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

All right, well thank you so much for being here and it's been a great, great soul winning marathon so far and the sad part is I've been not feeling good for the last couple days so I haven't been able to partake in a lot of the soul winning but I appreciate your prayers and just appreciate everybody's hard work. I especially want to thank Brother Rob and Miss Mary Ann for all the great hospitality and just everything's just been a class act from start to finish and very hospitable and it's a great bunch of people up here. Thank you so much again for being here and we've got some of our brothers from Manitoba here. If you guys could just raise your hands real quick. We've got our Sure Foundation Baptist Winnipeg here so that's our church plant. We actually have two church plants out of Sure Foundation in Canada and right now I'm at my limit so don't even ask but yeah seven years of ministry, seven churches so but we're gonna have six here pretty soon so we're gonna ordain Brother Ian over in England here pretty shortly and so that's great and a great sermon earlier by Brother Matt. I really appreciated that and he was talking about the horses and we were talking about horses the other day the white because Jesus is going to come back on a white horse in Revelation chapter 19 but we're going to come back with him in Revelation chapter 19 and we're all going to have white horses also and I posed this question what will be the name of your horse and I said my horse's name is going to be Snowball so Snowball is going to be a little bit bigger than the average horse I think so it'll probably be a fitting name but anyway that was a good sermon and it is true that all the other religions they kind of have their messiah type figure and they all are oneness like when I realized that Hindus they might have millions of gods but they do just believe in that that one god is like the orchestrator of all those different gods so and that the Muslims believe in a oneness god also so that was a great uh great sermon so I'm going to be preaching tonight about the cost of one soul the cost of one soul and there's three different things that I want to show you tonight about the cost of the soul so let's look down at Titus chapter 2 verse 13 the Bible says looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works let's pray lord we thank you so much for this great great soul winning campaign here lord where we've had already 78 people saved and lord just three baptisms and just great blessings and it's been at a great expense monetarily also lord I just pray that you'd bless each and every single person that's sacrificed for this to happen and and just set aside earthly things to come and spend money on coming and just trying to make sure that people in Toronto are saved we thank you lord for all the blessings we just pray that you just fill us with your spirit now as the word of god's preacher pray you fill me with your spirit as I preach your your word in Jesus name we pray amen so you know the cost of coming to this trip is a great cost I'm sure to a lot of people some people already live here so it might not have been as much but people have had to take time off of work people have had to take you know buy airplane tickets and pay for gas which is crazy high right now I know the herd of it Washington state has the highest gas prices in the whole country even over California now I think Canada might have us beat but I'm not exactly sure I'm sure it is but you guys have leaders and all this other stuff that I don't understand so we got gallons and miles per hour and things like that so but I don't really know how to translate all that because it's not something I'm used to having to do but um you know it's a great expense to do something like this and sometimes people think well is it really worth it to spend all this money just to have like you know 80 100 people saved and I would say yes it is it's worth it it's worth it to spend your time it's worth it to spend your money it's worth it to spend your talent on the things of God and so I want to preach to you tonight about the cost of one soul and the first point is is that one soul cost the son of God his life one soul cost the son of God his life now I know he died for all we all know that we all believe that but I believe personally that Jesus Christ if there was one person that needed to be saved he would have he would have suffered the shame he would have come down and been our savior for one person and he loved you know we we like to quote the verse for God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth of him should not perish but have everlasting life that's a great scripture but he loved the world but he also loved the individual and the cost of one soul is worth everything it was worth the son of God to come and lose his life and so look at verse 14 again it says who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people the all peculiar and zealous of good works and peculiar doesn't mean like you're a weirdo it means that we're different he wants us to be different and he wants us to be zealous of good works and I know I'm preaching to the choir right now because in this room are a bunch of people that are zealous of good works you know it's a good work to go out and preach the gospel it's a great work to go out and preach the gospel turn to Romans chapter 8 verse 32 Romans chapter 8 verse 32 and I'll try to get through this sermon fairly quickly but I'm not going to make any promises on the time there's no clock in front of me so that's like staying sick into a dog you know it's like anyway Romans chapter 8 verse 32 the Bible says he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall how shall he not with him also freely give us all things so the fact that Jesus delivered he would that God delivered his own son up for us all yes he delivered up for us all but each individual is a soul and he caught and it's cost the son of God his life because that's the only way that it could have been paid for there's no other way if it could have come from the law then we would just be saved by the law but it can't be done that way a man had to redeem mankind the man Christ Jesus but also God manifests in the flesh look at Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 and I love this little short I'd love to read the whole chapter of Philippians chapter 2 but I'm not going to for sake of time that I don't care about but um Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 you're like well I do well too bad I'm preaching now so Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 the Bible says let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus so Paul is saying he wants us to have the same mindset that he did now listen what it says who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation so we're talking about the God that created everything the king of kings and the Lord of lords made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant someone that gets down and does the dirty work and the hard work he took on himself the form of a servant when he's the one