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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Life of the Apostle Paul

David Wright

Conflict In the Church - Part 9

Well, this last spring, Pastor Heineman and my wife and I, accompanied with a lot of the other ministers in the Carolina Conference, had the opportunity to go to what is referred to as the Holy Land.

My favorite are always the natural sites that are probably very similar to how they were in Jesus' time, and there are a few of those.

Those of you that have been there, you understand how this oftentimes can go.

It'll be a mosque or a church or multiple things fighting over exactly the spot, and they all claim the location and so on and so forth.

And it's very hard to pinpoint and know for certain is this the exact place or not.

And really that was not our purpose and it doesn't need to be known exactly was this the pebble or the stone or what have you.

But just to be walking in the footsteps of Jesus is remarkable.

But this place here, some of you have been here and recognize it, 1 of 2 sites that's a little bit debated, but most people agree that this is more than likely where Jesus was crucified and just a few feet from there was buried in a tomb and you can't hardly see any semblance of that anymore.

In fact, the the tomb has been carved out on all sides and now looks more like a room than a tomb, but the idea is still this is where it took place.

And again, whether it was there or not, It doesn't so much matter, but the fact, as I shared with you some time ago, for me, just knowing I was in the general vicinity of where this happened, you know, the eyes of the universe, I should say, were being gazed upon this spot as Jesus died.

Well, for sake of illustration, and for those that have been there, you'll notice there's this ladder, and you walk in this bottom portion here, and you wander around.

It's always very crowded from dawn to dusk.

There's all different groups that claim this spot, and this ladder has been there for quite some time.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is chaired by the Armenians, the Greeks, the Copts, the Roman Catholics, the Ethiopians, the Cyrenians, and the Muslims.

So this ladder, located on a ledge above the main entrance, It's believed that it was placed there sometime in the 1800s.

1 story is that an Armenian, there were some Armenian monks who were locked inside and so somebody put the ladder to help them out and it stayed there and it has remained there until this day for the very simple reason no 1 can be certain or be sure which group was the 1 that put the ladder up, who's responsible for taking the ladder down, and so the ladder simply remains to be there.

For over a hundred years now, the ladder is there, because they're wondering and arguing, who has the jurisdiction to remove it.

You may say, well, that's a little bit over the top, but there in Jerusalem, arguments as what I would consider as minimal as these can escalate virtually overnight or even in the midst of while you're there at the Wailing Wall, wherever it might be.

Our tour guide said, you know, without any warning, they could just shut everything down.

Just after we left, there was some of that.

But even here at this site in November 2008, the internet was flooded with videos, and you can still find them on YouTube, of a fist fight between Armenian and Greek monks.

Well, a small section of the roof of the church is disputed between the Copts and the Ethiopians.

So at least 1 Coptic monk at any given time sits there in a chair to kind of guard this area that they call their own.

And on a particular summer day, in, well, it wasn't summer day, a hot day, they moved the chair just 8 inches to try and get more in the shade.

Monk on the roof, guarding his area, moves the chair over 8 inches.

This was interpreted as hostile act and a violation of status quo.

By the time it was all over, 11 were hospitalized after a fight resulting from this provocation.

This morning, we are talking about conflict.

It's with a bit of embarrassment that I share with you that this week, coming into the office, Pastor Hyman was upset.

Well, first, I was upset because he was in my parking space, and he responded by saying, well, I was there first, and then it was a little bit of nah-ah and yah-hah, and I told him he had an ugly face, and he proceeded to push me, and the pushing went back and forth.

I tried to grab his hair, but I couldn't get enough.

We went out the door, and I pushed him down the bank into the bushes and he got all scratched up.

But you can't see it today because he's in his suit.

Don't listen to his version of the story.

Does conflict take place within the church?

And if so, is there a way that Christians should deal with conflict in a way that is different than everybody and anybody else deals with conflict?

Are we held to a higher standard when it comes to conflict?

Others might say, Conflict is the reason I'm not part of church.

I don't need to go to church and be arguing and backbiting and all of the rest.

There's just too much conflict in the church.

