The Character of Soul Winning - Wednesday Service

amen father we thank you for this another opportunity to minister to these your precious sheep thank you lord that revelation knowledge will flow freely uninterrupted and unhindered by any satanic or demonic force and father i pray that you will speak through my vocal cords and think through my mind none of me and all of you it's in jesus name we pray and everybody said amen i got some of my wednesday night crew here tonight got some of my wednesday night crew here tonight oh lord have mercy [Applause] oh bad oh what a blessing of the lord amen uh you may be seated i am i am really excited about this you know i remember the time where i didn't have a suit on i'd have to apologize for having a suit on now i feel like i need to apologize for having a suit on but i i had to do some things that then had come straight here we we've been we've been talking about and and i'm building a a a library if you will uh and i'm calling it the understanding series and in the understanding series i'm i'm i'm setting up teachings really quick basic practical teachings on things that i believe every christian needs to know and christian needs to understand we started off with how to deal with the death of a loved one and and and from that we we went to talking about uh you know the water baptism and and and lots of people didn't understand the water baptism uh now tonight i'm gonna deal with something that you know of and you've heard of it sometimes but it doesn't seem like it's talked about a lot and i want to talk about soul winning and and i want to specifically talk about the character of soul winning because that's the key to winning souls and uh you know we talked about before i say before you say i do basically single people to make sure you take care of your live as good single life and and questions you need to ask those are basic things that we can put in this library so regardless of what stage of a person's uh saved life they'll have somewhere to go to get the basics and get the foundations because we fail in the basics we fail in the foundation the bible says if our foundation be destroyed what shall the righteous do now those of you at home uh and you're joining us by stream this is so vital vitally important that you get a hold of these things and so let's begin in proverbs chapter 11 and and verse 30. proverbs chapter 11 and verse 30. and here's what he says he says the fruit of righteousness is a tree of life and he that when it's souls is wise he that winneth souls is wise now i want you to think about how many of you want to be wise well he says the guy that wins souls is wise now one of the things i've come to understand is that when people talk about church grow all the things you have to do i i recognize we ran a little spot last week i recognize it's not the pastor like people think it is it's not the singing like people think it is it's not the music like people think it is it's not all those things the thing that really gets somebody to church is an invitation think about that they want somebody to invite them and when you take the time to invite people to church you would be surprised some sunday mornings they get up and they say you know what such-and-such and so invited me to come to church i think i'm going to go to church so that that becomes something important that's something i want to kind of rehearse and you're hearing how important it is to invite people to church i'm going to start doing more inviting people to church on the platform and even on on television when i'm preaching because i think an invitation is what really gets people there but now i want to be wise so that means i want to win souls not many christian leaders use the language of soul winning in today's world and yet in matthew 28 19 if you flip over there matthew 28 and 19 he says this go ye therefore teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost so please understand that two-thirds of god's name is go you know and you know i don't know if if we're doing a real good job in that area i know we used to go but uh situational soul winning is just taking advantage of the situation and not trying to cram things down people's throat because you scare them but uh tonight we need to talk about the characteristics of soul winning because you win a lot of souls sometimes without saying nothing you become a living epistle that people can watch and they look at you and check you out but it's hard to win a soul when you're sharing something and they've seen you be a bad example of that and so this is called the great commission jesus jesus's mandate for the church in the great commission was and it is still today it was to go and make disciples but you can't make disciples until first of all you get people saved and so that's why this is so important so i want to turn to a scripture that paul used first corinthians chapter 9 and verse 19 and 20 20 verse 19 through 27 second excuse me first corinthians 9 19 through 27. i ain't had nobody here in so long i'm kind of nervous and normally i just got chills to talk to first corinthians chapter 9 verse 19 through 27. all right now uh watch this uh i'm gonna read it and i want you to i wanna i want you to see if you can pick out the number of times paul is dealing with winning souls now he uses the word gain and i'll show you in a moment that that came from a greek word which which uh which is talking about winning somebody over or acquiring them so he says in verse 19 for though i be free from all men yet have i made myself servant unto all that i might gain or win over the more and unto the jews i became as a jew that i might gain the jews to them that are under the law as under the law that i might gain them that are under the law to them that are without law as without law being not without law to god but under the law of christ that i might gain them that are without law to the weak because i i i is weak that i might gain the weak i am made all things to all men that i might by all means save some and this i do for the gospel sake that i might be partakers thereof with you know you not that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize so run that you may obtain and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things now they do it to obtain a corruptable crown but we are incorruptable