“The Church in Colossae” – Colossians 3:1-17

In high school, I was on the school golf team. Now, when I say that, you might get the impression that I am pretty good at golf. That would be false. Our golf coach’s best advice to me; his very best coaching moment was when he said, “Blair, hit the ball farther…and straighter.” Then he walked off to read the newspaper. (True story.)

But I tried. I enjoyed the game sometimes but mostly it was just frustrating because I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. I didn’t have anybody to tell me how to hold the club or how to stand or anything else and so I finally just gave up. It doesn’t look that hard. Just hit the ball with the stick until it goes in the hole but evidently there is more to it than that.

Bruce and Karen, I know y’all to be avid golfers. Let me ask you some questions that might help my golf game. What is the most important part of the golf swing? Is it keeping your eye on the ball? Is it keeping your knees bent; maybe holding the club just right? What is the most important part?

Let me ask you another question. Why do you play golf? What is your motivation? I’m sure it’s fun but there has to be more to it. Why play golf? How does it feel when you really connect with the ball and make a long, straight drive? That has to be an awesome feeling. I bet that is really nice. I never could, so for me, it is just frustrating.

Some people live their Christian lives like I play golf. It doesn’t look that hard to a beginner, right? Just walk down the aisle and say a few magic words, maybe get baptized and start going to church. How hard can that be? But instead of living that full and abundant life that Jesus promised in John 10:10, you get frustrated and you don’t know what you’re doing wrong. You wonder if you even want to play this game anymore because you aren’t seeing all the promises of God you thought you would see.

Thankfully, we have a good coach in the Apostle Paul as he wrote to the church in Colossae which became the New Testament book of Colossians. What makes a good coach? Do you want a golf coach that has never played golf? Do you want me to be your golf coach? Of course not. You want a coach that has a lot of experience and has mastered the game to teach you how to do it.

Turn to Colossians 3 and let’s let Paul teach us how to live in peace and wisdom and gratitude. Does that describe your life right now? Would you say – or even better – would other people say your life was characterized by peace, wisdom and gratitude? Maybe you need a little coaching. Paul is a great coach. He said in Philippians 4, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

I want that! I want to be able to say truthfully that I am content no matter what is happening to me; no matter what this virus is doing; no matter what the government is doing or my wife is doing or my kids or my dogs. I am content. So, how do we do that?

Paul tells us in Colossians 3:1-17 that first we need to put some things off. Then we need to put some things on. And he tells us how to do that just like a good coach would. Colossians is in between Philippians and 1 Thessalonians. This is kind of a long passage but you really need to read all of it to get the full meaning. You’ll be glad you did.

Colossians 3:1-17 says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Going back to the golf analogy, sometimes the best thing a person like me could do is to get rid of all the bad habits I have developed over the years that keep me from playing golf well. Paul is writing to Christians here and what he is telling them is not how to be saved but how saved people ought to act and the first thing they have to do is lose all the bad habits that keep them from living the life Paul said they could have.

In this passage, Paul is specific about some bad habits and more general about others but this applies to whatever bad habits we all struggle with.  Maybe your bad habit is eating or drinking or otherwise putting something in your body that is not good for you.  Maybe it is something that comes out of your mouth or through your mind.  Maybe it is a place you go or something you choose to put before your eyes.  Paul did not intend to name every bad habit so I won’t either.  We don’t have to.  This passage applies to you and your situation no matter what your bad habit is.

Paul starts off by giving us an overview of how we should live.  We should get up every morning and set our hearts on things above.  That’s verse 1 and that sounds real good, doesn’t it?  But what does it mean?  What does it really look like for us to set our hearts on things above?  Does it mean we should just think about Heaven all day?

Well, there’s nothing wrong with thinking about Heaven.  We should probably do that more often but there is more to it than that.  Setting our hearts on things above means to concentrate on the eternal more than the temporal.  It means to focus more on what is going to last; what we are going to get rewarded for in Heaven rather than what might be rewarding in this life.

So, with that mindset, Paul starts to get a little more specific.  He says in verse 3 that we have died.  He is talking about our death to self that is represented with our baptism.  We know that baptism doesn’t save us but it represents our old self being put in the grave and our new self – in Christ – being raised from the dead.

Some people may not completely understand that when you became a Christian, you made the choice to make Jesus Lord of your life and I don’t think that is always explained well enough.  It means that what you want to do and how you want to live (your old self) is no longer your driving force.  It doesn’t mean you don’t have preferences anymore.  It means that you want what God wants for your life and nothing else matters.

I hear professing Christians say sometimes that, sure, they know what the Bible says, but they are going to do it their way instead.  Let me make this real clear.  That is your old nature and that is sin.  In verse 5, Paul actually says that we are to put to death that old nature and gives some examples of what that old nature looks like.

The commentaries tell me that this first list of five things is primarily sexual in nature, even the last one, greed.  It starts with sexual immorality which would be something like out and out prostitution.  Now, even prostitutes would say that is a bad habit, right? He goes on with impurity which might be something like living with someone you are not married to.  Lust would include wanting someone sexually that is not your spouse.  Evil desires might include looking at porn and down to that interesting word, greed, that might include something we might think is as harmless as comparing your spouse to somebody else.

Those are bad habits and Paul goes on to say in verse 6 that I don’t care who you are, God will punish that kind of lifestyle.  You used to live that way, Paul says, in your old nature.  That’s how unbelievers live.  Don’t be surprised when they live that way but we, as believers and as disciples of Jesus, don’t live that way.  The behaviors in that list are all things that are destructive to us.  1 Corinthians 6:18 says, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.”

He goes on to another list that is indicative of our old nature and it includes things we do that are destructive to other people.  This includes anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language and also lying.  Those are obviously bad habits but Paul goes on to say that all of these, whether sexual sins or other sins, are like clothes that we as Christians just don’t wear.

