A Perfect Plan for Imperfect People

Morning, if you will, the first Corinthians chapter one, first

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 1 First Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

I read in a magazine. It's called pulpit helps and one

one guy that had contributed to it had written this list of you

know you're in trouble when one of those type of lists, and this

is of course, it was addressed to pastors and and it's called

so long pastor. He said, you know it's over when

you return from vacation to find the visiting preacher's name on

your mailbox said you know it's over when your church is about

to split and neither group wants you.

You know it's over when shut insurance pull the window shades

and pretend they aren't home when you come for a visit.

You know it's over when your mom moves her membership to another

church. You know it's over when you're

told God is calling you to the mission field now, he wrote.

You know. You know it's over when your

wife moves her membership to another church.

You know it's over when your secretary starts sending out

your resume. You know it's over when the

congregation forces the members of the pulpit committee to wear

sackcloth and make a public confession and repentance.

You know it's over when your church members start referring

to you in the past tense. You know it's over when your

love offering is A2 for one coupon at Wendy's.

You know it's over when you show up at church on Monday to

discover that the locks have been changed.

And he said. You know, it's over when you're

cast as the donkey in the Christmas cantata.

I got a kick out of those when I read them.

I think they're kind of funny. But, you know, I've heard real

horror stories of things that are almost just as bad as that

happening in churches. Sometimes there's a fight

between the the preacher and and one faction of the congregation,

or there's a fight between two factions of the congregation

that are fighting and the preachers in the middle of it.

And I've heard, I've heard accounts of people that have

been hurt terribly in, in church fights, had terrible, cruel, you

know, many times untrue things said about them.

They've been, you know, accused of having evil motives, being

the worst type of character, being untrustworthy, being

selfish, being power hungry, whatever it happens to be.

And sometimes those accusations are true.

Sometimes they're, you know, a fox that gets in the hen house.

And, and there are pastors that are like that.

There are people that are like that who get into churches.

But more often than not, those accusations are false or at the

very least, they're over exaggerated.

But most of the time the trouble starts in the church just

because we are people and people were were humans and we're

contaminated with sin and we're unable to keep from getting

dirtied by that sin for very long stretches of time.

And you've heard it said before, at least I have.

Maybe you have to something along this lines.

If we were all more like Jesus, we would get along and there

wouldn't be any trouble. If we could just all agree, then

things would work themselves out.

And that'd be a great thing. That would be nice if that could

be true all the time. But that's that's not very

realistic. The godly men that we read about

in the New Testament had disagreements with each other.

Paul and Barnabas, 2 of probably the the most spiritual men in

the New Testament. You can throw Peter and James

and some of the others in there as well.

But they had a disagreement so sharp that they that they broke

apart their mission and went their separate ways.

We have kind of an indication that they that they made things

right between themselves, but it happened.

Look, Peter and Paul, you know, one Peter was closest, one of

the closest ones to Jesus. He was caught in hypocrisy by

Paul and he had to be said straight.

They were out of disagreement between each other.

Some of the most godly men in the New Testament had these

arguments. And then the early churches,

they were just about as full as trouble and of trouble and

strife as most of the churches are today.

It seems like that's a lot of what Paul was writing to these

churches about. Hey, stop fighting and just get

along. Stop fighting and, and, and

focus on the things that matter. Focus on the things that are

important. It would be nice if we could

always agree and see things alike, but it's not.

It's just not going to happen that way.

Why is that? Because people are different and

they see things differently. And by the way, that's OK.

Could you imagine how boring and bland the world would be if

everybody thought exactly the same way that you did?

If they're if, if they had no different ideas than you have,

if they liked everything exactly the same way that you liked it?

I mean, this would be a pretty boring place, wouldn't it?

There'd be 1 store that everybody went to and one

restaurant that everybody ate at and 1, you know, I mean, it

would be a pretty boring place if if that's the case.

And so, you know, the things that that make us different can

be a strength as well. But because people are sinful

and, and, and we're always going to tend to be selfish and always

going to tend to be ambitious and many times thoughtless of

other people. That's that's why it's, it's

difficult many times for people to get along.

But we're supposed to be different than the world.

The option of fighting it out really isn't a viable option for

us. We don't, we don't see that in

the Bible anywhere. Just fight it out, you know, be

at disagreements with each other.

Let 2 factions of the church be fighting against each other and

see who wins and kick the other ones out.

It's not an option. We don't, we just don't see that

in the Bible anywhere. We're imperfect people.

We're contaminated by sin. And The thing is, when we accept

Jesus Christ as our Savior, he takes the, the consequences of

that sin away. But the effects of sin in our

lives are still felt. We're always going to have that

flesh that we fight against. We're always going to fight the,

the sinful urges and the sinful thoughts until the day that we

die. And hopefully you're working at

it. Hopefully it's something that

you're that you're trying to get better at with the Lord's help.

