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A Life Worthy
We all long for belonging, but too often faith communities fracture over personal convictions, preferences, or cultural issues. Ephesians 4:1-6 presents a deeper challenge: What does it actually mean to live a life worthy of God’s call, especially when differences divide us?
Pastor Ronnie reveals that unity is not mere agreement, but a Spirit-built reality marked by humility, gentleness, patience, and radical love. Drawing from the true meaning of “koinonia,” he exposes the limits of outward religion and invites us to cultivate authentic fellowship anchored in Christ. The invitation: check our judgment at the door, bear with one another in love, and experience a kingdom life that brings heaven’s blessings to earth.
Scriptures Referenced
Ephesians 4:1-6 (NIV), Colossians 2:2-3 (NIV), John 17:3, 21-23 (NIV), Psalm 133 (NIV), Romans 14 (NIV), 1 Corinthians 13 (NIV), Colossians 3:1-2 (NIV), Proverbs 6:19 (NIV)
Key Insights
- Unity Over Uniformity: Biblical unity does not demand total agreement, but Spirit-empowered connection even amidst sharp differences.
- Essential vs. Important: Distinguishing non-negotiable core truths from personal convictions prevents us from burdening others or fracturing fellowship.
- Practical Kingdom Living: Real Christian maturity means choosing humility, setting our minds on things above, and refusing to pass judgment so Christ’s love shines to the world.
Key Sections
00:00:00 | When God Speaks in Silence
Pastor Barbie describes sacred spaces in worship and invites listeners to seek God’s voice in quiet moments.
00:03:11 | Announcements
Plans shift from Halloween activities to a new focus on true fellowship with Family Fest.
00:05:02 | What is Worldliness?
Pastor Ronnie discusses common misconceptions about Christian living that emphasize external appearances rather than genuine kingdom character.
00:13:29 | From Outward Rules to Inward Reality
Moving beyond “do nots” to the positive, Spirit-formed life shaped by doing what God calls us to.
00:17:13 | Koinonia: A Deeper Kind of Fellowship
Exploring authentic, Christ-centered community beyond superficial connections or shared interests.
00:22:45 | The Heart of a Life Worthy
Ephesians 4 lays out practical instructions: humility, gentleness, patience, and unity, rather than judgment or division.
00:26:55 | The High Cost of Disunity
Unity is “foolishly underrated” and often sacrificed for lesser concerns, but actually the channel of God’s richest blessings.
00:32:23 | Essential, Important, or Personal?
How to hold personal convictions and essentials rightly without imposing or dividing.
00:43:29 | Set Your Mind on Things Above
The hope and healing of heaven become reality on earth as we practice humility, patience, and unity—bearing with one another in love.
https://springhouse.captivate.fm/episode/a-life-worthy
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Gathering Times
- Sundays, 9:00 AM
- Sundays, 11:00 AM
- Wednesdays, 6:00 PM
Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcript
Last Sunday was so sweet. I
Speaker:think we had 23 baptisms last week.
Speaker:I love watching God move. I love the
Speaker:way that he surprises us with— whether it's a white dog or 4
Speaker:extra baptisms. I love that he moves the way that he
Speaker:moves. Amen. I
Speaker:have to go all Pastor Wayne on you for just a second. He used to
Speaker:do this all the time. He would go, something would hit him, and
Speaker:he would stop in the middle of what he was doing and just give us
Speaker:a sidebar, a teaching. When we have moments like what just
Speaker:happened in our worship, where we just kind of want to live and
Speaker:dwell in that Jesus be the name, there's such a sweet
Speaker:anointing in that. And sometimes you don't really know what
Speaker:to do with that. And it isn't that you have to do anything in it.
Speaker:We don't always have to do something. But what I would
Speaker:encourage you to think about in thushe moments, there is a
Speaker:word in scripture in Hebrew, and it's H-O-S, and it's hush.
Speaker:And it is a time between times. And by definition, it is a
Speaker:place where we can lay before him. We can lay before him.
