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

So we're looking at common heresies, especially in America, in our culture today that are preached where we're false doctrine that's taught, you know, twisting the truth of the Bible. We looked at, the first week we looked at lordship, salvation. The second week we looked at Calvinism. After that we looked at dispensationalism. If you're looking for the dispensationalism, certainly, by the way, we had technical difficulties so you had to be in church to hear that one. But tonight is going to be a little bit different tinge. We're going to be talking about, it's not even what I would call a heresy, but it's more of a philosophy that you see in many Bible believing churches. What I mean by that, this is churches that have the correct gospel. So you're going to see this in churches, not churches that we are friends with, but churches that have the correct gospel. Many of them have these philosophies. The title of the sermon tonight is the anti-soul winning movement or anti-soul winning philosophies. Just philosophies out there where churches may have the right gospel, but they don't go soul winning. And of course, in order to not go soul winning, they teach philosophies against soul winning and why they don't go soul winning. So I'm going to look at three of those this evening and kind of tell you at the end of the sermon where those philosophies come from, why there are pastors out there that have the gospel correct, but are not, you know, that are against soul winning. I mean, it's kind of, it's strange for us to even say or hear those words, but look down at Mark chapter 16 and look at verse number 15. So Mark chapter 16 and verse number 15 is one of the most complicated verses in the entire Bible. It's very complicated. It's like Bible prophecy, you know, it's very hard to understand what this verse is saying. You know, we really have to read it again and again and ponder on it and use the Holy Spirit to really just help us understand what Jesus is saying when he says, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You're like, man, what does he mean by that? But what he means by that is to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's a direct command. And of course I'm being, I'm being silly here, but it's one of the simplest things besides the gospel in the Bible. The gospel is simple. You know, the simplicity in Christ, don't let anyone confuse you and tell you that the gospel is complicated, but this command that we are the ones to be the ambassadors of the gospel is very simple and it's all over the Bible. So you say, how in the world could any church that believes the true gospel teach this? Look folks, it's common. It's a common story of people that have been in churches where the church leadership, the pastor, does not believe in soul winning. It's my story. The very first Baptist church I went to, the pastor was in one of these three categories on why they did not go soul winning. Because look, it's something that they had to explain away, basically, but it's many people's stories. I mean, God forbid, you know, somebody, it's even a story of people that have moved away from a good soul winning church into a church that doesn't go soul winning. Why you would ever do that is beyond me. But then they go and they try to start a soul winning ministry at that, you know, old IFB church or whatever it is. They try to start a soul winning program, but when the pastor hasn't done it, you say, well, what's wrong with that? You know, then there's many different conclusions to that story. Maybe the pastor appeases them for a while. Maybe he, you know, tries to go along with it for a little bit. The story has never seemed to end well, and I'm going to tell you why that is towards the end of the sermon. But there's all sorts of different versions, and I'm sure you have heard, maybe even have your version of this same story, but you say, you know, what's wrong with going to a church that doesn't have a soul winning program and trying to start a soul winning program. What's wrong with that? You know, I mean, aren't you being kind of judgmental here? The main problem is this. The main problem with that is this. Trying to exert influence in an area where you don't have the authority to exert influence is never going to work out well for you. It is not your, it is not, I mean look, people suggest things to me all the time, even trusted people in this church. Like this is not what I'm talking about. Before the anniversary weekend, one of the ushers came up to me and said, you know, there's this panel on the wall in the ladies' bathroom that's, it's pretty ugly, and you know, it might be a good idea to replace that. That's a good suggestion. Because I don't hang out in the ladies' restroom, and I didn't, I kind of forgot about that. And I was like, yeah, that's a good idea, let's get that panel replaced. But that's not one of the fundamentals of our faith, is that panel in the ladies' restroom. All right? If you have to go to a church and change the fundamentals of what they're doing there, that is not your sphere of influence. That's not where, you're outside of your wheelhouse at that point. You should not go to a church and try to change the pastor's program. That's his wheelhouse. If he gets that wrong, that's not on you. I mean, this is the equivalent of a wife, of a wife trying to take over the control of the authority in her family. You know, saying like, I don't like the way this idiot's doing things, so I'm going to take over that control myself. That's wrong. That's wrong. That should never be the option of the wife in her mind as a biblical wife, is to try to just override the authority of her husband. And guess what? Biblical women that believe that they are always to be submissive and under the authority of their husband, you know what? That young lady will choose wisely who she marries. But the young lady who decides, like, oh, you know, if I marry this guy and he doesn't do what I think is the smartest thing, I'm just going to override him and I'm just going to box him and I'm just going to do all these things