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All right, we're here in Luke chapter 12. We're going to continue the series on church problems. We're going to talk about divisions, the interior causes. Next week, we'll finish the series and talk about the exterior causes around the outside. But if you remember from 1 Corinthians, what it talked about was envy, strife, and divisions. And I believe that is progressive. Basically that there's envy, and that results in strife, and that strife will eventually result in divisions, where basically you have VBC Manila A, VBC Manila B, VBC Manila C. Some say I'm of Apollos, some say of Cephas, I'm of Christ. There's all these divisions in church, okay? You say, what's the problem with having divisions at church? We are a church body. A body needs to be together. Can you imagine one third of your body's over here, one third's over there? You got a problem there, okay? As a church, we need to be united together as one and not have these divisions, okay? Now keep your finger here. Go to Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 12, Luke 12, because I want you to understand something. When it comes to division, division is not necessarily a bad thing, okay? Division can be a good thing. I mean, think about Genesis chapter 1. What does it say? God divided the light from the darkness. The first chapter in the Bible, God divides the light from the darkness, okay? A division from basically the symbolism, godly and ungodly, okay? God is light, the devil and evil is the opposite of that, okay? Division is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, in Luke 12, notice what it says, verse 51, verse 51. This is Jesus Christ speaking, and he says, Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth, I tell you nay, but rather division. I remember when I was a kid and my mom would watch these Miss Universe pageants and everything, and I don't advocate watching that stuff, but when I was a kid, I saw them, and I remember there's the question thing where if there's one question, one thing that could help, major problem that you could solve in this world, what would you give this world? And they'd always be like, world peace. Oh, what a great answer. What a great answer. World peace, right? There's always the perfect answer, and that's like, that person's gonna win because they're so smart. World peace. But wait a minute. Does that jive with the Bible? Is that what the Bible says? No, I mean, but I'll tell you someone who's gonna bring peace to everybody. His name's the Antichrist. By peace, he shall destroy many, the Bible says. He's gonna come, and this message is gonna be, let's just be at peace with one another. Let's accept everybody for who they are, no matter who they are and what they've done. Here's the problem with that. You're gonna accept a pedophile? Imagine the little kid that got molested by that pedophile, okay? It does not make sense, and Jesus did not come and say, you know what, I'm just here to bring peace to everybody. He did not say that. He said he brought division. Verse 52, or verse 52. For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son and the son against the father, the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. This is speaking to division within an own family, okay? There's this kind of attitude all over the world, but really specifically here in the Philippines that no matter what your family believes and the differences, you should still be best friends with them, no matter what, right? Your cousin could be this hardcore LGBT person, this really bad person or whatever, but you're supposed to be best friends with them because they're your blood. Does the Bible teach this though? What the Bible teaches is you have a church family, okay? Now look, I talk to my parents every week, and we should try to get along with our family if it is possible, but it is not always possible though. Do you really think that we're going to end this service and walk out, and if you've got a family going to that church right over there, you're just going to get out and then just walk together to Jollibee and just have a great time. What are you going to talk about? I mean, literally, what could you talk about, okay? Because who you are is basically what you believe, and the problem is this. When people believe different things than what we do, how can you really have unity and fellowship with them, okay? And look, when Jesus Christ came, do you realize that they killed him? I mean, if all he was saying was peace, peace, peace, why did people kill him? They killed him because he was not saying that, okay? What he said is if you do not believe on me, you're going to spend forever in hell, and guess what? The Pharisees didn't like that. The Sadducees did not like that. The scribes did not like that, okay? Look, not everyone's going to believe what we believe, but in a church, you cannot have division. A church should be united together as one. Go back to Matthew 20, Matthew 20, Matthew 20. See sometimes us as fundamentalists, we're fundamentalist Baptists, we can be so focused on the fact that you've got to separate sometimes and they believe different things, and we can kind of bring that attitude inside of a local church and just be at hardcore strife with someone because of a difference of opinion on a verse in Ezekiel chapter 22 or whatever. Some very minor thing where it's like people have different opinions and then just cause a major fight where it's like, well, we've got to stand up for the truth. In church, you need to be united together as one, okay? As a church, the way we operate, in many ways, we will prevent division just because of the way I preach. I preach very clearly what I believe, and here's the thing, if people believe differently, they're welcome to come to our church. What they're not welcome to do though is come and say, well, Brother Stuckey's wrong. This is actually the truth. Actually you need to speak in tongues to be saved. Actually you need to be baptized to be saved. No, people don't have the right to do that because that's not what we teach. That's not what we believe, okay? But people can come to our church and believe different things and that's okay. If we would not allow anyone to come unless they believed everything we did, that's called a cult, okay? Look, you're welcome to come to our church and have different opinions. You could say, man, in my head, hey, I don't agree with what Brother Stuckey said in the last sermon. Hey, that's fine. But if you're trying to spread some other doctrine that the church disagrees with, well, obviously, that would not be accepted. I mean, imagine working at Coca-Cola and trying to convince everybody they should drink Pepsi. I mean, how long are you going to last at that company? As I've mentioned before, my father-in-law worked at Coke and one of the rules was no one in the family could drink Pepsi. It's like, they weren't even allowed to drink Pepsi. You say, why? Well, because he works for Coke. I mean, it makes sense, right? Well, the same thing at church. I mean, if somebody of a different religion came to our church, if a Muslim came to our church, hey, they'd be welcome to come. But if they're trying to convert people to Islam, well, then, well, hey, we're not Muslims. We're Christians, okay? Matthew chapter 20. One thing that prevents unity and causes division, one interior cause is selfishness. Selfishness can cause divisions in a local church. Matthew 20, verse 20. Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshiping him and desiring a certain thing of him. Now what are, who are the sons of Zebedee? James and John, sons of thunder, okay? Ask yourself this question. When it comes to the best or the most famous or most successful of the 12 apostles, aren't James and John pretty high up the list? I mean, outside of Peter, you probably mentioned them next, even above Andrew, right? And in terms of famous, the only ones more famous are Peter and Judas Iscariot, but Judas Iscariot is more famous for a little bit of a different reason, okay? But in terms of being successful, I mean, they're right near the top of the list, okay? So notice what it says here in verse 21, and he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other on thy left in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. Now notice in verse 22, they say we are able, so they are involved in this request. It's not just the mom. They say we are able, okay? Verse 23, And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. So you've got these two people, James and John, that are basically saying we want to be the best out of everybody in the world, not just the 12 apostles. Now look, that's a pretty arrogant request. We want to sit beside you in the kingdom, okay? Now this is something that the apostles actually struggled with. There's other times they're arguing about who's the best, and Jesus says, Hey, what were you arguing about? And they're just quiet because they're arguing about who's the best, okay? But the reality is, if we're seeing this from the 12 apostles, we could be guilty of these things as well. We could have this attitude inside of us where, Why read the Bible more than anybody else? I go sowing more than anybody else. I'm dressed better than anybody else, right? That is a wrong attitude, but it's something that you see that people struggle with. Now this request causes division because they are selfish and they want to be preeminent. And number one, it causes division amongst them. Verse 24, And when the 10 heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them onto him and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. What he's saying in verse 25 is this, if you are powerful in this world, you will exercise that authority upon others. You'll eat at the nicer restaurants, you get the nicer seats, you get the nicer hotels when they're on the road and everything like that. Those that are in powerful positions will exercise that authority. But what he's saying is, it doesn't work that way with Christianity. If you want to be greatly used by God and be very successful and get many rewards, it is the opposite. You don't elevate yourself, you lower yourself, you humble yourself. Verse 26, But it shall not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered onto, but to minister and to give a lot his life a ransom for many. What Jesus is saying is this, hey, if you want to be very successful and get many rewards and be greatly used, here's what it is, lay down your life for other people. Live your life not for yourself, but be a minister, be a servant. Spend your time going soul winning. Spend your time visiting people that are struggling. Spend your time caring about other people and not caring about yourself, and that is how you can become successful. Here's the thing, when we have a selfish attitude where we only care about ourselves, it creates this us for and no more mentality. See, at our church, there could be this attitude where Y was here at the very beginning of this church, so somehow that makes you better than someone who's come the last couple months. When it comes to our type of preaching, many of you were waiting for this church before it started. It's very unique for a church. Many of you were waiting for a long time, even upwards of almost a year when you heard there was going to be a church here, and you were waiting for this church, but it could develop an attitude inside of you that, hey, I was one of the originals, and if somebody's new, they've got to prove themselves until they reach this special level and they're one of us. It's like it doesn't work that way. No, we are united as one as a church. It's not the new IFB and the non-new IFB at the same church. We are one church, okay? We need to be united together as one and be together as one in our beliefs and our stance and our fellowship and things like that, okay? Go to Titus 1, Titus 1, Titus 1. You say, what's a practical application of that? Here's a practical application. Don't come to this church with this attitude, oh, I'm just going to get to talk to my favorite people at church and just ignore other people. That's selfish. That causes division. Don't have this attitude, well, I'm here to just see my best friends and you just ignore everybody else. You are creating this spirit of division in church. Get to know everybody at church. I understand certain people you get along with better. Certain people are more similar to you. Certain people have similar backgrounds. Certain people you have more to talk to about. But if you have this attitude, I'm going to come to church and only talk to the people that I like, that's selfish. That causes division. What it also does is make it very hard to build a church and to grow a church. We want new people to come to this church and feel welcome and say, man, I feel like I'm accepted from day one. People cared about me. People talked to me. Look, this takes place at church. You'll go to churches and then just nobody talks to people that are new. It's like, oh, I can't talk to them. I don't know anything about them. Imagine someone who's new at church though. If they're new at church and nobody talks to them, they're going to be very uncomfortable. It is selfish to have this attitude, I'm going to come to church just to hang out with people I like. It's a wrong attitude. Titus 1 verse 6, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, this is in reference to someone becoming a pastor or a bishop, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly, for a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God. So he gives requirements on the family being married and having kids and things like that. But notice the first thing after that, not self will. What does that mean? Not selfish. You say, brother sucky, I want to be successful. I want to make it in the ministry. Don't be selfish. That's what the Bible says. First Timothy chapter three. See, people