Sept. 22, 2002

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Sermon: "Selfish ambition, Dissension, Factions"

The last will be first, and the first will be last. God is going to turn us upside down until we let go of our pride and learn to be servants. We are continuing our study of St. Paul's list of "works of the sinful nature" from Galatians 5. Today we come to:

selfish ambition - Greek: “eritheia” strife, contention

a desire to put one’s self forward, partisanship, fractiousness

dissensions - Greek: “dichostasia” division, sedition

factions Greek- “hairesis” sect, heresy

a body of men following their own tenets (sect or party)

dissensions arising from diversity of opinions and aims

This subject is of great seriousness. What we are talking about here is the exact opposite of servanthood. Think about this. If we are called by Christ to be servants of God, and to serve the world in His name, what could more totally wreck our ministry, silence our witness, and stop our spiritual growth than for us to become selfish, ambitious, divided, each following his own beliefs with no concern for the rest of the body?

Look at our Mission Statement: The Mission of St. George's church is to know Christ as our Lord and Savior, and in the power of the Holy Spirit to love Him, serve Him, and witness His love to the world."

Question: Do you think this is really true of us? Is this really the most important thing in our lives?

Are we united and inspired by this vision? The vision of what the world could be like if the people of God truly lived as humble subjects of an almighty, all wise, and loving King, rather than living as "free agents" who pick and choose from religion whatever gratifies their self-esteem and furthers their own ambition?

Do we truly intend, as St. Paul counsels us, to first reverence Christ as Lord, and then to think more highly of others than of ourselves?

And what about the danger of pride in the church today? This is dangerous. But I see it all the time.

1 Cor. 1:10-17

¹⁰ I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. ¹¹ My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. ¹² What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. ¹⁶ (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Watch out for pride. It's a dangerous thing for Christians to get into competition with each other. I mean when we start knocking each other down and using each other's weaknesses to advance our own cause.

I hear this all the time. One Christian bragging to another, "Well I go to _____ church, and it's the best church there is. In fact, it's the only true church." Or something like this, "I follow pastor ______. He's a real teacher of the Gospel, not like all those other pastors who don't know the Lord."

This must be a maturity thing, because I most often hear it from people who are new Christians, or attending new churches. I know a church just down the road that has had great success in reaching young people. Hallelujah! That's great. And I know another church not far from here that has had a great ministry to older people. They have done some great work in taking care of senior citizens. What I don't understand is why people in the one church feel a need to attack the other church.

If you're excited about your church, that's great. But when you start knocking down other churches to make your church look better, you're playing a fool's game, and the only one who wins is the devil. There's nothing he loves better than to see churches turn against each other.

And who are all those other pastors who "don't know the Lord?" Point them out to me! Name them! You come tell me exactly who it is you are accusing of being a false teacher. Because I'll tell you what. I know some of the other clergy of this community. Not only have I gone to breakfast with them, heard them share their faith, their dreams, their heartaches, but I've spent hours in prayer with some of them. I've heard them pour out their hearts to God. I've heard them preach. And I'll tell you this about them. This community has no shortage of genuine pastors, true men of God who teach God's Word. This community has no shortage of good, solid churches where you can go and hear the truth.

What this community has a serious shortage of is people who will take the time to go to one of these churches and sit down long enough, and listen intently enough to start getting their messed up lives turned around.

What about us? Are we as humble and servant-like as Christ? That's our calling. To become like Christ in every respect except judgment. Only He is to be our judge, but we are to imitate Him in every other way, especially servanthood. That's where our mission statement points us.

People get this all turned around backwards. As soon as somebody gets a little religion it goes to their head and they decide they are the judge of everyone else's relationship with God, but they don't seem to have much energy for the other things, like service, humility, repentance. We need to turn it back around in the right order. We have no business judging anyone. Our call as Christians is to service.

I brought in this poster from the Vestry retreat last March. We spent some time thinking about the challenges that face us as a congregation, and pride is one of the challenges that the Vestry identified.

When I first came to St. George's I was a little concerned about comments that I would hear occasionally. Things like, "We are the renewal church of the Diocese." As though there were no other churches in our Diocese that are experiencing spiritual renewal. That is not only unfair, it's untrue. There are other churches in this Diocese that are doing great ministry and seeing God move in amazing ways.

