Latest / Admonition Podcast / New Converts - Keno Shrum - Feb. 22, 2026

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New Converts - Keno Shrum - Feb. 22, 2026 · Admonition Podcast

• 0:01
  always heard there's two things you don't want to be the third verse of a four verse song and the speaker right after lunch.
• 0:08
  Hopefully you'll hold with me on this as we go throughout the...
• 0:11
  Did everybody get one of the handouts that Micah handed out?
• 0:13
  to go?
• 0:14
  Looks like this right here.
• 0:15
  Anybody not get one?
• 0:16
  Raise your hand.
• 0:17
  ah Where's Micah?
• 0:19
  There you go.
• 0:20
  Let give you a stack of these.
• 0:24
  Thank you, sir.
• 0:24
  He'll pass those out.
• 0:25
  Keep your hand up.
• 0:26
  Those are important.
• 0:27
  So we're going to go through this uh and talk about the footsteps of Jesus.
• 0:31
  Now this was on the schedule for Tuesday evening.
• 0:34
  Tonight we were going to talk about new converts, but we're just going to switch them because I want you to see Jesus at work in all areas of the model that we talk about.
• 0:42
  Whenever we're talking about Jesus, then we need to do what Jesus did.
• 0:46
  We look at the early day church.
• 0:47
  If we want to grow like they grew, if we want to
• 0:49
  If we want to be like they were, then we've got to do what they did.
• 0:52
  And so this is going to take it to us.
• 0:53
  So do you have the PowerPoint there?
• 0:56
  There we go.
• 0:57
  So this is the model that we talk about.
• 0:58
  You've got a picture of it right outside here in your foyer.
• 1:01
  Contacts, prospects, Bible studies, baptisms, new converts, a growing church.
• 1:07
  This is what every aspect of this we see Christ involved in.
• 1:11
  Everything that we talk about in the model, it's not our model.
• 1:14
  It's not the school of evangelism model.
• 1:15
  It's Jesus's model.
• 1:17
  And I want to take you through this.
• 1:18
  Now we can't go through all of these tonight unless you want to stay here for about two or three hours.
• 1:22
  But we do want to hit on a few of them.
• 1:24
  I want to encourage you to take this home with you and finish looking over this this week.
• 1:29
  Go through each one of these accounts and see Jesus active in these different roles of evangelism.
• 1:35
  I mentioned earlier the most important thing that we look at on the model is contacts.
• 1:39
  Without contacts we don't have any evangelism.
• 1:42
  If we don't have people to study with then we have no...
• 1:45
  We can't baptize and study if we don't have somebody to do it with.
• 1:48
  so contacts is the most important part.
• 1:51
  How do we find contacts?
• 1:52
  We've got to retrain our brain.
• 1:55
  Look with me over at Luke chapter 19 verse 10.
• 2:00
  Luke chapter 19 verse 10.
• 2:02
  Jesus had a very important mission when he came to this earth.
• 2:06
  And we see it in Luke chapter 19 verse 10.
• 2:09
  He says, for the son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost.
• 2:14
  That was his focus on, that's whole reason he came to this earth, was to seek and save that which was lost.
• 2:20
  So Jesus was a seeker.
• 2:22
  When we talk about contacts, we're talking about seeking people.
• 2:26
  We're talking about finding people that don't have Jesus and leading them to Christ.
• 2:30
  So let's look at that.
• 2:31
  Let's go through and see how Jesus did that.
• 2:33
  Turn with me to John chapter two.
• 2:36
  And we're gonna walk through John for a few minutes.
• 2:39
  And I want you to see Jesus at work.
• 2:41
  in seeking.
• 2:42
  John chapter 2, let's just start with the first verse.
• 2:46
  On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there.
• 2:50
  Now both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding and when they ran out of wine the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.
• 2:57
  Jesus said, woman what does your concern have to do with me?
• 3:00
  For my hour has not yet come.
• 3:02
  His mother said to the servants, whatever he says to you do it.
• 3:05
  Now there were set there six water pots of stone according to the manner of the purification of the Jews containing 20 or 30 gallons a piece.
• 3:13
  Jesus said to them, fill the water pots with water.
• 3:16
  And they filled them up to the brim.
• 3:18
  And he said to them, draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast.
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  And they took it.
• 3:23
  When the master of the feast had tasted the water, that it was made wine and did not know where to come from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast
• 3:31
  called the bridegroom.
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  And he said to him, every man at the beginning sets out the good wine.
• 3:35
  And when the guests have well drunk and in fear, you have kept the good wine until now.
• 3:40
  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested His glory and His disciples believed in Him.
• 3:48
  You know they didn't have this yet, right?
• 3:50
  They didn't have the New Testament Church wasn't even created yet.
• 3:54
  That's what Jesus was getting ready to start teaching and preparing him.
• 3:58
  But they had to know that Jesus was speaking on behalf of God.
• 4:01
  They had to know that Jesus was authentic, that his message come from God and the way they did that was through miracles.
• 4:08
  We see the early day Christians, some of them had that power to do miracles.
• 4:11
  We don't have that anymore.
• 4:12
  That ended in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 tells us, whenever the word was completed.
• 4:17
  uh
• 4:19
  time.
• 4:19
  So what Jesus is doing is performing the first miracle that we read about, preparing to start His ministry because He sees people at this wedding that need to know about God.
• 4:29
  He sees these people at this wedding that need to be taught.
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  I want to ask you, what do you see if you go to a wedding?
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  Do you see wedding guests at a wedding?
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  Do you go to a funeral and see mourners?
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  Do you go to a family reunion and see aunts and uncles and cousins that you haven't seen in a long, time?
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  Or do you see contacts?
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  Jesus saw contacts when he went to social gatherings.
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  Jesus had a wedding.