But we're people and we're never going to be perfect, not until

we get to heaven. We're always going to fail.

We're always going to come up short.

So realizing that churches are made-up of people who are sinful

and that they'll almost certainly continue to get into

fights until Jesus comes, then what can we do about it?

Realizing that you're never going to see eye to eye, even in

your own family, like many times husband and wives don't see eye

to eye, parents and children don't see eye to eye, what can

we do about it? Paul addressed that exact same

problem here to the church at Corinth in First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. And I'm very thankful that we

don't have a divided church. I'm not preaching this message

this morning because our church is fighting against each other

and you have one faction that's on this side and 1 faction

that's on this side and everybody, nobody will talk to

each other because you know, they don't like what this person

said and they don't like what that person's opinion is about

the whatever. We don't have that and I'm

thankful for that. We don't have a church full of

cliques with some people who are in the know and others who are

less important and, you know, a lower class of church people.

We don't have that and I'm thankful for that.

And I think if you've been here for any length of time, then you

understand for the most part that everybody gets along.

For the most part, for the most part we do.

We do. But you know, you may like

somebody more than somebody else because their personality is

more like yours and whatever else.

But but, but I, I feel like everybody likes everybody.

Everybody knows everybody, everybody talks to everybody,

and that's the way that it should be.

So the message this morning is more of a reminder and hopefully

an encouragement for you to keep doing what you're doing.

But The thing is this, this church at Corinth, they were all

mixed up and, and they were as mixed up as any church that we

see today. Even even Paul when he wrote to

them, had to correct these things.

And it's in First Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

It's one of the very first things that he had to address

before he could even get to some of the other things that he

wanted to get to that were very important for them to

understand. He had to get them.

He had to set them straight. Stop fighting against each

other. You're it's like, it's, it's it,

you know, it's almost as dumb as somebody who takes their fist on

one side and takes their fist on the other side and starts

punching each other, right? I mean, how dumb would that be

to see somebody fighting themselves?

But that's what you're doing when you fight as a church body,

all right? You are a body and the body is

fighting itself. What sense does that make?

It doesn't even make sense logically when you think about

it. Your body should get along

right? Your, your, your, your right arm

and your left arm should be working together.

When's the last time that you went to do something and you

thought, I need to grab this? Oh, I need the other hand.

And your left hand said, no, you're not grabbing that.

You're not doing that. So you have one hand here and

you're trying to pull the other one up, and you just can't pull

it up because it doesn't want to do what it's supposed to do,

right? This doesn't make sense for a

body to fight against itself. And that's kind of the point

that Paul is making here. So this morning I want to give

you what Paul gave the Corinthians, the perfect plan

for imperfect people. There are probably more, but I

want to look at three things that we can do to keep us united

in our church, keep us united in our homes, so that we can

continue to move forward for the cause of Christ.

Because make no mistake, we will not move forward for the cause

of Christ if we are divided. A house divided against itself

cannot stand, and a church that's divided against itself

cannot stand either. And if the whole purpose of us

as a church is to stand, therefore in this evil day, how

can we stand if we're divided? So we need to keep the the

division out. We need to keep the stand

strong. And this is one of the ways that

we can do it. The perfect plan for imperfect

people. That's what Paul gave us in

First Corinthians chapter 1. Let's pray and we'll look at

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

some of these verses that he gave them that hopefully will be

a help to us this morning. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. Thank you for the opportunity we

have to be here this morning. And I thank you for the church

that we do have and for all the people that make it up.

There would be no church if there was no people.

There would be no there would be no church if there was no

families that were here to make it up.

And, and I thank you so much for everybody who has made the

decision to make this their church home.

God, may you help us all to have a desire for it to be strong.

May you all help us. May you help us all to have a

desire for it to be united so that we can go forward for the

cause of Christ. And may this message help us

this morning. Thank you again for all you do

for us. In Jesus name, Amen.

The first thing I want you to see is this.

And this is what Paul gave them in verse #10 but it's to focus

on Jesus because he is the reason we're here.

Focus on Jesus because he's the reason we're here.

Verse #10 Paul says this. Now I beseech you, you know what

that word beseech means. I'm begging you, brethren,

beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

that you all speak the same thing and that there be no

divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together

in the same mind and in the same judgment.

You can almost hear. Now, obviously Paul is writing

this and, and one of the things that we know about the apostle

Paul is as they've said, and as Paul wrote his, his speech is

contemptible. Who is this guy?

He doesn't really speak very well, but his writing is

powerful. And you can almost imagine Paul

as he's dictating this to be, you know, to be written.

And he says, write this. I beg you, brethren, in the name

of Jesus Christ, I beg you, brethren, please get along.

