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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Good Morning Welcome to the Baptist Church The first sign is the second service. The second service is the second service. The second service is the second service. The second service is page number 133. Page number 133. Page number 133. Samala. The banner of the cross is in English. Say Amen. The first sign is the photo in English. The first sign is ready. Sing. The first sign is ready. The second service is the second service. The second service is ready. The second service is ready. The second service is ready. The second service is ready. The second service is ready. The second service is ready. The second service is ready. Everybody. Everybody. Go! Kick! The second service is ready. The fourth service is ready. The first service is ready. The second service is ready. The fourth service is ready. Let's pray. All right. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Take out your bulletin. We'll go through a couple things real quickly. Let's start by counting up any salvations that we have to report. So let's start in the back section. Are there any salvations that I'm unaware of? Any salvations? How about up here? Any salvations? Five, one, two. So we're at eight, three, eleven, four, fifteen. Anybody else? You guys are testing my math skills, right? How about in this section? Any salvations? Any? One? All right. Anybody else? All right. So sixteen salvations. Great work, everybody. And of course we do have soul winning this afternoon. Around 1.45 is when we'll actually go out. The song will start at 1.30 as well as the tip. And our upcoming activities, not much going on right now. Next week will be our monthly prayer meeting, which we will have right after soul winning time next week if you're able to be a part of it. And then of course on the back there's a place for notes for the sermons here today. So I believe that's it for announcements. We'll have Brother Rafi lead us in another song. Oh soul are you weary? First stanza already. Sing. Oh soul are you weary and troubled? Oh light in the darkness you see. There's a light for our good God the Savior. And light for our turn your eyes upon Jesus. Who fully means wonderful things. And the things of earth will go strangely deep. In the life of his glory and fame. Through death into life everlasting. He last and we follow him there. Over us he hope our heaven will be in him. For more from where we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Who fully means wonderful things. And the things of earth will go strangely deep. In the life of his glory and fame. His birth shall not fail you he find. We live in the will he wear. And go to a world that is dying. His perfect salvation to turn your eyes upon Jesus. Who fully means wonderful things. And the things of earth will go strangely deep. In the life of his glory and fame. And for our Bible reading please open to Exodus. Exodus chapter 34. Exodus chapter 34. And we are going to read the verses 27 to 35. Exodus 34 verses 27 to 35. Please say amen when you're there. And the Lord said unto Moses write though these words for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights he did neither read nor the quarter. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the Covenant the Ten Commandments. And it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses hand. When he came down from the mount that Moses was not that the skin of his face shown wise to talk with him. And when Eden and all the children of Israel saw Moses behold the skin of his face shown and they were afraid to come night him. And Moses called unto them and Eden and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him and Moses talked with them and after what all the children of Israel came nigh and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. Until Moses had done speaking with them he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him he took the veil off until he came out. And he came out and spoke unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses that the skin of Moses face shown. And Moses put the veil up on his face again until he went in to speak with him. Thank you our Father for the day. For everyone who's here. Please give us attentive ears and open our hearts to understand your word. Help us also to love your word every day more and help us to read more the Bible. Lord please bless the sermon. Please anoint the creature. Let me pray in his name. Alright something I did forget to announce we do have baptisms after the service so if you're here to be baptized when the sermons done and I'm praying men can change up here ladies can change in the mother baby room and so once the sermons over and I'm praying then you can go to change before we're done with the song just so it's a little bit quicker. Also one example I have to bring up that I forgot of the difference of men and women of something I was taught in college this question came up. This is first sermon part two okay now. And they said like why is it that men are generally a little bit taller than women? Which obviously there's exceptions but men tend to be about this much taller than women and one of the theories out there is that since women are taught they're going to be shorter at a young age it has a psychological impact and it causes women to end up being shorter than men. That's the genius intelligence of the world that we have in 2000 and I mean 20 that was like 20 years ago I'm sure it's the same now though that's what the world has to say it's like wow yeah we're the ones that are foolish right the wisdom of the world is so great no it's actually foolishness with God but anyways on to sermon number two and so the name of sermon is built for show versus built for go built for show versus built for go now before I start the sermon I want to give you an example when I first went to college and I was starting to lift weights a friend of mine that had been lifting for a couple years he was trying to give me kind of like a plan and a routine of what to do and he asked me this question he's like do you want to lift for show or for go and I was like what are you talking about and what he said is depending on how you work out you can work out in a way to get very strong or you can work out in a way to look very strong and kind of the easy difference to understand is bodybuilders versus power lifters and bodybuilders will generally do isolation sorts of exercises to build big muscles and they look very aesthetically pleasing but they're not as strong as power lifters are who do kind of full body stuff deadlifts and squats let me just read you from this article real quickly it says power lifters specifically trained the myofibrillar fibers with low repetitions in high stress with lots of rest between sets to gain strength without the superfluous gain in size so what it's saying is without getting these big muscles they put on a lot of strength and with bodybuilders it says here they focus predominantly on aesthetics building show muscles losing body fat and prepare for bodybuilding contests posing etc they strive to maintain a certain body size to be able to compete in a particular class of bodybuilding entirely related to aesthetics in looking a certain way during this process strength will take the backseat to aesthetics so bodybuilders are strong but they are not as strong as they look power lifters don't generally look as strong but they're actually a lot stronger than bodybuilders and if you've worked out before sometimes you go to the gym and you see somebody lifting and you look at them and you're like how are they that strong their muscles aren't that big and yet they're incredibly strong think of being functionally strong if somebody's like a farmer or they work a job where they're really you know doing full body sort of stuff they will get very strong but you wouldn't look at them and think they're the strongest person in the world and