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Faithful Followers: The Culture that God Favors
July 6, 2025 · 51 min
What if the culture of our church could usher in an unprecedented outpouring of God's favor? In his compelling sermon, Pastor Jeff takes us on a journey through the essential elements that create a community blessed by God, focusing on the teachings from First Thessalonians. He emphasizes that true spiritual transformation begins with honoring our leaders and protecting the unity of the body of Christ, allowing us to minister to people from all walks of life. With unwavering passion, Pastor Jeff encourages us to embrace love and forgiveness over bitterness and resentment, teaching that our responses to others—especially in the face of conflict—reflect our relationship with Christ. He guides the church to actively participate in building this culture, reminding us of the profound link between unity and spiritual vitality. This message is a call to evaluate our hearts and relationships, fostering an environment where God's presence can thrive. Join us as we commit to cultivating a community that honors God and reflects His love. Experience the full richness of this transformative message by watching or listening to the sermon today—let's embrace the culture God favors! Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church July 6, 2025 · 51 min · BRAVE Church
What if the culture of our church could usher in an unprecedented outpouring of God's favor? In his compelling sermon, Pastor Jeff takes us on a journey through the essential elements that create a community blessed by God, focusing on the teachings from First Thessalonians. He emphasizes that true spiritual transformation begins with honoring our leaders and protecting the unity of the body of Christ, allowing us to minister to people from all walks of life. With unwavering passion, Pastor Jeff encourages us to embrace love and forgiveness over bitterness and resentment, teaching that our responses to others—especially in the face of conflict—reflect our relationship with Christ. He guides the church to actively participate in building this culture, reminding us of the profound link between unity and spiritual vitality. This message is a call to evaluate our hearts and relationships, fostering an environment where God's presence can thrive. Join us as we commit to cultivating a community that honors God and reflects His love. Experience the full richness of this transformative message by watching or listening to the sermon today—let's embrace the culture God favors! Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less What if the culture of our church could usher in an unprecedented outpouring of God's favor? In his compelling sermon, Pastor Jeff takes us on a journey through the essential elements that create a community blessed by God, focusing on the teachings from First Thessalonians. He emphasizes that true spiritual transformation begins with honoring our leaders and protecting the unity of the body of Christ, allowing us to minister to people from all walks of life. With unwavering passion, Pastor Jeff encourages us to embrace love and forgiveness over bitterness and resentment, teaching that our responses to others—especially in the face of conflict—reflect our relationship with Christ. He guides the church to actively participate in building this culture, reminding us of the profound link between unity and spiritual vitality. This message is a call to evaluate our hearts and relationships, fostering an environment where God's presence can thrive. Join us as we commit to cultivating a community that honors God and reflects His love. Experience the full richness of this transformative message by watching or listening to the sermon today—let's embrace the culture God favors! Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Well, good morning. We hope we welcome all of our brave campuses that are worshiping with us today. So great to worship with all of you. Hope that you had a wonderful fourth of July celebration and thank0:12 God that we live in the greatest nation in the world that has the freedoms that we have to worship the Lord. Amen. Also, how many were here by by applause? How many were here last week when Greg Steer, my friend, spoke?0:24 Anybody? Okay. Yeah. We had talked before he was here. I I was so fired up. I was coming back from a wedding. I was in the Montana airport and was listening to it, was crying tears, was saying that's exactly0:35 where we're going as a church. If you're a parent of a seventh through a twelfth grader, things are about to get really exciting around here on all of our campuses this September. So be praying for us. You're gonna be0:45 hearing more about it in the coming weeks, But God is doing a great thing with our next generation, and we're super excited about that. So with that, let's continue our worship this morning as we go before the Lord and0:54 get ready to hear his living and active word among us. Will you pray with me? Our father in heaven, thank you so much for the privilege of worshiping with your saints this morning. Lord, there's something special about1:04 gathering with a group of people that believe that you, Jesus, died on the cross for our sins, that you were raised from the dead, that you are still alive, and that you're coming back to rule and reign on this planet.1:15 Lord, to sing songs together, to celebrate together, to pray together. Lord, this is just the foretaste of what is coming, and we give you praise for that. And Lord, now, we're looking forward to hearing you speak to us
1:26 because we as a people believe that every time that your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak Lord for we are ready to hear. And so now for all who have
1:38 gathered to desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you. Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by
1:49 saying the word amen. Amen. This morning, I wanna talk to you about the culture that God favors. The culture that God favors. There's a lot of places that gather on Sunday mornings that
2:01 have music, a lot of places that have a form of liturgy, a lot of places that have a speaker and yet not all of those places have the presence and the power and the purity of the Lord
2:13 show up as part of those services. And I wanna tell you the reason for that is what's taking place in those assemblies and in those gatherings, and it's a culture. And a culture is important
2:24 because a culture dictates what everything is like. And what we learned from the scripture is that God doesn't bless personalities. God's not looking down for a certain personality type to bless, and God
2:36 doesn't bless your favorite programs that you need in the church, and God doesn't bless your preferences, and God doesn't bless performance. But what is it that God blesses?
