One plants, one waters. God gives the increase. The sower and the reaper get the same reward. Who's the sower? The one that put the seed in the heart soil. Who's the reaper? The one that prayed with him. The one that actually was there when they actually came to Christ? You mean both of them? Yes.
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford, junior, senior pastor of Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm Steve Hillard. Glad you're with us. As today we begin a new series, Winning the Lost, no matter the cost. And pastor, before we talk a little bit more about specific rewards and sowing and reaping, what is the reward that the sower that the reaper are going to receive?
Uh, well, knowing that because you allow God to use you as a vessel, somebody else will be in heaven. I think that there's no greater reward. Only two things last forever the Word of God and the souls of men and women. I ask this often at our assembly. I ask the question. Of course they know the answer now. But the first time nobody gave the answer, I said, is there anything better than going to heaven? And they all said no. And of course I respond, yes. Taking someone with you.
Yeah.
And so and so. Now they'll just say yes. Taking someone with you. And now I respond, okay, so who's going to be in heaven because God used you?
And that is really a convicting question for many of us. I think there are so many excuses and reasons that believers can give for not taking others with them, but this is not an optional thing. We're commanded to do this.
We are commanded. Yeah, it's not like going to old Country buffet where you pick and choose. No. We're commanded to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
So for the sower, for the reaper, They get to share in that reward, but that means that they actually have to be doing what you're just talking about, that they are sharing the good news of the gospel. For the person who says, pastor, I hear what you're saying, but man, I'm so scared I don't even know how to go about sharing my faith.
Make it a part of your regular conversation. So here's here's what I do. Uh, okay. You're getting ready to say something to me. Say something to me.
All right. I'm going to tell you that I had a hamburger for lunch.
Oh, you had a hamburger for lunch. That's good man. Do you know every good and perfect gift comes from above? From the father of lights, in whom is no variableness, no shadow of turning. I know you don't want to hear that, but I was just going to tell you about my friend. My best friend.
Your best friend?
Yeah. His name is Jesus. And he's God in the flesh who died, was buried and rose again the third day.
And so when you incorporate that into regular conversation, I'm going to assume that there are occasionally some people who really engage with you in that. Probably a lot of pretty crazy looks.
Oh, man, I'll tell you. But but I try to inculcate the gospel into everything that I do so that it becomes just just a very real part. Somebody asked me for money, or they say, I'm hungry. Can you feed me? Sure. But let me tell you why I'm doing this. Not because I'm such a good person. I am not, but I have a good person who lives in me. And they look at me and I say, He's Jesus Christ, who's God in the flesh, who died and rose again the third day. That's the good news.
So I just I just throw out the good news. I look for ways to to share the good news.
And that's what we all are to do. And that's what we're looking at in today's message. So I hope you'll open your Bible and join us in Romans chapter one as we begin winning the lost, no matter the cost. Here is Pastor Ford.
Man was out fishing and he was catching all kind of fish, but nobody else was catching any fish. Now the game warden saw it and he said, you know, something's going on here. Something's wrong. And so he decided, I'm going to go out with this guy. He's got to be doing something illegal to catch all these fish, and nobody else is catching fish. So he said, sir, I'm going out with you in your boat. So they pull out in the middle of the lake and the guy has a tarp. He pulls the cover off of
it and underneath are sticks of dynamite. The warden looks and he's thinking to himself, I knew this guy was doing something illegal. The guy picks up a stick of dynamite lights it, throws it in the lake. Boom! The fish are shocked. They come to the top. He takes his net, scoops him up and puts him in the boat. The game warden said, you can't do that. That's illegal. I knew you were doing something illegal, I knew it.