have this idea, and this is something you learn whenever you start a church. You feel like the ministry is just like preaching sermons. That's a small part of the ministry. I mean, if I preach the most eloquent sermons in the world, but I was self willed, it would be a failure. To be successful, you cannot be selfish, meaning it's not about what you want, but it's about the people that are there at church. Because doesn't the Bible say this, that to prove yourself to be a pastor, you've got to prove yourself as running your own home? What makes a successful father when you care about your wife more than yourself? When you care about your children more than yourself? What makes you successful as a pastor? When you care about the people at your church more than your own needs? Look, going into the ministry is not meant to be something where, man, I'm going to make a lot of money. I'm going to be famous. Look, if that's your attitude, just tell me ahead of time so we don't ordain you. It's like you must be willing to have the attitude, you know what? I'm going to take this on, and you know what? It's going to be tough in life. I'm going to fulfill God's will, but it's not going to be easy. It's going to be difficult. We're going to try to serve God and do a great work for God in our lives. Turn in your Bible to Ruth 2, Ruth chapter 2, Ruth 2. When it comes to a church, there's certain people at a church that are, you know, they've been here for a while, and they would say, hey, this is my home church. Other people might be kind of new to church or visiting church and everything. They're still kind of figuring out, hey, is this my church? Is this the right church for me? And the reality is people go to church because the church provides something for them. That's the way that everybody, why they go to church. You say, not me, Brother Stuckey. No, wait a minute. You come to this church because you're learning the word of God. You're being provided something. You're being motivated to live for God. Right? I mean, the reason why I would pick a church if I was not running this church is I'd go to a church where I was learning the word of God, and they were motivating me. The church is actually providing something for me. If the church is providing nothing, you're not going to go to that church. Now, everybody goes to a church because of what the church is providing. That's reality. Okay? But what I want you to realize is this. If you say, hey, this is my home church. I've decided this church has provided what I want. This is the preaching I like, the soul winning. This is the type of church I want. Here's the thing. You must develop this attitude, not what can this church do for me? What can I do for this church? That should be the attitude that you have at a church if you say, hey, this is my church. This is what I believe in. What can you provide the church? Right? That should be the attitude. Okay? Point number one was this selfishness. When it comes to selfishness, I think we would agree being selfish is a sin. It's wrong. Right? The second point is not something I'd say is a sin. So I want you to understand the difference. But the second point is shy. Being shy can cause division in church. Now being shy is not a sin. Being an in-going person and not an out-going person, that's not a sin. There's no verse I'm going to point to that says, hey, this is a sin. But the Bible also says a man that hath friends must show himself friendly. If you are more out-going and less shy, you know what, you're going to have more friends. That is reality. Okay? And here's the truth. Many of you are at this church because of specific doctrines we teach and soul winning and things like that. But realize if somebody new comes to our church, they don't care about the poster of rapture. They don't. They don't even, they've never heard of dispensationalism. They have no idea how to spell it. They don't know what Calvinism is. They don't know what those things are. You know what they care about? A church that actually cares about them. That is the reality. When people come to a new church, what are they looking for? Hey, is this church friendly? Are they nice? Do I fit in? Look, the fellowship lunch we do after the services is very important for this church, for the unity of our church, for being together as one. It's a very important part of this church. It is not just the preaching. And sometimes us that are soul winners that have maybe been doing this for a long time, we kind of have this attitude, hey, this church must believe all these things. But realize someone you get saved at the door doesn't care about those things. Someone at the door does not care of your interpretation of Matthew 24, right? That yes, it's a future event. They don't really care if you believe it was 70 AD or in the future, whatever. They don't care about those things. Now look, the goal is that when people dive into a church, they start to care about the doctrine more and more. But when they first start coming, that's not what they care about. And if you want them to stick around, here's the secret, friendliness. That's the secret. Now when it comes to the preaching of this church, I pretty much do almost all the preaching. But when it comes to making people feel connected, that's a team effort. Most people make their decision if they're going to come back to church within the first 10 minutes at church before the sermon takes place. Why? If nobody talks to them, they're not going to come back. I mean, this is reality, okay? Which means some of us need to step outside of our comfort zone and become a little bit more friendly. Now it is not a sin to be shy, but I will say this, it is helpful if people are friendly and make people feel welcome. And you might say, well, I'm shy, it's not my natural personality. But what about someone who's visiting church for the first time? They feel more uncomfortable than you because they don't know anybody. Maybe you do feel uncomfortable, but shouldn't we all have the attitude of stepping out on the water from time to time in our life and do things that are difficult? Now look, I'll tell you, when it comes to this point of being shy, neither my wife nor I are outgoing people. Now I am probably more outgoing than my wife, but I'm not super outgoing. My natural personality was always, hey, you know, work your job and then just go home and live up on some mountain and everything and just spend time with your family and just I'm not the sort of person that always wants to be around people. It's not my natural personality, but you know, I remember Pastor Min is preaching this and I remember him talking about, hey, you know what, in the ministry especially, you need to be friendly. It's a very important part of being in the ministry because you need to make people feel welcome. Now the beauty of Christianity is this, we can get better at things and we can grow and we can change. And I'll tell you what, both my wife and I became more outgoing as a result of the preaching and you know, it took stepping out on the comfort zone a little bit. Now here's the thing, when you first step out of the boat, you first step out of the ship, you're just stepping out a little bit. And the great thing is once you make it that step, next time you can step out a little bit further. Right? You can just slowly change over time. Now look, in terms of building a church, a lot of it is just in terms of being friendly. That is a large part of a successful church is just being friendly and making people feel welcome. Notice this in Ruth chapter two, verse number four, Ruth two, verse four. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said unto the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered him, the Lord blessed thee. Now look, this verse is really powerful if you pay attention to what's being said. Because realize Boaz is the rich, powerful person. He's essentially the CEO of this operation, okay? He's the chief manager, he's the head guy in charge, and he basically shows up and he's got a worker who basically oversees all of these reapers. But before he even talks to this person who's like the assistant manager or a person in powerful position or whatever you want to say, he talks to all of the reapers and just introduces himself. I mean, notice this. He says unto the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered him, the Lord blessed thee. You know what? Do you know what I believe would be a very successful CEO in this world? I believe if they showed up to work every Monday morning and spent one hour just saying hello to all of the workers, I believe the result is those workers would work 20 times harder than they normally would. Why? Because their boss is friendly. I mean, can you imagine if your boss came to you in the morning and says, hey, brother, how's your family doing? How's your wife doing? I heard she was sick last week. You know, that would go a long way to get your employees to work hard. I mean, isn't that true? Just have a boss that actually cares about you. And Boaz, who is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, he comes here and guess what? He just greets the people that are lowly, people that are not as, you know, basically, you know, influential or powerful or whatever. Okay. Verse number five. Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, whose damsel is this? And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, it is the Moabites damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. Verse seven. And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she came and hath continued even from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house. Now, in verses eight and nine, he's going to, you know, talk to this woman and everything like that. But I want you to notice her reaction in verse 10. Verse 10. She fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground and said unto him, why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldst take his knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger. Her reaction as she's an outsider is that, why are you so friendly to me? Why are you so nice to me? Did you know that is the reaction we want from first time visitors at our church. We want that reaction from people that are new at church, that that church was nice. That church was friendly. Here's what you have to understand. The last sermon I preached was probably pretty rough to a lot of people, and some sermons are like that. But I want you to realize, you know, for a lot of people, a lot of this preaching is new to them. And look, you know, they might look at certain things I say and say, man, that seems harsh and that seems mean or whatever. But you know what's going to get them to stick around is if the church is friendly. That's the reality. Look, I mean, if you've listened to preaching like this for five years, it's not the same as someone who just got saved. I mean, people that just get saved, they're going to be like, man, you know, why is he saying that? You know, why? Because everything's new to them. What's going to make them stick around is the fact that we're friendly. And this is what we see with Ruth. She's an outsider, and she's like, why are you so friendly? I'm a stranger. I'm an outsider. You know, Boaz had this attitude, let's make her one of us, not this spirit of division. Verse number 13, then she said, let me find favor in thy sight, my Lord, for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens. What she says in verse 13 is, you know what? You were friendly, the opposite of being shy. That is what makes her feel welcome. And look, that is what's going to make people feel welcome at this church that are new. It's going to be how nice we are. That is reality. Go to Romans 12, Romans chapter 12, Romans 12. Romans chapter 12. We must understand that, you know, the preaching, although the preaching is paramount because it tells us what we believe and what we stand for, that's still a very small part of what our church is. It's a very small part. Okay. It's very important that we make people feel welcome and we're friendly people. And let me tell you something. The reality is the people that are best at bringing people to church are those that are more friendly. That's the reality. And look, I'm not the most friendly person. It's not my natural skill. And look, there are going to be people that are going to be better at being outgoing. But I'll say this. You know what? If you want to bring people to church, it's not just getting them saved that's going to bring them to church. And if you've been soul winning for a couple of years, you realize that. Man, you'd think you just told them how to get to heaven and they're going to come to church, right? Doesn't work that way. You say, how do you get those people to come to church? You got to convince them to come, right? How do you do that? You make them feel like that, man, you know, this church actually cares about me. You know, it takes some effort. It might take writing down their name, giving them a call, sending them a text message. But the people that are more friendly are going to bring more people to church. And it's just common sense. That's going to be the way it works, right? You've got to convince them that they want to come here. And look, most people are not going to start going to a new church. What is the secret? The secret's being friendly. The secret is not being shy. Romans 12 verse 10. Be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love in honor, preferring one another. The Bible says we ought to prefer one another or care about others more than ourselves. Brother Stuckey, I'm a naturally shy person, but you ought to care about other people more than yourself. You ought to say, you know what? Yes, I feel a little bit uncomfortable. You know what? I'm going to care about them more. You know, many people that are great soul winners are very shy people. I mean, isn't that true? When it comes to going