Challenging Together 4.10.2011

Good morning! Here we are in our sixth week of our Developing a Healthy Church by Following the One Another Commands. In the first week, we looked at an overview of the series, and then we looked at our need to spend time Hanging Together by greeting one another, being hospitable to one another, and by having fellowship with one another. After that, we spent a couple of weeks on Serving Together where we both shared about great times of ministering together, as well as several different aspects of serving like submitting to one another, praying for one another, and being humble to each other. Last week, we talked about Playing Nice Together and covered the topics of Being kind and compassionate, Living in harmony with one another, and finally Being at peace with one another

This week, we’ll start looking at the fourth major section:

Hanging together
Serving together
Playing nice together
Challenging together
Restraining together

Challenging Together
• Accepting one another Romans 15:7
• Devoted to one another Romans 12:10
• Spurring one another on towards love and good works Hebrews 10:24


As I stated last week, I believe that Playing Nice Together is a step more difficult than Serving Together. Likewise, I believe that Challenging Together is another step more difficult than Playing Nice Together.

We’re going to look at a couple of passages from Romans this morning and then jump over to Hebrews. Paul writes:

Rom. 15:5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

I think that this passage is kind of a transition from last week’s thoughts to this week’s. Paul reminds us that in the midst of life’s struggles that we need to remember that God is the One who give us endurance and encouragement as we work together to have unity…or the word we looked at last week…harmony…among ourselves.

As I’ve talked with a variety of people here at church this week, I’ve heard several people talk about how they’re feeling the opposite of these two words…worn out and discouraged instead of having endurance and encouragement. Paul reminds us that we need to be asking God for these two positive heart and mental attitudes so that we’re able to give glory to God the Father.

I see this passage tying so many things together neatly as we see the encouragement coming from God which allows us to live in harmony together, which in turn allows us to bring glory to the Lord, and then others will see that internal love so that they too want to worship the Lord.

Also, in this process of living in unity under God’s blessing, we’re commanded to accept one another. Once again, Paul doesn’t give us much “wiggle room” as he writes this command. We aren’t given a suggestion. We aren’t told to accept those who are exactly like us. We aren’t told to accept others when we feel like it.

NO…in fact, Paul writes a pretty airtight description here. The verb that he uses here is actually one that could be translated: “Keep on accepting one another”. Paul recognizes that it’s hard to accept someone once and let it be that way forever. Because, just as soon as you accept someone, it seems like that person, or even someone else that you’re working on accepting, does something bad or even REALLY bad that causes you to NOT want to accept them anymore.

Furthermore, Paul gives us one of those really tough comparisons; we are to accept each other in the same way Jesus accepted (and keeps accepting) us. Think about that…how did Christ accept us? While we were still sinners; while we were running from God; while some of us were purposefully against God; and so on….

You don’t have to raise your hands…but does anybody in here know of a Christian who has sinned? Do any of you know a Christian who has done a REALLY big sin? Is there the potential that anybody in here today has sinned a little? What does 1 John 1:9 tell us? If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and will keep on cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

Man…that is so incredibly encouraging to me…Jesus…whose death and resurrection we’ll be celebrating in just a couple of weeks accepted me when I was His enemy and was by nature a sinner…AND…He continues to accept me…even when I sin!

Paul tells us…accept your brothers and sisters in Christ in that same way!

In the second passage here, Paul is still on that same kind of theme of our need to love and accept one another.

Rom. 12: 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

I love how so many of these one another commands are intertwined…here we see that being devoted to one another is wrapped up in serving the Lord. Hmmm…maybe we have to work on the whole package of these commands in order to develop a healthy church family that is able to work together and enjoy being in harmony together. It’s also very interesting that this particular passage is just a few verses before the section that we looked at last week about living in harmony with one another…so, again, these commands are really tied together!

Paul has just concluded a section on how we are each members of Christ’s body and how we need to exercise our individual spiritual gifts. He acknowledges that each of us are different and that we have our own views of things; even so, we must be devoted to each other.

We can’t all be piano players. We can’t all work in the nursery. We can’t all mow the yard. We can’t all make meals for the community. We can’t all preach, etc…. BUT, we CAN be devoted to one another and celebrate what each other is doing!

