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

You You You You You You You Hey, man, let's go it's go back to our seats take our seats And let's start our first service welcome to Verity Baptist Church, Manila As we start our first service, let's get our hymns it upon him book in Tagalog But let's turn to page number 34. Let's sing the song the wonder of it all Page number 34 page 34 Let's sing let's sing the song the wonder of it all there's the wonder of sunset On set Ready on the first sing Oh Oh Oh Oh In spring You have a fire we think the Lord for this morning Thank you all God for the president of each and every one of us here Lord We thank you for the good crowd And I pray that you would take care of the members who are still going here And I pray that you would bless us as we have our first service Lord I pray that you would guide very sucky as he preaches a sermon And I pray that you would help us to be attentive with a sermon Lord and be able to catch up or learn something From the sermon and I pray that you would remove the distractions Lord help us to be attentive I pray Lord that you'd also bless the Congregational singing the reading of your word and The preaching of the sermon Lord and also the fellowship and soul winning this afternoon Lord I pray that you would continue to keep the Sun out there Lord and Give us a good weather this afternoon so that we could go out Lord and preach your gospel And I pray Lord that you with the continue to bless this church. We're asking all these things in Jesus name. We pray. Amen Even for our next song pulling for nothing young maroon a him book Maroon the man upon a him book. Let's turn to him number four six five him number 465 Let's sing the song the 99 There were 99 that safely lay in the shelter of the home in number four six five four hundred sixty-five the 99 on the first ready sing the shelter of the home among us out of the hills all we are all from the gates of home away on the mountain, small and bare away from the tender shepherds care away from the tender shepherds care on a second Lord thou has here died 99 are they not enough for thee but the sheriff in answer this of mine has wandered away from me and although the road be wrong I go to desert to find my sheep I go to the desert to find my sheep but none of the ransom ever do how deep for the waters cross or how dark was the night that the Lord passed through and found his shame that was lost out in the desert he heard it's cry see and help us and ready to die see and help us and ready to die Lord whence are those the jocks all the way that mark of the mountains they were shed for one who had gone astray here's a shepherd the one with early hands so red and torn their peace to life by many their fears tonight by many but all to the mountain start the rave and up from the rocky sea there are also that guy to the gate of death rejoice I found my team and the angels around the road for the Lord brings back his own rejoice for the Lord brings back all right morning everybody welcome to Verity Baptist Church take out your bullets in here today and I don't have a verse on the front this week but we are a family integrated church meaning children and infants are welcome during the services we do have a mother baby room back there for your convenience as well as the ladies restroom the men's restroom is up here in front remember no eating during the service maintain a professional atmosphere and keep the children from running and making noise during the church service on the next page our service times listed first service is at 10 a.m. second service is at 1130 Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. so many times listed 4p on Wednesdays we do have so any at on case at case on Memorial Circle on Saturdays from 10 to 12 and also afternoon session 2 to 4 as well Sunday afternoon we have listed our lunch fellowship and so winning you can notice there the soul winning time has changed that I have in the bulletin here we're kind of playing around with a time a little bit because I'm trying to get done a little bit earlier with the services because I know it's very hard for especially young kids to have back-to-back services we might starting in this new year after our fourth anniversary do three songs instead of four like we do on Wednesdays we do have a shortened scripture reading here today so we're gonna kind of play around with the time from week to week before we kind of finalize something but so winning we're gonna strive to start at 1 45 today which means I do need to pay attention to what time it is during my preaching so I don't get done too late but we're making slight adjustments there but anyways we have our salvation and baptisms listed there for our churches and Bible study fellowships birthdays and anniversaries as well then on the next page information for our Bible memorization challenge upcoming upcoming activities we do have our prayer meeting today after soul winning and also choir practice after the prayer meeting next week will be our four year anniversary and you can see they're listed the address it is at 4 7 8 2 or Tigas Avenue I have not been there myself yet but some people have been there already and I don't think it's too far from here I'll add more stuff in the group chat if there's more information that comes up but service will start at 10 a.m. next week and there will be one sermon just like we had in Pampanga kind of a similar schedule I will say this one thing that's going to be different we do have a photo booth as well but it's only available for two hours so we can't have people going back several times with different groups kind of like you go with your family you get one set of pictures and then you're kind of done because we don't have enough time with it being two hours for people to go back several times but we do have a photo booth as well it's going to be I think 12 30 to 2 30 is when you can avail that possible upcoming activities listed so I had this under possible and I'm sorry to disappoint some of you but we're probably not going to be doing the Baguio trip next year and right now the biggest thing our church needs to do financially is save up to be able to have permanent buildings and honestly the anniversaries are a lot more expensive than I expected which is great a lot of people came but honestly it costs a lot of money and so right now the smartest thing for us to do is hold off on something like that till maybe in the future doing something like that but right now we just kind of need to save up money and so we're not going to be doing that in March maybe in a couple years we can do something like that but right now we need to save up money because when we have a packed Sunday even on a non special event when we're in the 70s here it's it's pretty packed right and so right now we need to be saving up money but anyways current and upcoming series we are in the book of Ezra we're gonna start that actually the week after anniversary I do have special themed sermons here today information on our group chat and then on the back there's a place for notes for the sermons here today so I believe that's it for announcements while brother Marlon lead us in another song God rest ye