Lead Me to Some Soul Today

Isa. 55:8,9

Introduction:

1. Living churches have parking problems; Dying churches don’t.

2. Living churches have lots of noisy activities; Dying churches are as peaceful as a tomb.

3. Living churches have the annoying habit of often outspending their budgets; Dying churches take in more money than they ever dream of spending.

4. Living churches are always looking toward the future for ways to serve; Dying churches are all to happy to glory in their past.

5. Living churches seem to change so frequently, you can forget a lot of names; Dying churches are where everyone has known everybody’s name for years.

6. Living churches dream great dreams for the Lord; Dying churches are content to relive old memories.

7. Living churches won’t find the word “can’t” in their dictionary; Dying churches won’t find much else.

8. Living churches evangelize; Dying churches fossilize!

9. Raymond Kelcy: “It is better to wake up 500 Christians than to convert 500 sinners, for if 500 Christians really wake up, they will win more than 500 sinners.”

10. We used to sing campaign songs that urged us in our evangelism. One song was “Lead Me to Some Soul Today”

I. Lead Me to Some “Soul” Today

1. Have you ever considered that word “soul?”

a. sometimes the word “soul” speaks of a whole person (Acts 2:41; 1 Pet. 3:20)

b. sometimes the word “soul” speaks of the life-force (Matt 16:25) "For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.

c. but here we are concerned with that part of us that lives on after death

Matt. 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

^{MT 16:26} "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

1 Pet. 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.

2. Every person you know, every person you love, every person in your life has a soul. That soul will live beyond this life and will enter in the next one, blessed or accursed.

3. Your most precious possession is your soul. You can lose your eyes, hands, feet; but you never want to lose your soul.

4. Illustration:

Clarence Darrow was an outstanding American criminal lawyer. Born in Ohio in 1857, he died in 1938. Perhaps Darrow’s most famous case was the John T. Scopes “Monkey Trial” in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. Defending the right to teach evolution in the Tennessee public schools, Darrow was opposed by William Jennings Bryan.

Darrow lived to be nearly eighty-one, but in his seventy-eighth year and near the end of his days, Darrow wrote: “All my life I have been seeking proof of God, something I could put my finger on and say, ‘This is fact.’ But my doubts are at rest. I know that such fact does not exist. When I die, as I shall soon, my body will decay, my mind will decay and my intellect will be gone. My soul? There is no such thing.”

Darrow will be surprised. So will many when they have to face God.

II. Lead “Me” to Some Soul Today

1. There is something here for “ME” to do! We cannot afford the attitude of “Let someone else do it.” There is no one else.

2. Sometime is not on the calendar; someone is not in the phonebook

3. We have lost some really needed qualities:

a. Urgency—a sense of now is the time; people are lost without Jesus (2 Cor. 6:1,2)

b. Passion—a deep love for people (Rom. 10:1) “Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.”

c. Zeal—Rom. 12:11 “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”

4. Rom. 1:14-16 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

a. I am obligated

b. I am eager

c. I am not ashamed

5. There is no soul-winning without people. Every person saved heard the gospel from someone else; somebody was involved.

6. Jesus was a soul-winner more than anything else! He loved people and wanted to live with them eternally.

7. Ultimately you must decide whether you are going to be involved or not; whether you will touch a soul or not; whether evangelism is important to you or not.

a. many of you can be soul-winners if you want to

b. but you have to try, you have to decide it’s important

c. you have to set aside other matters

III. Lead Me To Some Soul “Today”

1. Jesus said, “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” (John 9:4)

2. Through the years I have seen souls won when people take the work seriously. When preachers and churches emphasized “being about the Father’s business,” we began to see fruit produced.

3. It is difficult to get people to be soul-winners. Everyone finds it easier to make excuses thatn to be busy in the Master’s kingdom.

a. in summer we say “wait till school starts.”

b. in school we say, “wait till summer when we have more time”

c. in summer it’s too hot; in winter it’s too cold

d. there is never a convenient time for doing the Lord’s work for the person who is caught up in doing everything else.

e. this is why you must look to today.

4. Acts 5:42 “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”

5. 1 Cor. 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

6. What will you do about some soul you know today? Do you realize your friend and you do not have the promise of tomorrow?

7. Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.”

8. Illustration

J. Hudson Taylor tells about a Chinese preacher who, upon meeting a young convert, asked him how long he had been a saved man. The young man stated that he had obeyed the gospel only some three months before. The preacher then asked, “and how many have you brought to Jesus?”

“Oh,” said the young man, “I am only a learner, not a teacher, and haven’t had my own Bible very long.”

The preacher asked him, “Do you use candles in your home?” And the young man answered, “Yes.”

“Do you expect the candle to begin to shine when it is burned halfway down?” asked the preacher. The boy replied, “No sir, as soon as it is lit.”

The boy soon saw the point. We are today to be the light of the world. They young man started working and within a few months had brought several neighbors to the Lord.

Conclusion:

1. When was the last time you talked to anyone about his “soul?” Have you ever talked to anyone about his salvation?

2. If the Lord loved you so much to die for you, and some kind person loved your soul enough to teach you, what can you do for others?

3. Do you need to come to the Lord?