1 Corinthains: Why Christian Unity Breaks And How It Heals

Paul's letter to the Corinthians in the Roman province of Greece was a letter to friends?

Paul spent almost two years establishing the church in this wealthy city, boasting harbors leading to Rome and the Far East.

Corinthians hailed from Jerusalem, Greece, Africa, Italy, and Asia.

Jewish refugees chilling with rich Greeks and Romans.

What could possibly go wrong?

Right?

Right?

But when Jesus conquered sin and death on the cross, he struck a blow for unity, holiness, sacrificial love, and hope.

Still many Corinthians failed to see how his sacrifice should affect their daily lives.

Some continued in open sexual sin.

Others used prostitutes at pagan temples.

Many fought over everything.

They turned on their leaders, calling them weak.

The church was supposed to be about Jesus.

Instead, it became the octagon.

But born from the flames of division came a soothing balm.

Words of a deep and abiding love.

Not romantic love, but faithful Christian love within God's church.

And when the church is armed with the gifts of God's Spirit, we can do the unimaginable for his kingdom.

Even reconcile our divisions.

Because true Christian love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

Join us for our series in the Corinthians.

Because when all are crazy, our prejudices, and our trauma are stripped away, three things remain: faith, hope, and love.

Disagreements can be good, friends.

They can be helpful, but today is not about a good disagreement.

Today is about division.

Has anybody heard of Godwin's Law?

Does anyone in the room know what Godwin's Law is?

It's not that old, it's since 1992.

Basically, the longer you continue in a conversation on the internet, the more likely someone will end up comparing someone else to Hitler.

It's like the longer the conversation goes, the more likely someone will be called Hitler in the conversation.

It's crazy.

And guess what, friends?

Like social media algorithms are based on engagement.

Engagement.

What engages you better than anger?

It gives you that dopamine hit.

Sometimes I will see negative reviews on Google and I will check that person's profile.

I just want to see, like, oh, this is a pretty scathing review.

And then I click on it and I almost always know what I'm gonna see.

What do you think I'm gonna see?

A whole bunch of one-star reviews.

Yeah, it's almost all negative.

They don't speak up unless they are mad because anger is powerful.

And sometimes anger feels more powerful than joy.

Sometimes anger feels more powerful than unity.

Um, and so that's what happens.

They don't speak up unless they are mad.

And that is the Corinthian mess.

That is the Corinthian mess.

Anger that is driving people, not joy, not love, not compassion, anger and differences and division.

So today we're in 1 Corinthians 1.

Uh are you there with me?

Uh in 1 Corinthians 1, 110?

Yes?

Awesome.

Love seeing your Bibles and phones.

Uh here we go.

Now, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say.

This literally translates, speak the same thing.

I urge you, family of God, speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction.

Verse 11.

For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters, by members of Chloe's people, that there is rivalry among you.

What I am saying is this one of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas, or I belong to Christ.

Is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you?

Or were you baptized into Paul's name?

I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one uh can say you were baptized in my name.

I did, in fact, baptize the household of Stephanus.

Beyond that, I don't recall if I baptized anyone else.

You could tell there's no like delete here.

He's like, oh yeah.

Um, but you guys, uh, do you think Paul didn't believe that baptism was good?

No, he believed it was good.

Did you think he thought it was bad?

No.

He just knew his assignment and he saw how certain things were dividing the house of God.

Verse 17.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ would not be emptied of its effect.

This is God's word.

Would you pray with me?

Padre, te damos gracias por estar juntos hoy.

Somos personas de diferentes caminos y diferentes historias.

Tenemos diferentes ideas y diferentes maneras de ver la vida.

Y de alguna manera tú has amado a este grupo tan diverso y has formado un hermoso ar lleno de calores y propósitos diferentes.

Sin tu ayuda, probablemente ni nos consideramos que tú has unido y has llamado tu Iglesia.

Es mucho mejor que lo común.

Es algo especial.

Gracias por tu amor tan poderoso.

Father, we thank you for bringing us together today, people from all walks of life and backgrounds, people with varying views and viewpoints.

Somehow you have taken this seemingly unrelated group, and you have built this verdant garden with so many hues and purposes.

Without your kind intervention, we would likely not know each other, let alone love each other.

But this rich tapestry you have knit together and called your church is not meant to be normal.

It's better than normal.

It's special.

And Lord, you are at the center.

