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

Alright, we're here in Psalm chapter 49 and of course we're just looking at these first five verses. We'll have another sermon next week to finish up the chapter and the name of the sermon is Five Fundamentals of Church, Five Fundamentals of Church and there's a lot of symbolism here in this chapter that we can apply to a local church and obviously when you're looking at passages that you're using in a symbolic way, things don't always match perfectly but I do believe the symbolism is here for a reason of a local church and notice what it says in verse number one. Hear this, all ye people, give ear all ye inhabitants of the world and the first point is this, church is a body. One of the big things about a church is referred to as a body, a local congregated group. Now here's the thing, what the Bible says in this verse is all ye people and when it comes to the local church, the message that is preached is not just to the adults, it's not just to some people, it's to all of them. Everybody at church, whether old or young, needs to hear the preaching of God's word. You know, you think of the sermon on Saturday about the earth being young, who needs that sermon more than a young child? Because we know that the earth is young, we're not going to be brainwashed by evolution but they could be brainwashed if they're not aware and so young kids, they need to hear the real preaching at a young age and so one of the things about our church is this, we keep the children with the adults during the service. We don't have a junior church or a children's church or whatever, we have everybody congregated together. You say, why? This preaching is not just important for us that are adults, it is also very important for the young children as well. Go to your Bible Joel chapter one, Joel chapter one, Joel chapter one. In fact, I think you can probably make a good argument that the preaching is more important for those that are young because before they go down that road of making mistakes and they make their life really muggle, oh, we can actually help. I mean, isn't it true that when you prevent a problem, it's better than dealing with the problem after the same place? I mean, if you change the oil in your car on a regular basis, that's better than allowing your engine to just blow up and having to fix that, right? I mean, it's better just doing the normal maintenance before you have a major problem and the reality is that as adults, especially those of us that didn't grow up in a church like this, we didn't always hear this preaching and for all of us, probably our lives kind of went the wrong way in some directions and if these young kids can grow up in this church hearing the real preaching, it can prevent them from making some of the same mistakes that we made as we were growing up and so I think this preaching is not just important for us. I think the preaching is very important for the young children at this church as well. I want my kids, Zapp and Christa Valley, even Ezra to hear this kind of preaching. Even Ezra that cannot yet talk at the same time, when he hears the preaching, he can see the style of what a church is supposed to be like. So, even though he doesn't understand all of this, he's going to get used to the fact that, okay, there should be somebody behind the pulpit that's yelling, right? He's going to get that pattern and so it's important for everybody in this room, whether you're old or young, to get the preaching of God's Word. It says, all ye inhabitants, all ye people, it's for everybody. Joel chapter 1 verse 1, the word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Petho, hear this, ye old men, and give ear all ye inhabitants of the land. Now, he specifically addresses the old man, but then he says all ye inhabitants of the land. Every single inhabitant, every man, every woman, every boy, every girl, every single person, he has this message, have this been in your days or even in the days of your fathers? And what he's saying in verse 2 is, none of you that are alive have seen this take place in your lifetime. And not only that, it hasn't even taken place in the life of your fathers. I believe that's why he specifically addresses the old men, because the children have fathers that are living, but the older men, though, their fathers might have passed away. That's why he's saying it didn't even happen in your father's life that is already passed away. Then it says in verse 3, tell ye your children of us and let your children tell their children and their children another generation. And what you're seeing is, hey, tell your children and make sure that your children tell their children and make sure that they tell their children. And it's meant to pass on for parents to kids in every single generation. When you're thinking about in the Bible, I would say that during the days of Joshua, God's people are more righteous and more right with God than any time period ever in human history. You really see that, although Moses dealt with a lot, when Joshua takes over and he says, ask for me in my house, we'll serve the Lord. That was something that people really understood because it said it got passed on, but eventually people stopped repeating the message of what took place. And then of course you have the book of judges, right? But for a while the people were very close to God. Why? Because they're hearing the same message. You know what's taking place in today's world? Adults are hearing this preaching and then kids are singing a bunch of stupid songs and eating candy when they're meant to be in church. Now here's what you have to understand. When you get older, you start to think back about things as a kid. You have warm and fond memories of those things, right? You know, I think back to things that some might have been sinful or worldliness or whatever, but I think back to, you know, Super Mario Kart, right? I used to love that game. I think back to playing soccer. I think about things like that. I think about playing, you know, baseball with my dad, just throwing a ball and kicking a soccer ball with him. You think of various things. Well, here's the thing. People form memories at churches as young children. You know, my only memory from church growing up is that I really remember in my head. I remember coloring in Noah's Ark at vacation Bible school. That is the only memory that I have. And I was in a Protestant church, but what I'm saying is this. That's not the memories I want to pass on to my kids at church because here's what takes place. If church is just kind of contemporary music and fun and games, you know what you're going for when you're an adult? A church with contemporary music and fun and games. CCF and victory. And now the Baptist churches are doing the same. So generations 50 years ago, they had everybody together hearing the word of God. Once they started separating them, why is it our children have left the old fashioned news? Why is it that they left the old time preaching? Because they didn't hear that praising when they were growing up. They heard stupid, silly songs and had a 10 minute sermon. Right? And that's reality. And that's true with a lot of IFP churches also. It's not just other denominations. This is something that Baptist churches are very guilty of because they always have children's church, right? I mean, I've said this story before. My old pastor in West Virginia came to me one day and actually turned to Nehemiah chapter eight. Nehemiah chapter eight. Nehemiah eight. And we had a junior church at that church and he gave me the opportunity to preach every single week to be the person who was the lead of junior church. Now, although I'm not for junior church, I considered a great responsibility. I was very excited about it, especially as I had a desire to be a pastor. I finally got a chance to practice. So every week I'm writing a sermon and I had sat in on a few junior church sessions before and a person was leaving the church that was the one