merry gentlemen let nothing you dismay on the first ready sing God rest ye merry gentlemen remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day to save us all from Save us far when we were gone as we hold tidings of comfort and joy comfort and joy hold tidings of comfort and joy in Bethlehem Israel and laid within a manger upon the best and more the witch his father married it not be taken Oh tidings of comfort and joy comfort and joy hold tidings of comfort and joy from God our Heavenly Father of blessed angels came and unto certain shepherds both tidings of the same how that in Bethlehem was born the son of God by me Oh comfort and joy comfort and joy hold tidings of comfort and joy on the board fear not then said the angel let nothing you cry Oh virgin right to free all those who trust in him see the shepherds at those and left their blocks of feeding in tempest storms and wine and went to Bethlehem straightaway this massive pain to find old tidings of comfort and joy comfort and joy old tidings of comfort and joy take our offering let us open our Bibles to Exodus chapter 6 Exodus chapter 6 and today we are going to read the verses 1 to 13 Exodus chapter 6 verse 1 to 13 please say amen when you're there then the Lord said unto Moses now shall those see what I will do to Pharaoh with a strong hand shall he let them go and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land and what's back unto Moses and said unto him I am the Lord and I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them and I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan the land of the pilgrimage wherein they were strangers and I've also heard the good earnings of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage and I have remembered my covenant wherefore say unto the children of Easter I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will edit you out of the bondage and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments and I will take you to me for a people and I will be to your God and he shall know that I am the Lord your God which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which I did sphere to give it to Abraham to Isaac and Jacob and I will give it to you for heritage I am the Lord and Moses speak so unto the children of Israel but they have not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage and the Lord speak unto Moses saying go and speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt that he let the children of Israel go out of his land and Moses speak before the Lord saying behold the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me how then shall father hear me whom who am of answer come who am of uncircumcised lips and the Lord speak unto Moses and unto Aidan and gave them a charge on the children of Israel and unto Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt that's great I thank your father for your word thank you for the Bible help us to love you and your words more to give us an open heart and open our hearts really for the to understand the sermon and please bless the creature and give him your might in power in his name all right we're here in Exodus chapter 6 and this year I decided to preach Thanksgiving themed sermons for this time of year and this is a big holiday in the United States and obviously you know there's a lot of things that you learn about Thanksgiving growing up in America I'm not sure if everybody's familiar with all those things so I'm gonna give you kind of a bit of a background on this before we kind of get into the sermon and I will say this that if you were to type in the history of Thanksgiving documentary there's gonna be like 50 different opinions and 50 conspiracy theories and it is what it is with anything in the past so I'm only giving you kind of generic stuff that is going to be applicable and helpful and even if you have a slightly different opinion if you've done any research it's not going to change the fact that the sermon can be edifying for you but in terms of Thanksgiving this is always the fourth Thursday of every November in America and it is by far the second biggest holiday in America by this one poll that I saw Christmas is the favorite holiday of most people 46% which I fit under that Christmas has always been my favorite second is Thanksgiving at 19% and third is Halloween and there's just no question Thanksgiving is a much bigger holiday than New Year's or other holidays that are big here so this is the second biggest holiday in America and it actually gets its story back from 400 years ago from a historical event this idea of Thanksgiving although that word does come from the Bible of Thanksgiving so let me give you a bit of a background on this lessons from the pilgrims so about 500 years ago you had King Henry the eighth who was the king of England and he was trying to have a son that way he could have a male heir to the throne and he kept having daughters and other children died you know stillbirths and children dying at a very young age so he had no male son to basically a point as the heir and so he blamed his wife because he was not aware that he's actually the one that determines a gender so he blamed his wife and he wanted to get a divorce from his wife because he figured if I divorced my wife and marry another woman then she'll be able to give me a son and so then he went to the Pope to try to get a divorce because at the time King Henry the eighth was actually a very ardent supporter of the Catholic Church probably the most ardent of any political leader he's actually awarded by the Pope a special honor of being a great defender of the Catholic Church it even written a book against Martin Luther defending the Catholic Church but then when the Pope was not able to get him a divorce because the Catholic Church at the time was a religious and political empire and at the time I mean history is actually interesting when you apply to the Bible the Pope was actually being held hostage by the relative of King Henry the eighth's wife so basically the leader of Spain was related to King Henry the eighth's wife I'm remembering this correctly so he's being held hostage and he can't really grant a divorce to King Henry the eighth and so King Henry the eighth's like well if you can't give me divorce I'm gonna start a new religion and basically just give myself the permission to get a divorce that is where the Church of England or the Anglican Church was born now in other countries it's known as the Episcopalian Church where basically the Church of England started a branch in another country but that is actually the origin of that church and in England it was an interesting situation because depending on who the next ruler was it would either go Protestant or Catholic it was going back and forth and oscillating until basically King James came in and it became basically a Protestant country but at the time there are a lot of laws basically against missing church service in England at this time and here's from an article it says the separatist movement was controversial and what the separatist movement was was a group of people that said we don't want to be part of a state-run religion we don't want to be part of a national religion because if