So we thank you for your powerful love.

Please teach us and empower us this morning.

May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts be pleasing to you.

We pray this all in Jesus' name, and all God's people said.

Amen.

Today I'm going to give you three notes on division and unity within God's church.

Three notes on division and unity within God's church.

And my first one for you is this the church was made to be whole.

The church was made to be whole.

Three notes on division and unity within God's church.

The first note is this the church was made to be whole.

Just as a body should be whole, right?

So the church should be one.

Verse 10.

Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction.

See, Paul was telling the family of God to find their unity in Jesus, to let their faith unite, and when the world divides over temporary things, let their unity be in Jesus.

Paul had already affirmed so much about God's love for the Corinthians in chapter one.

If you were with us last week, he was building them up.

And most of what he was saying to them was, it's not you that's great, it's Jesus in you.

Like you, you're a little messed up.

Me, I'm a little messed up, but Jesus in us is enough.

So despite their behavior, he let them know he absolutely loved them, right?

And he let them know that.

And even here, he continues in this vein, doesn't he?

You notice, first off, he calls them brothers and sisters.

Familial affection, right?

That's not him saying uh uh, you know, those of you below my feet.

It's saying, my family, brothers and sisters, he's saying.

Okay, then he urges them, he appeals to them with hope.

These were not orders, were they?

They were pleas of a beloved family member.

Pleas to be united, pleased to be together.

This is uh this is a fine needle to thread, though, isn't it?

Like speak softly and they won't hear you.

Speak harshly and they will be offended, and then they won't hear you, right?

It's difficult.

It's moments like these when it's good to have trust in the person speaking to you, isn't it?

If you would allow me to nerd out a little today, I'm gonna go into a couple of the terms.

I I will sometimes hear a pastor talk about like terms used, and I'll get a little like, oh okay, move on.

I just can't.

I have to tell you about some of these amazing terms that Paul uses because he's using them very intentionally.

There's a lot of purpose and in the words that he's using today.

Um, he uses the term united.

And you know, when we think united, we might think of many different things.

We might think of like healthcare, we might think of like a soccer team or football.

But this is actually a medical term.

It's a medical term for healing.

The way a broken bone is grafted back to each other, to put a dislocated shoulder back into place is to unify it.

So I appreciate how Paul here is making room for our brokenness, isn't he?

He's not saying that his readers will be perfect.

He's not saying you will be perfect.

When something was broken, though, he encouraged healing together.

We don't separate, we heal together as a spiritual family.

See, there are rare moments when people shouldn't be around each other.

It's happened.

Paul did it once himself.

But for the most of us, when a bone is broken, we don't pull those pieces apart, do we?

No.

The bone must be set together in place to allow the body to heal.

And every part of the body suffers when that doesn't happen.

When skin is torn, we stitch it together.

See, God's hospital is a collision of sickness.

And yet through his church, God sets broken relationships back to health.

Guys, you are the body of Christ if you belong to Jesus.

That's what he calls you.

But when you sit amputated alone in a home, hurt.

When you hurt, the body hurts.

Man, I can't tell you, gosh, I'll have that little piece of fingernail hanging out, and like it will drive me crazy.

Just a tiny something's very small, a paper cut very small, it will drive me crazy.

When you hurt, the whole body hurts.

And you may feel unneeded, you may feel like you don't need the church, but when you uh disengage and amputate yourself, the whole body suffers.

When we are dislocated, we have to return to the body.

And when even a small part of you hurts, the entire body hurts.

And it's it often feels like though the cure is more daunting and scary than the illness, isn't it?

Doesn't it feel that way at times?

But it's not true.

Often you will avoid people that you have beef with because of awkwardness, and then you see them face to face, and you hug them and you pray with them, and suddenly it's like almost all of that pain is gone because you attacked it with love.

If you had but sought reconciliation sooner, you'd have been healed sooner and you wouldn't have to recover so long.

There was once a guy on the Australian rugby team, his name was Luke Lewis.

By the way, uh we went to get ice cream last night and we met this like women's rugby team.

Uh oh my gosh, like every single one of them could beat me up.

Um, unrelated, unrelated, sorry, sorry.

There was a lady with a big Olympian uh tattoo.

Okay.

There's once a guy on the Australian rugby team named Luke Lewis.

On a rainy night in 2013, his team was playing against Fiji's national team when he slipped and he felt an excruciating pop.

