Pastor Jeff Williams: July 24, 2011 Going Beyond, Part XIII, “Beyond Our Differences.” (A video is played at the beginning of the service that is shown in two parts. The link to Part 1 can be found here: http://www.sermonspice.com/bundle/27225/the-source-one-bundle.) We’re going to talk about that this morning. We only have one week left in the “Going Beyond” series. Next week, we’ll be talking about “Beyond Death,” and then that’s it. We will be moving on to other things. This morning, I’m going to tell you a story about a man who was flying his airplane and got lost. He ended up having to land the airplane in the ocean near a deserted island where no man had ever set foot. There the plane sunk into the ocean. He swam to shore and lived there for decades until he was discovered. The rescuers came, and he gave them a tour of the island. He said, “Over here is my house. I built that with my own hands with the things I found on the island. It survived storms and all kinds of things. I’ve lived there for over 20 years. Here’s the church I built. I thought it was important to worship God, so I built a church with my own hands. I would go there and pray, sing, and worship the Lord.” The rescuer asked, “Well, what’s that third building over there?” He said, “Oh that. That’s where I used to go to church.” Even when you’re on an island by yourself, apparently there are splits in the church, ha? That’s where I used to go to church. I laugh about that story; it’s funny, but when we really see division in the church, it’s ugly. It’s far from the cry of Jesus, the prayer of Jesus, that the church is one. One thing that really saddened my heart was years ago, we had the Day of Compassion. That's not what saddened my heart; that was a good thing. We pooled together a lot of churches from the area. We, as a church, were very involved. I served as a coordinator to bring together volunteers and also to sign new churches up and get churches involved. We had many, many churches from Rock County join us. We fed like 6,000 people. They had checkups, screenings, and haircuts. They took food home, and it was a wonderful thing. As we had our rally to kick things off, there was a gentleman out there handing out a brochure made specifically for the Day of Compassion. It was a rebuke basically saying, “Shame on you, bible-preaching churches, for fellowshipping with churches that are here like the Presbyterians who believe that you cannot lose your salvation. Shame on you for associating with Lutheran churches here. They baptize infants, and you should have nothing to do with the Lutherans. Shame on you for having Catholics here. Shame on you for associating with the Catholics.” On and on the list went of all the groups we should not be in fellowship with. It read that we should not have been joining together to help the poor and feed the hungry, and it said how wrong that was. I read that tailor-made brochure for that event and just shook my head. I thought, “How blind. How wrong that is!” Today we’re going to talk about “Going Beyond Our Differences.” When differences lead to division and destruction, it’s always because we have taken the secondary and put it in the place of the primary. We take the secondary, take the lesser, and put it at equal or greater than that which is most important. We see this in life. We’ll talk about theology for a moment, but we see that happen in life. Whenever you see it happen in life, you see bad results come from it. Let me give you some examples from it. Let’s start with some trivial things-well, it’s trivial for some of us. For some of us, it’s really important. One: [We see it when] players and owners put their own personal interests over the sport they represent, and we’re seeing that right now and wondering if we’re going to have football season or a basketball season this year. You say, “Put the game first. Don’t put your pocketbook first.” Two: We see it with curiosity over safety. What’s more important? Your safety or curiosity? We heard the tragic story in the news this week of the woman who just became so curious about what it would be like to step into the water at Yosemite. She lost her footing and two others came in to save her and lost their footing, and down the Falls they went. We were at Yosemite this past week, in fact, just a few days before that happened. We rafted in the Merced River. I can tell you: we got stuck on a little tree, and I had to get out of my raft to get us loose. I was only in a few inches of water, and I could feel the power. It looked pretty calm, but when I got in it, I was like, “Wow! This is intense for not being very deep.” I got the raft loose and got back in. We had to climb out at a certain point before the River got treacherous. He said, “Stay to the left.” Man, I was staying to the left with everything I had while getting out of that raft. There are people who take chances and people who get to the edge because they want to see over and see what’s down there. There are guard rails there, and they’re there for a reason. Sometimes hikers will get over the edge, get over those boundaries, just to see. They’re curious as to what it looks like down there. They’ll lose their footing, and that’s it. We put curiosity over safety. Three: Partisan politics over moving the country forward. What is more