The word used here for “devoted” really stresses the family aspect of our relationships within the body of Christ. In fact, someone has translated it as, “With brotherly love have family affection for one another.

Now, I know some of you don’t have the world’s best relationship with your brothers, sisters, parents, or other family members. Yet, you know what a loving family SHOULD look like. That’s what Paul is telling us here. We must show that kind of love and devotion to one another just like we’d like to do in our families.

The third passage we’re going to look at today comes from the book of Hebrews. Here, the author writes:





10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

We’re told that we need to keep our faith strong and not let it waver…because God is faithful in doing what He says He will do.

In the body of Christ, we’re instructed then to share that confession of our beliefs with others in the body. We’re even told to stir things up with one another so that they love better and so they do good works better.

A week ago, I had the privilege of speaking to a group of fathers and their children at my home church up in Pontiac. While I wasn’t specifically thinking about this passage, it’s interesting how my thoughts there parallel this concept well.

I was sharing about the church and the men in that church had really helped me in my spiritual growth and in my ability to be a good father.

Here are some of those examples of people who stirred me up to love and good works:

Jon taught my Sunday school class when I was in third or fourth grade. He and his wife also opened up their home and the couple of acres around it for our annual Day Camp where I was able to start serving as part of that team.

Can you think about someone who taught your Sunday School class or helped with VBS or some other summer ministry?

People who allowed me as a junior high student to teach over 20 2 & 3 year olds during Children’s church or later as a high school student being able to have a group of junior high boys that I was responsible for.

Can you remember the first time that you were given leadership responsibilities to teach a class or lead a group of people at church?

There was Stan, my youth pastor, who worked with me and helped develop a passion for me going into youth ministry.

Do you remember someone who believed in you and was instrumental in helping you develop a passion for serving Jesus?

Wes & June demonstrated hospitality by hosting a fall festival that we used to have, and they were the first people I knew who adopted kids.

Do you remember someone who did something “different” in the body of Christ that caused your life to be changed?

My future father-in-law Tony did special numbers with me as I played my trumpet and he played the piano.

Do you remember someone encouraging you to join the choir or play the piano for a special music number?

Dave and the elders of the church flew up to Michigan for my ordination service.

Do you remember someone doing something “over the top” to show they believed in you and really wanted to encourage you?

And there is also Pastor Brian: When Karen and I were missionaries with Young Life out in South Dakota, I was preaching many weeks; teaching Sunday School, leading youth group, and leading all of our Young Life ministries…all without strong Biblical input. However, Pastor Brian’s sermons were available for me to get each week, and they sustained me for much of that time.

Do you have someone in your life who has been that huge spiritual encourager for you?

As I spoke, I saw many of you get both smiles and tears as you thought through people in your life who have stirred or spurred you to live your faith out.

Of course, the question then is…who are you impacting? Who are you spurring on to live out their faith better? Who will look back twenty or thirty years from now and say, “BOY Kenny, Judy, Joseph, Max, Karen, or ________ really blessed me by encouraging me to step it up in my walk with Jesus so I could serve Him better”?

The writer also strongly encourages us to make sure that we’re getting together as members of the family of God. In Young Life, we used the phrase, “Earning the right to be heard” as we met new students and talked with them about their life and things going on before we were able to get to the point of talking to them about Jesus.

I think this passage carries that same connotation. We need to be coming together at church. We need to get a piece of pie together. We need to grab a Dr. Pepper or coffee together. We need to be part of each other’s lives so that we have that freedom to stir and spur one another on in their passionate pursuit of the Lord.

How are we doing at positively Challenging Together? Is there someone you need to work at continuing to accept like Christ accepts us? Is there someone in the family here in Goodfield that you need to work harder at being devoted to as a good brother or sister would? Is there someone that you need to contact this week to thank them for spurring you on in your faith journey? Is there someone you need to say something to that will encourage them in their walk with Jesus?

God is passionate that we keep on attempting to Develop a Healthy Church by Following these One Another Commands!

Pray.

Playing Nice Together 4.3.11

As we continue on in our study together of Developing a Healthy Church Family by Following the One Another Commands, we arrive this week on the topic that I’ve labeled, “Playing Nice Together”.

I think that it’s more than just a topic to discuss with our children. Last week, I talked about the way my kids can argue about toys, and I’m sure we’ve all seen kids argue about toys. However, we’ve also seen adults argue about things too.

Family members who argue about what they’re going to get from mom or dad’s estate. Coworkers who argue about who gets which client to work with. Families who argue about who gets to operate the remote control. Husbands and wives who argue so much that they end up getting divorced. And the list can go on and on.

As we work on moving from the Serving Together to Playing Nice Together, I think there is a significant change in the depth of the commitment of these commands.

One of my college students wrote this week about a missions trip that he went on several years ago to the Dominican Republic as a young college student. Somehow, he went through the whole process of being accepted to go on the trip and even was one of the leaders of the trip. However…it was near the end of the two week trip that he realized his need to become a Christian and accepted Christ.

WHAT? You mean that someone can go on a missions trip and not even be a believer in Christ? Sadly, I’ve seen and heard of several times that this has happened. Maybe you know people like that too. As we talked about serving Jesus…even some of the more intense types of service…like washing one another’s filthy feet can be done by people who don’t know or love Jesus.

Think about all of the people who went down to Mississippi and Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Sure, many were Christ-followers, but thousands of those who went down to serve in the heat and in the bugs and in poor conditions overall were people from other religious backgrounds and even atheists. They were willing to serve based on the commonality of all people and the huge devastation that had happened.

Globally, the same thing happened a year ago in Haiti and is happening right now in Japan as people and organizations and countries from all parts of the earth are working at helping the country after the incredible devastation that they’ve recently experienced.

But as we move into this new section of our one another commands, there is a significant change as we move from externally motivated/externally evaluated actions to internally motivated/internally-evaluated actions. It’s a huge difference! It’s the difference between wearing your seatbelt because you’re afraid of getting a ticket and wearing it because you think it keeps you safe. It’s the difference between working hard when your boss is watching and working hard all the time because it’s the right thing to do.

Here are today’s commands that we’re going to look at:

Playing Nice Together

·    Being kind and compassionate to one another                           Ephesians 4:32

·    Living in harmony with one another                                              Romans 12:16

·    Be at peace with one another                                                            Mark 9:50

This first passage in Ephesians has the Apostle Paul talking about a variety of issues. The paragraph starts back in verse 25 where Paul begins a list of attitudes and actions that Christians need to quit doing and the flip side of the coin with attitudes and actions that believers NEED to do.

Let’s pick it up in verse 29 as it starts this thought pattern:

Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.  30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Paul tells us that we need to watch our mouths as we talk to one another. We need to only speak words that build others up instead of words that tear each other down. The focus here is that we give grace to people as we interact with them. I believe this covers so many different aspects of our speech…what we say, how we say it, what our intention is, etc…. Sure, we may disagree about things here in the church, but how do we express our differences of opinion to one another (and NOT to others)?

We’ve seen throughout these one another commands that a common theme is the fact that we’re doing these things because of what Christ has done for us and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Likewise in this passage, Paul clearly reminds us that our disobedience to these issues grieves God’s Holy Spirit and that’s NOT a good thing to make God upset!

In verse 31, Paul gives us a list of six sins that we need to avoid: bitterness, wrath (rage), anger, clamor (brawling), slander, and malice. Now remember, this book of Ephesians is written directly to a church and it was originally read aloud in the congregation. Evidently, these six negative emotions and actions were being practiced by the believers of the church in Ephesus!

As I look at this list, it sounds more like the kids I work with at school or some of the unbelieving co-workers I’ve had over the years! I’ve seen people in churches get worked up and even seen people get to the place of their bitter hearts moving towards anger and then moving on to rage! I’ve known people who had malice or bad thoughts in their hearts and then moved to slandering others in the congregation…because they didn’t like the new church building, the new pastor, the new deacon, the new hymnal, the new color of paint or carpet, the new music, the new family, the new believer, etc….

However, Paul doesn’t stop with just giving a list of things to NOT do, he then gives our list of one another commands to think about today. We’ll talk about two of these commands today and then look at the third one in a few weeks.

The first one is “be kind to one another”. It is really hard to be kind to someone when you don’t have the right heart attitude. We can do actions that help someone else, but do those actions with impure motives.

