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despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me and the 70 returned again with joy saying lord even the devils are subject unto us through thy name and he said unto them i beheld satan as lightning fall from heaven behold i give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you notwithstanding in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven in that hour jesus rejoiced in spirit and said i thank thee oh father lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes even so father for so it seemed good in thy sight all things are delivered to me of my father and no man knoweth who the son is but the father and who the father is but the son and he to whom the son will reveal him and he turned him unto his disciples and said privately blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see for i tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which he see and have not seen them and to hear those things which he hear and have not heard them and behold a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him saying master what shall i do to inherit eternal life he said unto him what is written in the law how readest thou and he answering said thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself and he said unto him thou hast answered right this do and thou shalt live but he willing to justify himself said unto jesus and who is my neighbor and jesus answering said a certain man went down from jerusalem to jericho and fell among thieves which stripped them of his raiment and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead and by chance there came down a certain priest that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side and likewise a levite when he was at the place came and looked on him and passed by on the other side but a certain samaritan as he journeyed came where he was and when he saw him he had compassion on him and went to him and bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him and on the morrow when he departed he took out two pence and gave them to the host and said unto him take care of him and whatsoever thou spendest more when i come again i will repay thee which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves and he said he that showed mercy on him then said jesus unto him go and do thou likewise now it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village and a certain woman named martha received him into her house and she had a sister called mary which also sat at jesus feet and heard his word but martha was covered about much serving and came to him and said lord does thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone bid her therefore that she helped me and jesus answered and said unto her martha martha thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful and mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her let's bow our heads for a word of prayer is amen luke chapter 10 uh i wanted to start at the very beginning of this portion of scripture the bible says after these things the lord appointed other 70 also and sent them two and two before his face and every city and place whether he himself would come therefore said he unto them the harvest truly is great but the laborers are few pray therefore the lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his the message this evening from is this portion of scripture where the bible gives the idea of praying for laborers and so the title of my sermon is pray for laborers pray for laborers of course laboring means you're working and of course god wants to hire or have more people to do work and labor for him and the bible tells us that the harvest truly is great in other places it would say the harvest truly is plenteous meaning that the souls that could be received the souls that are ripe and ready to be saved are truly a great number there's a lot of people that are willing to get saved that want to get saved that want to hear the gospel that want to have eternal life and yet the problem is very few people are willing to reap that harvest very few people want to go out and actually labor and get someone saved now of course why because it's work let's just be honest let's be real about the fact that getting someone saved takes work takes effort yet i don't think that very many people realize how easy it can be at times and in fact you know even just trying with a little bit of effort you can get a lot of people saved still yet if you want to do a great work many times it will take a lot of labor it will take a lot of work and it really is something that takes a lot of work in essence of how much time you're going to have to commit to it if you think about it soul winning is not necessarily super difficult to get someone saved but what's difficult about it is that you can really only typically get about one person saved at a time occasionally you might have groups or you might have opportunities where you could share the gospel to a few people at the same time but generally speaking it's very difficult to get a large group of people saved all at the exact same time so what makes evangelism or harvesting difficult is the fact that you have to actually go soul winning for long periods of time because you want to talk to more and more people and knock on more and more doors and very few people want to spend their time doing this they want to spend their time selfishly going and doing things that they enjoy or having fun or working to make a lot of money and at the end of the day you cannot serve two masters you cannot serve god and mammon and mammon represents that which is money and wealth and and the things of this world and god serving god is represented and spiritual working spiritual rewards that often you may not even see in this life but you have to wait until the next life to receive your reward and of course it would take faith to work and not get a paycheck anytime soon imagine if you went to go work for someone and they said hey we'll pay you but it'll be next year you know that would take a lot of faith to work for them faithfully for the for a whole year and then to hope to get that paycheck for the next year you know you'd want you'd be putting a lot of faith in your employer you know many people today they they only have faith of about two weeks and some people don't even have that they go get a payday cash advance and they can't even wait to get their pay but of course for god in many cases we have to wait until the end of our lives in order to get that paycheck and that takes a lot of faith and so what god wants us to do is god wants us that are already soul winners is to pray that god would send us more laborers and really i have three points this morning or i'm sorry this evening but my first point is that if you want more people to go soul winning you have to pray for it you have to pray for it um let's go to another place in scripts go to james chapter number four for a moment james chapter number four and we'll look what the bible has to say here now the bible has a pretty common theme that if you want something from god there's a way to get it it's called asking for it you know you ask for salvation you ask for all kinds of different things and god wants that god likes that you know being a husband i can relate to this because you know one thing i would love for my wife to do is ask me for all the things that she wants but often it's like my wife wants me to you know read her mind she wants me to just know what she wants and yet you know it would make a relationship and every relationship in the world every marriage in the world easier if women would just tell their husband what they want you know and of course this is a biblical thing because god wants you to ask for the things that you want okay he likes it and often the reason why you don't have the things that you want is because you don't ask for them now look what it says in james chapter 4 verse 2 you lust and have not you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight in war yet you have not because you ask not notice god's really simple isn't he hey there's a reason why you don't have certain things it's because you just simply