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Alright, here we are in Matthew chapter 10 and this is a famous chapter for being a soul winning chapter. We ended in Matthew chapter 9 where he says the harvest truly is punchiest but the laborers are few and it leads right into Matthew chapter 10 when they're going out preaching the gospel. Now Matthew 10 is interesting because there's a dramatic switch that takes place after the first 14 verses. Verses 15 and 16 kind of go both ways but then all of a sudden it just starts talking about the end times and it's kind of hard to see, I'll show it very clearly when we preach on that but we're not going to get to that section here today. So he segues to soul winning then talking about the end times. Today we're going to be looking at the soul winning part here in Matthew 10, there's a lot of information and first let us see the description of the soul winners, the description of the soul winners. It says here in verse 1, when he had called unto him his 12 disciples he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Now it's very clear at the end of the section we're going to be looking at here today that this is about soul winning, that they're going out and getting people saved but they are having power to cast out devils, to heal people of diseases and one thing we do understand is that the 12 apostles did have a special power that we do not have and that other Christians living during that time period did not have. Now one misconception people have is they think that there are only 12 disciples, there's actually a lot of disciples because the disciples are follower of Jesus. Another misconception is that there is only 12 apostles because there were more than 12 apostles. The Bible says in first Corinthians 15 he was seen of all the apostles indicating was a lot more than 12. But what they're all are a special group of the 12 and they are like the inner circle, they are like the 12 closest to Jesus that have the most power given by God and so there were others that were declared apostles but the 12 are a special position. Now what I do believe is that obviously Judas was never one of the 12 but he's kind of there and then Paul is the one that was there to take the place of Judas but the 12 was a special group and they had even power above anybody else and so it says they have power against unclean spirits and to heal people. Then it says in verse 2, now the names of the 12 apostles are these, the first Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother. What you're going to notice about the 12 that are mentioned is they're mentioned in six groups of two and I do believe that he's sending them out two by two, that is a scriptural thing, going out two by two and the way it does it, it has this two, this two, this two, this two, this two, this two. So I believe as he's sending them out this would mean that Peter is going solely with his brother Andrew. Okay, now go to John chapter 1, John chapter 1, John chapter 1. The Bible does not specifically tell us whether or not, you know, Jesus was pairing people up or just saying, you know, pick your partner or whatever. Churches do things differently and quite honestly we do things differently here than we do in Manila and Manila we pair people up and honestly if our church had like, let's say 10 churches 10 more people soul winning, we would start pairing people up, I think it would be a better system to do, especially if you have like a lot of people that are coming in singles but obviously, you know, with married couples, with kids and everything oftentimes it makes sense for them to go together but, you know, in Manila we actually pair people up and we have somebody who pairs them up and then just says, you know, you're with this person, you're with this person, this is your area and everything like that. If we grow as a church, you know, we would have to be more organized to be effective, we would probably end up doing that as well. It doesn't really tell us here whether Jesus does that or not but what we do see are six groups of two people as they're going out soul winning. John 1 verse 40, one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon and Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him, we have found the messiahs which is being interpreted to Christ and he brought him to Jesus and when Jesus beheld him he said, thou art Simon the son of Jonah, thou shalt be called Cephas which is by interpretation a stone. Now I believe that Andrew and Simon Peter were already saved at this point because Andrew is looking for the messiah and he's coming to his brother and he says, hey, we found the messiah. It doesn't mean that, hey, you know, time to get saved. I mean, obviously they got saved in the Old Testament but they were looking forward to this messiah and Andrew's like, the messiah is here. We see this principle though of reaching people that are close to you, okay, and what we see is that Andrew reaches his brother Peter, not to get saved but to get close to God, to follow God. Now here's the thing, I don't think it's necessarily easier to get your family saved than people that are not your family, okay, because you know what, people have free will and oftentimes family can be stubborn because they know every mistake you've ever made in your life and things such as that but in terms of getting people to really live for God, you're more likely to get a family member or somebody you know than a complete stranger because we get a lot of complete strangers saved but they feel very shy coming to a place where they don't know anybody and that's understandable and it's hard and you know, every church around the world deals with the same thing, it's hard to bring new people because they just don't really know anybody and you know, when we do get people to come, we want to try to make them feel as comfortable as possible, make them feel like they have a family and they have friends. As I said, as we have events coming up, try to invite all those people that have been coming recently, even if they don't come the next couple of weeks, say hey, we got this big event, why don't you check it out because it's hard when you first come, you don't feel comfortable, you don't know people but obviously since Andrew is the brother of Peter, he says hey, you know what, let's come to Jesus, I mean and then all of a sudden, Peter comes. Why? Because Andrew's basically holding his hand there, you know, symbolically leading him there, let's come to Jesus but of course on your own, you might be shy to do that, right, coming to church and so if we want to reach people to serve God, we're more likely to reach people that we have a connection to, whether it be friends, whether it be co-workers, whether it be neighbors, I don't think they're necessarily more likely to get saved but in terms of getting someone to end up loving God and serving God, I think it's more likely that we get somebody that we know according to what we see in the Bible. Go back to Matthew 10, Matthew 10, Matthew chapter 10 and in Matthew 10, it first says the first Simon who is called Peter and Andrew is brother, you notice a semi-colon, so you notice Peter and Andrew are linked together, not just in my opinion because the brothers, I think they were sent out together. This says, James the son of Zebedee and John his brothers, you see and linking James and John together, so these brothers are also put together as well, then you see a semi-colon. Let's quickly learn about them, go to Mark 3 and I'm showing you Andrew, Peter, James and John because although the 12 were kind of the inner circle, if there was even more inner circle within that inner circle, then those are the four, Andrew, Peter, James and John and those are the four closest, probably you'd say Peter, James