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  He didn't see wedding guests.
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  He saw people that were going to need to learn about him.
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  And so he immediately starts teaching and he starts working toward the beginnings of his ministry and what was going to lead to the New Testament church.
• 5:05
  He's using this as a teaching method.
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  When Jesus saw uh social gatherings, he saw contacts.
• 5:14
  I want you to do the same thing.
• 5:16
  I want you to retrain
• 5:17
  brain when you go to a football, high school football game don't look at a stadium full of fans, look at a stadium full of lost people.
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  And until you know that they're not, you know, if you learn that they're saved, okay that's a different story, but until then you just assume that's a contact.
• 5:32
  You want to get 500 contacts is very, very easy.
• 5:35
  Start looking at everybody around you as a contact.
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  It's what Jesus did.
• 5:39
  Jesus saw lost souls.
• 5:40
  Jesus saw people that needed salvation, that needed help.
• 5:43
  Let's go on to John chapter 3.
• 5:46
  John chapter 3.
• 5:50
  Start with verse one.
• 5:51
  was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
• 5:55
  This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God.
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  Listen to this.
• 6:00
  For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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  That was the whole purpose of miracles.
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  He said, we know that.
• 6:07
  So verse three, Jesus answered and said, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
• 6:14
  Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old?
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  Can he enter a second time into his mother's room and be born?
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  Jesus answered, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
• 6:27
  That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
• 6:31
  We talked about this a little bit in the lesson a few minutes ago.
• 6:34
  It's very, very difficult sometimes for us to reach out and teach religious people.
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  Nicodemus was a religious person.
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  And sometimes we want to shy away from religious people because we think they're not good candidates.
• 6:46
  We think we can never convince them to leave what they're doing now and come to what we're teaching them.
• 6:52
  Here's the deal, folks.
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  When you're teaching somebody, you've got to show contrast between what we're doing and what they're doing.
• 6:59
  There's so many people.
• 7:00
  know, there was a...
• 7:02
  There was a saying, I don't know when this ever started, I first heard about it at a church of Christ in Tulsa way back in the early 90s.
• 7:09
  They said, we're gonna teach the man and not the plan.
• 7:12
  Well, you don't get the man without the plan.
• 7:14
  And when we see what Philip was teaching in Acts chapter 12, he was teaching both, the name of Christ and the kingdom of God, which is the church of Christ.
• 7:22
  Friends, you cannot teach Christ and not teach the church that he died to establish.
• 7:27
  Have you ever heard anybody say, oh, Church of Christ, thanks, the only one's going to heaven?
• 7:32
  I've heard that before.
• 7:33
  A lot of you have heard that before.
• 7:34
  And that's the reason we don't want to talk about the Church of Christ.
• 7:37
  In fact, I had a preacher in Broken Arrow, a little small congregation in Broken Arrow, told me that.
• 7:42
  He said, Keenah, I almost wish we'd just quit calling it the Church of Christ.
• 7:45
  Just call it the Church because the Church of Christ carries negative connotations with it.
• 7:50
  I thought, brother, you're so far off from where you should be, you shouldn't even be in a pulpit.
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  We've got to teach about the Church of Christ.
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  It's the only church that He died to establish.
• 7:58
  Now, just because we're sitting in a building that says Church of Christ doesn't make us a member of the Church of
• 8:02
  The way you become a member of the Church of Christ, Christ adds you to the church and then you stay faithful.
• 8:07
  You can be a member of a local congregation and not be a member of the Church of Christ.
• 8:11
  Christ adds us to the church.
• 8:13
  Christ removes us from the church whenever we step outside of His will.
• 8:17
  But you have to, we have to reach out to these people and show them there's a difference between what they're doing and what we're doing and give them biblical evidence for that.
• 8:26
  Show them evidence in the scriptures for why they should change.
• 8:29
  If we just try to sugar coat it, I saw a sign one time that said sugary preaching leads to truth decay.
• 8:35
  We've had a lot of sugary preaching in this country in the last 50 years.
• 8:38
  And if we try to sugar coat things, then why would they ever leave everything they've ever known and come do what we're asking them to do?
• 8:45
  It doesn't make any sense, why leave that if we're
• 8:47
  going to show them any contrast between what they're doing.
• 8:50
  If we're not going to correct any of their error, why would they ever leave that?
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  So we've got to show that contrast.
• 8:55
  What I'm telling you is when Jesus saw religious people, Jesus saw contacts.
• 9:00
  Jesus saw people that needed to be saved.
• 9:03
  Just because they're religious, don't shy away from them.
• 9:05
  Religious people need Jesus just as much as anybody else does and they're very, very, very easy to teach.
• 9:11
  And I didn't used to believe that and I talked about it in the last lesson.
• 9:13
  I didn't used to believe that but we have converted far more religious
• 9:17
  people, then we have non-religious people.
• 9:19
  Church of God of Prophecy, Assembly of God, Catholics, Baptist, lot of Baptists, Baptist Youth Minister as a matter of fact just a year and a half ago.
• 9:29
  You name it, you can almost pick the denomination, at least in our area, and we've converted people from it.
• 9:35
  You know how many denominations there are in the world right now?
• 9:39
  I don't know, I've heard some estimates, 38,000.
• 9:42
  Don Blackwell said he'd heard as many as 54,000 denominations around the world.
• 9:48
  It's a lot of people that are religious, but they're worshiping in error.
• 9:52
  In fact, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 15 verse 8 and 9, says, they honor me with their lips, they're drawing near to me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from me and
• 10:00
  their worship's in vain because why?
• 10:01
  They're teaching for doctrine and commandments of men.
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  They're teaching things that men have taught.
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  They're not teaching what Christ taught.
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  We need to go to them and teach them what
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  Christ taught.
