Soul Saving Speech

The first Thessalonians chapter 2. Just leave it open there. 1st Thessalonians chapter 2, and we'll get to that in a moment. That'll be the text for our lesson tonight. Lesson entitled, Soul Saving Speech.

I'm glad that Johnny mentioned that, about looking to the future and so on and so forth. As we plan the work and the budget for the upcoming year, one important theme continues to be prevalent in our discussion and that is the theme of evangelism. It's a very important topic, very important thing, very important ministry. Not the only ministry in the church of course, but remember I talked about the arrow? Remember that sermon?

Boy, that's the spear tip of that arrow. I continue to remind you that the expansion and the renovation of the building and the additional minister, of course, Ken has been here for a while, but even his hiring and the variety of programs that trying to keep moving along and we're always adding to these things week after week, have one goal and that is evangelism. I mean, we want a bigger building because we want more people in the building. That's why we want a bigger building. We want to have room to accommodate the souls that we'll reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's the purpose for the bigger building. We want more leaders training. We want more deacons and perhaps one day more elders, more ministers, more ministers. We want more leaders because we expect to have more people that will need leading because of the gospel. We institute new projects and new programs to meet the needs of more people who are and who will be coming into the church.

And you know that this is just from a simple geographic, political perspective. You know that this area is going to have an influx of population. You always know it because the churches are the first ones to build. Churches come in, then the restaurants and the gas station, but always the churches. I'm going to give you some news that you might not have known.

That property across the street here, am I pointing the right way? You don't mean geographically. Where's east? Alright. You know that property across the street here?

I can get you to heaven, but I can't get you to Hera. That property across the street has been sold to the Nacoma Park Christian Church, and they're gonna build what what they're calling the Cornerstone Christian Church right across the street. And 2 miles up on Reno, that one I know, and Anderson, the Midwest City Christian Church in the year 2000 is going to build a brand new facility. And across the street, the the information I got, man, we're gonna have a gymnasium, we're gonna have this, we're gonna have that, yada yada yada. So that tells us that we weren't wrong in our timing.

When we said it's time to build. It's time to get a move on here. Things are happening. We need to we have a leg up on everybody. They're 2 years behind us.

And so we made the right decision at the right time. We're thankful that the Lord gave us the impetus to to to go forward when it didn't seem like it was the time. And the results that we see around us, we're we're leading. We're the leaders here in this community. We should stay the leaders.

And we're the leaders because of evangelism, not because we've got a basketball gymnasium. That's not leadership. We're leaders because we know that evangelism is important. You know, I want us to let go. And I'm not saying all of you have that, but I've heard it.

I've heard it. I hear it. It comes back. Everything comes back. Believe me, everything comes back to the preacher.

Sooner or later, it all comes back. And I hear things like, well, I like a small church. And I hear things like, I think we're big enough. You know, too much growth, you know. I don't like that.

Well, if you like a small church, if you like a church that doesn't grow, then what you like and what you're comfortable with is a church that doesn't evangelize and a church that does not love the lost. That's what you like. Now you may be comfortable in a church like this, but I'll tell you what, the Holy Spirit isn't comfortable in a church like that. You may like a church that doesn't grow, but Jesus is not especially fond of churches that don't grow. Because churches that don't grow mean they're not saved souls are not being saved.

The purpose of the church is to reach out and save souls. When you save souls, the church grows. The Bible says that we're to evangelize the world over and over again in every generation, beginning with the apostles in their generation, and continuing with us in our generation. Our responsibility is to reach out and preach the gospel to the entire world in our generation. I don't care what they did back in the 1800, and I don't care what they're gonna do in the 21st century, but I do care what we're doing now because we will be judged for what we have done in our generation.

That's what we're gonna be judged on. What we have done now. No excuses. Well, it was cold. Well, it was hot.

Well, there was a depression. Well, money was tight, and yada yada, and on and on. Matthew 2818-twenty, Mark 161516, our job is to preach the gospel to the lost any way, anyhow, go on foot, get a donkey, buy a car, do whatever you have to do. But you make sure that beginning with your community and your city and your state and your country and your continent and the world, and if they find people on Mars, preach the gospel to them too. That's what I said.