When it was time to put his dislocated shoulder back into place, it wasn't easy.

They had to sedate him and they had to spend more than 20 minutes trying to pop it back into place.

Now, let me read to you what Lewis says about it.

This is a rugby player, by the way.

Those guys are like, uh yeah.

He said, it was pretty bad.

I can't do the Australian accent, not trying.

I've seen Bluey, I just can't do it.

Um, he said, it was pretty bad.

We couldn't get it back in.

The pain was pretty horrible.

Luckily enough, I had some mates around me.

All the boys that didn't play were in there comforting me and doing all they could to make me comfortable.

I was lucky to have them around.

I was lucky enough to have happy gas.

And once that kicked in, I was fine.

I asked a few of my friends, uh, if you saw me post on Facebook or Twitter or whatever, I'd asked people, anyone have anything dislocated?

What was it like?

I had a couple friends.

This is my friend Dan.

He was telling me that he dislocates his shoulder all the time.

Happens several times a year.

He said, The first time hurt the worst.

Like someone stabbing you with an ice pick, but once it's back in place, it's just kind of sore and throbbing a bit.

That's what he said.

Here's my friend Craig.

He said, When I was in college, I slid into home plate in a softball game and dislocated my shoulder.

His parenthetical is bl bad sliding technique, too much weight on my bottom arm.

It popped my shoulder out of the socket.

It was stretched so tight, so painful.

But a nurse there said not to pop it back in ourselves but go to ER.

I had to wait like an hour to get it popped back in.

Stretched so tight it felt like it would snap.

So painful until it popped back in even after the painkillers, but immediate, but but immediate relief after it popped in.

Still sore for days or maybe even weeks, but very minor compared to the strain while out of the socket.

I think sometimes we get out of the socket and we think the pop is going to be the worst thing, but guys, once it's popped back in, healing begins.

It happens quickly.

The pain is the division, the pain is the separation, but we tell ourselves all kind of lies.

I am unlovable.

They are unlovable.

But when we seek unity, so much of the pain subsides.

Sometimes instantly, friends.

Often while there will be residual soreness, when we press into unity, relief is almost immediate.

God's hospital is a collision of sickness, friends, and yet through his church, God sets broken relationships back to health.

God stitches us together for his glory.

God knits us together as a family, as his body, the body of Christ.

See, Paul wanted the Corinthians to be perfectly in step with each other.

The term for this is mortized.

It's to perfectly fit in our differences.

Have you ever seen like tongue and groove furniture?

I mean, most of us, like, it's IKEA now, right?

Like, all the furniture's nasty, but if you have any furniture that your family members have given you, or you are willing to go to uh, you know, see, like, what are those things called?

Antiques.

Um, a lot of the furniture is tongue and groove, and you'll see it, and it's so beautiful because it's perfectly designed to fit exactly.

Tight, perfect.

He is saying to be like that, to be so united that it's tight.

In your differences, though, because if they were the same, they wouldn't fit together perfectly.

It's to perfectly fit in difference.

Uh, not indifference, but in our differences.

Made by a master craftsman.

It's so satisfying.

God wants us perfectly united with the same understanding and the same conviction.

This is how we are made to be, even in our differences, we fit.

Like the resetting of a bone, unity can be painful, but unity is good.

And here's the other thing: unity is not passivity.

It's not passive.

Like ghosting to a avoid confrontation is not unity.

It's cowardice.

Empty compliance as well is not unity.

Show me someone who mindlessly assimilates, and I will show you someone who is deeply divided in a bitter heart.

So the idea to just go along with someone just because and to keep that stuff going on in your heart is not unity either.

This is a change of our hearts, too.

Like our God sending our hearts towards those people.

We're meant to be enmeshed in each other's lives as we are grafted into God's family.

Now, Jesus once prayed to the Father about unity in John 17, 20.

This is John 17, 20.

I pray not only for these, but for those who believe in me through their word.

May they all be one as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you.

Okay, first off, like the most perfect relationship is between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Perfect.

Perfect unity.

And what is God saying?

What is Jesus saying here?

He wants our relationship with him and each other to be like that.

That's incredible.

He says, um, uh, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.

I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one.

That's amazing.

I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

That's beautiful.

But as much as unity brings healthy bones and brings healthy churches, Paul had heard the opposite.

This is our second point on division and unity within God's church.

Unchecked church division infects the healthy.