soul winning, is everybody that goes soul winning just the most outgoing person in the world? No. You step out of your comfort zone, right? That is how you become successful. Look, people that, I mean, even people that preach sermons, you think they must have been the most eloquent preachers ever. I mean, no. A lot of people when they did public speaking, I was not good at public speaking when I was growing up. I had a class in college and I did very bad, right? In my math class and then everyone had to do a part. Other people were just very, you know, charismatic and just did really, you know, me? It didn't really come naturally. Okay. Look, you can learn to be someone that you're not. You can learn to change your personality. Okay. And it's not a sin to be shy. I've never said it's a sin to be shy. What I'm saying though, is being friendly is very useful to building a church and bringing people to church. Okay. Notice what it says in verse 11. Point number one is selfishness. Selfishness causes divisions. Point number two is shyness. Point number three is slothfulness, slothfulness or laziness. Romans 12 verse 11, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Now look, we are a church, but we must understand Jesus said, I must be about my father's business. In many ways, we operate like a business. You say, what does that mean? It means we got to be professional. We got to take it seriously. Right? I mean, if you're going to be successful with a business, you have to take it very seriously. Right? I mean, if you have a time you say, man, the opening time for our store is somewhere. I mean, think about the restaurant that used to be downstairs. It's like they say they're going to open at 12 p.m. and it might be 2 30 p.m. They haven't started. Well, there's a reason why you went out of business. Right? I mean, the people were nice down there. I enjoyed talking to them. I'm just saying, but if you don't take it seriously, a business is going to fail. If you don't take a church seriously and make it serious and important and professional, it's going to fail. That is reality. The Bible says, do not be slothful or lazy in business. See, one thing that can cause divisions is when we come to church, we're just kind of too lazy to get to know people because, look, it takes effort to get to know people, to figure out what their name is and then to remember it. Right? Figure out what their name is and write it down and remember it. Look, I'm not the best at this. It's something that, you know what, I'm still working on getting better, but that's the reality though. You know what? It takes effort. If you want to build a church, guess what? Takes effort. And, look, it's not a one man show and I never preach it's a one man show. Yes, I preach the sermons, but to be successful, it is a team effort to build this church. Go to Proverbs 26, Proverbs chapter 26, Proverbs 26. So what does that mean? Don't be slothful. Well, you know what it might mean, and I'll show you this in Proverbs 26, is waking up early enough to get to church on time and get to know people. Now I know that's a harsh truth when people talk about Filipino time and stuff like that, but that is reality. Right? Proverbs 26, notice what it says in verse 13, the slothful man sayeth, there is a lion in the way, a lion is in the streets. And the Bible is saying the person that is lazy, he makes excuses for not going to work. There might be a lion in the streets. I might get killed. Okay, now here's what's funny. I don't know if this is true. Somebody posted it. So I heard in Russia when they were worried about coronavirus, they let lions out on the streets to prevent people from being in public. I don't know if they were just making fun of Vladimir Putin or whatever, but apparently this verse has an actual application. But in general, you do not have to worry about getting killed by a lion if you step outside. Okay, but the Bible is saying those that are lazy, they're just kind of like, oh, I'm too lazy to get up and everything. As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. Hit the snooze bar 20 times and everything. It's like, oh, man, I'll wake up at 930. I'll wake up at 1030 or whatever. That's what the Bible is saying here. There's a famous quote where it says early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. And look, there is a lot of truth to that, that people that go to bed early and wake up early are more successful in general. I understand there's exceptions from people that stay up late and wake up late. You say why? Because of the fact when you wake up early, there's no distractions. Let me tell you something. I can almost guarantee that the most successful Bible readers at our church are those that wake up early and read the Bible before there's distractions. I can almost guarantee that I can almost guarantee the people that are successful at just all areas of life, because when you wait and look throughout the Bible, you see this pattern from people that are really great people of God. Moses rose up early in the morning, all of them early in the morning, early in the morning, early. I mean, you could literally look at 100 verses where it says early in the morning, early in the morning, early in the morning. And you know what? You find time to get stuff done. But what takes place if you stay up late? Well, you're just kind of on Facebook watching these videos. Oh, this is entertaining and stuff. Look, it's just the way it works. And we can see the biblical principle where it talks about waking up early in these verses, but also with just the great people of the Bible. Why not just model ourselves after people that are successful? People that are successful in life, they live off routine. It means this is my morning wake up time, and this is what I do, and it's scheduled. It's very organized. People that are successful, they're very organized. They say from five to six, this is when I do my Bible reading. From six to seven, I do this. But look, if you're the sort of person that says, hey, at some time during this day, I'm going to read the Bible. I don't know how much because I don't have a Bible reading plan, but it's just going to somehow happen. You know what? You're going to read the Bible less than people that say, hey, I've got an organized plan. Look, I have a Bible reading chart that I follow every single day, and it tells me I'm going to get this much done. You say, why do you do that? Because if I don't get around to it, I'm just like, man, I've got to stay up and finish these chapters. It makes you more successful just having a routine, okay? Waking up early. Verse 15, the slothful hideth his hand in his bosom. It grieved with him to bring it again to his mouth. And so verse 15 is kind of funny. He's being very, you know, he's using strong language. He's going a little bit over the top of basically the slothful man is basically, you know, too lazy to even feed himself. He can't even reach his hand to his mouth to feed himself. Oh, it's so much work. It's so hard to put this water in my mouth. It's like, now, hopefully nobody's that bad, okay? But that's what he's saying here. Verse 16, the sluggard, or sloth, is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render reason. And the Bible is saying the person that's lazy always has excuses, always has a reason why he can't get it done. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 10, Ecclesiastes chapter 10, Ecclesiastes chapter 10, Ecclesiastes chapter 10. And the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 10, by much slothfulness the building decayeth and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. So in verse 18, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 10 that the building decays if people are lazy. I mean, isn't it true? What is it? The second law of thermodynamics that things break down over time or whatever? Look, things go bad. They get broken over time. A building will decay unless you operate on it. The paint gets old, you know, the lock gets messed up. Look, if you never operate on a building and never fix anything, after 10 years, what is that building going to look like? It's going to decay. It's going to be messed up. I mean, there's annual maintenance that you've got to do on a regular basis. Now there is a physical application to that. That's definitely true with a building, but what is the spiritual application? What is the church? The church is the people. Look, if we're not fixing the problems as a church, if we are lazy, then guess what? The building, the house of God, the actual people, it's going to decay. If we want this church to grow, guess what? We cannot be lazy. Now look, part of it is just going soul winning and working hard and inviting people to church. That's not all of it though, okay? We must make people feel welcome at church and no church will be successful if people are lazy. We must work hard if we want this church to grow. Go to 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter 2. It's a lot easier to come to church and just talk to your favorite people that you always talk to. What takes more work? What requires you to step out of your comfort zone? What requires you to set aside your selfishness and your shyness is when you talk to people that you don't know that well and you get to know them. But how is the church actually going to grow? When we step out of our comfort zone and get to know people and make them feel welcome. Now look, if you've been at this church for a year, then obviously you feel welcome because you're here every week, you know people. But look, people that are new, if we want to get them connected, we must make them feel welcome. And look, I've heard stories about somebody's at church and they're at a church and then basically they've been at the church for a little while and then the pastor preaches something that really offends them. Now I cannot imagine that ever happening at this church. I can't imagine I'd ever preach anything that people would disagree with or get offended. Look, when you preach the truth, there are some things that are tough to take, but I've heard stories where basically somebody heard a sermon and they were very angry about it, but they had friends at the church and their friends, you know, try to show them a few things from the Bible. No, this is what the Bible says and everything, and they convince them to keep coming. And then three months later, it's like, oh, wow, I was wrong about that. Right? Look, this preaching is new to a lot of people. A lot of the things, and maybe not so much in this series because it's more generic about church problems and things like that, but certain doctrines we believe it's new to people. What's going to make them stick around is when we actually put in an effort. Okay, we don't want this house to decay. Point one is selfishness. Point two, shyness. Point three, slothfulness. Point four is short memory. Having a short memory causes division. You say, what do you mean by that? Because us that have been saved for a while, sometimes we have a short memory with the changes we made in our lives. Sometimes we forget about that when we first started coming to church, we weren't dressed right either. When we first started coming to church, we were listening to the wrong music too. I mean, I've seen people that are new to church, and then they come to church and say, hey, you should read this Christian book, it's a great book. And they don't realize that the person they're recommending is someone we would never recommend. Now here's the thing, the nice thing, the correct thing would just be to be friendly to that person. Okay? Now tell me about it if someone's spreading something, but I'm just saying you don't have to be rude to that person driving away. They might not know any better, okay? They might be unaware of what they're saying because they're new, okay? We have a short memory sometimes, the fact that we've made many changes in our lives. First Peter two, verse two, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. The Bible says that, you know, when you get saved as a newly saved Christian, desire the sincere milk of the word, okay? The way people grow is through hearing the word of God. If somebody just got saved, there's probably going to be a lot of things that they're going to need to change. That's okay. It's okay if somebody's not as grown as you. Isn't it normal that a 15 year old is going to be probably bigger than, you know, a two year old? Because they're older. Common sense. You've been saved for 10 years and going soul winning for a long time. Yeah, you know what? You probably are more spiritual than someone who got saved last week, I hope. I hope you've grown over the last 10 years, right? I mean, so, but realize this, that when you first got saved, you did a lot of things wrong too. When I first started coming to church, I do not like dressing up and I've changed over time to be professional and things like that. But I'll tell you what, when I first started going to church, shorts and a t-shirt, you say why? I don't like dressing up. And I'm sure people would look at me and say, man, that person's never going to amount to anything or whatever. But you know what? Here's the thing. People are new to coming to church and we expect them to live like they've been saved for 20 years. It's ridiculous. Of course, they're going to have things that are off. One of the examples we talked about in the last sermon, right, I mean, if people are new at church, they'd probably raise their children a little bit differently than, you know, with spanking and the things the Bible teaches. Hey, have a little grace with those people. You say, well, I've got so much knowledge. Well, gain some grace. Grow in grace and knowledge. I know so much, but you haven't grown in grace. Okay? So we need to not have such a short memory and realize that people are at different levels spiritually. And you know what? If they come to our