Alright, we're at 1 Chronicles 29, and turn to Matthew 6 real quickly.
Matthew chapter 6.
And I've got a rapatruch when I hit, but honestly it doesn't really fit into my sermon,
so I'm just going to cover it at the beginning, but I was on my phone here as I was coming this morning,
and I saw an article from the pope, and apparently the pope is wanting to change the Bible.
And he said that there's an error in the Bible, so let's look at this verse here today.
He's changing the Lord's Prayer because he says the Lord's Prayer is wrong.
There's been an error that's apparently been around for thousands of years,
and the pope is so smart that he's the one who figured it out.
Okay, so in Matthew chapter 6 verse 13,
Matthew 6 verse 13, what the Bible reads is this,
it says,
And so the Bible says in Matthew 6 verse 13 is this,
Now he says that is an error, because his interpretation is that this is saying that temptation is sin is what he's basically saying.
So basically, you know, God doesn't lead us into sin, so it should be fall into temptation.
Don't allow us to personally fall into temptation, okay?
Now if you look up the word tempt or temptation in the Bible, it's not always referring to sin.
A lot of times the Bible says God tempted Abraham.
It specifically says that, okay?
What it says here is lead us not into temptation.
It doesn't say fall into temptation, okay?
And if you look at the other place in the Bible that talks about this, it also says lead us not into temptation.
That was God's word, okay?
To suggest that we need to change it because you don't understand the verses is ridiculous, okay?
And look, I know this has nothing to do with the sermons,
but show me the Baptist pastors that will preach against the pope today.
None of them will.
They don't even have guts to preach against the big church that's our enemy here in the Philippines,
the Roman Catholic Church, okay?
Now turn to Revelation 22.
Revelation 22.
Now this is what's ridiculous about that.
He says it should say fall into temptation, and he thinks it's basically talking about sin.
Like, God, don't allow us to fall into adultery.
Don't allow us to fall into murder.
Look, you don't fall into sin.
See, falling implies that you're walking, you're walking, you're walking,
and whoops, you stepped on a trap door and you fell, okay?
It was just a complete accident.
No, if you commit adultery, it's not an accident.
You chose to commit a wicked sin.
And to suggest that, oh, you accidentally fall into sin, that's making an excuse for sin.
It makes sin exceeding sinful.
When you choose to commit wickedness, you didn't fall into adultery.
You didn't fall into blaspheming God.
You didn't fall into using the Lord's name in vain.
No, you chose to do something wicked.
Now let's see what the Bible says about people that would choose to
add to and remove from the Word of God.
Notice what it says in Revelation 22, verses 18 and 19.
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book,
if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written
in this book.
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy,
God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city,
and from the things which are written in this book.
See, the Bible says that if you add to or remove from the Word of God,
you basically lose your chance to get saved.
Yes, Jesus died for the pope, but the pope's not going to be saved.
When you add to and remove from the Word of God, you lose your chance,
you lose the ability to believe on Jesus Christ.
Yes, if you believed on Jesus Christ, you would be saved,
but you lose that ability.
Are you saying that the pope lost his ability to be saved?
Well, the pope lost his ability to be saved a long time ago.
He didn't just lose it here, you know, yesterday,
when he blasphemed the Word of God for tens of millions of people.
But apparently, the Catholic church now is going to be repeating falling into temptation
if they listen to the orders that the pope set.
Because the church of England, the Catholics in England have already rejected what the pope
said, actually.
They say, no, we're not going to change it.
But apparently, the Catholic churches are just going to change the Lord's Prayer,
just because they determined there's an error in the Bible.
Okay, now turn back to 1 Chronicles 29.
Now, I mean, when there's 54 people that translated the Bible for six years,
six to seven years, and they spoke like eight languages, nine languages,
ten languages apiece, I mean, I think it's ridiculous to suggest that they mistranslated it.
Right, right.
And it's like, I don't know how many languages the pope speaks,
maybe he speaks a few, but he doesn't speak eight languages.
Right.
He doesn't speak nine, ten, twelve languages.
And to ever suggest that they made an error translating the Bible is ridiculous.
Because they were a lot more intelligent than us, especially regarding languages.
They spoke a lot of languages.
And to suggest it needs to be changed.
You know, the Catholic church didn't want us to have an English Bible.
And apparently, they still don't want us to have the actual Bible.
Okay.
Now, 1 Chronicles 29, verse 1.
And the name of this sermon is The Work of the Lord is Great.
The Work of the Lord is Great.
And in verse number 1, what the Bible reads is this.
Furthermore, David the king said unto all the congregation,
Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen, as yet young and tender,
and the work is great, for the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.
And so David speaks this to all the congregation.
And he says this to everybody so everybody understands that Solomon's the next king.
And he basically gives them all authority so no one can really question it.
And he says, you know, God has chosen Solomon.
Okay.
God has chosen Solomon.
But what he says is this.
The work is great.
Okay.
Now, when it comes to a church, the person who's preaching the sermons,
if they're a godly person, that's somebody that God chose to run that church, to start the church.
I believe that God wanted me to move here to the Philippines and start a church.
Okay.
But just because you've been chosen to start a church,
that doesn't mean that you can do all the work by yourself.
With Solomon here, it says the work is great.
Okay.
There's a lot of work to do.
Basically, yes, God has chosen Solomon.
Yes, he's the next king.
But there's too much work for him to do everything.
He's not going to be able to do everything.
Okay.
Now, when it comes to a church, obviously, the main work we do is soul winning.
But that's not the only work that we do here.
There is just general work and maintenance that has to be done
on a weekly basis just to have church services and to run church services.
And if those things don't get done, then you're not going to be able to operate a church.
Now, obviously, we're happy for anybody that shows up to church.
We're happy to have visitors or people that come to this church.
But quite honestly, if every single person just came to church but didn't volunteer at all,
you know, I would be doing so much work just to try to get stuff done.
It would be overload.
It would be way too much work to do.
Because there's just general maintenance that gets done that needs to get done.
Okay.
Now, turn to 1 Kings 10.
1 Kings 10.
And it says the work is great.
And the reason why the work is great is the palace is not for man.
But for the Lord God.
Okay.
Now, if we were to build a physical building, wouldn't that take a lot of work and effort?
It would take a lot of effort.
Especially a palace.
It's not just a house.
It's a palace.
See, a palace is supposed to be grand.
Right?
It would take a lot of work.
It would take a lot of effort.
Just a palace for man.
But a palace for the Lord God is going to be a lot of great work.
Right.
Now, look, we don't have to build a building.
And that's a good thing.
Okay?
It's not like we're just meeting with nowhere to go and we're just building a building right
now.
We don't even have to do that.
But just in a church itself, there's just general maintenance that takes place.
