Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
We can go ahead and find our seats.
We will get started.
And for this afternoon's first song, we will go to song number 392.
First
Lord, we love you and we just thank you once again for this church.
Thank you for blessing us with Brother Urbanic, Lord.
We just ask that you bless the service and help us to praise you, Lord, and lift up our voices under you and fill this room with your spirit.
As in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Alright, for our next song, let's go to song number 390.
Just a few pages back.
Song number 390, have I done my best for Jesus?
Song number 390.
Let's all sing it out together on first.
Don't expect the best from me.
That said, well, my life fell flat for Jesus.
I wonder if His heart is breaking too.
WONDER
I've done someone to tell them that the same girl's matchless blood.
announcements if you need a bulletin please raise your hand nice and high so
our ushers can come around and get that to you on the front we have a verse for
the week Matthew chapter 28 we're memorizing this chapter if you're
under the age of 18 you can quote that to a non-family member this evening then
you can receive an ice cream treat on the inside we have our service times and
our soul winning times below that along with our church stats
As a reminder, please make sure that you're turning in your maps into the bins when you're finished.
We want to continue to keep our expecting ladies in our prayers.
Our list is there for you to keep that in memory.
And then we have our upcoming events starting last Sunday.
We have the kids choir practice that's taking place on Sundays at 2 p.m.
Tonight we have evangelist Urbanek here with us and I'm really excited to hear from him this evening
he's gonna be preaching for us and
If you haven't already had an opportunity to say hello
please make sure you get around and greet them let you let them know how thankful you are for their service their hard work that
they're putting in in the Philippines and
Definitely excited to hear from tonight. We have the small town sewening marathon in Azel this coming Saturday March 15th
If you need any additional details for that you can reach out to brother Ryan or Bannock and he has that for you
We do have the welcome back barbecue bash
That's going to be taking place on Sunday March 16th. It's coming Sunday after the morning service
So if you're able to stick around for some good Texas barbecue
We know who cooks it right so you don't want to miss that right?
Some Texas barbecue, too. I know I grew up and lived in Oklahoma for most of my life,
but one of the reasons that drew me to Texas was the barbecue.
So hey, I'm a Baptist. I love food, right?
Our spring recital is going to be March 22nd and there is a sign-up sheet in the
in the four-year in the hallway there on the table for tryouts for that so
please make sure if you're planning on participating that you sign up for the
tryouts.
For that recital the Mansfield so many marathon forward-looking just a few months ahead or a month month or so ahead is
The April 19th so many marathon that's going to be local here
Specifically in Mansfield and we're gonna have our Easter Sunday handouts
That will be passing out for that and and then below that we have our church reminders on the back is
our
Prayer list, so we'll go through that. I have a couple updates to make
Or continue to pray for Miss Alicia's grandma for her health and salvation also
Miss Carlson's mother and father praying for their health
We have Miss Faith Miller for her friend's mom's cancer treatment, so continue to be in prayer for her.
I want to continue to pray for Brother Elijah and his wife, Olivia, and then his parents as well.
We have Brother Tony still recovering from back issues, so just keep him in your prayers.
We have Miss Wendy Goodwin.
We're praying for her friend that she would continue to recover well from a surgery that
she had.
We're praying for brother Nick and his mother's salvation and also his co-worker's salvation.
Brother Jimmy Stewart.
We're praying for his family as they've lost a loved one and for his dad for his salvation.
And also, a new addition is Miss Larky healing from a broken arm.
So with that, I'll say a quick word of prayer and we'll go to our next song.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for just allowing us all to gather here in your name, Lord, to hear great preaching and to seeing hymns to you, Lord.
We're so thankful for just the blessings that you give us.
God, we want to pray for those here on this list that are dealing with health infirmities, just physical ailments, Lord.
God, we know that you know that situation better than we do.
Just pray that you would have your healing hand upon them.
you would comfort them during difficult times.
Lord, pray for those on our list
that are in need of salvation.
Lord, that you would open a door
and allow a soul and somebody with the gospel
to be able to reach them.
And Lord, pray that their heart would be softened
to receive that message.
God, we pray for our pastor while he is out
and he's traveling.
God, pray that you would give him
safe travels Lord and that he would be able to come back without any issues and
he would have a great report for us for his efforts out there in the Caribbean
soul winning and God just pray that you bless all the soul winners there and
again just very thankful to have brother evangelist or bannock back with us and I
pray that you would fill him with your Holy Spirit as he preaches tonight we're
pray these things in your son's name amen all right brother Dustin we'll go to
Alright, for our next song, we'll be singing Psalm Chapter 15 in your Blackbinder or in
your King James Bible.
Psalm 15.
Psalm Chapter 15.
So I'll sing it out together on the first.
You shall abide it.
offering plates are being passed around go ahead and turn in your Bibles the
1st Timothy chapter 6 that's the book of 1st Timothy chapter number 6
First Timothy chapter 6, the Bible says,
Let as many servants as are under the yoke
Count their own masters worthy of all honor
That the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
and they that have believing masters,
let them not despise them, because they are brethren,
but rather do them service
because they are faithful and beloved partakers
of the benefit.
These things teach and exhort.
If any man teach otherwise and consent not
to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ
and to the doctrine which is according to godliness,
he is proud, knowing nothing,
but doting about questions and stripes of words,
whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of
corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness from such
withdrawal thyself, but godliness with contentment is great gain."
For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out and having food and raiment
Let us be there with content
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and in the many foolish and hurtful lusts
Which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil
Which while some coveted after they have aired from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows
But thou O man of God flee these things
and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness, fight the
good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life where unto thou art also called, and has witnessed
a good profession before many witnesses.
I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus,
who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment
until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he shall show
who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto,
whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.
Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain
riches, but in the living God who give us richly all things to enjoy.
That they do good that they be rich and good works ready to distribute willing to communicate
Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life
Oh Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust
Avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so-called which some professing have aired concerning the faith
Grace be with thee amen. Let us pray. Dear heavenly father. Thank you for this day
I thank you for the work that Pastor Shelley is doing right now in the Bahamas with faithful word
I ask you to bless that trip and thank you for the great work that evangelist or bannock has been doing
I pray that you would please fill in with your Holy Spirit to preach the word now Jesus name. Amen
Amen. Well, great to be here tonight.
It's good to see everybody.
It's been a long time.
It's been about a year.
Last year we moved to the Philippines.
So we're hitting, I think we landed in the Philippines
is like March 22nd.
So we're about a week's time.
And so at first I'd just like to thank Pastor Shelley
for allowing me and my family to come see you guys again.
It's a blessing to be able to come to the church tonight.
and to have the opportunity to preach.
I have my wife and children in the back there.
Most of you are already familiar with us.
I do see a lot of new faces though.
So excited to see this church is growing
and reaching new people.
And then you guys are saying steadfast.
So my wife, R.G., is in the back
and then we have our son Titus, he's three years old
and my daughter, Anna, she's one.
She's about to turn two next month.
And praise the Lord, my wife is expecting as well.
So we have baby number three on the way.
And I was going to give you a little bit of background
before we get into the sermon tonight,
but most of you are pretty familiar.
I mean, Pastor Shelley, he sent me down to Houston
to lead Pure Words that was back in 2022.
And then last year he ordained me as an evangelist
to go to the Philippines.
And so the last year we've been pretty much just
sowing seeds, just seeing good opportunities
for soul winning, for church plants
digging around to see the best opportunities.
And so really our goal is once we go back to the Philippines
is we want to start a new church plan.
And that would be under the authority
of steadfast Baptist church.
