How Pastor Jimenez Met His Wife | Pastor Roger Jimenez

amen all right well we're there in Acts chapter 26 and we're obviously not in our normal book of ezekiel like we have been on wednesday nights and i want you to notice a couple of things here in Acts chapter 26 just by way of introduction and I want you to notice that in this chapter you have the Apostle Paul and he does something that he does often he is giving his testimony and he's using his tool as a testimony to be able to preach the gospel and to communicate scriptural truth you're there in acts 26 look at verse 1 acts 26 and verse 1 the Bible says then Agrippa said unto Paul thou art permitted to speak for thyself then Paul stretched forth his hand and answered for himself I think myself happy King Agrippa because I shall answer for myself this day before the touching all the things we're up I am accused of the Jews and he goes on to talk about his testimony and to give his story if you look look down we won't read the whole thing we just got done reading it but looked out at verse number 22 notice what he says in verse 22 he says having therefore obtained the help of God I continue into this day witnessing both to small and great saying none other things and those which the prophets and Moses did say should come that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles I want you to notice that throughout the book of Acts we see that the Apostle Paul often gives us testimony and uses testimony as a tool to preach the gospel to communicate truth now it is a dangerous thing to use your testimony in that capacity because what I've noticed is that most of the time when people give their testimony they make their testimony all about them and not about Christ that is not what the Apostle Paul did you'll notice whenever he gives us testimony he uses it as a tool to bring the attention back to the gospel and back to Christ and I think that that can be done and maybe one day I'll preach a sermon about how to effectively use your testimony and to not turn your testimony into all about yourself but the reason I'm showing this to you tonight is we go tonight I want to preach kind of a different type of sermon and I want to preach to you a sermon that's a very testimonial type sermon and as we've already already talked about during the announcements today my wife and I are celebrating 15 years of marriage we were married on June 5th of 2004 and we you know I don't know I feel really old saying that we've been married for 15 years and we're not old we just got married when we were young all right so don't start thinking we're old but I want to preach to you a sermon entitled how pastor Jimenez met his wife and I want to go through our testimony with you tonight just kind of give you our story and give you some scriptural truths now I've preached a sermon like this before in fact three years ago I preached a sermon like this some of you we're here for it most of you probably weren't and so I want you to know tonight sermons gonna be very scriptural sermon I'm gonna give you ten points ten scriptural truths that we can see from the Word of God that we can see through the story of how I met my wife and if some of you were thinking already heard the story you know you've done this before you know my answer to you is it's my anniversary I'll preach what I want to all right so it's just what I want to preach but you know honestly the the thing is this and this is my wife I'll tell you this my wife and she's not sitting there she probably won't be sitting there is doesn't want me to preach the sermon because she doesn't like it whenever I bring attention to her whenever I try to put her in the spotlight this is what I tell her I tell her some guys write poems and some guys write songs okay I preach sermons this is what I do all right so she doesn't think it's very romantic but it's what happens when you have preached on your anniversary night so I want I want to talk to you give you our testimony and give you just some some thoughts in regards in some scriptural truths and like I said there's gonna be a sermon it's not gonna be just me giving you stories I will say this and for some of you that have grown up in church maybe you know this or maybe you understand this but a lot of preachers tell a lot of stories I'm actually I don't tell a lot of stories whenever I preach we kind of just deal with the tags and I give you applications and we kind of leave it there it's it's rare that I tell a lot of stories on Sunday night I kind of told more stories than I usually do tonight I'm gonna tell more stories than I usually do so I'm making up for all the stories I don't normally tell all tonight all right usually go to churches and pastors telling a lot of stories to a lot of stories but hopefully it'll be beneficial for you and hopefully it'll help you know you're there in the book of Acts I'd like you to find your place in first Peter if you can go to first Peter and if you're going backwards from the book of Revelation you're gonna go revelation jude third second first john's second and first Peter another reason I want to preach the sermon is because when I preach this sermon three years ago I got a lot of response for it and I got a lot of emails people said it was helpful to them and it was encouraging to them and when our first youtube channel got shut down that sermon got lost with that channel so it'd be nice to have it back on our new channel as well so when I met my wife and I realized some of you know this but when my wife and I met we were 17 year old kids and we met working at Subway and when we were working there when I when we were working there my wife actually had been working since she was 15 years old so she'd already been working at Subway for a couple of years she was 17 and she was the assistant manager I was the new guy coming in to work and you know sometimes you talk to couples about how they met and sometimes they remember the first words that they said to each other many times they don't remember you know what were the first things your wife said to you you know when you first met her what were the first things your husband said to you when you first met I will always remember the first words that my wife ever said to me because the first words that ever came out of her mouth towards me were these words I don't believe in God when we met at Subway at work she walked up to me and she said I don't believe in God and you might think well that's kind of an odd thing to say to a brand-new co-worker but let me give you a little other context and I've talked about this a little bit on Sunday night and you're there in first Peter 3 but when when I met my wife you know she was if you could make her way to first Peter 3 first Peter chapter 3 when I met my wife she had been working at Subway for a couple of years she was 17 years old I was 17 years old she was the assistant manager I was coming in as an eland and she was forced to work every Saturday and Sunday she was forced to work 12-hour shifts because she was the assistant manager you know how that is when you're 17 you're the assistant manager and she had the key and she had the responsibility and she had whatever and the guy who was the boss the manager the main boss did not want to work on the weekend so he didn't have anybody else he trusted so he just made her work the entire you know the entire time the the the store was open so she worked 12 hours on Saturday she worked 12 hours on Sunday every Saturday every Sunday of course she got paid overtime or whatever but that was her job and when we at that subway because the adults all follow the guys all the people that were older did not want to work on the weekends all of the teenage employees were forced every single one of them was forced to work on the weekend so when I got hired and I told you a little bit about this on Sunday night but when I got hired I came in as the guy who did not work on Sundays I came in as the Christian here's the new guy and they they all called me the Christian that did not work on Sunday so when I started off I kind of started off you know with a problem everybody already kind of didn't like me because I was the guy that had Sundays off and they were all when I started working my very first day when I started working that all the employees were asking me questions like oh we heard you're a Christian you don't work on Sunday Oh what church you go oh you go to Christian school huh you know and all those things and then of course my wife was there now that you need to understand a couple things about my wife okay not only was she 17 years old and a manager and whatever she was responsible and doing those things she was also she had graduated from high school early I'll tell you this about my wife she doesn't want me to tell you this but it doesn't matter when she was in high school she was a cheerleader but she was also she graduated early she graduated a year early so she is not only beautiful she's very smart she's got brains and beauty and she was already enrolled in college so you know we were 17 but she was in college I was in high school because I've got neither brains nor Beauty but you know she was in college and when she was in college she had taken a anthropology a cultural anthropology class and in that class her Professor her college professor had convinced her and everyone else in the class to not believe in God okay so here's the thing she grew up Catholic her grandparents were actually very extremely devout Catholic people she'd grown up Catholic she grown up believing in God and she believed in God even through her teenage years and even went through some kind of non-denominational churches and youth activities and things like that but when she graduated high school went to college first year in college first cultural anthropology class the instructor was able to very quickly and very effortlessly to basically undermine her faith in Christianity undermine her faith in God and she became an atheist so you can imagine how angry a 17 year old girl who's forced to work every Saturday and Sunday who is also an atheist would be at some new Christian that just showed up and he's guaranteed every Sunday off you know this is when she walks up to me and said I don't believe in God I don't know anything about you I don't need to know anything about you all I know is that you're a Christian and here's what you need to know about me is that I don't believe in God so here's the first lesson that I'd like to give you from our testimony and it's this we must prepare our children to answer to have answers for those who would try to shake their faith because the story of Joanne is a story that is repeated over and over and over and over again where you've got young people who are Christians or they just have faith in God and then they go to college and and within weeks of the first semester they've already left the faith or they've already left their faith or they've already left a belief in God or they've already left a belief in Christianity and again realizing that many of these are false religions Catholics but even fundamental Baptists have been known to have kids that go to college and just come back not believing and this is a common story are they're in first Peter chapter 3 look at verse 15 first Peter 3:15 says this but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts notice what it says and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you notice these words a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear just a few weeks ago I preached a sermon called reasoning and we went through and looked at some logical reasons for the resurrection and logical reasons to believe that the Bible truly is God's Word and logical reasons to believe in the biblical account of creation you say why would we take the time to do that here's why we would take the time to do that because we need to make sure that our young people are ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in you one lesson that we can take away from the story of how I met my wife is that she's not unique that story of someone going to college and coming out an atheist going to college and coming out a Heath and going to college and coming out and someone who doesn't believe in God is a common story in you and I as Bible believing New Testament Christians need to make sure that we have an answer for the reason of the hope that is in us and that we transfer that answer to our young people because you say well I'm never gonna send my kids to college okay that's great but they're gonna meet someone who's going to try to undermine their faith they're going to meet a gainsay or now you're there in first Peter chapter 3 keep your place there in first Peter 3 and go to Hebrews chapter 10 while you go there let me read for you from Titus chapter 1 and verse 9 Titus 1:9 says this holding fast the faithful word as he have been taught that we may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers the word games there means one who contradicts or one who denies and here's what you need to understand our young people are gonna grow up and they're gonna come into contact with the gainsayers those who will contradict what we believe those who will deny what we believe whether it's a college setting or a work setting or just meeting people as they go on through life and we need to be ready that they have an answer for the hope that is in them with meekness and fear because when I met my wife I met a girl who did not believe in God a girl who was smart who was in college and she went into it not being against God not having an issue with God she believed in God she believed there was a god she believed all those things were good and she wasn't even against God as an atheist she wasn't angry at God or hateful or God she just went to college and had some college professor tell her some things undermine the Bible tell her there are contradictions in the Bible and she just walked out of that class saying like many freshman college students I guess there's no God so we must learn this lesson that we must prepare our children to have an answer for those who would try to shake their faith so I started working at this place and and you might you know ask yourself well how is it if every teenager was forced to work on the weekends how is it that you as a teenager were not forced to week on the week to work on the weekends and I'd like to tell you a little bit about that when I got my interview I interviewed with a Muslim man his name was moe now Moe was an Iranian and he was a not so devout Muslim he was a Muslim but really just kind of what you know a liberal Muslim or a worldly Muslim if you could use that analogy and I told you on Sunday that when I started working my parents said hey you you will not work on on Sundays you won't work on Sundays you weren't wrong on Wednesdays you will not work during church time now they didn't mind if I work during the day on Wednesday or maybe even between the services on Sunday or something like that but the rule at our house is when there is church we will be in church so make sure you don't work so when I applied to work you know I'm 17 years old I applied to work at Subway they give you this little this little you know application or whatever there's a little a schedule there and they want you to mark when you're not available so I just put an X you know on Wednesday evening not available and Sunday not available and and I just put the whole day Sunday because I ran a bus route and I had ministries and things that I did so I wanted to be able to keep continuing