Paul's Soulwinning Manual

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  I Thessalonians 2Pauls’ Soulwinning Manual by Don Giddens  My father’s  WW II “U. S. Army Manual” was fascinating reading for me when I was a child. The tattered pages proved it had been read over and over, memorized, and thus assurededly put into practice on the fields of Germany. Is there a soulwinning manual still in existence that was used by missionary Paul?Sure, it’s in I Thessalonians chapter I Thessalonians chapter 2. This is Paul’s Manual for Soulwinning [1][1] I Thessalonians chapter 2.   1.        1.        For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain: That is telling us it worked! But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, That is telling us it was not easy! 2.        2.        So, the two things we know about this manual are- it works but it’s not easy. Pauls’ Soulwinning Manual Effective 2004I Thessalonians 2 1.      1.      Soulwinning demands that we be bold!Verse 2 We were bold in our God  to speak unto you the gospel of God. We have to open up our mouth and tell others about Jesus. Paul called it “utterance”. God help me open my mouth and talk so I can win souls. Wal-Mart’s promise is that if a customer gets within ten feet of an employee they are to say, “Good morning, may I help you?” Rather than blame their employees for not doing their job,  I think about MY orders (to go into ALL the world and preach the Gospel to EVERY creature) and am stricken with a feeling of guilt when I callously miss opportunities to witness to those who are within ten feet of me. Pray for me that I will make that effective also for my Commander-in-Chief. When anyone comes within ten feet of me I will witness to them!2.      2.      Soulwinning demands that we give the Gospel! 3.      3.      Soulwinning demands that we share the Gospel. No matter what we use as openings nothing will happen to save a soul other than our sharing of the death, burial and resurrection of our Saviour. Giving the Gospel is not easy but it works. When my wife, Minnie, and I were soulwinning door-to-door in the Salt Lake City area her job was to keep me from jumping off the porch and retreating before I gave the plan of salvation. Sure, it’s much easier to take a poll or talk about the “Jazz” but sharing the Gospel is guaranteed to work, but it’s not easy. We had eighty Mormons receive Jesus including two bishops in about six months. 4.      4.      Soulwinning calls for contending or standing up for the faith! verse two …..with much contention. This is not relationship, friendship, or life-style evangelism but confrontational evangelism- the hardest but only effective kind. Confrontational evangelism includes all the other types however. When Jesus met the woman at the well, He met her as a Friend though a Stranger (friendship), the Holy One seeking sinners (lifestyle), and a Jew sharing with a Samaritan (confrontational). All of this occurred in a matter of minutes. [2][2]Confrontational evangelism is a STRUGGLE (Greek-agone- “agony”) to WIN a contest. Within a matter of minutes the struggle to snatch a soul out of the burning is over. You only win when you win a soul to the Lord. You lose when he walks away LOST. In Idaho Falls, I was waiting in the lobby of a “Quick Oil change” business. A young man  was also waiting in the lobby.  After I asked what his occupation was and learned he was a fireman, he asked me my occupation. I replied, “I’m a fireman also. I’m a fireman around the world” He asked, “How’s that?” I said, “I snatch them out of the burning.” That really peaked his curiosity, “How do you do that?” he asked. So, in a matter of minutes I took him to the cross and the resurrection, and he was joyfully saved[3][3] When we wrestle with a soul we are literally “snatching them out of the burning” . That’s our business, our only business.[4][4]  5.      5.      Soulwinning should be straightforward and to the point.  3.  For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile. First 3.  For our exhortation was not of deceit (planay) It did not stray from orthodoxy. It was doctrinally sound. Paul, Jesus, and John the Baptist all preached the same message, “Repent and believe the Gospel”. Secondly, it was not of uncleanness (impure- or in this case mixed with error). The doctrine of salvation by grace was not mixed with error. Thirdly, nor of guile-  (dello- decoy). We do not “trick” them into being saved as enemies of soulwinning attest. When you go duck-hunting you use a decoy (guile), but when you go soulwinning you get straight to the Cross. Inviting them to church might be a decoy; talking about the Jazz might be a decoy; talking about the weather might, but talking about the Cross is the real point not to be forgotten. 6.      6.      Soulwinning is a sacred trust. 4.  But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. We of all people have the authority to preach the Gospel. The manual states it implicitly. The Commission is emphatic. Go and preach the Gospel.. No one on earth has a higher Commission nor a more urgent mission. What a blessing- that God would allow us to preach the Gospel, and that He would trust us with the most important job in the world.7.      7.      Soulwinning pleases God, not men. Verse four not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. The ungodly vermin of jealousy will attack you from all quarters when you are a soulwinner. You may be a victim of “friendly fire”. Nothing is more deadly than “friendly fire”. It may come from your family, your church, your association, or even the state convention or all of the above. That’s nothing new; Paul experienced the same from “so-called brethren.[5][5] David experienced jealousy when he defeated  ten thousand  to a thousand for King Saul. Anytime you win ten to one you gain automatic enemies. A Baptist church that  has ten thousand baptized each year is totally ignored by the religious press. [6][6] However, soulwinning pleases God! Remember we are not in this battle to please people, but to please God. Remember we are not in this battle to please people, but to please God. Remember we are not in this battle to please people, but to please God. 8.      8.      Paul does not recommend flattery. 5.  For neither at any time were we found using words of flattery, as ye know. We cannot flatter someone by telling them how good they are and expect them to be saved. We have to tell the truth about their soul. Once (in my younger days)  I was trying to tell an elderly man how to be saved, but his wife kept interrupting, “But he’s a good man. There’s not a better man than he.” I told her to go into the living room, so I could tell him how to be saved. She went into the living room. I told him how to be saved, and he accepted Christ. People have to be confronted with the fact that they are sinners, not flattered.9.      9.      Soulwinners are not to leave the impression that they are after the money. verse 5  nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness. This is a “labor of love.” ; God pays His laborers. Thus, we are not interested in selling religious books door-to-door as some. What we have we give away because salvation is free. We should not brag on a groups’ outreach if their main goal is to sell religious books.10.  10.  We do not win souls to receive praise of men. 6.  Nor of men sought we glory. Waiting to be recognized by men will totally derail your soulwinning. We do not have a stadium of people down here cheering our every move. That’s in Heaven. We are not “playing on home field”. So, when we win a soul we hear the jeers of the crowd, and not the cheers. Keep on winning souls anyway. 11.  11.  We are not the authors of the message; we are the messengers verse 5 we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ. Although we have the authority of Christ we are not the authorities. God will use some poor sinner saved by grace before he will use an authority on soulwinning. Did any of the apostles win their whole town to the Lord? The Samaritan woman did. God will use anyone who is willing to be used. He does not call the qualified, but he does qualify the called. “Follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men”, said Jesus.12.  12.  Soulwinners must be humble or gentle rather than authoritative. 7.  But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: We should leave the impression that we are also sinners saved by grace. We are not trying to lift up people to our level, but to lift them up to Christ. We are all the same at the foot of the Old Rugged Cross. Paul said I am become all things to all men that I might win them to Christ. A Navajo was hitchhiking in Utah. When I picked him up I asked him if he were a chief. He said, yes. I told him I was a chief also- the chief of sinners. Then he accepted the Lord. 13.  13.  Soulwinners must love people. 8.  So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. When they brought the woman caught in adultery, Jesus offered her forgiveness; when He saw the widow of Nain weeping for her only son, He healed him because of her tears; when He picked up the children and told the disciples “Let little children come to me!”, He showed us that salvation is not only forgiveness of sins, but also love and acceptance. True love for souls continues after they are saved. 14.  14.  Soulwinning is not for lazy people. I read with amazement the story of a distant relative of mine, Finis Ewing, who helped start the Cumberland Presbyterians. Finis Ewing was a circuit-riding preacher who was gone for a year at a time, traveling on horseback to spread the Gospel from town to town in Tennessee. They said he was “destitute”. Such men  leave us with no excuse for laziness.[7][7] 9.  For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Surely a major reason so many churches are plateaued is because we preachers are too LAZY.  In Paul’s soulwinning manual there was no hint of laziness, but a candid description of a man who worked tirelessly day and night to win souls. 15.  15.  The soulwinner must live a holy life! 10.  Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:16.  16.  The soulwinner should encourage new believers to live a holy life! 11.  As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,  12.  That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.17.  17.  The soulwinner should let the people know he prays for them! 13.  For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.18.  18.  The soulwinner should let the new believers know that he believes they are saved! 13. the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.19.  19.  The new believer should be encouraged to be a member of a local New Testament Baptist church.  14.  For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus.20.  20.  The soulwinner should especially encourage new Christians when they encounter new hostilities from friends, family, work, and even their previous religion. 14. for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:21.  21.  New believers should be encouraged by follow-up visits from the soulwinner years later. They should be told they have been missed, and prayed for all those years. 17. I endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.22.  22.  The soulwinner should never cease to believe in, pray for, encourage, and contact people who have been saved under his ministry. 19.  For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? 20.  For ye are our glory and joy.  
 