and John but Andrew is also very close to Jesus as well but those four were like the top dogs you would say. I would presume those four got more awards in heaven than the others, I mean we don't know that for sure but they seem to be the ones, they're there at the mount of Transfiguration, they're the ones that are close to Jesus. Mark 3 verse 17, and James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James and he surnamed them Boanerges which is the sons of thunder, right? That's a cool nickname, you are a son of thunder, right? I don't necessarily know what that means but it's like you're tough, you know, you're hardcore, it sounds cool, you know, as a guy, it's kind of, you know, you're a son of thunder, right? You know, ladies probably want the name that makes it sound, you know, beautiful or whatever, it's like I want to be known as a son of thunder, right? Turn back to Matthew 10, Matthew 10, Matthew chapter 10. And so we see those first four, Peter, Andrew, James and John and they're really the inner circle and I'll just show you the rest of these to show you how they're linked together. Philip and Bartholomew, semicolon, you see how Philip and Bartholomew are clearly linked together. I would say logic would tell us they were being sent out two by two together, Philip went with Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the publican, semicolon, so once again, they're linked together because you don't have and after every single one, you have and linking two together, semicolon, then you've got the next group. James, the son of Alphaeus and Levias, whose surname was Thaddeus, so James and Levias or Thaddeus, these two seem to be going together, then we have this Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed him, unfortunately, somebody had to be paired with Judas, right? And unfortunately, it's Simon, not Simon Peter but Simon the Canaanite. Now one thing that's interesting about Simon the Canaanite is he's not Jewish, says Simon the Canaanite and there are people, I'm not going to waste the time to talk about this, I just think it's a vain argument but there are Baptist pastors I've heard that try to claim Simon the Canaanite was Jewish and I'm just like, why would they give him that nickname? It doesn't make, it doesn't make sense. It's like, hey, they call me, you know, Matthew the Norwegian. Are you Norwegian? No, this is the nickname I have, that's stupid, right, it doesn't make any sense and when it says Simon the Canaanite, it's like it's showing you he's not Jewish, okay? And you know, because you know, I believe intentionally, Jesus picked someone who was not Jewish to show you that hey, you know what, red and yellow, black and white, they're precious in his sight. I mean, there's people all over the world that love God. I mean, you know, there are people from Muslim countries that get saved and love God and they're Arabic and but they love God, there's people that are, you know, from, that are Hindu or Buddhist or whatever country and people get saved and they end up loving God and you know what, there's no special thing being a Jew above anything else. Now, during the Old Testament, the advantage the Jews had is they had the oracles of God, they had the teachers of God, they had the system and if you really wanted to serve God, you really wanted to move over there to Israel but in today's world, God reaches the world through the local church and so if you have a good church regardless of where in the world, that is actually what is key and so Simon gets paired with Judas Iscariot. Now, turn to Mark 13 real quickly, Mark 13 and well, the side point where, you know, during the end times, during the famous chapters, people will claim Matthew 24 was only written to the Jews, Mark 13 was only written to the Jews, Luke 21 was only written to the Jews and so they try to explain away after the tribulation by saying that well, that was just written to the Jews. I would still ask the question, well, how does that change after the tribulation? That still tells us it's after the tribulation but they try to throw up that argument to say well, this only applies to the Jews. One reason why they're confused is those chapters are dually prophetical, meaning they do prophesy about the destruction of the temple in 78E, that's not the only thing they're talking about. Very clearly, they're talking about the actual end times but what people claim is, well, these things were only written to the Jews. Well, Mark 13 is parallel to Matthew 24, it's not as famous but it is parallel and let us look at the ending of Mark 13 because for me, well, Simon the Canaanite was not Jewish and that should be good enough to say it's not just written to the Jews but then they'll say, well, how do we know Simon the Canaanite wasn't Jewish? They say, okay, well, let's just get more specific, let's just use the Bible to prove our point. Mark 13 verse 35, what's he there for? For you know now when the master of the house cometh, that even at midnight or at the cockrove or in the morning, thus coming suddenly, he finds you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, watch, not unto the Jews, not unto the elect but what I say unto you, I say unto all, meaning this applies to everybody in the world. All over the world the mark of the beast is going to be set up, all over the world you're going to be expected to get that marker you cannot buy or sell, it's not just referring to in Israel this is going to take place, right, I mean we sort of got a taste of this during the days of Covid where it's like you know you cannot buy or sell unless you have you know whatever vaccine or whatever and it's like it kind of shows you this is what's going to come around the world but this was not just to Israel, it's not just to the Jews because what he clearly says in verse 37 and what I say unto you, I say unto all, because this chapter begins where the 12 are coming to him saying what's the sign at the end of the world, so not just what's the sign of the destruction of the temple, the end of the world, clearly talking about the end times and then after it gets done talking to them we say what I say unto you, I say unto all and that implies that also shows this applies to us as well, all people that have ever lived it applies to, why, because it was not just written to the Jews and Simon the King Knight was not a Jew, go to Matthew 10, so that's a brief description of the soul winners but let us talk about the duty of the soul winners, what was the job of these 12 that are being sent out, he's not just saying hey just go out and just do whatever you want, he has specific tasks for them, he says here in verse 5, these 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, now you could take this out of context to get this idea that the Jews are more important than anybody else but the reality is that this was basically kind of like the last chance for the Jews, because if you remember the parables Jesus says you know what last of all I'll send my son, it's like they will reverence my son, what do they do, they kill him, so kind of like this is the last chance, basically you've had a lot of prophets coming to preach the word of God and then Jesus is like you know what we're going to give the opportunity and so nobody could come back years later and say well it's not fair I mean we're God's chosen people, it's like wait a minute you had every opportunity, you had the oracles of God, you had the prophets and you had Jesus and the 12 coming out and preaching the word of God and showing hey he was born in Bethlehem, he is perfect, he's the messiah, he's the Christ, he's the one that's coming to pay for our sins and they had every opportunity in the world and so when they rejected it it's like you know what that's it, that was your last chance and you rejected it okay, so they're told to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel because in general you would go to the most receptive areas to the gospel, we in general are going to try to go to the most receptive areas, Israel was not the most receptive, however I do believe at the initial stage there are people that were not, anyone who was saved would have believed in Jesus when he came, the Bible teaches that, then there would be people that heard the truth of God's word growing up but were not saved and as Jesus came it's like this all fits and then that ended up pushing them over to get saved so Jesus is like you know what make sure we tell Israel that this is the messiah, this is the Christ and so they have every opportunity to believe and get saved so he says I want you to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils, freely yet received, freely give, go to Matthew 12, Matthew 12, now look if you want to go to Israel to preach the gospel I mean go for it, I mean I don't think that's the best place to go, I'm not going to go there but if you are going to go there then yeah you know go so when you go for it, now I certainly wouldn't recommend as you know yesterday the leader of Hamas was just killed so I don't think that's going to make the war die down between Israel and every Muslim country under the sun, you know it's probably going to make it more dangerous so I'd say you know don't buy your ticket yet because you never know what's going to be taking place in Israel but kind of wait till a season when you know I don't know it's not quite as dangerous, I don't know when that's going to be to be honest because it's an endless war over there but yeah the leader of Hamas was just killed so you know that's probably going to and somehow that's going to end the war, I don't really see that happening, I don't really see Muslims accepting losing a fight but who knows I could be wrong, Matthew 12 verse 38, Matthew 12 verse 38, then certain of the scribes and the Pharisees answered saying master we would see a sign from me but he answered and said to them an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly so shall the son of man be three days three nights in the heart of the earth, it is interesting in the Bible I preached a sermon a few months back about how God does give signs to believers at times in the word of God when they ask for it but in terms of the unsaved world they're not going to see some vision in the sky or mother Mary in the sky or whatever or the sign of the cross in the sky to make them convert like people are saying, right? The only sign given to them is the sign of the prophet Jonas and Jonas or Jonah was a picture of what? The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus as Jonas was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth so shall the son of man be three days or as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth and of course when Jesus died his soul was in hell for those three days and so when it comes to the unsaved world that asked for a sign I'll tell them hey well show you what the Bible says about salvation and you can believe it or not it's up to you, right? But I'm not going to try to get into some you know big argument or philosophical discussion to prove the existence of God or prove that Jesus is the Messiah and quite honestly you know when I was younger in my faith I read a lot of books from apologetics and like convincing Muslims, convincing Hindus, convincing people God is real and honestly you know I know a lot of those arguments and they are logically sound they make a lot of sense but they're just not that effective to get people saved. I mean maybe I would maybe I wouldn't do good in a debate versus some atheist I'm really not sure but the thing is I'm not going to do it because that's not what gets them saved and the sign he needs to hear is the sign of the prophet Jonas and you know what they can laugh at it and say it's foolish but it's just like you know what that is actually what gets people saved, okay? Verse 41, the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented the preaching of Jonas and behold a greater than Jonas is here and so he uses the example of Jonah and of course Jonah went to Nineveh, Jonah went to a wicked place if you were to look at the world during this time period you would say that Nineveh and Assyria was the most wicked place in the world they're the group that oppressed God's people they're the group that put them in bondage and God used the wicked world to do that and it would be the last area you would think would be receptive to the gospel and then God sent Jonah to Nineveh and they actually had a king that was actually a decent guy and he heard the word of God and you know what he told everybody in the country to put on sackcloth and ashes and I do believe that anybody who was saved during that time period had the green light to go and preach the gospel and the word of God is going out a lot of people are getting saved and the country as a whole just turned from their wickedness and turned from their sins and what Jesus is saying here is this they did not know the word of God before this they didn't have the background they didn't have the oracles of God but I sent Jonah and you know what he preached the word of God and they repented they changed their minds they believed on the Lord they got rid of their sins and you know there's two things being mentioned there because the country as a whole was spared because they turned from their wickedness that's not salvation but then of course a lot of people got saved they turned from their unbelief to believe on the true Lord rather than worshiping some ancient Babylonian God or whatever they would have worshipped and then Jesus saying but you you know Israel you have the oracles of God you know that the Messiah was supposed to be born in Bethlehem and yet you're rejecting the truth verse 42 the queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it this is referring to the queen of Sheba for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold a greater than Solomon is here she came from all over the world she came from a long distance away the uttermost parts of the earth and by the way it's a topic I've kind of studied a little bit recently and when it comes to the queen of the south one thing we know because people say well where is this location well the uttermost parts of the earth would show you that it is a long ways away this was not a short journey so a lot of the countries that you would put as possibilities countries I used to think some of the Arabic countries or India or Africa they're basically off the list because they are not from the uttermost part of the earth we're talking about a long distance away but the Bible says she came from the uttermost parts of earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and a greater than Solomon is here and then the Jews they had every opportunity they had all the prophets and then they had the son and they rejected the son go to Romans 11 Romans 11 so the Jews can't say it wasn't fair in Matthew 10 Jesus literally said go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and yet they still rejected Romans chapter 11 Romans 11 and it says in Romans 11 verse 1 I say then have God cast away his people God forbid now when when Paul says his people he's kind of using a play on words cuz he's gonna be talking about Israel and you know the Jews as a group were rejected Israel as a nation was rejected but Paul says he didn't away cast his way his people for I also met Israel I have the seed of Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin what Paul's saying is this that you know what there were people that had Jewish blood and they're raised in that system and they