Preserve the Unity of Our Church

Today is a great day. It's a great day because the future of Christ Community Church is brighter now than it's ever been. Simply because of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do.

And God does it through each and every single one of you. Because there is one thing in life, and only one thing in life that you can absolutely control. It all depends on you and no one else.

Only one thing. And that's nothing else. And that is giving glory to God.

You control that. Whether or not you're going to display the beauty and brilliance of Jesus Christ our Lord solely depends on you. No one else.

You are the sole controller of whether or not you will put God on display in every conversation, in every situation, in every day, in every moment of every life. You say, at this moment, I'm going to put God on display. I'm going to give God the glory.

I'm going to reflect the righteous radiance of my Redeemer in this moment. That's the one thing you and I can control. And it's the only thing that you and I can control in this life.

And so, therefore, the Bible says, whatever you do, whether you eat or whether you drink, you do all to the glory of God. When you look at the most mundane things in life, such as eating and drinking, nothing more mundane than that, you can give glory to God. You can honor the Lord.

In fact, the Bible says in Ephesians 3:21, these words, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. There should be glory in the church individually.

There should be glory in the church corporately. And there should be glory in the church perpetually, from generation to generation. And that means that you as an individual, we as a church body, an assembly, a family, are to put God on display from generation to generation.

Therefore, the future of our church is brighter today than it's ever been before. In fact, tomorrow, it will be brighter than today. Because when you choose to put the brilliant light of Christ on display, the world notices.

And the body of Christ is impacted in unique and special ways. So when you came to Christ Community Church and you became a member of the church, you made a promise. And that promise is written on this card that you agreed to when you came to Christ Community Church and you became a member here at Christ Community.

It's summed up in four simple statements. I covenant, I promise to preserve the unity of my church. That's number one.

Number two, I promise to pursue the strategy of my church. Number three, I promise to protect the testimony of my church. And number four, I promise to participate in the ministry of my church.

That's how you give God the glory and put Him on display. And so throughout this month of June, we're going to cover one of these a week to show you the promise that you made to the Lord and to one another when you made Christ Community Church your home church. And today we're going to cover the first one.

You made a promise to preserve the unity of your church. The Bible says in Romans chapter 15, these words, listen very carefully. Romans 15, verse number 5, now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus.

So that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore accept one another just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. In other words, there is something about the church that is so unique because of what Christ has done.

We are a family. We're called the household of God, the family of God. And that's why when you look at your own personal family, it resembles the church family and vice versa.

Because how you act at home is the exact same way you should act at church. Because if you don't, that's hypocrisy. But you want there to be an equal weight in both the church and the home as to how you live your life.

And as a member of Christ Community Church, as one who says Christ Community Church is my home, I want to preserve the unity of my church. That principle is stated very clearly in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 to 3. Paul says this, therefore I the prisoner of the Lord implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness and patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Paul says I want you to be diligent. I want there to be a holy zeal about your life. I want there to be a high energy about your life.

And that high energy centers around doing all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. It's the peace of God that wraps us all together. We're all part of the same body.

And therefore we do everything we can to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Notice, the unity is already there. You can't develop unity in the church.

But you can destroy unity in the church. The unity is there because of what Christ prayed for in John 17. Listen to what it says in John 17.

Christ says, I do not ask on behalf of these alone, verse 20, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me. When Christ prayed for our unity, he prayed that we would all be one as Christ is one with the Father. And when we are adopted into the family of God, when we are placed in the body of Christ through the baptism of the Spirit of God, we are one in Christ.

He is our head. He is the leader of the family. And we are one in him.

You notice this in your own family. If there is any kind of disharmony in your family at home, any kind of discord, any kind of division, any kind of disruption in your family, things don't go well.

So what do you do? You gather the family together. You help the family understand what it is we are all about, what we do, what our goals are, what our purpose is. Why? Because you are all one as a unit because you are all a family. And yet death to the family happens when there is disarray in the family, when there is discord and division in the family.

So you bring everybody together and you talk about the issues at hand and you handle the conflict that is there. Why? Because you want to preserve the unity that is there. You want to be diligent to do so.

You want to have the holy zeal behind you. We can get a holy zeal about a whole bunch of things in the church that just don't matter, right? But what really matters is the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. And Paul says, I want you to endeavor.

I want you to give all your energy to this because I want you to preserve that which Christ died for by bringing you one in Christ, in the body of Christ. So the question is how do we do that? How does that happen? Whenever there is bitterness in your own personal family, whenever there is unforgiveness in your personal family, whenever there is selfishness in your own personal family, whenever there is covetousness in your own personal family, there is disarray in your family. You have got to deal with those things, right? And so the same thing is true in the church.

