This is a series on church problems and you say, Brother Stuckey, I thought we were finishing
our series.
Well, I'm actually going to add one sermon in a couple weeks about behaving in the house
of God, just things I've seen over the last couple of years.
So you know, we're not concluding the series yet, but we're going to be talking about divisions,
the exterior causes.
Now we talked about envy and we talked about the inside and the outside.
We talked about strife, the envy and the outside.
Now we're going to talk about divisions.
We talked about the inside, now we're going to talk about the outside.
Of all of these sermons of the inside, outside, this is the most similar to last week's sermon
compared to the envy and the strife.
So there's a lot of similar information, but we want to just show everything that the Bible
says.
And so one cause of church problems and one cause of division on the exterior is when
there is a church that has cliques, okay?
Notice what it says in Acts 6, verse 1, and in those days when the number of the disciples
was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their
widows were neglected in the daily ministration.
And so you see here at the church, you have the Grecians, you have the Hebrews, you have
these different groups and they're against one another.
They're not united together as one, but there's a division there, okay?
Now at our church, for the most part, we're mainly Filipinos, except a couple of us, right?
So you don't necessarily have this thing, but at this church, you have various different
groups and it's natural that people are going to kind of fellowship with those that they
are more similar to.
Their backgrounds are similar.
Now I'm not saying that's necessarily a wrong thing, but it can definitely become too much
when there's cliques in church and when there's one side against another side.
Go to 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1.
You know, an example of this I have seen in churches is I've seen like in the US at churches
where basically, because in the US it's a melting pot of the entire world.
You have people from all over the world and you'll have various different groups within
a church, okay?
And sometimes somebody from their clique or their group or whatever, people automatically
side with that person simply because they're part of the same ethnicity or they're part
of that same clique.
This is the wrong mentality.
As a church, we need to be united together as one without cliques.
1 Corinthians 1, verse 10, now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you.
So the Bible says there should be no divisions among us as a church, but that you be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
As a church, we ought to have the same mind, we ought to have the same judgment.
Now at a lot of churches, cliques form because of the fact the church is not really preaching
any doctrine.
It's unclear what the church believes, okay?
You'll have a church and you'll have one clique which are the soul winners, you'll have the
non-soul winners, you'll have the pro-repentance of sins, the non-repentance of sins, those
that believe in speaking in tongues, those that are King James.
Somebody's reading it, we got the King James clique, we got the NIV clique, we got the
new King James clique.
Look, this is wrong and you're supposed to have unity at a church.
And one way we prevent that as a church is we're very clear with what we believe, okay?
We as a church, we need to be united together as one, we need to avoid the clique mentality.
This is something that always happens in churches and it's got to be preached from time to time
because people start to hang out with the people that they like the most.
They hang out with those that they're most similar towards and it creates a clique mentality
and when new people come to church, they got to kind of pick which side they're on in this.
That's not the way it's meant to be at church, we're meant to be united together as one.
Verse 11, for it hath been declared unto me of you my brethren by them which are of the
house of Chloe that there are contentions among you.
Verse number 12, now this I say that every one of you sayeth, I am of Paul and I have
Apollos and I have Cephas and I have Christ.
In verse 12, what you see are four different cliques.
You've got the Paul the apostle clique, you've got the Apollos clique, you've got the Cephas
clique and then you've got the ones that say I'm of Christ, okay?
And so I'm sure Paul the apostle got many of these people saved and he preached many
sermons and some people said, you know what?
We like Paul the apostle the most.
We prefer it when Paul the apostle is here.
And then you have the Apollos clique and the Cephas clique.
An example would be, let's say you start a church plant.
Let's say for example when we had our church in Pampanga, when people were going down to
preach pretty regularly, some people could have this attitude, man, I like it when so
and so's the preacher, but I'm not really on board when he's not the one preaching.
That's wrong, okay?
And when a church plant takes place and new churches started, throughout the Bible, this
is a common way you start churches.
You don't necessarily have one person preaching all the sermons but it's kind of a joint effort.
One downfall is that church can develop a mentality where they're basically on board
when this person's here but not when other people are here.
That's wrong.