don't ask for them and the bible makes it abundantly clear that when you ask god for things he takes it very seriously he wants to give you the things that you ask one of the main reasons why you don't receive things though is maybe you're not asking for the right things notice the next verse he asked and received not because he asked amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts you say man i've been asking for ferrari for a while now and god hasn't delivered but let me ask you this question where did you know the bible does tell us that god is going to give us what we ask for but we do have to understand that there is a context to that go to first john chapter number five it's not far from where you're at just turn to the right a hair first john chapter number five it's right there near the end of your bible and look at verse 14 now the bible gives us a little bit of a hint here when it comes to asking god for things notice what it says in verse 14 and this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he heareth us so notice god wants you to ask for things and he's going to listen to every prayer that you have if what is it it's according to his will now of course what is god's will it's the bible so it's actually important to study the bible and read the bible and and hear preaching from the bible so that you know what god's will is so that when you ask for something it's according to his will because of course we want things from god but if it's not according to his will you're not going to get it you know my children ask me for things all the time and i want to give them things but let me tell you something i'm going to give them things according to my will the things that i want to give them not the things that are necessarily according only to their will so when my children ask for ice cream before dinner i don't give that to them because it's not according to my will but you know when they eat all of their dinner and then they ask me for ice cream i often will give it to them why because it's according to my will and so we have to be the same way with god the father we have to understand that god wants to grant us our petitions however they must be according to his will now go if you would back to matthew chapter number 21 all the way the beginning of the new testament go to matthew 21 now i want to explain something here though and about the power of prayer and the power of asking god for things because number one god told us to pray for labors so we've already hit the check mark on if it's according to god's will god told us to do this okay number two the reason why you don't have something is because you're not praying for it so if you want something we must pray for it so we must pray for laborers it has been according to god's will but notice what it says in matthew 21 verse 22 jesus answered i'm sorry in all things what so let's just read for context verse 21 i'm sorry jesus answered and said unto them verily i say unto you if you have faith and doubt not you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree but also if you shall say unto this mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea shall be done and all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive notice what the bible says that god will give you what you pray for period but of course a false prophet would like to forget the context of the fact that has to be according to his will so false prophets will try to trick people into asking for things that are not scriptural but what's you know we are not here under a false gospel we're saved and we actually believe the bible and you have to understand something god will literally give you everything you ask for when you believe in him if it's according to his will so if you are praying for laborers and believing it in your heart that is a prayer that god will answer it's going to happen the only reason you don't have laborers is because either you're not asking or not believing but if you're asking and believing you shall receive now here's another thing you have to understand about prayer prayer doesn't always happen right now sometimes it takes a while and god uses a parable of a woman that keeps coming unto an unjust judge and and just begging him to to um revenge her of her adversary and god uses that an example of how we're supposed to pray repeatedly and when he gets done with the parable he says when he returns on the earth is he going to find faith so he illustrates the fact that continually praying for the exact same thing over and over is actual faith and so what god wants you to do is to pray over and over and over and over again believing that you're going to receive it until he answers that prayer and i believe that we have an example of this because brother kenton had told me that five years ago he had been praying for a big evangelism trip for laborers for soul winners to come to the bahamas and to preach the gospel in his country and you know what i like about that is i like about the fact that it was five years because that takes some faith that takes some faith to pray and for one year to go by and it didn't happen and then to pray again and then another year and to pray again and then another year to pray again and then another year to pray again but you know what god answered that and god did send laborers and god will give you the desires of your heart and god will answer your prayers but we have to have the faith to pray for laborers and you know what if you want to see an area reached with the gospel if you want to see people saved then what you must do is pray that god would send laborers to that place to that area to get people saved right you say i want my church to grow or i want our church to reach more people with a loss well let me ask you this question are you praying for it are you praying for it the reason why many churches i i wonder if many churches are not growing today because they're just not praying for laborers and they're not just praying for laborers for one year two years or three how about five years how about 10 years how about for a decade how about just pray without ceasing when it comes to things that you want to receive from god and i'll tell you something there's a lot of things that people don't have today that are according to god's will that if you would pray i believe you would receive it you know how about a spouse for some of you young single people in here how about you pray for a spouse because that's biblical if you want to be married and pray that god would give you a prudent wife or give you a husband that loves the lord that would be a godly man to lead you why don't you pray for a spouse if you're a parent are you praying for your children's spouses are you praying that god would send a spouse unto your child because being a father especially of daughters that terrifies me because i don't like any guys okay and i don't like any guys in our church and so i'm thinking the lord needs to send me some young men so that my daughters would have someone to marry and you know i need to pray for that and and you know i think i wonder how many times we just hope things work out rather than just praying and believing that god will take care of them and if this trip has not increased your faith that god is going to deliver on what you pray for i don't know what's going to wake you up but you know what praise god for a man like brother kenton who's been praying and and who knows what events god orchestrated to make that happen to put it in the heart of brother conley to whose soul went here and to put it in the heart of people in our church to come here and i know other men have have done scouting missions and come here and witnessed and preached the gospel and to put it in the heart of you guys to spend your own money you know i know for many of you it costs thousands of dollars to come here of your own money and you went in faith saying i want to do work for god and look how he's blessed this trip i mean this trip if you combine all the money spent by all the people in this room it could be easily a hundred thousand dollars that's a lot of money but you know what people said i want to serve god i want to labor for the master