Tonight, let's go ahead and get started. Page 92, let's all stand. I was once lost and sick, but you stood me in. And a little light from heaven filled my soul. It bled my heart in blood, that broken leg of mine. I wanna stop and talk to Jesus, tell him all about your troubles, hear that faintest cry, that's mine, mine. Oh, prayer returning, oh, fire is burning, but the time when Jesus makes it right. Sometimes my passion's clear without a refuge, and then I climb down behind the light of day. They'll miss the same late rides and happy stories to tell But just the thought of Jesus clears the way I put the thought of Jesus in the middle of my trouble Here I find his cry makes my mind good and clear The fire is burning, the fire is burning. I have come to Jesus' face again. I may have passed in fear, but I have returned to Jesus' reign. ♪ And just the thought of Jesus makes me right ♪ I could talk with Jesus ♪ Tell him all about our troubles ♪ Hear our faithful cry ♪ That's my, it's mine ♪ And the prayer will turn in ♪ Though the fire is burning ♪ I could talk with Jesus, makes me right You made me sing it, page 68. It's my only hope and strength Hold me by the hand It's such joy to understand Things that I never knew Keep my promise to the Lord I'm going through, I'm through It's what I fought for, believe me My soul is mine For a deeper will lead me safely through. Walk with Jesus all the way, singing a happy song. Matters not if it's night or day, nothing can lead me wrong. There it is, there it is, there it is, there it is, there it is, there it is, there it is, there it is, there it is. A beautiful, wonderful feeling in my soul He's mine, he's taken me from the heat trust in God give him all the praise from the paths I've trodden My soul Page 143. I resign. I love first is free I will love Thee in death, and praise Thee as long as Thou bidst me pray. I'm so Let's do 167. ♪ I have found His grace is so complete ♪ ♪ His supply is every need ♪ ♪ While I sit and learn at Jesus' feet ♪ ♪ I am free, yes, free indeed ♪ ♪ It is joyous, peaceful, and full of glory ♪ ♪ Full of glory ♪ This is your way out, step out and pull up The way out the hat has never been told I am I have found I can't tell how his praise are flowing o'er. It is like the rain, o'erflowing well, springing up within my soul. It is joy, unstrainable and full of glory o'er. We'll do one more, page 88. Let's all stand one more time. I would go and go and be someone more. A beautiful place of nature and skies of bright Where all will be legal safety for ever shall stay I haven't been saved and raised but I'm going that way I'm going that way I'm going that way And Jesus said, you're right, the joy is when we've spent Our duty to Him, and never to spend Yes, sing His praises all day long, I'm going that way The glorious news of heaven, sing it over like gold at those waters do you stray and set my sailor man go I want to sing a phrase about some beautiful thing oh glory to him who died I'm going that way. I'm going that way. I'm going that way. I'm going that way. I'm going that way. I know I shall meet him at the gate when trials are past. I know I shall meet him face to face in glory and blest. I'm We're gonna have a little fellowship. If you got any offer, go ahead and bring it on up. Okay. I just live from day to day I don't borrow from it's sunshine For it's skies may turn to grey I know what Jesus said And today I won't be silent Beats the sparrow It's the one who stands by me In the path that is my portion Maybe through the flame or flood But its presence goes before me I don't see And in this life, amen. Amen. Well, I got some good news to tell the church this morning. Brother Al and Sister Sue joined the church and normally I don't I stay right in here when someone joins the church, and usually one of the last ones to go and welcome them in. But I just felt compelled to go to the back door after the morning service, which I did. I went on to the back door and was greeting those that were leaving. And we've been having some visitors lately. Bobby Smith, who worked on my deck for me, built a roof for me. He and his family had been visiting on Sunday mornings. On the way out the door, Bobby leaned over and he whispered in my ear. He said, Brother John, please pray for my wife. I said, I have been and I will continue. And in just a little bit, here she come. And she looked at me and I could tell she had been crying. She said, I need to talk to you. I said, certainly. And I said, any time? I said, right now? She said, yeah, right now. So I had Brother Clay come in here and get Miss Debbie. And so we all went over there in the side in the fellowship hall. And I did not know this about her, but she was raised by an Orthodox Jew and raised in a Jewish family. and observe the Passover and all of that we've discovered. And she told me, she said, I've been really listening to all that you've had to say. And she said, I feel like if I go any further with this, I'm turning my back on what I've been raised in, in my Judaism. And I said, no, no, you'll never turn your back. on your Judaism if you trust Jesus Christ. And I went from the Old Testament, we looked at Isaiah 53, she had her Bible there, and we went into Isaiah 53, and I said, look at this, what your Bible says about Jesus Christ. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and He did all this for you. And then I went into the New Testament about, He was your God manifesting. He is your Messiah. And she sat there and she listened. I mean, she was hanging on every word. Debbie and I both were back and forth with her. And I said, I said, it's so very easy if you would trust Jesus Christ. Long story short, she called upon the name of Jesus Christ right after service this morning and got saved. And her husband is, what is he in? Some kind of rehab? And they're not able to come on Sunday nights and all, but you pray for, what's her name? Sidney, her name is Sidney Smith, Bobby and Sidney Smith, but Sidney, is a converted Jew now. I've always wanted to lead a Jew to the Lord and had the opportunity this afternoon. And that's good news from the far country of what the Lord did in her heart today. Let's take our Bibles and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter number 6. 2 Corinthians chapter number 6. just a few verses of scripture that the Lord has dealt with my heart about just of late. And matter of fact, in my personal Bible time, I ran up on these verses. And it's not some verses that I was normally reading, but something I was looking at led to these verses. And I read these verses. And when I did, it just kind of caught my attention and my heart. I went back and reread them and just trying, like Zach told us this morning, that when we study our Bible, we need to not just read a verse and go on to the next. We need to stop and we need to meditate upon what that verse is saying to us and how it would apply to our lives. And I was doing that with these three verses that we're going to be reading tonight. And I pray that they impact your life just as they impacted my life. and I pray that they'll work in your heart as deep as they have in my heart. Let's all stand to honor the reading of God's word in 2 Corinthians chapter number 6. I'm going to begin, this will not be the last time that we deal with this. I want to stay with this subject for as many times as we need to because I feel impressed of the Lord to do so and want to try to want to try to equip your life, educate and equip your life in the subject that we're going to be dealing with tonight. And I'm going to simply entitle this, this thought on personal evangelism, personal evangelism. And that'll be the heading of this series that we're gonna be dealing with. And what we're gonna deal with in a more common phrase is soul winning. How to lead somebody to Jesus Christ. How you personally could take the word of God by your knees with someone and lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe we fail as a church a lot of times to train people in this area. And this is one of the most, as I was preaching this morning, the most important thing for anybody's life is for them to be saved and know that they're saved. But we need personal workers that can sit with somebody and show them from the Word of God, different things from the Word of God, just like we did with Sydney this afternoon, being able to go into the Old Testament, show her some things from the Old Testament, her own Bible and show her what the Word of God says about salvation, things like that. But I want you to look with me in 2 Corinthians chapter number 6 tonight, and we'll look at some things and we'll just kind of introduce and begin this thought tonight. and then we'll go from there and see what God will do for us in our hearts tonight. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter number 6, and we may read this a few times just to get these words into our hearts tonight. It says, we, that's all inclusive, that's every one of us. That very first word includes every person. If you're saved, say amen. That we includes you. We then, as workers together with Him. He's talking about Jesus Christ. We, all of us in this room tonight, as workers together with Jesus Christ, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. Now that's a powerful statement if you start and consider that right there. If we're saved, we have received the grace of God. And he said, look, don't be of the kind that would receive the grace of God in vain. Don't be the kind that's greedy with salvation and just get saved and that's the end of it. He said, don't be that way in your life. Then he emphasizes what he's talking about in verse number two. For he saith, I've heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation. Not only does a lost person need to realize that, we who are saved need to honestly understand that today is the day of salvation for anyone that's lost. Any person who is lost without Jesus Christ, this moment, this hour, this day is their day of salvation. Now watch this, giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. Look at that again with me tonight. We Every one of us who are saved, he's not just talking to preachers. He's not just talking to the elders of the church. He's talking to every saved, born again, blood washed, saint of God. We are workers together with him and that we receive not that grace in vain. Why? So that the ministry would not be blamed. We're all involved in this thing called ministry. Whether you're a member of this church or not, whether you are a member, we're all in this together. We're all a part of the ministry. You can't escape the fact that God has called you to labor with him in the ministry. And he says, don't receive this grace, this salvation in vain, because we don't want the ministry to be blamed. Boy, that just grabbed my heart, my soul, my very spirit the other day as I was reading that and thinking about it. And I said, God, I don't want to be one of those to receive that grace in vain. I want to fulfill my part, my role, what you're wanting me to do in this thing called ministry. And so I want to take that as a jumping off place tonight. And we're going to look at some things about this subject of personal evangelism. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Let's ask God's blessings on this message tonight. Our Father tonight, Lord, we love you, but we thank you most of all for loving us first, Lord. I pray in Jesus' name, God, that you'd please, Lord, touch us. Please minister to us. Please, Lord, minister through us and minister to the ones that are before us tonight. I pray and plead with you and ask you, Lord, your favor upon this thought, this message, the preaching of the word of God. That, Lord, you would please enable me, Lord, to do what's needful tonight and say what's needful. And, Lord, that we might all be drawn closer to the ministry than we've ever been before. Now, God, you help our hearts, and we're thankful for everything that you'll do. We'll send Jesus' name that we pray and all of God's people said, amen and amen. You can be seated. The subject that I want to approach for just a little while tonight, and guys in the broadcast booth, I'm sorry, I forgot my lapel mic. You're going to have to use this tonight. And I'll try to stay real close. The subject I want to approach tonight in this message is the thought of personal evangelism. There are many passages I could open up with that disclose or talks about this subject, but the one at hand is one that God has just recently highlighted in my own heart. And as I was reading it, I was just overtaken by the strong usage, the words that were there and how God said, I don't want you to receive my grace in vain. I want you to be busy about salvation in other people's lives so that the ministry be not blamed. There are many reasons why I would want to address this subject tonight. The scripture references, for one, is one of the reasons. There's many verses in the Word of God that talk about us being personal soul winners. In Proverbs 11, 30, the Word of God says it like this, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, listen, and he that winneth souls is wise. He that winneth souls is wise. In Matthew 28, it's known as the Great Commission, words that were spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He said these words in Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20, He said, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world, Amen. So that is the great commission for the church of the living God. We are to be witnesses according to Acts chapter one, verse number eight, after the Holy Ghost has come upon us, we are to be witnesses of Jesus Christ and we're to tell others about the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Can I get an amen right there? not only the scripture's references, but the saints' referrals. I'll tell you what I mean by that. Just recently, brother Nathan Densmore got up here on a Sunday morning. He was asked to do the morning devotion at Sunday school assembly. We always have one of our men bring a devotion and Nathan got up here and he talked about God dealing with his heart, about being a witness for Jesus Christ. And at the end of his devotion that morning, he challenged every one of us that were present to witness to three people that coming week, before the week was out, seven days we had to witness to three people. He issued the challenge and some of us accepted it and we went on with that challenge in our hearts. But brother Nathan saw the need for us to be a witness for Jesus Christ. Just recently, this past Wednesday night, Brother Leo Gertz got up. before I started the teaching service. And he got up and he was referencing some of the revivals that we've heard about around our land. And he said, brother John, he said, there's been a lot said about revival here lately. And he said, I want us to pray that God would bring revival to our church and that God would revive us. He said, I've been involved in a few revivals in my days past. And he said, I've seen the little touch of revival here and there. He said, I'd love to experience one more time in my life. I don't know about you, but that's my heartbeat tonight. I wanna see God bring revival to every one of us, to our church, to my heart, to your heart. I wanna see God bring revival to us all. Just recently, I've also talked one-on-one with some of the individual members of our church. And I've asked them, I said, if you were called upon, let's say someone came to the altar, let's say someone tonight sees their need, that they need Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And I'm asking an honest question for us all tonight. If someone were to come down to this altar tonight, needing Jesus Christ, Could you personally