Sermon Video - "Stirring Up Faithful Lives" (8/20/23)

Fellowship #2: Examples of Fellowship in Action

Sermon: "Fellowship #1 - Defined"

 Video of the first in a series of lessons on "Fellowship":

 

My last day of work was the final day of the preachers’ studies and Gospel Lectures at the building of the Metro Tuguegarao congregation. My morning session lesson was “Are You A Pharisee?” examining the traits and doctrinal stands of the sect as stated in Scripture. While they were condemned for their hypocrisy and self-righteousness, they were never condemned for strictly keeping the Old Law. In fact, they were very clearly condemned by Jesus for failing to adhere to the Law of Moses, but changing it by both addition and subtraction through their traditions (see Matthew 15 and Mark 7). They were also condemned for their rejection of the “counsel of God” by failing to be baptized by John (Luke 7:29-30). An examination of Matthew 19:3-9 also shows the Pharisees objected to the strict teaching of Jesus regarding marriage and the putting away of marriages to marry another. Thus, many of the same traits and doctrinal views of the denominations and those seeking to loosen God’s law are actually akin to the actions of the Pharisees, not those strictly adhering to God’s law.

 

After brother Ben Vistro spoke in the afternoon session, I followed with a lesson on “Godliness Without God” from 2 Timothy 3:1-5. The lesson noted the tendency of idolatry to invent their “religion” by making gods they could serve by doing the things the carnal man already desired. We noted the parallel of the same thing being done as the denominations and many institutional churches remake the church of the New Testament by adding the practices that attract the carnal man as well. At the end of the lesson, an invitation was extended by Rody and one young lady responded to be baptized into Christ!

 

This trip has been a very fruitful one! Several have been baptized into Christ in both the areas of Cebu and the Cagayan Valley. Two restorations took place in the Tuguegarao area that have great promise of helping the work to further grow. In addition to that, we saw evidence of a great deal of edification of the saints in every place visited. All repeatedly stated how much they had been encouraged, learned and challenged to more growth. At the same time, we sadly experienced some efforts by American brethren to hinder the work being done by actions of gossip and false charges. It is hard to understand why one would want to hinder the work they claim to desire, but they were not successful in their efforts. If anything, it further strengthened our Philippine brethren to continue the work! As with every trip, I believe I benefitted the most by seeing the faith, zeal, love, evangelistic desire and yearning for truth of so many here. They have strengthened and encouraged me beyond measure and I return more energized to serve the Lord! Please keep this fruitful field in your prayers. 

 

Preachers' Studies & Gospel Meeting Begins (4/10/23)

 

The two-day preachers’ studies and gospel meting began Monday morning in Tuguegarao. Brother Edgar Licodini of Isabela was the first speaker of the morning. I was scheduled to speak second from 10am to the lunch break near noon. I preached a lesson on the working, purpose, and duration of miracles based on Mark 2:1-12 that was entitled “Claim – Proof – Power.” We had time for a few questions before the break. Most of them centered on the differences between miraculous and providential healing plus a few questions on study tools.

 

After lunch, Brother Efren Ramos of the Ilocos region spoke first. I followed with a lesson on “Laying Aside Every Weight” from Hebrews 12:1-2. It was a lesson urging all of us to put away the things which keep us from focusing our efforts on serving the Lord.

There were 210 people in attendance for the studies today. They come from not only the local Cagayan Valley area, but also Ilocos Norte, Kalinga, Isabela and several other provinces. Needless to say, Rody and Tessie’s place is overflowing with guests who will stay tonight to be there for the second day of studies tomorrow, Lord willing.

Lord's Day in Tuguegarao and Alibago

 

Our Lord’s Day morning started with the services of the Metro Tuguegarao congregation. Brother Flor, one of the elders was teaching the auditorium class and Rody followed with some comments on the text. We were studying Matthew 25 and they were using the workbook by Marc Gibson as a guide. There was good participation by the members with all of the discussion in the dialect.

 

In the assembly, I preached on “The GAIN in Gaining Christ” from Philippians 3:7-14. Paul counted his past life of attaining a high status in Judaism as “rubbish” that he might gain Christ. What did he count as gain in Christ? That he might (1) know Him, (2) know the power of His resurrection and (3) know the fellowship of His sufferings.