and i believe that we're here in this room today because someone prayed that labors would be sent to the bahamas and if we want to see areas reached with the gospel today if we want to see more people with us we need to pray for them we need to start praying for them go to first corinthians chapter number four point number one is we need to pray for laborers and you know we've done a great work there's a this is a this is a big missions trip in my opinion i haven't been on one that's been this large before but you know what why don't we pray for a larger one because there was there was classrooms that i couldn't send anybody to we ran out of people we could have had more people we could have sent two to every classroom we could have gone to you know we had more opportunities there's more neighbors i mean there's 250 000 people according to the estimates of how many people live in nasa alone just this little island by itself there's uh there's even other islands of the bahamas you know bahamas in total is about 400 000 people and there's even people in other parts of other islands of the bahamas that we could potentially reach or other schools i mean that's a lot of people to reach in fact that might even take a lifetime of many soul winners to reach that many people with the gospel and to preach to many people especially considering the fact that this nation almost everyone wants to hear the gospel i mean not everybody gets saved not everybody's ready to be saved but almost everybody wants to hear it that's that takes a lot of time and you know some people have experienced the fact they lost their voice after one day of soul winning you know and we need more women to preach the gospel because they'll never lose their voice they're so good at talking you say what do you think about women preachers they're great they never seem to lose their voice and yet many of the shy men in this room they lose their voice like that okay but we got to build that stamina all right now here's my second point for the evening is first grinthians chapter four look at verse 16 the bible says wherefore i beseech you be followers of me the apostle paul told the church to follow him now of course the apostle paul is not a prideful man but the apostle paul recognizes the fact that he is doing the lord's work that he's doing an important job and i believe it's actually humility to recognize that the bible's true and that he needs to commission these people to follow him in this great work that he's doing the apostle paul is arguably one of the greatest evangelists if not the greatest to ever live and of course he needs to recognize that he needs to tell people you need to follow me and let me tell you something the people in this room that have been soul winning and preaching the gospel today you need to demand people to follow you in your example we need to tell people hey you need to follow me you need to go and soul win like i'm doing you need to go to a church that's soul winning and we need to be bold and tell people you need to become a soul winner and not be shy about it not be like well maybe or you know if if it's convenient for you did the apostle paul said if it's convenient for you follow me if you would like to follow me hey it's it might be a good idea if you follow me no what does the apostle paul say wherefore i beseech you be followers he's saying hey with everything that i've got i'm telling you you need to be a follower of me and you know we need to not be shy about being a soul winner of jesus christ we have the most important job in the world every single soul winner is the most important job and the most important person on this planet and you need to tell people you need to demand people to be followers of you and followers of your example and to be a soul winner just like you and the reason why people do things many times is because they're told to do it go to first corinthians chapter number 11 go to first corinthians chapter number 11 you know we need to not be shy about it you know why the people you know why the disciples followed jesus he said follow me you know sometimes we wonder like well how am i going to get another soul winner tell someone to be a soul winner it's like hey you need to be a soul winner and of course many times the best ideas have already been thought of you're not going to think of it you need to just tell other people what to do and we need to not be afraid of telling people what to do you know we live in a sensitive culture in america in america everybody's so sensitive and so shy and you can't they can't tell anybody anything and everything's about you know the self and what you want no i don't care what you want be a soul winner you know i don't care what your desires and dreams are follow jesus and you know what follow the people in this room as they follow christ look what the apostle paul said in first corinthians chapter 11 verse 1 be followers of me even as i also am of christ so notice he's saying i'm following jesus i already know i'm doing is right you need to follow me like i'm following christ he's commanding them go to philippians chapter number three go to philippians chapter number three we need to start demanding people to follow our example and you know not every work is supposed to be publicized you know the bible tells us to give our secret our alms in secret to not even let our left hand know what our right hand's doing the bible tells us when we pray that our prayers should be done in secret it should be done in our closet and that we shouldn't be going and and trying to pontificate or or act as if we're somehow special and make these long prayers to be seen of men but rather you know our prayers should be in public in my opinion pretty concise because frankly speaking the and there's not very many long prayers in the bible there's really none when they asked jesus how to pray he gave them you know about 30 seconds you know he didn't say well how long you got all right you ready no long prayers should be done in secret and yet there are some works that should be publicized and i believe that is soul winning soul winning should be publicized there should be nothing hidden about it we should let our light shine so that men can see our good works and glorify our father which is in heaven and let me tell you something there's nothing wrong with preaching the gospel there's nothing wrong with sharing the fact that you're preaching the gospel obviously we don't do that to to boast in ourselves to brag on ourselves or to be prideful but rather to try and motivate others and say look you need to follow me as i'm following christ you know jesus didn't have a private ministry he had a public ministry and he had public disciples and he was publicly sending people out and they were publicly going out in the streets and they it was publicly known that they would come into a town and seek who is worthy that they could stay in their house they didn't have some private organization they were going out and making it clear what they believed and jesus christ said hey what i'm telling you in the year that preach ye upon the housetops so you know what we should have a public aspect of our ministry and if there's anything that should be public it's the gospel of jesus christ it's soul winning it's reaching people with the gospel look at philippians chapter 3 verse 17 the bible says brethren be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as you have us foreign and sample notice again the apostle paul is not only telling them follow me don't follow these guys and you know who's a good example me us my team we're the ones that are doing the great work for the lord don't follow this bozo like norm diamante don't follow these bozos online that attacks all winning no follow us in our example and do what the bible actually says you know and there are all kinds of people out there that want to discourage one-on-one soul winning discourage people from helping people make a decision and let me tell you something this week i ran into several people who kind of gave lip service to believe in the gospel but until you you really cornered them to pray they weren't ready they didn't even understand in fact they would change their mind flip their opinion or or they didn't get something and you know what we need to compel people to call upon the name of the lord because without that decision many times they don't actually understand the gospel yet and it's that decision that call to action that helps them realize what it really means to believe in jesus christ because that's how you believe in jesus christ that's how you get saved that's how you ask him for that salvation and of course we want to help people to be saved what could be the i mean it why would i not want to help someone get saved i mean it just doesn't make any sense folks and so we should not be shy about marking people that are causing some kind of offense or division or something contrary to soul it's it's not hard folks it doesn't take a rocket scientist figure out how to go soul winning the the roman's road simple it's very easy the reason why people attack it is because they're either prideful arrogant or filled with the devil because it's all right the road's already been paid for us we just need to walk it jesus already showed us how to get people saved go to hebrews chapter number six i want to show you another portion here hebrews chapter number six but notice the pattern the the apostle paul is saying follow me follow me follow me and you know what we need to be like that you need to start taking the people in your church that are not soul winning and say go soul winning with me today you need to say hey i'm going so winning it too i'm going to pick you up hey i'm going at so winning it too you're going to be my partner hey you're going to follow me you know we need we need men to say hey my wife's going so winning with me today you know or you know ladies that go so winning maybe they can encourage their husband to go so winning with them or they can encourage their sister to go so winning with them or they can encourage their children to go so winning with them but you know what we need to make people soul winners you need to force people to go so and oftentimes many people don't want to go so any the first time they feel like it's awkward or they don't like it or they're not interested or they're nervous or they're shy and you kind of have to force them but you know once you get your feet wet once you go out there once you see someone actually change their mind and believe on the lord jesus christ it does something in your heart and it can make you a soul winner for life but let me tell you something you never know what it's like until you do it just like marriage you don't know what marriage is like until you get married you don't know like children are like until you have children and let me tell you something you don't know what soul winning is like until you do soul winning but let me tell you something it's a life-changing experience it'll open your eyes it'll soften your heart it'll make you see the importance of preaching the gospel it'll show you how the world is not saved it'll show you how so many people are deceived and lied to by false prophets and if you have any love in your heart if you believe in hell even an ounce you will be a soul winner for jesus christ because you know it's their only opportunity to be saved it is their only option these churches are lying to so many people these churches are deceiving so many people because they're filled with false prophets and a false prophet can devote his life to damning souls to hell how can we not dedicate our lives to winning people to christ look at hebrews chapter 6 verse number 11 the bible says and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end they be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises now you have to understand that the book of hebrews is a book motivating saved people to finish the christian life you have the most famous chapter probably hebrews chapter number 11 where it's talking about the hall of faith and those who are the greatest christians and those who sacrificed at all and they didn't even care about this world they're just a passing through they're just a sojourner and they're not looking for the things of this life what are they doing they just live by faith and they walk by faith and just the whole book of hebrews just every chapter is trying to motivate christians to serve god with their lives and notice here in hebrews chapter 6 it's no different this chapter is about serving god and he says very clearly that we're supposed to be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises god wants us to look to the faith of those before us and be a follower of them now look there's nothing wrong with following jesus obviously that's what we're supposed to do but let's make it practical we're also following men here notice that it's commanding us to follow men in the bible and paul was commanding people to follow him and you know what you're gonna have pastors teachers evangelists and men of god in your lives that are telling you follow me and we need to follow them we need to follow their faith we need to get behind them and lift up their hands when we go to the battle and get behind them and do a mighty work for god and let me tell you something many many mighty men of god were not capable of winning the battle by themselves gideon needed furah you know we have all kinds of people in the bible that can't do it alone elijah needs elijah and we have david having not just one guy i mean this guy had an arsenal of some of the greatest men that have ever lived some of the greatest warriors some of the greatest uh you know soldiers that could ever fight the spiritual fight are alongside them you know we like to think of david as being great but you know it made him great all the great people surrounding him but you know it also made them great them being willing to follow david do you remember all the really great people that didn't follow david like absolom pretty great guy huh you know people that just are unwilling to get into church and follow a man usually just they have serious issues you know we need to humble ourselves and be willing to follow men that have the faith of our our fathers and and have the faith of paul and have the faith of jesus christ and are willing to to surrender their lives to serve god we need to find them and follow them and i remember a long time ago way before i was even really considering becoming a pastor i i remember being posed this question or thinking about this question this is probably over a decade ago and and the question was just kind of like if you go anywhere in the bible you know go back in time and see any event and what would it be and and honestly you know it seems like a hard question because you'd want to see it all i mean i would want to see it all okay even sodom and gomorrah all right i want to see that now if it turned me into a pillar of salt okay i guess i can't see it but yeah i i always just instantly went to i want to walk with jesus i just just for me i was just like i just want to be there for the you know however long his ministry was and just walk with him and see the miracles and that might sound like the cliche answer i don't know but that's just how i felt but then i remember thinking about it and i said you know what i don't think that i would because right now god decided to put me on this world in this earth right now not at the time of jesus and i'm not following anybody right now so why do i think that i would be following jesus if i was put back in this town you know in nazareth or put in galley seems like i would just be doing my own thing playing xbox or playing you know just hanging out or doing my own thing i'm like i'm not doing anything and i said if i truly would have followed jesus back then then i would find the greatest christian i can on this planet right now and i'd be following him and so then i challenged myself and i said okay well let's go find someone that's really great and you know what there's a great guy like pastor stephen anderson out there and i said hey there's someone serving god and dedicated why don't i go follow him and you know what if i was willing to follow jesus i would for sure be willing to follow someone now and you know what that's what i decide is i was