to him. He's going to make, the Bible's true, folks, the Bible's right. Stay in your wheelhouse and you'll make better choices in your life. So the same philosophy applies to, you know, coming into a church and trying to change the pastor in a fundamental of the faith that he has wrong, okay? And look, I'm going to explain to you towards the end of the sermon, but if he has that fundamental wrong, that is not the only thing that he has wrong. I guarantee it. It's like, it's like somebody that can't add, it's like somebody that can't add, I guarantee you they can't do algebra. I mean, I guarantee you they're not doing, like, you know, integrals and differential equations if they can't even add. So there's many other problems. You're not going to go in there and just magically fix a church that is against soul winning by going in there and just fixing the pastor on that one thing, because look, there's many other issues there, all right? When such a basic first work is missed, that is a sign that there are other problems. So this is kind of a damnable heresies extra tonight. We're going to look at these philosophies. You know, we've got a church. We're talking about a church with the correct gospel. A church with a King James Bible behind the pulpit. And a church, that church, that doesn't go soul winning. You say, what kind of church is that? There's a lot of them. There's a lot of those churches out there. And not only do they not go soul winning, but they downplay soul winning. And they try to stop people from going soul winning. They downplay the idea itself. Go to Romans chapter 10. Go to Romans chapter 10. So here's the first one. Here's the first excuse that a pastor of a church like this will give about why they don't go soul winning. Go to Romans chapter 10. This was my very first Baptist church experience right here. Before I moved to California, this was what the pastor of that church, and I'm not trying to, you know, cast shade on anybody, but this is a real philosophy that is taught in some Baptist churches today. Romans chapter 10, look at verse number 14. But the first reason, the first anti-soul winning philosophy, so I'm going to start from the dumbest ones and go to the more complex ones. But the first one is it's not my responsibility. The pastor was preaching, it's just not my responsibility to go out and preach the gospel to people. You're just like, what in the world? Look at Romans chapter 10 and verse number 14. The Bible says this, it says, how then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? So the Bible here is kind of doing this backwards thing. It's this great verse here where it's talking about somebody, you know, calling on the name of the Lord. Look, after you believed on or trust Jesus, you're going to call out and you're going to ask Jesus to save you. You know, that's the prayer that people call out and say, you know, I believe this now and Lord save me. You know, they're calling out. You know, belief and, you know, I mean, this is another silly question people ask. What if you believe and trust in Jesus and you don't call on Him? It's like, it's two sides of the same coin. You're not going to think that if you trust on Jesus, you're going to be saved eternally and then you're not going to call out and ask for that salvation. It just, they go together, okay? But it says, how are they going to believe, how are they going to believe if they haven't heard it? How are they going to believe the gospel? How are they going to trust on Jesus if they haven't heard the gospel? How are they going to hear the gospel? Through a preacher, that's you. That's you as you go out and you tell them. Here's the thing, this makes zero sense and it's interesting that the first pastor of a Baptist church that I went to like came out several years later and was like, I wasn't even saved. So, I mean, he was, like I said, there's many other issues. There's many other issues that such a fundamental first works, first work is missed. But just think about this. Every single time God had a message for the people, think about the entire Old Testament. What are the prophets? We looked at the minor prophets, a minor prophet this morning, what are the major prophets? It was God choosing men to deliver his message. Every single time there was a message, God used a man. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 1. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 1. We're not going to spend a ton of time on this one because it's pretty ridiculous. Every single time God wanted to tell the nation of Israel something or the children of Judah something or the northern kingdom something, he sent a man. That's why we have the prophets. Look at Jeremiah chapter 1 in verse number 6. How did the man know what to say? Look at Jeremiah. When God first calls Jeremiah, look at verse number 6. Jeremiah, then said I, O Lord God, behold, I cannot speak for I am a child. You know who also said the same type of thing? Moses. Moses, maybe like the best advocate for the people in the entire Bible, arguably. Moses was like, I'm not eloquent, I can't speak. How am I going to go stand before Pharaoh? Look what God says in verse 7. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. I love verse number 7 there because he's saying, he's basically saying to Jeremiah, hey, you don't have to worry about the fact that you can't speak and you can't talk and you're not eloquent like Moses said. You don't have to worry about that because I'm going to tell you what to say. You know what we do when we're out soul winning? We don't go out soul winning and be like, hey, let me tell you in my own words about Jesus. You know what we do? We show him the Bible. We preach the gospel through the words of God. Not our words. And it's interesting because some of the best soul winners that I know are very introverted people. They're not the type of people that you would think would stand up and just give some great oration about anything. They're just the quietest people and just like they're just excellent soul winners. But you know why they can be excellent soul winners? It's not our words. It's not