All right, we're here in Exodus chapter 10, and it's been quite a while since we've been
in Exodus.
I was sick the one Tuesday and obviously I was in the US and we're here looking at the
eighth plague here tonight, the plague of locusts.
So let me just start before I get started, because I can say as an American, we're very
confused by this locusts and grasshoppers.
And so it's very common in America to call cicadas locusts.
And what I read was locusts became extinct in the US in around the 19th century.
There was a big invasion in 1874, but what we call locusts are actually cicadas.
So locusts durun, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, cicada culiglig.
And so we don't have any locusts in the US anymore, but we have cicadas.
And I remember just because we had an invasion of cicadas when I was a kid, I remember them
being extremely loud and then dark.
And then you look at pictures of locusts and they're not, you know, dark, but cicadas are
very, very loud.
So we're saying locusts here, this is an animal that eats a lot of vegetation.
We saw, I saw a video before this, cause there's an invasion in Pampanga in the mid nineties,
which we'll talk about, and they just quickly eat up all of the plants.
And so this is going to basically destroy all of your crops and all of your plants and
all your food.
It's going to be a very big financial loss.
And so notice what it says here in verse number one, and the Lord said unto Moses, going on
to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants that I might
show these my signs before him.
Verse number two, and that thou mayest tell him the ears of thy son and of thy son's son,
what things I brought in Egypt and my signs, which I've done among them, that he may know
how that I am the Lord.
Now it's kind of interesting because as we've been going through Exodus, we've been kind
of just going verse by verse covering various different things.
And in the first 20 verses here in Exodus chapter 10, there's a clear theme that is
mentioned here outside of the locusts.
And the theme you can see in verse number two, where he says, telling the ears of thy
son and of thy son's son.
And the clear theme here is the importance of teaching the next generation, the importance
of not just having it be with our generation, but teaching our kids the word of God, so
they can grow up and also love God.
And that's a clear theme found throughout all of this next in chapter 10.
Now go to Joel chapter one, Joel chapter one.
And what God's basically saying to Moses is, Moses, I don't just want you to serve God.
I want your kids to serve God.
I don't just want you and Aaron and this generation to love God.
No, I want the next generation to love God.
I mean, just imagine because a lot of us here, probably most of us did not grow up as fundamental
Baptists.
I'm not sure if any of us did.
Right?
I mean, many of us grew up Catholic or various different religions that we have.
And somewhere along the way, we found the truth, we heard the gospel, we got saved.
But imagine how you had the wrong faith for half your life or most of your life, and you're
trying your best, but you're going the wrong way because you didn't know the truth.
And then you heard the gospel, and now you love God, you're serving God, you're soul
winning, and you do all this work, and then it just completely flips back with the next
generation.
You would be like, man, what a shame to work so hard to learn the truth and then arrive
at the truth.
And then the next generation just completely kills that, right?
Because I would say for most of us, what we would hope, I hope all of us would say this,
that if you're a first generation fundamental Baptist, you want to start a new family tradition.
And that with your last name, it can be known as a Baptist family, a soul winning family,
a fundamental family, not just go back to Catholic or non-denominant or something else
with the next generations, right?
Says here in Joel chapter one, verse one, the word of the Lord that came to Joel the
son of Pethul, hear this the old man and give ear all the inhabitants of the land.
Have this been in your days or in the days of even in the days of your fathers?
Tell ye your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children
another generation.
And, you know, if you're looking at this, tell you your children of it.
That's your sons and your daughters.
Let your children tell their children that's your grandkids and their children another
generation.
So the Bible saying is you ought to be concerned about your great grandkids.
You ought to be like, you know what?
I want my great grandkids serving God, meaning that when I'm about to pass away, I know the
next generation of our family is going to rise up and love God and be sole winners and
are serving God.
That's what it's saying in Joel one.
It's not just for this generation.
Make sure your children know the truth and make sure you teach your children that, you
know what?
You better make sure to teach us to the next generation and then let the next generation
also hear it as well.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter six, Deuteronomy chapter six.
I mean, I really hope that when my kids, you know, get married and they have kids, it's
like, can you imagine getting that phone call from from your kids like, hey, you know, our
baby's going to be baptized and be horrified.
It's like, no, I'm sorry.
I'm not going to come.
I'm not going to come watch.
That'd be awful.
Right.
I mean, it'd be horrible to just find out that your family is just going the complete
other way with the different religion, different beliefs, just not interested in the things
of God.
Here's what the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four.
Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, with all
thy might.
And these words which I command thee to stay shall be in thine heart and thou shall teach
them diligently onto thy children and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house
and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up, thou shalt
bind them for a sign upon thine hand and they should be as frontless between thine eyes.
Thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates.
Now verse number five, it talks about loving the Lord God with all of your heart and all
of your soul and all of your might.
Now of course, nobody is going to love God 100% perfectly with all their hearts.
No one's going to perfectly love God and just be 100% fully right with God.
All you do is meditate on God's word.
You never lose your temper.
You just have a perfect attitude.
Nobody's like that and we get that, but that's what we're striving for the Bible to say.