He already told us in verse 5 to put this stuff to death.  Have you ever had any clothes that need to be put to death?  You know, put out of their misery?  Ok, so here is today’s episode of “Todd’s Embarrassing Stories”.  I’m in middle school and I wore a pair of pants to school that I hadn’t worn in a while and didn’t realize until I got there that the pants had a small hole in the worst possible place.

I thought for most of the day that I was getting away with it until Renee York ever so nicely whispered for me to please keep myself covered because all the girls were laughing at me.  Yep.  True story.  What do you think happened to those pants when I got home?  I couldn’t kill ‘em fast enough.  I was mortified; embarrassed to death so I killed those pants in humiliation and that is just how we should all feel when we wear those clothes of our old nature.

When our bad habits come to light, we should be humiliated.  That is not how we are to be as followers of Christ.  We can’t live the full and abundant life God wants for us and it should be so embarrassing to us that we can’t stand it and will do whatever it takes to put those old habits; those old clothes to death.

In verses 9 and 10 Paul says that we should have taken off our old selves and should have put on the new self.  Now we have to move on to the meat in verse 12.  Are you still there?  Look at it.  Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 

Did you know that you, as Christians, are God’s chosen people?  Do you understand the significance of that?  Do you understand that the Creator of the universe, the great I AM, who just spoke the worlds into existence and at whose name Satan and all the demons quiver in fear…chose you?  He may or may not have chosen the other guy but that is not your concern.  God chose you and that is more than enough.

In verse 12, Paul makes that point and goes on to call us “holy”.  Do you feel holy?  I don’t but God calls us holy.  What does it mean to be holy?  It means to be set apart just for God.  It means to be different.  That’s us.  Right?  Then Paul says we are dearly loved.  Dearly loved by that same King of kings and Lord of lords.  Proven before the world was created and proven again to the point of sending His Son to die for our sins in our place.  Chosen.  Holy.  Loved.

I had a friend years ago (Tracy Morgan) that could play golf really well and he invited me out to play one time. I told him to feel free to give me any pointers he thought necessary. So, when I showed up wearing some raggedy old shorts and a tank top, that was the first thing he addressed. Before I ever took a swing, he said, “If you dress like a hack, you will play like a hack.” Now, I don’t know just how true that is in golf but I do see the pros on TV dressing pretty nice so maybe it is true.

But in our spiritual lives, it is absolutely true. Paul tells us in this passage to put off all those things that hurt others or ourselves. Take them off like clothes and put on all the things he tells us to put on. Take off that old man and put on the new man. You can’t live a full and abundant life; you can’t have peace and joy; you can’t be a faithful witness to others if you are wearing that old stuff. Take it off and burn it. Don’t go back to it and put it on. That’s not you anymore.

God has chosen us.  We are holy to Him and He will not share us with the world or our old nature.  He has proven His love to us and we should dress how He wants us to dress and He says to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Forget that old lifestyle; that old self, the old man with those bad habits.  We are new creations and we should dress like it.

I don’t want to hear you say, “Well, that’s just who I am. That’s how God made me. I’m just blunt. I just tell it like it is. I’ve always been angry. I’ve always been this or that. It’s how my daddy was or it’s just like my mama.” No! That is your old, sinful nature and that is sin. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are made new.” So, stop telling that lie about yourself and stop believing that lie about yourself.

Now, I want to close with one last piece of meat found in the last paragraph.  Verse 15 says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.”  That’s another one of those passages that sounds real pretty but it’s hard to know exactly how to do it.  That word “rule” is an athletic term and literally means “to preside at the games and distribute the prizes.”  In the Greek Olympic games they had judges or rulers.  We might call them umpires.

The peace of God is the “Umpire” in our believing hearts and churches.  When we obey the will of God, we have peace but when we step out of His will, we lose it.  (Wiersbe, Bible Exposition Commentary, V.2, page 139) How do you know what bad habits you need to forget?  Do you have peace in your heart while you are doing it?  If there is no peace, call that bad habit “out” like an umpire.

Lastly, look at verse 17.  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

And whatever you do…

And whatever you do…

Can you do this habit with peace and can you do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving Him thanks for it?  That’s the test.  If you can do whatever it is in peace and you can thank God for providing it and do it in His name, then wear those clothes.  But, if not, put those dirty clothes with all their embarrassing holes to death. That’s not you anymore and that is not what a representative of the King looks like. It’s also not how you live a full and abundant, peaceful, joyful life.

That is what the life of a Christian should look like. Does that describe your life? If not, then, if you are a Christian you need to figure out what to put off and what to put on. But maybe you aren’t truly a Christian. Maybe you don’t have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus. Maybe you have gone to church all your life and maybe you walked the aisle and said some pretty words but you know deep down that it didn’t really change you.

I’m reminded of an older couple (Grant and Mary Timberman) that came to me years ago. The man told me that he had been a faithful church member since he was a kid and had served in churches before in several ways but he had come to realize that it was just religion for him and he wasn’t sure he would go to Heaven when he died. So, we prayed together right there and he asked God to forgive him and save him and change him and they left with him feeling a huge burden had been released.

The next week, the same couple came back to me and the wife said, “What he did last week, that’s what I want to do right now. I want what he has!” She, too, had spent her life in church but had never truly believed in and committed her life to Jesus. If that is you today, I need to talk to you right now. Let’s pray.

“The Church in Galatia” – Galatians 1:6-9

Aren’t you glad you go to a church with no rules? Isn’t that better than having a lot of rules about what you have to wear and what you have to drive and rules that say you can’t eat brownies in the auditorium? Those are dumb rules, right? Let’s eat some brownies. Now, I have two pans of freshly baked brownies here. These brownies with the skull and crossbones on them are for the people that are very worried about getting the virus. I added a bunch of rat poison to these to kill the virus so you don’t have to worry about that. It might affect the taste a little bit but they are still good brownies.