Speaker:And one of the specific reasons for that time, like when
Speaker:that pregnant pause, when you don't really know what— it
Speaker:says that we can go before him and we can ask questions. And
Speaker:we can ponder, and we can get answers from him in thushe
Speaker:moments. And so I encourage you, when the Holy Spirit
Speaker:begins to move like that, and you begin to feel that
Speaker:quietness in your spirit, take just a moment and go, God,
Speaker:what are you trying to say to me? Lord, I really need an
Speaker:answer here. I need your direction in this. And trust that
Speaker:if you will get before him in thushe moments, in that
Speaker:silence, and allow him to speak, you just might get the
Speaker:answers that you've been looking for. He offers
Speaker:us a time between times when we don't necessarily know what
Speaker:to do, but he does. So I encourage you in
Speaker:that, just to grab hold of that, because I do believe that there's a
Speaker:teaching spirit in this house today. I believe that there is an
Speaker:anointing in this house to learn and go deeper and to
Speaker:grow in today. And so we're gonna step into that in just a
Speaker:second. I just wanted to thank the Lord for the 23 that
Speaker:were back there Thank you to all of you who were baptized last week for
Speaker:your participation in that. I wanted to share with you that I'm no
Speaker:longer angry with all of the people who are posting their beach pictures
Speaker:right now. And I expect,
Speaker:since I'm sure all of them are watching the service this morning, 'cause we—
Speaker:bring me a seashell and that will be proof that you
Speaker:watched today.
Speaker:And it can't say Walmart.
Speaker:There needs to be some sand on it, people. Anyway, the
Speaker:other thing I wanted to share with you, a lot of people already know this,
Speaker:but I felt like I should share it with you. We are not going to
Speaker:have Fall Fest this year, not the way that we have in the past.
Speaker:I'm not a huge proponent of Halloween or
Speaker:all of that. Y'all do whatever the Lord convicts. But for me, you know
Speaker:what I wanna celebrate? I wanna celebrate the family. So on the
Speaker:24th, rather than on Halloween night, Yeah. On the
Speaker:24th of October, it's a Saturday, from 10 to 2, we are
Speaker:gonna have Family Fest. And we are going to have—
Speaker:Rob and Critter are digging a pit out there. They're gonna kill something and cook
Speaker:it. And it's gonna be fabulous. We're gonna
Speaker:have a plethora of desserts brought in by the ladies of
Speaker:the church. We're gonna have inflatables for the kids. There's gonna be a
Speaker:basketball tournament. There is, because Justin loves competition,
Speaker:he is doing a— What's it called, guys? A tailgate
Speaker:competition. And there are prizes in that. He's gonna share
Speaker:more about that next week. But I just wanted to encourage you to mark
Speaker:that day. Come spend time with the family, and let's just enjoy
Speaker:one another because that's my heart. I would love to spend some time
Speaker:with you sitting across, preferably across a
Speaker:coconut pie, but we'll just put that out there. Anyways, a
Speaker:couple of Wednesday nights ago, Pastor Ronnie brought a message in
Speaker:on the Wednesday gathering. And when he had finished, And when he finished teaching,
Speaker:I could not wait to get up to him and go, I want you to
Speaker:teach that again. I need you to teach that again.
Speaker:It was water to me. And speaking of a teaching
Speaker:spirit, may he make our hearts— the Word says that he awakens
Speaker:us morning by morning to be taught of him. May this be one of
Speaker:thushe mornings this morning, Pastor Ronnie.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Good morning. Good morning. I'm glad all of you are here
Speaker:since you, like me, were not invited to go with the rest of
Speaker:the family for Fall Fest.
Speaker:We call this season at our house Left Behind.
Speaker:And yes, in case you're wondering, I have Dropped a few
Speaker:pounds of hair.
Speaker:I actually, considering how much hair I had to begin with, I should
Speaker:maybe say a few grams. But yeah, Friday the gal
Speaker:was going, well, let's try it. Would you like to try it a little tighter
Speaker:this time? And I went, well, sure, why not? I did not know what
Speaker:tight was. Now I
Speaker:do, but I've been assured that it will grow back. So we'll
Speaker:see. What are you doing, Doug? Yeah,
Speaker:I'm— Doug is down there bragging about his beard.
Speaker:All of his hair fell down here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't even know what that was, and I don't want to hear it.
Speaker:Yes, Barbie was referring to a couple of Wednesday nights ago
Speaker:when I taught. What she failed to say was
Speaker:she also said, you won't even have to study.
Speaker:It doesn't work that way.
Speaker:And I'm glad it doesn't work that way. Yeah.
Speaker:And as I was Yeah, I was
Speaker:teaching in the 2nd chapter of
Speaker:Colossians and I got hung up. I got hung up on a
Speaker:passage that we'll look at briefly here.
Speaker:But rather than it being the launching point, as I was
Speaker:looking through the scriptures and studying the scripture about
Speaker:unity, I came across
Speaker:another place that I got hung up.
Speaker:Unity has always been a key for me.
