(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

all right we're here in Matthew chapter 10 if you're here on Wednesday I made a promise it's gonna be the most controversial sermon I've preached here at Verity Baptist Church Manila so I plan to deliver that but it's controversial kind of in a different way so to speak and the second sermon is going to be a Christmas sermon I decided to preach this one first and I want you to turn to Luke 2 real quickly before we get into the message and I want you to look down at verse number 48 of Luke chapter 2 Luke chapter 2 starting in verse 48 the Bible reads and when they saw him they were amazed and his mother said unto him son why has thou thus dealt with us behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrow he said unto them how is it that he sought me was he not that I must be about my father's business you see there that Jesus is correcting his mom's understanding of who his father is and it says in verse 50 and they understood not the saying which he spake unto them so he says this and they don't get it you know Joseph and his mom they don't understand what he's saying they don't get it verse 51 and he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart you know we hear something from behind the pulpit and it's something we don't immediately grasp or immediately believe or immediately fully get we're supposed to keep that saying in our heart meditate on there could be certain things we hear preached and we first hear them you might say I don't know if that's right that sounds wrong to me and what I'm trying to do is tell you ahead of time I want you to have an open mind in this sermon and if you don't fully agree what you should do is keep this saying in your heart meditate on it and search the Bible for yourself and read Matthew 10 and see if what I'm saying is the truth or whether or not it's false and so I want you to go back to Matthew chapter 10 back to Matthew chapter 10 and let's look at starting at verse number 11 now this is the chapter on soul winning at the end of chapter 9 Jesus sending them out and he says you know that there's a great multitude and there's no one to preach the gospel basically and in Matthew 10 he's sending them out two by two out there to preach the gospel and in verse number 12 what he says is and we when he come into a house saluted okay whenever you look up the word salute in the Bible it's a very positive thing what he's saying is when we preach the gospel we need to be friendly not to be jerks we need to be very friendly we need to salute the house be respectful to the people that we talk to and in verse number 11 it says and then to whatsoever city or town you shall enter inquire who in it is worthy and thereby till you go offense now the word inquire is a very strong term to say you need to find out who is worthy and God is telling us we need to do be very diligent to find out who wants to hear the gospel we need to find out everybody here in Manila everybody in Metro Manila everybody throughout the Philippines who wants to hear the gospel and if they want to hear the gospel if they're worthy we preach the gospel verse 13 and if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it but if it be not worthy let your peace return to you when it's talking about your peace it's talking about the gospel of peace and so the house is worthy we let our peace the gospel of peace come upon it if it's not worthy we don't let the gospel of peace come upon say what does it mean to be worthy well notice verse 14 and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or city shake off the dust of your feet see if somebody doesn't want to hear our words they're not worthy to hear the gospel which means we don't waste our time with someone who's not interested right but here's the thing let's say we talk knock at door we start talking to someone and they say they're interested and during the conversation we show them clear verses that show they need a Savior and they say I don't believe I need a Savior I think I can live a good enough life to earn my way to heaven they are no longer worthy because they're not receiving your words at that point you understand there's certain people we give the gospel to and part way through we have to decide you know what I'm wasting my time right and so the Bible says then just shake off the dust of your feet verse 15 barely I say of you it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment then for that city so the Bible is telling us here that if somebody doesn't want to hear us we don't worry about it we don't get mad we don't start a fight we just go on to the next person who's interested in hearing it because there's plenty of people out there that want to hear it now in verse number 16 this is what it says behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves see the Bible says he's sending us forth as sheep in the midst of wolves and that's the first point we are sheep in the midst of wolves when we're out preaching the gospel okay now here's the thing if we didn't go out preaching the gospel we wouldn't be amongst a bunch of wolves that want to destroy us but when we get sent forth and we're proclaiming the gospel all of a sudden we're making manifest that we are sheep and we got a bunch of wolves that want to destroy what we're doing right when you see this number in the bulletin of all these hundreds of people that have gotten saved you know that we have a big target on our back yeah right we're putting a huge target on it because you know what it's not like the devil has to attack too many churches here in Metro Manila does he there's not too many churches doing the work and when we're out there preaching the gospel there's already a huge target on our back right we are sheep in the midst of wolves now turn to acts 4 and I'm going to give you just quickly look at three chapters here that show how we are sheep in the midst of wolves when it comes to soul and in Acts chapter 4 obviously the book of Acts is the book about soul when they're out doing the great works and acts of God they're out preaching the gospel getting people say acts 4 starting verse 1 and as they spake unto the people the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead and they laid hands on them and put