One Church

I am here to talk to you today about working together in Unity. We as brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ need to realize that we are one people with one purpose, to share the love of Jesus with the world and to glorify him. To many times in the body of Christ, believers and Christians tear each other down. Whether it be gossip, rumors, talking down to or about one another does no good, but just causes strife, pain, and hurt emotionally and spiritually. Sure we may have our differences in style, age, personality etc. but that does not give us the excuse to patronize one another. We as believers may be part of different denominations, but the truth is, there are born again Jesus followers in most likely every one of them. Some of us may “know” more than others, some of us may be better servants than others, some of us may be baby Christians and some of us may be mature Christians. My whole point is that we as a universal body of believers need to, forgive me for the cliche, need to just get a long more. What do you think could happen if believers came together to spread the love of Jesus, rather than wasting their time trying to tear each other down. I think a lot more would be accomplished for the cause of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 “12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

Ephesians 4:1-3 ” As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

Romans 14:19 “So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.”

My challenge to you today is to look for the good in people. Look for the good in your fellow believers. Remember that they are your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ and how you treat them is how you treat him. Yes you may have messed up and treated people horribly in life up until now, but God is a God of forgiveness and mercy. Confess it to him and repent and begin to turn your life around. He wants you to, don’t feel so ashamed that you think you can’t go to him for his love and mercy are far more than we can imagine. Treat others well!

Perception

Today I want to talk to you about perception. About the way we look at life and what our mindset is going into life and all it’s different situations. Are you a glass half full or a glass half empty kind of person. I think it really is an important thing and the Bible the tells us so as well. Think about the kind of people you like to be around. Do you like to be around someone who is always complaining, dragging their feet, and someone who knows how to turn a typically normal situation into this big drama, or something negative to complain about. Or do you want to be around someone who is always looking for the best in people, someone who is looking to spin a bad situation into something that really isn’t that bad after all if you look at it a certain way. I mean you can take both of those to extremes and a lot of times extremes can be dangerous and unreal. You want the positive person, unless you are one of the negative extremes people. Of course be sympathetic to someone who may be going through a hard time and try and relate to them, but don’t let them bring you down or drag you into negativity. Do your best to look at life with the eyes of love and the way God looks at people.

Phillipians 4:6,8 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God…….Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Proverbs 17:22 “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

Matthew 15:11 “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

Ephesians 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

I could go on and on with verses that God is telling us to look at life positively and with love and kindness. These are just a few encouraging verses to you on just that. We need to really take a look at our heart life and our mind life, what kind of voices are talking to us in any and every situation? Are they voices that scream negativity, doubt, fear, hate, and so on or is it a voice of peace, love, kindness, forgiveness, and positivity? One of them is the right answer, the second one is the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us and the negative one is either your own negative attitude that you have adopted as your own, or it could be the devil and his evil temptations that are sly and may come off as a normal response, but are just temptations to give in to those negative attributes that we talked about. I’m not saying that any time you are negative, it’s the devil, but watch out for it. And plain and simple, looking at life one way or the other is a choice. You have the power to change and to be a light and to walk in love.

A lot of times when you fill your heart and your mind with negative thoughts, that is a direct line to what words come out of your mouth. If your heart is filled with God’s word and his direction and love, you’ll find that his word and love are the type of words that will come out of your mouth in conversation. Same with that dirty negative attitude, if you are always dwelling on the negative of life, those are the type of things that will flow from your mouth in conversation.

Matthew 12:34 “You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say.”

My challenge to you today is to try and see what kind of heart and mind you have taken on as your own. Do you find yourself thinking negative a little too often or do you find yourself full of positivity and God’s word? Be honest with your self evaluation, if you want, ask others which category they would put you in. Once you have determined what you were, now you have the choice to make a change, now you can determine what kind of person you want to be. Learn to fill your heart and mind with God’s Spirit and direction, and then choose to put away any negative thoughts that may want to overwhelm you and give them to God, for he cares for you. I challenge you today to start thinking positive and start speaking positive no matter how bad life may get, it’s only worse if you let it be, by your outlook and perception of it.

Jesus Community

Jesus set an example of how we should live out our lives. What I am going to talk about is 3 key staples of Jesus’ community life. Here is a look at 3 different kinds of relationships that Jesus had. 1st is intimacy with God, he would always draw himself away to spend time with God. That is a relationship that we need to develop in our own lives, it is the most important relationship that we have in our life. 2nd was Jesus’ community with insiders, those who were his disciples. They would spend time eating together, in fellowship together, and were very close. In our church this is the example that we need to live by. Us as a church or a community of believers need to have authentic relationships. 3rdly in Jesus’ life, he had influence with outsiders. Those outside the church, the non-believer. For us, same thing, a relationship with those outside the church.

