Father, I thank you tonight for the anointing
of the Holy Spirit.
God, I thank you for your strength.
I thank you for your power.
Lord, I don't stand here in any strength
of my own.
The only strength that I do have is
the strength that you give me.
God, thank you.
We thank you tonight for every good gift
that you give to your children.
God, bless us tonight, oh God, with the
knowledge of Christ.
Bless us with the strength and the power
of Christ.
Holy Spirit, come and quicken us now.
Quicken my mind, quicken my physical body.
Quicken the hearers in this house, for it
is our desire.
Lord, it's our heart's desire to be a
bride that is intimately acquainted with you, to
know your heart, to walk in unison with
you.
Lord, the things that you do, we would
be found doing.
The things that are the desires of your
heart would be clearly conveyed to us and
clearly manifested through each one of our lives.
God, grant us this tonight, oh God.
Speak to our hearts, Father.
Lord, make us into soul winners.
Holy Spirit, we implore you in Christ's name.
You were sent to lead and guide us
into all truth.
You were sent to empower us to be
witnesses of the fact that Jesus Christ is
alive from the dead, has atoned for our
sins, and sits now at the right hand
of all power and all authority.
Holy Spirit, work in our hearts in a
very special way.
And in this last hour of time, make
us witnesses to the fact that Jesus Christ
is alive from the dead.
That there is remission of sins in no
other name.
That in Christ is found all the power
that we need to live a life of
honor and glory to his name.
To have victory and triumph over the powers
of darkness and the power of sin.
God, we thank you for this.
We praise you for it.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Proverbs chapter 11, if you'll turn there with
me.
Proverbs chapter 11, one verse of Scripture.
I'd like to start with tonight.
I'm going to be doing a three-week,
really a teaching session, I guess if you
want to call it that, on the keys
to personal evangelism.
Now, although I will be dealing somewhat with
technicalities of witnessing, this is really not a
how-to session.
There's no shortage of how-to books on
witnessing, and if that's really where our hearts
are at, we can go to many Christian
bookstores and there's innumerable books on the how
-tos of witnessing.
And that's really not what it's all about.
It's not about how-to, although we will
get into that.
I'm going to be talking specifically tonight about
the wisdom of winning souls.
And then next Friday night, I'm going to
be speaking about effectively communicating the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
And my message on the third Friday is
simply called, Everyone Loves a Good Story.
Hallelujah.
I was approached by somebody on the street
just a few days ago.
I was walking in downtown New York and
somebody approached me, a Christian, to witness to
me about Jesus Christ.
And I thought that was rather interesting, so
I just played along just for a moment.
And the methodology, although the heart of this
young person probably was well-intentioned, the methodology
certainly could have used some refining.
Evangelism, witnessing to somebody is not just getting
out as much Scripture as you can in
35 seconds as he's passing down the street
like a machine gun, just bleh, bleh, bleh,
Scripture as people go by.
That's not what witnessing is all about.
Jesus said, The Holy Spirit, it will come
upon you.
And he will give you the power to
be witnesses.
So witnessing is not just spouting off Scripture.
Witnessing is the power of God in our
lives, enabling us to be a living example
of what we are about to share with
other people.
And there's so much involved in witnessing.
It's really my hope that you can come
out for the full three weeks because I
couldn't even hope to cover it, really, even
in three weeks.
But I'm going to talk tonight.
I'm going to begin with one statement from
Proverbs chapter 11 and verse 30.
The Bible says, The fruit of righteousness is
a tree of life.
And he that winneth souls is wise.
Now the fruit of righteousness, in other words,
if we are in Christ, if Christ is
in us, if we know him as our
Lord and Savior, if we have an intimate
walk with God through Jesus Christ, the fruit
of that righteousness is a tree of life.
In other words, where we go, the things
we become will be life, not just to
us but to others around us.
Life begets life.
I've never ever heard tell of dead people
having children.
I don't know about you, but if you're
dead, you're really, the odds of having a
child are not very good if you're dead.
The fruit of righteousness is life.
It's a tree of life.
There is a life that radiates and emanates
from one who knows God, from one who
knows him in intimacy.
I remember when I first came to Christ,
and I know that there are many of
you here today too as well.
When you first came to Christ, you loved
him so much.
And I hope you can get back to
that day and remember that day.
You loved him so much that there was
nothing virtually on this earth that could stop
you from speaking his name.
Unfortunately, that love for Christ was not matched
up with an equal amount of wisdom at
times.
And I know that when I first got
saved, it took me quite a while in
some cases to undo some of the damage
that I did.
I had some close friends one time, and
I used to walk in their house and
open my Bible, and I'd virtually yell at
them, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and wonder
why they ran.
And when they'd run from the kitchen into
the living room away from me, my heart
had accused them of being backslidden and not
loving the Word of God.
And so I'd go in the living room,
and I remember one of my friends told
me one time that they got to the
point of dreading my arrival.
They'd say, oh no, here he comes.
And I'd walk in, and I'd open the
book, and I'd start.
You see, I had a zeal for God.
I loved the Lord, but not tempered with
very much wisdom.
He that wins souls is wise.
Now this passage of Scripture is not a
declaration that the man who sets about to
win the lost of Christ is given wisdom
because of his attempt to bring others to
Christ.
Now a lot of people think that.
Some interpreters have taken that passage of Scripture
and say, well, if you go out to
win souls for Christ, you'll be made wise.
Really, that's not what the Bible is saying
here.
It's not talking about God giving special wisdom
because you and I attempt to bring others
to Christ.
Nor is it a declaration that he possesses
a natural wisdom above others or above his
peers, the result of which enables him to
win the lost beyond others.
We oftentimes think of certain people who seem
to have an ability to lead others to
Jesus Christ.
And we say, well, God must have given
him or her very, very special wisdom to
do this.
And that may, I suppose, be the fruit
of loving God, but that's really not what
the Scripture is about.
You don't get special wisdom just because you're
winning others to Jesus Christ.
The Bible says in Proverbs 11, chapter 11,
verse 30, he that wins souls is wise.
What it really means, it's simply a statement
that the man who has made soul winning
his life's desire is already wise.
That's really what it says.
If soul winning is your desire, if you
are a Christian and now your heart's desire
is to see others brought to the saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ, you are already declared
by the Word of God to be wise.