You can't fish like that. God picked up a stick of dynamite, lit the fuse, threw it in the warden's lap and said, are you going to talk or are you going to fish? Go ahead. Somebody say he fished. Yeah. He fished. You see, before he wasn't doing it. And so the fishermen had to give him a motivation so that he would be able to do what he was doing. Yeah. Uh, that's all it's about. Because the church is supposed to
be a lighthouse to the community. And we are those who Jesus said when he told his disciples in Matthew 419, anybody ever read that? He said, follow me, and I will make you church attenders. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. In other words, the reason we follow Jesus is not for the Benz's and the Blings and the Benjamins and all of that. We follow him because he wants to make us fishers of men. Now he gave them that in Capernaum. And and it's key,
because what were they doing when he called them? They were fishing. Jesus rolls up on him and says, I got something for you, baby Baba. Check this out. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to realize that right now you fish for live fish. Then you catch them and they die. Then you have to clean them. But I'm calling you to be fishers of men. So you'll catch these fish and they're dead. When you catch them. They're dead in their trespasses and sin. They're
depraved in their mind. They're darkened in their imagination. But then when you catch them and you give them the good news of Jesus Christ, they come alive. But you don't gotta clean em. You give em to me and I clean em. Now, now, now, you need to understand what's going on here, because the church has gotten things backwards, haven't we? Vance Havner said it this way. We have become the keepers of the aquarium rather than the fishers
of men. Yeah. This is this is like. This is like people say, pastor, when are you going to preach the salvation message? And they want the stock to pawn. They got the commandments backwards. Jesus didn't say, come. Jesus said, go. The first two letters of the word gospel is the word go. Oh, yeah. Invite him to church and I hope that we'll be doing that. But here's where you win the people you win the people on your job, in your neighborhood, at the food store, at the health
food store, at the health club. You. That's where you win, people. Yes. Amen. Not in church. Now I will fish if you will stock the pond. Yes. Make sure I can catch something. You know what that means. Just invite your unsaved loved ones. And so we then are those who should be winning people to Christ. And so this fisherman gave that game warden a motivation. The church ought to be a maternity ward where new converts and the cries of baby Christians
is constantly being heard. Yes, we should be winning people to Jesus Christ. That sign in the nursery. Remember the sign of nursery? We ought to put one in ours. It says we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. And that's what we're looking for, a change. I know what somebody's saying. I can't fish, I just got saved. I don't know anybody ever. Say, don't. Don't raise your hand. I can't tell anybody because I don't know enough about the Bible. You don't need to know
anything about the Bible. Okay? Take John chapter four. The woman at the well, the Samaritan woman. Remember her, remember the dialogue her and Jesus had. So they had a dialogue. And so Jesus trying to show her he's the Messiah, but she's trying to throw the religious bag in there. What what religion do you have? And and you're a Jew. You have the Jews. He said, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's not about religion. Where are we worship on this mountain?
Where do you worship? You know, you worship on Saturday, worship on Sunday. Who cares what day you worship as long as you got Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. And so Jesus just cut to the chase, because sometimes what you gotta do is you just gotta cut to the chase. So she talking about we worship in this mountain where you worship them. You say worship. Jesus said, go get your husband. She said, I don't have a husband. And Jesus said, you got that right.
You done had five of em. It ain't new. Yeah. And you shacking right now. She said, I perceived I must be a prophet. Jesus telling her business. Now what does she do? Here's what she did. It says she dropped her water pots. Oh, that's so powerful. You want to know why? Because that means she changed her agenda. Her agenda was to get some water so she can exist and clean and wash herself. But she met Jesus. And when you meet Jesus, it ought to change your agenda.
It ought to change what you got as a priority. Now, she dropped that water pot. She said, I got to tell somebody about Jesus. And the Bible says she ran to the city, and she told all the men I met, a man who told me everything I ever done. And the Bible says, and all the men ran out to see what she was talking about. Now, why did all the men run out to see what she was talking about? Because, she said, I met a man who told me every
thing I ever did. And some of them jokers was running out to make sure Jesus wasn't telling what they did with them. Now you know what I noticed about her? She didn't go to Moody Bible Institute. She didn't take her online evangelism course. She wasn't in your class. Were you taught how to win souls for Christ? Immediately, she began to tell somebody, come see a man. And you know what I like about it? What's God's number for perfection? She had five shacking. And the seventh man was a child.
That's for all you single folk. Come on now.
That is Pastor Ford with a message called winning the lost, no matter the cost. And we're going to have to pause for just a moment right here. We'll continue this teaching from Romans chapter one in just a little bit. Want to let you know that if you ever miss a program, or you can always listen online when you come to our website, treasure Truth Radio. Download or stream the program. Otherwise, you can listen on the go. Well, sign up to begin podcasting this program or get the
Moody Radio app. Not only with the app can you listen to this program, but also other streaming music stations from Moody Radio. You'll find links to the app when you come to our website. Treasure truth radio.org. Back to the message again. Here's Pastor Ford.