going to go follow pastor stephen anderson and follow him and follow his faith and you know i'm not saying he's the only guy out there that you can follow but he's a great example and you know what there's other great pastors out there today of great people that you can follow but let me tell you something if you think you would follow jesus and you're not following one of these great pastors today you're lying to yourself you're deceiving yourself we should find a great pastor in the area that we're in and if you're not go move i mean what well move what i mean everybody in the bible has to move i mean they're going all kinds of great distances and traveling and leaving everything and and being forced to go somewhere and look i'm not saying you have to move you can do whatever you want but let me say this if you would follow jesus you would go wherever you'd go i've heard a great sermon on wednesday night from pastor lee's saying hey let me you know suffer me first to bury my father and he's like let the dead bury their dead you know follow me now it's not like well i'll follow a good pastor someday or i'll go to a good church someday or i'll go sowing someday or i'll go on the next bahamas missions trip man did you miss out boy i mean i would i would be sad if i missed out on this trip this has been one of the greatest trips it might be the greatest trip of my life i don't know i don't know what the future beholds i hope that god i hope we'll do greater works in the future but let me tell you something this is gonna be hard to top folks this has been an epic trip and we need to look at the bible's example of how you know sometimes jesus knocks on your door and that was a once in a lifetime opportunity you know jesus it was like well i'll follow the next jesus well he's the anti-christ so that didn't really work out i'll follow jesus the next time he comes into my town well that didn't happen sometimes it's like follow me now i mean today it's not even now the day of salvation you know and that's why we need to get some urgency i mean if you see the world going around us i mean it is crumbling fast evil is spreading everywhere the politicians of america are trying to spread their filth into every nation including the bahamas they're trying to include their smut everywhere and let me tell you something now is the accepted time to serve god we're not promised tomorrow we're not even promised five minutes from now and so we need to start serving god now we need to get serious and we need to start demanding people follow god look at verse 12 they be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patient inherit the promises notice that this word is uh plural anybody notice that i a lot of false teachers and false prophets love to use hebrew six and other portions of hebrews to teach that you can lose your salvation and they try to tell you that the promise uh you know the promises that keeps mentioning is just salvation but that's so far from the truth because the book of hebrews is written to people that are already saved and of course salvation is a promise and an eternal life is a promise but if you've already believed on jesus christ you already have that promise you're already saved you're already sealed there's nothing that can separate you from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord but let me tell you something there's more than one promise from god there are promises and let me tell you something we should labor not for eternal life you can't get that we should labor for the promises for the rewards of god and you know what god look at verse 10 for god is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have showed toward his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister you know god is not unrighteous to forget the work you've done this week god will pay you god will reward you and it may not always be in this life but it for sure will be in the next life and you know what there's a lot of promises there's a lot of rewards to be had but it's only going to be had by those that have faith and there's a lot of other people that are missing out on rewards because no one is demanding that they become a soul winner you know i don't want other people to have nothing to do i want to demand my family and demand my brethren and demand my church and demand the people that i know to go soul winning because they're missing out on the promises of god they're missing out on the things that god has for them and we need to start forcing people to serve god we need to be like jihu just just riding up in a chariot and be like come with me and see my zeal for the lord you know i don't care what you think you're getting in this chariot and you're going soul winning with me okay we're going to start slaying all right gov you would to matthew chapter four point one of my sermon this this evening is we need to pray for laborers i mean we got to pray for them but we don't want to just be a passive we want to be active we want to demand people be a soul winner too we start praying for people to be a soul winner and then we can start demanding that they become a soul winner and here's my third point is that if we want laborers if we're going to pray for our laborers we need to also follow now look what it says in matthew chapter number four verse 19 the bible says and he saith unto them follow me and i will make you fishers of men you know it's great to pray for the lord jesus or pray the lord jesus christ to give us soul winners and it's great to tell people to be a soul winner but at the end of the day let's be realistic about it if you are not a good soul winner if you're not a good example if you're not following god's commandments it probably won't be very effective you have to get the third step in and you have to actually follow jesus yourself you actually have to be a soul winner yourself you know it's it's easy to say something it's hard to do it and it's it's really not motivating when someone is telling you to do something that they're not willing to do themselves a lot of people have bosses like this bosses that are incapable of doing your job or incapable don't even know how to do your job and when they're telling you what to do sometimes it feels a little bit discouraging to want to do it and think about how many pastors a day aren't soul winning how many p christians are not preaching the gospel well it's going to be pretty hard for them to motivate other people to do it and so we have to start following the lord jesus christ ourselves but notice the promise when you follow jesus he'll make you a fisher of men he it's attractive people want to do it but they they need leadership in their lives they need to see a good example and you need to be the good example for people to follow go to first timothy chapter number four without good examples you know we're not going to be able to replicate god multiplies things but when you don't have anything to multiply you know multiplication by zero is always zero if you know math obviously if you're if you're racist you know you might be confused on math you know but when you multiply by zero it's always zero okay and here's the thing god can do wonders with even just one but if you notice god's multiplication in the bible uh it's like you know it's exponential in all kinds of different ways you just have a few lows and then all of a sudden it's like five thousand leftover pieces and you know the more and more that we have the the more multiplication and the more exponential growth that we can have but we need some good examples for people to replicate you know we need good soul winners because i've i've seen sometimes there's a lot of people that are zealous for soul winning but their soul is not very good and it's because they're multiplying bad soul winning they're you know and so we need more and more good examples and good so if you're a good soul winner you need to start grabbing people and making them you know following you and being an example of you so that we start multiplying really good soul winning and if you've gotten a lot of great experience this week i guarantee your show your soul when he's gotten sharp in this week you need to start taking people