Did God Command Diversity? - [Ephesians 4:1-16]

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I would encourage you to open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4. You ever notice how the trends in society, the moves in society just tend to,
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I don't even want to say they filter into the church, the church runs headlong into these things.
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It's like people just want to borrow things from the secular world and employ them in the church because that's how we grow the church, that's how we change church, that's how we revamp, revise, make church relevant.
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I mean, after all, how do you grow a business, right? I mean, you've got to have a good product, it's got to be good quality, you've got to have a good price, good customer service.
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You know, I sound like a commercial for Walmart, right? So why not create a church that's super friendly with greeters out in front, not that we don't have greeters, but you know,
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I went to one in California where they actually greet you in the parking lot and everybody's got a smile and they're handing you stuff and they're walking you in and showing you around and answering any questions you have.
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What about creating a church that's kind of like Walmart? What about a church where you don't really get challenged, you just kind of go and you feel good and it's nice and you feel comfortable and you think,
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I'd like to go back to that place. You create a better consumer experience.
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So people took those ideas from the business world, they employ them in the church and we have the seeker sensitive church, big churches, massive churches.
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Well today the big buzzword, not just in business, in government, in education, in almost every realm of our society is what?
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Diversity. We're diverse. We have a multitude of diversity.
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We're diverse in our diversity. We're diverse, diverse. Diversity is very important. And of course the church is following suit.
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You know, it's not enough that, you know, businesses and government and even the military is diverse and proud of their diversity, but now the church is going to do that.
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I found a really a cutting edge church in New York City. And when I say cutting edge,
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I mean one that doesn't care about the Bible, you know, or any of that kind of stuff. They're really cutting edge.
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They're all about making people feel good and appealing to the masses. Listen to some of this here.
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This is from their website. What does diversity mean? And they've got that bolded by the way.
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In the plan for strategic direction, listen to how corporate that sounds. In the plan for strategic direction, the congregation voted, the congregation voted to further commit to deepening our capacity for racial and ethnic diversity.
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Now let me just pause for a minute. Is there anything wrong with racial and ethnic diversity? No. Continuing on in this website here, this church is, quote, a diverse congregation of identities in many ways, age, gender, sexual orientation, religious background, and life experience.
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Now what does it say about a church that pursues diversity in gender? Call me old -fashioned, but I think there are two genders, right?
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I mean, that's how many there used to be, just two. Male and female created he them.
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That's how I remember it. What about diversity in sexual orientation? Again, this is a church, and I think biblically there are two sexual orientations.
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And those two would be married and celibate. Those are the two sexual orientations.
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But the key statement, I think, is here, and in fact, I can go on about all the nonsense they have here.
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How about a church that wants to be diverse in religious background? You know, we don't want to narrow things down to just the
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Christian message. But the key statement is this, listen, to deepen our capacity for diversity means working to become a welcoming and inclusive religious community that reflects and celebrates the diversity of our world.
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Why would a church want to reflect the world?
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That's just wrong on so many levels. I mean, among them, I think of the words of John the
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Apostle in 1 John 2 .15, do not love the world or the things in the world.
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If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
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So we're a church, and we want to reflect the world. We want to say how much we love the world and the diversity in the world.
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That's not a church. They can slap whatever title they want on it. That is not a church.
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Now is the Christian church, is the biblical church called to pursue diversity?
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Did God say, this is the second time I've kind of used this frame of reference, did
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God say, because I think this is an important thing for us to talk about, did God say diversity is a priority for the church?
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Did he command diversity? And I'll give you a hint, the short answer is no, at least not in the sense diversity is used today.
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Again, we're in Ephesians chapter 4, and just to kind of put this in context, one way to describe the theme of the book of Ephesians is to say that it is all about our life in Christ.
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The first three chapters are mostly doctrine, the second three chapters are mostly practice.
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How do you live out that doctrine? And so we're in the second half of this book, and so it's going to be practical.
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Ephesians chapter 1, Paul, the author, bursts out into praise describing the eternal plan of God to put some persons in Christ, and repeatedly he uses the prepositional phrase either in Christ or the pronoun in him to refer to Christians, that is, to us.
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Ephesians chapter 2 begins by telling us of our sinfulness and our spiritual deadness until God's love and mercy caused us to be born again, caused us to be brought to spiritual life.
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The chapter also deals with diversity, but it does so in this sense.