As we talked last week about taking a meal to someone or helping them out when they have a struggle, I was thinking there’s a big difference between taking someone a meal made up of macaroni and cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or taking them something really nice like Angus burgers or steaks and potatoes! One of them feels like you’re fulfilling an obligation, and one of them shows you really care!

Most of the time, serving one another has the focus of responding to a need and helping someone. Being kind to them has much more of a proactive connotation of reaching out and doing something for someone before they ask or before there is a real identifiable need. Being kind is more like working hard to come up with a way to help someone else before being asked…just because.

It’s sending a card to someone…not because it’s their birthday, anniversary, Mother’s Day, Grandparent’s day, or any other special day…it’s just because you’re being kind to them.

Be “tender-hearted” to one another carries the image of a mother with a young baby. It’s that mother holding, rocking, feeding, and taking care of all of the needs that her baby has. In the same way, we as believers are to have soft hearts towards other followers of Jesus. We are to look out for their best interests at all times.

I know, it’s a little funny, but I have little boys at home, and as cute and nice as babies are, they can also take a lot of work! Babies make messes in their diapers, messes around the house as they start to crawl or walk, messes when they eat, messes when they play, pretty much…they make messes much of the time. Yet, moms continue to love their babies and have a soft spot in their hearts for these little ones.

In the same way, we need to have soft hearts that are willing to endure all of the messes that others make as we continue to develop a healthy church family.

The second section that we’re going to look at was also written by Paul and it is another one of these lists of instructions where he gives several different statements and in the middle of it is another one of our commands that we’re looking at.

Rom. 12:14   Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.  15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.  16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.  17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.  18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Paul tells us that we need to bless people who persecute us. On Friday, one of my students got angry with another student. They were in adjoining time out rooms and one kid was kicking the walls and just irritating the other guy. In the process, the kid I was sitting with started cursing and screaming and kicking the wall. It went on for quite a while until we had enough staff to move one of the guys to another part of the building. It was NOT fun to see and hear these two guys go after one another on opposite sides of a wall!

I think that for many people responding to people who curse at them with blessings is not their first response! In fact, whether we say it out loud or keep our thoughts in our own heads and hearts, many of us would rather respond the same way.

The second part of this passage talks about our emotions and how we respond with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to genuinely feel with them as they go through the joys and sorrows of their lives! Think through all of the events a person may go through…whether it’s physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, social, etc…. We each experience times where life is tough and we are crying about the events that are going on around us. Hopefully, each of us also has those times in life where we’re joyful and are laughing about the great things going on! Paul reminds us that if Chris is struggling with something in her life, I need to have such a relationship with her that I hurt as well. If Kelly has something that she is really celebrating, I should join her in being excited about that as well. This is one of those areas that is “harder to fake”. Most people know if we are really weeping with them or just pretending.

Then, we get to the core one another command…live in harmony with one another! There are a couple of key phrases here…the first one is to “live in”. For a church family to be healthy, the members must live together. Sometimes people can say, I have a great relationship with my brother…I haven’t seen or talked to him in five or ten years. It’s that “out of sight-out of mind” perspective.

We cannot do the same thing in God’s family! If we’re going to follow the second phrase of being in harmony with one another, we also have to make sure that we have the heart attitude that says I purposefully choose to get along with and I choose to enjoy getting along with my brothers and sisters in Christ. That means that we live in harmony here at church before, during and after the service. We live in harmony before, during, and after the quarterly business meeting. We choose to live in harmony throughout the week as we see each other around town. We live in harmony as we rejoice and weep with each other. And the list could go on and on in each and every area of our life!

Paul continues to give a couple more key points about how to live harmoniously together: we should not think more of ourselves by being haughty/proud or thinking of ourselves as being too wise. We shouldn’t pay back evil when others do bad things to us. The opposite perspectives are that we need to hang out with people who are in a more lowly position in life than we are and that we should choose to always do the honorable thing for everyone who is involved!

The last phrase here ties us into the third command that we’ll look at today…here Paul tells us that we need to do everything possible to live at peace with everyone!

Over in the Gospel of Mark, we pick up a story about Jesus and the disciples:

Mark 9:33   And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.  35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them,  37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

….50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

The Lord’s disciples were walking along the road talking with each other about who was the best disciple…with Jesus somewhere in the mix, they still had the audacity to argue about who was most important!