looks can sometimes be deceiving so this isn't in a physical sense but I want to preach to you in a spiritual sense basically building for show or forgo spiritually and there is a difference between trying to impress people with your spirituality versus actually being right with God I'm gonna give you three examples here today number one is listening to sermons versus reading the Bible memorizing the Bible and spending personal time with God now when you listen to a lot of sermons it can easily impress people because you have a lot of knowledge that you can state and it makes you look like you're very spiritual but what actually makes you very spiritual is when you spend personal time with God away from all distractions and you read the Bible and you pray to God and you memorize the Bible Exodus 34 is an example this notice what it says in verse 28 and he was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights he didn't either eat bread nor drink water and he wrote upon the tables the words of the Covenant the Ten Commandments so Moses is with God for 40 days and 40 nights physically he was close to God for 40 days and 40 nights and it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses hand when he came down from the mount that Moses wished not and what wished not means is he was not aware he is not aware that the skin of his face shown while he talked with him so Moses for 40 days and 40 nights was physically close to God and he physically changed well how does that apply to us today you're not gonna physically change if you draw close to God but if you spiritually draw close to God you are spiritually going to change you're gonna be a different person you're gonna act different you're gonna talk different and what the Bible is showing you is that when you draw close to God you will change and how is it that we draw close to God it's when you spend personal time with God like Moses did you say how do you spend personal time by reading the Bible by memorizing the Bible by praying now I don't want you to misunderstand this because listening to sermons is great and it can be helpful and I'm thankful for all the sermons that I've heard that were good sermons through the years but memorizing and reading the Bible is far more important and will cause a much bigger change in you than listening to sermons so then why don't people do this well because listening to sermons is easier plus you can have the impressive body built building spiritual physique when you listen to sermons where it's like the Bible teaches this and this and this but what you should really be doing is getting a more proper balance and spending personal time with God go to Deuteronomy 17 Deuteronomy 17 and I don't know of any bodybuilders at our church but hey don't get offended and quit the church because I was talking about bodybuilding okay actually I know I know people that are friends of mine in West Virginia that did bodybuilding contests we've had people to visit our church that are great people they love God but I but I'm just using a general example and I'm sure they would say that actually what you're saying is true there's a difference between building for show versus building for go and it's the same thing spiritually now here's the thing do whatever you want when you work out I mean any working out is probably going to be good for you but I would hope when it comes to spiritually you're not trying to impress people look you don't have a competition where you got to put a fake spray on tan and pose to get some sort of reward okay so it's like why don't you just focus on being close to God regardless of what other people think about you Bible says in Deuteronomy 17 verse 18 and it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life he said brother second why are you down on preaching I'm not down on preaching I'm just saying there's no command in the Bible to listen to sermons every day but there is a command to read the Bible every day read there in all the days of his life or if you want to use a symbolic example you know that Jesus is the bread and you know you eat bread daily give us this day or daily bread and physically that's true but also spiritually as well where you dig into the Word of God and the Bible says read there in all the days of his life why that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them then it says that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren did you know that by reading the Bible every day it says you will not become an arrogant myabung person it says your heart's not going to be lifted up where you think you're better than other people and so look we need to read the Bible every day it's going to cause us to look lower of ourselves which is a good thing have a more humble outlook it's going to cause us to obey God's commandments and this comes when you spend personal time with God now look me personally and people are different I don't really do that well with the audio Bible when I listen to the audio Bible I don't really feel like I get much my mind wanders and so if I'm multitasking on something for me it works a little bit better listening to sermons because I only kind of hear a piece here and a piece there and so but what I'm talking about is when you set aside all distractions you need that time every day to set aside distractions and just read the Word of God look I get it if you're on your job and you're multitasking and you have a sermon on the background that's great right I'm not down on that at all what I'm saying is you better not forsake your Bible reading and your Bible memorization and your prayer with God in order to listen to sermons and if you do that you will look impressive to people because you have all this knowledge but you're actually not going to change as much as you think you do why because the promise is on when you read the Bible every day not when you listen to sermons Bible says that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turned out aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom he and his children in the midst of Israel go to Acts 17 Acts 17 Acts chapter 17 Acts chapter 17 and Bible says this in Acts 17 verse 11 Acts 17 verse 11 these were more noble than those in Thessalonica now before we go on with the verse you have to ask yourself okay those in Thessalonica what is the Bible trying to say well you got the book of first and second Thessalonians and there's a lot of what are known as church epistles in our New Testament and churches are kind of different places some churches are good some have a lot of problems well the church of Thessalonica was that a good church or a bad church it was it was a great church in comparison to other churches I mean it's not like the Church of Corinth it's not like the Church of Galatia where there's real problems now the church of Thessalonians he praises them throughout it about how strong their faith is and how great they are and that's why he's preaching very kind of deep doctrinal end time stuff because they've got the milk of the word down right and so when he's saying they're more noble than those in Thessalonica that is not an insult to the Church of Thessalonica or the Thessalonians what it's saying is this group of people man this is how impressive they are they're even better than those in Thessalonica it says in that they receive the word with all readiness of mind and search the scriptures daily whether those things were so and so the Bereans which are the example here they heard the Word of God with readiness of mind and whenever you hear the Word of God preached you ought to have a ready mind to listen to what the Bible says and to look at what the Bible says and you know what you might disagree on some things but keep an open mind on stuff right but they're more noble because they didn't just hear the sermon they searched the scripture whether those things were so so look if you're really trying to follow this verse perfectly while listening to a lot of sermons you'd have to