And the reason why it's so important is that if we can strive to be a really great Christian,
it can motivate us to teach our children, teach the next generation to love God.
Now here's what it says in verse number seven, where it says, thou shalt teach them diligently
unto thy children.
It says, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house.
Well here's what the Bible is saying, there ought to be a time where you're just sitting
in your house with your kids.
Some of the examples could be eating breakfast together or eating lunch together, eating
dinner together, just taking a break from your schedule, just sitting down as a family
and just eating dinner together.
You open up, you pray for the food and you just sit down and you're just there together
and you just kind of talk.
You can ask your kids, how was your day?
And then you can just talk to your kids and you can talk about the word of God, sitting
down at a dinner table.
Or maybe you're sitting in the living room, maybe you're playing a board game together,
maybe you're playing cards together.
But there ought to be a time where you're actually just sitting there with your kids.
Now obviously you're sitting here in church today and obviously church is the best place
to be.
But what about throughout the rest of the week?
There needs to be a time where you're just there with your children.
So sitting in your house, you can teach the word of God.
The Bible says, and when they'll walk is by the way.
Many different ways you can be walking with your family, obviously soul winning is a great
way to walk, right?
But you can just be going to a park, just go to a park with your family and just go
for a walk with your family, right?
Just enjoy God's nature, enjoy what He's created.
And you say, well, how does this work?
Well, if you're walking with your family, maybe you pass a cigarette on the ground.
Maybe you walk by a beer can on the ground.
And I've told my kids a million times, because you pass plenty of cigarettes, but I just
make it a point to say, and now I just say, is that good or bad?
Because I've already told them about how smoking will destroy their health.
Sometimes I'll quote, the Bible says, our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
And it's not our body, it doesn't belong to us, it belongs to God.
We do not have a right to trash and destroy our body.
And you know, you're just teaching your kids at a young age, you say, why do you do that?
Because if you get it ingrained inside of them, when they get older, it's going to help
them not get involved in those vices.
You walk by a beer can, always make it a point to tell them.
I mean, when we walk by people whose lives are a mess or drunks, you know, we'll tell
our kids, it's just like, well, this is what happens when you reject the Bible.
Bible says, you know, the wine is a mocker, it's going to destroy your life.
And you know, it's like you teach your kids whenever you get the chance as you're walking
by the way, right?
Because obviously in today's world, unfortunately, what we see is usually not good
things, right?
You know, we see a lot of bad things.
But, you know, if we don't teach our kids what's wrong with that, it's going to feel
normal to them. We need to teach them, hey, it's not right to dress like that.
Right. It's not right to look like that.
Right. And so when we're walking, by the way, teach our family.
Teach our kids when they'll lie us down.
You know, when it comes to lying down, you think of, you know, going to sleep,
right? Now, I mean, depending on how your setup is, you might have the kids in
another room or you might have them in your room.
You know, we used to have our kids in the other room.
We're trying to save money on air conditioning.
So it's like we often have them in the same room and they're in the lower bed.
We're in the upper bed. But it's like, you know, you're lying down.
You know, we try to have prayer time with our kids before you go to sleep.
Is there anything you want to pray for and just lying down, just talking to your
kids? Or maybe you're just relaxing.
Maybe you're lying down on the couch and your kids are playing or whatever.
You have opportunities to talk to them.
And it says, when they'll rise and stuff, the idea would be first thing in the
morning, you rise up.
Let's make the start of the day about God.
You start your day off with prayer.
Now, none of us are perfect at this.
Right. And I'm not trying to stand up here to claim that I'm perfect.
Every day and every opportunity is like, obviously, it's hard
to always do what's right and always teach your kids.
But that's what we should be striving for.
Now, I'm not saying that all we ever talk about with our kids is the Bible.
I mean, that's not what I'm saying, because obviously there's things we can enjoy.
We can play sports with them.
We can play games with them. And all those things are good.
We did a mid-September Easter egg hunt yesterday.
That was fun. The kids loved it.
Right. And so these are things that we can do.
But, you know, you also want to take the opportunity to teach them as you're around
them. But the thing is, you cannot really teach your kids these things unless
you're actually around them.
It's not going to happen unless you're around them.
And so when we are around them and we put away our busy schedule, we
better make sure we're not just sitting around on our cell phone and just not
talking to them. Right.
I mean, you know, kids at a young age, you see this with kids.
They develop their personalities.
You know, it's like if you're to ask me about Zapp, I could tell you what his
personalities are, what his strengths are, what his weaknesses are, what he
enjoys, what he doesn't enjoy.
I mean, McDonald's is his favorite restaurant.
I don't understand why, but and I've never acquired that taste.
But that's his favorite restaurant.
He loves McDonald's.
Right. And so, you know, it's like you need to be around your kids,
though, to get to know them and to talk to them.
Right. And here's the thing.
Your kids want to be around you.
Every child wants nothing more than to just spend time with mom and dad.
Go back to Exodus chapter 10.
Exodus 10.
I mean, I was only in the US and gone from the Philippines for like about 10
days, like nine or 10 days, and even coming back, you especially see it in
the youngest with Ezra.