you're a member of the Church of England you are required to go to church you are required to baptize your baby you're required to do what the church says I mean the church is going to rule your life it's a state-run national run church that you must adhere to everything that they say and so there's a group of people that wanted to separate from this and it says the separatist movement was controversial under the act of uniformity 1559 it was illegal not to attend official Church of England services with a fine of one shilling for each Miss Sunday and Holy Day so basically you know what if you miss church you were fined money by the Church of England and by the government and it says the penalties included imprisonment and larger fines for conducting unofficial services so if you stay home sick you get fined but if you stay home and do like a Bible study with like-minded people then you might go to jail or pay a lot more so basically the country was forcing people to follow the Church of England right and then it says the seditious secretaries act of 1593 was specifically aimed at outlawing the brownness and the brownness was a group of people that basically separated from the Church of England and they said we believe in independent churches and of course that is our stand at Verity Baptist Church right we we believe in independent fundamental Baptist churches and the independent is important you don't want a government determining what you believe how would you like it if the government said you must baptize your baby well I don't want to baptize my baby well you can go to jail then right that's what the law was and you're in a rock and a hard place because quite honestly I think that it's probably more important that you're actually there as a father for your child but there's no good choice you could agree or disagree it's like you lose either either way right getting arrested for back for not baptizing your baby under this policy the London Underground Church from 1566 and then Robert Brown and his followers in Norfolk during the 1580s were repeatedly in prison Henry Barrow John Greenwood and John Penry were executed for sedition in 1593 so there are people that were killed for basically not going to the Church of England on a weekly basis and not believing in the doctrines of the Church of England now ask yourself this if you lived in England during that time period what would be the best thing to do flee the country is that not right I mean if you're in a situation where the government is forcing you to sin against your will and these aren't even gray area situations baptizing your baby and they're forcing you to baptize your baby they're forcing you to listen to heresy all the time the best thing would be to just flee the country and go somewhere to get some freedom right and so people were being executed for not going along with the church and so it says Brown had taken his followers into exile in Middleburg and Penry urged the London separatists to immigrate in order to escape persecution so after his death they went to Amsterdam so the first place they went is to the Netherlands right they went to Amsterdam in the Netherlands and they basically said we'll go here because we're going to have freedom that basically lasted around 13 years and they were having failures for various reasons then they ended up going to America now let me also say this before I get started people get the pilgrims and the Puritans confused okay the Puritans get their name because they wanted to purify the Church of England they did not want to separate from the Church of England they believed in a state-run religion that basically tells you what to do they just said we want to make some changes to the religion right which obviously we disagree with that we believe in independent churches now what's interesting is the Puritans didn't want to get rid of infant baptism because they agreed with that you say what was the purification they wanted to turn England into a Calvinist country there are hardcore Calvinists that said we agree with everything with the Catholic Church except they're not Calvinist right and so that's what the purifying process was well the pilgrims disagreed with being part of a state-run religion and they get their name because they're basically as pilgrims where they have no certain dwelling place is how they get their name the pilgrims get their name not based on what they believe like we do as Baptists for baptism but for what they did and what I want you to understand about that is as these people are fleeing to other countries this is a group of people that believe in having independent churches and if we live during that time period that would be us if we had the ability however that doesn't mean everybody who fled was actually saved though because there are unsaved people that would disagree with the country telling you what to do and so the pilgrims would have been a group of people with mixed beliefs it's not necessarily one church or a denomination it's just people that fled the country for religious freedom okay Exodus chapter 6 verse 1 and the first point is just the idea of the word pilgrim point number one pilgrims then the Lord said unto Moses now shalt thou see what I would do to Pharaoh forth a strong hand shall he let them go and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land and God spake unto Moses and said unto him I am the Lord and I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them and I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan the land of their pilgrimage wherein there were strangers and so you see this word here pilgrimage obviously the word pilgrim is closely associated to that and the idea is basically that we have no certain dwelling place we're just as pilgrims in this land looking for our final destination right now I want you to understand I'm not stating that what they did going to America is the exact same as Exodus chapter 6 obviously in Exodus 6 they were specifically told to do this by God but I would say that as a saved person living during that time period that's what I would do right I mean if in our country they made a law to force you to baptize your baby they made soul winning illegal they made going to church illegal except if it's the Catholic Church what would be the best thing to do as a Bible believing Christian leave the country right and so I believe that what they did I'm not saying they were all saved but I believe this group of people that were saved they made the right choice by saying hey you know what I have no idea what I'm going to do for work or for money or what's going to happen there but I'm just going to kind of go out by faith because I want religious freedom and go in your Bible to Hebrews 11 Hebrews 11 Hebrews 11 and honestly this this really explains why America in my opinion and I don't I don't really think it's questionable has a higher percentage of saved people and more good churches than any country in the world by no means am I stating America is a godly country because this whole world lieth in wickedness what I'm stating is this though I've lived in different places in America and I could always point to several churches within a 30-minute drive that