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🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 Good evening everyone. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all find our seats. 🎵Piano Music🎵 As you find your seats go ahead and grab a song book. Turn to song number 411. 🎵Piano Music🎵 Song number 411. Hold the fort. Song 411. Let's all stand together for this first song if you're able. All together nice and strong on that first verse. 🎵Oh my comrades see the signal waving in the sky🎵 🎵Reinforcements now appearing, victory is nigh🎵 🎵Hold the fort for I am coming, Jesus signal still🎵 🎵Weigh the answer back to heaven, by thy grace we will🎵 🎵See the mighty host advancing, Satan leading on🎵 🎵The ground is calling, courage almost gone🎵 🎵Hold the fort for I am coming, Jesus signal still🎵 🎵Weigh the answer back to heaven, by thy grace we will🎵 🎵See the glorious, hear the trumpet blow🎵 🎵In our singer's name we'll triumph over every home🎵 🎵Hold the fort for I am coming, Jesus signal still🎵 🎵Weigh the answer back to heaven, by thy grace we will🎵 🎵Fierce and long, but our help is near🎵 🎵Onward comes our great commander, cheer my comrades cheer🎵 🎵Hold the fort for I am coming, Jesus signal still🎵 🎵Weigh the answer back to heaven, by thy grace we will🎵 Amen. Wonderful singing. Let's start our first service with a word of prayer. Dear Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this day. Thank you for the souls that were saved this afternoon, Lord. And I ask that you please just bless this service tonight. I ask that you please bless every soul in this building, Lord. And I ask that you please fill our pastor with your spirit as he preaches unto us. And please give us your spirit also in the congregation, Lord. That we may leave here edified. We love you and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Please turn your songbooks to song number 206. Song number 206, Oh Save But I'm Glad. Song number 206, all together nice and strong on that first verse. 🎵There is a song in my heart today, something I never had🎵 🎵Jesus has taken my sins away, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Oh save but I'm glad, I'm glad, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Jesus has come and my cup's overrun, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Wonderful, marvelous love he brings into a heart that's sad🎵 🎵Through darkest tunnels the soul just sings, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Oh save but I'm glad, I'm glad, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Jesus has come and my cup's overrun, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵We have a fellowship rich and sweet, relate🎵 🎵Abiding in him the soul's retreat, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Oh save but I'm glad, I'm glad, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Jesus has come and my cup's overrun, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Won't you come to him with all your care, weary and worn and sad🎵 🎵You too will sing as his love you share, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Oh save but I'm glad, I'm glad, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Jesus has come and my cup's overrun, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Jesus has come and my cup's overrun, oh save but I'm glad, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Jesus has come and my cup's overrun, oh save but I'm glad, oh save but I'm glad🎵 🎵Jesus has come and my cup's overrun, oh save but I'm glad, oh save but I'm glad, oh save🎵 🎵Jesus has come and my cup's overrun, oh save but I'm glad, oh save but I'm glad, oh save🎵 safe trip for all those who go but also a very fruitful trip and Lord willing we'll collect a lot of information a lot of names and so that when we go back in November we can have some baptisms amen and also possibly a preaching service as well and so keep that in prayer the men's prayer night is on Friday March 3rd and then we have a lady's tea party also coming up on Saturday March 18th you see the regular reminders there at the bottom please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service collect some so many numbers from this past week's salvation from Monday to Thursday any salvation from Monday to Thursday seven anybody else Friday and Saturday Friday and Saturday and then this afternoon salvation for this afternoon one for brother Ulysses team seven for brother Maurice team anybody else five for brother hikes team and I miss anybody going once twice thrice okay keep up the great work on soloing let's go to sing our next song 296 follow on song 296 follow on song 296 all together nice and strong on that first verse down in the valley with my Savior I would go where the flowers blooming and the sweet waters flow everywhere he leads me I would follow follow on walking in his footsteps to the crown be one follow follow I would follow Jesus and me where everywhere I would follow one follow follow I would follow Jesus everywhere he leads me I would follow one down in the valley with my Savior I would go where the storms are sweeping and the dark waters flow with his hand to meet me I will never never fear danger cannot fright me if my lord is near I would follow Jesus anywhere everywhere I would follow everywhere he leads me I would follow on down in the valley or upon the mountain close beside my Savior would my soul ever keep he will lead me safely in the path that he has drawn up to where they gather on the hills of God follow follow I would follow Jesus anywhere everywhere I would follow on follow follow I would follow Jesus he leads me I would follow on amen wonderful singing at this time the ushers will come forth to collect the offering you can turn in your Bibles to 1st Corinthians 5 you you you you good evening tonight we're in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 1st Corinthians chapter 5 and the Bible reads is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as it's not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife and you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he hath that hath done this deed might be taken away from you from among you for I barely as absent in the body but present in the spirit of judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you're gathered together in my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such and one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus your glory is not good know you not that a little leaven leaven at the whole lump purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as he are unleavened for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed 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 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to accompany with fornicators yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters for then must ye 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 or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat what if I had to do to judge them also that are without do you not judge them that are within but them that are without God judges therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person let's pray dear Lord God we thank you for this church Lord that you've given us Lord and for everyone in this church right now Lord and I just pray that you bless pastor right now and fill him with the Holy Spirit as he preaches your word Lord and I pray us in the congregation that you soften our hearts to prepare to hear the preaching of your word Lord and so just bless this time we pray this in Jesus name Amen okay we're in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 this evening and I'm gonna continue my series with drama at the church at Corinth I started this last week and I really thought I was actually gonna get through all the problems that the church at Corinth had last week but there's just so many problems at this church it's gonna have to turn into a little mini series and so last week we talked about the first problem that we see being addressed by the Apostle Paul at the church at Corinth is their problem with division and authority now this is a church that was founded by the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey and in fact a lot of the people who are at the Church of Corinth were there were one to Christ by the Apostle Paul so he played a pretty vital role in their lives he's teaching them the Word of God he's obviously sending them letters and he is also sending people whom he's once of the Lord and trained to go there and preach the Word of God and be a blessing there but yet in spite of all those things and in spite of the fact that the Apostle Paul also showed the signs of an apostle meaning the miracles and a lot of the supernatural abilities that God gave the apostles you know he showed those at the Church of Corinth we see that in 2nd Corinthians in spite of all that they were still kind of rejecting his authority and so we see that there's a lot of divisiveness going on in the church some people were saying that there were Apollo's other of Paul and then you had that middle group who was mature enough to say well I'm of the Lord Jesus Christ right and so we see that there they had divisiveness problem they weren't glorying in the Lord they're really missing the bigger picture that you know at the end of the day God gives us leaders to learn from them to help them to be edified in the body of Christ you know the Bible tells us that he gave some apostles and some prophets and some pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ and so he's explaining that to them here in 1st Corinthians and you know they're they're missing the fact that you know the leaders are given so it can't perfect you in the ministry so you can win souls to Christ so you can live a righteous life and he gives them for edification not as tools for division and then we also see that you know they were rejecting as I mentioned the authority of the Apostle Paul because in chapter 13 of 