Building Right Relationships in the Church
July 24, 2024 · 40:48 · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
The service opens with thanksgiving drawn from Isaiah 63:7. The congregation is invited to sit down as a family and remember how much of God's mercy has filled their home, and then to thank Him simply and sincerely for His goodness to the church, to their children, their health, their service, and above all for saving their eternal souls.
Bishop Vasyl Radchuk then preaches from 1 John 1:5-7 on building relationships among people and among brothers and sisters in the church. He points to three things that damage those relationships. First, selfishness, which puts my own self at the center and defends only my own interests, the same root that drives nations into conflict; Jesus answered it by saying the one who would be great must become a servant. Second, sin, which never changes God's love for us but does change our standing before Him, breaking the vertical bond with God and therefore the horizontal bond with people. Third, discord, which Christ prayed against when He asked the Father that we would be one.
The remedy is to care for others as Christ did, who came not to be served but to serve, to walk in the light so the blood of Jesus keeps cleansing us, and to love one another constantly from a pure heart. He warns that when secondary things become primary, life falls out of balance, and he urges that the knowledge of Christ stay the main goal so every blessing, hidden in Him, can flow into our lives.
Key Points
- Begin with thanksgiving by remembering how much of God's mercy already fills your home and family.
- Selfishness places my own interests at the center and breeds conflict; in God's kingdom the great one becomes a servant.
- Sin never changes God's love for us, but it does break our fellowship with Him and then with people.
- A broken vertical relationship with God will inevitably break the horizontal relationships with others.
- Walking in the light keeps the heart clean and lets the blood of Jesus cleanse every sin.
- Christ prayed for our unity, and unity in the local church carries great spiritual power.
- Keep the knowledge of Christ first, or secondary things will throw your whole life out of balance.
Devotional
Tonight, pause and count the mercies God has quietly poured into your home, because gratitude softens a hard heart. Remember that His love for you has never wavered; only sin can dim your sense of it, and only your own heart, not His, turns away. Ask Him to clear out the selfishness and the hidden quarrels so that, walking in His light, you can walk honestly with the people around you. When your fellowship with God is restored, your fellowship with others begins to heal as well. Hold the knowledge of Christ above everything else, and the rest will settle into its right place.
“It is not God who changes toward the sinner; sin changes our heart toward God.”
“Whoever wants to be great among you must become a servant.”
“Better to build good relationships than to spend our days settling scores.”
