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Sing. 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 Alright, good morning everybody welcome to Verity Baptist Church and take out your bullets and we'll go through some things real quickly and what a great sermon to start off the missions trip I mean it seems like a simple thing but it's so easy for us not to be thankful and no matter who you are God has blessed you in a million different ways in life so that was a great sermon and let's start up by counting up any salvation so I got the count of 130 salvations plus Brother Jacob gave me the extra ones for the salvations yesterday in intramurals. But if you got anybody saved like late last night or members of our church that have unreported results, that's what we're counting now for like from the previous week. So let's start in the back section. Are there any salvations to report? Two? Anybody else? Five? Anybody else? Three? All right. How about here? Any salvations to report? Anybody? Three? Okay. How about anybody else? How about over in this section? Two? Two? Four? Anybody else that I'm missing? All right. Great job. 21 salvations to add for a bulletin. Praise the Lord for that. And just a couple other things. We don't go through all the announcements for the second service, but a couple things. After our soul winning time here today, we're going to have a quick meeting about the missions trip. If you can't stay for it, I do have handouts that I can give you. It's only slightly altered from the one that I sent, but I want to just kind of explain through it very quickly. We're going to try to be as organized as possible, but when the government's shutting us down from areas, you cannot be completely organized. It just is what it is. You know, we might have to last second, go to Intramuris or whatever for soul winning like we did yesterday, but we will have a meeting to try to be organized. Here today, we're going to start soul winning pairing at 2 30 p.m. So we should be done around roughly 1 p.m. That gives basically an hour and a half that you can get lunch. If you brought lunch, we're going to be setting up tables. You are welcome to just stay here and eat here. There is, you know, we call it a car and dairy and near the building where people cook food that is just nearby. And at the very end, you've got McDonald's and Jollibee right now we'll say this fast food does taste better in the Philippines than it does in the US. So McDonald's Burger King, I don't know why, but in Asian countries, they tend to taste better than in the US. I'm not sure why, but it is true. So you can grab food there if you want, but we'll start the pairing at 2 30 for soul winning. When we do the pairing, you know, it's hard enough for our church because we have a lot of soul winners now to get people paired up and sent out. And so we do the pairing. Basically, you're going to get your invitations, make sure you have your Bible. We're going to say, OK, 20 people go with Brother So-and-so on the Jipney and you're going to get a Filipino experience riding a Jipney. Right. And then we're going to have you just go out at that time because it's very hard when there's a lot of people here to see who's left and try to figure it out. And so we'll send out a group and you can just head down immediately and fellowship once you get back, but not stay in fellowship for another 10 minutes here. Then we'll send out another group and then we'll do our best. And then whatever's left, we'll just kind of organize in the best way possible. Obviously, we can go door to door nearby, but it is more receptive at parks. So to the best of our ability, we're going to try to send people to parks and kind of our church might be the ones that are going to be going so many nearby door to door if there's no other spots available. But I believe that's it for announcements. At this time, we'll have Brother Rafi lead us in another song. I was singing. Far from the peaceful shore, very deeply staying within, seeking to rise, no more. But the master of the sea. From the waters. And me. And me. And nothing else. Love. Love. Love. And nothing else. Love. And me. All my heart to hear my ear ever to hear my plea in his presence ever is great. So my soul, my soul, my soul, my soul, my soul, my soul, my soul. For us. Love. When. Love. Love. Love. When. Me. So. Jesus. He will. Out of the. He is the master of the sea below this will obey me or say your wants to be the same. Love. Love. When. Love. Love. Love. When. Love. Lived. Me. Amen. When. When. For scripture reading, let's turn our Bibles to second Thessalonians, chapter three, second Thessalonians, chapter three. Say amen. Amen. If you're there. Follow along with me silently as I read second Thessalonians, chapter three, verse number one, the Bible reads, Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have recourse and be glorified even as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith. But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you and keep you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord, touching you that he both do and will do the things which we command you. And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the sedition which ye receive of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you, not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensemble unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he it. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, walking not at all but our busy bodies. Now them that are such we command and extort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing, and if any men obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Now the Lord of peace himself to give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all. The solicitation of Paul with my own hand, which is the token in every epistle, so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask of God that you would bless our pastor, Pastor Matthew Saki, to preach to us, Lord, a sermon that would edify us. I pray that you would keep us attentive with the sermon, remove the distractions, O God. The reading of your word, Lord, and we thank you for the word of God. We thank you for your words, Lord, for the scripture. We ask, O God, that you would bless the rest of the activities for today, Lord. We're asking all of these things. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. We're here in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3. And, you know, you could ask the same thing to Pastor Sepulveda. It's always a challenge preaching sermons at things such as this, because, you know, you want to have a unique sermon. You want to have something applicable and helpful. So it's a little bit harder than writing a normal sermon. And the name of the sermon, though, is The Free Course of the Word of God. I hope this is a blessing to you today. Let me just read the verses, and then it's going to be a bit of a unique sermon, because I'm going to explain kind of the history of our church, some of the things that we've gone to. So it's a little bit different than a normal sermon I would preach. But notice what it says here in 2 Thessalonians 3, verses 1 and 2. Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith. And this is going to be our main text here today. But turn to 2 Timothy, chapter 3. And before we really get into it, let me just give you a bit of history about our church and the soul winning at our church. You know, there are people that are here today that the first experience you had of Verity Baptist Church Philippines was before this church started. We had the missions trip in April of 2018. You know, the Sweden family, the Bahamundi family were there before this church had even started. And our main soul winning spot was Rizal Park. Because if you're here from the Philippines, you probably know Rizal Park. But if you were there for the missions trip, it's a very large park with a lot of people. It makes organizing an event like this very easy. It's like pray and just go. You go this way, 25 of you go this way, and it's like there's a lot of people to talk to, right? It makes it nice and easy, right? Well, Rizal Park was our number one soul winning spot. Our church actually started for a couple months nearby Rizal Park, and we would just pray and just go out and talk to people. Lots of people get saved. But you know, here today, we are not allowed to go soul winning in Rizal Park. It is now completely