heading it. So I was going to take over. And the truth is that the sermon was like 15 minutes and they had a lot of games and candy. And so I came in and I remember my first sermon was about alcohol, about drinking alcohol. And I remember, you know, kids are acting, you know, up a little bit and like, hey, you pay attention when the preaching is going on. And they're like sitting up like they weren't expecting it. And they were shocked. But I'll tell you what, by the next week, they loved it. Every time they would try to bring friends with them just for the shock factor, you know, bring their friend. And he's yelling and screaming. I've never seen this before, but they liked it. Because here's the thing. When we get older, what can happen is we can get stubborn because we might have problems with alcohol. But see a young kid, they don't. And so they can soak in the preaching without being stubborn. Right? It's good for them at a young age to get an EMI attack grade verse one. And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water came. They gathered themselves together as if they were one body, as if they were one man. Right? And it says, and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women. And all that could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. You say, brother, I don't see the church nursery here. Yeah, because you know what? The kids are with mom and dad as they heard the preacher. All that could hear with understanding. And I'll tell you what, you'd be surprised at the things that your children can learn in church. Now, if you're a parent, you probably notice this at our church where your kids will repeat things. It's like, how do you know that? Right? And my son will say things sometimes and I'm just like, man, he's getting a lot. I didn't know this until I was like 20 years old. And he's learning things at a young age. Right? And so kids at a young age, they can pick up information. Bible says verse three, and he read therein before the street that was before the water gave from the morning until midday before the men and the women and those that could understand. Now, here's what I've heard people say. Well, here's the thing. You have to have a junior church and shorten the sermon for the kids because they don't have a long enough attention span. It is impossible. I've heard this from someone who graduated from a Baptist Bible college. He said it's been scientifically proven that the perfect length for service is 21 to 23 minutes because anything past 23 minutes, your mind cannot focus and pay attention anymore. Now, whenever somebody says it's been scientifically proven, I'm like, thus saith the Lord. What? Right? Show me the Bible. Because I'll show you a Bible verse that just proves that. Look at what this says. They heard it from morning until midday, and the ears of all the people were attentive on the book of the law. It sounds like from morning to midday, they paid attention. And did you know that when you enjoy something, you can pay attention for hours if you really enjoy something? I get the fact that our minds can wander and we miss something here and there. But the truth is that when the preaching is going, if you are excited about it, you can pay attention. And I've had sermons that I listened to and I was upset when it was over. I'm like, man, it's already been an hour. The sermon's over. I wanted more. Right? But what I'm saying is, you know what? At a young age, children can pay attention and adults can pay attention for more than 21 to 23 minutes because the morning until midday, several hours is what they're referring to here. Go to Matthew chapter 19, Matthew 19. I don't believe in having a lesser sermon than the kids, which is, they're not going to say that, but that's literally what they believe. Well, basically the kids get a lesser sermon as if they're not as important. Is that not true? That's what takes place with children's church where it's like you get a sermon that's, you know, a lesser sermon. They don't get as much information. That's not fair to the kids. I mean, kids deserve to get the same information that we get. They deserve to hear the same sermon. You say, but kids aren't going to understand all of this. None of us understand all of it either. Look, I read the Bible every day and I'm always like, you know, I'm in Ezekiel right now. Instead of Saturday, we've been going through Ezekiel. I don't understand everything I read. Today was a chapter where the women are sewing, you know, arm holes and it's like, what? I don't. It's like, and God's like really angry about it. I still don't know what that's talking about, right? It's a very confusing thing. I don't know. And someone did show me a picture one time of the women that have that bandana on their head saying like, yes, we can. And I was like, yeah, actually maybe that is what that's talking about. Maybe they were dealing with a feminist agenda. That's the best thing I've ever heard, but I don't know. Right? So here's the thing. We don't get everything either. And so to say, well, the kids don't understand it. They need something at a lower level. Well, if that's the case, then I guess we're just going to do the lowest level possible because all of us are going to miss information. And we have adults that come in here when they're new at church, a lot of it's going to go over their head. Right? And so look, kids and adults, they need the same sermons. And what people do is they're going to turn to Matthew 19, which we're going to look at. And this is their proof of a children's ministry because I don't see it in the word of God. Genesis to Revelation, I see everybody together. I don't see this separation of different groups and kids are getting something else while the parents are getting. By the way, if you have two different rooms with two different people preaching every single week, it's two different churches. Right? I mean, those are just two different churches, not one church and church is meant to be a body. Right? That's what we're talking about. But they're going to turn to Matthew 19 and Matthew 19 verse 13. Then where they're brought onto little children that he should put his hands on them and pray and the disciples rebuke them. But Jesus said, suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such as the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them and departed them. Now let me say this before I explain this. I don't think this is a church service personally, but if people want to apply this to a church service, okay, well let's look at it. But here's the thing. It's like, for me, it's like Jesus is preaching in a lot of different places and people gather around and kids knew Jesus. Their parents probably talked about it. They ran up and they wanted to see Jesus. When I walked on the streets as a white guy, sometimes kids run around me. Right? And I try to be friendly to them, even though sometimes they can distract, soul winning, honestly. But it's just like, you know what? I'm going to be friendly to them. And Jesus say, hey, don't rebuke those kids. You know, it's perfectly fine. Let them come up. I don't think this is a church service because if anybody is interrupting a church service, it's like, well, I mean, it's not going to be Makuo in the house of God, right? Things they mean decently and in order. We understand that. But if you try to apply this to church and suffer means to allow, people apply this and they say, well see, Jesus took children so seriously and that's why we needed children's ministry. Jesus didn't send the kids to another location for Peter to preach to them. And I'm not applying this to church. I'm just saying, this is where independent fundamental Baptist, they turn. It's like, Jesus doesn't send them. It's a, Hey James, go preach to them. John, go preach to them. He says, no, allow the little children. And what application we can make is we are a family integrated church and sometimes the kids are going to be a bit noisy during service. It is what it is. As