Principles to Build Upon: Harmony
Introduction:
The last few weeks we have discussed principles that we must build upon. If we are going to grow as a church there are several pillars that we must build upon. We have talked about the importance of maintaining the Truth, of worshipping in spirit and in truth, of true fellowship with one another, and on the importance of every member being involved in the work of the kingdom. This morning I would like to highlight another vital pillar that we must build upon, and that is a harmony within the church. I believe it is vital that we be working together and working towards the same end.
Most often when we hear the word harmony we think of a musical term, which is defined as “the sound resulting from the simultaneous sounding of two or more tones consonant with each other.” When there is harmony it sounds good. However, the opposite of harmony is dissonance. Dissonance can be defined as a “simultaneous sounding of tones that produces a feeling of tension or unrest and a feeling that further resolution is needed.” When there is dissonance the sound is not good.
When there is harmony in the church it is good and great things can be accomplished because we are on the same page, but when there is dissonance the church is greatly hindered. Psalm 133 says, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.” However, we know that often times seeds of discord are sown and a sense of harmony and unity within the body of Christ is lost. I have to believe that one of the primary ways the Devil attacks the church is in an attempt to disrupt the harmony that is there.
A preacher went to his high school reunion. One of his friends asked, “How many active members do you have in your church?” The preacher said, “They’re all active. Half of them are working with me and the other half are working against me.”
When this is really the case the church is on dangerous ground and essentially loses her ability to make a difference in the world. Many churches are a picture of discord and dissonance. It isn’t uncommon to hear stories of people within the church seeking to advance their own private agenda, to cause strife, stir up dissension, and attack leaders within the church and to disrupt unity at any cost. I believe when harmony is disturbed in the church it is a serious thing, which should not be taken lightly.
It is my suggestion this morning that in order for the church to grow and for the kingdom to advance we must live in harmony with one another, we must show the world that we are different in how we act and how we treat one another. This living in harmony does not mean that we compromise on matters of faith, but it does mean that we understand that we are not fighting against one another in the church, but that we are on the same team, headed for the same place and working towards the same goal.
Again, we see a great model in the book of Acts about the church living in harmony with one another. I am sure they had disagreements and disputes, but yet they were still of one mind. This does not mean that they were not individuals or that some were simply yes men, but it means that they could humble themselves and not always get their way. It means they understood that the kingdom was bigger and greater than themselves. If the church of today could learn to be of one mind, then I believe it would make a clear impression on the world, but today the church is greatly hindered by partisan spirits, by dissenters and divisive people, by the proud and arrogant who refuse to back down on matters of opinion, and by those who sow seeds of discord within the body of Christ.
Text: Acts 2:44-46
I. Why Is Harmony So Important?
a. Harmony In The Church Is Vital To Those Outside
To put it simply harmony within the church is so important because God blesses harmonious churches. You never hear of a church full of chaos and division that is growing.
I heard about a church years ago that began bickering about the use of a musical instrument. Half of the congregation wanted to use a piano, the other half felt it was the tool of the Devil. Sharp disagreement resulted in hard feelings on both sides. One Sunday morning when everyone arrived at the church building there was a piano on stage, and it was played during the singing. The half that was opposed was furious and walked out. The next Sunday everyone was back, but the piano was missing. Those who bought it couldn’t find it. Accusations flew for months about where the piano went. Six months later the piano was found. It had been hidden in the baptistery all along.
When there is so much strife you can count on an un-used baptistery. I have to believe that the church is not reaching its full potential today. I believe the church can make a much greater difference than it is making now. I believe the church can do far more than it is doing now, and if we would restore harmony from within I believe the church would be able to accomplish those things. Harmony is so important in the church because an absence of harmony hinders the church.
John 17:21
Perhaps that is why the Scriptures speak so harshly against the divisive person and the person who causes strife.
Titus 3:10-11
Why such harsh language about a divisive person, because their sin and attitude is hindering the whole church from being more productive. We read several stories of rebellion during Israel’s time in the Wilderness. One thing that we see plainly is that God did not tolerate that opposition. Why didn’t he? Probably because their attitude was contagious, and it would hinder people from giving their best efforts to reaching the Promised Land. I wonder if people’s attitudes are contagious in the church. I believe we as the church could do far more if there was a greater sense of harmony.
