Protecting Our Church
Ephesians 4:3 (KJV)
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
If you are a Christian, it is your responsibility to protect
the unity of your church.
Unity is the very soul of fellowship.
Destroy it and you rip the heart out of Christ’s body.
It is the very
essence of how God intends us to experience life together as His people.
Just like every parent, our heavenly Father enjoys watching
His children get along with each other.
Nothing on earth is more valuable to God than his church. He
paid the highest price for it, and he wants it protected!
If you are part of his family, that is your responsibility!
Tonight, we want to talk about some practical ways in which
you can fulfill that responsibility:
1. FOCUS ON WHAT WE
HAVE IN COMMON, NOT OUR DIFFERENCES.
Rom:14:19: Let us therefore follow after the things which
make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.
But why are you so combative?
·
As Christians, we share one Lord, one body, one
purpose, one Father, one Spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism, and one
love.
·
We share the same salvation, the same life, and
the same future – and these are factors far more important that any little
differences that might try to divide us.
·
It was God Himself who chose to give us
different personalities, backgrounds and preferences, so we should value and
enjoy those differences, not merely tolerate them.
GOD WANTS UNITY, NOT UNIFORMITY!
·
Suggestions only, you’re not commanding.
·
When we focus on personalities, preferences,
interpretations, styles, or methods, division always happens.
·
We should not compromise our Faith, sin is sin,
what can destroy our fellowship? Sin,
·
Your sin, my sin, and your sin, will affect the
unity of this church. Never live in sin.
·
How to catch a monkey? How can the monkey
escape?
·
We concentrate on loving each other and
fulfilling God’s purposes, harmony is the result.
1Cor:1:10: Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no
divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment.
·
Your testimony will protect our church.
·
We need to live right with God.
2. BE REALISTIC IN OUR
EXPECTATIONS.
It is easy to become discouraged by the gap that exists
between the IDEAL and the REAL in the church.
·
The leaders make mistake, Members commit
mistake, New members easily offended.
·
Yet we must passionately love the church in
spite of its imperfections.
·
Longing for the ideal while criticizing the real
is evidence of IMMATURITY.
·
Settling for the real without striving for the
ideal is evidence of COMPLACENCY.
·
Living with this tension is evidence of
MATURITY.
·
Other believers will disappoint you and let you
down, but they are your family and you can’t just walk out on them. Stay and
work it out!
Eph:4:2: With all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
3. CHOOSE TO
ENCOURAGE RATHER THAN CRITICIZE.
It is always easier to stand on the sidelines and take shots
at those who are serving than it is to get involved and make a contribution.
God warns us over and over in His Word not to criticize,
compare or judge each other.
Whenever I judge another believer, four things instantly happen:
·
I lose fellowship with God
·
I expose my own pride and insecurity
·
I set myself up to be judged by God
·
I harm the fellowship of the church
A critical spirit is a costly vice!
Rev:12:10: And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is
come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his
Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before
our God day and night.
The Bible calls Satan “the accuser of our brethren”. It’s
his job to blame, complain and criticize the members of God’s family … and any
time we do the same, we’re being duped into doing Satan’s work for him!
Remember that other Christians, no matter how much you
disagree with them, are not the real enemy!
4. REFUSE TO LISTEN TO GOSSIP.
Gossip is passing on information when you are neither part
of the problem nor part of the solution.
Most people intuitively know that gossiping is wrong, but
they don’t grasp the fact that listening to it is wrong as well! Besides, if
you listen to gossip, God says that you are a troublemaker.
Jude:1:19: These be they who separate themselves, sensual,
having not the Spirit.
These are the ones who split churches, thinking only of
themselves. There’s nothing to them, no sign of the Spirit!
Ga:5:15: But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed
that ye be not consumed one of another.
Remember that people who gossip TO you will gossip ABOUT you
as well.
We need to be a peacemaker.
5. SUPPORT OUR
PASTOR.
One of the sad things you learn in ministry is that people
who have been around the church the longest can often be the most immature.
Heb:13:17: Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit
yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that
they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
1Th:5:12: And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which
labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
1Th:5:13: And to esteem them very highly in love for their
work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves.
Conlcusion:
It is not always easy to protect the unity of the church.
Sometimes you will have to do what’s best for the Body, not
yourself, showing preference to others. That’s one reason God puts us in a
church family – to learn unselfishness.
1Co:10:24: Let no man seek his own, but every man another's
wealth.
As members of a church, we learn to say “we” instead of “I”
and “our” instead of “mine.”
There are many people in our community looking for love and
a place to belong.
When they find a church where people genuinely love and care
for each other, you would have to lock the doors to keep them away.
What are you doing personally to make your church family
more warm and loving?
We should protect our pastor and unity of our church!
If we live right in the sight of God.