One example of this that we could apply is what if we said, well, we've got the I'm of
Pastor Jimenez, I'm of Brother Stuckey, I'm of Pastor Anderson, I'm of Christ, okay?
There's always the I of Christ crowd that makes themselves spiritual.
Oh, you're of this church, I'm of Christ, right?
That's what you see here.
Look, you know what, when it comes to our church, I'm happy for anybody who joins our
church from the online movement.
I think it's great.
I think it's great if as a church, what we're doing is we are entering into other men's
labors.
Look, when this church started, there were people here from day one, not because of me,
I was just entering into the labors of other men that had online ministries that were successful
and there were people that said, you know what, there's a church like this, we want
to get on board with it, okay?
Look, I'm not against people coming from the online movement.
I think that's great, but there would be a problem if at a church, there's these divisions
based on your favorite online preacher.
That would be a problem.
Look, I have been to churches and I've seen this before.
I've seen people say at like-minded churches, well, Pastor so-and-so's my favorite preacher.
It's like you've got a good preacher right here.
Why would you say that in a church that, hey, I like the sermons here, but my favorite preacher,
is this person?
That's an insulting thing to say, okay?
And I'm not saying you can't listen to online preaching, I mean, that's perfectly fine and
you can enjoy other preachers, that's great.
I have no problem because you learn the word of God from other people, it makes you good
church members.
I think that's fine.
But there'd be a problem if there's these divisions based on this where we have this
attitude, well, I'm kind of part of this group and part of this group.
We are one here.
We are one church and you cannot form divisions and cliques based on anything, okay?
Now turn to 1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
And in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, notice what it says in verse 1.
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even
as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you're not able to bear it, neither
yet now are ye able.
For a year yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions,
are ye not carnal and walk as men?
Verse 4, for while one sayeth, I am of Paul and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal?
Who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believe, even as the Lord gave
to every man.
So in this church, the church of Corinth, one of the many problems they had is they
had cliques.
Certain people said, I'm of the Paul the apostle crowd, I'm of the Apollos crowd, okay?
Now turn to Galatians chapter 3, Galatians 3, Galatians 3.
I'm sure Paul the apostle got a lot of these people saved.
I'm sure Apollos got a lot of these people saved.
Let me be honest with you, I don't really care how you got saved as long as you're saved.
Whatever online preacher you got saved from, praise the Lord for it.
That's good.
It doesn't really matter how you got saved.
The point is you're saved, now you're part of the church.
That's great, okay?
There's no need to make a division like they're doing here that says, hey, I'm of Paul and
I'm of Apollos.
Hey, I don't care how you got saved or how you decided to start living for God.
The point is God has placed you here at this local church.
You get on board with the church and you do great things for God.
Galatians chapter 3 verse 26, for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many as you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek.
So notice when it comes to a local church, the church of Galatia, saved people, there's
neither Jew nor Greek.
It doesn't matter what your ethnicity is.
It doesn't matter what your background is.
It doesn't matter what your job is.
What matters is that you're part of the church and you're one.
There's neither Jew nor Greek.
There's neither bond nor free.
There's neither male nor female.
For ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Go to Numbers chapter 16, number 16.
The application of this is that when you come to church, you're not coming just to say I'm
hanging out with my best friends at church.
That is the wrong mentality to have.
There's nothing wrong with having close friends at a church, but you need to get to know everybody
at church.
You need to care about everybody at church.
You need to pray for everybody at church.
You need to love everybody at church.
And if you do not do that, it forms cliques in the church.
It makes it very hard for a new person to join the church because when they come, it's
just kind of like, man, nobody really wants to talk to me.
That is the wrong atmosphere for a church, okay?
And look, I understand when it comes to a church, there can be kind of a small church
mentality, where basically we love everybody at this church and we don't want new people
to come here and everything.
And people never say this publicly, but it's kind of the philosophy how people run their
lives sometimes, where they're happy to have a small church, they're happy to have the
ministry they're involved in, and they don't want new people coming and taking over some
ministries and things like that.
That is the wrong mentality as a church.
Our church will be successful when all of us become less significant.
Say what do you mean?
What I mean is this.
