Seizing God-Given Opportunities

Good evening to everyone and uh uh aloha and uh my wife is so nervous because uh but I told I told her a while ago that if you notice that my if my nose is bleeding then I will stop preaching. So uh anyway u once in a while you you can uh see me over here because we have way pahu chapel in the afternoon. I've been uh teaching Sunday school in the morning into our Filipino uh Sunday school. Um and then in the afternoon we have service at W Pahu Chapel. We started the Filipino ministry like uh uh three uh four of us but by God's grace uh in my 22 years here at Ohana Baptist Church uh we have now like 220 plus in uh members of the Filipino uh ministry.

and thank you for all your prayers and supports and uh for your love and concern for the Filipino ministry. Um came to Hawaii uh 2004 and uh uh with fiance visa. Uh my wife took me here to to Hawaii. I I left my church in the Philippines in northern part uh in northern Osan uh in the Philippines. Uh so I came here and now we have uh we have only one child that is Hannah and my wife is uh Marissa and uh uh the rest of you maybe uh you never see us uh uh once in a while we here but uh uh so far so good for our Filipino ministry. I give you uh just a short uh report from our ministry. Uh we have we have uh Bible study every week like uh three to four times.

Uh home Bible studies. I have Wednesday Bible study here at church and uh we have home Bible studies Monday, Tuesday and we have Friday and Saturday and we have Sunday over here. And uh almost monthly we have what we call the death ministry. that ministry is where we're looking for those dead and we are I'm officiating uh for the funeral service for free and we call it what we call free 99 uh because uh from other religion you can pay like uh thousand uh $1,000 uh to officiate a funeral service but in the part of the Filipinos whether you are in Catholic or other religion they can invite you to preach and officiate uh those kind of services.

So almost monthly uh we have the funeral services from u uh other uh religion and they allow me to speak and uh to God be the glory because there's a lot of people uh professions of faith they got saved and uh we thank God for that kind of ministry. So uh tonight I would like to share only just a short uh message. Uh, Pastor Hambert uh already mentioned the rest of my my preaching tonight. So, uh, anyway, uh, bear with me tonight. Uh, bear with my accent also because I'm Filipino. Uh, but uh, anyway, uh, uh, I'm uh, I'm a believer. I'm also a Christian. So, the word of God may be magnify and glorified tonight.

So, after the service, uh, don't worry about it. We have a get together fellowship. Uh we have I think uh chips, hot dogs and especially because uh Pastor Hambert this is uh his uh last Sunday with us uh Pastor Hambert is one of his favorite uh uh uh like uh food is hamburger. So we have uh we have hamburger tonight. [clears throat] Okay. I don't know if we have the uh the message tonight. uh I asked them to uh I sent my message uh last Thursday with pastor but uh I don't know if it's already in the screen. The title of God's message today that I'm going to share with you in the subject of what we call making the most of Godgiven opportunities.

Okay. uh making the most of God-given opportunities. Scripture uh our scripture reading this evening is uh found in Galatians chapter 6 1-10. And may ask everyone to please stand up as we give honor to the word of God. Okay. Galatians chapter 6 1-10. But we only uh going to read uh Galatians uh 6 uh 1 uh 1 and 2 and then 9 and 10. Okay. Galatians 6 verse 1 and 2 and also 9 and 10. And let's read all together in Galatians chapter 6 1 and two begin. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

Verse two, bear ye one another's burden, as to fulfill the love of Christ. Verses 9 and 10. And let us not be weary and welloing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially and to them who are of the household of faith. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, thank you Lord for this opportunity to share your word tonight. Bless the servant and also the hearers. Open our hearts. give us a humble spirit. Your name be magnified and glorified tonight in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you and please be seated. One of the most or the blessings we seldom thank God is for what we call opportunities.

Thank the Lord has given us plenty of opportunities since childhood to the present time. Paul reminds us that as long as we live on this earth, God give us plenty opportunities. And this message I wish to highlight four God-given opportunities that we all must seize. Number one, uh to evangelize sinners. The second one to edify saints. And number three, to encourage servants. And number four, to exalt the savior. So let's go back to number one to evangelize as sinners in verses 1 and two as we can see uh over here brethren uh if a man be overtaken in a fault you which are spiritual restore such at uh at one in the spirit of meekness bury one's another's burden and so fulfill the law of Christ to evangelize sinners means is uh to preach the gospel and we know already what does it mean the gospel is what we call the good news.

