We want to encourage everyone to come in and get a seat.
I'm not the one that's going to say Rob is long-winded, but if we don't start, he won't end.
We are glad that everyone is out this evening.
We appreciate your presence and I know we've got a few people who aren't able to be here and are watching online and we appreciate their presence as well.
Just for the sake of time, because I know Rob has a lot to cover, we're going to forego what we would normally do in a gospel meeting as far as a song and a prayer and
everything, because this is a training session.
This is what this is intended to be.
And so I do appreciate
and want to reiterate how much I appreciate Rob and Nicole and Hannah coming and being here to help us, to educate us, to train us.
Hopefully you've got your back to the Bibles with you, you've got your booklet with you from last night.
If you do need an extra copy, pick one up on the table if you manage to get here without it.
But I'm going to turn it over to Rob and let him get started.
Good evening.
Grateful for your presence tonight.
I know that a midweek of
The session is challenging, especially with Memphis traffic.
Getting here at 6.30, but we're grateful you've made the trip tonight.
Have some students from the Memphis School of Preaching.
We'll be at the Memphis School of Preaching in the middle of March.
We'll also be at the Arlington Church of Christ.
Brother, I believe Tibbets is located there, and we'll be doing some training together.
Brother Clark asked us to come every two years and do the training at Memphis.
We're grateful for that availability.
So we want to get started.
immediately this evening.
If you are visiting tonight and you have not.
use the QR code or sign the clipboard.
Please do that.
This is how we send you free evangelism material.
So we're gonna fill your inbox with tools.
We're gonna send something called Reaching the Lost.
If you're not receiving that, use that QR code or just sign the clipboard on the back table and we'll be glad to provide you that information on a weekly basis.
So these are direct reports from churches.
If it works, you're gonna see it.
It's their words.
If it doesn't work, you're gonna hear it.
It's their words.
So we just give you these reports.
up every week, you're going to get about 75 congregations a week that are reporting and they're just telling you how things are progressing.
And so it's not mandatory, but we ask churches to participate because it helps to edify the local body and we learn from the test results or the work you're doing at the local
area.
We have a YouTube channel if you've not already subscribed to it.
It's called House to House School of Evangelism.
If you have your YouTube app, open it up now because you're going to forget and just subscribe.
There are 170 videos.
These videos range from one minute TikTok link to five minutes.
That's about the American culture link.
And they're all training videos and all those are for your learning.
We want to start this evening by introducing a tool.
So a fisherman isn't very good without a fishing pole.
A carpenter is not very good without a hammer.
not have a tackle box, you're not gonna be very good at your trade.
So we need to equip our members.
We need to equip the church.
And the fact is that most church members have no method.
They have no tools.
And so if they were going to have a Bible study, they don't even know where they would begin.
And what we wanna do is answer that question.
What do I use?
When I approach a family member, is there something simple that you can put in my hand that I could use to have a Bible study?
your hands tonight is back to the Bible.
in the Evangelism Simplified Guidebook.
Now, in 2016, let's go ahead and just set the stage.
Christian University, and I have their other studies, I have all the analytics, but they published a survey, a poll, and what they wanted to do was find out where we're going and
what do the numbers look like for a projection.
And I revealed on Sunday, they found out that two-thirds
of our church members are over the age of 50.
And they pulled 9,500 Christians.
That's a pretty good sample size.
These are just in the Church of Christ.
They found out that 13 % of our church members are under the age of 30, meaning we're a great headed church.
Now, then they ran their projections to find out, what does it mean?
They looked at the past rate of loss, the current rate of loss, and they began to make their projections.
Here's what it means.
In the year 2016, when they did the study, we had 12,200 churches of Christ.
That's about where we
were and that's the directory.
have a Churches of Christ directory.
It's gonna get most Churches of Christ.
This is where we were in 2016.
Using those same metrics, in 2019, they said it's gonna drop down to about 11,500 Churches of Christ.
They were spot on.
That's exactly what happened.
They said, OK, if the direction keeps going, where are we going to be by 2022?
We're going to just have over 10,000 churches of Christ.
That's exactly where we are today.
So they hit their numbers every time they made a projection.
All they did is take the current rate of loss, they took the past rate of loss, they took the demographic, and they ran the numbers.
Where are we going?
What will we look like?
So here's what they did.
Let's pop it forward 25 years.
25 years from now, 2049, we'll have 3,000 churches left.
All right, let's go ahead and advance the slide.
What is that going to do to membership?
So what will our membership look like?
right, you're 2016, about 1.2 million members of the Lord's Church.
All right, that's where we were according to their data.
All where will we be in 2022?
We're gonna be down to about a million members left.
Here's where it gets frightening.
They were spot on.
That's exactly where we were in 2022.
We don't even have a million members now.
So the numbers follow the chart.
Now where will we be in 2049?
They said we project you have about 275,000 members left.
Well if those numbers don't stir your spirit tonight, if they don't cause you to come out of your pews and realize that we must focus on evangelism like never before, you're
already half dead.
because this is a reality that's setting in every single year.
Now, here's the good news.
The good news is that these are just projections, and a projection is only as accurate as the variables that are placed into it.
So if a variable changes, the entire projection changes.
So if we can take one of those variables that are being used and affect the number, and that's what we're trying to do in evangelism, is we're trying to affect the variables and
say, listen, we're not gonna sit in our pew,
and watch the Church of Christ disintegrate, we're going to get busy.
We're going to get out of our pews, we're going to create contacts, we're going to prospect the contacts, and we're going to have Bible studies, so this never comes true.
You're on a time clock.
2049.
If we don't change those numbers, this is exactly what's gonna happen.
I want you to take your back to the Bibles because we're gonna spend some time looking at these together.
And you have your evangelism simplified guidebook.
All right, Matthew 28 verse 19, what does the Bible say?
Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
This is called the Great Commission, but it is great because Jesus spoke it.
It's not great because preachers preach it.
It's great because Jesus spoke it.
It could be more accurately called the New Testament Commission.
The reason it's great is there's only one.
You can read from Matthew to Revelation, you'll find only one great commission.
It's stated in Matthew 28, 18 through 20.
It's stated in Mark 16, 15 and 16.
It's stated in Luke 24, 47 through 49.
It's stated in John 20, 21 through 23.
In every gospel account, Jesus states it.
It's then stated again in Acts 1.
verse eight, then it's demonstrated throughout every New Testament epistle, so we find that the Great Commission is the core of who we are.
It's our purpose.
Our purpose is to make known to the world the manifold wisdom of God, Ephesians 3, 20 and 21.
That Great Commission has some characteristics to it that are inherent in the very grammar itself.
Let's look at one of them.
It says, ye.
That term, ye, is plural.
It's not singular.
He does not mean just go me, but the go ye means go all.
Everyone's gotta go.
We are an army of soul winners.
We can't pin this on the back of Aaron.
We can't pin this on the back of the Memphis School of Preaching.
We can't pin this on the back of a missionary to do the work for us.
If this doesn't become the culture of our churches, the Great Commission fails.
It will not function.
Go ye therefore and teach.
It's a teaching commission.
We've got to teach.
If we're not teaching, then we're failing.
So the Great Commission is a teaching commission.
Now notice what happens when you teach.
You baptize.
So show me a church that's having baptisms.
I'll show you a church that's teaching.
If their church is not having baptisms, then I would suggest your church probably has no Bible studies.
And someone says, Rob, we're struggling.
We don't have baptisms.
My question is, how many Bible studies are going on right now in your church?
We've got five.
Well, tell me about those five.
Well, all five are studies with your memory.
We want to know how many you're doing with the non-members, how many in the community, how many friends, family, coworkers, ball team members, people that you grew up with, how many
of those studies are going on?
So I did not draw the correlation, I just connected the dots.
When Jesus said, ye therefore teach and baptize, he's giving us the recipe for baptisms.
Baptisms are the result of teaching.
And so we must teach people the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So what's happened?
So do we believe in the Great Commission and the Church of Christ?
Yes or no?
Of course.
Because we send thousands upon thousands of dollars to these countries.
Tens of thousands, hundreds, millions of dollars are flowing into India.
I know that.
Millions of dollars are being flown into South Africa and South America.
I know that.
We believe in the Great Commission because we're willing to send teams of missionaries, yes to missions, campaigns.
We're willing to go all over the world.
But, brethren, I want to propose tonight that the Great Commission in South America has become the great omission in the United States of America because we don't do it.
We don't do it here.
We don't do it because our members don't believe it works.
They've never been a part of it.
There's no plan.
We don't have any organization.
There's no strategy.
There's no tools.
There's no equipment.
And so our members find it easier to get on an airplane, take the shots, get your visas, go halfway around the world, live in difficult environments, but at least you got the
baptisms.
And those missionaries come back.
They give us the reports.
They show us the baptisms.
we've accomplished success.
One elder told me at polishing the pulpit, he said, preacher, he said, I'll tell you why we send our money to India, because it's easier.
It's easier to write the check.
What you're asking us to do is hard.
What you're asking us to do is, it's just easier for us to send it to Tanzania.
Brethren, I'm not opposed to supporting Tanzania.
I'm not opposed to supporting Mexico.
But I am all for supporting Collierville.
Because if there's no evangelism in Calderville, you won't be able to support Tanzania.
In fact, one day, India will have to send their missionaries to Calderville because we're not here.
And so this is important.
This is vital to understand that the Great Commission starts with your next door neighbor.
It don't start in Tanzania.
It don't start halfway around the world.
It starts with the guy you work with.
It starts with your family.
It starts with your friends.
It starts with the very people that you are around every day.
And so we've got to learn how to apply this to the people that we know.
So I'm preparing for my Bible class one Sunday morning and this couple walks through the doors and I didn't know them.
I identified them, my wife and I walked up and I said, my name's Rob, this is my wife Nicole.
said, I'm Jonathan Royals, my wife Stephanie.
I said, well, we're glad you're here.
I said, you guys new to the area?
He says, we are.
I said, well, did someone here invite you?
said, you did.
and I've never seen him in my life.
And he said, well, someone in this church did, and he brought out a copy of House to House, Heart to Heart, because as a church, we're sending out that publication every
single month, and we're inviting people to church.
And he tells me how that he got up this morning, he decided his family needed to go to church, he saw that House to House, Heart to Heart, he says, why don't we go there?
And that's why he's sitting in the church building.
I said, I'm glad you're here.
After the services I walked up, I'm excited because all I could think about was step three.
That's all I could think about, Bible study.
I've got a Bible study sitting in the pews and I could not wait to get to them.
And as soon as services were over, my wife and I walked up and said, hey, Jonathan, said, my wife is the best cook in Macon County.
And my daughter's the best dessert maker you'll ever see.
I said, why don't you guys come over to the house?
She's got enough food fixed and we'll get to know each other.
I said, what do you think?
He looked at me, raised his little finger and said, I don't know you and I don't want to go to your house.
That was a completely unexpected answer.
Like I never thought that answer would be given, but we do live in the United States of America.
And we're a very unique culture.
And every culture around the world
If you showed up as a visitor, they take you to their home.
I'm telling you, that's what they do.
And I've been to these different nations.
And they'll give you their house.
They'll give you their bedroom.
They'll give you everything they have.
That's the culture, not here.
So when you meet people for the first time, and they invite you to their home, you're not going because you think they're a serial killer.
We don't do that in America.
In America, if you're going to meet someone for the first time, the first thing you do is invite them out to eat.
Very neutral environment.
I failed to do that.
I skipped that step.
I went right to the, let's come to my house.
And so, so Jonathan looked at, I looked at Jonathan.
I said, well Jonathan, I'm sorry, I was so forward.
I just, you know, I said, what do you want to do?
I said, I'd like to get with you.
He said, huh.
He said, Tuesday I'm free.
Why don't you come to my house?
Now he's the serial killer now.
That's exactly what's going on here.
So I said, I said, okay, you know, I said, I'm coming.
And my wife said,
you sure about this?
You know we don't know these people." And I said, yes honey, said, I think everything's fine.
so sure enough we pull into their driveway, know, my kids get outside and their assignment is to take their four children, they have four, Johnny, Julie Ann, Jen, and Jacy, take
them outside and play.
We're going to do a Bible study.
So I walked inside the house, I got my little booklets, and I'm ready to go.
And so I'm just about to pull out my booklets, and I said, Jonathan, I said, I guess you guys want to know more about our church?