2nd Corinthians the Apostle Paul essentially implies that they're being treated as reprobates okay and that's why you know we had that famous verse where it says you know examine yourselves if you be in the faith except you know examine yourselves and talks about how Christ is in you except he be reprobates and then he talks about you know the fact that they're essentially implying that he was a reprobate there they were rejecting his authority at the Church of Corinth and you say to yourself well that's that's a pretty bold claim of the Apostle Paul to say such a thing of these Christians why would he say that well the reason why he's saying that is because of the fact that these are churchgoers these are people who go consistently to the church there these are people who have have the Apostle Paul essentially as their founding pastor so to speak we know he's not a pastor but he's the one who found founded the church there and in spite of all the signs in spite of the preaching in spite of everything that has been done for them if they continue to reject his authority it only shows that these people are probably really bad right and so an extreme rejection of authority isn't necessarily a matter of preference it's a matter of wickedness you know sometimes it is a matter of preference sometimes people can't be under a leader because there's just differences the individuals have and so they go to different churches nothing wrong with that but when it's a matter of they stay in that church and they still hate the leader they still criticize the leader to criticize the pastor it's not a matter of preference that person is probably just really wicked there's a person who despises governments that despise Dominion and they're there essentially to infiltrate and create more issues and more problems now I would say that probably at the church of Corinth there was reprobates there we don't know beyond a shadow of a doubt but the only reason I would speculate that that was the case it's because of the fact that in chapter 15 when he addresses the subject of the resurrection apparently there are some people at that church who were denying the resurrection which is an essential doctrine to be saved so if you have people there just like denying the resurrection and they don't believe it happened and he has to like dedicate an entire chapter to teaching the basics of a fundamental doctrine such as the resurrection you know chances are there's probably someone in there who's not saved okay and it should have come to no surprise because when the Apostle Paul is writing to Timothy for example who was pastoring at the church at Ephesus he says that there are some there who are teaching that the resurrection is past already okay and you know they've caused the faith of some to err and so if people are teaching that the resurrection is past already it should come as no surprise that there's people here teaching that it didn't even happen at all okay and so you say man does that really happen in churches absolutely you'd be surprised the kind of things that people come up with when they try to infiltrate a church I mean you have Tyler Doka for example thinking that he is Jesus I mean come on right starting off with the flat earth and going into all types of damnable heresies and so we also see that they were lacking a proper respect for the man of God which is why he had to say you know am I gonna come to you in love and meekness or with the rod because they were just kind of putting him down as the leader as the authority and so he'd had to kind of put his foot down to make sure they understood you know who is the authority sent by God to kind of put them in their place and so that was a major problem that they have with you know authority but the second problem we're gonna look at the drama that we see at this church you say why are you calling it drama because it is drama okay and one of the reasons I wanted to preach this is to just remind us all as a church that this type of drama will exist even in our church from time to time so don't have this unrealistic expectation of your of our church to say well you know it's a new IFP Church it's a fundamental Baptist Church it's one saved always saved it's King James only we're right on on the essentials these problems will never take place in a church like this wrong wrong you know this is it's a church and so church is filled with people who are what sinners and so sinners you know you're like well I'm gonna go to a church that's a perfect church well once you get into that church it's no longer a perfect church okay because people you know there used to be this joke in the old IFP and they would say this they say the ministry would be great if it wasn't for people you know because people kind of screw everything up you understand you know they create problems there's issues there's baggage there's sin there's all types of things that take place and so look at 1st Corinthians 5 we're gonna look at the other aspect of drama at the church at Corinth and that is the problem with fornication verse number one it says it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you now what does it mean when it says reported commonly means it doesn't it doesn't mean that there's only one or two people that know about it and pretty much means that the everyone at the church knows about it it's basically like common knowledge amongst the church that there's fornication and that's pretty bad right and you think to yourself wow people in the church know that other people are fornicating but wait there's more he says and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles now what does that mean he's like you guys are committing a fornication that even the Gentiles don't really do you know it's like it's like it's almost like shameful among the Gentiles yet God's people are partaking in this particular sin he says that one should have his father's wife now this is very wicked and let me explain to you what this is referring to a lot of people get confused when reading verse 1 and they think to themselves well if this is his father's wife you know isn't this a matter of adultery you know first of all some people think well is this an incest first and foremost right and other people say well if it's fornication or if it's if he's if he's committing fornication with his father's wife wouldn't it be considered adultery okay but here's a simple explanation for this passage the implication here based upon the definitions of fornication and adultery is that this is possibly his stepmom right and then secondly his father has probably already passed away because once a person passes away they're freed from the law right and and so what that means is that they're no longer under that stipulation of you know if a person is married for example and their spouse dies they can remarry it's not considered adultery you know it's not considered a sin they're freed from that law you understand however he's saying here that the stepson is committing fornication it would be wrong for him to marry his stepmom first of the formals right but he's committing fornication with a stepmom and so that's why it's referred to as fornication because it's not adultery due to the fact that his father's probably already passed already and so the definition definition still stands and I think that's an important point because of the fact that a lot of old IFB churches will often use the the so-called you know escape clause right when it comes to divorce they'll say well you know if they're committing fornication then you know they should be able to divorce or something right and they'll often say that fornication and adultery are one in the same because if two married people if one of them is cheating the Bible refers to as fornication then that means fornication and adultery are the same it's not what I believe I'm just saying that's what people say okay but obviously we understand in that instance it's not referring to a married couple that's been married for quite some time this is obviously in the engagement stage and the reason we know that is because we actually have an example of this in Matthew chapter 1 where Mary who's a spouse to Joseph right she is with child with Jesus Joseph doesn't know this but he was minded to put her away privily because he had thought that she had committed the act of fornication and so he actually had the right to put her away give her a writing a bill of divorce meant in that as in that stage of engagement you know the spousal stage or whatever and so it will still be referred to as fornication due to the fact that the marriage had not culminated to them actually physically coming together okay so in light of that we know that verse number one is referring to actual fornication between two people that are not married even though it's his father's wife implication there is that the father has passed away already but in either case this is still wicked it's evil for someone to do something like this in a church okay it's it's first of all it's weird what are you doing your step mom dude you know what is this the south or something or what and then you know secondly obviously it's it's it's fornication it's wicked and then here's the thing the biggest problem is that leaders in the church aren't doing anything about it because if it's commonly reported that means the church members know about it the leaders know about it they're not doing anything about it he says in verse number two and ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you what does it mean to be puffed up it means you're proud okay he's like you're being proud and so why would the Apostle Paul call them proud for not removing this individual from the congregation what's the same reason that people wouldn't remove person who's committing fornication from their congregation today which is well we're not like those fundamental Baptists that just condemn sin we want to give people a second chance we want to be