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“Church Rules”
-7
Ephesians 4:1-7
Our House will Prioritize Unity
Ephesians 4:1-7
Our House will prioritize Unity
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,
being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Our House will prioritize Unity
“Church Rules”
VBS video
VBS video -7I Am really really excited about our new sermon series that we will begin today. I feel it is very important to talk about what the non essentials are for us as a church every now and then. It is good if you are new to FBA to know a little bit more about who we are and what makes us us. When our kids were little we had “HOUSE RULES” if you will. Anyone else. Yea when they were little it was like no jumping on the furniture/ quite biting your brother (don’t want to call any names our for that one Kelsey). THEN as they got older it was be home by curfew / no lying (man this was a big one at our house. Not that my kids lied it was just one that I couldn’t take. I am like if you tell me the truth I promise we will get through it. So house rules change with the seasons. This season that FBA WE are in right now is an exciting one. The building is about to go up (speaking of that Bro Ken Birdsong next week is going to update us where we are. I now you see some movement over there so keep looking / keep watching a building will be up soon. God is good) so this season is one that we are going to have to be intentional about reminding ourselves of these rules. TODAY’s RULE IS :OUR HOUSE WILL PRIORITIZE UNTIYTalk about unity. This is one of those subjects that when you hear it you really don’t think that it is that important but it is tremendously important to a churches impact on reaching the community for Christ. If you study the book of ACTS you’ll find the first church that is birthed. The Holy spirit falls upon believers and many were saved and added to their number daily. tells us about the 1st church in Jerusalem. The first church said that they all gathered together and had everything in common. What was that everything? LIFE. They were unified in and through their relationship with each other BECAUSE of their relationship with Christ Jesus. It is our desire here at FBA that we be UNIFIED body of believers. Please understand this morning that all churches have conflict. Great churches follow a biblical model for handling it. In Acts chapter 6 there was a complaint/ conflict/ a dispute that arose within this New Testament church. (did not take long did it?) The Hellenistic Jewish woman and the Amaric Jewish women. The Hellenistic Jewish women felt as if they were being overlook in their daily distribution of food. (They thought it may have been on purpose) This is the first sense of DISUNITY in the church. Out of this GREAT CHURCH because they handle the conflict biblically we see through Simon Peter that the first deacon body was elected. Here is something that I want you to think about. Acts chapter 5 right before Acts chapter 6 the first disagreement that we just talked about, Acts chapter 5 we see the disciples preaching the Gospel and while they were doing so they were arrested. While they were in prison through a miracle they were release from prison through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit of God, and as soon as they are released they go out into the temple guard and began to preach the Gospel again. When the prison guard comes by and realizes that these men have escaped they began to freak out (Greek word) and all of the others tell them you do not have to go very far to find them they are right outside in the temple court preaching the gospel the same thing the were doing when they were arrested. So the prison guards run out to arrest these men again however when they arrive (all of this in chapter 5, good stuff) they don’t arrest them violently because they are afraid/ intimidated by the New Testament church. The church was unified/ one accord. Now Acts chapter 6 we see the first disunity the first bickering then (here is the point ) further along in we see the 1st martyr in the church by the name of Steven. Where was the church when Steven was being martyred? You with me. Some of you are saying now Pastor Brian that is a little bit of a stretch, maybe it is. Look at the facts. Church unified in chapter 5 Peter and John being arrested but they are not stoned because the church is right there and unified and powerful then in Stephen is stoned as a martyr because the church is now divided. Here is what I believe about the church. I believe that the church is the bride of Jesus Christ because that is what the word of God says. I BELIEVE THE CHURCH UNITED IS THE HOPE OF THIS WORLD. But I believe the church a church that is divided in disunity is a church that will see the enemy continue to take ground and while we (church) have been bickering and fight over the last several decades: the is no longer prayer in school / abortion is provided on demand in our country while we in the church have been arguing of the finer points of theology/ praise and worship songs verses hymns/ Sunday school verses life groups/ certain parts of theology that really don’t make a difference in eternity. While we have been divided we have lost ground in our culture and I believe that it is time for the church to unite under a common Savior named Jesus Christ and let’s do this thing the right way the way that our God intended us to do it the Gods word says that The Gates of hell shall not prevail against His bride. Unity is the desire of the Savior. Because Unity is the desire of our savior it is the dread of Satan. I think about this as a father I love it when my KIDS get along. It doesn’t happen a whole lot but when it does it is a sweet sweet thing in our house. When they are loving each other there is UNITY. That is the love of the Father for us His childrenLet’s take a moment to define unity. There are literally hundreds of definition to define unity but for today we will use this one. UNITY is a diverse people (different ages, different genders, different skin color, different parts of the country that we are from) that are indivisible in our pursuit for the Glory of God. That is what a church ought to be. A diverse group of people coming together indivisible meaning not able to divide in our pursuit of our Glory to God in our generation. Church that is unity. Listen to what Paul says in 0 I appeal to you, brothers,[a] by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. You may ask is FBA a church that is united. I would say one of the reasons that our Heavenly Father has blessed his church called FBA in the last 10 years is because we have been a people united to share Christ name and make His name known. Now do we have little skirmishes every now and then that pop up yes, pockets of disunity yes sometimes. Let me just say this why we are here on this point: if you stay here for any length of time I promise you are probably going to disagree with me or someone around you. We are human beings. But I will say this here; we want to disagree the right way. speaks clearly to how? We don’t talk about people here at FBA we talk to them. Does that make sense? How do we do that? I don’t know of any other way than the word of God so here we go.STAND READ PRAYHow WILL WE BE A CHURCH THAT WILL PRIORITIZE UNITY? One truth we need to understand this morning is that you cannot create unity. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. I cannot create unity as I cannot make grass grow in my yard. It is a supernatural work that seed has to burst to make the grass grow. Now a few things need to happen to help it, water, nutrients, grass is for sure not going to grow. So all we can do is protect unity when the Holy Spirit has gone before us in people’s lives. So again we cannot create all we can do is protect and this passage is going to help us understand this truth. passageV1 Paul says he is a prisoner of the Lord. Paul is not using a metaphor here he is literally in prison writing this letter to the church of Ephesus from a Roman prison. Nero was the leader at this time and he was an incredibly evil man who hated Christians. This is how committed Paul is to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. V1 Paul writes “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” now part of that calling that we have to Jesus Christ is that we would die to our needs and come alive to what Jesus Christ would have us to do in our generation. The other calling that we have is to live in a body. Part of this series is to recap the vision and mission of the local OUR church. God has created you and I not to live in isolation but to live in a body among other believers. LISTEN this is hard. Because they think differently/ they act differently, and if we are not careful than disunity may begin to take place. “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” and then Paul list three virtues. If you want to have unity in your marriage/ in your workplace/ in your home/ or in any kind of relationship with your friends/ if you are going to have unity inside the church it will be these three virtues that have to be present every time. In fact I would go as far as to say if there is a relational problem in any arena of our life we could look back and see that somebody has violated one of these virtues. It will destroy relationships/ it will destroy churches. A coach wants his team to be unified. A CEO wants his business to be unified. Christ Jesus want his church to be unified. How does this happenVerse 2. Paul says to be humble/ gentle/ patient – then he illustrates that by saying “bearing with one another in love.” This means putting up with sometimes the weaknesses of others. Making allowances. LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO THE HUMAN RACE: people are going to hurt you/ people are going to let you down/ people are going to say things and do things/ they are going to disappoint you. Is that true? Yes. The problem is that we hold others to a lot higher standard than we hold ourselves. How many times have you heard somebody say this: Well I am not perfect? Well that is a big shocker right. I thought you were J but as soon as one other person violates us or acts against us or contrary to the way we do things or like things then it creates a problem to that same person. That person is holding the other person to a higher standard than they are holding themselves. We need to be understanding and make some allowances (if you will) that God is at work in the other person’s life and He is going to change them. Bearing with one another in love/ keeping the unity of the spirit by keeping the bond of the spirit of peace – there is one body. What we are going to see here Paul is saying is God’s truth is foundational for unity. Here is what we need to focus on. There is one body – the church, the bride of Christ. The church is 3 in 1. I am the church as an individual – every time I go out on my own I am representing Jesus Christ/ I am involved in a local church - a local body of believers. I hear people say I don’t believe in the church or the body of believers I can do it on my own. If this is the case you must discount the vast majority of the New Testament because it was written to the local body of believers called the church. / then we are a part of a universal church. I as a pastor if I say something or believe something really stupid outside the will of God it doesn’t just affect our church it affects the universal church, the Christian faith. There is one body one spirit just as you were called to one hope. We were all called to this one hope. What is this hope? Jesus is coming back again for His people. We are going to spend eternity with Him. All of the difficult things that we are going through in this life God is going to redeem it. Finish reading through 5-7#1 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNITY by HUMILITY V2 Paul gives us 3 virtues in this text what is Humility? Putting another person’s needs ahead of yours. I love what one theologian said “we would like to be humbled but what if no one notices” FUNNY but true. They may not t notice humility but what they will notice is pride. Maybe you don’t notice pride but everybody else around you will. The opposite of humility is pride. Putting yourself before everyone else. In every relational problem 99.9% of the time it is because one person is not putting the other before themselves. Humility. When you leave the parking lot today there ought to be an incredibly long line of people being nice saying to one another no You go. No you go. You with me. Humility. I am putting your needs ahead of mine. If we lived like this in the church we would see the power of God fall. Here is a great definition of Humility by CS Lewis “ Humility is not thinking less of yourself, or making these self deprecating statements (putting yourself down) but thinking of yourself less.” Great word. Thinking of myself less and thinking of others more. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[b] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. What is the cross about? The cross is about Jesus Christ putting your needs before His very own. Enduring the pain and agony so that you and I might have salvation in Him. Church it is the gospel. This is humility/ this is our savior and we ought to model this life! #2 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNTIY by GENTLENESS v2Now please understand that these virtues in a 1st century culture were laughable. To be humble was laughable. That is not a virtue that the Romans would possess at all, they made fun of people like this. What is Gentleness- Gentleness is not weakness. Some people say well he is a gentle guy and some people think well that is just a nice way of saying oh he is just a sissy. No that is not Gentleness. Gentleness in a biblical sense is one of power under control. It is in the language of a stallion horse that has been broken. Now after that stallion has been broken you can ride that stallion but he still has that same POWER it is just under control. What creates disunity in the church? When someone is out of control. How am I under control? You are under control when your under the Holy Spirit’s influence. There have been so many times in my life when I wish I had a do over. When I got angry/ when I acted in the flesh/ said things that I wish I would not have said. Spent tons of time having to clean that up and make it right. Not fun. Pray. Gentleness is going to the father when something has upset you, when someone thinks differently than you instead of lashing out or going behind their back would you just take that to the FATHER ? Could that just be one of our (FBA) goals? Stop and pray in that situation. I am Gentle. I am Power under control. #3 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNITY by PATIENCE. V2What is Patience? Patience is realizing that God is at work in everybody’s life. If you are a believer here today please understand what we are is a work in progress. We are under construction. Right? Patience says that I am going to bear with you in peace. I am going to encourage you because God is not through with you yet and He is not through with me yet. We are going to be patient with each other as God does His work of redeeming us and reconciling us. PATIENCE is trusting God with the EGR’s in your life. EXTRA GRACE REQUIRED. Code word for the difficult people in your life. You and I are always going to have extra Grace required people in our