Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: My flesh dies under the commitment of unity, right? Because.
Because unity requires me to humble myself.
Unity inquire requires me to cooperate. Unity requires me to change. And I don't want to do any of those things, right? I don't want to cooperate. I don't want to be humble. My flesh doesn't want that. My flesh is not interested in any of those.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Welcome back to season two of the. Well, this week we will be hearing from Pastor Mike Cavanaugh from one of our regional conferences. We hope that you enjoy his powerful message.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: So we serve this God who has this commitment, and this commitment that he has is that he will change us. Have you noticed that?
He wants to. God wants to make us more like Jesus Christ, right?
And so he's in this. He has this process that he uses. And if I had a whiteboard over here, which I don't, I would write out what I call the transformation triangle. How does God change us? And you're all familiar with this idea, for sure.
And so there are three things, right? All guided by the Holy Spirit, but three things that God does to change us. The first thing he does is truth.
How many of you have been changed by truth, right? You got exposed to truth. You heard something you hadn't really heard before.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. So you got some truth and it changed you. That's wonderful when that happens.
The second way that God. The second tool God uses to change us is trials, right? So truth and then trials. How many of you have ever been changed by a trial? Hallelujah. Yeah, me too.
And maybe you're in a trial right now and God's doing some stuff in your life right now, but that's exactly what our experience is.
We have these trials and we go through the trial. We don't know how we're going to make it through. We can't believe all that's happening. We wonder about God and what he's doing, and our trust is challenged. And anyway, we break through finally on the other side, and we're changed. There's something that's changed inside of us. So the truth can change us, and trials can change us. And what I want to talk to you about, the third thing that God uses to change us, the third tool he uses to change us is relationships. That's what I want to talk to you about today, okay? Is relationships. And you've been in the experience of having relationships change you also, right? Many of us have had the pain of church experiences. It's called now, church hurt. They'll talk about this idea, but it's, you know, there's a real dimension to it right there. Sometimes it's being used as a false perspective to promote deconstruction of faith and things like that. But any of us who really have been around the block a couple times know that church hurt can really happen, right? Things can happen. Relationships can happen. Of course, some of us have experienced tremendous hurt in our families and had relationship strains, and sometimes it's not. The change that comes by relationships is not all negative, right? It could be a incredibly positive relationship that you've had that really brings change into your life and. And does some things inside of you. So what I want to talk to you about today, I think it's a subject that is really relevant in our times because of the way things have just gotten so polarized. I want to talk to you about this idea of unity, right?
The idea of unity. And in your notes, there's a line right there at the beginning, and it says this. It says, to experience unity, we must. No, sorry. Unity is differently gifted people working together for the common good. So this is why church is so transformative, right? Unity is differently gifted people working together for the common good. Now, that's really hard for us to embrace, especially today in the environment that we're in today.
There is a struggle with this idea of recognizing that people can be very different from us and yet we can still walk together in some kind of unity with them and relationship with them.
It's a thing.
And one of the reasons that relationships change us is because unity changes us, right? We talked about this third one.
How does unity change us? Okay, so we'll contrast unity with uniformity, right? So when we have uniformity, everything is the same, right? If I have uniformity, everybody thinks like I do. Everybody approaches life the way I do. You know, everything is the same. That's uniformity.
We experience uniformity. When you think about it, when uniformity is normally experienced, it produces death, right? Like. Like there'll be a day that comes when I will die and when I. Right. Right now my body is a collection of systems, right? I have a circulatory system and I have a respiratory system. All different, different purposes, different functions, right?
I have a digestive system, right? I have. I have all these different systems that are working together in cooperation, right? Matter of fact, they're working together. Intention in sometimes, right? That is that if one is. If one exceeds or does well, right? Then the other one maybe is deprived a little bit and they have to constantly fight for this tension, constantly fight for life to be there, for life to be there. But there'll come a day when life will stop. And when life stops, I'm not going to be about differences anymore. I'm going to be about uniformity. I'll become dust. Everything will become the same. See?
And that's the way it is.
