Following is the text (unedited, I'm afraid) of a sermon I delivered recently on how we deal with each other in the church. I hope it may be of some use to those who find themselves in the position of being at odds with what their church is doing, or who have strong feelings about an issue at church and need to consider how to best share them. May God bless these words to His use and His eternal glory! --Steve
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The last few weeks, we’ve been talking about MINISTRY—about our ministry as individuals—that is, how we serve God on a PERSONAL basis; and about our ministry as a church family—that is, how we serve God COLLECTIVELY.
This morning, I want to again address our COLLECTIVE ministry—and, in fact, the ministry of God’s UNIVERSAL CHURCH.
On Sunday evenings, we’ve been looking at the book of 1 Corinthians, and we’ve seen how Paul has had to write again and again to the church at Corinth, to help them understand just how it is we are to function as the Lord’s church.
…and that’s a GOOD THING, because it helps US, too!
We can benefit from seeing what things Paul told the Corinthians were IMPORTANT, and how he taught them to manage things in the church—especially the meeting for public worship!
This morning, for our text, I’d like us to look at 1 Corinthians 14, VERSE 26:
26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.
…and then Paul goes into a treatment of speaking in tongues and how it should be managed in the church’s worship gatherings…
…and then, look at VERSE 40:
(Paul instructs the Corinthians…)
40 Let all things be done decently and in order.
…and when Paul says they are to worship “decently”, this word means something like “in a seemly manner”
—in other words, their WORSHIP should FIRST GLORIFY GOD and SECONDLY EDIFY PEOPLE.
The church’s function, Paul writes to the Corinthians, is to FIRST make converts of those who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord, and SECOND to BUILD UP those who have already put their faith in Him.
…and I want to SHARE with you some things—you can call them “observations”—that I’ve come to in the course of serving God over a span of right at 20 years in some sort of leadership capacity.
Let me say up front: When I speak about “THE CHURCH” in this message, I am referring to GOD’S UNIVERSAL CHURCH—the ONE, UNITED CHURCH OF ALL BELIEVERS IN JESUS CHRIST.
At the SAME time, I am referring to THIS church—or to ANY OTHER church, to the extent that the things I have to say are true of that church.
Do these thoughts have anything to do with this particular church? You be the judge! YOU are the church! YOU are the body of believers here, and so it’s up to YOU to decide how much of this should be instructive and applicable to your individual piece of God’s church.
Will Rogers famously said, “Good judgment comes from experience—and most of that comes from bad judgment.”
Have I always gotten it right? Do I have all the perfect solutions? BY NO MEANS!
…but I HAVE gotten it wrong often enough—or watched as OTHERS get it wrong—to be able to speak out of EXPERIENCE, and I hope that some of what I have to say, at least, will challenge you to do your part to help your church move ahead in fulfilling God’s plan.
…and my hope is that by OBSERVING—by LOOKING AT some things about how churches function or DON’T function—we can build a position from which we can launch ourselves ahead to serve God in this New Year.
So, without further ado, here are some THINGS I’VE LEARNED ABOUT THE CHURCH…
The FIRST is a principal I think we need to ALL remember in God’s church:
INPUT Comes With INVOLVEMENT
-Or, simply put, “If you ain’t helpin’, don’t gripe!”
-Everyone can have a voice
-Everyone SHOULD have a voice
-But, if I don’t GET INVOLVED, then I have no right to complain about what everyone ELSE does!
-Like not voting, then complaining about government
A corrolary to this rule is one that reminds us of why we should be HELPERS and not COMPLAINERS:
If You Tell ANYONE, Tell Someone Who Can DO Something!
If your feelings are important enough to share at all (and you need to stop and consider whether they are), then share them with someone who’s in a position to DO something—not with your friend from church or, worse yet, with someone outside the church.
Choose Wisely, Then Support Your Leaders
FIRST, make sure you voice is heard—speak up and share what God has laid on YOUR heart.
Just make sure it’s from GOD!
Don’t go speaking up to share your OPINION or what your Great Aunt Sally used to do, or what they do at the church down the street!
Make sure when you speak, you’ve PRAYED and LISTENED for God’s voice, and you know you’re speaking the TRUTH.
-Whether search committees, pastors, deacons or other leaders: CALL them to serve, TRUST them to serve and SUPPORT their decisions unless they go against God’s commandments.
Pastors Are Like Spouses
-There’s none perfect
-It’s not ALL about having the RIGHT PERSON
-When you get married, PART of it is about finding the right mate...and PART of it is about BEING the right mate. It’s the same with church: the perfect pastor for your church is the pastor your church will love and encourage and support and seek to bless.
-Don’t “take sides” and don’t push your own preferences, no matter who you hurt—because what hurts God’s people, hurts God!
...which brings us to POINT NUMBER TWO:
-Nobody Ever WON a Church Fight!!
-No Church Fight Ever Glorifies God
-No lost person ever accepted Christ due to a church fight
We Can Disagree Without Being Disagreeable
-I don’t generally get MAD at someone, just because they don’t share my opinion
-If you’ve ever been married more than a month, then it is because you’ve figured out that there have to be “ground rules”—Sure, we’re going to disagree, but let’s do it without having to yell and scream, let’s not get the neighbors into it, and let’s make sure we know that nobody’s going to leave and nobody’s going to hurt each other.
Words Wound Worse Than Weapons
James says that if any man can control his tongue, he has indeed mastered control of his whole self.
When I was a children's minister for years, I used to do a Kids' Sermon about once a year where I took a full tube of toothpaste and squeezed it out all over a big plate, and then I'd challenge one of the kids to put it back in the tube. Of course, it can't be done, no matter how hard you try.
