(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 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 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 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 Alright, good morning everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Take out your bulletin. We'll go through some announcements real quickly. And our verse of the week is 1 Corinthians 11 verse 25 the Bible reads, The same men are also, he took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This duty is off as he drank it in remembrance of me. And that's a great verse there. And today we will be observing the Lord's Supper here at church after the second service. 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 as well as the ladies restroom. Men's restroom is up here in front. On the next page we have our service times listed. Our service is at 10 a.m. Then we have a short break in our 1115 service. Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. So many times listed. Wednesday's meeting at 2 p.m. at Marikina Freedom Park. Saturday afternoons, obviously right now our schedule is changing week to week. We're trying different areas. All the areas are receptive though, so praise God for that. And so, let's see, Sunday afternoons we have soul winning around 1.45 every single day. So we'll have soul winning every Sunday at 1.45. Our salvation and baptisms are listed there for all of our churches for the year as well as the month. In Beekle, I forgot to add to the bulletin, we did have several baptisms when I was down there. And it went great down in Beekle. Thank you for all the prayers for people that prayed for us. Obviously it's exciting for Brother Real went in the church there, him being ordained as an evangelist. That's an event that can really help that church take the next step of growth as a church. And one thing I did want to mention is that next year we're actually going to have a missions trip in Beekle. And so I'm excited about it. And one of the reasons why is honestly there's so many people that have signed up to go to Cebu. Which I didn't really realize was going to happen. I was going to be cool to have a lot of events that, you know, especially you're raising kids you can bring your kids to events like this. These are memories they're going to have their whole lives. And so we want to kind of open up some opportunities. So most likely it's going to be the week right after the Manila missions trip. So basically 11 months from now. So if you're interested in going to Beekle, it's something you can kind of put in the back of your mind. You're talking like the end of February or early March. But probably the week right after the Manila missions trip. And so we're going to be doing that next year. There's two parks. So Wongan Park and Kalayaan Park are very close to one another. The hotels are right there. The SM Legaspi is right there. So it's kind of an easy event to plan. The soul winning would be more toward the afternoon and later. But when I went soul winning there a year and a half ago at one of the parks, it's like 10 o'clock at night. There's like a lot of people. So and there's lots of lights. It's nice, you know, fresh air right by the water. So I'm excited about it. That's going to be a cool event coming up next year. So if you're interested, you know, kind of put that in your mind to save up or plan for that. But we're going to have a missions trip there next year. On the next page, our Bible memorization challenge is listed there. Upcoming activities. We do have choir practice here today. And our monthly prayer meeting is here today. Also the Lord's Supper is here today. So the order of events for this will be right after the second service. We're going to be taking the Lord's Supper. And my second sermon here today I'll be preaching about the Lord's Supper. And right after the service we'll take the Lord's Supper. Then of course we have lunch. We have soul winning. We come back. We have our monthly prayer meeting. And then after that is choir practice. And then of course next Sunday is Easter Sunday. And our record service for a non anniversary event was last year's Easter event. So when Pastor Shelley was here we came very, very close. We are one person away from tying the record. We thought about just paying somebody on the streets to come in to break the record. But maybe we'll have a lot of people next Sunday for Easter. I'm sure we will. So praise the Lord for that. I did want to mention construction has been going on our church building, the lot that we purchased. So it's been going on for about a month and a half I think. So I'm actually going to be checking it out later today. But this year we will be moved in to the new building. So that's very exciting. So just continue to be in prayer for that. Obviously the most important thing is just having more space. We've got a packed crowd here today. And you reach kind of a point where if new people visit a church and it's too packed they might feel like it's too crunched to get connected. And so having more space could really be a thing that could help our church grow even more. So praise the Lord for that. And of course this coming week is going to be the soul winning mega marathon. Wednesday through Sunday. And of course I'll send you the schedule of the various areas we're going to be going for this event. One thing to mention, next year most likely the soul winning mega marathon is going to be a bit different. I was talking to some of the pastors in the U.S. I was talking to Pastor Thompson a lot. And what we're going to try to do is organize it again to be one specific day. Like worldwide which was obviously very exciting. And what we would probably do is move the soul winning event we do during Easter. We'd still have that soul winning. It just wouldn't be the soul winning mega marathon. We'd probably have that one day be like the week before Easter. But it's kind of our last big push for soul winning before we kind of hit. Less holidays, rainy weather, hotter weather. And so if you're able to come to this event for the soul winning mega marathon, be a part of it, that would be great. One thing to mention, it's not in the bulletin. I think we're going to have a meeting the second Sunday of April regarding the Cebu missions trip. I did talk to Pastor Mancilli about the areas that are the main areas we would go soul winning. Because obviously he knows the area. I don't. And we can kind of talk about where people would want to get hotels and things like that. Not that everyone has to stay at the same place. But I would obviously like to have our own group chat so we can stay in touch with each other. Make sure everyone is kind of aligning their schedules. We know where everyone is. I know a lot of people are interested in coming to that. So that's going to be the second Sunday of April. And since we have the Cavite service on the first Sunday and the Laguna service on