I’m going to read some company slogans and I want to see if you know them. Just holler out the name of the company that has the slogan.
Snap, Crackle, Pop
Rice Krispies
Rice Krispies
The Real Thing
Coca-Cola
Where's the beef?
Wendy's
Coca-Cola
Where's the beef?
Wendy's
Finger lickin' good
Kentucky Fried Chicken
Kentucky Fried Chicken
It's everywhere you want to be
VISA
Eat Mor Chikin!
Chick-fil-A
VISA
Eat Mor Chikin!
Chick-fil-A
Nothing Runs Like A Deere
Deere & Company
Deere & Company
Let your fingers do the walking
Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages
And my favorite slogan:
Just Do It! Nike
When you hear those slogans you instantly know what company to expect. But what if a company had several slogans? What if the McDonalds in Ft. Worth had the slogan, “I’m lovin’ it” but the one in Bridgeport had the slogan, “I’m chokin’ it down”? That would send a mixed message, wouldn’t it? Or the Burger King over here said, “Have it your way” and the one over there said, “Shut up and eat it”? That wouldn’t be good for business for any of the Burger Kings.
Now what about a church? What if a church had different slogans? On our website our slogan is found and it is our statement of purpose. It says, “Doing whatever it takes to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.” I think that is a great slogan. But what if one group in our church used that slogan and another group said, “Doing the bare minimum to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ” and another said, “Doing whatever is easy to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ” and then there was the group that said, “Waiting on y’all to do whatever it takes to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ”?
That not only would look bad for our church but for Christian churches everywhere. That would be harmful to the Kingdom of God because it would make all Christians look divided and nobody wants to be a part of a divided family.
We have been emphasizing around here that we are disciples of Jesus since the beginning of the year. As His disciples we know that we are to learn from Jesus and then teach and encourage others with what we have learned. We know we are to attract, model, teach and motivate in that process and we have seen people do just that right here in Christ Fellowship.
The challenge is how to do it away from the church building. How can we be true disciples in the real world? Because if you say one thing at the church building and do another at home or if one person says one thing about the church and another says something else then that shows division to those who most need a unified body of disciples.
Paul dealt with this in his letters to the Corinthians. He had started this church and then moved on to continue his ministry of evangelism but he wrote back to them a couple years later to correct some issues that were causing problems in the church and the topic of unity was the first thing he addressed. Unity or lack of it will kill a church quicker than almost anything else and so Paul spoke about it directly and purposefully.
If you haven’t already, I will ask you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians where we will be for the next few weeks. It’s on page 806 of most of the Bibles in the pews in front of you. We will look at 1 Corinthians 1:10-18. Warren Wiersbe said that Corinth was known for its commerce, culture…and corruption and that all over the world if you were called a Corinthian girl it was not because of your great virtue.
Paul had done his best to instill truth into this church but it was surrounded by evil and corruption and sin and was struggling to be in the world but not of the world. You know, just like every church in modern day America. So, let’s read what Paul tells them in 1 Corinthians 1:10-18.
“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus. "These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold." "Which channel do you want?" asks Linus. Charles Schultz.
I think Paul had read this cartoon. Or maybe Charles Shultz, the author, had read 1 Corinthians. Who knows? Either way, Lucy and Paul had the same idea. Individuals are not nearly as powerful as many that come together as a unit and that is especially true in the church. Notice, though, that Paul talks about unity and being unified but he’s not talking about being uniform. There is a difference.
Paul is not saying that all churches should look and act exactly the same. He’s not saying that all members of a church all look and act the same. There will always be differences of opinion about some things but when it comes to the truth of the Gospel, let’s not be distracted by what we shouldn’t be focused on and to be focused on the correct thing (or in this case, the correct person).
In verse 10, Paul uses the phrase “perfectly united in mind and thought”. That is originally a medical term used to explain setting a broken bone. They were to be united where they had been broken. They were broken because Satan had caused them to be focused on the wrong things. There were four different groups, each one united behind one of the leaders or pastors of the church.
Now, I love this church and I love being the pastor here and I have no plans of ever leaving unless God plainly calls me somewhere else, but if I was leaving this would be a good passage to use for a last sermon. It should be expected that when a pastor leaves that not one person would move their membership to another church. Not one person should drop out just because the pastor, the music guy or a Sunday School teacher left. If that is why you are in a church then you are there for the wrong reason and you have a problem but the church itself has a problem. That church is not united in their purpose.
