Theological Status: Sound (with concerns)
Biblical Parallel(Archetype): Philadelphia
❓ What do these grades mean?
🔍 Biblical Discernment: The 7 Church Parallels
The Cold Orthodox Parallel
Ephesus
Teaching that upholds doctrinal precision yet parallels the loss of the "first love"—the vital, motivating power of the Gospel (Rev 2:4).
🧐 Overview
Sermon Summary: Using the surprising story of The Beatles' final album and a humorous tale about a territorial dog, this sermon explores the ancient problem of church division from 1 Corinthians. It challenges listeners to ask whether their personal preferences, politics, or even their favorite preachers have become more important than their shared identity in Jesus Christ.
Big Idea: Paul is teaching the Corinthians and us that identity comes before ideology, and Christ comes before our camps. [00:46:48 ▶️ 📄]
Pastoral Analysis: This is a faithful, expository sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:1-17 that correctly identifies the sin of division and rightly calls the congregation to find their primary identity in Christ. The homiletical structure is clear and the applications are pastoral and relevant. The core message is sound. However, a major caution must be raised regarding the administration of the Lord's Supper, which was conducted without any biblical fencing, extending an open invitation 'for all' rather than restricting it to believers in good standing.
Biblical Parallel(Archetype): Philadelphia — The sermon faithfully expounds the biblical call to unity in Christ with pastoral warmth, though it exhibits a significant concern regarding its practice of open communion.
🧭 Biblical Alignment Dashboard
Overall Verdict: Biblically Sound (with concerns)
| Category | Status | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Soteriology | ✅ PASS | The sermon's focus is on ecclesiology, but the gospel of salvation in Christ is correctly assumed as the foundation for the church's unity. No synergistic or erroneous soteriological claims were made. |
| Bibliology | ✅ PASS | The sermon holds a high view of Scripture, grounding its entire argument in the exposition of a specific biblical text. The Word is treated as authoritative. |
| Hermeneutic | ✅ PASS | The pastor correctly interprets 1 Corinthians 1 within its historical context and draws a valid, thematic application to the modern church's tendency toward factionalism. |
| Theology Proper | ✅ PASS | God is presented as faithful, the initiator of our calling, and the one to whom worship is due. There were no statements that compromised the nature or attributes of God. |
| Sacramentology | ❌ FAIL | The Lord's Supper was administered with an explicit open invitation ('his invitation is for all'), lacking the necessary biblical fencing that restricts participation to baptized believers and warns against partaking in an unworthy manner (1 Cor 11:27-29). |
📖 How they Handle Scripture & Jesus
Primary Text: 1 Corinthians 1:1-17 (Expository)
Scripture Saturation: Verses Read: 19 | Referenced: 2 | Alluded: 3
Passages Read Aloud:
-
1 Corinthians 1:1-17
[00:24:30 ▶️ 📄]
"Called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and our brother Sothenes to the church of God that is in Corinth to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus. For in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind, just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful. By him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. What I mean is that each of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas, or I belong to Christ. Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gallus, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel and not with eloquent wisdom so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power."
-
1 Corinthians 11:24
[01:00:21 ▶️ 📄]
"This is my body broken for you."
-
1 Corinthians 11:25
[01:05:25 ▶️ 📄]
"This is the blood of the new covenant."
Key References: John 17, Philippians 2:3
Christological Connection: Thematic: The pastor connects the text to Jesus by identifying Christ as the singular, unifying center of the Church, whose indivisible nature rebukes all human-made factions and divisions.
🧱 Sermon Outline
- Introduction: A Letter to a Divided City [00:42:06 ▶️ 📄] : The pastor sets the historical context of Corinth as a diverse and competitive city, introducing Paul's letter as a corrective to a church squandering its potential through division.
- Point 1: The Root of Division - Misplaced Loyalties [00:44:55 ▶️ 📄] : Analyzing the factions ('I follow Paul,' 'I follow Apollos'), the pastor diagnoses the core problem as elevating lesser loyalties (preachers, styles) above the ultimate loyalty to Christ.
- Illustration: The Beatles' 'Come Together' [00:46:48 ▶️ 📄] : The story of The Beatles recording an album despite internal strife is used to illustrate how a shared commitment to a higher purpose (the music) can create unity amidst personal differences.
- Illustration: The Dog and the Cookie Box [00:53:38 ▶️ 📄] : A personal story about a normally sweet dog that becomes aggressive over a trivial 'treasure' is used as a metaphor for how Christians can become divisive over secondary issues, forgetting their Master.
- Application & Conclusion: Unity at the Lord's Table [00:57:34 ▶️ 📄] : The sermon concludes by connecting the theme of unity to the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, presenting the table as the place where all secondary identities are submitted to the primary identity in Christ.
💧 Sacraments & Ordinances
Fencing the Table (Communion):
- Believers Only Stated: ❌ No (Open Table Risk)
- Warning Against Unworthy Manner: ⚠️ None Detected
🗝️ Key Topics & Themes
- Division within the Corinthian church [00:18:03 ▶️ 📄] : The pastor discusses the division within the Corinthian church and compares it to modern-day sports fandom.
- Unity among Christians [00:42:06 ▶️ 📄] : The pastor discusses the importance of unity among Christians, emphasizing that identity comes before ideology and Christ comes before our camps.
- Differences among Christians [00:51:19 ▶️ 📄] : The pastor acknowledges the real differences among Christians but emphasizes that these differences should not become divisions.
- Unity in Christ [00:58:50 ▶️ 📄] : The pastor emphasizes unity among believers, not based on sameness or agreement, but through belonging to Christ.
✅ Commendations
Homiletics | Faithful Expository Preaching
The sermon was well-structured, drawing its main point directly from the argument of 1 Corinthians 1. The pastor did an excellent job of explaining the text before applying it, allowing the Word to set the agenda.
Rhetoric | Effective and Memorable Illustrations
The use of The Beatles and the personal story about the family dog were highly effective. They were not just entertaining stories but served as powerful, memorable bridges from the biblical text to modern life, clarifying the sermon's central point about misplaced priorities.
Theology | Clear Call to Christ-Centered Identity
The core proposition that 'identity comes before ideology, and Christ comes before our camps' is biblically sound and pastorally crucial. This is a vital message for the contemporary church.
⚠️ Theological Concerns
🟠 Failure to Fence the Lord's Table (Open Communion)
Root Cause: Ecclesiological Laxity: This error stems from a modern therapeutic impulse that conflates hospitality with sacramental administration. It prioritizes the feeling of inclusion over the biblical command to guard the sacredness of the covenant signs, which are for the professing people of God, not the general public.
"Christ is not divided and his table is open and his invitation is for all." [00:59:38 ▶️ 📄]
Correction: 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 warns, 'Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.' This requires a clear call to self-examination and a restriction of the table to believers.
🧠 Questions for Reflection
Use these questions for personal study or small group discussion:
- The pastor talked about people forming 'teams' around different leaders and ideas. What 'teams' or groups do you see people dividing into in the world today? Where do you see this causing the most harm?
- The central message was that identity in Jesus should be more important than any other identity. What does it mean to have an 'identity' in someone? How might that be different from just agreeing with their ideas?
📜 Full Sermon Transcript (Audit)
Use the 📄 icons next to quotes above to automatically jump to their location in this raw transcript.
[00:03:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:03:56] Good morning. I'm so glad to see you today. I'm glad that you braved the cold and came into the warmth of this fellowship this morning. I'm so glad that we can be together. If you're a guest
[00:04:11] with us, I'm really glad you're here. And if you've tuned in at home, we're glad that you're part of our cyber church. But we would encourage you, if you have the chance and are able, join us
[00:04:22] in person sometime. We'd love to see you and greet you. There's quite a bit going on in the life of our church this week, and just like almost every week. We are still collecting food for Hope
[00:04:38] Ministries this month. January is our month, and there are places to leave those non-perishable food items as you exit the sanctuary. We'll be doing that until the end of the month.
[00:04:51] Our youth and children will meet tonight on their normal schedule from 4.30 to 6.30.
[00:04:57] Tomorrow, the church office will be closed in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
[00:05:02] However, our lunch small group will be gathering at Cagney's tomorrow.
[00:05:07] Our poverty book discussion small group will meet on Tuesday at 9.30 in the morning.
[00:05:13] Thursday, our feeding ministry at St. Paul's Crisis Center Team A will be doing that this Thursday, so mark that on your calendars.
[00:05:23] And be in prayer for our youth group, and especially the chaperones.
[00:05:27] They're going to be going on a ski retreat this coming Friday with CBF of North Carolina.
[00:05:32] They'll be gone Friday through Sunday.
[00:05:34] just you know pray for safety on the road safety on the slopes but but also that there's a real connection with Christ and with each other as their way I find that that youth groups and adults
[00:05:48] too but adults don't do it quite as often but when you get away it offers very fertile opportunity for the spirit to speak and for for growth to take place and so it's our prayer that that will happen
[00:06:01] this weekend for our youth. Looking ahead just a little bit, this is not in your bulletin, but we will again this year have Super Bowl Sunday, S-O-U-P-E-R, which means we'll have lunch in the fellowship hall after worship on that Sunday. We're going to have a slight change.
[00:06:20] Instead of getting a whole bunch of different soups, we've got our women of the church had some different soups that they had left over from the bazaar, and they're going to make some pinto beans
[00:06:29] and cornbread, and we're also going to have vegetable beef soup. So you'll be able to come and eat, and if you want to make a donation for that, it will all go towards helping our feeding
[00:06:39] ministry at St. Paul's. Let's see. There are some folks that we're remembering in prayer. Helen Elledge. Helen's doing fairly well, but she is under hospice care. Dawn Gardner will be going to have her second knee replacement on the 21st. I think that's Wednesday. Also on the 21st,
[00:06:59] William Prevett will be going for a scheduled PET scan to make sure that he is still doing well and cancer-free. So be in prayer for William and his family. Elaine Younger and her recovery, it's going kind of slow at this point, but she is back in her apartment. But I will tell you that
[00:07:17] we need to pray for the Hagemans because they've got the flu going through their family, which is why they're not here today. Aaron Walker, we've been praying for Aaron. He had a liver transplant.
[00:07:27] He had to go into the hospital on Friday back at Duke because he was getting fluid in his lungs.
[00:07:35] And they had to do dialysis, some other treatments.
[00:07:37] And it looks like they're trying to get a kidney transplant for him now.
[00:07:44] And that's not very unusual for people that go through a liver transplant to also need a kidney transplant.
[00:07:51] But it's pretty devastating on your body to replace two organs in such a short period of time.
[00:07:56] So please be in prayer for Aaron and, of course, his parents, Lloyd and Tracy.
[00:08:02] Diane Hall continues to need our prayers.
[00:08:04] She did have an echocardiogram last week and is waiting for results.
[00:08:08] And that will let the doctors know if she's able to go through the TIPS procedure, which they hope will solve her problems with the fluid.
[00:08:17] She had nine liters of fluid drawn off of her abdomen this week.
[00:08:21] So please be in prayer for Diane.
[00:08:22] That's very uncomfortable.
[00:08:24] And then with some really good news, Steve Roten, that's been on our prayer list, that's Sherry Smith's brother.
[00:08:32] Six years ago, he was diagnosed with stage four bladder cancer, and he was just declared cancer-free by his doctors after six years.
[00:08:41] And so we're very grateful for that and hope that he continues to be cancer-free.
[00:08:49] Just in a nod, I went through and looked at some of Dr. King's quotes.
[00:08:56] You know, he was a minister, and one that he said that I think applies today, he said, power at its best is love, implementing the demands of justice.
[00:09:09] And justice at its best is love, correcting everything that stands against love.
[00:09:18] Thank you for being here today.
[00:09:21] And now Patricia is going to lead us in our invocation.
[00:09:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:09:34] Let's pray together.
[00:09:36] God, on this morning, we have joined together.
[00:09:45] you tell us where two or three are gathered in your name you are here we know that you are amongst us this morning and we feel your presence but we also know that we bring many things that are on our hearts and our minds some
[00:10:09] good things and then some that may be worries concerns of things going on so we ask that we use this time to quiet the things that are on our hearts and minds as far as what comes next or those things we may be concerned about that we
[00:10:34] will truly fill your presence with each of us and that we will truly worship you in spirit and in truth be with us as we sing joyfully together be with us as we pray as we read your word and as we seek your message throughout this service of how you're
[00:10:55] calling us to continue our journey with you, our relationship with you, but also to continue to serve you. So may this just renew us today and we feel your presence in an extra special way
[00:11:12] as we are worshiping. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The peace of Christ be with you.
[00:11:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:11:25] Please allow me to reiterate our welcome to those of you who are guests or visitors here today We're so glad that you've come There is a card that's in the back of the pew in front of you
[00:11:38] That if you would take time to fill that out and place it in the offering plate It would let us know a little bit about you and give us the opportunity to thank you for being here
[00:11:46] You can, if you're a first-time visitor, take that card to the North X when you leave and we have a gift bag that we'd like to give you as a show of our appreciation of your being here today.
[00:11:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:11:57] And now we're going to sing our praise song that's printed in your worship bulletin, Let Us Break Bread Together.
[00:12:03] We're going to sing the third verse of this hymn, Let Us Praise God Together.
[00:12:08] We'll sing it through one time, turn and greet each other in the name of Christ, and then we'll sing it one more time as we return to our seats.
[00:12:15] Let's stand and sing together.
[00:15:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:15:04] Children, join me.
[00:15:06] I'm so grateful for each of you, and I'm thankful that you joined me this morning. Now, I've got to tell you, this is, as we know, a big time of the year for sports, right? A very big time. I'm not even going to go into the
[00:16:17] Broncos-Bills game. Just please don't make me go there. We have a lot going on. We've got basketball, we've got college ball, we've got college football, so many things going on. We're headed towards the Super Bowl. We're headed towards March Madness. It is crazy. And we all have our favorite team,
[00:16:39] don't we? Do we all have our? We do, right? I can't tell you how many times Adeline Jane said, go Bills last night. It didn't work, just so you know. Didn't work. However, we have our special
[00:16:53] teams, and we all have a team that we're loyal to, and it's fun. It's exciting. I remember last night while we were watching that game, Aurora Hope was, Aurora was here from college, and she
[00:17:06] was sitting there, and she's like, I don't even know what's going on, but I'm getting really anxious. I'm getting, my anxiety level's getting too high. We get excited, and that's all good.
[00:17:16] It's so much fun, and we get to be a part of something. We get to be a community. We get to be excited about our team, right? Sometimes that can, it sometimes leads us to a little bit of
[00:17:31] division, doesn't it? We start defending our team to somebody else who likes our rival, and it gets a little crazy, and we get a little upset. And that's not okay. Well, guess what? This also
[00:17:46] happened in biblical times. This happened with, as a matter of fact, with Paul. And in Corinth, there was a time when there was, it was team Paul, it was team Cephas, and it was team Apollos.
[00:18:03] And guess what? They were all wrong. They were wrong. It was, they were very loyal to these people. However, they fought for the wrong team. The right team, which they were all a part of,
[00:18:22] was Team Jesus. Team Jesus, they all wanted the same thing, but we need to all do that.
[00:18:30] We need to be on Team Jesus. We need to follow his guidance and his example and do what he would have done. That's who we need to be loyal to, right? Not a person, but God, to Jesus.
[00:18:50] Got to remember, yes, we can still have fun, and we can still stay excited, and we can be loyal, but we've got to remember that in our hearts, we're always team Jesus, okay? Will you pray with me?
[00:19:06] dear God we are so very thankful for Jesus we're thankful for your son we're thankful for how he showed us how his example that we should be him we should be team Jesus that we should follow his ways love as he loved cared as he cared
[00:19:29] pray as he prayed that that's where our loyalty lies. Lord, remind us that we are and should always be team Jesus. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. It's time for children's church.
[00:19:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:19:49] If you're ready, let's go. Let's pray together. Lord, indeed, your mercies to us are beyond our
[00:23:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:23:51] ability to count. Your goodness, your love, your grace abound more than the stars of the sky.
[00:24:04] And we're so grateful. And one way of showing our gratitude, Lord, is by returning to you a portion of that which you have entrusted to us. And so as we bring these tithes and offerings now,
[00:24:18] may we do so with humble and thankful hearts. And may you take these gifts and bless them for perfect and good use in your kingdom.
[00:24:28] In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
[00:24:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:24:30] The scripture reading today comes from the New Testament from one of Paul's letters to the church of Corinth.
[00:29:34] It's 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 1 through 17.
[00:29:38] Called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and our brother Sothenes to the church of God that is in Corinth to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who
[00:29:58] in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you
[00:30:15] because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus.
[00:30:20] For in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind, just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
[00:30:37] as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:30:42] He will also strengthen you to the end so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:30:50] God is faithful.
[00:30:52] By him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
[00:30:59] Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.
[00:31:16] For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters.
[00:31:24] What I mean is that each of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas, or I belong to Christ.
[00:31:37] Has Christ been divided?
[00:31:39] Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
[00:31:46] I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gallus, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name.
[00:31:57] I did baptize also the household of Stephanas.
[00:32:01] Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.
[00:32:05] for Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel and not with eloquent wisdom so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. This is the word of God for us the
[00:32:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:32:20] people of God. Bow with me in prayer please. This is a day that you have made oh God may we rejoice and be glad in it. We talk and we sing and we study of love, and today especially we are reminded
[00:32:54] that love encompasses justice. Just as love shows mercy, love shares hope, and love is an action, not just a feeling. Lord, I've talked with young people this week, and they've come to me, and they've wondered and they feared what kind of world they are inheriting. They wonder where you
[00:33:29] are, God, and where you are at work. Assure them, Lord, that you will be with them and that you hold the future in your hands. And help us, Lord, to show them where you are by being the hands and
[00:33:51] the feet of Christ every single day. May we all keep in mind, Lord, that our descendants, our loved ones, will indeed inherit the problems we create and or ignore, as well as the seeds of
[00:34:13] love and the goodness that we sow while we are here. Help us, O God, to be good stewards of our world, of our society, and of our faith. Help us, Lord, to build your kingdom and to share the true
[00:34:34] and untarnished gospel with all who will hear. And most of all, help us to live the gospel in everything that we think, that we say, and we do, so that we strive in everything, Lord,
[00:34:55] to be like Christ. We remember today those who are in need of prayer, those, Lord, who are facing surgery, those who are trying to recover from surgery, those awaiting diagnosis, those, Lord, who are in pain, as well as those who are living their final days here on earth
[00:35:24] before inheriting the life that doesn't end. We pray, God, that you would bring peace, that you would bring faith, that you would bring comfort for the living of these days.
[00:35:40] We pray, God, for the people who go to work this week. We pray for the stresses that they endure.
[00:35:48] We pray, God, that they would be up to any and all challenges to their morality and doing what is right. We pray God for those who are retired, and we pray God for meaningful hours to fill their days and nights and weeks.
[00:36:11] We pray God for our enemies, that they would not remain enemies, that as we love them as you call us to, they will indeed become friends.
[00:36:29] We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to share in the Lord's Supper today, and we pray for your presence upon us as we do. We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus, who taught his disciples
[00:36:44] to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses
[00:37:04] as we forgive those who trespass against us lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
[00:37:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:37:14] for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever amen preach and it did you know if you
[00:42:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:42:06] you were going online or in a bookstore, you pick up the collected letters of the Apostle Paul.
[00:42:12] Some of them would read like warm postcards from a Christian grandparent. I miss you. I'm proud of you. Keep shining the light. Others, like 1 Corinthians, read a bit more like a concerned email from a mentor who sees a lot of potential being squandered. This first letter to the church
[00:42:36] Corinth is written to a congregation in one of the most diverse, energetic, and divided cities of the ancient world. Corinth sat at a crossroads of trade, of ideas, and of cultures, a place where people came to make something of themselves. It was a city that was buzzing with wealth, with
[00:42:58] rhetoric, with philosophy, athletics, idol worship, as well as social climbing. If New York City and Las Vegas had a first century child, they would have named it Corinth. So when Paul plants a church there, it becomes a beautiful but fragile thing. A collection of believers from different
[00:43:24] backgrounds, social classes, and belief systems. They love Jesus, they worship, they pray, they serve, yet they also quarrel and compete and divide. Paul knows he must address these problems honestly, but he knows something that every good teacher and every wise friend knows.
[00:43:53] If you want someone to hear a hard truth, you begin with gratitude, affirmation, and identity.
[00:44:00] So before Paul gets into correction, he praises them, he thanks God for them, he reminds them who they are in Christ, that they are sanctified, called, gifted, blessed, and that they belong to Jesus. That rhetorical tact matters. Paul knows that he cannot shame them into unity.