them in hold on to the next day for it was now even time they put them on hold they're basically being put in prison trying to figure out what are we going to do with them as you see the Sadducees and these religious people they are grieved that they're out preaching the gospel yeah isn't it interesting how it's the religious people that hate the message we're presenting they're the ones that will arrest you they're the ones that will pursue it's a religious people it's not the unreligious people and the unreligious people if they're not interested no big deal but you know the religious people they get mad at the message we're presenting you know what yeah here they are being put in prison I remember we were at the mountain lair at West Virginia University I was preaching the gospel with brother Richard Simes and he was having a conversation with someone who was a Baptist and you know it sounded like they believed the exact same thing for a while and they were so thankful we preached the gospel they're like it is awesome you're talking to people here at WVU it was parents of a couple kids who went there and then all of a sudden the word repent came up boy did they switch they went from just loving what we were doing to hating what we were doing they were so mad that we were preaching a repentance list gospel they were angry at what we were doing right that's religious people for you isn't it they get mad at what we're doing it's the religious people it's the ones that are the closest to us without actually being saved they're gonna get the most back right they're gonna be the ones that the people that appreciate this repentance of sins gospel they're gonna be the ones that hate us they're gonna be the ones that persecute they're gonna be the ones that try to stop what we're doing you know be a big thorn in our side here in the Philippines it's not gonna the Catholics aren't gonna be a thorn in our side it's gonna be the Baptist step believe in repentance of sins they're gonna be the thorns in our side yeah Acts chapter 5 that's in Acts chapter 4 means pretty much in every chapter in the book of Acts Acts 5 verses 14 through 18 and believers were the more added to the Lord multitudes both of men and women in so much they brought forth the sick into the streets and lay them on beds and couches at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them there came also multitude out of the city's roundabout unto Jerusalem bringing sick folks and that which were vexed with unclean spirits and they were healed everyone then the high priest rose up and all they that were with him which is the sect of the Sadducees and were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the Apostles and put them in the common prison where they're going to prison again why they're just out preaching the gospel out getting people healed and all of a sudden these religious people they want to arrest them they put them in prison they're mad at what's being done you're mad at somebody got healed I mean what's wrong with you people are getting healed and you're angry about but that's the truth they're mad that people are getting healed turn to Acts chapter 6 act 6 look at we can preach a whole sermon just going through the book of Acts showing all the time to get arrested Acts chapter 6 verses 8 through 11 and Stephen full of faith and power did great wonders and miracles among the people then there arose certain of the synagogue which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and of them of Cilicia and of Asia disputing with Stephen and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake then they subored men which said we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God once again they cannot resist what Stephen saying now notice it's interesting at the end of this verse blasphemous words against Moses Moses isn't God what are you talking about blasphemous words against Moses right but you know religious people I mean they don't really understand what the Bible says they don't even understand what blasphemy means but blasphemous words against Moses I'm sure what they were saying was well now you don't have to follow the law according to this person I mean they're saying you don't have to follow the law to go to heaven it's just a free gift and that's blasphemous I mean that's what the Bible teaches it's a free gift and they're mad at what's being said in the next chapter Stephen gets stoned to death he gets killed why because he's preaching the gospel and they cannot resist the word the truth is that these these churches here in the Philippines they cannot resist the words were preaching yeah they have no answer for it right they know that right it makes them really mad when they're these religious leaders and they have no way to answer what we're saying yeah they don't they can't I mean we're not gonna waste our time debating them I'm not gonna do that I think it's a waste of time but I'll tell you what they cannot resist these words they can't answer it so instead they just get mad instead they just put out the threats right that's why because you can't answer the words that are being said that's the truth you can't answer all the hundreds of verses through the book of John that tastes just by believing so what are you gonna do you're gonna put out a threat out there why not because you can't resist the words you can't answer what's being said that's the truth now turn back to Matthew 10 now here's the great thing in the Philippines there's really hardly any persecution for preaching the gospel who has been arrested preaching the gospel I have I haven't been even in America but I mean I haven't been arrested I haven't had any sort of threat whatsoever here in the Philippines preaching the gospel we've gotten these hundreds of people say nothing's stopping us from preaching the gospel now the book of Acts they literally had to worry about getting arrested now what that shows us is that if one day it becomes illegal to preach the gospel we need to keep doing it no matter what yeah that's the truth and I'm gonna be a soul winner till the day I die I don't care how many times I get thrown in prison because you know God told me to preach the gospel to every creature we're gonna go out there and preach the gospel whether or not there's