And what is the good news? Good news is the gospel. Okay. So the good news if we can see in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 1-4 is all about the suffering, death and burial resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven to earth. God sent his son just for you and for me for us to everyone. That's why to evangelize is all about uh to share the gospel to our loved ones and to our friends. Okay. People are going to hell because maybe let's say because of their unbelief because they don't believe of what we what we believe. The Bible says also that to evangelize people is we are now living in the last days.

That's why we need to grab this opportunity to share the gospel unto them because we have only one life. Soon it will pass and life is short. I believe that life is short. Life is stopped and life is spent. And someday you will never know and we will never know what's going to happen to us and the next day. So the Bible is telling us let us evangelize the sinners. Uh Romans 3 uh uh 23 says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Meaning there's the penalty of our sins.

And there are only two places to go, heaven or hell. So if a man dies, there are only two places to go. So if they they are not going to repent or they are not saved, when a person going to die, they're going to hell. That's why we need to grab the opportunity to evangelize the sinners and that is our job. Every individual Christians let us preach and share the gospel to them because they need the Lord Jesus Christ. So evangelize the word help to evangelize the word help eh means is help the lost people. Letter E, evangelize. Help. Evangelize. Letter Lost people. Okay. So, we need to help each other.

We need to we need to help the ministry that God entrusted upon us. So, meaning sometimes opportunity we miss something and we lost something. There is a story that I remember uh there is a man and his name is what we call opportunity. So the man named Opportunity, Opportunity, he is what we call uh a simple uh guy uh he has a long hair in the front of his face and then at the back of his head he's bald. Okay, in Tagalog bald means is calok. Okay, so he's bald and then opportunity he's walking down the street almost every day. Okay. Almost every day. And then there's a bunch of people, a group of people from the corner.

And then they keep teasing opportunity. They keep teasing him. They laugh at him because, "Oh, he's bald. He's bald. He's bald." But uh but opportunity, he said he smiled only. And then while one day uh he's walking down the street and then this group of people, they saw him and then they said, "Oh, there's opportunity. There's opportunity. They teasing him because he's bald. But opportunity said, "That's fine. That's okay. When I'm passing by, you cannot grab me anymore because they w they wanted to grab uh his hair uh on the front of his face." But he said, "That's fine." And then this group of people there when they're trying to grab him, can you imagine?

and figure it out the story. When they're trying to grab him uh to catch his hair, they cannot anymore because it's so shiny in the back of his head. So they cannot uh holding them already. They cannot catch him already. So that's why opportunity keep laughing at them. Okay. So sometimes the story is all about this. If we miss the opportunity because we never grab during the time. A lot of people they miss their opportunities. A lot of people they lost their opportunities. The challenge tonight, if you are here tonight and you miss and you lost your opportunity, please while you are here, you need to grab the opportunity in serving the Lord because later on we do not know already what's going to happen to us.

So we have been mandated to share the gospel of Lord Jesus Christ to the lost in the book of acts. That's our lesson in Bible study every Wednesday in acts 1:8 that we will we will receive power and we will share to uh to the people the first in Jerusalem in Samaria and Judea our family our friends our co-workers and then also in the book of acts in acts chapter 2 that uh those who received god's word they were baptized so meaning and then if uh in the day of pentecost there are 3,000 souls got saved Why there's a lot of churches now a dying church and there's a lot of ministries now are dying uh ministries.

Why? Because the lack of what we call or we forget to evangelize the lost or the sinners. But it is our job still being a Christian as a child of God it is our job to share the gospel to the people. Lost sinners will suffer uh eternity in hell in revelation 20:15. And there are people in hell simply because Christians failed to seize the opportunity to give the gospel. There we are failed to to share with them the gospel of Christ. So to evangelize sinners making the most of Godgiven opportunities. Number two. Okay. So uh it's but as I as I've said it's only very short message not because I'm short but they said blessed is he who speak it short and he will be invited again to speak.