long-suffering and loving towards them but the Bible refers to that not as being loving refers to as being proud okay loving is when you actually discipline right loving is when you actually tell the truth loving the commandments of the Lord is when you actually obey them okay so if God commands us to remove someone from the congregation for this particular sin if they're unrepentant and we choose not to we're not mourning over the sin according to the Bible we're proud okay so he says you're proud you're not mourning that this person should be taken away from you says in verse number three for verily as absent in the body but present in the spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that had so done this deed now what does that tell us it tells us there's certain things that happen in another church that we don't necessarily even need to be there for if it's reported commonly is like we can judge from them far off right it's just like I'm not even there I'm present in spirit but I already know what should be done which is you need to remove this person from the congregation verse 4 in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ the authority of Jesus to deliver such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus your glorying is not good knowing not that a little leaven leaven it the whole lump so the Apostle Paul's remedy to this fornication taking place in the church is that that person needs to be excommunicated from the congregation now this is a very foreign idea to many churches today in 2023 but just as I mentioned today this and this morning and this morning sermon you know it doesn't matter if our forefathers didn't practice this it's still biblical to do we need to institute this in a local New Testament Church and you know what a lot of drama could be avoided if this was just put into practice okay so he's saying look what needs to be done and by the way you say why isn't it the the why isn't the the the father's wife being kicked out well she's probably not even going to that church you know because it obviously if she was he would be addressing her as well right so what it could be is that she's probably not going to that church he is and he's probably just talking about it he's probably just open he's probably not ashamed of his sin he's probably trying to justify his relationship with his stepmom or whatever gross it's like you know but but he's like probably bragging about it or he's telling others about it we don't know exactly but it you know this would show us that maybe she's not necessarily attending that church and what the Apostle Paul saying is this you need to just remove this person from the congregation and which is the equivalent to giving that person over to Satan okay it's not like Satan's waiting outside or something like that and then we just toss them to Satan what that means is that when a church uses its God-given authority to excommunicate a person for unrepentant sin you're essentially giving the green light on that person you're giving the green light to Satan to destroy that person's flesh in hopes that that person in light of their destruction in light of their affliction would repent get right with God and come back to the fold okay you said what if they don't repent then just Satan just destroys them you know they just the destruction of the flesh it's like they just keep getting destroyed until someone you know until they get right or until they just die and go to heaven right and so this is the purpose of church discipline it's not so that we can glory and have you know oh man we've kicked out so many people from our church now the purpose of this is to restore people right the hope would be that when people get excommunicated that they would be humbled and they would come back because they've been destroyed by Satan or even maybe even prior to them being destroyed by Satan come to their senses and then get right with God okay so it's like what you guys need to do is grab you know Joe church member who's involved in this wicked sin and just kick him out of the church now this doesn't jive with today's Christianity of many churches because people pastors don't want to lose church members because to them church members equal money sign right equal money the equal building fund equal tithes the equal offerings they equal a filled seat and so obviously they have their priorities mixed up okay because of the fact that we don't determine whether people stay or come or go based upon how much money they have or what status they have in this world what kind of job they have you know it's all based upon biblical principles and so a lot of pastors today they don't want to do this first of all because they're afraid of other people getting offended in the church okay but secondly it's just like oh man if I get rid of so-and-so this person gives thousands of dollars or something to our building fund or thousands of dollars to this we'll lose someone we're just gonna pray for that person to get right you know we'll disciple this person for a couple years yeah just let them be in fornication for years you know end up having bastard children destroy their lives and maybe somewhere along the road they'll figure that out that maybe they should be married and then get right with God and come back to church doesn't work that way it never works when man does it their own way okay it always works when we do a God's way now look at chapter 6 if you would chapter 6 so this is a major problem in the Church of Corinth was this matter of fornication now why was this a problem well it's a Corinthian Church and so the Corinthians obviously and the Grecian era you know they're very much an immoral people just like today you know people just commit fornication fornication was a normal thing in society obviously it shouldn't be normal but it is amongst those who are not saved and so this had to be addressed then and it should be addressed today and let me just remind us as a church that fornication is not something that we should look lightly upon it's not like well you know everyone does it so let's just let it happen in our church and if people come and they're committing fornication it's no biggie it is a big deal okay it's a big deal to God it should be a big deal to us there's so many consequences and repercussions to fornication not just to the individual themselves but even to a church when you permit fornication to just go unfettered in a church and you don't excommunicate the person for that particular sin it essentially is the gateway drug for every other sin to come in then you have like a cesspool of sin and heresy in the church because you've compromised in this one area that's the way it works that's why it says a little leaven leaven at the whole lump you permit fornication to get into the church okay then other people are gonna excuse adultery they're gonna excuse theft they're gonna excuse railing they're gonna excuse drunkenness they're gonna excuse idolatry they're gonna excuse everything because it's it's it permeates the entire church not just for fornication but for everything else so in order for us to keep the church pure and clean and righteous before the Lord we have to constantly practice this and it's not a comfortable job let me just be honest with you for some of you it's just like you know cuz last week we talked about how you guys love drama remember we talked about that people in the church they love drama you know like it's not pleasant for me to kick out a heretic or actually it is for heretic yeah but for people who are like involved in other sins you know it's not pleasant but for some people it is pleasant they're just like oh man I missed it you know they just want to see the drama you know I don't know why you got where you get your giggles out of drama like that but some people are like that okay don't look at me like that because you know you like it okay hey people see there you go and so but in order to minimize the potential of destroying a church because it will destroy a church the pastor has to get up and obviously little and just let me just explain the way this process works okay because sometimes people could get confused about this and think well as soon as the pastor finds out that I'm committing fornication I'm just automatically out of the church but it doesn't necessarily work that way okay I preached a sermon a while back called God's grace period okay and there might be new people in our church who are involved in this particular sin and we just don't know about it okay you say how long does that person have till they get kicked out well here's the thing is that eventually they will hear a sermon on fornication like I don't know like tonight right and then they know like oh man I might get kicked out for this particular sin now they're held accountable for this right you say what if they don't divulge that information well eventually we'll find out somehow God will reveal it somehow okay and so we don't go around policing people obviously we're gonna go around like hey you guys married or what what's going on here you know I mean let me see that marriage license okay let me see those where's the ring you know we don't we I just kind of let it happen and honestly in the last five years it just kind of happens there's been instances where you know couples come to our church and you know either we assume that they're married or we assume that they're just dating because we just give people the benefit of the doubt and then you know just a word a phrase just comes out of their mouth you know and it's just like oh excuse me come again you know and I literally have instances where I'm walking by and I hear a conversation of you know not fornication but just like oh we live together or oh yeah we live together we're not married or we woke up together you know something like that and it's just like what was that like say that again you know and at that point it's my responsibility as the pastor I have the uncomfortable responsibility because it is uncomfortable you know to pull people aside and say hey this is what these are the policies in our church according to the Bible if you're committing fornication here are your options because we can't tolerate fornication in the church so one you can either split up okay or you can get married or you get excommunicated from our church so choose you this day which option you will serve okay you know splitting up doesn't happen not really people don't like splitting up I think number two option is the best option if both people parties are saved and they're going in the right direction they're godly people and they love the Lord they're just new you know just get married and here's the thing is that sometimes people make a big deal about that they're like oh but you know we don't have enough money to have this extravagant wedding it's like whoa whoa who's anything about extravagant wedding let's go to the courthouse go get you know this week go to the recorder's office pay like 80 bucks or something and some justice of the peace there marries you and there you go you're married and now you guys can live happily ever after well you know but we want to have this really nice wedding okay then split up until then well but you know I've already lived okay then you got to go somewhere else then and if it's just like well you know I don't want to leave I don't want to break up what they're essentially saying is that what they want to continue to commit fornication well at that point then we got to excommunicate you from our church if you're not willing to repent of that and you can no longer be here and you know what it sucks sometimes because sometimes you know the people who are in that situation get along with them they're great people they're just unwilling to repent but we can't let our emotions get in the way of what is right to do it's not like why I like these people so therefore I can't really kick them out wrong it's just like you know I just would hope you make the right decision but if not you got to go somewhere else because we can't tolerate that at our church okay and what's unfortunate is that when someone leaves our church when a couple leaves our church in that state in that condition there's a lot of churches that actually get in the way of God's chastisement in their life because what do they do they just go to a church where they tolerate fornication yeah right I mean back in these days they're gonna go to the church at Thessalonika you know up north where the Apostle Paul already told them that they should know how to possess their vessels and sanctification and honor to abstain from fornication I mean the churches here weren't like this close or something where it's just like there's a church across town or something and even if it was all the churches here pretty much practice the same thing okay whereas today unfortunately if we do cast someone out of the church they can just go to some church where they tolerate fornication it tolerates sodomites to tolerate fornication they're okay with you smoking pot every once in a while and drinking alcohol and then they intervene in God's process of chastisement to actually make that person worse and I'm telling you this is very much the case you say well you're referring to like liberal churches no I'm referring to like fundamental Baptist churches I don't really know too many fundamental Baptist churches outside of the new IFB that practice Church discipline you know they have their own ways of doing things where it's just like you know we'll disciple them and you know hey yeah they shouldn't be doing that it's wrong or whatever but it's just like well if it's clearly stated in the Bible you're you're screwing things up my friend you're messing things up for this person this person's gonna be the worst come out worse because of your lack of chastisement on that person's life okay you know what that's not our business whatever if a person leaves and goes to some fundamental Baptist Church where they're cool with people fornicating and being drunkards or whatever that's on them they're actually allowing the leaven into their church which will eventually destroy that congregation that's not our problem now where are you at are you in chapter 6 or 5 go to 6 so the church of Corinth here had problems with fornication and this is something that is reiterated throughout the book of first Corinthians look at verse 13 it says meats for the belly and belly for meats but God shall destroy both it and them now the body is not for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body you say you know what God made meats to go into the belly he made the belly you know suitable to receive meat amen food meats that's the way God intended for it to happen but it doesn't work that way with fornication God created the body not for fornication he created the body to fulfill those physical needs in a marriage okay in a marital relationship he says God shall destroy both in them he's in verse 14 and God has both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his own power know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of in harlot God forbid what is a harlot prostitute whore that's what a harlot is he says what know you not that he which is joined to in harlot is one body so if you want to go around and fornicate according to the Bible you're as much of a whore as the person you're sleeping with that's what the Bible saying know you not that he which is joined to in harlot is one body for to say if he shall be one flesh okay it's like well I just sleep with whores I'm not a whore myself though according to this you become the whore monger you are the whore you take on that characteristic because you've enjoined yourself to in harlot okay that's how God views it but he that is joined into the Lord is one spirit flee fornication every sin that a man doeth is without the body but he that commit a fornication sinneth against his own body say what is the answer pastor I'm a single person I'm not married what am I to do flee fornication and that should be like the last resort you shouldn't always be in a situation where you have to flee fornication if you're constantly putting yourself in a situation where you constantly have to flee from fornication you're in the wrong place all the time this is like your spare tire okay you get a spare you get a flat somewhere you get put in a situation you put on that that spare tire and you use that don't be like me when I had a spare tire I used it for like the entire week or whatever you know that'll work you know spare tires only supposed to get you to the tire shop to get a new tire right you shouldn't always flee fornication because you shouldn't always be around temptation you gotta put temptation away from you you know you got to stay away from that which would cause you to sin however if you are placed in that situation where you know you're tempted to sin and commit fornication well then flee it do like Joseph and just run from it screaming the other direction okay he says in 2nd Timothy 2 22 you don't have to turn there it says flee also youthful lust but follow righteousness faith charity peace within the calling the Lord out of a pure heart verse 19 says what know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which you have of God and ye are not your own for you're about with the price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's so possible and you know he's kind of he's begging them he's like hey you need to flee fornication get away from that stuff it's gonna destroy your body it's gonna destroy the congregation this is dangerous there's nothing to be played with and you know what today you know you're like well I'm not gonna have bastard children because we use contraceptives or whatever but first of all you don't even know if that works number one number two you're gonna destroy your body with the contraceptives birth control destroys the body but secondly you know what if you're a Christian do you really think you can save yourself from the judge the judging hand of God you think some contraceptive is gonna save you from God chastising you I mean how do you know you're not gonna sleep with some person who has herpes or something who has gonorrhea chlamydia or even worse AIDS do you really I mean you really want to chance that and roll the dice on that well you know he cares for me and yeah but you know what that guy might have some disease on him though and if he doesn't respect you enough to marry you that means he hasn't respected a lot of ladies prior to you who have might have had diseases and you know what the fact of the matter is is that you know a lot of times we get on the women and the Bible talks about whores but the Bible also talks about whore mongers as well that's why this Andrew Tate crap is is nonsense my friends or he encourages to commit fornication with all types of women and it's okay to have your wife as long as you have a bunch of ladies with wicked okay God created the institution of marriage for one man and one woman to be married till death do us part okay and to fulfill those needs within the sanctioned institution of marriage not to sleep around like some street dogs or something okay and you know what social media tries to normalize fornication it tries to normalize you know immorality and all those things but you know forget what the world says we need to go over what the Bible says and understand that if you allow yourself listen to this to commit fornication to go out there and do those deeds you know what potentially God might destroy your body because you're destroying the temple of the Holy Ghost okay go back to chapter 5 if you wouldn't fornication was a problem here and it says in verse number 9 I wrote into you an epistle not to company with fornicators so there's obviously an epistle prior to first Corinthians being written that is not necessarily scripture but had scriptural principles within that