that has many servants right and was made in the likeness of men God lowered himself to our level and he became what he created so that he could redeem us he cared for the individual he cared for every single soul it says and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross so again I believe that God I mean if he humbled himself for all for us all he obviously would have humbled himself for the for just one person I believe now look at Psalm chapter 16 verse 9 not only did he pay the penalty for our sins he lowered himself he humbled himself and he fashioned himself as a man he also paid another price that will never have to pay look at Psalm chapter 16 verse 9 and this is a very famous psalm of David it says therefore my heart was is glad in my and my glory rejoiceth my flesh also shall rest in hope for that will not leave my soul in hell neither will thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption thou will show me the path of life in thy presence is the fullness of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures evermore now there's no doubt about it that this is David writing this psalm because acts in Acts chapter 2 it reveals to us who the writer of the psalm is go ahead and turn to Acts chapter number 2 but this is David under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit now remember that Christ is in all the Old Testament Christ is pictured in the Old Testament multiple times in multiple different ways he's prophesied about directly and in the psalms there's many different psalms that are prophecies of what would be Jesus Christ so when it says for that will not leave my soul in hell look at Acts chapter 2 verse 29 what the Bible says man and brethren let me speak freely unto you of the patriarch David that he is both dead and buried in his sepulchres with us unto this day therefore being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne he's seen this before spake of the resurrection so who's this who is it speaking it's David right and it's you're gonna you're gonna get this right away speak of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell neither his flesh did see corruption so who's the parable who is the psalm speaking about it's speaking about Christ neither his flesh did see corruption this Jesus have God raised up where of where all witnesses so this is Peter preaching about the resurrection and he's specifically mentioning the fact that David preached in the psalm that Jesus's soul would not be left in hell and so Jesus you know he came he lowered himself he humbled himself he he did everything it cost to pay for our sins but he also went somewhere else that to ensure that we would never have to go to that place now this is not David saying he was in hell this is not some double meaning this is him talking about Christ he's not talking about himself he's talking about Christ because let me tell you something King David never spent one second in hell no old testament saint ever spent one second in hell no believer on the lord Jesus Christ will ever spend one second in hell and you know why because Jesus Christ went there for us and you know this seems to be like a controversial topic or something but it's not controversy at all because I mean you can clearly see that David is talking about Christ Peter tells us that it's David speaking about Christ and people are like well that's not the real hell but what hell is it is there any hell that's a good hell there's no such thing as a good hell but I'll tell you what my savior loved me enough to go to hell for me and rise again from the dead I'm not saying that he stayed there I'm not saying he's still there I'm saying that he went there for us because that is where we deserve to go and when a soul dies where do they deserve to go they deserve to go to hell when Jesus died on the cross and brother rod likes to say this in his gospel presentation like a sponge he took upon himself the sins of the whole world is that what you say brother up it is true every sin that's ever been committed from Adam and Eve till the very last person that dies he paid for all those sins all sinners that have ever been born on the face of the planet he died for those sins now the bible teaches that he you know obviously God was disgusted by the fact that his son had become sin he turned away from him and Jesus said my God my God why hast thou forsaken me you know why he forsook him because he became sin for us he wasn't a sinner but he became sin for us and this is the hardest part of the whole thing in my opinion obviously he was mocked he was beaten he was spit on he was maligned he was lied about he was falsely accused and tortured beyond belief didn't even get a drink of water you know instead of giving him a drink of water they walked up and tried to give him a sponge of vinegar mocking him I mean imagine being so thirsty I'm sure everybody in this room has been so thirsty like I am right now but you're so thirsty all you want is just a drop of water and then he they're like he thirsted and then they come up and give him vinegar like he spits it out why because it's not water right but I'm gonna have some water anyway so Jesus Christ and people can dispute this all they want but this is facts folks this is what the bible says turn to Psalm chapter 88 and I'll submit to you this also that not only did Jesus spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth like the bible says and the only sign that he told the Jews he was going to give them was the sign of Jonas the prophet whereas Jonas was three days and three nights in the heart of the whale's belly so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth what's in the heart of the earth hell is in the heart in the heart of the earth now and it wasn't hotel hell it wasn't like hey this is this is good hell where Jesus and all the other old testament saints are the old testament saints never spent a second in hell folks they never spent a Jesus Christ was the lamb slain from the foundation of the earth the dispensational belief of the fact not the fact but here's where dispensational salvation just goes off the cliff where they say yeah we were saved differently in different dispensations lie it's a lie straight out of hell that is not true now I'm not against I mean I just don't believe in dispensationalism but there's people that believe in dispensationalism that don't believe that but listen the bible says if you preach any other gospel but that which Paul and the apostles and Jesus Christ preached let them be accursed let them be accursed and he didn't just say it once he said it twice so just so they got the message so anybody teaching that in the future we have to have some other type of salvation when Jesus Christ paid for our sins once and for all he laid down his life he put the blood on the mercy seat one time for us so that all souls could be saved that's facts folks that's what the bible teaches look at eight psalm 88 verse three now I would submit to you that not only did Jesus go to hell for three days and three nights but he also went to the lowest hell the very deepest part of hell the most torturous part of hell now