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

Alright, we're here in Matthew chapter 7, and as I said both of the sermons are Christmas themed sermons, and the name of this sermon is Presents vs. Presents, Presents vs. Presents, and in the English language there's a thing known as a homophone, where two words sound the exact same, but they're spelled very differently, and this is very common in English because things are not really pronounced how they're spelled, so you'll have a lot of things that are pronounced the same, even though they're spelled differently, and you wouldn't expect them to be pronounced the same, and so when I'm saying presents vs. presents, what I'm talking about is present as in gift, you know, presents like the pink elephant present or gift exchange, versus the presence of God, and what I'm basically saying is, what is your Christmas about? It's about giving and receiving gifts and presents, or about having the presence of God in your life, and what I would say in 2023, for most people if they're honest, their Christmas is about giving and receiving presents, but it's not about having the presence of God in their life, and obviously as Bible-relieving Christians, our goal ought to be to have the presence of God in our lives, not about giving and receiving presents, okay, and let me just show you an introduction. I am not against giving and receiving presents. I mean, obviously we have the pink elephant gift exchange. My family tomorrow has the pagan Christmas tree, right, with gifts or presents underneath that pagan Christmas tree, which I'm being humorous, because I don't believe that, you know, but anyways, it's like we give and receive presents, and I think that's a good thing. I mean, I think it's nice to have family traditions, and whatever traditions you do with your family, whether it's specific food, you know, whatever specific games or whatever, I think those things are great, but what I would say is don't forget to sing hymns together tomorrow as a family. Don't forget to tell your kids about the birth of Jesus Christ. Don't put Jesus on the back burner to celebrate all these other things, right? Matthew 7, verse 7, ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened on you, for everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. For what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread will he give him a stone, or if he ask fish will he give him a serpent? If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Now on a side point, let me just state this, although this is not the primary point of this passage, what we see here is that asking for something does not negate it from being a gift, according to Matthew 7, because it talks about asking and receiving a gift, and I don't believe the primary context here is about spiritual salvation, but one application is that asking for the gift of eternal life does not negate the fact that Jesus is the one that 100% paid for that gift, okay? But what it talks about here in Matthew 7 is giving good gifts unto your children, and stating that, you know what, parents like to give gifts to their children. Now when you're young, you really love receiving gifts, and as you get older, it really becomes all about the kids, right, it's like Christmas is going to be exciting tomorrow for our family because of the joy I'll see on my kids' faces when they are opening the presents. I mean, we've had to try to stop Ezra like a million times this week, you know, he's been going there, grabbing the presents, trying to rip them open and everything, kids love this tradition of receiving gifts, and you know, opening presents, and there's nothing wrong with it, there's nothing sinful, the Bible speaks about here, about giving gifts unto your children. There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever. Go in your Bible to James 1, James 1, James chapter 1, and look, for those that are again celebrating Christmas, and if that's you, that's fine, you don't have to celebrate as we celebrate here today or celebrate with your family tomorrow, but the thing is, we're not celebrating Odin tomorrow as a family, now yeah, if you're celebrating Odin, there's a problem with it, but can you really say scripturally there's anything sinful about opening or receiving gifts since we just saw in the Sermon on the Mount about a father giving good gifts unto his children? So obviously there's nothing wrong with giving gifts, now, if you make that the focus of your Christmas, and then teach your kids that that's what Christmas is about, then you've got a problem. If you're teaching your kids about Santa Claus, you've got a problem, because it's a lie, and it's like they ought to realize what we're seeing in James 1, that every good gift comes from above, not from Santa Claus above, but from God above. James 1 verse 16, do not err my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. You say, well, you know, pastor, how is it then as a parent, I give a gift to my child, and the Bible says every good gift is from above? Anything I have is because of the fact that God has blessed me or given me the ability to have those things. You say, well, I made money because I'm smart, but God's the one that gave you the brain, he's the one that gave you that job opportunity, and ultimately at the end of the day, any blessings are coming back from God. And as parents, certainly don't teach your kids it's coming from Santa Claus, but make sure they realize that, you know what, it's God that has given us the ability to even give or receive gifts. And if you practice this tradition of giving and receiving gifts, you know, realize that you're probably more blessed financially than a lot of families in this world that might not be able to give some of the gifts that you give. And kids, make sure you realize that, yeah, you know what, it's a blessing and not every kid gets these opportunities. Verse 18, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Now