Do you believe that there are other preachers out there in the universe? I said, well, I don't really think so. But if there are, I know what I'm gonna do when I meet one of them. Some evangelism efforts are better than others. Some churches grow faster than others because the Lord is the one that adds.

But the basis is always the same. No evangelism, no growth. Now here in Choctaw, we do evangelize, and we do it in a variety of ways. And we are growing. And in the coming year, however, we're going to organize ourselves, hopefully, a little bit better in order to get more people involved in this ministry and become even more effective in our efforts at evangelizing.

Tonight, however, I'd like to kind of lay the groundwork for this renewed effort of evangelism by sharing with you the attitude and the speech habits that all of us need to cultivate in order to promote soul winning. You've got to learn how to talk. You know, if you're a salesperson for a particular product, I know a lot of us here are involved in multi level marketing type of products or networking type of products, you know, Amway, Melaleuca, Excel, whatever. There's so many different products that you sell. Avon I look over there, I see Marlene, I think of Avon.

Your attitude about your product is critical, isn't it? I mean, if you complain about the lousy salary you're making, or if you whine and complain about the poor delivery, if you don't even use your own product, if all you do is be negative and down all the time, what do you think is going to happen to you? Well, I'll tell you what will happen to you. You won't sell a lot of your product. You won't recruit distributors.

You won't make quotas. That's any product, whether you're selling ball bearings or cosmetics. Attitude is very important. And do you know why? Because if your product or your service has not in some way made you successful and happy and confident and satisfied, who wants to buy from you?

You see, people are sold by what they see that your product has done for you, not just the product itself. You know, I wasn't always a preacher. I spent many years working for large companies as a sales rep and a service manager and so on and so forth. I've been to all these sales meetings, these marketing meetings and that's what they teach you. It isn't about the product, it's about how you feel about your product.

You see, people are sold by what they see your product has done for you, not just the product itself. This is why companies have seminars and pep rallies for their marketing people because they know if their marketing people are sold and they're enthusiastic, then their customers are going to buy that enthusiasm and the success by buying the product. They don't buy the thing. They buy the attitude that you have about the thing. That's what they buy.

Well evangelism works in exactly the same way. People don't come to Jesus Christ just because you explain to them the 5 steps of salvation. I've seen people, you know, come to me all discouraged. They say, Well, I just don't know what's wrong with that person. I sat down and I told them, Look, if you hear the gospel and if you believe the gospel and if you confess Christ and if you repent of your sins and if you're immersed in the water, you'll be saved.

And you know what? They didn't do what I told them. So I guess I better move on to my next prospect, to my next student. People are not converted just because you share information with them. People come to Christ.

They are attracted to him by what they see of him in you. Your enthusiasm, your happiness, your strength, your goodness, your hope, your joy, your love, your patience, your kindness, your self control, and so on and so on. People see this in you and they want what you have, not what you talk about. They want what you've got, not just what you say about what you've got. They want what you've got.

Now, when they ask to receive what you already have, then you're ready to tell them about believing and repenting and being baptized and so on and so forth. One of the ways people perceive what Jesus Christ has done for you is by your speech. Now it's not the only way but speech is very important. And in this regard, Paul the apostle explains the type of speech that we should have if we want to win souls for Christ. That's why I call this lesson, Soul winning speech.

And so in 1st Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul outlines various ways that our speech must be cultivated in order to be effective in winning other people for Christ. Now in this particular letter, in the letter to the Thessalonians, Paul reminds his readers of his conduct and his speech while he was among them in the very beginning trying to win them for Jesus Christ. And he mentions 5 ways that we can speak that will reflect Christ in us and influence those who hear us to want what we have. Remember. Remember.

They've got to want what you have. They've got to want what you have. If you have nothing of Christ, then they will not want anything of Christ. That's so important. So let's go through these just by 1 by 1.

First thing he says about winning people for Christ is that you must speak confidently. You need confidence. Let's read that together. 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 beginning in verse 1. He says, for you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain.

But after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you of the gospel of God among much opposition. For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak. Not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. You see the background of this is that Paul had been badly treated in another city for preaching the gospel before coming to the city of Thesalonica. Now he did not allow his defeat in Philippi to destroy his confidence when he arrived in a new town.