2:48 Because as the church, we wanna know what he blesses and what he favors so that we can experience more of his grace among us. And that's our culture. And a culture is what you
3:00 find in every church, in every business, on every team, in every organization. There's a certain form of operating principles in that organization for which it functions, whether they're
3:12 written down or not. A culture is what you celebrate, and a culture is what you tolerate. In different families, there's different cultures because of what's celebrated and what's
3:23 tolerated. And as many people in the business world will say, culture eats strategy for breakfast. In other words, you can write down this is what we're going to be, but who your culture is really determines who
3:35 you are. And so it's important for us if God's instructing us as to what culture he wants us to be and how we play a part in that and what is it that God celebrates and what does he not tolerate so that we
3:47 can align ourselves with him so we can experience more of his presence among us. And that's what we're gonna take a look at this morning. As we've been talking in the book of first Thessalonians in this church that
3:58 Paul had helped establish that he's writing back to, that he's strongly encouraging, he's also letting them know that 1 day Jesus is gonna come and rapture the church, take us to heaven. He's
4:10 gonna pour out wrath on this world before he comes back to judge it. And he says, but until that time, here's how you should live. And until that time, here's what the church should be. Until that time, this is how
4:22 you should operate. And so to take a look at that this morning, we're gonna be in first Thessalonians chapter 5, starting in verse 12, and we're gonna go through verse 15. It's a short little passage on Christian
4:34 conduct and how we should be living in the church so that we can experience more of the favor and the blessing of God on our lives. Here's what he says. He says, but we
4:46 request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their
4:57 work. Live in peace with 1 another. We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with
5:09 everyone. See that no 1 repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for 1 another and for all people.
5:21 And here in this short little section of this letter inspired by the Holy Spirit, as Paul writes to this church in Thessalonica, he gives us instructions for the culture that God's favoring. And
5:33 here's the truth. If you're reading through this entire text, these may be verses that you read really quickly and like, okay, got it. I'll move on. But today, I wanna hunker down a little bit, spend a little more time
5:44 here. I'll just ask you by your applause, how many here would wanna experience more favor and blessing in this church from God? How many? If so, then
5:55 this is what he's gonna tell us. I'm gonna give you 4 truths today about the culture that God favors, the culture that he blessed us. And the first is this, the culture that God favors honors its spiritual
6:07 leaders. The church that God favors always honors its spiritual leaders. Notice what he says. He says, but we request of you. He's he's urging them. He's not demanding
6:19 them. He's coming alongside as a brother. He says, but we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you.
6:31 That you appreciate those who diligently labor among you. Appreciate means this. It doesn't mean, well, appreciate them. I I I appreciate it. I I appreciate that there were people that were doing parking
6:43 this morning. I I appreciate it that there were people that when I dropped my kids off took care of them. I appreciate it that we're having the word preached. I appreciate it that we had a great worship set. I I pre it
6:53 doesn't mean that. Appreciate means to show honor and respect for that. It means you give honor where honors do. You give honor with your actions and you give honor with
7:05 your words. That's what it means to give honor. I mean, about all the different things and all the different things in the life of ministry that people have. I mean, while some of you are here sitting, listening to the
7:16 message, getting to hear Jesus speak directly to you, there's someone with your child ministering to them, teaching them about Jesus, teaching them to love Jesus, teaching them how to pray. Do you show honor for
7:27 them? How do you show honor for them? Do you tell them when you pick them up, thank you so much for the investment that you're making into my child? Or how about that parking team?
