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

🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Good morning everyone. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church Manila. Let's take our seats and start our first service. Let's get our hymns and turn to hymn number 59. Let's sing the song, Caught Up Together. Hymn number 59, Caught Up Together. Hymn number 59, I sing Hallelujah. Ready on the first? Everybody sing. I sing Hallelujah that Jesus is coming and oh what a racing of life from the dead the graves bursting open to give up God's children those bodies long molded in graves that steam it God of the good came together, together God of the Jesus and never to part change in a moment to be with my Savior Caught up together and never to part we wait for the coming of Jesus our Savior expecting a rapture, caught up in the clouds the world has its sorrows, we'll leave them so we'll wipe all our tears when the trumpets ring so God of the great came together, together God of the Jesus and never to part change in a moment to be with my Savior Caught up together and never to part we'll rise in corruptible when sounds the trumpet oh great where the victory long you have known all changed and the living and all go together God of the great came together, together God of the great came together, together God of the Jesus and never to part change in a moment to be with my Savior Caught up together and never to part come up all ye saints of the past to that meeting from Abel to Moses, from David to Paul come up all ye martyrs, all winners Christ the first, all under the blood of our Savior come up, God of the great came together, together we Jesus and never to part change in a moment to be with my Savior Caught up together and never to part Switch Lord we thank you for this blessing we ask that you bless our first service Lord from the congregation of singing, to reading your word and the preaching of the sermon, oh God I pray that you would help our pastor and in feeling we're in Holy Spirit, Lord so that he can preach with all bonus and clarity, Lord I pray that you would also help us to be attentive through the sermon remove the distractions of God. I pray that you give us a good weather this afternoon so that we can go out and do so winning Lord in this and keep the members who are still coming here safe, Lord. I'm asking all of these things. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, good morning everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church and take out your bulletin. We'll go through some announcements real quickly. Our verse of the week is Matthew 13 verse 23. The Bible reads, "'But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.'" And that's a great verse there. It will tie into our second sermon. We are a family integrated church, meaning children and infants are welcomed during the services. We do have a mother baby room back there for your convenience. And then the men's restroom and the ladies restroom. The basic rules on the mother baby room are down there below. On the next page in the inside of our bulletin we have our service times listed. First service is at 10 a.m. Second service around 11.15. Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. Official soul winning times are listed there in the bulletin on Wednesdays at four. Saturday soul winning is scheduled to be announced weekly in our group chat. And of course we do have soul winning this afternoon. The soul winning anthem and tips start at 1.30 and then soul winning time will start at 1.45. Our salvations and baptisms are listed there for the year as well as the month for all of our churches and our monthly church services. On the next page we have announcements and upcoming events. Our book of the year for memorization is the book of Ecclesiastes. And so if you're able to memorize the entire book you will receive a very nice prize. Once again you don't have to quote beginning to end chapter one through chapter 12. You have to be able to quote each individual chapter perfectly at some point during the year. So you can memorize chapter one, quote it, and then forsake it and move on to chapter two and that's perfectly fine. It's one book or one chapter per month I should say. Our New Testament Bible reading challenge and we are not in January. So it is too late, right? So hopefully you got your reading done. Next week we will get prizes to those that were able to read the entire New Testament. And some people messaged me and told me that it was really helpful for them just having a chart. Just kind of helps you stay up to date on it. And I think everyone honestly should try to use a chart. If you don't that's fine and if it's effective for you. But I do know that I have a chart. Our family, we have the chart for myself, my wife, and Zeph and we just kind of mark it off each day. And I know I have to read because my son Zeph will ask me, Dad, did you do your Bible reading today? So I have to make sure that I'm staying up to date on it. But it's very helpful to get through it. And hopefully you have a Bible reading schedule for the next 11 months during the year. And if you need one I can give you one. But honestly you can go online and there's a multitude of charts that you can use. You can have specifically designed ones for how many times you want to read it. If you want to mix the Old Testament and New Testament together every day. And so I encourage you to go online and find a chart and print it off and just use that. Upcoming activities, today we do have our monthly church service in Cavite. And then next Sunday is our annual Sweetheart Banquet. So that's always a fun time. And we'll play the not so newlywed trivia game. So the questions are already done. So after soul winning we'll have kind of shortened soul winning next week. We'll come back here and play the game. And honestly when it comes to people winning the competition it's a mix of people that are complete newlyweds and people that have been married for a while. So whoever you are you know you have a chance, okay. Often it's newlyweds that end up winning this game. And I think the reason why is when you've been married for a while you have kids you start to change in a lot of ways but you don't necessarily have the time to talk to your spouse. And so they're still kind of quoting about you when you first got married but you're like completely different 10 years down the road, right. So anyone has a chance it's always a fun time. And then after that we do have our Manila missions trip starting on February 17th which is a Monday. We definitely are gonna be having less people here this year than we did last year. But I know that last year some people