were able to believe in get saved it's not like every single one was damned to hell because they lived in Israel now he said you know what I wasn't cast away right because God is not a respecter of persons doesn't matter if you're born in Europe or South America or Israel or wherever you have to be born again you have to believe in the Lord and if you're raised and you know some people raised in a Christian home you know like my kids and your kids are raised in a Christian home of course they're gonna have to make that decision to believe in the Lord when they get old enough to understand other people are born with false religions many of us most of us in this room did not grow up in a church that was clear on salvation and we also had to change our minds it's the same thing with every Jew and Paul said there were Jews that did change their minds it's not like he cast them all away but they didn't have a special place in heaven simply because they were Jewish God has not passed away as people which he foreknew foreknew what foreknew that they would believe on the Lord foreknew that they would believe on the Lord get saved why he not with the scripture saith of Elias how he makes the intercession to God against Israel saying well they have killed our prophets and dig down thine alders and I am left alone and they seek my life but what saith the answer of God unto him I reserve to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal even so at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of race I mean grace sorry that's that's the Jewish version I thought it was the election of race I thought I automatically you know got saved because right we sing that song in the hymnal saved by grace it's like their verse they changed to saved by race because they think they automatically are going to heaven no matter what and literally a lot of Jews actually believe that a lot of them don't even believe in heaven a lot of them are even atheists themselves but they somehow think they have a special place in God's heart those that do believe in God simply because their ethnicity it's ridiculous and what's funny about this is when you preach what I'm preaching right now people are going to call me a racist because I'm saying that the Jews are not better than everybody else how is that racism to say that God made all people equal and everybody has an equal chance everybody's got to believe on Christ but then they'll say I'm a racist or or I'm a anti-Semites right because I'm standing up here right now saying that the Jews are not special but everybody else you're an anti-Semite right you're a racist they're gonna say it's like I'm saying that everybody's equal whether it's a Filipino American Australian we all have you know well human flesh with blood inside of sinners that are saved by grace and it's the same with the Jews in Israel I'm sure there are people in Israel that have believed in the Lord and got saved praise God for that but they don't have an automatic special blessing above anybody else the biggest disservice you could do to a Jew is say that they're naturally above everybody else because they're not going to feel a need to believe in the Lord they're not going to feel that they're guilty because they think they're already good to go the best thing you can do for them is say hey you know what you're a sinner that needs to believe on Jesus Christ to get saved and it's all throughout the Old Testament we saw just this past Tuesday on Exodus 12 you could not read that and walk away and say well you know I don't see Jesus at all in Exodus 12 I mean everything is right there to show you right Genesis 22 all of this is right there to show you it says here verse 6 and if by grace and is no more works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works in it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work so grace and works cannot be mixed together at all what then Israel hath not obtained that which you seek it for but the election hath obtained and the rest were blinded now wait a minute a lot of people will tell you that the election are Israel the elect are Israel the elect are the Jews but wait a minute here it says in verse 7 Israel hath not obtained this says but the election hath obtained it sounds like Israel are not the elect you say well who are the elect those that are saved those that he foreknew now as a nation in the Old Testament before they were rejected yes Israel were the chosen of God the elect of God as a nation that doesn't mean everybody in that nation went to heaven and that doesn't mean everybody out of that nation went to hell that just means God was using a nation and you know what they were supposed to bring forth fruit and they didn't so God rejected them you know the modern day you know people call this replacement theology we're basically the Jews were God's people and they were replaced by just local New Testament believers and just the local church reaching people now it's kind of interesting because the first time I'd ever heard about replacement theology it was used to describe something else and you know my old pastor you know he talked about replacement doctrine and the idea was you replace your bad music with good music he's like you get saved and he's like you know and I've been in church where I've heard so much preach about replacement theology replacement doctrine you got to replace the bad with something good and so I hadn't really heard the term replacement theology with the Jews until like the last 10 years or whatever I'd always heard it linked with basically getting rid of the bad and that's also a great doctrine it's like we all have a desire for certain forms of entertainment well instead of just getting rid of it replace it with something good find something to substitute that is godly and good as opposed to that's what's wicked I believe in both forms of replacement theology I believe in the replacement of the Jews and I believe in replacing your bad music with good music right the Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs so I guess I believe in all forms of replacement doctrine theology that are out there okay I think that was kind of like the main way the old IFP described it in the past and is the most of them were Zionist so you know now it's kind of I guess a dual term I'm not I'm not very sure depends on how people use it go back to Matthew 10 Matthew 10 no I don't I don't hate Jews I hate the religion of Judaism and you know I think we we all need to be very careful with you know going overboard in our zeal to hate a religion to end up crossing a barrier where you hate the people it's like I hate Hinduism I don't hate Hindus I'd be very happy to talk to a Hindu today and give them the gospel I don't hate Buddha I don't hate Buddhists I hate Buddhism the religion same thing with any false religion now you know the nation of Israel itself is a very wicked nation because they are very high in LGBT and gambling prostitution and all these things those things are certainly true about them but I don't hate individual Jews unless they hate the Lord I mean I want them to get saved so we do have to be very careful about crossing that barrier for example let's say somebody starts coming to our church that's Arabic it's like don't look down on them because the family and they believe in the Lord well don't down them if they were born in Iraq or something it's like they believe on the Lord it's like why would we think less of them because they have an Arabic background that's but Christians can do that right I mean you know Jonah has the sort of attitude to the Assyrians gotta be happy that some people believed on the Lord and not look down on them simply because of their ethnicity that being said I really don't care who wins the war between Israel and Palestine