To Cleave or to Leave - John Smucker

Good morning to all of you. I do want to

greet you in the name of Jesus this morning. It's

good to be here again. I'll bring you greetings from

our group there in Central Oregon. I have this morning

something to share that as I was thinking more about it,

I hope it will be, how shall I say, taken

the way that I intend for it to be taken,

because I realized that maybe what I am going to

encourage you not to do many of you have done.

Now you may wonder what I'm talking about, and you'll

find out here in a little bit. I shared this

at home with our home group, and I guess our

situation there is a little different than what I see

in front of me this morning, and so I just

I don't mean to give a lot of disclaimers here,

but I do want you to understand that what I

want to share is not a statement at all about

what may what you may have done in the past.

You can go ahead and contemplate that as I talk

this morning, if you want, If God takes your mind there,

maybe it will be a bit of an opportunity for

you to consider what has happened in your life in

the past and how that fits into what is your

life right now? Before I get into some of the details.

A verse from Ephesians five, verse twenty seven, which says

that he might present it to himself a glorious church,

not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but

that it should be holy and without blesh The apostle

Paul is describing a picture of the church that is

maybe at times seemingly out of our reach. It's a church,

a glorious church. It doesn't have one spot, it doesn't

have one wrinkle, nothing too mar what is able to

be seen. It's holy and without blemish. And I would

like you to consider this morning that this is God's

message to the Hally Mennonite Church, that that church can

be a church that doesn't have a spot, it doesn't

have a wrinkle, it doesn't have a blemish. It's holy

and something beautiful to look at. That's God's desire. The reality,

as you look across the Anabaptists world of churches is

that this does not seem to be the case in many, many,

many situations. And maybe it's because I'm in my mid

fifties now and I think about this more than I

did when I was in my mid twenties. I don't know,

but it sure seems to me like that there are

churches that are full of spot and wrinkle, to the

point where these churches decide they have to divide and

they have to become one here and one there. I

could go down a long list with you of churches

with you this morning, some not very far away from

here that have decided that, you know, we can't get

along anymore, and we're gonna split. And somehow I just

don't think, maybe I'm wrong, that this is the demonstration

of a church without spot or wrinkle, a church with

out blemish. The group I don't know where they meet,

but Crawfordsville, Brownsville, wherever it is. Didn't they just recently divide?

How about the church in Grangeville, Idaho. Most of you

probably don't know that group. I have a good friend there,

and recently he left and he started a new church.

Some from Bitterroot Menna Night, bitter Root Valley. Men ofite

church left that church to go be with this new church.

Council Idaho recently divided. They couldn't get along, they couldn't

continue as one. Several a year or two ago, maybe

two years ago. The church in Catado, Idaho, which wasn't

very big to begin with, is now half as big

as it was because they couldn't get along and they

divided little group there near all but Amos Krupp. I

have known him for many many years. He was a

mentor of mine as a teenager. But recently it's not

a big church either. But recently a family and another

family that was attending decided they couldn't continue, and they

left and they started their own church. How about the

church in Cheuwila. They've been through lots of trouble and

over the last year different ones have walked away left. Recently,

I was in Ohio at a writer's conference and I

met up with a young a lady there. She's not

so young anymore, she's in her fifties, but I taught

her in school thirty five years ago. Her name is Stephanie.

And I had a chance to visit with her a

little bit. And what did she tell me? She said,

our church in Indiana is going through struggles. Some are

satisfied there in Indiana at that church, and some are not.

They're not sure that they can stay that is, And

I'm not here to say that there aren't good reasons

for some of these divisions. I that's not what we're

talking about here this morning. And so you can be

sitting there saying, well, there was there's a B, C,

and D and this is what Okay, maybe, So I'm

not going to debate with you about that. I'm just

going to ask you this morning to do all of

these things that I mentioned to you. Give you a

demonstration of what Paul talked about in Ephesians five. A

church without spot, without wrinkle, one that's holy and without blemish.

Is that your vision for Halsey Mennonite Church here? You say, well,

it's not my problem. Really, it's not your problem. If

I want to go, I'm going to go. If I

want to stay, I'm going to stay. Well, there's truth

to that statement. That's what you're gonna do. But consider

the goal. What your goal is. You know, here's a

few illustrations for you to consider. A lady by the

name of Tiffany found an Anabaptist church that, from what

she and her family could tell, initially demonstrated the way

that God wants his people to live. This family visited

for a year, and after they were there that after

that year, they decided to become members. But you know,

as time moved on, they begin to struggle. You know,

they felt different, they didn't come from the same background.

