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

Please take your seats. Let's start our midweek service here at Verity Baptist Church. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church Manila. And if you have hymnals in your seats, take your hymnals to song number 405. Let's sing the banner of the cross, song number 405, 405, the banner of the cross. On the first, there's a royal banner given for display to the soldiers of the King. As an ensign fair, we lift it up today, while as ransoms once we see. Marching on, marching on, for Christ got everything but loss. And to crown Him King, toil and sin, meet the banner of the cross. On the second, though the fold may rage and gather as the flood, let the sundar be displayed, and beneath its folds the soldiers of the Lord, for the truth be not dismayed. Marching on, marching on, for Christ got everything but loss. And to crown Him King, toil and sin, meet the banner of the cross. On the first now, over land and sea, wherever man may dwell, make the glorious findings known. Of the crimson banner, now the story tell, while the Lord shall claim His own. Marching on, marching on, for Christ got everything but loss. And to crown Him King, toil and sin, meet the banner of the cross. When the glory dawns is growing very near, it is hastening day by day. Then before our King, the fort shall disappear, and across the world shall sway. Marching on, marching on, for Christ got everything but loss. And to crown Him King, toil and sin, meet the banner of the cross. Good singing. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for allowing us to be here this night. Thank You for the guidance. Thank You for the souls that God saved this morning and afternoon. And please bless the service in Your name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, turn to song number 262. Song number 262, let's sing The Light of the World. Song number 262, let's sing The Light of the World. Song number 262. On the first, the whole world was lost in the darkness of sin. The light of the world is Jesus. Like sunshine emanating, His glory shone in. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light, He's shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was lost, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. No darkness have we who in Jesus abide. The light of the world is Jesus. We walk in the light when we follow our guide. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light, He's shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. In wellers, in darkness, winds, in blinded eyes. The light of the world is Jesus. Go wash at His bidding and light will arise. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light, He's shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. Not to last, no need of the sunlight in heaven works all. The light of the world is Jesus. The Lamb is the light in the city of gold. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light, He's shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. Let's sing again the songbook, song number 397. Song number 397, let's sing, little is much when God is here. Song 397, let's sing, little is much when God is here. On the first now, in the harvest feel the ripen. There's a word for all to do. Hark, the voice of God is calling to the harvest calling you. Little is much when God is in it, living were not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. On the second, does the place you're called to labor seem so small and little known. It is great if God is in it and he'll not forget his own. Little is much when God is in it, living were not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. On the third, are you laid aside from service, body warm from toil and care? You can still be in the battle, in the sacred place of prayer. Little is much when God is in it, living were not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. On the last, when the conflict here is ended and our race on earth is run, he will say to all the faithful, welcome home, my child of God. Little is much when God is in it, living were not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. . . . . . . . . Please open your Bibles to Jobel chapter 1. Jobel chapter 1. And as our custom will be reading the whole chapter, say amen when you're there. Jobel chapter 1, the Bible reads, The word of the Lord that came to Jobel, the son of Hethuel, Hear this, ye old men, and give ear all ye inhabitants of the land. Had this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers, tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. That which the palmer worm had left the locust eaten, and that which the locust had left had the canker worm eaten, and that which the canker worm had left had the caterpillar eaten. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep, and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth, for a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number, and his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree, he hath made it clean bare, and cast away, the branches thereof are made white. The mead, like a virgin, girded with sacklock for the husband of her youth. The mead offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests, the Lord's ministers, murn. The field is wasted, the land murneth, where the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languishes. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen, howl, O ye vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes. The pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered, because joy is withered away from the sons of men. Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests, how, ye ministers of the altar, come, lie all night in sacklock, ye ministers of my God, for the mead offering and the drink offering is withholding from the house of your God. Sanctify ye fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders in all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord, alas, for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Is not the mead cut off before our eyes, ye joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed is rotten under their cloths, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down, for the corn is withered. How do the beasts grow? The herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. O Lord, to thee will I cry, for the fire had devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame that had burnt all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee, for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire had devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Lord, thank