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  We need to teach them what the words of this book say and help them put that in its proper context so they can then respond to the gospel.
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  When Jesus saw religious people, Jesus saw context.
• 10:20
  Let's go on to another one.
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  Let's look at John 4.
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  Verse one, therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples,
• 10:38
  he left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
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  Listen to this next verse, folks.
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  But he needed to go through Samaria.
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  He needed to go through Samaria.
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  So verse five, came to the city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
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  Now Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being weary from his journey, said, thus by the well.
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  A woman of Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, give me a drink.
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  For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
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  Then the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman?
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  For the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
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  Jesus answered, said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.
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  uh
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  He said he needed to go to Samaria.
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  Jews were not going to Samaria.
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  Jews would go out of their way to avoid Samaria.
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  They didn't want to be apart.
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  They didn't want any dealings with the Samaritans.
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  And if a Jew did go to Samaria, they sure enough were not going to sit down with a woman at a well in the middle of the day and have a conversation with her.
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  Wasn't happening.
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  But Jesus said he needed to go to Samaria.
• 11:50
  Folks, your evangelism has got to be intentional.
• 11:53
  It's not just going to happen accidentally.
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  You're not just going to be out just doing your thing and somebody just stumble upon you and want to study.
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  And just that's so rare that that happens.
• 12:02
  We'll never turn around.
• 12:03
  the trajectory of the church in America if we depend on that.
• 12:06
  You've got to be intentional in your going, right?
• 12:09
  The Great Commission, it uh says, ye therefore.
• 12:13
  It's a sending commission.
• 12:14
  We saw this morning 15 times from John chapter five to John chapter 20, 15 times Jesus uses the word sent.
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  I was sent, the Father sent me, the servants were sent.
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  Sent, sent, sent.
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  It's a sending commission.
• 12:27
  And we will not evangelize if we don't get outside the walls of this building.
• 12:32
  I've seen it in a number of places, but the one that stands out in my mind is Salem, Virginia, the Westside Church of Christ.
• 12:37
  They've got a big sign when you're going out of the foyer and you're walking outside and it says, are entering a mission field.
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  That's where the mission field is.
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  That's where the folks are that we've got to go to.
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  They're not in here.
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  Everybody in here pretty much knows about Christ, right?
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  In fact, most people that gather together on Sunday mornings, other than an occasional visitor or something like that, most people are a young person.
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  Most are already saved.
• 13:02
  time for us to grow but it's not a time for us to really do much mission work.
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  We got to get outside the walls of this building to do the mission work and go out into the town.
• 13:10
  When Jesus saw outcasts, Jesus saw contacts.
• 13:15
  They weren't going to Samaria.
• 13:17
  Samaritans were outcasts.
• 13:19
  I want to know what do you see when you see an outcast?
• 13:22
  Right?
• 13:23
  There's like that, you know, most towns have an area town that you just try to avoid.
• 13:26
  Those people don't care about their souls.
• 13:28
  They're not good candidates for the gospel.
• 13:31
  One man told me, he said, you don't, you got to be careful.
• 13:33
  You don't sow your seeds in the weeds.
• 13:35
  But when Jesus saw the weeds, he saw contacts.
• 13:38
  And when we see outcasts, we need to see contacts.
• 13:41
  They need Christ, they have souls, Jesus died for them, we need to see contacts.
• 13:47
  Let's look at one more, let's go, let's skip to verse, let's skip to John chapter six and look at verse one.
• 13:55
  John chapter six.
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  After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the of Tiberias.
• 14:00
  Then a great multitude followed him because they saw the signs which he performed on those who were diseased.
• 14:05
  And Jesus went up on the mountain and he sat there with his disciples.
• 14:08
  Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.
• 14:11
  Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and seeing a great multitude coming toward him, he said to Philip, where shall we buy bread that these may eat?
• 14:18
  Do you think Jesus didn't know?
• 14:20
  Of he knew, look what we see in the next verse.
• 14:22
  But this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
• 14:27
  Philip answered him, hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that everyone may have just a little.
• 14:33
  One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what is that among so many?
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  Then Jesus answered, make the people, or Jesus said, make the people sit down.
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  Now there was much grass in that place, so the men sat down in the number of about five thousand.
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  And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those that
• 14:57
  down, and likewise of the fish as much as they wanted.
• 15:00
  So when they were filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain so that nothing is lost.
• 15:05
  Therefore they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments of five Barty Loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.
• 15:12
  Then those men who had, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, truly, this is truly a prophet who has come into the world.
• 15:20
  These people needed something.
• 15:22
  You know there's a lot of people you're going to deal with that we might classify as needy, right?
• 15:25
  They need things, they need help with things, they might need some financial assistance, they might need some groceries, they might need a ride somewhere, they might need some
• 15:34
  kind of help in some way.
• 15:35
  Well sometimes we shy away from that.
• 15:37
  If you go teach somebody that's needy,
• 15:40
  have to go pick them up and give them ride to services every Sunday.
• 15:43
  Or you might have to go pick them up and take them to the doctor's office.
• 15:46
  Or you might have to help them out a little bit with their groceries here or there or some kind of help.
• 15:50
  I want to tell you what Jesus saw when he saw needy people, he saw contacts.
• 15:55
  There are people all over this town that are needy.
• 15:58
  They have things they need and you can help fulfill those needs, but that need, that help should always be tied back to evangelism.
• 16:06
  We're not a social club, folks.
• 16:08
  We're not a government hand.
• 16:10
  If you got a food pantry, if you got a clothing room, that's great, I'm happy for you, but that's not what our main focus.
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  We're soul savers.
• 16:18
  We take the word out, we take the message out to them so that they can find Christ and be saved.
• 16:23
  So if we want to give away clothes or food or
• 16:25
  backpacks or whatever we want to give away, that's fine, but it needs to be tied back to evangelism.