There's a. Unity is the place where life exists. Uniformity is the place where death exists. That's where it ends in that way. And my flesh, right?
I'm using the flesh in a biblical term now, right? Not just my body, my flesh, but my fleshly desire. My flesh loves uniformity, right? My flesh loves it. When you think like I think, when you approach everything the way I approach it, when you are, you know, my flesh loves that, that's wonderful. That's just a great thing. My flesh dies under the commitment of unity, right? Because unity requires me to humble myself.
Unity requires me to cooperate. Unity requires me to change. And I don't want to do any of those things, right? I don't want to cooperate. I don't want to be humble. My flesh doesn't want that. My flesh is not interested in any of those things.
And so we find that the spirit life and God's commitment. Remember where we started transformation? God's commitment to change us.
He forces us into relationships that if they're going to be productive, if they're going to be healthy, are going to require unity, this humility, this cooperation and this kind of thing. So I want us to look together at this passage here.
So unity member is differently gifted people working together for the common good. That's what unity is, right? You're going to. Those of you that are. How many of you are still in leadership roles of one kind or another in church or that kind of. Okay, so this is like totally relevant to you.
Unity is differently gifted people. Not the same people. Not people that think the same, not people that vote the same, not people that, you know, all that. It's not the same. Unity is differently gifted people working together for the common good. That's what unity is. That will kill you. Okay?
There is nothing in you that is going to like what I'm talking about right there. I mean, that is like. What you don't mean, do you, you know, you're, you know, we'll let God tell you what it means, okay? But unity is differently gifted people working together for the common good. So we're going to look at First Corinthians, chapter 12, and I think the passages right there in your notes so you can follow with me. It says, number one, to experience unity, we must believe that our differences are for our good.
Now, this is what he said. Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit.
There are varieties of ministries and the same Lord, and there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.
But look at this now. But to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.
Okay? So you have been given certain gifts.
Think beyond just spiritual gifts, though. That's part of it for sure. You've been given certain personality gifts, certain, you know, just what makes you up, right? You have been getting given certain gifts. And you. And he says here, he says, you have got to believe when you look at this other person that they are not who they are because their mother dropped them when they were a baby. You know, he says, you've got to believe that this gift that they have is for your good. Right? Not seeing it as the enemy, because I have a gift over here and they have a gift, and my gift is competing for their, you know, not seeing as an enemy, but their gift is for my good. Right? That's what he's. That's what he's saying here. He's saying, but to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. Our differences are for our common good. Now, all of us who have experienced marriage, you.
You've had to work through this, right?
Yeah, yeah, right. We are still.
Absolutely. It never ends, right? Becoming more like Jesus. Never ends, right?
And so if you have, if you've counseled married couples or done anything like that, you've heard common comments like this, they've come in, sat down with you, and maybe the husband looks at you and says, she's against all my ideas. Every idea I come up with, she picks out seven reasons why that idea will not work. You know, and, you know, you'll hear him say, you're just the opposite of me. Everything you do is just the opposite of me. One husband said to me, my wife is a wet blanket. You know, everything, she just. She's quenching the fire out of everything. She's, you know, she's just.
And if you stick with your marriage, there's a veil that you pass through where you all at once come to realize that these differences that have been so painful to deal with in the beginning. Right? Well, of course, that's not really true in the beginning.
The differences are cute, right?
You know, everything's like, oh, really? You see it that way. Oh, well, that's. You know, it's really cute, right?
Then it becomes painfully annoying, right? Painfully anointing. And then it becomes. There's this transformation that takes place, and then it becomes this thing where you look and all at once you're like, boy, you know, I'm glad you like doing the bills, because I can't stand doing the bills. You know, I hate doing that. I'm so glad you like that. Or, you know, honey, I'm so glad when we go to the church supper and I'm sitting at the table, I never know what to say. But you always know what to say, you know, you always know the right thing to say at the table, you know, And.
And you start seeing what originally or what you were going through, this phase of seeing these differences as negatives, you suddenly come through and you begin to see, hey, these differences are pretty cool. We're working together.
It's a positive thing. Okay?
