Finding Unity Within Diversity

PRAY OVER THIS

“For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” Romans 12:4-5

 

PONDER THIS

What goes into assembling a jury for a trial? Typically, the desire is to assemble a group of people who can come together to give a verdict on the decision in question. That’s what our Lord did when He took the apostles. These apostles had been with our Lord for three years: They lived with Him. They walked with Him. They were companions. They ate together. They fellow shipped together.

They were not the type of jury you would expect. John was a young man. He was a visionary. He was sort of a philosopher type. Simon Peter was the opposite of John, a big, hardworking fisherman. Then there was Simon the Zealot. He was a political activist. And then there was Matthew the tax collector. Matthew had sold out to the Roman government. Many thought of him as a turncoat.

Can you imagine having Simon and Matthew on the same jury and trying to ask them to reach a unanimous verdict about anything? All these men had different backgrounds, viewpoints, ideals, and ideas but they all agreed on one thing: what they witnessed in Christ. We are to function the same way today as the Church.

What are some of the differences between you and some others in your congregation? How do you overcome those differences in Christ?

How have you seen God work through differences to bring Himself glory?

PRACTICE THIS

Think about someone in your church you struggle relating to. Pray Christ’s blessing on that person and seek unity in Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Church Growth God’s Way

It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. (Romans 9:8)

Picture the Old Testament Abraham as a pastor. The Lord says, “I will bless you and prosper your ministry.” But the church is barren and bears no children.

What does Abraham do? He begins to despair of supernatural intervention. He is getting old. His wife remains barren. So he decides to bring about God’s promised son without supernatural intervention. He has sex with Hagar his wife’s handmaid (Genesis 16:4). However, the result is not a “child of the promise,” but a “child of the flesh,” Ishmael.

God stuns Abraham by saying, “I will give you a son by her [your wife Sarah]” (Genesis 17:16). So Abraham cries out to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” (Genesis 17:18). He wants the work of his own natural, human effort to be the fulfillment of God’s promise. But God says, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son” (Genesis 17:19).

But Sarah is 90 years old. She has been barren all her life, and she has already passed through menopause (Genesis 18:11). Abraham is 100. The only hope for a child of promise is stunning, supernatural intervention.

That is what it means to be a “child of the promise” — to be born “not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). The only children that count for children of God in this world are supernaturally begotten children of promise. In Galatians 4:28 Paul says, “You [Christians], like Isaac, are children of promise.” You are “born according to the Spirit,” not according to the flesh (Galatians 4:29).

Think of Abraham as a pastor again. His church is not growing the way he believes God promised. He is weary of waiting for supernatural intervention. He turns to the “Hagar” of mere human devices, and decides he can “attract people” without the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.

However, it will not be a church of Isaacs, but Ishmaelites — children of the flesh, not children of God. God save us from this kind of fatal success. By all means work. But always look to the Lord for the decisive, supernatural work. “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord” (Proverbs 21:31).

John Piper 

Bible Study

1 Corinthians 12:20

[20] As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

1 Corinthians 6:15

[15] Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!

1 Corinthians 12:27

[27] Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Colossians 3:15

[15] And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Do You Want to Be a Giant for God?

PRAY OVER THIS

“And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” 

Ephesians 1:22-23

 

PONDER THIS

There’s no such thing as saying yes to Christ and no to the Church. It is the nature of the Christian to love. The Church and Christ are not identical, but they are inseparable, like a head and a body. You cannot love Jesus without loving what Jesus loves.

I have been to California and seen the giant Sequoia. That tree is as tall as a twenty-story building with a seventy-foot circumference. It’s giant! You would think a tree that big would have a tremendously deep taproot that would go down, down, down to keep it standing so tall and for so long. But you know what I discovered? Those trees don’t have deep taproots at all. Their roots grow very close to the surface, and the experts say the reason they have survived and grown so tall and for so long is that they grow only in groves—their roots all intertwine. When the winds come, they hold one another up.

Do you desire to be a giant for God? What would it look like to be so in the fellowship of the Church where we’re intertwined, where we love one another and care for one another so deeply that when the winds of life come, we stand strong? When you love Jesus, you’re going to love His Church.

When have you seen the Church come together in a time of difficulty?

What are some things that make it difficult for you to connect with the people in your church? How can you surrender those things to God?

PRACTICE THIS

Find a way to connect to someone in your church that you don’t know well. Consider meeting for coffee or sending a card.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Six Things It Means to Be in Christ Jesus

[God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. (2 Timothy 1:9)

Being “in Christ Jesus” is a stupendous reality. It is breathtaking to be united to Christ. Bound to Christ.

If you are “in Christ” listen to what it means for you:

In Christ Jesus you were given grace before the world was created. Second Timothy 1:9, “He gave us grace in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”

In Christ Jesus you were chosen by God before creation. Ephesians 1:4, “[God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world.”

In Christ Jesus you are loved by God with an inseparable love. Romans 8:38–39, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In Christ Jesus you were redeemed and forgiven for all your sins. Ephesians 1:7, “In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”

In Christ Jesus you are justified before God and the righteousness of God in Christ is imputed to you. Second Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

In Christ Jesus you have become a new creation and a son of God. Second Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Galatians 3:26, “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”

I pray that you will never grow weary of exploring and exulting in the inexhaustible privilege of being “in Christ Jesus.”

John Piper 

Bible Study

Titus 3:4-5

[4] But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, [5] he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Romans 8:28

[28] And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Titus 1:2

[2] in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

Ephesians 1:4-10

[4] even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love [5] he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, [6] to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. [7] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, [8] which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight [9] making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ [10] as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Are You Believing for God’s Will?

PRAY OVER THIS

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:8-10

 

PONDER THIS

What is the purpose of faith? It’s to bring us into relationship with God. Faith is not some way that Man’s will is done on Earth; it is the way that God’s will is done in Heaven. Faith is not something that uses God; faith is where God uses you. By faith, you say, “Lord, let Your life and Your will be done in me. Not my will, but Yours be done.” Faith is for official use only. It is for God to do what He wants done on Earth.

How many people desire power? The desire for power is all self-centered. So many are in religion for what they can get and not for what they can give or how they can be changed. They have never submitted to Jesus Christ. They have joined churches, been baptized, and gotten into a church for what it can do for them, but they have never repented, and they have never surrendered. Churches are filled with great pretenders. Our faith should not be self-centered, but Christ-centered. We come broken and He is the One who moves in power. How would our churches change if the people in them started to be transformed in this way?

When have you tried to use faith to get something from God?

When have you surrendered and asked God to use you? How were those experiences different?

PRACTICE THIS

Confess to God the ways you are looking to merely get things from Him. Ask Him to grow your faith so that, as you surrender, He does what He wills through you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers