"I Am A Unifying Member" Rev. Reginald W. Sharpe Jr Wednesday, June 22, 2022

0:56 Thank you so much because if you didn't turn us on, I would be up here talking to myself. But we are excited because we're in a new series called I Am a Church Member. I'm encouraging our church to get a book, invest in it. It is not expensive, written by Tom Rainer. I Am a Church Member. We have some available at our church in the Welcome Center following each service, 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. So I encourage you to grab your book. Hey, we're going to jump into this lesson. You know I don't believe in wasting your time. We're going to jump into the lesson. But before we do that, let's honor God with our giving. I want to thank you for your consistency. I want to thank you for your generosity. We could not do what we do without your faithful support. So look at the seven ways to give. It's coming up right there on the screen. Pick which way is most convenient for you.

1:49 And I thank you in advance for your faith in the area of tithes and offerings. So look at those seven ways to give. And let me just park and say, I love you. I appreciate you. And I really do pray that your family is well. I pray that you are well and that even as summertime shine flows on, that you prioritize your peace and that you find a good pace so that you can accomplish all the things that God has for you. So thank you again for giving. Thank you again for tuning in. Let's go ahead and jump into this word. Thank you band. Thank you music ministry. Thank you media ministry for doing what you do because it allows us to do what we do. So I thank God for every person that's played a role in our coming together tonight. So we're in the second chapter of the book. I am a church member.

2:41 Somebody write it, write it in the chat and say, I am a church member. I'm a church member. When you join a church, you are a church member. And last week we talked about, I am a functioning member. Somebody put that in the chat. I am a functioning member. It means not just that I'm a member, like at a country club, the word member in the bible means i'm a part of the body i'm literally a part of the body i'm a hand i'm a foot i'm a leg i'm a hip i'm a i'm an ear i'm a nose i'm an eye everybody has a function in the body of christ and so you have to be a functioning member because it's so amazing how you can be one part of the body and think that you're not important uh until it is revealed through pain or through some injury that hey that tooth when it starts aching although it's small it plays a pivotal role with the entire body you sprain your ankle i promise you it's going to change the way you walk if your back is hurting you it could just be one pinched nerve it could be a muscle spasm and you don't even pay attention to your back until those muscles get out of order and and right before that that that that pinched nerve begins to irritate you and becomes a jarring reminder that something isn't right. It's small, but it's huge when it gets out of order. And so you might just, you might feel like, oh, all I do is help with the children's ministry. When you play your part, you're a functioning member. All I do is work in the parking lot with Deacon Gilliam. No, that's a huge thing.

4:17 All I do is sit behind a camera. No, that's important because if that camera shakes through the whole service the people on the virtual ship will have a very uncomfortable experience we've seen this in real life everything matters the person that turns on the heat the person that turns on the air it matters everybody has a functioning part and so that was last week's lesson I just did a quick review but today we want to talk about I am a unifying member all the fun I'm about to have teaching on this I am a unifying member I am a person that makes the church better my presence keeps people together i i'm not i'm not into confusion i i don't thrive off a drama i'm not excited when i hear that there's a disagreement in within people in a ministry i i don't get turned on by mess and dissension and brokenness and fractures and misunderstandings because sometimes in our human nature that's juicy isn't it when you discover somebody don't like somebody when you discover that somebody got in an argument right after meeting somebody cut up in a meeting and they got upset that's juicy well as juicy as it may be that is not why god has brought you to the church god did not bring you to the church to be a mess maker god brought us here to be peacemakers blessed are the peacemakers for theirs is the kingdom of God so here we are talking about the unifying church member and he opens up talking about how although it may seem small it's huge because Jesus says it's I mean literally it's how he opens up chapter two he says Jesus says they will know you belong to me by how by how you love your love will be the proof that you are a disciple that's John chapter 13 verse 35 they will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another you know we quote that scripture people have heard that scripture but what it's really saying is is that when i exhibit love for another

