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

Alright, we're here in Matthew chapter 28, and this is a bit of a continuation on the first sermon, because the first sermon here today was on soul winning, and this sermon is really about the rest of the Great Commission. Okay, I'm not going to preach on soul winning here again, but I want you to notice here in Matthew chapter 28, because when you talk about the Great Commission, you're not simply referring to soul winning. That is part of the Great Commission. That's the first part. It's the main part, but it's not all of it. It's just part of it. The Buddha says in Matthew chapter 28, verse 18, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. And so the end of the book of Matthew chapter 28, what he talks about is going soul winning, baptizing, teaching all nations. He basically covers everything. It's not simply referring to soul winning. This is what the Great Commission is about. And the name of the sermon is The Great Commission Explained, because some people tend to think that the Great Commission is merely soul winning. That is not what the Bible teaches. Now turn to Acts chapter two, Acts two. Look, I don't think anybody would accuse me of not preaching on soul winning enough. Okay. We've preached a whole sermon on it, but we need a proper balance on things in the Bible. And as we're doing this competition of bringing people to church, I want you to realize that you know what? That there's work that needs involved in this. Okay. Look, when it comes to people getting saved here in Pasig or Metro Manila or the surrounding areas or Pampanga or wherever, more people get saved if more work is done. You say why? Because we're not Calvinists. Right. The work we do makes a difference. Bringing people to church, more people will come if we put more effort into it. Let's not have a Calvinistic definition of bringing people to church, because we wouldn't say that with soul winning, and it's not true with bringing people to church either. Now there's some truth behind it. Obviously, people have their choice. We can't force them to come, but it's the same thing with soul winning. People have their choice. We can't force them to listen, but we can put in an effort. Notice what it says in Acts chapter two, verse 41, and so let's talk about baptism. This is part of the Great Commission. Acts two, verse 41, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. Now notice it says gladly. It doesn't say like madly or sadly. Gladly received his word. The reason why it says gladly, when you look at a lot of places in the Bible, it's referring to not just getting saved, but actually doing something with it. Because salvation is simply receiving Jesus. As many as received him, to them gave me power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name. It doesn't say as many as gladly received him. As many as received him. Because some people hear the gospel, they believe, but they never start reading the Bible. They start coming to church, and actually that's most people. Most people that get saved never do anything with it. That does not mean they didn't receive Jesus. It means they didn't gladly receive him. There's a difference there. Every word matters. Now salvation is just believe on Jesus, but some people choose to make differences in their life and some don't. In this room, all of you gladly receive the word of God. How do you know that? Because you come to church and you got baptized and you go solo. That's the proof. Because you're actually coming to church. You're not just someone who got saved and said, I'm good to go, I'm just going to retire then. I'm just going to be, man, I have this relief. I know I'm going to heaven. I don't care anymore. No, you actually have some love in your heart, and you're trying to come to church and learn the things of God. But some people get saved, and you know what, they don't have this magical transformation. They got saved and they believe it, but they don't change their lifestyle, and that does not mean they're not saved. What it means, though, is they did not gladly receive his word. Notice what it says, then, they that gladly received his word were baptized. Notice there's a colon after baptized, and that connects to the next thing, and the same day they were added onto them about 3,000 souls. And so the Bible says 3,000 souls were added, and that's how many gladly received the word. Those that gladly received the word got baptized. Now let me ask you a question. Do most people that get saved get baptized? No. No. Some people believe 3,000 people got saved in Acts chapter 2. Maybe some people believe that, but I don't see that in Acts 2. What I see is 3,000 people that gladly received his word. I don't know how many received his word. So you can get saved and not get baptized. See, most people say, well, in Acts 2 they got 3,000 people saved. I think they got a lot more than 3,000 saved. We get people saved all the time, and they don't choose to get baptized. They don't choose to come to church. Now in this instance, a lot of people did decide to come to church and get baptized. Obviously this is right after the resurrection. People are thinking spiritual things. But look, I don't think that every single person that believed on Jesus just got baptized and just took him to church. That's not reality, okay? Because look, when we heal so many, we realize some will come, some won't. Most won't, okay? So I don't think that 3,000 people received his word. I think 3,000 gladly received his word, and the proof of that is right after the colon where it says they got baptized, okay? When they got baptized, they joined the church. They were added to the church. So 3,000 people believed, gladly received his word, were baptized, and then they were added to the church, which means they kept coming to church, okay, 3,000 people. Their church exploded in the book of Acts, okay? It's not something you're gonna see today, but that does not mean that we can't bring people to church in today's world. We can still bring people to church in today's world, okay? And absolutely, we believe God will bless this church due to the soul winning. But let's not just say we're just only gonna use that technique in the online ministry to build this church. I don't believe that. Because this church has people in it that did not listen to a sermon from a pastor in another country and come here. There's people in this church that we met them, and we brought them to church, and then they came, they liked the church, they liked the fellowship, and they're part of our church, okay? Why? Because when we invite people to church, some will come, and the more effort you put in to inviting people, the more likely they are to come. It's just common sense, right? 