a church here in Pampanga, we don't have a big space. And yes, sometimes the kids can be a bit of a distraction. Moms and dads in the church are trying their best. And honestly, I believe that the parents are doing a great job at our church. Obviously all kids can act. I believe foolishness is found in the heart of not just my child or your child, but every child, right? And I would say that we should suffer the little children and realize that, Hey, as a family integrated church every once in a while, you know what? Kids might be a little bit noisy, right? But I don't even apply this to church because that's really not the reference in Matthew 19. You can make an application, but that application would not be send the kids over here because this is why Baptist Church do this. They invite a bunch of kids, they have a big children's ministry and they're not with their parents. What's the result of that? The kids are a distraction and nobody can discipline them. That's the way it works. I've been involved in children's ministries as part of the IFB at church. I'm from Church Oaks at West Virginia and I helped them the bus routes, you know, and I wouldn't, we don't do those ministries here, but I try to be a blessing to the church, but it's just reality. Kids act up. Well, no one can spank them because they'll get arrested. So what do you do? You give them more candy. That's what you do. And here's the thing. We don't have to deal with that because of the fact if kids come here, we say that, Hey, they need to come with their adults. Now we've had kids visit at our church in Manila. We've told them like, Hey, can you show us where your parents live? Let us talk to them because we're going to try to bring the whole family to church, right? And if somebody's at the age of like a teenager, maybe even a young teenager, they might be able to be respectful and pay attention and not be a distraction. But if you have young kids in this room, they're probably going to be a big distraction. It just is what it is unless they're with mom and dad that can handle that responsibility responsibly. But when churches have these big children's ministries, they have to have them in a separate room because otherwise they distract the service. We though, we focus on families. That's why we are a family integrated church. Anyway, turn your Bible to James 2. James, actually go back to Psalm 49 and then we'll go to James after Psalm 49. Now I will say that as a missionary, it is tempting to have a big children's ministry. The reason why it's tempting is because you can have a picture of a room full of 80 people with 60 of them being young kids and it looks amazing. It's like, look at all the people you're reaching and you know, it just kind of tugs in the heart of everybody when you see young children, because I mean, I see young children in the streets and it breaks your heart sometimes. You're thinking, man, I wish they could just get the preaching of the Word of God. And so you see these videos, you see these pictures and it tugs at people's hearts. And I get it. Trust me, you know, especially where we're at in Manila, it's like when we first moved there with our church building, literally I could have gotten 30 kids to attend church immediately because they started just following me. I would have been very easy. It's just like, hey, you know, we'll give you free bread and they'll just come up. You say, well, why didn't you do that? Because it would end up distracting the entire church service. Quite honestly, we gave kids a chance to like come, you know, a couple of times and it just ended up being an abstraction. What took place was members at the church had to babysit them during the service because of the fact otherwise they were just, what was this is down in the heart of a time, right? And so we don't have children's ministries at the service because we focus on reaching families, but we are a church body and we should be in one room together during the church service. Number two, what about the background of people at church? Notice what it says in verse two, both low and high, rich and poor together. Psalm 49 verse two, both low and high, rich and poor together. When it's saying low, I believe it's referring to someone of low status, someone that would be looked down upon, right? High would be someone who's looked up upon. And I mean by the world standards. You know, if you have a job where you make a lot of money, it's like you're high in people's eyes. If you work, you know, just a remedial job, you'd be considered low, both low and high, rich and poor together. So it's kind of like the same thing, but it reverses the order. Low and high would be poor and rich. So low and high, rich and poor. But notice this together. You notice how whether you're low or high, rich or poor, everybody is together. It's interesting because churches is like the one place where you can have people from every single background that are completely different, different levels financially, completely different jobs and backgrounds. I mean, if you weren't saved and I wasn't saved, maybe we wouldn't be friends. And yet you're here together and you love one another and you pray for one another and you care for one another. It's like, where else do you really see that in the world? Right? Growing up, my best friends played soccer. Say what? Because that's what I did with my time. And you're friends with people that are just like you. You know, what's interesting is in the house of God, you become friends with people that are actually much different than you, completely different, different interests, right? And it's like people have just different backgrounds, different cultures, different jobs, different college degrees, completely different, low and high, rich and poor together. And you set that aside, say it doesn't matter whether someone's low or high, rich or poor, whatever their background is, you know what? You're together as one because we are a body. What about James 2? James 2. It's funny because when I think of the people that I used to hang out with growing up and I'm not friends with a single person that I was friends with, you know, from high school or below that. I had one of my friends that got saved in high school and then someone else got saved later on. But everyone I was friends with, I'm not friends with any of them on Facebook. I haven't talked to them in years, so I haven't followed up on their lives because honestly it's like I'm just in a much different place in my life. I really don't want to focus on people I knew like 30 years ago. But I'll tell you what, when I, when I, you know, kind of just separated from all those people completely even on social media, the people that I used to hang out with, a lot of them pro abortion, pro LGBT, I mean these are the people I played soccer with all the time. When I was a kid, all that mattered to me was soccer. So they play soccer, I play soccer, we're hanging out together, you know, and just, you know, playing video games in between games and stuff like that, watching the other games and you do the same sorts of things. It's like a lot of those people, pro LGBT, pro abortion, really liberal. I mean, if I met them now and talk to them after a couple minutes, man, it's like there'd be nothing to talk about. They would hate me and you know what, they would have, would have nothing to do with me. I haven't paid attention to this, but I'm fully confident that everybody I knew from the town I grew up in, cause I grew up in a small town, they probably would think that Matthew Stuckey became insane, right? Because I got religious in college, you know? And it's like, this is the way it is. And it's like you change and become a different person. And the thing is the people I knew back then, I wouldn't be friends with. You say, why? Even though I had a lot of secular things in common with them back then, I don't care about that stuff. You say, what do you care about? I care about the preaching of God's word. I care about soul winning. I care about doctrine. And those things are a million times more important than anything else. Right? I mean, you know, at our church, I don't know everybody's background, but you know, I, you know, everyone knows, was huge into sports. That's all I cared about. A lot of people are church. That just has never really been different. But it doesn't matter. You say, why? Because both low and high, rich and poor together. It doesn't matter what your background is or interest. We as a church are one church body. Now there can be kind of two extremes to this. The first one the Bible kind of mentions is when people look down on others that are poor. The Bible says in James 2 verse 1, my brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with respect of persons for them to come under your assembly, a man with the gold ring and goodly apparel. And they're coming also a poor man in viral Raymond. You have respect to him that we're at the gate clothing. Now, obviously this word gay meant something very different when the Bible was written and it's not what it's referring to, but definitely don't respect someone wearing gay clothing. Okay. In 2023, it's like the code of many colors was pretty cool. Back in the days of Joseph, if somebody comes into our church, it's a guy wearing a coat of many colors. It's like, you know, but anyways, but the idea is respecting those. Expecting those that, you know, are, are well off and they have money and say to him, sit down here in a good place and say to the poor, stand out there or sit here under my footstool. Are you not then partial yourselves and become judges and equal boss. Now I've learned this, that at many of the mega churches, and I don't remember which one's offhand, so I don't want to speak and be wrong, but at many of the mega churches they have like 30,000 people in the church and this is on TV and they video broadcast it. There'll be certain people that they focus on and there's certain people that are about to sit near the cameras because they have certain people that they want to be seen on television. And here's the intro setting at our church in Manila. We have like the back seats for the long so they can be close to the mother baby room and restrooms and things like that. It's like we don't have other people here. It's like the other people have to go back there. Right. Or the poor people go there. Right. It's like, Oh, wait, wait, wait a minute. This is not for you. It's right. That's ridiculous. Right. And that's the sort of thing the Bible said. It's like, Hey, you know what? Sit here. And of course I think it's been a bit overboard. It's like sit here underneath this chair. It's like, but, but that's, that's sort of attitude is ridiculous. You say, why? Because just because somebody has more money doesn't mean that we're going to look up on them. And I'll tell you what, this seems obvious, but as a preacher, you know, it can be tempting because if somebody ties a lot of money, you could try to just say, well, I'm not going to say anything bad to them because of the money that they're bringing in. That can be a tempting thing as a preacher because you're like, wow, you know, they give so much money and it's just like you allow them to do whatever as a result. And I don't know if people have seen that in churches, but that takes place at church. Those that have money, they can do whatever they want. Right. But that's not the way it's meant to be in the house of God. In the house of God, it's both low and high, rich and poor together. Go to first Timothy chapter six, first Timothy six, first Timothy six. And you don't have to turn there, but also in act six, we have an example where the Hebrews and the Grecians are kind of like against one another because it says, you know, that the Grecians are being neglected in the daily ministry, they say. And it's like, you know, when you have people of different cultures, sometimes they can look at things just very different. They have different personalities. And at a church, it's not the culture that you want. Now, I think here in the Philippines, it's a bit harder to see and understand that in act six. In America, though, it's the melting pot of the world. So you have people from all over. So if you were to go to Verity Baptist in Sacramento, you would have, you know, a lot of white people from various parts of the world, but there's a bunch from Russia and there's a bunch that are home born in the US from various parts. There's people that are from India at the church. There's people that are from a lot of people from the Philippines are there. You've got people that are, you know, blacks, you know, born in the US predominantly, but people that are black or African American or whatever the non racist way to say it, you know, in 2023, you've got people from completely different backgrounds. And so there can be a natural tendency. Well, I'm a Filipino. I'll talk to the Philippines, right? Or I'm black. I'll talk to the black people. And people do this kind of innocently. They don't mean anything by it, but that's not the way it's meant to be at church. At church, you're supposed to have the same love one for another. The Bible says, and of course there's certain people that you understand better and relate to better, but you don't want to start having divisions of church where it's like, I want to call, I want to see this. It's like, wow, you know, I got saved from Pastor Anderson's video online. I got saved from Pastor Mena's video online. I got saved from somebody giving the gospel door to door. And those sorts of things can develop at churches. I noticed this in Manila when the church started, there was starting to be this sort of attitude from some at the beginning. It was kind of like, we're the new IFB. And when people newly came, it's like they wanted to sort of like test them out whether or not they're truly new IFB or not. And so I preached against that attitude because it, because literally there's people at the church and they're not at the church anymore. They were telling people they could not go soul winning until they got better. They said, you're not good enough yet. And of course they didn't tell me about that. They didn't ask me if they could forbid people to go soul winning, but that's a stupid attitude. Let me help you out with something. Nobody's good at something the first time they do it. I was bad when I first started soul winning and so were you. Everybody is. You know how you get better at stuff? Practice. Practice. How are you going to be good at something if you've never done it before? I remember when I was a kid, this memory comes to my head. You know, I played on a basketball team one year. I didn't have a basketball. So I never shot a basketball. I just thought it looked cool on TV and I never really got it. And I remember there was like one time I was open because they never passed it to me. And like five or six years old, a leg up. And I just completely bricked it. It came back down and then I just missed it again. Because I've never done it. You know, it's like if you don't do something, how are you going to be good at it? The things that you're good at in life, you have experience. You have practice. The things that you're bad at, you don't have practice at. That's just the way it works. Right? So how are you going to get better at something unless you practice? Right? And so there can be this attitude of making divisions at church. And that's something we always want to avoid and have the same love one for another at our church. And we need to try to relate to everybody even if they're a little bit different than us. Right? Another example, though, can be looking against people that have more money. Because you can look down on people that don't have much. But there can be an attitude of being angry at those that have more than you. Which is also a wrong attitude. Verse 76, verse 1. Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor. In the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren. But rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. Now the Bible speaks about servanthood for various different reasons. The primary reason is if you owed a debt and you couldn't pay it off, you had to work as a servant to pay it off. It's not endorsing slavery. But it's like as under servanthood you would end up having to pay it off. Right? The Bible says you could be someone who's a servant and your master is saved and he's your boss. The Bible says don't despise them. And there could be this attitude from people to get angry at their masters saying, hey, we're supposed to be on the same level. We're brothers in Christ and you're telling me what to do? And it's like, yeah, you know what? We're brothers and sisters in Christ and we're on the same level in terms of being in the family of God. But there's still authority in various situations in life and we shouldn't be against people that have more than us. Simply because they have a more successful job or God has blessed them or maybe they inherited money. We shouldn't be against someone because they have more than us. So we shouldn't look down on those that have less than us. But we should also not have this attitude of despising those that have more than us. Well, it's not fair that they have more than us. It's not fair that they've got a better house. It's not fair that they've got a better job. Right? First off, you know, we don't know the backgrounds and everybody's life story at our church. We don't know what everybody went through at our church growing up. And quite honestly, very often when people are successful in life, it's from hard work. That's often why people are successful. I understand someone might have inherited a lot of money and I'm not against you. That's you. Hey, praise God for you. That's a blessing to you. And we shouldn't be mad at someone. Oh, they inherited money. They should split it with everybody. No. Right? It's their money. You know, for whatever reason, you know, God put them in that position. Maybe God thought he could trust them with money or whatever. We shouldn't look down on those that have less than us. We also should not despise those that have more than us. And church is the one place, you know, where you have people from all backgrounds. Because when I worked in the secular field, my coworkers made basically the same exact money as me. They did basically the same job as me. Right? But in church, it's like you've got people from every background and they have different jobs, different skills, different talents. And we're supposed to have low and high, rich and poor together as one. Go to Psalm 49. Psalm 49. Psalm 49. Psalm 49. Point number one, we say with the five characteristics of church, number one is a body. Church is a body. Right? This is why we don't believe in a universal church body that everybody's a part of. Because a universal church body is not together. Right? In the Catholic church, it's like, you know, when people say, yeah, you know, I'm Catholic. They say Catholic church, they need this universal thing where it's like, you're part of the same church as those in Italy and Spain. It's like, that doesn't make any sense because the church is meant to be a body. Right? Which is also why we're against denominations because we're supposed to be a local church. Okay? Number two, church is, you know, when we talk about the background of those in church. Number three, we see building. Number three is building. You're meant to build together for the work of the Lord at this church. And it says here, my mouth shall speak of wisdom. The meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. Now there's, obviously I'm applying this symbolically. There's a few ways you can look at this, but all of us, our mouths should speak of wisdom. I mean, we got so many, we should be speaking wise words and trying to get people saved. We should be building together. Another way you can look at this is you hear the preaching of the word of God and it's like, you hear the word of God preached. Who's ever preaching at this church? And then the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding to someone who's preaching words of wisdom. And then at your seat, you're looking at the Bible, meditating upon it. You go home during the week and you search the scriptures daily, whether those things are so, and you're meditating upon that word of God. I think to the story of Solomon and the queen of Sheba and the queen of Sheba goes there and she's got a bit of a cynical attitude where she doesn't really think it's real. And she comes to prove them with hard questions and he answers all of her questions. And one thing she says is, happy are thy men, happy are thy servants, which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom. And the people at church were paying attention to the word of God. It was important to them, right? What that shows you is that to the queen of Sheba, that was actually unique. You actually paid attention and really listening to the preaching and see, that's the way it's meant to be in church so that when we're hearing sermons, we're thinking about it, we're taking notes, we're trying to apply it to our lives. Turn to Ephesians four, Ephesians four. Obviously I did the vast majority of preaching here, but for example, on our, uh, not camping trip, I don't know what exactly to call our camping retreat thing around Easter that we did. It's like, you know, there's several people that got up to preach and you know, when everyone's getting up to preach, part of me is like, man, I really hope I don't mess up my Tagalog here in 20 minutes, but I'm paying attention to what people are saying and trying to take notes because I don't think I'm above learning. I can certainly learn when other people preach the word of God. I can learn something new. I can also be edified on things that I already know. I mean, look, if somebody gets up and they preach on reading the Bible, that's going to be edifying to everybody. All of us need to hear that. Even if you're reading the Bible every single day, it's like, Hey, that's a good reminder. I need to make sure I keep doing this. Right? But notice what it says in Ephesians four verse 11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Being perfect in the Bible is not sinless. Perfect is complete or whole. And so perfecting of the saints, basically the job, whether it's an apostle, which we don't have those today, but prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers is to try to perfect your life, try to make you well round in all areas. You have a personal walk with God. You're doing so many. You have good character and you're successful in your life and your family as a husband, as a wife, father, mother, you're successful at your job that you're, you're completed all areas, right? Which, you know, that's obviously not an easy thing to do. All of us, we can work on different areas of our life, but it says for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the, once again, body of Christ, right? So that we in this church are edifying. So we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God onto a perfect man, onto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sight of men and cutting craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth and love may grow up unto him in all things, which is the heading of Christ from whom the whole body fitly joined together. So we're meant to be joined together. And of course a body, common sense of bodies together, but it's kind of like he says it in another way to help me get it. The body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supply, according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, make an increase of the body on the edifying of itself in love. Now, whenever we do things in life, we do things without even thinking and all of our body parts are working together to do something, right? So for example, if you're just even walking, when we walk, we really don't even think about this, but your eyes are paying attention