1 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:05,960 Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives. 2 00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:09,040 The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist 3 00:00:09,040 --> 00:00:13,040 Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us 4 00:00:13,040 --> 00:00:17,280 or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look 5 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:19,760 us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this 6 00:00:19,760 --> 00:00:22,080 message from God's Word will be a blessing to you. 7 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:28,320 If you would turn into your next page here this evening, which is 8 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:30,880 verses to help and encourage the soul winner. 9 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:33,400 We'll start here this evening with several verses from God's 10 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:35,800 Word just to be able to give you a little bit of an overview, a 11 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:38,400 little bit of help here tonight. This is not the Romans Rd. 12 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:41,000 We'll be looking at that more tomorrow night, but just some 13 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:43,640 verses in general to be able to help and encourage you. 14 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:46,000 As we talked about this issue of soul winning, remember last 15 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:49,040 night we talked about the stakes, setting the pace. 16 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:53,400 Remember, a firefighter is in a situation where there's property 17 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:56,640 on the line, but perhaps there are no people that are on the 18 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:58,360 line that they would react a certain way. 19 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:01,240 But if there are souls in that building that's burning that 20 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:03,560 need to be brought out, they're going to give their everything 21 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:06,480 because they're going to do what they can to save those lives. 22 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:08,920 And so in the same way, understanding that there is a 23 00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:11,320 lake of fire, understanding there's a heaven to be gained in 24 00:01:11,320 --> 00:01:13,800 the hell to be shunned, that it ought to be able to put a little 25 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:16,160 pep in our step. It ought to give us some urgency 26 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,240 when it comes to this issue of reaching the lost. 27 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:21,320 And so we spent a lot of time looking at that last night 28 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:24,080 because again, we can give you all kinds of tools tonight and 29 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:26,600 tomorrow we can talk about all these things, but if you're not 30 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:29,520 willing to be able to go out and use them, it really is not going 31 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:32,120 to be a lot of help at all. So we want to see why is it so 32 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:35,280 urgent that we do all that we can for the Lord. 33 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:36,960 And so we'll start here with some of these verses. 34 00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:40,160 Proverbs 1130 is really where we get that term soul winning. 35 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:42,560 We talked about it last night. I made reference to it very 36 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:45,320 quickly, that the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and 37 00:01:45,320 --> 00:01:48,880 he that winneth souls is wise. One of the wisest things that 38 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,880 you can do is being able to give the gospel to someone else. 39 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:54,960 He that winneth souls is wise. Again. 40 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:56,560 That's where we get the term sole winner. 41 00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:58,800 Matthew 2819. We just looked at this on 42 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:01,080 Sunday. Go ye therefore and teach all 43 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:04,040 nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the 44 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:06,800 Son and the Holy Ghost. It's a reminder that this is the 45 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:08,800 Great Commission. But a lot of times for churches, 46 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:10,120 it's more of the great suggestion. 47 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:13,240 It's the idea, hey, if you have some time, will you go out and 48 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:15,320 reach some people for Christ? And a lot of times that's why 49 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:16,960 churches are dying. It's because they're just 50 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:19,760 literally not going out and trying to find the people who 51 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:22,120 were out there. The lost are all around us. 52 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:23,960 You can find them wherever you go. 53 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:25,320 It's like shooting fish in a barrel. 54 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:28,480 They're literally right there. And again, not everyone is open 55 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:30,360 to being able to hear about the gospel. 56 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:32,560 Certainly not. But there's probably a whole lot 57 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:34,920 more that are ready to hear than. 58 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:38,480 The chances that we take to be able to go and give the gospel. 59 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:40,320 And so this is the Great Commission. 60 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:43,640 We have been commissioned. God has given the church the 61 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:47,440 opportunity and has given us the great privilege to be able to 62 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:50,040 reach the loss for Christ. This is what we do. 63 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:51,760 Daniel 12 verse three. I like this. 64 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:54,720 And they shall and they that be wise shall shine as the 65 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:57,320 brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to 66 00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:00,040 righteousness as the stars forever and ever. 67 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:03,640 And not to try to twist the scriptures here, but I do think 68 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:08,120 it is interesting that but we call a lot of people stars today 69 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:11,000 that are stars for doing, well, absolutely nothing. 70 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:14,640 Or sometimes they're stars for doing something infamous more 71 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:17,840 than anything by starring in a movie where they curse and they 72 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:21,400 drink and they corrals and do these types of things. 73 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:24,200 We call them a star because they can throw a pigskin a really 74 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:26,400 long way or because they could shoot a basketball. 75 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:30,760 All of a sudden they're a *. But what is the star in God's 76 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:32,880 eyes? Well, it's the person who is 77 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,760 willing to go and share their faith with someone else and 78 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:39,200 God's economy, if you will. These are the ones who are the 79 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:40,880 true stars. And I think of the people who 80 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:43,320 have really impacted my life over the years. 81 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:45,680 And the ones that have really impacted me are not those people 82 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:48,880 in Hollywood, not those people wearing uniforms or jerseys for 83 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:52,280 teams, but they are really just humble people that I've met in 84 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:54,560 the churches that I've been a part of, not been a part of many 85 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:56,240 over the years. I've had really opportunity to 86 00:03:56,240 --> 00:03:59,880 be in three churches, Westgate Baptist Church twice before 87 00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:02,640 college and after college, Southwest Baptist Church for 88 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:03,680 four years while I was in college. 89 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:05,600 And then the years that I've been here at Liberty. 90 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:08,120 And I'll tell you, some of the people have impacted me the most 91 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:11,200 have been humble soul winners, people who have taught me about 92 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:13,080 how to go and win other people to Christ. 93 00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:16,000 I think of Sam Gore, I've mentioned many times here before 94 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:19,399 back at Westgate Baptist Church and that he had Parkinson's 95 00:04:19,399 --> 00:04:21,200 disease. It was difficult for him to walk 96 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:24,560 and he would go from door to door as many as he could to be 97 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:26,760 able to tell people about Jesus Christ. 98 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:29,800 And when he stopped being able to do that, you could count on 99 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:33,120 Sam Gore praying when the church was out on visitation because he 100 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:35,200 wanted to hear names. He wanted to know about 101 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:37,600 different people that were going out because he wanted to go to 102 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:40,360 the Lord in prayer on behalf of those who were going out. 103 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:43,240 I'll tell you what, that's a real star more than Drake May. 104 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:45,440 That's a real star more than Jayson Tatum. 105 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:47,240 But why? Because these are people that 106 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:51,280 are doing things for eternity. And by the way, Sam Gore was 107 00:04:51,280 --> 00:04:54,040 never a pastor. Sam Gore was never on a pastoral 108 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:55,840 staff. He's not one of those people 109 00:04:55,840 --> 00:04:57,440 that have been held up on a pedestal. 110 00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:00,560 But at the same time, he affected me as a 17 year old and 111 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:03,200 18 year old who just gotten saved not that long ago. 112 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:06,960 And if he can go and share the gospel, well then why can't I go 113 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:09,520 and share the gospel? And so these are the stars, if 114 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:13,400 you will, in God's economy. Romans 116 is ironic for me 115 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:16,720 because it was given to me upon my confirmation, the Lutheran 116 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:21,320 Church as my life first. So my Lutheran pastor, Doctor 117 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:24,960 James R Gilzo gave me Romans chapter one verse 16 and I 118 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:28,680 didn't really understand it until after got saved and I it's 119 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:31,640 amazing to me for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. 120 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:34,640 For is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that 121 00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:37,520 believeth to the Jew 1st and also to the Greece. 122 00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:39,800 What should we not be? We should not be ashamed of the 123 00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:43,160 gospel that which saved us. We should not then turn around 124 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:45,880 and be ashamed to be able to share it with other people. 125 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:50,000 Second Timothy 17 has really become for me that the true soul 126 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:52,400 winners verse. It's the one that I really hold 127 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:56,600 on to that I'll remind myself of on visitation quite a bit. 128 00:05:57,080 --> 00:05:59,760 I have it written down in various places. 129 00:05:59,960 --> 00:06:04,120 For God had not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and 130 00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:06,640 of love and of sound mind. And I'll tell you, if you're 131 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:09,600 trying to win people to Christ, what more could you ask for than 132 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:13,560 power and love and a sound mind? What do we need? 133 00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:15,840 We need the power of God when we're trying to witness to 134 00:06:15,840 --> 00:06:18,080 somebody because it's really not about ourselves. 135 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:20,160 And that's something that we really need to remind ourselves 136 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:22,400 in this whole thing. Well, Pastor, I can't do it 137 00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:24,480 again. The power we talked about on 138 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,760 Sunday, the omnipotent power of Jesus Christ, His Spirit will 139 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:31,280 help us because he has commissioned us to go. 140 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:34,080 So he will empower us to do that which he's commissioned us to 141 00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:35,280 do. Of love. 142 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:37,520 There are some people we talked about last night. 143 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:40,800 They're unlovable in a lot of ways, but yet Jesus Christ loved 144 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:44,000 them enough to die for them. Across and so we need to love 145 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:47,520 them as well even some of those who might be considered unsavory 146 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:50,200 even some of those who are trying to go out of their way to 147 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:52,480 maybe even offend us knowing that we're Christians we need to 148 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:53,000 have. Love. 149 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:56,080 For them, the love of Jesus Christ and then a sound mind. 150 00:06:56,640 --> 00:06:58,680 You know, when I was a teenager, I've mentioned this. 151 00:06:58,680 --> 00:06:59,920 Before I loved. Debates. 152 00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:02,480 I was in a debate team and we went to nationals and we did 153 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:04,920 really well. Me and Pastor David Corley, at 154 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:07,520 least he's now he's a pastor. You know, my best friend, I 155 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:10,160 loved it. Now I realize I don't love them 156 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:11,520 nearly as much as I did back then. 157 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:14,000 And one of the reasons why is that when I'm talking to 158 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:16,080 somebody about Jesus Christ, it's not a debate. 