3,000 were added to them, verse 42, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. Now, when it says breaking of bread, I think that's just referring to basically having a meal together. Basically, they continued with having fellowship, and just like our church, after church, many of the families just stay here and just eat food together, right? And then others go to local corn dairies nearby, and then they just eat together, right? And so I think that's just referring to basically having fellowship together with one another. You have activities at church, you have food and things such as that. I don't think breaking of bread is referring to taking communion, okay? I think it's just saying that they were there in fellowship, breaking of bread, and in prayers, okay? They were there for the fellowship and getting to know one another. Verse 43, and fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believe were together and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods and part of them to all men as every man had need. And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved, okay? So what we see is the church adds in growth because people are getting saved, they get baptized, they come to church. But I want you to understand the more effort we put into this to get people baptized, the more people will get baptized. It's just the way it works. The more effort we put in, the more people will come. And here's the reality. When it comes to people bringing people to church, some people are very good at bringing people to church. Some people aren't, okay? Now, look, I think I'm kind of coming along, right? I don't think I'm great. I don't think I'm sure. That's my opinion. Maybe I think more highly than I should. I don't know. But look, I'm not claiming to be the best at bringing people to church. What I am claiming is, though, that we should be trying to bring people to church. Look, there's people at our church that have brought lots of people to church, that brought families to church. And here's the thing. If it's just kind of random to who you happen to run into, why is it that some people often bring people and some people don't? Because they're putting in more effort. Or maybe they're just a little bit better, more friendly or engaging at the door. So this is something we all want to work on. Because if this church is going to build to visitors coming to this church, it's something everybody can work on. Even if you never come soul winning, you can still bring people to church. Even if you never come, you can invite people to church, friends and family and coworkers. And that is what this competition is for five weeks. It's a team competition. We're trying to motivate each other. I don't care if my team doesn't win. I'll be honest with you. If some team brings 100 visitors to church, man, praise the Lord. I'll be happy to lose, okay? If some team brings lots of visitors to church, I just want us to put in an effort to bring people to church. Now, here's the thing. When you try to invite people to church, most will not come. You say, Brother Stuckey, I've invited like 25 people and one person came. It's only 4%. Well, I want you to understand something. In America, when you knock on 25 doors, you're likely to get nobody saved. And if you had that attitude in America, you'd never know someone. You'd say, well, it's very unlikely I'm going to get somebody saved. I mean, it's very receptive here getting people saved. Bringing people to church, though, isn't necessarily easier here in the US. It's pretty hard, right? It's not easy. It's very easy to get people saved. Bringing people to church, that's difficult. But realize this. When you go soloing in America, we have our soloing maps at Verity Baptist Church, 80 homes, and sometimes you look at that map and say, I hope we get one saved. That's the reality. And look, if we had the attitude, well, very unlikely is it that someone's going to get saved, then we'd never go soloing. Why? Because it's a lot more difficult. Bringing people to church is not easy. But I want you to understand if one team has everybody trying to follow up on people, you send a text message out to people that you get saved, you pray for them, and you're all trying to bring people to church, even if there's only a 5% chance they'll come. Look, if 20 people are followed up on, one person comes then. And so realize this. If everybody's doing it, we will get more visitors to church. Okay, now turn to Matthew 28. Matthew 28. And look, it doesn't really matter for sake of this sermon, whether you believe in follow up or not. You know, I mean, I'm just showing you what the Bible says. But what I'm showing you is what the Great Commission is. And you cannot deny that the Great Commission includes baptism and bringing people to church and then teaching them all things. That is what it says in Matthew 28. Now, it's great that we go soloing, and soloing is hard work. And bringing people to church, it's also hard work. Right. It's also not very easy. My wife and I, when we were in Sacramento, it's a little bit different here. So I think it's a little bit harder to follow up on people here because oftentimes people get saved and then it's really hard to find their house. Like in America, it's like really easy. But, you know, we would get people saved and then we have a follow up card, which is pretty similar to our follow up card right here. It's just changed a little bit to be specific here. And we would follow up on people and everything. And we have a list of people. And then on Saturdays, I would just quickly try to drive to those couple people that, you know, were good contacts. Not everybody I talked to. I didn't just re-mock every door. I went to those that were good contacts and would invite them. And we found that some of those people ended up coming to church. Sometimes it took one or two times following up, but it did make a difference. I remember one person I invited, you know, Brother Toby, and I went to his place twice and he said he was going to come and he didn't come. And then I happened to be in his apartment complex, but I wasn't there to talk to him because I was there. I can't remember if we were following up on someone or if we were going so with him, but he saw me and then he stopped. And I was like, hey, Brother Toby, how are you doing? He's like, oh, I'm doing good. And he's like, oh, I'm so sorry to make it to church. And he said, yeah, he's like, I actually drove there and I was confused where the