What is the first thing Les looks for before saying he led someone to Christ?
The first thing looked for is a genuine change in lifestyle, attitude, and behavior. Until that transformation is evident, no claim is made about leading someone to Christ or bringing them to a knowledge of salvation. A changed life confirms that old appetites have passed away and new things have come.
Les teaches that every believer experiences a change of appetites, lifestyle, behavior, and attitude because they are a new person, though this does not make them sinless or give them a halo. They are the result of a creative work of a Creator God and have a whole new concept in life. He recalls a young man his same age who spent every Saturday night in the tavern and bar, came to his class, and asked why he never saw Les in the bar on Saturday night. Les answered, for the same reason he did not see the young man in church on Sunday morning. Their lifestyles and appetites were totally different, as different as daylight and dark. This is why Les questions professing Christians who see nothing wrong with doing everything the world does. There must be a change in attitude and behavior. If there is no change, he has to doubt anything happened. That is the first thing he looks for. He never says anything about having led someone to Christ or brought someone to a knowledge of salvation until he sees that change in lifestyle. When the change is genuine, he can rejoice that the person has come to know the Lord and has experienced what it is to be born again.