And so Lord willing, we're gonna start,
hopefully if we can get a building and everything organized
we can start having services in April
and we'll start off just doing once a month.
And then if we can gain some traction
we can start doing weekly services
And so based upon my research,
you know, it's not like it was years ago
where you just have like pockets of people waiting
in all these cities around the world, right?
A lot of those opportunities have been taken
because there's so many more new IP and IP style churches
where you have good churches in different cities
all over the world now.
And so based upon what I've seen in the Philippines,
you don't have just like a clear area to go to
where you have a group of people waiting.
where we live right now. We're about two hours east of Manila.
That's where Verity Baptist Church is with Pastor Stuckey.
They're right in the heart of Manila.
So we live about two hours east of that.
And so we've been just traveling to church every week
for their services on Wednesday and Sunday,
going soul-winning with them.
And we just been doing soul-winning in our area.
And basically, the people we've reached in our area,
our family and friends,
we had a one-time church service back in December
and we had 32 people show up.
for that church service.
I think it's pretty good for your church service.
First church service, just starting with nothing.
And you know, so that's where we plan to start.
A new church plant is out in the area.
We have a group of about 15, 20 people,
I think will be regular church members from the start.
So we'll see what the Lord will do there.
And really that's a goal for steadfast,
for passagelly, for us is just to get more churches
started in the Philippines.
As you probably seen, this is one of the most receptive places
to go soul-winning and do church planting.
I know when I was living in the U.S.,
you always see Pastor Sucki in his soul-winning numbers,
and you're like, how is that possible?
It's like, last year, they have, I think,
five church plants.
They have Verity and Manila.
They started a church in Poland.
They started a church in Beekle.
And they have two other church plants and well,
I guess three other church plants.
So they actually have six total.
And for 2024, they had around 12,000 salvations
between all of those ministries.
So there's just a great open door
for the Philippines right now.
And this is a perfect time to jump on that opportunity.
So when I was seeing his soul in numbers, I'm like, man,
I wish it was possible to get that many.
But if you're able to go there, you'll see
that these numbers are legitimate.
Like this is really good harvest.
It's a very receptive country.
And so that's really the goal.
You know, as it says in Titus 1.5,
for this cause left ID and creed
that thou should have set in order
the things that are wanting
and ordain elders in every city
as I had appointed these.
So that's really the goal for the Philippines
is just to get more churches started
ordain more pastors
and so we can continue to reach more people
with the gospel.
Now to get in the message tonight the title is called lessons from the Philippines
and I just wanted to give you some of my firsthand experience that I've had
My last year being in the Philippines and there's two main subjects. I want to go over tonight
Obviously, there's so many different aspects so many different points
You can make about the culture about the people but I really just want to drive in two things tonight
And so the first subject we're gonna be talking about is the poverty
Because I think when people are thinking about countries like the Philippines that's probably the first thing that comes to mind that it's just a third world country is very poor and that is true.
And so I want to talk about that tonight in 1st Timothy chapter number six. Let's start reading a verse number six. It says, but Godliness with contentment is great game.
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
And having food and raiment, let us be there with content."
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare into any foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have aired from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
So here in 1 Timothy chapter 6, God is giving the warning about the love of money.
because the love of money is the root of all evil.
That's what the Bible is saying here.
That covetousness in your heart leads to all manner of sin
because you're not satisfied with what you have
and that drives you to lust and to commit sin against God.
And God's saying here, as Christians,
that we should be content.
If we have food and clothing, that should be enough.
And you know, it's sad because most people,
they're not satisfied with that.
They're just hungry after more.
They get more money, they want more things,
and it just never becomes enough.
And when you're not content,
that drives you to do all manner of evil.
So that's why the Bible is saying,
look, if you have enough to survive,
You should be happy with that.
That is the Christian virtue.
You might not have a lot, but you know what?
You have a choice to be happy.
Happiness is your decision.
You can choose to be happy with nothing.
There's lots of poor people all over this world.
They have nothing, yet they're somehow happy
because contentment is a choice.
You can choose to be happy with what you have
or you can just be always dissatisfied.
Like, I always need more.
The Bible says he that love is silver
shall not be satisfied with silver.
Look, if you love money and you're seeking after money,
isn't that what it said?
But they that will be rich.
Will means want.
You desire to be rich
because it's not a sin to have money.
And if you have money, God bless you, that's great.
But if your desire and your heart is just to be filthy rich
and that's all you're chasing is money,
well now you have a problem.
Now you have sin inside your heart and it says if you're
designed to be rich you're setting yourself up to fail
because you will fall into temptation and a snare.
This snare, this trap of money is just going to end up destroying you.
They fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts and they drown men in destruction
and perdition. So the Bible is very clear the love of money is the root of all
evil and that can end up destroying your walk with
Look down at verse number 17 it says charge them that are rich in this world
that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches,
but in the living God who giveth us richly
all things to enjoy.
So it's saying, look, the people that are rich
in this world, you need to charge them.
You need to tell them that they don't get high-minded,
that they're not just lifted up
and they're trusting in their own riches.
Cause that's what people do, right?
They get up a lot of wealth and they depend on that.
rather than on the Lord.
And the Bible says they're uncertain riches.
Because you know what? With riches,
they could vanish away like that.
All your money could be gone the next day.
I mean, Joe was a righteous man, and he lost everything overnight, just in one day.
It's all gone because riches, there's no certainty.
And I think that's one of the problem with mankind in general is that we depend on that
rather than trusting God to provide for our own needs.
We trust in these uncertain riches because we feel like if we have this, then everything will be okay.
But that's uncertain.
You know what's certain is if you're serving God,
he will take care of you.
If you're following the Lord,
he will make sure you have what you need.
But if you're trusting in yourself,
you don't have that certainty.
And that's why you don't wanna trust in uncertain riches,
but you wanna trust in the living God.
And notice, he giveeth us richly all things to enjoy.
And I think if you examine the life that you're living,
there is so many things.
I mean, we talk about counting your blessings, right?
You can't even count them all.
It's too many to count.
There are so many good things God gives us
on a daily basis.
And it says we get to enjoy all these things.
Hasn't God given you so many things in your life,
so many joys and comforts?
But then we're not satisfied.
We're not content because we just need more.
It's kind of like being the spoiled brat
where you give your kids everything,
but they're not thankful for it.
And they turn around, they despise you,
and they're just not thankful.
And that's kind of like us with God,
is that God has given us richly all things to enjoy,
but then we don't appreciate it.
We're not content and we're always seeking after more.
And then because we're not content,
now we're not satisfied.
and then we just are caught in the snare.
You know, it's better just to trust in the Lord
and serve God and whatever God gives you, you're happy with.
That's what the Bible's teaching here.
Go to your Bibles to Galatians chapter number two.
Galatians chapter number two.
And I wanted to start off by talking about biblical principles
when it comes to money,
because I think that's what drives most people's decisions
that they make.
Most people, they make all of their life's decisions about their job or their career
about the salary, rather than putting God first, they put money first.
Galatians 2, look at verse number 10.
Only they would that we should remember the poor the same, which I also was forward to do.
So we're going to talk about money and poverty. You know, we have the apostle Paul here, you know, the other apostles, they're reminding him,
hey, when we're sending you out to go do all these missions and stuff, hey, don't forget the poor because there's lots of poor people.
They don't have a lot. You need to remember them. You need to help them out.
when you're able to, because other people might not have as much resources.
And if you're able to be a blessing to them, you should, right?
And what was the apostle Paul like? The same, which I also was forward to do.
So it shows you here, the apostle Paul is a very charitable person where he saw
someone down on their luck. He saw someone struggling and he was just willing.
He was forward to do it. Whatever someone else in need, he was, he was a giver.
He is just willing to help other people.
And I think that's the attitude that we should have
as Christians, where we're willing to help other people
that don't have as much blessings as we have received.
Now, when we're talking about poverty in the Philippines,
I'm gonna give you some stats
if you kind of just look this up.
Again, because I think most people realize
the Philippines is a very poor country.
Most Americans would view it as a third world nation.
And the Philippines is very poor,
but there's a lot of countries actually way worse.
I look up a couple of statistics.
It said that the Philippines was the 67th out of 127
on the Global Hunger Index.
So they're kind of in the middle as far as how much food that they have.
There's a lot of countries that are way worse than the Philippines where
resorts are just more scarce. It's not as developed. So
yes, the Philippines is poor, but a lot of other countries
are worse.
The Philippines, they ranked 73rd on GDP out of 180 countries.
So their GDP is about 12,000 per capita.
Okay, so that means there's about 72 other countries that...
are worse or similar living conditions as the Philippines.
So again, it is poor in the Philippines,
but there's a lot of other countries.
It's like, I'm thankful that I at least get to go
to the Philippines and not some of these other nations
that are far worse.
And just in comparison, the GDP in the Philippines is 12,000.
You know what it is in America? 85,000.
So you're talking about seven, eight times the amount of the GDP, and that's why you see here in
America, it's a lot different than what you see in the Philippines. When we're talking about money,
Americans are way, way more far off when it comes to money. Some of the other countries, I mean,
most people think about Africa, right? They think about other places like in the Middle East, you
have like Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sierra Leone. These are some of the poorest nations around the
Now when it comes specifically to the Philippines the average worker in the Philippines makes about 500 peso a day
And you hear Peso because they're pretty much the Asian Mexicans, okay, because in Mexico, they use Peso.
You know, in the Philippines, they're conquered by Spain for about 300 years.
And so that's why a lot of their culture is very similar.
And so their Pesos is about 500 per day.
And if you, you know, convert that, that's about $9 a day.
$9 for an entire day.
And depending on your job, that could be eight hours of work,
10 hours of work, 12 hours, and you make $9.
Here in America, you're legally required.
It's by law, was it?
What's the minimum wage now?
Like $8.25?
Is that right?
Or $7.25?
I don't know.
You minimum wage workers, though.
What you make in one hour.
It takes them an entire day.
Could you imagine that?
You work all day and you get eight bucks, nine bucks.
And that's kind of like your ditch digger.
That's just your basic labor type of job.
It's not really skilled labor, $9 on average.
You know, if you get more of a skilled labor type of a job,
like if you're just getting right into being like
an electrician or something like that,
it's 700 peso a day.
So they go, wow, you got a skilled career
and you're starting off making $11 a day now.
Isn't that so great?
You're just bringing all the money.
I mean, if you become an electrician in America,
yeah, you start off not making a whole lot,
maybe 15 bucks an hour or so,
but that's gonna build up over the years,
you're gonna eventually be making a lot of money.
I mean, call the HVAC guy.
You're gonna be paying a lot for that bill
because this is very expensive.
If you're like a teacher,
You're making about a thousand peso per day.
It's about like $18.
And that's again, in America, a teacher,
you have to go through a lot of school.
You have to get degrees and certificates.
And you make, you know, it's not a huge salary,
but it's something.
It's not $18 a day.
And,
Even to get a lot of these like good jobs
that are paying a thousand or more peso a day,
we're making 20 bucks a day,
they're pretty much only in big cities.
So what happens is all the good jobs are in Manila.
And that's why Manila,
it is one of the most densely populated cities in the world.
Like you can't travel at all.
You try driving through Manila, it is so difficult
because it's just bumper to bumper traffic anywhere you go
all day, every day, pretty much.
I think it's around like 16 million or something in the entire Manila area and that's where all
the good jobs are so what people have to do they have to go to Manila so they can actually make
a decent salary and for a lot of these people just to make ends meet they have to travel
like two or three hours to get to Manila just to work their nine to five job so they're gonna
And a lot of these people, they don't have a car.
They don't have a motorcycle.
They have to take a public bus.
And it's not like the buses you see here.
Their bus is called a Jeepney,
which is pretty much like a hollowed out World War II Jeep.
It's just super long and they just pack them full of people
because if you take the Jeepney, it's super cheap.
So that's how the majority of people travel around
is on these little buses.
It's hard to even use the word bus
because when you think of bus,
you look at these big, massive buses.
It's got air conditioning and TV and seat belts.
There's no seat belts on the Jeepney.
There's no, there's no like a sign seating
where you get your own little chair.
No, on the Jeep knee, you're just,
you're just smashed together.
They just pack as many Filipinos as they can on there.
I mean, you'll see people,
you'll see on the back of the Jeep knee,
you'll just have guys hanging off it.
You'll just have like five guys
just holding on for dear life
because that's what people have to do just to get by.
And it's not even making a whole lot.
And of course,
You know, living in the Philippines,
you can get by off of $20 a day.
It's not the same as being America
because obviously 20 bucks in America
will get you nowhere, right?
But it's still not a whole lot of money.
You know, if you're living in like the dirt,
poor, like worse parts of the Philippines,
like out in the country,
yeah, sure, you could get a place to rent
for 20 bucks a month.
And you're like, man, that sounds pretty good.
Like you're paying,
$20 a month and you can rent out an apartment or something like that. Well, it's not the apartment you're thinking of
Where's like this nice gated community? No the apartment there. It's like it's just little room
It's like the size of your bathroom, and it doesn't have running water
and it might not even have electricity.
So yeah, sure, $20, yeah, you can have a place to live,
but it's not gonna be that great.
So yes, things can be a lot cheaper there,
but a lot of things are not even cheaper at all.
I mean, their gas is the same price as America.
Could you imagine making Filipino wages
and paying the same price that Americans pay
for their gas?
I mean, the amount of money that you put towards your gas
is probably a small amount of your income.
For there, it's a big percentage of their income.
Their rent, it's a big percentage of their income.
Most people are just really struggling just to get by.
Like I said, most people don't have a car.
If you have a car, you're rich.
And it's hard for us as Americans to understand that.
Because most Americans, they grow up,
you get a car when you're 16.
A lot of these young teenagers is kind of like expected,
like you feel entitled to it.
Like, hey, mom and dad, I'm 16, where's my car?
It's like, what?
Who told you you get that?
That that's just gonna be offered to you,
like you deserve it or something like that.
But in the Philippines, a lot of adults
don't even have a car.
And that's one reason I want to cover this
because I don't want the next generation
to feel just so entitled.
Would they have to have all these things
like it's owed to them or something like that?
You know, if you're going to the grocery store
in the Philippines, a lot of the prices,
it's the same as in America.
If you're gonna go to the grocery store
and just buy a pound of beef or something like that,
it's the same what you pay here.
Like three or $4 a pound roughly.
I mean, I know they're organic stuff, you know,
if you can get that, that's close to the eight bucks
or whatever, they're paying the same price as you.
And they make nothing, that $20 that they get.
And that's why they're not going to the supermarket
and buying meat.
You know when they eat meat?
It's like once a week for a lot of people.
It's like they're Friday night,
it's like they saved up enough,
now it's paycheck, now they can have some meat
with the dinner.
And if you go to places like this over the world,
you'll see this is true.
They're getting by on just nothing.
They have enough money just to barely eat and survive.
They're just having a little bit of rice and some vegetables.
I mean, the living conditions are way different.
You know, there's a lot of families where, you know,
the mom and kids are at home.
They're literally waiting for their dad to get home.
That way they can buy some rice for that meal for dinner.
And here we are, we have our cupboards full.
We have a refrigerator.
Do you think people in the Philippines,
does everyone has a refrigerator at their house?
No, if you have a refrigerator at your house, you're rich.
because you have stuff to put in the refrigerator.
A lot of the people there, this day by day.
It's like whatever wages they make that day or that week,
they're using that by day.
A lot of people, they're just buying food off the street
to eat that day.
They don't have a refrigerator full of food.
They don't have just this cabinets
just full of all this food.
You have a choice.
Their choice is like, okay, do you want rice or rice?
It's not even brown rice versus white rice. It's just it's just rice
Do you want this vegetable or this like for a lot of people?
They are way worse off. There are so many things. They don't really get to enjoy
You know and here's the thing in the Philippines if you have money
you can actually have a very comfortable life.
So it's not like it's that poor
where you can't just have a good life
because if you have like American money
and you can bring it to the Philippines,
then yeah, there's a lot of modern conveniences
that you can afford there.
Hey, if you have the money,
you can buy an air conditioner.
If you have the money,
you can set up running water to your house.
If you have the money,
you can set up electricity to your house.
You could buy a car.
You can get a shower with heated water.
I mean, the same luxuries we have here,
they're available in the Philippines.
It's just most people can't get that.
Most people are not gonna have all of that
and be able to enjoy that.
They're just getting by with nothing.
You know, one of my first times going to the Philippines,
visiting my wife's family.
You go to the bathroom and it's like, all right,
uh, where's the sink?
You know, where's, where's the toilet?
Like how do you take a shower here?
Well, our shower room was a bucket and a scoop.
It's just a bucket of water
It's not like a bathtub where you have a shower you have like you can turn on the nozzle and you have water pressure
That's not what it's like if you go to the average Filipinos bathroom
It's if you want to take a shower. It's a bucket and some water. It's like how do I do this? I don't know figure it out
But if you have nothing, I mean, you figure these things out,
but for Americans, this is a culture shock.
It's like, wait, where's the bed?
It's like, what do you mean?
It's like their bed, it's like a thin piece of foam.
You're pretty much just laying on the ground
or some wooden pallet or something like that.
They don't have your, I mean, if you have money,
you can get it, but they don't have the bed
you have at your house, where you have your 12 inch,
you got your five different layers of comfort
and your 10 pillows.
That's not what it's like there.
If you put a king size bed in the average
Filipinos bedroom, you couldn't fit it inside there.
That's the size of their room.
It's the size of a king-sized bed.
And here you are, you think your life is so bad.
You think your life is just so miserable
because you don't have all these things.
Go to countries where it's actually difficult to live.
You don't realize how spoiled you are.
And you know, myself included.
I grew up in America.
I know what it's like to have all these luxuries,
but I didn't really experience it firsthand
until I went to other countries like this.
And you see it firsthand.
You know, most people's house,
especially in these poorer areas,
it's just a small shack.
It's like your shed.
But you know, the shed in your backyard is probably nicer.
Isn't that sad?
I mean, a lot of people's houses are made of bamboo.
It's just like whatever they found in the forest,
they just kind of structure the house together.
It's just bamboo.
If they could afford it,
they can have like a metal roof.
It's like, that's it.
It's super small a lot of the times.
There's not air conditioning.
You think if you go to most people's houses,
you're gonna experience air conditioning?
No, I mean, if you go to the malls and stuff like that,
yeah, it's there, but not for most people.
They live in like free government areas,
just living under the big electrical towers.
They live under that because it's free.
And guess what?
They don't even have electricity.
There's no power just running to their house.
They don't have running water.
If they want water at their house,
they have to carry it from down the road to their house.
They have to fill it up from their neighbor.
So again, you think you have it rough,
but you don't really know.
They're help. They're like free because you hear about the countries like this. They have like free health care
This sounds so great. Yeah, the free health care in the Philippines is you can go see a doctor
And you might have to wait hours to even talk to one
And you know if you want any medicine that part's not free
If you want any surgery that part's not free. So if you actually need real medical help, you can't afford it
You know a lot of people in the Philippines
If they can't pay the bill, you don't get treatment.
And you just wither away and you die.
And it's sad.
You know, practically, it seems like every month,
down our street, you have people putting up their banners
and stuff because they lost a loved one.
And so don't be fooled by this Democrat leftist system
pushing all this free healthcare and free college
or something like it actually works.
You go to other countries
and they have all these free government benefits.
It's terrible. It doesn't work. And a lot of people are just left out just to die.
I looked up the life expectancy in the Philippines.
72 years. Was there life expectancy? Which I didn't think was too bad.
In the U.S. it's 77. So that doesn't really show how poor it is.
But you know in America when it comes to getting medical treatment a lot of times you can go get treated and you pay later
Or you just don't pay you could just not pay your medical bill and a lot of times
It doesn't even go on your credit and at least you got treated in the Philippines. It's like it's no money. No treatment
And it's hard
you know my my family growing up they're they're telling me when
Back when they're living out in the mountain just doing farming and stuff like that, you know, they're so poor
Their coffee was corn and you're like wait
Corn has caffeine in it. No, it doesn't
But you know, it's a common commodity. It's super cheap is corn
So I guess they just like roast the corn till it's burnt like like black coffee beans and they grind it up
And they strain it and that's their coffee say, but why don't they just buy coffee? Don't they have coffee here?
Yeah, they have coffee
But you know, a lot of people, they can't afford it,
so their version of coffee is corn.
And here we are, you can just drive,
you can go to Starbucks, sit in your air conditioned car,
get this big coffee, it tastes so good,
you don't even gotta leave your car.
And it's relatively cheap for how much you make.
Do you think people in other nations are living like that?
No, there are so many other nations,
they don't get to experience things like that.
You know, you've been just basic things like diapers.
You know, a lot of Americans complain like,
oh man, you got to change all these diapers.
Well, you know, you should be thankful you have diapers.
Cause what would be the alternative
if you couldn't afford diapers for your children?
How are you going to work that out?
I don't want to know.
I mean, the cheaper alternative, right, is cloth diapers.
But you know why a lot of moms don't do that?
Cause it's disgusting.
And it's a lot of work and it's a lot of laundry, right?
Sure, it's cheaper.
But again, a lot of people in these other countries,
they're not buying diapers.
They might use some type of cloth diaper.
It's crazy cause you'll just be traveling down.
the road in the Philippines you'll just see naked babies on the street and it's
like it just breaks your heart a lot of them don't even have
just your basic needs you know a lot of their roads are very small
so it's just hard to travel around there's so much traffic
and you know even just basic things like flooding
They get flooded so easily, especially in Manila.
You have to thank all these people that designed
all of our roads here and all your communities
where they actually have proper drainage,
just for something basic like that.
Like in the Philippines, they have rainy season,
which is like six months.
So if you can call it a season,
there's two seasons in the Philippines.
There's hot and hot and rainy.
Their summer is now, so it starts in March, April, May.
And then after that, it's typhoon season.
It's just rainy season,
and they're just constantly getting flooded.
And it's life is very difficult,
because when it's starting to flood,
you can't even leave your house.
A lot of schools like this can't even go to school.
The teachers can't travel to school,
so a lot of things are just canceled.
You know, one story about my father-in-law.
We know whenever he was a kid,
whenever he was walking to school,
he would literally take off his shoes,
which I think it was even just flip flops.
There's not even like nice shoes.
He would take off his flip flops
and walk barefoot to school.
And you know why?
It's to extend the life of his flip flops.
