Avoiding Church Splits-Part A

It's okay when children act like children, even when they fight and squabble. There's something cute about that.

They can say things and make us laugh. But it's tragic when adults do it. There's nothing more tragic than to see children in adult bodies.

They've got the power, but they don't have the wisdom. And whenever you see church splits, or church fights, or church arguments, what you are seeing and what you are hearing is children in adult bodies. Welcome to Connect with Skip. And today we begin a new teaching that addresses division in the church. Did you know that 43% of churchgoers say they don't fully trust their church? As you can imagine, this lack of trust is one of the many factors that leads to thousands of churches splitting or shutting down every year.

The family of God sometimes disagrees with each other, but we need to avoid letting those disagreements cause division. And that's what Skip examines today here on Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. But before we get started, here's what we have for you this month at connectwithskip.com. When Neil Armstrong took man's first step on the moon, the whole world watched and his first words are well known. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. What is not common knowledge is that the first meal on the moon was the Last Supper. Here's Levi Lesko to discuss his new book, The Last Supper on the Moon. It begins with Buzz Aldrin 1969 July summer on the lunar surface before Neil Armstrong gets out of the eagle to take that famous first step on the moon, the giant leap. But just before that, Buzz Aldrin opened a pouch and took out wine and bread representing the body and blood of Jesus Christ. And he he had a personal communion service. And that moment when I found out about it about a year previously hit me like a thunderbolt, you know, just to realize that the first thing ever eaten on the moon was the Last Supper.

The Last Supper on the Moon is an epic new hardcover book by Levi Lesko, and it's our resource offer this month. Receive your copy when you give a gift of $35 or more to support this program. Just go to connectwithskiff.com or call 1-800-922-1888.

That's connectwithskiff.com or call 1-800-922-1888. In our series Church Who Needs It, we'll be in Philippians Chapter 2 today as Skip Heitzig begins by sharing a bit about his childhood. There wasn't always harmony in our home growing up. I was one of four boys.

Four rowdy boys. And did we know how to argue? Did we know how to fight? And sometimes the fights were very vocal.

Very noisy. I remember throwing my brother through a window and him throwing me through the same window after it was repaired by my parents. I remember coming at my brother with a knife and him coming at me with a pencil. And we have since then learned to get along a lot better with each other as we have grown up. But that happens in families. If you are parents or you think back to your own family, you've got your own stories.

I know that. Well, in the Christian family, when you have spiritual infants and spiritual adolescents and spiritual teenagers and even spiritual adults, there can be friction within God's family. It's sibling rivalry of sorts. There was a dad who came home, wanted some peace and quiet, opened up the newspaper to read, and he heard his young daughter and her friends in the next room. They were talking. Then they got noisy and more argumentative and they were pushing and they were yelling and even calling each other names.

And when dad put his newspaper down and demanded an account, his little daughter walked in and smiled and said, Daddy, it's okay. We're just playing church. But the goal is to grow up. The goal for Christians is to grow up. Paul said as much to the church at Ephesus. Paul wrote them and said, Grow up. Or in his own words, that we should no longer be children, but that we may grow up in all things. It's okay when children act like children, even when they fight and squabble. There's something cute about that.

They can say things and make us laugh. But it's tragic when adults do it. There's nothing more tragic than to see children in adult bodies.

They've got the power, but they don't have the wisdom. And whenever you see church splits or church fights or church arguments, what you are seeing and what you are hearing is children in adult bodies. That's what you're seeing.

That's what you're hearing. Children at play who don't want unity but will promote disunity just to get their own agenda. Now, Christians throughout history haven't always gotten along. And if I may, just switch from the need to grow up to just say that it doesn't always happen. And I just want to normalize this just a little bit.

I want to normalize it. As I read my New Testament, I discover that even Jesus' closest apostles didn't get along with each other. That they had fights while Jesus walked the earth and argued about who would be the greatest in the kingdom.

Who's going to sit at Jesus' right hand when he comes again? As I read the New Testament, I discover that even Peter and Paul didn't get along with each other but had an argument in Galatia over the meaning of the law and its application. As I read my New Testament, I discover that the council at Jerusalem argued about the relationship of the Christian to the law of Moses. And on and on and through history and through councils, even during the Reformation, great reformers like Luther and Zwingli argued about the Lord's Supper and how that is to be administered. According to U.S. News and World Report, there are 22,000 different denominations and sects of Christianity throughout the world. Now what does that tell you?

It tells you that you have a lot of different ways of looking at things and dealing with each other. So, the church is the society of the redeemed, not the society of the perfect. And I say all that in hopes that you will lower your expectation a notch or two when it comes to the church.