You want there to be harmony. You want to accept one another in the church. And so you do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

I was thinking about this last June because I always think a year in advance. So I was thinking last June what I would speak on this June. And I decided last June that I would do the promise card, the covenant card that we have in our membership classes.

I preached on it before twice. So two times in 32 years is probably not enough. So I thought I would do it again.

And so last June I thought to myself, this is the best time to do this when we are all together under one roof and we are all together to do the same thing that we might understand how to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There are four ways. I am going to give them to you this morning.

And we will be done quickly. So tell your kids to hang on. It will be all right.

Number one, personal examination. If you want to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, and you make that promise to do that in the church, then there always has to be personal examination.

In 2001 I preached a sermon on expanding self-examination. And we put it in a little booklet form. Why? Because we wanted you to understand the importance of this. We just partook of the Lord's table. Right? In 1 Corinthians 11 the Lord says, let a man examine himself before he eats and drinks of the Lord's table. Why? Because Paul says in the church of Corinth there were many sick and there were many who died because they ate and drank of the Lord's table in an unworthy manner.

Personal examination is crucial. If you are living in sin, you just don't partake of the Lord's table as if your sin doesn't matter. Christ died for your sin. Right? So you have got to deal with that sin.

And so there is this personal examination. And in there, in the booklet, we talk about the reality of my faith. Is it true? We talk about the destiny of my soul.

Do I know I am going to heaven? And how do I know that? Self-examination is so important. We talk about the authenticity of my heart. How do I know my heart is genuine? Because the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

But through self-examination I can come to understand that. We talk about the purity of my mind. That needs to be examined.

The ministry to my family. The priority of my family. And do I have a ministry in my church? And so I begin to walk through different aspects of the Scripture.

The quality of my walk. Do I walk as Christ Himself walked? That's why there is personal examination. The psalmist said it this way.

Psalm 139. You know these verses. Search me, O God.

Know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way. Lead me in the everlasting way.

Lord, search me. Try me. Know my heart.

My friends, we need to be involved in personal examination. We need to look at our lives realistically. Look at them through the lens of Scripture.

Not through my own personal lens, but what does the Bible say about my heart, my family, my church, my walk, my sin? Am I dealing with those things in a biblical way? So if I'm going to endeavor to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, it begins with personal examination. Looking at my life through the eyes of the Lord and saying, Lord, if there be any wicked way in me, deal with me that I might truly honor and glorify Your name. That's number one.

Number two, mutual submission. Once there has been a personal examination, there can be now a mutual submission. The Bible says in Ephesians 5, verse number 21, these words, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

If I'm going to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, I do all I can to do that. I'm going to look to lift you higher than me. We have a lot of Diotrephes in the church.

Remember Diotrephes? John talks about them. The one who seeks the preeminence in the church. We have a lot of those people in churches all around the world.

We don't need any Diotrephes here. We need those who are willing to lift others up above themselves to rank them higher than themselves. Paul said it this way in the book of Philippians.

You know these verses as well. Philippians chapter 2. He says, therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any confidence, a consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in Spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourself.

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. That is mutual submission. How does your family work at home when there is mutual submission? When you as a wife submit to the leadership of your husband and when you as a husband are willing to sacrificially give your life away for your wife, that is called mutual submission.

When that happens there is harmony in the home. But when the wife begins to fight for her rights and the husband begins to fight for his rights, there is disharmony, there is discord, there is dissension in the home.

The same is true in the church. If there is discord and dissension and disharmony in the church, somebody is fighting for their rights. Somebody is looking to be at the atrophies. Somebody is looking to be the preeminent one. Someone is not looking to hold the other one up, lift the other one above themselves and say, you are more important than I am. I am going to look out for your interests more than I am going to look out for my own interests. That is called mutual submission.

If you want to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, you want to have a holy zeal, be holy about that. Looking to lift others above yourself, giving them the preeminence, giving them first place, giving them the opportunities to succeed, giving them the opportunity to have their recognition, giving them the opportunity to have all the things that you would like to have but give it to them instead because you want to rank yourself under them. That is when the church really comes alive and people begin to realize that others are more important than them and they lift them above themselves.

It is called mutual submission. The Bible says this in Hebrews 13:17, Obey your leaders. Submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with grief for this would be unprofitable not for them but for you. That is just a remarkable verse. You are leaders in the church.

They have to give an account for your soul. They have to give an accounting before God for your soul. God holds the leaders of your church accountable for your soul.

The writer of Hebrews says let them do this with joy not with grief because if they do this with grief because of your sinful behavior, because of your unsubmissive attitude, guess what? It will be unprofitable for you not for them. You will experience the negativity, not them. You will.

Why? Because God demands submission in the home, in the church, in government. Even within the triune nature of God there is a holy submission as a son would submit himself to the will of the father. He came to do the will of his father.