verse 18 is talking about being begotten with the word of truth. We believe it's the word of God that gets somebody saved. You need the word of God. You need the incorruptible seed. We are begotten or born into God's family from the word of truth, the word of God. And see the Bible is saying here that that is a gift in the context. And so by all means, give and receive gifts at Christmas. Make sure your kids realize the greatest gift of all is the fact that Jesus Christ humbled himself, came down here to earth, he died and paid for all of your sins, rose again in order to offer you the free gift of eternal life where if you hear the word of God, you know, hear the message of the gospel through the word of God, you can be saved just like as parents we got saved by hearing the word of God, the word of truth. Go to your Bible to Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Now I hope this would not be the case in our church or in this room with any of the parents here, but the reality is not every saved person passes down that faith to their kids. If they did, there would be a lot more saved people because obviously there's churches that are converting people and unfortunately a lot of Christians aren't passing down the gift of eternal life to their kids. I hope this wouldn't be the case here, but you know with a lot of parents and a lot of families that are Christians, they will live their lives for money and they will be able to buy their kids all these fancy things and fancy vacations and they pass all these great gifts down and they never pass down the gift of eternal life. And what I would say is there's nothing wrong with passing down gifts to your kids, but don't make that the focus of your life. First, pass down the gift of eternal life to your kids just like you heard the word of truth and give it to them and then teach them to serve and love God. And teach them life is not about receiving, but surely it is more blessed to give than to receive, especially giving the ultimate gift of eternal life by preaching the gospel to people. The Bible says in Romans 6 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is no doubt that the greatest and most expensive gift of all time is the gift of eternal life. Because if you were a rich person, you could pass down a lot of gifts to your kids. Maybe you could buy them a car, buy them a house, buy them a lot, buy all of these nice things if you were rich. But your money will not be able to pass down eternal life. The only thing that could pay for eternal life was the blood of Jesus, not the blood of Mohammed, not that he even claimed to die for anybody, not the blood of Buddha, not the blood of Felix Manalo or anybody else you want to name, but only the blood of Jesus Christ could pay for this. So here's the thing. We're not saying that the gift of eternal life is cheap. I mean, it's the most expensive gift ever, but it's not just cheap. It's free for us because we're the ones receiving it. And that's the way that gifts work. Somebody pays for it and somebody receives it. We are on the receiving end of the gift that could only be paid for by Jesus Christ. Go to the Bible to 1 John 2. 1 John chapter 2. You know, sometimes when you preach sermons, you write sermons, you try to come up with cool concepts. And I came up with this idea and I thought it was really clever. And then I found out a lot of people have preached the exact same sermon title before, presence versus presence. I thought I had something unique, but apparently not. I mean, other people have come to the same thing. But I do think it's an important concept, especially in 2023, because our culture is all about giving and receiving gifts. My understanding on history on this, and I could be wrong, obviously I didn't live during that time period, that really this tradition came after Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. And before that, giving and receiving gifts was not so common. But after he wrote that book and it became very famous all throughout, you know, the UK and then eventually the US and all over the world, Christmas became about giving and receiving gifts. And there's nothing wrong with giving and receiving gifts. The problem is, as that became a popular tradition, the idea of Santa Claus became very popular, and with Santa Claus being elevated, or Satan Claus, as I like to say, Jesus Christ kind of just came on the back burner. Isn't it amazing how Christmas and Easter are about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, when that should be about the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ? So presence versus presence. How do we get the presence of God in our life? That is what your life ought to be about. I'm going to give you five points here today. And point number one, if you want the presence of God in your life, it comes from personal Bible reading and personal Bible memorization. 1 John 2, verse 25. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These things that are written on you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. The Bible says here in verse 27 that the Holy Ghost is your ultimate teacher as a saved person. See, tomorrow morning, Pastor Stuckey is not going to be there to answer your Bible question. If you message me on Facebook, I'm not planning to look at my Facebook at all tomorrow, okay? I'm not responding. I'm going to celebrate Christmas. It's like, I'm not going to be there. But you know who is there with you when you're reading the Word of God? The Holy Ghost. God the Holy Ghost is there to teach you, and he need not that any man teach you. You can read the Word of God, and God is your teacher. So when you're opening the Word of God and reading the Bible, you're not just there by yourself. God is there with you. And look, I encourage you to do your Bible reading, get some alone time away from all distractions, but honestly, you're not really alone. You say, why? Because God is right there with