Come Together--No Excuses

(Band Plays and Sang “Come Together”

by the Beatles to Set Up the Sermon)

Today I’m starting a new series titled, “My But’s Too Big”. Turn to your neighbor and tell them, “MYYYY word, your buts big! Didn’t that just feel soooo good! Some of you had waaaaay to much fun with that! It was like therapy! The fact is…Some off us need to start trimming down our buts…our but is too big and it gets in the way. Of course I’m not talking about your booty! I’m talking about your excuses! I would, but…but…but…And that’s what this message series is all about…no more excuses. It’s time to get rid of that but!

Today message is called, “Come Togther”…no buts. No excuses. I’m talking about unity! Coming together!

You know what I have found in life? That just because a bunch of players are all wearin’ the same jerseys – that doesn’t make them a team. A team is unified! And just because a team has a ridiculous amount of talent – doesn’t mean they’ll have success…look at the LA Lakers last year. Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, and Steve Nash…Superstars all wearing Lakers jerseys and they were horrible! Disunity. Discord.

One of the joys we are experiencing at Impact Church is that we are an extremely unified church. There’s not a church in the world that could grow and be healthy without having unity. Any church, any family, or any business that doesn’t have unity, isn’t healthy.

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 (NIV)

Unity and Diversity in the Body

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

I love it! In other words, don’t be judgemental or critical because I may not look like you, I may not talk like you, I may not make the kind of money you make, or I may not be as talented as you. Instead of depreciating one another because they are different…APPRECIATE ONE another because they are different. THANK GOD we are not all the same…an eye, or the mouth or the booty.

It’s funny…you know God has a sense of humor…cuz have you ever noticed how God seems to pair married people together? Ears usually marry…mouths!? Happy smiles…usually marry the grouchy butts.

Turn and ask the person sitting next to you… “Are you a happy smile or a grouch butt?” 

1 Corinthians 12 is talking about “unity” in the body of Christ.

In Romans 14:19, the Apostle Paul said:

“In this way aim for harmony in the church and build each other up.” Romans 14:19 (LB)

Let me ask you a question, are are you building specialist or a demolition specialist. You’re probably, by default, either one or the other.

Today, I wanna give you: