A Unified Church

Welcome everyone! So good to be here with you all this morning! It’s always a joy and honor when I’m asked to come speak in front of you all. I love being able to gather here on Sundays and come unified. Being in a room that’s here for one thing, and that being Jesus. Becoming more like Jesus. And I love that we get to all be unified under that pursuit. Because how many of us know, we live in a time and culture where getting people to be unified is becoming more scarce then ever….

Truthfully disunity is widespread, because there's just a lot of people that are stubborn…. Raise your hand if that's you, we’ll make sure to get a prayer team member sent your way. I'm kidding, but if that's you I’m right there with you. I grew up really an only child, I like my own space, my own time, and especially my own ideas. Combine that with a personality of leadership and it’s safe to safe vie had plenty of moments of head butting and confrontation in my life…. And here’s what I’ll say about this. There have been moments in my life where I’ve pursed correction, that’s lead not to unity but actually division…. I think about when I went to the university of Minnesota. My sophomore year of college, I left a college ministry due to what I see now as relatively minor issues in the grand scheme of things. This was a ministry that believed in me, desired me, invested into me, and had community in. But because this ministry wasn’t the one I was accustomed to, because I had some different preferences, some differences in values, I developed a pride strong enough to where I thought the best thing to do was remove myself from the ministry, remove myself from the leadership that cared about me, remove myself from community, just so I could be right…..

Because I thought I was correct, I sacrificed unity that actually lead me to division.

Right now we live in a culture that breathes division. In a culture where people thrive on division, profit from conflict, and are rewarded for criticism over unity. Think about it, what do we see on the news and social media. What’s the first thing we see? Is it unity? Is it people hugging each other, having respectful interactions?... NO! Its division! Its arguments, its debates, its anger…. Division in our culture isn’t just common, its currency….. The culture says if you want anything to change you just need to divide more. Just widen the gap. You just need to dig yourself deeper in your opinion and turn off anything that could be challenging your worldview because ultimately it’s your truth! Remember there is no truth just what you think matters, that’s what culture says…. Now culture is DISCIPLING US into a place where we live in suspicion, sarcasm, and egotism.

As this is the culture society wants us to abide by, it can easily slip its way into a body of believers if we’re not on guard for it. We start to question leadership not out of discernment, but out of pessimism. We challenge decisions not in humility, but in pride. We speak to our friend about all the disagreements we have with a church or a certain leader and we start to disguise it as edification when it’s really whole hearted gossip….. We go oh well I’m just keeping it real. I know last week we talked about what Gods calling you to, and how what has calling you to can be found in His word, but I hesitate to say that’s Gods calling you to be a church rebuker…. Have we forgotten what Jesus has said about this? Mark 3:25 where ““If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”

Jesus hasn’t asked you to divide has asked you to be unified…..And my challenge for us this morning is if you looked at your life what is the main point of conversation when it comes to church and God appointed authority?.... Is it dividing or unifying?.... This morning we have a scripture I want us to dive into that I believe will help us answer this question…, when it comes to God placed authority, how can we live in submission rather than division?

Let’s open to 2 kings 2:23-25

Context for us to remember, Elisha is the successor prophet of Elijah, Elisha asks for a double portion of Elijah's spirit, which he receives. And right before this scripture Elisha does a miracle with water making it drinkable. And now what is He doing? He’s going to Bethel. Not to the school down the road, but the actual city…. You know what’s interesting about this?....

These boys we read about were from Bethel…. And Bethel was once a place of deep spiritual importance! We see it appear in Jacob’s vision in Genesis 28, where God reaffirms to Jacob, through a vision, the covenant made with Abraham. And Jacob names the area where he has the vision Bethel which means “house of God”...... But by Elisha’s time no longer was it appearing as a house of God but it had become a center of idolatry—King Jeroboam had set up more golden calves there……

Bethel, was ONCE a place where people knew God!.... This is where God moved! This is where history between God and his people was shared! This is where moves of God and significant moments happened. And now…. Over time its changed. They found comfort in following their own preferences, creating entirely new Gods, instead of continuously following the Lord and the new thing He was doing amongst them…. They were unwilling to submit to what God had placed in their midst. And now this brings us to the scripture of a large group of boys from Bethel who were mocking and rejecting Elisha and the authority God had placed on His life…..

What spiritual rebellion sounds like: He’s going to Bethel. Significance in Bethel?

