10/15/2006 Washington Assembly of God

The Power and the Presence

Why are you here today?

The core reason that most of us are in this room at 10:45 on a Sunday morning is because we desire an experience of God’s Presence. This is a place we have made a holy, a God-owned place, where we gather to worship Him and hopefully to sense His Presence in a way that is different from other times and places in our day to day lives.

Yes, it may also be true that we come to see our friends, or that we gather to learn something from Scripture, or because we enjoy the music ... but those are truly secondary reasons for the church, aren’t they?

I can meet my friends over breakfast and have a good time! I can read a book to learn and spare myself the trouble of leaving the house. I can turn on the CD player and enjoy sacred music.

But, when I come to church, consciously and sometimes unconsciously, my real longing is to meet with God! The prayer of the Psalm is my prayer ... “As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and stand before him?" (Psalm 42:1-2, NLT)

As I thought about coming into God’s Presence this week, I began to ponder a related question -

What can we do, if anything, that makes Him welcome among us?

I found an answer in the text for the message this morning.

TEXT - Matthew 18:18-20 Pew Bible page 1527

What is Jesus telling us?

That our unity invites His Presence and creates amazing opportunities for us to experience His Power!

One of the most destructive things that can happen to a church is for it to fall into disunity. This grieves the Holy Spirit of God and He will withdraw His fellowship from us!

There are many ‘reasons’ that Believers become divided and begin to fight among themselves, but two things are particularly common.

The first is struggles over power and position, and

the second is fighting about hurts and offenses that are not resolved.

These are not new issues for Christ-followers!

The struggle for power and position was a problem even for the first disciples. Luke tells us that on the night before the Crucifixion, the pivotal moment of Jesus’ work in the world, the men who had been following Him, listening to His teaching, and observing His miracles were fighting among themselves about who was most important! Can you believe that? Luke says that Jesus heard them squabbling and got up from the table, took off his robe, and began to wash their feet! He finished up this powerful lesson in humble service and said, “Now, I’ve shown you a model of humbility so, serve one another!”

But we quickly forget, don’t we? In my 3 decades of ministry in several different churches, a plague that has been common in each of those congregations has been those people who are infected with a spirit of pride, who demand recognition, who refuse to serve without reward and/or title. They are motivated by the same spirit that filled the heart of a man named Diotrephes, whom John described as a man ‘who loves to be first... who will not receive the brothers!’

Issues of offense are powerful dividers, too!

Recently I called a person who has been missing from fellowship for some time to see if they were in spiritual distress. Without any sense of embarrassment, that person said, “So and so was rude to me, so I’m not coming to church right now.” The issues involved were actually quite trivia. I continued the conversation and asked, “Have you spoken to that other person about it?”

“No, and I don’t plan to.” was the reply. I hung up the phone both saddened and amazed that a person would value being in worship so little as to allow hurt feelings to drive them from church!

I wish I could say that was a unique situation, but it is not. It is all too common in thousands of churches and in the lives of millions of Christians today.

In addition to the personal distress that people experience in these kinds of situations, there is a much greater loss. When we fight for power or hold onto our hurts, we drive Presence of the Lord from and we forfeit the spiritual power that is released by Jesus Christ in the midst of people who are unified!

When the Spirit is grieved and withdraws His fellowship from a church, that church will soon lose the reason for its existence - the Presence of Christ. Religious form will soon replace the vital relationship with God that gives us life, that produces healing, and brings about the transformation of people from sinners to saints!

Unity, therefore, needs to be a priority commitment of people who are part of churches who desire to experience God’s powerful Presence!

So, how can we preserve the unity that invites Jesus Christ to be among us in the Person of the Spirit?

Go to the opening word of Matthew 18. (READ vv. 2-4)

Jesus calls on us to humble ourselves, to become like a little child!

∙ Humility is not the same thing as humiliation! A person subjected to torment and hazing by bullies may be humiliated, but their experiences with cruelty do not produce humility. Enough humiliation can break a person’s spirit, but even a person with a broken spirit is not necessarily humble.

