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Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, But the problem is that You You You You Da-da-da-da-da Testing Voila The what Okay, okay, I gave Timothy the 100 so in case they come here in service so Oh Yeah, I prefer when it's a pod cases at that low because a hundred is so much mass motherly cases I say whenever it's 75. I'm looking I'm in five cents five pesos. You know ten pay worse fifteen We're good I heard the sound oh so should I turn it off now? And before I say something about here he's a heretic notice You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Hey everybody, welcome to Verity Baptist Church Manila take out your bulletin And I forgot to update the verse on the front. So don't worry. It's not the same sermon You know, I do have a different sermon But the verse is actually first Peter 5 to where it says feed the flock of God Which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint, but willingly not for filthy lucre, but I've already mine That's a great verse there will tie into the sermon We are a family integrated church meaning children and infants are welcome during the services We do have a mother baby room back there for your convenience where you can also Listen and watch the sermon and at the ladies restroom. The men's restroom is up here in front remember no eating during the services maintain a professional atmosphere and Keep the children from running in rough housing before and after the church services on the next page our weekly service times listed First service is at 10 a.m. Second service is at 1130 Yesterday the sermons went kind of long. So I will try, you know not to go too long But you know, we'll see right the Wednesday evening Bible study is at 6 p.m. So many times listed and Wednesday afternoon We meet here at the church building at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon Round 1 of soul winning is 10 to 12 then lunchtime and then round 2 is 2 to 4 p.m Brother Ermin's the soul winning captain on a Saturday. So ask him if you have any questions yesterday They went to case on Memorial Circle and that was really successful. So great job everybody and Sunday afternoon our soul winning will start around 2 15 p.m. Here today and our praise report for 2021 we reached between our churches 1,500 salvation's in the first two months of the year. So we just barely got to 1500. That's great That's a pace of 9,000 for a year, but we are in the non rainy season and it's not quite as hot So we'll see but this week has been a great week so far I thought was gonna be a bit of a down week, but you know, you guys are just overly excited You just keep going out. It's like man. It's like people are messaging me salvation's here and there's like a great awesome So great work everybody. And so obviously our praise report is not updated for this past week So we don't have any salvation's listed for March yet. I still need to update you could see the Singapore Bible study fellowship I forgot to update that but anyways birthdays and anniversaries listed there for March and so we do have Six listed there. I got my reminder of my wedding anniversary right there. All right, this is this is why we do this This is the whole reason so, you know I I stay up to date on all the birthdays and anniversaries in my family Information for first-time guests down there below then on the next page our Bible memorization challenge So we're getting toward the end of Hosea and you know, hopefully you're trying to take on this challenge and if you're just joining now You can still on take on challenge a and try to memorize chapter 1 of Hosea Quote a word for word perfectly or if you're quoting, you know for the entire book, you know each individual chapter You're on around chapter 12. You're gonna have a couple weeks of review before it's completely done. And so keep up with that We got a few more sermons left in Hosea here upcoming events. We have choir practice. We're actually gonna start next week We're not going to start here today If there's anybody new to choir though I'll quickly go through the announcements just the general announcements that we have for being a part of choir and we'll start that next week and Also some other upcoming things March 21st. We're gonna have our prayer meeting and so As our monthly prayer meeting we'll have the prayer before choir practice and then we'll have choir afterwards March 28 the week before Easter the week before Easter Sunday We will hold the Lord's Supper and every single year, you know, obviously last year was a little bit crazy But you know, we try to hold it just right before Easter time. And so there's a reason for that I'll preach a sermon and explain our position and then April 4th Easter Sunday will be the Easter service That is a great time to invite people to church, you know in the US. I'm not sure about here but statistics I see the biggest Attendances you have during the year are Easter Sunday and Mother's Day. The lowest attendance is Father's Day, but The biggest attendance is because you know moms are like, you know Hey all I want for my Mother's Day is just my family to come to church and you got kids that don't want to come But they feel obligated right there adult kids and then you have a big attendance Father's Day It's like all I want to do is watch the basketball game. Hey, and so Easter Sunday, that's a great day to invite people I don't have all the finalized details, but I'm sure while food and fellowship will have special events It's gonna be a great time. So invite people people are looking to go somewhere for Easter Sunday, even if they never go to church Okay, they're looking to go somewhere and look if you run into a Jehovah's Witness just tell them Hey, you don't even believe Jesus rose again come to a church, you know an Easter Sunday where we actually Believe in the resurrection, which they don't believe that he actually rose again They think the body just stayed down there because I don't really know it's confusing Anyways current and upcoming series today's kind of an in-between our series But we're still in the book of Hosea still in the book of Romans and then our upcoming series. We're gonna start next week I'm excited about this the false philosophy series and you're gonna learn more about that It's gonna be a really long series But there's gonna be a lot of interesting information and then we have information for our group chat down there below Then on the back we do have a place for sermon notes for both of the sermons here today. I'm pretty sure After today, I'm not going to be invited to preach at too many Baptist churches anytime soon But you know what? That's okay with me. So anyways, why Brother Prince lead us in another song You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You All right, we're here in 2nd Samuel chapter 24 and let's just jump into the story at verse number 17 2nd Samuel chapter 24 verse 17 And the Bible reads and David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people and said lo I have sinned and I've done wickedly but these sheep what have they done let thine hand I pray thee be against me and against my father's house and Gad came that day to David and said on to him go up rear an altar onto the Lord in the foot in the threshing Floor of Aranya the Jebusite and David according to the saying of God went up as the Lord commanded now You're seeing in this story that David chooses the David commits a great sin here now when you're reading this It might be hard to see why God got so mad about this But you know God is very angry about this, and you know he's basically given three choices and because of David's actions There's a sin amongst the people people are dying now because of this and basically has to make an atonement And so David is screwed up He admits I have sinned and he wants to get a fresh start here verse 20 and Aranya looked and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him and Aranya went out and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground and around you said Where's wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant and David