He said, I kind
to do?" I said, you know I just so happen to have these little booklets that are called Back to the Bible.
And I said, in fact I just brought enough sets for us.
And I said, if it's okay with you, I said we'll just open our Bibles and we'll look at it.
And he said, well there are a few things I want you to know about me Rob.
I said, well what is it?
He said, he said we're from Florida.
I said, I like Floridians, that's not a problem.
I said, no problem.
He said, well Rob, he says I was deputy sheriff.
I said, I love law enforcement.
Not a problem.
He said, now Rob, said, I'm religious.
I said, I love religious people.
This is wonderful.
I said, he said, and by the way, he said, we went to this big community church.
He says, and my son was saved in that church.
He said, praise Jesus.
And I said, Jonathan, I said, this is wonderful.
I said, I can't think of a better way to start.
And I said, is there anything else I need to know?
He says, no.
He said, oh, by the way, he says that you'll have to prove everything you teach me.
I said, I like that.
I said, by the way, it's called Back to the Bible.
Every answer will come out of the Bible.
He said, okay.
I said, Jonathan, take your Bible, John 832.
So we opened the Bible up, we started reading, and Jonathan reads the text.
said, Jonathan, Jesus says the blank will make you free.
And I said, what is it, Jonathan?
He said, how do you know it's Jesus?
And I said, well, the letters are red.
And he said, that won't work.
He said, how do you know it's Jesus?
And I said, because verse 31 says, and Jesus said, will that work?
He said, that'll work.
And he put the word truth down.
And every time we went to a question, he looks at it very carefully and he fills it out.
We're walking through the study, halfway through the study, he stops and he says, I got it.
He says, every answer comes from the Bible.
I said, bingo.
And now he's just rolling the answers off his tongue.
He's learned that if it doesn't come from the Bible, we don't believe it.
And he loves it.
We get to do that study.
Stephanie says, Jonathan, she said, I don't think we've ever done a Bible study in our life.
He said, man, I learned a lot.
I said, y'all like it?
He said, I said, Jonathan, would it be okay if you came to our house next week?
He said, well, yes.
I said, my wife is the best cook in Macon County.
And I said, you come over, we'll cook a dinner and we'll just have a good time.
We'll learn a little bit more about it.
He said, that'd be good.
So they came over with the second study.
Could have gone better.
If it's in the Bible, they'll believe it.
Stephanie says, Jonathan, I didn't know you're
supposed to take the Lord's Seppar on the first day of each week.
I never read this verse before.
And this is a kind of interaction you have.
And it's very rewarding to watch people learn, to see them soak it up and be honest.
And you're helping them see the clarity and the simplicity of scripture.
So then they come to the third study.
We're walking through it.
Stephanie, her eyes get glassy.
She gets it.
Jonathan is real quiet.
And she looks at her husband, she says, Jonathan, neither you or I have ever been baptized.
And I looked at them, I said, I know how we can fix that.
And we took them to the baptistry that very hour, baptized them into Christ, and Jonathan and Stephanie became Christians.
That's not why I'm telling you this story.
This is why, because I have a son, his name's Johnny.
And so as soon as they're coming out of the water, I looked at Jonathan, said, Jonathan, said, Johnny, he don't know, he's lost.
I said, why don't we set that Bible, study it with Johnny, he's 15.
I said, he needs it.
And he looked at me, and I remember, because we're back in the dressing room, he's getting dressed, and I'm waiting on him, and we're talking, and he says, He says, I don't want you
studying with my son.
And I thought I'd just lost all the progress I've made.
That kind of stunned me when he said that.
And I said, what do you mean?
He said, well, have you got any of those little booklets?
I said, let me see if I've got them.
Yes, they're called back to the Bible.
I said, he just so happened to have three sets.
He said, good, because I need them.
I said, why would you want them, Jonathan?
He says, because we're going to teach our son.
I want to know how it is that we've got brand new Christians that know enough to teach people the gospel.
But we've got members of the Church of Christ who've been sitting in the pews for decades, for decades, and they don't know enough to have a Bible study.
You can learn a lot from new converts.
Here's one thing I've learned from new converts.
New converts don't know that Bible studies don't work.
They don't know that.
But our members seem to know that.
you know, it just won't work.
We've tried this before.
Bible studies just don't work today.
You're just wasting your time.
We know that it works in India, but it won't work in Calgarville.
Well, I'm glad they don't know that.
It's amazing what happens when you study the Word of God.
I remember the day that Jonathan called me.
They finished the Bible study.
and we baptized Johnny into Christ for the remission of his sins.
By the way, he went to the Memphis School of Preaching along with Hatton, and today they're preaching the gospel.
It's amazing what happens when you help people, when you teach people.
So don't ride off your community.
The gospel still has the power to save.
We can still reach people, but you need a tool.
And I had a tool for Jonathan and Stephanie.
I had a tool for Johnny, and I need to give you a tool.
So open up those back to the Bibles, everyone, and take some notes.
Number one, I like back to the Bible because it's simple, and we need simple things.
Brother New Converts are using it.
Just three studies, 90 minutes to complete.
In most of the time, Nicole and I can do it in about 60 minutes.
And so if someone is not proficient in finding Bible passages, you extend it out to about 90 minutes.
But it doesn't take you hours and hours and hours.
If it's taking you two, three hours to do a study, you're talking too much.
Stop talking.
We don't need you to over-talk and under-teach.
We need you to use the tool.
And so one of the rules you'll
learn when you're fishing, Is let the fishing pole do the work.
Don't fight it.
My dad, I remember him teaching me how to swing a hammer.
He said, son, your arm's not gonna last about 30 more minutes and you're done.
Let the hammer do the work.
And so the reason you have tools is because it does the work for you.
So your gift of dab is not needed, no disrespect.
We don't need you to flash your Greek knowledge.
Keep it at Memphis School of Preaching.
They don't need your Greek knowledge.
They don't need your Hebrew knowledge either.
They don't need grammatical constructions compared to passages, historical analysis.
They don't need all that.
They need you to read the Bible.
Period.
Let the Bible do the work.
We're our own worst enemies when it comes to Bible studies.
All right, it's simple.
Yes, no, fill in the blank.
You're answering questions.
All right, number two, I like Back to the Bible because it's scriptural.
It's based on the Bible.
So anytime we do a Bible study, all right, we need to use the scripture and allow the scripture to be the power of God.
Now, the Back to the Bible series was written by Bobby Bates.
It's written in the 1970s.
Brother Bates used the King James version of the Bible.
I grew up on the King James version of the Bible.
So when someone walks in my home, like Brittany Massey, and lays her Bible on the table and goes maybe outside or to the bathroom, I'm gonna pick up her Bible.
You know why?
I wonder what version she's using.
So I said, Nicole, hand me Brittany's Bible.
the new American Catholic Bible.
Honey, how are we going?
We can't do a Bible study with the new American Catholic Bible.
So I began to formulate my arguments.
How am I gonna get her not to use the new American Catholic Bible?
And I've got my gift of war Bible over my shoulder.
I'm gonna give it to her so we can swap out Bibles.
And so I'm trying to figure out how to have this discussion with Brittany about this Bible she's brought.
She sits down, thank God I came to myself and realized that I'm about to violate principle number seven.
Remember what principle number seven is?
Anybody remember what it is?
Hesitate.
Do not climb Mount Versin.
Climb Mount Conversion.
We do not need to take down Mount Versin now.
We'll take Mount Versin later.
And so I said, you know, we'll just use the New American Catholic Bible.
And we did.
You know what happened?
She was baptized.
After the baptism, she's sitting around the table at our house.
doing a new convert study.
She says, Rob, have I ever told you the study about my Bible?
I said, no, Brittany, you have not.
She said, Rob, that's the family Bible.
Grandma gave it to me before she passed.
What would have happened if I insulted the family Bible?
Anybody?
There's no Bible study.
There's not gonna be a Bible study.
And so I'm not gonna teach Melk, she doesn't use it today because we have tackled that together.
It's a family heirloom now.
So I'm not gonna start with Melk version.
I'm gonna...
Start with Mount conversion.
Now it requires Bible reading.
She had to read her Bible because all answers come from the text.
Any Bible study that does not require you to read the Bible, run from it.
All right?
We need people reading the book because Psalm 19, seven says by the words of the Lord, right?
By the word of God is conversion.
It's God's law that converts people.
We don't want them to read some type of track, right?
Without reading their Bible.
I'm all in favor of tracks, but we want people
to open the scripture because this is where the power of conversion is.
Every Bible study should require you to read your Bible.
I know that some Bible studies like to write down all the scriptures for you.
I don't like that at all.
You're not teaching them to read a Bible.
right, what makes it easier?
know, just because it's easier doesn't mean it's better.
All right, teach them how to open a Bible.
Teach them how to find the book of Matthew.
Give them the page number.
Don't give them the page number.
Let them learn how to find Matthew.
Take it from someone who's had hundreds of Bible studies.
My wife and I have had hundreds of these.
You will be better off if you teach them how to use a Bible.
You're gonna be better off if you build their confidence up so they know how to find places in the Bible.
Because when they go home, you can't give them the page number.
So if you teach them how to find Matthew, they're better off.
You know, it's not hard.
You know when my wife and I, about halfway through the study, they'll find Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Romans, and Revelation.
Halfway through one study.
It's amazing how smart the mind is if we just let them learn.
All right, so we're gonna require them to read their Bible.
We're gonna require them to open their Bible, get the answer from the text, and we're gonna follow the scriptural order.
So what's the scriptural order?
Well, let's go to Acts chapter eight.
Let's go to Acts chapter eight and let's look at verse number four and five.
So I'm gonna give you what
with Wilma, Bobby's widow, and this is who talked to me about Acts 8 and 4 and 5.
It was Wilma Bates, we were at her dinner table, and she said, Rob, have I ever taught you about how Bobby wrote back to the Bible?
I said, no, but I would love to hear it.
Well, Rob, followed the scriptural order.
Well, I've been preaching for several years.
I've never heard of the scriptural order.
So I said, well, I want to know more about it.
All right, she said, go to Acts 8, and let's look at verses four and five.
Therefore, they that were scattered abroad, whenever were preaching the word.
All right, she said, now, Rob, watch out.
Then Philip, the inspired evangelist, let me be clear tonight.
Philip is inspired, I'm not.
Philip is inspired, you're not.
So whatever Philip does, it's right.
Whatever Philip does, it's gotta be better than what you do.
So I need to listen to Philip.
And whatever Philip does is what I'm going to do.
So what did he do?
What is his modus operandi?
How does he achieve success?
Well, Philip opened, notice Philip opened, went down to the city of Samaria, he opens the gospel and he preaches what?
Christ.
He preaches Christ.
So if we wanna evangelize, what should we do, everyone?
Preach Christ, well what does that mean?
Does that mean preach Jesus in the manger?
Does that mean preach Jesus when he was 12 in Jerusalem?
Does it mean preach Jesus at the wedding feast in Cana?
Does it mean preach Jesus in John 4 at the Samaritan woman?
What does that mean?
How about Nicodemus, John 3?
I mean there's a lot of things that could be incorporated into this.
Not if you read your Bible.
because he tells you what that means.
So I you to go down to verse number 12.
Everybody go down to verse 12.
But when they believe Philip's preaching, what was he preaching?
Christ.
What does that mean, brother?
Let's just read.
All right, verse number 12.
When they believe in what's preaching, the things concerning the kingdom of God, the name of Jesus Christ, he baptized them, both men and women.
Everybody get out there back to the Bibles.
Right here, there's three of them.
It's not hard.
I everybody to hold them up.
All right, there you go.
You're not very good at it, just I'll teach you how to do it.
It's on the wrist, brother.
You got to do that.
All right, there you go.
All got three of them.
Now, everybody, let's hold up the green booklet, everybody.
Hold up the green booklet.
This is not hard.
All right.
is the name of Jesus Christ.
Okay, this is called Bible authority.
It's the name of Jesus Christ.
Let's hold up book number two.
All hold up book number two.
That is the kingdom of God.
This is a book about the church of Christ.
That's what the kingdom of God is.
It's the church of Christ.
Let's hold up book number three.
That's baptism.
That is the salvation of Christ.
So when Bobby Bates wrote back to the Bible, he wrote a Bible study series based upon what Philip did.
Philip talked about the authority of Christ, the church of Christ, and the salvation.
of Christ.
So I would strongly recommend that if you're going to do a Bible study, you cover those three things because you're never going to come up with a better method than Philip.