life. People who know how to push your buttons, people who know how to just drive you crazy in your flesh and patience is saying God you’re at work in their life and heart and I am going to be patient. When I act out in anger and I become impatient I am standing in the way of what God is up to in a person’s life. 1 timothy 1:16 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. Good news for you this morning that God has shown PERFECT PATIENCE with you and with me. Because of this I ought to extend this perfect patience to others around me who need it. #4 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNITY by being ALL IN . ALL OF US. In the hallway today if you hear someone gossiping or talking about someone that you have the courage to be a person that is protecting and I think that is what God is called you to do. This morning if you are a follower of Jesus Christ you have a responsibility to be a person that is to protect the body of Jesus Christ to stand up and lead courageously for unity. When the body is not unified people get hurt. The spirit of God is removed in a culture that is not changed. This is a big deal. It takes courageous believers to stand in the gap and say hey listen have you talked to that person first. I love you and care about you and because I do after class not in the middle of class because I want to respect them, say hey have you gone to that person because I can’t listen to you talk about them that would be violating my biblical responsibility. WOW!! Unity would take place and revival would break out and we would be an incredible family. Let’s be a people who talk to people not about people. This is what it take to protect unity and to cultivate those virtues. Am I GROWING IN PATIENCE? AM I GROWING IN HUMILITY/ AM I GROWING IN GENTLENESS? I feel in our churches today that there are many people who just sit on the sidelines. Why is that? We hear people say I have been hurt in the past and I understand that. I know those stories. I jumped in and got involved and somehow got hurt, I found out that this person was not everything that I thought he was. The church is made of broken people. WE HAVE THE ONLY MESSAGE IN THE CULTURE THAT WILL MAKE PEOPLE WHOLE. It is worth it to be involved in the bride of Jesus Christ. I would say this: the first key to maintain unity in the church is to get involved. Be a part of the solution not a part of the problem. If you’re sitting on the sidelines I believe in essence that you are violating the scriptures. It is hard to belong to something that you’re not involved in. Does that make sense? I know that is a hard teaching, but here is the truth, Jesus is coming back for His bride some day and I think we are closer than ever. Do you believe that? When He Jesus comes back I want to be found giving my life as Paul would say a prisoner/ I want to be found protecting the bride of Jesus Christ. Spreading a message of reconciliation to the nations. Ill Most Americans can recall what they were doing on January 28, 1986. On that historic date, the space shuttle Challenger exploded just seventy-three seconds into flight. Seven families were robbed by death and an entire nation was racked with grief. All of this loss was ultimately blamed on one inexpensive O-ring. Records revealed that the space shuttle was comprised of one million components. In this sea of mechanical makeup, it took just one part to destroy the whole. One million parts did their job, but one failed and disaster occurred. Most people feel their role within the church is not only small and insignificant, but inconsequential as well. This mistaken doctrine of the church causes individuals to believe their behavior can’t hurt the church. But like that small and seemingly insignificant O-ring, one failed performance can produce catastrophic results.#4 A HOUSE of UNITY can spark REVIVAL. Listen to what Jesus said in “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, do you know who he is speaking about. That is everybody in this room that is a follower of Jesus Christ. It was through the foundation of the apostles that we are here today. SO Jesus is praying for us. He says I am praying that all of them are one just as you are in me and I am in you may they also be in us so that in the world they may believe that you have sent me, I have given them glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one I in them you in me may they be brought to complete unity that they may let the world know that you have sent me and love me even as you have loved me. When a church is unified it declares a message of the supremacy of Jesus Christ to the nations. When a church is divided we look just like the culture. What was Jesus praying? We would be unified/ we would love each other/ we would encourage each other/ we would be humble/ we would be gentle/ we would be patient. We would make allowances for each other. Unity is what we share in common. Verses 4-6 read.Augustine said this “In essentials unity”Non Negotionables. In the non negotionables version of the bible/ style of music/ election vs free will. That is a secondary issue. It is destroying and dividing churches and it is keeping us from having the kingdom impact that God has called His church to. Paul says let’s be committed to these essentials. Doctrine/ truth matters. UnitySomeone sitting alone is 911Friends can waitIntroduce a guest to someone else
Our House will prioritize Unity
I Am really really excited about our new sermon series that we will begin today. I feel it is very important to talk about what the non essentials are for us as a church every now and then. It is good if you are new to FBA to know a little bit more about who we are and what makes us us. When our kids were little we had “HOUSE RULES” if you will. Anyone else. Yea when they were little it was like no jumping on the furniture/ quite biting your brother (don’t want to call any names our for that one Kelsey). THEN as they got older it was be home by curfew / no lying (man this was a big one at our house. Not that my kids lied it was just one that I couldn’t take. I am like if you tell me the truth I promise we will get through it. So house rules change with the seasons. This season that FBA WE are in right now is an exciting one. The building is about to go up (speaking of that Bro Ken Birdsong next week is going to update us where we are. I now you see some movement over there so keep looking / keep watching a building will be up soon. God is good) so this season is one that we are going to have to be intentional about reminding ourselves of these rules. TODAY’s RULE IS :OUR HOUSE WILL PRIORITIZE UNTIYTalk about unity. This is one of those subjects that when you hear it you really don’t think that it is that important but it is tremendously important to a churches impact on reaching the community for Christ. If you study the book of ACTS you’ll find the first church that is birthed. The Holy spirit falls upon believers and many were saved and added to their number daily. tells us about the 1st church in Jerusalem. The first church said that they all gathered together and had everything in common. What was that everything? LIFE. They were unified in and through their relationship with each other BECAUSE of their relationship with Christ Jesus. It is our desire here at FBA that we be UNIFIED body of believers. Please understand this morning that all churches have conflict. Great churches follow a biblical model for handling it. In Acts chapter 6 there was a complaint/ conflict/ a dispute that arose within this New Testament church. (did not take long did it?) The Hellenistic Jewish woman and the Amaric Jewish women. The Hellenistic Jewish women felt as if they were being overlook in their daily distribution of food. (They thought it may have