Unchecked church division infects the healthy.

And you guys know this as well as I do that I don't want to go to the dentist.

If I got something going on, I don't want to.

When does that get better?

You know, like when you got a serious problem and you know, you start like, you start like looking like an old dog trying to eat food.

Like, is there any time that you have gone back to the dentist and he's like, oh, I'm glad you waited?

You know, like it's never happened.

Um infection spreads.

It does.

Unchecked church division infects the healthy.

Verse 11 for it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters, by members of Chloe's people, that there are rivalry.

There is rivalry among you.

One of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas, or I belong to Christ.

See, Paul had been told they were fighting over who they follow.

It's weird.

Some of them said, I follow this leader, some said I follow that leader, and they didn't mind what was happening.

They didn't mind the division, they didn't mind the unhealth, they didn't mind the disease that was coming with this attitude.

But there's only one family of God.

Yes, all leaders submit to Jesus, but the Corinthians, who were so used to the sophists and their divisions and their fights, um, had corrupted them.

And let me just say, if you know anything about these sophists, man, they would sometimes actually get in physical fights over their philosophies.

Like stuff, like, oh, you believe this, I believe that man is this, you believe man is this, I will punch you in the face.

It was happening, it was constant, friends.

And so the thing is that the church was taking cues from the world.

Guys, physical fights?

It was normal to them.

Church quarreling, fighting, rage, accusations, these are the fruit of the world's unrighteousness.

We don't belong to this.

We're a church, we're not a gang.

These are the fruit of the world's unrighteousness.

We no longer belong to this world, we belong to Jesus, and his spirit wants better for us.

Let us not be changed by the world.

Jesus church is meant to change the world.

But Corinthians, they all had their favorites.

They had their favorites.

It was like sports teams, it was like their favorite shows.

It was like I got mine, you got yours, that's fine, but let's let's go.

So, first, who did you have?

First, you had Paul.

Okay?

I follow Paul.

Paul started the church in Corinth.

Man, I mean, there's kind of something to be said there, right?

He's kind of the OG, right?

Like uh he was the guy people trusted.

He was the one that came with the word first.

Friends, um, uh with two leaders of the Jewish temple, uh he he helped two leaders in the Jewish temple get saved and become leaders in his church.

He was big on grace, he was big on freedom in Jesus, the end of the Mosaic law as they knew it, and some people really didn't like that.

And to even his followers, Paul was saying, Don't you dare use me in a fight.

Don't you dare use me in a fight.

Then you had Apollos.

Apollos, we know, was gifted, okay?

This might be the person who best loved a good theological debate.

And and what do we know about Apollos?

Apollos was from Alexandria, right?

Um, and so he was from this amazing part of Africa where you had people coming from all places to debate.

You had that we talked about this before.

You had the great lighthouse of Alexandria, you had These great kings that came from Alexandria.

Alexandria named after Alexander the Great, and his general Ptolemy took over, and his great-great-great-great-granddaughter was Cleopatra.

There was a lot going on in Alexandria.

But the thing that Alexandria was known for best was healthy, good debate.

And they would get in there and they would examine the scripture.

So Apollos, he was an African Jew who loved the word of God, who studied it, and was good at debate.

Also, later in the text, you'll see that he was compared a lot to Paul because Paul was probably short, like really short.

And Apollos was basically this image of like someone who was like tall, good looking, and good at talking, and good at debate.

And so some people were like, Are you kidding me?

You got this guy down here, which uh Reuben was calling him a short king, and then you got Apollos over here, right?

Like that that had the name of a god.

Like, what was that like?

What was he like?

He was probably someone you would invite on your podcast, let's be real.

Now, in the same way, we have those people, right?

We have access to the greatest speakers on the planet, and all you have to do is press a button now to hear them.

And then you could come here and just, you know, you could also hear me.

Um which is not the same.

But but here's the thing: even though those people are from a different context and you can't know them, they can become your leader if you're not careful.

You don't know what their lives are like, you don't know if they live it out, but they can easily become your leader.

It could just be a really cool person who's cultured, and anything they say, you'll listen to.

But the problem was not gifted leaders, was it?

It wasn't podcasts, it wasn't super cool leaders.

It was dividing over trivial things.

That was the problem.

Next, you got Cephas on the list.

Uh Cephas, you may know better as Peter.

Everybody had different names back then.