7:39 They're waving and smiling at you all the time when you have to go around the cones and do things you don't wanna do and go in places you don't wanna go. Do you do you thank them that they care about the entire body and
7:48 not just you and celebrate. Amen. It's worthy. It's always interesting to me when someone's leading a small group, they always tell me, yeah, it's just a couple
8:00 people here. They show up sometimes they don't. We used to be like that. We were those people until we led. And now that we're leading, it drives us nuts that those people act like that like we used to act because we're
8:12 trying to make an investment. We're trying to help them to grow. And so here's what he says. If you're gonna be a church that God is gonna look down from heaven and pour his favor and his blessing on,
8:24 he wants to look down and see a church that is honoring to the leadership in that church. Amen? Appreciate those who diligently labor. That's 1 word in the original.
8:36 It really means to grow weary, labor, or toil. Do you know all ministry is weariness? You labor and you toil. It's interesting when people begin to start serving in
8:48 the church, there's this false idea that if I'm using my gift, it's just gonna be energizing all the time. It's never gonna be difficult. It's never gonna be hard. And then the challenge is you work with other people
8:59 when you do it, and it's very laborsome. It's very toiling. It's very weary. When you spend yourself for the sake of another, there's always a fatigue that
9:11 comes with that. That's why the Bible tells us in Galatians 6, do not weary in doing good, especially those in the household of God. I mean, we we have to do good to 1 another, but it's a work to do
9:22 ministry. It's a work. It's a labor. It's a toil. When you invest your life for the sake of Jesus into the life of another, even when you're using your gifting and
9:34 even when you enjoy what you're doing, there's still a labor that comes with it. There's still a toil. There's still a grind. Why? Because everything ministry is is opposed by our enemy. He hates
9:46 it. It's not easy. So God says, if we're gonna have the culture that he's gonna bless, we need to appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord and give you
9:58 instruction and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. To have charge means that there are people put over you in the church
10:09 to guide, lead, and direct you towards Jesus. Here's what he says. When you see people that are laboring like that for your sake, esteem
10:21 them very highly in love because of their work. Regardless of what church you go to, if you wanna see God's favor on that body of people, esteem your elders,
10:33 esteem your pastors, esteem the leaders, esteem the volunteers, hold everybody in high regard for what they're doing for the sake of the Lord. God honors that. God
10:45 blesses that. God favors that when we do that. Why? Because many of the people that are serving you are spending their time, their energy, and their investment to get you there. I I was thinking about
10:57 this this message that, you know, I've been preaching for the last 30 some years, and, you know, it's interesting for me. When I graduated from college, I remember my mom told me, she's like, you could maybe go on and
11:07 get your masters. And I remember I told my mom, mom, I just took the last class I will ever take in my entire life. I didn't enjoy it. And by God's grace, when he called me to ministry, I
11:19 felt to be equipped I needed to go to school. I've spent 10 additional academic years in school learning the word and learning how to preach so that I would be a faithful servant of the Lord. And I will tell you this,
11:31 sometimes I'm in my car and I have the unfortunate experience of hearing me on the radio. And when I do, and I'm listening to myself, it's usually from a couple years ago and I'm like, oh, you could have said that
11:43 better, that's not as good or you could do that better now. Here's what encourages me because I'm still working at getting better to feed you the word of God so that you can grow in Christ and be prepared to meet him.
11:54 It's a labor. It's a toil. Amen? But I enjoy it. And so what he's saying is, in the church, churches that God is going to put his stamp of approval
12:06 on. Churches when you come in and you say, I heard the Lord today, or I felt the Lord's presence when I walked on the campus, or it seems that God is up to something there. Churches that have God's
12:17 favor, esteem their leaders. They hold their spiritual leaders in high honor. Amen? And it's a labor. I remember when I was a first year student at Dallas Seminary, the very first day I was
12:29 there, Chuck Swindoll was giving the address, and he told all of us sitting there, he said, because you made the choice to come here and because you're here, just know you put a bull's eye on the front and on the
12:41 back for the enemy to fire even more fiery darts at you. And I remember at the time thinking that sounds kinda hyper spiritual. I don't know that that's true. I know now that that's true. Every
12:53 single time someone takes a step closer to the Lord, whether it's a volunteer that's gonna step in and serve or whether it's a called pastor to go into ministry, you realize that every step that you take towards Jesus is
13:04 opposed by the enemy. He does not like it when you take a step of faith. He tries to discourage you. He tries to make it difficult. That's why it's a labor. That's why it's a toil
13:16 for you to do that. And if you read through the scriptures, that's what happens. But men in the church too are called to lead and have charge over you. Our elders as a senior pastor, I'm also an elder,
13:28 to lead you. Not as dictators, but but as shepherds to guide you in the ways of the Lord. That's our responsibility. Doesn't mean that every single time that we lead, we're gonna make perfect decisions.