came early so it's possible on you know the Sunday or even earlier during the week we'll have some people join us. And then right after that we have the Biko missions trip from February 24th to March 2nd. Current and upcoming series we are in the book of Matthew for both sermons here today. Birthdays and anniversaries down there below for the month of February. On the back the basic rules of conduct for our church. And you should have an insert in your bulletin where you can take notes for both of the sermons here today. I believe that's it for announcements while Brother Marlon lead us in another song. All right for our next song let's take this hymn book. The other hymn book. And let's turn to page 155. Let's sing the song the blood that stained the old rugged cross. On page 155 the blood that stained the old rugged cross. If you're familiar with the song I encourage you to lift up your voice. But the first verse goes on the cross of Calvary. Everybody on the first everybody sing. On the cross of Calvary our blessed Savior died. Gave his life to save the world from loss. In his pain and agony for every scene too wide. Shed the blood that stained the old rugged cross. The blood that stained the old rugged cross. Twas his blood, his precious blood that stained the old rugged cross. Twas his love that paid the awful cost. Oh so, so far a sea come at lunch today. In the blood that stained the old rugged cross. On the second verse I wanted to do it more fast or faster. So let's do the tempo. To the cross, the rugged cross. Everybody on the second sing. To the cross, the rugged cross. They nailed his precious hands. And in death he fully paid the cost. There is pardon in his love for everyone that stands. For the blood that stained the old rugged cross. Twas his love, his precious blood that stained the old rugged cross. Twas his love that paid the awful cost. Oh so, so far a sea come at lunch today. In the blood that stained the old rugged cross. What an awful death he died to pardon you and me. All alone in agony he tossed. And a world once lost in sin can now behold. He is truly free. By the blood that stained the old rugged cross. Twas his blood, his precious blood that stained the old rugged cross. Twas his love that paid the awful cost. Oh so, so far a sea come at lunch today. In the blood that stained the old rugged cross. It's time to take our tights and offerings. Oh so, so far a sea come at lunch today. It's time to take our tights and offerings. Oh so, so far a sea come at lunch today. It's time to take our tights and offerings. It's time to take our tights and offerings. For our script reading, please open your Bible to Macho chapter number 12. Macho chapter number 12, you will read beginning from verse number 46 to verse number 50. Macho chapter 12 beginning from verse number 46, the Bible reads, while he had talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, behold, the mother and the brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But the answer then said unto him that told him, who is my mother and who are my brethren? And I stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, behold, my mother and my brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of my father, which is in heaven, that same is my brother and sister and mother. Let's pray. All right, we're here in Matthew chapter 12. We'll finish up the chapter, and it is a short section here today, but it's on a different topic, so I'll have a whole sermon on this and then move on to chapter 13 in the next sermon. And I'm planning after chapter 14, which is the midway point of the book, to take a bit of a break from Matthew. Obviously, Matthew's a long book, especially when you preach multiple sermons from one chapter. But this section here that we just read is about dealing with family, dealing with family. So let's start here in verse 46. I'm gonna read the verses, and then I'm just gonna go to just various stories in the Bible here that just kinda talk about dealing with family. Verse 46, while he had talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. And the Bible says here in verse 46 that Jesus is preaching and teaching to the people, and all of a sudden, in the middle of him teaching and preaching, all of a sudden, people come up to him and say, hey, your mom and your brethren are outside. They wanna talk to you. So just imagine if it's in the middle of church and I'm preaching a sermon, and then my family's on the outside saying, hey, can we talk to you? It's like, why don't you listen to the sermon first? And so obviously Mary was a very godly lady, but at this point, what she's doing is wrong because she should be in the congregation and actually listening. And you know, Jesus has this response in verse 47. Then one said on to him, behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, who is my mother and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, behold, my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of my father, which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and mother. And what Jesus is basically teaching is that your spiritual family should be more important to you than your physical family. And that's a statement that a lot of people get offended by. They get mad at sometimes, but this is clearly what Jesus is teaching here in Matthew chapter 12. Now, obviously, if you can have both, that's better. If your physical and literal family also loves God and is also serving God, that's great. But quite honestly, for most people in this room, most of your relatives are Catholic. And if you've got unsaved Catholic relatives, it doesn't mean you have to make complete separation from them, but they should not be the people that you're spending all of your time with and talking to all the time. You say, why? They're going to have a negative influence on you. Now, we're gonna look at various stories, but let me just show you a couple of the things in these verses. Number one here in verse 46, we see that Mary is doing something wrong. She should actually be there. She should not be distracting the service. Obviously, Mary was a godly lady, but she was not sinlessly perfect. We do not believe in the Immaculate Conception because the Immaculate Conception is about Mary being perfect, not about Jesus being perfect. And no, we do not believe that Mary was conceived without original sin and that Mary is perfect and does not need a savior. Common sense would say that if Mary had to be perfect for Jesus to be perfect, then the parents of Mary had to be perfect. And then you could go all the way back to Adam and Eve, which does not make any sense. Mary is a very godly lady, but we see her making mistakes, and