Speaker:I don't know exactly. I can't point back to the point where it went,
Speaker:oh, this is going to be a theme for your life and for your
Speaker:ministry. But it basically always has. And certainly for
Speaker:the 32 and a half years that I was the pastor here,
Speaker:unity was really a goal, was really a focus
Speaker:with me. But as I went
Speaker:through Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1
Speaker:through 6, where it talks about unity, I
Speaker:was caught up by another phrase. And the
Speaker:phrase that I was caught up by— well, I'm
Speaker:going to put the passage up here. And
Speaker:normally I ask you to stand, but I don't
Speaker:want to— don't want you to do that today. I
Speaker:want you to read through it with me, but in
Speaker:your mind. Don't necessarily say it out
Speaker:loud, okay? As a prisoner for the Lord,
Speaker:then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the
Speaker:calling you have received. Be completely
Speaker:humble and gentle; be patient, bearing
Speaker:with one another in love. Make every
Speaker:effort to keep the unity of the Spirit
Speaker:through the bond of peace. There is one
Speaker:body and one Spirit, just as you were
Speaker:called to one hope when you were called,
Speaker:one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
Speaker:and Father of all, who is over all and
Speaker:through all and in all. Father, I thank You for Your
Speaker:presence in this place. I thank You for the Holy Spirit
Speaker:who brings life where there's death. And
Speaker:I pray that today You would touch dead
Speaker:places in us and breathe life
Speaker:on them. In Jesus' name.
Speaker:Amen. I grew up with the teaching— and some of you may have as well
Speaker:depending on if you were brought up in church and if you were brought up
Speaker:in the certain kind of church. I grew up with the teaching that
Speaker:the opposite of a kingdom life is a
Speaker:worldly life. Worldly was about as
Speaker:bad as you could get in the camp
Speaker:that I grew up in. And the first thing that
Speaker:I began to think once I read this passage, and I'll connect it here in
Speaker:just a minute, was, what does it mean to be worldly?
Speaker:What does that even mean?
Speaker:And we tend to think of worldliness
Speaker:in terms of outward issues.
Speaker:Sexual immorality is the first thing that comes to mind in our culture and in
Speaker:many cultures, maybe not all, but certainly in ours, first thing that
Speaker:comes to mind. But there are other things as well
Speaker:that are outward. When I was growing up, I
Speaker:grew up in a place where I was taught, you know,
Speaker:if you're smoking, you're going to hell. Smoking will send you to hell. Now
Speaker:about 20 years later when I came back to the Lord and quit
Speaker:smoking,
Speaker:the teaching had shifted a little, you know. Oh, can you
Speaker:smoke and go to heaven? Yes, you can, and you'll get there quicker.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:But smoking, drinking alcohol,
Speaker:not soda, but alcohol,
Speaker:bad language. I was telling Michelle
Speaker:this week, I said, my— I never really heard my dad cuss.
Speaker:Never really heard him use any of those kind of words.
Speaker:But I did often wonder what she
Speaker:meant. Because we all
Speaker:have things that happen to us.
Speaker:Worldly amusements. I can't roller
Speaker:skate because I couldn't go to that
Speaker:worldly place and learn how to roller skate.
Speaker:Remember, I did finally get to go bowling and I'm pretty
Speaker:good. Not that good.
Speaker:But, and let's see, there was something else I was going to
Speaker:say about worldly amusements. Hmm? Movies.
Speaker:Movies, yeah. First, I wasn't ever allowed to go to the
Speaker:movies. I could watch the Million Dollar Movie at 10
Speaker:o'clock on TV, but I wasn't ever allowed to go to movies
Speaker:until John Wayne came out with The Alamo. And my dad took me
Speaker:and we put on our coats and our ties and we went to the— I
Speaker:don't even remember what it was called, but it was
Speaker:downtown on Fifth Avenue. And as we were sitting there
Speaker:waiting for the movie to start, I'll never forget my dad
Speaker:sitting next to me and going, Ronnie Allen, we're never
Speaker:going to do this again. It's the only time this is ever
Speaker:going to happen. I've never heard a sermon that went quite
Speaker:this far, but a former elder who used to go here named
Speaker:Rodney Boyd, I remember before they started coming here,
Speaker:the last church he had been to, and I think probably the
Speaker:last sermon he heard at the last church, and this may be why
Speaker:it was— they stopped going there, was a sermon about men
Speaker:wearing short sleeves. It was a sermon about, you know,
Speaker:these men, they needed to cover those arms up.
Speaker:Muscles. These muscles. Sorry, gals. Yeah,
Speaker:I don't know what that was all about. Some of these
Speaker:things are debatable as to whether or not they are
Speaker:worldly.