been on purpose) This is the first sense of DISUNITY in the church. Out of this GREAT CHURCH because they handle the conflict biblically we see through Simon Peter that the first deacon body was elected. Here is something that I want you to think about. Acts chapter 5 right before Acts chapter 6 the first disagreement that we just talked about, Acts chapter 5 we see the disciples preaching the Gospel and while they were doing so they were arrested. While they were in prison through a miracle they were release from prison through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit of God, and as soon as they are released they go out into the temple guard and began to preach the Gospel again. When the prison guard comes by and realizes that these men have escaped they began to freak out (Greek word) and all of the others tell them you do not have to go very far to find them they are right outside in the temple court preaching the gospel the same thing the were doing when they were arrested. So the prison guards run out to arrest these men again however when they arrive (all of this in chapter 5, good stuff) they don’t arrest them violently because they are afraid/ intimidated by the New Testament church. The church was unified/ one accord. Now Acts chapter 6 we see the first disunity the first bickering then (here is the point ) further along in we see the 1st martyr in the church by the name of Steven. Where was the church when Steven was being martyred? You with me. Some of you are saying now Pastor Brian that is a little bit of a stretch, maybe it is. Look at the facts. Church unified in chapter 5 Peter and John being arrested but they are not stoned because the church is right there and unified and powerful then in Stephen is stoned as a martyr because the church is now divided. Here is what I believe about the church. I believe that the church is the bride of Jesus Christ because that is what the word of God says. I BELIEVE THE CHURCH UNITED IS THE HOPE OF THIS WORLD. But I believe the church a church that is divided in disunity is a church that will see the enemy continue to take ground and while we (church) have been bickering and fight over the last several decades: the is no longer prayer in school / abortion is provided on demand in our country while we in the church have been arguing of the finer points of theology/ praise and worship songs verses hymns/ Sunday school verses life groups/ certain parts of theology that really don’t make a difference in eternity. While we have been divided we have lost ground in our culture and I believe that it is time for the church to unite under a common Savior named Jesus Christ and let’s do this thing the right way the way that our God intended us to do it the Gods word says that The Gates of hell shall not prevail against His bride. Unity is the desire of the Savior. Because Unity is the desire of our savior it is the dread of Satan. I think about this as a father I love it when my KIDS get along. It doesn’t happen a whole lot but when it does it is a sweet sweet thing in our house. When they are loving each other there is UNITY. That is the love of the Father for us His childrenLet’s take a moment to define unity. There are literally hundreds of definition to define unity but for today we will use this one. UNITY is a diverse people (different ages, different genders, different skin color, different parts of the country that we are from) that are indivisible in our pursuit for the Glory of God. That is what a church ought to be. A diverse group of people coming together indivisible meaning not able to divide in our pursuit of our Glory to God in our generation. Church that is unity. Listen to what Paul says in 0 I appeal to you, brothers,[a] by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. You may ask is FBA a church that is united. I would say one of the reasons that our Heavenly Father has blessed his church called FBA in the last 10 years is because we have been a people united to share Christ name and make His name known. Now do we have little skirmishes every now and then that pop up yes, pockets of disunity yes sometimes. Let me just say this why we are here on this point: if you stay here for any length of time I promise you are probably going to disagree with me or someone around you. We are human beings. But I will say this here; we want to disagree the right way. speaks clearly to how? We don’t talk about people here at FBA we talk to them. Does that make sense? How do we do that? I don’t know of any other way than the word of God so here we go.STAND READ PRAYHow WILL WE BE A CHURCH THAT WILL PRIORITIZE UNITY? One truth we need to understand this morning is that you cannot create unity. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. I cannot create unity as I cannot make grass grow in my yard. It is a supernatural work that seed has to burst to make the grass grow. Now a few things need to happen to help it, water, nutrients, grass is for sure not going to grow. So all we can do is protect unity when the Holy Spirit has gone before us in people’s lives. So again we cannot create all we can do is protect and this passage is going to help us understand this truth. passageV1 Paul says he is a prisoner of the Lord. Paul is not using a metaphor here he is literally in prison writing this letter to the church of Ephesus from a Roman prison. Nero was the leader at this time and he was an incredibly evil man who hated Christians. This is how committed Paul is to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. V1 Paul writes “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” now part of that calling that we have to Jesus Christ is that we would die to our needs and come alive to what Jesus Christ would have us to do in our generation. The other calling that we have is to live in a body. Part of this series is to recap the vision and mission of the local OUR church. God has created you and I not to live in isolation but to live in a body among other believers. LISTEN this is hard. Because they think differently/ they act differently, and if we are not careful than disunity may begin to take place. “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” and then Paul list three virtues. If you want to have unity in your marriage/ in your workplace/ in your home/ or in any kind of relationship with your friends/ if you are going to have unity inside the church it will be these three virtues that have to be present every time. In fact I would go as far as to say if there is a relational problem in any arena of our life we could look back and see that somebody has violated one of these virtues. It will destroy relationships/ it will destroy churches. A coach wants his team to be unified. A CEO wants his business to be unified. Christ Jesus want his church to be unified. How does this happenVerse 2. Paul says to be humble/ gentle/ patient – then he illustrates that by saying “bearing with one another in love.” This means putting up with sometimes the weaknesses of others. Making allowances. LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO THE HUMAN RACE: people are going to hurt you/ people are going to let you down/ people are going to say things and do things/ they are going to disappoint you. Is that true? Yes. The problem is that we hold others to a lot higher standard than we hold ourselves. How many times have you heard somebody say this: Well I am not perfect? Well that is a big shocker right. I thought you were J but as soon as one other person violates us or acts against us or contrary to the way we do things or like things then it creates a problem to that same person. That person is holding the other person to a higher standard than they are holding themselves. We need to be understanding