those things when I had this interview with with with Moe he you know we had an interview we talked it has me questions things like that and then he towards the end of it he says hey I notice that you're not available work on Sundays or Wednesday and i spended yes sir I'm a Christian I go to church on Sundays and Wednesdays and I won't be available to work and and he said hey if I were to hire you I may need you every once in a while on a Sunday you know is that okay and and I responded no and I you know I'm sorry I'm not able to do that now you know I of course I had a mom and dad that I feared right so I'm not always gonna go home and tell my dad hey every once in a while cuz I knew how that would go right but I didn't tell Moe that I told Moe hey I'm a Christian I don't work on Sundays I don't work on Wednesdays I love the Lord you know and he said what if I just need you every once in awhile and if you remember the story of Pharaoh remember when Moses goes to see pharaoh and pharaoh tries to negotiate with him Moses says hey we got to leave the land and and Pharaoh's like well just don't take the Cadi oh okay fine take the cattle but don't don't take the kids okay take the kids but don't go very far you know he's gotta negotiate I feel like that's what Moe was doing with me he's like well what if I need you every once in a while I'm like I can't work every every once in awhile Wednesday after I want me in church I want to honor the Lord with my church with churches then he said okay well what if I had an emergency what if there was an emergency and I said hey listen if there's an emergency I can come in before before church and I can come in after church and I can come in between the services and if you really need me so I give me come back after the Sunday service but I cannot work during church time I must honor the Lord with my time and he said okay well what if what if I just put your name on the schedule then you'll have to show up I remember he said to me and I thought is this some sort of a magical schedule like you know you put the name on there and it's gonna force me to show up you know he said well what if I put your name on the schedule then you'll have to show up and I said you know what I'm sorry if you put my name on schedule I would not show up and I just hope you know I was I was kind but I said I cannot miss Church for work and he looked at me and he said well you know what if I put your name on the schedule you don't show up that'll cost your job so you know I don't know that this is gonna work out and I don't think this is this is gonna be the place for you and I said you know I completely understand that I stood up I shook his hand just like I'd been taught by my parents you know I looked him in the eye shook his hand thanked him for his time began to walk away as I was walking away he said okay fine you can have the job and I'm not really sure why he gave me the job but he just did you know maybe maybe he just respected the fact that somebody actually stood by what they said you know and and didn't budge on it but I was as I was getting ready to leave he's like fine you can have the job you have Sundays off and you know you kind of joke even have an emergency you know it's fine you can go to church I get it and he gave me that and here's the thing I don't know why mo gave me that job I really don't know he didn't have to give me a job I was just a kid but I think God was in it you know cuz obviously there's that's where I met my wife that's my whole life has changed because of that so here's lesson number two for you lesson number one was we must prepare our children to have an answer for those who would try to shake their faith but here's lesson number two we must honor the Lord with our time by not working during church are you there in Hebrews chapter 10 look at verse number 25 Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 25 the Bible says this Hebrews 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together the word church means congregation or assembly this verse is talking about skipping out on church it says not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together and sometimes people say well no this isn't talking about skipping church services this is just talking about quitting church altogether well here's the problem with that when you quit church altogether you just do that one time you know I'm just angry and I'm done right this is not the context of Hebrews since we right now you can definitely apply it to that but notice what he says he says not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together here's the context as the manner of some what does the word Manor mean it means some people have a custom some people have a habit some people have this way of life that there just is what Paul is saying I believe Paul wrote the book here what are you saying look you ought not have a manner of life that is constantly forsaking the assembling of ourselves together he says you need to be in church he said exhorting one another and so much the more as you see that they approach you because they well you know how much search church do we need well here's what he says he says so much the more he said the closer we get to the end as we see that they approaching look as we see the day approaching we need more church not less church we need more preaching of God's Word not less preaching God's Word we need more fellowship with believers not less fellowship of believers and here's what I know here's what I know you say well it doesn't matter if I just skipped church every once in a while and you're right your life will not fall apart if you skip church every once in a while but here's what I know nobody just skips church every once in a while you either skip church and then you say man let's make sure that never happens again and you get back on track or you skip Church well every once in a while you become that guy I skipped church every once awhile the problem with that guy the problem with that gal is that three weeks later they skipped church again every once in a while in six weeks later every once in a while and three weeks later every once in a while but see eventually starts becoming something where what's two times a week or it's two weeks in a row and slowly but surely you become the guy you become the gal that's forsaking the assembling of ourselves together you say well what should we do here's what you should do you should just decide to honor the Lord with your time look you young people ought to decide just as teenagers that you will not work during church you say how do you do it here's how you do it you show up to the interview you have iron pants on or whatever you know ladies I don't but you you you you are on your pants you tuck in your shirt you shake the individuals hands you look them in the eye you're respectful you tell them I'll do anything you want I'll do whatever you want you can you know I'll work hard for you I'm up I'll clean whatever you but I just can't work Sundays and you know what people will respect that here's what they don't respect well wonderful oh sure yeah anything Joey yeah see I believe that one of the reasons that I got that job and you say what is a job at Subway that job changed the trajectory of my life forever that's where I met my wife I've got I have a wife because of that job I've got the children that I've got because of that job I'm pastoring this church because of that job and I believe that God honored and here's all I'm telling you is just a lesson you say what lessons gonna be learned from your testimony well you can learn that we must prepare our children to have the answers for those who would try to shake their faith because there are many a 17 year old who are having their faith shaken by some ungodly sum of