Speaker:But what is not debatable is that just
Speaker:because one doesn't do these things doesn't mean that they're not worldly.
Speaker:'Cause you can do those— you cannot do those things and you can,
Speaker:you can still be quite worldly. Yeah. I
Speaker:grew up thinking being a Christian was about what you did not do.
Speaker:But as I got older and began to read the Bible more, I began to
Speaker:learn that there was a whole lot in there about what you're supposed to do,
Speaker:what you actually should do. And if you actually do the things that you're
Speaker:supposed to do, it's a whole lot easier to not do the things that you
Speaker:don't do— not supposed to do because You don't have time to do
Speaker:it. Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Jesus made it very clear that there are internal— that it's the
Speaker:internal matters that matters the most.
Speaker:And so we'll go deeper about what's worldly and identify such things as
Speaker:greed. You can't look at somebody outwardly and know if they're greedy or not.
Speaker:Rich people are greedy. Poor people are greedy. Yeah. In-between
Speaker:people are greedy. You can't tell.
Speaker:Anger. I mean, we all get angry, but there—
Speaker:Paul talks about fits of anger. And
Speaker:we'll have fits of anger and not control them. That's
Speaker:the way the world settles things. That's not how God does
Speaker:it. Anger that we hold on to.
Speaker:Paul said, don't let the sun go down on your anger.
Speaker:Jealousy. You know, sometimes people
Speaker:think of pastors as they got it all together and they really,
Speaker:really got that. And of course, a pastor would never be jealous.
Speaker:Go to a pastors conference and see how
Speaker:they talk in the side rooms about the guy who's got the biggest church. Right.
Speaker:That's right. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Divisiveness often disguised as
Speaker:holiness.
Speaker:Well, I don't know if anybody heard me say that.
Speaker:But divisiveness often disguised as holiness.
Speaker:We don't need them here. We don't want— one
Speaker:part of the body saying to another, I don't need you.
Speaker:Yeah. Proverbs— in fact, Proverbs 6:19 says
Speaker:divisive— a person who is divisive is one of the 6
Speaker:things that God hates.
Speaker:Slander often wrapped up in gossip, often
Speaker:wrapped up in prayer requests.
Speaker:You know, if you know that Somebody needs prayer,
Speaker:pray for them. Why don't you just pray for them?
Speaker:You know, and gossip, how do you stop gossip? You stop gossip by
Speaker:stopping it. When it comes to
Speaker:you, don't take it to somebody else. What do you
Speaker:think about this? You know, this is— you just stop it.
Speaker:That's how that works.
Speaker:Hard-heartedness. I'm not going to spend too much time on
Speaker:this. These are things that can in fact
Speaker:point to being worldly. But God—
Speaker:those are the don'ts. God has called us to
Speaker:something so utterly other
Speaker:than being worldly. Something called
Speaker:kingdom life. And it's defined by what we—
Speaker:by what we are and by what we do.
Speaker:And God has called us to experience and practice something that
Speaker:in the Greek is called koinonia. Now that's an
Speaker:Anglicized version of the Greek word.
Speaker:So you want— you're not going to find it in your New
Speaker:Testament likely unless you've got a Greek New Testament. Yeah.
Speaker:But the word is usually translated over into English and it's mentioned
Speaker:some 20 times in the New Testament. And it's usually translated
Speaker:as fellowship. But this fellowship
Speaker:goes far beyond hot dogs and
Speaker:hugs in the foyer and high fives and
Speaker:ballgame scores. It goes far beyond that. Most of the
Speaker:fellowship we know is defined by a common
Speaker:cause. You know, go Vols!
Speaker:Roll Tide!
Speaker:Oh, I thought you said, go God. You said, roll Tide.
Speaker:My hearing. Yeah. But
Speaker:those are the kinds of things that we have as a
Speaker:common cause or common belief, especially if we've
Speaker:got a belief that's a minority opinion and we find another
Speaker:clump of people who have that same belief. I mean, we've got our tribe now.
Speaker:Wow. Because we believe that. Yeah. Or
Speaker:an interest. A golf fellowship is a
Speaker:fellowship. It actually is.
Speaker:But it's not koinonia. None of these things are
Speaker:koinonia because they will all
Speaker:pass away. The hot dog will
Speaker:pass away. Don't think about that much.
Speaker:The balls, the tide, the
Speaker:teams all pass away.
Speaker:Yeah. Golf will even pass away
Speaker:someday. Koinonia actually has a
Speaker:couple of ways that it works. On a vertical plane,
Speaker:it is a deep communion with Christ,
Speaker:with Jesus. Do you know Jesus?
