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 15th through 19th 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
No comments:
Post a Comment