Okay, this will be a bit of a controversial message, so I want you to listen to the entire message in its entirety with an open heart, and I'll try to qualify the statements that I make, but this is going to be concerning the sinner's prayer. Let's try to get some understanding on the sinner's prayer. The sinner's prayer, well, let me make the first qualifying statement. It's right for a sinner to pray, okay? So we're gonna try to unpack this sinner's prayer idea. It became popular and it became emphasized in evangelism when people started asking this question, are you going to go to heaven when you die? Now, I will admit I've asked this question. I'm sure you have asked this question as well. And on one hand, we can say there's really nothing intrinsically wrong with asking that. However, there was this emphasis on evangelism That started with do you know that if you died today you would go to heaven? And would you like to know how to go to heaven? It was packaged as a ticket to heaven evangelistic program really Uh, if I can show you in the bible how you can know for sure that you can go to heaven Would you believe it? in other words Again, these questions aren't wrong to ask, but the totality of how it is packaged is what I want you to get your view on. In other words, you were trying to get someone to commit to a yes before they committed to a yes. If I could show you And you could know and you can understand would you believe I don't even know what he's going to understand or believe yet But they're trying to get him to say yes So in sales what you do is you get person to say yes enough times when you ask for the sale. Boom you make it We need to be careful that we're not presenting someone a ticket to heaven in other words Who would really want to go to hell Nobody does you want to go to heaven? You want to go to hell? I'll take heaven They don't really want the Lord to be there. They just don't want help. So here's a question that I want to oppose to you. Can you show me anywhere in the Bible, show me anywhere in the New Testament where someone was asked to pray a sinner's prayer? Now, let me talk about the flip side of that. All sinners need to pray. And we're gonna unpack that a bit. Also, if you've said a sinner's prayer, that doesn't mean that you're not saved. And we need to get an understanding of that. The big point that I wanna try to make, and we'll do this as we unfold the lesson is, we don't want people putting their faith and trust in their prayer or their decision And we need to be careful of easy believism or just quick prayerism, where the goal isn't to get someone to repent of their sins and trust Christ. The goal is to get them to repeat these words. And we need to be careful of that. Go to Acts chapter 26. I want to look at a few passages of scripture. This is a difficult message to preach because Usually when you get into it, you will say something and it will trigger something in someone's brain. And I want to try to answer all those questions. If I don't, then just ask me after church and I'll try to give any thoughts that I might have on it. But in the Bible, in Acts chapter 26, Paul's giving his testimony to King Agrippa in Acts chapter 26. And look at verse number 20 in Acts 26, verse number 20. He says, "...but showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coast of Judea, and then to the Gentiles," watch what he says, "...that they should repent, and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance." Paul didn't ask King Agrippa if He wanted to go to heaven Paul didn't ask King Agrippa if he wanted to ask Jesus Christ into his heart Paul didn't ask King Agrippa to hate just repeat these words after me Look at that look at verse number 27 watch what it says King Agrippa Paul says to him under Holy Spirit's inspiration believe us now the prophets. I know that now believe us He's saying look you should know these things and watch what he says then Agrippa said unto Paul Almost thou persuaded me to be a Christian. That's about the saddest verse in the whole Bible Almost but lost there's a hymn on that and Paul said watch what he says Paul says I would to God That not only thou but also all that hear me this day We're both almost and all together such as I am except these bonds Paul wished they all would be saved but he didn't try to get he didn't try to Get them to agree to something or believe something that they didn't and weren't willing to believe What did he do? He put the truth out there I say that because this ticket to heaven gospel Where the goal is to get someone to repeat words after you And not really fully repent of their sin and put their full faith and trust in what christ did for them Messed up a lot of evangelistic efforts no matter how big they might look Now you might know your history better than I do on this but I can tell you a big wave started in the 1950s with billy graham and the sinner's prayer It's starting to become more popularized in the 70s and the 80s with Bill Bright, the Campus Crusade for Christ and the Four Spiritual Laws. And look, I am not saying that men and women did not truly come to Christ under those ministries. What I am saying is we need to be careful that we aren't trying to get someone to do something where Christ isn't in it. The gospel is, well, I got to save that because I do have that note in here. In the independent Baptist movement, it started to become popular under the ministry of Jack Hiles. They ran pastor schools and courses and books. And one of his quotes was, you must try to get them to pray, not repent, Not trust Christ not get to the cross Everything was designed around get him to a prayer That's a problem That's a problem We need to get people to the foot of the cross Where they're pleading