church, they're united and together with us, even if they're not as far along as you are. Turn to 2 Peter 3, 2 Peter 3, 2 Peter 3. This is something you see sometimes where, you know, sometimes somebody will come to church and, you know, ladies will come to church or whatever and, you know, they come to church and everything and they're at the church for six months and they start changing. You know, they start changing, you know, the, you know, the way they dress and things like that. And then they change the way they dress and then they start telling other ladies, we need to quit wearing this. You need to quit wearing this. It's like you were at the church for six months and then you decided to make that decision. It's like, look, allow the preaching of the word of God to change people's hearts. Allow people to hear the sermons and make their own decisions what they do. I preach everything in the Bible. Now sometimes people come to me and they'll say, hey, you know, you should preach on this. And the reality is this. There are a lot of things I should preach on, but there's only three sermons in one week. And I'll tell you what, I just want to help you out that if you're going to be a preacher or a pastor one day or whatever, one unsuccessful method is just kick every single dog in every single sermon. You've got to actually prove something from the Bible. You can't just say, well, here's this verse. This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. You need to preach a real sermon. And a real sermon takes time and effort. And look, there are a lot of things I'm like, yeah, I really would love to preach a topic on this, preach on this and show what the Bible says, but you know, it's like, it's going to have to wait a couple months. I mean, I've got my sermon series I'm preaching, we're going through the book of Romans and Revelation. We're preaching on church problems. You know, I don't have time to deal with this. It's like, it's going to have to wait, you know, that's just the way it is, okay? And I don't have this attitude that I'll just tell everybody all of their problems. You're going to cause division in our church. We want unity in our church, okay? 2 Peter 3 verse 18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Look, when you start getting saved, one thing you learn very quickly, you start learning some knowledge. You're hearing sermons. You're learning some things. Unfortunately, grace can take a little bit more time. And I believe if you read the Bible and have a walk with God, you'll learn these things at an appropriate level. But I want you to realize, many people, especially in this sort of church, will get knowledge really quickly, but it takes some time to get some grace. You hear these stories, and these are true stories, where somebody will believe in a post-trib rapture, and I believe in a post-trib rapture. I think the last 35 weeks or 25 weeks or whatever Revelation approved what we believe about the end times, okay? But I'll tell you what, you have people that are new at a church, and then they're trying to rebuke the pastors for believing in a pre-trib rapture. It's like, who would have the gall to rebuke their pastor? And look, we're not talking about a salvation issue. Now, if you're at a church that's preaching a false gospel, just go to a new church. Just go to a new church. But when we're talking about the rapture, it's just like you're really spending your time trying to correct. And what's funny about this is usually when people are trying to correct their pastors on the end times, those same pastors don't go soul winning. Look, if somebody's not going soul winning, then honestly, they're probably going to allow the truth to just go right by them. Once people develop a walk from God, that's going to give them the proper knowledge and wisdom when they hear things. So instead of trying to convince them to believe in a post-trib rapture, convince them to go soul winning. Invite them to go soul winning with you, okay? But the problem is people grow in knowledge, and they don't grow in grace, and they try to tell everybody all of these things. It's not going to be effective, and it's going to cause division and hard feelings in our church. It's going to make it hard to build and grow our church. Go to 1 Corinthians 11. First Corinthians chapter 11. First Corinthians 11. And we'll close up here in 1 Corinthians 11. Point one was selfishness. Point two, shyness. Point three, slothfulness. Point four is short memory, and point five, strife. Strife is obviously a major cause of division. I mean, just common sense would tell you that if people are getting in fights, what happens? People have got to take a side, and now all of a sudden you've got this division. Ten people are over here, 15 are over here, and there's 12 on the sidelines that don't really know, okay? That is the result of strife. It leads to division, okay? And obviously division is a bad thing in a local church. What does it say in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 17? Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. Coming together is meeting together in church, coming together for church, for first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. He's saying, you're coming to church, and you're having divisions. Now is a division a good thing in a local church? No. What did 1 Corinthians say? Envy, strife, and divisions. You don't want to have any divisions, okay? You need to be united together as one. In this chapter, he's preaching against having divisions, okay? Now let me just say this, this chapter, the second half is in reference to the Lord's Supper, and he's preaching against having divisions. Let me tell you something that makes absolutely no sense. Well, let's just take the Lord's Supper in 20 different houses and have major division. That's the exact opposite of what he's saying, okay? As a church, we believe the Lord's Supper is taken together as one. You say, why? We are a body, no division. That's what 1 Corinthians is always talking about. He's saying, when you're coming together, there's a problem because there's divisions. There's I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, I'm of Christ, no, you are a local church. And then he's referencing this to the Lord's Supper, and he's saying, man, the Lord's Supper should be a unifying thing, you're together as one. What's taking place? Divisions. That's what's taking place. Verse 19, for there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. Now what is he saying in this verse? He's saying when you come together, there should not be divisions, but there are divisions. You should be coming together to eat the Lord's Supper and you're not. Why? Because there's divisions. He's not saying when you come together in the church, it's not the time to take the Lord's Supper. No, he's saying you're supposed to be taking the Lord's Supper. Here's the pattern, you're coming together, but there are divisions. They're not meant to be divisions in the local church. Verse 21, for in eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper. What are you saying in verse 21? Divisions. That's what he's preaching against. He's saying here you are in church and you're not eating it at the same time. When we take the Lord's Supper, what do we do? Everybody gets the bread and at the exact same time we partake. Why? No divisions. Wouldn't it be weird if we showed up for the Lord's Supper at Easter time next year and then all of a sudden there's Verity Baptist Manila Church A and they just say, well, we're going to take the Lord's Supper before the service. Verity Baptist Church Manila Church B takes the Lord's Supper in between the services and then the third group says we're going to wait until after the service. And then I'm here for the fourth group and say, hey, it's time to take the Lord's Supper. It's like, oh, I'm already done. It's like that's what's taking place. This is the end result of envy, strife and sin in the church. Divisions. This is a bad thing. Okay, look, I understand other churches do things differently and that's fine. But this is the stance of Verity Baptist Church that the Lord's Supper is a unifying thing where he's saying there's no divisions. But unfortunately with this church, they were great at setting a bad example. There are divisions and they're not doing things appropriately, decently and in order, as the Bible says. He says, for in eating, every one of you taketh before other his own supper and one is hungry and another is drunken. What? Have you not houses to eat and to drink in? He's saying, look, if you're just so excited when you come to church, man, I got to get that grape juice. Go to your home. You can drink your juice at home. You can eat your bread at home. He's like, you have houses that you can eat in, but he's like, we're coming together for the Lord's Supper. No, you got to wait for everybody else. And here's what's interesting about this. Isn't it true? Just with common general respect outside of the Lord's Supper when we eating food, doesn't it make sense that you kind of wait for everybody to get their food and pray together? That's common courtesy manners 101. Isn't that true? I mean, you wait for everyone. We pray as a church at lunchtime and then I mean, that's common courtesy. It's not like, all right, my food's cooked, I'm going to eat mine. And then all of a sudden, you know, like you're done before anyone's even gotten their food. That's considered rude, right? Those are like manners 101 you teach your kids. This church was terrible, my friend. I mean, this church, they're there for the Lord's Supper. I mean, that is a major, major event. For the Lord's Supper, they wouldn't even wait for people. That's terrible. This is just common manners just in general, right? And they were not waiting for the Lord's Supper. There's a lot of problems in this church that Paul had to fix. He says, you have houses to eat and to drink in or despise the church of God. Do you not respect the church of God enough to wait? There are divisions in this church and what's the result of this? Well, throughout the book, there's all this strife. I mean, people are suing other people at church. It's like brothers taking brother to court and suing them. It's like, man, it doesn't get much more strife than that when you're suing your fellow brother in Christ. I mean, you go sowing together in the afternoon, these two people go sowing after the service, they go to court together because one's suing the other one. Hey, there's a problem there, okay? And suing one another, there's a lot of strife in the church of Corinth. What's the result? Well, cause divisions, major divisions because of the strife. And shame them that have not. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. He's saying, look, I heard you took the Lord's Supper again this year and this is what I heard. Your version of the Lord's Supper was five divisions at church where one group goes in the next and the next and there's all this strife. Would God praise us if that's how we took the Lord's Supper? Hey, it's great you did the vain ritual. It's great, I mean, throughout the Bible, people make offerings and God says, I don't like your offering. You went through the motions, what's the problem? You had the wrong heart about it, okay? And it's great. Hey, they took the Lord's, and here's the thing, we believe and I teach and I believe, hey, the Lord's Supper is one time per year, right before Easter. But look, even if a church did it the exact same way, if we did it just like God wanted, and we had all these divisions, God's not gonna praise us. He's saying, you failed this year, better luck next year, right, because the Lord's Supper was meant to be a unifying thing. And what the problem was, they weren't waiting for one another. There is these divisions, He's saying, I'm not gonna praise you for this. It's an embarrassment, it's a failure, okay? There are divisions in this church and the result of these divisions is coming from strife and sin in the church. So what are the five points of division in the church? Interior causes, when you are selfish, that will cause division in the church. When you are shy, that will cause division in the church. Once again, being shy is not a sin. Being shy is not like being lazy or being selfish, but obviously being friendly is a good way to get new people coming to church and make people feel at one. Being shy, being slothful, having a short memory, and then obviously strife is a major cause of divisions. We need to realize something that really this whole sermon series is kind of centered around this idea of our church having unity. I mean, we are a local body. We are a local body. As the leader of this church, honestly, I'm really not that concerned with what other churches are doing or what other sermons are preaching. I just care that our local church has unity. Whether we're running 200 people or whether we're running, I don't know, we have like 45 people here or whatever it is, as long as we have unity and we're growing together. But you know, we do not want this church to turn into a place where basically, because we've all been to Baptist churches like that, where there's divisions in the church because they disagree over doctrine or things such as that. Look, when it comes to our church, if we want to be united together as one, we all need to work on our personalities. Otherwise, we are going to be part of the division instead of the solution to the problem. Let's close in word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to see your word on this topic of divisions and the interior causes. And help all of us, God, to work on these things and all of us can be guilty of these things from time to time. Help us to do our best to make this church a place filled full of unity, where we actually care about one another and we make new people feel welcome out of church, God. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.