or Israel and Iran it really doesn't matter you've got two wicked religions it's like you know what the leader of Hamas died yesterday I didn't shed a tear if Benjamin Netanyahu died today I'm not going to shed a tear either I really just don't care the worst thing about it is there are innocent people that are growing up that are just young and normal people and they are just in a war zone we have to be thankful to grow up in a country where we can actually serve God and we don't have that sort of persecution and the fear in our daily lives so we're in Matthew 10 point number one was the description of the soul winners point two is the duty of the soul winners point three is the devotion of the soul winners when I say devotion I'm saying that they were very devoted very zealous for what they were doing first nine provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses nor script for your journey neither two coats neither shoes nor yet stays for the workmen is worthy of his needs now look Jesus is teaching us something here but this is an example where if you took something by itself and took it out of context you could go on way too big of an extreme okay obviously the 12 were specially chosen by God and they were full-time workers and Jesus is telling them to go by faith he says don't break codes don't bring shoes all these things here's the thing though when you go out soul winning today bring water with you if you get thirsty especially if you go out with your kids I mean bring a bottle of water well I'm just going to go by faith and just trust that you know things are going to be provided it's like bring some water if you go with your kids you might want to bring like 25 paces to buy them a bag of chips if they they get tired or whatever I mean don't take this to say okay we go out so many don't wear a hat don't bring an umbrella don't bring water just go out my faith brother it's like well that's a little bit extreme okay what he is showing though is that when he had full-time workers that he had chosen you know what God is going to provide our needs and I also believe we can apply that to just as anyone who's a Christian that's serving God God will provide your needs right I was going to have you turn to 1st Corinthians 9 but I'm going to skip that go to 1st Timothy 5, 1st Timothy 5, 1st Timothy 5 talks about what 1st Corinthians 9 also talks about about from the Old Testament thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn the idea would be that God is going to provide for people that are in full-time service to God when you see these linked together and this would take two times to develop it's not just simply saying anyone is a full-time soul winner what it's referring to is actually people that are actually feeding the flock so you're talking about the spiritual leaders now I do believe churches can have full-time soul winners and that's good and what better way to spend money but the way people could take this out of context is someone could kind of just make themselves a full-time soul winner and just start asking for money where they're not being sent out by a church not being sponsored by a church and I'm not saying that makes them a bad person but that's not the system that God's talking about and that is not what 1st Corinthians 9 is talking about because it's saying you feed the flock so you deserve to be paid financially so if someone's just like a full-time soul winner just kind of doing their own thing you know it's not really the system that God has set up I'm not saying that they can't get people saved I'm not saying that that makes them a bad person or whatever I think a lot of good people have done this but I'm just saying God's system is not a free-for-all system there's organization behind it so churches themselves can have people as full-time soul winners responsible people as a missionary as an evangelist sent out or whatever but just kind of a free-for-all system asking for money is not really what you have in the Bible the reason why I mention that is here in the Philippines over the last like five years people like linked up with the new IFB and they're trying to get money from like every American under the Sun and I know a lot of people that got a lot of money and a lot of them ended up being bad people and they just were basically you know kind of using the system where it's like man I'm just trying to fully serve God and everything but that's not the system that God has set up God does everything decently and in order and in an organized way I think it is great for church to have full-time soul winners but it's not just saying anybody kind of just does it themselves and just ask for money and you know what you often find is a lot of that money goes to sources just kind of gets wasted or whatever. First Timothy chapter 5 verse 17 this also talks about the same thing but I wanted to go here for another purpose as well. First Timothy 5 verse 17 let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor especially they who labor in the word and doctrine now double honor is referring to financially because the verse right after for the scripture say it thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn and the labor is worthy of his reward. We had someone who went to our church before and you know he was saying how you know my old pastor taught that the double honor is referring to finances. Well verse 18 shows you clearly that is exactly what it is referring to and there is the honor of amount of like respecting your pastor and things like that but it is being linked with money. What's funny is the person had a real problem with that but it's also the same person that's getting money from all these other people around the world and it's like no let the elders that rule well. Once again a person that's actually feeding the flock who's actually teaching the people and you know preaching to a congregation okay that is the context and and we need to understand this that you know being a pastor does not make you better than your church members. I mean people work secular jobs and there's nothing wrong with that that doesn't mean I'm better it doesn't mean that I'm going to get more rewards in heaven than you. Yes I do have more free time to study the bible and read the bible but it makes sense because I'm going to be teaching the bible but that doesn't mean I'm going to get more awards in heaven than you. Honestly I don't know I mean I look at our churches and people love God they're serving God and there could be a lot of people that get more awards in heaven than me but it's just a matter of God's system that's set up and you know I'll tell you this to be honest I do love you know working in the ministry but I'll be honest with you know there there are some things I miss about having a secular job because there's a feeling when you walk into church after being in the secular world all week and you're like oh well it's like if you're writing sermons you know throughout the week and everything you never really get that feeling it's just kind of like another day at the office kind of feeling and I love preaching the word of God so don't misunderstand me I'm just saying grass is always greener on the other side if God has you in full-time service to the Lord then go all out serving God and praise the Lord for it if God has you in a secular work field then praise God for that and work hard at that I mean you know what it doesn't make me better than you okay just because I'm the pastor of the church but that is clearly what it's referring to double honors referring to financially in the context here now I had you turn here because I wanted to show you actually the next verses it says here in verse 19 against an elder received not an accusation but before two or three witnesses then that