Soulwinning in Melbourne

So I want to just thank everyone for coming today and if everyone can see me there. Great. Awesome. So I just want to preach a sermon today to just encourage us before we go out soulwinning. And the title of my sermon is soul-winning in Melbourne. Soulwinning in Melbourne.

So first of all I want to thank pastor Stucky as well. For those who don't know him he's the pastor of Verity Baptist Church in Manila and he's also got a church in Pampanga. So in the  Philippines there's a multitude of churches that are run by Pastor Stucky as well and also in Poland Warsaw. And he's the one that's been talking to me and actually inspired this event. So, you know, I just want to tell you a little about a bit about him. He uh he's just doing a great work there in the Philippines. We're seeing multitudes of people get saved and we're really grateful for the work that he's doing there and also inspiring this event as well. And I want you to turn to Hebrews 10 24. Hebrews 10:4. And like I said, he's asked me to uh preach a sermon as well uh before we go out sewing. And the Bible says here, "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works." So, you know, when we hear about getting provoked, it's usually we get provoked to bad things or people provoke us. But this time it's saying we have to consider one another to provoke unto love and unto good works. And is soul winning part of getting provoked unto love and good works? Can I ask is soul-winning a good thing? Amen. Yeah. Soulwinning is it a good work and is it lovely? Is it loving? And we know it is. We know that loving our neighbour as ourselves is a loving thing to do. And we know that we are commanded to first consider and then we're commanded to provoke and then pastor Stuck is the one that says, "Hey, you know, we need to go out there." And I'm really grateful for the time. My wife and I were there for about a year and a half. We're really grateful for all the work that God did uh through us there. And you know what I really appreciated about Pastor Stucky, he made soulwinning a priority. and he actually taught us to go and be confrontational. So confrontational soulwinning. So you might ask, what is confrontational soulwinning? Well, the purpose of that is when you know when Jesus, he came to seek and to save those that are lost. It's actually going out there and purposely talking to people. It's actually going out there not just hoping for an opportunity, but actually purposely seeking and saving people that are lost.

1. Why We Preach the Gospel

Point number one is why we preach the gospel. Why do we preach the gospel? Why do we go and preach the gospel? It's because we are sent by the Lord Jesus Christ. And even Paul, if you remember, Paul said, "A necessity is laid upon me." Right? I have to do this. And we're going to turn to Romans 5:5. Romans 5:5. And we're going to be looking at why we preach the gospel. What What's the purpose of it? The Bible says in Romans 5:5, "And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shared abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." So it's the love of God that actually instils that love of God in us. And when we walk in the spirit, right, we're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. When you walk in the spirit, you're going to actually have that love which is part of the fruit of the spirit. And you're going to have that for people when we when you go out there. And obviously the flesh doesn't want us to love our neighbour as ourselves, right? being in the flesh, you're not going to be thinking about going and preaching the gospel. And why do we strive? Why do we care about the people is because we love we love God's commandments and we we want to love him because he first loved us and gave himself for us, right? That's why we do it. And this is how we love Jesus Christ by doing what he said. So if you remember, you know, Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." So turn to Luke 6:46. And I just want to remind you of something that Jesus said in Luke 6 verse uh 46 sorry 46 and the Bible says here and why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say right he told us to preach the gospel and he's saying why do you even give me a title without actually doing the things that I commanded you to do and we're going Look at Mark 16:15. Mark 16:15. We're going to be looking at what God told us to do. And if you remember, we started with the song, "Go ye into all the world." Right? That's part of a commandment of the Lord. It's part of the great commission. And the Bible says here in Mark 16:15, he said unto them, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." So people might say, "Well, this is Jesus sending his disciples, right?" Well, the Bible also says we ought to walk as Jesus walked. So he came and to seek and to save those that are lost. That was the purpose and we that's one of the purposes of why Jesus came. And also Paul wrote to the Corinthian church and right Corinthian church is not a perfect church and we know that for those who who've seen the Corinthian church. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 1033. 1 Corinthians 10:33. So we're going to be looking at what Paul was inspiring the Corinthians to do. And he said here in verse 33 of 1 Corinthians 10, even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own prophet, but the profit of many that they may be saved. Right? So Paul's target was to see people get saved. He's not saying I don't my prophet is not important. It's the prophet of other people that they could get saved. And look at the next verse. If you look at the next chapter in chapter 11, look what the Bible says here. He says, "Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ." So, it's not just for the disciples. It was actually even for the Corinthian church where God is actually we see God through the uh Paul through the power of the Holy Ghost actually telling them, "Hey, follow me. I don't seek my own prophet. I actually seek the prophet of many that they could be saved." And he's saying here, "Hey, you know, this is what you have to do. Follow me." So, it's not just Jesus saying follow him. It's Paul saying follow him. And then it's pastor Stucky who's the one who, you know, was pushing us to go soulwinning and I'm following his example and I want to follow pe I want to follow in his um his vision to see a lot of people get saved and not just not just pastor Stucky but also people like brother Brydon who is in for he has a desire to see all the doors in Fawkner get knocked right so it to follow people like that you see those person that person's vision and you can follow him and you And also I've got this WhatsApp group if you guys have seen where I'm posting all the times that we're going to be going out preaching the gospel. So if you guys like to come out, you know, you can. You're more than welcome. I'm going to be putting the times there. And I think that's really important because it's not just, you know, us doing it, but we actually also have to be sent. The Bible says, "How can they preach except they be sent?" So that's why something I really admired in the Philippines was that they were sending us out to preach the gospel. We were going preaching the gospel every Tuesday, every Thursday, every Saturday. And then there was times where we were going even every day of the week. So it's just that sending that sending when you're going out there and people saying, "Hey, go and then people go." And you might ask, who should I go to? And the Bible, the Bible tells us to go to places that haven't been yet reached. Right? I grew up as a Pentecostal and I never had my door knocked with the gospel. Somebody telling me, right? David was just telling me that this morning Jehovah's Witnesses came to his door to share their gospel, right? And it's another gospel. And you know, I got saved online. Probably a lot of you got saved online. Thank God for the internet. Thank God for technology. You know, we got to hear the gospel for the first time online. And I just want to say, you know, praise God for the gospel presentations online. If you want to send those to people