If you have a church full of five people, every one of those person means a lot.
Everything you do at church, it's like, man, I mean, everyone's taking part of a lot of
it, right?
If you have just a couple people at church, as the church gets bigger, everyone becomes
a little bit less significant, right?
When I started working for Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, I was the first full-time
worker of the church.
But then a couple years later, then all of a sudden we have another full-time worker.
What does that do?
It makes you a little bit less significant because of the fact you're more replaceable.
Okay?
Do you understand what I'm saying?
This is actually a good thing, though, as a church grows.
See, when there's a small church, you kind of feel like this is my family, and I'm really
important here.
You know, you need to have the John the Baptist mentality, where basically, you know what?
If basically my influence is less, that's a good thing.
When we decrease, God increases.
And look, when our church is running 100 people, Lord willing, one day, all of us are going
to be a little bit less significant because there's a lot more people here.
That is a good thing.
It is not about being famous in a church or well-known.
It's about just trying to serve God, and we want this church to grow.
And if we want it to grow, what that means is, as the church grows, all of us are going
to become a little bit less important.
But you have to ask yourself this question, why are you serving God?
Are you serving God to be popular?
Are you serving God to be looked at and well-respected?
Are you just trying to serve God and do what God wants you to do?
And look, as our church grows, it's going to make all of us a little bit less significant.
We need to avoid the clique mentality and be happy with that, okay?
Numbers chapter 16, one thing that causes divisions on the exterior is when there's
cliques at church.
As much as is possible, I will try to preach sermons to try to avoid that mentality, okay?
Another thing is complaining.
Complaining is something on the exterior when you hear people complain and it causes divisions
at church.
I'll show this to you in Numbers 16, verse 1.
Now Korah, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi and Dathan and Abiram, the
sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peyleth, sons of Reuben, took men, and they rose up
before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly, famous
in the congregation, men of renown.
These are well-respected people.
These are people that are looked at as leaders, 250 people, it says they're famous in the
congregation, men of renown, they are well-known, they are well-liked, and look, they rise up
before Moses, okay?
Now I want you to realize this does not happen in one hour.
It's not like you can just say, you know what, we're going to rise up against Brother Stuckey
and then just immediately you've got 25 people on your side.
No, this takes place over months and months and months.
This is something that subtly Korah was getting people on his side, you say, how do you do
that?
They suddenly complain about the leadership, flatter the people, and then all of a sudden
they start liking you more than Moses.
That's reality.
This does not happen in one hour.
This happens over a long period of time, very subtly, very slowly, okay?
Verse three, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and
said unto them, ye take too much upon you.
What they're accusing Moses and Aaron of being is basically prideful people that want
power.
Ask yourself this question, did Moses want this job?
No.
I mean, he turned God down several times, just send somebody else.
He makes excuse after excuse after excuse, just send somebody else.
He didn't want the job.
Did he take too much upon him?
He did the opposite.
He's like, I don't want this responsibility.
I don't want this job.
Send somebody else.
I can't speak.
I'm not eloquent.
He did the exact opposite of lifting himself up, and yet they accuse him of what is the
exact opposite of his personality.
I mean, these are the people that Moses begged God not to kill over and over again, and then
they rise up and say, you're taking too much upon yourself, okay?
Then notice this.
He takes too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them.
All the congregation are holy.
You say, is that referring to all, every one of them?
He makes it very clear.
This is what Korah was saying.
Now, we don't know how many people are in this congregation, but it's huge.
I mean, this is a massive congregation.
This will be a mega church by any standard in today's world if there's this many people.
I mean, can you honestly say if there's a church of thousands of people that every single
person is holy?
Every single person at a church of 5,000 people is holy.
Is that ever going to be true?
No.
But Korah says everybody's holy.
Why would he say that?
Well, it sounds pretty good if somebody says you're holy, right?
It's like, man, you're a great speaker.
I mean, you are such a great preacher.
I mean, it's wrong for Brother Stuckey to preach all the sermons.
I mean, you could out-preach him any day of the week.
I mean, you wouldn't have forgotten to come up here and do the announcements like Brother
Stuckey 10 minutes ago, right?
It's like you wouldn't make those mistakes.
