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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Welcome to Verity Baptist Church Manila Welcome to Verity Baptist Church, Manila. Let's start our first service, and it's open our names to him number 130 him number one Sing the song yesterday today forever All the first ready everybody me Oh me oh oh oh me oh oh And it's me yeah, I'm car we thank Lord for this morning We thank you all God for a good crowd We ask all God that you bless our first service And I pray Lord that you will also help very sucky and fill him with your Holy Spirit Oh, God, so that he could preach with all both is incredibly Lord help us also to be attentive with a sermon Lord and Give us a peaceful mind and heart Oh God to be prepared for the sermon Lord And I pray that you would we would also want to ask forgiveness for all our sins And we ask Oh God that you would also does our fellowship and our soul meaning this afternoon all these things we ask in Jesus name All right morning everybody welcome to Verity Baptist Church take out your bullets in here this morning and Our verse of the week is Matthew chapter 26 verse 28 the Bible reads for this is my blood of the New Testament Which is shed for many for the remission of sins. That's a great verse there We are a family integrated church meaning children and infants are welcome during the services We do have a mother-baby room back there for your convenience as well as ladies restroom The men's restroom is up here in front Remember no eating during the service maintain a professional atmosphere and keep the children from running and making noise during the church service Next page our service times listed first service is at 10 a.m. And then we have a short break in our 11 15 service The first service today will probably run a little bit long the second sermon will be a little bit shorter So it should balance out Wednesday evening Bible study is at 7 p.m. So many times listed 4 p.m. On Wednesdays meeting here at the church building Saturdays all day at case on Memorial Circle, and then of course you do have so winning this afternoon around 145 Our salvation's and baptisms are listed there for all of our churches for the year as well as a month to date for the month of March Birthdays and anniversaries are down there below in April the next page our Bible memorization challenge And so today is the last day to quote 1st Corinthians 11 17 through 34 that will go along with the sermon on the Lord's Supper and The new option for this week ages 11 and above is Jeremiah chapter 10 Verses 1 through 10 of course we have our normal memorization for ages 8 to 10 and below 8 Upcoming activities, so this is the busiest week of our church. Okay. We got our big soul winning mega marathon It's gonna be very exhausting So for the Wednesday soul winning that is not all day that is starting at 4 p.m. So we're counting that in terms of our mega marathon if you want to go so any all day on Wednesday go for it But I also don't want people to like fall over due to exhaustion So we have our normal so winning at 4 p.m.. On Wednesday then on Thursday and Friday and Saturday We do have all day now Saturday is going to be like it normally is in case a memorial circle Thursday and Friday case a memorial circle is closed So we're gonna be doing it in Marikina And we'll send you the official location and meetup time this week for soul winning on Thursday and Friday and look of course if you live a long ways away You're welcome to go so any in another area, and you can bring the results I know I've so winning outside of Metro Manila And you know you can join up with those groups and everything like that So we're gonna count these results for Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday and then Sunday and of course Sunday's our normal church day, so we'll have our normal soul winning on Sunday for next week today I am preaching a sermon on the Lord's Supper this year, though We're actually going to be doing the Lord's Supper on Easter as opposed to the week before So today's sermon is probably not going to be the most exciting sermon. It's just all about Information and doing things orderly and exactly how we practice the Lord's Supper and of course next week. We will have the Lord's Supper Right before we take lunch so the sermons will be a little bit shortened We'll have time for the Lord's Supper, then we'll have lunch in our normal soul winning next Sunday We do have the wedding coming up on April 12th brother Fabian and sister Christine on April 12th at 11 a.m.. On Wednesday We're still in our series the alphabet of Bible doctrines today's last the last sermon in the series pastoral training Information on a group chat and then on the back. There's a place for notes for the sermons here today So I believe that's a pronouncements while brother Marlon lead us in another song Oh Oh Oh Our Oh Oh Amen for scripture reading please open your Bibles to the book of 1st Timothy 1st Timothy 1st Timothy chapter 3 1st Timothy chapter 3 will only be reading verses 1 down to verse number 7 1st Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 down to verse 7 please say amen if you're there Amen 1st Timothy chapter 3 verse 1 This is a true saying if a man desire the office of the bishop he desires a good work a Bishop then must be blameless the husband of one wife Vigilant sober of good behavior given to hospitality after teach Not given to wine no striker not greedy of filthy lucre The patient not a brawler not covetous One that rule it well his own house Having his children's objection with all gravity For if a man know not how to rule his own house. How should he take care of the Church of God? Not a novice less being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without Less he falls reproach and the snare of the devil Bless the reading of God's word. Let's pray We're getting having you think of her for this day to given to us a prayer Lord the truth Give us good weather for our soul winning and fellowship later on Please bless the preacher between your Lord this day. We love you Jesus and pray All right, we're here in 1st Timothy chapter 3 and as I mentioned we're concluding our series on pastoral training and the name of The sermon is ways to fail in the ministry ways to fail in the ministry Point number one one way to fail in the ministry is entering the ministry for the wrong reasons Entering the ministry for the wrong reasons will cause you to fail the Bible says here in verse 1 This is a true saying if a man desire the office of a bishop He desireth a good work and what the Bible is saying here desiring a good work desiring the office It's not that you desire the title. It's that you desire the work involved. So Obviously when you pick a job generally in a secular job, one of the big things is you pick based on money Okay, that should not be the case when it comes to spiritual work But here's the thing the other factor you make besides money is what you enjoy So if there's something you just don't enjoy you're probably not going to make it a career But if it's something you do enjoy then that's what you're gonna do I got a degree in math in college you say why because when I was a kid, I just love numbers So I picked something that I enjoyed right what the Bible is stating here in verse 1 is you desire the work Involved in being a pastor or a bishop, okay Let me give you some right reasons for entering the ministry and then I'm going to give you some wrong reasons One right reason a good reason to enter the ministry is because you enjoy writing and preaching sermons You enjoy writing and preaching sermons Bible says in verse 2 a bishop then must be blameless the husband of one wife Vigilant sober of good behavior given a hospitality apt to teach the Bible speaks about having the aptitude or the ability to teach Here's the truth. It's hard to teach something if you don't enjoy it. I mean you might know the information and You can memorize information and practice sermons and get better But if you