Matthew Stuckey here from Verity Baptist Manila and I want to make a quick video
just to try to encourage those of you who do not have a good church to go to.
Now this video really doesn't apply for people that live in America because I
believe in America you can find a good church. You know it might take a couple
hours, it might be a bit of a drive, but you can find a church that at least has
salvation correct, that they are King James only, and that they have some
semblance of soul winning. And it might be a bit of a drive, but you can find
something. But honestly in a lot of countries that's not really the case. In
a lot of countries there is no church they can go to and it's a really tough
situation because you don't want to go to a church where your pastor is a false
prophet and you know in some countries you can't even really find a Christian
church. And I actually know a few groups of soul winners that live in Asian
countries that are kind of in that situation where they cannot find a good
church. You know just a church where they can count on their pastor being
saved and you know having salvation correct and being King James only.
They're in a situation where you know basically a rock and a hard place. But I
want to try to encourage them and you know honestly in America you could say
well you just moved to a great church. And it's easy in America because you can
find a job wherever you move to and it's not hard to move from one state to the
next. But it's not necessarily easy moving from one nation to another nation
and it's not necessarily easy moving from one nation to finding work. It's a
lot more difficult. I'm not saying it's easy in America it takes a leap of faith
but you're even in a more difficult situation overseas. And so honestly
though the Bible does show us that some people should not move to a great church.
Now that might surprise you because you know I've preached and other people have
preached that yeah you should move to a great church. You know have the faith. You
know make that leap. Make that step. But honestly there's situations where God
does not want people to move to a great church. He'd rather they stay in an area
without a great church. And I'll show that to you in the Bible. In Mark 5
verses 17 through 20 the Bible reads and they began to pray him to depart out of
their coasts and when he was coming to the ship he that had been possessed with
the devil prayed him that he might be with him. And so Jesus heals this man
that's filled with many devils and this guy gets saved and the people want to
get rid of Jesus Christ and the guy wants to follow Jesus. And so you would
think well Jesus would say come on but look what it says in verse 19 how be it
Jesus suffered him not saying he didn't allow him to but saith unto him go home
to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and
hath had compassion on thee. And so he tells him to go home and tell his
friends. Now this is a situation where Jesus was basically not allowed to go
there and preach the gospel and Jesus realized that you know what I need
somebody to preach the gospel to these people. And generally you tell people
yeah follow Jesus every step of the way but in this situation he wants him to
stay there. And notice what it says in verse 20 and he departed and began to
publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him and all men did
marvel. I have no doubt that he won many people to the Lord and Jesus could
actually count on this guy to get the job done. Now it makes sense from a
logical standpoint because the Bible says that he's given every single person
someone who's who's meant to give him the gospel. It says even as the Lord gave
to every man. See God wants everybody to be saved. We have the free will choice to
accept it or reject it when we hear the gospel but he wants everybody to be
saved. And honestly if if the soul winners in these countries would leave
that country to go somewhere else those countries really don't have any hope
whatsoever. You know those people are literally
standing between heaven and hell for that country. They're probably the only
soul winners in that country and it's a really sad situation because it is
really tough when you don't have a good church to go to. It's tough to stay
motivated and I want to encourage the people that are in that situation and
just tell you that you know what I don't think God would allow you to be in that
situation unless he could he believed that he could count on you to be a soul
winner and to stay motivated and stay zealous and get the job done. And if
you're in that situation realize that God has determined that you are able to
do it. You are able to keep being a soul winner even without a great church. Now
honestly most people are not able to do that. I'm not sure if I would be able to
do that you know for a long period of time but I know people you know that
have been soul winning for a long time in in these countries and they really
don't have a good church. They're being fought every step of the way but they
are staying faithful and that is an awesome awesome testimony. It's great to
see what they're doing. I remember I was in a situation where I drove an hour and
45 minutes to church many years ago and the area where I was living and driving
from there was you know no great church out there preaching the gospel and my
dad and I used to go out soul winning. We were able to lead some people to the
Lord and I just thought to myself that if we don't go soul winning in this small
town I mean these people are gonna go to hell. They literally don't have any hope
whatsoever and honestly you know some people they're in countries and for
millions of people they are the one standing between heaven and hell. Now in
general I tell people if you have the ability to move move and you know move
and maybe if you have that desire to be a pastor you can get trained up and go
back to those places but honestly there's some situations where maybe God
wants you to stay there and be a great soul winner and you look at the
situation in the Philippines where there's been lots of people for a while
that have been soul winning faithfully even without good churches even with
unsafe pastors and they're still doing it and I believe God is is blessing the
Philippines and in many areas with a lot of good churches because of the fact God
looked down and said well here's a group of people that are staying zealous
they're still doing the work they're standing between heaven and hell and
publishing those great things I'm gonna send them a pastor I'm gonna send them a
church that way they can do even more for God and we can multiply and spread
from there and so I just want to encourage you if you're in that
situation and I'm not telling you you shouldn't move you know maybe maybe you
should move you know if God opens the doors and and and you feel like you know
you can't stay zealous or you feel like God's leading you in that direction
maybe that's the time to move but it is possible that maybe at this time he just
wants you to stay where you are and just publish those great things that the
Lord's done for you about how Jesus Christ you know died on the cross he was
buried and he rose again after three days and you are literally the hope of
that country I hope that was a blessing to you thank you and God bless