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It talks about how Jew and Gentile are no longer separated, they're no longer enemies because of the law, that because of Christ fulfilling the law, they've been brought together in a unique organism, a unique body, that is, the church.
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Ephesians chapter 3 explains how Gentiles were no longer basically on the outside looking in.
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It goes on at some length about that. And so we begin chapter 4 talking about how to live out all that God has done, all these truths that are in the first three chapters,
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Ephesians 4 verses 1 through 16, I therefore, and I'm going to warn you ahead of time, you know, sometimes
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Pastor Mike does a jet tour, that is to say, you know, he'll go through a whole book and he'll just kind of give us the broader themes of the book.
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Well, this isn't exactly a jet tour, it's more like a helicopter tour because we're going to fly over it and then we're going to land in some places and then we're going to take off and we're going to land in some other places.
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So helicopter tour of Ephesians 4 verses 1 to 16, let me read the text. I therefore, a prisoner for the
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Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
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There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.
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One Lord, one faith, just listen to all the ones, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one
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God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
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Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.
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In saying he ascended, what does it mean? But that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth.
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He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
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And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
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Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
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Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped.
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When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
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Now my purpose this morning follows that of the Apostle Paul. I want to draw your attention to four epistolary, that means it comes in the letter, encouragements so that you will think and act in a way that builds the unity of the body of Christ at Bethlehem Bible Church.
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Four newthetic nudges, mind -provoking, thought -provoking nudges, just shoves, so that you will want to guard and build the body or build the bond of unity that we have here at BBC.
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Encouragement number one, in light of being in Christ, preserve unity.
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In light of being in Christ, preserve unity. First you should walk according to your calling.
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Look at verse one, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, pretty basic.
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In light of becoming a Christian, being saved by the power and the grace of God, there's an expectation that your life, which is what he means when he says your walk, if you recall in Ephesians 2, he said that you used to walk in this way according to the course of the power of the air, the things of this world.
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Your walk should reflect your new nature. No change in your life means no change in your life, no change in your status.
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If you're the same person, if you think the same way, if your behavior is the same now as when you think you got saved, then maybe you didn't get saved.
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Now that does not mean perfection. We're not called to perfection. If you think, you know what, someday
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I'm going to stop sinning in this life. If that's what you think, you are destined for a lifetime of futility, of frustration.
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Because you were conceived in sin, you were born into sin, you have a sin nature.
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You are imperfect and you will not be perfect until you are made Christ -like in heaven.
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Now what does the new life look like? Look at verse 2, verses 2 and 3.
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With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
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Now I want to just start there in verse 3 instead of verse 2. We'll back up into verse 2 in a minute. But look at that maintaining the unity.
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When you maintain something, what does it mean? It means that it already exists. You just want to make sure that it keeps existing, that it keeps operating.
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I mean, you don't think to yourself, you know, I'm going to maintain something I don't have. You know, that water heater we don't have in the basement.
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I'm going to maintain that. No, you maintain the one that you have. And so it's presumed that there already is this unity of the spirits.
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Why would that be? Because it's not something that we gain.
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It's something we are given. It is not subjective. It's not a subjective unity that we feel unified.
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In this passage, it's talking about an objective truth. Why? Because it's granted to us by the spirit, by the
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Holy Spirit of God. He is the one who has given it to us. We share it.
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And that's what it says right here. Maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And that's an interesting word, bond, there.
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Because my first thought when I think of bond is, I think of, you know, my massive investment portfolio, stocks and bonds.
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The idea here, though, is not that at all. This is a bond. It's something, it is literally like a yoke.
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We are all yoked together. We are tied together. We are bound together as Christians.
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And this bond goes beyond any people group, also known as race, color, social status.
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All the ways that we are told by the world that we ought to be separate, that we ought to think of ourselves as individuals.
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The world may be divided. It may look at things in terms of class and race and structure. But the church can't be that way.
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It just can't be that way. That's not the way we're called. We're called regardless of any of those things to pull in the same direction.
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To pull like an Iditarod team. We're all huskies pulling the sled.
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That's the picture. How can that be? Well, because all of these things have been resolved through the
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Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 2, it talks about how the enmity existed between the
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Jews and the Gentiles. Well, what was that enmity? It was all these ceremonial laws.
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Don't eat shellfish. Don't wear this kind of clothing. All these kind of things that made the Jews a peculiar, odd, strange people.
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People to stay away from. But it says all that enmity has been put away in Christ.
