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Hello everybody, it's Alexander Larson with Bible Truth 23, back with another soul-winning tip. And today I want to talk about using examples and illustrations in our Gospel presentation. This is very important because we want to make sure that the people that we're preaching to actually understand what we're preaching, okay? And using examples and illustrations is very important. Now obviously there is kind of a deep end that you could go off of where it's just only examples and illustrations and stories and parables and things like that, but you want to make sure to use the Word of God because the Bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So show them what the Bible says, preach what the Bible says, read what the Bible says, use a lot of verses when you're preaching the Gospel. But in addition to that, use examples and illustrations to make sure they're actually understanding what the Bible is saying and I'm going to give a few examples of examples and illustrations that you could use during your Gospel presentation. For example, if you want to explain what it means to believe in Jesus because you'd be surprised how many people there are out there that do not understand what it means to believe or what it means to have faith, okay? Some people when you tell them have faith in Jesus to be saved, they say, well, I already have faith. You know, I pray to Him every day, okay? And they think that trusting in God means trusting in Him for just whatever. They also have this weird idea that they are trusting in Jesus for their salvation even if they think that their goodness is getting them to heaven. So usually what I do to help them to explain that believing in Jesus means actually putting your faith in Him and trusting in Him and relying on Him to save you instead of yourself or something else, I'll give them examples such as this. I'll say something along the lines of if you had like a doctor's appointment tomorrow and your car broke down and you can't get there on your own, right? So you ask a family member or you ask a friend to take you instead and you tell that person I believe in you. What do they mean or what do you mean when you say that is usually what I ask, okay? And if they're paying attention, they'll say, well, that means you're trusting in them. You're relying on them to take you to the doctor's office and I'll say, exactly, okay? But what if they show up the next day and you had called an Uber or you'd called the taxi or somebody else is going to take you? Did you really trust that person? And again, if the person is paying attention, they'll say, no, you didn't really trust that person because you have a backup plan, right? So this is an example you could use, right? To help them understand that, well, to believe in Jesus means to trust in Him. But if you're trusting in your works, if you're trusting in yourself, if you're trusting in your church or another savior, your faith isn't in Jesus alone, you're relying on a backup plan. So we need to believe in Jesus in order to go to heaven but somebody who thinks they're going to heaven because of how good they are, they're not believing in Jesus. Their faith is not in Jesus, their faith is in themselves. So that's an example of an example or an illustration that you could use. Another one is when you're explaining the concept of a gift. You could say something like, well, if I were to give this Bible to you as a gift, I ask for some money for it, even a small amount, like five cents, is it really a gift? And if they understand what it means for something to be a gift, they'll say, no, it's not a gift. Or you could say, well, I'll give this to you as a gift but you have to go wash my car or mow my lawn first, then I'll give it to you, okay? Then they'll understand, well, no, because, again, you're working for it. If you work for something, it's not a gift. So that's another example or illustration you could use. Another thing that's important is when you get to the concept of eternal security, you want to make sure that you use an example so that they understand that no matter what, you can never lose your salvation because sometimes new soul winners, they'll show what the Bible says about eternal security, that we have eternal life. He said, never leave thee nor forsake thee. It's God's promise, things like that. And the person they're preaching to will nod their head and say, yeah, I understand, it makes sense. But then if you ask them, okay, well, what if somebody believes in Jesus but then a few years down the road they were to kill somebody or even to kill themselves, where would they go? Then the person they're preaching to in some scenarios might say, well, they'll go to hell, which means they don't actually believe eternal security, they don't actually understand it. So you want to make sure to use that illustration, something like that. You don't have to necessarily say those particular things. But I do recommend at least using the example of suicide because there are a lot of religions out there that teach that suicide is an unforgivable sin, especially the Roman Catholic Church, because they believe that you need to confess your sins in order to go to heaven and if you kill yourself, you can't confess that sin. So they believe that people who commit suicide go to hell. So there's a lot of Roman Catholics out there, there's a lot of Protestants out there who have very similar doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. So you want to make sure to use examples like that of, well, what if you kill yourself or what if you kill somebody or what if you rob a bank or do some bad sin but you believe in Jesus, where will you go? Another thing is if they're having trouble understanding the concept of just believing alone for salvation, you could use an example like, well, what if there's these two different people? You know, one person, they're really good and they do these good things, they go to church, they give to the poor, et cetera, but they don't believe in Jesus. Ask them, where will they go when they die? Okay? And if they are paying attention, if they understand, if they believe the Bible, they'll say, that person is going to hell because they have not believed in Jesus. But then give another example, what if there's somebody who believes in Jesus but that person is really bad and they don't get the sin out of their life and they're a drug dealer and they're a murderer, where will they go when they die? And again, if the person is paying attention, they understand and they believe the Bible, they'll say, well, because he believes in Jesus, he's going to heaven. Right? So you want to use these examples and illustrations and there's other ones you could use, just anything that would help the person you're preaching to understand what the Bible says. Because if you just show them what the Bible says but you don't use these examples and illustrations to make sure they're understanding, you might go away thinking that person's safe when they don't really get it. And I know personally in my life, there's many examples, especially when I first started going soul winning, where I was with a partner and they jumped in and finished it for me and showed that that person didn't really get it when I thought that they did. Because you have to make sure, you know, like I said before, for example, that they understand that no matter what, no sin can send us to hell. And so you use an illustration like, well, what if somebody, you know, does this really bad sin? Will they still go to heaven? You know, if they actually believe the Bible, they'll say yes, because they believe in Jesus. But there are some people out there who will agree with you as you're showing them the verses but then when you get specific, when you really narrow it down, you say, well, what about this sin? If this, if a Christian commits this sin, will they still go to heaven? There are some people out there who will say, well, no, I think they'll still go to hell. So that shows you that they didn't actually get it, they didn't actually believe it. So that's the benefit of using examples and illustrations in your Gospel presentation. So thank you everybody for watching. That's it for today. God bless you and goodbye.