Okay so well pastor Wayne is not so that's fine. Okay. Number two, to edify saints. Meaning to edify means is um uh what we call to uh instruct, uplift or to improve uh someone but a spiritual uh moral or intellectual intellectual sense building up their understanding. So to edify is to build up their understanding about the gospel, nurture them or we need what we call to grow in Christ. Second Peter 3:18 grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So meaning is one of us tonight to edify is we need to pray one for another to learn something because I believe if we stop learning we stop growing.

So that's why we keep on learning. We keep we keep on studying. We keep praying. We keep in learning. If we stop learning, we stop the blessing. So we need to learn from each other. Again, there's a story that again uh maybe I know something that you do not know. And you know something that I I I do not know. So we need to learn from each other. Tonight there's a great scientist went to the Philippines. this great scientist, he went to the seaside on the shore and then he saw a young man from there and he asked the young man, "Young man, can you take me into the middle of the sea?" Because this great scientist, he knows everything.

He's famous, he's popular. Uh he knows h about uh medical terminology or about science. And then he asked this young man, a Filipino young man. And then this uh this young man uh he took this uh great scientist in the middle of of the sea. And then while they are going in the middle of the sea, this great scientist he asked a question. And then young man, uh do you know who invented the telephone? And then the young man replied, he answered is this. No sir, I don't know who invented the telephone. Do you know who invented the telephone? Guess who can answer that? Do you know who invented the telephone?

Raise your hand so I can Yes, sir. Alexander Granell. Alexander Graanbell. I have a gift card over here for 10 bucks. So, this is for you. All right. Come and get it. Amen. Alexander Grabbell. And then this this great scientist, he said, "Oh, if you don't know who invented the telephone, you miss half of your life." So while they're passing through, while they're going, they're still in the middle of the sea. And then he asked another question to this young man. And then do you know who invented the light bulb? And then this young man said, "Sir, I do not know who invented the light bulb." And then who invented the light bulb?

Yes. Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison. Okay. You have $10, too. Oh, good. I think you you took each other. Okay. Okay. $10. Okay. All right. So, if you do not know who invented the light bulb, the great scientist asked the the young man, you miss 1/4 of your life. And then this young man, he noticed that the boat there is a leak and the water start starting going in and the boat is sinking soon. And then the young man also and he said to the great scientist, "Sir, it's my turn also to ask question for you." And the young man asked a question to the great scientist and he said, "Sir, do you know how to swim?"

And the great scientist replied, "Oh no, I don't know how to swim." Oh sir, I'm so sorry because the boat is sinking. We're going to die. So if you don't know how to swim, sir, uh you're going to miss all of your life. A lot of us today and nowadays, a lot of people, if you're going to say something to them, they keep answering and they said, "I know, I know." But really, they don't know. A lot of people, they don't know Christ. A lot of people today, they don't know how to be saved. And we as a Christians and saints to edify the saints let us share with them the gospel of Christ. So they should know that is there is salvation for the soul.

There is heaven. Heaven is real. Hell is real. Judgment is coming. And the second coming of Lord Jesus Christ also we believe. And the second coming of Christ. We do not know when but we believe. And the second coming of Christ. So we as Christians to edify the saints. It is our job to continue serving the Lord no matter what. So edify the saints under that maturity is included. Second one, not only maturity is included but also unity, unity is included. Maturity is included enable for us to grow. It's not easily to get offended but they are willing to listen and to learn and to grow because again every individual believers and Christians we need to be matured enough to receive God's word.

We are not easily get offended. Pastor Hbert this morning he did a good job. We are not uh baptosal or whatever but we need those kind of preaching. So maturity is included, unity is included to edify the sense. Remember there's no unity without you and I. What is spelling of unity? What is the spelling of unity? You and I. So there is no unity without you and I. So we need to work together hand in hand for the sake of the gospel. Amen. So unity is included. So unity means is uh uh there's no unity without you and I. And the word ty is thank you for being here tonight. Meaning you want to unify us.

We are here in the United States of America. There are only two parties here in America. the the Democrat and the Republican. But for us as a believers, as a church, as a body of Christ, we should and we must have a unity because we have one Lord, one faith and one baptism only. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And then as a family, ohana means family. For me, the meaning of family is father, mother, I love you. I don't know if you heard that one before. Family means is father, mother, I love you. That's the meaning of family. That's the meaning of ohana. And then I believe also that there's no church without you.

Are you uh do you believe in that? There is no church without [screaming] you because the church is composed of born again baptized believers. And that's you. If you're going to spell the church is C H U. And then what's the next letter? R. You are C. Uh H. You are C and then H. You are the church. So without you there's no church. Without you there's no unity. So to unify the saints, we work together hand in hand for the glory of God. Number three, and second to the last, we're almost done. Well, anyway, uh number three, to encourage servants, pastors, preachers, evangel uh evangelists, and missionaries.

So number two to edify the saints those who receive the Lord Jesus Christ of God's children they are like newborn babies babes and then verse B uh letter B it is our duty to take care uh of them when new Christians are not growing older Christians should take the blame so number three to encourage servants letter A God's servants pastors and missionaries or evangelists have their own shares of discouragement Elijah and the uh in the book of uh first kings chapter 19 Jeremiah our duty is to encourage them 2 kings 4:8-37 but I believe even David he encouraged himself in 1st Samuel chapter uh chapter 30:6 that he said in there that David encouraged himself so meaning to encourage servants the pastors preachers church, evangelist, missionaries.

According to survey, the whole year there are 1,600 are quitting from the ministry. It's not easy. It's hard to be in the ministry. So for me, the pastors, the missionaries, the evangelists, they gave their life to the church and to the community. And I believe also pastors, missionaries, evangelists, I believe that the pastor is God's gift to the church and the church is God's gift to the ch to to to the to the pastor. In Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 15 says, I will give you pastors according to my heart. So the pastors is a gift from God. We need to pray for them. So the word pastor if you can see the acronym on that letter P is let us pray for our pastor.

Letter A is we need to assist them. They need an assistance. So pray for your pastor. Assist. Assist them. Letter S we need to support them. Letter T, we need to trust them to lead us in the path of righteousness. We need to thank them in one way or the other. Letter E, uh, Hebrews chapter 13:7, obey them. And letter R, the meaning of pastor is we need to reward them or remember them into our prayers. It's not easy. Pastor Wayne if let's say his members is like 500 600. So every individual members they have problem. Our pastor is not uh pastor I think he's turning 71 or 72 next year or this year or November.

Our pastor he's not getting younger anymore. He's getting older like me. I'm almost 60 senior citizen or if you say 60 senior 60 cents. So our pastor is not getting younger anymore. He's getting older. Let's pray for him and his wife and each one of us, all the pastor staff and also the rest of our workers and volunteers at church. Our pastor is not getting richer anymore. He's getting poorer after the tour Europe. I don't know. I don't know who's watching right now. But he told me before tonight uh tonight before before he left he said you better preach on Sunday evening the last Sunday. Why pastor if you want to pay more you better preach on Sunday evening.

I supposed to be no pastor I don't like to preach because uh uh I said uh I'm not a I'm not a good speaker. I said but okay because he he was uh he offer a good uh uh a good uh uh love gift and payment. Okay. Well, I I will do the best I can. And pastor, he's not getting richer anymore, but he's getting poorer. He's not getting healthier anymore. He's getting sick clear already. He's a lot of uh illness is his body is going down because you know each one of us we get in there. Okay, we're getting in there. But again to encourage servants, how to encourage them? If you are during the feeding time on Sunday, you should show [snorts] up during the feeding time.

You should be there. Okay? So, grab the opportunity of serving the Lord. And then not only that, sometimes our pastors again, we have nobody's perfect. We have a lot of shortcomings and weaknesses too. There is no uh there's no perfect church. There is no perfect family. But to God be the glory. We have a perfect God. So let's pray for them. There are gifts from God. We need to treasure them, protect them, pray for them, help them in one way or the other. My beloved brother in the Lord, sometimes we don't understand each other. Sometimes we didn't get it. Whatever the problem is or uh uh uh health issue or any any any kinds of issue.