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He fulfilled the law. So in other scriptures, it talks about how we are no longer
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Jew nor Greek, male or female, rich or poor. Those things cease to exist in the body of Christ.
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They don't color our thinking. We're all brothers and sisters. We're all yoked together.
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We're all desirous of the same thing. That is maintaining the visible unity the
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Spirit has granted us. We think about the words of Jesus in John 13, 35. He said, what?
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By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, my followers. Those who learn from me.
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If you have love for one another. This is to be our testimony to the world.
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We are unified. We show that unity. What manner of testimony to the world would a local church have that is wracked by dissension, disunity, backbiting, rumor mongering, strife?
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It would have a very bad testimony. And it would reflect on the Lord Jesus Christ. As Christians, we have peace granted to us in Christ by the
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Holy Spirit. Our peace is both vertical. That is to say, with God. He's forgiven our sins.
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He's put them as far as east is from the west. And horizontally, we have peace with one another. We are to be at peace with everyone, especially those of the household of faith.
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We are equally, each of us, equally debtors to the grace of God. In a light of that truth, how can we not strive to live in harmony with one another, with our brothers and sisters in Christ?
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We must display peace and mutual love for one another to a watching world.
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To do less is to dishonor Christ and to shake free of the love and control of the
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Holy Spirit. To shake out of that bond. Can we say that we love
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God, yet disobey him and subject his name to public ridicule?
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See also that we are to be eager about maintaining it. I don't get eager about maintaining the water heater in the basement, but we're to be eager about maintaining this bond of unity.
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And that word eager literally means to be especially conscientious in discharging an obligation.
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If you are especially conscientious about something, if you're especially focused on it, if it's something that you prioritize, you don't just ignore it.
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It's on your list of things to do. It's on your list of things to pay attention to. If I walk by your house and your grass is two feet high,
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I don't think to myself, that guy really prioritizes his lawn, right? On the other hand, if it looks beautiful, which mine doesn't, by the way, but if you look at it, you look beautiful, you go, that guy really prioritizes his lawn.
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And this is the kind of idea, focus on, pay attention to, work at, strive for.
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Now, how do we maintain it? I have a brief list of four ingredients here from the text, and they're two at a time.
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The first two, humility and gentleness, in verse two, are linked together by the all that modifies them.
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And these are, it's interesting, humility, gentleness. These are not characteristics that were prized in the ancient
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Greek culture. You say, well, it was the Roman Empire. Yes, but it was a Greek culture.
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The Romans were ruling it, but Greek language was prevalent, and so was the Greek culture. These were not things to be sought after.
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In fact, if your reputation was that of being humble and gentle, you were a wimp.
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However, when we consider the one through whom we receive eternal life, that is, again, the focus of this book, being in Christ, he said of himself in Matthew 11, 29,
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I am gentle and lowly in heart. I am humble, gentle.
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When we think about that, we think, I want to emulate Jesus. It becomes something to strive for, or to reflect the humility and the gentleness of Christ in my thinking, my speaking, my actions.
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That should be our mindset. Now, as a church body, and as individual members within the body, we are to be marked by all humility and gentleness.
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So what are some things that should be evident, or what are some of the things that we should be noted for?
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Well, how about these? Being quick to forgive. Being quick to grant the benefit of the doubt.
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To not impute motives to one another. To not think the worst about someone, but to think the best instead.
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And not only do we need to be quick to forgive, but we need to be quick to seek forgiveness. If we think we've offended someone, or we know that we have, we should go to that person and ask for their forgiveness.
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We should be quick, you know, a la Philippians 2, quick to think of others as more important than ourselves.
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We should put other people in the body of Christ first. The other two ingredients in maintaining the unity of the
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Spirit are also in verse 2, with patience. Bearing with one another in love, so we can say patience and endurance.
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Patience, picture someone being provoked, getting poked in the chest, as it were, and yet not responding in kind.
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The greatest illustration in Scripture, it's pretty clear, would be
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God, who is provoked every single day by the sins of the world. We go through the
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Old Testament, He's constantly provoked by Israel's idolatry and faithlessness. And does
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He respond by wiping them out, by wiping us out after we sin? No. Why?
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Because He's patient with us. How does this apply within a local church?
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When you think about it, we're all fallible, we all stumble. We all antagonize one another from time to time, and sometimes we even sin against one another.
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But we're called to be patient. You're to be mindful of what you have been forgiven of, and in light of that, to think how others, how we ought to view others.