you, and if you want the presence of God in your life, it comes from personal Bible reading and memorization. Go to Exodus 34. Exodus 34. Exodus 34. Now look, we understand that when a person gets saved, they are in dwell with the Holy Ghost forever, and truly God is going to be with you to the very end no matter what. At the same time, the Bible speaks about the Spirit of the Lord coming upon people, being filled with the Spirit, and if you really want to see the presence of God in your life, it's going to come when you're right with God, and part of that is by personal Bible reading and personal memorization. So look, tomorrow morning, by all means, open up gifts as a family and have fun with that. Open up your Bible tomorrow and read the Word of God. Set aside the gifts and the family traditions to read the Word of God. Or maybe you start a family tradition of reading the Word of God together at Christmas time. You say, why? Because I don't want tomorrow just to be about spending time with my family. I want God there with us. And if you want God to be present in your life, it's going to come by personal Bible reading and memorization. Exodus 34 verse 1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou breakest. And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. And when you're presenting yourself before God, you know what that means? You're in the presence of God. God is present with you. And when you're reading this, basically God is waiting. And here's the thing. God was literally waiting where Moses climbed that mountain, but in a also literal sense on a daily basis, God is right there waiting for you. Say, hey, open up the Word of God. Present yourself to me. Open up the Word of God so you can read about my commandments, and I can teach you and show you what the Word of God says. God is waiting for you every day. You've got your Bible on your coffee table or your kitchen table or whatever, and God's like, open up the Word of God. And then all of a sudden it's like Facebook. I'm sorry, but God's not present as you're getting on Facebook. I'm not saying Facebook is sinful. I'm just saying God is there when you're reading the Word of God and memorizing the Word of God. That is when you're going to have God's presence in your life. Verse 3, and no man shall come up with thee. This is why we teach that when you're spending personal time with God, set aside all distractions so there is no noise. There are no distractions. Look, if you wake up before your family tomorrow, read the Word of God. Probably most people have the day off from work, so if you have free time, wake up in the morning and read the Word of God before the distractions come in. Otherwise, you're going to get to the end of your day, and you're going to remember the sermon that Pastor Stuckey said, and you're like, man, I never even got to my Bible reading today. And look, that's been true for all of us in our lives before we get to the end of the day. Man, how do I fix this problem? Just do it first thing in the morning. Because it's more important than anything else in your life. Go to James 4. James 4. James 4. James 4. James 4. James 4.7. James 4.7. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. When it says, Draw nigh to God, it's saying, Draw near to God. Right? And he's saying that if you draw near to God, God is gonna draw near to you. So if you draw near to God and God draws near to you, you know what that means? That you're in the presence of God. Right? That God's presence is there with you. The Bible's saying you draw nigh to God and he's gonna draw nigh to you. But notice this, you have to draw nigh to God. If you draw nigh, God for sure will draw nigh to you. But what if you don't draw nigh to God? Well, you're not gonna have God's presence in your life. You must put in the effort to draw nigh to God. Point number one, personal Bible reading and memorization. If you want the presence of God in your life at Christmas time, in this new year, throughout 2024, it's gonna be about personal Bible reading and memorization. Once again, nothing wrong with presence as in a gift, but the presence of God is far more important than receiving and giving gifts. But number two, perform God's law. If you want God's presence in your life, you need to perform and obey God's laws and commandments. Because notice this verse, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. So the thing is, you can't draw nigh to God as you're living a sinful life. You gotta cleanse your hands. You gotta get rid of your sin. You gotta get rid of your worldliness. And if you want your life to be about having God's presence in your life, you need to get rid of your sins. And the more you get rid of them, the more God's presence is gonna be there. See, people have this idea that they can draw nigh to God with some new technique. Not by reading the Word of God, because most Christians don't read the Bible. Not by obeying God's commandments, because most Christians don't really try to obey God's commandments. But let's just pop in a CCM song, Christian contemporary music or Christian rock. And I don't know who the big artists are today. Third Day's the one I remember. I don't know if they retired 20 years ago. They were big when I first got saved. But people think they can listen to a Christian rock song and they feel close to God. They're drawing nigh to God, right? The crowd goes crazy in these mega churches. It's like they're swinging up and down. They're so close to God. They're not close to God at all. You say, how do you get close to God? You get close to God by reading God's Word, and you get close to God by getting rid of your sin, performing God's laws and commandments. It says, cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts. Go to Genesis 3. Genesis 3. And the choice is really up to you, because you know what? If you believe on Christ, you're saved forever. You don't have to really have God's presence in your life. You can just go about your life, make your own choices, choose your own path, just go with your own wisdom and see how it works out for you. Good luck with that. Because there's a way which seemeth right on demand, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And the Bible says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not onto thine own understanding. Go with your own understanding and see what happens. As for me and my house, I want God's presence to guide us through our stupidity and through our bad choices, so He will redirect us into the right way. Doesn't matter how smart you think you are in the flesh, you're gonna make the wrong choices in life. Bible says in Genesis 3 verse six, and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were open and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Now notice this in verse eight. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. They sin and what do they do? They hide from the presence of God. Now in a literal sense, Adam and Eve needed to get saved at this point because they are now guilty. But as a saved person, when you commit sins and when you do wrong, what do you end up doing? You end up hiding from the presence of God. You don't read your Bible. You don't pray. You don't want to go to church. You don't want to go soul winning. It's like when we're doing wrong, what do we try to do? We try to hide from God. We try to do like a little kid where they'll put a blanket on their head. Mom and dad won't see me. Right, I'll be out. It's like, no, they still see you. And it's like, we do the same thing. It's like, Adam and Eve, what are you doing? You can't hide from God. But that's exactly what they try to do. But what you're seeing is they don't have the presence of God in their life. Why? Because they sinned and did wrong. And look, here's the thing. If we want God's presence, we perform God's laws. So the contrary is also true. If we do not perform God's laws, guess what? We're not gonna have the presence of God in our lives. So if you do right, God's presence will be with you. If you do wrong, God's presence is not gonna be with you. Turn in your Bible to Genesis 28. Genesis 28. Genesis chapter 28. Point number one, if you want the presence of God in your life at Christmas tomorrow, or for all of 2024, you need to have personal Bible reading and memorization. I mean, next week we'll hand out the charts because we are gonna be doing the January New Testament Bible Reading Challenge. And we're gonna encourage you that we have a lot of exciting events in January coming up. Right, I mean, our bulletin is packed. I'm sure we're gonna have a lot of first-time visitors when Pastor Shelley's here preaching. You know, we got our church services in Cavite and Laguna. I mean, we got a packed schedule. But I'll tell you what, don't allow all of these events to cause you to forsake your personal time with God on a daily basis. And it's very easy to do that. I know through the years, you know, when you have events like the Red Hawk preaching conference or soul-winning events, it's very easy to get so focused on those. You don't do your Bible reading. You get to the end of the day, and a few days later, I haven't read the Bible in like two or three days. And I'm saying make sure that you get in the pattern, especially it's like the reset button that happens at the end of the year. Basically, it's like, hey, and you know, you say, wow, man, it's gonna be hard for me to do my Bible reading first thing on January 1st. I'm gonna stay up really late on December 31st. Okay, good. Stay up till past midnight, then do your Bible reading, then you can go to sleep. So you already did your reading on January 1st. But don't start off January 1st, and oh, man, I just missed my Bible reading. And I'm being humorous, but I'm being honest on that, where it's like, if you're gonna miss your Bible reading because of that, just stay up past 12, do your Bible reading, and then on January 2nd, you can be in a pattern of, okay, six in the morning, seven in the morning, I wake up, I read. Right? Point number two, performing God's law. But point number three, if you wanna be in the presence of God, you need to be in the place of God. In the place of God will be God's presence. Genesis 28, verse 12. Genesis 28, verse 12. And he dreamed and behold a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, my Father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in me and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Verse 15. And behold, I am with thee, meaning God's presence is with me, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again to this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep and he said, surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. He's in the presence of God. God is in this place, and I knew it not. God's presence is there. The next verse, verse 17. And he was afraid and said, how dreadful is this place? This is none other but the house of God. And this is the gate of heaven. Now, in 2023, post-resurrection of Jesus Christ, being in the place of God is not about a physical land in a certain part of the world, but it's about being where? In the house of God, in a bona fide New Testament church, in a church that is preaching the truth, preaching the whole counsel of God, clear on salvation, going soul winning, and I say this confidently and not arrogantly that God's presence is in this place. Is this a perfect church? There is no perfect church. I don't claim it to be a perfect church, but this is certainly a church where God's presence will be on. Don't think God's presence is in that church over there. Don't think it's in that church over there. You have to be in the right place of God to have God's presence. Well, anywhere I go, God's presence is gonna be. Well, that's not the way that Jacob looked at it. He said this is the house of God and God's presence was there. Not just at any place that you go. No, in a bona fide real