here is one example. But another thing the Catholics get wrong is this idea that Mary was a perpetual virgin. Now, that's just a strange teaching, especially at the beginning of Matthew in chapter one. It said Joseph knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn son. And until would be saying that after Jesus was born, they had a normal relationship, Joseph and Mary, as a husband and wife like every couple should have. The idea that she's a perpetual virgin is a strange teaching, but the Catholic Church teaches a lot of weird things such as priests should be celibate and these weird teachings, which this is not what the Bible teaches at all. But you can prove right here that Mary actually had children that were the brother and sister of Jesus afterwards, because people would say, well, Jesus did not have brothers and sisters, He had cousins. And when the Bible is saying, brethren here, it's referring to cousins, not literal brothers and sisters, okay? Now, it's true that if you use the word brethren, that can refer not just to your literal brother, but it could refer to just kind of your family in general. But here's the thing in verse 50, Jesus clarifies because He says, for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother. He mentions His mother because Mary was there and He mentions brother or sister because brethren is referring to His brothers and His sisters of which He had several. I mean, He had a lot of brothers and sisters. And so in this passage, what is it saying? It's saying the literal brothers and literal sisters of Jesus Christ and His mom were outside. So this right here shows you that Jesus had brothers and sisters and not just cousins. Mary was not perpetually a virgin, okay? Go to Genesis chapter two, Genesis two. And we're just gonna look at various stories about dealing with family. And there's a lot of examples we could go to in the Bible of dealing with family. And of course, you have a lot of family members. You have a mom, you have a dad, most people probably have a brother or a sister, you have cousins. And honestly, there's kind of an idea to a lot of people that you look at this giant nuclear family of like third cousins and fourth cousins and you're all connected together as one. And you should be close to every single person that's in this giant family. That is not what the Bible teaches. And I think it's great if your family is godly and loves God and you can be close to them. But the reality is, if you have cousins that are just very opposed to the things of God, those should not be the people that you're hanging out with because you're gonna spend time with them and they're gonna be getting drunk and you're gonna wanna talk about the Bible. No, those should not be your closest and best friends in this world just because they're of your bloodline. So Genesis chapter two, let's start back. Genesis two verse 18, and notice what the Bible says here. Genesis two verse 18, and the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make and help meet for him. Now, one thing I wanna point out is, it does not say it is not good that man should be alone. Often that is how this is quoted, but it says the man, and the definite article is specifically referring to Adam, not man in general. So what the Bible's saying in this verse is God specifically created a woman for Adam. Now, it's true that God created women for men, but it specifically says the man because he's saying, I'm creating a woman specifically for Adam, not just a woman in general, okay? So I do believe that God has designed one person that you're meant to marry, and I would go to Genesis two saying the man, and God specifically created someone for the man, Adam. And it says here in verse 24, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave onto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. The Bible teaches the principle of leaving and cleaving. And so basically you get married, and you leave father and mother, and you cleave onto your wife, okay? Now, I want us to understand a few things about this. I'm not saying that it is, you know, if you get married and you can not be around your family, I know a lot of places, even my wife's family, they have like property they got like 60 years ago. Her family were farmers, and there's like a lot of houses on that property. I'm not saying it would be wrong to live in close vicinity to your family, or even that it would be impossible to live in the same house, but here's the thing, if you are around your parents after you get married, you need to realize that you are your own family making your own decisions and guiding your family in a specific way, and it's not a matter of your parents still making your decisions for you, because you leave and cleave, and husband and wife become one flesh. So when you're having a baby born, you make the decisions whether or not you're gonna get your kids vaccinated. And look, I don't make those decisions for you. You make your own decisions, but those decisions should not be, well, you know, my parents are really pressuring me, so we're gonna do this with our kids. You should make your own decisions. You say, why? Because you leave and you cleave, the Bible says. So it's true for the man leaving his father and his mother, and the same would be true for the woman as well, and you're starting a new family, okay? Go to Genesis chapter 11, Genesis 11. Now, in between Genesis 2 and Genesis 11, there's a lot of stories that we can look at that show you that having a separation from family in some instances is a very important thing. And I believe I'm gonna preach a balanced sermon because, you know what, I talk to my parents, I talk to my mom all the time, three times a week on Skype. You know, I message my sister, my wife's family. We spend some time. And so I'm not saying never talk to them again. You get married, change your phone number, change your location. Your family's never gonna find you. That's not what I'm teaching here today, okay? And even if your family is unsaved, I'm not saying completely cut off and never talk to them, but at the same time, you know, the Bible gives us wisdom on how close you wanna be to certain members of your family. Let me give you an example in between Genesis 2 and Genesis 11 of probably not best to be very close to someone. How about Cain murdering his brother Abel? Do you think that Abel fellowshipping and hanging out with Cain is a good idea? Now, obviously, Abel didn't know that Cain was gonna kill him because Cain invented murder, right? It's like Abel might not have even really understood that. I mean, Cain kills Abel, but here's the thing about this. Even before Cain killed Abel and even before he