sums you know professing themselves to be wise professor we can learn that we should honor the Lord I'm just telling you this this these things work for us the Lord honored these in our lives we can learn to honor the Lord by not working during church and by the way let me just take a little further whenever you preach like this people always get offender so let me just go ahead and finish offending all of you you say oh you don't think we should skip church for work I don't think you just get Church period now please please understand this I'm not saying this church but look when you go on vacation you take your kids to church you say oh well we're gonna go on vacation for a couple of weeks so we're just gonna skip out of church okay so you're gonna teach your kids hey kids we take a vacation from God is that what your did your kids yeah here's all I'm telling you I'm just telling you I think the Lord that I grew up with a mom and a dad and where wherever we were wherever we were no matter what country what content matter what state and matter where we were on Sunday you went to church on Wednesday you went to church oh you say why because this was our lives so learn to honor the Lord with your time learn to be consistent with church and if you're that person is your skips Church and scriptures you ought to learn to develop the discipline and the character to be consistent because look you say what's so important Church Jesus gave his life for the church he sacrificed the church the Bible says he's the head of the church so that was as he built the church the Bible says that this is the institution that he he said I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against him so Joanne she knew that I was a Christian keep her place in 1st Peter I'm not sure if you kept your place in 1st Peter we're gonna come back to it but go to John chapter 1 you got Matthew Mark Luke John to begin a New Testament so join she knew I was a Christian she made it clear to me that she was an atheist I do not believe in God is the first word she said so as we began to work together you know I did what any good soul-winning seventeen-year-old kid does you start picking on the atheist right you start not picking on me that's already given her the gospel I started we started having conversations and and and friend friendly debates and and I began to preach the gospel to her and we worked a lot we had to shift a lot of shifts together and I began to give her the gospel so here's lesson number three for you all right lesson number three preach the gospel to your friends your family and your coworkers John chapter one are you there look at verse 40 John 1:41 of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew simon Peters brother notice what the Bible says he talked about Andrew first findeth his own brother Simon and saved them to him we have found the Messias which is being interpreted the Christ verse 42 and he Andrew brought him Simon Peter his brother to Jesus you know what the Bible tells us and you know what I've learned in ministry is that there is nothing more powerful for church growth than family inviting family then friends inviting friends then co-workers inviting coworkers there's nothing more powerful than that in fact that's how Jesus began his early disciples you say how did he gather the early disciples well he he reached one guy and then that one guy went and found his brother Andrew found his brother Simon Peter notice verse 44 now Philip was a Ceyda the city of Andrew and Peter notice what Philip does Philip findeth Nathanael and say them to him we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write cheese of Nazareth the son of Joseph so notice andrew finds simon Philip finds Nathanael the the great thing the one of the greatest tools for evangelism is for us and church growth is for us to preach the gospel to the people that we have opportunities to develop relationships with so look if you have a friend preach the gospel to them if you have a co-worker preach the gospel to them if you've got neighbors preach the gospel to them not look let me just say this when it comes to preaching the gospel to your co-workers all right don't be lazy and don't be stealing from the boss when the boss is paying you to work you need to be working you're not using well you know I preach the gospel to him so I didn't get anything done because I was preaching the gospel no no that's laziness and that's a bad testimony throughout the Bible if you when you study the Bible you'll find that God's people were always the hardest most productive workers wherever they were they always Excel they were always doing great you need to be look if you're a Christian needs to be the best worker at your job period you need to make sure you're showing up early you're staying late you're not complaining you're not you're definitely not leaving early and showing up late you know you're definitely not taking longer breaks and things like that but look when the boss is paying you to work work but when it's your break time when it's your lunch time when it's your you know after work or whatever you should be preaching the gospel to your family and to your friends and to your in to your coworkers because this is how God this is one tool that God has given us to be able to reach the world to reach the world through our relationships then here's the commitment I make to you all right and look we we have a lot of work that we do here at Verity Baptist Church and we've got several staff people and we keep them busy for the times that they are with us but I'll be honest with you and and I will tell you this and you can ask the staff and and I think they would confirm this and affirm this for you that I spend a lot of time of my week because as the leader there are things that only I can do and part of that is the strategy in the developing the calendar and figuring out what needs to be done and when it needs to be done and what these staff guys need to be doing but I spend a lot of time a good amount of time of my week studying and preparing for the sermons and you say well why do you do that well here's why I do that because that's my primary job and I try to do a good job with it and here's what I try to do I try to make sure that on Sunday morning when you leave you think to yourself I'm glad I heard that that helped me that was something that I can use today and here's my goal and I'll just tell you this is my strategy as a pastor my strategy is that on Sunday morning when you leave you not only think I'm glad I heard that but you think to yourself I wish my sister would have heard that or I wish my brother would have heard that or I wish my friend Bob would have heard that or my coworker or you know that's something that my in-laws are dealing with I do my best to make sure that the sermons are interesting and they're applicable and they're instructional and they will help you so here's what I'm telling you here's what I'm telling you if you invite your friends I'll do my part to make sure that they are fed God's Word and it's understandable and it's not boring and it'll help them out but here's what you need to do you need to invite them you need to preach the gospel to them you need to invite them to church you say well I don't know how to preach - that's what we'll bring them here and we'll preach the gospel to them do you bring a guest and let me know or if it's a lady let my wife know or let brother Oliver know or whatever and and we can get somebody and preach the gospel to them but here's the point we need to preach the gospel you say to the whole world absolutely but don't go out and preach the gospel to the whole world to strangers in the highways and hedges and then not preach the gospel to your friends and to your family and to your co-workers either make sure you need to make it a goal in your life that I will take the opportunities and I will try to make the opportunities to preach the gospel to my friends now you're there in John chapter 1 go to John chapter 5 as I gave the gospel to my wife you know obviously she was in atheists so we talked and debated a lot and you're all 17 years old this was 15 years ago so I I remember going home and pulling out the Kent Hovind DVDs now this was before Kent Hope and went to prison and this was before we found out Kent Hovind was a weirdo all right uh-huh so remember pulling out my Kent Hovind DVDs and I and I began watching those and I began to study and to think about you know just kind of how do how to present creation and how to maybe arguments against evolution and things like that and we had a lot of conversations we had a lot of interesting conversations and they were friendly and they were good but and they did the stuff I learned and the things I told her definitely helped to create some doubt in her mind about evolution and I think it helped to know that okay we as creationists do have some answers and and aren't just you know just completely mindless but I felt like our conversations are not being very productive they were just kind of these friendly debates and I take a shot and she'd take a shot and I'd take a shot and she'd take a shot and we kind of would leave it there I remember talking to my pastor about this and I remember he said to me he said you know you need to quit debating science and just focus on giving her the word I remember him saying these words to me he said the power is in the word and he said just just focus on he's like you know it's good you told her those things and that's fine you know nothing wrong with talking about those things but he said focus on the word the power is in the word so I remember I began to focus on just getting her scriptures and getting the word and of course I was already doing that I began to to bombard her with Scripture as we were preaching the gospel to her so here's lesson number 40 for you lesson number four is when preaching the gospel emphasize the word of God you say why here's why because that's where the power is because the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart here's the truth the Word of God can do something that I can't do I can try to answer the questions and decipher where she and what she's thinking and where she's going with it but here's what I know the Word of God can Pierce down to the soul it is the Word of God that's powerful you're there in John 5 look at verse 24 John chapter 5 and verse 24 says this verily verily I say unto you John 5:24 notice what Jesus said he said he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life so look when you are here's lesson number four when you're preaching the gospel emphasize the word you say are you against illustration I'm not against illustrations I use illustrations I'm not against examples analogies all those things are good but make sure that your focus is on the Word of God if you're going to give an illustration give an illustration where you're illustrating a principle from the Word of God well if you're gonna give an example or analogy try to help them understand what you're telling from the Word of God make sure the emphasis is on the Word of God Romans 10:17 you have to turn there says this so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God go to 1st Peter chapter 1 if you kept your place there in 1st Peter chapter or in 1st Peter go to 1st Peter chapter 1 and look at verse 23 first Peter 1:23 the Bible says this being born again notice not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever so make sure you focus on the when you're giving the gospel make sure you focus on the Word of God now you're there in 1st Peter I'd like you to go to the book of Jude so if you just kind of head backwards towards Revelation or you got first it's not backwards but first second Peter toward to the back 1st 2nd Peter first second and third John Jude right before the book of Revelation go to Jude and let me just tell you this why you turn there I probably and I'm not exaggerating this is not an exaggeration I you know I sat down and thought about and I talked to my wife about it I probably gave my wife the complete gospel presentation around 30 times you know and it felt like a thousand times at the time but but honestly I probably gave her and I'm talking about the fact where I'm going through every step where sinners are sinners condemned as to hell you know Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sin salvation is a free gift you can't lose it I probably went through that with her and not using the same verses using different verses and different explanations and different orders or whatever but I probably went through that presentation with her 30 times to the point I'm not exactly to the point where this unsaved atheist girl could give me the gospel like she could have gone soul-winning with us obviously wasn't safe she only got anybody saved but she could have gone solving with us and explained the gospel to someone just because she'd heard it for me so many times she understood the gospel she didn't believe it in her heart but she understood the gospel I gave her the gospel 30 times so here's lesson number five don't give up on the hard cases sometimes you will work on someone and work on someone and work on someone and you'll think it's never gonna happen they're never gonna get say hey you don't know what the Word of God is doing in their lives so you focus on God's Word and don't give up on the hard cases I'm not telling you you have to go and give the gospel to your coworker every day okay I'm not telling you that we were 17 years old we were kids and we kind of had a relationship where we could do that I'm not saying that you as a grown man need to go you know pester your manager every day every day but look don't give up on the hard cases pray for them when the opportunity arises when they talk to you try to give them the gospel try to focus on the word here's what the Bible says about God's Word I say it 5511 you have to turn there you you're in Jude but isaiah 55:11 it says this so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth it shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which i please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto i send it and here's all I'm telling you if you focus on God's Word the Bible says that it shall not return unto me void God says it will accomplish and that doesn't mean that everybody's gonna get saved but it but but it will accomplish what it's meant to accomplish it'll bring the the reprove and the conviction and all those things and here's all I'm telling you lesson number five is don't give up on the hard cases let me just review real quickly because I've got ten of these points and maybe you're writing these down or maybe job first thing we learned is that we must prepare our children to have an answer for the gainsayers for those who would try to shake their faith and we talked about how we should honor the Lord by not working during church we talked about how we should preach the gospel to our friends and our family and coworkers and we talked about that when we do preach the gospel we should emphasize the Word of God and we should talked about that we should not give up on the hard cases now I'm not going to be in Jude if you're their last lost the book right before the last book of Revelation and let me say this I started by just kind of giving her a lot of arguments you know about evolution about creation lot of debating and then with the advice of my pastor I can't transition to just focusing on the word and focusing more on the gospel we still talked about evolution and answered her questions