6:27 person in the church in my family on my job in the community that is the key example that's the key source of proof that you are a child of god and when you are not loving one another that is a key sign that you are not representing Jesus Christ and so here's what Rainer says he says in sports teams the teams that compete at the highest level are often teams that operate in total unity he then states that the local church is way more important than sports teams if teams have to work at high levels with unity how much more does the church have to be unified to make sure that we are helping people be whole and healthy spiritually in the house of God Paul puts it this way in his letter in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 1 through 6 let me read it like this as a prisoner for the Lord then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received be completely humble and gentle oh I'm about to get on somebody's nerves be patient bearing with one another in love make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace there is one body and one spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called one lord one faith one baptism one god and father of all who is over all and through all and in all do you hear do you see the picture he's telling you you you have to operate in humility you must operate in gentleness you've got to be patient you've got to love one another and make every effort you can to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace he's saying you keep unity by making sure that peace is your priority i'm dropping nuggets all the way through this if you want to know how i become more unified and ask yourself this is peace my priority when i'm in the meeting when i'm the leader as I follow the leader as I don't agree with what the pastor is saying as I don't like

8:36 the direction that I see certain things going in am I prioritizing peace am I prioritizing unity am I gentle when I express the fact that I am disliking something do I have humility do I have patience with my leaders and my church am I speaking from a place of love and he says we have to do this because we're in one body one spirit called to one hope there's one lord one faith one baptism if god is one huh if jesus the son god the father the holy spirit all operate together if they're all one and if god is moving in us why can't you be unified and you have a god who is the very epitome of unity god is the epitome of unity and you call yourself a child of God and you don't have any desire to be unified I didn't say uniformity uniformity says we all gonna dress alike think alike talk alike no I'm not asking you for uniformity because that would create a cult and our church is not a cult I don't need everybody thinking just like me you can have your thoughts you can have your opinions you can have your style you can like what you like you can prefer what you prefer but when you are unified it says although I like chocolate you like vanilla up we can still hang out at the same ice cream shop although you like you know ribs and i and i'm vegan and i don't we can still eat at the same restaurant we can still eat together dine together you know hang out together our diets are different our preferences are different and that's where the beauty of unity shows up everybody does not have to be alike and think alike to still walk together am i making sense tonight and so the problem with a lot of churches is you have people who thrive off of disunity making sure that things aren't what they were supposed to be and here's what i need more than anything lean up because it's about to get juicy right through here this is what i need to ask you this is what i need to ask you are you a person when you hear mess does it stop with you that there's an old quote that says uh gossip ends at the ears of the wise

10:49 gossip ends when it reaches the ears of the wise and so whenever something hits you do you keep it going do you keep it uh in conversations or is god using you to be a unifier see the main reason why a lot of us don't have unity is because you haven't learned how to say this right here what i'm about to tell you when somebody brings you something about somebody else here's the here's the one thing that has shut it all down you got to learn how to say have you talked to them about that have you had a conversation with them about that so you said oh they say it went now and they did what now and did it it did it uh-huh and did and then and then as soon as you're in that conversation you lie and tell them no whatever you tell me it stay right here as soon as they leave your presence you call them bertha bertha did you hear this such and such and such so and So no, no, no, no, no.

11:45 You cut all that out and you say, don't bring that to me. Have you talked to the person who offended you first when you are a five star leader? That is one way that you keep your people together. You encourage them to be mature enough to go have a conversation with the person that you have an issue with. I know we keep saying that we keep saying that we keep saying it and people still don't believe it. You walk around carrying stuff you should not be carrying because you don't have the spiritual maturity. yet to get over your anxiety and say hey i need to have a conversation with you not a confrontation a conversation because we know at fellowship confrontations the goal is winning conversations the goal is understanding when i have a conversation i'm just trying to understand you and all of this helps us what find some unity find some unity find some unity there are two things that you've got to deal with and i'm gonna wrap this lesson up tonight number one when you have a unifying member when you are a unifying member here's what you here's what you stop gossip and other negative talk gossip and other negative talk read romans 1 29 through 31 and it talks about the fact that uh that that that you don't want to be filled with unrighteous acts you don't want to be a part of evil and greed and wickedness and quarrels and that's that's a nice old school way of saying fights and deceit no no no no you don't want to be a part of what the bible calls idle talk first peter 3 and 10 says for the one who wants to love life and to see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit love life see good days and control your tongue stop gossip and be a unifier is what tom rayner says in this book i need to ask you I mean look within yourself I always find it ironic that the that the root word of gossip and gospel is the same always find it ironic that gospel the good news gossip bad news is the same which one are you