They didn't really they they couldn't really understand. They felt

judgment from others in the church. They wondered if they

would ever ever be accepted. After about five years, Tiffany

and her family found themselves at a crossroads. What should

they do? Should they leave this church or should they

cleave to this church? Moving on to another illustration, Herman's

family grew up in an Anabaptist church that had been

around for a lot of years, more than one hundred years.

The traditions and practices were well established, and because the

community was so well established, many of the families in

that church had thriving businesses and they were prosperous money

for all of the families. There was not an issue.

Herman's family hadn't lived there, hadn't been there for a

long time. They had moved into this community five to

ten years ago. They enjoyed the fellowship that they had

there with this group. They enjoyed the efforts that they

noticed in this church to be involved in the community

and to help where they could. But you know, as

they continue to watch, they began to struggle with some

nagging fears questions. You know, where the activities of the

families and the youth which reflected the deep pockets. Were

these activities a correct demonstration of how God wanted his

followers to live. They tried to ignore the nagging doubts,

but they just wouldn't go away. They were also at

a crossroads. What should Hermann and his family do? Should

they leave this church or should they cleave to this church? Finally,

then Natalia. Natalia's family had been members of a congregation

for several generations. They enjoyed a lot of good things

because of the fact that their family for generations had

been actively involved in the ongoing work of this church brotherhood.

Natalia watched things happening as she grew from childhood to adolescence,

to youth, and then to married life. She felt a

stability there, but as time moved on, that stability began

to feel like stagnation. She did not want to raise

her family in a church that was stagnant. She and

her husband desired a brotherhood that was alive. Was her

church alive or was it dead. The question tormented her

and her husband and distressed them greatly. They were also

at a crossroads. Should they leave this church or should

they cleave to this church? The title of my message

this morning is to cleave or to leave? As followers

of Jesus living on the earth today, do you believe

that either one of these are a viable option? Or

does God have one that he desires more than the

other in the lives of his believers, of His followers

here on the earth today. You might say it depends,

and maybe you're right, maybe it does depend. But you know,

God has laid this burden on my heart, and I'd

like to try to communicate that burden to you this morning.

And please, I don't want you to take anything I

say this morning as a jab at you personally. I

have no idea what's going on in your mind. I

don't know where you're at in this question. But I

only know that Paul said, God's desire for this church

right here in Halsey, Oregon is a church not having

a spot or a wrinkle, a church that's holy and

without blemish. And may God help you toward that goal somehow.

I could probably go on for the rest of the

thirty five minutes here giving different scenarios, and I'm sure

I wouldn't even cover all of them. I gave you

three with these three people, Tiffany, Hermann and Natalia. My

goal this morning is not to provide you with all

of the possible scenarios that a person could run into,

as I already told you. My goal is to share

a deep burden that I have on my heart for

our churches, and to exhort you to beg you, to

urge you, to encourage you to embrace those life principles

that God has given to you for your local church,

so that your church brotherhood can remain strong. I can

remain and be strong and be active in the work

of the kingdom, to be strong and to be active

in that work as a whole unit rather than as parts.

You say, is there no play for me and my

individual initiative in vision? I'm sure there is. But again,

Paul's picture does not give us a picture of individual accomplishments.

It's a unit. When I look around, I often find

myself greatly distressed by the apparent ease that Satan has

been able to get into the fabric of a congregation

and rip it and tear it to the point where

that brotherhood is dangling in strands or maybe in bunches

of strands, where there might be these little groups that

are together rather than in a complete unit with a

tapestry that absolutely cannot be destroyed because it's so close

and it's so tight. There's a tight connection of each

fiber in the tapestry to each other, and there's a

shared vision. Do you think this morning there is anything

that you all can do to protect the tapestry of

your church brotherhood here in this place? Do you think

church problems and struggles and divisions are just a harsh

reality of church life that are just going to happen,

and we as individuals can do nothing about it but

just push through it and hope, just hope that in

the end we have a brotherhood. I had an individual

tell me one time. This person said, a church is

going to have problems every ten years, serious problems every

ten years. I guess I'm too black and white. I

don't know. Made me angry because the fact of the

matter is, I can tell you very clearly that if

that's reality, that a church is going to have problems,

serious problems every ten years and potentially divide and split.

