Somerset Membership Covenant
I Will Save the Unity of Our Church
Ephesians 4:3
January 4, 2004
Intro:
A. [illustration]
A visitor to a mental hospital was astonished to note that there were only three guards watching over a hundred dangerous inmates.
He asked his guide, “Don’t you fear that these people will overpower the guards and escape?”
“No,” was the reply. “Lunatics never unite.”
1. And if there was ever a group of people who should be smarter than lunatics, its the body of Christ!
2. The body of Christ is not a bunch of lunatics, so we’d better be smart and unite!
B. The Scriptures have some very important things to say about the need for Christians to be united…
1. Romans 15:5 "May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus,"
2. Colossians 3:14 "And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."
3. Ephesians 4:3 "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."
a. The apostle Paul says there that it is the responsibility of every member of the body of Christ to make every effort to keep unity in the church through the bond of peace.
b. That is the responsibility of every believer; every member of a church.
c. As long as the leadership of that church focuses on keeping that church Biblical—the next verses say this about what should be the foundation of that unity, "There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called--one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:4-6)
d. The leadership needs to keep the church based on those truths, and if the leadership does its job to keep the church based on that, then the members of that church need to commit themselves to make every effort to keep (or save) the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
C. This is the first in a series of sermons that I want to preach on our new membership covenant.
1. We are going to start out the first of this year thinking and studying and praying about this new membership covenant.
2. We are going to have our first membership class on Saturday, January 17.
3. It will run from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
4. We will have lunch right here at the church.
5. As a result of that one-time, four-hour class, we will have our first members.
6. We will study in the class what it means to be a saved Christian and what it means to be a member of Somerset Church.
7. Those who decide to take the class, sign, and abide by the covenant will be members of the church.
8. We will have other opportunities to take the class on different days of the week in different formats.
9. Let me know if Saturdays are not convenient for you and we will create other opportunities for you.
10. But the first class will be January 17, beginning at 10:00 AM.
D. So today’s sermon is about the first statement of the covenant: I Will Save the Unity of Our Church.
1. Christ died to unite us, to make us one.
2. We are united.
3. The only way we can be divided is if we allow Satan to use us as tools to divide our unity.
4. He is subtle and sneaky so we need to do exactly what Ephesians 4:3 says, we need to make every effort to save the unity that Christ has given us.
5. So here are three important ways that we can do that, first…
I. …by acting in love toward other members
1 Peter 3:8 (NIV), Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.
A. The apostle Peter gives us several ways which we should treat others in the church.
1. Peter explains to us the way in which we should act towards other members.
2. And if we act in these ways towards others in the church, we will go along way towards maintaining the unity that we now enjoy at Somerset.
B. First, Peter says that we should live in harmony with one another.
1. Now this just makes sense, doesn’t it?
2. It just makes sense that church members ought to live in harmony with one another.
3. It just makes sense that church members ought to get a long with one another.
4. And it just makes sense that if church members are not living in harmony, there will be no unity in the church.
5. But we all know that it is not easy to live in harmony with every one—even in the church.
6. [Illustration]
Two porcupines found themselves in a blizzard and tried to huddle together to keep warm.
But because they were pricked by each other’s quills, they moved apart.
Soon they were shivering again and had to lie side by side once more for their own survival.
They needed each other, even though they needled each other!
And there are many “porcupine” Christians running around.
They have their good points, but you can’t get near them because the bad points prick too hard.
7. No, it is not easy to live in harmony with every one—even in the church.
8. Even in the church, there are those folks who just seem to get under our skin.
9. Even in the church (if we are really honest) there are those who just don’t seem to see things our way very often.
10. Even in the church, there are those who just seem not want to get along with us.
11. Even in the church, there are those who just seem to not care what they say.
12. Even in the church, there are those who just seem to not care whose feelings they hurt.
13. Even in the church, there are those who just enjoy needling you.
14. Even in the church, there are personality conflicts.
15. Isn’t that true?
16. So what are we to do about those people?
17. Does Peter give us an out?
18. Does Peter say that if some people are just totally obnoxious, then you can ignore those people?
19. Does Peter say that if some people just don’t make any attempt to get along with you, then you have the right to “tell them off?”