[00:44:27] he cannot scold them into unity so he builds them up and then he calls them to unity after his greeting and thanksgiving Paul begins to move into this concern I appeal to you brothers and sisters in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that not all of you agree and that there be no
[00:44:55] divisions among you. Now, he's not demanding some robotic uniformity. He's addressing the competitive spirit that has taken hold of the church. The Corinthians have begun forming factions. I follow Paul. I follow Apollos. I follow Cephas. I follow Christ. That last one
[00:45:19] there, I follow Christ, is the real insult. It's like the others don't. Like, I have it all figured out. And if you want to know what Jesus thinks, just ask me. Some are loyal to their founder,
[00:45:34] some to the eloquent preacher, some to the traditionalist apostle, and some even pridefully claim to transcend the debate altogether. In modern times, we might say, I'm a Presbyterian Christian, I'm a Baptist Christian, I'm a progressive Christian. Well, I'm just a Bible
[00:45:53] believe in, Christian. Again, this last one is the real insult, as if the others aren't, as if the others read the National Enquirer as the Word of God. Now, Paul doesn't say stop caring about
[00:46:08] doctrine or stop having different perspectives, but he does ask one very piercing question.
[00:46:17] Is Christ divided? The answer, of course, is no. Paul is teaching the Corinthians and us that identity comes before ideology, and Christ comes before our camps. Our lesser loyalties should not become our ultimate ones, nor should they compromise Christ's ultimate command,
[00:46:48] love God and love others. Now, many of you know the Beatles song, Come Together. It was on Abbey Road, the final studio album recorded by the band, though Let It Be was the final album that they
[00:47:04] released. At the time of the recording, the bandmates were barely mates anymore. They were sick of each other. They were barely speaking. The Fab Four had always been wildly different with very varied personalities, but now everything about each one of them got on the nerves of the
[00:47:28] other three. John Lennon captured the situation in this song, Come Together. Each verse speaks to one of the Beatles, and he's making fun of all of them. He says of Ringo Starr, here comes Flattop. He come grooving up slowly because he was the short one and couldn't walk as fast.
[00:47:47] he got juju eyeball he won holy roller and then later he had hair down his back he's the joker of the crowd he just do what he please he was just along for the ride and then george harrison he
[00:48:02] wear no shoeshine george harrison went barefoot a lot he got toe jam football he's the soccer player of the four he got monkey finger he was the guitar player and also played the sitar and
[00:48:12] every other crazy string instrument they added he shoot coca-cola well it wasn't coca-cola it was a different coat. And he'd say, I know you, you know me. One thing I can tell you is you got to be free.
[00:48:23] That was a nod to his Hare Krishna and Dalai Lama days. Verse three, Lennon makes fun of himself.
[00:48:29] He bagged production. This album, he didn't want any producers touching it. He just wanted whatever they played to be recorded and sent out. He got Walrus Gumboot. Well, he called himself the Walrus. He got Ono a sideboard. Yoko Ono was his wife. Spinal Cracker, somebody who's
[00:48:46] rebellion against the system. Hold you in his armchair, you can feel his disease. Well, he was at that time extremely addicted to heroin and he shook all the time. Finally, he gets to verse four
[00:49:00] about Paul McCartney. He's a roller coaster. That was his, he had really bad mood swings. He got early warning. Paul was the one that always talked to the manager and knew what was happening before
[00:49:09] anybody else. He loved muddy waters. He loved muddy water. One, one, and one is three. Well, he just kind of was leaving the other three. He was going out on his own, and he was the good
[00:49:21] looking one. Got to be good looking because he's so hard to see because he wasn't ever around anymore. So these were the four people that were there trying to record their final album together, but the verse through all those four stanzas says, come together right now over me.
[00:49:38] put everything else aside and focus on the music and he's saying I'm laying down myself my interests come over me they didn't always get along they didn't always agree on lyrics direction or even the meaning of their songs but in later years those tensions became more visible
[00:50:05] and ultimately broke the band up after the recording of this album but during their most creative period, something remarkable happened. They actually put the music first. They came together not by becoming the same, nor by thinking the same, nor by having the same temperament,
[00:50:22] but by agreeing that the music mattered more than their differences or their individual preferences.
[00:50:31] That's how they produce music that changed the world. Paul, the apostle, not the Beatle, is asking Corinth to do something similar but on a far holier and eternal level. He's asking those Christ followers to put the gospel, not their personalities, not their preferences, not their
[00:50:56] differences, first. Letting the world know that Jesus Christ is Lord in our words, in our actions, in our treatment of each other and in our treatment of those we don't know. Job one, numero uno, A1 objective. Now, this is not to say that the differences were not real
[00:51:19] or aren't real. They are. But what they aren't is ultimate. We can be honest. Christians are different. We were not created by a cookie cutter God. Some of us raise hands and rock to the music.
[00:51:38] some of us fold them quietly, some are captivated by theology, others are moved by service, some vote this way, others vote that way, some grew up in a church with organs, others with guitars, others with just silence. Those differences don't have to be erased. God never did and never
[00:52:02] does demand uniformity. The body of Christ has knees, elbows, eyes, ears, lungs, and fingertips and all are different but they're all necessary. Hear this, the danger is not difference.
[00:52:20] The danger is when difference becomes division and one attacks or tries to silence or get rid of the other. The danger is when preferences become identities. Investors, protesters, pro-lifers, progressives who happen to be Christians rather than the other way around. Christ followers who
[00:52:46] happen to whatever. The danger is when Christ becomes secondary. Paul wants what Jesus prayed for in John 17. Not that we would all think alike, but that we would be one. And brothers and sisters, unity is not sameness. Unity is harmony. A choir does not sing one note, it sings one song.
[00:53:17] A band does not play one instrument, it plays different instruments but one anthem. The truth is, our church does a really good job of this. And I mean that. But I do have one word of caution,
[00:53:38] and I'm speaking to myself here as well. We can have blinders. Our family has two dogs, Annie and Baylor. Annie is an overgrown Cavapoo. She is so sweet. Every time I walk in the door
[00:53:58] of the house, whether I've been gone a week, a workday, or 10 minutes, she drops whatever she's doing and she runs to me. And she gets right at my feet and she wants me to pet her. And until I do,
[00:54:11] she won't leave. And when I pet her, she starts licking my hand and she licks my feet. And then wherever I go, she goes. If I'm sitting in the den, she's sitting in the den with me. If I'm in
[00:54:25] the bed, she's sitting in the bed with me. If I'm at the table eating, she pulls up a chair at the able. She even sleeps with Tiffany at the foot of our bed, unless Tiffany pulls her up to snuggle.
[00:54:42] So sweet, so obedient, so soft and loving. But if she gets a hold of an empty bag of potato chips or a half-eaten box of M&Ms or a cookie container, she takes them under a bed or a couch
[00:55:02] and goes Rambo. She will not come out. She growls like a rabid wolf and she will bite us if we try to take it away. She forgets who the master is. She forgets how much she loves us
[00:55:22] and she goes aggressively into protective Rambo mode. Most of us have an empty cookie box issue.
