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

Matthew Stuckey here and I'm giving you another soul wanting tip in this video. I want to talk to you about the importance of controlling the conversation when you're preaching the gospel. One thing to keep in mind when we're preaching the gospel is we're going door-to-door with a purpose and it is our job to actually teach people the gospel and we need to be in control of the conversation. If we're not able to control the conversation then we're inevitably going to be wasting our time. The Bible says in the Great Commission go ye therefore and teach all nations. We are meant to be teaching the gospel to people. Well when you think about being a teacher in school the teacher is going to be the one who does the majority of the talking. Can you imagine a math teacher going up to try to teach some difficult problem and he only spends a couple minutes in an hour explaining it. There's no way that the students are actually going to be able to understand and I want you to realize that when we are going soul winning when we're going door-to-door we actually have a purpose for why they're there. We are meant to teach people that either do not understand or do not believe the gospel and we give them that chance to end up believing on Jesus Christ. So take for example a door-to-door salesman. A door-to-door salesman let's say selling vacuums is going door-to-door not because they're bored but because they're trying to make money. They have a specific purpose. Can you imagine knocking on a door as a door-to-door salesman and then the person at the door is trying to sell you Tupperware or plastic containers or you know utensils or something like that. Well if you're going door-to-door with a purpose are you going to spend 20 minutes listening to the sales pitch from the person at the door. Well no you're not going to because you're there specifically to make a money and time is precious. You don't want to waste your time. There's not an unlimited amount of time. We have 24 hours in the day and so that there's only so much time that we actually have. Well when we're going door-to-door we're not going because we're bored or have no purpose we have a specific purpose and our purpose is to teach the gospel. If we are not able to teach the gospel at a door then we're going to be wasting our time. So when we're going door-to-door soul winning our general assumption when we knock on a door we have the hope that people are saved and if they're not saved we have the hope that they're willing to listen to the gospel. We give them a chance and we ask them if they want to hear the gospel. Well sometimes somebody might say they're they're interested or they might say they're willing to listen to the gospel but does that mean that we should spend as much time as possible at that door no matter what? I mean how do we know when we should move on from the conversation? Well the Bible actually gives us guidance on that. Number one realize this that our goal is to actually teach the gospel. If we are not able to control the conversation at the door and the other person is doing most of the talking then we need to just move on. Anyway sometimes we talk to people who are not bad people but they're just bored or they're very talkative and you reach a point where you cannot control the conversation. You're not really the one doing the teaching but they're just kind of leading you down rabbit trails and telling you stories and when that happens it can be a very sad thing but we honestly have to move on to the next door because we're wasting our time if we're not able to teach the gospel. That is our purpose for being there. But also we move on not just when we can't control the conversation but kind of attached to that is when the person basically becomes a heretic at the door. And so some people might be of a false religion and their whole goal is to just argue with you. However the Bible actually gives guidance on when you're preaching the gospel if you should end up stop preaching the gospel. The Bible says a man that is in heretic after the first and second admonition reject. So let's say we're preaching the gospel and we show a couple clear verses on hell and the person says I don't believe in hell. Well at that point we should move on to the next door because biblically speaking they've declared themselves to be a heretic because they're just denying the Bible. Or in Matthew 10 when Jesus sends his followers out two by two it says this in in verse number 11 and into whatsoever city or town you shall enter inquire who in it is worthy and thereby till you go fence. You say well what does it mean to be worthy? Well when you're paying attention this passage someone who's worthy is someone who's actually willing to listen and receive the gospel. It says in verse 13 and if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it referring to the gospel of peace but if it be not worthy let your peace return to you and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or city shake off the dust of your feet. So when someone says you know what if the Bible says if they're not willing to receive you nor hear your words then you need to move on. And so if you're showing somebody something from the Bible and they're just clearly denying it and not believing it it's time to move on to the next door. That does not mean that person's a child of the devil. It does not mean that they're a terrible person. It just means at that present moment they are not able to receive the gospel and believe on Jesus. It could be that you've planted a seed and let that seed sit inside of them and then may leave a good impression at that door don't be a jerk and then maybe you know six months down the road they might be willing to listen. The other thing is this think about if you're preaching the gospel to someone and they're not denying the Bible but they're just not sure if they believe it or not. You say what do you do in those situations? Well in those situations I believe you should go forward with the gospel and how I like to end those conversations is kind of say something like this if I've explained it but they're not quite getting it oftentimes I'll say would you like me to show you a couple more verses or do you just want to think about it? And honestly 90% of the time they'll say I just want to think about it. That's the sort of person I'm talking about when they hear the gospel and they don't reject it but they also don't believe it they're not sure and usually they just want time to actually think about it and you know what that's okay but you know if there's someone who's actually willing to listen and is not denying the Bible but they're not sure if they want me to show them a few more verses then I might show them a few more verses but it's important to know when to end the conversation because otherwise you might be at the door where you're not the one teaching you're not controlling the conversation you have somebody denying the Bible but some some new soul winners feel like they should spend an hour and a half at the door arguing with the Jehovah's Witness or a Mormon who's clearly just not willing to receive the words of Jesus Christ and believe on Jesus Christ at least at that moment so the bottom line is this when we're going soul winning one thing to keep in mind is that you should be controlling the conversation you should be teaching the gospel to the people if you are not able to do that or they're not willing to listen or believe what you say then it is time to move on thank you and God bless