things like that but tried to make sure that I was giving her the Bible give her the word give her the scriptures and given her the points from the Bible and I felt like things were going well and she was beginning to kind of softened to the gospel she was asking a lot of questions the the last time that I gave the gospel to to my wife who was not my wife at the time of course but that before she got saved I remember we were having this conversation we were closing the subway was closed we were in the back and we're just cleaning things up and getting things ready to get out of there and I don't remember how the conversation went my wife might remember it better but we kind of got on this conversation and we we started talking along these lines of why do you care so much you know why would you drop in this is kind of what why are you trying so much and giving me the gospel so much why does it matter so much and I explained to her and I told her a story and I'm not gonna tell you the story some of you have heard the story I just don't know how it's gonna get too confusing when you start telling a story in a story you know it gets a little weird but III told her about a friend that I had who I had been too embarrassed to preach the gospel to and how that friend had suddenly died and you know that really shook me knowing that I had many opportunities to preach the gospel to someone that I really cared about and because of my own insecurities and stupidities I chose not to and now this person was gone forever and I don't know if they were saved I I don't know if they ever had an opportunity to hear a clear presentation the gospel I know this that I had every opportunity to give them a clear presentation the gospel and I I chose not to and that's something I'll have to live with and I explained this to her and I said this was this is why I and I and I told her this and I said I made a decision back when I was 14 years old and keep in mind were 17 at the time this has been a few years but I said I made a decision that I would never have another friend than I did not give the gospel to this is why I care so much and that was it and and we just kind of left it at that and we said our goodbyes and I left and she stayed to do a couple of things and my wife tells the story that as as as I left you know she got really sad and she she got really sad for this friend of mine isn't it name was Jessie and she got really sad like man it's too bad that he's in hell you know it's too bad he's probably in hell I mean he could have got saved and he did it and she was thinking along this line and and then it dawned on her if I'm sad that this guy's in hell that means I'm gonna go to hell and at that moment and I think after weeks of just giving someone the word the word the word the word the word she just came to the place where he said you know what I believe it I believe in God I believe in heaven and I believe that this young man is in hell and I don't want to go to hell so that night she called upon Christ and asked Jesus to save her and you know she got saved that night so here's here's lesson number six for you when soul-winning we should not only emphasize the word but when saw winning we should save with fear you're there in Jude 1 here's what I mean by that Jude 1 look verse 22 and 23 Bible says and have some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted by the flesh today there's this idea and there's kind of movement towards and even among fundamental Baptists to just kind of not talk about Hell hell is something that's there but let's not talk about it and let's not emphasize and people think it's weird but you know what the Bible says that we should save with fear pulling them out of the fire the Bible says look when you're preaching the gospel emphasize hell and I'm not saying that that's just the only thing you talk about or the oh you know but I'm telling you this what people need to know that there's a place called hell and it's not that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell it's that those who have been forgiven go to heaven and those who reject Christ or would never accept Christ go to hell and we need to emphasize that we need to make sure that we are preaching the word that we are emphasizing the word in that we are saving with fear that we are pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted by the flesh we need to make sure that we focus on the gospel and the only way to focus on the good news of the gospel the only way to focus on the good news of the gospel that you can be forgiven and that you can be saved is when someone first understands that they are condemned and that they need to be saved go through the book of Acts you've got Matthew Mark Luke John acts so I left that night my wife got saved the next the next the next day we had different shifts we weren't going to see each other and what Joanne would do is to choose the assistant manager she would take all the tips you know we had this tip jar and she would take all the tips for the day and she would divide them evenly among whoever worked that day and then she we had these little bags and she would put the tips into the bags and write people's names on them and she there's a certain place where they were kept so the next day when you came into work you could pick up your tips for the last night that your work the last time you were there and that night in my bag of tips she he wrote a little note and I remember what the note said I wish I would have kept it but she just said I got saved and you know III believed it and I I accepted Christ and you know when my wife got saved there were there were several things that that had to happen there because of the fact that not only was she raised Catholic which was already a false works-based religion but then she even lost the faith in a Catholicism because then she just became an atheist believing in evolution and rejected faith altogether and when she got saved she had to go from rejecting those false teachings of evolution and atheism rejecting even the Catholicism that she had been taught as a child and she had to place her faith in Jesus Christ so here's lesson number seven for you true repentance for salvation is turning from unbelief to belief today people try to tell you like oh you got to repent of your sins to be saved no that's works if you have to quit doing something in order to be saved that's works but and but then people will accuse us because we'll say stuff like that no say well you don't believe in repentance no you just don't understand what repentance is because repentance is a turning but you don't turn from sin to be saved the Bible calls that works that that's that's keeping the law by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight is what the Bible says you say well how does repentance work in regards to salvation here's how it works you go from unbelief to beliefs go to Acts chapter 20 look at verse 21 notice what the Bible says Acts chapter 20 and verse 21 says this acts 20:21 says testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ notice repentance toward God and what happens when you have repentance towards God you have faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ go to acts 26 and verse 20 acts 26 and verse 20 says this which showed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles notice that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance their repentance was turning from not towards God you say why because they have to turn away from their belief in a false idol to a God look someone who believes in Islam has to turn away from Islam towards believing on the Lord Jesus Christ someone who believes a false religion with Catholicism has to turn away from reject the words made salvation to say no it's by grace through