The Soul Winner

2Co 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

The Lord leads each believer to work with Him to reconcile lost sinners to Himself. Paul writing to the Corinthian believers tells them that God has given to “us the ministry of reconciliation”. In this letter Paul is writing about himself and the Corinthian believers. And by implication – all believers.

That soul winning is the calling of all believers makes perfect sense. Because ALL need to be saved. All start life separated from God because they are sinners. The task is monumental to say the least. If only pastors did soul winning, some people would never hear the gospel. Most people never come into contact with a pastor. In countries where biblical Christianity has had a long history, lots of people come into contact with a Christian. Although as carnality and apostasy grow in such countries, our collective witness to Christ has become more and more tainted with error. To those who are not Christian, and don’t claim to be Christian, it’s confusing to know just what a Christian is. Some no doubt think that a Christian is someone who believes in Christ, and worships Him in a manner that they feel like worshiping Him. They would not likely think that there is a correct way that God has prescribed that believers worship Him.

This makes the responsibility of ALL true believers all the more valuable. How valuable to the cause of Christ is the believer who is able to share their faith, and contend for the truth? This is because:

• They are walking with the Lord, daily being led by the Holy Spirit.
• They know their faith and are able to declare their faith from the Bible.

The Command

Mar 16:15 And he said unto them,  Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

What is the Gospel? The death, burial and resurrection of Christ (1Cor. 15:1-4)

1Co 15:1-4
1  Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2  By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

Who is the command to? To every believer. Matt. 28:20 the Lord commands His disciples to teach those they have won to, among other things, preach the Gospel (Mar 16:15 & Matt. 28:19).

Mat 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19   Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Christian believer we are COMMANDED to preach the gospel to the lost!

Soul Winning Is Natural Fruit In The Life Of The Righteous

Pro 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

Prov 11:30 gives the timeless truth that soul winning is not extra, but natural fruit of a righteous life. There is lacking in our spiritual life if we are not bringing souls to Christ. There are a number of reasons for this:

• God commands us to preach the gospel to the lost
• The Lord has done so much to reach the lost! He has all but made them get saved
  • Given His Son!
  • Given the Bible to reveal to us our lost position and how He has provided a way for us to be reconciled to Him
  • He has commanded all believers to preach the gospel to the lost

And declares such believers as wise. I.e. They have spiritual understanding of what is important – soul winning. They know that winning the lost soul is VERY important to their LORD.

Soul Winning Is A Partnership

1Cor. 3:6-9 gives the outward process of winning a soul:

1Co 3:6-9
6  “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8  Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
9  For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.”

V9/ It is a partnership between believers and the Lord. In many cases there are a number of believers used to woo and convince the lost sinner to receive Christ (John 1:12). All the while the Holy Spirit works in the heart and mind of the lost sinner to convince them to make the decision to receive Christ to save them from the penalty of sin, and reconcile them to Himself (John 16:8-9).

Winning the Lost to Christ is a Life Style

There are two ways that this is true:

Seeking every opportunity to share the Gospel with the lost

If we follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, soul winning will become a part of our everyday life. We will see people as either lost or saved. Those who are lost that we meet are our responsibility to share the Gospel with. Some we will be brief encounters where we will only be able to give a gospel tract to. Other will be people that we continue to see over and over again. We need to use those encounters to woo them to Christ. Trying to get to where we can sit down with them and share the gospel with them.

Life Style Evangelism

Our lives before the lost must be blameless. Our lives must support our sharing the gospel. Our lives must be a strong (irresistible) recommendation for the Christian Faith.

Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

2Co 4:11  For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

Php 2:15  That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

This is a real challenge each one of us! How much does our personal walk demonstrate the abundant life in Christ. Just as Israel was to be used by the Lord to demonstrate to the world that there is only one God. And that life with Him was incomparable to what any so called god could give. So our walk with the Lord must be a living demonstration to the world that there is no life like the one that Christ gives.

This just shows why we must take our daily walk with the Lord supremely seriously. We have a high calling! But be encouraged, as long as we walk after the Spirit obeying His lead (Roman 8:14) we WILL become better examples with time.

Conclusion

I wonder has the Lord being dealing with you on this fundamental responsibility? Will you obey Him and prepare yourself to be able to be used by Him to win the lost to Christ?