church in the place of God, God's presence is going to be there. Go in your Bible to Exodus 33. Exodus 33. Maybe the next time people ask you, why do you drive an hour to church? I want to be in the presence of God. They won't understand that. They won't get it. But legitimately, truly, even if you came from a long distance away, you know what's different about here than there or there, or even most Baptist churches? Here's the difference. God's presence is here. God's presence is upon this church. You said why? Because we're right on salvation, we preach the word of God, we preach against sins, and we go out and we go soul winning. That's why. I'm not saying that we're the only church in the world with God's presence, but unfortunately, God's presence is not really upon most churches in 2023. It's not upon most Baptist churches in 2023. How can God's presence be upon a church when the pastor's preaching a work of salvation? But at this church, God's presence is here. So regardless of how far you came or how much time you have to spend, it's worth it to be in the presence of God if that's the focus of your life. If it's not the focus of your life, then well, do whatever you want. But if you want God's presence in your life, you've got to be in the place of God. Exodus 33, verse 11. And the Lord commands you. And when we do the word of God and we keep God's commandments, we're the friend of God. And Moses is trying to obey God's commandments. He's not perfect, but he does a pretty good job. And guess what? He's in the presence of God. Verse 12, and Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest not to me, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt sin with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I've found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. Right, it's kind of like we sing that song in our hymnal, if Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. Well, that's the idea. If Jesus is not going to go with me, if God's not going to go with me, it's like, I don't want to go. And Moses is saying, hey, you know what? Your presence is in this place, because God's people are here, and if your presence is not with us, I don't want to go. We will wait to have God's blessing and presence upon our church. And we ought to have the same attitude in 2023. Go to Deuteronomy 31. Deuteronomy 31. Deuteronomy 31. A long time ago, and this is like 15 years ago, I've been saved for maybe a year, not too long. And I remember it was on a Sunday, obviously on a church day. And I remember there was a soccer game I was really, really, really excited to go to. US versus Mexico, which I was an avid soccer fan in the past. And you know, I went to that soccer game instead of going to church. Now look, I'm saying what I did in the past. This is obviously not what I would do now. Okay, I'd been saved for a year. And it wasn't even necessarily a great church. There's a lot of problems with the church. But I just remember, I didn't really have the same enjoyment as I went to that soccer game as I expected. You know why? Because God's presence wasn't going there with me as I went to that soccer game. And as Bible-even Christians, if you want to be happy, you know what the secret is? Because all the religions of the world are trying to figure out how to be happy. What's the magic formula to have happiness in your life? Well, here's the answer. If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them. Whatever God says, do. And you're happy. Isn't that true? When you're in God's will, are you not happy? When you're not in God's will, you're not happy. Is that not true? And all of us have been at both stages at different times or different days of our lives, right? And you know what? When you get too caught up in your own life and your own flesh and take the focus off of God, all of a sudden, you're not that happy. I mean, truly as a saved person, if you really want to be happy, the answer is to be in God's will. And if you are in God's will, you will be happy. And you know what that means on Sunday? Being in the place of God. Being in the house of God. Being in God's house, hearing the preaching, the fellowship, the soul winning, everything involved with the local New Testament church. Deuteronomy 31 verse 14. And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold thy day's approach that thou must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. And in the Old Testament, they're meeting in a tabernacle, right? That I may give him a charge. And notice this, and Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. And so if they present themselves before God, what does that mean? It means they're in the presence of God. And one great way to get the presence of God in your life is be in the place of God. Now, I mean, to the normal person that knows nothing about our church, if they came in here, they might be unimpressed with what we have. I mean, honestly, I believe God has blessed us quite a bit as a church, but hey, there's churches like that one over there and that one over there, and I'm sure if you walked on the inside, which I never have and never will, I mean, I've gone soloing all around both of those churches with every single door, but I've never gone inside those doors, although inside would probably be a great soloing spot. Right? But here's the thing. I'm sure if you walked in those churches, it would be more impressive, wouldn't it? Much fancier, a lot more money involved. I mean, really fancy buildings. You say, what's the difference? The difference is the presence of God is not in those places, but it is in this place. And there's no substance. I mean, there's plenty of churches in the Philippines. It's not like the Philippines lacks churches. You know what the Philippines lacks? It lacks good churches. It lacks bona fide churches. That's what the problem is. Turn about to Matthew 28. Matthew 28. Point number one, if you want the presence of God in your life, it