• 16:31
  Somehow we need, we should not have people coming in and be giving them food and they leave and we have no idea who they are or how to ever get hold of them again.
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  We need their contact information.
• 16:40
  If we're have somebody in for a food pantry or clothing drive, then we need to get their contact information when they come so that we can then send them compassion cards and we
• 16:48
  can start building a relationship and we can get into a Bible study with them.
• 16:51
  There's a brother down in Florida used to say, everything goes through an evangelism funnel.
• 16:55
  this evangelism funnel and everything goes through the funnel and if it don't go through the funnel then we don't do it.
• 17:00
  We get rid of it.
• 17:01
  They could go to the John 3 16 mission.
• 17:04
  could go to the welfare program.
• 17:05
  There's a lot of programs that will help them out but all I'm cared about is their soul and if I can help them, if I can get their information while we're giving out backpacks or
• 17:15
  food or clothes or whatever, as long as I can get their information then I can help work on their soul.
• 17:20
  But if I have them come in and leave it I never know who they are.
• 17:24
  What am going to do with that?
• 17:26
  Jesus said seek you first the kingdom of God and then you get all these other things, Matthew 6.33.
• 17:31
  If we fulfill everybody's every need and we never teach them, then what have we done that's brought them anywhere nearer to Christ than what they were before they came in?
• 17:38
  We haven't done anything for their soul.
• 17:40
  I'm more interested in helping their soul.
• 17:42
  Now so we can use some of those things, nothing wrong with them.
• 17:44
  I'm not saying don't have programs to help people, but I'm saying tie it to evangelism.
• 17:49
  Figure out a way to get their contact information or to get them in a Bible study or to some way have something
• 17:54
  it's gonna benefit them as they grow, that we can help lead them to Christ.
• 17:58
  So there's all kinds of things.
• 17:58
  There's a sick, there's a moral, there's a blind, there's a grieving.
• 18:02
  What I'm talking about is this.
• 18:03
  Jesus saw contacts in everybody he saw.
• 18:07
  And until you retrain your brain to do the same thing, you won't see the growth that you're looking for.
• 18:12
  But once you recognize that everybody is somebody that needs Christ, once you recognize that you walk into Walmart and you get in a gospel conversation with a lady in a checkout
• 18:21
  line, she's somebody that needs Christ.
• 18:22
  uh
• 18:24
  game, all those fans are people that need Christ.
• 18:26
  When you go to the grocery store and you're walking down the aisle and you pass your neighbor, that's somebody that needs Christ.
• 18:31
  Your coworkers are somebody that needs Christ.
• 18:35
  And when you start looking at them like that, man, all of a sudden the doors just open wide open in evangelism.
• 18:40
  You'll get more Bible studies than you know what to do with.
• 18:43
  So let's go on.
• 18:44
  So that's Jesus in the contact section.
• 18:46
  Jesus is a seeker, but he's also a reacher.
• 18:49
  This is the prospecting section.
• 18:51
  Talk with me if you would to Matthew chapter nine.
• 18:55
  Matthew chapter 9, we get a very important message right here.
• 18:59
  Matthew chapter 9, starting at verse 36, but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with what?
• 19:07
  Compassion.
• 19:08
  He was moved with, why do you think that Jesus had multitudes following him around?
• 19:13
  Why do you think the early day church was growing like it was growing?
• 19:16
  Because they had compassion on people.
• 19:18
  I don't have one on me right now.
• 19:19
  I usually wear a button on my lapel.
• 19:21
  fact, I've got some in my backpack.
• 19:22
  Maybe once I'll give you one.
• 19:24
  It says people don't know, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
• 19:28
  I remember when I was a kid uh in the late 70s and early 80s down in Minter Wells, Texas, and the preacher and the elders and the deacons, they all wore that button on their lapel
• 19:37
  of their suits that said people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
• 19:41
  That's what compassion is all about.
• 19:43
  The only day church grew by leaps and bounds because they cared about people.
• 19:47
  They were patient with people.
• 19:48
  They loved people.
• 19:49
  They were kind with people.
• 19:51
  So look at verse 36 again.
• 19:52
  It says that he was moved with compassion for them.
• 19:55
  Why?
• 19:55
  Because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd.
• 19:59
  Then he said to his disciples, listen to this right here, he says, this is critically important for us to understand.
• 20:05
  Then he said to his disciples, the harvest truly is plentiful, but the labors are few.
• 20:10
  Therefore pray the Lord of harvest to send out labors into the harvest.
• 20:14
  Did he say the harvest was the problem?
• 20:16
  No, he said the harvest is plentiful.
• 20:19
  There's a ton of people right here in Collierville, Tennessee that want to hear the gospel.
• 20:24
  The harvest is plentiful, the problem is the labors are few.
• 20:28
  Now I can tell you what we did
• 20:29
  Coetho, Oklahoma for a great many years.
• 20:32
  We'd pray, Lord, please send workers, please send somebody to help us evangelize, Lord.
• 20:36
  Guess what happened?
• 20:38
  Nothing.
• 20:39
  Why did it happen?
• 20:39
  Because we weren't willing to do anything at that time.
• 20:42
  We didn't know what we were doing at that time.
• 20:44
  He says the harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few.
• 20:48
  Therefore pray that the Lord will send laborers out into the field.
• 20:51
  That's what we do.
• 20:52
  We pray, but then we have to become the answer to that prayer.
• 20:56
  We have to become the laborers.
• 20:58
  We have to make our mind up that this
• 20:59
  is what we're going to do and we're going to go out and we're going to have compassion on people and we're going to show kindness to people and we're going to show grace and mercy
• 21:07
  just like our Lord has shown for us.
• 21:09
  We're going to show grace and mercy and we're going to show love and listen to this one.
