Thank you for watching!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for watching!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for watching!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for watching!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for watching!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for watching!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for watching!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for watching!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for watching!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for watching!
No longer
beneath our wings
windy in its wings
to where
we've got the
soul of
holy ministries
and through the
weak and south
a soul of
crying wings
of love for
Earth has found
a soul of
love for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
the Holy Ghost
from heaven
the fathers
from the sea
those red
the dragons found
wherever man
has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
the Holy Ghost
from heaven
the fathers
from the sea
those red
the dragons found
wherever man
has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
a soul for
Earth has found
And of the children of the priest, the children of
Fabia, the children of Kos, the children of
Vazilai, which took a wife of the daughters
of Vazilai, the Gili died
and was called after the name.
These thought they register among those
that were reckoned by genealogy
but they were not found. Therefore
were they as polluted put
from the priesthood. And the Tishata
said unto them that they should not
eat of the most holy things
till they stood up a priest with
Urim and with Urim.
The whole congregation
together was forty and two thousand
three hundred and three score. Beside
their servants and their maids
of whom there were seven thousand
three hundred thirty and seven.
And there were among them two hundred
singing men and singing women.
Their horses were seven hundred thirty
and six. Their mules two hundred forty
and five. Their camels four
hundred thirty and five. Their asses
six thousand seven hundred and twenty.
And some of the chief of the fathers
when they came to the house of the Lord
which is at Jerusalem
offered freely for the house of God
to set it up in the first place.
They gave after the ability
unto the treasure of the world
three score and one thousand
rams of gold and five thousand pounds
of silver and one hundred priest's garments.
So the priests and the Levites
and some of the people and the singers
and the porters and the Nathanim's
dwelt in their cities and all Israel
in their cities. Amen. Let us pray.
Thank you our Father for the day.
Thank you everyone who is here.
Please support us in the service.
Please give us concentration.
Give us understanding. Open our hearts.
And help the preacher today.
And also support us always in our daily Bible reading.
We pray in His name. Amen.
Alright, we're here in
Ezra chapter 2 and normally we cover
every verse in a chapter.
If you've read this chapter, we didn't read the whole
chapter in our Bible reading because it's just a bunch of names
and it's a list of people that are basically
going to be going back to Jerusalem.
Obviously there's good information in there and it's there
for a reason and it's important. We're not going to cover
all of those verses though. We're going to kind of look at the
theme of the rest of the chapter. But I do want to look at
a few verses to start off any
early verses. Look at verse number 1 the Bible reads
Now these are the children
of the province that went up out of the captivity
of those which had been carried away
whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried
away unto Babylon and came again unto Jerusalem
and Judah, everyone unto a city.
Which came with Zerubbabel,
Jeshua, Nehemiah, Sariah,
Re'aliah, Mordecai, Bilshen, Mizpah, Bigvai,
Rahim, Baanah, the number of the men of the people
of Israel. Now if you notice in verse 2
Zerubbabel is a significant person
because it says they came with Zerubbabel.
Okay, now why is he significant?
Well, keep your finger in Ezra 2 because
we will be going back there. But go to Haggai
chapter 1. Haggai 1.
And
if you remember, I mentioned before about Haggai
that Haggai is contemporary
when they're going through the persecution as
they're building. And so Haggai and
Zechariah are books that do relate to the
book of Ezra. But notice what it says
in Haggai chapter 1 verse 1.
Haggai 1
verse 1. The Bible
reads, In the second year of Darius the king,
in the sixth month, in the first day of the month
came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet
unto Zerubbabel, the son
of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and
to Joshua the son of Josedek, the high priest,
saying. So it mentions here about
Zerubbabel in Haggai chapter 1
verse 1 that he is
the governor of Judah.
The governor of Judah. Now go back to
Ezra 2. Ezra 2. So Zerubbabel
is significant because he is a political
leader that's appointed by
the Persian empire. And I want you
to notice this, our theme verse
for the week is Ezra 2 verse 63.
So go to verse 63.
And the Bible says, And the tearshaft
has said unto them that they should not eat of the most
holy things till there stood up a priest with
Urim and with Thummim. Now just reading
that verse, I mean it seems kind of confusing.
You're kind of wondering what's Urim, what's Thummim?
But the first thing is what's tearshaft?
What is that referring to?
And what I'll say about this word tearshaft,
I believe this is referring to Zerubbabel.
The word tearshaft is only linked
when Persia is in power.
And to understand this, think about
in the Bible it talks about the king of Egypt.
It uses that terminology. But what is
the name for the king of Egypt?
Pharaoh. You wouldn't call
the king of England the Pharaoh,
right, of England. Or the king
of another country the Pharaoh. You would only say
that for the king of Egypt.
And so that's the terminology
given for the king of Egypt, calling them
Pharaoh. Well, I believe it's the same thing
when it comes to basically a governor
appointed by the Persian empire,
they're called the tearshaft.
You wouldn't say a governor appointed by the Assyrian
empire or some other empire,
but that's the terminology that they give in the
Persian empire. And you're welcome
to study that out when you look up that word
throughout the Bible as it's used only a few times.
But it's linked with the Persian empire, and I do
believe that's referring to Zerubbabel.
And so this is Zerubbabel saying unto them
that they're not allowed to eat of the most holy
things till they're stood up a priest with
Urim and with Thummim. And the
main thing we're looking at in this sermon, because the name of the
sermon is a priest with Urim and with Thummim.
We will talk about what that
means, and we're going to look up every time you
see the word Urim and Thummim in the Bible.
It appears seven times. One of those words
will appear in the Bible. We'll look up
all of those. But let us look at a couple
of verses here in this chapter before we go on.
Look at verse number 39.
Ezra 2, verse 39.
The children of
Haram,
a thousand and seventeen.
The Levites, the children of Jeshua and
Kadmiel, the children of Hodoviah, seventy and four.
The singers, the children of Asaph,
a hundred, twenty, and eight.
And what you do see here in verse 41
is there are specific people
that are singers for this group
of people. And I'm not the biggest
music person in the world. I think that's very obvious
to people, you know, but I
do believe the music ministry is important. We do have a meeting
next week. And, you know, there's nothing
wrong with having a choir or special music
or things like that because of the fact you do have
specific people appointed to sing here
in Ezra 2. Obviously, every church
kind of makes judgment calls whether or not they want to do
something like that. If you've got a smaller
church, you know, you're probably not going to
put a whole lot of emphasis on the music ministry
because your biggest thing is to grow and build
that church. But if you have a much
bigger church, you know, it would make sense
to have more emphasis on that and other
ministries added as well. And obviously
that's kind of a personal call people have
but there's nothing wrong with having a choir
or special music because there are specific
people appointed to be singers and that's not
the only time you see that mentioned
in the Old Testament. Now go to verse 58.
Verse 58.
And the Bible reads in verse 58,
All the Nethinim's and the children of Solomon's
servants were three hundred ninety and two,
and these were they which went up from
Tel-Meleh, Tel-Harsa, Cherub,
Aden, and Emmer, but they could not show their father's
house and their seed, whether they
were of Israel. And so you've got a group
of people and basically they cannot
trace their genealogy.
They can't prove their roots.
Now, in the Old Testament,
your genealogy and where you came
from was very important because it mattered
what tribe you were from.
Why does it matter? Because there's
divided land depending on which of the
twelve tribes you're under, right?
So it's very significant that you knew your
genealogy, you knew what tribe you were
from, but after seventy years
there are already people that can't
prove it. In just seventy
years. You say, what's your point?
My point is this, modern day people
that say they're Jews, they couldn't tell
you what tribe they're from. In
seventy years, people lose
their roots. You mean to tell me after a couple
thousand years, people that are
modern day could actually trace their roots and tell
you which tribe they're from? And by the
way, anyone who says that they're a Jew,
if they name any tribe other than
Judah or perhaps Benjamin, they don't know
what they're talking about because the
word Jew actually comes from Judah
in the Bible. Because
there's a division of the northern kingdom
and the southern kingdom. So if you mention
another tribe, it's like you don't even know what the Old Testament
is talking about. It's like you've missed
a large part of the Bible that speaks about this.
