plan we're trying to do everything to make sure we're reaching everybody so we're keeping track of what we do okay be considerate of people who might go back to a place after you've done it be really clear about what's done what's not done write notes write down this building's done these doors aren't done if you're facing the building this way it's a left stairwell not the right stairwell whatever like as much just give the information so that way we can be diligent in making sure we talk to everybody because we're trying to reach everybody okay so that's that's another thing we just just treat it as being important we could you know and we don't want to necessarily sometimes we choose to go back to the same areas more than once but we want to at least know hey look we've been here we've got this all done so we can target other areas because again the goal is to try to reach everybody in our area that's one of the main goals and then finally um pay attention to people's body language and as a newer soul you just start talking you're probably more focused on what you need to say and i get it right this is something that's going to come over time and it's going to help you improve once you get past the point of having to really focus on what passage should i turn to next and what do i have to say you know like like you get past you kind of grow through that phase of being able to comfortably present the gospel in a way that you're real just confident of okay i need to show them you're a sinner i'm gonna show them the penalties for sin i'm gonna show them what christ did for us explain who christ is what they have to do to be saved believe in the lord jesus christ and you're saved forever it's eternal you know i know how to do that i'm i've got that down i'm i'm comfortable with that now start paying more attention to the people you're talking to and try to discern whether or not they're even interested in what you're saying because again just like foreign language or just like debating a heretic you could be wasting your time if people aren't really interested in what you're saying if you notice people spacing off and not paying attention everything else it's okay to say i'm sorry like are you are you paying attention do you want to hear this right and you have to be rude about it even if they're being rude maybe they're being disrespectful and they're doing things that's just like come on man do you want me to be here or not but you can ask them politely say i'm sorry you know i don't want to i don't want to waste your time if you don't really want to hear this i could go i don't have to do this right now right because we don't want to waste our time either so if someone's just gonna be polite enough to not tell you to leave it's still not gonna do any good so not they're not hearing you they don't really care okay just look at people's demeanor and and sometimes we read wrong which is why you ask a question if they say no no i'm paying you know like some people just they've got add or something and they're you know but they're but they are listening and they want to hear so you ask the question don't assume just ask them say hey do you want me to you know do you want to hear this you want me to come back is it you know there's something whatever and then deal with that and learn to know when people just really don't want to talk to you and don't be the person that has to like shove your foot in the door and make them hear you because again that's a waste of time if they don't want to hear you then move on someone will want to hear you there are people out there that want to hear the gospel believe it or not they're there and that's who we're looking for we're not trying to cram anything down anyone's throat we're not trying to force people into it and force people to pray and put you know like don't be so aggressive because everything has a balance and if you think that you have but if i just do this and this and this i could get them to pray and you know like the goal isn't to get them to pray the goal is to get them to believe and to receive christ do we pray with people yeah we do but it has to be in their heart they have to want to do it otherwise it's pointless leading people through some steps and having them pray a prayer that's not salvation they have to put their faith in christ it's an internal thing obviously we can't see that perfectly but but that's the goal so when people aren't interested they don't want to have anything to do with it they don't really care about what you have to say then they're not going to change their heart they're not going to change they're not going they're not going to trust jesus when they don't even want to hear about them so move on right and and occasionally you have people who change their minds kind of if you get talking to them a little bit right so some people might be a little hesitant to hear the gospel at first and if you could just say a little bit get a verse out there and be like hey look sometimes people say that you know you're going to hell because you don't go to church that's not what the bible says and sometimes that's enough for people to say like oh really okay i'll hear more because they just think they know what you're gonna say but again discerning is this person really interested or not because when they're not interested move on we want to maximize our time and reach people dialogue communicate interact have a discussion talk hear what they believe no matter how wrong it is hear what they have to say so then you can show them no but look this is what the bible says this is true right this is this is where this is what you need to understand here's what the bible says and get them to to grasp that all right i've gone a little bit over time this morning but this is super important you know i care about this is the the light blood of our church we want to reach people with the gospel treat the job importantly we're ambassadors for christ leave with that thought in your mind every time we go out and preach the gospel you're an ambassador you're representing jesus christ how are you conducting yourself how do you present yourself at the door how do you speak how do you communicate with people all these things you're representing jesus christ and that's what we do right and you know what you're representing your church too obviously jesus christ is more important but you're representing stronghold baptist church when we go out and we speak so let's let's be above reproach let's not let our flesh take over and get involved in in you know arguments and yelling and you know and all this stuff that just and and i've been there and you know sometimes there's really wicked people that need to be rebuked but we're still not out to make a scene right you rebuke someone and move on and don't don't get wrapped up into any carnal behavior let's bow our heads our word of prayer dear lord thank you so much for entrusting us with the gospel it's such a great honor that you've given us this duty to uh to preach your word i pray that you please help us to be that our vessels that are meat for the master's use that we can be um going forth and and bearing that precious seed and that and that you would help us to become better more fruitful servants dear lord and and guide us and lord help those that that maybe have anxieties or fears and and have uncertainties to overcome uh those those internal things to be able to just share the gospel and to preach your word and god help us to uh to get more laborers because the harvest truly is white under harvest and um but the laborers are few i pray that you please just add to our church and help us to to reach as many people as we possibly can with the good news uh about eternal life lord we love you it's in jesus name we pray amen all right we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed brother peter will you please lead us all right church if you can grab your hymnals and open up the song number 374 song 374 send a light song 374 all right church let's sing this out with all our hearts do forever and stand shine from shore to shore oh your heart gospel forever so you