and crying out to god Save me. I'm a sinner So be careful. I want us all to be careful Do we see a sinner's prayer in the new testament? Let's look at a few places go to John chapter 3 John chapter 3 Are you against the sinner's prayer not necessarily I am against manipulating people to say words just so you can Say that they're saved and we need to be careful of that Jesus confronts Nicodemus and In John chapter three, we all know that. And he says in verse number five, verse number three, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Verse five, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except the man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. He confronts him with his need for a spiritual birth. That's a negative, it's not a positive. True evangelism is you're confronting someone with their need for a savior. They must realize their need. Look at John chapter number four, we know we have the woman of the well. Jesus doesn't waste any time He points out this woman's immoral lifestyle. The focus of evangelism should be we need to point out to people that they are sinners, which is why they need what Jesus talked about in John 3, the spiritual birth. Watch what Jesus says in verse 14. Who's our drink the water that I shall give him shall never thirst water I shall give him shall be in a well of water springing up into everlasting life and We all know we all know the story We don't see anywhere in John chapter 4 where Jesus is trying to get her to repeat a prayer and She came to realize her immoral lifestyle. She came to realize that What's that you said them to her in verse number 21 woman believe me the hour cometh When he neither in this mountain yet nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father you worship, you know Not what we know what we worship for salvations of the Jews the hour cometh and now is When the true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. This woman at the well, I don't see anywhere where Jesus is trying to get her, hey, repeat this. He is confronting them with sin. Mark chapter 10 look at the rich young ruler mark chapter 10 Verse 17 Good master verse 17. What shall I do that? I may inherit eternal life at the end of the verse verse 18 Jesus said of him "'Why callest thou me good? "'There is none good but one that is God. "'Thou knowest the commandments. "'Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, "'do not bear false witness, "'do not defraud, honor thy father and mother.' "'He answered and said unto him, "'Master, all these have I observed from my youth.' "'Then Jesus beholding him loved him and said unto him, "'One thing thou lackest, go thy way, "'sell whatever thou hast and give to the poor, "'and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. "'And come, take up thy cross, the cross, and follow me.' And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions. He told the rich young ruler, sell what you got. That's a negative message. Jesus is confronting the sinner. Evangelism is confrontational. You have to confront the sinner with the truth of the gospel And the truth that they are a sinner and that they need a savior and that they're not as righteous And as good as they think that they are Luke 19 watch what Zacchaeus does he doesn't he or Zacchaeus Depending on if you're from the north or the south, I guess Luke chapter number 19. And behold, verse number two, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who he was, and he could not for the press because he was little of stature. And he ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. Now that's pretty good. Someone that so wants to see Jesus, that so wants to get to Jesus, is trying to make their way through the crowd and get up a tree, that takes some work, that takes some effort, that takes some pushing, that takes some, get out of my way. Oh, if sinners would just fight and wrestle to get to Christ. And what do we find? Christ is right there. Come on to my house. He didn't tell him to repeat anything. Something was working in his heart. We need to be careful that we're not pushing people to put their faith and trust in the words they say or the decisions that they make. Look at Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter number 8. Verse number 29, Acts 8, verse 29. We know this, the Ethiopian eunuch, and Philip is, verse number 29, and the Spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, how can I, except some man should Guide me. What should we do with the sinner? Guide them. They may need you as a witness to guide them on what's my next step. You've got to be able to go through the Bible and show them what their next step is. You can't do it for them. But if you've been saved any length of time, you know how to pray. You can help guide them. And he desires, Philip, that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb done before a shearer. So opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. You see how this thing is unraveling? He's wanting truth and more truth is being given to him. And as they went on their way, they came onto a certain water and the eunuch said, see, here's water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Did Philip tell him, here's what you've got to say. Hey, repeat these words. No. This whole situation is unraveling, and as it's unraveling, all of a sudden, Philip says, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he, calling out to God with his own words from his own heart, said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He owned it. He owned it. And what I am proposing to you tonight is we need to be careful that we are not trying to own it for them. they must own it themselves. Now, if you've read a tract, and at the end of the tract, you