And that's what our WORDS are like. We can’t take back our words, no matter how hard we try sometimes.
What has been DONE can sometimes be UN-DONE, but what has been SAID can NEVER be UN-SAID.
Love Trumps Knowledge
-It is often better to be KIND than to be RIGHT
-There is a time to be RIGHT—but it’s ALWAYS the right time to be KIND.
EVERYBODY Wants What’s Right (or, at least, ALMOST everybody!)
-Learn EMPATHY—to “walk a mile in the other man’s moccasins”
EVERYBODY’S logic makes sense from the inside out
And if you can bring yourself to imagine the other person’s position, you can probably go a long way toward UNDERSTANDING why that person feels differently than you do about something!
Enough about that, though…
RULE #3 for church life is ACTUALLY the most important...so maybe it should be RULE #1??
Make Sure the MAIN THING is the MAIN THING!
-Don’t confuse RELIGION with RELATIONSHIP
-Don’t SUBSTITUTE doing “religious things” for being in PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with God through Jesus Christ!
-God has no place in heaven for RELIGIOUS PEOPLE.
-Heaven is reserved for those who are IN CHRIST— who have deep and personal fellowship with Him and
know that their sins and their shortcomings are hidden by His sacrificial blood.
-Don’t LEAD PEOPLE to RELIGION. They need a SAVIOR, not a SELF-HELP PROGRAM
-So, ACCEPT people as they are, LEAD them to love the Lord, and trust the LORD to change them as HE sees fit.
If All You Ever DO Is What You’ve Always DONE, Then All You’ll Ever HAVE is What You’ve Always HAD
-Was it great back in 1950, 1960, 1970, 19-whatever when the church was PACKED with people who’d come to hear God’s Word without anyone having to drag them or beg them to come to church?
-Was it WONDERFUL, back when folks CAME to
church because it was the right thing to do??
-Don’t we all wish it could BE that way again??
Well, I’ve got NEWS for you: The world has CHANGED.
...and the church can CHANGE, or the church can COLLAPSE.
-Don’t confuse TRADITION with GODLINESS
Show me somewhere where God says that a good church—a healthy church—is one where the
membership loves the music and the preaching, where everyone who attends regularly agrees that things are as they like them, and where the church
-A GOOD church, in God’s estimation, is one that is REACHING LOST PEOPLE WITH THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST AND TURNING THEM INTO DEVOTED, MATURE CHRIST-IMITATORS
(If we’re not doing THAT, then we’re doing the WRONG THING—because THAT is why God’s church EXISTS!)
The Word of God is TIMELESS.
It NEVER CHANGES—–NEVER, because GOD NEVER CHANGES!
...but the world we live in? It’s on the MOVE!
For better or for worse, the world is a very different place that it was in Jesus’ day...and yet, in many ways, it’s quite a bit the same, too.
In the First Century, the Church was struggling with how to reach people who came from all sorts of different backgrounds, how to tell homosexuals and adulterers and murderers that God loves them without condoning their sin…
The Church was striving to keep up with the lives of the people it needed to minister to, and often found itself out of sync with society.
...and yet the Church ADAPTED.
The MESSAGE is the same...but the METHODS of reaching the lost have changed a million times since Jesus told Peter “upon this rock will I build My Church…”
Are WE willing to change?
What if we had to GO OUT THERE to reach the lost?
(Because that’s what it’s going to take! The days of lost people coming to US are LONG-GONE!)
What if we had to reconsider the MUSIC or the TIME OF OUR SERVICES or HOW WE PRESENT OURSELVES?
What if we needed to stop and re-think how we plan to reach those who are lost in this world, and pray for Godly vision??
The time has come...we’ve got to adapt.
...or this church and many more like it will soon be just a name in a book somewhere about what USED to be.
I’m not trying to scare you—I’m trying to MOTIVATE you!
God wants lost people reached with the life-giving message of the Good News of Jesus Christ, and if we’re not figuring out how to do that—WHATEVER it takes—WHATEVER we have to sacrifice in the way of comfort or tradition or personal preference…
...then we might as well tell the world around “Go on and GO to hell—see what we care!”
(whispered)
We’ve GOT to be willing to adapt!
So, some basic principles:
#1...INPUT comes with INVOLVEMENT
(Be ACTIVE in your church, and let your voice be heard)
#2...CHOOSE WISELY when it comes to leadership, and then TRUST your leaders! (Don’t call people to do a hard job, then criticize their efforts!)
#3...When people fight in church, NOBODY WINS except SATAN.
(God is honored by our UNITY, not our DIVISIONS!)
#4...Keep the MAIN THING the MAIN THING.
(If Christ is not at the VERY CENTER of all we do, we cannot honor God, and we cannot win the lost!)
...and #5...If we ALWAYS DO what we’ve ALWAYS DONE, we’ll ALWAYS HAVE what we ALWAYS HAD.
(Don’t keep doing the same old things and expecting different results. If what we’re DOING isn’t winning the lost, let’s ask ourselves WHAT WILL!)
My prayer is that you will hear these words as I have intended them, and that you will allow the Holy Spirit of God to bring them to mind and meditate on them and let them help BUILD UP this church for the glory of God!
And now, as we go from this place, would you bow your heads for these words of benediction, first spoken by Moses to Aaron?
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
the Lord make his face to shine upon thee,
and be gracious unto thee:
the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee,
and give thee peace
(In Jesus’ name) AMEN
(c) 2008: John S. Hawkins, All Rights Reserved
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