But in just seventy years, people
cannot trace their roots back.
Now, here's the thing. If you trace
back a couple thousand years of history,
there's no way anybody
could actually trace things back that far.
You couldn't really verify
where you're from for a couple thousand years.
I mean, all of us probably have a general understanding.
I mean, I know in America,
everybody comes from Europe, pretty much.
There's a few Native Americans,
but in general, people come from Europe.
And so, tracing my roots,
from my understanding, you know,
I'm part English, French, German,
Swedish, and Yugoslavian,
but that's not even completely verified
because my parents aren't a hundred percent
sure. And if you trace
yourself back, you know, in the distance,
you're not going to be able to figure it out.
But it actually mattered in the
Old Testament for the tribe that you were under.
Plus, there's a specific tribe
that were basically the priests
in the Old Testament.
The tribe of Levi.
The Levitical priesthood.
So your actual genealogy and where you came from
mattered. Not because
one blood is better than another blood,
but because you had divided lands depending on
where your genealogy traces
back to.
Now, verse number 60.
Verse number 60.
The children of Deliah, the children of Tobiah,
the children of Nicodah, 650 and 2,
and of the children of the priests, the children of Habiah,
the children of Caz, the children of Barzilliah,
the Levitical wife of the daughters of Barzilliah the Gileadite,
and was called after their name.
These sought their register
among those that were reckoned by genealogy,
but they were not found.
Therefore were they, as polluted,
put from the priesthood.
And what the Bible says here is
they're seeking their genealogy. They're trying to look at
the register or think of a registration
and they cannot prove it.
And this was significant
because as people are coming back to Jerusalem,
they're finding out
where they're from, they're trying to be organized,
and these people cannot prove their genealogy.
And the tear shaft that said unto them,
verse 63, which I believe this is
irreparable, that they should not
eat of the most holy things
till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim.
And what the tear shaft
that says is, you know what, there are some
spiritual things that we are
not going to do because
we need a legitimate priest that
can prove their genealogy with
the Urim and with the Thummim.
Okay.
Now go to Exodus 28.
Exodus 28.
We're going to look up
every reference to Urim and Thummim
in the Bible, but
what you need to understand is that
in the Old Testament, the Bible tells us
in the first couple verses of Hebrews
that God spake in the past by different ways.
And He spake through the prophets
by different ways and different manners.
And you see in the Old Testament
people are hearing voices from heaven
or sometimes I believe the Son of God is actually
presenting Himself and talking to them.
And the Urim and the Thummim is one of those examples
of something that God was speaking through them
and it's not something you would see today.
And basically they would have a breast plate
and it was like some sort of stone where
basically God would help them understand judgment
by these things. Now if somebody
was doing that today, you'd call them a sorcerer.
Right? There's not something that's going on today.
If you're hearing voices from heaven,
I don't know where the closest Pentecostal
church is, but just head there. Right?
Because God is not going to speak to you
in the way that He did in the Old Testament.
You say, why? Because we have the finished
completed Word of God.
And this is how God speaks to you in 2022.
You pray to God and
He's going to reveal Himself via His Word
and sometimes via the preaching
of God's Word you hear things that help answer
your questions. But in the Old Testament
one thing they had was the Urim
and they had the Thummim and that would help them
understand judgment. And what I
want you to understand according to Ezra 2,
you're in Exodus 28, but I want you to realize
there is specific
people that
basically were legitimate
priests with the Urim and the Thummim.
And the application we're making in the modern
day is like being a leader
at church, there are specific
people. Okay? Notice what it
says in Exodus 28 verse 29.
And Aaron
shall bear the names of the children of Israel
and the breastplate of judgment upon his heart
when he goeth in unto the holy place
for a memorial before the Lord continually.
And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment
the Urim and the Thummim
and they shall be upon Aaron's heart when he goeth
in before the Lord and Aaron shall bear
the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart
before the Lord continually. And this
Urim and the Thummim in the breastplate
would actually help them understand
judgment. It was something that you see in
the Old Testament. Go to Leviticus
chapter 8. Leviticus
chapter 8.
Leviticus 8.
Now in our modern
day, everybody who's saved has the Holy Spirit
indwelling them. Right? We live in a much different
time period and we have the completed Word of God.
But it wasn't really like that in the
Old Testament. Number one, they were not
indwelled with the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost sometimes comes upon people,
but they're not indwelled with the Holy Ghost.
Now of course they were still saved forever because
it's eternal life from Genesis to Revelation.
You can't lose your salvation.
But they were not indwelled with the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of truth
that teaches us the Word of God.
We are blessed to live in the time period
after the Lord Jesus Christ.
I mean, throughout human history, not
all of God's people had a Word of God.
And in the Old Testament, they're not
indwelled with the Holy Ghost. We are very fortunate
in 2022, we have
an advantage over those that lived thousands
of years ago. Notice
what it says in Leviticus 8 verse 8.
And he put upon him the coat and
girded him with a girdle and clothed him with a robe
and put the ephod upon him. And he girded him with
the curious girdle of the ephod and bounded
onto him therewith. And he put the breastplate
upon him. Also he put in the breastplate
the erum and
the thummim. The erum and the thummim.
Go to Deuteronomy 33.
Deuteronomy 33.
Deuteronomy 33. As I said,
there are seven times you see this reference
in the Bible. Seven times you see this
erum and the thummim. We're going to look at all of them here today.
And
we're in
Deuteronomy chapter 33.
And
Deuteronomy 33 verse 8.
And of
Levi he said, Let thy thummim and thy
erum be with thy holy one, whom thou didst
prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst
strive at the waters of Meribah. So once
again it mentions, thy thummim
and thy erum with the Holy One.
Go to 1 Samuel 28.
1 Samuel 28.
1 Samuel chapter 28.
1 Samuel 28 verse 6.
And 1 Samuel 28 is a famous chapter
where basically, you know, Saul has been
persecuting David for a long time period.
And obviously God is
done with Saul. He's replaced him.
But this is the chapter where basically
he gets the judgment from Samuel.
And what he's trying to do is get an
answer from God. And he can't get an
answer by any method. And like the last
resort is to go to a witch, which
he has made illegal and is something
that's, you know, banished through the
death penalty. And then he's basically
trying to speak to Samuel, who's already
up in heaven, already passed on,
because he can't get an answer from God.
It says in 1 Samuel 28 verse 6,
And when Saul inquired of the Lord,
the Lord answered him not, neither by
dreams, nor by erum, nor by
prophets. And Saul was
trying to get an answer from God. Here's a saved man
and God will not answer Saul
because he is so backslid.
And he won't answer by the prophets
or by dreams, nor by erum.
There is no way that God is going to answer him
and eventually Samuel will end up speaking to him.
Go to Nehemiah 7. We're almost
done looking at all these verses on this.
Nehemiah chapter 7.
Nehemiah 7 verse 65.
The Bible says in Nehemiah 7 verse 65,
And the tearshafteth said unto them
that they should not eat of the most holy things
till there stood up a priest with erum
and thummim. That's almost an identical
verse to the one that we looked at
earlier. Now go back to Ezra 2. We'll look
at the verse we looked at earlier.
Ezra 2 verse 63.
And the tearshafteth said unto them
that they should not eat of the most holy things
till there stood up a priest
with erum and thummim. And what
the tearshafteth says unto them, what
Zerubbabel says unto them is, we're not
going to eat of the most holy things
until there is a
legitimate priest with the
erum and the thummim. And there's
people that cannot prove their genealogy
because that actually mattered because if you're
a priest that means you came from the tribe of
Levi. And they cannot verify
a legitimate priest.
And as a result, there's
certain things that they are not doing because
they don't have a legitimate priest. Now, look,
in our modern day, the word priest, you
think of the Catholic Church. That's not the
terminology we use in the New Testament.