you for your word, and thank you for the Bible. Please bless this message as it is given to us in truth, in wisdom, in truth, in truth, in wisdom, in Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, well I want to thank everyone for coming here for this missions trip. So far it's been an exciting time, hasn't it? So many people have gotten saved, and so I figure what better to preach on than a soul winning sermon. So the name of the sermon is The Necessity of Joy in Soul Winning. The Necessity of Joy in Soul Winning. Look at Joel chapter 1 verses 11 and 12. The Bible reads, So we see here in the book of Joel that a great famine has taken place. It says about this famine that this famine had not been in their days, or in the days that their fathers were their father's fathers. This was the biggest famine they had ever seen. Now obviously this was a real story that took place. There's a lot of symbolism we can learn with soul winning. I want you to notice the first point is this. That there are certain people responsible for creating the harvest. It says in verse 11, because the harvest of the field is perished. Certain people were responsible for creating that harvest. It mentions in verse number 11, So the Bible mentions the husband men. It mentions the vine dressers. They are responsible for creating the harvest of the field. You know when it comes to soul winning, there are certain people responsible for preaching the gospel and getting people saved. Now it's not just a small percentage of Christians. No it's all Christians. But see that's 1% of this world probably at best. I mean there's a very small percentage of people saved in this world. But you know we are the ones responsible for creating that harvest. It's not the angels. God didn't give it to them. He gave it to us as believers. Turn to 2 Corinthians 5. Now sadly most Christians look at this and they just don't want to do the work. What's sad about it is there's great joy in soul winning. I'm glad He gave it to us. I'm glad we're not just robots here that have no purpose in life. I'm glad we have something we actually are expected to do. So we can actually work towards something and actually please God. He gave this to us in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 18. And all things are of God who have reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation. He's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. You know I don't care what anybody says. No one will get saved unless we preach the gospel. It's impossible to get saved unless somebody actually opens their mouth that is saved and preaches the gospel. That's the only way anybody can get saved. Everybody in this room that's saved, you got saved because somebody preached the gospel to you. You didn't figure it out on your own. See God does things like this to keep us humble. Because none of us got saved on our own. None of us become great Christians on our own. None of us learn to be soul winners on our own. We learn from someone else. The Bible says He's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. All of us in this room, it is our obligation. It is our responsibility. It's our job. It says in verse 19, To wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. So in verse 19, it says the word of reconciliation. What is He trying to say? Well you need the word of God. I mean this isn't complicated. You know we make videos and people argue with us. It's like the word of reconciliation. It's not that complicated. See it has to be saved people that have the word of God and you preach the gospel and you want people to get saved. We're not out there trying to debate with people. We're not trying to argue with people. We're just giving them the word of reconciliation. If they believe, they get saved. The great thing is in this country, lots of people receive that word, don't they? I mean everyone who's been here this week, you're like wow. It's not like that and man, Pastor Thompson would not be able to preach that word. Look at this. I go back and I'm just going to like bang my head here. But um, what was I saying? And in this country, lots of people receive that word. Where a lot of us are from in the United States, look, you preach the gospel for hours, you might not get anybody saved. Here if you're preaching the gospel for hours with nobody saved, then it's like there's something wrong with you, buddy. Because it's very receptive in this country. But no matter what country we live in, if we're saved, we're expected to preach the gospel. Because obviously if you live in that country, you're the one who's going to reach those people. We're not going to reach the people that live in Africa here in the Philippines. That's not our vineyard that we're reaching. Wherever you live, you have a certain vineyard that God expects you to preach the gospel. And it's an important vineyard. It's not better or worse than here in the Philippines. The vineyard God's given you, you're expected to go all out and preach the gospel and get as many people saved as you can. And you're awarded for the work you do. Now look, if I preach the gospel for five hours in America versus five hours here in the Philippines, there's no question I'm going to get more people saved here in the Philippines. But it's still the same amount of work. And we're rewarded for the amount of work we do. So wherever you live, if you spend five hours sowing that week, that's a lot of work. You're going to get rewarded for that work even if nobody wants to listen. It says in verse 20, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's head, be ye reconciled to God. He uses the term ambassadors for Christ. What is an ambassador? It's basically a representative of a country. It's supposed to be someone who is trustworthy, respectful. Now I know in America, like Bill Clinton is like an ambassador. So it's not somebody who's trustworthy or respectful. But it's meant to be someone who is a good example of that country. An ambassador. See the Bible says we're ambassadors for Christ. We represent Jesus Christ. We're out there preaching the gospel. We live our lives. We're a representative of God. We're God's messengers here. We are Jehovah's Witnesses. We're the ones who are witnessing for Jehovah. Not the Jehovah's Witnesses that are up there. We're the messengers. We're the ambassadors for God. It's our job. It's nobody else's job. Turn to 1 Corinthians 3. And see when you look at certain events, like just less than a week ago, well actually one week ago, the biggest idolatrous celebration in the world took place not too far from here. We had to cancel Wednesday night church service because nobody could make it because the roads were completely shut off. The Feast of the Black Nazarene. 