Now, these over here are for the folks that are not as concerned about the virus. These are for the brave, the courageous folks that go without a mask to Walmart. These are for the people screaming to open Texas back up. If you want one of these brownies, just raise your hand. They only have a little bit of rat poison in them. You probably won’t even taste it at all. So…who wants which brownies? I’ll pass them around.

What? Nobody wants any brownies? Why not? We don’t have any rules around here about eating brownies. It’s okay. These just have a little bit of poison. These are virus-free brownies. These are probably virus-free brownies. So…you don’t want ANY rat poison? Is that it? Man, y’all are picky.

Now, let me ask you a question. What if I stood up here today and gave you some fresh, hot and wonderful spiritual brownies but I threw in a lot of poison? What if I stood up here and told you that Jesus and Allah and Buddha are all equally good ways to get to Heaven and that all God wanted is for you to be sincere? What would happen? You wouldn’t wait for the sermon to be over. You would justifiably kick me out and tell me to never come back, wouldn’t you? An overt amount of spiritual poison is not much of a threat for a mature church like this, is it?

But what if I stood up here and told you, like some pastors are doing right now in churches all over America, that Jesus is the only way to Heaven; Jesus is God and is alive today and wants to have a relationship with you and all you have to do is believe and be baptized and take the Lord’s Supper and come to church to get to Heaven? How does that sound? That sounds right, doesn’t it? The problem is, there is just a little bit of life-killing poison in there.

Jesus said that to go to Heaven all you have to do is believe in Him. Period. He didn’t say anything about the Lord’s Supper or church or being good or keeping the Old Testament Laws or anything else. So, which Gospel is the more dangerous in the church today? The Gospel with a lot of poison that says you can do anything as long as you are sincere or the Gospel with just a little bit of poison that says Jesus plus anything else? The most dangerous Gospel is not the Gospel at all and Paul tells us that in Galatians chapter 1.

We are continuing our look at the early churches in the New Testament to see what they did right and what they did wrong and we have come to the letter Paul wrote to the church in Galatia. The Book of Galatians is in between 2 Corinthians and Ephesians and is overall a letter of grace. It talks more about God’s grace than probably any other book in the Bible. What is grace? How would you define it?

There are different ways that it can be used but Paul uses it here as a means of saying God’s unmerited favor. We didn’t do anything to deserve it. God just chose to show His grace and favor because of Who He is. Let’s turn to Galatians 1:6-9. Here, Paul talks a lot about the Gospel, which simply means “Good News” so let’s see what Paul says about grace and the Gospel of Jesus. Galatians 1:6-9 says,

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- 7which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse! 9As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse!”

A farmer went into his banker and announced that he had bad news and good news. "First, the bad news..."Well," said the farmer, "I can't make my mortgage payments. And that crop loan I've taken out for the past 10 years -- I can't pay that off, either. Not only that, I won't be able to pay you the couple of hundred thousand I still have outstanding on my tractors and other equipment. So, I'm going to have to give up the farm and turn it all over to you for whatever you can salvage out of it." Silence prevailed for a minute and then the banker said, "What's the good news?" "The good news is that I'm going to keep on banking with you," said the farmer. (Bits & Pieces, April 30, 1992)

Have you ever gotten “good news” like that? I heard an old bull rider tell the story of getting his head stomped on by a bull and the cowboy went to the hospital where the doctor said, “I have good news. You’re lucky. It could have been a lot worse.” To which the old guy said, “Well, doc, I been lucky before and it didn’t hurt near this bad.”

There is good news like that and there is the Good News of Jesus Christ. And before we go any further, somebody tell me the Gospel. What is the Good News and don’t make it any harder or complicated than it has to be?

The Gospel is just that Jesus came to earth and lived a sinless life so He could die on the cross to pay the price that God the Father had set as the payment for sin. Jesus then rose from the dead and lives today so we can have a relationship with Him. And all we have to do is believe in Him. Period.

John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” That is the Good News, the Gospel, and the reason why it is called the Good News is because we don’t have anything to do with it except to accept that free gift by faith.

The Apostle Paul started this church in Galatia and, as usual, as soon as it was on its feet, he moved on to start other churches. But while Paul was at that church, do you think he ever told them the Good News? Do you think he ever shared the Gospel with them? I think that’s a pretty safe bet. I am pretty positive that the Gospel was brought up, probably many times as it was what all New Testament churches were and are built on.

But here in Galatians chapter one we see Paul start off with his usual, “Hey, how ya doing? It’s your buddy Paul, grace and peace and blah, blah, blah…” and then he just unloads on them right off the bat in verse 6. “Are you people out of your ever-loving minds?” Don’t you know he wanted to say that? He was a little nicer but not much. He had evidently heard that this church that he had started had changed and was now accepting as truth something besides the true Gospel.

He says, “I am astonished…” It means to be blown away and not understand at all. “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting…” They haven’t been lured away subtly. This is not a small slip by accident. They went quickly after something else, deserting God, not just putting Him off to the side but completely abandoning Him and found something else and called that the Gospel.

Now, I have some questions. Number one: why? Why would somebody replace the Gospel that we just laid out? I think there are probably several reasons. Some people might replace the true Gospel for money or power. There is always going to be those kinds of people. Maybe somebody will say, “You have to believe in Jesus and then send your check to this address made payable to me and you will be saved.” That’s very possible.

Somebody else might say you have to believe in Jesus but you don’t have to go to church. You don’t have to repent. You don’t have to pray or anything else. Just walk the aisle and say a few words and you are saved. Now you have a ticket to Heaven plus fire insurance to keep you out of Hell. But that’s not adding to the Gospel. It is taking away from it. And that might sound good and make a person real popular but it’s not truth.

But I honestly think that some people change the Gospel because it is just too easy. There has to be more to it. Surely you have to do something or give something or give up something but Jesus said all you have to do is believe.

Now, let’s just stop right here and talk about what it really means to believe. That word that Jesus used in John 3:16 is “pisteuo” – pist-yoo-o – and, according to my 39 pound Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance, means not just to believe mentally but also to be persuaded of and to place confidence in, reliance upon and be committed to.

