Transcription
I know left for the session. Here we have some folks that have come from the DC work, and I'm glad you girls came. Good to see Sister Gibson, Sister Tiffany. Amen. So, uh, don't leave anybody out. My good friend, Brother Fox. We went to the Republic of Georgia together a couple of years ago when Jerrod was a missionary over there. That was quite a trip. Amen.
All right, good to see you all. All right, you ready to pray with me? Let's pray. Let's ask the Lord's blessings. Oh Jesus, we love you, Lord. We ask for your presence. We ask that you will hover over us, that you will speak to our hearts, Lord. I pray that the burden that you have for our world would rest upon us today. There would be revelation, oh God, revelation to accomplish your work and your will, and an empowerment of the Spirit to do your work, to do your will. I pray in Jesus' name, a special anointing would rest upon us today. I ask, Lord, in the name of Jesus, that the work of the Spirit will rest upon our hearts today. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. You can be seated. I think I actually will start with a first that's found down about halfway down that first page, found in the book of Judges, chapter 2 and verse 10. He said, "After that whole generation died, the next generation grew up. This new generation did not know about the Lord or what he had done for the Israelites." And my question is, will Judges 2:10 be repeated? We have, and when I say that, I really don't believe that the answer is yes. I see the work of God. I see the moving of the Spirit, His hand. I see people. You know, just one of the things a while back, I read an article about America and its waywardness from God. Not, not just apostolic. I'm talking about the number of people not going to church anywhere. The number of people. A generation ago, when I was a child, and that would have been in the 50s, I remember when all the businesses were closed on Sundays, and everybody went to church. Now we have, in, in our, in the DC work, we have people from many nations that have come and been born again, and they did not know that America. They did. And where we've arrived today is far different from when I was a child. I'm not telling you everybody was saved, but there was a God consciousness that has now, to some degree, absent in our nation. And I, I will say, there, there should come to us. I'll just put this plug in. We need to pray for our nation. We need to pray. If you're here, I'm including you, regardless of where you came from. We are here now, and we need to pray for a move of God. We need to pray for an outpouring of His Spirit upon our nation. Fresh God consciousness and an awakening of the Spirit. If I remember right, in history, there were two Great Awakenings. We need a third Great Awakening. We need God to awaken people's hearts to a God consciousness. That's a sense of right and wrong. And we've arrived at a time where right is wrong and wrong is right in our world. And you're not going to change that by passing laws. And I'm, even though I think Mr. Trump, personally, I think Mr. Trump has done a great job, but I'm telling you, I don't think the president, whoever he is, is going to bring the revival that we need in America. I think the only thing it may have offered us is an opportunity to pray. We must pray in order for there to be a Great Awakening. And you know, I just, I encourage you, pray.
But I started to tell you, I believe that the reason God has brought the many cultures to America, I believe this because America had been used of God to send missionaries all over the world. And I think God saw that America's godlessness, what it is, the immorality, the unrighteousness. And, and if anything, God has brought the nations of the world. I know. Is there anybody else here yet? You know what I'm talking about? I promise you, it was not like this when I was growing up. Now, I'm not telling you it was better then. I'm just telling you that the fact is, our world has changed right before our eyes. Now, I believe God has brought the cultures here for us to reach with the gospel. I think it's kind of like this: we weren't getting the job done. Hey, so God's brought him here. And I think, I think one of the greatest, maybe the greatest harvest that we're gonna see take place is among the Spanish-speaking people. And, and I believe that, not just randomly. I believe it because they came from Catholic backgrounds, and they did believe the Bible is the Word of God. Even if they didn't read it, even if they didn't know it, they were taught that the Bible is the Word of God. They believed in the Word of God, even to a flaw, but they did believe in it. They had confidence, and they had faith. And those elements, in the right setting, become powerful, powerful harvest soil. And they're more open to Bible studies. But it's not just them. Other cultures. I mean, we've had a revival among Sri Lankans. It's kind of a mini revival, but we have had it. It hadn't been recent. We need another revival. And, and I had, just have had some doors open this week. I had a phone call. I had a phone call from