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[0:00] winning and the first one was knowing your bible or knowing the scriptures and and just having confidence in handling the word of god knowing where the verses are and what they say and and there's only verses that are necessary that describe the gospel of jesus christ and so start there and if that sounds like well where do i go i mean there's tons of gospel tracks i think they're wonderful i know a kid a young guy who he read off of a page while he was dealing with somebody and it sounds to me like oh that's so corny oh that's you know you look like you don't know what you're talking about but the the person he was talking to was listening and so i was watching this happen and i just thought this is awesome this kid's doesn't know what to do but he's he knows he can follow this and he's and he's talking he's trying to deal with the guy and he's just using a little kind of a guide it wasn't a gospel track exactly but it was like a little cheat sheet sort of thing and he was going right through it and so but start somewhere but know the scriptures that's the book that you need to know that's the one and that's the authority and it's not about being able to debate and handle all the arguments as much as it is given what the word of god says in the end it doesn't matter what you say and it doesn't matter what your church says or what your pastor says or it matters what the bible says that's where the authority is what did the creator of everything say that's who you're pointing them to anyway so know the scriptures and then the second thing that we talked about a good bit was use gospel tracks because they're extremely effective and they can be and no i know some guys say that they they try to apply the verse in isaiah that my word will not return unto me void and is it as if every gospel track has ever been printed with the word of god will accomplish something and that's not at all what the bible is saying in isaiah but if you could hand out 10 and one of them does something that's that's pretty good i'd say that's worth handing out 10 if you can hand out 100 and one does something i mean where do you it's something it's something so use gospel tracks they can be they can be tremendous and they can be like i said they can be just the opener the icebreaker the thing that you use to get in and start a conversation and they're they're a tremendous tool and like i read last week that uh what was that what was it called the world's greatest missionary and i gave you i think it was like a 30 point little little statement about gospel tracks how they can go places you can't go and how they don't get offended how they don't need support and and so gospel tracks can do a whole lot if we'll use them and turn them loose and so that's something to consider is it's a ministry it really is and it's not as scary as you think it is it really isn't there is this this flesh in you that just says i can't approach people i can't talk to people and sometimes you find out when you just say can i give you something and you just take it and they say okay that was easy it turns out i was like that wasn't so bad at all or when they take it and say thank you it's it's really not that hard but there's a an unclean spirit in us that doesn't want anything to do with it and it tries its best to hold you back from doing it and recognize that and realize that you can hand out a gospel track and in doing so potentially be effective in leading that soul to christ maybe if that's the very least you can do so anyway so then the third thing was pray and that sounds so elementary doesn't it but pray you want to be more effective and soul winning then you ought to spend some more time in prayer before you go in uh just preparation for your own heart and your mind but as well while you're there like we saw with nehemiah and he's talking to the king point blank and he's so i prayed to the god in heaven

[4:00] and that's a good thing to do is try to stay on top of what does god want you to say in this moment to this person stay in prayer i think it goes hand in hand with winning souls and it'll help you to be dependent on the lord and not just confident in yourself and thinking i can do this i've done this forever i know how to talk to people maybe you need to learn to spend a little more time in prayer on that all right so those are three things and we're going to go into the fourth and see how far we go tonight uh the next thing number four is to be soul conscious to be soul conscious i think you know what i mean by that by by seeing people as souls around you if you don't see them as souls you're just going to see them as people you're going to see them as your family you'll see them as your neighbor you'll see them as your co-worker you see them every day and and the more you get to know them as a on a personal level they become just that person that you like and know and it's easier sometimes to see the mob as souls to see the crowd to see strangers as souls than it is to see people you know as souls and you have to condition yourself to do this and you have to maybe cultivate that it might take a little bit of work to not see that person you grew up with all your life but rather see that's an eternal soul that i am in their life and i have christ in me and god if he's going to get to him he might just want to use me to do it see him as a soul i think being if i could call it people conscious versus soul conscious if you just see him as people in this world it's going to distract you from what you ought to be doing