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Amen, okay so let's do a little bit of Bible management real quick put a bookmark in Matthew 18 we're gonna be there and go to 1st Corinthians 5 put a bookmark in there and then we'll be I mean we're obviously gonna go to some other places but that'll give you two of the main places we're gonna be tonight so tonight I want to talk to you mainly about well let me give you a first give you an introduction on on culture on the culture of this church this is something that I I thought a lot about before we we came here I've been thinking about this for several months and that's you know how do I how do I bring the culture of Verity Baptist Church Sacramento here to a growing church I love the culture up there and so the first thing I needed to do is I needed to quantify what I actually meant by what is that culture what about that culture is it that makes it so good so I have several things in mind and we're not going to talk about all of them tonight but I'm just giving you a heads up that throughout sermons that you're gonna hear me preach you're gonna hear me talk about you know the culture of this church and that's you know that what what I've done to quantify what that trying to get that culture down here because just because we're a biblical church just because we preach the Bible it doesn't mean that you know we're gonna have a great culture here you know I mean we could have you know a mean-spirited culture or you know we could just there's all sorts of different cultures if you ever visited churches across the country or other churches you know that every church kind of has its own unique culture so the first thing I want to say about church culture tonight as we talk about dealing with conflict that's kind of the the sermon title tonight is gonna be dealing with conflict in the church okay it's gonna help you if you listen to the sermon tonight's gonna help you with dealing with conflict in your whole life outside of church at work in your home wherever so we're gonna look at what the Bible actually says on how to handle conflict in a biblical way all right now as far as the culture goes one thing that you know applies to this topic is that we want to have a friendly culture here you know we're gonna be a growing church we're gonna have we're very lopsided tonight there's a lot of people over here I'm gonna have to like over here more I'm I'm usually tend to go to this side but I'm gonna have to come over here so I'm sorry brother Matthew anyway the culture that we want to have here is a friendly culture you know the Bible says in Proverbs you know a 1824 you know I'm sure you've all heard it a man with many friends must show himself what friendly right I mean just think about think about the think about somebody in your life who just has a ton of friends and just like everybody likes him right what's the what's the thing about that guy you know picture that guy right now is he a jerk is he mean to everybody that he meets he's probably a very friendly person right whether that be friendly in an ungodly way or whatever you know the Bible says that if you want to have a lot of friends and you want people to be your friend you will be friendly you know it doesn't really sound like rocket surgery right but you know I think a lot of people need to hear that and in this church we should always remember that that that that's the culture that we want to cultivate here we're gonna have we're gonna have visitors come in it's not that big of a deal now because we're a small church and we all know each other but as this church grows the tendency of human nature is going to be that you want to go and just gravitate towards the people you're most comfortable with right so you can end up with situations here where we all get to be you know very comfortable with each other and you know you know very friendly but you get a visitor that comes in and I've seen this happen I've seen this happen in churches and nobody you know everyone wants to stay in that comfort zone we need to get outside our comfort zone and always show ourself friendly especially to people who are new and they're not you know maybe they didn't weren't here when this church started so let's just always remember that okay now dealing with conflict you know there's no conflict here that I know which is good that's why we're gonna talk about it now before there's problems so dealing with conflict Matthew 18 gives us a very specific methodology on how to handle interpersonal conflicts in the church and the verses that I'm referring to are verses 15 through 18 where the Bible reads moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou has gained thy brother but if he will not hear thee take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established and if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the church but if he neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as an heathen man and publican verily I say unto you whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven so what I want to do tonight is I want to just you just saw a three-step plan on how to handle conflict it may seem simple but you would be shocked and surprised that most people don't follow this and that is how conflicts turn into disasters so well I want to step through this give you a few examples and how you can do this see where you know look at how some people go wrong in what you shouldn't do and then I want to kind of see how I want to show you how that relates into situations in rare cases where we may actually have to as a church you know actually you know put someone out of the church I mean it's an unfortunate thing but I can guarantee you it's going to happen eventually here I've seen you know that that will also be something that distinguishes us by the way from most other churches that you will see because we will I mean hear me out throughout