Trinity Baptist Church

The Anatomy of the Church

The Internal Systems #1

 

Last week I just shared my heart with you about where we are as a church.  No doubt God has been very good to us, and I am convinced He has even greater days ahead for us.  I've never in my lifetime been more committed to this church and this ministry and what God would have from me here.

 

I'm excited about the future; and yet I know that there is an enemy who would seek to destroy it all. 

That’s why I think it important that we return to the basics. 

 

And I'm so thankful for the response from last Sunday. I received a lot of comments and responses from people who said, "I want to reaffirm my commitment to the Lord and to His church, and that means so much. I'm always grateful when you respond to God's Word and to message He lays on my heart to share with you. 

 

Today I want to continue where we left off last week looking at “The Anatomy of the Church”.  And again this is not a clinical study, but a simple sermon outline taken directly from God’s Word.  Now remember, I told you there are four key components of the anatomy that I want us to consider. 

 

They are the skeleton, the internal systems, the muscles, and the flesh. That's a rather simplified perspective, but it'll serve us well, I think.

 

 

Last week we looked at the skeleton. That gives it form. That gives it a framework. That allows it to stand. That is the non-negotiable, substantial, basic foundation upon which everything else hangs and through which everything else moves.

 

And we said there are five non-negotiable, foundational principles that provide our basic structure as a church. 

 

We must have

 

These are themes to which we return again and again and again. They are the primary components for everything we do. 

 

That means you need to hear me preach about these things.  They need to be taught and affirmed in our classes.  They are to be modeled by our leadership.  They form the basis for our music.  They are the strategy behind our ministries and missions.  These five affect everything we do as a church. 

 

That is the skeleton.  But a body has more to it than just a skeleton so today I want to move to the second category and that is the internal systems.  Altogether, we’ll spend about four weeks, the bulk of this series, on the internal systems. 

 

 

 

Now the primary focus of the internal systems of the body is not on what we do, but who we are.  I think one of the common mistakes people make about Christianity is limiting it to what we do.   If I am a Christian, if I am a member of the church,, then I must “do” certain things.

 

But Christianity is not primarily about what you do.  It is about who you are.  So what we are going to consider in the internal systems are our attitudes as a church.  In order for a church to have the right to call itself the body of Christ, it must have flowing through it certain spiritual attitudes.

 

A physical body has organs and fluids that flow through and cause that body to be able to be alive and function; and so it is with the church.  There has to be flowing through the body certain spiritual attitudes and those are what I’m going to refer to as the internal systems of the church.

 

The goal of ministry, in fact the goal of God is not to just get people to perform in a certain way.  God forgive us for the times we present Christianity as that. 

 

Rather the goal is to generate in the hearts of people certain spiritual attitudes. Listen, having a relationship with God is not just trying to alter your behavior.   It’s not a list of do’s and don’ts. 

 

Notice Philippians 2: 5-13

 

Now without going into a lot of detail, Paul says first of all, “be”, then the “doing” will follow. 

 

You see, if you are always looking at your life as a Christian as what you do, then you’ll never be faithful to God.  Let me give you an example.  Many, if not most Christians will never come to church visitation.  They are simply not involved in the outreach ministry of the church.

 

They don’t “go” to visitation.  Nut I don’t find anywhere in Scripture where we are instructed to even have a visitation program.  Our mandate is to “be” evangelistic.  And if we were simply what we are supposed to be, we could eliminate a specific night for visitation efforts at the church. 

 

A lot of people never tithe because they see that as something you are supposed to “do”.  But the reminder from God’s Word is, “God loves a cheerful giver”.   That’s what we are to be. 

 

God’s desire is to generate the proper kind of spiritual attitudes which will then motivate proper kind of behavior. You can do the right thing outwardly and have a bad attitude.  But if you have a good attitude, you'll do the right thing outwardly coming out of a good attitude and that’s the goal.

 

That’s what causes a lot of church fights.  A new pastor comes on the field and he has all these lofty goals and ambitions.  So he reorganizes the Sunday School, and changes the committees and rearranges the order of service and when he’s through he’s got the same old folks reorganized into a new master plan.  Only now, they’re just mad about it. 