for christ in winning their soul or at least going after them and here's why uh some people can really turn you off you can just look at them and sometimes you're like nope you know why because you're not being soul conscious you're you're being a little more personality conscious right you're seeing them uh what what it is that they're projecting to the world that they like or love or or their political views or their gender whatever we want to call it today you'll see those things really quickly and be shut off and not not be soul conscious and realize that's an eternal soul behind that you might uh you you might see some guys that are pretty beefed up tattooed up maybe leathered up whatever and you might say a rough crowd i can't approach them and you look at them and think that's what you'll see the stigma of rough tough they're going to reject me they're going to cuss me out they're going to beat me up you might that's what your flesh will throw up as a quick excuse to you but when you're soul conscious you'll see right past that stuff and it you have to i've done it you have to swallow it and just say okay lord i'm gonna he tells you to hand him a track and your flesh is saying don't you dare go near him you don't approach people like that and you find out when you do you find out when you walk up to him they'll say okay okay thanks don't you know or i'll just you know anyway it's not a don't believe your instincts your carnal instincts pray about it pray as you go and try to be soul conscious i remember hearing dr uckman talk about jack hiles how he was such a good soul winner and he would just tell stories about the things the man would say and there's a few that stick stick in my mind that he would go to a flower shop and say i'm looking for the rose of sharon can you tell me where he is and then he'd use that because he's talking about jesus christ and try to witness to the person behind the counter because he walked in there looking at a soul instead of that's just some girl that's so another one i forget um oh i know it was it was he'd walk into an elevator and he'd be surrounded with other people and he'd say so is everybody in here ready for the big lift and he's talking about are you ready for the rapture if not you need jesus christ as your savior and he would he just a personality probably beyond most of us

[8:04] but he'd be soul conscious wherever he went and it's something that can help you to be not just be a soul winner but what i'm trying to help you with is just be more effective in your attempts at soul winning that's going to be something that'll help you and it'll probably help you to contact more people than you would in a normal day or situation if you're thinking on it and i think also on top of that if hell is a reality to you like you believe that's there you believe it's there right now you believe the people that you're seeing everywhere you are going there that this bible is true if you're thinking along those lines that you don't know how far away they are from hell it might help you to be a little more soul conscious i don't know if i've ever told you this uh quick story here this is um he's a pastor now but before he was in bible school at a somewhere in new york i believe word of life it was called so he was a he was in bible school and he got a job working at a gas station and he said the same kind of farmer just just small community the same guy come by and fill his old pickup truck every friday the same time that he's working and he he didn't know him but he got to you know at least a little bit acquainted with him and one day the lord he said i felt the lord impress on my heart to witness to him to tell him about christ and he said i'm i'm just treating like every other friday just filling it up how you doing same old banner and he said i just felt the lord saying you need to talk to him and i was i just froze i totally froze and he scared said i just i didn't know what to do i just kind of like wouldn't even look him in the eye then i just completely froze and he said this this is so crazy but the lord was trying one last ditch effort at that guy's soul because he said he he let him go and he pulled out of the parking lot and it's kind of a dirt gravel parking lot he pulled out dust flying behind it and headed out this straightaway that kind of went up a little bit of an ascent and he said that as the farmer he's just watching the truck go off the road just slowly speeding up and he's just beating himself up in his mind and he said come over the crest of that hill was an 18 wheeler and another car that was racing or trying to get past it and just t-boat right or straight head onto that truck and that man went off into eternity and this guy who's studying for the ministry is just weeping because he was scared when the lord put a soul right in front of him and instead of seeing him as a soul that could enter into hell in the next 20 seconds 30 seconds he saw it as a man that he's going to see next friday and he's going to see next friday and he's afraid to talk to him and i'd say this is on this isn't even one of the notes but something i've learned uh the hard way not quite that hard but when the lord impresses you and if you know what i'm talking about he says that person give them a track when he when he impresses you about somebody specifically there's a reason for it and it's not just because he's testing you like you want to say oh well i'll pray that person gets saved there's probably a reason that he has you and them there and he's telling you do something about it and so be soul