Now, here is my standard illustration for what it means to believe. It’s an old demonstration. I’ve done it a thousand times and it was old before I started using it but it’s the best visualization I know of what it means to believe.

This is just an ordinary chair. I can say I have faith in this chair. I can say I believe that this chair will hold me up. I can look it over and study it and it appears to be sturdy and I can say I have great faith in this chair. But standing over here, am I really believing? No, not until I sit in the chair completely.

Now, some people will say they believe but they only put a little bit of weight on it. They are just barely touching the chair and it may look like they believe but they don’t really believe. You don’t actually have saving faith until you fully commit your life (in this instance, sitting in the chair with your feet up). And every time I do this, I wonder if this is going to be the time the chair breaks and we will laugh about this for a hundred years.

So, I say all of that to say that when Jesus said all you have to do is believe, He means all you have to do is fully commit your life to His plan and His will and if the chair breaks, the chair breaks and in the end, we will laugh about it because even that is God’s will and sometimes God has a strange sense of humor.

So, I asked the question why. Now, let me ask the question, how? How do some people change the Gospel? In what ways? We kind of skipped over this answering why but sometimes we see people adding to the Gospel and sometimes people will take away from the Gospel.

I had a dear friend come visit me the other day. He is the pastor of another small church in the area of another denomination. He is actually part of my “crazy pastor” group that I have told you about but he is the least crazy one of the bunch. But he has told me that he has some crazy members of his church. Those are my words, not his. He told me that he knows of some people in his church that truly believe in the Gospel of Jesus but that if you get to Heaven, having done everything right and believed in the right way and in the right One but you weren’t baptized…that God is going to see you and frown and say, “Go away. I never knew you.”

He said it’s the same with the Lord’s Supper and even instruments in worship. Can you believe that? Some people do. Some people believe the Gospel means you believe in Jesus AND refuse to worship God with musical instruments. That is so sad to me.

On the other hand, there are a lot of really popular preachers out there that say the Gospel means to believe in Jesus but you don’t have to really commit your life. You can just barely sit on the chair and you can just barely go to church or just barely pray or just barely change and as long as you are sincere (whatever that means) in your love for God, that God understands you aren’t perfect. So, why try? That sounds pretty good, right? Too bad it isn’t truth and if you believe it you will wind up right in Hell.

I want to give you a couple of sentences that should be a red flag when you hear them. They actually aren’t even full sentences but if you hear somebody say that the Gospel means to believe in Jesus AND…that’s a red flag. Or if you hear somebody say the Gospel means to believe in Jesus BUT…that, too, is a red flag. I say it’s a red flag because maybe they finish the sentence with, “You have to believe in Jesus AND…isn’t that wonderful?” Well, that’s okay. A little weird but possible and okay.

But if anybody ever adds to or takes away from the Gospel being belief in Jesus then that is a false Gospel. Even if the thing added is a good thing. Even if they say you have to believe and be baptized or believe and take the Lord’s Supper or believe and follow the Law or anything else, that is a false Gospel, which Paul says in our text is not a Gospel at all.

The Gospel means “good news” and if you have to be baptized along with belief in Jesus then there is no lasting peace in that and it is not good news. What if the guy baptizing you didn’t do it right? What if you didn’t get all the way wet or he said the wrong thing or you did it with the wrong motive. Oh dear. That’s not good news because it somehow depends on you or somebody else. But the Gospel, the true Good News, doesn’t depend on you or anybody else. It only depends on God through His Son Jesus and His great and amazing grace – that unmerited favor of God. Thank you, Lord.

Now, one last quick question before we close. We answered why and how. Now, what? What should we do when we see or hear somebody preaching or teaching a false Gospel? What do you think? Well, go back to our passage in Galatians 1 and look again at what Mr. Subtle says about it. Paul was never one to sugarcoat anything, was he?

He says in verse 8 and repeats in verse 9 that anybody that preaches another Gospel besides the one that Paul preached, let him be eternally condemned. “Eternally condemned” is “anathema” in Greek and it means just what it sounds like. That person is headed to Hell so you stay away from them.

In 2 John it says, “I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.”

In other words, if you hear somebody preaching a false Gospel, don’t listen to them...ever.  Don’t bring them into your house through the radio or the TV or internet. You stay away from them and let God work in their lives to change that false teaching.

When I was talking to my pastor friend the other day, we got to laughing about how different some of us are in this crazy pastor group. I told him what my brother in law, Randy, told me one time that helped me. He said there are several passages in scripture that talk about how the church is made up of a bunch of different members but we are all one body. You know that. We have talked about that a lot. But until recently, I have always taken that in context of just one church like Christ Fellowship.

We know that Christ Fellowship has a bunch of different kinds of people but it helped me to be reminded that Christ Fellowship is not the only church. There is the whole global Christian church that is a body as well and while what those other crazy pastors do and believe may be way different than what we do and believe, I have no doubt that they believe in the same true Gospel that we believe and so we will see them in Heaven.

But not long ago, we all met at a certain church in the area and it came out that the pastor of this church was adding all kinds of stuff to the Gospel of Jesus. He believed the one true Gospel but he also believed you have to do this ceremony and pray in just this way and add these folks to the One that we pray to. You know what happened? He was never invited back. As one of the guys so eloquently put it, we gave him the right foot of fellowship.

Now, nobody got mad or called him names. We just don’t fellowship, much less worship, with that guy. Paul says in verse 7 that some people “pervert” the Gospel. That word “pervert” means to take something and twist it into something it is not supposed to be. Satan loves to do that. He loves to take something God has given and just twist it into something completely different. He has done it with love and marriage. He has done it with work and money and he especially likes to do it with the one and only way to get to Heaven.

He wants you to think that surely there has to be more to it. Surely you have to work for it and yet you don’t really expect to have to change things in your life. That would be crazy. But the Gospel of God through the grace of Jesus is simply to believe in Him and fully commit yourself to Him and allow Him to change you however He wants to. It is simple but it’s not always easy. But without it, there is no way to Heaven. There is no grace. There is no lasting peace. There is no joy in the difficult times. Accept it right now as a gift wherever you are.