look at psalm 88 verse three it says my soul is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave I am counted with them that go down into the pit I am as a man that hath no strength free among the dead like the slain that lie in the grave whom thou rememberest no more and they are cut off out of the land thou hast laid me in the lowest pit in darkness in the deeps so where where does and I believe this psalm is talking about Jesus Christ because again David never spent a second in hell so we know that Jesus was not left in hell because he resurrected from the dead but what does it say he was that thou hast laid me in the lowest hell in the dark in the darkness in the deeps thy wrath lieth hard upon me and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves sea law now of course in Jonah you see you know when it's talking about the waves of the sea but it's also talking about hell like you have kind of like every other verse is skipping and talking about what Jonah experienced on the whale but also it's a prophecy of what Jesus went through when he was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth now how am I saying that he's in the lowest parts of the pit the worst part of hell why would I believe that well if Jesus Christ Jesus Christ he had to have gone to the lowest part because he had the sins of all the world upon him not just run-of-the-mill sinners not just people that just die and never heard of Jesus not just you know our sins that saved which we can do enough heinous sins at ourselves but think about this he died for all the false prophets sins he died for all the reprobates sins he died for all the fags sins he died for all the child molester sins he died for every sin like we don't think about that part of it but he did die for all sin didn't he I'm not saying that those people could be redeemed that have gone too far you know the people that take away from God's word they can't be saved the people that take the mark of the beast they can't be saved see God puts limits upon salvation and this is where people say well the new ifb just kind of goes off the cliff when it says that homos can't get saved or whatever but I think that someone that does a homosexual act can be saved I do believe that and sometimes people get trapped into situations they get raped they're at a party something weird happens you know nowadays kids are told all kinds of things in schools that aren't true and they might like do some kind of experiment but then they're disgusted by it but it doesn't mean that that can't be forgiven think about this the kids that are being turned into trannies by their parents will some of them you know and this is the this is hard to hear but it but it's true there's probably people out there that have been turned into these trannies and eunuchs that are not reprobate because someone made them that way see some people are made eunuchs for the kingdom of God's sake but some people are made eunuchs by other men and so they're they're being sterilized and all this weird stuff is happening but what a weird time that we live in when there's these trannies that might actually be savable so I'm not saying go to all their you know their their stuff or anything like that and to subject yourself to that but these people will come around and probably try to change back to whatever they were before but you know when you take hormone blockers and puberty blockers and you have your privy members chopped off and all this other stuff or things added that weren't supposed to be there you know it's going to mess you up but it doesn't mean that that person is totally reprobate so but don't get me wrong I'm not saying we should go to these pride parades and try to figure out which ones they are okay that would be an exercise in futility but think about this I mean Jesus Christ I believe he went to the lowest hell because he did have to die for all that filth okay now we know that someone that's a reprobate you know these burning in your lust homos they're not they're not savable okay but someone that's committed the act or the sin of sodomy now if someone's a pedophile they are not savable either okay and you know anybody that's harboring pedophiles in their church like that they should just step down and quit being pastor anyway so Jesus died for the sins of the whole world and now now we know that there are greater sins some sins are greater than others and so follow so let's follow me on this logic here of Matthew chapter 23 verse 13 now there's greater sins in the bible you know stealing a pencil and shooting someone in the face are two completely different sins right which one's worse you judge stealing a pencil or shooting somebody in the face which one's worse shooting someone in the face is worse right and anybody can figure that out but we'll have people that preach like all sin is sin yes it is all sin is sin I agree with you but not all sins have the same punishment if you shoot somebody in the face premeditated that's first degree murder it's the death penalty in the bible it's the death penalty for for mankind it used to be anyway but now they're saving them and getting rid of small children so go figure that one out but anyway Matthew chapter 23 verse 13 the bible says but woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men for you neither go in yourselves neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in so Jesus is saying there's people that he's talking to them right now and you know when he was preaching this he's saying you're not going to heaven and then you're stopping people that would go to heaven from getting in that's a false prophet they're the worst scum on the face of the planet Jesus said they weren't saved they're like well why didn't Jesus just pray for them you know this is what we hear today right oh why didn't Jesus just pray for those people they're damned they're false prophets this is woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you devour widows houses and for a pretense that means pretending make long prayer therefore you shall receive the greater damnation so is there a greater damnation yes or no and the pharisees are headed for a greater damnation woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you compass sea and land to make one prose light and when he is made you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves so false prophets beget other false prophets that are even worse than themselves and listen false prophets are not saved they're not going to heaven Paul was given a pass because he did it ignorantly in an unbelief now the reason why I'm pointing that out to you is because there is greater damnations in hell so if Jesus had the sins of all the world upon him didn't he suffer a greater damnation I mean but you're like well he wasn't damned though he came back like yeah I know I this is what people get so upset about too they're like well you're saying that Jesus went to hell he did but he's not there anymore so what's the big deal you know I don't understand why people make such a big deal about this but anyway I'll just read this for you John 1911 Jesus answered this could this thou could