159 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:17,880 It's not, hey, let me talk about you. 160 00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:20,200 I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to score points here. 161 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:22,600 It's really not about that. We're talking about a life 162 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:24,600 that's on the line, a soul that's on the line. 163 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:28,480 This isn't about just winning some trophy at some competition. 164 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:31,440 This is about someone whose soul hangs in the balance. 165 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:33,000 You know what I need A sound mind. 166 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:34,440 Because while they're talking, my mind. 167 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:35,840 'S going Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing. 168 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:37,600 Thinking about what I'm going to say, the next thing thing 169 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:39,840 they're about to say, and I could be missing what they're 170 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:43,360 saying and what they're trying to communicate to me because I'm 171 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:45,280 so busy trying to think of the next thing I'm going to tell 172 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:47,640 them that I'm totally missing out on that which I'm supposed 173 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:49,520 to be doing in the 1st place. What do you need? 174 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:53,000 A sound mind Second Timothy 17 I'll tell you if you are one who 175 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:56,000 marks in your Bible, just circle that whole verse, underline it, 176 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,560 highlight it, whatever you need to do the Lord without giving us 177 00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:01,120 the spirit of fear. But of power and love and a 178 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:02,640 sound mind. And the last thing I'll say 179 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:04,480 about this, because I said I wasn't preaching tonight, but 180 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:05,880 the last thing I'll say about this is this. 181 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:08,480 If the Lord is not the one who gives, is the spirit of fear who 182 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:11,080 is? See, pretty simple, doesn't it? 183 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:13,160 It's Satan. Satan doesn't want us to open 184 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:14,440 her mouth. Satan doesn't want us to hand 185 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:16,960 out that track. Satan doesn't want us to win 186 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:19,720 people to Christ. And so if the Lord has not given 187 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:22,000 us the spirit of fear, it's pretty simple to figure out 188 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:23,960 who's the one who gave it to us. Why? 189 00:08:23,960 --> 00:08:28,160 Because he wants you to be quiet when it comes to the gospel. 190 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:31,600 First Corinthians 916, Paul Speaking of his calling here. 191 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:33,360 But I think there's application for all of us. 192 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:36,039 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. 193 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:40,240 For necessity is laid, Yay. Woe is unto me if I preach not 194 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:42,520 the gospel. Paul says, I have a calling upon 195 00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:44,360 me, and don't thank me for what I'm doing. 196 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:46,280 I'm just doing that which I'm called to do. 197 00:08:46,520 --> 00:08:48,160 Now do we have the calling of Paul? 198 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:49,840 No. Are we apostles? 199 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:52,000 No. Are we missionaries in the way 200 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:53,640 that Paul was? No, we are not. 201 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:56,480 But yet God has laid the calling upon us to be able to reach 202 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:00,040 people for Christ, and woe unto us if we preach not the gospel. 203 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:03,280 In that sense, we can take that. For ourselves as well. 204 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,760 Psalm 126, verse six. He that goeth forth and weepeth, 205 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:09,880 bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with 206 00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:12,320 rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. 207 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:14,760 What I love about that verse is it talks about the burden that 208 00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:18,720 we're to have to be able to have tears for the lost, to truly be 209 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:20,640 sorrowful for the sake of the lost. 210 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:23,000 But it also gives us the idea of a harvest. 211 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:26,160 Of course, Jesus said to lift your eyes because the fields are 212 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:28,720 white and a harvest. But what do you recognize and 213 00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:31,400 realize about a harvest? It takes a long time between 214 00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:33,640 planting and reaping. It takes a while. 215 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:36,080 I'm not saying that someone couldn't get saved the very 216 00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:37,840 first time you presented the gospel to them. 217 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:39,720 I'm not saying that's not the case. 218 00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:43,360 But I think all of us would say whether it was ourselves or our. 219 00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:45,160 Experiences sharing the gospel with others. 220 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:48,520 It takes a while, it takes a time, but at the end, when the 221 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:50,960 time of reaping has come. There's great rejoicing. 222 00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:52,920 And so you. Stick with it, you stay at it 223 00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:55,520 and little bits of the time you were able to share the gospel 224 00:09:55,680 --> 00:09:59,120 with those who are lost. Jeremiah 20 verse 9 but his word 225 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:02,480 was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I 226 00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:04,840 was weary with forbearing and I could not stay. 227 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:08,200 Jeremiah said in the verses before I wanted to quit. 228 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:10,240 I wanted to be done. Lord, just be done with me. 229 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:13,400 I am done with the Israel. I am done with what they're 230 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:15,720 doing. And then the Lord in his rebuke. 231 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:17,520 Got to the. The place with Jeremiah says, 232 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:20,000 you know what, actually, I got to preach the Word. 233 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:21,680 I got to tell the people what they need. 234 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:24,880 In fact, I feel like my heart's going to pound out of my chest 235 00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:26,760 if I don't do that, which I need to do. 236 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:29,400 And I could tell you, I recognize that there are times 237 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:31,360 in the study that it's a Thursday. 238 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:33,960 A lot of times I start my messages for Sunday on a 239 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:37,760 Thursday. And there are times that it's 240 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:40,200 just like, man, if I could just go right now, man, I'd be glad 241 00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:42,160 to do it because I just want, I know what. 242 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:44,600 The Lord is. Working on me and with those 243 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:47,600 verses, and I know that the Lord can be impactful to you about it 244 00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:50,920 as well, but certainly even more so when it comes to the issue of 245 00:10:50,920 --> 00:10:52,760 salvation. So these are some verses. 246 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:55,160 Maybe you can write these down in the flyleaf of your Bible. 247 00:10:55,360 --> 00:10:57,560 Maybe this is something that you can mark in your Bible. 248 00:10:57,560 --> 00:10:59,920 And again, I'm a big marker of Bibles. 249 00:10:59,920 --> 00:11:03,840 In fact, I have a a wide margin Bible so that I can write on 250 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:06,480 either side, one column on one page, one column on the other. 251 00:11:06,680 --> 00:11:09,440 I love to be able to write notes and different things like that 252 00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:12,120 so I can remember later the things the Lord has taught me. 253 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:13,800 But these are. Verses you could just go in and 254 00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:17,560 mark every single one of them down as a reminder to you of how 255 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:20,760 important it is to win souls to Christ and how the Lord will 256 00:11:20,760 --> 00:11:23,240 help us as we win souls to Christ as well. 257 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:25,480 All right, let's get to the nuts and bolts on the next page 258 00:11:25,480 --> 00:11:27,680 because it says I'm on visitation. 259 00:11:27,680 --> 00:11:29,600 What do I do now? Let me explain a few things to 260 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:34,200 you before we get here. And we're going to cover both of 261 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:37,200 these both tonight and tomorrow. There's really two different 262 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:40,000 ways that we commonly win people to Christ. 263 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:43,760 One would be corporately that would be on our church wide 264 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:45,720 visitation. We've done this several ways 265 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:47,520 over the years. There was a great while where we 266 00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:49,200 had visitation on a weekly basis. 267 00:11:49,560 --> 00:11:53,440 But I also recognize that people have different schedules and 268 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:55,440 work obligations and things like that. 269 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:57,640 And they got to the point for a long time that it was really 270 00:11:57,640 --> 00:12:01,280 myself, the family and maybe one other person, I think a brother, 271 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:03,320 Vince, a lot of times that he and I would go on visits for a 272 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:05,640 couple years, just me and him by ourselves. 273 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:08,680 And so I recognize over time that maybe, perhaps it would be 274 00:12:08,680 --> 00:12:11,040 better for us to go monthly, have a Big Breakfast. 275 00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:13,640 Well, have a breakfast, have a continental breakfast. 276 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:15,440 Those Jimmy Dean sausage sandwiches are pretty good, 277 00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:17,560 aren't the Dave. So the best microwave sandwiches 278 00:12:17,560 --> 00:12:19,000 you can find, we got them around here. 279 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:21,880 Amen. But and then go out once a 280 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:23,200 month. Now, we've had some difficulty 281 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:25,200 with our scheduling the last couple months because the 282 00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:27,440 holidays and the weather and different things like that. 283 00:12:27,640 --> 00:12:29,960 But it's our desire to be able to go out at least once a month 284 00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:33,400 and do this corporately, to give ourselves an excuse to be able 285 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:35,600 to go and tell people about the Lord. 286 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:38,240 We also have different special days during the year. 287 00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:40,920 We'll have an open house or a friends and family Sunday. 288 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:44,640 I think of Easter that's coming up here, Resurrection Sunday in 289 00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:46,760 a few weeks. These are all special 290 00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:49,360 opportunities for us. We have special tracks for 291 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:51,920 Resurrection Sunday week to be able to hand out to people, to 292 00:12:51,920 --> 00:12:54,120 let people know that we have a Tuesday service. 293 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:55,240 We have. Well, we don't tell them about 294 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:56,560 the Tuesday service. It's the Lord's Supper. 295 00:12:56,760 --> 00:12:59,120 We have a Friday service. Now, I'm not of the belief that 296 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:01,800 Jesus died on a Friday, but at the same time, there's a lot of 297 00:13:01,800 --> 00:13:04,360 people that think of Good Friday like the Catholic Church. 298 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:05,880 And so you know what? We have a Friday service. 299 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:08,560 I wouldn't argue with anybody over it, but we have a Friday 300 00:13:08,560 --> 00:13:10,920 service because we found that some people from that tradition 301 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:13,680 will come over here and we get to talk to them about the 302 00:13:13,680 --> 00:13:15,320 Gospel. And so that's been a wonderful 303 00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:17,320 thing. We're doing that again here this 304 00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:20,200 year, but we have these opportunities where we can 305 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:22,680 corporately go out. And so we want to learn how do 306 00:13:22,680 --> 00:13:24,400 we do that. So for instance, we're going to 307 00:13:24,400 --> 00:13:26,560 be going out on Saturday. I hope that you'll come on 308 00:13:26,560 --> 00:13:27,640 Saturday. And if you don't come this 309 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:30,280 Saturday that you come the next time that we have opportunity. 310 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:31,720 But you come in, we have breakfast. 311 00:13:31,720 --> 00:13:33,080 Everybody knows what to do about breakfast. 312 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:34,680 Amen. But when do you do after 313 00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:36,720 breakfast? There's there's cards and cards 314 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:39,480 laying in a table out here. There's three different sections 315 00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:40,960 that there are to be able to choose. 316 00:13:40,960 --> 00:13:43,720 From there's one with just a bunch of cards from people have 317 00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:45,400 visited over the last couple years. 318 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:49,600 There's one section usually with door hangers and maps where you 319 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:52,000 can go out and you can reach people just door to door. 320 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:54,720 And there's another section where people can just write 321 00:13:54,720 --> 00:13:56,480 letters. Maybe they can't go out or not 322 00:13:56,480 --> 00:13:58,080 able to go out for whatever reason. 323 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:00,760 They stay behind and write letters with tracks inside of 324 00:14:00,760 --> 00:14:03,240 them to people who've come in the past and just remind them 325 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:04,760 the Liberty Baptist Church is here. 326 00:14:05,040 --> 00:14:06,440 We called all in outreach for reason. 