And so no, she didn't say I can't fish. So here I want to look at this passage and this brief span of time I want you to see, because there are six sticks of dynamite that Paul is going to throw in our laps, hoping it would cause us to start fishing. Yeah. Okay. Here they come. Let me throw out the first one. Here it is, verse 13. Converts. Notice what he says in verse 13. He says, listen, the fact that there will be converts ought to motivate
us to witness for the Lord. Listen to what he says. Now. I would not have you ignorant. Stop every time he says, I would not have you ignorant. You know what that means? They were ignorant. They were stuck on stupid. Paul is saying, listen, you don't know this, but you ought to know this. He says that ofttimes our purpose to come unto you, but was let hitherto that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the Gentiles. See what
he's saying? He's saying listen to what he's saying. I wanted to come, and I was prepared to do so, but I was hindered. Now there are two ways he could have been hindered. In first Thessalonians chapter two, verse 18, he said, Satan hindered us, but that's not what he's talking about here. He's saying I'm witnessing and seeing so much fruit and so many people come to Christ in Asia. I don't have time right now to leave that and come to Rome, but I want to come to Rome.
Notice how he says it. Let me read it again. Even as among other Gentiles. Why didn't he say among the church? Because he says, listen, I want to go after unsaved people. You know what most church growth is in the US of a switching. Now, I ain't got nothing wrong with it because some of y'all came from other congregations. God bless you. You finally listen to God Came Where you're supposed to be. Amen. And others have
left here. And somebody saying that to them, too. So how is most church growth transfer people who become nomads? You say what pastor said? No, they got mad. Off they go. Yeah. That's it. They just. And they don't realize, Brother Whit, that all you do is change location that once you get to the other part. Now, let me just say this to all our new folk who have come. Let me say, you going to find some of the same kind of problems in this pastor. That you had
with the last one. Unless there was something immoral. Alright, okay. I'm sorry. Let me let me make make you know. Now, now, if he was smoking dope, I don't do that. If he was sleeping with the women in the church, I don't do that. He's still in church with money. I don't do that. If he's cussing, I don't do that much. You're going to find if you ran from it over there, you're going to run into it over here. Only two differences.
Different name, different face. Same issue, same issue, same issue. But that's not what it's supposed to be. Vance Havner, the late, great revivalist. He said this. It's a sad fact in the church that instead of becoming fishers of men, we become keepers of the aquarium. Can't get people to share their faith. And he says, listen, it's because of converts. I want to see some people get converted. I want some fruit. He calls it fruit. Now get this, get this,
get this, get this, get this. Five times in the New Testament, Paul calls something fruit. Let me give em to you. Let me give em to you. First of all, he calls character fruit. That's Galatians 522 and 23. So he says, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering. So let me ask you a question. If I put water in this rag and I squeeze it, what will come out? If I put orange juice in this rag and squeeze it, what will come out? If I put grape juice in this rag and squeeze it,
what will come out? Question. Why is there so much hail coming out of so many people who say they know Jesus? Answer because that's what's in them. Because when you're squeezed, whatever's in you, it's going to come out. If you're filled with the spirit, love, joy, peace, meekness, that's what's going to come out. But if if hell is in you, hell going to come out of you. And that's why they look all holy, they can pray the roof off the place and all that, know Scripture
and all that. But every time something happened that, that, that they don't agree with, they got this attitude. That's because that's what's in them. And that's why God got you squeezed. Because he got to squeeze that out of you, because the Holy Spirit can't occupy the same place with all that garbage we got up in us. Character is called fruit, but then conduct is called fruit. Romans 623. He calls it the fruits of holiness. You know what
that means? Living right? Only two things wrong with the church. Tight giving and loose living. Alright. Preach, man. And so what? What's he saying? He's saying your life is fruit and the problem is much of us when it comes to living the way we should, are rotten fruit. Mm. But then Hebrews 1315. Communication he calls fruit. He says that we ought to worship God with the fruit of our lips. Hosea calls it a calf. You tie them both together.
