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My Part in Fulfilling Christ’s Vision with Pastor Rick Warren · Voice of Rick warren

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  Speaker 1: We're in a short series that I'm calling The Awesome
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  Speaker 1: Power of Vision. And in the last message, we looked
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  Speaker 1: at Christ's vision for his family, which is the church.
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  Speaker 1: And if you remember, I only shared the first half
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  Speaker 1: of it. And so today I want to share the
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  Speaker 1: second half of Christ's vision for his family. Unity is
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  Speaker 1: the soul of fellowship. If you destroy a church's unity,
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  Speaker 1: you rip the heart out of the body of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Unity is the essence. Unity is the core of how
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  Speaker 1: God wants us to experience life together in his church.
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  Speaker 1: Unity in the church is so important. I think I
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  Speaker 1: mentioned this last week. The Bible has far more to
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  Speaker 1: say about Christians living in harmony and unity than it
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  Speaker 1: says about heaven or it says about hell. Did you
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  Speaker 1: know that? God wants you to experience true unity, true community,
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  Speaker 1: true oneness, true harmony with other believers. Now, of course,
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  Speaker 1: in heaven, we're going to experience this real community perfectly.
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  Speaker 1: But you know what? God wants us to practice it
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  Speaker 1: here on earth. Now, nothing is more valuable to God
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  Speaker 1: than his church. It is his bride. It is his body.
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  Speaker 1: It is his flock. The Bible tells us that Christ
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  Speaker 1: died for the church. It says that in Ephesians. That's
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  Speaker 1: why the unity of God's family was the number one
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  Speaker 1: topic on Jesus' mind as he approached the cross. Why?
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  Speaker 1: He was going to die for the church. If there
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  Speaker 1: had been something more important to Jesus, you can be
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  Speaker 1: sure he would have prayed about it right before the cross.
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  Speaker 1: But in John 17, which is Jesus' prayer before his crucifixion,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus mentions his vision for our unity multiple times in
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  Speaker 1: John 17. Remember, I asked you this last week to
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  Speaker 1: read John 13 to 17 several times during the week.
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  Speaker 1: Because in John 17, 20 to 21, Jesus prayed this
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  Speaker 1: for you. He said, I'm praying for all who will
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  Speaker 1: believe in me because of my disciples' testimony. And my
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  Speaker 1: prayer for them is that they'll be unified as one Father,
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  Speaker 1: just as you and I are one, may they be unified,
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  Speaker 1: united as one. Now, like every human parent, our heavenly
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  Speaker 1: father wants to see his children get along with each other.
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  Speaker 1: You want your kids to get along. You want your
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  Speaker 1: grandkids to get along. And so today we're gonna look
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  Speaker 1: at how we can do that, how we can get
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  Speaker 1: along better as brothers and sisters in the family of God.
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  Speaker 1: Let me summarize last week's message for those of you
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  Speaker 1: who missed it. On the outline, there are 12 statements
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  Speaker 1: that summarize why unity is so important to the church.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm not gonna try to share all the scripture
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  Speaker 1: verses that we looked at last week. In fact, I'm
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  Speaker 1: just gonna give you these 12 statements. But why is
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  Speaker 1: unity in the church so important? Well, here's what God's
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  Speaker 1: word says. Number one, the Bible teaches us that my
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  Speaker 1: unity with other believers is the proof that I'm saved.
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  Speaker 1: All right. Number two, the Trinity is our model for unity.
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  Speaker 1: Number three, Jesus' last prayer request was that the members
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  Speaker 1: of his church would live in unity. Number four, God
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  Speaker 1: gives us his glory so that we'll be unified. And
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  Speaker 1: number five, our unity is our greatest witness to unbelievers.
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  Speaker 1: Number six, Unity removes fear and creates boldness. If you
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  Speaker 1: wanna be less fearful and more bold, this is the
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  Speaker 1: key to it. We talked about that last week. Number seven,
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  Speaker 1: when a church is truly unified, everybody's needs are met.
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  Speaker 1: Number eight, baptism and communion are visible signs of unity.
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  Speaker 1: And nine, focusing on our common purpose is what creates unity.
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  Speaker 1: Number 10, unity begins when we realize that we are
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  Speaker 1: incomplete without each other. I need you, you need me.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody's got all the gifts, we need each other. Number 11,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus died to unite us, not to divide us. And
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  Speaker 1: number 12, Jesus expects me to work hard at unifying
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  Speaker 1: Christians and expects you and me together to work on
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  Speaker 1: it together. Now, with these statements as our foundation, and
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  Speaker 1: that's what we talked about all last week, The natural
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  Speaker 1: question is, what's my part? What's my role? How am
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  Speaker 1: I supposed to do my part in fulfilling Christ's vision?
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  Speaker 1: Because one day you're gonna stand before God and he's
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  Speaker 1: gonna say, did you do what I asked you to do?
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  Speaker 1: So let's talk about it. How can I be an
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  Speaker 1: agent of unity in my church, in my church? Well,
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  Speaker 1: since God paid the highest price for the church, he
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  Speaker 1: wants unity. It protected, especially from the damage that's caused
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  Speaker 1: by division and conflict and disharmony. And God says that
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  Speaker 1: if you're a part of God's family, then he expects you,
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  Speaker 1: you to be an agent of unity. You are commissioned
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  Speaker 1: by Jesus, whether you know it or not, you know
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  Speaker 1: it now, you're commissioned by Jesus to do everything possible
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  Speaker 1: to preserve the unity, protect the fellowship, and promote the
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  Speaker 1: harmony in your church family. And by the way, to
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  Speaker 1: all believers, among all believers. Now let's look at four
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  Speaker 1: simple steps. I could have given you a dozen this week,
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  Speaker 1: but I thought, you know, I gave you 12 points
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  Speaker 1: last week. Let's cut it down to just four. Number one,
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  Speaker 1: here's a first step on how you can be an
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  Speaker 1: agent of harmony and unity in your church. Number one,
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  Speaker 1: focus on what we share, not what we don't. our differences.
