Introduction

Good morning, It’s great to have you with us today as we continue in our teaching series, One.

Throughout this series, we're looking at what it means to be a community that comes together as one. As a culture, we have a tendency towards independence. And there’s nothing wrong with being independent to a certain degree. But, we are wired to do life in community. We are created and called to come together as one.

And this is important because, when we come together as one, there is nothing we can't do for the kingdom.

Last week we said that this community of one begins when we recognize what we are and what that means for our lives. We learned that you and I are masterpieces. You are a masterpiece - made in the image of God. God, the one who created this amazing world and said it was 'good'. Then went on to create you and me and call us 'very good.'

And as a masterpiece, made in God's image, we are called to serve all the other masterpieces made in God's image.

When we recognize what we are – masterpieces and when we begin to live up to this ideal by serving others the way Jesus served us, we can come together as a community that serves and ultimately transforms our world.

Today we are going to continue looking at what it means to be a community that comes together as one.

We are each made unique. We are each made in the image of God. Individually, that makes us impressive; collectively that makes us unstoppable.

Main Teaching

Have you ever noticed we tend towards homogeneity? Have you noticed we gravitate towards people who are like us?

People who look like us… People who think like us… People who believe like we do… People who vote like we do… People who are in the same socio-economic demographic as we are…

We like to be alike. Which is ironic since our culture values and pushes independence and being your own person.

We claim to want diversity. We claim we want to be different. We claim to be very anti-groupthink. But the truth is, we really like to be like others.

If you aren't sure about this, look at most churches on any given Sunday. Sunday morning has been called the most segregated hour of the week in America. This isn't necessarily because we seek to exclude others, but because we are naturally drawn towards sameness. Churches marked by diversity are generally that way through lots of intentional effort.

However, sameness doesn't add life or strength. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

Uniformity tends to produce death. Uniformity decreases the strength and value of things. Think of it like this:

If you have a building where the walls are all covered with the same masterpiece, over and over and over - it's called wallpaper.

If you have a building where the walls are covered with masterpieces of varying size and color and shape - it's called an art gallery.

Nobody plans a great heist to steal your wallpaper…. But art galleries are targets because they have immeasurable value.

This may be counterintuitive, but as a church, (the body of Christ) when everything is the same, we cannot be a community of one that transforms the world.

If you’re taking notes, write this down.

We are not stronger when we are all the same. We are stronger when we are all different.

Or to put it another way:

When we are all together different, we are more than the sum of our parts.

When we are all together different, we are more than the sum of the parts ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium