The Anatomy of a Healthy Church - Part B

So what Paul does is brilliant.

It's clever. He takes a social issue and he moves it onto spiritual ground. So it becomes a spiritual issue now. Settle the disagreement in the Lord. In other words, focus on God's glory. Aim at his glory.

Focus on what he wants. This is all tied up with the New Testament concept of unity. Not uniformity, doesn't mean you can't have your own opinions and your own ideas, but unity in the church. Unity among Christians is what proves the veracity of the Christian message. Corey 10 Boom said, Be united with other Christians. A wall with loose bricks is not good.

The bricks must be cemented together. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how you can experience the joy of loving your brothers and sisters just as Christ loves you. Before we begin, we want to invite you to be a part of a life-changing journey. Take a trip to experience Israel, not just the historic landscapes and delicious food, but the spiritual significance. In 2022, you have the opportunity to join Skip and his wife, Lenya, to worship and study God's Word in the very places Jesus taught, preached, and healed.

Find out more at inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. Now, let's get into today's teaching. We're in Philippians chapter four as we begin our study with Skip Heitzig. Sometimes when people come to me for counseling, depending on the issue, I ask them a question that surprises them. I will say, what would it take for you to stop following Jesus? I go, what?

What do you mean? I say, well, is there some kind of event you can think of, some catastrophic event that if like, if God crosses that line or he takes that person away from me, I quit? What would it take to get you to stop following Jesus?

Or are you like the song that is sung? I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. I'm standing firm.

I'm standing fast. An African pastor in Zimbabwe died, was martyred for his faith in Christ by persecutors. After he died, among his papers was found something he wrote. And it turns out that this was his like philosophy of life, but it's noteworthy.

Listen to what he wrote. He said, my face is set. My gate is fast. My goal is heaven. My road is narrow. My way is rough. My companions are few, but my God is reliable. My mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, diluted or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity or meander in a maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, let up or slow up until I've preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up and stayed up for Christ. That's how, that's how he, that's steadfastness. And it got him killed. I think he was okay with that.

I think right now he's going, yeah, I made the right choice. So a big heart, a firm stance. There's a third component and that is a warm embrace. A warm embrace. That is the ability to take two parties that are in disagreement to embrace both of them and helping them to resolve the conflict. Verse two, I implore Euodia and I implore Suntuke.

Aren't you glad you have the name that you have? And pardon me if I offended anyone here named Suntuke, but I doubt that is the case. But I implore these two gals to be of the same mind in the Lord and I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Now we don't know anything about who these ladies really are. We don't know any details about their argument. They're not mentioned anywhere else in the New Testament.

We just know that something between them happened. We do know what their names mean. Euodia is a word that means good journey or have a good trip.

The word Suntuke is a Greek word that means fortunate or lucky. So forgive me, but I'm going to give them these names. I'm going to call one Mrs. Good Trip and the other Miss Lucky. So Mrs. Good Trip and Miss Lucky loved each other and were part of this church and fellowship together and probably brought deviled eggs to the potluck. But something happened between Mrs. Good Trip and Miss Lucky and the disagreement got to be so advanced that it polarized the church and groups developed around both opinions. And Paul writes about it and he's had enough of it.

He needs to get it resolved. Now something about these women we do know. Something about these women we do know. They were prominent women. They weren't just any women. They were prominent women. How do we know that? Because verse 3, Paul said, they labored with me in the gospel. That's significant. I'm guessing, I can't prove it, I'm guessing that they were among the first women who were at the first prayer meeting in Philippi.

Remember the story? Acts chapter 16, I'll refresh your memory. Paul goes to Philippi. There is no Jewish synagogue there. The law required at least 10 males, 10 men to form a synagogue.

There weren't any. So it says, on the Sabbath day we went outside the city to a riverside where prayer was customarily made and we spoke to the women. There were praying women, Jewish women at a riverside. That was the first meeting Paul attended. I'm guessing these women, Euodia and Tsuntuke, were part of that first group. I love the idea that a church was birthed out of a group of praying women. We talk about the founding fathers. These are the founding mothers of the church. But a personal conflict has erupted into two antagonistic groups. So Paul wants to stop.