i therefore so run not as un uncertainly so fight i not as one that beateth the air but i keep under my body and i bring it into subjection lest that by any means when i have preached to others i myself should be a castaway now paul used the language of winning people to christ and the gospel and i want you to notice i counted five times in this in what we read he used this greek word that means to gain or to acquire or to win over i used five times he used gain four times and then saved one time they all came from that one greek word uh and so it was a transition transitional term used in ancient business world to describe making a profit or to describe trading up for something better and so when they use that word gain he says i'm doing what i'm doing so that we can see a transitional transactional word where we can see you uh trade it up for something better so when somebody gets saved paul saw it as i'm i'm i'm i'm i see gang because they're they're gonna they're coming up to something better as a result of this so paul in a sense he wanted to win people to the lord who were in sin and he wanted to bring them to forgiveness and freedom in christ the apostle paul wanted to win people who were trying to gain their salvation by keeping the law and he wanted to win them over to the gospel of grace so he faced all those situations now in first corinthians chapter 9 22 notice notice what he says here first corinthians 9 22 because i paused when i read that because i thought it was compromising he said to the weak became i as weak that i might gain the weak i am made all things to all men that i by all means save some you see how you can think oh wait a minute is he compromising here no paul said i have become all things to all people so that i may may by every possible meaning save some and by saying he had become all things to all people paul didn't mean that he was prepared to compromise his christian character instead he described and displayed essential qualities of an effective soul winner he's saying i am going to i'm going to display character and qualities of an effective soul-winning soul winner so i need to do whatever i need to do in that area so i can gain and save some so here's here's what i thought about and i'm reading this scripture and i wrote this down the act or the action of soul winning there's a difference between the act and the action of soul winning versus the character of a soul winner the act of soul winning versus the character of soul winning somebody said what's the difference if the character of a soul winner is absent then the action of soul winning will not be as impactful as it should be and what we've done we focus more on the action well what do you do to to go into soul winning and not focus on the quality or the character of that soul winner because at the end of the day people are hear what you got to say but they're going to watch how you live it and that's how you really win that's how you really win souls so i wanted to spend tonight uh because actions are born out of of of who you are the actions of soul winning that's born out of who you are i am the righteousness of god the day i believe i'm the righteousness of god the actions of doing what's right will come as a result of who i am my character and the quality i have so we're going to look at the characteristics of a soul winner i thought and and previously in times past i would talk about the techniques of soul winning and i realized the techniques are no good if we don't have the right kind of character so likewise here you can only go as far as your character anytime success in any area so here's the first characteristic of soul winning number one a servant heart a servant heart if you'll notice in first corinthians chapter 9 19 the first thing you see him talking about here he says for though i be free from all men yet have i made myself servant unto all that i might gain or save some or the more so the character of being a servant so if you're planning on being a soul winner in your family in your neighborhood on your job the first characteristic is can you have a heart of a servant and a servant in submission to god here's what he does he seeks to meet the real needs of others or of the person he is serving you see jesus speak you know was the was the greatest of all why because he was a servant he was the greatest of all because he was a servant and to be a servant means you're going to serve god first you're going to serve one you're going to serve god first his kingdom second and then one another and people go and they argue about well you know who's the greatest amongst us just like the disciples did it's the one that will serve you're not going to be interested in getting somebody saved if you don't have the heart that's uh to serve i mean that's all about serving somebody and you can't do that when you're you're in the center of your circle all the time paul understood that serving christ involved humbling himself to serve others in christ's name see we talk about i serve christ but do you serve other people no well you don't serve christ i hope you got that i serve christ do you serve other people no i just serve christ no you can't serve christ without serving other people and when you serve other people you serve christ oh my god when you serve other people you serve christ paul made it a lifestyle practice to show honor and respect to any person jew or gentile in order to win that person over to the faith that's in jesus christ he served people i tell you what people will pay your attention they will pay attention what you got to say when you submit yourself to serving as jesus did you remember in the scripture mark chapter 10 verse 45 mark 10 45 said jesus did not come to be ministered to but he came to be he came to minister the scripture says for even the son of man came not to be ministered unto or to to serve or to be served but to minister or to serve and to give his life a ransom for many how did jesus serve he gave his life as a ransom to everybody on the planet not to just people who had accepted him but jesus died for everybody that's on the planet he says i came to serve humankind i'm telling you when you recognize that the day i recognized what jesus did for me i wanted to be saved i could not believe that somebody would take on all my sins and all my punishment