persecution or not now in the Philippines it's a long ways away if there comes that persecution it's not gonna happen in the next ten years we're gonna be able to pre freely preach the gospel in Rizal Park or wherever we go for a long time there's really a long ways away from having this sort of persecution they have in the book of Acts in other countries you do have this sort of persecution where you can get thrown in jail you can get executed and we need to realize that since we have this opportunity we need to take advantage while we have it we need to turn this place upside down while we have the opportunity now I want you to notice the first point is we're sheep in the midst of wolves but the second thing I want you to notice is in Matthew chapter 10 at verse 17 where it says but beware of men beware of men okay the second point is this beware of men for they will deliver you up to the councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues and you should be brought before governors and kings for my sake for a testimony against them in the Gentiles now throughout the book of Acts we see that they're getting arrested they're getting thrown in jail anyway that could happen in our lifetime perhaps but we're really not at that point now now let me just say this as a church because churches handle things differently and I'm just letting you know this ahead of time and I'm not against what other churches do you know it's fine but as an example a couple weeks ago myself and brother J and brother jr. we were out preaching the gospel and we're out in Cabal and a policeman came up to us I think brother J was preaching the gospel at the time when we were trying to talk to people and he told us we were not allowed to preach the gospel okay he said this area was bought by somebody in this area you're not allowed to preach the gospel now it was okay to preach like five minutes away but it wasn't okay where we are now obviously Church handle things differently but what we did and what I think is the wisest thing for us to do since it's so open throughout all the Philippines is just go where we are allowed and won't get arrested okay I don't think it's a fight I think sometimes we need to live to fight another day okay now obviously different churches are in different situations I get that I'm you know that that's fine I'm just saying for us since it's so open in the Philippines I don't think it's worth getting thrown in jail when 95% of this country we can preach the gospel it's not like we have to leave the city and travel two hours to preach the gospel we just had to walk five minutes away so for us it was just like it's just not worth it okay and that's my philosophy here and that's what I believe is the wisest thing for us to do is to live to fight another day because we can only fight so many battles in life okay and obviously we haven't had a problem with that but I know during the marathon in April when we were preaching in the malls and outside the malls they ran into a situation where they were asked to leave there because they weren't allowed to do it and we just left and we got thousands of people saved during the missions trip yeah right it just wasn't worth getting 25 people arrested when they can just preach in other parts right so I want you to notice on Matthew 10 17 where it says beware of men and I want you to notice the first thing he says this is where I really want you to start paying attention to what's being said because this is gonna be a little bit different this is something that's new to me I'll be honest with you a month ago I didn't understand this passage like I do now I've been studying this out I've been looking at it and so this is new information to me and if I had been here a month ago and somebody was preaching I would have need to keep this saying in my heart as well and see what the Bible actually teaches but it says in Matthew 10 verse 17 but beware of men for they will deliver you up to the councils okay now if you look up the word council every time it appears in the Bible it's talking about a religious council a religious meeting okay it's not just some normal political thing this this is a religious council now this should not be really very shocking to us because if you look throughout history there's all kinds of religious councils the Council of Nicaea who's heard of that the Council of Nicaea that's where supposedly they got together and found out what do Christians believe that's the Catholic Church where they basically decided what they're gonna believe what kind of heresy they're gonna preach for a couple thousand years the big Council of Nicaea not only the Council of Nicaea here's some other famous councils throughout history the Council of Constantinople the Council of Ephesus the Council of Chalcedon the Council of Constantinople again the Council of Constantinople again the Council of Nicaea the Council of Constantinople the Council of Lateran of Lateran of Lateran of Lateran four times of Leon of Leon of Vienna of Constance of Basel Ferrara Florence Lateran Trent the first Vatican Council the second Vatican Council I mean Catholic Church you have to keep changing what you believe why do you have to keep having a council to figure out what you believe I mean can't you just figure it out and stick with it I mean just stick with the Council of Nicaea but they keep having to have these councils like oh I don't know what what the answer is this and they're deciding what they believe but I want you to notice these are religious meetings religious councils there is no new thing under the Sun right these religious councils and when it talks about being delivered up to the councils what it's talking about is religious people will deliver you up to their councils to make the judgment on what's going to happen to you that's what it's saying religious people will deliver you up now the reason why I didn't fully get this passage in Matthew 10 is because in America religious leaders have no power no power you could preach against Joel Osteen in every single sermon you'll never get arrested for that now Joel Osteen is very famous with zero political power no political power whatsoever John MacArthur very famous zero political power Benny Hinn very famous zero political power all these