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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Friday is a wedding in honor of Elijah Scott and Olivia Hudley at 6.30 pm. We emailed out an RSVP and they wanted to invite the church. So if you'd like to come, they would enjoy you being present for their ceremony. They want to provide food, but in order to make sure that that works out smoothly you've got an RSVP. So if you do plan on coming, please make sure you check that email or you can contact us and we can help you figure that out. But that way we have some idea. June 21st and the 23rd is Red Hot Preaching Conference. July 6th is a soul winning marathon in San Antonio, Texas. It's going to be led by our evangelist from Pure Words Baptist Church, Brother Salvador. So if you are interested in participating, you can just put that down on the calendar. We'll probably, when we get a little closer, we might even have a sign up sheet. And if anybody wants to carpool here, we might help with that as well. So it's about four hours or so from here. So just FYI as far as how far that is. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We're going to just sing our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 15. You can use the special handouts if you'd like. Makes a lot easier. Psalm 15. All right. Psalm chapter 15. Psalm chapter 15. Everybody sing it out on the first. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh up rightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that walketh up rightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that walketh not with his tongue, nor do with evil to his neighbor, nor take the power approach against his neighbor. He that back by him, not with his tongue, in whose eyes a vile person is content, but he on earth with them that fear the Lord. In whose eyes a vile person is content, but he on earth with them that fear the Lord. He that swearth to his own word, and change it not, he that puteth not out his money to his dream, he that swearth to his own word, and change it not, he that puteth not out his money to his dream, nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved, nor takeeth reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved, Lord, who shall abide in thy gathered act, Lord, who shall dwell in thy holy will. All right, great singing, everybody. Now, as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Luke, chapter 12. That's the book of Luke, chapter number 12. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. Luke, chapter 12, the Bible reads, In the meantime, when they were gathered together, an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy, for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do, but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Also I say unto you, whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God. But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring you unto the synagogues and unto magistrates and powers, take ye no thought how or what ye shall answer or what ye shall say, for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say. And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God? And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat, neither for the body what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, they spin not, and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothed the grass which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather, seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be guarded about, and your lights burning. And ye yourselves, like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also, for the son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But, and if that servant say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straight until it be accomplished? Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth, I tell you, nay, but rather division. For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower, and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat, and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it that ye do not discern this time? Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him. Lest he hail thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee, Thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the very last mite. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this chapter. Thank you for the word of God. I ask you to open our understanding tonight, and help Pastor Shelley to preach it. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, I want to go back to the end of this chapter. It says in verse 51, Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth, I tell you nay, but rather division. And a lot of people today think that Jesus Christ wants for us to all have world peace, to sing Kumbaya, to all be gathered together and united as one humanity, and we're all in solidarity. But the Bible is very explicit here, and Christ is very explicit, that what he brings to the table is division. And, of course, not all division is good, but there is good division, and so that's the title of my sermon this evening, is Good Division, Good Division. Simply put, when you have a chili competition, I'm glad they divide the beans out of the chili. This is what we call good division. There's nothing wrong with beans. There's nothing wrong with, you know, of course, chili ingredients, but we don't want to mix the two. We want to divide them, and so that actually is a good division. There's a lot of things that are good that they're divided. Now, God is a God of division specifically. Go all the way back to Genesis 1 for a moment, and in this passage, he even brings up the idea of how there's going to be division within a family. He brings up how the house is going to be divided, three against two, two against three. He brings up the idea of the son being against the father, the mother against the daughter, the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law, everyone's against her, and then the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, right? It's just, it's saying in family, there's going to be division, and sometimes this is even in fact good, but God is a God of division specifically, and there's nothing wrong again with division. If we look at the very beginning of the Bible, when God is creating, he immediately divides. In Genesis chapter 1, verse 4, it says, And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. Notice, this is a division, and it's a good division, because in fact, at the end of creation, God says that everything that he created, it was very good. So, according to the Bible, division can be good, and of course we have light, we have day, these are completely different than night and dark, and so there is a clear division. This entire chapter is constantly talking about dividing, and when you get into chapter number 2, he brings up another division, which is a good division. Look at verse number 18, And the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone, or that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him. So the Bible says it's not good for man to be by himself. And so, you know, you can put all your men going their own way, you know, right here in this verse, and just realize you just got debunked. I mean, what does the Bible say? It is not good that the man should be alone. What does it say? It is not good. It didn't say, like, this is the best way. This is the ideal way. In fact, it's just not good. And if every man just went their own way, well, then population would cease to exist, and the next generation wouldn't. And so it's not good for man to be alone. God didn't like that. He ended up creating all the animals, lined them up, brought them to Adam, Adam named them all, and then what does it say in verse 20 at the end? There was not found and help meet for him. You cannot give man a dog, and he'll be satisfied. He'll eat it, okay? You can't give man an animal or a pet. No, that didn't satisfy. That wasn't good. What does it say in verse 21? And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, he made a woman and brought her unto the man. Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. So, according to the Bible, women came from men. And according to the Bible, this is the reason why it says that a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife when they get married. So this would be a division, where a young man leaves father and mother. There's a division, there's a separation, and then he cleaves unto his wife. They become one flesh, and according to the Bible, they're no longer in the same type of relationship, no longer in the same type of proximity. There's a new person that's usurped the importance of the parents, and that is the wife, that is the spouse. And so when someone gets married, they have to realize that that relationship has now become the most important relationship in their life. And according to the Bible, notice what it says, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother. Praise God, you can leave mom and dad. Praise God, you can get out of the house. And honestly, anybody that's been married and lived in their parents' house realizes how true this verse is, realizes the benefit of this verse. But sometimes people will leave physically, but not mentally, emotionally, or financially, or all the other reasons, all the other aspects of leaving, and it causes problems in the relationship. It is good division to leave mom and dad once you get married. Now, of course, mom and dad don't like this, but we don't care what they think. So go to Ephesians 5, because you know what? We're going to obey God rather than man anyways. And I think that's probably even partly why you'll notice this when you have teenagers. I don't even have a teenager yet, but I just know this is true. You'll notice that at some point, teenagers, something goes inside of them where they think they're right about everything and their parents are wrong about everything. And maybe it's just God just kind of trying to prepare them to leave. I don't know, because my children are still very young, and so the idea of leaving us is terrifying. They never want to do it. They love us. They think that it's great. And, of course, that's natural. There's nothing wrong. But when those hormones kick in, something's going to change, and they're going to think, like, I can't wait to get out of here. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that entirely, because, of course, getting married, they should then leave and go on their own. Unfortunately, a lot of people today, though, they're dividing from mom and dad to go to college and live with a roommate and live in a dorm or something, and that's not the right division. That's the wrong division. Good division, leaving mom and dad, joining unto a wife. Bad division, joining a fraternity, joining a sorority, going and just living with a bunch of random people. That's not good division. A girlfriend, a boyfriend, some random person. No, no, no. Or even just on your own, just living by yourself. You know what? That's not necessarily that good either, and it can be very dangerous. It can be very hazardous. Now, of course, there's going to always be exceptions to this. Of course, you have people like the apostle Paul. I don't think that God is expecting a 50-year-old man to still live with mom at home, okay? So obviously, there's a time when men, they're going to naturally separate from their parents, seek for a wife, go and prepare a place, and then be joined unto that wife. Of course, there's a lot of different circumstances. Sometimes people, they lose their parents. I'm not going to preach through all the caveats, but at the end of the day, the general wisdom is to go from mom and dad unto marriage. That is a good division. If I were not living with my parents, I would want to live with someone that's holding me accountable and not some college roommate that's wanting to play beer pong, not wanting to go out and go to the bars and do whatever. That will lead you down a stray path. But again, this is a good division, and in Ephesians 5, it brings up this same division. Look what it says in verse 29. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourished and cherished it, even as the Lord the Church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. Notice this is the exact same thing that is said in Genesis 2, and it's because God has the same message from Genesis all the way into the New Testament that hey, you know what's a good reason to leave mom and dad? You got married. Now there could be other reasons to leave mom and dad. So I don't think that what this passage is saying necessarily is this the only reason, but this is a good reason, and this is a good division to leave mom and dad and to separate and to cleave unto a spouse. Obviously sometimes a young man may need to leave mom and dad to cleave unto the Lord, or cleave unto ministry, or cleave unto a job or something that's going to help them in the future of their career. But you don't want to get married and stick with mom and dad. You don't want to get married and then mom and dad are more important than your spouse. And you have to be careful because in-laws will meddle with relationships. Now I want to prove this in the Bible. Go to Judges chapter 15. We're talking about good division. I'm not talking about all the exceptions. I'm not talking about other stuff. I'm talking about specifically when you get married, you need to leave. That's what we're talking about. That's what we're establishing, the importance of separation, dividing yourself once you get married, okay? And I've heard a lot of people not liking this. I've heard parents say it's unbiblical for their children to leave their parents or to leave home or to leave their area or to be far away. And it's a manipulative tactic to try and basically keep grandchildren near them. It's not that they actually care about you or the Bible. It's just they don't want to have to travel and they want to see their grandkids and so they just say weird things to try and get into your ear. Because once you start having kids, they don't even like you that much anymore. But they like them. And here's the other thing, though, is, and I'm not down on grandparents, but let's just be honest, grandparents, today's culture are not very good parents. They're more just like enablers, like brat enablers, and they spoil the child and they don't want to discipline them at all. And it's probably not healthy if they're in their grandchildren's life often anyways because they're not really teaching them anything. It's not like, you know what, can I please pick up your children and I'm going to teach them U.S. history. And if they disobey, I am going to lay down the law. In fact, if you're having a hard problem with one of these kids, let me take them. I'll fix them and bring them back. Hey, you want to go on a date, bring them over here? We're going to make them eat healthy food. We're going to teach them how to work out. They're going to clean stuff. I'm going to teach them how to work on the car, and they're going to go to bed early. You'd be like, this is great. No, they're like, oh, we love them. We're going to give them sugar and donuts, and we're going to let them watch anything that they want, and they're going to run around and scream and yell, and then we can't wait to just give them right back to you. And sorry that they ruined all their clothes, and they hit each other, and one of them got into the stove and burned something. It's like that's the modern reality of grandparents today, and it's sad. Don't be that grandparent whenever you're that person, okay? Be the first person I was talking about. We're teaching the Bible, and you're instructing them, and you're loving them. Hey, I'm all for grandparents being involved in their grandchildren's lives. Don't hear me wrong, but let's just be honest. Most of the time it's not for their good anyways, for the long run, and so it's better to have separation. It's better for you. It's better for them. No one loves a child like its parents. No one. And so it's much better to have the parents primarily involved in the child's life, raising them, teaching them, guiding them, loving them, disciplining them. And it's important to be careful, especially in the marriage aspect, not letting the in-laws know about marital issues, marital problems, marital spats. If you have a fight with your spouse, do not tell your parents. Don't tell the cops. Don't tell your friends. Don't tell your ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend. Don't tell social media. Don't literally whip out your phone and put live video and livestream it. You think I'm joking. There are people that used to go to this church that literally livestreamed marital fights. It's like, what is wrong with you? You know, really the best person to tell is Jesus. Tattle to Jesus. Also, you need to work on confronting that person, learning how to resolve conflict with your spouse. That will make you have a better relationship. All of these other people will make it