But the application would be
basically a lack of people
that are spirit-filled men of God that
are ordained leading churches.
And what we're seeing in Ezra 2 is
there are specific people
that are basically over
that task. There are specific
people that are ordained
leaders of churches. It's not just a free
for all where anyone stands up.
You say, Brother Stuckey, why is it that you
run this church? Why don't you give everybody an equal
opportunity to preach? That's not the way it
works in the Bible. It's
not just a free for all where anybody gets
up and says what they want. It
doesn't work that way. The way it works
is that I was ordained by
Pastor Menes at Verity Baptist Church
and he trusted me to run this church and
now he's appointed me here
to run this church.
That's the way it works. Now here's the thing.
You know what? This sort of sermon
is the sort of sermon where people could be
offended or say you're too harsh,
you're too much of a dictator.
Whatever. I've already been called all these things before.
And what I
could do is just preach on the first 60 verses
of Ezra chapter 2 if you want.
Just preach through all the names.
But I'm not that talented of a preacher to come up with
a sermon with all of these names.
So we're going to preach on the context
which is a legitimate
priest with Urim and with
Thummim. Now turn in your Bible
to Numbers 27.
Numbers 27.
Numbers chapter 27.
And you might agree
with this. You might not.
But I do believe specific
people are called by God
to be pastors. And I know that
that word and that terminology
can get all charismatic and Pentecostal.
But it's actually a terminology used in the Bible
and God is always specifically picking
people for tasks.
He specifically picks the apostles.
Right? And there's nothing wrong with the
terminology of called to be a pastor. It's just
a problem with how people define that.
If you're looking for some sort of Pentecostal
feeling, then yeah, you know that's weird.
And what I believe is the calling is basically the
desire. I believe that God places
the desire in certain people's hearts
to be pastors.
The reason why this is important
is if you do not have a desire
to be a pastor, there's nothing
wrong with that.
It does not mean you're not as godly as
someone who does have a desire.
Because some people have this idea,
I've been asked this question,
Brother Stuckey, should every man
try to go into the ministry?
My answer would be no.
I mean, if you don't have a desire
given by God, it's not the job
for you. There's nothing wrong with that.
As I've said many times, I have
no idea at our church who will get the
most rewards in heaven, and I don't state
that I'm going to get more rewards than anybody else.
I mean, you can be just as
godly, just as zealous,
or more zealous, but it doesn't
change the fact that there are specific
people. Because here's the thing, were you
more godly if you had blood
from Levi than blood from like
Benjamin or Simeon
or Judah just automatically?
Absolutely not, but here's the thing.
Only those of the tribe of Levi could have
been the legitimate priest. Why?
That's the way God did it.
And see, certain people have
a calling and a desire from God
to go into the ministry,
but most people don't have that desire.
There's nothing wrong with
not having that desire.
Now here's the thing, you can have a desire to do something,
you also have to actually prove yourself.
Here they had to prove
their genealogy. They had to prove that they were
legitimate. If you have
a desire to be a pastor, that's a good desire
because the Bible says that those that desire the
office of a bishop desire the good work.
However, there's still requirements to
actually meet that.
Because some Baptist churches, this is where people
kind of shy away from this terminology
because some Baptist churches say, hey
if God gave you that desire, who am I
to argue against it? It's like
because God also gave requirements.
Desire is just
one aspect of being an
ordained leader of a church.
You also have to actually meet the
requirements found in 1st Timothy
3 and the book of Titus. It gives
actual requirements.
Now turn to Numbers 27.
Numbers 27.
And what you see is there are specific
people that are basically
the priests with the erm and the thummim
just like in our modern day there's specific people
ordained of God to be leaders of
churches.
If you're a woman,
that does not mean that you're not as godly.
But it does mean that you should not be
a leader of a church.
You say why? Because
if a man desired the office of a bishop.
That doesn't mean that men
are more godly than women. It just means
God's determined women are not suitable
for the job. He determined this is
for men only. I mean
I don't know if you've ever done this because
I think of characters in the Bible and kind of
in my head I try to kind of rank them who's the
greatest characters or whatever. And
you know what? Everyone could have different opinions
about this. There's a lot of great characters.
And obviously the Bible focuses
more on men than women. But I
promise you Ruth would be near the top of the list
when you look at her in the Bible.
I mean you look at a lot of characters. Abraham's a
great character. He forsakes serving God for
money. Ruth does the opposite.
Right? She's got to be near the top of the list of
the godliest people. Just because you're a woman
doesn't mean that you're not as godly. But what it
means is God's determined men are the ones
that are leaders of churches.
And if you've got a problem with that, you can
take it up with God, but that is what the Bible says.
Right? The Bible says
in Numbers 27, even the
Catholic Church gets some things correct.
Right?
They don't understand what the word priest is,
but at least they got this idea correct that
of course they don't let the
priest get married, which is obviously messed
up. But at least they get the idea that it's
men and not women according to what the Bible
says. They're right about that. Number one, it's
specific people that are basically
fit for this job. Specific people
that are the priests with the erm and the thummim.
Numbers 27, point number two is this, there's a
scarcity of preachers, pastors, prophets,
however you want to term that. There's a scarcity
of people that are ordained
leaders of churches.
Numbers 27 verse 18,
And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua
the son of Nun, a man in whom is a
spirit, and lay thine hand upon him.
And set him before Eliezer
the priest and before all the congregation,
and give him a charge
in their sight.
And thou shalt put some of thine honor upon him,
that all the congregation
of the children of Israel may be
obedient. And what you see in this
story is that Joshua
is going to be specifically chosen
by God, and Moses just
in front of the people basically
gives his stamp of approval. Look,
I'm not naive. The reason why
you know, you trust me as a leader of this
church or want to become a member of this church
was based on the recommendation
of Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento
and Pastor Jimenez, right?
I understand. I'm
entering into other men's labors and I'm perfectly
fine with that. I'm not trying to elevate myself
or look how special I am. I realize
this church started with members from day
one and as visitors from the
online ministry, not because of me
but because of Verity Baptist
and Pastor Jimenez and other
new IFB preachers and things like that.
Well, here's the thing. Joshua
was trusted. Why? Because
Moses in front of the people said, you know what?
I'm trusting this man and basically
he has a following because of that.
There's nothing wrong with that.
I'm happy that we had members from day one
and I don't mind that you became
a part of this church not because of me.
It's perfectly fine with me because this
is the area where people are gathered together that
love God and however you found
yourself here, I'm happy.
Whether it's we got you saved or somebody
invited you, whether or not you listen to
some other person, whether or not you listen to
a new IFB preacher and they said, hey, visit this
church in Manila, I'm happy to have you.
We're entering into other men's labors
and that's what we see here with Joshua.
It says in verse 21,
And he shall stand before Eliezer
the priest, who shall ask counsel for him
after the judgment of Urim before the Lord.
At his word shall they go out, and at his word
they shall come in, both he and all the
children of Israel with him, even all the
congregation. And Moses did as the
Lord commanded him, and he took Joshua and set him
before Eliezer the priest and before all the congregation.
And he laid his hands upon
him and gave him a charge as the Lord commanded
by the hand of Moses. You see, there's a lot of
saved people who lived during this time period.
There weren't a lot of people named Moses.
There weren't a lot of people named Eliezer.
There weren't a lot of people named Joshua.
And see, there is a scarcity
of people for
this job. Go in your Bible to
Titus 1.
And you know what?
We need to have a proper balance on
this idea because I should
have the perspective, and I do
have this perspective, and I believe this is the
truth, that just because
I'm the ordained leader of this church does
not mean that I'm better or more godly
than you. And
some churches or some pastors could have that
idea, well, I'm the pastor
so basically I get to live by my own rules.
I live by what the Bible says.
God determines what I do, and just
being the leader of this church, that doesn't
mean that I'm going to get more rewards in heaven than you.
And that should be my perspective,
and that is my perspective.
However, let me say this.
