Make Room

Missional Prayer

Our Father in Heaven, the Lord of the Harvest, your harvest is white, send workers into your harvest. Prepare those you would send even now that they may glorify you by going and making disciples. We are your servants and willing to go. Send us into your harvest. Equip us for the work before us. Transform us by your Spirit that we might readily speak the good news to everyone we encounter. Show us your glory, father, glorify yourself in us, and make Jesus known in this community.

Be especially with the Teachers of West-fork. For those who know you, encourage and uplift them. Grant them boldness and confidence in knowing you. For those who do not, bless them and work in their hearts that they may repent of their sin and believe in Jesus for their hope of salvation. Help them as they work with students from many backgrounds. Strengthen them and their families.

Tyler Barkema

Kristen Determan

Lexis Barkema

Kristen Determan

Krista Dickman

Andrea Engh

Dakota Fleshner

Wendy Fullerton

Emily Greimann

Alexis Hansen

Father, be also with those devastated by the storm which devastated parts of Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, North and South Carolina. Many have died leaving behind grieving loved ones, homes are lost, communities broken. Be with them and bring them comfort. Be also with Disaster Relief which is there to off comfort in your name. Bless the work of their hands as they remove trees, and speak to home owners, counseling them, and presenting the gospel to them. Bless their efforts and bring many sons and daughters to glory. Be with Jessica as she works with them, help her to remember why she is there, give her ample opportunity to share the gospel and I pray her work bears fruit into eternity. Strengthen her to be faithful.

Introduction

Good Morning, if you have a Bible, turn it to 2 Corinthians 7:2-4. If you don’t have a Bible and would like one, you can find one at the welcome desk in the lobby. Feel free to grab one, it is our gift to you.

Title: Make Room

Main Point: Make room in your hearts for one another.

We are looking at a smaller section of text than has been our normal. I prefer to keep thoughts together when looking at a text. However, as I was writing, I realized I had enough to say on the first point, I should just break it up.

2 Corinthians 7:2–4 2 Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.

Lets Pray:

Our Father, teach us by your word this morning. Grant that we all come to you in humility and faith, ready to repent of any sin we might be clinging to. Heal our hearts and minds and teach us how to open our hearts to one another. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray AMEN.

Make room in your hearts for one another

My 3 points are: First, Make room in our conflicts, second, make room in our unity, and third make room in our hearts

First, make room in our conflicts

2 Corinthians 7:2–16 2 Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you,

In verse 2, Paul picks up where he left off in chapter 6, verse 13, he appeals to the Corinthians to make room in their hearts for him and his team. He then returns to his previous appeals that they had wronged no one, they corrupted no one, they took advantage of no one. Many may have had issues with Paul, they may have disliked him, they may have disagreed with his perspectives, they may not have liked him personality, or even how he comported himself as an apostle. Yet, he did not wrong any of them, he did nothing to be a stumbling block in their lives, and he did not take a dime to be used for himself or for personal advantage. He continues in verse 3 saying he doesn’t say this as a sort of condemnation, this is because the Corinthians were in his heart.

Paul is appealing to them to open up their affections. Paul was aware of the areas where his reputation was hurt and saw the need to defend himself, but at the same time, he didn’t want them to be shamed by his defense. Paul isn’t trying to call them liars, for example, because he was contradicting what they were saying about him. His goal was not to win, but to be reconciled with them. For those who were able to open up their hearts to him, he was willing and able to fully reconcile. However, those who couldn’t open up their hearts, were unlikely to reconcile. Regardless, Paul’s goal was unity, not further alienation against those he considered them to be his brothers and sisters in Christ.

We also need to make room in our hearts for one another in the midst of our conflicts:

I am going to dive into this knowing I have not always exemplified this well, but it is true nonetheless. In the midst of conflicts we need to make sure we have the heart and the right goals. The first and most significant is to glorify God in all of our actions. Another goal and the one I want to focus on is to make sure we are trying to win a brother or sister, not to win the conflict.

We cite Matthew 18 a lot when we talk about Church discipline and when there is conflict between church members. I want to read verse 15 and point out one thing: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” You have gained your brother. That is our goal. When someone sins against us, the goal is not to beat him into submission or to get him to behave the way we want. The goal isn’t to get him to believe everything I believe, or even to become upset or contrite. The goal is to gain your brother, to win him back to you.