327 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:09,240 Everybody's got something to do. Everybody has an ability. 328 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:12,600 So even if you physically cannot go out for whatever reason, you 329 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:14,680 can still come here. If you're able, you can sit 330 00:14:14,680 --> 00:14:15,720 down, you can have some fellowship. 331 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:18,600 It you can have a cup of coffee, you can write some letters. 332 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:22,000 And it's amazing to me that we'll get out maybe 1520 or so 333 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:25,760 cards, notes out every time we do it. 334 00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:28,800 And you say, pastor, what is the fruit of all the things that 335 00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:30,280 we're doing? And the answer is, I don't 336 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:33,600 always know. I don't always know, because you 337 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:35,920 would think if we go out on a Saturday, just a whole host of 338 00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:38,080 people just breaking down the door to come in on Sunday, 339 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:39,800 That's the way it is, right? Well, if they're breaking down 340 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:41,640 the door, it's probably because the frost heave at the door more 341 00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:42,440 than anything. But. 342 00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:46,000 But no, honestly, there are times we'll make visits and 343 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:47,600 people will say, oh, yeah, I'm going to be there on Sunday, 344 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:51,480 Pastor, and nobody shows up. In fact, I love one of the 345 00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:53,440 things I love about New England because in the South, everybody 346 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:54,480 tells you they're going to come on Sunday. 347 00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:56,720 Oh, bless their heart. I'm going to be there on Sunday. 348 00:14:57,240 --> 00:14:59,600 And then none of them show up. A lot of times up here, they 349 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:00,800 don't want to come. They'll just tell you, look, I 350 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:02,440 don't want to come. And it's like, well, OK, I can 351 00:15:02,440 --> 00:15:05,320 appreciate your honesty and candor if nothing else. 352 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:07,560 But still, even then we get people that will say they'll 353 00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:10,400 come and they don't come. So we'll get some of that. 354 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:13,040 But I've always found that the Lord blesses our efforts. 355 00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:16,080 That's really what it comes down to, because we can't force 356 00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:18,800 people to come to church. We can't force people to come to 357 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:21,200 Jesus Christ. But we can't control what we do. 358 00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:24,120 Just like the fishermen can't control how many fish jump on 359 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:27,280 the line, the fishermen can't control how many times he goes 360 00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:29,720 out and fishes in the 1st place. And what are we supposed to be 361 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:32,040 fishers of men, The Bible tells us? 362 00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:34,040 And so we have to have the same mentality. 363 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:36,560 So you're going to have sometimes where we together as a 364 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:39,920 church are going to come together and have a visitation 365 00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:41,760 program where we have all these different things. 366 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:44,280 So the question on this side is what do we do in this case? 367 00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:47,960 But then on the other side, we have the issue of visitation. 368 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:50,920 And really soul winning is not something that happens once a 369 00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:53,920 week or once a month for a couple hours a day. 370 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:57,480 The real issue of salt winning is that it is not something 371 00:15:57,480 --> 00:15:59,440 that's put on the calendar. It's just something you do with 372 00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:01,560 your life. And so we have to ask ourselves 373 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:04,880 this question, how do we win people to Christ when we have 374 00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:08,280 brief interactions with them? How do we win people to Christ 375 00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:12,080 when we see someone on a regular basis at a coffee shop, at the 376 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:15,240 library, at a doctor's office? And again, I understand you're 377 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:17,160 not going to win someone to Christ at a checkout line or 378 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:19,160 they're going to beep, beep, beep. 379 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:20,920 I mean, it's just not going to happen. 380 00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:23,480 Why? Because they got a beep, beep, 381 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:25,040 beep. Keep getting that stuff across 382 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:26,800 the belt, right? You're not going to have the 383 00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:28,320 time. But can you move them a little 384 00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,520 bit closer to the understanding of who Jesus Christ is by the 385 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:34,480 way, that you handle yourself, maybe by handing them a track, 386 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:36,680 Those types of things. These are the things that we 387 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:38,600 want to talk about over the next few days. 388 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:42,280 Those times when we have made purposeful effort as a church to 389 00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:44,280 be able to come together. What do we do? 390 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:48,120 How do we do it on this organized visitation program, if 391 00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:49,720 you will? But then on the other side, and 392 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:51,720 we'll handle this more tomorrow night as well. 393 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:54,520 So what do we do on a day-to-day basis with those people? 394 00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:57,320 Do we come in contact with, even if it's family or friends, it 395 00:16:57,320 --> 00:16:59,840 doesn't have to be strangers. It's those people that we've 396 00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:02,800 really been wanting to talk to about the Lord, but we just 397 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:05,400 don't know how to do it. So we'll be talking about both 398 00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:07,319 of these things. But first we're going to talk 399 00:17:07,319 --> 00:17:09,640 about visitation. What, what will we do on a 400 00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:11,760 Saturday? Because a lot of people want to 401 00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:13,599 be a part. They're just afraid to be a 402 00:17:13,599 --> 00:17:15,200 part. And he said, well, are you 403 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:17,240 saying I'm afraid? Well, for a lot of us, yes. 404 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:19,079 That's really what it comes down to. 405 00:17:19,079 --> 00:17:21,760 Let's just call it what it is. And interestingly enough, I've 406 00:17:21,760 --> 00:17:23,640 been doing this for a very long time. 407 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:26,640 And I will tell you that there's still on a Saturday morning when 408 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:29,200 I'm getting ready to get in the car and I got that first card. 409 00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:31,360 I'm thinking, I don't know how they're going to respond. 410 00:17:31,600 --> 00:17:34,320 And I'm the pastor. And sometimes that means they 411 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:37,160 could respond really well, or sometimes that could be they 412 00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:39,760 respond really not well because they don't want the pastor 413 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:43,000 showing up at their house. And so even for me, there's this 414 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:45,600 trepidation of what exactly is going to happen. 415 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:48,880 So I understand, don't think that I am above, I've reached a 416 00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:51,680 spiritual plateau when it comes to talking about Jesus or 417 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:54,600 visiting people that all of a sudden that I'm just super 418 00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:56,800 comfortable with it. And you probably are not. 419 00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:59,080 Can I put it to you this way? We're all in the same boat 420 00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:02,160 because again, Satan doesn't want you to be comfortable with 421 00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:04,880 it. Satan doesn't want you to be 422 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:06,400 able to do this. That's where we have to be able 423 00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:09,520 to push past that initial fear that we have and say the Lord 424 00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:13,040 has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love 425 00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:15,280 and of sound mind. So what are some principles that 426 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:17,440 we use on visitation? Let me help you with this. 427 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:19,760 We go 2 by two. First of all, we don't send 428 00:18:19,760 --> 00:18:21,880 anyone out by themselves on visitation. 429 00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:23,720 That's not something that we do really. 430 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:26,560 If anyone ever goes out by themselves on visitation, it's 431 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:28,240 me. And the reason why is because 432 00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:30,760 sometimes there's not enough pairs to be able to do so. 433 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:34,320 And I do feel like a pastor can go up to someones house by 434 00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:36,000 himself and people are willing to answer. 435 00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:38,640 But even then I have to be careful because if it's a woman 436 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:41,040 that I'm going to visit, I have to stand on the doorstep. 437 00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:43,000 I don't go inside. I have to really kind of think 438 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:45,880 about those kind of things. But for the best, really going 2 439 00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:48,640 by 2 is the way to do it. And you see there it says, first 440 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:51,120 of all, it's not required, but it is a biblical principle. 441 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:53,720 Do you think there's a reason that Jesus sent the disciples 442 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:56,400 out two by two? I think there's several reasons. 443 00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:57,920 Maybe. What would a reason that you 444 00:18:57,920 --> 00:18:59,840 would think that Jesus And you just speak up. 445 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:00,880 The microphones will pick you up. 446 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:03,080 Don't worry, everybody's watching hundreds of people. 447 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:05,880 OK, I shouldn't have said that, all right, But what is the 448 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:07,960 reason you think Jesus would have sent out the disciples 2 by 449 00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:10,840 two? Moral support? 450 00:19:10,840 --> 00:19:13,640 That's a big one. That's a big one because if 451 00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:17,280 somebody is not happy you're there, at least you got your 452 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:18,760 buddy with you, you know what I'm saying? 453 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:20,680 That's a big, that's a big deal right there. 454 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:23,280 It's an important thing for us to be able to go out to do that. 455 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:25,400 Now, would you say, John, that's a big one. 456 00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:28,280 That's a big one as well. We'll talk about the silent 457 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:30,480 partner in a minute. And the silent partner is the 458 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:34,320 one that really is not taking the lead route, but is in prayer 459 00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:38,160 the whole time, praying for the situation, praying for wisdom 460 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:41,280 for the soul winner, praying that distractions are kept at 461 00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:42,760 Bay. That's a huge one as well. 462 00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:45,240 Were you going to say Dan? The work of the church is a 463 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:45,960 group effort, right? It's. 464 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:51,600 A group effort. Even in those situations, if you 465 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:54,400 don't have two by two at times, you report back at the church, 466 00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:56,280 the church, correct? Absolutely. 467 00:19:57,120 --> 00:19:59,680 Yeah. And we can end up being a little 468 00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:01,720 bit of a lone wolf, have lone wolf syndrome. 469 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:04,080 And so it's good to be able to go out together, to rejoice 470 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:06,320 together. Also, if someone gets saved, 471 00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:08,760 guess what? You can't take all the credit, 472 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:10,120 by the way. We can't take any of the credit. 473 00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:13,040 The credit goes to the Lord. But having someone else there is 474 00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:15,440 just a reminder. Hey, it wasn't just me. 475 00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:17,600 That's a very good point as well. 476 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:19,520 All these things are good. What would you say, Lisa? 477 00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:22,880 Safety, Safety Boy, I tell you, nowadays that's true. 478 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:25,440 Even then you consider how people would have been to be 479 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:28,600 able to have someone else with you is an important thing. 480 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:31,240 And so that's what we do to be able to go and we always have 481 00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:33,320 two by two. Again, I'm not saying that that 482 00:20:33,360 --> 00:20:36,080 it has to be this way. There's no biblical command, but 483 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:38,680 we do see the principal and I do think it's a wise principle for 484 00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:40,560 us to follow. We just have right here. 485 00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:43,840 First of all, I could set the person at home at ease when they 486 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:45,920 see two people there. Usually it would be a little, 487 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:47,800 believe it or not, better than one person there. 