take a break in between every sermon to spend time looking at all the scriptures that you heard and make sure that they're accurate that's gonna take a while because there's a lot of Bible being used and you got to look at the context you're not gonna be able to just be sermon sermon sermon sermon sermon right realistically if you're trying to apply this act 1711 you listen to one sermon well it's gonna take me an hour to look at all the scriptures to fit this in now here's the thing sometimes in sermons you hear things that you know are true right there's no question in your mind whatsoever you already know the Bible teaches that I mean if I preach a sermon about how salvation is by grace through faith you already know that right it's not like you have to search the scripture to say well let's see if brother suck he's right about that you already know it's right now I might bring up verses that you ought to look at and say oh that's interesting I've never thought about that but with preaching you're gonna hear some things that you're not disagreeing with it but you're also just not sure you're just not studied up enough about it to know whether it's true or not I would never advise people to blindly follow up brother stuck he says I mean look I've gotten so winning before and knock doors and talk to people and I show people stuff in the Bible well that's what the Bible says here it's like well just listen to brother Eli and it's like but I'm showing you what the Bible says just looking to listen to brother Eli right and it's like what difference does it make what some man says what does the Bible say what do you think right and it's like you'll show them well it says whosoever believeth nothing about living a good life nothing about being baptized well you know what just listen to sermon by you know brother Soriano and it's just like but but what do you think the Bible says well here's what I'm saying if somebody asks you why do you believe this well I mean that's what brother suck you said that's a bad answer right now I believe that most of what I'm saying is correct and accurate I strive to really make sure that what I'm saying is correct before I preach it but I'm also just a man I'm not the Pope where everything I say is just you know correct it's like no you make mistakes as a human being even you misspeak or you don't understand something or you have the wrong interpretation don't just say well brother stuck he said it so must be true that is the wrong answer it doesn't matter who is saying it I mean even bad people say things that are right so it's like in good people say things that are wrong nobody is perfect you say well how do I know whether it's true or not well if you're saved you've got a better teacher than me on the inside of you it's called the Holy Spirit of God and what that means is you can get along with God and read the Bible and you know what you can learn and glean new things from the Word of God now look I've learned a lot of great things in church and church serves as a purpose to motivate you to help build fellowship and soul winning and you can learn new things there's no doubt about that I strive to preach sermons where I'm trying to teach new things and teach what the Bible says and I believe if you stay at this church you will be motivated and you will learn new things but you're gonna learn more on your own than the sermons it's a fact right the text verse that we looked at in Exodus 34 you say brother stocky you know where did you hear that you know how'd you learn that example he was not I read the Bible and I was like wow this would be a cool sermon you know a long time ago I read the Bible it's like this is really interesting in Exodus 34 and I realize if you physically draw close you physically change oh I got it if you spiritually draw close you spiritually change and I'll tell you what I've learned a lot of great things in sermons but I've learned more from my personal Bible reading and memorization of the Bible at our church I really strive to push memorization challenges I try to give you rewards will tempt you with junk food or whatever it takes and the reason why I do that is I think it's the best way to study the Bible and when I memorize the Bible I mean new things pop out to me all the time where it's like I've never heard that preached I've never thought about that it's amazing to me right in any part of the Bible I would recommend memorizing the Bible you're gonna learn new things that you've never thought of before because it's like a deep study and the Holy Spirit is helping teach you as you're spending personal time with God right and so above listening to sermons by far is spending personal time with God go to 1st Peter 2 1st Peter 2 1st Peter chapter 2 and look you know what the way it generally works and and I was the same way it's like when I was a younger man you know I got saved at 18 and I'm in college and I'm at churches and I'm trying to get as much preaching as I can I'm going I don't even know if YouTube existed back then I can't even really remember but I'm going online I remember I went to eBay which was like sort of like Shopee in the US you know before Amazon and I remember I bought like IFB sermons they had you know like a group of like a thousand sermons because I'm trying to hear anything that I can just trying to listen to preaching learn new things and being motivated the truth was I wasn't really reading the Bible that much at the time and quite honestly you know I listen to sermons and I listen a lot of sermons I didn't learn anything in a lot of the sermons because a lot of the sermons are kind of generic and I wasn't really learning that much but when I actually started to really dig into the Word of God I learned far more than I ever learned in sermons and look I you know the church I came from Verity Baptist in Sacramento is a great church I've learned lots of great things but I've learned more from reading the Bible and that's gonna be true with any church any pastor if you spend time reading the Bible you are going to learn more you say well brother Stuckey that's not true with me yeah because the way you read the Bible is you have the television on in front of you and you've got your cell phone that's sending you a text message every couple minutes of course you're not learning anything you say what are you talking about I'm saying you wake up early you go to a place without distractions no TV no computer no cell phone and you just spend time reading the Bible not well you know I read a chapter wait let me look at what happened and you know whatever the game or whatever you know the new news like what's going on with you know code round 57 or whatever you know it's like no you just spend personal time reading the Word of God away from distractions because here's the thing Moses doesn't have all these distractions in his way he's just alone with God and what the Bible is trying to show you is you need to spend personal time alone with God I mean Job said I've esteemed the words of God more than my necessary food now probably everybody in this room ate breakfast just about but did you read the Bible and I'm not asking for a show of hands but I'm sure that there's a lot of people in this room that did read the Bible this morning and a lot that didn't and obviously sometimes you have more time than others you know you wake up early you wake up late or whatever but if you're having on a daily basis is oh I forgot to read the Bible again I forgot to read the Bible again you've got a problem in your life and you need to change your priorities and realize you need to spend personal time with God you say why because first Peter 2 verse 2 says this as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby the sincere milk of the word now of course the example being given is like with a physical baby being born where the healthiest and best thing is for that baby to get milk from their mom and we understand that right but the application is the Word of