Look, I don't do the scripture reading.
I don't lead the music.
I don't play the...
Can you imagine me trying to lead the music and play the piano and the guitar at the same
time?
It wouldn't be successful.
Right.
I wouldn't be able to get that done.
For one, I don't really play the guitar or piano.
And for two, I'm not that good at leading the music.
And three, that would just be way too much stuff to do.
Okay?
There's got to be multiple people that help and volunteer at a church before it's too
awkward.
Okay?
Now, look, if you've been around the church for a while, you know that I'm willing to
volunteer on anything that needs to be done.
I take out the trash.
I pick up trash.
I clean.
You know, I do everything that everyone else is willing to do.
I, you know, unload the baptistry.
I dump the water out.
You know, I load it.
I'm willing to do all that stuff.
I'm not above doing any work here.
Okay?
No pastor should be above doing just the general work that everybody does.
Because the pastor is no better than anybody else.
Okay?
I'm no better than anybody else here.
But at the same time, it's going to be difficult for me to do everything.
Now, at this church, people are willing to volunteer.
And quite honestly, a lot of people volunteer a lot of time.
I'm not preaching this sermon because I think we have a problem with this.
Because quite honestly, people have volunteered and are willing to volunteer.
But at the same time, you know, you need to have as much structure as possible at a church.
Very good for everybody to know that these people do this.
These people do this.
And so things run smoothly.
Especially if a church grows.
Because if a church grows, I'm not going to be able to just give oversight and make sure
everything's getting done.
I just kind of need to know that such and such is getting done.
Such and such is getting done.
Where I don't have to ask or wonder.
Now, for the most part, that's what takes place anyway.
I know certain people are doing various tasks.
I know people are reading the scripture, singing the songs, taking the offering, and things
like that.
But if a church grows, you need to have good structure for things to work well.
All right?
Now, in 1 Kings 10, notice what it says.
Verse 4.
And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom in the house that he had built, okay?
Oftentimes we focus on the fact that the queen of Sheba saw Solomon's wisdom.
But it also says in the house that he had built, okay?
Now, it says the house that he had built.
Do you think that means Solomon did all the building?
It says he had built.
It's singular.
I don't think Solomon did all the building.
I'm sure he was willing to help.
I'm sure he was involved with it.
I'm sure he didn't just say, hey, you figure it out.
But at the same time, there's a lot of people that stepped in and helped, okay?
See, the palace is great.
It's not for man.
It's for God.
And so if it's for God, it needs to be done well, okay?
Verse number 5.
And the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his
ministers and their apparel and his cupbearers and the descent by which he went up onto the
house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.
And so she notices a lot of things.
And one thing she notices is the sitting of his servants.
This is a reference to the servants sitting down and listening to the Word of God being
preached, okay?
And Solomon actually preached sermons to them.
But it's not just that the servants were always sitting doing nothing, okay?
If they're servants, that means they served, right?
There's a time to sit down and listen to the preaching.
There's also a time to do other stuff as well, right?
There's stuff that gets done every single week for church.
You know, on Sundays, there's stuff that needs to get done and needs to be organized in order
for church to work.
And so there's a time to sit.
There's also a time to serve.
And we need that balance.
You know, we want you to hear sitting, but we also want you to hear serving as well,
okay?
And it says the attendance of his ministers.
That does not just merely mean that you're in attendance.
Attendance in the Bible implies action if you look it up, okay?
Then it mentions his cupbearers.
A modern day application of a cupbearer would probably be kind of like an usher, okay?
A cupbearer is somebody that has some responsibility.
It was a good position to have.
But you're kind of getting a bit of oversight and stepping in to do whatever needs to be
done.
It's kind of like what we would say an usher is.
Because there's certain people that have set tasks to do.
There's also people that kind of can give oversight and be kind of like an usher, okay?
Now turn to Nehemiah 4.
Nehemiah 4.
And so as a church, you know, we've been around for about six months.
And you know, this is a sermon I didn't really want to preach at the beginning of the church
because I didn't know anybody.
You know, if I just decided, you know, on the first Sunday, you know, that, hey, so
and so, you're going to be doing this and this.
I don't know people's skills.
I don't know people's interests and things like that.
After six months, it kind of manifests itself, okay?
At this point, to a good degree, I know who knows how to lead the music, who has interests
in various different areas.
Obviously, you know, we want you to serve in an area that you're good at and that you're
interested in, okay?
If you're terrible at leading music, you know, we're not going to have you up here leading
music.
It's not you're going to say, well, brother, this is what you're called to do.
You know, I told it from God.
God wants you to lead the music and you have no idea how to lead the music.
Obviously, we're not going to do that, okay?
We're not Pentecostals.
We don't just get led by the Spirit, okay?
We use, you know, logic and sense.
Right, yeah, right.
And there's certain things at this church that certain people are good at and other
things you might not be good at.
Look, I'm not good at everything.
There are certain things I'm not very good at.
When it comes to just basic maintenance that needs to be done at church, I don't have a
skill at that.
It's not something I did at a young age growing up and I wish I had.
Quite honestly, though, I don't have skills in that area.
It's not something that I'm good at, okay?
But there are people in this room that probably do have a skill in that area.
You know, I'm okay at leading the music.
There's certainly people here that are better than me.
But, you know, there's people that have a skill to do that and have an interest to do
that, okay?
And it makes sense that they would do that then if that's their skill, okay?
And so this is not something I wanted to preach at the beginning of the church because I wanted
to get to know everybody and things such as that.
But honestly, as a church, we want to have as much structure as possible to go forward.
It's going to be very helpful for us.
Nehemiah chapter 4 verse 15.
And so in Nehemiah chapter 4, we're actually seeing physical construction take place, okay?
Maybe one day, you know, we'll be blessed and be able to have land and build a building,
but we're not at that stage now.
So we don't have to build a building.
We just got to maintain the building that God has given us, okay?
And, you know, it's obviously a lot easier, but there's still just general stuff that
needs to get done every single week, you know?
And to be successful, we want to be as organized as possible.
We want stuff to get done.
Now turn to Nehemiah chapter 6, Nehemiah 6.
And in Nehemiah chapter 6 and verse number 2, the Bible reads,
that Sandal and Gisham sent on to me saying,
come let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono,
for they thought to do me mischief.
And the Bible is saying mischief, basically they wanted to kill him.
That's what it's saying.
Verse 3, and I sent messengers on to them saying,
I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down.
Why should the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you?
And so what he says to wicked people is this, I'm doing a great work.
Why should I stop to meet with you?
Now he understands they want to cause harm to me.
And he probably had an idea they probably want to kill me.
And so he doesn't meet with them.
He sends messengers.