Cause that's, that's all that he had.
So it's like, you're just barefoot.
That way you can actually preserve your flip flops
a little bit longer.
And here we are, you go in your closet
and you got 20 pairs of shoes.
And you can't even wear them all if you wanted to.
You know, his backpack was just like a plastic bag.
Like your Walmart bag, that was their backpack.
You know, my wife probably don't want me to say this,
but you know, the first time my wife had like a birthday cake
when she was 18 years old.
And you know who paid for it?
She did.
So again, I'm telling you about all these things
is just to show you what it's really like for other people.
You know, I know especially for myself,
growing up in America,
you don't really experience other cultures that much.
You hear about it in school,
when you're reading books and things like that,
you might see videos or something,
but it's different when you actually live it,
when you actually see it firsthand,
and it really just causes you to be thankful.
You know, and I'm not giving all these things
is to try to like shame you because you have a lot.
Because again, you know,
if God is giving you all these blessings, that's great.
And we should be thankful for that.
We should be content with whatever we have,
but I want to help you understand.
I want to help you realize how difficult life is
for other people.
We have it so good in America.
Anything you want.
I mean, if you wanna just go work really hard
and start a new career,
I mean, this is the land of dreams here.
This is the land of opportunity.
I mean, so many people, you know why they moved to America?
So they can make good money.
You know, I'm very confused when I go to the Philippines
because you see how poor it is.
But anywhere you go, there's like these massive malls.
And you're like, who can afford to shop here?
because a lot of people, they can't.
You know, when it comes to like, we take it for granted
because you can just go down the street,
you can get McDonald's anytime you want.
And we look at that as a trash meal
because, you know, it is trash.
But it's like, do you think people in the Philippines,
it's like, they're just getting McDonald's
anytime they want.
It's like, no, their McDonald's is like once a year
on their birthday if they're lucky.
Okay.
but it's confusing to me because you see all these malls
like who can shop here, right?
But again, they have a lot of overseas workers.
So they'll go to college or they'll get special training
in the Philippines and then they'll leave.
Because if you ever want to make money, you have to leave.
And so I think a lot of times what happens
is they send money back to their family
and now their family can have a nicer life
and be able to enjoy all these things.
And so, and I don't really blame them either,
because if I was growing up in the Philippines,
that would be my goal is to get out,
because life is very difficult there.
It's really hard to survive.
I know for my wife, in order for her
to be able to go to college,
her family had to like sell their cow
because that was their like life savings, was a cow.
That's the Filipino bank account, is your livestock.
You know what it talks about in Proverbs,
how the, I can't quote it off the top of my head,
but the price of a man's field is all the livestock,
all the goats and all that.
It's like, that's the Philippines.
It's like, your savings account is your livestock,
but they literally had to sell the cow
to put her in college.
because that's what it's like for a lot of people.
And again, I wanna explain all these things to you
so you would realize how good you have it
and also how you should also be ready
to pity the poor as well.
That we wouldn't be so high-minded,
but that we would look at other people
and see their struggles
and we would have care and compassion for them as well.
It says in Psalms 41,
It says in verse number one,
blessed is he that considereth the poor,
the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.
So it is a Christian virtue
that we would consider the poor,
that we would have pity and compassion towards people
that are struggling.
And if we're able to,
we should be willing to help them.
Now, obviously, if you are not able to,
you don't have to feel bad about not being able to give.
If you have no money in your bank account,
you don't have to feel bad about not giving.
But if God has blessed you with so much
and you're able to give,
then you should be willing to share that with others.
Go to Psalm 107.
Psalm 107.
So when we're talking about lessons from the Philippines,
Again, there's only two main points.
We're talking about the poverty.
We're talking about how rough,
how difficult life is in the Philippines.
Psalm 107, look at verse number eight,
says, oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness
and for his wonderful works to the children of men.
Wouldn't it be great if God's people
would just praise the Lord for his goodness?
Wouldn't it be great if God's people would just be thankful for everything God has given them?
Because again, you grew up in a spoiled life.
And let's face it, Americans are very spoiled.
I have been very spoiled my entire life.
You know, thankfully my family,
we didn't have a lot of money growing up,
but hey, they took us out to eat all the time.
We got to have fun toys.
We are so many things we got to enjoy,
even though we weren't really well off.
And I think that's true for most of the people
in this room today.
From a child, you got to grow up
and you got to have a very comfortable life.
Things are easy for you.
And you probably had parents that loved you
and they poured out their heart and soul and effort
and energy to provide for you all these things
so you could have a nice life.
You know, you kids should be very thankful for your parents
for everything that they've given you
because they have given you so much.
You know, you kids, a lot of times you can get so spoiled,
you think your life is so hard.
I wish you could take a trip to these poor countries
and you could see what hard is.
You think it's hard
because you didn't get your favorite video game.
You think it's hard
because you didn't get to eat out at your favorite restaurant.
You think it's hard
because you didn't get to watch your TV show on your iPad.
Well, I got news for you kids.
There's a lot of kids in this world.
They don't have an iPad.
They don't have a phone.
They have nothing.
They actually have to work hard.
They help pitch in with their family.
It's a family unit where they're all helping each other.
You're helping cleaning, they're helping cooking,
and that's life for them.
You know, and you should be thankful
for what your parents has given you
and, you know, help them where you can.
Don't be the spoiled brat who's so entitled
you think you are owed all these things.
You don't know what it's like for other people in this world.
And I think as Christians, we shouldn't be complaining so much of how bad we have it,
especially as Americans, because you have it great.
And I think that's a good thing for every person in America should do.
Go to a poor country.
See what it's like, because you're going to come back, you know, like, wow.
I mean, I know personally, just one thing I took for granted is having a hot shower.
See, you don't understand because you probably haven't had to go without a hot shower in
most of your life, right?
But when you're dumping cold water from a bucket on you, that's how you're taking a
shower.
When you can go stay at a hotel and actually have hot water, not only hot water, have
water pressure.
Cause that's also nice too.
It's like, you just forget.
Cause for us, it's just everyday life.
Every day you just get to wake up.
You got your cell phone with all your 10 alarms on it
and you can jump into your shower
and you have a hot shower
and you can go in your car
and you have air conditioning and a heater.
And it's like, you take it for granted.
But then you go to these other places
like they have nothing.
It's very humbling.
It really helps your eyes to be open.
And so as Christians, that's really the main point
is that we shouldn't be complaining of how bad our life is.
You should be thankful to God for every blessing
He has given you.
Because if you start counting your blessings,
you will realize when it's summertime
and you look at your air conditioner,
you'd be given that thing, a big hug,
like, thank you so much.
I'm so glad I have air conditioning.
Because it's a big deal.
I mean, go in the Philippines.
is hot. It's pretty much like Texas just without winter. It's just hot all year
round and when it's not hot it's raining and humid.
It's like the only way to survive in the Philippines,
you need to have an electric fan with you at all times.
Just blowing hot air at your face
to alleviate some of the sweat.
Like it is rough.
And I grew up in Texas pretty much my whole life
and it's still hard there.
Cause even in Texas, although it's so hot,
you know, a lot of you are probably even cold right now
cause you're in an air conditioned building.
And when you leave,
you go in your climate controlled car.
So even though it's hot in Texas,
It's still not that bad,
because at least you can go hide somewhere and cool down.
There's, that's not such a common thing in the Philippines.
You have to travel far and you can go in their Jollibee
or something and get some air conditioning.
Their version of McDonald's would be Jollibee.
And that blew my mind when I first got to the Philippines
because you're going to fast food places
and you're like, okay, they have burgers.
They have chicken.
They have spaghetti and rice all at the same place.
It's like, what kind of a menu is this?
Anywhere you go, it's like, you go to McDonald's,
you get a side of rice with your fries, you know?
So, go in your Bibles to Luke chapter number 16.
Luke chapter number 16.
Hey, how about when it comes to complaining?
How about it when it comes to church?
You don't complain about church events.
Cause you know, it's super annoying,
especially being in leadership.
You spend all this time planning, buying all this food
in order to all the, for all the brethren
to have a good time of fellowship together.
And there's going to be like,
I don't know, like a barbecue brass or something like that.
And then people at church are like,
ugh, they didn't have the barbecue I wanted.
Ugh, I wasn't allowed to get a water bottle.
Oh, why don't they have this soda?
They only have Coke and Sprite.
I want this one.
It's like, shut up.
You have it so good.
And your pastor is giving you all these.
It's free too.
Why would you complain about something being free?
It's like, what?
You literally did nothing for that.
You showed up, everything was planned for you,
and then you complain about it.
Oh, they didn't have the style of pizza.
Hello?
It's like, people are on the Philippines,
they're not eating pizza.
You know, I love it because we take some of the kids
to church with us.
You know, they are so thankful they get to go have pizza
or they get to partake in fellowships and stuff like that.
You know how many times I hear Filipinos complaining
about food?
Never.
Because they're happy, they have food to eat.
And here you are, you have everything.
but you're still not happy with it.
I think sometimes maybe it's good for us to be restricted
and we're not able to have things
so you actually know what it's like.
And I think a lot of us, they don't.
You know, you see what real poverty looks like in the Bible?
I mean, you see famine.
I mean, you see people eating their children.
You see people in slavery.
Like that's what it's like to have real poverty.
So again, Americans are very spoiled
because we haven't really had to go through these things.
Luke 16, look at verse number 19.
There was a certain rich man
which was clothed in purple and fine-linted
and fared sumptuously every day.
And you know what, when I'm reading that verse,
that's what I think about for Americans.
because we are rich, we have nice clothing,
we have purple and fine linen,
and you get to fare sumptuously every day.
See, living in America before getting culture
and all these things, you take these things for granted,
you look at Luke 16, you're like, man,
that would be so nice to be this rich man,
and you don't really view yourself as that way.
You don't look at yourself as a rich man
because you're like, I don't have all this money.
I get to fare some seriously every day.
When in fact you do, you can walk into any grocery store
and you get to pick of all these things
and you get to whatever you want to eat.
You can just walk into fast food or grocery store
and you get to fare some seriously every day.
So I want to help you wake up.
You're the rich man.
You're the rich man as God has blessed.
with everything.
You get to fare sumptuously every day
when a lot of people all over the world,
they don't get to experience like that.
Go to Luke chapter number 12.
Luke chapter number 12.
Because again, I think when us as Americans
are reading about the rich people,
you're like, that's not me.
I don't have a big mansion.
I'm not this rich celebrity with millions of dollars.
Like that's how we view rich men.
Yeah, in the Philippines they look at a rich man is oh you have a car
You're rich
See when I'm driving around the Philippines all the kids are asking me like oh wow you're rich you have a car
I'm like I'm not rich like I have nothing. I have negative money. I'm in debt. Okay. That's how I got the car
It's dead. I don't own it. All right, so for me. It's like I don't look at myself as rich
But they're like no you have a car so you're rich
You have a vehicle.
Luke 12, look at verse number 16.
And he spake a parable unto them saying,
the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully.
And he thought with himself saying,
what shall I do because I have no room
where to bestow my fruits?
And he said, this will I do,
I will pull down my barns and build greater.
And there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
So we're seeing this parable you have this rich man,
he's making money.
I mean, he's bringing on the bacon.
I mean, he's this farmer and he's just getting
this great harvest.
He's like, I don't have anywhere to put all my goods.
So I need to rip down all my barns and build bigger ones
so I can store all of these resources,
all of this money, all of this food.
You know, that's what I think about in America.
Cause you literally don't even have enough room
in your house for your stuff.
You have a garage full of stuff.
And it's just, you've hoarded so many things,
you have nowhere to bestow your goods.
So you know, you have to do,
you have to put it in a storage unit.
You know, maybe I have,
I don't think I've seen a single storage unit in the Philippines.
I'm sure they're there, but it's not a common thing.
It's like, you're gonna pay extra rent to put your stuff.
They're like, I don't have it.
Why would I need a storage unit for the stuff I don't have?
But in America again, you're the rich man
You're this person you don't even have enough room in your house for all the things that you're buying
And you just need a bigger house and you need more things a bigger garage
You know the two-car garage is not enough you have too many cars now you need a third a third car garage
Which again, I'm not trying to shame you if you have a lot of things
That's great if God has given you things, but I want you realize you're the rich man
God has blessed you plentifully. Well, you just have a great abundance. I really just want you to be thankful
I want you to be content with what God has given you
You know being in the Philippines is very humbling because I honestly feel terrible
living and I'm not talking about like my living situation.
I'm doing okay.
You know, thank God this church is here
and Pastor Shelley has been supporting me
where I can live a nice life in the Philippines.
So don't worry about me.
I'm doing okay, but you should be more concerned
with the people there or people in other countries.
You know, thank God I'm able to have an American salary
and I'm able to do well in the Philippines.
But that's why it makes me feel terrible
I get to go to the grocery store and buy, you know,
relatively whatever I want,
I can go in the grocery store and buy a few pounds of meat.
You know, it's funny because when I'm stocking up food
for the week, they're like, oh, are you having a party?
It's like, no, it's like, I have a big family.
So yeah, I need a decent amount of food.
But for them, it's like, you're getting a few pounds,
a few kilos of meat, you must be having a party.
So it's very humbling to live there
because you're looking at people living in extreme poverty
and just makes you feel terrible.
Because here I am, I get to have meat every night
and my neighbor's begging for my scraps, essentially.
You know, there's I think we had some like fish heads that nobody wanted to eat
Which is saying a lot in the Philippines because they eat everything. I mean chicken wings
There is no meat left on that. The whole thing's gone
It's clean because they actually finished their food because they're thankful for the food that they have
But it's like our neighbor is asking for our leftover fish heads and that's hard
Because you're like I didn't even want to eat this. I was gonna throw it into the trash
I was gonna give it to our dogs and the neighbors want that for their dinner and
That's hard and that's why I said it's difficult living in the Philippines
We actually have decent amount of money because you see what what people were actually struggling with and it really just breaks your heart
And I wish I had more, so I could help other people
that are working really hard.
It's not like all these people are super lazy.
No, in fact, a lot of them are really hard workers,
but they're just not making enough.
Maybe because they can't afford to go to college,
they don't have a skilled career,
so it's really high, it's really hard to get by.
Now, here's the thing, even though it is a poorer country,
We're kind of looking a lot of the negative sides about it being poor. There's still a lot of positives as well
because a lot of people they don't have enough
They're forced to work hard and if you look at the Filipino people, they're really strong
because they have to be.
I mean, it's just survival mode there.
They're carrying jugs of water to their house every day.
I mean, they're doing lots of physical manual work
where they're physically and just mentally tough.
And you know what one thing I noticed there,
because you look at it like, wow,
it must be so difficult there and it is,
but the people there, they're very humble.
I mean, you go to the Philippines,
there's some of the nicest people you ever meet.
They're so humble. They're ready to share what they have with you. That's what blows my mind because
People be offering me food and stuff. It's like you already don't have anything, but then you're offering stuff to me
It's like why but that's just their culture
Even though they don't have a lot a lot of people choose to be happy
And I think that's one positive thing is because when you're forced to work hard, it caused you to be disciplined and you just end up, you know, being content with what you have as well.
