Welcome to the Liberty Baptist sermon archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty, Baptist
Church in Eastern Massachusetts. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my Liberty, Baptist dot org or just look us
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message from God's word will be a blessing to you.
There's a lot of talk about Soul winning around our church.
There's a lot of maybe use of that term of that word, Soul,
winning winning, Souls Outreach at.
Maybe you hear these things, but you don't necessarily know what
it means, or you know what it means, but you don't know what
it means to you or you think, you know what it means, but
maybe there is much more to outreach and soul-winning than
maybe what you're familiar with. That's why here in the month of
February, we are going forward in Soul winning meaning this
just as in January, it was my desire.
That by the time we were done with the month, that you would
be, further ahead in your daily walk, then you were at the
beginning of the month. I hope that, by the time we're
done with February that you'll have a greater burden to win
people to Christ, a greater burden to see people save but
also to translate that burden into some tangible ways to go
and share your faith with Their people and know that you have
the ability to if someone asked you, as it was said in scripture
what must I do to be saved that, you would be able to answer the
question, not just from your opinion.
But actually what the word of God says.
And I find this to be true with a lot of Believers.
And I found this to be true at Liberty over the years.
And with other believers that I've interacted with that.
There are many that have a desire to tell other people
about Christ, but the desire doesn't always translate into
results. And the reason why is because
Sometimes people don't know where to go as far as in the
scriptures. They don't know where to go, to
be able to present the gospel. To somebody listen, You'll find
lost people anywhere. I mean walk outside the building
and you'll find lost people everywhere.
But where you have the opportunity to actually present
the gospel to someone and talk to them about the Lord that can
be something that's difficult. And so for us as a church,
there's several reasons why we want to win souls to Christ.
The first is this the Great Commission?
Us to win other people to Christ.
You can go to Matthew Mark, Luke John and the beginning of X, all
of them have a different form of what we would call.
The Great Commission. That Great Commission was not
given to individual Believers. That commission, I believe was
given directly to the institution of the Church of
which we are a part of today and that we are required.
We are compelled to have our mission statement, be this to go
and reach the lost with the gospel.
I love Jesus Christ. Let me put it to you this way,
if we don't, who will if those who know Jesus Christ as their
savior won't win people to Christ.
And who is Will the Lost reach? The Lost will the unsaved.
Reach the unsaved, know it's incumbent on us as Believers
particularly as far as the institution of the church.
Meaning this that are our church is not here to have.
Been-- suppers and our churches not here to have fundraisers and
our churches, not here to his have activities and events
although we can do those things and there's Inherently wrong
with them. But if our church is just made
up of those things that we've missed the mark.
Even when we do those things, we do those things with the purpose
of this, we want to reach people, the gospel.
Now, we want to get them involved in church, so they can
be discipled and they can grow and then they can reach their
friends and their family with the gospel.
And so, when we talk about this need for outreach and soul
winning, its well, one is because we've been commanded to,
It's the Great Commission. Can I give you a very practical
reason? How many of Of you don't raise
your hand, but raise your hand, raise your heart.
If you will, how many of you want?
See, Liberty Baptist Church to grow.
I think everybody would agree with that.
We reach people with the gospel and for every time that I've
said, boy, I wish we had a few more people to church the Holy
Spirit just as quickly says. Why don't you go find somebody
because they're out there? Now we know that you plant the
seed and the Harvest doesn't come the next day.
That's typically not the way that it works.
But we go and plant seed and we pray that like more willing this
Sunday we have a lady who Who received a material at her door,
23 years ago. We're not exactly sure.
She's not exactly sure. But she says, I've been holding
onto this. I know I need to go to church, I
have materials from you. I want to go to church, that's
happening this Sunday, that's a blessing.
And by the way, pray for her that she'll be coming this
Sunday and I forgot her name. Her name is Julie hold off on
that but no pray for the wrong name but the Lord will know
Jessica. That's right.
I was close. That's why the type it on my
phone or I'll forget Jessica will or willing be here on
Sunday because that but how does the church grow?
Well we invite people and we don't invite them just so a
church grows but we want to see them get saved but then become
part of this institution so that we can perpetuate ourselves and
we can grow and we can Prosper. And it's not just about well,
what was, I mean? What if we had more people, who
know what, if we had more people do this then oh, you're moving
forward. No, don't worry about that.
Just go and tell someone about the gospel and leave it to the
Lord. I have stories that I can tell
you, even even today, which I met at the end of the, the
lesson, the message. Whenever we call it tonight, I
talk to you a little bit about how God is even using some of
the process of planting and watering in the increase, even
today at Liberty Baptist Church. It's a really exciting thing.