banned. And I talked to the admin this past week several times, and I put out a formal request to get a permit. And what we were told is our permit would be approved as long as we don't roam around the park, we just stay in one spot. And as long as we don't talk to any of the visitors, and as long as we don't hand out any invitations or flyers. Now, here's the thing. I'm okay with not handing out invitations and flyers. Hey, we can preach the gospel and not hand out an invitation. I'm not a street preacher. I'm not going to stand in one spot and mindlessly yell at people and think I'm crazy. So I was like, well, I guess we withdraw our request for an application or a permit to go soul winning at Rizal Park. So that was our big soul winning area, and it got shut down. How about in Pampanga, our biggest soul winning area, Nepo Park. Now, I think maybe some people here from Metro Manila have been there when we visited, but it's really nearby our church. Very convenient. I mean, nearby, different people there each week, a great soul winning spot. But Nepo Park has now closed because they're building condominiums. It just happens. A park that's been around for a long time, we come to town for a year doing soul winning, now it's shut down. How about Marikina River Park? How about the spot that was our key spot here on Sundays for about four, five, six months? We'd send out 50 people, it was great, lots of people to talk to, under construction for the next couple years at least. And I guess I'm naive, because I never put two and two together, because there's a lot of spots you can go, just whatever, it doesn't bother us, until last week, and I found out, well, KSL Memorial Circle has shut us down one week before the missions trip. Now, I might be naive, but I'm not a complete idiot. It's like, obviously the devil is trying to put a stop to our soul winning. One week before the missions trip, and he shuts down the area that we have planned. The area where there's lots of people to talk to, the area where it's convenient, the area that I asked you to get a hotel nearby KSL Memorial Circle, because this is our soul winning spot. Now, we can go soul winning anywhere, but honestly, it's like, I don't want people from another country to get lost, or have to worry, or go a long distance. I try, I want it to be as organized, and as simple as possible, but the reality is, where no oxen are, the crib is clean. But when you're doing something for God, sometimes things get disorganized. Sometimes you have a fight. Sometimes you have to adjust. As far as I know, as of now, we have approval for the next three days, starting tomorrow, to go to KSL Memorial Circle, which is gonna be one portion of our group, which originally they said we had a longer period of time, and then all of a sudden they shut down yesterday, and now we think we have it for the next three days. Now, we have backup areas. I'll explain it on the meeting. You know, we might find out that we get there tomorrow, they say you're allowed, and then they kick us out, and we gotta figure it out. I don't know, we'll see what happens. But it's not a coincidence that our four best soul winning results have all been shut down for various reasons. Two of them where we were restricted and banned, where they will literally kick us out, and then the other areas just happen to close, and these have been our four biggest and best soul winning areas for our churches. That is not a coincidence. You say, well, why is this happening? Well, 2 Timothy 3, verse 10. 2 Timothy 3, verse 10. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. What persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Now, here's the thing. This is a very famous verse, especially for churches like ours and people like us, because we've been through the persecution. We understand how this works. We've been rejected by our family as we got saved. We've been rejected by old friends. People say the church you go to is a hate church. They hate your pastor, right? But I want you to key in on, in verse 11, it's not just persecution happens to anyone, but it happens everywhere. At Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, in Australia, in Tempe, Arizona, in Sacramento, California, and what is it, Hearst, Texas. Is that where steadfast is? In Texas, right? Wherever you go, there's going to be a persecution. It's not just it happens to everyone, and it happens to every church that's doing something. It happens in every location. You cannot freely get thousands of people saved as a church family and expect the devil's not going to fight you. And make no mistake, this number, a very small percentage is me. Very small percentage. We have an army at our churches that go out and go soul winning. It is very much a team effort. We are one church body, but this is not Pastor Stuckey or his family, where it's like, wow, I preached to a thousand people. We're counting every single person saved. No, this is thousands and thousands and thousands of man hours and woman hours out there preaching the gospel. This does not just happen from one person. It is a team effort. And at our church, our church started not a big church. I mean, not a small church. We had high 20s, 30 people on a Sunday. We've grown quite a bit. We have more ministries. We have our church in Poland, which by the way, there's already persecution in Poland. They've been down there less than two months. And here comes the persecution because a real bonafide church is actually in Poland. And the devil is like, well, wait a minute. I haven't had to worry about this for a while. I've got to put a stop to this. It will happen every single place you go. It's not just to everybody or every church that's doing something for God. It's in every location. So wherever you live, if you're part of a bonafide church, you know what? Your church is going to get persecuted. And you know, here's the thing. Our church has never been protested by the LGBT. And culturally, I don't think that would happen anytime soon. So I kind of just thought of persecution like that. And then I realized, well, wait a minute. Our calling card here in the Philippines is soul winning. That's what people know us for. I get it. When people donate to us, they don't donate because of my preaching. They donate to other pastors who's preaching. They like more, and that's fine, right? People, when they donate to us, it's because we get a lot of people saved. That's the truth. So the persecution is against the soul winning that we're doing. That's what we're seeing. And what I would expect in the next several years is more parks that we go to, more places we go get shut down, not less, right? It is a spiritual battle we're fighting. And we don't fully understand how all of these things work. But what we know the Bible teaches is God is on our side, but the forces of darkness and the devil are fighting against us. Now turn in your Bible back to 2 Thessalonians 3. 2 Thessalonians 3. On Tuesday we have our midweek service in Pampanga. And I was preaching on Tuesday. And generally I write my sermons usually in advance. And the sermon I had written about a month before I preached it. And I was looking over my notes. And it was interesting because it was in Jeremiah 36 was part of the sermon. And it made me think about what's going on. Because it's a story where Jeremiah gets the Word of God. And then he gives it to Barak to give to the king. And I remember several years ago I had a New Year's resolution. My goal was to write the entire Bible in one year. You say, Pastor, did you complete it? No. Because it's very hard. I thought what a great way to learn the Bible. And it's still a long-term goal I have one year to really just dedicate my time and do it. But it's like that's three or four chapters a day. And then after like 10 minutes you're like, oh man, my hand is so tired. It's so much work to do it. And yet it didn't really take a whole lot of work for the king to be like and throw it in the fire. I mean he did it in a matter of seconds like that. And then what happened? Well, Barak had to rewrite. And here's some added words. It's like, oh man, my hand's already tired. I've got to rewrite more. But it's like here's the application I'm saying. The forces of darkness, the bad people, they sit in powerful positions. And they can easily fight against what we're doing. You know what? We've got to fight extra to still do the work of God. And it just is what it is. I mean a