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["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] in vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ and that's a great verse here we'll tie in with this new series that we have in false philosophies and we are a family integrated church meaning children and infants are welcome during the services we do have the mother baby room back there for your convenience as well as the ladies restroom with the video and audio of the sermon the men's restroom is up here in front remember no eating during the services maintain a professional atmosphere and keep the children from running roughhousing before and after the church services the next page our weekly service times listed first services at 10 a.m. second services at 1130 our Wednesday evening Bible study at 6 p.m. and we're getting toward the end of Hosea we're not quite done yet though and our soul winning times we meet here Wednesday at 4 p.m. to go so any here in the community and then Saturday afternoon so winning from 10 to 12 lunch break provided by church and then 2 to 4 and then Sunday afternoon today was sold around 2 15 p.m. depending on how long the sermons are that's always kind of you know we'll see but I think we'll get done on time today so 2021 we're off to a great start we have 202 salvations this month not counting this past week 1598 salvations year-to-date in Pampong at 110 salvations Singapore Bible study fellowship 141 the birthdays and anniversaries are listed there below and so got a lot of birthdays and anniversaries this month and then information for first-time guests and I don't believe we have any first-time guests here today but if you are first time guests there's a communication card if you don't mind filling that out and dropping it in the offering plate the next page our Bible memorization challenge and so we're in Hosea so I'm not sure if anyone's still working on it or if you just kind of gave up or but there's always challenge a if you want to just get through through one chapter and so I've learned a lot through Hosea and you know one thing that's cool about preaching through books like Hosea is a lot of it's not that familiar you never hear it preach so you know you get to learn a lot of information and you know our upcoming activities so we have choir practice here today after soul winning and then also next week as well along with a prayer meeting next week and then on March 28 we're gonna have the Lord's Supper and so this year I'm not gonna preach a sermon a week before about the Lord's Supper I'm just gonna preach this sermon right before we take the Lord's Supper probably though next week I'll just kind of give some general guidelines about who according the Bible is supposed to be taking the Lord's Supper and who's not supposed to be taking it but on March 28 is gonna be the Lord's Supper we take it one time per year this is a very special time to come to church because you know there's no other options okay this is the time we do it and then you know obviously April 4th is Easter Sunday so our plan is to have a lot of soul winning marathons right before Easter Sunday but you know as I'm paying attention a little bit to the news of what's going on like I don't know if we're gonna have a lot of lockdowns again or it seems like they might be getting my heat Pete again so we'll see I hope to break our records that first week you know our attendance record you know that Easter Sunday is a great time the week before when we take the Lord's Supper of course we love having first-time guests it's probably not the best Sunday to invite somebody though if you're been trying to invite a neighbor push for Easter Sunday because they're looking to come to church it's a great time to come we want to break our attendance record if possible we'd love to break our soul winning record for salvation's and number of soul winners but as I said obviously if you're paying a little bit of attention to the news it's like how they're how they're calculating this it's like okay we'll see they might end up having restrictions I don't know I've got a lot of opinions off the record about all that stuff but anyways we do have a choir performance on April 4th and you know to be part of the choir we asked to be part of our soul winning ministry here the next several weeks current and upcoming series we have we're going through the book of Hosea and Romans we're getting toward the end of those we have our new series on false philosophy so I'm excited about that and information on our group chat down there below on the back we do have a place for sermon notes and so I did quiz a few people here today and everybody failed this quiz okay but in two days something big is coming in Philippine history does anybody know that that I didn't already quiz about this anybody know that song on March 16 1521 500 year anniversary right at Magellan landing here in the Philippines as a heads up the battle of maktan April 27 1521 whenever anybody asked me about American history I'm like I have no idea what you're talking about you asked me about Filipino history oh my god and so we'll have a brother Rafi lead us in another song Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Amen for a scripture reading please open your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 12 Romans chapter 12 as our custom we'll be reading reading the entire chapter Romans chapter 12 Romans chapter 12 please say amen appear there amen amen Romans chapter 12 verse 1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is a reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that she may prove it is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God for I say the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than you ought to think but to think soberly according as God had dealt to every man the measure of faith whereas we have many members in one body and all members if not the same office so we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us whether prophecy let us prophesy according to proportion of faith or ministry let us wait on our ministering or he that teaches on teaching or he or he that exhorted an exhortation he that giveth let him do it with simplicity he that rule it with diligence he that show with mercy with cheerfulness let love be without the simulation a boy that which is evil leave to that which is good be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love and honor preferring one another not slothful in business fervent in spirit serving the Lord rejoicing in hope patient in tribulation continuing instant in prayer distributing to the necessity of saints given to hospitality bless them which persecute you bless and curse not rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep be of the same mind once over another mine not hide things with condescend to men of lowest state be not wise in your own conceits recompense to no man evil for evil provide things honest in the sight of all men if it be possible that much is life in you live peaceably with all men dearly beloved avenge not yourselves but rather give place into wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord therefore thine enemy hunger feed him be thirst give him drink for in so doing that shall keep coals of fire and I said be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good let us pray for God in heaven thank you Lord this day a privilege would give us good weather for this day for our soul winning and a privilege with blessed with the power of the Holy Ghost to listen to hear and to understand the word Lord this day Jesus may pray right we're here in Romans chapter 12 and we're getting back into the book of Romans and you know the name of the sermon is unity in the church unity in the church and that's kind of the main theme in Romans chapter 12 and this is a sort of sermon that doesn't get the most YouTube views because people want to see me fighting against the Jehovah's Witnesses or something but you know what you'll see with all the church epistles is this is a common theme about having unity and I want you to realize as a church I'm very excited that our church has grown over the last year even given all the obstacles but I would rather be part of a church that was 15 people that were united as one rather than being a thousand people where there's just like wars all the time you know unity is very important and this is the main theme here in Romans 12 now when it comes to unity how do you have unity in the church okay well number one you need to be humble all of us individually we need to be humble and we see that here in verse 3 now if you remember a couple weeks ago we covered verses 1 & 2 so we're picking up on verse 3 and it says this for I say through the grace given on to me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith so the Bible says here don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think because look you know no matter who you are in this room you're a sinner saved by grace like everybody else now maybe read the Bible more maybe maybe read it less maybe you go so any more or less but none of us are perfect okay and the Bible says we ought to not think of ourselves being so highly like we're so great because none of us are that great we're all sinners okay now go to Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians 4 Ephesians chapter 4 and look when it comes to being humble you know this is something that needs to be preached on a lot because quite honestly none of us are really all that humble you know what I mean naturally we're all just a little bit my Abba right we all want to be praised by men we all want to get credit we all want everyone to say man look when I preach a sermon of course I want people to comment that is the greatest sermon I've ever heard in the world right of course in my flesh you know I want to be praised by men we all do we all want to get credit when we do things okay you know the Bible says let another man praise you you know that's the principle in the Bible but of course all of us we want to be looked at by people as like we're special but the Bible says we need to be very careful and actually not think of ourselves too high and one mistake you see with people that are pastors and I'm talking about people that are saved and good pastors not you know people that are heretics is that you know I know a pastor in West Virginia and he was very famous pastor in the u.s. and you know he was greatly used by God when he was younger and what ended up happening is he became so famous he was like a rock star you know I visited his church a couple times and I was just like you know it was weird how everybody was talking about our pastors the greatest thing in the history of the world and you know the same pastor he became a very arrogant person and I believe he was a safe person doing good things but he allowed the praise of men to get to him and all of us need to be very careful not to allow ourselves to get lifted up because none of us are really that special okay all of us are just sinners saved by grace Ephesians 4 verse 1 obviously the book of Ephesians is a church epistle to the Church of Ephesus right Ephesians 4 verse 1 I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness with longsuffering forbearing one another in love so lowliness is to not think of yourself highly right if you're not thinking of yourself highly you're thinking of yourself as lowly meaning you're nothing special you're just another human being okay and when it says meekness some people say what's the difference between meekness and humbleness well when I studied this out you know meekness was kind of like the action associated with being humble so if you're humble on the inside the result is gonna be that you're going to be me so lowliness is like humbleness and if you're humble on the inside it's gonna manifest itself on the outside when you interact with people but if you're arrogant on the inside you can't help but just speak the things that you know you are you know what I mean it's gonna be obvious that you're arrogant but if you're humble on the inside the result is gonna be it's like okay that person is a very meek person now meekness is not weakness the Bible says that Moses was the meekest man he wasn't the weakest man though but it just meant he wasn't trying to get in all these arguments and he allowed himself to lose battles for the sake of just having peace okay that was important to him go to Philippians chapter 2 Philippians chapter 2 Philippians chapter 2 now look we as people need to be very careful especially because look the truth is our churches a compare compared to other churches is a very good church in this area I mean we're aware of that as Baptist we are very different than a lot of Baptist churches but we need to be very careful not to allow that to get to our head where we think because we're part of the new IFB Baptist here in the Philippines and we're the only show in town so to speak that it makes us something special look you know we ought not to compare so especially their church is not even you know preaching the right gospel what's what's the purpose it's like wow we're really a good church compared to that church down the street or to the Catholic Church it's like wow it's like we need to just worry about just trying to serve God and being the best church that we can possibly be and not comparing ourselves and just because you've arrived at the truth in a lot of different doctrines that doesn't mean that we're great you know we still have areas we need to work on okay Philippians 2 verse 3 let nothing be done through strife or vainglory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves so it talks about strife and vainglory and see the Bible saying if you're lowly if you're humble you're gonna avoid the strife you're gonna avoid the fights you're gonna avoid trying to get vainglory from man about how great you are and it says in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves and what that means is you look at other people in this world and you say you know what they are more important than me it's not about what I want it's about what they want okay and this very much ties into the second sermon today so I don't want to go on too big of a rabbit trail because I'll talk about that in the second sermon but it basically means looking at other people as being more important than yourself okay then it says look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others and when it's saying not to look on it when it's saying to look at the things of others it's not saying be covetous say man I like that car right man they got a nice house don't worry about your own house worry about there's like I want that thing no that's not what it's saying okay what it's saying is instead of worrying about the things that matter to you you should care about other people right now this is the opposite of what the world's gonna tell you the world's gonna say lift yourself up make yourself known make yourself a somebody you got to make it known to your boss how awesome you are so you're gonna get that raise and by doing that you tear down other people and lift yourself up and yet the Bible says humble yourself and realize promotion cometh from the Lord and so God is the ability to promote you into a position of authority or whatever he would decide to do so go to Colossians chapter 3 Colossians 3 Colossians 3 and so look this is all tied in with the church epistles you have the church of Ephesus you have the church of Philippi now we're at the church of Colossae and so this idea of unity in the local church it's a very important concept in the Bible okay in fact you know in a couple of weeks we're gonna take the Lord's Supper and the big problem with the church of Corinth is they didn't have unity in their church and it manifested itself when they took the Lord's Supper it's kind of like they had group ABC India churches the group a shows up it's like man let's just take this up and it's like what in the world I mean the Bible says that things be done decently in an order and when we take the Lord's Supper we all partake at the same time because we're unified as one body okay not just well you know the arm got hungry and now the other arm got no it's like you're unified as one the Bible says as a church we must be unified and look I'm not really preaching about this but this is why churches need to preach what their doctrine actually is because if you have different doctrines how can you be unified right say what are you talking about brother Stuckey I'm talking about when you go on vacation and you call up the pastor and you ask just a couple basic question right it's like you know what do you think about the King James only issue it's like I'm not waiting for a 25 minute lecture I just want to know are you King James only or not right or side what do you believe and they spend five minutes or they'll just give this one phrase answer you know what I believe I believe in repentance toward God it's like you quoted a Bible verse good job okay everyone can quote Bible verses I mean aren't there a lot of religions that quote Ephesians 289 you know the most famous religion from my perspective of my eyes of saying it's by grace alone they quote all the time salvation is by grace alone does anybody believe the Mormons believe salvation is by grace alone and if you do believe that then you know I praise the gospel of a few Mormons you're back oh wow okay and so look you know it's important at a church to have unity and one aspect is you make it clear what you believe as a church now here's the thing I preach a lot of different topics it doesn't mean everybody agrees with me on every single right when we take the Lord suffer in a couple weeks hey if you're a pre-trip believer you say I believe in the preacher of rapture that's not our position at church and you're welcome welcome to partake in the Lord suffer that doesn't affect your salvation but you know it's very important for me to make it clear what we do believe because when I make it clear what we believe what it means is nobody has the authority to preach against the things that we're teaching it's like you're welcome to be out of church and say you know hey brother psyche I have a different opinion on this topic hey that's fine as long as you don't spread your opinion to other people that's when there's a problem you say why you would be breaking the unity of this local church and I want you to realize that nobody is gonna believe 100% on every single verse every single topic as the person preaching the sermon there are topics that I have a slightly different view than pastor Jimenez but what I never did was just go and tell other people hey this is where I think pastor menace is wrong so it's important that we say what