glory be to god and told me to chill out i got you i'll serve him for the rest of my life and that is the characteristic of a soul winner a servant's heart the second characteristic discipline now i know this that's almost like i just cussed discipline because we i see people even using the grace of god to say no no no no discipline no discipline is very important look at first corinthians chapter 9 and verse 24 through 27 paul begins to use this illustration of athletics and the discipline that it was required to be an athlete and notice what he talks about here in verse 24-27 he says know you not that they which run in a race they run all but one receiveth the prize so run that you may obtain and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperant or controlled in all things so he's talking about self-control here he's talking about self-control here in all things and now they do it to obtain a corruptable crown he says but we do it to obtain an incorruptible crown next verse he says i therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight i not as one that beateth the air and then in the 27th verse he says but i keep under my body and in other words i keep i keep my body under control i keep under my body i bring it into subjection lest that by any means when i have preached to others i myself should be a castaway so i keep myself under control so when people start hearing what i say they can see that i have disciplined myself to do what i'm telling them to do look at verse 27 in the nlt for a moment verse 27 in the nlt and and paul is talking about you know i i want to be a good example so i'm going to i'm going to keep my body under i'm going to discipline myself to be a good example i mean in the nlt he says this i discipline my body like an athlete training it to do what it should yeah otherwise i fear that after preaching to others i myself might be disqualified and a lot of christians don't think about that man people who are trying to decide whether or not to be born again they're looking at the people who are there who's talking to them they're looking at the people who are witnessing to them and they're saying you know okay well i can do that look at them and when you look at us we're people that have discipline ourselves so that when they do look at us they can they can find what they need to see but i think you got it all wrong it didn't know in the world you can talk church to them and then go to the same club and get jumping at the same time nobody wants to hear what you got to say so it's going to take some discipline for you to put that mad dog down just for a little bit [Laughter] you can't do that you got to discipline yourself for the sake that you're not disqualified when somebody sees how you are operating and what you are saying to them are you listening to me look at hebrews chapter 12 11 in the nlt now that sounds kind of hard but and the scripture will say this right here hebrews 12 verse 11 in nlt the scriptures will will say this he says no discipline is enjoyable while it is happening no discipline is enjoyable while it is happening it's not it's not do you think i enjoy getting up in the morning and going in an exercise room no do you think i'd like saying no to to oatmeal cookies absolutely not that it's painful and every demon is knocking on my face especially i went by the health food store and they had enough nerve to have the big oatmeal cookies at the counter i said the devil is a lie no discipline is enjoyable why it is happening he said it's painful i think what christians think is if it's painful it ain't god you know but afterwards there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way so you got to ask yourself you know what kind of witness you want to be what kind of soul winner do you want to be am i willing to go through what i don't like for the time for the moment in order to be able to have my body to get the harvest the peaceful harvest of right living this month for me is self-examination month i ain't got time to be looking at nobody else and judging nobody this is this is self-examination me me me me and that's not a selfless thing but i got to check me out ain't got time to be seeing what somebody's doing repeating what somebody said somebody's doing ain't got time for all that me me me me because it's a discipline moment because i want the harvest of right living i want my body to be trained to do what it's supposed to do and not have my body somewhere to my ooze i'm in the bed how did i get in this bed and who is this right next to me and where is my clothes golly no you need to train your body to do what it's supposed to do even if you've got to put you even if you got to put your name on your oh your your bed board so you'll make sure you're in the right bed you so i can't believe i said that soul winners must take care to practice what they preach soul winners must take care to practice what they preach number three here's the third here's the third characteristics of a soul winner this is big to me a selfless attitude a selfless attitude if you look at first corinthians chapter 10 verse 31 through 33 it talks about first of all giving the glory to god that's where you can start training stop trying to give yourself credit for something that god absolutely did okay so he starts here and he says whether there for you eat or drink or you know whatsoever you do do all to the glory of god give none offense neither to the jews nor to the gentiles nor to the church of god even as i please all men in all things not seeking my own prophet but the prophet of many that they may be saved people are not going to be saved viewing selfishness you know what's going to get their attention when they view selflessness when they view somebody who says i'm not seeking my own prophet i'm seeking the prophet of many that gets the attention that's something that's encouraging that's something where people are saying man i can i can deal with that you know in philippians 2 verses 3 through 4 in the nlt it mentions this again and this is so important a selfless attitude you know the bible says that one of the things you'll see at the end times is is selfishness like like like never before self-centered and it's like never before like never before first timothy talks about that you know lovers of self and it's all about self and if