WOW! Can you imagine people at Goodfield Baptist arguing about who was the best? Arguing about who has the best idea for the kind of music we should use on Sundays. Arguing about where to sit on Sundays. Arguing about who is going to be on which boards or hold which positions in the church. Arguing about what needs to be done in order to get the church heading back in a growing direction. Nope…must be fiction! That would never happen around here…or would it?

Jesus Himself is saying, “Hey guys…live at peace with each other! None of you are more important or better than the next one of the twelve.” In fact, if you want to be great in God’s eyes, you need to be a servant and you need to not be striving for an important position at all! You need to be as important and as threatening as a little child who was barely worth anything in the Jewish and Roman societies.

Jesus enters into a longer discourse on the importance of doing the right thing and the need to avoid hell, and then, He comes back to the original topic of the guys arguing among themselves by reminding them that they needed to live at peace with one another.

I realize I haven’t been here very long in the overall length of this church’s history, yet, I think these are some areas we may need to really think about more as a congregation. As I’ve talked with both former and current attenders, there seems to be a general feeling that coming to church has been a struggle at various times for almost everybody. Instead of people feeling like they can’t wait for Sunday so they can get together with all of their friends, it’s more like they can’t wait for church to get done on Sunday so they can get on with life.

I haven’t gotten the sense that being kind and tenderhearted or living in harmony and peace toward the rest of the congregation have been characteristics that people would use to describe our church. In my discussions with people, there are still wounds about somebody saying or doing something unkind or even just different…3, 5, 15 or even more years ago. There’s the overarching atmosphere that if I do something different or if I do what I feel like God is calling me to do that I have to watch my back in case someone will complain about it and make phone calls about it and all of the sudden, there will be issues.

The result of this is that people look for places to worship and participate where they feel welcomed and they feel like they are valued. Or, they quit coming all together because they feel like it’s safer to stay home and deal with God later than it is to come to church and deal with His people now.

A few weeks ago, we took some time to go around and share some of the happy times of serving together here at Goodfield Baptist Church. If somehow, we were able to mask peoples’ identities and let people share the hurt that has occurred here and the hidden reasons why people have checked out other churches or have considered leaving, I think we would have many more people sharing these issues.

As we continue to work at developing a healthy church family, I think this section of “Playing Nice Together” is one of the areas that we need to do some self-reflection on. I think that we need to look deep and ask ourselves how do we transform our thoughts from looking out for myself and my own needs and think through ways we can reach out and play in nicer ways with others in the church.

If you have questions about how you can do this better, please let me know! I’d love to talk with you more about it. If you need to talk to someone about how you’ve treated them “un-kindly” or “un-compassionately” or “un-harmoniously”, you should feel free even during our final song to go to them and ask them to forgive you now or to even set up a time where you can talk about it in more detail later in the week!

Let’s pray. 

Serving One Another 3.27.2011

Good morning!

Karen and I had a good time on vacation last week as we took some time off with our kids to go down to Branson. My parents own a condo there and let us use it…what a blessing! We didn’t even lose any of our kids at Silver Dollar City!

We missed being here last week, but are grateful that the deacons took care of things. Although I wasn’t here, I found myself thinking all week about our preaching series and about the incredible importance that it has for the life of Goodfield Baptist Church! As I prayed about a direction to go after the first of the year, the emphasis of Developing a Healthy Church by Following the One Another Commands kept coming back to me over and over. It’s been interesting to see how these sermons have come together week after week.

As I have worked on them, they have had a good impact on me personally. I really hope that you’re finding them helpful too…for yourself first and foremost. I know how easy it is for me to hear someone speak and to think…boy, I wish my brother could hear this, or after that co-worker acted this week, I should give her the website so she can download the message herself. Now, before you all start throwing stones at me for thinking about applying a message to someone else before letting it soak in and change me, admit that at least once in your life you’ve done the same thing!

So, as we review and then move forward, I exhort you as your pastor to evaluate if any of these are topics that you want/need to reflect personally on some more.

In the first week of the series, we looked at an overview of the series, and then, we looked at our need to spend time Hanging Together by greeting one another, being hospitable to one another, and by having fellowship with one another. Two weeks ago, we started the section on Serving Together. You shared wonderful stories about how you’ve worked together and served each other, the community, and the world in years past. We talked more about our need to keep serving others, being humble towards each other, and waiting for one another.