He was a little bit shy being around, just being gone for a little bit over a
week. And he's happy to see me, but he's a little bit awkward.
And, you know, it shows the impact just being gone for a very short
amount of time. And, you know, my daughter, Christabel, was very sad, but
you could certainly see with Ezra, it just took a little while for him to
adjust. You know, after a couple of days, he's jumping on me and playing
and everything. But there was definitely an adjustment just being gone a
week and a half. And I just think, you know, well, how much more if you're
just not around your kids?
Right. There's certainly an OFW culture here in the Philippines where
people, you know, basically just, you know, leave their kids and then work
overseas and then they're gone for like eight months.
And what I often find is that people come back and they go on all these
fancy trips and they might be gone for years and then they come back.
The thing is, what I've heard said by Pastor Mendez, and I think this is
a perfect way to look at it, is the way that kids spell love is T-I-M-E.
And honestly, it doesn't really matter whether you're doing expensive and
fancy things.
I mean, you buy kids a fancy gift for Christmas and then they end up playing
with a cardboard box.
That's just the way it is.
It's like they're happy with, they just want to play.
They just want to have fun. You know, the Easter egg hunt we did yesterday,
those Easter eggs don't cost any money, right?
I mean, kids love that. They enjoy it.
They're having a great time.
And it's like, you know, you need to be around your kids, especially if
you're going to impact them with the word of God, because otherwise it's
going to kind of fall on deaf ears.
They're just not going to take heed to it as much because it's kind of
like, well, you know, why am I going to listen to someone if they're not
really around me that much?
Exodus, chapter 10, verse 3, and Moses and Aaron came in on to Pharaoh and
said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou
refuse to humble thyself before me?
Let my people go that they may serve me.
Else if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow will I bring the
locusts into thy coast.
Now, the locusts are the eighth plague, and if you're trying to attach
this to any specific god or goddess of ancient Egypt, it would probably
be the false god of Seth.
And Seth, it says here, is a god of desert, storms, disorder, violence,
and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion.
In ancient Greek, the god's name is given as Seth, spelled a little bit
differently.
Seth had a positive role where he accompanies Ra on his bark to repel
Apep, the serpent of chaos.
Seth had a vital role as a reconciled combatant.
He was lord of the red land desert where he's the balanced horse role as
lord of the black land, fertile land.
It's interesting how this same god exists in Greece.
And basically, it's the same god, basically the same name.
He looks a little bit different.
And it just kind of shows you this same religion just gets repackaged.
And you could look at India today, and it's pretty similar actually to
these religions like ancient Egypt and ancient Greece.
Now, in 1995 was the big locust epidemic in Pampanga.
And I've known about this for a long time because my wife's family were
farmers.
I'm very disappointed as some of you kampampangans that aren't that
familiar with the locust infestation.
But in 1995, here's what it says about it.
And you know, I can show you after the service, there's a few videos on
this where you can see like a couple minutes long.
And here's what it says, farmers in the Philippines province of
Pampanga, and I'm reading this article, it was written during the
time, so it's going to use present tense, okay.
Farmers in the Philippines province of Pampanga are facing a menace of
biblical proportions, a plague of locusts, it is feared that as much
as 50% of the area's rice and sugarcane harvest may be lost.
Many farmers in this fertile area are fighting against the odds in a
battle with one of farming's oldest enemies, a locust plague.
Overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the hungry pests, farmers are forced
to watch helplessly, while the fruits of their labors are devoured in
front of them.
Their numbers are so large that they seem to blot out the sky.
Sugarcane is high in the locust diet, the effect of their hunger is all
too easy to see.
With their pincer like jaws, they make short work of the sugarcane.
After filling their hunger, the locusts ensure the cycle of destruction
continues by breeding.
Local farmers are worried about the effect they'll have, it is feared
that up to half their sugarcane harvest will be lost.
And in the couple minute video we were watching before the service,
they quickly devour those plants.
You just see like the green plant is just...
Considering their size, it's pretty amazing how fast they actually eat
the crops.
And so if the sky is being filled with locusts, then basically you're
just going to see all the crops just vanish away.
So I could definitely imagine that here in Phnom Penh in the mid 90s,
farmers were very scared about what was going on.
Now, my wife's family learned that apparently they're very tasty.
They really like the taste of them.
And so that's, you know, my father in law loves like locusts and crickets
and various, you know, these creatures, which they are clean animals.
I would like to try them to be honest, they're clean animals.
It's not like a cockroach or anything like that.
But anyways, if you're a farmer, it's just going to destroy everything
that you have, right, according to this article.
And it did.
I mean, it really hurt the farming industry here in Phnom Penh.
Exodus 10, verse five.
And they shall cover the face of the earth that one cannot be able
to see the earth, and they shall eat the residue of that which is
escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every
tree which groweth for you out of the field.
Now, in the video that I saw, you could still see the grass and
the plants and so, and of course, I definitely believe that the
plague during the days of Exodus is the biggest that's ever existed, right?
I mean, that makes the most sense.