You're not inspired.
He was.
So I've heard a lot of evangelists in my day and every now and then I run across a brother that says, we shouldn't be teaching them about the church before they're saved.
Says who?
because Philip didn't know that rule.
Philip taught him about the church, where they said in Acts two, you know, they didn't talk about the church, how do you know that?
Acts two, verse 41 says what?
With many other words, they testify and exhort saying, save yourselves from this crooked and ordained towards you.
What words?
We don't have those words.
By the way, the church was in her infancy.
She was just being established.
Okay, we didn't have all the ins and outs of the church in Acts two.
It wasn't until verse 47, she's in existence.
and pay very close attention to what the evangelists did and act and let's just duplicate it.
Let's just do what they did.
If we do what Philip did, would we be wrong?
Yes or no?
No.
If we don't do what Philip did, could we be wrong?
Yes.
Of course.
All right, number three, it's successful, works.
Why do I love back to the Bible?
Why do I love evangelism?
Because New Testament evangelism works.
And when you put a tool in the hand of a member of the church, it's incredible what happens.
So I said, Ms.
Wilma, I said, when you and Bobby did these Bible studies, what was your rate of conversion?
She said, oh, 90%.
We kept records,
So Nicole and I went home after that trip.
I got out my black little notebook.
I started counting all the Bible studies out because I kept records of all the studies we've done.
You know what I found?
92%.
92 % of the people we study with become Christians when they finish back to the Bible.
Brethren, you don't believe those numbers, then I'm gonna ask you to consider what I'm about to do in the next five minutes.
Because I ask my daughter to go back to the churches enrolled, and I wanna know their percentage.
I wanna find out is it working.
Because if what we're teaching isn't working, I'll just close the school.
There's no need for me to go from church to church.
I just go back to local work.
Here's what I found.
I remember a, Jonathan Royal called me one day.
He said, Rob, says, he said, Mimi's coming.
I said, what is a Mimi?
He said, that's my mother-in-law.
And he says, I'm gonna convert my mother-in-law.
And I thought to myself, well, man, it can't be wrong to convert mother-in-laws.
I said, that sounds like a good plan to me.
And I said, how do you plan to do that, Jonathan?
He says, I'm going to do what you do.
He said, I'm going to invite the Mimi over when she moves in, and Stephanie's going to make her mother supper.
And after supper, I'm going to ask her the transition questions.
And Mimi, what do you think about the church you've been attending?
Well, I kind of like it.
Mimi, do you know a lot about the Willette Church of Christ?
I really don't know a lot about it.
Mimi, would you like to know more about the church?
Yeah, I just so happen to have these little booklets that are called Back to the Bible.
And he said, Rob, we're gonna do a Bible study.
I said, good.
I said, Jonathan, let me know how it goes.
Nine o'clock that night he calls me.
Rob, we just finished Back to the Bible book one with the Mimi.
I said, how did she like it?
She loved it.
Three weeks later, he calls me and he says, I need help, Rob, I've never baptized anybody before.
I said, I'll be right there.
That's baptisms that happen at Collegereville, the ones that Aaron doesn't do.
It's the ones that you do.
It's when the members get involved.
It's when the members are calling you and they're asking for help because they're the ones that will determine whether this church grows or not.
will not be Aaron.
All right, you ready?
Fasten your seatbelt.
So here are the churches.
First, let's go up to Aberdeen.
Every one of these churches baptized 10 % of their membership in one year.
Aberdeen, Maryland, this is Will Brown.
His church is right across from the baseball park built by Cal Ripken from Minor League World Series.
I've been up there, Will is involved.
Incredible church, they hit their 10 % every year.
fact, they've hit about six of them already this year.
This right here is go down to Texas, Bryan College Station, BCS Church of Christ, 16.
By the way, that's where the Texas School of Preaching is located.
I expect y'all to do better.
I challenge every school of preaching.
They can baptize 16 at BCS.
Every school of preaching, those students need to focus on souls.
Let's reach the lost.
Let's help Forest Hill reach the lost.
Let's Collierville reach the lost.
I can think of a better work for a school of preaching for the students to incorporate themselves into that local church and help reach lost souls.
What about central Kentucky?
is where Adam Fawn is.
18 baptisms.
Every year they hit it.
This is Chapel Hill, Isaac Bourne, Fred Hardman grad, 19 baptisms.
This is Covington, 19 baptisms.
This is Coyote, Oklahoma.
Never went to a school of preaching.
Homegrown preachers, named Keen O'Shrum.
They set the record in 2023 with 31.2 % baptism rate.
In fact, he's been so good, we hired him.
Now he's one of our regional trainers.
Excellent church.
from 22 to, they got up to 70 members, two and a half years.
Let's go over here to East Flushings, we're in New York, we're baptizing in Queens, every year he hits his mark.
Every year he hits, he started with a very little number of members.
Now there are about 50 or so.
And every year he hits his mark.
Let's go back down to Tennessee, East Maine, Murfreesboro, 19 baptisms.
Let's go to Forest Hill, Memphis last year, 11 baptisms.
You add in your restorations, you hit your mark.
That church got busy.
I could not be more thankful than the work that Scott Kane and those elders did last year as they focused that church on soul winning.
Let's go back to Glencoe, seven baptisms, that's where we attend.
When my wife and family, when my children, we got there, they had 45 members.
They've from 180 to 45 in 10 years.
In two and a half years, we've gone from 45 to 120.
and we used evangelism and we made it the folk, we've had six already this year.
We've got five Bible studies going on right now at Glencoe.
Right now, Granbury Street, Cleveland, Texas, 10 baptisms.
Let's go back down to Alabama, Hatton.
This is 17 baptisms.
Chris Miller, this is Honolulu, Tagaluma, Essene, Memphis Grad, 13 baptisms.
He has hit the mark every year.
When we first went to Honolulu, they had 90 members.
Now they have 150 members.
Ask him if it works.
because we hired him.
He's one of our regional trainers too.
Then we have the Decarne's Church of Christ.
This is Knoxville, Tennessee, 43 baptisms.
So here we have a congregation, Steve Higginbotham.
They've had a hundred baptisms in two years.
This is where the Southeast Institute of Biblical Studies is located.
Does it work?
Ask them, because they've had a hundred baptisms in two years.
This is Lafayette Church of Christ.
David paid in nine baptisms.
He had Lou Gehrig's disease.
They literally had to carry him into the pulpit.
He just passed away not long ago and that church is continuing.
In fact, the elders just called me and they said, Rob, we're gonna retrain the church again with this new preacher and they're doing a great job.
Lake Regions, New Hampshire, you know, you can't, it doesn't work in the Northeast.
You know, they're kind of, you know, they're kind of European up there, you know, they don't really believe in God up in the North.
They don't know that at Lake Regions because they just baptize people.
Every year they hit their mark.
Here's La Plata, here's Eric Sykes, 50 baptisms in two years.
He's one of our regional trainers.
So Eric has set the mark.
50 baptisms, two years.
He goes around to those churches up there around the DC area.
In fact, we were just up there with him.
And so we went to a church.
Eric follows up.
And we're in the Beltway.
You know the Beltway around DC?
Brethren, they need some evangelism in DC.
If there's any place on earth that needs evangelism, it's those politicians.
And that's exactly what we gave him, a strong dose of it.
We're going back in the fall.
This is right here, is Linville Forest.
This is Kernelsville, 11 baptisms.
This right here is Madisonville, Russell Klein, MSOP grad, six baptisms.
This right here is McKenzie.
Here's another MSOP grad, no, McKenzie is, Steele, I think he's an MSOP grad.
This right here is Terry Townsend, nine baptisms in Ohio.
This is Niceville, Joe Palmer, 16 baptisms.
This is Northern Oaks, Church of Christ, 27.
grad, we graduated together, 27 baptism.
This is Oak Hill, 14 baptisms, that's where Matt Wallins at.
This is Paintsville, homegrown preacher, Zach Collins, never went to a preaching school, he's about your age.
11 baptisms.
This right here is Raven County, this is McKinley, McKinley has an MSOP grad, he had six baptisms, this is a church of like 20, it's a mission work in Georgia.
and he revitalizes a church, he surpasses his goals.
You know how many baptisms he's had this year?
He's already had four.
They get 35 in attendance Sunday because of evangelism.
But it doesn't work, it?
Let's go back over here to Risen, Arkansas.
This is Keaton Shrum, little church about 50, five baptisms.
This is Sanford, a church of 60.
They've had four baptisms, two restorations.
I'm not talking about people saying, I need you to pray for me.
I'm talking about true prodigals, people who've left the church and come home.
Southside, Grand Rapids, Michigan, seven.
Sunset, this is where Zach Williams is located.
18 baptisms from Zach, incredible soul winner.
Union, South Carolina, Terry Hale,
This is a, Warner Robbins, Daniel Steersman, 17 baptisms, Woodstock, Georgia, Matt Amos, 15 baptisms.
Is that enough evidence?
Brother, I want you to look at the names of the churches.
These are the churches that are succeeding.
These are the churches that are reporting and keeping that 10 % threshold.
So how many baptisms does that mean Collegue of Real Needs?
You need six.
Is that a reasonable goal?
Six baptisms next year at seven.
You know what happens if you baptize 10 % of your membership seven years in a row?
Anybody know what the rule of seven is?
Anybody know what happens?
You double.
You double in seven years.
What happens if you baptize 20 %?
You do what Keno Shrum did and they tripled.
It's amazing what happens when we start putting things in proportion.
here's some more.
Maybe you know some of these churches.
These are the churches that are baptizing.
These are the churches that are evangelizing.
These are the churches that do not take no for an answer.
These are the churches that when they hit a brick wall, they run through it.
They don't give up because souls are at stake.
I thank God for churches.
that evangelize, because the Church of Christ can grow.
We don't have to have popcorn machines, vending machines.
We don't have to fill our churches with coffee bars.
We don't have to become the next social network church.
What we need to do is focus people on evangelism.
And when we do that, we can grow.
I want to spend a few minutes this evening demonstrating the power of a Bible study.
So I want to baptize somebody tonight.
I hope your baptistry is ready.
And so we're going to demonstrate it.
And I need a volunteer.
So I'm looking for somebody that can help me.
Who here can help me and volunteer?
who can volunteer?
Josh, put your hand down.
You know, preachers, they always want to steal the limelight.
And they always want to steal the limelight.
And brother, you want to come up here?
You want to help me?
I know you will.
You're going to be fine.
And I'm like, can you get that man a chair?
Someone get him a chair.
Bring that chair up.
Brother, can you bring that chair up for him?
He needs a chair.
So I'm going to use this brother right here.
And we're going to put him right in the chair.
And did I warn you I was going to do this?
No.
So this is real.
This is real.
I feel like you're going to give me a prayer cloth and put me on the ground.
Brother, does it look like I can throw you on the ground?
I don't think I can.
And so sit right there.
All right.
And you're going to need a Bible.
happen to have these little booklets and so you'll need the booklets and you may need your Bible and someone go give his Bible for him.
He may need his Bible.
So we're gonna demonstrate the effectiveness of back to the Bible.
Now on page 102 of your evangelism simplified workbook, everybody open their workbook, they're going to notice that we have a survey and on that survey we have questions and
those questions there and those are questions
is designed to evaluate where the church is at.
So where is the congregation located?
In other words, is that church, okay, as you are working with people, working with people who believe in God, or do they believe in the Bible, or do they believe in Jesus, find out
where they are on the map.
And that's very important.
That a church finds out where people are located.
And every church is located in a different place.
So when you're in Queens, New York, you have a little bit different clientele.
When you're in New Hampshire, little bit different makeup.
When you're in Austin, Texas, it's different.
John Garza said, Rob, about 25 % of all the Bible studies in Austin, Texas don't use back to the Bible.
We use believe the Bible.
We have to use a different tool because they don't believe in God.
So I'm going to find out first where he's located.
And so the best way to do that is to have a conversation.
So I'm going to suggest that we've been spending time together.
And we kind of hit it off.
You came and visited one Sunday.
We found out that you were just moving into the area and my family invited you out to eat and we immediately hit it off at that Memphis barbecue and you enjoyed it and I enjoyed
it.
Then we found out we're both UT fans and we even went to a game.
Let's say we went to a game together.
We watched some football together and we've been.
Who'd we be?
Alabama.
All Alabama.
right.
So any case, sorry brother.
Any case, so we built this little relationship.