have no power against me except it were given me from above therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath a greater sin so there are greater some sins are greater than others people have to face facts on that you know stealing the pencil is not on par with murder okay there are some sins that are worse than others but yes all sin will send you to hell that is true luke chapter 12 verse 7 says but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered and I kind of wonder sometimes is it the hairs that before I started losing my hair that were numbered or that he just keeps a running count I'm not sure about that I'm hoping it's the old one like when my hair used to look good but it says for not therefore fear not excuse me fear not therefore you're of more value than many sparrows God holds you at a high value the souls of mankind are such a high value that he came down to this earth took on himself the form of a servant humbled himself and was allowed men to punish him torture him spit in his face and then died and went to hell for three days and three nights in the lowest hell for our sins that's a pretty big cost for a soul wouldn't you think and people are like well you know but he he only did it temporarily and he knew he was going to rise from the dead but let's see you go through something like that and see whether you would be saying hey if there's any other way father let's let's do this you know because that's what he prayed in Gethsemane but he ultimately said but not my will but thine be done so now let's look at also number so number one you know the worth of one soul cost our savior his life number two tonight the once the one soul is worth the life of a christian one soul is worth the life of a christian let's look turn over to romans chapter 8 verse 35 romans chapter 8 verse 35 every single door we knock every single person we stop every single sermon we preach could cost us our lives you're like well that's pretty extreme pastor thomas that's never happened to me well we're not in the tribulation yet are we we're not in this time where that's happening but there's been times and times password has just because we're not going through that right now doesn't mean that's not around the corner so it's good that you're doing it while it's easy while we're in a green tree because when it gets hard the people that are not so many now they're definitely not going to be so wanting them they're like people like yeah well when it all gets crazy that i'm going to be down if you weren't down when it was easy you're not going to be down when it's hard truth so romans 8 35 says who shall separate us from the love of christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter you're like well pastor thompson you're just saying how much god cares for our souls yes he does care for our souls but he also cares for other people's souls too and sometimes it takes a great uh traumatic event in someone's life for somebody else to get saved the bible talks about in ecclesiastes how the day of one's death is better their life because the living take it to heart when people die you know people will take that thing to heart and they'll think about eternity they'll think about the things of god i'll tell you what the reason why i got saved is because i had i went to three funerals in one year and the last one was my best friend it was killed fighting my brother drunk in the middle of the street and a car came by and hit my friend and killed him and uh that just made me think like what's going to happen if i die you know and so that the fact that people die can stop and pause and make people think about well where am i going to go when i die i mean at the time i was working for a company of jehovah's witnesses who were trying to get me to go to their bible studies i was into astrology and i was just i was lost my wife had brought me some uh chick comic books i'm not endorsing chick comic books or chick tracks or anything like that but there was one called sabotaged and on the front and i was on the front cover it's like this bible or whatever and like the the topic is it basically just explains why we should be king james only so like i'm in all this confusing stuff and i just remember praying in my room one time i just remember praying god if you're real then please show me what the truth is and like when you're seeking the truth you're going to find it god is going to you know knock in it and the door is going to be answered right seek and he shall find and i believe that god showed me the truth i didn't you know i went to the joe's witnesses and i was like the king james bible's the right bible i wasn't even saved so but i got saved you know just long story short in january on my birthday i went out to eat at this chinese food place that i really liked this guy started talking to me about the lord so don't take just these encounters as nothing and then we're talking about how fake the news was i was like a truther before 9 11 was even a thing so i was already kind of like the news is fake and you know george w bush is evil they're all evil but uh and so i'm talking to him and he starts talking to me about the lord and i was like hey i'm not interested and you know we've had that conversation and someone's not interested and he didn't like ride me and try to keep shoving it down my throat he handed me a card he said well if you ever are here's his card it was like his company card and so then i go through these three funerals i'm wondering what's going on the the the funeral was a huge funeral and it wasn't it was a what you would call first nations but it's you know we call it indian or you know native american funeral and then it was like the peyote religion being preached at this funeral so it's like you know g there's talking about jesus christ and then it's talking about how he's fishing with grandma moon out in the outer space or something like i was confused but like a month after my friend died i went to uh another chinese food place and i had been carrying a king james bible in the back of the trunk of my car and it was like one of those big family ones that has jesus with long hair on the front like the picture anybody ever seen those so i'm traveling around with that i'm reading the bible i don't understand it i'm king james only i'm not saved i'm confused about stuff i go into this other chinese food restaurant and i've been looking for that guy's card i lost it and so all this is like six months later and i walk in i see that guy and i say dude i've been looking for you everywhere like i got all these questions and he's like he said this do you believe that jesus christ is the son of god this is like in front of like this size of a group of a restaurant in front of everybody i didn't even care i was just so happy i found him and i said i do he said let's go outside he said you got a bible today i got a king james bible so i pulled out that big old bible and he just took me through the roman's road he showed me what it takes to be saved i got down on my knees right there i asked christ to save me and i've been saved ever since so but it took people dying for me to get