were clearly right on salvation and had some form of soul winning you can't say that around the rest of the world I mean the Philippines probably has a pretty high percentage of saved people compared to other countries and yet many people would say I can't find a good church within 30 minutes of where I live it's not the same way in America and it really all goes back to this event from 400 years ago because it's not like America was a Christian country before they actually came to America right they were worshipping the Sun they're worshipping the moon the Native Americans same thing as like the native beliefs here just all these weird beliefs weird gods are worshipping this really explains why America became kind of like a hub of Christianity this was kind of the origin or the start of this taking place there are countries in the world that are more than 99% Muslim Morocco is 99% Muslim by percentage Algeria is 99% Muslim Yemen is 99.1% Muslim Turkey is 99.2% Muslim Western Sahara 99.4% Muslim Iran 99.4 Afghanistan 99.6 Tunisia 99.8 Somalia 99.8 and Mauritania supposedly 100% now I don't believe that because I think they're saved people everywhere but you know what they're probably afraid to say I'm not a Muslim it's like really because every single other person in the country said they're Muslim do you want to change your opinion it's like okay I'm Muslim too right and look I wouldn't blame say people in this country that say hey I'm in fear of my life to say anything about what I believe I do believe that God has saved people everywhere in the world for the fact that there's a shining light everywhere but I also believe that if you live in these countries although you can be used by God in that country you should honestly and earnestly pray to God and say God please let me move somewhere with freedom religious freedom that I can read the Bible without fear I can pray without fear that if I don't bow down in the middle of the street and point to Mecca I don't have to worry about being killed because that's probably reality in a lot of these countries that are 99 plus percent Muslim and obviously in the Church of England England at that time you're getting arrested for not going to church it's like yeah that's pretty bad right the best thing to do would be to flee the country and head elsewhere the Bible says in Hebrews 11 verse 13 these all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth you might say brother Stuckey well how does this really apply to me because of the fact that I have religious freedom here yeah but you know we should still take that mindset that we are also pilgrims here in the Philippines wherever you live you are merely a pilgrim meaning this is not your permanent dwelling place we're here for 70 years 80 years and if by reason of strength we even happen to go past the 80 years the Bible mentions there it's like we're only living a limited time here on earth and after that the only thing that really matters is what you've done for eternity and the legacy you've passed on in terms of Christianity to your kids and other people that are left don't make this world your life and this is what it's all about anyone people that live for this life and they just try to get rich in this life and have everything they want in this life they end up getting older and they end up being miserable they end up thinking man what have I done that actually had lasting impact this world doesn't last that long 70 80 years and we should say hey you know what I do have freedom I don't have to move to another country in order to basically be able to serve God but here's the thing you need to admit that you're just a pilgrim here that we're only here a short limited amount of time and we should be thankful that you know what we don't have to risk our lives to get freedom we've got freedom right here but we should also realize you know what I'm just a pilgrim here on earth I'm only here 70 80 years verse 14 for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country and truly if they had been mindful that country from whence they came out they might have had opportunity to have returned kind of reminds you of a lot in the Bible right the Bible says Sodom and Gomorrah was like the land of Egypt and he kind of kept it in memory and he kind of went back to that see a lot of people they start serving God and they make major changes in their life they set things aside but then they return back to it a year later they return back to it two years later they return back to it three years later you say why because they kept it in memory and they gave themselves the opportunity to return back to that old lifestyle and look when you make decisions for God to set things aside don't change your mind on it you stick to the decision you made because you made that decision because you realize from reading the Bible or from a sermon that you made the right decision don't go back if you clearly know that God is speaking to you through his word or through the preaching that tells you something Bible says in verse 16 but now they desire a better country that is in heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for God hath prepared for them a city go to 1st Peter 2 1st Peter 2 you need to understand the difference in traveling in today's world versus 400 years ago I mean if you're traveling to America now it's like all you got to do is go to Expedia save up money and you can make the flight or whatever I mean you got to get visas or what I could do that but you know if you're going to another place I mean it's a safe trip right just hop on a plane it's completely safe or if you're gonna hop on a ship obviously they have a lot of safety protocols in today's world it wasn't like that 400 years ago I mean when you hopped on that ship you're praying every day that you don't die along the way you say why many sailors would die from things such as scurvy along the way in fact with the Mayflower a large percentage of them died of scurvy which in our modern day we realize that just lacking basic vitamins you get scurvy or plague or you can die from that if you go a couple months without eating you know an apple a day keeps the doctor away there's truth to that right eat your fruits eat your vegetables if not you can actually die from that you know because our bodies are like a machine that's designed by God that there's certain things that are meant to go into our system many of them died from scurvy along the way to America they didn't make it many of them died along the way and so you have to realize that when they were making this decision they realized you know what we not we might not make it we're going by faith but you know I would rather die in freedom than just have my conscience convicted every single day living in a country that's forcing me to sin against my will and I believe that all the safe people that made that decision whether they died or not they made the right decision and they made that decision by faith and look here's here's what I want you to understand though it's very easy along the way to say why man I wish I hadn't done this and I'm sure many of them that thought came up once you see your fellow you know sailors that are dying along the