Now I always do that.
I'm never gonna rush into a study.
I'm gonna build a little bit of a friendship with people.
I wanna get to know them.
So one of these days, maybe we're just talking one day and say, I tell you what.
What do you think about the Collierville Church of Christ?
You've been visiting, what would you think about the church?
I figured you'd say that because they've sent you cards, they've taken you out to eat, they're nice hospitable people.
You know, I'm kind of on the inside.
I don't always see clearly.
By the way, do you know a lot about the Call Your Real Church Christ?
I do.
No, you don't.
You just moved here.
You don't know much about it.
Boy, he's going to be tough.
You got to role play with me, okay?
You want me to play you?
Yes, right.
Number three.
All right.
Hey, since you've been visiting with us, would you like to know a little bit more about us?
Sure.
Okay.
Hey, my wife, we're smoking a brisket.
It's about ready.
Why you come over tomorrow night and we'll talk about the church.
I don't like Texas barbecue.
That's okay.
It's Memphis version.
Okay.
All right.
So I told you he's going to be hard.
And so any case, so we're going to, I want to have more of the house.
And as I'm sitting there with him and I, you know, we're just talking, I said, Hey man, I was thinking,
You know, if I got lost and I was trying to head over to your house and I called you and say, man, I'm lost.
I don't know how to get there.
And I said, could you give me directions?
Would you help me if I got lost?
Sure.
OK.
What's the first question you'd ask me?
Where are you at?
That's right.
When we study the Bible, it's kind important to know where we're at.
And I think I know the answers to these questions, but I guess we both believe in God.
We've talked about God and we both believe in God.
That's right.
And you said you'd like to read your Bible every day.
So I suspect you believe the Bible is the word of God.
you believe God will do everything he said in this book.
No mistakes, no issues, no conflicts.
You believe in that book.
That's right.
And you said that you believe in Jesus.
You're Jesus is a son of God.
He was born of a virgin and buried and rose the third day.
Yeah, that's right.
Me too.
And I assume we both believe in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
We both believe in that.
And I assume we both believe we're saved.
I remember I was 15 years old when I was saved.
Greatest day of my life.
You remember how old you were when you were saved?
Okay, how old were you?
38.
I want you to tell me what you did to be saved.
You mind sharing that with me?
I think I went down to some, I had some service.
went down and then they asked me if I wanted to be saved, I guess.
And I said, I think so.
And what happened?
Tell me about the experience you had up there.
What was it that?
They had me say a prayer.
Say a prayer.
And you said the prayer and you knew you were saved.
I felt it.
You felt, of course.
felt it.
Do y'all vet your members before you let them in at Calgarville?
I mean, I'm just kidding.
All right.
So any case, whatever he says,
You know what you don't see right now is my wife is writing this down.
And she's gonna write down whatever you say.
She's writing it down too.
So they're writing it down.
And so whatever it is that my wife is gonna write this down.
So I'm trying to establish a baseline.
Where am I going with this?
So if he said, you know, I'm not so sure I believe in God.
We're not gonna start with back to the Bible.
But what I found is he's a religious guy.
He's just not been taught properly.
He respects God, the Bible, Jesus.
He just needs a Bible study.
And so I've got all the answers.
And then I'm gonna ask one more thing.
Hey, have you ever been baptized?
Yes.
And how long was it after you were saved that you were baptized?
About three weeks.
Three weeks, about three weeks.
I'm gonna get that recorded.
I got everything I need.
I'm gonna make sure I get this information.
And here's the difference between Robin Nicole today and Robin Nicole in 2016.
Here's the big difference.
In 2016, I'd have taken that sheet on page 102, I'd have photocopied it and I'd given it to him and I said, fill this out.
It's awkward.
It's very awkward.
And he's gonna feel like he's taking a test and I'm evaluating him.
Now the Rob of today has realized that if I just have a conversation with him about those questions and my wife writes down the answers, we're just as good.
And he's not uncomfortable.
And in fact, it's kind of like I shared a little bit about my life, he shared some about his life, and now I've got the answers I needed, because I need to know where he's at.
We can progress into back to the Bible.
So my suggestion is,
a conversation, don't test them.
That's my suggestion.
Alright, let's go back to the Bible.
Green Booklet, and we'll go to page number one, and we're gonna take our Bibles to John chapter eight, verse 32.
I'm always gonna have him read the passage, and sometimes I'll ask the question and let him answer.
So go ahead and read that passage, brother.
Yes sir, if you would.
Okay, Jesus says the blank will make you free.
What is it?
The truth.
True.
Really easy.
How many of you can do that?
Raise your hand if you can do that.
There's a few of you who are a little slower.
It's okay.
We'll do another one.
All right.
It's not hard.
This is real simple stuff.
go to John 424.
It's okay.
We're going to go.
I'm going to get everybody's hand up.
John 424.
So read that for me.
John 424.
God is spirit and those who worship me are most
Okay, God says we must worship him in spirit and in?
True.
How many of you can do that?
Raise your hand.
It's unanimous.
So that's as hard as it gets.
All you're doing is asking a question and you're filling in the word based upon what the study says.
If you want a visual of back to the Bible, book one, take your evangelism simplified guidebook, go to page 66, chart two, that's your visual.
I love visuals.
Most of those visuals I don't use in a Bible study.
It's a safety net.
If I need them, I'll pull them out.
I hope I don't need them.
normally don't, but if I do, I've got them.
That's why they're called a safety net.
A trapeze artist needs a safety net.
You hope they don't need it, but if they do, you're glad it's there.
All right.
So this is one of my just simple illustrations.
So what is he going to learn in book one?
He's going to learn that all the truth starts with God the father and the father gave all that truth to the son and his son gave all that truth to the Holy spirit.
The Holy spirit took all that truth, inspired the apostles.
The apostles took all that truth, wrote it down in the
Bible.
We're under the New Testament and not the Old Testament.
That is the name of Jesus Christ.
That's book one.
It's not hard.
It's real simple.
But it's important because it's the foundation of everything else he's going to learn.
So in book number one, we're going to learn some fundamental truths that we're under the New Testament, not the Old Testament.
That's book one.
Let's go to book number two.
All right.
Book number two.
Let's go to page five.
I'm just going to demonstrate just a very few examples of why Bible
Bible studies are important.
Now notice the Great Commission did not say go ye therefore and read the Bible, did it?
It didn't say go ye therefore and read the book of Acts.
So I've asked what's your strategy for a Bible study?
Why just tell me to read the book of Acts?
That's not what Philip did.
He didn't say go read the book of Acts.
So a Bible study is not just reading your Bible.
How can I accept some man guide me?
So your goal is, you're a teacher, you're a guide, that's your job.
And so how do we guide people?
You need a tool.
So the Great Commission says, go either for and teach.
So the gospel is a teaching gospel, and that's what we're trying to do.
We're trying to boil it down to some fundamentals.
And so this study is designed to guide you, to outline you, to provide a simple.
systematic approach for the student and to keep the teacher on point so the teacher doesn't chase rabbits.
And back to the Bible is excellent.
Let's go to page five, Acts 20, verse seven.
Hey, I'm gonna ask you for some allowance here.
I know you've been reading these passages.
Would you let me read Acts 20, verse seven?
Okay, here's the reason I wanna do it.
Acts 20, verse seven.
And I do this in every study.
If I mess it up, if I misquote it, would you stop me?
Would you say, hey, that's not what it says?
Yeah, what are you quoting from?
OK.
Acts 20, verse 7.
You'll see, it's very clear.
You cannot miss it.
Verse 7.
All right.
So I'm going to start it.
And if I misquote it, if I
If I read it wrong, I want you to stop me.
You ready?
Upon the last day of the week when the disciples came together.
You gonna stop me?
Okay, let's try that again.
Upon the last day.
It says first.
It says first, okay.
So I'm always gonna misquote it.
This is one of the techniques that I use.
I always misquote.
Upon the last day of the week when the disciples.
So here it is.
the first month of the.
week.
This is last first day of the week.
First day I said month, didn't I?
Yeah.
Okay.
Try this again.
On the first day of the year when the disciples came to...
What's wrong with that?
It's the first day of the week.
The week.
What did I say?
Year.
I'm going to get it eventually.
All right.
Here it is.
Quarterly, the disciples came together to break bread.
The first day of the I know it's exciting, isn't it?
Monthly, the disciples came together to break bread.
On Christmas, the disciples came together to break bread.
On Easter, the disciples came to...
Every other month, the disciples...
He would come every time then too, but it's still the first day of the I knew he was going to be a lot of fun.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to read it wrong every time.
Why am I doing that, everybody?
To get him a seat.
OK, that's right.
And we call that self-conviction.
He's convicting himself.
You know why?
Because somewhere in that answer is what he's been doing all his life.
I didn't call him out.
I didn't tell him he's wrong.
He told me he was wrong.
He said, no, that's not right.
It's not monthly.
Now, I didn't have to ask him how you did it growing up.
He said, it's not right.
It's not quarterly.
It's not every other month.
It's his first day of the week.
OK, that's what you think.
So what I do is I'm going to let him correct himself.
It's called self-correction.
It's the most powerful form of correction.
When someone realizes and reasons through it.
Now,
We're going to read it correctly now.
Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread.
Now here's your questions.
When God told the Israelites in Exodus chapter 20 verse 8 to remember the Sabbath, did he mean for them to keep every Sabbath?
Yes.
What happens if they skip the Sabbath?
What happens if a man said, you know there was a bad storm last night and there's a bunch of sticks in my yard and I'm just going to pick up the sticks.
after all, Moses didn't say you got to observe every Sabbath.
What would happen to that man?
Anybody know?
Are you sure?
That's exactly what happened to him.
He was stoned because we have an example of that.
What if we went to Moses and it doesn't say every Sabbath?
Moses says, remember the Sabbath and you skipped one.
It's interesting how we can understand it in the Sabbath.
I wonder if we can understand it in Acts 20 verse 7.
No one seemed to get confused.
Let's keep going.
We're gonna ask again questions, this is how you teach.
So we're just gonna keep asking questions.
Here we go.
When those Christians met upon the first day of the week to eat the Lord's Supper, did they do it on the first day of each week?
Yes.
So Christians did they eat the Lord's Supper on the first day of the week?
Should we do that too?
Yes.
Okay.
So I'm just building slowly truths.
All right, now what we need is to establish contrast.
If you want a conversion, you got to establish contrast, not camouflage, but contrasts.
Contrasts are very important because contrasts are the reason why you have conversions.
If you don't have a contrast, you don't have conversion, why convert if there's no difference?
So we have to build in those contrasts so he sees a difference between what he's been doing, you know, throughout his life in the religious world, what the Bible says, and this
is a big one.
This is the Lord's Supper.
And if you can't get the Lord's Supper right, I wonder what else you got wrong.
You know, the Lord's Supper is a pretty big point.
If you can't get it right there, there may be some other points where you don't get it right.
But we're not done.
I want you to go to 1 Corinthians 16, 1 and 2.
Everybody go there.
Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I've given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.
Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you live by his door, as God has prospered, that there be no gatherings when I come.
Now, what are we talking about in 1 Corinthians 16?
What's the subject matter?
You know what the subject matter I'll read the passage now concerning the collection for the saints as I've given an order to the churches of Galatia even so to ye upon the first
day of the week let every one of you laid by in store as God has prospered there be no gatherings when I come what's the subject what are we talking about our means our means
we're talking about
giving, right?
So by the way, you said you've gone to church all your life.
When you go to these churches, you know, did they ever pass the plate and ask for money?
Okay, they do.
And what day do they do that?
What day do they ask for the money?
Every Sunday?
Okay.
And have you ever gone to one of these churches that skipped a Sunday that said, you know, we're just not going to pass the plate today?
So when it comes to the collection, they always pass the plate.
And if you were to ask the preacher, well, preacher, why would we pass the plate on the first day of the week?
Well, they might say because in first Corinthians chapter 16, it says, you know, upon the first day of the week.
And they not cook the scriptures.
So you're telling me in all the years you've been going to church, you've never seen a church skip a Sunday.
They always pass the plate for the money.
So when it comes to taking your money, they always get it right.
But when it comes to memorializing the Son of God and taking the Lord's Supper, same language.
First day of the week.
They get confused.
Why is it that they don't, why is it that they skip the Lord's Supper but not the money?
Let me be very clear.
When it comes to taking your money, they will never misunderstand the scripture.