sin rebuked before all that others also may fear and I started going around the church just to kind of talk to you about something because you know as a pastor of our church here and of the church in Manila I have always operated our churches just very independently focusing on what's going on at our church I'm not really all that worried about other churches you know before I started these churches here in the Philippines Pastor Menes sat down with me and he talked to me about you know running a church and he said there's a lot of different options in different areas and he said you know what you're going to be the one that's running the churches full-time eventually so I'm going to let you decide how you want to run the church he's like this is what I choose to do but if you want to do it this way instead then you're welcome to and he gave me a lot of different topics one of the things he talked about is he did not recommend building the church based on preaching against other people and attacking other people all the time he said I would just worry about your own church and your own situation he said I'm not saying it's wrong to do that and a lot of people do that that's just not how we build things at Verity Baptist in Sacramento now since this church has started one thing you'll notice is outside of me preaching against like Joel Osteen and famous preachers I don't really involve myself with what goes on at other churches because I feel like we've got plenty of work to do here I'm kind of focused on my own battlefield a year and a half ago I preached against this evangelist in the Philippines uh who I called Juan de la Cruz and I'll still call him Juan de la Cruz but the reason why I preached against him is because the person who was stealing money from his pastor also stole money from us so I could verify and it did actually apply to me okay when I preached against this person there was not a single pastor I know of in the U.S. that preached against this person you say well why would they because they live in another country exactly my point the past month on Facebook and I've had a lot of messages from people on both sides of this big discussion going on people calling me a coward and everything it's like I live in another country you idiot why would I get involved in something going on in another country that does not affect me at all especially as we've always operated our church independently now they quoted this verse they say well them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear okay well if you're saying that means that rebuke the entire tell the entire world about the sin of someone every single service would be about all these people that have sinned all over the world because every single day there's somebody in some country doing whatever pastor caught in prostitution pastor murdered someone it's like am I just going to make every single sermon about that what's the context of this the context is in a local church where basically somebody makes a criticism about the pastor it's like well wait a minute I'm not even going to listen I don't even need to hear it I don't want to hear it because I need two or three witnesses even to listen to it and that doesn't guarantee if it's correct and then I have preached against people at our churches from time to time that others also may fear and people know about the situation but that's not really referring to just preaching against people all over the world you say why because it doesn't apply and here's the thing about this I'm not afraid or shy about the things I believe in our series on a proper balance I have a sermon on marriage and a sermon on parenting but if you've been in our church for years you already know what I believe about these topics anyway I mean even just a month ago when I preached on the instruction of my father I talked about how I've always been against corporal punishment to teenagers I said we won't do that with our kids I wasn't raised that way so that kind of shows what I think about the topic and all the things involved but I'm also not going to preach specific sermons to get involved in a situation that just does not involve me at all now I can understand the difference if you live in the U.S. because the same pastors are going to the same conferences and they're just preaching for one another so you kind of got to make a decision of what you believe as a church but a lot of people have said you know you know pastor Stuckey you're a coward and what it shows me is you don't listen to my sermons because you don't realize I never get involved with anything this is not me being hypocritical or me changing because I'm afraid it's called I never get involved in situations because that's just not my personality I don't want to you know run our ministry just always preaching against every single thing that comes up I rarely do that other than famous pastors like Joel Osteen as an example or something like that but the context here in 1st Timothy chapter 5 is basically in the local church if somebody sins or beat before all that others also may fear okay go to John 21. Now one of the reasons why I operate the church like this is because a lot of people including myself they want to be able to show up at church and just feel like they have a local church and a tight-knit family they're a part of without feeling like their life is part of some you know mega drama all over the world I have no desire to be famous I really don't care if people listen to my sermons that much you know I care about what happens at our local churches I'm also the sort of person I just kind of want to go in church and I don't really care what's going on everywhere else I just care about the church whatever area I'm so winning in that's the way I felt when I was in West Virginia just I care about what's going on our church I don't know what's going on all over the world or whatever so that's the reason why we operate the way we do and you might agree or disagree I'm not afraid to give my opinion I've told people outside of the church what I believe but I'm also like you know it's it's not my situation it doesn't really involve me so sometimes in life your opinion doesn't really matter it doesn't really matter it doesn't mean you don't have an opinion it just means it doesn't help the situation it doesn't affect you and so it's kind of like it doesn't really matter what my opinion is and you know I've told people that have messaged me from churches in the US I said you know it doesn't involve me and you know they can get upset at the answer but it's like well that is how I've always operated our churches and that's how I plan to in the future that unless situations directly involve me it's like I just don't really see a reason to get involved in the situations John 21 verse 1 John 21 verse 1 and we're talking about the devotion of the soul winners and let let let me just show you where the 12 basically get out of the will of God here's what it says in John 21 verse 1 after these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples of the Sea of Tiberius and on this wise showed he himself there were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathanael of Canaan Galilee and the sons of Zebedee and two other of his disciples Simon Peter saith unto them I go fishing they say unto them we also go with thee they went forth and entered their ship immediately and that night they caught nothing you know the Bible shows that when they went back to their career fields God made them fail God's like you know what you're going to be in full-time service whether you like it or not you want to go back to your secular field you're going to have nothing or you can go back to what I told you now Jesus is not rude to them in John 21 when he encourages them you don't see him