21 million people worshipping this morbid looking idol of Jesus Christ. And you say that's the Catholic's fault. No I think it's the soul winner's fault. I think it's the missionaries that have come to this country and done nothing. They've done nothing. They're not preaching the gospel to anybody. It's their fault. That's the reason why. That's the reason why idolatry reigns in this country. Because all these missionaries that are being supported are doing nothing. They're preaching the gospel not at all. They're doing no work whatsoever. It's a joke how little work they're doing. How in the world can you bring back reports of getting five people saved in a month when you can get five people saved in an hour here? If you have a good hour. How in the world do you have such pathetic results? There's a reason why Catholicism reigns in this country. There's a reason why there's all these weird obscure cults that have risen up in the Philippines. Why? Because the Baptists are doing nothing. They're not getting the job done. And they are not taking God's word that you know what it's their job. Ministry of Reconciliation. The Word of Reconciliation. In 1st Corinthians chapter 3. And you know what's interesting about this is in the Philippines all false religions preach their version of the gospel. Isn't that true? You see in the result park all the time the born agains are out there preaching their version of the gospel aren't they? Yeah. I mean they're out there preaching all the time. INC's out there all the time. All these religions are preaching their version of the gospel. But you know you never really see the Baptists out there. A true Baptist preaching the gospel. You've never seen that. It's like what in the world is wrong with them? You've got all these cults that are zealous for what they believe. They believe something. They're zealous. They're wrong about it. And they're preaching what they believe. The Baptists in this country. The missionaries. Where are they? Because if you've been to an IFB church and you've been to a church that supports a lot of missionaries I went to a church that supported around 70 missionaries. And you know what? 10% or more of those were from the Philippines. Because the Philippines has more missionaries from America than any country. More than any country. Even more than... The Philippines and Mexico are the two countries that support the most missionaries. And the question is where are these missionaries? I mean Metro Manila is one-eighth of the population of the Philippines. It takes up a small space but man it's densely populated. But it takes up 13 million people. I guarantee you some of those missionaries at churches that I used to go to they probably supported missionaries in Metro Manila. And it's like ask our church members about what those churches are preaching. They're preaching that you die and you know what? You soul sleep if you're unsaved until the Great White Throne Judgment. That's what some of the IFB churches are preaching. Well where did they learn that? Well they learned it from INC. That's where they're getting their doctrine from. It's a joke. They're not taking the word of reconciliation. But you know what? It's the responsibility of people that are saved to be preaching the Gospel. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 5. It says, Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos? But ministers by whom you believed. Notice this. Even as the Lord gave to every man. Did you know God wants everybody to hear the Gospel? Do you know He wants everybody to be saved? Do you know He's not willing that any should perish? That He died for everybody? And He's given to everybody, somebody who's meant to be preached in the Gospel. He's given the Lord every man. See every single person in this world, God meant for somebody to preach the Gospel. So here's the thing. Wherever you live, there's people here from Australia. There's people here from the UK. There's people here from the United States. Wherever you live, whatever city, whatever town, whatever state, you're the one responsible for preaching the Gospel to them. I'm not responsible for preaching the Gospel in the UK. I don't live there. But if I lived there, I'd be responsible. Now I'm responsible for preaching the Gospel here. Wherever you live, that's your vineyard. You're responsible for preaching the Gospel. Now turn back to Joel 1. I'll tell you what. This is my promise that I have here as a church. Our church will always be a so many church. It's never going to die. It's never going to wear away. That's always what we're going to be about. We're going to be so winning until the day we're gone. Until I'm alive, I'm going to be preaching the Gospel. We're going to be doing that as a church. It's not just me. We have a church of zealous people that love so winning. They've been so winning for a year before a church like this even existed. They were out so winning all the time. We're going to be so winning here. And you know what? Honestly, since we started this church, persecution has come pretty heavy. It didn't take long. When you're getting a lot of people saved, the persecution is going to come. But you know what? It's not going to stop us. We're still going to go out and preach the Gospel and we're never going to stop it. It's not just one mission strip. We're going to be out preaching the Gospel every week. That's my promise. And you know what? I don't understand these churches that they start off right and they just kind of die out. Because there's a great joy in so winning, which is what we're talking about in this sermon. And it's like, how did you let that joy slip away? Because so winning is great. I love so winning. So winning is joyous, but unfortunately a lot of people lost that joy. Now it says in Joel 1, verse 11. So the first point we see is this, that there are certain people responsible for creating that harvest. The second thing I want you to see is in Joel 1, verse 11, it says, Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen. How, O ye vinedressers? The second thing I want you to notice is this, that you know what? If you're not preaching the Gospel, you should be ashamed of producing any harvest whatsoever. And it makes sense. If you're responsible for creating the harvest and you're not doing it, see the Bible says you ought to be ashamed. See, here in Joel chapter 1, those people are responsible for creating that work. I mean, if it's your job to do something and there's nothing, there's great shame in