Is This All There is…?

September 25, 2016

Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church

The Body of Christ…?

Is There A Higher Purpose?

Isaiah 1:11-17 MSG

Psalm 147:1-11

1 Corinthians 1:10-12 MSG

Luke 14:15-24 MSG

Romans 12:9-21 MSG

Is This All There is…?

Prayer of adoration and for God’s illumination so that His Word would be heard through me or in spite of me…

I would ask you to rise, as you are able, for the reading of the Gospel of Luke, chapter 14, verses 15-24…listen to the word from God for you and me, the people of God.

Opening something and being disappointed… Get all geared up for something and let down… Finally get that perfect job and finding it is not quite as glamorous as we thought. Giving our lives over to Christ and then being stagnant…

When we gave our lives to Jesus we made an oath with Him to obey Him and all of His commands and testimonies…Now a divine Oath is “The essence of a divine oath is an invocation of divine agency to be a guarantor of the oath taker's own honesty and integrity in the matter under question. By implication, this invokes divine displeasure if the oath taker fails in their sworn duties.”  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath)”

How are we fulfilling that oath…that Covenant we have with Him with so many doctrine and rules of our own…? Have we chosen our own truth and not Gods truth…our own interpretation of His Word instead of the truth that is found in God’s Word…what He is really saying to us…?

How would we define the body of Christ? We have defined it as family. But how we do you and I really define “family?” Try as we might, sometimes we don’t even come close to how God would define it. We leave out people who because they don’t fit our idea of family. But truthfully…we are not the ones who define family…the Creator of our diversely awesome family is the One who really defines it…our God is the One who gets to define what He himself created…remember “Ohana means family and family means no one is left out or left behind.”  We also came to realize that in order to become community in the world…in order to continue to be relevant we, as Christ’s followers, need to wake up. Wake from our slumber…wake from our complacency…wake from our numbness and see the world and people around us who are looking for someone to reach out in love, hope and compassion. We need to decide what is most important in our lives as Crist followers. And we need to do this together…as one family…one body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:10 tells us “10 I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I’ll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.”

We are called to love one another. We are called to think the same doctrine…the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit Leads us in all truth. It’s not what we think…it’s not what “they” think…It’s what the Holy Spirit leads us to which is the truth. But we have this contention…this divide…within our church’s. One has one set of rules, of beliefs…the other another set of rules, of beliefs. We seem to think that we are…our church is…the better Christian church. This is where the issue comes in. It’s not about us folks. It is about Jesus and the “great Commission” that was given to all who would and will believe. As I said…we are called to speak the same truth but no one is…no one seems to are.

Romans 12:9-21 tells us:

9-10 Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

11-13 Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

14-16 Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.

17-19 Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”

20-21 Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

1.    Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it

2.    Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.

3.    Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

4.    Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder.

5.    Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.

6.    Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody.

Definitely rules we really should live by. These are the things…the actions…that bring a smile to God’s face…These are God’s Truths from His Word that we pick and choose to believe…the accept as a guideline for our lives.

We need to wake up to the secure and perfect “doctrine” of Jesus Christ…and see what He would have us do…and it can only be found in and through the Holy Spirit. How we have missed the mark. How God must grieve. God calls us into unity and Satan…the author of division. These contentions…this division…are about different opinions…man made opinions. It’s the same type of division that is found in 1 Corinthians 1:11-12…

11-12 I bring this up because some from Chloe’s family brought a most disturbing report to my attention—that you’re fighting among yourselves! I’ll tell you exactly what I was told: You’re all picking sides, going around saying, “I’m on Paul’s side,” or “I’m for Apollos,” or “Peter is my man,” or “I’m in the Messiah group.”

Is that all there is to the Christian life or is there much more than that? Have we gone so far from the center…where the Truth is found…that we can’t find a way back? Part of our “getting on the outside of our little world” …the world within our walls…is to do just that…step out…step away…from what we have created and go back to the way Jesus created…

God has called all who believe to “the Dinner Party” …are we too busy with our own agenda…our own “truth” that we just don’t have time to go? We need to be lie the servant in the Luke Scripture from this morning. Going out as the Master tells us and inviting all that we see that haven’t received the invitation. We need to invite others to the “banquet” of our God and King. The King told to go and get all who look like they need a meal. He wanted the homeless and misfits invited to the feast. God wants His house full to over flowing…are we…His servants…doing what He has commanded us to do or our own thing that has no room for those who we don’t like for whatever reason that may be…

OK…synopsis…As we open our hearts and our doors to those who are on the outside we become family. As we become family we can work together as the body of Christ…as a family of believers who reach out to those who are looking for someone to grab their hand to pull them out of the vortex they are in. As we come together the word Ohana becomes our battle cry because no one is left out or left behind. As we help others our focus is changed and we begin to think “we” instead of “me”. We begin to see a change happen within our communities when we begin to define…to specify what really matters.  As we work together as a church…as churches…as extended families…as the body of Christ…one body…we become one as we do all of this in the name the One who is the heads of the coin toss of life…being the head of the church, our hearts and our minds…our Risen Lord Jesus Christ…

I would like to leave you with one more piece of scripture…now I want you to think hard about this scripture…does it really apply to the body of Christ…does it apply to how we act…does it apply to you and me? We need to wake up folks…time is getting short… will you be out inviting people to the feast or will you choose to look for a loop hole in the Truths of God’s word? It is found in the book of Isaiah…chapter 1, verses 11-17…I like Isaiah, he told it how it was…no beating around the bush…

Read Scripture

Hmm…food for thought don’t you think? We are all going around saying I am from this denomination or that but the real question is this…are you a Christ follower…do you follow what He taught…would you follow what He would do…and not some man made doctrine of the church?  Who cares what church we go to…we are all the body of Christ…different parts of the same body… We are all fighting the same battles. We need to come together because Satan is having a field day when we are apart from on another…severed body pieces… Jesus chose a greater purpose than what the Pharisees had…a purpose that set aside self and embodied others…essentially He said “here I am God…pick me”. As a Christian…as a Christ Follower…what will be yours?

Amen