The perspective members
should have is this. You know what?
Just because Brother Stuckey is not
automatically better than me because he's the
ordained leader doesn't change the fact
he is the ordained leader
of this church. He is
the leader. And you know what? People have used this
almost as like a curse thing or whatever.
Brother Stuckey is a dictator. Actually, that's
biblical. Have you read the
Bible? And I know
people meant it as an insult, but you know what? Yeah,
I am a dictator appointed by
Pastor Jimenez. You say,
why? Because it's a pastor-run
church. That's what the
Bible says. It's not a free
for all. It's not an equal
amount of power. It's kind of like starting a business.
You got a business. You got
a boss. The boss is the dictator.
They run the show.
And look, you know,
when someone said that, you know, someone got
kicked out of our church, you know, a year
ago, they said that. I knew they meant it as an
insult, but I said, actually, that kind of shows that you
just don't understand the Bible.
I mean, it was a very rude comment
to make, but it's like, actually,
the Bible does not say a free for all
system. It talks about
one person running a church, and
I run it underneath the authority of
Pastor Jimenez and Verity Baptist Church.
That's what the Bible says.
There's no deacon board here.
There's no
elder board.
I don't ask people for approval
on my sermons.
I don't need approval.
You know who determines
what sermons are going to be preached today?
Me. I determine that.
Now, look,
if you're part of a church that's an ordained
leader, and you believe it's a good man of God,
you ought to trust that God is
speaking and using that person to run a church.
And you ought to think that God
is helping me determine what sermons
to preach. And He's giving
me wisdom in that area. But here's the thing.
I don't need approval from you.
Not because I'm
more godly than you, that's not what I'm saying,
but because I'm the authority.
That's just the way it works.
And see, in Ezra chapter 2,
there's a specific person that's ordained,
and the Zerubbabel says, there's things
we can't do. You say, why? We have no priest
with the urn and the thummim. We need
a legitimate leader. And look, I understand
other churches don't operate this way. That's perfectly
fine. I'm not shy to say
what the Bible teaches. What the Bible
teaches is one person
running a church.
And other churches, it's just like
a free-for-all. It's like you go
to a deacon board, and you know, there's an old story
of a pastor, you know, a lot of people know Jack
Hyles, and I kind of have mixed feelings on Jack
Hyles, but I love this one story of him,
where he took over this church,
and basically had preached a couple
weeks, and then the deacon board talks to
him, and they says, hey, we're going to have a meeting
about your preaching. This is the time,
and he's like, okay, great.
And then all of a sudden, he doesn't show up
at the meeting. They're like, we told you
you're going to have a meeting. It's like, hey, you can
have a meeting all you want. You're not going to determine
what I preach. You
can talk about my preaching all you want. It's not
going to change anything.
Right? Because he determined
what he preached. And at our church,
I'm the one who runs the show.
You say, Brother Stuckey, this is an offensive
sermon. This is Ezra chapter 2, verse
by verse. This is the theme of Ezra
chapter 2. Unless you want me to
preach to these genealogies and all these names,
which, that would be a much more
boring sermon. This sermon might offend you,
but it's not going to be boring. Right?
Turn about where are we? Titus 1?
Titus 1?
Titus chapter 1, verse 4.
To Titus,
mine own son after the common faith, grace,
mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ our Savior. For this cause
left I thee and create that thou shouldest set in
order the things that are wanting.
You know, what Paul says to
Titus is, you know what? There are things that are wanting.
There are things that there are
demand for. There are things that
people want. They want a good
church. They want a legitimate church.
There are things that are wanting.
And ordain elders in every
city as I had appointed thee.
So what Paul says to Titus is, you know what?
There are things that are wanting. Why are there things
that are wanting? Because there's a scarcity
of pastors
in this time period, and there's a scarcity
of legitimate pastors in
2022.
Now, I'm not preaching the sermon to try to motivate
you to go into the ministry. You know, that's up to you
and God and your decision that you make.
You know, honestly, if you listen to the sermon,
it's going to probably do the opposite. It's going to cause you not
to want to go into ministry.
Right? But there's a necessity,
there's a need.
There's a scarcity of pastors.
Just as there's a scarcity of priests
with the Urim and the Thummim,
they were wanting. And here,
the Bible says, there's a need for
elders or pastors to run churches.
There are things that are wanting.
So since there's things that are wanting,
let's just ordain anybody and throw
them in the ministry. Is that what the Bible teaches?
The Bible teaches there are things
that are wanting. Nonetheless,
there are still requirements.
Because, see, at some Bible colleges, people
say this, well, I understand there's
requirements, but
here's the specific situation.
Because there's a need,
even though I don't meet
the requirements, I'll still be the
pastor of this group. Is that what the Bible
says? What Paul says to
Titus is, there is a need,
nonetheless, there are requirements.
Not just anybody gets
ordained into leadership.
It says in verse 6,
if any be blameless, the husband
of one wife, having faithful children, not
accused of riot or unruly, for a
bishop must be blameless as a steward of God,
not self-willed, not soon angry, not given
a wine, no striker, not given a filthy lucre,
but a lover of hospitality, a lover
of good men, sober, just, holy,
temperate, holding fast the faithful
word as he hath been taught, that he may be able
by sound doctrine both to exhort and to
commence the gainsayers. And the Bible says, you know what?
There is a necessity for an elder
or bishop or pastor. Nonetheless,
there are requirements. Now,
I mention this from time to time, and I think
most people are aware of this. I'm not
the pastor of this church.
Now, many times people will call
me pastor, you know, and they're saying it
respectful. Anyway, usually
I don't correct them because I don't want to be rude
to them. They're just trying to be polite.
And, you know, you go soul winning sometimes,
and, you know, even if you're just a
man at this church, they might call you pastor.
I've seen that before. You know, I've gone
soul winning with people, and they said, thank you, pastor.
They're being respectful. There's no
need to spend five minutes telling them why they
don't know what they're talking about. So when people call me
pastor, even at this church, some people visit,
they call me pastor Stuckey,
and, you know what? I don't usually
say anything to them. What I will do
if they're here for several weeks, they always call me pastor,
I'll say something just, hey, you can just
call me brother Stuckey. I still don't
correct them and say what they're saying is
technically incorrect because
they're being polite. Now,
when people call me father, which
has happened on a few occasions,
I do correct that.
It's like, I'm okay if you call me, it's like
pastor Stuckey is not technically
correct, but it's like you're being
polite, but if you call me father, it's like, whoa,
all right, it's great you just got saved
out of Catholicism, but
I'm not your father,
right? My kids are Zaph,
Christabel, and Ezra, not you, okay?
And so, the Bible says, and so
basically, I'm the ordained evangelist
at this church. I'm not the pastor,
but basically, I'm the ordained evangelist,
and whenever I'm able to visit the US, basically,
I'll be ordained as the pastor to run this church
and the churches in the Philippines and
oversee them. There's nothing wrong
with a church starting without
an ordained pastor leading it.
You can start churches with a group
of people or one person running the show.
I mean, I would say that people are probably happy
this church started three and a
half, four years ago,
right? Even though I was not the ordained pastor
because I only had one child, my
son Zaph was very young. I didn't meet the
requirements, but Pastor Min is determined
I met the other requirements. Now, here's
the thing. I'm aware of this, and I understand
that I'm not the pastor of this church.
But here's what you have to understand.
When we've had problems with members before
that are no longer at this church,
I can tell you, they never looked at me
as the authority of the church.
Based on comments they said,
and based on how they acted,
they kind of looked at us, Brother Stuckey's
not the pastor, so we're on equal level.
No, we're not.
I'm not saying
I'm more godly than you, but I
am above you in authority at this
church. It's not like, well, Brother Stuckey's
not the pastor, so it's like,
you know, this is based on comments they made
to other members, but also like emails
they sent to Pastor Min is when they were trying to get me
kicked out of running this church.
And they just said, you know what, that
Brother Stuckey's not fit to do it, and we'll just run
the church. Who offers themselves to
run the church like that?
