Go To Another Village

Luke 9:56

For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

The ministry of Christ gives several soul winning lessons that, if followed, would allow the believer to see many people saved. One of those lessons is when Jesus sent messengers into a village of the Samaritans, but those He sent were not received. When the disciples saw this, their reaction was to ask Jesus if they should command fire to come down and kill these people. Jesus’ response was classic; he said, the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Jesus was not interested in these people being destroyed because He understood there may be another time when this village would have a chance to hear the Gospel and they would then receive it.

However, the lesson I want you to see is found after Jesus’ response to His disciples. Notice, they went to another village. In other words, though one place did not receive them, they did not quit, but they moved on to find another place where people would receive Christ. However, it was while they were on their way to the next village that they “happened” to come across a man who wanted to follow Jesus. Though where they initially went was not receptive to them, because they kept going, they came across a man who did want to follow Jesus.

My friend, the secret to being a successful soul winner is never to allow rejection to cause you to stop. You may go to one place where the people will reject you, but you must go to another place. Just like there was another village to go to, there is another person to talk to or another house to visit. I have found that when I keep going after a rejection is when I often happen to come across another person who wants to be saved. If you allow rejection to cause you to stop soul winning, you will quickly quit soul winning, but you will also miss many opportunities to find people who want to be saved.

Someone asked me how I find so many people who want to be saved, and my answer is that I keep going. I find that the divine appointments of meeting people who want to be saved will happen all the time if I am faithful to go to another village. There is no great soul winner, but there are many faithful soul winners who keep going despite rejection who are considered great soul winners because they did not allow the rejection to stop them.

Years ago, when I was a young teenager, I had the great opportunity to go soul winning with Evangelist Jim Lyons. Bro. Lyons was known as one of the greatest soul winners of his day. I thought when I went soul winning with him that people would fall at our feet asking to be saved. What I found out was the second door we knocked on was slammed in our faces. He faced what I had faced, but we kept going until we saw someone saved.

So, the village you went to rejected you; go to another village. So, a person you talked to was rude, indignant, and wanted nothing to do with salvation; go to another person. What you will find is if you will keep going after rejection, you will likely find a person who is almost begging you to get saved. You cannot let rejection while soul winning to affect your faithfulness to go because there is a divine appointment ready for you if you keep going after someone has rejected your invitation for them to get saved.