This week, we’ll look at some additional aspects of serving one another:

Serving Together

·    Submitting to one another                                                                  Ephesians 5:21

·    Wash one another’s feet                                                                      John 13:14

·    Confess your sins & Pray for one another                                     James 5:16

The first command here comes from Ephesians. Paul is in the middle of a long discourse about a variety of issues, and then he starts to focus things down onto the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit in all that we do.

Ephesians 5:17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,  19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,  20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,  21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

As I’ve worked with teens and young adults for the past 25 years, I often have had intense discussions with individuals and groups about determining what God’s will is for their life. People often ask what God wants them to do and how they can determine the specific will that God is laying out for them. This passage makes part of that very clear: let everything you do be controlled by the Holy Spirit!

I live in Normal…less than a mile from ISU. Have any of you ever driven through the ISU campus on a Friday night or gone to Downtown Bloomington on a Friday or Saturday night? What do you see…lots of drunk students or students carrying out tons of beer from one of the several liquor stores around the campus.

It’s common knowledge that many young adults go to college with one of their major goals to party as much and as hard as possible. As I teach college classes in Normal, I hear from my students about the incredibly foolish and dangerous things that drunken students do. It’s obvious to those around that it causes problems when people are controlled by the alcohol in their system.

In the same way, Paul is saying that as followers of Jesus…as Christians…we need to be so controlled by the Holy Spirit that it is obvious that He is the one controlling what we are doing.

One of the ways we demonstrate our dependence on the Lord is by the way our lives are filled with Spirit-filled music. Paul states that it is God’s will that we have lives that are characterized by the way we sing Psalms, Hymns, and other Spiritual Songs to each other. Paul emphasizes here that we should be known as people that sing a variety of musical styles and songs that have a variety of purposes. This is in addition to our hearts overflowing with music going through our internal spirit at all times. This is obviously a topic that we could spend an incredible amount of time on, but it is a great issue to reflect on. I read a great article this week about how Christian rap music is radically transforming lives by its clear presentation of Scripture and Scriptural truths. Of course, the kids who come to church here on Wednesday nights and probably many of their families are much more familiar with people like Chris Tomlin and LeCrae than they are with hymn writers like Martin Luther, John Newton, or Fanny Crosby from the 15^th through 19^th centuries. (Just for fun…I checked on the hymns we sang today…two were written by men born in the 1700’s before the Revolutionary War and two by men born before the Civil War in the 1800’s.)

Then, in verse 21, Paul comes to this first One Another Command for the day: submit to one another out of reverence for Christ Himself.

I know, there are times we don’t agree with others in the church. Two weeks ago, I highlighted several issues that I’ve heard conflict about here in our own church! I know that there is conflict brewing under the surface and that in some aspects, it could threaten the very future of our congregation as we know it.

Paul clearly states that it is God’s will that we submit to one another. What does that look like? If I passed out the orange slips of paper right now and asked everyone to write down three things that they wish would change from the way they are and three things they wish would stay the same…probably most of us would be able to come up with six items…or at least four.

Some of us have one or two of those items that are really big issues for us. We’ve called or emailed or met and talked with someone about this particular thing that needs to be addressed. Others might be smaller issues that are just a minor irritation to us. Submitting to one another means that we’re willing to tear that piece of paper up and let someone else have their way because for the sake of Christ our Lord I’m willing to submit my will to someone else.

Is that easy? NO! NOT AT ALL! None of us really LIKE to let someone else have their way…especially when it irritates us! I see that often with my little boys. We have tons of toys! There are more than enough toys for each of the boys to have multiple toys in their hands and two or three sitting around them! However, it seems to never fail…one of them will get a particular Lego or man or something else…and immediately, one of the other boys is convinced that he HAS to have that toy…he had it first (last week), it’s his FAVORITE toy, he was planning to play with it, etc…

Sadly, we can do the same thing here at church. We get territorial about our ministry, our preferences, our rights, and on and on it goes. Just like with my boys, the end result is that someone…or all of them…end up getting mad at each other and hurtful things are said and instead of unity and family health, we have arguments and conflict and bad feelings about others in our family.