So I don't think the one in Pampanga was a biblical proportion because
eating half of it is not eating 100%, right?
And so we could still see in this video, we can still see that the
grass, we can still see the land.
But according to this, in Exodus 10, verse five, in the days of Egypt
that one cannot be able to see the earth, meaning it's so thick full
of locusts that all you're going to see is locusts, right?
I mean, and then all of a sudden, if they left an area, it's like
all the plants are just gone, right?
I mean, and I would say this probably happened very, very quickly.
Verse number six, and they shall fill thy houses and the houses of
all thy servants and the houses of all the Egyptians, which neither
thy fathers nor thy father's fathers have seen, since the day that
they were upon the earth unto this day.
And he turned himself and went out from Pharaoh.
And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, how long shall this man be a
snare unto us?
Let the men go that they may serve the Lord their God.
Know as thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed.
Now, in verse number six, he's dealing with Egypt and he talks
about your father's father.
So he does talk about multiple generations as well.
But he's going to go back to talking about the Hebrews with raising
your children correctly later on in this passage.
And it says in verse seven, know as thou not yet that Egypt is
destroyed. And of course, you know, I preach some sermons and
talked about this passage.
Know as thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed.
I talked about the Philippines specifically.
Know as thou not yet that the Philippines is destroyed, right?
Obviously, we can look at the Philippines and there's a lot of
problems in our modern day.
We would have to be blind to say this doesn't exist.
But I would say you could also use this verse to apply it to your own
life, right? And in your own life, what are the areas
that are being destroyed?
What are the areas where it's not going very well, right?
Because the tendency everybody has, I mean, everybody, including
myself in every situation, is to make excuses,
make excuses.
Everybody wants to make excuses for why they fail or mess up or
whatever. But the Bible says, know as thou not yet.
I mean, you have to take responsibility, Pharaoh.
And so the thing is, in your life, if you're not reading the
Bible, you got to admit it.
You can't make excuses for it.
You got to look at your life and say, hey, it's just not going
well, right?
If you're here, if your life, you have areas that are spinning
out of control, you got to just look at it and say, hey, you
know what? I got to fix the problem.
It's not going correct, right?
And Pharaoh is just denying reality right in front of himself.
And it's like even his servants are saying, look, Egypt is
destroyed. The locusts have eaten everything.
And then Pharaoh is just pretending it's not real.
It's like, what are you talking about?
And of course, you know, at the end of this section, you'll see
that Pharaoh will get right with God for like five seconds.
And then, of course, he goes right back.
Like he keeps doing over and over and over again.
And the thing is, Pharaoh, if just at step one on the first
plague, if he had just admitted, you know what, I'm wrong, I
messed up, then you could have fixed and all these other
plagues wouldn't have happened.
But that's not what Pharaoh does.
He just denies reality right in front of himself.
And they're trying to tell him, no, it's not yet.
The Philippines is destroyed.
I mean, that Egypt is destroyed, right?
The Philippines didn't even exist by name during that time.
You're saying, I mean, you don't realize that Egypt is
destroyed. Because in a physical way, Egypt
was destroyed. But what I'm saying is in a spiritual way, we
got to look at our lives. And if there's an area that's just
messed up to say, man, this area is messed up, how do I fix
it? Right.
Instead of just pretending that it doesn't exist, say, man, I
got to fix this area. My life just messed up.
Right. Verse eight.
And Moses and Aaron were brought again on to Pharaoh.
And he said unto them, go serve the Lord your God.
But who are they that shall go?
And so Pharaoh says, OK, I'll let you go.
But but who's going to go?
It's like, well, well, everybody, I mean, we've already
talked about this. And Moses said, we'll go with our young
and with our old and with our sons and with our daughters,
with our flocks and with our herds.
Will we go? We must hold a feast on the Lord.
And what Moses is saying is everybody's going to go.
Now, what Pharaoh is going to try to do is bargain and say,
well, you men can go. It's like, no, no, no, everybody's
going. And in a spiritual sense, when it comes to us
serving God, it's like we need our entire families on board
serving God. We need our wives, we need our children,
we need everybody on board serving God.
And then, of course, teach your children to teach the next
generation. Right.
Go to Joshua 24, Joshua 24.
Why is Pharaoh asking who's going to go?
Because he doesn't want everybody to go.
See, I mean, in some ways, the Pharaoh kind of represents
the devil because the devil would want nothing more than
just only part of your family serving God.
Right. When it comes to husbands and wives, the Bible
says being heirs together of the grace of life.
If you're a husband, it better be important to you that your
wife has a walk with God.
It better be important to you that your wife reads the Bible.
It better be important that your wife goes home.
Right. And Pharaoh says, well, you know what?
You know what? Just just, you know, just the men will go.
It's like, no, the wives need to go.
The sons need to go. The daughters need to go.
All of us are going to go.
Here's what it says in Joshua 24, verse 15.
And if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you
this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your
father served that were on the other side of the flood or the
gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
This is the attitude we need to have as husbands, as the
leaders of our home, as fathers.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Right. Meaning that you need to make sure that your wives
are on board, reading the Bible and serving God and going so
with it, meaning make sure that your kids are developing that
spiritual walk.
