4/14/13 DESIGN FOR LIFE - A Healthy Church
WE MUST PLEASE & LOVE THE LORD
Song Titles Try to Define LoveWhat is love? How do you define it? For generations, musicians have endeavored to give an answer. There are over 10,000 songs on file at the U.S. Copyright Office that begin with the words “Love Is …” Some are:
“Love Is Like a Dizziness” (1905)
“Love Is Like a Shoogy Shoo” (1912)
“Love Is a Sickness Full of Woes” (1912)
“Love Is a Babe” (1919)
“Love Is an I.O.U.” (1925)
“Love Is Like the Influenza” (1927)
“Love Is Good for Anything That Ails You” (1936)
“Love Is a Dimpling Doodle Bug” (1943)
“Love Is Doggone Mean” (1947)
“Love Is Your Prescription” (1947)
“Love Is Atomic” (1950)
“Love Is a Glass of Champagne” (1952)
“Love Is a Bore” (1964)
“Love Is Psychedelic” (1968)
“Love Is Groovy” (1969)
“Love Is a Funky Thing” (1976)
“Love Is Suicide” (1979)
“Love Is a Loaded Gun” (1988)
“Love Is for Suckers” (1988)
“Love Is Blindness” (1991)
Love Is, Harper’s Magazine (February 2003)
Some really weird titles, others were really crazy. The world wants to know what love is, & generally misses it by a long shot.
Last week we started talking about health as a church. We want to be healthy and strong. Anything that is living desires to be healthy. None of us enjoy being sick.
How does the church stay healthy and grow? We need to be concerned about this thought.
Remember the missionaries from northwest China and Tibet I mentioned last week? Pastor Mung?
He had not preached in 28 years. He reopened the church at age 75. On the first Sunday they had thirty old people.
He had spent 9 years in prison. He could not teach or baptize anyone under the age of 18 since it was illegal to indoctrinate the young. The government forced him to give the names of anyone he baptized to the religious affairs bureau.
So, how big did the church grow in five years? “How many believers?” He said, “1,500 baptized believers.”
In amazement visitors asked, “How did this happen?” He smiled and answered. “Oh,” he said, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we pray a lot!” Then he went on to describe what the Lord had done. Pastor Mung died at the age of 96. By that time they had over 15,000 baptized believers.
This week I was visiting with a pastor planting a church in Madison. That is a desperate spiritual wasteland. He said they needed more opportunity to pray and fast. Then he said, “After all, that’s what Jesus did”. When he said that, the statement from pastor Mung jumped in my mind. Yes, they are both on the same wavelength. Jesus is the same and prayer makes the difference.
Remember: The church is living.
Jesus, speaking in Matthew 16 said, “I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”
One of the key ingredients - the church is the Lord’s, and not ours. “I will build my church . . .” All the powers of hell work against the church but will not conquer it. They will attack. They will cause problems & difficulties. The will NOT conquer.
Since the church belongs to the Lord, a healthy church does all it can to please God.
Galatians 1:8-10 NKJV
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. 10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
We seek to please God by preaching the Gospel HE inspired and gave us in the scriptures.
We will not preach a different gospel. False teachers were trying to persuade the believers to accept a different gospel than Paul preached. They were adding things God never intended.
Any beliefs or teachings not coming from the Bible but coming from people, churches or tradition are not part of God’s message and are not to be taught as gospel of Jesus. Those who mix man-made teachings with the Bible are perverting God’s Word and teaching.
A critical question for a healthy church. We find it in verse 10 - Am I trying to please men?
Is the church trying to please people?
Is the church (whether a local body or large fellowship of churches) trying to make people happy by appeasing them and changing the message God inspired?
The church can’t effectively scatter the Gospel or influence others to receive him if they are more concerned with what people think than what God wants. These kind of folks are ashamed of Jesus and will compromise His truth.
Are you a genuine believer in Jesus? Make it your goal, your plan, to please God. Seek His plan for your life. Study the Bible and apply it. If others don’t like it, let them deal with God about it.
Peter and John were challenged with:
Acts 5:28-29 NKJV
28 saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!” 29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”
They were obeying Christ’s commands by filling Jerusalem with their teachings. Obeying God was the most important thing they could do. Serving the Lord is not a matter of what is safe or expedient, but what is right before God.
Another key point:
A healthy church is a place of real love.
We help and build up and we don’t shoot our wounded.
John 13:34-35 NKJV
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
Commandment
We are commanded to love one another. The love of Jesus flowing though us to one another is not optional. We don’t just put up with one another but we really care about what happens to them.
Sign of authenticity
The real thing, a real Christian let’s God’s love impact and influence their daily life and interactions between each other.
Proper application of love. Love is God’s nature.
The world talks a lot about love but doesn’t get it.
Love means:
Caring about the other person and not just yourself
Seeking good for another
Putting in some effort and sacrifice as needed
Impacting others in a positive way
And . . . so many more things
Love does not mean:
You allow someone to do whatever they want simply because you love them
Enabling someone to do wrong or destructive behaviors
Refusing to guide or restrict
Compromising truth or accommodating false teachings
A genuine loving Christian will obey Jesus and be loyal to Him. A loving believer will stand against sin, even when the sin is popular.
1 John 3:23 NKJV
23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
Another reminder of a commandment, one that should not be a burden to follow.
1 John 4:7-10 NKJV
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:10 NLT
10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
NIV
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
What is propitiation?
The basic idea of appeasement, satisfaction especially towards God. A two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended and being reconciled to him.
Remember, that as Christians we are called out. We are the called out ones, called out of the world and the world system to serve the Lord. While we live in the world, we are not to participate in the system, the sinful activities of the world.
Remember: WE MUST PLEASE & LOVE THE LORD
We spend a lot of time talking about application of these messages. A verse I have appreciated for a long time is
Colossians 3:17 NKJV
17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
NLT
17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
Restaurant Treats Every Customer Like Royalty
A story has been told about a man was having dinner with his parents at a stylish London restaurant. The food was superb, and the setting complete with chandeliers, crystal and silver was unbelievably elegant. Nonetheless, when his mother’s main course arrived, she felt the need for a little salt. Trying the three silver shakers that were on the table, she discovered each contained pepper. She called the waiter over only to be told that she must be mistaken. Each table always contained two dispensers of pepper and one of salt.
A second attempt, however, showed that their table did, indeed, have three pepper shakers. Horrified, the waiter immediately brought her a saltshaker. When it was time for dessert, the maitre d’ appeared, insisting that because of the oversight they choose something “on the house”.
The woman protested, “It’s not that important.”
“But, Madame,” he replied in all seriousness, “what if you had been the Queen?”
Source: Sermonnotes.com. The story cannot be verified.
Do everything as unto the Lord.
A West African Proverb on Double-mindedness
“The man who tries to walk two roads will split his pants.”
Please God, not people.
LIFE APPLICATION: The Next Step
DESIGN FOR LIFE
What do we have to do to be healthy - a healthy church?
Do we actually have to DO these things?