Be joined together in unity. Go together that you'd be

perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same

judgment. Focus on Jesus Christ because He

is the reason that we're here and that one sentence, he

reminds them that people in the church share a very special

relationship with one another. We talked about this a little

bit last Sunday night as, as we took the communion and, and, and

talked about the fact that we are a body and that we all

should be joined together and that we all do that together.

We're related to each other because we all, if we're saved,

we all call Jesus Christ our Lord.

We all call God our Father. We are related.

That's why we call each other brother and sister.

We're brothers and sisters in Christ and we ought to get along

because we have the same Father and because we have the same

Lord. And for that reason, we ought

not to be fighting against each other that we, when my, when,

when we were young, my brothers and sisters and I, we used to

get into fights every once in a while.

And I would tell you that it was always their fault and they were

always the one that started it. But you'd probably see right

through that story. It was, it was all of us.

And, and we were all guilty of that at times.

And we used to try to argue quietly under our breath.

You remember that because we knew we'd get in trouble if my

parents heard us arguing. So what do you do?

You can't argue out loud. You can't holler.

So everybody's under, right? Well, you all probably all have

done that when you were growing up.

There's been times when you all had that same mindset.

And I, you know, I used to think that my parents, you know, would

get upset because it's just, it's nerve wracking.

And I'm sure that was a big part of it.

When you have 10 kids and they're all fighting against

each other and they're all arguing.

I mean, that's a lot of noise in the house.

And no, there's no peace. There's no rest when everybody's

fighting. So they didn't let us fight.

We had to figure out ways to do it when they didn't know that we

were doing it. But The thing is, the one of the

whole reasons why they didn't want us to do it is because it's

just not right. Families should not be fighting

against each other, right? And by the way, this is not a

message on the family by any stretch this morning.

But you ought not to let your kids fight at home.

They ought to get along. You ought to teach them how to

get along. If they never learn how to get

along at home, then how are they going to learn to get along in

church? And how are they going to learn

to get along with everybody else that they need to get along

with? Well, they're just, they're just

so familiar with each other. Well, one of these days you're

going to be familiar with everybody else the same way you

can be familiar with the people that you work with.

And if you can't learn how to resolve a conflict without

fighting and arguing and shouting to get your way, then

what do you think's going to happen when they're in the

workplace? What do you think it's going to

happen when they have their own homes?

You ought to teach your kids to get along.

But I'm glad we grew out of that.

We don't fight now much, but when times get tough, like it

did when my mom passed away, we all needed to come together.

If we had never learned how to get along, if all we ever did

was fight, If all we ever did was argue with each other, and

then you don't have that family that's there when you need them.

That's a good, that's a benefit of being the family of God and

being together in one body in a church, right?

And many of you have been through difficult things and the

church rallies around you. What if you're the one that

always argues with everybody else, can't ever get along with

anybody, and now all of a sudden you need them Now.

All of a sudden you want everybody to come to your aid.

Now all of a sudden you want everybody to be kind to you.

And they probably still would. They do that the same way I have

to go help this person. I don't want to help them,

right? No, I mean, we don't do that,

but that. But you understand what I'm

saying? You're going to need them and

they're going to need you. And if you can't get along, then

how would you expect to be a help?

And how do you expect to be a brother and sister in Christ?

See, Paul drew their attention to Jesus.

You see what he said? Now I beseech you, brethren, by

the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, He's almost saying for

Jesus sake, because you are united in him.

Don't fight amongst yourselves. You ought to hang together and

strengthen each other. Don't tear each other down.

That's that's what Paul is telling these Corinthians and

he's telling to us in the same way.

We are part of the church that Paul was writing these to heard

about a pastor by the name of Clarence Jordan.

He was telling the story about a time that he visited in a very

exciting church. It was very integrated church

somewhere here in the South some years ago.

And he was surprised to find a just a very large church so

thoroughly integrated and it was kind of out in the middle of

nowhere, but just rich and poor, black and white, just just

completely integrated church. And everybody just got along so

well. And so this this pastor was

invited there to preach and he kind of knew a little bit about

the hillbilly pastor that was there.

He knew a little bit about the church, but he got there and he

was just, he was just so amazed and so exciting to see how well

the church functioned together. And so he sat down to eat with

him for lunch and he said, how did you get the church this way?

And that old hillbilly pastor said, what way?

What are you talking about? And he explained it to him a

little bit and, and he said, well, I'll tell you what

happened. When our preacher left our small

church, I went to the deacons and I said, I'll be the

preacher. And the deacons, they, they all

thought about it for a little bit and they invited me to come

be the preacher in that church. And he said, the very first

Sunday I opened up the Bible. And I've read as many of you as

have been baptized into Jesus, has put on Jesus, and there's no

longer any Jews or Greeks, slaves or frees, males or

females, because you is all one in Jesus.

And then I closed the book and I said, if you won with Jesus, you

won with all kinds of folks. And if you ain't, you ain't.