important: moving the country forward or your party, your district? What is more important? Yet, this happens. I think maybe the last time we saw this happen was in, what? 1954? Or was it yesterday? I think it was yesterday, and it’s probably going to be tomorrow too. It’s very discouraging for us to witness. Let’s look at some more examples. I just put these in random order. Four: Parents put business over family. We’re not to sacrifice our families on the altar of career ambition, yet many do. Business is there as a tool. It’s there to provide for your family. It’s not to become your family. It’s not to become your spouse, so for many it consumes them. Family gets the leftovers, so that’s a missed priority. Five: Pleasure of the palate over our health. I’m talking primarily about the 11 o’clockers who are going to come in. I know you guys have no problem with that. That late crowd-they’re probably coming to church late because they’re out eating somewhere. When we were on vacation, we found this chocolate brownie sundae. That was amazing! We felt like we were entitled to that every night. We all shared it. It was like a huge bowl, and we’d all eat out of it, but still… It was like, “Well, we know this isn’t good for us to have every day, but we are on vacation.” Honestly, we make choices to put things in our mouths because they taste good, but it comes at the cost of our health sometimes. That’s just a fact. Six: Pleasing to our eyes over staying within our means. Something looks good-that vacation in Europe looks good. “I don’t have the money, so I’m going to take out a loan to go.” “Boy, that boat sure looks good.” “That convertible looks good.” Whatever it is that’s tripping your trigger, “It looks good and I have to have it, but I can’t afford it,” America does that very well. We’re sky high in debt because we make decisions like this. Let’s look at a couple more. Seven: Political ideology over the value of human life. That’s right out of the headlines. [This week we heard] the terrible story in Norway of a man who, because of his political beliefs, felt it was necessary for him to take and kill innocent young people. How in the world do we get so twisted that we think our political ideology is more important than the life of a human being? It’s hard to imagine. Eight: We come to matters of secondary doctrine over primary doctrine. That’s where we see divisions; that’s where we see churches split. That’s where we see Christians fighting with each other and saying, “I’m not going to associate with you anymore. I’m not going to have fellowship with you anymore.” We take secondary doctrine and put it over primary. First of all, we have to understand what primary doctrine is. The Bible is very clear that there is primary doctrine. There is Truth that is the most important Truth. We’re going to talk about what that is. It’s clearly identified and defined for us in Scripture. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15:3 (page 1139 of pew Bibles). Paul says, “For what I received I passed on to you…” Whenever Paul says that-for what I received-we know from other Passages he is talking about direct revelation from Jesus Christ. He’s saying, “I didn’t get this secondhand. I wasn’t taught this by man. I received this through direct revelation and understanding from the Lord Himself. What I’m about to say is from the throne of Heaven (Verse 3), “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance…” In the Greek, it means of number one rank or number one priority. Paul is clearly defining that Truth that is most important. He is saying, “If you want to be a Christian, if you want to be counted as a New Testament believer, what I’m about to say is absolutely essential for you to understand and receive.” “For what I received I passed on to you…” that it’s important you understand that the gifts of the Spirit ended at the time of the Apostles and there’s going to be Pre-trib [ulation] Rapture. Is that what it says? No. What is the most important thing? “…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared…” Paul says, “There are several things you need to understand. Number one, He is the Christ. He is the Son of the Living God, the Divine Son of God, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies. He is the Christ; He is the anointed One. He is the Messiah. He died for our sins. He is the Savior of the world. He rose from the dead. He really died and He really rose.” He said, “According to the Scripture,” he stressed that over and over again, “the Scriptures have divine authority in our lives. They are revelation from God.” Friends, that is the most important doctrine: 1.) Who is Jesus? 2.) What did He do? And 3.), understand that the Bible is the Word of God, and it’s our authority. This is a special Book. It says, “The Holy Bible.” Do you know what the word Holy means? It means different. It comes from the root word hagios. It’s a different Book because it was written by the hand of God. Paul makes it very clear: here is what is the most important. There are secondary doctrines as well. I think I’m safe to say that if we were to lay out all these secondary doctrines and discuss them, there are probably no two people in this room that are going to believe exactly the same about each of these secondary doctrines. The core doctrines that I’ve just read-the vast majority of us-somewhere in the upper 90 percentile-say, “Yes, I believe that. Yes, I stand on that.” But, in these secondary doctrines, sometimes it could be as much as 50/50 in this room. It might be “I’m this. I’m that.” Or, many of you would check, “I don’t care. It’s not important to me.” Let’s look at some of those secondary doctrines. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on these. We’re just going through them. 1.) Eternal Security. Can a Christian lose their salvation? Once saved, always saved. There are denominations that form over this. There are churches of the centuries. There are churches that have split over this doctrine. There are Christians that don’t talk to each other over this doctrine. The second coming is really important to many people. “When is Jesus going to come back? How is He going to come back? Is there going to be rapture, or isn’t there going to be rapture? Is there going to be a millennium? Isn’t there going to be a millennium? Is Revelations symbolic? Is Revelations already fulfilled? Is it for the future? Is there an anti-Christ? Who is he?” There are all these questions about the second coming. Some churches will put it in their sign. “Welcome. Here are our service times, and here is what we believe about the endtimes.” It will be right on their sign. “If you want to be a member here, you have to believe this about the end times. It’s extremely important.” Everything revolves around their views of the second coming. 2.) The gifts of the Spirit is another one. Are the gifts of the Spirit operational today, or were they only around for when the Apostles were here? Is there such a thing as a miracle today? Is there such a thing as the prophetic today? Does God still use the gifts of tongues? Does God still use words of knowledge? Does He still speak through the Spirit to the churches, or is that something that is gone? On each of these views we’ve mentioned so far, I know for a fact there are people who believe different things about these right here in this church and have been here for years. They’re worshipping side by side the same Lord, and I think that’s a strength. I know that’s a strength of this church. We major in the majors. The gifts of the Spirit, are they operational today? There are divisions, denominations, and factions in churches over that issue. 3.) The sacraments-communion and baptism. Baptism-do we immerse all the way, or do we sprinkle? Is it for infants? Is it for adults? I remember a lady who had really long hair. She told me she had to be baptized seven times. I asked, “Why did you have to be baptized seven times?” She said, “Because my church believes that unless you’re fully immersed, it doesn’t count. The tips of the follicles of my hair would come out. They couldn’t get me deep enough in the baptismal for all of my hair to go under.” People all around her were holding her hair down so it would count. There is an entire denomination that teaches that unless you are baptized and the minister says, “In Jesus’ name,” during the baptism, it doesn’t count and you’re not saved. Going back to the gifts of the Spirit, there are people who believe that unless you speak in tongues, you’re not a Christian and you’re not saved. We’re going to have baptisms today at our picnic. There are going to be some adults that are going to be baptized because they have repented of their sins. They have made a commitment to Christ. Did you know that what we’re going to do today, centuries ago, Christians were killed for that? Did you know that? There was a reformation and a man by the name of Zwingli who got some guys named Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz. They were the founders of the antibaptists from which many of our denominations have sprung from. They said, “You know, Mr. Zwingli, we’re not seeing infant baptism in the Bible. We don’t remember it. We didn’t give our permission. Why can’t we get baptized again because of our faith?” They started to do that then. Antibaptist means to be re-baptized. They didn’t like that term because they felt like it was their first baptism. That was their conviction. They got so up in arms that Zwingli ordered the execution of 5,000 Christians. Do you know how they died? They were drowned. Felix Manz and others were drowned because they were baptized as adults. That is so sad. Murder was committed in the name of Christ. It’s hard to imagine. Communion-it should be something that unites us, right? Yet, there is division over communion. Is it the Body of Christ, or is it just symbolic of the Body of Christ? Is it just the power, the essence of Jesus in the elements; or is it just memorial? There are churches and denominations that have split on that topic. 4.) The role of women in the church. Should they teach in the church? Can they teach? Can they be pastors, elders, deacons? What is their role? Should they be silent in the church? We’ve had people leave our church and say, “You have women in positions of authority. I can’t worship with you,” and they left our church. 