13:40 I would say it like this. Wives are called to submit to their husbands as to Christ. God does not ask wives to submit to their Christian husbands because their Christian husbands always make the perfect right decision
13:52 every single time. That's a great time for all the married women to say amen. Amen. Okay. What what he's what he is saying is, but if you do that and you submit even when it's
14:04 not going your way, God will favor your marriage. He'll bless what you do and it takes great strength and power of the Holy Spirit to be able to submit to an imperfect man.
14:15 It takes great submission to the Holy Spirit to submit to any earthly leader. And by the way, have you ever met a leader anywhere at any time that you agree with 100 percent of what they do all the time? Never. Other
14:27 than Jesus, you will never ever meet that person. So when he's calling the church to submit to leadership, he's not calling the church submit to the leadership as long as they do everything that you wanna
14:39 do, as long as they meet your preferences, as long as they meet your programs, as long as they meet your ideas. No. You submit because God is watching, and he's gonna respond in the way in which you
14:51 honor the leadership. Amen? That's why in the book of Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17, he spells out how he wants us to respond in the
15:03 church. He says, obey your leaders and submit to them. Why? For they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Do you
15:14 realize that 1 of the reasons people will say to me, hey, Jeff, you're pastor Jeff, you're you're not afraid to say anything. I'm like, I am, but I'm way more afraid of God than I am of you. Because I know
15:26 1 day when I meet him, I will give an account for every single word that I've uttered and everything I've tried to do to honor him. And then it says, let them do this with joy and not grief for
15:38 this would be unprofitable for you. Don't be the person in church that doesn't support leadership. Don't be the person in church that can't. If you're in a church that cannot
15:49 support the elders or the leadership of the church, find a church where you can. And if you say there's no church out there I could ever find, it means the problem is with you. There is no
16:01 perfect church. There is no perfect pastor. There are no perfect elders. There is no perfect direction. There are just some churches that are trying to honor God by faithfully preaching the word
16:13 and worshiping and doing evangelism and seeking the face of the God in prayer. And if you get that, then then honor them. Can can I sum up what this really means? Don't ever,
16:25 ever, ever talk bad about a church or the people in it, specifically the pastors. Don't. If you do, you
16:37 need to repent. Every now and again, somebody meets me up here at the front after service and they wanna unload on me about the last church and the last pastor they went to and what they don't realize when they're
16:47 talking, 2 things are simultaneously going off in my head. Number 1, I'm not listening to anything that you have to say. And number 2, I'm remembering your face and marking you because I'm not gonna ever get close to you
16:58 because you'll be talking the same way about me in just a matter of time. It's a fact. Don't ever talk bad about other church. It doesn't mean you can't point out the doctrine there is wrong and I can't go there.