20. Does Peter give us any exceptions?
21. No. Peter doesn’t give us any “outs.”
22. Peter says, “all of you, live in harmony with one another.”
23. There are no exceptions: “all of you.”
24. We can’t force someone else to live in harmony with us, but we can live in harmony with them.
25. That is one of the things the Scriptures say we should do in order to save the unity of the church, “all of you, live in harmony with one another.”
C. Second, Peter says that we should be sympathetic with others.
1. We need to try to understand other people.
2. I think Peter is talking about those obnoxious people, don’t you?
3. We need to be sympathetic with those obnoxious people, who just don’t seem to want to get along.
4. I know that if you just try to get to know people, there are reasons why they act the way they do.
5. You may find out that they may be having a difficult time with their marriage right now.
6. If you get to know the obnoxious person, you may find out that they may have a son or grandson who is facing some time in prison.
7. They may have a mother or father who is in failing health.
8. They may be having some serious financial problems.
9. They may have had a bad experience when they were a child.
10. They may have had a bad experience in a previous church.
11. We need to be sympathetic with folks!
12. That person may be a little irritable at times, but I’d bet that if you tried to understand where they are coming from and tried showing them a little sympathy, you could eliminate a lot of the tension that you feel around them.
13. My guess is that at least 95% of all disharmony is because of a lack of understanding and sympathy.
14. We can’t force someone else to live in harmony with us, but we can show them some understanding, sympathy, and care.
15. I think that you can see that this will go a long way in helping us maintain unity in the church.
D. Third, Peter says we should love one another as brothers and sisters.
1. Now that is an easy thing to say and it is certainly something that you should expect church members to do.
2. But how do you do that?
3. How do you love one another as brothers and sisters?
4. Some people say they love their car. Some people say they love their dog.
5. My mother says she loves her cats.
6. Some people love the new clothes that they got for Christmas.
7. Some folks even love their neighbor’s bathroom.
8. So how do you love like brothers and sisters?
9. I believe the apostle Paul gave the best description of love in 1 Corinthians 13.
10. Many people throw the word “love” around, but I don’t think many people really understand it.
11. The first thing I would say about the word “love” is that it is not a feeling, it is a commitment to the well-being of another.
12. Love is not a noun; it is a verb. Love is an action.
13. Listen to how the apostle Paul describes love, and ask yourself if this is the way you act towards your brothers and sisters in the church…"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
14. Now can you do those things to your neighbor’s bathroom?
15. This is how we should love as brothers and sisters.
16. And that will clearly go a long way in maintaining unity in the church.
E. Fourth, Peter tells us that we should be compassionate and humble.
1. Peter has already said that we should be sympathetic and loving; doing those things will clearly make us compassionate.
2. But I want to talk about that other word: “humble.”
3. If there is anything that will keep us from doing the things that Peter is asking us to do, it is pride.
4. And when it rears its head the most is when someone refuses to get along with us.
5. Pride rears its head the most when harmony has been breached.
6. Pride rears its head the most when we perceive that someone is being obnoxious towards us.
7. Pride is the one thing that will stand in the way of unity in the church.
8. It’s when we allow our pride to get in the way that unity in the church is threatened.
9. Paul wrote in Philippians 2:3 (NIV), Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
10.But Peter says to be compassionate and humble.
F. And fifth, Peter gives us one that will challenge our pride the most in verse 9: “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”
1. Earlier I said that we can’t force someone to live in harmony with us, but we can live in harmony with them.
2. There are people that no matter what you do, they just don’t seem to want to get along.
3. Even in the church, there are those kinds of people.
4. Peter says that if someone does evil to us, we should not repay it with more evil.
5. Peter says that if someone insults us, we should not insult them back.
6. Now Peter’s plowing just a little close to the corn, isn’t he?
7. Very often our first reaction when someone does us wrong, is that we want to fight back.
8. But Peter said that if we can respond with blessing instead of insults, we will receive a blessing.
9. And if we respond with blessing instead of insult, we will help save the unity of the church that Christ died to give us.
10. When we stop and think that Christ died for our unity, it is much easier to bless and not curse!
11. The apostle Paul wrote almost the exact same words to the people of Rome, "Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:17-21)
12. You see, if we repay evil for evil, we will be overcome by evil.
13. But Paul said, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
14. And if we do not repay evil with evil, but overcome evil with good in the church, we will go along way towards maintaining unity in the church.