[00:55:33] we're kind we're loving we get along with everything unless one thing becomes the issue for some of us it's interpretation of the bible for others it involves the church building for some it's money for other it's sexual matters and sexuality for others it's political issues
[00:56:00] parties, or actions. And when they come up, the claws come out and Christ gets put in a secondary place. God loves people on all sides of every issue and wants us to love them too, even as we
[00:56:22] work through and with our differences. As Paul says to the church in Philippi, act with humility, putting others' interests before your own. This is the way of Christ, and how we live when following Christ is our ultimate concern. When we remember that our truest identity is Christ,
[00:56:48] everything else becomes secondary. Opinions are secondary, preferences are secondary, denominations are secondary, cultural backgrounds are secondary, even theology. Yes, even theology is secondary to the one to whom all theology points. Now, this does not make beliefs unimportant.
[00:57:14] Paul cared deeply about right preaching, but it puts them in their proper place, in their proper order. If my doctrine becomes a wall that keeps me from loving my neighbor or makes me exclude or attack or talk about another Christian, then Christ has become
[00:57:34] divided in my heart. To follow Jesus is not to erase our differences, it's to prioritize the cross above those differences. And so Paul ends this opening passage talking about party, not about party loyalty, but about baptism, the shared invitation and initiation into Christ.
[00:58:00] Later in the letter, he will speak about the Lord's Supper, the shared meal of Christ, and that is no accident. In baptism, we are reminded that we have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.
[00:58:13] At the table, we are reminded that we share one loaf, one cup, one Savior. The early church did not come together because they liked the same music or voted the same way or read the same
[00:58:26] translation of scripture. They came together because Jesus was their center. This morning, as we prepare to come to the Lord's table, we are invited into that same unity. Not a unity of sameness, but a unity of purpose. Not a unity of winning an argument, but of belonging to Christ.
[00:58:50] Jesus does not ask us to agree on everything, but he does ask us to remember him. He does ask us to do this in his name, and not in the name of Paul or Apollos or Cephas. So today, brothers and sisters,
[00:59:05] if you've come with strong opinions welcome if you've come today with questions welcome if you've come from a different background welcome if you've come feeling out of place welcome the table does not belong to us it belongs to our Lord for Christ is not divided
[00:59:38] and his table is open and his invitation is for all.
[01:00:07] On the night that he was betrayed, after supper, Jesus took a loaf of bread and after praying, he broke it.
[01:00:17] And he said, this is my body broken for you.
[01:00:21] Take and eat this in remembrance of me.
[01:04:49] Take and eat, Lord, for your body that you gave so willingly for each of us.
[01:05:06] We give you thanks.
[01:05:07] We pray, God, that we would all be one body of Christ today.
[01:05:13] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
[01:05:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:05:18] And on that same night, sit the cup, saying, This is the blood of the new covenant.
[01:05:25] My blood shed for you.
[01:05:27] Drink in remembrance of me.
[01:05:30] Remembrance of me.
[01:09:35] God, thank you for this cup and for this remembrance of your love for all of us.
[01:09:50] help us to remember to show your love and share your love and what all you have done and be an example of Jesus and how he showed us how to live in Jesus name I pray amen and now we come to a
[01:10:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:10:20] time of invitation if you would like to become a part of this body of Christ officially either by being baptized upon your profession of faith for the first time or your transfer of membership from a sister church. We'd be glad to receive you. As we stand together now and sing hymn number
[01:10:38] 387, blessed be the tie. Thanks so much for being here today. I hope that you have a wonderful week and to our youth, hope y'all have a great time skiing. Be safe and DVD. That's what my brother
[01:12:03] tells his kids. Don't be dumb. DVD. All right. Have a good week. And now as we go to be the body of Christ in the world, may we all live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly,
[01:12:21] forgive freely, pray daily, and leave the rest to God.
[00:03:56] Good morning. I'm so glad to see you today. I'm glad that you braved the cold and came into the warmth of this fellowship this morning. I'm so glad that we can be together. If you're a guest
[00:04:11] with us, I'm really glad you're here. And if you've tuned in at home, we're glad that you're part of our cyber church. But we would encourage you, if you have the chance and are able, join us
[00:04:22] in person sometime. We'd love to see you and greet you. There's quite a bit going on in the life of our church this week, and just like almost every week. We are still collecting food for Hope
[00:04:38] Ministries this month. January is our month, and there are places to leave those non-perishable food items as you exit the sanctuary. We'll be doing that until the end of the month.
[00:04:51] Our youth and children will meet tonight on their normal schedule from 4.30 to 6.30.
[00:04:57] Tomorrow, the church office will be closed in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
[00:05:02] However, our lunch small group will be gathering at Cagney's tomorrow.
[00:05:07] Our poverty book discussion small group will meet on Tuesday at 9.30 in the morning.
[00:05:13] Thursday, our feeding ministry at St. Paul's Crisis Center Team A will be doing that this Thursday, so mark that on your calendars.
[00:05:23] And be in prayer for our youth group, and especially the chaperones.
[00:05:27] They're going to be going on a ski retreat this coming Friday with CBF of North Carolina.
[00:05:32] They'll be gone Friday through Sunday.
[00:05:34] just you know pray for safety on the road safety on the slopes but but also that there's a real connection with Christ and with each other as their way I find that that youth groups and adults
[00:05:48] too but adults don't do it quite as often but when you get away it offers very fertile opportunity for the spirit to speak and for for growth to take place and so it's our prayer that that will happen
[00:06:01] this weekend for our youth. Looking ahead just a little bit, this is not in your bulletin, but we will again this year have Super Bowl Sunday, S-O-U-P-E-R, which means we'll have lunch in the fellowship hall after worship on that Sunday. We're going to have a slight change.
[00:06:20] Instead of getting a whole bunch of different soups, we've got our women of the church had some different soups that they had left over from the bazaar, and they're going to make some pinto beans
[00:06:29] and cornbread, and we're also going to have vegetable beef soup. So you'll be able to come and eat, and if you want to make a donation for that, it will all go towards helping our feeding
[00:06:39] ministry at St. Paul's. Let's see. There are some folks that we're remembering in prayer. Helen Elledge. Helen's doing fairly well, but she is under hospice care. Dawn Gardner will be going to have her second knee replacement on the 21st. I think that's Wednesday. Also on the 21st,
[00:06:59] William Prevett will be going for a scheduled PET scan to make sure that he is still doing well and cancer-free. So be in prayer for William and his family. Elaine Younger and her recovery, it's going kind of slow at this point, but she is back in her apartment. But I will tell you that
[00:07:17] we need to pray for the Hagemans because they've got the flu going through their family, which is why they're not here today. Aaron Walker, we've been praying for Aaron. He had a liver transplant.
[00:07:27] He had to go into the hospital on Friday back at Duke because he was getting fluid in his lungs.
[00:07:35] And they had to do dialysis, some other treatments.
[00:07:37] And it looks like they're trying to get a kidney transplant for him now.
[00:07:44] And that's not very unusual for people that go through a liver transplant to also need a kidney transplant.
[00:07:51] But it's pretty devastating on your body to replace two organs in such a short period of time.
[00:07:56] So please be in prayer for Aaron and, of course, his parents, Lloyd and Tracy.