church was and I got nervous and drove away. And so I want you to realize, you know, that's probably true with a lot of people when they first come to a church, they're nervous to come. Some people get saved, they want to come, but they're like, oh, man, I might sit in somebody's seat. Yeah, I don't know, you know, or some people, they just don't like being around lots of people they don't know. So they don't want lots of people coming to approach them. Like a lot of people are just nervous to come to a new church. Even when I've been on vacation visiting a Baptist church and I've been a Baptist for 15 years, it's still kind of nervous walking into a new church. You're just kind of sitting there like, man, you know, I don't know, you know, I don't know anybody and everything like that. And so, look, people we had saved, sometimes they do want to come to church. And if we are just a little bit more friendly, that might be the push. And that guy actually came back and became a member of the church. And so it just kind of took me accidentally running into him again. And then all of a sudden he did come and I said, I'll pick you up tomorrow. And then he came and then he was just basically coming after that. And I'm not saying it's like that with every single person, but I am saying this. There are people that would come to church, but they're just kind of nervous. They're not outgoing enough. And maybe by you being a friend, that might be the push for them to come one time and maybe they'll get connected. Maybe they won't. There are people at our church that visited this church and they got connected. They like the preaching, the fellowship. And there's some people that visited and we never saw them again. But you get points whether they come back or not. Okay. That's the nature of the competition. All right. Matthew 28, verse 20. Matthew 28, verse 20. As I said in this thing, if you don't believe in follow up, fine. But do you believe in getting a free gift? Because the winning team gets a free gift. All right. Matthew 28, verse 20. So the Bible speaks about baptizing people. And obviously that's done by the local church. Okay. Matthew 28, verse 20. Teaching them to observe all things. Okay. Look, you are not going to individually be able to teach them to observe all things. Right. Right. Now, maybe if you get your co-workers saying you can slowly teach them things, but you will not be able to teach them all things unless you work with them for like 10 years. See, how do you know that? Because look, after a year of preaching, I realize there's topics I've never touched before. There's a lot to talk about. And so the only way to teach them to observe all things is to get them to church. And when you're at this church, I teach everything. I don't hide anything. I just show them what the Bible says. And I want you to realize and turn to Acts 20. I want you to realize something. I've been to a lot of different churches before, and I've been saved for a while. And I've been to some really good churches. I've been blessed to be members of some really good churches. But I was also members of various Baptist churches that I wouldn't necessarily regret. There's just kind of like, come along. Right. They're okay. No, nothing bad about it, but nothing spectacular about it. And I want you to realize it was hard to be motivated to bring people to that church. You say why? Because in the back of my head, I really felt like if I bring someone to this church, there's they're not going to really learn anything. It's like, unless I teach them, like, I don't know if they're going to learn anything. So honestly, it's like, I know I shouldn't invite them to church, but I was like, you know, I don't really know how much they're going to learn. So it's hard to motivate. And here's the thing. Nobody can say that if somebody comes to this church, they're not going to learn. Now you can say you think the services are too short, too long, or you wish I did this or that. More fellowship, less fellowship, whatever. But nobody is going to say that if they're at this church, they're not going to learn anything. I promise you that every single person, I promise you because look, anybody who's preaching the whole word of God and spends time writing their sermons, there's going to be new things they learn. I learn new things every single week. And so look, if you bring someone to this church, you don't have to worry about them not learning. They will learn. But that's kind of a two part process. I'll teach them the word of God, but you need to bring them to church. And I do too. I try to bring people to church as well. I'm part of this competition. I want to win that free gift or whatever. I want to bring people. But look, if you bring them to this church, they will learn. And the Bible says church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Now, sadly, at most churches, that can't be said. It's not the pillar and ground of the truth. They come. They're not going to learn anything in the Bible. They're not going to be motivated to live for God. The only thing they might be compelled to do is give money because that's what every sermon is about. That's a lot of Baptist churches here in the Philippines. But that's not like that here. If you bring people to church, they can learn to become a soul learner. They can learn to live for God. And they still have that free will. You bring them to church, they have that free will. How much they're going to dive in or not. But they're going to hear it and they have the opportunity. But that is not just something where we sit on our knees and just pray. Oh, dear God, please let people here in passing get saved this week. And then you never get a soul. Does that make sense? Dear God, please let us have visitors to church. But when you get someone saved, you don't try to invite them. You don't try to compel them to come. It doesn't really make sense. That's kind of a Calvinistic definition. That if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. No, the effort we put in, it is going to make a difference. Now, notice what it says in Acts 20, verse 26. Acts 20, verse 26. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Paul said he is not shunned to declare all the counsel of God. He taught everything. So he's pure from the blood of all men. Verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. See, the church of God is meant to be the overseer and to feed the flock of God. Teach everything. Verse 29. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Verse 31. Therefore, watch and remember that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn every one night and day with tears. Look, this is what my promise is. If somebody is at this church for three years, they'll learn everything. I'm not saying I'll go through every chapter of the Bible or every verse of the Bible, but all topics will be covered within the space of three years. That's what my goal would be because Paul the Apostle said that after three years, he could honestly say, I'm pure from the blood of all men. I talked about it being not just soul winning, not just the main doctrinal things, but also just like clothing standards, music, worldliness, patience, how to be a good husband, how to be a good father, how to be a good mother, how to be whatever. He covered everything over the space of three years. He could say that. That doesn't mean that you preached on every single verse of the Bible, but you covered all the topics so people heard, they saw the word of God, and they had their choice whether or not they're going to do it or not. Look, you cannot teach somebody everything in the Bible in three years unless they're in church and they're hearing sermons for three plus hours a week. That's the only way it's going to happen. Now, it is true that if somebody's at this church and they hear sermons, they might not catch everything. Maybe they might have questions, and as they go soul winning with you, you might be the one to help fill in those spots that they have. They ask a question about the Bible. You know, hey, Brother Stuckey said this about music. I mean, is it wrong? If you know the Bible, you can say, hey, this is what we teach you. Now, obviously, you don't have the authority to teach something I don't agree with. If somebody brings up the topic of communion and you say, wow, this is what the Bible teaches, that you're supposed to have communion in your house. That's not what we teach. Obviously, you don't have the authority to go against this church. But look, I would say out of 99% of topics, you really don't have to worry about that. I've been to churches where there's a lot of things I disagreed on. You go soul-willing with someone and they'd ask, what does the Bible teach about the rapture? And it's just like, you just pretend you don't hear me. You just like knock on the door. It's like, it's a tough spot to be in, right? But for most of you, do you believe the same doctrines as we have? Right? So I want you to realize that what the Bible shows here is this, that if somebody wants to learn the word of God, they must be in the pillar and ground of the truth. They must hear the word of God. And for that to happen, they don't just listen to sermons online. They actually come here. They're in church. This is part of the great commission. Turn back to Matthew 28. Matthew 28. Well, the sermon is not meant to be super complicated. I don't think it is. I'm just going over what Matthew 28 says. And you know, you get people saved, you get them baptized, and then you teach people, right? You're teaching the word of God. You train people, okay? Now, obviously this operates through the local church. The local church sends people to preach the gospel. The local church baptizes people. The local church is teaching. It's the pillar and ground of the truth. It comes from the local truth, local church. Look, praise the Lord for the online ministry. But the online ministry is so much smaller than the local church. What it can do for you and your life. Now, the online issue is great for many people, including myself, and you learn great things, but the local church will do far more for you than just listening to sermons online, right? Okay? You're not going to learn everything. You're not going to have the fellowship. You're not going to learn soul winning and things like that. You need to actually be part of a local church. And look, people out there, even people that listen to the online sermons, you know, many people are here because of the online ministry. But honestly, when you start coming to a church for the first time, a lot of stuff is still going to be new to you. You're still learning these things. You're still learning how to go soul winning and how to operate in church. Those are new things to you. People need the local church, okay? But when you go soul winning, I can't force you to try to bring people to church, okay? Now, at the end of the sermon, I'll kind of go on some general techniques of things that you can do or things you can try. But I'm just saying this that, you know what? It should be something to say, you know, I'd like to bring people to church. I'd like to see somebody come here that I got saved and starts to live for God. And look, that is a team effort. It's not just me. I can't follow up on every single... I can't follow up on 79 people that got saved yesterday. It's like there's no way I can follow up on 79 people. That is something that's just a team effort, okay? It's something that we all need to be involved in. Notice what it says in Matthew 28 verse 19. Matthew 28 verse 19. So first we saw... Obviously, first was soul winning. That was the last sermon. But the first point of this sermon is baptizing people and then training people. And this comes from bringing them to church. But then notice what it says in verse 19. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. All nations. Okay, now let me ask you a question. Is it really possible for very Baptist church Manila to teach all nations? We're going to cover every single... Man, we're really going to reach the people that only speak Arabic and the Arab countries. And we're going to reach the people in Africa that speak French or maybe they don't speak English or whatever. We're going to reach people in countries all over the world. That's not talking about like an online ministry. And somehow your sermons reach out to everyone in the world. Praise the Lord if a sermon does reach out to lots of people. But I'm just saying this. When it's talking about teaching all nations, what it's talking about is you're getting churches started. That's the only way that you can teach other nations, okay? You have to have churches in those locations, okay? That's the only explanation for that verse. It makes sense because in Acts 1 verse 8, which you don't have to turn to, it talks about reaching your local area and then Samaria and onto the uttermost part of the earth, okay? You don't reach the uttermost part of the earth with one church. Look, if we did a soul-winning marathon in... I don't know, you know, Vietnam. Okay, whatever. I don't speak Vietnamese. But if we did a soul-winning marathon in Vietnam, let's say we got 100 people saved. You know, that's really a small den of Vietnam. You really need a