488 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,400 There have been times we've sent three people to a door because 489 00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:52,480 we've had odd numbers. And you get to the point where 490 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:54,920 the group starts getting that big and it looks like, you know, 491 00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:57,000 a barbershop quartets coming to your house to sing. 492 00:20:57,280 --> 00:20:59,120 And it's it's not really something that you're going for. 493 00:20:59,360 --> 00:21:02,360 And so you do have to be careful that the group is not too big. 494 00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:06,360 But at the same time, it could set them at ease. 495 00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:09,520 Who was on the inside, Fend off possible distractions I have 496 00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:12,200 dealt with before having a dog come. 497 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:15,640 And this dog is just rambunctious, honestly, the 498 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:18,720 silent partner, that person, excuse me, we'll talk more about 499 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:21,560 that in a minute. Could play with the dog you say, 500 00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:24,960 well, that's that's kind of dumb No, it's not because if that dog 501 00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:28,240 is barking the whole time you're not getting anything across and 502 00:21:28,240 --> 00:21:31,680 so that dog can that person can talk to the dog that person can 503 00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:34,400 talk to the child maybe there's a child that's kind of there. 504 00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:36,640 And I think of a visit we had just recently from the back to 505 00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:40,920 school bash with a family that's here right now and I could sense 506 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:43,760 as we were talking that my wife was really making the connection 507 00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:46,360 with the family. I'm not saying that I wasn't, 508 00:21:46,360 --> 00:21:49,000 but I could just tell that she was kind of zeroing in on some 509 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:50,880 of the needs and they were talking about special needs and 510 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:53,400 those kind of things. And then the kid comes out and 511 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:56,000 he is, he's excited. Like he's excited, we're there, 512 00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,200 he's excited, the pastor's there, the pastor's wife there, 513 00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:00,640 and he's full of energy. And so the next thing I know, 514 00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:02,480 I'm on the ground playing toys with him. 515 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:04,000 Here's the pastor and I'm playing. 516 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:06,120 You know why? Because somebody needs to talk 517 00:22:06,120 --> 00:22:09,280 to him about the Lord. And if one of us didn't take the 518 00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:11,200 step back, then what was going to happen? 519 00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:13,000 Nobody was going to be talking about the Lord at all. 520 00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:16,720 And so there's a recognition that that is part of it as well. 521 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:19,880 And then again, can be in prayer, the silent partner and 522 00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:22,200 you probably had training in this before, John and and that 523 00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:26,040 your experiences before is that typically we'll look at this in 524 00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:28,120 a second. There is someone who takes the 525 00:22:28,120 --> 00:22:32,280 lead because if not, it's two people talking over one person. 526 00:22:32,360 --> 00:22:35,080 That can be intimidating. I've also found that if I'm 527 00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:37,880 talking more primarily, but then someone else starts talking as 528 00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:40,440 well, I could be going One Direction and that other person 529 00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:44,280 go the other direction and all of a sudden maybe the groundwork 530 00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:47,800 that we're laying gets overturned because of the other 531 00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:49,840 person's random thought that comes in. 532 00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:52,320 And so it's always good to be able to have a lead even as you 533 00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:55,000 go 2 by two. Now ask yourself this, what kind 534 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:56,520 of visit are you making on visitation? 535 00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:58,760 We have all kinds of different visits that need to be made. 536 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:01,360 All of them can be about Jesus Christ. 537 00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:03,560 All of them should be about Jesus Christ. 538 00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:06,160 But there are different kind of cards that you will find on the 539 00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:08,400 table. If you are making a visitation 540 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:10,080 visit. You have to ask yourself this 541 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,800 question, is this someone who you know has a testimony of 542 00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:15,280 salvation? Because on this table could be 543 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:17,360 someone that is saved, but maybe it's been out of church for a 544 00:23:17,360 --> 00:23:19,960 while. We do have benevolence visits, 545 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:23,280 the type of visits where someone is sick, someone has been laid 546 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:26,000 up and they just need someone to come by and just encourage them. 547 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:29,160 We have those kind of visits. But sometimes, especially those 548 00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:30,840 visits we have from the Back to School Bash. 549 00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:34,760 We have 40 some families that came to the Back to School Bash 550 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:36,400 in August. We've already visited them all 551 00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:39,560 one time, but, or at least we've attempted to visit them all one 552 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:42,560 time, but the idea is we have no assurance that these people are 553 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:44,200 saved. So what are we gonna do? 554 00:23:44,360 --> 00:23:47,280 We're gonna go to them and talk to them about the church. 555 00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:50,520 But that really is a way because for us to talk about the Lord. 556 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:53,640 Because I wanna remind you, the visitation is not about Liberty 557 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:56,320 Baptist Church recruitment. It is not about, hey, let's get 558 00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:58,400 a bigger church and let's just get some people to come over 559 00:23:58,400 --> 00:23:59,520 here. If we're going to do that, we 560 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:02,240 might as well just join Amway because that's probably the best 561 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:04,800 thing that we can do. This is an Amway. 562 00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:06,440 You know what this is? If we're building anything, 563 00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:09,360 we're building the Kingdom and if the Lord sees fit to build 564 00:24:09,360 --> 00:24:11,640 Liberty Baptist Church at the same time, we thank the Lord for 565 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:13,320 that. But it's all about their soul. 566 00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:15,600 But we do talk to them about the church and we don't apologize 567 00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:18,040 for that because we want them to be able to come and hear the 568 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:20,880 gospel on a regular basis and we want them to be able to come 569 00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:23,200 here to do that. So you ask yourself, is this 570 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:26,880 someone that I know has a testimony of salvation and take 571 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:28,640 the card. Talk the card over with your 572 00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:30,680 soul winning partner. Don't just consider the card 573 00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:33,280 when you pull in the driveway. One of things that I love about 574 00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:36,360 Marsha, for instance, is not able to be here tonight as an 575 00:24:36,360 --> 00:24:38,760 appointment, but one of the things I love about her is that 576 00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:40,120 she'll get her cards and she'll ask me. 577 00:24:40,120 --> 00:24:43,000 Pastor, tell me about this one. Pastor, tell me about this one. 578 00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:45,320 She wants to know before she gets there a little bit more 579 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:47,600 about that person. Because you imagine just walking 580 00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:49,920 up and I try to put notes on the cards about who you're going to 581 00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:51,280 visit. But Can you imagine? 582 00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:53,320 Just go in there and you have no clue who they are. 583 00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:55,560 You've never seen them before. You don't know if they came to 584 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:57,480 the church last month or 10 years ago. 585 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:00,160 Hey, I'm from Liberty Baptist Church. 586 00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,560 Now if someones been here 10 years ago, we still go visit 587 00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:04,640 those people. Sometimes I'll put cold call on 588 00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:06,400 there. And the reason why is because, 589 00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,200 well, it's, it's going to be cold possibly. 590 00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:11,480 But we've had people from cold calls who have said, you know 591 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:12,840 what, you came at just the right time. 592 00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:15,480 I've been going through some difficulty right now and, and 593 00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:17,760 the Lord, you know, I've been thinking about going back to 594 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:19,440 church. So we got a name, we got an 595 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:20,880 address. Until they tell us, don't come 596 00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:21,640 back. Guess what? 597 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,080 We're going to keep coming because we want to at least be 598 00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:26,680 able as the spirit allows for us to visit those people. 599 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:29,720 Don't if you got a visitation card, don't just pull up in the 600 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:31,680 driveway and say, all right, now who's, what's their name? 601 00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:34,000 What are, what are we visit them for? 602 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:36,960 It's a little bit late because you're going to see as soon as 603 00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:38,560 you pull up in their driveway in front of their house, they're 604 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:41,160 already looking at you. They're wondering who you are. 605 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:42,480 They're wondering why you're there. 606 00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:45,080 This is a conversation you have way before and at times when I 607 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:48,160 have neglected that, I'll pull over maybe a block away before 608 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:50,440 and I'll have the conversation with my wife is usually who I 609 00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:52,640 visit with. But I visit with pretty much 610 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:54,760 everyone here at some point or another and I have a 611 00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:58,480 conversation about that visit before that time takes place. 612 00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:00,760 Are you going door knocking? This is different procedure 613 00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:02,320 altogether. If you're just going door to 614 00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:04,560 door, a lot of times we do door hangers instead of actually 615 00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:06,520 knocking on doors. But I would love for us to get 616 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:09,000 to the place where some people, not everybody can do this, but 617 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:10,960 where we actually go and knock on some doors. 618 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:12,720 I think that's a blessing to be able to do. 619 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,080 I know it's hard in 2026, there's so many people just 620 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,800 won't open their door. Even 20 years ago, you'd have 621 00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:20,560 someone knock on your door almost every day. 622 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,720 You'd have a salesman, you'd have a kid selling magazines. 623 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:25,880 You have a kid, you know, girl selling Thin Mints, you know, 624 00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:28,080 those kind of things that would be happening all the time 625 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,320 nowadays, unless it's Jehovah Witness or a Mormon, nobody's at 626 00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:33,720 your door. And so a lot of people are very 627 00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,040 hesitant to open the door. And so that's been a little bit 628 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,320 of a difficulty for us even in Easton from us door knocking the 629 00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:40,600 first few years that we were here. 630 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:43,680 But if you're just going and laying a door hanger, a lot of 631 00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:46,080 times we like doing that because if nothing else, you see people 632 00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:48,480 in the outside in the warmer months, you're able to interact 633 00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,080 with them and talk with them. And we'll talk about more about 634 00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:53,720 how you would interact in those areas a little bit differently. 635 00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:55,960 And then the soul winners appearance, say, pastor, you're 636 00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:57,200 going to talk about how I'm dressing. 637 00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:58,800 Well, yes. And the only reason I'm going to 638 00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:03,240 talk about it is this is because when you are going up to 639 00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:06,560 someone's door, they're looking at you, they're staring at you, 640 00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:08,960 they're wondering who you are. You say, pastor, are you saying 641 00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:11,040 I have to wear a three piece suit to be able to go visit 642 00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:12,440 somebody? Oh, I sure don't wear a three 643 00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:14,120 piece suit. I go visit somebody because they 644 00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:16,560 won't answer the door. If I do, they'll probably think 645 00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:19,480 I'm the funeral director trying to check them out for who knows 646 00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:21,080 what what. So no, we don't do that. 647 00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:23,360 But I say this dress to represent the Lord in your 648 00:27:23,360 --> 00:27:25,160 church. When you go out, you just make 649 00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:27,480 sure that you're wearing something that you know is 650 00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:28,760 clean. You're making sure you're 651 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,400 wearing something that's pressed at least or something that's not 652 00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:33,640 too wrinkly. Because when we're going out, we 653 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:35,440 are literally ambassadors of Christ. 