come up and gather up beside them, take a Bible in your hand and go through some things with them and show them what they must do to be saved? You see, that's my point in all of this. We need to ready ourselves for revival. If we're gonna pray for it, we need to get the umbrella out and we need to get ready for God to send revival. What if, let me ask you this, let's say that tonight, there's two, three, maybe even more in this room tonight that are not saved. And by the end of this service, they see that they themselves need to trust Jesus Christ. And let's say that across these altars, let's say one at each one of these altars, there were four people across here tonight. and we were needing four of you to get up out of your seats during the invitation and come down here and bow. One in there, one here, one there, one over that end. Would you personally be equipped and know what to do to help somebody to find Christ in their life? He that when his souls is wise, Listen, as I was preaching this morning, I made the mention of where we're at in this age that we're living in. We're living in such an age that we're doing something in churches that we have never, never considered doing before. We have a security team. Who would have ever dreamed that a church would need a security team? We've got monitors, we've got locks on the doors, we've got people trained within our assembly that are trained. Are we wrong living in the age that we are living in? Are we wrong to train them? to do such things? I say not. I say we're right in doing such things. Listen, we have people in our congregation who are trained to minister first aid to anyone who might be in need of first aid during, say, one of our services. Let's say I fell out on the platform right now. There's ones in this congregation who are trained to administer CPR and minister to them physically and medically and help them through whatever circumstance they may be facing. Are we wrong to train such? I say not. I say that we need to be trained. Well, there's people dying and going to hell every day of our lives. And we are the only ones who have the truth of the Word of God. Are we wrong to train ourselves and get prepared and ready ourselves to tell somebody how to be saved, how to get to heaven, how to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're saved by the grace of God? I say not. I say we're very wise to train our people to know how to lead somebody to Jesus Christ. Can I get a witness right there? Well, in the opening question, I want to ask it again, and I want to ask it, and I want to ask it in a way, and I want you to think about it yourself. If someone were to come to this altar desiring to be saved, would you be confident enough to bow with them and lead them to Jesus Christ? would, let's say about this, let's go this far with it, let's say somebody on Wednesday night service, let's say Wednesday night service there would be somebody to enter our congregation, whether it be somebody we bused in or one of our regulars or maybe a visitor that came in on a Wednesday night, let's say that they on a Wednesday night That's pretty much unheard of. We have seen it happen here at Marvel Baptist where people get saved on Wednesday night. Let's say on Wednesday night there was a soul in need of being saved. Let's say, let's say it was during game time of Crusaders for Christ. Would you know what to do, what to say? Would you be confident enough yourself to bow down with that individual and lead them to Jesus Christ? Let's say it would be during your lesson time. Our teachers, would our teachers be confident enough in their knowledge of the word of God and confident enough in what they know about Jesus Christ and his offer of salvation? Would you be confident enough to be able to bow down with somebody and personally lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ? Let's say it would be during meal time. And that's a possibility. I've seen other things than that happen. Let's say somebody during mealtime got under conviction and when it came up to you and said, I need to be saved, could you personally lead them to Jesus Christ? Let's go a little bit further. Let's say somebody in your home needed to be saved. Somebody living up under your rafters. Let's say that they needed to be saved. Could you take a Bible and show them what they must do to be saved? Are you confident enough to be able to bow with anybody at any time under any situation and show them what they must do? Are you confident enough, maybe not just to show them from the word of God, but to talk to them about it and tell them what they must do to be saved? It's sad, and it's a sad thought for all of us. Whenever I preach on a subject like this, I always feel so inferior because of my deficiency in this area of telling others about Jesus Christ. But me preaching on this subject is not dependent on me being obedient or disobedient. It is commanded to all of us and we must all know that this is part of our lives as a child of God. We are called to be witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. How many of our Sunday school teachers would be ready? How many of our preachers would be ready? How many of our deacons would be ready? How many of our musicians and our choir members would