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  Speaker 1: When you get together with other Christians, focus on the
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  Speaker 1: things we have in common, what we share in common,
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  Speaker 1: not our differences. Romans 14, verse 19, I love this,
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  Speaker 1: the Phillips translation says this, let us concentrate on the
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  Speaker 1: things which create harmony, all right? Let us concentrate on
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  Speaker 1: the things that create harmony and on the growth of
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  Speaker 1: our fellowship together. Now, let's think about this for a minute.
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  Speaker 1: What does it mean to concentrate? What do you do
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  Speaker 1: when you concentrate? Do you let your mind just go anywhere? No, no.
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  Speaker 1: It means you focus. You focus. It means you give
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  Speaker 1: it your full attention. You don't casually concentrate. It's intentional.
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  Speaker 1: When you concentrate, you have chosen to concentrate. You choose
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  Speaker 1: to focus. You choose to decide to figure out what
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  Speaker 1: you're going to focus on. And when he says, let's
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  Speaker 1: focus on the things that create harmony and unity, he's
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  Speaker 1: saying you're going to decide to figure out what are
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  Speaker 1: the common things that we share as brothers and sisters
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  Speaker 1: in God's family. So what are they? What are the
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  Speaker 1: things that we share in common as brothers and sisters
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  Speaker 1: in the family of God? Because we're all different. We
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  Speaker 1: look different. We act different. We're from different backgrounds. We're
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  Speaker 1: different sizes and shapes. We're different genders, different races. What
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  Speaker 1: are the things that we share in common that God
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  Speaker 1: wants us to concentrate on? Well, God tells us in
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  Speaker 1: Ephesians 4 that we share seven big things in common.
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  Speaker 1: This is not all, but in Ephesians 4, it says
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  Speaker 1: there are seven big things we share in common. He says,
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  Speaker 1: I want you to focus on that. Ephesians 4, 4
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  Speaker 1: to 6. Notice how many times he used the word
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  Speaker 1: one in this paragraph. He says, there's only one body.
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  Speaker 1: and there's one spirit, and we've been called to one hope.
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  Speaker 1: There's only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and only
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  Speaker 1: one God, who is the Father of us all, who
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  Speaker 1: is over all, and is through all, and is in all. Now,
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  Speaker 1: let's look at these phrases. He said, focus on the
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  Speaker 1: things that you have in common. We're one body. Jesus
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  Speaker 1: doesn't have multiple bodies. He just has the church. We
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  Speaker 1: have one spirit. We've all been given the same Holy
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  Speaker 1: Spirit at salvation. We all share one hope. What's that?
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  Speaker 1: It's the hope of the second coming of Jesus. He
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  Speaker 1: didn't stay dead. He resurrected. He went back to heaven
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  Speaker 1: and he promised to return. We have one Lord. We
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  Speaker 1: don't worship multiple gods. We have one faith. And that
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  Speaker 1: faith is contained in this one book, not multiple books.
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  Speaker 1: It's in this one book, the one faith. that God
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  Speaker 1: has given to us. We have one baptism, which means
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  Speaker 1: you don't have to be re-baptized every time you sin.
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  Speaker 1: And of course, there's only one God. So what he's saying,
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  Speaker 1: we share the same salvation. We share the same forgiveness.
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  Speaker 1: We share the same grace. We share the same mercy.
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  Speaker 1: We share the same life. We share the same future.
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  Speaker 1: These factors are far more important than your gender or
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  Speaker 1: your race or your age or your economic status or
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  Speaker 1: your background or your sins. or anything else, your size.
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  Speaker 1: These are the things that God wants us to focus on,
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  Speaker 1: not our personal differences. Now, it's important to remember that
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  Speaker 1: in all of the differences that we have too, not
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  Speaker 1: just things we have in common, but in all of
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  Speaker 1: the differences we have, guess what? Those all came from
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  Speaker 1: God too. So it was God who chose to give
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  Speaker 1: us different personalities. It was God who chose to give
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  Speaker 1: us different backgrounds, different races. It was God who chose
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  Speaker 1: to give us different amounts of hair, different preferences, personalities,
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  Speaker 1: all kinds. So that means that we should value and
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  Speaker 1: enjoy and learn from those differences in our church family too.
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  Speaker 1: Not just what we have in common, but even celebrate
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  Speaker 1: our differences, which are God-given. Now, God doesn't want you
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  Speaker 1: to merely tolerate other Christians. He wants you to be
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  Speaker 1: united with them. But unity is not uniformity. Did you
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  Speaker 1: hear that? You might write that down. Unity is not uniformity.
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  Speaker 1: God doesn't, when he says, I want you to be united,
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  Speaker 1: he doesn't want us all to be alike. If he'd
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  Speaker 1: done that, he would have made us all alike. And
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  Speaker 1: if you'd wanted that, sorry, that's not gonna happen because
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  Speaker 1: God made us all different. When you say, I don't
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  Speaker 1: like the way that person acts or lives, or I
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  Speaker 1: don't like their race or whatever. You're basically saying, God,
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  Speaker 1: you made a mistake. You should have made everybody like me.
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  Speaker 1: God wants unity, but he doesn't want uniformity. For unity's sake,
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  Speaker 1: we must never let differences divide us. We should celebrate them,
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  Speaker 1: but we shouldn't let our differences divide us. We have
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  Speaker 1: to stay focused on what matters most. What is that?
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  Speaker 1: Learning to love each other as Christ has loved us.
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  Speaker 1: and fulfilling God's five purposes for each of us in
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  Speaker 1: his church. Now, I know what you may be thinking
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  Speaker 1: right now, because you're saying, Rick, okay, yeah, I get it.
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  Speaker 1: But what about all those differences in members in our
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  Speaker 1: church that irritate me? How am I supposed to deal
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  Speaker 1: with them? How do I be unified with somebody who
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  Speaker 1: just irritates me to no end? Well, let me show
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  Speaker 1: you a couple of verses. First, Let me just say this,
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  Speaker 1: conflict is usually a sign that the focus has shifted
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  Speaker 1: to less important issues. Something that the Bible calls in
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  Speaker 1: Romans 14, disputable matters. There's some things we have to
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  Speaker 1: agree on, like Jesus is the son of God. He
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  Speaker 1: died and rose again. He's coming back one day. The
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  Speaker 1: Bible is God's word. These are not disputable matters. But
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  Speaker 1: disputable matters are things where well-meaning Christians can have difference
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  Speaker 1: of opinion. And in Romans 14, That whole chapter's about that.