Now here's what I want you to think of. The only time their names are mentioned in the Bible is over an argument they had and now it's immortalized. For the next 2,000 years people are going to read the Bible and go, oh, those are the two gals in Philippi who had a disagreement.

Wouldn't you hate that? And so Michael Bentley asked this, if in a hundred years time your name was to be discovered in an old document, what one thing would you like the finder of that document to learn about you? It's a good question because these two women at Philippi go down in history being remembered for a disagreement. Now notice the solution. I think the solution is found here. The solution to their disagreement is found in a phrase, don't overlook this phrase, in the Lord.

Look at it. I implore verse 2, euodia, and I implore suntuke to be of the same mind in the Lord. Now this is not Paul throwing in a spiritual phrase so it'll sound good.

This is really the solution to the problem. It's the same thing as in verse 1. Notice he says, stand fast in the Lord. Verse 4, rejoice in the Lord always.

The solution is always in the Lord because he's usually the one people forget. When they have an argument with each other, when they don't disagree, they have a viewpoint, you have a viewpoint, you go at it, you have forgotten the Lord's viewpoint. So what Paul does is brilliant.

It's clever. He takes a social issue and he moves it onto spiritual ground. So it becomes a spiritual issue now. Settle the disagreement in the Lord. In other words, focus on God's glory. Aim at his glory.

Focus on what he wants. This is all tied up with the New Testament concept of unity. Not uniformity, doesn't mean you can't have your own opinions and your own ideas, but unity in the church. Unity among Christians is what proves the veracity of the Christian message.

There's no unity in the church. People aren't going to listen to much else that we have to say. So I found something very interesting from, it's called the American Psychological Association. They studied an orchestra and, you know, an orchestra is fascinating. You have all these different instruments in an orchestra pit and it's like one harmonious sound. Well, this psychological association decided to ask the different people in the orchestra what they thought of the other people in the orchestra. And they discovered percussionists were seen as insensitive, unintelligent, and hard of hearing, yet fun-loving. String players were seen as arrogant, stuffy, and unathletic. The orchestra members overwhelmingly chose the word loud as the primary adjective to describe brass players. Woodwind players seemed to be held in highest esteem, described as quiet and meticulous, though very egotistical. Now I have a question given what you just heard. How on earth can people with such different perceptions of one another and different personality quirks make beautiful music together?

The answer? They subordinate their feelings and their biases to the leadership of a conductor. They put all that, once they get in the pit and they get the music in front of them and they're about ready to play, they don't think about what the personality differences are, or the opinions are, or the political differences are, or stances are. They're there to make music. They subordinate all of that to what a conductor wants. They follow the conductor. So that's wrapped up in the idea in the Lord. He's the conductor. That's the solution. A big heart, a firm stance, a warm embrace.

Those are three of the five components. Let me give you forth a merry soul. Verse four, rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice. There it is again.

This guy in jail keeps getting happier. Rejoice in the Lord always and I'll say it again, rejoice. Now that sounds like a command, right? Like stand fast, rejoice. Does it sound kind of weird to walk up to a grumpy person and go, hey you, rejoice?

Really? You're telling me as a command to do that? Why does it come off as a command? Well for the same reason he says it twice. He says, rejoice in the Lord always. And just in case you forgot what I just said, I'll say it again, rejoice. And I think the reason he says it twice, the reason it comes off as a command is because it ain't easy to always rejoice. It's hard to be joyful. But what this tells me is that joy is a choice more than a feeling. The joy is a decision much more than it is a sensation.

The joy is an outlook that is based on an up look. And how often are we to rejoice? Well it says rejoice in the Lord sometimes.

Oh did I read that wrong? I'm sorry. Rejoice in the Lord most of the time.

I still blew it, huh? Rejoice in the Lord on Sunday at 12 30 in church. No, rejoice in the Lord always. How can a man say that?