be ready? How many of our general members, the general populace of Maryville Baptist Church would be ready at any moment to tell somebody how to be saved? The purpose and reason of these messages is for the express purpose of training you, of teaching you, of encouraging you, equipping you, and helping you to be ready at any moment to talk to somebody about the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't want you to be embarrassed about it. We don't want you to feel underconfident and not willing to get involved in this because the Bible says this, and now little children, 1 John 2, 28, and now little children, abide in him that when he shall appear, ye may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his appearing. One day Jesus Christ is going to show up. Can I get a witness right there? I don't want you to be ashamed when He does show up. I want you to be confident in your walk with Christ and your knowledge of how to lead others to Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 3, verse 15, it says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts 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. He tells us to prepare ourselves. He tells us to be ready. He tells us, he expects us to ready ourselves to lead others to Jesus Christ. He mentions there in verse number three of our opening text, he says, giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. What is this ministry that he has given us as a church? Look over here in 2 Corinthians chapter number six. No, 2 Corinthians five, I'm sorry. 2 Corinthians chapter number five. In verse number 18, he tells us what this ministry is. If you back up into chapter 5, you see he's building up to these verses that we've read. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse number 18, it says, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. Watch it. and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. That's the ministry that he has given us. What is it? Verse 19 says this, to wit, that means this is what the ministry is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now watch these powerful words in verse number 20. Now then, now, right now, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, We pray you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. He said, listen, if I were to invite you to Christ, it's just as if God were standing in front of you. It's just like Jesus Christ standing in front of you and inviting you to come to him and be saved. Listen, we are ambassadors for Christ. That is the mission. That is the ministry of the church. God wants every person to be saved. He does not want one to go to hell. There's not one man, one woman, one child that He wants to burn in hell. He does not delight in seeing people die without Him. He wants every person to be saved, and He wants us involved in their salvation. He wants us to be a part of that ministry. The Bible says this, Point number one, we get into this just a little bit tonight. Point number one, we must realize the vision of Jesus Christ. His vision is the whole world, every person. For God so loved the world. that He gave His only begotten Son. He does not omit not one person in His gracious saving grace. He includes every person. They may damn them on themselves. They may reject it themselves. But God's vision is every person being saved. God does not delight in not one person dying and going to hell. He wants all of them to be saved. The Bible says in Luke chapter 19 in verse number 10, for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. That is his vision for your Sunday school class. That is his vision for your Crusader for Christ class. That is his vision for this church is that souls be saved. Listen to John 3 verse 17 and 18. It says, For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. Because he had not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Listen, people who are lost are already condemned. People who are lost are already up under the condemnation of the Scriptures. They're already on their way to hell. We are their lifeboat. We are their life savers. We are the ones with the truth. We are the ones that stand in between them and hell. We are the ones that stand in between them and eternal death. We are the ones that can make a difference in their lives. And He has called the church in this world to make a difference in other people's lives. Jesus Christ suffered the pains of Calvary. He suffered the pains of all the torment leading up to Calvary. Why? Because that was his vision for us to be saved. That was his vision that we might be saved by his grace. He wants every person to be saved. We must not only realize his vision, we must remember our part. We are workers together. with Him. Do you think Jesus Christ is interested in saving souls? He is interested in saving souls. Therefore, He's given us a mission, a ministry to work with Him, to work together with Him that others might be saved. Jesus Christ went through, we read the gospel accounts and everywhere Jesus Christ went. He looked at men and people before him. He said, follow me, follow me. Follow me, follow me. That was his favorite, that was his favorite invitation. That was his, that was his most used words. Follow me, follow me. If any man follow