I mean, things would be so much better.
Boy, it sounds good when people lift you up.
And what is that?
You're touching into the pride inside of your own heart, right?
It's very subtle, but this is what Korah does when you pay attention.
I mean, everybody's holy.
Oh, yeah, I am holy.
That's right.
I am a good person, right?
I should have more power, right?
That is what Korah is doing.
Verse 4.
And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face, and he spake unto Korah and unto all
his company, saying, Even tomorrow the Lord will show who are his and who is holy, and
will cause him to come near unto him.
Even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him.
Go to verse 9.
Verse 9.
Seameth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from
the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle
of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation and minister unto them?
In verse 9, Moses is saying, you know what?
You had a good position.
You had a position of influence.
You had a big position.
Verse 10.
Have brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee, and seek
ye the priesthood also?
Verse 12.
And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, which said, We will not come
up.
Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk
and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over
us?
They are accusing Moses of bringing them into this desert and just, they're going to starve
to death.
They're not going to have any food or water to drink.
Is it Moses' fault they don't enter into the promised land?
Is it Moses' fault that it takes so much longer?
Is he the one who sinned?
Is he the one who is prideful?
Is he the one who is complaining and rebelling and murmuring against God?
It wasn't Moses.
Moses prayed on their behalf, and they accused him.
What does that teach you?
It teaches you leadership is always going to be blamed.
If things go wrong, leadership will get blamed.
The leadership gets the credit when things go well, and they get the blame when things
go bad.
It's just a reality.
That's the way it is.
Whether it's accurate or not, people are always going to blame the leader if things go wrong,
even if it's not their fault.
Now, look, I'm not complaining because here's the thing.
When things go well, then I get the credit.
You make missionary updates, and they say, man, Brother Stuckey, you're doing an awesome
job out there.
Well, there's a lot of people doing an awesome job here.
There's a lot of people involved in the work, but the reality is the person who's front
and center is going to get the credit when things go well, and they get the blame when
things go bad.
So look, if you say, man, I want to be a pastor one day because I want to get this credit.
Well, you're also going to get blamed when things don't go perfectly.
That's just the way it is.
Okay, that's reality.
That's what you're seeing in this story.
So they're blaming Moses when things are going bad.
Verse 14, Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey,
or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards.
Wilt thou put out the eyes of these men?
We will not come up.
Go down to verse 19.
Verse 19, And Korah gathered all the congregation against them onto the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord appeared onto all the congregation.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Separate yourself from among this
congregation that I may consume them in a moment.
It's very obvious whose side that God is on.
You know, it's funny when you read these stories, though, it's very obvious whose side God is
on.
And even afterwards, Moses and Aaron still get blamed.
It's like God just sided with Moses.
It's like, how can you blame him?
Right?
Verse 26, And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents
of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest he be consumed in all their sins.
So they gathered from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram on every side.
And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives and
their sons and their little children.
Drop down to verse 31.
So basically, what you have here is a church split, pretty much right?
You have a church that is not united together as one, you have a division and it was caused
by complaining.
It caused a big split in the church, caused a big division in the church.
Now look, this happens today as well.
There's churches that have divisions and splits based on various things.
Somebody will disagree with something the leadership did, and people will complain at
the leadership, and people will leave the church to go side with those people.
It's foolishness.
Why would you leave a good church even if you did disagree with something?
I mean, we're not talking heaven or hell issues.
I'm not saying if the pastor is a heretic or something, but when it's an issue that's
not a heaven or hell issue, why would you leave a good church even if you do disagree
with the person who makes a decision?
Verse 31, and it came to pass as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the
ground clave asunder that was under them.
And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up in their houses, and all the men that
appertained on the core and all their goods.
They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed
upon them, and they perished from among the congregation.
Go to Jude chapter one, Jude one, Jude one.
You say, Brother Stuckey, why does complaining cause divisions?
Why is that an exterior cause?
Well, here's the reality.
When people complain about the church or complain about something in the sermon or complain
about how something is run, one of a couple things is possible.
One thing that is very possible is there could be a shred of truth to what they're saying.