G. That is the first way that we can maintain the unity that we have at Somerset: by acting in love toward other members.
1. Peter says the way that we act in love toward others is to live in harmony with one another, be sympathetic, be compassionate and humble, and do not repay evil with evil.
2. And if we want to maintain this great spirit of unity that we have at Somerset, we each must commit to doing these things.
3. Because Satan will do his best to split us up: to divide and conquer.
4. So we each must resolve ourselves to saving the unity of Somerset by acting in love towards other members, and…
II. …by refusing to gossip
Ephesians 4:29 (NIV), Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
A. Gossip is an easy topic for a preacher to have some fun with…
1. [illustration] You know nothing makes a long story short like the arrival of the person you happen to be talking about.
2. [illustration] Here’s another one: Why must the phrase, “It’s none of my business” always be followed by the word, “but”?
3. [illustration] A hot-headed woman told John Wesley, “My talent is to speak my mind.”
Replied Mr. Wesley, “Woman, God wouldn’t care a bit if you would bury that talent.”
4. [illustration] R.G. LeTourneau, owner of a large earth-moving equipment company, told this story.
“We used to have a scraper known as the model ‘G.’
Somebody asked one of our salesmen one day what the ‘G’ stood for.
The salesman, after thinking a few seconds, replied, “Well, I guess the ‘G’ stands for gossip, because like gossip, this machine moves a lot of dirt and moves it fast.”
5. It is easy to joke around about gossip, but the reality is that it is a very destructive thing—especially in a church!
B. Gossip may be a funny thing, but it is also true that it is very destructive and we are all vulnerable to it.
1. Gossip will destroy the unity of a church just as quickly as it spreads.
2. Most of us can admit that we have succumbed to the temptation to gossip.
2. There is probably no one alive who has not gossiped to some extent.
3. But I know that everyone has a different definition of the word gossip.
4. And everyone’s definition has to do with what other people do and not what they themselves do.
5. Webster says that gossip is a rumor or report of an intimate nature.
6. Gossip is something that you wouldn’t say to the person them self.
7. Gossip is when you say something about a second party to a third party that you wouldn’t say to the second party’s face--its something that is destructive.
8. It’s something that is not known to be true, but stated as fact.
9. It’s something that is unkind; its usually something that is not sympathetic.
10. It’s something that is not compassionate.
11. It’s something that is not loving; its something that is not helpful.
12. It’s something that is discouraging to others.
13. It’s something that is not meant to benefit those who listen.
14. It is hard to define, but we’ve all seen the effects of it.
15. We all know that it is very destructive and that it can destroy the unity of a church.
C. Now Paul doesn’t define or even mention the word gossip, but he does tell us how to avoid it.
1. If we don’t say anything that is unwholesome as Paul said, we will avoid gossiping.
2. If we don’t say anything that is not helpful to others as Paul said, we will avoid gossiping.
3. If we don’t say anything that is not beneficial to others as Paul said, we will avoid gossiping.
4. And if we want to save the unity of our church, we need to resolve ourselves to only saying things that are wholesome.
5. If we want to save the unity of our church, we need to resolve ourselves to only saying things that are helpful.
6. If we want to save the unity of our church, we need to resolve ourselves to only saying things that build up (or encourage) others.
7. If we want to save the unity of our church, we need to resolve ourselves to only saying things that will benefit those who listen.
D. Usually when people are gossiping, they are not thinking.
1. But if they were thinking, they would know how destructive this is to a church and for the kingdom of God at large.
2. If people were thinking, they would realize that there are no humans that are our enemy.
3. But when we are verbally attacking our brothers and sisters, the enemy wins.
4. When we are verbally attacking our brothers and sisters, Satan has succeeded in stopping us from seeking and saving the lost.
5. Satan has succeeded in getting our focus off of defeating him and gotten us to focus on trying to tear each other down.
6. If Satan can get us to tear each other down, then his job is done.
7. Then we’re doing his job (which is tearing others down) instead of doing our job which is building others up!
8. I hope that you see that we need to really think about what we say to one another!
9. "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."
10. We need to resolve ourselves to saving the unity of our church by acting in love towards other members, by refusing to gossip, and…
III. …by following the leaders
Hebrews 13:7 (NIV), Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:17 (NIV), Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.