the sermon but we will follow these rules and we will practice this I'm going to explain to you very clearly why we're going to do follow the Bible on this first of all it's the Word of God so I shouldn't have to explain anything because we're just gonna do what the Bible says but I want to just I want to give you God's logic behind it what have I always said the Bible is a logical book you know the same logic that the Bible has is written in your heart right so it should make sense okay it makes sense so let's say that we have a conflict in the church we have two people that have a conflict we look down at Matthew 18 and chapter 15 let's just step through this process and let me let me show you how it should work the first thing in verse number 15 moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou has gained thy brother so step one is to talk to the person one-on-one who has offended you or transgressed you or trespassed against you in in the you know the Bible says here now first of all this is just this is just good practice in life okay this is just good practice in life that if somebody does something wrong to you you should go and just have a conversation with that person and say hey brother this happened you know bring it to them by themselves you know this is a good practice at work you know if there's people at work this is where everything goes wrong in secular situations in my opinion is just people don't talk face to face to each other anymore you know we have this culture now where people want to if you've ever talked to anyone under the age of 30 and I know I'm stereotyping people but they they'd rather stare at their shoes then then talk to you they'll send you text messages they're very brave on on YouTube and on Facebook and you know some things can get to the point where people won't talk to you face to face but to be very nasty on the internet that is not biblical at all the Bible says that you are supposed to talk to people face to face if you have a problem with something that they have done against you you know that is something I have taught you know my kids since they they were very small is you know I mean it starts out with a man showing his his young son how to shake somebody's hand right how do you shake somebody's hand you stare at your shoes and shake somebody's hand no you you you give them a firm handshake and you look them in the eye that's that's how I was taught to shake somebody's hand you look a man in the eye and that's the first step soul winning is gonna be great training for people to be able to talk to someone face to face I mean I've had several situations where people will they will text you they don't even want to talk on the phone some people anymore so it's very important that you're able to talk to people in this church especially a brother it says here if you have a problem with a brother bring it to your brother face to face and and tell him what what's going on now before you talk to him here's another just a tip okay before you go and talk to your brother or sister and not like the mannerally the only ones that get in arguments but if you talk to before you talk to your brother and sister try to see things from their perspective you know that's just that's just good practice as well always try to look and say you know what most people are reasonable people but maybe their perspective is different than yours this will just give you a better a better understanding when you go into that conversation to their response to you okay so in the Matthew 18 example we have someone who you know it's his fault right I mean somebody actually did something wrong and you're going to you're going to him and talking about something he did wrong so let me give you an example let's look at a situation where maybe you know two men in the church do business together right and say there's a you know a contractor who you know you hire a contractor from the church to come to your house and or you know whatever he comes to your house and he builds cabinets for you or whatever and then you know something goes wrong right and in that case first of all you know on the on the note of doing business at church and with friends let me just say this turn to 1st Corinthians 6 I had you go there let's just do a you know it's a risk and you need to know that it's a risk but there's ways to mitigate that risk and I'm not going to say that you should never do business with people at church obviously you know I have done business with people at church but I want to show you 1st Corinthians 6 to give you a guide on how to go about doing that in 1st Corinthians 6 Paul is kind of you know kind of chastising the the church at Corinth because they're they're taking them they're taking their brothers and sisters to court and they're suing each other and in 1st Corinthians 6 in verse number 4 the Bible says if then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church he's basically the verses before this they're suing each other he said you would be better off having the least esteemed person in the church judge these matters than you would be taking this outside to the to the magistrates outside the church to the unsaved world and then he says I speak to your shame that shows you he's he's tongue-in-cheek when he says that I speak to your shame is it so that there is not a wise man among you easy like is there no one among you that you could use to judge a situation and no not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren but brother go to brother brother goeth to law with brother and that before the unbelievers he's just like why are you doing this now therefore there is utterly fault among you because you go not to law with one another why do you not rather take wrong why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded so here's the thing here's my policy on doing business with friends there's actually my policy