654 00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:38,040 And I'm not trying to tell you how you were supposed to look, 655 00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:40,520 but I'm just saying that when you think about what you were 656 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,200 doing, just consider that as you're going to represent the 657 00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:44,680 Lord. That's all I'm saying with that. 658 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:47,960 But do dress to be comfortable. If you're going out from doing 659 00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:49,760 door hangers and those kind of things, make sure you're wearing 660 00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:52,240 the right kind of shoes to be able to go out. 661 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:54,520 I've seen more slip and falls over the years. 662 00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,240 That's why even I'm hesitant to send people out on Saturday 663 00:27:57,240 --> 00:27:59,880 because we've had people that have said, oh, it's OK, the ice 664 00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:02,880 is melting or whatnot. And we had people slip and fall 665 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:05,920 and it's been a bad thing. And so we do want to be careful, 666 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,360 but dress to be comfortable. And I put this for the men 667 00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:11,920 specifically, wear colorful clothing if at all possible. 668 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:15,280 You know what, you ought not to wear a short sleeved dress white 669 00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:17,600 shirt. Now, why would I say that? 670 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:21,120 Because every single person, what was that? 671 00:28:21,120 --> 00:28:22,800 Sweat stains. That's it. 672 00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:25,000 Oh, that's true. Like, is it hot here? 673 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,240 Is it just me, but Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, I mean, 674 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:31,000 that's that, that's the look right there. 675 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:34,520 You know, Elder Rivero, come by on my bicycle to come see you. 676 00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:38,840 And so I, I, I don't wear a tie on visitation. 677 00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:41,320 The reason I don't is I just try to be more casual. 678 00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:43,480 Wear a polo shirt. A lot of times I wear a polo 679 00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,320 shirt with the church's name on it that I have because it just 680 00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:49,280 identifies me. But at the same time, you don't 681 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:52,160 have that. That's OK, but you don't want to 682 00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:54,160 look like a Mormon. You you just don't want to. 683 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:56,880 We don't want to be the the Jehovah Witnesses do wear some 684 00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:00,000 more colorful clothing at times, but the Mormons are usually 685 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,240 white shirt dress, you know, slacks, khakis, those kind of 686 00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:05,200 things. And so we avoid that all 687 00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:06,640 together. All right, just a little bit of 688 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:07,880 overview. Why don't you go ahead and go to 689 00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:09,600 the next page? Anybody any questions about that 690 00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:12,000 before we move on? We have any questions just 691 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:14,520 talking about the very basics of other than AJ. 692 00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:19,040 All right, so we're not talking about witnessing to your cats. 693 00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:24,200 All right, What do you do when you go visit somebody at the 694 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:26,360 door? You know, this has changed so 695 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:30,000 much over the years. This has changed so much. 696 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:33,600 And I'll be honest with you, I've had some very interesting 697 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:35,000 stories about this. I'm going to go ahead and tell 698 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:37,640 the story because Dan Dave wants me to go ahead and tell the 699 00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:39,040 story. I could see it on his face. 700 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:43,240 Dave has a very interesting way of visiting people, including 701 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:45,960 visiting vets, because he could talk to them in a way he doesn't 702 00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:48,120 talk to other people. We went to see a gentleman who's 703 00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:51,320 been here several times before, went to go visit him about a 704 00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:54,360 year or so ago. And I remember knocking on the 705 00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:55,680 door. We drove probably about 30 706 00:29:55,680 --> 00:29:58,720 minutes to get there and we knocked on the door and he 707 00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:00,960 didn't answer. And I said, well, you know, I 708 00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:03,760 guess he's not here or whatever. He says, Pastor, stop that, hold 709 00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:06,120 on a second. And so he pulls out the phone 710 00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:09,920 and he calls this guy and he calls him by name. 711 00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:14,680 He says, hey, hey, are you home? And he says, he says, I'm, I'm 712 00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:16,160 home. He goes open the door. 713 00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:19,680 The preacher's here. And the guy comes out and just 714 00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:21,160 starts talking to me. I'm thinking if I do that, 715 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:22,960 somebody smacked me right across the jaw. 716 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:24,800 This guy does it because he's in the military. 717 00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:27,200 And all of a sudden people are like, oh, yes, Sir, OK, 718 00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:29,680 whatever. You know, look, we all can't do 719 00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:32,120 that, you know what I'm saying? We got to have some kind of 720 00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,240 ability at the door. What do we do? 721 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:36,520 Well, we make a good impression before the door opens. 722 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,680 Before the door opens, recognize that people were probably 723 00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:41,080 watching you come up the sidewalk. 724 00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:43,640 I'll tell you this, and I live in an apartment building, but if 725 00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,360 I had someone coming up my driveway, you can be sure as 726 00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:48,520 soon as I saw them, I'm going to be staring a hole right through 727 00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:50,800 them from behind a curtain or something because I want to know 728 00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:52,200 who they are and what they're doing. 729 00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:55,560 And so just recognize that as soon as you walk on somebody's 730 00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:58,960 property that there's probably somebody watching you the minute 731 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:02,240 you're on their property. Be constantly aware of that. 732 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,880 And this is really the big game changer right here. 733 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,680 Understand the reality of doorbell cameras today. 734 00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:13,000 That's the game changer. Going up and doing door hangers. 735 00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:16,320 It's not unusual for me to go up to see a camera. 736 00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:20,160 I'll put a door hanger there and I'll look at the camera and I'll 737 00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:23,040 wave, I'll give a thumbs up, something like that to let them 738 00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:25,520 know I'm non threatening. But there have been times I have 739 00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:28,880 been walking up to put a door hanger up and I'll hear who is 740 00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:31,840 this? They've already patched in 741 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:35,920 through their phones and are talking to me through the 742 00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:40,240 doorbell before it. It is weird, let me tell you, 743 00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:44,520 but I would say probably about one out of every 5 or 6 houses 744 00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:47,320 in Easton will have a Ring doorbell or some kind of 745 00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:49,440 equivalent. And so you have to be aware of 746 00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:52,240 that, that even if somebody's not watching you go up, there's 747 00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:55,680 probably video evidence of you walking up to their door that 748 00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:58,080 they're going to look at. And so you want to make sure 749 00:31:58,080 --> 00:31:59,720 that you are handling yourself well. 750 00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:01,840 Another thing, don't walk across the lawn. 751 00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:03,960 Never walk across somebody's lawn. 752 00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:05,640 Make sure you're using their sidewalk. 753 00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:07,160 Make sure you're using their driveway. 754 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:09,400 You really don't want to do something to be offensive. 755 00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:11,000 You say, well, that grass doesn't look like they've cut it 756 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,400 for about 3 months. Well, listen, they probably 757 00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:15,360 don't care about it until you walk across it. 758 00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:17,480 And now all of a sudden they care about it again. 759 00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:20,160 We're trying to find reasons to not be offensive. 760 00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:21,840 Why? Because the gospel is already 761 00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:24,400 going to offend people. And if somebody's offended, I 762 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:26,560 want them to be offended because we gave them the truth and the 763 00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:29,160 right spirit, not because I walked across their lawn and 764 00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:30,760 they're already mad because I got there. 765 00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:33,920 That's not what I want. If look, if they're upset at the 766 00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:37,280 gospel, that's on them. But if they're upset because I 767 00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:40,080 did not respect their property at the beginning, then that's 768 00:32:40,080 --> 00:32:41,600 something. I'll say this as well. 769 00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:44,560 If you get to a house and there's a thing that says no 770 00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:48,840 soliciting there, we typically don't knock on those doors. 771 00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:51,720 If you have a visit and it says no soliciting, go back to your 772 00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:54,000 car, give them a call first, shoot them a text. 773 00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:57,360 The reason why is if you say, you say, well, we're not 774 00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:59,000 soliciting anything and we're not soliciting. 775 00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:02,440 The the Supreme Court has been clear over the years that we are 776 00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:05,240 not soliciting in the traditional sense of trying to 777 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:07,640 sell Amway or Girl Scout cookies. 778 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:11,240 I'm not the Avon lady. OK, so this is not who we are. 779 00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:15,000 But at the same time, if it says no soliciting and someone knocks 780 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:16,440 on the door, you think you're going to be happier there? 781 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,360 Nope, probably not. The best thing you could do is 782 00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:23,440 leave a track there and then move on or leave a track, go out 783 00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:25,360 to the car. I was making a visit. 784 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:26,720 You know, we're from Liberty Baptist Church. 785 00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:28,160 We saw you visit a couple weeks ago. 786 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:31,680 We just wanted to talk to you. So there's no soliciting sign. 787 00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:35,200 Is it OK if we come see you? That's what I would do in those 788 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:38,040 kind of situations. A smile at the door again. 789 00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:40,040 They'll probably be looking at you through the peephole or 790 00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:42,560 camera. Don't just stand there doing 791 00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:44,120 this, Frank. I hope they don't answer the 792 00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:45,080 door. I hope they don't answer the 793 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:46,000 door. I hope they don't answer the 794 00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:47,240 door. And don't tell me you don't do 795 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:48,480 that, because I've done that, too. 796 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:50,040 All right? You're not going to. 797 00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:50,920 I hope they don't answer the door. 798 00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:51,760 I hope they don't answer the door. 799 00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:53,480 Like that's going to wear on your face. 800 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:55,520 OK. Be pleasant there. 801 00:33:55,760 --> 00:33:58,640 When you're at the door, keep the conversation between you and 802 00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:01,160 your partner to a minimum. I'll be honest with you, I've 803 00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:02,720 been with brother Vince for a very long time. 804 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:04,360 We have a good rapport with one another. 