person who's in administration says, you can't go so many here. So what have we done the last week? We're doing a lot of extra work behind the scenes to try to get approval. Takes time. It takes effort. But that's the battle that we face. It is an uphill battle with the Lord on our side. But we must be willing to work. When you're getting persecuted at your home church, you can't just throw in the towel and say it's too hard. You've got to be willing to fight for it. Point number one, we see in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, point one is this, the power of prayer. In verse number one, we see the power of prayer. It says, finally brethren, pray for us. Now the context here is, pray to have freedom to preach the word of God and publish the word of God and proclaim the word of God, right? And it starts with this, pray for us. Now if this is something that seems very, well, it's like a cliched thing to say, pastor, it's a very basic thing, but it's reality. Pray. Pastor, what can we do for your church in the Philippines? Pray for us. Pray for us that the word of God can have free course. How about members of our church in the Philippines? What can we do? Pray. You say, well, why does it make a difference if we pray? Because we're not Calvinists. We don't believe that everything's going to happen no matter what we do. I seem to remember in the Bible that God's people finally cry out to God and God's like, all right, I'll send Moses to deliver you. I seem to remember in the book of Judges going back and forth, the people fall into sin and when they finally cry out to God, God's like, I've been waiting for you. I've been waiting for you to cry out to me. I've been waiting for you to pray unto me. And then they pray and God sends a deliverer. And then they get back into sin. And then all of a sudden the same thing happens. And what I would say here is if we want freedom to preach the word of God, one thing we can do is just pray for it. Pray, say, God, please give us the opportunity. Please fight on our side. Please open up the door so we can do something big for God. But if we don't pray for it, God might be like, I'm still waiting. It's like, Pastor, why are all these areas being shut down? If they were shut down for years and we're not doing so many, why are we needing to pray for it? It could be that simple. And God can open up the doors to give us opportunities. Go in your Bible to James 4. James 4. I mean, in reality, we should be praying before situations, during situations and after situations. But unfortunately, what do we do? We do the same thing as they did in the Book of Judges. We wait for our life to get so messed up. And it's like, God, if you just grant my request, I promise I'll read the Bible seven hours every day. I promise I will preach the gospel to 50 people every day. Right? We're just like, God, whatever you want me to do. Right? We wait till our life is messed up. And then we pray unto God. When in reality, what we should do is start our day and say, God, thank you for all the blessings you've given me yesterday. And I ask you to help me and bless me. Forgive me for what I've done wrong. Help me forgive people that have done me wrong. And just bless me and help me today to serve you and do right. We should make it an active part of our life that we pray. And look, I'm just giving you the context of these two verses. That's the context. It starts with, pray for us. You say, why? Because Paul had a lot of enemies. James 4, verse 1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your lust that warn your members? Ye lust and have not. Ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight in war, yet ye have not. Why? Because ye ask not. It's oftentimes that simple. They say, well, I don't know why it's that way. Well, actually it makes perfect sense if you're a mom or a dad in this room. Look, I know a lot of the things that my kids want. My kids want candy. They want chips. They want Coke. And look, on some days I might give it to them, but you know what I'm waiting for? Daddy, can I please have Dutch meal? Can I please have candy? And if they don't ask, guess what? I'm not going to go out and buy it for them. But if they do ask for it and they're being good, then I'll probably grant that request. And so here's the thing. It makes sense because it's not just that God calls us His children, those of us that are saved. He treats us like we are His children. My kids do wrong. I punish them, but I still love them. Right? Same thing with God. And here's the thing. God does want to bless our lives. I mean, don't we want to have good lives for our children? Of course, but it starts with obedience to mom and dad. And see, God wants to grant us requests. He wants to help us out in life, but we have to ask for things. We have to pray to God. We cannot set God aside and then just think, well, I can get whatever I want. No, no, no. We have to pray to God and serve God and do right. Go in your Bible to Genesis 18. Genesis chapter 18. I mean, I'm not asking for a show of hands, but my hand would be up if somebody asked this. I mean, in terms of at least in my heart, you know, where it's like, do you pray enough or should you be praying more? Do you sometimes not pray to God and ask Him to guide you? I would say, yeah, you know what? I don't go and pray to God as much as I should. I mean, it seems so simple. You preach sermons. You hear sermons. You're like, oh, this is of course I should do this. And then tomorrow rolls around and it's like, what's going on on Facebook, right? What's going on in the NBA game, right? And you focus on all of these other or what's going on in rugby to bring the Australian crowd into this, right? Or Aussie Leagues football or whatever, right? It's like you focus on all of these other things that do not matter and have no eternal value. And they're not always sinful and wrong things, but they're a waste of time. And what you should be doing is going to God every single morning and praying to God, reading your Bible and getting God on your side for that day so He can bless you and help you. One reason we don't pray is simply because as much as we say we believe in it, we don't believe in it strongly enough. So the Bible says in Genesis 18 verse 14, is anything too hard for the Lord? This is a rhetorical question. It means that the answer is there is nothing too hard for the Lord. It's one of these questions where it's like, we don't have to ask, do you think the answer is yes or no? Because everybody knows what the answer is already. And Abraham would say, of course, nothing's too hard for God. You created the world. Sarah would say, of course, nothing's too hard for God. You created the world. And Sarah is past the point of being able to have kids. And God's like, you're going to have a child. It's like, that's not going to happen. I'm not trying to rip on them because I wouldn't believe it if I was in that situation either, because we often have such a strong or such a small and little faith. And it's like, we don't really believe in things that God says when in reality is anything too hard for the Lord. Now, of course, it's it has to be according to God's will. But ask yourself this question. Is it God's will that we can freely preach the gospel everywhere? Of course. It's a prayer that God would like. I mean, sometimes my kids come to me and ask me stuff and I'm thinking, man, I really like that request that they made and you want a grant. It's like, yeah, that's great. Look, if we pray to God and say, God, can you open up the doors? Look, that is a request that God likes. Now, I don't see the spiritual battle. We understand God is for us and the forces of darkness, the devil and his minions or devils are against us. We don't understand all of this that's going on, but we need to pray to God for the opportunity. That's where it starts. Go to Matthew 7. Matthew 7. Now, as I said, I think we're going to have access to K-Someone World Circle tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday. And I don't want to burn that bridge, OK? But I do want to mention something that I found out about last night. Actually, Brother Dante messaged me, you know, something I wasn't aware of. And I used a different example in Pampanga. And I'm going to use a different one here today. And let me just say this. I am really glad we did not go to K-Someone Memorial Circle yesterday. There actually was a very big event there. And it is illegal for