“The Church in Corinth” – Pt 2 – 1 Corinthians 12:12-27

Okay, before we get started, I need to ask your opinion about something. I should have asked Lois to do this at the announcement time but I forgot. As you know, we haven’t been having evening services here since the whole virus thing started but I don’t see any reason why we can’t meet here in the auditorium. So, I need to know if y’all want to have services as usual tonight or do you want to continue to cancel it?

You want to meet tonight? Are you sure? Because we don’t have to. Nobody will ever know. I’ll even put something on Facebook saying what a great time we had as four people were saved and two vowed to be missionaries, all the while we’re all home in our jammies eating popcorn and watching a movie. What do you think? Why not?

Is coming to church tonight really all that important? Now, some of you better stay quiet because you never come on Sunday night anyway. But for you others, is coming to church really all that important? Do you have to come every time the doors are open or is less okay? How many times a month is okay? Where is the cut-off between okay and sin? Is it four times a month? Is four times a month okay with God but three times considered sinful? What’s the number? I need to know because I want to do the very least I have to do and still be okay with God.

That’s what it boils down to, isn’t it? Isn’t that really what we are saying when we skip church? Aren’t we really saying that church is not that important and we can choose to hang out at the house or the lake or the golf course or whatever and we can still be right with God? How important is it to be right with God? We know that to have powerful and effective prayers, we need to be righteous. Is anything else involved?

Look, I completely understand some people that are at high-risk of getting or transmitting the virus and are not comfortable leaving their house if they don’t have to. That’s wise. I have advised several people to just stay home for a while. It doesn’t mean you have a lack of faith or anything like that especially when God has given us the technology to be able to put it on Facebook (even though Facebook has its problems). And we will talk about our options even as we stay home later.

But  right now, let’s talk about what is the least amount of righteousness we can have and still be considered righteous. What’s the least amount of kingdom work we have to do? How close to God is close enough? How much sin is permissible? How many good works do we have to do to still be in God’s good graces? Do you ever think about that? Oh, no, of course you don’t, right?

My Uncle Bill graduated Army boot camp right after WWII and he said they immediately shipped his platoon over to Germany on a huge Navy ship. He said the trip took about three weeks if I remember right and every morning they called for all hands on deck and they would give out the work detail for the day. There were Navy and Army troops on board and everybody was expected to work cleaning, painting, fixing something every day.

He said they lined up in multiple lines all across the deck and every day he would make sure he was at the back of one of the lines. As the commanding officer went down each line giving the men their orders, he would wait until he got to his line and then Uncle Bill would just step over to the line the commander just came from. He said it worked every day. He never got assigned any work that whole trip. He just went back to his bunk and slept or read or did whatever he wanted to do.

Now, I have to admit that’s pretty funny in this instance, especially knowing my uncle, but too many of us want to overcome Satan and be able to fight off temptation and respond correctly to Satan’s attacks and yet we also want to do the very least we have to do spiritually. If you will turn to 1 Corinthians 12, we will see how hurtful that is to you and to the whole body but we will also see some ways we can help each other with this.

We are continuing our study of the New Testament churches and we are looking today at the second part of our study on the church in Corinth. 1 Corinthians is between Romans and 2 Corinthians which is next to Galatians, all written by Paul to those churches and to this church. We will look specifically at 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 today.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27 says, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[a] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

Let’s stop right there. That’s plenty. Paul goes on to talk more about how the church is the body of Christ but let’s chew that up and swallow it before getting another bite. Now, I did some research – and you know what that means. I Googled it – and I found what doctors believe to be the least useful part of the human body. Do you know what it is? No, it’s not the Democrat’s brain. It is the plica semilunaris. The plica semilunaris is the little part of your eye right in the inside corner of your eye that produces that crusty “sleep” in your eye in the morning when you wake up. That’s all it does and yet God has given every one of us two of them. He designed us all to have a plica semilunaris.

Now, similarly, this is also the least important part of this message – knowing what a plica semilunaris is – and I only bring it up to say that even the least important part is still important and is still designed by God, used by God and intended to be there. Every part of the body is important. Look at verse 12 again.

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with…Christ.” It seems like he would say, “and so it is with the church” because all of this is describing the church. I heard someone say that while Jesus was here on earth He had a flesh and bone body to do His work but since He ascended back to Heaven, Jesus now uses our flesh and bone bodies to do His work and we do that work through the church.

Now, the wrong thing to take away from this is that God only uses you when you are at Christ Fellowship, 1301 N. Main St. in Lake Bridgeport on Sundays. This building is nice and lovely and a gift from God but it is not the church. You are the church. You are part of the body everywhere you go. You are part of Christ Fellowship and Christ Fellowship is part of the global church everywhere we go.  

But there are three things that I do want us to take away from this and the first thing is that we need one another in this body. Paul says in verses 15 and 16 that just because some part of the body says they are not a such and such then they aren’t part of the body, that doesn’t make it so. When you come to be a member of Christ Fellowship, or really of any like-minded church, there are, like American Express says, benefits of membership.

The most obvious benefits are the abilities to teach and to vote. If you are not a full-fledged member then you are not allowed to teach a class or lead a Bible study, nor can you vote when we have the occasional business meeting. But the real benefit of membership comes from having a loving family to support you and care for you when the inevitable crisis comes.

A while back there was a lady in our church that was needing something and she asked and the church responded and helped her with whatever it was that she was needing. I don’t remember what it was but people in the church jumped on it and solved the problem. I don’t remember exactly how she put it but she asked the question something along the lines of, “Why are y’all doing all this?” I just kind of shrugged and said it was because that’s what family does.