our words. Our words, my words don't have any power. My words don't have any power. It's the word of God that has power. It's the word of God that saves. It's the word of God that makes people spiritually alive, that quickens, the Bible says. Our words mean nothing. You're like, oh, I can explain it really well. That's why I'm not really, you know, there's a couple of, if you watch a soul winning seminar, there's a couple of analogies that we can use and generally those are very biblical analogies. But we very much want to stick to the Bible. You know, some of the most confusing soul winning presentations are people that have come up with their own way to explain things. I mean, you will go out soul winning with people like that and they've come up with their own special way of explaining the gospel. They've got their own special examples and their own special this and you will listen to that and you will be like, you're like, I'm saved and I don't even know what they're talking about. I mean, have you ever been soul winning with somebody like that? Why? Because they're not sticking to the words of God. Because that's what God told the prophets. That's what God is telling Jeremiah. He's like, I'm just a child. He's like, don't worry, I'll tell you what to say. All he's telling him is I'm going to tell you what to say and then he tells them, but you have to say what I tell you to say. They're not going to like it. He's warning him. The next few verses, he's like, be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said unto me, behold, I put my words into thy mouth, singular th. I put my words into your mouth, Jeremiah. That's what God is saying here and he's saying, look, the only problem that you're going to have is there's a lot of people, especially Jeremiah. I can't find one single person that listened to Jeremiah. Everybody was against Jeremiah. They threw him in pits. They threw him in prison and then at the end, he gets paid. At the end of his life, they kidnapped him. It's like nobody listened to him. Nobody listened to him. So that's all he needed to know. He didn't need to know what to say. God just said, I will tell you what to say. This is how God operates. He gives us the gospel and he's saying, you go preach it. So that the only way people are going to be able to believe this and actually get saved is if you go tell him. And look, does everybody want to hear the gospel? No. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of people don't want to hear the gospel. But guess what? Some people do. And that's why we go forth. We're not afraid of their faces. So that's the first one. Look, even as a Lutheran, this idea that it's my responsibility is ridiculous because before I was saved, when I was a Lutheran, I moved from North Dakota to Texas and I met all these Baptists. I worked with Baptists. There was Baptists knocking on my door. And I literally said to my Lutheran pastor, I was like, because look, somebody asked me yesterday like, before you were saved, did you read the Bible? How many times did you read the Bible cover to cover before you were saved? And I was like, none. I tried to read the Bible several times before I was saved, but the Bible literally makes no sense unless you're saved. You can't make sense of it. Unless you understand the gospel, have that Holy Spirit in you to help you discern that spiritual book, you can't understand the Bible. I've read Genesis 1 like 500 times. You know, I'm like, I'm going to read the Bible. And it just doesn't make any sense. I've tried to read through the New Testament. It just didn't make any sense. But even as a Lutheran, I literally remember asking my pastor when we had all these Baptists knocking doors and I knew Baptists that I worked with that would go out on Saturdays and knock doors and they were going out and they were soul winning. And I asked my Lutheran pastor one day, I said, why aren't we doing this? This seems like something we should be doing. I said to my Lutheran pastor, you know what he said to me? Did he open the Bible and show me? No, he said to me, we're just not that kind of church. I'll never forget that answer. He didn't care. Of course, that's a false church, he's a false prophet. That's a whole other thing. But there's nothing in the Bible that, of course, he could have pointed to. So this idea that I even understood it as an unsaved Lutheran that we should be going out at least telling people about Jesus, whatever that means, all right, as a Lutheran. So that one's pretty silly, all right? Here's the second one. Here's the second one. Second anti-soul winning philosophy is this, are these people really getting saved? Are these people that we go out and we talk to, I don't know how many salvations we had today, I think it was three or maybe more, three that I heard of, but did those three people really get saved? And then what they do is they use this straw man argument. They use this straw man argument of, yeah, that's easy believism. That's easy believism, and then they say, they're just one, two, three, pray after me type of people. These people aren't really getting saved, all they're doing, and they use a straw man argument. What's a straw man argument? A straw man argument is when you take an extreme version of somebody's side of the debate, so it's easy to just disprove it. So a straw man argument against soul winning would be this, oh, you're just out there just shoving your foot in the door and just trying to get people to recite a prayer with you. That's the straw man against soul winning, are these people really getting saved? Now, it's extra wicked because it's actually attacking actual soul winning, but we do believe in easy believism here. Why? Because it's easy to believe. Because salvation is not hard. It is not hard for a person that has their heart in the right place, that is a humble person, that's just never been told the truth from the Bible, it's not hard to just change your mind and instead of trusting in yourself, trust on Jesus, that's easy. And people say that all the time, people you'll be out soul winning and they'll literally say to you, I just never had