So, if we want the church to grow, guess what?
You got to be a part of telling other people about Jesus Christ.
That's just a practical part, but when we get down to the
nitty-gritty, it's not just about being commanded to.
It's not just about a church growth program.
It's really something much deeper than that.
You got saved because you realized you were a sinner that
was going to split hell wide open.
If you died without Jesus Christ, if you died without the
gospel message, Human compassion and the Holy Spirit who lives
inside of us should compel us to go when people to Christ because
listen, I want to win someone to Christ whether they'll ever
attend our church or not. It's not that I only try to win
people to Christ or I'm in Easton.
Well if I'm in another town, they'll never come to our
church. So forget it.
Well know if they have a spiritual need, I want to be
able to win them to Christ and try to help them be involved in
a local church without help them find a church.
If it's not ours because it's not just about a church growth
program, or it's not just about being compelled by God to
perform this Great Commission. It's there are lives that are on
the line, how could you not do something?
And it's This culture that we live in today, where something
bad happens to somebody and nobody wants to help.
And everybody just wants to do this.
Everyone just gazes. Or records and nobody wants to
help you like me have probably seen videos in Subway's or in
just other areas. We're someone is getting beaten
by a crowd or a mob or whatever the situation may be.
And there's more people just watching And won't help.
And there's just something inside of me that just Says I
got to help them, you know, and I've never been in a situation
like that, that's of that serious of a nature.
But just a couple days ago, I was driving down the road,
taking Peyton to school down, West Bridgewater, right?
Past where the Market Basket is over there.
And I see right ahead of me as I'm driving towards West
Bridgewater Center. I just see plastic go
everywhere, just an explosion of plastic.
Now, that's the way cars, you know, Collide.
Now you don't hear much of a sound other than just the
crunching of plastic and The pieces go everywhere.
There was a probably 17 18 year old boy, who I would assess from
what I saw was not paying attention.
And rear-ended someone who was trying to make a left, turn onto
a side street. The trunk of the front car was
completely collapsed. I could see into the backseat of
his car was completely just sitting, you know what, I was
thinking at that moment, get the car off the road, I got
somewhere to go. No, my thought was this and I
hope they're okay. And you know what I did, when
the car didn't move, I put the hazards on and I'm not, you
know, I don't want to strain too hard to Pat myself on the back
because I have a feeling a lot of people here would have done
the same thing. If you're in the same situation,
I got out of the car, and I asked this young man, are you,
okay? And he was shell-shocked, he you
could tell he was on the verge of tears, just talking to me.
As I said, it's okay, it's going to be.
Okay, don't panic the police come and I check out the people
that can really help our here. It's time for me to go and get
paid In school before she gets to tardy.
And so we are good to go, but you know why?
It just I want to help that's something very small.
I'll talk about someone's soul. Let's talk about the fact that
there's eternity' on the line that people that we know and
maybe people that we don't know, are going to go someday to
either Heaven or Hell. There is no between there is no
limbo, there is no state that lies in the middle for those
Souls who weren't quite bad enough for hell, but weren't
quite good enough for heaven. As some of you were taught when
you were growing up no there is none of that everyone is going
to die. Unless Jesus Christ comes first,
the Bible says been appointed unto man.
Once to die and after this the judgment.
And so just the fact that there is this difficulty in life,
compels us to want to tell other people about Jesus Christ.
But here's what I often find the desire is there. but there's
This disconnect of not knowing what to do, or maybe not sure
how you fit into the grand scheme of things.
Well, I've had people say this pasture.
I couldn't win souls, I'm not available on Saturday, at 10:00,
Like will you have missed the mark of what we're trying to
accomplish because soul don't just get saved on Saturday from
10 to noon. It's far more than that, it's
more than a program. It's a lifestyle of looking at
people as Souls that need a savior.
And so I want us to go through actually go through some
paperwork and some lessons here. Some of these are things that we
have gone over in the past and we have a couple videos.
I might be able to show you here in the next few weeks as well.
But what I really want to do On these Wednesday night's is give
you some tutorials on how to win people to Christ.
How did walk people through the Romans road?
If you will, and then also on Sunday morning, to really, just
encourage the heart. And really speak to the heart
about why this is something that we all should do why we want to
move forward in Soul winning. So First, Peter chapter number
3. This is where we're going to
kind of jump off from here tonight before I give you your
handouts. 1st Peter, chapter number three, let me get a drink
of water. Look at verse number 12.
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous.
