No matter how generous we are, how active we are in church, or how eloquently we preach, there is no substitute for sharing our faith with other people. Psalm 126 reveals how to share Jesus: “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:5-6).
The soul is of great worth; Jesus died upon the cross, paying the price with blood and agony to show how much He desired our souls.
Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message. Here’s Adrian Rogers.
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be finding Psalm 126. And in a moment we’re going to look in verses 5 and 6. We’re talking about sharing our faith and I want to talk to you today about learning to share your faith. And I pray God that he will take this stammering tongue of mine and plant in your heart a desire to share your faith. When I gave my heart to Jesus Christ as a teen, one of the ways that I know that it was real is this, that I had a deep, deep desire to share what happened to me with my brother and with my sister and with my friends. I wanted them to know the Jesus that I had met. And may I say this to you? If you don’t have a desire to give your faith away, maybe you ought to give it up. You know we’re not merely told to keep the faith. We’re told to share it. Now we talk about a love worth finding. Well friend if it is a love worth finding would you not agree that it is a love worth sharing? No matter what else you may do if you’re not endeavoring to share your faith In my humble but accurate opinion, you’re not right with God. No matter how eloquently you preach, no matter how beautifully you sing, no matter how generously you give, no matter how faithfully you attend, no matter how circumspectly you walk, friend, there is no substitute for sharing your faith with other people. The Bible says in Psalm 126, verses 5 and 6, look at it if you will. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Now the Bible says that if we will go and sow and weep and reap, we will understand the secret of sharing our faith. You know, again, in another place in the Bible, in Proverbs chapter 11 and verse 30, the Bible says, He that winneth souls is wise. Now, how many of you think of yourselves as wise? Now, listen to it again. He… that winneth souls is wise. Why is it so wise to bring a soul to Jesus Christ, to teach somebody to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ? Because of the value of a soul. Remember what Jesus said? Jesus said, what should it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what should a man give in exchange for his soul? A soul is so incredibly valuable that Jesus in this passage of Scripture taught that one soul is worth more than the whole world. One soul. So if you won just one soul, did Jesus Christ think what you’ve done? Why is a soul so valuable? Well, a soul is so valuable, first of all, friend, because of its desirability. Did you know that the devil desires your soul and God desires your soul? How can we tell whether a thing is desirable or not? By the price someone will pay for it. Jesus, with his precious blood on the cross, died that a soul might be redeemed. Any appraiser will tell you the value of a piece of property is this, what someone else will pay for it. I have an evangelist friend who was wasting his life. He was unsaved before he became an evangelist, before Christ got hold of him. He was just throwing his life away, and somebody said to him, Mike, if you had something that you didn’t want, but somebody else wanted it very much, rather than just throwing it away, would you give it to him? Mike said, sure. He said, Mike, you’re throwing your life away. Jesus wants your soul. Your soul is desirable. A soul is desirable. Jesus paid his rich, red, royal blood for a soul. Not only is a soul desirable, but a soul is so durable. Now, the value of anything is measured not only by its desirability, but its durability. A soul… will last for all eternity friend look up here let me tell you something there was a time when you were not there never will be a time when you will not be your soul will go on endless dateless timeless measureless Through all eternity, when the stars have splintered and faded, your soul will be in existence somewhere. That’s the value of a soul. Jesus spoke of those in hell, and the Bible says they are tormented day and night forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. The same is true of heaven. Through all the endless ages, our soul will be in existence either in heaven or in hell. Desirability, durability. I’ll tell you another thing about a soul. It’s possibility. Now, when you see an individual, maybe you see someone who is living in degradation and sin and you say they’re worthless. Call no man worthless for whom Jesus died and see that soul possibly as a saint. Think of the woman at the well. And Jesus transformed this woman who was living in sin and degradation to a saint. Think of Rahab the harlot who is now saved and in heaven shining as a bright star in the Savior’s crown. Think of these people, friend, and the possibility. One day, one day they can be made like the Lord Jesus Christ. In your seat this morning, there are three possible persons. There’s the person you are right now. There’s the person you could be for evil if you fail to follow God. And there’s the person you may be made like into the likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When you win souls, you’re wise because of the value of a soul. And when you win souls, you’re wise because of the command of the Savior. Jesus has commanded us to make disciples. That’s not a suggestion. That’s not a request. That’s the reason I said, if you’re not endeavoring to share your faith, friend, it’s not that you’re merely missing a blessing. Listen carefully. The Christian who does not share his faith is guilty of high treason against his God. You see, Jesus said, follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men. Now, if you’re not fishing for men, by what right of logic do you have to say that you’re following Jesus? Follow me. I will make you to become fishers of men. If you are not fishing… You’re not following. Is my logic wrong? No, you’re not following Christ. You’re not abiding in Christ. Jesus said in John 15, if you abide in me and my word abides in you, you will bring forth much fruit. Are you bearing fruit? Are people coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ through your life? Then you’re not abiding in Christ. Do you love Jesus? Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Are you keeping his commandments? What right do you have to say that you love the Lord Jesus if you’re not obeying his chief commandment to share your faith? Why is winning souls so wise? Because of the value of a soul. Because of the command of Christ. And because of the reward of the soul winner. Friend, to share your faith in Jesus Christ and to see your brother, your sister, your father, your mother, your friend, your neighbor, your teammate, your schoolmate or whomever come to Christ. brings one of the greatest rewards that life can ever know. If you’ve never shared your faith and seen someone come to Jesus, then you don’t know what I’m talking about. But what a joy it is to bring people to Jesus Christ. You see, many of us are committed to something. What are you committed to? What really matters? What is going to matter for all eternity? Now, if you’re a football fan, professional football, you know who Don Shula is. Don Shula. One of the great football coaches of all time was a coach in the golden days of the Miami Dolphins. And one time, Don Shula had just about all he could take of football. He and his wife wanted to get away. And they thought, well, we can go off to New England. So they went up to New Hampshire. And there in New Hampshire, they thought, nobody will know us up here. They tried to disguise the fact that he was famous. It was raining when they got off the airplane, and so they checked in the hotel and said, we’ll take you in a movie. A very small little town they were in, and they went to the movie house. And when they walked in, people started to applaud. Everybody in the theater applauded. Shula thought, boy, I can’t even go to a movie in this little town without people knowing me. A man reached over and took his hand and said, we’re sure glad to see you. Shula said, how do you know me up here? He said, is there any reason I should know you? He said, I don’t know you. Just the manager of the theater said he wasn’t going to start the movie till two more people came in. Right, I want to tell you something. Fame is fleeting. Something that will last for all eternity is to win souls to Jesus Christ. Now look at our scripture again. And I want to give you four factors here about sharing your faith. Number one, number one, you must be committed to share your faith. Look at it again. The Bible says here in Psalm 126, verses five and six, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth. bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him now you must be committed to it be intentional about it it’s easier not to do it than it is to do it now nothing will take the place of doing this i hear often hear people say well i want to live a good life so people will see my life and want to be saved listen to me my friend they are not saved by your life they’re saved by his death And if you live a good life without letting people know why you live that good life, you’re taking praise under false pretenses. Anything good about you is Jesus Christ in you and you have to share that. And you’re never going to be a soul winner until you start. Our Lord tells us to go. Mark 16, verse 15. And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Literally that means in the Greek language, as you go. As you go. What would happen if all of the members of our church were literally sharing Jesus Christ? So many churches have become sacred societies for snubbing sinners. I’m grateful for our fellowship. But friend, hugs and hallelujahs are not enough when there’s a world around us dying and going to hell. Would you agree? Amen. Now listen, we have to be committed to share our faith. You say, but pastor, you don’t know these people out there, how they live. The beer, the cursing, the adultery, the filthy jokes. You want me to tell you why they do that? They’re sinners. That’s what sinners do. You ought not to be surprised they do that. Their major problem is not their cursing and their dirty jokes. Their major problem is they don’t know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. They need Christ. And we’ve got to go to them. You say, well, I want to be separate. Yes, you need to be separate. You need to be holy. But friend, you need to understand that separation is not isolation. Jesus was a friend of sinners. That’s why they crucified him. They said, this man is a friend of sinners. Thank God he is. Because if he weren’t, I wouldn’t be here today. And we need to go share the gospel with them. A little boy was, didn’t use very good English. And he said, I ain’t going. His mother corrected him, said, now son, it is not I ain’t going. You are not going. He is not going. They are not going. Do you understand that? He said, yeah, it looks like ain’t nobody going. And I look at the church, I feel that way. So why is it that we do so little with so much? Dear God, give us an intentionality. Have you