were convicted, and you understood that you were a sinner before God, and there was a prayer on the back of that, and you went through that prayer, you sincerely called out to Christ, you're saved, okay? I am simply trying to draw out that we need to be careful We can take something and we can totally flip it on its head, and the last thing you know, it becomes some type of man-centered work that has no heart connection to the Lord. And that is what I believe we need to be careful of. You've heard anybody, you know, go with the sinner's prayer and all that. I'm not saying they're not safe. But I am saying is there are thousands of people who were told to repeat a prayer and make a decision That they should not have been making and they should not have been praying because they haven't trusted in anything except the fact that the preacher got them all worked up and That's a problem. That's a big problem Acts chapter 16 We all know the story, the Philippian jailer, verse 23. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. And having her seized up to charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fastened stocks. At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard That's much better than complaining. They actually kept up a good testimony. And suddenly, there's a great earthquake. So the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's hands were loose. And the keeper of the prison awakened out of his sleep. And seeing the prison doors open, he drew out a sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had fled. But Paul cried out in a loud voice, saying, do thyself no harm, for we are all here. And he called for a light. Sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas Brought them out and said sirs. What must I do to be saved and they said Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ now shall be saved You get a sinner to the point where they're crying out to you saying what must I do to be saved Now we're talking. Now we're talking. Some of these old preachers, I think it was Wesley, I'm sure it was some of the other ones too, I just can't recall exactly in my mind, but they would do sermon after sermon about the wrath of God. Sermon after sermon about the judgment of God. About man, and he's such a sinner. over and over and over again until one cries out, what do I got to do to be saved? And then he gives him a message on grace and God's love. It's totally flipped now. Completely flipped. Love, love, love. You're wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Here's God's plan for you and he loves you. And it's not that it's not truth. It's just that it's truth. without all the rest of the truth that sours it. We need to be careful of those things. So that's the Philippian jailer. Go to 1 Corinthians 15. The objective of evangelism is to preach the gospel. That is the objective. Verse one, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, Verse number two by which also you are saved. It's a saving gospel And verse number three for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how that christ died for our sins according to scriptures When he was buried and rose the third day according to the scriptures it's the gospel and we were at the uh Festival over in smithville all day on saturday. It was a good outreach. Um toward the end. There was a another preacher in town They didn't have a booth and wasn't doing any evangelism, but he was there with his family. Well, he stopped. We had a good conversation. And part of it was, it was under a little bit of conviction. In other words, kind of put a little flame under his sails, a wind under his sails to kind of get out there and get active. I mean, I'm kind of in his town, you know, there's no church is doing anything. And as the conversation was unraveling, we were talking about a few different things. And, um, We parked on the importance of, when we're out in public, sticking to the gospel. And I explained to him, there's a lot of things we preach. There's a lot of things we teach. But we go out in this lost and dying world, we preach what? The gospel, the gospel, the gospel. Not looking for little disagreements on doctrines that matter, but have no matter or bearing on someone's eternity. We have one message when we go out and knock on a door. It's the same message when we go out to a festival. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Evangelism is preaching the gospel. That means we need to present and explain 1 Corinthians 15. And we need to be willing. You know why they call it quick prayerism? Because they want it done in 10 or 15 minutes. And that is just not going to be the case. I got saved out of religion, a traditional religion. What do you think you're going to get me saved in 10 minutes? I don't think so. Took me a year and a half almost two years just to unpack my life And what I have been taught and the religious beliefs that I held to If you are not willing to sit down with a man or a woman For an hour or two hours or be ready to stay up in the church house all night until that man or that woman says, what must I do to be saved? Then just stop. And get yourself up in a tree like Zacchaeus and try to find Jesus and just pray or do something. Because this idea is, look, I only got 10 minutes, let's get done with this thing. It's not scriptural. It's exhausting emotionally, spiritually and physically. That's why it's called a battle. The battle is for the hearts and minds of men and women that don't know Christ as their Savior. We must be willing to put in the time and the effort, unless you're ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, where it is the power of God and salvation to everyone that believe it. Don't wear the shirt and put on the bumper