have no passion when you preach because you don't enjoy preaching people can tell I mean if you go soul-winning and you don't want to be there And you're just going in your own flesh and going through the motions people can see that They notice that you don't really care about it It's going to make you far less effective and look if you're going to go in the ministry You better enjoy writing and preaching sermons go to 2nd Timothy chapter 4 Look I enjoy writing and preaching sermons and that probably sounds very strange to a lot of men in this room You like you enjoy it. Yes, I do Even before I was even preaching I wrote sermons in my free time Just I would learn and I found it interesting and I thought hey maybe one day because I had a desire and you might have heard before is you know, there's a ready place for a Prepared place for a prepared person and I say you what I enjoy writing sermons I learned from them and before I was ever preaching sermons. I was writing sermons you say why I enjoyed it And that sounds very strange to a lot of people and here's what I would say the difference is it's not everyone's job or responsibility to go in the ministry and It is perfectly okay not to go in the ministry as I always say Just the fact that I'm preaching does not mean that I'm better than you It means though that is the calling God has for my life though See for a lot of people they don't have an interest in preaching sermons It's the last thing they would want to do And I mean it's literally the last thing they would ever volunteer for is to preach sermons It's like I'll do anything, but I don't want to preach sermons Okay, you say what because a lot of people don't have that desire, but see if you desire the work involved You actually do enjoy it. I enjoy preaching. It's not like you know the times coming up. Oh, man This is how I get my paycheck. I got to stand up there and say something. I enjoy this It's fun to me now It might seem strange to you and what I would say is not Everybody is going to have a desire to be a pastor and that is okay because God has different roles for different people 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 1 I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead it is appearing in his kingdom Preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering in doctrine For the time will come where they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and They shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables You know on a side point it says here in verses 2 to 4. There's a time period where people don't want to hear the truth But then the Bible saying that's why you preach the truth if people don't want to hear it That's why you actually preach it. You don't avoid it because they don't want to hear it verse 5 but what's thou in all things endure afflictions do the work of an Evangelist Make full proof of thy ministry This word evangelist does not appear that many times in our Bible and one way to understand it Think of the Tagalog word for gospel a bong helio Right and what an evangelist is because obviously a lot of us go so many at this church Most of us go so winning However, an evangelist is someone who's greatly spreading the gospel that could be by starting churches and starting soul winning like we have here Or it could be a full-time soul winner or whatever churches can see those things maybe a little bit differently but the idea is Preaching the gospel getting people saved greatly spreading soul winning. Here's the thing. This is in the context to Timothy You don't cease to preach the gospel After you become a pastor It's not like well, you know in the past I used to be a soul winner But that's not my job anymore because now I just send people so winning and there's literally I've heard of a lot of Baptist pastors That's literally what they say. It's like my job is no longer to go. My job is to send Well, then why does the state of Timothy do the work of an evangelist and another great reason to want to go in the ministry? And be a pastor is because you want to greatly spread the gospel right Turn your Bible to Ephesians 5 When I first visited the Philippines in 2014, it was the end of September of 2014 I Mean I was amazed because I had been so winning in my life. Let me for over a decade at that point. I Had never been to a more receptive place anywhere this was in Pampanga where I was preaching but I mean literally go into a park and just a bunch of people are surrounding you Wanting to listen I'm like, I mean in America it's like you knock and knock and knock and knock you try to get somebody to listen and Then here it's just like man. Everybody's listening I think my wife and I we knock like ten doors and like four people answered and then three people got saved three different doors I was thinking this is insane. I've never seen anything like this now for most of us here It's like well, this is what you grow up with. So you you think this is like this everywhere ask brother Matthias ask You You And is go into the military Or you know other jobs that don't necessarily require a high level of college I don't say there's anything wrong with that. What I'm saying is that's not what you do in the ministry It's not like well, you know that turned 18 My best financial option is to go in the ministry Right that that's all that I have the ability to do. I can't do anything else I'll just go in the ministry and making the ministry look like it's something that's of no value or not important Right. I mean if you're planning to go in the ministry, you better be educated about the Bible You better know what you're talking about It's not something you do because I have no other options and if that's the reason you want to go in the ministry Don't go in the ministry We're called at another career build up some other career you don't go in the ministry because I don't have any options Right and there are people that do that. They have no other options. I'll just go in the ministry It's not that they are a man of truth or they fear God or they hate covetousness In fact, they're showing covetousness because I'm doing it for financial reasons right go to first Peter 5 first Peter 5 One Bad reason to go in the ministry is for the purpose of money Another bad reason to go in the ministry is because you want to run people's lives You want to be a ruler and tell people what to do notice what it says in 1st Peter 5 verse 3 Neither is being lords over God's heritage But being examples to the flock The Bible says neither being as Lords over God's heritage now this word Lord You think of like pangin own Jesus Christ, but we're saying Lord in the Bible in general It's someone who's basically like a ruler. Okay, obviously Jesus is the ruler we understand that but talk about the Lord of the vineyard and there's nothing Blasphemous about the term. It's not really a word that we'd necessarily use in our modern day for that But when it's saying neither is being lords over God's heritage What it's saying is you're running people's personal lives and it's saying when you go in the ministry You do not run people's personal lives. What does that mean? It means if I preach a sermon against rock music, which I have You can do whatever you want at home You can listen to whatever you want Right. The only person in this room that does not have that Liberty is my wife My kids are not going to be listening to rock music Because I am the Lord of that family right the head of that family What I'm saying is you get to make your own choices. I get it I preach several sermons. I preach through a lot of stuff There's nobody in this room that agrees with everything that I've said and here's the thing in your own personal life You make your own choices because I'm not going to Lord over your personal life I don't understand why anyone would want to to be honest because one life is enough for me to live Right. There's enough going on in my own life rather than running into personal people's personal lives I had an old pastor and he told me