is our beliefs and it's important that people at church are okay if they say this is my church I'll just get behind the church and believe in this church clausians 3 verse 12 clausians 3 verse 12 put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bows of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering so once again the lowly mind the humbleness of mind and the result is going to be meekness when you actually interact with people go to Proverbs 13 Proverbs chapter 13 Proverbs 13 Proverbs 13 Proverbs chapter 13 and look as far as I know we don't have a problem in our local church with unity as far as I know we're pretty united I mean I don't know of about any big issues I mean obviously you never know maybe that maybe there are but I'm not aware of any big issues but we're just going verse by verse and this is what Romans 12 the second half of it or most of Romans 12 this is what it's really about is just being unified as a church and it's interesting because didn't Paul the Apostle just preach all this great doctrine for 11 chapters just so much great doctrine now he's like hey I want to remind you about something it's great that you're anti Zionism it's great you're anti Calvinism it's great that you're eternal security it's great you're for soul winning and how somebody needs to hear the gospel from someone to be saved in everything Romans talked about for 11 chapters but you know don't forget you need to be unified and to care about other people more than yourself okay Proverbs 13 verse 10 only by pride cometh contention but with a well advised is wisdom so the Bible says only by pride cometh contention when we talk about contention we mean fights and strife and the Bible says it's impossible to have fights unless there's pride involved possible to have fights unless pride is involved in the situation so there's a fight between a couple people at least one of them has pride and usually both sides have to some degree okay but the Bible is saying it is impossible to get in fights unless there's pride involved so here's what you need to realize if you're the person who is always getting in fights it means you're probably prideful right because I want you to realize many people go about their lives and they don't get in a lot of fights but if you're getting in fight after fight after fight after fight it's not always the other person's fault you understand what I'm saying because it might be true that a fight takes place and it's the other person's fault and you're the innocent victim that might be true but if it's happening a lot you might want to just take a look in that old-fashioned marriage just ask yourself what am I doing wrong okay and I want you to realize that pride is something that is very hard to this to detect in yourself so honestly what you need to do is look at what the Bible says is the result or basically the symptoms of having pride and then you can look at yourself and say okay I need to make changes and look we all need to make changes we make mistakes we say we're sorry we move on we better ourselves that's fine right but if you're getting in a lot of fights what's that's what that's telling you is maybe I'm prideful maybe I need to make changes okay and look this is something that honestly most people with our sorts of beliefs this is something that they really struggle with off the bat because you leave a lame Baptist Church and you have all these beliefs and you're so excited and zealous and sometimes that can go a little bit overboard but the boxes grow in grace and knowledge and there needs to be this balance amen and kind of one of the things about being in on type of church and hearing this preaching is your knowledge skyrockets but that it's not even possible for the grace to to reach that level so we need to be very careful about this and look this is something I've struggled with in my life before especially when I believe certain things where it's like man I know I'm right pastors wrong and you know you can develop this attitude of being prideful but the Bible says only by pride cometh contention and look living your life getting in fight after fight after fight is not really how you want to go about your life now the truth is this with our sorts of beliefs there are going to be fights out there but the thing is we don't intentionally just start those fights when they come to us you know they come to us we don't back down obviously we believe certain things what the Bible saying is you know if there's a lot of fights it's because of pride is involved okay now turning your Bible to Romans 12 Romans 12 Romans 12 Romans 12 Romans chapter 12 and look I believe this is something that's that's really difficult if you're a church leader to get a hold of right to make sure you don't get prideful because the reality is when you preach sermons especially with our type of church you get a lot of compliments from people where people say man that's a great sermon I haven't heard this type of preaching it's very easy to let it get to your head right like that Baptist pastor I talked about that you know I knew from West Virginia and I personally met he was a very gifted speaker he's very good I still remember a sermon I heard from him when he was 20 years old and he had this giant tree branch up here and everything had this big visual and I was like man that that's it I stole that sermon idea right it was such a great sermon that he preached such a great I not a lot of verses but it's a great idea right very gifted speaker but it's something I'd be very careful about because it's very easy when people compliment you to let it get to your head it's it would be like if you're a famous athletes someone like LeBron James probably gets a lot of compliments and the result is I'm King James right it's like you become very arrogant when you get lots of compliments and it's something you got to be very careful because honestly you know what being a prideful person nobody wants to be around you if they're always bragging about yourself it's very important to be a humble person so point number one is to be humble point number two about Romans 12 is about gifts and understanding what the Bible teaches about gifts spiritual gifts or abilities okay and part of that is just realizing that all of us have different gifts and different abilities it says in Romans 12 verse 4 for as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office and so he says many members in one body we realize that a body is referring to a local church body but he's using an example we can understand with a physical body now here's the thing about this when I move from the u.s. to the Philippines I brought my entire body because having a body that's actually useful it's good to have it connected together as one right it's not like I'm like well part of my hearts in the u.s. so I'm just gonna leave part of my body obviously this half in the u.s. or my heart is and then the other half is gonna it's not I mean I'll be dead but see what the Bob was trying to say is this when you have a body it needs to be connected as one and we are members of a local church body but this is why we reject the idea of a universal church like the Catholic Church says we're part of this church that's not what the Bible teaches or other churches in the Philippines say we're part of the one true church well I mean a church is an individual church look we love the members of Verity Baptist Pampanga but that is a different church than our church we love Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento California that's a different church in our church we love faith word Baptist Church in Arizona that's a different church in our church you have individual local churches meaning you're gathered together as one and you know it's funny is because with Romans 12 it's really talking about unity in the local church and it's sort of absurd to think that you could have unity in this universal church like you know what's going on in Romania in different languages sermons are being preached but you're gonna have unity amongst every church this idea of a universal church is a joke it doesn't make any sense whatsoever the Bible teaches local churches and we know that because it talks about a body in a body is something that's connected together as one okay so we are a local body and there's many members and we don't all have the same office and what that means is we have different roles in the church some people preach the sermons some people do the song leading some people play the instruments some people take the offering some people do the scripture reading some people clean the building we have different offices we have different things that we do we're individual members but we're part of one body okay verse five so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us whether prophecy let us prophesy according the proportion of faith so it says here in Romans 12 that you know we have different gifts based on the grace that God has given us God has given us different abilities and you know what that is okay now I know the world they want to teach you you can be anything you want when you grow up that's a lie I mean I'm sorry I don't I don't care how much you want to be like Michael Jordan there's a good chance you can never be like Michael Jordan I mean last I checked I'm one of the tallest people this church so none of us you know it's just like there's certain things