How’s Your Core? - [Ephesians 4:1-16]

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Our Father in heaven we come before you this morning on this beautiful day. Just looking at All the snow and are just reminded that because of Christ We have been made wider than snow because of His righteousness covering our sin
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Lord we gather this morning to worship you to study your word To ponder about the great things that you have done for your children
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Father, I pray that you bless each one here in Jesus name. Amen My wife was kind enough to point out to me last night
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That I was teaching this morning. No, no Do you know you're teaching tomorrow? No She she looked she was on Facebook, which is always dangerous
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And she saw a little blurb for a church in Sterling It's called first church
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Yeah, they they say church and it was a little blurb and it just said, you know that they had a safe space for LGBTQ I a double
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P plus You know raised to the second power Children from ages or from sixth grade to twelfth grade and they had a little program there, you know, and of course they were waving
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You might know it wasn't the Ukrainian flag it was a rainbow flag and I just thought
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This is a Not only a fallen world, but you know when Christians alleged
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Christians are involved in that kind of thing Craziness anyway
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So we're gonna have a little quiz this morning. I like quizzes and one of the reasons
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I like quizzes is because They basically evoke
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Response. So I Love question number one. Don't ask me why I love it, but I love it.
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Why doesn't BBC hold a Super Bowl service? Have you seen those?
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I mean, I I I don't know How many of you watched the video here a few weeks ago of this church?
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It was probably sorry with all due respect in the South they had cheerleaders and a great big
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Like party going on and actually people eating like popcorn and different snacks While they were watching the
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Super Bowl and I thought that's a lot of things but what isn't it? It's not church, it's not a worship service.
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But anyway, why doesn't BBC hold a Super Bowl service a we don't believe in fellowship and fun
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Now most of you probably said that and that's a logical be Such a thing would violate our philosophy of ministry
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That's so boring it must be the right answer see broadcasting the game would take special licensing
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See, I thought some of you might take that one D. There were former staunchly opposed all forms of sports competitions except beer drinking
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Well, I wanted to address C because I figured somebody would say I'm not going to name any names
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Somebody would say that that is true. But as of 2007 I Mean it's changed but as of 2007 churches across the
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United States planning Super Bowl parties Sunday Have been given sweeping permission by the
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NFL to go ahead Just as long as no admission fees are charged
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Maybe not but I thought I thought well if you think about this logically What's the difference between going to church to watch the
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Super Bowl and going to a bar? Do they charge you to get into a bar maybe
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But maybe not but you're gonna consume, you know something while you're there So it seems like that's a that's not the case that you can do that.
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That's not the reason The reason obviously is be such a thing would violate our philosophy of ministry.
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I mean, what would you all think if we did that? I'd think
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Mike Steve Pradeep and Scott have been kidnapped and held for ransom. That's what I think I mean, that's crazy if our philosophy of ministry, what is our philosophy of ministry?
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Anybody know anybody want to hazard a guess? What are we trying to do the regulative principle?
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Okay, but I mean ultimately yeah, I mean that's how we operate the church, but if you were to say, you know
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What's the functional? Driving Force behind everything you do here at Bethlehem Bible Church, I would submit that it would be something akin to Colossians chapter 1 verse 28
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Him being Christ Jesus him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ I I Mean isn't that our program somewhere or at least it used to be a little printer program.
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I mean just Think about the idea of gathering together to watch the
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Super Bowl and calling it a church service What is that really is it worship?
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It might be worship, but it's worship of a completely different God It's a you know worshiping the God of NFL Which there are plenty of men across the country who want to do that anyway, so You know
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Okay, number two True or false the concept of dogma was created by Catholics and therefore must be rejected got a 50 -50 shot.
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Okay to which part I Mean is it true that if something was?
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Seems to be of Catholic origin Roman Catholic origin that we must reject it. I mean that seems to be is that Let's just put it this way.
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Is that a logical fallacy? Okay, I mean for example You know what if I say well it seems that Aquinas Taught about the
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Trinity therefore we must reject the Trinity. I mean that would be Silly Okay In my notes here,
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I have who cares who coined the word right I mean who who coined infallibility of Scripture I Mean it's by the way.
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It wasn't the Catholics. What are some other words that we use for dogma?