this he said nobody should ever buy a car Unless they ask approval from the pastor first I'm just thinking what? Right now here's the thing If you have a question about math Come to me If you got a question about soccer Come to me if you have a question about cars. I have no idea what the answer is. I Have a license. That's about all that I know Right, I'm not the best person to ask now, here's the thing if your pastor is like a mechanic Yeah, go to your pastor. That's probably makes a lot of sense. If he's a car salesman, he could probably give you good advice Here's the thing if you ask me for advice on what car to buy. I have no idea I'm gonna give you bad advice you say why it's out of my area of expertise Right and it's like look you don't have to ask my approval brother stuck Yeah, I was thinking about buying a tie Is it okay to buy a red one or does that be black or blue? I want to it's like don't bother me with stupid stuff Okay, you can do what you want in your personal life I don't want to run people's lives nor do I have that desire and I think it's a strange Attitude to want to run over people's lives, but yet there's people that go in the ministry for that reason They want to be a ruler. They want to tell people what to do. That is a bad reason to go in the ministry Because you preach sermons in the pulpit, but when do I ever leave this pulpit and tell people what they must do? I don't do that Things inside the church. I have authority over outside the church. I don't have authority on that I don't want to run people's personal lives I don't the Bible says neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock So if I preach don't listen to rock music, I better not listen to rock music. Don't we say you lead by example? I can say a lot of things but if I'm a hypocrite people aren't going to follow me and Basically you preach sermons and then you're an example of what to do right because I get it We have people that come in here that are new to church A lot of these things are new to people They're new to our church or they just got saved. A lot of this preaching seems pretty extreme and People say well in this church, they tell me you know what to listen to what to watch What to wear it's like no we tell you what you should listen to We don't tell you what to listen to We tell you what you should or should not watch But we don't force you to do any of those things Right. We tell you what you should do and it's up to you what you do Right because I don't run your personal life go to Matthew 23 Matthew 23 I mean, I've literally been criticized before Because I don't want to run people's lives It's like literally somebody criticized they got mad at me they emailed pastor minutes like well brother Stuckey once said he doesn't have a desire To run people's lives that shows that he doesn't you know have the desire of the ministry. He's not called by God It's like where does the Bible say that? You're running people's personal lives Why would I want to do that? It's like, you know out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak it That's a weird desire. I don't want to run people's personal lives. I mean do what you want in your personal life Right, and honestly we said we have this so any mega marathon and yeah, it's a big event for our church look It's perfectly fine. If you don't go soul winning during the so any mega marathon It's perfectly up to you to I don't tell you what to do if we have church activities You don't have to come it's completely up to you and quite honestly starting to get hot now And if you're starting to get sick, hey, you can take a day off from Sony. It's fine I mean you go so winning all day Thursday and you're exhausted and not feeling well rest on Friday. That's actually good advice I mean, honestly, it's like, you know, I got sick this past week because it's hot outside. You're going so winning It's just like it's exhausting if you get tired You don't have to go or you can go for a short time just go in the morning and say hey, I'm busy I won't think less of you. I won't look down on you. It's perfectly fine what you decide to do, right? wrong reasons are for money And by the way in a lot of denominations that that's a good way to make money going to the ministry I mean, I don't know what the technical salary of Catholic priests are, but I know you've paid a lot of money for every you know Holy Communion first baptism or whatever they call these things. I didn't grow up Catholic. Okay, and it's like they get paid a lot of money It's like well, you know your salary is low, but it's like oh, here's ten thousand dollars for doing this or ten thousand pesos Not dollars, right? But they get a lot of money on the side in a lot of places. It's like that's how you make money Well, here's the thing though if you go into the ministry and your covetous You know what's going to take place if you do things the right way, it's going to be too slow for you You're going to be frustrated and you're going to change in order to make more money It's a fact. I mean for people that were at our church from the beginning. I mean we've grown in four and a half years But did we really grow that much in the first second year of a church? nope, and Here's the thing if I was coverage's I would have just changed the preaching change things to bring more people in Just get a little bit lighter on that repents of sins topic. We can bring more Baptist in Right, but we didn't do that. You say why because it's not about money and that's the wrong reason to go into the ministry Another wrong reason the last one I'll give you is this for fame people go in the ministry sometimes for the purpose of Popularity or fame Matthew 23 verse 5 but all their works they do for to be seen of men They make broader phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments if I was speaking about intentionally having large garments Large clothing right you go to a market and then all of a sudden you've got a really long clothing So immediately people see it and it draws attention kind of like a Buddhist monk would kind of just stand out in a crowd It's like what's that bright orange thing? Oh, it's a monk They're wearing clothing to be seen That's the purpose you say why do they have such bizarre clothing to be seen of man? That's the purpose right verse number six and love the uppermost room at feet rooms at feasts in the chief seats in the synagogues and Greetings in the markets and to be called of men rabbi rabbi Now in general Christians probably aren't going to want to be called rabbi rabbi, but with Zionism going on today There's probably a lot of pastors that would say hey call me rabbi. That's even better than being called pastor but there are people that would go in the ministry because they want to be called pastor and looked at as being better than other people and what I call it is desiring the title of Pastor but not the work involved. They want to be called pastor. I mean here in the Philippines It's like there's a lot of people in there a lot of people that are nice people they message me You know, they're saved and they introduce themselves as pastor so-and-so and they're not married and I'm just like You know and I and I'm like, well, you know nice to meet you. I'm brother Stuckey Right. It's like I'm not a pastor Right, not yet. And it's just like but people want and you know, it's built into these churches where it's like calling people pastors It's like there's qualifications. We've looked at in this series just basic qualifications And there's nothing wrong with not meeting those qualifications Yet there's nothing wrong with that I see a lot of people would love to be looked at as pastor or a Catholic priest with their color turned around backwards They go out in public. Oh, you know It's father so-and-so Right, or you see a nun they just kind of stand out in a crowd and it's like a nun comes and people are just Thinking that's a holy person a Buddhist monk. That's a holy person right because of the way they're dressed Why they want that