I don't want nothing to do with it. I don't

want to be a part of such a group. You say, well,

you're you're just closing your eyes to reality. Maybe so,

but that's not what Paul gives us as the picture

in Ephesians five. He doesn't say, every ten years, Halsey,

Mennonite's gonna split in half. Huh. And if that's all

we have to look forward to, that's pretty hopeless. It's

pretty useless. And maybe that's why the burden weighs so

heavy on my heart. As I look around and I

see churches that are dividing, you say, well, they're creating

more churches. Well, praise the Lord. I don't think that's

how God intended for it to happen, though maybe he

can redeem it so that it's worth something. The burden

is that as a congregation, you will be committed to

work together and to resist and destroy everything that Satan

may try to use to tear you apart. And I

invite you this morning to join me in that vision.

Moving forward, as I speak to you, and I'm going

to get into a few points here in just a

little bit, but as I speak to you this morning,

and maybe some of your thoughts are going this way too.

I don't know, but I share my I share these

thoughts with the painful reality of my own experience. Go

back and look back over my life. You know, as

I was growing up, I was part of a church

in my youth. I was part of that church for

quite a number of years. But one day I decided

that I have to leave, and not cleave. I decided

I had to walk away. This was quite a number

of years ago, almost forty years ago, and it was

painful for me then. It was painful for others who

were close to me then and remained so to this day.

I don't remember when the last time was that I

heard somebody from that situation. It stop been that long ago,

in the last two or three years, comment about what

I did and how it's still it's difficult for them.

You know. I wasn't the key to that church, no,

not at all, but I left, and today I can

still struggle with that sometimes, even though maybe I can

look back and say there's a lot of good reasons

and there have been a lot of good outcomes as

a result of that decision. That might be true. I'm

not gonna just even debate that the outcomes, but I'm

talking to you about the reality of the leaving and

the pain that goes with that, because I didn't cleave

to my brotherhood. More recently, I was part of a

little church there in the country of Poland for quite

a number of years. We were a close group. We

weren't very big, and so we did everything together. We

went through the difficult times and the hard times. We

had lots of good times and wonderful interaction with each other.

But you know, after a number of years together, I

decided to leave, and not to cleave the pain of

that decision. While again I could you and I could

probably argue that we made the right decision and the

God was leading us clearly to do what we did.

Maybe that argument could be made. And by the way,

that's the argument. That's all we said almost all the

time in every group that leaves, Is it not? Is

that not the argument that you made when you left?

Maybe what do we do with that? And so maybe

I could make that argument for myself, But the pain

of leaving remains remains with me, even fourteen years after

the event. There was a church in Poland. There was

a church that I was committed to, there was a

brotherhood that I was a part of. One day I

decided to leave, or we decided to leave as a family,

and we left. And so today, while I try to share, well,

while I tried to share with you, the burden on

my heart, which you will see, is clearly to cleave

and not to leave. I will acknowledge that there have

been times in my life that I've done the opposite

of that. And I hope today that you will never

be faced with the urge to leave your church, brotherhood.

I hope you'll never be faced with the question of

whether you should leave or cleave because your church is

drifting and towards the world and their expressions of Christianity.

I hope that will never have to be your reality

in life. Instead, my call for you is that you

would cleave to what you have here, and that way

you would do everything you can to help all of

the rest of your brotherhood maintain a Christian walk that

is alive and clearly in tune with all of the

teachings of Jesus. And that's that's a discussion all in itself.

How that may look and I'm not going to talk

about that this morning, and I'm not trying to. I'm

not trying to. How shall I say, I'm not trying

to look past the concerns you may have for your

church here in this place. But please consider, consider the vision,

consider the goal that Paul gives us an Ephesians five,

and may you do everything you can to help your

church reach that goal. And this morning, leaving is not

going to do that. But cleaving will I have here

For the next few minutes. I'd look back to look

at a few what I have called cleaving or leaving realities.

I have seven of them, and I'll have to keep

moving here to get through them. But I'll do my best.

The first reality, and please keep in mind that verse

I gave you at the beginning, because that's what we

need to hold in front of us. That's the goal.

The first reality to either cleave or to leave, is

what I have called the influence of words. Ephesians four

thirty two says, and be ye kind one to another,

tenderhearted forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake,

has forgiven you of words. We're talking about a reality

that will either influence a person to leave or to cleave?

Do we speak kind words? Or do we speak killing words?