What did the calf do in the Old Testament? Hosea 46A calf, he says, he says, worship the Lord with the calf of your lips. In other words, the calf was what you offered as a sacrifice. You tie that with Hebrews 1315. He's saying we need to give God praise with our lips. We need to open our mouths and say, Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus. We praise your name. We bless you, Lord. I mean, you get excited about scandal. Be talking about that, you talking about power, talking about that.
You be talking about the Empire talking about that. And Empire ain't never done nothing for you in power. Ain't never give you no money. But Jesus provides all your needs according to his riches in glory. How come you can't shout about that? And Jesus wrote your name in the Lamb's Book of life, gave you salvation. Cover you in his blood. How come you can't shout about that? I came in today. I ain't been in here in
three weeks. I walked in, I said, thank you, God that I'm walking in the church, not being wheeled in the church. Help me! Somebody! Come on, help me! That's right. I said, God, I thank you. I'm on top of the ground, and the ground ain't on top of me. Thank you. I thank you, God. I'm in my right mind. I know everybody think I'm crazy, but I'm in my right mind I fed myself this morning, I clothed myself. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah, yeah I'm grateful man.
But then he uses fruit. Oh, y'all going to get quiet on this one? Romans 1528 compassionate giving to saints who are hurting. Yeah. He says, I'm bringing this fruit to the poor. Church of the collection that I got from the other saints. It's fruit. Wow. And then here's the fifth one. Converts. He says, I want to have some fruit among you. Now, let me get this straight. Here's here's here's the misnomer. Success in witnessing is not leading a person to Christ. Success in witnessing is witnessing
about Christ. Here's what he said. One plants, one waters. God gives the increase. Here's what he said. Jesus himself said, the sower and the reaper get the same reward. Who's the sower? The one that planted the seed. The one that put the seed in the heart soil. Who's the reaper? The one that prayed with him. The one that actually was there when they actually came to Christ? You mean both of them? Yes. because you can't have one without another.
You can't have a reaper if you ain't had a sower. Yeah, and you can't have a sower without a reaper, because then everything's going to go rotten. And so he says, because of converts. Now, I want you to notice something here because what are we trying to do? We're trying to let people know about our God who can do what our God can do. He said, what are you talking about? Let me show you something. Let me show you something. I just shared this with the Wednesday crowd.
Here's what Paul says I was hindered. Uh, now, what hindered him? The work of God hindered him. Now, now, here's what we got to realize. This. This thing is powerful to me. I said, first Thessalonians 218 is is is demonic delay. But acts 16 six through eight is divine delay. God stopped him from going. Question why? Since he wants to go there and witness. Are you having him? Wait? My might I postulate a possibility? Ability, say postulate. I
remember when I got converted. Some things changed right away. Some things didn't change, right? Some things changed. The first thing I did, anybody remember. Flushed my drugs down the toilet? I used to Pepsi-Cola pusher, you know. Remember when Pepsi-Cola bottles, you get two cent for them? I was a two cent nickel and dime pusher, and the first thing I did was flush all my drugs down the toilet. That
word got around, man. Ford done lost his mind. He ain't got religion and he ain't flushed down the toilet. And then the other thing I was doing, I was gaming on welfare. Now, let me tell you what that means. That means I had a job, a good job, but I had my wife go to welfare office and say that I had left her and the children, so we was able to get food stamps this way before Lincoln was able to get food stamps and she got a medical card. So here I was. I had a good job.
I was working in a factory making top money, and then she was getting welfare and food stamps and I was selling drugs. Big bank, big bank, big bank. But then it backfired because when I got saved, the first thing I did was I went to the welfare office because the guilt was on me. And I said, for two and a half, almost three years, we've been cheating you. I know I could go to jail, but my guy who led me to Christ said, one of the first thing I must do is make restitution.
That is Pastor James Ford Jr. A message he calls winning the lost no matter the cost. And we're not finished with this teaching. There is some more biblical encouragement still to come next time, but you can request a copy of today's program when you come to treasure Truth Radio. You know, pastor, one of the things that's so encouraging about being involved in ministry like this is regular feedback from listeners talking about how God is using this program in their lives.
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