There are some people that have such high expectations of perfection among the church and church leaders, it is impossible and will always be impossible to please them. Well, we're in Philippians 2 and I know I told you to turn to Philippians 2, but what I'd like to show you is that there were two forces at work that were pressuring the Philippians to divide. Pressure number one, false teachers from the outside. Pressure number two, fighting Christians from the inside. False teachers fighting Christians. Both were addressed by Paul.

If you look at chapter 3, you'll see the first. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the mutilation. These were false teachers. He calls them dogs.

I like Paul. The second problem was the fighting members on the inside. Look at chapter 4. Therefore, my beloved, my longed-for, my joy, my crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved. I implore Yodia and I implore Syntyche, these are two women in the church, 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. We don't exactly know what the issue was, but apparently there were two strong personality women in the church at Philippi that polarized people around their issue. They were at odds with each other.

Maybe these were two women who were there from the very beginning when Paul first went to Philippi down at that riverbank. But now it was causing a division. So to our text in Philippians chapter 2, he is laying groundwork. This is groundwork of getting along with one another. This is where it all begins.

Here are the basics of getting along and the basis of getting along. Philippians 2, 1 through 4. Now, you have four verses as do I in my Bible in this chapter. What you may not know is that in the original Greek, it's one long, complex, ongoing sentence. Chapter 1 or verses 1 through 4 is all one sentence. And it's put out in a literary format, a literary device, called prothesis and apothesis.

An if-then clause, a conditional clause. If this is so, then that must be so. That's how it is set out. That's how Paul works it to make a very strong point. Now what I'd like to do this morning is look at these two things, the basics of getting along and the basis of getting along. I'm going to not start in verse 1, but actually in verse 3 to give you the basics. Because in verse 3 and verse 4, Paul gives us two ways we should not be with each other and two ways we should be with each other. Don't be like this, Paul says, but be like that. So these are the basics, negative and positive. By the way, these first two negatives are exactly the same way and same reasons that Satan didn't get along with God.

I want you to hear this. Exactly the same thing that happened with Satan and God could happen with each other in church. Listen to what Satan says in Isaiah 14. I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will be like the most high.

What is that? That's this. That's selfish ambition and conceit. The very two things, Paul says, don't be like that. So these first two things describe the personality of Satan. The second two things, humility, etc., describe the personality of Jesus Christ. The first two things will ruin a church. The second two will remedy a church.

So look at the first. Number one, don't live selfishly. Or as he writes it, let nothing be done through selfish ambition. There's not a person in this room who doesn't know what selfishness looks like. Do you have children? Then you know what selfishness looks like.

You have parents? Then you know what selfishness looks like. Do you know any other human being? Then you know what selfishness looks like. And if you're honest with yourself, if you're the only one around you, you know what selfishness looks like.

You're getting my point? It's a natural human trait. It is a trait of all fallen human beings. Calvin Miller said that if we were the ones to have written the Lord's Prayer, it would sound like this.

Our Father who art in heaven, gimme, gimme, gimme. That's selfish ambition. That's natural fallen humanity. Now the word means to cause division in order to get your own way. To cause division in order to get your own way. This is a pushy person. I'm going to get my way, says that person, as he walks into an issue or a situation.

That's selfish ambition. It's like the little boy and his sister who were riding a toy horse together out in front of a supermarket. You know, you put a quarter in and the thing moves around. I don't know if they still have those.

I guess it's all replaced by iPhones and gadgets now. But in the days when there were those little horses out in front of supermarkets, a little boy and his sister were trying to ride it together. Good luck. The little boy turned to his sister and said, you know, if one of us would get off there'd be more room for me. That's selfish ambition. Me first philosophy. And that ruins friendships, families, marriages, and churches. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition. So that's the first thing not to be. Don't live selfishly. The second negative, the second thing not to be is don't live pridefully.

For in the same sentence, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. Now if any of you this morning have the old King James Bible, I just confess to you. They translate this word far better than the New King James, NIV, NLT, anybody. They use the word vainglory. Vainglory. A very descriptive word of what this is about. Conceit, vainglory. The empty pride of living for other people's opinions. The empty pride living for other people's opinions. This is a person who is so exalted in his own opinion and he's concerned that others share that same view of himself or herself. Paul says in Romans 12 verse 3 that we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.

That's vainglory. That's conceit. That is the very opposite of what Paul considered himself to be. Of what Peter considered himself to be. Of what John considered himself to be. What is the one word that all three of these writers introduce themselves as whenever they wrote a New Testament book? Servant.