You can imagine going to one town preaching the gospel, they throw rocks at you and they kick you out of town. You show up in a new town, you're thinking, well maybe I ought to, you know, lay low here. Maybe I ought to shut up. But that wasn't Paul. He approached his new group of hearers with confidence and a positive attitude.

You know not everybody is going to hear or obey the gospel. You know that, don't you? But some will and we have to stay positive for that reason. You know, some are going you know, sometimes we get discouraged. Oh, we we we put up 4,000 flyers, you know, and not 4,000 people came back to church.

No, but some did. We produced 14 TV shows and we spent a lot of money and, you know, thousands and thousands of people saw it. But we didn't get a 1,000 people to come back but some will. Some of them will. That's the point.

Paul and his companions spoke confidently because they had the truth. That's why they were confident. That's why they didn't let themselves get down. They had the words of life. They had the message of salvation.

It wasn't their loss that people refused. It was the loss of the people that wouldn't hear. It was their loss. Their message was from God and even though they were rejected and persecuted for their faith, this did not change the fact that their message was from God. If somebody laughs at you, if somebody just says, oh you're just a religious freak, or somebody says, hey don't talk to me about we don't talk about religion or politics, you know.

That's their loss, not your loss. So wherever they went, good or bad, they spoke confidently of the message, and of the church. And they spoke confidently of each other. The worst thing that can happen with this building project is that we build the building but destroy the church. That's the worst thing that can happen.

We get the building right, but we beat each other up so much that nobody feels like we keep on going after. Confidence. Confidence. People are not sure in this day and age. They're not sure of anything.

Stock market goes up, stock market goes down. You know, every time you read the paper, global warming, we're gonna get fried. There's always something. You know, you can eat butter, you can't eat butter. You can eat margarine, you can't eat margarine.

You know? Confidence. Speak you can't always speak confidently about what you know in math. You can't always speak confidently in what you know about history or politics. That's true.

But you can be confident about the gospel. That Jesus Christ is the lord, that his blood does wash away your sins, that he will return, and that if you're prepared when he returns, you will be with him forever. You can speak with confidence. Secondly, he says, speak honestly. Verse 56.

He says, for we never came with flattering speech as you know, nor with a pretext for greed, god is witness, nor did we seek glory from men either from you or from others even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority. Now Paul says that they didn't try to get money from them as was the custom of itinerant preachers and teachers of those days. You would have itinerant preachers going from place to place, orators and public speakers and they would come and, you know, speak on topics and philosophy and religion and they would be paid for their work. That was a common thing in those days. And Paul says he was a speaker, he was bringing the gospel, he was even a chosen apostle of God and he had every right according to the bible, according to the, you know, the scriptures to receive money for his work, but no.

He refused to do that not not so that no one would have any false impression about him. He said they were straightforward and direct about what they believed. No tricks, no manipulation, no show business, no flashing lights, if you know what I'm saying. Just an honest message delivered by honest people. We should never be afraid because perhaps others, you know, have got big showbiz type religion going, you know, and you turn on the TV and, Wow, there's 10,000 people and there's a big band and everybody's having a great time.

It's like, boy, we only had a 100 people on tonight. You know? Don't worry about that. God god is looking for faithfulness. He's looking for honesty.

He's looking for disciples who will persevere. That's what he's looking for. He's not looking for showbiz. You can't impress him. How can you impress the one who made countless stars?

How can you impress him with that? You might be able to impress each other, but we don't impress god. God is impressed with sincerity and faithfulness and honesty. When we evangelize we should simply be clear and honest about our intention of wanting to share our faith or wanting to bring someone to worship as a guest so they can experience what we can experience. No trick.

Hey, would you like to come with me to worship? I go every Sunday, it's meaningful for me, I get something out of it, and I think it could be good for you, and I would like for you to be my guest. Period. Simple, straightforward. Be honest about your intention.

No trick. There's no trick here. I have something that is so important to me that my whole life is built around it, and I simply wanna share it with you. That's all. And so they were confident and they spoke honestly.

Number 3, he says, we must also speak lovingly, verse 7, 8, 9. He says, but we proved to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having so fond an affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives because you had become very dear to us. For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. Paul had served the needs of these people and had genuinely grown fond of them as people.

They weren't just converts, they weren't just a kind of a notch on the gun. Ah, another baptism, put another notch on the gun. You know, they weren't religious statistics. They were people. People.

Their words of God's love were reflected in their attitude and their actions among the ones that they were preaching to. You know it's very hard to evangelize people if they don't see and experience love when they are among Christians. I mean, let's face it, they can get hypocrisy, backbiting, competition, pride, and selfishness. They can get that at work or they can get it at home. They don't need to come to church to get that.

During the, TV program, our TV program, I traveled to a lot of different churches to film. And everywhere I went, I usually met somebody who had visited Choctaw. You know how the brotherhood is, oh my aunt goes out there. Oh we used to go out there back in the eighties or whatever. And their comment about our congregation was always the same.

Always the last two minds about how many places I've been to and how many people I've met, the comment was always the same. They didn't say, You know, I'm a child, man, you've got a great preacher out there. They didn't say that. That wasn't the comment. They didn't say you had good looking elders.

You know, they didn't say that. Why should I, you know, get it all? I wouldn't even talk about the deacons, man. They didn't as a matter of fact, you know, they didn't even say, what a beautiful building, and man, you guys got a great project going on. They didn't say that.

I mean, the first thing out of their mind it was amazing, you know, the more I listened, you know, the more I listened to them, the more I kinda listened for it. Now time after time, people said the same thing. They said, oh, you go to Choctaw. What a friendly and loving church you are. I loved being with you when I was there.

That's what they said. What a wonderful reputation to have in the brotherhood. What I'm saying to you is this, let's get this reputation of ours out into our own community as well as in the brotherhood. It's nice to have it among the brothers, that's great. But why can't we get it out on 23rd Street and Main Street and at the high school and at the junior high?

Why can't we get that reputation out into our own community? Because we have what you can't find on the Internet. Because we have what you can't find on the home shopping network. Because we have what you can't find on the 24 screen movie theater. We have real life people who can love you when you come here.

That's what we have. That's our great commodity that we have. And so Paul says if you want to evangelize, you must speak lovingly to those that you wish to win for Christ. Number 4, very quickly, verses 10 to 12, he says, you must speak patiently. He says, you are witnesses and so is God how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behave towards you believers.

Just as you know how we were exhorting, and encouraging, and imploring each one of you as a father with his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who called you into his own kingdom and his own glory. Speak patiently. You know Paul continued to match his walk with his talk as he encouraged these people to become Christians and to grow as Christians. You know sometimes people want to see if you are for real and they want to watch you for a long time before they make up their minds. You ever know people like that?

Yeah yeah yeah yeah, they heard you what they had to say about the gospel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I heard what you say what I need to do to be saved.

I know all of that stuff. I just wanna watch you for a while. I wanna see what all this Jesus stuff has done for you. You see as long as a person is alive, there's hope for the gospel. And we have to be patient.

You know not everybody gets it right away. It takes years for the scales of disbelief to fall away from the eyes of an unregenerated person. Yeah, sure. Paul, you know, he was blinded for 3 days. But some people remain blinded.

That scale stays on their eyes for years before the word finally works its way to their heart and removes the veil and removes the scales from their eyes. And they open their eyes and they go, Oh, now I get it. Now I understand. I mean I remember my own life. I was 25 years old when I first read the Bible.

I had never read the Bible before I was 25 years old. And it only dawned on me that I was forgiven when I was baptized when I was 30. It took 5 years to understand that forgiveness took place at baptism. Isn't that amazing? And it was only much later that I understood that the kingdom and the church were one and the same thing.

It took a long time to learn these things. The fruit of the spirit is patience. And we need patience when speaking about Christ to our family and to our friends. It's actually one of the major ways that others see Christ in you because anyone else would have given up on them long ago. But a Christian hangs in there.

How many mothers, how many mothers have kept praying and praying and praying for that wild seed of a child long after everybody has given up? Patience. Patience. Patience. My own son who has his own wild seed, that's why we say, you know, write to those boys who are far away.

There's 2 of ours anyways that we know of that are far. Emmanuel and Paul who won't be home, I don't think so, right, for Christmas, they won't be home for the holidays. And probably be the first time ever they've been away from home, certainly my son's never been away from home at Christmas time. And he wept on the phone the last time I talked to him and said, oh, dad, why didn't I listen to you? Why didn't I listen to you?