• 21:13
  Patience.
• 21:15
  Have you ever studied with somebody and you're just like, man these people are just not getting it.
• 21:19
  How can I show them the same thing over and over and they just don't get it or we start working with a new convert and they don't come half the time and it can wear on our
• 21:29
  patience.
• 21:29
  sometimes.
• 21:31
  Jesus was pretty patient with us wasn't he?
• 21:34
  We just need to be patient with people.
• 21:35
  Not everybody's coming from the same walk of life right?
• 21:38
  I can remember our kids when they were little in school we would teach them.
• 21:42
  We would tell them you know those kids at school that are kind of outcasts the ones that the other kids don't want to be around or want to...
• 21:49
  make an effort to go talk to that person.
• 21:50
  You have no idea what's going on in their home life.
• 21:52
  There's a reason they're acting like they're acting.
• 21:55
  Befriend them, try to teach them, try to be somebody that they can look to for strength and for guidance and for help.
• 22:01
  so our kids would always, they just knew if somebody looked like they were an outcast, that was who they would zero in on to try to help that kid or to help that person.
• 22:09
  We need to be the same way.
• 22:10
  We gotta be patient with people and we gotta be forgiving to people.
• 22:14
  somebody we're studying with may say something that's offensive
• 22:19
  to us.
• 22:20
  Or they may say something in a way that it just rubs us wrong, but we have to be forgiving and patient with them.
• 22:25
  We have to show them that hope of what lies ahead for us when we leave this life.
• 22:31
  It's not easy to teach new people.
• 22:33
  Some people are very easy.
• 22:34
  I literally have met people and two weeks later we're baptizing them.
• 22:38
  They're great Christians.
• 22:39
  They're just very easy.
• 22:40
  That's not the normal.
• 22:42
  The norm is that it takes a lot of work.
• 22:44
  But we've got to be willing to put in that work.
• 22:46
  And we should be willing to put in that work because
• 22:49
  of what our Lord did for us, what God's Son did for us.
• 22:54
  So that's Jesus reaching that we see in the prospect.
• 22:56
  Let's talk about Jesus teaching.
• 22:58
  We've talked about it a number of times already this morning, but just turn with me to Acts chapter eight.
• 23:03
  Acts chapter eight, we know from Acts chapter five that Philip is in Samaria.
• 23:09
  mean, in chapter eight, verse five rather, he's in Samaria, he's preached to him, but look at verse 12.
• 23:15
  But when they believe Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus, both men and women were baptized.
• 23:23
  Men, just raise your hand if you're an inspired evangelist in this room right now.
• 23:29
  We're not inspired, are we?
• 23:30
  You got a lot of evangelists in this room, but ain't got any inspired evangelists in this room.
• 23:34
  Why don't we just do what Philip did?
• 23:36
  Because Philip was an inspired evangelist.
• 23:38
  Why don't we just do it the way he did it?
• 23:40
  He taught three things.
• 23:41
  He taught the name of Christ.
• 23:42
  Now listen, you can use any Bible study you want to use as long as it's a scriptural Bible study.
• 23:48
  Folks, if you have a Bible study that doesn't use the Bible, it's not a Bible study.
• 23:52
  Throw it away.
• 23:53
  Right?
• 23:53
  There's things that a Bible study needs to cover.
• 23:55
  How many...
• 23:56
  Okay, I'm going back to the gray hairs in here.
• 23:58
  How many of you know
• 23:59
  Jewel Miller ever seen ever heard of Jewel Miller has anybody in here have been brought to Christ was it were any of y'all brought to Christ using Jewel Miller anybody some
• 24:07
  congregations there are
• 24:09
  I guarantee if you got gray hair you know who Jewel Miller is.
• 24:11
  Maybe if you don't have gray hair you know who Jewel Miller is.
• 24:13
  There's been thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people led to Christ with the old Jewel Miller film strips.
• 24:20
  Very effective teaching tool.
• 24:22
  Ivan Stewart's open Bible study, very effective.
• 24:24
  uh Tim Hatfield over in Grove City, Ohio has one.
• 24:28
  It's very effective.
• 24:28
  David Spruill down at uh West Palm Beach Lake, Beach Lakes or whatever it's called down there in Florida.
• 24:34
  He's got a great Bible study.
• 24:35
  It's very effective.
• 24:36
  I don't care what study you use as long as it teaches
• 24:39
  is the name of Christ or the authority of Christ, the church of Christ, and salvation.
• 24:43
  Use it if you've got a study and you're leading eight or ten or twelve people a year to Christ, keep doing what you're doing.
• 24:48
  But if you don't, back to the Bible is a great one to try.
• 24:51
  It's very very easy to use.
• 24:53
  It's easy to go through.
• 24:54
  It's just yes, no, fill in the blank.
• 24:56
  uh It's just straight up scriptures.
• 24:58
  There's no narration, none of this stuff.
• 25:01
  No opinions, no ideas.
• 25:03
  It's just straight out of the Bible.
• 25:05
  So lesson one teaches the name of Christ.
• 25:07
  I spent a good number of years as a sheriff's investigator.
• 25:10
  And so when I was working as a sheriff's investigator, if I went out and I did something, I was acting under the authority of the sheriff.
• 25:16
  had the sheriff's authority.
• 25:17
  So I was acting in the name of the sheriff, right?
• 25:20
  When we're talking about the name of Christ, we're talking about the authority of Christ.
• 25:24
  People need to know that there was no separation between Christ and God the Father.
• 25:29
  In fact, Jesus is praying in John 17, just right before he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane, he's praying that
• 25:35
  all of his followers would be one as he and the Father are one.
• 25:38
  Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 10, let there be no division among you.
• 25:43
  We shouldn't have 38 to 54,000 different things being taught in this world today.
