The sermon "The Heart of the Effective Evangelist" by Jeffrey Johnson delves into how effective evangelism, as exemplified by the Apostle Paul, involves profound personal adaptability and a deep love for people to communicate the Gospel effectively. Here is a summary of the key points:
1. **Adaptability and Relatability**: Paul's approach, as narrated in the scriptures, involved adapting his behavior and practices to connect with different groups of people—Jews, Gentiles, and the weak in conscience—without compromising his moral and spiritual integrity. This adaptability was aimed at removing any barriers that could hinder the gospel's acceptance.
2. **Evangelism as Active Engagement**: The sermon emphasizes that evangelism requires active and intentional engagement. Like fishing, if one does not cast the net, no fish will be caught; similarly, souls are not won without the effort of evangelism.
3. **Paul’s Motivation and Methodology**: Johnson highlights that Paul’s evangelistic efforts were driven by his love for people and his desire to share the blessings of the Gospel. Paul's methods included making personal sacrifices to avoid causing offense and ensuring his actions always promoted the Gospel.
4. **Evangelistic Traits to Emulate**: The sermon suggests four traits from Paul's evangelistic efforts that are crucial for effective soul-winning: - **Love for People**: Showing genuine concern and making sacrifices for others' wellbeing. - **Love for Holiness**: Maintaining spiritual integrity while engaging various cultures. - **Love to Win Souls**: The passion for leading others to faith through personal interaction and relatability. - **Love for the Gospel**: A foundational commitment that motivates all evangelistic efforts, reflecting a deep-seated belief in the Gospel’s power.
5. **Practical Application**: Johnson encourages a proactive stance in evangelism—praying for opportunities, preparing for interactions, and prioritizing the spiritual over personal freedoms or comforts.
This sermon urges believers to actively engage in evangelism by adopting Paul’s methods and motivations, emphasizing adaptability, deep love for the Gospel, and an unyielding commitment to the spiritual growth of others.
The sermon "The Heart of the Effective Evangelist" by Jeffrey Johnson delves into how effective evangelism, as exemplified by the Apostle Paul, involves profound personal adaptability and a deep love for people to communicate the Gospel effectively. Here is a summary of the key points:
1. **Adaptability and Relatability**: Paul's approach, as narrated in the scriptures, involved adapting his behavior and practices to connect with different groups of people—Jews, Gentiles, and the weak in conscience—without compromising his moral and spiritual integrity. This adaptability was aimed at removing any barriers that could hinder the gospel's acceptance.
2. **Evangelism as Active Engagement**: The sermon emphasizes that evangelism requires active and intentional engagement. Like fishing, if one does not cast the net, no fish will be caught; similarly, souls are not won without the effort of evangelism.
3. **Paul’s Motivation and Methodology**: Johnson highlights that Paul’s evangelistic efforts were driven by his love for people and his desire to share the blessings of the Gospel. Paul's methods included making personal sacrifices to avoid causing offense and ensuring his actions always promoted the Gospel.
4. **Evangelistic Traits to Emulate**: The sermon suggests four traits from Paul's evangelistic efforts that are crucial for effective soul-winning: - **Love for People**: Showing genuine concern and making sacrifices for others' wellbeing. - **Love for Holiness**: Maintaining spiritual integrity while engaging various cultures. - **Love to Win Souls**: The passion for leading others to faith through personal interaction and relatability. - **Love for the Gospel**: A foundational commitment that motivates all evangelistic efforts, reflecting a deep-seated belief in the Gospel’s power.
5. **Practical Application**: Johnson encourages a proactive stance in evangelism—praying for opportunities, preparing for interactions, and prioritizing the spiritual over personal freedoms or comforts.
This sermon urges believers to actively engage in evangelism by adopting Paul’s methods and motivations, emphasizing adaptability, deep love for the Gospel, and an unyielding commitment to the spiritual growth of others.