you might want to do that doesn't mean that you have the ability you say brother suck I want to be the president of the Philippines well you know you're probably not gonna be the president and if you do become the president you're probably not gonna like our church right it's probably not gonna work right look we have different abilities and that's okay and it makes sense because when you think about a body my ears serve a different function than my eyes my eyes serve a different function than my hands and it's just amazing when you think about it God created us he gave us a body and we don't even think about it in our daily lives but all of these parts of the body are working in unison together just like I don't have to stop and think oh I want to pick this up it just it just happens because everything just works together it says if all the members are connected together and work together as one that's how a church is supposed to operate they're meant to be connected together as one not that there's all these divisions and here's the repentance of sins crowd and here's the safe people it's like these people are reading from the NIV and these people have the King James these people never go so any and these people know so many right these people never read the Bible these people read about right no it's like you need to be connected together as one and there are a lot of churches that are exactly like I just talked about and it's like they're they're connected worse you got the people that are sold or sit together in church and then you got the non soldiers and then you have this battle that takes place I remember being a part of one of these churches and you know it was a pretty small church but there's kind of a group of soul winners and people that are really strong in a lot of these doctrines and those that weren't and some of the people that weren't necessarily on board with everything they would you know come so winning to some of them and I remember I was going sowing with someone and you know you're always just kind of on your guard because you're afraid he's gonna try to start a fight right and an example of this is we're going so any and I'm the silent partner so I'm the silent part at the door and so I'm just there to help out and pray for the situation and so my soul winning partner he knocks on this door and the person who answered it was really effeminate very so immediately I'm just thinking in my head right never for sure but I was wondering in my head and so during the conversation just a couple minutes in the person asks he's like well let me ask you you know what what is the Bible say about being saved and you know he brought up the homosexual topic and in my head I'm just saying I'm pretty sure I know why he brought that up and so Mike the person who's going so it is what he said he's like well this is what I believe right and he said and look I'm the silent partner so I'm not trying to start a war I stayed quiet the whole time right and he said you know I believe that the Bible says that you know salvation to free gift is what the person I was with said and somebody can get saved and struggle with different types of sins so basically said you can be saved and be at home now in my position I was like I didn't want to get involved in situation because it's just not worth getting into an argument and look if any situation like that happened you know just come to me privately and talk to me about it because people come from different backgrounds you don't want to get into a world war three argument with someone just talk to me privately and a lot of times people are new they have different beliefs but this is what he said the person who's preaching the gospel then he turns to me he's like well this is what I believe but Matthew over here has a different opinion about it's like Matthew why don't you tell them what your opinion about I'm just thinking like world and look here's the thing not only am I trying to be respectful but my soul any partner is like you know twice my age so I believe in being respectful to elders and I just like so I mean honestly I just kind of gave like a quick answer you know I didn't want to get I think I said you know I think if someone say they wouldn't struggle with that sin I don't think you ever see that in the Bible I just gave a quick ten second answer something I don't even know how to answer this that's something right after really think about how many answer this question I was put on the spot and he's like trying to break the unity but you know at churches that aren't necessarily clear about their doctrine and they don't make it very this is what you have you have differences in beliefs and people are not unified together as one it's like man that was an awkward awkward conversation right but anyways just realize you know we have different gifts and we need to be united together as one in verse six it talks about whether prophecy let us prophesy according to proportion of faith so look if you've been a given a bill an ability to preach sermons hey preach sermons when you get the opportunity right if you get a chance on a Wednesday night or on a Sunday to preach preach that sermon but don't look at yourself and think man I I'm better than other people and isn't there this attitude in the Philippines about the pastors about how the pastors are more godly than anybody else because they have the ability to preach sermons well where is that in the Bible that makes you a better person because you preach sermons and other people don't preach sermons we have different gifts and look we have no idea what rewards we're gonna get in heaven but I've never sat up here and said I'm gonna get more rewards than anybody else because I'm the pastor right or I'm the evangelist or whatever we don't know and it's a stupid thing to argue about what the Bible teaches us in Romans 12 is just realize we have different gifts and maybe I have an ability to preach sermons but you know what my ability to lead the music is very limited compared to some of the men at this church my ability to fix things around here is very limited compared to other people in church right we just have different abilities and you know what that's okay to have different abilities okay we're not all the same or ministry let us wait on our ministering you say brother sucky I'm at this church I want to volunteer and really minister and help out in a great way we'll wait on your ministering the reality is if you're kind of newer to the church we're probably not gonna you say brother sucky this is my first time visiting next week I want to preach the sermon and it's like look maybe you have a great ability I mean if somebody moved to our church from another area and they were like-minded they're a zealous soul and I mean yeah that could eventually be something they could get into if that's it's not gonna happen in the first couple months though it's like we need to get to know this person I'm I don't care who's the most famous person in the new IFB it's like man they moved here from another kind it's like well we're gonna wait and get to know them and I mean you wait on your ministry you wait on your opportunities the Bible says okay then it says this or he that teaches on teaching say brother sucky what does it mean by teaching when it talked about preaching earlier well realize this that our church is not a huge church but as a church grows there's more opportunities to teach at various different things for example we just started our soul winning tips because if you have an ability to you know speak and you're a zealous soul winner you've been going for a long time then maybe we could have various people teach and get practice at Verity Baptist on their YouTube channel the tips we're going through various people do those every single week because various people are soul winners and they've got so many captains and there's various different ministries that is something that could happen as our church grows okay there could be opportunities to teach or let's say you bring somebody to church absolutely if they're new you can teach them some doctrines and get them ready for stuff because somebody who's new at our church they don't know about the King James only issue you understand that if somebody gets saved from a Catholic Church and first starts coming to our church they don't know any of these topics and you can teach them some of the doctrines that we believe that the Bible teaches and you can teach them some of these things right teach them a little bit about this and as they come to church they're gonna learn these things as I'm teaching them as well but there could be opportunities to teach to some degree now realize this you don't take people aside from our church though and say well I've got this group of ten people I'm going to start teaching these people thanks Amy done decently in an order I'm just saying there could be opportunities with various different ministries or classes of various different things you know Verity Baptist sometimes they have a new believers class we're basically people that are new to the church aside from the church they also get taught even more doctrines and it's good because a lot of this stuff might be new to them right and so he that teaches on teaching or he that exhorteth on exhortation some people are have a great ability to encourage one another he that giveth let him do it with simplicity say what does it mean by giving do it with simplicity well if you look up simplicity throughout the Bible it's basically meaning when the offering plates going around maybe you've been gifted with extra money or you want to give in you know more money but you do with simplicity meaning you just kind of do it quietly you know kind of simply you don't make it a big show to be seen a man it's not that you're like hey here's my January salary these are the orange ones not the red ones these are the blue bills right and it's like you make it a point to just let everybody see your works and be known of man and everything like that that's not appropriate hey if you give extra praise the Lord for that but do it with simplicity the Bible says he that ruleth with diligence what does it mean to rule with diligence well if you have an area where you're overseeing make sure you're very diligent about meaning you work hard you're paying attention to everything you take it seriously and that could be something very basic I mean if your ministry is a lowly ministry according to what people would say you take it seriously though no matter what that ministry is you just take everything you do very seriously at church because you know what that's what the Bible teaches when you rule do it with diligence he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness right so look there's just a lot of different gifts and we need to remember that in regards to gifts that we have different gifts and different abilities go to 1st Corinthians 12 1st Corinthians 12 1st Corinthians 12 I mean aren't you glad that God just created us differently it's great I mean he just created us differently we're just different people and you know what it's okay not to have the same abilities there's not a single person that is great at everything now some people might have more gifts and abilities than you but I promise you a couple things one there are things that you're not good at and then there are things that other people are really good at even if there's only a few everyone has various gifts yeah sometimes you meet people that are like the smartest people in the world and you think they're gonna be great at everything and then just you know you give them a guitar and it's like practicing for five years because they're just created differently you know or someone has a great ability with one thing just they don't in another area you know and here's the thing somebody might have a lot of Bible knowledge it doesn't necessarily mean if they they've been given that ability to preach sermons maybe they're just meant to be a blessing at that local church right people are just made differently and that's okay okay but realize this not only do we have different gifts every gift has a purpose every gift is important it says in 1st Corinthians 12 verse 14 for the body is not one member but many we are many members in one body you say brother Stuckey in a couple years when you get ordained as a pastor what's the name of the church Matthew Stuckey Baptist Church you know we're not one member we're many right we're a church of just different and look when you come to our bodies we have a lot of different members right a lot of different body parts a lot of different body members that God has given us okay and they serve different functions but every function is important verse 15 if the foot shall say because I am NOT the hand I am NOT of the body is it therefore not of the body and if the ear shall say because I'm not the eye I'm not of the body is it therefore not of the body if the whole body were an eye where were the hearing if the whole were hearing where were the smelling and so God kind of uses an extreme kind of silly facetious you know kind of humorous example like the ear and the eye getting into an argument it's like I'm here right you didn't get to hear that song right or the I say I got to see this I got to read a book you know what I'm saying though but it would be kind of silly for for you to say well my hand is more important than my foot and yet we do that with the local church all the time there we people at a church and people even if they don't say it oddly inside their head they're thinking I'm the eye right I'm the ear I'm the nose and yet every body part is important see an evolution they teach something that's called a vestigial organ a vestigial organ I don't know if you've ever heard that term but it's basically according to evolution we've evolved and there are certain parts of our body that were important when we were whales or whatever monkeys or whatever you want to say right whatever science fiction story or version of that you want to read but there are certain body parts that used to be important but now they're vestigial they're useless I don't believe any part of my body is useless exactly I was made in fashion by the hands of God and I think all of us were created by God and what that means is a local body was created by God and if you're in this church God put you here meaning you're not vestigial meaning you have a purpose now realize this some people never really fulfilled some people come to church and they just got any old we're glad to have anybody come to church but some people just don't really get involved they're just kind of here you know to hang out and everything but the reality is all of us you're here because God wants you here you have a specific purpose now I don't necessarily know what your ability is or what that is but there is a purpose for you at this church and if you say Verity Baptist Church Manila is my home church well God has you here for a reason that's what the Bible teaches verse 18 but now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him and if they were all one member where were the body and so if we were all just the same exact same then we're missing the actual body it's just not gonna work now look it doesn't matter how good you are at certain things if every single person in this room was me same personality and everything like that there'd be a lot of things that would be lacking I mean it's probably pretty intimidating for a first-time lady to visit church but it's just like if everybody was me I mean maybe we talked about math after the service I don't know maybe we talk about soccer a lot I'm not really sure there'd be a lot of things that would be lacking right because I don't have an ability in every single area and there's certain things I might be good at but there's also things that I'm bad at we need to remember that and we always like to focus on how we how great we are at certain things and we don't focus on the areas that we're not good at the reality is we might be very good at certain things bring yourself down because the fact you're not good at everything none of us are right verse 20 but now are they many members yet but one body so we're many members and yet we make up one body and the eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you nay much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary and the Bible saying in verse 22 there are members of your body that you don't really consider that important and yet those members are actually necessary and you might not necessarily know why right when it comes to our body there's certain parts I'm not an expert at science or anatomy things like that there's parts of my body I don't really understand how everything works together but every part I know is necessary according to Bible and you might not know why but if you were missing it it'd be like oh I get it right even something that seems very small I mean a fingernail seems like a pretty small thing but imagine if that was just ripped off it's like you'd be in so much pain right and you realize oh even the fingernail is very valuable and look every single member of this church has value every single member of this church is important every single member of this church is necessary okay according to the Bible it says in verse 23 and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable upon these we've is still more abundant honor and our uncommly parts have more abundant comeliness the Bible says there's parts that are uncommly or not beautiful or they're not things that you would look at and say man this is important I mean for example the feet seems very uncomfortable so it's like every part of our body has importance every part has value every member of this church has value verse 24 for our commonly parts have no need but God have tempered the body together having given more abundant honor to that part which lack so God is the one who brought your personal body together it wasn't just random evolution and random chemicals and just whatever just mix it up and alive and boom here we are today no God created us with our individual bodies and as a local body he fashioned it with his own hands from his own mind he determined these are the members that are part of Verity Baptist Church Manila right and as our church you know gets older and we're gonna grow more and more people be added on to the church but it's important that it's always still connected and United as a church okay so point number one don't think too highly of yourself be humble point to understand gifts in the Bible and the result of that point three is we will have unity as a church if we're humble and if we realize there's different gifts and people have different gifts and every gift matters every