Here's why. Joy is a personal choice to react to life's uncertainties with faith. That's my definition of joy. Joy is a personal choice to react or respond to life's uncertainties with faith. So he says rejoice in the Lord. He didn't just say rejoice. He qualifies it rejoice in the Lord.

Let me translate that my way. Life is tough but God is good. Life is tough but God is good. Rejoice in the Lord always.

Now Paul did this. He testified of this in his own personal life. 2 Corinthians 6 he writes, being sorrowful yet always rejoicing.

Doesn't that sound weird? You know you can have both. You can be filled with sorrow and grief and pain. At the same time your soul rejoices. You're experiencing both.

You're experiencing one but you're making a choice for the other. You're responding that way. Paul and Silas were put in jail in Philippi. You know the story. They were beaten, beaten up pretty hard. They were put in chains and stocks fastened to the wall. They're bleeding and it says at midnight Paul and Silas what they do?

They sang hymns. It's the darkest time of the night. It's the darkest dungeon they've been in for a while. They're bleeding. Blood's coming down their arms. They're fastened in stocks and Paul turns to his buddy Silas and says hey do you know a song? Yeah how about this one?

Good you start I'll do harmony. And they sang hymns to God at night. Being sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Proverbs 15 verse 15 says he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.

And you know when you find people like that you're attracted to them right? They're a great advertisement for the church. God deliver us from grumpy Christians. Get more of the light bulb ones out there. As Ben Franklin said you'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

You know you'll catch more souls that way too. So a big heart, a firm stance, a warm embrace, a merry soul all constitute a healthy vibrant church filled with individuals like that. Here's a final one a soft touch. We'll close with this verse five. Let your gentleness be known to all men the Lord is at hand. Whenever there's a conflict like this conflict at Philippi it's that gracious gentle diplomatic touch that will make all the difference. The word gentleness could be better translated sweet reasonableness.

I love that. Let your sweet reasonableness be known to all men the Lord is at hand. Now this is the person who carries around a big bucket of mercy. And when that person finds failures and faults and shortcoming it just starts pouring that bucket of mercy that direction.

That's sweet reasonableness. Now let me say a word to so many of you who are mature believers. I know you're out there. Some of you have grown in your faith admirably so. You become leaders. You know the Bible. You're Bible experts. You serve in a mature leadership capacity. And as wonderful as that is the danger with that is the the older and the more advanced you grow in the Christian faith sometimes we can forget what it's like to be newly born.

You know fresh off the slayed market and and liberated into Christ. We forget that. And so what happens is arrogance begins to creep in and a snobbery a spiritual snobbery starts creeping in and people don't feel relaxed around us because we're so. Let me remind you of something you weren't always this awesome. You weren't always this knowledgeable.

You weren't always so mature as you are now. So keep that in mind and give them a little slack and be be be softer in your touch gentle in your touch toward them. It says in Proverbs 15 you know this well a soft answer turns away wrath. It's that soft touch when there's conflict in any group home church whatever it's that soft touch. Remember you follow the savior who said I am gentle and humble in heart.

You follow that guy and that guy's humble that guy's gentle so if we follow him some of that some of that ought to rub off. Now I have the hunch that some people here have a real battle with anger. It could be that you battle a critical nature. It's just been a part of who you are for a number of reasons. Bitter feelings are a part of that.

Some of you even battle outright rage. What Paul is saying in this verse is you need to get a new reputation. You need to be known for something.

So if you want to reset your life here's a good place to start. Let your gentleness be known to all men. In other words start being famous for your gentleness.

Let that be your reputation and why should we? Well it says the Lord is at hand. Now I think most people read this and go Jesus is coming back you better straighten up. He's right around the corner.

You better watch it because he's coming back. Now when it says the Lord is at hand that can refer to nearness in space or in time. Most people think it means time. The Lord chronologically speaking is coming soon and I believe that he is.

But I think the context suggests nearness in space. He is saying to the church at Philippi God is among you. God is present.

God goes to your church too. So he's with you. He's present. Be gentle because the Lord is present with you.