that. Right? You know, I've worked secular jobs and you have certain responsibilities. If you screw off your responsibility, you ought to be ashamed of that. Now obviously this is the judgment of God. I'm not saying this is specifically their fault. But what I am saying is this, that you know, when you have a responsibility, you have a job and you're not doing it, you ought to feel shame about it. Whatever job we have in life, we've got to take that job seriously. We're expected to do a good job at that. Turn to 1 Corinthians 9. Quite honestly though, the missionaries here, they have no shame in the fact that they're producing a big fat zero. They don't have any shame about it. They're not embarrassed about it whatsoever. It says in 1 Corinthians 9 verse 16, See, Paul the Apostle is saying, I'm not doing some great work. He's saying, you know what, if I don't do this, woe is onto me. He's saying it's a great shame if I don't do this work. Why? Because he realized this was his job. This is a responsibility for all of us as Christians. And if he's not doing it, hey, woe is onto him. Woe is onto me if I preach not the gospel. Woe is onto any one of us that doesn't preach the gospel. Why? Because it's our job. God's given it to us. And when you think about it, being a Christian, being saved, our big responsibility is to get people saved. I mean, you live your whole life and you win nobody to the Lord? And you're not ashamed of that? But see, the Bible says, Paul the Apostle said, Yea, woe is onto me if I preach not the gospel. And see, that's the attitude we ought to have no matter where we live. That if I don't preach the gospel, woe is onto me. Because God specifically gave you that job. Turn to Matthew 21. Now, I'll be honest with you. I don't want you to misunderstand this. Obviously this week, flying to another country to get people to say, That's a little bit above and beyond. Okay? It's not like God expects you to do that every single week. Obviously you're going a little bit above and beyond. Why are you doing that? Because you love soul winning. Because soul winning, there's great joy in that. Obviously you're going a little bit above and beyond, but you know what, in our week to week lives, don't just go soul winning here and then just say, Okay, I can take a couple months off because I met my quota of soul saved. I got my 25 soul saved for the year, so I can just like, you know, I'm done. I mean, just every single week, zealously knock those doors, preach the gospel, and get people saved. In Matthew 21, in verse 18, the Bible reads, Now in the morning, as he returned into the city, he hung. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee, henceforthforever. And presently the fig tree withered away. When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away? I remember when I was first reading this, I'm just like, Why are you cursing a fig tree? You know, it seems kind of weird if you don't fully understand. But go down to verse 41. And it says, What is Jesus saying? He's saying, you're expected to produce fruit. I invested a lot of time into you, and you produced nothing. See, that's what he's saying there. And see, we are expected to produce fruit. If he would take it away from a nation, think about us as individuals, because we're not that powerful. He expects us to be preaching the gospel. Obviously, whatever country you live in is wicked. I don't think there's any question. You know, we look in the Philippines, and there's a lot of problems in this country. In the United States, where I used to live, there's a lot of problems in that country. But you know what? One thing we can be doing as Christians is still producing fruit. You have God's blessing upon us and upon our households. We're expected to produce fruit. Turn to Matthew 25. Doesn't he talk about removing the candlestick from a church that's no longer preaching the gospel? See, us as individuals, you say, Well, you know, I go to this church. I'm a member of Verity Baptist Manila. Yeah, but you're expected to preach the gospel. Just because this church is out there preaching the gospel and getting people to say, You are personally responsible because he's given to you the ministry of reconciliation. He's given to you the word of reconciliation. It's not just, Well, I'm part of a church that really preaches the gospel. You know, this is something that you individually need to take a hold of. It says in Matthew chapter 25, verse 24. Actually, verse 14, Matthew 25, verse 14. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And on the one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. To every man according to his several ability and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same and made them other five talents. Since one guy receives five talents, he produces five talents more. He did a good job. And likewise, he that had received two, he also gained other two. So he does a good job. But he that had received one, went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money. After a long time, the Lord of those servants come and reckoneth with him. So the Lord of those servants is coming to find out what they did. And the one servant who got one talent, he did nothing with it whatsoever. He did absolutely nothing. He didn't produce anything. Now the one who had five produced five. The one who had two produced two. The one who had one, he was expected to do something with it. He did nothing. Look down at verse number 24. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not struck. Now notice right off the bat, he's making an excuse. Why? Because he's ashamed of being a failure. He's trying to cover up for producing nothing. So he's kind of blaming him. He doesn't want to take responsibility. He immediately starts with excuses. Why? Because he's produced nothing. I kind of wonder what a lot of saved people that never go solo anymore. I kind of wonder what they would do if God would ask. I wonder if they would just start throwing out their excuses of why they can't go solo. I just work too many hours to find time to go solo. Well, maybe you need to work less hours if you have no time. Quite honestly, most of us are just on Facebook too much. We're on YouTube too much. Do you work 90 hours a week? Most of us don't work 90 hours a week. People work 40 hours a week, but they can't find time for solo at all. They can't find time to go to church. They can't find time to read the Bible. They can't find time. They have all the excuses in the world. It's just like this person. Your excuses are ridiculous. We all have the time. God is giving you that responsibility. God will provide our needs. You need to find time to go solo. Obviously, we're at different stages in life. When you're younger, you don't have lots of kids. You probably have more time. Obviously, if you have lots of kids, it's going to be more difficult. God still has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. We still need to make time for soloing no matter how busy we are. Verse 25, And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth. Lo, there thou hast, that is not. So he basically just hides the money and gives it back to him. It's like, well, great job. You did absolutely nothing. I'm surprised he didn't hide it and lose it. But he hides the money. He does absolutely nothing with it. Go down to verse 26. And in verse 26, His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not struck. Thou oughtest therefore to put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own effusory. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto everyone that hath shall be given, he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which he hath. Turn to Luke 10. You have to understand that God has given us the ability to preach the gospel. If you're saved, you obviously know what you need to do to be saved. We know what we have to do to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not that complicated. It's not complicated to preach the gospel. Obviously you know it takes time to get better. But it's not calculus. Isn't that great that it's not a calculus problem you've got to solve? Anyone is able to preach the gospel. Think about John 4. That woman was able to get people saved immediately. Why? Because it's something very simple to explain. The gift of God is eternal life. It's pretty simple, isn't it? I mean, we have no excuses for not preaching the gospel. It says in Luke 10, verse 2, Therefore, saying unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labors are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labors into his harvest. This is a sad reality no matter where you live in the entire world. The labors are few. Even in areas where... I mean, we do a lot of sowing around here, but quite honestly, it's a very small drop in the bucket. When you think about how big Metromino is. I mean, we're getting lots of people saved, but 400 people saved in an area of 13 million people? That's a drop in the bucket. There's a lot of work to do, and it doesn't matter where you live. There's no area where just everyone's out sowing. It's honestly just a drop in the bucket. We need people involved in the work. That's why we need to pray for labors, the Bible says. Now turn back to Joel 1, but keep your place in Luke 10 and turn to Joel 1. Keep your place in Luke 10 and turn to Joel 1. And so the third point we have is this. We ought to have joy. When it comes to sowing, we ought to have joy. Notice what it says in Joel 1, verse 12. Joel 1, verse 12. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes. The pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree. Even all the trees of the field are withered, because joy is withered away from the sons of men. So we see that joy is being linked with producing fruit. And when it comes to sowing, we have to have joy. It's not like God gave us a task that is boring. It's not like He gave us a task that's not fun to do. It's not like He gave us a task that we hate doing. He gave us a task that's actually pretty exciting. Now people don't go sowing, they don't understand the joy. We understand the joy. It's pretty exciting when you're a sowinner. There's great joy in sowing. We ought to have joy in sowing. God gave us a responsibility that's actually a lot of fun to do. Now turn to Joel 2. And Joel 2, starting in verse number 21, the Bible reads, Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness do spring. For the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of the field, for the tree beareth her fruit. For the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God. For He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, the latter rain in the first month. See, once again, it's talking about producing fruit, and the Bible's talking about rejoicing, and being glad, and being joy. There's great symbolism when it comes to sowing there. Now turn back to Luke 10. I mean, doesn't the Bible talk about bringing the sheaves and rejoicing that? I mean, it's great joy when you're preaching the gospel and getting people saved. It's always frustrating, because I think we've all been like this, that you're excited about the people you get saved, and people that you used to be friends with back then. You're excited, other fellow Christians, Christians, more Christians, I don't know. But then you're telling them about what you did. You got people saved, and they don't have any excitement about it whatsoever. And you're like, how are you not excited about this? It's like five people that were on their way to hell are now on their way to heaven. But they have no excitement about it. Now all of us would tell these stories. We could talk for hours, and rejoice, and be excited. We'd never get sick of it. It would be a great time. We love talking about sowing. We have the world out there. Even the Christians, they don't understand the joy that's there. But there's great joy in sowing. In Luke 10, in Luke chapter 10, he's sending them out to preach the gospel two by two. And look at Luke 10. In Luke chapter 10, he's sending them out to preach the gospel two by two. And look at verse 17 when they come back. And the 70 returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name. They go out, and they return with joy. Isn't that the same way we are when we preach the gospel? Who else is excited tonight? If people are listening to you preach the gospel, you got people saying, we're excited about it. I'm sure we're going to talk about stories after we're done with these sermons. Once these sermons are done, there's great joy with sowing. We have exciting stories. They're coming back, and they're rejoicing in what took place. There's great joy when it comes to sowing. Turn to Acts 5. I mean, you have a whole book in the Bible that is about sowing. The book of Acts. I mean, it's exciting. It's probably more exciting to read than be a part of it. They're getting arrested. They're almost dying. Then they're out preaching the gospel, almost dying again, preaching the gospel. Acts 5, we see in verse 14. They can lay their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. So they're out there preaching the gospel, great works are being done, and now they're thrown in jail. Now, you know, the average Christian out there would just kind of throw in the