It's like that shows you just want power
and authority.
Right? It's like, yeah, I'm not
the pastor of this church, but
I am the ordained leader of this church.
I am the ordained evangelist of this
church. I'm the one that does the baptisms.
Why? I'm the ordained leader.
You know what, we've had
services in Bicol for a long time, but you know
why we didn't do baptisms? Because I didn't visit
there yet. Because I'm the ordained
leader running the church in the Philippines.
You say, well, Brother Stuckey, I've got a problem with that.
Well, you can take it up with God, because this is what God
says. This is the way
the Bible runs it. This is
what God says. And yeah,
you know what, there's things that are running
all throughout the Philippines,
but you know what, God actually has a system that's
organized rather than this magulo
system that would never work in real life that people
try to do. Right?
Turn your Bible back to
Ezra 2. Ezra chapter 2.
Ezra 2.
And look, I'm not preaching this
sermon because I feel like we have a problem with this.
This is just the context of Ezra chapter 2.
Legitimate priests with the erm and the thummim.
And what you're seeing is, just as then,
there were specific people, and there was
a scarcity of people for that role.
Same thing in 2022. There are
scarcity of people that are ordained
leaders of churches.
Why is that? Well, obviously there's
specific, and here's the thing.
Specific people, I believe, have a desire
or a calling from God.
It doesn't mean that they're actually going to do what's
necessary to be ready.
And yeah, you know, people can have
a desire, but they have it for the
wrong reasons. If someone says,
I want to be a preacher because I want to run
people's lives, well that desire
was not given by God.
You're supposed to desire
a good work. Not that you
want to rule over people. If you want to rule over
people, start a business.
Right? If you're a good boss,
don't rule their personal lives.
Right?
But it's like, that's the wrong reason to have a
desire to go into ministry. There's nothing wrong with
a desire, but it's something that, you know,
you need to have for the specific reasons.
But you have to actually prove yourself.
Right? There are specific people
that are called for this job.
Why is it that certain people
would not be able to do the job? Number one,
some people are not men.
Other people
are not married with kids, or at least,
you know, there's evangelists in the Bible. Paul was
not married. We understand that. He wasn't a pastor, by
the way. But, you know, there's people
that have to prove themselves. Like, for example,
at Verity Baptist in Sacramento, the
most basic requirement,
other than being a man,
other than being married, other than
being at the church for a number of years, you have to
read through the Bible ten times cover to cover.
And, you know, we have a
spiritual leadership class there, and basically
guys that have the desire to go into ministry, you know,
they would write down how many times they read the Bible.
I'll be honest, the first time we did that, I was like,
I have no clue. You say,
why? Because I've read it a lot more
than ten times, and I didn't just start
counting the first time I read it.
It's like, I have absolutely no
idea, but it's like a lot more than ten.
Now, here's the thing.
There's a lot of people at our church that read the Bible and
love reading the Word of God, and you spend a lot of time in it,
but here's the thing. If I was the leader
of this church, and I'd never read the Bible
cover to cover, or only read it one time, there's
a problem there. Because,
yeah, it doesn't mean that I'm more godly just because
I'm the ordained leader, but what it does mean
is pastor men is determined, I know the
Bible. I've read the Bible.
I've memorized the Bible.
I've been soul winning for a long time.
I've run ministries in Sacramento.
It's like there are basic requirements,
and look, ten times cover to cover is
not that many times.
Because here's the thing, if you're married for
five years, and you start reading the Bible once you're
married two times a year, in five years,
that's ten times. That's actually a small
amount. But what you find
is a lot of people have a desire to be a pastor,
and then they just end up not doing
it. Now I'm not
saying it's wrong for them to change their mind about
this, but what I'm saying is it seems
exciting to be a pastor.
It seems exciting to run a church.
It's like, man, I get to get up
there and scream at people and yell
at people. It's like, well, that's the wrong reason
to go into the ministry.
Right? But a lot of people, they have
a desire, but it's like a lot
of things. You can have a desire to do something.
It doesn't mean that you're actually going to follow
through with the steps and work necessary.
I used to be able to
play ten hymns on the piano,
which has been more than a decade.
You say, Brother Stuckey, why'd you stop at ten? Because I lost
my desire. I
had a small desire, but it's like, I'm not willing
to put in the work. There's other things that
are more important to me than basically
playing the piano.
Right? And look, a lot of people have a desire
to be a pastor, but then all of a sudden when there's
requirements, it's like, whoa.
Now, here's the thing. In a lot of
churches, they're like, well, hey, if you have that desire,
we'll just ordain you immediately or just
get this Bible college degree, we'll ordain you.
Let me ask you a question.
Let's say somebody today gets a desire
to be a surgeon.
Do you want them operating on you tomorrow?
That's ridiculous.
It's like they got to actually put in the time and effort.
Right?
I mean, they actually have to go to school and practice
and whatever the steps would be.
It's the same thing with being a leader of a church.
You have a desire, but there's also steps
to actually prove yourself and to prepare
yourself.
The Bible says, not a novice.
It can't just be
anybody ordained because if they're not
apt, if they haven't put in the time,
then basically they'll be lifted up full of
pride, the Bible says.
The other thing the Bible says is, apt
to teach, which means the ability to teach.
Look, there are
people that love God and are
good people, but the truth is
they just don't really have
much of an ability
to teach where people can understand.
And
you can be offended by that, but
it's just a fact. Look, I'm not the only guy
at this church that is able to teach the Word of God where people
are edified. We have several preachers on Wednesday,
we've had several men guests preach, and
people are edified by that.
And there's nothing wrong
if you don't have an ability,
if that's not the gift you've been given. There's nothing wrong with that.
But it's just a fact that
certain people have an ability and certain
people don't have an ability.
And if you don't have an ability, then it's just like you
can be a great member of a church, but actually
being the leader of a church and preaching all the
sermons is just not the role for you.
There's nothing wrong with that, but it's
just a fact that certain people have the
ability to teach where people can understand
and certain people do not.
Now,
where are we at? We're in Ezra 2, right?
Ezra 2. Number one, there are
specific people that are called
for this job, specific people that meet the
requirements. Number two, there's a scarcity
of preachers and pastors.
By all means,
if you have a desire to go in the ministry,
I mean, I would be happy to hear that.
There's men at our church that have told me they have the
desire to go in the ministry. I'm excited
for that. You say, why?
Because I'm not trying to run the biggest church
in Metro Manila. Lord willing, some people
will start churches in other places one day.
I mean, here's the thing.
There's people that come to our church
that came here this morning from
Laguna, Bulacan,
Rizal, Cavite,
and I'm very happy for that.
But here's the thing.
In five years, in ten years,
let me be honest, I hope you don't come to our church
anymore. You say, why?
Because I hope there's a good church near you.
That's what I hope.
And I hope there are men
that have that desire to go in the ministry
that we can appoint as leaders of
churches.
Because, and look, I've driven
more than, well, this morning I drove more than
an hour or two, but you know, even before
I was a leader at a church,
I drove more than an hour in West Virginia
to go to church. But you know what? It's frustrating
to drive a long, long distance
to come to church. There's a lot of
wisdom in a local church.
Where basically you live
near the church. You say, why? You're able to be
more involved in the church.
You're able to help more.
And if you live a long distance away, we are very
happy to have you, but the reality
is, you could do more if you live nearby.
I'm not saying you have to
move and live nearby.
That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is
ideally we're going to have great churches in
all of these provinces, multiple churches
in Metro Manila. You say, why? Because you shouldn't
have to go an hour to find
a priest with the urn and the thumb.
And yet,
a lot of you come a long distance because
you've determined that I'm essentially a priest
with the urn and the thumb, symbolically speaking.
That this is a church that
you can support. Where you say, Brother Stuckey,
you know what? I learned from his preaching.
He motivates me. I'm able to serve God. I want to
be around God's people. This is the
church I choose to attend. Why?