worse, especially in-laws. And if you end up having children that end up getting married or whatever, do not allow them, do not allow your child to come to you and talk negatively about your spouse. Say like, is this between you and your... I don't want to hear it. You're wrong. No. And in fact, I've heard, and I think it's great, I've heard parents say like, hey, if you have a problem with him, you're not staying here. Sorry. I'm not a rescue shelter. You've already left. Bye. Obviously, if your husband or wife dies or something, of course there's nothing wrong with living with your parents on a temporary basis. But we're talking about if you're just having a little spat, no. Do not let them get involved. Look what happens in Judges 15 verse 1. But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid. So Samson and his wife kind of get in a fight and he leaves for a while. And then he's like, okay, I'm going to come back. I'm bringing some meat home. I'm bringing the food home. And he said, I will go into my wife into the chamber. That's why he came home. And then he says, but her father would not suffer him to go in. Who are you to tell? This is my wife. Back up, dad. And her father said, well, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her, therefore I gave her to thy companion. Way to resolve the marriage conflict, right? He leaves a little bit and then he comes home. The dad literally has already remarried her to some other dude. What is that? Now, will that make you a little upset? You came home to be with your wife. Now you find out she's already been married, she's already just divorced and remarried to somebody other than you? What does Samson do? Well, then this is what the father says. Therefore I gave her that companion. Is not her younger sister fair than she? Take her, I pray thee, instead of her. Dude, you just took my wife. Why would I want another one of your daughters? Right? Like, this is weird. And then Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure. And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes. That was, I don't know how he did that. And took firebrands and turned tail to tail and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go in the standing corn of the Philistines and burnt up both the shocks and also the standing corn with the vineyards and all. This guy lost his wife and then he just burns the whole city down. I mean, this is what happens when you allow in-laws to get involved in relationships. The entire city is going to suffer. Okay? Everything is going to get burnt to the ground, burnt to the crisp. I mean, it's just a bad move. Don't let them get involved. Well, this is an exception. Okay, how about King Saul? What happens when David leaves? Oh yeah, King Saul gives Michal undefality. So it's even a common theme in the Bible where in-laws are just quick to just drop you like a bad habit and just give their child to some other random person. And so you need to be careful that you don't let the in-laws get involved in the relationship, that you leave and you cleave. This is a good division in the relationship. Go over to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. You really can't emphasize this enough. And, you know, family was mentioned in Luke chapter number 12 as a potential pitfall. In fact, the Bible says in other passages of Scripture that a man's foes are they of his own household. So in many cases you can even have people that are very close to you from a familiar perspective, like they're your brother, sister, close kin, parents, and yet they're actually the most cantankerous individual. They're an enemy. They're trying to hold you back from serving God. It's great when you can have family that loves God too and you can both serve God together, but most of the time it's not realistic. And even in the Bible, most of the time you have one brother killing the other. You have one brother selling another one into slavery. You have one brother who's selling his inheritance and ripping the other one off, tricking their dad into stealing his own brother's inheritance. Then you have the other brother chasing him, hunting him down, trying to kill him. You have one brother that's trying to help him, David, and then his older brother is like, oh, you're so prideful coming here to spy out the camp. I mean, just consistently throughout the Bible it's just like brother after brother. They just can't get along. It's very rare that in a family all the siblings love God, serve God, want to be zealous for the things of God at the same time. Now you have exceptions. James and John, hey, the sons of thunder. They were great brothers. You have other brothers that were of the disciples that specifically served God together. And so it's not that you can't have two brothers that served God together. It's just rare. And you shouldn't think that there's anything wrong. You shouldn't think like, why is it that my family doesn't want to serve God? Well, that's the norm. You should actually be like, praise God, my family does want to serve the Lord with me because that's the exception. If you have siblings and brothers and your mother and whatever, and they all want to serve God and they're zealous like you are, that is the exception, not the norm. The norm is that most of them are just not very interested and in some cases and in many cases they are actually antagonistic. They're against you. They'll fight you on this. And the Bible unfortunately says that there is good division in this situation, and this situation is usually around the idea of doctrine and salvation. I want to have a relationship with my family, like my brothers, my sister, my parents. I want to have a relationship with cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews. In fact, my siblings are much older than I am and they had children when they were young, so I grew up actually closer in age to some of my nieces and nephews than my siblings. So I was actually closer in age to them and hung out with them more, grew up with them more, spent more time with them. So in fact, many of my nieces and nephews I'm closer with than my own siblings. And I love all of these people greatly. My wife as well has a lot of family, a lot of cousins and nieces and nephews and things, and there's a lot of people that I would love to have really close relationships with, serve God with, but the reality is the vast majority of these people aren't interested in the same things as me. Some of them don't even believe the same on salvation. And I'm not trying to just divide from those people because I want to divide from them. And in fact, most of the time you don't even have to try just by believing what the Bible says, they'll separate from you. They'll say that they don't want to be around you, that you can't show up and I would never go to your church and it's not like you're not invited, you invite them and it's like, oh, never go or whatever. I've had people tell me that are close to me that they would rather stand with the protesters than come into our church. I'm just like, what in the world? You know, it's just like, okay. But at the end of the day, we still want to make sure, even though I'm not trying to divide from anybody, that we are still doing our job and we're doing what Christ would have us do and in some cases we may even have to make a division. And our division should be specifically regarding salvation. And it even says this in 2 Corinthians 6. Look at what it says in verse 14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? And what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? In what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. So let's say my whole family, and this is not the case, but let's just say hypothetically my whole family are Catholic and they're going to the Catholic church and I've tried to give them the gospel and they're not interested in salvation. Well at that point I have to decide, you know what, I need to leave this church and not go to church with my family and I need to go to a church that believes salvation by faith and I'm going to join that church and that would be you coming out from among them being separate and joining yourself under the Lord and saying at the end of the day, what fellowship can I really have with unbelievers? What fellowship can I truly have? And of course Catholicism is a great example for this because if you notice in some of these passages, it's bringing up the idea in verse 16, and what agreement at the temple of God with idols? How can I show up at a pagan Roman Catholic church where they