Those outside the law became as one outside of law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I become weak, that I might win the weak. I become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I might share with them in its blessing. If this was the writings of the Apostle Paul, if this is something I wrote on a blog or you wrote on a blog, we'd probably question it and say this is not well worded. Don't we know that we can't save souls? Five times Paul says I do all these things that I might win souls, that I might win the Jews, I might win the Gentiles, that I might win the weak. I do all these things that I might win more. In fact, he says in verse 19 that I might win more of them. Surely he believes in the doctrines of grace, and surely he believes in the doctrine of election. How can you add more to whom God's going to save? This seems like Paul is putting too much emphasis upon his ability to win souls. Spurgeon recognized that when he preached through this text, recognized that Paul is talking about winning souls, and that some of the things he did could end up leading to more souls being won. He says we have to remember that God uses instruments to carry out his purposes, and he's never chose to save anyone without the instrumentality of evangelists or a preacher or someone to share the gospel. That everyone who saved or will be saved is going to be saved because someone shared the gospel to them. And not only is that the case, there's better ways of sharing the gospel than other ways. And that you may be even a hindrance. The method in which you're sharing the gospel may be even a hindrance towards those coming to the faith. And so we see here that if you never fish, in fact, I can tell you that I haven't caught one fish this year. Not a single fish I've caught. Not a big one, not a small one. I haven't caught any fish. Well, it's true I've not gone fishing either. I hadn't had time to fish, so I haven't fished at all, but I haven't caught anything. But it can be certain if you don't fish, you're not going to catch anything. And I wonder how many of that could say that about winning souls. Have you won any souls this year? And maybe you haven't, but you have been out soul winning. You've been out evangelizing. But hopefully you don't say to yourself, I haven't won any souls this year because I haven't evangelized this year. That I haven't went out and shared the gospel, shared the faith. You see, the Apostle Paul shared the faith everywhere he went. He was an evangelist. He loved to preach to others. He loved evangelize. He loved to share the gospel. And in this text, we see four things that he did well. In fact, if you want to be a soul winner, and I love that phrase, soul winner. We don't use it anymore. But my uncle was an evangelist and he calls himself a soul winner. And obviously he's getting that phrase soul winner from this passage. Because five times Paul says, I'm seeking to win souls. I'm seeking to convince people of the gospel. I'm seeking to save souls by evangelizing. And what we see in this text, Paul has a heart to evangelize. He has a heart to win souls. And there's four traits about the Apostle Paul that we would do good. We would do well to emulate so that we could be better soul winners. You know, if you want to be a fisherman, maybe you could have some professional come beside you. Say, work on these four things. And if you want to be a bigger, better fisherman, catch more fish. In fact, I had a roommate when I grew up in college. I grew up when I was in college, I had a roommate and we'd go fishing and together. And we had fished the same spots. And somehow he would catch twice as many as I caught. I said, why are you catching more? I'm throwing in the same spots you're throwing. And I come to the realization that he was able to hook them. He had the perfect technique to snag them and hook them once they bit. I mean, I would sit there and let it let the bait just kind of play around the fish, play around with the bait and he would hook them. I mean, twice as well as I did. And I try to have him help me. How do I do this? Well, here's the professional soul winner, the apostle Paul. He's the one who does this very well. He has a passion for this. And he's going to give us four things to improve upon. If you want to be a soul winner, four things to improve upon. In fact, it's four things you should love. If you love these four things that Paul loved, you will be a soul winner. And we want to emulate Paul in these four things. First of all, Paul loved people. He loved people. We see this in verse 19. For though I'm free from all, I've made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them. I mean, this is how much he loved him. He made himself a voluntary servant to them, though he's free from them. He's not a slave to them. He is not under their control, but he voluntarily placed himself as their servants. He became a servant to all. Martin Luther says a Christian is perfectly free. He's Lord of all. He's subject to none. Then he goes on to say a Christian is perfectly dutifully servant to all subject to all. In other words, Luther says the Christian is a paradox. He's free from all and he's a servant of all. And Luther is getting that phrase from this passage. And we too, we need to realize though we are free from all men and we're not slaves to any. We're to be voluntarily a slave to everyone. In fact, Luther goes on to say the reason we're to be a slave to all is because we love all. He says, Oh, no one anything except love one another. According to Romans 13, eight Luther says love by its very nature is ready to serve and to be subject to him who is loved. First Corinthians 16, 14, Paul tells us, let all that you do be done in love. And so Paul is willing to subjugate himself and his freedoms and his liberties in order to win more people. He's willing to be a servant to all people and he lists three types of people. He's willing to be a servant to to the Jews, the Gentiles into the week. And he being a Jew no longer was under the because of his faith in Christ. Jesus has freed him from the Old Testament laws, the positive laws of the old covenant. He's no longer bound by that. He's able to eat pork. He's able to do all kinds of things that the Jews were not willing to do. But he willingly subjugate himself to the old covenant walls in order to be a better witness of to be able to not be offensive to the Jews. He says in verse 20 to the Jews, I became a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law that I might win those under the law. In other words, Paul, when he went around his Jewish friends, maybe his old family members, that they wouldn't eat pork or they wouldn't do this and do that. They had all these Old Testament ceremonials, ceremonies and rituals that they would follow through part of the old covenant law is when I was around that I obeyed these things as well. I didn't want to be a stumbling block to the Jews. I didn't want to be offensive to them. And though I was free from this, I willfully submitted myself to this. I did not have to eat my barbecue, if you would. And this is a sacrificial heart that Paul has. And so often we see in the young people today, I'm going to do what I want to do. Doesn't matter what people think. You know, I have freedom. I'm going to stand firm in my freedom and I'm going to have my liberties. I'm going to do what I do no matter who it offends. This is not the spirit of Paul. And this is not the spirit of the one who wants to evangelize others. And not only did he subjugate himself to the Jewish laws that he didn't have to anymore. When he was around the Gentiles, he became like a Gentile. Look at verse 21 to those outside the law become as one outside of the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ. That I might win those outside the law. That is when Paul was around the Gentiles, he would eat his barbecue. He would go and do the things that they did. Now he wouldn't sin. We'll see that in a minute. He maintained a stance of holiness and purity. But he became like those whom he was around. That way he could win more. Look at verse 22. It says to the week I became weak that I might win the week. The week here is the week in conscience. Those who have scruples, those who have a lot of convictions and a lot of regulations that they placed upon themselves. So we know we all have friends like that. That they have regulations and scruples that they put on themselves. And Paul says, when I come to those who are weak in conscience, they have a tender conscience. I submit my conscience to their conscience. This is a heart of service. This is one who is willing to serve all in order to be able to minister to all. In context, we know that Paul is talking about meats offered to idols. In the previous chapter, chapter eight of 1 Corinthians, he says in verse one, now concerning food offered to idols. We know that all of us possess knowledge. Then in verse seven says, however, not all possess this knowledge, but some through former association with idols eat food as really offered to an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the week. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged in of his conscience this week to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed. The brother whom Christ died, thus sinning against your brothers and wrongdoing their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble. Here is a man who loves people. Here is a man who loves the Jews. He loves the Gentiles. He loves those who are weak in conscience. And he is willing to say, I don't ever have to eat meat again. Now, I want you to think about that. Is that your disposition? Is that your heart? I mean, we all love meat. At least I think we do. It would be hard. It would be hard for me to say, I'm never going to eat meat again. If that causes my brother to stumble. If it emboldens him to do something against his conscience, I'll be sinning against my weaker brother and then sinning against Christ. But for the sake of my love for my brother and my sister, or for the sake of loving maybe a Gentile or a Jew who doesn't know the Lord and I want to be a good influence upon them. I want to win them to the Lord and for the be able to be a better witness. To be able to not put a stumbling block in front of them to be able to speak into their lives where they're going to hear me. I'm willing to do without. This is the heart of the apostle Paul. And this is the heart of a true evangelist. And you can use your Calvinism to go, well, God's going to save who he wants to. I'm going to do what I want to. You can be hyper if you want to. But that's what it is. It's hyper Calvinism. You have to understand that God uses means to save souls and he uses evangelists to save souls. And he is going to use evangelists who have a heart for people. If you want to win more souls than you win that have the heart that Paul had. I don't want to. I mean, I want that I want to be able to win more souls and not just have a few souls. I want to win more and more souls. So why we seek to emulate the heart that Paul had. I have a pastor friend. Greg Steven knows him and my wife and few of us know he's getting older now. And his name is Dr. Campbell. He was pastor of a church in Louisiana and one of the richest men I know. One time he went to go buy a car at a car lot. So he goes, I'll take