Unity Amongst Differences

I've asked Blair Alvedrez to minister God's Word to us this Lord's Day because they were visiting for the weekend and I wanted to give an opportunity to minister the Word of God. Blair and Sue and Catherine are friends of ours. They've been friends of ours for some years now. And you know the Alvedrezes as well because they've been here a few times before. and you know them because I've made three trips to the country where they serve, that Muslim country of Albania.

I've been there three times ministering with them in terms of teaching, counseling there in that country. The Alvadrezas have served in Albania now for the last eight years. Before that, Blair was a tool and die guy and worked for years in that And the Lord put his hand on him and sent him overseas to minister to the Albanians. I got to know them in 2011 when I supervised their counseling for their ACBC certification.

So that's how I first got to know them. I'm thankful they still like me even despite that. You may not think this, but I can be a pretty hard guy when I'm super... No, I'm just... I wasn't too hard, was I, Blair? Now, you remember as well that Blair, along with fellow missionary Brad Lay, with the three Romanian pastors, right?

Gensi, Ganes and Samir were here in October. and we met them Brad and Genese and Samir all also had just been certified as well and so they were visiting here and we had a great time with them now in my view and I know it's kind of a limited view but I've had plenty of contact with the Alvedrez and I've been to Albania but in my view Blair and Sue have had a significant impact on the church in Albania I really believe that because the church when they got there and I can remember this because as I was telling Blair yesterday you know when I first talked to you you were so discouraged You were so discouraged you know Albanians you know the church isn about making disciples They don like to talk about their problems and all those sorts of things And yet they kept just plodding along. And you can see a significant difference in the churches there now because now those churches understand something. And they understand we exist to make disciples, that is people who live obediently to Jesus Christ. and I think they've had a significant part of helping the church in that country understand that their mission.

And so and so it's just a privilege to have Blair here and minister the word of God. I love this brother. I love the work he's done. I'm thankful to the Lord that he gave them grace over these years to just keep plodding along and to see what God can do just with plotters. So, Blair, come and minister the Word of God. We're anticipating God's blessings through you.

Good morning. It's great to be with everyone and be able to share God's word and what's going on in Albania. How about if I open in a word of prayer before we get started? Lord, I just want to take a moment and pray. Express my need for you. Express all of our need for you. and just how generous you really are.

You've been generous to me. I know you've been generous to all your people. And we just want to just ask for you to do it again as we're together, as I open your word and share from your word and teach from that, that you would just be generous and pour things into people that are needed. Feed, feed us, Lord, from your word. And I pray all that would be shared from what is going on in Albania would be encouraging and challenging as well.

So we just ask for your blessing over our time together. In your great name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Well, I have to tell a few stories on this guy. When I was just recalling when we did supervision together you know I thought oh yeah we just got to get down to business and talk about these counselees And he wanting to hear all about Albania You know we thinking maybe a half an hour It was like an hour sometimes we would be on the on the call or maybe even more than an hour.

It was just a real blessing for both Sue and I, my wife and I, to just have that time with your pastor, Tim. to learn more about biblical counseling, and to share what's going on in Albania. So, again, it's a pleasure to be with all of you, and I'm hoping to catch you up on what is going on in Albania. Also, I'd like to bring greetings to you from the Albanian people.

In Albanian, we would say, which just means greetings. just maybe a couple more little details about Sue and I and I don't know if you know these things or details about us or if I've shared them before, just bear with me my wife and daughter are born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and I was born in Oakland, California and my wife has a lot of experience in the physical therapy area She did that for over 20 years. And before going to Albania, she was a stay-at-home mom and homeschooling our daughter Catherine. So we're visiting you now from the city of Tirana in Albania, which is the capital.

I was thinking that if we were together in Albania, we'd be sitting down having a coffee together. Everyone loves to have a coffee. Tim and Ann, wherever she is, there she is, know about this. Everyone loves to have a coffee. You know, these little cups like this, and milk that thing for about an hour, sitting down, enjoying talking and being together. one observation that we i just want to paint a little picture of what albania is like in comparison to america is that we consider albania sort of unorganized and katherine my daughter she says you know what i kind of like that is so unorganized out here in albania you know when we go to America it just everything is just so together Everybody wants to have everything so put together.