have images and graved pictures of Mary, saints, all kinds of different things decorated in their church building? What is this, how is this compatible with that? You know what the Bible is actually, I can show you several passages here, you know what the Bible literally says to do those things? Smash them and break them into pieces. So why in the world would I go there? Some churches, I believe it's in the Orthodox, they'll kiss the icons, they'll look kindly to graven images and pictures, and at the end of the day, I'm not mad at those people, I don't hate those people, but I need to separate myself from them because of the spiritual distinction between what I believe, what the Bible's teaching, and what they're doing. They are performing idolatry, and whether they realize it or not doesn't matter, because if I ask a Catholic, hey, you guys are a bunch of idolaters, they'll be like, no, we're not. You worship Mary. We don't worship Mary. Well, the word worship means kneel. Do you kneel in front of Mary statues? Well, yeah, I do that. But do you worship Mary? No, no, I don't worship Mary. And it's like they refuse to actually understand how the English language works, okay? So they just don't want to understand how English or words work and just to try and hide from the fact that they're literal idolaters, worshiping graven images. And they say, yeah, but she gave birth to Jesus. Shouldn't we worship her? And all of a sudden you're like, earlier you said we weren't supposed to worship her, and you weren't. Now you're trying to say it's cool, right? And they get wishy-washy on you. But you have to eventually say, well, look, I like you, but I'm a Baptist. I believe the Bible, and I'm gonna have to separate, and this is a good division. I don't have anything in common with Catholicism. Catholicism and me are not compatible. The Bible and Catholicism are not compatible. So I'm not trying to join up with all the Catholics in America to save our nation. Like, for some reason, there's this insane idea out there how we, all forms of Christianity, all need to gather together and join up and create some group to save America. Well, you know what? Catholics aren't gonna save America, folks. In fact, if you actually even understood how our country was even formed, it was formed because people wanted to flee Catholicism. Did you realize that there were people that were being killed by the Catholic Church for hundreds of years? Did you realize that William Tyndale, who wanted to give you this book, was burned at the stake for trying to give you this book? Did you realize parents who were trying to teach their children the Lord's Prayer were burned at the stake for giving the Lord's Prayer? By who? By the leftist radical mob? By Joe Biden? No, by Catholics. And then, for some reason, I am supposed to now believe, let's join up with a bunch of Catholics in a political action committee and we'll save America. You are nuts. You are nuts if you think that. And you know what? There's a lot of Catholics today, they say, hey, we need to be Christian nationalists and we need to bring in a leader. And they'll even say, we want to bring in a king. Oh, beware, Christian, of trading one pharaoh for the next. You think that Joe Biden's not very good. Okay, let's bring in a monarch Catholic and we'll see how quickly things go well for fundamental Baptists. It's like, well, we won't have trannies. Yeah, but they'll put you on a stake and burn you alive. Like, what do you want here? Okay, you know, the Bible is not saying, let's all join up with everybody and sing Kumbaya and coexist. No, no, we're going to come out from among them and be separate. We're going to be the salt and light of this world and we're going to say, you know what, this is what the Bible says and we're going to do it. I'm not looking to see what kind of political groups I can get involved in, what kind of city activism, what kind of compromising direction I can get into. You know, that's never even good anyways. I like water that's pure. You know, I drink water and I drink water and I think most people, they're like, what's the best quality of good water is that it's pure. When it kind of tastes like minerals, when it tastes like metal, you know, you go to that water fountain out in the park and you start drinking, it has that metallic taste. I've never heard anybody be like, this would be a good branding. You know, we should make new bottled water and say, like, metallic taste. Isn't it usually, like, clean, fresh, pure, right from, it's like spring water, right, straight from the fountain. It's not like this was going through a dirty metal pipe and brought in some contaminants with it. Added fluoride. Oh, wait, actually it does do that. Go to Walmart, go to the baby section, and you'll literally see water that says added fluoride. It's weird, okay, I'm just saying it's there. I like my water to be pure. I like that division. I like that we said, hey, this is water, all the stuff that's metal and toxins and everything else, I want that out of the water. And that's what makes the water good. Well, here's the thing, I want that with church. I want that with my King James Bible. I don't want to add in the Book of Enoch. I don't want to add in the Apocrypha. I don't want to add in John MacArthur's study notes. I like this book because it's the pure King James Bible. That's what makes it great. I like my church where every single person that I ask is going to say salvation's by faith. I don't want to bring people in here that say, oh, well, this group over here thinks it's kind of by works. Well, and this person over here, they think it's like catechism. Well, and this person over here thinks everyone goes to heaven no matter what. And this person doesn't even believe in heaven. And this person thinks there is flat. And this person also smokes marijuana, obviously. I mean, it's just like, what in the world? Like, I don't want to go to a church where there's a different salvation plan out of every single person. I don't want to go to a church where everybody has a different Bible. I don't want to go to a church where everybody has a different view on the shape of the earth. I want us to all be rallied together and unified of the truth of God's Word and have a crystal clear salvation message. And you know what? That's what makes it good. That's a good division. It's good when churches are divided on salvation. And it used to be that they were. Now there's a big movement of non-denominational, right? What is non-denominational? We don't want to pick any doctrine so as to offend. You come in with work salvation, no problem. You like salvation by faith, sure. I mean, we just like everything. The only thing we don't want is for you to tell other people that they're wrong. Right? I mean, you can believe salvation by faith going there, but just you don't tell anybody and don't cause any kind of problems and say like, hey, this person came in here believing a different salvation. They're not saved. No, no, we don't want to be like that because they're bringing in good money and they tithe, and they're helping us build our building. And you know what? Our building is just to, you know, our program is just to build a big building and give a big check to the pastor. It doesn't matter if they're going to heaven or not. You know what? That is how many churches are today, and they're junk. They're junk churches with a junk message, with a junk pastor. And you know what makes something good? When it's pure. When there's division. I mean, think about it this way. We probably, a lot of the men in here, we played sports, and it's nice whenever you played competitively that they would sometimes cut people. Why? Because you're like, this guy sucks. Right? I mean, you're just like, this guy's dead weight. He can't catch the ball. He can't run. He can't jump. He's not athletic. He's just not good. And it was nice that they were like, hey, we have a varsity, we have a junior varsity, and then we have people that are in the stands watching. Okay? And it was nice that they divided that up. What if they just said, we just picked random people to be on the team? Well, then it wouldn't be very much fun. You know, it's not that much fun to just go out there and just exist. It's fun to compete and to pick the right kind of people and have a little bit of division. And you know what? The same applies with church. It's nice to be around people that actually believe the Bible. Boy, it's refreshing. Man, when you go to these other institutions that call themselves churches and you talk to these people, boy, it is just a cornucopia of false doctrine. And in fact, most of the time, they won't talk to the Bible anyways. Hey, you know, have you heard that? I don't want to talk about the Bible. Where do you think we're at? Church? I mean, have you ever noticed that? I've been to a lot of churches where they don't even want to talk about the Bible at all. They get mad at you for it. Go if you went to Matthew chapter 16. I want to look at a few verses here. Why is this an important division? Well, the Bible explains that someone who's saved can see. Someone who's not saved can't see. And when you can see, you're different than someone that can't see. You know, I don't want to get in a car. I took an Uber the other day. I don't want to get in a car with someone that's blind and let them drive. Like, that wouldn't make a lot of sense. That wouldn't be fun. I'm not going to enjoy that ride. And when it comes to Christianity, when it comes to our lives, we don't want to surround ourselves with a bunch of people that are blind because really then at that point, it's just dangerous, okay? When Jesus Christ was on this earth, not everybody knew who He was. People knew that Christ was special. There was something special about Him. People had heard that He had done miracles. But every time you read in the Bible where people are actually discussing who Christ is, it says there was a division among the people. Some say that He's John the Baptist. Some people say He's Christ. Some people say He's a deceiver. There's all these different opinions about who Christ really was. People didn't know. And what the Bible indicates is that understanding who Christ was or who He is is about being, having sight, about being able to see. And the people that can't see, well, they just don't understand. And Christ even asks His own intimate disciples, look at verse 15, He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Hey, I know a lot of people are saying all this stuff, but what do you say? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. So Peter had a special blessing and the fact that something was revealed in him, he could see something that other people couldn't see. What is it? He could see that Jesus was the Christ. He understood that Christ was Jesus and that this was not something that could just be understood humanly speaking. God the Father had revealed it unto him and it's a spiritual revealing. But many people this time were spiritually blind and they can't see. Go to John chapter 9. John chapter 9. Well this is going to be dangerous. Why? Because you can then have the blind leading the blind into a ditch. Just like someone blind driving you. If I'm in a professional driving club and we're all like drivers together, I want us to all be able to see. Right? In fact, if you were to join the Air Force, especially in times past, you had to have perfect 20-20 vision in order to be a pilot. Why? Because you have to be able to see to fly a plane. Okay? And that was kind of disappointing to me. I didn't really want to be in the military, but I knew that if I wanted to be in the military, I wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to go in the Air Force. That wasn't my desire if I ever had to go. My dad was in the Army. I did not want to go in the Army. But I thought if I ever had to go in the military, like the Air Force, but then it was like you can't even be in the Air Force because I didn't have 20-20 vision. So I was like, well, that's frustrating. And again, you could be in the Air Force, but I couldn't be a pilot specifically. And that would be, to me, the goal of being in the Air Force is you want to fly the plane. Right? That would be exciting to be able to do that. But it makes sense. It would be strange, you know, in this DEI that we have going on in our culture, if they're like, we don't have enough blind people as pilots in the Air Force. You know? We need to really diversify and add more people into the pilot program. And you actually see this happen in other industries, which was just so bizarre to me. Okay? I was working for a company at one point, and we do software development, and we needed a front-end developer. And what that means is it's the guy that designs what like a web page looks like. Or he designs what the mobile app looks like. So he's just making it look pretty, the colors, the shape, the design of everything that it looks like on the screen. Basically, they're the artists of the developers. Right? They're the ones that make it look good, feel good, interact well. And I remember my boss was talking about someone that they have that they're interviewing for this position that we're gonna have working on our team. And he's like, the guy's blind. I was like, what? I'm like, the guy is gonna design the way that our site looks, and he's blind? I'm like, could you pick a different profession? I mean, like, radio. You don't have to necessarily see to be a radio personality, right? I mean, isn't there some jobs? And look, I'm not down on blind people. There's nothing wrong with being blind. You can't really help that necessarily. But let's be honest. You shouldn't be the driver. You know what didn't make sense? Is how the U.S. government mandated that all drive-through ATMs have braille. Sorry, some of y'all are slow. Okay. I'm thinking, like, why in the world would a drive-through ATM need to have braille? It's like the person was hopefully, that was driving, was not blind. I mean, like, what in the world? Who mandates that? The government, right? Of course, the government's always really good at mandating things. But when it comes to, you know, Christianity, it makes sense that we're going to separate from people that are blind and they can't see the things of God. You know, taking someone that's not saved and bringing them into church is basically like taking a blind friend to an art gallery. How much do you think that a blind person is going to enjoy an art gallery? Huh, don't you like that one on the wall? Huh, don't you like that one on the wall? Don't you like the colors in the scene? What do you think about this piece of art? What do you think about that? It's meaningless. That is what the Bible is likening unto bringing someone that's not saved into church and then showing them the Bible. It's not going to make sense. It's just going to go over their head. They're not seeing anything, okay? So it just doesn't make sense to yoke up with a bunch of unsaved people. Let's get a bunch of unsaved people together and let's have a Bible study together and let's hear what they have to say. I mean, it's the same as bringing your blind friend to the art gallery and saying, describe this picture to me. Oh, I think it's red and I like all the colors and I like the shape of the houses and it's like, you don't even know what this looks like, do you? And it's like, that's what unsaved people sound like when they're describing the Bible to you. That's what they're going to do when they see it. They're going to say, you know, talk to a black Hebrew Israelite about what Jesus looks like. They're going to describe a completely different picture than what the Bible paints. Why? Because they can't really see. And Jesus brings up in John chapter 9, look at verse 39. And Jesus said, for judgment I am come into this world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said to them, are we blind also? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say we see, therefore your sin remaineth. The Pharisees were blind but thought they could see, which is way more dangerous than being blind and realizing you're blind. Because the problem was being blind spiritually means you recognize that you're a sinner. Recognize that you can't save yourself. I mean, imagine you see somebody that's blind get in a car and you say, are you sure you can drive yourself home? Oh yeah, I can. I can see. You can't. No one can do that. They're going to crash. They're going to die. But that's the Pharisees attitude spiritually. They think they can see. And they're going to crash and they're going to burn. There's a person that gets in the car and says, you know what, I can't see. I probably shouldn't drive. And they're like, no problem. Jesus will drive you home. And you say, well what do I have to do? All you have to do is just ask him to drive. You don't even have to do anything. You don't even have to drive. You just get out of the driver's seat and just say, Jesus, I want you to drive. That's what it is. It's just salvation by faith. This way. You know, I use this analogy when I go out snowboarding a lot about salvation itself and I'm trying to help somebody understand is I say, hey, when I get on an airplane I'm trusting that pilot to fly me there. Because frankly speaking, if you put me behind a 747 and said, fly to Houston, fly to Sacramento, I would have no idea how to get there. Do you know what's even harder to fly to? Heaven. I literally have no idea how to get there. I don't even know where it is. This is how salvation is for the unsaved. They think they can get somewhere that they've never been and they have no idea how to get there. The only way to get there is to trust the person that knows how to get there, which is Christ, who's literally ascended into Heaven. And He's going to take me there. So you know what? I put all of my faith and trust in what Jesus Christ already did for me and I just know He's going to get me there. And I'm going to help zero. I may not even be a good passenger, but you know what? I'm on the plane. And I'm going to definitely get there because He knows how to get there, not based on what I'm going to do. And I like this separation. I don't want to get a bunch of people on a plane that are going to hijack the plane and try to take it over and try to fly it. No offense, Ben, you're a relative. I'm not going to let other people get on this plane. I want everybody on my plane to say we're all trusting Jesus to get there. I don't want a bunch of Korahs and baihus and whoever to get in there and try to say like, Hey, I don't know if this guy knows where he's going. Let us fly the plane. Why are you getting there? No, no, we're going to get in there. No, no, no. I don't want any of those people. Muhammad and whatever. Ahmed. They're not flying my plane. Okay. We're not letting them on the plane. And the same with the church. We're not going to let those people into church because you know what? That doesn't make sense. It's dangerous. It's going to cause problems. So we're going to separate ourselves from the blind. If we're going to have a special event where we're all going to go to an art gallery, we're just not going to invite our blind friends. You know? And the same is with church. We're just not inviting blind people because it doesn't really benefit them. It's not really for them. So that's a good division. It's a good division for you to be only yoking up with saved people, for the church to be focused on saved people. Go to one more place and we'll finish. Go to 1 Corinthians 5. So I had three points. Point one, good division marriage. Leave mom and dad, cleave under your wife. Second one, hey, don't yoke up with unbelievers. We need to be in teamwork with saved people. When it comes to church, I want to work with saved people. When it comes to understanding the Bible, I want to talk to saved people about it. When it comes to doing work for Jesus, I want to work with saved people. When it comes to fixing our nation, I want to work with saved people. When it comes to anything, I want to do it with saved people. Now again, I'm always engaging the saved. I'm willing to talk to them. I'm willing to try to bring them into the fold. I'm willing to go out there and earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. But at the end of the day, they're not going to be on my team. They're not going to be my buddy. They're not going to get on the same plane with me. We're not going to go to the same church. We're not going to have the same Bible study. I'm not going to ask them, hey, how do you explain this passage of the Bible? No. That's going to be with the saved. We have a clean and clear division. I'm not going to go to the Catholic church and I'm not going to invite a Catholic priest to come in here and preach us the Bible. Neither of those are going to happen. But you know what? I'll go out and knock on a Catholic's door and try to get them saved and try to invite them to the church. I'll be nice to the Catholic. I might even talk to the Catholic about different things and try to help them understand why you should never be a Catholic ever again. But at the end of the day, I'm going to have that division. I think a lot of people that are saved would probably agree with everything I said. This is where the rubber meets the road though. Not only should you divide from people in the sense that you got married, divide from mom and dad. Not only should you divide from unbelievers. There's times when you should even divide from the saved. And God is constantly dividing up things and we're getting into a smaller group, smaller group, smaller group. What is the smaller group? The church is not just for saved people. It's for saved people that actually want to serve God. And it's for the saved that are not going to get involved in sin that's going to drag them down. Look what it says in verse 9. I wrote unto you an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or with extortioners, or with idolaters, for then must he needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you, not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, a covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or extortioner, with such in one know not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. The Bible says that we are to divide ourselves from this list of people. What? Fornicators, covetous, idolaters, railers, drunkards, and extortioners. And we're not talking about unsaved people, we're talking about only saved. We've already separated from the unbelievers. That was just showing up at church. But then, even amongst the saved, we cannot have company with this group of people. Now, it's of course important to then be even more specific, what does this even mean? What is a fornicator? This is someone that's having relationships outside of marriage. And you say, well, how do I know that? Well, I don't want to know. Okay. But hey, if two people are living together and they're not married, that's how I know. You say like, you don't really know. I know. Okay. Don't play this game with me. I will not fall for it. And even if you were the exception, I still don't believe you. So it doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter if it was true. No one else believes you! It'd be like saying, I haven't lied in two years. Really? Even if that was true, even if you were like the greatest person ever and you just somehow didn't lie for tears, no one would ever believe you anyways. There'd be no point in even telling someone that. Like, I've succeeded. This is my 700th day. I'm not lying. Everybody's like, you're a liar. Okay. And so the reality is, if someone is living with their girlfriend, I'm going to say you're in fornication. You either have to get married or separate from that person, but you can't come to church living with your girlfriend. Because at the end of the day, you know what? That is what the Bible is literally saying. Now, let's say we get someone saved and they come visit our church the first time and they hear this, I'm not mad at them and I'm not going to throw them out of church. Right? This is someone that's called a brother. This is obviously someone that we're familiar with. They're coming to church. They've had time to hear the doctrines. So of course, someone that's in this situation, we're going to give them space to repent of their fornication. We're going to give them an opportunity to understand what's even going on. And let's just be honest, a lot of people come to church one time and they never come again. So I don't even have to worry about what I'm going to do. Okay. You know, but at the end of the day, people that are committing fornication, they need to be told, you need to stop, fix this, or church discipline. Someone that's covetous or idolater or railer. You know, some of these are pretty clear. Idolater, hey, if you're worshiping statues, bye. I mean, if someone comes to me and says like, we went to their house and they literally have a Mary shrine in the house, you're guilty. You're on the list. Okay. It's pretty clear if you're an idolater or not. Alright. If you have a Flavor Flav necklace of just, you know, some weird image hanging around your neck, you're an idolater. Okay. Covetous is probably the most vague on this list, honestly. I one time actually had a scenario where I felt like it actually fit into this category. And it was just basically, it was a woman who was essentially trying to solicit men that were not her husband. And to me, that's a form of covetousness because if you read in the Bible, in the Ten Commandments, what's the first form of covetousness? It's actually desiring your neighbor's spouse. And so to me, that fit in that category and it was like, well, if you're going to engage in that kind of activity or encourage other people, like, you shouldn't even be welcome in church at all. If you're on Ashley Madison's website, you shouldn't be allowed in church, Sam. And also railing. Railing is actually, I think, really clear. Just a lot of people try to make it vague. But railing is just lying about people. And think about this. How is it going to be fun to come to church when people are committing fornication, people are lying about people, people are having all this idolatry that they're going around, they're coveting. I mean, this is just going to be an unhealthy culture that we have in our church. The Bible also brings up extortion. Extortion is using information to take advantage of someone. Okay, that's kind of a really basic, broad definition. A lot of extortions with money. It's if you know something about someone that's not positive or it could be negative, damaging or harmful to that individual if it became public. And you tell them, hey, I won't tell anybody about this if you give me money. Or it doesn't even have to be monetary. Some other thing. Like, hey, I won't tell on you if you don't tell on me. That's a form of extortion. I won't reveal this publicly embarrassing information about you if you mow my yard or do work for me or whatever. Sell me your business. Or there's a lot of times people are just using information against people and that's what extortion is. Obviously, if anybody was trying that, they wouldn't be church disciplined. If someone's going around extorting someone, it's probably not super likely that that's going to be the case. At least I hope not. Probably the most likely is drunkard. Now, again, what is that? Because, again, that sounds vague. But if we go to Proverbs 23, and we'll come back to 1 Corinthians 5 to finish, so if you want to keep your finger. But we're almost done. I just want to give one more explanation here about this list. Proverbs 23 gives us a little bit of an indication about drunkenness, specifically. And I want to make myself clear because I personally believe you should never drink alcohol ever. I think that all alcohol and consumption to become drunk or to be buzzed or inebriated anyway would be a form of sin. Obviously, if someone was partaking in some kind of drug because of a painkiller, that's obviously an exception. But most people are not using alcohol as actual painkillers today. So, to me, when you're just drinking alcohol recreationally, it's a sin. Now, just because it's a sin doesn't mean it gets you thrown out of church. So there's a difference between sinning and then sinning enough to be thrown out of church. So if someone drank a beer, I think that was stupid and wrong, but I'm not going to throw some out of church for drinking a beer. I obviously wouldn't brag about it or tell me about it because I'm going to be mad at you, but I'm not going to throw some out of church for doing that. But there's a line where it eventually gets to a point where we have to decide what a drunkard is. Now, the world would have you believe that this line is basically a guy that's laying in the gutter and he can't even remember his name and he's lost all of his money and he's basically just a complete derelict of society. They think that that's the drunkard. But how many of those people are we struggling with having in church? Like, they build a definition that literally is never even going to be in church ever because they don't actually want to deal with what a drunkard is. Okay? So it doesn't make a lot of sense to create a scenario of someone that doesn't even really exist in society to then make it like, well, let's not have that person in church. Okay? So here's my standard. And again, you know, you say, well, who cares what you think? Well, me, number one, okay? And number two, the Bible literally teaches that pastors and Peter and the leaders of the church are given the keys to bind things on earth and they're bound in heaven. And so, you know what? God expects me to enforce this law, this rule, this commandment in church, so I better explain it to people so that I can actually enforce it. And if I come up with a definition of drunkenness that's within line of the Bible, then I believe that it's bound in heaven. So here's my explanation. I have five, five-fold tests. If you fail any point, you're a drunkard. So it's not in all five. You can just, you can succeed in being a drunkard by getting only one of these check marks. Okay? Check mark one is that you drink every day. If you drink, I don't even care if it's a thimbleful. If you have an alcoholic beverage every day, you have passed the test, you are a drunkard. Okay? And so that person will be thrown out of church. You cannot tell me you're not a drunkard if you literally drink alcohol every single day. I don't care what quantity that it is. So someone that's drinking every single day is a drunk and if you look at Proverbs 23, look what it says in verse 20, be not among winebibbers. The Bible literally just says, hey, don't be around this person. What is a winebibber? Someone that excessively drinks alcohol, drinks alcohol on a regular basis. It's just saying, this person just shouldn't be around. Fits my definition, and if you're drinking every day, you're a winebibber. You're a drunk. You shouldn't be in church. Here's a second one that I would say is someone that is drinking hard liquor. Okay? And this is someone that seeks, you know, is basically drinking what the Bible calls a strong drink. Strong drink is raging according to the Bible. Okay? Another one would be mixing drugs and alcohol. It says in verse 30, they that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine. There is no reason to mix drugs and alcohol unless you want to become drunk. Like the only reason someone would mix liquors or mix alcohol with some kind of prescription drug is to make those effects stronger. And it does work. When people are mixing drugs and alcohol, the effects are sometimes compounded where they're two, four, even ten times more potent than they would have been on their own. And so that is someone that's a drunkard. Here's a fourth one. It's someone that's drinking and driving. And look what it says. This is interesting in verse 34. Thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mass. It's like this guy is literally putting himself in danger and other people in danger. Why in the world would you lie on the top of a mass when you're drunk because you can't make good decisions? Someone that's getting into a car after having drank alcohol is putting other people in danger and they're a drunkard. They show they have no control over that part of their life. And they, in my mind, are a drunkard and I don't want them in my church. I don't want people in my church that are literally drinking poison, drinking alcohol, and then going around driving and putting the rest of our society at risk. That is wicked. That is evil. It's reckless. And what kind of shame and folly would be on a church when it's like, oh, this member was drinking and driving and kill somebody. Oh, all the people that go to this church just drive around drunk and kill people, literally. And you know who's going to probably face the most chastisement in this world? Our people that are saved. So when you've got saved people going out drinking and driving, you know they're going to cause problems. I would way rather say, hey, that person used to go to our church, but they got kicked out for being a drunk. Not, yeah, the whole staff is going around drinking and driving. Yeah, all of our soul winning captains are drinking and driving. Yeah, all of our people in our church, we just all get drunk and then drive home and run over people and get in car accidents and kill people. People are dying in drunk driving accidents all the time. It's not a joke. It's not like, oh, it's not a big deal. And in fact, if we actually had biblical laws, if you killed someone in a drunk driving accident, you'd be put to death. It's that serious. We shouldn't undermine this. Here's my last point. You're going to bars. Why would you be going to a bar and you're not a drunk? I mean, a bar smells like piss. I mean, a bar is a disgusting place for adult toddlers. That's why everything's bolted to the ground. That's why everything's just metal and cheap material and it's just basically to be just get the power washer and just hose it down after all the drunken toddlers have left. I mean, that is literally what bars are. I mean, the only reason to go to a bar is to get drunk, to commit fornication or commit adultery. You're on one of these lists somehow. Don't go to the bar. If you're like, hey, all these single guys are going to the bar. Bye. If these guys are going to bars, I don't want them in my church. There's nothing good happening in a bar. Bars are places of iniquity and they're wicked and you know what? That will be a line for me. Now again, if someone is caught doing any of these things, I would of course address that with that person privately. Try to talk to them. If they're repentant, they don't want to do it, it's probably going to stay private. This to me is really for the person that get caught doing something on this list and they say I am going to keep doing it. I don't care what you say. I don't like what that passage in the Bible says there. Well, then at that point we're going to say so and so is not welcome to come to our church anymore and we are going to literally divide. Oh, well I thought Christ came to bring peace. Nope, literally division. Sometimes you just have to say this person is not welcome in the congregation right now and we need them to repent before they get back in. It's loving. Why would I want to continue allowing someone to be in fornication? That's hurting them. It's hurting that girl. It's hurting that guy. I mean you're just ruining that girl. Fornication is just wicked. It's just destroying their future, their relationship. Like they need to get married. If you really love them you would say you need to fix that and put pressure on them to fix it. Someone that's worshipping idols, we would hope they would want to fix that. We want to love them and tell them to fix that. Someone that's going around lying about people, we want them to fix that. That's not fair to the person they're lying about. It's not fair to the church's environment, the culture. Someone that's getting drunk, they're destroying themselves, their family. They're bringing reproach on the cause of Christ. I mean it just doesn't make sense. And there's so many people today, I feel like they're actually waking up about this and they realize alcohol is poison. It's sad to me when non-Christians recognize how much alcohol is a bad thing and it's poison, and then pastors are getting up saying that it's not a problem to drink. Pastors are literally drunkards and everything like that. Go back to 1 Corinthians 5, we'll finish. We need some division in our lives, and there are some good division. When you get married, say bye to mom and dad. When you get saved, go to a church where they're saved and your best friend shouldn't be unsaved people. You shouldn't be your closest friends. And you know what? Even in a church where they're saved people, sometimes we even need to separate from that as well and say, you know what, I don't want to be around a bunch of fornicating, drunken idolaters who are covetous and extortioning. And I'm just going to be honest with you. If we went to a big non-denom church down the street, there would be a lot of people that are on this list. In that building. There'd be a lot. There'd be a lot of people that are committing sins on here. People that are divorced, like dating someone. They're like literally a weird type of fornication or adultery or whatever you want to call that in the church. It's open. I've been in fundamental Baptist churches where a couple, it was like, they both had children, but not with each other. They're both either divorced or just never married or something. I know one of them was divorced for sure. And they're hosting events for all the young married couples to go to their house. And I'm just thinking like, what in the world? Why would we want to advertise this type of lifestyle? Why would we have young couples, young married couples, going to a household where this couple is divorced, just living together, has a ray of bastard children and you know what? I actually looked it up. This couple ended up getting married eventually and now they're divorced. And I'm shocked. Like, whoa, I'm surprised that it didn't last. And again, I'm not against these people. I'm not mad at these people. I don't hate these people. I even like these people. But you know what they should have been told? Don't get married because it probably won't last because it's not what the Bible says for you to do anyways and shocker, it didn't work out. Shocker that the people that get divorced and remarried are more likely to get divorced again the second time anyways. And the third and the fourth and the fifth. You think like after the sixth and the seventh, it's like, what's the point? I don't know. People are crazy. And the drunkards, I mean, our culture has just gotten out of control today and people are just drunkards. And it's because they want to fit in with the world too much. Christians want to fit in with the world too much and they like drinking so much and they're just drinking poison. And you know what? It's not going to be in this church. You say, well that's, how are you going to grow? I'm not, I don't care about growing. How can, how can you grow by dividing? Now, there's a trick. Obviously you divide by a decimal it goes up, okay, but some smart out there probably. But it's like just generally speaking when you divide you get less, right? Apart from Jewish tricks, okay. When you divide, you get less. You don't get more and you know, by putting people out of the church it doesn't help you grow. But you know, my number one goal isn't to grow the church. My number one goal is to please God and sometimes he wants me to just divide. It may not please my parents when I say bye. It may not please my unsaved family, coworkers, friends when I say, I'm not going to your church, you guys aren't saved. And it may not be pleasing to the guy when I say, you're a drunk quit being a drunk. No, you're not welcome to come to church by being a drunk. Stop being a drunkard. Stop being a railer. Stop living together. Get married. You know what, if I don't tell them and if you don't tell them, no one will ever tell them. No one will ever hold them accountable. And you don't love those people. People say, you're not loving Pastor Shelley. No, you're not loving. And you know what, you really don't love Christ. What does it say in verse 7? Purge out therefore the old leaven that he may be a new lump as he are unleavened for even Christ our Passover sacrifice for us. Therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. We should worship God with sincerity and truth. And you know what, sometimes the only way to do that is with some good division. Let's call some prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us these instructions and helping us understand the divisions that we need to have in our life. I pray that you would help married couples to cleave one to another and leave mom and dad. I pray that you would help us as the saved to not get yoked up together with unbelievers. And I pray that you would help us to keep our church pure, that we wouldn't allow just a lot of malice and wickedness and evil to creep into our church but rather we would keep ourselves as an unleavened church so that we can be pleasing to you in sincerity and in truth. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Alright, in closing let's go to song number 115. Song number 115. No one ever cared for me like Jesus. Song number 115. Everybody sing it out together on the first. I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus since I found Him in a friend so strong and true. I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus since I found Him in a friend so strong and true. I would tell you how He changed my life completely. He did something that no other friend could do. No one ever cared for me like Jesus. There's no other friend so kind as He. No one else could take the sin and darkness from me. Oh, He cared for me. All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me. All my heart was full of misery and hope. Jesus places strong and loving arms around me. And He led me in the way I ought to go. No one ever cared for me like Jesus. There's no other friend so kind as He. No one else could take the sin and darkness from me. Oh, how much He cared for me. Every day He comes to me with new assurance. More and more I understand His words of love. But I'll never know just what He came to save me. Till someday I see His blessed face above. No one ever cared for me like Jesus. There's no other friend so kind as He. No one else could take the sin and darkness from me. Oh, how much He cared for me.