attention they want their fame Did you know that even within this realm of not just Baptist churches? But what we would call new ifb churches people would go in the ministry because they want fame They want popularity I mean it was the big thing many years ago where every young man wanted to go in the ministry every young man And I'm not saying that people that I'm obviously some of them, but I'm not saying most of them had the wrong attitude They got it zealous. They got excited but what a lot of them really wanted is to preach a YouTube sermon and get a thousand views and Then when they show up somewhere, hey, you know, it's pastor so-and-so they wanted to be cool That is a stupid reason to go in the ministry I mean you can get fame in another line of work You can get popularity another line of work and here's the thing. This job is stressful If you're going in for money, which you're not going to get if you do things the right way Wanting to run people's lives or for fame You're gonna quit the ministry after six months or a year or two years why because you got in it for the wrong reason Go to 1st Corinthians 5 1st Corinthians 5 At a lot of Baptist churches they try to get everybody to go in the ministry that's a guy Like every single guy it's like we're gonna have a special altar call here and God might be calling you into the ministry here today Now, I don't know about this church because there's a lot of men here but in Pampanga I think just probably every every one of the husbands was told by their pastors that maybe God wants you in the ministry Right. It's like, you know brother Roger said maybe God's calling you to India. He doesn't speak Indian he speaks English in Tagalog, right? But you know, it's like God might be calling you to India, you know, because your father's it's just like or you know It's the other men of the church. Also the pastor is trying to get them to go in the ministry I mean literally one of them they've been saved for just like a few months and then the pastor's like, you know what? I think God wants you go in the ministry, you know, we can start a church and you'll run it It's just like they just got saved. What are you talking about? That's like the exact opposite of lay hands suddenly on no man Right just trying to force people to go in the ministry and look people get excited to serve God And if you convince people to go in the ministry whose heart is not actually there. You're actually harming their lives. I Mean in this series has this series been preached in a way where it's going to cause everybody to want to go in the ministry Not at all. I mean if anything I'm gonna get like people say hey, I drop out brother Stuckey I'm done with this but see that's actually the point because if it's not for you, it's better to know ahead of time and There's absolutely nothing wrong with that you can be just as godly and just as used by God and get just as many rewards in heaven by being a Church member without being the pastor you say what's the proof of that? Well, the proof of that is obviously women can get just as many rewards as men and no woman's gonna be a pastor At least not at our church So here's the thing that's proof right there That you can be just as used by God without being a pastor Right, so look if you don't have this desire, that's perfectly fine I'm not going to try to convince you and say you got to go in the ministry If that's not your desire, then it's not what God has for you But everyone entering for the wrong reasons will cause you to fail in the ministry Point to not dealing with problems not dealing with problems will cause you to fail in the ministry first Corinthians 5 verse 1 It is reported commonly that there's fornication among you and Such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles That one should have his father's wife now This is just a bizarre sin to exist in a local church or even outside the local church because It's not even named among the Gentiles Can you imagine if we had a major sin like this in church where the church there and the church there? We're like man, that's sin at Verity Baptist Right, but that's what you have here in the Church of Corinth verse 2 and you're puffed up And if not rather mourn that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you Pride verily as absent embodied but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present Concerning him that hath so done this deed now turn to 2nd Corinthians 7 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 Now look, in this story Paul is not actually there in person because he starts the church And if you read throughout 1st Corinthians, there's various people preaching it and basically kind of co-running it I liken it to kind of Wednesday night here at church Where Wednesday night I'm not here in person because I'm preaching in Pampanga Right, and that's the way this church was operated but not just on Wednesday But also on Sundays or whatever days that they were meeting for church Right and what's taking place is as Paul is gone Nobody wants to deal with the major sin in their church Now look, this is so extreme It's like this. This is beyond even close to borderline where it's like, how would you not deal with this problem? Someone's a member of the church and he's sleeping with his father's wife Right. That's a pretty massive sin and everybody's aware of it. It's not unknown Everybody's aware of it. That's what it says in 2nd Corinthians 7 verse 8 For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent. For I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now he's referencing the epistle of 1st Corinthians to the local church And what he's saying is I do not repent. I do not change my mind present tense But I did repent. What he's saying is when I first wrote that letter I felt bad about it. I didn't actually want to write that letter because he didn't want to make people feel bad Right, and you know what's interesting and I'm not the only person who's felt this way before I've heard other people in the ministry It's like when you first go in the ministry, it's like you don't want to deal with any problems You say why it's not fun. I mean are dealing with problems ever fun in life You're driving down the road flat tire praise God It's exciting I wanted to deal with that problem Right. Nobody likes to deal with problems. I mean there's a problem at work if there's a problem with your kids They make a mess. Nobody likes problems Nobody enjoys it, but when you first go in the ministry, it's like you wonders like man, you know I thought this would be easier and you wonder maybe I'm not cut out for this and Then you start thinking of the Bible and these stories start to make sense. Well, actually Paul Said actually I didn't want to write that letter. I Did repent I did change my mind But then I saw that it made a difference and now I do not repent he's like I made the right choice But he's saying I didn't actually want to write first Corinthians. Why well first Corinthians is a pretty rough book It's pretty harsh For good reason there's a lot of problems. This is not the only problem in the church This is the most common but there's problems in every chapter Right. He's saying I didn't enjoy Actually doing this so look if you're in the ministry and you don't want to deal with problems That does not mean that you're not cut out for the ministry But if you're not willing to deal with problems, then you're not cut out for the ministry. I'm not saying you're going to enjoy it I mean, obviously there's parts of the ministry you do not enjoy Raising kids is a blessing dealing with problems with your kids is not the fun part of the job Problems are never fun to deal with but you have to be willing to deal with problems go to Joshua 7 Joshua 7 I mean think of the church of Galatia in that church. There's a problem with salvation Now look, I don't know no problems are fun to deal with But if half of our church believed in a work salvation out of nowhere I'd be like, I'm done. It's just like I preach so