 

In the afternoon, Rody, Tessie and I all went to worship with the Alibago congregation. Rody has been preaching there at 2pm until just this month. Now, James Attaban has begun to work with them and will be preaching there regularly. The congregation is made up of mostly Itawit speakers and that is James’ native dialect. When I started to speak on “Reason for Spiritual Weakness,” a “brown-out” occurred where electricity is lost in a region for some time. Without use of my charts, I went back to old style preaching and just delivered the lesson. With no air or fans, the building quickly heated up to be extremely hot and I felt like I was about to melt. I gave a shortened version of the lesson and Rody gave a summary in the dialect. There were no visible responses today.

More Preaching in Tuguegarao Area (4/8/23)

 

We delayed the start of Saturday morning’s appointment a little and got started a little after 9am. Mark Daquioag, a son-in-law of Rody and Tessie, joined us as our driver for the day. (Mark had been sick on Friday.) The first visit was to the Cadaanan congegation where Efren Respecio and his father share the preaching. Efren is another excellent and faithful preacher who lost his support to preach fulltime and had to return to his work as a civil engineer to support his family, but he still works extremely hard in the cause of Christ. Efren was another of the excellent students in the preacher training program at Tuguegarao (I think in 2007). His father has declined a great deal in his physical health since I last

saw him, but also continues to give his all in the cause of our Lord. I preached on “Defeating the Devil” from 1 Peter 5:8-9. Rody followed the sermon with another full and very effective summary of the study in the dialect. Three young people responded to the invitation to be baptized for the remission of sins.

 

We decided to go directly to the second congregation and give a short lesson in order to finish our work before the hottest part of the day. So, we proceeded to the Bangag congregation where Robert Pader preacher and began the service a little after 1pm. I preached a lesson from the account of the Philippian jailor’s conversion from Acts 16:20-34 called “From Interest to Obedience.” It was the shortest lesson I have ever preached in the Philippines, but I was running on fumes by the time I finished. Rody gave a summary which was probably a little

longer than my lesson in which he did an excellent job of covering the material in the Ilocano dialect. At the invitation, two men who are brothers responded. They had been baptized many years ago, but had been unfaithful for 20 years. They made acknowledgements and asked for prayers on their behalf. It was an emotional and very moving scene! Their father who gave to land for the church building and had preached for years is now an aged man and is presently in the hospital. I know that he will be thrilled to hear of his sons’ decision to return to the Lord! 

Preaching in the Tuguegarao Area (4/7/23)

 

Friday began our two days of visiting local churches in the Tuguegarao area to encourage the brethren in those places. Rody Gumpad had talked with me last year about the need for such visits, but the schedule could not accommodate the effort last year. On this trip, I asked Rody to schedule a couple of days to do this much needed work.

 

About 8am, Rody, Tessie and I left the hotel and went to the Lingu church where Robert Rances labors as the local preacher. Robert is a faithful man who has worked hard in this area and has been a consistent and stable supporter of other faithful brethren throughout the area. His sincerity and commitment to the Lord have borne fruit throughout the 20+ years that I have known him. A number of brethren from other congregations were also present to join us. The small building was packed! I preached a lesson on “The Message of the Cross” from 1

Corinthians 1:18-24. Rody followed the lesson with a full summary of the points in the dialect. No visible responses to the gospel were seen.

 

After visiting the Lingu congregation, Rody, Tessie and I had planned to go back to Tuguegarao for lunch before proceeding to the next appointment. Gerald and Josephine Ganela had traveled some distance to join us for the day, so we invited them to lunch. Gerald lost his support to preach full-time and is teaching school to support his family,

but continues to preach in two different congregations each Sunday. He is one of the best students we have had in the preacher training programs at Tuguegarao. Through the years, I have had a special bond with Gerald and admire his tender heart and great zeal for the cause of Christ. It was a joy to catch up with him over lunch!

 

In the afternoon, we went to the Lanna congregation in Solana where Jimmy Domingo preaches along with his son, who was another excellent student in a more recent preacher training program. I spoke on “Faithful Sayings of a Faithful God” from 2 Timothy 2:11-

13. Rody again followed the lesson with a full summary in the dialect. At the invitation, a young man in training for the police force and a young lady responded to be baptized into Christ.

 

Throughout the day, it was very hot as this is the hottest time of year in the Philippines and Tuguegarao usually has the highest temperatures in the country. Today seemed to be a scorcher in both temperature and humidity. During the afternoon appointment, I was sweating profusely and was

drinking water and Gatorade to prevent becoming dehydrated. Despite that fact, I came close to passing out twice, so I went to the hotel and got to bed early, trying to catch up on sleep and recover some strength.

 

All-Day Gospel Meeting in Tuguegarao (4/6/23)

 

The all-day Gospel Meeting at the building of the Metro Tuguegarao congregation began at 9am. I had been told to expect a large crowd, but I was totally unprepared for the number present. We had 361 registered adults and over 60 children present. The building was packed with every inch of space taken by as many as could compress into the building. The rest of the crowd sat on the concrete area outside of the building and watched on a big screen television set up allow all to see and hear the lesson presented. It was also broadcast on Facebook live, so many joined that way as well.

 

Willey Otey Pastor and I shared the preaching responsibilities for the morning session. It was great to see Willey and Kathy again and I was very impressed with his excellent lesson on “Satan Attends Every Service.” It was both thoroughly scriptural and very thought provoking. Willey is an excellent preacher and the crowd was very attentive throughout. I followed with a lesson on “Breaking the Hold of Temptation” from James 1:12-18. That was followed by a relatively short Question/Answer period before the lunch break.

 

The afternoon session began with a lesson presented by Lance Coloma from the EDSA-Pasay congregation in the metro Manila area. I missed that sermon because I needed to lay down and rest for a while because the heat and lack of sleep caught up to me and I became very weak after lunch. I was able to get back to the meeting very near the end of Lance’s lesson and then it was my turn to preach again. For the afternoon lesson, I preached of “The Faith That Overcomes Despair and Fear.” Almost all of those attending the meeting were members of the Lord’s body, but Rody extended an invitation after a summary in the dialect of my lesson. One young man responded to be baptized into Christ.

 

Gospel Meeting in Eskina and Travel to Tuguegarao (4/4 & 4/5/23)

 4/4/23

 

Tuesday was my last full day in Cebu. We left the hotel that morning and drove up into the mountain to get the Eskina, about an hour to an hour and a half away, where Mario (Mhar) Rubio has begun a fairly new work. When we arrived, the small building was already fully packed. I began as soon as we could set up and delivered a lesson on “Who Is A Christian?” Mhar then gave a summary in the dialect to relate the points to some who could not understand English. After the summary, two souls responded to let their desire be known to obey the gospel.

 

The second lesson of the morning session was “Breaking Temptation’s Hold.” We considered how the process of temptation works and the fact that we must allow ourselves to be a part of that process if we are enticed or surrender to it. We also considered some practical suggestions to resist and overcome temptation. That lesson and summary took the remainder of the morning session.

 

After lunch, we studied on “Water Baptism in the New Testament vs Denominational Baptism.” The main purpose of the lesson was to show that the principles learned in John’s baptism to prepare the way of the Lord and in baptism into the name of Christ stand in stark contrast with regards to purpose, action and effect. Since they are so clearly different, denominational baptism cannot be considered a substitute or alternate to the baptism commanded by Christ. Another lady from the Seventh Day Adventist Church responded after that lesson making known her desire to be baptized into Christ for the remission of sins.

 

 

4/5/23

 

My alarm was set for 3:45am on Wednesday morning so we could make it to the airport in Cebu for my flight to Manila and on to Tuguegarao. This time, I made all of the flights and they were on time. When I arrived in Tuguegarao, I was met by Rody and Tessie Gumpad who took me to the hotel where I unpacked and arranged my things for the week’s stay. That evening at 6pm, we looked at a lesson on “Being Approved to God” from 2 Timothy 2:15. An accident on a main bridge kept many from being there, but we hoped they would be able to come to the Thursday gospel meeting.

 

 

Gospel Meeting in Toledo City, Mainggit - Two Baptized

 This morning we left the hotel about 8:30am to travel to Toledo City for a gospel meeting with the Mainggit congregation. The travel was a little over two hours as we had to go from the eastern shore and cross over the mountains at the center of Cebu Island and go to the northwestern side of the island. When we arrived, the crowd of 94 were already assembled and ready for us to begin the preaching. The first lesson of the day was on “Faith That Overcomes Despair & Fear” from Psalm 11. We examined how David’s faith helped him overcome such trials and how we can develop a similar faith to overcome our times of trials and suffering. The next lesson of the morning was from Jude 3-4, “The Necessity of Openly Contending for the Faith.”