and make some allowances (if you will) that God is at work in the other person’s life and He is going to change them. Bearing with one another in love/ keeping the unity of the spirit by keeping the bond of the spirit of peace – there is one body. What we are going to see here Paul is saying is God’s truth is foundational for unity. Here is what we need to focus on. There is one body – the church, the bride of Christ. The church is 3 in 1. I am the church as an individual – every time I go out on my own I am representing Jesus Christ/ I am involved in a local church - a local body of believers. I hear people say I don’t believe in the church or the body of believers I can do it on my own. If this is the case you must discount the vast majority of the New Testament because it was written to the local body of believers called the church. / then we are a part of a universal church. I as a pastor if I say something or believe something really stupid outside the will of God it doesn’t just affect our church it affects the universal church, the Christian faith. There is one body one spirit just as you were called to one hope. We were all called to this one hope. What is this hope? Jesus is coming back again for His people. We are going to spend eternity with Him. All of the difficult things that we are going through in this life God is going to redeem it. Finish reading through 5-7
#1 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNITY by HUMILITY V2 Paul gives us 3 virtues in this text what is Humility? Putting another person’s needs ahead of yours. I love what one theologian said “we would like to be humbled but what if no one notices” FUNNY but true. They may not t notice humility but what they will notice is pride. Maybe you don’t notice pride but everybody else around you will. The opposite of humility is pride. Putting yourself before everyone else. In every relational problem 99.9% of the time it is because one person is not putting the other before themselves. Humility. When you leave the parking lot today there ought to be an incredibly long line of people being nice saying to one another no You go. No you go. You with me. Humility. I am putting your needs ahead of mine. If we lived like this in the church we would see the power of God fall. Here is a great definition of Humility by CS Lewis “ Humility is not thinking less of yourself, or making these self deprecating statements (putting yourself down) but thinking of yourself less.” Great word. Thinking of myself less and thinking of others more. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[b] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. What is the cross about? The cross is about Jesus Christ putting your needs before His very own. Enduring the pain and agony so that you and I might have salvation in Him. Church it is the gospel. This is humility/ this is our savior and we ought to model this life! #2 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNTIY by GENTLENESS v2Now please understand that these virtues in a 1st century culture were laughable. To be humble was laughable. That is not a virtue that the Romans would possess at all, they made fun of people like this. What is Gentleness- Gentleness is not weakness. Some people say well he is a gentle guy and some people think well that is just a nice way of saying oh he is just a sissy. No that is not Gentleness. Gentleness in a biblical sense is one of power under control. It is in the language of a stallion horse that has been broken. Now after that stallion has been broken you can ride that stallion but he still has that same POWER it is just under control. What creates disunity in the church? When someone is out of control. How am I under control? You are under control when your under the Holy Spirit’s influence. There have been so many times in my life when I wish I had a do over. When I got angry/ when I acted in the flesh/ said things that I wish I would not have said. Spent tons of time having to clean that up and make it right. Not fun. Pray. Gentleness is going to the father when something has upset you, when someone thinks differently than you instead of lashing out or going behind their back would you just take that to the FATHER ? Could that just be one of our (FBA) goals? Stop and pray in that situation. I am Gentle. I am Power under control. #3 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNITY by PATIENCE. V2What is Patience? Patience is realizing that God is at work in everybody’s life. If you are a believer here today please understand what we are is a work in progress. We are under construction. Right? Patience says that I am going to bear with you in peace. I am going to encourage you because God is not through with you yet and He is not through with me yet. We are going to be patient with each other as God does His work of redeeming us and reconciling us. PATIENCE is trusting God with the EGR’s in your life. EXTRA GRACE REQUIRED. Code word for the difficult people in your life. You and I are always going to have extra Grace required people in our life. People who know how to push your buttons, people who know how to just drive you crazy in your flesh and patience is saying God you’re at work in their life and heart and I am going to be patient. When I act out in anger and I become impatient I am standing in the way of what God is up to in a person’s life. 1 timothy 1:16 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. Good news for you this morning that God has shown PERFECT PATIENCE with you and with me. Because of this I ought to extend this perfect patience to others around me who need it. #4 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNITY by being ALL IN . ALL OF US. In the hallway today if you hear someone gossiping or talking about someone that you have the courage to be a person that is protecting and I think that is what God is called you to do. This morning if you are a follower of Jesus Christ you have a responsibility to be a person that is to protect the body of Jesus Christ to stand up and lead courageously for unity. When the body is not unified people get hurt. The spirit of God is removed in a culture that is not changed. This is a big deal. It takes courageous believers to stand in the gap and say hey listen have you talked to that person first. I love you and care about you and because I do after class not in the middle of class because I want to respect them, say hey have you gone to that person because I can’t listen to you talk about them that would be violating my biblical responsibility. WOW!! Unity would take place and revival would break out and we would be an incredible family. Let’s be a people who talk to people not about people. This is what it take to protect unity and to cultivate those virtues. Am I GROWING IN PATIENCE? AM I GROWING IN HUMILITY/ AM I GROWING IN GENTLENESS? I feel in our churches today that there are many people who just sit on the sidelines. Why is that? We hear people say I have been hurt in the past and I understand that. I know those stories. I jumped in and got involved and somehow got hurt, I found out that this person was not everything that I thought he was. The church is made of broken people. WE HAVE THE ONLY MESSAGE IN THE CULTURE THAT WILL MAKE PEOPLE WHOLE. It is worth it to be involved in the bride of Jesus Christ. I would say this: the first key to maintain unity in the church is to get involved. Be a part of the solution not a part of the problem. If you’re sitting on the sidelines I believe in essence that you are violating the scriptures. It is hard to belong to something that you’re not involved in. Does that make sense? I know that is a hard teaching, but here is the truth, Jesus is coming back for His bride some day and I think we are closer than ever. Do you believe that? When He Jesus comes back I want to be found giving my life as Paul would say a prisoner/ I want to be found protecting the bride of Jesus Christ. Spreading a message of reconciliation to the nations. Ill Most Americans can recall what they were doing on January 28, 1986. On that historic date, the space shuttle Challenger exploded just seventy-three seconds into flight. Seven families were robbed by death and an entire nation was racked with grief. All of this loss was ultimately blamed on one inexpensive O-ring. Records revealed that the space shuttle was comprised of one million components. In this sea of mechanical makeup, it took just one part to destroy the whole. One million parts did their job, but one failed and disaster occurred. Most people feel their role within the church is not only small and insignificant, but inconsequential as well. This mistaken doctrine of the church causes individuals to believe their behavior can’t hurt the church. But like that small and seemingly insignificant O-ring, one failed performance can produce catastrophic results.