sticker on your car or your truck or your van if you're not willing. to tarry and spend the time. I'm telling you, salvation is not a sinner's prayer. Salvation is a sinner entering into a relationship with Jesus Christ. You must plead with the sinner. Go to Romans 10. I know you all know this verse number nine that thou shalt confess with thy mouth. You see that plead with them to confess The Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart plead with that sinner to believe That God hath raised him from the dead Thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth on the righteousness plead with them their heart is what matters and Not look I can get this thing over real quick man. Look just repeat after me Well, i'm not sure don't matter if you're sure. I only got 10 minutes. I gotta go That better not be our attitude and with the mouth confession is made into salvation Draw and draw that out plead with them with our mouth to confess the lord jesus christ for the scripture says Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed plead with them to not be ashamed of jesus christ There is no difference between a Jew and the Greek the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him plead That they would call upon God for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Shall be saved We spent almost two hours with the man last month We got to the end of that verse We said brother Jimmy, I'm ready I said, what are you ready for? Trust Christ. And I said, well, then go ahead and pray. For about a minute and a half, he poured his heart out to God without me asking him to repeat any words after I say them. You've got to be willing to die to yourself put the time into a lost person. The Lord says that those are beautiful feet to preach the gospel and bring glad tidings. They must understand that they're undone and unclean. Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips. That's what Isaiah says. And this is very different than the sinner's prayer. This is a sinner praying. In other words, the goal of evangelism isn't to get them to pray. The goal is that they would receive Christ and you will be there as a witness to help guide them as they pray. Hear my prayer, oh Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Instead of trying to get them to say a quick prayer you might have to go to Romans chapter 1 and Romans chapter 2 and Like all that we've been going through verse by verse in Romans For them to see that they are condemned under the wrath of God and there is absolutely no hope But Jimmy that's two chapters That's a lot of verses. Yeah, I know. I know. And a 40 hour work week's a long week too. But you just gotta make a decision on how much you care about that soul that you're in front of. Is it lunchtime and you gotta go or is it, look, I'll stay with you until you're ready to Either trust Christ or you're ready to say you know what I got it. I got a really chill on this stuff. Let's talk again Yeah, be willing to do that Man must see his fallen condition. You must see God is righteous You must get someone lost before they are saved and Before you even mention the grace of God They must see their lost condition if they don't what are they getting saved from? who they're praying to. We cannot manipulate people. I am not saying that people cannot bow their heads. I am not saying that people shouldn't close their eyes. What I'm saying is, I can, and preachers can, and preachers have, used manipulative tactics to emotionally persuade and manipulate you, and now it's every eye closed, every head bowed. I see that hand. And all it was was smoke and mirrors. And God help us. We are not here to manipulate people. We are not here to get into whatever the paper is or whatever the newsletter is or whatever the website is that says, well, we had X amount saved. That is not the goal of evangelism. I'll pray and then you can just when I'm praying, you can just quietly, silently ask the Lord to save you. Or I'll start praying and then you stop in the middle of the prayer Because you know that they're more likely to pray once you start praying You know what they found out 50% of the time the person will start praying So they manipulated the person they weren't ready to trust Christ, but they knew that if you're not talking to them But you're talking to God You're praying to God when you just you purposely stop in the middle of that prayer and then say well, I want you go ahead They might have felt worked up But if they didn't repent and trust Christ It's for naught and so we need to be careful that we need to be careful of leading questions designed to manipulate people You don't want to go to hell do you? You want to go to heaven, right? Well praise God for people that want to go to heaven Here, repeat this prayer. That's manipulation. God help us. If people have questions, you know what to say? I'll answer your questions later. The philosophy is, because if they get saved, all their questions are answered. Now, you can try to make that preach, but if somebody has a question, sincerely, you've got to spend the time with them. This is a, the ministry is about people. Or by grace you save through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Let me ask this question. Is your faith in the prayer that you repeated? Is your faith in the decision that you made? Or is your faith in what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross? Are you born again as a result of your prayer? Are you born again as a result of your decision? Or are you born again because of the grace of God? It might seem like a hair-splitting question. The prodigal son, that was at Luke 15, right? The prodigal son made a decision to do what after he was in the hog pen? He made a decision to go back