so they can actually get to hear the gospel, that's another way of preaching the gospel. But turn to Romans 15:20. Romans 15:20. And I'm going to tell you why we should go to places that haven't yet been reached. Why it's so important. Romans 15:20. It says, says here, "Yay, sir, I have strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation." Right? We ought to strive to be preaching the gospel. And not just that, it means obviously striving means to persist, right? To put effort towards something. And I want to let you guys know that we don't we're not meant to strive to preach the gospel in church because that's already someone else has planted there. Some that's I'm not going to build upon another man's foundation, right? I'm not going to be in church preaching the gospel. We're going to be preaching the gospel outside of church. And I want to go door knock. I want to go soulwinning door knocking to the places that haven't been reached and to people that are probably deceived in a false religion. And I want to ask you, is Paul and the apostles still around today? Are they still going out there? Right? We know that they've gone to be with the Lord. And who should preach? This is our generation. This is our time to go preach the gospel to tell people about the great salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let's preach the gospel faithfully, right? We're going to be looking at the story of Jonah from the Bible reading. And you know, people need Jonah and he's unfaithful to go preach the gospel. We see that about him. God tells him to go. He's just going in a different direction. And we find in the book of Jonah that he didn't really care too much for the lost, right? And the reason he didn't care is because he cared about his comfort. And he also knew that God loved people. We all know God loved the world, right? We all know these things. You know, John 3:16, you don't have to turn there. We know that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. We know that God loves people. And you know what? Jonah knew that, too. But he actually didn't want to go because he's like, "Well, you love them anyway." And we're going to be looking at something. We're going to be looking at the attitude of Jonah, something that hindered him. And it says here in Jonah 4:9, Jonah 4:9, we're going to just see the things that Jonah cared about. And he knew that God cared about people's souls, people, people's eternity. And yet, he didn't have that vision that God had. And it says here in Jonah 4:9, "And God said to Jonah, dust thou well to be angry for the God?" And he said, "I do well to be angry even unto death." Right? He's getting really angry for this shade that came up to shade him from the sunlight. He's getting really mad. He even wants to die. Then said the Lord, thou hast pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither made us to grow, which came up in the night, and perished in the night, and came and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle. So there's like over a 100,000 people in this place, Nineveh. And Jonah here is caring about his shade. He's caring to be comfortable. And we see that God actually is communicating to him. And we also as soul winners, we can also preserve many lives. You know, God wanted to preserve people's lives. And let's recognize that we can often times be like Jonah. We can be that person that we care more about the temporary things in life over the eternal things, right? And Jonah didn't lay before the God. He was upset. It's like God gives us all these blessings. God takes care of us. And if something happens, we kind of get upset. But it's God. He says, "What do you have that you haven't yet received?" Right? Everything we have is from God. And the issue with Jonah, he's just getting mad about it. And God's saying, "Hey, I care. You know, God actually laboured to create mankind. God actually laboured to make every single person." Says, "I was formed in my mother's womb." Right? So God actually cares for the things that he laboured for. And he's trying to tell Jonah, hey, you should care as well about what I what I care about. But you seem to care about the things that you haven't even laboured for. Those are the things that you put your pri that you prioritize. And you know, we hear from even in the book of Job that God gave and God take taketh away, right? He's the one that gives us everything and he's the one that can take it away from us. And Job, sorry, Jonah runs and he serves himself. And it's the most one of the most common excuses why people don't serve God is because they just serve themselves. And we need to do this. And I know we're busy. We need to do that. But God's given us many hours. God's given us time. God's given us time to work. You know, the Bible even says six days shalt thou  labour. God's given us time to do these things of this earth, but also God wants us to care about what he cares about. And obviously, we're not to serve ourselves anymore. If you remember the song that we sang that we're soldiers, right? Turn to 2 Timothy 2:3. 2 Timothy 2:3. And we're not meant to really be focused on ourselves anymore once we've received the gift of eternal life. God is actually calling us to something. And it says here in 2 Timothy 2:3, "Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, no man that warreth entangeleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier." Right? We've been called to be soldiers. And what does a soldier do? He fights. What is What is the What are we fighting against? We're fighting against the enemy, the devil. 2 Corinthians 4. Go to 2 Corinthians 4. We're going to see that the devil is actually actively trying to deceive people. And this is what we're actually meant to be fighting against. Says here in 2 Corinthians 4:3, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." So the God of this world blinds people who don't believe. Right? That's that's his purpose. He deceives people. Revelation 20:10, it says, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire, right? That's his that's his purpose. He's there to deceive people." And in Luke, you're going to we're going to read that a bit later, but it says that he's right there to take away the seed so people don't believe. Right? I went soulwinning with my wife in the Philippines and there was this person that we were talking to and he just wasn't getting it. Right? And I just didn't understand why. And I had the Holy, you know, the Holy Spirit is there working with us. Christ is working with us. And I went there and I just said to him, I said, "Do you understand that the devil is deceiving you so you don't receive this?" And I showed him this verse. I showed him in Luke 8:1. Luke 8:1. I shared the whole gospel with him, but then there was something just holding him back, right? There was something there that was just stopping him from just putting his trust in the Lord and receiving that gift of eternal life. And it says in Luke 8:1, "Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God." Right? This is what we're going out with. We're going out with the Bible. This is the seed that we plant. Those by the wayside are they which hear. Then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their heart, lest they should believe and be saved. Right? The devil's right there when you're preaching the gospel. Just ready to take away that seed that you've just planted. Just ready to take away when you've told him, "Hey, salvation's by faith. It's a free gift." He's just right there to do it. And I showed him the devil that deceive them is going to that same hell where pretty much most of mankind is going because he deceives people. He deceiveth the whole world. The Bible says. So what does the devil want us to stop from doing? He wants us to stop preaching the gospel. He wants God uses us to preach the gospel. And the devil wants people to not believe. Right? What's the one thing that he wants people not to do? Is to believe and be saved. And you know the Bible says that we're to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. He used his human vessel, right? He had his time 33 years they say on this earth. He