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On this day, 6 years ago, I was an angry sinner in rebellion against God, the church, and the pastor. Most people would not have considered me a candidate for conversion. I argued against every sermon and found fault with every aspect of the church. Amidst my hatred, two people cared for my soul. Mr. Matsusaka and Aaron Yancy went outside of the normal program of the church, and cared for me with the same caution and concern as in defusing a bomb. Though I disputed every truth of the Bible, there was one thing that I could not argue with: Aaron Yancy and David Matsusaka loved me. In the weeks prior to my conversion, as I wrestled with God, this was a reoccurring witness to me. They won my soul.

In the world around us, we see people using each other. They get in relationships for their own interests, they employ others to make money for themselves, and people even start families – for themselves! It is rare for people to do anything for someone else, without having a hidden motive or agenda for that action. Young people today are becoming increasingly conscious or subconsciously aware of this. They are defensive and understand that “nobody is going to look out for them.”

“No man cared for my soul” (Psalm 142:4).

The Golden Rule has vanished from modern society and it has been replaced with a mask of kindness to disguise the disgust and selfishness that has become characteristic of the last days. In times like these, the opportunity and responsibility to love and care for souls has never been greater! Christians must have a love for souls!

I. First, why Christians must have a love for souls.

What is caring for someone’s soul? The Bible likens the church to the bride of Christ. That’s another way of saying that we are Christ’s beloved! We should strive to be like Christ in everything we do. If Jesus loved us, as His bride, then we should also love souls as Jesus loves us. If a man loves a woman, he is likely thinking about her all the time. He thinks about how to make her happy and how to win her heart. He would be foolish to simply follow some formula for winning her heart, because she would quickly realize that his heart is not in it! For a boy to truly win a girl’s heart, he must be constantly invested and concerned about her! You must also have that same interest and concern for a soul! However, as Christians we are called to love souls despite our feelings. Love is more than a feeling. Love continues even in the most difficult of circumstances. The Bible says,

“[Love] beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. [Love] never faileth” (I Corinthians 13:7-8).

Someone may say, “But that makes love sound hard and difficult.” I would agree. Sometimes loving someone and caring for them is hard and difficult. For instance, when a couple has a baby, the child requires a great deal of attention and time. The child may keep the couple up long into the night and add a great deal of difficulty to the couple’s life. However, this does not lessen or diminish the couple’s love for their child. On the contrary, it likely increases it! When someone invests themselves, gives of themselves into another person, it is difficult, tiring, time consuming, and even risky, but that is what love is. Love risks itself for the other. Jesus said,

“This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13).

Notice how Jesus first commands us to love one another, as He loved us. Then He goes on to say that if you love someone, you are also willing to lay down your life for them. Jesus provides to us the example, the perfect example, on how to love souls! Christ himself in His omniscience was willing to be betrayed by Judas, but this did not stop Him from loving Judas. Though lost souls are unworthy of our love and concern and may very well not appreciate it; this should not stop you from loving them anyway! Consider your own conversion. Recall those moments in which you felt so lost and so without hope – dying a moment at a time…and yet, Jesus rescued you, the most unworthy and vile sinner there ever was; Jesus loved you. Now then, as you remember your own conversion, does anything seem too hard or difficult for Jesus?

“This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

What if you care for souls, and you genuinely love them, but you do not get the numbers of people that you anticipated staying? You have not failed. That person will go his own way, but forever have the witness and testimony that someone actually cared about him. Care for people even if they likely will not stay more than one Sunday! Furthermore, love that is inconsistent is not love at all but is some passing feeling of excitement that soon fades away. Many times someone can feel energized or motivated to do a particular task, but then later on, it seems impossible and unattainable and they give up. Yet, if you love souls despite the cost to yourself, not only are you obeying Christ’s commandment, you are also separating your Christianity from every other religion and modern brand of Christianity that person will ever experience. While other churches wanted their money or did not care for them at all, they will remember that at this church they experienced Christian love. That would glorify Christ! That is reward enough.

II. Second, there is no formula for loving souls.

What do you consider soul winning to be? Is it going out on Sunday afternoon to get a name on evangelism? Or perhaps is it smiling and having a pleasant conversation with those who visit our church on Sunday morning or evening? These are good things to practice, to be sure, but they require little thought and even less personal investment; therefore it is not winning any souls. Most people understand that someone is being nice to them because they are being polite, but politeness is not so out of the ordinary that it is exclusive to Christians. Being nice or being polite is not enough to attract someone back to church. What actually makes a difference in someone’s life, what actually attracts someone to come to church, is not the program of the church or politeness; it is a care and love for souls.

There is no formula or method for caring. There are people in this church that have been here all their lives, just as I had been, but have not been won to Christ. It is easy to simply assume that they are already “in,” but are they really? I certainly was not. I needed someone to love me and to win me to Christ. Jesus himself used methods that were considered to be unorthodox. He healed on the Sabbath and ate with publicans and sinners. What I am saying is that the program of our church does not actually win people to Christ. But Christian love does win people to Christ.

It is easy to do what you are used to doing. It is easy to follow the pattern of picking a new person up and having the same basic conversation that you have had dozens of times before with other visitors. If you always do what is easy, your life will be easy. To take the path of most resistance, to invest yourself in a total stranger – is hard. What has that person ever done for you? The people you pick up and talk to rarely have anything in common with you. Why not just switch into autopilot and just be nice to them and send them on their way? Look at what Jesus had to say. Turn with me to Luke 10:30:

“A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee” (Luke 10:30-35).

Notice that the priest and the Levite were both too busy on their way with the normal program and habits of their day that they could not be bothered to stop and take care of a total stranger. But the Samaritan had compassion. The Samaritan went out of his way and took care of him. He attended to the man’s wounds, gave him his own beast, and spent his own money to lodge him in an inn. The priest and the Levite surely took care of the poor and the needy, but only when it was a part of their normal duties. That requires no love: only habit. Look now for the application in Luke 10:36:

“Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto them that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:36-37).

Jesus tells us to go and do what the Samaritan did for the wounded man on the road. But the Samaritan would have done nothing unless, first of all, he had compassion on that helpless soul! That is what will separate our church, our people, our Christianity, from anything else any visitor has ever experienced: a personal compassionate investment of love. Jesus said,

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34-35).

This is how we can make a difference. If we want God to build our church, we must have love for souls. We must care for each person as if they were a broken man or women lying on the road. We must care for them as if thieves had attacked them and taken away all they had. For is this not their case? The world and the Devil have left them broken and naked. When we meet them, on our path, we must have compassion and love for them. We must care for them. We must do what Jesus did for us.

III. Third, loving souls is for every Christian, not just some of them.

So now someone may think to themselves, “But I am shy, I am quiet, I am introverted, I could not get anyone to stay.” That does not seem like something Jesus would say. Does being shy, quiet, and introverted prevent you from loving and caring for someone? Even if you feel as if you cannot contribute or help anyone, you still must give and put yourself into souls. Remember the widow’s mite? She may not have had a lot to offer, but she still gave all that she had. That is what God wants, and that is what actually counts, for God giveth the increase! If someone is Chinese or of a different ethnic group from another person, they may feel intimidated to talk to someone of a different ethnic group or race, but Jesus broke the social norms and spoke to a Samaritan woman at the well. If you feel uncomfortable or frustrated, remember that love is patient, love is kind, and love seeketh not its own. The message that crosses all language barriers is a true love and care for the other person.

If you yourself are still unsaved, does this mean you should sit by yourself in the corner and ignore the people that come into our church? That is not what Jesus would have you do. He sent His Disciples out to do his ministry even before they had been converted. God works in mysterious ways and He may even use your attentiveness to other lost souls to be instrumental in your own conversion. Whatever the case, you must not sit there and feel sorry for yourself because you are lost or worse yet become comfortable in your sin. Rise up and take up the ministry of Christ as the Disciples did!

Perhaps someone is getting older and they feel like they have less and less in common with young people and can no longer be an attraction to them. I can tell you, as a young person, that this is absolutely not true. In fact, you may be more helpful to a young person than any of the other young people can. Consider the examples of Dr. Chan, Mr. Griffith, Mrs. Hymers, and Mrs. Salazar. They are never counting themselves out of the fight. They are always engaged, concerned, and focused on loving souls. And then there is the case of those who have grown up in our church that have the highest respect for you, but some of them are still unconverted. Could it be possible that God could use you in their lives, as God used Mr. Matsusaka in mine? Not only do I argue that it is possible, but that it is also necessary! I speak from personal experience. You will never know how much God can use the most seemingly insignificant conversation or friendship in a person’s life and conversion.

I offer you no method or outline on how to have a love for souls – only simply to say that when you walk up to someone and shake their hand, your concern should not be that you have something clever or interesting to say, but that you yourself have a love for them. If you feel incapable of this, remember, it is not our love, but Christ’s love shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost. Loving souls is a direct result of Christ’s work in us and therefore glorifies Jesus! We have here in our local church a great opportunity to glorify Jesus. Our church consistently has many visitors through our efforts of evangelism. From those visitors, someone may feel as the Psalmist felt:

“I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul” (Psalm 142:4).

Let new people never feel like that when they meet us! With every interaction we have with a lost soul we must fulfill our duty to love them as Christ commanded us to, so that whatever direction or course that person takes in their life, they will remember our love as a witness that we are Christ’s disciples. But also with every lost soul, we have a chance to care for someone as maybe no one else has. Think about what that person may have been through, over the course of his whole life, and now he has by God’s providence attended our church. This is a defining moment for that soul and for us. If that person senses that the people of this church love him or her, our concern and care for them will so contrast from what the world offers them that they may feel attracted to come again. Loving and caring for souls is a responsibility because Jesus commands us to love them, but it is also an opportunity to be a unique witness of Christ’s love.

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34-35).

“Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto them that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:36-37).

May God give us the grace and the power to love and care for souls as Jesus loved and cared for us. And yet, if despite after all of the prayer and the focus on loving and caring for souls – you still continue to put yourself before a visitor, than it reveals that you have no life within you. When you are converted, Jesus gives you a new heart, and your affections will change. If your affections are still with your own interests and you have no inclination to be a part of the fellowship and soul winning of our church, then where is Jesus in your life? The test of character is what you do when nobody is watching. If you cannot sing, or care for souls, unless you are being constantly rebuked and reprimanded by the pastor or a leader of the church, than this reveals a great deal about your own character. Listen to what the Bible says about a real Christian:

“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).

A truly converted person will want to serve Jesus and glorify Him in caring for souls. However, an unconverted person will continue to serve and love only himself. That’s all he can do! He cannot truly follow Jesus’ command,

“This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

Are you able to sing? Are you able to love and care for souls? If you are converted, come out of your backslidden state and start doing it! If you don’t, won’t, and can’t, this shows you have no life within you. It is my prayer that you will trust Jesus soon. In His name, Amen.

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