Sometimes this means speaking boldly as Paul will show us, but other times it is holding back some of what you could say because the goal is not to win the conflict, but to win a person. To do this we have to make room in our hearts for one another especially in the midst of our conflicts. We need to tell our wicked and deceptive hearts that what it wants is not always good. We need to remind it of the love we ought to have for our brother and even though it is scary to open up, even though there may be real anxiety that you might be hurt again, you open up your heart again anyway. This is what Paul means when we wrote this previously to Corinth:

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

This, in part, is how we might overcome our conflicts and retain unity. We will never retain unity if our goal is to win. We must open up our hearts for one another in the midst of our conflicts.

First, make room in our conflicts, Second, Making room in our Unity

3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.

As we just read in verse 3, Paul says, “to die together and live together.” This was a common refrain from the Roman military, but turned on its head. They would say something like, “we live together and die together.” This conveys the unity of the Roman Legion which was its strength. They fought as one, and through that unity won many victories. They were the mightiest force on the earth at the time, largely as a result of their unity. They would fight together and live as one, or fight together and die as one. However, Paul says it backwards, why? Because Paul is speaking to people who are not of the kingdom of this world, they belong to someone greater.

As Christians, we have already died, as Paul said in verses chapter 5 verses 14-15 , “one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” Christians have already died in Christ Jesus, we have given up this life, we have died to ourselves, taken up our cross, and followed him. Even as we died to our former manner of life, even as we abandoned the kingdom of death to which we once belonged, we have identified ourselves with the very death of Christ which is profoundly pictured in baptism.

At the same time, we live with the expectation and knowledge that we all will die, but Jesus has taken away the sting of death and has promised us eternal life with him. So we die together and we live together. We live now together with the hope of eternal life, and we will live together forever in eternity.

If anyone has not yet put their faith in Jesus Christ, I would encourage you to do so today. If you have questions talk to someone around you, or come find me.

We need to make room in our hearts for one another in order to have Unity:

We need to make room for those who are not like us, but stand with Christ and the gospel in common. Just like the roman legions carried shields which were formidable by themselves, but became something else entirely when locked together by a cohort who stood together. They could withstand many more than their number because they stood together as one. We carry our faith as a shield to defend against the flaming darts of the enemy, but we are stronger together when we stand as one with our faith locked together as a shield-wall.

We can always find things that make us distinct. Even within my tiny family, between the four of us we are each unique individuals. This is true of my family and it is true of yours, it is true of this church. Unity will never be found by looking at what makes us different, but upon what we all have in common. However, the more we must agree upon in order to be counted as ONE, the smaller our number must be. So, then how do we make a reasonable amount of room in our unity, while not compromising on what truly matters? Ephesians 4 tells us and I will read an extended section, so please bear with me and maybe even read along. I encourage you to write down the passage and read it again this week.

Ephesians 4:1-16 1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

This is passage is one worth memorizing. In this passage Paul ties walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which we all have been called to our humility, gentleness and to how we pursue unity; that is Bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. On what should we unify, though? He tells us, that we are ONE BODY with ONE SPIRIT. We are called to ONE HOPE, our salvation in Jesus Christ, who is our ONE LORD. So we have ONE FAITH the shields we lock together to make us unassailable to our enemy. We have ONE BAPTISM, when we all demonstrate our devotion to Christ and our identity with him through the ordinance of Baptism. We have ONE GOD and FATHER who is over all and through and and in all. These are the things on which we unify. Paul also seems to speak of our maturity being connected in some way to us growing up in that unity together as one body.

All of this requires that

we make room in our hearts for one another.

First, make room in our conflicts; Second, Making room in our Unity; Third, Making room in our hearts

4 I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.

Paul summarizes his emotional state in verse 4. He was acting with great boldness toward them. As we will see in a couple of weeks, this was a little bit of a gamble, but it payed off and now he was filled with a great amount of joy because of their response. What he told them grieved them, but it was a grief which led to repentance. It did not destroy their relationship. Like a father to his child, he was proud of the great leap of maturity they had taken and as a result he was comforted and overflowed with joy even in the midst of his afflictions and pains.