things Joyce Meyer all these famous people in America TD Jakes look you can preach it from the rooftop you never have to worry about going to jail that's why you hear the pastors in our movement or you heard me even preached you know before just name the names don't worry whatsoever but here's the difference in the Philippines religious people do have power politically don't they it's a completely different situation but this verse really doesn't apply in America in the 21st century okay so this does apply to us in the Philippines and look someone in America could listen this and think I'm being watered down or maybe you even in this room is that priest a sermon might think that but here's the truth you know this verse really doesn't apply to America whatsoever because their religious leaders have no power they can't deliver you up to councils they never could but in the Philippines they can and see remember God told you in verse 17 being where of men what does it mean to be where it means be very careful how you respond to them right then it's not being me me being watered down this is what the Bible teaches okay and so we're gonna go through this and see this and then it says notice they said shall scourge you in their synagogues a synagogue is a religious place isn't it this very much applies to us and here in the Philippines because the synagogue is a religious place they'll deliver you up to the councils and they decide your faith and they'll scourge you in their synagogues well I thought religion people were supposed to be nice and they're scourging you they're beating you in their synagogues but that's what the Bible speaks about right now I don't necessarily think we're at this point here in the Philippines yet where they can just really just bring you up to their synagogues and scourge you but it does show you what's coming in the Philippines one day where religious people will deliver you up they'll scourge you in their synagogues and look religious leaders they're gonna be the ones that persecute us they're gonna be the thorns in our sight they're the ones with the power to deliver us up and scourge us and God told us beware okay now why does he tell you to be where the reason why I told you to be where is this whole chapters about soul winning and he's saying the biggest focus we have is to go so when you get people saved and I want you to be where he said don't stop so winning because throughout the Bible we see you never stop so winning for any reason but he told you be cautious beware be careful about how you respond for a couple reasons one because you will get beat you will get in trouble you will be thrown in jail but also because the fact it's gonna destroy so winning if you're fighting that battle you understand what I'm saying now obviously we go out we preach the gospel we don't hold back whatsoever but God did tell us to be where you've got to think about this because this does apply to the Philippines in the 21st century to some degree it doesn't apply in America whatsoever because it's I mean you can preach against Joel Osteen all day long nothing will happen to you but here in the Philippines beware because you know what religious people do have they'll run for president here in the Philippines do you realize how bizarre that is to me you never see a religious person run I mean they're the most anti religious people right they don't care about the Bible but it's people that are religious and leaders of these movements here in the Philippines they run for president it's a different situation in the United States and so when you hear Pastor Anderson or Pastor Jimenez ripped from the pulpit name all these names look I've done the same thing but it is a little bit different here and you do have to be a little bit cautious it also says in verse 18 and you shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake for a testimony against him in the Gentiles the Bible says you're gonna be brought before governors and kings look you know if I got a fight in a fight with Brother Franklin it's not like I could just call up President Duterte and say hey you're gonna make the decision on this case and I can bring him before a king or governor that is real power to be able to bring someone before a governor or a king we've got to stop and think of the words that Jesus is telling them that you can be brought before governors and kings the person who has that power has real power don't they right this is not something a normal person could do you get in a fight with someone in the street and say hey we're gonna have the king determine the outcome of this right but here the Bible is talking about when we go soul-winning they're gonna be enemies and you know what they can bring you before governors and kings these are people with real power there's really why he says beware be careful about what you do and what you say now obviously we go soul-winning and preach the gospel with boldness we don't worry whatsoever nothing even happens when we go soul there's no persecution which is great because that's our mission that's the one thing we will never stop is soul-winning and there's no persecution to go soul-winning but there's certain people that hate us and the Bible tells us to beware of these people be careful about these people this is not me being watered down this is what it says in Matthew 10 verses 17 and 18 he says brought before governors and kings look at verse number 16 and so the first point we had is that we're gonna be sheep in the midst of wolves the second thing we have is this that we're supposed to be aware of men what it says be aware of men we don't necessarily have to be aware of every single person because most people have no power whatsoever now obviously we're respectful we don't get in fights out soul-winning we try to be respectful but it's not like I have to worry today as a priest the gospel in Rizal Park like uh-oh I gotta be careful I don't offend this person because I'm gonna be brought before a king right it's talking about beware of people that you know have power and there are people that we know have power here in the Philippines right says in Matthew 10 verse 16 behold I send you for the sheep in the midst of wolves be therefore wise as serpents the third point we have is this we need