church in there to reach all of those areas, to talk to people, to follow up, to get people baptized. You're not going to do it with one soul-winning marathon, okay? Notice what it says at the end of verse 20. He says, Lo, I'm with you always, even on to the end of the nation you live in, even on to the end of the local city you live in, or even on to the end of the world. Remember he just said, teach all nations, and he says this applies to everyone all over the world, that the goal of any local church is to get people saved, get them baptized, teach them, and to get churches started. That's what the third point is. That is the goal of a church, to eventually duplicate and get new churches started, okay? Now that takes time. It's not going to be easy. But that is the goal of a church. Turn to Titus 1. Titus chapter 1. You say, why? Even though we've done so many marathons in Pampanga, you can't reach Pampanga unless you have a church in Pampanga. That's the only way you're going to reach people, where there's people there that every week they're going soul-winning, and you're teaching people, you're bringing them to church. And look, everybody in this world, including myself, we have a lot of problems we need to fix. And if you're not in church hearing the word of God being preached, you're not going to fix those problems, okay? And so you need a local church to do this. You need churches all over. Titus 1, verse 5. Titus 1, verse 5. For this cause left by the increase, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. And see, the Bible says to set in order the things that are wanting. What is that talking about? What it's talking about is there is an area that's in demand for a church. They're looking for a church. And then elders need to be ordained in those areas because there's already people looking for that church. We are in a situation throughout the world where there's lots of people listening to online preaching that would love a church in their local area. And see, the goal is to basically get someone ordained and basically run those churches. Now, look, I'm not ordained as an elder. I'm ordained as an evangelist. But I'm not as an elder or pastor yet because my kids are not old enough. But I'm in this local area running this church, preaching the sermons. And see, the result is you're going to get so much more soul-willing that's done. People are going to learn the word of God. They're going to change their lives. You need local churches in the area. Not just people that go soul-willing in various areas. You need churches to be started. That's what it's saying. If there's a demand, things are wanting. The result is elders will be ordained. And you could even just look at this church because honestly, the original plan was that my wife and I were going to move to Pampanga to start a church. We came to Manila because there's more people. More people ready for the church. And we have people in Pampanga. Families there that are there for all the services that goes on. But originally, we were going to go to Pampanga. We came to Manila because things were wanting more in Manila. And so if my answer to anyone out there says, I wish I had a local church like mine, it's like, well, you better be going soul-willing every single week. And then maybe God will bless you with that church. Because before this church started, there were people going soul-willing all the time here in Manila. And honestly, that's the reason why we started the church here as opposed to in Pampanga. Now turn to Acts 8, Acts 8. But I want you to realize that this should be the goal of every church. Not just to get people saved and baptized. Not just to teach them the word of God, but also to get new churches started. That is a big goal. Now when a new church starts, logically, it's going to be not quite as big. There's not going to be as many people. Not going to have as many programs. It's going to be more basic to start off because you're just starting it. Like when we started in Pampanga, we didn't start and say, well, we need to have a building from day one. You say, why? Because we're just having a small group, just meeting together, we're preaching. And many people in this room have gone down to Pampanga to preach and to go soul-willing. And one thing I'm excited about is, I'm pretty sure everybody in this church who's been to Pampanga is like, man, I love that church plant. It's awesome going down there. It's like, man, can I come every week, brother Stuckey? It's like, maybe not every week. But I mean, it's great because that is what our church has given birth to. We have a new church, families that go there. We have soul-willing that's going and it's getting off the beginning. It's going to grow and grow and stuff like that. And we're excited about that. I actually know of four different families who could potentially be moving to Pampanga that are not in the Philippines now over the next couple years. And I don't know if they all will, but like four different families. So that's exciting to know that as this church has grown, that even on our lowest day we've had in a while, we're still pretty decent with attendance. That in Pampanga, one day it's going to be the same way as well. When you go soul-willing, you invite people to church, you bring them, you teach them the word of God and it's growing. And that's exciting. And then eventually, hopefully our church in a few years or whenever can get another church started somewhere. Say why? This is the goal because of the fact many of you listen to a lot of sermons online for a long time. Okay. But that's not the same as having a local church, right? And what I found when I've been at good churches, that when I was part of a good church, I found myself not really listening to a lot of online preaching. Because they're like, man, I got a great church here, fellowship and hanging out, and we're going soul-willing, we're learning the word of God. And there's nothing wrong with listening to preaching. Praise the Lord, the online preaching, listen to it. There's great sermons out there. I'm just saying, quite honestly, when you actually have a local church, you realize this is better than listening to a sermon online from someone who has no idea who I am. It's better to just have a local church. And that is our goal as a church. Acts 8, verse 1. Acts 8, verse 1. So when it comes to getting churches started, number one, you need people ready for that church, okay? If you wanted to start a church in an area, and there's just nobody ready for the church, it's not going to make the most sense for us to do a church plant there, okay? Acts 8, verse 1. And Saul was consenting onto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. So this is a local church. It's not just against the Catholic church, like all over the world. No, it's against the church which is at Jerusalem, a local church. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Now notice how they get scattered to Judea and Samaria. Now turn back to Acts 1. Let me turn there myself. I do want to show you one other thing. I want you to take note of where it said Judah and Samaria. Judah and Samaria. And Acts 1.8 is the famous verse of reaching the whole world with the gospel and getting churches started in Acts 1, verse 8. But he shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And this is what he tells his local church there, okay? And he shall be witnesses on me both in Jerusalem, which is where they were. You're going to be witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and onto the uttermost part of the earth. You're getting churches started. You reach all the earth, okay? Now go back to Acts 8. Acts 8. So he said basically after Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and onto the uttermost part of the earth, okay? Wherever your church is, it's basically your Jerusalem, so to speak. Acts 8, verse 1, what it said was scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, which came after Jerusalem. Now turn to Acts 9, verse 31. Acts 9, verse 31. Now remember, Jesus told them, I want you to reach Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and all the earth. But they weren't doing that. They were disobeying God. They're saying, man, Jerusalem's pretty nice. People are getting saved. The church is getting big. You know, we're just going to stay here in Jerusalem. Well, notice what it says in Acts 9, verse 31. Then had the churches rest. Notice, then had the churches, not church at Jerusalem. Then had the churches rest. Where are these churches located? Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria. What do you see? Jesus said, I want you to reach Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and all the earth. They weren't doing it. Persecution, they have to go to Judea and Samaria due to persecution. Then all of a sudden, there's churches in Judea and Samaria and Galilee. It's like, man, you know, if you had just obeyed God the first time, you wouldn't have had to have your cousins and your brothers killed and all this persecution making, right? But the reality is that when you're comfortable, it's really easy to just say things are going good. We're perfectly fine. But the reality is that, you know, things are going really well at this church. They're going really well in Pampanga. It would be very easy to say, you know what? We're comfortable. We don't want more work. We don't want more energy. We don't want more effort. Let's just be fine and just retire from church planning. But you can never retire from any of this stuff. You never retire from soul winning or bringing people to church or getting people baptized. You never retire from trying to get churches started. That is something that our church will always be about. Why? Because God says they want you to reach Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the utmost part of the earth. Let me explain to you. If you were to look at the Philippines, it would be like reach Pasig, then reach Metro Manila or Pampanga, then reach, you know, Bicol, then the end of the earth or something like that. It's not, well, reach Pasig, then reach, you know, Cebu or Pasig, then Bicol. No, it's Pasig, then Pampanga, which is just a few hours away and you slowly spread out. It's logical. It wouldn't make sense for us to say, man, we're just going to jump in to start a church in Bicol. Say what? We can't send people down to preach all the time. I mean, that'd be a little bit ridiculous, right? It makes sense that you establish a church and it slowly spreads out. Look, our job in this world, we're not just saying, obviously any church that we get started is great, but I'm just saying our main goal is this area we build and here's the thing, not just VBC Manila, but the same with VBC Pampanga. Obviously, they're a new church, they're not at that point, but eventually you want them to slowly spread out themselves. Go to Tarloc or wherever, who knows? Like just spread out from where they are in Mabalakot and you just slowly reach the world. We will never reach all the world by ourselves. What we focus on is our area and you spread out from there, okay? But how does this happen? What happens from you do lots of soul-willing as a church, you bring people to church, you get them baptized, and I want you to realize that in the book of Acts, they did not have the online ministry to bring people to church. So we need to cut out our excuses and say, you know what, if they didn't have the online ministry and look, we're going to use the online ministry, praise the Lord for people that come from it, but look, just from our soul-willing and personally bringing people to church, this church can grow. That is what the Bible teaches, okay? And so that's what we see here in Acts chapter nine. Now turn to Ecclesiastes four, Ecclesiastes four. This is going to be a bit of a shorter sermon. The first sermon was a bit longer, which was on soul-willing, because obviously soul-willing is the main thing, okay? Look, if you stay at this church for 25 years and you never bring anyone to church, but you go soul-willing every week, you know, praise the Lord, we're glad to have you. That's awesome. Get lots of people to say you're a great blessing to church, okay? I'm just saying we want to go above and beyond that, not just soul-willing. The first sermon was on soul-willing because that's the main thing, but then we want to bring people to church, get them baptized, teach them the word of God, and you know what, they can work. Now, here's the thing. When you go soul-willing, you never know if somebody's going to end up living for God or not, okay? You get somebody saved or you invite them to church, and you know what? You don't know whether they're going to end up being a soul-winner or whether or not they're not going to be a soul-winner, okay? Look, I've invited a lot of people to church and I've brought people to church and I've gotten plenty of people saved, and you know what? Sometimes you might think maybe this person could, but you don't really know. You don't know if you start talking to someone that this person could be one of the great soul-winners. You know, the Philippines one day. You really just don't know that, right? You know, one person that I brought to church a long time ago was Brother Richard