And that pastor said, well, what happened?

He said, well, then deacons pulled me into the backroom

after the service and they said, we don't want that kind of

preaching around here. You're not going to preach like

that and be our pastor. And he said, well, what'd you do

after that? He said, I fired those deacons.

He said, well, then what happened?

He said, well, I preached the church down to four people.

And that's when we started to grow.

People started coming in and they love the unity that we had.

And he said, I preached that down that church down to four.

And what I found out is that revival sometimes don't mean

bringing people in, but getting the people out who don't love

Jesus. See, we're imperfect people.

Nobody in their right mind is going to argue that.

But we need to remember that the reason we're here is because we

love Jesus. Focus on Jesus because he's the

real reason we're here. Go back to First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and look at verse #11 that's what Paul is telling

them. First of all, focus on Jesus

because he's the real reason we're here.

But the second thing I want you to see is that we should focus

on Jesus instead of on other people.

Verse #11 For you hath been declared unto me of you, my

brethren, by them, which are of the House of Chloe.

And he threw her under the bus, didn't he?

She tattled on you all. And I'm telling you that I heard

from Chloe that there are contentions among you.

Verse 12 Now this I say that every one of you saith, I am of

Paul and I have Apollos and I have Cephas and I have Christ.

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or

were you baptized in the name of Paul?

I thank God that I baptize none of you but Crispus and Gaius,

lest any should say that I baptized in mine own name, and I

baptized also the house that hold this define this beside, I

know not whether I baptize any other, for Christ sent me not to

baptize, but to preach the gospel not with wisdom of words,

lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

See, Paul's point was that the Christians were supposed to

follow Christ, not other people. In John Maxwell's book The

Winning Attitude, he's written a lot of books on leadership, but

he tells the story of 2 cows that were grazing in a field in

a pasture and they saw a milk truck go by.

And on the side of that milk truck there, it said

pasteurized, homogenized, standardized vitamin A added.

One of those cows sighed and looked at the other one.

He said, sure makes you feel inadequate, doesn't it?

And that's honestly, that's the problem with being attached to

people instead of to Jesus Christ.

When you follow somebody, eventually they're going to let

you down because they're inadequate.

When you compare them to Jesus Christ, when you've, you know,

you might be smitten by somebody's personality or

something else that they that they have or something else that

they're do that they do, but they're human and eventually

they are going to fail you. Others may not be as charmed

with another church leader as you and they see his flaws and,

and you know, and then you get the situation that Paul

condemned in Corinth, people rallying around leaders instead

of rallying around Christ. I heard a couple who had been

married for about 3 years and they were happy and they got

along very well. But there was one point of

contention in their marriage and it was the pastor.

The, the, the husband really liked the pastor and he's seen,

you know, he really stood up for him with everything.

The wife didn't like him very much and she criticized

everything that he did. And here the one thing that they

didn't get along and in their marriage was the pastor, you

know, he the, the, the, the man tended to overlook the pastor's

weaknesses and the wife tended to overlook the pastor's

strengths because they were coming at it from two different

angles. But I'll tell you that The thing

is, if, if their focus was on Jesus Christ instead of on the

pastor, then they would realize that nobody is perfect, no

matter what capacity they serve in.

And their differences of opinion aren't become aren't going to

become a real problem. So the, the temptation for

leaders in the church is to build a sort of personality cult

around themselves. And it's it's never going to be

called that. But you know, I think it was, I

think it was a lot more prevalent in the 70s and the

80s, especially in some of the big independent fundamental

Baptist churches. You're seeing it all over the

place now with a lot of these non denominational churches.

But it happens everywhere. You know, it's not a it's, it's,

it's not about the church. Look, you see, I mean, I think

one of the most prominent recent examples is is Hillsong.

Right. Hillsong was huge, especially

the church in New York City. Everybody was all about Carl

Lentz, this the pastor of that church, Justin Bieber's pastor.

And you know, the celebrity, you know, he was, he was a pastor to

all the celebrities and thousands and thousands of

people coming to this church found out that he was having all

kinds of affairs and all kinds of other stuff that was going

on. And they, they kicked him out of

the church and that church just went, went down to nothing

because it wasn't about following Christ.

It wasn't about focusing on Jesus.

It was all about a personality. They were following this pastor.

They were following this cult of a church.

And it wasn't about Christ. And so then when the, when the

focal point is gone, the whole thing disappears.

The whole thing disintegrates. That'll tell you what the focal

point is, right? It's it, we all want to be

liked, right? Everybody wants to be like you

all. You know, we all want to see

things go well and to get along. So it becomes very tempting to

shade things and to be dishonest in little ways, like making

people think that you never struggle with sin, right?

I'm a human. I, I, I do my best to live in

the best way that I possibly can for Christ.