When things are hard, especially when we are hurt by someone else, it is hard to continue to open our hearts toward each other. This is especially true when trust is broken, when someone has betrayed you, or lied to you. Trust is hard to earn, but is easily lost. Yet, Paul does not qualify here. He asks them to open their hearts unconditionally, even as Paul is doing the same toward them. Yet, Paul had wronged no one, corrupted no one, took advantage of no one; yet he had been wronged by them. He was falsely accused of essentially ripping them off, and was ridiculed for his weakness as a apostle. These things hurt when they come from people who ought to love you.

Paul’s response was to take a bit of a gamble. He called out their sin and boldly rebuked them in the hope that they would repent. He hoped the harshness of his letter would be well received and he waited a long time to hear word of their reaction. He stressed about it so much he couldn’t minister affectively in Troas, which we looked at several weeks ago. However, it seems to have payed off and he was overjoyed. He had won his brothers and sisters.

We need to make room in our hearts for one another:

We need to make room for one another in our hearts. There will always been temptations to grow callouses around our hearts toward one another. In human terms this makes perfect sense, no one likes to be hurt. If I can build callouses, then it won’t hurt anymore. We build thick skin, so we are not easily offended, but eventually we grow to where we just don’t care about what is thought about us or what is being said. This is helpful on some level. We can’t be easily offended, but these callouses and thick skin come with risks. If I don’t care about what you think about me or say about me, then I don’t value what you have to say to me. It means there is a part of you I just don’t trust, and don’t value. If I don’t care about your opinion of me at all, and I don’t care about what you say, then why would I take you seriously if you point out my sin. In this scenereo, why would I care about being above reproach. Do you see how this goes? We build walls that make true relationships impossible.If we don’t work to keep our hearts open to one another, even in the midst of hurt, we run the risk or closing off our hearts and making true community and relationships in Christ impossible.

We need to make room in our hearts for one another and take it very seriously when someone does. It is an extension of trust and vulnerability which should be treated with utmost care and respect. It means we must care more about one another than our goals; it means I must care more about you than myself. It means I am to forgive even when my deceptive hearts doesn’t want to. It means that while I may never fully be able to forget what happened, I will take active steps to forget it. This means I will not dwell on it when it comes to mind, I will not speak of it again to you or someone else, and I will not hold it against you. It is a hard thing to do, it means being vulnerable again.

It is my opinion that I should do my best to always be polite; it costs me nothing but breath, but could earn me as much as my life. It shows respect for people all around me, people created in God’s image. I don’t do it perfectly, but I try. That said, I believe it is more important to speak politely to those I love even more than strangers, doubly so for my family. When trust is so easily broken, and people can be so easily hurt by words, I consider it extremely important to care for my family by making sure the flame that is my tongue doesn’t light my relationships on fire, especially mine. A thousand tiny careless cuts from someone who should know better can do as much damage over time as a large blow. I would argue this applies here at the church too. If we carelessly cut one another, treat each other discourteously, break confidence, speak ill, or any number of things. Overtime, this breaks down relationships too. We should be building one another up, and this is hard, it takes work, but it is worth it.

We may make ourselves at home with one another, but we should endeavor toward gentleness with one another in the process. This means that as we open our hearts toward one another we are not making someone guard themselves against us. It also means that we build the relationship necessary to be able to rebuke sin, to speak the truth in love. It is when we want our brother to trust our heart for them even while we are doing something which is potentially embarrassing or even a little humiliating. No one likes to be rebuked and called toward repentance, but if we have built trust with one another, we have something to lean on when it becomes necessary. It also keeps me as a friend from being harsh because he is my loved one whom I do not want to hurt.

we make room in our hearts for one another.

Conclusion

We need to make room in our hearts for one another. It is difficult, but in the midst of our conflicts, we need to be sure we aren’t shoving one another out, that we want to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We need to make room in our hearts for one another in order to have Unity. We have more in common than we have differences. We unify on the gospel of Jesus Christ and our common mission. Let us unify, opening our hearts and relaxing on things which just don’t matter as much. We need to make room in our hearts for one another, we are a family in Christ, we need to open wide our affections and love for one another in Jesus Christ, sacrificing our preferences and goals in the process so that we might win our brothers and sisters to the glory of God.

Let’s Pray

Communion

1 Corinthians 11:17–32 (ESV)

17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. 23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.