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

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you pastor you you you you you you you you you you when all you're doing is sitting there I mean I don't think anyone just waits for like 8 straight hours if that's what you do then you're a better Christian than me ok? but for me my mind wanders after maybe an hour right? but it's like being out of church for so long I got frustrated I got down I got depressed you say what? because there's joy in the sanctuary of God chapter 27 verse 1 when the wicked even mine enemies my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh they stumbled and fell though a host should camp against me my heart shall not fear though war should rise against me in this way be confident one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple the Bible says the psalmist here that the one thing he desires is to be in God's house now he says the beauty of the Lord when you look at our building it's not really that beautiful right? I mean if you're trying to find our church for the first time it's like yeah you know once you come to this beautiful building it's not ours you're at that church over there you're close but you're not yet at our church you just have to walk down the road look it's not about the structure or the color or anything like that what makes this church beautiful? singing praise to God the preaching, the fellowship, the soul winning I mean everything involved in the church it's the most beautiful place in Metro Manila in my opinion right? and that's what the Bible is saying here in verse number 4 then he says in verse 6 and now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me therefore I offer in his tabernacles sacrifices of joy I will sing, I will sing praises unto the Lord so in the tabernacle, in the sanctuary in the house of God there is joy go to chapter 42 chapter 42 I mean at our church we have people that come from different provinces obviously Rizal is very close to us it's not that far away but there's a lot of provinces people are not that close to us you know, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite I mean those aren't that close I mean my family came from Pampanga this morning it's not that close right? why is it people travel a long distance to come to this church? because this is the most beautiful place that they can find within a few hours now people don't understand that but here's the thing if the world would travel a couple hours to go to a concert is it that strange for a child of God that loves God to travel a couple hours to be in the house of God? because where would you rather be? and look, and of course I do travel a long ways to come to this church but you know, when I lived in West Virginia I traveled more than an hour to come to church and quite honestly, even though I really love the church, I think there are some areas that maybe it wasn't quite as like-minded as you know other churches that are out there and I thought it was the best church I was willing to travel more than an hour to it because I learned the word of God we went soul winning, it was the church I wanted to be a part of it wasn't that big of a deal to me to travel an hour to church right? you say why? because of the fact that it was the most beautiful place in West Virginia right? so where else would I rather be? go to Psalm 42 verse 1 as the heart panteth after the water broke, so panteth my soul after thee, O God the Bible is referencing an animal that would be panting like just desiring water and the Bible is saying that's the way we ought to feel about God right? when you're really really tired and you're really dehydrated and really thirsty it's like all you can think about is water right? you know everything else just escapes from your mind when I used to play soccer it's like when you go to halftime the one thing you're thinking about is like water where's my water? where's my water? I just need water right? because you're very thirsty the Bible is saying you ought to feel the same way you see an animal that's like you see a deer or you see a dog or another animal that's like right? then that's what the Bible is saying we ought to feel that way about God where the only thing on our mind is the search and seek after God verse 2 verse 3 so he's saying the place of joy and praise is the house of God but David's in a situation where he is outside the house of God why? he's being persecuted by Saul and he's gone from God's people and he's saying I think back to when I just showed up at the house of God and I had this joy in my life right? why? because there is joy in being in God's house turn to chapter 63 turn to chapter 63 now we have people that listen to our sermons online praise the Lord for that but they might think well you know what I heard your preaching so I'm in church it's like no you're not in church when you listen to sermons online and you're only getting a small portion of what church is about now as I said you know the preaching is the bread and butter or the rice and sabbat of our church or whatever example you want to give the pen to Saul of our church but here's the thing it's like if all you hear is the preaching online it just doesn't have the same impact as actually being in church you need the singing, you need the fellowship you need all of it and honestly sermons are 50 times better when you're actually there in person it's just better I get it, I've listened to a lot of sermons online and learned great doctrine but there's just something about when you're sitting alone at home listening to a sermon, it's very easy to just kind of pause it take a break, get distracted blah blah blah and all these things you're not fully focused 100% on God usually this is the way it works there's a difference between hearing a sermon online and actually being in the house of God and there's a great joy being in God's house around God's people verse number 1 chapter 63 verse 1 O God, thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is we ought to be seeking God early we ought to do that not just early in our life but early every single day wake up, do your scripture reading make sure you're doing your New Testament Bible reading challenge in the month of January even if you're tired you wake up and you read the Bible you read the word of God diligently early you seek God the power and the glory I've seen thee in the sanctuary so once again the sanctuary of God what that's saying is you can actually see the beauty and the glory of God not just when you're in church but also when you're at home reading the word of God you can get the glory of God now that's not saying skip church to read the Bible what it's saying is you don't have to wait until Sunday to see the glory of God what it's saying is there's a great glory and an amazing beautiful thing when you're actually in God's house verse 5 chapter 149 verse 5 and the Bible says in verse 1 praise ye the Lord sing unto the Lord a new song so once again singing a new song different than the songs of the world you hear and it's praise in the congregation of saints meaning in God's house in God's sanctuary in God's tabernacle around God's people in the congregation of saints rejoice in him that made him let the children of Zion be joyful in their king so once again you're seeing in the house of God what are you saying? you're seeing joy why? because the sanctuary of God the house of God is a place that gives you great joy and if you're missing out on the local church guess what? you're not going to have a whole lot of joy I do not understand why people listen to sermons online and they don't come to church I don't get it you're not going to have the same joy you're not going to have the same fulfillment I don't really get it I mean I'm just being honest if I were to ever backside I would just backside all the way I wouldn't listen to sermons online at all if I'm going to quit church why would I even listen to sermons I mean it's like there's a joy in being in God's house right? go to Psalm chapter 51 chapter 51 chapter 51 chapter 51 and here's the thing about this you know what? I don't think necessarily everybody at this church likes my personality and that's fine I mean obviously people are different maybe you don't like me maybe you don't like my personality doesn't change the fact that this is the place in Metro Manila where God's people gather like it or lump it whether you think it's in spite of me or not it doesn't change the fact that this is where God's people gather I get it you know I mean I preach five sermons a week you're going to say things that offend people it is what it is you say things or people just don't see things the same way they view things differently it just is what it is my job is not to be everybody's friend but there's no doubt this is the place where God's people gather and honestly I'll be honest I am shocked how many people are at church here today my wife and I were trying to guess the congregation because I knew a lot of people were going to be in Laguna and it's like we're still a packed house here you got 38 in Laguna we were expecting low 40s I don't know the exact attendance but it's like we still got a full crowd you say why? because this is where God's people gather to love God I mean it's just a fact number one there's joy in singing number two there's joy in the sanctuary number three there's joy in soul winning there is joy in winning souls in the Lord there is joy in soul winning now in chapter 51 of Psalms I'm going to read a lot of verses to set the context and I'm going to show you the entire thing you link it to soul winning verse number one and to understand this psalm you have to realize when this was written so basically David has been rebuked by Nathan and he's getting right with God as a result of Nathan rebuking him so he's writing this psalm just basically as his thoughts after he gets rebuked by Nathan for the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and Uriah and that whole situation so verse number one have mercy upon me O God according on the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me behold thou desireth the truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice so what he's saying is I have lost my joy because of the sins I committed right? now I'm speaking about how to have joy how to lose your joy is commit sins you're gonna lose your joy if you're living a sinful life right? verse number nine now here's the thing he's not saying I need to repent of my sins to get saved he's already saved he has eternal life it's like for example when your kids are born they're always your kids nothing changes that when they do wrong what do you expect your kids to do? dad I'm sorry right? that's what you expect from your kids but they're still your kids it's the same thing with God I mean David was still the child of God during that entire time when he's living in that sin right? but was he right with God? absolutely not now there are people that teach David was not saved until after Nathan rebukes him you say no, nobody would teach that just look up what Ray Comfort believes Mr. Famous Evangelist when you're teaching people that if you're living a sinful life you must not be saved I mean didn't Paul say that every single day he's doing the things that he says not to do? as a saved person you have the new man and you have the old man and you've got free will to walk in the old man or walk in the new man sometimes we do right sometimes we do wrong nobody in this room wakes up two hours of prayer down on your knees to God two hours of Bible reading two hours of memorization nobody does that you say why? because you're not 100% fully committed to God, neither am I right? it's funny sometimes they use like extraordinary or huge examples like that sometimes people say oh sometimes I do that it's like you don't spend two hours in prayer every single morning come on I mean we sing songs like sweet hour of prayer it's a wonderful song but it's extremely hard to do an actual hour or tis the blessed hour of prayer I mean the Bible speaks about an hour I mean it's hard to serve God it's hard to do right but our salvation is based on this word believe whosoever believes you know that includes the person that does not live a good life you know there are drunks there are drug addicts that we will see in heaven but I can't believe that you know what I say? praise God for that praise God the blood of Jesus died for every single person in the world the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men not just the elect my friend although the elect are those that are saved he died for everybody, saved or unsaved elect or not elect the Bible says it's not willing that any should perish it's God's will that everybody would get saved you say well why don't they all get saved? because they have free will you idiot that's why because we give the gospel to people and some accept and some reject I wish that everyone we talk to would get saved but that's not the way it is you know a lot of people we give the gospel to get saved a lot do not get saved it's not like every single thing you touch turns to gold the might is touch everything you touch turns to gold it doesn't work that way because people have free will guess what? if Jesus gave the gospel to people that did not get saved if Paul the apostle gave the gospel to people that did not get saved you will also give the gospel to some people that choose not to believe and you can do a perfect job preaching the gospel and they're not going to get it because some people are just not going to get saved it is what it is it doesn't mean you failed because our job is to preach the gospel to every creature and we do our best and some believe and some don't but all a person has to do is just believe on Christ but here's the thing if you are saved God wants you to start living righteously it's funny because people say why don't you preach on salvation every week what's interesting is we do more preaching of the gospel outside of church than just about any church there is inside the church we preach very hard preaching why would I tell some unbeliever I mean you're at a door and you see red horse at their door why would I say well you know you shouldn't be drinking what would be the point of that there's no point but in the house of God guess what thus saith the Lord right don't drink alcohol Proverbs 23 and Proverbs 31 right don't drink alcohol don't be a loser like those that get drunk but that's because I'm trying to teach saved people to serve God and do right we don't say that to unbelievers because they don't have to make any changes here's what you have to understand every unsafe person has been trying to repent of their sins their whole life sometimes people will be honest with us and they believe in a works salvation they'll say man I'm trying to repent of my sins I keep failing because they think they have to change their life to be saved the Bible does not say you have to change your life he that believeth on the son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the son shall not see life it comes down to that word belief verse number 11 cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me you say well wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute if you cannot lose your salvation why does he have to say take not thy Holy Spirit from me first off in the Old Testament were people in dwell with the Holy Ghost no they were not what did Jesus say I must depart otherwise the comforter is not going to come referring to the Holy Ghost we sing the song the comforter has come the comforter has come referring to the Holy Spirit of God but here's the thing what you see both in the Old Testament and the New Testament is that the Holy Spirit will come upon people and it causes you to be bold that's one of the big characteristics of being filled with the Spirit that's not just an Old Testament thing it's a New Testament thing so as we go soul winning that's what takes place you get filled with boldness in your natural flesh most of us we would probably not walk up to random people and start a conversation it's weird seems strange right I never thought I could do something like that because it seems strange you say well how is it that we're able to do it because you're filled with the Spirit of God and here's the thing I want to be filled with the Spirit of God to preach sermons I want to be filled with the Spirit of God I want to be filled with the Spirit of God at all times in my life because I want to be a successful father you know what the secret is? having God's presence upon