said to buy the threshing floor of thee to build an altar under the Lord that the plague may be stayed from the people So Aranya looks at David and says you know you're the king, and I'm just your servant and David said you know what? I'm here to buy the threshing floor He's like I'm here to buy this so we can build an altar and we can make an atonement verse 22 and Aranya said unto David let my lord the king take an offer up what seemeth good on to him behold here be oxen for burnt sacrifice And threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood so what Aranya basically says to David is this I've got all the instruments You need I have all the supplies you need don't worry about it You don't have to worry about paying you know a big price You know I'm willing to just volunteer what we have for the purposes of what you're doing verse 23 all these things Did Aranya as a king give on to the king and? Aranya said unto the king the Lord thy God accept thee and the king said unto Aranya nay But I will surely buy it of thee at a price, so he says I want a fair price on this I don't want this for free. I don't want a good deal. I'm gonna buy it for a proper price Okay, neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing see David understood the principle That when you serve God there's actually a cost to you to serve God David says you know what I don't want it for free because if I'm gonna serve God and do something for God I want to buy it at a proper price because I realize when you serve God it actually costs you something Okay in this sermon I want to show you four different things in the name of the sermon is the cost and serving God Four different things that you might have to actually pay a cost to you when you decide to serve God Okay, now go to first Kings 19 first Kings 19 first Kings 19 I Mean isn't this kind of like the first lesson you learn after you get saved Right you get saved, and you're so excited. You're like man. I learned that salvation is a free gift Everybody in my family is gonna be so excited to hear this. It's like you just explain It's a gift, and then they hate you they're mad at you you try to explain to co-workers And they're really angry at you. You're like what in the world I'm just I'm just telling them It's a gift and then they get mad at you for it And you know you realize pretty early on that you know what if I'm gonna actually serve God and go 100% It's actually gonna cost me a lot and when you decide to serve God there is a cost to you point Number one is quite simply this a financial cost Sometimes when you decide to serve God it will be a financial cost to you And that's what you directly saw in that story where there's a financial cost to David Okay first Kings 19, that's point number one financial first Kings 19 verse 19 So he departed thence and found Elisha the son of Shaphad who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him and he with the 12th And Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him so Elisha is going about his daily job He's going about his work and Elijah comes by and cast his mantle upon him And this was something that the people of the land knew meant that Elisha's Anointed to be the next prophet and to be the great servant and helper of God so when Elijah does this Elisha's is going about his life, and he finds out okay I've been chosen okay verse number 20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said let me I pray they kiss my father and my mother And then I will follow thee and he said on to him go back again for what have I done to thee and he? returned back from him and notice this and took a yoke of oxen and slew them and Boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen and gave on to the people and they did eat then he arose and went after Elijah and ministered on to him so what you see is Elisha says I'm going to follow and then Elijah says go ahead Say goodbye to your parents, and he goes and he does that now This is sort of similar in the New Testament when people said well I'm going to follow Jesus wherever he goes and you know basically Jesus has a bit of a different response to them But the reason why is because Jesus knew what was in the heart of men And there's a lot of people that said we're going to serve God 100% and then Jesus thinking no You're not right, and I'll be honest you know obviously Jesus Christ was God in the flesh But you know when we go soul-winning and people tell us they're coming to church you start getting used to realizing okay this person It's not actually going to happen right but with Elisha. He meant it right He says goodbye to his parents, and then I want you to realize from a financial standpoint Not only does he say goodbye to his career. He basically ends the chance of returning to that career I mean, do you see that? It's like not only am I going to leave my career and follow Elijah But here's the thing I have a clear head right now I'm going to serve God and I'm going to end my chance of ever returning to that job So basically just forsakes it he says goodbye Why because of the fact he was willing to make a financial cost to serve God That's what you see in this story now I want you to realize that for most of us. We're not going to have to just forsake all of our work and just Follow Jesus and just trust we're going to have a place to dwell at night God doesn't call us to do that we understand we have the 12 disciples, and they gave up everything But I want you to realize you know God still wants you to work and provide your for your family But did you know there's certain careers you might have to forsake? Think about careers where you do something sinful or wrong And I want you to realize that When it comes to being a bible-believing Christian people look at the things that we preach and the things we say They're like you're an extremist. How dare you say people can't do certain careers You know what's funny about this is everybody believes are certain careers that it's inappropriate to do I mean if you said that your career, you know I'm going to go into the the prostitution industry Every Christian in the world would say that's wrong But then if you say well you shouldn't be a pro athlete because you're going to miss church on Sundays How dare you say that if God called them? To do that career. It's like I mean do you not see a double standard here? Because they would agree there's certain things you can't do like well obviously prostitution well of course that's wrong Well obviously the pornography industry of course that would be wrong for a Christian to do but but but how dare you say they can't do Just these other jobs where they might have to sin at their job I mean, there's a double standard with the world with everything okay now I'm not here to look at every single individual career and every single situation But I'm just saying you know what there are certain jobs It would be wrong for Christian to do and one of the big things is a job That's going to take you out of serving God. I Mean I believe that everybody ought to try to be a part of church now I want you to realize people make certain choices, and they're in situations, and they can't help those situations But to the best of your ability you should not put yourself in a situation Where you're not able to go to church you're not able to serve God You're not able to be a part of the things of God people have this idea well one day I'm going to serve God you know I just got to get things figured out for ten years five years or what I and it's Just like what's probably never going to happen That's reality okay And it's like God wants you and expects you to be part of church and serving God and you know what that might mean It's a financial cost to you It might mean you have to make some adjustments in your life because the reality is if you could pick any Career and any hours and nothing restricts you from any job. You know what you could find jobs. You could probably make more money I mean just just in general if you say you're willing to skip church on Sunday. It's like they'll pay you more money Because a lot of people they don't want to work on