many sermons against repentance of sins for salvation and everybody in the church is Mixed up on it. I'm like you got to be kidding me. Like what is going on? Right. What happens if they don't deal with that problem? Then it becomes like every Baptist Church here in the Philippines pretty much I Mean ask a person at a Baptist Church. What does the word repent mean? Most people aren't going to be sure Or they'll say well, you know being sorry for your sins and people mean different things by that and some people are genuinely saved They're just confused. I'd say there's probably people in this room that at one time you were confused on the word repentance I mean, I'll be honest with you first couple years after I get saved I believe I used the word repent in my gospel presentation But if you had asked me are you saying you've got to quit sinning? No, of course not You got to be sorry for your sins. No, you just have to believe it's just kind of a word You throw in there because you don't know what it means Right. There are people that are saved and just genuinely confused because of what they hear preached But in our local church if people are confused on that there's a problem It's like have you been with us for so long and yet you still don't believe the right salvation There would be a major problem and look if that wasn't dealt with it would be like just your run-of-the-mill Baptist Church in 2023 Right if there's anything the pastor should stand up and make clear its salvation Now granted if we weren't clear we could bring more Baptist in I Don't want them here I'll be honest if you've been out of church for a while and you don't agree on salvation Please leave and never come back. I mean that I Don't care how much you tithe if you don't agree with our church about salvation If you think you've got a turn for your sins, just leave our church Not only do I know once you hear nobody wants to hear I'm not saying an unsafe person can't visit the church, but you've been with us for a year and two years and you disagree This is not the church for you. I Mean I can recommend a lot of different churches I'll be glad to add a member to their church over there if you want to join that one, right? But it's like you're not going to fit in here if you don't believe about salvation But It's not like that'd be a fun thing to deal with if there was a big heresy at this church Which as far as I know we've never dealt with a major heresy inside of our church. I mean it wouldn't be fun to deal with and There's a reason why I'm so strict when it comes to the topic of Calvinism when people have tried to creep in here It's like nope. This is not the church for you If you're a Calvinist just let me know up front because this is not the church for you. We don't believe that right People at this church in the past in years past People have literally told me that are great members of this church that you know what brother Stuckey There is a major problem and I thought about leaving this church People told me that great members You say what fix it I kicked out people and then nobody thought about leaving You say why because if you don't deal with problems good people will leave That's the way it comes. I Mean when we had a major situation Two two years ago, whatever we kicked out several families Right you say why well if we didn't deal with that problem good people are gonna leave Fact I think there's people in this room right now that did actually leave. They've told me because of that family It's just like well good people leave because of those people you have to be willing to deal with problems Joshua 7 verse 10 Joshua 7 verse 10 Joshua 7 verse 10 And The Lord said unto Joshua get thee up wherefore lies thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned and this is Joshua asking Why God why are we being cursed? Why aren't you blessing us and God's like quit whining? Quit crying Joshua rise up He said Israel hath sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them for they have even taken of the accursed thing And have also stolen and dissembled also and they have put it even among their own stuff Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies but turn their backs before their enemies because they were accursed Neither will I be with you anymore except you destroy the cursed from among you This is known as the sin of Achan and the thing is if you have major problems that you're unwilling to deal with You're gonna be under the curse of God as a church. You're not gonna have God's blessing upon your church realize this every church has problems Every church You say brother Saki, I mean it seems like there's so many problems at this church. No. No, here's the difference I deal with problems Every church has problems But most churches they don't actually deal with stuff you say why it's not fun to deal with stuff It's not fun to deal with problems But it's necessary and if you don't deal with situations, you will fail in the ministry turn in your Bible to Acts 2 Acts 2 Now you'd probably be surprised when you think of pastors in the US that you know very fiery pastors They preach sermons and you think of them as just being like these really tough people all the time quite honestly all the pastors I know and I know a lot of the ones that you'd say are new IP pastors Like all of them are probably too long-suffering It would surprise you but see what takes place is then they have to deal with the situation. They're like, whoa But it's actually better is preventive maintenance This is why I said, you know It's it's better for me in the future to try to be more strict just because preventing problems is better than dealing with problems right But nobody I know actually likes to deal with problems because you'd have to be what what is it a sadist or a masochist? I always get those confused like you like pain. You got to be someone who's got like this Morbid sense of enjoyment you like pain if you like to deal with problems Nobody likes to deal with problems Look, you knock orange juice over while you're eating. Oh, that's great. I Just wanted to clean it up Nobody enjoys that Right, you know yesterday I saw a mouse in my house. Well, praise God Right. I saw a mouse. That's great. I get to deal with this problem Right, I mean I'll tell you the biggest lie they teach kids at a young age is not the theory of evolution It's the fact that the mouse is the good guy in Tom and Jerry, right? It's like nobody likes to deal with problems But sometimes it's necessary if you cannot deal with problems. You will fail in the ministry number one entering for the wrong reasons number two Not dealing with problems Number three unrealistic Expectations will cause you to fail in the ministry Unrealistic expectations and in one major way is in regards to church growth church growth acts 2 verse 41 Then they that gladly receive his word were baptized and the same day they were added on to them about 3,000 souls 3,000 people get saved and baptized how many got saved we don't know but 3,000 got baptized 3,000 saved and baptized Verse 47 praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added the church daily such as should be saved Look acts 2 this is a great story. It's a great chapter. It's right after the resurrection. They're having a big spiritual event We will never see this in 2023 to this level Now to make no mistake I'm not saying we can't get people saved and get them to come to church and get baptized and Obviously we should strive for that, you know, probably more than we do strive to really bring new people into church But our church is not going to skyrocket in growth overnight. It's just not going to take place. I Mean things that have value take time to grow Let me explain something that grows very quickly weeds Weeds grow very quickly. Is that what you want in your backyard? I Mean they grow extremely quickly, but see things with real value They take time to grow and our church has certainly grown but you know It's it's really only a small percentage per year when