The Struggling Christian Final Week

Splitting the church

Introduction

In the church today the final struggle we go through is having disagreements that cause there to be splits in the church, that general cause the doors of the church to close for good. As believers one of the things that we tend to miss when we are so focus on doing ministry and share the Gospel is what is the health of the church overall and are we as individuals hurting or helping the church grow.

The Question becomes how do we as the church prevent this from happening to our church.

2 Timothy 2:23–26 ESV

23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

Now if we were to listen to this passage here the first verse alone is enough to break down exactly what we are called to do when it comes to taking care of the church taking care of each other . And that is quite simple have nothing to do with foolish or ignorant controversies in other words have nothing to do with something that is and this is one of the things that we actually run into because they breed corals in other words I’m upset because they only sang one hymn this week instead of All five songs are hymn That is a foolish and ignorant controversy because it is the equivalent of saying because they’re not all five hymns I can’t worship and that is not how worship works the Bible is very clear that it’s a joyful noise you can worship to any song as long as your heart is prepared for worship So what he’s saying here is let’s not get stuck in foolishness because it causes problems it breeds dissension . Paul doesn’t stop there though Paul then goes on and explains if you are a Lord servant which we all are we come to church to be a servant of the Lord We need to understand something and the thing we need to understand is that a servant First off must not be quarrelsome we must not pick fights or jump into fights we are called to be different and apart from it . Next part he says here is quite simple We must be kind to everyone Now here’s the deal some of us might be sitting here saying well I am kind of people i’m pretty nice to people all this stuff one of the struggles we might have in this is understand just because you’re kind to somebody to their face does not mean you’re kind to them If you go and talk behind their back because you don’t like something they’re doing you are not kind to them you’re not giving them a chance to defend themselves that’s gossip . Let me give you an example if you were to say oh well I just wish the pastor was older and preached this way or I would wish that we were catering to this age group more than that age group or I would wish those guess what when you are saying those things that is not being kind to people A kindness is an openness to love everybody for who they are able to teach and patiently endure evil it’s not necessarily that you have to be able to teach every Bible study in the world christians were not called to teach every Bible and study in the world but you need to be able to teach them by living as an example to show them what God’s servants look like correcting oppositeness with gentleness . And then he goes on and he explains that God will grant repentance to the ones when it comes to truth it will release them because you see what happens here is this foolishness it might start off small and it might start off really tiny but eventually it’ll grow bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until all of a sudden you are in full sin without even realizing it because Satan has got a hold on you Anger heart is not in the right place being negative is not good for the heart . So there are three truth statements that we can pull from this passage that are going to lead us into the direction to prevent this .

Truths Statement 1:

If it does not contribute to the growth of the church or to sharing the gospel with others, then it is not worth creating conflict with the church. ( the church is not a place where we agree on everything the church is a place where we agree on the main thing that is Jesus is out lord and savior. What it is not is a place where we push politics or a place where it needs to be my way or the highway it is a place where the whole point is to grow the kingdom of Heaven and save people for the lost.) I’ll give you an example of this and this is one of the biggest examples that we can go into if you go out anywhere near a military base . The one thing that you will notice you can always tell when a group of men or a group of women are in the military and this is why Because they look like a bunch of friends that do not belong together You might have one in st clothes you might have one dressed as me you might have one dressed in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat it looks like a whole bunch of friends that would not associate together so when you’re looking at them you say those guys are probably in the military because here’s the deal what the military does is it is not a group of people that all live culturally the same and all do the same thing they all have one purpose and that was to serve their country And that one purpose brought them all together That is the only purpose they have they might not all agree on things they might not all all live on things but they all have one purpose and is to serve the country and so they all become friends over that 1 purpose and they all treat each other in the way they need to be treated to achieve that one purpose. That is the same way us as believers are called to be We don’t have to agree on everything we agree on one main thing and as long as we are working towards that woman thing as a body of believers nothing else matters .

Truth Statement 2:

Serving the Lord requires us to live in a way that reflects love and integrity towards both fellow believers and those who are lost. (

Now this next true statement is something that we really tend to lose out of the way we try so hard as believers to conduct ourselves in a manner that is worthy of sharing the gospel . In other words I’m loving on people i’m giving to the needy i’m not swearing in public i’m XY and Z you fill in the blank of what you think it is But something we need to understand is when you are a servant of the Lord when you are a follower of Christ you are required to live the same way when you’re with your fellow believers as well You were required to have integrity when you’re with your fellow believers as well to take care of them. Because the problem is if you can’t take care of the people that are in the trenches with you how can you take care of the people that are outside . Give you an instance in this case is there was a friend of mine that was a mobile mechanic . And what they do is they they are a regular mechanic shop but they come to you and they do the work at your place that you’re at instead of you going to them. It’s a really good business if you’re like me and don’t want to go anywhere really works out great here’s an issue that he ran into one day though he ran into having 7 clients on his list for the day to do simple things oil changes and such but wouldn’t you know if he goes outside in his vehicle when it start . And when he dived into it the thing he realized was he hadn’t done an oil change and who knows how long he hadn’t cleaned out the air filter he hadn’t checked the lines he hadn’t done all the basic maintenance stuff you do that his vehicle would not run period now being a mobile mechanic this provides problem for him because he couldn’t just get in another car and leave you need your vehicle because your vehicle has all your tools has everything you need in it. So he had to counsel all of those appointments that day in order to service his own stuff first . So in other words he lost a whole day of work because he didn’t take care of his own equipment . In the same way we as believers have the same issue It does not matter how many disciples potential believers we have none of those things matter because if we don’t take care of each other our own equipment there will become a day where we will lose a day of work because we are stuck trying to fix something that never sure broke in the first place if we don’t treat love and have integrity with each other when we’re in front of them or when we’re not behind them we miss the point

What kind of church do you want to be known for? Do you want to be a church that fights over minor issues, or do you want to be a church that is known for loving everyone unconditionally, regardless of disagreement?

. Now this final question that really comes out of place is if we really dissect this is the smallest things turned to the biggest of issues . A little match starts a big fire Are we a church that starts big fires Are we a church that takes the smallest issue and grows it to as big of an issue as we can where we cause dissension in the church Where we cause people to leave the church where we ‘cause people to be upset in the church over something minor OK I’ll give you an instance one of the things that always stood out to me growing up is when I was in the younger years learning to pastor and learning to do those things I did not really care what the pastor did . I’ll explain why not because he wasn’t seen as an important figure and I love him and to this day he’s my mentor I call him all the time I love him I said but my mindset growing up was this if I didn’t like what he was doing I was going to leave and go somewhere where I like someone than what they are doing . Because when you’re seeing fruitful growth in the church maybe not in the direction you want it to go but you see fruitful growth coming in the church who am I as a church member to stand in the way of that . In other words what I’m saying is sometimes God will cause growth in an area we don’t belong in because God is telling us it is time for us to go to a different area where we can be used just because I don’t agree with it does not mean that is an issue that I need to bring to the church. And the reason for this mentality was because I trusted him as the spiritual leader of the church . And in my mind oh we’re going in this direction and I don’t want to be a part of it that’s a major issue but on the whole scale of things the church is growing so rapidly it’s a minor issue or We can be known to be part of the church that loves everyone and grows because our job is to produce relationships not religions.