towel. Just forget about sowing. Just water it down. Go back to watching your television. Go back to listening to your rock music. Go back to your life that has no value whatsoever. That's what most people would do. But notice what it says here in verse number 25. So they're out of prison now, and once again they're preaching the gospel. It doesn't stop them at all. You know, we don't have that situation here in the Philippines at this point, but if the situation ever comes where it's illegal to preach the gospel, you know what, we're still going to preach the gospel, even if we're getting arrested. Now, I don't foresee that happening in this country any times. It's so open to preach the gospel here. We're going to preach the gospel, though, even if it's illegal, even if we get persecuted, because that's the whole reason why this church exists. If we're not able to go sowing, then what's the purpose of it? We're here to preach the gospel and lend people the Lord. Go down to verse 41. See, this doesn't bother them at all that they get arrested, they get persecuted. They're glad that they were counted worthy to suffer shame. They just love sowing. They love preaching the gospel and getting people saved, and nothing was even good to get them to stop preaching the gospel and get people saved. Now, turn back to Joel 1. And so the first point we had tonight was simply this, that there are certain people responsible for creating the harvest. The second thing is, you know what, there's great shame if you fail at that, if you produce no fruit. The third thing is we should have joy when it comes to sowing. But the fourth point is this, that if we do not have joy with our sowing, then you know what, we're going to stop producing fruits. See, there is a necessity in maintaining your joy, because if you lose your joy preaching the gospel, you will no longer preach the gospel. Notice in Joel 1, verse 12, The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes. The pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field are withered, because joy is withered away from the sons of men. There's this great famine that takes place, and the way I foresee this is basically these men just kind of lose hope. Anyway, that's the way a lot of Christians are. You know, things get tough in their life, and they just kind of throw in the towel. They lose their joy and just say it's not worth it. But you know, if we do not maintain our joy, we'll no longer produce fruit. Now obviously, if you're in this room, and you flew across the country to come to this soul winning, obviously you have great joy in soul winning, right? I don't think this is a situation where, you know, half of you don't even enjoy this, because obviously you're paying great money, this is your vacation time. Obviously you love this, but you need to keep that joy. You can never lose that joy, because if you lose that joy, you're just going to quit on it. I mean, think about a few things. One reason why people have a lot of joy with soul winning is because when you do something that's kind of new, it's exciting, it's fun. Now there's certain people in this room that have been soul winning for a long time. I think a lot of people have been soul winning maybe a year, less than a year, two years. When you first start, there's great joy with anything. It's very easy once that time ends, though, to kind of lose the excitement. It's like if you buy a new car. Buy a fancy new car, throw down $100,000, man, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. After a week, it's just your car. You know what I mean? It's not as exciting as when you first purchased it. And the reality is this, that when you first start preaching the gospel, a lot of times there's great excitement. What you see a lot of people do is they lose that excitement. I mean, a lot of people will come to a church like this, or come to some of the churches that people are from, and they love the preaching, they love the soul winning. And that lasts for six months, and then all of a sudden after six months, they're gone, they're done with it. But because at the beginning, it's really exciting, it's new, it's fresh, it's joyous. But a lot of people lose that joy over time. Most people do. Most soul winners end up just throwing it into town. I hope that's not going to be the case for people in this room. But honestly, most people, they get excited, then they end up losing that joy. You quit having joy, you don't enjoy it anymore, guess what? You're not going to do it. Look, tons of people made New Year's resolutions a few weeks ago. And what are the common resolutions? Eat healthy, and exercise, and lose weight. Now, you know why most people don't keep that? Because they don't enjoy eating healthy, they don't enjoy exercising, so they quit. It's not that they don't realize they should do that. I mean, everyone knows, hey, I should eat healthy, I should exercise, right? But the reason why people don't maintain it is they don't enjoy it. They want to eat the snacks, the sugar, whatever. They don't enjoy working out, so they kind of quit. That's usually the reason why. If they really enjoyed it, people that work out all the time, they probably enjoy working out. That's probably a big reason why they work out a lot. But people make these New Year's resolutions, and they stop them, why? Because there is no joy. We want to do things that we enjoy in life. Now, turn to James 5, verse 7. Now, here's the thing. Whether or not you enjoy it or not, you still need to do it. You say, well, I don't enjoy going to church, but you still need to go to church anyway. See, I don't enjoy reading the Bible. You still need to do it anyway. I don't enjoy soul-winning. You still need to do it anyway, whether you enjoy it or not. But you must find a way to enjoy it. Because you're not going to go through life hating something and still doing it. You're going to end up throwing in the towel. You must find a way to enjoy this. You must love soul-winning. And soul-winning is exciting. It's joyous. It's great. It's fun. But you know, it's not fun all the time. Quite honestly, there's some weeks I don't feel like going to school. Quite honestly, there's times where it's just like, you know what, I just don't feel like doing it. I can't sit here and say that every single minute of every single day, I just love preaching the gospel. Honestly, there's just times you're just kind of going through the motions. But you know, we need to have a habit in our life of enjoying soul-winning. And if we're just starting to dislike soul-winning, you need to make some sort of change. Because this is joyous. And if you don't