Why would that be?
It's simply because your life pursuit is toward
that which is eternal and your work now
has begun to be declared that it is
of God.
Why are you wise?
It's because those that come to Christ and
continue on in the secular pursuits of the
world, continue on with a divided heart, there's
no wisdom in that.
But God says those who make the saving
of the lost, the winning of the lost,
their life's desire are already wise because by
the very intent of their heart, they have
entered into the work of God.
That's what wisdom is all about.
We're not living for ourselves now.
We are now living for the work of
God.
We're living for the plan of God.
God has a plan that has been unfolding
since before the foundation of the world.
And that plan is unfolding through Jesus Christ.
It's unfolding in our generation and it's going
to culminate in a day when Christ comes
and gathers His church from the face of
this earth.
First, those that have died of the Lord
and secondly, those of us who are alive
and remain at His coming will be gathered
together with Him in the clouds and so
shall we ever be with the Lord.
This is the work of God.
The work of God is not to preserve
the earth, as precious as that might be.
The work of God is not to...
whoever gets the most money wins in the
end.
The work of God is not just to
be a nice guy or a nice girl.
The work of God is to bring the
saving message of Almighty God to this fallen
generation.
That is the work of God.
That's why God the Father sent His Son.
There is no other reason.
He didn't die before mankind just to prove
a point.
He died because it's in His heart to
see not one perish but that all come
to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
This is the work of God.
And He who enters into that work is
already wise.
He has already attained a measure of wisdom
that this world can't offer.
He has left off other pursuits.
He has left off gravitating to other loves
and the other things that can so easily
encroach in any one of our lives.
And he or she has come to the
place of saying, Father, I want to do
Your work.
And God says, that is an indication that
you have already laid hold of wisdom because
it's in your heart to want to do
what is in fact the only work of
God.
The only eternal work of God is the
winning of the lost.
John 4, 34 and 35, Jesus said to
them, My meat is to do the will
of Him that sent me and to finish
His work.
Do you not say that there are yet
four months and then comes harvest?
Behold, I say unto you, Christ said, Lift
up your eyes and look on the fields
for they are white, all ready to harvest.
Jesus is saying clearly, This is what I
have been called to do.
My meat, my strength, my life, the substance,
the essence of who I am is not
to do my own will, but it's to
do the will of the one that sent
me.
That's His Father.
And it's to finish His work.
He that wins souls is wise.
He said, lift up your eyes now.
He said, do you not say there are
yet four months and then comes harvest?
In other words, He's saying it's in the
human heart to say, well, we'll look after
it tomorrow.
There are good days ahead.
There's a time coming when I'll be able
to get at this work of harvesting.
I'll be able to get at it.
I've got so many things to do now
and harvesting will come in its due time
and in its day.
But He says, no, lift up your eyes
and look on the fields for they are
already white to harvest.
In other words, He was saying the harvest
is here, the harvest is now and elsewhere
in the scriptures He said, pray now the
Lord of the harvest that He would send
forth laborers into His harvest.
Don't put away the work of God.
The direction of the soul seeker indicates that
he's in fact a seeker of God.
For I don't believe that one can genuinely
be a pursuer of his fellow man until
he has first been a pursuer of God.
You can't be.
The lawyer came to Jesus and said, what
is the most important commandment?
He said, you shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, your soul, your
mind and your strength.
And He said, the second is like unto
it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
A man who is a soul winner, a
woman who is a soul winner, it's a
clear declaration that you have a love for
Jesus Christ and you're a pursuer of God.
What happens when we begin to pursue God?
The very first thing that happens we become
aware of His heart, isn't it?
Isn't that a fact?
If you have no burden for souls tonight
then you are not a genuine pursuer of
God because if you are a pursuer of
God tonight the moment you get into His
presence He's going to begin to speak to
you about something that's on His heart.
And there's nothing more important on His heart
than men and women, than children, than young
people.
First those that know Him, His beloved, His
bride and secondarily those whose hearts are open
to receive the kingdom of eternal life through
Jesus Christ.
This is what He's going to speak to
you about because this is His work.
He's not going to speak to you about
Cadillacs and better jobs and bigger cars and
all of these things that people would like
to think God is speaking to them about.
He's going to speak about His work.
Nothing has changed.
Jesus said, this is the work.
My work is to seek out those that
are lost.
My work is to bring sinners to repentance.
My work is to see the kingdom of
God come with all of its power, its
might and its glory.
My work is to reach out to all
of those who can hear the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
This is my work.
When we begin to seek God He begins
to reveal to us His work.
I tell you, there are many, many people
today.
There are all over America today.
There are churches.
There are organizations.
There are evangelistic associations that proclaim that they
are experiencing revival and a genuine blessing of
God.
But I want to tell you folks, it's
not true because you don't mark a genuine
work of God by what comes in the
door.
You mark a genuine work of God by
what goes out the other side.
By how many missionaries go to the mission
field.
Mark a genuine work of God by the
missions budget.
If there is no missions budget there is
no heart of God in the center of
that work.
You cannot.
It's impossible for a church to say we're
seeking God and have no heart for the
lost.
It's impossible.
It's ludicrous.
We cannot be seeking God.
It's like my own sons coming and saying
we know the heart of our Father.
We know the mind of our Father and
yet head out and do something completely contrary
to my will or something that is not
even an issue in my heart.
Walking away saying we represent our Father when
that would be a lie in itself is
not the truth.
If we are genuinely seeking God something comes
into the heart to say Lord God, I
want to see men and women come to
the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Brethren, this has been a passion of my
life.
It continues by God's grace to be a
passion of my life.
When I first got saved I wanted everybody
to know that Jesus Christ was alive.
I wanted everybody to know He was the
Son of God.
I wanted everybody to know He had forgiven
me my sin.
I wanted every man, every woman, every young
person to know that there is a God
in heaven that loves Him.
I had looked for Him for 24 years
and finally He had found me.
Hallelujah.
I wanted them to know about Him and
in the first five years I've shared with
you before of knowing Christ there were many,
many that God gave me the opportunity to
lead individually to the saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ.
Did it come really because I knew everything
in the Scriptures?
No.
I couldn't tell you where the book of
Habakkuk was.
I didn't even know some of these books
existed in the Old Testament.