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Now, bearing with one another in love is a picture of tolerating each other's imperfections, our irritating qualities.
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Some of you have more irritating qualities than others. But the point is, we're just people.
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People do things that we don't like. Maybe they don't even rise to the level of sin, but it doesn't do the body of Christ, the unity, any good.
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In fact, it's deleterious to the unity of the body of Christ, to be irritated by one another.
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That means it hurts. But some of you are sitting here right now, and you're thinking, boy, you know, so -and -so does this, and that irritates me, and so -and -so does that, and that irritates me.
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That's really not the point here. We're not supposed to be thinking about other people who irritate us.
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It's how we sometimes might irritate others. But we're to be patient.
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We're to be tolerant. We're to understand that not everybody's perfect.
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We're not. Now, what do we all have in common? Well, the
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Spirit, salvation, being in Christ. And that's why unity should be simple.
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On his face, unity should be basic. Look at verse four. There is one body, again, all the ones.
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There's one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one
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God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Well, that's a lot of ones.
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That's a lot of all. There's not much diversity there. Now, I really want to stress unity this morning, in case you haven't noticed that.
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Well, what's at the heart of the word uni? Or uni, I just gave it away. Unity, uni, one.
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When we ride a unicycle, we're not riding a diverse cycle. We're riding a cycle with one wheel.
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That's the idea here. We've got one. We've got one message. We're not Unitarians or Oneness Pentecostals, but we ought to have unity.
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We ought to be united. I'm not going to spend much time here, but suffice it to say that our local body,
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Bethlehem Bible Church, must be united in the essentials of the gospel. That's what this section is about.
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Essentials. There ought not to be diversity of opinion about the Trinity, the solas, the virgin birth, the inspiration and inerrancy of scripture.
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Any of the basics of the Christian message. We are called to unity in these things because we've been called out of worldly chaos, diversity, and into a body of Christ, into the body of Christ, a united body of Christ.
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So that's encouragement number one. And I have three more. So, encouragement number two.
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We'll move faster. In light of being in Christ, serve the body. Serve the body.
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Why? Because every Christian, you, if you are here today, and you love the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have been saved, you have a spiritual gift.
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Look at verse seven. But grace was given to some, oh wait, to each one, each one of us, each
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Christian, according to the measure of Christ's gift. So we've all been granted grace.
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We've all been given that bond of peace. But we've also been granted a spiritual gift, a measure of grace.
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Why do I say that? Well, this whole section here deals with the gifts of Christ to the church.
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When we are saved, we are granted the grace of salvation. That is true. But we are also gifted spiritually. Now, note, this is one place here where there is diversity.
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There are diversity of gifts. We don't all get the same gift, but we all get a gift.
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Now, look further. Christ gives the church gifted men. Now, this isn't to say that there aren't gifted women, but this is focused on men right here.
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After conquering death, Jesus gave of the spoils that he had earned. Look at verse eight.
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Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, speaking of his ascension, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.
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Now, whom Christ took captive, that's a debate
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I'm not going to enter into this morning. It's beyond the scope and the time that we have.
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But what is clear here is that he gave gifts to men. That is to say, he gave gifts to the church.
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He didn't give them to the universal body because the world wouldn't see the apostles and all these other men as gifts.
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That's why they put them to death, because they didn't love the apostles. And what we have here is a great picture in verses eight and nine of the deity of Christ, just talking about the majesty of what he did.
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Listen, in saying he ascended, what does it mean? But that he also had descended or had also descended into the lower regions of the earth.
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He who descended is the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things.
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He came down to the earth, left his throne, lived among us, lived a perfect life, was crucified, suffered a death he did not deserve and then was raised on the third day.
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And then if you recall, he ascended, left his disciples and he's coming back.
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But this is about the ascension. This refers to Psalm 68, which has some antecedents in numbers.
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But again, we're not going to go down that road. My main point is I just want us to understand he gave gifts to the church.
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He ascended after he descended. He came to the earth, then he ascended. Verse 11, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers.
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He did not give again, these church to unbeliever or these gifts to unbelievers, but to the church.
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What's the purpose of spiritual gifts? Why did Jesus grant these gifts to the church? Look at verse 12 says right there, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
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The shepherds here, those we would call them pastors, elders, and they're referred to that in that way in other passages.
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There are those who shepherd the flock of God. They're under shepherds. Christ is the great shepherd.
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Elders, pastors are the under shepherds. They and the teachers equip the saints.