you're going to be a soul winner i got to have a selfless attitude verse 3 says don't be selfish don't try to impress others that's a big thing too so many people trying to impress other people that's the pride of life you got to you got to work to feel important in front of other people that's the pride of life he said be humble you know bow your knee and submit to what what god says be humble thinking of others as better than yourself you know in context what he's talking about being humble in be humble in not being selfish be humble bow to bow to bow the need to selflessness and he says don't look out only for your own interest but take an interest in others too soul winning is all about taking an interest in somebody else how is it that you can come around the same person for years and not take enough interest in them to recognize that they're going to hell and here you are the light that god has put in their life to make the difference in their life so it's the quality of the soul winner and not just the actions of the soul winner you get your you get the qualities right and you get the characteristics of a soul wanted down your actions it'll fall in place god will give you wisdom and show you through example and being a living epistle how people are going to want to be saved because they they're not reading the bible but they are reading you and sometimes people get a lot more out of reading living epistles than they do reading a written epistle in other words to sum this one up god first other second and me last you want to be a good soul winner god first me second me second that's like i almost cuss in some people's ears me second no not me second it's others but you've heard that you've heard god first and then me god first others and you last check that last place out the bible says they are that are last shall be first what you don't understand is you you so scared you ain't gonna be first the way you get to first is be last god first other second what me last and then the final characteristic and this is kind of a summary of all of them it's christ-likeness christ-likeness look at first corinthians chapter 11 verse 1 in the nlt first corinthians chapter 11 and verse 1 christ likeness he says here he says and and and you should imitate me just as i imitate christ paul is talking here he says you should imitate me like i imitate christ that's why the quality and character of a christian is so important because it should be able to be imitated it should be all right to find the soul winner that's got the right characteristics it should be cool to imitate him paul said imitate me as i imitate christ the question you ask yourself the question i ask myself if somebody's imitating me is it safe that they're imitating christ and i want somebody to be able to imitate me and it'd be safe to imitate christ and you should imitate me paul said just as i imitate christ in other words the best way to win over a lost person to faith in christ is to let them see christ in you that's the best way to win them to let them see christ in you jesus expects us to be about the business of living out the gospel and he wants us to do it consistently and he wants us doing it ever doing everything we can to energy introduce other people to him and i think that that's sometime a forgotten idea that that's what we're here for to go you know we've turned the go part into god you go honey sent him to the hospital god's like i'm not your errand boy i told you to go i'm not your aaron boy and and these these foundational truths that we're preaching on wednesday for in this understanding series it blesses me you know the bible says be careful that you don't let certain things slip don't let this slip your example should be an example that works well enough for people to follow until they're reading i mean let's let's be honest when you first got born born again when i first got born again and reading the bible it was like it was like reading a lang what is this especially if it was the elizabethan stuff and it was just like man it sound pretty but i don't know what they're talking about i read a whole line and i'm like i have no idea what they're talking about you need living epistles you need living examples sometimes those living example examples can bring revelation to when you start reading stuff and you see that clearly i don't know what's happening in the church it's like i don't know that's just not a big deal anymore it's like it's okay under grace to act stupid and you gotta you gotta realize like forrest gump says stupid is as well he probably didn't say it ever he said something like that we we have to take soul winning wherever we put it we got to bring it back to the forefront of our thinking and we got to look at these characteristics that i am going to be a servant that i'm going to be disciplined i'm going to be selfless and i am going to have a christ likeness to me that will be suitable to be imitated are you suitable to be followed and to be imitated if you are you're prepared to be a soul winner let's pray father we thank you and we give you praise tonight that we are soul winners and like paul we want to be able to make whatever adjustments that we need to make within the boundaries of your word and your way in the character that we just talked about so that others can come to know you we we talk about and testify about how great this life is and it is but lord help us to be the living epistles that are suitable to be imitated and followed let us judge ourselves let us recognize that we're alive today that we might be meet for the master's use use us god use us as as light in this dark world that somebody might come to know you because of the way we have chosen to live and to carry ourselves we give you praise for this now in jesus name now if you're here if you're streamed in with us tonight and you have never made jesus the lord of your life and and you're like you know i want in on this i want jesus to be my lord and my personal savior well if you'll just repeat this prayer after me i'm going to lead you right in come on let's do it right now father i thank you that i have an opportunity to be saved i realize that i'm a sinner but right now i repent of all my sins i make you my lord and my savior jesus come into my heart sit on the throne of my life be my savior right now i receive you and by faith i declare that i am saved in jesus name amen now if you prayed that prayer with me you are saved right now that easy if you were to die right now you go straight to heaven because god receives you now if you just prayed that prayer with me i want you to text the key word i'm saved that's one word to 5155. i want you to provide your name and your email address and we'll send you a free ebook as a gift to you today welcome welcome welcome to the family of god now if you'll just go to the comment section and just tell people i just prayed that prayer uh world changes nation hop right on it man congratulate them receive them celebrate them be a light to them and i tell you what this is the greatest gang ever the body of christ amen praise the lord well let's conclude our worship tonight through our giving if you will notice that all year long i've i've had one theme where giving is concerned and that is giving as a worship to god we've heard a lot of stuff over the years but we've never really focused in in this one area that we are not giving to try to get god to do something for us for what god has done is something that has already taken place you're already blessed ephesians 1 3 says you have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places you have already been delivered you've already been healed you've already jesus has done everything that that you could ever even think of or asked of and so we're not given to try to get him to do that he's already done it we're giving to celebrate what he's already done i want you to notice remember genesis i believe it was 15 when um abram brought the tithe and as a result of it people thought that he got the victory once he brought the tithe go back and read it again he had the victory first the victory was first and then after that battle was over with he thought oh my god i want to bring something to the lord because of what he has done look at what god has already done for you so this should now be a celebration of what he's done that's why he says give with a cheerful heart a cheerful heart give with a heart of gratitude give with a heart of thanksgiving psalm says give glory to his name bring unto the lord glory due to his name and then he has a colon give an offering and come into his courts and worship him in the beauty of his holiness so our giving is about celebration it should cause us to remember what god's already done our giving is an honor act that we're we're making priority to god because of what is our giving is a love act an appreciation act and it is the giving of gifts that completes that worship the magi came in in matthew chapter two jesus was about two years old they finally found him the bible says they fell to their knees reaching into the treasury and begin to worship him i believe after all these years we have finally nailed the real purpose behind our giving and that is to worship god for what he has already done amen praise the lord now if you'd uh like to give by way of text you can text world changers space and the amount to 74483 if you'd like to give by calling 1-866-477-7683 someone will assist you if you'd like to give by mail at 2500 burdette road college park georgia 30349 and if you'd like to go on the web you can go to worldchanges.org or creplowdollarministries.org and you can give online if you have a paypal you can use the paypal if you're in the united states or anywhere else in the world and so we are rejoicing that we can rejoice consistently over what god has done god is a good god amen praise the lord well those of you at home uh we have a few folks the few of the crew joined me tonight and it was i'm so glad they joined me tonight because i was a little tired when i got up here but i can feel their pool coming from me normally if there were just chills in here out of fence about 20 minutes ago but i am telling you i am so you just you know you the rest of you will see what it feels as you as you register and pick a service that you can come to it it's like to me it's like 20 000 people in the room and and not because they got to say no they got to say nothing it's just to see the face you have a hard time seeing everybody because they got that mask on so you can't you can't really see who it is you know been knowing some of them long enough you know who it is but some of them you don't know they pulled a mask down oh that's you look at yourself there boy and then some folks you look and say boy you look real good with that mask on keep it on anyway but it's it's great to have some of the crew back here yeah we we thank god for uh the rest of the wednesday night crew uh those of you in overseas those of you wherever you are we are rejoicing with you but we are doing a slow opening we started with our um some of our support team they're getting this stuff down and we're just making sure that everybody feels safe nobody needs to even think about coming to this building until you feel safe if you're okay with getting it over line like you're getting it you're okay and god blesses it and i endorse it so we love you and don't let nobody put no pressure on you you know how folks do child if you really have faith you would sign up and come hush up girl you don't know none be quiet faith foolishness or presumption which one are you you know don't even listen to that you just do you let the lord lead you you do what you feel comfortable with and if you cool getting church just like you getting it at home with the kids running all over the place and you can't hardly hear nothing and you wish you could no i'm just playing no you keep doing what you need to do is what i'm saying and uh we'll go the rest of this month in in the chapel and uh we'll have some more things that will go on uh in may and hopefully about right between the mid-may and right around that in may we'll be going into uh a newly renovated dome amen and so we are we are excited about that amen so listen guys have a wonderful evening we love you god bless you now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the almighty god be glory majesty dominion and power both now and forever and everybody said amen good night everybody have a great time

Channel: Creflo Dollar Ministries

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Length: 39min 58sec (2398 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021