letter because he says I wrote into you in an epistle not to company with fornicators so in his previous epistle he told him hey you need to stay away from fornicators but then he goes on he he he expands that in verse 10 and says yet not all together with the fornicators of this world so don't get too extreme and say why that can't be around any fornicator of this world even if they're not Christian you know and I get asked this a lot what about my job there's just like some really worldly person you know should I just quit that job and just not work or something like that it's just like no keep working at the job you can't control that when you're working in the world you're gonna work with godless people you're probably gonna have a godless boss you're probably gonna have some Buddhist boss or some boss that just cusses you out and and blasphemes the name of Jesus and you're gonna be working with fornicators we're at the at the break room they talk about all the women they sleep with you know that's just life but it doesn't mean you have to partake in that you understand it's like oh man I work here I guess I got to tell myself a good joke too or something like that obviously that's not God's will on break time you should just go to your car go read your Bible go listen to some preaching or how about this go eat food isn't that what a break is for he says getting on all together with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or with extortioners or with idolaters for then must he needs to go out of the world because you might as well go under a rock and Mars if that's if that's the kind of attitude you're gonna have you can't get away from the fornicators of this world they're always gonna be around you can't get away from the idolaters the covetous the extortioners that's just how it is however verse 11 but now written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother okay this isn't referring to you know a sibling it's referring to someone who is it who claims to be a Christian like well how do we really know that he's saved though if any man that is called a brother okay so if they even claim to be a Christian the Bible tells us here and they're a fornicator covetous idolater a regular drunkard or an extortion or was such a one no not to eat now let me ask you a question okay and I feel like I got to make this point because sometimes people get a little too literal okay does this mean that we can do everything else but have a meal with them I was like well we just go to Knott's Berry Farm or Disneyland but just we can't have a meal with them that's what the Bible says brother no not to eat the implication here okay because eating with someone is just one of the highest forms of fellowshipping with someone right like when you have food with someone it's just like you know that's your company right it's like your friends that's what friends do I mean we should know this as a church we fellowship around food I mean you guys just got finished fellowshipping around barbecue which is why half of you are just falling asleep right now because all the blood from your brain is going to your stomach to digest all that good meat that I know not of okay but you know you fellowship around food right so what he's he's this is just an all-encompassing command to say look you shouldn't eat with them implying you shouldn't do anything with them it's not saying like just abstain from having a meal with them it's saying you know a meal and everything else that would fall under the canopy of fellowship in other words just stay away from these people okay for what have I to do to judge them also that are without he goes I can't excommunicate someone who's out there I can't even excommunicate Christians who are out there because we're not part of a universal church okay do not eat judge them that are within but them that are without God judges therefore put away from among you yourselves that wicked person he says don't worry about the fornicators over there obviously we preach against fornication the fornication of this world but we're not looking to excommunicate people from out in the world let God deal with them let God judge them however this is our area of jurisdiction and in our area of jurisdiction we have the biblical authority to remove a person from the congregation if they're guilty not just fornication but all the sins that we see here fornication if someone's covetous you know they're trying to sell you a pyramid scheme at our church they use church as a means to build their own personal business that's a covetous person if they if all they talk about is money if all they talk about is their possessions and vehicles and they're creating an appetite of covetous is within the members of our church that's a covetous person and you know out of all of these this and idolatry is probably the ones that they get kind of skipped the most sometimes because you know covetousness it's hard to identify sometimes right like how do you identify covetous are we all little covetous don't we all desire something that doesn't belong to us or something when this is referring to a person where like all they talk about is money all they talk about is their possessions all they talk about is money and possessions and and and that which is perishable in this earth and they create an appetite in others to be that way people begin to envy them people begin to covet what they have and it kind of ruins them spiritually that person we need to be aware of and we go talk to the individual and say hey why don't you go ahead and talk about like you know the book of Judges or something instead of talking about your whatever scheme you got going on whatever you know pyramid thing you got whatever Avon I mean what's the newest pyramid scheme they got going on now who knows ah pretty good yeah guys are getting smarter you know whatever you're trying to sell vacuums or some town rainbows and back in my day was rainbows you guys know what I'm talking about rainbow vacuums sandals I don't know about that there back in the day there used to be this this vacuum you guys remember called rainbows and that was a huge pyramid scheme it's just like it costs I don't know like five G's or something but if they gave it to you and you did certain amount of presentations it would pay for it and then you know if you get people to buy into it it'll pay that off and it's just a huge pyramid scheme but they would use the church to spread that stuff it's like Avon you know I think Avon's what it's called right you know they would use that at churches there's another one what is it what Herbalife that's a Mexican churches I'm just kidding what there's another one apparently we have some pyramid schemers here you know I'm just kidding one thing one of them that I'm familiar with is the knives cutco cutler cutco whatever you guys know what I'm talking about that's another one okay or you know you have people who come to church to sell insurance life insurance okay they use church as an example to try to sell life insurance or as a as a they see it as an opportunity to do so and I remember one specific person and unfortunately you know this is the pastor of that congregation okay you know he had some guy selling insurance at his in his congregation and he got up he's like we're gonna take some time let him come up and you know you know just talk about life insurance because obviously he was getting a cut from it you know that's covetous this that pastor should be thrown out of the church but you know this is the same pastor who takes like special offerings for himself too so you know that that's like the the insurance thing was like the least of sins that that guy was committing he would he would take these offerings and not even there'd be no accountability just pocket them and use him for his gas and use him for whatever I mean it's a Spanish ministry which a lot of Spanish ministries are guilty of stuff like that okay but that that goes into another Sherman that I would love to just talk about at this moment but we got to deal with these this trauma here okay but you know he says covetousness idolatry this isn't something that's necessarily an issue in America per se but it could be you know if you have someone who is a former Catholic who just doesn't want to get rid of their you know you go to someone's house it's their house and they got like the Virgin Mary they got like can't candles everywhere crucifixes with the with you know the Jesus on there and all that the heart protruding and they feel like that's a biblical thing that's called idolatry you know don't over you know don't overlook them and say well you know it's they got that from their mom or something you know it's a gift from their grandma or something like that like hey you know you should really throw all this in the trash and burn it or else you know I'm gonna have to go talk to the pastor because this is actually idolatry you can get kicked out for this did you know that it's like well I don't think it's you know it doesn't violate my conscience okay that doesn't work with this okay that's if it's idolatry you're unwilling to repent you'll get thrown out for that railing is another one now that is unfortunately common in our churches where you know someone brings a railing accusation against another person they they bring a lie against another individual or against the pastor and they're unwilling to repent of that they're just attacking individuals in our church with with lies a person could get thrown out for that drunkenness you know if a person's involved and by the way this isn't just referring to alcohol it's like well I don't drink but you know every once in a while I do I smoke a little pot or I do a little mushrooms or something like that anything any mind-altering drug not just alcohol that's the alcohol drunkenness here is just take it as like what's such a one no not to eat right it's just like that basically shows you that you can't deal with them at all