But in Albania, it is not put together, for sure. And it's kind of cool, because it's not put together, if that makes any sense. So having a coffee and just being together and relaxing is a different way of life that we experience every day in Albania compared to here in the U.S. I wanted to read, we're going to read today from Colossians chapter 3. So if you have a Bible, turn to Colossians 3, verses 11-17 is our scripture reading and what we're going to be taking some time to think through.

I wanted to focus on this passage, Colossians 3, 11-17, with the purpose of considering what are the challenges that the church in Colossae faced and what are God's solutions given for the challenges that they were facing. And also to consider how this passage gives some direction for what we see the people in Albania are facing. And I'm hopeful as we look at this passage together, maybe there'll be some things in your life that you'll find helpful here in Leroux.

And before digging into Colossians chapter 3, we have two other chapters that preceded chapter 3. And I just wanted to just briefly highlight a couple things from those two chapters. We don't have time to get in depth on those two chapters, but just a few highlights to get some context of what God's communicating to us in chapter 3 of Colossians. First thing is, in chapter 1, I just really appreciate how Paul begins this letter to the church.

He's so encouraging and uplifting as he writes this letter to the Colossians. You know, with the understanding, you know, he was uplifting and encouraging with the understanding that there were some problems to be addressed, some things that were not going well. And I don't know about you, but when people contact me and they want to talk to me about problems that they need some help with, being encouraging and uplifting is not what bubbles up out of my heart, you know. so I'm learning to be that way and God's helping me and he's grown me but I don't think if we're all honest that's comes natural for us so that really just encourages me look look at here in Colossians chapter 1 verses 3 through 5 it says we always thank God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven just encouraging words for the church I love it I just really appreciate the way this begins and then when we go into Colossians chapter 2 verse 8 there's a warning sort of the beginning of of addressing some issues known in the church she says see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to the human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.

So, I don't know, maybe some of you more scholarly people know some of the details of what exactly were these philosophies and empty deceits that they were facing at this period of time. We don't have them listed right here in the scriptures, but I think when I read these, the scripture, I think we're facing the same sort of things in our day. Philosophies and empty deceits and human traditions.

I try to, while we're in Albania, I try to follow what's going on over here. I keep up with the news. I try, at least. I don't know if it's always accurate. We get this fake news thing that's being thrown around all over the place but I try to keep up with it And there have been a lot of changes I think in the last three years since we been here to visit the U I think disturbing things, things like transgender and racial tensions.

I kind of think of it as alterations of fundamental positions that this country has held and have a Christian background also. In Albania, the main philosophy that is dominant today is atheism. I mean, even though they would claim themselves to be a Muslim nation, atheism is really where they're at more than being a Muslim or a Christian. The majority of the people don't believe anything.

One of the phrases or things that Albanians like to say is that we're tolerant. We're really tolerant. We have Muslims, we have Catholics, we have Orthodox, Christians, and we're all living in the same country. Matter of fact, on the same street, you know, there's a street that's near where we live. And on that boulevard is a mosque, a Catholic church, and an Orthodox church all on the same street.

And they pride themselves and say, look, we're not killing each other. We're living together. We're getting along. And I tell them all the time, I say, you know, I don't think it's an accurate description that you guys are tolerant. I think a better description is you're indifferent. You're not passionate about being Islamic.

You're not passionate about being Catholic or Orthodox. It's just nothing or just whatever. And the just tolerance or the idea of their tolerance, I think it's one of these things we see here in the Scriptures, we're reading in Colossians chapter 2, it's an empty deceit. They're deceiving themselves into thinking, this is okay, we can function and we can go on through life and just not have any anchors anything rooted in anything no passions It okay to live like that So another point addressing some problems from Colossians chapter 2 is in verses 16 and 18 It says, therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind. When I read these verses, I think God's trying to address some things about division, things that were causing division within the church things that were causing people to separate I like to say it as they were getting on hills that they wanted to die on hills that were not worthy to die on but they wanted to die on these hills about food or drink or festivals new moons, a Sabbath, visions puffed up, or let's just say being arrogant about things without reason, by a sensuous mind. This has been a...

Whenever we come back to the United States, there's just things that hit us that we're not around all the time. And so then when we come back for a visit, we're like, wow, this is amazing, just to hear what's interesting to people or what people are sort of engaged with here in the U.S. And one thing that's been interesting to me, at least, is just the high emphasis on health and diet and what people are eating.

Yeah, I like to be healthy and eat healthy. I like to work out. I play basketball probably two times a week over in Albania with some guys that I've met. I like to eat well, like I said. In Albania the diet in general is healthier than America. People are thinner in general in Albania.

And but what I see here is just this high emphasis here of well what are you eating Are you exercising? How many times a week are you getting to the gym? Different things like that. And what I see can sometimes be a problem is that it communicates, if you don't eat this, or you don't exercise and do these things, you're messed up and you got a problem and again it could be an opportunity for division you know being divisive hills that don't need to be dying on this empty deceits i have this one story uh in in albania about a guy that i think was he's puffed up he's a guy that sells fruits and vegetables down the street I think Tim you've probably met him his name is Ilo he's told me that he's Muslim and we've had lots of discussions together he wants to share his Muslim understanding and faith with me and I've shared about Christianity with him and every time we get together he wants to debate about the differences between being a Muslim and a Christian.

And I finally asked him, why is it that you always want to debate every single time I come by your place where you're selling fruits and vegetables? He goes, well, I want to convert you to be a Muslim. I said, well, at least he was honest. I said, well, I want to convert you too. So he knows that we're not on the same page. but one day I'm walking by his stand and he stops me.

I'm on my way back to the apartment, our apartment, and he said, Blair, Blair, come over here. He said, you look like you're regressing, like you're going backwards. And I said, well, what makes you think that? Why is it that you think I'm going backwards? He said, I don't know. Just something on your face.

Just something seems like you're going backwards. And I said, Elon, it's funny, I've heard others talk like this, you know, in Albania, where you just get an idea and run with it. And you don't really know if that's the truth. I said, the only way you're going to know if I'm going backwards or I'm regressing is you have to talk to me. You have to ask me.

Blair, are you okay? Hey, is something going on? What's happening? And he said, I still think you're going backwards. He did not even want to budge on his opinion. He had his ideas about what was right and what was wrong and just functioning on this level of philosophies or ideas that he comes up with without facts. and it was just an example to me of sort of the environment that we're living in in Albania and how people function in a general way.

Now, before we go any further, I was thinking about a little survey I could take of people who are here at the church. How many people here have been Christians for 20 years or so? How about 30 or more, or 30 years, let's say, 30. All right, a few less. How about 40? Anybody with 40 years?

How about 50? 50 years. A few hands. Oh, wonderful. I love to see and hear about people who have been living for Christ a number of years. It's always a blessing to me.

But let me ask another question. Some of you, especially those of you who kept your hands up a little longer, how many of you have experienced some sort of division in the church firsthand where there have been some problems? Anybody? Yeah, I see a few hands. I'm sure those weren't fun times. I been part seeing that involved in churches where that going on and it not easy you know things like in the church where people are not getting along or they fighting or arguing or maybe divorcing in the church Sometimes Christians actually suing each other or just there's difficulties with racial problems or economically or dividing over even doctrinally, You know, different things.

Not to say that we don't want to have any things to stand on doctrinally, but sometimes dividing over secondary issues that are not needed to die on. Since we returned to the U.S., unfortunately, we've heard some stories at different churches that we visited around the U.S. that have had difficulties in their churches. And it's been honestly a little discouraging just to hear some of the problems and conflicts in the church.

And I only bring it up because we see some of those things in Albania as well. Just conflicts, divisions that are going on in the church. and I think here what we're seeing in Colossians these sorts of things are being addressed in this book and in chapter 3 we have the beginning has some things talking about this putting off the old man and putting on the new man this principle how many of you are just delighted with that principle? It's, I don't know about for you, but just that one principle of putting off and putting on in my life has been revolutionary.