to where you're going, hopefully, right? Your ears are actively listening in case you hear something, in case there might be something you didn't realize, right? Your foot is going in a certain direction and if I'm stepping with my right foot, the rest of my body is preparing it to step also. And if you have one body part that is kind of messed up a little, it affects everything, right? And so, you know, this is common in sports. If you get an injury, it can completely mess you up from like running and everything. Everything's off because when I was in high school, you know, I tore my hamstring on my left side and then after that, my running form was completely off because you start overcompensating with other parts of your body. And then all of a sudden you're starting to get like back pains and foot pains because everything is not flowing the way it's meant to do, right? Where if one body part is messed up and messes up everything, right? If you ever had a major injury like that on, especially if it's part of your leg, then it changes everything. Things are just different. It's not operating correctly, right? And so as a church, we're meant to be gathered together because we have a job to accomplish. And I do believe that soul winning is not just for one person or some people or gifted people, but for all people, because the Bible says, go and lead me into all the world. But even outside of that, you know, the reality is that as people start to get older, they have health problems or maybe they're with child and they could have difficulty going soul winning or whatever. It's like obviously some people are not necessarily able to go soul winning as much as you are and we understand that, but still, you know, you need to be a member of the body where you're basically part of the church and on board with the things. I've been in churches before where if you go soul winning, it's kind of like you're looking down on it. It's like they're mad at you for going soul winning, right? I went to one church and this is kind of funny because me and my friends talked about it where, you know, they, they ran out of invitations at the church and we kept asking for the pastor if they were going to get more invitations. And we're just like, I don't think he wants us to go soul winning anymore. That's what we were talking about. It felt like they were intentionally just not having invitations because they didn't want us to go soul winning. And I was just thinking, okay, this is kind of awkward. We have churches where it's not really like a body. It's like there's divisions and schisms within the church where here's the people that believe salvation is by grace and faith on this side. No offense goes to this side. Just kidding. And it's like, here's the people that are repentance of sins. And it's just like, and then there's the people in the middle that say, why can't we just all get along? Right? Or here's the soul winner. Let's do it the other way too. Here's the soul winners. Okay. Here's the non soul winners. And then there's those in the middle saying, can we just get along? That's the way it is at churches. That's not the way it's meant to be. Our whole church body is meant to be working together to accomplish things. Get back to Psalm 49. Psalm 49. Psalm 49. We're number one, we see one characteristic of church is it's a body. Number two, we see the background of those in church. Number three, we see building. We build together. Number four, we see a beginning. We see a beginning in verse four. Notice what it says, I will incline my ear to a parable. I will open my dark saying upon the harp. Now it says at the beginning of the verse, I will incline my ear to a parable. Then it says, I will open my dark saying upon the harp. And the harp is obviously a musical instrument. Well, here's the thing. When it comes to church services and it comes to the preaching of the word of God, what opens up the church service? The music. It opens with singing praises to God. And that is actually a biblical thing. We're going to look at an example here, but it's like the music is the beginning to a church service. Right? Go in your Bible. Second Kings chapter three, second Kings three, second Kings three. And it's not even just in the Christian realm. If you look outside of Christianity, whether it be, you know, in Budu, African religions or whatever, it starts with music, right? Whatever the culture of that church is, you know, or religion, it starts with music for whatever they're trying to do. So the music kind of fits the church. Like if you were to hear the songs that we sing, it kind of gives you an idea of what the church is going to be like. Whereas if we had CCM music up here, you wouldn't really expect the sort of preaching that I preach. It just doesn't fit. Right? It's like, wait a minute, with that sort of music, we're kind of expecting this kind of service, right? It wouldn't really make sense. Right? And so notice what it says in second Kings three in verse 13, and Elisha said unto the king of Israel, what have I to do with thee? Get thee to the prophets of thy father and the prophets of thy mother and the king of Israel said unto him, nay, for the Lord hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said, as the Lord of hosts liveth before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee nor see thee. Now in verse number 16, he's going to start prophesying. He's going to start preaching, but notice what takes place in the verse before verse 15. Now bring me a minstrel and it came to pass when the minstrel play that the hand of the Lord came upon him. See verse 15 is about music and then verse 16 is the preacher. I mean, I stood up here and we sang a couple of hymns and then we did the scriptural reading and then we have a preacher and you see that also in second Kings chapter three where it's like, bring me a minstrel and it came to pass when the minstrel played. Verse 16, and he says, thus saith the Lord, make this valley full of ditches. And so before Elisha gets started, it starts with the music. Now from a logical sense, it makes sense at a church because music kind of puts you in the mood for the service and the preaching that's going to take place. Isn't it true that sometimes you come to church with a bad attitude? You don't feel like being here and then you hear the music and you sing the hymns and then all of a sudden you're in a good attitude. You're now ready to receive the praise of the word of God. Whereas you might not be ready immediately, but once that music hits and you sing those hymns and you're praising God together with everybody else, it puts you in the mood to be there for the church service. Right? And so I'm, I'm not that musical of a person. You know, I enjoy song leading, but I don't really play any instruments, but you know, the music is a very important part of the church service. The songs we sing, they have meaning. It's not just random stuff. We're singing. I mean, when you look at the words of the songs that we sing, let me say what we say to the team tonight was the other one we sang. I can't remember the other one, but it's like, you know, the, the old account was seven, right? It was like the last line is talking about like trusting in the Lord. Right? And so it's like the things that we say, they fit the things that we believe they should. Now at some churches, it's not really like that, but in a church like ours, it's like, you know what? The music that we're singing is fitting the things that we believe that we praise and you can even learn things from the songs themselves. Many of them are based off scriptures in the Bible and sometimes we'll have a note that says this is from Psalm 69 verse four or whatever and it's like something that actually comes from the word of God, but the music sets the scene for the preaching. Okay, so that's true in a good way. Go to Daniel three and I'm going to show you, it's not just in a bonafide, real good church. It is like that with every single, I mean every single