God and you need the sincere and perfect Word of God and here's the thing at our church we do believe the King James Bible is perfect but what good does it do if you never open it doesn't do any good it means nothing as I man look at this amazing Bible that I've got it's so awesome and I'm very thankful and online listener they got this book this Bible for me because this is a nice Bible and you know you can fold it back and the print's big enough to say it's good for soul winning it's it stood the test of time what difference does it make how expensive or amazing this Bible is if I don't read it it does no good it means absolutely nothing and you know in some of my memorization places I don't even have the whole chapters anymore because you're memorizing it and it's falling apart and what I'm saying is you need to make sure you're spending personal time reading the Word of God you say why because that is how you're gonna grow babies don't grow if they don't have milk look if all babies have is you know chicken and vegetables they're going to die literally now as a safe person you cannot lose your salvation but you're gonna be basically on your deathbed and you come to church and then I use a lot of Bible and I bring you back to life I resuscitate you like man I was at the point of death and then all of a sudden you don't read the Bible on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday or Friday or Saturday and we see the outside but if we were to look at you spiritually you're like at the point of death on Sundays and then I bring you back with the Word of God it's like man I need to read the Bible every day and then you wake up tomorrow it's like oh what's going on on Facebook and you don't read the Bible and you don't do it on Tuesday you don't do it on Wednesday and I hate to break it to you if this offends you but I'm preaching on Bible reading the next two weeks so get used to it start reading the Bible read it every single day look obviously every single person in this room has missed days of Bible reading I'm not gonna say I've never missed days of Bible reading but you know what when you miss reading your Bible you feel horrible you're in a bad mood you get your complain very easily you say why because you're walking in the old man and the old man is not impressive my friends turn your Bible to second Peter three second Peter three second Peter chapter three I mean just think of the story of Josiah right I mean Josiah when the Word of God is read he's like whoa we're not right with God we need to make a lot of changes yeah the problem in 2023 is most people don't even know what the Bible says you go soul winning and you try to explain stories to people and it goes straight over their head you're like you know you know Samson you know the Bible like Samson Samson Delilah the strong guy they're like who Noah Noah you see the first Pope right it's like they don't know anything in the Bible you say why cuz you know and even in churches and junior church or Sunday school they just play games they don't even teach the Word of God so I remember my old church in IFB Church and they had a junior church that I used to preach at and I remember you know the person who preached before was really just any end up leaving the church to go to a non-denom church the sermons were very you know kind of generic that he had not really intense and I remember the first Sunday that I preached there and I'm like pounding the pulpit preaching against alcohol and the kids are like literally jumping out of their seat but they loved it I'll tell you what young people they actually do like to hear the Word of God preached because it's us that are older that gets stubborn that refused to change but young people they're actually able to change when they get the Word of God at a young age second Peter 3 verse 18 but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and forever amen Bible says in second Peter 3 verse 18 grow in grace and in knowledge the problem with listening to lots of preaching and not reading the Bible is you grow in knowledge you don't really grow in grace and you're kind of getting you know an improper balance because you're meant to grow in knowledge obviously but you're meant to grow in grace as well and that doesn't happen overnight look a baby doesn't become six feet tall in their first year that's not the way it works it takes a process now I don't think you have to wait 16 years to become spiritually mature but at the same time you don't just get saved today and six months later you know everything you're spiritually mature now you might listen to a lot of sermons you have a lot of knowledge packed in your head but the problem is you're gonna think you're really spiritual because you have knowledge and yet you're not right you can have a lot of knowledge and have no character whatsoever turn your Bible to Matthew 19 Matthew 19 Matthew chapter 19 things with real value take time and effort what you do when you first get saved is and you start coming to church you start reading the Bible every single day and when you're in church you're gonna hear sermons and you're gonna pick up on some of the information and some of the information is gonna go way over your head because you're new at it that's just the way it works I mean people that have been at our church I'm sure that's what they would say when they first started coming here there's like all these things they've never heard and then all of a sudden it's like okay now it's starting to make sense because you grow you know unti unti little by little right and so you slowly add on to it now when you're reading the Bible it's gonna be the same way the way you read the Bible is you just start reading it and you don't just stop at every verse you're confused about and spend 30 minutes studying it you say why you don't know enough of the Bible to do that you're gonna get confused you're gonna be misled what you do is you just read the Bible take some notes here or there and some things you have a question about it's kind of like well you know I'm not really sure about this and you know oftentimes the answer is later on in the same book or in the same chapter right and it's obvious but you don't necessarily know that immediately because you're new at it right and so what I'm saying is when people listen to a lot of sermons the reason why they do that is they want to get a lot of knowledge very quickly maybe you're not ready for all that knowledge maybe it's just gonna take a little bit of time and what you need is to have a good balance make sure you spend your personal time with God if you have extra time above that then listen to some good preaching if you can but what I would say is if you're new at our church instead of going back and listen to everything I preach just read the Bible just read the Bible that's better for you now you got to be in church to hear the Word of God obviously there's a place for ordained leadership to preach the Word of God it motivates you it's helpful I can teach you things but you're gonna learn more in your personal time with God and that's like the power lifting technique but the bodybuilding technique where you want to look impressive well listening to sermons will make you look impressive you'll get a lot of knowledge but that doesn't mean that you're actually spiritual number two shallow soul winning versus effective soul winning shallow soul winning is the bodybuilding okay effective soul winning is the power lifting in this example and what I mean by this is as we go out so winning later today our church is gonna get 35 salvation today something like that right now when you're reporting results nobody wants to say zero right nobody wants to say zero I don't want to come back from so it's like man I got four say if I got three how many did you get brother sucky right nobody wants to have a big zero but once again it doesn't mean you failed because nobody got saved they have free will I mean we approach people would you like