with you that are newer less experienced not as bold so they can see your faith and they can be sharpened by your example because you know when you're following jesus you're going to make fishers of men and you know what you're you need to show people how to preach the gospel and we need to not be so thin-skinned that we can't get better or be afraid of telling people how to get better you know one of the things that i would get really mad about is someone being offended from criticism for soul winning because you know we should always be willing to get better at soul winning should always be willing to hear how we can improve and and sharpen and and of course if you care about souls you would care to get better and you know i don't think that any of us arrived i use things this week that i haven't even used before in my soul winning and and i was challenging myself to try and become a better soul winner and you know when i go with other people i try to pay attention to the things that they do the examples they use the the way that they communicate to see hey wow that worked really well or this really resonated with people or hey that's a good idea and you know i'm always willing to evolve my soul winning and if you went soloing with me two years ago i guarantee it's different than it is today and there's no reason why we can't just keep getting better and better and we need to be followers of jesus christ in every area of our life and keep reading the bible because the more you read the bible the better you'll even be at soul winning you know we've improved and enhanced the romans road we use other verses in the bible you know and i'm glad that we use other verses and not just romans and you know why we use that because we read our bibles and we we think about other verses and how they could be applied and how they could be used in all kinds of unique circumstances and in different scenarios and the fault combating different false doctrines and and we start sharpening our sword but you know what you're not going to be that great of a soul winner when you're not reading the bible when you're a forgetful hearer of the word when you're not a doer of the word you know we need to do everything that the bible says and look what it says in verse timothy chapter number four verse 12 let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the believers and word and conversation and charity and spirit and faith and purity so an instruction to timothy is that he needs to be a good example and notice in every area i mean you notice these categories these are incredible categories the word that means he needs to know all of the bible in conversation this is just his lifestyle in charity i mean just being challenged to just love others and put others above himself in spirit i mean this guy is spiritual and he has zeal in faith he's always trusting in god no matter what hardships that come across him and in purity meaning he's separating himself from the world and he's not being a worldly influence and that he's keeping himself pure in all things notice he needs to be a good example and if you look at verse number 15 meditate upon these things give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all notice he's saying when you do these things people are going to notice and of course people notice people notice when you know the bible and people notice when you don't know the bible people notice when you're charitable and people notice when you're not charitable people notice when you're pure and people notice when you're not pure people notice these different things that are going on and notice what he's saying you're supposed to give yourself holy to the word of god holy to the bible that thy profiting may appear unto all notice this take Take heed unto thyself, unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt go save thyself and them that hear thee." Notice Timothy is, you know, this saving here is not a going to heaven, but it's rather a saving from the consequences of sin, from destruction, from destroying oneself. And when you serve God and you follow Jesus, you're going to save yourself from the evils of this world, from the consequences of this world, but not just yourself, them that hear thee. We need to follow Jesus Christ and to be a good example so that we will multiply our example and we will profit others through our example. Why make a big deal about the Bahamas missions trip? So other people will look at that and say, I want to go on a trip like that. I want to go soul winning like that. I want to go to a foreign country like that. I want to ride a sea dew like that. No, I'm just kidding. Go to second Timothy, chapter number two. Hey, we can have some fun. You know, there's nothing wrong with having fun. And of course, you know, I like to have fun on these trips to further encourage you to want to go on another trip in the future. I want you to have so much fun. It was like a vacation. You're thinking like, man, that was more fun than most vacations I have because I didn't have my children. But no, I'm just kidding. No, because you were serving the master. Okay. You had your children. All right. I get that. You guys are really brave. All right. You're the real soldiers. But we need to be a follower of Jesus Christ in every of your life because it helps you be a good soul winner. And it's going to motivate other people to serve God. And let me tell you something. There's a lot of Christians out there that are saved, but they're a bad example. And because they're a bad example, they've discouraged their children from being a Christian or serving God or even getting saved. A lot of people out there say, well, I don't want to be a Christian because my parents were hypocrites. And let me tell you something. The person that notices more about your lifestyle than anyone is your children. Your children. They know if you're actually a Christian. But you can fool most of us at church. You can fool a lot of people at church. And a lot of people do fool people. You look at them. You think that they're nice. You think they're sweet. You think they actually care. You think they actually dress nice. But it's just a show for church. You know, there's a lot of women in the old IFB. They dress godly on Sunday morning. But six days out of the week, they dress like a whore. And of course, you wouldn't even know. Because you're not going following everybody home and checking everything else out that's going online. But you know who notices that? Children do. The children capture everything. You know, when they see the pastor preaching about how to be a good father and how to be a good husband. And then the dad goes home and he's a terrible father and he's a terrible husband. It discourages your children because they say, well, why am I going to do what the preacher says when dad doesn't do what the preacher says? Why is the wife going to be motivated to serve her husband when the husband is not following the instructions of the pastor or what the Bible says or is a good husband? Why would the wife want to be drug out soul winning when the husband isn't loving his wife like the Bible commands? And so we need to motivate ourselves to not just think, well, you know what? I go out and preach the gospel an hour a week, so I'm good. I don't really need to read the Bible. I don't need to really actually follow the commandments. I don't actually need to love my wife. I don't actually need to pray. I don't actually need to be a Christian. I go soul winning. But you know what's going to happen? You're going to destroy yourself and you're going to be a bad example and you're not going to motivate and exponentially grow all the other people in your lives. And the reason why we're not having more soul winners is because you're a bad example when you're off the clock. Hey, you need to be a good example when you're not even soul winning. And we need to follow Jesus Christ in every area of our life, not just only going soul winning. Now look, there's nothing wrong with going soul winning. That's not the problem. The problem with those people isn't that they're going soul winning. The problem with those people is they're not serving Jesus for the rest of their