used his human vessel to go out, right? And you know, he walked when he went out. And the Bible says, "How beautiful are the feet of them which preach glad tidings of good things, right? Our feet are beautiful when we're going out there and preaching the gospel." And Jesus used his feet to go and to seek and to save those that are lost. And I also believe that Jesus uh um we see that Jesus also spoke about Jonah and I believe that also Jonah pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you remember a verse I want to take you to John 5:39 and you might say what correlation does Jonah have with Jesus because they're in complete you know they're completely different time period but we're going to see something in John 5:39. And I want to encourage everyone that reads the Old Testament that's saved. But I want you to encourage you to also read it with a with a lens of understanding that there's a lot of pictures of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. And Jesus said here in John 5:39, "Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." So the New Testament wasn't around, right? It was just the Old Testament. And he's saying, "Hey, search that Old Testament. You're going to see me. Search the scriptures and they testify of me." So we're going to we're going to see that. And this verse inspires me a lot to look into the Old Testament with this in mind to be looking into it, not be just looking into it as stories of things we read. And Jesus mentioned some things to kind of give it away that there's a lot of pictures of Jesus Christ. If you remember in John chapter 3, he spoke of the brass serpent said as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. The same way that brass serpent was representing Jesus Christ, right? This the serpent was obviously the picture of sin and Jesus became sin for us on the cross. And Jesus is saying, "Hey, that that resembles me." And he also spoke about Jonah. We're going to look at Jonah 1 11. And we know that he also spoke about Jonah. He says, "As Jonah was 3 days in the whale's belly, right?" He just said, "There shall no sign be given you except of the sign of the prophet Jonah." So we're going to be looking into Jonah now from our Bible reading. Jonah 1:1 says, "Then said they unto him, what shall we do unto thee that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea roar and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, "Take me up and cast me forth into the sea. So shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea roar and was tempestuous against them. You know, these people didn't want to listen to the prophet Jonah, right? They didn't want to do what he said. They just continued rowing. He said, "Hey, take me up. Throw me into the sea." and then everything's going to be fine. But guess what they wanted to do? They just wanted to keep working. They didn't want to do what Jonah said. Jonah said, "Hey, just kill me pretty much. I'll die and then everything's going to stop, right? The sea is going to be calm." And they said, "No, we're going to continue by our works." They said, "Nevertheless," the men rode. This is a picture of just people just not hearkening to the voice of the prophet and just wanting to just continue rowing, continue rowing, but it says that the sea, but they could not, right? People try to work and to earn their salvation. And right Jonah picturing Jesus Christ. People just want to kind of work for it, but that doesn't, you know, save them from the wrath of God. And it was only when they took away Jonah that the wrath stopped. And we read that. And you can't be saved without Jonah's death. That was the picture there. You can't be saved without the death of Jesus Christ. And Jonah did not throw himself overboard, right? He told them, "Hey, throw me overboard." Right? That's something that that happened. And Jesus used that example as Jonah was three days and three nights was obviously in the belly of the whale and I believe the whale symbolizes Jesus going to hell there because if you remember Jonah said out of the belly of hell cried I right so he's just there suffering that and Jesus said hey there shall no sign be given you except for the sign of the prophet Jonah and obviously Jonah being thrown overboard I believe resembles the death of Jesus Christ and the whale did not hold Jonah forever right same way you know Jesus wasn't in hell forever The Bible says thou sh you know my soul shall rest in hope for thou shalt not leave my soul in hell right he had that that hope in the same way Jonah was in the whale's belly for 3 days and also after that it says that the whale vomited him up and then he came onto dry land right resembling the resurrection so we're going to just continue looking at that and we just see all these amazing things and I want to ask you how hard would it have been for those people to just listen to Jonah just throw him overboard right it's as simple as how easy salvation is. Something that you don't have to row. You don't have to try to get out of the wrath of God. It's just as evil as easy as listening to the man of God and just putting your trust in what he says and just throwing him overboard, making that step, right? And they try to escape God's wrath by their works. And verse 14 says here, "Wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said, we beseech thee, oh Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not unto us innocent, lay not upon us innocent blood, for thou, oh Lord, has done as it pleased thee." So they play prayed and said, "Jonah," they said they said, "God, Jonah is innocent. We just we're just going to just do what he told us to do. He's innocent, right? That's resembling innocent blood, resembling the Lord Jesus Christ." In verse 15 it says, "So they took up Jonah. They finally doing what he said." And it says, "And cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows." Right? We also don't have the wrath of God abiding on us anymore. Right? And it says that the men feared the Lord exceedingly and sacrificed. So we who are here today, right, we fear God, but we're also sacrificing of our time today. And it's we understand that the wrath of God has been taken away from us because of what Jesus Christ has done, but we're actually sacrificing as well. We're not just going to be just happy with the gift. We're actually sacrificing too. And I like the attitude of these guys. We don't see obviously Jonah pleading for his life. You know, Jonah chose to die that they're going to live, right? Same way Jesus Christ did that for us so we could live. He gave up his life that we could have eternal life. And we go and tell people about that same sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And I want to ask, will everyone believe? We know not everyone will believe it, right? People are going to continue trying to make it to shore by their works. People are going to  continue trying to work their way to heaven, but I like what one pastor said and he said, and it really encouraged me. He said, "It's not our job to get people saved. It's our job to give people the opportunity to be saved." Does that make sense? Right. Let's go to Jo uh John 3:36. John 3:36. And we give this same invitation. We usually use this this passage out soulwinning and it says here in John 3:36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Right? They still have that wrath that we see in the book of Jonah. They still have it on him because they're not believing what Jesus, they're not believing on the Son. And their works didn't save them from the wrath of God. They needed the gospel, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And if you remember, Paul said, "I'm pure from the blood. I'm clean from the blood of all men." Right? He was the one that faithfully went and preached the gospel. He even said, "Woe is me if I don't preach the gospel." And we have to follow Paul. And you know, I want to ask you, do you have this attitude? You know, has Australia has Australia heard the gospel? And are there many labourers in Australia? You know, I don't see that being the case in Australia. I don't see many people going out and sharing this gospel.

2. Australia Needs Labourers

And point number two is Australia needs labourers. Australia needs labourers. And we're going to look here at Matthew 9:35. Matthew 9:35. And I just want to inspire you to understand how important going out and preaching the gospel is. And it's not just the men, it's even the women that actually have an importance when it comes to preaching the gospel. Right? This is something that some people are more inclined to even hear. two women coming to the door and knocking on their door and talking to them. It's really important. You know, there's people that my wife can approach that I can't approach realistically, right? And you know, praise God that she's a great soul winner and she's getting a lot of people saved and you know, she's reading her Bible. She's understood the passages and she's able to go out there and see people get saved. And praise God for women like that. Matthew 9:35 it says, "And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd." So we are we need to actually have that compassion for people that aren't saved, right? Many people are on their way to hell. In verse 37 it says, "Then he said unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labourers into his harvest." Right? God wants us to pray and God wants people to go and preach the gospel. Right? If a lot of you guys came to the last event with Pastor Kevin and I know that there was some great results, right? There was 29 salvations. It's gave me a lot of courage that there's actually a lot of work that can be done, but there's just few labourers. And the more people that we have, the more people that can get gathered, right? And that's the harvest. What's the harvest talking about? You know, it's talking about that fruit. It says, "Gather fruit unto eternal life." John 4 says, right? That's what we're trying to gather. That's what God wants us to start with having compassion and then going out there. It says in Proverbs 29:18, Proverbs 29:18 says here, "Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." Right? How many people want to be happy in this life? Right? You ask someone, "Hey, do you want to be happy?" I'm sure they're going to say, "Yeah, yeah, I want to be happy." But the Bible says, "Hey, if you keep God's law, you're actually going to be happy." And can we find something in about in the law about preach like about preaching the gospel? Well, you know, I mentioned this earlier, loving your neighbour as yourself, right? It's one of the great commandments, you know, loving the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, and strength. And the other is just like it is loving is loving your neighbour as yourself. So that's something in the law that once you do it, you're actually going to be happy. And you're going to actually be happy if you go and preach the gospel. If you preach people and you know what, everyone that here that has gone out preaching the gospel, you know, they can vouch that they're not they're not uh they don't regret going out there and preaching the gospel. It's something you don't regret. something that actually the Bible says you will doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing your sheathes with you right in the Psalms it speaks about how it's you're going to doubtless rejoice right and we all want to be happy and this is something that's unspeakable like it's very hard to you know to understand because before I started you know I never understood that you know we in the Philippines we I did a lot of soulwinning and obviously you know Brighton's been doing this before I've left but you don't understand how people even during their public holidays, any chance they get from the church, they're just out there, right? You had like nearly like, you know, a massive percentage of the church, you know, men, women with little children going out there preaching the gospel. Any chance they got, you know, and sometimes you don't understand it, but then it's like you start doing it and then you just look for every opportunity, you know. We would just we would start and even my wife and I, it was a little overwhelming because the amount was so much. And then by the end of it, we're just like, you know, let's just go more. Let's just try to go more. So that that's what happens. Your heart gets stirred. And then the joy that you have with preaching the gospel, it just it just makes you continue doing it. And you know, and the Bible also says what you would have men to do unto you, do unto them likewise. So we would want someone else to come and preach us the gospel. It says go do that to them. You know, I didn't know where I was going to go when where I when I die. You know, I tried to get to heaven by my works. I grew up in a Pentecostal church. You know, I was trying to do my best to live a good life. you know, I abstained from a lot of the sins that people would say, "Hey, this this kind of would get you into hell." And I was kind of trusting in those things to get me to heaven. And I tried my best. And you know what? I still knew that if I was going to die, I'm still going to hell because it's I'm not perfect. And the Bible says, if you keep the whole law and you're offending one point, you're guilty of all. So even if you try your best and you're and you're absolutely perfect, you've still fallen short of the glory of God. Because the Bible says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." and someone would have knocked my door on our door earlier, you know, I would have loved to hear the gospel and but we are that soul winner. We are that that person that can knock and preach the gospel to other people, you know. And the Bible also says in Proverbs 3 27, Proverbs 3 27, the Bible says here in Proverbs 3 27, withhold no not good from them to whom it is due when it is the power when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Right? This is our ability. We're withholding the truth of the gospel from people when we actually can do it. Right? Probably we're afraid. That's why we need to pray for boldness. That's why before we go out preaching the gospel, you know, we have somebody praying and saying, "God, fill us with your spirit. Give us utterance. Give us boldest boldness that we can preach the gospel, right? Cuz it's it it's still nerve-wracking, right? We just that's why you pray and you need that filling of the Holy Ghost. You need to be walking in the spirit, right? You need to you need to crucify that old man and walk in that new man and actually then you'll be empowered to go and preach the gospel, but not to hide the gospel." You know, there's a new generation of youth even in Australia that haven't heard the gospel, right? They've heard a lot of other things. We're going to just look at some statistics. Um, just quickly just I found something from 2016. It said that only 7% of Australians attend church, right? The sermon title was soulwinning in Australia. It says 7% only attend church. And you know those that go to Ferntree Gully Baptist Church, you know that the footy is on Sunday as well, right? And it's the footy you could say is their church, right? That's their religion. that's what they're going to meet up for. And you know, we have even uh you know, things happening in in the media. We've heard about the death of Charlie Kirk, right? So, we see these types of things are actually getting people to kind of think about God a little bit. But unfortunately, you know, many people instead of hearing the right gospel, guess what they bump into? They bump into Catholicism, right? They bump into Pentecostalism. They bump into bump into other things because they're the more popular ones today, right? Charismatics the charismatic movement. And you know these things can be even more dangerous than just having no religion at all. Right? And you know why? Because when we went to Philippines, my wife and I would go and talk to people which were kind of the equivalent of Pentecostals which were the born again movement, right? And these people, they would always tell you, look, I've experienced something. I know that this is right because of so and so or I've seen certain things. And you know what? those people really difficult to win over to the Lord in comparison to other people that probably just weren't that you know religious and you know that this is unfortunately these are the things that are popular today and you know people tell well I've experienced things and I've repented of my sins you know that's why I think I'm going to heaven and they've just become less receptive right they've just let things go and unfortunately you know even in the book of Jonah you see that that the start you see that they kind of let down things so then they could try to fight off that that that the wrath of God, right? They let down their wares. And it's like that thing where people kind of think, well, maybe to escape this wrath. I'll just get rid of some of my load. I'll just kind of give up some of my sins. But it's just not enough to save you. You need you need the death of Jesus Christ. And you know, miracles, unfortunately, people kind of think, okay, miracle is even more authoritative than what's written.

3. The Word of God Saves

And point number three is the word of God is what saves people. It's the word of God. So we're going to be looking at this and it says and obviously we're going to continue says do pe and do people get saved by seeing miracles or do they get saved by seeing the word of God right the sewer the sewers plants the seed and that's the word of God right that's what we're doing we're going out there and actually using the Bible and we're going to be looking at Luke 16 and we're going to see the passage it's a really important passage we use that to kind of show people about hell when we go out and preach the gospel we're going to be looking at Luke 16 and we're going to see the person from hell he was actually the one that was suggesting miracles, right? He's actually the person that was saying, "Hey, this might actually be very effective." And we're going to see that Abraham actually suggested the word of God. And we're going to read that in Luke 16:27. Luke 16:27. Then said he, "I pray thee, therefore, Father, that thou would send him to my father's house." This is the rich man that's in hell. He's actually talking to Abraham and saying, "Send him. send Lazarus, for I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. So, so he's in hell. He doesn't want his family to be in hell. And he's saying, "Hey, go and let Lazarus come back from the dead, right? They're going to see this miracle and they're going to change their mind and they're not going to come to this place of torment." So, this man realizes that this is this is his fate forever, right? He's in hell. He's going to be there forever. He's still there now, right? And he starts to plead for his unsaved loved ones who obviously are still alive. And what's the response of Abraham? We're going to see that in verse 29. Abraham said unto him, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. Right? And then and then you right, he's saying they need the word of God. Let them hear Moses and the prophets. Let them hear what's written. And then verse 30, this is interesting because we see the rich man doubling down and saying, "And he said, "Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went to them from the dead, they will repent." This person's still stuck on thinking a miracle is going to change people's minds. Right? He's still thinking, "Hey, no, no, this is right. The miracle is going to get people saved." Verse 31 says, "And he said unto them, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." Right? Even if someone comes back from the dead, they're not going to be they're not going to believe. You know, people ask Jesus for a sign. And what did Jesus say? You know, and he said, "No sign shall be given to you." And we saw that in the book of Jon about the book of Jonah except for the sign of the prophet Jonah. And it's the word of God. It's the power of God that saves people. It's the gospel. And the gospel is found in the word of God. Romans 1:16. Romans 1:16. So, we're going to be looking at what we're not ashamed of. And we use this out when we go preaching the gospel. Romans 1:16 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Right? We're not ashamed of this Bible that we have. Right? This is what's the power of God. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the gospel is God's power to save people if they believe it. It's clear stated in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15:3. It says here, "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." And he actually says that he says, "I proclaim unto you the gospel." Right? That's the verse one. He's proclaiming the gospel. And this is the gospel, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it's not the it's not the sign. It's actually the gospel that saves people. And it's laid out in the word of God. And this is what we need, right? This is what we need to go and get people saved. Right? I got my Bible. This is what we need to go out and to use. And it's got the gospel in it. And this this is what persuades people. This is what convince convinces people, right? This is the sword of God, right? A soldier uses a weapon, right? And this is the King James Bible. And just to let you know, my wife and I would go into the malls in the Philippines, and we usually have our Bibles in our bags. And they'd usually be there to check us for our weapons, right? you know, if you had a gun or something to come in. And I used to laugh at my wife and I'm like, "Oh, you know, they're letting all this go through because we'd go and we'd try to sit down next to people in the mall. There's a lot of like waiting areas where just a bunch of people would sit down and you just kind of sit down next to them and give them an invite and try to talk to them, right? That's what we were doing in the Philippines. And you know, the Bible wants to inspire us to not keep back our something, not keep back our sword from blood. Go to Jeremiah 48:10. Jeremiah 48:10. We actually have to use the weapon that God gave us, right? We're not to just hold on to it. We're not to just, you know, admire it, but we're also to go out and to use it into battle. The Bible says in Jeremiah 48:10 says here, Jeremiah 48:10, "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood." So s the sword is the word of God, right? And it says you're going to be cursed if you just keep it back from blood, you know. And even if you don't have like, you know, we I call this like the sword. It's a bit bigger. But then there's also a little Bible that I ended up getting with my wife because what ended up happening the guards, there's a lot of security guards. They started realizing that we're preaching the gospel. And you know what? We just went and bought these tiny little Bibles that kind of look like a notebook. So then it was like less, you know, less obvious when we were preaching the gospel and a little bit more like concealed. And if you guys know the story of Ehud in the Bible, right, when he went to Eglon, he just concealed the weapon, right? He's not going out there so it's really visible. And you know, sometimes you got to use a bit of wisdom, right? It's, you know, being wise as serpents and harmless as doves. We're using a bit of wisdom. So what we did, we bought a small Bible and we were still able to go because it's the same Bible, right? And, you know, yet if you could just imagine in the spirit, the Bibles just have blood on them. You know, you're keeping the stories in the Old Testament with all these battles. The same thing happens today. We go in out there into warfare. And you know what? People have different beliefs. People think different things. And guess what happens when you use the sword of the spirit. It says the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. Right? When you use these things, you know what ends up like cutting into people, right? Their false doctrine, their false beliefs, you know, whatever it is, it ends up cutting them. And that's what happens. And that's how people get saved. And the word of God is sharp. The word of God is effective. And what did Abraham say from heaven? says, "Your brethren need to hear the Bible." Right? And that's what we need to do. We need to take the Bible to people and that's what's going to get people saved. It's not people coming back from the dead. You know, even Lazarus, another Lazarus came back from the dead and they wanted to put him to death again, right? They don't care about the miracles. Jesus came back from the dead and they still hated him. They hated his disciples. So, it's not this the miracles. It's not the signs that's just going to just make people believe. It's the word of God that has power.

4. Why Melbourne

And part number four is why Melbourne? Why is Melbourne uh somewhere where we have to go? Jesus sent us to go into all the world. This is where God has put us. This is where we're located. And it's also a forgotten place. There's a lot of atheism here. And I'm just going to look at some comparisons between Australia and America in that respect because obviously America, you kind of, you know, know that a lot of people there are Christian. And I'll just show you some comparisons. It said that 67% of the US population identifies as Christian. Right? This is from 2023 and it's declining even today, but it's said to be 85% back in 1990. So it went from 85% to 67%. And how about Australia? In 2021, it said that 43.9% of Australians identified as Christians, right? So even under 50%. America's over 50%. So it's also declining here because it was 61% in 2011. So you can imagine 2011 we had more than 50% of the country Christian identifies identifying as a Christian and Australia is reportedly 40% atheist right today while America is around 20%. So you can imagine there's a lot more atheism here. And that's why to some degree the Australia kind of reminds you of the Ninevites, right? Because it's just they were that type of person. You know, they couldn't discern the left to the right. They were just more like atheists in doctrine. And you know, and I believe that they can change their mind if they get confronted with the Bible, right? And a good way to kind of speak to atheists, you know, they might say, "Look, I don't believe the Bible. I don't really think any of that is true. What I like to use an example is I just say look let's just hypothetically say let's just hypothetically say that the Bible is true. You know because obviously they don't believe that I don't believe the Bible. I like to say look let's just hypothetically say it's true. You know let me just show you. And you know what's amazing? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. They start off atheist and you start showing them from the Bible and then out of nowhere they're like I need that. I need the salvation that you're talking about. You know and then they get saved. So, you know, that's a that's a good way to kind of speak to an atheist at the door. And I believe that obviously with a good team of soul winners, we saw the results. 29 soul winners in in in the time that they were out. I think it was just a day or was it two days if anyone knows the last soul winning event? One day. One day. Yeah. So, just one day there, you know, 29 salvations. It's an awesome result. You know, you have multiple places. And obviously, we don't go to Hindu countries. There's multitude of religions. We don't go to Hindu countries to get them saved. But Hindus are here, right? For Phil went to Forna with our group with brother Brighton and got a Hindu lady saved. You know, it's like what an amazing opportunity to get people saved from all these different religions that are found in Melbourne, you know. And I think this is a great this is great opportunity for us. And obviously, you got the park as well. It's so full of Muslims. you got, you know, America is obviously I think it's I think it's like 1% Muslim of the population, whilst Australia is like three, but I think it's far more here in here in, you know, southeast suburbs. And you know what? I'm not traveling to countries like Afghanistan. I'm not traveling to countries like Saudi Arabia or Iraq, but then they're coming here to us. You know, you're going out there, you're taking them tracked, you're speaking to them. You know what? I don't feel that intimidated because they're here and they kind of adapt to kind of friendliness and the culture and you can actually reach them with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think that's something that we should take advantage of, right? They might look intimidating, you know, while you're speaking to them, but hey, it's like at least you don't fear for your life, right? We're not putting ourselves in those situations because we're blessed to be here in Australia. And that's why I think even the Muslims can be reached. Those people have family back home that they could also reach with the gospel. And I think it's an amazing opportunity if we just go even to the parks. And I'm just going to look a little bit um into Yeah, just going to continue. We're going to be looking at when Christianity was introduced in Australia. It says it was introduced by the British and when it was settled in the country in 1788. So Christianity has been around in Australia for a long time. And why are we grateful for this? Because we have religious liberty, right? Something really special in Melbourne is we're grateful that the Australian Constitution prohibits the government from interfering with the freedom of religion. Right? There's something we need to take advantage of and we need to work while the night is coming. You know, because the night will come. There will come a time when probably persecution is going to be far greater and we need to make the most of the time that we can when the doors are open when we actually can go to people's door and share them the gospel. You know what makes Australia so accessible? It's because it's an English-speaking country. That's another thing. you know, we're not we're not in a country where we don't understand the language. Everyone can understand what I'm saying, right? You speak this language. And it's said that English is the only language used in the home by 72% of the population, right? That's a big percentage of exclusive just English speakers. But then even people that don't really understand, they still have some type of, you know, ability to understand English. So, you're going to rarely have the problem when you're sharing the gospel that they're not going to be able to understand what you're saying. So if you remember Jonah in the Bible as well, he knew the language of those Ninevites and they understood what he was saying, right? So that's the way that we need to do that. You know, God has that ability for us who not only know the language, but we also are saved. So that's why we need to, you know, to get out there, go up the loins of our minds, you know, go out there with the King James Bible and preach to people the gospel because they're going to understand us. We have the Bible. We just need to preach it. And you know, what does Melbourne need? It needs a preacher who's not afraid to just say what the Bible says. Right? That's what I like about Jonah. He just kind of just continued speaking what God told him to speak. He didn't alter the message. He just said exactly what God told him to say. The same way we go without we go with the Bible. We just we just preach the Bible. They're not our words. You know, you're not going to them. You didn't create this religion. You didn't create salvation by faith. It's just outlined in the Bible. You're just showing them, you know, and if they have any bit of respect for the word of God, they're going to they're going to listen to you.

5. Soulwinning Vision

Point number five, soulwinning vision. I just want to share a little bit of a soul-winning vision. I if you recall, I showed you from the book of Proverbs. Where there is no vision, the people perish, right? We're going to have we ought to have a big vision for our life regarding soulwinning. It should be something that characterizes our life. And we need to understand how many people live in our immediate area. Right? A lot of people that are here today are from kind of these suburbs. And let's just say you're located in Narre Warren. just say you're here and there's so many people around us that need to hear the gospel. So many people. I'll share with you some locations. I did a little bit of just like research and I looked at just some locations, some really popular locations, you know, Endeavor Hills, Cranbourne, Hallum, all these different places that are just Berwick that are just in like a 20-minute drive, right? 20-minute radius. I added about 13 different locations around Nar Warren and I found the total houses being 117,000 houses and the total people being over 300,000 right this is data from the 2021 census and we hear that Nineveh had about 120,000 people and God cared for those people there were souls there God cared for those people and God cares about the over 300,000 souls that are in our immediate area as well and they're just at a 20-minut drive right God cares about those people and how many of these houses do you think were knocked by a soul winner? I think it's embarrassing unfortunately when the Jehovah's Witnesses are faithful to go and preach their damnable heresies when the Mormons are, you know, they're going out there. You have other people that are just not shy to just go up to people and knock on their doors. And that's why we need to go be filled with the Holy Spirit and go to preach to people the gospel. And let me tell you, very few people I think have heard the real gospel. You know, it took me about 25 years of my life to actually hear it. You know, I never heard it. You know, I I used to read John 3:16. I had no idea what it meant. You know, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. We used to get asked to read that. I I'm sure I'd memorized it. Had no idea what it meant, you know. And that's why it's so important that people actually get a saved person. Salvation is from faith to faith. The Bible says somebody to go and explain to them what the Bible means. Right? You have the Ethiopian eunuch saying, "How can I understand except some man guide me?" How can I understand something so simple as John 3:16 except it's somebody else that actually shows you? That's why the Bible says God's given us the ministry of reconciliation. We're the ones that go out and actually show people how they can be saved. They're going to be looking at it the way I looked at it and I'm sure many of you and just never understood what it means. And there's also a lot of great opportunities even in 20 minute drive at the parks as well. If you guys know a lot of the popular parks, you got Lysterfield Park. That's where we go out on Sundays. That's just a great opportunity. There's a lot of people. You can just go and talk to people. You have W Wilson Botanical Park as well and Cardinia Reservoir Park. Just parks where people are just out and about and you can kind of just get into a conversation. And they have a lot of visitors daily, especially public holidays. they're going to be full, you know, and I think that's a great opportunity and many people can be reached. They only need to be given the opportunity to be saved, right? We need to enter into that spiritual warfare. We need to have a vision for people and for their eternal life. And you know, how can we knock all these doors? How can all these people hear the gospel? We just need people. We need labourers. You know, we need to gather people to serve the living God. I'm so grateful for everyone that was able to come today that can actually hear, you know, the Bible preached and get inspired. And obviously, I want to thank Pastor Stucky again for inspiring us to do this. Part six is just the last part. It won't be long. It's what to expect out soulwinning. What are we going to expect, you know, when we go out and we see that a soul winner can get a different types of results. You know, you might say like, you know, maybe we can get one person saved today and I'll be awesome if we can get one person. But in our in our in our lifetime or in a year, I'm just going to be talking about how many people we can expect to go to get saved if we actually go out faithfully. And what should we be aiming for? The Bible says here in Mark 4 verse 20, it's just a little bit of something we should be aiming for when it comes to going out and preaching the gospel. You know, we have a target. There's a saying, if your target's nothing, you'll hit it, right? It's good to have a target, something that you're going to be trying to aim towards. And it says here in Mark 4:20, "And these are they which are sown on good ground, such as hear the word and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some 30fold, some 60, and some 100." Right? And we see that the harvest was plenteous. And it says, "He that gathereth fruit unto eternal life in John 4, in the same way, some bring forth fruit, some 30fold, some 60, some 100." And these are the people that are in the good ground. Is that referred to how many people you could get saved in a lifetime? What do you think? Well, we know that a tree often produces fruit about once every year, right? It has fruit. You look at a fruit tree, it's just it's got fruit on it. You might be thinking to get 30 people saved in a year that just sounds unthinkable, right? And you know, people might go, well, you need to be in a receptive place like the Philippines. But let me tell you, even in a place like Melbourne, you can get those numbers. You just have to be faithfully going out there preaching the gospel. And you know what? You know, I don't think it's impossible to get at least 30 people saved in a year, right? You're going out there with brother Brighton's group every two weeks or every week. You you're coming out with our group every Sunday. You're going and preaching to people. I don't think it's impossible to say that you're going to get 30 people saved in a year's time. And the Bible says that in in this is my father glorified that you bring forth much fruit. Right? We do these things to the glory of God. We eat, we drink, whatsoever you do, do it all for the glory of God. And you know, bringing forth fruit, getting people saved actually glorifies God. And it says in this is my father glorified that you bring forth much fruit. So think about it, right? You got 30 or the high is 100. You know, if you're really serious about soulwinning, if you're really, you know, keen to do it, you could you could even see yourself get a 100 people saved. You might get s 60 60 saved or you might even get a hundred, you know. And this is I believe this is very sustainable every year. You know, you're going to be aiming I just want to see if I want to try to get 30 saved. You know, I wouldn't I don't think God would have put something in the Bible that's not attainable, right? If we just do it. I don't think it would just be there. And you know, we don't why don't we reach these numbers? Like that was my question. Why don't we reach these numbers? And the parable of the so is going to explain it in Mark 4:14. Mark 4:14. It's just going to explain why people don't get these types of numbers. Why people don't sacrifice their time. And I'm not saying you have to sacrifice an exorbitant amount of time. You know, my wife and I, we go out for 2 hours on a on a Saturday, you know, with Brother Brighton's group. We'll go for about an hour and a half, say, in the in the park per week. We have the rest of the week to ourselves, you know. It's not like we just have this, you know, extreme amount of time sacrificed into this and you're able to see those numbers. You're able to see the 30 people saved in a year. So, I definitely think it's doable. You know, if you're getting someone saved every 2 weeks, let's say that's 26 salvations in in a year already. That's just every 2 weeks you've just seen one person because you're going out there and then, you know, you talk to family or you talk to friends, you get another four people saved throughout that year, you're already at 30 salvations. It's incredibly doable. And you see here in Mark 4:40 says that the sower soweth the word right that's the word of God that we spoke about. And in verse 15 and they are these are they that are they by the wayside where the word is sown. And when they have heard Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. So obviously we see the first category of people they just don't believe. The devil stops them from believing and they don't get saved. Right? Definitely no fruit there. Verse 16. And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground who when they have heard the word immediately receive it with gladness. Right? These people are really happy about salvation. And it says here in verse 17 and having no root in themselves and so endure but for a time afterward when affliction and persecution ariseth for the word's sake immediately they are offended. So the second is they believe but then they get offended quickly. Right? We're going to be persecuted. All that will do of God in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. People are going to persecute you. But unfortunately some people because of this it kind of stops them and hinders them from getting people saved. Right? So let's continue here. It says here in uh verse 18, "And these are they which are sown among thorns such as hear the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things entering in choke the word and it becometh unfruitful." Right? Another reason why people can't attain to that number, right? And I'm not saying they won't get people saved. You might get, you know, a handful of people saved throughout your life, but you just won't be able to reach that 30, 60, 100 number because there's just other things. There's the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things, right? It's the same with Jonah. He just had other things that he cared about, right? Other priorities, you know, other things is comfort. And I'm not saying these things aren't important. God's given us all these things to enjoy, right? All these things are given to us by God. But we also have to seek first the kingdom of God, right? We have to also look at these things and these things be a priority for us. And the third, you know, obviously I believe that these people are just get overcome by the cares of this world and it stops them from bearing that fruit, right? Stops them from having that eternal reward one day. And the last is that good ground that they bring forth fruit, right? These people actually get people saved. Verse 20. and they are they which are sown on good ground such as hear the word and receive it and bring forth fruit some 30-fold some 60 and some 100. So we see that the last ground is what God wants us to be you know and you know what this is a achieved by you know waking up every day being in the spirit you know reading your Bible growing in the things of God and the Satan's going to be attacking you and what's Satan's purpose he doesn't want people to believe and be saved that's what he's trying to do you're going to be sewing the word he's going to be there trying to fight you we're going to just have to put on that armour of God we're going to have to go out there we have to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace that's another thing that's really important is being prepared before you go out there to preach the gospel. We're going to look at the last verse in Proverbs 11:30. Proverbs 11:30. And then we can we're going to close. The Bible says here in Proverbs 11:30, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise." Right? This is the wisest thing that you could do. This is a really wise thing. We have Jesus in the Bible. You know, he's going to the disciples and he's telling them, you know, they weren't yet his disciples. And he says, "Follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men." And it says straightway they let down their nets and went and followed Jesus Christ. There's something that you need to if you have a desire to preach the gospel, you know, you can just leave your cares or leave the things that you you're planning on doing and going and following people like brother Brighton, you know, Phil, all these other brethren that are going out there preaching the gospel. you know, my wife is preaching the gospel. You can actually learn and you know, the same way he says, "Follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men." You know, that's how we actually become fishers of men. We actually go out there with somebody that is preaching the gospel. And you start off as a silent partner, right? You don't just start off preaching the gospel. You just kind of listen to how they do it. you know, you're there listening to the verses that they use and you get ideas and eventually after you've done it for a couple months, let's say, of just listening, you can actually just join in and say, "Look, can I take this door or can I talk to this person?" And then I think that's a great way how you can also learn. And that's why I like how Jesus says, "Follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men." something that people weren't an expert in, you know. So, don't get intimidated if at the beginning you just don't have all the answers or you can't talk to people, you know, just go out with somebody that is a talker. And then if you're a silent partner, you can just do that as long as you're comfortable. And when you're comfortable, you can say, "Hey, look, I'm willing to give this a go." And I just want that God would help all of us to just kind of take this seriously. And, you know, praise God for uh Pastor Stucky. Again, like I said, he is the one that inspired this whole event and he provoked us unto love and to good works. So, I just want to thank you for listening and I'm just going to close in a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day. Thank you, Lord God, for the great weather that you've given us as well. And I just pray that Lord God, people will be motivated to, Lord God, go out and preach the gospel faithfully and to Lord God um just gather that fruit unto everlasting life. And I just want to thank you, Lord God, for all your blessings that you've given us. And I pray that you bless also the fellowship afterwards and the food that we're going to be having. And also bless us, Lord, as we go out and preach the gospel. Help us to get many people saved. Fill us with your spirit. And Lord God, we pray all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.