Sermon – “Called into Fellowship”

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, 5 that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 10 Now I plead with 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. 11 For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. 12 Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. 16 Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.

14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, with-out spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which un-taught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

This morning I tell you I’m a message called into fellowship we are called in to fellowship with Christ we are called to come together and worship him it’s all about him he’s the reason we’re here and it’s so good to be here so good to be in God’s house to come together more ship and it’s wonderful to know that people all over the world are worshipping Jesus Christ to know that we have that in common you know many different languages many different races many different places but they’re worshipping the same God we are in the same Lord Jesus Christ called into fellowship does have a word of prayer before I read a Scripture father we do thank you and praise you for the honor and a privilege to come into your house we thank you Lord again for your presence we thank you for your sweet spirit that’s in this place and Father I pray that your spirit would just rest upon each of us today help us to receive your word to to have the understanding that you would have to have and father I just pray that we would use all that we learn of you for your glory and for your Honor Lord as Karen said that that song says Let it not be about us but father may we leave a legacy for Jesus may we leave a legacy for you lord lord that others would know you that they would just see you in US were the May that be our goal father to be that example that we need to be and that’s what we are to do we just thank you again for all things and again if your spirit will move in this place for your glory Amen. First Corinthians Chapter one verses one through 19 Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and sauced means our brother to the Church of God and you think of that are as I read that sometimes think the Church of God knows a lot of different titles or denominations churches out there. I suppose that’s where they got the name for the Church of God that we know of but friends guess what we are part of the Church of God The Church of God which is at Corinthians to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints with all who in every place call on the name Jesus Christ the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours Grace to you and peace from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus that you were in ridged in everything by him. And all knowledge even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you so that you come short in no gift eagerly away eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ who will also confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ God who is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord now this these 1st 9 verses are like he’s commending the church for all the good things they have done and speaking of their faith now this last section is going to be a little correction in their now see he’s only changes now I plead with you brother on by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing and that you be and that there be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment for it has been declared to me concerning you my brother by those of close household that there are contentions among you now I say this that each of you says I am of Paul or I am of Apollos or I am of Civa Sariah him of Christ is Christ divided. No I’m glad I have some head shaking no out there was Paul crucified for you know were you baptized in the name of Paul No I thank God that I baptized none of you except Christmas and Gaius lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name yes I also baptized the household of Stephanus Besides I do not know whether I baptized any other for Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel not with wisdoms of wisdom of words lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God For it is written I would destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent May God at His blessing so they hear it in the reading of His Holy Word I hope you seen in that reading how it ties in with what Karen just said it’s not or legacy Carinthia you know there are some cities around the world and in our nation that are magnificent cities some of them are magnificent because of their location you know look there are many cities today that are magnificent or or prosperous cities simply because of where they are located many are prosperous because they are located by the water. Yes and my wife going yes. Just because of being by the water by the ocean or by the Gulf or by the sea they attract a lot of tourism so that makes them a popular destination or a popular city somewhere popular because of being by the water because of the fishing industry or because it’s just a great port city where there’s lots of ships a command shipping stuff from overseas or sipping stuff to overseas plus the military aspect of it there could be military bases by some of these port cities that bring in thousands of people various reasons some places are magnificent because of all the natural resources they may have if they have oil there are definitely a rich city right many different reasons Carinthia was such a place if one would climb up to the top of the rocky hills around Carinthia you would probably be out of breath by the time you got up there because it’s about 2000 feet above sea level but if you get up there on the top it’s big enough and water enough for a city of a considerable size to be up there but if you would look eastward you would look out over the A.G. and see if you would look to the west you would see the Ionian Sea But if you turn around look to the north you’d see the. Atika mountains and the wife a saying again when you take a me right I mean you get up on that mountain you’re going to see a sea to the left of the sea to the RIGHT NOW before you mountains behind you something breathtaking right for everyone to see I’d have the mountains we could have the sea because I love the mountains right. I’m sharing this to