One Nation Under God
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
ARE YOU A DRAGON?
Marshall Shelley - Ministering to Problem People in Your Church
11 - people types that can create problems in the church
Bird Dog - Points out needs in the church
“Love to be the pastor’s eyes, ears and nose, sniffing out items for attention.”
“That’s your job Pastor, I’m just calling your attention to something.”
Wet Blanket - Tries to keep the peace
Motto “It’s no use trying” or “It’s too much effort”
Contagious “negative disposition”
Doom and Gloom
Entrepreneur - Enthusiasm
Enthusiastic “first to greet visitors”
Enthusiasm is for selling something
Drill Instructor - Gets things done
“Speaks with an exclamation point instead of a period”
“Steam roller who flattens anyone in his way”
Anonymous Blogger - helping draw attention to problems
“posts” on the internet w/o attaching their names
foster a “climate of suspicion and dissatisfaction”
Fickle Financier - Good Steward
“uses money to register approval or disapproval of church decisions”
withhold tithes and offerings
The busy body - servant
Likes to tell others how to do their job
The sniper -
takes “potshots in private conversations”
The bookkeeper - hostorian
Keeps written records of everyone’s wrongs”
Merchant of Muck - Looking out for everyone else
“attacks others by his willingness to listen to their complaints about the church”
The Legalists - Decent and in order
“List of absolutes” on everything
These personalities, no matter their intentions, are destructive to the church and its mission.
It is how Satan maneuvers through churches and keeps them from their mission of sharing the gospel and making disciples.
Thought? Do one or more of these represent you? Are you bringing helpful or healthy personalities to the church of Jesus Christ? Or, are you damaging it with how you treat others? Are you being used by Satan to do damage to the church of Jesus Christ? Are you a dragon?
Shelley uses dragons, because they are something we view that needs to be slayed.
How we view each member of the church has a direct bearing on how we treat them. Paul teaches us here how we should view or fellow Christian.
Satan uses the church within the church to try and destroy it. The church is the body of believers, God’s people. Sinners.
Satan will use this when we:
Think more highly of ourself than we ought
Imagine if Paul treated these Galatians as we do one another
English Standard Version Chapter 4
12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong.
He persecuted the church prior to Jesus opening his eyes on the road to Damascus
They received him as Jesus Christ
As an Apostle with the Spirit of Christ
Paul did not hold this over them, but rather appealed to the beginning when they viewed each other as equals - sinners saved by grace
Turn from living in God’s grace
Paul is calling the back to the gospel of Jesus Christ
Grace of God for each one of them
Follow others rather than Jesus Christ
Group who were causing strife and turning people away from Jesus and the truth
Lifting themselves up over Paul and the gospel
stop enjoying each others company
Paul desired to be with them again
He viewed them as his own children
So What?
So What?
Paul encourages the Galatians to imitate him, not as a greater individual, but as he views other believers.
Paul views his fellow believer as Jesus does:
Children of God
1 And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand! 2 Then I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” 3 And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him 4 and said to him, “Run, say to that young man, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. 5 And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.’ ”
6 Up! Up! Flee from the land of the north, declares the Lord. For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the Lord. 7 Up! Escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon. 8 For thus said the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye: 9 “Behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall become plunder for those who served them. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me. 10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. 11 And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. 12 And the Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.”
13 Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
“Apple of his eye”
10 “He found him in a desert land,
and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.
8 Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings,
2 keep my commandments and live;
keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
God loves his people so much that He sent his son to die for their sins.
This should change how we see one another:
Message
Message
If you are a Christian, God:
loves YOU, you are like the apple of his eye
pupil of the eye
vital part of the eye
God loves others, they are like the apple of his eye
In order to treat one another as we should, we must start by viewing one another as God views us. This is what Paul has in mind when he tells the Galatians to imitate him.
He views them as ones who:
Received the gospel
Loved Paul and what he brought to them
desired fellowship with them
desired to see them grow in their faith
Paul loved them as Jesus loved them
Are you a dragon? Are your words and deeds toward your fellow Christian destructive? It would be easy for us to look around at our church and to see many of these personalities, these dragons, that Shelly mentions and focus on them.
I encourage you today however, for the good of the church, the body of Christ, to look at your own personality. Your own actions. Your own speech. Ask yourself, am I a dragon? Is what I am doing, no matter my intentions, helpful for the church of Jesus Christ, or is it destructive?
Are you a dragon to be slayed?