SATAN IS USING 3 THINGS RIGHT NOW TO DIVIDE THE BODY OF CHRIST! | DON'T LET HIM USE YOU!

there is something that is troubling my spirit and that is the fact that Satan is using well-meaning Bible believing Church attending believers as tools to further divide the body of Christ so in this video I want to share with you three ways that he's doing this but most importantly I want to share with you five ways that you and I can be part of the solution so that we are not ignorant Lee being used by Satan himself as a tool or a weapon to divide the body of Christ that's coming up today on the beat hey my friend welcome back to the beat my name is Alan Parr thank you so much for tuning in if this is your first time here it's a pleasure if you want a free ebook click the link in the description box below if you enjoy this video consider subscribing hit that little Bell notification so you won't miss a beat okay so with everything that's going on particularly in our country here in the United States you've got racial tension that's on the rise you got political tension that's on the rise it is easy to get heated whenever you're on Facebook or Instagram or any sort of social media platform and you read somebody's post or you read the comments about that post and you see some of your friends that are agreeing with these polls and you're like wait this post offends me and everything in you rises up in your flesh and you want to respond back and you want to just release all of your arguments and debunk this fool and let them have a piece of your mind and shred them to pieces oh no he did not post that I'm about to rip him to pieces and sadly oftentimes that is our goal that is our intent that is our motive that is our aim and if we are not careful we will respond out of our flesh in a way that divides the body of Christ which is exactly my friend what the enemy wants to use you and I to do so today I want to look at a church that was experiencing all sorts of divisions and I believe that these are the same three things that the enemy is using to divide us today notice what Paul says here in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 he says I appeal to you dear brothers and sisters by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ to live in harmony with each other let there be no divisions in the church rather be of one mind United in thought and purpose God's desire even Jesus final prayer before going to the cross in John 17 he prayed that we would be one and one sign of spiritual maturity is our ability to strongly disagree with somebody and yet not break fellowship or friendship with them so here are the three ways that the enemy separates us number one is over politics continuing on in that same verse it says for some members of Chloe's household have told me about your quarrels my dear brothers and sisters some of you are saying I am a follower of Paul others are saying I follow Apollo's or I follow Peter or I follow only Christ has Christ been divided into factions so what we see here is that the same thing that was happening in Corinth is the same thing that's happening in our country today even though you may not be from the country of United States but so many people are saying well I follow Barack Obama I follow Michelle Obama I follow Donald Trump I follow Biden and if we are not careful we will pledge so much allegiance to these people so that we will even justify their ungodly action their ungodly beliefs even their ungodly policies because we are so committed to the person we're so committed to a particular party and we are elevating that person or that party oftentimes over our own relationship with Christ and then what happens is we will pass judgment on people who do not subscribe to the same political party as we do thus causing even more division in the body of Christ and some crazy people yes I'm going to call you crazy have even gone as far as to say that if you do not vote in a certain way or for a certain person or for a certain party then you are not a Christian which is absolutely ludicrous because our Bible says that our relationship with Christ is not necessarily about who you vote for it's about placing your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and understanding that he is the forgiver of all of our sins past present and future that is how somebody becomes a believer and so as we promote this idea that you have to vote this way or you have to support this person and you don't love Jesus is simply being used by Satan as a tool to divide the body of Christ so once again the order looks like this we have a commitment to a particular person or party and then we make a judgement about other people if they disagree with us and then that often times leads to a division or a break in fellowship or a friendship but then Paul goes on to say was I Paul crucified for you were any of you baptized in the name of Paul of course not in other words was Barack Obama crucified for you no was Michelle Obama crucified for you was Joe Biden - crucified for you was Donald Trump crucified for you no yet we will allow our political differences to separate friendships and my friend it should not be that way in the body of Christ I mean what I see going on online I'm gonna be honest is borderline idolatry we will put more faith in an individual to make change in our country than our faith in God we will post more about a particular person of a particular party more than we post about God we will retweet certain things from certain people in politics more than we post about the Word of God we will spend more time following or studying one of our favorite politicians than we do following and studying and learning the Word of God we will get more excited and more passionate about attending a particular political rally than we do about attending church and all the while not even realizing that the enemy is sitting back laughing at Christians because we are separating over politics the second issue that the enemy is using to separate the body of Christ is not only politics but race now if you know anything about the church at Corinth you will know that there were both Jews and Gentiles for the first time trying to coexist with one another even though they had very very different upbringing and cultural backgrounds notice what Paul says here in Chapter nine he says when I was with the Jews I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ when I was with those who followed the Jewish law I too lived under that law even though I'm not subject to the law I did this so that I could bring to Christ those who are under the law now when I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law I to live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ now watch this later on in the text Paul says this yes I try to find common ground with everyone doing everything I can to save some do you see what Paul was trying to do he was trying to build a bridge to people who were different than him rather than erect a barrier that would hinder him from being able to understand them thus reaching them for Christ Paul was essentially saying hey let me remove myself from my god-given Jewish heritage and let me step into the experiences of my Gentile brothers and sisters so that I can better understand what their life is like so that I can build a bridge to them so that I can get to know them so that I can ultimately form a relationship with them so that they can ultimately have a relationship with Christ what we need to see is less posting about all this different stuff that we agree or disagree about and more conversations that will change the heart because if we really want to see change in our world then it starts with a changed heart how does a change heart happen in heart starts when our minds are changed how do our minds get changed our minds get changed whatever we have engagement and interaction and intimate conversations with people who are not like us so that therefore our perspectives will be changed which ultimately leads to a change of heart which will ultimately lead to a change of action it's not about just posting things all day long you have to ask yourself the question what am i doing to build a bridge to somebody who is not like me or am I just posting things that is just basically erecting a barrier when me and that person now the third thing that the enemy is using Christians to further divide the body of Christ is not only politics it's not only race but it's theological differences now I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time on this one because it's not as hot right now as the other two that are going on but you have a lot of Christians who will break fellowship and even friendship over certain theological differences such as baptism how do we baptize that we sprinkle should we use water does baptism save does it not do you speak in tongues do you not speak in tongues is are you pre-trib post-trib mid-trib is hell eternal or is it not and you have all these other issues are you charismatic or do are you not do you believe in the gifts of the Spirit or you don't you if you don't I can't have fellowship with you I can't be your brother and sister and enemy is using us to divide the body of Christ further simply because people do not agree with us on certain theological issues and none of these issues are salvific or should I say have anything to do with our salvation they're just differences in theology once again the sign of a mature person is the ability to disagree with somebody and not disrespect them and break fellowship or friendship with them I'm not saying that you can't feel strongly about these things I'm not saying that you can't engage in conversation and even get into some heated discussions I'm just saying don't let these things break fellowship with another brother in Christ not most importantly what are some ways that you and I can actually be part of the solution in terms of mending the body of Christ rather than being part of a problem where we're separating the body of Christ let me give you five ones very quickly number one listen and learn notice James chapter 1 says you must all be quick to listen slow to speak and slow to get angry human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires so I believe the reason why many of us struggle to listen to other people's perspectives is that we are so committed to our position that we are afraid that if somebody shares something that actually makes logical sense we may just have to adjust what we are thinking about our perspective on it and because we're so committed to what we believe we're not willing to do that or we're not listening because while the other person is sharing their heart and a different perspective than what we have we are simply trying to bolster and prepare our next argument so that we can fire back at that person and win the argument my friend if we're going to be part of the solution we have to be willing to listen and learn number two watch what you post now I'm not saying don't post things that you feel strongly about I'm just saying before you press that button to publish your post just do a self check do a heart check and make sure that you are posting this not out of your flesh but out of your spirit if you feel like the Spirit of God is literally leading you to post this then by all means post it but if not it could be a response out of your flesh which is never a good situation number three and this is huge avoid lengthy text Wars this refers to either social media let's say you're direct messaging somebody or you're commenting on a post that somebody has made and you want to comment back or if you're having a text communication with a friend colleague or whatnot the best thing you can do is the moment that you sense that conversation or that text exchange going south pick up the phone and actually have a conversation with them you do not want to get involved in a lengthy back-and-forth text conversation because my friend those never end well don't let the enemy use you to do that be mature to initiate a phone conversation or a zoom conversation so that you all can hear one another's tone and you can hear one another's perspective in a healthy way number four seek to reconcile quickly and privately when you have a public disagreement with somebody particularly online you can respond but the best way to do that is to contact that person privately so that it doesn't look like you're trying to put that person on blast embarrass them or call them out or people may bring into question your motives in terms of why you're doing what you're doing why you're tagging this individual why attacking them so on and so forth there's gonna be a temptation for you my friend to engage in a back-and-forth text war of words and whenever you have that temptation I want to strongly encourage you to discontinue that type of back-and-forth contact that person directly and if it's not somebody that you know say hey would you mind getting on the phone with me or zoom with me so that we can talk this out and once again number five be careful that you're not more concerned about winning the argument then you are about winning your brother or sister in Christ so I want to challenge you today and ask yourself this very important question am I being used as a tool by the devil to further divide the body of Christ or am i doing my part to try to build bridges to people to try to make sure that I am mending relationships whether it's over political differences racial differences or theological differences I want to make sure that I'm not being used by the devil and I will confess to you there have been times in my life where I know I have and as a result I need to repent from that and I trust that you do as well so the next time you find yourself getting heated I mean in heated conversations hopefully you remember the five things that we talked about today in these three areas I would love to hear your thoughts do you have any extra things that you want to add leave it in the comments section below and let's talk about it if you found this video helpful in any way feel free to share it with a friend also if you haven't done so already I would love it if you would subscribe check out some of the other videos on this channel thank you so much for watching I'll see you next time on beat

Channel: THE BEAT by Allen Parr

Views: 98,694

Rating: 4.9534016 out of 5

Keywords: allen parr, division in the church, division in the body of christ, racial tension, race and the church, politics and the church, theological debates in christianity, race relations, should christians support black lives matter, blm, bible study, racial reconciliation and the church, politics and religion, things christians argue about

Id: ODY8LLO-Fpc

Length: 14min 55sec (895 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 07 2020