Sunday, so if you're willing to forsake church in order to work You're going to make more money, but is that what God wants you to do now look I understand people are in different situations, and you might be between a rock and a hard place where you have no options But I'm trying to tell you is you know what there are certain things certain jobs where you shouldn't do it as a Christian Now turn your Bible. We'll look at first Kings 19. Let me just give you an example from my life You know when I got married in 2015 March 28 2015 I just had to think about the year I got the date right there, right and You know when I got married, you know what I was I was kind of like deciding between a couple different things I was I had a good church. I was a part of you know I would never say it wasn't a good church They were clearly right on salvation. They went soul-winning King James only is a pretty solid church but there are certain things where I wasn't really sure if I wanted to stick with that church and I Was debating about whether or not to move my family to a more like-minded church or what I would perceive as more like-minded And so I had to make this decision, and then you know after married after a little while at the church I realized the church was probably not going to be the best fit for us being newly married So I decided to make the move to Sacramento, California when I made that move I said goodbye to my career that I had spent years and hours upon hours upon hours Studying for right I was in the actuarial field which you know probably most people don't know what an actuary is But you spend a lot of time Studying math in your free time you say brother sucky man. I hated geometry and algebra what it gets worse my friend I mean it gets I love math, but at the same point. There's a limit to that love for everybody right and You know I love math until you get to the letters, and it's like what in the world I thought math was numbers like why are we back in letters? There's a reason why I went into math right and you know what I basically Forsook my career, and you know when I made that decision. I was like this is not going to be a smart decision financially Right just starting over and I didn't know when I decided to move what I was going to do I didn't know was going to end up working for the church, but I just forsook my career And you know moving from the West Virginia You know Pennsylvania Maryland that all three states are right beside each other they're moving from an area. That's not that expensive to California Because here's the thing everybody in this room knows what California is everybody knows that state not everybody Necessarily knew West Virginia or Maryland some of the smaller states because everybody knows, California I mean, there's no state in the u.s.. It has more filipinos and more foreigners living everybody loves, California Anyway, it's very expensive. It's extremely expensive. I saw my bank account just But see there is a financial cost sometimes to serving God And I just decided if I'm going to go all out to serve God if I'm going to end up being in the ministry and get Trained to be at the right church I'm going to have to make that decision and look sometimes there is a financial cost to decide to serve God That is what Elisha does in first Kings 19 And I would submit to you that if Elisha was not willing to forsake his career and cost himself Financially you wouldn't know who Elisha was the reason why we know who he was the reason why God chose him is he was Willing to just say I'm going to go by faith. I'm going to step out on the water, and it's just going to work out one cost is financial Another potential cost to you when you decide to serve God is with your family there can be a cost with your family first Kings 19 verse 20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said let me I pray they kiss my father and my mother and Then I will follow thee now. We don't necessarily know Elisha's exact position I tend to think the family had maybe a bit of a farm or basically you know they had multiple houses in an area and I'm not saying Elisha never saw his family again I think he did still see them after this point But he's changing careers where he's no longer going to be around them all the time Because once he gets called he immediately just goes inside says mom dad You know I'm gone right now many people have had similar conversations with their family And it's like there's a baptist church right beside us It's like what are you doing right, but sometimes when you're going to serve God? You know what you have to make a cost in terms of your family And you know what maybe your whole life is not wrapped around spending your time with your physical family anymore go to Matthew chapter 10 Matthew 10 Matthew 10 I mean the reality is God does give us a principle of when you get married you leave father and mother and cleave under your spouse Now there's a reason why God gives that principle, and I want you to realize that principle is a good principle You know even if your parents are like-minded, but especially if they're not like-minded I mean, how do you expect to fully serve God if your family is just against what you believe in because when it comes to A church like ours. There's really two options. You're on board with it. You're against it there's no in-between and If somebody's in an in-between position, it's like well, you just don't know enough about our church It's like you're gonna have to make a decision right as you learn more doctrines and more about what we believe you're either gonna hate Our church, or you're gonna love our church. I mean isn't that true? It's one or the other and the reality is that most of us probably have family that does not love this church Most of you probably have family that's not necessarily a huge fan of me Right or Verity Baptist Church. They've never met Pastor Mendez, but they don't like him They've never met me, but they don't like me They assume I'm just like the biggest jerk in the world and it's like it's funny to me because like with my personality I'm I'm not really the most outgoing. I'm kind of quiet I mean if you talk to me behind the pulpit you you'd probably be surprised I'm a preacher because it's not like I'm just a jerk to people, but that's the that's the attitude people just assume it's like that guy's a jerk and No, it's just called. There's time to preach a sermon and preach the truth But unfortunately oftentimes we have family that doesn't necessarily see things the same way Matthew 10 verse 34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword You say brother stuck you Jesus Christ was all about world peace, right? You know you got these beauty pageants where at the end It's just like you know if there's one thing you know that you think is important one message to give to the world world peace World peace every single time it's always world peace right did Jesus come to bring world peace no no that's that's that's Pope Francis Who now says atheists are on their way to heaven that's Pope Francis that that's the Antichrist That comes to bring world peace and by peace He will destroy many according to the Bible Jesus didn't come to give peace I mean if he came to bring peace then why is it his first sermon they tried to throw him off a cliff They must have misunderstood the message Right and well the funny thing is we are for peace and yet when we speak. It's like they're for war And it's like man. I'm not even I'm not even trying to get in in a fight with anyone I don't try to start fights with other churches We're just kind of going about our own business and yet people get mad because of it But Jesus didn't come to bring peace why the message of God offends people it's reality verse 35 for I'm come to set a man at variance against his father and then the daughter against her mother and The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's foes shall be they of his own household He that loveth father mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me and the Bible says that you know what if you're Not willing to follow God because of your family Then you're just not going all-out for God if you want to go 100% for God you might have to forsake your family at least to some degree to serve God Now different people are in different positions I never I never try to convince people to come to this church or move to this church You know people are in difficult situations They've got decisions to make and you've got to personally decide how close you're willing to be to your family Now every single Monday morning, you know, obviously my parents live in another country But I talked to my parents every single month Monday morning I set aside a time of about an hour and a half every single week to talk to my parents I'm not saying well, you know if you're gonna serve God just you know Disconnect change your phone number. So your parents don't know it change your email move to another location They no longer will ever that's not what I'm saying Okay, what I'm saying though is sometimes there needs to be a bit of a separation my wife's family You know, my wife has a lot of family in Pampanga My wife's family is very nice people and most of her family is Catholic now, you know, I've seen her family before I've talked to them, you know, I'm friendly to them You know, we preach the gospel to a lot of them and they're very nice people. I don't dislike them I'm not against seeing them and we see them from time to time But us moving to Pampanga doesn't mean we're gonna be hanging out with them every single week Right because there's going to be a bit of separation because we're not Catholics Now my wife was raised Catholic but she got saved when she was 12 years old and So there needs to be a bit of a separation because we just don't believe the same things because when topics come up We're gonna look at things differently When a topic like abortion comes up, it's like murder. No question. No debate And it's just like how could anyone argue that but then a lot of Catholics might be like well I mean don't women have the right to choose It's like they have the right to choose to kill someone It's like why don't I have that right to choose that today then like why does that stop? You know once it doesn't make any sense, but the world they're gonna disagree with the things we believe look Sometimes there needs to be a separation you say brother Stuckey When should I separate from my family? Well go to first Samuel 17 first Samuel 17 one time you might want to have some separation from your family is if your family members Criticize the things that you believe and stand for And when I say criticize the things you believe I'm not saying they criticize like the color of shirt you're wearing I'm saying they criticize what you believe about salvation. They criticize what you believe about church They criticize what you believe about raising your kids and having a family and the things the Bible talks about They criticize what you believe and stand for and if they criticize what you believe you might want to have some separation Now if you're able to spend time with unsaved family, and they never criticize what you believe hey I'm not saying you have to separate and never see them But if they are criticizing you and launching attacks against what you believe Then you might want to separate to some degree first Samuel 17 verse 26 and David spake to the men that stood by him saying What shall be done to the man that killed this Philistine? And taketh away the reproach from Israel for who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God and the people answered him after this man are saying so shall it be done to the man that killeth him verse 28 and Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men and Eliab's anger was kindled against David And he said why camest thou down hither and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride in the naughtiness of thine heart for thou art come down thou mightest see the battle Look David isn't asking for for advice from Eliab I mean, he's not asking anything from Eliab and Eliab says you're prideful You're you're wicked you came to see the battle. How dare you right? It's like first off our Father told me to come I Left the sheep with the keeper according to the Bible and dad told me to come and it's like he's being accused of something He's not even guilty of He hasn't done anything wrong and then he comes to the battle and it's like man Nobody's fighting Goliath. I'm gonna step up to the plate and fight Goliath It's kind of like, you know You go to a church and nobody goes soul-winning and then when people find out you went so winning How dare you you are so arrogant How dare you go? So that's terror. How dare you read the Bible? Nobody else is reading the Bible, right? It's like I mean, I mean honestly that's the sort of thing you see from Christians From other Baptists It's like they get mad at you why because it's just natural with people that if somebody is doing something right they get mad at People that's doing something right if they're not that's reality and they will look for every excuse under the Sun to criticize you and This is a situation with David and Eliab now Look, David was a better man than me because I'll be honest if this was me I would have said do you remember just a little bit ago when I was told I'm the next king Right, that's first Kings 16. It's like, you know, hey, hey kuya You're gonna be my servant, right? That's what I would have told to Eliab right if I had an older brother. It's like hey kuya. I'm I'm the boss You know, you're gonna be bowing down before me here in a couple months, right? But you know David he has the right attitude and what he says here in verse 29 and David said what have I now done? Basically, what did I do wrong? Is there not a cause is there not a reason? Why I'm stepping up to the plate, I mean somebody's got to fight Goliath Nobody else is willing to do it But when you step it's kind of like a preacher that gets up and preaches what needs to be preached and no other preachers are Doing it and it's like how dare that guy he's so arrogant. He's so wrong it's like how dare him be so aggressive against the LGBT and It's just like well, I mean no other churches are preaching against it. Is there not a cause I mean Do you not walk down the street and see a bunch of guys that are dressed like women I mean, is there not a cause here in 2021 in the Philippines? But yet people get mad at you when you say stuff that they're not willing to say even though it's what the Bible says Okay Verse number 30 and he turned from him toward another so what David does is this he doesn't start a fight with his older brother All he does just kind of turn from him and just basically Ignore him and just move on Okay, now turn in your Bible to 1st Samuel 15 1st Samuel 15 1st Samuel 15 1st Samuel 15 One reason why you might want to have some degree of separation from family is if they criticize the things that you stand for and You believe now when I said that, you know from time to time we see my wife's family. That's that's Catholic to be honest They don't really criticize the things that we believe right? They were a blessing when our daughter was born and quite a help to us They weren't just criticizing us the whole time for for being Baptist. So didn't really bug us so much now We're still not gonna hang out with them every single week, but they weren't really criticizing us another reason though you might want to separate to some degree from family is if they're influencing you in a wrong way if they're Influencing you to do things that you are convicted are wrong and you're more worldly and you're not serving God And you're not reading the Bible and you feel guilty every single week You might want to have some degree of separation because you know what? They're negatively affecting you and God calls you if you're gonna go all out to serve him to forsake your family to some degree That doesn't mean that you can never talk to them anymore. But sometimes there might have to be a bit of a separation Now first Samuel chapter 15 first Samuel 15 Point number one is this When when it comes to the cost and serving God one of the costs can be a financial cost of serving God