Speaker:Not, do you know about Jesus? Or do
Speaker:you not smoke and chew? You know,
Speaker:do you know Jesus? That's the essence
Speaker:of things.
Speaker:Not, I'm not religious, I just love
Speaker:the Lord. Well, that's a great phrase and hopefully it's true, but you're
Speaker:probably religious. Hmm. As well.
Speaker:Because it's true that Christianity is supposed to be a relationship, not a religion.
Speaker:But the thing is, religion is a lot easier than relationship.
Speaker:We prefer religion because when it
Speaker:comes to religion, all I got to do is take care of my stuff.
Speaker:That's all I got to do. Take care of my stuff. When it comes to
Speaker:relationship, that's a
Speaker:lot harder. That's work.
Speaker:The word koinonia is not used in the Old Testament, and it's not because
Speaker:it's— the Old Testament wasn't written in Greek. It's not
Speaker:used because it wasn't available before Christ.
Speaker:Right. This is something that opened up and was
Speaker:made available to us, to have koinonia. And like I say,
Speaker:on a vertical plane, it's deep communion with God, with Christ.
Speaker:On a horizontal plane, it is the
Speaker:bond between believers, a
Speaker:bond based firmly on Christ. Christ is my firm
Speaker:foundation, the rock on which I stand, something
Speaker:that does not pass away.
Speaker:And it is made perfect by love. Amen.
Speaker:It is the prime outworking of a kingdom
Speaker:life. It is
Speaker:what Jesus meant when He said, they will know
Speaker:you're My disciples because you love each other,
Speaker:because you love one another.
Speaker:If asked to list the most important elements in
Speaker:the Christian life, Aside from
Speaker:Christ, he's obviously where it all starts. But if asked to
Speaker:list the most important elements in the Christian life after Jesus,
Speaker:many would list matters related to doctrine,
Speaker:what you're supposed to believe,
Speaker:standing on current issues. I can't believe that
Speaker:person is a Christian and they and they
Speaker:vote for that person that I didn't vote for. Or, I can't
Speaker:believe that that person is a Christian and they don't think that's wrong.
Speaker:Or, they do think that's wrong.
Speaker:Or they might list certain areas of focus
Speaker:in terms of what we're supposed to do as
Speaker:Christians. Or maybe they'd list
Speaker:fulfilling religious duties, etc. Ephesians
Speaker:chapter 4 is one of the foundational
Speaker:chapters that defines what the church is supposed to be,
Speaker:how we're supposed to be, what it's all about.
Speaker:This is how you live a life worthy of the calling
Speaker:that you have received.
Speaker:I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
Speaker:Okay. If that's all He said, then we'd be left to our own
Speaker:devices to go, oh, this is a worthy life, or, this is
Speaker:not a worthy life, and this is— No, He didn't leave it to
Speaker:chance. He said, let me tell you what that is. Let me tell you how
Speaker:you do that. Be completely humble
Speaker:and gentle.
Speaker:That's something I've got to work on. Something I've been working
Speaker:on. Yeah. You know, I've been told
Speaker:a number of times in my life that I
Speaker:intimidate people. And I think,
Speaker:I'm 5'8. How could I
Speaker:intimidate somebody? But apparently, you know, I have
Speaker:a certain way of speaking sometimes and I have a
Speaker:certain look. You know, maybe give people sometimes.
Speaker:And Michelle has pointed out to me
Speaker:that I need to do something about that. And I'm trying.
Speaker:I really am. I mean, I've been thinking about it
Speaker:and trying.
Speaker:Humble, gentle, be patient.
Speaker:Bearing with one another in love. Make every
Speaker:effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Speaker:That's how you live a life worthy of the calling that you have
Speaker:received. And now when it
Speaker:comes to yourself, you know, it's kind of easy to
Speaker:maybe fool yourself into thinking, hey, I got this. I'm humble.
Speaker:Let me tell you how humble I am.
Speaker:I'm gentle. What do you mean I'm not gentle? You know,
Speaker:I'm patient. I gave you 12
Speaker:seconds to change your mind.
Speaker:But of course, these things only matter and they only come
Speaker:out in relation to others. Yeah.
Speaker:Bear, bear with one another in love and make every
Speaker:effort to live in the unity of the Spirit.
Speaker:I think I'd rather just be religious.
Speaker:This is hard. Right.