And you can ask yourself all kinds of questions as

it relates to what you say. Is what you want

to say true? Well, it may be, But is it kind?

As Paul tells us the Ephesians four, does it really

need to be said? Oh? Yes, they need to hear

the truth. And if I don't say it, they're not

going to hear it. Is it? Is it impacting people

to cleave or to leave? How was? How will it

make others feel? The words that I say? Kind words

or killing words? The influence of words. I'm telling you

this morning that almost every church division, it's words that

got into the mix and somehow caused it to happen,

or at least help caused it to happen. Do the

words we speak do we speak them with carefulness? Or

do we take up the habit of gossip? And it

is gossip that tears and destroys and hurts beyond anybody's imagination.

Unless you have been the target of that gossip, then

you know, does everything you say build up the other individual?

Does every story story you tell about somebody in your group?

Here Prophet those that hear you tell it. Do you

speak with carefulness so that you can so that you

can encourage, or do you you speak gossip so that

you can discourage the reality of whether a church is

going to experience a cleaving or a leaving. One of

those is the words that we say. And please, my

dear friends, be careful what you say. Be careful what

you write on Facebook, Be careful what you put on Instagram,

Be careful what you put out there. It has extreme

power to influence your brotherhood. It can either cause those

those the fabric of your brotherhood to get tighter, or

it could just start to tear it apart, fiber by fiber.

The second reality is the question of engagement. Acts two

says this, and they, continuing daily with one accord in

the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did

eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising

God and having favor with all the people, and the

Lord added to the church daily such as should be

saved the question of engagement, And we could ask that

in a different way. We could say to you this morning,

how engaged are you in your church? Brotherhood? Here are

you one of those strands that's tightly interwoven with all

the rest, or are you hanging off to the side

here somehow, just even a little bit. You look at

the early Church, and I'm not at all advocating that

you need to do what they did, but it is

a beautiful picture of people that were engaged, people that

knew what was going on in the lives of the

others around them, people that understood what was happening. Today,

when we begin to have stress on the fabric of

the brotherhood, you have the question of ignoring something in

your standard book that you've agreed on or adhering to it.

And again, oftentimes the decision to cleave or to leave

gets caught up in one of those and something in

that regulation book that you have or whatever you want

to call it. I don't know what to call it,

discipline book, whatever the right word is. And I have

noticed that oftentimes wrapped up in that. And when there's

the division wrapped up in that division is a is

A is a tendency to take something that has been

agreed upon and say it's not for me. It might

be for the rest of them, but it's not for me.

Or I interpret that a little differently than they do.

It says you should not go here or there there,

But but it's okay if I do it just once,

it's okay if I do it a couple times. The

question of engagement, engagement with your brotherhood, will it will

cause you to say, you know, I see it's there,

I understand is there, I'm happy to abide by that,

I'm happy to not do that, or I'm happy to

do that, whatever the question is. Because you're engaged, you

consider who will who will be influenced by my decision?

How will my decision a fact, impact the lives of others?

Will what I decide make life easier for the rest

of the people that are that are involved in the

fabric of our church brotherhood? The question of engagement prioritizing

church activities versus marginalizing brotherhood involvement. And it's just amazing

to me how easy it is for us to take

the picky approach and say, I will be involved in

this because it's fun and I enjoy it. But I

won't be involved in this because I have to sit

or I don't know what it is, but I've seen

it over and over again. We can, we can, we

can very easily. You know, our churches can very easily

get people to come for a particular activity that's outside

and there's a grill and there's activity, there's games, and

there's things going on. But a Wednesday evening prayer meeting service,

it's pretty tough to get people to show up. Why

is that the question of engagement these This is a

reality that has a profound effect on whether you're going

to be moved to cleave or to leave. The issue

of relationship. Philippians two, verses three and four says, this

is the third reality, the issue of relationship. Let nothing

be done through strife for being glory, but in lowliness

of mind. Let each his team other better than themselves. Look,

not every man on his own things, but every man

also on the things of others. Relationship, demonstrate that you care,

versus taking the approach that everyone is on their own.

His life is his life, My life is my life.

I'll take care of my life, he'll take care of

his life. We'll just come to church on Sunday. We'll

be friends. That's all that happens. Relationship that is an

important part of the fiber of your church. Here is relationship.

Learning to know each other, demonstrating that you care about

each about others. However you want to do that, maybe

it's the question of saying, how are things going in

your life? Is there something I can pray for you?