17:10 You can point out doctrinal errors. You can point out errors that need to change. No problem. Don't go after people. That's under the Lord. And the Lord calls all sorts
17:21 of people that you and I would never call. I'm exhibit a. Why would God call me? Why would God call anybody? The only answer I've ever seen is that his ways are higher than our ways
17:33 and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and God chooses the shameful things of the world to confound the wise. That's the only reason I feel like I've been called. That's the only reason God calls anyone. That guy
17:42 shouldn't be a pastor. That's not for you to ever say. If God called them, you better watch what you say because God says, I put them in a place of authority and you better honor them with your mouth. It
17:54 doesn't behoove anybody. Anytime I hear somebody walk around and talk bad about churches and pastors, all I know about them is this, even if they're a believer, they're very, very spiritually immature. They're very
18:04 spiritually immature and they need to grow. Amen? So so here's what happens. When when leadership is under fire, revival stalls. Like, God's not gonna pour out his blessing in a church that's
18:16 constantly talking bad about its leadership. And as brave at Brave Church, we just refuse to criticize what God commands that we honor because God won't pour out His spirit where order is
18:27 dishonored. And I wanna see God pour out His spirit. And this is what Paul is saying. Paul's talking to a church that he loved. Paul's talking to a church where the majority of the time this is going on. I'm talking to a
18:38 church where I feel very honored to serve as your pastor. I'm not up here because I have an axe to grind. This would have been a tough message for me to preach 20 years ago. Right? Now I'm just telling you the truth. I'm
18:48 telling you what God says. For the majority of you, we say we love our church. We love our leaders. We honor it. And that's honestly who you are. But God put it in his word for us to understand that when we don't do
18:58 these things, revival tarries. Amen? So honor your spiritual leader. Second is this, not only does a culture that God favors honor its spiritual leaders, it protects the unity of the body.
19:11 It protects the unity of the body. Listen to what he says at the end of verse 13. Live in peace with 1 another. Live in peace with 1 another. That's it.
19:23 That that's the instruction. Peace is the idea of peace is what brings unity. Let me tell you what what peace doesn't mean. Peace does not mean avoiding conflict.
19:36 If someone's in air, you can confront them. Right? We speak the truth. We just do it in love. Peace does not mean I avoid conflict. It doesn't mean that I ignore sin. It doesn't mean that I tolerate false
19:48 teaching and, oh, I'm just gonna be peaceful. But peace does mean this. Peace means living in the fear of God. Realize every relationship that you have, the ones that you're close to and the ones that you're
20:00 not, that God's a part of that relationship. And we're to live in the fear of God based on every relationship that we have. Peace does mean forgiving quickly. Peace does mean choosing
20:11 unity over ego. That's what peace means. It means there's gonna be many times when petty disputes arise and we allow them to fester and and and this is
20:23 what ends up leading to disrespect and breeding division. You know, the question is, you know, are you a peacemaker? Are you a peace faker? And in the church, a lot of times, we have peace
20:35 fakers. I get asked this question all the time. I've been pretty candid on this. Pastor Jeff, what's the greatest sin in the church in today, 20 25? Easy. Gossip and unforgiveness
20:47 without question. Way more than immorality, way more than anything else. Why? Because I know how the devil works. He's always looking for a few weak spiritual prongs that he
20:59 can pour his life into that he'll whisper in your ear until he gets your attention. Like you see the decision they made, you see what they're doing now? You see how they changed that program? See what he's doing? See how
21:08 he treated that person? See this, see this? And it begins to fester in your heart. And then it begins to come out of your mouth. And 2 things are going on. Number 1, I can't forgive that. And number 2, I'm gonna go talk
21:19 about it. And here's the realization, gossips, slanderers, people that speak ill of other people has nothing to do with your Christian walk.
21:31 Nothing to do with your Christian walk. And by the way, if you've got a tongue problem, the problem's not your tongue. The problem is your heart. For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. So you don't need
21:42 to ask God to change your tongue. You need to ask God to change your heart. And here's the reason your heart's not good is because there's unforgiveness. Unforgiveness
21:54 manifests itself in a few different ways. Sometimes as bitterness, sometimes as resent resentment, sometimes as hurt. You wouldn't say, oh, I'm not unforgiving. I'm
22:06 just pretty hurt by what happened there. I'm not unforgiving, but that person there, do you know what they it's resentment or it's bitter. I can't believe that they're doing that. Those are all tricks of the enemy to