became a reprobate, he was not a godly person. And even though that's your literal brother or literal sister, if they are ungodly, is that the person you should be hanging out with? No, because even if they don't kill you, they're going to negatively influence you in a bad way. Now, look, I think it's great if you've got a brother or sister that loves God. I mean, praise God for that. But if you've got a brother that is a hardcore Catholic and is getting drunk all the time and has their shrine and every time you go over, there's just problems on various things they say and using the Lord's name in vain and just being vulgar. It's like that is not the person you wanna be very close to. Maybe see them at Christmas time a few times a year, but that should not be the person that you're fellowshipping with all of the time. Another great example is this. Noah and his wife had three kids, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. I mean, hang out with Shem? Sure. Hang out with Japheth? Sure. Hang out with Ham? I mean, that whole family of Ham, it's like, no, it's just like you're cut off from the family. We don't wanna have anything to do with you. Right, because they were ungodly. And the thing is, it's like, hey, sure, hang out with Shem, hang out with Japheth, but Ham and his family, is that the people that you want really close to you? Because if you have this idea of the nuclear family where everybody, every cousin, every aunt, every uncle is super close to one another, that means you're getting around and hanging out with wicked people on a regular basis. Now, I wanna give you this example to understand what I'm saying, is if I was standing on this chair, which I don't trust the chair to support my weight, but if I was standing on this chair and my son Zeph was here on the ground, and I was trying to pull up my son to the chair, it would be pretty hard because of just gravity. I get it. I know in the movie, somebody's hanging off a cliff and someone pulls them up. In real life, they would fall. You're not gonna be able to pull them when they're barely hanging on. It's gonna be very difficult just because it's very hard to pull someone up, isn't it? But is it hard to pull somebody down? I mean, if there's somebody standing here, I don't care who it is in this room, I could easily yank you down to the ground just simply by gravity, even if you're a lot stronger and a lot bigger than me. You say, why? It's just the way that God made it, and God made an example we can understand because it's a lot easier to drag someone down than to bring somebody up. You say, well, pastor, I go to All Saints Day, I go to the graveyards because I wanna get my Catholic family saved. How about giving them the gospel before you do a satanic and Catholic ritual at a graveyard? How about trying to get them saved when you're not at a graveyard? How about trying to get your Catholic relatives saved when they're not drunk? How does hanging out with them while they're drunk gonna help you get them saved? What you're showing is you condone what they're doing. And what you could do is pray for them and care for them and stop by at a time when they're not getting drunk and try to get them saved. But how is it gonna help when they're getting drunk to actually, well, I'm just trying to win them to the Lord. This is how you win people to the Lord. You open up your Bible, you say, hey, can I show you what it takes to get to heaven? And if they don't wanna listen, it is what it is. Hanging out with them when they're getting drunk, where does the Bible say that helps get them saved? It doesn't. It's usually an excuse from people that are afraid to give the gospel, and it's kinda like, well, this is our method. We're doing lifestyle evangelism, right? Look, you can go throughout the Bible of why lifestyle evangelism does not work. And look, I think that you oughta try to live a godly life, and God can give you opportunities, but you look at someone like Jonah that's backslidden, and he's literally asleep on a boat of people worshiping a false god, and he doesn't open his mouth to talk to anyone. Why? Because when you're rejecting God's commandment to go out and get people saved, you're gonna reject God's commandment when you have the opportunities to get them saved. You're gonna pass up those opportunities all the time. Genesis chapter 11, let me show you another story. How about Abraham and his father, Terah? Genesis 11, verse 31, and Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan, and they came on to Haran and dwelt there. And I'll give you another thing as a side point I'll mention here, and if you disagree, that's fine, but you actually will never find a place in the Bible where the Bible tells you that Abraham's wife is his sister. The only thing that you would have to make you think that is Abraham, after he's caught lying, said, oh, I didn't really lie, she's my sister. I would assume if this was actually his half-sister through his father, when it mentions Terah's kids here, it would just tell you this is his daughter. But it doesn't say that, it says his son Abram's wife, so I don't actually believe that that was his sister personally. If you do, that's fine, the Bible doesn't, but the only testimony we have is Abram saying, we are brother and sister, after he got caught lying. Many times when people lie, they use another lie to try to cover up what they just did. It doesn't necessarily mean that you can really trust what they're saying here. But I want you to notice, in terms of this sermon, where it says, Terah took Abram his son. Who is the one making the decision to move to Haran? Terah, Abram's not making the decision. Terah is leading their family and saying, hey, we are gonna move, and then Abram does what his father wants. Terah took Abram his son, and Terah makes a decision for Abram and his wife, okay? Verse 32, in the days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. Go to the next chapter, verse one, Genesis 12, verse one. And notice what it says here in Genesis 12, verse one. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house, unto land that I will show thee. Now this verse says the Lord had said. Is that present tense, future, or past? Past. God had told Abram, had said, past tense, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house. In this verse, it is gonna show us Abram actually obeying the commandment of God, but what it does not tell you is when Abram was first given that commandment, because you could read Genesis 12 and just loosely look at it and assume God gave Abraham a command, and Abraham just did what God said, but that is not what took place at all. He had said in the past to Abram to leave your country, your kindred, and your father's house. Then it says here in verse two, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shall be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was 75 years old when he departed out of Haran. Chapter 12 tells us when Abraham obeys the commandment, but it does not tell you when he got that commandment. It was in the past, had said. Now let me show you in Acts chapter seven when and where Abram was first given the commandment, Acts chapter seven. Acts chapter seven. And by the way, this is, you know, when you're reading, you know, Acts seven's a great example, and it just kind of shows you that the New Testament characters, they were divinely inspired because they add details that the Old Testament doesn't tell us, right? I'm glad that we have the New Testament that just makes things, you know, more clear. It just kind of tells us stuff, because sometimes you read these stories, and certain information is not mentioned or not mentioned directly, but then you go to the New Testament, and what takes place? The New Testament sheds light on the Old Testament. And I think we should read the entire Bibles, but we better make sure we read the New Testament, because that actually helps clarify a lot of things from the Old Testament. Acts seven verse one, then said the high priest, are these things so? And he said, men, brethren, and fathers hearken. The God of glory appeared onto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran. What is the Bible saying? God appeared to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, and what ends up taking place? Terah, his father, moves the family to Haran, but God appeared to Abraham before they were actually living in Haran. And so basically in Mesopotamia, God said, Abraham, I want you to leave your country, your kindred, and your father's house. And then he has his father drag him to Haran, right? You can see this word, obviously it's spelled a little bit differently. There's an added C and an added R, but it is the same place, referring to Haran. And said unto him, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee. Then came thee out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Haran, and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed them into this land, wherein ye now dwell. So what is the Bible teaching us here? God commanded Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, leave your country, leave your kindred, leave your father's house, and did Abraham obey immediately? No, he allowed his father to bring them to Haran, and then after his father dies, then he ends up obeying God's commandments. So basically because he was not willing to separate from his father, it set him back quite a long time from being in God's will and accomplishing what God wanted him to accomplish. Now look, Abraham was directly told to leave his father. Obviously God is not gonna directly tell you to leave your father, leave your brother, leave your sister, leave your mother. We have the entire Bible, we all have different situations, and I would say look at the principles found in the Bible and make your decisions, how much separation do you need to have given on your situation? I think there's some things that would be pretty clear. I mean, if your father is a Catholic priest, I don't know of anyone whose father in this room is a Catholic priest, but if your father's a Catholic priest, my advice would be leave and never come back. Right, I mean, if your father is a Hindu priest or a Muslim leader or whatever, I would say just get out of there, right? But if your family is unsaved and they're nice and they are not basically influencing you to do bad, I don't think that you necessarily have to separate. And if they are influencing you to do bad, maybe just put a step back and have a little bit more separation. I'll give you a basic rule that we have, with my wife's family, most of her family is in Pampanga and almost all of them are Catholic. And we're not around them if they're drinking alcohol. I don't want my kids in the presence of people getting drunk. And so a decision that we've made, and it's up to you what you want to do, is just that if they're drinking, it's like, well, it's time to leave, right? And generally, of course, that will happen at nighttime, but it's like when we go and have fellowship things, like at New Year's they had stuff, it's like we kind of left early. We're always like the family that leaves the earliest. There's like 40 people all hanging out, and we're like, we're getting tired, the kids, we need to put them to bed. You say, why? Well, because if people are drinking, we don't want to be around it. And that's just kind of a standard that we have. But I go to Joshua 24, Joshua 24. But you got to look at your individual situation and just kind of ask yourself, is this a good atmosphere? Because here's what I'm more concerned about in keeping close ties to an extended family. I'm more concerned about teaching my kids right and wrong. And the thing is, I can get up and preach sermons, but if in my personal life I seem to just not apply anything that I'm saying, and just allow my kids to be in the presence of people getting drunk, I'm basically teaching my kids subtly that whatever I say behind the pulpit is not that serious. It's just entertainment. It's just a show, but I don't actually live by that standard. If I want to teach my kids and have a big impact, don't we say that actions speak louder than words? And so in some situations, it's like, hey, you know what? This is just not the presence that we want our kids to be in, and we've got to just make a bit of a separation. Specifically for Abraham, why did God tell him this? Joshua 24, verse one. Joshua 24, verse one. And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to shechem and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father Abraham, and the father of Nachor, and they served other gods. Terah worshiped other gods and worshiped idols. Imagine that you're living in a house, and then all of a sudden, you wake up in the morning, and then your father's bowing down before Sheba, and just doing something with incense, and then whatever. It's like, that is gonna have an impact on you. You're around that culture every single day. It's gonna have a very negative impact, because I promise you, if someone's worshiping another god, there's probably a lot of other things they're doing that you don't agree with. They're probably getting drunk. They're probably fornicating. They're probably, the words that they say, everything about it, it's like, well, is that the person I wanna be around all the time when they're worshiping and serving another god? It's