to be wise as serpents okay now I want you to understand something that when it comes to a serpent a serpent has the ability to destroy what it attacks but it does not always attack turn to Psalms 58 Psalms 58 the Bible says be wise as serpents and what the Bible is telling us is you're smart about how you attack and when you attack you don't automatically attack just because you can destroy them but you're smart about it when should I attack how should I attack remember beware of men so we've got to think about it ahead of time of what we do Psalms 58 verse 4 their poison is like the poison of a serpent they're like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear the Bible talks about the poison of a serpent and look when it comes to these heretics and these false religions that we preached against but they have no way to destroy us when it comes to the world they have no way whatsoever they can't answer the words we are wise I mean we're as powerful as serpents when we say something they have no answer whatsoever I mean it makes them look foolish if they even try to respond and why they try to claim that we have to repent of our sins we say because they have no answer for it right they have no answer for their Calvinism and all their heresies there's no way they can possibly answer it they can't answer they can't resist these words right we do have the power of a serpent to destroy them we can put up that Facebook post that YouTube video they can't respond to it they have no verses to respond to it there's no way they can respond to it because the Bible shows that they're fools that they're unsaved ignorant fools and the message they're preaching is a false gospel it's so easy to prove it's not hard to destroy them in a battle of words turn to Genesis 3 Genesis 3 so the question is not can we destroy them the question is should we destroy you understand what I'm saying because the Bible says be wise as a serpent just because we have the ability to destroy them should we destroy them though God tells us to have wisdom and it applies to soul winning because of the fact if we end up preaching get certain people they could make our life very difficult they can make our soul winning very difficult but they're gonna hate what we're doing and there's certain people that have real power that you know what they can make things that go I'll give you an example there's a video a couple days ago I put this up months ago and it was on this religious leader in the Philippines and it was a big scandal that he was involved in right so I put in the video and it got a good amount of views and stuff like that and then just a couple days ago it went crazy viral crazy viral I don't know how big it was gonna get but it was gonna probably get 10,000 views a day okay but I looked at the content of that video and I was like you know what I put that video stays online there's a chance I'm gonna hit six I'm gonna be swimming with the fishes right I'll be six feet under the ground God told me to beware of men you know what I did I took the video down right because it's like you know I'm not trying to become famous here God told me to be a soul winner right in that thing he told me to be aware of men and that video yet exposing what I noticed is the other people that had those videos up on the same topic very they've taken stuff down and so it's like because it was one of the premier videos it's just like yeah you know what that's that's a good way to end up getting killed in the Philippines right it's not a battle we're fighting now obviously the words they wouldn't be able to respond to it show their illegal activities but look it doesn't do us any good to have that video up God told us to be wise say well that's watered down we can think it's watered down but you know I'll give you 20 bucks here this week to just go around and follow I and C look for all their illegal activities and tell me I'm watered down you're not gonna do that are you I mean I hope you don't do that right something could end up happening to you right God told us to be aware of men we need to be smart about how why because here in the Philippines there are certain people that have real power real ties to government real ties to politics and God told us beware of men it says in Genesis chapter 3 verses 1 through 5 now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said unto the woman he hath God said he shall not eat of every tree of the garden and the woman said unto the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God said he shall not eat of it neither shall you touch it lest he die and the serpent said unto the woman he shall not surely die for God doth know that in the day heat thereof then your eyes shall be open and you shall be as gods knowing good and evil now obviously the devil is wicked but the Bible refers to the devil as a serpent and it tells us to be wise as a serpent what that shows us is we can actually learn lessons from what the devil does okay and see the devil picks when to attack he doesn't just attack all the time he picks when to attack he picks the right moment here to attack and he goes after the woman not the man why because women are more easily deceived by false prophets and look you can be offended at that if you want that's just the truth that's just reality okay and that's that's another sermon I'm just mentioning that that's for free you know I mean that's the truth and the devil is smart with how he attacks but I also refers to the devil as a roaring lion how does a lion attack I've heard before and I've read before that what a lion will do is kind of hide where it's underneath and it can't be seen and it'll kind of let out a roar but make it very deceptive where that's coming from and an animal start looking around and have no clue where the lion is and the lion will come where they don't expect it in the line will destroy that animal lion is very smart as a roaring lion that's the way the devil is as a serpent that's the way the devil is and see us we're supposed to be a serpents when it comes to destroying these false prophets we're supposed to be aware of men we need to be very careful turn to Genesis 49 Genesis 49 now let me say this I don't regret anything I preach behind this moment not a single bit I don't regret it