You know, it's kind of like when you know a guy named James, and his name is Jim, some people call him Jimbo, some people call him Jimmy.

There was a lot of names.

Um, you had Cephas, who was Peter.

He was also considered, maybe even more so, he's the OG.

He was Jesus' right-hand man.

Peter was a man of action, he was getting stuff did for Jesus.

He'd been blessed by Jesus.

His name was Rock.

Jesus gave him a name of rock.

Paul was well known and liked by many of the Jewish Christians, but not like Peter.

And actually, over time, it was just Peter who was liked by them.

And eventually, you know, he died too.

They they they don't like truth.

Nobody does.

But the problem is not leaders who come from that background, is it?

It's not leaders who get stuff done, is it?

The problem is not leaders who do outreach.

The problem is not leaders who who preach the gospel, it's dividing the church over such things.

Then you have the last group.

I belong to Christ.

Hmm, okay, that sounds like the right answer though.

Um, doesn't that one sound like correct to you a little bit?

Like, I belong to Christ.

Uh it it sounds like the right one.

Like, uh obviously it's not.

Um, you may not know about it, but ask any pastor about the I belong to Christ guy.

Oh my gosh, we got stories about the I belong to Christ guy.

Yeah, I don't I don't do anything, I don't do the church, I don't do whatever, but I belong to Jesus.

And it's like, okay, what does he tell you about going to church?

I don't know.

Have you read it?

How can you belong to somebody who never read any of his words?

The pastors will tell you the I belong to Christ guy, he's one of the worst, most arrogant, wants to fight you all the time.

You can't tell him anything.

You can't hold them accountable using the Bible because they just belong to Christ.

In other words, he's saying, You guys are crazy, I just follow Jesus.

Wow, how godly.

But you have to admit there's something weird in that.

You do.

Like, I don't go to church, I follow Jesus.

I don't read the Bible, I follow Jesus.

At some point, you're not following anybody but yourself.

This person who just prays every day but has no one in leadership over them.

And since Jesus is not physically present like he once was, uh, you can make Jesus say and do whatever you want him to say.

You're following yourself.

The person has a lot of opinions about what the church does usually, but they rarely put in work.

This is the person who hates our government but has never once voted, even though they can.

It's the cheap way out.

But Jesus designed the church.

If if if you say you belong to Christ but not what he calls his bride, we always say, like, you can't tell me you like me and tell me you hate my wife, we're gonna have words.

You can't tell me you like me and then make fun of my gut, we're gonna have words.

Don't make fun of my body.

You can't say you love Jesus, but you hate his body.

The problem is not following Jesus, friends.

It's using petty excuses to not walk in unity with the church that he designed.

It's dividing over trivial things.

See, these Corinthians had focused on all the wrong things.

Nigerian pastor dechalam de Teri, he once stated the obvious about the Corinthians when he said their failure presented a united front, their failure to present a united front was unhealthy and unnatural.

Now, I might say it was kind of natural, but it's not healthy for Christians.

If you're following Jesus, it's causing you to be constantly negative and fighting people.

If you're following Jesus causes you to judge others more than your own sin, you're doing it wrong.

That's not unity, that's schism.

That's unhealthy division.

It's not from God, it's from the devil, it's from hell.

We disagree in love, choosing to believe the best in each other, but we don't divide.

Dr.

Tony Evans put it this way: he said, a football team is unified.

Not because everyone plays the same position, but because everyone is straining for the same goal line.

An orchestra is unified, not because everybody performs the same instrument, but because everyone harmoniously plays the same song under the direction of one conductor.

And by the way, I am not the conductor.

Okay?

Likewise, the church is to be unified, not because every Christian is exactly alike, but because we all pledge allegiance to the same Lord.

Now, guys, I have really enjoyed getting to know the people of assemblies of the firstborn church across the street.

Um I have four of them in my phone now, and we we talk, and I'm so blessed to know them, and I'm blessed to know uh many of the pastors on the street because I think it's better when we are all working together.

Why?

Um it's good to belong to a local church, it's good to know people and be known, but but we want to show the world that we are together.

That's why we put up signs for the church across the street and ours.

That's why we have a bulletin board out front with service times for all of God's honoring, God honoring churches in Mount Hope, because it brings glory to God.

Jesus once said in John 13, 35, everyone will know you are my disciples if you love one another.

Jesus died on the cross to end our divisions once and for all.

Once and for all.