Have you ever stubbed your toe really bad? There’s not much more painful than that, right? I did it not long ago in the middle of the night.  I got out of bed and headed to the bathroom and hit the couch with my little toe. I thought I was going to be sick. I just stood there as shock waves like electricity when up and down my spine and even into my hands. Then my stomach got queasy. I got a headache for a while. It was awful…all because my little pinky toe was in pain.

It’s the same with the body of Christ.  When one hurts, the whole body hurts and if you aren’t plugged in and active then you don’t know when the body is hurting and you aren’t able to help when another is hurting nor are you able to be helped when you are hurting. If someone else is hurting, do you know that you may be the only one that can help them? That’s right. We see it all the time.

God has allowed you to go through certain things in your life so that you might be able to help others when they go through similar problems. Who else and who better to help them than you? But if you aren’t plugged in and active, you miss out and they miss out.

The next thing Paul shows us in this passage is in verses 17-20 and that is that we are all different. Some of us are really different but we are all loved, right? He says there are many parts but one body. Now, think about it. Wouldn’t it be a really great church to go to where everybody was alike? Wouldn’t it be exciting to belong to a body where all the members thought the same and looked the same and had all the same hobbies and likes and dislikes? No! It wouldn’t!

God has mixed us all up and thrown us all together like a big ol’ salad, with bikers and cowboys, some smart, some athletic, some with administration skills, some with building talent. Some drive Jeeps, some like to walk. Big, small, bald or pony tails, God has put us together for a reason and has given us unity like only He can. Now, as our church grows, that unity will be tested. You just watch. But we want those differences because a church will be spiritually stunted without them. When we get to Heaven, God is not going to ask you why you weren’t more like Billy Graham or why weren’t you more like Brian or Lois or anybody else. He’s going to ask why you didn’t use the gifts and talents that He gave you to edify, encourage, support and help the body of Christ.

Now, lastly, look at verse 27. It says, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” I asked the question in a church-wide email the other day, “What is the purpose of the church?” and there are lots of good answers. The church exists for the fellowship of believers, the discipleship of new believers, the evangelism of non-believers. We go to church to be encouraged, to be inspired, even convicted of sin. We are here to help each other, to learn and to teach. A big part is worship and prayer. That’s all good and right and biblical. But verse 27 says we are the body of Christ. So, what was Christ’s purpose on this earth? Why did Jesus come to earth?

Yes, he came to teach and to heal and to inspire and prophesy but we know He especially came to earth to die. It was the Father’s plan from the beginning of time to send His perfect Son Jesus to die on the cross to pay the price for sin that we could never pay. Now, some of you are getting nervous hoping I don’t say that our purpose as a church is to die. No, that’s not the ultimate purpose for us and it wasn’t the ultimate purpose for Jesus.

The ultimate purpose for Jesus was to glorify the Father. Now, I hope some of you are asking, “Where does he get that in scripture?” Well, I’m glad you asked because we get it in red letters from the mouth of Jesus in John chapter 12. You ought to turn there and read it yourself. In John 12, Jesus is telling His disciples about His imminent death. He is being very honest and open with them and doesn’t want them to be surprised so He tells them that it is the Father’s plan. Then He says in verse 27, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!”

He says the reason He came was to die on the cross but that ultimately God’s name would be glorified. That was His purpose and that is the body of Christ’s purpose. Our goal, our reason for being, our existence as a church should be to glorify God. Everything we do around here and anywhere else we go should be to glorify God. We worship, pray, teach, preach, sing, eat, fellowship, play games, minister to the RV park, hand out flyers, have a food pantry, go to the jails, ride motorcycles and minister to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated all for one reason: to glorify God.

Yes, we get blessed and have fun and store up treasures in Heaven while we do all of that but that’s not our ultimate reason. We want God to look good. We want the neighbors and all the world to see God’s grace and love and mercy, His forgiveness and the peace and wisdom He gives. We want them to see that it is God at work in our lives individually and as a church as we love each other even though we are different and we want them to see the unity that He gives. We want to let God look good in our lives so the question we started out with this morning about how many times should we go to church in a month is a dumb question.

We should be asking, not how little can I do and still be righteous, but how much can I do because God has made me righteous? In what ways can I show my friends, family and especially lost neighbors the glory of God? How can we make God look good, especially in the difficult times and in times of great crisis like this virus? Having fun and feeding the neighborhood are good. Ministering and teaching and singing are all great but it is glorifying God and making Him look good that brings His power to our efforts.

Yes, you can worship God on the golf course on Sunday morning. You can pray at work and you can sing “Glorious Day” while mowing the lawn just like you can here. But is God getting the glory like He would if you were here at church? Would you be able to help the body or be helped by the body of Christ if you aren’t here? What does it tell your neighbors or other church members that may be young in the faith when you choose to stay home because there is something good on TV?

But I hear ya. I understand that you are watching on Facebook or you are reading this as a letter in jail and you can’t make it to church on Sundays, maybe because of the virus or some other sickness. You can still be plugged in. No, there is no substitute for being here in person and worshiping and fellowshipping with the family but think of what the New Testament church did. They didn’t have Facebook. They wrote each other letters. Today you can do the same thing. Do you have any idea how encouraging it is to get a handwritten letter, note or card in the mail? If nothing else, send a text. Make a comment on Facebook that you are watching and praying for someone in particular. Don’t let this virus or anything else be an excuse to separate yourself from the body of Christ.

Do you really want to overcome Satan and his lies? Do you really want revival in our country, in our church, in your house? Are you willing to do what it takes to genuinely respond correctly when Satan attacks? If you’re not, I understand. It’s not easy. But don’t expect to live the full and abundant life God wants you to live and don’t expect God’s full power in your life. It’s that simple…and that difficult.

In fact, you can’t do even that on your own.  It takes a close relationship with God through His Son Jesus to be able to even bring God glory. That starts in your life when you ask God for forgiveness of your sins and you repent of those sins and trust Him to be Lord of your life. Do that right now.

Invitation / Prayer     J.S. Bach said, "All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God; where this is not remembered there is no real music but only a devilish hub-bub."