one bit but what I will say is this that when you and I think almost everybody knows what I'm talking about you know if you don't then you know you can ask me after the service and I'll tell you about it but you know when you come out with boldness and you preach the truth and then all of a sudden they come back at you and they threaten you you know what you do according to the Bible you back down that's what I believe about teachers you know why it's not worth the fight because God told you to beware of men I don't regret saying what I said because I've said the truth and I'm not gonna back down from what I preach here but you realize there's certain battles that aren't worth fighting right there's certain battles we have to say you know what we preach the truth everybody in the Philippines knows about it the truth has gone out there hey they promoted us better than we ever could but you know what it's not worth the fight why because they have the advantage in this situation they have the power I don't have none of us have that power they have the power and God told us to beware of men notice what it says in Genesis 49 verse 17 it says Dan shall be a serpent by the way and adder in the path that biteth the horse heels so that his rider shall fall backward notice Dan is talked about and Dan does not attack the rider okay Dan attacks the horse now see when you attack the rider it's very evident what you're doing you attack the rider the rider comes back at you isn't that what happened the Bible says you can attack the horse heels and what you do is you do the exact same thing you destroy the rider without making it very obvious you're destroying the rider what am I talking about what I'm saying is that us is a church by zealously going soul winning each week and looking to get churches started we are destroying the rider without making it evident that we're destroying the rider without having to worry about the persecution that's going to come back at us right we get the churches started we go soul winning we do it we attack the horse heels and what's going to end up happening is this whole system is going to crumble but what it's not going to do it's not going to get me arrested it's not going to get us in the persecution that prevents us from going so winning it's a much smarter way to fight the fight to fight the same fight right our goal is to get the word of God out throughout the entire Philippines now if we do it in the wrong way you know we're going to get some serious persecution and you know honestly I'll admit I was kind of ignorant to that this first month I don't regret what I've said but it's like you know what it's it's foolish after you've said certain things just dig your feet into the ground and say you know what I'm not moving I'm going to fight I'm going to die in this battlefield I'm not going to die in that battlefield it'd be a stupid battlefield to die in right and what you could think this is watered down if you won but I'll tell you what this is coming straight from Matthew chapter 10 and I'll tell you what me living in America I didn't get it because of the fact in America you can preach against false prophets all day long you never have to worry about getting arrested you never have to worry about it it's not the same situation at all and so in Matthew chapter 10 when it comes to the soul winning chapter the same chapter says beware of men be very careful what people that you attack because certain people that hate our message they can make our life very difficult and prevent us from being able to go so winning we're going to attack the horse heels turn to Matthew 10 let's go back to Matthew 10 at the end of the sermon I'll give you some applications of what I believe the best strategy we should do let me say this that when I was and I'm not mad at anybody in this room you know whatsoever I understand when when I was when I was young about ten years ago I had a YouTube channel and I got three strikes on that gym because I was exposing everything I was like man all this sodomite agenda this and that which you know it's fine it didn't give me any persecution but I had the YouTube channel removed pretty quickly right why was I doing that because I was zealous but without knowledge to a certain degree right when you're younger you don't have anything to lose when you're a single guy and you don't have kids and you're not married you have nothing right but I'll tell you what you know especially as and I'm saying this to try to help you guys out that are young that's yourselves I think it's great yourselves because you know what it motivates you to go so when you're doing awesome things that's the truth I'm not upset you whatsoever but I promise you that if you talk to the guys that are married in this room with kids their perspective on life is a little bit because of the fact you have more to lose when you're married and I'll tell you what my goal of being a pastor one day my first job is my family being a good husband protecting my family and teaching my family the Word of God and it's just like you know what there's a certain battlefields I will not die out and look and you guys know I preach with authority behind the pulpit I don't hold anything back but you know what I am gonna be smart about the things I say and the reason why this sermon is coming up is just because of the fact I know there's a lot of really zealous young guys and I just want to I just want to try to help you guys out because you could end up causing some real persecution in your life and regret it right and you got to ask yourself this question when you put up all these videos and stuff publicly is it worth it God told you to be aware of men be very careful before you post something to make sure you want it up there because some of these people and honestly when it comes to these names I've heard various opinions of some of these names especially the name that you know we're all thinking of of how much power this person has and certain people have told me this person has real power and certain people have told me he has no power it's not worth the risk to me because I don't know right if he has real power I don't want to fight that battle and I won't fight that battle and you know what some of these people though they do have real