the third Sunday, it's kind of like the second Sunday of April we'll have that meeting. Our birthdays and anniversaries for the month of March are listed down there below. And then on the back there's a place, actually this is the rules of conduct. And then you do have an insert in the bulletin that gives you a place to write notes for the sermons here today. So I believe that's it for announcements. We'll have Brother Franklin lead us in another song. For our second song, please open your hymn out to hymn number 91. Hymn number 91, hiding in deep. Hymn number 91 on the first. Ready? Ready, sing. Die, die, oh, die me. Thou blest, rumble me. I'm hiding in deep. Hiding in deep. Hiding in deep. Thou blest, rumble me. I'm hiding in deep. In the town of the moon path, it's sure to flow now. In times when the nation has torn its trial, in the tempest of life, all is quiet, even sleep. Thou blest, rumble me. Yes, I'm hiding in deep. I'm hiding in deep. I'm hiding in deep. Thou blest, rumble me. Yes, I'm hiding in deep. The last one together. How open thou got me when pressed by the cold. I have led to my refuge and bred out my woe. How open, when pried out like steel o'er scrolls, am I hidden in deep. O thou wrath of my soul. I'm hiding in deep. I'm hiding in deep. Thou blest, rumble me. Yes, I'm hiding in deep. Let's take our dice and opening. . . . . . . Amen. For a scripture reading, please open your Bibles to the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter six. And we'll only look at the first four verses. Matthew chapter six, verses one to four. Matthew chapter six, verses one to four. Please say amen if you're there. Amen. Matthew chapter six, verse one. Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them. Otherwise ye have no reward of your father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not stand a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. For they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. That thine alms may be in secret, and thy father which seeketh in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Bless the reading of God's word, let us pray. For God in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for the stage given to us. I pray our Lord the truth. Please bless, Lord, for this day. Give us good weather for our soul, and in our fellowship later on. And I pray our Lord the truth. Please bless our pastor and the preaching of your word, Lord, this day. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. We're here in Matthew chapter six, and we've had a bit of a break going through the book of Matthew, going verse by verse. We're back in Matthew chapter six. We're looking at just the first four verses here, and I'm going to be talking about almsgiving. And, you know, obviously if you've been a member of our church for a while, I very rarely talk about money. You know, if you would look at other Baptist churches or other churches out there, they talk about money, money, money every single week. It's very rare I talk about money, but we're going verse by verse, and this is the topic of Matthew six, verses one through four. So let us see what the Bible says here in verse number one. It says, So it mentions alms or almsgiving, and a lot of people get confused about what alms is and what is that compared to the tithe. And so I want to help you understand this. So go to Leviticus 27. Let me show you that alms is completely different than the tithe. Let me show you what the tithe is according to the Bible. Leviticus chapter 27. Leviticus 27, verse 32, And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. Now in our modern day, when you get your salary, maybe you get like 4,000 pesos or whatever, and you just take 10%, 400 pesos. It's pretty simple. Now if you're a business owner, it gets more complicated because if you spend a certain amount of money and you get a certain amount back, you have to subtract the amount you spent because this is not your entire increase because you spent a lot of money to get the business going. So it gets more complicated. Now in these days, it's even more complicated though because your money is found in animals, right? And so 10%, it gets a little bit complicated, but it says the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. Is there any doubt that the tenth is 10% the tithe as the Bible says? So it's not less than 10%. It's not more than 10%. There would be churches that say, well, maybe the tithe is 20%. No, it's 10% by definition. That's what the word means. Well, maybe it's 10% plus your first month's salary. No, no, no. The tithe means 10%. This is what the Bible says God requires. Fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man. And what God says is 10%. That is what the tithe is, right? Now turn your Bible to Numbers 18. Numbers 18. And what the Bible teaches is the first 10% belongs to God. That's what the Bible says. Honestly, I'm amazed that pastors would try to preach above 10% because 10% is already a lot of money. I mean, life is expensive, and you get through everything, and the 10% can be a bit of a burden where it's like, you know, this kind of hurts me. Ouch. But it's what God requires is 10%. And I do believe that you can live better off 90% than 100% because, of course, God will bless you if you do what He says. Now, I'm not saying He's going to make you rich, but He is going to provide your needs. And God says I require 10%. Let me show you one of the verses that shows you the tithe is 10%. Numbers 18, verse 25. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Thus spake unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes, which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up and heave offering of it for the Lord even a tenth part of the tithe. So there's no doubt that what the tithe is is 10%, okay? Now go in your Bible to Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3. Now, I'm not really preaching on tithing much because we're talking about alms, which is different. Let me just say this as I'm talking about tithing. Some people say, okay, well, the tithe is 10%, but the tithe is done away during New Testament times. Now, let me just explain this to you. When Jesus rose again, there are certainly some laws that are no longer valid. For example, eating unclean animals. Obviously, it's not healthy to eat the unclean animals, but it's not wrong to eat pig meat. You can eat bacon, pork, tocino, lechon, whatever you want to eat, right? And so there's no unclean man because what God has cleansed, don't call unclean, right? Or, for example, the Sabbath day. We do not keep the Sabbath day in 2024. The Sabbath was a day of rest, okay? So when people go to church on Saturday, and they say, well, you know, we're keeping the Sabbath, going to church was not keeping the Sabbath. Sabbath means to rest, right? Well, why is it we don't keep that commandment anymore? Because of the fact when Jesus rose again, it shows us this because when we get