In Ephesians 2, uh 2.12 it says this.

At that time, you were without Christ.

You were excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope, without God in the world.

But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility.

In his flesh he made of no effect the law, consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.

We are meant to be one in Christ.

When Jesus died on the cross and he rose again on the third day, he made the way for our unity.

First, he made a way to unify us with God, and that's the beauty of the gospel.

That we had a strained relationship with God.

As a matter of fact, it said that we belong to the enemy.

Said that we belong to the army of darkness.

But it says that when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, rose again, he showed that he was bigger than our sin.

He was bigger than our death, he's bigger than our divisions.

This is the beauty of Jesus.

But the most important thing is that when we give our lives to God, first we are united with God.

We are united with God.

This is the beauty of the gospel.

But then he gives us his spirit to live in us, to work in us, to do the things that we cannot do on our own.

And his spirit is not only the reminder and promise of our salvation that is to come in Jesus, he doesn't only protect us either, but the spirit empowers us to be united with God and each other.

When we are fractured, when we are splintered, it tells the world, though, that Jesus and his spirit are not enough.

Are not enough.

But praise be to God, the opposite can be true.

And that's our third point.

Church healing gives credibility to the gospel of Christ.

Church healing gives credibility to the gospel of Christ.

Now I thought about saying this a couple different ways, okay?

The first way I thought about saying this was healthy churches.

But I feel like church healing would tell you that there are times when we're going to be sick.

And I think we have to acknowledge that there are going to be times when we're sick and when we hurt each other and we have to move towards healing.

Like we're not just going to always be healthy.

Because it's not like when you came here suddenly all your trauma disappeared.

It's not like when you came here, suddenly all the things we've been taught disappeared.

No.

It continues.

But church healing gives credibility to the gospel of Christ.

Verse 13, he asks this major question: Is Christ divided?

That's a Greek word, schismata.

And that's where you get the word schism, right?

The word schismata is not simple division.

It's not.

It's the way that you might rip a garment into.

That's a schismata, okay?

Paul is admonishing the Corinthians not to tear the body of Christ into.

Imagine like horses pulling a body in pieces.

It's that graphic.

It's that graphic.

Now, uh, there's a good picture in the Bible, I think, of this that's helpful to our story.

Like, do you love Jesus?

You probably don't want to tear him up, do you?

Now, here in 1 Kings 3 16, uh two prostitutes approached the king, Solomon, and stood before him.

A woman, I'm giving giving her names, making this easier.

A woman named Ruth said, Please, sir, this lady Leah and I lived in the same house and I had a baby.

Three days after I had a baby, she had one too.

During the night she rolled over on her son and he suffocated to death.

But Leah got up in the middle of the night and switched my son with hers.

When I woke and went to nurse my child, I found he was dead.

But when I looked closer, I realized it wasn't even my son, it was Leah's.

Leah interrupted, My son is alive.

Your son is dead.

Your son is the dead one.

And Ruth responded, You know this is a lie, give me back my child.

The arguing continued as the king watched, and the shrewd king came to a solution.

I'm getting tired of this, guards.

Give me a sword.

Cut the living boy in two and be done with it.

Give half to this woman and half to this woman, it will be settled.

I smell matzabal soup, it's lunchtime, let's go.

Leah said, Fine, sounds fair.

If I can't have him, no one can.

Cut him up.

Ruth felt great compassion for her son, and she said, No, Lord, please do not cut him in two.

Please don't kill him.

Give the baby to Leah.

And the king responded, Give the living baby to Ruth and don't kill him.

She is his mother.

If you belong to Jesus, you will fight to not tear him into.

You will fight for unity.

Friends, can you imagine cutting up Jesus and taking of a portion of himself just for you?

Taking a knife to his actual body?

He's not a birthday cake.

Taking a knife to his desires for the church, taking a knife to his directives for you?

No, Jesus is not divided.

He is not limited either.

There's enough of him to go around.

He must only be united, though.

Guys, once I worked at a church and our lead pastor had uh was retiring.

And they brought me in because uh at one time I was like a young guy that was like uh that was like um I was like the young, cool church guy who would come do music for churches to make it cool.

Um because I was in punk bands, and then they were like, oh, well then you would probably do great for us.

And so they brought me in to start a service, and I came in to start the service, and it was going pretty well, and when our our pastor retired, um there was another pastor there who really wanted to be in charge.