drunkenness should be that thing where it's just like well that this covers everything that would make you not sober or make you drunk alcohol weed you know ecstasy you know you're addicted to painkillers or something like that I don't know someone throw a drug out there don't throw it at me if you have it whatever you know just heroin cocaine okay guys calm down now hey simple concerning evil I'm just joking I asked for ayahuasca I don't know how someone would even get a hold of I also don't you have to be like in Brazil to get that stuff but you know drunkenness in general will get you thrown out of a church and let me just say this you know and people differ on on this particular point but I don't believe that it's even right for Christians to like casually drink alcohol all right it's just like well he's not a drunk or you just kept just on a Friday every once in a while goes out with his friends and has a beer well here's the thing okay let me explain something to you because if you've never touched alcohol in your life and you don't know anything about it you may not know this but if a person does that let's say let's say they do that once a month right they go to a bar with their friends they have a glass of beer and they just kill that glass of beer it's like well that's not drunkenness because it's only once in a while well if that person typically doesn't drink that glass of beer is gonna do what get them drunk so they're drunk at that point so I don't believe when it says drunkenness it just it gets permission for just a little bit of alcohol okay well a little bit alcohol because then would we be able to apply that to every other sin on this list or just a little bit of fornication is okay or a little bit of covetous or a little bit of railing you know a little bit of lies every now and then doesn't hurt anybody you know a little bit extortion I'll beat you up if you don't you know does that apply to everything else it doesn't there is no such thing as casually extortion mean extortion or or a casual fornicator yeah I like to paint the town red every once in a while you know get involved in fornication find me a prostitute just once a year or something like that doesn't exist right I mean I'm sorry I have to be so extreme but I'm trying to get the cross a point to you trying to show you that drunkenness is just drunkenness a little weed now and then nothing too crazy just some low-grade weed or something like that just to get me a little relaxed or something that's called drunkenness extortion er and this is you know you're threatening someone in our church you're trying to blackmail people in our church these kind of things will get you thrown out of the church if you're not willing to repent of it so if you're guilty of these sins okay it doesn't automatically get you kicked out however once you're confronted with it and you're like well I'm still gonna you know smoke weed everyone so I already paid for this pound of weed I'm not gonna let it go to waste you know I'm so okay then you did you're getting thrown out then you can't just continue in that because that's the same argument people can say well my grandmother gave me this crucifix with this morbid dying looking Jesus you know on there therefore I can I'm not worshipping it's just you know just has sentimental value it's still idolatry well the reason I threatened him you know if you want to give me five bucks is because I need those five bucks to to to take another brother out to eat you know it's just like that's still extortion I mean you understand what I'm saying and so the best-case scenario is you just get right with God and you don't commit these things oh man this is so strict oh yeah I mean yeah you're right you know there's so much liberty in getting herpes there's so much liberty in getting gonorrhea and all these venereal diseases so much liberty in getting AIDS so much liberty and having children out of wedlock and oh man that's just so liberating there's nothing liberating about that you actually put yourself in bondage when you allow yourself to get involved in those things don't let Satan and the world try to paint you this picture that Oh Christianity is just so strict there's so many rules folks God told Adam and Eve out of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat except for this one tree don't focus on the one tree if we can't have that one tree why not say hey thank God that we can eat of all these trees you have all these trees to choose from you have all these things that you can do why focus on the one tree that you can't eat from he told them not to eat of it because they're they're gonna die so it was for their benefit it's not like he's trying to keep them from having fun or something like that okay it's just like well you know I want a foreign kid because I just want to have fun this isn't fun about it yeah you know the sin is pleasurable for a season but it's only a season whereas when you do it the right way you get married then you just have fun for the rest of your life with the clear conscience and guess what you can have that physical relationship with that one person and you'll never get a venereal disease you're never gonna get herpes you're never gonna get AIDS you're never gonna you might produce a couple children within marriage though right not my I mean it's gonna happen eventually right you know with me and my wife we didn't I mean when we got married it took a couple months and we couldn't have children for a while you know it was like a couple months but then lo and behold here comes Bruce you know and it's not like oh we planned it it's just a byproduct of marriage you understand and so you know it's just like well you know I just want to choose the right one well let me say this the right one is never the person who wants to sleep with you prior to getting married bottom line all right they don't respect you they see you as an object then they're not willing to commit to you and provide for you forget that person okay go to 1st Corinthians chapter 7 so he says look here is a solution put away from yourselves that wicked person don't disciple them don't be long-suffering with that person just throw them out and then they'll know that you mean business right they're just like oh man this person is actually serious I'm gonna get thrown out and you'll be surprised you know some people don't want to get thrown out so they're just like well we'll get married well we'll separate because they like being in the church they enjoy having God's blessing on their life and so they'll just get it right oh this is so strict folks getting married will be the best thing for that couple to do it's the best thing because then they can just serve the Lord and be happy and yes they can live happily ever after thereafter okay look at 1st Corinthians 7 verse number 1 now concerning the things wherever you wrote unto me it is good for a man not to touch a woman that's pretty good advice there right you say what does he mean by that though you know you know okay pilot you know it's like what is truth what is touching a woman though you know give her a little kiss every now and then little little necking and petting never hurt anybody those those things typically lead to though fornication though so here's the solution nevertheless to avoid fornication so what is the Apostle Paul saying here he's relating touching a woman to fornication right so he said well you know touch a woman he didn't really you know it wasn't really clear with that man you know what I mean well touching is just like I mean touching you know you have physical contact with the opposite sex in any way seriously though I mean like you think like a hug will do anything look no fags in our church okay red-blooded dudes in our church in every church hopefully right and let's just be honest men God created us in such a way that even physically touching a woman can't arouse you I'm trying to be appropriate here but I'm trying to explain what he means by this that's why it says just stay away from that because you don't want to put yourself in a situation where you might sin okay and then what do you do you open a door and now you're struggling with your thoughts and then that temptation is there and then what happens you're alone with that person and boom you end up committing something that's not pleasing to Lord commit fornication and you open yourself up to a whole bunch of problems what am I gonna do then well to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband problem solved so God's not like don't touch a woman he just said touch her but like after matters though then you guys can touch all you want and it's all good it's all legal in God's eyes right it's like God has no problem in fact he commands you to touch afterwards and if you don't touch afterwards you're actually like sinning against your spouse okay he's like you know to avoid the fornication so obviously we see a recurring theme here do we not in at the church of Corinth what's part of the drama is fornication so he's trying to teach them flee fornication but if if you're like burning though and you just can't contain then you just get married okay and this is my recommendation to the guys in our church if you can't contain and you're burning and you feel like you're just frustrated with life okay then you need to put the video games down grow up get a job learn some character and go get married okay well it's not that easy you know it just requires for me to talk to a woman we're gonna be talking to her for the rest of your life if you marry her well I take that back she's gonna be talking to you for the rest of your life when you marry her you just get used to it you know and here's the thing there's so many temptations in this world you got pornography you have social media that's constantly grabbing for your attention if you're not careful you can go down that path and destroy your life God commands you if you feel like you're in this situation to