And I'm not out there running around with other women and

doing all these other things. I'm not doing those things, but

I'm not perfect. And for you to think that I'm

perfect would be a would be a mistake.

And for me to try to make you think that I'm perfect would be

a mistake. I'm not perfect.

I'm a human. I'm just like you are.

But The thing is, we already have an example for us to

follow. And it may, you may find out

someday that I did something that, that that disappointed

Christ and you get all disappointed about it.

And if and if and if the whole church is me, then you're going

to get discouraged and you're going to leave.

I hope that the day that I'm no longer the pastor of this

church, not one person leaves. Hope that the day that I'm no

longer the pastor of this church goes on for Christ the same way

that it did when I was here, and even more after I'm gone.

Because it's not about me. I'm not the focus of this

church. Christ is the focus of this

church. And if you're following him

instead of following me, then it will go on no matter who the

leader of the church is. Now, I think it's important that

the leader be somebody that's taken everybody in the direction

that's following Christ. If the leader is doing that,

then do what Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ.

But if I get off the path and I start teaching wrong doctrine or

I start bringing things in that are going against God's Word,

then you shouldn't follow me. You should follow Christ, right?

And if I'm not here, this church should just go on the same way

that it is right now because it's not about me, it's about

him. And that's exactly what Paul was

trying to say here. He said, you're, you're divided.

Oh, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos. Oh, this person baptized me.

That person baptized me. And there was these factions all

over the place, you know, bragging about who baptized

them. Paul said it's not about any of

us, it's about Christ. He says that I thank God that I

baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say

that I had baptized in my own name.

This isn't about me. Paul says it's not about us.

It's not about Gaius. It's not about it's not about

Paul. It's not about all of these

things. It's about Christ and him

crucified. That's what should be our focus.

That's what we should be preaching.

And of course, I'm trying to do my best to be a good example to

you. I think.

I think you realize that. And I hope you realize that if

I'm asking you to jump afoot, I'm doing my best to jump 3.

And I can promise you that the things that I preach in this

church, I practice in my own personal life and I practice in

my own home. I'm not doing things outside of

the church that that are not an example.

But at the same time, it's not about you following me.

It's about you following Christ. And if all I do is get you to

come and do what I do, and if all I do is get you to come and

follow me as a personality, then I failed as a pastor.

Your job is to follow Christ. Follow him, Make him the focal

point. If someday I ever disappoint

you, you're not going to give up and quit and, and, and just

throw in the towel because, well, if he can't do it, then

who can? It's not about me anyway.

It's about Christ. And if you're focusing on him,

then man, I hate to see that somebody dropped out of the

race, but I wasn't following that person anyway.

My goal was on the finish line. My goal was on Christ.

He was the one that I was following anyway.

Boy, I hate to see that somebody failed.

I hate to see that somebody tripped and fell, but I wasn't

following him. So I don't have to trip and fall

too. I don't have to quit because he

did. My focus is on Christ and that's

where I'm going. I'm following him.

That's what Paul is saying. That's that's what those verses

there in verse 11 through 16 are all talking about.

Follow Christ, focus on Him. I try to teach the Word of God

truthfully and in such a way that I don't bore you to tears.

We plan the services so that it will go smoothly, and our

objective is to to try to eliminate distraction so that we

can actually worship the Lord. But don't let any of that fool

you into thinking that you should be following me.

I'm not trying to be egotistical here because it happens all the

time in churches, but you know they're there and may be true.

On the other hand, maybe you preferred a different preacher

in the past. Maybe you'd rather listen to

somebody else preach. And that's fine too, right?

God called you here. But what I hope and pray is that

everyone who comes to this church would continue tomorrow

if I left. I'm not planning to leave, by

the way. Sorry to disappoint you, but the

focus should be on Jesus and not on any other person.

People are going to fail us because people are imperfect.

Jesus is perfect, and it's he that we as imperfect people

should keep our eyes on. And so to stay united, we should

focus on Jesus because he's the reason we're here.

We should focus on Jesus instead of on other people.

And lastly, Paul says this in verse #17 For Christ sent me not

to baptize, but to preach the gospel.

Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be

made of none effect focus on Jesus and what he wants us to

do. That's my Third Point.

That's our last point. That's what Paul is telling us

here. Some churches have a time in the

service and we don't do this. We've never done it.

But some some churches have a little time in the service when

the children come down to the front and somebody usually the

pastor has a little bit of a an object lesson for the kids and

they call it the children's sermon.

And one church I heard about a preacher was given the

children's sermon one day, one Sunday morning.

And so he said to the children, when I say a word, I want you to

say the first thing that comes to your mind.

And so he said frog. And one of the little boys down

there said Jesus. And he said, Jesus, what does

Jesus have to do with frog? He said, well, I know this.

You didn't call us down here to talk about frogs.

We're not here to talk about frogs or politics or sports or

any other thing that may come up in a casual conversation.