saved, we enter into the rest found in Jesus Christ. And you have to realize the difference. Killing somebody is inherently wrong, right? Nobody would doubt that. Resting on a specific day, that's not an inherently in your conscience this is wrong. It's just a law that God gave and says, hey, you need to follow this whether you understand it or not. It's easier for us in New Testament times to understand this because we come long after there was all these changes. And of course, you know, the Bible says that whether you want to keep in Holy Day or the Sabbath or Sabbath days, it's up to you. I like to celebrate Christmas. I like to celebrate Easter. If you're against that or you feel like it's pagan, it's fine. I mean, you can do whatever you want, the Bible says, right? And you can take a day to rest if you want. You don't have to, though, okay? Now, when it comes to the tithe, though, you say, wait a minute, at the resurrection, the tithe was done away. What was done away at the resurrection are the carnal ordinances, things that symbolize Jesus. How does 10% of your money symbolize salvation and the resurrection of Jesus Christ? It doesn't. And in fact, when you're thinking about the one book in the Bible that repeals a bunch of the Old Testament laws, what book are you thinking about? The book of Hebrews. Now, I understand if you were a Jew that believed on Christ 2,000 years ago, you'd be pretty confused about the laws like, well, when we were younger, we kept these laws. Why don't we keep them now? It'd be very confusing. In fact, all the disciples are confused about this. Peter's having this vision about killing and eating, and he's like, what does this mean, right? But here's what I want you to understand. The book of Hebrews repeals all these Old Testament laws. Show me where the book of Hebrews says the tithe is no longer valid. It's still valid because it's never repealed. So unless you were to show me a place, you say, well, show me where it's required. Look, if it was never repealed, it's still required. It's still part of the law. And you have to understand, what's the purpose of the tithe? The purpose of the tithe is to finance the work of the Lord. Well, here's the thing. Guess what? It costs money to run the electricity. It costs money to buy things. Air conditioners, fans, speakers, right? It costs money to buy a church lot and then build a building. You say, well, how do you do it? You do it from the tithes of the people. That's how you do it. And look, I very rarely talk about money, and you realize that, but this is what Matthew 6 is talking about, almsgiving. And here's what I want you to understand. One thing I've always said, our church are very generous with their money. They donate. They give their tithe. We have always been able to be financially self-sufficient. And praise the Lord for that. Because when we started, Pastor Menes was completely willing to pay for everything from the church, but every pacer that has ever been paid from the church rent, it's been paid because of the tithes of the people. We started in Bayview where we didn't have a monthly rent, but the tithes came in, and then people visited and sent money. And I was shocked. And for those that were here five years ago, you remember, I was like, I'm shocked. We're able to buy air conditioning units. I didn't think we were going to be able to buy that. And now it's like after five years, it's like we have all these ministries, missions trips, and these things cost money. We're able to buy a church lot. We've been saving up for this purpose because we figured God would bless, we'd grow. And of course, you look at this room, we need more space. And praise the Lord for that. But here's what I'm saying. If it's necessary to finance the work of the Lord before the resurrection of Jesus, guess what is still necessary to finance the work of the Lord after the resurrection of Jesus? The tithe. And this is the system that God set up, right? Ten percent. That is not what your alms is, though, okay? Almsgiving is different. Now go to Acts chapter 3. Let's see what almsgiving is. Acts chapter 3. Acts 3, verse 1. Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour, and a certain man laying from his mother's womb was carried, whom they lay daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. So here's a man that was born with a physical ailment. He does not have the ability to work and succeed in life. It's not that he's lazy. It's not that he's unwilling to work. He's not able to work, right? So he's asking for alms to help. And so notice what it says in verse 3, who's seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked in alms. So basically, he's asking money, you know, asking in alms, asking for help. So you would say, what, a pelubi or a palaboy, you know, someone who's there, like, asking for money. And of course, there's people here in the Philippines. They will ask for help financially. Now, there is a difference between someone who is not able to work, and he was born that way, and it's not his fault, versus someone who is not willing to work. Big difference between these two things. Now, I can say this, living in the United States, and it's different in the U.S. than here. But if somebody is homeless, it's because they're a lazy drug addict. Now, I don't believe that's necessarily the case here. But in the U.S., it for sure is. And anyone who is a like-minded person from the U.S. is going to say, yeah, you know what, that's the way it is, right? I remember when I was in college, and somebody asked money for me, and you know what, I was not used to homeless people because I grew up in West Virginia, and West Virginia is a pretty cold state during the wintertime. And so homeless people don't normally live in cold conditions because they're not going to be able to survive very easily. And so I remember somebody came up to me in college, and they said, I don't have any money for food. I was like, I'm struggling, can you please give money? And I had never experienced this, so what is the natural reaction somebody has in their heart? Compassion. You feel bad. And I literally gave him $20. I think it was 20. It might have been 10. I'm pretty sure it was $20 that I gave him. And I felt really bad for him. After my class, I got out, I saw the same guy with a bottle of booze in his hand, and he was drunk as a skunk. And I realized, you know what, I'm the one who helped him get drunk. And so I just want you to realize, you do need to be careful, especially if it's someone you don't know. Some random person you've never met, they always will have a good story. But they might be a charlatan. I was going soul winning with Brother Raji in Pampanga one time. And we're on the jipney, and somebody gets to the back of the jipney, and then he's saying about how, man, my daughter needs medical attention. I can't pay for it. He's asking for money. And then all of a sudden people are pulling out lots of money from