you look at it now over the course of four and a half years It's like yeah, we've really grown. We've doubled in size basically since we started We didn't double in size in a month or two. It took time We got to be patient for that There's nothing wrong with that But some people go in the ministry and they think their church is just going to skyrocket overnight and Then all of a sudden it doesn't happen and they're thinking maybe I need to change the music Maybe we need to change the preaching Maybe we need to change this or change that you say why well they end up failing in the ministry because they had unrealistic expectations of what to expect It's like there look if we send somebody out to start a church they might grow faster than us They might grow a lot slower That does not tell us in and of itself if they're doing a good or a bad job Doesn't tell us that You don't know just because a church grows slowly whether or not there's something wrong with it I mean, I look at our church. I feel like we've grown quickly to be honest in four and a half years And I'm not trying to compare myself to any other churches some churches grow faster or slower that do things, right? But it's like I'm very happy with their church growth over four and a half years But you know, it's not like it's just this Skyrocketing You say why because there's always the minority that like the truth There's always the minority that want to live for God right turning about on Matthew 16, Matthew 16 Matthew chapter 16 Now Look there are ways to artificially grow a church and when I say artificially this is kind of just the terminology that I use but things that would bring in a lot more people like let's be let's look at a very obvious example if We wanted to have a big children's ministry. This church would double in size by next week It would I Mean literally what's the proof that because the first service here? It's like all these kids in the neighborhood of surrounding me. We had 62 people here Right. I was like 30 kids just came in here out of no It's like wow and you know, it's exciting at first but it's just like it's it's artificial growth Right, we could artificially grow this church by making changes and but you know what we're not gonna do that We're gonna do things the right way slow and steady and at the end of the day look at what it says in Matthew 16 verse 18 and I say also unto thee That thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Now don't misunderstand me. We obviously have to do our part of Soul winning we have to do our part even trying to bring people to church Right get them. You know, that's what we've had visitor competitions in the past We haven't had that recently because our problem is actually having too many people not too few, right? But it's like we've done those things in the past and I don't think there's anything wrong with that trying to bring new people in But we're not going to change the preaching to bring more people in We're not going to change the music to bring more people in right? We're gonna do things the correct in proper way And here's the thing if you do things the correct in proper way, it's not gonna be Skyrocketing in growth when I was in college. Somebody told me like yeah, I know you're not a big fan of Joel Osteen But look at how big is churches He must be doing something correct That's what they told me now. Here's the thing That's the way most people feel in the Christian realm, right? I Mean obviously God's blessing they've got tens of thousands of people That's not a proof of God blessing your church What I would wonder is how many people inside that congregation actually love God How many people are going soul-winning? How many people are memorizing the Bible? How many people are reading? I mean look over half of our church goes soul-winning every week. Probably over two-thirds of our church goes soul-winning every week. I Mean the vast majority of people at our church go soul-winning our church in Pampanga is a lot smaller almost everybody goes so in like 90 plus percent and Here's the thing. That's more important than having a big number Look if we had a church of 500 people with 50 soul winners It would be a worse church than our size with 50 soul winners, which is what we have Why because I'd rather have people that really love God rather than having a church filled full of people that do love God some and Some that don't love God. It's like no you do things the right way. What happens? It's a slow and steady growth Go to 2nd Corinthians 1 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 I could be getting the information on this wrong. I'm trying to remember I was trying to remember yesterday, but I think you know using an example, you know faith for Baptist Church Which most of you know that church in the u.s. It's not a small church It's got over 300 people on Sundays on average, I don't know the exact attendance, but it's by no means nobody could say it's a small church when you're running 300 or 350 people and They started on Christmas Day, I believe of 2005 if I remember correctly Now it's an interesting start to start on Christmas That's when they started and your pastor Anderson had gotten people saved during the week and he was trying to bring people in a church And you know, he's not normally I guess big on follow-up but he followed up that week and he got several people in church and their first service they had like Ten or eleven people or something. I could be having the number wrong But a year later at the anniversary they had less people Does that mean you're doing something wrong? Right, I mean it's like in in the early days, I mean after four years or so I think they were like 30 people does that mean they were doing something wrong? No things that have real value take time to grow It's the way it is Right, you know if we start new churches, you know what it's gonna take time for them to grow. They're not going to just Skyrock it overnight. There might be a few families waiting for a church, but we're not gonna have you know A hundred people after one year. So if there's a hundred people after one year You better have a lot of people visiting for the anniversary or you're doing something wrong Because your church is not gonna grow that quickly Right, so unrealistic expectations of too high of church growth, right Another unrealistic expectation people come in with is they think that they will always have the desire They think the desire never fades. So basically they go in the ministry with the desire For going in the ministry Then they get into the ministry and they go in kind of a low point of life and then they want to quit the ministry And then it's it's like and often they would quit and it's like here's the thing when you go in the ministry realize That desire is not going to be 24-7 the rest of your life You're gonna have times where you wonder did I make a mistake? I would be shocked if there's any pastor in the world that's been a pastor for more than a year That has never had that thought come into his mind. Did I make a mistake? I'm just being honest with you You say brother Stuckey has that thought ever come to your mind? Hey, I'm not a pastor, right? Of course, of course you wonder I mean did I make the right choice because you go through ups you go through downs Isn't it like that with all areas of life? You start a new job you're excited and then you run into problems after six months. Did I make a mistake? People get this idea man when you get married, you're never gonna be depressed ever You're never gonna have a fight ever. You're always gonna be so happy look, you know just ask the people at our church that have been married in the last year or two if that's true and If they're honest with you, they're gonna say yeah, you know, we've had our fair share of fights But people always seem to think this is gonna fix all my problems Say below but then if I and then if we have a child that's gonna fix all my problems then I'll always be happy yeah, when you wake up at 2 in the