But why did the boys heckle him? Why were they so opposed to him? Why did the mass crowd heckle him? What was their motive?......You know what’s really going on in this scripture, is that there is spiritual rebellion. “Baldy” is what they pointed out but inwardly there was a deeper tension amongst the boys…..These people that should have “known God”, were acting out in spiritual rebellion. Their city had history God but they were mocking God placed authority….

I want us to catch this, just because you have history with God docent give us a pass to mock Gods placed authority…..The scripture says that the boys “Jeered at him”. Jeered means “make rude and mocking remarks, typically in a loud voice….” So yelling in a loud voice they’re yelling “get out of here baldy!” Now here’s a picture of what I would look like bald on the screen, I’m kidding, you don’t want to see that… But they’re calling him Baldy, which is childish… They don't like what Elisha stands for, they don't like the authority God has given him so they start call him this name…. And I think a lot of what we might call “refining (or edifying)” God sees as childish. We have to be aware and careful that other people’s giftings, calls, ways God uses people, doesn’t break out of our own insecurity…..

What’s the point of conversation when you speak of churches and pastors? Is it unifying or is it gossip? Are you quick to honor or quick slander?.... When it comes to churches around us, how do we speak about them? Or if we can just go there this morning if that’s alright, how do we speak about the churches around us? Eaglebrook, substance, artisan? How are speaking of other churches that don’t do things how Renovation church does things? Churches with other 2nd or 3rd ring theological issues.”…. Or how about even when it comes to our church Renovation and the leadership here? Are we finding ourselves complaining about message series, worship song selection, and church structure more than we are upholding HIS church?.....

Because spiritual rebellion STARTs with this. It sounds like mockery, it sounds like mob mentality, back handed jokes….. As believers were called to live in submission to God‘s placed authority. Sub – mission means to be under a mission. How can you be under your own mission? How can you be under your own agenda? How can you be under your own preferences?..... As a youth pastor I’m called to submit under David and my executive director, even if I don’t always agree with every little decision.” But I have the responsibility to follow their final decisions and steward the position I'm in. Gods called me to steward the HS youth group, that’s my department, that’s my lane. My job isn't to make comments, or give feedback to departments or people that God has placed me over. It’s not my job to make worship suggestions, critique messages, comment on service flow…. If they ask me I’ll give feedback, but until then I’m not functioning out of a place about worrying about anything else then what God has given me to steward….. But what I can control is how I speak about David and any other staff and the decisions that happen here. I can still honor in disagreement. I can be quick to celebrate. I can leave a conversation of Gossip. I can be quick to point out strengths…..

Because the main point of this entire scripture is to not mock God placed authority. Ephesians 4:11-12 reads “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ." “He” meaning God, has given and appointed leadership to the church for the equipping of the body. God is in the very midst of church leadership….

Do we believe that the pastors at churches you have issues with have been appointed by God? How about the charismatic churches? Do we believe God has appointed them too?

And I’m not saying you can’t have your own opinions. You can have them but we can submit them to the Lord… Here’s the truth about churches because I know there’s some here thinking well what about when the bible says to beware of false teachers. Yes. And there was in the bible, and in our current time that preach a false GOSPEL. When the Gospel is compromised, run. Remove yourself from that situation. But If a church preaches the Gospel in its fullness, and it presents a call stand to against culture when so many churches bend to the culture, it’s a good church. Period. When scripture says beware of false teachers it’s not giving you a free pass to complain, gossip, and mock any God placed authority you desire…. You might not agree with everything they do, but I want us to examine ourselves this morning and ask how do I speak about these people and churches that have been established by God? That we would be a people, a congregation, that would rise above the temptation to slander churches and their leadership. That we would follow the call of holiness and have a purified tongue and mind when it comes to this matter…..

Elisha's response to the mockery. Not ego but a protection of Gods authority.

Because when it comes to this matter, is pretty apparent God takes this seriously…. We saw the aftermath of what happened to the boys…. But why did he curse them in response? Why bears? Like isn’t this kind of unfair or uncalled for? These little boys just made a joke and now they're dead? Is God going to do the same thing to me if I’ve made this mistake before? Well first thing to know is these boys were not innocent little boys joking around.

First, These were not little kids. The word “boys” in Hebrew means not little elementary age kids but young adult age. This was a gang of young men who were potentially even violent and out of control with a large group. Elisha may have needed miraculous intervention to escape. Secondly, Verse 24 does not say that the victims were killed. The Hebrew word translated ‘mauled’ does not mean death but indicates less serious injuries. The ultimate outcome of the miracle was to break up the gang, frighten the offenders and the entire village.

