Protocol

Posted | 0 comments

Protocol

TEXT: Proverbs 19:2-3

INTRODUCTION

I shared recently at a biker gathering about protocol. The biker culture has specific protocols regarding patches and earning their respect requires us to follow their protocols. There are some basic guidelines to follow when dealing with other motorcycle clubs. It’s always better to error on the side of caution than overstep boundaries.

  1. Remember, first and foremost. HBMM is a motorcycle ministry and not a club. If a dominant club in your area asks you to take off your patch, do not resist or take a stand for the sake of the patch. As a ministry, we are here to serve. Comply. Remove your vest and put it in your saddle bags.

  2. Do not wear colors when traveling in an enclosed vehicle; i.e. car, truck, plane, etc. (not even a convertible). Colors are to be worn when on your motorcycle or at an event as an identity. When you get ready to enter your car, take your colors off, then fold and place them in the back seat, trunk, or even on the front seat next to you. If you are traveling with several others, it is suggested you place them on your lap as you would a coat or jacket. T-shirts or denim shirts with silk-screened or imprinted colors are not considered the same as colors. These items are soft wear, and are not the same as rags, cut, patch, vest, or colors that identify you as the member of an organization. Soft wear can be worn in an enclosed vehicle.

  3. Do not lay your colors down, or place them on the back of a chair when at an event with other clubs, groups, ministries, or other riding organizations. It is too easy for another club to gain possession for your colors that way. These colors are yours, and they should have the same value as your country’s flag. You need to watch and keep track of your rags at all times. Treat your patch with respect at all times. You worked hard for it, why should another person gain it without the same work. Do not take your vest, rags, colors, patch off and lay it on the ground or hang it on your windshield. This too is disrespectful.

  4. Do not allow other persons to wear your vest, rags, colors, or patch. Not even your children, spouse, or close friends. Again, these colors are to be treated with respect and to be kept in your possession at all times.

  5. DO NOT TOUCH OR TAKE PHOTOS OF OTHER CLUBS’ VESTS, COLORS, RAGS, OR PATCH WITHOUT FIRST ASKING PERMISSION TO DO SO.

  6. Do not walk or run up to a club patch holder from behind and “pat on the back,” grab, hug, or otherwise touch without first announcing your presence. This allows the patch holder to let down his guard and welcome you properly. Some people are a bit high strung and need some warning.

  7. No territorial rockers are allowed (city, state, etc.) on the back of the vest. You may identify your church or chapter with a custom patch worn on the front of the vest.

Always show respect to other bikers…
…especially when wearing your patch

Christianity has protocols, too

Too many people who get saved… all the sudden jump out and act like they know everything. In the biker culture, you will lose respect easily that way. Some get in peoples face to preach
or stand on boxes like the guy on main street at Sturgis
 and shout through his loud speaker that they are going to helL. Some go into hospitals and anoint and lay hands on strangers. To justify what they do, they play the God card… God told me!

Don’t your realize that God follows protocol??

READ Text:

NIV 2Desire without knowledge is not good— how much more will hasty feet miss the way! 3A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, yet their heart rages against the LORD.

 

NKJV 2Also it is not good for a soul to be without knowledge, And he sins who hastens with his feet. 3The foolishness of a man twists his way, And his heart frets against the LORD.

 

NLT 2Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good haste makes mistakes. 3People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord.

 

AMP 2Desire without knowledge is not good, and to be overhasty is to sin and miss the mark.
 3The foolishness of man subverts his way [ruins his affairs]; then his heart is resentful and frets against the Lord.

 

MSG 2Ignorant zeal is worthless; haste makes waste. 3People ruin their lives by their own stupidity, so why does God always get blamed?

 

PROTOCOL: The customs and regulations dealing with 
diplomatic formality, precedence, and etiquette.

SIMPLY SAID: It is a set of rules and regulations governing communication between parties and how things are to be done to prevent conflict between those parties.

IT IS FOOLISH TO JUMP INTO BIKER MINISTRY

WITHOUT TAKING TIME TO UNDERSTAND PROTOCOL

IT IS FOOLISH TO JUMP INTO ANY MINISTRY

WITHOUT TAKING TIME TO UNDERSTAND PROTOCOL

OPENING

I SPEAK FROM EXPERIENCE. As a young man, I knew what I was called to do. At 21 two ladies asked me how they could pray for me
and I said pray that I can have boldness. They remarked about how I was bold enough to get up in front of the church to sing and speak, why was I asking for boldness. I told them that this was easy for me inside the four walls of the church, but I have been called to reach the people the church had given up on. Even then I knew. Two weeks later… God gave me boldness in a miraculous way.