reached so god had been trying to reach me and i can look back and i can think of the times that he tried to reach me in other ways you know i i used to work with this lady and i would always ask her what time it was because i wanted to wait i wanted to know what time the next break was right and i'd say hey what time is it and she'd always say it's time for you to trust in the lord with all your heart and she would just say that to me over and over again and like you remember things like that because it's significant it's something and she's not quoting me some bible scripture but it is true nonetheless it is time for you to trust in the lord with all your heart isn't it but one time i got mad at her i was just like why do you always have to say that every time i ask you what time it is and i just like jumped down her throat and then i thought i'm 16 okay i'm a punk and then i i i did feel bad about it though i'm like why am i asking her what time it is and when she says something i'm it's like why can't i just get a watch and so i apologized to her i said hey i'm really sorry i didn't mean to go off on you like that i apologize and uh i just remember that it's because that's part of i like what salvation is not a process folks but it is something that god just kind of intervenes in your life here and there and then your salvation happens when it happens but the point i'm trying to make here is that sometimes it takes something extreme to get somebody saved sometimes it takes you know and it's like well the god will allow those people to die so that i could be saved i mean they were going to die anyway everybody's going to die right and yes it was terrible yes it was awful but is is that what it took to get me saved it is i believe it is and um i had to turn to let's see i'm just going to skip a couple let's let's look at matthew chapter 14 but i'm you know god loves us but he also loves other people too and sometimes even the death of his saints is something that has to happen in order to get somebody's attention now of course we know this is the story of john the baptist being killed and he was the cousin of jesus he was called the greatest man born among women and but but john died john didn't understand why he had to die john at one point was like giving up and saying you know are you really is he you know he sent some of his disciples to ask jesus if he was really the christ if he's the one that they've been searching for because he's probably thinking why am i in jail why am i going through this what's going on and then the last thing he sees is some executioner coming to chop his head off look at verse eight says and she being more uh be being before instructed of her mother said give me here john baptist's head and a charger she forgot his middle name the but anyway and the king was sorry nonetheless for the oath's sake and then that sat with him at meat he commanded it to be given her and he sent and beheaded john in the prison and his head was brought in a charger and given to the damsel and she brought it to her mother so of course his disciples come and bury him and everything like that but you know the end of john the baptist wasn't some spectacular end you know for all the great things he did and turning the hearts of the fathers under the children and the children to the hearts of the fathers john was a great man jesus said he was you know he was the greatest man born among women so why did he have to die well the old testament had to die and i believe that john's a picture of the ending of the old testament jesus of course is the new testament so um but he died why he preached a sermon that somebody didn't like that's why he died but and you know he must decrease and jesus must increase james the brother of john killed by the sword peter died in a way he didn't want to according to jesus in john chapter 20 uh one that he died in a way that you know he was going to be carried in a to a place that he didn't want to go signifying what death he would die i really want to focus on stephen here so go ahead and turn to acts chapter seven so the reason i told you that kind of story about how i got saved and my testimony is because i believe that this is what happened with the apostle paul and stephen look at act 752 it says which of the so stephen he gets his hands laid on him and then he gets a chance to preach this the smoking hot sermon where he just you know he gives the whole history of israel and then just his last few verses that he get that you know the last few things that he says gets him killed for preaching the word of god and think about this stephen was one of the first deacons so that means he had to have what a wife and children faithful children right it says which of the prophets this is stephen preaching which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted and they whom you have been now with the betrayers and murder oh excuse me i'm sorry so and they have slain them excuse me which showed before the coming of the just one of whom you have now been betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the dispensation of angels and have not kept it when they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on them with their teeth but he being full of the holy ghost looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of god and jesus standing on the right hand of god here's another picture of the trinity brother matt right there you got the father the son the holy ghost right there and it says then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears so they couldn't handle it they they just put their hands over their ears and rushed him and ran upon him with one accord and cast him out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was saul and they stoned stephen calling upon god and saying lord jesus received my spirit and he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice lord lay not this sin to their charge and then he had when he had said this he fell asleep now you know just because someone says something like don't lay it to their charge it's not really stephen's right you know it's something good to say but like some of those guys are probably reprobate but there's one guy that was sitting there that wasn't and if you think about it paul that sin was not laid to his charge was it even though he held their coats he didn't participate but he he you know if someone if if you go to a crime and you're with everybody that's doing it and then you're holding all their coats you're an accessory to murder aren't you like well you held their coats well all i did is hold their coats but you still held their coats right you were still with them you were still okay with it so but the last thing that the this young man named saul saw was then throwing rocks at stephen a man of god a man that was preaching the truth a man that was trying to reach his people israel and the last thing he saw is him stoned to death but let me tell you something that had an effect on saul that had an effect on saul that was a big deal and we see it take we see the fruition of what happened there coming to paul's lie or saul's life in acts chapter nine so