anyone explain it to me this way, I've never had anyone show me this from the Bible, you know what's complicated? You have to do this, this, this, and this to go to heaven, and it's different depending on whatever Pentecostal pastor or whatever athletic priest or whatever you're listening to, all the things that you have to do and the things that you can't do to not go to hell, I mean that's complicated. Trust me, I used to believe that, it's complicated. I'm like, I'm an engineer, I'm like if you're going to tell me I've got to do works to get to heaven, I need charts, I need graphs, I need spreadsheets, I mean how many sins can I commit a day, how many times do I have to say sorry, I go to church on Sunday morning and I confess my sins, I chant this thing and it's like the Etch-A-Sketch theology, I clear the slate and then I think of something stupid like four minutes later, am I going to hell now? It's complicated, it's confusing. Then the Bible tells me I can know that I have everlasting life, eternal life, that's what's complicated, that's what's hard. If you had to work your way to heaven, it'd be so hard you'd never get there, it'd be so hard it'd be impossible, the Bible says. So this is the straw man that we're out there just trying to, we're out there just trying to get people to pray. No, why do we have a soul-winning seminar? Why do we sit here and have soul-winning tips every single week? Because we give thorough presentations of the Gospel here. We use the Word of God and we sit and we explain and look, there's many times when we'll give the Gospel, it just happened to me yesterday, we'll give the Gospel halfway through, three quarters of the way through and a mature soul-winner will know this person isn't paying attention and we'll just let them go, they're just being nice, they're listening to us, encourage them to watch the video. Look, a prayer means nothing if people don't believe. We're not out there to pray with people that haven't trusted in Jesus, we're not out there to confuse people, we're not out there to make people think falsely that they're saved because they said a prayer, but we are easy believism because it is easy to believe. Think about this for a second though, think of this philosophy, think of this anti-biblical philosophy that those people aren't really getting saved. Think about if one person, think about this, if one person trusts on Jesus Christ, believes on the Lord Jesus Christ in their life, one person from the beginning of time until now until the end of the world, if one person trusts on Christ and goes to hell, the Bible's not true. Think of what they're saying. Think of what they're saying, I mean, do they even believe the gospel? Do they even believe the gospel, do they believe the Bible? How long does it, and look, it leads into heresy, and follow me with this one, because how long does it take someone to change their mind? Haven't you seen, haven't you seen in real time, whether it be at work, whether it be just visiting with friends or family, haven't you seen people change their mind in their life? Hasn't that happened to you? That's exactly what happens out soul winning. You go and you show the Bible to somebody and you are literally watching someone repent. Repent means to change your mind. You are watching someone repent in front of your very eyes. It's just like that. People can change their mind like that. Like, why do they change, why do we recap things? Why do we go through the gospel for 20 minutes and then recap what they believe? Because we want to make sure they change their mind. And you know what? Most times you're out soul winning, you can see the moment where they change their mind. You can, it's a beautiful thing, you can watch it happen. It's like a light bulb, they just, they get it. Just like that. But then you get into these philosophies like, oh, I don't know, if they change their mind in 20 minutes, were they really sorry for their sins? It's like, wait a minute, the Bible doesn't say be sorry and be saved. The Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The Bible, I mean, you will have people cry. You will have people break down in tears when you were given to God, but not everybody will. You will have people where you are just like, you can see that moment where they change their mind. You will have people break down in tears. But look, it is not about how sorry you think that they feel. It is whether or not they change their mind about trusting in their works. Because that's what all people are doing is they're trusting in some form of their own works, and they've taken that trust off themselves and decided to put it on Jesus Christ. That's a decision. And that decision happens just like that. I mean, you wonder, do they believe the Bible? How could you believe the Gospel and believe this philosophy? And even beyond that, we're talking about do they really get saved? Why? Okay, say you were against praying with people. I mean, this is just like more thought experiment stuff. Say that you were against praying. We are always going to pray with people here. If people want to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved, we are always going to do that. But say you were against. Say you were some pastor and you're against praying with people. Why would you not go out and tell people about Jesus? Why would you not at least go out and preach the Gospel to people, even if you think it takes a week or whatever for it to soak in or marinate or I don't know what kind of doctrine you're pushing there. But why would you not at least go out and tell people about Jesus? There's something else wrong. That's why they're pushing this philosophy. And I'm going to tell you what's wrong with those people. Turn to Luke chapter 14. Turn to Luke chapter 14. I know these seem ridiculous, but these are out there. These are out there and they're in a lot of churches today. A lot of Baptist churches are pushing this stuff today. Turn to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. Here's another one. Here's another one that I've not seen this one personally, but I've heard it from several people that have