(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:
5 REASONS WHY WE NEED TO COME TOGETHER,
NO BUTS!!!
1. JESUS PREACHED ABOUT IT AND HE PRAYED FOR IT.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:20-23 (NIV)
It’s a prayer for oneness. A prayer for complete unity.
2. UNITY IS PEACEFUL AND POWERFUL.
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” Psalm 133:1 (NIV)
It also says:
“ If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Romans 12:8 (NIV)
I gotta Word from God for you…Keep the peace, dudes!
Do everything you can, to keep the peace…in your marriage…in your family…in your jobs and in your church. Keep the peace! Some people just wanna give you a piece!
They misinterpret the Bible and read from 1 Imaginations and think it’s okay to give you a piece…instead of keeping the peace. They live for the wrong kind of peace! Some people are hornets nest kickers. They like to kick the nest and see what comes out. They gossip about people. They criticize people. They’re argumentative and confrontive. None of that fosters peace. Unity is peaceful. During Jesus’ first sermon, his FIRST sermon…the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5….
Now think about that…it’s his first sermon…which means it’s gonna be important…he’s gonna go big! He said in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called Children of God.”
Keep the peace. Unify. Unity is also powerful. I think many people overlook the power of unity the early church experienced. They early church exploded with growth. Numerically and spiritually. In acts 2:41 the church grew by 3000. By the time Acts 4:4 hits…the church grew to 5000.
Why? What was one of the keys? Yes, God’s power. Gods presence. God’s people…and UNITY.
“All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Acts 1:14, 2:1 (ESV)
Ten times in the first five chapters of Acts it says, “They were in one accord..(can you believe 12O disciples all fit in a HONDA!.) One accord….one heart… they ate together… one purpose… one mind… one soul… one spirit…” Ten times it talks about unity in the first five chapters of Acts. When a church develops the unity of the book of Acts along with it comes the power of the church of Acts, the growth of the church of Acts. You cannot stop a unified church. Snowflakes are frail but if enough of them stick together they can stop traffic. Individually, I can’t do a lot for the Lord. Individually you can’t do a lot for the Lord. But together we can make an impact on this valley.
Power in unified numbers…unified prayers…
Jesus prayed for unity and preached about it…Unity is peaceful and powerful.
3. THE LORD HATES DISUNITY.
Listen. Casuing disunity is a SIN!
If you gotta problem – you better prayer through it and get rid of that problem. Cuz the Lord hates disunity.
Proverbs 6:16-19 says:
“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, 19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” Proverbs 6:16-19 (ESV)
You know what sowing discord means? You gossip or slander a family member, your boss, a coworker, your pastor (not me of course…that’s for you out of town visitors who attend different churches). Sowing discord means you slander people. You gossip and plant dirty seeds in someone’s mind about someone else. You trash people behind their backs. You prayer gossip! You know what prayer gossip is, right? You gossip to someone and tell the person you’re gossiping to that “I’m just telling you this cuz I know you’ll pray.” Or you pray with someone about someone else and gossip through prayer. Prayer-gossip.
You’re sowing discord…disunity.
If that’s you today…you better BE CAREFUL. You’re walking on thin ice!
Joke:
It’s like the story I heard about eleven people who were rescued from falling through some ice while ice-skating outdoors.
They were pulled up outta the freezing water and were all hanging on a rope together under a helicopter, ten men and one woman. The rope was not strong enough to carry all of them, so they decided that one had to drop off, otherwise they are all going to die.
They were having a hard time choosing which person should go; but just then, the woman made a very noble and touching speech. She said that she would voluntarily let go of the rope, because as a woman she was completely used to giving up everything for her husband and kids, and for men in general, without ever getting anything in return.
As soon as she finished her speech, all the men started clapping their hands!
Seriously though, if you gotta problem – you better prayer through it and get rid of that problem. Cuz the Lord hates disunity. That walkin’ on thin ice.
One of the reasons the Lord hates disunity is #4:
4. DISUNITY IS DESTRUCTIVE.
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them,