Picture if you will an orchestra. Let’s say they are going to play a beautiful symphony. The performance begins. It is beautiful. Then the strings section decides to play “Take Me out to the Ball Game.” The horns decide to play Amazing Grace and the violinist decides to play some fiddle music. What would you have? A mess! When the all the parts of the orchestra are on the same page, the performance is a good one.
When we are on the same page, the results can be great, but when we are headed in different directions the result is a disaster. Jesus echoed this same thought.
Luke 11:17
Most of the time I have seen that conflict within the church occurs over silly matters and matters that really are not essential for salvation. I believe that our task is a great one as the church. I believe that we have been entrusted with the responsibility of reaching the entire world with the message of Jesus. I believe that our task is too great to be distracted by trivial matters. We must be a united front, standing together and working together for the same cause.
Concerning the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin said… “We must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately.”
b. Harmony In The Church Is Vital To Those Inside
Not only is harmony vital to our effect on those outside the church, the harmony we share is vital on us inside the church. I do not know if you have ever been around a church where there is a serious absence of harmony, but it is a miserable place to be, and furthermore it becomes very difficult to grow spiritually in a church that is devouring each other. The Bible teaches us that the relationship that we share in Christ is unique and special. We are called not just to like each other, but to love one another. We are called not just to put up with one another, but to live in harmony with one another. Perhaps that is the reason for the numerous passionate please to maintain unity and to get along with one another. The church cannot be the church if it is divided among each other. The church is to be a place where we can be recharged and refreshed, but when fighting and conflict are present it simply drains people emotionally and spiritually.
Galatians 5:13-15
An absence of harmony will destroy a church from the inside out.
II. What Hinders Harmony?
a. Pride
Romans 12:16
I think it is interesting that in this charge to live in harmony with one another that we have a rebuke of people’s pride. Pride is a great hindrance to people living in harmony. An uncontrolled ego can be a dangerous thing anywhere you go. I have heard it said that “ego” is an acronym for “edging God out”. That is exactly what pride does. People with uncontrolled egos and pride pretend to have the church’s best interest in mind. The problem with those full of pride is that they are so busy pursuing their own agenda that they forget about God’s agenda. They cannot handle being wrong so they will stir up a fight before they will ever admit fault. People’s pride greatly hinders harmony in the church. The bottom line is that we need to lay aside our egos and remember that it is not about us. We are working for something much bigger and much more important than our agenda. If we could get to the point where people take on an attitude of humility I believe the church would take the first step towards living in harmony with one another.
Leonard Bernstein was once asked which instrument was the most difficult to play. He thought for a moment and then replied, "The second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play the second fiddle with enthusiasm - that’s a problem. And if we have no second fiddle, we have no harmony."
Whether we like it or not we are playing second fiddle and the glory and focus should not be upon us, but upon God. If we implement that attitude into our lives there will be less quarrels over petty things, there will be less division and strife and there would be far more harmony among one another. We need to understand our place in the kingdom. Pride begins because people start to think of themselves more highly than they ought. God wisely designed the human body so that we can neither pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily. The bottom line is that a proper view of ourselves will help us to guard against disrupting harmony in the church.
b. Self Serving Attitudes
I Peter 3:8-11
Another obstacle to harmony is people with a self serving attitude. Perhaps with this is mind we can understand why so much emphasis is put on serving one another and putting others above yourselves. When one puts themselves first it becomes the priority to get what they want when they want. I believe a servant’s attitude is desperately needed in the church of today. If people would begin to serve one another and value the interests of others more than their own interests we will see pride laid aside and a greater sense of harmony within. If we are going to have harmony and unity in the church we must not be self-serving, but we must be willing to serve others.
c. Complaining
A monk joined a monastery and took a vow of silence. After the first 10 years his superior called him in and asked, "Do you have anything to say?" The monk replied, "Food bad." After another 10 years the monk again had opportunity to voice his thoughts. He said, "Bed hard." Another 10 years went by and again he was called in before his superior. When asked if he had anything to say, he responded, "I quit." "It doesn’t surprise me a bit. You’ve done nothing but complain ever since you got here."