Speaker:But why? Why should we do this? Because there is one body
Speaker:and one Spirit. And one
Speaker:faith, one baptism, one Lord, one
Speaker:hope that you were called to when you were
Speaker:called. One God and Father of all,
Speaker:who is over all and in all and through all. And one
Speaker:isn't always the loneliest number. That's right. And if you don't
Speaker:get that reference, ask your parents or your grandparents.
Speaker:One is the number of unity.
Speaker:Well, okay, we heard that. That was pretty intimidating.
Speaker:What's the value though? I mean, what do you get?
Speaker:Well, unity— when I taught on this
Speaker:a couple of Wednesday nights ago, I told I told the
Speaker:people, I said, I was going to say unity is very
Speaker:underrated. I wrote that down in my notes and then I went,
Speaker:very is such a lame word. I mean, you know,
Speaker:nobody uses that anymore. I will use extremely.
Speaker:And I went, that is exactly the same word as very.
Speaker:And then the Lord dropped a meaningful adjective
Speaker:in my heart. Wow. Unity is foolishly
Speaker:underrated. Foolishly.
Speaker:We hear sermon after sermon about everything from
Speaker:evangelism to purity to how to get your miracle.
Speaker:And I'm not saying that any of those are wrong,
Speaker:but we rarely hear on a
Speaker:sermon about how to biblically live a life worthy
Speaker:of the calling that you've received,
Speaker:which seems to be a pretty important thing.
Speaker:And therefore, because I think in large part
Speaker:because of the imbalance in that teaching-wise,
Speaker:we willingly sacrifice unity for these other things. Yes.
Speaker:We willingly sacrifice and will cast aside those who
Speaker:aren't with us on these other things.
Speaker:And we're like Esau who will— who sold his
Speaker:birthright, something he couldn't see, for a bowl of
Speaker:stew, something I want right now.
Speaker:Yes. And the Scripture calls him ungodly. So
Speaker:what is unity worth? Okay, we may not be able to necessarily
Speaker:see it. And let me just say that when I say unity, I'm not talking
Speaker:about unanimity. I'm not talking about agreeing about everything.
Speaker:I'm talking about a life lived with others that is humble,
Speaker:gentle, patient, bearing with one another
Speaker:in love, making every effort to keep the
Speaker:unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker:Yeah. Psalm
:Behold how
:good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. For there
:the Lord has commanded His blessing, life forevermore.
:Eternal life resides in unity.
:And what is eternal life? Well, Jesus defined it in
:John chapter 17, verse 3. He said, Now this is
:eternal life. This is pretty clear as you can
:get. This is eternal life, to know You.
:The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. And
:the psalmist says that resides where we dwell
:together in unity.
:The chapter I was teaching out of on that night, Colossians
:chapter 2, I got hung up. I got hung—
:actually, Wayne had taught a couple of weeks earlier and he got hung up
:and didn't get very far in his chapter. And I thought, well, cool, I can
:do that. And so I got— and we're both
:from the '60s, so we understand hung up. And we—
:but I got hung up, and I got hung up on this. Paul says, my
:goal, my goal in writing
:to the Colossians and all of the people that I've not met personally,
:my goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and
:united in love so that they
:may have the full riches of complete understanding
:in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ,
:in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
:knowledge. I kind of went,
:wow! Wow! Being brought together in complete
:unity, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That's
:worth something! Yes. I do believe.
:And later on in Colossians 3, Wayne taught that
:chapter this last Wednesday. I'm going to go there in just a minute,
:but it says
:in verse 14, it says that regarding the
:virtues, all of the virtues, the things that we go, okay,
:that's good stuff. It says that love
:binds them all together in perfect
:unity.
:One more. John chapter 17. Jesus praying on
:the night before He went to the cross, praying for us. He says, I'm not
:just praying for the people in this room, Father. I'm praying for
:those who are going to come to believe on Me through
:their message. I have given them the glory that You
:gave Me, that they may be one as We are one, I in them
:and You in Me, so that they may be brought to
:complete unity then the world will know that you
:sent me and have loved them even as you've loved me.
:How many of you know someone who won't have
:anything to do with the faith or with Christianity
:or won't go to church or just is an unbeliever
:because of what they saw in the church? Yes.
:Because of something that happened in church. I'm not asking you to raise
:your hand, but I'm— because I know all of you know somebody who
:fits in that description. And Jesus says, if we'll
:live a life worthy of the life we've been called to, if
:we'll do what He's talking about here, then the
:world will know. They'll know Jesus came from God.
:They'll know that God loves them. Amen.
:Well, now wait a minute, preacher. Are you asking us to compromise
:what we believe?