A. Now there are a lot of different definitions of the word “leadership” today.
1. And I want to tell you that neither the Bible nor I subscribe to very many of those definitions that are popular today.
2. Leadership today is done by sticking a wet finger into the air to see which way the winds of public opinion are blowing and then say that is where they are going.
3. I don’t call that leadership.
4. I don’t call leadership taking a poll to see what people think and then saying that you are for what the majority of the people are for.
5. There once was a poll taken as to whether or not Jesus was the son of God, and He was crucified—the people were wrong!
6. Asking people what they want and giving it to them is not leadership!
B. I have a very simple definition of leadership.
1. Leadership is determined by whether or not the person has any followers.
2. If there is no one following you, then you are not a leader.
3. Now I must also confess that leadership from a Pastor’s perspective is much like how Eisenhower defined it.
4. Eisenhower said, “Leadership is the art of getting somebody else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” (repeat)
5. For leaders in a church our job is to get people to do something that should be done because the people want to do it.
6. The job of a leader in a church is to motivate people to do and live the way the Bible says, because they want to do it.
7. That is leadership.
C. I must say that Christians often have a hard time with this because they only want to follow Christ.
1. Of course it is true that we should only follow Christ and not follow men, but it is just as true that we should follow people who are following Christ.
2. Leaders in the Church ought to be able to say as Paul did in 1 Corinthians 11:1 (KJV), Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
3. Imitating, following, obeying, and submitting to church leadership is Biblical!
D. And it helps save the unity of the church.
1. It doesn’t take long to imagine what it would be like if the people of the church did not follow its leaders.
2. We all can imagine what a church would be like if everyone did whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted to do it.
3. Some of us don’t have to imagine what that would be like, because we have been in churches like that.
4. But that’s why it is so important to follow the leaders.
Conclusion:
A. [illustration]
Have you ever wondered what makes the difference between a spotlight and a laser beam?
How can a medium-powered laser burn through steel in a matter of seconds, while the most powerful spotlight can only make it warm?
Both may have the same electrical power requirements.
The difference is unity.
A laser can be simply described as a medium of excited molecules with mirrors at each end.
Some of the excited molecules naturally decay into a less excited state.
In the decay process they release a photon, a particle of light.
It is here that the unique process of the laser begins.
The photon moves along and “tickles” another molecule, inviting another photon to join him on his journey.
Then these two photons “tickle” two more molecules and invite two more photons to join the parade.
Soon there is a huge army of photons marching in step with each other.
It is this unity that gives the laser its power.
A spotlight may have just as many photons, but each is going its own independent way, occasionally interfering with other photons.
As a result, much of its power is wasted and cannot be focused to do any useful work.
However, the laser, because of its unity, is like an army marching in tight formation and is able to focus all its power on its objective.
1. The question is whether we as a church are going to be a spotlight or a laser.
2. Are we going to be intelligent or are we going to be a bunch of lunatics that never unite?
3. Are we going to protect the unity that we now enjoy so that we can focus on our mission of seeking and saving the lost?
B. That’s the first statement in our membership covenant and I hope you see just how important it is: I will save the unity of our church.
1. …by acting in love toward other members.
2. …by refusing to gossip.
3. …by following the leaders.
4. Can you make that commitment?
5. I will save the unity of our church.
6. Will you say that with me? (Repeat the first statement of the membership covenant together.)
C. You know Jesus went to the cross to die for our salvation.
1. And the night before Jesus went to the cross, He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
2. In that garden, He prayed these words to God the Father, "I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." (John 17:23)
3. You see our unity was on His mind when He went to the cross.
D. That’s how important this is to Christ, how important is it to you?
1. Are there relationships in the church that you need to make right?
2. Are there people in the church that you need to start showing love to?
3. Do you need to come forward and have me pray with you about a bad relationship?
4. Do you need to start refusing to gossip?
5. Do you need to start following the leaders of your church?
6. Are you an immersed believer that needs to establish a church home in order to start obeying some of these scriptures?
7. Do you need to accept the salvation that Christ went to Calvary to purchase for you?
8. Do you need be immersed in Christian baptism?
F. We are going to sing a song of commitment.
1. It reflects the same desire that Christ had in the Garden of Eden: that we will be one, united.
2. What commitment do you need to make as we stand and sing, “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love”?