I didn't even know what they were.
And I've read them and I couldn't make
sense out of them.
But I knew one thing.
Jesus Christ had come.
He was God in the flesh.
He had died for my sins.
The third day He rose again from the
grave.
He had filled me with the Holy Ghost.
He had transformed my life.
And I had a story to tell.
Hallelujah.
Just like the Apostle Paul with all of
his revelation knowledge God sends him to the
Gentiles.
If He would have sent him to the
Jews he would have always been digging back
in the storehouse of all his revelation out
of the Old Testament.
But when you find yourself around an altar
where people are worshiping and saying to the
unknown God all of a sudden all of
his former resources fail him.
And what did Paul say?
I've got a story to tell you.
I was traveling an enraged man full of
religious zeal but it was unrighteousness.
I was heading out to persecute a people
I didn't understand and all of a sudden
I saw a light from heaven.
That light knocked me right off my horse
onto the ground.
And He began to speak to my heart
and told me that it was Him that
I was persecuting.
I was taken to a house for three
days I couldn't see.
I didn't eat.
I didn't drink water.
I was terrified in the presence of this
Holy God that a man called Ananias came
into the house and laid hands on me
and said, Brother Saul receive thy sight.
I received my sight.
I received strength.
I began to see life in a new
way.
My eyes were opened.
I was born again.
By the Spirit of Almighty God.
Hallelujah.
And from that simple testimony, from that story,
churches were started all over Asia.
Churches that we read about today in Thessalonica.
All these churches that you read about in
Revelation were all started by Paul traveling and
telling his story.
Was it because he just had a point
to prove?
No.
He had a passion for God.
He loved God with all of his heart.
And because he loved God it became a
reasonable thing for him to do to lay
down his life as a living sacrifice that
others too may come to this saving knowledge
of Christ.
People who become soul winners it's not because
they have a technique.
They have a passion for God.
There is a big difference.
There's a passion for God.
Often times, I've seen it over the years,
people come to the knowledge of Christ.
They love Him with all their heart.
They come into the church.
They win more people to Christ in the
first two years or two months of their
conversion than for the next 20 years.
All of a sudden knowledge comes in.
They had a relationship and knowledge begins to
crowd in and push the relationship away.
And now it becomes the Bible verses as
good as they are that they have memorized.
Now it becomes all of these programs and
all of the things that have come in
and taken the place and pushed out that
relationship.
The next thing you know they're standing on
the street and shouting Scripture verses at people
that pass by.
That's all they've got to say because they've
lost their intimacy with God.
It's not about shouting Scripture verses at people.
It's about intimacy with God.
It's about a sensitivity to the Holy Ghost.
It's about knowing the mind of Christ.
Folks, I don't feel compelled to witness to
everybody I meet on the street.
You know that.
I don't.
God has been teaching me more and more
again to get back to that place of
my first love.
That first love relationship.
I knew instinctively who to speak to and
who not to speak to.
I never had been in a program other
than one on a Billy Graham thing.
I think it's four steps to sharing your
faith.
Other than that I don't know if I'd
ever been in a program but I had
an intimacy with God.
Every day I was in the Word of
God.
Every day I was seeking Him.
I loved Him with all of my heart.
I was thankful for what He had done.
I would just walk through my day and
He would begin to speak to me.
Talk to this one.
Do something for this one.
He would begin to speak.
I would begin to speak to people.
They'd begin to weep.
The next thing you know their heads are
bowed.
We're walking together.
I'm leading them in a prayer to receive
Christ as their Lord and Savior.
The fruit of righteousness is a tree of
life.
The fruit of relationship is a tree of
life.
The fruit of a Christian who knows God
in intimacy is a tree of life everywhere
we go.
The Holy Spirit leads.
The Holy Spirit speaks.
Hallelujah.
To pursue God means to find His heart.
When you pursue God you and I will
find His heart.
We'll be renewed in Him.
That's why there was such a cry in
His heart to the church of Ephesus.
This was a church I am absolutely convinced
that loved Him.
That's because He was so grieved by this
church.
This church started out with a love and
then they progressed or regressed rather into a
system of works.
They were laboring.
They were bearing.
They were bearing the heat of the day.
They were even doing it in the right
name.
He said, You've labored.
You've borne in My name.
He said, Nevertheless, something is happening to you
and if you don't get a hold of
this He said, you're going to lose everything
that you've ever had in Me.
He said, You have left your first love.
You're not seeking Me the way you used
to seek Me.
You're talking about Me and you're doing things
in My name but it's not coming from
the source that is life.
And that source of life is an intimate
relationship with Me.
And there was a cry in His heart.
I don't ever want to lose my first
love for Jesus Christ.
I thank God for knowledge.
I thank God that by His grace He
opens up the Scriptures.
But I acknowledge tonight that everything that has
ever come into my life, everything that God
has ever done in me and through me
has been because of relationship.
Everything He's shown me has been pure, pure
grace because of His love.
I don't ever want to lose that.
I don't want a program to come in
and ever replace it.
I don't want professionalism to overpower it.
I don't want any of these things to
come in and take away the simplicity of
knowing Him and loving Him and being a
soul winner for Jesus Christ.
To pursue Him means to find His heart.
To find His heart means to become a
partaker of a new value system.
If anyone is in Christ he becomes a
new creature.
The old things pass away.
Behold all things become new.
A new value system comes into our life
when we begin to pursue Christ.
I have an opportunity from time to time
to speak in business meetings in various places
and I see sometimes the tearing, the pulling
in the hearts of people who have one
hand in the work of God and the
other hand in the work of man.
Now I'm not standing as anybody's judge.
Please don't misunderstand me but I see the
torment.
I see the frustration.
I see the unfulfillment when a heart begins
to halt between two opinions.
That's why the Old Testament the leader of
God's people cried out and said how long
will your heart halt between two opinions.
If God be God serve Him.
Love Him.
Walk with Him.
If God be God if you know it
in your heart if you have truly found
Him if truly He's God then serve Him
and consider it reasonable to live for Him.
A brand new value system comes in.
Old things pass away.
The old concerns, the old pursuits.
We now, according to the book of Proverbs
begin to pursue wisdom and understanding like we
used to pursue silver and gold and riches
and things like that.
A brand new value system comes in.