life. They're not doing the other things that are necessary. And the more you surrender and the more you clean yourself up, the more God's going to use you. Look what it says in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 19. Nevertheless, the foundation of God's stand is sure, having the seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone that name of the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Notice we're supposed to depart from iniquity. The Bible says, but in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth and some to honor and some to dishonor. You know, some things in your house are not that honorable. Some things are very honorable. You know, you like to show off things that people like to show off their fancy car in the garage. But, you know, a lot of people don't show off their toilet. You know, that's not really a vessel under honor. That one's kind of kept quiet. You know, it's just like, yeah, it's in there, you know, you know, don't look at it, right? So not every vessel in the house, the trash cans, not really usually what you show off to people, right? But it exists and the thing is the same when it comes to how we in the Christian life, we don't want to be that vessel of dishonor. We want to be a vessel of honor. Some people in church serve as a bad example, but we don't want to be that person. We want to be the person in church that's serving as a good example and we need to depart from iniquity. Look what it says in verse 21, if a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work. So notice you have to purge yourself and you have to sanctify yourself so that you can be used by God and then you'd be prepared, notice this, for every good work, every good work. We have to purify ourselves. Go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I just want to talk about one way to purify ourselves and, of course, this island is no different than any other place in the world when it comes to sin because there's common sins and, you know, we all struggle with sin and there's some sins that are very common no matter where you go. One of those in my mind is fornication and it's mentioned often in the Bible in the context of sanctification, but 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4, if you look at verse 1, the Bible says furthermore, then we beseech you, brethren, exhort you by the Lord Jesus Christ that ye, that as ye have received of us, how ye ought to walk and to please God so you would abound more and more. Notice he's telling them, hey, follow our example so that you can, what, abound more and more. Verse 2, for you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lusts of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God. So according to the Bible, we're supposed to sanctify ourselves and we're supposed to be a vessel under honor. Notice the Bible tells us very specifically an example of this, abstaining from fornication. And, you know, we have a lot of young people, a lot of single people in this room and let me tell you something, you want to stop soul winning, fornication will destroy you. Fornication will destroy a lot of people and it causes a lot of people to not serve God. Even marriage issues cause a lot of people not to serve God and being frank, a lot of marriage issues are a result of fornication because people end up marrying people they didn't want to marry or they have to settle with people they didn't want to have to be with or instead of making that a big deal when they were dating someone, they end up marrying someone that doesn't take the commandments of God very seriously. I mean, ask yourself this question, if someone does not take the commandment of abstaining from fornication very seriously when they get married, do you really expect me to believe they're going to take the other commandments of the Bible seriously? What is your evidence that that person would take you seriously? You know, it's so funny that people will cheat on their spouse, commit adultery on their spouse and then marry that person. I'm thinking to you that they have no problem committing adultery. Why would you want to marry someone that just signaled, I'm fine with committing adultery? That's why people that get remarried after getting divorced, they have a higher likelihood of getting divorced again. It's not like, well, I got more experience, this time I'm going to be better. No, it's worse because that person already proved they don't really have any respect for the commandments of God. And because of fornication being rampant and easier than ever before in the world today, so many young people are committing fornication and epidemic proportions. You think COVID is an epidemic, fornication is an epidemic folks. That's the real pandemic going in this world and it's destroying young people, it's destroying their lives and they're not serving God. They're not getting married. They're not raising godly households. They're just consumed with that. And you know what, young people should rather be consumed with wanting to serve God than fornication. And you know what, praise God for the young people that put God first instead of fornication than sin and their own selfish appetite, which will never satisfy them anyways. It's never satisfactory. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 6, no one that ever committed fornication in the Bible or in this world said, you know what, that was satisfying, I'm done. No, they need more and more and more and more and they'll never be satisfied. Samson couldn't be satisfied. He just went from harlot to the next harlot to the next harlot till one killed him. And he didn't realize that her house was the house leading to death. And you know what, we need young men that are going to be like Joseph when a young woman approaches them or a woman approaches them that literally sprints out of the room, that literally runs, that literally flees from fornication. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and look at what it says in verse number 18. Flee fornication, every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committed fornication sinneth against his own body. You know, it's just sad because people just don't realize when you commit fornication you're damaging yourself. You're taking away value from yourself. And you know, it's even worse than that because many times people even get a disease. I mean how many sexually transmitted diseases are in the world today, I don't even want to know. It's gross, it's terrible, they're destroying their bodies and of course people that are into this and going down this road, they're often abused by people and it's just a horrible disgusting road that you go down and it destroys your value, it destroys your mind, it destroys your attitude, it destroys your heart. You start having the wrong desires, you can't have any satisfaction, it just brings sadness and it's a vicious cycle that people can't even get out of. It'll just warp you, just like drugs. You know, I have zero desire for LSD, I have zero desire to do crack cocaine, but you know why? Because I've never done it. But I'll tell you, if I had done it or if I have ever tried illicit drugs, I would have a desire for it. And you know what, praise God, I wake up in the morning and I'm not itching and burning and feeling this desire, like I just have to have cocaine. And the people that have done drugs like this, they literally feel that way. They wake up in every thought of their mind. Imagine if you didn't eat all day, how hungry you would feel, right? And then compound that way more than normal. This is what happens when you go down this dark road of fornication and especially in ordinate amounts that people do, they get to a point where they just crave it and they can't think about anything else and it just will destroy their mind and their heart and everything about the person. You don't want to go down that road because once you go down that road, you're going to struggle with that problem for the rest of your life. And it can destroy young men, it can destroy young women, and we have so many single young women in America today that will probably never get married. You know why? Because no guy wants them. Just