Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Do You Love the Real Church? | The Writings | Psalm 133

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Anyone can love the ideal church. The challenge is to love the real church. And it's a challenge to love the real church because churches are far from ideal. Churches are messy communities made up of people with messy lives. Consider a story from Port Orchard, Washington.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Joe Kennedy was known as the praying coach because as an assistant high school football coach, he prayed after the game at the 50-yard line. For a while, he just did it by himself, but then players from his team as well as players from opposing teams started to join him. In 2015, the school's superintendent, Aaron Lavelle, said Coach Kennedy had to stop praying after football games. But the coach said, no.

Starting point is 00:00:54 So eventually the superintendent put him on the leave, and the coach sued the school district for violating his freedom of religion. The case worked its way through the courts until in 2022 and a 6th, three opinion, the Supreme Court ruled in the coach's favor. Now, here's where it gets messy. Coach Joe Kennedy and the superintendent, Aaron Lavelle, went to the same church. Now, that's awkward. I mean, how do you go to the same church with a person who put you on administrative leave for praying? And how do you go to the same church as one of your employees who wouldn't follow your simple instructions? I love how this verse frames the issue. It's Proverbs 14.4. Says, when there are no oxen,

Starting point is 00:01:35 the stall is clean, but when there is a strong bull, there is abundant produce. Now, it's kind of earthy, but you get the point of the proverb. If you want a clean stall, you can have one, but that means getting rid of the oxen, and therefore you won't have a harvest full of produce. Now, if you want an abundant harvest, then you're going to need a strong bull, and the stall is going to be messy, if you know what I mean. The same is true for churches. The success and the mess go together, the bigger the success, the bigger the mass. I think we expect the bull to be messy, but I don't think that's our expectation for churches. We expect churches to have abundant harvests, but without the mess. We expect churches to welcome people far from God, to offer grace

Starting point is 00:02:23 to sinners like you and me, but we don't want messy lives. Do those sound like biblical expectations? Do they even sound like realistic expectations? If they even sound like realistic expectations, If there's any advice that my kids are sick of hearing from me, it's that the key to a happy life is low expectations. Nothing will ruin a movie or a marriage, a vacation or Valentine's Day, a dinner or a date, more than unrealistic expectations. The gap between expectations and reality, that gap is disappointment. Do you have unrealistic expectations for the church, or do you have biblical expectations? Anyone can love the ideal church, but the ideal church doesn't exist. The challenge is to love the real church like Jesus did.

Starting point is 00:03:10 Here's why I bring all this up. Today we're in Psalm 133, and it's all about relational harmony or relational unity. And to live in harmony with other Christians, you need to be willing to love the real church, real Christians, not just the ideal church and ideal Christians. Remember, they don't exist. Let's start by reading Psalm 133. It's only three verses, and it was written by King David. It says how wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together at harmony. For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil that was poured over Aaron's head that ran down his beard and onto the border of his robe. Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon that falls on the mountains

Starting point is 00:03:55 of Zion, and there the Lord has pronounced his blessing. Even life ever ever. It is good for God's people to live in harmony together. It's precious. It brings God blessing and joy. But I'm sure you know, based on your own experience, that is hard for believers to live in relational harmony. There are so many things that can divide us, from politics to preferences about them using during Sunday morning worship. Here's a joke told by a comedian named Emo Phillips. Now, GQ named it the 44th funniest joke of the century. I don't know if you'll agree or not, but let me share it with you because I think it drives home this point we're making about how hard it is to live at harmony. Once I saw this guy in a bridge about to jump, I said, don't do it. He said, nobody loves me. I said, God loves you. Do you believe in God? He said, yes. I said, are you a Christian or a Jew? He said, a Christian. I said, me too. Protestant or Catholic? He said Protestant. I said, me too. What for you? What? He said Baptist. I said, me too. Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist? He said Northern

Starting point is 00:05:07 Baptist. I said, me too. Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist. He said, Northern Conservative Baptist. I said, me too. Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes region or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern region. He said, Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes region. I said, me too. Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912. He said, Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912. I said, die, heretic, and I pushed them over. Christians have so much in common because of their shared faith in Christ, it seems crazy that we let such small things divide us.

Starting point is 00:05:56 Think about Christians who disagree on politics or music style or something else. What do they have in common? Because both are Christians they believe in God, that God has revealed himself in the scriptures as good and kind and forgiving, that God has made himself known in Jesus Christ. They agree that every human being is made in the image of God, and yet that we are all sinners. Because they are Christians, they both believe. that Jesus is our hope and the hope of the world, that one day Jesus will return and fully establish his kingdom on earth. Sharing all that in common, realizing that they both follow King Jesus,

Starting point is 00:06:40 are we really going to let something small, something minor, divide us? Are we really going to ignore all that we share in common because we disagree on small, relatively unimportant things? Really? If you want to go to a church that's made up of people like you, people who look like you and think like you, have the same experience as you, read the same books as you, vote like you, it's not hard to find. But I don't want to go to that kind of church. I never wanted to raise my family in that kind of church. I never wanted to help start or pastor that kind of church. I have to admit, it would all be easier if we looked the same, thought the same, liked the same things, voted the same. It's super difficult to stay. involved in a diverse church. But I think a diverse church pleases God because I think it's what he's about. God right now is drawing a radically diverse group of people from all over the world to follow his son Jesus. And I'm glad that people from every political party, including people who hate politics, can go to the same church and worship King Jesus side by side. I don't think we should have it any other way. So, yes, the church is messy. It's not that we should have

Starting point is 00:08:00 low expectations for the church. It's that we should have biblical expectations. Church is messy because everyone who is a part of that church is a sinner. Just because we're Christians attending the same church doesn't mean that we aren't capable of some pretty serious sins. you and I contribute to the mess that is the church. We have no room or reason to look down on other people to think that their lives are too messy. We contribute to the mess ourselves. Our lives are messier than we want other people to know.

Starting point is 00:08:38 When churches split, when they divide, it turns people away from Jesus. Our unity, our patience with one another. The grace and forgiveness we extend to one another. The unity we have, even though we disagree on all kinds of issues. It has eternal consequences. In John 17, Jesus prayed for Christians, and he said, may they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me, and that you love them as much as you love me. Do you see why unity is so important to Jesus? it's because it is a sign to the world that he is who he claimed to be.

Starting point is 00:09:22 It's a sign to the world that the father sent the son. It's a sign to the world that the father loves them. So what can you do to establish relational harmony, relational unity inside your church or inside the worldwide church? Maybe you can listen to people who disagree with you. maybe you can put their interests above your own. Maybe you can build bridges to people instead of putting up walls. Maybe you can extend grace and patience to them, even if you think they're wrong.

Starting point is 00:09:58 Maybe you can be open to the fact that you might be wrong. All I know is this. All throughout the scriptures, God cares about the unity of Christians. So let's work together to preserve that unity that we have in Christ. Amen.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Do You Love the Real Church? | The Writings | Psalm 133

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