We're here, or at least we ought to be here, because Jesus died

for us and out of our gratitude for his mercy and his grace, we

want to worship him, Paul told the Corinthian church.

In effect, I I really don't care about who baptized who.

I was just doing what God told me to do.

I was preaching the gospel. I don't care who gets the

credit. I was just following my orders.

You notice what Paul is saying here, though.

We're having a few people that are getting baptized after the

service this morning. I think this is very interesting

verse #17 for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the

gospel. You notice that he's making a

distinction there. The gospel and baptism are not

the same thing. And there's so many people who

want to add baptism to salvation.

You have to be baptized if you're going to go to heaven.

You have to be baptized if you want to be saved.

Has nothing to do with baptism. Do you think Paul would be

bragging about the fact that he did not baptize anybody if

that's what he was called to do? Paul's life was worthless then

if the gospel is trying to get people to get into a pool so

that he can baptize him. He said Christ didn't call me to

baptize. He called me to preach the

gospel. And I'm glad that I didn't

baptize any of you so that you can't say I was baptized by

Paul. That sounds kind of

counterproductive to somebody who's out there trying to get

people to heaven by dunking them in a tank, Doesn't it just kind

of goes to show you that it doesn't have anything to do with

baptism on whether you're going to get to heaven or not has

everything to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that's what Paul was preaching.

He said Christ sent me not to baptize.

He sent me to preach the gospel. And that's what I'm doing.

Paul was not there to baptize them.

He was there to lead them to Christ.

Baptism is just a picture of salvation.

It's a picture of the death, the burial, and the resurrection of

Jesus Christ and somebody who has accepted Jesus Christ as

their savior, like the ones who are going to get baptized today,

if they were to die right now, if Jesus Christ came back right

now, before we ever get them into the pool, they're on their

way to heaven. This is just a picture.

This is just the the wedding ring to let everybody know that

they've been married, right? If I took my wedding ring off,

now I'm not married, OOP, now I am married OOP now I'm not,

right? Doesn't have anything to do with

that. This is just a picture.

This is just a symbol to let everybody know I'm married.

But 19 years ago when I said I do and I married my wife, it was

sealed, right? Whether I wear my wedding ring

or not is whether I'm proud to be married or not.

Whether I want people to know that I'm married or not didn't

have anything to do with whether I wear the ring.

It's just a symbol. It's just a picture.

And that's exactly what baptism is.

Baptism is just a picture to let people know that I'm saved and

I'm on my way to heaven and I have this testimony of what

Jesus Christ did for me and I want everybody to know it.

That's why Paul said I didn't. I'm not here baptizing.

Listen, if you had to be baptized in order to be saved,

we would do that at the beginning of the service.

We would do that the second you said you wanted to accept Christ

as your Savior. Well, let's, let's leave the

tank set up and let's go do it. Now.

I don't want you to die without getting baptized.

Right? But baptism doesn't have

anything to do with whether or not you go to heaven.

And that's why Paul said Christ didn't send me to baptize, he

sent me to preach the gospel. And that's what I'm doing.

See the the focus is not on religious ordinances, it's on

Jesus Christ and him crucified. What God wants from us can

really be summed up in 2 words, faithfulness and fruitfulness.

Faithfulness and fruitfulness. God wants us to be faithful to

him, to worship and to honor him with our whole life and to work

at becoming holy, which is simply becoming more like Jesus.

Getting rid of the sin, getting rid of the the things that that

hold us back from being exactly what he wants us to do in our

lives. Right when you get saved, your

sin is covered under the blood of Jesus Christ.

Your sin is, is is not going to condemn you to hell, but many

times when people get saved, they have a lot of baggage that

they come with. You have sin that you've been

committing for a long time. It doesn't just automatically

poof, go away and life is a bed of roses, right?

Sometimes you have to fight against things that you did

before you got saved because that tendency is, is comes back.

Somebody who's an alcoholic that accepts Jesus Christ as their

savior. Sometimes they can go dump all

that beer down the sink and never touch it again.

But sometimes people struggle with it for a little while.

It's an addiction, right? And Christ can give you the

victory. Christ can deliver you from

those things, and He will. But sometimes you smell alcohol

and you might have a desire for it again, and you have to fight

that desire. Same thing with smoking

cigarettes or anything else, right?

You might have that desire to go back to who you used to be.

We have help now because Christ is helping us to fight against

those things. But that's what holiness is,

getting all of those things out of our lives, then asking God

for his help to defeat those things in our lives.

God wants us to be fruitful for him too.

I heard a story about a small church that was affiliated with

kind of a what you would call a splinter denomination.

And the members had cut out some gold letters and put them up on

the front of their sign in the on the wall in front of the

church. And it said Jesus only, but

these people, I mean, they just couldn't get along.

They were, they were a splinter denomination.