way I'm sure a lot of people are thinking man did I make the right choice but see when you make a choice based on biblical reasons you made the right choice regardless of what happens you think of the people with Moses and along the way they're just like oh I wish I was back in Egypt it's like you left because you didn't have religious freedom right that's the exact reason why they left it's like regardless of what happens you made the right choice regardless of things that are difficult along the way or if you have problems you made the right choice and look this is this isn't really attached to my sermon but let me just say this when you come to a church like ours you know oftentimes your old friends and co-workers neighbors relatives they'll criticize you for it and you might have in your head did I make the right choice should I've just stayed silent stay to my old church look if you made the reason that the choice for a biblical reason you made the right choice if you left because you said I'm tired of hearing a repentance of sins gospel you made the right choice to come to our church right first Peter to verse 9 1st Peter 2 verse 9 but you're a chosen generation a royal priesthood and holy nation a peculiar people that you should show forth the praise of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul this group of people looked at their lives and said you know what I'm not gonna die here in a country and just convict my soul every day I would rather be a pilgrim and a stranger and just go out by faith and just pray it works out rather than just dying in a country that's forcing me to stand against my will go to your Bible to Luke 14 Luke 14 Luke 14 this is where you get the origin of the holiday Thanksgiving we're gonna kind of get to the history of that but let me also say this on a side point I personally I'm very big into holidays I think they are a great thing not everybody has that opinion and let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind the Bible says if you want to celebrate or not I would just say this the word holiday is the word holy day in the Bible so the holidays for the Jews in the Old Testament were attached to religion and spirituality so it's known as a holy day we have the word holiday and so in our modern day after the resurrection of Jesus Christ the two most obvious holidays that I think we should have are Christmas because it's about the birth of Christ and Easter because it's about the resurrection and here's the thing in the Old Testament they celebrated holidays well it makes sense for us to celebrate holidays today as well right but I would say that they had a lot of holidays in the Old Testament I think it's actually a good thing to have certain times of year and you can pick whatever you want I'm not trying to force you to celebrate Thanksgiving this is gonna be the first time that we as a family with our kids have celebrated Thanksgiving so it's kind of in my mind I'm just saying you know basing holidays on specific events that make you remember things about Jesus Christ or about God those are good things and a holiday that would tell you hey give thanks is a good holiday it's something that's throughout the Bible and here's the thing if you don't actually have spiritual holidays what rises up is Halloween and I guess all Saints Day is spiritual and in you know a Catholic sense All Souls Day it's like if you don't celebrate good holidays there's something born inside of us that wants to celebrate events I think it's great we celebrate birthdays that's a good thing right you know you take aside things from your life to just kind of remember certain things and look it's every man is fully persuaded in his own mind if you disagree that's fine you don't have to celebrate them I'm just letting you know my thoughts on this but it's actually a good idea to remember specific events because it just kind of brings things back in your head that maybe you kind of let slip right and so number one we see the idea of pilgrims number two we learn a lesson from the pilgrims that serving God has a cost serving God has a cost from this article it says there's no telling how many people can trace their ancestry back to the few dozen passengers who survived illness in danger on the Mayflower voyage nearly half of the pilgrims died during the voyage only 50 of the original 102 passengers survived the first winter so basically after the first winter over half the people that were traveling to America on the Mayflower were dead over half of them 52 out of 102 if that's accurate we're dead now I want you to realize when it comes to 102 people these were not all pilgrims because they actually had professional seamen that were with them because this group of people that were fleeing they didn't know really how to fish they weren't experts at that they weren't expert farmers which is why they had so many problems when they got to America they were religious people that were doing whatever to survive whatever jobs and they just said hey we'll figure it out because God's going to help us out and they did have professional seamen that were with them to actually help them on their journey but most of them out of the 102 were the pilgrims people leaving for religious reasons over half the people were dead before they even got through the first winter and that kind of teaches us a lesson on serving God has costs now once again that doesn't mean they made the wrong choice just because you died doesn't mean that you made the wrong choice Stephen didn't make the wrong choice in act 7 right I mean and they made a choice for religious reasons they don't have to look at the end result they can say you know what I made the choice based on what the Bible said I made the right choice and they did right Luke 14 verse 26 if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea in his own life also he cannot be my disciple verse 27 and whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple for which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he hath have sufficient to finish it and see the Bible says that if you're making a big decision you got to count the cost because here's the reality there might have been people I'm sure there were that wanted to leave as much as everybody else but they just didn't have the ability for whatever reason and you got to individually count the cost and I'm here to tell you that when you serve God there is a cost associated I'm not specifically saying a financial cost it could come in in various different forms but even on a light sense if you come to a church like ours a lot of your old you know friends or whatever might have a problem with you because they don't like our church they don't like the beliefs that we teach look there's a cost if you're gonna serve God go to Second Samuel 24 Second Samuel 24 he said brother Stuckey I don't want to have any sort of cost I don't want people to persecute me or make fun of me okay just pretend to be Catholic until the day you die then living in this country just don't don't tell anybody that you believed on Christ and look there's people like that in the Bible right they didn't confess and they didn't openly say what they believe because they were worried