Sometimes we think about the eyes of the Lord, holy Lords
watching, like, it's a bad thing, because the eyes of the
Lord are over the righteous, it's not just when we do wrong,
he's with us when we do, right? He's protecting us.
He's helping us. He strengthening us the eyes of
the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their
prayers. But the face of the Lord is
against them that do evil. And who is he?
That will harm you. If ye be followers of Of that,
which is good. You know, the point that's being
made here if we do, right, who can touch us If we do, right,
who can stop us, say, well, Pastor didn't you remember on
Sunday night, you read at the end of Hebrews chapter 11, that
some were burned and some were Saudis under and all those
things. Well, it sounds like they were
stopped, you think that stopped him?
They were absent in the body and present with the Lord?
The very next moment. There were sure that their
Earthly time may have been cut short by the way, man reckons
years. But in God's eyes.
Listen, they went from speaking. His name to being in his
presence, what an amazing. Thing that is.
And so sometimes it without getting too far ahead of where
we are. Sometimes there's a level of
fear that comes into sharing our faith with other people.
Well, what are they going to do? What are they going to say?
What are they going to think? How are they going to react?
Listen if God be for us, who can be against us?
I don't want to oversimplify it because I don't want to pretend,
like those fears aren't real things because they are real and
we do deal with it. The devil tries to stifle our
voice when it comes to talking about the Lord.
But listen, who is it? He the no harm you.
If he be followers of that, which is good, but, and if you
suffer for righteousness, sake, happy are ye and be not afraid
of their Terror, neither be trouble, just going along with
what we just said, but look at verse number 15.
But sanctify, the Lord God in your heart said sanctify
yourself. That set him apart in your
heart. I could preach a whole message
just on this idea of sanctifying the Lord God in your heart,
because that's such a rich thought, right there
sanctification is the process of not just cleaning but also being
set apart for a specific surface.
A purpose, just like the vessels in the Tabernacle and Temple
would have been Sanctified. They were set apart for specific
service. That's why when Delta shatters
Feast use those things that were Sanctified set apart for Lourdes
use, and all of a sudden they're drinking out of it and have it,
a drunken orgy, with these things that were Sanctified, the
hand of the Lord rights on the wall that have been weighed in
the balances and found wanting. And so that we're to set apart
the Lord, God in our hearts sanctify, the Lord God in your
heart. And here's here's where we need
to kind of get down to tonight and be ready.
Always to give an answer to every man that asketh you.
A reason of the hope that is in you With meekness and fear.
When I ask you this question tonight, don't answer it out
loud, but answered in your heart.
Can you always be ready to give an answer to every man?
That asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear. Even if we could say, yes, I am
able to in any moment at any time I can give a testimony of
how Jesus Christ Save Me. Maybe you can't say that
tonight. I'm not saying it's impossible,
but I'm saying, is this There's a great deal who cannot but
maybe want to and there are also the rest of us who I would say.
This know we could do it better. There are some who maybe could
not explain exactly how the Lord save them as far as taking
someone through the gospel and explaining it.
All sure. They went through the gospel,
but they're having trouble explaining it to someone else.
It that's understandable. There are things that we do
that. Sometimes we can do, but we have
trouble explaining to someone else, how to do it.
And so, There are those who need to work on them but the rest of
us would have to say this. I mean, I could take someone
down the Romans road. If someone came up to me right
now and said, what must I do to be saved?
I would be able to through the scriptures.
Be able to teach them and show them what the Bible says.
But here's it could I do it better?
Absolutely, because most of the time of the people, I've led to
Christ. It's not been them.
Walking up to me saying, what must I do to be saved?
There's a lot of stuff you have to cut through.
Do we get to the point for them to be interested in?
In understanding. And so, what I want to go
through through these Wednesday night, sessions is to be able to
try to encourage you to exhort you, to be able to Give people
an opportunity to understand what God has already done in
your heart. You know, in many ways,
witnessing and soul winning are two different things.
We use, those terms, almost interchangeably.
And I will say, I use them interchangeably to, but in a lot
of ways, they are separate entities.
If you are a witness. For instance, if I was to be
cold to a court, to witness be a witness for what I saw at an
accident yesterday. Well, all I would be doing,
would be recounted. Ting.
What I had seen and witnessing is a very important thing.
You know, sometimes we can't get out a whole gospel message to
somebody, but you know what you can do, you can be a witness.
You can speak of the Lord. You can speak of his goodness.
You can just talk about maybe What the Lord Has Done in your
life and you can do it very quickly.
Sometimes you may only have a few seconds and you can just
slip that in, you know what that is?
That's being a witness. I think a witness it being For
the Lord. I'm not downplaying that at all.