So, one of the “action points” for us to personally think about before rushing to apply it to someone else here at Goodfield Baptist is what item off of my five or six critical change list can/should I surrender to someone else…out of reverence for the One who submitted His very life for us to give us eternal life?

If you remember back a month ago when we started the series, I reminded us that if God addresses an issue once we should listen, but if He discusses it multiple times, then it’s probably something we should really pay attention to. This is one of those biggie issues…Paul talks about submitting to others over 20 times in the NT. So, our Lord sees this as a big deal…let’s work together on it!

Two weeks ago, we talked about waiting for one another as part of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Today, we’re looking at another of these one another commands from the Lord’s Supper.

If you remember, our Savior during Holy Week arranged for the Passover Supper to be celebrated with the disciples. As they gathered together, there evidently wasn’t a servant available to wash their feet. In those days, minimally, people got their feet very dirty from the dusty streets. On the other end of the spectrum, there were not street sweepers to clean things up; their modes of transportation and other livestock going through the main streets did not clean up after themselves either.

So, as they got together to eat this last meal together on earth, there was obviously some tension among these disciples who were always working to be better than one another. In the midst of this, Jesus…the Master…put a towel on as an apron and went around the room and physically washed the feet of his friends…his students.

John 13:12   When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Now, most of us have had the experience of working for someone at some time in our lives…whether it was that job we had in high school or college, or the career we had for the majority of our lives. Like many of you, I’ve had my share of good, bad, and ugly bosses to work for! However, I don’t remember any of them physically washing my feet. I’ve had a couple who I felt like they would have helped me if I needed something…even if it was outside of work. But, most of the people I’ve worked for wouldn’t do such a thing.

Now, some denominations add foot washing as a third ordinance of the church…in addition to Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. However, I think this is much more a focus on the act of servant-hood than a command to a specific deed. Yet, it’s a VERY vivid picture for us of what being a humble servant is all about. If I went out to the McLean County Fair this summer wearing my sandals and walked around on the dusty gravel roads and walked around in the livestock pens and then went to work later in the day and asked my boss…as amazing as she is…to wash my feet off so I wouldn’t be offensive to the students and staff in summer school…what would she say? No way! Why didn’t you wear your boots? I’m sure you can figure out a way to solve your own problem. Let me know how it works out for you. Or one of another list of responses.

So, when Jesus, the Lord of lords, the King of kings, the Master, our Savior stoops to wash the filthy feet of the disciples, it’s really saying something about the level of commitment we are to extend to our brothers and sisters in Christ doesn’t it?

I think that at times, we think about serving our spiritual siblings if it doesn’t cause us too much stress or cost us too much to do. For instance, if Maurine were sick, how hard would it be for my Karen to throw something else in when she’s cooking for our crew and make Maurine a meal? How hard would it be for Karen Sweet to say, Hey Maurine, I’ll bring you a loaf of bread and some pie? How hard would it be for Dave to drive out and get her mail from her box and take it up the drive to give it to her personally?

Those acts of serving one another…although nice are not nearly as costly as washing someone’s stinky feet are they?

On the other hand, if a truck went out of control and wiped out 50 or 100 feet of Kenny’s fence…and it’s on one of those 95 degree days…how easy would it be for Earl to go out and dig holes for new fence posts and repair the fence? If my Karen got sick, how easy would it be for Jill to make supper for three nights for our whole family? If Craig and Lisa were killed in a car accident, how easy would it be for the Yoders to adopt Eli and Zeke…and raise them and pay for college for them?

You see…healthy churches are built and expanded by the second kinds of humble servant actions. YES! The first ones are nice and important…but even unbelievers could and do those kinds of things. It’s true Christ followers that do the second kind of “foot washing”.

Of course, it’s my prayer that nobody takes out Kenny’s fence or that my wife gets sick or that something tragic happens to the Maynards or anybody else in our church family, but are we ready to step in and REALLY serve one another?

In addition, there may be some other catastrophes that people here in our church get into that may involve supernatural acts of service. However, I’ve found that in American society in general and in the Church in particular, we become really good at hiding deeper issues that we or our family are struggling with. That brings us to this third section of serving that we’re going to look at today.