Another one is with your family not only financial and family but also friends Sometimes if you're gonna serve God you have to forsake some of your old friends that don't want to serve God first Samuel 15 verse 24 first Samuel 15 verse 24 and Saul said unto Samuel I have sinned for I've transgressed the commandment of the Lord in thy words Because I feared the people and obeyed their voice now therefore I pray thee pardon my sin and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord and Samuel said unto Saul I will not return with thee for thou has rejected the word of the Lord And the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel So here's the situation where Saul keeps sinning and sinning and then all of a sudden he's called out by Samuel and his first Reaction is to make an excuse Right. He doesn't admit he's wrong at first now He's admitting he's wrong because he's being called out and it's being proven Let me just give you some some guidance and some wisdom if you're ever in a situation of overseeing something if Somebody gets called out for doing something wrong and they first make an excuse and they they say they didn't do anything wrong That person is not sorry And you are a fool if you just forgive them because look everybody's gonna come to the point like Saul and say I'm sorry I've sinned it's like well now you say that because you've been called out on it when it was first given to you What's and look this is exactly how you must interact if you ever run a church when you've got church discipline and somebody does something wrong if they have Excuses and they try to say I didn't do anything wrong That person is not sorry and you're a fool if you just forgive them now Are they gonna come to the point like King Saul and say, you know a little bit down the road? Oh, I'm sorry, of course Because they don't like the repercussions like Saul doesn't like the repercussions, but he wasn't sorry you see that in this story, right? I mean Don't be don't be Bobo. Okay, every serial killer. Sorry. Did you realize that? Man, Jeffrey Dahmer beg for mercy. It's like oh, I'm so sorry. I kill like, you know, 30 different people It's like I was taught evolution and and you know, I Just ended up killing people and it's just like and then he's sorry. I want another chance It's like you kind of lost your chance like 20 years ago, right? It's like you can't just assume everyone of course, they're gonna say they're sorry, but Saul's not really sorry Because you can see his first reaction and what's inside your heart and he couldn't hide what was inside his heart He didn't think he was wrong. He justified himself. He thought he was okay verse 27 and as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid a pole hold upon the skirt of his mantle and it rent and Samuel said unto him the Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from need of stay and hath given it to a neighbor of thine That is better than thou and also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent for he's not a man that he should repent Then he said I have sinned yet honor me now I pray thee before the elders of my people and before Israel and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God Now you're also seeing here in verse 30. What's inside Saul's heart? It's not hate. I've sinned Didn't David just say I have sinned but get he didn't say give me another chance He didn't say I've sinned. Can you please still let me keep the kingdom? He said no, I've sinned That's not what Saul said you say why because what Saul's concern was? Oh, no I don't want to be embarrassed in front of everybody. I don't want to lose the kingdom I've sinned but honor me now. So, you know, it's like you're not really sorry You can just look at his actions and he's not sorry Okay, I've sinned but honor me now now verse 31 So Samuel turned again after Saul and Saul worshiped the Lord Then said Samuel bring he hither to me a gag the king of the Amalekites Now if you remember this story, this is one of the funniest verses in the Bible to me The Bible is is a book that's just you know It's funny because of the fact it's such a serious book that there's some light-hearted humor It's kind of like, you know, and I don't watch movies now But when I was a kid, I thought movies like Indiana Jones were the funniest movie because it's an action movie So when there's a joke mixed in it's like really funny. That's kind of like the Bible, you know It's a very serious book and then there's kind of some light-hearted humor here, right? Because they're told to kill everybody and they don't kill a gag the king So notice what a gag says here in verse 32 then said Samuel bring ye hither to me a gag the king of the Amalekites and Agag came on to him delicately and said and a gag said surely the bitterness of death is past It's like can we just forgive one another it's like I know that you know things were done wrong. Hey, we're both sorry Neither one of us did everything correctly. Let's just forgive one another Basically, he doesn't want to be killed. It's like surely the bitterness of death is past, right? Samuels like no Then verse verse 33 and Samuel said as thy sword hath made women childless so shall thy mother be childless among women and Samuel hewed a gag in pieces before the Lord and Gilgal now This is why you can't just be foolish to just forgive one another because look at every every single person because look at a gag It's basically like we did wrong. Let's just forget about it and move on. He was a wicked person He deserved to be killed according to what the Bible says Okay, now look when I read this and Samuel cuts a gag in pieces I'm just thinking that Samuel was not an effeminate little sissy with long hair that couldn't bench You know the bar on bench press right? I mean he's a tough guy And God's people they were tough people and he was willing to stand up and do what needed to be done verse 34 then Samuel went to Rhema and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul and Saul Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death notice this Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel So Samuel mourns over Saul because here's the thing Samuel and Saul had a bit of a business relationship But they were also kind of friends as well. They weren't just acquaintances that just they were actually kind of friends to some degree I'm not saying they're around each other every week, but Samuel cares about Saul And it makes sense because here's the thing when Saul started. He was a humble person I mean Samuel said that you're little in your own sight. He was humble when he started this is someone who was serving God when he started and Then he went the wrong direction You know, it makes sense that if you're you know Someone who wants to serve God and love God you ought to mourn for people that backside and leave church and stop serving God I mean Samuel mourns over Saul and I'll tell you what as a person, you know Sometimes people have this attitude because we preach really tough sermons that you know, you should always be hardcore But you know The Bible does say that charity believe with all things where you want to give people another chance now when you're reading this story It's obvious. Saul is not sorry But I can understand, you know, there's the expression you can't see the forest for the trees meaning if you're inside the forest It's like you can't really understand but if you stand outside the forest outside the Gulbat then you can really understand it Right, and so that's the situation here and Samuel wants to forgive Saul. He wants to give him another chance but here's God's reaction in 1st Samuel 16 verse 1 and The Lord said unto Samuel How long wilt thou mourn for Saul? Seeing I've rejected him from reigning over Israel. He's saying why are you mourning for this guy? It's like he's done I Rejected him quit mourning quit crying about it. And look this is this is the reality when it comes to friends You say brother stocky, you know, I was such good friends with so-and-so and you know, we kind of went different directions in life Yeah, you know, it's time to quit mourning about it And