 

 

 

The goal of effective leadership is always to change the attitude and the motivation and when our attitude is right, spiritually speaking, the structure will take care of itself because Spirit-controlled people are going to do Spirit-led things and they're going to find themselves moving along in God’s plan for doing church. 

 

So this morning let me share with you some attitudes that will be found in a healthy church. 

 

First of all, and I suppose foremost, is

 

1. The Attitude of Obedience

 

Now here we find the overarching attitude of all attitudes. This is the attitude that says, "If God says something, I do it." It is not debatable. It isn't something you argue about. You do it. Obedience. That is the overarching attitude.

 

Most all of us are familiar with James 1:22

 

We obey, because it's right and it glorifies God, because it puts us in the place of blessing, because it allows us to be in filled with the Spirit so that we can reach others and set an example for those who watch us to see how we live.

 

Now let me share with you just how basic it is.  Obedience is the very essence of your salvation.  Generally, we think of getting saved as a response to an invitation, but actually it is obedience to a command.  God commands that men everywhere repent. 

 

And at its core, salvation is an acknowledgment of the Lordship of Jesus Christ by which we are saying, “You're in charge and I'm going to submit myself to you as your servant.”

 

In fact, Jesus said one time, "Why do you call Me Master and do not the things I say?" That doesn't make any sense. Don't call Me Lord and then not  obey Me.

 

So when we came to salvation, we came in affirming Jesus as Lord, submitting ourselves to His Lordship, and basically, that is to a life of obedience; and so that's the first and foremost attitude.

 

And again, that seems so obvious.  But think about the impact of that.  Obedience to God affects every area of our life.  Every response we give to people, every emotion we display, every action and attitude that we have. 

 

And unfortunately very often, in fact much more often that we’d like to admit, the truth of God’s Word is left laying in the dust while we do what we want to do. 

 

Someone takes advantage of us or injures us and we immediately lash out and retaliate rather than having the attitude of Christ to turn the other cheek or let ourselves be taken advantage of.  In fact, I’ve heard people say, “I don’t care what the Bible says.  If you think I’m going to let someone hurt one of my children or take advantage of me, you’re crazy.” 

 

If that’s your attitude, then I’ll just say this, “I’m glad you’re not my God because we would have never gotten salvation if God were like you.

And by the way, you’ll never be like Him until you change your attitude to that of obedience. 

 

You see, very often, when confronted with divine truth that convicts us of something in our life that isn't right, instead of obeying, we just sort of shove it out of the way and go on with our disobedience. And we wind up demonstrating an attitude that is exactly the opposite, diametrically opposed to all that God wants to accomplish in your life.

 

That’s why the senior adults in a church ought to be the most dynamic group that attends.  Christians over 50 should be the most turned on, the most excited, the most committed, the purest, the most enthusiastic, and the most available for service.

 

Why? Because they've been hearing the Word the longest. They've been applying it the longest. They've been maturing the longest, and they ought to be showing the fruit of that process more than anybody else. 

 

They ought to be the joy, the thrill, the energy, the dynamic of their church. They ought to be the people out on the cutting edge in evangelism. They ought to  be the people out on the cutting edge in prayer. Why? Because they've lived with God the longest. They've applied the Word longer. 

 

But instead how often have you heard this? "Well, the wonderful thing about our church is that it's got so many young people.  They're the energy and the dynamic of the church."

 

Now, I like young people. After all, I am one.

And I will agree that there is a certain dynamic about young people. I've always said I like to speak to young people, because, at least if they're not interested, they have the courtesy to talk so you know right away they're not interested.

 

But, listen, that's a sad commentary on a church. I hear pastors griping from time to time about the old people in their church.  And generally it’s a complaint because they are against what’s going on or they don’t like the music or how the money’s beign spent or something like that. 

 

The truth of the matter is that seniors ought to be the dynamic of the church.  Do you know why many times they aren’t? 

 

Because even though they may have heard the Word for a long time, they’ve failed to apply what they know.  And dear friend, if you do that long enough, you’ll just be one of those old people that nobody wants to be around. 

 

Yet when I study my Bible, particularly the Old Testament, I discover that the leaders in Israel were old white haired men and woman who loved the Lord and followed Him without reservation. 