And I mean, he didn't do the work to get there, but that's okay, whatever.

And um the day our pastor retired, he sent an email um to both of us and it said, Hey, I think you guys should work together.

It would be amazing.

I think you can do more together.

He said, I think there should be no pope of that service.

I think instead if you work together, it can be great.

And I remember being really encouraged by that.

Wow, that's really that's really cool that he would want me to continue in this way after he's gone.

Um uh but the the call the other guy didn't feel that way at all.

He felt like, well, you're gone now, so you can't tell me what to do.

And Dale can't either.

And so, Dale, I want you to know I'm in charge now, and you will listen to me, and we will do things my way.

And uh it was difficult for me.

And then I remember starting to see all the people that went to the service, it was probably about 150 people, maybe, I don't know.

Um, all the people start to gather for battle positions.

Who's gonna follow Dale?

Who's gonna follow uh homeboy?

I'm not gonna say his name.

And uh I remember praying and going to God, like, God, I hate this.

Like, I didn't come for this, it's not why I'm here.

Like, I just really like music and I love Jesus, and I just wanna I just want to honor God with whatever I do.

And I just feel like I heard don't fight.

Don't fight.

I saw people being hurt, I saw the battlefield with people I loved on both sides, and all I heard was don't fight.

And I remember one of the leaders who I had um poured into her life a lot and cared for her and appreciated her, and she came to me and she said, You realize he's building an army.

I'm paraphrasing a little bit, it's been a while.

Um, you realize he's he's building an army, and I don't see you fighting back, and I know that what he's doing is wrong.

What are you gonna do about it?

And I was like, Nothing.

I I don't think I'm allowed to fight.

And she's like, You're gonna let him do like terrible things and like be in charge, and and and I just remember saying, like, I'm not allowed to fight him.

And she said to me, If you don't stand up to him now, I'm gonna go follow him.

And I said, You should follow him.

I sucked.

I'm not supposed to say that.

It was bad, and I was so broken and I was so sad.

And I just gotta say though, I am grateful that God warned me not to fight, not to defend myself multiple times.

I'm sure, guys, I'm you guys know me by now.

I'm sure I got a couple like, well, you know what he did.

Like, I'm sure I did some of that.

I'm not gonna be.

I there's this is not one of those Dale was perfect stories because I was not.

But here's the thing eventually truth came out, and people found out what was up, and I was able to maintain my dignity, and those people were not torn apart by this.

And I'm grateful for it.

And and I'm grateful because God spoke up about it.

And even if people acted badly against me, I wasn't allowed to respond with bad actions.

Like I'm responsible still for my actions, no matter what people do.

Guys, when God's Spirit binds our fractured relationships, he reveals the power of his gospel to our wounded world.

And I believe that when I heard from God, it helped.

But Paul, was Paul crucified for you?

Or were you baptized into Paul's name?

Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ would not be emptied of its effect, he said.

See, ministry is meant to draw attention to Jesus.

Don't allow pain to drive you to division.

That gives an audience to the devil.

Sometimes embracing others as friends in the midst of our difference will feel very painful.

It will feel excruciating.

But it's that bone that needs to be put back into place.

You have to allow that pain to draw you to healing, not separation.

And you will show the world something that they have never seen when you do that.

Now, early Jewish baptism was often a sign of ritual cleansing, but over time it took on even more meaning.

Paul, um, yes, you were being cleansed, but also you were giving your life to follow this rabbi, saying, I belong to him.

But when Paul baptized, he was not baptizing in that way.

He was baptizing them into a family of God.

When we baptize you, we make sure that you're willing to be part of a family of God.

But also we baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

You don't hear my name in there.

And if you do, it's time for me to step down.

Because while we belong to each other, you do not belong to me.

I belong to you and you belong to me like this way, but not this way.

That's only God.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, he said.

And that's a curious turn of phrase, doesn't it?

Like, especially when you consider Matthew 28, where Jesus says, Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you.

And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.

Jesus said, Go baptize.

So what is Paul saying then?

Well, water baptism is important, I will say.

There's an even more important baptism that has to happen in our lives, and that's the baptism of the Spirit.

What is Paul saying?

Baptism of the Spirit is where we are signed and sealed in the Holy Spirit.

When someone says, why?

Um, why is the unforgivable sin blaspheming the Holy Spirit?

It's because you're saying, I refuse the Holy Spirit in me.

