THREE SECRETS TO BEING AN EFFECTIVE CHURCH
ROM 12:3-8
• Last Sunday we saw how being an effective Christian demands surrender in our lives and a willingness to stay on God’s altar.
1) Twofold command through Paul:
a) Do not be conformed to this world: not just stop doing what they do(list of don’t’s) but do start doing what they don’t do(love your enemy, forgive others, show kindness, return good for evil, surrender your rights)
b) Do be transformed by the renewing of your mind: rest of chapter 12 is practical issues regarding a transformed mind. A new way of thinking.
c) Difference is that one happens from the outside while the other comes from the inside. JUST DIFFERENT INSIDE NOW
* Verse 3 begins a transition into how believers together can
maximize our effectiveness as the body of Christ.
Three important attitudes that are secrets to a successful fellowship of believers.
SECRET OF HUMILITY (3) For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
a. An accurate measure of myself:
1) Importance of self-examination: 2 Cor 13:5 ‘Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith’
Lord’s Supper is meant to be a time of personal evaluation and
confession.
2) Sin produces in us a natural tendency to ‘think more highly of ourselves than we should’(our feelings, other’s comments instead of basing it on the reality of how God sees us)
Jer 17:9-10 The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick, who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind even to give to each man according to his ways.
Know a lot of men who love Jesus until it gets to deer season, or golfing weather, lot of women who love God as long as their favorite awards show is not on. Families who love their church as long as it does not compete with little league or school activities.
3) Paul says we need to sober up: think as to have sound(sober) judgment. Sin intoxicates us so that we don’t gauge an accurate evaluation of ourselves.
Interesting things about a drunk: Can’t walk a straight line – Tend to drive on the wrong side of the road – Totally convinced that they have it all together - Think they can get away with it without any consequences.
Lost world intoxicated by sin can’t live a holy life, are living their lives for the wrong priorities, can’t see the truth about themselves and don’t see the consequences of their actions coming.
a) Sound judgment is to know that there are things about ourselves that we can’t quite trust. Some things may have tendency to get distorted or be wrong. We need to watch for it and test every thought and action by the perfect Word of God.
HERB REAVIS: Heartland Evangelism Conference. Message: Parable of the Brats. Those most religious and Jesus’ words to them. LUKE 7:31-35
Like childen in the marketplace: Played a flute….did not dance…played a dirge…you did not weep…..John the Baptist has come….He has a demon….Son of man has come…a gluttonous man…friend of sinners.
Worship. In two thousand years we haven’t worked out the kinks. We still struggle for the right words in prayer. We still fumble over Scripture. We don’t know when to kneel. We don’t know when to stand. We don’t know how to pray. Worship is a daunting task.
For that reason, God gave us the Psalms—a praise book for God’s people.… This collection of hymns and petitions are strung together by one thread—a heart hungry for God.
Some are defiant. Others are reverent. Some are to be sung. Others are to be prayed. Some are intensely personal. Others are written as if the whole world would use them .…
The very variety should remind us that worship is personal. No secret formula exists. What moves you may stymie another. Each worships differently. But each should worship
BRATS: like children arguing over the music, arguing over the preachers…world is going to hell. Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow ME.
A TRUE HONEST ACCOUNT OF OURSELVES IS NOT BASED ON WHAT WE SAY OR BELIEVE BUT ON WHAT WE DO.
b) But also that God compensates for our weaknesses by providing His strength.
Paul warns us to be cautious of our weaknesses but also to recognize our strength
b. An accurate measure of my potential: the grace given me…..as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
1) Romans tells me I am no longer in Adam, the Holy Spirit has come and I have power available by God’s grace.
2) I always have to be on guard because of the evil of the flesh but I can always pursue victory because of the grace of God, the righteousness of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
3) Essential that faith is mixed with Grace. It is the key that unlocks the door to Grace. Without faith grace remains untapped.
Continually hear it said during this war about how our weapons are so advanced to those the Iraqi army has. Our planes, our tanks, our bombs, our uniforms.
Russian made 1960 era tanks.
What if we chose not to use those weapons but went and got these Civil War reenactment weapons.
Simple rifles and swords, one shot cannons without any guidance, cloth uniforms. No air support. As evil as the enemy is we would have no chance.
Fight spiritual battles every day without prayer or the Word of God, without the armor of the Lord and without help from above.
ONE MAN said - Three things tell yourself each morning:
• I am made in the image of God(not an animal, I have reason and choice)
• I am filled the Holy Spirit of God: His life and power are working in me, I am the ‘bearer of God’ HIS TEMPLE LUTHER ‘you fool, do you not know that God is living in you?’ In Christ $ Christ In You The Hope Of Glory
• I am part of the Plan of God: God is working, He has a final purpose, I am not a spectator but a vital piece of the puzzle
Two Extremes every believer must avoid:
• Pride: Boastful, arrogance, Muhammad Ali: not think too highly
• Timid, fearful, unwilling to attempt: Mouse God has given to each of us grace & faith
Anything right now that you are unwilling to attempt for God:
A ministry in the church? Witness to that person God has put on your heart?
Spending more time in devotions and disciplines in your walk with God?
FOREST GUMP: Young lady throwing rock after rock at the home she grew up in where so much abuse had taken place. She threw and threw until she could find no more rocks to threw and then sat down crying.
Forest came to comfort her the best he knew by saying, ‘SOMETIMES THERE JUST AREN’T ENOUGH ROCKS’.
We don’t have what it takes to live the Christian life, to defeat temptation, to counter punch the devil but GOD HAS PROVIDED MORE THAN ENOUGH.
• We serve a God Who will provide: Opens the windows of heaven, give the fatted calf, the abundant life, makes us more than conquerors, who makes the cup overflow
2. SECRET OF HARMONY (4) For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, (5) so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Stand in front of mirror and look at yourself. You begin to get a mental image of how God designed the church and how we are to see it.
One body many members different functions
Church directory: Picture of church on the cover? No the pictures of the church are on the inside. Not bricks but faces
THREE POWERFUL TRUTHS
a. ONE BODY WITH MANY MEMBERS we have many members in one body.
1) We are the Body of Christ, He is the head each one of us is a member together in Him. In Christ is one of Paul’s greatest descriptive phrases of the believer.
People who usually get themselves in trouble in their spiritual life are usually those who have isolated themselves from the body of Christ.
Lions in Africa: strategy is to isolate stragglers from the pack.
Devil prowls about as a roaring lion seeking whom he can destroy.
His first strategy in your life might be to get you to distance yourself from the body of Christ.
‘I don’t like what someone said, what someone did, I’ll just take some time away….’ SNAP separated from the safety of the fellowship
You can never do the will of God in your life if you are isolated from the body of Christ.
b. MANY MEMBERS WITH DIVERSE FUNCTIONS all the members do not have the same function.
1) Body has many different parts that perform various functions. All are very important. Some parts are very visible while others are not. Liver? Kidney? Stomach? Brain? People in prayer closets are the very life of the church!
IN SECRET..prayer…giving..fasting Power and life of church depends on the unseen that is done.
What percentage of your walk with Christ is done alone?
BUSH: After 911 said he could actually feel the prayers of people praying for him.
Father was being interviewed and that came up. Yes he said that but he also said that he could feel when the prayers stopped.
2) Argue that our particular diverse function is the most important while all work together to make the body effective: Evangelism #1, Discipleship #1, Missions #1, Meeting social needs #1, fellowship #1, Worship #1, music #1….
3) Diversity scares us so most believers isolate themselves into various camps of similarities. Labels on Churches
c. DIVERSE FUNCTIONS BUT ONE TOGETHER we, who are many, are….individually members one of another
1) Instead of letting diversity divide us we should rejoice in it realizing that it is what makes us most effective in our task of reaching a lost and diverse world.
Organizations around the World: formed because of similarities
NAACP(people of Color), NEA(teachers) NRA(people with guns), AARP(used to say old but I will be eligible in 5 yrs) ACLU(absolute crooks and liberal’s union)people so open minded their brains fell out long ago)
No other organization in the world can make the claim the church can that we are are so different but all one together. Despite our differences that they can know us by our love for each other.
SMALLER CHURCH: Allows relationships across many age ranges. Hannah’s Hannibal grandma….Kids and teenager(adult in life of most are parents & teachers) church allows relationship with other adult that are not always judging them but can love them in spite of their flaws.
2) Families may not always like each other but when one hurts they all hurt and when one is honored they all are honored.
I broke my foot once and the rest of my body stayed up all night to keep my foot company.
Kidney Stone why does it hurt so many other places ‘transferred pain’ the body all hurts together.
• Secret of Humility – Secret of Harmony(Tonight the third secret: Hard Work)
• Many members – many functions – one together and one Head Jesus Christ.
Deacons of a particular church met: told to write down all the members of the congregation who to their knowledge had no ministry and perhaps no awareness of their spiritual gift.
Within 5 minutes they had over 100 or more names of men and women.
If our deacons did the same would your name be there?
If they made of list of all who had come complaining about something in the past year would your name be there?
SURPRISE: How many names on both lists!!!
An effective church is only a collection of believers who have chosen to be different from a lost world: live different, love one another and truly love Jesus with all their heart. ARE YOU ON THAT LIST?