been in churches like this. Where the pastor does soul winning and he pushes this philosophy of, well, they just need to come to church. They need to come to us and then we will give them the Gospel here. So that's what people need to do. And look, I mean, when people come to church, we are going to give them the Gospel. We will ask people when they come to church if they know if they're going to go to heaven, if they want to hear the Gospel, we're going to tell them in church. But this philosophy that we don't need to go out and preach to people, instead everyone just needs to come to us completely unbiblical. Look at Luke chapter 14. I could just read your Bible on this one all day long, but let's just look at this story in Luke chapter 14. Look at verse number 16. Luke chapter 14. This is a story where Jesus basically says, go out in the highways and hedges and find them. It's an analogy here. The first said unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many. And he said to the servant at suppertime, to say to them that were bidden, Come for all things are now ready. Bade means, you know, bid them to come, you know, bid them to come in, invite them, go invite people. Come for all things are now ready. And they with all, all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. I pray thee have me excused. Another said, I bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them, I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and showed his lord these things, it's like nobody's coming. Then the master of the house, being angry, imagine this, he makes this great supper and nobody wants to come, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city, and bring hither the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hath commanded, and yet there is room. There's still more room. The Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. Now this is a, the immediate application here is a reference to the Jews rejecting Christ and the Gentiles being brought in. But the broader application of this is that, you know, we need to go out, look, there's plenty of room in God's house, and there's way more people that God wants invited that, you know, it kind of goes against, by the way, Calvinism here, because, I mean, he kind of says he bade many, so people that were invited didn't come. There's so much for irresistible grace, I mean, how does that fit with Calvinism? I mean, people that were invited, guess what, folks, whosoever is invited, whosoever is invited to heaven. But they need to be invited, they need to be, we need to go out in the highways and the hedges and tell them that. We need to go out. This servant, that's you, by the way, this servant needs to go out and bid the people, need to go out and invite the people. It's a definite takeaway is that we should be inviting others to come to what? To heaven. That's what this is getting at. Look at Acts chapter 1 and verse number 8. Acts chapter 1, verse 8, just this idea that, okay, when they come to church, when people come to church, they just need to come here. They can only get saved here, just completely unbiblical, completely wrong. Look at Acts chapter 1, look at verse number 8. Jesus says, we shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria until the utter part of the earth. We need to go local, we need to go wider, we need to go all over the earth. That's us to be witnesses of Jesus Christ to the entire world. It is the clearest commandment in the Bible besides salvation, besides believing on the words of Jesus Christ is that we are to go to the highways, to the hedges. In Ephesians 6, talking about the armor of God, it talks about our feet will be shod with the gospel of peace. What does that mean? We're going to be using our feet to spread the gospel. Why? Because we're going to go to people. To miss that, to miss that, you know, you just have to ask, like, what else is missed? What else is missed here? So look, these are, these are, these are major anti-soul winning philosophies that are pushed in a lot of, unfortunately, Baptist churches today and you say, why, why the excuses though? Why are they doing this? Because they must know, like a pastor, a pastor that is truly saved and understands to even the lowest degree of the Bible, must know that he is supposed to be out soul winning. You say, why the excuses? Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 10 and let me explain to you two reasons, two reasons that this is not, that these philosophies are prevalent today. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 10 and look at verse number 18. The first one is this, soul winning is work. Soul winning is, it's hard work at times. And from, look, from a pastor's perspective, a soul winning ministry, you know, building up soul winners, look, a pastor, in order to start a soul winning ministry at a church, a pastor is going to have to be the most energetic about soul winning, a pastor is going to have to do the most soul winning, especially at the beginning, to get people fired up, to get people influenced to go out soul winning, he's going to have to do a lot of preaching on soul winning, he's going to have to get out, cry aloud, spare not, because guess what? The people don't want to do the work either. To somebody that is not used to soul winning, it can be a terrifying thing to say, I want you to come out with me, we're going to walk down the street with a Bible and we're going to tell people the gospel of Jesus Christ and not everybody's going to like it, but be not afraid of their faces. Look, that takes a lot of effort from a pastor and quite frankly, it's laziness, it's laziness, they don't want to go through that effort. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 10, look at verse number 18, I mean this is a great example of a church that doesn't, this is a great verse for a church that doesn't go soul winning right here, it says, by much slothfulness the building decayeth, and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. Now of course this is just applying to things just falling apart if you're lazy, but apply it directly to the house of God. Look at the church in Ephesus, the church in Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2, where Jesus Christ basically says to them, he's like, you better get doing the first works, this was their problem. What we're talking about tonight is the first works, the simplest, most important things. There's a lot of administration to the church, there's a lot of things that can go here and things that can't go here, but soul winning is the first work. Getting out and preaching the gospel is the first work, and Jesus says, if you don't get back to these first works, to the church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2, he said, I will come to thee quickly, I will come to thee quickly, and what's he going to do? He's going to remove their candlestick. You know what that means? The candlestick in the very last verse of Revelation chapter 1, the candlestick represents the church itself. You know what Jesus is saying? You better get soul winning, or you're not a church. Why does it matter if Jesus thinks we're a church or not? Because he's in charge. Because he's the head of the church. And if Jesus says, we're not a church, we're not a church anymore. You know what that tells me? These Bible-believing churches that have the gospel correct aren't churches if they're not soul winning. Because Jesus says, I'm coming to you quickly, here they haven't been soul winning since the beginning or for years or whatever it is, they're not churches. That's pretty serious. That's Jesus' words, not mine. So look, it's laziness, but it's a church killer. It takes a lot of energy, and you know what? That kind of energy, it can't be fake either. A pastor that is trying to start a soul winning ministry and try to build up soul winners, making soul winning seminars, training soul winners, because look, it is super important to me that we go soul winning, but we do it correctly. It is a core culture of this church. I don't care if you have to be a silent partner out soul winning for a year. I don't care. I would rather you be a silent partner for a year and become an awesome soul winner that's a thorough soul winner. No one's going to pressure you to start speaking sooner than you want to. The main thing is that we're doing it correctly. Why? Because people's souls are at stake. This may be that time when you knock on somebody's door, and they open the door, and you ask them if they know if they're going to heaven, and they don't know, and you say, do you want to know? And they say yes, and you are about to open your mouth and speak God's word to them. Maybe the only time they hear the gospel in their entire life, they may get one chance. That's how important it is. That's how big of a responsibility it is as a soul winner. Look, that takes a lot of energy for a pastor to build that kind of program. But look, folks, it's the reason we're here. You say I love coming to church. All my friends are at church. Church is awesome. The kids are awesome. Everything's great. Agree. We're going to go out to the lake tomorrow. It's going to be fun. We're going to have fellowship and food. It's all wonderful and great, and the activities and relationships that we've built all over California and the rest of the country, and people like our brothers and sisters in Christ. It's a wonderful life. It's a wonderful life. But our main reason for being here is to spread the gospel to others. We have to keep the main thing the main thing, and it's a hard thing to do. That's why pastors don't do it, because they're lazy. Hate to be harsh about it, but they're lazy. They're lazy. The second one is this. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3, 2 Timothy chapter 3. They're lazy, and it's not something you can fake. You have to understand that it is the first work. As a pastor of a church, you've got to be working for Jesus, not yourself. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3 and look at verse number 12. The second reason, and I think that a lot of pastors maybe don't even get this far, and maybe they don't even, you know, think this far ahead, but I think this is part of it as well. But the second reason is this. It brings trouble. You're like, what do you mean? Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse number 12. This is where we're going to get to all those other things that are wrong in the church where the pastor is not just sold out for soul winning, sold out for, you know, preaching the gospel to those in his community, outside community, and the world. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12. It says, yea, and all that will live, all that will live, I can't read, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. That doesn't say that anybody that is saved is going to suffer persecution. And I have said this, I've said it in the soul winning seminar, I've said it to you so many times and I will continue to say it to you, that the moment that you decide that you are going to become a soul winner, you are saved, I don't care if you've been saved for one year, you've been saved for 10 years, and you're like, I'm going to become a soul winner now, I'm going to learn how to give the gospel to people, I'm going to go out, I'm going to preach the word of God to people, and I'm going to, you know, lead people to salvation with God's words, your life will change. You say, what do you mean, I'm going to get rich and I'm going to have all these nice cars? It's like, no, Satan is coming after you, and you will notice it. Satan is going to try to crack you up. Satan is going to try to pull you out of church, Satan is going to try to, you know, come at you in your weakest points. He's going to come after your family, he's going to come after your children, he's going to come after, you know, your wife, he's going to come after all these different places in your life where you have weakness, that's why you need to be, as a soul winner, you need to be sold out, you need to be in church, you need to be edified by your brothers and sisters in Christ, and you need to be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, is after you. As a roaring lion, he wants