Obviously, kids are at different ages.
Right. My youngest son, Ezra, he's he's hitting that rebellious
stage and he is getting the Apollo quite a bit recently.
Right. He's had that rebellious stage, but then it's like as
they get older, I mean, Christabel's a little bit older.
She's like, well, she's old enough.
She can start memorizing Bible verses.
She can start learning some things.
And Zaffi is at the stage.
He reads the Bible.
We have him on a daily Bible reading plan, just a chapter a
day. You know, that's, I think, a good fit for him now.
But, you know, just as they're getting older, just give them
more and more of, you know, basically spiritual
responsibility to grow.
Now, of course, when you're when you're young, I mean,
everyone is young in this room, you need to hear this.
You need to make the decision to be like Daniel that purposed
in his heart to serve God because your parents cannot hold
your hand forever.
You've got to make the choice that you're going to read the
Bible on your own.
Now, when they're young, we tell them it's like, hey, make
sure you did your Bible reading.
You have the chart on the wall.
Make sure that they're marking it off.
Make sure that they're doing that.
But of course, you kids, you need to grow up and develop that
on your own where you decide you're going to read the Bible.
You decide to memorize the Bible.
You decide to go soul winning.
You can't just have your parents always telling you to do
that. Right.
But of course, when they're young, that's what we need to
do, because of course, young kids would much rather play
video games than read the Bible and memorize the Bible.
And I'm not saying that kids cannot have fun and play games,
but we need to make sure that the spiritual walk is the
number one thing that we're teaching them.
Right.
Go in your Bible to Acts chapter two.
Acts two.
One thing I'm happy about with our churches, both here in
Pampong and Manila, is that when it comes to soul winning,
it's not just the husbands, but the wives go soul winning also.
I have been to a lot of fundamental Baptist churches
where the wives don't go soul winning.
And I would say that the women get just
many people saving our churches as the men do.
I mean, I think they're just as zealous to preach the gospel
as the men at our church.
And, you know, of course, when it comes to biblical roles,
you know, when it comes to a woman, God designed
women to get married and have children and raise
children. But that doesn't mean you go to retirement when you
raise kids. It's like, OK, this is not my job to go soul
winning. It's like my job is to just raise the kids.
No, no, no. We're not going to be able to do that.
Just raise the kids. No, no, no.
We need both husbands and wives preach the gospel.
You say, why do you need husbands and wives to preach the
gospel? Well, here's the thing about this.
Boys naturally want to be like who?
Daddy. Right.
Girls want to naturally be like who?
Mommy.
And the thing is, if a mom's not going soul winning,
then soul winning is not really going to be important to the
daughter. And then the daughter, she grows up, she's not
going to care if she marries the soul winner because of the
fact. So he's not important to her.
Right. We need both husbands and wives on board with
serving God and going so when you say what?
Because we want to have an impact on our kids.
And the thing is, if kids see both mom and dad doing
something, guess what?
Those kids are going to want to do the same.
Right. Here's what it says in Acts, chapter two, verse
seventeen. And it shall come to pass in the last day,
sayeth, God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and
your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream
dreams of my servants and on my handmaids.
I will pour out in those days my spirit and they shall
prophesy. And so the greatest soul winning event that has
ever occurred in Acts, chapter two, it was not just
men going out to do the work.
There was women going out to do the work of soul winning.
I mean, any great so many marathons we have, the ladies
are out doing the work.
And, you know, obviously, I don't know what it's like to
be a woman and I don't know what it's like to be in
pregnancy and then to give birth and have a child.
And obviously, you know what, when a woman's pregnant, I
mean, there's sickness that can take place.
And, you know, obviously you got to be have caution
because you don't want to have pregnancy, have the birth
take place too early because, you know, you're being too
active. And ladies are in different situations.
We talked about that on Saturday with soul winning.