He's obviously being safe about this situation.
But what he says is I'm doing a great work.
I cannot come down right now.
Now look, I don't want you to take this the wrong way,
because as I said, I'm willing to volunteer and do what happened.
If you've been at this church, you've seen me pick up stuff,
and I'm no different than anybody else.
This morning I was getting, you know, with brother Jerry,
we were getting the bulletins organized, ready to go.
I put out the hymnals.
I do everything that everyone else is willing to do.
I clean on, I can't remember if it was Friday or Friday, I think it was.
You know, I clean the floor and things like that.
You know, I set up the chairs.
I'm willing to do everything that everyone does.
But at the same time, on Sunday mornings when church is about to be started,
as much as I can just think about the sermon, that's what I would like to do.
Right?
Okay.
Now quite honestly, you know, being at very Baptist church,
Pastor Menes would go to his office before church starts
and try to just focus on his sermon.
And there's always something that comes up.
There's always somebody who needs to come in and ask a question.
And so as much as he wants to focus on the sermon,
there's still always stuff going on.
Okay.
Now we're still small, so that doesn't happen every single week.
The more we grow, the more stuff is going to go on.
There's just always problems that take place.
That's just the way it works.
There's always questions.
There's always things.
And if you're in a position of oversight, if you've ever been a manager at a company,
the employees you have will always have various questions that come up.
And there's stuff to get done.
Okay.
So I do want to, as much as I can, focus on my sermon and be ready
and think about what I want to preach.
It might not always be possible though.
And I'm definitely willing to help out with stuff, but as much as I can,
you know, I look at it and say, you know, I'm doing great work.
I'm trying to prepare for the sermon.
It's important.
As much as I can focus on it, the more the better.
Okay.
Now turn to Romans 12.
Romans 12.
And, you know, if you've preached a whole length sermon before,
I don't really get nervous to preach anymore.
Okay.
I used to get very nervous, but one reason why I don't get really nervous
is I spend a lot of time preparing my sermons.
I really look over my sermon and I just think about, is this organized in the right way?
Do the verses flow well?
Do all the points make sense?
Do people understand this?
Is there anything I might be saying in the sermon?
Someone could take the wrong way and get offended.
I really think about my sermons when I'm preparing them.
And the more I'm able to prepare, the more confident I am.
But if you've preached a full length sermon, it's not an easy thing to do.
It's difficult.
Sundays are not an easy day for me.
I mean, it's a lot of work.
It's tiring.
You know, preaching back to back sermons and then, you know, we go all those so many,
obviously so many smart work.
It's not easy.
It's tiring.
I'm exhausted at the end of Sundays.
I'm really tired on Sundays afterwards.
And so preparing and preaching the sermons, that's very important.
And as much as I can just look over my sermon if necessary, you know the better.
Plus, if there are things that come up, I'm able to deal with those, okay?
And like I said, you know, people are willing to volunteer at this church.
I'm not saying we have a problem with it, but we want to be as organized as possible
going forward.
And so when we have this list of, you know, taking up the offering, it's not something
where, hey, we know there will be two people to take up the offering.
It's, no, we know that this person and this person are taking up the offering.
And if they're not there for whatever reason, this person's the backup and they're going
to take up the offering.
It's something where there's set people where we know exactly who's doing everything.
And it's not going to be every single one person doing everything.
It's going to be kind of split around for people that want to volunteer.
That'll make it a lot easier and make it a lot better.
Now turn to Romans 12, verse number 4.
And our second point is this, that we have different abilities.
Different abilities.
Romans 12, verse 4.
For as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, so we
being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another.
And we are a local body, as the Bible says.
And we are members or parts of that body.
No matter who you are in this room, if you call Barry Baptist Church Manila, your home
church, you are here for a reason.
Okay?
You're a specific member given to this church and you have a reason to be here.
There is something God wants you to do to help out.
Now obviously the soul needs the big work, but there's also other stuff that we can volunteer
and help with.
Okay?
And you have different abilities.
Abilities that I don't have that other people don't have.
And if you have an ability that can be used for the work of the Lord, then that's probably
something God wants you to do.
Okay?
Now this should be encouraging to us because it really shows us that there is a purpose
for you.
It's not that you attend this church and, okay, you know, we don't want your help with
anything.
Just kind of sit on the sidelines.
No, you don't sit on the sidelines in the Christian life.
Right.
And in a lot of Baptist Church that I've been to, it produces this mentality of sitting
on the sidelines.
You say, why?
Because they have a big fancy altar call where basically the pastor preaches this, you know,
motivational sermon to get people to walk the altar and just go down to the front.
It's not that you go soul winning and bring people to church.
It's know that you just allow the pastor to do all the work.
And there's just kind of this sideline mentality.
But God doesn't want people on the sidelines in the Christian life.
He wants you involved in the action.
And when you're involved in church, what you have to realize is you're basically enlisting
for war.
That's what's taking place.
God wants you to actually take part in it and do what you can to help.
Verse number six.
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy
let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.
And so we have various different gifts that are given to us.
Now, when it talks about prophecy, it's not talking about foretelling the future and saying
that in this year, so and so is going to be elected president.
That's not what he's saying.
He's talking about preaching the word of God.
Now, obviously, the Bible tells us all to preach the gospel.
Go ye into all the world.
Preach the gospel to every preacher.
He is plural.
So that's everybody.
But there's certain people that have a gift to preach and certain people that don't have
a gift.
Now, that's not meant to say that someone is better than you.
Because in this passage, it's going to list a lot of different abilities.
And there are certain things that you have an ability at that I don't have.
There are certain men that sign up to preach on Sunday afternoons and they preach.
And it's an edifying turn to all of us.
They have an ability to do that.
That doesn't make them better or worse than you.
It's just an ability they've been given.
I have a lot of things I do not have an ability at.
I do believe one ability that I have is to preach the word of God.
I don't think I'm in a position to run a church because you have to preach three times a week.
You have to actually know how to do it.
That doesn't make me better or worse than anybody in this room, though.
Because just because I might have an ability to do it, it doesn't mean that my ability
is more important than your ability.
We are one body.
Every part matters.
Verse number seven.
For ministry, let us wait on our ministry.
For he that teacheth on teaching.
For he that exhorteth on exhortation.
He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity.
He that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.
And so it mentions a lot of abilities.
And it says, hey, if you have an ability for exhortation, then exhort.
Use that ability.
If you have an ability to prophesy, prophesy.
If you have an ability to minister, which is basically like being a servant, then be
a minister, be a servant.
Whatever your ability is, use it.
It's different abilities that we have.
Now look at Romans 12, verse number one.
So obviously, the abilities you've been given are going to fit into the office or administration
that you have to volunteer and help, okay?
By and large, if you're good at something, you're usually interested in that.
Wouldn't we agree with that?
My favorite subject in school growing up was math.
You say, why is that?
Because I'm better at math than other subjects.
If I was bad at math, I probably wouldn't be that interested in doing multiplication.
If you're not good at something, you're usually not interested.
What was my favorite sport?
Soccer.
Why?
That's the sport I'm best at.
The things that you're good at, you tend to be interested.
And I think God makes it work that way.
It's not that you have a real ability to lead music, but you just hate to do it.
It doesn't work that way.
Usually when you're good at something, you're interested in doing it.
And especially understanding if that ability has been given to you by God,
then that's something God wants you to use, okay?
Now in Romans 12, verse 1, the Bible reads,
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that he presents your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Now this is the same chapter that talks about the abilities that you're given,
and that we have different abilities.
And it also says that she presents your bodies a living sacrifice.
This is your reasonable service.
What is the Bible trying to tell you?
The Bible is trying to tell you that I'm going to list some gifts and abilities
that you might have, and I expect you to use those, okay?
Now look, can we honestly say that if you show up for church every week,
that you're presenting your body a living sacrifice?
You can't really say that you're presenting your body a living sacrifice,
just showing up to church.
That's basically the bare minimum, just showing up to church, okay?
It's actually saying that you do a little bit more than just show up to church.
You actually use your bones that you have if you volunteer or help in some way.
Now turn to 1 Corinthians 12.
Now look, obviously I understand that, you know, if you're in this room,
that depending on who you are in your situation,
you might be able to volunteer more or less than other people.
You might not be in a position where you're able to do that, okay?
But if you are in a position where you have the time or ability,
it's something God would want you to do.
So this is not something to compare yourself versus other people at church and say,
wow, I volunteer this many hours each week and I volunteer this many hours.
You know, you're not comparing yourself to another person.
If you want to compare yourself and just look at the things that you're doing,
you're going to get your reward here on earth.
You're not going to get your reward in heaven.
That would be a very foolish thing to do.
It would be foolish to volunteer a lot of time and throw away every reward because of gratitude.
So you're not comparing yourself to another person, okay?
If you happen to volunteer more than other people,
you know, don't be upset that other people aren't volunteering.
That's going to be the rewards that you get in heaven, okay?
Now in 1 Corinthians 12, notice what it says in verse 1, reward.
Now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit.
And so we have differences, different types of gifts,
different abilities, but we have the same Holy Spirit.
Now if you don't have the same Holy Spirit, then you know what?
It's probably not the right church for you, okay?
If you've got some demonic spirit, then there's plenty of churches
I'd love to recommend you to go to, not this church.
But if you're saved here, you know, you have a different gift,
but you have the same Holy Spirit.
And the gifts you have have been given to you from God, okay?
Specific gifts that you've been given, there's a reason why you're at this church.
Verse number 5, and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord.
And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which forgives all in all.
And so there are various administrations and operations we have at this church,
and the operations and administrations we have is based on a few things.
One is based on how big of a church we are.
If we were a much bigger church, we'd have more ministries, okay?
As a small church, we don't have a ridiculous amount of ministry
because it wouldn't make sense.
Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento has a lot of ministries.
We're not as big as Verity Baptist Church.
We're a newer church, you know?
I think it's good to keep things simple and slowly add to it, okay?
But also just the gifts that you have can be used for various administrations,
and maybe somebody in this room has a great gift that I'm not aware about,
and you can really use that for the work of the Lord,
maybe we would add a ministry to the church, okay?
If you have certain abilities.
There are certain things we need to get done
and certain things it would be nice to get done if possible,
but we can only do so much.
And if we have too many ministries, the soul winning is going to suffer,
and that is not something we ever want to happen.
If things are basic for the next 50 years, but we do a lot of soul winning,
then we're doing the main work of the Lord that needs to be done, okay?
Now turn to 1 Corinthians 3.
And so let's talk about rewards, rewards in heaven,
because quite honestly, when we think of rewards,
we usually think of soul winning gives you rewards.
And that is true, but I don't think that's the only thing that produces rewards.
And now the Bible doesn't tell us a whole lot about rewards,
so we can look at a few verses and we will do that.
And quite honestly though, I can't stand up here and tell you
that if you do this specific thing,
you're going to get this exact amount of rewards, okay?
But notice what it says in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 10.
According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder,
I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
For other foundation can no man lay, and that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.
So in verse number 12, it's going to list six different things.
Gold, silver, precious stones is over here.
Wood, hay, stubble is over here, okay?
Now unsaved people will tell you that gold, silver, and precious stones are basically saved people.
Wood, hay, stubble are the unsaved or people that lose their salvation.
That's not what the Bible says, okay?
Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.
The difference between these two things is
these three things could be thrown into a fire and they will abide.
Now, these three things are going to be thrown into a fire and they're going to burn up.
If you throw wood into a fire, it will burn up.
If you throw hay into a fire, it will burn up.
If you throw stubble into a fire, it's going to burn up.
Now is there anything sinful about hay?
Nothing sinful about hay, is there?
Is there anything sinful about wood?
Nothing sinful about wood.
Is there anything sinful about stubble?
There's nothing sinful about it, okay?
In our lives, there are a lot of things that we do as Christians
that are not wrong, but they do not give us rewards in heaven.
Because they get thrown into the fire and they just burn up, okay?
Look, I have to go to the grocery store sometimes to get groceries,
especially as my wife's gone for a little while, right?
So I have to go to Robinson's to get groceries.
I don't get rewards from God in heaven because I went to Robinson's yesterday.
I don't get any rewards for that.
I don't get rewards in heaven for just basic stuff that needs to be done at our house.
That's just part of living.
I live life and unfortunately there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done.
You don't get rewards in heaven for that, but there's nothing sinful about it.
It's not like God says, well, you know what?
You just have to have more pay.
Just never go to the grocery store and just trust in God that food will just come right out of heaven
and the man will be right in front of you.
That's ridiculous.
We'll die pretty quick, okay?
There's just certain things we need to get done in our lives,
but you don't get rewards for them.
They're not right or wrong.
They just are what they are, okay?
But gold, silver, precious stones,
these are things that get thrown into the fire and they last.
See, when you go soul winning and you get somebody saved, that lasts forever.
It has eternal value.
You do get rewards for that.
See, when you do work for the Lord, you get rewards,
but it's not just soul winning, okay?
At this church, this is a church that goes soul winning and accomplishes things,
and if you're at this church and you're able to volunteer and help
so more time can be dedicated to soul winning and less time to the basic maintenance,
you will get rewards for that because you're still involved in the soul winning in a different way.