conscious realize that they're going to hell and i said at the beginning about you might seem as a family member it's important that you don't just see them as your friend or you run into somebody from from years ago from school or from something and and that's all you're thinking no this is a soul that now you have an opportunity with a an open door to a connection to use it use it if you can you'll be more effective if you see people as souls i said this several weeks ago and i wonder if this has ever happened to you where you're in a crowd and it just you just you're struck by how many of these people know christ how many of these people are the are all of these people going to hell is anybody doing anything about it and that's just this little tiny circle of your world of of uh even like i mentioned a baseball stadium sounds like a

[12:10] lot that's nothing eight billion people is a lot a baseball stadium with a 30 to 40 000 who what's that that's a that's nothing from what god sees in glory to this earth the souls of men and um being soul conscious not so much people conscious that'll help you be more effective i believe it look in the bible at matthew chapter 9 i want to take you to a few verses here i think these are familiar to you but consider the heart and the mind of the lord jesus christ and i think we do well to try to match what he put in the scriptures about himself here matthew 9 come to the end of this end of the chapter and look at 35 and 36 so the bible says and jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people but but when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd and you know what he's when he's not fainting about it's not they're hungry it's not because they don't have enough money or because of the roman government it's not anything cultural physical governmental it's not nothing it's he fainted because they were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd and say if he under the disciples the harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few pray therefore lord of the harvest they will send forth laborers into his harvest he's seeing souls he's seeing the souls of god's people and how badly they need the truth and he sees them as a multitude in front of him and it it moves him with compassion and he cares about their souls look at john chapter 4 another similar case another uh passage we're pretty familiar with well two things i want to catch out of john chapter 4 this is the woman at the well to begin the chapter and christ is wearied from his journey and he sits on the well and it's about high noon at verse number 7 says there cometh a woman of samaria to draw water jesus saith unto her give me to drink and if you're familiar you know the rest of the story there the back and forth with he and her and how that goes but he he's there for a purpose he's there for her soul give me to drink you know he doesn't want to drink a water it's not why he is talking to her it's not why he stopped it that well because he was thirsty and wearied from his journey he's gonna he has a divine meeting with a woman that needs the messiah she needs to believe she needs to hear some things she's never heard before and so he's soul conscious in john chapter 4 and then he tells his disciples to be soul conscious look at later on in chapter 4 and he says in verse 34 they're talking about eating in verse 34 jesus saith unto them my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work say not ye there yet four months and then come his harvest behold i say unto you lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white all ready to harvest they're full of souls lift up your eyes that's going to be soul conscious that's what it means and that's what he's teaching his disciples be soul conscious look around they're all over the place look at acts chapter 17 in acts 17 this is the apostle paul and he ends up going to athens and he's commanding that that silas and timothy or timotheus come to meet him as soon as possible in

[16:15] verse 15 they they that conducted paul brought him to athens and receiving a commandment unto silas and timotheus for to come to him with all speed they departed so he's waiting at athens for his guys he's just a rendezvous point where they're going to meet and it says in verse 16 now while paul waited for them at athens his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry so he did something about it therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the jews and with the devout persons and in the market daily with them that met with him then certain philosophers of the epicureans and the stoics and countered him and and i'm not going to go through it any further but then comes out of this this famous sermon on mars hill where he calls them super superstitious superstitious superstitious and you you're familiar i'm sure with some of that um you know how some of us would have reacted when we saw that the city was holy as in completely given to idolatry we'd have been repulsed we just said i'm not going anywhere near these people i'm staying in my home seclusion isolation shelter don't let the kids see it keep them away and i'm you know i don't want to be around the mess either i don't want to be around the world i don't want to be it it's it grieves my spirit to be around that but paul his spirit was stirred in him and he saw souls on their way to hell and he went and did something about it he went out there and spoke with them and preached to them and ended up standing in front of a large congregation and preaching a pretty popular sermon as we see in the scriptures so be soul conscious don't see them as just filthy wicked idolaters carnal homosexuals see them as souls that god created to be born again that he is not willing that any should perish not just because you were a moral person and had a decent lifestyle and made good choices he's not willing that they should perish either i know you probably won't like this too much but maybe you will i had a i don't know if i still have it i used to have a track and on the cover it said i was gay real big letters it's not the kind of track you want to stick it out of your pocket and your shirt you know that's so um and i had a picture of a guy on there and he's smiling and he's wearing a shirt and a tie and it's his testimony and he wrote a track about a lifestyle he lived and he was saved by jesus christ and now he's living a different lifestyle for the glory of god and he's he wants to get that message out to people that we probably would shun and say oh no i can't gives me the creeps i can't be around them you think that way i think that way i don't i don't like it any more than you do and yet they need christ yeah right and how shall they hear without a preacher so when you're soul conscious instead of turned off by their iniquity and turned off by their sin you see their soul underneath all of that mess such were some of you you might have more compassion like jesus christ did all right let's go to another section here and see if we can cover this fifth point and come to first timothy chapter one and there's a load of scripture on this well i'll just highlight a couple that are real close together so knowing your bible will help you be effective knowing where the verses are and how to handle them having tracks on you will will definitely help you be effective being in prayer before during after will help you to be more effective and then being soul conscious i think it's tremendous now the fifth thing to help you be more effective is to avoid arguments avoid arguments that's not what you're there for to argue with them and to tell them how smart you are you're

[20:17] there to try to get them to consider the their eternity of their soul their sins against jesus christ what he did for them so look at first timothy there's a couple here real close look at we'll start in chapter one verse three through seven as i besought thee to abide still at ephesus when i went into macedonia that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith so do now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and a faith unfeigned from which some having swerved have turned aside into vain jangling desiring to be teachers of the law understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm and so there's plenty of that there's plenty of men out there that have turned aside and you're told in verse four neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions that's that should stand out at you if you do any personal work uh ministering things things just questions questions questions you would give them an answer and it's a question give an answer it's another question and you could tell pretty quickly they're not really looking for the truth they're just looking to stump you or just you just keep it going but they won't let you nail their hide down on the gospel they're always going to throw it something some other direction and he says to don't give heed to that because there's plenty of them that are just desiring to be teachers of such and they don't even know what they're talking about they don't understand what they say nor whereof they affirm like they're declaring this to be truth they don't even know where it came from but they're just spitting it out because they heard it somewhere be careful that that's not you uh that's a good that's actually pretty good advice be careful you don't just spit something out at somebody if you don't know it's true from the word of god especially um let's move on first timothy oh where's the second one i had oh chapter six look at first timothy six uh we could get there's there's a couple spots in that chapter let's go to the very end verse 20 and 21 oh timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoid what are you supposed to avoid timothy avoid profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called which some professing have erred concerning the faith so i'm telling you you should avoid arguments here's the word avoid you're avoiding profane and vain babblings you're avoiding the oppositions of science which so-called science we see plenty of that today and what does he tell them to do stand up and and meet them head on with the word of god he tells them avoid them he knows why he tells them to avoid them they're not looking for the truth they're not looking they're just there's looking to debate to make you look dumb or to make themselves feel good they're not looking to get the truth at all look at second timothy and chapter number two and verse number 23 but foolish and unlearned questions there's the word again avoid knowing that they do gender stripes if you've done any personal work you you can spot these i it it if you're like me you have to get burned by it a few times before you start like the light bulb comes on you're like i'm i'm not being effective here at all i'm spending 30 minutes arguing with somebody while all of these lost souls are going by and they're not getting gospel tracks instead i'm doing something fruitless and paul tells timothy and uh well i'll show you another one right here uh is it chapter three yeah look at chapter three verse 13 this is what's going on evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived but as far as timothy goes continue thou the things which thou has learned

[24:21] look at titus here's a command to titus so there's deceivers out there they're children of the devil and they're deceived themselves they're they're being deceived currently and they're deceiving others and you're to avoid them and this is good advice when it comes to trying to win souls to christ to avoid arguments titus 3 look at verses 9 through 12 or 9 through 11 rather but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law why for they are unprofitable and vain vain vain a man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself now if you get around it you spot it and you you understand what's going on and it took me a while to to learn this myself i can tell you a few stories of how this like i remember handing out tracts in the town we were at kind of the town square and it was a it was a good night until a couple jehovah's witnesses walked up and i don't think they were out i think they were just out in the town and they they saw us doing something religious and you know they they jumped in and and they were kind of picking on one of the teenagers and and i saw what was going on and i went over and then kind of got into it with them as far as like bible back and forth and arguing about jesus and and uh because i'm i was trained and i know what they believe and i know what they claim about jesus christ and i know how from the king james bible to show them their heir and show them jesus christ is jehovah of the old testament the one they worship and they you know here i am feeling like hey i'm gonna give it to them and before i know it it's 20 minutes 30 minutes going by and it's just arguing it's just me giving them the bible truth and i'm just arguing and fighting against it and the teenagers aren't doing anything anymore and they're just huddled up over there talking and screwing around hey you know what this was this was unprofitable and vain there's nothing happening here it's not god i can tell you that the spirit of god is not in this a different spirit maybe one that distracts and one that just blew the whole thing up by just sending two of his right into the mix and probably saying hey look at those guys go get started with them i one time i was going door to door with a guy we were going down this block and we were going to stop at the end of the block and we got to this house there were two houses from the end knocked on this door and uh just uh from what i remember just a fat slob of a guy came to the door and that's what i remember and and so we're talking to him and he says oh oh you guys are you're christians you're baptists huh you guys think you you know what's right huh he's like let me ask you a question where'd you get your bible from and he's kind of like well who in the world ever asked that question when you're knocking on a door who'd you get your bible from he wants to tell me that we got our bible from the catholic church and he wanted to give me some dates and as it turns out after times going by he studied and was a i don't know if he was officially a monk but he was in a monastery or something for several years and i'm like looking at him like i can't believe this is meeting somebody that claims this was what they've done with their life and looking at him then i'm i didn't do much for you it was he was uh in bad shape maybe so so we we went i mean he he knew facts like he knew history and what he knew was a catholic version of history and he that's all he knew and he just knew us as protestants some rebellious

[28:24] offshoots of the holy mother church and then we go around trying to convert people to our bible and so we went with him and while we're there talking it's getting later and the person the next house down while we're on this guy's step with like rails beside us the next house down a person comes out the door down the steps gets in their truck and pulls off and i remember being kind of like i think the guy was beside me and we're standing facing him i remember just talking and listening for a second and just catching it i thought oh they're good so there they go and i thought oh we're well maybe somebody else's home you know thinking positively maybe the maybe that person would have rejected us but well we finally closed up the deal with this guy went to the next door and knock knock knock nobody's home and i thought to myself we wasted 45 minutes doing nothing but just stupid run at our mouths when that last person the last one of the night got out and who knows i don't want to make a big deal about it but it's i i learned a lesson that night to don't get sucked into stuff that's not going to go anywhere say we'll move on so that so avoid arguments i i have trouble with that and it's a shame on my part because when you know some truth and you know where they're wrong you want to give it to them and you have to learn if they're a heretic and they don't receive the truth avoid it walk away from it reject it whatever you need to do once you hear somebody asking questions here's one i always try to it's like a red flag well what if what if you give them some truth well what about the people that haven't heard well what if i'd love it and they start this it's it's never a reality it's never a reality in their life it's not their condition and it's not their sin before their creator it's just some other way of dodging this deal when you know that then then learn to avoid it stay away from it i remember running into a person that was i've never heard this but one time in my life i've you know you deal with people they talk about well i've been baptized you've heard that a lot well this person i asked him i said like are you sure you go to heaven when you die and they said yes and i was like wow that's that's rare how come how do you know so sure how you so certain because i've been baptized by my church of christ minister and i was like so you're trusting you're believing that that getting dunked into water by your pastor or minister is what forgives you of your sins and has given you eternal life and they're like yes and i was like wow like this person exists i have a whole list of notes about how to deal with somebody like this i never would run into him ever and you're right here i'm standing in your garage i can't believe this and so we started talking about baptism just talking about it it wasn't a bad thing it wasn't a waste of time necessarily because we were trying to deal with what they were trusting in and trying to help them understand that you're trusting in something i can't save you yeah and so we we went a little ways and it was effective to a to a point they listened they were concerned they couldn't answer our questions and they couldn't answer with bible their position they were just believing what they'd heard at their church where they were raised or whatever and so sometimes it wasn't an argument is what i'm saying it was it was a discussion it was giving them answer trying to give them bible but when they're argumentative and they're kicking against the truth and you can pretty much count on this isn't going anywhere and so be careful uh i don't want telling myself anymore so we can move on from that and we're kind of running out of time tonight um so that would be number five is tonight was to be soul conscious and to avoid arguments if possible i would add this note let me add this note we'll be done avoid the arguments when they're

[32:25]  combative argumentative you can tell they're against the word of god in the gospel but don't avoid the questions that they might have when they're genuine like when they really have a question let me ask you and i can tell you just one quick story on this that's been the best one i've ever known is going through this apartment complex run across this guy he's drinking a beer and he's messing with his car and i just went up to him and introduced myself try to get him some tracks and talk him you know invite him to church and um he said i got a question for you and he said something about um what's the deal with with you guys say you can eat any food any animal but in the bible it says you can't eat pork and what's up with that why why do you what's the problem why does it say that and he was just as dead genuine serious question had nothing to do with christ nothing to do with the with but i could tell i just felt like this guy needs an answer and gave a real quick answer about something took him to cornelius like he he knew a little bit of bible so it was okay we could hit some stuff and he kind of like okay he's like thank you that like i understand that now and it come to find out he was in prison he got connected some muslim influence and they just filled his mind with a bunch of confusion about the old testament and moses and the law and today and things of that nature and he was confused and so then i got the witness into him and he just was like he was all the way up to that he needed to receive christ but he's he had enough character to say you know what he's like i don't know about this i i don't want to make decisions or pray with you or do that because i've been drinking a little bit and i just you know i was like hey i'm with you uh you know that's that's good but i'll come back and i'll see you another time and so i came back the following week and we we picked it right up and he had another question it was just weak but it was easy to answer and he allowed me to take him right through the whole gospel i mean took it to the door and he still was just like okay i don't know but but he admit he has said i'm gonna let my daughter come to church on sunday on the bus that's what we were kind of pushing a little bit at first and he did he let his kid come on the bus and because of that we got our foot in the door again and in about a month fast forward they came to church a few times in about a month i didn't even know they were there he and his wife were in the back the pastor preached on the tribulation and on the hell on earth and said you don't want to be here for that much less drop dead and go to hell and as he preached this kind of heavy message on the terrors of the tribulation at the end gave a gospel invitation and i was standing there in this pew about halfway back and just kind of like eyes open ready to go forward if i need to you know with my bible help and here comes this guy and his wife with tears coming down their face walking the aisle to the front and somebody was out there took him out dealt with him led him to christ and i think go back to that time when i first met him beer can in his hand and he said what's up with eating pork that was his question so sometimes the questions need answered so that they can clarify some confusion that the devil's plugged into them through other you know sources sometimes but avoid arguments answer the questions if they're genuine and in doing so lord will and you can be a little more effective in your witness for jesus christ and so let's we'll call it there and lord will and finish this with the last couple next week you you you you you