#4 A HOUSE of UNITY can spark REVIVAL. Listen to what Jesus said in “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, do you know who he is speaking about. That is everybody in this room that is a follower of Jesus Christ. It was through the foundation of the apostles that we are here today. SO Jesus is praying for us. He says I am praying that all of them are one just as you are in me and I am in you may they also be in us so that in the world they may believe that you have sent me, I have given them glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one I in them you in me may they be brought to complete unity that they may let the world know that you have sent me and love me even as you have loved me. When a church is unified it declares a message of the supremacy of Jesus Christ to the nations. When a church is divided we look just like the culture. What was Jesus praying? We would be unified/ we would love each other/ we would encourage each other/ we would be humble/ we would be gentle/ we would be patient. We would make allowances for each other. Unity is what we share in common. Verses 4-6 read.Augustine said this “In essentials unity”Non Negotionables. In the non negotionables version of the bible/ style of music/ election vs free will. That is a secondary issue. It is destroying and dividing churches and it is keeping us from having the kingdom impact that God has called His church to. Paul says let’s be committed to these essentials. Doctrine/ truth matters. UnitySomeone sitting alone is 911Friends can waitIntroduce a guest to someone else
“Church Rules”
Our House will prioritize Unity
VBS video -7I Am really really excited about our new sermon series that we will begin today. I feel it is very important to talk about what the non essentials are for us as a church every now and then. It is good if you are new to FBA to know a little bit more about who we are and what makes us us. When our kids were little we had “HOUSE RULES” if you will. Anyone else. Yea when they were little it was like no jumping on the furniture/ quite biting your brother (don’t want to call any names our for that one Kelsey). THEN as they got older it was be home by curfew / no lying (man this was a big one at our house. Not that my kids lied it was just one that I couldn’t take. I am like if you tell me the truth I promise we will get through it. So house rules change with the seasons. This season that FBA WE are in right now is an exciting one. The building is about to go up (speaking of that Bro Ken Birdsong next week is going to update us where we are. I now you see some movement over there so keep looking / keep watching a building will be up soon. God is good) so this season is one that we are going to have to be intentional about reminding ourselves of these rules. TODAY’s RULE IS :OUR HOUSE WILL PRIORITIZE UNTIYTalk about unity. This is one of those subjects that when you hear it you really don’t think that it is that important but it is tremendously important to a churches impact on reaching the community for Christ. If you study the book of ACTS you’ll find the first church that is birthed. The Holy spirit falls upon believers and many were saved and added to their number daily. tells us about the 1st church in Jerusalem. The first church said that they all gathered together and had everything in common. What was that everything? LIFE. They were unified in and through their relationship with each other BECAUSE of their relationship with Christ Jesus. It is our desire here at FBA that we be UNIFIED body of believers. Please understand this morning that all churches have conflict. Great churches follow a biblical model for handling it. In Acts chapter 6 there was a complaint/ conflict/ a dispute that arose within this New Testament church. (did not take long did it?) The Hellenistic Jewish woman and the Amaric Jewish women. The Hellenistic Jewish women felt as if they were being overlook in their daily distribution of food. (They thought it may have been on purpose) This is the first sense of DISUNITY in the church. Out of this GREAT CHURCH because they handle the conflict biblically we see through Simon Peter that the first deacon body was elected. Here is something that I want you to think about. Acts chapter 5 right before Acts chapter 6 the first disagreement that we just talked about, Acts chapter 5 we see the disciples preaching the Gospel and while they were doing so they were arrested. While they were in prison through a miracle they were release from prison through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit of God, and as soon as they are released they go out into the temple guard and began to preach the Gospel again. When the prison guard comes by and realizes that these men have escaped they began to freak out (Greek word) and all of the others tell them you do not have to go very far to find them they are right outside in the temple court preaching the gospel the same thing the were doing when they were arrested. So the prison guards run out to arrest these men again however when they arrive (all of this in chapter 5, good stuff) they don’t arrest them violently because they are afraid/ intimidated by the New Testament church. The church was unified/ one accord. Now Acts chapter 6 we see the first disunity the first bickering then (here is the point ) further along in we see the 1st martyr in the church by the name of Steven. Where was the church when Steven was being martyred? You with me. Some of you are saying now Pastor Brian that is a little bit of a stretch, maybe it is. Look at the facts. Church unified in chapter 5 Peter and John being arrested but they are not stoned because the church is right there and unified and powerful then in Stephen is stoned as a martyr because the church is now divided. Here is what I believe about the church. I believe that the church is the bride of Jesus Christ because that is what the word of God says. I BELIEVE THE CHURCH UNITED IS THE HOPE OF THIS WORLD. But I believe the church a church that is divided in disunity is a church that will see the enemy continue to take ground and while we (church) have been bickering and fight over the last several decades: the is no longer prayer in school / abortion is provided on demand in our country while we in the church have been arguing of the finer points of theology/ praise and worship songs verses hymns/ Sunday school verses life groups/ certain parts of theology that really don’t make a difference in eternity. While we have been divided we have lost ground in our culture and I believe that it is time for the church to unite under a common Savior named Jesus Christ and let’s do this