my life I want to be a successful husband what's the secret? having God's presence upon my life meaning waking up and reading the Bible asking for forgiveness for what you did wrong obeying the commandments of God being in church these are the things that make God's presence upon you and David's saying I don't want to lose God's presence in my life because my life is just going to get destroyed that's what happens then he says in verse 12 restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirits does David say restore unto me my salvation? no he said restore unto me the joy you say why? because if you're living in sin you'll have no joy right? and so here's the thing if you are right with God and you're not living a sinful life and you don't have joy you say what does this have to do with soul winning? you're always trying to attach it to soul winning look at the next verse then meaning once I get my joy back then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee what are we referring to? soul winning? you know what David's basically saying? over the course of those 12 months I want nobody to the Lord right? and he says if I give my joy back then guess what? I'm going to go out and get people saved you say why? because there is joy in soul winning and soul winning not only causes you joy but having joy will make you want to go soul winning there's great joy in leading people to the Lord and here's the thing it's not necessarily about when we're doing it but sometimes it's afterwards you do the hard work you tally up the results and there's excitement of all the souls that got saved go to chapter 126 126 I want to give you an example to help you understand this because I believe soul winning is very hard work it's something that doesn't necessarily fully make sense because when I was younger I would do a lot of very difficult athletic things and I was able to do it but something about soul winning you just get very tired of the mental and the emotional and I guess even the physical you just get exhausted you can only do it for so long nobody is just going to give the gospel for 12 straight hours you just can't take it it's hard and even I find myself I give the gospel a couple of times it's very easy to get a little bit lazy on that next conversation because you're tired kind of shorten it a little bit because soul winning is difficult I don't advocate playing video games this isn't an example that probably most people can understand because when I was a kid I played games like Super Mario and so when you're playing a video game it's like nobody likes to die or accidentally you miss the moving mushroom and jump off a cliff nobody likes that or whatever that is in the Mario game and you don't like to die but here's the thing if you play a game and you finish it in like an hour and a half the first time you do it there's not much sense of excitement or joy afterwards because you didn't have to actually work that hard it was too easy but then if you played a game that actually took a lot of work like when I played video games a kid in Metal Gear was like the big game that was like impossible if anyone has played that game it's like you die within the first five seconds I'm not advocating that game but I'm just giving you an example but when I finally beat that game I was like I finally did it there's a greater sense of joy you say why? because it took more work here's the thing soloing is a lot of work and that is part of why there's a great sense of joy when we get done and we count up the results because we realize this wasn't some easy thing to do it wasn't something that just immediately happened it took a lot of hard work right? we go out we're exhausted, we're tired we come back and we what do we do according to Psalm 126 verse 6 isn't that what we do on Sundays? we come back from soloing and you know what? we rejoice as the sheaves have been brought in we rejoice of the people that got saved it's exciting last week we had a record number of soloers 86 people from our church went out soloing last Sunday we need to update that by the way we set a record 86 people went out soloing 86 out of 110 of the people that came to church went out soloing I mean praise the Lord for that right? 86 people went out soloing right? and you know these are things that give us excitement because we realize it takes a lot of hard work it's not something that's easy if it was easy everybody would do it but everybody doesn't do it you say why? because it's hard it's not easy but there's a great joy we see in soloing both in chapter 51 and 126 go to chapter 119 we'll close up chapter 119 chapter 119 look obviously we understand with soloing obviously people are different people are at different situations in life obviously you know at church some people are older some are younger some have different levels of health you know I hope that as I get older I'll still be able to go out zealously and preach the gospel but the reality is that you know what as you get older things can become a lot more difficult quite honestly I'm just being honest I feel it myself because of where I had my knee surgery when I sit down after giving the gospel when I stand up it really hurts and I have to like shake it out it takes about 10 minutes for it to kind of wear off you know after I sit down it's hard for me how much more in another 10 or 20 years? you know it's just like obviously as you get older things get more difficult so obviously you know we ought to be compassionate to people and realize not everyone is in the same