like, no. And so what God told Abraham is, you know what? You need to just separate from your father. Now, maybe Abraham's thinking, well, I wanna have an impact to reach him. Sometimes, you can't really reach them. And sometimes, if you wanna have an impact on an unsaved family, actually having an impact is actually showing a little bit of separation, and then they're gonna wonder, why are you doing this? Why aren't you hanging out with us? It's like, wow, we don't wanna be around that atmosphere. Right? Turn your Bible to 2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians 6. Look, I get it. It's hard to make healthy separation from your family. And I would say, by all means, do everything in your power to get your family saved, whether it be your parents, your brothers, your sisters, your cousins. And I don't believe on giving up on trying to get your family saved. I think you can get them saved years down the road. But I'm telling you, it's not helping getting them saved when you're condoning their false religion. It's not helping. And I would just say that all of us need to make decisions in our lives. It's like, well, how close do I wanna be? I've given the gospel to a lot of relatives of my wife's Catholic family. But we don't spend all the time in the world with them. It's like sometimes there's an event, they're celebrating a 90th birthday, and then they have me get up and preach the gospel. I preach the gospel to a lot of people. I've talked to some of the younger people, some of her younger nephews and nieces, and just talk to them individually, cousins and things like that. And it's like, but you know what? We didn't have to just hang out with them at a graveyard to do that. I've never given anybody the gospel at a graveyard, okay? I've given them the gospel when we're not at a graveyard, okay, when we're just in a house, just sitting there talking, just opening my mouth and talking to them. Second Corinthians chapter six, verse 14. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness? The Bible tells us not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Now, the best application of this is when it comes to marriage, because what stronger yoke do you have than when two become one? And if you're here today and you're not married, here's just some basic marriage advice on who to marry. Marry somebody who's saved. You say, well, I'm dating someone, they're not saved. It's like, well, if you can't get them saved before you're married, why would we have confidence you're gonna get them saved after you get married? I mean, make sure there's someone that's saved. But here's the thing, that is a very low requirement for the person you marry. Quite honestly, I think you should have higher standards than just the fact that they're saved. Because here's the thing about this, I mean, if you love God and you wanna serve God, doesn't it make sense that you wanna marry someone that also wants to serve God? Because being saved and loving God are not synonymous. Being saved and wanting to serve God are not synonymous. In fact, the vast majority of people that are saved don't wanna serve God. And I would just say this, that if before you're married, they're not really interested in coming to church and going soul winning, I'd be like, well, what confidence do you have that that magically is gonna change after you say I do? So marry someone who actually wants to serve God and loves God. Now, I do wanna say, people can go kind of extreme on the other side as well, where it's just kinda like at a first date, you have like a checklist. It's like, all right, I just wanna ask these questions. Are you post-trib? And she's like, what is post-trib, right? What does that mean? I think that's weird. It's like, I didn't do that when my wife and I first started talking where it's like, well, let me just see if she believes this doctor and here's what normal questions are. It's like, hey, where were you born? Where did you grow up? What do you like to do for fun? Those are kinda normal questions, but at the same time as you're asking the like questions, start to introduce some serious questions to find out what their goals are and what they want because just because they're saved does not mean that they actually wanna serve God, right? And I can tell you this, and you can do what you want, but if they hate this church, it's like, and they're like, I would never attend this church. I hate this church. It's like, why would you think that after they get saved, that's gonna change? It's probably not gonna change. In fact, what's probably gonna change is you're gonna change. You're gonna end up quitting a church like this and quitting serving God because you're gonna marry someone that doesn't wanna serve God. And so I would say this. Of course, make sure that they're saved, but I would say find someone that's at around your level or wants to serve God. I'm not saying they have to have read the Bible 20 times or been saved, but what direction are they headed? Do they wanna serve God? Do they wanna make changes in their life? And if they don't, I would say, hey, I would not suggest marrying that person. Just because you get married does not mean they're magically gonna become the exact person that you want. If they're not like that before you get married, quite likely they're not gonna be like that after you get married. Go to James 4. James 4. James 4. James 4, notice what the Bible says here in verse 4. James 4, verse 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Therefore, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. The Bible says when you become a friend of the world, you become the enemy of God. And so the Bible's saying don't link up and don't get on board with people that are the enemies of God. And look, if you're gonna date someone and talk to someone that is not interested in the things of God and are against the things of God, you could actually find yourself being the enemy of God, the Bible says, even as a saved person. These are very low requirements. Marry someone that's saved, and I would strongly suggest marry someone that actually wants to serve God. If you're a Baptist, I mean, number one, why would you marry a Catholic? Why would you marry someone of another faith? But I would say this, just because they're Baptists, I would suggest marrying someone that actually wants to serve God. Now look, if you don't really wanna serve God, you don't really pay attention to what I'm saying anyway. You don't care. So do whatever you want. But if you're here and you do wanna serve God, and you're single and waiting to meet the right person, it's better to wait for the right person than to rush into marrying the wrong person. Because