[00:08:02] Diane Hall continues to need our prayers.
[00:08:04] She did have an echocardiogram last week and is waiting for results.
[00:08:08] And that will let the doctors know if she's able to go through the TIPS procedure, which they hope will solve her problems with the fluid.
[00:08:17] She had nine liters of fluid drawn off of her abdomen this week.
[00:08:21] So please be in prayer for Diane.
[00:08:22] That's very uncomfortable.
[00:08:24] And then with some really good news, Steve Roten, that's been on our prayer list, that's Sherry Smith's brother.
[00:08:32] Six years ago, he was diagnosed with stage four bladder cancer, and he was just declared cancer-free by his doctors after six years.
[00:08:41] And so we're very grateful for that and hope that he continues to be cancer-free.
[00:08:49] Just in a nod, I went through and looked at some of Dr. King's quotes.
[00:08:56] You know, he was a minister, and one that he said that I think applies today, he said, power at its best is love, implementing the demands of justice.
[00:09:09] And justice at its best is love, correcting everything that stands against love.
[00:09:18] Thank you for being here today.
[00:09:21] And now Patricia is going to lead us in our invocation.
[00:09:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:09:34] Let's pray together.
[00:09:36] God, on this morning, we have joined together.
[00:09:45] you tell us where two or three are gathered in your name you are here we know that you are amongst us this morning and we feel your presence but we also know that we bring many things that are on our hearts and our minds some
[00:10:09] good things and then some that may be worries concerns of things going on so we ask that we use this time to quiet the things that are on our hearts and minds as far as what comes next or those things we may be concerned about that we
[00:10:34] will truly fill your presence with each of us and that we will truly worship you in spirit and in truth be with us as we sing joyfully together be with us as we pray as we read your word and as we seek your message throughout this service of how you're
[00:10:55] calling us to continue our journey with you, our relationship with you, but also to continue to serve you. So may this just renew us today and we feel your presence in an extra special way
[00:11:12] as we are worshiping. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The peace of Christ be with you.
[00:11:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:11:25] Please allow me to reiterate our welcome to those of you who are guests or visitors here today We're so glad that you've come There is a card that's in the back of the pew in front of you
[00:11:38] That if you would take time to fill that out and place it in the offering plate It would let us know a little bit about you and give us the opportunity to thank you for being here
[00:11:46] You can, if you're a first-time visitor, take that card to the North X when you leave and we have a gift bag that we'd like to give you as a show of our appreciation of your being here today.
[00:11:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:11:57] And now we're going to sing our praise song that's printed in your worship bulletin, Let Us Break Bread Together.
[00:12:03] We're going to sing the third verse of this hymn, Let Us Praise God Together.
[00:12:08] We'll sing it through one time, turn and greet each other in the name of Christ, and then we'll sing it one more time as we return to our seats.
[00:12:15] Let's stand and sing together.
[00:15:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:15:04] Children, join me.
[00:15:06] I'm so grateful for each of you, and I'm thankful that you joined me this morning. Now, I've got to tell you, this is, as we know, a big time of the year for sports, right? A very big time. I'm not even going to go into the
[00:16:17] Broncos-Bills game. Just please don't make me go there. We have a lot going on. We've got basketball, we've got college ball, we've got college football, so many things going on. We're headed towards the Super Bowl. We're headed towards March Madness. It is crazy. And we all have our favorite team,
[00:16:39] don't we? Do we all have our? We do, right? I can't tell you how many times Adeline Jane said, go Bills last night. It didn't work, just so you know. Didn't work. However, we have our special
[00:16:53] teams, and we all have a team that we're loyal to, and it's fun. It's exciting. I remember last night while we were watching that game, Aurora Hope was, Aurora was here from college, and she
[00:17:06] was sitting there, and she's like, I don't even know what's going on, but I'm getting really anxious. I'm getting, my anxiety level's getting too high. We get excited, and that's all good.
[00:17:16] It's so much fun, and we get to be a part of something. We get to be a community. We get to be excited about our team, right? Sometimes that can, it sometimes leads us to a little bit of
[00:17:31] division, doesn't it? We start defending our team to somebody else who likes our rival, and it gets a little crazy, and we get a little upset. And that's not okay. Well, guess what? This also
[00:17:46] happened in biblical times. This happened with, as a matter of fact, with Paul. And in Corinth, there was a time when there was, it was team Paul, it was team Cephas, and it was team Apollos.
[00:18:03] And guess what? They were all wrong. They were wrong. It was, they were very loyal to these people. However, they fought for the wrong team. The right team, which they were all a part of,
[00:18:22] was Team Jesus. Team Jesus, they all wanted the same thing, but we need to all do that.
[00:18:30] We need to be on Team Jesus. We need to follow his guidance and his example and do what he would have done. That's who we need to be loyal to, right? Not a person, but God, to Jesus.
[00:18:50] Got to remember, yes, we can still have fun, and we can still stay excited, and we can be loyal, but we've got to remember that in our hearts, we're always team Jesus, okay? Will you pray with me?
[00:19:06] dear God we are so very thankful for Jesus we're thankful for your son we're thankful for how he showed us how his example that we should be him we should be team Jesus that we should follow his ways love as he loved cared as he cared
[00:19:29] pray as he prayed that that's where our loyalty lies. Lord, remind us that we are and should always be team Jesus. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. It's time for children's church.
[00:19:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:19:49] If you're ready, let's go. Let's pray together. Lord, indeed, your mercies to us are beyond our
[00:23:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:23:51] ability to count. Your goodness, your love, your grace abound more than the stars of the sky.
[00:24:04] And we're so grateful. And one way of showing our gratitude, Lord, is by returning to you a portion of that which you have entrusted to us. And so as we bring these tithes and offerings now,
[00:24:18] may we do so with humble and thankful hearts. And may you take these gifts and bless them for perfect and good use in your kingdom.
[00:24:28] In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
[00:24:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:24:30] The scripture reading today comes from the New Testament from one of Paul's letters to the church of Corinth.
[00:29:34] It's 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 1 through 17.
[00:29:38] Called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and our brother Sothenes to the church of God that is in Corinth to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who
[00:29:58] in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you
[00:30:15] because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus.
[00:30:20] For in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind, just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
[00:30:37] as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:30:42] He will also strengthen you to the end so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:30:50] God is faithful.
[00:30:52] By him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
[00:30:59] Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.
[00:31:16] For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters.
[00:31:24] What I mean is that each of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas, or I belong to Christ.
[00:31:37] Has Christ been divided?
[00:31:39] Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
[00:31:46] I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gallus, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name.
[00:31:57] I did baptize also the household of Stephanas.
[00:32:01] Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.