This is the same thing Paul's talking about here. He's saying, this needs to happen within the body of Christ, this same thing.
Now, what I'm sharing with you, I did not get from a book anywhere or anything like this. It's just come from me pounding my head against church leadership for years and years and years, right? Trying to figure out, how is this thing. How does this thing work and how can I be good at it to be effective at it?
And so what I've come to realize over my years, and this is, like I said, this isn't in a book or anything. It's just what I come to is that there are basically four kinds of people in the church. I'm sure smarter people could come up with more. But for me, this is what I've identified, and this is what I found key. These four distinguishing elements are what I found to be key for bringing unity when I'm in leadership or in different things like that. There are basically four kinds of people. Let me give them for you. First one is the prayer.
The prayer. The prayer views everything as spiritual.
Their favorite verse is Psalm 34. They who seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.
They are the mountaintop believers, okay?
They just think, you know, we got a problem.
Pray. We just need to pray right now. We need to seek the face of God. We need to touch the hem of Jesus garment. If we do that, all of our problems will be solved.
The prayer.
The second person I find in the church is the relator.
The relator. They view everything as relational.
They are the Lovers in the body of Christ.
Their favorite verse would be from John 15. He says, by this you shall know that all men are my disciples. If you what you have love one for another.
If we had more love in the church, there wouldn't be any problems.
We just need to love each other through all these different things that we're dealing with and going out.
Okay? The third group of people I find in the church, these are the people you're going to have to bring together. Okay? The third group of people are the analyzers.
The analyzers view everything as needing to be thought out.
They are the thinkers in the body of Christ. They are the people who will say things to you like, everything must be done decently and in order.
Okay? It needs to be done decently and in order. You have the analyzer.
And then the fourth kind of person you find in the body of Christ is the. The doer.
And the doer believes action solves problems.
Their favorite verse is Daniel 11:32. The people who know their God will display strength and take action. We need to do something. You know, we don't need to stand in a circle and hold hands. We don't need to pray one more time. We got to do something around here. Okay, this, this. You have these. You have these four different kinds of people. Now, Morris, most people are a mixture of two of these. They have one thing that is their dominant, and then they have one thing that is their supporting thing, the analyzer.
Everything must be done decently and in order. From Corinthians there. Everything must be done decently and in order, okay? So don't be expecting me to give verses for all this. This is my giving, my experiences here. Yeah, she's an analyzer. She's an analyzer.
The analyzer is the one that shows up to you at the end of the service and says, you left this blank. Can we fill this?
Okay, so most people are two of these things, right?
They are. Like in my case, for example, I'm a doer. Analyzer Doer is my number one thing. Analyzer is my supporting things. I want to do something. That's just my orientation. I want to do something, and then I want to think about what I do, too.
And so this is my. But most people are a mixture. You know, some people are a prayer relator. Some people are a relator.
Doer. So, you know, you can be.
There are different mixtures of these things, but there's usually one dominant one and one supporting one. Now, here's the problem. We have just like in marriage, you know, things start out interesting, you know, like. And then you come to this place where you really don't like the quality in the other person, right? That thing just like in that, in the church, people feel the same way.
And these different groups have opinions about each other.
The way they see each other, they see the other person as weak.
They don't see because why my flesh wants everybody to be what, like me, right? This is what my flesh. I want everybody like me. So if you're not like me, right, this is normal. This is normal. Right here. Right here. My flesh wants everybody to be like me. So if you're not like me, you are a little off, right? You bent, you know, you're a little torque, a little weird, you know, you're not like me, see? So this is the battle, and everybody faces this battle. You have to work your way through it. But to help you kind of maybe think about it, I went through and put down in your notes the different ways people have a tendency to think about each other depending on your quality.