get the joy, you're going to quit the soul-winning. In James 5, verse 7, let me turn there myself. James 5, verse 7. James, chapter 5, verse 7. And in James, chapter 5, verse 7, the Bible reads, Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth, and had long patience for it, until he received the early and latter rain. The Bible says that the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth. You know, sometimes in life, maybe you're going through trials. You're just kind of losing your joy, you're losing your excitement. You need to be patient. You need to fight through that and wait, because the fruit is still going to be produced. And honestly, some of us, we live in areas where it's just not receptive, preaching the gospel. Now here, you're going to get somebody's soul saved every single week, throughout preaching the gospel. But some places where people live, you might go a month and have no soul saved. Be patient for that fruit. It's going to come. It might take a little while, but you know what? It's going to come. Be patient for it, and the fruit's going to come. Turn to Psalms 51. Psalms 51. And when it comes to losing our joy, you say, what would make me stop enjoying this? Quite honestly, I'd say the thing that you see in the Bible the most is sin will cause you to quit enjoying soul winning. Right? You know, I remember when I first got saved and started to go soul winning. When I first started going soul winning, you know, I really didn't try to clean up my life again. I made a few changes here and there, but I still watch the TV. I still listen to the same kind of music. But you start going soul winning, and God just kind of changes you. He purges you. He makes changes in you. You've got to kind of make a choice. Am I going to be someone who's going to listen to the rock music, or am I going to be a soul winner? You can't have both. Am I going to be someone who, you know, watches TV, or am I going to be a soul winner? You know, the things that I used to watch, the things that I used to listen to, I mean, they were filming. There's something that no Christian, nobody got to be listening to. And it's like you start feeling really guilty about it as you're hearing preaching, you're reading the Bible, and you've got to make a decision. Now, unfortunately, most people do not understand the joy of soul winning. So what do they do? They keep their worldly lifestyle. Because it takes a little while to become a soul winner, and get good at it, and get people saved. And most people just don't have that patience. You know, Bible reading is very joyous. I love reading the Bible. But you know, when I first got saved, Bible reading was extraordinary. I didn't really enjoy it that much. Why? Because of most of it, I didn't understand. Right? I'm learning all these new things. I didn't know anything about the Bible. And so I'm reading all this stuff, and you know what? It was like reading, I don't know, a calculus book or something where you don't understand a lot of stuff. But you know, the more you read it, guess what? You start understanding more. The more you hear preaching, you start understanding the Bible more. And then once you start knowing the Bible better, guess what? Reading the Bible is pretty joyous. Now, unfortunately, a lot of Christians don't realize that. There's probably people in this room that don't realize the joy in reading the Bible. Why? Because you don't know the Bible well. But you know, if you keep doing it, you're going to find that joy. A lot of people, when they first go soloing, before they actually figure out how to get somebody saved, maybe they go for a few weeks, they kind of throw in the towel. It's like, man, the joy is right around the corner. You know, but if most Christians understood the joy in soloing, guess what? They'd be going soloing. Now, in Psalms 51, verse 9, this is what it says. This is after David is confronted with committing adultery. Notice what it says in Psalms 51, verse 9. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Now, people that think that you can lose your salvation will always turn to this verse and say, well, see, David was worried he was going to lose the Holy Spirit. But they weren't in dwell with the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. The Spirit of God would come upon them to do mighty things, but they weren't in dwell with the Spirit of God. But notice verse 12, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. So what did David lose? Did he lose his salvation or did he lose his joy? He lost his joy. He says restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. See, he no longer had the joy that he used to have with his salvation. He no longer enjoyed his salvation like he used to. And notice what it says, and uphold me with thy free spirit. What's the result? Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto me. He says if I get back my joy, then sinners are going to be converted. What is he saying? If I restore my joy, if my joy is restored, I can be a soul winner. Why? Because if you do not have joy, you're not going to preach to the gospel. The only way you're going to be a soul winner is if you actually enjoy this. That's the reality. Now obviously in this room, we enjoy this, don't we? Now if you end up getting into sin like David did, you're not going to enjoy this. You're not going to enjoy it when you're walking in the flesh all the time. You're not going to enjoy the things of the Spirit of God. When you're walking in darkness and wickedness, you're not going to enjoy the things of the Spirit of God. So if we want to maintain this joy, one thing we need to do is never get involved in sin. David lost his joy and you know what the sad thing is? He was no longer getting people saved. Because you will not get people saved if you have no joy. He says restore to me the joy of thy salvation and sinners shall be converted unto me. You realize I need joy in order to preach the gospel and get people saved. Now turn to Philemon 1. We'll close off in this verse. Philemon 1, verse 20. And so, you know, honestly when I think to my life, I've been soul winning since I was around 19 years old, so 14, 15 years. And obviously there's some weeks I felt like going soul winning, some I didn't. Now here's the thing. On weeks when I just didn't really want to do it, guess what? I didn't do it. I didn't do it much. But on weeks where I was really excited about soul winning, guess what? I was going out soul winning a lot. There's times in my life where I was going out so many times. Why? Because I really enjoyed it. But then there's other times in my life where I kind of lost