to hear what the Bible says if they say no it is what it is and if they listen there's no guarantee they're gonna get saved they listen they might get saved they might not you didn't fail if you got less salvation than somebody else and and and quite honestly at the end of the day we don't know for sure how many people were getting saved we try our best and of course that's what I'm preaching on right now but if you report to you might find out up in heaven it's one you might find out it's three we don't really know right we talk to people sometimes I think they got it I'm not you don't always know right the tendency is to want to impress people with a big number and that is often why you'll see shallow soul winning result because people want to impress somebody Matthew 19 verse 16 I'll give you a couple examples from the Bible and behold one came and said unto him good master what good things shall I do that I may have eternal life now there are two problems with a statement in verse 16 not one problem and understand why Jesus responds this way you have to understand that there's two problems the obvious problem is what good works get me to heaven that's a very obvious problem but the other one is good master because this man does not believe that Jesus is is God he believes he's a great teacher and he's a great man but not that he's deity so here's the thing if someone is not God they're not good because there's none righteous no not one so Jesus responds and he said unto him why callest thou me good Jesus is not saying that he's not good because Jehovah's Witnesses will try to turn there say well see this proves Jesus is not God he said there's none good but one that is God actually that proves that he is God because my question is was Jesus good everybody would say Jesus was good he was sinless in him is no sin I mean it doesn't get much gooder much better than being sinless there's none good but one that is God here's what he's saying wait a minute you think I'm a normal man you think I'm good wait the only one that's good is God so there's there's two possibilities either I'm a normal man and I'm not God and I'm not good or I'm God which means I'm good and so when Jesus said there's none good but one that is God what is he saying he's saying well I'm God you think I'm good you have to believe I'm God because there's none righteous no not one there's none that do with good no not one the Bible says many times here so the reason why I responds that way is because this person doesn't believe that he's deity and this person is self righteous because he thinks his good works get him to heaven that's why Jesus says but if thou into life keep the commandments you say brother Stuckey why would you say that outsole any well if I've never really worded a conversation the way Jesus does but what you're looking at is a person who thinks their works are gonna get him to heaven and the first step is to understand that you're guilty and first he tries that gently show them nobody's good they're sinners and then he says if you want to go to heaven you've got to keep the commandments if you're trying to be good enough to go to heaven you've got to perfectly keep the commandments and look that is one way into heaven live a perfect life there's a problem no one's lived a perfect life and so you got to go to number two okay well now that I'm not perfect now that I've sinned against Almighty God I've got to believe on Jesus Christ right but this person still thinks his works get him to heaven this is like we talk to people and they say I know I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person and then you try to show them well the Bible says all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone you know I've only told white lies isn't that what people say sometimes that's someone that is not humble enough yet to get saved they don't want to admit that they're guilty they're still trying to enter into life by keeping the commandments Bible says he saith unto him which it's like I have to keep all of which commandment so I have to keep Jesus said thou shalt do no murder thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness honor thy father and thy mother and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself Jesus in it the young man saith unto him all these things have I kept for my youth up what lack I yet you've perfectly obeyed your mom and dad your entire life does anybody believe that look I think I'm pretty respectful to my parents you know growing up I feel like I was pretty respective but I was not always respectful to them there are times I raised my voice there are times I backtalk to my parents you can't say well I've kept all these things I've always honored my parents perfectly really you've always loved your neighbor as yourself perfectly because here's the thing actually if you love your neighbor as yourself perfectly that means you never sin because whenever you sin you harm against your neighbor in the Bible if you cross reference teaches that so here's the thing you have to keep all the commandments buddy not just which but all of them you've never borne false witness against someone you never lied about somebody I mean you've never stolen anything before I mean hopefully he's not committed murder but he hasn't kept all of these things but he says I've kept it all all right mister a Pharisee like the story of the Pharisee and publican like I fast twice in the week I give tithes of all that I possess Jesus said unto him if thou wilt be perfect go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me when the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions now if he perfectly loved his neighbors himself then just hey sell everything you have and give it to them right and he's what Jesus has shown him is you're not perfect you're trusting in your works and you are guilty right but here's the thing Jesus could have stopped this conversation and just said hey just repeat these words after me right look if somebody is willing to listen to you give the gospel 99% of the time they're willing to pray with you also even if they don't fully get it even if they don't fully understand right and you know we teach here at our church not to have a shallow one two three repeat after me gospel presentation but make sure you spend the time that people believe these things you know and and literally it's like I've seen some of the craziest so-called soul winning stories I've got so many I'm not gonna have time you know to go through all of them I remember I went to this church one time and the pastor paired people up for soul winning and I got paired up with this person who was an older person you know probably in his 60s or something like that at our church and a lot of people came up to me before we went out so winning they're like you are so lucky this guy always gets somebody saved I'm like oh no now that's not even sure in the Philippines much less in the United States of America and I'm not joking his gospel presentation was less than two minutes less than two minutes you know I felt horrible on that first door because the person that was was talking that we talked to that person probably would have gotten saved I mean he seemed very receptive and the gospel presentation was less than two minutes but hey you know I'm not trying to cause problems at the church right it's like he did his soul winning style so then okay I'll do the next door problem is I do the next door person's not interested I end the conversation and then he tells me all the things I did wrong he's like well you need to do this you need to do this and I'm just I don't want to cause problems at church right I just you know try to be respectful said yeah I know a lot of people have different techniques you know I don't really do it that way and I just tried to avoid the confrontation right but it's like a soul winning presentation in less than two minutes how is that possible now you can get somebody to say words in less than two