their wallets, which this would be what almsgiving is, right? And they're giving money, and I don't know the exact amount, but a lot of purple bills, a lot of people are giving 100 pesos. I didn't see a yellow or a blue, but it's possible even without that he probably made 1,000 pesos on our jipney. You say, but Pastor, he's struggling financially, so why are you preaching against this? Because Brother Raji saw the same guy a week later in a different jipney, needed money, different story. Completely different story. You say, what is that called? It's called a con artist. It's called a phony. And I'm not saying, look, you can give money to people that ask you for help. It's completely up to you what you do with your money. I would just advise to be careful. I don't just automatically give money to anybody who asks. Now, it's pretty common if you're going to a 7-Eleven, you've got extra change in your wallet. There's a young kid there. Yeah, you know what? I'll give them the extra change. That's a pretty common thing that I would do. But the problem is if you don't know someone, then you don't really know their story. At this church, it hasn't happened as much recently, I guess, because the word has gotten out. We don't help random people we don't know. But people would come after the service and ask for money. And someone from church would come up to me and say, so-and-so is asking for money. And I would say, just tell them that we don't help non-church members. We don't know the person. And let me just say this. If anybody shows up and they don't come to church service, they show up at the end and they're asking for money, you don't have to ask what is Pastor Stuckey's opinion. The answer is no. We're not going to give them money. I don't care how good their story is. We're not going to give them money. There are a lot of churches where somebody will come up asking for money and they'll have a special offering and they'll get the members to give money to give someone that you don't even know their story. You know nothing about them. Even the widows in 1 Timothy, what is the requirement for them to be provided? The requirement for them to be provided, that they're godly. And I remember a pastor said this a long time ago, and I think it's very wise, people would always call in the U.S. asking churches for money. And when somebody would call asking for money, he would ask them, What church do you go to? And if they said I'd go to such-and-such church, he'd be like, Well, then you should ask them for money. And if they don't go to church, he's like, Well, then you need to become a member of a church first and then ask that church for money. In the Bible, does it say that you're supposed to cure the problem of famine worldwide? And I'm just saying the reality is that a lot of people that are asking for money are con artists. I don't think they all are. I'm just saying it is a very, very common thing. So my basic standard is, you know, if it's someone who's a godly person or someone who's a family member, rarely outside of that do I just give money to every single charity under the sun. Now you can do whatever you want. It's your money. I'm just saying I wouldn't feel obligated to just give money to every single cause that is out there. I remember my old job in Maryland, they would always have charity things for the community, and they'd come around every week for a different charity. And I was always the Scrooge that never gave any money. But I thought in my head, I give 10% to church. There's probably more than putting $5 in to some random charity that I know nothing about. So you can do whatever you want. I'm just trying to give you wisdom that you don't just have to give money to every single person that asks you for money. Verse 3, Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked in Olms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give thee, and the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And Peter says, You know what? I don't have silver. I don't have gold. I don't have what you're looking for, but I have something far more valuable than what you're looking for. And it's called the gospel of Jesus Christ. One thing I will sometimes do is if somebody's very much struggling, or I think they are, and I run into them out soul winning, if they're willing to listen to the gospel and they get saved, oftentimes afterwards I'm willing to give them some money. But you know what you often find? People are unwilling to listen to the gospel. You'll say, Well, you know, let me just share with you what the Bible says first. And then they get mad at you as if you have to just give them whatever money you have. And it's like, Well, look, the reality is that if people stay and listen to the gospel and they get saved, I will often give them some money to help them out. But if they're unwilling to listen to the gospel, I don't feel this obligation I need to help them out financially. And you say, Well, you're mean and hateful. Well, yeah, that's what everyone says, right? It is what it is. Matthew 6. Matthew chapter 6. And there are people that do realize this. At our church, our church has been willing and has helped out people at our church before financially that are struggling. And we are willing to do that when someone's struggling. But see, here's the difference. If somebody randomly comes in I've never met, I don't know them. But if you've been a member of our church for a long period of time, I do know you. And I can understand the story a little bit better. But some random person, I'm just saying oftentimes you're getting burned financially and you're just throwing your money away and who knows what they're actually going to use it on. I remember one time I was sitting outside the church in the US and I was eating a quick lunch. And I was very busy in my life, so I just tried to eat a quick lunch. So I had dry oatmeal with nuts in it. I think almonds or something, which I like dry oatmeal. I don't care what anyone thinks. To me it tastes good. And it's healthy. And so I'm eating this and this guy comes up to me and he says, oh, he needs money. Right? And I can tell this guy's done drugs or drinking or whatever. And he said, I need money for food. I said, well, I'm not going to give you money for food, but I had some extra food with me, which is the same thing, dry oatmeal. And nuts. And I said, I can give you some of this if you want. He got really mad at me and he started to curse me. I'm like, I'm eating that. It's like, you're too good? I mean, if you're desperate for food, anything's going to taste sweet. Anything's going to be good. And the guy's really mad at me and I told him, well, look, if you're struggling financially, I literally told him this. I said, across the street, the assistant manager of that fast food place is a church member of ours. He will give you a job you can start probably before the end of the week. And he got mad and he's just cursing at me. You're too good. I mean, you don't have a job. You're too good to work at a fast food restaurant. I'm not saying everybody that asks for money is like this. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying there are a lot of charlatans out there. And the reality is sometimes in life you can be a bit too naive. A bit too nice. I think it's great to give alms. I mean, the Bible says this is a good thing. I'm just saying you've got to be careful with who you're giving money to. Matthew 6, verse 1. Take heed that you do not give alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Now, the Bible says that when you're giving alms, when you're giving money to help people, one thing you need to do is make sure you're not doing it to be seen of man. Make sure you're not doing it for a show. Make sure you're not doing it for attention. You say, pastor, who would ever do this? Look, there's that, I don't remember his name, but the famous Bible Baptist pastor here a few years ago that he gave money to this homeless person and he posts it on YouTube and he makes it on the news as such a great guy and look, I gave him a shave. I took him out to eat. Look at this great deed that I did. And it's like, if you're going to do something nice, why are you doing it to be seen of man? And what the Bible says is if you do work to be seen of man, guess what? You have no reward. Imagine how foolish it is to work very hard to make money and then you give the way money to someone and you get no reward for it because you want it to be seen of man. What a foolish thing to do, but people do that. And obviously there's people that give alms and are generous and they have a good heart, but there's also people that do this to be seen of man or to be looked at as some great person. Well, the Bible says you get no reward. So here's the thing. If you help somebody out financially and you say, well, let me just give you money to help you out or whatever, that's a good thing to do, but you shouldn't make it a point to tell everyone about it, look what I did. Now, this is not the same thing as the tithe because obviously the tithe and alms are different, but imagine if the offering plate is going around and you've got a big salary or a big tithe that you're giving and instead of just putting the money in the envelope discreetly and putting in the offering plate, you're just kind of like, ugh, and you've got like 20 blue bills in your hand or whatever and you make it a point and everybody sees you, it's like no reward. That's what the Bible's saying. So when you do something good, you don't have to make it a point to let everybody in the world know about what you did. And in the day we live with Facebook and social media, this is very easy to fall into, where basically every time we do something, we've got to let everybody know about it, but the Bible says, no, actually, you should not do something to be seen of man. Go to Matthew 19. There was a situation in Pennsylvania where my parents lived before. Someone made it on the news and there's this old woman that would ask for money and she had a really big hunchback. So she'd have a cane and she was like hunched over like this and she had, I don't know, is it called a shawl? I mean, ladies help me out. The thing that goes like to the front. So you couldn't really see her face like this long thing that's like right around there. I think it's called a shawl, but I could be completely wrong. I don't know. But she had a cane and she'd ask for money with the other hand and she would get a lot of money. And when you looked at her, like I feel like I would give her money. Like you felt really bad. I mean, it's an older woman. She can't take care of herself and everything. And she was making a lot of money like in a big city doing this every single day. But somehow news got around that this person was a phony. All of a sudden this news coverage ended up going and saying, well, we heard that you're a fake, that you're not actually an old woman. Of course she has this thing covered. You can't really see her face. But she looks like she's an old woman. Like her act was really, really good. And it turned out, because they had done video footage for her going back to her car, once she gets to the car and she makes like hundreds and hundreds of dollars a day, all of a sudden she just takes it off. She's like a beautiful young woman. And she's just really, really, really good at her act. And guess what? The money she was getting is tax free. America, they take like 20% of your money with taxes. It's tax free. And you know, she just had a really, really, and look, I know plenty of other people that I've met that have given money to people and then all of a sudden they find out later on they were a con artist. They were a charlatan. It's a very common thing. Look, bad people will take advantage of good people. It is what it is, right? And so I'm just saying my standard is just like, well, do they come to church? Because that's biblically what you should actually look at, right? Do they come to church? Are they a godly person? Or is it just some random person that's trying to ask for money but they don't actually need help, right? They're just a phony. Matthew 19, notice what the Bible says here in verse number 16. And behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one that is God, but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Now, if you just quickly read over these two verses as a saved person, you're probably going to be like, what? I don't understand. Like, why does he say keep the commandments? Okay, well, let me explain to you. First, looking at verse number 16, there are two major problems with this statement this guy gives to Jesus. One of them is, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? That's an obvious one, right? Because we're not saved by works. But there's a second major problem with this statement, Good Master. Because what he's saying is, I believe you're a very good teacher and master, but he doesn't believe he's God in the flesh. Now, here's the thing. Is there anybody that you could say on this earth that is good? There's none good but one that is God. There is none righteous, no, not one. None of us are good. So him saying, hey, you're a good master, it's like, well, that's the wrong attitude because if he's a normal man, he's not good. He's a sinner in need of a Savior. And he said on to him, why callest thou me good? Now, is Jesus saying he's not good? Of course not. Jesus was sinless. He's not saying he's not good. He's saying, why are you calling me good? Because this man thinks Jesus is a normal person and he thinks he's good, but he doesn't believe he's God. Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one that is God. Jehovah's Witnesses will often turn to this and say, well, see, there you go, Jesus is not God because Jesus said, why are you calling me good? The only one that's good is God. Was Jesus good is what I'll respond. And they'll be like, yeah, well, then he's God. Right? According to this, if Jesus is good, he's God. But I'm not good. You're not good. Nobody in this world is good. There's none good but one that is God. So if Jesus was good, guess what that proves? He's God. And of course, Jesus was sinless. This is what I'd like to ask to Muslims because it's like a big debate in Islam, was Jesus perfect? Because Muslims believe in the virgin birth. They even say Jesus is the Messiah and the Christ. And so many of them will say, well, yeah, you know, we believe that he was perfect. It's like, if he was perfect, how is he a normal man? If he's perfect, he's God. Right? Because there's none good but one that is God. And then he says this, but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. What Jesus is basically saying to him is if you're trying to work your way to heaven, okay, keep the commandments. Has anybody kept the commandments? No. This is not the way I would word it in a normal soul-winning conversation. Obviously we're getting the snippets. We're not there to actually see it and everything like that. But, yeah, that's true. If somebody wants to go to heaven, they need to live a perfect life. They need to keep the commandments perfectly. You say, but I haven't kept the commandments perfectly. Yeah, as a result, you need to believe on Christ. But one option to get to heaven is never sin ever in your life. And, you know, some idiot would be like, well, what if there was a person that never sinned? It's like, don't ask dumb questions. There's plenty of verses that say, you know, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Right? I mean, everybody has sinned before, many times. Right? And so he's saying, okay, if you're going to try to work your way to heaven, live a perfect life. He saith unto him, which? Which of the commandments do I need to keep? Sounds like you're a little bit guilty. Right? Which do I have to do? Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbors thyself. So basically he gives mainly the Ten Commandments and then, in any way, love your neighbors yourself. Right? The young man saith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up. What lack I yet? Do you really believe that this person from his youth never, ever dishonored his mom or his dad? Look, I think I was a pretty respectful boy growing up, but I was not 100% always honoring mom and dad. Right? I believe our kids are pretty respectful to my wife and I, but you know what? Sometimes they'll say something a bit rude, and you've got to stop them and say, no, you don't talk to mom like that. You don't talk to dad like that. And no matter how good any child is, they're not perfect. Sometimes they will be disrespectful. So for him to say, I've perfectly honored my parents my entire life for my youth up, it's like, you're a liar. You've never borne false witness before. You've loved your neighbor perfectly. Now, I hope he's never committed murder. He probably has never committed murder. He's probably never committed adultery. Maybe he's never stolen anything, but he's certainly guilty of some of these things. And when he says, all these have I kept from my youth up, what lack I yet, this is an example of someone who's prideful. They think they're good enough to earn their way to heaven. Jesus saith unto them, if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. So Jesus is saying, if you want to go down this road of trying to work your way to heaven and live a perfect life, here's what you have to do to really be 100% perfect. He said, because this is a person who, if you read the story, he has great possessions. He has a lot of money. So it's like, okay, Elon Musk or Donald Trump or whomever, it's like, sell everything that you have and then give it to those that don't have much. This would basically be like almsgiving. Now, almsgiving is a good thing to do, but it's not required because of the fact whatever money that you have, it's been given to you. You can do whatever you want with it, right? But here's a man who's arrogant, and he thinks he can work his way to heaven. It's like, well, if you were really right with God, you'd be willing to give up everything you have to other people. But the reality is, nobody's like that. Nobody's willing to give up every single thing. And the other thing you have to consider is this. If you're married and you have a family, requirement number one is to your family. Biblically speaking also, I've had times when I'm out with my wife and my kids, and there'll be people that are asking me for money, and you say no, and they just keep coming. And you can say no in whatever way you want, and they just keep coming. It doesn't matter what you say. They just keep coming, especially, I'm just being honest, as an American, it's like I probably deal with this more than you do. And they'll keep coming and keep coming and keep coming. And there's been times I haven't been in a good mood, and I've literally been before like, look, I have three young children. Quit asking me for money. Because what's my job as a father? To provide for my family. That's what the Bible teaches. And by the way, that's what the Bible teaches, that when you get married, you leave in Cleve, and it's not this one massive nuclear family where I'm obligated to help out every single fifth cousin that I have and every single aunt and uncle, and we have this massive family tree, and we jointly share the wealth, and if you have more, you give to those that have less. Actually, that's not biblical. What the Bible teaches is you provide for your individual family. And of course, if you want to help and provide for family that is less fortunate, then obviously you're welcome to do that, but what the Bible teaches is you leave in Cleve and you have one family, and that is what you're required to provide for. And I mention that because of the fact it is part of the Filipino culture, this idea of this massive nuclear family where you're all in it together. That's not biblical. That's not what the Bible teaches. What the Bible teaches is you have your individual family, and you can do whatever you want. If you want to give money to help out family, that's a nice thing to do. Homesgiving, it's a nice thing. I'm just saying it's not required by the Bible. The Bible says you provide for your own family, referring to your wife and your kids. That's what the Bible teaches. And so what I'm saying is if you have a family and you're working hard to provide for your family, you don't have to feel guilty because you're not giving money to every single person that's asking for help because what God requires you to do is what? Provide for your family. That's what you're meant to do. And look, life is expensive. Life is difficult. And so I would just say I would focus, number one, on your own family before you're focusing on every single person under the sun. Acts 9, verse 35. Acts 9, verse 35. And it says in