It's like, obviously, during pregnancy, things can be
different or whatever. After birth, it's like there's a
time period where a lady's going to recover from the birth
and things such as that. But you do not want to reach the
age where like, you know what, I'm retired now from soul
winning. And obviously, it's more difficult with kids, you
know, to go soul winning, but you don't want to ever reach
the age of retirement. I mean, one thing you could do is,
you know, take turns. And, you know, this is what my wife
and I do. And obviously, when it comes to, you know, I will
often go on the soul winning on Thursday. And so oftentimes
on the weekend, I'm basically babysitting duty while my wife
is preaching the gospel. Sometimes we'll take turns. She
gives the gospel once I give the gospel once. And you know,
but as a husband, you don't want to just make your wife just
be on the sideline not doing the work. No, you want your
wife also doing the work. So, take turns. Might mean as guys,
we need to learn how to change diapers. Because you never
know when that might take place, right? As guys, we need
to be able to be sufficient to be able to take care of our
kids, right? And I think every man should learn that right at
the beginning when your baby is born anyway, how to take care
of them if necessary. But we see the women are involved in
the work here, okay? Go to Acts 21. Acts 21. One of the things
very exciting to me is just looking at all the young kids in
this room and just thinking about in 10 years. In 10 years
and you know, they'll be they'll be the reality is for you know,
in 10 years, a lot of it, we're gonna be older, it's gonna be
we're not gonna have as much energy as that. And we're gonna
see teens that are going out and just preaching the gospel
and getting people saved. I remember the the first mission
strip we had the Philippines before I moved here. It was
April 2018. And I just remember there was, you know, several
of the young men that were there, some were from Sacramento
and then there's also brother Jr, brother Jason, you know,
here in the Philippines. And they were the most zealous soul
winners out of anyone. There's brother Moses in Sacramento,
brother Garrett, a passion for his arms, his son, brother
James, Bob Moondy, and just like the four of them, they were
like the most zealous and then they're getting there early and
staying late. And they're so excited. I mean, they're running
to track people down to give them the gospel. I mean, it was
exciting to see and it, you know, it kinda reminded me when
I first got into soul when I started when I was 19 years old
and I just remember bit when you when I was a little bit
younger, having a little bit of extra energy but it was great
seeing that next generation. It's like, man, they were
excited to serve God, excited to go so excited to get people
safe and the reality is that at a young age, you can do great
works for god. The thing is, you don't have to know a lot
about the Bible to be an effective soul winner. I mean,
of course, as you learn more and as you grow, it's gonna help
but the reality is, I mean, you can learn how to go soul
winning and then, you know what? You can be a zealous soul
winner even if you don't know everything about the Bible.
Here's what the Bible says in Acts 21. Acts 21 verse eight.
Acts 21 verse eight. And the next day, we that were of Paul's
company departed and came unto Caesarea and we entered the
house of Philip the evangelist which was one of the seven and
abode with him and the same man had four daughters, virgins
which did prophesy. Now, I can't remember if it was last
year's Father's Day sermon or the year before but I preached
about Philip the evangelist and the story just kind of opened
up into my eyes because you know, Philip the evangelist is
an interesting character because he's in Acts chapter
eight with one of the most exciting stories in the Bible,
right? And actually go back to Acts eight. Let me just go back
there just so we can, you know, see who this person is.
It's interesting because Philip's mentioned, we see in Acts
21 with Paul the apostle and he's actually mentioned with
Paul the apostle but named Saul in Acts eight before he's
actually gotten saved and it's interesting how he's in the
same sections in these two different things and I think
the Bible is trying to teach us something here. The Bible says
here in Acts chapter eight verse twenty-six. And the angel of
the Lord spake unto Philip saying, Arise and go toward the
south on the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza which
is desert. He arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia in
eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians
who had the charge of all the treasure and had come Jerusalem
for to worship was returning and sitting in his chariot
read Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip,
Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran
neither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and
said, Understandest thou what thou readest? That kind of
wonder he runs this man. I wonder if he gets there and he's
like, Understandest thou what thou readest? You know, I don't
know if he's out of breath or not. I don't know what kind of
shape he's in or how far he ran. But basically he had the
opportunity and he just ran to track down this guy because the
spirit told him, Hey, get this guy safe. This is one of the
most exciting stories in the Bible for so many stories. This
might be the most exciting one in the Bible. I mean, it's
definitely up there. I mean, this is a great story, an
amazing story and you read about this guy. You're thinking,
man, this guy's filled with the spirit. This guy is amazing and
yet after Acts chapter eight, Philip seems to disappear.
Right? It's kind of interesting because it says in verse 39 and
when they were come up out of the water after he baptizes
him, the spirit of the lord caught away Philip that the
eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing. But
Philip was found at Asmatos and passing through a priest in all
the cities till he came to see Syria. It's kind of interesting
because the spirit, you know, catches away Philip and it
seems like he just catches him away from the scriptures
because he's not in Acts nine. He's not in Acts ten. He's not
in Acts eleven or Acts twelve or thirteen or fourteen or
fifteen or sixteen or seventeen or eighteen or nineteen or
twenty and you know, the first time you're reading through the
Bible, it's like what happened to this man because it's kind
of odd. I mean, is he like this one hit wonder like in music,
they have this one hit and he's completely gone but the answer
is actually found in Acts twenty-one because notice what
it said. Philip the evangelist in verse verse eight and then
it says in verse nine and the same man had four daughters,
virgins which did prophesy. You know why Philip doesn't have
more stories like Acts chapter eight because Philip gets
married and has a family and he's not doing as many as his
exciting adventures anymore. He's raising his family and you
know, you say, well, was it worth it? Well, he has four
daughters which are soul winners that are virgins.
They're godly people and they're soul winners and
basically, I believe Philip because he's he's right here
with all the apostles and Paul the apostle is acting a bit
like a madman in the story. This is where Agabus tells him
you're going to be arrested, right? But Paul the apostle is
like, I'm ready to die for the cause of Christ. I think every
single guy wants to be like Paul the apostle. I think every
single one in this room probably, I mean, if you got
saved, you're a single guy, you're reading the Bible. It's
like I want to be like Paul the apostle. I want to turn the
world upside down for Christ. I mean, he writes all these
books. He's getting arrested. He's getting stoned. He's doing
all these amazing things. I mean, this is exciting. But you
know what? I'm not trying to be like Paul the apostle anymore.
You say why? Because Paul the apostle was single and so I'm
not going to try to live my life like a single person
because here's the thing as a single guy. Yeah, I felt like
you know what if I get martyred so be it but the reality is
having a family. I don't want to get martyred. It's like I
need to be there for my wife and my kids. Right and the
Bible says here that Philip the evangelist he has four
daughters was prophesied. I don't think it's a coincidence
that this man does this this amazing exciting thing and then
he kind of just fades in the background. You say why because
if you're taking the energy to raise your kids, it might mean
that you kind of miss out on some of the excitement a little
bit right. You know, when we've had missions trips, you know,
we have people here that are from other countries and
everything and you know, it's great having everybody here but
you know, the reality is that you know, my family doesn't
really hang out late at night with everybody at these
restaurants till ten and eleven usually because it's like well,
we got kids. We're going to go home and sleep. It's like and
I'm not trying to it's great seeing people that love God
from all over the world and it's exciting but but the
reality is it's like, you know, well, I mean, I'm not single
anymore. So, it's like we're just going to go home and rest.
The kids are tired so we can get some rest and be ready for
tomorrow, right? You're just in a different place when you have
a family. Bible says here in verse ten and as we tarried
there many days, there came down from Judea a certain
prophet named Agabus and when he's come on to us, he took
Paul's girdle and bound his own hands and feet and said, thus
say the Holy Ghost, so shall the Jews of Jerusalem bind the
man that owned this girdle and show deliverment at the hands
of the Gentiles. When he heard these things, both we and they
have that place with Sodom not to go up to Jerusalem and we
we see this comparison because it's it's at the house of
Philip the evangelist. All the apostle shows up and when we
first saw these characters in Acts chapter eight, Philip is
saved and serving God and has the most exciting story. All is
not even saved and then we fast forward. I'm not sure how
long and all of a sudden, it's like Philip's just a family man
at home. It's like Paul shows up at his house and Paul's the
one doing all these exciting things but see the thing is
that Philip has a family and you know, I think that that all
of us that are married and have kids, we need to realize it's
like we should not be striving to be like Paul the apostle.
We're striving to be like Philip the evangelist, right?
And I remember, you know, what what really made me think about
this was, you know, maybe a year and a half ago or 2 years
ago and turn back to Exodus, Shepherden, Exodus ten. Uh we
were in Manila and you know that they put my wife and I on
the the sweetheart banquet questionnaire, right? They put
us in the hot seat and uh so we were there. We had to answer
some questions and you know, the question came up, you know,
for me like or for my wife to guess about me what my who my
favorite biblical character was and by default, I said Paul the
apostle without really thinking about it and then as I thought
about it, I was like, I don't know. I'm not really trying to
be like Paul the apostle anymore. That's what my answer
would have been a long time ago but as I thought about it, it's
like, I'm not really trying to be like Paul the apostle and I
realized, you know what? Actually, my favorite
character and this would be my answer now is Philip the
evangelist. I feel like he's the one that I can and he's not in
the Bible much and that's fine because I see he does something
amazing and then all of a sudden, you know, in some ways,
you might feel like, oh, I'm not as zealous or I'm missing
out or whatever but in reality, it's like he raised four
daughters which prophesy and my goal is to raise three kids or
however many god blesses us with them rise up and prophesy
and love god. I want to be like Philip the evangelist that did
a great job and of course, here's the thing. It mentions
four daughters which are prophesied. I seriously doubt it
was just the husband that was serving god zealousy and
soul-winning in order for four daughters to prophesy. No, I
think that they saw Philip's wife also prophesying which
means some of the great works Philip was doing at this point
of his life was just probably watching the kids so his wife
could go soul-winning and give the gospel and get somebody
saved, right? I mean, that's the reality. I mean, that's the way
that I read the story and think about it because I don't, you
don't accidentally raise kids to love god. It's just not going
to happen especially when you're four for four. The Bible
saying, man, Philip knocked it out of the park. You say, why?
Because him and his wife put in the time and effort and said,
you know what? We want to raise kids that love god, right?
Exodus chapter ten. Let's see the response of Pharaoh here in
Exodus ten verse ten. Exodus ten verse ten. And he said unto
them, let the lord be so with you as I will let you go and
your little ones look to it for evils before you. Not so. And
what they're saying is there's evil before you. He's trying to
say you shouldn't go with everybody because your little
ones aren't going to make it. So he says, not so. Go now ye that
are men and serve the lord. For that you did desire and they
were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. Why does it say they
were driven out from Pharaoh's presence? Because of the fact
they did not agree to just the men going. Moses said, no, we're
all going to serve god. I want my whole family on board. I want
my wife. I want my kids. All of us are going to go. Basically,
we're not going to meet you halfway, Pharaoh. And that's the
attitude we ought to have. You know, we should not be trying to
compromise to meet the devil or compromise to meet the world.
No, we should decide, you know what? This is right. I'm going
to do this and it's like, wow, just meet me halfway. It's like,
no, I'm not going to meet you halfway. I'm just going to do
what is right. Verse number twelve. And the lord said unto
Moses, stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the
locust that they may come up upon the land of Egypt and eat
every herb of the land even all that the hail hath left and
Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt and the
lord brought an east wind upon all upon the land all that day
and all that night when it was morning the east wind brought
the locust and the locust went up over all the land of Egypt
and rested in all the coast of Egypt very grievous were they
before them were no before them there were no such locust as
they neither after them shall be such they covered the face of
the whole earth so that the land was darkened they did eat
every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which
the hail had left and there remain not any green thing in
the trees or in the earth to the field through all the land of
Egypt then pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and haste and
he said I've sinned against the lord your god and against you
now let me say this about pharaoh real quickly because
for sake of time you know I'm not going to go go to what I
was going to look at with godly sorrow in the new testament but
people have a tendency to just assume that when somebody's
saying something is true or they assume when somebody gets in
trouble and they say they're sorry that they mean it right
and you know of course everybody if they get in trouble
what's the reaction I'm sorry right they pretend like they're
sincere right I mean if you get caught robbing a bank I'm sorry
it was an accident right when Jeffrey Dahmer got caught it's
like the famous words because right when he got caught this
famous serial killer he's like for what I should do I should
for what I did I should die I mean he seems like he's
remorseful and then in prison he it's like he's he got saved
supposedly and he and look this is the reaction everybody has
but the question is is it real sorrow or fake sorrow how do we
know well there's godly sorrow and worldly sorrow the bible
says everybody's sorry when they get in trouble everybody but
that doesn't mean that it's godly sorrow and when it comes
to godly sorrow and worldly sorrow what the bible shows us
is is there a lasting change is what the proof is because you
cannot know right whenever somebody who's famous gets in
trouble and they make this big apology on tv then people will
debate about were they sincere or not and try to figure it out
you can't really tell right somebody could be completely
insincere but they're very good at sounding sincere say well
how do we know if they have godly sorrow worldly sorrow
well did pharaoh change he had worldly sorrow there was no
change he's like I have sinned well I'm glad you said the right
words because those are the words that David said when he
committed adultery but you know what the difference is David
changed right these these same famous three words there was
this uh you know pentecostal preacher in the US he got caught
with a prostitute he was in the 70s I think or the 80s
I can't remember his name but he's a mega church famous
preacher he gets caught with a prostitute and you know you can
find on youtube it's really entertaining because he's good
he's really good at seeming sincere he's in front of the
audience and he's got tears coming down his face he's like
I have sinned and he's like and he's like crying he's like the
worst of all I feel so bad for my wife and what I did and what
I've done to god two years later he's caught with another
prostitute and when he got caught again he's like it's
none of anybody's business right so I guess he decided well
the first time I got caught I had this this fake thing it's
like they're not going to buy it now and he's like it's none of
anybody's business right very entertaining remind me to pull
it up you know after the servicemen and I'll show you
it's like I can't remember his name but he's a famous
Pentecostal preacher so pharaoh says these famous words
I have sinned but he doesn't mean it it's fake he's sorry
that the locust ate everything up but he's not actually going
to change right and in our lives when when when we read the
bible and we see something that makes us feel bad and hits our
heart or we hear sermons where I'm preaching against something
all of us will have this feeling of of you know bad
feeling man I need to change but you have to actually put in
the steps to make that change otherwise you know what you're
just going to go back to the same thing over and over again
this is me included because there's sins that we struggle
with and we we got to put in the effort to make some changes
because otherwise we're just going to have worldly sorrow
that just pops up week after week after week because no
change is actually there right verse number 17 now therefore
forgive now therefore forgive I pray thee my sin only this
wants and to treat the lord your god that he may take away
from me this death only he went out from pharaoh and intrigued
the lord and the lord turned a mighty strong west wind which
took away the locust and cast him into the red sea there
remained not one locust and all the coast of egypt but the lord
hardened pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children
of israel go so we see that pharaoh does the exact same
thing no change whatsoever and you know obviously locusts
because we're looking at plague by plague is the big thing here
but it's interesting here because you know and I looked at
this sermon just a couple hours ago because especially because
I haven't preached in Exodus for like the last month and I
write my sermons in advance I wrote this like three months
ago and I'm like man there's really a theme and the big
theme is about making sure our entire families are serving god
and I just want to encourage all of us that are mothers and
fathers in this room let us put in the time and effort to teach
the next generation because eventually we're going to get
older we're not going to have the same energy but it's like
especially if we're first generation baptists we want to
start a new tradition in our families we want our kids
growing up and getting married to people that love god and
being soul winners and are serving god let's close in a
word of prayer your heavenly father thank you for allowing
us to be here today and just the great lessons we can learn
from exodus chapter 10 god that's going to help us to apply
this to our lives god help us to be like philip the evangelist
as as father's god help also the wives in this this room as
well god let us put in the time in africa to help train the next
generation god so they can do great works and help them teach
their children and then their children another generation god
we pray all these things in jesus name amen