to tear you up, he can't send you to hell, but he can stop you from soul winning. He can get you out of church. Happens all the time. It's like, whoa, that doesn't seem like it's possible. Happens all the time to soul winners. I often thought, I often thought that, I'm way too logical when it comes to this stuff, but I would see a soul winner get wrapped up in sin in their life, and drop out of church, and I would just sit there and think to myself, like, man, don't they realize, like, how many people are going to go to hell because of that? Don't they realize that because they decided to start drinking again, or they started doing all the things that they used to do, or started doing new things, and the devil succeeded with them, don't they realize how many people are going to now go to hell that wouldn't have gone to hell before? It's a spiritual battle, though. It's a spiritual battle, and you just have to be prepared for this. That's why God is telling us this in 2 Timothy 3, in verse number 12. Your life will change. This philosophy of no soul winning, it matches, it promotes this trouble-free Christian life that a lot of pastors are preaching today, because, you know what, it's easy to get up here. It's easy to get up here and say to you all, you know what, you all are great. You all are great, and this is a wonderful church, and I love you all, and I'm really happy to see the Christian growth that I'm seeing, and I mean, nice tie, you all are great, you're doing great, your kids are great. Those are easy sermons to preach, to get up and just appreciate the church, and look, I appreciate the church. I appreciate you all, but the hard sermons to get up and preach are the sermons that just shove your sin in your face, and you walk out of church going like, man, was he talking about me, and you feel like you just got punched in the face with a brick. Those aren't easy sermons to preach, and look, I don't know, I don't know who's struggling with what, but I get up here and I preach what the Bible says to preach, like last Wednesday we dealt with a sermon on money, you think I like getting up here and talking about money, but no, that's what the Bible says, so we go through everything in the Bible as it says it. As the Bible does not promote, Jesus Christ never told us that if we do what he says we're supposed to do, we're going to have a trouble-free Christian life. As a matter of fact, he's telling us the opposite here. If you go out and you are effective for God, you are going to have trouble. You're going to have tribulation in your life, so expect it. When it comes to you, don't be offended, Jesus said. That's why I tell you these things. Every single one of the disciples, except for John, died a horrible, horrifying death as a martyr, and they never stopped. But Jesus never told them, hey, but you know what, you know how important it is that that actually happened to them? You know how important it was that all of these followers of Jesus Christ from the first church and from that first generation after Jesus rose again from the dead and went to heaven? You know how important it is that that did happen to them? Hebrews chapter 11 talks about that, but it's so important because there is no logical reason that men would have done that. There is no logical reason for all you logical people out there, that normal men, I mean you would have to think, you would have to think that these men were geniuses. These men were geniuses to come up with this story, this scheme, to get something out of it for themselves, which by the way, every other religion, the leader got something out of it for himself. What did he get? What did Joseph Smith and Mohammed and all the different, Buddha and all these people, what did they get? They got money, they got power, they got influence. What did these men get? Nothing. They got poor. They got chased around and they eventually got killed and they never recanted, not one of them. As a matter of fact, many of these men throughout hundreds of years of Christian history, they literally professed Christ as their burning and that's why God tells us that in those moments the Holy Spirit will come upon us and He'll tell us what to say and He'll give us the words to say. There is no trouble-free Christian life and you better be worried if there's a pastor that is out there promoting a trouble-free Christian life because you know what? That's not profitable for you. A church preaching the gospel, just like you preaching the gospel, a church preaching the gospel will be under attack. There will be attacks that come. So all these anti-soul winning pastors out there, I guarantee you they have a message that they preach from the pulpit that is just all good news all the time. There's a lot of wrath in the Bible, folks. There's a lot of anger in the Bible. We're going to talk Wednesday night about most of the anger, you're like, well, it's not good to be angry. Most of the anger in the Bible comes from God Himself. A Christian preaching the gospel will be under constant attack. Why? Because you're being effective and it's a war. It's a spiritual war. You went out soul winning today at 2 o'clock and you were engaged in the spiritual war. You are literally out there advocating for people's souls. In Ezekiel chapter 33, we are the watchmen. And God, go ahead and turn there. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 33. Look at verse number 2 of Ezekiel chapter 33. This is how serious our responsibility is. This is how serious it is. Look at what the Bible says in Ezekiel chapter 33 in verse number 2. The Bible says, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people and say unto them, when I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coast and set him If the people of the land take a man of their coast and set him for their watchman, if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet and warn the people, then whosoever heard the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. Meaning there's a lot of applications to this right down to the soul winner. But the pastor that is not preaching the entire Bible, that's not this guy. This guy is, this is talking about the pastor that got up and told you everything. When I get up here and I preach against all the sin and all the things in the Bible that says if you do this and you keep doing this and you don't stop and you don't separate from, you're gonna ruin your Christian life, you're gonna ruin your marriage, you're gonna ruin your children and I get up here and I scream at those things at you and then you don't do them, that's not on me. That's what this is saying. This is why like there's nothing I can do to take away your salvation. You're saved. If you trust in Jesus, you're saved. There's nothing I can do. All I can do though is warn you. All I can do is warn you. Why? Because I love you. I don't wanna see, I wanna see your kid successful. I wanna see your marriage strong and beautiful. There's just a blessing on this earth like a strong Christian marriage. It's a huge blessing. Look, it's not all gonna be bad. God gives us these blessings but he also tells us how to keep these things and how to do things the right way and I sit up here and I yell at you and scream at you but I don't follow you home and I don't want to. That's on you to do those things. It's not on my head. And look, I don't like seeing it. I don't like seeing it when you preach things and people don't listen and they go do the wrong thing anyway and then you yell louder and they still don't listen. It's gonna happen. I'm not okay with it. It hurts. Nobody likes to see a brother in Christ or a sister in Christ get taken away by Satan but the blood's not on me as long as I'm telling you everything. As long as I'm not getting to a chapter in the Bible and I'm like, oh man, that's really uncomfortable to have to say this because I know in our culture today that this is really prevalent. Oh man, there's somebody in the church that I knows in fornication and now I have to deal with this but really I don't really want to deal with that because that's uncomfortable. No, it'll be dealt with because it's not my church. I'm not in charge here. The Bible, the Word of God, Jesus Christ is in charge. But now let's keep reading. So it's his fault if he hears and doesn't listen but look at verse number 5. He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not the warning. This is the guy. His blood shall be upon him but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come and blow not the trumpet, this is who we're talking about tonight, and the people be not warned if the sword come and take away any person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. You know what? You know what? There's going to be a lot of unsaved people out there if we don't go soul winning and there will be more unsaved people that go to hell but God will say, you know what? It's your fault for not telling them. He's going to look at us. He's going to look at the saved believer in heaven that was in church soul winning and then got back to the bottle or back into sin and dropped out of church and didn't go soul winning. Soul winning for one year of his life and then for the rest of his life he was no prophet to anyone. He's going to look at him and look, he's going to blame them. He's going to put blame on them. They're going to lose. They're going to lose rewards. They're going to suffer loss, the Bible says. They're not going to lose their salvation but they're going to understand what they did one day. And look, the Bible says they'll suffer loss, they'll know it one day. They'll know what they did cost people their eternity. So what people think that there's a big problem. There is a big problem and there's a lot of other problems. I'm telling you if you are in a church or you're listening online and you're in a church and the pastor has the right gospel but he doesn't believe in soul winning, there is a major problem there. And it's likely that he's not telling you the whole truth from the Bible. But people think I can fix this one thing. If I can fix this one thing, everything will be fine. But if the Bible foundation is wrong, it's not the only thing. You say, what's the answer? The answer is, I mean, I'm a little bit more like hardline on this than a lot of my friends but the answer is get in a good church. The answer is move. I mean, look, this isn't Nazi Germany. This is America. You can move places. And it's not like you're like, oh, I hate California, you know, California, ugh. Well, really, do you hate Texas? Do you hate Idaho? Do you hate Arizona? Do you hate, where else, do you hate Washington State? Do you hate Alabama? Do you hate West Virginia? I mean, there's churches, there's good churches all over the place. You say like, oh, well, the new IFB kind of revived soul winning. Why did it need to be revived though? I mean, a lot of the Bible colleges used to teach soul winning and then they sent out pastors that don't go soul winning. How does that even work? It shouldn't have needed to be revived. But guess what? It is revived. The heart's beating again. Just get in a good church. Move somewhere. You know, I mean, you can't go and try to change something that is that broken when it's not your godly place to change it in the first place. This isn't, we're not talking about a panel in the women's bathroom here. We're talking about like the fundamental first work of the faith. You got to get out of there. And you got to get somewhere where there's a pastor that has that thing right. You know, the two plus two, correct. You know, and then maybe, you know, he even knows how to do algebra. But there's no chance that they don't have that correct. So I really put it, you know, it is a damnable heresy. It is a damnable heresy, a damnable philosophy. Maybe not to the people that are in the church that are already saved, obviously nothing is going to damn them. But you know what? It's a damnable heresy to the people outside that church. To the people that are local to that church's influence, there's going to be a lot of people that suffer. A lot of unsaved people that don't hear the gospel because of this philosophy. And that's why I put it on this list. Let's bow our heads and have a word of praise.