thing the right way the way that our God intended us to do it the Gods word says that The Gates of hell shall not prevail against His bride. Unity is the desire of the Savior. Because Unity is the desire of our savior it is the dread of Satan. I think about this as a father I love it when my KIDS get along. It doesn’t happen a whole lot but when it does it is a sweet sweet thing in our house. When they are loving each other there is UNITY. That is the love of the Father for us His childrenLet’s take a moment to define unity. There are literally hundreds of definition to define unity but for today we will use this one. UNITY is a diverse people (different ages, different genders, different skin color, different parts of the country that we are from) that are indivisible in our pursuit for the Glory of God. That is what a church ought to be. A diverse group of people coming together indivisible meaning not able to divide in our pursuit of our Glory to God in our generation. Church that is unity. Listen to what Paul says in 0 I appeal to you, brothers,[a] by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. You may ask is FBA a church that is united. I would say one of the reasons that our Heavenly Father has blessed his church called FBA in the last 10 years is because we have been a people united to share Christ name and make His name known. Now do we have little skirmishes every now and then that pop up yes, pockets of disunity yes sometimes. Let me just say this why we are here on this point: if you stay here for any length of time I promise you are probably going to disagree with me or someone around you. We are human beings. But I will say this here; we want to disagree the right way. speaks clearly to how? We don’t talk about people here at FBA we talk to them. Does that make sense? How do we do that? I don’t know of any other way than the word of God so here we go.STAND READ PRAYHow WILL WE BE A CHURCH THAT WILL PRIORITIZE UNITY? One truth we need to understand this morning is that you cannot create unity. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. I cannot create unity as I cannot make grass grow in my yard. It is a supernatural work that seed has to burst to make the grass grow. Now a few things need to happen to help it, water, nutrients, grass is for sure not going to grow. So all we can do is protect unity when the Holy Spirit has gone before us in people’s lives. So again we cannot create all we can do is protect and this passage is going to help us understand this truth. passageV1 Paul says he is a prisoner of the Lord. Paul is not using a metaphor here he is literally in prison writing this letter to the church of Ephesus from a Roman prison. Nero was the leader at this time and he was an incredibly evil man who hated Christians. This is how committed Paul is to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. V1 Paul writes “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” now part of that calling that we have to Jesus Christ is that we would die to our needs and come alive to what Jesus Christ would have us to do in our generation. The other calling that we have is to live in a body. Part of this series is to recap the vision and mission of the local OUR church. God has created you and I not to live in isolation but to live in a body among other believers. LISTEN this is hard. Because they think differently/ they act differently, and if we are not careful than disunity may begin to take place. “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” and then Paul list three virtues. If you want to have unity in your marriage/ in your workplace/ in your home/ or in any kind of relationship with your friends/ if you are going to have unity inside the church it will be these three virtues that have to be present every time. In fact I would go as far as to say if there is a relational problem in any arena of our life we could look back and see that somebody has violated one of these virtues. It will destroy relationships/ it will destroy churches. A coach wants his team to be unified. A CEO wants his business to be unified. Christ Jesus want his church to be unified. How does this happenVerse 2. Paul says to be humble/ gentle/ patient – then he illustrates that by saying “bearing with one another in love.” This means putting up with sometimes the weaknesses of others. Making allowances. LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO THE HUMAN RACE: people are going to hurt you/ people are going to let you down/ people are going to say things and do things/ they are going to disappoint you. Is that true? Yes. The problem is that we hold others to a lot higher standard than we hold ourselves. How many times have you heard somebody say this: Well I am not perfect? Well that is a big shocker right. I thought you were J but as soon as one other person violates us or acts against us or contrary to the way we do things or like things then it creates a problem to that same person. That person is holding the other person to a higher standard than they are holding themselves. We need to be understanding and make some allowances (if you will) that God is at work in the other person’s life and He is going to change them. Bearing with one another in love/ keeping the unity of the spirit by keeping the bond of the spirit of peace – there is one body. What we are going to see here Paul is saying is God’s truth is foundational for unity. Here is what we need to focus on. There is one body – the church, the bride of Christ. The church is 3 in 1. I am the church as an individual – every time I go out on my own I am representing Jesus Christ/ I am involved in a local church - a local body of believers. I hear people say I don’t believe in the church or the body of believers I can do it on my own. If this is the case you must discount the vast majority of the New Testament because it was written to the local body of believers called the church. / then we are a part of a universal church. I as a pastor if I say something or believe something really stupid outside the will of God it doesn’t just affect our church it affects the universal church, the Christian faith. There is one body one spirit just as you were called to one hope. We were all called to this one hope. What is this hope? Jesus is coming back again for His people. We are going to spend eternity with Him. All of the difficult things that we are going through in this life God is going to redeem it. Finish reading through 5-7#1 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNITY by HUMILITY V2 Paul gives us 3 virtues in this text what is Humility? Putting another person’s needs ahead of yours. I love what one theologian said “we would like to be humbled but what if no one notices” FUNNY but true. They may not t notice humility but what they will notice is pride. Maybe you don’t notice pride but everybody else around you will. The opposite of humility is pride. Putting yourself before everyone else. In every relational problem 99.9% of the time it is because one person is not putting the other before themselves. Humility. When you leave the parking lot today there ought to be an incredibly long line of people being nice saying to one another no You go. No you go. You with me. Humility. I am putting your needs ahead of mine. If we lived like this in the church we would see the power of God fall. Here is a great definition of Humility by CS Lewis “ Humility is not thinking less of yourself, or making these self deprecating statements (putting yourself down) but thinking of yourself less.” Great word. Thinking of myself less and thinking of others more. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[b] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. What is the cross about? The cross is about Jesus Christ putting your needs before His very own. Enduring the pain and agony so that you and I might have salvation in Him. Church it is the gospel. This is humility/ this is our savior and we ought to model this life! #2 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNTIY by GENTLENESS v2Now please understand that these virtues in a 1st century culture were laughable. To be humble was laughable. That is not a virtue that the Romans would possess at all, they made fun of people like this. What is Gentleness- Gentleness is not weakness. Some people say well he is a gentle guy and some people think well that is just a nice way of saying oh he is just a sissy. No that is not Gentleness. Gentleness in a biblical sense is one of power under control. It is in the language of a stallion horse that has been broken. Now after that stallion has been broken you can ride that stallion but he still has that same POWER it is just under control. What creates disunity in the church? When someone is out of control. How am I under control? You are under control when your under the Holy Spirit’s influence. There have been so many times in my life when I wish I had a do over. When I got angry/ when I acted in the flesh/ said things that I wish I would not have said. Spent tons of time having to clean that up and make it right. Not fun. Pray. Gentleness is going to the father when something has upset you, when someone thinks differently than you instead of lashing out or going behind their back would you just take that to the FATHER ? Could that just be one of our (FBA) goals? Stop and pray in that situation. I am Gentle. I am Power under control. #3 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNITY by PATIENCE. V2What is Patience? Patience is realizing that God is at work in everybody’s life. If you are a believer here today please understand what we are is a work in progress. We are under construction. Right? Patience says that I am going to bear with you in peace. I am going to encourage you because God is not through with you yet and He is not through with me yet. We are going to be patient with each other as God does His work of redeeming us and reconciling us. PATIENCE is trusting God with the EGR’s in your life. EXTRA GRACE REQUIRED. Code word for the difficult people in your life. You and I are always going to have extra Grace required people in our life. People who know how to push your buttons, people who know how to just drive you crazy in your flesh and patience is saying God you’re at work in their life and heart and I am going to be patient. When I act out in anger and I become impatient I am standing in the way of what God is up to in a person’s life. 1 timothy 1:16 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. Good news for you this morning that God has shown PERFECT PATIENCE with you and with me. Because of this I ought to extend this perfect patience to others around me who need it. #4 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNITY by being ALL IN . ALL OF US. In the hallway today if you hear someone gossiping or talking about someone that you have the courage to be a person that is protecting and I think that is what God is called you to do. This morning if you are a follower of Jesus Christ you have a responsibility to be a person that is to protect the body of Jesus Christ to stand up and lead courageously for unity. When the body is not unified people get hurt. The spirit of God is removed in a culture that is not changed. This is a big deal. It takes courageous believers to stand in the gap and say hey listen have you talked to that person first. I love you and care about you and because I do after class not in the middle of class because I want to respect them, say hey have you gone to that person because I can’t listen to you talk about them that would be violating my biblical responsibility. WOW!! Unity would take place and revival would break out and we would be an incredible family. Let’s be a people who talk to people not about people. This is what it take to protect unity and to cultivate those virtues. Am I GROWING IN PATIENCE? AM I GROWING IN HUMILITY/ AM I GROWING IN GENTLENESS? I feel in our churches today that there are many people who just sit on the sidelines. Why is that? We hear people say I have been hurt in the past and I understand that. I know those stories. I jumped in and got involved and somehow got hurt, I found out that this person was not everything that I thought he was. The church is made of broken people. WE HAVE THE ONLY MESSAGE IN THE CULTURE THAT WILL MAKE PEOPLE WHOLE. It is worth it to be involved in the bride of Jesus Christ. I would say this: the first key to maintain unity in the church is to get involved. Be a part of the solution not a part of the problem. If you’re sitting on the sidelines I believe in essence that you are violating the scriptures. It is hard to belong to something that you’re not involved in. Does that make sense? I know that is a hard teaching, but here is the truth, Jesus is coming back for His bride some day and I think we are closer than ever. Do you believe that? When He Jesus comes back I want to be found giving my life as Paul would say a prisoner/ I want to be found protecting the bride of Jesus Christ. Spreading a message of reconciliation to the nations. Ill Most Americans can recall what they were doing on January 28, 1986. On that historic date, the space shuttle Challenger exploded just seventy-three seconds into flight. Seven families were robbed by death and an entire nation was racked with grief. All of this loss was ultimately blamed on one inexpensive O-ring. Records revealed that the space shuttle was comprised of one million components. In this sea of mechanical makeup, it took just one part to destroy the whole. One million parts did their job, but one failed and disaster occurred. Most people feel their role within the church is not only small and insignificant, but inconsequential as well. This mistaken doctrine of the church causes individuals to believe their behavior can’t hurt the church. But like that small and seemingly insignificant O-ring, one failed performance can produce catastrophic results.#4 A HOUSE of UNITY can spark REVIVAL. Listen to what Jesus said in “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, do you know who he is speaking about. That is everybody in this room that is a follower of Jesus Christ. It was through the foundation of the apostles that we are here today. SO Jesus is praying for us. He says I am praying that all of them are one just as you are in me and I am in you may they also be in us so that in the world they may believe that you have sent me, I have given them glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one I in them you in me may they be brought to complete unity that they may let the world know that you have sent me and love me even as you have loved me. When a church is unified it declares a message of the supremacy of Jesus Christ to the nations. When a church is divided we look just like the culture. What was Jesus praying? We would be unified/ we would love each other/ we would encourage each other/ we would be humble/ we would be gentle/ we would be patient. We would make allowances for each other. Unity is what we share in common. Verses 4-6 read.Augustine said this “In essentials unity”Non Negotionables. In the non negotionables version of the bible/ style of music/ election vs free will. That is a secondary issue. It is destroying and dividing churches and it is keeping us from having the kingdom impact that God has called His church to. Paul says let’s be committed to these essentials. Doctrine/ truth matters. UnitySomeone sitting alone is 911Friends can waitIntroduce a guest to someone else