Anyway, they had split off of a split of a split of a split.

And it was just a little congregation left.

And of course, they decided Jesus only.

We want to make him the focus. And they really didn't though.

And one day there was a gust of wind that kind of blew through

there and knocked some limbs down and knocked a couple of

trees down. And then when they went back to

the church to kind of fix everything up, some of the

letters had blown off of that little sign that they put up

there. And instead of Jesus only, it

said us only. That's the way the most churches

are. It's all about us.

It's all about me. I'm the focus.

That's why I want to go to church and have this worship

experience where I just feel so lifted up.

And sometimes, sometimes you ought to go to church where you

feel really beat down because you got in God's word and you're

not living the way that you should.

You should not walk out feel like you had this wonderful

worship experience. You should walk out saying, boy,

I've got some things that I need to change.

That hurt, right? If the, if all that ever happens

when you go to church is you're walking out feeling like you

worshiped today, then you're missing the point of why you're

here. You ought to want to have your

toes stepped on in church. You ought to want to feel beat

up every now and then. Now, if all you ever do is get

beat up, then maybe you're going to stop going, right?

Why are you going to keep getting back in the ring with

somebody who's going to knock you out every time you stand up,

right? But at the same time, how are

you ever going to grow? How are you ever going to get

stronger if all you ever do is you just keep doing you just

keep living your truth. You just keep doing what you,

what you want to do with your life and God will bless you.

Go live your best life. Now do all these other things

that all these, you know, soft preachers want to tell you so

that you'll just keep putting money in the offering plate and

keep coming back, right? No, sometimes it hurts to sit in

church and hear some things, but wow, I, I really need to fix

that. I need to change that, but

that's the point. It's about Jesus and it's about

holiness and it's about living for Him and it's about doing

what's right. It's not about me, it's about

Him. You can be faithful and still

miss the boat. As far as being fruitful,

fruitfulness has to do with us getting the message out, telling

other people about Jesus and not just being satisfied with our

own little group of people who are in the know, not just being

satisfied with who's here now because most of the seats are

filled now. Let's go out and get more.

Let's go out and share the gospel.

Let's go out and bring more people to Christ.

We ought never to be satisfied with how many people we have in

the church. It's not about how many people

are in the church anyway. It's about how many people we're

taking to heaven with us when we finally go.

That's great. It's exciting to have a church

full of people. It's exciting to have somebody

sitting next to you that's going in the same direction.

But if, if, if you were the only one in your Pew, if you're the

only one in your Rd., you ought still be excited about going

forward for Christ. But our goal and our job if

there's no seats left in this auditorium is to go tell more

people about Jesus Christ, to bring more people to him and to

be fruitful. If we focus on Jesus, then we're

not going to worry about who gets your credit for what.

We'll be too busy trying to do the things that God wants us to

do. And that's exactly what Paul was

saying here. I'm a Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm

of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Paul said, who cares?

Who cares what are you doing for Christ?

It's not about who you, who baptized you and what faction

you're a part of and this and that.

It's what are you doing for Christ?

And if you get so busy doing for Christ, that's what Paul was

saying. I'm not, I don't care who I'm

baptized. I don't care if you say that I'm

of Paul. I'm not here trying to get

people of Paul. I'm trying to get people of

Christ. I want people to be, to know the

gospel. And if I baptize you, great.

If Apollos baptizes you, great. It's not about that.

It's about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If we focus on Him, then we're not going to worry about any of

those things. We were perfect.

We'd never lose track of what our goal is, but we're not

perfect. And sometimes we do need to be

reminded that God didn't redeem us so we could go on being

sinful and selfish. When you give your child a gift

for Christmas or his birthday or whatever it is, it's His right.

But that doesn't mean that that that you'll allow him to go out

and purposely break it or throw it away because it's His, right.

You give him a nice watch for Christmas and he goes out with a

hammer and just starts beating on it.

What are you doing? Well, it's mine.

I can do what I want to with it. Well, yes, you can, but I'm not

going to let you destroy it just because I paid money for that.

It was expensive. You're not just going to go beat

it up and throw it away because I gave it to you and it's yours.

Right. And I think that's God's given

this given us the wonderful gift of Jesus Christ, and he expects

us to take care of that gift. What are you doing with it?

He gave it to you. He gave you eternal life.

He gave you a home in heaven. What are you doing with it?

You just beat it up and throw it around because you've got it.

It's yours. I can do what I want to with it

or you sharing him with others. We're to keep our focus on Jesus

and what he's told us to do. Somebody wrote this in a book.

It's called the book is called The Seasons of a Man's Life.

He said this. The turning point in our lives

is when we stop seeking the God we want and start seeking the

God who is. Stop seeking the God we want and

start seeking the God who is. So many people, Christians

included, many times, good Christians included.

Christians who are in a good Churches across this country are

making a God that they want, not the God who is.