James 5:13   Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.  14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.  15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.  16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

This is another passage that could take a couple of weeks to unpack fully, but the Apostle James is addressing all kinds of suffering in the lives of believers…not just physical ailments…but in all areas of our lives.

How else have you suffered? Anybody ever lose a job? Anybody have a family member or friend die? Anybody have a family member walk away from the faith? Anybody have a child or grandchild have a child out of wedlock? Anybody have relationships that have caused suffering? Anybody have financial sufferings? Anybody know someone who has gone through a divorce or marital separation? Anybody have someone they love make bad decisions that you couldn’t fix? Anybody have someone close who has mental or emotional sufferings? Anybody know someone who has suffered from addictions?

I know, Christians aren’t supposed to have any of these things are they? Once we follow Jesus, everything is supposed to be perfect! Oh wait…your life isn’t perfect like mine?

Ok…I won’t have you answer each of those questions…but haven’t we all experienced…or even ARE currently experiencing at least one of these kinds of sufferings?

Now, one of the things that we do here at Goodfield Baptist is that we have a time for prayer requests most Sundays during the service. However, most of the time, we share VERY safe requests. Not that they’re bad requests…but they tend to be for travel mercies, the military, somebody’s elderly relative, or someone that is not really related to our church who might have some physical problem and is in the hospital. AGAIN…those aren’t “wrong” requests, but I think that this passage is challenging us to go deeper than what we often go as a church.

Sure, I’m not advocating that we air our “dirty laundry” in public…today, my request is that you’ll pray for my wife who is a terrible mother and if she has another day like last Wednesday, I’m filing for a divorce. Or…please pray for my rotten daughter who has seduced her boyfriend and I found out they’re having an illegitimate kid…pray that I find the right weapon to kill that boyfriend of hers.

Obviously, there’s a time and place to share some of these issues! This passage makes it clear though that we need to be praying for one another. That can be praying together in a small group. It could be meeting privately with a close friend to have them pray with and for you. It could be posting requests in some format online.

Whatever form it takes, each of us have these issues that we need to have others praying with us about. Here in the passage, it talks about having the elders of the church come and pray. In our setting, the deacons really fulfill this Biblical role of elders. So, obviously, if you are suffering in some area of your life, it’s very appropriate to call me and/or the deacons to meet you and pray with you! I’ve done this in peoples’ homes, during church services, and at other times and places where the elders and pastors of a church meet, listen to the sufferings that someone is enduring and then spend time praying for them.

I think this passage lays it out specifically that God listens to the prayers of His people as they make requests on behalf of others in the body of Christ! Since we’ve already acknowledged that we’ve all experienced some issues in our lives, we don’t need to be ashamed to ask others to pray for broken relationships, broken hearts, broken lives, broken dreams, broken finances, broken jobs, broken spouses, broken kids, broken families, and yes, even broken toes and arms.

Another key aspect of this passage is the importance of confessing our sins to one another because that has a direct impact on our overall health. Now…I don’t think we don’t need to set a time in the service for each of us to confess every sin that we’ve committed during the past week. This week I lost my temper and swore. I’ve been struggling financially, and I’ve embezzled $10,000 from my employer. I am tired of my wife and I have a mistress on the side now.

But, like we talked at the beginning of the year, we need to be accountable if we want to accomplish spiritual growth in our faith journey and in our resolutions. If you’re struggling with a sin issue…whether big or small, James tells us that we’ll be healed from those issues as we let others into our lives and as they pray with and for us!

If you are currently struggling with something…PLEASE seek someone out to pray with you! Seek that healing and blessing as others join with you in asking the Lord to make a difference in your life!

OK…that’s a ton to think about today! I think that each of us…myself included have something to apply…whether it’s about submitting my rights and preferences to someone else in the body of Christ, being the kind of servant who will wash the dirty feet of someone else in the body of Christ, and even looking at things I need to confess to and get prayer from others in the body of Christ.

It’s NOT easy to develop a healthy church, but the road map has clear road signs as we work together on these one another commands.

Next week, we’ll be looking at the next set of commands that I’ve grouped together under the title of “Playing Nice Together”.

Playing Nice Together

·    Being kind and compassionate to one another                           Ephesians 4:32

·    Living in harmony with one another                                              Romans 12:16

·    Be at peace with one another                                                            Mark 9:50