“But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” Matthew 13:23
I believe that this verse about bringing forth fruit to the tune of 30, 60, or 100, is referring to actual soul-winning numbers. A fruit tree brings forth fruit after its kind, and a Christian brings forth other Christians. Ideally, fruit trees produce fruit every year, and those are realistic annual soul-winning numbers because people who go out once a week for over an hour in a receptive area will likely win about 30 souls per year. Those who are even more dedicated and go out for several hours might win 60 or 100 souls per year. If more people achieved even close to these numbers, we could easily evangelize the entire world in a very short time.
We know that the majority of people will never get saved, but when I say evangelize the world, I mean that everyone would hear a clear presentation of the Gospel. Reaching the world begins with winning one soul at a time.
Here’s the math. Let’s say that I am the only saved person in the entire world, and imagine that I decide to win just one person to the Lord each year. Not only do I get that one person saved, but I train him to be like me, meaning I teach him to be a soul-winning Christian.
After one year of that program, there are now two Christians in the world. Since I make that guy like me and he wins and trains another person, by the end of two years, we have four people. After six years, we have 64 people in our church. At that point we are still a small group, but once we get about 10 years in, there are 1,024 of us. Just to simplify the numbers, let’s say that we had 1,000 people at the ten-year mark. By the time we are 20 years in, we are up to 1,000,000! Keep in mind, these are not just converts but people who are each winning one soul per year. The number of soul winners keeps increasing exponentially until by the time we get to year 32, we have over 4 billion. Now we know 4 billion people aren’t going to get saved, but long before we get to that high of a number of people out soul winning, everyone in the world will have heard the gospel multiple times.
There are millions of saved people in this world, so when I look at these numbers, it shows me that the vast majority of Christians are bringing forth no fruit. They never win anyone to the Lord, and they certainly don’t train anyone to be a soul winner. This is why we need to shoot for winning 30, 60, or 100 people to the Lord each year instead of only one. Those are the biblical numbers, and that level of productivity will help make up for the Christians who do nothing.
Planting churches all over the United States and sending out foreign missionaries are important goals for each local church, but don’t underestimate your own personal reach. If you win enough people to the Lord, some of them will become soul winners themselves and reach people in their own circle of influence, which will likely extend to another city, state, or country. Whether you are a man or woman, a child or an older person, you can have a part in this task of evangelizing the world.
If you have never presented the Gospel or have gotten a little rusty, you can start out as a silent partner. Being a silent partner was how I learned soul winning at age 17. After a couple of hours of listening to an experienced soul winner present the Gospel, I started talking myself and improved over time. Some people are silent partners for months before they feel comfortable doing the talking, and that’s fine. The important thing is that you get started right away. Meanwhile, you can speed up the learning process by watching Pastor Jimenez’ Soul-Winning Seminar, which has a wealth of information beneficial to both beginners and experienced soul winners.
Here is the sermon: A Strategy for Evangelizing the Entire World
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