person of this church matters the result is unity verse 25 that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care one for another and the Bible says that there's no schism in the body now this is not really a word you hear very often schism but there's a pretty big historical event 1,000 years ago known as the great schism right the great schism was a separation of the Catholic Church in the Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church has around 250 300 million members worldwide it's like right behind Buddhism if you were actually a great part Christianity in the different denominations it's a huge denomination Russia is an Orthodox country Romania and so many countries are like primarily 90 plus percent Orthodox you say brother second what's the difference between the difference from my understanding is there was an argument about whether or not power should be centrally located by one person the Pope or if it should be delegated between five powers I believe it was which is the Orthodox Church so the Orthodox has basically five heads of power I think and of course Rome has the Pope who basically is the head of power right so that's kind of the argument basically the Catholic Church in Rome became very powerful politically so they said we can take on but it's known as the great schism because the Catholic Church believe in this universal body I mean Catholic means universal they believed in this universal body and there was this split between this mega church right and there's this schism in this universal body no this is not what the Bible teaches is the Bible teaches local bodies but it's known as the great schism meaning like a divide you know between the halves of the Catholic Church and if I was saying at our church we don't want to have a divide where it's like Verity Baptist Manila a Verity Baptist Manila B now this seems very obvious but in reality if we are not applying what the Bible says about unity this is what will happen whether there's actually a division in terms of everybody sits here but inside of your own minds and hearts that's the way you're going to feel I remember visiting an infant Baptist Church one time and you know I remember showing up for the service and I read on the website that they're really fundamental and then I show up to the service and it's like Christian Rock and I was like I talked to the person beside me I asked him I was like hey you know you guys have this music and he said well he's like yeah what we're trying to do he's like I'm sorry the first service is the old-fashioned right the preaching the Bible the music old fashioned he's like we assume younger people want this kind of a man yeah first term just start coming next week I mean I left and I never leave churches I left 15 minutes Christian Rock or whatever it's just like the old-fashioned I mean those are different churches and literally they had different church services it's like why are you calling yourself a part of the same church when you're not right our church we don't want to have any schism but we should have the same care one for another meaning even if you're like the most zealous person at the church you know what you should care about everybody at this church even if they're new at this church and all these doctrines are new to them and everything's just fresh and they're not aware of all these different things okay verse 26 and whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it and so if somebody's going through trials and problems in their life you should be praying for them personally you say brother sucky they're not my best friend at church well you know what you need to hear this sermon them because you understand the idea of unity and one mistake we can make is I know we have certain people that we're close to a church and that's fine we come to church on Sunday and the only person you talk to is your best friend there's a problem with that it's like you got to get to know everybody in this church you got to care about everybody in this church not just man I came here to hang out with my best friends you're causing division in the church when you do that I understand we have different personalities and there's certain people at this church that I enjoy talking to just because of the sort of person I am right more in common with than others right that's understandable but there's a problem if you intentionally just avoid people and you're just here to hang out with your best friends I get on board with this church and love everybody at this church and that's how new people will gravitate towards this church in our church will actually grow doesn't it make sense that if you hit your finger with a hammer every member of your body suffers in fact who wants to come up here for a demonstration it's like just a small little member of your body but if you hit it with a hammer look I've hit my fingers with hammers before your whole body hurts you got a headache you're in pain you're on the ground just like so painful right and look the Bible says that's how we ought to be as a local body that when someone's going through trials and problems you know you ought to grieve for them and care about them and pray for them and then even come back the next week and say hey I was praying for you how'd that work out you know what happened right it's like you gotta care about other people at this church or one member be honored all the members rejoice with it so look if somebody comes to our church and something great happened like they got their mom saved and praise the Lord if you're going through the worst trials in your life but somebody comes in and they're rejoicing because they got their mom say don't throw a wet blanket on that and make them feel miserable rejoice with them be happy for them and when you're happy for other people it's probably gonna make you happy probably gonna put you in a better mood and look the reality is at our church we are a big enough church that every single service we have people coming in to church that are doing great and people that are doing miserable don't bring the miserable attitude though and just complain like how was your week Wow on Monday morning got worse on Tuesday and Wednesday it's just like I make everybody feel miserable it's like no you know you ought to you know be joyful and excited and put people in a better mood and if you do that it's gonna actually make you happier right now go to Romans 12 Romans 12 Romans 12 Romans chapter 12 look this this is an important sermon because as we grow every single year we need to hear about unity and this is what Romans 12 is about we want to be unified and united as a church we want to actually care about each other this this is why I like look when it comes to being like new IFP I love the pastors that you know a part of you know that I preach the conferences and stuff but I also try to make a separation say we're local church right and it's like we support those churches we're behind them we back them we love their preaching love the things are doing but it's also important that we realize this is a local church so it's just like you're more concerned with what's going on here than just oh man something's happening overseas well I mean it's like it's hard enough just keeping up with your own church and praying for everyone at your church so it's like and look there's and look I don't know about that here but I know at certain churches there's certain people that know everything that's happening in the new IFP so I remember somebody told me he's like hey did you hear that so-and-so got kicked out of this church I'm not even part of the new IFP groups on Facebook because I just don't really like to stay up to date on everything cuz I'm like man I got I got two kids we're doing soul-winning preaching sermons I just I'm not really you know you know they call it a drama mama I'm not really a drama mama or a drama drama dad right and so we need to care about our own local church shows the point that I have right Romans 12 verse 9 let love be without dissimulation a poor that which is evil plead to that which is good so the Bible says let love be without dissimulation what does dissimulation mean well if you think of like a simulation like a computer simulation it's basically like a trial run of the real thing it's not the real thing but it's like a trial run to let you know whether the program is gonna work right for example when we do the live stream you know before as these last month you know we try it out beforehand how's the sound look it's like a simulation and you hope it's actually gonna work during the real thing right or a computer program you do simulations and stuff like that or you know preseason basketball is like a simulation of the season so to speak okay or a boxer who's sparring with someone that's like a simulation of the actual fight they try to bring in somebody who's the same height the same speed the same size to simulate what the fights can actually be like right well the Bible saying basically don't let your love be fake let it be the real thing right and look this is a problem where people will act like they really mean something but it's just way back in high school and one of my friends was at this party and you know he was there he was waiting for his parents to pick him up and you know all of a sudden there's like this one girl who was like the nicest person in the world in person right