faith in Jesus Christ someone who's an atheist who says I don't believe in God has to say I'm gonna stop believing that there is no God and I'm gonna start believing in the true God the Lord Jesus Christ and place my faith and trust in him see repentance for salvation is not turning from sin it is turning from unbelief to believe because salvation is believe believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved so when we turn we turn from no belief or unbelief or the wrong belief to placing our faith on the Lord Jesus Christ now you're there in acts 20 go back to Acts chapter 2 let me just say this you know I got this bag and I read the dough and of course I was excited and the next time that I saw Joanne I told her that she needed to come to church so not only do I remember the first words that my wife ever said to me which were I'm not a Christian or I'm not I don't believe in God I also remember the first words she said to me as a Christian and the first person said to me as a Christian was I will never go to church so I walk up there I'm like man I'm glad you say you need to come to church and she says I will never go to church now thankfully for me she's not very stubborn but she said to me I will never go to church and she was not a very easy convert but um after talking and kind of persuading and things she finally agreed to go to church he said but only once you know she said I'll go but only once and keep in mind she works on Saturdays and Sundays 12 hours so the only service you could go to was on Wednesday night so we agreed to meet for Wednesday night church and we met there out in the subway parking lot and once it was actually her day off so it worked out pretty well and we met there and I remember I bought her a little Bible and had a name on it how to Maine put on there and we went to church we went to church that night and and after the service I just I just acted like I just assumed that she was gonna come back next week and you know what she never stopped coming and I just assumed like oh you're coming next week right and she's like yeah yeah I am so here's lesson number eight for you get your converts connected in church as soon as possible get your converts connected in church as soon as possible it's not enough to get them saved E to get them saved and then get them in church because this is what God has ordained for their lives the Bible says that we are to preach the gospel go ye therefore and teach all nations talk about preaching the gospel baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost and it says teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded your law I'm with You alway even unto the end of world amen he says look our job as Christians is to be taught to observe all things we need to learn and be taught the Word of God and that's gonna happen in church are you there next to look at verse 41 then they that gladly received his word were baptized in the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 Souls and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles notice these two things you say how can I get my converts to continue steadfastly make sure they have these two things doctrine and fellowship they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship by the way that's why you need church people say well I can just watch online well that's good for the doctrine but how about the fellowship well I'm just gonna go hang out with buddies and go golfing or whatever well that's great for the fellowship but what about the doctors see the perfect thing about church is it gives you this great balance of doctrine and fellowship and this is exactly what you need in your life this is exactly what we all need our life and this is exactly what every young convert needs so get your conference connected in church as soon as possible get them connected in church as soon as possible go to Acts chapter 9 we're almost done Acts chapter 9 I had 10 truth for you I've got to left you know before my wife had gone saved back when we were back in the preaching the gospel to her 30 times phase something she said to me that was interesting this was before she had believed or decided to believe she understood the gospel I mean she like I said she could regurgitate it back to me and she could explain it to something she could explain somebody else say hey everybody you gotta believe to be a Christian he I believe these things she didn't believe it herself but when we were having these conversations I remember she said this to me and it really just kind of stuck out to me that she said she I remember she looked at me one day and she said if I believe what you believe he said if I don't believe what you're telling me but if I believe if I believe what you believe I would spend the rest of my life running up and down the streets telling people that they're gonna go to hell and how they could be saved from hell I remember that emerges that that's I mean that impacted me so much because she said I don't believe that but if I believe what you believed if I really honestly thought that all these people are gonna die and go to how all these good people don't matter how good they are they're gonna die and go to hell because they're not good enough and they need to believe on duty if I believed that I would spend the rest of my life going up and down the street telling me what I know what's interesting about that is that she was telling the truth when she consent that she kept her word because when she got saved she started soul-winning immediately I mean just one in church and started soul-winning so here's lesson number nine for you get your comrades involved in soul winning as soon as possible don't have this idea like oh well let them you know grow for a while and then they can get no you know what get your converts out as soon as possible you say well well they just got saved well look all we're doing when we're preaching the gospel is telling people how they got saved how to get saved if they got saved right look if you're saying you got to be able to tell somebody how to get saved and I'm not saying that you're gonna have all the verses and all the explanations and all the analogies and I get that and we will do what we can to help you with that we've got soul-winning seminars and instructions and things we will help you with that but here's all I'm telling you the Bible says that ye shall be witnesses all right a witness that the word witness they're people think oh that's a verb like I'm supposed to go witness look it is a verb but it's a noun before it's a verb it you already went before you become a witness you are a what they witnessed someone who can testify if something that has happened to that you are a witness before you go witness you are a witness before you go witnessing dude it's know what I'm telling you if you're saved gotta be able to tell somebody hey and look and by the way and this is a sermon for another day but this is how you give your testimony you don't sit there and say oh well before I got saying you know I was a drug addict I was a gambler and I was a prostitute and I was people really tell her testimony always want to focus on their sin and sometimes it's kind of like they're bragging you know about their sin look don't drag on your sin and don't talk about yourself it kind of always irritated me because you know those that grow up in a Christian home it's like how we supposed to give our testimony when I was six years old I didn't eat my green beans my mom told me to take out the trash and I did you know you always want focus look you say well how do you give your testimony so you give your testimony I was a sinner on my way to hell but Jesus saved me I how do you save you well I put my faith in him I believed on him you know John 3:16 it's all you need I'm