minutes how can you get them to change their beliefs because you can't believe the same thing and be saved you're not going to change your beliefs in less than two minutes another table I know at a different church they had this church where they would have a once a year youth soul winning event which is a great thing the kids would go out all day and preach the gospel from teens to the younger kids and then they had testimony time at the church so kids went out all day long preaching the gospel and then people would come up and give a testimony one of the guys came up and gave a testimony about that day one of the teens and I remember the exact number of salvation's but it was something like he had like a hundred and fifty salvation's that day and he said I just want to tell you this one story he's like you know what I was preaching to a baseball team and there's 35 people in all and every single one of them got saved it's just like it was making me angry what a joke if you preach to 35 people they don't all get saved they don't and even if they did how do you know did you stop and ask every single one of them what they believe because when you talk to a group of two or three people you might be able to know a pretty good idea whatever one but if you talk to 35 people I mean common sense says a lot of people they just follow the leader of the group they shake their head yes it's like yes say these words oh he bowed his head okay I'll say these words that's reality it's a fact it's like you don't know right and it's like I didn't I'll give you one other example and look these and these you say why do these stories make you mad because the actual answer is zero if you're reporting 150 I think the actual answer is take off the one take off the five and just give us the last number right it's like yeah I got 150 say what was that last number you said zero right another example me and my friends this was in Pennsylvania a long time ago we did a soul-winning marathon maybe 15 years ago I think there was nine of us if I remember correctly and we went when I say so any marathon from like 9 in the morning to like past 6 at night to when it got dark and we had a short break at lunch so a legitimate eight hours of soul-winning I was a lot younger then I don't really have the energy for that now but eight hours now I will say this it's a lot cooler in Pennsylvania than it is here so it's kind of hard you know in the heat for eight hours but legitimate eight hours and for most of the doors we kind of split up we're just kind of you know just hopping Patalon Talon you know from house to house so basically nine separate people we're talking about 72 hours maybe 60 hours because some of its together 60 hours of actual soul-winning so this is a lot of soul-winning right and every single person in the group had I think at least four salvations and in total we averaged about five I think was 43 salvations if I remember correctly or something like that so it's a lot of salvations but it was a lot of soul-winning and we were exhausted and it's on Saturday and you know they have visitation at the church on Saturdays we went back to the church quickly because we're in that area and one of the assistant pastors is like hey that's great that you did that he's like me and my son went out for an hour earlier and we had 82 salvations 82 salvations in an hour in my head I'm wondering did did you just make up the number or did you talk to a large girl I mean like what 82 I mean I was angry because I knew it was fake I'm just like look that's not the sort of soul-winning that we advocate at our church it's like we need to make sure that they believe and they understand these things and I'm not saying you have to spend you know like five hours with one person but you need to spend more than five minutes you make sure I mean there's steps to getting saved I'm not saying you have to use the same verses but first they have to understand they're guilty and so you make sure they understand they're guilty and then you have to explain what Jesus did and who he was you know even if it's briefly it takes time explain that salvation is a gift and it's eternal and make sure that they get it and then what you should do is make sure they're rejecting their old beliefs and believing what you're saying so do you still believe that you have to keep the sacraments to be saved and many times they'll say yes right now go to John 4 for sake of time John 3 is another example Jesus talks to Nicodemus look he could have shut down that conversation and just said a prayer one of the techniques I've heard before in certain Bible colleges ifb Bible colleges in the US and I'm not saying all ifb churches are like this so don't misunderstand what I'm saying but I'm saying there is this shallow soul winning out there is that you talk to someone and you ask them is there anything I can pray for you about and they'll say yeah can you pray for me about my job you know I'm going through a lot of problems right now and then say okay well let's pray and then you put your hand on their shoulder it's like all right let's pray you know and then all of a sudden you're praying for them you know ask you to help you know I you know help them you know get a pay raise and help them out support his family and you know now Johnny we're gonna call upon the Lord to save you just say these words dear God and what happens is people feel pressured into saying those words you got I mean there's a technique to this you got to have the hand on the shoulder and it's like you got to use the right timing now say these words you don't give them an option it's not optional you don't say well would you like no no say these words you know now you're gonna call upon the Lord say these words and then you get them to say those words well congratulations you're going to heaven I mean when people do these sorts of techniques I wonder if the person preaching the gospel is saved because I'm thinking what do you think salvation is like yeah we call upon the Lord at the end of the conversation but what's the key throughout the Bible that you believe we got to make sure you believe first and the thing is in John 4 I'm going to show you an example of this that will help illustrate what I'm saying John 4 verse 10 Jesus answered said under if thou knew is the gift of God and who it is that sayeth that he give me to drink that was the vast of him and he would have given the living water you say brother second what about the person that believes 100% on Jesus alone but does not call upon the Lord to save him impossible you say what are you saying John 4 verse 10 if thou knew is the gift of God what's the gift of God eternal life and who it is that sayeth thee give me to drink who's saying it Jesus thou might as it might est have asked him no thou wouldest have asked of him they will look if somebody is drowning in water and they're gonna die and my back is turned to them and I'm standing beside the water it's like I want to get out of this water I don't want to die but I refuse to say help I refuse it that is a stupid example that will never happen somebody's in a burning building right here they can't get out but they were they see someone on the other side of the door that can unlock it they refuse to say help that that's a stupid example that would never happen right and regardless of whether you agree with those examples it's like right here it says if you know the gift of God and who's giving it you're gonna ask so our focus is to get people believe to believe you say why because if they believe you're not gonna have problem getting them to call upon the Lord and if they don't want to call upon the Lord it's usually a signal well maybe there's something they don't quite get it leaves this big question mark where it's like you know it's like you know why are you hesitating is there something you're not sure about is there something you don't believe yet and many times when I say that they'll say well actually you know I don't