Ben, let’s sing one more song.

“The Church in Corinth, Pt. 1” – 1 Corinthians 1:10-17

I want to do something fun this morning. Do you remember in grade school, maybe in music class, when the teacher taught you to sing, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”? Then you did it in a round. (I think that’s what you call it.) One side of the class would start by singing, “Row, row, row your boat…” and would continue on but the other side of the class would start right after that with the same thing. Remember? Let’s try that. Can we?

But I want to do it a little bit different. This side will sing, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” while this side sings AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” Okay, ready? C’mon. You know the words. “Back in black, I hit the sack, I've been too long I'm glad to be back” No? Why not? It won’t work, will it? You can’t have one side of the church singing one thing while the other side sings a completely different song. It’s confusing. It makes no sense. Not to mention we aren’t really going to sing either one of those songs in church, are we? Some of you hoodlums might like it but we aren’t.

One group singing one thing while another group sings something else is basically what Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians chapter one. Paul wrote at least two letters that we know of to this church and probably another that got lost somewhere. I’m sure the Corinthians would like to think that it was because Paul loved them so much that he sent them those letters. But actually, it was because they were so messed up! This poor church struggled with everything.

Paul started this church and stayed there for a year and a half and then left it in the hands of Apollos. Apollos was very eloquent. He was a great speaker and a godly man but he had some doctrinal issues that caused some problems at this church but a lot of people really loved him. Can you imagine the difficulties in starting a church 2,000 years ago? There was no New Testament written like we have it. There was no association of churches that could be called if there was a problem or question. Poor Apollos couldn’t email Paul and ask him a quick question. All of that had to be done with letters that might take months to deliver, if they ever got there.

Also, for the church in Corinth, they were surrounded by immorality. Everywhere you turned there were shrines to false idols and temples full of prostitutes and this whole Christianity thing was pretty much brand new so there was a steep learning curve. So, Paul had his work cut out for him with this church and it took at least two strongly worded and very detailed letters to address all the problems.

We are continuing our look at the first century churches and seeing what they did right and what they did wrong. We looked in Acts for the first two to see what they did right and the next two will be in 1 Corinthians to see what they did wrong. The good news is that church unity has always been one of our church’s strong points. The bad news is that Satan tries every day to change that. Every day he is shooting fiery arrows at our church trying to find the chink in the armor. Every day he is waging war against us so every day we have to remember what scripture says and put on the full armor of God. (Ephesians 6)

Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 today and see the very first thing Paul wanted to address with the church in Corinth. 1 Corinthians is between Romans and 2 Corinthians which is next to Galatians in the New Testament and Paul basically starts his letter by saying, “Hey, how ya doing?” And then he starts in on them. Let’s read it in 1 Corinthians 1:10-17.

I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ." 13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel-not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Let me ask you a question. How many of you drink coffee? For those of you that drink it, how many of you put cream and / or sugar in it? How many drink it black? Next question: which is better, football or baseball? How many would consider yourselves to be a cat person? How many are dog people? Do you like your steak rare, medium or well-done?

Now, if somebody thinks differently than you do about any of those things, are they wrong? Of course not. Well, maybe cat people. No, I’m kidding. No. Just because you disagree with somebody about things that are preferences doesn’t make the other person wrong. They’re just different and that’s a good thing. How boring life would be if we were all the same! There is a difference in being unified and being uniform.

Did you know that Jesus prayed for you while He was here on earth? He did. In John 17, Jesus prayed for all believers and His prayer was that we be unified. You parents know how important it is to be unified in front of your kids. You may disagree about some things amongst yourselves. You don’t always see eye-to-eye about things. But you work it out and tell your kids one thing, not two different things. To tell your kids two different contradictory things is just confusing and unfair. Now the kids don’t know who to believe or what is expected.

As important as it is to be clear in your message with your kids, it is at least as important that a church be clear in its message. This world is confusing enough and some people, in their search for spiritual truth, get too many messages about what is right or wrong or expected or not expected. The church needs to be crystal clear about it.

As usual, Paul says more in one sentence than most people say in a paragraph and in this first sentence, Paul says a mouthful. Look at it again. Verse 10 says, “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.”

I appeal to you, brothers… Stop right there. He used the word “brothers” to remind them that they were a family. We use that word a lot around here. As small as we are in number, Christ Fellowship is a tightknit family of believers. We have a lot in common but not everything. But because we are a family, we share good times and bad times. We help each other; support each other; hold each other accountable when we make mistakes. It’s not always pretty but I don’t know what people do who don’t have a church family to rely on.

There are several layers to pull back on this subject of unity. Obviously, Paul was writing this to one church and wanted that one church to be unified but there is a difference in the unity of a single church and the unity of the global church. As a single church, Christ Fellowship believes and acts in ways that some other Baptist churches might not. That’s okay. But as a Christian church; as a God-fearing, Bible-believing, Jesus-following and Spirit-filled church, we have a small list of very important beliefs that we will not give an inch on.

For instance, all Christian churches ought to be united in our belief that Jesus is the Son of God and died on the cross to provide forgiveness of our sins. Buddha is not included in there. Allah is not part of the way. We don’t give in on that at all. We are united as Christians in that belief. But some Christian churches are Baptist. Some are Church of Christ or Methodist or any number of other things and while some of those guys have some crazy thoughts or habits, at least to us, I expect to see most of them in Heaven.

But Paul is not telling the Baptist to be unified with the Methodist. He is telling that church in Corinth and this church in Lake Bridgeport that we need to be unified as a family of believers. There are a couple of ways that disunity can happen. The first one is probably not thought of very often but the church needs to know and remember its specific calling. Every Christian church in the world is called to make disciples. We are all called to show love and live lives that reflect Jesus. But each specific church has a specific job to do and if a church forgets or doesn’t know what their specific task is then things get messy or watered down or just plain not effective.