They'll always get it right.
But when it comes to memorializing the Son of God, we get confused.
I just don't know if I can understand that or not.
That's got a contrast.
It's huge.
And Bobby makes it very clear in this booklet.
Let's look at that question.
Is it God's will that we give as we've been prospered?
Yes.
OK.
And should we make a contribution on the same day we're to partake of the Lord's Supper?
That's what it says.
You know what he's going to do with that?
He's going to wrestle with it.
He's going to go home.
He's gonna try to sleep and as he's sleeping, he can't sleep because he can't rectify what he just read because his church doesn't do that.
He's trying to figure out why my pastor just does it once a quarter when the Bible says on the first day of the week and he's gonna say, pastor, pastor, why don't we take the Lord's
Supper every Sunday?
Well, you know, if you take it every Sunday, it doesn't mean as much.
You know, they don't say that about the money.
When's the last time you told your wife you loved her?
Today?
How about if he didn't tell you he loved you for a whole year?
And you say, honey, are you ever going to tell me you love me?
Honey, if I just do it once a year, it means more.
You think that would work in your marriage?
Isn't it interesting how people get confused in religion?
Those arguments just don't make any sense, do they?
But people are trying to figure, why aren't we doing the Lord's Supper like we're supposed to?
Because it says on the first day of the week.
Moses didn't get confused.
We shouldn't either.
We're going take a little break.
I'm going to put you back in the hot seat.
You're too much fun.
Will you come back after the break?
Five minutes?
OK.
We're not done.
Aaron, did you ever find it?
OK.
Let's go ahead and get started.
If I could have everybody come back into the auditorium.
Michael and I have had a little fun this evening and we're going to spend about 10-15 minutes and finish this lesson and move to lesson five.
If you have your red booklet, open your back of the Bibles.
Eric, could you advance the screen wake it up for me?
We'll go ahead and...
There you go.
right.
One of the important...
considerations in a Bible study is the the fact that although Michael and
have done these studies and he's realized that there are differences.
are truths that he did not know.
He didn't know when to take the Lord's Supper.
He didn't know how the church was organized.
couldn't even find his church in the Bible.
He read about the Church of Christ.
He learned about worship.
He didn't realize he was just supposed to sing.
He didn't understand elders and deacons and the qualifications of elders and deacons.
There's a lot of differences.
He didn't understand the Old and New Testament.
Although,
Michael has learned all of these truths, Michael still thinks he saved.
That's important.
All right, so it's important to understand the psychology or the makeup of the prospect.
And it's taken me years to come to an understanding that when I'm in a Bible study, just because they realize they were wrong about the Lord's Supper doesn't mean they realize
they're lost.
It just means I was wrong about the Lord's Supper, but I've said the prayer, so I'm saved.
So we can all disagree on the Lord's Supper, but we can all go to heaven.
And so we can all disagree about elders, we can all go to heaven.
We can disagree about deacons, we can all go to heaven.
We can disagree about the...
you know, all these other issues, but we can go to heaven.
The issue is that in order for Michael to become a Christian, Michael has to know he's lost.
Michael thinks he's saved.
So I've got to get Michael to a point where says, I'm lost.
Now, in order for that to happen,
All right?
I'm going to need help.
Because if I looked at Michael and said, you know you're going to hell, don't you?
Well, that's the end of that study, right?
That's not a strategy for success.
So there's a book, and it's titled How to Close the Study.
And it gives you suggestions on how to bring people across the finish line, how to get them to make that final decision.
All right.
One of the keys to a successful close is to anticipate objections.
the objection before they do.
Let me give you an example.
So if I was trying to sell a house and maybe I'm a real estate agent and I know this house has some deficiencies, some things that you're not going to care for, what am I going to
do?
I want to point those out immediately as you walk onto the property.
And I'm going to frame them.
And I'm going to try to get you over those humps.
If you're trying to go buy a car, and the car
He either knows that the price tag of $56,000 is out of sight and most people are going to be scared away.
He's going to frame that.
He's going to frame it in such a way that it doesn't run you off.
And I'm sure the plumber does the same thing.
When the plumber comes to the door, and this is a good example, you're going to frame the injection.
You're going to handle it yourself.
You're not going to wait for them to come at you because then you're defensive.
You're going to prepare them for it.
Everybody does this.
The Navy recruiter does it.
Hey, $20,000 signing bonus.
Okay, the Navy recruiter knows how to frame the argument, all right?
He knows that, hey, you're going to see the world.
You know, you're going to be operating, you know, know, $10 million equipment.
You know what mean?
I mean, he knows how to do it, okay?
So here's what I'm trying to suggest.
We know there are landmines in Bible studies.
We know there are objections.
We know there's going to be issues that are going to have to work past.
The question is how do
you get past them.
Now either you have to rely upon your experience, your wisdom, your intellect, your study, which we're going to eliminate just about every church member.
We're going to scare them and they'll say I don't know how to do that.
Or we use an organized method.
Back to the Bible anticipates all the objections.
There's hardly an objection they can raise that will not be dealt with in the Bible study.
And that's why we do Bible studies.
We use a method because it helps us get through those objections.
And so whether it's sprinkling, as he brought up, it's in back to the Bible.
We're going to frame it.
We're going to bring it up.
We're going to answer it.
So when it comes down to time for gospel obedience, it's no longer an issue.
We've already dealt with that.
So whatever it is, we're going to deal with it in the booklet.
So that's why you need the book.
Who needs a Bible study?
He needs a Bible study because it makes it
Simple.
He needs the Bible study because it's organized.
It's systematic.
It anticipates objections.
You know who else needs it?
I do.
So I don't overteach.
I don't over talk.
I don't insert things that are not needed.
And so I don't have to be the intellectual giant.
All I've got to do is read my Bible.
And so Bible studies are designed to help the average person bring people to Christ.
Let's go to page number nine.
And go to page nine.
On page nine, we're going to look at the first close.
Back in the Bible, it's four invitation songs.
This is number one.
And so this is the close.
And we're going to try to bring them to the cross.
We're going to use Romans 6, 3 through 5.
So I want to talk about the gospel.
Jesus died for our sins.
Jesus was buried.
Jesus rose again.
I'm going to show him this picture.
So on the screen, you'll see a picture.
You can see it there on the monitor.
And it's a beautiful picture.
It's a picture of Jesus dying on the cross and being buried.
in his ascension on the third day.
That's important.
So we're going to focus on the gospel.
Why?
Why do we want to focus on the gospel?
Because the gospel is what?
It's a power of God to save.
So let's use the power of God.
Let's use that power.
So I'm going to focus him on the cross.
I'm going show him the picture.
I'm going to ask, Michael, do you recognize that?
Do you see that?
What do you think about that?
Is that powerful?
Do you believe in that?
It's the core of who we are.
Michael, let's read Romans 6, 3 through 5.
And I want you to think about that as we read it.
All right, here we go.
Now, Michael, want you to notice we've used the word into twice, twice.
has said, whatever it is we're talking about here transitions us.
moves us from the outside to the inside.
location to another and so therefore we are notice this Michael buried I would like you to put a number one right by the word buried put a number one right by the word buried
because there we identified the burial all right so therefore it's I'm sorry you go back to death therefore we are let's go back to the beginning no he not there's so many of us
who were baptized into Jesus Christ or baptized into his death put a number one by the word
So we've identified the death.
That's important because this is the process of the gospel, the death.
Therefore we are buried.
Put a number two by the word buried.
So now we've got the death and the burial.
All right?
Death, burial.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism in two.
That's the third time we've used that word in two.
So we're transitioning.
We're moving locations.
It's obvious three times God has said baptism is an in two process.
Michael, I've got news for you tonight.
There's no one
sitting in this auditorium that didn't come into the building.
No, not one.
Michael, I've got another question.
Do you think it's possible that someone could be in the building if they did not come into the building?
No.
And I've been asking this question for 25 years.
And there was an engineer.
He raised his hand.
He said, preacher, it's possible to be in the building if you didn't come into the building.
I said, enlighten us.
He said, the building could have been built around you.
I promise the church wasn't built around you.
So you've got to go into it.
So into is important.
Here we go.
Therefore we are buried with him, but that doesn't end to death.
like his cross was raised.
Let's put a number three by the word raised.
So now we've identified three things.
We've identified the death, we've identified the burial, and we've identified the resurrection.
Michael, is that important to you?
Absolutely.
Yeah, me too.
It's the core of who we are.
Death, resurrection.
Now notice this.
That like his cross was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so he said, walk in doing
of life.
Michael, when does the new life happen?
Before the baptism or after the baptism?
After the baptism.
after the burial, when we're resurrected, we get new life.
Michael, know you love your wife.
What's her name again?
Michael, your wife.
What is her name?
Shelly.
he forgot.
forgot.
That's all right.
came home one day and he says, know, my anniversary is coming up and I'm so blessed.
I love my wife.
She's such a good woman.
And we're going to celebrate.
My wife has always wanted a dog.
And you know, I'm going to go get my wife.
I'm going go get her dog.
So Michael goes down to the dog place and he pets Mark.
He sees this little white little dog, know, little poodle.
just puffy little thing.
He said, oh she just loved this little dog.
And Michael says, you know, I'm gonna get her the dog.
So Michael buys this dog and he brings it home.
He says, honey Shelly, he said, I've got you a dog.
And for your your anniversary.
Oh Michael, that's so nice.
You said you never have a dog.
You love me so much.
And so, know, Shelly's got, she's excited.
And when Michael bought the dog, there was a name on the dog.
It said Poopsy.
And she said, the name of the dog is Poopsy.
Michael didn't really put too
together.
doesn't know why it's called the Poopsie, but he finds out quickly because this is a doodling dog.
He doodles all the time.
He can't stop doodling.
And so it's not been house broken.
So he keeps doodling in the house.
Now Michael, you love your wife Shelly.
And Michael says, honey, don't worry.
I'll clean up the doodles.
And so Michael cleans up the doodles.
He does it several times a day because, you know, Michael loves his wife.
Now this goes on for period of a week or so.
And finally Michael says, that's it.
He said, we're taking this dog to disciplinary school.
So Michael pays the school.
takes the little poopsie to school, teach the dog how to doodle outside.
Well, the dog flunks.
And so they give the dog back to Michael, and he said, honey, I love you.
You know that if that dog doodles again in this house, it's over.
And so they leave for church.
Come back from church, there's Poopsy.
And there's doodles again.
And Michael has had enough.
And Michael loses his cool.
He says, no more doodles.
And he says he goes and grabs the dog by the collar.
He takes the dog outside, grabs the shovel, and he starts digging.
And he digs and he digs and he digs.
And then he puts the Poopsy in the hole, covers up the hole, and he says, that's it.
What do think the neighbors are going to do to Michael?
They're going to call the police.
Why?
Why are they going to call the police, everybody?
Because you don't bury living things.
Now, listen, we don't bury living things.
Is that right, Michael?
That's correct.
Except in religion.
Oh no, religion we do.
You know what we tell people?
Let's talk about it.
Well, you know, Michael, you said that prayer, you were born again, brand new Christian, baby in Christ.
By the way, in about three weeks, we're gonna bury you.
We don't bury living things, we bury dead things.
But in religion, we take things that we're told they're living, we're told they're born again, we're told they're a baby in Christ, and we bury the baby.
The only people that get buried in the word of God are people that are dead in sin.
When you're dead in sin, you get buried.
We only bury people that are dead.
They're lost.
We don't bury living things.
If you buried a living dog, you go to jail.
What happens if we bury living souls?
There's a day of reckoning coming.
Brethren, we gotta follow what the Bible says.
You can't just make it up.
Okay, what is the biblical order?
The biblical order's important.
No ye not, don't you know, that so many of us have been baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death.
We die, the old man dies, the sinner dies, therefore we're buried.
What do we do with the dead sinner?
We bury the dead sinner, we bury them, all right?
So we bury poopsie, we bury the dead things, not the living things, the dead things, right?
Then notice what it says, they're like as Christ was raised, now he weighs up.
Just like Jesus rose from the dead, we rise up and we're a new creature.
What does that say in verse five?
life and we've been planted together in the likeness of his death so we die like Jesus died so then shall we be planted in the likeness of his resurrection it's a beautiful text
it's teaching us the order death burial resurrection it works in life we don't bury living people we don't bury living animals and we should not be burying people alive spiritually
we bury dead people spiritually dead in their sins
Now, with that being said, Michael, does the Bible describe the one baptism as a burial in water?
