United We Stand and Serve

INTRODUCTION

The past few weeks have seen us focus on the topic of vision, and what our vision is here at First Baptist Shapleigh.

After looking at what Christ’s expectation is for the church and what the Apostles’ practiced in the early church, we have come up with this so far:

First Baptist Shapleigh will make disciples by being witnesses of what Christ has said and done for us. These disciples will then be baptized, as a public proclamation of their identifying with Jesus Christ as their Savior. These baptized disciples will then be taught the Word of God and equipped to go make disciples.

We will continue to dig in some more on the vision in the next few weeks, but I wanted to take a bit of a different look this week, and encourage us in the Word.

Three years ago, on February 7, 2021, this church called me to be the pastor.

To be honest, none of us really knew what to expect at the time.

We had no idea that our church would go through a major renovation project brought on by a $100,000+ loss

We did not know at the time that we would be saying goodbye to 5 members of the church who graduated to glory

We didn’t really know that we would become a sending church for a missionary family, for the first time in our 200+ year history

God has worked through various ways to bring us together and to use us for His glory.

With that in mind, I would like to visit the Word of God as it relates to the health of our church, specifically: our unity.

In fact, there are 2 Challenges Pertaining to our Unity, that I would like us to examine in scripture

STAND UNITED IN CHRIST

Read John 17:14-21

As you think about the human body, you realize what an amazing creation God has made. It is extremely complex, yet it’s unified with unparalleled harmony and interrelatedness.

It’s a unit that cannot be subdivided into several bodies. If the body is divided, the part that is cut off ceases to function and dies, and the rest of the body loses some of its functions and effectiveness.

The human body is immeasurably more than the sum of its parts! As is the body of Christ!

We are not of the world.

We no longer identify ourselves with this world because, our citizenship is in heaven… (Philippians 3:20)

The world will hate us because we are different from it.

We have different desires and a different purpose in our life.

We need to be different from the world.

Verse 14 tells how we are radically different…we have God’s Word!

Verse 17 says that we have the Word in order to be “sanctified”

Being set apart as holy!

Jesus Christ is our example in this process (v. 19)

Consecrate is the same Greek word that is translated as sanctify in verse 17

ἁγιάζω means “to make holy”

Thus, Jesus makes Himself holy in order that we, too, can be made holy

1 Peter 1:22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart

The easy thing to do in our day-to-day living is to conform to the world’s standards and expectations.

Rather than conforming, we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind

Romans 12:1–2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The truth is, we cannot be transformed in and of ourselves.

We cannot live the life that God wants us to live if we have not already given our lives to Him!

1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Although we have acted in disobedience and have sinned against God, He has chosen to forgive us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

It is our faith and trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that allows us to come into a right relationship with God once again.

Verse 21 says we need to be one in Christ, so that we can have a good testimony before others

What we say and how we act speaks volumes as to our relationship with God

If we can’t speak and act in a proper manner toward each other, we certainly won’t be able to speak and act in a proper manner towards those who are not Christ’s followers

SERVE UNITED FOR CHRIST

Romans 12:3-9; 1 Peter 2:9-11

Serve through our gifts

Read Romans 12:3-9

All Christians have a measure of faith allotted to them (v. 3), which are the spiritual gifts which God has given to them in order to serve (v.6; Ephesians 4:7-8)

We also have natural talents and abilities which God, being our Creator, has bestowed upon us as His unique creation

We should not think of ourselves as more important than our giftedness, so that we might have sound judgment as it pertains to our abilities

We are many members of one body, each with our own unique function

Consider the fact that the church is the visible body of Christ, of which He is the head (Colossians 1:18).

That means we are the different parts of the body, each of us contributing in a different manner.

Imagine if we have a foot or ear who feel jealously inferior to a hand or an eye, and they threaten to secede from the body, leaving it unable to walk or hear.

Then we could have an eye or a hand who feel arrogantly superior to the ear and the foot and think they can get along just fine without them.

Have you considered the talents/gifts which you possess?

We need to use the gifts that we have for the purpose we have them

History is full of people who misused the gifts and talents for influence which they possessed (ex. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin)

Serve through our calling

Read 1 Peter 2:9-11

In Ephesians 1, Paul refers to his calling as an apostle of the Lord Jesus.

Now, that was his calling but by profession, he was a tentmaker.

He knew his calling in Christ, even though he was working a secular job.

We are a chosen race

God did not choose Israel to be His people based on any special merit of their doing…He chose them because He loved them:

Deuteronomy 7:7–8 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

The same is true for the Church.

We are not deserving of God’s love, but He chose to love us

We are a royal priesthood to proclaim His excellencies

The function of the priest in the OT was to be the spiritual example to others and the servant of God.

How do we meet this function today? (c.f. Romans 12:1-2)

We offer ourselves as a spiritual sacrifice to God

We become transformed in our thinking through His Word

We are a holy nation that is called to be excellent among others

For our citizenship is in heaven… (Philippians 3:20)

We are not of this world, because our King is in heaven.

We are citizens of Heaven and must abide by Heavenly laws and seek to please Heaven’s Lord

CONCLUSION

We have been faced with some unique changes and challenges the past few years, and undoubtedly there is a difference of opinion in some matters.

Yet, it is of primary importance that we choose to:

Stand United in Christ

Serve United for Christ

Unity is necessary as we seek to implement a New Testament vision for our church.