805 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:07,080 We talk with one another, and it's very easy at the door for 806 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:08,719 us. Just continue the conversation 807 00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:12,239 that we had in the car all the way up the driveway, all the way 808 00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:13,600 up the door. We knocked the door. 809 00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:14,800 We're still talking about. Yeah. 810 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:18,280 You know, the veal parmesan over at AJ's Grill is really good, 811 00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:19,960 you know, and he's like, yeah, no, I don't think so. 812 00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:21,639 I think that's trash. You know, And I'd say, and we're 813 00:34:21,639 --> 00:34:24,320 talking, then they open the door like, oh, hey, Liberty Baptist 814 00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:27,239 Church, we're here. Just kind of keep that to a 815 00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:30,320 minimum and understand that you're focused on what you're 816 00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:33,760 trying to do in that moment and decide before the door opens, 817 00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:35,800 who's talking. You need to know before you get 818 00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:39,400 to the door who is the one that is going to be the primary 819 00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:41,120 speaker. Of course, you both want to 820 00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:43,000 speak in the sense that you don't want the other person to 821 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:44,760 think that you can't speak or not able to speak. 822 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:48,080 But the one that's going to be the primary, I've always done 823 00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:52,080 it, either you take turns one between the other, or if you're 824 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:54,800 with somebody who's new or somebody's not done it before, 825 00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:56,960 then you just tell them, well, you'll be the silent partner 826 00:34:56,960 --> 00:34:58,280 today. Why don't you pray and you'll 827 00:34:58,280 --> 00:35:00,840 observe and let the other person do that. 828 00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:03,240 That's really what you can do. Either of those. 829 00:35:03,240 --> 00:35:05,920 Any questions about any of those, Any comments, maybe a 830 00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:08,000 situation that you've had before, Anthony? 831 00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:11,680 Another thing is when you knock on the door, keep looking at the 832 00:35:11,720 --> 00:35:13,640 door. Don't turn around, look at the 833 00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:14,760 yard. Don't. 834 00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:17,240 Because then they open the door and he's not, you're not facing 835 00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:19,120 them anymore. It's like, oh, you didn't even 836 00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:19,600 care. Yeah. 837 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:21,640 Yeah. We're looking at the door, wait 838 00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:23,400 for them to come out. One of the things I love doing 839 00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:25,320 is looking at that peephole because I love when the peephole 840 00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:27,560 goes dark. I know they're looking at me and 841 00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:29,280 then it goes light again and they don't answer. 842 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:31,520 It's like, I know you're home, man. 843 00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:36,120 OK, so, and I'll add this as well, I understand there's some 844 00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:38,280 people who are uncomfortable. I'm just showing up to somebody 845 00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:39,960 house. What if they're mad? 846 00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:41,760 What if they get angry? I just show up. 847 00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:44,080 Should I, should I call first? Shouldn't I text them first? 848 00:35:44,720 --> 00:35:47,400 Here's what I do, and this is what I encourage you to do. 849 00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:50,600 This mindset is helpful. These are people that have 850 00:35:50,600 --> 00:35:52,440 already come to Liberty Baptist Church. 851 00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:54,960 We're not just going through a phone book, not that we can find 852 00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:56,920 one, but we're not just going through a phone book and say, 853 00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:59,880 hey, who can we go visit today and just randomly visit people. 854 00:35:59,880 --> 00:36:02,360 The people that we give you visits for here are people that 855 00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:04,520 come to Liberty Baptist Church before they've given us their 856 00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:05,800 name. They give their address, they 857 00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,440 give us their phone number. If they didn't give it to us, we 858 00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:11,560 wouldn't be able to go see them. So they've already said in 859 00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:14,680 essence, you know, we don't mind you coming at some point. 860 00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:17,120 But in your mind, I've said people, people told me, but a 861 00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:19,320 pastor, they might be offended. They won't it. 862 00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:21,960 Here's the thing, just go to the door, knock. 863 00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:25,720 If they don't answer, then you don't be offended about it. 864 00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:27,640 Don't worry about it. We'll go back another time. 865 00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:29,720 It's not a big deal. Maybe you caught them. 866 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:32,000 They just woke up, they had a long night shift. 867 00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,040 They know they're home, but they're not going to answer 868 00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:37,760 because they just got up. I get that we, I, I barged into 869 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:39,200 your territory. I get that. 870 00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:40,320 I'm not going to be offended by it. 871 00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:43,080 Maybe it's a bad day. Maybe they're not feeling well. 872 00:36:43,240 --> 00:36:45,200 Maybe they just don't feel like answering the door. 873 00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:48,440 They don't know who I am. That's OK. 874 00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:51,000 Don't be, don't you be offended by that. 875 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:53,720 That's the way I handle is like, look, if you answer or you don't 876 00:36:53,720 --> 00:36:55,560 answer, I'm not offended. I'm just, I'm just happened to 877 00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:58,720 be in the area want to come see you and we leave it at that. 878 00:36:58,720 --> 00:37:00,920 And so that's a way that I have. But yeah, keeping your face 879 00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:03,120 forward is, is definitely a good thing because you don't want to 880 00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:03,880 be turning around. Go. 881 00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:06,040 Well, look at that. Yeah, look at those. 882 00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:08,640 Look at those. Look at those petunias over 883 00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:09,360 there. They turn around. 884 00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:12,160 They're standing there one foot away from you, just staring at 885 00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:13,760 you. So be aware of your surroundings 886 00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:15,760 because safety is a key nowadays. 887 00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:18,840 It's a it's a big deal. I guess it always has been, but 888 00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:20,920 even more so now. You need to be aware of your 889 00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:23,160 surroundings. What to do when the door opens 890 00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:26,720 again? Immediately identify yourself 891 00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:30,120 and where you are from. You don't want them to guess who 892 00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:32,600 you are, you know, Are you selling solar panels? 893 00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:37,360 You know who Who are you? Oh wait, I know that guy, but so 894 00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:40,720 are you are you selling solar panels? 895 00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:44,360 Are you are you with the the Boy Scouts of America? 896 00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:48,200 Are you from doing a fundraiser? Your kid is over at the local 897 00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:51,280 elementary school. Hey from Liberty Baptist Church. 898 00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:53,280 My name is Adam. This is my wife Diane. 899 00:37:54,240 --> 00:37:57,360 You know we're from Liberty and we want to come by and see you 900 00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:00,120 today. Honestly, if soon as if this is 901 00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:02,880 something that you have met through a visit here, they've 902 00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:04,640 been here before, there's immediately going to be a 903 00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:05,920 connection. I'm not saying it's always going 904 00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:09,200 to go well, it usually does at least, you know, for the most 905 00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:12,680 part, but you got to identify yourself or who you are. 906 00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:14,840 And that's why I loved having church polo shirts. 907 00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:17,000 We really should probably do that again. 908 00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:19,360 Dave and I were working on that and then I kind of dropped the 909 00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:21,240 ball on that. But it's nice to be able to go 910 00:38:21,240 --> 00:38:24,680 to somebody's house and have that right on your chest to be 911 00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:27,960 able to identify you're from Liberty Baptist Church and not 912 00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:31,680 from Verizon or not from Bill Pay Company or Bill Collection 913 00:38:31,680 --> 00:38:33,640 company. You're not the repo man or 914 00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:36,280 anything like that. Let them know immediately why 915 00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:38,840 you're there. We're in the area inviting 916 00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:41,960 people to church. That's true. 917 00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:44,200 Maybe if you're just doing door hangers, you're going from door 918 00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:46,040 to door. Somebody's out in the garden, 919 00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:48,560 they're working. Don't if we're doing door 920 00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:50,600 hangers and those kind of things and you're trying to, if 921 00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:53,000 someones in their garden, don't just walk past them and go to 922 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:56,280 the door and then walk away. Okay, That is the opposite of 923 00:38:56,280 --> 00:38:58,800 you want to do. In fact, we're praying for those 924 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:00,800 people to be out. That's why I love doing that 925 00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:04,200 outdoors once it's warmer, because people are outside the 926 00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:05,680 gardens. People are outside doing 927 00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:07,000 different things. Don't say why. 928 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:09,120 I really don't want to interrupt you, you know, so I'm not going 929 00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:10,680 to, I'm just going to leave something on the door and walk 930 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:11,920 away. They're going to think you're a 931 00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:13,480 creep. All right, Don't do that. 932 00:39:14,240 --> 00:39:16,240 Say hey, hey, I'm I'm sorry to interrupt you. 933 00:39:16,240 --> 00:39:19,400 Being a garden's beautiful. You're doing a great job here. 934 00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,040 But you know, I'm, I'm from Liberty Baptist Church and we're 935 00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:24,240 just inviting folks to church in the area today. 936 00:39:24,240 --> 00:39:26,600 I'll just wonder if you have a church that you go to, you'll be 937 00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:28,760 able to strike up a conversation just from that. 938 00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:31,440 These are things that you could do. 939 00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:33,720 I we're in the area inviting people to church. 940 00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:36,760 You could say, hey, we, you came to visit our back to school bash 941 00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:39,880 and we just want to come visit and see how your family's doing. 942 00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:42,080 Want to see if there's anything we could pray for you all about. 943 00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:44,880 That's a wonderful thing to be. You know, a lot of people can be 944 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:46,880 offended about a lot of things, but when you tell someone you're 945 00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,880 going to pray for them, all of a sudden the defenses go down and, 946 00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:52,400 and, and I want to be careful how I say this. 947 00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:54,800 This is not a trick like let's let's ask them. 948 00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:56,280 About praying for them so we could. 949 00:39:56,440 --> 00:39:58,440 Well, if you say that, you really need to pray for them. 950 00:39:58,960 --> 00:40:00,320 Right then and there on the doorstep. 951 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:02,800 But a great way to be able to talk to people about spiritual 952 00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:04,880 things. Hey, we, we, we noticed you came 953 00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:06,520 to the back to school back bashed in August. 954 00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:08,360 You know, it's been a few months since the beginning of the year. 955 00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:10,320 Our church is stopping by. We want to see if there's 956 00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:11,720 something we can pray for you about today. 957 00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:15,760 And of course they might say, well, you know, I have, I have 958 00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:18,560 someone who's very sick, my grandmother's and not in good 959 00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:19,840 shape. Well, what's her name? 960 00:40:20,240 --> 00:40:22,160 If do you mind if we could pray for her right now? 961 00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:24,040 We would like to do that. And you can do that. 962 00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:28,080 And then as the defenses have gone down and you show that 963 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:30,200 you've cared about them, you could say there's one other 964 00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:35,440 thing I mentioned because really the greatest thing that anyone 965 00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:38,400 could really have is the gift of salvation. 966 00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:40,880 You can start by that or just ask them, you know, while we're 967 00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:43,040 here, you know, I would love to be able to talk to you about 968 00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:46,280 Jesus And if you were certain you're going to heaven someday, 969 00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:49,000 these are the ways that you can actually open up a conversation. 