Should we be buried, Michael?
Is that what the Bible says?
Yes, Michael.
Where do we get the benefits of the death of Jesus?
What must we do?
We must be what?
We must be buried and baptized, right?
Okay, Michael, if you are baptized the way the Bible says, could you be wrong?
No.
No, Michael, if you are not baptized the way the Bible says, could you be wrong?
Now let's stop there and analyze that.
So let's make sure everybody understands where we are.
If you are baptized the way the Bible says, you're right.
You can be right.
But if you're not doing it the way the Bible, you do it your own way, then you could be wrong.
So what's my job right now?
My job as a teacher is to find out, is Michael done what the Bible says?
That's up to Michael and God, it's not me.
I'm just here to help Michael determine, have you done what the Bible, is your baptism according to what the Bible says?
Now in order to do that, I just ask questions.
It's up to him and God, and that's not up to me.
I'm not the judge.
All right, here it is.
Michael, do you want to take a chance on missing heaven?
No, I don't either.
Michael, do you believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God?
Michael, as we have seen, Jesus commands repentance.
Are you willing to start making the changes in your life that Jesus commands and live for God?
Yes.
OK.
I believe that.
believe that.
And Michael, have you been baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins?
You know what you're going to tell me every time?
Yes.
He's going to say yes.
Every time he's going to say yes.
You know why?
Why does he say yes?
Anybody know Justin?
Why would he say yes?
because he feels that way, because he's Red Axe 238, that's what the Bible teaches, that must be what I did, but what's the problem?
Anybody understand the conflict here?
What's the problem?
He hasn't been.
How do I know that?
Remember those answers he gave me before we started?
Three weeks after.
Yeah, yeah, he was saved.
He was saved three weeks before his baptism.
So I already know that's not true.
I already know he's got a conflict here.
Now, there's a conflict right now.
So what do do with it?
I just let Michael keep answering questions.
He'll see it.
I don't have to tell him.
Michael, if you were taught you had your sins forgiven before the baptism when you said that prayer and they said, Michael, your sins have been forgiven.
You're a new Christian.
You're a baby in Christ and congratulations.
You remember that day?
Yes, you do.
Michael, if you were taught your sins were forgiven before the baptism, then can you go get baptized to have your sins forgiven?
Does that make any sense?
Now think about that.
If you were taught your sins were forgiven before the baptism, can you then go get baptized to have your sins forgiven?
No.
No, you can't because you were told they were forgiven before.
So in order for them to be forgiven, you've got to know you still have them.
But you don't even know you have them because you were told they were gone when you said the prayer.
I am too.
Right?
No, it's confusing.
So normally at this point, he's going to look at you and that don't make sense.
And he's right.
It is confusing.
How can I be baptized to have my sins forgiven?
But they told me when I said my prayer, the sins were forgiven.
So it doesn't make sense.
Things aren't adding up right now.
And he knows that.
Now I just have to help him make application.
Here he is.
Watch.
Michael, if you were taught you were saved before the baptism, could you then go get baptized to be saved?
Don't answer that.
Let me ask you.
Michael, have you ever been taught this before about baptism?
Have you ever seen this before?
Has anybody ever taught you this before?
No.
Michael, since you were never taught this, can you, in order to obey the truth about baptism, does someone have to teach you the truth about baptism?
But you were never taught this.
So these are just questions.
I'm not making any statements.
This is important.
Do not make statements.
It's up to Michael.
Michael, to be baptized properly, does someone have to teach you properly?
I would think so.
And Michael, can you be taught the wrong thing and obey the right thing?
No.
Can you be taught the wrong thing and then obey the right thing?
In order to obey the right thing, someone has to teach you right.
Correct.
But you weren't taught that.
No.
Can you accidentally be baptized?
No.
So in order to be baptized in the truth, someone has to teach you the truth.
You weren't taught the truth, and obedience is not an accident.
So I'm making all these statements to help Michael what?
Think.
So the real question is on the screen.
It's Michael, if you were saved before the baptism, could you then go get baptized to be saved?
Could you do that?
No.
So now Michael begins to realize, wait a minute.
I was never taught any of this.
Brethren, can you be baptized accidentally?
So someone has to teach you the truth.
Is it possible that we have
people in this world who were not taught the truth about baptism, but they think they were baptized correctly, but no one ever taught them.
And that is exactly where we are in this world.
People who were not taught the truth, they didn't know the truth.
They're convinced, but no one ever taught them this.
And you can't be accidentally baptized.
Now Michael realizes this.
He realizes this is scary.
Listen, I didn't know any of this.
So let's just ask this question.
John 14, 15, the Bible says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments, Michael.
Michael, if we really love Jesus, will we want to obey him?
Michael, do you love him?
Michael, do you want to obey him?
Me too.
And Michael, since Jesus wants you to be baptized, and now that you understand the importance of being baptized right now, wouldn't it please Jesus for you to be baptized
right now?
Yes, sir.
It would.
90 % of the people I study with are baptized right there.
And the reason is they were never taught.
No one ever taught them the truth.
They did not know any of this.
I cannot tell you how important it is that someone teaches you the truth.
You're not gonna stumble on it by accident.
And if someone misled you, and they may be sincere, I'm not questioning these people.
But the point is that we've gotta do it the way the Bible teaches it.
If I do what this book says, I know I'm right with God.
If I do not do what this book says, I could be wrong, and I'm not gonna take that chance.
I will not take it.
And I will do exactly what this book says.
And I've used a lot of examples tonight, but that's what a Bible study does.
And so it helps a person.
look inside themselves and ask difficult questions.
And you do it with love.
I love Michael.
I'm not trying to hurt him in any way.
I love him enough where I would sit down, ask those questions and let him come to an understanding.
I am not the judge.
It's not up to me to tell Michael if he's going to heaven or hell.
That's between him and God.
But Michael is smart enough to read his Bible and know the truth.
All right.
So we're going to finish that.
Thank you, Michael.
You're, you're, you're ready to be baptized.
Anybody, if you want to see Michael baptized raise your hand.
Would you like to do it?
You all take the left side, I'll take the right side.
I think it would take more than just me.
All right brother thank you very much.
You may leave.
Shelly is waiting.
Shelly's waiting.
She wants poopsie.
Go give her poopsie.
Do you have a dog Shelly?
We have Django.
Django.
Okay good.
Is it a doodling dog?
It's a pig.
Okay.
boy.
Poodles or poodles.
All right.
Very good.
All right, let's go to the next lesson.
Aaron, would you bring up lesson number five?
We're going to abbreviate the lesson tonight, but I do want to cover some important points.
So evangelism is not a theory, and it cannot stay in the classroom.
The classroom is what we call sterile environment, meaning that I control the temperature, I control the context, and it's easy to make it look simple.
when we don't have the interference of the world.
What I want to do now is take the world and infuse it into evangelism.
I want you to deal with the real world.
All right, so we're going to go out into the real world and they're going to ask questions.
And they're going ask a lot of questions.
And it scares Christians.
Like, I don't know the answers.
I don't know what I'm going to say.
Well, let's talk about that.
Lesson number one in our principles, of the seven principles, is what?
What should we do with all questions?
defer them.
We do not answer questions.
And so if you're in a Bible study and someone says, well, I want to know about the thousand year reign of Christ.
That's a great question.
I want you to open your back to the Bible and I want you to write that question down.
We'll get to it later.
So I'm not there to play Bible trivia.
I'm not there to answer all the questions.
I am not there to try to prove I know more Bible than they do.
So it's very, very important that we understand, we need to understand that you don't have to
all the answers.
Okay, if someone has to know all the answers, then none of us are qualified, because I don't know all the answers.
What we do need to know is the authority of Christ, the Church of Christ, the salvation of Christ.
Keep it simple, all right?
Keep it real.
Do not bury yourself into theological concepts, all right?
So you don't need to be afraid.
No one in this audience needs to be afraid.
Just use the tool that God gave you.
right.
Now, 1 Corinthians, chapter 9, verses 19 through 23.
I have.
made all things to all men that I might be, all men save some.
Paul's talking about how he approaches people.
He said, when I'm with the Jews, I'll use the custom of the Jews.
When I'm with the Gentiles, I use the custom of the Gentiles.
When I'm with the Greeks, I use the custom of the Greeks.
When I'm with the Romans, I use the custom of the Romans.
In other words, I adapt.
And so when it comes to Bible studies, we have to adapt.
What does that mean?
Not everyone is ready for back to the Bible.
Because we have people that don't believe in God.
And if they don't believe in God, I'm going to change out my lure.
I want to use believe the Bible.
Some people are not ready for a Bible study.
And so I'm going to spend a little bit more time building relationships.
So we're going to treat people differently based upon where they're at.
That's important to understand.
We're going to adapt.
Now, Callie Hudson walks in the church building.
She sits down.
I've never met her.
She sits right next to Clifton, must be Clifton's girlfriend.
Clifton is a faithful member of the church.
We get to know Callie.
She is a wonderful young lady.
And over a period of time, after she keeps coming, Clifton comes to me and says, Rob, he said, I really would like your help.
I would like your help to convert Callie.
I said, Clifton, I'd be glad to help you.
I said, let's invite Callie over to the house.
Let's have a game night.
And let's just talk a little bit.
And I think the Bible study will come.
That was my plan.
So we put this plan together before the game night.
He calls me.
He's frantic.
He said, Rob, have you heard the news?
I said, what news?
I could tell he's frantic on the phone.
He said, Rob, says, Calhoun's dad just had a heart attack.
I said, Clifton, I'm sorry.
I said, what hospital?
I'll be right there.
He said, Rob, he didn't make it, Rob.
So at that point, she's lost her dad.
It's a sudden passing.
It's a tragic, it's trauma.
No one expects this to happen when you're 20 years old.
And so I know that Callie's going to need a lot of love.
So the church wraps their arms around Callie.
We send the cards.
We send the flowers.
We go out of our way to endear ourselves to this young couple, especially Callie.
A year passes by, and I realize it's time.
And so we again have that game night.
to the house, Callie starts to study.
She does excellent.
She knows all the answers.
She could have taught me book one.
She's been listening to all the sermons.
She's very intelligent, couldn't have gone better.
So we finished book number one.
OK, we have her over next week.
We have another meal.
We do book two.
Callie's going through the answers.
Once again, she gets them all right.
fact, when it came to the Lord's Supper, I asked a question.
I said, Callie, do these passages?
Do they cause you to have any questions?
Well, Mr.
Rob, I know my church doesn't do the Lord's Supper like the Bible says, but you know, the Bible says the first day of the week and I think that's when we need to do it.
So, okay, she accepts it.
She doesn't argue with it.
And so I can see that she's getting the concept.
She's not arguing with the Bible because there's some conflicts and she might look back at her home church and says, you know, they just do it monthly there or quarterly there.
so Callie accepts it.
So now we're in the third study.
She's sitting across the table.
She's going to ask.
So let me stop.
One of the traits or characteristics of an evangelist is that you need to anticipate the questions.
What's she going to ask, Michael?
What's she going to ask me?
Where's my dad?
That's right.
Where's my dad?
You know it's coming.
I mean, she's 20 years old.
She's lost her dad.
She's going to ask.
So I know I'm sitting across the table, and I'm going to get that question, so I'm prepared for it.
I've thought about this.
I've spent a year thinking about it.
In fact, the very night her father passed away, I'm thinking about it.
Because I know that if I don't have a prepared answer for this, my words could either hurt or heal.
They can either help or...
are hindered.
And so at this point, it's coming.
So we're going through this Bible study, right, and she's accepting what the Bible says.
On sin, she's all in, right?
She couldn't be any more clear and understanding.
We go through belief, she's there.
Repentance, she's there.
Confession, she's there.
We go through baptism.
She gets it.
Her eyes filled with tears.
They drip down her face.
They fell on the table.
They pulled up.
And she lays her head on the table and she just falls.
She knows.
My wife put her arm around her and held her and I just let her cry.
One of the men that I consulted with before I did this Bible study was Keith Mosher.
I said, over to Mosher, I need help.
I know what's coming.
What do I do?
He says, when she cries, let her cry, Rob.
Don't stop her.
He says, you can't stop this.
You got to let her cry.
I reached out to a lot of preachers.
What am I going to do?
Because it's going to come.
tears started to clear up.
Callie picked her head off the table, looked at me and I said, Callie, said, I know why you're crying.