acts chapter number nine let's go ahead and turn to acts chapter number nine so a couple chapters later now saul didn't turn good right away he didn't you know become paul basically right away but he was still going around causing havoc and so he basically became the main persecutors of the early church so look at acts chapter 9 verse 1 the bible says and saul breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the lord went unto the high priest and desired to him letters to to damascus into the synagogues that if he found any of this way whether they were men or women he might bring them bound unto jerusalem and as he journeyed he came near damascus and suddenly they were shined round about him a light from heaven and he fell on the earth and heard a voice saying unto him saul saul why persecutest thou me notice he says me is that is that are you guys have a red letter edition if you do is that the words of jesus right there it is right why persecutest thou me who's saul who's he going after he's going after christians so when he's going after christians how does god see that though how does jesus see that he says why are you persecuting me why are you persecuted so jesus takes it very personal doesn't it says and he said who art thou lord and the lord said i'm jesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks now a lot of people will say that what it's talking about here because it's not necessarily super clear but i believe what it's saying i think a lot of people would agree with me on this is that paul had already been being pricked his conscience was already being pricked by the holy spirit that he needed to get saved and he was what he was doing was not right and so jesus is making this statement that probably only saul really knows the depth of what he's saying to him here but for us to understand this is that i believe what happened is when he saw stephen stone even though saul was still going the wrong way that in the back of his mind what he saw that day had an effect on him and that effect on him was that god finally when he goes to him on the road to damascus and blinds him that he when he says this saying it says and he trembled and astonished said lord what wilt thou have me to do and the lord said unto him arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do and i mean me and brother robert were kind of joking around about this but there's a verse of lamentations chapter 3 verse 51 it says mine eye affecteth my heart and that's jeremiah the prophet saying you know the things the terrible things he saw affected the way his heart was responding to that and i believe that saul's eyes were affecting his heart and god was working on him to get him saved and i believe that the most extreme thing had to happen in order for saul to get saved if he had not witnessed that that death and that murder that he was complicit in that saul probably would have not have gotten saved and not have been the man that he was so yes it's terrible that stephen died but stephen died a martyr's death and he has a greater resurrection in heaven but he also helped be responsible for the conversion of saul of tarsus who became the apostle paul the greatest man in the new testament besides jesus christ he started all these churches the bible says that he turned the world upside down and you know obviously he had had help doing that but he god used him so greatly he wrote half the new testament and his eyes affected his heart and god's spirit affected his heart and so that day you know his eyes were blinded but you know when he when he went and got led by the way he got saved he got baptized and his sight returned to him and he became brother saul and the one that destroyed christianity and was trying to stomp christianity out became its best champion and sometimes drastic things have to happen for people to get saved but and sometimes the cost of a soul is a christian dying for that person another christian being martyred for that look at acts chapter 21 look at the you know and obviously we know the great things that paul did as paul you know and he noticed that his name was saul saul in the old testament was head and shoulders above the rest of the people but paul the saul in the new testament he thought of himself little and called his name paul means little so he you know he's of the tribe of benjamin saul's of the tribe of benjamin and then saul is also you know he saw his head and shoulders above the rest in the king saul and then at the other paul's little in his own sight at least little enough to call himself paul because god didn't say he had to call himself paul he just started calling himself paul but anyway look at uh acts chapter 21 verse 11 says and when he was when he when he was came to us he took paul's girdle and bound his own hands and feet and said thus saith the holy ghost so shall the jews of jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle and shall deliver him into the hands of the gentiles and when he heard these things both we and they of the place besought him not to go up to jerusalem so they're begging paul please don't go you're going to get captured you're going to get killed and look what paul you know the difference between paul before and paul now then paul answered what what mean you to weep and to break my heart for i'm ready not only to be bound only but also to die at jerusalem for the name of the lord jesus so the apostle paul had a great turnaround a big turnaround to where the i mean paul walked into places and he didn't know what was going to happen to him we don't have to worry about that right now you can walk into any neighborhood in this area and pretty much you're guaranteed you're not going to be stoned or your head cut off or chopped up by a sword i mean something you know if you call mom to pedophile to some of these people they might but um that's between you and god okay but uh brother rob was telling me about some some guy that like he he just straight up says you're your prophet's a pedophile like well that's one way of doing it let's go for the throat but anyway then paul answered what meaning okay so he so the apostle paul said you know he's ready to die and then later on he's he says i i i could wish that myself were a curse from christ for my brother my kinsmen according to the flesh i mean paul has such a turnaround because of what it goes back to stephen doesn't it the death of one of god's saints and saul chapter 1 16 verse uh 15 says precious to the side of the lord is the death of his saints so yeah he still holds us as precious but sometimes he allows the saints to die so that other people can be born again right and you know the servant is not above his master you know we're not above our lord he died for us all and we should be willing at least to put our life on the line and i would just say this that right now you're already kind of in the boot camp of doing it but there could come a day when you might be put in a position the same way and you're like well i hope that doesn't happen i hope it doesn't happen too but you know it's just the way it is sometimes you know it takes a christ a christian life is the cost of