religion I know about, it's like it starts with music. We're going to see a bad example in Daniel chapter three, Daniel three, Daniel chapter three, Daniel three verse nine. They spake instead of the king Nebuchadnezzar. O king, live forever. Thou, O king, has made a decree that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sack of foot, sultry and dulcimer and all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And did you catch what it said verse 10? It's like when you hear the cornet and the flute and the harp and the sack of foot, the sultry and dulcimer and all the music at that moment fall down and worship this idol. It starts with music, right? Verse 11. And who shall fall not down and worship it, that each be cast in the midst of a burning fiery furnace? There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not regarded thee, they serve not their gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded them to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Do not you serve my gods nor worship the golden image which I have set up? And I mean, it's pretty obvious if everybody's bowing down and worshiping and then there's like three people standing. I mean, you can't really hide yourself, right? This by no means the same thing as an altar call, but it's kind of similar where it's like you're like the one person who doesn't go down to the altar and everyone can tell, right? It's like the music comes and these three men are just standing like they should, not bowing down to the idol. It's like it's very obvious. Verse 15, what Nebuchadnezzar says is, Now if ye be ready, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sack-butt, sultry, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made well. But if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Now it's interesting that Nebuchadnezzar uses the word worship and he's linking it with the music and then an act of religious worship. And in our modern day, in our church like ours, we don't really use the word worship as other churches would, we more use the word praising God, but I don't think it's wrong to say that. But the common word for worship is like usually associated with music. And the way Nebuchadnezzar is using it is not just with music, but actually a religious act that's being done, you know, worshiping God. One way to worship God is through music, right? Which that's why it's probably more applicable to say praising God because it's very specific to that action. But what I'm saying is you have the music and then it's like worship the idea. And here's the thing, the type of music is going to fit the type of action that you're going to do. Obviously we're not hearing this song, but I feel like I have a pretty good idea what the music was like, right? Because it's going to fit. I mean, you know, even in, you know, as Joshua said to Moses where it says the noise of war, right? With the golden cow. He had music and then worshiping the golden cow. And that music, he said, sounded like the noise of war. See, if it was just normally praising God, he wouldn't have thought anything of it. But he heard it. It's like, wow, rock and roll has got to fit in Moses, right? It's a noise of war. And so what I'm saying is music is the beginning and it sets the tone for the rest of the service. Now turn back to Psalm 49, Psalm 49, Psalm 49, Psalm 49. So it's in good way or bad way. Our church is in a good way and you know, it's not about, you know, your natural ability to just sing out and praise God with the voice that God has given you. Whether you're, you know, honestly when, when people are singing praises together, it sounds good in unison. You know, even if you individually don't think you have a good voice and maybe, maybe you don't have a good voice together with everybody, it sounds good, right? And so it's true in a good way or bad way. Now, I didn't ask Brother Roger if I could use this as an example, but I'm going to anyway. Mine's good life back when he went to the Pentecostal church and he played the drums and the pastor's like, hey, we're about to speak in tongues, start playing the drums. It's like, all right, get them ready to speak in tongues, right? So it can be in a good way or it can be in a bad way, right? Our church has a lot of people from a Pentecostal background. It's like, I've never been to a Pentecostal church, but it's like, we're about to speak in tongues, we've got to start playing the drums faster and faster, right? Anyways, Psalm 49, point number one, the church is a body. Number two, we set the background of those in church, people from all backgrounds. Number three, we build together. Point four, the beginning is the music. Number five, we see belief. Five, we see belief. Psalm 49 verse five, wherefore should I fear in the days of evil when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? Now, if somebody has fear, it's basically the opposite of having faith. And having belief or faith, I mean, those words are synonymous. So I'm saying, belief, I'm saying you don't have fear. And notice what it's talking to. Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil? Then it says, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about. Now, what does it mean by the iniquity of my heels? He's using metaphorical language. And you think of your foot, your heel is the back of the foot. So what he's saying is, my iniquity is that I committed in the past. I'm not going to fear what I did before in the past. And of course, if you're living a sinful and wicked life now, you can't really say this. It's not really the iniquity of your heels. It's the iniquity of your big toe or the front of your foot or whatever, right? But it's like, when he's saying the iniquity of my heels, what he's saying is, hey, I messed up in the past, but I've been serving God, right? And here's the thing. As someone who's trying to serve God, it's like, I'm not really in a whole lot of fear because when I'm reading the Bible every day, and I'm going to church, and I'm going soul winning, I'm not perfect. Obviously, I make mistakes. Obviously, all of us do. But I mean, do you have a lot of fear if you're serving God? No, you don't. Why? Because you're serving God. Because you're doing what's right. And I think there's also this understanding as a safe person that if you have done wrong and you're trying to get things right, if you get judged by God, it's like you're accepting of it because you understand, I deserve this. So you don't fear the repercussions. Now, if you're living in sin, then it's a little bit different, right? Because you get very afraid of every possible thing that could happen. The thing is, when you get right with God, you know what? You just kind of accept whatever's going to take place. And if you're serving God, you don't really have to worry that much because your iniquity is at your heels. It's in your past. Right? I mean, look, I'm in my late 30s now, and when I was younger, I used to watch every single sinful and worldly movie, right? Some of the movies I watched were really bad. I like gangster movies. A lot of violence, a lot of horrible things. But here's the thing. I don't watch those movies now. Right? I remember in college, me and a couple of friends who were Christians, we went to watch Sin City at the movie theater. That was the name of the movie. But here's the thing. I'm not watching movies like that now. Right? It's just like if that was my present, well, yeah, I have a reason to fear. But it's like something that's in my past and I've gotten right with God, I don't really have a reason to fear. I mean, when I was younger, I listened to Aerosmith and Guns N' Roses and ACDC and all the rock music. But here's the thing. I don't listen to that now. Now, if I was listening to that, if I was coming over here, right before I get here, I was listening to Welcome to the Jungle, right? It's like, yeah, you know what? I would have a reason to fear because obviously God's not going to be happy with the lifestyle I'm living. And in this