I said, you're worried about your dad, aren't you?
And she said, Mr.
Rob, what about my dad, Mr.
Rob, what's going to happen to him?
I said, Mr.
Callie, said, you know what, I'm not the judge.
I don't determine those things.
I said, Callie, I can help you.
And she said, what do mean?
I said, well, I just need to know more about your dad.
I said, tell me about your dad.
Was he a good man?
Well, yes, Mr.
Rob, he was a good man.
I said, well, tell me, what does that mean?
She tells me some stories about her dad.
Now she's smiling.
That's what I wanted.
I said, Cali, was your dad a religious man?
Did he believe in?
yes, Rob, he believed in God.
I said, well, great, Cali.
I said, Cali, was your dad a hardworking man, an honest man?
Yes, Mr.
Rob.
I said, well, tell me.
Hey, Cali, did anybody ever teach your dad what I just taught you?
She said, I don't know Mr.
Rob.
I said, okay.
I said, Kelly, if your dad could come back right now and he could talk to you and you could listen to his words, Kelly, would your dad to tell you to do what the Bible says?
She said, well, Mr.
Rob, my dad would always tell me to do what the Bible says.
I said, I believe that.
I said, Kelly, I'll make a promise to you at this table.
I will ask you to do no more or no less than what the Bible says.
And I think if your dad would want you to do what the Bible says, you probably should do that.
Callie looked at me and she said, Mr.
Rob, the Bible says I need to be baptized.
I said, that's what the Bible says.
I said, what do you want to do, Callie?
She says, I need to be baptized, Rob.
And I said, good.
I said, let's go.
So we got out of the table.
We started walking to the Baptist tree.
We got halfway there.
She turned around and walked back.
She sat around the table.
I said, Callie, everything OK?
She says, Mr.
Rob, she says, you know what?
I've decided to wait on my brother.
You know, my brother's been coming, Mr.
Rob.
And I think I need to wait on my brother.
I said, well, Callie, I said, I wish every brother had a sister like you.
And he said, well, why is that, Mr.
Bob?
I said, because you want him to become a Christian.
I said, every brother needs a sister just like you.
And she said, well, I want him to be a Christian too.
I said, me too.
I said, Callie, how are you going to get your brother to become a Christian?
Remember, I just ask questions.
I don't make statements.
She said, well, Mr.
Rob, I was thinking we'd use these little booklets.
I said, well, that sounds good.
And we'd sit down and do these Bibles.
I think that's a good approach.
And Callie, when do you want him to book them?
Well, Mr.
Rob, when we finished about.
Mr.
Robert, you tried to tell me something.
I said, well, no, I'm just asking questions, Callie.
When do you want him to become a Christian?
When we finished the Bible study, Mr.
Rob.
You don't want him to She said, no, Mr.
Rob.
I said, no, Callie, most people don't travel down roads.
Other people don't travel down first.
Someone has to be the first.
I said, would it be OK if you showed him the way?
She said, Mr.
Rob, I need to be baptized.
I said, I know, Callie.
I said, let's do it right now.
and we took her to the baptistry and she was baptized.
Isn't it interesting how just asking simple questions, people can reason through difficult situations.
Here's some things that took me a lifetime to learn.
I'm 50 years old, it feels like a lifetime.
Stop telling people what to do.
Brother, I am not here to tell you what to do.
I'm here to ask questions, read the Bible, and you can figure it out.
I really believe in this audience tonight, if people will be honest, read their Bibles, and reason, you'll come to the truth.
You don't need me to tell you.
You're smart.
Callie's smart.
She doesn't need me to tell her what to do.
She knows what the Bible says.
And you know, I'm not the first person who has said it like this.
Because in Luke chapter 16, verse number 19, there was a rich man.
And he fared sumptuously every day.
And the Bible said there was a beggar.
And he sat at the gate full of swords, and desiring to be fed from the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table below where the dog came and licked his swords.
And the Bible says the beggar died, and he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, and the rich man died.
And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments.
And he Abraham fall off, and he says, Father Abraham, I've got five brethren.
Father Abraham, send me back, that I may testify to them, lest they come into this place of torment.
Abraham said, son, they have Moses and the prophets.
Let them hear them.
He said, but Father Abraham, they won't listen.
If one were wise from the dead, they would repent.
So neither a foot would rise from the dead, they repent.
I'm wondering right now if your mother could come back and talk to you.
Say, honey, what would she tell you to do?
Because I know what she would tell you to do.
I don't need to know your mother, but I know what she'd tell you to do.
I know what your grandmother would tell you.
I know what your grandfather would tell you.
I know what your son would tell you.
Because I know that the message coming from the grave, I know exactly what they would tell you to do.
They would say, you do what the Bible says.
Brethren, everybody on the other side of eternity wants you to do what the Bible says.
Everybody believes in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I don't have to judge them.
It's not my job to tell you where they're at.
But I know what they tell you to do, don't you, Michael?
They tell you the truth.
And that's all I want is the truth.
Tell me the truth.
This is Chandler.
This is her brother.
And Callie went home and she did something that I should have anticipated.
And I didn't.
And I anticipate it now, but I didn't then.
Mama, I need to tell you what I did.
What did you do, honey?
Well, mama, I've been going.
church you know over at Willette with my boyfriend Clifton.
Yes honey I've been doing these Bible studies with Mr.
Rob.
Who's Mr.
Rob?
Well it's the preacher down there.
kind of Bible studies honey?
Well I just wanted to know more about what they believe.
Mama and I learned that I needed to be baptized.
I did what?
Mama, the Bible says, that believes and is baptized shall be saved.
And I didn't know that, Mama.
And Mama, I want to show you what the Bible says.
What do you mean, buddy?
Well, let's just read it together.
I don't want to read that.
But Mama, says, he that believes and is baptized shall be saved.
I didn't know that.
I've never done that.
And I was baptized.
were what?
I was baptized because the Bible says, honey, you know we don't believe that.
But Mama, says it right here in the Bible, Mama.
But honey, you know that our family doesn't believe like that.
just wanted to do what the Bible says.
Honey, how dare you go behind my back like that.
But mom, I just wanted to do what the Bible says.
Honey, how dare you dishonor this family like that.
It's over.
Clifton says she just collapsed, rolled up into a ball, and she sobbed.
He calls me.
Rob, hey, Clifton.
It's a great day, isn't it?
He said, He says she went home and told mama.
I said, what do mean?
Her mom was upset, Rob.
I said, what do mean she's upset?
She says they don't believe like this.
I said, what do you mean?
And he explains the situation.
He said, Rob, I don't know what to do.
Mom's upset.
She's upset now.
What are we going to do?
And I said,
I don't know.
I said, I don't know.
I said, I cannot believe that this has happened.
I said, Clifton, give me some time.
I need to think.
So I hung up the phone, and I decided that I needed to reach out to the wisest people I knew.
How do you handle this?
And so I reached out.
I made phone calls.
And I finally found an elder that I thought would help me.
And his name's Hugh Wayne Clark, one of the wisest men I've ever met.
And he said, Rob, says, here's what needs to happen.
He says, you need me.
and Joe to have them in our home and we'll help them.
And you stay at Bible, I was at Bible camp that day.
You stay at Bible camp and you teach the children, I'm an elder, I'll do my job.
And so sure enough, he has them over to the house and she's at the house and she's eating together and she finally start telling Hugh Wayne about what's going on.
It's a very difficult discussion.
She tells about how her mama was upset with her and finally after that discussion.
He went and says, Callie, if I was your mother and you came home and told me what you just told me, I'd be upset too.
What do you mean Mr.
Hugh Wayne?
Do you think I did the wrong thing?
I didn't say that.
Callie, has anybody ever taught your mother what, anybody ever taught your mother what you were taught?
Did she know what you knew?
Well no Mr.
Hugh Wayne, one ever taught me that.
No, I've never taught my mother.
So your mother did not know what you know, no?
So you can understand when you started telling your mother about this, she's gonna get upset because no one's ever had a Bible study with your mother.
No.
Callie?
If you're faithful to God, one day you're gonna lead your mother to Christ.
One day, not today.
Here's what needs to happen.
Be faithful to God and understand that in about three weeks, your mother's gonna be this much less angry with you.
You won't notice.
And in about three months from now, she'll be this much less angry and you're gonna go shopping for shoes.
And he says, how do you know that Mr.
Hugh Wayne?
Because your mother loves you, Callie, and she won't be angry forever.
But you have to be faithful because one day if you're faithful, you'll lead your mother to Christ.
If you give up, if you give up and turn back any hope your mother has of being a Christian is gone.
You where she was the next Sunday?
Sitting in the pew worshiping God.
She never missed, but he's not there.
Clifton is gone.
And I said, Clifton, Kelly, where's Chandler?
My mother forbid him to ever come back to this church.
Mr.
Rob, now what are we going to do?
I said, I said, I'll tell you what.
Callie, back on the evangelism table, there's these little booklets.
And luckily, I have a second set.
You took my first set.
And so, and I want you to go grab three sets.
And why do we need those, Mr.
Rob?
I said, because you're going to teach Chandler the gospel.
Me, Mr.
Rob?
Mr.
Rob?
I don't, I don't know.
I'm just a new Christian, Mr.
Rob.
I can't teach him the gospel.
I said, you can read, can't you?
Go teach him the gospel.
Know what she did?
They taught him the gospel.
It's amazing what happens when the members believe they don't need me.
They don't need me.
You can do it too.
The members are doing it.
I noticed sitting next to Chandler after a couple months was a young man and I noticed he was a, he's not a member.
I walked up to Chandler, said, Chandler, who do you got with you today?
that's my best friend Marshall.
Really?
Marshall, we're glad you're here.
Been listening to your sermons, Mr.
Rob, I like them.
I said, what, really?
He yeah, you like, I like the Bible preaching you do.
I said, thanks, Marshall.
I said, Chandler, have you taught Marshall the gospel?
Me, Mr.
Rob?
Mr.
Rob, I don't know what I'm talking about.
I said, Chandler, back on the evangelism table, there's these little booklets.
They're called Back to the Bible.
I want you to grab two sets and teach Marshall the gospel.
Mr.
Rob, I just became a Christian.
I said, I know, but you can read.
What happens when our young people start evangelizing?
They convert their friends.
You want to keep the young people saved?
Teach them how to be soul winners.
Stop taking them to every Bible camp and every retreat and every youth rally and every youth day and celebrating themselves.
Eventually, they're going to not be able to celebrate themselves.
Eventually, we need to teach them how to do Bible studies.
And we need to teach them how to reach the lost.
And so when we teach them how to do that, I'm telling you what, I know where Chandler is on Sundays.
He'll never forget what he did.
By the way, I was in Jackson, Mississippi.
Gary Hempton is the preacher.
And I was about to get into the pulpit and start preaching.
My phone rang.
I looked down.
It was Willette.
That's I used to preach.
I had to answer it.
was an emergency.
Sunday morning, I kneeled down.
said, hello?
Bob, this is Jack.
I said, Jack, what's going on?
He said, Rob, you'll never guess who just walked through the doors.
It's their mother, Rob.
She's here.
and her son baptized her into Christ for the remission of her sins.
Now that's the power of the gospel.
You're going to experience a lot of questions in Bible studies.
I wish I had time to run through all the questions that I could possibly think of, and I will do that at the Memphis School of Preaching, but I can't do it here tonight.
So if you want to come back in May to the school, I'm going to answer all of them.
But I am going to deal with some big ones, all right?
What if they're living together?
What do do if they're living together?
And so that was the case with Amy and Evan.
I told you Sunday that they walked out of the house.
I thought we're going to the cross.
Then Satan fired an arrow right through them and a phone rang.
This is after the second study.
It was Sheila.
And Sheila said, Rob?
I said, yes, Sheila?
Rob, are Amy and Evan gone?
I said, yes, they just walked out the door.
Rob, we got to talk.
I said, what's going on, Sheila?
Oh, I raised a boy better than this, Rob.
I said, well, Sheila, what's going on?
Oh, God, promise me you won't tell anybody.
I said, well, I don't know what we're talking about.
I said, what are we talking about?
Sheila, oh, Rob.
Oh, Bob, Evan bought a house in Lafayette.
I said, I know you're proud of him.
Rob, listen to me.
Rob, Amy's moved in, they're living together.
That's not good.
No, Rob, I knew since you were doing these Bible studies, you probably needed to know that.