13:51 are you a gospel spreader or are you a gossip spreader it may seem small but it's huge because this is the church and if you are unifying member there's always going to be some negative talk somebody's always going to have something that they didn't like and see something they didn't like when you see it when you hear it what do you do with it and here's what i've said before and i say again when somebody comes to you and uh and they and they come to you and they say such and such was talking about you such and such said something about you and instead of you saying what did they say why do you think they said it the first thing you ought to ask is why did they feel so comfortable saying that in your presence and what did you say back to them before you brought it to me because some things shouldn't even have to reach the person you as a mature christian ought to shut certain things down before it goes another further i know that's good country talking right there before it goes another further but gossip and other negative talk has to be stopped it is ceased by the unifying member somebody said mess mess can't hang around me come on say it out loud mess can't hang around me i mess can't hang around me gossip it takes two people a carrier and a catcher and so you said well i didn't say nothing but you sat there and let them talk for 15 20 minutes about somebody else and you didn't stop them and you didn't correct them and you did not check them and you did not advise them go talk to them the bible says if you have a problem with your brother or your sister go to them so you might not have been the carrier of it but you were the catcher of it and you did not correct them in the midst of it i i know i'm talking heavy but it's real because you know messy people right now if i said write a messy person's name down in the chat right now the whole chat would light up don't do it don't do it don't you do it don't don't you type one thing on that thing don't you type it but you know you know what i'm talking about you know the person too so when you are a unifying member gossip and negative talk stops because of your love because of your maturity because of your wisdom that's what we need in every church unifying members and then here's a second thing here's a second thing here's a second

15:58 thing and I'm almost done forgiveness and unity flows through you forgiveness and unity flows through you Tom Rainer says walking with a humble heart toward God helps us see our need for forgiveness Matthew 6 14 15 check this out for if you forgive people for their wrongdoing your heavenly God your heavenly father will forgive you as well but if you don't forgive people your father will not forgive you i don't know if church folk believe this i'm not so convinced that we actually believe if i forgive a person god actually forgives me based on my ability to forgive i believe that's in the model prayer uh the prayer that jesus taught his disciples we call it the lowest prayer is really the disciples prayer because they asked him teach us how to pray and he said well when you pray say our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name that kingdom come that will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread forgive us come here our debts as we forgive our debtors and depending on what tradition you're from forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and that's in the prayer so you telling god lord forgive me based on how i forgive others how you walking around with malice and resentment and bitterness and you praying in the prayer lord forgive me based upon my ability to forgive others so you're telling god i'm giving you permission if i don't forgive god please don't forgive me now who in this world who listening to me tonight can afford for god to stop forgiving you all have sinned and come short of the glory of god the wages of sin is death but the gift of god is eternal life who in here can afford i mean think about it now for god to say all right no more forgiveness for you no more no no no everything you do wrong you're gonna pay for it every time you mess up i'm gonna make sure you reap exactly what you sow who in here can afford i want to see the hands right in yeah you put your hand up in the chat if you can afford that no

18:06 i think we all need grace no i think we all need god's love i i think we all need god's mercy i think we all need compassion i think we all need some forgiveness so if we all need it don't just need it pass it along distribute forgiveness because you've been a recipient of forgiveness and when you have a church that embraces forgiveness you have a church that's gonna explode in growth because people can be in the church and know perfection is not a prerequisite perfection is not a prerequisite for me to be at this church i can fall i can fall short i can mess up and the church my leaders are not going to hang me on a cross because i fell short but i'm going to be embraced i'm going to be forgiven because we're unifying church i mean i i mean this is so deep y'all it really it goes so deep and i don't even have time to go as deep as it is but but lord have mercy lord have mercy on a church that wants to damn everybody to hell that wants to condemn everybody when you got a god who says in romans 8 verse 1 in christ there is no condemn how are you doing stuff jesus doesn't even do how are you condemning people you know the word condemn in in the bible is literally what we get the word when you condemn my house you're saying it's too bad for anybody to live in it again tear it down to the ground and i'm getting goosebumps and god says there is no condemnation there is nobody alive who deserves to be torn down to the ground everybody has a chance for spiritual renovation every i don't know i don't know if that makes you feel what i feel but everybody through the grace of jesus Christ is redeemable everybody is reconciling you you you're not too far gone that his grace can't grip you