power when you're running for president when you're running for these positions in politics we're talking about people that have real power in one of my friends back in the States who's from the Philippines you know he was giving me advice I was talking to him and and I agree with what he said he said when you deal with these politicians is it they're basically doubly back they're not just a false prophet but they're also running for policies like man those are dangerous people that you got to be very careful about Matthew 10 verse 16 says behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves be therefore wise as serpents in harmless as though now the name of the sermon I don't even think I mentioned it was hardcore versus wise and harmless you know we like to just be hardcore we're bold but in the same passage on Sony said be harmless okay now turn to Philippians chapter 2 Philippians 2 the Word of God is very interesting because there's so much in the Bible that you know you can read but you don't fully get unless you're actually in the situation to get it you know what I mean and it's like you know this passage is not something I would have fully gotten because in fact I've never been in this sort of situation I've never been in a country this country is very unique compared to the United States anyway you do have to handle things a little bit different that doesn't make you water down it makes you wise according Bible God told us to be wise and harmless didn't tell us we had to be hardcore he didn't tell us to be wise and harmless so those were the words of Jesus Christ Philippians 2 verses 14 and 15 do all things without murmurings and astute they may be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world we are literally in a crooked and perverse nation here in the Philippines is that not true look at the LGBT agenda look at these false prophets running for these political positions we're in a crooked and perverse nation right yeah we're supposed to be blameless and harmless the Bible says there's many reasons why but one reason is the fact that because we're in a crooked and perverse nation we can get really persecuted for the words we say we need to be careful about what we do turn to Hebrew 7 Hebrew 7 now here's what's great about this though there is no persecution of preaching the gospel here in the Philippines right there's no persecution we can preach the gospel freely as much as we want with no persecution the only way we're gonna get persecuted is if we invited ourselves that's the truth because there's no persecution right now we're able to freely preach the gospel every day and nothing will ever happen to us right nothing's gonna happen we can preach in schools we can preach in prison we can preach everywhere and turn this place upside down there's no persecution that's coming our way the only way persecution is going to come our way is if we invite that persecution if we throw the jabs at them they're going to come back at us right now I'm not saying I'm never going to name names behind the pulpit but what I am saying is God did tell us to beware of men and I'm gonna be careful about who I call out and what I say very specifically in the future because it's not the same thing as United States this passage doesn't apply to the US it does apply to the Philippines because these people have real power says in Hebrews 7 verse 26 for such a high priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens the Bible says that Jesus Christ was harmless now when you look throughout the Bible and I encourage you to do this as you're reading through the New Testament you'll see certain people call out big names but honestly usually they're not calling out the big names when they're going out preaching the gospel the people get offended at them but you don't see them just calling out the king and all these powerful people they don't usually do that in the Bible now Jesus is a unique situation because his end mission was to die on the cross okay but when you look at the characters in the Bible the soul winners you're not seeing them go out of their way to attack these powerful people why well I think because they understood what Jesus had told them that we need to be smart about how we attack okay so if we're going to name somebody we need to be very careful and realize now there's certain people and I'll just name the name because he has no powers Archie Alvarez this guy hates her guts man he's got no power whatsoever I'm not worried about preaching against him what's gonna possibly happen to me right there's no fear of anything happening preaching against somebody like that but there are certain names and there are certain names that we've called off not just find this pulpit but other people have called out in videos and these people do have some power and I'm telling you I don't think it's a fight that's worth fighting I think it's best to just back away and it's not being watered down I'll give you reasons here at the end why it's not being watered down God tells us to choose our battles wisely okay we shouldn't just try to fight every battle we should be wise as a serpent we only attack if necessary if there's an actual benefit the way we will attack is attack the horse heels that we get the same job done let me give you four thoughts in conclusion and you're welcome to talk to me about this afterwards if you think you know this watered down or you have questions or whatever but remember the point of Matthew chapter 10 and the point of our lives is to get souls safe that is our purpose and that is our point I have not one said in this sermon and you'll never hear me say that we need to quit soul winning water down the soul never do that this church and you want if it ends up getting to the point where there's real persecution preach the gospel we will preach the gospel anyway I don't care if everybody leaves this place I'm gonna be a soul winner so the day I die even if it means I'm gonna end up being crucified because God told us to preach the gospel we will never stop preaching the gospel but we do need to be careful about those that are in authority now here's the thing we're able to preach the gospel and nobody's stopping us there's people that are in authority look they're not stopping us from preaching