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  Speaker 1: You might read that this week. But it says this
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  Speaker 1: in Romans 14, 1. You must accept all fellow believers,
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  Speaker 1: even weak ones, without arguing or judging them for different opinions.
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  Speaker 1: That's not an easy verse to understand. Oh, yes, it is.
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  Speaker 1: It's just an easy verse, harder verse to do. It's
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  Speaker 1: easy to understand. The message translation of this verse says,
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  Speaker 1: Amplifies it. Here's Romans 14 one in the message. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: with open arms, fellow believers, who don't see things the
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  Speaker 1: way you do. Did you hear that? Welcome with open arms,
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  Speaker 1: fellow believers, who don't see things the way you do.
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  Speaker 1: And don't jump all over them every time they do
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  Speaker 1: or say something that you don't agree with. This is scripture,
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  Speaker 1: Romans 14 one. They have their own history to deal with.
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  Speaker 1: Treat them gently. Now, did you notice that little phrase
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  Speaker 1: at the end there, they have their own history to
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  Speaker 1: deal with? You know, what is he talking about? Well,
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  Speaker 1: we always tend to look at how far a person
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  Speaker 1: has to go. We don't know how far they've already come.
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  Speaker 1: And if you knew how far they'd already come, you'd
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  Speaker 1: probably be rejoicing with them and go, man, they've come
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  Speaker 1: a long way. But we're always judging them from where
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  Speaker 1: they are now to where they need to be. And
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  Speaker 1: people are doing that with you too. But they have
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  Speaker 1: their own history to deal with. It means that when
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  Speaker 1: you don't know the background of a fellow Christian in
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  Speaker 1: your church family, when you don't know the background, when
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  Speaker 1: you don't understand their background of a brother or sister,
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  Speaker 1: maybe they came out of an urban area or maybe
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  Speaker 1: they came out of a rural area or maybe they
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  Speaker 1: came out of a suburban area or maybe they came
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  Speaker 1: out in poverty or maybe they were an orphan. When
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  Speaker 1: you don't know the background and understand it of a
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  Speaker 1: brother or sister in Christ, you know what you tend
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  Speaker 1: to do? either dismiss them or judge them for behavior
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  Speaker 1: that you don't understand. Let me give you a question, okay,
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  Speaker 1: that will change your perspective on how you deal with
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  Speaker 1: people that you don't like or that you don't understand, okay?
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  Speaker 1: Here's the question. Stop asking. When you see somebody that
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  Speaker 1: does things and you go, that just irritates me no end.
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  Speaker 1: Stop asking in your mind, what's wrong with you? and
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  Speaker 1: start asking this, what happened to you? What happened to you?
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  Speaker 1: Because there's always a trauma. There's always a reason, a
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  Speaker 1: crisis behind behavior. Hurt people hurt people. And if you
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  Speaker 1: find somebody who's hurting other people, if you dig deep enough,
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  Speaker 1: you'll find that they have been hurt. And the people
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  Speaker 1: who deserve it the least are those who need the
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  Speaker 1: most massive doses of love. Stop asking when you see
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  Speaker 1: people that irritate you, what's wrong with them? And start
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  Speaker 1: asking a much more sympathetic, empathetic question. What happened to them?
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  Speaker 1: I wonder what warped them, what caused them to be
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  Speaker 1: so whatever it is. Now, Paul understood the great importance
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  Speaker 1: of unity in the family of God. So he's passionate
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  Speaker 1: when he talks about unity. In 1 Corinthians 1.10, In
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  Speaker 1: the New Living, it says this, let there be real harmony,
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  Speaker 1: real harmony, so there are no divisions in the church.
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  Speaker 1: This is what Jesus wants. This is his vision of
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  Speaker 1: the church. I want no divisions in the church. I
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  Speaker 1: plead with you to be of one mind, united in
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  Speaker 1: thought and purpose. If you're taking notes, circle the word
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  Speaker 1: plead and circle the word purpose. Those two words, plead
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  Speaker 1: and purpose, for real unity to take place, For it
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  Speaker 1: to happen in your church, it takes both passion. Paul's pleading.
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  Speaker 1: I plead you. I'm begging you to get along with
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  Speaker 1: each other. For unity, there has to be passion and
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  Speaker 1: there has to be a common purpose. That's why we've
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  Speaker 1: never in 41 years, never had a split in Saddleback Church.
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  Speaker 1: Not once. Why? Because we've had the same common purposes
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  Speaker 1: for 41 years. So that's the starting point. All right. Now,
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  Speaker 1: let me give you a second step. to being an
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  Speaker 1: agent of unity. Number two, realize that I must continually
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  Speaker 1: work at unity. I have to realize this is not
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  Speaker 1: something that just happens. It's not accidental. If I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: be close to other people, if I'm gonna be in
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  Speaker 1: harmony with other people, if I'm gonna be unified in
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  Speaker 1: a small group or unified in our church, I've gotta
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  Speaker 1: work at it. Now the Bible says that, Ephesians 4.3
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  Speaker 1: says this, make every effort You're taking notes, underline that.
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  Speaker 1: Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: Bind yourselves together, living in peace with each other. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that phrase, make every effort, means it's going to take
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  Speaker 1: some work. Unity just doesn't happen in your family, in
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  Speaker 1: your marriage, in a relationship, in our church. Unity happens
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  Speaker 1: only when you are intentional about it. And you say,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to make it happen. We're going to make
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  Speaker 1: every effort to build unity. You say, well, how do
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  Speaker 1: I do that? Well, I'm giving you some tips. I
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  Speaker 1: could give you a bunch more, but these are ones
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  Speaker 1: we can work on right now. Let me give you
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  Speaker 1: a couple of things to not do because these destroy unity.