that joy a little bit. What happens? Your soul winning dies off. See, it's very important that we maintain our joy. That's why it's so important to get sin out of our lives. Because sin will kill off your joy. Turn to Philemon 1, verse 20. And I want you to notice here is what Paul says. Paul asked for his vows to be refreshed. He said, let me have joy of thee in the Lord. When I think about this missions trip and this grand opening of this church, you know in some ways you might say, is this missions trip and this grand opening about you, Brother Stuckey? I don't really think so. I think with this missions trip, obviously people here in Manila have been excited for this church to start. But honestly, one big important thing about this missions trip is that the people that live in unreceptive countries come here and you get back into their joy. Because honestly, when you live in unreceptive countries, it's very easy to lose your joy. See, I don't really look at this missions trip being about our church, Verity Baptist Church in Manila. I look at whatever country you're from. People here are from the UK, not a receptive country. People are from Australia, not a receptive country. People are from all these different areas from the United States, you know, not receptive compared to the Philippines. You come from areas where you preach the gospel and you can go for hours and hours and hours and nobody's saying it. And you know, it's very easy when you're not getting results to just lose your joy, right? Now it's not your fault you're not getting people saying it. The areas you live might be unreceptive. Now here, we're going to get lots of people saying it. It's very easy to maintain that joy. But you know, I think it's just as important for the soul when you're doing your areas here in the Philippines. You say, why is it just as important? Just from a logical standpoint, when you think about great missionary work being done, this country will get tons of people saying, but we're not going to fund the church being started all over. You know why this church exists? Because Verity Baptist Church exists. Sacramento is not receptive like the Philippines. You get tons more people saying, you know, this church wouldn't exist except people have been laboring week after week after week after week after week after week, even when they didn't get people saved. And that church has been built up to being a very good, very powerful church. And then we're able to start a church like this. And so you say, well, you know, I live in this unreceptive country, but you need to take your soul winning seriously in that country because churches like this won't exist without the churches in Australia and the UK and the United States. The soul winning is very important. We're not going to be able to fund, it's not like we're going to start a church plant, you know, in the United States one day. That's not going to happen. Now the United States could start church plants. Why? Because it's a very wealthy country compared to this country. So honestly, you know, soul winning needs to be done in those areas so those churches get built up. And then eventually they can start churches just like this all over the world. We need the balance. Yes, you know, you get lots of people saved here, but even in unreceptive countries, we need you to keep your joy. So when it comes to this missions trip, I want everyone to go home and be like, man, my joy is restored. I'm excited to get involved. So what a great time. You know what? I'm going to take that joy home with me wherever I live and be zealous to preach the gospel. Even if it's unreceptive, I want to preach zealously and try to build that church. And you know what? Without that being done, this church wouldn't even exist. Let's go to the word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here tonight. And this is an amazing week that we're having all the great souls being saved and started this church, God. And I ask you to help all of us to maintain our joy when it comes to soul winning. Never get caught up in sin, God, and never, you know, kind of get depressed if you live in an unreceptive area. But just realize that, you know, God's going to reward me for the work, whether or not I'm winning people of the Lord or whether or not no one wants to listen, God. Help us to maintain our joy. Help us to love soul winning. Help us to get great works being done all throughout the entire world and get churches started, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, our last song for the first service. Song number 396. Song number 396, So Little Time. Song number 396, So Little Time. On the first so little time The harvest will be over Our weeping God We'll be first taken home Report our word to Jesus Of the harvest And hope He'll smile And that His name will die Today we reap Or miss our golden harvest Today He's given us all souls to win Oh then to save Stuck here once from the burning Today we'll go To bring some sinner in on the second How many times I should have strongly pleaded How often did I feel too sweetly worn The Spirit may move Or had I planned for Jesus The grain is fallen Lost once, not reborn Today we reap Or miss our golden harvest Today He's given us all souls to win Oh then to save Stuck here once from the burning Today we'll go To bring some sinner in on the third now Despite the heat The sins that stole the hardship The broken heart Or those we cannot win Misunderstood Because we're all peculiar Still no regrets We'll have but for our sake Today we reap Or miss our golden harvest Today He's given us all souls to win Oh then to save Stuck here once from the burning Today we'll go To bring some sinner in on the fourth now A day of pleasure Or a feast of friendship A house or car Or garments fair or free We'll all be trapped Where souls are brought to heaven And then how sad To face the slacker's flame Today we reap Or miss our golden harvest Today He's given us all souls to win Oh then to save Stuck here once from the burning Today we'll go To bring some sinner in on the last The harvest won When we first knew it's wasting And many souls Will die and never know The love of Christ The joy of sins forgiven Oh let us weep And love and pray and grow Today we reap Or miss our golden harvest Today He's given us all souls to win Oh then to save Stuck here once from the burning Today we'll go To bring some sinner in Saved by the blood We're just gonna continue live streaming folks Because it's just a 10 minute break Yeah we're just gonna keep live streaming We're just gonna keep live streaming folks We're just gonna keep live streaming folks Okay 10 minutes