someone who, a pastor came from China, from one of the underground churches. And he, there, his group had received the Holy Ghost speaking with other tongues. Now, it's got to be clarified because I got some folks think, you know, you get the Holy Ghost without speaking with tongues. But you know, my old mentor taught me years ago, when you buy a pair of shoes, the tongues come with them. That's the way it is with the Holy Ghost. When you receive the Holy Ghost, that tongues automatically are they included? They are the evidence. Everybody said, amen. Remember, we're practicing again. You say, amen. Amen. And so, anyway, this, we have been invited. There's another group. They came to Washington D.C., and I think it was seven or eight of those folks received the Holy Ghost. And now they have another group they have influenced. And that door looks like it's opening to the D.C. church to be involved with a group of Chinese people that they have already, they came and told them about the Holy Ghost speaking with tongues. And this group in the Washington D.C. area, they're getting them together for us. So God is it. I mean, I know this move of God that I said, let's pray for, I'm, I'm not just randomly. I am saying there is, there is a work of God that's going on. We're not, we're not going to have to twist God's arm for a move of His Spirit. We're not asking God to do something He doesn't want to do. It's already in His will. We join His will when we give ourselves to much prayer, much power. Little prayer, little power. No prayer, you got it. So we are joining with with God's will for an outpouring of His Spirit.
Now, the other thing, I think I may have mentioned this. I was, I was out on the West Coast preaching not long ago. I knew a gentleman, actually pastored a lady years ago in the West Coast. And a lot of years had gone by, but he came to me and said he has a friend who is has an Indian from India congregation in Washington D.C. who are interested and hungry to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And so I have now connected with that. It's a United Methodist Church inside the Beltway of D.C. that these folks are hungry. I'm telling you, God is working. Now, I'm gonna tell you, when, anytime we talk about soul-winning, yes, there's other things we're going to talk about, but I'm, but you've got to believe that people want what we have. This is not, they may not know it's here. They might not may not understand what it is, but I'm telling you, people are hungry for a work of God in their lives. That you got to believe that. You, I mean, you've got to become convinced of that. Soul-winning is, is it's not about forcing people to come. It's not like they talked about trickery, trying to get people saved through trickery. Well, you don't have to do that. People are hungry. You got to believe it, though. I'm gonna tell you why, because your attitude is affected by, by what you believe. If you believe they don't want it, you're gonna act like they don't want it. Your attitude is gonna express, "I know they don't really want this, but I'm here anyway, and I'm gonna have to force them to get this tonight." All right, well, that's not how it works. All right.
I'm gonna go down. We often use metrics of water and Spirit baptisms to tell our story of evangelism, but we must take a look at how well we are equipping people to evangelize. It is estimated that 85% of American churches have plateaued. Now, that's including all religious backgrounds. We need people to operate out of a worldview that has a deep sense of mission, meaning, and purpose. The evangelized must become the evangelizer. There's something about, when, in fact, they have statistics on this, that the first six months people are saved, they're more productive. Now, I'm not saying all to stay that way, but I'm telling you, that's kind of what's happened. The first six months people are saved, they bring, they bring more guests. They pray people more people through to the Holy Ghost because in their hearts, that that new refreshing, that change in their life that's happened. Um, once it's their glass. Are hearing Sister Glass? Sister and her parents right here. Where they at? Right here. Yeah. Janae, is she not here today? But Janae, she has she works a job, and she works with these people that have, hello, issues. Anybody, any of you folks work on jobs? Just curious. It's good thing. Have you worked with people that they don't know God? And my, what a collection of problems our world has. But Janae brings them to church, brings them to their church, brings them to church. And maybe the same people, but they, they need both. They need moisture. You know what I mean? They need more. All right. And, and the truth is, last week she was telling how when she went back, took him back home, and when they went to work, they started telling their friends, "Oh, we felt so good." That they haven't had that. I think people just pray for him. I don't even, I'm not even sure they prayed, but they were there in the presence of God. We take it so much for granted. My, what a change happened in our life. Anybody