Four People Who Will Ruin Any Church

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There are four very dangerous members of every church I have ever seen. Admittedly, sometimes I have invoked their names myself, thinking that they were my friends and that they were on “my side.” But every time, I soon found out they were snakes in the grass – not my friends, but very dangerous adversaries.

Somehow, they manage to get appointed to every committee or ministry group in the church. They are the most faithful members of the church; they NEVER miss, NEVER get sick, NEVER take a vacation, and NEVER play hooky. They fill their pew every time the church doors open. At first glance, they seemed to be pillars of the church, but now I realize, they are pure poison.

Some of you reading may know them; you may be their kin. In fact, you may be them. At times, I have to confess that sometimes, I am “them.” Who are these four members? I, Me, My, and Mine. I call them “The Quartet.”

One of the most dangerous things that can happen in a church is for any one of the body parts to become overly “self-aware.” Church does not belong to me. It is not my church. In fact, it is not even “our” church. The church has been bought and paid for and is under singular management – we are the body of Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 4, Paul warned us that unity would be a chore to maintain.

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. – Ephesians 4:3

Paul calls the task of maintaining unity an “effort.” It does not come naturally, easily, or automatically. Notice the hub around which the wheel of unity rolls – the Holy Spirit. We cannot have unity around the Quartet. Unity is not achieved by either unanimity or majority opinion. There has to be ONE singular central place where the buck stops, and in Jesus’ church the buck stops with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Soloist in the church’s performance. He is the Superstar. The best The Quartet can hope for is to be the backup singers, the supporting cast. The Quartet has to take a back seat to the Soloist. Church only works when you and I seek the will of the Holy Spirit even to the exclusion of our own desires and preferences.

In the ensuing verses of Ephesians 4, Paul goes on to use the word “one” seven times referring to God and His work in and through us. That is the basis for our unity. Not a preacher, not a deacon, not a class, committee, ministry, and certainly not The Quartet.

It’s not about Me… or I… or… My… or Mine.

He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease. – John 3:30

 

Maintaining Spiritual Momentum

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For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God,
which is in you through the laying on of my hands… 2 Timothy 1:6

In my teen days, we used to sing a song at church that began with the line, “It only takes a spark to get a fire going.” Since I want my life to be “on fire” with the power of the Holy Spirit bearing His fruit in and through me, I need to tend the fire that He has started.

First, the fire needs to be fed.  To keep the fire going, I have to introduce a new log every now and then. The same thing is true in my life spiritually. I cannot continue to burn brightly with what God fed me last week.  I need God’s Word to address MY LIFE on a daily basis.  I need an intentional plan for studying, meditating on, and applying God’s Word.

Also, the fire needs to be fanned. As a flame starts to dwindle, I can blow on the red-hot embers and once again the flames rise. In my spiritual life, I need the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit to blow in my life. I need to start everyday asking Him to control every thought, word, attitude, and action in my life. I need to ask Him to bear His fruit in my life. I need what only the Holy Spirit can do in my life. I need His filling, His empowerment, His activity or else my fire for God suffocates.

Then finally, the fire needs to be freshened. I can freshen a fire by stirring it around a bit, moving the logs, creating some breathing room. Spiritually, I need fresh challenges and experiences if I am to grow.  I need to be stirred on a regular basis. Granted, these freshening experiences are not always pleasant – after all, you freshen a fire with a pointed thing called a poker. Who among us really enjoys being poked and prodded?  The poker freshens the fire by stirring the fuel closer to the red-hot center of the fire. When God uses His poker to stir my life, He usually draws me closer to Him, the blazing center of spiritual vitality and fire.

So . . . what does your fire need? Fuel? Fanning? Freshening?

 

 

The Holy Spirit…More or Less?

My last blog dealt with how we can tell if we are living “spiritual” lives.  The Bible often refers living spiritually minded to being “filled” with the Spirit.

 “…do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery,
but be filled with the Spirit…” – Ephesians 5:18

Unfortunately, we tend to think of Spirit filling like we think of filling a gas tank or a glass of water.  Sometimes I hear people say something to the effect of “I need more of the Spirit.”  In reality if we are believers in Christ, the Spirit lives in us.  The Bible refers to this as “indwelling.”  We get all there is of Him, not just part of him.

The key to understanding what it means to be filled with the Spirit is found in the comparison provided in the first part of the verse.  A person who is inebriated is under the control or influence of alcohol or some other intoxicating substance.  Such a person does not behave as they normally would, but their behavior is altered by the substance influencing them.

So it is with Spirit-filling – we are not filled up to a certain level, but instead we are filled through with the influence of the Spirit.  Just as a glove does nothing on its own, but does what the hand filling it does, so also the Spirit-filled believer does not act in his own understanding and resources but through the influence of the Holy Spirit. The question is not how much of the SPIRIT do I have, but how much of ME does the Spirit have.

So, how can I experience life under the influence of the Holy Spirit?  First, I must be clean.  Sin grieves the Spirit and limits his availability to work through me.  When I sin, He convicts me of that sin and leads me to confess it so I can be forgiven.  If I reject His prompting to repent, my hardening heard grows resistance to His influence.

Second, I must be surrendered.  God gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish HIS purpose in our lives, not to make up proud of ourselves or to give us a sense of superiority over others.  I experience the fullest influence of the Spirit when I am completely sold out to God’s plan and recognize my utter dependence on Him to achieve it.

Finally, I must be grounded.  Electrical current will not work properly unless it is “grounded.”  So also, we cannot experience the fullest influence of the Spirit unless we are consistently and constantly grounded in God’s Word.  The discipline of regular Bible intake provides the instructions we need to align our lives with what the Spirit is up to around us.

Questions for reflection:

1. How often do I experience the power of God working through me, power beyond my known abilities and efforts?

2. Have I refused to admit and turn away from sin God has revealed in my life?

3. Am I fully surrendered to God’s way of ordering my life?  If not, why?

4.  Am I spending time daily in God’s Word?