you
Please find a seat, grab a hymnal,
and turn to our first hymn, number 153.
How firm a foundation.
Hymn number 153, 153.
How firm a foundation.
153, they're on the first.
Help me.
thank you for this day just for another service to gather together freely this
evening. As this morning and as always Lord I just pray that you would open our
ears to the message that you'd fill brother Eric with your spirit and that
you'd also have your hands on us as we leave and go our separate ways this
evening. These things we pray in Jesus name amen. For our next hymn tonight
140 we have an anchor
140 there on the first
is our Bible memory verse of the week. Genesis chapter number one, verse four.
Keep working hard on that. Of course, at the end of the whole chapter, if you could
quote the whole thing, there'll be a prize. And then for the kids, those under 18,
they can get an ice cream after the Wednesday service. If they quote the verse
of the week perfectly there. On the inside, we have our service times listed.
Sunday morning at 10.30. And of course, this evening at 4.30. And we have brother
of course he spent the last few months in the Philippines and they did a great
work for the Lord over there so he's going to be sharing some of that with us
this evening preaching a sermon about that so make sure to give him your full
attention and encourage him as he preaches
looking forward to that and then of course Wednesday evening our Wednesday
Bible study through Proverbs is at seven o'clock
all of our soul winning times are listed below and those meet here at the church
We had our year-to-date, I'm sorry, we have our year-to-date statistics listed there for
salvations and baptisms and don't forget to report in the Signal Group if you had any
salvations for today. Upcoming events next Sunday evening is the men's preaching night
and there's a sign-up sheet in the back for that. 15-minute sermons is the plan for next Sunday.
Following August 2nd is the Anadarko, Oklahoma soul-winning marathon. There's
also a sign-up sheet for that one as well. August 27th through the 31st,
FBBF at Steadfast Baptist Church and then our big mission trip on October 6th
through the 11th. Make sure if you're going to email Steadfast Baptist Church
letting them know. That way they can plan everything accordingly.
We do have on the right information for visitors there,
our online visitor card,
as well as information about giving online.
Or of course, we could always do a check here as well.
We have our prayer list.
Make sure to keep everyone in prayer.
And if you have any requests, please email us.
We'd be happy to add that for you.
That's gonna be it for announcements this evening.
Let's go ahead and go to our third song together.
Number 257, look and live, 257, for our third hymn this evening, look and live.
257, they're right on the first.
You have a message unto you, my old year.
If you only look to Him, hallelujah, look to Jesus, who alone...
As the offering plates are being passed turn if you would to Matthew chapter number nine
Matthew chapter number nine.
Good evening Matthew 9 the Bible reads and he entered into a ship and passed over and came into
his own city and behold they brought to him a man sick of the palsy lying on a bed and Jesus
seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy son be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee
And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said,
Wherefore, think ye evil in your hearts,
For whether is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee,
Or to say arise and walk.
But that ye may know,
That the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins,
Then saith he to the sick of the palsy, arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.
And he arose and departed to his house, but when the multitudes saw it, they marveled
and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.
He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom, and he saith unto him,
Follow me, and he arose, and followed him.
And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at me in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners
came and sat down with him and his disciples, and when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto
But that jeep but when Jesus heard that he said unto them
They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick
But go ye and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice
For I'm not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance
Then came to him the disciples of John saying why do we in the Pharisees fast off?
but thy disciples fast not, and Jesus said unto them,
can the children of the bride chamber mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them,
but the days will come when the bridegroom
shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
No man puteth a piece of new cloth
unto an old garment, for that which is put in
to fill it up, taketh from the garment.
and the rent is made worse.
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles,
else the bottles break and the wine runneth out
and the bottles perish,
but they put new wine into new bottles
and both are preserved.
While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler and worshipped
him, saying, My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she
shall live.
And Jesus arose and followed him, and so did his disciples, and behold, a woman, which
was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem
If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole."
But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said,
Daughter, be of good comfort.
Thy faith hath made thee whole.
And the woman was made whole from that hour.
And when Jesus came into the ruler's house,
he saw the minstrels and the people making a noise.
He said unto them, Give place, for the maid is not dead,
but sleepeth.
And they laughed him to scorn.
But when the people were put forth he went in and took her by the hand and the maid arose and the fame
Hereof went abroad into all that land and when Jesus departed fence to blind men
Followed him crying and saying thou son of David have mercy on us and when he was come into the house
The blind men came to him and Jesus saith unto them
Believe ye that I am able to do this
They said unto him, yea, Lord, then touch ye their eyes, saying, according to your faith, be it unto you.
And their eyes were opened, and Jesus straightly charged them, saying, see that no man know it.
But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country, and they went out, behold, as they went out, behold,
They brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil, and when the devil was cast out,
the dumb spake in the multitude's marveled, saying, it was never so seen in Israel.
But the Pharisee said, he casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom,
healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.
Then saith he to his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.
Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.
Inspire us for the prayer, Father God. We thank you for this day, our church.
The souls that were saved out today, and we thank you for Eric and Theodore.
to the best of the life still open to the Philippines and for our people of spirit and we thank you for all your spirit for us and we love your peace and effect. Amen.
All right, before I begin, I do want to thank Pastor Oz for this opportunity to be able to preach. It's definitely a great blessing to be able to share my experience here in the Philippines and be able to preach out of this congregation.
I also want to thank everybody here that was praying for us while we're over in the Philippines.
I saw that you guys had us in the prayer list.
So everybody that prayed for us while we were over there, I appreciate it so much. Theodore's still over there.
He's planning on being there for a few more months, so keep praying for him.
And he's doing a great work over there. He's also working a bit.
So keep him in your prayers and thank you guys so much for all the prayers.
This sermon is going to be a little bit different.
then a regular sermon. The first half of the sermon is going to be really me kind of describing
my experience in the Philippines and what the Philippines was like. And then the second half
is going to be kind of some lessons that we can all take away from my experience from my trip over
to the Philippines. You know, something that everybody can take home, some lessons that I
The key verse for this sermon is going to be Matthew chapter 9 verse 36.
We'll go ahead and read it.
The Bible says, but when he saw the multitudes,
he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted
and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.
Now this verse just popped into my mind like when I was in the Philippines just over and over again like over in the Philippines
There's just a multitude of people. There's just so many people and they're just lost
They're just not saved and it just kind of makes you sad
That there's just a lot of people that are not saved and it moves you with compassion
And this verse just popped into my mind over and over just seeing just tons of people
just around about in the Philippines, they're not saved. They're just all over the place,
they're fainting, they don't have a shepherd, they're lost, they're on their way to hell,
and it just kind of moved me. And when we went to the Philippines, the reason why
I went to the Philippines was...
really a mix of reasons.
So Theodore, he took a trip,
he did a missions trip with Verity Baptist Church
in February, I believe.
And he came back with a great report
of how many salvations he had.
He told me that I should go there.
Also, Brother James Perry,
he also invited me multiple times.
He said, hey, come out to the Philippines.
You know, I want to have you out here.
I want a soul winning partner.
And there's just a lot of people saying,
hey, come to the Philippines,
come to the Philippines, come to the Philippines.
And I was just kind of like, what's so great about the Philippines?
Like, I get the salvations, I heard like the numbers are really high,
but I didn't really know a whole lot about the Philippines, but there are,
you know, Pastor Stuckey's over there, Evangelist Urbanix over there,
they've had missions trips, there's all sorts of numbers and stuff that have happened
in the Philippines, so I kind of did a little bit of research
to see what the Philippines was like. Okay, so I've heard all the testimonies
And then I kind of looked up some stats about the Philippines.
I kind of looked up the language and the demographics, the religious demographics.
And in the Philippines, 92.6% of people identify as Christian.
which compared to the US, that's a lot more than the US.
In the US, it's like 62% would consider themselves Christian.
Also in the Philippines, 78.8% would identify as Catholic.
And usually Catholics are really receptive to the gospel
just because they haven't gotten like a whole lot
of indoctrination, just because most Catholics that I know
don't really take church very seriously,
but they would still say that they believe in God.
and that they you know believe the Trinity they know kind of some of the basic facts
and they just don't have too much indoctrination. Now that's a spectrum of course
there are a lot of Catholics that are indoctrinated and that do believe a lot of false doctrines.
But for the most part in the Philippines Catholics are super receptive and also here in the US Catholics are usually really receptive as well
In Oklahoma the stats are 70% Christian and
8% Catholic and Oklahoma is a pretty
Receptive place from my experience. I've gone to a few different states soul winning there
Oklahoma's as receptive as it gets in my opinion in the US
steadfast had a great
receptivity with the Marshallese people in Arkansas.
That's a little bit better than Oklahoma for sure,
but you know, just for regular soul winning,
Oklahoma City is a great place to go soul winning
and it's very receptive here as well.
So what exactly did we do in the Philippines?
Well, Theodore and I, we moved out.
May 21st we went there for two months to July 18th. Theodore is still gonna be
there until October but I was there for 59 days and while we were there
We just did a lot of soul winning.
We did 57 days straight of soul winning.
And we preached in five different cities
on three different islands.
We preached in schools, in prisons.
We also got to support Evangel Sirbanek
with a steadfast Baptist church in the Philippines
with their monthly services.
We got to check them out, support him and encourage him
and everything like that.
So we got to do a lot of stuff
in the Philippines that was great.
The soul winning is a little bit different here than in the US because the soul winning
over there, most of the soul winning that we're doing is in parks.
Just because in the parks, there's just hundreds of people, sometimes literally thousands of
people hanging out in the parks.
And it's just a great opportunity to go up and preach the gospel to groups because usually
at the parks, there's just a bunch of younger people, school kids, college kids.
really receptive people that we can reach.
And the soul winning is also a little bit different
because English is not the first language there.
So it's very difficult sometimes
to preach the gospel to somebody
just because you can't tell how good their English is.
because most people in the Philippines have really bad spoken English,
but their hearing in English, their understanding in English is pretty good
for the most part just because everything in the Philippines is in English,
like all the signs are in English, the menus are in English.
That's because the US had colonized them in the early 1900s up until World War II,
and there's just a big American influence.
in the Philippines as well. So the soul-winning, you know, we can do it in English. It's obviously
better if you can know the local languages, but it's definitely doable. It just takes longer
to preach the gospel, especially when you're preaching to groups because you have to make sure
that everyone gets it, everyone understands it. At least everybody that's paying attention.
And it's a big spectrum.
Some groups are a lot easier to preach to,
but mostly it's just you're preaching to groups
and you're preaching in parks.
And that's what we're doing the whole time.
We're going to parks,
preaching to groups of people in the parks.
That's what we're doing, the soul winning.
And.
The total stats that we had in those 57 days of soul winning, Theodore and I had 1143
salvations, and James also had 600 salvations while we were over there, so us three had
a total of 1743 salvations, and that's not including the school preaching that we did
because normally they have questionnaires, but when we did the school preaching,
we were limited to 15 minutes, so we didn't have an opportunity to pass out questionnaires
and check people's salvations. So we didn't count any salvations, but I can guarantee you that some
people were getting saved, and at the very least they were getting a great seed planted of 15 minutes.
That's definitely enough time to get saved. So
It was definitely great work.
Now, how did we count the salvation?
Because we have to keep in mind
that there is a language barrier.
So it's harder to tell for sure
if somebody understood the gospel.
So I think the false conversion rate
would be a little bit higher.
Just because of the language barrier,
people there are typically more agreeable.
They're more willing to agree with you
or try to say yes to everything that you say.
Also, the white skin also I think could also add to a little bit of the false conversions
just because people are just excited to see someone that's white talk to them and they
may give you some extra time even though they're not really paying attention.
They just might go along just because they're talking to a foreigner and that's really cool
to them because a lot of people don't have a lot of money in the Philippines and they
of the Philippines. They're gonna be living in the Philippines for their whole life
and they don't have an opportunity to talk to a foreigner or to talk to somebody that's
white. You know, it's a privilege to them to be able to talk to somebody
that is a foreigner. So there could be some false conversions in that.
But to mitigate that, our presentations were super thorough.
Usually the presentations lasted between 25 and 45 minutes.
Also, when we preached to groups, we tried to check them one-on-one after we preached the gospel to them.
If we didn't have time for that, we would just make a rough estimate, but it would be a super conservative estimate.
You know, if someone was acting suspicious or they were super quiet or they're copying their friends,
you know, we wouldn't count them, even if it's just like a little bit of doubt,
I just wouldn't count them just to be safe. So with all that in mind, we try to be super conservative.
If someone understood it and they told me that they believed it 100% and they prayed the prayer,
I counted them, okay? Could they be lying? Sure, but I think there are also people that got saved
that were not maybe giving me the greatest signals, but I think they still got it.
Because there were times where I was preaching to a group of like six people
It seemed like only maybe one of them got it and then I checked the group all of them got it
So I'm sure there were a lot of people that maybe were giving me weird signals that they ended up getting saved
So I think the number is pretty accurate and I think it's on the conservative side
We also did faggot screening so in the Philippines
LGBT your fags are very popular in the Philippines. They're just everywhere. It's kind of like the US, but I think it's a little bit worse
So just every group that I preached to I asked them is anybody here LGBT?
and they would raise their hands if they were,
and I just didn't count them.
And a lot of times they're super young, like 13 or 14,
so sure, maybe there is an instance
where they say that they're LGBT and they're not
and they really got saved,
but we just didn't count them just to be on the safe side
because the Bible says that they can't be saved.
They cannot believe in Jesus.
So we did that screening as well.
Also, you know, there were instances that these don't count towards our
salvation, but I preached to a group of six bikers, and one of them just had
horrible English. The other five got saved. They got it really well, and I told
them, hey, show your friend that video because the gospel presentation on the
back of the Sodomite deception card has a Bible way to heaven in Tagalog. The
And a few days later, I saw that group again, and they said,
hey, we showed our friend that video in Tagalog, and he prayed the prayer and he got saved.
And it's like, great. So I'm sure that some people are doing that.
So there are more salvations that are happening, not by us, but by people that we get saved,
trying to reach their family members and friends.
There was a group of people that I preached the gospel to and a couple days later at the same spot
They brought their friend to me and I preached the gospel to her and she got saved
They're like hey, our friend is not saved. You should preach the gospel to her
So people are just really receptive over there and they like getting their friends saved
It's it's great
Some other cool salvations that we had over there. There was one time
where I was preaching to a gospel of four college students and like three of them got saved.
But while I'm preaching to this group, there's just this older lady kind of sitting off to the side and she's just watching me
preach the gospel and she keeps making eye contact with me.
And I'm like, I'm gonna talk to this lady afterwards because usually if there's just a single old lady
Out soul winning, I'm just going to be honest, I'm not going to approach her just because
there are just so many opportunities and there's so many big groups of students that are super
receptive that a lot of times I'll just pass over a single person or a family, an older family
because there's just more receptive opportunities out there. And here in the U.S., you take every
opportunity you can get, but in the Philippines, you know, you got to take the best of the best
She was just listening to the gospel. She was watching and I'm going to give her the gospel
and I go over there. She gets most of the questions right, but she's a little off on
eternal security. It was a quick salvation, a quick fix, and it was great. But it was just God that set that up.
There was another instance where a girl was just reading her Bible and she was reading
John chapter 3 and I said, do you know for sure you're going to heaven?
She's like, yes, because the Bible says I just have to believe in Jesus and to be saved.
But then I asked her about eternal security and she's like, no, I can lose my salvation
if I sin or if I do bad sins or something like that.
So I just showed her the Bible, I showed her John 3.16, another very easy salvation.
A lot of people are very receptive, they're trying to get saved, they're reading the Bible,
they just don't know how to get saved. They're just sheep without a shepherd and they just need
someone to show them how to get saved. There is another instance that we had where there was this
church
that we went to, that's also a Bible college.
It's an independent Baptist church.
That's also a Bible college.
And they have like a hundred soul winners
that go out to the park and preach the gospel.
And there were many of those people that we got saved.
We got the soul winners saved.
I mean, the soul winners were super receptive.
They were just off on eternal security
just because some churches just don't.
Teach eternal security enough and you know, that's why we need to hammer home
Eternal security in our gospel presentation
Because if someone does not believe eternal security
They are not saved because they do not believe the record that God has given to us
And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in his son
So we need to preach eternal security
when we're preaching the gospel
because there's a lot of people that we ran into
that were Baptist.
They believed it was faith alone,
but they thought they could lose their salvation.
Someone believes that they're not saved and often times those people were super easy to get saved now
it's a little bit different in America if someone's a Baptist and
You know they're caught up into some false doctrine on losing salvation a lot of times are a little bit more prideful here
And it's harder to get someone who's stuck on eternal security
It's harder to fix them here, but in the Philippines a lot of people are just confused
You know, they just don't know what the Bible says,
they want to know what the Bible says,
and we can show them, and they got saved.
So, the soul winning was awesome.
It's a lot different here than America.
It's a lot more difficult with the language barrier,
but it's definitely worth it just because
there are just so many people there,
and there's just so many opportunities
to preach the gospel.
Now, what was the Philippines like?
Carnally, like I said earlier, there's just English everywhere.
So every single sign is in English, all the menus are in English.
They play American songs all day long, and it's just everything is in English.
Now, not everybody speaks English, but you pretty much have to know a little bit of English or understand English to survive.
And if you're working at a restaurant,
or just any kind of job you pretty much need to know a little bit of English to get by.
The Philippines also has a lot of street food stands and vendors. It's just super crowded.
There's just a lot of people. A lot of people just have their own businesses.
There's a lot less rules and regulations in the Philippines, which can be nice, but it also has its cons.
Because there's a lot of street food vendors that I do not trust. And they have food sitting out.
It's 9 p.m. at night, and they've had the food out for six hours in the heat. It's like, no, thank you.
There's going to be some kind of sickness that I'm getting from that.
So the rules can be nice because it allows you to do a little bit more and you can have
a business with a lot less people breathing on the back of your neck, but it also comes
with its problems.
And there's definitely a lot of problems with the lack of rules and enforcement of rules
in the Philippines.
So that's that's kind of a pro and a con when we were in the Philippines. The main place that we stayed in was Manila and
Manila is one of the most dense cities in the world. I've seen it as number one number two a lot of different sites have their
Own stats, but Manila is super dense. There's just people
Everywhere the housing is horrible. It just looks like it's tin sheets just like slapped together
And it's a house, like 100 square feet,
and you got like multiple generations living it.
The housing conditions are just horrible in Manila.
There's a ton of skyscrapers. The traffic sucks.
It smells bad with all the sewage and all the street vendors.
It's just not an ideal place to live.
You know, I feel bad for the people that live there.
And the weather also is like Houston.
It's a little bit less than that,
but it has the dry season and the wet season.
So the summers and the wet season get pretty brutal over there in Manila.
What were the amenities like?
the Philippines because we were told or I was told that there were a lot of great amenities in the Philippines
That's just like America. Well, here's some amenities that I found
Number one. This just annoyed me so much. There's no trash cans anywhere
So if you have trash, you know, good luck finding a place
Most people just throw their trash on the side of the road, you know, you're stuck with that trash or you have to litter
And I hate littering, so I'm just kind of carrying around this trash all day until I get back to my condo.
It's like, man, just put a couple buckets on the side of the road so we can dump our trash.
It'd make Manila a lot cleaner as well if they could just get rid of the trash.
Here's another one. There's like no paper towels anywhere.
So if you go to the bathroom, if you go to a restaurant, you don't get any paper towels to dry off your hands or to clean off your hands.
If you do get them, it's like single-ply toilet paper that sticks to your hands, so you're just kind of screwed either way.
So I almost just don't want the paper towel if that's what you're gonna give me. So no trash cans. It's super dirty.
There's no paper towels. Paper straws.
you know paper straws are all about money it's not about the environment because the Philippines is
that's what they're using they don't have a lot of money they're using paper straws and they suck
okay so just a lot of things also are just not available that's like the favorite phrase of people
in the Philippines not available i want this on the menu not available what about this not available
It's like, all right, I had rice yesterday.
I guess I'm eating it again.
So just everything just seems like it's not available.
Cell phone data is not available oftentimes.
It's very difficult, very slow.
It's just a lot of things are inconvenient,
inefficient over there.
It's just, it's just not the same as America folks.
Just isn't.
The beef over there is just way lower quality, it has a weird texture, it's just not good.
The food that's like American food that's over there just doesn't taste the same, it's
not very good.
The local food is okay, but...
It's nothing special.
Hot water, air conditioning, water pressure, washers, dryers,
and stuff, those are all super rare.
They're luxuries, only really the rich have them there,
and any American that's going over there.
You know, you can get some of these amenities,
but you have to have American money.
And you don't need a whole lot of American money
to get the amenities, but the amenities are pretty much
exclusively for people that are getting money.
outside of the Philippines or they own some kind of business, you know, there is kind of a middle
class there that has a little bit of money, but a lot of those people are getting money from like
Saudi Arabia or America. They're getting it outside of the Philippines. Most of the people there
do not have a lot of money. The labor is like eight times cheaper in the Philippines, which is great
for a foreigner coming in because I can get Ubers or Grabs for super cheap. I can do a lot of things
But for them, it's very expensive.
So the fact that it's cheaper over there
is not a benefit for them because they
are making way less money than we are.
You know, an electrician makes like $20 a day
in the Philippines, and an electrician
is a pretty good job.
Here in America, you're making decent money.
If you're an electrician, you can easily provide for a family.
But over in the Philippines, $20 a day.
And gas is the same price, if not more, in the Philippines.
A lot of the food is the same price, sometimes more.
You know, it's very difficult for people to live over there.
Additionally, you cannot drink the tap water over there,
unless you want to get diseased or have some kind of issues.
There's a lot of stray dogs, cats, rats, and roaches
that just carry a bunch of diseases.
You know, that's that's exciting. That's a good amenity
flies carry diseases
It's just it's such a great place to live
And you know the person that told me this I kind of realized why he said there's a lot of men amenities
Because he lived in Bulgaria and Houston all his life
So I totally understand why he said the amenities are great over there. It's because that's what he's used to okay, but
You know, there's just not a lot of great amenities over there. I'm sorry folks. It just isn't what some people say it is
Okay, so also pride month is way worse there in the US
So we got stuck behind a pride parade when we were driving and it was awful. I wanted to shoot myself
but
It was just the pride month over there is just horrible.
We picked a bad time to go.
We should have went in like January or something
to stay away from that because there are a lot of faggots
in the Philippines.
And also effeminate music is just always playing
in the streets and in the malls and at parks,
which is just a little bit annoying.
It's just everything is so faggoty and effeminate over there.
It just kind of makes me sick.
But the soul winning is still very good.
And you know, the soul winning is worth it, but there's just a lot of problems in the Philippines and the fags are a huge problem in the Philippines and it's only getting worse because it's a lot of the younger generation that are becoming fags and that are wanting to be fags and trans and all this stuff.
So the Philippines is getting worse and they need a lot of help.
They need a lot of prayers.
They need more soul winners to get those people saved before they go down that path.
and to get people that are maybe friends with fag saved so that way they can avoid their fag
friends. But you know there are some positive amenities but again mostly therefore people
that are foreigners like everything is pretty cheap like most of this stuff is cheaper over there
but again not really for the locals you know for me it's very cheap for americans it's very cheap
But for someone that's a local, for someone that's making 20 bucks a day...
It's not cheap. It's very expensive for them to live.
You know, the malls are very nice, you know,
in a lot of ways they are better than an American mall.
It's just, the air conditioning's really nice in there.
They got every shop that you could ever want.
Every restaurant you could ever want.
So the malls are pretty nice. They're very big,
and there's definitely a lot of money put into the malls.
The parks are very nice, and there's a lot of people in the parks.
The parks are very well maintained.
You know there is kind of a middle class for people that are business owners people that get American money
But that's really it for amenities. There's not really a whole lot there
You know most of these people are living really sad lives, you know, they have bad teeth
They have blemishes. They have diseases just because sanitation is really poor and people are just kind of crammed together
And the housing conditions are very very bad land is very expensive
in the Philippines for whatever reason. A lot of stuff is cheap but land is very expensive
in the Philippines so people are really stuck on a super small lot and they have to live in
multi-generational houses just to survive and it's a very sad situation over there.
Now why is the Philippines so receptive? If you would turn in your bibles to Matthew chapter
I'm going to read there in verse number one, the Bible reads,
Go and show John again those things which you do here and see the blind receive their sight and the lame walk
The lepers are cleansed and the deaf here the dead are raised up and the poor
have the gospel preached to them.
So when Jesus is comforting John the Baptist,
he's saying, hey, you know,
the blind are receiving their sight,
the lame are walking, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf here, the dead are raised,
and the poor have the gospel preached unto them.
The reality is people that are poor
are more receptive to the gospel.
And the Philippines is a very poor country.
So reason number one why the Philippines is so receptive
is because they're poor.
You know, in Luke chapter number four, verse 18, it talks about how Jesus was anointed to preach the gospel to the poor.
Because the poor are a very receptive people, you know, they're often more humble.
They don't have a whole lot.
And they don't have the pride that a lot of rich people do from gaining riches.
So people that are poor are often more receptive.
And that's one of the reasons why the Philippines is more receptive.
Matthew chapter number 19, we'll look there at verse number 14.
The Bible says, but Jesus said suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
Now in the Philippines, you know, the population is a lot younger in general than the United States.
The average population, or the average age, I should say, in the Philippines is 26 years old.
In America, it's 38 to 39 years old.
So the people in the Philippines are a lot younger on average than people in the United States,
and people that are younger are a lot more receptive to the gospel, for of such is the
kingdom of heaven. People that are young, people that are children, they haven't had time to get
a lot of indoctrination. They haven't had time to get brainwashed. Now, yes, a lot of them have
The younger population is more receptive to the gospel.
Even here in America, when I'm preaching the gospel,
when I go soul-winning, the younger people are typically the ones that get saved.
Young adults, teenagers, children are very receptive to the gospel compared to people
that are older, compared to people that are set in their ways, that have lived life.
People that are younger are generally more receptive.
So the Philippines is poor, they're younger.
Mark chapter number 12, we'll start reading there in verse number 35.
The Bible says and Jesus answered and said while he taught in the temple
How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David for David himself said by the Holy Ghost
The Lord said to my Lord sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool
David therefore himself calleth him Lord and whence is he then his son and the common people
heard him gladly. The Philippines is a place where they're kind of in the middle of the pack
for education. There's just a lot of common people. They're hard workers and they're just
kind of normal people. There's not a whole lot of rich people there. You know, they're just common,
hard working, working class people. And these people are more receptive. The common people
heard Jesus gladly. The poor got saved. The people that are young
are the people that are in heaven.
So the Philippines is very poor, they're very young,
they work a lot, they're kind of mid-tier in education.
Go to Acts chapter number two.
Acts chapter number two.
Number four, they have a Christian culture.
You know they allow us to preach the gospel in the schools. There's Bible verses everywhere
You know people are not ashamed to call themselves a Christian
People don't really get offended when you go up and tell them that you're a Christian
You know they have a pretty Christian culture now a lot of it is Catholic and a lot of it is very shallow
But they would at least admit to being Christian and having a Christian culture in a sense many are Catholic
But they're not very indoctrinated
The Philippines also has the second highest independent fundamental Baptist population.