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doctrine Good Okay, systematic theology
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So when we use the word dogma, what are we really saying? These are our core beliefs.
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These are our foundations. These are the things from which we will not move Right these are fundamental truths.
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These are the things that we want to equip every believer to understand And even to defend
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We want to equip everyone in Christ Jesus, right yes, you probably are okay that Okay, okay, so let's let's talk about that.
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Yeah the sinlessness of the Virgin Mary or the perpetual virginity of the
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Virgin Mary those kind of things those are Dogma true. Thank you for that modifier right the fact that they're
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Roman Catholic dogma Doesn't mean that you know if we just look at the word dogma, and I think you know that's a it's a good question in this sense we have to divide in our minds the idea that dogma
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Necessarily means Catholic we each have our own dogma right For example you know you you tell your child to take out the trash
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Now in your mind you could say that's an irrefutable truth that must you know it's my command therefore it must take place
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Child says dad can I ask you something? Are you dogmatic about that?
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right And you say well no there's nothing wrong in other words the whole idea of Roman Catholicism is a separate entity ultimately when we're talking about The word it may have some connotations we're talking on the way in about Lent.
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I don't even know You know what rather than googling this and figuring it out. What is
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Ash Wednesday? What is that all about yeah, please okay? But what's with the ashes on your forehead well?
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I mean, I marvel at that right because when it's Ash Wednesday. How do I usually know it's Ash Wednesday? Well, I don't see many people
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I'll just like turn on the TV, and I'll see people with ashes on their forehead, and I'm like how do you do that?
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You know don't you have to have makeup on oh, sorry? But yeah, I just think that you know that's is that a dogma yes
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For them. It's not a dogma for us the perpetual virginity of Mary not
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Dogma for us and by the way if I'm just gonna say a word about that Why do you think they stress the perpetual virginity of?
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Mary okay, so they can worship her that's part of it. I think
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Yeah, well yeah, they're always trying to squeeze four people into the Trinity Okay for Christ to be sinless he must have come from a sinless vessel, but what you said there just implies something
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Perpetual virginity Sex is inherently sinful
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I mean why are the holiest people in Roman Catholicism those who live apart from everyone right this ascetic?
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Lifestyle look at them. They've even sacrificed. You know all these different things including
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Sex they're not even tempted is sex sinful
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What did God say to Adam and Eve? To be fruitful and multiply you know not okay now each of you go to your own rooms
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Live sinlessly It's just a it's just a bizarre.
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You know if you want to know if Roman Catholicism is ultimately Christian Just look at the things that they command look at their dogma, and you'll go no
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It's not but anyway. We don't care about the the origins of the word dogma
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It's okay for us to say that we have dogma because our dogma is not Roman Catholic dogma
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You can have dogma in your home You can name your dog dogma your cat dogma doesn't matter true or false
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Number three true or false rigid rules of dogma can actually cause someone to be a heretic
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Rigid rules of dogma can cause someone to become a heretic Let me read it again and see it let's see
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Rigid rules of dogma can actually cause someone to become or to be a heretic
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Okay, and and it ultimately does come down to the word cause right if we say that You know baptism doesn't save you and your belief is that baptism does save you
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Did our doctrine cause you to be a heretic? Okay, I would even argue just Saying what the
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Bible says Identified you as a heretic right it didn't cause you it didn't push you out into the wilderness of heresy
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You know you're already there. You know we just told you hey, bro. You're out in the wilderness of heresy, right?
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We just clarified that for you, okay? the practical outworking of your heretical
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Beliefs makes you a heretic, right? Let's talk about that for a moment heresy
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Latin word is from the Greek heresis Taking or choosing for oneself a choice or means of taking a deliberate plan purpose
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Philosophical sect or school it's a doctrine or opinion at variance with established
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Standards in other words your opinion or your doctrine is outside of orthodoxy, right?
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You believe the same orthodoxy to hold the traditional view to hold the right view to hold the biblical view
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Here's a bonus question If we're not dogmatic about something
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In other words if we're not convictional. I'll use a different word about something.
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What does it suggest? If we don't draw our line in the sand right what does this suggest?
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Okay, we can be swayed yes It's a negotiable item.
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Yeah, it's a it's more a matter of personal opinion. I guess we could say Charlie Thank you for that. I you know just this is in my notes, but I was
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I Posted this on somebody else's wall this week because I was reading an old message of mine
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And I'm going I hope I didn't say this Because it was you know
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I'm going you know I it's probably even something
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I learned in the seminary, but it's wrong You know and I really hope I hope
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I just like elided over that while I was going through the notes and preaching away Because I do boy that was bad
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Number four one of the dangers of dogma oh I'm sorry
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Yeah, one of the dangers of dogma a we might be sincere, but sincerely wrong
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B dogma can make us seem mean who wants to be known as dogmatic See as we get more and more revelation about end times.
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We might be tempted to change our position What's that?
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Yes, see see was like chum thrown in the water Just to see if I could you know like reel in anybody on that.
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What do you think? What's the correct answer? I don't know if there is one I Okay, I think there is because who wants to argue over doctrine
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Yeah, maybe yeah, I mean if you I mean who was the guy who said
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In the New England what was that what do you say it was just something about you know it's this whole concept of the hermeneutics of humility
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You know you don't want to it was Brian McLaren, right? Yeah, we don't want to be too harsh or too
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Firm on anything because they're just a lot of things that we don't know What are things that we don't know you know biblically speaking?
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Okay, we don't know when he's coming back. We don't know that for sure I think there are a lot of things about the end times that we don't know that which is why
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I just love this You know I I'm like I'm reading people's Facebook's nobody here reading people's
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Facebook feeds And they're like oh, it's all lining up. You know now. We're seeing the end It's the dragon and the lion and the bear and the whatever okay?
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You know let's bungle in the jungle. I mean, it's it's it's it's crazy Okay, I mean, it's like am
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I reading zoology or am I reading you know Yeah, okay number five
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True or false too much dogma doctrine for John Too much doctrine might lead to schism schism is separation division
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Too much doctrine might lead to division Okay, we preach the word to glorify
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God and if we offend people that's fine mark Okay, I'm going to I'm going to bail bail us out here.
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I think you're reading too much into the question Because what do people say you know doctrine divides, why are you so?
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Dogmatic nobody ever says why are you too doctrinal, but why are you so dogmatic? Why are you so strong about things?
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why can't you just be a little fuzzy and you know that because Doctrine leads to division.
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I mean Lutzer wrote a whole book called doctrines that divide Anybody ever read that book?
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Some of the things that divide or what? Like election, you know, I mean just basic fundamental doctrines but ultimately
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Does doctrine lead to division and the answer is no it leads to unity?
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Let's open our Bibles for a moment to Ephesians chapter 4 Which coincidentally and it is a coincidence is where pastor
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Mike's gonna be preaching this morning And I hope to like thoroughly Preview and interrupt his no,
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I'm not Ephesians 4 and if somebody would read verses 11 to 16, please
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I mean that the concept here first of all is that Jesus that's the he Right gave gifts to the church.
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He gave these men through the centuries to the church. That's why you know side note
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Mike it so often speaks about Biblicism and against Biblicism. Why is that because Biblicism is the idea that you know
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We landed here on planet Earth in a vacuum Nobody existed before us and we have to reinvent the wheel we have to discover all these doctrines for ourselves
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You know, if there's not a specific verse that says something then we can't teach it
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Well, there there's a lot of problems with that You know a lot of doctrine is a summary of biblical teaching like if we get back to the
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Trinity Where would we find the Trinity taught as you know, the word
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Trinity we wouldn't We have to sort of draw that out. You know, does every generation need to reinvent the
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Trinity? No It's a truth But Jesus gave the church these men these gifted men throughout the centuries so that they could teach the church
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So they could equip the Saints for the work of ministry and it's interesting here until we all attain to the unity of the
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Faith in other words, that's what we're doing. We're equipping we're teaching we're reminding
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So that the body comes together So that it functions properly
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Doctrine leads to division Schism, no, it leads to unity and to love we all believe the right things
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We serve together we work together and together we are blessed in Christ and eventually we grow together in love
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Questions comments Let me let me just read the authorized notes here from the
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MacArthur study Bible Oneness and harmony among believers is possible only when it is built on the foundation of sound doctrine the more diverse
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The doctrinal opinions are in a church than what the more schism?