Something I can pray about for you? How can I

give a believer in my brotherhood a boost? When was

the last time that you took the time to reach

out to somebody else in your church brotherhood with However,

whatever method you want to use, make it a text.

Most of you, probably all of you have WhatsApp. It

takes you all of about one minute to send a

text to somebody say hey, I prayed for you this morning.

I prayed for you this morning. Why would I do

that is because you want a relationship. It's because you

want them to know that you care. How about relationships

giving the benefit of the doubt versus automatic truth assumptions.

I remember a meeting that my wife and I had

with someone else where we sat down with them and

we listened to them tell us lots of things that

we hadn't done right. There was no benefit of the

doubt being given to us, and it is what it is.

But there was a lot of automatic truth assumptions that

went into that conversation. It was tough on the relationship.

Why do I want to believe this? Whose agenda does

this fit into? What's the result of my conclusions? If

I do this automatic truth assumption thing, assumptions are rough.

You shouldn't assume, you just should not. You say, what

do I do? What else am I supposed to do?

When I see so and so drive into that place

and I'm not supposed to go to that place, well

I should assume I guess what else supposed to? I mean,

what's he doing there? Or when I see whatever you see?

Don't assume, Just don't assume. That doesn't build relationships. Those

assumptions will destroy it. And it's relationships that lead to

a leaving. I mean, it's a lack of relationships that

lead to a leaving. It's the relationships that are strong

that create a cleaving. The fourth reality, the sharing debate.

I've called this Proverbs twenty five to eleven. A word

fitly spoken is like apples of gold and pictures of silver.

This doesn't get much more beautiful. This is this is

a profound picture we had earlier. The first one I

gave you was the influence of words. But This is

more talking about the ability to share, not not the

words that you say, but just that whole thing of sharing.

Should I share or should I not share? Well, I

would encourage you, first of all, to consider the practice

of listening. To consider that in relation to your right

to speak, you have a right to speak, but maybe

you should listen more. I have a man who calls

me on the phone quite often, and he told me

the other day, he said, you don't say much. You

might not believe that, but it's true. I don't when

he's talking, because he talks a lot. I so I

enjoyed listening. And I've listened to him for years. I mean,

I've talked to him for a long time. And sometimes

I don't enjoy it that much with him because it's

the same repeat of a lot of things. But he's

a troubled man from Pennsylvania. But I get a lot

of practice at listening. But every so often I've found

that my cup gets full with him and I take

the right to exert my privilege to speak, and I

speak to him. He has to listen. I can tell

you that most of the time that's not that profitable.

It just is not I feel badly. Almost always, I'll

feel badly after the conversation, and I'll send him an email, sa,

I'm sorry I shouldn't have talked to you like that.

You know that sharing debate is wrapped up into the

amount of tightness that your connection to church could be

measured by the practice of listening versus the right to speak.

Why do I want to say something? What will have

the greatest impact whether I listen or whether I speak?

Who is the most important in the discussion as it

relates to whether I listen or whether I speak the

practice of listening versus the right to speak in that

sharing debate, then you also have the willingness to share

versus the decision to be silent. I've taken those two

and switched them around. What I'm after here is you

go to a men's meeting, brothers, and you sit there

and the question comes up, and whoever's moderating it, Leland

or Joel, whoever it is, wants you to talk. How

many of you sit there and say nothing? Don't put

your hands up, please? You say, well, I don't have

to talk. Nobody wants to hear what I have to say. Anyway,

I'm not gonna say it right, I'm gonna offend somebody,

and you sit there and say nothing. You say nothing.

We're talking about the reality of splitting versus connecting. Be

willing to share because it's part of that connection that

strengthens your brotherhood. It's part of that reality that strengthens

your connection to the brotherhood. Another reality this would be

number five. I guess the breakdown of authority one Peter

five five says, likewise, you younger, submit yourselves under the

l yay, all of you be subject one to another,

and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud,

and giveth grace to the humble. Breakdown of authority. That's

a big one. It's not there in society. I mean,

it's severely broken down in society. And unfortunately, when church

is split, when church is divide, this reality is much

too clear. You say, well, that leadership team wanted to

just tell me that I had to do what I

had to do, and I'm not going to listen to them.

They can't do that, they can't tell me what to do.

They didn't do it right. And the list goes on.