Let me give you an example. Who are we at Christ Fellowship called to minister to? I don’t know how or when or who got this started but I believe God laid it on all of hearts that this church is called to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated. We didn’t ask for that demographic. I doubt that most churches ask for their job or everybody would say they are called to the rich people on the beach or something, right?

But God has called us to minister specifically to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated. It’s not an easy job with a small crowd but if God has called you to this church, He has called you to that ministry as well. So, what is your part? You need to do your part if we are going to be united.

Now, some churches are called to minister specifically to kids or the military or to young couples or homeless squids or whatever. There is a church for everybody nowadays. Cowboy churches and biker churches and hippy churches and churches that meet in houses. Nothing wrong with any of that but we need to remember that we can’t do it all. Those are good things and good churches but if we try to support or do everything that comes down the pike, we aren’t going to last mentally, physically or spiritually.

I get requests every day in the mail or email from what I am sure are good causes but I don’t bring them to the church because they are not what God has called us specifically to do. Now, I would like to see us work closer with Cates Street Baptist Church in Bridgeport, not because I have family there, but because they do a great work feeding underprivileged kids. Underprivileged is a nicer way of saying poor and so that fits with our job description so maybe we can do that even though, y’all know, I don’t even like kids. 😊

But there is another aspect of this unity that we need to talk about. There is another, more obvious layer to peel back and that is the unity that gets broken when two people in the church disagree about something in the church. I say it’s obvious because that is the layer the world likes to see. They just love it when a church splits over the color of the carpet and they go, “See? See? Those hypocrites! They aren’t the family they said they were. I knew it. I don’t want any part of that religion stuff. Let’s go to the bar.” And Satan laughs his little red head off.

But let me give you a wonderful example of how it is supposed to work. The Lord allowed all this to happen just this week so that I could have a good illustration for this sermon. It started off being a pretty big decision that needed to be made in a hurry and I just made it. I got some wise council but I should have run it past the Leadership Team of the church before I did it but I thought it was the right thing to do and surely everybody would agree.

When it was over, I sent an email to the Leadership Team telling them what happened to keep them in the loop and would you believe it, not everybody thought like I did? I know. It’s crazy. I got an email in response and, I’ll be honest, I thought things might go bad. This is the kind of thing that would go bad in some churches but the email was polite but direct and they gave their reasons for why they believed the way they did and in the end, everything was said in a way that showed love for me, love for the church and love for God.

We all discussed it and came to a consensus in love, although not everybody agreed with what needed to be done. Nobody got upset. Nobody called anybody any names, at least not in any emails I got. No blood was shed. I don’t think anybody even got their feelings hurt and I want to share with you what I believe is the secret to doing that. The way to handle church conflict – and there will be conflict and that’s okay and to be expected – the way to handle it is as soon as something comes up; as soon as you sense any trouble or friction or the slightest difference of opinion, the first thing you need to do is get right with God.

You get yourself right with God. Don’t worry about the other person’s relationship with the Lord. Make sure you are where you are supposed to be in God’s eyes. Proverbs 16:1 says, “To man belongs the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the proper answer of the tongue.” I pray all the time, “Lord, help me to know what to say.” I’m praying it right now. I’m reminded of Nehemiah in the second chapter of his book when the king asks him why he is sad and he tells the king that his hometown of Jerusalem had been demolished and the king then asked him what he wanted.

It says that Nehemiah prayed and then answered the king. It had to have been one of those breath prayers. You know what I mean. You have one instant to pray, “Lord, help me to know what to say.” If you have plenty of time, that’s great to be able to go to God and seek His face but sometimes all you have is an instant. Use it and make sure you are right with God, no unconfessed sin in your life to be a barrier between you and Him, and ask Him for wisdom. He wants to give you wisdom. James 1:5 tells us that so do that first in a conflict. 1 Peter 4:11 says, “If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.” How are you going to do that without prayer?

The next thing you do is remember something Paul said in Romans 12. He said, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

This can be hard to remember in the heat of a conflict but you have to or you will respond incorrectly. You, as a church member, do not belong to yourself. You belong to me and I belong to you and we all belong to each other. That’s why saying we are family is so appropriate. You might know, though, that sometimes family members can be way meaner to each other than friends or even enemies. That is not how it should be. You have a responsibility before God to protect your family and to speak the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:15)

Talk is cheap. Love is hard. Getting your feelings hurt is easy. Responding with godly words is hard. Wanting to get your own way is easy. Protecting the family can be hard. Do you want to know what causes churches to split? Do you know why there are divisions as Paul called them in verse 10? That original Greek word that Paul uses there is “schismata.” It means division and it is where we get our word schism. Do you know why some churches have schisms?

You can always trace it back to sin somewhere. If there is a divide or division in the church, there is sin in the church. One or both parties have pride or a lack of love or a desire for power that is sinful and Paul says stop it! Before Paul, Jesus said in Matthew 22: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Get right with God and treat your family with love and Christ Fellowship will continue to be a lighthouse in Lake Bridgeport and will continue to minister specifically to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated.

Today, if you are here and have never joined our little group of hoodlums, I mean family, we would love for you to let us know. The first and really only question I will ask you is, are you a follower of Jesus? I’ll ask you to tell me about it and then, after you have paid your dues and entry fees – no, I’m kidding. It doesn’t cost any money. But as family there is a responsibility. We take seriously the words in red by Jesus that say to love God and love your neighbor. We don’t put up with anything else.

Maybe today, you are here or in Facebook world or you are reading this as a letter and you don’t have a relationship with the Lord, much less a relationship with a church. Life for you is harder than it should be. Where do you go for help and support and unconditional love if you don’t know God and don’t have a church? But you can.

Call on Almighty God today, right where you are and tell Him you want to have His forgiveness for your sin. Tell Him what you have done. He knows but He wants you to acknowledge it and when you do, He is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Believe in Him and make Him Lord of your life and He will change your life today and will continue to change you until you see Him in Heaven. Do it right now as the music plays.