• 25:48
  We all ought to be teaching the exact same thing and I'm gonna tell you something, I'm shocked at how much division there is in the church when I go around and see different
• 25:55
  things that different people are teaching in the church, that should not be.
• 25:58
  We should be unified in our teaching.
• 26:01
  We've got to teach the authority of Christ.
• 26:03
  They've got to know that Jesus had all authority.
• 26:05
  Matthew chapter 28 verse 18.
• 26:07
  They've got to know that what the apostles wrote was straight from God the Father through the Holy Spirit, word for word.
• 26:14
  It's not that he just gave them an idea and told them to run with it.
• 26:17
  They wrote down exactly what they were guided to write down.
• 26:20
  The words that are written in black are ever been as much important.
• 26:23
  You can't separate the apostles from Jesus even any more than you can separate Jesus from the Father.
• 26:28
  You can't do it.
• 26:29
  They're all one.
• 26:30
  They need to know that.
• 26:31
  got to know that we're not under the Old Testament anymore.
• 26:33
  They've got to know that we're going to be judged by the words of Jesus.
• 26:36
  That's what lesson one, back to the Bible, is.
• 26:39
  Lesson two talks about the kingdom of God, the Church of Christ.
• 26:43
  They need to know why we have elders and deacons.
• 26:45
  They need to know why we don't use instrumental music.
• 26:46
  They need to know why we take communion on the first day of the week every week.
• 26:51
  Why we give an offering.
• 26:52
  They need to know all these things, why the church is called the Church of Christ.
• 26:56
  They need to know all of this.
• 26:56
  They're going to learn it lesson two.
• 26:59
  And then they need to learn about biblical salvation.
• 27:00
  That's the third thing that Philip taught.
• 27:02
  And they're gonna learn that in lesson three.
• 27:03
  We're gonna talk about all the different steps of salvation up to and including baptism and being faithful from that point on.
• 27:10
  If you're faithful unto death, then you get the crown of life.
• 27:12
  It's not once saved always saved.
• 27:14
  That may be what they were taught wherever they go or went to before, but that's not what they're gonna see in this book.
• 27:19
  They need to know that the sinner's prayer does not exist, right?
• 27:23
  That's a Billy Graham deal, 1985.
• 27:25
  You're not gonna find it in this book.
• 27:27
  People say, oh, all I gotta do, Romans tell me all I gotta do is call upon the name of the Lord and I'll be saved.
• 27:31
  Well, you're right.
• 27:32
  Call upon the name of Lord and you will be saved.
• 27:34
  Go to Acts chapter 22 and he tells you how to be called upon the Lord.
• 27:37
  How you call upon the name of the Lord.
• 27:39
  You do it by being baptized.
• 27:41
  And now, why tarry as thou, arise and be baptized, washing away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord.
• 27:47
  That's how we call upon the name of the Lord.
• 27:49
  They gotta be taught those things.
• 27:50
  And if you teach them them things, you'll be shocked how many of them will come to Christ.
• 27:54
  It's very, very effective.
• 27:56
  Nine out of 10.
• 27:57
  Sometimes 10 out of 10 that you teach will come to Christ using that study.
• 28:01
  So this is Jesus in the Bible study section.
• 28:04
  This is Jesus teaching.
• 28:05
  What about Jesus redeeming?
• 28:07
  Look at Mark chapter 10 verse 45 with me.
• 28:11
  Mark chapter 10 verse 45.
• 28:14
  So now we see Jesus in the redeemer.
• 28:15
  We're not gonna go through all these, we would be here all day.
• 28:18
  But Mark chapter 10, verse 45, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
• 28:26
  Jesus is a redeemer and we see this.
• 28:29
  You see it on Pentecost, the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter two.
• 28:32
  Peter's up there preaching his sermon, a large part of it out of Joel chapter two.
• 28:37
  And he gets down to verse 36.
• 28:38
  In turn over there with me to Acts chapter two.
• 28:43
  I know you're mostly all familiar with this, let's just go look at it.
• 28:45
  I'd rather just lay eyes on it.
• 28:47
  Acts chapter two, look at verse 36.
• 28:51
  Therefore let all the house of Israel know surely that God has made this Jesus who you crucified.
• 28:58
  Now think about that folks, they were just there 50 days before this.
• 29:02
  A lot of them were there yelling crucify him, crucify him.
• 29:05
  And now Peter saying that the one that you crucified, the Lord that you crucified, says in verse 36, God has made this Jesus who you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
• 29:14
  And now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart.
• 29:17
  And they said to Peter and the rest of apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?
• 29:21
  you
• 29:22
  He told them what to do.
• 29:23
  He told them what they needed to do to be saved.
• 29:25
  And we see it in almost every chapter you read throughout Acts.
• 29:29
  Every time you see a conversion, whether it's Samaritans, whether it's the Ethiopian eunuch, whether it's Saul when he's converted to Paul, whether it's Cornelius' household,
• 29:37
  whether it's Lydia, whether it's Philippians, Jailer, whether it's Corinthians, whether it's Ephesians, every single conversion happens the exact same way.
• 29:45
  Nobody raised their hand and called upon the name of Lord was saved.
• 29:48
  Nobody said a sinner's prayer.
• 29:50
  Nobody invited the Lord into their
• 29:52
  heart is a personal Savior.
• 29:53
  No one got sprinkled, nobody got poured.
• 29:56
  Every conversion happens the exact same way.
• 29:59
  There's a new teaching now that people understand.
• 30:02
  Baptizo means immersion, but they say, doesn't that just mean we can immerse ourselves in Christ?
• 30:07
  There's some churches of Christ now that are teaching you don't have to be immersed in water.
• 30:12
  You just have to immerse yourself in Christ.
• 30:14
  Well how many baptisms do we read about in Ephesians chapter 4?