20:13 you you're not too bad that his love can't come lure you back into the house of God and so I let me hush because I'm about to feel like preaching on a on a Wednesday night I'm just trying to tell you that when you've got a unifying church you've got a church that's that has grace flowing and love flowing it and when praise breaks happen we got something to shout about one reason we shout is because we've been forgiven one reason we shout is because his blood still covers sins one reason we shout is because the because the body of christ is bad and broken as we are god has given us another chance so why don't we participate in giving other people a chance i don't care who got pregnant i don't care who got divorced i don't care who fall fell short i don't care whose creature cravings got the best of them gay straight LGBTQIA Listen It doesn't matter Everybody deserves The love and the grace of God You ain't ready for that are you Everybody deserves it If we're gonna let Folks who have fallen short In the area of Adultery, fornication If we're gonna give them grace Everybody deserves grace You ain't kicking folk out The choir for Y'all gonna make me say it Don't make me say it Just leave me alone now Just go on and nod in the spirit So I'll move on You ain't kicking deacons off the deacon board for X So we can't kick folk out the church for Y hallelujah thank you god for grace colossians 3 12 and 13 y'all know I'm going to keep it 100 every time colossians chapter 3 verse 12 and 13 says therefore god's chosen ones holy and loved put on heartfelt compassion kindness humility gentleness and patience accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another just as the lord has forgiven you so you must also

22:23 forgive that's colossians chapter 3 verse 12 through 13 so what i want you to do right now is lift your hand to the lord lift your hand to the lord lift your hand to the lord right there where you are watching it unless you're driving lift your hand to the lord and repeat after me lord forgive me for the times i didn't forgive others forgive me lord for the times I held bitterness in my heart unforgiveness in my heart but thank you come on say it out loud thank you for forgiving me now give me the maturity to forgive others Lord make me a peacemaker come on come on Lord make me a bridge builder God make me a unifier so that our church can be one of the strongest churches in this world.

23:22 Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your mercy. Now help me pass it to somebody else. In Jesus' name we pray. Let the church say amen. Amen and amen. Come on, let's give God praise for forgiveness. Come on, let's give God praise for grace. Let's give God praise for unity. That's one reason I love fellowship. The very name fellowship in Greek means kononia it means we're together there's a togetherness about us so we can't be fellowship and then not live fellowship you can't say we're fellowship and then we don't create fellowship a space for people to come together in spiritual unity and community that's who we are that's who we be so we gotta be what our name is so that we make his name as large as we can make it.

24:15 If you don't know Christ tonight, come on. If you need a church where you can experience unity, love, grace, forgiveness, come on. We don't judge you. All of us have messed up. From the pulpit to the back seat in the balcony. All of us have messed up. But we are a part of the body of Christ and we are unifying church members. Every week we have a pledge that is on the screen. The pledge is on the screen for chapter two. the pledge is on the screen for chapter two so here's what we're going to do we're going to read this pledge together let me get to it let me get to it it's coming up on the screen come on let's read this pledge together one two three read i am a church member i will seek to be a source of unity in my church i know there are no perfect pastors staff or other church members but neither am I I will not be a source of gossip or dissension one of the greatest contributions I can make is to do all I can in God's power to help keep the church in unity for the sake of the gospel let everybody say amen amen that's a pledge that we make to be a source of unity if you need Christ come on if you need a church home come on if you don't know Jesus he's a savior he's a keeper He's the lover of our souls That has given us access to abundant life Eternal life and new life I want you to come get to know him As we sing this song everybody knows it Come on I need you