situation I mean when I was a young person 19, 20 years old and I first started going soloing it's like yeah let's go soloing 10 hours right and you don't even get tired now though you know I get tired pretty easily right we have Christabel's birthday party and I'm just like I just want to sleep now right you get tired a lot more easily right so we understand that but I want you to realize there's a great joy in being involved in the soul winning work of our church if you are able point number one there's joy in singing point number two there's joy in the sanctuary joy in the house of God point three there's joy in soloing and point four lastly there is joy in the scriptures there is joy in doing your New Testament Bible reading challenge for the month of January right and the good news if you're behind schedule is the fact that as you get past 2 Corinthians it's a lot easier something about you hit books like Galatians it's not that many chapters and the chapters tend to be shorter right Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians you start to fly through it right it's a lot easier and so don't give up if you're behind stick with it you can catch up but there's joy in reading the word of God and go down to verse number 12 verse number 12 blessed are thou O Lord teach me thy statutes with my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth by the way in the Bible you have the words statutes, judgment, testimonies, law, precepts these are words that are used interchangeably when the Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul it's not referring to the ten commandments it's referring to the law of God meaning the words of God it's used interchangeably in the book of Psalms especially here in 119 with just all the word of God and obviously the word of God is perfect converting the soul because nobody gets saved without the word of God because you're born again not a corruptible seed but an incorruptible by the word of God so the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul and I mentioned that just because repentance of sins preachers will use that to say you want to get somebody saved tell them don't commit adultery that has nothing to do with being saved you get saved by believing and you have a soul winner that expounds the word of God for them to get saved then it says in verse number 15 I'll meditate in thy precepts and have respect in all thy ways I will delight myself in thy statutes I will not forget thy work and look we ought to have joy and delight in every part of the word of God everything in the Bible is good every part of it that includes Genesis chapter 19 now I get it when it comes to reading about Sodom and Gomorrah and even after that it kind of gets worse with Lot and his daughters it's not the most comfortable thing to read I prefer to just read about the false prophets of Baal with you know we're only like the bad people are getting it's just a little bit uncomfortable in Genesis 19 but you know what it's a very important chapter because it shows us the warnings about the LGBT it shows us the wickedness of the world it shows what God thinks about it and look every part of the Bible is good that includes Leviticus it's funny people have a problem with Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20 because Leviticus 18 says it's an abomination to be a part of the LGBT and Leviticus 20 says God's punishment is the death penalty if a man also lies with mankind as he lies with a woman both of them have committed an abomination they shall surely be put to death but people love Leviticus 19 because that's where you get the quote love thy neighbor as thyself so it's like well you know we love Leviticus 19 but don't preach Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20 so explain to me how Jesus quotes from Leviticus 19 but he doesn't believe chapters 18 and 20 are scripture that's ridiculous all of God's word is good and the Bible says I am the Lord I change not the entire word of God is good and every single part of the Bible and you know what takes place when we read the Bible we read some things that kind of hit a little close to home why? because we're guilty imagine you're reading in Deuteronomy I think it's 17, 17 or 18 where it's like read therein all the days of thy life if you're not reading the Bible every day it's kind of like ouch and all of a sudden the excuses start coming in your head well I'm really very busy I have a lot of kids I'm tired it's like you say why? because it hits close to home but every part of the Bible is good and the parts that hit close to home they're even more important for us that's what we need so don't get mad or frustrated with the word of God says there's joy in the scriptures just realize you read the Bible you find out you're guilty of something make the change it's that simple drop down to verse number 111 verse 111 just turn 47 pages in your Bible to get to verse 111 one of these days we'll have Psalm 119 as a scripture reading one of these days that will be the entire sermon it's like alright we're done how is that turned into a song? you know what I mean? it's like there's some long Psalms but a song of like 176 verses I guess they're by sections of 8 so maybe it just has the same rhythm I'm guessing but anyways verse 111 the Bible says we ought to use God's laws being our rejoicing and meditate on God's word have God's word hidden inside your heart you say why? there's great joy in the scriptures of God go to verse number 160 and we'll close up verse 160 verse number 160 and the Bible