this one. And they wanted to go finance it for him. It's like, no, no, I plan on writing a check for it. He goes, well, we don't take checks. The he says, well, if you don't take a check, I'll go somewhere else. So you can call the bank if you like to see if this this will clear. So the salesman go cause the bank and gets hold of someone at the bank. And the bank says, if Dr. Campbell wants to buy the whole car a lot, let's see. Let him buy the whole car a lot. In fact, he was in the back in the eighties, the in the Forbes top hundred richest people in America. His name was listed in there. He used to ride a rail with my dad once. And my dad was preaching in his church. He says, you know, his dad, I said, said to my dad, Don, you know, I can. I could drive any horror I wanted. I could, I could drive anything I wanted to drive, but it would hinder my ministry. And because he would hinder my ministry and the people I pastor to, I drive this old Ford pickup truck. This is a man who understood that what was important is not his liberties. He had the right. He had the financial ability. No one could say to them, you're being irresponsible. No one could say you're spending your money poorly because he had a sufficient amount of funds to take care of it. But he knew that if you drove too nice of a vehicle, it would be a hindrance to his people. It would be a hindrance for people looking at him. So he did without. This was the heart of the apostle Paul. Paul sells us now concerning food. It's offered to idols. We know all of us possess knowledge, but knowledge puffs up. But love builds up. And see, Paul wanted to love more than he wanted to stand for his freedoms. This is why earlier in this chapter, chapter nine, he says, I'm not taking financial support. I don't want that to be a hindrance. I don't want people to think that I'm doing it for the money. And this is summed up in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31. So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to the Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God. Just as I try to please everyone and everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that many that they may be saved. I'm not seeking what's in it for me. I'm not seeking my own advantage. I'm not standing up for my rights. I'm doing without I'm serving. I'm seeking to become all things to all men. So I'm not offensive to any man in order that I might save some. So this is his heart. He has a love for people. And I think if we had this heart and cultivate this heart for people, it'll be easier and easier to do without your own rights. Because you have a real genuine desire to win souls. Secondly, not only love people, but love holiness. Now, this can be confusing because in this text, he says, I'm not under law. Then he says, I'm not without the law. And verse 20 says, I'm not under the law. Then verse 21, I am not without the law of God. In verse 22, I'm under the law of Christ. What does this mean? Now, a lot of people will use this text for what we call, I would call hyper-contextualization. You know, you become all things to all men. That means you can do what you want. You can go into places that are shady. You know, the bars and various other places. You're going to go and become all things to all men, all things. You know, it's an excuse to do things that are taboo. A lot of time, this text is used to justify shady things in order that you can relate to people who do shady things so that you can fit in and contextualize with them in order to witness to them. I mean, how many times have you heard this text used to justify doing things that are not quite up to snuff? I said, well, we're free from the law. We can do what we want. And therefore, we can go and compromise our standards in order to win those who have compromised standards. This is not what Paul is saying at all. When he says, "I'm not under the law, but I'm under the law of God," he's speaking about the positive laws that have expired from the Mosaic covenant. Now, we need to know the difference between moral law and positive law to understand this passage. Positive laws are the laws that are fixed to a particular covenant arrangement. For instance, when you go buy a car, you're taking out a loan, and that loan, you're signing a contract. It's a covenant contract. That particular car loan has its unique particulars. It has positive laws that are only related to that contract, such as your payment will be due twice a month on Friday, or there's going to be some particular unique things about that contract that's related to that particular agreement. And think about this. The Abrahamic covenant had circumcision. Circumcision is no longer necessary today. We know that circumcisions were not bound to circumcision today because circumcision was unique to the Abrahamic covenant. The Mosaic covenant had dietary laws and ceremonial laws. It had all these laws attached to that covenant. Those laws stay in force as long as the covenant stays in force. But if you pay off your car, note, you pay it off in full, the contract can be ripped apart. It's null and void, or it's paid in full. It's done. It's no longer binding. It no longer holds you captive. Once it's been paid off, or once it's been nullified, it can no longer require of you the same things it required of you when it was enacted. And thus, the Mosaic covenant had all these regulations, all these terms, the stipulations upon it. But when Christ came and paid it in full, it is no longer binding upon the individuals. It is no longer binding upon Paul, or all believers. Not only are we no longer under the law to be justified, not only are we not going to be saved by works of the