Sermons in Song - A Soul Winner for Jesus

Intro:

Good evening.

We are looking at another “sermon in song” this evening, with a requested one “A Soul Winner for Jesus.”

This is number 302 in our song books; the title is actually “I Want to Be A Soul Winner,” with “A Soul Winner for Jesus” Coming in at the Chorus.

Before we start looking at the song, I want to ask you:

1) Do you want to be a soul winner for Jesus? (The answer should be “yes” for all of us)

and 2) WHY do you want to be a soul winner for Jesus?

Of course probably in your reasoning is the Great Commission:

Mark 16:15-16 “And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

So the Great Commission is COMMANDED.

But secondly, you ought to want to be a soul winner because of the great sense of APPRECIATION that you have for your salvation, and in turn, you want OTHERS to be saved too!

So let’s look at this song - Number 302 in our song books.

Verse 1:

“I want to be a soul winner for Jesus every day ...”

Every day?

That’s a tall task isn’t it?!

But an important task!

The thing is, we don’t want to diminish the importance of sitting down and having active Bible studies with non-Christians.

That’s where the success comes in evangelism! (You want to help convert people, you’ve got to get them in the Bible and let the Word do the work!)

Heb 4:12 - “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

But there are a LOT of EVERY DAY occurences and interactions that go into giving us chances/opportunities to have those Bible studies with people!

My main premise of my podcast with Scattered Abroad is to get people to remember that they are EVERY DAY Christians, not just Christians on Sundays and Wednesdays at the church building!

And when we truly let our light shine as every day Christians, we should have opportunities for Bible studies with our friends and family!

(And we need to be praying for doors of opportunity to come up in our lives, as Paul prayed for in Col. 4:3.)

“He (Jesus) does so much for me” — (This goes back into the APPRECIATION we have for Christ that should propel our desire for evangelism that we talked about earlier).

“I want to aid the lost sinner to leave his erring way, and be from bondage free” — James 5:20 says “let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”

Evangelism is literally a life and death matter!

And when we begin to see people for what they really are (and that’s LOST SOULS [for the vast majority of people, who are not Christians]), then we realize the stakes are high.

I have no doubt that every last one of us, if we have the ability, would pull an injured person from a burning building …

And yet, this world is “burning” (spiritually speaking) and will one day burn literally, and yet, how many of us are pulling people from the flames?

Verse 2:

“I want to be a soul winner and bring the lost to Christ” — Again, same idea we looked at in James 5:20 …

But notice that we are converting the lost TO CHRIST.

Imperatively important!

This is where many in “Christendom” (ironically) mess up.

Notice, we’re not converting people to GIMMICKS, we’re not converting people to A SOCIAL CLUB/a country club, we’re not converting people to WHAT MAMMA & DADDY BELIEVED, and we’re not converting people to a health and wealth PROSPERITY GOSPEL …

We’re converting people to Jesus Christ!

Acts 5:42 - “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching JESUS AS THE CHRIST.”

1 Cor. 1:23-24 - “but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

I’ve always heard it said: “What we convert them WITH is what we convert them TO!”

We better be converting them to Jesus Christ!

“That they his grace may know” - Eph. 2:8-9 - “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

“I want to live for Christ ever, and do His blessed will, because He loves me so” - As part of being converted to CHRIST, and again in APPRECIATION for what He did for us, our response to that compels us to want to actually live for Him!

Gal. 2:20 - “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Php. 1:21 - “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain!”

“He is my EVERYTHING” as we sometimes sing!

Why do you do the will of God?

To check off a box? To say, “Okay, I’ve done my Bible reading for today, I’ve helped somebody today, I’ve worshiped God today. Now I can do what I REALLY want to do.”

OR … Do you do the will of God because you WANT to do the will of God in obedient response to what He has done for you?!

Verse 3:

“I want to be a soul winner till Jesus calls for me, to lay my burdens down” — In other words, for the rest of one’s life!

That should be our goal.

It can be tempting — and I think this prevents a lot of evangelism — to look around at how wicked the world is becoming and think along these lines: “NOBODY is interested anymore — Nobody wants to hear what the Bible teaches!”

Is that true? NOBODY?

Now, we have to admit that probably LESS people are interested these days than in the 1950s and 60s …

But NOBODY?