And guys, if you're if you're not speaking in tongues or doing all these things, it doesn't mean you don't have the Holy Spirit, okay?

The Holy Spirit baptizes us, but it's it's a um it's a sign and a seal of our salvation in Christ.

So what is Paul saying?

Stop creating artificial lines.

And don't use religious language or religious um uh uh expressions, thank you.

Don't use them to create lines.

Don't create artificial lines, even if it's with a real thing.

Don't fight with each other, fight for each other.

Don't fight with indivisions.

If you're going to fight, fight for unity.

It doesn't matter where you came from, it matters where you are going.

God's hospital is a collision of sickness, and yet through his church, God sent broken relationships back to health.

And when God's Spirit binds our fractured relationships, he reveals the power of his gospel to our wounded world.

And we can still have differences because we know there's differences, right?

David Guzick once said, through though division is ungodly, it is not wrong to make distinctions between churches and ministers.

God has made different churches and different ministries.

The job of preaching the gospel is too big for any one group.

See, many Christian churches love the Bible.

Many of them do.

Many believe Jesus is the way.

Many believe we should share the gospel, but there are some things that make us distinctive, not better than other churches, just distinct.

What are some of our distinctives?

We believe those in poverty deserve dignity and should thrive in a church.

We believe that we should be known in community and we should serve others in community.

We should seek justice where it is absence, especially among the urban poor, and advocate.

We should seek to be a multi-ethnic church, not accident, not a you have to be just like us, but where we welcome people in their differences.

Why do we make such a big deal about this?

Why do we put so much work into speaking different languages and welcoming other people?

Because that's a distinctive of our church.

Because for some reason, on a Sunday, church is often full of people that look, talk, and vote and act like each other in other places.

And we believe this tells the world that Jesus is not enough to unite us.

But when we come together in our differences, we say that he is good enough.

There have been times when people have shown up here on a Sunday and they will hear us praying and singing in multiple languages.

They will see people from all ethnicities not denying themselves, but embracing their unique gifts and backgrounds in light of the gospel.

Not pretending to be someone else, not assimilating, not becoming a token, but being their authentic authentic self and still being unified.

We've had to fight for this.

And when I say fight, I mean there's been some fights.

And many have doubted us.

Also, um, we've just had regular fights too, just all kinds of fights that break out, sometimes in service.

Some misunderstandings.

Um, some have left because they felt like there was only one of them, which is understandable.

But this is one of the ways we in particular as a church tell people about the goodness of Jesus.

It's unity, and it's telling God uh telling people that God is bigger than our differences.

Now, let me just tell you: if you would like to be a part of the Church of Jesus, you will have to fight for unity.

You have to fight for unity.

There is no passivity in this.

You have to fight for unity in love.

You have to fight your selfishness, you have to fight your anger sometimes.

You'll have to deny yourself and consider others as more important than yourself.

This is only possible through the gift of God's Holy Spirit, who, if you are Christian, lives in you.

And so, City Life Church and guests, I'll close with this.

Sometimes even Christians are sick, carrying with us leftover disease from our trauma, our brokenness, and our shame.

Reminders that we once belonged to the kingdom of darkness.

But we gather as a hospital full of sickness and spiritual disease.

And yet, through his church, God sets broken relationships back to health.

And when God's Holy Spirit binds our fractured relationships, he reveals the immense power of his gospel to our wounded world.

Let us pray.

Father, I think of all the people that uh I don't know, I probably could have said some stories up here that like would make me look a lot worse from this week.

Um, and yet I'm grateful that uh even when we attempt this and we fail, we find you waiting, expectant, ready to forgive.

Hoping that we will turn from our sin and turn to you.

So, Father, in this moment of silence, we confess in our hearts the ways that we have done the wrong thing and not done the right thing that you have called us to do.

Protects us from our own sin.

How you saw us worthy to receive your gifts, to receive your spirit, to receive your salvation is beyond our understanding, but we will take it.

Father, we thank you that when we truly repent, we turn away from our sin and turn to you.

As far as the east is from the west, so our sin is from your side.

That when you look upon us, you see the righteousness of your son Jesus.

We know we didn't earn it, but we're gonna take it.

Thank you for this gift and help us to walk forward in unity, to walk forward in love, to walk forward in peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and gentleness, and faithfulness, and self control.

We love you and we pray this all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Can we praise God?