The Soul Winners Six Mighty Motivations | Part 2

We are Heaven's Ambassadors here to represent God. Listen to the Lord.

Welcome to Love Worth Finding. As Christians we are in Christ, He will be a new creature. God will put a new man in that suit without even unbuttoning the coat. Well, there are six convicting truths found in 2 Corinthians Chapter 5 for those who will answer the call to be a soul winner. If you have your Bible, turn there now as Adrienne Rogers continues with Part 2 of the Soul Winners 6 Mighty Motivations. The mightiest soul winner that I've known anything about or read about is the Apostle Paul.

And in this 2 Corinthians Chapter 5, we find out what motivated Paul, what drove Paul, what impelled Paul, what made him the greatest missionary the world has ever known and we're going to learn from that. And if you've never been a soul winner, I want you to listen today very carefully. If you are a soul winner, you will be blessed and encouraged by this.

Now, there are several things I want you to learn. The very first thing I want you to learn is the soul winner's compulsion. The soul winner's compulsion, Paul had a compelling motive that drove him. What was Paul's compulsion? They said, Paul, why do you work so hard? And here's his answer, 2 Corinthians Chapter 5 Verse 9, Wherefore we labor, here's the reason now we work so hard, Wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. Now, that doesn't mean that we work to get to heaven. What he is saying is, I want to be acceptable to God.

I want God to be pleased with me. If you're not endeavoring to bring souls to Christ, you are not acceptable to God. I don't care how much money you give, I don't care how faithfully you attend, I don't care how eloquently you may preach, I don't care how faithfully you may live, I care not how circumspectly you may walk. Listen, if you are not endeavoring to bring souls to Jesus Christ, you are not acceptable to Him.

You're not pleasing Him. And no matter whom you may please, if you displease God, you're a failure. And if you please God, it really doesn't matter how many people you displease. And the way to please God is to bring souls to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is your compulsion. Andrew Murray, a great Christian of yesteryear said, There are two classes of Christians, soul winners and backsliders.

Now, you're one or the other. Paul said, You want me to tell you why I work so hard? I am compelled, I am compelled to be acceptable to God.

That's the first reason, the soul winner's compulsion. Number two, I want you to see the soul winner's compensation. Look if you will now in verse 10, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

There is a day coming when we will be compensated. The Bible calls that the judgment seat of Christ. Now, that's not the great white throne judgment where the unsaved will appear. The word judgment seat here is the Greek word bema, B-E-M-A. And what it was was a raised platform in the middle of the Olympic field where runners would come and receive their reward or else they would be disgraced and receive no reward. And there would often be a laurel placed on their head that sooner or later would wilt and fade away. But we are going to be compensated as we win souls for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, what is our compensation going to be? Just put in your margin there 1 Corinthians 9 verses 24 through 26. Know ye not that they which run a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run that ye may obtain.

And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. When you win souls to Jesus Christ, you don't receive a corruptible crown. You receive a crown that fadeth not away a crown of glory. What is this judgment seat of Christ?

Well, it's going to be a reward for some, and it's going to be a regret to others. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 this time, verses 11 through 15, For other foundation can no man lay that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, that's one category, wood, hay, stubble, that's another category.

Now listen to this. Every man's work shall be made manifest. One of these days, the way that you've lived is going to be made manifest, for the day shall declare it. What day? The day of the judgment seat of Christ, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

Not what size it is, but of what sort it is. God is looking for quality, not quantity. Now listen to this. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon on Jesus Christ, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.

Now what is this telling us? You're going to be singed but saved. You'll get into heaven with your coattails smoking.

Everything that you live for will go up in flames. Now you don't win souls in order to get to heaven. You get to heaven by the grace of God. I cannot work my soul to save. That work my Lord has done, but I will work like any slave for the love of God's dear Son. Paul said, you want to know what motivates me? What is my compulsion to please Him?

What is my compensation? I am going to the judgment seat of Christ. Here's the third thing that motivated Paul, the soul winner's conviction. Look, if you will, now in verse 11. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Knowing the terror of the Lord. But we are made manifest under God and I trust also made manifest in your conscience. I want you to underscore that phrase if you don't mind writing in your Bible. The terror of the Lord. We persuade men. Paul didn't have a take it or leave it attitude.