If people complain with something I do, quite honestly, there's a good chance there might
be a shred of truth to what they're saying, because I'm not perfect.
I mean, look, if there's a complaint, you know what, yeah, maybe something should be
running smoother.
Maybe I shouldn't have done this.
Maybe I should have done this.
You know, sometimes there's a shred of truth to that.
Now, that is a foolish reason to leave a church, though, okay?
But the other thing is this, even if it's not true, when people complain, if it's something
they're bothered by, there's gonna be other people that agree with them, and they make
a mountain out of a molehill.
Something small becomes a major thing.
Somebody complains and says, we should be doing this, not this, and other people agree
with them, and what it does is it touches on the inside of your own heart that is not
spiritual, that's not right with God, and then you get mad at the church when before
you're happy.
Be very careful about people that complain about the leadership.
Be very careful about people that are complaining and always upset.
Yes, of course, the church is not perfect.
Yes, of course, we could do things better.
Yes, of course, there's mistakes I make, but be very careful if someone's always criticizing
the church.
You have to wonder, what are their motives?
Go to Jude 1, Jude chapter 1, verse 16, Jude 1, verse 16.
These are murmurers, complainers, complainers.
This is in reference to people that are bad people, people that are false prophets, and
one attribute is they can be complainers.
These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouths speak
of great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
So these same people that complain also, they speak great swelling words.
They are flatterers, okay?
But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord
Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should
walk after their own ungodly lusts.
These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
The same people that are complaining are also separating in verse 19, right?
You see that link of the divisions in 19, and they separate, why?
Because they say things that they couldn't say in front of everybody.
Look, when you're criticizing other people, you can't say it in front of the whole congregation,
can you?
If you're criticizing other church members and complaining, you can't say it in front
of everybody.
Why?
Not everyone's going to agree with you.
So what do people like this do?
Well, they take people aside that they know will agree with them, and they're like core,
they slowly get people on their side, okay?
Now I'm not saying when somebody does this they're automatically a bad person, but you
do see the link to bad people doing this.
Be very careful the person that's complaining, okay?
Turn to Matthew 15, Matthew 15.
Now I hope that if somebody complains and criticizes me or the church to you or something
like that, or another church member, I hope if somebody criticizes another church member
to you that you know what, you will just take the defense of the church member.
Now I'm not saying if they committed a major sin, but I'm saying that you're not allowing
yourself to associate with gossip and just railing on some other person at church and
criticizing them.
And look, it might be true what they're saying, maybe they're not perfect, but as a church
none of us should be complaining and criticizing about other people.
One thing that causes division on the outside are cliques, another thing is complaining,
and another thing are convictions, okay?
What is a conviction?
A conviction is a firmly held belief or opinion, okay?
Matthew 15 verse 7, ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, this people
draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and be on earth with their lips, but their heart
is far from me.
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
And it says in Matthew 15 that these people basically made up their own rules, and then
those rules became more important than the direct commandments of the Bible, the direct
commandments of the word of God.
And oftentimes you see this, people get really excited about a topic that doesn't really
matter that much, and then it causes major divisions because people get so animated,
okay?
Let me give you a couple of examples of this.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 2, 1 Corinthians 2, 1 Corinthians 2.
One thing that I've seen in churches in the US that becomes a big source where people
have a big conviction about something and it causes divisions is the shape of the earth,
right?
The shape of the earth causes major divisions in good churches.
Now look, I'll be honest with you, I might change my opinion in the future in terms of,
because honestly I really don't care about this topic.
I don't care if you think the earth is shaped like a cube or a pyramid or a rectangle or
a sphere or whatever, it doesn't really, or if you think it's flat or whatever you think
it is.
It doesn't really matter to me as long as you don't make it a major, major issue.
This is more important than whether or not you believe in eternal security.
That's weird to cause a major division over something that doesn't matter.
Now our position in a church is that the earth is spherical.
You say, why?
The Bible says it is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, okay?
You say, well, if it says circle of the earth, why doesn't it say sphere?
Well, there's a couple of reasons.
One, because circle was a much more common word in the language.
And two, everybody knows that a circle and a sphere are the same thing.
One is three dimensions, one is two dimensions.
