March 9th 2008 - Unity
When I was in 5th grade, While playing baseball, I slid into 1st base and ended up breaking my leg. The pain was incredible. I remember being so afraid of not knowing what I had done. My mind was reeling from the pain. My buddies were calling at me to get up, that I wasn’t really hurt. The pain in my leg kept yelling at me, as well, “YOU ARE HURT.”
I remember my step-dad coming and talking with me. He heard me and he then picked me up and carried me to the car. My mom and he then drove me to the hospital. Later that day, I left the hospital wearing a full length cast, which came only in white at that time. Now you have many colored options, even camouflage.
That day I experienced pain. We too are drawn to this level of care and comfort. I am also learning that sometimes in the midst of the pain that life brings, we need something stronger. We need to be challenged and directed to get up out of our pit of pain, which is where we will seek to find our identity. In the midst of our partnership with our pain, we can want to be coddled and cradled in it, which leads to isolation and separation versus unity. In our pursuit of unity we have to submit to Jesus Christ and to one another.
The directive to the church and its leadership is found in Ephesians 4:11-16, 11It was he [Jesus Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him [Jesus Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
This process of being built up is a tough one, because it includes conflict. It is within the context of conflict that we have the opportunity to become like Christ – to examine our blind spots…to examine that which is broken in our own lives. I was impacted last weekend by Shelley's teaching that pain works to shape us. BUT…Jesus Christ works to transform us. Our responses to pain can vary. So, friends, let your response be one that transforms you.
Join me right now in our web cast. Our Lead Pastor, Shelley Bauer,taught this message March 9, 2008.
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