Our Leaders, Methods, Design and Purposes
1 Corinthians 14:40
I. Introduction (1Cor 14:40)
A. Our world is out of control – not submitted to God’s order of things
1. Like a highway system with almost not rules, no speed limits, no Garda
2. Like a factory without instructions, and managers, on off switches, and controls to make sure everything runs smoothly and safely
3. Look at how people act, and think! Not decently, and out of control!!!
B. Churches are out of control – also not submitted to God’s order of things
1. Don’t like rules and limits on their lives
2. Church has become, “Do what you want” not Do as Jesus Says
3. Look at how “Christians” act – not decently, and out of control!
C. The Apostle Paul commands that everything in a person’s life should be done decently and in order (especially our worship)
1. Decently – clean
2. In Order – orderly, according to rules
D. Examples of Confusion and Disorder in churches
1. “What I witnessed during my visit to the Vineyard [Church] was absolute bedlam. (Indeed, this has been true *every* time I had visited an evening service at the Vineyard [Church] ) Several people were "pogoing in the spirit" (jumping up and down); three women were lying on the floor (rather indelicately) going through imaginary birth pangs, while a male minister stood over them, shouting "Birth it! Birth it!"; four teenage girls lay tangled together on the floor, experiencing some sort of shared convulsions; an overweight and unkempt man ran around the perimeter of the floor, waving his arms and flinging sweat; a young woman, seemingly oblivious to all around her, went through some crude ballet-like motions; various people wept, laughed, barked like dogs, and roared like wild animals." PHILLIP JOHNSON
2. Divisions between Christians – anger, bitterness, cliques
3. Women standing up and preaching instead of the man of God
4. Making the Lord’s Supper into a feast and excluding people who are poor
5. Christians coming to church to show off new cars, or fashionable clothes, or new boyfriends
6. Christians only coming to church when it is convenient and profitable for them – not faithful, nor prayerful
E. You cannot play a game of football without rules; the rules make the game possible. You cannot play a game of chess without rules; you cannot drive through traffic without rules. So certain fundamental rules are necessary to the well-being of a church.
F. God is a God of order
1. In Creation – step by step, in an orderly fashion He created, and it continues orderly, not chaotic
2. In the Tabernacle worship – specific items, in specific places, with everyone coming together to worship at specific times, in a specific place
3. In the New Testament (Tit 1:5) – Church is not about “Doing It Yourself”
G. This morning I want to begin to look at the Orderliness that needs to be in our Church, and in every Bible Believing Church:
1. One Bible
2. One Purpose
3. One Praise
4. One Problem
5. One Programme
6. One Pastor
7. One Goal
II. Message – Order in the Church – Part 1
A. One Bible (1:10)
1. Shows only one Gospel
2. One Saviour
3. One Mind
4. One Judgment about things
5. Folks, we are to “go by the Book” – do everything according to God’s perfect Life Manual, the Bible.
6. And we are to obey the right Bible – not just any “book” that claims to be a Bible
a. Salvation – a process, or complete? (1 Cor 1:18)
1) (CEV) The message about the cross doesn't make any sense to lost people. But for those of us who are being saved, it is God's power at work.
2) (KJV) For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
3) (MSG) The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out.
b. Is repentance Necessary? Luke 5:32
1) (CEV) “I didn't come to invite good people to turn to God. I came to invite sinners."
2) (KJV) I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
3) (MSG) “I'm here inviting outsiders, not insiders--an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out."
B. One Purpose (1:17-24)
1. Not to baptize, catechise, homogenise, pasteurize, or computerize
2. Only to PREACH the Gospel – death, burial, resurrection of Jesus
3. That is the driving force behind our lives – the preaching, the presenting of the need to be born again by the Spirit of God
4. It is why we start churches everywhere, why we support missionary families, why we have Bible Clubs, and Men’s Retreats, and Youth Camps – so that the Gospel is PREACHED!
C. One Praise (1:27-31)
1. Never of self, or of great accomplishments
2. I have heard singers in churches get standing ovations, and clapped at WHILE they were singing and playing instruments (not just at the end of the song), so that you quickly forget the Person they were supposed to be worshipping in their song, and your focus was now on THEM!
3. We have ONE focus in our Praise – of God alone (Rev 19:10)
a. His Son as our Saviour
b. His Sufficiency in meeting all our needs
c. His Scriptures as perfect and all we need
d. His people as being a great family
D. One Problem (3:1-4, 16-18)
1. Carnality – the old “me” (old habits, old patterns of thinking, old memories, old loves, old desires, old attitudes)
2. If there are problems in a church, it is only because of self - carnality.
3. Three things feed into the Carnal Lifestyle
a. Sin – lures a person away from God
b. Self – fills up the life of the Christian with old habits and worldly lusts
c. Satan – teaches how to go further and further in sin
4. Three results of Carnality
a. Division
b. Apathy
c. Ruin
5. The opposite of Carnality is Spirituality
a. Spirit-Led – leads a Christian closer to God
b. Spirit-Filled – replaces Self with Jesus Christ
c. Spirit-Taught – teaches how to go further and further in godliness and righteousness and joy
E. One Programme (3:5-15)
1. The redemption of men’s souls
a. More than just saving their souls from hell
b. But also saving their souls from sin
2. Paul talks about planting, and farming – takes a lot of work growing up
3. The programme centres around taking sinners, no matter where they are at, no matter what they may be doing, and how far gone they may be (1Cor 6:9-11)
4. Everything we do is more than just for fellowship, and for learning, and for growing
5. It is for the transforming of lives from the power of darkness to light
6. Somebody asks, What is Your Church Programme? The saving of lives and homes and communities!
III. Conclusion
A. You cannot play a game of football without rules; the rules make the game possible. You cannot play a game of chess without rules; you cannot drive through traffic without rules. So certain fundamental rules are necessary to the well-being of a church.
B. Orderliness needs to be in our Church, and in every Bible Believing Church, and it is accomplished by having the following “in order”:
1. One Bible
2. One Purpose
3. One Praise
4. One Problem
5. One Programme
6. One Pastor
7. One Goal
C. But it all begins with the New Birth!
Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland