Be The Greatest! Series

BE THE GREATEST:

Living the Unity We Have Been Given

I Corinthians 13.13

S: Purpose

C: Unity – Come … Together

Th: Living the Unity We Have Been Given

Pr: WE LIVE OUT ONENESS BY FULFILLING OUR PURPOSE.

?: How? How do we fulfill our purpose?

KW: Essentials

TS: We will find in our study of I Corinthians 13.13 three essentials we need to apply in order to fulfill our purpose.

Type: Propositional

The ____ essential is…

I. LIVING BY FAITH

II. KNOWN BY LOVE

III. A VOICE OF HOPE

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Be disciple makers.

• Understand that discipleship includes evangelism.

• Let our lives be characterized by faith, hope and love.

Version: ESV

RMBC 14 January 07 AM

INTRODUCTION:

ILL Purpose (H)

The English teacher asked Tommy to give her a sentence with an object.

“You are very pretty," he answered.

Knowing that Tommy’s answer did not have an object, she asked, “Tommy, what is the object in that sentence?"

Tommy replied, “To get an A in English."

Well, one thing Tommy has…is purpose.

Do you have purpose?

Do you live with purpose?

And to put it Tommy’s way…

Do you want an A when it comes to your faith?

Or will any old grade do?

TRANSITION:

1. Our theme this month is “Living the Unity We Have Been Given.”

As I mentioned last week, I have developed this theme from the message John Fischer gave us back in September based on the passage from Ephesians 4, which we studied last Sunday.

The church has been given unity.

Randall has been given unity.

We don’t create it.

But what we do or do not do is preserve it.

In other words, unity is like marriage.

It takes work.

It takes active participation on our part.

So, we will either do our part in making it happen, or we will not.

It is a matter of the will.

You see, the Lord Jesus has built into the church the ability to be successful.

This means that we can be known for our unity.

That oneness is not just some unrealistic ideal.

Unity has been built into the church so that we might be successful.

It is our design.

And if we are not unified, it is not the Lord’s fault.

He has given us the ability to accomplish it.

2. Last week, we studied how we have unity in the gospel.

We stated it this way:

We live out oneness by standing firm in the good news about Jesus.

We made note that “practical oneness is based on spiritual oneness.” (MacArthur)

And this is what drives us here at Randall, and it is why the study of the Bible is an absolute priority for us.

What we believe, our doctrine, is our first point of unity.

But let me put this next point in a sophisticated kind of way.

Orthopraxy is just as important as orthodoxy.

In other words, how we practice what we believe is just as important as what we believe.

Or even simpler, what we do is just as important as what we say.

In fact, it is even more important, because what we do gives credibility to what we say we believe.

So, this being so, when we accept that Scripture is our authority, then we are to be obedient to what it says.

This means then, we will be obedient to when it tells us to work toward unity.

ILL Purpose (S)

Before we go any further, I want to show a clip from one of my favorite films: Gettysburg.

The movie Gettysburg, based on The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, brings to life the three bloodiest days of American history. The first scenes take place a couple days before the epic battle at Gettysburg. Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain (played by Jeff Daniels) of the 20th Maine Regiment learns that his regiment is going to receive 120 Union soldiers who mutinied. Chamberlain is given permission to shoot any of these mutineers who don’t cooperate.

Chamberlain tells the men that he’s been told about their problem. He admits, "There’s nothing I can do today. We’re moving out in a few minutes. We’ll be moving all day. I’ve been ordered to take you men with me. I’m told that if you don’t come, I can shoot you. Well, you know I won’t do that. Maybe somebody else will, but I won’t. So, that’s that.

"Here’s the situation," he continues. "The whole Reb army is up that road a ways, waiting for us. This is no time for an argument. I tell you, we could surely use you fellows. We’re now well below half strength. Whether you fight or not, that’s up to you. Whether you come along is…" He pauses and then continues, "Well, you’re coming. You know who we are. But if you fight alongside of us, there’s a few things you must know."