is this as long as I can guarantee that I will get the short end of the stick I will do business with friends and if I can guarantee there's there's a guy who's a good friend of mine at Verity Baptist who I have literally told him that you know what I'm just not really ever gonna hire you because he's whatever him and I get in arguments it's or not in arguments but in in kind of dealings he's trying to give me the better deal I I'm trying to give him the better deal and it's just this back and forth I would never really know I know he wouldn't charge me what his time is worth and I could never really guess what his time is worth so I'm just not gonna go there his time is worth money and I'm not gonna have him do something for me because he wants to do something for me well constantly that's a good relationship when you're constantly trying to out give the other guy the better deal that's a good relationship to have with a friend what you don't want to be is the kind of person that's like constantly wanting to get the long end of the stick from your brothers and sisters in Christ you know that's that's when you're putting yourself in a situation to possibly have a conflict with somebody okay so as long as you can guarantee I have I've hired people from from the church and I've hired them knowing that I was gonna pay them more than what I could probably get it for somewhere else but I would rather give them the business and it's it's a great deal it's good for them it's good you know it's great as long as you can just make sure that you're always willing to take the short end of the stick and that you're not shorting anybody you're not at risk okay that's what he's saying here he's saying if you have a conflict if somebody came if I went and I built cabinets at somebody's house and they just didn't pay me and now we have a conflict right he's saying just suffer yourself to be defrauded that's what Paul's saying here just suffer yourself to be defrauded that just what we're trying to do here is we're trying to stop the conflict okay so the first step is to go to them one-on-one and if I go to that person one-on-one and I say hey you know I built those cabinets at your house and you didn't pay me and I I read 1st Corinthians 6 verse 7 and I'm gonna practice that no matter what that person says to me I'm just gonna suffer myself to be defrauded end of conflict so there's the Bible ending that conflict what we're trying to do that's the goal this methodology the goal is think of a flow chart end conflict we're always trying to get to that end conflict arrow right does that end the conflict no continue to step two right so in the case of you know two people doing business together whatever you feel like you got shorted maybe he didn't like the cabinets and he's like I don't think they're worth anything and and the conflict suffer yourself to be defrauded so that ends the conflict now another thing is you know don't enter into a don't borrow anything this is good practice as well and you know kind of fits with don't suffer yourself to be defrauded don't borrow anything don't do anything for anybody if you're not willing to be defrauded so if I borrow you you know something that I need for my business and you ruin it or you know if I just put it this way I put myself at risk of having a conflict if I borrow you something that I can't lose or I can't suffer to have damaged or whatever right so don't put yourself in those situations so if somebody needs to borrow something from you and you just you only have one car and you can't be without that car you know you it's probably not the best thing to borrow out something that is going to you know possibly cause a major conflict in the church so if you can't be defrauded of that item just don't don't go into business with that item look it's a beautiful situation when you have two friends who are competing to try to give the other one the better deal that's that's the way every situation should always be but unfortunately they're not that way so the next step is to just suffer yourself to be defrauded and after that if you still can't work out you know this this relationship say it's a much bigger deal than some cabinets it's a it's something with an interpersonal relationship where someone is really hurting someone then you can go on to you know step number two but let me just say before we get on to step number two you know let me just say this forgiveness can be one way it can be a one-way street okay the Bible teaches that turn to turn to Matthew chapter 5 Matthew chapter 5 you know the Bible says in Matthew 18 that we just read that you know how many times should I forgive my brother it's 70 you know 70 times 7 basically just keep forgiving them and many times in the Bible there's a parallel passage in Luke 4 Luke 17 4 that basically says you know if your brother asked forgiveness of thee you know if he repent then forgive him but repentance is not necessary because there is many verses in the Bible Matthew 5 being one of them Ephesians 4 32 I'll read for you as one of them and be kind to one another tenderhearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you so we see this model that God you know God has mercy towards you through Christ and you should show mercy to other people if you look down at Matthew 5 and verse 7 the Bible says blessed are the merciful for they shall what they shall obtain mercy so if you if you give out mercy in abundance you will receive mercy in abundance that is the model so be that merciful person just forgive people you know don't let the Sun go down on your wrath the Bible says you know this works for husbands this works for wives this works for friends just forgiveness can be a one-way street I don't need you to come to me and apologize in the exact way that I think you should have to apologize in the exact wording that I think that you've wronged me in order for me to be able to forgive you if that is required of me then my heart is not merciful okay so I should be able to just go to you if I've been wrong just be like I'm going to suffer myself to be defrauded I'm going to suffer myself to be defrauded and the more I've been defrauded the more merciful I am and the more mercy mercy that I will receive the Bible says so that's that's just good practice now look folks if this doesn't end it nine times out of ten going to someone one-on-one and then suffering yourself to be defrauded and then using forgiveness as a one-way street nine times out of ten conflict over I'm telling you that that'll do it but here's what you shouldn't do and nine times out of ten when there's a major problem that has snowballed into something the problem is is that people have gone to someone other than the person that has wronged them okay and this is what you don't do what you don't do is go around and gossip and go up to brother so-and-so and be like hey you know brother John here's what he did to me man can you believe that and just try to go around and get all these people you know against this person you know that is wicked the Bible says that that you know that's gossip in Proverbs 6 16 through 19 here's what God says about that it says in 16 verse 19 in 6 verse 19 the Bible says a false witness that speak of lies these things these six things I'm sorry doth the God doth the Lord hate yea seven are an abomination unto him you know the God says these things are an abomination and then in verse 19 one of those things is a false witness that false witness that speak of lies and he that soweth discord among brethren so if you go around it doesn't matter if you're right if you're going around and you're not following this practice and you're just sowing discord about so-and-so who didn't pay you for your cabinets you're wrong so you can be right and wrong at the same time if you follow the wrong process do you understand how important this process is look at work guys when I start anywhere whether it's a new job site or whether it's a new job in general I can spot this guy in about six seconds I'm telling you I can pick them out like they get they have a beam on them it's this guy that's constantly going around talking smack about the boss and talking smack about how things you young men listen because this will save you at your job there's always this guy he's talking garbage about the boss and how they do things there you know it's like well why aren't you the boss then if you're so smart first of all I remember there was a young man a few years ago that I I had high hopes for he was just kind of getting into a new job and he started this new job and I was like hey how's your new job going the first day he says to me he says his first day he's like yeah it's okay but we're all underpaid I was talking to this guy and he said we're all underpaid and management is just trying to rip us all off and it's crazy and I almost picked him up off his feet and put his back into the wall and said whoever you're talking to at work you get away from that person right now because you will be painted as somebody that's just this this cancer of a bad attitude at work and what you're doing is you're just giving in to gossip that's what you're doing so when you hear that stuff and you identify that guy it's it's really easy you just if you walk into a conversation and that's going on you just walk out of the conversation it's real easy people will figure out in a hurry that you're not the kind of person that is gonna listen to that stuff it's real easy to establish yourself in that sense look Proverbs 16 17 says he that path passeth by and metalleth with strife belonging not to him is like one that take of the dog by the ears what do you think of that soul winners look at some of these dogs that we see out there imagine taking one of those dogs by the ears right I mean that's that's what it's like though somebody comes to you and says hey the boss did this to me or hey brother Joe did this to me what do you think about that whoa that's not that's not you're not involved in that don't get involved in that don't grab that dog by the ears what you need to say to that person especially if it's in church what you need to say to that person is hey have you talked to brother Joe about that or hey let's go talk to brother Joe about it right now maybe you could just jump right to step two let's just let's just go talk to brother Joe about it or you should talk to brother Joe about it right I mean don't get involved in other people's messes now back to proper conflict resolution turn to first Kings three let's look at step two let's look at step two so step one did not go well and this person is like you're you're wrong I didn't do anything wrong I didn't owe you anything I haven't done anything wrong to you you just go to step two you just follow what the Bible says it's that simple in 1st Kings 3 we see a great example of this okay bringing in the second witness you have two people who are at disagreement and this is not over a small matter in in 1st Kings 3 so they bring in the second witness and you know this is an extra chance this shows you the long suffering of God this is an extra chance for this person to get it right and in in 1st Kings chapter 3 in verse 16 what we have is we have we have two women and one woman is accusing the other of stealing her baby okay one woman's baby has died this is the story she tells the king this is King Solomon the wisest man who has ever lived and you know they have a pretty good they have a pretty good third witness here right your second second person to bring in now you have a woman who says that her baby died and then when she was sleeping she took her baby and put it in the other babies the other ladies and they both had babies at the same time she put her her dead baby in the other lady's arms and she took the live baby for herself