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  Speaker 1: These create division instead of vision. Division always destroys vision.
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  Speaker 1: Number one, here's something not to do. Don't bring worldly
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  Speaker 1: values into the church. Yeah, why? Because every time you
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  Speaker 1: bring worldly values into the church, it causes division. It
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  Speaker 1: causes division. Now, one of the world's values, and we
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  Speaker 1: see it everywhere today, is the idolizing of celebrities. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we now live in a celebrity culture. There's a celebrity
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  Speaker 1: on the cover of every magazine practically every week. And
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  Speaker 1: with the advent of social media, everybody now wants to
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  Speaker 1: be their own little celebrity. And they're turning their lives
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  Speaker 1: into reality shows. And everybody, I mean, junior high girls
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  Speaker 1: and sixth grade boys are doing everything for an audience today.
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  Speaker 1: And people are being marketed as if they're a product.
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  Speaker 1: And many people are actually doing it to themselves. They're
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  Speaker 1: marketing themselves as a product. And so actors and musicians
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  Speaker 1: and politicians and practically everybody else are being packaged and produced.
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  Speaker 1: They're long on reputation, but they're short on character. It
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  Speaker 1: can't be that way in the church. Because in the church,
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  Speaker 1: character matters, not reputation, not fame. There's a difference between
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  Speaker 1: fame and character. A lot of people are famous just
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  Speaker 1: for being famous. They've never really even done anything. But
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  Speaker 1: God says what matters is not your reputation, but your character.
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  Speaker 1: Why does it matter? Because God says it matters. Now,
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  Speaker 1: Whenever we focus on personalities or preferences or power or
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  Speaker 1: pleasure or prestige or popularity, guess what? Division is always
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  Speaker 1: gonna happen. You're not gonna have unity when you focus
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  Speaker 1: on those things. But if we concentrate on our relationships
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  Speaker 1: and loving each other, then, harmony results. And Paul is
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  Speaker 1: pleading for this in his letter to the Corinthians. Let
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  Speaker 1: me give you a little background on this. In the
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  Speaker 1: church at Corinth, they were having a lot of conflict
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  Speaker 1: and they started having conflict and division in their church
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  Speaker 1: family for many, many different reasons, but the biggest one
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  Speaker 1: of all was because they started placing their loyalty and
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  Speaker 1: giving their loyalty to leaders over their common loyalty to
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  Speaker 1: Christ and each other. And all of a sudden, they
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  Speaker 1: started dividing up over, well, I like this leader, and
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  Speaker 1: I like that leader, and I'm of that party, and
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: I'm of this party, and that's my guy, and that's
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: your guy, and then they brought it all into the church.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: So Paul actually had to write a letter to them
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: to rebuke them. That book, that letter, it's called 1 Corinthians.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: And it's filled with rebukes to Christians who had started
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: acting like unbelievers. In fact, in every chapter in 1 Corinthians,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Paul deals with a different cause of division in the church.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: And let me just show you one. In chapter three,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: he's talking about when you're showing favoritism of different leaders.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: He says this, 1 Corinthians 3. Verses two to five.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: He says, you're acting, talking about in the church, you're
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: acting in the same way unbelievers act in the world.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: He says, the proof of your immaturity is your arguing
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: and quarreling. The proof of immaturity is your arguing and
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: quarreling and the divisions you've created. He says, whatever you
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: find a division, quarreling, arguing, this is the people that
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: are immature. He says, it still proves proves that you
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: still belong to the world and that you're living by
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: worldly values. And then he gives an example. He says,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: you know, when one of you says, you know, I
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: support Paul. I'm from the party of Paul. And another says,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: I support Apollos. I'm from the party of Apollos. He said,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: you're acting like unbelievers, not like Christ. He says, is
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Apollos important? No. He says, is Paul important? No. So
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: he says here, when you start having personality issues and
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: people are choosing up, well, I like this leader, but
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: I don't like that leader. He said, you know what?
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Then you're going to have division. If you let me, listen,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: if you ever let me or a TV preacher or
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: a radio preacher or a politician or even yourself cause
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: division in a church, you're going to know that worldly
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: values have seeped into the church. So avoid bringing what
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the world thinks is important into the church. Second thing
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: to avoid to work at unity is this. Don't be
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: sucked into the world's fights. Don't be sucked into the
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: world's fights. Now, I don't have to tell you that
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of conflict out there in society, in
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: our culture, in the world. People are arguing about everything
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: And today, it's gotten worse because we have the communication
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: tools through the internet where anybody can argue about anything.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: And they do. And they do. You know, I was
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: interviewed the other day, and one of the first questions,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: they always want to ask me about politics, and I
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: couldn't care less about that. But the first question they
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: asked was, what did Jesus think and say about politics?
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: And my answer was, not much. Not much. In fact,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: in all my studies of Jesus' ministry, and I've read
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: through the Gospels hundreds of times, I've only found two
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: statements that Jesus made that were political statements in three
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: and a half years. Now, I distinguish between moral statements,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: which are about right or wrong, and political statements, which
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: are often a matter of opinion. But moral statements you
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: can back up with Scripture. But there's no verse in
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the Bible, for instance, there's no verse in the Bible
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: that tells you that taxes should be higher or lower.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: There's just not a verse. But I do know that
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Jesus said this in John 18, 36, when he was
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: asked a political question, he said, my kingdom is not
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: of this world. If it were, my servants would fight.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: My kingdom is not of this world. If it were,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: my servants would fight. This is not our fight. The
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: fighting that's going on out there, that's not our fight.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: We got a battle, but it's not that one, okay?