Just to understand it and put it into practice more thoroughly. Not just stopping, but God saying, yes, don't do those things, but put on. You know, understand what is it you need to do, these habits to develop. And as we going through this passage in Colossians 3 11 through 17 I think we going to see that that is putting on and what to do Let me read the passage This is in Colossians 3 verses 11 It says, Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. put on then as Christ's chosen ones holy and beloved compassionate hearts kindness humility meekness and patience bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you so you also must forgive and above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So I'd like to identify four things here from this passage that I think can help to bring about unity.

Unity instead of divisions in the church. In verse 11, it talks about, you know, Greek or Jew or circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free. But Christ is all and in all. just these I think there's a temptation to have distinctions that we want to define people or categories of people but here the encouragement is don't do that let's get away from establishing these distinctions one of the difficulties we're experiencing in Albania at times is is the how do we say accusation or claim that some of the things we teaching or trying to encourage people to live in God ways that an American way That not Albanian It an American way I just had a conversation with a man this last week from Albania.

We had a little video call. I counseled him before, and he asked me if I could help him with some things that he's struggling with. he's in in Christian ministry and he works on a team and there's someone who's over him as his leading a leader over him and they're having some difficulties some some conflicts these these two so I'm trying to help him work through some things and the leader told him some I thought it was terrible counsel, but anyways, that's another issue. He said, go and tell your wife that she is just too nice.

She's too kind. She's really acting like an American. That's not how we do things in Albania. We don't do that. We're direct. We just get at things.

And he says, you know that other way she's acting, that's like how Americans act. And we don't do that. And I said, I mean, I want to honestly just kind of blow up on the phone. What? What are you talking about? You know, and he said, I said, well, what do you think?

I said, you know, is that true? And he said right away, no, I don't agree with it. But I said, well, let's look at a couple of passages together. I said, let's look at 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 14, where you have these three types of people that are described in 1 Thessalonians 5, where it says, you know, admonish the idle or the rebellious. What is it?

Encourage the fainthearted and then help the weak. But it says, be patient with all of them. I asked him, I said, what do you think? I said, you think there's a patient way in America and then a patient way in Albania? And he said, no. I said, I think there's just one patient way.

You know, I said, yeah, that's what I don't think, you know, there was. Lots of different groups in this time when Colossians is being written. We have Romans and the Greeks and different people. There was no defining or something described here in the Scriptures that differentiates different groups. Oh, these people be patient in this way and these others in another way.

And he said, yeah, you're right. And I said, what about in 2 Timothy 2, verses 22 through 24, where there's the encouragement to be gentle and kind. I said, do you think there's a certain American way to be gentle and kind and then an Albanian way to be gentle and kind? And he said, no, I think we're all, you know, there's a Christian way. I said, yeah, this is the issue.

We're shooting for a Christian culture, not Albanian culture, not American culture. What is the Christian culture that we need to be striving for? And he said, yeah, you're right. I said, well, now don't go running to your leader and jump all over him now and read these verses. You know, I said, but you need to practice this, not having these distinctions.

So that's the first point. The second one is in verses 2 through 14, talking about these, I would say it in this way, a disposition towards others that God wants us to have of being compassionate, having compassionate hearts, being kind, being humble, being meek, being patient, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, loving each other I was thinking about you know some of you raised your hands about being in churches or amongst Christians where there was some conflicts or divisions and I'm thinking if these qualities were being practiced do you think any of those divisions or conflicts would be happening I don't think they would not on the level of dividing. Maybe there would be a conflict or a disagreement, but there would be the ability to work through it in a way that would be honoring to the Lord How about in verse 15 We have this third area that I wanted to identify.

In verse 15 it says, And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Thankfulness. I have to say, in Albania, there are lots of things not to be thankful about. The economy is not going well. The main thing that the economy is driven by is tourism. They have a beautiful coastline.

If you've ever seen pictures of Greece and what the waters look like, just clear and just a beautiful coastline. That's what Albania looks like. More south, closer to Greece, but they have that type of coastline. And that drives, I think, their economy primarily is the tourism, people that come in during the summer months. Matter of fact, we just passed the busiest month, which is August in Albania.

I don't even want to go to the beach in August. It is so packed in the month of August. trying to get a place on the beach to squeeze in. It's just crazy. It's really packed. But, you know, there's not a lot of opportunities. Here, we've been amazed just to hear, even for our daughter, Catherine, who's going to be starting what has started, going to university.

She's going to Northern Kentucky University to study nursing. She just finished her second week. How many people have come over to her and said, we have a job. Would you like this job? Or we know of some job. And I'm thinking, that never happens in Albania.

I mean, no one is coming up to another person, hey, I know someone who's hiring. Come and get a job. The government statistics are it's about 15% unemployment. Unemployment, but maybe you've heard me say it before, it's more like 40, 40 percent. High unemployment. And you see it on the people's faces as they walking around not thankful And so one of the goals that we had a lot of times with our teaching or in counseling is trying to help people understand to have a hope a confident expectation of future blessings from the Lord, regardless of their circumstances.

To be thankful for the things of God. This last point from verse 16, talking about letting the word of Christ dwell with you richly, in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. This, I like to think of it as the word, it says here, the word of Christ, or we can say the Bible, the scriptures, and how I love to think about the scriptures as more than just this book that we're looking at, but this is what we have given to us, a gift from God that helps us understand how God operates, how he thinks, the way he breathes and lives in the scriptures, and have this take residence in our hearts, in our inside world, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.

When I was thinking about wisdom, it made me think that wisdom takes time to develop. I mean, I wish it could happen like we read about Solomon. He asked God for wisdom, and I don't know if he got it instantaneously, but I would like it like instantaneously myself, wisdom. But what I've seen is wisdom takes time. It's practicing the truths and the word of God, his ways, and then wisdom comes.

God gives wisdom. One of the difficulties that is going on in Albania, that there isn't that wisdom always in different things that are going on in the church, is because we're talking about a young church. And I'm not talking about ages of people who are attending the church. I talking about the length of time that the church has been in existence in Albania So 1991 communism fell many Christian organizations and missionaries entered into Albania and the church got started around 91.

So we're talking 27-odd years. That's not a long time. How old is this church, Tim? 1873, what's that? Man, 1873. A lot longer than 27 years.

So it just has an influence. There's a different history in Albania than there is here in the United States. And one of the things that we've been doing in regards to biblical counseling, teaching and training, having conferences, meeting with people, helping them work through their problems or issues that they're facing, it has been i think we've been going after this particular point of how they can teach and admonish each other in a godly way biblical counseling discipleship soul care or let's just say understanding how to apply god's word in everyday life practically so i'm hoping as we've gone through these things from colossians 3 11 through 17 that maybe that might there are some things in there that you can take away and practice.

I'm sure you already are, but keep going if you are, if you haven't. And maybe there have been some difficulties and relationships, conflicts, to look at these things from Colossians and put them into practice to help in those situations. We've been doing that and I think God has been blessing the people that we have been interacting with, the Christians and even non-Christians as well.

It's been a real privilege for us to serve the years that we have. I wanted, before ending, just to say that there are a couple financial needs that we have, and I wanted to express those and see if there are any of you who might be in a position to partner with us in our monthly support. We're looking to increase that a little as our ministry has expanded in Albania.

So if you might be in a position to partner with us in that way, we would love to talk with you here after the service. I think we're having a lunch together. Maybe later we can talk to you about that. We'll have some prayer cards that you can take. And on there I have an email address if you'd like to just contact me and we can figure that out. Also, I think some of you are aware that we translate or get translated different biblical counseling materials and have them available for people in Albania.

And we have two books that we'd like to get printed. The Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul Tripp. This is a second printing. And The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace. So if you're interested in helping us in that way, it would be great. We'd love to partner with you.

How about if I pray and then we can close? Lord, we do want to thank you. Thank you so much that you have given us your word. And it's rich. It's so powerful, you say, and able to discern and understand us and help us. And we thank you that we have been able to look at your word today to understand what is needed in difficulties and moments when there's potential for divisions and conflicts. and I pray that we would just continue to grow in the things that you have given us and that you would bless these brothers and sisters as we've been together.

I pray they would be encouraged and challenged and that this next week would be a week of fruitfulness in the things of God. So thank you. Thank you for the time that you've given us and I pray that your name is honored and glorified as we've been together. In your great name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thank you.