That's an important thing because there are many times
that's about all you can get in because the situation I've told
you before, you're not going into a long missive on the
Romans road at the checkout line at Walmart.
First of all, yet to find a check at all.
Don't want to go back there again.
All right, now, going back there again, you're not going to be
able to do that, but you can be a witness to somebody just by
the way you handle yourself or buy a conversation that Comes up
or you just say something about the Lord, praise the Lord,
something like he said well what difference does that make?
Well it's certainly better than probably what they've heard from
the two people before you in the checkout line.
If the lord's name was used, it probably wasn't prays before it
and so you're just being a witness and so we need to do
better at just being a general witness of the Lord everywhere
we go. But to actually win a soul is
the next step. It is to say, not only do I
recognize as best as I can tell, from what you have told me, you
are not saved, but I want to actively convinced you from the
word of God. To be saved.
Could you see the difference between those two?
Not every opportunity, they soul-winning opportunity.
But I would say this, there are a lot more people here tonight
that would probably be comfortable witnessing then they
would be Soul winning. Oh, I'll be a witness for the
Lord, I'll hand out of track. I'll give praise to the Lord.
I'll even talk about how, What the Lord Has Done in my life to
somebody. But if they said to me, you know
what, I love, what the Lord did to, I love hearing that, and
I've been thinking about that myself.
So what should I do? And you'd say, well, let's call
my pastor. No, I hope you can and I hope I
can help you. I'm not downplaying.
That that certainly better than nothing.
But don't you think? Every single one of us should
have quarter this verse have, an ability to give an answer for
the hope that hope that's the gospel that's within us.
And by the way, not doing it with the wrong Spirit, or the
wrong attitude, because what's the attitude?
At the end of the verse with meekness and fear.
Now, I'm afraid the fear that we have is mostly the fear of like,
Not giving the gospel, but I don't believe that's what it's
talking about. I believe it's talking about.
Well, the only kind of fear that makes this Boulder and that's
the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, is the beginning of
knowledge. The fear of the Lord is
beginning of wisdom. With the end of the
Ecclesiastes. Tells us a fear God, and keep
his Commandments. For this is the whole duty of
man meekness is not weakness. Weakness is not this milquetoast
type Behavior, meekness is power under control.
It is saying I have power that can be Unleashed but I am
actually leasing it for the proper use for God's glory.
And Moses was a Meek man. And I'll tell you this, he had
no problem getting words out at least once Brian wants to the
Lord. Got a hold of him, right?
Like we were talking about before church, right, because it
first, he was slowed speech. And God says, I'll send you are
in after a few chapters. Moses says, it's alright Erin, I
got this now because you don't ever hear from Erin again,
unless he's complaining. About something or building a
golden calf. So what do we do?
We have to understand for our nature.
How to be a witness but also how to win a soul to Christ.
What would happen and what would happen if we preached on a
Sunday morning and three people walk the aisle to get saved.
Man, I tell you what, I that's what I pray for and I pray that
we can continue that way. But who would be able to take a
Bible and just show someone let me take you through what it
means to be saved. Say, well, that's what the
church workers do or that's what the people who go to Bible
College student, honestly, that's what any of us should be
able to do. And what I want to Endeavor to
do over the next few weeks is to talk to you about how to do
that. And you don't have to be an
expert at it. You don't have to have all the
answers. And by the way, this doesn't
mean this verse doesn't mean you have to have every answer for
every question. It means that you are willing to
be able to have the conversation and that you studied it up
because I found this to be true. A lot of people can tell you A
lot about movies and television and sports stats.
But they can't tell you a lick about how someone else should
get saved. Let doesn't seem right.
I mean, if you do more Tom, Brady stats and you don't know
how to lead someone to Christ you flip probably the level of
importance there. We talked about that on Sunday,
didn't wait the corruptible Crown versus The Incorruptible
Crown. So I want us to take some time
and to over the next few weeks and really have a burden about
this and to grow that burden into a call.
All. So I'm going to give you some
handouts here. I'd we're not going to get
through all of these tonight. But there is for I didn't staple
these because some of you may want a hole punch them if you
want. That's fine, there's four page
but events put you to work since you've been in been around for a
while. It just four pages a piece.
I think you'll see it's too. That's the that's the last one
right there. All right she's a hand these to
just bring them back every week. I'll try to have some extras.
Bring them back with you. I will be able to help you now
on Sunday and over the next couple weeks on Sunday mornings,
I want to talk to you about some of the ways that we can
Implement Soul, winning here, at Liberty, Baptist Church, and
there's some some tweaks that I want to make to some of the
programs that we run. Because I think there's some
things that we do, but there's things that we can do better.