you marry someone, then that is forever. So death do us part according to the Bible. So make sure you marry someone that wants to serve God. Otherwise, once you start raising kids, because it's very easy before you have kids, all you talk about are just kind of fun things that aren't that important or deep. But once you start raising kids, you're gonna have very different mindsets of how to raise those kids. I mean, what are you gonna do when all of a sudden, you know, they get born, you have very different opinions on medical treatment. It's like, what, you don't believe this? It's like, you never talked to them about it. Didn't you find that out before you were married? It's like, wait, wait, wait a minute, you know. It's just like, you know, different opinions on public school and home school. It's like, wait, you don't agree with this? It's like, these are things you talk about before you're married, right? I would never suggest just avoid everything and just hope for the best. But I would also say there's a balance because, you know, don't just like bombard them with all these things and like scare them to death on the first date, okay? Turn your Bible to John chapter one, John one. Because here's the thing about this. When Jesus said, for whosoever shall do the will of the Father, you know, obviously when you cross reference to the will of God, it starts with believing on Christ and that's all you have to do to be saved. But one of those people that he's talking about is Mary. Now, there's no question that Mary was saved, right? But just because someone is saved and because, you know, she is the sister of Jesus Christ spiritually speaking. Any saved person, you know, any woman who saves her sister in Christ, any guy is your brother in Christ. But at the same time, you said, hey, you know what? The people I feel really close to are the ones that are actually doing the will of God. And so the idea would be, you know what? Mary's someone that's actually your equal in the faith or someone who also wants to serve God. Now, I might sound like I'm really down on being close to your family and I'm really not. I'm just showing you what the Bible says. But let me show you where actually being close to your family can be a good thing, okay? And just so I don't forget this, you know, something that's not in my notes, but I can tell you this, that, you know, once you end up having kids, it's actually a pretty good idea to have, you know, a good relationship with your in-laws. I mean, there are times when maybe, you know, your wife is sick and she needs help and you're working. You don't have the time to just take off work for weeks. And, you know, if there's a relative that can help out, that can be a very good thing, right? So I don't think it's a good idea in most cases to just completely separate from family, even if they are unsaved. I don't think in most cases it's good to fully separate. I'm just saying, figure out what is the proper and healthy separation for your situation, right? John 1, verse 40. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him, we have found the Messiah's 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 shall be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone. And so when it comes to following Christ, you see that Andrew was actually before Peter. And we think of Peter as being kind of the top dog of the early Christians, you know, the one that's the most zealous, the most fired up. But actually, Andrew's the one that brought Peter. And what that shows you is that you can actually bring family members to wanting to serve God more easily than random people you meet. It is true that sometimes giving the gospel to family can be very difficult and very intimidating, and it might be that your family doesn't want to hear you simply because you're related. But at the same time, we get a lot of people saved, and very rarely do they start coming to church and start serving God. Is that not true? But here's what I would say. If you were to look at this room and think about it, there are a lot of people in this room right now where somebody started coming to church, started serving God from the family, and they brought their relatives to actually be a part of church. Is that not true with our church? There are plenty of people in this church right now where basically one member of the family came or one couple, and then they brought other people that they're related to to this church, and now your family also wants to serve God and is doing great things. And so here's the thing. I would say that if you get saved and you want to serve God, some of the best candidates to get on fire for serving God are your parents, your brother, your sister, your cousins, your in-laws. Those are some of the best candidates. Go to Matthew chapter four, Matthew four. But if your father is Tara, bad candidate. If your son is Ham, bad candidate. Not everybody in your family is necessarily going to get on board with serving God. And I would say this, that although your family are the best candidates, I would say probably most people in this room have tried to get their family on board with serving God, and most of the time it doesn't work. So I'm not saying it's a guarantee. But I also know that there are people in this room that, you know what, someone started serving God and they brought their family, and they love this church now too, right? So I would say do everything in your power to try to get your family on board with serving God, and there's no guarantee it will happen, but they are the best candidates to actually get on fire for serving God. Matthew four, verse 18. And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him. So you have Simon, Peter, and you have Andrew. Then it says in verse 21, And going on from thence he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. Here's another example. You got James and John, the sons of thunder, as the Bible says. Now, if you were to think of the original 12, if you were to think of the four people that were the most on fire with serving God, who would be the four people that come to your mind? Andrew and Peter, James and John, in some order? Isn't that who every single person would say? James and John are the sons of thunder. It's a pretty cool name, right? The sons of thunder. And then Peter is kind of the main guy, I would say, the one who's really mentioned the most. And then Andrew is also very much into it as well. And I would say this, because of the fact they had a blood relative that also wanted to serve God, I believe it motivated all four of those people to actually serve God even more zealously. And if you have family that can help encourage you, it can