says in verse 160 Psalm 119 verse 160 thy word is true from the beginning and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever princes have persecuted me without a cause but my heart standeth in all thy word I rejoice at thy word as one that findeth great spoil I hate and am poor lying but thy law do I love you notice here in verse 163 when you're right with God and you love God's word it causes you to hate sin if you find people that don't hate sin and just give a pass to every sort of sin that's out there say oh it's not that big of a deal to listen to that music it's not that big of a deal to drink it's like it's because they don't love God's word because those that love God's word they hate sin and I'm not saying we hate everybody that's committing sins but I'm saying that you hate sin you hate lying and when someone lies it's just like man why would you do that it's wrong but you'll see that if you're not right with God the reason why you don't hate sins is because you kind of want to justify your own actions and so by justifying other people it kind of helps you justify yourself too then it says in verse 164 seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them and what the Bible says here in verse 165 is that when you love God's law nothing offends you you say what do you mean I mean that when you're right with God you don't easily get mad things don't really bother you that much isn't that true in your life? it's definitely true in my life somebody says something or does something rude to you it doesn't really bother you that much it's like maybe they're having a bad day or whatever right the expression we use in the US which doesn't really make sense but it's like it's like water off a duck's back is the expression I guess if you pour water on a duck it bounces off I don't know but the idea is that you know what nothing you know will bother you it just kind of bounces off and when you're right with God isn't that the way it is? somebody's rude to you somebody sins against you and you're not that mad it's like eh no big deal somebody curses at you while you're driving honks the horn and you're not that upset but when you're not right with God somebody's beeping at you with a horn and you're like I'm gonna drive them off the road right what that shows is you didn't do your Bible reading that morning I mean that's the truth I mean when you're right with God things just don't bother you that much so when you find every single small thing in life just making you really mad it just shows you're not right with God and here's what you have to understand you're not going to be able to change the outside circumstances things are gonna happen somebody's gonna mess up your order at a restaurant somebody's gonna spill something on you somebody's gonna say something rude to you somebody's gonna lie about you somebody's gonna gossip about you you know what you can change? you can change the way you respond to it you say how do I do it? you do it by loving God's law because there's a great rejoicing in God's law in the scriptures and when you're reading God's word things just don't bother you that much right? I mean if you're doing your scripture reading in January and this is the first time you've really read the Bible I promise you in your life you're finding a lot of joy and things just aren't bothering you that much you say why? because you're spending time away from the world and you're spending time in the presence of God so look what we see here today and you know David is a man that went through a lot of worse things and at least I hope I ever go through right? you know it's like you know King Saul was trying to kill him it's like when I worked for Pastor Menace he never tried to kill me I haven't gone through these things I've had bosses that have yelled at me but I've never had a boss try to kill me David went through pretty bad things but you know what? he still responded pretty well you say why? because there's joy in singing and he can sing praise to God every day there's joy in the sanctuary there's joy there's joy in soul winning and there's joy in the scripture and the thing is what you find in your life is everything can just be you know magulo and stressful and nothing's going right but if you find yourself coming to church and reading the Bible and going soul winning you don't really find yourself that upset with the things that are going wrong and look I say this because obviously if you're saved you're saved forever it's eternal life but I want you to have joy in your life I want to have joy in my life I want my family to have joy in my life you say what's the secret? get away from the influences of the world and spend time in the presence of God let's close the word of prayer dear heavenly father thank you for allowing us here today and ask you to help us to apply this sermon to our lives I ask you to help all of us to just spend as much time as we can in the scriptures and in the sanctuary and in soul winning and in singing praise to you God I ask you to help us take all this seriously and help us to live joyful lives and help us to fight against sin and be obedient to your laws we pray this in Jesus name amen to the Lord and to the Holy Spirit Amen I pray to the Lord to the Lord that we can talk in the same way especially because we will be on page 50 page 50 page 50 page 50 to the Lord and to the Spirit you will be given this word in English and we will also speak in first and last First time is ready, sing. Everybody. For us. Hello. Oh, we're the prayer. Yeah. Yeah.