Because there's nothing similar
nearby me. If there
was something pretty similar to our church
nearby, I would suggest you go to that
church. Even if
you think this church was slightly better, if there's
a church that is near, I would say be a blessing
to that church. You say, why? Because being part
of a local church has real value.
But, unfortunately,
there's a scarcity of preachers and
pastors in 2022.
We also see, though, point three,
stunted performance.
Stunted performance. Notice what it says
in verse 63.
And the tear chef has said unto them that they should not eat
of the most holy things till there's stood up
a priest with urn and with thumb.
And what's...
says is, you know what? There's going to be stunted
performance. Certain spiritual things
we cannot do. Why? There is
no legitimate priest.
Go to Romans 10.
Romans chapter 10.
I mean, for many of you, you'd probably say this,
that before you started attending this church,
you had just as much of a desire
to serve God as you do now.
But you probably
go soul winning a lot more now than you used to.
You probably read the Bible
more now than you used to.
You say, why? Because you're motivated by
God's people. You're around God's
people. You have a local church.
See, there's certain things that just don't get
done unless you're part of a real
and bona fide church. And one of those things is
soul winning. Notice what it says in Romans 10, verse 13.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach, except they be
sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the
feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring
glad tidings of good things. Now, the Bible
speaks about needing a preacher to actually get
saved, which doesn't mean a pastor, but just somebody,
whether it's a man or a woman, any
saved person preaching the gospel.
But the Bible says in verse 15,
And how shall they preach, except they be
sent? And the idea is
that somebody's sending you out to preach
the gospel.
And at this church, I'm the one who
sends you out to preach the gospel.
We have a specific time. We meet together
at a set time. It's not just like,
hey, go soul winning if you want to. No, we have a specific
time for soul winning. You say, why? Because
we're being sent out to preach the gospel.
Now, look, I've been in situations
before with a church that
did not go soul winning, and
me and my friends would motivate each other to go
soul winning, and we did some soul winning.
But the reality is, it was a lot easier
when you're actually part of a church that just has a set
time, has a set system.
It's a hundred times easier.
It is hard
to be self motivated to go out soul winning.
And there's people that do this. There's people that
don't have a legitimate church, and they go out soul winning
with just a small group of people, and praise the Lord
for that. But ideally, you have
a church where you're basically going out together.
We're going out and preaching the gospel.
And what we see is there's
stunted performance
without a legitimate person
running a church and actually sending you out
to preach the gospel. Go to Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4.
Ephesians chapter 4.
Now, people take this idea, well, there's stunted
performance, so we should just ordain people as pastors
of churches regardless of whether they've
proven themselves, regardless of whether they
meet the requirements. There's legitimately
people in the US, I know of examples,
where they start going to church
and they expect to get ordained in less than
six months.
It's like, are you insane?
It's like, nobody knows
you. And they think,
well, if I get up and preach a dynamic sermon
at men's preaching night, that means I can get ordained.
That's a small part of the job
of running a church.
That's part of the job.
But just because you preach a dynamic sermon,
it doesn't mean anything.
That doesn't mean that you're capable of running a church.
I mean, you can preach a dynamic sermon
and have never read the Bible cover to cover.
You can just practice something and get up and
scream, I hate the LGBT, blah, blah, blah.
It's like, good job.
A lot of people can do that.
Doesn't mean they're ready to be an ordained leader of a church, though.
Right?
And look, at our church, if someone gets ordained
in the ministry, they're going to have to be here for several years
to prove themselves.
There's many things.
And one of the things is character.
Another thing is preaching ability.
There's various different things.
But it's not just some fly-by-night, you come to church,
hey, here's some money, just ordain me.
It doesn't work that way.
I don't take bribes to ordain you.
You say, why?
Look, I probably would, but I'm afraid God will kill me.
Right?
It's like, no, you have to actually prove yourself.
There are legitimate churches all throughout Luzon.
But we don't just overhaul what the Bible says.
The Bible says lay hands suddenly on no man.
You have to actually prove yourself.
You have to actually be worthy according to the Bible.
And here's the thing.
There are people that, based on their character,
they would be worthy.
They just don't have the desire.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
I'm not saying you have to go into the ministry.
There are people that have great character at a church
that I think, man, they have the awesome character
to go into the ministry,
but they just don't have the desire.
Nothing wrong with that.
I am not a leader who tries to push people into the ministry.
It's like, I don't think that's a good idea to do,
because if you don't have a desire,
it's like you shouldn't go in the ministry.
Because I believe that desire is given by God.
If God didn't give you that desire,
then apparently you shouldn't go in the ministry.
Right?
It says in 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.
We see an example in these verses
of various different ways churches are started.
Some are run by apostles,
some by prophets, some evangelists.
And basically this church,
I'm an ordained evangelist to lead this church.
But the Bible says,
for the edifying of the body of Christ.
What does that mean?
It means that according to these verses,
me running this church
helps your life spiritually.
Oh, you're so arrogant,
Brother Stuckey.
Well, you can give me another interpretation
of Ephesians 4, 11, and 12.
I mean, that's what the Bible says.
Am I wrong?
That evangelists are given for the edifying
of the body of Christ.
That's what the Bible says.
That doesn't mean that I'm more godly than you.
It doesn't mean that I'm perfect.
But what it does mean is me running this church
is helpful for your life,
and you can allow it to be.
Because the Word of God is very good for you
if, if you take heed to it.
Turn your Bible to Exodus 28.
Exodus 28.
And look, before I was part of the New IFB Church,
because I've been saved before, you know,
the New IFB or Faith Forward Baptist
or Verity Baptist ever existed.
But as a newly saved person,
I went to various churches in West Virginia,
and I was members of a couple different churches over time.
And you know what?
I learned from the preaching at that church.
Now, there were things at the church I didn't think were perfect.
But the truth is, when I went to church,
I learned things from the Bible.
You say, why?
Because the pastor knew more about the Bible than me.
And here's the thing.
When you're part of a legitimate church,
and you can get mad at me all you want,
but in general,
you're probably going to learn a lot,
because there are probably a lot of things I know that you don't know.
Now, here's the thing.
When the men preach on Wednesdays,
I learn things from their sermons,
because when they're Spirit-filled and they study a topic,
they learn things that I don't know,
and I can learn from those things.
I'm not saying I'm the only one.
But, you know, a large part of my job
is actually spending time on my sermons
where basically I study the passage,
and I learn, and then I teach you.
That's part of the job.
And when you're part of a church,
one reason why the evangelist or leader helps
is, in general, they're helping you learn things you do not know.
Right? And I get it.
You listen to a lot of preaching online,
and you learn a lot of new things,
and a lot of stuff you're like, man, a lot of this stuff I've already heard
because I've been listening for years online.
Well, I'm not trying to be arrogant,
but I doubt you had heard all the things from Song of Solomon
or from the Book of Ezra before you preached them.
I'm pretty sure you learned a lot of new things
that you had never thought of before.
And you say, why? Because I spent time
studying and preparing those sermons,
and I've read the Bible many times.
I memorized the Song of Solomon,
and you learn a lot as you go by doing that.
Right? Exodus 28.
Number one, there are specific people
that are basically called to do this job.
Specific people.
Now, you can have a calling or a desire
and just not put in the time and effort,
and you know what? That happens all the time.
People that God would want to go in the ministry,
but they don't put in the time and effort.
And it's a false desire because it's for the wrong reasons,
and I understand that.
However, it's not like God wants every...
Look, God wants everybody to be a sole winner.
He doesn't want every man to be a pastor, though.
Yeah, He wants everybody to be a preacher,
a preacher of the Gospel.
Doesn't mean He wants every single person to be a pastor.
I mean, from a logical standpoint,
if every man that was saved was a pastor,
then there would be no churches.
Right?
I mean, in general, there's going to be less...
Now, there's a scarcity of legitimate pastures
and ordained leaders, and I understand that.
Doesn't mean that God wants everybody to go in the ministry.
We have men in our church
that have expressed their desire to me
that they want to go into the ministry one day,
and praise the Lord for that.
It's okay if you don't have that desire.
That does not mean that you're not as godly
just because you don't have the desire.
And let me say this.
If you do have that desire to go in the ministry,
don't get an arrogant view of yourself
and think you're better than the members
because they don't have a desire.
That is the wrong way to look at it.
I should have the perspective
that just because I have the desire
and I put in the time and I'm the ordained leader
doesn't make me better.
Right?
As a member, you should have the idea,
yeah, you know what?
Brother Stuckey's not necessarily more godly than me,
but he is the ordained leader.
An employee at a company is not worse than his boss,
but he's also not the boss.
That's just the way it is.
Wives are not worse than husbands,
but husbands are the boss of the relationship.
Children are not worse than parents,
but the parents are the boss of their kids.
This is the way it works.
And you know what?
In the Bible, you see a lot of people
that get really mad
at basically authority in churches.
You think of Korah and all these stories.
And look, if that's inside your heart
and you're mad at the sermon,
there's something wrong with your heart.
Because I've said many times I am not more godly
just because I'm the leader of this church.
There's something wrong with you.
Because of the fact there is authority at churches.
There are specific people
that are ordained leaders of churches.
That's just the way it is.
This is God's system.
There's specific people.
And look, there's a scarcity of preachers and pastors in 2022,
and there's stunted performance without it.
But let me state this,
that if you have the desire to go in the ministry,
realize this, there is a stipulation
for the preachers and pastors that go into the ministry.
There are requirements that you have to do
after you get ordained to go in the ministry.
Exodus 28, verse 30,
And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment,
the urn and the thummim,
and they shall be upon Aaron's heart
when he goeth in before the Lord.
And Aaron shall bear the judgment
of the children of Israel
upon his heart before the Lord continually.
You say, brother, I want to be that pastor
with the urn and the thummim upon my life.
I'm glad you have that desire.
You are going to bear the judgment of the people.
You are going to be required
to oversee situations.
That's not fun.
I mean, some people think, man, it seems so fun,
just get up and yell and preach sermons.
Yeah, you know what, the preaching is probably
the most fun part of the job.
Before this church started,
if you had asked me how hard
I thought it was to be in the ministry,
you know, my perspective,
let's say it would have been about here,
my perspective after being in the ministry
is about equal.
But here's the thing.
I expected the preaching to be this difficult.
The preaching is actually a million times
easier than I expected.
Why does it balance out?
Because other things are harder.
Bearing the judgment is harder.
Actually, the preaching is basically
the easiest part of this job.
There's a lot to preach in the Bible.
I mean, you go verse by verse through books,
I mean, there's an endless supply of books.
And the reality is, by the time we get through
all the books, I mean, you're probably not
still going to be asked to church.
So I can just start all over.
I mean, there's an endless supply
of things to preach, and yeah, you know what,
you've got to change things around.
I put in time. Don't misunderstand
what I'm saying. It takes time and effort.
But that part's actually very easy
as part of this job.
I have more problems figuring out
what I want to preach where basically
I have too many ideas.
Because I've got my sermons written in advance.
I've got the sermons for the next couple months
already written, and sometimes I change them
to many of ideas. On my Excel tab
I've got sermon series ideas that will
basically fill me up for ten years.
It's just a matter of, I have problems
because I'll sit down and be like,
what do I want to preach out of these like
hundred ideas? I have no problem
coming up with ideas. There's so much
to preach in the Bible. But let me just say
this, other things are a lot harder.
Because when you run a
church, all of a sudden there's stresses
and responsibilities of you overseeing
things that aren't
fun to do.
And here's the thing, you say I have a desire to go
in the ministry, that's great.
But there's a stipulation for you.
Those that are called by God and run
churches, there are requirements of things
that you must do, and you must live your life
and do what the Bible says, not your own
personal opinions or what you want.
Go in your Bible to Numbers 27.
We'll look at two more places, Numbers 27.
Numbers 27.
And look, you know what, if you have the desire
to go in the ministry, I'm not trying to get rid
of your desire, I'm just stating if you don't
have the desire, don't go in the ministry.
You say, brother, I'm kind of 50-50,
I might want to go in the ministry, I'm not really
sure that if I want to though, then don't.
If you're not sure if you want to.
You better really want to.
You say, brother, why do you want to go in the ministry?
Why did you go in the ministry?
I've had a desire since I was 19, and I didn't
really know what that meant when I was 19 years old.
But I felt a desire to go in the ministry.
Now, I was obviously not even married at the time,
I didn't have kids, and I didn't know all the steps,
and I had never read the Bible cover to cover.
And I would say this, that if you get the desire
tomorrow to go in the ministry, here's the thing,
I promise you you're not going to be ready.
When you first get that desire, you're not really
ready for the job.
You have to actually put in the time and effort
and train and prepare.
And I had the desire, but the question is, well,
would I read the Bible over the next, you know,
two decades?
Would I memorize the Bible?
Would I get involved in church?
And if you have the desire, that's great, but you
have to also make sacrifices along the way.
It just is what it is.
Going in the ministry is like training for
something that you don't get paid for.
Right?
Because, you know, we probably had, I'm sure
there's a lot of people here, you have jobs.
And, you know, for me in the career I was in,
there was certain exams that you could pass that
would give you bonuses and raises, you know, in the
field I was in, you know, in the actuarial field.
I had a lot of friends in engineering in the U.S.
And to become a certified professional engineer
meant a huge pay raise, job security.
And, you know, at the end of putting in all that
time and effort, there's money.
You put in the time to go in the ministry, at the
end of that, there's no money.
You say, Brother Stuckey, well, I don't want to go
in the ministry anymore.
Well, then you never really wanted to anyway.
You wanted it for the wrong reasons.
What you need is to desire a good work.
What you have to have is the attitude, you know
what, I just feel like I can help and I have a
desire and I'll do what I can, I'm not going to be
perfect, I'm going to make mistakes, but I have the
desire, I'm willing to put in the time and effort.
But at the end of that, there's no money.
Now, there's blessings in heaven.
There's rewards in heaven.
I'm not saying it's not worth it.
I'm not saying that I regret it.
I'm just trying to give you a balanced perspective.
If you have the desire, that's great, but it's going
to mean sacrifices along the way.
It's going to mean you have to set some certain things
aside.
It might mean certain things in your professional
career might have to fail a little bit because you're
devoting time to reading the Bible and memorizing the
Bible.
That was the most frustrating thing to me in my
20s, where basically I would spend so many hours, I
worked a full-time job, and then I was spending 30
hours a week studying for these crazy actuarial exams,
and then I'm spending time reading the Bible and all
of this stuff.
I mean, it was like literally no sleep.
I mean, literally, I would start studying before 6.
The first thing I would do is read the Bible in the
morning.
I would show up to work before 6 in the morning and
just study for actuarial exams, and then often I'd
stay at work and study for them because I knew if I
went home I might get lazy or whatever, but basically
all day long.
And I was still involved in church.
Still involved in church.
Still going soul-winning.
Still memorizing the Bible.
Still reading the Bible.
I mean, it takes a lot of time and effort, and here's
the thing.
There's a lot of exams that I probably could have been
prepared for a lot earlier, but I had to spend time
being devoted to church.
And here's the thing.
This is true whether you go in the ministry or whether
or not you're just devoted to God in general.
If you're going to be all in for God, there might be
sacrifices that you have to make in your life.
And it is what it is.
But what's more important?
Right?
You know, recently we've had, because I got a new
phone and so we've had problems on the recording on
Tuesdays, but it was an interactive sermon.
I brought Zeph into the sermon.
And it was like the lesson we learned recently from the
Book of Ruth when I was showing him the Bible was
what's more important, money or serving God?
And so, you know, I asked that question and then I
asked, tested Zeph, and Zeph's like, serving God!
Now, here's the thing.
My son's a little bit older than my daughter because I
asked my son.
He got that.
My daughter was asleep for the lesson.
But we asked my daughter, Chris Bell, what's more
important, money or serving God?
Money!
I'm just like, oh, man, we got a lot of work with that
one.
Right?
You don't know the pain that we go through.
And then we try to say, no, serving God.
She's like, money!
Serving God.
Money!
Right?
And we're in Numbers 27, verse 20.
And thou shalt put some of thine honor upon him that
all the congregation of the children of Israel may be
obedient.
And he shall stand before Eliezer the priest who
shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of
Urim before the Lord.
And Eliezer is asking counsel after the judgment of
the Urim before the Lord.
And basically, Eliezer is going to get an answer for
God.
But here's the thing.
Don't expect to study the Bible and learn these great
truths if you're not willing to use it.
I mean, there's probably a lot of preachers and
pastors out there that they really don't know that
much about the Bible, even though they study and read
it.
Why?
God doesn't teach it anyway.
Why is God going to give you the answer if you're
unwilling to preach what the Bible says?
But if you're actually willing to preach what the
Bible says, I do believe people that are leaders of
churches, God does give them special wisdom to preach
and teach the Word of God.
And I believe that far before I was running this
church.
I've always believed that people that are leaders of
churches, if they're willing to preach the truth, God
is going to give them wisdom in order to preach through
chapters.
Certain things that maybe, you know what, you would
read on your own and just, it would go straight over
your head.
But it's like, if you're going to actually preach
through it, I believe God gives you the ability, if
you're willing to preach and teach what the Bible says.
Go to Ezra 2.
We'll close up.
Ezra 2.
Ezra chapter 2.
And look, as I said, if your heart's right, this
shouldn't offend you because I've never said that I'm
better than you.
What I've said is I'm the leader of this church.
And there's a reason why people come from so far away.
What's the reason?
Because they're like, there's no legitimate church within
my area.
There's no church that's nearby.
Right?
You say, Brother Secchi, you know, and look, whether you
like me or not, it doesn't really change anything.
You know, the reason why you come here is to hear the
Word of God, and this is where God's people gather.
And look, you can dislike me all you want.
That's fine.
People's personalities rub people the wrong way.
But one thing you cannot deny is if there's a place in
Metro Manila where God's people gather on Sunday, this
is the place.
This is the place with the soul winners and those that
love God.
This is the location where people gather.
Right?
It's a fact.
And many of you coming from different Baptist churches,
you're aware of this.
You say, your old churches, man, people didn't read the
Bible.
They didn't go soul winning.
They weren't serving God.
It's like, but here, people do.
Right?
You know, people come from old churches.
And I know the mentality, kind of like the small town
mentality or small church mentality where basically you
go to a church and most people don't really know the
Bibles that much.
They don't read the Bible.
And sometimes you can kind of get lifted up because you
know more about the Bible than a lot of the members.
Then you come to our church and you realize, well,
everybody knows about the end times.
Everybody knows about repentance of sins.
All of a sudden I went from being a big fish in a small
pond.
Now I'm just one of the fish.
It's like, hey, you know, guess how I feel because I've
got to teach you something new all the time.
Right?
And I know people read their Bibles.
I encourage people to read their Bibles.
I know people listen to Pastor Menes and Pastor
Anderson.
It's like I still have to get up and preach something and
teach you something new and encourage you and motivate
you and edify you.
Right?
And that's the way it is at our church.
This is where people gather.
But there are specific people that are ordained leaders of
churches.
And if you don't have that desire, there's nothing wrong
with it.
If you do have that desire, you know what, I want to help
you.
I do want to ordain you one day to run a church.
That'd be great because I think it would be great if
people that come from other provinces just didn't come to
this church anymore in five years, not tomorrow.
When there's legitimate churches because there's a
church that's just as good where the person preaching is
just as Spirit-filled, you learn the Word of God, they're
soul winners.
Ideally, that will be the case as years go by.
But we can't be modulo with it.
God gives requirements.
I mean, yeah, there's a desire to start churches, but it's
something that we have to really think about.
It takes a lot of time and effort.
It takes a lot of energy to make that decision.
We have men at our church that want to go into the ministry
and, you know, Lord willing, they will be ordained in the
ministry one day.
And it's great that they have that desire.
And I hope you do because there's a scarcity of pastors.
There's a stunning performance without pastors.
I mean, people in other provinces would love to have
regular soul winning in their province, reach that area,
new churches started.
There's a stunning performance without it.
But if you want to go in the ministry, realize there are
stipulations or requirements for what you need to do.
It's not just like, hey, I got the ordained title, now I get
to call myself, you know, Pastor Stuckey.
Look at me and look at how special I am.
Well, with that ordained position, God has requirements.
It's like, yeah, you know what, put in the effort to get
ordained and prove yourself.
But here's the thing, it's not like you can just say, well,
now I get to retire and do whatever I want because I'm
already ordained.
It's like, no, no, no, because God can replace you if
necessary.
That's the way it works.
There's stipulation for preachers.
Ezra 2, verse 64, we'll close up here in these verses.
Ezra 2, verse 64.
The whole congregation together was 42,303 score, beside their
servants and their maids, of whom there were 7,337.
And there are among them 200 singing men and singing women.
Their horses were 730 and 6.
Their mules, 240 and 5.
Their camels, 430 and 5.
Their asses, 6,720.
And some of the chief of the fathers, when they came to the
house of the Lord, which is at Jerusalem, offered freely for
the house of God to set it up in his place.
They gave after their ability onto the treasure of the work
three score and 1,000 drams of gold and 5,000 pounds of silver
and 100 priest garments.
So the priests and the Levites and some of the people and the
singers and the porters and the nephthonim dwelled in their
cities and all Israel in their cities.
Now, let me just say this in closing because I love our
church.
I love the churches that we have here in Manila, here in
Pampanga.
It's a great church.
It's a church where people love God.
They're serving God.
People motivate me to serve God.
And I'm very thankful for it.
And here's the thing.
You know, when you read 2 Corinthians, for example, what
you'll often see Paul the Apostle talk about is the
burdens of the ministry.
And he goes in great detail, which is not something you
would normally expect a pastor to do.
He talks about all the sacrifices he made to go into
the ministry.
And here's the thing.
I'm only preaching this because we're in Ezra, too.
And I believe most people at this church are very thankful
that my wife and I came to the Philippines and started
this church.
I believe people are very thankful that this church has
started.
But let me just state this.
You know, realize we made sacrifices to start this
church.
Sometimes, yeah, you know what?
I ask people to make sacrifices, make sure you're in
church and reading the Bible every day.
You know what?
It's not like I've never made sacrifices in my life.
It's like my wife and I made major sacrifices to come and
start these churches.
And I'm not complaining about it.
I'm happy to do it.
But I'm just saying, as a member, you should have the
attitude, you know what?
I am thankful to have a priest with the erm and the thummim.
I am thankful for Verity Baptist Church.
I'm thankful to be a part of this church.
And you know what?
Maybe I don't have the desire to go in the ministry.
But you know what, Brother Stuckey?
I'm going to try to be the best church member I can possibly
be.
Why?
Because there's work to be done in 2022.
Let's close with a word of prayer.
Your Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here
today.
We'll take this sermon in the spirit it was given, God.
Help us just to be obedient to you and serve you and help us
learn from this book, the book of Ezra.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Amen for that song.
Let's turn to hymn number 125.
125.
Let's sing the song, the solid drop.
I hope you spelled on the last of the verse.
Ready?
Sing.
My hope is filled on nothing less than Jesus' love and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest rain,
the holy wind on Jesus' name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils his holy face,
I rest on his unchanging grace.
In merry high and stormy near,
my anchor holds me in the path.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
His hope is filled on his blood,
to pour healing in the welding flood.
When all around my soul can swing,
I see that it's all my hope and strength.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
On the last, when peace of love will come to sound,
oh, may I then live in love,
rest in his righteousness for long.
Oh, yes, we stand before the throne.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
In the name of Jesus Christ,
amen.
Amen.