morning and your baby's crying and You're holding them for hours I'm just being realistic I Try to be realistic when I talk about marriage and having kids and everyone who's a parent knows Hey, you know what brother Shucky says is true. You're gonna have problems. It's not always gonna be happy no matter what It's the same thing with the ministry you go into the ministry. It's not like every day. It's like man This is the greatest thing ever. There's gonna be times where you think man Sometimes I wish I was just a normal church member that I didn't have that responsibility that I could just kind of show up the church Just fellowship have a good time and not have that much responsibility second Corinthians 1 verse 8 For we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia By the way Asia there is not what we would think of as Asia in our modern day We're thinking of Asia Minor, which is actually in Turkey which now Turkey is a country of 99 point whatever percent Muslim, but it actually used to be a hub of Christianity in the Bible times now just By force, you know Islam just kind of took over but that's a whole nother sermon for another day That we were pressed out of measure Above strength in so much that we despaired even of life now to understand what he's saying pressed out of measure Just think of like in orange Think of a fruit and let's say you're squeezing that fruit and let's say you're the juice on the inside of that fruits You can only be inside that fruit for so long before you just explode out What he's saying is it felt like we were being pressed so hard and you know, it's like man, it's too much We can't take it that we despaired even of life Paul says I Didn't even want to live anymore. I Mean in this he's basically saying I'm in a straight betwixt one Is that it's just you know, I'd rather just go to heaven is what he's basically saying here not like hey I want to be up in heaven. I want to be here. It's kind of like just wanted to give up You say brother sucky that's strange that Paul would have that reaction really I mean Peter quit the ministry didn't he? Elijah said he wanted to die. Moses said he wanted to die. Demas quit Jonah ran away from God actually, it seems like all the great people in the Bible go through that if you go into the ministry and You become a pastor or you become an ordained evangelist or whatever You're gonna have times where you wonder did I make the right choice? It's better to find out ahead of time Because if you live your life based on emotion you will destroy your life You will destroy your life if you live life based on emotions why our emotions are up and down This is why people get like 27 divorces, right or whatever. Maybe not 27 But there is a Baptist pastor in the US. He has the record for being married to the most people He's been married like 39 times or something, right? Now, I don't know if that beats the record of like Mormons that marry 50 at the same time But you know the record of most divorces and remarriages But no, that's that's literally what I'm saying is true though The people will get divorced because hey, you're so happy when you get married then you have your first fight So I wish I'd never married you It's like look you're gonna have ups and downs in life Just deal with it And if you live life based on emotion rather than using your logic using your brain using reason You're gonna destroy your life You got to make decisions based on what's correct and not just go off of emotion turning about a Proverbs 24 Proverbs 24 Look I'm not I'm not preaching this say man. I regret this. I wish I had never done this I'm just trying to give you a realistic view Right, like whenever I preached on marriage. I've gave a realistic view I say, you know what every marriage has fights every marriage has problems my wife and I we have problems We have to deal with things because I don't want someone to get into marriage with an unrealistic Expectation and obviously you're excited for people when they get married But sometimes people go a little bit overboard make it seem like man It's the greatest, you know, you're it's gonna be the greatest thing ever for you You'll never be upset and yeah, you know marriage is a blessing But that's not really realistic if you make them think you're never gonna fight anymore Right. I mean, it's not realistic or once you have kids. You're never gonna have any problems. That's not realistic. You will have problems because there's problems in life and Look if you go in the ministry You're gonna have problems You're not just gonna Skyrocket and growth and no problems and always be happy no stress and everything is just like the greatest ever. It's not realistic That's not the way it is Better make sure you go in it for the right reasons right Point number one entering for the wrong reasons point to unrealistic expectations point three not dealing with problems And lastly point four the way to fail in the ministry is to quit Quitting the ministry makes you a failure Proverbs 24 verse 16 for a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again But the wicked shall fall into mischief the Bible says the just man falleth seven times Look we're all gonna fall We're all gonna have problems But a person of character Rises up again They fight through it right go to 1st Corinthians 9 1st Corinthians 9 Now I'm not a big boxing person I don't think it's as big in the in the u.s. As it is here, but I know a lot of people here. It's like that's the sport, you know boxing Basketball boxing right but but think about if you have a fight between two people and You're watching the fight, and I'm sure you know if you've watched boxing fights before I'm sure you've seen this before Sometimes one person is just a lot better They're faster They're stronger They're more skilled and this person can't do anything about it. It just is what it is I mean first round it's like they they get knocked into the corner. They barely stand up second round they get knocked down They get back up Fourth round they get knocked down twice They stand back up Seventh round they get knocked down Stand back up. I mean their eye is half swollen shut now Blood is just pouring out, and they make it to the end of 12 rounds They make the decision 120 to 101 I got a complete domination every round Would you call this person a failure now? I would say this person has a lot of heart and a lot of character It's like man. I wouldn't get knocked down seven times and get back up That's amazing you'd be impressed with the person I mean you can't do anything if this guy is just faster stronger and more skilled But you say man what a lot of heart that person has that he stayed in there Right and here's the thing in the ministry you're gonna make mistakes You have difficult times The question is do you rise up again and fight through it, or do you just say yeah, just throw in the towel Because if you throw in the towel You failed if you throw in the towel. It was better that never even started. That's reality If we send somebody to start a church and after five years their church was 12 people But they're preaching the truth They're going soul-winning. I would not consider that a failure But if we send someone to start a church, and then they quit because it gets too tough after six months I would say they were a failure I Would say you know what they should have never gone in the ministry They obviously just couldn't take it that doesn't mean the person is a bad person There's a lot of good people that go in the ministry, and then they just don't make it But it does mean they failed by definition Right first Corinthians 9 verse 24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all But one receiveth the prize so run that you may obtain And every man that striveeth for the mastery is temperate in all things now They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible I therefore so run not as uncertainly So fight I not as one that beateth the air But I keep under my body and bring into subjection lest that by any means