Personal ambition at the expense of another is such a dangerous, insidious thing. If you want an example of one who fought against his own instinct for ambition, you might look at king David. We find David on the run from Saul. You remember that period in between kings when the transfer of power was going very badly.

David has already been anointed by the prophet Samuel to become the next, king of Israel, and Samuel has already told Saul that he has lost the kingdom and God will raise up another to take his place. But Saul was jealous of his power, and refused to step aside and let David take the thrown. And so David was on the run from Saul, who was out to kill him.

In 1 Samuel, chapters 24 and 26, not once but twice David had the chance to kill Saul and take his kingdom, but he would not do it. On one occasion David and his men were walking along and they found Saul lying on the ground asleep. One of David's men said, "Let me take my spear and kill him, and the kingdom will be yours." But David rebuked him sharply. Not only did he tell him not to do it, but he said that if any of his men raised a hand against Saul, he would kill them.

David insisted on doing it God's way, not according to his own ambition. Listen to his words, "God forbid that I should raise my hand against God's anointed." He was content to let God give him the kingdom, in God's own timing, in God's own way.

Read Romans 12:3, 9-21

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

That's a long and beautiful prescription for a sick church. This is medicine for the spirit of the Body of Christ.

2 Corinthians 12:20- For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.

This brings up another subject that we must deal with most severely. GOSSIP.

Proverbs 16:28- "A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends."

What is gossip? How do you define it? Sometimes we say simply that gossip is talking about other people, but we know that's a little too broad a definition. There are times when we need to talk about other people. For example, our Prayer Chain couldn't exist if we didn't talk about what is going on in other people's lives that needs prayer. If we were never allowed to say anything about other people, or to make any observations about others, school teachers couldn't give grades on tests, or send home report cards. Companies couldn't have personnel departments to evaluate employees. You couldn't get much done at work if you never allowed yourself to talk about anything that anyone else was doing. Not everything we say about another person is gossip. So what exactly is gossip?

Proverbs 20:19- "A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much."

Here is the first part of the definition. Gossip involves betraying a confidence. When someone shares something with you, and they specifically ask you not to spread it around, they are entrusting you with a part of themselves that is very fragile and precious. You have a responsibility to honor that trust. Can you handle it?

James tells us to pray for one another, and confess our sins to one another that we may be healed. How can we do that if we can't trust one another?

There is another verse from Proverbs that warns us of the power that gossip can have over us:

Proverbs 18:8- "The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts."

That is so true. Gossip has a tempting flavor when we use it to take the focus off of ourselves by pointing the finger at someone else. When you know you haven't done the best job at work that you could have done, how tempting it is to say, "Well, did you see what kind of job Jeremy did on his project report? I told you he didn't know his product. What a mess! They'll probably fire him."

Does that make you feel better? Perhaps for a moment. But what does it gain you to point out other people's failings? What do you accomplish by spreading the news of who is sleeping with whom, or who didn't get the promotion they had hoped for. What do you do to your relatives when you talk about who in the family is sick and tired of dealing with another family member's problems? You accomplish nothing. That's why it's called gossip. Gossip isn't intended to accomplish anything useful, it's only intended to make you feel powerful because you possess some information. We need to turn this around.

If you see someone wrestling with a problem, give them some good advice, or just quietly pray for them.

If you see someone struggling with things they can't handle, help them.

If you see someone falling into sinful behavior, go them privately and warn them, and offer them godly counsel. Don't go around saying to other people, "Hey, did you know what Bob has been doing?"

Guard your tongue. Listen to these words from the Bible.

James 3:5-6

The tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

So, where do we draw the line? What is the difference between sharing useful information and gossiping? Here are some tests:

1.   Are you attacking the person you are talking about? If so, stop.

2. Are you twisting the truth to accomplish your own purpose? If so, stop.

3. If the person you are talking about were present, would it change your conversation? If so, stop.

4. If your words were recorded and played back for that person to hear, would you be embarrassed? If so, stop!!!!

If that's too complicated, then try this simple rule: Do to others as you would have them do to you. It's called the Golden Rule. It applies just as much to your words as to your actions.

Chuck Swindoll gives this very good summary of how to measure our words:

Small minds talk about people.

Average minds talk about events.

Great minds talk about ideas.

Think about it. How much of your time do you spend talking about people as opposed to events or ideas? You might want to work on changing the percentage.