about the repercussions just pretend to be a hardcore Catholic until the day you die because unless you do that you're gonna have family members that get mad at you for being a Baptist I mean when you make that switch they're not going to be happy with the decision that you make right they're like our whole family's Catholic right well we're starting a new family tradition with my family that's what you ought to tell them right it's like because look this is it most of my wife's family I don't have any Catholic you know relatives as far as I know but most of my wife's family is Catholic you know in their family tree really her family is the only one that converted to Christianity and it's like you do that you know a lot of the relatives they've got a problem with you why because you're not Catholic right Second Samuel 24 verse 17 Second Samuel 4 verse 24 chapter 24 Second Samuel Second Samuel chapter 24 verse 17 and David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people and said lo I have sinned and I have done wickedly but these sheep what have they done let thine hand I pray thee be against me and against my father's house David was a man that made a lot of mistakes but one thing you gotta love about him is he took responsibility when he did something wrong and he said I have sinned these other people I mean what did they do they didn't do anything wrong just let me take the blame for the situation and God came that day to David and said unto him go up rear and alder unto the Lord in the threshing floor of a ruin I the Jebusite and David according to the saying of Gad went up as the Lord commanded and Aruna looked and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him and Aruna went out and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground and Aruna said wherefore is my Lord the king come to a servant and David said to buy the threshing floor of thee to build an altar unto the Lord that the plague may be stayed from the people and Aruna said unto David let my Lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him behold here be oxen for burnt sacrifice and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood all these things that Aruna as a king give unto the king and Aruna said unto the king the Lord thy God accept thee so basically you have a person here and when he finds out that David's gonna be doing offerings on to the Lord he says I'll just give it to you for free take whatever you want right just anything you want you can take it it's for the Lord I support you whatever you want I mean this is a great man who did that right it is a great thing that he's doing but notice the reaction of David in verse 24 and the king said unto Aruna nay but I will surely buy it of thee at a price neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing so David bought the threshing floor in the oxen for 50 shekels of silver and what David said is no I'm not going to take it for free he's like I've sinned there's a law called reaping what you've sown I've got to pay for it there's a cost and he's like I don't want it for free because he wants to make sure that the plague gets stayed from the people but he makes a very wise statement what he says of that which does doth cost me nothing and it's this idea that serving God does have a cost I mean if you're going to serve God you're gonna have to set certain things aside just think in terms of how much time it takes to serve God well I mean you're at church today you're at soul winning later I mean Sunday is pretty much an all-day event takes up a lot of time right a lot of people probably have more free time than you what about out every single day you need to pray every single day you need to read the Bible see other people and you know what if you miss your Bible reading in a day you get to the end of the day and you feel guilty other people don't have to worry about that but you as a Bible believing Christian you know what there's actually a cost and part of it's just your time I mean it takes time to serve God now turn your Bible to Matthew 9 Matthew 9 Matthew chapter 9 I remember when I was younger I'd get asked this question a lot you know probably because I wasn't married at the time and people were shocked that I didn't own a television and then the common response people have is what do you do with your time right I would get asked that question all the time what do you do for fun what do you do with your time I and people would say literally tell me I couldn't live without a television right and I was just thinking you know time what time are you talking about right because it's like one day I mean Sunday was all day at church I mean most of the church I went to also had Saturday soul winning and it's just like during the week you know you're working as many hours to try to move up in your company it's like what time I mean if I spend like four hours every day just watching television my whole life would just flash before my eyes that accomplished nothing and so for me I mean it's I I just think how do you have that much free time but the reality is I mean if you're serving God you don't have that much free time just sit around and do nothing all day we live in a day I mean this is unlike other times in history other times in history post flood I mean I don't know about pre flood but certainly post flood it's like people live difficult lives it's like just living and surviving and getting your daily food I mean that was an all-day thing you know you work 12 hours a day from Sun up to Sun down your day off is spent serving God worshiping God going to church going soul winning it's like there's no free time and in today's world it's like people feel like man I mean I need like you know four hours every day to watch TV and everything look the reality is you know what you're gonna waste your life if that's what you end up doing there are more important things but you know what there's a cost of serving God and part of its time and look if you have four hours a day to watch TV before I was a day to listen to music or whatever it is but I didn't get to my Bible reading today I'm so busy maybe you just have too many things in the way maybe you have too many sins and weights that are stopping you from doing something right because look God expects your time I mean he expects you to be in church he expects you to read the Bible he expects you to go soul winning not just live a very easy life and look if your life serving God is just so easy never difficult never running out of time you're doing something wrong because if you go all in for God it's going to be difficult getting saved is as easy as it could possibly be right believe on the Lord Jesus Christ serving God is hard serving God is difficult I mean the Bible says adjustment falls down seven times and rises up again it's like honestly you're gonna fall down 700 times in your life right you're gonna make mistakes and have to get up and say I'm sorry God you're gonna kind of get out of Bible reading you have to get back into it you get out of Bible memorization you get back into it I mean like serving God is actually very difficult but you know there's a cost to serving God and you know what the people that did great things