:Hmm. Yes
:and no. And it also
:depends on what you're talking about. Because you see, there are
:certain things that are essential
:in the faith. And all of them connect
:directly to Jesus Christ. Yeah. The essentials
:all connect directly to Him. Who He
:was, who He is, why He came, that He died on
:the cross for our sins, that God raised Him from the dead
:for our justification. Those are essential
:things. Other things are important.
:But— and I did write this down because this is
:something that hopefully will get written in here.
:Important does not equal essential. Right.
:We don't do well in this country, in our culture with
:nuance. We want a soundbite.
:We want something that we can just go, oh yeah, there it is. I got
:that. You know, how many of you had a What Would
:Jesus Do bracelet?
:I had one. Yeah. How many did you
:have? Many. Many.
:Yeah. You know, the only issue with— the only problem that I found
:with that is that when I would look at that bracelet and think, oh, what
:would Jesus do? More often than not, what I came up with was,
:What do I really want to do? Yeah, I could see Jesus doing that, you
:know. And then
:I do that because, hey, what would
:Jesus do? You know.
:We like sound bites. And
:rather than necessarily thinking things through. And what is
:important, what is essential, we all have to.
:That's right. Yeah. But what is important
:to one may not be important to another.
:You say, well, now Paul said to watch your life and doctrine closely.
:Yeah, let me give you that complete quote. Watch your life and
:doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do,
:you will save both yourself and your hearers. Well, there it is right there. Well,
:but you know what's not right there? Watch their life
:and doctrine closely. Watch their
:life and doctrine closely. It's watch your life and doctrine closely.
:Jesus had a lot to say about people who felt like it was
:their job to watch their life and doctrine closely.
:You know this passage. You know where I'm going. Do not judge or you too
:will be judged. For in the same way you
:judge others, you will be judged. And with the
:measure that you use, it will be measured to you. If those last
:2 phrases don't just scare you straight,
:then there's no straight in you. Yeah.
:The way you judge is how you're going to be
:judged. And I, you know,
:this has kind of 2 sides to it. Because I—
:it's not just a warning that says, well, don't be
:judgmental because you're going to get that back at you, but it's also
:another side that says, hey, if you don't judge—
:that's what I want. That's what I need.
:I don't know about you, but I need that. Amen.
:With the measure that you use, it'll be measured to you. Nowhere
:does God rebuke anyone for being too merciful!
:Right. Nowhere does God rebuke
:anyone for being too forgiving, for being
:too tenderhearted, for being too kind! And
:then as soon as Jesus said this, He also went
:on to talk about, well, you know, it's pretty
:easy to see that speck in your your brother's
:eye, but you're looking through a log in your
:own. It might be one of your specks. I don't
:know. Romans 14, that chapter is
:foundational in my walk with God, has been
:foundational in my life and my walk with God.
:And I would encourage you to read Romans 14.
:and go through it. I'm not going to unpack it
:this morning. I'm going to mention one
:verse, but I would encourage you to do that.
:And now it's talking about issues of the day and
:issues of the culture. And so it might be things that we could just
:pass off as, oh, well, that was for then. This is— but I believe
:that the principle that Romans 14 is bringing
:is an eternal principle. And
:it's contained in this one verse.
:Who are you to judge someone else's servant? This is Paul talking!
:To their own master servants stand or fall, and they will
:stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. If the Lord
:can make me stand, He can make anybody stand.
:Because I know Right. I know me.
:As an adult, hopefully you can understand that
:you can only control the decisions and
:actions of one person.
:Even as a parent, I mean, as a parent, we kind of think for a
:while that we can control some others, but we find out we're disabused of that
:notion pretty quickly.
:Yeah. And children consider it appropriate to complain.
:Well, Johnny gets to do it. Mary gets
:to do it. Why is it that I'm
:not the one who gets any of that?
:Paul says over in 1 Corinthians 13 when he's talking
:about love, I used to act like a child.
:But now that I've become a man, I put away
:childish ways. Yes.
:Yet we're willing to take a stand on
:certain issues or positions to the exclusion
:of others who are not where we are
:and not about what we are about
:and such things. You know, when I was younger, I used to
:think that anyone who disagreed with me was wrong.
:And now that I have gotten older, I know that anyone
:who disagrees with me is someone who disagrees
:with me.
:Right. And it may be that I'm right and they're wrong. It
:may be that they're right and I'm wrong. It may be that we're both right.
:I don't know how that works, but, you know, there's the
:sovereignty of God and free will of man. You know, there are a lot of
:things I don't understand. And probably the most likely thing is
:we're both wrong. Hello.