But let me tell you this tonight. Okay. I believe that God is a God of order and not confusion. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 30. Our God is a God of order and not confusion. One, one Sunday morning, this is story. One Sunday morning, a preacher said, "Anyone with a special needs who wants to be pray over, please come forward to the front of the altar." With that, Peter got in line. And when it was his turn, the preacher asked, "Peter, what do you want me to pray about for you?" And he replied, "Preacher, I need you to pray for me. help with my hearing. And then the preacher put one finger, one hand on Peter's ear, placed his other hand on the top of Peter's head, and then prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed.

And the whole congregation joined uh with much enthusiasm. And after a few minutes, the preacher removed his hands. He stood back and asked, "Peter, how is your hearing now?" And Peter answered, "I don't know, preacher. Actually, my hearing is on next Thursday in the magistrate court." Wow. Sometimes, sometimes we didn't get it. Sometimes we don't understand each other. But it's okay. In the Bible, we are one body of Christ. It doesn't matter whatever the color of of your skin. It doesn't matter your height, your weight or your look or with hair or no hair. Different nationality, different dialects.

Praise the Lord. We are [screaming] God's children. We are brother and sisters in Christ to edify or to encourage the servants. If we have one uh one one lord, one faith in bapt baptism and we have the unity and then the last one to exalt the savior. So in verse in verses um uh 7 or uh 6 and 7 it says in here in Galatians, let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth all good uh good things. Be not deceived. God is not mad. Whatsoever a man seweth, that shall al he also reap. For for he that seweth to the to his flesh shall uh of the uh flesh reap corruption. But he that sweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.

And let us let us not be weary and will doing. For in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we have opportunity, therefore opportunity, let us uh uh we have the opportunity, let us do good unto El unto all men, especially unto them who are the household of faith. What do you do or what you do? What are your motives? Let me remind you that there is only one supreme motive in all that we do. to glorify God. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31. In all the actions and uh and plans of life, whatever be your schemes, your desires, your doings, let all be done to the glory of God. Following this rule would make you live differently.

So as we can see tonight, I believe the blessings of God to exalt the Savior in first Corinthians 10:31 to 33 is a blessing to each one of us. One of my favorite verse is do all for the glory of God. Everything we do, do all for the glory of God. The challenge tonight we do always do for the glory of God. Don't do it for the staff. Don't do it for the teachers or whatever. Don't do it to for for our pastors. But do all for the glory of God. Like the choir we are singing. We have a good songs tonight. We have good singing tonight. So if I believe if you're going to sing, sing it for the Lord. Amen.

If you'll do teaching, teach uh for the Lord, for the glory of God. So if you're going to sing, sing it for the Lord. If you're going to pray, pray it for the Lord. So because I believe if a family that prays together, it stays together. That's the that's a a quotation or a saying. And uh a family that sings together is a choir. And I believe in that. So each one of us whatever we do we need do all for the glory of God. We need to glorify him, magnify him, exalt his name, honor him, bow down before him. And I believe that each one of us, we going to we're going to lose the opportunity and miss the opportunity if we never exalt the savior.

So while you are here at Ohana Baptist Church, for those of you are leaving soon or moving soon, I want you to know wherever or whatever the place you are going, grab the opportunity to serve the Lord. Again, we have only one life. Soon it will pass. Grab every opportunity that God has given unto us. We honor, we appreciate the Sunday school teachers, the children ministries, the volunteers, the greeters, the users, but all of us, we have only one purpose to glorify God and do all for the glory of God. In my conclusion tonight, I believe also that if is the if it is not here, then where? If it is not you and then who?

If it is not now and then when. So maybe tonight just make a simple decision in your life. We are serving the Lord the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. But you know what? Let us grab every opportunity while we are still here on this earth. I do not know when I'm going to die. all this tuff they they don't know when they're going to die. Each one of us, you will never know what's going to happen. So tonight, God is inviting us. God is waiting for us to serve him more, to love him more. Grab every opportunity to serve him tonight. when you're going home tonight, maybe just pray, Lord, use me.

Lord, uh, give me and use my talents, my treasures, and also my time. So, we need to give our time, our talents to God, and our treasures to God. And I believe making the most of God-given opportunities is now and not tomorrow, not uh this years or the following years, but now making the most of God given opportunity. Henry Drummond wrote, "I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now.