when I've preached others I myself should be a castaway. Yeah, we're basically on a race to serve God, and this is not a sprint It's a long-distance race We're not in this just for one year or two years and look many people in this room have only been saved for a couple years you're meant to serve God for decade after decade after decade and If God God willing God bless you with children to teach your kids and then make them the next generation of soul winners Not just one year or two years And Look if you're at our church, and you're going soul-winning you're faithful to church you're reading the Bible and you go through ups and downs through the years and Sometimes you're more zealous sometimes. You're not as zealous. I would not consider you a failure Because you stayed in it, but what if you just quit serving God and say you know what it's just too hard You failed By definition You fail You're Demas Demas was a failure He failed he quit I Know it gets tough sometimes look. I'm preaching to a lot of people. I'm sure there's people in this room right now I Don't know who you are, but I'm sure there's people in this room right now. You're saying man. It's tough right now Fight through it Don't quit Don't quit serving God when he gets tough Look, I've been in church for 20 plus years around 20 years at this point in independent fundamental Baptist churches Yeah, you better believe I've had tough times You fight through it life's tough Life's not meant to be easy Blame Adam blame Eve Just says what it is Life's tough by the sweat of your brow That's what the Bible says. I mean life is gonna be difficult You stick in it You keep fighting quitting is never an option turn your Bible to 2nd Timothy 4 and we'll close up 2nd Timothy 4 Bible says better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof New Church starts, I mean look if we send somebody out to start a church I mean all of us are gonna be really excited right a new church. It's gonna be exciting. We're gonna be praying for them But better is the end of a thing. I Mean, I'm sure the first church service we had at our church people were excited Say what's the proof of that? I mean literally I was one of the last people there and I'm a very early person It's like there was no Filipino time on that first service And say I walk in I thought I'd be the first person there's like 30 people standing. I'm like, I don't know any of these people right It's like people are excited for the first service But better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof when you first started coming to this church you were excited right Better is the end of a thing that years later. You're still in church years later You're still serving God better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof It's very easy to get excited about new things everybody's excited about something new I Mean you go to a new restaurant first time you're gonna be excited You're not sure you look at the menu. You don't know what's on the menu. You're excited about it Right better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof before I started this church I Asked one of my good friends pastor Jason Robinson I said do you have any advice on going in the ministry because he had started a church within the year before before I came out here and A lot of you probably know who he is from online You know he was my roommate in college for our sophomore year of college, and I said you know do you have any advice on? Starting a church, and he told me you just have to have the mindset that you're never gonna quit You know what that tells me obviously the thought had gone through his mind in the first year of ministry proving my point He said you have to have the mindset you're not gonna quit Now last time I visited that church it was it was a lot smaller I mean their churches, I think there are bigger church than ours now at this point. God has really blessed that ministry They've added so many people to the church. They have so many soul winners, but you know what in the early days. It's tougher Church is a lot smaller. I mean I'll be honest with you after the first couple years of this church I wondered is this church ever gonna reach 50 It's like you get excited for a big day, then you go back down I mean, it's just like man. It's like we've been doing this for a couple years It's like am I doing something wrong? I mean the thought goes through your head But here's the thing I didn't get into this with the mindset our church was gonna skyrocket I got into with the mindset. You know what however things go You know I'm in it for the long haul You gotta have the mindset you're not gonna quit. It's like this in any area of life But you go in the ministry you better have the mindset. You know what I'm not gonna quit 2 Timothy 4 verse 5 For what's thou in all things endure afflictions do the work of an evangelist make full proof thy ministry for I'm now ready to be offered in the time my departure is at hand 2 Timothy 4 verse 7 I Have fought a good fight. I've finished my course I Have kept the faith Paul got to the end of his life and look obviously when you're saved or saved forever He's not saying hey, you know what I didn't lose my salvation. It's obviously not what he's saying He's saying you know what I stayed in it till the end and serve God now is Paul perfect Absolutely not in fact you can see things in the book of Acts where he actually makes mistakes But would anybody call Paul a failure no Look, I wouldn't call a father or a mother a failure if they make a million mistakes But they put all their love and care and effort into their kids I Would call them a success I'm sure if you ask my parents. They'd say yeah, we made a lot of mistakes You know raising our kids, but I would say my parents are a success If You're a father or mother you're gonna make a lot of mistakes that doesn't make you a failure just because you made mistakes But if you say you know what I'm gonna quit Because it's too hard Then you are a failure by definition right Four points ways to fail the ministry number one entering for the wrong reasons If you have a desire to go in the ministry that is a very exciting for me to hear. That's great. I Said in the first day the church started our number one big thing is to get new churches started I think it'd be great that our church starts a bunch of new churches. I Just want to make sure that you enter for the right reasons, though Right and people can get excited and wonder maybe it's for me. Maybe it's not you better make sure you know this is for me number two unrealistic expectations look you could start a church and Not see it grow after many years It doesn't mean that you failed Number three not dealing with problems if you're not willing or able to deal with problems, then the ministry is just not for you Now I didn't say it's fun to deal with problems It's not But you must be willing to deal with them. I mean Joshua in the story of the sin of Achan. It's just like Got to do something right number four quitting If you quit you fail Church no longer exists I mean there's people counting on you if you start a great work, and then you quit you fail Let's go some word of prayer your heavenly father Thank you for allowing us to be here today And I ask you to help us to apply the sermon to our lives even if we don't have a desire to go in the ministry In all areas of our lives God we can apply these points And and I ask you to help young men at our church who? Have expressed their desire to go in the ministry or who may be in the future might have that desire Or considering it that if it is what you have for them God asked you to help them help me as a church leader in our church to help strengthen them and prepare them for that Great work, but if it's not then that's perfectly fine God But but help us make sure that we we know we're in for we pray this in Jesus name amen Even for our last song let's turn to him number 128 And sing a song each step I take On a first ready sing Oh Oh I I trust in God Oh Oh For Amen