But one of the things that was vitally important is that we
need as many people as possible. Just telling people about the
gospel. And again, if you're already
thinking, look, pastor this A morning thing it doesn't, it
doesn't work for me. You're missing.
What is really at hand here? Because I know Saturday morning
doesn't work for everybody. I know some of you work.
I know some of your other commitments that's fine but
everyone comes in contact with people that need the gospel.
And so I want to go over some of these materials with you.
And again we are not by any shape or form going to miss this
or going to get all of this here tonight.
And this will be online as well if you want to go back and
listen to some of this. Again, we should be able to have
these recorded and have these online for you even if you miss
one of them in years past, we used to do these on Saturday, to
kind of get you into the ability to be there on Saturday, but I
want to try to do something a little bit different and get a
greater amount of people here and I think this will do it.
So here's here's the first page and this is maybe all we get to
tonight. How to have a greater burden for
the Lost. Maybe you would say this
tonight, Pastor, I just really don't have a great burden for
Lost. I don't I know I should I know
that at some level that I should have more of this desire to win
people to Christ, or at least to share my faith but I don't feel
that And there can be a disconnect sometimes with that
in our lives. And I remember times early on in
my Christian life that I would just pray because I had a pastor
who preached on Soul winning. I feel like brother Turner about
every message about winning. If it wasn't two months that he
was at Matthew chapter, 28 preaching on the Great
Commission, something was wrong about every 2 months.
I feel like we were back in Matthew chapter 28, going over
the Great Commission over again. And there were times that I
would just pray, Lord, give me a burden for the Lost.
Just I want to see the lost like You do just give me a burden for
the lost and there's nothing inherently wrong with that
prayer. But at one point, brother,
Turner was preaching and he said something along these lines.
He says, you know, God doesn't just give burdens like they just
float down from heaven and you know there's a burden from
Heaven just kind of floats back and forth like a feather, it's
like oh if I could just grab a burden and I've I'll get one
eventually and then, you know, I got it.
I finally, I got my burden, I'm ready to go.
That's typically not the way it works.
I would say when it comes to having a burden for the lost,
it's a lot like a fire. It's a lot like a fire.
A fire can be stoked. A fire can be diminished.
Depending on what you put in it. Or you don't put it and I feel
like a burden for the Lost does have some prerequisites that
come before it, some things that will help you burn hotter for
the loss to win them and some things that honestly Kukui off
from wanting to win other people to Christ.
Now I will say this, this little chart here, this little pyramid
that you have here not Egyptian or any of that nature but it is
not necessarily given to you in a Biblical order.
I would I would say that that's not the case but I would say
there's a general principle here that I think will be helpful to
you even if it's not necessarily found in this order every single
way, but how to have a greater burden for the Lost?
What's the very bottom of this pyramid?
What's the very bottom of the triangle could put it this way.
What's the base? Well, here it is.
Salvation. Hey, you want to win?
Souls to Christ, get saved. That's a start.
Now, I've heard that there are people who unsaved have led
people to Christ, and then later on, they realized that they were
unsaved and and can God do that. Well, sure.
Can who's going to muzzle the Lord?
And his, his word is, what saves, isn't it?
And so, it's not the person that say that.
I love it with little kids who come up to me, sometimes,
specialized, youth pastor and they would say, oh, no, brother
Rivero, brother, Adam, thanks for saving me and like, oh, you
don't want that honey, you really don't want.
Brother Adam to save you but I know what they mean.
It means that I was the one that led them to Christ and that's a
sweet thing. I mean, I just got a call.
I got a call from Chuck. Yeah, there's a week or two ago,
probably took you to the first time you got to leave Sola
Christ at the team rally and he was just over the moon.
I said, I said, you know, you get one and I said, you get a
taste of one. You said you, you won't want to
stop and he was just so excited about that.
Sound like he just won, you know, a state championship or
something, he won someone to Christ.
Not tell you, that's a great. Like, but you know what?
You really got to start with salvation and that's the basis.
And so I would just say here tonight, even though I know the
crowd that I'm talking to just know that, you know, that you're
saved if you don't know Jesus Christ, as your savior, I mean,
oh, I know him. I've heard of him, I talked
about him to know that you have gotten saved the gospel way.
Meaning this that, you know, that you're a sinner and that
you've called Upon Jesus Christ to save you in Repentance
knowing the only, he can save you that it's not your works.
It's not church membership. It's not being a good person.
None of those things. Listen, that's the basis of it.
If you don't know that tonight, can I tell you?
You probably got about 20. People would love to lead you to
Christ right now. So what we'd love to make you a
test case, all right but what really tonight is the night of
salvation for you. And so I don't want to dwell on
that other than to say that that really is the basis.
Like you can't have a burden, a real burden for the lost and
you're lost yourself. I think that's just common
sense. Next is baptism, is baptism why
is baptism important? Well, I preach in this a few
weeks ago but baptism is the next logical step of obedience
in the Christian Life that you're saved and you're
baptized. And so I have found this to be
true. That there are some people who
have resisted baptism. There's some people who have
decided, you know, for whatever reason to not be baptized or for
whatever the reason may be. And there are sometimes the
things in the life. They just don't click until they
are able to take that first step of obedience.
And so, Them is very, very important as well.
Again, I'm not saying that only people who are baptized can win
people to Christ. That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying is this, is that this is part of obedience and well if
we don't obey the lord well then we do lose some of our natural
fire to do his will. And so I think that's important.
Here's what's next. That third level their Bible
reading, Bible reading. Study to show thyself what
approved unto God a Workman that needs not to be ashamed rightly
dividing. The word of Truth.
The Bible tells us that we are to be ambassadors for Christ.
And what, how are we ambassadors.
We're bringing the word of God to people.
It is very hard to have a burden to give the word of God to
others, when you're not regularly reading.
It yourself. And I can tell you that the
periods that I have gone in my Christian Life, where I'm not
reading the word of God, like I should or maybe I could put this
way. I'm just going through the
motions just so that I can check off the box or someone asks me.
If you don't listen to it we're doing this at our house this
year. We've never done this before
that. We're all in.
The same Bible reading plan for the year.
I'm enjoying it but I'll tell you, it puts the feet, the fire
a little bit because if Diane says, Hey in our reading today,
what did you think about XYZ? And I'd say Try to go back in
the memory bank. I know I've read that before.
What does it say? No, I need to read it that day
and so, but the problem with that can be is that maybe I've
read it so that if she asked me, I have an answer instead of just
reading it, so that I can be blessed and have the Lord speak
to me and help me encouraged me and and change me into his
image. And so I would say this, if you
are not in a regular Bible reading Habit in your life,
you're not going to have the bird.
That you ought to have to give the word of God to other people
because it's like you saying here, this will help you.
I just don't use it very much myself, you understand what I'm
saying? So so so having Bible reading
that Bible time for yourself. And I don't want to belabor this
point too long either because we talked about this as well,
during going forward in our daily walk.
But have that time of Bible reading next prayer.
We're in again. These These are are not even
necessarily in an order that I would say or scriptural, but I
just think each of these are important prayer.
Do you know why prayer is so important?
Well, I mean we could go all night talk about why prayer is
so important. But in the context of what we're
talking about here, why is why is prayer important one?
Because there are people that we need to give the gospel to that,
we need to pray for. You might have a list of people
that you are praying for receive Jesus Christ as Savior.
Some of them are in our prayer bulletin.
Some of them are just maybe personal lists that you You have
of people that you are praying that the Lord will save family
members. Longtime friends, acquaintances
people that you come across at the at the coffee shop or at the
store. It seems like you see him a
couple of times a week and these are people that you're praying
for your just trying to witness here and there, you know, put a
little witness in and then see where the Lord allows you to
bring a greater conversation in. But what we really need to do is
pray for the loss and I have a list of verses.
I don't I'm not going to give it to you tonight.
But how often the Bible talks about us praying for the lost
and that is such an important thing for us to do to pray for
the loss. We pray on Sunday mornings.
One of the things we pray for God, bring the lost here, to
Liberty, Baptist Church so that we can give them the gospel, so
that they can get saved. And so we want to pray for the
loss, but you know what prayer is also important?
Because we need to pray for opportunities.
To talk to the Lost. And I will say this, it, I have
found and Paul calls it. This adore of utterance, a door
of utterance a place where he could just speak freely about
the gospel. There are just times that you
don't think you're gonna be able to talk to someone about the
Lord, but maybe you've been praying that God would give an
opportunity to all of a sudden in the strangest place.
Someone wants to talk or someone wants to have this conversation
with you. Well, what happened?
You've been praying that God would give that that door of
utterance and I will say this, when I pray for God to help me
find Souls, I seem to find a way to find him and when I don't,
I'm not looking for him. And so, and this isn't just a
mental trick, by the way, there's just, you know, psyche
myself it putting too fine. And so let's kind of kind of
talk about like a mantra. I just keep saying it over and
over again. Lord, Give Me Your Soul.