∙ Humility is not the same thing as helplessness or being powerless. Some of the most prideful people I’ve ever met in my life were poor and powerless. Despite their lack of advantages, their oppression by others, and apparent lack of opportunities, they show fierce pride. They often are very quick to become defensive and slow to admit their mistakes.

∙ It is not self-hatred, either.

Humility is a choice to take second place, to set aside one’s own interests in favor of the interests of others. Humility is a choice! It is about giving up one’s rights and choosing to become submissive. It is about denying the Self its demand to rule. Jesus told us to ‘take up your cross and die to self!’ He reversed the human ideas of greatness. He reminded his disciples that earthly kings insisted on being treated with deferential respect, that earthly masters demanded servitude from those beneath them. But then He said,

“Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal ... do you want to stand out?

Then step down. Be a servant.

If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you.

But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

Paul’s appeal to Believers is “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." (Ephesians 5:21, NIV)

The church that is filled with proud people looking for attention and craving rewards will not enjoy the sweet and gentle Presence of Christ in their midst. And ministry done for any reason other than the glory of God, that is tinged with Self-interest - is corrupt and will not be blessed by God.

So, we must practice the disciplines of service and submission. We must make the CHOICE of humility, again and again, confessing immediately the sins of pride that creep up on us. As we become like a child in humility, God Himself will becomes our friend!

Move down that same chapter to v. 15-17. Here Jesus teaches us how to deal conflict so that the offenses that inevitably come into every relationship find no fertile soil to grow into feuds and bitterness! (READ)

How amazingly simple, and yet this pattern is rarely followed by Believers. The result is that we have churches full of people who hate each other, and where the Presence of Jesus is driven out by angry, bitter men and women who are sure they are right.

For people who claim to be loved by God Himself, who talk and sing a great deal about love, we are quite skilled at disliking each other and justifying our sins against each other.

Jesus said that if conflict arises and we feel offended, don’t sulk about it. Resolve the difference. How?

-First, go talk the offender.

The vast majority of offenses would lose their power to enslave us in anger, IF we would

just be willing to say, “I’m offended,” to the person we think has hurt us. In almost every situation, where I’ve followed Jesus’ wisdom, I have found one of two things to be true:

I have misunderstood the whole situation and find myself apologizing for taking offense,

OR I find a person who is sorry they have thoughtlessly hurt me and ready to make it right.

If that step doesn’t end the difference, Jesus says

- Get somebody to intervene! Find good-hearted people who will help the process, who are committed to peace and who want to settle, not escalate the difference.

And, then if these steps have failed to bring about reconciliation -

- Let the church decide. The leadership of the church should hear the difference and work to bring about reconciliation.

Then, Jesus makes a startling statement - "If that person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. If the church decides you are right, but the other person won’t accept it, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector." (Matthew 18:17, NLT) Many see that as urging the person be thrown out of the church, but I believe Jesus was saying something different! He was saying,

“See that person’s refusal to be reconciled as evidence that they have a spiritual need and work to bring them to right relationship with God.”

If we’re fighting and bickering; worrying about how to preserve our rights and personal dignity, that’s evidence that our hearts are not being transformed by the Spirit of God.

John says it very clearly - "We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both." (1 John 4:19-21, The Message)

Jesus told us that it would be peacemakers who are called God’s children. Conflict is inevitable, but reconciliation is a choice that God demands of those who would live in His Presence.

This quote from Pastor Bill Hybels is worth writing down -

The mark of community, true biblical unity, is not the absence of conflict. It's the presence of a reconciling spirit.

(Tell the story of Matthew 18:23-35 - the forgiven servant who chose not to forgive!)

_____________________

Yes, I come to church hungry for the Presence and Power of Christ. He’s promised to be here - if ‘two or three come together in His name.’ He will come to be with a humble people who are seeking peace!

And in His Presence, there is fullness of life and joy!

Church, let us take this word to heart. As we move to the table of fellowship, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, do what Paul urges and examine your heart. Open it to God’s gaze and should He reveal pride and/or bitterness - confess it as the sin it is, without excuse.

Then, with courage, take steps to die to self, to humble yourself, to settle the differences - FOR GOD’S SAKE!

Unity, therefore, needs to be a priority commitment of people who are part of churches who desire to experience God’s powerful Presence!

MUSIC -