the gospel they don't care what we're doing right now if we attack them though the persecution is going to come here and they can start making our life very difficult and our soul innings could start to really go down because people are getting arrested people were being persecuted they make it impossible for us to find a church building like happened in the United States were for months and months pastor Menes and myself spent a lot of time trying to find a church building we couldn't find anyone that could happen to us too if we push the buttons too much we could start making our life very difficult here and look it's very easy to attack and then all of a sudden you see what come back it's like wow it wasn't worth it then it's too late I'm just saying we could start making our life very difficult if we're not cautious about what we say and how we say how we go about our battles and a third thing I want you to understand in conclusion there are much bigger fish to fry than the Bible Baptist yeah much bigger ones they're not worth it and my plan was always after a couple weeks to just move on from them I had some sermons written and that was already my plan to begin with just kind of just helped just kind of show that God was telling me just move on we got 90% of this country's Catholic right the people that and praise the Lord we have a lot of people that have come from these Baptist churches but you guys are already here at this point the new people we're gonna bring to this church are probably going to be Catholics most of them and it's like that is our big battle at this point right and so it's like it's time for us to just move on from these Baptist and I understand you know brother Marlon put out the post yesterday on the private message and like man these guys are such heritage right we know that we can destroy them but I also be wise as a servant it didn't say just intact because you can right now that wasn't a public thing that was a private thing there's nothing wrong with that you know probably what I'm saying is when we put out stuff publicly we gotta be very careful with what we say and how we say it there's dangerous people here and I want you to understand that this is not watered down whatsoever for one this is not watered down because honestly this is the hardest sermon I've ever preached this church it's a hard it's a difficult sermon to preach when you know people might listen and disagree with what you say and you still preach the truth anyway and I knew coming into this sermon it looks like you know overall people have a positive response to this and you understand you see what the Bible says what I'm saying is this is a sermon I was like you know what I had a half the crowd thinks I'm a watered-down coward by preaching this sermon but you know what I was like this is what the Bible says and we need to put ourselves in the right position and be smart about what we do but this is not watered down because of the fact the sermons I preached I just boldly preached with the Bible says and I've never not done that I never but but here's the difference there's an online ministry and there's a church our job here is we have a church if we're able to reach people through the online ministry in videos we will do that in addition to what we're doing so me preaching with boldness and not holding back I'm still doing that at church and I'm not gonna hold back I'm gonna do the exact same thing we've been doing but I'm just saying I'm gonna be careful with the online ministry because of the fact that's not something God told me I had to do it's something we can use for our benefit but we need to be smart about the videos we're putting out there because that's where the persecution is gonna come it's not gonna come from me preaching sermons through the book of John even if I name names from time to time nothing's gonna happen but what do you specifically make a video like I've done and put their name out there that's when you get the persecution that's when they get back that's when they get mad at you and come back at you and what do you do when they come back at you well to me the biblical response is to back down from the fight because it's not worth it it's not worth it and you've got told us and this is God told us in Matthew chapter 10 to preach the gospel and that's what we're gonna do with this church we're gonna preach the truth we're not going to hold back but you know we need to be wise about what we do and I really want to encourage all the people in this room because we're all ourselves were fired up we're excited about this church and I am too anyway I named names and I plan to and I think it was great for us because we realized that we're on this side and then the world is way against us but going forward we need to be smart with what we say you know with our YouTube videos and our Facebook posts it's just not worth it and you can end up causing real persecution to yourself for your life and you can end up regretting it one day right it's just not worth the battle let's be smart let's attack the horses we're going to keep doing what we do preach the truth go so winning zealously and build this church because you know what in the long run as this church grows and builds and more churches get started here in the Philippines that would do so much more damage than a few YouTube videos their whole system is going to topple it's all going to be done what are they going to be able to do because everybody's gonna start joining churches like ours that's our goal that's what we need to stick with let's go to Lord prayer your Heavenly Father thanks for allow us to be here in your house this morning and ask you all all of us including myself to help apply this sermon God because this was completely new information to me it's something I didn't didn't get in math chapter 10 but you know I see what you say God to be aware of men to be careful be wise be harmless and we got to be very careful with how we attack and who we attack especially when it comes to people that do have real power political power and it's just not always worth fighting that fight God and ask you to help us to apply this to our lives and help us today have a great day you know we're here near Christmastime God help us have a great second service