Now, I don't think anyone should just forsake the soul winning,
but you can also just help work at a church that's going soul winning and accomplishing things,
and you can be rewarded for that work as well.
Okay?
Notice what it says in verse number 14.
If any man's work abides which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss,
but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
And so what it says in verse number 15 is people's work being burned up,
and that's the reason why people say, well,
see, you're losing your salvation because stuff is getting burned up.
In the same verse, it says he himself shall be saved.
So I don't really understand why this is one of the big arguments how you can lose your salvation
because in this verse it says he himself shall be saved, okay?
So it's very clear those people are saved, they just have works that get burned up.
In our lives, we're going to have a lot of work that gets burnt up.
It's not sinful, it's just stuff that we have to get done that we don't get rewards for, okay?
But here's the thing about this.
If you help out at this church and you take out the trash,
you do a little bit of cleaning, you organize the chairs and things such as that,
you can get rewards for that, okay?
Because as a church, we're accomplishing all of this so we can focus on the soul.
Now turn to, actually look at verse number 13.
Now you might say, Brother Schuckey, you know, I want to volunteer at this church,
but I want it to be a ministry where it's very visible.
I want people to see me doing the work, okay?
Now you probably wouldn't openly say that.
That's probably something that a lot of people think.
That if I'm going to volunteer, I want to get you credit, okay?
The Bible speaks about this because of the fact it's something that people want.
We all like getting credit for stuff and we do, all of us.
Look, you know, I like getting credit for stuff.
Now there's nothing wrong with getting credit for stuff,
but if the reason why you're doing the work is in order to get credit, there is something wrong.
Now you say, Brother Schuckey, I want to have a visible ministry at this church
because at this church, there are ministries that are very visible.
Preaching is very visible.
Leading the music is very visible.
There are certain things that are very visible.
Taking out the trash, nobody notices.
Small things like that, nobody notices.
But they're both important, right?
You say, Brother Schuckey, I want to have a visible ministry.
Honestly, I have good news for you because no matter what thing you volunteer in,
it is a visible ministry.
How is that?
Verse 13, every man's work shall be made manifest.
It's visible.
Remember God was manifest in the flesh?
We know that's referring to Jesus Christ because, look, we don't see God the Father,
but Jesus was here and people saw him.
Look, no matter what job you have, every man's work shall be made manifest,
but it might not be made manifest today.
It might be something down the road when your rewards abide in the fire.
You could be volunteering here at this church and do something that nobody ever notices,
you never get credit for, but one day it's going to be made manifest.
And so you have to understand that, yes, you do have a visible ministry,
but it just might not be visible now.
And so you might not get credit for man here on earth.
It doesn't mean it's not important.
One day it shall be revealed by fire.
Every man's work is going to be made manifest.
I'll turn to Matthew 6.
Now I want you to understand something, that I've been at church for a long time.
When I got saved, I started going to church.
I got saved right before I turned 19 and I started going to Baptist church when I was 19 years old.
And when I started out, I had a lot of ministries I was involved in that were not very visible.
I didn't just, when I first get saved, just pop up and start preaching sermons,
or leave the music.
Now, I didn't get that when I first started.
I was like the backup helper on a bus track,
where I still had to show up at like six in the morning.
I still had to be busy for a long time, but I'm only just the helper.
I don't get any credit for it.
I don't get anything.
I just wanted to volunteer and help out.
The first church I went to, and look, this was not a good church,
so don't hold this against me, but they met in a movie theater.
There's a Baptist church by name, but they met in a movie theater.
And me and my friends, what we could do is,
because they had to get there a couple hours early to set things up,
because they had speakers and things like that,
but they didn't own the movie theater.
They just kind of rented it on Sundays.
So basically, me and my friends would help out the pastor and the assistant pastor,
and we would go there early to just help set things up.
Just the basic stuff, we'd go two hours early, and it wasn't fun.
But we weren't trying to do it because it was fun.
We just wanted to help out.
Because we had decided at that time, that was our church,
and we said, well, how can we help?
And then the pastor told us, hey, if you want to come early,
because we volunteered, we said, hey, can we help you in any way?
And he's like, yeah, it takes us a while to set things up in the morning.
It was just him and the pastor and the assistant pastor.
And so we started to come early, and it didn't take us long.
And so you have to understand that if you're going to volunteer at this church,
it's not the end of the world if it's an invisible ministry.
Whether or not you get credit or not,
that shouldn't be the reason why you're doing it, okay?
You should just be willing to help out in whatever way you can.
And if you don't have an aptitude or the ability to lead music or some public ministry,
and your gift is something else, that's the gift God's given you.
And if you don't have a gift or an ability for a visible ministry,
it's not the end of the world.
Because it's still an important and necessary ministry that you have in ability.
Now, one thing I probably need to do more is, you know,
thank people for the work that they do volunteering here.
Because honestly, a lot of people volunteer a lot at this church.
They come early, they stay late, they volunteer with a lot of stuff.
We're thankful for all of that.
Because otherwise, you know, I would be doing all that stuff.
It would probably take me a lot more time to do it,
especially if I don't have an ability to do that.
Matthew chapter 6, verse 1.
Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them.
Otherwise you have no reward of your father which is in heaven.
And so when it comes to alms, this is not your tithes.
Alms giving is basically above and beyond, okay?
And so alms giving, it says that if you're going to give alms,
you know, that's a good thing, but you should not be doing it to be seen of man.
And if you do it to be seen of man, you don't have a reward, right?
The offering plate comes around, and you just kind of slowly just
drop it in, and on the front you write, you know, 20,000 pesos, you know,
and then you turn it for everyone to see.
You brought a big envelope so everyone can see it.
You're right, 20,000 pesos.
Look at me and slowly drop it into the offering plate, right?
When you have your reward, if you do that, you know,
when we give money or when we do anything for God,
we shouldn't be doing it for the sake of being seen of man.
Be careful about this because you would hate to do something,
to volunteer or work or to put an effort in something,
and lose your rewards for what you did, okay?
You would hate to donate money and then lose the reward because of how you did it.
You would hate to go soul winning and then lose your rewards
because you wanted to be seen of man.
You would hate to volunteer at this church and lose your rewards
because of the attitude or the way you did it, okay?
Verse number two,
Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory of men, verily I say unto you,
they have their reward.
And the Bible speaks about somebody sounding a trumpet
when they're doing alms games.
Now I'll be honest with you,
I've usually thought that this was not literal,
that they're doing it.
I thought it was a big exaggeration,
but honestly the Bible backs in the Philippines have kind of changed my mind.
Because they really make it a big point to post it all over.
It might be literal.
There might literally be people that are sounding a trumpet
to make it a point to say,
hey we're giving, I'm not really sure anymore to be honest.