it's time to and you say that that's harsh, but that's Bible And here's the thing. You've got friends right here You've got a church family right here and God says, you know what quit mourning about it Samuel It's like Saul's done and look it's the same way when people leave church Look, I don't like you when people leave church People come to our church they get on fire for God. Sometimes they leave for various different reasons But you know Are you gonna spend your whole life mourning about it? Because let me help you out with something if somebody Backsides and leads leaves our church five years down the road You are not going to be friends with that person because they're a different person now I mean if somebody backsides for five years I promise you the person they are at that point is not the person that you used to be really close friends with Because they're not serving God anymore and it's a harsh reality, but it's a reality nonetheless And look, you know, we have friends at this church. We love each other We care about each other But the reality is that if somebody leaves our church and backslides and gets mad at the church The person that they become is not the person you want to be friends with and Look, this is Bible because Samuel was friends with Saul and Saul wanted to live for God and he was serving God at the beginning Unfortunately Saul went the other direction and God says to Samuel quit mourning for him I've rejected him as king now turn in your Bible to first King first Timothy 5 first Timothy 5 first Timothy chapter 5 You Say brother Stuckey that's easy for you to say but you're not in that situation really Because everybody who decides to serve God is going to come into these situations in life I've come to that situation financially with family. I've come to that situation with friends as well You know just about a month ago. I this person posted on my youtube for a sermon I preached at Mountain Baptist Church at Pastor Jason Robinson's Church and You know, I see YouTube comments all the time and usually I just kind of just ignore no big deal but I recognize the name and This is a person I hadn't heard from for 10 years He's like man. This is the guy I room with the first two years of college and he had the West Virginia logo No doubt about it. It's the person I room with because nobody knows who that person is. Nobody knows that name The prayer and you know, this is what he said four words. God is a myth You think that's a person I want to be friends with now I Mean here's what's funny about it I got saved in college as a freshman and the person who led me to the Lord, you know, brother Mike I said hey I told my roommate this guy who now is an atheist and I'm sure a reprobate and I said hey you ought to talk to This guy he'll tell you how to get to heaven so the next day I assume my roommate got saved too because he prayed and seemed to believe it but something just Didn't seem to click with him because he'd go home, you know on the weekends and everything and he'd come back He's like, yeah, you know, I just talked to my dad. He showed me how you got to get baptized to go to heaven It's like what? It's a gift and we explained to him whosoever. He's like, oh, yeah, you're right and then he'd go home You know and the next week he'd come back and it's like every single week. It's like what do you believe? It's like, you know for five days during a week Salations by grace through faith and then all of a sudden it's like oh you got to get baptized It's like oh my dad showed me. Yeah, you know, yeah, you're right You don't have to get baptized but it's gonna happen if you're saved, but you got to repent of your sins It's like over and over and over and oh just changed his mind So look it was very obvious to me after a few years even being a newly saved person We realized that he wasn't saved but we kind of just lost touch with him because obviously he he stopped going to church with us He went down a different direction everything like that But now he says God's a myth and I just deleted the comment blocked him from YouTube I don't want to argue don't even want to think about it And then he I saw him comment actually pastor Jason Robinson messaged me and he started a big Argument about the existence of God on you know, his channel on YouTube just wanted to start a big fight now in my flesh Because this is someone I played soccer with for years someone I room with in college I just want to go to town on this guy and just bring out every single thing and just but it's just like it's not worth The time but what I'm trying to say is this you know what sometimes your friends just go in different directions Are you gonna go down the same road? Right. My wife and I had had a couple people were very close friends with because they actually set us up and they're People that went to Verity Baptist Church and so, you know, my wife and I, you know We moved to Verity Baptist Church and that was a large reason why my wife went to church with my friend's wife in the Philippines Blessed Hope Baptist in Anhale City, and so they set us up and you know, we talked to each other We got married and so that was the church we chose It was the best fit for us moving to Verity Baptist Church But you know after a couple years they ended up leaving the church and I'm not going to go into the details in the sermon There's there's really no point to do that. My point is this though We didn't leave church when that happened It's like if they're gonna throw their life down the drain, why would I do that? If they're gonna go stop being a soul winner and stop and just do whatever they're like, I'm not gonna do that though Now did it hurt? Of course but the question is how long are you gonna mourn for a friend that goes down the wrong road and Look sometimes in life you might come to that situation. Look this church is by no means a super small church There will be people this church that leave this church for various reasons and look every single time when they leave They're never gonna tell you I'm backslidden They're never gonna tell you I'm not right with God They're gonna have every excuse under the Sun, but let me tell you something oftentimes. It's because they are backslidden I'm not saying everybody's situation is like that, but many people that leave a good church it's because they're not right with God and look we've had people that have left our church and Sometimes people ask me, you know, where's we're so-and-so. I'm like, I don't know. I Mean and you know, this is with a lot of people I mean if you've been to at our church from the beginning a lot of people have come to our church gone So winning and ended up leaving and I'm not saying they're all bad people Most of them were good people and I hope they come back You know, I mean what happened to so-and-so? It's like I don't know. I mean I messaged them said we miss you They blocked me on Facebook. I mean Your guess is as good as mine It's like I don't know what I did I mean they don't want to or they just don't respond and it's just like where they just put a thumbs up But they it's just like I don't know. I Mean some of these people I mean some of them I see still listen to the sermons and it's just like I don't know It's like someone I want to come back. It's like they're listening. I don't know why they're not coming here Your guess is as good as mine. If you know then let me know, right? It's like look most people that leave our church that just I don't know what it is Maybe because they got pressure from their old churches or their family or their friends or maybe the preachings too intense Or maybe they feel bad because they're not fully on. I don't know why But here's the thing I'm really close friends with people that are at our church and serving God But once people leave they've just gone down a different road and look we're part of one body and honestly I believe your closest friends ought to be the people that you're at church with Now I've got close friends in the US I talk to you from time to time But honestly, I'm around people this church more than people in the US that I used to hang out with all the time