Soul-Winner’s Refresher Course - L3

Introduction - Tonight will be a little different— Lord-willing because I would like us to begin working with what we have learned…

Applying truth is always the goal of biblical instruction.

God’s design for the intake of His Word is to change our lives… to conform us to the image of His dear Son.

And so, we have looked at:

What must be present in personal evangelism.

Namely, the Holy Spirit of God, the Word of God and the Person.

And then we considered what we must be as we are engaged in telling others about the Lord. We must preach the Gospel, we must teach the gospel, and with God’s help, we must investigate or to use a biblical term, ‘discern’ where a person is in this process of showing them the way to God.

Last time, we dealt with the subject of the different life situations we may deal with.

This was the chapter I entitled the four contexts.

We may be speaking with a family member.

We may be speaking with a coworker.

We may be speaking with someone who comes to the church meetings or

We may even be speaking to a complete stranger.

Tonight, I want us to deal with the entry point of all of this.. and that is the introduction.

This, my friend is perhaps the most difficult part.

You might say, it is the ice breaker.

In every context of life, you and I will have to begin with an introduction.

Now, there will be blessed times when a door of opportunity is presented to us— those blessed times when God provides the introduction for you by His providence.

We think of, for instance from the Bible the Ethiopian eunuch recorded for us in Acts 8 in verses 26-40.

I think of Jailor in Acts 16:25-32 with Paul and Silas.

How about Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night in John 3.

In most of those instances, just as a side note, those involved were living in such a way that the ones who wanted to be saved came to them.

Those times are few and far between, but sometimes it may be by your life for the Lord that someone asks you a question that introduces the subject of eternity for you.

But most of the time, you and I must endeavor to (1) introduce ourselves and (2) turn the conversation to the Lord.

Now the exercise I want us to try would be to role play with a partner… just to help us think through the introduction:

So why don’t we take a few moments and determine who your partner is going to be…

In a few moments… we are going to take turns in dealing with one of the four contextual life situations…

We will just do two scenarios tonight and begin with an easy one.

Situation 1:

Someone comes in to visit Liberty Baptist Church. They sat through the whole service. Pastor James preached a message with an invitation and now the service is over.

You go over to the person before they exit the church house to introduce yourself and turn the conversation to their salvation.

Alright now let’s try that again— except reverse the roles… same situation….

Now the strength of doing this —- is you can practice this with someone or you can try this on your own as well.

I know that may seem strange at first… and certainly you might be cautious for someone to see you talking with yourself…

They might think something is wrong with you…

Situation 2:

We are out in the spring doing some organized Soul-Winning. You approach a door with your partner and knock on the door. And to your surprise someone answers.

Demonstration Example

Okay… I think that is enough for all of us tonight… I am going to quickly introduce the five steps…

These steps are what takes place once we turn the conversation to salvation and person is willing to listen.

Some of the question you might use to transition to the Lord is:

Do you know 100% if you were to die today that heaven is your home?

—- If they say no… you would respond, Would you like to know?

—-If they say yes… you might say, how do you know? Or would you tell me how you know?

You might ask them this— Are you a Christian?

Sometimes, I have said — Do you attend church anywhere?

If they say yes… I then say… well more important than going to church is knowing Jesus as your Savior… Has there been a time when you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior?

Now that is a Yes or No question… With those kind of questions… you may just get a yes or no answer… One way you can continue a “yes” only answer is by sharing your testimony. I remember when I trusted in Christ as my Savior… and then share your testimony… You might follow that up with I would love to hear your testimony….tell me about when you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior.

The important part of the introduction is not just to stop at the introduction, but to turn the conversation to Jesus Christ, the gospel message and (after having determined as best you can if they are lost or saved) being able to present the way of Salvation.

With that in mind…understand the more you do this in real life, the more you will realize (1) it is not that bad… and (2) the better you will get at navigating the introduction toward a profitable conversation about the Lord Jesus Christ and eternity.

So, what happens if someone says yes… I want to be saved… I want to know heaven is my home and Jesus is my Savior.

Well there are five steps that we can use to navigate someone through the framework of not only the gospel (the life death, burial and ressurection of Jesus Christ), but what that means for every person—- in other words why that message is important to them.

Each of these steps, I have given a simple statement to help us remember the reason for each steps.

Illustration: In a survey class through the Bible we will give short titles to the books of the Bible that capture the overall message of those books. For instance Genesis - Is a book of Beginnings… it speaks of the first things… Exodus - Is a book of Redemption… it speaks to the redemption of the nation of Israel.. but in type shows the redemption of man… Leviticus…. is a book of Holiness…. it declares that God is holy and we must approach Him a certain way… Numbers is a book of Journey’s …. it declares the journey of Isreal to the entrance of the promised land and the fact that they lacked faith to enter in… so they wander the desert for forty years… Deutuernomy is the book of the Second Law…. because it is a repetition of the law in the form of three sermon addesses from Moses… to the people who would enter into the promised.

Step 1 gives us this though:

“I’m a sinner, you’re a sinner.”

You might say this is the level playing field… this is the default condition of all men… This is based on those two verses I asked you to memorize:

Romans 3:10 “10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”

Romans 3:23 “23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

For this, might I suggest to you to write a road map in your Bible… Next to Romans 3:10—- write Romans 3:23.

Step 2 “There is an expected result from sin.”

So next to Romans 3:23…. you will write the verse Romans 6:23a….

Why ‘a’? Because you will be emphasizing the first half of that verse.

Step 3 “God loves you and sent His Son to take your place.”

Romans 6:23b and by Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8…. maybe even John 3:16.

Depending on the order… I would maybe go from either John 3:16 or romans 5:8 to Romans 10:9… which leads us to step 4.

Step 4 is “Do you believe?”

Romans 10:9 deals with that subject… True belief is not just mouthed in words, but deals with a heart of faith.

You may reference Ephesians 2:8-9 to emphasize that truth…

Then the final (which is really the next to final step) is

Step five “Ask Jesus to save you.”

Next to Romans 10:9— you can either draw an arrow or write Romans 10:13.

The sixth step is a suprise… we will deal with it in the end.

But this is the basic framework....

Some steps you may have to spend more time on than others. We will over the next few weeks deal with each of these steps.

We will also, attempt to go from the introduction into these steps.

Eventually the goal would be for you to be able to talk through all five of these steps.

Now if you are thinking that is a daunting task.. let me assure you.. that you can do it.

I promise if you will put a little effort into learning this, God will help you when the time comes and He gives you the privlege to speak to someone else about the Lord.