RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Sammy Tippit: We’ve been talking about being a disciple of Jesus, and I’m here with Corey Webb. We’ve just had a great conversation about what it means to follow Jesus. Up until now, we’ve been talking about our relationship with God, but I think, Corey, we need to turn a corner and talk about our relationships with one another.
Jesus made this statement. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Now we talked about a disciple being a learner, having a heart of humility, and not comparing themselves to others but to Jesus. But now we need to talk about how when you really begin to follow Jesus, it affects your relationships. It’s not just upward, but it’s also outward. Tell us how that works. What does it mean when Jesus says, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another”?
Corey Webb: The people in our lives who that one another is referring to are extremely important because we were created for relationships. We read in Genesis that we were created in God’s image. Well, why was that? Well, because God wanted a relationship with us. If God wants a relationship with us and we’re created in his image, we are going to naturally, in our human DNA, long for relationships with other people.
Sammy: Yeah. So in those relationships… I think most of us would probably say the hardest part of the Christian life is relating to others. Most of our problems come from that. I could do great… I’ll tell you a little story. Once I was in Florida, and I couldn’t believe it. The pastor picked me up. I was going to speak at his church, and we drove by, and there was the smallest church I had ever seen in my life.
I asked the pastor, “What church is that?” He said, “Well, there was a guy in town who went to every church and didn’t like any church. He’d go to a church, not like it, go to another church, not like it… So he decided to build a church that was just big enough for him so he could go to it and get along with everybody there.” He probably didn’t get along with himself very well.
But anyway, God didn’t create us to have our own little churches by ourselves in the woods. We need to be able to worship God by ourselves, but he created us to be able to relate. I think some of the most wonderful things that have happened in my life took place because of those relationships. Early in my Christian walk, there were three guys who came to know Christ at about the same time.
We started meeting together, praying together, and doing things together. That was probably one of the wisest things that ever happened to me. I had some guys who I connected with, and we just had the same heart. God began to use that. Has that been true? Have you found that to be true in your own life? Are there people who God has brought into your life who have helped you to grow in your walk with him?
Corey: There sure are, Sammy. As a matter of fact, shortly after I came to know Christ as my Savior, God brought one particular guy friend named Ken into my life. He was a relatively young believer as well, and we began to grow. Of course, here we are today, 30 years later. We’re great friends, and through families, our wives having kids, and growing together… I really don’t think I’d be here today, Sammy, if it hadn’t been for that friendship in my life.
Sammy: I look back over my Christian life too, and there have been several people… I mean, I can point to not just one but a number of people God has brought into my life who have encouraged me and strengthened me. Pastors, leaders, and workers have been very, very helpful. That has helped me to become what God wants me to become. Now I’ve found the opposite is also true.
Some of the hardest things and most difficult times of growth have been when I’ve had a broken relationship. How do you deal with broken relationships in the body of Christ? This guy who built his own little church… What happened was he couldn’t get along with others. “There’s some kind of problem here and some kind of problem there.” He couldn’t get along with people. So how do you deal with broken relationships?
Corey: Reconciliation is huge, and I’ve had friends in my life and my journey where… There was a disagreement. We weren’t seeing eye-to-eye on things. There was a falling apart, so to speak, in that relationship. What it takes goes back to humility again. It takes humility. It takes us recognizing we have some responsibility in that relationship, and it takes loving each other past those differences.
Sammy: It goes back to when we first started this series here. We were talking about how we were looking to Jesus. The Bible talks about how Jesus said we’re to esteem others as greater than ourselves, not just look on our own vain ambitions. But sometimes Christians have real disagreements.
One of the things I’ve discovered is we don’t often know how to disagree without being disagreeable. We don’t have to be disagreeable when we disagree. Do you understand what I’m saying? In other words, it’s all in the heart. I’ve never met anyone who I agree with on 100 percent of issues. My wife and I don’t agree 100 percent on everything, so you’re never going to have that.
But we have to learn how to love one another, esteem one another, and respect one another when we disagree. In churches… You’ve been a pastor. I know you have to have faced people in conflicts with each other or maybe even conflicts with you. When that has happened, are there any practical steps you have taken to help people reconcile with one another?
Corey: Sure. Well, I’ll just use myself as an example. When there has been a difference between me and another person, whether it was a friend or a staff member, one of the things I think have helped me is to do my own heart check first. I have to ask myself, “Okay, is there something I could have done differently? Is there something I’m not getting?”
I’ve had to take some time to really pray through that and let the Holy Spirit deal with me on that thing. Then we come back, and then we talk about it and try to move forward together. We may not always end up on the same page, but we can move forward and love one another through whatever it is.
Sammy: I think that goes back to the humility thing again. To say, “Okay, Lord, where have I messed up?” and take a heart check on ourselves is hard to do because we always want to say… I knew a guy named Ron Dunn. He was a great man of prayer. He taught and wrote books on prayer. I heard Ron Dunn say one time that when someone criticizes us, if we would just have the heart attitude of, “If they knew the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, it would be a lot worse than the criticism…”
Corey: You bet.
Sammy: That kind of gets it in perspective. We all fail, and we never all see eye to eye. There’s a reason for that. We’re growing in the image of Christ. None of us have arrived. Nobody has arrived. We’re all growing, so we have to give each other grace. When we first started this series of growing in Christ, we talked about grace. It’s not only grace for our personal growth, but we have to give others grace. If God gave us grace, we need to give one another grace and show grace.
Corey: Yes. You bet. Being patient with one another.
Sammy: That’s right. When we do that, we’re expressing love.
Corey: You bet.
Sammy: There’s a verse of Scripture that has been really interesting to me. It’s in 1 John, chapter 2. It talks about how to know whether you’re walking in light or in darkness. There’s a lot of darkness in our world, so the question is, “How do you know whether you’re in light or in darkness?” It gives a really clear answer in that passage.
It says, “If you’re loving the brothers, you’re walking in light. If you’re hating the brothers, you’re walking in darkness.” That’s the answer. Why is this important? There’s one reason. If we’d learn to love one another, God would give us leadership in the lives of other people. Now he wants us to help others to grow.
Corey: Influence. Mm-hmm.
Sammy: See, it’s not just our growth, but he wants every one of us. I want everyone here to begin to think about helping someone to grow in Christ. You think about someone you know you can help to grow in Christ as you have been growing in Christ, and I believe that’s called disciple making.
Jesus wants us to be disciple makers. In Matthew 28, Jesus said, “Go into all of the world and make disciples.” I want us to visit that just for a few minutes and talk in our next kind of segment we’re going to do about what it means to make disciples of the nations.