I'm still friends with them But the reality is you're gonna form close friendships with the people you're at church with and there comes a time where you just got to Forsake friends that are going down a different road First in the chapter five point number one is with your finances financially Sometimes there's a cost of serving God point number two is with family Sometimes you have to forsake family to serve God point three with friends Sometimes you have to forsake friends to serve God point number four is fun Sometimes you have to forsake fun in order to serve God first in the five First in the chapter five you say why is that well because work is more important than fun Accomplishing something for God is more important than fun first 75 verse 8 But if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house He hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel the Bible says that you know if you don't provide for your family You're worse than an infidel according to first 75 or say Let me help you out people that are young and gonna get married here soon or newly married You know it's more important for you to work hard and provide for your family than having fun and entertainment all the time You know that that's difficult. You know working hard being tired, but you know that's what you're called to do and look I went when you're when you're a kid you know your child you speak as a child right isn't that what the Bible says when? I was a child I spake as a child when I was a child I played soccer 24-7 when I was a child I played Super Mario Kart right when I was a child I did these things, but when you become a man you put away childish things Now is it a sin to play soccer of course not? It's not sin to have a hobby or play a sport there's nothing I would say that's but you know here's the thing it's it's not the most important thing to do with your time And there's other things that are a lot more important than just having fun all the time first 75 verse 14 I will therefore that the younger women marry their children guide the house Give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully and when it comes to the God system The men are supposed to provide for the families and the women take care of the kids and here's the reality Taking care of kids is work It's difficult Now especially over the last year with with with kids not being allowed out in public like going to grocery stores and stuff You know my wife and I sometimes you know all stay home to watch the kids if we have errands to do pick up stuff For church or groceries because you know obviously it's sort of frustrating to be inside all the time, right? But I'll tell you what man I those that hour and a half of my wife's gone oftentimes after 45 minutes I'm looking at the clock thinking man. It's just like this is a disaster. This is awful right It's terrible. It's so hard It's like you pray as a guy that your child will will you know get the dirty diaper before your wife leaves? And then sometimes it's like oh, man, right, and it's just like it's difficult It's work and look here's the thing if you're doing what you're supposed to in life. You know whatever you're you're gonna be busy You're not gonna. Have just five hours every single night. Just sitting around you said brother sucky. I don't know about that I have five hours to be on Facebook every day. You're doing something wrong in your life You got to get busy get to work is it a sin to be on Facebook No, but it's probably a sin to be on there for five hours Right it's like you're on all the time You know everything going on in the new IFB every sermon every situation And it's just like you know you might just have too much free time You might need to get to work and do something because life is busy And it's more important to accomplish something than just have fun all the time go to do torami six Deuteronomy chapter 6 Deuteronomy 6 You know the great thing about this though is that when you're serving God you get to have a lot of fun in life I Mean I'll tell you what we do these soul winning marathons and go to locations It's always pretty cool to me people some people have said for man. I've never been to resolve Park I'm thinking man there you go You're serving God. We're going so winning yet to go to you know the the dirtiest part now I'm just kidding you know where as all Park is a lot cleaner now I will say that is so much cleaner than it was you know I hope one day They'll open it right in 2025 or something I don't know, but I get to go to exciting places get to go to provinces You've never been to get to have exciting events. We're always rejoicing having fun. Of course we have games here We have events we have activities But you know here's the thing we're not going to forsake the work We need to do as a church just to have fun and a lot of churches They become a fun center just activities and games and you know what that's not what we're supposed to do Okay Not only is work more important But something else is more important than your hobbies and personal fun is your immediate family Your wife your husband your kids It's more important to spend time with them than to spend all of your time on your hobbies Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 6 and these words which I command thee to stay shall be in thine heart and Thou shalt teach them diligently onto thy children And shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou Risest up and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and they shall be as frontless between thine eyes But when you're reading this about diligently teaching your children It's going to take a lot of work When should I do this when you're sitting down? When should I do this when you're standing up rising up when you're lying down like you just woke up And it's just like you know at all times is what the Bible saying be ready at all times you say, but man I want to spend time just going on YouTube and watching this just shove my kids in front of this so they can watch this And not spend time is that what the Bible says you should do Or should you be spending time with them look your kids want to spend time with you. That's reality Okay, go to first Kings 19 first Kings 19 first Kings 19 And I'll tell you what you know what spending time with your kids is a lot of fun I Don't know why you wouldn't want to right now look I had a lot of hobbies you know when I was young and I love playing soccer. That's my number one favorite hobby is playing soccer But you know the reality is that you know after I tore my ACL I was just like I was in my mid 20s I was just kind of like well you know if I play from time to time that's fine But honestly I'm worried if I tear this a second time. You know it's not going to be good for me, right? And it's sort of like a wake-up call God Tell me you know what you have more important things to do with your time now that you know you're Late 20s 30 years old there's more important things reading the Bible and stuff like that now I will say this you know playing with your kids can get you hurt as well, right? Last night my son just about knocked me out, okay? I was going to rabbit show here for a second But I got home from Pampanga, and you know whenever I get home my kids are excited You know to see dad and everything and my son's wrestling around But my son doesn't realize something yet when I wrestle with him I go aggressive But not really I don't hurt him him. He's getting very strong, and he just This kid's going to be a boxer one day You say brother second who's the next Manny Pacquiao in the philippines my son, right? But it's like he was just swinging wildly and he got me with his not with his arms But with his head you know his head's like a weapon It was like it was like you know if you remember as a kid you know that avander Holyfield Mike Tyson fight the reason why Tyson bit off Holyfield's ears because Holyfield kept doing the head butts and my son got me Really good last night, and I know my wife was taking a shower and all of a sudden And it was one of those where my eyes were closed. I was in pain I was dazed and I was wondering like and