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This Is How A Real Church Looks
James 5:16 (NIV) Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Gal 6:2 (NIV) Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Just imagine what kind of group this would take for something like this to happen. Can you imagine a church group opening up and getting prayed for concerning this list of sin issue found in Galatians 5:19-21? Gal 5:19-21 (NIV) The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Isn't This The Way It Is In A Lot Of Churches?
Let's say that God called us to a ministry which was to start a church in town. And suppose a bunch of people start coming to our church with sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. And let's suppose that we start ministering to them. But, we and the leadership of the church have hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy in our hearts. What do we think is going to happen to the church? It is doomed. We consider ourselves far superior to the ones with sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. We see ourselves as their answer to spiritual healing. Why do we see things in such a context? Our sins are not as obvious as theirs are.
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Everyone everywhere can see their sins. There is no way to hide them. But, our sins, that's another issue. We can sneak around and commit our sins. We can hate people in our heart. We can create discord while saying that we are only bringing these things up for prayer. We can play the two ends against the middle and never let anyone know we are doing it because we are jealous. How To Become A Real Church
Mat 7:3-5 (NIV) Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and THEN YOU WILL SEE CLEARLY to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
Here come all these hurting people wanting to be healed by Jesus. Who do they get instead? Us! Do they really have the plank and we have the speck? I don't think so. We are really in much worse shape than them. They are admitting that they need help. We are acting like we have already been helped. We even think that we have the answers to their needs. If we really start to see how hypocritical that is, it will cause some intense pain in our heart. Finally these people find a church where their needs are being ministered to. But, if these needs are being met by damaged ministers (people helping hurting people), then the inevitable is going to happen. The church falls apart. Where do they go for help now? We were their last hope. Isn't that sad? What we have to do to keep this from happening is to allow God to drive all these things out of our life first. Then these hurting people will get Jesus rather than us. |