avoid fornication whether in your heart or physically with another person go get yourself a wife you know and and obviously you know that's not your one-stop-shop advice because you know you have to like you got to have some ribs or whatever you got to be able to learn how to talk to a girl and and and and be godly and be appropriate you know this isn't you know you're not cavemen here you're not gonna bonk a girl in her hand just pull her by her like you're a woman mind or something you know it's just like we're referring to like you actually she has to like like you you know he's like doesn't like wanna marry you and stuff you guys get that and so you say yeah but that's so hard then you better start working at it now then and stop wasting time you know hanging around with all your buddies instead you know learn to develop some some people skills and learn how to talk to girls and learn how to be mature and learn how to pray to have God's favor in your life and learn how to work and provide for a family if that's what you want if that's your end goal you should be focusing on that and not passing whatever level on a video game go to 1st Corinthians 10 1st Corinthians 10 morning occasion is a major thing at the church of corn but it's a major thing even today okay and and you know the young people need to beware and I don't say this to to get on the young people I'm saying this because I want the young people in our church to avoid destroying their lives okay and by the way if you're under the sound of my voice and you think in yourself well I'm not really tempted you know I'm just kind of content where I'm at then praise God for that I'm happy for you but you should keep growing as well okay and so if you feel like you're not tempted you're just happy being single at this time you're just like you know I just love being with my mom and my dad I love being with my brothers and sisters and I love being at church I love soul winning and I'm not really ready for that type of life of having a wife and children I just enjoy serving the Lord without distraction then amen and hallelujah to that okay but the principles still apply because what you don't want to do is be that person and then you open up a door to temptation later on you understand but I would even recommend that individual you should still prepare because there's a prepared place for prepared people and one day I'm just saying the switch this is a switch you know some girls gonna come walking through here who loves the Lord and you're gonna be like I want to marry that girl well if you haven't been preparing then you know you're kind of screwed you know so even though that's not your plan right now to prepare for it just say Lord make me the husband that I need to be make me the father that I need to be help me to love you with all my heart soul mind and strength help me to prepare for that special someone down the road you have prepared for me you know God's will for my life prepare for that sounds cheesy but it's true and you know what it may not happen for the next ten years someone was really devastated about that it's just an example I'm not saying that it's gonna take ten years you know it may not happen for five years seven years ten years I don't know so you better just start preparing now so that would mean that you have to grow up now okay prepare now he says in 1st Corinthians 10 verse 8 neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand you think the Apostle Paul trying to get something across here he's like he's like by the way you know the people in the wilderness they come in fornication they all died he's trying to like instill the fear of the Lord in them and let me say this yeah you know you might get excommunicated from the church but something worse might happen to you you might actually die say how I don't know I mean they died in the wilderness and what he's trying to do he's trying to get them to like fear God to the point where they would just avoid that altogether that the act of fornication will become detestable unto them something that can just destroy their lives they're like I just want to stay as clear as way from that as possible God is my father he is my Lord and I know that if I get involved in something like that you know it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God I don't want to die so I'm just gonna stay away from it and you know what are there exceptions to the rule yes but you don't know if that's you though and I don't think you want to roll the dice on that okay go back to 1st Corinthians chapter 6 1st Corinthians chapter 6 drama people are drama but why are they drama because they're just sinners and so you know there's gonna be drama like that in our church but we have to have this policy that if people are involved in fornication you know it needs to be addressed now don't take this as an all-encompassing command for you to just police the people in our church either though are they married or something you know you know some of you overly zealous Christians out there this is not me telling you to pull out a piece of paper and start asking people in our church if they're married or not and you're like well I won't pull out a piece of paper but I'll just casually ask somebody you know we don't need you to police the people of our church okay you know we just keep serving the Lord and it'll come okay when things don't need to get exposed they just get exposed we don't have to I don't even have to do anything about it sometimes God just puts me in the right place at the right time to hear the right words and it's just like oh okay well apparently the Lord wanted me to hear that apparently the Lord wants me to deal with this that's why I'm here at this moment hearing this whatever you know confession or something okay so this is not your excuse to just go around and ask people hey are you guys in fornication just just want to ask this question real quick or I'm sorry I should have asked that differently are you married it's like how long have you guys been married for you know business okay now obviously we have conversations with people and here is my default setting when it comes to couples in our church I automatically assume that they're married well that's naive no I just give people the benefit of the doubt and I think that's what God wants me to do so I automatically assume that they're married and when I meet new people I'll say like so how long have you guys been together and then probably like 95% of the time they will divulge that they're either married or not married in that conversation without me having to even like ask him about it I just say how long you guys been together for and they'll say we've been together for this many years we've been married although say we've been married for five but we've been dating for 15 or something like that right we just got married within the last five years or ten years or something like that and then boom there you go there you go you say well maybe I should do that well the purpose of that is not to find out if they're involved in fornication the purpose of asking them questions because you just want to get to know people in our church okay anyways so here's the next one and I'm not gonna spend too much time on this but the other drama that they had is they were unable to resolve matters between brethren okay and actually I'm gonna skip some of the reading here go to Matthew chapter 18 Matthew chapter 18 so people were going to law with one another over different issues and what does that mean they were suing one another okay so some brother defrauded one brother maybe financially and it's just like well I'm gonna take you to court okay and the problem with this manner of doing things is that the Apostle Paul tells them why would you go before a bunch of unsaved judges to resolve issues that spiritual people can resolve on their own and he's telling he's like you're gonna judge the world you're gonna judge angels and you can't even judge the smallest of matters you could get the most babe in Christ in your church and they would do a better job than the corrupt judicial system is what he's saying okay so this applies then but it for sure applies today because judges have not gotten better they've waxed worse and worse and worse you always want to avoid some sort of lawsuit between brethren because he's not gonna have any of your interest in mind you're gonna spend up you're gonna waste a bunch of money it's it's a stupid thing to do and it just shows your lack of ability to actually just resolve issues one with another okay so if there's some sort of legal issue with you and a brother because you got defrauded number one you're gonna choose to just be defrauded and say you know I'll just take the loss because the Bible tells me to take the loss or you could bring it before the pastor and the church and resolve it in that manner okay now we're not referring to capital crimes it's like he murdered my family member or something can we put them to death here or where can we lay out some carpet here you know how do we how do we do how do we execute people in church or something you know it's like capital crimes are not dealt with here okay read the Romans 13 for that okay we're talking about just matters of legal issues financial issues being defrauded things of that nature where someone would want to sue another brother for some sort of you know event such as that okay it's better to just be defrauded but if you feel like you can't then take it before a brother and go get it resolved in that manner look at Matthew chapter 18 verse 15 says moreover if thy brother trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou is getting thy brother hey man you know you owed me a hundred bucks and you never gave it to me and so you're wrong for that and you know give me the hundred dollars I'm sorry man well here's $90 I'll get you to 10 tomorrow or something all right everything's good he gives you $10 everything's resolved but verse 16 if you will not hear thee I don't owe you nothing I got those hundred dollars fair and square and you know you did this and I don't owe you anything if you will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more now does this say take the whole church with you does this say go gossip to everyone in the church about this problem says take one or two why because you want to save people the embarrassment and you would want someone to save you the embarrassment as well so don't be sharing this as a prayer request okay he says take then then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established this guy owes me 100 bucks is not willing to give it to me and then the guy's like I'm not gonna give him $100 like okay now you have two witnesses that show that he is unwilling to get this right verse 17 and if you shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the church now again this is not referring to it's like okay let me just tell everyone in the church what's going on the implication here is that you go to the pastor okay and this is implying that the person is unrepentant because he's not willing to hear thee not willing to hear that means that he's not repenting of it okay and if that's the case you bring it before the pastor and if you neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a publican this is referring to ex communication so it's just like Gio owes John or hundred bucks you know and he doesn't want to pay him I have witnesses here that he's just unwilling he only wants to give him 50 or whatever and you know he just he just unrepentant of that and so hopefully when I rebuke him before the church in this manner Gio says all right fine here's the hundred here's $100 okay and he gives $100 and it's just like all right let's go on our merry way but if he's just like unrepentant of it I bring it before the church and we throw Gio out of the church like get out of here cuz you're on go come on I'm just kidding and it says let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a publican now what does that mean what is a heathen unsaved you like wait a minute but I thought Gio was saved he said let him be unto thee ass in other words the way you would treat an unsaved person who's getting kicked out that's how you treat Gio okay when he gets kicked out it's just like I want nothing to do with Gio you know he is unrepentant he's not getting right with God this is what you get for always sitting in the front you're always my illustration so he's like have nothing to do with him so it's just like well you think he was saved or not doesn't matter the way we treat him is as a heathen man and as a publican barely 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 what is Jesus saying your decision that you've made as a church to excommunicate this person out for their unwillingness to repent of doing that to their brother God says I'm gonna back you up on that it's bound in heaven it's deputized by God in the celestial realm of heaven of what's being done here so we have God backing us verse 19 and I say unto you if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven so here's the dramas that we had brethren suing one another at the Church of Corinth they had this drama we don't know exactly what the Apostle Paul didn't specify but he rebuked them for it so here's the thing guys if there's ever some sort of legal matter between you they can literally be resolved with just two men discussing this privately let it just finish there maybe the only geo and John talk about it and that John doesn't have to get brother Alex and brother Chevy involved and if it gets to that point maybe resolve then and not have to get to me and then eventually go before the church we want to avoid getting someone excommunicated unless the person is just completely unrepentant what does the Bible teaching us here it's teaching us learn how to like be adults about stuff learn how to judge don't be this person man I can't wait to the millennial reign I'm gonna be judging ten cities you can't even judge between you and your brother you can't ever resolve a little issue with you and your brother you really think that God's gonna give you ten cities to rule over when you can't even rule over your own spirit right he that ruled the spirit the Bible says is is better than he as though you know I'm misquoting it then he that taketh the city okay and so it's just like rule your spirit get right with God resolve that issue to show God see I maybe like five or six cities huh maybe I can do something like that but if you can't even resolve that you can't handle anything else and so we should be a church that is essentially an expert on resolving problems okay and not just gossiping and spreading rumors and getting involved in fights and conflicts and and this girl said this and this okay so girls ladies doesn't just apply the geo and John now okay I'm just using as some examples ladies if there's problems between you ladies you better resolve and stop clicking up having these clicks well she looked at me all weird you see how she smiled at me she didn't really mean that smile girl leave that stuff out there you know if you have a problem ladies if you have a problem look I don't know anything I have to say that because I don't and then often I say this and this ends up being true of whatever I'm talking about like it's happening and then people are like man pastor you're a prophet but it's not that I'm a prophet it's just that sometimes there's just always problems with ladies and so I could say it at any given time and be right about it and then people are like wow you're a prophet you know then I gain credibility ladies resolve conflicts with one another we're a church you know some lady did you wrong or something and didn't give you a Valentine's gift I don't know whatever it is that ladies fight about she said something mean to you you weren't invited to the carne asada I don't know just go to that person tell that this applies to you still you go to that person and say hey you offended me by this action and I want to resolve this with you okay and so you know and then you guys can cry and do all that stuff the girls do you know and then you guys can go get a coffee or something and do all this stuff the girls do and you know go take you go put post stuff on Instagram stories and all that all that stuff you girls do okay I'm just saying resolve it though don't create cliques in our church okay don't create gangs of girls in our church where you got one group here one group here and this group doesn't get along with this group and this group doesn't involve this group we're all a church don't bring that high school nonsense here this isn't high school this is a local New Testament church okay and so you know if look how do you expect to even rule over your children if you can't even rule over your spirit when dealing with an offense of another individual in your church and so get it right go apologize go cry hug and kiss each other and live happily ever after with your BFF right I kept saying BBF before but your BFF and just be friends once again because we're a church and we should endeavor to keep the spirit of unity don't allow some little tiff between you two to cause division in our church just go get it right okay and husbands don't get involved in that nonsense either okay we're just like well you know and you start getting the little sass about yourself because of whatever girl said whatever to your wife or whatever you tell your wife go fix that situation we are not gonna have enemies in this church if you're offended because of whatever so-and-so said to you you approach that person and go get it right right now okay go apologize go buy that person a burger or whatever go do your little girl thing and get it over with okay but don't start choosing sides husbands you know I'm with you cuz you know she'd be a man about it and say you know what that's really dumb that you guys are fighting about this so we need to go correct this now cuz we're Christians and we love them we love anybody else in our church we need to go get it right right now go talk to him right now okay and you said well when can we do this well you know we're about to end church right now so you can probably have that conversation right now I man anyways I'm out of time so we'll cover the other drama later but the main point here is that you know churches are just filled with drama sometimes you know and but the important thing is is how to deal with drama all the girls are just mad at me right now just seething right now we'll we'll come apologize to me after the service then okay you know and I'm not gonna apologize to you because I'm preaching God's Word so let's pray father we thank you so much for your word Lord and I pray God that you'd help us as a church to endeavor to keep the spirit of the unity and Lord thank you for the church at Corinth it was an it's an example to us of what not to do or how not to go about things and I pray that Lord you'd help us to just learn from their mistakes Lord and learn how to create solutions in our church not more problems not more drama and bless our church Lord and continue to help us to win more souls to Christ to lead people to righteousness Lord to teach people biblical principles and to love one another and I pray that Lord you bless us as we go on our way in Jesus name amen please turn your songbooks to song number 135 song number 135 as our last song I know I am saved song number 135 we'll sing it over twice over since it's only one verse song number 135 altogether nice and strong on that first verse I know I am saved for Christ set me free he ransomed my poor soul on the cross of Calvary and now I can see for Christ is my king I'll see his face in glory by and by I know I am saved for Christ set me free he ransomed my poor soul on the cross of Calvary and now I can sing for Christ is my king I'll see his face in glory by and by amen wonderful singing you are dismissed