A few years later when I was a youth pastor
I had a job at a factory to support my ministry habit. My ZEAL decided that I was going to reach every man in the plant
. As it turned out I led one man to Christ in a year
 that was because he only had to see me once a month. The people who worked with me on a daily basis hated me. They treated me bad and I told others I was persecuted for Christ sake
I was really persecuted for being obnoxious. Finished up that year by intentionally standing in the way every time I could to the man who hated me the most. My flesh rose up. It ended with him saying he was going to meet me in the parking lot. I waited in that parking lot for a couple of hours. 
I do not know how he left work, but he did not come through that lot. He was a guy who fought in bars on a regular basis 
and I was 6’2 145 lb kid… He would have killed me.

NIV 
 2Desire without knowledge is not good— 
 how much more will hasty feet miss the way! 
 3A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, 
 yet their heart rages against the LORD.

That is what the “want to” or “desire” or “zeal” does
if it does not understand or know CHRISTIAN PROTOCOL

CHRISTIANS HAVE PROTOCOL…
In The Way The Church Operates

The triune God gave us protocol through His gifts

In the gifts of the Spirit
1 Corinthians tells of the gifts of the Spirit
But it does not stop there, we are told HOW they should operate
There is PROTOCOL for their operation
Some churches are so busy having a Pentecostal party
they are no earthly good.

In the gifts of the Father
I know… the greatest gift of the Father was the Son, 
but there is more
In Romans 12 we see the gifts of the Father
Sometimes called:

  • Motivational gifts
  • Passion gifts

Even here there is protocol… 
operate within your gift as unto the Lord… not willy nilly
This is serious stuff

In the gifts of the Son
Ephesians 4 tells of the ministers God gave as gifts
He gave some to be Apostles, some to be Prophets, some to be Evangelists, some to be Pastors and Teachers…
with a purpose

  • To equip… or train you to do ministry
  • To stabilize you… or protect you from strange teaching
  • To mature you… or to help you grow up in Christ
  • To help you find your place… 
or to be fitly joined together

I love the way the Message says verse 17 in Ephesians 4

And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd.

You hear this? So that you do not run off with the crowd out there 
doing biker ministry with the empty-headed, mindless crowd…
 But instead … you follow Christian protocol!

There is even a right way to pray for healing: James 5: 14-15

14 Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.

That is how the church people ask for prayer

For the lost, either they should ask…
 or if you are prompted by the Holy Spirit… you should ask before you pray!

IMPORTANT: This is a big place where people say, “But GOD told me to pray for them!” Don’t we understand by now that God does not force himself on anyone. He does not make us accept his offer for salvation and he does not force us to accept healing or deliverance or anything else from him either. IF God told you to pray for them, then is it too much to ask them if it is ok with them for you to pray for them? If they say no, then you can just say your prayer for them privately rather than forcing them to let you pray for them now. Our Father is a gentleman and he will never insist that we be rude or forceful with his gifts to anyone.

CHRISTIANS HAVE PROTOCOL…
In The Way We Serve

Philippians 2:5-9 
 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 
 19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; 20and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; 21to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; 22to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 23Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.

Incarnational

  • Jesus came in the flesh to where we were
 He was as we were so WE could know that he understands us
  • Paul fit what he did to the culture he was working with
 He observed the PROTOCOL of those he ministered to

Servant… Bond Servant

  • Jesus took on the form of a BOND SERVANT
  • Paul had repeatedly called himself a bond servant
 but here he says he is a servant TO ALL

THREE BIG THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT SERVING.

  • Being a servant should only cost you, not those you serve.
  • Serving should meet real needs
  • You can tell you have a servants heart
 when you don’t mind being treated like a servant.
  • I know, I know… they need to be saved, but there is more.
 Before Jesus died for our sins… he healed and fed.

CHRISTIANS HAVE PROTOCOL…
In The Way We Share The Gospel

You have to believe

But even the devils believe Jesus is the Son of God

Salvation believing is about TRUST

John 3: 16 (AMP)
16For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

You have to make him Lord

Romans 10:9-10 (NIV)
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

LORD means MASTER

Saving faith is COMMITMENT faith
You commit to a master

To many people just want notches on their belt
They scare them into salvation
Most sinners prayers do not even confess Jesus as LORD

They just say “ask him into your heart” or confess him as Savior

THERE IS PROTOCOL FOR SALVATION!!!

Leading…

Conclusion

IT IS FOOLISH TO JUMP INTO ANY MINISTRY

WITHOUT TAKING TIME TO UNDERSTAND PROTOCOL

Protocols for:

  • How the church functions…

  • How individuals within the church function

  • For authority within the church

  • For how we serve

  • Incarnational and as true servants meeting needs

  • How salvation is shared

Some here today may not have made that MASTER commitment… today is the day!

Some have rebelled against PROTOCOL… 
today is the day to repent and rebuild

NLT 2 Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good;
 haste makes mistakes.
 3 People ruin their lives by their own foolishness 
 and then are angry at the Lord.

Scriptures (unless noted otherwise) taken from the New King James Version.
Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, by Thomas Nelson Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Other versions used include: New International Version, ©2011 (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica | New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. 
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | Amplified Bible (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

What kinds of protocol do you need to follow in your ministry?

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*