But ultimately Elisha is not defending his ego he’s defending the authority of God and the seriousness of rejecting His word. Throughout the Old Testament, mocking or opposing God’s prophets is often a sign of a rebellious heart and leads to judgment. And these bears were a public, shocking act of judgment—like many others in the Old Testament—that served as a warning: The warning being that God takes mocking and rebellion seriously,... Especially when it comes from people who should know better, as these boys were from Bethel.

Here’s what we learn from the consequences of their actions. When you divide his church, you are dividing yourself from God. In fact, where does it say Elisha went after the bears mauled the boys. Did he go onto to Bethel? No…. He turned around to Mount Carmel…. God does not want to associate himself with a people who will mock him. But what he does want is a church unified….

What church unity can bring forth

Verse 25 doesn’t pop off the page but is important. He doesn’t go to Bethel which is filled with idolatry and turns around to Mount Carmel. Why is this important? Mount Carmel was a place where Elisha's mentor, Elijah had called down fire from heaven to show that God is real and powerful, while the false gods had no power at all…. Mount Carmel was known as a place where God revealed Himself again as the one true God to worship. When Elisha turns back to Mount Carmel its showing that true worship and a fully unified people is the only standard God desires and accepts…..

Our standard as the church has to be higher. The broader church has gotten way too comfortable with church slander. We slander churches then wonder why most American churches are dead…. We pull out a sword before we offer a helping hand and wonder why American Christians are spiritually dead compared to other Christians in the world. We kill each other! But the Lord desires unity!.... Think about this, what’s the trinity? It’s the father, the son, and the holy spirit, all working as one in unison together…. Imagine if the father, son, and holy spirit all gave different direction and still claimed to be one. It would be illegitimate to follow!... Now when people look at the church and see the church completely divided and mocking each other does the church not appear illegitimate to the non-believer….

We don’t submit to authority and then go wow the church is really missing it. We mock church authority and go wow still no revival yet? Is it possible that the Lord is going? I’ll pour out a move of God when my people start honoring and respecting my placed authority? If we aren’t unified as the broader church, how can we witness to an unbeliever? For the name of Jesus to be lifted high as possible it takes every body of believers, every church, every denomination. If the church was unified, his name would be lifted higher! If the broader Church is not unified then you know what name gets lifted higher? Church names, names of pastors…. You start walking out of church buildings and people become more in awe of service structure and presentation of a sermon more than they were in awe of the movement of the spirit…..

I don’t know about you all but I want one name lifted high. I want one name to rule my life. I want one name to rule the city of Blaine. I want one name to rule High schools!....Will we be unified not only as a broader Church, but unified in the pursuit of honoring God placed authority?

As we end this morning, there’s one final thing to see in the scripture. After mount Carmel, where does Elisha go? He goes to Samaria…. Samaria was the political center of the northern kingdom Israel. Elisha entering Samaria shows him entering the public and political sphere—where he would later influence kings, speak God’s word in national crises, and perform miracles for the people. But he did this AFTER returning to a place of unity and sole devoted worship to God at Mount Carmel…..

I believe that if we individually come to a place where we value unification over correction, it will position the church to be messenger to the nations. If we want America to know Jesus, our state, Blaine, schools and our communities, to know Jesus, we first have to submit to what God has already placed. What standard will we hold when it comes to the point of conversation about the church. Will we join in on slander or take a stand knowing its unification that Gods heart longs for? How will we respond?....

Gospel

As some have heard this message this morning you might feel a conviction to submit to Gods placed authority…. But there may be people in this room who have not submitted their lives to Jesus. And if that’s you we have an opportunity for you this morning to do so. Here’s what you need to know. That God does spirit desires to be in unity with you. You were created to know God and walk with him daily. Our sin has separated us from that relationship. But through Jesus work on the cross we are brought back into right standing with God. Jesus sacrifices his body and his life, bearing all you past, present and future sin and brings it to the grave. But 3 days later He rises from the grave, conquering sin and death. And through Jesus you can share in the same death and resurrection of your life. You can be alive with God leaving this place this morning…. But I will not sell you short, it will cost you everything. — Romans 1:16 says “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.” David talked about calling last week. When you accept Jesus you have a call to lose fear of man, to be unashamed by the Gospel. And no better place to walk in that freedom than this room. So with every eye open and every head up, if you want confess Jesus as Lord in your life, on the count of 3 you can raise your hand and were going to clap for you and celebrate you and have you come to the front of the stage after service to meet with a follow up member for what’s next.