In turn it means that the Christian begins
to live and move in Christ from the
position of first love and not of works.
He has found the heart of God and
thus it can be said that he that
wins souls is wise.
Hallelujah.
I can't take my house to heaven.
I can't take my suit to heaven.
I can't take this speaker to heaven, this
pulpit.
I can't take these seats to heaven but
I can take you to heaven.
If through my life you can find Christ
as your Lord and Savior and hold to
Him in faith trusting Him the rest of
your days then I can take you to
heaven.
God has given me that responsibility and He's
given me that privilege that there will be
people before the throne of God that will
stand there and rejoice with me as we
sang earlier tonight triumphant in the work of
His hands not because of me but because
of Christ within me because I've allowed His
power to lift me out of human mediocrity
and lift me into the realm where I
can share of His heart where He can
speak through my voice where He can touch
through my hands where my chiefest delight is
to be a soul winner where God can
impart to me the wisdom of heaven because
He who wins souls is wise.
Hallelujah.
The man who pursues the lost is in
the purest sense I guess you could say
a seeker of God.
I don't really see where you can be
a seeker of God and not be a
pursuer of the lost.
Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 and 2 says,
If ye then be risen with Christ seek
those things which are above where Christ sitteth
on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above and not
on things of the earth.
If ye be risen with Christ seek those
things which are above where Christ sits on
the right hand of God.
Now tonight Christ sits in a place of
triumph and rest and we too are exhorted
to live in that place of rest and
triumph in Him.
Hebrews chapter 4 verses 9 and 10 says,
There remains therefore a rest to the people
of God for he that is entered into
his rest he also is ceased from his
own works as God did from his.
Now this is a place of rest that
the Bible talks about in Christ where soul
winning is not a program.
I'm not against programs for soul winning.
Please don't misunderstand me.
But soul winning in itself is not a
program.
It's neither something that we only set aside
time to do.
Soul winning is not something that we can
say well I did that Friday night from
7 to 9.
Folks that might be good in itself but
that's not soul winning.
Soul winning is my life.
Soul winning is 24 hours a day 7
days a week 52 weeks a year for
the rest of my life.
That's what soul winning is all about.
It's not something I do.
It's not something I set aside time to
do.
It's something I become because Christ is in
me.
I become a soul winner.
If I possessed the heart of Christ He
had no other pursuits on this earth than
to see you and I come to the
knowledge that our sins could be forgiven through
the shedding of His blood through faith and
trust in Him that our sins could be
forgiven.
That was the work of Christ and we
are now His body.
If I am in Him if He has
gotten a hold of my heart I now
have the wisdom of God because I'm now
walking in the pursuit that God has for
my life.
He who wins souls is wise.
It's not a time that we set aside
just to tell people about various scriptures that
we've learned but rather it's simply an extension
of our life.
And we have the privilege of being led
by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God.
I thank God for that with all of
my heart that I can be led by
the Spirit and not driven by the overwhelming
needs that are around me.
That I don't have to be a partaker
of what I call machine gun evangelism.
I hope you remember that term because more
often it's a work born of the human
compulsion and of the flesh.
It's not born of the compassion of God.
Folks, you cannot win somebody by walking down
the street shouting scripture at them.
That is not the way to win people
to God.
And if you're going to witness just a
little side thing make sure your witnessing tools
make sense.
We understand some things in the body of
Christ.
Other people don't.
I've seen people walk down the street with
a t-shirt that says the blood chases
the devil.
Well, that's fine and dandy.
I mean, I know what that's all about
but if I was unsaved I wouldn't know
if that's a rock band.
I wouldn't have any idea.
The blood.
You get the picture of this big red
monster going down the street chasing the devil.
I'm not trying to be facetious.
Make sure that what you're using makes sense.
That it's not terminology that we've just become
familiar with in the church and has no
relevancy whatsoever out there.
I've read some tracts and I just thank
God I was saved because I wouldn't be
able to understand them otherwise looking at them.
Make sure that whatever you're using speaks to
the people where they live.
It speaks to them in common language that
people can understand.
That's why so many people gathered around Jesus.
The Pharisees had all this religious vernacular.
Now, vernacular is another word for speech.
They had all this religious talk and they
spoke in a way that nobody could understand
them.
Many of you came from nominal churches, right?
Before you came to the knowledge of Christ.
And you went to church seeking God.
You really wanted Him.
And then the pastor, the priest, whatever he
was would stand up on Sunday and you
couldn't make out a word he was saying.
You had no idea what he was talking
about.
First of all, he wasn't born again.
He probably had no idea himself what he
was talking about.
Neither did you.
But it sounded so holy that you sat
there and thought, well, it must be holy.
It sounds holy.
And you end up with the impression that,
well, God is unreachable by the masses.
Like ignorant little old me can never reach
God.
God is just somebody who can be reached
by people who have this incredible biblical, historical
knowledge of God.
And you end up going out of the
house thinking, how could I ever touch God?
How could I ever reach God?
But, you know, Jesus was different.
Around Him were gathered harlots, tax gatherers, the
lepers, the maimed, the blind, the poor, the
lame, the nobody, the nothings of society.
And He talked to them and He taught
them in a way that they could understand.
He told stories time and again.
The kingdom of heaven is like a man.
The kingdom of heaven is like this.
Once a man had two sons and he
talked about one going away and spending all
of his substance on riotous living.
The other son getting angry.
The son coming home because he remembered the
goodness of his father.
He told them his stories.
He spoke to them in a way that
they could understand.
He lived where the people lived.
They accused them of being an unrighteous man.
They said, you're a glutton and a winebibber.
But how did He respond?
Wisdom, He said, is justified of her children.
He who wins souls, the scripture says, is
wise.
Beware of this machine gun evangelism.
Beware of speaking just out of the compulsion
of the flesh.
Matthew chapter 7.
Go there with me in the New Testament.
Matthew chapter 7.
Incredible verse of scripture here.
Sometimes people have a hard time understanding.
It seems to not be in line with
the context of the previous verses nor the
ones that follow it.
It's right stuck in the middle but it's
really a profound verse of scripture.
Matthew chapter 7 verse 6.
He says, Give not that which is holy
unto the dogs.
Neither cast ye your pearls before swine lest
they trample them under their feet and turn
again and rend you.
Now what Jesus is saying here, don't take
the precious truths that I have given you
and just randomly cast them out to the
self-consumed.
What is a swine?
Really if you want to go to the,
a swine is somebody that eats, an animal
that eats garbage in a trough and they'll
stick their head in it and their god
is their belly, really.
And really what Jesus is saying, don't take
the precious truths that I give you the
things you learn and just randomly cast them
out to those who are not yet ready
to hear.
To those who are living in self-consumption
because the best that will happen to you
they'll turn and when they're not good to
their digestion they'll trample them under their feet
and turn again and simply just attack you
or argue with you.
This is the end of...
This medical team, I shared this a couple
of weeks ago, went into the, this one
house in Kosovo, not Kosovo, Macedonia a couple
of weeks ago and there was a lady
there bedridden for, a Muslim lady bedridden for
over two years suffering uncontrolled seizures.
Repeated, it kept her in a continual state
of weakness.
She would get up, she would just simply
fall down.
She'd become completely blind in one eye.
They told me that you could stick your
finger literally in her eye.
Her eye was dead.
There was no sight in it, there was
no life in her eye and she was
totally paralyzed.
Her husband told me later, he said it's
been a living darkness for two years.
He said, we've not known what to do.
Medical team went in, they took a look
at her and they said, we're sorry.
There's not much we can do for her
medically speaking.
We really just don't have the equipment to
deal with this.
They said, but we can pray for her.
And then the husband rose up, a devout
Muslim, I assume, and he began to mock
Christ and say, you Christians with your Christian
God, your God is just as powerless as
all other gods are.
There's no difference.
He said, we've taken her down to the
mosque and we've had her prayed for and
we've taken her to doctors and there's absolutely
nothing that can be done for her.
Now here was a situation where if somebody's
not led of the spirit, you can begin
to argue doctrine.
Muslims don't believe that God had a son.
So the next stage if you're an arguer
would say, God had a son.
No he didn't.
Yes he did.
No he didn't.
Yes he did.
And it would get you nowhere, absolutely nowhere.
But a young girl on the team with
a boldness upon her.
As a matter of fact, I believe that
she's in Kosovo right now.
She said, you may, she just stopped the
whole process and said, you may not believe
our words.
She said, but you will believe when you
see what our God can do.
Now isn't that incredible?
That's witnessing.
You'll believe when you see what our God
can do.
I'll stop the story there just for a
moment.
Can you say that to somebody on the
street?
Say, you may not believe my words, but
you will believe if you will let me
tell you what God has done in my
life.
You will believe.
Let me tell you where God brought me
from.
You see, that's what a testimony is all
about.
That's what soul winning is all about.
That's what wisdom is about.
It's a living testimony for Christ.
The medical team went into the room.
They laid hands on this lady.
They prayed for her.
She was instantly healed.
Sight was given back to her eye.
She saw again.
She was raised up.
She was completely sound and in perfect health.
When I arrived in the village about four
hours later, there was a, as the Bible
says, there was a stir.
There were people all around, the medical team,
out in this open area.
The first thing that happened is people got
scared of our medical team from here from
Times Square Church.
They said, what kind of people are this
that this kind of power operates through their
lives?
Then I was invited to the house.
We went to the house.
The man was there.
He brought together all of his family.
Now a Muslim family is very large.
It's aunts and uncles and grandmas and sisters
and I don't know, all of the folks.
Of course, there were some refugees as well.
Brought them into the house.
When you're dealing with a Muslim family, you
can only speak to the head of the
house.
You're not allowed really to speak to anybody
else.
As the head of the house goes, there
goes the whole house.
I began to speak to him.
He could not deny the power of God.
As the scripture says, a notable miracle.
Here is his wife.
She is sitting on that couch.
She is radiating.
She had received Christ.
They led her to Christ after they prayed
for her.
She is radiating the joy of the Lord.
I mean, it was incredible.
Her countenance was changed.
A smile literally from ear to ear.
Her eyes, she can see.
Her husband is dumbfounded.
He doesn't know what to do.
And so, I began to speak to him
and then found out that he spoke French.
So, I didn't need to use a translator
anymore because I speak French.
I used to at least.
It was a step of faith on my
part to start speaking to him in French.
But I trusted the Holy Ghost and I
shared with him.
I said, you've seen a miracle.
A miracle has come into your house today.
He could not deny the power of God.
I said, but I want to share with
you a much greater miracle than this.
And I began to share the miracle of
Calvary and God's Son.
The shedding of blood.
The fact that he could know his sins
could be forgiven.
That God could give him a new life.
And then he asked me a question.
He said, how do you account for the
poverty that is upon my people and upon
this area of the world?
And I talked to him about the hatred.
I talked to him about the violence, the
blood that is in the soil.
I talked to him about people who have
refused to forgive over the centuries.
And because of it there's a confusion.
The Bible says clearly where there's strife and
evil there's confusion in every kind of an
evil work.
And finally, sharing with him about Christ, he
just bowed his head and began to weep
and tears came to his eyes.
And I knew at that point the victory
was won.
All these years of Islam had fallen to
the ground and Christ had come.
Hallelujah.
He who wins souls is wise.
The people of that particular area of the
world it's a very, very gloomy society because
of the wars and there's such a deeply
embedded ethnic hatred in the people.
One thing that we did notice is that
the children have such life.
They dance and jump in the streets like
normal children do until they become about 13
years of age.
And then this gloominess seems to set in
and virtually overpower them.
That hits the whole society because of sin.
Because of not unbelieving but it's the sin
of refusing Christ and harboring hatred in the
heart.
But we saw one of the things that
the people were enamored with was the joy
of the Lord that was evidently upon our
teams to walk through and just to be
smiling to be shaking hands to be talking
to people to be sharing.
And that was one thing that they couldn't
really cope with.
Folks, that's why the Bible says clearly the
joy of the Lord is our strength.
The joy of the Lord is our strength.
When I was a young Christian I tell
you for sure I was so in love
with Christ I was so thankful to be
saved I didn't have to seek out people
to tell about God.
I'd go into work and I'd just do
my work during the day and oft times
I loved to sing.
Sometimes I'd sing just sometimes I wouldn't even
be aware that I was singing.
I'd just worship the Lord just love Him
and virtually not on a continual basis but
quite often other men that I'd work with
would come up to me and say what
is it?