comes from personal Bible reading and memorization. Point number two, it also comes by performing or obeying God's law. Point number three, it comes by being in the place of God. Point four, it comes by preaching the Gospel. Preaching the message of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Matthew 28, verse 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Notice this, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, amen. You know, when we go preaching the Gospel, we're not going by ourselves. We're not going in our own power. God is there with us. And look, if you want the presence of God in your life, going soul winning is a place where God's presence is going to be there. When we pray before soul winning and we ask God to guide us and open up the hearts, it's not just a pointless, useless exercise that we do, because that's what others do. Because I legitimately believe that there is this spiritual battle that's taking place that we don't see with our eyes. But I've experienced as you're going soul winning and you think somebody's going to get saved and then a distraction comes out of nowhere, we ask God to guide us and help us. And look, truly God is with us as we're going soul winning. Lo, I am with you always. You say that even in the Philippines, even unto the end of the world, anywhere, anywhere God's presence is with you. Go back to Mark 16. Mark 16. This is why I'm not really too worried about dangers going soul winning. Of course, I believe we ought to use some wisdom as we're going soul winning. But a lot of people are really concerned about, oh, it's dangerous, it's too dangerous to go soul winning here or whatever. It's like, you know what? I've literally, in Sacramento, California, I have walked up to the front door of people just with doing some sort of drug deal. And you know what takes place? They back down for religion. They are afraid to say something negative. They're not afraid to deal drugs, but they're afraid that doing something negative to somebody who's religious is going to send them to hell. So they usually, I mean, pretty much always act respectful and nice. I mean, I've been in situations where there are a bit of dangerous situations, but you know what? God always gets you out of it. You say why? Because God's presence is with us as we go soul winning. And I get it. There's martyrs in the Bible, but I also see in the Bible, aside from there being martyrs, which that will take place throughout the history of the world, which obviously God is allowing that to take place if it happens. Here's the thing. You also see people in the Bible that sometimes they get themselves into situations like Paul the apostle, he wasn't really right in his situation. Agabus was right. Paul was wrong. I personally think that's pretty clear. And yet God still protects Paul. And look, I believe the same is true for us. If our goal and desire is to go out and preach the gospel, let's say we pick an area, maybe it wasn't the smartest area, I still think God's going to protect us. You say why? Because God's presence is there as we go soul winning. Mark 16 verse 15. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Drop down to verse 19. So then after the Lord has spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. Now you might say, well, our pastor, I mean, Jesus is sitting on the right hand of God. He sent us and then He's just taking a break. We're going out by ourselves. Wait a minute, verse 20. And they went forth and preached everywhere. Notice this, the Lord working with them. If the Lord is working with us, do you know what that means? That He is there with us. Lo, I'm with you always. Isn't the Bible just very consistent? Now I've said this statement before and it's true. You know what? The Lord will not work without us. We're not Calvinists. I've never seen God come down from heaven and knock on a door. I've never seen an angel come down from heaven and knock on a door and get somebody saved. God is not going to work without us. But when we go soul winning, we're not doing it by ourselves either. It's kind of like drive out of God and He will draw nigh to you. Hey, go preach in the Gospel and then God's like, all right, let's go. And He is with us as we're preaching the Gospel to every creature, to the end of the world, to every single place regardless of where it is preaching the Word of God. Turn your Bible to 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3, verse six. I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. Verse nine. For we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. So the Bible's very clear here. Once again, as we go soul winning, we are doing it with God. We are not doing it by ourselves. We are doing it with God. Because here's the thing, in your own flesh and in my own flesh, we could not do what we do out soul winning. I mean, I remember when I first started going soul winning, and I remember the person who got me saved, I remember him telling me, hey, you know, we should start this new thing. This is back when I was in college. And he said, we should try to preach to the hospital at least one person every day. I remember I said, hey, that's a great idea, Mike, but that's not my gift. I was like, I can't walk up to random strangers and tell them about Jesus. It's like, I don't have that ability. I'm not, you know, it's just not, I'm not outgoing. I can't do it. And isn't that the way that most of you felt when you first started going soul winning? It's like you're afraid people are looking at you. They're staring at you. They're thinking, you know, whatever. They're gossiping about you. You get paranoid about it. And then you know what, as you start going soul winning, you realize it's actually not that strange at all. And you start preaching the gospel, you realize, hey, you know what, God is with me, so I do have the ability to do this, even though I couldn't do it in my own flesh and by myself. The thing is, you don't have