Give me your soul. Give me your soul and I just
find somebody. No, we're talking about the Lord
enabling you. And the Lord, who is the creator
and ruler over all super naturally, allowing you to cross
paths. With people, that maybe you
wouldn't normally cross paths with, for the opportunity to
give them the gospel. I'll tell you.
You start praying for the loss, it will increase your burden,
it'll increase your fire, pray for visits.
Pray for people. You have visited in the past
people that you've given tracks to.
I don't know their names, that's fine.
You just pray for them and pray that God would use those
distributions or that God would use.
A track that you gave to that waiter or that waitress, or
whoever it is, or at the checkout stand, that God would
use that and that's what we pray.
Here's what's next? Holy living, not a popular
conversation today, but what is it?
What, what does the Lord say? Be ye holy for.
I am Holy. We are to live lives that are
wholly, by the way. That word, sanctify, the Lord
Jesus in your hearts. How can you sanctify?
The Lord Jesus in your heart and refuse.
Holy living. I mean, that would be like
saying in the Tabernacle. Well, you know, clean the
vessels. Don't clean them.
Does it really even matter? Well, I don't know.
Need a by who brought down Strange Fire from the Lord they
died and so I would say it probably did matter that that
the house of the Lord was Sanctified.
And so here's here's I was going to put this just as plainly as I
can. If I'm in my own little world of
sin, I don't care if other people get saved or not.
If I'm just living in my own little world of saying, I don't
care whether people get saved or not.
And to be honest with you, I'm losing opportunities to be able
to tell people about Christ because of where I'm going, or
what I'm doing, or what I'm posting.
And so because of that, all of a sudden, those opportunities are
they Imagine This? Imagine that someday.
I feel like at the Judgment seat of Christ, there's going to be
tears before we get to have him because he's wiping all the
tears away from us. So somewhere from after between,
after we pass. And when we enter the gates of
pearl, someone's going to cry. And I have a feeling some of it
is going to be, you know, by and by when I look on his face,
beautiful face Thorn shadowed face by.
And by when I look on his face, I wish I had given him more that
song that I love so much that we sing sometimes.
But can you imagine being shown? And and this is the thing that
if everything's quiet and I meditate on this that really
gives me pause and causes me to think Because I was so busy
indulging in something that I knew.
I had no business, indulging him or partaking in a lifestyle that
I knew that I shouldn't have partaken in, especially when I
was younger. When I first, when I first got
saved that, there would be people, that wouldn't get saved
because of my testimony. Because if I went to them with
the gospel, they'd say you You. That's a hard thing.
Not long after I got saved. I got discouraged.
I had a lot of people tell me, I'll go back to the Lutheran
Church. Know that the Baptist's, you
know, the whole salvation thing they were just they were just, I
went through a time of confusion for for many months and I went
back to watching whatever kind of movies I wanted to watch and
going out and partying. However, I wanted to and all
those things I never got into a lot of trouble.
The Lord protected me from a lot of it, but I'll tell you this,
there was a lot of people that once I got right with the Lord,
Had no desire to hear anything from me about the Lord, because
it will, who are you? You say?
But you do this, you see. Do the you talking about, you're
talking about Jesus, but you're doing the same stuff we were
doing like, three weeks ago. so, if you want to have a burden for
the Lost, I mean, I know we can't live a perfect life.
I mean certainly we could if we always listen to the promptings
of the Holy Spirit, we do have that ability but let's just be
honest that we understand first. John 1:9 makes clear.
We're going to need to confess our sins. but at the same time,
if holy living isn't a priority, there are people that we are
going to miss The people we're going to miss, you know, the
drinking buddies need to get saved.
And that doesn't mean keep drinking with them.
The old gang needs to get saved. That doesn't mean you get to run
around with the old gang, the way that you used to the people
at the office, need to get saved.
But that doesn't mean you talk like everyone else in the office
talks. Well, you know, I just got to be
like them and that's how I'm going to win them to Christ.
No, that's exactly the opposite way to him Christ.
And that's what Satan wants to tell you.
And even, listen and friend, we're on our social media and
some of us have it some of us don't we want to be careful.
What we put on there. What we posed I'm Talking about
being fake. But I'm saying is this, if we're
singing the Praises of the Lord, one day and then we have cursing
and all kinds of stuff other days, we got to be careful about
that or what we link onto. And so these are things that are
so easy to get a part of, but what happens in Heavens that,
you know, the everyone's individual responsible to get
safe. Everyone's individual
irresponsible, but if I'd known that, I could have been a better
testimony to somebody, but I was so busy indulging in something.
I didn't need to indulge in. I know the term that is used in
ezekiel's. You Blood on the hands.