What is it that's in your life?
What is it that you have?
You're so different than the rest of us.
We're all complaining about our wages and we're
talking about people and we're doing this and
you just sit there on your typewriter and
you just seem to be having such a
good time.
You seem to enjoy your work.
Well I don't I really didn't enjoy my
work all that much but I enjoyed the
presence of the Lord.
I enjoyed Christ He was upon me and
it was in relationship.
I would spend my mornings in the Word
of God.
I'd spend my nights in the Word of
God.
I drove 37 miles home and 37 miles
to work every day and all the way
home my hand would be in the air.
Sometimes I'd rather not say this as a
policeman but sometimes I'd even close my eyes
just momentarily I'd forget where I was.
I don't ever recommend you do that.
If you get the tape please don't do
that.
But I would love Him I would weep
I would pray for people I'd come in
to work that day I'd pray for guys
that I worked with and I would weep
and cry and my hand would be in
the air and sometimes I'd forget and I'd
ease up my foot on the gas pedal
and the next thing I know people are
passing me and shaking their fists at me
and I'm going about 40 miles an hour
on the highway and I'd finally I'd finally
get there and the tone of the day
had been set because I was walking in
my first love.
When you're walking in your first love when
you're seeking the heart of God soul winning
is not a program.
It's not four steps to this and six
steps to that.
The scriptures help us to explain Christ but
soul winning is not just the memorization of
scripture.
As good as that is soul winning is
not a program.
Soul winning is the wisdom to enter into
the work of God and the only way
we enter in is through our first love
relationship that we simply refuse to let go.
I'm not letting this relationship with God go.
I'm not letting the day encroach upon it.
I'm not letting other values come in and
steal it away from me.
I'm not letting the gloominess of this society
because of its self-seeking come into my
soul and rob me of the treasure that
I have in Christ.
I refuse to sing the psalms of this
generation.
I have a new song in my heart
and a new song on my lips and
that's the song I'm going to sing.
Hallelujah.
Do you know how gloomy toll takers are?
Any toll takers here tonight?
Do you know how gloomy and grouchy toll
takers usually are?
I'm at the point of trying to be
nice to them now.
You don't get a response very often but
one morning, one morning, I was coming into
New York City and there was a precious
lady in the toll-taking machine at the
Lincoln Tunnel and she was shouting and singing
and I gave her my four dollars and
she gave me my receipt and said, Bless
God.
Bless God.
Have a good day.
That's the testimony.
You know all the people that come through
to New York every day and the very
first thing before you hit the border is
a grouchy toll taker.
Won't even look at you.
Won't even talk to you.
Half the time doesn't even give you the
right change.
Hallelujah.
He who wins souls is wise.
It's all about relationship, my brothers and my
sisters.
It started out with a relationship.
It's all about relationship.
It will never be anything but relationship.
I've shared with you before this older gentleman
that used to be part of the church
that I pastored in Canada.
He was 83 years old.
His name was Howard Young.
I remember one day after church service I
took him out to lunch.
We went to a restaurant together and in
my hand I had a track in my
pocket and whenever I'd go to a restaurant
I'd want to leave a track with a
tip and this kind of thing.
We go in the restaurant and you're looking
for your chance.
I don't know if you're like that or
not.
If you're in a restaurant, the waiter comes
and you're just looking for a word and
you can jump in and say do you
know Jesus?
Are you saved?
Mind if I give you this?
It's like a skipping game.
You're waiting for the rope to come around
so you can get in.
I was a minister then.
I won more people before I became a
minister than after.
That's another story altogether.
I'll tell you about it sometimes.
But here I am.
I'm now preaching the gospel.
I am winning less people to Christ than
I used to.
But I am preaching the gospel.
The church has been established and all these
things are happening.
But something is wrong because I'm now relying
on tracks.
I'm now looking for opportunities to share what
used to just flow out of my life.
And this man, Howard Young, I took him
for dinner one day.
We're sitting in the restaurant.
He's a wonderful man of God.
He had a powerful testimony.
He had been a cantankerous construction worker, a
boss.
Nobody could virtually work for him.
They said he was one of the orneriest
men you ever met.
Was saved in his forties.
I knew him when he was 83.
Hard to believe that he could have been
the type of man that some people had
described.
This was not the man I knew.
He used to go to senior citizens' homes
to witness.
He told me, he said, I love witnessing
to those old folks in the senior citizens'
homes.
He said, they need the gospel.
He was 83 years of age himself.
We went into the restaurant.
We were sitting at the table.
I've got my tract in my pocket and
I'm waiting my chance.
I want to be a good Christian witness.
After all, Howard is with me.
I want to be a good Christian witness.
I'm looking for my chance to get my
tract out.
Right in the middle of all my deliberations
and waiting for the rope to come around
one more time, Howard reaches out and grabs
his hand and starts to cry.
The tears started rolling down his cheeks.
He said, honey, do you know the Savior?
He said, do you know Jesus, the Son
of God that loves you?
And she began to cry.
The only one who wasn't crying was me.
Sitting there with my tract in my hand
as Howard was leading this girl to Christ.
You see, because there was nothing left for
him.
There was no agenda.
He had laid hold of God like precious
few really do in our generation.
I believe that many are here at Times
Square Church, but there are precious few that
lay hold of God like that.
He had so laid hold of God that
there was such a purity in this man
that he could reach out and grab somebody's
hand.
He could ask a question with a broken
heart because he loved God so much that
he knew the heart of God for that
girl.
Irrespective of how unclean she may have looked
and how dirty her background might be, he
could still reach out and touch her and
because the heart of Christ was manifested in
him, he was a soul winner.
That's what soul winning is all about.
Mark chapter 1, to
be led by the spirit.
That's my heart's desire.
To be led by the spirit.
I shared with you earlier, I'm no longer
under compulsion to witness to everybody I see.
But I am under an obligation in my
heart to spend quality time with God so
that he can reveal to me his heart.
There's a hundred thousand voices wanting to speak
to me on every billboard, every sign, everybody
is selling something in this city.
There are even voices in the airwaves that
I'm not even aware of.
I'm surrounded continuously outside of these doors by
different voices begging for my attention and begging
to lead and lead.
All the works that are going on in
Times Square right now, there's only one work
that is eternal and that is the work
of God.