22:18 keep you from being your best with God. What it means is if you're gonna live at peace with everybody, ongoing forgiveness is just part of the process. In a marriage,
22:30 the only way a marriage can sustain is if there's ongoing forgiveness both ways regularly, Quick forgiveness regularly. It won't last. And yet, there are people
22:42 that enter a church, and because it's Christian, and because we're preaching the Bible, and because we worship the perfect Christ, they expect everybody around them to be perfect. And anytime they meet
22:54 some conflict or a situation, here's what they say. I'm out of that church. They're not good enough for me. And they've been in 17 of them in the last 5 years, and it's still not working for some reason. Well, the
23:06 reason it's not working is that you have unforgiveness in your heart. If things are coming out of your mouth badly towards another person, specifically towards a believer, you have some heart work
23:18 to do before the Lord. It means you have to get in front of them and pray like this. Lord, my tongue wants to say things I know aren't good that I wanna say. Lord, I know you created that person and they have value, and
23:30 whether they know you or not, I know that you died for them and that you have some measure of love for them, and everything in my tongue doesn't wanna say that, so you better change my heart. There's something wrong with
23:39 me, and Lord, I know whatever they did pales in comparison to how I treated you. And since forgiveness is the hallmark of Christianity, let me release them so that I can be freed up to
23:51 use my tongue to bless you and to bless others. That's what it looks like. And that takes prayer. Amen? And that's ongoing in our lives. And that's why God continues to bring
24:03 people into your life that you don't always get along with so that you can do what? Grow in forgiveness and grow in blessing because the bible tells us how we're to treat people that mistreat us. Love your
24:15 enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Like, outdo them and outshine them in doing good. That's how they'll know that you're a believer. Forgiveness doesn't mean they deserve
24:27 it. Forgiveness means they don't deserve it. I didn't deserve it when Christ forgave me. It's because they don't deserve it, I'm releasing them. Because if I don't release
24:38 them, I'm tied to them and I'm gonna go down. I'm releasing them to God so that God's free to deal with them and I'm free to worship Christ. As I've said from this pulpit many times,
24:50 unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping that the other person dies. It does not work. It just takes you down a dark, dark path. It doesn't mean your
25:02 emotions right away catch up with it. Forgiveness is not an emotional thing. Forgiveness is an act of your will. Your emotions will catch up later. You forgive now and you trust your emotions will catch up later.
25:13 How can you forgive? The only way you can really forgive is understanding what Christ did on the cross for you. Ask Jesus, Lord, how can I ever forgive him for that? Lord, have I ever done anything as
25:25 heinous to you as they've done to me? And then just let the Lord speak to you for a little while. And pretty soon it'll be easy to forgive them. Like that's the heart of the gospel. And God calls us
25:37 to live at peace with everyone. It means in a church, it can't be as I've said before, I'm sitting way up there because I can't stand the people down here or I'm sitting over here because the people over there driving.
25:48 No, no, no. You can't do that. You're gonna live at peace. Let me just read you some other scriptures. Romans chapter 12 verse 18, you can write these down. If possible, which means this,
26:00 it's not always possible, but if possible, so far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men. In other words, when you go into a situation that's tough, you're going in
26:12 with this understanding. I'm gonna do everything I can to bring peace to this situation today. My goal is to bring peace. My goal is not to be right. My goal is not that they feel bad. My goal is nothing more than I
26:24 wanna see God come into this situation and bring peace as long as it's possible with me. Or how about Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 3. Being diligent, that means earnest to preserve the
26:36 unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Or how about Colossians chapter 3, verses 14 and 15. I couldn't find it last service. I had to realize that the big numbers were the chapters and
26:48 the little numbers were the verses. Colossians chapter 3 verses 14 and 15. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond
26:59 of unity. Well, how do I show peace? Just love them. But they don't deserve it. Then forgive them and love them. I mean, they'll know we're Christians by the way that we
27:11 love. Amen? So love them. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in 1 body and
27:22 be thankful. The church is 1 body. Where you don't have peace, you have discord. Where you have discord and you have disunity and you have every sort of faction that happens. That's why 1 of the
27:34 devil's greatest tricks he ever tries to play is to find somebody that's disenfranchised or upset or frustrated and start whispering in their ear. He does it in marriages. He does it in the church. He does it everywhere.