And so there's a lot of Baptists over in the Philippines. It's not a lot.
But there is a pocket of independent Baptists. There are a lot of Baptists over there.
And those people, if they're not saved in the Philippines, they're very receptive.
The independent Baptists are very receptive in the Philippines. The Catholics are very receptive.
And the vast majority of people that I talk to out soul-winning
say they're Christian or Catholic, it's very rare
for someone to say, I'm an atheist.
I'm agnostic.
I don't even remember anyone telling me that out soul-winning.
I don't remember it one time.
Now, there are people that are Muslims that I've heard of,
but I hardly ever hear somebody say they're atheist or agnostic.
Or here in America, it's like, you knock the door.
Are you a Christian? I'm spiritual.
Well, I'm thinking about it. I don't really know. I kind of believe in a God, but I don't know. I'm agnostic, atheist.
There's a lot of that in the U.S. and the Philippines, that's very rare.
There's not a lot of atheists or agnostic.
It's mostly Christians, and if they're not Christian, usually they're Muslim or something like that.
Usually those are not super receptive, but there's a lot of Christians and the vast majority are Christians.
Let's start reading there.
In verse number five, the Bible reads,
and there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews devout men
out of every nation under heaven.
Now, when this was noise to broad,
the multitude came together and were confounded
because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
And they were all amazed and marveled,
saying one to another,
behold, are not all these which speak Galalans?
And how here we...
every man in our tongue wherein we were born.
Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia
and in Judea and Cappadocia and Pontius and Asia,
Phergia and Panphilia in Egypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene
and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians,
we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another,
What meaneth this?
Now, here in Pentecost,
there's a big group gathered together
and they're all there for a religious reason, okay?
Now, these people are there for a religious reason.
There's a ton of people there.
And what ends up happening?
Let's look down there at verse number 41.
The Bible reads,
Then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day there were added
unto them about 3000 souls.
So on the day of Pentecost, they got 3000 people saved, okay?
So
There was a big work done at Pentecost because there was a lot of people and they were religious and in the Philippines
There's a lot of people and they're very religious. They're culturally Christian
There's just a lot of people and at Pentecost there was a ton of people saved in the Philippines
There's been a ton of people saved, you know
The churches over there, you know,
evangelist or banek is getting thousands of people saved.
Literally, there's just getting tons and tons and tons of people saved
just because there's a lot of opportunity
and all of them are Christian.
Most of them are Christian.
So it's super receptive.
over there and also you know being white does help you know someone that's a
foreigner that's preaching the gospel it does help and I say embrace it let's
read verse number six again the Bible says now when this was noise abroad the
multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard
them speak in his own language and they were all amazed and marveled saying one
to another behold are not all these which speak gallant lands
So they're seeing these people from Galilee
preaching in the gospel and they're like,
hey, what is this foreigner doing?
Why does he know my language?
I'm interested.
And what happens?
They get saved.
And a lot of times we go preach the gospel
and people say, hey, a foreigner is interested
in talking about the Bible to me.
Hey, I want to hear that.
You turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter number 13.
Matthew chapter number 13, you know, Paul, what did he have most success with?
Was it with the Jews?
Was it with his brethren?
The people of Benjamin?
No, it was with the Gentiles.
Paul went out and he was able to reach the people of another country, of a foreign land,
people that were not of his lineage, and you know, I say that we should embrace that.
The Bible says,
and they were offended in him,
but Jesus said unto them,
a prophet is not without honor,
save in his own country and in his own house.
You know, oftentimes people that are in your own house,
your family, people that are in your own country,
will just reject the gospel
just because you're related to them,
just because you're similar to them.
I don't know why that's the case.
It just is.
But when you go outside the country,
When you go preach to people in the Philippines and Africa,
people are just in awe and they hear people speak the wondrous works of God
and they're seeing a foreigner come and present the gospel to them
and that just makes them excited and makes them interested.
And honestly, there are people that Theodore and I get saved
that maybe they wouldn't have gotten saved by a foreigner.
You know, I think that's very possible that there are a lot of people
that we get saved that wouldn't have been reached by a foreigner.
Like steadfast Baptist church,
when they did the soul winning trip in Arkansas,
when they're reaching the Marshallese,
you know, those people are saying, wow,
these people from steadfast, these people from Texas,
they care about us.
They want us to go to heaven.
And it just makes them more interested in the gospel.
And you know, I think we should use that.
And I don't think there's anything wrong with saying
that being white helps.
It helps you reach foreigners.
And even honestly, in Oklahoma City,
the vast majority of people that I get saved are black.
just the honest truth. Hispanic people, black people are very receptive, very easy
for me to get saved. White people are not very receptive. It's very rare for a white person
to get saved. It happens, but it's very rare. So these are all reasons why I think the Philippines
is very receptive. And you know, we should use that. A lot of people in this church
are going to the Bahamas Mission Strip. Hey, I think that's great.
But we get an opportunity to preach to people of a foreign land and hey, they will probably
receive you more than a local and hey, just embrace it.
You know preach the gospel get people saved if someone comes up to you and ask you hey, where are you from?
This is interesting
You know answer that and run with that and preach in the gospel and they'll probably get saved
Just because they're super receptive in the Bahamas is what I've heard
They're super receptive in these other countries in these poor countries take advantage of what you can so
And I get that not everybody can make it on a mission trip. You just do what you can do your part
We still need people to preach the gospel in Oklahoma City
And point number one for my sermon,
this is a lesson that we can all take,
is realize the lost multitudes.
Now turn back to Matthew chapter nine.
So a few pages back, Matthew chapter number nine.
We'll start reading there in verse number 32 the Bible says as they went out
behold they brought to him a dumb man possessed with the devil and when the
devil was cast out the dumb spake and the multitudes marveled saying it was
never so seen in Israel but the Pharisees said he casteth out devils
through the prince of the devils and Jesus went about
All the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom
and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted
and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.
You know, when I was in the Philippines, I saw the multitudes as faint, as scattered sheep having no shepherd.
There's just a ton of people that are just on their way to hell.
And you know what? You say, I can't go to the Philippines, I can't go to the Bahamas,
I have a family, I get that. You know what? There's a lot of multitudes in Oklahoma City.
There's a lot of multitudes in America, in Texas, in Oklahoma. And you know, there's just
multitudes everywhere in America, and the vast majority of people in America are on their way to
hell, just like in the Philippines. So we need people to go soul-winning here, and to do your
look at all the people that you see at the grocery store, at work, and just realize these are all
people that are on their way to hell, and we should be moved with compassion and reach those people.
We should see the multitudes as faint, as scattered sheep that don't have a shepherd,
and we should try to lead them to the chief shepherd, Jesus Christ.
Now turning your Bibles to Joshua chapter number 13. Joshua chapter number 13.