Simes. So when I met, you know, he was, there's a street preacher outside at WVU, and you know, basically everyone's making fun of the street preacher, and I just kind of sat down beside him. Let's just say Brother Jerome is Brother Richard. Many of you know Brother Richie. And there's this street preacher up here and I just sat down beside him. This is what I did. I said, what do you think about that guy? And then he was just kind of like, yeah, you know, everyone's making fun of him. I feel bad for him and everything like that. So what do you think it takes to get to heaven? Jumped into the gospel because the guy was preaching a false gospel. Now look, I did not think about it for one second that this guy's going to end up being a great soul-winner and a great missionary because he was a great missionary here in Philippines. He reached so many people with the gospel. I never thought when I sat down beside him like, man, I'm sitting down by a future great missionary. But you don't know. You really just don't know. And honestly, when I preached the gospel and he didn't get saved immediately, you know, it took him a little while because, you know, he had a Baptist background so the repents of sins thing was tough. You know, it started, he was playing basketball with us for a while. I gave him the gospel a few times and it took a little while and then some of my friends, you know, gave him the gospel and eventually he got saved. But, you know, I just invited him, played basketball with him several times. We watched Kent Hovind together and everything and eventually he got saved. He's come to church and then boom, he just jumped in. You just don't know. And look, you can go soul-winning today and you could have a person, your map could be on Hagen Hoan or Maasai Sai, just a random house and you knock it, somebody comes out, they get saved and maybe they don't even show that much emotion. You're invited to church and then all of a sudden they just decide to come. And then six months from now, man, they're a speaker and they're having silent partners come with them. You just don't know. Now look, I understand it's the minority of people that we talk to that end up doing something big for God in their lives. But what I'm saying is if you talk to a thousand people and there's only one, that one person, if they become a soul-winner that gets a hundred people saved in their life, it's a big deal. And so we need to put in the effort to try to bring people to church. And so when it comes to this, you know, this is something that's like a team thing. And let me just, before we get to Ecclesiastes 4, let me just quickly explain this and go over this. And so we have a few things. We have some supplies in the back table that we've made as a church. And these are meant to help you bring people to church that talk about coming to church, that talk about getting baptized. Because you might, some of you probably have experienced preaching the gospel, but if you had 10 minutes to try to convince someone to get baptized, you might be like, it might be hard for you because it might be new to you, okay? These are meant to help you with that. And it's meant that you could even explain just a few things at the door. You can kind of just leave it without you. And what's great about these things is if you leave them with this and you just kind of give it to them, you just maybe spend a minute after you get them saved, what you can do is you can always choose to text message them, call them, or visit again if they're right near the church. And just say, hey, did you have any questions about that pamphlet I gave you? And that is an easy way to try to invite them to church again. That's what the purpose of these is, okay? It's like it's an easy way to say, when my wife and I used to invite people to church, and we learned this technique from Pastor Menes of trying to bring people to church because he's very good at bringing people to church. And he's very much pleased and followed by a very Baptist church. And you know, what they used to do, and he's mentioned this in sermons, is they would drop off a small bag of cookies at the house with a note. And if the person was not home, they just left it there. And then they would call later that night and say, hey, did you get the cookies I left at your door? And you know, honestly, it's a very easy way, okay, where it's not uncomfortable where you call them because you're not calling them saying, hey, you coming to church? You're calling them saying, hey, did you get the cookies I dropped off to you? Okay, so look, you can try a lot of different techniques. What I'm saying is like, this is a pretty easy way where if you give this to them, you could easily follow up the text. I'm saying, hey, did you have any questions about that thing on baptism that we gave you? Okay, I'd love to help you out. And look, if they're interested, you could always say, hey, do you mind if I just stop by in the afternoon? I could just help explain it a little bit more. And maybe by doing that a couple times, that might be the step that brings them to church, okay? Now, I'm not saying it will, but here's what I'm saying. If you have a church and you have 40 soul winners, and let's say everybody gets one salvation, and everybody sends out a text message on Saturday night or a text message on Sunday morning to remind them, look, not all 40 of those people will ignore you. There will be plenty of them that will respond back. I would text people on Saturday night or on Sunday just saying, hey, just reminding you about church, would you like to come? And you know what? Some people didn't respond, but honestly, most did respond back. And say, why did most respond back? Because the people that I followed up on or tried to were people that were interested in coming to church. Let me explain to you what I'm talking about here. Let's say, for example, you get somebody say, actually, Brother Marlin, do you mind being an example? I already used Brother Mateus today, so I'm just doing the ends. Matthew, Mateus, Marlin. Let's say, for example, I get Brother Marlin saying, okay? And let's say, for example, afterwards I say, well, yeah, we'd love to have you come to church sometime. On our invitation, this is where we're located. Would you be interested in coming to church? And let's say, for example, he says, well, I don't know, I'm pretty busy on Sundays. Does he sound like he's interested in coming to church? No. Would I follow up on that person then? No. He has no interest in coming to church. Now, you heard the gospel. He was interested in that, but he wasn't really interested in coming to church. Let's