know if I believe this and it will make manifest actually even though they said they believe they knew the right answers but they didn't believe it in their heart and then it says here in verse 15 but who's whoever drinketh the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life the woman saith unto him sir give me this water that I thirst not neither come hither to draw and that's the moment that she got saved I mean she essentially I mean she doesn't understand you know the water because she's asking for this water but she said the words I mean I got him to say the words here right say these words after me Johnny I'm sorry if your name is Johnny it's just an example okay John is the most common name in the u.s. so that's the example you often give I don't know why they say hey Joe hey Joe it's like Joe's not that common in the u.s. compared to other names but anyways she said the words but she doesn't believe it in her heart right you have to believe it in your heart you know what that actually takes time as we're preaching the gospel go to acts 26 I'll give you an example just from this past week as I was preaching the gospel I was preaching the gospel at Nepal Park in Pampanga and I was talking to two young ladies and one of them was Catholic and one was INC now when they're of different religions it's always a little bit more difficult right because you're trying to figure out you know should I focus on both of them or just one of them and I focused primarily on the one that was Catholic because the INC one was playing mobile legends so she started to pay attention but she wasn't as focused so I was mainly focusing on the one who was Catholic which is good because it's gonna be a bit simpler anyway and I'm going through it and you know the other one starts to listen and they both are answering things correctly toward the end I mean it took time and I got at the end and what I made a decision in my mind was I'm just gonna wrap up this conversation and then you know pray at the end assuming they get it or assuming she gets it and then afterwards I'll talk to the one that's INC so that's what I did well they both prayed right because I didn't say well stop no no no you zip it just you right so they both prayed and I talked to the one who's Catholic for like 30 seconds afterwards at everything and you know the thing is during the conversation the one who was INC said she didn't believe Jesus was God so I realized I gave a few verses and you know she still didn't get it so I wasn't focusing mainly on her I realized she didn't get it at the end she's answering everything correctly and then I asked her do you believe that you have to be a member of INC to go to heaven and she said yes but she said the words but I knew that she didn't get it I know before she prayed the prayer and you know this young lady was very nice very friendly and I left her with things to think about you know and she was thinking about at the end you know hopefully she does get saved I mean the seed is in there but she didn't get saved at that moment even though she said the words I didn't try to get her to pray with me it's just I was talking to two people so it is what it is right but here's what I'm saying just because somebody prays a prayer doesn't mean that they believe it now we never know a hundred percent perfectly anyway but we should strive to do the best we can to make sure they get it Acts 26 verse 27 King Agrippa believeth thou the prophets I know that thou believeth then Agrippa said unto Paul almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian now I mean here's the thing Agrippa saying you've almost persuaded me to change my mind is what he's basically saying change my belief but here's the thing Paul could have stopped this conversation and prayed I mean well that's okay just say these words but yeah sometimes people go soul winning and somebody disagrees with a part of the gospel and it's like that's okay we'll just skip it you can't and honestly at our church I believe there is very thorough soul winning I don't know if a major problem at our church is just an example in this sermon but I'm just saying it's like just because they pray a prayer just because they say words doesn't mean they get saved now here's the thing it's impressive if you come back today and you get five people say my immediate reaction is man that's a lot that's great and you know that could be very possible you talk to a group of you know three people in a group of two people or something that is possible and it sounds good but it's like well how many did you get saved I got three I got four how about you you picked a bit of a high number there didn't you it's like let's make sure that it is actually real okay turn your Bible to Malachi one will close up in Malachi one Malachi one so if you talk to someone and you're like I'm not sure if they got it it's a maybe don't count them you know it's it's okay if you don't count them right I mean and obviously we don't know perfectly but it is perfectly okay with giving the gospel to someone and they don't get saved right or you give the gospel to someone and you know I've run into situations because in West Virginia I preach the gospel to people and we'd run into a lot of the same people given the area and I remember running into people that I was surprised were saved that I had talked to and I was thinking oh man I didn't think they got saved and maybe they didn't get saved then maybe they thought about or whatever but I'm just saying it's like you're actually doing them a disservice if you convince them they're saved but they're not right it's like they have to believe it on the inside but it impresses people to have a big number but that's not gonna make you spiritually do the right thing spiritually being strong number one listening to sermons is the bodybuilding example versus spending personal time with God number two shallow soul winning versus effective soul winning number three volunteering privately versus volunteering publicly now I want to say this is a disclaimer before I explain this point I'm not saying it's wrong to volunteer publicly obviously there's certain volunteering positions and you can use this in a church setting or in your personal life and work you can make various applications and you know what there's people at church that do the Bible reading and the script and the song leading there's people that volunteer to preach sometimes and those are what would be public things that you're volunteering but there's also things that can be done which nobody really knows about it's not seen it's not you know broadcast to the five million people watching this sermon right on YouTube right now nobody knows about it but it's just you trying to help out and volunteer and and and do something that is godly and right and of course there's nothing wrong with volunteering publicly but it better not be I want to be seen of man is the reason why Bible says in Malachi 1 verse 9 and now I pray you beseech God that he will be gracious unto us this hath been by your means will he regard your person sayeth the Lord who is there even among you that would shut the doors for not now if I was saying here in verse 10 is who in this group is willing to close the building for not meaning you get nothing out of it you get no credit you get no money you get no fame and he's criticizing them saying there's not a single person in this group it's out yeah brother sucky I'll close the building for a hundred pesos that's that's what he's basically saying right I don't know this to be a problem at our church I'm just saying this is exactly what he's talking about no one's willing to shut the doors for not it's like well what's in it for me what do I get out of it can you imagine if when we get done with you know the sermons and of course today we have the baptism if nobody is willing to set up a table or remove the chairs unless you get something out of it we'd have a disaster it's like hey do you mind setting up that table sure no problem what are you gonna give me it's like what right but but that's the sort of attitude that he's criticizing Amalika then he gives another example then he says neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for not now to kindle the fire is to start the flame here's the thing not everybody had the authority to make a sacrifice or an offering but basically it's like hey I'm really busy can you just you know start the fire well what are you giving me for that right it's like I got to get something out of it and no one's willing to do that because they're not getting the credit of having done the offering so I'm not gonna start the fire right and he's saying neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for not I have no pleasure and you say at the Lord of hosts neither will I accept an offering at your hand and God is angry because there's people that know the true God save people and they're unwilling to do anything unless they get something out of it right for sake of time we have more scriptures I'm not gonna turn there but of course the Bible speaks about doing your works to be seen of man now there's nothing wrong with doing works that are public works you can do good things that people can be aware of but what is the motivation what's your purpose and if you're only doing things to be seen a man you say what's what's a great example this brother say here's a great example Muslim standing in the middle of the street for every single person to see them praying five times a day doing your works to be seen of man it's a fact and yet the Bible says when you pray enter into your closet now I'm not saying it's wrong to pray at a restaurant for the food you're like I'm not saying avoiding praying cuz somebody might see but not making a show of prayer right or you know doing your praying you know in front of the wall of the wailing wall just back and forth it's just like what are you doing you're doing your works to be seen a man and you're doing very bizarre works to be seen a man it's I want people to catch me doing this it's like it's disco back in style I thought that was out like with the Bee Gees 50 years ago right half of you don't know who the Bee Gees are whatever some of you understand what I'm talking about but but anyways there's a difference between doing works because you just love God you want to do what's right versus trying to do things to be seen a man now look there's nothing wrong with doing works that are public works that people can be aware of but the question is what is your motive and when you're doing works publicly to be seen it's because you're trying to impress people you want to get that bodybuilding physique that everyone is impressed by or whatever that gives you that gold you know trophy or whatever right so the three points we have our number one listening to sermons versus personal time with God now there's nothing wrong with listening to sermons right there's good sermons out there I mean you know what if if if you're not sure about something I mean I preach on a variety of topics you're welcome to listen to sermons or you know are sending pastor pastor Menes you can listen to his preaching there's great information to learn but he would tell you the same thing you're gonna learn more by reading your Bible don't just take man's word for it read the Bible for yourself I mean look isn't this what the Catholic Church does they didn't even want people to have the Bible just take our word for it and then let's just do it in another language let's just make service in Latin so nobody understands and and they can't read the Bible for themselves and they killed people for trying to put the Bible out for the common man because they didn't want people to know well that that is the Catholic mentality well here's the thing that is not the mentality of what a Baptist Church should be I don't want you to just take my word for what's being preached read the Bible for yourself memorize the Bible for yourself and learn what the Word of God says now listening to sermons is great but it's not a substitute for personal time with God number two we said shallow soul-winning versus effective soul-winning there is a problem with shallow soul-winning I mean if your gospel presentation is less than two minutes it's already getting hard enough to pair everybody up about soul-winning we got a lot of people just stop coming you say brother duckies duckies joking no I'm not joking I'm literally not joking if your gospel praise presentation is less than two minutes don't come so in with our church because nobody's getting saved in two minutes you're making a mockery so years ago I think was four years ago and in May at the Cavite soul-winning marathon we had somebody I kind of opened it up online for anyone from the area that wanted to join us and somebody came and he went so winning with me and his gospel presentation was less than two minutes and I told him well you're welcome to stay with us but you're not allowed to preach the gospel anymore you say why because if someone's willing to listen I want them to get saved and he was just destroying what we were doing I'm not saying he was a bad person but that's just making a mockery a joke here's the truth if you've been so winning for a couple years every single person when they first start going so winning they're not really that good that's that's not an insult it's just a fact when I first started going so winning I wasn't that good and I thought I was getting a lot of people saved and I my techniques I was using the four spiritual laws as I was taught in a non-denominational thing and and I was trying to use the four spiritual laws and it's bad so winning right it's like God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life it's like no it's just bad so winning and I thought I was getting a lot of people saved and then after a couple weeks of doing that I just something just didn't seem right with me you know I just like I don't really know if they got it right and I believe God was redirecting my zeal and see this is why I don't overly worry when someone's new at our church even if they need to make some changes because if they're humble they will that's the way it works it's like whenever somebody comes so any with us if they don't have much experience they're just not good it's just it's just a fact right and everybody would say yeah you know what that's true when I first started I probably prayed with a lot of people that maybe they didn't get it because I wasn't thorough enough and that's fine I mean obviously you you live you learn and you grow past that point but let's try to do the best that we can right and lastly I said volunteering private or volunteering publicly is like the the bodybuilding where everybody sees but volunteering privately that's actually where you're drawing close to God volunteering publicly is great I'm not saying you can't do that if you've got an ability and a gift and obviously it's great but don't have this attitude I'm not going to do something unless I get credit for it because that's the same attitude you see in Malachi chapter 1 let's go somewhere to prayer your Heavenly Father thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see this topic and ask you to help all of us to live our lives in a way to become spiritually strong and not just look impressive to man or try to be men pleasers or do things to be seen in man but help us try to live our lives in a way that we are spiritually strong God and I ask you to help all of us just continue to grow and learn and ask you to continue to bless our church and we pray this in Jesus name Amen page number 74 page number 74 page number 74 the light of the world is Jesus we're going to sing this song in English so that you can hear it we're going to sing the first stanza and then we're going to sing it first stanza ready sing the first stanza the first stanza the first stanza the first stanza the first stanza the first stanza the first stanza