So I hope this is just being, you know,
figurative or exaggerating,
but you know, it might not be.
But either way, if you're doing it to be seen of men,
they have their reward.
Rewards on earth,
but you're not going to have gold-soaked precious stones
that last in the fire.
Verse number three,
but when thou doest alms,
let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth,
that thine alms may be in secret,
and thy father which seeeth in secret himself
shall reward thee openly.
Obviously verse three is being a little bit figurative
because your left hand, right hand not knowing what you're doing.
But one application you can make is
that the people sitting beside your church
don't make it a point for them to know what you're doing.
Right.
Or you know, going soloing or whatever,
don't make it a point to tell people,
hey, this morning I read the Bible for an hour.
You don't have to go around and tell people that.
Right.
Or this morning I did this, I prayed for 30 minutes.
Wow.
Probably more than anybody else at church.
It's like, all right, well you've got to reward then.
So don't make it a point to always want to be seen or known
from man of what you did.
Verse number five, it says in verse four though,
that's he'll reward thee openly for it to be seen.
Okay.
By and large, when people volunteer
and are not trying to get credit for man,
usually they end up getting credit for man,
like God makes the manifest.
It will be made manifest one day,
but usually people end up finding out that so and so
just faithfully volunteers,
even if they never tell anybody about it.
Usually you get rewarded openly.
That's usually how it works.
Verse five, and when thou prayest,
thou shall not be as the hypocrites are.
Do they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets
that they may be seen of men?
Verily I say on you, they have their reward.
And the Bible speaks about people that would pray
in the corners of the streets and in the synagogues,
and they just make it a point to just kneel down
and everybody sees them.
Well, that kind of reminds me of the Muslim religion,
the Islamic religion.
Don't they just make it a point to just be seen of man?
They just bow down and say,
well, we have five times a day we must pray.
So we'll just do it in front of everybody at a public place
and make it a point to let people know that we're praying.
I have a friend of mine who, you know,
he had a flight connection in Turkey.
And Turkey, from what I understand, is like 99% Muslim.
It's one of those countries where,
good luck, solar.
You could easily just, you know,
lose your head if you do that.
But he said, you know, at the airport,
people were literally on their knees just praying.
He said it was weird.
Because he was on a flight that was basically all Muslim.
And he said basically at the airport,
just people were just on their knees,
just making it a point to be seen that they're praying.
You know, what you could do
is you could just go to a quiet place where nobody sees you.
Or what you could do is you could just pray inside your head.
I'm not saying shy away from praying,
but you also don't have to make it a point
to let every single person see that you're doing it.
That's true.
And that's what the Muslims do.
They make it a point to be seen of man.
And so this is not the longest sermon
because I want to spend some time now
if you want to pull this out.
The in-church responsibilities form that we have.
But basically just the sermon is this,
that as a church we've been around for six months,
a little bit more than that.
And things are going pretty well.
Things are smooth.
Things are working out.
But I want to get a little bit more organized with this.
Now a couple things to let you know about this, this form.
When it comes to in-church responsibilities,
one thing that is a good thing to do
and something I want to do is basically
have not just one person involved in the ministry.
It's always good to have at least a backup person
or someone that can step in.
Because you never know what's going to happen.
Someone could leave the church,
someone, whatever could happen.
It's nice to just have someone be able to just step in
and immediately fill in that void if there's a void.
Or somebody sick one day.
It's good to have someone that can just step in
and just take over the responsibility events.
So let's go through these things.
And basically during the second service,
if you're ready to,
you can basically put this in the offering plate.
You don't have to if you're not ready.
But let me just go through this and make sure I don't forget it.
One thing is we have in-church responsibilities
and out-of-church responsibilities.
In-church responsibilities is basically things
that happen every Sunday for the most part
except for one of these things I'm going to explain.
But in-church responsibilities are basically
just you're here on Sunday
and you just volunteer and help yourself.
So if you come here and you consider this your church,
these are things that you could do.
You could be here on Sunday and then help out with something.
Out-of-church responsibilities is basically going above and beyond.
It's basically where you volunteer to help out with something
that takes up your personal time outside of church.
Now let me say this,
that in the Bible,
the Bible talks about volunteering and stuff
and it does not talk.
I mean the Psalm is a good Psalm.
It pays to serve Jesus.
But not literally does it pay to serve Jesus
that you give money for serving or volunteering.
I've volunteered at churches for over a decade
and I did not get paid volunteering.
Yes, I worked at Verity Baptist Church
but I also volunteered at a lot of churches in West Virginia.
I didn't get paid a dime.
I didn't get paid anything.
I just volunteered.
I helped out.
And honestly, if your rewards that you're getting,
they're based on the fact that you're willing to volunteer and help out.
I know a lot of Baptist churches do things differently
but honestly, I don't care if every Baptist church does something
a certain way in the Philippines.
What matters is what the Bible says.
And quite honestly, we should be willing to volunteer
and just be willing to help out.
That's something I've done.
That's something a lot of you already do anyway.
But let me go through these things.
And one thing is just taking the offering.
Basically, during the first service and second service,
we have two people that come here with the offering plate
and they just come off and then they go to the bathroom.
Now every single week we've had somebody
who has taken the offering
but it's good to have just two set people
where there's not a question mark
about who's going to take the offering this week.
So basically, the plan is to have two set people
and also have somebody else who's kind of the alternate.
You can just step in and do that if necessary.
Now let me just say this before I move on.
That basically you see beside each one of these things
there's basically an empty blank.
At the bottom of in-church responsibilities
it says any or all of the above.
What that basically means is
you're willing to volunteer for anything in church.
Whatever I want you to do, whatever is most necessary,
you're willing to do whatever.
Now if there's certain things that you're interested in,
you could always mark both of those.
Say I really would like to take the offering
but also I'm willing to do anything
that is necessary at this church.
For the most part, certain people
are already doing certain tasks.
If it's going well, there's not really a reason
to change that.
But like I said, we will have multiple people
on all of these things.
So it's not like I'm just going to say,
well, you signed up for anything,
I'm just going to change what you normally do
and just make you do this.
If you've been doing something well,
then honestly we'll probably just keep
the way things are going.
But if there's something specifically
you'd be interested in,
then you're welcome to mark that.
So taking the offering is something
that we do every single week.
Scripts you're reading is something
that we do every single week.
If you're interested in reading the chapters up here
and you would like to do that,
then you're welcome to mark that.
Counting the offering is something
we do every single Sunday.
And so we have a couple people,
a couple men each week who go back
and then they count the offering.
I give them an accounting form
and they write down all the information
then they sign off on us.
And so we're going to have two specific people
counting the offering
and a third person basically has a background.
Now these are things that I think we already know.
But then the next one is an usher.
And you say, what is an usher in this church?
An usher basically means that you're willing
to fill in on anything that takes place at church.
You don't necessarily have a set thing
of taking up the offering,
but basically you help things run smoothly.
A few examples,
if a Pentecostal walks in here
and starts speaking in tongues during the service.
Now look, you know,
people don't have to believe the same things as us,
but no Pentecostal is welcome to speak in tongues
during our church service.
And I don't mind if unsaved people visit our church,
that's fine.
But if somebody starts speaking in tongues,
then they need to hit the road.
Right, right.
Now look, if I have to be the one to get them to leave,
I mean, that's fine.
But honestly, it would be better if there's just,
if somebody starts speaking in tongues during the services,
if there's just kind of set people,
which would be kind of like an usher
that kind of helps them just leave.
Now look, we're obviously nice about it.
We don't beat them up on the way out.
As much as you might want to,
that's not part of the job.
Okay, we don't want to get a lawsuit.
Okay.
But you say, why do you bring that up?
Because I've seen that happen in church.
I've seen people speak in tongues
in the middle of the church.
I've seen people interrupt church services.
Haven't we seen that from pastors that we like online?
It happened at very plenty of times,
and you might not have noticed that
because there were ushers that knew what they needed to do,
and they got them to leave.
Okay, I invited someone to church one time.
Oh, it was embarrassing.
You know, I invited this woman,
she came to church,
and she just interrupted the service over and over and over again.
Started standing and yelling.
It's like, oh my goodness.
And so we kind of had to escort her out, right?
Because it was distracting to the preacher.
Or, you know, we had sometimes kids that visit this church,
and honestly, they were too noisy.
And I remember one time I mentioned something from the pulpit
because it was really distracting.
Now, obviously we want people to visit this church,
but if they start to be a distraction,
it's not welcome at church.
This is not just kind of a free-for-all.
Like I said, we're not a Pentecostal church.
We're a Baptist church.
And so basically when things come up,
or if there's loud rock music blaring that's distracting the service or whatever,
then basically an usher is someone who just can try to step in and help.
So this is kind of a position where basically
some things you kind of just do on your own.
You just kind of have an understanding of what I would want you to do,
and I don't have to necessarily ask you to do.
It's just something you kind of know.
You kind of help things run smoothly.
But also, if there's something that maybe somebody's not here at church
that has a responsibility,
you could also step in and just take that if necessary.
You're willing to kind of do whatever.
This is, like I said, kind of like the cup man.
So it's kind of one that gives you more responsibility,
but it's also kind of one that it's not as good,
because it gives you a lot of responsibility.
It kind of depends on what you want.
But then we have our audio ministry.
And the audio ministry is basically getting the microphones ready,
getting the batteries,
making sure it's all just ready to go on each Sunday.
We have our video ministry.
This is basically the live streaming,
as we put this on YouTube or Facebook for people to see.
We have the scripture reading.
I guess I put that twice.
But the next one is personal workers.
You say, what is personal workers?
This is a ministry we had at Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento.
It's called a personal workers ministry.
What the personal workers ministry is,
is basically you help first-time guests when they're here.
Now, obviously, if you're an usher,
you can kind of help direct people and tell them,
hey, the men's restroom is here.
If you need anything, we have pandesal.
We have coffee back there if you'd like something.
You let me know if you need anything.
That's kind of something an usher could do.
But kind of the personal workers ministry,
the goal is basically that you're able to basically greet people
and say hello to them.
And we have our kind of gold things back there,
the first-time visitor's gift that we give everybody.
And you be the person to give that to them after the service,
make them feel welcome.
And if necessary, you preach the gospel to that person
if they're not safe.
As a small church, we do a good job
of making sure everybody hears the gospel.
But just imagine if this church was 200 people.
People will come and go, and we won't even know
and not even pay attention to them
because you start to lose sight of everybody, okay?
So it makes sense to have certain people
that already know what their responsibility is.
Now, to be in the personal workers ministry,
it does require a few things.
One, you have to be here early for church service
because the goal is to greet them before church, okay?
Because it's a lot easier to greet someone before church
and then afterwards kind of say,
hey, I hope you enjoyed the service.
Here's a gift for you.
Do you mind if I ask you a question?
It's a much better way to preach the gospel
than if you haven't even set both of them
and preached the gospel afterwards.
Now, preaching the gospel is better than nothing.
But if we can greet them beforehand,
then that's even better.
So for the personal workers ministry,
it's something where basically you're able to show up early
but also that you're a little bit outgoing.
Not everybody likes to say hello to random strangers, okay?
So this is something that certain people have an ability
where they're friendly and have an ability
to make people feel welcome.
So that's where the personal workers ministry is.
And on any of these things, if you have any questions,
you can let me know and I'll help you out.
But another thing is basic building maintenance, okay?
Basic building maintenance,
I'm not talking about showing up on a Saturday
for eight hours.
What I'm basically talking about is like
if I break the doorknob,
that basically you're able to put the doorknob on
or whatever, something small.
Basic building maintenance.
Something that you can either do a little bit early on Sunday
or a little bit after the service on Sunday
or on Wednesday, basic stuff that comes up.
Because like I said, I do not have an aptitude to do it.
If I knew how to fix that, I would have fixed that.
But I don't have an aptitude to do that.
I just don't have that ability.
And so this is something where if you have an ability
to fix things, you have that skill,
it's something that if you volunteer,
you can just kind of help on Sunday
with small things that need to be done.
This could mean sometimes that you stay a little bit late
or come a little bit early
or even during lunch break or something,
you're helping out with stuff.
So I'm not talking about something
that takes a ridiculous amount of time.
I'm just saying some basic stuff that comes up.
Cleaning, organizing, pretty Sunday.
And so cleaning and organizing is basically just
to help get things set up for the Sunday church service.
That the chairs are in a specific spot,
the bulletins are out, if the floor needs to be cleaned.
This is also something where you would have
to be early to do this.
Because if you're not able to come early,
then you're not gonna be able to set things up.
And then cleaning post Sunday would basically be like
after the church service is taking out the trash
and making sure stuff is at least somewhat ready.
It doesn't mean it has to be perfect,
but just general stuff that needs to get done.
And then the last one is any or all of the above,
where if you say, Brother Stuckey,
I'm willing to volunteer in any way
that you think that I can be used,
then that would be great.
And so if there's specific things
that you have an ability at,
and I would like to mark those,
but also if you're willing to volunteer in any way,
then you can mark that as well.
Now I will say this,
that if you're in the music ministry,
that kind of is your ministry actually.
Because I do want the people in the music ministry
to be preparing for the church services.
That is an important part of the church,
and we need to make sure we're ready to go.