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: And our weapons are different too. Now, as Christians, We
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: are called to speak up for the truth. We are
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: called to speak up for the vulnerable. We are called
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: to speak up for the elderly, for the unborn, for
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: the poor. We are called in scripture to speak up
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: for those imprisoned, for immigrants, as the Bible calls them,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: foreigners or strangers or aliens. We are called to speak
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: up for those denied justice. Now, those are moral issues
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: that can be backed up with hundreds of verses In fact,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: did you know there are over 2,000 verses in the
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Bible about taking care of the poor? 2,000. And they're
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: about that same number about making sure everybody is treated
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: fairly and justly. Justice has a couple thousand verses too.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: So we've got to wonder about what are we going
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: to do with those. But there are a lot of
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: issues out there that people are fighting over the Bible
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: is silent about. It just says nothing. If it's not
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: our fight, it's not our fight. Now, if you've ever
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: been on social media, you know that there are a
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: lot of Christians out there who are ready to pick
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: a fight with you because they're addicted to anger as
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: much as some people are addicted to drugs. What do
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: you do with those people? I'm trying to be practical
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: in this message. What do I do with internet trolls?
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: They just want to pick a fight, and many of
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: them are Christians. Well, here's what the Bible says. We
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: always go back to the word. My opinion is worthless.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: What matters is what does God say about these questions?
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: And in 2 Timothy 2, verses 23 and 24, it
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: says this about dealing with people who just like to fight,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: like to get in arguments. 2 Timothy 2, 23 and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: 24 says this. Don't have anything to do with foolish
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: and stupid arguments. That's pretty clear. Don't have anything to
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: do with foolish and stupid arguments because you know they
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: produce quarrels. And then it says this. Listen, the Lord's
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: servant must never quarrel. Are you a servant of God? Well,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: that's scripture. And the Bible says the Lord's servant must
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: never quarrel. As a servant of God, I am not
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: allowed to quarrel. The Lord's servant must never quarrel. Instead,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: it says quarrel. You must be kind to everybody. If
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: you're gonna be a servant of God, if you're gonna
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: be a woman of God, you're gonna be a man
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: of God, the Lord's servant must never quarrel. Instead, you
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: must be kind to everybody, able to teach, and patient
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: with everyone. You must be humble, gently teaching those who
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: oppose the truth. So what does that mean? It means
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: in a world where everybody likes to argue today, don't
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: start arguments, don't get into arguments, Don't get hooked into
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: an argument. Don't participate in an argument. In many, many
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: places in scripture, particularly Psalms and Proverbs, particularly Proverbs, we
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: are told to stay clear of argumentative people. Did you
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: know that? Just go read Proverbs. We are told to
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: stay clear of people who like to quarrel, like to argue.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: And yet, you know, I've actually heard of small groups
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: in churches that split up because they argued over secondary
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: issues And they allowed non-essentials to take precedent over our
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: commitment to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: That makes our Heavenly Father sad. But it's not new. No,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: it's not new. It's been going on for 2,000 years.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: In fact, in the church meeting in Rome, the church
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: that met in Rome, and Paul had to write to them,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: they got into a big conflict. And you know what
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: the conflict over was there in the church in Rome? Food.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: The church in Rome... started having a split because they
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: had a conflict over rules about what you could and
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: couldn't eat. And Paul had to write them this word,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Romans 12, 20. It's a word we need in 2021.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Romans 12, 20 says this. Don't tear apart the work
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: of God. Don't tear apart the work of God over
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: a rule about food. Now, It may not be a
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: rule about food. It may be who you voted for.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: It may be some other issue. Don't tear apart the
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: work of God over a secondary issue. You know, as
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, the church in Corinth was a very
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: divided church and they fought over everything. But their favorite
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: conflict was over leadership. And so in chapter three, Paul
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: had to remind them that if we allow our support
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: of any leader of any kind to create division or
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: tension in the church, Between us and our brothers and
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: our sisters, God says our priorities are out of whack.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: It's not a God, it's not Christ-like, and it's a
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: sin that God will judge. Now, 1 Corinthians chapter three,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: verse two to five. Paul says, you know what? I
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: wanted to teach you some deeper truths from the word
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: of God, but I couldn't because you were arguing all
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: the time. And he said, it just showed your level
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: of maturity. In fact, here's what scripture says. 1 Corinthians three,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: two to five. Paul says, I had to feed you
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: with milk, not solid food. for you still aren't mature.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: You're not mature enough to digest it. You're acting in
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: church the same way unbelievers act in the world. And
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: this proof of your immaturity is you're arguing and quarreling
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: in the divisions you created, and it proves you still
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: belong to the world. You're living by worldly values. So
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: he's talking about this thing about who says, well, I'm
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: of this club, and I'm of that club, and I'm
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: supporting this guy, and I'm supporting that guy. It doesn't
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: really matter. Now, the third step. The third step in
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: creating unity in your small group, unity in your church,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: unity in your family, unity in your marriage. Here's a
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: big one. Be realistic in my expectations. Be realistic in
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: my expectations. All of us had unrealistic expectations when we
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: got married. All of us bring unrealistic expectations to church.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: And to expect any church to always do everything right
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: and to minister perfectly to everyone all the time, that's fantasy.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: In the first place, the church is filled with imperfect people,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: sinners like me. You're looking at number one. I'm the
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: chief of sinners. The church is filled with imperfect people,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: so a group of imperfect people will never be able
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: to create a perfect community. It's like in a marriage.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: I'm a sinner. My wife's a sinner. She married a
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: bigger sinner, me. And two sinners can't create a perfect relationship.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: We need to remember Psalm 119.96 says this, nothing is
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: perfect except your word. Psalm 119.96, nothing is perfect except
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: your words. Everything is broken on this planet, the weather,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the economy, our bodies, marriages, our relationships, our minds, Nothing
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: on this planet works perfectly except God's word, it's perfect.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: So to expect perfection in your church is to set
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: yourself up for a massive disappointment. Now, a church can
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: be healthy without being perfect, okay? Just like your kids
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: or grandkids, okay? My kids are not perfect, but they're healthy.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: They're healthy. My grandkids... have never been perfect, but they're healthy.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: And a church can be healthy without being perfect. You know,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: one of the things I've noticed is that when people
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: read a lot of books about the ideal church and
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: the way it ought to be, it just makes them cynical. Why?