me, let him take up his false deity and deny himself and come thou and follow thou me. Follow me, follow me, follow me. And this he said, follow me and I will make thee fishers of men. That's what he's wanting to do in our lives, is to train us, to teach us. Everything we go through in life is for training. And he is training us to lead others to Jesus Christ. We are witnesses for Jesus Christ. Can I ask you something? Let's be honest with all of our hearts in the air tonight. Are we scared to be his witness? Are we ashamed? to be his witness? Are we ashamed of the gospel? that saved our souls? Are we afraid that somebody is going to say something negative about it? Are we afraid that we are going to be rejected? It's not us that we're asking them to accept anyway. It's Jesus Christ. If they do reject us, it's because they rejected Him first. If they say no to us, it's because they're saying no to Him. It's not us. It's not between us and them. It's between them and the Savior. Are we ashamed? Are we, are we scared? Are we afraid of being a witness for Jesus Christ? Let me ask you this. If we're not being witnesses, are we disobedient? Yes, yes, and yes, we are being disobedient if we're not being fishers of men. Jesus Christ said this, whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, to him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with his holy angels. 2nd Timothy 1.8, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. Listen, I've been in this since 1982 and I've tried at times to be a witness. I've not been the witness I should have been. I've not been as regular with it and and constant with it as I should, but I've tried to be a witness. I went, I remember one time I went to a man's house. I had a burden for him. His wife had come to our church. We were in a little storefront building down there at Waycross. Just started Bible Baptist Church down there in Waycross. People were getting saved and his wife came to church and she got saved. Her name was Janice. Janice, wasn't it? And she got saved, and she started asking me, Brother John, would you please pray for my husband? He's lost, and I want him to be saved. I got a burden for him, and I went by his house, and I talked to him about Jesus Christ, and his name was Mikey Mikey. I said, Mikey, I said, your wife has gotten saved. She wants you to be saved. Mikey, won't you give your heart to Christ? And he looked at me and he said, you ever come to my house again, I'll kill you. And I mean, don't you ever set foot on my property again? And I left. You better believe I left and I left. And but that burden for Mikey would not leave my heart. I don't remember how long it was after that. I got up under that burden again, and I knew that if Jesus Christ was burdening my heart about it, I knew that he would be with me. He promised, Lo, I'll be with you all the way, even to the end of the world. That might have been the end of my world, but I was going to go and tell him about Jesus. I went back, and he was sitting out there, and he had a fire going in a burn barrel. Had some of his buddies around, and they were drinking their beer. And I saw all of that. I got out of my car. I walked over there on his property and I saw it in his eyes. He was scared. And I walked up there in front of him. I said, Mikey, I want you to know that I'm praying for you that you'll get saved and get right with God. He came to church one or two times, I remember. And the only reason he came is because he's wanting God to let him win the lottery. He never did get saved that I know of, but I was obedient to the heavenly vision like Paul, and I wanted to be a witness for Jesus Christ. Listen, they're not all gonna get saved, but we've got to be witnesses to them no matter what the outcome is gonna be. We must be obedient to the heavenly vision, and we must ready ourselves to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. Let me give you some things tonight that somebody must need to know about themselves, about Jesus Christ, that we're going to be saved. I'll never forget when I had started that church in Waycross. We were in that little storefront building, and Joe Chancey got to coming. Somebody had told me about Joe and Joe had gotten saved and was even called to preach, but he had gotten out and was sitting out on the Lord. And somebody said, Brother John, you need to go by and visit Joe. So I went by and they, him and Miss Marie, they were both saved and they were both out on the Lord and they were living in, he called it a little lamplighter trailer. They lived in that little trailer and in front of that trailer, they were building their house at that time. I went and visited Joe, and Joe and Marie got to coming to church. And I'll never forget after Joe was in for a little while, he came to and he said that he would like to teach some Sunday school. And so I let Joe start teaching Sunday school for us and he did a fantastic, Joe was a tremendous Bible teacher. And Joe began teaching Sunday school and he came to me one day and he said, brother John, he said, I want to try to teach our people how to lead others in Jesus Christ. And he said, what I want to do during Sunday school one morning is I want you to pretend to be lost. and I'm gonna get you up there in front of