27:46 You deserve better than this. They should have treated you better. You deserve you deserve. How come you're letting them? Blah blah blah. Do you believe they said they did they? And all of a sudden, if you're gonna play
27:54 pawn to the enemy, you will speak out with a loud voice against all sorts of different things that God doesn't need you speaking out against. God's either sovereign or He's not. And God is using your life as a
28:06 witness to him. And the more you practice loving unlovable people, the more you're gonna become like Jesus. The more you're gonna understand what Christ did on the cross for you, the more you're gonna love Christ. So
28:16 these are opportunities for us to protect the unity of the body. There's no sports team that accomplishes anything if there's disunity on their team. There's no business organization that accomplishes anything if there's
28:28 factions in the business. There's no church that experiences the blessing of God when there's discord sown among the saints. So do everything in your power
28:40 to protect the unity of the body of Christ. It means this. I mean, if you study Moses, who's the greatest leader in the Old Testament history, I mean, you think about his ministry. Are only 2 things he dealt with on a
28:52 consistent basis, grumbling and complaining. I mean, and he was watching God do amazing things like 10 plagues in Egypt, parting the Red Sea, provide you
29:03 know, closing the Red Sea, providing food, providing water, providing shelter, making sure their shoes didn't get worn out. And all people did was grumble and complain the whole time. So much so they
29:15 got an extra 40 years of a camping trip because of it. And yet we see Moses constantly asking God and interceding for the people, don't hurt them,
29:27 bless them. Christ is the ultimate example of this. Even on the cross, what was he saying? The very people that drove nails into His hands and His feet, and we're certainly responsible for that, but
29:39 He's saying what? Father forgive them for they do not know what they're doing. Stephen, he died, a martyr's death, Father, do not hold this sin against them. Don't
29:51 live with revenge, live with this repentance. When you feel like you're the 1 causing the discord or you have bitterness or anger or resentment, get before the Lord and
30:02 repent. Get before the Lord and get your heart right. Get before the Lord and make Him show you all that He's done in you so that you have the grace to extend it to others. Starts with you. You get a group of
30:14 people in a church doing that, and that's the majority of the people in the church. Then all of a sudden there's this unity that gets created in the body that is absolutely amazing. And it's not something that we sought
30:26 after, it's supernatural. It's what God does. Even in John chapter 17, we call it the high priestly prayer of Jesus. When he was praying for his followers that night that he was betrayed and his future followers,
30:37 3 different times he prayed for oneness. But in John 17 verse 23, prayed specifically to his dad, his father. I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected
30:49 in unity so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me. Jesus said, how's the gospel gonna spread? When the body has complete unity, the
31:01 same kind of unity Jesus was saying that he had with his dad, which was what kind of unity? Perfect unity. He said, I'm praying for my disciples and future disciples that they'd have the same kind of unity together, God,
31:11 that I have with you so that the world will know that you sent me and loved them. How how's the world gonna know that God loves them? By the way they see us love each other in the church. Many people don't come to church
31:22 not because they're not interested in spiritual things, but they see how Christians treat 1 another like, I want no part of that. If that's how they treat their own, how are they gonna treat me? Church should be the most
31:34 loving, unifying place in the world where people look around at different skin colors, different ethnicities, different socioeconomic backgrounds, different everything. Men, women, boys, and girls, and people are like,
31:45 what in the world unites all these people together? How can they love each other that radically? Because of Jesus. Well, God can do that with them. I wanna be part of that. Amen? And so that's what he's saying.
31:58 He's saying churches that do this right have a culture that honors its spiritual leaders, protects the unity in the body. And then number 3 does this, ministers to a variety of people. Ministers to a
32:10 variety of people. The culture God wants us to have is that we minister to all sorts of different people. Notice what he says in verse 14, we urge you. We're we're we're encouraging you
32:21 brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Now, these verses weren't just written to pastors, they're written to the
32:33 entire church and this is what we're called to do. So let's just kinda walk through them. The first 1 he says is, we encourage you to admonish the unruly. Admonish means to warn
32:44 or advise those who are unruly. Now, unruly is a military term. Here's what it means. It means undisciplined, out of step, or rebellious. It means that you've fallen out of line,
32:56 and what the job of the church is is to come along and admonish them and say, hey, kinda move it back in, sister. Hey, brother, kinda come back here. Now, in issues that are crystal clear in scripture like
33:08 immorality issues, somebody that's married but wants to date somebody on the side, we come alongside and we we admonish them and warn them like this is not gonna go well for you or your family or the church, kinda move
33:18 it back over here and break that off. Or when somebody has unforgiveness in their life, we don't hey, you you can't live with bitterness. I'm I'm kinda telling you forgive them and then kinda come on back in line. That
33:28 that's what it means to admonish the unruly. Or it could be some that are unruly. Do you realize this? Listen, church. When you were born again, do you know God invested in you his holy spirit?