rebuking them harshly you know Peter he's a little bit when he kind of reminds him of denying him three times but basically he's just trying to encourage them and he's giving them back this zeal for soul winning right what you see is this that God did provide financially when they were in the will of God but God was not actually providing for them when they were not in the will of God and you know the most important thing that we can do is actually be in the will of God it's been said before and this is true that you're going to be more successful in life on 90 than 100 and that 10 referencing the tithe and I don't talk about money a lot but I'm also not ashamed of the word of God I mean that's just what the Bible says you give your 10 to God and I know what it's like because you know I've been saved for 20 years and one of the things when you first get saved and start going to church is like man I gotta start giving some of my money away and you know it's rough because you're giving money away and you know you're looking at your bank account like five times during the week it's like oh I didn't know I had this bill right it stresses you out all of us have been there but what the Bible does show us is you know what you're going to be more successful in life if you're in God's will versus out of God's will the Bible speaks about you know gathering all this money and you put it into a pocket full of holes is the example God's given I remember when I was a kid we were visiting my grandmother in Cumberland Maryland or Centerville I should say right near Cumberland and I remember that I saw this trail of change that went for like you know 100 feet I think somebody literally must have had a hole in their pocket I felt like I was rich it's like I got a penny I got another penny I mean there's over a dollar of change that I got I was so happy and a dollar went further you know 30 years ago than it does now I felt like I was rich right and the person who lost that money because they were nowhere in sight the money was there I mean and so I picked up the money and I had the money but it was just like you know what um you know that's kind of what it's like if you're saving up all this money and working and your life is about money and God's like okay but if if you're not going to do what I say then good luck right um go to Matthew chapter 10 Matthew 10 what we always need to be reminded about is God will provide our needs he will not necessarily provide our wants and the reality is that if we get everything and we want in life we will probably end up being ungrateful and have bad character I mean we've all seen it with kids growing up that are rich kids that have everything I'm not saying that everyone who grows up rich is going to end up like this but a lot are because the parents instead of spending time they spoil the kids with everything they could want what ends up having those kids they end up ungrateful they end up upset about everything they're not thankful appreciate anything and the only thing that can make them happy is something really expensive now I'm glad that if somebody gives me something small like that I'm really appreciative of you know I can use that right and if you have all the money in the world you're not going to get that same feeling okay um we see the description of the soul winners we see the duty of the soldiers we see the devotion of the soul winners lastly let's talk about the discernment of the soul winners when we go out soul winning we need discernments we need to be able to understand and recognize what's going on uh Matthew 10 verse 11 and then to whatsoever city or town you shall enter inquire who in it is worthy and thereby till you go thence now if you were to just take this verse by itself or if you're a repentance of sins person it's like I gotta find who's worthy I gotta see who's gotten rid of their sins and gotten rid of their drinking and all these things but what does it mean by worthy in verse 11 let's just keep reading and when you come into a house saluted verse 12 is very simple be nice and respectful to the people you talk to you know if you salute someone that's like in the military it's a it's a very uh very respectful term and when you're saluting basically you know be very respectful and kind of the door and sometimes people are rude back to you still be kind to them that's what the bible teaches right be respectful be kind verse 13 and if the house be worthy once again the house be worthy you know once again the word house in the bible you see it over and over again is not I mean often it's not referring to the the walls or the building it's referring to the people in the house if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it but if it be not worthy let your peace return to you so what does it mean to be worthy and what does it mean let your peace come upon us well go to romans 10 and we're going to understand this word peace okay one description the bible gives throughout the bible about preaching the gospel is it refers to it as the gospel of peace and of course sometimes people don't take it as a peaceful message but it's it's it's good news that you know what all you got to do is believe in jesus you're saved right and the bible refers to it as the gospel of peace well instead verse 13 for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved how then shall they call him in whom they have not believed and how so they believe in him of whom they have not heard how so they hear without a preacher and how so they preach except they be sent as it is written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things uh you know also in the the whole armor of god the bible speaks about it says with the preparation of the gospel of peace the bible refers to the gospel as being the gospel of peace we'll go back to matthew 10 with that in mind and what the bible is saying in verse 13 is if the house is worthy preach the gospel onto them if they are not worthy don't worry about preaching the gospel meaning that if we come to someone and they don't want to hear we don't have to force them to hear just move on and honestly it's good practical advice because when people don't want to hear the gospel they usually do not get saved and so if they don't want to hear don't worry about it's not your responsibility it's not your fault just move on to the next person and of course a lot of people we try to talk to aren't interested well what does it mean though to be worthy well notice what it says in 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 being unworthy that says let your peace return to you so basically if they're not willing to hear your words then don't preach the gospel so what does it mean to be worthy are they willing to listen it's like when we talk to people we say do you know for sure you're going to heaven i'm not sure well do you have just you know 10 minutes i can show you what the bible says and if they say yes they're worthy we just give them the gospel now i understand there are a very small segment of the population that are just bad people reprobate we get that but honestly they're probably we're nowhere near as many during this time period so basically and those people don't even want to listen 99 at the time anyway but basically if somebody says they want to listen then it's like okay well i'll just show you what the bible says right now sometimes i talk to people where they say they're willing to listen but it doesn't really seem like they're interested i'll still give it a shot usually the conversation i don't finish because you know i can tell they're not actually interested so here's the thing we talk to people we ask them if they're willing to listen and if they're willing to listen we show them by default we walk up to a door hoping that they're going to