not saying go just only use John 3:16 here's all I'm telling you is that we need to be witness seeing of what we are witnesses of so get your converts out soul-winning as soon as possible look it's not just something I work for Joanne it's something that works in the Bible something I work for the Apostle Paul you're there in acts 9 look at verse 19 notice acts 9 in verse 19 and when he that Saul had received me is that the song he just got saved he was strengthened then Saul's certain days with the disciples then then excuse me then was solved certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus notice verse 20 and straightway the worst straightway means immediately he preached Christ in the synagogue's that he was the son of God you know what Paul did as soon as he got saved he started preaching the gospel here's what I'm telling you you if you can get your converts out soul-winning possible there's a real good chance that they will stick with it and they will stay with it and I will tell you this my wife told me before we were married we were just kids if before she even believed if I believe what you believe I would spend the rest of my life telling people and that's exactly what we've done and that's what we should all do you're there an ox go to second Corinthians chapter six got ax Romans first Corinthians second Corinthians I've been giving you our testimony but I hope you don't feel ripped off on a sermon because I think we've looked at a lot of Scripture and here's the points that I've given you I've told you that we need to prepare our children to have answers for those who would try to shake their faith I told you that we must honor the Lord with our time and choose not to work during church time I told you that we must preach the gospel to our friends and family and co-workers I told that we must emphasize the Word of God when we preach the gospel I told that we must not give up on the hard cases I told that when we go soul-winning we ought to save with fear and make sure that people understand hell and the consequences of sin I told you that true repentance for salvation is turning from unbelief to belief I told you that to get your converts connected in church as soon as possible and to get your converts connected in for winning as soon as possible so after Joanne had been coming to church for several months you know she got baptized and by the way there came a point in her Christian life and it happened just few weeks after she started coming to church maybe I don't know you'd have to ask her four or five six weeks I would think something like that there came a point where she quit her job right and I know subway she'd been working there she was 15 she was teenagers whose assistant manager she was going to college and she quit her job you say why did she quit her job because she wants to go to church on Sundays and I think the Lord for it because I think it's one of the reasons that she was able to grow and mature as much and as quickly as she did so she been coming to church for a while she started to be faithful and ba3 to thrive Sunday morning Sunday night Wednesday night and there's lots we could go into she she she started to grow she got baptized started going soul-winning started reading her Bible everyday she got rid of her pants you know pastor Nicholls preached against women wearing pants and and all of that and she got rid of her pants and started changing the way she dressed and things like that she started growing in Lourdes and several months after she got saved we began today and I just want to make this clear and I want to make sure you understand this and especially for the young people in the room and those watching online as well we did not date before she was safe the truth is we didn't even like each other to be honest with you I'm not really sure she likes me now but you know we we were we literally we just were friends we were just friends and it was just one friend concerned for another friend and you say well I mean you didn't like each other you didn't notice here's the thing it the way that I had been raised and and the funny thing is that when you give the gospel to someone 30 times you begin to talk to about a lot of things you know so we talked a lot about just our doctrinal beliefs what we believe so like she already knew our position on on pants you know and that women in our church didn't wear pants because I taught her that before she was even saved just cuz you know we're working and we were talking chill rating you about soul winning you and she worried you a lot of these things so obviously once you got saved she kind of knew what she was getting into and and and all of those things but she knew that you know we didn't believe that Christians should date non-christians and so that was it wasn't just it was just never a thing it was just it's not that I didn't think she was good-looking or whatever she didn't think I was handsome you know it was just it wasn't an option because she wasn't even saved but once she got saved and then and then he was like even if she would've got say that would have just kind of just not been an option but once she got saved and she started coming to - to church and being faithful and Gordon Lord you know then that opportunity kind of opened up and we began today so here's lesson number 10 don't date an unbeliever second Corinthians 6:14 be not be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship with righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness and some of these people will hear my testimony or they'll hear like pastor Anderson's testimony pastor Anderson has a difference but but similar in the sense that he got his wife saved you know they there's a different story and you have to listen to his sermon about that I guess I don't know maybe next anniversary Sunday I'll preach his how he met his wife I don't know but you know sometimes people will hear my story or hear his his story and they'll say oh yeah we're supposed to go marry a date and unbeliever try to get them say no neither one of us dated an unbeliever and the Bible teaches against that yeah not dates oh look if you're listening to the story young people or say oh I'm gonna go date a non-believer no why don't you go get a girl saved help her grow in the Lord and see and maybe the Lord will lead in that direction but the Bible says be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship with righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness so on June 5th 2004 we had to wait till June 5th to get married because I still had to graduate high school so I graduated May and then June 5th 2004 we got married that was 15 years ago and the rest is history now you know the rest of the story so let's bow our heads and have a word of Prayer Heavenly Father thank you Lord just for these special days when we can think and just remember the the things you've done in our lives and what I do thank you for my wife and of course the blessing she's been to me and to our children to our family and what I thank you for this church I just believe there's so many things that just came together just being raised in a Christian home and and being able to work there and meeting my wife and and even just relationship with like different individuals that helped us grow and learn and you've done so much and Lord we just want to thank you for it I want to thank you for my my wife and my family and my children my parents my siblings and but I pray that you would just continue to use us and that you would bless us and the matchless name of Christ we pray amen

Channel: Verity Baptist Church

Views: 3,689

Rating: 4.7684212 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: rEGiYeoVK1I

Length: 62min 7sec (3727 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 05 2019