:But we're willing to take these things and we're willing to
:exclude others. And so we forfeit
:unity. We forfeit koinonia.
:We forfeit the life to which we are
:called, something so completely
:other than worldliness.
:You should, of course, not compromise on any conviction
:God has given you. If God has
:convicted you of something— I remember Wayne telling a story
:about Don Finto one One time the pastor up at
:Belmont was preaching
:one Sunday night and he
:apparently after Sunday evenings, he would go home and have ice cream. My
:kind of man. He'd go home and have ice cream.
:And one Sunday night he went home and he
:started to get his ice cream and the Holy Spirit said, what are you doing?
:He said, well, I'm I'm having ice cream. You don't,
:you don't really care if I— do you?
:Caused a conviction in his heart. Now that didn't make
:me stop eating ice cream. But if it
:made— but if Romans 14 at the end
:says, whatever is not from faith is sin. Right.
:So for Don, that was going to be a sin.
:I could give other examples, but that's enough. If you have a
:conviction, it's for you. It is for you, and
:you need to keep— and it may be something that nobody else thinks, well, what
:in the world's wrong with that? Whatever is not from faith is
:sin. So it's for you. And I'm not saying
:compromise that. What I'm saying is don't tie it up in a package and put
:it on your brother's back and go, here, you carry this too. That's right.
:That's right. There are
:conflicts that exist. I'm getting close to closing
:here, guys. So there are conflicts that exist in our world
:that are completely irreconcilable.
:There is no way to bring them together.
:And I used to think, how's this going to work,
:God? I mean, we get to heaven and there are going
:to be people there who
:killed other people's loved ones who are
:there, or, you know, you bulldozed my house,
:you ruined my life. How is that going to get reconciled?
:And yet When we are before the throne,
:all of those matters will just be forgotten.
:The answer to how they're going to get reconciled
:is the answer: Jesus.
:He's how they'll get reconciled.
:Wayne taught last Wednesday from Colossians 3, and he focused on
:on 2 verses. And these are the 2 verses he
:focused on. Since then you have been raised
:with Christ, set your hearts on things above,
:where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds
:on things above, not on earthly
:things. And then he
:emphasized, you do it! You do it! This isn't
:something That the Holy Spirit makes you do. It's
:something you do. You take your mind and set it up there.
:Down here we have differences that seem so important,
:but there our minds are set on things
:that cause these divides to just, just fade away.
:And we can already, we can
:already be there if we will do that, if we'll set our
:minds there rather than on this
:here. My mom and dad are over there.
:My dad was a pastor. He couldn't do anything without my
:mom. Uh,
:And through the years, I saw them,
:uh, I saw them be despised.
:I saw them be, uh,
:betrayed. I saw them be
:hurt a bunch of different levels,
:most of it in church. Uh,
:But I also saw them deal with
:those things. I mean, they had
:their moments for sure, but
:them deal with those things
:with humility, with
:kindness, with patience,
:bearing with those who
:offended. Seeking the unity
:of the Spirit in the bond of
:peace.. And when my dad died,
:it was— it's been 18 years ago
:now. Whew. My
:mom passed away before that, but when my dad died, I put together a
:slideshow for the viewing. And the last
:slide that I put on there had a picture of my dad
:He had a haircut about like mine.
:And he had 1916 to
:2008. And then I, for
:some reason, I wrote, a life well lived.
:And I think that's kind of the same thing as a
:life worthy. Yeah.
:What a glorious day that will be. We
:used to sing an old hymn, Sing the wondrous love of
:Jesus, of his mercy and his grace. In
:the mansions bright and blessed, he's prepared for us a place.
:Let us then be true and faithful.
:Something serving every day. Just
:one glimpse of Him in glory will the
:toils of life repay.
:What a glorious day that will be. But if we are willing
:to not impose our personal convictions, our personal
:ideas, our personal— the important things—
:On others and be completely humble and gentle,
:patient, and bear with one another in
:love, then
:we can come to complete unity. And the blessings
:that are over there, we can bring down here.
:Amen. The healing that's
:over there, Can be brought down here. That's,
:that's something worth doing. That's a life
:worth living. Would you stand with me? Those
:who are going to pray with people, come.
:Whether you're worldly or whether you're
:kingdom-minded, life in a fallen world is
:hard. And if you have something that you need
:Prayer with, prayer for these brothers and
:sisters are here. And I want you to just come and
:ask them to pray with you. Engage in some
:fellowship. Okay? We're going to worship.
:If you don't need to come, worship with us for a few minutes.