Blood on the hands. Meaning that if you had, if you
saw the enemy approaching and you didn't sound the trumpet,
then you were blood guilty for everyone who died in that City.
And imagine for us because we were so busy being involved in
our quote unquote stuff. Maybe we can put a Hebrews 12:1,
you know, one and two, the weights and the sins.
They were so busy in that that we didn't have the opportunity
to win people to Christ. That's a that's a heavy thing,
that's a heavy thing. And so to live the way that God
wants you to live. That's that's an important
thing. And that's part of having a
burden for the lost and then next, right near the top is
church attendance and that's probably the longest one in the
shortest box. So I'm sorry about that.
Church attendance. Oh Pastor you saying people only
people go to church can win people to Christ.
What I'm saying? I'm saying this is when you're
going to church when you're a part.
When you are, when you were part of the mechanism that God has
instituted to fulfill the Great Commission.
When you are part of it, you are naturally going to have a
greater burden than if you were separated from that same
institution. God wants us as a church as an
organization as an organism to go out.
Living breathing organism to go out and Reach people for Christ.
When we are outside of that, we just don't have the same
wherewithal to go and Reach people for Christ.
And so that's why it's so vitally important.
I've seen, we had people sitting in this room right now.
We've got saved on a Wednesday night.
I'm glad we have Wednesday night church.
We've had people who got saved on Sunday night or come to
church first on a Sunday night. I'm glad we still have Sunday
night church, their churches that don't have Sunday nights
and some of the don't have Wednesday nights.
Don't we feel like so much more as we see?
See the day approaching. Why?
Because there's a great need out there for us to be able to reach
people for Christ. And so I'm going to leave us
here tonight where we got really far with me through one page.
But but that's okay because I do want to set some ground work,
but I want to ask you this tonight and And then I'm going
to give you a story, then we'll be done.
Are you prepared? For someone to ask you.
How do I get? Say the pastor doesn't happen
that way. You know, it's funny.
You say that? Well, you didn't say that but
just for for argument sake, it's funny you say that I've been
preparing this knowing that this is the direction we're going
Wednesday night for a few weeks and it's I knew this is what I
want to do. Even though I knew her supposed
to get in a revelation, but I knew in I want to have as many
people as possible on Wednesday nights for this and this was the
way to go. So the last couple weeks I've
really been assured, this wasn't do in preparing this this
morning and my wife texted me about 1:00 today and she said
this, I'm talking to and she said the name and I'm not going
to say the name of the person. Because I pray this person will
come and give their testimony, not me telling their story for
them. But I do want to say this, we
pray for. So, and so, right now, right now
and so, well, here in the office and of course, I took some time
to pray over the situation. Well, Diane calls me few minutes
later. And and she says this, she says,
the name of the person she says She just got saved.
And I kind of like, one of these.
What did you say that? She got saved.
So we were literally just talking on the phone.
She texted me and said, could we talk?
And we were talking small talk for a few minutes and she said
something along these lines that I'm going to get as close as I
can. To what Diane told me and she
said this, I've really been thinking that I need to have
Jesus. Be my savior.
Really been thinking that I need to have Jesus be my same.
Heard the message here, many times.
That's awesome. That's why we're here.
And so what did she do?
She was able to through the scriptures over the phone.
It's, by the way, people can get saved outside of turkey over the
phone. It just so happens that that she
made a profession of Faith this afternoon.
I'm praying that she continues. It moves on and and and what a
wonderful thing that will be. But it's got saying what if
somebody came up to you and said I really been thinking about
This getting saved thing. Really been thinking about it.
Would you be able to give an answer to every man?
That asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear? That's not a pastor question.
That's a Peter inspired by the Holy Ghost question.
Are you able to? Not that, you know, all the ins
and outs of every doctrinal issue.
All the way from Genesis to Revelation because you never
going to get there. But that you can just patiently
lovingly. Take someone threw some
scripture, show them you're lost.
There's a penalty for that, which is death and hell, but
there's a remedy, Jesus Christ who died on the cross, for your
sin and that you can accept that free gift of Salvation by
repenting of your sin and calling upon the stadium.
Are you able to do that tonight? If someone came up to you and
saying, well, well no one's ever come up to me, well, maybe God's
not sending them because you're not ready.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty, Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info. At my Liberty Baptist dot org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at eight hundred Washington
Street and East and Massachusetts may the Lord bless
you as you grow in his word. God's not sending them because
you're not ready. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty, Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at info.
At my Liberty Baptist dot org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at eight hundred Washington Street and East and
Massachusetts may the Lord bless you as you grow in his word.