Rev. David Holwick C Church Covenant #2
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 15, 2006
2 John 6
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SERMON NOTE: Due to a 30-hour power failure I was not able to finish this
sermon since it was locked up in my computer. I used a draft that I had
printed up providentially. The sermon was preached the next morning by
candlelight to parishioners in their winter coats since the church was 45
degrees Fahrenheit.
Church Covenant:
We promise, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit,
to walk together in Christian love;
to strive for the advancement of this church
in knowledge, holiness, and comfort;
To promote its spirituality;
to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline and doctrines;
I. What kind of church do we have?
A. Dysfunctional churches.
1) five signs?
a) PARANOID CHURCHES are characterized by...
• leaders feel others are out to get them.
• hyper-alertness for problems
• looking for ways to confirm one's subjective suspicions
of others
• always on the lookout for enemies.
b) COMPULSIVE CHURCHES are characterized by..
• Pre-occupied with trivialities;
• Highly rigid and well-defined set of rules;
• Insistence that people submit to "their way";
• Almost total lack of spontaneity;
• Everything is black and white
c) DRAMATIC CHURCHES are characterized by...
• need to have positive attention from outsiders;
• impress others with "WOW" types of experiences;
• display superficiality (the "happy" mask);
• tendency to (over-) react to minor events;
d) DEPRESSIVE CHURCHES have...
• little pride and lots of guilt;
• indecision and unwillingness to take risks;
• apathetic and inactive leadership.
e) SCHIZOID CHURCHES are characterized by...
• a marked cold, unemotional detachment and isolation;
• a feeling that it's safer to remain distant and isolated;
• lack of excitement and enthusiasm;
• climate of suspicion and distrust;
#1311
2) What is our church like?
a) Hopefully not Paranoid or Depressive.
b) We are not overly Dramatic, either.
Our worship services are not the "wow" type.
A cartoon this week describes us better.
The setting is the interior of a small church.
The pastor says, "I've misplaced my sermon notes, so I'm
just going to read from this devotional -- if I can
find it here [in my pulpit].
While I look, maybe the choir can lead us in a hymn."
[He glances at the choir, which has one person]
Choir director: "We thought the service started at noon, so
only Mrs. Gruden is here right now."
A parishoner leans over and whispers to a pew mate, "I love this
church. I've never been much into organized religion."
#30405
b) But not everything here is as we would want it to be.
c) Banks want Building Expansion committee to assess
who we are and where we are going as a church.
1> Honest assessment of our strengths and weaknesses.
2> What is our purpose?
3> How will we attain it?
4> Will we pay them back their money?
B. What our church CAN be like.
1) What kind of church do we want to have?
2) Our Covenant gives instructions on how to maintain a good church...
II. Walk in love.
A. Our first promise to each other in the covenant.
1) Almost a cliche.
2) How do we love others?
B. Walking together - a continuous forward action. Dynamic.
1) How we walk reveals a lot about us.
A tutor of one of the Oxford colleges in England walked with a limp.
One day a well-known politician ran into him.
The politician asked him if he wasn't the chaplain of the college at
such a time, naming the year.
The Doctor replied that he was.
The politician observed, "I knew you by your limp."
"Well," said the Doctor, "It seemed my limping made a deeper
impression than my preaching."
The politician had a sharp wit and replied, "Ah, Doctor, it is the
highest compliment we can pay a minister to say that he is known
by his walk, rather than by his conversation."
##13641
C. Problem: some people are a lot more loveable than others.
1) I like the words of this poem:
To dwell above with saints we love,
That will be grace and glory.
To live below with saints we know;
Well that's another story!
#6356
2) Dr. Howard Satterwhite, a Methodist pastor, compares the
ideal of Christian love with a marriage in which the
romance has faded, the honeymoon is over,
and the relationship has become a labor of love.
All you feel you can do is "hang in there."
Describing his vision of Christian love at close quarters
he says:
"We should lose the illusions of perfection ...
If we are looking for perfection here, we had better go
somewhere else.
But no one else has perfection either.
We need to deal with the fact that we are imperfect and
yet are in love as community."
#19137
III. Strive to advance our church.
A. in knowledge, (doctrine) head
B. holiness, and soul
C. comfort; heart
IV. Promote spirituality
A. How can we encourage each other in our love for Jesus?
B. Many in our society are seeking spirituality.
Unfortunately, many think the church is the last place
they will find it.
V. Sustain framework...
A. Worship. Spiritual
B. Ordinances. Obedient/mystical
C. Discipline. Moral
D. Doctrines. Thinking
VI. We need God's help.
A. Covenant's appeal to Holy Spirit.
B. Our love walks with Jesus.
You know the name Robert Schuller.
You may not know the name Carol Schuller.
Carol Schuller is Robert Schuller's daughter.
In her early teen-age years, Carol was involved in a very serious
motorcycle accident.
For some time, the family didn't know if she would live or if she
would die.
By the grace of God, she did live.
However, one of her legs had to be amputated.
Fortunately she has completely recovered, and is making good use
of an artificial leg.
However, the artificial leg draws curiosity and questions wherever
she goes --
Especially because she makes no attempt to conceal it.
On a cruise with her parents, at the age of eighteen, after a week
or so of wearing shorts and swimming attire, she was very aware
of how everyone on the ship seemed to be looking at her out
of the corners of their eyes, and wondering what had happened.
In response, Carol volunteered for the ship's talent show on
Friday night.
When her time came, she walked up to the microphone and said,
"I really don't know what my talent is, but I thought this would
be a good chance for me to give what I think I owe you all, and
that is an explanation."
Then she told the entire story of her accident and her recuperation.
At the end, in spite of the secular environment, she shared this:
"If I have one talent, I can tell you this: during that time my
faith became very real to me.
I look at you girls who walk without a limp, and I wish I could
walk that way.
I can't, but this is what I've learned, and I want to leave it with
you:
It's not how you walk that counts, but who walks with you and whom
you walk with."
#4372
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 1311 "Five Types Of Organizational Dysfunction," Thomas F. Fischer,
M.Div., M.S.A., http://www.ministryhealth.net/mh_articles/~
025_five_types_dysfunction.html
# 4372 "Where To Find Strength, When Life Is Tough," Dr. Reford Nash,
internet, January 11, 1998.
# 6356 "To Live Above With Saints..." Roddy Chestnut illustration
collection.
#13641 "Known By Our Limp," Fredericksburg church of Christ
Bible Illustrator Supplements.
#19137 "No Perfect Love In A Church," Carl L. Jech, Rev. Brett Blair's
Illustrations by Email, www.sermonillustrations.com,
May 15, 2001.
#30405 "Unorganized Religion," Vic Lee, "Pardon My Planet" cartoon,
Star Ledger newspaper, January 15, 2006.
These and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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