This is a motivation. Paul knew there was a death to die, a judgment to face. And he said, knowing the terror of the Lord, knowing what it means for a soul to die unredeemed and to die and go to hell. The terror of the Lord. Now this is a generation that has failed to understand the terror of the Lord. The Bible speaks of people living in the last days and it says there's no fear of God before their eyes. You say, well, isn't God a God of love?

Yes, He is and we'll get to that in a moment. But if you preach the love of God and the exclusion of the judgment of God, you haven't given a whole picture. You've only given half the truth and when half the truth becomes the only truth, then that half the truth is an untruth. Now let me give you another motivation that the apostle Paul had. The apostle Paul, his motivation was compassion.

Notice the soul one is compassion. Look if you will now in 2 Corinthians 5 verses 13 and 15. For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God. Now what does that mean, beside ourselves? Whether we be schizoid, whether we've lost our mind, whether we be insane. There were people who were saying the apostle Paul was not mentally stable.

He is beside himself. He says, well, if so, it is to God. Or whether we be sober, it is for your cause, for the love of Christ constraineth us.

That's another motivation. The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead and that he died for all. By the way, if you're a five-point Calvinist, how do you explain this? He died for all, not for just some. Then we're all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.

Paul's compassion is driving him. He's speaking of the love of Christ, the love of Christ that was shown to him and now the love of Christ that is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost. How can you say you love Jesus and not be concerned for souls that he died for? Or you say, well, I just don't have a love for souls.

I'm going to tell you something. It's not a love of souls or a love for souls that motivates you. Jesus Christ said to Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? Then feed my sheep because we love Jesus. Now, what drives me, what motivates me is not my love for people. It is my love for Jesus.

Yes, I love people, but the chief motivation of my life is his love for me and therefore his love through me. I asked Bill Gaither, what are the greatest song lyrics ever written? He said, beyond any shadow of a doubt, these are the greatest lyrics ever written. Could we with ink the ocean fill and were every sky of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade to write the love of God above?

Would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky? Oh, listen, God loves you, but he loves those all around you. He wants them to be saved, and Paul is moved with compassion.

Now, I want you to notice next the soul winner's confidence. 2 Corinthians 5 verses 16 and 17. Wherefore... Now, he's still talking about what motivates him. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more, that is, after the flesh. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

All things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now, here's his confidence that if I lead a soul to Christ, if I bring a man to Christ, he will be a new creature. God will put a new man in that suit without even unbuttoning the coat. He becomes brand new in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he says henceforth know we no man after the flesh. What does he mean? He said, I don't look at people as to whether they're big shots or little shots, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, weak or strong, famous or non-famous.

That's all of the flesh. I see them as the soul for whom Jesus died. There was a man out there working in the front, and I was going to go out and say hello to him. God the Holy Spirit seemed to say to my heart, speak to him about his soul. I very calmly talked to him about how he could know he could go to heaven when he died and how he could have power and peace in his life right now by receiving Christ as his personal Savior. He bowed and prayed with me and gave his heart to Christ. And I thought to myself, how easily I could have passed that man by.

How easily I could have just given him a good morning and passed him by. Jerry Parker is sitting out here, and Jerry told me a story. Jerry, I may not get all the details correct, but Jerry received a phone call, and this person said, I have your number on my telephone. Did you call me? Jerry said, no, I didn't call you. He said, well, this number was there. You must have called. He said, no, I didn't call you. I don't know. The mistake has been made, but while I have you on the phone, I want to ask you a question.

If you died today, would you go to heaven? The man said, well, I really don't know. Jerry said, let me tell you how you can know. Let him do a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ right there on the phone. Some days later, the phone rang again.

This time it was a woman. Said, did you call my house? He said, no. Said, well, I have a number here that you call my house. Jerry said, is your husband so and so?

Yes, he is. Well, let me ask you a question. Are you sure if you died today, you'd go to heaven? She said, well, not really. Would you like to know?

Yes, I would. And he led her to Christ also. I want to submit to you that wasn't a wrong number. That's the providence of God, but the providence of God is all around you. We have this conviction that if any man is in Christ Jesus, this confidence that if any man is in Christ Jesus.