You got it. Servant. Paul, a slave of Christ. A bond slave or a bond servant. Servants keep churches from splitting.

Vainglorious, self-absorbed people help it split. There's two ways you can enter a room. You can enter a room of people with a sort of a stance and attitude that says, Well, here I am.

Or you can enter the same room with a group of people with the attitude that says, Ah, there you are. That's the servant. That's the servant. I read something a long time back.

I thought about it for a good long while. It seems that if thoroughbred horses get attacked that they have a strategy. If they're attacked from the outside, they form a circle and their heads are all in the center of that circle, giving them the ability to kick outwards and backwards in any direction from any predator. That's smart. But the same article talked about how donkeys react when they're attacked.

They also form a circle, but they all face outward and they'll start kicking, but they'll start kicking each other. I read that and I thought, That is so descriptive, so telling, so indicting. I guess it begs the question, are we thoroughbreds or donkeys? Don't live selfishly. Don't live pridefully. Those are the first two negatives.

Here's the second two and they're positives. Do live humbly. Do live humbly. Look at verse three. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

Those are the first two negatives. But in lowliness of mind. Lowliness of mind.

Now, lowliness of mind is one word in the Greek language. Tapaino frasune. Six syllables. Tapaino frasune. That's hard to say.

Took me all day to memorize how to say that just for this moment. But the reason I did it is this. One of the most despised characteristics in Greek philosophy was the quality.

They didn't call it a quality. The vice of being tapaino frasune. Of having a low mind. In fact, the Greeks gave that title to slaves that they would conquer. Somebody who would grovel in the dust was given this humble minded, lowly minded title.

So if you were conquered by a Greek army and they turned you into submissive slaves, they would give you this title. Lowliness of mind. And that is because the virtues that the Greeks loved were things like self assertiveness, confidence, self esteem. So they saw this not as a virtue, but as a vice.

And I'm bringing that up because that's exactly the opposite of how the Bible views it. The Bible doesn't view lowliness of mind as a vice, but as a virtue. Something to want.

Something to incorporate in one's life. The opposite of being confident and self assertive. Lowliness of mind. The crouching submissiveness of a slave.

And why is that? Because that's exactly the attitude of Jesus Christ. Remember I said the first two are the personality of Satan. The second two are the personality of Christ. This is the personality of Christ. Look at verse five. He brings that point very clear. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross. Jesus didn't exalt himself.

He humbled himself. You want to get along with other Christians in church? Do that.

Do that. It shouldn't be the attitude of how can I climb the ladder higher and higher? But how can I descend the ladder lower and lower like Christ?

Those are the basics. Loneliness is the grease that keeps the gears of relationships smooth in any body of believers. Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. And whenever I see somebody who is puffed up and they have these exaggerated ideas of their own importance and want everybody else to know about them, I think that person isn't following the one who's lowly in heart.

One of my favorite authors, F.B. Meyer, Frederick B. Meyer, a British pastor who did work on both sides of the Atlantic a century ago, almost, wrote this, I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above the other and that the taller we grew in Christian character, the more easily we could reach them. But I now find that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other and that it's not a question of growing taller, but of stooping lower. You want a rewarding church experience? Get down.

Sounds like I'm a disco guy. Get down. Get lower. Get more humble. So do live humbly. And finally, the fourth, the second of the two positive characteristics, do live respectfully. Do live respectfully. Again, verse three, it says, In lowliness of mind, that's the first, here's the second, let each esteem others better than himself. If you're an American, if you're a Westerner, and I assume all of you are, this flies directly in the face of everything you've been taught the last 30 years in our culture. This says, let each of you esteem others better than yourself.

The person next to you, the person in front of you, the person behind you better than yourself. You know, a lot of the divisions and disagreements in the church could be avoided if we simply learn to swallow our pride. Of course, that's easier said than done. After all, if we're the ones who are right, why shouldn't we make sure everyone else knows it?

But is being right really worth dividing the body of Christ? Now, that's something we should consider, and that's going to wrap up our time for today. But before we go, here's Skip to invite you on a trip to Israel later this spring. Lenya and I are taking a group to Israel in 2022, and we want to invite you to join us. We'll visit places like Nazareth, the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and the Garden Tomb. And that's just a fly-by look at the itinerary.

Find out more about the trip at inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. Thanks, Skip. And if you'd like a copy of today's study, Avoiding Church Splits, just call us at 1-800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com.

Each copy is just $4 plus shipping. And join us next time as we explore more ways to keep the church from splitting when we continue our series, Church Who Needs It, right here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on His word. Make a connection, a connection, a connection. Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.