law, that's been nullified. But all these ceremonial laws and judicial laws have come to a complete end. We can look at Hebrews and it says that that which is old has vanished away. Talking about the old covenant it's been done away with. And so when it says that he's no longer under the law, he's talking about the ceremonial laws, the positive laws, but he's not talking about the moral law. Now, the moral law is the very essence of who God is. It can be defined as love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. That moral law cannot be abrogated. It cannot be changed. It cannot be done away with. And so when he says I'm no longer under the law, he's talking about the ceremonial laws of the Mosaic covenant. However, I am under the law of God. There's not a situation that any of us could ever be outside of the law. That is the moral law of God. We're required to love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This could be seen in 1 Corinthians 7, 19. Paul says circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is keeping of the commandments of God. Wait a minute, you may think. I thought circumcision was a commandment of God. Well, it was. It was a positive command. It's one of those commands that was attached to a particular covenant that has been abrogated or fulfilled. So here Paul is distinguishing between circumcision and the commandments of God. Circumcision is nothing. Uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is keeping of the commandments of God. This is the could be said about the judicial laws and the ceremonial laws. Remember when it says that obedience is better than sacrifice? So here we see that Paul is no longer under the ceremonial laws, the judicial laws, and all these laws that separated Jews from Gentiles. These things he's not under, but he would subjugate himself to these things in order that he wouldn't be offensive to anyone, especially the Jews. He says I'm not without the law of the law of God, and he defined this law of God as the law of Christ. We see that in verse 21. What is the law of Christ? Galatians 6 2 says bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 5 14 the whole law is fulfilled in one word in this statement. You shall love your God. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And so this is the thing that Paul says I'm not I'm not bound by these dietary laws anymore, but I am bound to this to love my neighbor. And it's because I love the Jews. That I submit to these things. It's because I love the Gentiles. It's because I'm bound by love that I become a servant of all. It's the fact that I'm under the wall. That I see myself as a slave to everyone. You see, if he's all about his freedom. Then he would not be loving. He was a man who was controlled by love, controlled by love of his neighbor, and he was controlled by holiness. This is not a text for us to justify hyper contextualization. This is not a text for us to justify going to places that we should not be going to. So we can evangelize. This is not the place to go for this because this is a place to go to for us to to seek holiness and love. Rather in love, we are to have a heart to give up our personal freedom so that we are not placing a stumbling block before those whom we are seeking to reach with the gospel. So he had a law for people. He had a law for holiness. Thirdly, we see in verse 22, he had a love to win souls. Verse 22 says, I have become all things to all people. That by all means I might save some. Five times he talks about winning people. Verse 19 that I might win the more. Verse 20 that I might win the Jews. Verse 20 that I might win those under the law. Verse 21 that I might win those without the law. Verse 22 that I might win the weak. What does it mean to win someone? He's trying to convince them to the faith. He's trying to make sure that he's not a stumbling block to keep them from believing. He's trying to win their souls to the Lord. Let me ask you this as we think about this. What have we given up so that we can be a more effective soul winner? And hopefully we have been so winning this year. It's one thing to not catch a fish because you haven't been fishing. You're not going to catch a fish if you don't fish. You're not going to win souls if you don't go so winning. But what can we do to catch more fish? If we're called to be fishers of men, what can we do? Let me give you some tips, some applications. Be ready. Wake up prayer. Prayerful Lord. I'm ready. I'm ready to give an answer to the hope that is within me. I'm ready to share my faith. Another thing you can do and I found this to be very effective. Personally, this is just my personal advice that I found very helpful to me. Every time I pray for an opportunity to witness, I usually find an opportunity to witness. I pray for an opportunity to witness. Say, Lord, give me an opportunity to share the faith this week. I'm looking for an opportunity to share the faith. Bring someone through my path. Bring someone I can talk to. Give me an opportunity today. It helped me not to be offensive, but it helped me to be loving to them and kind to them. And I promise you, if that's your prayer, if that's your sincere prayer, you'll see that God will answer that. I've had it multiple times. God answered that prayer for me. Being ready and praying for opportunities to evangelize. The last thing we see that was the characteristic of Paul. I think this is what made him such an effective evangelist. We see this in verse 23. Not only did he love people, did he love holiness? He loved to win souls. He loved the gospel. Look at verse 23. I do it all for the sake of the gospel. I mean, he's doing all this now, not just what we see in this text. Go back to the beginning of chapter nine and into chapter eight. I mean, he's giving up a ton of liberties. And not only that, he's suffering so much to be a missionary. And he is doing without financial support. He's doing without a wife. He's giving up his health. He's serving and serving and serving and serving. He says, I do it all. My motivation before all in all this. Is that I love the gospel. I do it all for the sake of the gospel. This was Paul's chief motivation. You know, understanding the gospel that we're saved by grace alone through faith, faith alone in Christ alone, understanding that we're saved not by works, but by Christ. He understood that salvation is of Christ night himself. But this motivated him understanding what Christ did for him was the chief motivation for him to go out and share the gospel to others. We should contemplate if we're lacking zeal to evangelize. If we're lacking the desire to be soul winners, we should contemplate deeply what God has done for you and I. We should we should meditate on our sins being forgiven by the death of Jesus Christ. And that should just that should move us to law. It should move us to compassion. And it's like this is the this is the story of the good news. You know, I'll say this before I close. You know, being saved by grace alone doesn't lead us to laziness. It shouldn't lead us to go, okay, God's going to save who he wants to save. And it doesn't doesn't matter what I do. You know, this is why faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of word of God. The word of God comes by the preacher, the one who is sent. This is why the preachers have beautiful feet. God is going to use means and he could use you. And there's no greater joy. I don't I really believe this. There's no greater joy in this life to know that you've been used by the Holy Spirit to bring about eternal fruit. Think about that. I mean, I love mowing the yard and I love after mode. I don't love mowing the yard. I kind of like mowing the yard, but I really enjoy looking at the yard mode when I'm done. That sense of fulfillment. Look what I did, you know, because so much of our life you feel like, well, what have I done? What have I done? And it's that emptiness that drives us kind of like I'm wasting my life. It's an empty feeling. Remember when Jesus. Witness to the woman at the well. And he was winning her soul. And in the process, the disciples come back to him. It's like, hey, where's your food? He says, I don't have I have food that you don't know of. And they thought, well, did you go into town and get some food? And he says, no, my food or my joy, my satisfaction, that which sustains me, what that which is can cause me to skip a meal and not realize I skipped a meal. That which satisfies me is to do the will of my father. Here he is. Jesus is finding great joy in seeing that the Samaritan woman come to know the Lord. There's nothing greater, brothers and sisters, that we can do than be soul winners for Christ. And so I want to encourage you. There's different ways to do it. You can you can do as some and go out on the campuses and preach. You can go knock on doors. Love that you could do that. But the way I do it, and I'm comfortable doing it, is I'm praying. I'm praying for the boldness to open up conversations to people I beat throughout the week. And typically, when I'm praying, when I'm looking, those opportunities come to me without fail. One time I'll give you this is encouragement. Not because I'm good at this. There's a ton of people in this church is much better evangelizing than I am. But this is encouraging to me, though, does get in a haircut. And I told the lady about my testimony, give me a haircut. I told her about how I almost killed myself and I went through my testimony. And I didn't think much about it. But it's one way I like to evangelize is making my personal testimony and opening doors that way. And I didn't think anything about it. Then the next month I went to I know it takes me a month to get a haircut. The next month I go and see her again. She goes, Hey, I want you to tell me that story again. I went and told my husband what you said. Could you tell it to me again? And then she goes, Hey, he's going to tell me a story of how the Lord saved him. And I kid you not, every beautician, there's like five or six of them stop what they were doing, plus the ones that are getting haircuts. And they all turned around. And I had the whole, whole center to myself to evangelize. It's like, and I felt like that was the best sermon I've ever preached in my life. I felt like that was more enjoyable, that spontaneous. Be able to evangelize at that moment was more glorious than preaching a sermon here, because it was you knew as of the Lord, you knew that God had arranged that. And so that's, it's like, if you understood the importance of soul winning, you'll find that it is such a joy and you may not win souls every time you throw out the line, but you're not going to catch somebody if you don't throw out the line. You're not going to win souls if you don't witness. So love people, love holiness, love souls, love to win souls and love the gospel. Let's pray. Dear God, give us a deeper love for your people and for your lost people. Help us Lord to have that heart that the apostle Paul had to do without to sacrifice our own liberties so that we're not offensive to others, that we could be better able to reach them and win more souls to you. Lord, I would pray that you would give us many souls from all of us who are here. We're a lot of fishermen in this room, a lot of fish out there, dear Lord. Help us to go fishing for you. This we pray in your Son's name. Amen.
