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
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
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
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