Say I don't know, brother Stuckey.
Look, I used to be a math teacher.
Let me give you the definition of a circle.
You take the middle point of a circle and every part along the outside, the circumference
is an equidistant from the center.
What's a sphere?
It's a three-dimensional, not two-dimensional object where you take the center of the sphere
and every point along the outside is an equidistant from the center.
A sphere is a three-dimensional circle.
And guess what?
When you teach people, that's how you teach them.
Because every kid learns two dimensions first.
Even though we live in a three-dimensional world and two dimensions is sort of just,
I mean, it's not really something in this world, but you teach kids, hey, here's a square.
One day I'll teach my son a cube and I'll say, hey, it's three dimensions.
Same thing.
Circle to sphere.
What do you say?
Hey, son, this is what a sphere is.
It's a three-dimensional circle.
That is the easy way.
You say, why?
That's a lot simpler than take the middle point and everything along the circumference
is an equidistant from the center, because not everybody loves math, okay?
So look, and you say, well, Brother Stuckey, this is why you're wrong, because the Bible
does have the word ball in it one time.
So why doesn't it say it is he that sits upon the ball of the earth, because that's a spherical
object.
Why does it say circle?
Well, here's the reason why.
Because a ball is an object.
It's not a shape.
You throw an object.
You don't throw a shape.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
One verse is highlighting the object, and in Isaiah 40, verse 22, it's highlighting
the shape, okay?
Since it's highlighting the shape, it's not going to say ball.
It's going to say circle, okay?
So look, when there's verses that say, spread the gospel to the end of the earth, well,
if you look up in the Bible, the end of the earth means you hit the water.
There's the earth and the water just going all the way back to Genesis 1.
It's not saying, spread the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Whoops, I'm dead now, right?
That's not what it's saying, okay?
But look, when it comes to this topic, honestly, I don't really care what shape you think the
earth is, as long as it doesn't become a major issue.
It's a very foolish thing to cause a division on, isn't it?
What a dumb thing to cause a division on the shape of the earth.
Some of the other things that might cause divisions or people get very animated, people
get very animated on various conspiracy theories, like whether or not you landed on the moon
and there's like, will be two camps, like those that say you did land on the moon and
those that say you didn't land on the moon, and it becomes like a major object.
Or in the US, one of the big things is, is the government dumping chemicals on our head?
And it's like, do you believe in chemtrails or contrails?
Which side are you on, okay?
And it's just like these topics are not important.
They're not a big deal.
They're not heaven and hell issues.
And look, we all have opinions about a lot of different things.
We need to be very careful, though, not to make a personal conviction we have into this
major topic of division.
We at church are not all the exact same.
We have different opinions on various things, right?
Even some things I preach in the Bible, you might not hold the exact same opinion.
I try to show you the Bible.
I try to give you my reasons, and I give you my opinions.
And then look, sometimes you might walk away and say, I just interpret this verse differently.
Hey, that's fine when they're minor issues, right?
You don't have to believe the exact same things that we teach, okay?
Now go to 1 Corinthians 2, 1 Corinthians 2, 1 Corinthians 2.
And look, don't just try to get everybody on your side about issues that are not important,
okay?
I've got to convince everybody of this conspiracy theory.
It's like, it doesn't really matter, okay?
And I'm not saying there's never a time where you can talk about that stuff, and I have
opinions on all the things I stated and everything like that.
But when you make it like a splitting issue where it's like, you used to think somebody
was a godly Christian, but you just found out yesterday they think that we landed on
the moon, so now you're done with them.
It's like, well, they're no longer my friend.
I don't care.
Well, go to 1 Corinthians 2 and look at verse 9.
1 Corinthians 2, verse 9.
The Bible says there are deep things in the Bible.
What that means is there are things that you have to really dig deep to get an understanding
on.
See, there are certain things on the very surface of the Bible that are very obvious,
okay?
But salvation is very obvious.
You know, most things in the Bible are pretty obvious.
But there are things that are deep things.
And what that means is this, that you know what, you can really search and search.
It might take you years to come up to the solution.
Like what is this verse really referring to?
And here's the reality.