You see we say we want to be like Christ but do we really want to be like Christ? Because Christ came to give his life away. Christ came to die for the sins of man. Christ came to sacrifice himself.

Who are you sacrificing yourself for? Who are you willing to give up your life for? We find ourselves so self-absorbed that we can't put others above ourselves because we so desperately want to be recognized. We so desperately want to have first place in somebody's life. Instead of saying Lord I want to serve you, I want to honor you and glorify your name and I'm going to go through personal examination and look at my life through the lens of scripture so that I can very easily submit myself to those in the body of Christ.

It begins with personal examination. It leads to mutual submission and that leads to scriptural confrontation. This is when the church is at its apex.

Scriptural confrontation. Before the church was ever born, before the church ever came into existence, before anybody knew anything about the church, the bride of Christ.

In Matthew 18, Christ gave instructions for the church before it was ever born. Why? Because the purity of the church is the most important thing to the Lord. He wants you to be as holy as he is holy. So in Matthew chapter 18, verses 15 and following, he gives that exhortation.

If your brother sins go to him. If he repents you've won your brother. If he doesn't take someone else with you. And if he repents you've won your brother. See? You're looking to win your brother because you want him to understand the beauty of repentance and the beauty of forgiveness. That's so important.

In fact the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 5 these words. It gives you a process. It says in 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse number 1. Paul says this.

Do not sharply rebuke an older man but rather appeal to him as a father. To the younger men as brothers. The older women as mothers. And the younger women as sisters with all purity.

He gives you a template by which you deal with people in the church. Older men with humility. Brothers with equality. Older women with dignity. And younger women with purity.

That's how you scripturally confront them because you want them to be holy. You want them to live for the glory and honor of the Lord. This is so important that you follow what the Bible says.

In fact the Bible says in Matthew chapter 5, listen, if you know that your brother has something against you, before you ever come to worship, leave your gift at the altar, go back and reconcile with your brother before you ever worship me because reconciliation with your brother is part and parcel to your being reconciled to me as your father in heaven. So important. This is crucial to the church.

This is how the church operates at its best. But it happens because there has been a personal examination. Remember Matthew chapter 7? Matthew chapter 7 is so unique because people say, well you can't judge your brother.

It says, do not judge that you will not be judged. They quote Matthew 7 verse number 1. But they stop right there. That's inadequate.

Read on. For in the way you judge, you will be judged and by your standard of measure it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye but not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your own eye, your eye, excuse me, and behold the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite.

First, take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. It doesn't say you cannot judge. It doesn't say you cannot confront.

No, it says you do confront. You have to do it but you got to deal with the log in your own eye first so that you can deal with the speck in your brother's eye. But you must do it in a non-hypocritical kind of way.

That's where personal examination comes in. That's where mutual submission comes in. And now I'm ready to do a scriptural confrontation.

Why? Because I'm so concerned about your purity. I'm so concerned about your holiness and I'm concerned about the testimony of our church and I'm concerned about the testimony of your family. I'm concerned about how it is you walk with the Lord.

Listen, all true friends will confront you on your sin. If no one has ever confronted you on your sin, you don't have a friend. I'm sorry to say that.

You have a lot of acquaintances. You have a lot of associates. But you don't have a true friend.

A true friend will come to you and say, you were wrong. You sinned. This needs to be corrected.

And one of two things will always happen. Listen carefully. One of two things will always happen when you scripturally confront somebody.

Mark it down. They will receive it humbly and repent or they will reject it pridefully and rebel. There is no in-between.

There's only two options. You go to your brother, you go to your sister, and you go to them and you confront them on their sin.

They are going to receive it humbly. They're going to say, you're right. That was wrong. I've got to get it right. And they're going to repent. Or, they're going to reject it. And they're going to do it pridefully.

And they're going to rebel against what? The truth. The truth that you came to them in the right way. And say, you need to get this thing right.

And when people repent, oh, what a beautiful thing that is. And to be able to see what God does in the life of the person who receives the scriptural confrontation humbly and then repents of their sin.

As elders, we've seen this happen so many times over the last 31 years that we've been together. Things that you as a church never ever see, hear, or know because we've watched how God has worked in the lives of people and we rejoice at those who have repented and went to follow the Lord. That's just such a great thing.

And we have seen it happen over and over and over again over all the years we've been together. Simply because we are concerned about the, we watch out for the souls of people. We're held accountable to God for the souls of people. And we want to make sure that the people of Christ's Community Church honor the Lord, walk with the Lord, serve the Lord, and do it in a pure and humble kind of manner.

That is just so incredibly important. So I promise to preserve the unity of my church. How? By personal examination.

That's where it begins. Take an honest look at yourself through the lens of Scripture. And then to be able to mutually submit myself to you, to one another.