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Because they're hoping for something that doesn't exist. And when
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: you discover that what God intends in real fellowship to be,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: it's easy to get discouraged by the gap between the
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: ideal and the real. You read all these books about
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: the ideal church and then you go live in the
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: real church, you just get cynical. But let me say this,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: and I want you to listen closely. Even with all
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: its faults and all its failures and all its mistakes
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: and all its sin, Jesus passionately loves his church. And
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: he wants us to do the same. If we're gonna
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: be Christ-like, A lot of people use the church but
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: don't love it. We must passionately love the church in
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: spite of its perfections. Longing for the ideal while criticizing
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: the real is evidence of spiritual immaturity. On the other hand,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: settling for the real without striving for the ideal is complacency.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: You know what maturity is? Maturity is living with the tension.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: For 41 years, I have lived with the tension of
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Saddleback Church between the ideal, what I knew it could be,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: and the real, what it was. I have loved our
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: church deeply at every stage of its growth. When we
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: had five people, I loved it. When we had 15 people,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: I loved it. When we had 30 people, I loved it.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: When we had 30,000, I loved it. I, of all people,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: can see the glaring weaknesses in our church because I'm intimate.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: I've seen it from day one. And I have lived
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: for 41 years with the tension between, yeah, it's really good,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: this is good, but it could be here. See, it's
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: like parenting. In parenting, you don't wait for your kids
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: to grow up before you start loving them. You don't
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: wait for your kids to be mature before you start
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: loving them. You love them at every stage of maturity.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: When my kids would bring me a picture at two
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: years old and it would be just scribbling and I'd say,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: that's perfect, honey. That's just perfect. What I mean by that,
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: it's perfect for that stage of maturity. Now, if Amy
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: brought that to me in her 30s, I'd go, there's
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: a problem here. But it's perfect at each stage. You
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: need to learn to love people at every stage of
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: their growth, and you need to learn to love our
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: church as a whole in every stage of growth. Let
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: me be honest with you. As somebody who has walked
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: with Jesus now for over 60 years, and I'll just
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: tell you this from experience, other believers will disappoint you.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Other believers are gonna let you down in life. But
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: that's no excuse to stop fellowshipping with them. It's no
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: excuse to stop loving them. God wants you to love
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: the real church, not the ideal church. These people, the
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: people you have a hard time with, they're your family.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: You're going to live with them for eternity. And when
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: they don't act like it, you can't just walk out
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: on them. Instead, God tells us this, Ephesians 4.2, New
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Living Translations. be patient with each other, making allowances for
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: each other's faults because of your love. Believe me, in
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: all of the counseling that I've done with people in
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: our church, people can become disillusioned with the church for
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: many understandable reasons. And the list could be quite long.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: I could give you a long list of legitimate reasons
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: for becoming disillusioned with the church. Conflict, hurt, hypocrisy, Neglect, pettiness, legalism,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: other sins. But rather than being shocked and surprised, we
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: just gotta remember the church is made up of real people, sinners,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: including ourselves. And because of that, we hurt each other,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. But if you walk out of
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: every situation in a church that you have difficulty with,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: where are you gonna build Christ-like character? Huh, where? Where
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: are you going to build it? If you run from
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: a problem every time you have a problem, where are
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: you going to build character? You see, becoming like Christ
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: requires problems and pressure and pain and persecution and a
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: lot of other things we don't like. But as I
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: told you many times, God's not interested in your comfort
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: as much as he's interested in your character because you're
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: not taking your comfort to heaven, you're taking your character
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: to heaven. And the comfort is going to be in heaven.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: This is the get ready stage. So let me just
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: give you a practical assignment. If you know somebody who's
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: thinking about leaving their small group or leaving their church family,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: you might encourage them to stay and work out their
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: problem for their own character development. Reconciliation, not running away,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: is always the road to stronger character and deeper fellowship.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: It's always better to resolve a relationship than to replace it. Always.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, divorcing your church at the first
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: sign of disappointment or disillusionment, that's just a mark of immaturity.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: It represents the same values of the world, which has
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: no commitment to anything. I don't like it. I'm leaving.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: I'm out of here. And they're serial divorces. Listen, God
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: has things he wants to teach you. In your church,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: if you're a member of Saddleback, in Saddleback Church, with
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: people who think differently than you, have different background than you,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: look differently from you, and you're never gonna learn those
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: lessons unless you become friends with them. As I already said,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: there's no perfect church to escape you because every church
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: has its own set of weaknesses and problems that you
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: go join another church, you'll soon be disappointed again. Why?
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: There's no perfect church. By the way, if you could
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: find one, you shouldn't join it because once you join it,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: it's not gonna be perfect anymore. You know, Groucho Marx
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: was famous for saying he wouldn't want to belong to
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: any club that would let him in. That's pretty smart.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Because if a church has to be perfect to satisfy you,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: that same perfection is going to exclude you from membership
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: because you're not perfect. I'm making light of this, but
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: it's a serious issue. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: was martyred for resisting the Nazis and Hitler, wrote a
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: classic book on genuine community and fellowship. It's called Life Together.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: It was one of the greatest books on church membership
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: ever written. And in Life Together, he suggests that disillusionment
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: with our local churches is a good thing because it
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: destroys our false expectation of perfection. He said, you know,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: the sooner you give up the illusion that a church
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: has to be perfect in order to love it, the
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: sooner you're going to quit pretending and start admitting that
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: we're all imperfect. We all need grace. That, that, that
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: is the beginning of real community. You know, every church
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: could put out a sign, no perfect people need apply.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: This is the only place where people admit they're sinners,
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: that we need grace, that we all need to grow.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Bonhoeffer said, he who loves his dream of community more
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: than Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: We don't give thanks for the Christian fellowship which we
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: have been placed He said, even when there's no great
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: experience and no discoverable riches and a lot of weakness
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: and small faith and difficulty, if on the contrary, we
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: keep complaining that everything is paltry and petty, he said,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow. That's strong
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: words from a strong man. Colossians 3.14 says this, most
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: of all, let love guide your life. For then the
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: whole church, will stay together in perfect harmony. What's the key?
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Not rocket science. Let love guide your life. First Peter 4.8
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: says this, powerful in the message. Love each other as
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: if your life depended on it. Do you do that?
