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That They All May Be One
03/27/05
It's all about discipling....
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That They All May Be One
(1:41)
"A church that does not
call their members to be accountable to the other members is not obeying the
bible. My bible teaches me that we are to judge those in the church, in
other words, to be concerned about one another's life. How different
than what is being preached today.
You know, what happened when the church here went thru all this divisions, is
that everybody was saying Freedom in Christ, Freedom in Christ, let's not
judge one another, and the relationships were getting worse and worse and
worse. And one of the persons very genuinely who wanted to help was our
brother, Bob Bertalot. And Bob's approach was like a lot of us. He wanted to
please both sides. You know, the Rodney King thing, can't we all get
along? But you gotta understand, the bible is not about getting along,
the bible is all about obeying the word of God, and when we all obey the word
of God, then we are going to be unified! Amen?
You know what's awesome about Bob? This man, who had challenges really
just confronting people, now has become a man of deep conviction, I mean I
appreciate, I mean this man is going to be an awesome elder in the Lord's
church. Amen church?
But you know something guys, if we're wishy-washy with each other, if we're
not willing to get our hands dirty with each other's lives, we're gonna be divisive.
Because then we're gonna pull back and there's going to be a separation
between us and the other brothers. Are you with me here church?"
Sounds as if Kip is getting ready
to call out the remnant.
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That They All May Be One (5:20)
"Turn to 1 Corinthians
Chapter 11. Now remember all the way through 1st Corinthians, and we're using
this as our text, to show the need for unity. That yeah the church in Corinth
was a mess, but you know something, they repented, they got it together, and
they helped evangelize the world. But interestingly, look at what he says
right here, in Chapter 11 verse 17, in the following directives, I have no praise
for you, this is Paul talking to the church in Corinth. For your meetings do
more harm than good. Wow, you know we got sister churches that's the case. In
the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are
divisions among you and to some extent I believe it, no doubt, there have to
be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval.
I have just tried to lay out
from the scriptures the dream and the sacrifice of Jesus for a united Kingdom,
a united brotherhood. And I believe that with all of my heart, and I pray that
you will believe it starting today, not because I said it, but because it's in
the word of God. But right here we have something else in the word of God, a
very challenging scripture. Paul says listen, I hear some of the groups there,
their meetings are a mess. They do more harm than good. I know there are divisions
amongst you. And I think a lot of us would go "oh yeah well get all
together, just go back together, be unified." To be unified would be to
compromise the truth and then you really couldn't be unified anyway. And what
Paul's saying right here is perplexing to the worldly minded, to one whose
faith has not yet grasped the desperateness of the hour in our
brotherhood.
I believe, there have to be differences amongst us to show which churches have
God's approval. We read earlier in Chapter 3 a church that has God's approval,
God is going to make it grow. There's going to be baptisms. If a church
doesn't have any baptisms, you know they do not have the approval of God,
because it is God that makes it grow. If a church does not teach the plan of
salvation, that you have to have faith and repent, become a disciple and be
baptized for the remission of sin, if they're fuzzy on it, there's going to be
a
division there and rightfully so, to show which ones of us have God's
approval.
There are churches that try to
sound noble, oh we're not saying that discipling shouldn't happen, but it's
optional in our church. My bible tells me, it's not optional, it's the
command of God. It's the way to win a city to Christ, it's the way to win the
world to Christ. It's the same thing as if we say, hey you know, tell you
what, as far as being pure with your girlfriend, it's optional. NO IT'S NOT
OPTIONAL. The word of God says we must be absolutely pure. The word of God
says we MUST make disciples. And so, yes, there will be division between us
and other churches. But in the end, what I believe is going to happen, is that
the churches that really want to see the world evangelized, the churches that
really want to make disciples, who make disciples, make disciples we're going
to link on up. Amen guys? And then I think, some like Paul said in
Romans 11, out of jealousy, will join us, cause they don't want to be left
out, amen, not the highest motivation, but it works. But some people are going
to be in churches that totally have drifted away because they are autonomous.
And if you're in that kind of a church, where your leaders do not
embrace the fundamental truths of God's word, and call the church to
obey it, and to practice it, then you've gotta leave your church, and find a
church where it's happening, because it's your soul that's on the line. You
cannot go up to heaven or judgment and say, well God, the reason I'm not on
fire is because I was in a lukewarm church. God says, you could have moved.
But you didn't. You didn't want to pay the price. My understanding of a true
disciple is somebody that's willing to do anything, go anywhere, and give up
everything for Jesus Christ. That has not changed in all these years. Are you
with me here church?
So bottom line guys, it's a desperate hour and there are going to be divisions
between our churches. Don't be shocked, Don't be confused. But understand
what's going on is what Paul talked about, because the ones that have God's
approval will eventually join together, be together and we will by faith
evangelize the world. Amen?"
Don't grumble about your leaders!
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That They All May Be One
(1:45)
"Now look at this verse
10, and do not grumble as some of them did and were killed by the destroying
angel. You know to grumble against leaders is to grumble against God. Exodus
chapter 16. We don't like to have that one preached.
Now am I saying that leaders are perfect? Absolutely not. They're human.
They're human. But God has put them in authority so that we could have order
and structure. And without leadership, without vision the people perish. And
you know, a lot of times we allow our opinions to cross over to convictions
and we start looking at things critically. You know, remember when you
first came to bible talk and we'd go, that's amazing, that is
incredible! You've been in the kingdom for a little while and you're not
leading, wow, this guy's already gone over 3 minutes, how insensitive! Doesn't
he know there are lost non-Christians in the room? Or church on Sunday,
well, we don't have enough singing, we don't have enough songs, we don't have instruments playing enough! Well, we talked to Mica about that and ahhh, you
know it's always great when we have the spirit of wanting to help the church
be better. But it's a thin line when we cross over from wanting the church to
be better to grumbling and complaining. Now of course, Mica is an awesome
sister and she just immediately repented and now that's awesome constructive
criticism of the church, amen?"
Kip confesses to his sin of
Pride.
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That They All May Be One
(1:46)
"My greatest sin of the
flesh is pride. And pride puffs up. And it causes disunity. Say how does
pride do that? Well for those of you that are prideful, you'll understand
this. For those that aren't prideful, you won't understand this. I actually
think I'm always right. And you know when you think you are always right, no
use asking advice, because you are already right. No use talking about
something because you already know the truth. I mean after all, you're always
right! And after a while people back off of you. After a while people
loose their trust in you and they may say Bro, that was really great, but they
just don't want to get into it because they know you think you are always
right. And you know, that was the sin that I brought in, and I've had to
radically change that. Honestly, I have to bite my tongue to go
"well brother what do you think of that?" Now you say, now
that's easy. No, no no, not when you think you are always right!
Then comes the real test, when someone has another thought that might be
right. Then you must be humble in the Lord and go OK we'll do it that
way. But see if you think you are always right, you are going to cause
disunity! Amen church?"
Kip describes some things that
cause division.
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That They All May Be One
(1:53)
"Let's go on and see what
else caused division, Chapter 9 verse 12. Paul's talking about money right
here and support. He says if others had this right of support from you,
shouldn't we have it all the more. Paul's saying hey, you guys in Corinth, you
should be paying me. And you know, you said well, if I'm going to toss
myself in the sermon, I'm going to bring my wife in too. Amen? You know when
we were trying to get things together here in Portland, I said ok, this looks
like a great opportunity babe, I mean these people are really desperate,
that's why they called you and me. Amen? She says well, you know the amount of
money they are paying us isn't enough money, we are going to have to use some
of our retirement. I said well, babe, you have to make sacrifices, Paul made
tents. You gotta do what you gotta do. You can't let money guide
you. The love of money is the root of all evil. And uhh, this hit to
Elena was big time. She goes maybe I just should quit the ministry. And just
work so I get enough money. I said babe, we need to be faithful to our
calling. And a lot of the sisters need to see you still standing and maybe you
are wobbling a little bit, but they need to see you still standing. Money does
not define the disciple. The disciple makes it happen. But you
know if you are worried about your financial situation, that you are not
having the rights come your way, it's going to cause division. The bible says
we need to be content with what we have. Amen church?"
Coke and Pepsi and Nike are
getting the job done....
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That They All May Be One
(:58)
"Why haven't we
evangelized the world in the 21st century? They did it in the first
century. Why haven't' we done it? Coca-cola has evangelized the world in our
generation, or is that Pepsi? Nike has evangelized the world in our
generation, you go to China they've heard of Nike, you go to Africa, they've
heard of Nike. Britney Spears has almost evangelized the world in our
generation. More people know more about Britney Spears than God's church! And yet there are preachers who are saying it's not the mission
of the church, it's not possible to go to the whole world in one generation.
Coca-cola, Pepsi, Nike and Britney have done it. It's time for God's church to
rise up and do it in this generation!"
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