me, and I'm gonna go through the plan of salvation from the Bible, and I'm gonna lead you to Jesus Christ." And I said, great. I said, that's wonderful. That's tremendous. Well, we had a mixed crowd, a mixed congregation of young and old, just like we've got here. And so we were in there in Sunday school that morning, and Joe had me sitting in a chair in front of him, and Joe began witnessing to me. and witnessing to me just like I was lost, and I was pretending to be lost so that he could make his point. And there was an older couple that were visiting our church, and you could hear the old man. He looked at his wife and he said, ain't that something our preacher ain't even saying? We made it. We tried to make it that real, you know, but What we were trying to do was teach people how to lead somebody to Jesus Christ. And let me give you some thoughts tonight. You might want to write these down. What I plan on doing by the end of this series is I'm going to print some things out. I'm going to have them laminated for you, and where you can put them in your Bible, and you can have them with you at all times. They'll be of size that you could even put it in a shirt pocket, a coat pocket, and just have it with you at all times. as just a reference of how to help people to Jesus Christ. Number one, a person needs to realize that they are a sinner. The other day, Joshua and Julie and little Will came to my office. Little Will has been having some questions lately, and we were all sitting in my office. I believe it was Joshua. was asking Will and he said, he said, Will, do you know what sin is? I want you to listen what a little child said about sin. He said, yeah, it's when you do bad and this and that. Then he said something, he made a statement that I just could not even believe that came from such a young person. He said, sin is when you don't believe in Jesus. That's the sin. That's the sin that sends somebody to hell, not believing in Jesus Christ. He said in John 16, he said, when the spirit of God has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness of judgment, of sin, because they believe not in me. That's what sends somebody to hell, not believing in Jesus Christ. If they believe not, they're condemned already. That's the sin that Jesus came to die for. That's sin. Not believing in Jesus Christ. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans chapter 3 verse 23. There's none good. No, not one. Romans 3 10. There's not one of us, of our own, that's worth a flip. I better get a witness right there. All of us have sinned and come short of. There's not one person in this world. There's never been but one who has walked and graced this earth, who was sinless. And his name is Jesus Christ. It is not John Dale. It is not you. It is Jesus Christ alone. All the rest of us, we are sinners by nature. We sin because we're sinners. I want to ask you something. If somebody walked into a store and pulled out a knife, and while they were in that store and pointed that knife or a gun, let's say, at the individual working, the clerk working, and they robbed that store, does that act of robbery make them a sinner? They were a sinner before they ever walked in that store. They had it in their heart to sin when they walked in that store. And just because they did the act did not make them a sinner. They were a sinner by nature before they ever walked in that store. We've all sinned. Every one of us, all of us in this room have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And a person needing to be saved needs to understand that. That's why Jesus died. He died for our sins. Hallelujah. None of us could do that and fulfill the law. None of us could do that and make it to heaven. None of us. We're all sinners. Jesus was sinless. And he's the one who died for our sins on the cross of Calvary. A person needing to be saved needs to understand the issue is sin, their sin. Debbie and I asked Sidney over there today, I said, Sidney, do you understand sin? She said, oh yes. I said, Sidney, you're a sinner by nature. She said, I am. And she began crying, and I don't know what in all was going on in her heart between her and Jesus, but she began crying and she understood, she knew that she needed a Savior. The fact that we are all sinners and sinners by nature demands that we need and must have a Savior. We need forgiveness for our sins. A Savior offers forgiveness of our sins. Number one, they must realize that they are sinners. Number two, not only that, they must repent. This is one of the missing elements of gospel invitation today. They must be willing to repent of their sins. What does repent mean? It means to change your mind. You change. You're going a certain way, and you stop in your life. You analyze your life. You look at your life. You realize you're a sinner. You don't like the way you're going, the way you're living, and you stop in your tracks. And you want a change made. You change your mind about yourself, your sin, your ways, and you want a difference made in your life. That's repentance. And it doesn't matter whether you realize you're a sinner or you repent first or second or third or fifth, just so long you do it. Just so long you realize you're a sinner. And just so long as you repent, Jesus Christ, except