there was blood I was bleeding I was wondering I was just hoping I didn't have to get stitches right it didn't end up that bad It was bleeding a little bit, but I was like man. You know you can get hurt playing with your kids, right? I understand what Mike Tyson was feeling like now after 25 years, right? So first Kings 19 first Kings 19 notice what it says and so what are the four points we have here today? Well point number one is this if you're going to serve God a hundred percent you might have to make a sacrifice Financially to serve God certain careers Maybe you can't go into now realize this that you know when it comes to what God asked for outside of careers You can't do he only requires 10% of your money And I'll talk about that a little bit more in the second sermon and here's the thing about this if you have a low salary It's a low tide God's system makes sense Right I mean 50 pesos 5 pesos Right a million pesos a hundred thousand pesos so a system like oh a whole month salary Well, that's not fair because a lot of people are barely getting by they can't afford it doesn't logically make sense How about God's system of just like a percentage and all he requires is 10% and I'll tell you what the principles God teaches you on hard work will more than make up for that 10% and so God says 10% But you know there is a financial cost sometimes to serve God point number two Sometimes there's a cost a sacrifice when it comes to your family or your or your friends point number three and Sometimes with fun and what that means is you know what if you're doing things right with serving God You're not just gonna have all the free time in the world to just do whatever you want you get off work You come home, and you're just you know just hanging out relaxing never spending time with your family never spending time with your kids well, you're doing something wrong okay first Kings 19 and Here in this story we can see that Elisha forsakes everything in this story verse 19 So he departed thence and found Elisha the son of Shaphat who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him and he with The 12th and Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him so basically Elisha You've been chosen verse 20, and he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said let me I pray they kiss my father my mother And then I will follow thee and he said on him go back again for what have I done to thee and he returned back From him so he forsakes the family Returned back from him and took a yoke of oxen and slew them and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen and gave One of the people and they did eat, so he's forsaking Financially he's forsaking family and look if he's going to another location whatever friends He has in that location while he's forsaking them to Now during this time people probably didn't have just a lot of time for entertainment because they were busy So he probably isn't forsaking that much of the fun necessarily But that's something that certainly applies here in 2021 okay, then he arose and went after Elijah and ministered on them look The reason why Elisha was chosen is he was willing to forsake whatever was necessary in order to serve God now go to Hebrews 12. We'll close up here Hebrews chapter 12 Hebrews chapter 12 Now look I'm not telling you to intentionally find stuff in your life to make changes and forsake what I'm saying though is if you're going about your life and serving God and trying to do what's right those situations you're going to come in contact with and When those situations come up you must be willing to forsake whatever you need to in order to serve God, and if not Then you're not a disciple of Jesus according the Bible you say brother suck You're saying I'm not saved no no you're not a disciple. It's not the same thing as being saved I had this old preacher that was a Calvinist repentance of sins I was at that church for a year when I was sort of newly saved and Like he this is I was his big argument. He's like if you don't do this. You can't be a disciple It's like well, that's that's not being saved And one of the disciples well at least one. I mean a lot more than one weren't saved I mean one apostle wasn't saved, but there's a lot of disciples. I mean Judas wasn't safe. She's like what what's your point? It's like always trying to mix in that repentance of sins, right? It's like, but you know what you can't be a disciple though You can't fully follow God if you're not willing to give up the things that are gonna stop you from following God right Hebrews 12 verse 1 Whereforeseeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience The race that is set before us See when it comes to the Christian life, we are in a race and this race is not a hundred meters It's your entire life that you're gonna serve. It's like a it's like a marathon that has Sprints in it right, you know this part you're supposed to sprint This part is sort of like you're slowly going through but you keep going But we're in a long-distance race basically up a mountain to serve God our entire lives many obstacles come along the way and things such As that but once you realize we're supposed to set aside our sins, but also our weights What is the Bible trying to say? Well, let's say for example that there's two people up here Let's say me and brother ermine were up here and we're running against each other in a race and let's say that we're the exact Same speed, you know exactly the same It's gonna take us the exact amount of time to finish those those 200 meters. So it's a 50-50 chance who's gonna win Right. Let's say for example I put on a book bag and I put 20 pounds of weight in the book bag and Then I race against him. So now I weigh 20 extra pounds who's gonna win that race It's 50-50 before but now I've added 20 extra pounds. Well, he's gonna win the race Because he has less weights stopping him Right, it's just common sense. I mean if you lose weight, you're gonna be able to run faster, right? I mean and and and that's what the Bible is trying to say We are in a race and it's not that a weight is a sin. It's not a sin to play soccer You can't find a verse to say it's a sin to play soccer But but here's the thing if you have all of these hobbies and distractions that are not part of serving God They're gonna slow you down in the race You're not gonna run the race is effective and when it comes to going all-out for God and the cost of serving God What does God require? He requires everything. I mean give your all to God right all to Jesus, right? Every part of our lives are supposed to dedicate to serving God now Look if we serve God and live our lives, you know what there's gonna be a lot of fun in serving God We're gonna have a good life. We're gonna have a nice life at our church people enjoy their lives The proof of that is people don't go out and get drunk because they enjoy life already. So what's the purpose of getting drunk? Right, if you're serving God, you're having fun. I mean life's great. We enjoy it But you know what it is busy and it does mean that there might be a cost to you And it does mean that if you're gonna serve God You might have to just kind of throw away some things from your past That are holding you back and the question is when you come to those obstacles in your life. What are you gonna do? Are you going to actually make the change or are you gonna not have an honest heart make an excuse and Then you're just probably gonna leave one day and get mad and just have your excuse for why you quit church But in reality, you just didn't want to go all out serving God. Let's close in order prayer your Heavenly Father Thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to hear your words and help us to apply this to our lives God help us try to go all in for you and help us to understand that there is a cost sometimes in serving God And I ask you to help all of our church strengthen us to be ready that when these moments come we're willing to give up Whatever stopping us from going all out to serve you. We ask you to continue bless our church in Jesus name. We pray. Amen You You You You You You You Oh Oh Oh Oh You