gays to get married here in the Philippines. But they seem to have a certain vow or commitment ceremony that they did at QMC yesterday. And if you had gone to QMC yesterday, it's like, I'll just explain in English that the government, K-Son City Government, is giving the opportunity for the LGBTQIA+. I never get after T. It's kind of like pi. It's like 3.14. I don't know the rest, right? LGBT, you know, whatever. It's like, I'm too old to know all these new letters they've added, right? They had a commitment ceremony. And you know what? Don't look on the link online. You know, it's gross. But what they're doing is they're making vows. Because they can't legally get married here, but they made vows before their God, where basically we're going to stay together forever. And I'm saying there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of couples. I mean, you literally would have been sowing in Sodom and Gomorrah. I imagine you go back to your home church, it's like, you know, Pastor Anderson, Pastor Shelley, you know, it's like, how's the mission trip? Well, he sent me to Sodom and Gomorrah. That was the start of the mission trip. I mean, literally, it's like it would have been Sodom and Gomorrah yesterday. So it's like sometimes we pray for something and I'm praying, God, open up QMC, open it up, give us the opportunity. And then it's like, man, we can't go soul winning tomorrow. That's what I was thinking on Friday, because I figured it's the easiest place. We'll get kind of organized after the first couple of days, have a new plan. But I didn't realize that actually it's a very good thing. God did not answer that per request. So sometimes in life, we don't pray for things, but we have to realize God knows things we don't know. And it might be that we want something and we think it's going to be good. But in reality, God's like, actually, you don't realize this is the end of it. It's like, for example, you pray for a new job sometimes and you think, man, this would be the perfect job. I'd make more money. My life would be so much better. Who knows, though, maybe five years down the road, it would be the biggest regret you ever had in your life taking that job. We don't understand that. But here's my point. If you are right with God and you love God and you're serving God and God knows the future and you don't, if you pray for God to guide you, God's going to guide you down the right way. This is why we better get a hold of God every day, not just for this mission trip, but for your life. For your life that God would send you in the right direction, because look, none of us are that smart and we will mess up our lives if we go on our own human wisdom. It says in Matthew chapter seven, verse seven, Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be open unto you, for everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who if his son ask bread, will ye give him a stone? Or if ye ask fish, will ye give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, good things to them that ask him. You know, in the analogy I'm giving, it's like, your son asked you for bread and you give him a stone. It's like, they want food, right? It's like, God, please give us the opportunity to go sowing in case I'm a moral circle. And God's like, all right, I'll let you go to Sodom and Gomorrah. No, because God actually loves us, so he protects us. He spares us from that situation. It would have been a disaster. I mean, obviously, you know, we would have gone somewhere else, but it's just like, what the worst possible start ever for a mission strip? It's like you go to Sodom and Gomorrah, right? And so look, what I'm saying is this, that if we pray to God, God wants us to have nice things. He wants to guide our lives. He wants to help us. So here's the thing, God can grant those requests. It does not always mean he's gonna grant it in the exact way that we think. We pray that God will open up doors and give us the opportunity to preach here. Why? Because we think it's going to give us more salvations. That's the reason why we want to have free, you know, freedom to go sowing everywhere. But yet sometimes maybe God restricts doors. And what happens is other doors you happen to find open. It's the example I gave him in Pompanga yesterday. Once our best sowing spot got shut down, we're like, we got to figure out a new plan. And Nepo Park is convenient and easy. And yet in January, we broke our record for salvations in a month and we just broke it again yesterday in February. It's like, well, maybe it was actually a good thing that it was shut down. Because it caused us to say, hey, we got to figure it out. And then we branched out and started to go other areas. So go back to 2 Thessalonians 3. And the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 1, Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course. Point number one was the power of prayer. Point number two is the path of the parchments. And by path, I mean the course. God says that the word of God can have free course. And the word of God was written on parchment. So what we're saying here, the path of the parchment is that the word of God can just have freedom to go everywhere. We ought to be praying that we have the opportunity to preach the gospel in all areas, right? Go to Mark chapter 16. Mark 16. I mean, there's many countries around the world where they have no freedom to preach the word of God. I'm not standing here complaining because I believe we have a great freedom here in the Philippines that they don't have in Muslim countries. They don't have it in India and Nepal, the Hindu countries. They don't have it in the Buddhist communist countries. There's a lot of areas you don't have freedom to just preach the word of God. You start going soul winning and they will shut you down. They will arrest you. It'll be a lot worse than what we experience. So I'm not sitting here complaining, but what I would say to people that live in those countries is pray that God gives you the opportunity. And if God gives you the opportunity and the freedom, use it. How about this? There's countries in the world where you cannot freely read the Bible. So what should we do that we have the opportunity to read the Bible in the countries we're from? Wake up every day and read the Bible. Wake up every day and not care about the sports and the news and all these things that do not matter. Mark 16 verse 15. Mark 16 verse 15, the Bible says, And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Look, it's God's will, it's God's desire that we go out and preach the gospel to every creature, to every single person. To the eight point whatever billion people on this planet that we go out and we give people a chance to get saved. Go ye into all the world. And that includes the countries that is shut down right now. Look, I don't want to stand in judgment of people that live in those countries because there's countries, you got to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove and you could literally get killed if you just go with your zeal right in front of the government, right? But it's God's will, it's his desire that we preach the gospel to everybody. Go to verse 20. And they went forth and preached everywhere. And I love this phrase, the next five words, the Lord working with them. Boy, I'm glad that I don't have to figure out this missions trip by myself. And we have people at our church that are very much helping out with stuff as well. And I'm sure people that are here for the missions trip, if things get disorganized and get complicated, you'd be willing to help out. But here's the thing, more importantly, is that God is on our side. More importantly, the Lord is on our side. You say, why? Because it's God's will that we preach the gospel everywhere. So of course, God wants us to go and preach the gospel and get a lot of people saved. Go to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew 28. What I can say is, it's not the will of people high up in government that we preach the gospel to every creature. Well, I would love to have like a king of Assyria, you know, from the book of Jonah, rise up or something like that. Or Nebuchadnezzar, once he, you know, kind of changes. So it's like, hey, you know what? This group, Verity Baptist, I think they're the greatest church in the Philippines. I want them to proclaim this message everywhere. Every TV show, every network. That would be great. But I haven't seen that yet. What I've seen