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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/russell-nesbit/winning-welcoming-weeping-for-souls/
Proverbs chapter 11. Proverbs chapter 11, verse number 30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. Proverbs chapter 25. Proverbs chapter 25 in verse 25. As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
And lastly, Psalm 126. Psalm 126, verse number 6. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. We're the treasure in the field.
We're the pearl of great price. We're the distinct company gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes ministry is directed to the young. Sometimes it's directed to the sisters. Sometimes it's directed to the elders.
My few wee thoughts this morning are directed to the believers at Blue River. And if most of them are out making dinner, why those of you that are in here will have to share it with them. The believers at Blue River and the believers at Marion.
There's a few of you here starting meetings tomorrow night. We have winning souls, welcoming souls, and weeping for souls. He that winneth souls is wise. There's three things I'd like to share about winning.
Compassion, cooking, and communicating. Be compassionate, build relationships, be separate, but build relationships in your community. And I know that Blue River is a little town, and Marion's a big town, and so therefore the geography of it is entirely different.
In Blue River, probably everybody knows everybody. Therefore, be aware of the hurting people. And there's a lot of hurting people. Send them a card in a time of grief. Send them a card in a time of sickness.
Give them a call on the telephone. Build relationships. The story is told, and it's now sung in a southern gospel song. Somebody put it to music of a gentleman that was a businessman, and he was coming through Chicago on his way home for the weekend through the busy airport.
What is it? O 'Hare Airport in Chicago. And he's going from one plane to the other, and he's rushing through the terminal because he wants to catch the plane to get home to see his family. And he comes around a corner, and in his rush with his bag, he knocks over a fruit stand.
And he just pulls his bag in and keeps going, rushing down through the terminal, and suddenly looked back and saw that the fruit stand had tipped over, and the apples and the fruit were rolling around on the floor.
And he noticed that there was a girl on the floor trying to retrieve what it was, and she was blind. And his conscience immediately struck him and got hold of him, and he knew he was going to miss his plane.
But he turned around, and he went back, and he got down on his knees, and he helped her pick up the fruit. And that which was bruised because of the fall, he put it in a separate container. I think he gave her $40 for the fruit that was damaged.
And as he went to leave, she went to give him a hug, and she whispered in his ear, are you Jesus? Ladies and gentlemen, we are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. We represent Jesus Christ, and our purpose is to win souls to Christ.
And therefore, be compassionate to a world that's filled with sin and with hurt and with darkness and with confusion. Be compassionate. To the sisters, I think in Romans chapter 16, when Paul writes to the church at Rome, he mentions Phoebe, he mentions Priscilla, he mentions Trithena, Trifulsus, he mentions Mary, and there might be a couple others that he mentions, and what's he say?
They labored much in the Lord. I don't know if they cooked. I don't know if they sowed. I don't know if they visited. I don't know what they did, but they labored much in the Lord. Sisters, we as brothers are indebted to you.
There's things that you can do for the Lord that the brothers can't do. In your own sphere of living in your neighborhood, of being compassionate, of reaching out, send over some cookies. Send over some Bob Surgeoner's homemade bread.
Send over something that is an expression of your concern when others are in need. For those of you that have little children, when the neighborhood children come to your house, give them plenty to eat.
Make them feel welcome there and be sure that they know and they hear the message of Jesus. Winning souls, communicate. The highest example probably is the Lord Jesus himself. He's the highest example of being compassionate.
Touch the leper, heal the leper, heal the sick, raise the dead, so on. He's the highest example of being the cook. 5 ,000, he saw that they were hungry and had no food to eat and he fed the 5 ,000. Or whether it was the disciples when they fished all night and caught nothing when they came to shore, why the fish and the bread were ready to eat.
The Lord Jesus was the greatest communicator and the example of that would be in John chapter 4 with the woman at the well. He was able to articulate to her and get into a conversation with her that drew her out in which he was able to communicate himself.
And therefore, as we live seeking to win souls, and one of the greatest avenues that we found amongst the assemblies of winning souls is getting them under the sound of the gospel and preaching the gospel because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
So therefore, hopefully in Blue River and Marion, the above, the relationships have been built and in the meetings that are beginning, you will be able to invite someone to the meeting and they will feel indebted to you.
You will keep ashes upon their warm ashes upon their head and they will feel indebted to come and they will come and hear the gospel of the grace of God. I just have to tell you this, when years ago we had a neighbor, he was an intimidating fellow.
He was about six foot four. And he was, you know, just an intimidating fellow. But I really, I really wanted to invite him to some meetings that we were having. So I went over there one Sunday afternoon and I said, Barbara, pray for me, here I go.
And I went and he was home on the way, I was probably praying that he wouldn't be home, but he was home, got there, met him out in the yard. And I said to him, Conrad, you wouldn't want to go along to a gospel meeting tonight with me, would you?
And he said to me, Russell, even if I wanted to go, I wouldn't go just because of the way you asked me. Just the way you asked me, you indicated that you believe that I wouldn't go even though you asked me.
Well, it was the truth. I didn't think he'd go. But anyway, I learned from that, from a little lesson from Conrad. And by the way, Conrad later came to know Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and thank God for saving him.
But I learned from that, be positive. We have got, and that comes to my next one, cold waters for a thirsty soul. We've got what the world needs and that is Jesus. And we radiate that in our lives and we radiate that in our meetings, don't we?
And so therefore, welcoming souls, three things on winning them, three things on welcoming them. The singing, the smiling, and the seating. That's right, we don't have a band that plays and we don't have a large organ in the corner, but we sing.
So brothers and sisters, sing heartily. Sing like we mean it. Sing us to the Lord. Sing the gospel of the grace of God. We have wonderful songs in our hymn book and we have wonderful gospel songs that convey the message of salvation.
Sing it with your heart. Have a song leader and let him lead it. You know, Joel's starting them today and that's good. We need a brother with a good voice that can get this place in unison together. We need a leader and we need it.
You know, the meetings are smaller probably in the gospel meetings, but there needs to be somebody to get it going and sing it like we mean it because it's a message of salvation. And then there's the smiles.
Don't sit and stare. I know it's unusual to get a visitor in, but don't turn around and stare at them. If you do turn around and stare at them, smile because we're happy people, aren't we? Therefore, let it radiate from our face that the joy of the Lord is our strength.
And then what was it? I forgot mine. Oh, the seating. This is the touchy one. Bring your children to meeting. The little ones. But grandma and grandpa don't sit in the back. You're supposed to sit in front.
Let the little children be in the back. And if you get a stranger, a visitor to come, the most likely people that are going to visit are ladies. They come easier than men normally. And the chances are they're going to come in uncovered because they are not used to gospel hall.
So therefore, they're going to be embarrassed. Don't embarrass them more by making them sit in the front row or the second row. The brother at the door, have a smile and a hearty handshake and glad to see you.
And don't stand at the back and say there's a row up there to sit down. Be an usher. Take them up there. Make them welcome. We want them to be there. We want them to come back and they're going to be uncomfortable.
The only thing that they're going to remember is probably that the place is plain and they have a whole bunch of verses around the wall. But the first impression is the lasting impression. And we want them to make sure that we've got something that they need and they want to come back.
And then really what motivated me to get up with this little word this morning is the prayer request that Jim read. Weeping for souls. And I think there were five names that he mentioned. I think it was David and Leroy and John and Joseph and Jacob, I think.
And if I missed it, I missed it. As a group of believers, here we are today and we need to bombard heaven. You know, I wanted to get up and pray, but I don't know why I didn't. I was scared. I was nervous.
I prayed at Manchester and I forgot half the prayer requests and that made me feel ashamed. And so the first thought was, you don't want to do that again because here somebody turns in a prayer request and then you get up and pray and forget who the prayer request was for.
So I didn't want to do that this morning. And yet I thought, man, we not need to be praying. Some of these men he mentioned are elderly and some are young. We're going to the hereafter. We're in eternity.
We're in time and eternity, but we're going to the hereafter where there's no more time. Do we realize it's heaven or it's hell? And people that do not get saved, they go to hell. There's people in hell.
There's people that we've lived with, and they're, as far as we know, they're lost and they're lost forever. We need to bombard heaven with prayer. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 17, I think it is, these kind came not out, but by not without much prayer and fasting.
How much are we willing to sacrifice in our personal lives? If prayer would encompass us, if we could get involved in reaching souls, I think we would eat it, we would sleep it, we would think it, we would talk it, and the whole compass of our life would be reaching others, winning souls, welcoming souls, but weeping for souls.
There's the promise. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, we've got it, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. I'm expecting to hear from Marian of some of those young men being saved in the gospel meetings that are beginning tomorrow night, and we have heard recently of one or two being saved at Blue River before the meetings even began, and I'm looking for an email or a call, Jim.
Trust that those five men and others will be saved in the meetings, saved for eternity through Jesus' blood in the meetings that are about to begin.