Not true!

There are still people interested in the Gospel, and we won’t find them if we are not teaching the Gospel!

If Jesus came back TOMORROW, would he find us preaching the Gospel?

You know, the first time the world ended, what was Noah doing right up until he got on the boat?

Preaching! “Get on the ark!”

Noah was a “preacher of righteousness,” Peter tells us!

Will WE be teachers of the Gospel when Jesus returns?

“I want to hear Him say, ‘Servant, you’ve gathered many sheeves, receive a shining crown!’”

Another good song — “Bringing in the sheeves!” Excellent song! It comes from:

John 4:35-38 - “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’”

Chorus:

“A soul winner for Jesus, a soul winner for Jesus, O let me be each day!”

“A soul winner for Jesus, a soul winner for Jesus, He’s done so much for me!”

Again, when we examine ALL THAT HE HAS DONE, we can’t help but want to do a little bit for Him!

Conclusion:

As we get ready to conclude, I want to go through some tips for evangelism:

Let’s start with door knocking — Does door knocking like it was done in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and 60s still work today?

Don’t knock it till you try it! (Pun intended) ;D

But seriously, I have tried it many times, and some of you have probably too, and … It’s not as effective as it once was. (It DOES still work occasionally, but not nearly as much as it used to)

Why? People just are different these days — People don’t sit on the porch as much as they used to, people are much more restrictive of their “personal space” than they used to be, and quite frankly, we live in a much more dangerous world than decades gone by!

So people are immediately suspicious if a stranger knocks on their door!

But what if I told you that congregations are having a LOT of success door knocking in 2023? (Because they ARE!)

Just search “American Mission Campaigns” with the House to House School of Evangelism and you can read all about it!

Here’s what they are NOT doing though:

“I’m (so and so) with the (such and such) church of Christ, and I want to invite you to a meeting we’re having this Sunday through Wednesday night.”

(That isn’t nearly as effective as it once was — Various reasons).

Here’s what they are doing:

“I’m (so and so) with the (such and such) church of Christ, and we are in the community taking prayer requests today. Is there anything we can pray with you for?” (and a surprising number of people are opening up to that!)

Another:

“I’m (so and so) with the (such and such) church of Christ, and we are looking for some community service projects for our young people. Is there anything we could help you with? (Yard work? Painting? Picking up trash? Etc.)

And another:

“I’m (so and so) with the (such and such) church of Christ, and we just wanted to bring you a copy of House to House/Heart to Heart.”

(We already send these out to everyone in our community every other month).

“Oh, yes, I’ve seen those before!”

“That’s great! What do you think about them?”

“They’re very interesting, actually. They’ve answered a lot of my questions about the Bible.”

“That’s great. Do you know much about the church of Christ?” (“No, not really?”)

“Would you like to know more anout the Church of Christ?” (“Yes, I would.”)

“Well, I just so happen to have these little booklets called Back to the Bible ...”

So that’s door knocking!

CARD PROGRAM:

Every visitor that we get needs to receive cards, so we don’t need to let up on this.

It’s very noticable, and it’s very different than anything else that others are doing — In a good way!

I’ll just say we need to keep that up, and look for followup opportunities …

WHEN YOU HAVE A BIBLE STUDY:

What is the number one most important thing you want them to see?

(That they’re lost!) That’s it!

If we get it through them that they are a sinner in need of the blood of Christ, and they have not come into contact with the blood of Christ yet, then if they have a good and honest heart, they will respond to the Gospel!

They will obey it, and then that’s just the beginning!

Because we’ve got to keep teaching them at that point the things that they need to know to be faithful Christians.

Christians that convert but then are “thrown to the wolves” without getting connected to the body usually don’t last long.

But if we get them plugged in, get them continuing to learn, continuing to grow, and INVESTED in the fact that they are NEEDED in the body of Christ, then we have a good chance of retaining them for generations to come!

Will EVERYONE who ever obeys the Gospel be retained?

No. We KNOW that not to be the case because of the parable of the Sower!

“Once saved always saved” is as false as false can be!

But that doesn’t mean we quit casting seed!

Far from it!

In fact, because not every soil is going to produce fruit, all the more reason we should be casting seed indescriminately!

“A soul winner for Jesus” — Do you want to be one?!