On the deep things of God, people are going to have different opinions.
When it comes to what is the Bible talking about when God is mad at the women sewing
arm holes on the people and handkerchiefs in the book of Ezekiel, people are going to
have different opinions on that.
It's like I have absolutely no idea, okay?
It's like people form different opinions on various things that are deep things.
They can have different opinions.
Go to Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4, Ephesians chapter 4.
Now even when it comes to people that are like-minded and good churches that preach
for the most part the same things, there's going to be different opinions on topics.
There's going to be things that people see things differently.
There are going to be certain things that I preach.
And look, I know a lot of topics out there where I can tell you a lot of pastors that
you listen to, they just disagree on them.
They just have a different opinion on them.
I'd always encourage when there's ever anything preached, you read the Bible for yourself
and figure out what you believe and have a reason for believing that.
One thing I mentioned that I know a lot of people have different opinions on is just
the operation of how the Lord's Supper is taken.
Now my stance is this, that whatever my church does, I would get on board with it.
I went to a church in West Virginia where they took the Lord's Supper every single month.
Now that's not what we do here, that's not my interpretation of the verses, but I'm not
going to fight the church over a difference of opinion on that.
You just get behind the church and you don't try to convert anybody to your side, there's
no purpose to doing that.
Now hopefully when you're at a church and it's preaching the truth, you agree with the
church.
But look, if you believe that in the Old Testament Jesus was Michael the Archangel, well then
there's cults that teach that.
I mean if you don't believe hell is a literal place of fire, then hey, there are churches
out there that would be great for you.
If you say, Brother Stuckey, the speaking in tongues thing, man, I can't believe you
said that because when I go home, I just kind of light some incense and just kind of go
to town just speaking to God in some language that I don't understand.
Hey, there are plenty of churches that you would fit in great at, okay?
But when it comes to what we teach, hopefully you're on board with what we teach.
Ephesians 4 verse 11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and
some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ.
The Bible says in verse 11 that there's various leadership given to a church.
Now at this church, what we have is an evangelist that's running the church, okay?
Obviously under the authority of Pastor Menes, but I'm the one who preaches the sermons here.
And the purpose is for the perfecting of the saints.
It means to complete the saints.
It means so people are well-rounded because many times people are very zealous, but maybe
there's certain areas of their life that they still need to work on.
And my job is to preach sermons that will make you well-rounded, that you'll be good
in all areas for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry.
You know, this church ought to operate to basically spread the gospel, the work of the
ministry, get people saved.
And you look at this church, and before you were at this church, even though you loved
God, even though you loved the things of God, you probably didn't do as much soul winning.
But now that you have a church that you're on board with and that you can invite members
and you're excited about, it makes it easier to be motivated to go soul winning.
So a church exists for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ.
Now the body of Christ is referring to a local church body.
And so the sermons that are preached ought to be edifying, okay?
Now I want you to realize there's all manner of topics that you can preach in church.
But be very careful to just always be excited about shock preaching.
Now look, we're at the Halloween time so I preach a sermon about how to get demon-possessed
and I think that's appropriate, but there'd be a problem if every single sermon was something
like that.
There'd be a problem if every single sermon was just preaching against a false religion.
That's not a good balance.
We need sermons that edify us.
You say, why?
You don't magically become a good husband unless you work on it.
You don't magically become a good mom unless you work on it.
And a church is meant to help you in this process.
So sermons need to edify you and help you and help complete you as a Christian so you
become better at all walks of life, okay?
Verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith.
And as a church, we ought to be united around the things that we believe.
That's why a church needs to be very clear with what they believe.
Now there are Baptist churches here in the Philippines that are twice as big as us, three
times as big, four times as big.
I'm sure there's Baptist churches within 10 miles that are three times our size, but I
guarantee you if you walked up to all the members of the church and asked would they
believe on topics, you would hear all kinds of things.
It's like, you know, what do you think you have to do to be saved?
Ten different answers within that one church.
There's a problem there.
But when it comes to a good church, yes, the quantity matters.
How many people you have, but you know what's more important than the quantity?
The quality.
The quality of the members.
I mean, you could have a church full of 500 people and count up how many times they read
through the Bible in a year where you count up every member.