[1][1] Holy Spirit-authored! Can I call it Extreme Soulwinning? It is the very best of the very best. I know a Baptist church that baptizes 10,000 a year. I know teenagers who win 500 a year to the Lord. I call that Extreme Soulwinning. We have never heard of them  because we are never notified in any of our anointed national magazines about any Baptists but our SBC anointed Baptists. They never mention other [1][1]Baptists who ARE doinpan>Extreme soulwinning without their new programs

 

[2][2] Jesus certainly witnessed to anyone who came without ten feet of Him. But, He went out of His way to meet sinners. Was that not His only business and our’s?   

1.       1.      [3][3] . I would have to say that his was the most JOYFUL experience of salvation I have ever seen.

[4][4] Some say they do not like to use the Gospel as a fire-escape from Hell, but Jesus certainly did in John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoevr believeth in Him SHOULD NOT PERISH! Jesus is the ONLY fire-escape from Hell.

2.       2.      [5][5] I was so blessed when I was in Utah to have a Director of Missions ( John Robert McClung) who believed in soulwinning, and persevered  in my behalf to keep me on the field.

[6][6] Longview Baptist Temple, Longview, Texas, Dr. Bob Gray, Pastor.

[7][7] Ewing even made it to Annual Meetings when he had to travel for a month to get there. By the way, he had sixteen children. Was that why he was gone all the time? Or did he just love souls more?

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