 

After the lunch break, we studied a pair of lessons from Ephesians 4. The first was “A Life of Darkness” from Ephesians 4:17-19 regarding what causes one to lead a life characterized by the darkness of sin. The second lesson was the opposite side of the text – “A Life in Light” from Ephesians 4:20-24. The lessons were well received by an audience that stayed focused throughout the day. At the close of the service, two made known their desire to be baptized into Christ.

Preachers' Studies End in Cebu City (4/2/23)

Sunday began with the regular services of the congregation that meets in the central part of Cebu City on the 14^th floor of the LUYM building. At 9am, they have the regular worship service and I preached from Philippians 3:7-14 on “That I May Gain Christ.” After a song, we immediately went to what is normally the time for Bible classes, but all met together and I brought another lesson on “Things Essential in Being Approved to God” from 2^nd Timothy 2:15. We had an excellent attendance and a very edifying time of worship.

In the afternoon, we continued the preachers’ studies with a lesson from Mark 2:12 (“Claim – Power – Proof”) dealing with the purpose, nature and duration of miraculous action. We first examined the text in detail regarding Jesus’ healing of the paralytic and then made parallels to the miraculous action in the confirmation of the gospel.

The last lesson considered in the preachers’ studies was “By What Authority?” from Matthew 21:23-25. We started by looking carefully at the context to identify the “high priests” and “chief priests” of the context as well as examining the basis of their claimed authority. We then looked at the actions for which they asked Jesus about His authority to do those things and noted that He showed His legitimate authority in each case. We then examined various practices of the denominational world to see if there is any authority “from heaven” for such practices or if they were solely “from men.”

 

The studies ended that afternoon and we had a time to pass out certificates of completion and take many pictures with the participants. I always hate for those sessions to end as the preachers present are so ready and zealous to learn more of God’s word. Please keep them all in your prayers as they return to their places of labor across the Visayas and Mindanao.

 

Preachers' Classes Begin in Cebu City (3/31 & 4/1/23)

 After a comedy of errors in getting to the Philippines on this trip, the work is getting off to a very good start. Please excuse my failure to put out a report yesterday. After several days with very little sleep, I was exhausted and went to bed at 9pm and slept straight through to 6am with only one short time of waking.

 

Friday’s classes began about 9:30 or 10 am with a lesson on “What Gives True Encouragement?” We started by noting the word often translated “encourage” (Gk.parakaleo) is also translated “comfort” and “exhort” in some passages. We saw that encouragement or exhorting commanded in Titus 1:9-11 is paired with convicting those who contradict the gospel as well as stopping the mouths of those who teach error. Colossians 2:1-8 makes clear that true encouragement depends on teaching the true doctrine of Christ and exposing error, not just a “feel good message” devoid of doctrinal truth. We noted that Apollos was commended by those in Ephesus with these words: “And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace; for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 18:27-28). True encouragement to New Testament Christians involved both the upholding of the true doctrine and the refutation of error. If we are looking for another content to “encourage” us, we are looking for an encouragement foreign to the gospel. The full lesson lasted through the morning session.

 

The first afternoon study was on “Distinguishing Good and Evil” from Matthew 7:15-23. We noted that Jesus said we could distinguish between good and evil by examining the fruit. The evil bears bad fruit and the good bears good fruit. That good fruit is identified as obedience to the will of God. Good does not exist in the absence of obedience to the will of God. “Good works” are those which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in (Ephesians 2:10).

 

The second afternoon study was “Laying Aside Every Weight” from Hebrews 12:1-2. We noted that the evil weights of lust and sin, materialism, pride and indifference must be put away. Then we noted that there are other weights that are not evil in themselves, yet must be put away if they are a hinderance to our service in the cause of Christ. We had an attendance of 51 for the studies on Friday.

 

On Saturday, we spent the entire day on a study of the Psalms. We began with an introduction to the Psalms and finished the morning with a study on the psalms of “Affliction” or “Lament.” In that time, we examined in detail Psalms 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 13 and 16. In the afternoon session, we began with a very thorough look at Psalm 78, an “Historical” psalm. We examined the cycles of history found in God’s blessings and wonders brought on Israel and Israel’s repeated response of rebellion and unbelief. The second part of the afternoon was spent in study of the “Penitential” psalms – specifically looking at Psalm 32 and Psalm 51. According to a number of the class, this was the first time they had studied in any detail from the Psalms and they seemed to be very interest throughout the six hours of study time. We had 70 for the Saturday classes.

 

Thank you for your interest in these efforts and we ask your continued prayers on behalf of the work being done. God bless!