[00:32:05] for Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel and not with eloquent wisdom so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. This is the word of God for us the
[00:32:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:32:20] people of God. Bow with me in prayer please. This is a day that you have made oh God may we rejoice and be glad in it. We talk and we sing and we study of love, and today especially we are reminded
[00:32:54] that love encompasses justice. Just as love shows mercy, love shares hope, and love is an action, not just a feeling. Lord, I've talked with young people this week, and they've come to me, and they've wondered and they feared what kind of world they are inheriting. They wonder where you
[00:33:29] are, God, and where you are at work. Assure them, Lord, that you will be with them and that you hold the future in your hands. And help us, Lord, to show them where you are by being the hands and
[00:33:51] the feet of Christ every single day. May we all keep in mind, Lord, that our descendants, our loved ones, will indeed inherit the problems we create and or ignore, as well as the seeds of
[00:34:13] love and the goodness that we sow while we are here. Help us, O God, to be good stewards of our world, of our society, and of our faith. Help us, Lord, to build your kingdom and to share the true
[00:34:34] and untarnished gospel with all who will hear. And most of all, help us to live the gospel in everything that we think, that we say, and we do, so that we strive in everything, Lord,
[00:34:55] to be like Christ. We remember today those who are in need of prayer, those, Lord, who are facing surgery, those who are trying to recover from surgery, those awaiting diagnosis, those, Lord, who are in pain, as well as those who are living their final days here on earth
[00:35:24] before inheriting the life that doesn't end. We pray, God, that you would bring peace, that you would bring faith, that you would bring comfort for the living of these days.
[00:35:40] We pray, God, for the people who go to work this week. We pray for the stresses that they endure.
[00:35:48] We pray, God, that they would be up to any and all challenges to their morality and doing what is right. We pray God for those who are retired, and we pray God for meaningful hours to fill their days and nights and weeks.
[00:36:11] We pray God for our enemies, that they would not remain enemies, that as we love them as you call us to, they will indeed become friends.
[00:36:29] We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to share in the Lord's Supper today, and we pray for your presence upon us as we do. We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus, who taught his disciples
[00:36:44] to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses
[00:37:04] as we forgive those who trespass against us lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
[00:37:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:37:14] for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever amen preach and it did you know if you
[00:42:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:42:06] you were going online or in a bookstore, you pick up the collected letters of the Apostle Paul.
[00:42:12] Some of them would read like warm postcards from a Christian grandparent. I miss you. I'm proud of you. Keep shining the light. Others, like 1 Corinthians, read a bit more like a concerned email from a mentor who sees a lot of potential being squandered. This first letter to the church
[00:42:36] Corinth is written to a congregation in one of the most diverse, energetic, and divided cities of the ancient world. Corinth sat at a crossroads of trade, of ideas, and of cultures, a place where people came to make something of themselves. It was a city that was buzzing with wealth, with
[00:42:58] rhetoric, with philosophy, athletics, idol worship, as well as social climbing. If New York City and Las Vegas had a first century child, they would have named it Corinth. So when Paul plants a church there, it becomes a beautiful but fragile thing. A collection of believers from different
[00:43:24] backgrounds, social classes, and belief systems. They love Jesus, they worship, they pray, they serve, yet they also quarrel and compete and divide. Paul knows he must address these problems honestly, but he knows something that every good teacher and every wise friend knows.
[00:43:53] If you want someone to hear a hard truth, you begin with gratitude, affirmation, and identity.
[00:44:00] So before Paul gets into correction, he praises them, he thanks God for them, he reminds them who they are in Christ, that they are sanctified, called, gifted, blessed, and that they belong to Jesus. That rhetorical tact matters. Paul knows that he cannot shame them into unity.
[00:44:27] he cannot scold them into unity so he builds them up and then he calls them to unity after his greeting and thanksgiving Paul begins to move into this concern I appeal to you brothers and sisters in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that not all of you agree and that there be no
[00:44:55] divisions among you. Now, he's not demanding some robotic uniformity. He's addressing the competitive spirit that has taken hold of the church. The Corinthians have begun forming factions. I follow Paul. I follow Apollos. I follow Cephas. I follow Christ. That last one
[00:45:19] there, I follow Christ, is the real insult. It's like the others don't. Like, I have it all figured out. And if you want to know what Jesus thinks, just ask me. Some are loyal to their founder,
[00:45:34] some to the eloquent preacher, some to the traditionalist apostle, and some even pridefully claim to transcend the debate altogether. In modern times, we might say, I'm a Presbyterian Christian, I'm a Baptist Christian, I'm a progressive Christian. Well, I'm just a Bible
[00:45:53] believe in, Christian. Again, this last one is the real insult, as if the others aren't, as if the others read the National Enquirer as the Word of God. Now, Paul doesn't say stop caring about
[00:46:08] doctrine or stop having different perspectives, but he does ask one very piercing question.
[00:46:17] Is Christ divided? The answer, of course, is no. Paul is teaching the Corinthians and us that identity comes before ideology, and Christ comes before our camps. Our lesser loyalties should not become our ultimate ones, nor should they compromise Christ's ultimate command,
[00:46:48] love God and love others. Now, many of you know the Beatles song, Come Together. It was on Abbey Road, the final studio album recorded by the band, though Let It Be was the final album that they
[00:47:04] released. At the time of the recording, the bandmates were barely mates anymore. They were sick of each other. They were barely speaking. The Fab Four had always been wildly different with very varied personalities, but now everything about each one of them got on the nerves of the
[00:47:28] other three. John Lennon captured the situation in this song, Come Together. Each verse speaks to one of the Beatles, and he's making fun of all of them. He says of Ringo Starr, here comes Flattop. He come grooving up slowly because he was the short one and couldn't walk as fast.
[00:47:47] he got juju eyeball he won holy roller and then later he had hair down his back he's the joker of the crowd he just do what he please he was just along for the ride and then george harrison he
[00:48:02] wear no shoeshine george harrison went barefoot a lot he got toe jam football he's the soccer player of the four he got monkey finger he was the guitar player and also played the sitar and
[00:48:12] every other crazy string instrument they added he shoot coca-cola well it wasn't coca-cola it was a different coat. And he'd say, I know you, you know me. One thing I can tell you is you got to be free.
[00:48:23] That was a nod to his Hare Krishna and Dalai Lama days. Verse three, Lennon makes fun of himself.
[00:48:29] He bagged production. This album, he didn't want any producers touching it. He just wanted whatever they played to be recorded and sent out. He got Walrus Gumboot. Well, he called himself the Walrus. He got Ono a sideboard. Yoko Ono was his wife. Spinal Cracker, somebody who's
[00:48:46] rebellion against the system. Hold you in his armchair, you can feel his disease. Well, he was at that time extremely addicted to heroin and he shook all the time. Finally, he gets to verse four
[00:49:00] about Paul McCartney. He's a roller coaster. That was his, he had really bad mood swings. He got early warning. Paul was the one that always talked to the manager and knew what was happening before
[00:49:09] anybody else. He loved muddy waters. He loved muddy water. One, one, and one is three. Well, he just kind of was leaving the other three. He was going out on his own, and he was the good
[00:49:21] looking one. Got to be good looking because he's so hard to see because he wasn't ever around anymore. So these were the four people that were there trying to record their final album together, but the verse through all those four stanzas says, come together right now over me.