You know our trouble? We see people after the flesh. We think, you know, if I could win somebody important to Christ, that would be great. But, friend, all people are important to Christ. And you need to stop seeing them according to the flesh. The up and out are just as lost as the down and out. And don't call any man common if Jesus Christ died for him.

We need to stop seeing people through the flesh. Years ago I heard a story that moved me greatly. Down in Tampa, Florida, a man was driving a high-powered boat and he was going under a bridge. He hit a bridge pylon, was thrown out of the boat, and nearly drowned. They fished him out of the water and they had him there on the bridge giving artificial respiration to him, trying to do what they could do. A man stopped. He thought, that's interesting.

I want to see what is happening. There it is. There's the boat. He hid here. Now look at the people.

They're giving artificial respiration. That's interesting. What an epic this is that I get to see. And then they turned the man's face this way, and the man who had been crossing the bridge said, my God, that's my brother. That man is my brother. When he saw the face of his brother, he was transformed. He said, hey, call the ambulance. Listen, give him artificial respiration.

You people pray. That's my brother. Do you know what he did? He saw him after the flesh. Before then, he was another man. You need to see every man as your potential brother.

You need to see every woman as your potential sister. You need to have this confidence that if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature. When we fish for fish, we take a fish out of a beautiful life into death.

But when we fish for men, we take men out of a horrible life into heaven, into a beautiful life. Now, listen, the sixth thing of these six things that I want to mention to you is what I want to call the soul winner's commission. And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. That is, he saved us. And hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. You have been called to the ministry.

Say, amen. You have been called to the ministry. And what is the ministry?

It's the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing the trespasses unto them, and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead.

That is, in Christ's place. Be ye reconciled to God. Now, we've been reconciled. And we've been reconciled by Calvary. God has brought us to himself. But God did not save you simply to sit, to sour, but to serve. We have been reconciled. Therefore, it follows as night follows day that we have been given a ministry of reconciliation.

That is, to get people reconciled to God. And in this verse, Paul says, we are appointed ambassadors. Heaven's ambassadors. What is an ambassador?

An ambassador is somebody who represents the person of a king in the court of another. I was in Washington. I'd been there for a presidential inauguration. I caught a cab, and I was dressed fairly nicely.

The cab driver looked back at me and said, what do you do? I said, I am an ambassador. He said, you are?

From where? I said, a very important place. I said, I serve a king. A king. I said, yes, I'm his ambassador. I told that cabbie about Jesus Christ.

I want to tell you something, friend. You are an ambassador. You say, well, I don't have much education.

I don't have any money. You are an ambassador. Can you get any higher than being an ambassador to the King of Kings? You are somebody.

You're not a fifth wheel. God has appointed you. God has anointed you. And if you're not interested in being an ambassador, when you have been appointed an ambassador, you are guilty of treason against Heaven's king. To refuse is not only to be ineffective.

It is to be in revolt. If you're not interested in evangelism, to some degree you are in apostasy. Friend, let me tell you something. These people stumbling in darkness can walk in light if you will only open the Word of God and share with them how to be saved. Well, pastor, I'm not trained. Well, number one, you don't have to be trained. You share what Jesus has done for you. You'd be surprised how your testimony will have effect.

And then you need to get trained. I want to ask you a question. If you received $1,000 cash for every soul you led to Christ, wouldn't it make a difference in your life? Can you think about that? If you received $1,000 cash for every soul that you led to Christ, it's really a matter of motivation. These are six mighty motivations.

I want to start with the first one again. That is, Paul said, look, I do this, that I might be acceptable to Him, to please Him. I've read of a concert violinist who stood before a vast audience and played his violin in a masterful way. When he finished the concert, he turned and left the stage. The people were still standing, applauding, applauding, applauding. And behind the stage, they said, go back out there. They are applauding for you.

Go back out there. They're all standing. He said, no, they're not all standing. He said, do you see that man on the third row?

He's not standing, and he is my teacher. Now, friend, I don't care how many people applaud you. If you don't please Jesus, what difference does it make? And what a convicting conclusion to this powerful message, if you don't please Jesus, what difference does it make? Maybe today, as you've listened, you have questions regarding placing your faith fully in what Jesus did for you. We'd love to offer you an insightful resource on our website. It's our Discover Jesus page. There you can find answers you may need about your faith.

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