David Wright

Life of the Apostle Paul

Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

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?

Distinguishing Marks of an Authentic Ministry -  Part 8

Well, this morning I want to ask the question, what's your ministry?

And some people are just so natural at being hospitable and other people they just don't see it.

Maybe you have the gift of helps, the gift of support if you will, which is always very largely a gift that we need more of.

Often we don't need more leaders, we need more helpers, right?

Maybe you have the gift of attendance, that's also vital.

Nothing more frustrating than spending hours and hours and hours on something and nobody shows up, right?

Maybe you're 1 that takes food to people in times of crisis.

Maybe you are a prayer warrior and you devour that list each and every week or daily and you're on that texting group that gets notifications throughout the day.

Whatever it is, any of you that have been involved in ministry for a good period of time know that ministry, while on the outside we try and make it look flowery and nice, and people come up and they give testimonies, and sometimes we get tearful and we say, praise the Lord, this is incredible, but the day in, the day out, the grind of ministry can be very tough.

I still remember in my first district saying, we need to have an evangelistic series and campaign, and we tried to rally the church, and we found this hall that we were going to rent, and we secured our budget and the funds and how many nights and so on and so forth and did all the advertising and we had 3 people show up and I knew that you typically maintain about 10% of those that show up on opening night So 10% of 3 is what?

That's exactly what we had for night number 2 and 3 and 4 and onward.

But ministry can be challenging at times.

I remember on another occasion having 2 people in my office in a shouting match with 1 another, and as it escalated, and as they stood up and were shouting, I was in between, and I stood up and I was going to say, we're not going to do this like this.

To which they simply pushed me back down into my chair, continued to shout over top of 1 another.

Who should be the next elder of the church?

Another place I was, very first Sabbath I arrived, the head elder, the patriarch of the church, if you will, started to interrogate me over potluck over why I felt called to ministry.

And so I was trying to answer his questions, but I could tell he certainly had an angle.

And everything I said about why I was called to ministry, no, that's not it.

And he continued on this path until finally he just concluded, you're not called to ministry.

I thought this is a good start to ministry.

By the time it was all done, by the time we parted ways, We were good friends and there was tears in our parting, but there was a little frustration at the front end, let me tell you.

I remember at 1 place being appalled because during the children's story, the woman was talking about fairy tales and unicorns and princesses and magic And then it finally concluded with happy ever after.

There was another time my wife and I were out visiting.

Lauren was just a baby, maybe about a year old.

This was before GPSs and smartphones, and we were pretty sure we were in the right place, but it just felt very eerie in this little hauler where we were, and we found, yes, this is the place.

And so we walked up to the door, and she came to the door.

There's some details about that first introduction that I won't describe, but we get inside and we're sitting there having a conversation with this lady and Lauren is just about the age where she can stand up at a coffee table and support herself and so she finds something that she's banging on the coffee table and we're trying to engage with her and not be too distracted by our own child and various things until the woman says, oh excuse me, and she gets up and she removes what Lauren is banging on the coffee table which happened to be a loaded handgun.

How we missed that little detail I don't know either, but I shudder at the thought.

And then there was a time I was attempting to connect with a fringe member.

They were kind of disenfranchised with the church.

It was a husband of a gal who was pretty irregular.

So I decided to try and connect with this guy, and he was a big outdoorsman.

I think I can call him a redneck because I consider myself 1 of those as well.

I haven't washed my truck in years except for when it rains.

Anyway, so we are, he decides, let's go on this four-wheeler ride.

I'm thinking this is probably not the best judgment because I'm gonna be on the back with him.

No, I really would feel more comfortable with a helmet, so I get the helmet on, and we're charging up this hill, super steep, and we hit a log, and with his weight, he's a big guy, and then my weight hanging on for dear life, the whole four-wheeler just continues to come back when we hit this log.

And so we roll over completely backwards with the four-wheeler on top, with him on top of me, and I remember my whole neck coming forward, and I remember hearing, and I thought, that's the last time I'm gonna walk.

Thankfully, I did get up, I did walk, and after a few thousand dollars of PT later, I was okay.

They said I had, I don't remember if it was second or third degree whiplash, or is there degrees for that?

I don't know, but it was relatively severe.

The hateful emails, the rumors, and the backbiting.

And since I've always looked young, back at my first wedding, fresh out of college, was with a couple.

I just baptized him and she was already Adventist, so he had a bunch of non-Aventist family members who had never seen me before.

They said, who's that preacher man up there?

So since I always look young, a lot of times when there is bad behavior, bad attitudes, whatever it is, they just justify themselves by saying, well, you're just young and inexperienced.

There are times I'm sure I'm inexperienced.

And in some parts of life, that's a good thing.

Just the other week, I had somebody tell me that exact same thing, while he also decorated his language with some very choice words.

Sometimes they don't even want to tell you.

And so you're left unknowing what they're going to present to you and it could be anything and it seems like it's just about been everything.

It can be exhausting, there can be periods of discouragement or frustration, certainly criticism.

I didn't list that as the gifts, but some in the church feel like that's their spiritual gift, is to simply criticize everyone else, but they call themselves the watchman on the wall.

We need watchmen on the wall, but we can take that too far too, and it just turns into criticism.

Content In Everything - Part 7

This morning I'm going to ask a very simple question, I suppose.

We oftentimes don't like to talk about pain.

If you're like most men, you don't like to be in pain.

Sometimes us men can be the biggest babies when it comes to pain.

But I'm speaking more of the trials, if you will, that come your way.

With situations that are anything but ideal, how do you handle it?

I mean, you spend much time on Facebook, and it seems to make life look really easy, doesn't it?