[00:49:38] put everything else aside and focus on the music and he's saying I'm laying down myself my interests come over me they didn't always get along they didn't always agree on lyrics direction or even the meaning of their songs but in later years those tensions became more visible
[00:50:05] and ultimately broke the band up after the recording of this album but during their most creative period, something remarkable happened. They actually put the music first. They came together not by becoming the same, nor by thinking the same, nor by having the same temperament,
[00:50:22] but by agreeing that the music mattered more than their differences or their individual preferences.
[00:50:31] That's how they produce music that changed the world. Paul, the apostle, not the Beatle, is asking Corinth to do something similar but on a far holier and eternal level. He's asking those Christ followers to put the gospel, not their personalities, not their preferences, not their
[00:50:56] differences, first. Letting the world know that Jesus Christ is Lord in our words, in our actions, in our treatment of each other and in our treatment of those we don't know. Job one, numero uno, A1 objective. Now, this is not to say that the differences were not real
[00:51:19] or aren't real. They are. But what they aren't is ultimate. We can be honest. Christians are different. We were not created by a cookie cutter God. Some of us raise hands and rock to the music.
[00:51:38] some of us fold them quietly, some are captivated by theology, others are moved by service, some vote this way, others vote that way, some grew up in a church with organs, others with guitars, others with just silence. Those differences don't have to be erased. God never did and never
[00:52:02] does demand uniformity. The body of Christ has knees, elbows, eyes, ears, lungs, and fingertips and all are different but they're all necessary. Hear this, the danger is not difference.
[00:52:20] The danger is when difference becomes division and one attacks or tries to silence or get rid of the other. The danger is when preferences become identities. Investors, protesters, pro-lifers, progressives who happen to be Christians rather than the other way around. Christ followers who
[00:52:46] happen to whatever. The danger is when Christ becomes secondary. Paul wants what Jesus prayed for in John 17. Not that we would all think alike, but that we would be one. And brothers and sisters, unity is not sameness. Unity is harmony. A choir does not sing one note, it sings one song.
[00:53:17] A band does not play one instrument, it plays different instruments but one anthem. The truth is, our church does a really good job of this. And I mean that. But I do have one word of caution,
[00:53:38] and I'm speaking to myself here as well. We can have blinders. Our family has two dogs, Annie and Baylor. Annie is an overgrown Cavapoo. She is so sweet. Every time I walk in the door
[00:53:58] of the house, whether I've been gone a week, a workday, or 10 minutes, she drops whatever she's doing and she runs to me. And she gets right at my feet and she wants me to pet her. And until I do,
[00:54:11] she won't leave. And when I pet her, she starts licking my hand and she licks my feet. And then wherever I go, she goes. If I'm sitting in the den, she's sitting in the den with me. If I'm in
[00:54:25] the bed, she's sitting in the bed with me. If I'm at the table eating, she pulls up a chair at the able. She even sleeps with Tiffany at the foot of our bed, unless Tiffany pulls her up to snuggle.
[00:54:42] So sweet, so obedient, so soft and loving. But if she gets a hold of an empty bag of potato chips or a half-eaten box of M&Ms or a cookie container, she takes them under a bed or a couch
[00:55:02] and goes Rambo. She will not come out. She growls like a rabid wolf and she will bite us if we try to take it away. She forgets who the master is. She forgets how much she loves us
[00:55:22] and she goes aggressively into protective Rambo mode. Most of us have an empty cookie box issue.
[00:55:33] we're kind we're loving we get along with everything unless one thing becomes the issue for some of us it's interpretation of the bible for others it involves the church building for some it's money for other it's sexual matters and sexuality for others it's political issues
[00:56:00] parties, or actions. And when they come up, the claws come out and Christ gets put in a secondary place. God loves people on all sides of every issue and wants us to love them too, even as we
[00:56:22] work through and with our differences. As Paul says to the church in Philippi, act with humility, putting others' interests before your own. This is the way of Christ, and how we live when following Christ is our ultimate concern. When we remember that our truest identity is Christ,
[00:56:48] everything else becomes secondary. Opinions are secondary, preferences are secondary, denominations are secondary, cultural backgrounds are secondary, even theology. Yes, even theology is secondary to the one to whom all theology points. Now, this does not make beliefs unimportant.
[00:57:14] Paul cared deeply about right preaching, but it puts them in their proper place, in their proper order. If my doctrine becomes a wall that keeps me from loving my neighbor or makes me exclude or attack or talk about another Christian, then Christ has become
[00:57:34] divided in my heart. To follow Jesus is not to erase our differences, it's to prioritize the cross above those differences. And so Paul ends this opening passage talking about party, not about party loyalty, but about baptism, the shared invitation and initiation into Christ.
[00:58:00] Later in the letter, he will speak about the Lord's Supper, the shared meal of Christ, and that is no accident. In baptism, we are reminded that we have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.
[00:58:13] At the table, we are reminded that we share one loaf, one cup, one Savior. The early church did not come together because they liked the same music or voted the same way or read the same
[00:58:26] translation of scripture. They came together because Jesus was their center. This morning, as we prepare to come to the Lord's table, we are invited into that same unity. Not a unity of sameness, but a unity of purpose. Not a unity of winning an argument, but of belonging to Christ.
[00:58:50] Jesus does not ask us to agree on everything, but he does ask us to remember him. He does ask us to do this in his name, and not in the name of Paul or Apollos or Cephas. So today, brothers and sisters,
[00:59:05] if you've come with strong opinions welcome if you've come today with questions welcome if you've come from a different background welcome if you've come feeling out of place welcome the table does not belong to us it belongs to our Lord for Christ is not divided
[00:59:38] and his table is open and his invitation is for all.
[01:00:07] On the night that he was betrayed, after supper, Jesus took a loaf of bread and after praying, he broke it.
[01:00:17] And he said, this is my body broken for you.
[01:00:21] Take and eat this in remembrance of me.
[01:04:49] Take and eat, Lord, for your body that you gave so willingly for each of us.
[01:05:06] We give you thanks.
[01:05:07] We pray, God, that we would all be one body of Christ today.
[01:05:13] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
[01:05:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:05:18] And on that same night, sit the cup, saying, This is the blood of the new covenant.
[01:05:25] My blood shed for you.
[01:05:27] Drink in remembrance of me.
[01:05:30] Remembrance of me.
[01:09:35] God, thank you for this cup and for this remembrance of your love for all of us.
[01:09:50] help us to remember to show your love and share your love and what all you have done and be an example of Jesus and how he showed us how to live in Jesus name I pray amen and now we come to a
[01:10:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:10:20] time of invitation if you would like to become a part of this body of Christ officially either by being baptized upon your profession of faith for the first time or your transfer of membership from a sister church. We'd be glad to receive you. As we stand together now and sing hymn number
[01:10:38] 387, blessed be the tie. Thanks so much for being here today. I hope that you have a wonderful week and to our youth, hope y'all have a great time skiing. Be safe and DVD. That's what my brother
[01:12:03] tells his kids. Don't be dumb. DVD. All right. Have a good week. And now as we go to be the body of Christ in the world, may we all live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly,
[01:12:21] forgive freely, pray daily, and leave the rest to God.