I said, yes, that's important information.
Rob, what are you gonna do about it?
What do mean?
What am I doing?
He's your son.
And so I did not say that.
I did not say that.
I thought it, but I didn't say it.
And I said, tell you what.
said, said, Nicole and I are going to talk about it.
Well, don't tell them that I told you.
I said, I won't tell them.
And so I got off the phone, and Nicole and I looked at each other.
And I said, Nicole, what are we going to do?
She says, you're going to do what you always do, have a Bible study.
But then I solved every problem.
By the way, Larry Aykuff, let me quote him, all church problems are solved in the Baptist tree.
You want to solve a church problem?
You do a Bible study.
That's where you solve it.
So I just, came over to the house for the third study.
We sat around the table.
They did the study.
And we got to Act 238.
And I said, Amy and Evan, the Bible says, what does it say to do?
They said, repent.
I said, put it in the blank.
Hannah, bring the cookies.
And she said, yes, Dad.
She brought the cookies.
I said, we're done today.
And they said, Mr.
Robbins says to be baptized.
I said, I know, but we're done.
But Mr.
Robbins says to be baptized.
I said, I know, but we're finished with the study.
But Mr.
Robbins, I said, we're finished.
by the way, before you leave, enjoy the cookies.
I said, I do have a story I need to tell you.
And one thing I learned about Jesus is he likes to tell parables to get them to see it.
I'm going to tell my parable.
It's the parable of Terry and Marlena Starks.
And it's an actual couple that I met in Madisonville, Kentucky.
They were living together.
I told them about how we met them, how we studied the Bible, how she moved into our house for just a short period of time, how we married them, and now they're faithful Christians
of the Madisonville Church of Christ.
It's a long story, but I told the story.
And when I finished the story, I said, by the way, guys, when you're ready to continue the study, just let me know.
Call me.
They walked out of the house.
They got in their car.
Amy looks over at Evan.
She says, Evan, I think they know about us.
The entire county knew about them.
It's a small town.
Nothing's a secret.
And so any case, two weeks later, she calls me.
Well, I can't
like this anymore." I said, live like what?
Rob, just can't do this anymore.
I said, do what Amy?
Oh Rob, you know I'm living with Evan.
I said, oh.
I said, okay.
I said, Evan, said, Amy, where you going?
She said, I'm gonna live with my grandmother.
I said, that's a good choice.
Rob, can you meet me at the building?
Rob, I need to be baptized.
I'll be right there, Amy.
Good, because Evan will be right behind me.
He was.
And he has been ever since.
Isn't it beautiful?
Isn't it beautiful, Michael?
That's the gospel.
That's what the gospel does.
You want to solve problems?
Do it in your Bible study.
You don't need to be a pop psychologist.
You don't need to be a psychoanalyst.
You don't have to be a therapist.
What we need is apply the Bible.
This book will solve almost every problem.
If we just trust the power of this book and people are...
We just ask questions and then let them hear the simplicity of gospel preaching.
They'll see it.
But if we don't teach them, they won't.
If we're afraid, they won't.
If we never teach them, they'll never see it.
I'm gonna deal with one more question and then we're gonna be done for this evening.
And I'll need about five more minutes.
All right.
So I'm sitting in the living room and Sharon Fisher's sitting there and she says, she says, Robin, my first marriage.
The last thing I wanted to hear was a first marriage.
And I said,
And so she tells me about this first marriage.
I don't know much about it, but she tells me a little bit about it.
so I've got some questions.
What do I do with that information?
She's exposed that she has multiple marriages.
I don't know much about it.
I could stop at that point and have an inquisition.
I could ask lots of questions.
I could try to pin it down and find out the details.
But I just met them.
This is the first time they've ever been in my house.
So what did I do?
I practiced John 16-12.
John 16-12 is a very important passage because it helps me understand how to approach people.
And this is Jesus speaking to his disciples and he says something.
says, I have many things to say to you, but you can't bear them now.
What does that mean?
What does that mean, brother?
You're a second year student at Memphis.
What does it mean?
You can't handle it.
That's right.
You're not ready.
So there's some things I need to teach you, but I can't teach you right now because you're not ready.
So what do we need to do?
We need to bring them to a point where they are ready.
So I know that it's going to take time.
I know that it's going to take us to some time.
So Nicole and I spent a lot of time with Jimmy and Sharon.
And we're also doing these Bible studies.
We're going through them.
But not every time we met them did we do a Bible study.
Sometimes we just went to the classroom and cleaned the kindergarten class, because she's a kindergarten teacher.
Sometimes we went to Latia's and ate a meal.
Sometimes we didn't always have a Bible study.
Why?
Because I need time to build the relationship.
And I also know that faith comes by.
hearing and hearing by the word of God.
We need time.
And so I'm not going to rush into it.
I'm going to give them time to digest all of this.
All right?
So we're going through this process, John 16, 12 process.
But I know eventually we're going to have that third study.
And I'm going to have to deal with sin.
And I do.
And it's on page, I think it's page three, back to the Bible, the red booklet.
This is the question.
All right, this is the first.
And so we're sitting in that Bible study.
I said, Jimmy and Sharon, let's read that verse.
Know ye not?
The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God be
I said Jimmy, do you know what a fornicator is?
He said, yes.
He says, yeah, that's wrong.
I know what that is.
said, you sure?
Yes, I know what that is.
I said, okay.
I trust him.
I said, Sharon, says idolaters.
Sharon, do you know what an idolater is?
She said, yes.
Well, those are the people in the African jungles watching the gold things.
I said, close enough.
I said, yes, no gold things.
I said, OK.
So now we're going to the third qualification, right?
Adultery.
I said, hey, guys, do you know what adultery is?
They kind of looked at each other and looked at me, and they said, yeah, I think so.
I said, well, let's make sure.
Take your Bibles, everybody.
I'm going to take about two minutes.
Take your Bibles.
I'll show you.
I think things very simple.
I'm a very simple preacher.
I'm not complicated, because I don't think God meant for it to be hard.
All right, so just go to Matthew 19.
I'm gonna write down four things.
I would strongly encourage you to do this or take a picture of the screen because this is, I've been doing this for years and it always works.
I can't think of one time this did not work.
They're always gonna see it.
Now what they do with it, it's up to them, but they'll see it.
I said, let's go to Matthew 19 verse three.
Then the Pharisees came to Jesus, attempting him, saying, Jesus is at lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause.
What do you think Jesus is going to do with that question?
He's going to ask his own question.
Just like I taught you Sunday, he does not answer direct questions.
Have you not read?
He's brilliant, isn't he?
He's so good.
Have you not heard that he that made them in the beginning made them male and female?
And where this call shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh, where God has joined together.
All right, everybody can answer.
Who does the joining?
God.
Simple.
It can't get any more simple than that.
God does the joining.
by the way.
When God does the joining, does God follow his law?
Yes or no?
Yes.
Yes, he always follows his law.
He's never going violate the law.
So let's just make sure we understand.
So God is going to take one eligible man, one eligible woman, and he's going to unite them.
You know what God's not going to do?
He's not going to unite two men.
He's never going to do it.
Well, the judge said, I don't care what the judge says.
God's not, but the president said, I don't care what the president says.
Because God is only going to unite one eligible man with one eligible woman.
Well, I got that.
I got the marriage ceremony certificate.
I don't care what certificate you have because God is only going to do it when he follows his law.
Does everybody agree with that?
Everybody agree?
I've never met anyone in the church who disagreed with that.
I've done 325 of these.
Watch out.
No more can a man not go out there and take another man as his husband.
Can a man go out there and take another man's wife?
You can't do it.
Now we're as silent as a church mouse.
Because now the chickens come home to roost.
Because now we understand that it's just as wrong.
We're ready to stand on a phone foundation.
No, you can't take another man.
You can't take another man's wife either.
Well, the judge says there, the judge said that there was a, well, I don't really care what the judge says because the Bible also says what God is doing together, let not man
put asunder.
Guess who has the power to break a marriage?
God.
And he will only make that marriage dissolve when you follow his law.
I did not write that.
God did.
You know, God told us when that happens, whosoever put it the way his wife accepted B for fornication and marries another committed adultery.
He that marries her that is put away committed adultery.
That's God's law.
I read it and I said, Jimmy and Sharon, do you understand what the Bible says?
I said, of course.
I said, Jimmy, is your marriage right?
He said, Rob, I've never been married before.
I said, Sharon, is your marriage right?
She said, Rob, well, she says, my first husband left me for another woman.
I said, thank God.
It doesn't always work like that.
I did with Geneva.
Hey Rob, I got a problem, Rob.
I said, what's going on, Geneva?
My husband, Rob, had five wives, five wives.
I'm a very optimistic person.
So I said, well, Geneva, bet they've all committed adultery.
And she said, no, Rob, they have not.
I said, Geneva, I think we need to take some time and we need to study this.
I said, let's get with the elders.
So I sat down with the elders, Geneva and Nicole.
We just sat down.
We just read the Bible.
I said, Geneva, do you understand what the Bible says?
She says, yeah.
I said, Geneva, what does that mean?
She says, Rob, that means he's not my husband, Rob.
And I need help.
I said, Geneva, if that's what you want, if that's what you think, we're going to help you.
I said, Geneva, I want you to know something.
I said, you'll never be alone again.
I said, your girls are our girls now.
I said, I'll help you with them.
What do you need us to do?
You need a house?
What do you need?
She said, I just need some time.
And she put him away.
And in every holiday and birthday, you know where those girls are at?
Our home.
because those are our girls now.
And we're going to be there for the girls.
We love them.
We love Geneva.
In fact, our son, when we're not home, takes them to church.
Let me introduce you to our family.
You do see the resemblance, don't you?
That is my family.
Let me show you on the left-hand side.
On the left-hand side of Hannah is Geneva.
She's a courageous woman, isn't she?
She loves the Lord more than she loves men.
On the left-hand side is her middle child.
That's, well, that's Nikea.
Sitting next on Nicole's lap is the youngest.
She's 10 now.
Her name is, and so on the left-hand side is the oldest, and that's Nyla.
And sitting behind Jared is our son.
And that's our family.
I want you to know something.
When a person's willing to do what the Bible says, he'll never be alone.
And so, Rob, you certainly are not suggesting that people are actually going to make those hard decisions.
They just did.
I was in Hartsfield, Alabama last week, and we had a lady make that decision during the seminar.
And her husband accepted it because he wasn't her husband.
and they repented.
And I've seen it several times.
I've heard members of the church say, well, you just can't expect people.
Yes, you can, because that's what the Bible says.
I know that some sins are harder than others, but Jesus told that rich young ruler, you need to give it back because it's not yours.
He didn't say to the rich young ruler, if you're baptized, you can keep it.
He said, no, you have to give it back because it's not yours.
I would like to suggest tonight that if you don't have the courage in a Bible study to tell the truth, you do the kingdom a favor and never do a Bible study.
Don't do it.
Make sure you have the courage to tell the truth in a Bible study.
Thank you for listening tonight.
I do want to share a couple encouraging slides as we walk out of the auditorium.
Let me show you those encouraging slides.
We got a lot of new convert material.
I don't have time to go over it in this seminar, but you will in the curriculum.
We have other Bible study methods.
This is the one study method.
It's called Does It Matter?
This is the three study method for those who don't believe in God.
It's called Believe the Bible.
It's very important.
Now this is what happened in 2020.
So there were 370 baptisms that took place as we were teaching.
churches, 32 churches of Christ.
So we increased that number to in 2021 and we had 649 baptisms.
Those are the actual pictures.
In 2022, it increased again to 980 baptism.
In 2023, it's 1,403 baptisms.
And in 2024, it's 1,939 baptisms.
There is no AI-generated photo there.
Those are actual people.
And we keep very close numbers.
We have a spreadsheet.
For every baptism, there's a date and a name and a church.
I don't make it up.
So for those of you who are doubting, please let those pictures sink into your heart.
If you'll follow New Testament evangelism, you'll grow.
To God be the glory, let's pray.
Father, we're thankful for this church.
We're thankful for the good audience tonight.
for the souls that are interested in salvation.
Bless us Father that we might reach others.
Help us Father to trust the gospel.
Help us Father to have courage and to believe in the gospel for we know it's the power to save.
And bless Collierville Father with growth.
We pray for Aaron as he labors here, Justin and Father for every member.
We love thee and praise thy name.
Bless us as we travel home for in Jesus name we pray, amen.