to do it in your own flesh. And look, sometimes, you know, you're going soul winning, and maybe you feel like the motivation or the desire, kind of the pushing from the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel to someone, but you're kind of nervous about it. You know what I do sometimes? I'll pray to God in my head, or I'll quote a Bible verse, and then it will give me more confidence. But the thing is, God is there with you as you're approaching those people. And yeah, I get it. Sometimes you walk up to people and then they mock you, they think it's a joke or whatever. Let them do whatever they want. Right. I mean, I'm amazed. You go to some of these areas like squatters areas where people are drinking, smoking, and gambling, and then they mock you for preaching the gospel. And I'm just thinking, I'm looking at your life, and it seems pretty messed up, and you're mocking me? I mean, literally, I remember just recently in Pomponga, like a group of people, and I walked up to them, and I don't advise trying to preach the gospel to people that are drinking alcohol, but we're trying to hand that invitation to everyone. I didn't know they were drinking. And then they mocked me like, oh man, look at you. And then they made a joke about God and everything. And I'm thinking, your life is really messed up. And you're mocking us as we're preaching the gospel to people. It's like, I'm sorry, I don't feel compelled to join your lifestyle of getting drunk, and smoking, and destroying my health and my life. Right, right. And so look, let people mock if they want. Whatever. Look, as saved people, we live better lives than unsaved people and people that aren't serving God. Your life is better. Number one, you're saved forever. And number two, you have the ability to experience a happiness the world is never gonna understand. They won't get it. The ultimate goal for the unsaved world or for the worldly world is to gain some sort of prize, win some sort of Olympic medal, NBA championship, and then once you get that, what after that? The rest of your life is just downhill till you die, right? Our lives aren't like that. You know why? Because you can still go serving when you're 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, you can still serve God, you can still read the Bible, you can still have the presence of God even when you're young or old or any age if you're doing what God says. And especially as you're going out preaching the gospel. Go to your Bible, Luke 18, we'll look at a couple more places. Luke 18. Look, I think presents at Christmas time are great. Make sure we teach our kids that it's not about receiving and giving presents, but it's about the presence of God in our life. That is far more important, far more valuable than any gift that you're gonna receive this year. And look, I think it's a great tradition. We've got our Christmas tree at our house, we put gifts underneath, we have the pink elephant gift exchange. I think those things are great, they're fun, but here's the thing, you know what we don't do? We don't just cancel the preaching and cancel singing hymns and cancel the soul winning just to play games because it's Christmas time. You know why? Because we want the presence of God upon our church. I mean, God loves it when we're fellowshipping. That's part of a church growling and being strong and it's important to develop friendships. But here's the thing, because we're fellowshipping with each other, you know what, I also want God to be there with us. And if He's not gonna be there with us, well then we don't wanna do it. Point number one, personal Bible reading and memorization. When you open up God's Word, you will have the presence of God there with you. Point number two, performing God's law, obeying God's law, obeying God's commandments. You will have the presence of God. Point three, being in the place of God. Being in a real bonafide church, you're gonna have the presence of God. Point four, preaching the gospel. As we preach the gospel, the presence of God will be there with us. And point five, prayer. When you pray to God, God is there with you. It's not like when you used to be Catholic and you prayed in front of an idol and it's like a pointless, meaningless activity. As the Bible says, the idol can't hear, it can't speak. It's just like you're just talking in front of a piece of wood. It'd be like somebody just like stumbling around like a carpenter just holding up a piece of wood and talking to you. It means nothing. But here's the thing, as a saved person, as a child of God, when you pray to God, God is there listening to you. God's presence is there with you as you talk to God. Luke 18, verse 9, and I'm not gonna read this for the sake of time, but the first eight verses gives this example, this parable, where basically if there was an unjust judge that had this person crying and begging for mercy, the judge would eventually just kind of give up and say whatever you want. It'd be like, for example, people sometimes beg and ask for money and maybe you don't wanna give it to them but they keep doing it and you just give them a little bit of money because eventually they wear you down. Or maybe you gotta go to a notary, you gotta get him to sign something. You don't have the proper paperwork and you just keep asking and begging and you say alright, whatever, I'll sign it. Right? And he uses this example and what he's saying is this, that's what an unjust judge would do. But here's the thing, when God's people that are saved cry out to God, God does wanna bless you. God does wanna give nice things. It's not that God does not wanna give you nice things. No, He wants to. So if an unjust judge will give something that he doesn't want to, how much more would God give something he does want to if you ask? But you have not because you ask not. That's why you don't have. Then you move on to verse number nine with this other parable. And with the publican and Pharisee, we often