They're seeking the God that they want him to be instead of

seeking the holiness of the God who is.

Well, God's OK with that because no, most of the time he's not

right. If we're doing things that go

against God's word, he's not pleased with those things.

Stop trying to make God who you want him to be and start seeking

the God who is. You see, we're imperfect people

and so our tendency is to be selfish, to be self-centered.

And we see things from our perspective, from a distorted

viewpoint many times. And we'll always be in this life

at least spiritually prejudice and unable to see things

completely the way that God sees them.

But that means that sometimes we're going to have

disagreements with each other from time to time.

And that's that's a fact. The world solves the problem one

way predominantly, usually by might makes right.

If I'm stronger than you, if I'm louder than you, if I can get

the upper hand on you, then I win.

That's not, not, not, not the way that it's supposed to be.

We're not supposed to be like the world.

We're supposed to focus on Jesus Christ.

He's what brings us together. He's what brings us close,

Right. You ever seen fans at a football

game? Well, especially maybe when

they're in the playoffs. You watch a game on TV and you

see these people just right and, and they score a touchdown and

they're turning around. They're high fiving everybody

and they don't, they don't know those people, but they have a

common bond, their team, right? You don't see them fighting

against each other because they're on the same team and

they like the same team. They they have a common bond

with each other, right? Our team is going to win the

Super Bowl. Yeah, right.

And that's what brings them together.

Hey, the same thing should be true of us, right?

We're on the same team. We're going in the same

direction. If your focus is on this person

or that person or the pastor or this thing or that thing, then

there are there are going to be things that that distract you.

But if our focus is Christ and everything is about him, then

man, this is exciting. We already know that we win.

We're following the winner. We're following the one who has

already won the final victory for us.

And you've heard it said, we read the back of the book and we

know that we win in the end. What do we have to lose?

If our focus is on the right thing and more importantly, the

right person, then we will stay together as a united team and we

will go forward for that cause, the cause of Christ.

And that's what matters. We should focus on Jesus because

he's the reason we're here. We should focus on Jesus instead

of on other people. And we should focus on Jesus and

what he wants to do. And if we do that, it'll work.

And if we do that, we will have the unity that Paul was begging

the Corinthians to have. I beseech you, brethren, by the

name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you speak the same thing

and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be

perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same

judgment. If our focus is on Christ, it

all works. Everything works.

Your family works, your marriage works, the church works.

It all works when our focus is on the right thing.

I've given you this illustration many times before, but you take

a triangle and you have a husband and wife on one side and

you have God at the top. The closer you get to him,

naturally, the closer you get to each other.

The only way you can get closer to him is by focusing on that

and and making him the focal point of everything.

It works the same way in a church.

Brother so and so, brother so and so, sister, sister, the

closer you get to Christ, the closer you're going to be

brought together. The only thing that division

means is that you're going in the opposite direction.

Instead of focusing on the things that matter, instead of

focusing on Christ, you're going in the opposite direction and

it's pulling you apart. What did Paul say?

Your focus shouldn't be on people.

Your focus shouldn't be on these other things.

Your focus should be on Christ preaching the gospel, preaching

him crucified. And if your focus is on those

things, it all works. I'm thankful that we have unity

in our church, but the devil would like nothing more than to

get in and start causing divisions.

He would like nothing more than than to create one faction

that's fighting against another or create a a clique that's

better than everybody else. He would love to do that.

He would love it because that would that would cause division

in the church and that would keep us from being as effective

for Christ as we possibly can be.

Stay focused on Christ. He's the reason we're here.

Stay focused on Christ instead of on other people and stay

focused on Christ and what he wants us to do.

That's how we'll keep going forward for him.

Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. We thank you for the opportunity

to just bring this reminder this morning, God, that everything

that we do should be focused on Jesus Christ.

Everything in our lives should be all about Him.

God, may we always have that as our focus.

May we have a unity in this church that allows us to

continue going forward for you. May we have a bond and a

strength together that we could never have a part because our

focus is on the right things. It's on Christ, on the gospel,

on holiness. God, may you use our church.

May you help us to continue going forward for you.

We thank you for all that you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.

If you stand at your seats with your heads bowed and your eyes

closed, the invitation song is going to be played.

God spoke to your heart about something this morning.

Perhaps not that you are divided against other people, not

necessarily that you have division.

Although if that's the case and you are at odds with somebody,

you need to get that right. But maybe your focus is not in

the right place. Maybe your focus is not on

Christ the way that it should be.

That being the case, you might be the one that causes a

division that really hurts the church and really hurts the

cause of Christ. So as the piano plays this

morning, if God spoke to your heart about anything, it's the

Holy Spirit that does the speaking.

So he might have, he might have spoke to your heart about

something that I never even mentioned.

But either way, if God spoke to your heart as the piano plays,

you come.