5.) What is the nature of hell and demons? Can a Christian be possessed? Are there demons today? Do they possess people? I put etc because there are all kinds of other theological differences we have. Then there are other differences. Besides theological differences, let’s take a look at that list. There are differences such as political points of view. Do you know that at Faith Community Church, we actually have Republicans, Democrats, and Independents worshipping together (congregation laughing)? There are educational-and I’m not going to tell you who is who-differences in this church. Some of us have degrees. Some of us dropped out of high school. What does the Bible say about our educational differences? There are socioeconomic differences. We have some who are affluent, most of us who are middle-class, and others who are really struggling. There are cultural differences. We bring out culture into our worship. I’ve worshipped with a few different cultures. I’ve appreciated them all. When I’m on vacation, we love to go to African American churches because they’re so friendly. They’re so lively, and their choir is powerful. The preaching is entirely different. I can’t preach in that style. The congregation talks back. We’re quiet in here; it’s our culture, but they’re talking back to their preacher. It’s a conversation going on back and forth. It’s not my thing, but I enjoy it. I enjoy being a part of it. One Sunday we were in a church in New Jersey. We were the only white people in the church. They said, “Any first time visitors today?” (Congregation is laughing.) We were sitting in the back, and everyone turned and looked at us and smiled. Then I smiled, and we had a great time. When we worship with the Haitians, they bring their culture. When we worship with the Dominicans, they bring their Latin culture. When we worshipped with the Swedes, they brought their culture-which was different than any of the above. It’s one Body of Christ, but in some cultures, it affects how we dress. What is acceptable? Each culture is very different. In our culture today, there is fighting in the church among dress. There are churches that you have to wear a suit and tie to. You have to wear a nice dress because you have to look your best for God. I appreciate that. I understand where they’re coming from. Others will say some people won’t come to church because they don’t want to come to a fashion show. The Bible doesn’t talk about how we’re supposed to dress when we come to church. It doesn’t say anything about that. Maybe God didn’t think it was that important. They say we can just come comfortably-dressed. There are two different schools of thought on that. What music do we have in our church? That’s cultural. [There are churches where] all you can have is an organ, or you may have no music. Some churches have that culture-no instruments. Others say, “We can have guitar. We can have drums, but we just can’t have it too loud.” Others are all out like you’re going to a rock concert. I suppose one of these days some churches are going to have rap. That’s where we draw the line right there! No rap in the church! I’m sure it’s probably going on somewhere. We bring our culture. We have racially-different ethnic backgrounds. We have philosophical differences. How should we govern the church? What’s our target audience? How do we reach that target audience? Where do we allocate our resources? There are all kinds of differences: theological, cultural, gender, socioeconomic. You name it, we have all these differences. How, then, do we overcome all those differences? By making the main thing the main thing-by keeping that which is primary, primary. I’d like us to look at some Scriptures this morning, and I want to read them in succession because I want you to see the commonality of these key Scriptures. First is Galatians 3:28 (page 1153 in pew Bibles). Paul writes and says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek…” It doesn’t matter your nationality. “…slave nor free…” It doesn’t matter your socioeconomic status. “…male or female…” It doesn’t matter your gender. “…for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Let’s look at another in Colossians 3:11 (page 1167). The Apostle Paul writes these words, “Here…” in the Church. “…there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” Now what is a Scythian? A Scythian was a barbarian. This was identifying a particular kind of barbarian. When we think of barbarians, we think of Conan the Barbarian and axes and spears and blood and guts-at least I do. Really, the word or the title barbarian comes from how they talked. It used to be said that when they talked, it sounded like they were saying, “Bar, bar, bar, bar,” so that’s how it came to be called barbarian. It sounds like they’re babbling because they were uneducated, uncivilized. Barbarian was code for uneducated, uncivilized. The Scythians lived in the area that is now Russia. They were pretty much warrior nomads, and they were looked down upon, “You’re not educated like the Jews and the Greeks. You’re barbarians! You can’t even talk correctly!” We talked about educational differences. Paul was saying at the cross the barbarian is welcome. At the cross, the uncivilized, the uneducated, can come and receive the same gift as the educated. Basically, he’s saying, “God takes away all of those barriers and all those labels, and He replaces them with the words brother and sister when we are in Christ.” In the Book of Ephesians 4:4-6 (page 1158), there are powerful Verses that Pastor Jesse