This member read through the Bible once a year.
This member read through it twice a year and count up all the times they've read through
the Bible as a church.
And you know what you're going to find in most Baptist churches with hundreds of people?
The answer is like three.
As a church, they read through the Bible three times cover to cover in a year with 500 people.
Look at our church.
There's many people that read through the Bible three times cover to cover.
There's many people that spend 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes every single day reading the
Bible.
I mean, in January we will do our New Testament Bible reading challenge where we will encourage
everybody to read through the entire New Testament in one month.
Many of us read through the Bible a lot.
It's not just about the quantity of how many people you have.
It is the quality.
Both matter, but quality is more important than quantity.
You say, why?
Because I believe our church gets more people saved than some of these mega Baptist churches.
Even if they do some form of soul winning out there, because it's usually pretty bad
soul winning.
And so, look, it's more important to have good quality.
Verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son
of God unto a perfect man, onto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine.
The Bible says don't be carried about with every wind of doctrine.
And look, this is how young people can be.
They can believe something and their mind can be changed in 10 minutes and they go back
and forth and back and forth.
And that's a characteristic of a baby Christian as well, where it's like, man, I believe it's
Moses and Elijah during the end times.
Oh, no, man, I was wrong before.
I'm 100% positive it's Enoch and Elijah.
I changed my mind again.
Look, that's evidence of a baby Christian.
You ought to figure out what you believe and why you believe it and not be tossed to
and fro.
And here's the thing, if you do not know what you believe, you are at the mercy of people
that might toss you to and fro.
You might be at the mercy of people even within a church that causes major division because
you don't know what you believe.
Look, everybody in this room, you say, well, I believe this.
It should not be because Brother Stuckey preached it.
It's not because Pastor Jimenez preached it.
It should be because you know a verse and a reason why.
And you can say, well, this is why I believe in eternal security.
John 3.16, everlasting life.
John 3.36, everlasting life.
John 3.15, eternal life.
You ought to have reasons for why you believe on every topic.
And the truth is this, if you do not have a real reason why you believe something, you
cannot be confident that you're right about that.
Because every time you hear something preached, it sounds convincing.
Whenever you hear something preached, somebody's trying to convince you of something.
When I preach, I am trying to convince you of certain things.
So it's going to sound convincing whether it's true or not.
You need to make sure that it is true.
Make sure you go home and like the Bereans, you read the Bible every day as it says in
Acts 17.
Verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine by the sight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
The reality is that even at a good church, you will have people at the church that will
try to turn this into a place that has no unity.
They will try to basically turn people against each other and just teach different doctrines.
And I've seen it in church before, just people that come in and teach something completely
different.
One time in Sacramento, this guy visited church and it was him and his wife.
They had like seven kids or something like that.
And he's all excited, like, man, this church, I'm excited about this church.
I'm going to come down every week and join this church.
And so the next week he comes down to come soul winning.
Look, this guy, it turned out, because he was a weird guy.
He's trying to convince us right at the beginning, he's trying to convince people the King James
Bible is not perfect.
It's like, well, that's a pretty big red flag.
But it turned out he had a big YouTube channel where he taught that there was no hell.
It's like he had thousands of subscribers and he's teaching there is no hell, but he's
coming to the church just pretending like, oh, man, I love Pastor Jimenez, you're a liar.
You're a phony.
And at good churches, you might have people that come in because they have ulterior motives,
whether they're a reprobate or not, they're obviously being influenced by some spirit
that's not Godly.
You must know why you believe you say why.
As a church, we want to be united together as one, which means no clicks, no complaining.
And look, when it comes to personal convictions, I get it.
I have very strong personal convictions on proper dieting and workout routines.
Okay.
But we do need to be very careful not to go overboard with these things and cause a church
split when people disagree with you on something that really isn't the end of the world.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today as a church God, and thank
you for the great unity we do have at our church, God, and we're like-minded on the
things we believe, God.
Help us to love one another and care about one another and help us not to bring divisions
ever into this church, God.
Help us to be united together as one and help us to grow in quantity, but always keep great
quality amongst our church, God.
We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.