 

We look at the early church and the dynamic and leadership was through mature saints, and yet we’ve decided in this contemporary age and it has to find it’s life and spirit in the kids. 

 

Listen, I like kids, but I'm not interested in a teeny-bopper church. I think there's more to the church than that.

We need the life and energy that the kids have, but we need the power that the mature believers have, who have lived lives long of applying the truth.

 

But if you can hear the truth and walk out and carry on the same pattern of living without ever a conscious effort in the power of the Spirit to apply that truth, what happens is you just get old. That's all. You don't get more powerful. You don't become more dynamic.

 

I see so many people who go to church and, as they grow older, they've hardened into kind of a spiritual coldness, full of facts, and without power. I don't want that to happen in my life. I mean I just want to keep learning and serving.  If it means I have to keep picking up my false teeth off the pulpit, then so be it. 

 

But I'm don’t want to look back on my life and say all the power and all the energy and all the dynamic was gone just because I grew older.

 

We must be committed to obedience.

 

Here’s a second attitude.

 

2.  The Attitude of Humility.

 

James 4:7-10

 

The church should be known for her humility.  It almost sounds wrong to say it that way.  It’s like saying, “If there is anything I’m proud of it’s my humility. 

 

In fact, that’s almost what Jerry Lewis said back in 2009 when he was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award during the Oscars presentation. 

 

His exact quote was "This touches my heart and the very depths of my soul, not only because of who this award is from, but who it will benefit.  My humility is staggering."

 

Humility. It’s one of those things that is so elusive.  Just when I say to myself, "You're finally humble," it's gone.

 

It's very difficult to nail it down. And yet it is one of those requirements of being rightly related to God. 

 

Why is it so significant?  Because it is our way of saying, “We’re not there yet”.  We are still in pursuit of what it means to be Christ-like.  It reminds us that we have nothing to offer God.  He’s not after us because of our talent or our money or what we have to offer the church. 

 

The only thing I have to offer back to God is what He gave me, sanctified by His salvation and His Spirit, and I can’t even take credit for that.  It is only for His glory. 

 

That is so important in a church.  There is no reason for us to be in competition with one another.  There is no reason to be envious or jealous.  We’re all the same.  We are empty and bankrupt and without hope without Christ. 

 

Every time you find that attitude in a church you re-discover the attitude of the disciples who sought to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 

But our attitude is to seek to be the least.  Humility simply says, "You're more important than I am." That's all it says. It doesn't go around saying, "I'm a worm. I'm a rat. I'm a bum. I'm nothing. I'm garbage." It doesn't say, "I'm no good to anything." You are. You're a value to God, because you're redeemed and sanctified and given certain potential to serve Him; but what humility says is, "You are more important than I am to me."...

 

That's why it says that you're to love your neighbor as yourself. You are to give to your neighbor the same devotion and commitment that you give yourself in meeting needs.

 

Humility is that which God pursues in His church, and that is an attitude that we must have. It means that I'm not going to get upset if something goes your way and not mine, because you're more important to me than I am.

 

It means that I make sure that I set aside some of my priorities to make sure your needs are met. It means I say no to my own freedoms to say yes to yours. It means that I'm not going to violate your conscience if it would cause you to stumble. 

 

I'm going to make sure that if you have a need, I do my best to meet that need. I see myself as one who must care for you, must love you. If you drift from the flock, as Matthew 18 points out, I must go and pursue you and bring you back.

 

That's humility.

 

 

So many problems come when people seek their own will, seek their own primacy, if you will, or seek to be lifted up. There are people who have to constantly be stroked, constantly be told how wonderful, how great they are, instead of giving their lives to encourage others. 

 

There must be an attitude of humility.

 

The third attitude is

 

3.  The Attitude of Love

 

You can't talk about humility without talking about love, because only humble people love. Nobody loves but humble people.  Love, in a Biblical sense, isn't an emotion.  Instead it is an act of sacrificial service. Love is an act. Love is not an attitude. It is an act. Love always does something.

 

1 Corinthians 13

 

Did you notice all the verbs?  Love is kind. Love is patient. All those are verb forms. It's love doing this. Love doing that. Love doing this. Love doing that. Love acts.

