(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Pastor Matthew Stuckey here from Verity Baptist Church, Philippines, and I wanted to make a quick video of what kind of missionary should you consider supporting financially. If you feel the desire or the need to support a missionary, what kind of things should you be looking for according to the Word of God? Well, number one, I believe that if you're going to support a missionary, you want to make sure that that missionary is correct on salvation. The last thing I would want to do is give money to support someone preaching a false gospel. And unfortunately, not all Baptists are clear on salvation. The Bible is very clear in Acts 16, you know, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Does not mention baptism or good works or going to church. It does not mention repentance of sins or giving your life to God. So if you have a missionary that will say something like, well, you know what, I believe salvation is by faith, but you also have to turn from your sins to be saved. That is someone you should not support because they're adding to the gospel. The Bible's clear it's whosoever believeth in him should not perish but of everlasting life. Or if there's somebody who maybe they are saved, but their salvation is just not super clear. For example, they say, well, you know what, you're saved by faith. But if you're really saved, you're going to walk the walk after you are saved. Well, maybe that individual is saved. Maybe they're not. But the thing is, if their salvation is not very clear, I don't really feel like I could trust them with money I give them to make the gospel clear to an unsaved person. If the gospel message they're declaring and what they're saying it takes to be saved is unclear to someone who is saved, how much more to someone who is unsaved, you know? And so I would really question whether or not they're able to get a lot of people saved if they're not super clear on their gospel message. So number one, you want to make sure that the person you're supporting is correct on salvation. Otherwise, you might actually be doing the opposite of a good work. You're actually supporting a bad cause instead of a good cause. Number two, besides being clear on salvation, they better be a genuine soul winner. And what I mean by that is they are going out preaching the gospel, getting people saved, you know, whether it be going door to door preaching the gospel or going to parks like we like to do here in the Philippines is a great opportunity, but someone who is very much into the idea of soul winning. And that ought to be true, not just for someone in the mission field, that would be true everywhere because that is the purpose of church. He's left us with the ministry of reconciliation. It's our job. The Bible says, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That is a command to all of us. And the truth is that if the leader of a church is not leading the charge, then you're not really going to see the followers of that leader going out and doing the work. You see it all throughout the old Testament when Kings are afraid to go to battle. What takes place? The men are afraid to actually go out as well. You need to have the leader being out leading the charge. So find a missionary that's clear on salvation. Find a missionary that is very zealous for soul winning and find a missionary that is just boldly preaching the word of God. One of the big things that you need at churches is besides just going soul winning is just preaching the whole council of God without backing down, just preaching the truth. You say why? Because it's going to be necessary for the soul winners at that church to really hear the word of God. They continue to grow and continue to be zealous. Otherwise our zeal is going to start to die out. It's necessary to cause people to get well rounded in their Christianity and get people to reach that step where they end up becoming soul winners. And so you need to have a church where they're not holding back the message, but they're just crying aloud about the word of God. One of the sad things with missionaries you see is that when it comes to the mission field, they just kind of preach generic sermons and they just preach. It's all about just, uh, you know, all about salvation. And unfortunately many times their salvation is not even clear, but even if it is, they oftentimes are just focusing on just generic and shallow messages. The Bible is very clear that we need to hear the whole council of God. Paul spoke about warning them night and day for three years, he preached the entire council of God. And the truth is that there's a lot in the Bible. And so you need pastors that are willing to just preach the truth, not hold back and teach people the entire council of God and not just small parts. So the three things I would be looking for in a missionary to support number one, they've got to be correct on salvation. They got to be crystal clear. If there's any sort of shakiness on their salvation, I personally would not want to support them. I would want to make sure that they're very solid, very clear on salvation. Number two, they need to be zealous for preaching the gospel. Their main focus ought to be preaching the gospel, going out, soul winning, getting people saved. And if that's not the main focus that they have, if in their monthly missionary updates, it's kind of like, well, you know what, we've been praying for people to get saved, but nothing about actually going out and getting people saved. It's not the missionary to support. And lastly, number three, it ought to be someone who's just boldly preaching the word of God. And so, uh, when you think about churches in your home country that you'd want to go to, you want to go to a country that's preaching the entire council of God. Well, the same ought to be true with the church on the mission field. It should not just be a short little generic sermon that's about salvation or about things that are, you know, uh, just the very basics of the word of God. Someone's actually just boldly preaching the word of God and not holding back in their message. Anyways. Thank you and God bless.