One of golf's immortal moments came when a Scotchman demonstrated the new game to President Ulysses Grant. Carefully placing the ball on the tee, he took a mighty swing. The club hit the turf and scattered dirt all over the President's beard and surrounding vicinity, while the ball placidly waited on the tee. Again the Scotchman swung, and again he missed. Our President waited patiently through six tries and then quietly stated, "There seems to be a fair amount of exercise in the game, but I fail to see the purpose of the ball.” Campus Life.
When we as individuals in the church fail to keep ourselves focused on what we should be focused on then you have to wonder if we have just become like that golf ball. What is the real purpose? What should be our focus? Is the purpose to be correct in our doctrine? Well, doctrine is vital but is that the purpose of the church? Is our purpose to worship to the best style of music? Music is very important but is that the purpose and focus of our church? Is the purpose and focus of Christ Fellowship to have the best preacher around? I sure hope not and by God’s grace I know it is not.
The purpose and focus of our church is to do whatever it takes to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul says not to follow him or Apollos or Peter and he even says that some of them even say, “I follow Christ.” Now, what’s wrong with that? Shouldn’t we follow Christ? Of course we should. The problem with that sentence is the first word, “I”. “I follow Christ.” In other words, you don’t.
Can’t you just hear them with their nose so high in the air? What they should be saying is, “We follow Christ.” Billy Sunday said that more men fail for lack of purpose than lack of talent and that is so true for churches. More churches fail because they forget their purpose even though they might have the best preacher and music and programs and facilities. But if their purpose of leading people to know Jesus is forgotten then of what good are they?
There is a story involving Yogi Berra, the well-known catcher for the New York Yankees, and Hank Aaron, who at that time was the chief power hitter for the Milwaukee Braves. The teams were playing in the World Series, and as usual Yogi was keeping up his ceaseless chatter, intended to pep up his teammates on the one hand, and distract the Milwaukee batters on the other. As Aaron came to the plate, Yogi tried to distract him by saying, "Henry, you're holding the bat wrong. You're supposed to hold it so you can read the trademark." Aaron didn't say anything, but when the next pitch came he hit it into the left-field bleachers. After rounding the bases and tagging up at home plate, Aaron looked at Yogi Berra and said, "I didn't come up here to read." J. M. Boice, Learning to Lead, Revell, 1990, p. 38.
Satan and the rest of the world wants to distract us as a church. They want us to think that we are here to entertain them and to wow them with great oratory and huge, talented orchestras and programs that meet every perceived need in the world that meet every night of the week. But that’s not our purpose or our focus.
Like Hank Aaron didn’t come up here to read, we didn’t come up here to entertain. If we are going to be disciples of Jesus in the real world and if we are going to thrive as a church, we have to be united in our purpose and our focus. We don’t all have to believe the same things about the end times or about what style of music is best. But we do have to be united in purpose and focus.
When somebody asks you how your church is doing, think about our purpose and focus. Should you mention how ruggedly handsome your pastor is or should you mention what God is doing in peoples’ lives? Well…what kind of music does your church play? We play all kinds of music that glorifies God and lifts up Jesus, right? How many people do you have? We don’t have near as many as some churches but Jesus only had twelve close disciples and we have more Jesus followers than that.
Everything we do, every question we are asked, every conversation we have ought to be focused, not even on this church but on the focus and purpose of this church and that is Jesus Christ. When we do that, we will be totally unified. Oh, sure, some people won’t like every aspect of the church. I happen to think that we eat way too many vegetables around here but I’m not going to make a big thing out of it because I know that, believe it or not, eating is not our focus.
We are unified and should be seen and heard as unified around the cross of Jesus Christ. Now, we all know that this is going to take a lot of money, right? Actually…no. Look how Paul ends here in verse 17. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
We will talk tonight about baptism and how Paul is not dismissing the importance of it here but he is simply saying that God called him to preach and has called the church to focus on just one thing. He says in the next chapter, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (2:2)
But Paul, what about women preachers and dress codes? “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Paul what about musical styles and… “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Be united in that and the church will survive and thrive because the Gospel is enough. Truth is enough. Jesus is enough.
We might not be able to say like McDonald’s that “8 billion served” or whatever it is now but we can say, “We follow Christ.” It’s not just in the name of the church. It is in the blood of the church. It is our focus and our purpose. When we meet together we want our doctrine to be pure and true and we want to help our community with their physical needs as well as spiritual but we won’t last as a church to be able to do that if we don’t unite behind Jesus as His followers in the real world.
Would you like to join this body of Jesus-followers as we do what we have been called to do as a church? Now is the time. Would you like to be able to experience the joy and peace in this life that comes from knowing Jesus plus the knowledge of eternal life with Him in Heaven? Paul said that today is the day of salvation and Jesus Himself said that today you should repent and be baptized. Do it today.
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