no guy will ever marry them. They've destroyed all their value, they've destroyed themselves, they'll never even be satisfied with a man and they just ruined it. It would be like if you had a beautiful steak on a plate. I mean this thing is cooked perfectly. It just came off the grill and then all of a sudden you just poured Indian food on top of it. You're like, what did you do? And it's just like, why would you pour ranch all over it, you know? You just defile it, right? You get something, you get A1 and not just a douse, you just take the whole bottle and just dump A1 all over the steak. That's saying to the chef, you suck at cooking, okay, whenever you have to put A1 on a steak. But you can't go back from that either. Once you pour it, I mean the steak's defiled. You know, I remember my wife and I, we ordered a pizza one time and they accidentally put anchovies on it. And I said, it's trash, throw it away. She's like, no, no, it's not that bad, just pick it off. And I'm like, I will not eat it. And she's like, alright, she picks it off, she takes a bite, it's trash. It's like, you know, I mean, she didn't realize it was defiled. Okay folks, this is what fornication does to people. It's pouring A1 on that steak. It's eating Indian food. Sorry for Indian food lovers, okay. Sorry not sorry. It's just, you're defiling your palate. You know, Brother Ben, he asked me the other day, he said, come on, be honest, Pastor Shelley, there's an Indian food dish that you desire every once in a while. And I said, no, I've never tried any of it, nor will I ever do that. I don't want to go down that road. You know what? Ignorance is bliss, folks. So I want to be simple concerning evil, alright. And so I don't have to go down this dark road and destroy my palate and destroy my body and then end up desiring something that's not even good for me, okay. So you know, pardon my analogy, if you don't like the carnal application, take the spiritual application, okay folks. And I'll be honest, my carnal application is on point too, okay. But let's be serious. You don't want to defile yourself with things that you will have a lifetime of regret. A lifetime of regret that can never, you can never put it back in the box. You can never take the A1 out of it. You can never take the anchovies off of it. And here's the problem. You know, STDs are like that. You can't put the anchovies back. It's gross. It's super gross and no one likes it. And I'm trying to warn you. You know, people are killed in the Bible for being fornication. And look, that's one sin. We need good Bible preaching. We need to go to church. We need to read the Bible. We need to be a vessel of sanctification and honor unto God so that he can use us. And he can use us greatly. And people that have made a lot of mistakes and have a lot of sin in their lives, they end up usually not serving God very much. They get drug out of church by their wife that they shouldn't have married or they get drug out of church by the guy that they shouldn't have married. Look, I've seen both. I've seen both examples of people having a crappy spouse and their spouse stopping them from serving God and dragging them out of serving God and discouraging them from serving God. Bad, you know, all kinds of different scenarios and situations and events. And that's why it's important to follow all of God's commandments. They're there for a reason. They're for our benefit. Notice what he said to Timothy, for thy profit, that it would save you, but you know what? It's not just going to save you, it's going to save others. And I'll be honest with you, I probably am not strong enough to withstand a lot of temptations based on the motivation of only profiting myself, but one of the motivating factors for me was my children, where I said, you know what, why can't I make some sacrifices not just for my profit but for their profit? And I don't want them to make, I've made mistakes in my past and I'm not the greatest Christian that's ever lived by any long shot. And I look at my children and they're so precious and they're so pure and I think, you know what, I need to be a good example so that they have a chance to be pure, that they have a chance to not be as defiled as I was, to not have the problems that I did, to not go down the roads that I did, and to, you know, stand before people and say things like, hey, I've never taken illicit drugs. Praise God I didn't go down that road. And have other testimonies that are great, that they can say they've never done things. Praise God I've never smoked marijuana. How many Oklahoma children are getting defiled every second because of that drug and that sin and those things that are going on? And would to God parents would actually protect their children from the evils of this world because they're out there to snatch them up. But if we want more soul winners, we have to follow this formula. We have to start praying. But we have to hustle to man people to be a soul winner. But most importantly, we need to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Because if we really want people to be a soul winner, we can't be hypocrites. You know, people that are hypocrites are not going to motivate a big group to go out soul winning. They're not going to motivate other people to serve God with their lives. You know, people look at our example and when we falter, you know, it's going to be a discouragement to others to serve God. You are important. Your lives are important. You are going to affect your wife and your husband and your children and your brothers and your sisters and your church family. You're going to influence your area. You're going to influence your state. You're going to influence your country. Yay, all saints in this world. You're going to influence those that got saved recently. But you know what? It's going to be discouraging when they say, hey, that guy got me saved and now he's a drug addict. This guy got me saved. Where is he? I tried to look him up. I tried to go to the church. I tried to, you know, and you can't find them. Let us not be that person. Let us be the person that, hey, there they are again. You know what? I am going to go see what they're doing. Hey, I do want to follow that person now. Hey, I do want to go soul winning with that person now. And you know what? Be like Brother Kenton who has the faith of someone that would pray for years to send soul winners. Look at your children and look at the people in your life and say, I'm going to pray for you for years to be a soul winner of Jesus Christ. Because sometimes it takes years. But you know what? You'll have nobody if you don't even try. Let us be those who have great faith and are willing to pray for more laborers. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us the tools that we need in the Bible and giving us so many great instructions that help us to function as Christians and to be successful and to have profit in our lives. But I pray that we be motivated by our love for others. That we can profit others and that we would encourage other people to preach the gospel because we can't reach the whole world by ourselves. And it's a dying world that's going to hell and the devil is going full speed with music and TV and his governments and his wicked ministers and all kinds of disgusting filth being spread all over this world. Let us be a bright and shining light in such a dark world. And help us be motivated to pray and to demand people to be soul winners and to be a good example, be a follower of Jesus so that we can be a fisher of men and motivate others to also brightly shine their lights and that we can reach many for Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. For our final song, we'll go to 143 Blessed Assurance. 143 Blessed Assurance. 143 Blessed Assurance. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of his Spirit, washed in his blood. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst on my sight. Angels descending bring from above. Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at rest. I in my Savior am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking above. Filled with his goodness, lost in his love. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song.