And then to scripturally confront those who live in sin. Having already dealt with my sin, I am now spiritually ready to deal with someone else who needs help serving and following the Lord. And lastly, through beneficial conversation.

Beneficial conversation. You want to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace? You want to do all you can to preserve the unity of your church? It comes because of beneficial conversation. Paul would say it this way in Ephesians 4, verse number 29.

He says these words, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only which are such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. And then he says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit. In other words, unwholesome words grieve the Holy Spirit.

Wholesome words don't. And then he says this, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. So you let the unwholesome words go.

You speak only wholesome words. Paul would say these words in the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter 4, verse number 6, when he says this, let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

Your speech should be seasoned with grace, but that grace is always salt in an open wound. Because sometimes you have to say the hard things. Saying the hard things doesn't mean that's an unwholesome word.

The slander, the malice, the clamor, the bitterness, the unforgiveness, those are the unwholesome things that come from your mouth. But sometimes you have to say the hard things and tell people, this is wrong. It's a word, word of grace, but it's seasoned with salt.

Because in order for the wound to heal, salt must be poured in that open wound so that it can see its need for healing and see the need for reckoning and reconciliation. That's just so important. And so as a body of Christ, we've made a promise to one another.

And that promise is this, I promise to preserve the unity of my church. I'm going to endeavor with a holy zeal with all the high energy I possibly can muster up because I want to give glory and honor to God. In order for us with one voice and one mind to glorify God and to accept one another, I'm going to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

I'm going to do it because there is a personal examination where I look at my own life and say, yes, this needs to be cleaned up. Yes, this needs to be dealt with. No, I am not a perfect person.

I've got to deal with my heart. I've got to deal with my walk. I've got to deal with my words.

I've got to deal with my life. Through personal examination, then comes mutual submission. I'm going to look to lift you above me.

I'm going to look to put you in a place of prominence above me. I'm going to look at your needs more than my needs. I'm going to submit myself to you.

I'm going to submit myself to my leaders because they give an account for my soul. And if I don't, it's unprofitable for me, not for them. And then I will be involved in scriptural confrontation.

If I see a brother or a sister in sin, I will go to them and say, hey, look, let me help you with this. Let me do what I can to help you work through this. I want you to honor the Lord. He who honors me, I will honor. I want the Lord to honor you. So how can I help you with this issue in your life that I can come alongside of you and be there for you and work this thing through with you? Let me do this with you.

Who doesn't want that kind of help? Unless, of course, you live in rebellion against the truth. Then you don't want that kind of help. But that makes your energy to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace all the more ferocious because you want them to walk in holiness.

You want them to serve the Lord. See? And we have seen over the years where people in the church, such as yourselves, have been so instrumental in the whole process of confronting people and seeing great things happen because the person received it humbly and repented. That's just a great thing.

And then all that with beneficial conversation. Conversation that benefits the other person. I speak the truth in love. But you've got to speak the truth, right? You've got to tell the truth. You've got to speak the truth. You do it with a loving heart that says, I am more concerned about you than anything else.

And that's when the church is rich. That's when the church is alive. Let me tell you something.

The promise that you made when you made Christ Community Church your church, the promise that you made, when you fulfill these, this is what causes you to be alive in the church. It's when you don't do these things, church is dull. Church is boring. Church is just a thing you do, not something that you are.

That's why we made this covenant thirty-one years ago. Because we knew that this was that which would sustain the life of the body of Christ.

That's why I'm saying the future is brighter now than it's ever been before. Why? Because as a church we promised to do this. I made this promise to the Lord when I came here.

I made this promise to you because I made it to the Lord and I'm going to fulfill this promise. Why do you think I've been here for thirty-one years? Why do you think I'm not dead yet? Because I live for this stuff. I live for this.

I love Christ Community Church. I love being here. I love everything about the church.

Is it a perfect church? No. Why? Because you and me are in it. That's why it's not perfect.

But that's what makes a church so great. Why? Because I made a promise to do all I can to preserve the unity of the church. And I'm going to do it with holy zeal in all that I have.

Because I love the Lord and I love the people of the church. Let me pray with you.

Father, thank you for today. Thank you for the opportunity you give us to be together as a body. We are grateful.

Lord, you know my heart and you know how much I love these people. How much I love being with these people. How much I love everything that happens with these people.

Because Lord, I'm going to give an account one day for their souls. Along with Tom and Roger and Esteban, we recognize the magnitude of the ministry. But we love you, Lord. We love the church.

And so we thank you for this opportunity and pray that Lord all of us would have a holy zeal to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. We love you, Lord. And we pray that you'd come back soon and take us home to be with you.

Until then, may we be found faithful in our service of the King. In Jesus' name, Amen.