home. Did his decision to go back home save him? No. Who was there waiting? the father. And the father showed compassion. The father received him. The father had grace and mercy. If God the father doesn't have grace to save you, you can run toward him with your decision and you can run toward him with your prayer. But if God the father isn't there to receive you, you're just going to drop right at the Is everybody okay? Okay. Make a decision for Christ. As a sinner, pray and cry out to Christ. But his grace will then save you. This picture of that is in the prodigal son. Parents, this is an easy one. I think I've shared this before. If one child, smacks another child, and you pull him over and say, hey, say you're sorry. Repeat this prayer. I'm sorry. OK, now go play. As if anything happened. Nothing. I'm not saying I've never done it, but it's just nothing happened. That child was not repentant. He was just, I don't feel like getting a spanking. I don't feel like hearing mom give me a lecture. So I'm sorry. OK, now I can go play. Nothing happened. They just repeated some words. Do this. Let's try this for a year. If your spouse hurts you in some way, is mean to you, or mistreats you, or there's a tiff or there's an argument, here's what I want you to do. You call me up and say, Preacher, why don't you come on over and have my husband or have my wife repeat an apology back to me. So I go over and I'll say, OK, Mr. Jones, say you're sorry to Mrs. Jones. I'm sorry, Mrs. Jones. Say that you won't do X, Y, and Z again. OK, I won't do X, Y, and Z again. How about not? Because nobody's doing that. Nobody's doing that. As a matter of fact, it would be highly insulting to that wife or to that husband. And it would cause another argument. It ain't gonna work. Okay, we have any young people come in here and they find the will of God for their life and they want to get married. What we should do, we'll have a program that says, okay, you go to the preacher and when you're ready to propose to your wife, you just call the preacher and then what he'll do is he'll show up with you. And then he'll have this proposal written out. And then as he says it, you just repeat after him to who you want the will of God for your life, you want the girl to say yes. So you just repeat after what the preacher said. How's that gonna work out? It ain't gonna work out. Even the mere mention of it is rather silly, because nobody's gonna do that. Because if you have a fight with your spouse, and you are truly repentant, nobody is gonna have to tell you what to say. And if you fall in love with that girl, fellas, nobody is gonna have to tell you what to say. Your knees are gonna be jello, and you're gonna be slobbering at the mouth, and you're gonna be, whatever you gotta do, you are going to be pleading. Why is it different for salvation? If you've offended God, do you need someone to tell you what to say? You should be crying out to him. Crying out to him. I've got two more verses. I don't know if I'm doing good or not, because it's just like deadpan silence. Is everybody good? Are we all right? This message OK? All right, go to Luke 11. Two more verses. You're going to have to give me a charity amen or something to build my self-esteem. I'm like, I'm only kidding. Luke chapter number 11. Luke chapter number 11. We talked about you're gonna have to guide the sinner, and we see this principle of the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11. Verse number one, it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And then we see this when you pray, say, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done as it is in heaven. So on earth, give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins. But we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And so he taught them. And he taught them by example, he started to pray. And you know how you can teach someone to pray? You pray. You pray. But this isn't I mean, nobody uses this for a sinner's prayer. But the Lord is teaching them, modeling for them, how to pray. Now, how many of when you pray, you say these exact words? I'd probably guess nobody. Last verse, Matthew 6. Matthew chapter number 6. Where is it? Yeah, okay, verse number nine. After this manner, therefore pray ye our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And we see it there as well. What's interesting about Matthew chapter six, this Lord's prayer, it's Lord praying. What precedes it? Hypocrites. Look at verse five. When thou prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are. So we're making the distinction between the sinner's prayer and then sinner's pray, which I believe is the distinction that needs to be made. They're different. Sinners should pray and should cry out to God. And here, the Lord's not saying prayer's wrong. He's saying, be not as the hypocrites. They love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. That's a heart motive. And then look at verse number six. I'm sorry, verse seven, when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. So one of the dangers of sinner's prayer is, is it a vain repetition? Prayer isn't wrong. We need to stop using a sinner's prayer, not we, but cultural Christianity needs to stop using the sinner's prayer as a measuring stick for success. You go to the fair, how many people can you get to sit with you to repeat this prayer? Well, that's not a measure of success, that's a measure of you're pretty good at getting people to repeat words. They should pray, but not as hypocrites. Not just vain repetition with no meaning. Vain means it's worthless. They're gonna pray, make sure they're not just repeating what you're saying, but they're actually crying out to God so that we don't have on our hands a false confirmation.