say, for example, I said, well, yeah, we'd love to have you come to church. We meet at 10 a.m. on Sunday mornings. Would you like to come? And he says, yeah, I've been looking for a church like this. That sounds like someone who's interested in coming. That doesn't mean he will come. What that means is that's someone worth following up on. You guys understand the difference? I appreciate it. And so what I'm saying is this, that when you preach the gospel to people, when we're going door to door, we try to find out, are they interested in hearing the gospel? If they're not, they're not worthy, we move on to the next person. When it comes to trying to bring someone to church, do they seem interested in coming? Because if not, they're not a good conduct to follow up on. And when you follow up on all these people not interested, you're gonna frustrate yourself. You're like, man, they're cursing at me. They just egged my house. Like, man, they really, it's like, it's not going well. Follow up on the people that are interested in coming. And the way you find that out is just simply afterwards saying, hey, would you like to come to church on Sunday? And if they sound like they're really genuinely interested, they're worth following up on and they might come to church. If they don't sound interested at all, they're not gonna come. It's just like when we preach the gospel and someone says, no, I'm not interested. That person's not getting saved. If someone is actually interested though, then it's worth trying. And what I'm hoping is that all of the teams, because we have three different teams for so many here for these next six weeks, I'm hoping all teams will jointly look at this as a team thing where you're gonna encourage one another. You're all trying to follow up. Hey, brother Marlon, how did it go? The person that you followed up with, how did they respond? I tried to follow up on brother David, see if he'd come to church. And you can encourage one another just like you do for soul. And that's what it says in Ecclesiastes chapter four. Here's what I want you to realize. If you aren't really that interested in bringing people to church, you're probably not going to bring people. You say, why? Because they're gonna be able to tell from your attitude. Right? I mean, if you're genuinely interested and care about that person, and what it might mean is after they get saved, you spend a couple minutes. What I would actually recommend, and this is why we have this, is afterwards you just kind of ask them, but hey, do you mind if I get your information? I can follow up on you. And we have one here. Did you have any prayer requests? Is there anything that we can pray for you about? Say, why do you ask that? Because it makes it very easy to get that information. We love to pray for you. Do you mind if I get your name and contact info? And it's also very easy to call them and say, hey, you know, I've been praying for your brother. You know, how did his surgery go or whatever, right? It gives you something that you can very easily follow up on. There's a reason why we have things like this. That's why you have the prayer request section. It's very easy then to follow up on them, okay? And I'll be honest with you, the people that are very good at bringing people to church, I can tell that they're good when I've gone solo with them just by how they so easily follow up with them afterwards. You can tell there's a reason why they're bringing people to church because they're very comfortable with it. And like I said, I'm not the best at bringing people to church, okay? I'm not, okay? I wouldn't say it's my strong point, okay? But it's something I do try on. But what I'm saying is this, that if we all try, we will see visitors next five or six weeks, not just because they heard a sermon from, you know, Pastor Anderson and they're driving from two hours away or something, no, because we actually just got them saved and followed up on them. That's the reality. That's what it says in Ecclesiastes 4 verse 9. Why are we doing a team competition instead of an individual one this year? Two are better than one. Ecclesiastes 4 verse 9. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. The Bible says iron sharpened with iron. The reason why we're doing a team competition is so your individual team can encourage one another, okay? And try their best to bring people to church. And by doing it as a team competition, you can help encourage one another and work on it. Or sometimes here's the thing. Let's say, for example, I'm going soul winning with, you know, they're not on my team. So Brother Tito, we're in the same team, okay? I can't pick them. They're on the team A or team one. Let's say I'm solely with Brother Tito and let's say, for example, I'm preaching the gospel and sometimes you preach the gospel and you kind of just forget about it afterwards. And then maybe since we're on the same team, you can say, hey, you know, just hand this to me or say, hey, we just wanted to follow up with you. And that might be a way we can work on it together. Two are better than one, okay? And see, the goal of this is that we're gonna be able to bring people to church. And look, I do believe, I mean, we bring people to church and I'm not saying we're doing a bad job of it, but I am saying we could do a better job of it. When it comes to our soul winning, I kind of feel like we're doing pretty good. Obviously, you can always do more soul winning, but we do a lot of soul winning, okay? But I do believe we could get better in bringing people to church, including myself. And I'm hoping with this competition, we'll all invest into this because I'll tell you what, if you bring someone to church, it's going to be exciting for you. Let's close in word of prayer. And dear heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today. And I just ask you to help us apply this sermon to our lives. And both the sermons here today, we're going back to the, just keeping the main thing, the main thing about soul winning, bringing people to church, getting churches started. And the work of getting a church to start, it starts with us just doing our day-to-day soul winning or our weekly soul winning and trying to bring people to church and trying to build this church, God. We ask you to continue to bless this church. Help us to all be motivated, God, including myself. It's not easy to bring people to church. It's difficult, God, but we would love to have you help build this church and grow this church and send more labors and soul winners here, God. Help us to do our part in the matter. And we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.