Well, is there ever any conflict in your family?

Are there ever issues that need to be discussed?

Things that need to be resolved, not just within your home, but even at work and outside?

So really the question is not does conflict exist?

The question is what do we do with conflict?

I mean, there's a room here full of many people and I would be very surprised if we always agree on everything.

My grandmother had a phrase or a saying, she says, if 2 people always agree, 1 is not needed.

But not everybody always agrees on how we should do church, what it should look like, what the song should be.

I find myself chuckling at times when I sit on various meetings and committees down over the years as we spend time arguing who's gonna change the batteries in the clock and whose job it is and you know really?

This morning in our series on Paul we find ourselves in Acts chapter 15.

We find the church, not so much individuals but larger than that, the church in conflict.

So if you brought your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Acts chapter 15, where we are going to do our best to seek out how this early church, as we often refer to it, dealt with conflict.

We're in Acts chapter 15 beginning in verse 1 and it says, And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, the members if you will, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." This is really referring to, if we can just pause right there and go back, I put this on the screen, Exodus chapter 12 verse 43, it says, "...and the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover.

No foreigner shall eat it, but every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat." Yet word is getting out that this is not taking place, this is not happening, And so people are starting to feel upset.

You'll recall circumcision was an outward sign of a heart condition.

And you may recall, Abraham tried to fulfill the promise on his own.

So God gave to Abraham a sign which would cause him to think and remember of his attempt to work out the promise of God and his failure.

It didn't give him anything, but rather it was a constant reminder that he could not do anything in and of himself, and that everything was to be done in and for him by the Lord.

This promise of sand in the seas and stars in the air, you're not going to make this happen, Abraham.

So did God fulfill his promise to Abraham?

Did they keep Passover and all the ceremonial laws?

Did it become part of their identity as a Jewish nation?

But did they lose the point of these ceremonies?

And when the ultimate fulfillment of the sanctuary, of Passover, of the feast days, when the embodiment came in the form of Jesus, did they recognize him?

Another verse I want to read here, Daniel chapter 9 verse 27, Then he shall confirm a covenant with many, excuse me, for 1 week, but in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offerings.

But as a whole, the Jewish nation missed it.

They didn't see him as a fulfillment of prophecy, but instead they hated Jesus and they successfully sought his death, didn't they?

Clashing View Points - Part 10

Well this morning, the title of the message is Clashing Viewpoints.

We could call it viewpoints, we could call it worldview, we could call it your perception, how you see things.

And the reality is we all see things a little differently, don't we?

We all come from different backgrounds, different upbringings, perhaps raised in different parts of the country.

And we sometimes joke about this back and forth.

This ain't nothing compared to what I grew up with, you know, and back and forth.

There's a different perception of what cold is.

You go up into Canada, and it's 50 degrees, and everybody's in shorts and jumping in the lake.

This is a very classic illustration or example of different viewpoints.

You've heard this before, you know, the elephant and all these men are blind and they're feeling different parts of the elephant and they're all describing an elephant differently.

1 says, oh it's a snake and then they're a rug.

No, it's a spear, a tree, a wall, a rope.

And they can argue as long and as hard as they want to.

And they could go on and on and on when at the end of the day, they're both right, they just have different perspectives and they're seeing this same animal, if you will, from different perspectives.

Here's another example of people seeing different letters.

No, it's a U, no, it's an N, it's a 6, no, it's a 9.

This 1 really has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that some of you see that it's moving when in fact it's not moving.

But you have these different letters A and B.

Are those 2 tiles that A and B are on, are they the same color?

How many of you think one's darker and one's lighter?

And I looked at that for a long time and I thought, how can that be?

That's just a, you know, a gradual gradient change.

So I myself decide to crop this picture and make it smaller.

I just cropped it, but it's the same color.

But it's a teasing of your eyes, of the shadow of this cube, and your brain is trying to make it work as if it's, you know, fitting all these different things.

But it depends on the things around that, you know, the context, if you will, of this drawing, of the picture, of the situation, that sometimes as well can affect and impact our viewpoint.

Well, we're going through this series on Paul, a man of grace and grit.