• 30:17
  I read one baptism.
• 30:19
  And I see in Acts chapter 8 when the Ethiopian euclid was baptized, they went down into the water.
• 30:23
  If he went in the water and there's only one baptism, then does that leave any room for immersing ourselves in Christ?
• 30:29
  No!
• 30:30
  There's only one way to do it.
• 30:31
  They need to know that.
• 30:32
  That's Jesus redeeming.
• 30:34
  Folks, without him coming and doing what he did, we had no hope of salvation.
• 30:38
  We would be wasting our time right now had Jesus not come and did what he did.
• 30:43
  The old law was never designed to save.
• 30:45
  There was no salvation waiting for us under the old law.
• 30:49
  It took Christ doing what Christ did.
• 30:51
  And without that, we would be forever lost.
• 30:53
  Praise the Lord that we live on this side of the cross.
• 30:56
  You think you want to live on the other side of the cross?
• 30:58
  Go spend some of your free time reading.
• 31:00
  You don't want to live on the other side of the cross.
• 31:05
  Then we see feeding, John chapter 10.
• 31:08
  John chapter 10 verses 27 and 28.
• 31:10
  I saw a video on Facebook, a reel, the other day here a while back.
• 31:18
  And it had uh a young man, had about 50 or 60 sheep and they're out in the pasture and he's sitting in a pickup with his buddies and he said, this is the way I call my sheep.
• 31:26
  And he made some sound, I'm not even going try to attempt to make it, but he makes some sound.
• 31:30
  And so he has his buddies practice that same sound.
• 31:33
  So they get out and they walk up to the fence and the sheep are probably from here to that fence across the road over there.
• 31:37
  They're good ways over there.
• 31:39
  And so he tells his first buddy, goes, holler at my sheep and see if they'll come up here.
• 31:43
  He makes a sound which it sounded just like the owner of the sheep.
• 31:46
  He makes a sound, they don't even bat an eye.
• 31:48
  The next guy, gets up there, he yells, makes the exact same sound, those sheep never bat an eye.
• 31:52
  The owner gets up there, he makes that sound, them sheep whip their heads up and here they come running.
• 31:56
  Why?
• 31:57
  Because they knew the voice of their shepherd.
• 31:59
  They knew that he was gonna feed them.
• 32:01
  They knew that he was gonna protect them, that he was gonna take care of them.
• 32:04
  Look at John chapter 10.
• 32:06
  Look at verses 27 and 28.
• 32:09
  My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
• 32:12
  And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.
• 32:18
  Has anybody in here ever raised sheep before?
• 32:21
  Okay, you probably know the answer this.
• 32:23
  I had a little sheep in 4H, many, moons ago.
• 32:27
  But I had a guy tell me one time, he had a large herd of sheep, and said, Keeno, I'll tell you something about sheep, they wake up every day trying to kill themselves.
• 32:34
  Like they will get tangled up in wire, they'll drown in a pond, they'll walk off the side of a cliff, they'll walk out in front of a vick.
• 32:41
  He said they will literally, they wake up every morning trying to kill themselves, and without a shepherd, somebody to take care of them, they'll never make it.
• 32:48
  Most of them will never make it.
• 32:50
  What's the difference between that
• 32:51
  us.
• 32:52
  We wake up, Jeremiah said, is not in us to direct our own steps.
• 32:55
  We would get ourselves in so much trouble without a shepherd.
• 32:58
  We need a shepherd.
• 32:59
  Why?
• 33:00
  We need somebody to teach us.
• 33:02
  We need somebody to protect us.
• 33:04
  We need somebody to exhort us.
• 33:06
  Guess what new converts need?
• 33:09
  You know new converts come to
• 33:12
  historically they'll come to the church, somebody will come in, they'll be sitting in the pew on Sunday morning and grandma will start elbowing them in the ribs or mom will twist
• 33:20
  her ear and tell them you need to get up and do this or maybe they get caught up in the motion and they'll go forward and get baptized.
• 33:25
  They don't even understand what they're doing.
• 33:27
  They don't even understand why they're being baptized and then on Wednesday night we throw them an adult Bible class on Ezekiel and they're lost.
• 33:34
  They have no idea what they're doing and they fall away.
• 33:37
  You know what the fallout rate is from the church?
• 33:40
  80%, 80 % of all new converts
• 33:41
  fall out in the first three years.
• 33:43
  That's not very good.
• 33:45
  We need to shut the back door.
• 33:46
  We need to bring them in the front door and shut the back door so they don't go right back out as quick as they came in.
• 33:51
  We do that by feeding them.
• 33:53
  So when it comes to new converts, we're going talk about this more in depth on Tuesday night, but when it comes to new converts, we've got to have a new convert class.
• 34:01
  They need to have milk before they get meat, right?
• 34:03
  They're not ready for Ezekiel and Daniel and Revelation in an adult Bible class.
• 34:08
  They need to get the very basics.
• 34:10
  They need to learn how to pray.
• 34:11
  oh
• 34:11
  A lot of people don't have any idea how to pray.
• 34:14
  They need to learn that.
• 34:14
  They'll learn that in a new convert class.
• 34:16
  They need to learn the very basics of what we do and why we do it.
• 34:20
  They've got to get that out of way first.
• 34:22
  Before they move into the meat, they've got to start on the meal.
• 34:25
  But I'm going tell you something about Gen Zers.
• 34:28
  I think that's like 13 to 28 year olds, somewhere along in there.
• 34:32
  But you know, basically, upper teens and through the 20s, Gen Zers.
• 34:36
  I read an article on Fox News that says 60 % of Gen Zers are moving away from Christianity.
• 34:41
  But then I read another article that says of the ones that stay in Christianity, they're flocking to the Greek Orthodox and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
• 34:48
  Why?
• 34:49
  Because they want tradition.
• 34:50
  They're tired of throwing a beach ball around the audience and rock bands and rap bands and flashing lights.
• 34:55
  don't want all that.
• 34:56
  They want tradition.
• 34:57
  This is a perfect time for the Church of Christ to be growing among the Gen Zers.
• 35:01
  We baptized 17 of them in the last few years.
• 35:04
  And you know what?
• 35:05
  They're a little harder to get, but when you get them,
• 35:06
  they're very loyal and if you'll stay with them and train them they're great Christians, they're hard workers, but they don't...
• 35:13
  I'll just be honest with you, you're not gonna keep them on Sundays and Wednesdays.
• 35:16
  If that's the only time they hear from you, they'll be right back out the back door.
• 35:20
  Until they get their feet under, you've got to reach out to them daily.
• 35:23
  So they need a mentor assigned to them.
• 35:26
  The daily is sending them a text, maybe some verses, maybe a little short devotional, something to encourage them.
• 35:32
  Maybe, hey, Thursday night, let's meet and go get ice cream together.
• 35:35
  Or, know, or something.
• 35:36
  Or, why don't you come over to the house and let's have dinner and a Bible study.
• 35:38
  Or when they don't show up for a worship service, calling them immediately before that becomes a habit and finding out what's going on.
• 35:44
  And you have to work with them daily.
• 35:46
  Daily they need to be contacted.
• 35:48
  But if you'll do that, they'll be some of the strongest, hardest workers that you'll ever see.
• 35:51
  They'll be very faithful.
• 35:52
  They just take a little bit time.
• 35:54
  But we've got to put the time in.
• 35:56
  And when it comes to new converts, we cannot baptize them and forget them.
• 35:59
  They'll be gone before they even catch their breath.
• 36:03
  And lastly, as Jesus is repeating, we've talked about it all through the day today.
• 36:07
  Great commission, go ye therefore and teach all nations.
• 36:10
  Baptizing them name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
• 36:12
  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you along with you always.
• 36:17
  If we don't get up and start evangelizing, the church is going to die in the United States of America.
• 36:22
  But here's the deal, you guys already got, you're already moving in that direction.
• 36:25
  I mean, just having Rob come here and do the seminar and starting to put that stuff into practice, the, the, the, the,
• 36:31
  problem really falls in that some of it's unclear.
• 36:35
  He goes through it so fast, there's so much information, it's hard to catch all of it the first time around.
• 36:39
  So we're going to work tomorrow night and the next night, we're going to really break down the mechanics of several different areas about Bible studies and how to do Bible studies
• 36:48
  and what to say.
• 36:49
  when they don't respond, what do do at that point?
• 36:52
  How do I get them to go ahead and continue until we get to the point of baptism?
• 36:56
  We're going to talk about things like how to handle new converts.
• 36:59
  There is something that new converts have
• 37:01
  to know in order to survive.
• 37:03
  And we're going to talk about that Tuesday night.
• 37:05
  There's things, you know, we're going to talk about greeters and visitors, how to handle.
• 37:09
  Did you say that you had like 15, 16 visitors some Sundays?
• 37:14
  I'll teach you how to get 85 % of them in a Bible study.
• 37:18
  If they're from here, not if they're passing through, but of your visitors that come and they live in this town and they come in and visit, I'll teach you how to get 85 % of them
• 37:25
  in a Bible study.
• 37:26
  It's not hard, you just gotta know the techniques, you gotta know what to say, you gotta know how to go through that.
• 37:30
  So we're gonna cover all of that tomorrow night and Tuesday night.
• 37:33
  I pray that you'll be here and you'll join us in those.
• 37:36
  You will be a totally different evangelist when this week is over.
• 37:40
  You'll bring lost souls to Christ like you never dreamt possible.
• 37:44
  Christ gave us the commission, He expects us to do it, let's just do it.
• 37:49
  Let's just do it so that others can experience what we're experiencing.
• 37:52
  If you're here this evening or this afternoon, you're not a child of God, you know, lot of this doesn't make sense to you.
• 37:58
  You don't have a hope of eternal life with God.
• 38:02
  You don't have the comfort and the hope and the peace that comes from a relationship with God.
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  You've never been into Christ.
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  Maybe you don't know if you're in Christ.
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  We were talking a little bit about this before Bible class this morning, or before the worship service this morning.
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  You know, sometimes people get baptized, they're not getting baptized,
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  You ever heard of people getting rebaptized?
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  There's no such thing as rebaptism, there's only baptism.
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  Just sometimes they went down the water before, there's an old elder out in Arizona, you say all they did was went down a dry devil and came up a wet one.
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  Nothing changed with them.
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  If you don't know, if you didn't know Romans chapter six verses three through five, if you don't understand what Christ did for you and how that baptism is symbolic of what your
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  savior did for you, then you didn't get baptized.
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  gotta know those.
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  There's gotta be some things that you understand and you know.
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  If you didn't know that, then let's visit.
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  Let's have a study or get with Aaron and let's study it out and let's visit.
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  see if there's something you need to take care of.
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  But if you're already a member of the Lord's church and you just need prayers, you know James chapter five verse 16 he says, your faults one to another.
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  He's not talking about going and sitting in a booth with some man with a white collar that thinks he can absolve you from your sins when he can't and confessing something to him.
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  That's not what he's talking about.
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  He's not even talking about confession necessarily like what we do before we're baptized when we confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
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  He's talking about find some people in your congregation that you're close
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  to and that you can share your troubles and your trials with and they can pray with you.
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  Why?
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  Because the prayers of a righteous man availeth much.
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  Prayers work and we want to pray for you and if you're in a situation when you can use prayers to encourage you and to help you get realigned and refocused with God, let us do
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  that now as we stand