For example, if you're a prayer, primarily a prayer, you have a tendency to think the relator is a man pleaser, right? If you're primarily a prayer, you're, well, who cares what people think? All we care about is what God thinks. What does God think, right? And you have a tendency to look at the relator who's trying to connect and all this kind of you just say, stop this, stop this. I don't need this. I just need Jesus. Hallelujah. Right? So the prayer thinks the relator is a man pleaser. The prayer thinks the analyzer is trying to put God in a box, right? The prayer looks at the analyzer and says, you know, you're trying to figure God out. You're not going to figure God out. It doesn't matter how many, you know, how much you do here or how much you're not going to figure God out in this thing. Just, you know, let go of all your thinking and just trust God. Just believe. The prayer thinks the doer is, is trusting in the arm of flesh, right? The prayer looks at the doer and it's like you're trusting that you're going to be able to work this thing out, make something happen, do all this kind of stuff. Just give it up right now.
You don't need to do more stuff. You need to touch the hem of Jesus garment. You need to get connected to the source, this thing. So that's the way the prayer views to people the relator thinks the prayer is aloof, right? The relator is trying to connect. And the relator is at the door knocking, going, can we talk? And the prayer is going, this is my prayer closet.
I am touching heaven right now. Stop knocking at my door.
Right? See? But the relator is going, just. Can you. I'm over here now. Can you come out now? This is. You know, this room is getting quiet.
The relator thinks the analyzer is trying to control him, right? The relator looks at the analyzer and it's like, we just need more love around here. We don't need job descriptions, you know what I mean?
You don't need charts. You don't need this kind of. We just need more love, you know? Just give me more love in the church, you know? So the relator thinks the analyzer is trying to control him. And the relator thinks the doer doesn't care about people, just tasks, right? So the relator looks at the doer, and it's like, heaven help me if I get between you and something you think needs to get done. Because you would walk right over me. No problem at all, right? You don't care about me. You don't care about people. You just. You just care about getting things done.
Get it done, okay? And then there's the analyzer.
The analyzer thinks the prayer is lost in space, okay?
The analyzer looks at the prayer and says, can we just think about it for a minute? Can we talk about it? Can we try and work the thing out, right? I mean, you know, I get the prayer thing, but there's another thing here too, right? There's God gave us brains, right? And so the analyzer thinks the prayer is lost in space. And the analyzer thinks the relator is controlled by their feelings, right? The analyzer is saying, well, let's just do what's right.
Let's just sit down, figure it out, and do what's right. And the relator is going, well, you know, but, you know, Billy over here, you know, da, da, da, da, da.
And, you know, the analyzer is saying, billy will get on board. Just get. You know, let's just do what's right. If we do what's right, that's all that matters, right?
And then the analyzer thinks the doer is a wild man, risk taker. When the analyzer looks at the doer, it's like, do we have to jump off of every cliff that we come to?
Can we look over the End once in a while, can we look over the side and see what is there? You are just constantly, just leaping into different kinds of situations. So the analyzer sees the doer is a wild man, risk taker, okay? And then the doer, the doer thinks the prayer is unbalanced.
You know, the doer is like, church is driving me nuts. You know, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. Do something.
You know, can we do something? You know, it's like, it's like, it's like crazy, right? The doer thinks the relator is only concerned for their own comfort, not the mission.
See, the doer one that looks at the relator and it's like, it's like all you care about is, you know, making everybody. Okay, here's the way to think about it. If you had a ship, if the doer is in charge of the ship, it's a battleship, it has a mission. Keep the decks swabbed, keep the guns clean. We are on our way to do something, right? We've got something to do.
If, if, if a relator is in charge of the ship. It's a cruise ship, right? And what we're concerned about, is everybody happy on the boat? You know, are we all feeling good here?
You know, it doesn't really matter where we're going exactly. It just matters that we all just hang in there together. You know, we just, we just like each other. It's just a cruise ship, you know, we're just kind of going right there. So, so you have these, these four different characteristics, four different, different things. And they're in this tension and they're. And they're often in this viewpoint of where they're suspicious of each other. Right. And so Paul is trying to speak into this situation and give us some ideas that can help us process this. So this is what he says to us in number two in your notes. To experience unity, we must believe that the Holy Spirit is the one in charge of our differences.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of season two of the. Well, we hope that you enjoyed the message that was shared and we would love it if you would take a minute to like and subscribe.
See you next week.