1 long vacation and work is great and friends are great, family's great, everything's great.

We come to church and we say, happy Sabbath, but perhaps for you, Maybe this morning, maybe another time, it's been a stretch for you to say Happy Sabbath.

Because on any given day, it may not be that for you.

I know in this church, many have lost spouses just very recently, and they're mourning that deep loss of their best friend.

In fact, today marks the third Sabbath in a row that on Sabbath afternoon we have a memorial service for somebody in our congregation, and we have still 2 more on the calendar to come.

I know Elizabeth's uncle, Jim Vollmer, he's watching his wife as she continues to come close to dying.

In fact, we thought 3 weeks ago that this was the end.

We made a rush visit over, her breathing was very labored, the stokes, the whole thing.

And then she goes down again, and then she rallies again.

Jimmy there described the situation like a bouncing ball.

It keeps bouncing back, but not quite as high as the last time.

Some of you know exactly what that's like.

And she is confused at times, sometimes not as much, experiences some pain.

I know this past week there was some seizure activity.

I mean, it's a challenging thing to watch somebody that you love and care about so deeply, Yet at the same time feel so helpless to really offer much of any help.

I guess that's why they call health the great equalizer.

Because there's very little that can be done about it.

Also my sister-in-law and her husband, Bob and Catherine Rank, were members here.

I spoke to both of them and they gave me permission to share, but their preemie has been in the NICU for, I believe it's 3 weeks now, will remain there for the next 3 months.

And for any of you that have gone through anything like that, you know this means multiple trips to the hospital every day.

And Catherine has 3 little ones at home that also need attention and feeding and all the rest.

The situation is rather overwhelming, and there's constant ups and downs.

Sometimes little Joshua Paul, Sometimes he's doing well, sometimes not as well.

He has to be intubated from time to time, which is just allowing him to breathe, a tube that just brings the air down into his lungs.

He does well for a while, and then it has to go back.

About a week ago, they got the report that there was bleeding on the brain, signs of a stroke.

Then we have learned that sometimes at this young age, they can absorb that and be fine.

And other times, they can have lifelong impacts.

1 of the challenges is You don't know at this point in the game which it will be until this child grows and develops.

And so the pain is real as they hold 1 another, as they weep into the night.

There's no shortage of pain in this world, is there?

There's plenty of uncertainty and heartache to go around and I imagine we could pass the mic But we're not gonna do that this morning, but it brings us back if you will we've been going through Talking about Paul and at this point he's still Saul, but we'll look at some of the writings where he was Paul anyway, it gets a little confusing, but you know who we're talking about.

And we've been looking at some stories chronologically, but this morning we're going to look more in the aspect of how Paul viewed life.

Because the reality was that a day rarely passed in his Christian experience, that he did not experience intense pain or suffering or pressure, but thankful for us, he bears his soul with us in the Scriptures and lets the unedited truth flow.

And so we're going to delve into that topic this morning.

The message today is entitled Content in Everything.

Do you ever, like me, find that extremely challenging?

Or you may even just plainly say, that's impossible.

As we jump into this topic of pain and uncertainty, I invite you to open your Bibles.

I hope you brought your Bibles this morning.

We're gonna be turning to 2 Corinthians, and we're gonna begin in chapter 1, and we're going to be looking through a lot of scripture verses today.

I believe God's word is living and active.

And so we want to see what the word has to say to us this morning.

But we're going to stay in 2 Corinthians all the way through.

And we're going to kind of just march our way through this book a little bit, grabbing bits and pieces along the way.

But we're starting here in 2 Corinthians 1, verses 3 and 4.

And I read, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all, what does it say?

Who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." It's an interesting thing.

Specific pain enables us to comfort others specifically.

Perhaps you have been close to someone that's gone through Alzheimer's.

Maybe you know what it's like to hear the diagnosis, you have cancer.

Maybe you've been through chemo or radiation.

In fact, it was 8 years ago today that Stella was taken from us, little Stella Wilkie.

Maybe you know what it's like to flunk out of medical school to care for a special needs child.

Perhaps you know the struggle of being unemployed or being in financial crisis.

Perhaps you felt the pain of divorce or abandonment.

And perhaps the God of all comfort has helped you walk through that.

And as a result, the comfort that he has given to you, you can offer in specific and tangible ways to other people.

And the reality is when you have walked that path before, when you've been down that road, it means a hundred if not a thousand times more to the individual that's just now experiencing it.

I remember when Elizabeth and I met another Alexander disease family for the first time and there was this instant connection.

For the first time we felt like somebody understood what we were going through.

And it's in our pain, it's in our heartache, in our struggles that were driven to our knees.

That we search the scriptures for answers, for promises, for hope, for reassurance.

And oftentimes it's in those darkest moments that God speaks most audibly to us.

The God of all comfort, comforts us in our tribulation.

And then, down the road, days later, weeks, months, years later, I believe he gives us opportunities to comfort others with the grace and the hope that we have found in Jesus Christ.

Back to Menu

Presenter

David Wright

All Recordings

Conflict In the Church - Part 9

29m

Distinguishing Marks of an Authentic Ministry - Part 8

45m

Content In Everything - Part 7

31m

No Lone Rangers - Part 6

39m

Lessons In Humility - Part 5

34m

Lessons Learned In Solitude Quietness and Obscurity - Part 4

40m

Surprising Elements of Gods Will - Part 3

37m

Prominent and Proud to Desperate and Dependent - Part 2

43m

No Insignificant Grace - Part 1

37m

When Hospitality Comes Back

14m

Let It Be According to Your Word

24m

Are You an Evolutionist?

30m

Sound Doctrine