There's only one channel that I want to
be tuned into and that's the voice of
the Holy Ghost.
That as I'm walking down that street, he
can begin to speak to my heart and
say, speak to this man.
He can even tell me what to say.
When we were in Kosovo recently, in Macedonia
rather, I'm sorry, we would get up, Elder
Bill Martin was with me, we would get
up in the morning somewhere around 520, we'd
begin to pray until about 9 o'clock,
get in the Word and just spend time
in prayer.
We would ask God for directions for the
day and at the end of the day,
folks, we were able to rejoice.
There was a rest in that, a relationship
with God was intact, we were hearing the
voice of God, we were trusting in Him,
there was no agitation and throughout the day
people would just simply come across our path.
You see, if somebody is listening to the
voice of God, God knows where they are.
If somebody else is hungry, God knows where
to send them.
He can bring people across your path in
the workplace, in your neighborhood, on the street
that are really God ordained appointments and if
we're listening to His voice.
We got caught one day in a rainstorm,
a horrid rainstorm was coming and I said
to Bettina, we better get to one of
the army tents shortly because really it was
a very very bad storm that came on
us.
And as we were rushing to the army
tent, this young man, we ran into this
young man.
Now you're talking 30,000 people in this
tent city.
We ran into this young man that Bettina
had met one time in the city of
Skopje and he spoke English, very few that
speak English in Macedonia.
And we ran into him and he invited
us then to his tent.
See this is a divine appointment, this is
the leading of God.
We followed him, we went to his tent.
In that tent were four other young men,
all university students, all very very hungry for
God for two hours solid.
God gave us an open door to share
Jesus Christ, to share our testimonies.
They couldn't get over the fact that we
were able to share with them the changes
that had come into our lives since Jesus
Christ had become our Lord and Savior.
They began to ask questions of us like
where do we get the power to forgive?
How can I quit smoking?
It was another one of the questions.
Where can I get the power to do
these things?
They were so touched by what we were
able to share with them, Muslim men, that
on Thursday night I was speaking to one
of the churches, one of them with three,
two family members arrived three hours early for
the service, wanting to hear the Word of
God.
And he's coming to New York, he's going
to be here shortly I believe coming to
Times Square Church.
God touched this young man because it was
a call of God.
Had we not been listening to the voice
of God, had we not been walking under
the unction of the Holy Ghost, we might
have missed that divine appointment and just said
hi and kept on walking.
I wonder in the course of the day
how many opportunities we miss, how many divine
appointments we pass by because we've not spent
sufficient time seeking God.
This is really the basis of soul winning.
It's intimate time with Jesus Christ.
Mark chapter one verse twenty-nine.
And forthwith when they were come out of
the synagogue, they entered into the house of
Simon and Andrew with James and John.
But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a
fever, and anon they tell him of her.
And he came and took her by the
hand and lifted her up, and immediately the
fever left her, and she ministered unto them.
And at even, or the evening, when the
sun did set, they brought unto him all
that were diseased, and them that were possessed
with devils.
And all the city, verse thirty-three, in
other words the whole city, the whole town,
were gathered together at the door.
Now this was an incredible revival happening here.
And he healed many that were sick of
diverse diseases, and cast out many devils, and
suffered not the devils to speak, because they
knew him.
And in the morning, verse thirty-five, rising
up a great while before day, he went
out and departed into a solitary place, and
there prayed.
And Simon, and they that were with him,
followed after him.
And when they had found him, they said
unto him, All men seek for thee.
I'm sure this was a tremendous report.
Just stop there just for a moment.
He's been in the house, he's been in
the house, in Simon's house.
The whole town is gathered.
Peter's mother is healed.
People that are demon possessed are being set
free.
Diseases are being cast out.
Wholeness is coming.
And in the morning, Simon runs after him
and says, Everyone now is seeking for you.
Not only the town, but everybody.
There's not a soul around that's not come
now to hear your words and to let
your power be released in their lives.
And then he, an incredible response now comes
from Jesus in verse thirty-eight.
And he says, I said unto them, Let
us go to the next towns, that I
may preach there also.
For therefore came I forth.
You see, Jesus was not led by need
around him.
He was led by the voice of the
spirit of almighty God.
A great while before day he went out.
A great while, verse thirty-five, in the
morning.
A great while before day he went out
and departed to a place alone and there
prayed.
And it was in that place that God
spoke to him and said, Go, go, go.
To another town.
Not motivated by the needs.
You see, the reason for so much failure
in so many today almost always goes back
to the failure of even sometimes the most
zealous people of God to have the mind
of the spirit.
Driven by the need but not led by
the voice of God.
And the reason is that they have failed
in knowing him in personal intimacy and relationship.
I can't tell you I guess in a
way this is a how-to when you
talk about soul winning.
You will not be a soul winner if
you don't know Jesus Christ in personal intimacy.
That is the basis of all we do.
If you don't have a burden to share
Christ with somebody if the voice of the
spirit is not speaking to you then something
is wrong in that early morning relationship.
And might I might I suggest that if
you want to become a soul winner, that
it might become a good practice to get
up a great deal of the morning
and go into a solitary place and there
seek God.
Open the Bible and begin to pray and
pray for your co-workers.
Pray for the mind of the spirit.
Pray for the Holy Ghost to lead the
course of your day.
Pray for sovereign divine strength to be a
witness in every situation that you're going to
encounter.
Pray for the ears of God to be
able to hear what begins to speak and
says this is I want you to speak
to this person.
Pray for an obedient heart that when God
begins to speak that God will bear fruit.
Pray for the mind of Christ that you
can know what to say.
Folks you don't have to say the same
thing every time.
God will give you the words to say.
God will give you the story to tell.
I was in one house in Macedonia and
I just simply was waiting for the Holy
Spirit to speak to me and then all
of a sudden He began to speak and
reminded me that I lost my house several
years ago.
I lost everything I owned and I shared
with the translator with this man.
I said I'd like to share a story
about something God did for me a few
years ago.
Would you like me to share that story?
And the translator asked and the man said
yes I'd like you to share.
Never take away a person's dignity.
Don't force the gospel.
You can't grab them by the nose and
yank open their jaw and just cram the
gospel down their throat.
It doesn't work.
If you're wise, if there's wisdom in your
heart, you will allow, you will draw the
person out.
So I'd like to tell you a story.
Would you like to hear it?
I had a man one time I was
at a hockey practice for one of my
sons and he sat next to me and
he said what is it that you believe?
That's an incredible question isn't it?
You talk about an open door.
What is it that you believe?
I looked at him and I said it's
going to take me 20 minutes.
I don't normally do this but this is
what the Holy Spirit spoke to me.
It's going to take me 20 minutes to
tell you and I said but if you're
interested I'll tell you and he looked at
me, he looked at his watch and said
well I got time, tell me.
In this particular house the man opened the
door to his heart to his home and
I was able to share with him how
I lost everything.
I was out doing good things and I
came home and I had lost everything.
I said but I had a promise from
the Bible that if I seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness that he
would add everything to me that I need
and I told him about the faithfulness of
God and how he gave back everything that
I had lost and I said I believe
that if you will trust in God he
will do that for you too as well
and there was a nodding of heads and
an agreement in that room and they allowed
us then to pray for them.
Isn't it incredible?
You're talking about Muslim homes, Muslim families and
we were praying for them in Jesus' name
that they would come to the knowledge of
God but just following the leading of the
Holy Ghost we went in other homes there
was no witness whatsoever to speak to the
people.
No witness.
We'd go in and there was just no
witness in the heart.
We were not walking under a compulsion to
speak to everybody we came across.
There were certain places.
Paul wanted to go to Asia.
The Holy Ghost said no you're going in
the other direction and so Paul went in
the other direction.
There was one couple that had been engaged.
They had been kicked out of Kosovo.
They were living in separate tents with their
families and I offered to marry them.
I said I'm a minister of the gospel.
I'll marry you here.
We can have a wedding.
I thought what an opportunity to get all
these people together and have a wedding and
he chickened out.
I think I really caused the problem there
to be honest with you because she was
all for it and he got cold feet
and I was kind of thankful I was
leaving I think around that point.
Hallelujah.
I had a good heart anyway.
Listen to what the psalmist says.
Let me just read it to you.
He said oh God thou art my God.
Early will I seek thee.
David said I'll seek you early.
My soul thirsts for thee.
My flesh longs for thee in a dry
and thirsty land where no water is.
To see thy power and thy glory so
as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
This is often my prayer.
God I long to see you work on
the street like I have seen you work
in the sanctuary.
I long to see lives illuminated with the
joy of coming to the saving knowledge of
Christ as I have seen those lives touched
and illuminated in the house of God.
Lord I will seek you early.
David said I will seek you early.
I long for this.
Go with me to psalm five.
We'll read there together.
Psalm five.
Next week, next week I'm going to get
into a little more of the how to's
of evangelism.
But it would be futile to even attempt
to do that if you are not a
seeker of God.
If you and I have not set aside
the time to seek him, to know him,
to give our lives for his purpose.
Because soul winning is not a program.
Soul winning is the program.
It is the program.
It's not another program.
It is the program of the church.
There is no other program.
Christ was a missionary.
He left heaven.
He came here for us and he said
follow me.
He poured out his life.
He was compassionate.
He had compassion on the people who were
ignorant and had no teachers.
He had compassion on the hungry.
He had compassion on the leper.
He had compassion on the blind.
He had compassion because his heart was the
heart of his father.
He had come to do the will of
his father.
And walking in that heart, walking in the
intimacy of that relationship, his life became a
virtual extension of his father in heaven.
And we as his beloved bride and as
his body, he calls us now to be
an extension of his heart in our generation.
There is no other way we can do
that without intimacy with God.
Give ear to my words, Psalm 5, O
Lord.
Consider my meditation.
Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my
king and my God.
For unto thee, O Lord, unto thee will
I pray.
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning.
O Lord, in the morning will I direct
my prayer and unto thee will look up.
Moses said in Psalm 90, he cried out,
he said, let thy work appear.
And he said, O God, establish the work
of our hands.
Let your work appear to us, O God.
Your work.
Let it appear in me.
Let it appear in my life.
And God, establish the work of my hands.
Let me be a servant to Let me
be a soul winner.
Let me be a soul winner.
Let it be as easy as breathing.
In the name of Jesus Christ.
God, make me sensitive to the leading of
your spirit.
Help me to enter into your work, Lord.
This is your work.
I am your servant.
God, give me great grace that I may
enter into your work.
Walking in the spirit.
D.L. Moody, a great, great evangelist, walked
on a train one day and just was
sitting and reading a book in the corner.
And he was reading and all of a
sudden the man walked up to him weeping
and said, sir, tell me, who are you?
He said, you convict me of sin.
He said, what is it in your life?
You see, he had an intimate relationship with
God.
He was just sitting in the corner worshiping
God, loving the Lord, thanking Him for His
goodness, His power.
Just, he was worshiping.
That's all he was doing.
In his heart, he didn't even have his
hands raised.
He was just worshiping God.
This man, he opens his eyes, a man
standing there weeping.
He says, who are you?
Your presence convicts me of sin.
He said, who are you?
What is it that you have?
And as he began to share with this
man in the train, other people began weeping
all over the train cars.
They heard him share.
And other people began to come to the
knowledge of Christ because he had an intimate
relationship with God.
Father, I ask tonight in Jesus' name, Lord,
that you stretch out your hand over this
beloved bride, this beloved body that is yours
here in Times Square Church in New York
City.
God, this is one of the most vile
cities in all of the world.
But, Lord, I ask tonight, O God, there
are people here as well perhaps as in
other places throughout the city tonight that are
seeking you, that want to know you, O
God.
Lord, make us sensitive to them.
Make us sensitive, O God, to everyone that
we encounter, Lord, whose heart is open, who
are yearning.
Lord, there are people walking down the street
tonight that if they don't get an answer
they're going to commit suicide.
God, there are fathers walking the streets that
don't know how to give to their children.
Lord, there are mothers who have come to
their wit's end.
They're in despair.
They don't know who to turn to.
There's a cry in their heart for Almighty
God.
Oh, Lord, make us sensitive, O God.
Give us your heart.
Give us your ears.
Give us your mind, Father.
God, thank you, Lord, that you're going to
make Times Square Church a soul-winning church
in this city.
Thank you, Lord, that there will be life
in this house.