Partners in the Truth
What church do we want to be at 360?
The church either advances the Gospel through faithful service or hinders it through selfish ambition.
“Fond of first place”
5 Problems:
The pursuit of preeminence.
A rejection of authority.
A pattern of slander.
An idol of control.
A posture of exclusion.
James Montgomery Boice: “This is the original and greatest of all sins. It is the sin of Satan, who was unwilling to be what God had created him to be and who desired rather to be ‘like the Most High’” (Isa. 14:14).
Philippians 2:3-4
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, 2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well. (Romans 16:1–2)
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:1–3)
Confront difficult situations instead of avoiding uncomfortable conversations.
@pilgrimbenham: Ministry is not for the faint of heart, the thin of skin, the fat of self, the soft of virtue, or the want of wealth.
Address problems personally rather than rely on rumors or talk behind someone’s back.
Pursue peace instead of pretending problems don’t exist.
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5–11)
Where am I the Diotrephes in the room?
Whose name have I damaged to protect my own?
If Jesus evaluated my contribution to this church, would He find someone advancing His mission or someone standing in its way?