You know, there's work to be done in the Philippines. Yes, there's work to be done also in the United States
And the Bible says in Joshua chapter number 13
Verse number one
The Bible says now Joshua was old and stricken in years and the Lord said unto him
Thou art old and stricken in years and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed
So God is telling Joshua. Hey, I know you've done a lot of work
I know you're old but there's still a lot more work to do and you know
We've done great works in the past and you know, I could get the attitude of hey
I just went on this mission trip. I got a lot of people saved
and I could just get content but you know what there's still a lot of people that we need to get
saved in Oklahoma City we need to get them saved in the Philippines we need to do our part and we
need to preach the gospel everywhere we can because there's so much land that needs to be possessed
Oklahoma City you know we just begun on that map we need to do a lot more work there's a lot more
work to be done in Oklahoma City and other cities all around Oklahoma we need to do our part and
In Oklahoma City, let's do our part.
There's a lot more work to be done.
Go back to Matthew chapter number nine.
I should have had you keep a finger there.
When you do get there, you can keep your place there
or put a bookmark there.
Matthew chapter nine verse 36, the Bible says,
but when he saw the multitudes,
he was moved with compassion on them.
because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherds.
You know, we shouldn't just look at people and see that they're on their way to hell.
We should actually do something about it.
We should care about that.
We should have compassion on those people and say,
hey, these are people going to hell.
You should feel sorry for them.
You should have compassion on them.
You should have a desire to reach them.
The Bible says in Psalm 126 it says,
Bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him
It's he that goes forth and weeps
It's him that actually cares for the loss that's going to come in and bring a lot of sheaves in
So if you want to get a lot of people saved you got to actually care for the lost
If you're just checking a box going out soul-winning and you don't really have a lot of care people are gonna notice that at the door
They're gonna see you ham from anchor Baptist Church. Are you interested in hearing the gospel?
They're going to see that and they're like,
this guy doesn't care about me.
I'm not really interested.
But if you actually have some care,
there's going to be some people that say, hey, wow,
this guy cares for me.
You know, he's interested and you know,
you might be able to get him saved.
You know, God can lead things also
to put you in the right place at the right time
to reach the right person.
So we should see the multitudes and have compassion on them.
Go to the book of Jude.
There's only one chapter in Jude.
Go to verse number 22.
Jude verse 22.
Jude verse 22 the Bible says and of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear
Pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted by the flesh
The Bible says that we should have compassion on the lost and us having compassion on the lost
Makes a difference if we have compassion on the lost
We are going to do a greater work for Christ
We are going to get more people saved if we actually have compassion
And there's obviously a balance as well.
You know, some people, we need to have compassion.
Some people, we need to put the fear of God in them
and get them saved by fear of hell
and say, hey, you know, you're going to go to hell.
You know, people that just don't really care.
I don't know if I'm going to heaven, I don't really care.
You know, we need to put the fear of God in them
and get them saved.
And you know, our job as a soul winner
is to just preach the gospel.
Go to Ezekiel chapter number two.
And, you know, I get it, not everybody can make it to the Philippines, that's okay.
We still have a lot of work to be done in Oklahoma City.
There's a lot of land everywhere in this world that needs to be preached, and we live in
Oklahoma City, so why don't we start here and preach the gospel in Oklahoma City.
And let's do our part, reach the multitudes here in Oklahoma City.
Our job is just to show people that and show people how to go to heaven.
We'll start reading in verse 1, the Bible says,
And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet,
And I will speak unto thee.
And the Spirit entered into me when he spake unto me,
And set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.
And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee
To the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation
That hath rebelled against me.
They and their fathers have transgressed against me,
Even unto this very day.
For they are impudent children and stiff-hearted.
I do send thee unto them, and thou shalt say unto them,
thus sayeth the Lord God.
And they, whether they will hear
or whether they will forbear for they are rebellious house,
yet shall know that there have been a prophet among them.
And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them.
Neither be afraid of their words.
Though briars and thorns be with thee,
and thou dost dwell among scorpions,
be not afraid of their words,
nor be dismayed at their looks,
though they be a rebellious house.
And thou shalt speak my words unto them,
whether they will hear
or whether they will forbear,
for they are most rebellious.
Our job is to preach the gospel.
Mark 16-15 says,
to every creature. That's our job. We're supposed to go up to people and say, hey,
let's say at the Lord, John 3, 16, Acts 16, 31,
Romans 6, 23. That's our job. We just offer the gospel to people,
whether they hear or whether they forbear. Our job is to just preach the gospel.
Yeah, Oklahoma City is not as receptive as the Philippines, but hey, whether they will hear
or whether they will forbear, we just need to preach what the Bible says and we need to go
whether it's receptive or not.
And obviously, yes, we should target receptive areas.
You know, when I make maps to go soul winning
in Oklahoma City, I'm not picking Nichols Hills.
I'm not picking Surrey Hills.
I'm picking South Oklahoma City.
I'm picking East Oklahoma City.
Place around the church is really good for soul winning.
You know, I'm picking places that are poor
that seem to be more receptive.
You know, we should target the more receptive people.
But hey, if we're given a map and maybe it's not so receptive,
hey, whether they hear or whether they forbear,
preach the gospel anyways,
give them the opportunity to get saved.
And if you give, offer a cure to 100 people
that are about to die and all of them reject it,
you know, you're doing the same amount of work
as someone that offers a cure to 100 people
and 50 of them accept it.
Now, obviously, yes, if a hundred people are rejecting a cure, they're not receptive.
Yeah, try to find a more receptive area, but at the end of the day, if you're doing the work,
you're going to get rewarded, whether they hear or whether they forbear.
The Bible says in Ezekiel chapter number three, turn the page there.
Verse number 10 and 11 the Bible says moreover he said unto me son of man all my words that I shall speak unto thee
Receive in thine heart and hear with thine ears and go
Get thee to them of that captivity unto the children of thy people and speak unto them and tell them
Thus say it the Lord God
Whether they will hear or whether they will forbear so God is telling Ezekiel over and over
Hey, just do your job. Save us. Say it the Lord God go out and preach to these people
Hey, if they hear great if they don't hear great and you know
He's telling Ezekiel that the Jews are not gonna hear him and you know
There's a lot of people here that just won't hear us. That's just the reality
Most people are rebellious. Most people don't want to hear the gospel. Hey, if someone doesn't want to hear it
Just move on try to preach in the gospel if they don't want to hear it go to the next door
Just keep doing your job. Just keep saying does say at the Lord God whether they will hear or whether they will forbear
You know our job is to just preach the gospel
Go to Ezekiel chapter 33
Ezekiel chapter number 33
The Bible says in Ezekiel 33 verse number one the Bible says
Again, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Son of man, speak to the children of thy people,
and say unto them, when I bring the sword upon a land,
if the people of the land take a man of their coast
and set him for their watchmen, if when he seeeth the sword,
come upon the land, he blow the trumpet and warn the people,
then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet,
and takeeth not warning, if the sword come,
and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning his blood shall be upon him
But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul
But if the watchman see the sword come and blow not the trumpet and the people be not warned if the sword come and
Take any person from among them. He is taken away in his iniquity
But his blood will I require at the watchman's hand
So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel.
Therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth and warn them from me."
Again, Ezekiel has commanded here, hey, the word that I gave you in your mouth,
you're commanded to go and warn them.
And we as soul winners in the New Testament, our job is to command the lost multitudes.
We're supposed to preach them the gospel.
offer them the opportunity to preach the gospel, and hey, if they reject it, if they reject the gospel,
the blood's on their hands. It's not on our hands. But if we fail to preach the gospel,
if we see the sword come, we know hell's coming, and we don't preach the gospel,
the blood is on our hands. Even if the people would not have received the gospel, even if it's
a rebellious house, Ezekiel is going to a rebellious house, the vast majority of people that Ezekiel was
did not get saved, but you know what?
The blood was not on Ezekiel's hands.
And if we go out and preach the gospel,
the blood is not on our hands.
We've done our job, whether they will hear
or whether they will forbear,
we just need to offer the gospel.
We just need to preach the gospel, do what God has said.
We need to see the lost multitudes.
We need to realize that
and we need to have compassion and try to reach them.
Go back to Matthew chapter number nine.
Matthew chapter number nine.
Matthew chapter number nine look down there verse number 37 the Bible says
Then saith he unto his disciples,
the harvest truly is plenteous,
but the laborers are few.
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest
that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.
You know, Jesus is telling his disciples
that the harvest is plenteous.
There's a ton of multitudes out there that need the gospel.
And there's a lot of people that will hear the gospel.
and that will get saved and he tells the disciples,
hey, there's a lot of people that need to get saved.
Hey, let's pray for more laborers.
But you know what?
Instead of praying for laborers first,
you gotta make sure that you are a soul winner first.
He's telling people that are soul winners already,
hey, pray for more laborers.
So first step, why don't you get off your butt
and go out and soul win?
Why don't you do your part and preach the gospel?
And then when you're preaching the gospel, yes.
Pray for more laborers.
Pray for people in the Philippines.
Pray for people in America and Texas.
There's a lot of different places
in America that need the gospel.
The whole world needs the gospel and we need to do our part.
We need to reach our area and we need to pray for other areas to get reached.
And we need to pray for more laborers to come to Anchor Baptist Church
because that map needs a lot more color on it.
We need a lot more people to preach the gospel.
So you should pray for laborers in Anchor Baptist Church
but hey first why don't you go soul winning first?
You know you're the answered prayer. You're the one that needs to go out
soul winning so that our prayers can get answered.
and then pray for more soul winners.
So lesson number one, we need to realize the lost multitudes.
We need to see them as sheep going astray.
We need to see that there's tons and tons of people
on their way to hell.
They don't have a shepherd.
They're lost.
We need to realize that, have compassion on them.
Point number two, the last point, is realize your blessings.
Realize that you are a sheep that has a shepherd.
Let's read Matthew 9.36 again the Bible says but when he saw the multitudes
he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered
abroad as sheep having no shepherd you know that applies to people that are
lost people that do not have a shepherd people that are of the harvest that need
to get saved you know Jesus is saying hey these people need a shepherd
And the thing is, if you're saved, you are a sheep and you are of God's fold.
Go to John chapter number 10.
John chapter number 10.
The Bible says in verse number 9, John 10 verse 9, it says,
I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep."
Hey, if you're saved this evening, you know, you have a good shepherd.
you are saved, Jesus gave his life for you.
And his blood has been applied to you
and you're part of the fold.
We're part of Jesus' flock.
We should realize that and be thankful for that.
Skip down to verse number 27.
Here's another blessing of being one of the sheep.
The Bible says my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life
And they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand
My father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand
Jesus is saying here that hey if you're saved if you're a sheep, you know God
and there's nothing that you could do to lose your salvation.
You could never get plucked out of Jesus' hand, out of the Father's hand.
Once you're saved, you're always saved, and you know what? We should be thankful for that.
Be thankful that all of our iniquities are forgiven the moment that we believe in Jesus.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Once you're saved,
none of your sins will be imputed unto you, you know, even if you commit big sins like murder and suicide.
You know, the Bible says that all of our sins, past, present, and future, are all forgiven.
They're all covered.
The Bible says God has thrown our sins behind His back, He's cast them into the sea.
You know, God has removed...
our transgressions as far as the east is from the west.
So far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
So God has removed our transgressions.
We should be thankful that we're saved
and that we're eternally saved.
And we are sheep of his flock
and we could never get plucked out of the Father's hand.
We have a good shepherd.
We are saved.
We should be thankful for that.
Go to 1 Peter chapter number two.
1 Peter chapter number two.
The Bible reads in verse number 24,
1 Peter 2 verse 24,
who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins,
should live unto righteousness,
by whose stripes ye were healed.
For ye were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd
and bishop of your souls.
You know, Jesus Christ, he paid the price,
He was the one that got beat for us, and all we do is we believe in Jesus, we were a stray as sheep,
we were those lost sheep, we were of the multitudes, but because we believed in Jesus,
we have returned unto the shepherd, and we are saved. We are part of his flock, and we have
that chief shepherd. Additionally, turn to 1 Peter chapter number five, not only do we have the
The Bible says in 1 Peter 5, verse number 1,
the elders which are among you, I exhort,
who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ
and also partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Feed the flock of God which is among you,
taking the oversight thereof.
Not by constraint, but willingly.
Not for filthy looker, but of already mind.
Neither as being lords over God's heritage,
but being in samples to the flock.
and when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeeth not away."
The Bible is talking to elders here and it's saying, hey, you have the chief shepherd,
you know, it's implying that the elders are kind of an under shepherd. And you know, we hear that
preached a lot of times. I think this is a good passage to kind of show that pastors are kind of
a shepherd. They're an under shepherd to Christ. We have the chief shepherd and then we have the
Yes, we have Jesus Christ, but we also have a pastor, Pastor Oz.
We should be thankful that we have a pastor and we have somebody that is feeding the flock
of God.
If you're coming to Anchor Baptist Church, you're getting fed and you have to eat the
preaching, but Pastor Oz is giving you all the different food.
He's giving you all the nutrition and you have plenty of opportunity to grow and to
feed on the preaching.
and apply the preaching to our life.
You know, we're getting fed,
hey, let's eat the preaching.
And not only that,
we also need to eat our daily word.
We need to eat the bread of the word every single day.
You know, preaching is not enough
for us to grow as Christians
and to be better Christians.
We need also to read the Bible as well.
But you know, if you just read the Bible
and you never hear preaching,
then you're gonna lack on some other areas.
So we need both reading the Bible
and also eating the preaching that we are given.
and we are being fed here at Anchor Baptist Church,
great sermons, people in the Philippines,
they don't have that opportunity.
