Tumors in the Body: Am I Promoting or Preventing?

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing?

Are You Promoting or Preventing Tumors in the Body?

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing?

Are You Promoting or Preventing Tumors in the Body?

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? The danger to the Church body in leaving this mass of death attached without remedy is multi-faceted. The worst things tumors do is obscure the glory of Jesus Christ.

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing?

Are You Promoting or Preventing Tumors in the Body?

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing?

Question: Did their “solution” prevent the tumor of division or promote it? Question: Did their “solution” prevent the tumor of division or promote it?

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? And you? Are You Promoting or Preventing Tumors in the Body?

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing?

Self-evaluation concerning behavior and attitudes that produce tumors: 1. Do you gossip, slander, spread rumors and talk negatively behind the backs of others? (i.e., “prayer requests”) Romans 1: Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? Do you LISTEN to gossip/slander without putting a stop to it? (Proverbs 17:4) " The evildoer is paying attention to the lip of hurtfulness. A falsifier is giving ear to the tongue causing adversities."

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 2. Do you care more about taking control than giving up control? (“My way or the highway”) Ephesians 5:21— submit to one another in the reverence of Christ

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 3. Do you care more about your “convictions/traditions/opinions” (and “being right”) than about loving others? (win/lose situations with all the focus on winning); Rom. 14—15:7 3. Do you care more about your “convictions/traditions/opinions” (and “being right”) than about loving others? (win/lose situations with all the focus on winning); Rom. 14—15:7

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 4. Are you strong in speaking truth (as you understand it) but not speaking it in love? (“The Truth hurts”; “The fact that I am telling you the Truth proves I love you”); Eph. 4:15--speaking the truth in love 4. Are you strong in speaking truth (as you understand it) but not speaking it in love? (“The Truth hurts”; “The fact that I am telling you the Truth proves I love you”); Eph. 4:15--speaking the truth in love

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 5. Do you give offense and don’t care who gets hurt (“That’s just the way I am”; “They are too sensitive”; “They can’t handle the Truth”);--Pharisees

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 6. Do you take offense and refuse to forgive because of hurt? (“But what HE/SHE/THEY did was so WRONG!”) Matthew 18:35 6. Do you take offense and refuse to forgive because of hurt? (“But what HE/SHE/THEY did was so WRONG!”) Matthew 18:35

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 7. Do you refuse to give up the “me” for the “we”? (unwilling to sacrifice for the team); Jesus

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 8. Do you think in the “us vs. them” mentality more than the “one another” mentality? (“us” always being right and/or righteous); there are 59 “one another verses” in NT

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 9. Do you think “straightening out” the church is your job instead of God’s job? (“If I see something wrong shouldn’t I say something?”) Perhaps, but the right person (Gal. 6:1), in the right way (Matt. 18:15-17), at the right time (Ecclesiastes 3:1) 9. Do you think “straightening out” the church is your job instead of God’s job? (“If I see something wrong shouldn’t I say something?”) Perhaps, but the right person (Gal. 6:1), in the right way (Matt. 18:15-17), at the right time (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 10. Do you refuse to submit to the authorities that God has instituted? (“If they aren’t godly it isn’t God’s will for them to be in charge”) Romans 13:1-7

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 11. Do you give more energy and attention to lobbying others to your point of view than to prayer (“Well, I think…”; “Well, MY opinion is…”; “We cannot let this happen to our church! We must do something!”); Lord’s prayer in Matt. 6:10: “…Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…” 11. Do you give more energy and attention to lobbying others to your point of view than to prayer (“Well, I think…”; “Well, MY opinion is…”; “We cannot let this happen to our church! We must do something!”); Lord’s prayer in Matt. 6:10: “…Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…”

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 12. Are you more prone to criticize than to encourage? (the gift of “discouragement”) 12. Are you more prone to criticize than to encourage? (the gift of “discouragement”)

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 13. Do you “courageously” point out problems without creatively providing solutions?

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 14. Do you isolate yourself instead of integrating with others? (intentionally or unintentionally) Prov. 18:1—”He who separates himself seeks his own desire.”

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 15. Do you stay in your comfort zones without venturing into new territories of service and relationships? (no post- birth growth takes place in the comfort zone)

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 16. Do you care more about “maintaining” status quo of church meetings than about growing and developing community? (relationships) I Peter 4:8--Above all, love each other deeply

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 17. Do you see yourself more as a teacher of others than as a learner of others? (“I can only learn from people I respect”) I Cor. 14:21 “With other tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Is. 28:11,12

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 18. Do you take more than you give? (do you think more about what you get out of church than what you put into it?)

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 19. Do you use the Bible to bash rather than heal? (2 main ways: I do something you don’t like and you use a verse to make me feel bad or guilty; OR you do something mean and unloving and use a verse to justify it)

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? 20. Do you let financial issues take priority over relationships? (top issue of divisiveness in marriages, families, and churches) 20. Do you let financial issues take priority over relationships? (top issue of divisiveness in marriages, families, and churches)

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? Are You Promoting or Preventing Tumors in the Body?

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing?

What about YOU?

Tumors: Promoting or Preventing? Promoting or Preventing?