is people in high positions of authority, they're shutting us out. They're making things harder, right? And so, you know, right, Matthew 28, verse 18. Now, look, I believe in being wise and there are a lot of places that we can go. So we're going to try to do things correctly and legally and properly. But here's the thing. I don't think that I need approval to preach the gospel anywhere. You say why? Because all power is given on to God. All power is given on to Jesus. And he says, you know what? Go everywhere and preach the gospel. So the reality is whether you live in a country and they shut you out of an apartment complex, they don't really have the right to do that. I don't care what the laws of the government are because God says, hey, above that, if the government makes an unjust law, hey, I want you to preach everywhere. But that being said, sometimes you got to use wisdom. We realize that. But I do not think that I need to get approval to preach the gospel to someone. Why? Because God said, preach to everybody. Preach the gospel to every creature. And last I checked, 90 whatever percent of this world is unsaved. And if there's that many people that are unsaved, over seven billion unsaved people on this planet, I better just go to everybody and preach the gospel to give them a chance. Go in your Bible to Acts chapter one. Acts one. And look, here's what I'm going to say. I have a lot of things I want to say right now, but I'm going to say it at the meeting when the cameras are not rolling. Because I'm trying to be wise and harmless in a sermon that is live streamed. OK, Acts chapter one, verse eight. Acts one, verse eight. But ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses on me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth. And so the last instructions Jesus really gave to his followers is preach the gospel to everybody, not just in Jerusalem where the church is, but all Judea. And not just all Judea, go to Samaria. And then after that, go everywhere. Go and preach the gospel to every location. Let me ask you a question. When you're reading the book of Acts, did they obey this the first several chapters? No, they did not. They didn't listen. You say why? Because they're getting a lot of people saved in Jerusalem. Church is growing. It's comfortable. I mean, when things are going smoothly, it's very easy to be content and just say, well, this is good enough, right? Go to Acts chapter eight. Acts eight. Acts chapter eight. Acts chapter eight, verse one. Acts eight, verse one. And the Bible reads, And Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Now look, when you're getting a lot of people saved in Jerusalem and preaching the Word of God with authority, how does that make the devil feel? Makes him angry. Does the devil just sit back and let you do whatever? No, he doesn't. He tries to put a stop to it. Isn't that what we see in Acts eight? There's a great persecution. He tries to stop the work that's being done. Make no mistake, the devil's trying to stop the work of this church and not just the work of this church. The same with Pastor Sepulveda's churches. The devil wants to put a stop to it. You say, why? Because when you're preaching the Word of God and going out soul-wading and very few other churches where you live are doing anything for God, kind of puts a big target on your back. I mean in this area, I'm not trying to say this to be arrogant, but the devils know who Verity Baptist Church Philippines is. But there's a lot of Baptist churches that's like, which Bible Baptist Church did you say you are? And here's the thing, if the devil knows our church and he doesn't like what we're doing, what can you expect logically? What you'd expect is persecution against our church. So I guess I was a bit naive thinking, well, I guess we're okay here in the Philippines, but the reality is, no, we will get persecution. And I don't believe this is a persecution that it's like a two-week battle and it's over. As long as we're still soul-wading and getting a lot of people saved, this persecution is never going to end. The devil's going to make it harder and harder and harder and harder. Turn to Acts 9. You say, well, pastor, why does God allow the persecution if the devil's trying to put a stop and he's on the side of us? Why would he allow this persecution? Well, what you have to realize is sometimes the will of God and the will of the devil can actually be the same thing. Because the devil wants to put persecution to get us to stop, what he does not realize is persecution often causes more work to be done. Bad people try to put us in fear and they think, we can put a stop to this. And in reality, what often happens is Acts 9, verse 31. They're scattered everywhere and notice this in Acts 9, verse 31. Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria. Aren't those the spots that God said to go? And then they get scattered everywhere because of persecution. Now, guess what? They're actually obeying what Jesus said in Acts 1, verse 8. So here's my opinion. I believe God is allowing this persecution and it could put us in fear. It could cause us to be afraid or back down. But the reality is, we could allow this to cause us to go everywhere and do more for God. If Satan is persecuting you, don't just give up. God's on your side and the persecution can cause us to do even more for God. Isn't that kind of the story of early Christianity in the book of Acts? It's like persecution's going everywhere and guess what? They end up getting churches started here and here and here. It went from one church in Jerusalem to churches in these locations. Go to Acts, chapter 5. Acts 5. Now, I'll be honest, in my own flesh, I wish it'd be just nice and easy. Just go to Qasem Omero circle. There's a thousand people there and just every single time it's very easy. But the reality is, often the persecution will cause you to do more for God. It can cause you to get more on fire for God rather than just allowing it to cause you to back down. Acts 5, verse 29. Acts 5, verse 29. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. They make soul winning illegal where Peter lives. The same man who denied Jesus. Same man who backed down. The man who said, Hey, though all men forsake Thee, I never will. And then all of a sudden when there's a bit of persecution, he backs down. You know what? This is the reality probably for all of us. All of us think our faith is a lot stronger than it probably actually is. But the reality is, you only really know how strong your faith is when a storm takes place. If there's no storm, of course you're coming to church. You're in a good mood. You're soul winning. Everything's great. The storm really reveals what you're founded upon as we see in the Sermon on the Mount. And look, Peter was a great man. I'm sure he's going to get a lot more awards than I'm going to get. But what we saw is he wasn't yet ready. Wasn't strong enough. And yet here we are in Acts 5. And now what happens during the persecution? He's like, We ought to obey God rather than men. I don't care what you say. I don't care what you try to do to me. I'm going to obey God who says to preach the gospel. Because look, I believe in being wise as certain areas get restricted. But if it was a 100% ban throughout all the Philippines to open up the Bible and talk about the gospel, well, now we have a major problem. Because I'm not going to quit preaching the gospel. I mean, if every part got shut down and they were enforcing that. Yeah, you know what? We can go door to door. We won't get as many saved, but we'll still get a lot of people saved. But if they say, Hey, no soul winning. It's like, Well, we ought to obey God rather than men. Because you could fight against one person, but you can't really fight against an army of people that are doing God's work. Verse number 41. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name and daily in the temple and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Go in your Bible to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. And look, I'd say probably for all of us, we kind of lived through this a little bit during the days of COVID where things are pretty complicated. Things were pretty difficult. It left a lot of tough choices because actively a lot of governments really were. And here, I mean, in many ways, the Philippines, Philippines and Australia were two of the strictest countries in the world. Here it was illegal for children to leave their homes at all. They were not allowed to step outside of their house. That was the rule for like a year and a half. And so what took place is at our church, it's like, well, the moms are staying home. The guys are getting the groceries because the women are not allowed to bring their kids literally at the front of the grocery store. It's like, no, your child is not allowed inside of here. I don't remember the age is like 12 years old or something like that. I mean, it is ridiculous. And then we had the face. You know, we had the face mask and we had the face shield. I don't be sorry. It's like a collector's item now. It's like we were all like in like the SWAT team or something with the police. You know, this big face shield over the face mask and you had to wear it, you know, everywhere that you're going. And it's like, I mean, it was madness. It's like literally children are not allowed to leave their homes. I mean, there's something called a creation of God called the sun that is healthy. And I'm not trying to go in too big of a rabbit trail. But Australia was also very tough. A lot of people had to, you know, leave their jobs or told you can't work, you know, various restrictions. But we lived through that to a certain degree. But here's the thing. It's not like, well, wait a minute. The persecution was during COVID. Now it's all gone. It's going to be easy the rest of my life. That's not the way it works. There's going to be persecution when you're doing God's work. And look, I think it's kind of exciting because you get to be a part of a missions trip where you are going to get a lot of people saved and you can say, man, I was right there in the persecution. We're getting banned from all these parts and still getting people saved. Right. I mean, that's an exciting thing to be a part of. Go in your Bible 2 Thessalonians chapter three. Point number one, the power of prayer. Point number two, the path of the parchments. Point number three, the product of preaching. The product of preaching. Finally, brethren, verse one. Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you. Paul always speaks very highly of the Church of Thessalonica. This was not an OK church. It was not even just a good church. It was a great church. It wasn't like the Church of Galatia. Wasn't like the Church of Corinth. No, this was a great church. You see that all throughout first and second Thessalonians. And it's not really an insult to the Thessalonians in Acts 1711 when he talks about the Bereans being more noble. It's actually a compliment to those of Thessalonica also saying, hey, the Church of Thessalonica is a great church. And the product of preaching in the Church of Thessalonica and with the Thessalonians is a very good result. They heard the word of God. They applied the word of God. They obeyed God. They went out soul winning and they did what God said. And what I want you to realize when the word of God goes out there and people hear the gospel, what is the product or result? People get saved. And what takes place when you have sermons that are edifying sermons, hard preaching. People make changes in their lives. Look at our church. People have made changes as a result of the preaching in the church, Verity Baptist Church. You say, why? Because hard preaching works. You say, well, pastor, if you didn't preach about the LGBT so much, you'd never get banned from anywhere. Right? If you just calm down your sermons a little bit, because I don't know if you've heard my sermons, but yeah, they're a little bit rough compared to other Baptist churches. If you just calm down a little bit, no one would ever ban you. But you know what would take place? The members of our church would not be edified and would not be strong in the Lord. We get a lot more people saved than when we started. You know why? Well, one of the reasons is we're a much bigger church. One of the reasons is we have three times many soul winners and we have all these other churches and ministries we've started. You say, why? Because people hear the word of God. They change. They grow. They say, hey, man, this is my church. Come to Verity Baptist Church. It'll change your life. And we've grown as a church as a result. So look, if we calm things down, you're right. We'd never be kicked out of anywhere. And yeah, I'm sure K-Some Memorial Circle would be 100% open. But it's going to cause our church to grow weak. You need the balance and you will always see churches that preach hard are the most zealous for soul winning. You are not going to see a church that's like, well, we're just going to make our church like, kind of like Joe Lowstein. So that way we can bring in more people so we can get more people saved. And look, a lot of Baptist churches in 2024, they are taking that philosophy. I mean, I might be dating myself with this, showing how old I am, but when like the purpose driven life came out with Rick Warren, it's like, who by the way was a Baptist, Southern Baptist. A lot of Baptist churches are like, you know what? We're not going to go all the way to what Rick Warren's like, but we'll kind of meet him in the middle. That way we can bring in more people. And what are you seeing? You're seeing churches all around this world dying. I mean, they've got a nice building, a lot nicer than ours, and it's paid for. They got people showing up, but it's a dead church. They're not getting anybody saved. They're doing nothing for God. You say why? Because if the preaching is weak, then the church will be weak. That's what takes place. Go in your Bible to John 15. John 15. I mean, honestly, I don't even know how to preach like Joel Osteen. I don't think I could do it. I'd feel so weird. I'd be like, you know, God loves you, and God wants to guide you, and yes, your life's falling apart, but you know what? So I don't know how you do it. I'd be like someone trying to be a stand-up comedian where 30 seconds later I'm like all red in the face, and I'm just walking off stage, right? This is how I know to preach. I see what the Bible says, and I just preach it. The same stories. I mean, nothing new under the sun. We learn from these stories from the past, whether it be 2 Chronicles 32. We learn from the life of Hezekiah, and we can apply that to our lives, right? One aspect of glorifying God as it said in 2 Thessalonians 3 is simply soul winning. John 15 verse 8. Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples. Why is it that Paul says, you know what? The word of God is glorified with the Thessalonians. Well, I believe they were a soul winning church. I believe they bore much fruit. I believe they got a lot of people saved. And look, if we want the word of God to be glorified here at Verity Baptist Church, we better be doing a lot of soul winning. Don't sit here and hear sermon after sermon saying, go and preach the gospel to everyone and then just be like, well, I don't really want to do it. Now, if we want God to bless our church and not remove our candlestick, we better have the first works. We better keep soul winning as the main emphasis of this church. Now, it's not, soul winning is not 100% what a church is about, but it's certainly the backbone. It's certainly the core. It's certainly the main thing. And if there's one thing we cannot let slip, it's preaching the gospel to every creature. Go to 1 Thessalonians 1. Look, one of the things that I, you know, and you look, as a church, we say we're a new IFB church. The new IFB pastors that are in the US and other places. These are people that we respect. They're the ones in the front lines of battle. They're the ones that are being persecuted. And one thing that really attracted to me that this type of preaching and churches like this is the fact that they're zealous with soul winning. Because when I was a young person, I first started going soul winning. I saved at 18, started soul winning at 19, but I didn't really know what I was doing. And it's hard to be self-motivated without a church that's on fire to guide you and help you. And one aspect was just, man, they're so zealous preaching the gospel. It's just like a big thing. It's like preaching the gospel. That should be the main thing to do. And then the other aspect is the hard preaching. And the sad reality is at a lot of Baptist churches, you go there and it's like, you go out of obligation, but you're just like, oh, when will this sermon be over? There's churches that are like that. And it's sad to see because a lot of the churches, there was a time where they were on fire for God. There was a time they were preaching hard, and yet just somehow the fire died out. Look, that's possible for anyone. I mean, my preaching could change. I hope it never does. But I'll tell you, this is what attracted me to churches like this because when the Word of God is being proclaimed, what takes place? Well, the product or result is people change their lives and they do more soul winning and they get more on fire for God. This is what takes place with the church of Thessalonica. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 5. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and the Holy Ghost and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word of much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. So that your ensembles to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia, for from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything. Look, the church of Thessalonica on fire for God, but the sad reality is some people hear the same preaching and they never make changes. It's really up to you. You come to a church like this and you hear the word of God preached, but you've got your choice what you do with it. And some people hear the word of God and they apply it. Look, when I first started going to church, I got saved in college. Look, I was like the typical college person. I didn't drink and party. I wasn't raised that way, but it's not like I was living a godly life. It's not like I was listening to psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. I don't think that Aerosmith singing Amazing Grace qualifies because I was a big Aerosmith fan, right? It's like I wasn't listening to the right music. I wasn't watching the right things, the movies and TV shows and stuff like that. But when the word of God came, you know what? As much as it pricked me and bothered me, I was like, you know what? That's what the Bible says. And I'll tell you what, when you hear the word of God, it's up to you what you do with it. Because at a church this big, there are going to be some people that hear the word of God and they just refuse to make a change. They're just going to keep doing the same thing over and over and over again. But you know, with the Thessalonians, there was the product of the preaching was they made changes in their lives. And guess what comes with making changes? Persecution. And so as Paul is asking, can you pray for us to freely preach the gospel? I'm sure those in Thessalonica are like, yeah, well, we're familiar with this. We know about the persecution. You say why? Because there are churches going so many. There's a church whose name was spread to the ends of the world. Look, if around the world good people know about your church, bad people also know about your church. And they don't like it. And when they hear that you're doing something big for God, you know what? They're going to put a stop to it or try to. Point number one, go to 2 Thessalonians 3. Point one, we see the power of prayer. Point number two, we see the path of the parchments, the freedom to preach the gospel everywhere. That is God's will. Point three, we see the product of preaching. Point four, let's see the puppets of the prince. And when I say the prince, I mean the prince of the power of the air, which is none other than the devil, as the Bible says. Those people that are in authority, they're merely puppets. They're just figureheads. They're just going along with what the devil tells them to do. They might not realize that, but that's what they're doing. They're merely a puppet. They're just a figurehead that's in a position by the devil where the devil is using them to do his will. They're merely puppets of the prince of the power of the air. 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 2. Remember in verse one he says, pray for us to have freedom to preach the word of God. Well, why do you need prayer? And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith. Because there's evil men that want to destroy the work that we're doing, and I'm not saying it's just Verity Baptist Church Philippines. The same is true for any bona fide church. They're going to get persecution. I'm not sure where every single person in this room is from, but many of you come from churches that are just as on fire for God as we are. And guess what you're going to see? You're going to see protesters. Or walk outside and see LGBT members that are just preaching week after week, just trying to tear down your church and make things difficult. That's just the way it's going to be. I mean, I wish I could tell you, serve God and obey God and everybody's going to love you. The world's going to love you. Every unsaved person's going to love you, but that's not reality. And I'll tell you what, maybe we need to develop some thick skin as Bible-believing Christians and realize it's a fight. It's a spiritual battle that you've entered into. Turn your Bible to 2 Timothy 3. We'll close up 2 Timothy 3. And it's interesting it says unreasonable and wicked men because wicked men are unreasonable. Now look, the person I talked to from Rizzo Park, they were nice and this is not about them. They're just doing their job and somebody else is making the decisions for them. I get that. But the people that decide to shut us down, it's like, yeah, the wicked men and also unreasonable. You know what's unreasonable to me? To stand in one location and not talk to anybody else at the park. It's like, wait a minute, is that the restriction that everybody has? Because I'm pretty sure a normal person can walk in a park and it's not North Korea. And you can say hello. No, you can't say hello to people. It's all right. You can't wear a shirt that says the word church on it. No, no, no, not allowed. Or a preserved Bible or whatever, the church church center. No, no, not allowed. Now that's unreasonable to me. It's just it's funny how they will let people straight preach and they won't stop it, but they'll stop you if you're preaching the gospel. And look, I would not be surprised because at QMC, the World Mission Society is there all the time. I would not be surprised if the restriction is only to us. I wouldn't be surprised because a lot of churches do what we do. This is a country where unsaved people are doing some sort of evangelism all the time. I would not be surprised if we go there on Monday and every church is still doing it and it's just like, wait a minute, we can't have Verity Baptist Church. Why? Oh, because we're a hate church. Yeah, truth. Baptist Church, you don't like the truth. That's why. 2 Timothy 3, verse 5. Having a form of godliness. This is a passage right before it talks about the persecution that we all endure. But 2 Timothy 3, verse 5. Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away. Look, there's a lot of false religions here and they have a form of godliness. Right? One of our theories is that Jehovah's Witnesses got us banned because you always, it's not just an American cult, they're everywhere. They're always standing here doing nothing and everyone's making fun of them and they stand there and they see us going out and doing something. They might have said, hey, can you get that church shut down? That's one theory. They have a form of godliness from such turn away. We got that giant, rich church over there that I don't name by name for safety reasons. They don't have faith. We got the giant Catholic church down the road. They don't have the right faith. And look, churches like these, they don't like what we're doing. I'll be honest with you, I would not be surprised if it's Baptist churches that worked hard to get us shut down. Because often what we see is the repentance of sins, preachers, the Calvinists, they do not like what we're doing and they get us shut down saying no, no, no. Because they don't like their church. A lot of people don't like their church. I don't get it. Apparently I'm an unlikable guy, right? I don't get it. But that's reality. And here's the thing, in the Philippines, when I made that video of the four most common faiths, Baptist is literally, in this part of the world, it's the fourth biggest, I would say. There's no shortage of Baptist churches. There are Baptist churches. But unfortunately, most of the time, those Baptist churches are not really like-minded by any stretch of the imagination. And I want you to realize, I came from decent solid churches in West Virginia that I would