You just become a hard worker and I think that's one of the reasons why it's such a receptive country.
is because they're forced to work hard,
they are a humble people.
So it ends up being a very receptive country
when it comes to the gospel.
Go to, in your Bibles, to James chapter number two.
James chapter number two.
I know you might've been hoping
for a shorter sermon on a Wednesday night,
but here's the thing.
Pastor Shelley ordained me.
So his spirit passed off over to me.
So I'm pretty, I didn't do the math,
but I'm pretty sure once I left here to go to Houston,
my sermons got longer.
I don't know.
That was after the ordination.
So Matthew five, look at verse number three,
blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
You know, poor people, humble people,
these are the most receptive people to get saved.
and blessed are the poor in spirit.
People that are meek and lowly,
they need to depend on God
because they don't have anything else.
They don't have physical things they can depend on
so they trust in the Lord.
James two, look at verse number five.
Harken my beloved brother and hath not God chosen
the poor of this world rich in faith
and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them
that love him.
So the Bible specifically says, look, poor people,
they have a lot of faith.
And if you go soul-warning in poor areas, you realize you get a lot more people's aid in poor areas.
It's kind of a downer, right?
When you were driving in the neighborhood
and you see all the big houses, you're like, oh man,
we're not getting anyone saved here.
Maybe a couple.
I don't have the attitude, okay?
You're still gonna get people saved.
But you do realize there's a big difference
when you're going to the ghetto,
when you're going to the poor,
you're more excited because you know,
hey, there's more people that are gonna get saved here.
And that's what God has said,
that the poor of this world are rich in faith.
Poor people are more receptive,
to the gospel. And so I spent the majority of the time talking about poverty in the Philippines,
but like I said, there's two main points I want to talk about. The second one is about
the soul winning here. And I just want to give you some practical information about the soul
winning in the Philippines. And I believe the Philippines is probably one of the most receptive
places you can go in the world.
I mean, it's on par with other places in Africa,
like Botswana and Malawi and Bahamas, right?
I know some of you have gone to the Bahamas
and it's super receptive going down to Mexico.
And you know why a lot of these places are more receptive?
Cause they're poor and therefore they're rich in faith.
And I think that's why the Philippines
is such a great place for soul winning
cause it is a very poor country
and it's filled with these humble people
and they're hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
And another benefit of the Philippines,
it's a Catholic nation.
Everything, wait, is it a good thing to be Catholic?
Well, not necessarily,
but it's better than being a Muslim nation.
Okay, go to Iraq, go to Afghanistan,
go try to preach the gospel there.
I don't know if you're gonna make it back
on that message of go to North Korea, okay?
So relatively speaking, yes,
it's better that it's a Catholic country.
And so that actually helps you
when you're preaching the gospel.
See, a lot of times when you're preaching the gospel in the Philippines,
most of the people you're talking to are Catholic.
I think it's around 80% or so are Catholic.
They got a decent Muslim child there, I think around 10% or so,
and then they just have other types of Christian churches.
Some of the famous ones are Baptists.
They have Pentecostal churches like Born Again,
and they have Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses,
and they have another one that's pretty much like a Mormon.
It's called INC. It's called Iglesia Ni Cristo.
which is essentially another Mormon cult.
But again, the majority of the people
you're talking to are Catholic.
And you know it's great, you know,
in Dallas Fort Worth, if you knock on their door
and they're Catholic, they're probably gonna get saved
if they'll listen to the gospel, right?
Cause it's, they already believe the Bible,
generally speaking, they know the basics.
They know sin, they know hell, they know heaven,
they know the Trinity.
So really you're just kind of correcting them
on work salvation.
All they really need is your basic fundamentals
like John 316 and you're just switching them.
So it's not by works, it's by grace through faith.
And so a lot of times you could spend 10, 15, 20 minutes
and they change their mind like that
and it's very easy to get them saved.
That's why you see this,
the soul winning numbers in the Philippines is so high
cause it's really easy to get them saved.
They're so close to the truth.
And a lot of them, if you ask them,
hey, can I show you the gospel?
They say yes, especially if you're a foreigner.
So in America, you're not special, you know, nobody cares about you,
where you're from, because we have like every race and every country in the
world in America. But in the Philippines, they have
few foreigners. So if you're a foreigner, you're just
immediate celebrity, right? They want to talk to you, especially the kids at
these parks. We joke around like white privilege
here in America because it's fake. There's no white privilege.
that's why it's funny, but in the Philippines there is white privilege. If you're a foreigner,
they actually do treat you better, especially the students. Like they're excited to talk to you
in English. So I've had people like, hey, come talk to our group. Like they want to see what I'm
preaching. So they are very receptive and they want to talk to you. I'm actually kind of surprised
now. I guess I've been spoiled for the last year because oftentimes I go up to people
And you know, you do get rejected, but it's very rare.
So when I get rejected, I'm like,
hey, can I show you how to go to heaven?
They're like, oh, that's okay.
And a lot of times they're very nice about it.
But I'm like, wait, what?
What just happened?
Like, did I just get rejected?
Cause it just doesn't happen that often there.
Again, it does, but you're just talking to so many people.
And that's one of the big differences
of so many in the Philippines.
You get physically tired of talking.
Cause America, you get tired of walking.
You knock doors for an hour and you talk to one,
you gave a verse to one person sometimes
and you didn't get anybody saved.
You didn't even get to talk to anybody
except for your soul winning partner.
And the Philippines, it's just nonstop talking.
If you're going to these public parks,
you have unlimited amount of soul winning.
So it's like you talk as much as you can to you can't talk anymore
So it's physically exhausting just from talking so much. I mean you could literally preach the gospel for four
You know eight hours straight and you still have more people to talk to here
you don't really have that same kind of a problem and
another benefit is
English is their second language. So it's a great place to
Send Americans or people to speak English because you don't necessarily have to learn the language to get started
Now it is going to benefit you, like you're going to get a lot more people saved if you
learn their language.
So it is still beneficial, but especially if you're taking like a mission strip there,
the great part is you don't have to worry about the English barrier because there's
so many people you can communicate with.
And you know, if you're able to take trips there, I highly recommend it because it's
going to be very fruitful for you.
And like I said, they love foreigners and they're very friendly.
There's some of the most kind people you will ever meet.
Even if they reject you, they're still friendly about it.
It's not like in America, it's like,
I just came from church, go, go away.
It's like they shut the door to it.
It's like, what kind of a church you go to?
They call this a hate cult.
It's like, you're going there in the name of Jesus Christ.
It's like, it sounds like they're going to a hate cult.
Right?
But you know even your rejection they're they're friendly about you know, it's funny because you'll
The one downside I will let you know if you're going so many in the Philippines that there are so many faggots there and
They're the worst type of faggots because it's a bunch of you know
But to transvestites but to he she's you know
And so they're just gross.
It's disgusting.
You have these men wearing makeup and lists.
It's like, it just makes me want to throw up
even talking about it.
And if you're talking to a group of like four or five,
six people, yeah, there's probably a homo in there
unless you just got the gold mine.
But yeah, if you're preaching to groups in the Philippines
you're going to have to bear,
you're going to have to suffer with talking to sodomites.
I just pretty much ignore them and talk to the other ones.
But what's funny is,
After you get them saved,
sometimes you'll handle the Sodomite Deception card.
Brother James has been hooking us up with those deliveries.
We've been passing a lot of those movie tickets out.
And you'll just be like, yeah, Leviticus 2013,
says they're gross and disgusting, they're worthy of death,
and that they hate God and their children of the devil.
And you think they'll be all pissed off at you
at this point, right?
But they're like, all right, thanks for your time.
Can we take a picture?
So even when you just like rebuke them straight to their face
and just tell them how disgusting they are,
they're still friendly.
It's like, you know, America, they're probably gonna fight you.
So it's interesting dynamic.
But you know, in the Philippines,
they're hungry and thirsting after righteousness.
I think one of the hard things getting through
with a lot of Filipinos,
it's hard for them to be sure they're going to heaven
because they just think they're too sinful.
And America's the opposite.
Like they think they're too good.
Like, oh, I'm a good person.
So I'm going to heaven.
You preach in the gospel and like you,
you show them it's just by faith
and God will forgive you all your sins.
And once you're saved, you're always saved.
And you pray with them.
And it's a common thing.
They're like, so are you sure you're going to heaven now?
Like, I don't know.
Cause I'm, I'm pretty sinful.
It's like.
Hello, he died for your sins like we're all too sinful, but thank God for his grace
So it's a different dynamic like they think they're just these terrible people. It's like you're in middle school
You haven't done you're not that bad like
But that's just that's how they view themselves
And I will say this, you know door-to-door is more receptive in the Philippines, but door-to-door
It's better if you're gonna actually know the language
If you want to get a lot of people saved,
you want to go to the parks
because the parks are filled with the students.
They've been studying English in school.
And so that's the perfect age to preach to them
when they're a teenager.
Because if they're really young,
they probably haven't had much English in school.
So it kind of helps if they're in middle school or later.
Like if you're talking to college students, it's great.
You know, sometimes here in America,
if you're talking to the college students, like,
oh, great, he's just this puffed up, prideful person.
They don't want to hear about it.
Some of them can be very receptive.
Don't get me wrong.
But there it's like, they're in college,
but it's very receptive and their English is super good.
So it's easy to get them safe.
And so go to Mark 16, we'll close it off there.
Mark's chapter 16.
So those are some of the reasons why the Philippines is very receptive.
It's a poor country, the people are very humble.
It's easy to get them saved.
They're pretty much like a lot of Catholics where they're Catholic and name only.
They go to the Catholic Church like once a year, if that.
So they're not really dedicated or committed to the Catholic Church.
It's really easy to get them to change their mind.
And they already understand a lot of the gospel,
so there's really just a few things you need to correct them on.
Mark 16, look at verse number 15,
and he said unto them,
go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature.
You know, it's our job as Christians,
not just to preach the gospel to people in our area,
but the Bible says to every creature.
That means people all over the world.
all over Texas, all over America, you know,
Canada, even that, you can go there too.
Everywhere in the Philippines,
we need soul winners all around the world.
You know, and our ministry would not be able
to exist without this church here.
We need steadfast Baptist church.
You know, we see these big soul winning numbers.
We haven't finished our first year yet,
so we moved there in March.
And so from March to February, we've had 4,319 salvations.
So I'm still got the rest of March to do.
You guys are probably gonna beat me this month
because I'm here on vacation, so.
I like Pastor Shelley though.
Now we got some, you know, competition going out.
So now I know the numbers I need to beat.
So I can, that was my goal this last year.
It's like, I'm going to see if I could beat steadfast, you know,
and praise God, you know,
the last year we've able to get over 4,000 salvations.
And it's not a hundred percent me.
Obviously my family helps.
Brother James is pitched into a lot of those as well.
But you can just see how fruitful it is.
I think.
By the end of the month, we'll have close to 4,500 salvations.
And so there's a big opportunity to go to the Philippines and it's perfect for
America to start churches in because it doesn't require the same amount of
resources as it would to go to other countries that would
require more of an investment. So really we need missionaries all over
the world, but I think the Philippines just makes sense.
It's like, I'm glad Pastor Shelley isn't trying to send me
to North Korea.
It's like, oh, it's okay, I'll just stay here.
I'll come back to steadfast.
I believe in common sense missions, you know?
Go to places that actually make sense.
Go to places that you know the language.
You know, don't be a missionary
and you spend like the first years
trying to learn the language
and you can't even talk to someone.
And we see a lot of missionaries not getting any work done.
and it's sad.
And that's why we need churches,
we need steadfast churches to be able to support
sending out other missionaries, other Baptists
so we can start more churches all over the world.
Let's not lose sight of our goal.
Our goal as a church,
is to share the gospel with the entire world.
And only we're gonna do that,
we need to have like our home base,
we need to have a steadfast group of people.
It's really amazing being a part of this church
for the last decade.
I started going to church here in 2016.
And just to see the zeal
and how many people had just been steadfast
through thick and thin, through thick and thin,
through all the trials this church has gone through.
And don't forget how important your job is
as a church member here, as a soul in here.
Not only to do the work in the area,
but by you being a part of this church,
you're helping missions go all over the world.
You're helping churches get started all over the world.
And I believe you'll get rewarded for that as well.
And so don't take it for granted.
You being here in this church is very important.
and you are doing the work of God.
And you know, we need you to stay here as well.
We can't send you all to the Philippines
because nobody's gonna support you, okay?
You know, we need people here to preach to white people.
I know it's hard, but white people can get saved too, okay?
Okay.
It's better if they're not white, you know?
If I see a white person in the Philippines,
I'm just avoiding you,
because I'm gonna go find the brown people
that wanna hear the gospel, okay?
And so, but we need this church to be here.
And so, you guys need to be steadfast.
You need to support the ministry here.
You need to support your pastor,
because a great work is being done.
Not only in this church, but if we can help store other churches all over the world, who knows what will be in five years?
10 years and 20 years, but you have to be steadfast.
you have to be putting in the work here
and not fall out when things get tough,
to not just be a quitter, okay?
So I wanted to give you some practical lessons
from the Philippines.
Again, how poor it is.
And we should have compassion for that.
And you know, if you have the ability
to help other people, then God bless you.
But you know what, I think everyone in here,
God has given you so many things,
so you should never be complaining.
You should be so thankful for everything.
I mean, you should go home tonight
and just look at everything in your house.
You get to have a couch.
You have cushions on your couch.
You have a ceiling fan.
It's like, you have a nice, you know, sealed off room.
You have it so good.
So don't get discontentment stuck in your heart.
Don't get the love of money,
the root of all evil in your heart.
Don't be covetous.
Just be thankful for everything that God has given you because if you start to be disconsent,
you can start getting bitter towards God and you can end up, you know, falling out into that snare.
And also, we want to keep the hard work and soul winning. You want to continue to do the soul
winning at this church. I mean, this church is reaching thousands of people every single year.
And this church has the capacity to help the gospel go into the entire world.
And so that's our job as Christians to go preach the gospel to every creature.
That's about our heads for order prayer.
Thank you, Lord, so much for this church.
Lord, without it, we especially couldn't do our ministry
in the Philippines.
And I just pray you continue to bless this church,
bless the people of this church,
that they'd remain steadfast in the faith,
bless Pastor Shelley and his family,
that you would help them as well,
just to do well in the ministry,
and just please bless him,
all the battles that he's gone through.
and bless him for his faithfulness, Lord,
and his service to you and for the brethren here,
and help the church members here just to be thankful
for all that their pastor does
and all the work that this church is doing.
And we love you, Lord, and we just ask this
in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, song number 377, fitting song after this sermon.
Rescue the perishing, song number 377.
It's all singing out together on the first.
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
snatch them in pity for the same.
There for the dying, Jesus is personical.
Thank you for watching!
Great singing everybody, you were all dismissed.