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They don't do the work of ministry. People think that only the elders, only the pastors can do the work of ministry and that's eradicated by this passage.
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So we're going to see here real quickly, just two purposes and two results of these gifts here.
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First purpose is to equip the saints. They are the ones to do the work and the verb there to equip is technically a process of adjustment that results in complete preparedness.
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What does that mean? It means that you are being fitted out. You're being given all the tools that you need to do the work of ministry.
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This is a good way of saying it as you get to go into the department store, you get to buy all the hardware you want, all the hardware you need to do the job that you need to do.
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You don't have to pay for it. It's being done by God. Christ has given you these men to equip you, to fit you out, to make you prepared to do the work of ministry.
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You say, I don't feel prepared. Well, you are being prepared. Second purpose is to build up.
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It means to edify, to spiritually strengthen. It's like when you go to the gym and you hire a coach to teach you how to get stronger, to get bigger muscles, to make you more fit.
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It's the same kind of thing. The elders, the teachers are here to equip you, train you, push you, motivate you.
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Why? Not so that you get physical strength, but so that you have spiritual strength. And the
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Lord has given the church men to do this. Those are the purposes of these gifts.
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Now, the results. Serving, having a ministry at a local church is, it's not optional, it's obligatory.
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It's something that we ought to do. Christians have been given their own giftedness.
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Again, referring back to verse 7. We've been granted grace, a gift by Christ.
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Not all gifts are the same, but we each have a gift. Now, there are many needs here, many works of ministry to be done.
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We have many opportunities to serve. And if you want one, ask any deacon.
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Some people are sitting here thinking, well, I'm saved. I don't have a ministry. I know that I ought to have a ministry.
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How do I do that? You know, I need to know what I'm gifted in. Maybe there's a test I can take, which will identify my spiritual giftedness, and then
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I'll serve in that area. Well, I guess there are tests like that, but you don't need a test.
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You don't need a personality profile. Serve. If you serve, you'll readily find out, you'll easily find out where your gifts are.
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As you serve, you'll find out, well, I'm not good in this, or I am good in that.
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The Lord is using me in this way, and he's not using me in that way. You'll sort it out, but you must serve.
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Result number two, your service aids the unity of the body.
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It aids the unity of the body. What happens as believers exercise their giftedness within the church?
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The church is further built up. Look at verse 13a, until we all attain to the unity of faith.
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In other words, there is a process by which that is happening. And look at the end of the passage there, verse 16.
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Listen, when each part is working properly, these parts, by the way, refer to Christians, those members of the body.
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When each part is working properly, it makes the body grow so that itself, or it builds itself up in love.
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As we all learn to serve, as we all learn to go back to the
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Iditarod race kind of analogy, as we all pull and grow and move in the same direction together, what happens?
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Unity grows. The effectiveness of the church grows. Our third encouragement real quickly.
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First two were, in light of being in Christ, preserve unity. Second one, in light of being in Christ, serve the body.
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Third one, in light of being in Christ, treasure the truth. People say, well, you know, does doctrine really matter?
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Yes, it does. That's one of the purposes for which Christ gave the church spiritual gifts.
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Look at verse 13. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, that's the goal. And of the knowledge of the
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Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
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Why? So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
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Unity demands sound doctrine. You don't want to be a child tossed about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning.
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Listen, when you go into a Christian bookstore, there's lots of every wind of doctrine.
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There's lots of human cunning. There's lots of craftiness and deceitful schemes. You have to be discerning.
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And how do you do that? By being equipped in sound doctrine, by knowing the truth. We want unity of the faith, mature fullness.
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If you have less than sound doctrine in a church, less than sound theology, then what happens?
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You know, maybe, again, sorry, but one husky dog wants to go in this direction.
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Another wants to go in that direction. Some want to go straight ahead. Some don't want to go anywhere.
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And that is a slow moving sled. But as we all pull in the same direction, as we all learn to listen to the master's voice, to listen to sound doctrine, then we become really a fearsome,
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I want to say competitive sled, but we're really a fearsome weapon in the hands of an almighty
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God. And sound doctrine grows and protects the church. Let me just look at all the descriptions there.
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And we know that there are false teachers, wolves, deceivers. But as we grow in our knowledge of doctrine, of correct understanding of the word of God and how to apply it, we build up an immunity from the spiritual poison that surrounds us.
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We're not attracted to false teaching. And there can be no unity without sound doctrine.