970 00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:51,960 A lot of times people don't want to make the ask because they 971 00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:53,840 feel like they can say, hi, I'm from Liberty Baptist Church. 972 00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:56,320 Are you going to heaven someday? You start talking to people like 973 00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:57,920 that, they're thinking, are you going to send me there? 974 00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:00,160 Why are you, Why are you asking me this question? 975 00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:04,720 You know something I don't know. And so these are things you 976 00:41:04,720 --> 00:41:06,680 could say, hey, you visited church last Sunday. 977 00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:10,240 We really try to make sure that everyone who visits who gives us 978 00:41:10,240 --> 00:41:12,000 a card. And a lot of times we don't get 979 00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:13,960 a card back from people. But if someone gives us a card, 980 00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:15,960 the next time we have visitation, we want to go see 981 00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:17,920 them and just tell them, hey, we're glad you visited. 982 00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:20,640 Do you have any questions? And of course, the real issue we 983 00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:23,320 want to get to is do they know Jesus Christ their Savior? 984 00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:25,800 Because again, we're not just the welcome wagon going by and 985 00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:27,360 saying, hey, isn't liberty great? 986 00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:29,280 And you like liberty? We like liberty. 987 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:30,960 OK, well, see you at Liberty sometime. 988 00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:35,080 Well, we've completely missed the boat of what we're trying to 989 00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:36,640 do again. Do we want them to come back? 990 00:41:36,640 --> 00:41:37,840 Absolutely. We want to come back. 991 00:41:38,240 --> 00:41:39,520 But they could come here for 20 years. 992 00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:41,480 They don't accept the gospel. They're no better off. 993 00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:44,040 And so the real issue is that they need to understand the 994 00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:46,320 Gospel. Invite them back to church. 995 00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:48,000 This is a great question to ask people. 996 00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:50,960 Do you go to church anywhere? Do you go to church anywhere? 997 00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:54,280 It's a great question to ask because you will find that 998 00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:58,960 people will immediately answer in a variety of different ways. 999 00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:00,960 They'll tell you why I'm a Catholic. 1000 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:04,000 I'm a Catholic. That doesn't answer the 1001 00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:05,720 question. They'll say I'm a Jew. 1002 00:42:05,720 --> 00:42:07,360 Now, remember how I answered that a few weeks ago? 1003 00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:09,840 Somebody says they're a Jew. You say, oh, you're 1 of God's 1004 00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:11,600 chosen people. Our church loves the Jewish 1005 00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:13,400 people. And all of a sudden, once their 1006 00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:15,920 heart, you know, starts beating again because they're so 1007 00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:17,960 surprised that you would say something like that, you might 1008 00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:19,440 be able to have a conversation with them. 1009 00:42:20,040 --> 00:42:22,160 But a lot of times people will say, oh, yeah, I go to church 1010 00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:23,000 Ohio. Which? 1011 00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:27,320 Which church do you go to? It's that one over. 1012 00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:29,080 It's over. I'm 44. 1013 00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:32,640 No, it should be maybe a one O 6. 1014 00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:35,600 It's amazing to me. People will tell you they go to 1015 00:42:35,600 --> 00:42:37,200 church and they couldn't even tell you what the name of the 1016 00:42:37,200 --> 00:42:40,280 church is. But I've met people like that so 1017 00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:42,800 many times. You go to Liberty, like what's 1018 00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:44,120 the name of the pastor? I don't remember. 1019 00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:46,000 I've been going for six months. I don't remember his name. 1020 00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:49,680 You know, Revivio, I don't know something like that, but you 1021 00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:50,560 say, hey, do you go to church anyway? 1022 00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:53,000 That's a very non threatening question, honestly, to ask you 1023 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:55,080 go to church anywhere. You know, they know you go to 1024 00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:58,320 church, you go to church anywhere and you know they'll 1025 00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:00,720 answer that a host different ways and you can respond 1026 00:43:00,720 --> 00:43:02,120 accordingly. Hey, we're not trying to take 1027 00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:04,680 you from your church. I say that to people sometimes 1028 00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:06,760 and we're really not trying to steal people from churches. 1029 00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:09,160 If they're going to a good Bible preaching church, I'm not. 1030 00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:11,480 I don't want them to come here just because of that. 1031 00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:13,280 Really. I want people to know Jesus 1032 00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:15,680 Christ their savior. Now, if someone is going to 1033 00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:17,840 some, you know, Pagan church or something like that, I guess you 1034 00:43:17,840 --> 00:43:19,400 could say I do want them to steal them from the church 1035 00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:21,120 because we want them to get saved. 1036 00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:24,440 Amen. But so, so be honest about it. 1037 00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:26,640 But, but you could say we're not trying to steal you from your 1038 00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:27,960 church or take you from your church. 1039 00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:31,200 We love to have you visit our church this Sunday. 1040 00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:34,520 If possible, strike up a conversation while you're 1041 00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:37,560 talking to them. What I try to do is I'm walking 1042 00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:41,560 up the I'm not very observant about a lot of things. 1043 00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:45,440 There have been several guys here who have shaved a beard off 1044 00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:48,920 and I didn't notice like until two months later or changed a 1045 00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:52,280 haircut and I didn't realize it till a couple months later. 1046 00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:55,600 That's just the way I am. But I would tell you, I zero in 1047 00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:58,960 when I'm making a visit. I want to know the cars that are 1048 00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:00,560 there. I want to know what they're 1049 00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:04,520 driving. I want to know what's on the the 1050 00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:07,440 porch that they have, if I'm able to go in the house and make 1051 00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:09,160 a visit. I'm kind of looking around now. 1052 00:44:09,160 --> 00:44:11,600 I'm not trying to be a Snoop. I'm not Colombo or anything like 1053 00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:14,360 that. But the idea is I do find things 1054 00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:17,280 to make conversation and listen. Sometimes you'll swing and 1055 00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:18,800 sometimes you'll miss. It's OK. 1056 00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:22,320 I remember going into a visit several months ago. 1057 00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:23,880 It was actually the same visit I was talking to you about a 1058 00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:27,240 little bit earlier with the child and I saw one of the cars 1059 00:44:27,240 --> 00:44:30,200 had a veteran plate on it. And so I thought, here's a great 1060 00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:31,760 point of conversation right here. 1061 00:44:32,240 --> 00:44:35,840 And so the gentleman was in there and I said to him and part 1062 00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:37,400 of conversation I said, I saw you're a veteran. 1063 00:44:37,400 --> 00:44:38,800 I just want to thank you for your service. 1064 00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:42,800 And he goes, I'm not a veteran. And I said, well, I saw the 1065 00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:46,600 veteran and, and, and, and the woman there, she says, well, I'm 1066 00:44:46,600 --> 00:44:49,760 a veteran. And I was like, Oh, well, I 1067 00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:51,480 guess I just assumed the man was a veteran. 1068 00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:57,200 So thank you for your service. I was like, wow, I felt about 1069 00:44:57,400 --> 00:44:58,960 this big. I really did. 1070 00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:02,440 But I would tell you, and I say this to say, Pastor, this is not 1071 00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:04,600 a good illustration to tell us about why we should be more 1072 00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:08,160 personal people. When you work with people, you 1073 00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:12,640 can either just clam up because you might make a mistake, or you 1074 00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:15,440 can just do your best and people will appreciate you. 1075 00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:18,320 Do your best. There are times I get people's 1076 00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:20,360 names wrong because I'm trying to remember their name. 1077 00:45:20,760 --> 00:45:27,840 So I could just say, hey man, hey buddy, hey brother, buddy. 1078 00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:31,600 But you know, you can do that. That's the cover for everything 1079 00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:35,160 is hey buddy, how you doing? Or you can swing and you can 1080 00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:37,600 miss and you can make a joke about it. 1081 00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:39,840 You can laugh about it and then hopefully the next time you do 1082 00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:41,000 get. Now, if you just keep swinging 3 1083 00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:43,800 or 4 times in a row and missing like you got to, you got to get 1084 00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:46,480 a better system. But I think a lot of people are 1085 00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:49,320 afraid to make the mistake in being conversational with people 1086 00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:53,200 so they don't make conversation. But you're better off just 1087 00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:55,360 trying your best. You know what's funny about that 1088 00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:58,160 family? That we still I've laughed about 1089 00:45:58,160 --> 00:45:59,520 that with them several times since. 1090 00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:01,520 And honestly, talk about observance. 1091 00:46:01,520 --> 00:46:05,600 As I left, I looked at the license plate again and it had a 1092 00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:09,400 pink frame around it, and so I probably should have noticed 1093 00:46:09,440 --> 00:46:12,880 that pink frame probably doesn't belong to him and it probably 1094 00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:15,720 belongs to her being a veteran. But I swung and I missed. 1095 00:46:15,720 --> 00:46:17,560 But you know what? I still showed that I cared and 1096 00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:19,480 I tried. And that's what you need to do 1097 00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:22,320 as well. Don't let your fear of not being 1098 00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:24,880 able to make a connection or doing something wrong stop you 1099 00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:26,960 from trying to make that connection Now. 1100 00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:30,960 If possible, transition to talking about salvation. 1101 00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:34,160 You'll be able to tell how the conversation is going fairly 1102 00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:36,160 quickly. I've been at people's doors 1103 00:46:36,160 --> 00:46:40,560 before and the door is closing as I'm talking to them, and 1104 00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:43,600 unless I put my foot in the door, that door is going to 1105 00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:46,720 close on me. I can tell pretty certainly that 1106 00:46:46,720 --> 00:46:48,800 I'm not going to be able to make a gospel presentation there. 1107 00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:53,000 In fact, I would be better not to in the sense that maybe if I 1108 00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:55,600 can give them a track or something to hold on to, but if 1109 00:46:55,600 --> 00:46:59,240 I try not to handle myself like a fool there, that the next 1110 00:46:59,240 --> 00:47:02,320 person who does talk to about Jesus will have an opportunity 1111 00:47:02,560 --> 00:47:05,000 as long as I don't make it harder for that next one to come 1112 00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:06,520 by. Again, I'm not talking about 1113 00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:09,200 being not being emphatic. I think it's important that 1114 00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:11,680 we're passionate about what we're in, but we also need to 1115 00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:14,680 understand that, you know, some plant, some water, but God gives 1116 00:47:14,680 --> 00:47:16,880 the increase. There's many people along that 1117 00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:19,880 journey, Lord willing, who'll be able to impact them for the 1118 00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:21,440 Lord. And so you want to make sure 1119 00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:22,720 that you do do your best with that. 1120 00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:24,560 Very quickly. We'll go to the next page. 1121 00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:27,640 We'll we'll stop in the middle of this here. 1122 00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:30,680 And then we're going to get to really the nuts and bolts of the 1123 00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:32,600 verses and talking to people by the handout. 1124 00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:34,680 I want to give you tomorrow. It's not in here. 1125 00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:36,800 I mentioned it before because it's the perfect size to be able 1126 00:47:36,800 --> 00:47:39,880 to cut and put in front of the flyleaf of your Bible to be able 1127 00:47:39,880 --> 00:47:42,320 to answer questions. And I want to give that to you 1128 00:47:42,320 --> 00:47:43,600 tomorrow. But we'll get through some of 1129 00:47:43,600 --> 00:47:44,720 this. I'm going to give you a story, 1130 00:47:44,720 --> 00:47:46,920 then I'm going to be done here for tonight. 