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: You do that with other Christians? You love each other
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: as if your life depended on it? Love makes up
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: for practically anything. You know, I've found that to be true,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: that Saddleback church when we had no buildings, we had
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: no money, we had no big programs, we had no
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: large staff, you know, we had a tent on a
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: moonscape and that was about it. And yet thousands came. Why?
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Because people want to be where love is. If you
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: have a church that genuinely loves people, genuinely loves each other,
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: you'd have to lock the door to keep people out.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: People don't come because of a fancy program or a
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: fancy preaching or fancy this or that. They come because
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: their lives are changed by love. Finally, let me give
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: you one other principle that I think we all need
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: to work on this year because we're in an age
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: where there's more division going on in society. We just
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: have to insulate ourselves from all of that conflict and
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: love each other. Because if people like what they see
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: in us, they'll listen to what we say. So let
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: me give you one other principle from God's word that
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: you can use to be an agent of unity, an
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: agent of reconciliation. Number four, here it is. Offer encouragement
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  Speaker 1: instead of criticism. All right, just when you're talking to people,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: offer encouragement. Instead of criticism. That is so counterculture. Our
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: culture doesn't offer encouragement. It offers criticism. That's all it offers.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: People make a living being critics. Nobody makes a living
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: being an encourager. Romans 14 verses 19 and 20 says
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: this in the message. Let's use all our energy. Okay, listen.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: Let's use all our energy in getting along with each other.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: You want to direct your energy in the right way?
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: Use all our energy in getting along with each other.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Help each other by using encouraging words. Help each other
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: by using encouraging words. Don't drag others down by finding fault, okay?
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: More encouragement, less criticism. Don't drag each other down by
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: just finding fault. Now, I know what you're thinking. You say, Rick,
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: I am all for encouragement. But what do you do
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: when something is wrong and everybody knows it and it's
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: just wrong? Do you ignore it? You don't criticize it?
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: You ignore it? The answer is of course not. But listen,
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: and this is a mark of leadership. You can learn
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: the skill of sharing a rebuke or pointing out a
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: problem in a positive way. That's a skill, okay? You
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: can always learn how to share a rebuke or point
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: out a negative, make a critique, but you say it
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: in such a positive way that they're able to receive it. See,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: there's always two ways to say something. You can say
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: it the nice way and you can say it the
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: not nice way. You've always got a choice. It is
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: possible to speak a difficult truth in a positive way.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: I do it every week. And I could teach you
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: how to do that too. And over the past 30,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: 40 years, I've taught a lot of pastors, literally hundreds
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: of thousands of them around the world, how to do it,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: how to talk about a negative concept in a positive way.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: One of my eight questions that I use in preparing
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: a message, and I teach this in the preaching seminar,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: is what is the most positive way to say it? Why?
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: Why would you be interested in saying it in a
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: positive way? Well, if you're interested in being persuasive, then
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: you're gonna need to learn that skill. Why? Because the
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Bible says it. Proverbs 16, verse 21 says this. A wise,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: mature person is known for his understanding. The more pleasant
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: his words, the more persuasive he is. That's scripture. That's
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the Bible. The more pleasant your words are, the more
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: persuasive you'll be. You might write this down. I am
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: never persuasive when I'm abrasive. All right? I'm never persuasive
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: when I'm abrasive. If I say something offensively, it will
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: be received defensively. If I wanted to, I could get
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: up here every week and put you on the defense
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: in about 30 seconds and just tell you all the
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: things you're doing wrong. You go, yeah, you're right. No, no.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: That doesn't change anybody. Telling it like it is doesn't
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: change anybody. Telling it like it could be does. Telling
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: it like it could be is speaking, preaching, teaching for faith. Now,
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you. It's not hard to be
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: negative when so much of our culture is negative. I mean, really,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: you're bombarded with a continual diet of criticisms and attacks
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: and slander and malicious talk. On all the cable news channels,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: we don't have news anymore on cable. We have three
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: hours of opinion every night on every channel, just different opinions.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: And there's stereotyping and ad hominem attacks on people every
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: single night on TV and every day on talk radio.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: So we live like fish in a culture of seawater.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: We live in a culture of negativity. And it's always
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: easier to stand on the sidelines and take shots than
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: it is to get involved and make a contribution. But
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: God warns us over and over and over not to criticize,
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: not to compare, not to judge each other. He says
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: that literally 100 times in Scripture. Now, you may not
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: realize this, but when you criticize another believer who is
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: doing something in faith and you criticize what another believer
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: is doing in faith and from a sincere heart and conviction,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: you're actually interfering personally. With God's business. Did you know that?
