|
People Our Church Could Do Without
What kind of church member are you?
Are you beneficial to your church?
Are you beneficial to God?
Phi 3:15-21
Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus
minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded,
God shall reveal even this unto you.
16)
Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let
us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same
thing.
17)
Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them
which walk so as ye have us for an example.
18)
(For many walk, of whom I have
told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that
they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19)
Whose end is destruction,
whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in
their shame, who mind earthly things.)
20)
For our conversation
is in heaven; from whence also we look for the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ:
21)
Who shall change our vile
body, that it may be fashioned like unto his
glorious body, according to the working whereby he
is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
This may seem like a harsh subject that I am
going to speak of today and some may think that I am
not a very compassionate pastor. But the fact is
that there are some people that the church is better
off without.
You may say, "We need all the help we can get."
That is true, we need the help of everyone who's
heart is to serve the Lord and work for him.
Paul said that there were some who lived in such
a manner as to be enemies of the cross. If one is an
enemy of the cross, he is an enemy of the church,
and the church would be better off without such
enemies.
I. Those Whose Lives Are Sinful
They bring reproach upon the church, they testify
to the world that Christ and the church have nothing
for them. If you are a member of the church and your
living in sin, you are hurting the church. The
sinner wants an excuse for not being a Christian, he
wants to justify himself. So he measures himself by
the church member who is not living a good Christian
life and compares himself to the hypocrite and feels
justified in his sin.
We are the only gospel the sinner will read. They
don't look for Christ in the Bible, or in the world
of nature, but they do look for Him in our lives. If
they see sin there instead of Christ, it brings
reproach on Christ and hurts His church.
We are the witnesses of Jesus Christ. Our lives
will either lead people to the church or turn them
away from the church.
II. Those Who Strive For The Highest Positions
Nothing is so obnoxious as politics within the
church, with the members jockeying for prestige.
Some who are not recognized quit the church and
leave complaining because they say they are not
appreciated, or there isn't anything in the church
that they can do, or there isn't enough room for
their ministry.
It's easy to sing, "Where He Leads Me I Will
Follow." But often we find people who don't want to
follow, but they want to lead and you follow. They
want to be #1 or none.
St. Augustine said, "There are four articles in
the Christians creed. The first is humility. The
second is humility. The third is humility. And the
fourth is humility.
Jesus said, "He that would be greatest of all,
let him be the servant of all." The way up is down.
Do your best for God and He will exalt you in due
time.
III. Those Who Indulge In Destructive
Criticism
There is constructive criticism and there is
destructive criticism. When someone feels there is
something wrong in the church and they call someone
else or go to their house and begin to criticize
someone in the church, this is destructive
criticism, the kind the devil really likes. This
type criticism always hurts people and brings
division in the church.
If someone feels like there is something wrong in
the church and they go to the pastor and talk to him
about it and they pray about it, this is
constructive criticism, and it leaves no scars.
Some people think that they are placed in the
church by God to straighten out the church and all
it's problems, when the truth is that they are the
biggest problem in the church.
The church is not perfect. The Pastor, the
deacons, the Sunday School teachers, the choir
directors, the musicians, the singers, etc..., but
neither are you. Jesus said in
Mat 7:3 And
why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's
eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine
own eye? 4) Or how wilt thou say to thy
brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye;
and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5)
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine
own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out
the mote out of thy brother's eye.
IV. Those Who Say It Can't Be Done
The church is no place for pessimism. We have a
great God and a great Commission. God has promised
to help us in everything that we do for His Kingdom,
so we ought to be Christian optimist.
The Apostle Paul said "I can do all things
through Christ which strengeneth me." So we ought to
believe the word of God and go forward no matter
what the critics say.
The building of a church is a great opportunity
to work for God. At the end of the year you can look
back and see your labors and reap your rewards. The
greatest thing that parents can do for their
children is teach them to work for the church. Until
they learn to serve the church they will never be fit for
any other ministry.
V. The Mean, Selfish, Stingy People
It is amazing to me that some people who claim
salvation can be so mean. We don't need mean people,
we need people with a sweet spirit who are willing
to rise above pettiness. We don't need selfish
people that have to be petted and pampered all the
time. They won't come to church if the preacher and
everyone in the church doesn't shake their hand and
tell them how much they are appreciated.
We don't need no stingy guts. The people that do
the least for the church is always expecting the
most from the church. Their philosophy is "what can
the church do for me," when every Christian should
be saying "what can I do for the church?"
VI. Lazy People
An ox and a mule worked together. One day the ox
decided that he wouldn't go to work that he would
just stay home in the barn. That night he asked the
mule, "Did the boss say anything about me not going
to work today?" the mule said, "no, he didn't say
nothing about you not working, but he had a long
talk with the butcher on the way home."
God never calls or uses lazy people in his
Kingdom. If you read the Bible you will find that he
only called them that were busy into His service.
Lazy people are the castaways.
Some people are too lazy to get up on Sunday
Mornings. Some are to lazy to come to prayer
meetings or Wednesday night services. Some are too
lazy to do anything for God or for anyone else. You
can't build a great church with lazy people, but you
must have labors in the field in order for the
church to grow.
VII. Gossip - Mongers
It seems that the devil makes sure he always
plants one of these in every church. They gladly
pick up the gossip, think about it a little bit, add
their thoughts to it and send it on its way. They
never stop to see if it is true, they're just so
overwhelmed with being the first to tell it that
they speak without realizing the damage that they
are doing.
The church can do without people who are always
telling everything that they know.
VIII. Overly - Sensitive People
There are some people who are mature in age, but
yet we are forced to walk on pins and needles when
we are around them lest we offend them. You can say
something in a crowd of a thousand people and it
will be alright with 999 of them, but the other one
will swell up, get his feelings hurt and become
angry.
There are some people who will never be
beneficial to the church or to God because they
allow everything to hurt their feelings, and when
their feelings are hurt they are not going to sing,
give in the offering, pay tithes, back the preacher,
or anything else. The church can do without Overly -
Sensitive People.
IX. Unfaithful People
There are thousands of people who die whose
obituary is listed in the paper and it says that
they are a member of Such And Such Church, but he
was never seen there. He didn't come to Sunday
School. He didn't pay tithe there. He never talked
with the pastor. The church never misses him. After
all, when you lose nothing you miss nothing.
It is hard to have church with people who aren't
there. I have attended churches that had large
numbers on the membership, but few in the service.
These people the church can do without. God wants
people who are faithful. He wants people that He can
depend on. God cannot move through people who are
not present. It takes faithful people to make up a
great church.
1Co 15:58
Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye
know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
I hope and pray that we don't have any of these
type people in our churches, and if so I hope you
pray through and become faithful to the service of
God.
In His Service,
Pastor Donald Pierce |