you repent, you shall perish in your sins. We must repent. The Bible says in Acts 17, it says that God has commanded every person everywhere to repent. To repent, to turn from their sin. Listen, there's a lot of people, we've seen it happen. I don't mean to belabor this tonight, but I think it'd be good. We've seen a lot of people come to an altar. They go down and they pray over something. They get up, they walk out of here the same way they walked down and there's no difference made in their life. What happened? They weren't praying over their sin. their sinful ways. They might have been praying that God save their marriage, that God help them in a financial way. They may have been praying about this or that, but the issue, the issue of salvation is our sinful ways. And we must want Jesus to change our life. I tried to change, I couldn't change me, but I came to the one who could, and his name is Jesus, and Jesus has changed and is still changing my life. You see, that's salvation. Knowing that you're not right and wanting to be different, that is salvation. They must, number one, realize. They must, number two, repent. But number three, they must receive Jesus Christ. The Bible says that he came unto his own and his own received him not. And then it goes on to say this, but to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name. We sat there with Sidney this afternoon, right after morning service. And we were going through some things and I said, Sidney, are you willing? So you see, it's got to be a matter of a man's will. God never overrides. He never forces salvation on anybody. Can I get a witness right there? He leaves it open to every man's free will. And I said, Sidney, are you willing to call on the name of Jesus Christ? Here's a Jew sitting in a chair that's afraid she might be turning her back on her Jewish roots. And I said, would you be willing to trust Jesus Christ this afternoon? Call upon His name right now. And she looked at me, tears running down her eyes. She just shook her head, yes. I said, Sidney, I can't pray it for you. Debbie can't pray it for you. But you can call upon the name of the Lord and receive him into your heart. And I said, would you be willing to pray right now? I said, if you are, pray out loud. And Sidney began calling upon the name of Jesus. And she said, Jesus, please forgive me. Come in my heart. Change my life. Save my soul. And a Jew got born into the family of God this afternoon. There's nothing any more exciting than to see somebody get saved by the grace of God. It's the, as I said it this morning, it's the most important thing in any person's life. You can't just play games with salvation. You cannot play games with your soul. You cannot play games with eternity. You must, you must, you must know that you're saved by the grace of God. Jesus said this. He said, if thou shalt confess what I mouth, I took my Bible after Sidney and prayed. I said, Sidney, I said, did Jesus save you? He said, yeah. She said, I, let me, let me tell you a little bit about this. So good. She told us this afternoon before she called on Jesus, she said, she said, I feel so empty. I feel a weight. I feel so empty and guilty. And I knew if she would ever call on Jesus, that all of that would be 50. And I said, Sydney, you willing to ask him? She said, Yeah. And she called on Jesus. And she looked up at me after she had called on him. And she looked at me and she said, I feel something lifted off of me. I said, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's all that guilt. It's all that emptiness that you had inside of you. It's gone now. Oh, I'm telling you something. Faith in the facts will give you a feeling that you will never get over. Can I get a witness right there? It's being saved by the grace of God is the most wonderful thing that any person Any person could ever experience in life being saved by the grace of God. There's nothing any greater. And I want every person in this church to ready yourselves to be able to bow down with any person and talk to them about Jesus Christ and show them what they must do to be saved. I want you confident In your personal evangelism, I believe a lot of times the reason we just simply don't talk to anybody is because we're not prepared. We're not confident enough. And I want you confident in what God's word says and being able to tell somebody else about Jesus Christ and lead them to Jesus Christ. Amen and amen. for a heart that is burdened, infused with a passion to pray. Oh, for striving within me. Oh, for his power every day. Oh, for a heart like my Savior, who being in agony prayed, such caring for others, Lord, give me on my heart let the burden be laid. My father, I long for this passion to pour myself out for the lost, to lay down my life to save others, to pray whatever the cost. Lord, teach me. Oh, teach me this secret. I'm hungry, this lesson to learn, this passionate passion for others, for this blessed Jesus, I yearn. I want God to use my life, not just behind this pulpit. I want him to use my life when I'm out in the public, when I'm at home, when I'm anywhere at any time. If God needs a servant, I want him to be able to call on me and say that person needs me in their life. Let's all stand tonight. Julie, you come to the piano, please.