she always had this smile on her face she always said I mean she always acted and then all of a sudden he said yeah once everyone was gone she was just don't let your love be fake it's like don't just tell people hey I'm praying for you no actually actually care about and here's the thing you know what you're only gonna be able to fake it for so long you need to learn to actually care about other people and look if this is something you struggle with by all means hey dive into Romans 12 you say brother sucky it's too late for the Romans competition just memorize Romans 12 it's gonna help you out in life and look this is something in the local church but by all means it's gonna help you in your secular job too you say brother sucky every single person at my job hates me because of my faith every single Catholic I'm boring with it's all because I'm a Baptist in there I mean most of us go to work and we don't get in fights with our Catholic co-workers that doesn't mean that we agree with him on everything but you know it's actually possible to live a peaceable life with people for the most part if you try even if they believe different things right it's like try your best to get along with people okay be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another so going back to Philippians 2 you don't have to turn there but preferring one another above yourself right verse 11 not slothful in business fervent in spirit serving the Lord rejoicing in hope patient and tribulation continuing instant in prayer distributing to the necessity of the Saints given the hospitality bless them which bless you bless them which curse persecute you bless and curse not so if somebody at churches doesn't like you they're persecuting you well you know what you should respond in a kind way to them you should bless them the Bible says somebody persecutes you you bless them right bless and curse not so instead of just going to war with one another just just be kind to that person that's what the Bible teaches and one thing I've learned in life is that sometimes you know maybe you get into disagreement with someone and sometimes somebody's just having a bad day or something and it's just like it wouldn't have happened on a normal day I use the example one time I was going soul winning and in the US I try not to go so winning before 10 a.m. because people might be sleeping 10 a.m. is kind of a good start time I remember I was like man I got a lot to do today and it's like you know the next day because I was finishing that map I didn't finish it all so I was trying to finish the area and I'm on the other side of the street and that person was like yelling at me I'm just thinking and I was debating should I go over there and talk to him or just ignore right and I chose to go over and talk and he's like I'm so sorry about yesterday I just caught him on a bad day and you know what we all have bad days it's like sometimes it's just a bad day sometimes something else happens we allowed to affect us that's just reality in life okay so before you go to war with somebody else just try to understand well we don't really know what's going on rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep and that goes back to what we talked about earlier if somebody has something great happen you rejoice with them they got it they got a promotion at work rejoice with them they got their relatives say rejoice with them things are going great for them rejoice with them someone's going through trials weep with that person if somebody comes to you and says man I'm going through this big problem you don't respond I just got a pay raise and if you accurately apply this what you're gonna be doing every week is probably rejoicing and weeping throughout the day with various people depending on their situation we're a church where there's always gonna be people rejoicing and always people weeping and it doesn't mean that they visibly are weeping but sometimes on the inside people are going through trials I mean I've lived here in the Philippines for just over two years and you know what I've gone through trials I've had good times I've had tough times I've had stressful times I've had sometimes non stressful time it's like that's the way it is in life so if people are rejoicing you rejoice with them be happy for them if they're weeping you weep with them and this is all the importance of having a church family and a local body that you can be a part of okay verse 16 be of the same mind one toward another so having the same mind the same care the same values and goals mind not high things but condescend to men of low estate be not wise in your own conceits now it says condescend to men of low estate and this is something you could probably be very confused about when reading it because when we think of condescend you think that person was very condescending to me right you know you knock on doors and you got you know a follower going that's in the honest like that person was very condescending when they talk or something like that right talk to someone and they talk down to you or an atheist or a Calvinist they talk down to you like you're an idiot right it's like I'm an atheist I'm so smart they come they're condescending to you but see what the Bible is saying is not that somebody's talking down to you or you talk down to someone what it's saying condiment the low of state what it means is you bring yourself down to their left you don't talk down to them you bring yourself down to them to a lowly level and you talk to them what does this mean it means somebody's new to our church and let's say for example you know they they they're really zealous but they don't know a lot of things right and they're excited about this Christian movie that just came out right for example after I got saved shortly after I watched the movie The Passion of the Christ who's seen that movie right now here's the thing when I first saw this movie I was like that was awesome it was touching man that really impacted me then all of a sudden I saw the same movie six months later that movie it's not even claiming to be based on the Bible it's based on these couple women that has stigmata like Mary Mary and Catherine Emmerich or something like that was the name of one of them and then some other lady where they felt the pain right like they felt the pain they got these visions I know you're possessed as that's what the movie's based on it's nothing like the Bible well once I started reading the Bible I realized oh that's that's you know it got me emotional but that's nothing like what the Bible says but here's the thing let's say I was new to church and I said man The Passion of the Christ was great you ought to check it out you know how you respond oh that's interesting you know I didn't hear much about it you just kind of say something in passing where you're not doing benefit to preach your little mini sermon and make them feel like trash or somebody comes in and let's say they give you a birthday card it's like just be kind they're just trying to do a nice thing I was saying is this bring yourself down to the level of people just realize you know people are different levels it's fine okay and that's that's just the way it is and look as our church comes especially if you've been here for a while you know a lot of things new people are gonna come that just don't know all these things condescend to men of low estate meaning bring yourself down and just talk to them on their level and don't talk to them like man I'm like a great soul winner here what I mean talk to yourself talk to them on their level right and it says here in verse 17 recompense to no man evil for evil provide things honest in the sight of all men so if somebody does you wrong you don't do wrong back if it be possible as much as life and you live peaceably with all men now the Bible says if it's possible try to be at peace with people now that tells us a couple things number one it is not possible to be at peace with everyone it's like you know I had an old co-worker a long time ago and it's like I only knew about this because other co-workers told me and this person he was a homeowner I never talked to this person one time and apparently other people said hey you need to watch out because he said he's gonna wait outside for you at the baseball bat and bash your head and it's like I've never even talked to this guy somehow you knew what I believed or you know my church or whatever so what in the world right and it's like sometimes it's not possible to live at peace with all people but you know what we should try to live at peace with people your co-workers that have different beliefs even if they don't get saved you can still try to be at peace with them yeah Bible says and it might be possible it might not okay it's not always possible but you know what oftentimes it is possible to just to be at peace with people and if you have the right attitude the Bible even says that even your enemies are going to be at peace with you most of the time okay and it says dearly beloved avenge not yourselves but rather give place on the wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord so if you get into a disagreement with someone realize this if you really are right God will avenge you Bible says maybe not immediately maybe not how you expect it or maybe not in the perfect timing but it's like instead of worrying about getting even with them just let them deal with it the Bible says right and it says let God deal with that and look if God doesn't deal with it then you know maybe you weren't right about the situation you know what I mean it's like because we always think that we're right I always think I'm right I mean if I get in a disagreement usually I think I'm right about it and you know oftentimes you can't see the force for the trees when you're involved in the situation it's kind of hard to have a clear head in mind about it but if you stand on the outside you can see various problems in the situation and then you can understand the situation better right therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for so doing now shall he coals of fire on his head so the Bible says basically you treat your enemy well now we're not talking about God's enemy okay now we understand that and I'm not trying to go in a rabbit trail because it'll be a long sermon we don't have to talk about reprobates every single sermon right but we're talking about someone who just doesn't like you know an example I have is at my old job I've used this example before I remember one time you know I posted something about the Bible about somebody getting saved and I was excited and I went to sleep at night I woke up in World War three on my Facebook wall and this person who I was a co-worker with thought you know she was in acts 238 it's like what's salvation acts 238 and some of my Facebook friends you know became this big war this is my co-worker I go to go to work the next day she comes over from the other side she starts screaming at me in front of my boss right and it's like this person was really rude to me I honestly didn't do anything and look this is why you need to be very careful don't start a world with some because I'm very careful now about the things I post because I'm just like man I don't necessarily trust all my Facebook friends right it was like this big war and you know what for a couple years this person did not like me I was nice to her and she was just nice to her all the time held the doors very respectful and I can say that when I left that job you know even though she didn't say she was actually friendly to me again right now I don't believe that person was a reprobate I don't believe they were a child of the devil is just someone who obviously believes very strongly in what they do you know you can actually make people like that at peace with you if you're kind and friendly and don't avenge yourself you know sometimes maybe God doesn't avenge us because maybe he wants you to work on your character and it makes you a better person to have people persecute you and you have to deal with it that can actually make you a better person right and so the Bible says don't avenge yourself if they hunger feed them if they thirst give them drink for in so doing now so he calls a fire in his head and what it's saying at the end of verse 20 is this that if you're kind to someone and they don't end up being kind back to you basically calls a fire going on their head meaning God's gonna judge that person it's getting hotter and hotter and worse for them because they're being rude when you're being kind is what the Bible saying verse 21 be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good don't allow evil to make you a bad person or do what's wrong but overcome with good by being kind of them by being nice to them by being friendly okay go to Ephesians chapter 3 Ephesians 3 Ephesians 3 and look this chapter is primarily about unity in the local church but you can absolutely take this to your personal family like your physical actual family or your job various situations and like I said it's not always possible to be at peace with people sometimes people just don't like us for what we believe or for whatever reason and you're not gonna change that but you can try though Bible says Ephesians 4 verse 3 Ephesians 4 verse 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace so endeavoring needs to put in hard work for what to have unity and what that shows us is it's it's hard to keep unity in the local church it's difficult we're around each other a lot right if you're around for the soul-winning events and the fellowship activities in church sometimes you just get on each other's nerves I mean when people get married you know it's not like they never get in fights around around somebody 24-7 you know you start seeing the worst in them right it's like you're gonna have fights and disagreements and so here's the when we're around each other a lot at church sometimes arguments happen sometimes disagreements happen meaning you should endeavor try really hard to be at peace with people at church okay I would much rather and I'm dead serious about I would rather be a part of a church that's small that's united together as one then becoming a big church where we just have all this strife and fighting and people come to church and instead of just being excited for the sermon and soul-winning and fellowshipping they're just in their mind just man this person at church verse 31 let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice now I don't have time to explain every single one here in verse 31 but I just want to highlight bitterness real quickly because I want you to realize that if you get into a disagreement with someone and you don't forgive them but you're kind of holding resentment or anger or bitterness toward them you don't harm the person that you're bitter at in the back of your head you're thinking man I hate such-and-such person I hope they get kicked out of church right I hope they quit church right that doesn't benefit you it's just gonna make you a miserable person that nobody wants to be around bitterness only destroys the person who's bitter maybe they did wrong and they were wrong but the reality is once once the forgiveness happens you move on you're supposed to forgive and if you hold bitterness inside of you you know what it's gonna destroy your life it's not gonna destroy them and I've seen this at church I've seen good people that a root of bitterness as the Bible says God implanted inside of them and they never healed that they never fully got rid of that and it just got worse and worse and worse and look if you have this on the inside it will manifest on the outside so you have to be willing to forgive people otherwise that root of bitterness is just gonna boil up and it's gonna destroy your life okay then it says this and be kind one to another tenderhearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you and so I always like to mention in verse 32 when I think about forgiveness God forgives us and yet we do not deserve to be forgiven our sins put him on the cross and yet he forgives us when we don't deserve it so here's the thing let's say that something happens and the person's not sorry and they don't apologize well according to Ephesians you should still forgive them anyway and I want you to realize this the Bible says God will be merciful to those that are merciful so if you're merciful toward other people one day you might need that mercy I can reap what you sow and if you're unmerciful with your fellow brother or sister in Christ when they do something wrong here's the thing what about when you need that mercy from someone or what about when you need mercy from God because you committed to sin and you know if you are merciful to your fellow brother and sister in Christ God is going to be merciful and show mercy to you as well so look you know I know pastor Mendez has said this but hey use those as an opportunity saying I'm building up immunity right it's like man it's like man I'm getting all this mercy like all these things are happening to me it's like all right when I need it God's gonna be merciful to me but you know the reality is you reap what you sow and so if you are unmerciful toward other people God's not gonna be merciful to you look this is not the most exciting sermon you know this is not gonna get the most views on YouTube or whatever but you know as a church it's important to be united as a church whether we're 500 people whether or not we're 50 people it's more important that we're united together as a church and look of course I want our church to grow I hope in a couple years we're running 200 people but you know it's not like we're in competition with anyone what matters is we're just a united church that loves God we're trying to serve God we're trying to reach the people here in in Metro Manila in Kayenta resolve right with the gospel let's close in a word of prayer your Heavenly Father thank you for allowing us to be here today and ask you to help us all apply this to our lives including myself God help us to be merciful people help us to be forgiving people help us to be united as one church and one local body here at Verity Baptist Church we know we pray this in Jesus name amen amen him number four zero two him number four zero two him number four hundred two our best him number four hundred two our best with him one item first signs on gang last turns up general about this huh first signs up what I hear you the master school first signs are ready sing here in a master school give me the I bet for be it great or small that is he's Oh every word every word for Jesus we be everyone our talents may be this may be small wait Oh we every one our talents may be here this may be small Oh you there's no put after five minutes you