for God in their lives they actually paid a price in terms of things in this life that would make them famous or well off or whatever turn your Bible to Matthew 9 Matthew 9 so point number one we see a lesson from the pilgrims on just that word itself pilgrim the fact that you know we have no certain dwelling place we're merely strangers and pilgrims in this life point two we see that serving God has costs point three we see a lesson that the gospel is everywhere in the world that the gospel is everywhere in the world now let me say this that before the pilgrims came to America the England had actually made a chartered trip to another part of America where there was they were already starting the Church of England okay and originally the pilgrims were supposed to land there but you know as it always was in the past whenever you're trying to find a certain place you end up in another location right that's just the way it works you know you're striving I mean the things I've read about Magellan he was trying and he just bouncing all over the place maybe this is it it's like no as I just learned yesterday it's amazing how little American history I know somebody asked me you know why do you call the Native Americans Indians in the US because we generally call them Indians we don't not people from India but the Native Americans are called Indians I was like that's a good question so I went to Google and if this is accurate Christopher Columbus thought he was in in the East Indies so he called the people Indians because he thought he was in India basically but he was not because sailors back then really had no idea where they were going right that's kind of what you see if you study history just a little bit they really just didn't know where they were I can't verify that's just what the first thing said on Google was I don't know maybe it's just a legend or whatever but I don't know it sounds believable to me but I don't know anyways but we do have a lesson that the gospel is everywhere so when they arrived they're basically getting into the heart of winter and it was supposedly a very difficult first winter and they arrived at a location that's pretty cold and so the temperatures are gonna be pretty difficult especially because you don't have a house you got to find a way to get food these are not expert fishermen I mean they don't know what they're gonna do for food I mean it's a disastrous situation when they arrive and so a lot of them are dying and they arrive on December 16th 1620 then all of a sudden on March 16th 5th March 16 1621 so basically three months to the day afterwards all of a sudden an Indian or Native American named Samoset ends up or Somerset ends up walking up to them and as far as they know this person has no contact with anyone outside of the other Native Americans so of course as he's walking up the first thing you're thinking is is he friend or foe friend or enemy right is he gonna try to kill us because many times if you arrive on a foreign island and they don't know who you are they just kill you even in the modern day that still happens a couple years ago there's this this Christian I don't know if he's really saved but he went to a foreign land and he was killed when he arrived by the natives that were there and so of course somebody arrives you don't know what to think of them he starts walking up to them a Native American speaks a completely different language he starts speaking to them in English and then all of a sudden they're like what it's like am I dreaming and he's just like welcome Englishman he's just said hey how are you guys doing and then of course they're shocked because they're like how is he speaking English right well the reason why he's speaking English is because this world is not as isolated as people make it out to be because many times in the past fishermen had been fishing off the coast and he had actually met Englishmen on many occasions before not people that were permanently going there but look this this world is connected the the thing the world tries to teach you is that basically multiple forms of evolution happen in different parts of the world completely isolated and then we're just kind of coming together a long time later number one there is no evolution we all come back from Noah and the ark I mean the Bible says of them was the whole earth overspread and look there's always been a connection of cultures now of course in today's world there's more of a connection but even back then there was also as well six days later he ends up bringing another Indian with him Squanto and Samoset spoke basically limited English and Squanto was completely fluent because it turns out he had been kidnapped and then brought to Europe and then somehow made his way back and he spoke perfect English as another language and so look there's been an interconnecting of cultures I mean there's been slaves all over the world since the beginning of time and then people that move to locations for various reasons there is an interconnection in this world the Bible says in Matthew 9 verse 26 and the fame here of went abroad into all that land and when Jesus departed thence two blind men followed him crying and saying now son of David have mercy on us and when he was coming to the house the blind man came to him and Jesus saith unto them believe me that I'm able to do this they say unto him yea Lord then touch ye their eyes saying according to your faith be it unto you and their eyes were opened and Jesus straightly which means immediately charged them saying see that no man know it but they when they were departed spread abroad his fame in all that country and look the same thing is true in 2022 everywhere in the world people know who Jesus Christ is everywhere you say brother Saki no I'm sure there's people that are in some deep dark jungle they have no you know connection to anyone else in the world they've heard of Jesus Christ I promise you that now a story that pastor Mendez has said a couple times in sermons which to me is a hilarious story you know he was born in the country of Venezuela you know Spanish is actually his first language he was born in South America and when he first came to America you know he was a his parents were independent Baptist so he was soul winning from before he was saved right and so he was out so any I think with his older cousin and then somebody was arguing at the door and they said well it can't just be Jesus it can't just be that's the only way because what if you're born in some deep dark jungle away from everybody and a person literally said what if you're born in some jungle in Venezuela and and pastor Mendez had just moved from Venezuela he's like I'm from Venezuela what are you talking about he's like everybody knows who Jesus is in Venezuela right but people have this idea what about those in some part of the world that have never heard of Christianity does not exist they've heard about them look the various natives that aren't really you know in the big cities here the ideas or other groups they know who Jesus Christ is they've heard of Jesus Christ now I'm not saying they've heard a clear presentation of the gospel but they have heard of Jesus Christ there's nowhere in the world