Luke 6:12-19 is interesting and kind establishes what I just told you with Jesus’ relationships.

¹² One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. ¹³ At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names:¹⁴ Simon (whom he named Peter),Andrew (Peter’s brother),James,John,Philip,Bartholomew,¹⁵ Matthew,Thomas,James (son of Alphaeus),Simon (who was called the zealot),¹⁶ Judas (son of James),Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).¹⁷ When they came down from the mountain, the disciples stood with Jesus on a large, level area, surrounded by many of his followers and by the crowds. There were people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from as far north as the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon. ¹⁸ They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those troubled by evil^[b] spirits were healed. ¹⁹ Everyone tried to touch him, because healing power went out from him, and he healed everyone.”

If you look at it closer, you see kind of a pattern, Jesus went off by himself to have intimacy with God and spent the night praying. At day break he picks his disciples and has community, he chose some guys that he was going to do life with, to do ministry with, they then come down from the mountain and do ministry to other people. You’ll see this over and over in Jesus’ life, those 3 main relationships.

Why was Jesus’ so concerned with community? Did Jesus really need them? They a lot of the times didn’t even get what he was talking about. They would get in to stupid fights over who was the greatest of them, which is completely the opposite of what Jesus taught, When Jesus told them to stay awake in the garden, they fell asleep. When he told them to go to sleep on the boat, they woke him up and asked him to pray. I mean Thomas was a doubter, Judas was a Traitor, Levi was a tax collector, Peter cut a guys ear off. They told Jesus they would never leave his side, but when Jesus faced his biggest trial, they all scattered. Did Jesus need their community. Maybe he did, because of the value of love.  Jesus needed a group of people that he could do life with. That he could love. So that he could give us an example of how us as a community of insiders, as a church should do life together. (Matt 22) Love God and Love People.

John 13:34-35, Jesus says  “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. ³⁵ Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Jesus is telling us right now, that we don’t have to be the prettiest, smartest, most awesome people in the world. But what we do need to be, is a people of love, and a people of close community. Jesus stamp on us, is the way that we love one another, that is how people will know we are his.

Here are 3 principles that Jesus tried to establish as biblical authentic community. Here is the first,

1.Everybody is Welcome – it didn’t matter who they were or where they came from. He would accept them, embrace them, include them, ANYBODY who would come up to him. Prostitutes, Tax collectors, etc.This is what Jesus was about. This is how us as a church should be. A lot of people may never again want to go to church because they didn’t have a good experience when they went, maybe they got judged or didn’t feel welcome. We need to be a community and church where everybody is welcome.

2.Nobody is Perfect – We are all on the same level (Romans 3:23). None of us deserved salvation. We all stand in a place at the foot of the cross in desperate need for the bloodshed of Jesus Christ. Everyone of us stand in a place in need the forgiveness of God. There is no room for judging one another. Matt 7:1 – Jesus wasn’t saying that we shouldn’t  make moral discernment to one another. He wasn’t saying there isn’t a time where we should go to a loved one and say “you are screwing your life up”. What He is saying is that there is no room for I’m up here and your down here.We all come from the same place, and we should look at people through the eyes of love.

3.Anything is Possible – Transformation is possible. Jesus took a man by the name of Simon, and called him Peter which means “Rock” and knew you will stand before thousands, who was at one point was scared and ran from Jesus, but then one day he came to a place where he would die for Jesus. Saul was a hater and killer of Gentiles, became Paul who became a man who gave his life to love the gentiles. This is something that we have to get as a Church. Jesus set the example for us. We are to look at one another and say I see something different about you. You have a “New Name”. You are not who you used to be. You can become something different. The old is gone and the new is come. You can become someone new. We should look at people and say I see a new name in you, I see what your life would look like if you just surrendered your life to Jesus Christ. Yet sometimes we don’t treat each other as if anything is possible. We may gossip, or judge inside ourselves, instead of seeing the best in one another. Not looking with the eyes that say anything is possible. We should believe the best in people. God can still transform people. Anything is possible.

Jesus community – Everybody is Welcome, Nobody is Perfect, Anything is Possible