remember when Jesus first saved you? Did you get a little radical? Oh, how we need a refilling of radical. You know what I mean? That we need a refreshing of being a radical disciple, committed to following Jesus and bringing people into the, into the kingdom of God, whatever it takes. Soul-winning involves the activities of planting seeds, watering, and weeding, both before and after regeneration. Success is both what we do, and it is what God does. It's receiving life, and it's giving up one's life. We are called and commissioned to bring reconciliation between God and all the people of the world. Our objective is to see people follow Jesus exclusively, understanding God's involvement. And I put that terminology in there, exclusively, because it's, I see so many. I hope I'm, maybe I'm the only one, but I see so many. They follow Jesus, and you know that. I mean, he, it's, hello, don't lose you. You understand what I'm saying? It's like they, yes, to some degree, in their mind, at least, they're following Jesus, but they've got, maybe when I say this, you know, I hesitate only because I'm not against people working jobs and having careers, but when your career becomes more important than following Jesus, hello, you could figure that out, right? And, and I see people who even add things within there. They try to bring it right into the church. I mean, they'd rather go on vacation than go to church or Bible study or teach somebody or lead some. Hello. Now, he got real quiet on me. Our objective is to see people follow Jesus exclusively.
No, Adam, and also relationship. Redemption is all about relationship with God. It began as a desire in the heart of God and resulted in God's initiative on that desire. It's the work of the Holy Ghost to bring about regeneration and conversion. It's spiritual warfare, and the prize, the prize of the spiritual warfare are the souls of men. We're not just fighting the devil, the devil, for the sake of having a good atmosphere when we get together, although certainly that may be something that happens. That's not our objective. Our objective is that we are doing battle with the enemy to deliver people from the snare of the enemy, to rescue people from the darkness of the world. And on our own, we have no ability to win souls. We're not the soul winner. We are the conduit through which the Holy Ghost flows. The one who wins the souls is Jesus. Jesus is the winner of the souls. We are vessels that present ourselves to Him to be used by Him. You know, I know I referred to this earlier. Another song that I remember in those early days that they would sing was a song. You may or may not know it, but it's to be used of God, to speak, right, to sing, to speak, to pray, to be used of God. What to say, to show someone the way. It's not just random. I want to be used of God. I mean, I really could classify some things that I'm really trying to choose my words wisely that, listen, to be used of God is a matter of presenting ourselves as a vessel and allowing, allowing the Holy Ghost to flow through us and direct us our pathway to be chosen by God. I said this earlier, but it's, it's the key to be an effective soul winner. You must be led by the Spirit. You must be led by the Spirit. In the hour that we're living in, darkness and gross darkness is upon the people, but the people of God must allow God to give the direction. You are not your own. You don't belong to you. You belong to the one who paid the price. And the effectiveness is not, you know, I know I'll have people call me up and say, "How you do this?" And I'll be honest with you, all I know is if I get close to Jesus, Jesus does it. You, you understand what I'm saying? And somehow, out there, it's like people want to know, you know, a trick or so. That's not that. They want some kind of new revelation. I'll tell you the revelation I read this the other day in an old book. The revelation is, you got to die. You got to die. There is no, there is no option. You got to die to your will. You got to die to what you want to do on Sunday. You thought you could take a break, but God said, "No, I want you to stop down the street and pick up that person and bring them in the church," or "I want you to go across town on your lunch break and and tell somebody about." You've got to be sensitive enough to God to be, to allow Him to speak to you and use you. It's, it's not a, it's like it's not a job. You don't take a course. It's not like college. It's not 101, how to win a soul. All right, maybe it is. Die. Maybe that's 101. Just die to your will. You know, that shouldn't shock us. That wasn't new. If you have repented and been baptized and feel the Holy Ghost, that's not new teaching. You read it in your Bible. Jesus said, "Follow me, and I will make you." That's a, it's gonna be a process. I'm gonna mold you. I'm gonna talk to you. I'm gonna order your steps. I'm gonna exercise my divine will in your life. But you're gonna have to pick up your cross. You're gonna have to deny yourself. It don't work as when you try to live your life according to your flesh and have Jesus. It don't work. It won't work.