The bottom line is that no one likes being around a complainer. However, complaining is not an uncommon thing in the church. We have people that complain all the time about things. The reasons those people complain is because they feel that things should be the way they want them to be. I feel that some have lost the notion of taming the tongue; some people feel it is their right to complain about any and everything. Now, why is complaining a hindrance to harmony? I believe it is because complaining first of all is contagious, second of all divisive and third of all it accomplishes nothing positive. However, some people will complain and argue about anything and everything and feel righteous and justified in doing so. They will feel they are doing what is best.
Philippians 2:14-16
It reminds me of the story of an old Aesop fable about an old man and his grandson who made their way into town with a donkey. The grandfather put the boy on the donkey until he heard people says, “Look at that selfish boy making that old man walk!” The grandfather couldn’t stand to have the child criticized so he asked the boy to walk while he rode for a while. Then he heard people say, “Look at that selfish old man riding and making that poor little boy walk.” So he got off and they both walked. The he heard people say, “Look at those two stupid people. They’ve got a donkey and they’re not even using it.” So both the man and the boy rode the donkey together. Then they heard people say, “Look at those cruel people abusing that poor animal! They’re going to break his back with that load.” They finally walked into town carrying the donkey.
The bottom line is you cannot please everyone. While we cannot please everyone let’s do our best to keep complaining down. Of course we may always feel entitled or that we ought to speak up, but sometimes we should just keep the mouth closed because our complaining may do more harm than good, it very well could hinder true harmony from taking place in the church.
III. What Do We Do To Maintain Harmony?
a. Be Willing to Follow
There has to be some type of system of order for anything to work. The bottom line is that God established a system within the church for us to follow. He set some to be leaders. Not every person can lead. I do not believe the church is a democracy, but I do believe we must have some order and in order for the church to be effective we have to have a group of people willing to follow the leader. Our society talks a lot about leadership, but I believe the concept of followership is far more important and relevant. We need to not just know how to lead well, but also how to follow well. Perhaps at times our pride gets in the way in the church and we think that we do not need to follow anyone, but I do believe that we should be willing to follow the leaders in the church. This does not mean that we follow blindly, but it does mean we respect their authority. It does mean that we be willing to submit ourselves to them, that may even mean that we follow them in decision we do not understand or fully support.
Hebrews 13:17
I believe one problem that we have is a following problem. We need to learn what it means to submit ourselves and follow the leader; perhaps this would include laying down our pride and our preferences in order to follow the leaders. I seriously doubt that the early church always agreed with each other on every issue, yet they were of one mind. They were on the same page. You know what that means? That means that they had to have times where they submitted themselves to the leaders’ authority and followed them out of reverence for Christ. A lot of conflict occurs when people attempt to undermine or usurp the authority of the leaders. However, when people understand their role in the church and can willingly follow then that leads to harmony. Let us not disrupt the harmony of the church quickly. Let us be willing to submit ourselves to the eldership. Let us be willing to pick our battles wisely. Let us become good followers.
b. Avoid Foolish Controversies
Titus 3:9
There are such things as foolish controversies. There are some hills not worth dying on. There are some things not worth arguing. I believe many times people get caught up in foolish controversies, but they fail to realize that those things are useless and unprofitable. Yes, there are some things worth arguing, but more often than not the arguing and controversy within the body of Christ is over foolish and trivial issues which have no bearing on a person’s salvation.
c. Work Towards Maturity
I am the oldest of three boys. Growing up my brothers and I fought. I do not just mean we wrestled around, we fought. Sometimes the fights would be knock down drag out. There were bloody noses, black eyes and all sorts of other wounds. We loved each other, but we rarely lived in harmony together. As we have gotten older that has gotten slightly better. There are still times we play around and wrestle, but as we have matured the fighting has slowed down as well. I believe that if the church wants to live in harmony we must move on to maturity. When we become mature in Christ then egos will diminish. We will be more ready to forgive. We will be more apt to serve one another. We will live in harmony with one another. Many churches have no harmony because they have not achieved maturity. They argue over silly things and fight over non-important issues and it shows forth their immaturity. Let us work towards maturity in Christ. As we mature we put things into proper perspective.
As we mature we are able to work together more effectively, understanding we are on the same team and working towards the same goal.
In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn’t. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus. "These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they’re nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold."
When we work together and live in harmony as the church we are a fore to be reckoned with in the world.