read. “There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to one hope when you were called-one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” What is the emphasis there? What is the key word in that Passage? One. There may be many denominations, but there is only one church. There may be many different splits of churches, offshoots, and factions, but there is only one faith, one universal faith. What we have in common is greater than our differences. As I look out over this sanctuary, I see all different kinds of people. There are people who are young, and there are people who are not so young. Some of us are thin; some of us are not so thin. Some of us are introverts; some of us are extroverts. Some of us are musical; some of us are mechanical. Some of us are athletic; some of us are creative, administrative. There are just all kinds of temperaments, all kinds of talents, all kinds of different passions; yet at the core of our very being, what are we? [We are] human beings made in the image of God and unique expressions of the living God. The same is true in the church. Each denomination or each group has a different expression of what the church is supposed to be. This group over here teaches us the value of reaching lost people. Every time they go in there, it’s an evangelistic kind of message, and altar call. This group over here teaches us about the importance of reaching out to the poor and ministering to those who are victims of society. Then there is another group that teaches us the importance of holiness and quiet reverence and worship. There is another group that teaches us to celebrate and have joy. There is another group over here that teaches us the importance of rightly dividing the Word of Truth. There is another group over here that teaches us about the power of the Spirit. This group over here teaches us that we need to minister to the homeless and reach out to the sick. This group over here emphasizes community and loving one another. Friends, they are all unique expressions of the Body of Christ, and they’re all important; but those differences we have should not divide us. It’s okay to say, “This is my style preference, and I have this set of belief on this secondary doctrine.” But to say, “I will not fellowship with you,” or “our church will not work with you,” or “we don’t see you as Christians even though you believe 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 with all of your heart and you’re sincerely seeking to follow Christ, because I differ with you on this peripheral doctrine and this secondary doctrine; because you dress this way and worship this way, I must disassociate with you” is wrong and unbiblical. What you are doing is you are taking secondary doctrine and you are placing it over primary doctrine. You and I are saying what is different is greater than what unites us. What is different is greater than what we have in common is our belief in who Jesus is, what He accomplished, and the importance of Scripture. When we do that, friends, division, destruction, and ineffectiveness happen. We could do so much more together. The Day of Compassion is just one example of that. Could this church- 650 or 700 people-have fed that many thousands of people, shared the Gospel with that many thousands of people? We would have had to be in 100 percent, and I still don’t think we could have done that. In fact, I know we couldn’t have. It took all of those churches pooling their resources together. Love in the Name of Christ is an ongoing ministry that came forth from that. Still today, all these churches in the community are working together to accomplish the same objectives. We can do so much more together than we can apart. When we take that which is secondary and we elevate it above that which is primary, we are saying, “These things down here are more important than the things that God has said are the most important.” That’s wrong, and that’s unbiblical. That’s not the kind of church we are. Let’s listen now to the second part of this media as he wraps this illustration up and just ties this message together for us. Let’s watch the conclusion now (here’s the link to the second part of the video: http://www.sermonspice.com/bundle/27225/the-source-one-bundle.) Father, this message is something vitally important to the Body of Christ. Your prayer is that we are one. Lord, many times we are divided over things that should not divide us. We must focus on that which unites us, that which we have in common, that which is the greatest; that is our faith in who You are, what You did, and the fact that You are Lord. Father, I pray that we as a church would continue to form bonds with other believers to mend fences with believers where there has been division and shouldn’t have been. I pray that we will make things right and be able to have unity in the midst of our diversity. Father, we thank You for the unique gift to the Body of Christ, what each group brings to the table, what they all teach us and how together we are unique expressions of a whole. For Christ cannot be separated; His body is One. Help us now to apply what we have learned and live it. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

(This is a link to the video played at the end of the service today: http://www.strengthteam.com/outreach/content/development).