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There is the more division there is the more likely there is to be Church splits and that kind of thing
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Oneness and doctrine prevents such things Okay, number six true or false
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I'm gonna I'll again bow to John the more firmly we understand doctrine the more arrogance
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We are likely to be The more firmly we understand I Guess I should say we hold
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To dogma to doctrine the more arrogant we are likely to be Yeah Yeah She says
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I would think the opposite would be true and you know, that's amazing because that's what I have in my notes Truth brings forth what?
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It brings forth conviction Which brings forth humility? Listen listen again, you know previewing pastor
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Mike sermon here this morning Ephesians 4 1 2 3 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
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Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace
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When we have the right mindset when we're thinking biblically when we're thinking along with the Holy Spirit, right?
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We think of others more highly than ourselves. We hold to these truths and we want to proclaim them
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We want to defend them, but we also don't want to be cage match
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You know steel cage match Calvinists, right? Has anybody ever been that way?
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I mean, I will confess Although I had teachers who were worse than me and so I'd stand back sometimes and just kind of go like that So learning not to be so harsh
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Sometimes but the more I mean even if we take the
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Apostle Paul as an example You know, was he harsh and judgmental
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I would say no instead, you know We read things like I mean Romans 7 is almost like a confessional right the things
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I want to do I don't do I mean you read that you just think this is me the things
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I want to do I don't do the things I don't want to do I do
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And what's he say? You know, he doesn't end the chapter saying, you know I thank
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God that I'm not like any of you my readers. He says what who will deliver me from this body of death humility
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Because the more we understand about truth The more we understand our sin number seven
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How many of these must one believe to be a Christian? Do you have to believe these things
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God is eternal? Man is sinful Jesus was born of a virgin.
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Jesus was innocent Jesus died for the sins of believers Roman Catholics don't go to heaven
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Roman Catholics could go to heaven But it wouldn't be because of Roman Catholicism.
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In fact, I say and I will say it this morning I think because I like to be consistent.
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I'd be dogmatic about certain things The higher up you are in the Roman Catholic Church the more difficult it is
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I think to be saved the more you actually believe what the church teaches the more you're on that treadmill of works
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It's true, right It's true. I mean I do I think Rowan some
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Roman Catholics are gonna go Yes, because they all they think is, you know, Jesus died for my sins and they don't know any better, you know, and But all these others are straight, you know, they're just Bible I mean we could do
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Bible verses on all these other ones I'm not going to yes Okay, so God gives us faith and then we learn about him
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I mean, could you go to heaven not understanding all these things or not knowing all these things? I think it's better to say not
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Knowing all these things. I mean, it's it's I Think you
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I think you're correct I mean if somebody says to you, you know, if you say I'm a Christian and then you ask them
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You know is God eternal and they go, I don't know and then you talk to him about the scriptures and they go well, yeah,
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I believe that and So I think you know thief on the cross all that. I I think what you know what
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I What I think is hard to do is throw the thief on a cross asterisk every after everything, right?
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I mean there are there are there are there thieves on you know, deathbed conversions. I think there are And I and I agree with that Okay What's that a
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Newborn baby wouldn't know any of these doctrines. Well, that's true. And I still I still think they go to heaven, you know But that's a that's a whole different asterisk.
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Good point yeah, I I think at the very least you would have to go with You know be an
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E and then you know, you would be an E break -in entering but you would You can take the uniform off but you know, it doesn't it doesn't go away
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Okay, number eight sure false providence can be defined as karma chance or luck I just had to say that you know why
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I had to say that because I get so tired I mean, what what did I I can't even remember this situation.
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Somebody was talking about Karma, and I'm like these people are professing Christians get that word out of your mouth, you know
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I mean, I guess we were playing a game about karma or something. I don't know but Karma chance or luck that sure was lucky
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Providence every event Can be attributed to God and his eternal plan
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R .c. Sproul said if there's one rebel molecule in the universe and we could go down lower atom
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Electron is it there's something like quark Whatever the smallest thing that we ever discover if there's something if there's if there's one little particle
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In all the universe that isn't doing exactly what God wants then what? He's not
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God. He has to be completely sovereign Let's see, how do you want to say what
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God wants what God decreed let's put it that way And then my second note on that You know when
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I answer the thing false. I said that's just me being dogmatic and a loving so No, we're not true or false the fact that many religions contain some truth is helpful when evangelizing
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The fact that many religions contain some truth is helpful when evangelizing Charlie Exactly.
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It's it's useful in this sense. Is that what the word I use useful? Helpful. It's helpful in this sense that it provides a bridge a
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Launching pad a point of contact. That's a word. I phrase. I don't really care for but it gives us an entry, right?
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Just like Mars Hill Paul says I notice that you're religious Right. Yeah, I mean he couldn't miss it.
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There were idols all over the place So you could say well you believe in God Right, you do.
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Well, I Wouldn't go on and then say did you know the demons also believe in God?
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I mean you could do that You know, it depends on I guess how dogmatic the other person is
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I Can't pronounce it, but a hug it That thing was that close so good.
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I mean I Had the opportunity this week. I was speaking. I'm Gonna do a funeral here in a few weeks a family funeral for my
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Cousin's widow. She asked me now. She's not a believer and But she was at my uncle's funeral and she wants me to do my cousin's funeral and And So I said, you know, these are some of the things
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I'll do and because I just thought I Mean you have to understand This is gonna be a little different.
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It's going to be on a Sunday Christians typically don't hold funerals on Sundays.
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Of course not So Just talking to her about you know, she believes that there's a
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God and she thinks she's a Christian So I just started talking to her about Christianity. She obviously knew nothing.
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She'd never read the Bible She has one in her house and that Bible is you know from her mom 50 years old or so She has no idea what's in it
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So I just started talking about what's in and I said, you know, what? What do you think? I told her? I mean in short, you know
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Question number seven. I mean, yeah, basically and I and and I said, you know, I would encourage you to read
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She says, you know, a lot of the names in the Bible are so difficult to read and everything and I'm going well, you know Maybe you don't start with Leviticus or you know second
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Samuel Yeah, I have pretty for you actually, you know what
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I did tell her I said download the ESV app right because this is not
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This is not a sophisticated person and I said She does have a smartphone I said download the
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ESV app and you know what you can do I said there's a setting there You can just hit the audio and you could just listen and she'll read all the words to you
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Including all the names and I said, but here's what I want you to do start in the gospel of John because you really need to know who
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Jesus is and you're gonna read about the amazing things that John did and then I told her why
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I love John so much, you know, because it's not just it is a picture of Jesus as God But we also get to see the man
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Jesus we also get to see the way he Interacted with his disciples the way he loved them and you know
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John as I as I said many times kind of takes us behind the scenes and shows us things that the other
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Gospels don't Including you know that so much detail and the Last Supper and other areas
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But really really good and I said, you know, would you do that? And she said yes, and I said, well,
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I'd like to send you a Bible. And so I did and it'll get there tomorrow. So You can be praying for Carrie But that you know the fact that many religions contain some truth is helpful number ten
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Upon death some believers are enabled to be guardian angels you die and you become like Hawk man, you know, you've got wings and I Mean I see stuff like that people who are professing
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Christians and they say well, you know so and so is a guardian angel now or I You know, and what what do you say?
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I mean the survey says Hebrews 927 and just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes angel status judgments
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Judgment the only question on Judgment Day isn't you know, it's not heaven hell
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Purgatory and it's not heaven hell or angel status for a while so that you can protect your family or loved ones on earth
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It's just heaven or hell. Did you believe in Lord Jesus or not? Also 2nd
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Corinthians 5 8 Yes we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body so that we can have wings and protect our loved ones and No No, there's no guardian angel status zero 0 % of that Somebody says that nicely tell them they need to believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ and read his word. I think we're supposed to Quit here
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So we'll quit at the halfway point I have some good stuff here still to come so that's that's disappointing
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But you know when you write 20 questions, you know, you're not going to get through it because you're dogmatic about ending at 945
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Okay, well, let's close in prayer father Thank you for the gospel of the
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Lord Jesus Christ for his life for his death for his resurrection for granting us faith that we might have
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Eyes to see ears to hear that you have opened our minds that you have
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Given us new hearts Lord, I pray that we would Be dogmatic in the right way that we would draw the right lines that we would strive for unity and That we would seek to proclaim the truth in love to others and that with humility