This Sunday at Church I want to encourage you to do the following: Make Sure You’re not Competing With Others.
This one is a bit different from the other Sunday posts because its more a prohibition instead of a positive command. Yet I want to speak on this. I want to speak on this to make sure we don’t have the wrong motive when we go to church; if we have the wrong motive with going to church not only does not fully please God but also one will eventually stop going to church when one don’t get what they want in the game of competition. One then gets envious and jealous of others.
Hear Galatians 5:26: “Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”
Envy is one of those sins that hides well; we think we are not envious but sin craft it as all about the other person(s); whether it is they have more things than you be it attention, pastoral care, spiritual influence, popularity, etc. It can even disguised as spiritual matter that we competing about: Maybe its about whose kids behaves best, knows the Bible more, or get to church on time. Yet other times it can be who dress the best to church and has the most spiritual sounding prayer request, or worst we share prayer request as a form of prayer-brag.
Sometimes we can even see the sins as being about others who are competing with us when really it is within our own mind and it is really us going to church to compete with others. Others might not even be competing with you, they are trying to live their own life not knowing how you feel, and your feeling of resentment and jealousy.
But such spirit is dangerous and toxic. It will come out. One can’t hide it. And it will hurt the church and its members.
I’m not pointing fingers here; I don’t know your specific situations and I do realize that sometimes other Christians can be imperfect and careless or indifferent towards other Christians and we can be hurt by it at church. Still it is good to do a heart-check that we are not going to church with a competitive spirit, even if others play that game, let us not participate.
Let us instead go to church as an act of loving God first and then loving Christ’s body (the church). Let the Gospel moves us to love others and see everyone as brothers and sisters in Christ or those who are in need of the Gospel.
The Domain for Truth 
Another great Sunday morning post!
Thanks! Have a blessed Lord’s Day! Good night!
You too!
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Excellent excellent post. It’s great you addressed this topic. Indeed we all need to check our hearts and our motives. At times we may not even be aware of our evil attitudes lurking in there masquerading as good deeds.
Thank you pastor Jim. Thank you for caring for God’s flock speaking the truth in love.
Have a peaceful blessed powerful Lord’s Day.
Thank you. I’m encouraged with what you did this weekend with your evangelism and what you shared about your Lord’s Day. It encourages me to know there are Saints who are witnessing I. Australia! Has your hand been better from last week the cast being removed?
Thank you pastor Jim .
My hand is recovering well . 😊.
God bless you.
Love these Sunday morning posts. Excellent: “Let us instead go to church as an act of loving God first and then loving Christ’s body (the church). Let the Gospel move us to love others and see everyone as brothers and sisters in Christ or those who are in need of the Gospel.”
Blessings.
Thanks brother for that encouragement, how is your Lord’s Day going this far?
It has been a stunning day in paradise. Jesus is King!
Reblogged this on a simple man of God and commented:
I am a trained pastor, and I absolutely love teaching the truths of God’s Word. This also means I absolutely love learning more about God’s Word. I could be like those pastors who have to be the leader and share all they have learned, and you had better listen! But almost every time I teach, God uses my fellow disciples to teach me something, too.
My point here: this could easily be paired with the positive aspect of “remain teachable this Sunday” and always.
Daniel
Thank you, brother! This is a much needed reminder.
You’re welcome! How was your Lord’s Day and what did the pastor preach on this morning?
We’re a few hours behind you, my friend, our church service doesn’t start for another hour and a half. We’re currently making our way through Acts though, chapter 26. It’s been very edifying. How was your service this morning, brother?
Heart check should be daily and specially when we worship.:)
Amen hope you had a blessed Sunday!
I have, Ty and you are a blessing.
This right here is so good! And so needed!
Great advice. I wish we would get ourselves together and end the foolish competing. God is certainly not please with this. Thank you for sharing.
Great post! So absolutely needed!
Thanks for this good exhortation. I know I have played the church competition game myself. This is a good example of how even our “good deeds” are tainted.
We are so sinful we can do outward good acts with sinful motive; I feel as I grow more as a Christian it might not be I’m doing new and more outward good acts as my motive for doing what I do is purified and is driven more by worship of God!
I’m often conscious of doing “good” things for selfish reasons, a lot of times with future reciprocation in mind.
As much as possible, we should do our deeds in secret according to Matt. 6:1-6. on the lighter side the Babylon Bee satirized the, “being seen by men for the praise of men”. Their spoof article claimed a direct connection to how spiritual you are based upon how many chairs you move before and after an event.
Yes we must strive to be our best for God and for Him to see, not for the praise of others.
I was once a part of a very powerful youth group. As the elder kids left for college, the season of that group came to an abrupt close. I wonder if the topic of this post may have something to do with that, and if they had worked more with those of us who stayed behind, the season of that group may have continued.
Jim, let’s all hang on to your final paragraph. It says so much and says it well. Thank you for sharing.
Well said; God bless you. More grace we pray to consider others even better than ourselves.
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That’s actually good life goal in general.
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Jealously is such a bitter poison