I'd give anything to be there with you and with the church now. Pray. Long after the teachers gave up on that boy, I kept praying. Long after the principal gave up on that boy, I kept praying and his mother kept praying for him. And sometimes it takes longer than 19 years, sometimes it takes 29 years, and 49 years, and 89 years.

Fruit of the spirit is patience. We need to have patience. When people see that you never give up on them until the day you die, maybe then their eyes will be opened and maybe then finally their will will be broken and their spirit will be broken and they will come finally to Christ and give their lives to him. And then finally, in verse 13 of this passage, Paul gives us the final way that we should speak, and he says, speak with authority. Verse 13, he says, for this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God which also performs its work in you who believe.

Paul spoke with authority because he knew that his message was the truth from God. And you know what brothers and sisters, we have exactly the same message today. Sometimes our problem is that we we speak with arrogance and not authority. We have to be careful. Arrogance is an attitude of superiority, it comes from pride.

Authority is an attitude of confidence and clarity, and it is based on knowledge. And that's the difference. We mustn't be wishy washy when it comes to the gospel. Never apologize for the gospel, Proclaim it with authority. God's authority.

Don't be embarrassed to require that people repent and be baptized, because that's what the Bible says that people must do to respond to Christ. I don't care what other people are teaching. I'm not a great debater. But when people want to debate with me or talk with me, all I say is I'm ready to change my mind if you can show me the scripture. If you can show me where it says what you say, then yes, I will change my mind.

But until that time, I must I must always always go with what the word says. I learned a valuable lesson from brother Lewis. This week, he and I went out to visit and we were thinking of or I was thinking of bringing communion to someone, on a weekday because that person was in the hospital and so on and so forth and they said, I sure love to have communion. And without thinking, I got the communion kit and said, You know, it'd be a good idea. I'll bring communion.

So what? And brother Lewis came with me and said, You know, Michael, I don't feel comfortable about this. The word says that on the 1st day of the week, the saints gathered for communion. And I said, You're right, brother Lewis. That's what the word says.

And we didn't do it. And we walked into the room and we prayed with that brother and we said, Brother, if the Lord lets you live till Sunday we'll come bring you communion. Well the Lord not only let him live till Sunday, he's home. He's home. And I want to thank brother Lewis for his wisdom and his courage to, admonish me, to be careful even in the little things, to follow exactly what the word says.

We need to all be like that. We need to be ready to admonish each other. Either you're the one that's admonishing or you're the one receiving the admonishment. Either way, we need to be careful that in all things we follow the authority of the scripture. So don't be embarrassed if your mom or your friend or your buddy or whatever says, Well, what really do I have to do to be saved?

You need to repent of your sins, you need to confess Christ, you need to be baptized in the water, and that's what you need to do. And it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, if you're young or old, it doesn't matter. That's what the Bible says. You can speak with authority when you have accurately discerned what the Bible says and in the end, it isn't you that has authority. You I I believe that we are gonna have some classes, and seminars, and sermons, and training sessions to help all of us become more evangelistic.

And one of the first things that you're gonna learn is to pray. You're gonna learn to pray to God, to send someone into your life so that you can speak to them about Christ. Pray, I say to you, pray and keep your eyes open for who God sends to you. Sometimes it's the person that you least expect. And when you do get a chance to speak about Christ, when you do get a chance to share the gospel and encourage someone to become a Christian, remember what I've told you tonight from Paul's word.

Remember how to use your speech to win that person's soul. Number 1, speak confidently about your Lord, and your life, and your church. Number 2, speak honestly, letting your own life becoming the example for your words. Number 3, speak lovingly because more than anything else, people are seeking love for their souls, not just the reminder that they're sinners. Number 4, speak patiently since not every person is at the same place in their lives.

And finally, speak authoritatively. When it's time to tell them what they must do, or what they must stop doing, be firm as you speak from God's word and not your own. And speaking of God's word it speaks to each and every one of us here tonight. Demanding, not just asking, demanding that you believe in Jesus Christ as the only Son of God, demanding that you repent of your sins, demanding that you be baptized for the forgiveness of those sins. How will you respond?

We must speak well to save souls, but we must listen well to save our own souls. If you need to respond to the Lord in any way tonight, we encourage you now to come forward and make that wish known as Johnny leads us in the song of encouragement.