And some of you have made little comments here and there.

Our last 1 we talked about was the church in conflict.

And somebody said, oh, there must be some real conflict in this church.

In fact, It almost doesn't matter what I preach on.

People say, were you trying to preach at me?

Or were you trying to preach at Sister so-and-so?

And if the Holy Spirit is convicting you and you want to give yourself away by telling me so, that's fine.

But I'm just going through the story of Paul.

But last week we spent the bulk of our time looking really at the bulk of Acts chapter 15 as the church was in conflict over the requirements of Gentiles joining the church.

And now in the last few verses of Acts 15, we're going to pick up the story this morning and we will see not the church in conflict, but to missionaries in conflict.

I thought they just prayed all day and preached sermons and smile and they're always happy and agreeable.

Now I already alluded to the fact I was a student missionary, and let me tell you, there were about 19 of us on Ponte Pay and there was some conflict.

I did my best to stay out of the conflict.

We didn't call it conflict as much as drama.

So clashing viewpoints, This is number 10 in this series that we're going through here.

But I think this message is especially important in the light of a little bit of review of where we've been.

To get started in this review of where we've been, you will recall this is a picture or a drawing, if you will, of the Sanhedrin, also called the Council in Acts 6, verse 12.

It was a 71-member Jewish high court, if you will, and you have the person there being tried, and number 3, the main person is up at the top, the high priest, number 1, then you have all these people on the sides, and then you have the clerks around number 4, a pretty intimidating group, and it was thought, it was very probable, and in fact, Spirit Prophecy confirms, that Saul would have been part of this group, even though Scripture doesn't mention him, it's highly likely he was there when they tried Stephen.

And you may recall that when they did try Stephen, they brought up false witnesses against Stephen, and he was condemned to die.

And we've yet our first mention, not of Paul, but of Saul in Scripture, when there is this stoning of Stephen, and Saul stands by and is guarding their garments while they stone him.

And Saul is a huge opponent of those of the way.

And so everywhere he goes, he's seeking to kill Christians.

As far away as Damascus, 150 miles northeast of Jerusalem, That's our first picture of Saul.

You also recall that he is struck with a bright light on the road to Damascus, falls off his horse, and what does he hear but the voice of God saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

He's led into Damascus, and there he waits, and he fasts, and he prays for 3 days.

Then Ananias comes, brave and faithful Ananias, and he opens the eyes of Saul and delivers the words of the Lord, Saul you are a chosen vessel of God's to bear his name before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel." So we are told that Paul arises and is baptized, but then we also looked in this series that according to Galatians 1 verses 16 and 17, he doesn't start preaching immediately, but rather he goes into the desert of Arabia for 3 years where he's alone, in prayer, in reflection, developing his theology, communing with God.

And then after that period of 3 years in the wilderness, He goes back to preach in Damascus.

But the church will not have it and they're out to kill Saul.

And so some of the believers help Saul escape over the wall in a basket.

And from there Saul travels to Jerusalem.

Perhaps he can convince some of his friends on the Sanhedrin.

They will understand if I can just proof text them.

But they're completely closed to any such thing.

Well, if I can just meet with the disciples.

But the disciples themselves are afraid to interact with Saul.

And so that's when Barnabas enters into this story.

Bread at Home - Part 11

There's really no place quite like it, is there?

It's a place of comfort and security and safety.

A place to relax, to rest, to be restored after a weary day.

A place where you're loved and accepted, a place where you know where everything is and you can put anything wherever you want it to be.

It's unique and I realize that there are some fractured homes and homes filled with challenges and God didn't intend it that way.

Maybe similar to this picture, it's a little bit dated, but I still like the picture.

I know at the right house, we're finding ourselves in transition, having been displaced, if you will, from the home that we were enjoying for the last 8 years.

Really, the only home that our kids remember growing up in, the longest place we've ever lived, married before.

And the Lord has provided us with a nice house, on a nice street, with nice neighbors, but it still doesn't quite feel like home, not yet.

Well, perhaps because we don't have the same shared memories in this new place yet.