You could give me one hundred sub points, a hundred

bullet points as to why you didn't have to listen

to them, and there may very well be I'm sure

there are leaders that are hard to listen to, but

I really think deep within the heart of your leadership

team here is a desire to serve, and he's a

desire to care for you and to help you, and

not to take the reality of the authority that God

has invested in or has invested in their lives. Because

they've been given that responsibility. They don't want to take

that authority and that authority and abuse it and make

your life miserable. But so often that authority is broken down.

Everything breaks down, and when there's a leaving, there's an

authority issue. The Bible says you're to submit. It doesn't

just say you, as a laity is to submit to

your leadership. Also says that you as leadership is to

submit to your laity. It says here, submit yourselves, younger,

submit to your elders. Yeah, all of you be subject

one to another, all of you be subject one to another.

It doesn't leave anything out nor necessarily highlight one over

the other. But if you want to experience a division,

a splitting, splintering, then you can exercise a breakdown. You

can cause a breakdown in that authority from one from

either the leadership looking on or the laity looking on.

It can be either way, but that authority begins to

break down and disappear, and the end result is exactly

what our enemy wants it to be. The next reality,

cleaving or leaving reality is I've called the fear of

an agenda, And I'd add a little bit of a

hard time finding a verse that really applied to what

I was thinking here. And I don't know, maybe I'm

taking a little bit too much liberty here, but I'd

like to read to you some verses from Acts. And

some days after that, and some days after Paul said,

unto Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren

in every city where we have preached the word of

the Lord, and see how they do. And Barnabas determined

to take with them John, whose surname was Mark, but

Paul thought not good to take him with them, who

departed from them from Panphilia and went not with them

to the work. And the contention was so sharp between

them that they departed asunder one from another. It's kind

of interesting to see the apostle Paul leave. He said

all that was Barnabas, that was Barnabas love. No it

says they split. Often wondered exactly what all was involved

in that division they had to leave. Maybe, maybe maybe

there was some suspicion. I have attached this to the

problem of fear, of the fear that there's an agenda

going on. I've attached these verses to that, and maybe

that's an improper attachment because we don't really know. But

at the same time, I venture a guess that both

of those men weren't really sure what the other one

was up to. And you say why not. I don't

know why they worked together. Barnabas stood by Paul when

he was sold back then, and when there was a

lot of suspicion, Barnabas took him to the people that

were suspicious of him, say look, he's changed, he's a

new man. Barnabas helped him out. It seems like they

would have been very close, but they left. In our lives,

in our church lives, we find ourselves wrestling with this.

The current the concern being expressed is sincere or we

have this suspicion of some animosity. You know, maybe they're

just out to get me. Do they have it in

for me in some way? Why do they always talk

about the same thing? And the list goes on and on.

But again, those questions on the negative side are wrapped

up in a split, in a division, and you, rather

than being concerned and being so suspicious of animosity, should

be able to take the concerns expressed by anyone and say, look,

that's sincere. I will accept that. I will listen to that.

You're sitting there saying, well, no, no, no, I can't

not in that situation. I know they had an agenda.

You can go down that road if you want, but

you're beginning to create a divide when you do that.

There's no way to have a relationship when that happens.

There's there's no way to enter into a closeness that's

typified by a tapestry with all these strands all interwoven

and connected to create a picture that's beautiful and wonderful

to look at. You can't do it. Beware of this

because it will cause a division. And then finally, the

compromise struggle. This is the last one. Tewod Corinthians six seventeen,

says Worfworrek, come out from among them and be separate.

Saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and

I will receive you. Oh my, the change change. You

all like change? I don't. I like it less the

older I get. I just don't really care for doing

things differently, whether it's at home, whether it's in the morning,

whether it's at my desk when I'm trying to work

throughout the day, whether it's in church. I don't really

like it that well. We struggle change. Some say change

leads to worldliness. Others say change leads to life. What

do you say? I don't know what you say, but

that struggle becomes a real struggle in the midst of

this discussion about whether you're going to leave or you're

going to cleave. And remember the goal in Ephesians five.

A church that's without spot, it's without wrinkle, that's holy

and without any blemishes. You know, there's all kinds of

questions that come when you think about changing. Why do

we want to make this change, What will be the

result of this change? Is such a change really necessary?

And we could go on and on. Some people say

less structure means means that your church will be more attractive.

Others say more structure means that your church will be

more stable. What do you say? You know? There may

be some validity in both of those arguments. I don't know.