Now, we're talking about soul-winning because soul-winning really, it really is all about the Holy Ghost, not only in you, but flowing out of you. I remember one year, I was, it was, the times in best of Megan, her deal that year was, "Let Him out. Let Him out. He's in you, but you gotta let Him out." And I'm telling you, that is as, as simple as it sounds, that is a major key to soul-winning. You've got to let Jesus flow, not only to you, but through you. And if we will allow the Spirit to flow, the success is not ours. And, and the truth is, even among us, and this is like a thing, we have had what a measure of growth in D.C., but you can't call it successful. There's a, they say there's like two million people now that live inside the Beltway, and on a Sunday week, now, we might have about 300 in all of our works. That's not, you understand that? That's like, "Come on, come on. We got to do more." Now, you say, amen. Amen. And I don't think that's just us. Everywhere we are, whatever it is, on, on every day. I mentioned this earlier, her brother, Sister, um, talked about it. We are on assignment. You were born in this generation, like as a story from the book of Esther, right? Maybe this is your while you're in the kingdom, right? And he says, "Who knows whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" That's, I personally believe that's not really just a question. I think He was telling Esther, "This is why you're here. This is why you're the queen. This is why you're in the kingdom." And it may be all I say in this session today, but we need a revelation of why we're in the church. We're not in the church. Well, I don't know. Whatever responses we could give to that. Our sole purpose is as meaning and mission. It's the rescue of the lost souls of humanity. That's the meaning. That's the mission. That's our purpose. You won't find fulfillment. I mean, it's like, sometimes we've turned into, you know, it's like gifts, gifts or callings, and, and when I say this, I gotta clarify it, but it's not your talents. You know what I mean? We're not here to glorify our talents. We're here to glorify Jesus Christ. And it's call. You know, it's like, have you ever noticed around church sometimes there can be some miserable people? Well, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna tell you, the cure for being miserable, it is, however you do it, go witness to somebody. Go in the streets and find somebody to talk to. Hello. Make a friend and tell them about Jesus. It will, it will bring true fulfillment to your spiritual life. I've known people that could pray, and they prayed, but they never went out and did something with what they prayed. I'm talking about people I pastored, you know, they had to wake up one day and say, "God didn't just, this is not the end of it. I've got to, you got to put into action what you have been called to do in order to find fulfillment."
In John 16:8-11, "And when He has come, He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." This is the work of the Holy Ghost. This is what the Holy Ghost does in people's lives. Of sin, because they believe not on Me. Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and you see Me no more. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." In the Message Bible, it says it this way: "When He has come, He will expose the error of the godless world's view of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He'll show them that their refusal to believe in Me is their basic sin; that righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control; that judgment takes place as the ruler of this godless world is brought to trial and convicted."
The other day, I went back. I went to three or four different conferences last year with Merrill Cornwell. I mean, I went, I was speaking, he was teaching. I had the opportunity to be in his classes. I took notes. Let me tell you, that's the other thing. If you're gonna be a soul winner, you're gonna have to work at being better. It's like, I know this has been said today. We can get better at this. We can get better at this. If we must get better at this. And there were three things, and some of you may remember this if you've been in his sessions. One of the things he taught was the stories that are found in the book of Genesis. The Bible stories in the book of Genesis bring conviction. It has changed the way I teach the home Bible study because I'm going to tell you something. What will change a person's life, and we just heard this from Brother Sister, is conviction. The convicting power of God's Spirit. And when you teach, when you go through the main characters of the book of Genesis, right? Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, the Tower of Babel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and you tell those stories in depth, we need, they're not just old Sunday school stories. They are truths illustrated through the lives of people that bring conviction to the hearts of men and women. And then he said, the second thing he taught was that the first twelve chapters of the book of Exodus are about deliverance from bondage. And so I literally now, when I teach the Bible study, oftentimes we will verse by verse, word for word, read the entire 12 first twelve chapters of Exodus because I am convinced that even in our churches, wonderful people that we love, still have bondages in their life. We must have complete deliverance in order. The next thing that he brings out is worship. And worship involves the work of God. It involves not, I mean, you know, we think sometimes, well, I'm not sure what we think, but I get the idea that sometimes people think of worship is what we do when we come up front and dance and wave our hands. But I promise you, a good study will reveal to you, worship is much deeper than that. Worship involves adoration. Worship involves the selling out of yourself to God. It's the part where I talked earlier about sacrifice. That's where sacrifice is found in our worship. It's where we lay down our lives for the cause of the gospel. It's called worship. And so, the other thing, the other key that I found to use is that he reviews every lesson. If you have watched any of his videos, he goes all the way back to Genesis 1. He reviews every lesson with the people. And I'm telling you, it's made such a difference, at least in my viewpoint of the people that I teach Bible studies to. When I go back and I have now, I have like two or three pages of questions as I review. He has it to memory. I don't have it to memory yet, but we're working on it. That people need this Word of God. I have one young man I'm teaching now. He really gets into the fact when I asked these questions, how many of them he can answer. And we're on the third page of questions, and every week he said, "Come on, come on, ask me again." And, and literally, what God is doing is delivering him from alcoholism through the power of the Word. It works. It works. And then one last thing on that first session, I think, Jesus, you have to be convinced this. And again, it seems like I'm repeating some of this stuff from Brother Sister, but you must be born again. Things of the Spirit come by the way of the Spirit. Understanding of the things of God come only by the Spirit. So you must be born again. Paul said it, "Old things are passed away, behold all things become new."
So the last bit that I'm gonna, I want to talk about divine encounters. How God, I, I talked about assignments, but there's also, there's also encounters that God will bring into your life. I've had, and I've mentioned some of this, I think at other times, maybe even last year, that I had a series of months where I would be flying somewhere and get on the plane. And I was, the first story I'll tell you is about a little Japanese girl. Who actually, I'm standing in line at the airport in New York City, and this little girl, little Asian girl, just walked up, and she was just looking at me. And I mentioned earlier, being sensitive to the Spirit, you've got it. It's not just listening, it's looking. You got to see into the eyes of people. The eye is the light of the soul. And you've got to look into the eyes of people. And that little girl was just looking at me, and I knew I was really tired, and I didn't want to talk. So I said, "Hello, okay, goodbye." And, and then I got on the plane. And they, it was, I already had my seat assignment. They seated me. I went and sat in the back of the plane. I had my book with me. I was gonna read, and I had some snacks, and I was gonna relax. I'm sitting over next to the window. The plane filled up. The seat, the middle seat was empty next to me. I was thankful for that. They shut the door. The flight was getting ready to take off. They opened the door back up, and down the aisle came the little Asian girl. And the only empty seat was next to me on the plane. And so right away, I'm gonna just kind of turn my shoulder so I don't get involved in a conversation. And she said, "Sir, sir." I said, "Yes?" She said, "Where do you live?" I said, "Washington D.C." She said, "What do you do?" That's Obama. I'm a pastor. She said, "What's a pastor?" And I knew, I knew, okay, this is it. God's doing something here. And, you know, here's the thing. I may not know the end of these stories. I don't know. But listen, you, you can't nullify it just because you get no. You understand? Sometimes we do it when we know we're gonna get something out of it. But sometimes you're not gonna get. Jesus is the only one that really knows what's gonna happen in that little girl's life. But so, I, I said, "Well, how do I explain to this little girl what a pastor does?" So I took my phone out, and I began to show her pictures. I showed her pictures. I showed her pictures from church. I showed her pictures from my home, my family. And in the middle of it, I looked over, and tears were just streaming down her face. I said, "Honey, what's the matter?" She said, "All of those people." I said, "Yeah." She said, "And all those people, they were smiling. I have never seen happy people before." I said, "Can I pray for you?" She said, "Who are you gonna pray to?" I said, "I'm gonna pray to the God." She said, "I didn't even know there was a God." Listen, this is our world. This is where we've arrived. I began to pray. There were people on that plane. I don't even know them. They probably didn't even believe what I believe, but they were listening to that conversation, and they slipped out of their chairs and came over, and we had a prayer meeting right there on the plane. Don't let the enemy lie to you. Our world is starving for what we have. Our world is hungry for what we have. I went on my trip. What that little girl's name is Nina. She lives in Japan. Every once in a while, she'll send me an email. She'll say something like, "Pastor Jerry, I prayed today." Which, you know, you said, "Well, that's for us." Maybe not. But for a little girl who didn't even know there was a God, oh, that's it. That's a big deal. Can you feel that? God is right now talking to us about our world. I get there. That little girl, she goes her way. I go anyway to the services to where I ministered. And then I'm coming, got to come back home. I'm at the airport. I'm standing in line. And a lady, I promise you, a lady walks over, and she's standing next to me, just looking at me. And I said, "Not again, God." She said, "She," I forget now, just chat words, right? But I get on the plane. And I promise you, I go back, I sit in my seat. It's empty, right? Yep. They shut the door again. They opened the door again. And down the aisle comes that same lady. And she sits next to me. And this time, I say, "You know what? I'm not gonna. I'm getting uncut right through the chase." So I said to this lady, I said, "I'm so glad you're here today." She said, "What?" I said, "You're my next assignment." She said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, let me ask you, is your life broken? Are you hurting?" Tears just start pouring down her face. She said, "My third husband just left me. I don't think anybody loves me. I don't think my life matters at all." I said, "That's why I'm here today, because I'm here to tell you there is a God, and He loves you, and He knew you was going to be on this plane today. He made you my assignment." It's our world, and it's an exciting time. But you have to believe that, and you have to accept that, and, and you've got to look at it with a positive perspective, a worldview that, my, can you imagine the harvest that's about to happen? I'm gonna kind of wrap it up with this, but can you imagine the harvest it's about to happen? You know, somebody got to talk to you about it. Somebody got to convince you. They are going to come. This is Bible. They're gonna come from the north and the south and the east and the west. They're gonna come from every tribe and every tongue. They're gonna come from every culture. And the end of His kingdom, He said, "The increase of it will not end." They're going to come from every language, every tribe, and they're going to come drawn by the Spirit. That I'm going to tell you, the people of God have got to believe it. When they begin to walk through the doors, your attitude, your spirit, your acceptance, your faith, your belief will make the difference in whether they receive or they reject. You see, God is at work already. He's not just working. Do you hate it? He's not gonna wake up tomorrow, you know, and go to work. He's been working. He's working for before we arrived here today. You see these people's lives that are, I mean, there are several of them that I could tell you.
And just a few things I want to mention. Responsibilities that we have been given by God. Number one is sowing the seed. And I really, some of that Brother Sister onk talked about, but sowing the seed. Listen, what Paul says in 1st Corinthians, he said, "To those that are without the law, as without the law, has not not being without the law toward God, but under law toward Christ, that I might win those who are without the law." "To the weak, I became as we." You know what he is saying? Don't think yourself better than others. Don't, don't. Yes, Jesus is in us, but where would we be if it wasn't for Jesus? The King James version, the Message Bible of that text says, "Even though I am free from the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people. Religious, non-religious, meticulous, more or less loose living, immoralist, the defeated, the demoralized. Whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ, but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those that I meet into a God-saved life. I did all of this because of the message. I didn't just want to talk about it, I wanted to be a part of it." All things to all men. Our role. We have this responsibility of understanding our role. Where we are, young and old, every culture. Now, that may not, some to some here today, that may not seem like a big thing, but it's a huge thing. Oh, all the cultures. All the cultures. We, I think of, you know, like to my knowledge, we really have not made any impact, at least where we're at, on the Korean culture. And we haven't made any impact on the Vietnamese culture. And, hello, it might make sense to you. And you know what I found out? I looked it up. There are more than 600,000 Asian people that live in D.C. 600,000. But if we took the numbers, just even the scattered numbers of all that are in our churches, I promise you, it might be five or six. We're, I'm trying to give us an understanding. We have been presented with this opportunity. You know, you're gonna have to go the extra mile to be a friend. You're gonna have, you're being asked by Jesus to become a friend of somebody that don't look like you, don't talk like you, don't like food you like. You're gonna have to like it. Hello. And if you don't, you're gonna have to learn to. And you're gonna have to become a friend. You're gonna have to build a relationship. Would it be incredible to have a church of a thousand Chinese? That should be more than a dream. That should be a recognition. This is possible. This could happen in our city. A church of a thousand Vietnamese. My, that could happen in our city. Somebody has to have hope for things like that to take place. And we're gonna have to have preachers from all of those cultures. Hello. Yeah. So we got to see them come in, and then we got to train them, develop them, and turn them loose, right? Hello. Help guide them, but they're gonna preach the gospel.
So here are some, there are laws of the harvest. I dare say that most everyone in here today knows that many of the laws of the harvest. It's a law. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And I know it probably is talking about somebody's life, how they live their life, but I'm telling you, the positive side of it is the law. The Word is the life. And if you, if you will become a sower of the seed of life, God is not mocked. There will be a harvest. That's got to get in us so that everywhere we go, every place we are, everyone we meet, we are there to share with them, to give to them a word of life. And 2 Corinthians 9:6, "But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." Now, I know, like, there's a whole process, but for us in D.C., in the last 12 years, we have, we've had street services, and we've had seasons where we'll go, some, not near as much as we need to, but we'll go out to train stations and hand out bottles of water that got, you know, have labels on it to the church, and we'll hand out invitation cards. And somebody said, "Well, I don't know. I don't think that's real successful." Well, I remember when we were handing out invitation cards down on 16th Street, right at the corner of 16th Street and Columbia Road, and we had, we're having street services. And in that, and this time, we have distributed over 150,000 invitations. And I know it's so, but the reason was not to impress people. The reason was because I read that scripture, "If you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly, but if you sow abundantly, you'll reap abundantly." And I believe what the Word says. So we have done this. And I know, I know last year, and of course, this includes people, even people from out of town, but we had over 750 first-time guests last year. Yeah. Last Sunday, we had 16 first-time guests. All, I think, under the age of 25. Amazing what God is doing. People are hungry. Somehow, I think that has to become a charge in our spirit. So we were out there one day passing out cards, and this guy came by. He got a card. I found this later. He got a card. He had a messed-up life, and he knew he needed Jesus, and he came, and he gave his life to Jesus. He's still with us today. But he told this story how he was standing there, and somebody passing by, they scoffed at it, and made fun of it, right? I got in arguments with people about it. One guy told me the tree was his god, whatever. You know. And he yelled at me, "You go to hell." And I yelled back, "Go there yourself." Nope. I didn't say that was right, but that I've just kind of got me. So anyway, you pray for me. I'm still working on it. But the guy that, hello, y'all still with me. But the guy that came and is still with us, he's watching. And another man passed by, got a card, and he was making fun of it, and they threw it in the trash. And this guy said, "Oh, my friend, my friend is in bad shape." And he went over and took that card out of the trash and took it to his friend, and his friend, and God that repented, got baptized, received the Holy Ghost, out of a card that was thrown in the trash can. You know what it is? I don't know. I'm not telling you that's the answer to all things, but I'm telling you, by all means, save some. Do whatever you can do. I had a list of things in my life that, that I, in my ministry, that I've done. Man, we did one time, I wanted this pastor willing to help him build this church. We were so young. And he said, "What do I do?" I said, "Buy a bus." He bought a bus. And then I, his wife said, "Make me a clown outfit." Hello. Now, that was many years ago. I dressed up like a clown, went into the projects, threw out handfuls of candy, and the next day we had 65 kids on that Sunday school bus. And that was great. But the next, in that wimp, because there was a very small church, not only did we bring 65 kids to church, we then took him in, and my wife and I were the only Sunday school teachers. So she taught the younger ones, and I taught the ones were like 9 and up. And in that room were six little kids that come from Catholic families. And I, all I knew was to tell them about salvation, how Jesus died for them. And two little twin girls raised their hands. I prayed for them, and they received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. That little brother received the Holy Ghost. Took him home. I went up to the door and asked the parents because I said, "The girls said they want to get baptized." So I said, "The parents, Carol and Connie, and Richard, they want to get baptized." And the mother said, "You'll have to ask Larry, but we're not talking. We're having a fight." I said, "Where is he?" She said, "In the other room." I went in, I just opened the door and went in. I said, "Larry, the kids want to get baptized." He said, "You'll have to ask her. We're not talking." The three little kids were sitting on the couch watching this all happen. So I said, "Come here, girls. Come here. Larry, we're gonna, we're gonna pray. Come here." I said, "Larry, Theresa, come here. You got to take authority." I said, "Come here." We all held hands. To begin to pray. Those little girls were crying. They were speaking with tongues. Nine years old. First time ever in a church. I looked up. Larry, weep, the father, his weeping, speaking with other tongues. The mother, she is weeping, speaking with other tongues. We went back over to the church and baptized the whole family in the name of Jesus. You say it won't work? I don't know. I don't know. All I know is anything tried. That's a little radical. Yeah. Try anything because Paul said, "By all means, save some." Save some. You know, their little boy, Larry, he's a preacher today. Pastors a church. Hello. You don't see that stuff happening when they're seven years old, but oh, as the time passes and you watch God work, you never know what's going to happen in the fruit of that life. And, and giveaways. We give away. We give away bikes. I know one guy gave away cars. I don't do that. I don't have the money to buy cars to give away. You said, "Would you do it again?" I would. I would. Well, it got too quiet. If you don't want to, you don't have to. But I believe by all means, save some. If I can get him there, get a Bible study in their home, if whatever I got to do. One time, we have one young man in the church. I know this is sounding really crazy, but he said, "Pastor, I told all the kids if they will bring all their friends next weekend." Oh, my. There was like 150 kids that came. And he took a whole bowl of goldfish and ate it. Said, "That's crazy." I know. I know. I know. I know. But I'm telling you, I'm telling you, it's gonna take become an extreme to make the difference in our world. However you do that. All right. Small group ministry, street evangelism, block parties, nursing homes, hospital ministry, all nations Sunday. How many of you haven't anyway? I'll leave that alone. All Nations Sunday is a prime time. Get all the people of the nations of your assembly to bring food and invite people to come and eat with your people. Love food. Hello. Prison ministry, home Bible studies, crusades. North Carolina, last two years ago, they did on the same day across the state of North Carolina. They did 25 crusades, and out of those crusades, they started more than 20 churches in that state on one day. Daughter works, church plants, college campuses, high schools, restaurants, and my favorite is Starbucks. Hello. And the truth is, everyone, everyone. Would you just look at your neighbor? Because I really am gonna wrap this up. Everyone, everyone has to go. This is the go conference. Go, go, go, go with faith. Go believing. Go with a positive outlook that the Lord is going to bring someone across your pathway, and you're gonna just maybe even simply say, "Jesus loves you," but it's going to make a difference. No language barrier must stop us. No color barrier must stop us. No age barrier. No sin. No sin. Is this grace greater than all sin? Communication and connecting are at the heart of personal evangelism. Communication. Listen and look. Be intentional. You gotta say, "I'm on a mission." Awareness. Have buying signs. Recognize the binds. You're teaching a Bible study, and somebody starts crying. You know, you don't go, "Hold that till I get done." And the answer is, can we pray? Pray, pray. Would you stand with me? I think Brother Sister touched really on this, and just build relationships. We're in this for the long haul. In a long-term, eternal, long-term, not short-term, not just a number, not just a rapport somewhere. We had ten or five or whatever. No, no, no, no. This is about adding souls to the kingdom. Amen. Would you raise your hands and let's praise Jesus? And I'm going to turn this over to our good brother here. We love you, Jesus. We praise you. Thank you for the work of the kingdom. Let Your blessings be upon us. In Jesus' name. In Jesus.