ever thought about it? The unsaved are not commanded to come to church. We say, look at these buildings, look at our program. Why don’t they come? We ought not to be surprised they don’t come. There’s not one shred of scripture in the Bible that tells unsaved people to come to church. No. But I can find scripture after scripture after scripture that tells the church to go to the unsaved. It’s our job to go to them, not to get them to come to us. You ever go hunting, the deer is not supposed to come to the cabin. We’re to go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in. I want to ask you a question. Was it easy for you to get to church this morning? Most of us will say no. And especially if you have kids. You remember when your kids were little and trying to get to church on Sunday morning? It’s harder to go to church on Sunday morning than it is to get them to go to school on Monday morning. I don’t know why it is, unless the devil just rigs it that way. When our kids were little, we had to start getting ready on Saturday night to get there on Sunday morning and then just didn’t make it. It wasn’t for precious joy, so we wouldn’t have made it. One woman said to her husband, if you come in here and get the kids ready for Sunday school, I’ll sit out front and honk the horn. I mean, the time we got to church, we needed to be there because we lost our religion getting there. Have you ever been that way? And look folks, we want to come. We want to come. What about those who don’t care anyway? And we think they need to come here so they can get saved. Now, when they come here and get saved, I’m grateful and I’m thankful, but most of them come because they’ve been lovingly invited and entreated by someone who cares and someone who loves. But there must be an intentionality. You must be committed to share your faith. Number two, not only must you be committed to share your faith, you must be concerned when you share your faith. When you share your faith. Notice the scripture again. Psalm 126 verses 5 and 6. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. It is amazing that we have such a lack of tears. I want to ask you this question sincerely. You say you love the Lord Jesus Christ. You say that Christ is in you. Do the things that break the heart of Jesus break yours? Are you afraid of tears? Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Jesus, there on the Mount of Olives, looking at Jerusalem, had great copious tears coming down his cheeks. And he said, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered thee, even as a hen doth her chicks, but ye would not. Paul, the great apostle, wept over the unsaved. Therefore, watch and remember that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears, with tears. When’s the last time you shed a tear over some soul that’s mortgaged to the devil? Do you weep over the plight of the unsaved, lost, doomed, damned? On their road to hell, no hope. Jeremiah wept over his people. Oh, that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. Do you know what’s wrong with many churches today? There’s no brokenness. There’s no heartache, no tears. Sunday school classes go on and on without being concerned about the lost. We need to see every person as a brother or as a potential brother, as a sister or a potential sister. In Florida near Tampa, there was a high-powered boat going under a bridge and it hit a bridge abutment. The man in the boat was thrown out of the boat and knocked unconscious and it looked like he had drowned and they fished that man out of the water and they were treating him and giving him artificial respiration or whatever. And a man stopped by, parked his car, stopped and looked and was concerned. He saw that the boat there was crushed and sinking and he saw the crowd and he saw the man. He watched the medics. He saw all of that and he was looking and he says, well, that’s a tragic situation. Trying to sum it all up and figure out how it happened. And when they turned the man over who was being given this treatment, the stranger looked in the face of the man and And he said, my God, that’s my brother. It was his brother in the flesh. He said, that is my brother. He said, somebody do something. Hey, medic, somebody do something. You people pray. Listen, this man is dying. He was transformed. What was the difference? One time he knew something intellectually. The next time he knew it emotionally. Now, what we need to do is to see every man as a brother or as a potential brother and not to see them simply theologically, intellectually. We need to see them emotionally. We need to see them as God sees them with a broken heart. If you don’t have a broken heart for the unsaved, I suggest that you get alone and wait before God until God gives you a passion and a compassion. Jesus, when he saw the multitudes, was moved with compassion. I’ll tell you one of the great problems today is, in the words of another, a dry-eyed church in a hell-bent world. There are people in our auditorium today, when I give the invitation, they’ll start to look at their watch. So they want to get out. They’re not concerned about souls coming to Jesus. They’re not praying during the invitation. Many of us have brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and neighbors who, if they die in this state today, are going to die and go to hell. And we claim to know the answer. Now, friend, we must share our faith with compassion and with love. Now, number three. Number three, you must be consistent as you share your faith. Notice what it says again. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that go forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing. The idea of bearing precious seed is just scattering the seed everywhere you go. What is the seed? The seed is the Word of God. The Word of God. Jesus, in the parable of the sower, said the seed is the Word. We are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God. We have the precious Word of God and everywhere we go, we need to be consistent in sharing the seed because the seed has power. Years ago, I read about a woman who thought that she would somehow protect her body from decay or vandalism or whatever. She’s a very rich woman. So she had her body, made plans in her will to have her body buried in a great concrete vault. And then she had steel bands put around that vault so it could not be opened. And then she wrote, had written on that steel vault these words, Sealed for Eternity. You know what happened? They got a hairline crack in that vault, according to the story that I read. And a seed fell in that hairline crack and sprouted and began to grow. And the pressure of that seed and those roots went out, cracked that vault wide open, and a mighty tree grew over that vault. She said it was sealed for eternity, but a seed, one little seed, One powerful seed cracked that vault wide open. And I’m telling you, there are people whose hearts are hard as concrete with steel bands around them, but the Word of God is so powerful. Friend, never, never, never diminish the power of the Word of God. You need to understand what you have in your hand when you have a Bible. It is powerful. The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. And we need to know it in our heads, store it in our hearts, and sow it in the world. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing. Do you want to harvest? Well, you have to sow to have a harvest. The Bible says, whatever we sow, we’ll reap. You sow the Word of God. You share what Jesus Christ has done for you. You say, well, pastor, I’m just not trained. You don’t even have to be trained. You don’t even have to be trained. A preacher went into the back of a big department store, like a Walmart or Target or whatever. He wanted to buy some fishing tackle. And he walked back there, all the way back to the back of the store, And he asked this question. He said, what is a good bachelor? A man’s head snapped around and he came up to him, just a stranger, didn’t work there in the store. He didn’t know who the preacher was, but he talked to him about bass lures and hooks and lines and boats and fishing places and bass and bass and fishing and lures and lines and hooks and boats and bass and fishing and lines and hooks. And that preacher said, when I walked out of the department store, that man was still behind me. talking about fish, talking about bass, talking about hooks, talking about lures, talking about lines, talking about boats. It’s obvious to see where the man’s love was. I don’t ever think that he went to a course that said how to share your fishing ability. He just had an experience. He wanted to share it. That’s the reason we’re called witnesses. We’re not lawyers. We’re witnesses. A lawyer argues a case. A witness tells what he’s seen and heard. And very frankly, the reason that some don’t witness is they haven’t seen or heard anything. We have to see. We are to share the Word of God. Now, next. And finally, we are to be confident in sharing. You must be confident in sharing your faith. Notice again, Psalm 126, verses 5 and 6. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, here’s the promise now, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. You need to have this confidence. Now, not everybody you witness to is going to get saved. I dare say most of the people I witness to personally don’t get saved. I don’t bat a thousand. I don’t bat 500. I probably don’t bat 250 in baseball parlance. But I tell you, some will get saved. When a sower goes out to sow, not all the seed that he sows sprouts. That’s the reason you just lavishly sow. You remember the parable there in Mark chapter 4 where the Lord Jesus Christ gave the parable of the sower. Some seed fell by the wayside. The fowls came and got it. Some fell on stony ground and it sprang up and then withered. Some fell among the thorns and the thorns choked it out. But some fell on good soil. You don’t know who’s going to get saved. You just keep sharing your faith. You just keep scattering the seed. It’s God that gives the increase, not you. Your job is to scatter the seed. Sometimes you think the most unlikely people are there and they will never get saved. A while back I got a letter from a man. He said, forgive me for not writing you. He said, I want to tell you what happened to me. He said, years ago when you were a pastor in Merritt Island, Florida, I was a long-haired hippie surfer type. Had a surfboard going down the street on a hot day. And you stopped and picked me up in your automobile. And you shared Jesus Christ with me. And I was trying to act cool. I was trying to act like I was paying no attention to you. And I kind of pretended to brush you off. But you witnessed to me. You shared Jesus Christ with me and you prayed with me. And let me out of the car. He said, forgive me for not writing you sooner and telling you this, but I never got your witness out of my heart until I gave my heart to Jesus Christ and God has saved me and now I’m a preacher of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, I didn’t know that. Matter of fact, I had to think hard to even remember the incident after I got the letter because that’s you just throwing out the seed. You don’t know when somebody is going to get saved when they’re not. But friend, if you go and weep and pray and share and give and always do it consistently. You’re going to find out that you will have the greatest joy in the world. And that is the joy of coming with your sheaves to lay at Jesus’ feet the golden grain. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Now, you tell me, Pastor Rogers, it won’t work. It won’t work. When you tell me it won’t work, do you know what you’re telling me? I’ll tell you what you’re telling me. You’re telling me, friend, that you’re not trying it. You’re telling me that you’re not doing it. Because I’m telling you that God’s word says, he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bring his sheaves with him. Sometimes it takes a long time for your crop, the harvest to come in. Some years ago in our city, there was a man that I got a burden for. He was in the medical field, a doctor. And he was one of the sons of Abraham. I loved him and he loved me. And he would catch me sometimes preaching on television. And he would say, you know, you’re a good talker. And we would talk and so forth. And I began slowly at first and then more strongly to share Jesus with this dear man. We became friends, went to the Memphis State ballgames many times together. He had season tickets, had special seats, and we would go to the ballgames together and talk and laugh and enjoy the ballgame. That’s back when Memphis State was called Memphis State. And I began to get bolder and bolder sharing Jesus with this man. Finally, one time he said to me, Adrian, He said, every time we’re together, you’re talking to me about Jesus. Now, you know who I am. You know my background. You know my family. Don’t always be talking to me about Jesus. Can we just have a good time without you talking to me about Jesus? I said, well, Irvin, yeah. We can have a good time without my talking to you about Jesus. And I won’t talk to you about Jesus. Irvin, I want you to know what I’m thinking. And I said, Irvin, this is what I’m going to be thinking. Told him about Jesus. And I said, now, if I’m not talking to you, are you smart enough to know what I’m thinking? And so we continued to be friends. Years passed. And I continued to pray for this man. He had a serious heart attack. I went to the hospital to see him. He said to me, Adrian, I was at a funeral that you preached a while back. Oh, he said, what you said about heaven was wonderful. I said, Irvin, I don’t want to be there without you. He said, don’t start that again. I said, Irvin, here you are on perhaps a deathbed. And you’re telling me not to start that again. You may be just a heartbeat from eternity. He sat up in bed, put his feet on that little stool, that white gown, and looked at me and he said, all right, tell me about it. And I told him about it. And I said, now let’s pray. And he prayed. And that’s Christ into his heart. After months and years, Of love and faithfulness. He prayed and asked Christ into his heart. I went home from that hospital that night. I walked out in the darkness. I took my keys and I threw them in the air. And it was so dark I didn’t know where they landed. I was just so happy. Just so thrilled that God gave me the privilege to bring just one soul to Jesus Christ. He that go forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. There’s no greater joy than bringing a soul to Jesus Christ. But all of us have to get jump-started every now and then. It’s so easy to go to church, to study our Bible, to have our devotions, to do what we do, and it’s all good. But friend, would you not say, Lord Jesus, help me to share? He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing. Bringing his sheaves with him. All the soul winning you’re ever going to do. You’ll do in this world. And this life. One of these days. You’re going to meet the Savior. One of these days I’m going to die. You’re going to die. Must I go in empty handed. Must I meet my Savior so. Without one soul with which to greet him. Must I empty-handed go? Begin to pray that God will make your soul winner. Would you pray that God will give you a burden for the unsaved? And maybe say, Lord, lay a particular soul upon my heart. Not just the world, that’s fine. But Lord, some soul upon my heart. And help me to share my faith And now, friend, if sharing faith is so important, certainly receiving Jesus is important. Receiving what is being shared. And I’ve shared Jesus with you today. If you’re not saved, you can be saved. Let me tell you that you must acknowledge that you are a sinner. And that your sin deserves judgment and punishment and eternal death and hell. But also believe that God still loves you. And God in mercy allowed his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die upon the cross for you. To pay your sin debt with his precious blood. And he has done that. And that Jesus is proven to be the son of God when God raised him from the dead. And that he said in his word that if you will trust him, he’ll save you. The Bible says clearly and plainly, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt be saved. Will you believe on him today? Will you trust him? Will you right now? Then let me guide you in a prayer. Pray this prayer, dear God. I know that I’m a sinner. I know that I’m lost. I need to be saved. I want to be saved. Jesus, you died to save me and promised to save me if I would trust you. I do trust you, Jesus. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. Save me, Jesus. Pray it and mean it, friend. Save me, Jesus. Save me, Lord Jesus. Did you ask him? Then pray this way. Thank you for doing it, Jesus. I receive it by faith. I stand on your word. That settles it. Begin now to make me the person you want me to be and give me the courage to make it public. In your name I pray. Amen.
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