use this to understand salvation and it's a great example. Because if you exalt yourself, you're gonna be abased. If you humble yourself, you're gonna be exalted. That's true. But you can also look at this application and this parable as a saved person just praying unto God. Notice what it says in verse nine. And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. You know what that means? The presence of God was not there with the Pharisee, right? He prayed thus with himself. See, if you're saved and you're trying to serve God and you pray unto God to ask for mercy and help in your life, you're not praying with yourself. You're praying with God. God's presence is there. But the Pharisee prays thus with himself. You say, why? Because he's incredibly ma'yaba. It's like, look at me, I tithe, I fast twice in the week. I'm not like this guy over here. And if that's the way you act when you pray and you think, man, you thank you God for helping me be so much better than everybody else in this world. You know what, God's presence probably won't be there with you. But you know, if you're like the publican in this story, the publican knows he's got problems. He knows he has issues. And he's embarrassed to look up to heaven in this story. And he smites upon his breast, says, God, be merciful to me a sinner. You know what, the person that has that attitude, God's presence is going to be there with them. Obviously, we all sin. We all make mistakes. But if you end your day and you start your day by going down on your knees and praying unto God and say, God, I messed up. I don't know what I was thinking. Help me do better. Forgive me. I mean, God's mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness, right? And God's presence is going to be there. I mean, isn't this the way that you act with your kids? Sometimes your kids make you mad. They disobey. But when they come to you and they are truly sorry and say, Dad, I'm sorry. Mom, I'm sorry. Isn't it true that you hug them and say, you know what, I love you, I forgive you. That should be true. I hope that's true with you and your parenting. Here's the thing, it's the same way with God. Because as much as I love my kids, as much as my wife loves our kids, here's the thing, God loves His children more than we love our children. And if we would be merciful to our kids and forgive them, it's the same way with God. Go to the Bible, Psalm 46, we'll close up. Psalm 46, Psalm 46. I mean, I could be wrong, I hope I'm wrong, but I think that if you ask the average person in the Philippines or in this world, what is Christmas about, I think a lot of them would not realize it's about the birth of Jesus. I don't know what percentage, but I think a lot would not realize. If you just ask them, are we celebrating the birth or the resurrection of Jesus? A lot of people would be like, what is it about? They wouldn't know. And I wish that weren't true, but I believe that is true for a lot of people, that they would not even know what Christmas is about. Right, or even if you go on a deeper level, if you start to ask them, what is the virgin birth about? What does that mean? They wouldn't even know. I mean, even saved people, a lot of them would be confused, well, what does the virgin birth even really mean in terms of our lives? Why is it significant? People know very little. It's like, you know everything about LeBron James. You know where he was born. You know how old he is. You know what teams he's played for. But do you know where Jesus Christ preached? You know, name some places. Do you know where Jesus was born? You're like Herod. It's like, where was he supposed to be born? Right, I forget. And unfortunately, that's true with a lot of people. But see, for us that are saved as we're raising kids, make sure, because obviously your kids are going to enjoy Christmas more than you in terms of opening and receiving gifts. And we enjoy it because they're opening the gifts. Make it a point though to teach your kids about what Christmas is about. What does it even mean? Why are we celebrating the birth of Jesus? I mean, make it a point to not just put Jesus and God on the back burner and on the side, but actually say, hey, you know what? We're celebrating Christmas because it's all about Jesus. And we want God's presence in our lives. Psalm 46 verse one, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Meaning if you're in trouble and you cry out to God, guess what? God is a very present help. His presence is going to be there with you. And so this is not a complicated sermon, but I think it's something we need to be reminded about in 2023, because look, as I said, I think it's great to have family traditions. I'm all for family traditions. You know, we've got a printed out calendar for this holiday we do this, for this we do this. I try to be very organized with it. And I love family traditions. I think they're great. I'm obviously not against the Christmas tree or giving gifts, right? I think those things are great. And by all means, do those things as a family, celebrate those things, but don't do it and forsake the presence of God. Make sure you put God first in your life and not just for tomorrow, for Christmas, not just today on Sundays, put God first in your life every single day. You say, why? Because if Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. And if He's not going to go with me, then I'm not going to go. Because God's presence is what life is all about. Let's close with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and ask you to help all of us, including myself and my family, to remember this and realize that the most important thing in life is to have God's presence in our life. And there's a lot of great things God has offered us in this life. Presence and family traditions are great at Christmastime, God, but help us not forsake having your presence upon us this Christmastime and this New Year, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.