1131 00:47:47,080 --> 00:47:49,320 And then we'll take some questions if we have any, a 1132 00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:51,640 transition from your previous conversation, once we get to the 1133 00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:53,560 place, want to talk to people about the Lord. 1134 00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:56,000 Now you're not talking about veterans and now you're not 1135 00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:59,760 talking about the teams, and now you're not talking about those 1136 00:47:59,760 --> 00:48:02,040 different things. Now you want to really get to 1137 00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:03,200 the place we're talking about the Lord. 1138 00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:05,320 Because what if you're there for 30 minutes and you're just 1139 00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:07,440 talking about all these other random things and you never talk 1140 00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:09,400 about Jesus? We kind of missed the boat. 1141 00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:12,080 So you want to make sure you transition that conversation. 1142 00:48:12,440 --> 00:48:14,000 You can't ask. Do you mind if I ask you a 1143 00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:15,880 personal question? But it's not necessary. 1144 00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:19,320 You don't have to be able to do that, but I know some people 1145 00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:21,480 that do. And you can say something like 1146 00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:22,840 this. Even more important than church 1147 00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:25,080 is having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 1148 00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:28,520 I find that that's a good way for me to transition because I'm 1149 00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:30,240 talking about the church. I'm talking about the church 1150 00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:32,440 like, hey, we would love to have you at Liberty Baptist Church, 1151 00:48:32,440 --> 00:48:34,080 But you know, there's something more important than coming to 1152 00:48:34,080 --> 00:48:37,240 church, and that's having a relationship with Jesus Christ. 1153 00:48:37,560 --> 00:48:39,120 He said, well, that doesn't sound very natural. 1154 00:48:39,120 --> 00:48:40,880 It doesn't sound natural if you've ever said it before. 1155 00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:43,880 But if you get to the place where you are able to have a 1156 00:48:43,880 --> 00:48:46,600 conversation with somebody, you will find that it will become 1157 00:48:46,600 --> 00:48:50,480 more natural than it has before You could even say this. 1158 00:48:50,480 --> 00:48:53,400 I used to have some of the same doubts, but I've asked Christ to 1159 00:48:53,400 --> 00:48:55,080 be my Savior. My life has changed. 1160 00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:57,680 You can relate to them. Really, the best way that you 1161 00:48:57,680 --> 00:49:01,040 can relate to somebody is to tell them your testimony is to 1162 00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:02,760 be able to talk to them about what the Lord did to you. 1163 00:49:03,080 --> 00:49:06,280 I think of being outside really the first time I met you guys, I 1164 00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:11,560 think with Bill, with your dad, and we were outside talking and 1165 00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:14,320 you could tell the Lord was really working in his heart. 1166 00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:17,120 But at the same time, he just really wasn't want to make that 1167 00:49:17,120 --> 00:49:19,040 next step. And so, you know, you can only 1168 00:49:19,040 --> 00:49:20,560 ask somebody, you know, do you want to get saved? 1169 00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:21,920 You want to get saved so many times. 1170 00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:24,520 And they say no. But I really just felt like in 1171 00:49:24,520 --> 00:49:27,640 my spirit that there this conversation shouldn't be done 1172 00:49:27,640 --> 00:49:29,920 yet. And So what I did was instead of 1173 00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:32,240 just asking him the same question over and over again 1174 00:49:32,240 --> 00:49:34,440 from different angles, I just said, you know what, I kind of, 1175 00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:36,680 I was in a situation very similar to you. 1176 00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:39,520 I mean, I was only 16 years old, but, and what I did is I just 1177 00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:40,800 started, I just gave them a testimony. 1178 00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:44,720 And I've found that being a Lutheran, I can talk to a lot of 1179 00:49:44,720 --> 00:49:47,000 people, have a high church background, a Protestant 1180 00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:49,240 background, even a Catholic background and talk about the 1181 00:49:49,240 --> 00:49:50,760 sacraments and those kind of things. 1182 00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:53,320 And then able to do that. And it's amazing how many people 1183 00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:56,320 don't want to have the personal question about them, but they 1184 00:49:56,320 --> 00:49:59,200 will let you talk about you. And so that's a great place to 1185 00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:02,480 start about how the Lord has worked in your heart and in your 1186 00:50:02,480 --> 00:50:04,240 life. And there are two very important 1187 00:50:04,240 --> 00:50:06,600 questions to really understand where somebody is spiritually. 1188 00:50:06,840 --> 00:50:08,680 I think this is where we'll lay off here in just a moment. 1189 00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:11,240 And the first is this. If you were to die today, are 1190 00:50:11,240 --> 00:50:13,960 you 100% sure that you would go to heaven? 1191 00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:16,560 There's a lot of people that will say no to that question. 1192 00:50:16,840 --> 00:50:19,400 They'll say, I hope so. I think so. 1193 00:50:20,080 --> 00:50:23,520 I want to listen. Those are not the same as yes, 1194 00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:26,600 hope. So salvation is not what the 1195 00:50:26,600 --> 00:50:30,200 Bible says when it talks about having the hope of eternal life. 1196 00:50:30,200 --> 00:50:32,640 That's a firm confidence in eternal life. 1197 00:50:32,640 --> 00:50:33,840 That's not what this is talking about. 1198 00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:38,320 I, I, I hope so. I, I might, I, I, I don't know 1199 00:50:38,320 --> 00:50:41,000 that I can. I've done too many things. 1200 00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:43,160 These are things that I've had people say to me in the past, 1201 00:50:43,640 --> 00:50:45,880 but there are a decent amount of people who say absolutely, 1202 00:50:46,400 --> 00:50:48,360 absolutely. And now if you're not careful, 1203 00:50:48,680 --> 00:50:50,800 you'll automatically think, well, they're saved. 1204 00:50:51,480 --> 00:50:55,560 But there's more to it than that because you have to understand 1205 00:50:55,560 --> 00:50:57,720 if they actually understand the gospel message or not. 1206 00:50:57,920 --> 00:50:59,800 What if they've been in the Catholic Church all their life 1207 00:50:59,800 --> 00:51:02,520 and they firmly now, I don't know how they could in the 1208 00:51:02,520 --> 00:51:04,280 Catholic Church because they never have assurance. 1209 00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:07,280 That's why they keep working. But I have heard people say of 1210 00:51:07,280 --> 00:51:10,520 that fate, Well, yeah, well, I'm, I'm sure I'm going to 1211 00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:12,240 heaven. But they're relying on their 1212 00:51:12,240 --> 00:51:14,600 works. So the next question that I ask 1213 00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:17,480 is, well, you know, I imagine that you got to the gates of 1214 00:51:17,480 --> 00:51:18,400 heaven. I said, you know, it doesn't 1215 00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:20,480 work this way. It's not this way in the Bible, 1216 00:51:20,840 --> 00:51:23,440 but but just for us to be able to talk about this today, 1217 00:51:23,720 --> 00:51:26,200 imagine you got to the gates of heaven and there was someone 1218 00:51:26,200 --> 00:51:28,200 standing there and says, why should I let you into heaven? 1219 00:51:29,480 --> 00:51:32,400 What would you say? And that answer to the second 1220 00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:35,600 question is the most revealing of all because that's when 1221 00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:37,280 they'll say, well, I've been a good person. 1222 00:51:38,200 --> 00:51:40,880 Well, I've I've tried to help people. 1223 00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:45,200 I was in a church for 40 years, I was a founding member, and 1224 00:51:45,200 --> 00:51:47,760 that's when you could all of a sudden get to the point of, OK, 1225 00:51:48,320 --> 00:51:51,520 now I understand where they're coming from and I can better 1226 00:51:51,560 --> 00:51:55,320 understand how I can give them the gospel in their situation. 1227 00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:57,000 And we'll talk more about that tomorrow. 1228 00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:03,600 I will readily admit this is not an easy process and you may not 1229 00:52:03,600 --> 00:52:06,920 always have all the answers, but I'll tell you the one thing that 1230 00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:10,640 will overarchingly help everything is to love people. 1231 00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:14,440 Because if you love people, you will find that there will be 1232 00:52:14,440 --> 00:52:16,320 more opportunities that you can imagine. 1233 00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:20,120 And if you love people as Christ loved people, that you will be 1234 00:52:20,120 --> 00:52:23,160 able to, even if you don't have an answer for them right away, 1235 00:52:23,480 --> 00:52:26,520 that they'll be open enough for you to follow up with them and 1236 00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:27,720 talk to them again in the future. 1237 00:52:27,840 --> 00:52:32,320 Because people will ask you some very weird questions and you may 1238 00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:34,760 not have the answer. You say, again, Pastor, this is 1239 00:52:34,760 --> 00:52:36,440 not a good thing to tell us about wanting to share our 1240 00:52:36,440 --> 00:52:37,960 faith. What I'm telling you is this is 1241 00:52:37,960 --> 00:52:41,520 reality and don't let the fact that you don't have all the 1242 00:52:41,520 --> 00:52:43,920 answers stop you from giving the gospel. 1243 00:52:45,160 --> 00:52:49,040 I, I appreciate so much. I appreciate Charlie Kirk and, 1244 00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:50,960 and the videos and the things that he stood for. 1245 00:52:51,400 --> 00:52:55,920 Very much so his mind worked in a, a way that it's hard for me 1246 00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:58,240 to even fathom. People would ask him very 1247 00:52:58,240 --> 00:53:02,200 difficult questions and he could answer with grace and authority. 1248 00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:04,880 In a second. I don't get it. 1249 00:53:05,760 --> 00:53:08,600 I don't understand how we did it, but I think a lot of times 1250 00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:12,200 we think that the only way we can be a real soul winner is 1251 00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:14,200 that we have to be the exact same way. 1252 00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:18,960 I have to answer every question, every moment the right way. 1253 00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:21,560 And if I don't, no one will ever get saved. 1254 00:53:22,560 --> 00:53:27,720 Now what you really need to do is just let the spirit lead love 1255 00:53:27,720 --> 00:53:29,840 on people. And if you don't have the 1256 00:53:29,840 --> 00:53:35,080 answer, say I don't have the answer to that, but we can talk 1257 00:53:35,080 --> 00:53:38,560 again. I know where the answer is for 1258 00:53:38,560 --> 00:53:39,920 the Anthony. I have some fellowship today and 1259 00:53:39,920 --> 00:53:42,920 he asked me a question. I'm almost embarrassed about 1260 00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:44,080 this. I've been a pastor for 12, 1261 00:53:44,080 --> 00:53:45,600 almost 13 years. I've been in the full time 1262 00:53:45,600 --> 00:53:47,800 ministry over 20 years. He asked me a question, 1263 00:53:47,800 --> 00:53:53,040 obviously came from some some soul winning that he's doing 1264 00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:55,880 with some working with somebody and he want to get my opinion on 1265 00:53:55,880 --> 00:53:57,640 it. He asked me this question and I 1266 00:53:57,640 --> 00:54:02,760 just sat there for about 15 seconds and I kind of felt dumb, 1267 00:54:02,920 --> 00:54:05,160 to be honest with you, Anthony, because they're like, why don't 1268 00:54:05,160 --> 00:54:07,800 I have an answer to this? Because it was a little bit kind 1269 00:54:07,800 --> 00:54:09,520 of out there. I don't know that anyone had 1270 00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:12,640 ever framed that thought in that way to me before. 1271 00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:15,800 And I kind of worked through it. After a few minutes, I just kept 1272 00:54:15,800 --> 00:54:17,520 talking until I finally was like, Oh no, that's it. 1273 00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:18,840 I think that's it. That's what I would do. 1274 00:54:19,160 --> 00:54:23,120 It took me a few minutes. But if I study the Bible for a 1275 00:54:23,120 --> 00:54:27,480 living, not just getting sermons, but then also for 1276 00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:30,880 study, for personal and just my own edification. 1277 00:54:31,360 --> 00:54:34,440 And I could admit to you tonight that there are times that I 1278 00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:36,240 don't just have the right answer right away. 1279 00:54:37,080 --> 00:54:41,760 It's true for all of us. Don't let that stop you from 1280 00:54:41,760 --> 00:54:43,800 being a witness. That's Satan trying to tell you 1281 00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:45,480 now. One, we can sharpen our tools. 1282 00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:47,760 We can learn more. There's some of the stuff we 1283 00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:49,280 talked about today. It's like I got to dig into that 1284 00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:51,200 after I dig into some of the other stuff that I have on my 1285 00:54:51,200 --> 00:54:52,560 list of things I need to dig into. 1286 00:54:54,080 --> 00:54:57,120 But at the same time, you can look at somebody in the eye and 1287 00:54:57,120 --> 00:54:59,880 say, I don't know the answer to that today, but I know where the 1288 00:54:59,880 --> 00:55:02,120 answer is. And if we can meet another time, 1289 00:55:02,120 --> 00:55:03,920 we can meet next week. If I can call you during the 1290 00:55:03,920 --> 00:55:05,920 week, I'd be glad to tell you what the Bible says. 1291 00:55:05,920 --> 00:55:07,800 But I'm not going to try to pretend to give you an answer 1292 00:55:07,800 --> 00:55:10,400 that I don't know. I'd much rather be honest and 1293 00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:13,160 tell you I don't know. Because The thing is, when it 1294 00:55:13,160 --> 00:55:15,640 comes to soul winning, this is again not, we'll go full circle 1295 00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:17,640 here. This is not a debate to win. 1296 00:55:18,720 --> 00:55:21,760 Well, I answered the question fastest and most articulate. 1297 00:55:21,760 --> 00:55:24,240 So I win. Though this is an issue of truth 1298 00:55:24,360 --> 00:55:27,520 against error. Truth always went, and so we 1299 00:55:27,520 --> 00:55:31,080 need to make sure that we are being truthful in what we say 1300 00:55:31,080 --> 00:55:33,240 and how we say it. And if you don't have the answer 1301 00:55:33,240 --> 00:55:35,720 right away, don't be embarrassed, don't be ashamed. 1302 00:55:35,720 --> 00:55:38,400 You're not a failure. You should never go share the 1303 00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:41,640 gospel again. You just go back to the word, 1304 00:55:41,960 --> 00:55:44,840 find out where you missed it, find out what the answer is. 1305 00:55:44,840 --> 00:55:47,400 Go to another soul winner. By the way, it's another reason 1306 00:55:47,400 --> 00:55:49,320 to have two by two, because the other person might have the 1307 00:55:49,360 --> 00:55:53,040 answer when you don't, but you can go and get the help that 1308 00:55:53,040 --> 00:55:55,960 they need. Thank you for listening to the 1309 00:55:55,960 --> 00:55:58,560 sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church. 1310 00:55:58,880 --> 00:56:02,200 If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we 1311 00:56:02,200 --> 00:56:05,320 can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at 1312 00:56:05,440 --> 00:56:10,200 info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday 1313 00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:14,120 at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA. 1314 00:56:14,360 --> 00:56:17,160 May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.