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Unsound doctrine leads to being tossed to and fro. It speaks of confusion, chaos, dissension.
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Our final encouragement, number four, in light of being in Christ, grow in love.
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Grow in love. Look at verse 15, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped.
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When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
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Now, do you think about a church body that way? About how when everything's functioning as it should, when everybody's using their spiritual gift as it should, it is built up in love.
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But again, look back at the beginning of that. Just the first word of verse 15, rather, to the contrary.
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Well, contrary of what? Contrary of the end of verse 14, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
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In other words, he's saying, instead of that or the opposite, we want to speak the truth in love.
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We don't want to be confused. We don't want to follow after false teachers. We want to speak the truth in love.
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That's another way of speaking sound doctrine. It's done with an attitude of love, but we have to tell the truth.
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And when we do that, we have a genuine longing for the people that we're talking to. We want them to come to understand things rightly.
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Beloved, when the church is properly taught, when it is properly exercising its gifts, the result is love.
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And that exists only when there is unity, only when there's a joy in being together.
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And by the way, you know, here's something that is often confused by people. Truth and love are not enemies.
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They're the best of friends, the most loving thing you can do is tell someone the truth.
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You say, I love my neighbor, but I won't share the gospel with him. I don't know if you love him. Now, let's just kind of summarize this.
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Has God commanded diversity? Well, I don't think so. And this passage certainly wouldn't lend itself towards that.
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Now, people say, well, what about some other things? You know, let's play what about? Well, I'm going to give you the whatabouts right now.
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Some things to think about, to ponder. Right now, there is some diversity in the church.
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Well, how so? Matthew 16, 18. Jesus said what? After Peter's confession, he said, and I tell you, you are
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Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
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Listen, Christ is building his church. He builds it. He determines universally and locally who is in the church.
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He adds and he removes. He determines the exact people that are going to be at Bethlehem Bible Church.
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Now, is it wrong to have an outreach to those who speak a different language, to those who are of a different color, as it were, to those who have a different culture?
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No, not at all. I think it'd be great if we could go to the mosque in Worcester and evangelize there and empty that place out, make them all
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Christians. You know, get them all to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I think it would be great if we had to go to a third service and that service consisted entirely of people who only spoke
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Spanish or only spoke Portuguese or only spoke Chinese or Arabic.
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I don't care what they speak. Our goal is not diversity. Our goal is unity.
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We equip the saints for the work of ministry. Then we trust them to proclaim the truth in love to a lost and dying world.
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And then we trust the Lord to do the rest. And whatever that is, we need to adapt to it. But the purpose is not diversity.
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Christ is building his church. Now, there's going to be a difference in the future.
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I believe this is the millennial kingdom. But Isaiah 2, verses 2 and 3, just listen to this and tell me this doesn't sound like a great picture of diversity.
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It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations shall flow to it.
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And many peoples, not people, but peoples that is to say, people groups, ethnic groups shall come or shall say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the
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Lord to the house of the God of Jacob that he, Christ, may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.
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For out of Zion shall go the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. All the nations, many peoples, that's diversity.
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But it's again, of God. No false accommodation to sin.
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Like today, you know, everybody has to, feels like they have to accommodate homosexuality. No, no artificial constructs, but the power of God.
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And finally, heaven, Revelation 5, verses 9 and 10. And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals for you were slain and by your blood, you ransom people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
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And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth.
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Heaven will be diverse, but it's gonna be God who does it.
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It's not gonna be some white bread suburban church not gonna be a, we will see the diversity of creation, of God's creation up there.
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We will see yellow, black, white, and brown, whatever color. And we'll glory not in that, but in the savior who bought us all.
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Now back to this church in New York City, listen to this and we'll close here.
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This is their statement. And to me, this is as satanic as it could be. We will increase the visibility of our congregation and our church among diverse communities.
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We will be intentional in our outreach to targeted groups through varied communication vehicles.
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They're going to build their church, not Christ. We wanna reach out to our neighbors, to our diverse neighbors.
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But our message is not diverse because we have one truth, one message, and one
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Lord. Let's pray. Father in heaven, would you grant us unity in spirits, in your spirits, unity in doctrine, unity in purpose, unity in love.
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Would you grant us greater understanding of you, of ourselves, and of your purpose that we might carry it out.
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Father, would you teach us through your word to be of one mind, to be rowing in the same direction, to be pulling in the same direction, to learn better how to put up with one another, to love one another, to forgive one another, to live in the bond of the