Acts 9, verse 35, And all that dwelt at Lydda and Seren saw him and turned to the Lord. Now there is that Joppa, a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is by interpretation is called Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and alms deeds, which she did. Here's a woman that's a very generous person, a very good person. And look, obviously giving alms is a good thing to do. If you have the money and there's those that are less fortunate than you, then it's a good thing to do out of the goodness of your heart. Go to Acts 10. But as your turn to Acts 10, let me just remind you of something. The Bible, when it talks about reaping and sowing, the Bible says, As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially they who are of the household of faith. Look, I'm a brother of every saved person in the world, and you're either a brother or sister of every saved person in the world if you're saved. Look, I don't feel an obligation, because you'll have videos that will pop about people that are less fortunate, and there's people all over the world. I don't feel like an obligation. I need to help out like a struggling Muslim family. If I was going to give money, I would give it to someone who's saved. And the reality is a random person I don't know is probably not saved. As I said, if they're willing to stop and listen to the gospel, then yeah, I have done this before. Afterwards I said, let me help you out, because it showed that they weren't doing that to get money because they weren't expecting anything. Basically I was like, I don't know if I can help you, but can I show you what the Bible says to go to heaven? If they're willing to sit there and listen 20 minutes and they actually believe it, they're not faking it, afterwards I'll be like, well, let me just give you a little bit of help. But look, we should be above giving money to random people. Give it to saved people. Let's do good unto all people. Don't have this idea that I need to feel just as attached to a Hindu or a Muslim or a Buddhist or an atheist as a Christian. No! Who are our brothers and sisters in Christ? Those that believe on Christ. Those that are saved. So if I'm going to help someone, guess what? I'm going to help those that are saved. In Islam, one of the five pillars is 2.5% of your money in almsgiving. I promise you, Muslims don't give money to Christians to help them out. They don't give money to Hindus to help them out. You know where they use that 2.5% of their money? They give it to other Muslims. The Muslim institutions or hospitals and Muslim areas, they're not going to give it to a Christian. You say, why? Because obviously if you're a Muslim, you're going to feel like, well, those are my brothers and sisters in Christ. As a saved person, who are my brothers and sisters in Christ? Those that are born again. Those that believe on Christ. Acts 10, verse 1. There is a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God all way. Here is a good person, an unsaved person that fears God, and he gave much alms to the people. He was very generous. A man who's successful financially, he's been able to provide for his own family, and then he says, you know what? I'm going to help those that are less fortunate than me. Go to Matthew, chapter 6. You were thinking when we did the scripture reading, it's going to be a short sermon. It's only four verses. We've only finished one verse, right? Matthew 6, verse 1. Take heed that you deny your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. I don't believe, literally, that there would be people in the streets, that they would sound a trumpet. Everybody's looking around. Hear ye, hear ye! I am giving 5,000 pesos to this man that has less than me. I don't think they were literally doing that, although that would be very funny if someone actually was doing that. But I think he's using an exaggeration to prove a point. But when you think about it, what is the religion that is very guilty of this? It's the religion I just named. This is what Islam is all about. All of the pillars of Islam. The five pillars of Islam, you know what the first pillar is? It's when you convert to Islam and you've got to recite this thing to convert to Islam. But you can't just do that in front of one person. There's got to be a crowd. There's a requirement. You're not accepted to Islam unless there's a certain amount of people that hear you do it. You've got to do it before man. And of course you think about prayer. And all of a sudden it's just like somebody's bowed down on their knees in front of the entire world. What are they doing? They're doing their works to be seen of man. That's what they're doing. This is what the whole religion is based on. And I promise you they do the same thing with the alms. And so here's the thing. If you're a saved person and you're doing something, you're not getting any rewards. God says when you do it, you do it discreetly. You do it quietly. You don't sound a trumpet and let the whole world know, look at how great I am. Right? Verse 3. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Now obviously your left hand not knowing what your right hand's doing, it's poetic language to say do things quietly. Do things discreetly. Now what he says is he's going to reward you openly. What does that mean? Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and we'll close up here in 1 Corinthians. It's funny. We had a sermon clip that went up about me saying how all Muslims are going to hell, which, hey, I still believe that. I'm not afraid to say it. But people are saying, you're so hateful, what do you have against Islam? It's funny because if you were to think of religions that I preach against and I kind of make fun of, what's the religion? Probably Hinduism, right? But what I've said before, and I believe this, I believe Buddhism is worse than Islam or Hinduism. So I don't have a special hate in my heart for Islam above any other false religion, but you know what I hate? I hate every false way. And let me be clear. Every Muslim's going to die and go to hell. Every Hindu is going to die and go to hell. Every Buddhist is going to die and go to hell. And most Christians are going to die and go to hell. Why? Because narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. But broad is the way, and wide is the gate that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. The vast majority of this world is going to die and go to hell. I remember when I first got saved, and I learned that verse just within the first few months I was saved. It's kind of a scary verse, like, man, most people are going to hell. So I was thinking to myself, I looked on Google, it's like, okay, 33% of the world is Christians. And I'd already realized a lot of people that say they're Christians aren't saved, so I was thinking, man, if one out of three Christians are saved, only 11% of the world is going to heaven? And then, of course, as you start going soul winning, you start learning more, you realize that it's a lot narrower. More than 11%. And, you know, I don't know how narrow it is, but it's very narrow. I mean, it's scary when you think about it, because there's a lot of countries where they're like 99% Muslim, 99% Buddhist, like in Thailand and Cambodia. I mean, what percentage of people are really saved in those countries? A very small percentage. So no matter what work we do in this life, there's more that needs to be done. It's like, that's why you think, you know, if you've given all, you know, is your all on the altar? Or have you done your best for Jesus as we sing? It's like we're nowhere close. There's so much work to do, right? But when it says that He's going to reward us openly, what does that mean exactly? Well, it's possible He'll reward you in this life, and it will be known and seen, but it is very possible that it will not happen in this life. And you have to wait until the judgment seat of Christ. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 8. Now he that planteth and he that wateth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For he that labors together with God, year of God's husbandry, year of God's building, according to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon, for other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, So he describes this setting where basically your works are thrown in the fire, and what endures or lasts is your reward. I don't know how literal this is, of whether you're literally going to have gold, silver, precious stones. I think you could have different opinions about this, but in some way it's going to be, according to verse number 13, every man's work shall be made manifest. It's going to be seen. For the day shall declare it. So in some way it is going to be revealed by fire according to the Bible. And we're actually going to see what rewards did we have. And here's the thing, it's not just, I've got to make sure I do a lot of great works to get rewards. Remember what Matthew 6 said about getting no rewards if you do it to be seen of man? But if you don't do it to be seen of man, you're going to be rewarded openly. Well what the Bible also says in 1 Corinthians 4 is this, and will make manifest, in verse 5, therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every man have praise of God. You know what the Bible teaches? It is not just what you do. It's why you do it. I mean if you do things to be seen of man, but if you do a lot of great works, but on the inside of your heart, it's really just because you want to be impressed people and look good, you're not getting a whole lot of rewards. It would be a shame to devote your life to serving God, but you do it for the wrong reason and you don't get that many rewards. And what the Bible says is, judge nothing before the time. You know what I think when I read that? What it teaches me is, just because I'm the pastor does not mean I'm going to get more rewards than everybody at church. I can't look at people and say, I know. I mean everybody is in different situations in life. You have different amounts of free time. You have different experiences that get you to a certain place. I mean look, when I got saved, guess who one of my best friends was in college? I roomed with him my sophomore year of college, Pastor Jason Robinson. Most people aren't very close friends with a godly person that's reading the Bible an hour a day. And so when you're around people like that, I think I've had a lot of great opportunities that have helped me grow to a level, been a part of great churches, I was part of Verity Baptist. Is my situation the same as someone who got saved a couple years ago that grew up Catholic? It's not the same as all. So who's going to get more rewards? I have no idea. Judge nothing before the time. It's not just you don't know other people how many rewards they're going to get. Here's the thing. We don't really know what rewards we're going to get. Because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? God will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and we're all going to find out how pure, how wicked our hearts are. And look, I hope I get a lot of rewards. I mean obviously as a church, you know, as a church, I mean almost everybody's a soul winner. Almost everybody's reading the Bible. So it's like I have no idea how many rewards I'm going to get compared to other people, does it really matter? We're not supposed to compare ourselves one with another. It doesn't matter what other people think of you or whether or not they think you're godly. I mean we don't have to tell everybody our good works to let everyone know how great we are. Here's the reality. If you are really so great, your actions will speak louder than your words anyway. People are going to find out over time anyway. It's very possible it could be manifest in this life where people are going to find out or whatever, but don't make it apart. I mean the Bible says, Let another man praise thee, not thine own lips. And so here's what you have to realize. If nobody's praising you, well, maybe you don't deserve to be praised. And if you do deserve to be praised and no one's praising you, who cares? Because God's the one that knows, and guess what? It's going to be manifest. We're only here for 70, 80 years on earth, and then we enter into eternity. We'll have the judgment seat of Christ right before the millennial reign. God will make manifest the counsel of the heart. So what I would say to all of us, including myself, is this. Keep doing the work, but don't do it to be seen of man. Because you're going to lose your rewards. And I'm going to lose my rewards. And we're all going to lose our rewards if we do it for the wrong reason. Do what's right, but don't do it to be able to brag or to be seen of man. And you know what? It doesn't matter if nobody finds out about it. And look, I truly do believe this. I believe that throughout the world there are people that are going to get a lot of rewards, and you would have never guessed it. They're just like a normal church member. But you don't really realize that actually they're praying all the time. They're reading the Bible all the time. They're helping out people. And the reason why you don't realize it is because they're not telling anybody. So you're not going to know. But it doesn't matter because we should be looking at our life as I'm running my Christian race, doing the best I can. I'm not comparing or whatever, or judging anybody else. I'm just doing the best that I can. Let's go to the word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for allowing us to be here today and ask You to help us to apply this term to our lives, help us to be generous people, but ask You to help us also to do things for the right reason. Not to do things to be seen of man, but to do things with the right attitude from the heart, God. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.