where they haven't heard and you know and I'm not saying that these Indians were saved I'm just saying the fact that they they were speaking English shows this world's actually pretty connected and especially back in this time period it's like everybody talked about Jesus Christ I promise you the sailors coming from Europe would have mentioned Jesus because everybody was religious I mean I'm not saying this is right but in these countries you have to go to church service or you get arrested it wasn't like our modern day where everything's on Sunday and there's all these distractions like no church was a normal part of people's lives reading the Bible was a normal part of people's lives and they arrive and somebody that they would assume didn't speak any English whatsoever and had no contact just start speaking in English with them turn your Bible close up in 1st Thessalonians 5 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 whatever one we get a lesson on the word pilgrim point two we get a lesson on the fact that serving God is cost point three we get a lesson that the gospel is everywhere and point four we get a lesson on thankfulness and you might say okay how does the the celebration of Thanksgiving you know how did it come to be now let me say this about Thanksgiving look at the holiday of Christmas if you were to ask the average person about Christmas and what's the meaning of Christmas and the most important part of Christmas what would people say gifts right no question what is Christmas more about in 2022 Santa Claus or Jesus clearly Santa Claus I it's no comparison I mean it's a sad reality but it's like they've taken this is why a lot of people have a problem with celebrating Christmas because people have taken a good thing and then turned it into worshiping basically a form of the devil basically a false Christ basically worshiping Satan Claus instead of actually worshiping Jesus Christ well it's not really that much different than Thanksgiving because the meaning of Thanksgiving is about giving thanks right the word Thanksgiving is in the Bible giving thanks well that's that's a pretty good holiday and the idea was giving thanks and giving praise to God is what it was about that is a good holiday that's a good tradition but in America do you know what Thanksgiving is about in 2022 it's not about praising God it's not about giving thanks to God like our songs thanks to God or count your blessings or songs like that what it's about is eating a lot of food and watching Thursday night or Thursday afternoon American football that's what it's about they've taken a good holiday and it is all about food now there's nothing wrong with having a feast and celebrating I think that's a good thing but they've turned the idea of giving thanks and it just let's just eat a lot of food and then drink beer and then just watch football that's what Thanksgiving is about in 2022 but the idea of the holiday is meant to be about giving thanks to God you say well why because you have a group of people that came here and half the people have already died and they survived the first winter and the Native Americans taught them how to create food how to make food they taught them how to get shelter because as I said this is a group of people that are largely very religious people that didn't have the practical skills to survive where where they're not in a civilized place where they've got to basically make their own house they weren't experts at that they're just people are very religious that wanted to serve God and if it weren't for the Native Americans they would have all just died off probably and so then all of a sudden they have a big feast full of Native Americans and the European settlers and they were very thankful that they were alive because I'm sure the thought came into their head we're gonna die it's like half the people already dead they're freezing they're getting illnesses or getting diseases and all these things it's like man we're not gonna make it and then all of a sudden they're at that point now they've learned how to farm the land they've learned better how to fish I mean the Native Americans basically taught them everything and they were very thankful for the gift of life that's what it's about now that's a good holiday that's a good tradition because in our modern day we live in a very unthankful society and I'll talk about that in the next sermon that is gonna be attached to the idea of giving thanks but we see a lesson on being thankful from the pilgrims Bible says in 1st Thessalonians 5 verse 18 in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you see the Bible says we ought to give thanks and everything as I said I don't want to preach ahead of time my sermon that I'm gonna preach in a little bit let me just say we live in a culture that likes to complain and is upset and then just if everything's not perfect and it's just like you know what we tend to forget all the blessings that God's actually given us in life I can look at my life I have a nice life God has blessed me in many different ways and you know what I believe the same is true all of us could think of things that we should be very thankful for anyway this group of people you know and here's the thing it's like we take our lives for granted these people what were they mainly thankful for I'm thankful that I'm alive I'm thankful that you know what the worst is behind us and now we can actually start building a future and start serving God and start churches and turn this country into a Christian country and look this is the reason why America today it all originates back to this has a higher percentage of saved people than any country and certainly has more good churches in my opinion than any country in the world now America as a culture has become a very sinful culture in recent years especially but the origin of it and the reason why America sends out more missionaries around the world all really goes back to these people that said you know what I'm not gonna convict my soul every single day because I'm sinning against my conscience I'm just gonna go and I don't know how to sail I don't know how to fish I don't know how to farm but I know that if I'm serving God and I'm following what the Bible says I'm making the right choice let's close in word of prayer your Heavenly Father thank you for allowing us be here today and ask you to help us to understand the sermon and realize that all of us have many blessings in our life that we can be thankful for God and and we're worth we are thankful of a group of people that decided to leap out by faith and as a result many great churches got started God and ask you to help all of us to be thankful for the things we've been given in life God and realize that serving you does have cost God we pray this in Jesus name amen 73 let's sing the song love lifted me I was sinking deep insane on the first ready same I was sinking deep insane far from the fish very deeply stained within singing to rise on the sea my despairing cry from the waters lifted me now Oh Oh my heart to be my game Oh Oh so see me he will live you by his love out of the angry way yes a master of the sea middles his veil he's a sir love me ah nothing else good me man