He's near. So back to where we started okay. I said the ministry of a church is the ministry of people. If the church lives it's because its people are alive.

If the church withers and dies it's because its people are doing that personally. So there was a guy named Tim and he wrote something very honest. Tim was a Christian. Tim was a mature Christian.

Tim was a leader. But Tim found himself having conversations with people who were other believers and invariably in the conversation it would go negative toward the church. He found himself kind of talking smack about the church, his church, the church, all churches. Christians are like this.

He just found himself kind of on that negative role. So as he was doing that one day he said he had a mental image flashed in his mind of a bride and a groom on their wedding day. And in the mental image he saw himself walking up to the groom on the wedding day and leaning in and saying your bride is ugly. You can't imagine doing that right.

And he said I would never do that. I mean no matter how unattractive a bride might seem to somebody else to the groom she's gorgeous. She's a gorgeous.

She's radiant. But he said the Lord used that. It was as if he was saying Tim every time you criticize my church you're telling me my bride is ugly. So we have to be very careful how we talk about what Jesus said is the only thing he came to build and that is his church. I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So deviled eggs at a potluck will not prevail against the church or anything better or worse.

It's his bride. I finally just want to say a word to those of you who have been hurt by the church. I don't know your background but I could guess that in this group some of you have bad experiences in your past. You left a church. You have not fond memories of its leadership. They did something to you or your family.

You're still holding on to that. And I just want to say to you on behalf of the church as a representative how sorry I am. I'm sorry that whatever church it was, whatever city you came from, whatever happened to you, would you just accept that apology from a representative of his church?

I'm sorry. But now I quickly want to say this. Jesus never said follow my people. He said follow me. He never said follow my pastors. He said follow me. He never said follow my church.

He said follow me. So don't take it out on Jesus for having some bad representatives because here's the deal. He's the only perfect one. We follow a perfect savior imperfectly. We're all imperfect. We're all imperfect. And if you're pushing Jesus away at arm's length, if you decide I'm going to follow Jesus, the perfect one, you're going to be surrounded with a lot of people like you. Imperfect.

You know the old joke. If you ever find a perfect church, don't join it because you'll spoil it. So we're all imperfect. We get that. We're called to pursue the perfect savior. And as we look to him and we look at all the people who are around him following him imperfectly, at some point you need to overlook them and keep looking to the perfect one because he can and will change your life if you let him.

That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from the series Technicolor Joy. Now here's a resource that introduces you to the key players in Israel and the Middle East and shares why their decisions are significant for you. New York Times bestselling author Joel Rosenberg is now based in Jerusalem and he's releasing the new nonfiction book Enemies and Allies.

I've traveled with Joel to Middle East cities to meet with kings and crown princes. We sat together on the east lawn of the White House for the signing of the historic Abraham Accords and I previewed his new book Enemies and Allies. I can tell you it contains never before published quotes from behind closed door meetings with some of the most powerful and mysterious leaders in the Middle East. You will want to read this book. Enemies and Allies by Joel Rosenberg includes insights and analysis from the author's conversations with some of the most controversial leaders in the world.

This is the first book of its kind. Almost nobody's ever had that chance to not just meet one of these major leaders but to meet almost all of them and then they get to tell the story in first person language. Come with me into the palace into the motorcading and come meet the most interesting consequential and controversial leaders in the entire Middle East.

Enemies and Allies by Joel Rosenberg includes insights and analysis from the author's conversations with some of the most controversial leaders in the world. We'll send you a hardcover copy of Enemies and Allies as thanks for your gift of $35 or more. To give, visit connectwithskip.com or call 800-922-1888. Thank you for joining us today. Our goal is to connect listeners like you to God's truth, strengthening your walk with Him and bringing more people into His family.

That's why these teachings are available to you on the air and online. If they've inspired you to keep living for Jesus, please consider giving a gift today to encourage other listeners in the same way. Just call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. And come back tomorrow as Skip Heitzig explores the problem of anxiety and shares how you can find peace for your soul through the truths of scripture. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.