A lot of us live a long ways away from here,
so we can't meet up to practice songs for the most part.
So it's good to make sure the songs are ready to go.
So if you're in the music ministry and leading music,
that's probably gonna be your main ministry.
Out of church responsibilities,
one thing we have listed is follow-up ministry.
We will never forsake solely.
I don't believe in forsaking solely at all,
but I do believe that if we could follow-up
on the good contacts of people that get saved,
we would have more visitors at this church.
Now the reason why I believe that
is because I used to follow-up
on my good contacts in Sacramento,
and a lot of them ended up coming and visiting this church.
And this is something that definitely takes time,
and it would be something
where you'd have to basically live near here probably,
because you'd be following up on people that are nearby.
But if there's a good contact,
then basically you'd be willing to just stop by,
and we'd have something for our church
that you could drop off to them,
and just say hello, greet them,
see if they have any questions,
and then try to get them to come to church.
You say, does follow-up work?
Well, there's multiple people in this room
that have been with me when I follow-up on someone.
They came to church the next week.
I follow-up on them,
and then they ended up coming to church.
Does it always work?
No.
Does it sometimes work?
Yes, it sometimes does,
because people are intimidated
to come to a new place that they don't know.
Obviously, we trust in the Lord to go to church,
but at the same time,
when we're able to make an effort
to follow-up with the people,
we can say they're gonna be more likely to come to church.
There are plenty of people at Barre Baptist Church
that Pastor Menes personally got saved and followed-up on,
and then they started to come to church after that.
Now, let me just say this briefly.
When you say, well, how do you do follow-up?
Because I don't want it to be a waste of time.
I don't want it to be a waste of time either,
because if you're not organized,
it is a waste of time,
because you knocked on the door, and nobody's home.
So what I would do in Sacramento,
and what I did here is,
basically, I had a small bag of cookies,
and basically, if they don't show up,
you basically leave it at the door with a small note on it,
and said, hey, hello, nice to meet you the other day.
We'd love to have you come to church.
Let me know if you have any questions, something like that.
And so if you show up and they're not there,
it's not a waste of time.
But if they are there,
you basically give it to them,
and say hello, and ask them to go to church.
Now, I don't know if we need chocolate chip cookies here,
because it's hot outside.
So they're gonna have, basically,
melted cookies on the front door.
I'll have to think of a plan for that.
I'm honestly not sure off the top of my head.
But something small can go a long way
to make people feel more comfortable to visit church.
Now, depending on where you live,
I think this could be more or less effective.
So I'm not saying it's gonna be super effective here,
but I do think it's worth a shot,
because it was effective in Sacramento.
I was able to get a lot of visitors to church,
and then I was able to follow up.
Another thing that you can do,
is if you get somebody saved,
and they seem interested in coming to church,
you could always send them a text message on Saturday
to remind them about church.
That's why we have the follow-up cards there,
so basically, you can get their contact info,
you can pray for them.
And as much as you can follow up, that would be great.
You know, if you could basically give them a call,
send them a text message, something like that,
they're gonna be more likely to come to church
if we make some sort of effort to make them feel welcome.
Now, the next one we have is making various videos
for church, and so, there's certain things I wanted to do,
and we haven't gotten around to it.
Like, for example, you know, the promo video,
which was my idea, and I kinda didn't follow through with it
yet, but a promo video for our church,
I think, would be a helpful thing.
Or, if I did a soloing demonstration,
and we put that on YouTube,
I don't necessarily have great video sales.
I used to put kind of, I guess, cool clips up
on YouTube for guarantee,
but they weren't, like, high-level reviews,
basically just mock and false problems.
I don't have, like, a real video ability,
but if you are someone who has that ability
and you'd be interested,
then if you wanted to volunteer for that.
And then the other one we have listed is cleaning.
Now, when it comes to cleaning,
I don't think, as big as our church is,
that we need to have, like, a set weekly cleaning time
for people to volunteer.
I think it would be more than is necessary.
It would probably be something where every once in a while,
they clean for, like, the bathrooms.
Stuff just breaks down after a while.
So, as a small church,
I don't think we necessarily
have to have stuff perfect every week.
And I come down here and do a little bit of cleaning
each week.
But if you'd be willing to volunteer for cleaning,
basically every once in a while you could come.
And this would be kind of an out-of-church responsibility
where basically you would spend time getting help with cleaning.
It could still be on a Sunday if you wanted to do that,
but it's something that might take up some time
out of just normal church.
And then below that, we have added skills that you have
and suggestions for ministries.
And these two boxes are maybe you have a certain skill
that we could use for something.
And off the top of my head, you know, I don't know.
I don't know everybody's skills or abilities.
But, you know, there's things that you have.
Maybe you say,
I'd love to do a soul-winning presentation in Japanese.
Right?
Maybe one person in this room
that has the ability to do that.
But, you know, hey,
the people here speak a lot of different languages.
If you speak a certain language,
it would be good to get a soul-winning demonstration online,
things like that.
If you have an added skill, then that would be great.
Or suggestions for ministries.
Now, let me say this.
When it comes to this whole sheet and everything like this,
the purpose of this is to make things easier.
If you write down like 10 suggestions for ministries,
it's like, well, I hope you're able to do all those things.
Okay?
Because a suggestion for a ministry
is not necessarily that helpful
unless people are actually willing to volunteer for it.
So I'm not saying it's something we won't do,
but if it's something where you have this great idea
but it's something you're not gonna be able to do,
it might be something we just don't do.
Because it's meant to make things easier,
not more difficult,
so more time can be spent on the soul-winning,
getting people saved,
and the direct work of the ministry.
Okay?
And so anyways, if you have any questions about this,
you know, let me know.
But basically, if there's something
you're particularly interested in
and you would wanna help with,
then basically if you would wanna
just put a check mark by it.
Or if you're willing to help on anything,
you can put any or all of the above.
But let me say this.
If you say you wanna volunteer and help with something,
don't volunteer with something
that you're not gonna be committed to.
It's only gonna make things more difficult.
If you say, man, I'm gonna help out with this,
and then two weeks later, you throw in the towel,
that just made things more difficult.
It didn't make things helpful.
Because the purpose is that
people would volunteer at certain things,
and then I can just assign certain people
a set task.
But if basically people just don't do it,
then that doesn't really help you.
So basically, only sign up for stuff
if you're able and willing to do it.
And look, I understand that some of you,
maybe your schedule doesn't make you
able to do some of these things.
But if it is something that you have the capability
of doing and would like to volunteer,
then obviously we would welcome that
because the work of the Lord is great.
It's not for man, it's for God.
Let's close the door, correct.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us
to be here at church.
I've heard about Church of Miller.