Perhaps because it still feels a little bit unfamiliar.

Perhaps it's because we're still not sure where we put this, that, or the other.

We are still questioning where furniture goes.

In part for the kids, or a big part for the kids, is the yard has gotten much smaller.

I don't know how it could have been any other way.

And for Lauren, she wants more flowers to pick, to put in the different rooms on Sabbath and around the table.

And we planted all the flowers in the last place and we'll do it again here.

Perhaps it's because the car still wants to drive to the other place because it still even now feels more like home.

I still remember as a teenager Leaving home.

It was like 3 minutes to Southern Adventist University from my home.

And I remember the last load in the car as I was taking it over to Talge Hall.

I'll still come back here for laundry and to raid the cupboards.

But she was emotional and I couldn't figure out why.

And she says, well things are just changing and they won't ever quite be the same.

There's something true to that, isn't there?

There's something about the holidays, about having all your kids.

Soldiers, when they go off to war, write about home.

I don't know about you, but the place that I prefer to be more than any other time of the week on a Friday night is home.

The last year we decided to adopt, if you will, a student at Fletcher Academy that had been through some trials.

We met them at camp meeting and because of our struggles with James, somehow we bonded with that family.

And so we invited Zach over for as many Friday nights as we could to our home.

And Fletcher keeps them Very busy, let me tell you.

We only squeaked in a few, maybe 3 or 4 Friday nights, but we loved those Friday nights.

Now I understand the boys dorm is nice, but if you haven't been in a boys dorm in a while, it smells like BO and dirty laundry, ramen cooking, and it's all just camouflaged, if you will, with spray-on deodorant and cologne.

And as nice as that is, on Friday night, it's nice to be in someone's home with a hot meal, a really good fruit salad, maybe with some strawberries in it, candles, the lighting set just right.

There's something nice about home and it was a blessing to share that with Zach and he's since graduated and we miss him already.

Adventist's home describes it this way, home should be made all that the word implies.

The sweetest type of heaven is a home where the Spirit of the Lord presides." That's the ideal, isn't it?

A respite, if you will, from all the flaming arrows of the world that you may have to face.

She also goes on to say, out of the heart are the issues of life, and the heart of the community, of the church, and of the nation is the household.

The well-being of society, the success of the church, the prosperity of the nation depend upon home influences.

It's powerful to our community, to our church, to our nation.

And this morning we could talk about all kinds of things about the home.

We've talked about various aspects of the home here before, but I believe God has a special work to be accomplished in the home.

And it's probably not exactly what you're thinking just now.

But it's a home where the Spirit resides.

But this morning I want to look at the home as a place for ministry.

Oftentimes we refer to it as opening up your home.

Now that can be a scary thing because your home might look a little bit like my home does many times.

Things aren't put exactly where they should be.

And sometimes we are fearful of letting someone else come into our space.

I mean, granted, It's a lot easier to come here to church on Sabbath morning, to get dressed up awfully nice, leave all the mess behind, and sometimes that can be a blessing too.

And we put on all of our happy whatever that we want people to see and so on, but to bring them over to our home.

But what about home as a place for ministry?

Now we're continuing our series on Paul, a man of grace and grit, and we're gonna kind of weave this 1 in here, if you will, but I've called it Bread at Home, because the early church had a lot to do, we're going to see in just a moment, with meals and with fellowship, and often they took place in the home.

The early church grew largely out of the home.

And in our series, Paul has already completed his first missionary journey.

Last time we met, Paul was departing on his second missionary journey, but today I want to insert here a little observation of what the churches around the country in Paul's time were like.

So if you have your Bibles, I know it feels like we're going backwards, but that's okay.

Acts chapter 2, verse 40 and 42, because I think this is the clearest picture, if you will, of the early church.

And I think we would do well to imitate more fully the early church in the book of Acts.

So we're in Acts chapter 2 there in verse 40 and I'm reading, "...and with many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, Be saved from this perverse generation.

Then those who gladly received his word were baptized.

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Series

Life of the Apostle Paul

Lessons Learned In Solitude Quietness and Obscurity - Part 4

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