a soul one but that soul one did a great work for god and we're all here all of us gentiles are here today because the apostle paul did such a great work his works follow him into heaven and uh the last thing i want to talk about here number three the last point is one soul is worth more than all the riches in the world one soul is worth more than all the riches in the world look at mark chapter 8 verse 35 mark chapter 8 verse 35 the bible says in mark chapter 8 verse 35 it says for whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospels the same shall save it for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul and i would just that's a that's a good question but the question the answer should be don't ever give anything in exchange for your soul don't ever give anything in exchange for your soul you're like well i'm saved and i can never give it away you're right that's true but there are people that do exchange their souls for other things for riches for gain and there's people that probably you've got you're at the door and you're like they understood everything they got it all why wouldn't they pray and trust christ it's because they they they wait it out in their mind this is what i'm going to have to give up and then kind of like in a moment's time people know whether they're going to choose christ or not we don't see that happen necessarily but you're like well why don't they pray well because they don't want it because they've chosen something else you know maybe they just don't completely understand it we don't always know why people do the things that they do but some people you know the bible says men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil they won't come to the light because of they want to live in their sin they want to live the life that they want to live and they don't want to give it up but unfortunately they really exchange you know money and riches and fun and clout for all these things now we know that the devil can offer these things to people because he did it with jesus christ let's turn to matthew chapter 4 verse 8 and of course there's a story of the guy that you know had all these riches and he said you know i'm gonna i said to myself soul you know and he builds bigger barns and and and just builds bigger houses to hold all his riches in but he didn't realize that his life was going to be required of him that night and so we should never put riches in front of serving god or getting saved or anything like that look what it says matthew chapter 4 verse 8 says again the devil taketh him into an exceeding high mountain and and showeth him all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them and saith unto him all these things what will i give thee if thou will fall down and worship me then said jesus unto him get thee hence satan for it is written thou shall worship the lord by god and him only shalt thou serve then the devil leaveth him and behold the angels came and ministered unto him so the devil offered jesus the kingdoms of this world and so that so that means that it's his to offer the bible calls the devil the god of this world now some people would choose rather to give up their soul than to believe on god and to live the life of a christian because the life of the christian can be hard and and you know what we're going to fight with our flesh for the rest of our lives until jesus comes back and gives us a perfect body you know i'm hoping for that six pack and you know my my my hair back and some other things to go away the that you know the hair grows in your ears now it's like you know that's the hard part about being a man their nose hair never stops growing and neither is your ear hair but uh hopefully that kind of all gets stopped when we get our glorified bodies but anyway no more deodorant anything like that so no more shaving hopefully just stays perfectly like rob's beard you know i can't get mine as long as his because it just starts itching i can't handle it but anyway but the devil offers the kingdoms of this world to those that will serve him and his purposes and of course we see that playing out in in today's world you know where there's the bible talks about there being principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world and and it's so easy for us to see these things like george soros and and all these different there's like three or four companies that basically run the whole world right now you know the president of the united states is like a literal vegetable that goes around gobbling children like what in the world sniffing girls hair i mean we we both have some some rough times with both presidents i feel for you canada but uh at least you got a guy that can burn on them in those uh in those debates they have it's pretty funny but anyway nobody can touch biden because you know his his true masters are these dark agents of the world i mean we can see that the world is headed to a one-world government a one-world economy a one-world religion and all these people in the world are going to wonder after the beast why because he has power because he has power that you can see see we have to take everything by faith and that's actually how god wants it you know he said blessed are those that have not seen yet believe because the disciples got to see him and they got to to you know and even they had trouble believing some of the things he was saying but you know what the fact that we have not seen and yet believe that's greater faith than most people have we have great things to look forward to but we are trying to get people out of the clutches of the devil and i was kind of looking into this the other night i thought it was very interesting all these people that are caught on tape actually saying that they sold their soul to the devil and people are like that's not true that why do they say it then why do they have the need to say it and you know there's katy perry who wanted to be the next great christian gospel singer and she wasn't good enough to be that so she said she sold her soul to the devil so she could be famous i mean you can look these up it's a fact and then like you see her mk ultra with her eyes like tweaking out have you ever seen that um and then bob dylan i saw an interview with him where he said that he sold his soul he didn't say the devil but he's like you know you know the one i'm talking about and he basically said that he made that he wasn't writing those songs that somebody else was writing those songs the yeah the big guy you know the big guy he was like saying the one that runs it all jz of course has basically said his wife beyonce you know i mean they they you play his songs backward and it says murder murder jesus or whatever elvis presley you know i know a lot of people think he was saved but he wasn't okay folks he was not saved at all he didn't believe that jesus was the only way to heaven janice joplin drank herself to death as a young woman you know all this in 1969 like all these singers came out and they all were like moving this country in a way that it should you know they're just an agent that the devil used to move this you know not this country but maybe this country too right so i'm sure you guys all got the same music we do you got the backstreet boys or wait who's the who's the boy band that's from canada oh there's a beaver is beaver from here yeah is he from toronto oh he's not okay well you don't want to claim him okay i don't blame you oh he lives in america well well done well done jim morrison was another one that like was a basic i mean open devil worshiper and uh i saw where jack black you know the guy the the funny comedian guy said that him and his partner or whatever sold their soul to the devil or whatever hurt cobain you know he was the lead singer of nirvana blew his own brains out with a shotgun he's saying these lyrics jesus don't want me for a sunbeam sunbeams are not made like me don't expect me to cry for all the reasons you had to die don't ever ask your love of me don't expect me to cry don't expect me to lie don't expect me to die for thee but you know what i will die for god i will die for christ i will take i'll take that you know i say that now but i mean i hope that i would have the strength to do that and the time of need but any christian in here we should be willing to die for someone else to be saved and you know because jesus died for us to be saved it's like you know we think about you know when we have a wife we have children we have grandchildren or whatever but so did stephen and he gave up his life and so did john you know john the baptist might not have had children things like that but he gave up his life and uh you know there's people out here like this that are influencing the young people in america and like just some of the videos that i see just like it makes me really sad the way that children are acting these days and and and the crazy things that are going on and what they're into but uh hurt cobain has died and gone to hell and you know he's not experiencing nirvana he's experiencing the lake of fire or well not the lake of fire he's in hell but jesus is going to someday he's going to say to people depart from me that work iniquity i never knew you depart from me all you workers of iniquity and you know it's our job as christians to reach these people before it's too late and there's so much work to do here in toronto there's so much work to do where i'm from and where all these everybody here is probably represented by a different place but there's it's so overwhelming the the amount of work that has to be done and the laborers are few but praise god for a group of people like this group of people here that is willing to go and take your vacation time and take your money and and take i mean most everybody else is just on the lake or doing all kinds of fun stuff and but we get to have fun at the same time that's what's great about this trip is that it's been fun at the same time as it's been rewarding so we're getting double rewards right now and i would rather i would not rather do anything else in this world than to do what i'm doing now as a christian i just would hope that i could do more and better let's look at first timothy chapter six verse seven that'll be the last verse that i have you turn to the bible says charge not them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in the living god who giveth us richly all things to enjoy that they do good that they be rich in good works ready distribute willing to communicate laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life those are some encouraging verses let's not trust in our riches but in the living god who richly giveth us all things to enjoy as a as a soul winner you still get to live rich in this world and maybe you're not your bank account isn't on the great plus side or whatever but you know what the bank account in heaven can never be withdrawn you can't ever overdraw your your account up there it's always going to be waiting for you the moths and rust can't corrupt the things that we have stored up there and besides that jesus said in matthew 633 but seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you see the people that want to be rich or they want to make their living before they do things like we're doing here today like the the great soul winning trip that we're on right now they're losing out they're actually losing out if you want to try to be rich now you know you're going to be too old to do anything great later anyway we do have a shelf life people you know the older you get the harder it is to get out and go soloing it's easiest when you're in your prime and you're able to do the triple decker apartment complexes and all that stuff but you never know what your health is going to be i mean you never know when your back's going to give out you never know when your legs are going to give out you just don't know things can happen in our life and now is the time to do things for god now is the time don't put it off and just a little bit of application here for the end you know we we need to set the riches and the focus on riches aside and and and focus on saving souls from hell and obviously again i'm preaching to the choir but all the money spent on this trip by each individual group each individual person brother robin miss marion marianne excuse me is all it's all worth it it's all worth it and you can't put a price on a soul because it costs more than all the riches in the world it costs the king of kings and lord of lords his life and it could cost us our life but you know what we should give our life to the service of the ministry we're kings and priests before god and what do priests do they serve god don't they so we really you know it's a reasonable service to serve our lord jesus christ and we should do that i mean obviously we're all serving christ here today but i don't know where everybody is at there could be people that are ready to give up i don't know there's new people in here like we said earlier and maybe you're just like well i don't know if i can you know just go go all in and serve god you know what you can go in all in and serve god and he will bless you tremendously for it and you'll never be sorrow sorrowing for it in heaven you're never going to go man i wish i would have done you know had more of my hedge funds and and back on earth i really wish i wouldn't have got that person saved you're never going to say things like that you know riches are fleeting you are our beauty is vain our beauty is fleeting but the things that we do here and now are going to stand in time and eternity and those people that you might not remember their names we're going to see those people up in heaven someday and they might you might not know their name but they're going to know yours and that'll be a joyous time where we all can rejoice together in heaven let's pray lord we thank you so much for this great soul winning trip lord thank you so much for all the time and effort and the money that was spent in doing it and lord for the people that have sacrificed their time and their talent and their monetary value things for just getting people saved lord pray that you'd help us to have a great time fellowshipping tonight and the lord there'll be more souls saved tomorrow in Jesus name we pray amen