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: When you criticize another fellow Christian, a brother or sister
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: in Christ, who to the best of their knowledge, they're
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: doing what they're doing in faith. Maybe you don't like it.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe you think it's wrong. But they're doing it in
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: faith with a clear conscience. And you criticize them. You
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: are interfering with God's business. That's Romans 14. Romans 14
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: verse 4 says this. What right do you have to
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: criticize somebody else's servant? They're not your servant, they're God's servant.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: God says, what right do you have to criticize somebody
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: else's servant? Only the Lord can decide if they're doing right.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: That's verse four of Romans 14. Down in verse 10,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: same chapter, Paul adds that we must not stand in
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: judgment or look down on other believers whose convictions differ
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: from ours. Did you know that? Romans 14 verse 10,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: here's what it says, Phillips translation. Why do you criticize
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: your brother's actions? Why do you try to make him
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: look small? We'll all be judged one day, not by
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: each other's standards or even by our own, but by
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: the judgment of God. Do you know that when I
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: judge you, if you're a believer, or when I judge
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: any other believer, four things instantly happen. The Bible says this.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Number one, I lose fellowship with God Number two, I
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: expose my own pride and insecurity. Number three, I set
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: myself up to be judged by God. And number four,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: I harm the fellowship of the church. All of those
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: are in the book of Romans. A critical spirit is
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: a costly advice. You can't afford it. You know, the
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: Bible calls Satan the accuser of the brethren, the accuser
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: of our brothers and sisters. And that's in Revelation 12,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: verse 10. But in that, it's the devil's job to blame,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: to complain. It's the devil's job to criticize members of
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: God's own family, which means when I do that or
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: when you do that, we're being duped into doing Satan's
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: work for him because he's the accuser of Christians. And
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: when I accuse other Christians, when I criticize and I
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: judge other Christians, when you do that, you're basically, Satan
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: takes a holiday. Well, I don't need to do that,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: they're doing it for me. You're being the accuser. Remember,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: other Christians, no matter how much you disagree with them,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: are not the real enemy. Anytime we spend comparing or
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: criticizing our fellow believers, It's time that should have been
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: spent building up the unity of our fellowship. Now, I've
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: got a lot more I could say about this, but
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: our time's up. There are at least a dozen more
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: principles I could teach you about being an agent of unity,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: but time's up. So let me sum it up with
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: just two more verses. And in many ways, these two
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: verses represent the two different choices that you have today
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: and that you have every day. Every single day of
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: your life, you choose which of these verses you're gonna do. Now,
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: the first choice is to live a self-centered life, not
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: worry about those who we hurt and walk around being
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: critical and judgmental of other people, even other Christians. The
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: second choice is to live a Christ-centered life instead of
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: a self-centered life that cares about what he cares about
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: most that we learn how to really love. Let me
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: show you the two verses. First one is Galatians chapter 5.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: Galatians 5 verses 13 to 15 says this. You have
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: been called to live in freedom. You've been called to
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: live in freedom. Not freedom to indulge your selfish nature, though,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: but freedom to serve. Freedom to serve each other in love.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: God's entire law is summed up in this phrase. Love
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: your neighbor as yourself. But if you keep biting, this
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: is scripture I'm reading, if you keep biting and devouring
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: each other and tearing each other apart, I call them
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: cannibal Christians, you will be destroyed by each other. You
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: know what's sad? Is that word describes a lot of
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: Christians in culture today. A lot of Christians are as
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: mean and demeaning and vitriolic and what they put in
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: the comment sections of social media, You'd expect it from non-believers.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: But what's happened is the gospel has not penetrated their character.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: But there is an alternative. And it's this next verse,
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: 1 Peter 3.8. 1 Peter 3.8, NIV, says this. Let
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: me sum it up for all of you. Live in
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: harmony with each other. And then he says how we
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: live in harmony. Be sympathetic. Love each other as family.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Have compassion and be humble, okay? He says the way
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: you live in harmony with each other is these four things.
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: You be sympathetic, you love each other's family, you have compassion,
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: and you be humble. Peter gives us four essential qualities
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: that we all need to work on this year in
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: this culture. He says they're the keys to living in
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: harmony with Christians that you disagree with. They're the keys
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: to maintaining unity in the church that God expects us
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: to protect. Peter tells us that we will get to enjoy, listen,
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: we get to enjoy all the benefits of a united church,
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: a unified church, if we do four things. And by
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: the way, when the church is as unified as the
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: book of Acts, then you have the power and the
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: miracles of Acts. But he says it takes four things
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: to enjoy the benefits that God wants to give us
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: and give our church. Number one, if we sympathize with
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: each other, It's how to criticize or antagonize or polarize
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: over our differences. If we value the most, if the
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: thing we value the most is our relationship to each
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: other in God's eternal family, instead of any other identity,
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: which isn't going to last, all those others are temporary.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: You know, I said this to somebody the other day.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: I am a six foot two white male American. But
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: I have more in common with a five-foot Asian woman
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: who's a Christian than I do with a six-foot, two-and-a-half
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: white guy who's an American. Why? Because he's not going
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: to heaven. He's not my brother. She is my sister
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: for eternity. I'm already a family member with her. So
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: it has nothing to do with the externals. It has
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: everything to do with the heart. And that's the next one.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: He says if we show compassion, if we show compassion
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: instead of derision, if we show compassion instead of condescension,
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: if we show compassion instead of division, then we'll have
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: the benefits of unity. And then he says if we
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: act with humility, if we act with humility instead of
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: with inflexibility, instead of with irritability, instead of with animosity,
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: I ended the message last week, the first half of
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: this message on unity, with a question and a point
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: that you probably hadn't thought about, and I want to
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: say it again. Jesus is still waiting for us to
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: be the answer to his prayer. The last thing Jesus
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: said before he went to the cross is, Father, may
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: they be one. We're anything but that. The church is
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: not one. It's divided. It's divided by politics. It's divided
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: by COVID. It's divided by wearing a mask. It's divided
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: by racism. It's divided by all kinds of different stuff.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: Jesus is still waiting for his prayer to be answered.
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: Will we be that generation that answers the prayer? The
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: prayer that they may be one as we are one, Father.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: Will we be that? Amen. Amen. I hope you are too.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: Let's bow our heads. Father, we've looked at a lot
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: of scriptures today. We want your church to not be
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: a thermometer that just looks like the same thing in
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: culture and just registers what everybody else is doing around us.
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: We want to be a thermostat. We want to set
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: the culture. We want to change the culture. We want
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: to be able to turn the temperature up or down
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: We don't wanna be thermometers, we wanna be thermostats. And
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: the only way we're gonna do that is if we
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: do it together. So I pray that we would have
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: a new commitment to love each other, regardless of our background,
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: of our race, of our politics, of our economic status,
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: of our gender, of all the different things that on
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: the surface divide us, help us to realize that the
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: only thing that's going to last in the entire universe
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: is your church. Your family is the reason you created
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: the universe. We're a part of that. Thank you for
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: that privilege. Help us to love the real church, not
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: the ideal church. Now you pray. In your heart, if
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: there's something you say, Lord, I want to be more loving.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: Say that to him. I want to be more loving.
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: I want to be an agent of unity. I don't
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: want to be a divider. I want to be a unifier.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: If you've never invited Christ into your life, he's the
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: one who starts making peace with you, and then you
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: can make peace with others. Just say, Jesus Christ, come
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: into my life. I want to get to know you
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: and learn to trust you. I want to follow you
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: as best I know how. Forgive me for all stuff
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: I've done wrong, and I ask you to humbly accept
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: me into your family. I pray this in your name. Amen.