be worthy or hoping they're willing to listen or we walk up to someone at a park we hope they're willing to listen when the conversation starts here's what you have to understand that doesn't mean that you go from beginning to end no matter what takes place during the conversation because somebody can reach a point where they're no longer worthy you say what does it mean to no longer be worthy it means they're no longer willing to listen to the words that you're saying meaning you're giving the gospel to people and then 10 minutes then all of a sudden they're just playing on their phone they're no longer worthy because as no matter how good your gospel is or how clear or how entertaining you are going to have people that fade out well basically they're curious and then all of a sudden after a couple minutes to say you know i've heard this before and then they're looking around checking their phone and it's acute to us you know what they probably don't want to listen anymore so i just will directly ask them i'll just say do you still have a few minutes or are you busy now we're not interested and you know i'm giving them a cue to just leave the conversation you say why would you do that because if they're not worthy as the bible says then just don't worry about it shake off the dust of your feet you gave it a shot and there's plenty of people i talk to i go through the gospel and then they they just aren't interested part way through or whatever that's just the way it is right well what the bible says is don't worry about it shake off the dust of your feet now go to acts 13 i'll say one other place that talks about being worthy acts 13 verse 45 so if you try to talk to someone i mean if later today you try to talk to several groups of people and no one's really willing to listen it's not your fault if you don't get anybody saved but you gave it a shot you try to talk to people they don't want to listen it's not your fault what can you do if they're not worthy sometimes people have this attitude and i don't think this is an attitude at our church but i've been to other churches before where it's like if you don't get somebody saved you fail sort of attitude and it's like look if they're in look you know if you go soul winning with someone that you've never gone with before because people come from different backgrounds and everything and it's like sometimes i go with people and i'm in the middle of a conversation and i just kind of end it because i know the person's not going to get saved and then the person wants to criticize me and it's like you don't know what the bible says then because if if i've been explaining the gospel and they fade out and they're not listening they're not interested you just move on that's just the way it is right it's not like well you didn't pray at the end so you failed no if they're not willing to listen you just shake off the dust of your feet don't worry about it just move on to the next person now the bible did say out of that house or city and i think what that shows you is not only can you have houses that are just unreceptive you can have entire locations entire cities where it's just not receptive to the gospel i mean you know i remember uh a few years ago uh it was during the um you know lenny marco's thing where everyone's campaigning you know there's that apartment complex if you go down there and turn left i think it is where basically they restrict you at the instant entrance or whatever and we just walked in because there was nobody there and we knew that they didn't want us to go in the subdivision and preach the gospel and but we just kind of went in and there were so many lenny signs lenny signs i mean there's like lenny robredo lenny robredo what a shock nobody listens and then all of a sudden you know several people got mad at what we're who remembers what i'm talking about right so in walking distance not far away and then i had several people that said wow do you have the authority to do this and i'm just kind of ignoring them i think that's what we're all doing and then all of a sudden right when we basically get done the guards like oh you can't do this here say okay no problem but i'm thinking i would never come back to this place anyway because like the most unreceptive area i've ever seen in my life nobody wanted to listen and you know i came to the conclusion after that that people that have a lenny side in their front yard are less likely to get saved and that is just true right from my personal experience now i've seen exceptions because i remember getting somebody saved that had one of those signs and i was like wow it's like getting a buddha saved i mean it's like they actually listened right but um but you know the point is there are areas that are just not that receptive and we try all these different areas but if we go to an area and it's not receptive you know what we're just going to move on to different areas okay acts 13 verse 45 when the jews saw the mullet shoes they were filled with envy and spake against those things which are spoken by paul contradicting and blaspheming then paul and barnabas wax Bolton said it was necessary the word of god should first have been spoken to you but seeing he put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy right we compare spiritual with spiritual you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life low return to the gentiles anyone paul says it's like you know what you jews had the first chance and you did not want to hear the words of god so we moved on because you didn't listen they had their chance look go ahead you can fly over to israel and try to preach the gospel and hope you don't get killed by some muslim or jew in the midst of the battle but it's not going to be the most receptive area because even in this day i promise you israel is not going to be that receptive to gospel i'm sure that you can get somebody saved i'm sure there's safe people there and i'm sure that people do get saved that that live there but i promise you it doesn't happen that often you say why because they are still a religion that blasphemes the lord and they mocked and blasphemed and lied about jesus during that time period and they do the same thing about jesus today and they reject it but you know what the bible teaches in this section is you know what we just go out we try to preach the gospel we're friendly we're respectful we just ask people if they want to listen if they listen we give them the gospel if not we don't worry about it you know what i found through 20 years of soul winning by and large if i get somebody saved you would also have gotten that same person saved because it really comes down to does the person want to listen and then if they want to listen we just explain the gospel it's the same gospel i explained that that you explain and for the most part it doesn't really matter who the sole winner is as long as they're preaching the right message they're going to get saved no matter who talks to them and if they're not going to get saved it wouldn't matter if it was the lord jesus christ talking to them wouldn't matter if it's paul the apostle because if they don't want to hear the words of god you can't force them to hear so don't worry about it this goes a word of prayer heavenly father thank you for allowing us to be here today just the wonderful information we saw uh from the book of matthew here today god ask you to help us to be zealous soul winners help us to love you and serve you ask you to bless us with our soul when you hear god we ask you to help give us some more areas we ask you to send more labors or harvests help us have more people join the church we can train and teach the ways of god to go soul winning and serve you god that's going to continue to bless our church in jesus name we pray amen