say, hey, go to that church, it's a good church. Even though they're not just like our church. A church, we'd say, is an old IFB church. I went to those churches newly saved and I grew, I learned the Bible and they helped me out. But a lot of the Baptist churches here are just preaching a work of salvation. Well, I mean, if you're really saved, then you're going to read the Bible every day. Then you're never going to commit those sins. Right? It's like they're not the same. All men have not faith, even though they have a form of godliness. Verse number six, from this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captives, silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Did you know there's some people that cannot come to the knowledge of the truth? It's too late for them. So what do you mean? What do you mean the knowledge of the truth? Well, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth. They can't believe on Christ. It's too late. Now it's not a large percentage of people, but you will find it. I mean, there's a large percentage of those people at QMC yesterday. I'll say that. There are a lot of people in the Philippines that are in that lifestyle and it's like, well, it's too late. It's like, yeah, we'll go soul winning and preach the gospel. But if you're having a Sodom and Gomorrah parade at QMC, it's like, I'm too worried about fire and brimstone. I know it's not on the weather forecast, but God might just be answering my prayers there or whatever, right? It's like a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah. I mean, literally, that's what it would have been like yesterday. And look, I hate to break it to you, but here in the Philippines, you will see cross dressers a lot more frequently than you probably see in the US, and I'm assuming Australia too. There's very much part of the culture here where there are a lot of cross dressers. Verse number eight. Now, as Janus and Jamborees withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was. Look, people that are in positions of high authority that are bad people, eventually they're going to get shut down. It's interesting, like in the Book of Psalms, I preached on this recently, how it talks about these evil people. They'll shoot out their arrows. It's like a bunch of evil people shooting out their arrows, plural, and God's like, I'll shoot out one arrow and destroy all of them. And that's often the way it is. Someone's doing well, things are, I mean, someone in this world, they're powerful, they think nothing's going to come, and out of nowhere, God's like, bam, Nebuchadnezzar. And then all of a sudden he's acting like an animal. God can do that like that. But we have to realize, sometimes God does allow us to go through persecution. You say, well, why? Well, persecution builds patience. Makes you stronger, makes you better. Now you can allow it to just cause you to quit, or you can allow it to cause you to fight stronger. And let me just end with this story. You know, probably more than 10 years ago, I would say, I was living in Pennsylvania, but I was working in Maryland, in the US, and I was really zealous at that point in my life. And I would often, before work, I'd go out, and I'd be memorizing the Bible, and every day I was praying to God, God, send me somebody to preach the gospel to. The town that I worked in, it was an interesting town, because there's a lot of people that don't live there, that are just kind of passing through. They got a train station. So I'd run into a lot of people from different states, and God was answering my prayer requests like day after day after day. It was really exciting. And then all of a sudden, things just changed one day. All of a sudden, I started to meet some very, very strange people. And I don't just say everybody's possessed when I'm going out so many, but I started to run into a lot of crazy people. Remember one person, it kind of scared me, because he was telling me all of this inside information about who I was. I didn't know the person. It's like, where'd you get that information? And what I hate to admit is this, that as I was running into that day after day, it caused me to become more shy. It caused me to back down a little bit. But here's the thing. I was one man there. We're not one man at this church. We are a church body These salvations are not one person for people that are visiting. No, no, no. This is a multitude of people at our church doing the work. And the one person, because it's like you go soul winning, you knock doors, and you're by yourself, and people start slamming the door in your face. It kind of gets you down sometimes, right? But when you're soul winning with other people, you just kind of laugh it off. See, we're not designed to just be doing a solo mission serving God. It's not the way it works, and it's not a solo mission here in the Philippines. And it's a team effort, and here's what I'm saying. Are we going to have persecution as a church? Absolutely. Absolutely. And as we're getting this persecution now, what it tells me is, OK, obviously, as we're getting more and more people saved, and we're adding to the church, and we're starting new churches, and starting new ministries in various areas, the devil's trying to put a stop to it. And this persecution is not going to end. Look, it's not going to change. The only way it would change is if we chose to back down. And that's not going to happen. But here's what I'm saying. We are not one person. We are a church body, one body made up of a lot of members. And as a church, we have church to edify us and to motivate us, because look, no one person could just go out and be on fire for God and never get down. Even people like Elijah, you see him, he's on fire for God, and then he's just afraid and backs, and that's the way we are. Good days, you're on fire for God, and then sometimes the next day you're just like, you're afraid like Elijah. But we're not one person. We are a church body. And let me tell you something. Is the persecution here at our church? Yes, it is. Just like at many of the churches that some of you come from, yeah, the persecution is here, it's not going to end. But look, we are a team here at Verity Baptist Church. Keep waking up, praying to God, reading your Bible, coming to church, getting motivated, getting edified. And I'll tell you what, I expect this year we're going to get more people saved than we got last year, even though the persecution is here and it might get more difficult. Why? Because together as a group we can do even more for God. This goes in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just all the great people from around the world that have chosen to come here and to hear the word of God preached and to go soul winning. We ask you to help us have a very fruitful and successful mission strip, God. Ask you to help everybody go back to their homes, motivated and edified and just more on fire to help out their local churches, God. And we ask you in this spiritual battle to help us, to just give us freedom, to preach the gospel in all areas, God. I ask you to guide us and help us and strengthen us. We ask you to be on our side, God. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Number one to eight. Him number 128. Him number one to eight. Him number 128. Each step I take. I'm going to put out the first stanza. I'm going to last stanza. Each step I take. First stanza, ready? Sing. Each step I take my Savior goes before me and with each loving hand He leads the way. And with each breath I whisper I adore Thee. Oh what joy. Oh what joy. To walk with Him each day. Each step. Each step I take. I know that He will guide me to higher ground. He never leads me on until someday the last step will be taken. Each step I take that leads me closer. Oh what a second. At times I fear my faith begins to waver. When up ahead I see I cast them wide. Each day I turn and look up to my Savior. I am strong. I am strong. When He is by my side for us. Each step I take I know that He will guide me to higher ground. He never leads me on until someday the last step will be taken. Each step I take just leads me closer. Oh what a last. I trust in God no matter come what may. For life eternal is in His hand. He holds the key that opens up the way that will lead me to the promised land. Each step I take I know that He will guide me to higher ground. He never leads me on until someday the last step will be taken. Each step I take just leads me closer. you