 

Now let me illustrate for you how this works.  Love is an act of service that flows out of a heart of humility.  A heart of humility says, "I care more about you than me, so love is the response."

 

And that's why I say only humble people love. Proud people can't love, because all proud people want to do is meet their own needs. 

 

The only love they know is a physical love. The only love they know is an emotional attachment to certain people, and if you're not one of those certain people, you're not going to feel anything from them.

 

You may not even receive anything from them. They have that kind of love that draws them to certain like-minded people that they really enjoy being with, but makes them indifferent to the needs of almost everybody else. You understand the difference?

 

Now let’s just be gut-level honest for a moment.  There are some people that you enjoy being with more than others right?  I’m the same way.  There are some people that I just don’t care anything about being around. 

 

Now that is kind of awkward as a pastor because obviously I feel responsible before God to love everybody.  But truthfully, there are some people that, no matter how hard I tried, I just don’t care about being with them.

 

In fact, there are some people, I could live my whole life and die and go and heaven and spend all eternity and never see them again and that will be fine with me.  And, by the way, I’m sure there a few scattered around who feel that way about me.  And that’s all right. 

 

In fact, I’m pretty sure there are people who are going to want to find a place in heaven far away from wherever I am and that’s alright.  The feeling’s mutual. 

 

 

I think it is reasonable to assume that in the complexity of human relationships not everyone is going to be compatible. 

 

So what do we do about that in light of God’s requirement to love one another?  First of all, I think it important to realize that is not love.  In fact, it has nothing to do with love.  It isn’t even an issue.

 

Love simply says, "If you have a need, I will do my best to meet that need."

 

You see, when Jesus explained that you're to love your neighbor as yourself, and the question came to Him, "Well, who is my neighbor?”, Jesus answered the question by telling the story about the good Samaritan. 

 

And what He said, "You're walking down the road. There's a guy laying there beaten up. He has a need. You meet his need." That's all. Who's your neighbor? Anybody in your path with a need, that's all. Who are you supposed to love? Anybody in your path with a need. How do you love him? Meet his need.

 

You may never feel emotional. You may never be attracted to the person, but you and I are called to a love that flows out of humility, and humility says you're more important than I am.

 

The classic illustration is in John 13.  Jesus was there, and they were all arguing about who was going to be the greatest, and it was time to eat, and they already started eating, and it was a supper. And in those days, you reclined at supper, which meant your head was about eight inches from somebody else's feet.

It was common courtesy to wash feet before such an occasion. Can't think of anything worse than not having that happen.

 

But no one there was hired to do it. There was no servant, and none of the disciples would do it, because they were arguing about who was the greatest, and no one wanted to do that. Nobody wanted to be a servant. 

 

So the Lord took off His outer garment, put a towel around His waist, washed their feet, and gave them an unforgettable, profound lesson. Then He said to them, "You're to love one another as I have loved you."

 

How had He just loved them? By feeling emotional? No, the only emotion he felt was probably disgust. They were sickening. So proud and selfish. It wasn't emotion. It was just that that was needed, and what He's saying is, "When you see somebody has a need, you meet it."

 

Somebody in your path with a need, and you do that instantaneously, spontaneously, and involuntarily, almost like a reflex, because you have a humble heart.

 

A humble heart will always manifest itself, and it doesn't manifest itself by bragging about how humble it is or drawing attention to itself.  It just meets the need. 

 

Humility can always be seen, because humility acts in service to those in need. Humility considers others better than itself, and it turns into love immediately, and love is an action.

So the attitude of obedience, the attitude of jumility, the attitude of love and finally

 

4.  The Attitude of Unity

 

John 17:20-21

 

Jesus answers my prayers. I'd like to answer His, wouldn't you? He prayed for unity. He desires not only a redemptive unity, but a unity in terms of life and purpose in the church. Christ really desires the unity of His people.

 

That's why, in Ephesians 4:3, the Apostle Paul calls to the Ephesians and says, "Do this. Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

 

Notice He doesn't say generate the unity. You already have it. Just keep it. Do all you can to maintain unity; and I think that's such an important part of church life; and that's why Satan so constantly attacks it.

 

Have you ever noticed how many churches split? How many people leave churches because they're unhappy?  How much divisiveness there can be?

 

Most of us who’ve been around for a while know about the great ministry of First Baptist Chruch in Dallas.  Dr. George W. Truett pastored there for 45 years, followed by Dr. W.A. Criswell who himself was pastor for 55. 

 

During Dr. Criswell’s tenure he had a staff member who tried to gather a following and split the church.

 

Dr. Criswell became aware of it and could see the tension building.  So after one Sunday when he was particularly upset about it, he called up some construction company, and said, “Before next Sunday I want kneeling benches installed in every pew in this church.”

 

And so in came the crews; and by the next Sunday, when everybody came, they had flip-down kneeling benches. As far as I know, they're still there to this day in the First Baptist Church of Dallas.

 

And he got up, and he said, 'In the forty-five years' pastorate of George W. Truett, who preceded me, and in the thirty-five or whatever years that I've been here, there has never been a split in this church; and by the grace of God, there never will be.' And he called those people to pull down those kneeling benches and took that entire church of thousands of people to their knees in prayer; and God brought a healing in that congregation."

 

I believe that the enemy is ever incessantly trying to divide the church, and I thank Him and praise Him that in the sixty-five plus years' ministry of this church, there's never been a church split. Oh, you have picky little things, and some folks would get upset, and they'd want to leave, because the color of the curtains isn't right, or because some...something didn't go the way they would have it go. 

 

And you know what?  They might have been right.  But humility and love doesn't act that way.  It just desires unity in the oneness of the Spirit.

 

 

 

Every once in a while, somebody comes along, and they want to stir something up.  I just ask God, and I ask you to ask God, "Give us a congregation full of peacemakers who want make sure they maintain unity and not tear things up."

 

There's going to be cause for disagreement. But bless God, when we get on our knees together, we can seek to maintain the unity and the Spirit and the bond of peace.

 

From around A.D. 130 to A.D. 200 in early Church history, there were a number of defenses of the faith written to the emperor and other Roman leaders. These are called "apologies," and those who wrote them are known as "apologists."

 

Though these apologies address theology—and thus are an excellent insight into the beliefs of early Church history—their focus is the transformed lives of Christians.

 

Athenagoras, A.D. 177

Among us you will find uneducated persons, craftsmen, and old women, who, if they are unable in words to prove the benefit of our doctrine, yet by their deeds exhibit the benefit arising from their persuasion of its truth.  They do not rehearse speeches, but exhibit good works; when struck, they do not strike again; when robbed, they do not go to law; they give to those that ask of them, and love their neighbors as themselves. (A Plea for the Christians 11)

 

 

 

 

Justin Martyr, c. A.D. 150

We … formerly delighted in fornication, but now embrace chastity alone. We who formerly used magical arts, dedicate ourselves to the good and unbegotten God. We who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions now bring what we have into a common stock and share with everyone in need.  We who hated and destroyed one another and because of their different customs would not live with men of a different tribe, now—since the coming of Christ—live familiarly with them, pray for our enemies, and try to persuade those who hate us unjustly to live conformably to the good precepts of Christ, so that they may become partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a reward from God the ruler of all. (First Apology 14)

 

Tertullian, c. A.D. 200

It is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. "See," they say, "how they love one another," for they themselves are animated by mutual hatred. "How they are ready even to die for one another!" For they themselves will sooner put to death… . No tragedy causes trouble in our brotherhood, [and] the family possessions, which generally destroy brotherhood among you, create fraternal bonds among us. One in mind and soul, we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another. All things are common among us but our wives. (Apology 39)

 

Attitudes. The church has always displayed them.  Do you see them in your life?

 

Is your life characterized by obedience?  Are you growing in the application of the Word of God?

 

What about humility? Have you abandoned yourself for the sake of others so that out of that humble heart comes loving action?

 

And do you, at all costs, and at all self-sacrifice, seek by making peace to maintain the unity of the spirit?

 

These are the attitudes of the church. 

 

Let's bow in prayer.

 

We're going to begin the invitation in just a moment, but while your head is bowed, would you pray and ask the Lord to produce in you these four attitudes we've talked about this morning?

 

Would you ask God

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s pray