But are you bent on developing a church brotherhood that

is something that everyone in your group will want to be,

want to cleave to or are you intent on developing

a church brotherhood that has a split here and a

fizzer here and a division here. I just want to

give you a few what I have called interaction or

reaction responses. You know. An interaction response to something is this,

thank you for what you shared with me. A reaction

response is this that's just John Smucker talking. An interaction

response is something like this, can you explain further what

you are saying. A reaction response is i've heard you

say that before. It's time you get out of your

box and into the real world. An interaction response, I

noticed that you are having a struggle. A reaction response

is hey Joe, or hey, whoever did you hear about

what so and so did the other day. An interaction

response is a careful using in your own mind, I

wonder why so and so did that. A reaction response

is so and so simply rebellious and should have known better.

An interaction response is I appreciate your concern. Is there

more that you have noticed? A reaction response is you're

just out to get me and really just don't like me.

An interaction response, have you ever considered what history shows

us about your approach? A reactionary response doing it that

way is just wrong? Why do you think you need

to reinvent the wheel and it will end differently than

what it did for someone earlier. Finally, then an interaction

response is I'm struggling and need your advice. A reaction

response is they will not understand me anyway because they

just don't care and I just can't say it right.

What marks your life this morning? Is it a life

of interaction or a life of reaction? Which of those

resonated with you in your experience? For you as an individual, No,

don't think about the person on your bench they're with you,

or the person in front of behind. That's not who

we're talking about. We're talking about you. You. Are you

one that cultivates interaction or are you one that demonstrates reaction?

In conclusion, two things I want to encourage each of

you to be active in Number one encouragement. Be a

person who actively and intentionally reaches out to others and

encourages them. It's not that difficult. It takes time. It

takes time, I understand, I know it from a personal experience.

But figure out a way that you can regularly encourage

someone in some way. It doesn't have to be necessarily known.

Who did it? Last Sunday I walked out to our

car and on the seat of the on the driver's

seat in my car was a loaf of bread. And

Laura came out when we were getting ready to a home.

She said, where'd that come from? I said, I have

no idea. And to this, I don't know who gave it.

I don't know who made it. You say, what's the

loaf of bread? Well, somebody cared enough to put a

loaf of bread on the seat of our car. Encouragement

it doesn't need to be defined by someone else. It

simply needs to be directed by the Holy Spirit. It

might be a word fitly spoken. It might be an

action carefully done. It might be a prayer quietly given

in your closet. It might be a card sent through

the mail. It might be an invitation for lunch. It

might be an opening of oneself intentionally for someone else

to speak into your life. It might be the acknowledgment

of an offense who knows what it is, but be

active in encouragement. Whatever it is, be intentional and demonstrate it.

Why because you you have a brotherhood to protect, You

have a brotherhood to maintain, you have a brotherhood to strengthen. Finally,

then prayer. Be a person who is an intentional and

active prayer warrior. In thinking of Sister Helen and hearing

the family speak about her prayers, you know, my dear friends,

you're going to have to do something to make up

for the loss of prayer in this church because she's

not here anymore. I don't know how much she prayed,

but from what I understand, she had a long prayer

list and prayed regularly. For those people. Who's going to

pick that up? Oh, you say it won't matter, I'm sorry,

it will matter. Be a person of prayer, Jesus says,

But thou, when thou prayest enter into that closet, when

thou shut the door, pray to thy father, which is

in secret, and thy father which is in secret, which

seeth in secret? Shall we worth the openly? Doesn't have

to be known. I didn't know she prayed. She probably

prayed before we moved to Central Oregon. I'm sure she did.

I was not aware of it. Prayer a vital work

that goes on behind the scenes, and it provides the

oil and the grease to keep a brotherhood running smoothly.

You know, if there are creeks and groans and squeaks

in the life of the Halsey Mennonite Church brotherhood, could

it be because that oil is needed to keep things

running smoothly? Is missing? And is that oil missing because you,

as God's people here, are not praying as you need to.

As I said at the beginning, I'm here to point

any fingers, but please consider that I want to encourage

you to get on your knees in a regular way,

excuse me, and pray for each other. As James says,

the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much

encouragement and prayer. You know, there's likely a lot more

a lot of other important things in the life of

a brotherhood that are necessary to keep the brotherhood from dividing.

And to help it to cleave together. But this morning,

I believe that if these two oils are actively present

in your church, in any church across the globe, the

friction that leads to a decision to leave will be

replaced by a cohesion that leads to a decision to cleave.

May God bless you here as you serve him. Thank you,