Now, yes, some people do,
there are some great churches over there
and there's a lot of decent churches over there
and yeah, there's a lot of decent churches in America
but the reality is,
is there's not a whole lot of great churches in this world
and we should be thankful that we have that under shepherd
and we should be thankful that we're saved,
that we're eternally saved
and that we have also a great church to go to.
We have a pastor that we can trust and we can learn from, and that preaches three times a week,
that preaches good doctrine. We should be thankful for that and take that with us
and realize our blessings that we've been given. A turn, if you would, to Psalm chapter 100.
The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 518 it says,
In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
You know the Bible tells us that we should give thanks in everything.
We should be thankful for our upbringing, we should be thankful for our church,
all the opportunities we have, and you know we have been given the 10 talents.
If you're living in America, you're living in Oklahoma City,
you have a great church, a great pastor, you have the King James Bible,
you have the Holy Spirit, you have the New Testament,
There are so many great blessings that we've been given,
we should realize those blessings
and realize that, hey, you know, it could be a lot worse.
We could grow up in the slums of Manila
and we don't have a great Baptist church.
And even if we did, we don't have the money to go there
because we don't have any money to transport
over to the church.
It's very difficult if you don't have money to travel.
You can't really go a whole lot.
You can't go a whole lot of places.
But we in America, we have a lot of money.
And we're able to travel to church very easily, and we're able to provide for our families,
you know, obviously it's not super easy, but you know, it's very easy to do so.
In Psalm chapter 100, the Bible says in verse number one,
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands, serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the Lord he is God. It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves, we are his people, and the sheep of his pastor.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving.
And into his courts of praise, be thankful unto him and bless his name for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations.
We have so many things to be thankful for. We should be praising God, thanking God every single day of our lives.
because you know we deserve to go to hell forever but we're saved. His mercy is everlasting
and his truth endure it to all generations. We have the truth of God. We have the King James
Bible. We can read it every single day. We have the truth of God in front of us. Let's be thankful
for that. Let's realize our blessings and let's read the Bible. Let's come to church. Let's go
soul winning. We should be thankful and realize the blessings that we got. So in conclusion
Some lessons that I kind of learned in the Philippines that you guys can take away number one
Realize the lost multitudes. There's lost multitudes in every country in every city and we need to do our part
to reach the lost multitudes,
have compassion on lost multitudes.
And point number two, let's realize our blessings.
We're saved forever.
We have the chief shepherd.
We have the under shepherd.
We have the King James Bible, the Holy Spirit.
We have been given so much.
And you know, I preach on this a lot,
but you know, we need to be thankful
for what we've been given.
We have been given much.
Much is going to be required of us.
And we need to be...
realizing the lost multitudes and realizing that we can preach the gospel and we need to just do it
and pray for more people, more laborers and we need to realize our condition and be thankful
and that way we can do more soul winning and dispense the gospel to other people
so that they can get saved as well. Let's pray.
Dear Father, thank you for all the blessings that you have given us and this church that we have.
Thank you for the opportunity that we do have to preach the gospel every single week.
I pray that you would help us to be better soul winners and to preach the gospel
every single week of our lives, Lord, and
help us just to do great work for you and pray.
I also pray, Lord, that you would also send more
laborers and then we could have more soul winners here at Anchor Baptist Church and other cities and other countries, Lord. In Jesus's name I pray. Amen.
All right, we're going to start the second sermon,
even though I'm still here.
I just wanted to say thanks to Brother Eric
for preaching this evening,
and I'm really proud of the guys that went over there.
Just seeing men use their young 20s to serve the Lord.
Their early 20s to serve the Lord is definitely
a great example.
A lot of people at that age are thinking about
everything but that.
So thanks, meet to God, for those men
that are willing to do that.
I hope the amenities of the Philippines
really sold you on wanting to move there.
live in that great wonderful country, but let me tell you on this, the Bahamas
missions trip is going to be awesome because you get the receptivity of the
Philippines with the great amenities that comes with the Bahamas. So if you go on
this trip with us, you will not be lacking in fun and comfort and great food
and great atmosphere. It'll be the best of both worlds. Wonderful soul-winning and
Pray for us, consider giving to the work of churches,
doing these missions, trips, all of God's people
can be involved in this for sure.
And like you said, appreciate the things that we have
and also appreciate the pastors that moved to the Philippines,
the evangelists that moved to the Philippines,
that really have sacrificed a lot for the kingdom of God.
Don't forget about them.
Pray for them, keep them in your prayers.
They're doing a great work and they sacrificed a lot.
Towards the beginning of the sermon, we had some pizza delivered, which I like to call persecution pizza.
This happened a lot, it's said to us. It's our first time at Anchor Baptist Church, but I'm not shocked by it whatsoever.
But, you know, my policy is that if people want to do this, like, break-all thing where they call the quarter pizza,
and, you know, pizza gets delivered here, I just pay for it.
Because, number one, thanks for just getting us pizza. You know, I mean, we like pizza, we like food,
But also, you know, these people that are cranking Anchor Baptist Church, and cranking
pastor off, cranking all of you, they're not really cranking us, they're really harming
the delivery guy, delivery girl, or the business that's doing that, and we got two different
companies that came to us this evening. One, I was able to pay because they accepted a credit card,
the other one I was not able to pay because they did not accept a credit card, and so this
had to waste their time not getting paid, not getting the tip, because they came here and we
couldn't pay them. It's not that I didn't want to. I was there with the card. I wanted to pay,
but it was cash only. And so, you know, these people, they're really hurting the poor. I just
want to read one verse. Proverbs 14. Proverbs chapter number 14. You know, these wicked people,
the sodomites, the haters of our church, they act like they're so loving.
They're so much better than all of us, but look at what the Bible says in Proverbs 14, verse 31.
He that oppressive the poor reproacheth his manger.
It's not a coincidence that the same people that hate God, reproach God, blaspheme God,
blaspheme his word, are the same people who in actuality are oppressing the poor, right?
Because that poor doordash lady, you're not making money when you're a doordash driver.
That's obviously a poor person, and while the left, these liberals, they love to give
lip service to how they care about the poor, they're so much more loving than us than us.
Here they are harming the poor.
Whoever Wicked Person did that, you know, we were able to pick one of them, but one person today,
one poor black woman, had to waste her time and didn't get paid, so congratulations to you.
But we're having pizza after, so if anyone wants this pizza, there's all sorts of goodies over
there, soda, all sorts of fun stuff. I'm going to say a quick word of prayer and we'll go to our last song.
Lord, thank you for our church and thank you for brother Eric, brother Theodore, the great work that has been built in the Philippines and that is still being done.
I pray that you would just continue to keep doors of opportunity open in that country and that the Philippines would continue to be a great place to preach the gospel.
I pray that you would send more laborers there and also more laborers here at Anchor Baptist Church.
I pray that you bless this food to our bodies. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Our last hymn this evening is number 134, My Anchor Holds.
134, 134, My Anchor Holds.
134 on the 1st.