33:40 That the Holy Spirit resides in you, and when the Holy Spirit came in you, you're gifted? And do you know why the Holy Spirit gifts each and every single believer? Not for career success, not for monetary gain, not to
33:52 feel good about yourself. Why'd he give you gifts? He gave you gifts to build up the body of Christ so that we can advance the kingdom. So if you're born again and you're part of a local church, which every believer
34:03 needs to be, and you're not using your gift to serve the body, then admonishing the unruly is like, hey, sister, hey, brother, come on. Use your gift because people here need what you have. Come on back in. Or it could
34:15 be financially where you're like, well, I'm not gonna tithe. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna give. I'm not gonna do that. No, we we admonish because we're like, hey, it's for your own good. I'm I'm telling you right now
34:24 where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Why why does God ask us to give? Do you know God's not broke? Do you know he's not poor? Do you know that God does not need your money?
34:36 You know what God wants is your heart, and your heart is connected to your money. And when you begin a spiritual discipline of tithing to your local church, where you're going to get fed, where you're hearing the word of
34:46 God, where you're growing in Christ, it will change you because now you're trusting God as you live off the 90 percent that you have saying, God, you get the first of everything I have because you're the reason I have
34:58 life. It changes everything. Or how about submitting to spiritual leadership? Like in the church, a lot of things happen. Like, I don't care whether you're a child in your family or you're on a sports team with a
35:10 coach or you're in the business world with a boss. Has anybody ever had a perfect experience with everybody they've been around where it always went your way? It's awfully quiet in here. No. There's no
35:22 church that's gonna go your way all the time either. There's just there's it's just not. Like even when you have an elder led church that's super prayerful, that's listening to the Lord and saying, here's what we think
35:31 we need to do and here's where we know we need to go. They may get that wrong or even if they get it right, it may not be what you would have chosen if you were in that position. That's okay. But when you're it
35:43 doesn't mean you can't have discussions and say, hey, you could have thought about this or have you considered that and let's talk about it get better. But if you're unruly, you're the kind of person comes over and say,
35:52 I can't believe they did that. Can you believe they did that? I'm gonna rally people around me and talk about how bad they are. No. That's admonishing. I'm warning you right now. You can't stay here and be a faction in
36:02 our church. And I'm bringing you back in. Come come be part of our fellowship because you really have 2 choices when that happens. You can either forgive and join our fellowship, or you can forgive and move on to another
36:12 fellowship, but you can't keep opening your mouth and talking negative because God hates it. You need to repent. That's what it means to admonish the unruly. And I can tell you this, all of us find ourselves in these
36:24 predicaments every now and again. It's not like, oh, those are the unruly people and these are the I mean, we we kinda ebb and flow in some of these. Right? There are times in my younger years, I needed to be admonished
36:33 a little more because I didn't understand. I didn't know. Help me understand. Right? Then what's he say to do with the fainthearted? He says, encourage the fainthearted. Encourage the fainthearted. Here's the deal.
36:46 If the unruly are those who push the edge, the fainthearted are those that will never go anywhere near it. These are the sheep that stay in the center that are worried and doubtful and anxious and weary. They they
36:58 just can't get anywhere. What are we called to do? We're called to encourage and to console and to comfort and speak life to them and remind them of God's promises. You don't need to worry. God's gonna be with you. God
37:08 has you. It's okay. Do not fear. The Lord is around you. You don't need to be anxious. You don't need to doubt. You don't need to worry. God has this. I know you don't see it, but I'm encouraging you. I'm comforting you.
37:19 I know it was a tragic loss. God still loves you. He's still with you. He he hasn't left you or forsaken. That's what we do to the faint hearted. And sometimes we go through seasons where we're the faint hearted. And
37:31 when we're the faint hearted and we're kinda scared to get out or, hey, you should serve. Well, I'd love to serve, but what if I fail? And what what if I can't do it right? And what do Hey, it's okay. If you fail, you'll
37:40 just join the
37:40 rest of us because we've
37:41 all failed too. So come on and let's let's do this together and let's see what the Lord wants to do with you. We're encouraging people. And there's a lot of you here today. You know what you need? Encouragement. PastorShow more
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