actually make you a better Christian. So the question is, what is the influence your family's having on you? And then that will answer the question, well, how much separation should I have? Because I can say this, if you have family that believes the same things as you, and they're saying the same things, it will be like an encouraging thing, right? One reason why I love talking to my mom is, you know, my mom will just say the same things that I believe, right? I feel like I'm just listening as she's telling me all the evils about the trans and the LGBT, and I'm like, yeah, I mean, I'm taking it, because I usually talk to her tomorrow morning. It's like, all right, I'm done with my preaching for the weekend. It's like, yeah, exactly, yes, amen, I agree, right? But what if my mom was not saying the same things? What if my mom was just a hardcore Catholic, or a hardcore Hindu, or just very anti? Well, there are times when your family can be a bad influence on you, and you should just not be that close to them. I've told this story before that, you know, I have two first cousins, but only, well, one of my first cousins I met when I was a baby, but I don't remember meeting them, and they lived in the Midwest, where my dad's family was from, but I had one first cousin that I did see from time to time at Thanksgiving, sometimes at Christmas, and, you know, he lived in Connecticut, and, you know, when we moved to Sacramento, California to go to Verity Baptist Church, it's like, he was already living in Sacramento. He was dating someone, he was living with her, and he was living in Sacramento, California. I lived in the same city as my first cousin. You say, well, how often did you hang out? Did you hang out with him every week? I think I saw him two or three times in the three and a half years we were there, where we went out to eat with him. Now, I gave him the gospel. I kind of tricked him, I've told this story before, I tricked him into listening to the gospel, but he didn't believe it, he didn't get saved. You say, well, why didn't you hang out with him all the time? Because, as far as I know, he's pro-abortion, pro-LGBT, he would have been pro-Joe Biden, and pretty much everything I disagree with. And so, yeah, when I was a kid, I played video games with him, you know, during Thanksgiving time, we'd throw a football and things like that, but it's like, you know what, the reality is you change a lot from when you're a kid to when you become an adult. And I think sometimes people have these memories in their head of, hey, you know, at Christmas time we would eat this food together and everything. It's like, yeah, but you were nine years old at the time. 20 years have gone by, and you're a different person, and they're a different person. Maybe they're not a different person, you're just a different person. Well, here's the thing, now that you're a different person, that's probably not the person that you should be hanging out with. And look, as I said, this is not a two plus three equals five topic where it's very easy, and I can just say, do this, don't do this. Because quite honestly, everybody in this room is in different situations, and the guidance I would give is ask yourself if your family is influencing you in a good way or a bad way. And if they're not influencing you in a good way, I would suggest really thinking about deciding, hey, should we make some various guidelines and rules? And this is something you wanna think about. Don't just, well, I got motivated by the sermon, I'm never talking to my family ever again. I mean, really think about the decisions you're making, because I'm not suggesting just immediately quit talking to your family ever again. Now, I don't think in most situations that's a good thing. I think the Abraham and Tara situation is a unique situation. I don't think for most people that would be the situation. But I do think for some people, that might be the situation, that you have family that is just a horrible influence on you, just in every way, and you've gotta make decisions, hey, you know what, we're gonna make some changes, because I just can't be around them all the time. Let's close in order of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today, and I ask you to help all of us in this room, including myself and my family, help us to just have some wisdom on figuring out how much separation is necessary for our situations, God. I ask you to guide everyone in this family of those decisions as well, but I ask you, most especially, to help everybody in this room get opportunities to preach the gospel to their unsaved family, and help them to get some of those people saved, and if by chance that they could get them to come to church as well, that would be great, God. Ask you to give us all wisdom in this situation. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen for that song. For the first service, let's turn on hymns to hymn number 46, hymn number 46. Let's sing the song, My Saver, first of all. Hymn number 46, My Savior, first of all. Everybody, when my life work is ended and I cross the swelling tide, everybody on the first. When my life work is ended and I cross the swelling tide, when the bright and glorious morning I shall see, I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side, and his smile will be the first to welcome me. I shall know him, I shall know him, and redeemed by his side I shall stand. I shall know him, I shall know him by the print of the nails in his hand. Oh, the soul flailing rapture when I view his blessed face and the luster of his kindly beaming eye. How my full heart will praise him for the mercy, love, and grace that prepare for me a mansion in the sky. I shall know him, I shall know him, and redeemed by his side I shall stand. I shall know him, I shall know him by the print of the nails in his hand. Oh, the third. Oh, the dear ones in glory, how they look before you and are parting at the river I recall. To the sweet fields of Eden they will sing my welcome home, but I long to meet my Savior first of all. I shall know him, I shall know him by his side I shall stand. I shall know him, I shall know him by the print of the nails in his hand. Oh, the last. To the gates to the city in a robe of spatless white he will lead me where no tears will ever fall. In the blood song of ages I shall mingle with delight but I long to meet my Savior first of all. I shall know him, I shall know him by his side I shall stand. I shall know him, I shall know him by the print of the nails in his hand. Brother G, can you close this in a word of prayer? Let's go pray. I'll ask you my brother. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Amen, let's have a short break.