and of course the other mother knew that this wasn't her baby so she's coming to King Solomon okay and she's like hey I've been I've been wronged here and we hear the story and then there came two women that were parlots unto the king and stood before him and the one woman said oh my lord I and this woman dwell in one house and was delivered of a child with her in the house and it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered that this woman was delivered also so the babies were very close to the same age and we were together and there was no stranger with us in the house save we two in the house there was no other witness it was just those two and this woman's child died in the night because she overlaid it and she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while thine handmaid slept and laid it in her bosom and laid her dead child in my bosom and when I rose in the morning to give my child suck behold it was dead when I considered it in the morning she looked at it she saw it behold it was not my son which I did bear I mean a mother knows her own child right and the other woman said nay but the living is my son and the dead is yours thy son not meaning your son and this said no but the dead is thy son and the living is my son thus they spake before the king now the story ends where basically King Solomon says all right no problem take the child and just cut it in half and give each half to to each woman and then of course the mother the mother who lost her baby who had her baby stolen just said let her have the baby don't kill the baby so then Solomon knew it's very wise I mean he was noted for being very wise because of that judgment but basically what I'm trying to get at here is the third person solved it so he brought in this judgment and it solved the situation so what I want to get at you tonight is if you need a third person if you couldn't work it out between the person the third person should be someone of integrity and character and in a church it should be someone in leadership or the pastor of the church or the pastor's wife of the church should be brought in at that point to help judge the situation okay especially if there's a conflict inside you know the walls of this church and you know after that you know Matthew 18 in verse 17 if you're still in verse in Matthew look this is gonna solve it you know once again nine times out of ten problem solved right because once you have the pastor that's another reason it should be the pastor or a leader in the church because when they do pass judgment amongst those two guys whether it be the cabinet guy or the cabinet the owner it should be someone who you know both men respect right and they'll respect that that judgment or that that decision as in the case of of Solomon now if that doesn't work now let me just say this first of all this leads into the sermon series that we're going to talk about if that doesn't work if the pastor of the church at that point says you know what you defrauded him you know I've listened to it you know King Solomon gives his judgment it should be a situation where they're you know that's you have a heart problem with with one of those two men or one of those two individuals right so in Matthew 18 in verse 17 the Bible says if he shall neglect to hear them at that point after step two tell it unto the church but if he neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican he should be put out of the congregation at that point now turn to 1st Corinthians 511 now we're getting into the point of church discipline at this point all right and in 1st Corinthians 511 the Bible gives us six very specific sins that if someone is involved in that they should be they should be also put out of the congregation okay and if you're there in 1st Corinthians 511 the Bible reads now but now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one no not to eat so we saw this example of someone that was defrauding someone is the example I used and I submit to you tonight that if you get to that end of that second step and get to that third step of you know in front of the church and they still will not admit that they're wrong they're going to be very likely one of these things here anyway so well you know either you know the covetous in the case of the you know the cabinet example that I gave you all right now these are six very specific sins that the Bible teaches us are not to be allowed in the church okay by someone that is called a brother so that leads us to this point of you know we've we've gone through conflict revolution there should be situations where you know you can work things out nine times out of ten right you can work things out amongst yourselves amongst the leadership of your church there really shouldn't be an issue of both people are you know if you have your heart is right towards God you're humble you know hey I was wrong I'm sorry I should have paid you for the cabinets whatever the case may be right you should you should never get in a conflict with somebody over money anyway just suffer yourself to be defrauded in that case but let's talk about this idea of church discipline because you don't see this today okay if you go to you know normal old IFB Baptist churches you're just not going to see this anymore I know I have dealt with this myself personally I have seen clear cases where people were in a church that should not have been in a church it was putting people in the church in literal danger and I've seen it because this is not being followed okay now a couple caveats turn to 2nd Timothy chapter 4 2nd Timothy chapter 4 2nd Timothy chapter 4 in verse 2 the Bible says this it says preach the word 2nd Timothy is one of the the pastoral epistles so Paul is teaching you know how to be a pastor here and he's teaching Church leadership skills and he says preach the word be instant out of season be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort then look what he says with all what with all long suffering so I really want to give you some details tonight about the actual position of Verity Baptist Church and your pastor who I have talked to about this issue to make sure that I say it exactly right and I am in a lock step agreement with on how this will actually be carried out okay and what I want to say is that pastor Jimenez first of all is as far as a leadership example to me probably the biggest takeaway that like my personality and my style of doing things versus his personality is the biggest takeaway from pastor Jimenez to me is that he is one of the most long-suffering people I have ever met in my life and that is something that we all need to be is is long suffering it's very important especially in leadership to be long suffering with people the Bible uses the word long-suffering throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament most of the time it is talking about God towards us so that's that's very telling okay so I want to just let you know that we're not on a hair trigger to throw people out of church that's that's the context I want to I want to do you understand that we are not on a hair trigger to just kick people out of here okay but there is biblical precedent here and it must be followed okay now in 1st Corinthians 511 go back to your Bible look very closely this is the position of Verity Baptist Church and in 1st Corinthians 511 the Bible reads once again but now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator covetous idolater railer drunkard extortioner now look especially with a new church like this people are gonna come here with problems we have to understand that now do you understand you notice when it says if any man be called a brother this isn't talking about somebody who comes here once every two months who we see every now and then who comes here and it's like oh hey you know I'm in town again they pass through every now and then this is talking about people who get involved in this church who we call brother who we see every week and who are getting engaged and involved in in plugged into this church that's what this is talking about that's when that's how we interpret if any man that is called a brother because you could take a pretty hard line on this and just start throwing people out after five minutes but if any man is called a brother they're plugged into this church see we want to give people a chance to grow here we want to give people a chance to hear the Bible preached we want to give people a chance to have God like actually I don't know like work in their heart right I mean that's the whole point of a biblical church and if we're like ah you're not perfect get out of here that doesn't make any sense all right so what we're doing is if any man is called a brother meaning you're in this church you know it's found out that you know fornication is a great example you found out that you know you're living with your girlfriend or you're not married and you're living you know in fornication then at that point if a person's called a brother and they're in that type of situation you know there's just at that point there's gonna be out to have a conversation with with those people and you know it's not gonna be like ah you're doing that get out of here it's gonna be like hey here's a conversation here's your options you know choose an option you know this is like I said we're not following people home we're not forcing people to do anything you have three options you know you get married you move out or you know you stay the same one of these will get you thrown out of here you know that that will be the conversation that we had in a nice way and and at that and I have seen personally seen people thrown out for that reason and this practice was followed and they chose to just stay the same and it just couldn't be that they stayed so the decision was made and and thank God for leadership that will do that and I'm going to show you why okay I'm going to show you why it should be enough look it should be enough that the Bible says it done okay that should be enough but I'm gonna show you the logic of it okay the logic of it is this all right look to your left and look to your right that's the logic of it in 1st Corinthians 5 you probably see some kids to your left and to your right in 1st Corinthians 5 the Bible says this to deliver such and one they was found in 1st Corinthians 5 we're not going to go into the whole story that someone was in fornication and it's he Paul said kick him out get him out put him out from among you to deliver one such unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus it's chastisement it's the first the first purpose is to get that person right I mean we're here to help people what grow and live the Christian life and and do something that has eternal value with your life I'm sick of seeing people out there just wasting their whole life you get you get somebody saved and nine times out of ten they just continue they're just gonna waste their life anyway they're saved see in heaven you're gonna waste their life we are here to help people grow to help people go out and help other people grow to learn the Bible to follow the Bible and to actually have some eternal results with our one piddly life that we have right it's like a vapor just one I'll often say that exact same thing to people how many lives do you have somebody just got saved how many lives do you have on this earth just one it's like a vapor and if you find somebody who's 40 or 50 years old you tell them is your life going faster or slower every year it's and they'll be a faster it's like that it's gonna be over you do you want to have so we want to get some eternal results from people and you know what people want eternal results for their life I'm convinced of it so it's for their benefit to get them right to put them out from their brothers and sisters so they feel like I'm being punished they have some time to think alone about the sin in their hearts because they got a heart problem they're not listening to the Bible they're saved they're a brother doesn't make them unsaved they're just they need to be chastised it's for their own good it'd be like if I never spanked my kids the Bible says if I don't you know if you spare the rod you hate your son so it's like you hate your brother in that type of situation you got a backslidden brother he's in fornication you just want to keep him in the church you just want to keep them just the way he is these liberal churches it's pitiful it's pitiful they hate that person because even if that if that person saved they're just gonna make him waste his whole life that's what Satan wants the best Satan could get out of you if you're saved is to have you just waste your entire life so that's what we're trying to do that's the point is to help people okay so it seems mean if it seems mean to you yeah I don't know you know think think about it it makes perfect sense the second thing is this did you look to your left in your right you see some kids in here sin is contagious and God picked these specific sins for a reason okay and if we let that stuff in here and we do nothing about it you know that what you do matters much more than what you say to your kids they're watching you more than they're listening to you you remember that you you parents of these young kids they're watching you and you'd be shocked at what they notice when they're five years old six years old sin is contagious and when they see the men in this church and they see the men that are leading their families that are allowing this oh they're preaching against fornication here right oh yeah fornication bad Bible talks about it all the time and then we just have people in here they're just living in fornication forget the preaching that's what that means because what we do matters more than what we say that's why so there's logic behind it the Bible is enough but there's logic behind it Galatians 5 9 says a little 11 leaveneth the whole lump you think it think of this you know think of like think of magnets right you know think of this world out there we're gonna talk about you know this the the forces and the influences in this world think of a magnet pulling on a piece of metal a really strong magnet but you got another magnet over here that's that's pulling on it too and that piece of metals kind of like which way do I go what happens if you just take this one away how fast with that piece of metal just smack into that magnet that's what will happen and you can see it happening I've looked a lot into what happened into some into churches in the 80s in the 90s we talked a little bit about it today I heard some men talking about it what happened to these churches what happened well they got soft on sin they got soft on sin in it and it's shocking how fast it ruins the church because you start getting people in that are just that don't want to hear about sin now all of a sudden I can't preach about sin because I've painted myself into this tiny little corner I can't preach about sinner I'll lose half my income of my church and then people start leaving the godly people start leaving it's it's it's Gresham's law we talked about it this morning the bad will drive out the good so no it's just like everything else we've been talking about for the last few weeks we're gonna hold the line we're gonna do what the Bible says and we're gonna be long-suffering about it and we're gonna be nice about it and we're gonna be biblical about it but we're gonna be biblical about it you understand there's there's a balance there and the balance is always just what the Bible says we're gonna be merciful we're gonna be long-suffering but we're gonna do what the Bible says okay look false prophets that's a whole nother thing but bad doctrine is contagious too bad doctrine is just as contagious as sin so we're gonna watch for that as well go to Matthew 16 go to Matthew 16 let's see what Jesus said about that Matthew 16 in verse 6 Jesus says to the disciples and I just love the disciples they don't I probably we probably wouldn't have understood what he was talking about either half the time you know you're like ah how do they not get this but we probably wouldn't have got it either anyway in Matthew 16 verse 6 Jesus is warning the disciples and he says unto them take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees and they reasoned among themselves saying is it because we have taken no bread which which when Jesus perceived he said unto them oh ye of little faith why reason ye among yourselves because you have bought no bread brought no bread do you not understand neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand or how many baskets you took up neither the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many baskets you took up so they're probably obsessed over bread after those two miracles and how is it that you do not understand that I speak it not unto you concerning the bread that you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees then there's then understood they how he bade them not beware of the leaven of the bread but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees so we need to be very careful about bad doctrine as well so I just want to I want to throw that one out there because that's part of church discipline as well look folks we must practice what we preach and even if it's uncomfortable at times and it's uncomfortable I remember the first time I sat you know and witnessed something like that and it was done very biblical and very nice but it's uncomfortable and it's unfortunate that it happens but this is a biblical church okay and we're just gonna we're gonna be a biblical church that's what's gonna happen here so the application is you know it's this just you know don't be shocked when it happens you know if and when it happens you know and let me just say this another thing that really surprised me when I got into a biblical church like Verity Baptist Church is this bad people are gonna come here so I want you to be ready for that okay bad people are gonna come here go to Matthew 7 you're already in Matthew right false prophets are bad people in Matthew 7 15 the Bible says beware of false prophets would come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly inwardly they are ravening wolves look the Bible says that these people they they they want to pretend like they're one of you but they want to come in here and they want to destroy they want to they're ravening wolves they want to rip up things okay they want to stop this from happening in Jude 1 for the Bible says for there are certain men crept in unawares they crept in they sneaked in who were before of the old ordained to this common condemnation ungodly men turning the grace of God into lascivious ness and denying the only Lord God in our Lord Jesus Christ look Satan wants to attack this ministry and it's obvious because there's no other explanation of it why these types of people will try to come into churches like this we're growing we're getting folks saved so you need to you need to not be surprised when Church discipline happens but the second thing is you need to guard yourself you need to guard you know you need to watch this church and you need to guard your homes this is gonna be part of the the Sunday morning series but you need to guard your homes because Satan's gonna attack you if you're out there in your new soul winner all sudden you're just getting people saved guess what yeah target on you now and it's real and I've seen it and it's gonna happen so you need to say you need to make sure that you're right you need to make sure that the proper defenses are in place in your home and you need to make sure that you're aware of this imagine being in a fight you don't even know you're in a fight you don't want to be that guy right you're in a battle you don't know you're in a battle only the other guy knows that he's fighting it's not gonna end well for you so just you need to be aware of this that you're going to be attacked okay so so you know you've entered the battle you know congratulations and as far as the church discipline part of things go you know brother Stuckey mentioned it if you watch his Wednesday night service but kind of the way things are gonna go here and it's kind of a pattern that you see with with people that aren't false prophets with people that are just worldly people people are gonna come here and they're either gonna get right or they're gonna get out and and that's by design you know we want people to get right we want we love you know our brothers and sisters and we want them to get right but the way the Bible is designed here is that it's designed that you're just not going to be comfortable here if you just decide you're just gonna stay in all the garbage that you've always been in you're gonna be not only chastised by God but you know you're gonna get you're gonna have issues here and and the church is not gonna allow these types of sins to just hang out here okay so people are just gonna they're gonna get right or they're gonna get out and we just need to understand that you know we need to follow the Word of God and whatever God does is right and there's some confusing things in the Bible where I'm just like sometimes I just have to be like whatever God says is right this isn't really one of them for me makes perfect sense to me right we love each other we love you we want we want you all to grow we want you all to you know just just win this Christian race right and most people aren't gonna win it most people aren't gonna finish it it doesn't mean you're not saved it doesn't mean you know it doesn't mean that it just most people fall out of the fight and the people that are in this church we want to be strong we want to be biblical and we want to we want to have some eternal value right so in the upcoming sermon series what I'm going to do is it's a really nice segue into preaching about these six sins so what we're gonna do is every Sunday night we're gonna hit these six sins we're gonna look at these six sins why these six sins right why why these but I bet you it makes sense right I bet you it makes sense that these specific sins if they're in a church are gonna wreak havoc so we're gonna look at that in detail you know it deserves much more detail each one of these topics so that's what we're gonna look at maybe there'll be a preacher from Verity Baptist Sacramento that that knocks us off our series but that's we're gonna be doing on Sunday nights is we're just gonna go through this list and we're gonna figure out hey what was God thinking here what does this sin mean for you what can it what are the consequences why do we want to keep our kids away from this and we're just gonna dig into it all right well I just want you to understand that the concept of church discipline it's real it's going to be followed here and it's it's a loving practice okay let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer dear Heavenly Father we we thank you for your word we thank you for the the beautiful methodology of everything that you've given us in the Bible and how it makes sense and how it it not only makes sense to us God but I mean your law is there for our protection and it's there so we can grow and it's there so we can we can continue growing in this Christian life and have a you know have true joy in our lives as we as we serve you in the proper biblical way Lord I want to also pray for the food I want to pray that you bless the fellowship tonight I want to pray that you bless this food to our body I thank you for these people I thank you for this church and in Jesus name I pray amen