BUILDING A PLAN

Anyone can win a soul to Christ. If you have a testimony of salvation and God has changed you and remade you anew, you have something already that you can share with others.

But anyone can do it. But we want to grow beyond only our testimony. We want to study and know the verses that talk about salvation so we can lead someone to Christ, not just with our testimony but with something even more powerful than that - we do it with the Word of God.

We have covered these things over the last few weeks, but we have to be able to talk to people, to effectively communicate with them.

We have to get them lost, most people think they are already good enough to get to heaven. Then we have to preach to them the Gospel. WHen we say preach we are saying we want to declare truth with authority, not ours, but the Word of God’s.

Communication is the means by which we reach the world with the Gospel of Christ. Communication is how people exchange ideas, share and fulfill needs, and make a real difference in life. I’m not talking about talkative, I’m talking about communicating effectively.

But, we like to use excuses ffor why we cannnot. We say things like, well, I’m not able to talk to people, or I don’t know the words to use, I’m not good with scripture. Those things might be so for your first few months of being a Christian, but those are not valid excuses for someone who has been a Christian for 6 months or more. I’m not saying that you will be the best soulwinner in the church, but you ought to be learning to how to communicate the gospel to others through your study of the Word of God and through trial and error.

Listen, when we get a job, the excuse of not being able to run a drill press, or to know how to file some papers, or how to fix a tire, or or how to balance those accounts or write that line of code..., that only lasts the first week, and then you start increasing your learning. You become more and more proficient as the weeks move along. As you work hard, and study hard, you become more effective your job.

So it is with being a witness, but most people do not study and they do not try to tell others.

Here are the two most

Common reason we do not witness:

• Our fatigue

Galatians 6:9 AV

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

2 Thessalonians 3:13 AV

But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.

• Our busyness

2 Timothy 2:4 AV

No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

• Our sinfulness

we don’t feel like we are good witness because of our personal depravity.

Friend, clean up your life, but until it is what you think it should be, be a witness anyway.

Not everyone knows how bad your sin is anyway. And to one degree or another we are all sinners

• Our fear of shame

we don’t feel like we can be a witness because we don’t like to feel that we can put up with the looks, possibly the mocking, definitely the coldness and rudeness of people who don’t want you to share your faith with them.

When that fear comes, and you contemplate not witnessing, realize that you are saying that you love yourself more than God. Realize you are saying that you love your inner self and your personal comfort more than you love people around you because you fear being shamed for Christ sake.

But also remember what Christ suffered for your sake.

Hebrews 12:2 AV

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

1 Corinthians 15:34 AV

Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

I. WHAT TO SAY

1. Show them God wants them to know that they have eternal life

1 John 5:13 AV

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

God’s not willing for anyone to go to hell

2 Peter 3:9 AV

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

2. Show them that they are a sinner

Romans 3:10, 23

Romans 3:10 AV

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

Romans 3:23 AV

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

a. Romans 5:12 speaks of original sin

Romans 5:12 (AV)

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

b. Revelation 20:12 tells of a Judgment day for sin

Revelation 20:12 (AV)

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

3. Show them the wages of sin is death

Rom 6:23a; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 20:12-15

Romans 6:23a (AV)

For the wages of sin is death;...

One sin is enough to make you a sinner.

Revelation 21:8 AV

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Revelation 20:12-15 – The second death is Hell

4. Show them Christ died to pay their sin debt

Rom 5:8; 1 John 2:1-2

Romans 5:8 AV

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 2:1–2 AV

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

He Himself is the payment for the sin - that is what propitiation means

5. They must repent and place their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior

And Christ will save them

Romans 10:9,10, 13

Romans 10:9–10 AV

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:13 AV

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

John 3:3, 16

John 3:3 AV

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

6. Ask them to receive Christ as their Savior

Ask them if they would like to put their faith in Christ right now. Lead them in a prayer, encouraging them to call upon Jesus Christ to save them from their sin and to take Him as their Lord and Savior.

I want to lead you in a prayer, so that you can tell God what you are doing, and receive him as your Lord and Saviour.

Sample prayer to have repeated:

Dear Lord Jesus I am know that I am a sinner, I know I have sinned against you….

I repent of my sin and ask your forgiveness.

I believe that you died on the cross to pay for my sins, and I believe that your rose from the grave.

Today I place my faith in you, come into my life and take me to heaven when I die. Thank you, I Jesus’ name, Amen!

II. HOW TO SAY IT

A. With earnest and purpose

Ecclesiastes 9:10 AV

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

Colossians 3:23 AV

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

B. With love and compassion

Jude 22 AV

And of some have compassion, making a difference:

C. Walking in Holiness

1 Peter 1:16 AV

Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

D. Believing God will do what he says

Hebrews 11:6 AV

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

E. With Tactfulness

Matthew 10:16 AV

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.