room, I don't know everybody's past, but you know, he used to drink alcohol 10 years ago. You don't have to fear now because that's your heels. You understand what I'm saying? Whatever you've done in the past, if you've got pride with God, it's in the past. And we also shouldn't bring up people's sinful past either. People's past or the past. Now, we shouldn't glory in our past sin because it's nothing to be proud of. But we should also not look down on people like, oh man, I never did that. Well, hey, if it's their past, why are you ripping them full? Their past is their past. Right? We all come from different backgrounds. We grow up differently. And it's just like, you know what? I know people that in their past, I especially think of in Sacramento, it's like, you know, a lot of people in the church years in the past used to do drugs. Why would I look down on someone who used to do drugs before and they're right with God and they're soul winning everybody? I'd say praise God. I mean, if people around this area, people that are drunks, people that have all the problems in the world, if they fix their lives, that's great. And our church is obviously smaller than our church in Manila, but I know a lot of people in Manila, they, you know what? They have really changed their lives a lot since they started coming to our church. I'm not going to look down on them for something they did three years ago, four years ago, five years ago. And if you're right with God, you don't have to worry about the inequity in your heels. What you have to worry about is your presence. Are you serving God now? You can't change the past. Whatever you did, it's done. What you can do is change the future. Turn your Bible to Matthew 14. Matthew 14. Matthew 14. And we'll just look at a couple more places that tie along with this idea. The Bible says in Matthew 14 verse 28, and Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. Peter starts walking on the water without fear. He's not worried. He has belief. He has faith. Right? He's confident. But notice what it says in verse 30. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. Once he sees that the wind is boisterous, that is when he is afraid. You say, what's the problem? The problem is he's focusing on the obstacles instead of focusing on God and focusing on the Lord Jesus Christ. This could happen to any of us. Like say, for example, you're going out soloing and you get afraid to preach the gospel to someone because you're focusing on the obstacle. The wind is boisterous. They might reject it. They might laugh at me. They might mock me. And he sees the wind is boisterous. What's the result? He's afraid. Peter was obviously a man of great faith that probably accomplished more than any of us are going to by a long shot. What you're seeing is a man who's fearless. He has faith until he looks at the obstacle. The Bible says God has not given us the spirit of fear. Right? And beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Now go to Hebrews 11. We'll close up. Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. And I was talking to Daniel about this in the park earlier, and I can't remember exactly what made me think of it, but a long time ago, somebody told me they worked in insurance and they were talking about how the people they make the most money on with insurance are homosexuals. And they said the homosexuals are afraid of everything. They get like every insurance under the sun. This might happen. This might happen. This might happen. It's like you live in the middle of the desert. I mean, a typhoon could happen, right? Who knows what's going to happen, right? I mean, you live here. It's like, man, the snow might destroy my house. I need insurance against snow here. And it's like they're literally paranoid about everything. It makes you think it's like the wicked flee when no man pursue it. But the rights are as bold as the line. And it's true that when you're right with God, you just don't have much fear. But when you start to backside a little bit where you're not quite right with God, isn't it true that you start to have a lot more fear in your life? This might happen. This might happen. But that's not the attitude you have when you're right with God. You're confident. You're fearless. You got faith. You got belief, right? And I believe that when you're in a church like this and you're hearing the word of God of praise and you're serving God and singing praises and you're going so in it, I think one result is it gives you faith and belief and confidence. You're not afraid of the inequity of your heels. You're not afraid of the obstacles, but you have faith you can accomplish something. Because here's the thing. Individually, you by yourself might be very afraid to go up and preach the gospel or something. But isn't it true that when we gather together and we build together and then we have our soul anytime and we go out and you see other people preaching the gospel, it just gives you more confidence. Just makes you more bold. But if you're by yourself, it probably wouldn't happen. Right? Because God designed us to be around other people and motivate each other. Even Paul the impossible talked about that. We motivate each other. We'll close up here in Hebrews 11 verse 6. The Bible says, without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. There's two things mentioned in this verse when it comes to pleasing God. The first thing after the colon is for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. That is in reference to salvation. You must believe that he is and you cannot please God if you're not saved. You can fear God being unsaved. Or Neolus was a man of fear of God. But you can't please God. God is not pleased with people that are unsaved. Even if they fear God, he's not pleased with it. He wants them to get saved. But that alone does not mean that God's pleased with you. Think about this logically. Are you always pleased and happy with your kids? No. I love my kids. My kids are great kids. But I can't say that I'm always pleased with my kids. Sometimes you're upset with them. Sometimes they disobey. Sometimes they act on them. Right? And it's the same thing with God. Just because you're saved doesn't mean that God's happy with you. That he's pleased with you. The Bible says, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. The Bible's speaking there about diligently seeking after God. And if you want God to be pleased with you, you put your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. Without faith it is impossible to please God. But you live a life of faith. You live a life of belief. You live a life of confidence. And here's the thing. If you just go off of emotion, but you don't do the proper actions, that emotion is going to fade. Emotions, they come, they go. But if you're gathering together with the church body every week, with people of every background under the sun, people that are different than you, some of higher status, some of lower status, people from different cultures, different backgrounds, and you build together and you have the beginning of the music and then you hear the preaching of God's word and you take notes, you can have that belief or that faith or that confidence and do great things. Not just with soul winning. That's obviously a large part of it. It's not that Key Verse 11 is only about soul winning. But it's also about the great faith they showed us for all of these other things in your life. And God has not given you the spirit of fear. He wants you to live a life of boldness and strong faith. Let's close the word of prayer. Your Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and ask you to help us to serve your lives. It's a great chapter, great verses here about the importance of church and the characteristics of church. God helps to take church seriously and realize what a blessing we have to have a church like this here. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Oh, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a,