share of just a little bit of history about current them where they lay and a little bit of ground work because I’ve decided I’m going to preach to Corinthians and I won’t preach through every verse of every chapter but from each chapter every week it’s been a long time since up tackled a entire book where there’s like 16 chapters I did Romans many years ago I have since tackled smaller verses but for the most part has been topical preaching preaching on certain topics so we’re going to go through Corinthians and I hope that be able to bring out some amazing stuff that God is did and Paul spoke to the Corinthians because that’s what it’s about Paul teaching the Corinthians you know many ancient cities back to the current the in the Caribbean was placed in that because of the water they became a very important military city it became the command post basically for that area in late between Asia in Europe so it was a major. Transportation of commerce going through there so they became a very luxurious city they were known for their wealth they were known for their literature they were known for the arts and again as current was a magnificent city many ancient cities though if you’ve studied any of the ancient cities they devoted themselves to a particular god or goddess Carinthia my friends was no different they were no different. With their great wealth and popular the population was great but they devoted themselves to the goddess Venus who was the goddess of love and that think you could probably guess what that led to a lot of the census living passion. Just free love a lotta and more stuff that happened in the city of Carinthia of all the ancient cities of the war ancient world. Corrent was the most notorious for their lack of moral restraint so you may be wondering OK why do I need to know all this why is this important why’s important that I know the corrent was corrupt they were frivolous they were sinful and all these things during the time why to show the exceeding grace of our God because many would probably say well if the people of Carinthia be saved anybody can to show the exceeding riches of God’s grace the god called Paul to go and play in a church in Corinth it reveals the power of the spear to overcome the strongest and most polluted passions of man’s nature it can overcome any of our sinful passions and desires it doesn’t matter how many false gods 1 May have worshiped in the past it doesn’t matter how sinful one has been in the past God’s grace is sufficient to bring forgiveness of your sins no matter how bad they were the Apostle Paul himself founded the church in Corinthians when the 2nd missionary journey this letter that I have read from is going to continue to read from 1st Corinthians is written in his 3rd missionary journey and it was written to address the problems that had risen in the church there was division there was disorder within the church in Corinth. Paul had sent letters with some various They had sent letters to Paul with some very specific questions questions on how we should live what we should do Paul is directly answering those questions in Corinthians he addresses how that we should live for Christ in the midst of a corrupt society Paul begins by revealing to them 1st of all why he had the authority to speak correction and speak how they should live. Paul said it’s called How did that begin the very 1st verse to find the beginning here called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God you think of the word call called Calling it’s used 5 times in those 1000 versus the word call calling or called 5 times and then 3 times in the remainder of that chapter so 8 times so that tells me that that isn’t a Porton part of that chapter being called the great meaning of the word called in most cases means invited invited so we are cold into fellowship we are invited by God into fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ when Paul was called C. is invited to come and be an apostle of Jesus Christ but one definition means a king’s summon. A King’s summon I find is very interesting because a king has complete authority over his kingdom does he not if a King calls a person one of his subjects to come before him they are going to come one way or another they will come I think of David all the men who had went off to war but David stayed behind he should have went off to war with his men but he stayed behind and David is up on a high on the roof top of the palace man walk just looking around and he looks down on know that you’ve all heard the story and he sees by Sheba a beautiful woman beautiful to the eyes and he inquired of who this was well they informed him that this was YOUR EYES wife by Sheba. So then he decided he wanted her so he sent messengers to bring her to him he summoned her to come before him and it happened why because he’s the king what the king says happens so he summoned her to come before him so some are cold and I think of God calling Paul I think it’s more than just a small little invitation I think it’s a summons of the king to come and be an apostle of Jesus Christ I think Paul’s calling is an extraordinary calling but convincing call if you will yes Paul could have said No Jonah said no the 1st time didn’t he what happened to him I think I just spoke of that recently right he wound up in the belly of fish belly of a fish Paul would have said no he might have very well found himself in the belly of a fish floating around in the ocean or worse but he said yes and praise be to God because of that extraordinary call of Paul Lookout has affected the church tremendous probably one of the most extraordinary calls in the history of all the Apostles were disciples is Paul’s calling to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles praise God We may not even be here Paul would have said no that day I found a neat example of what it means to be called of God. Young man shares that in the big Sarah this story in a beginning of the 20th century a young graduate graduate of Cornell University was engaged in a most amazing effort to Windy entire world to Jesus Christ His name was John R. mote during his years as secretary of the world student volunteer movement most travels took him everywhere to your the Middle East Africa India Latin America Australia China Japan and the Allens of the Pacific and everywhere he went he led young men and women to Christ in 1946 he was honored with a Noble Peace Prize John mote offered this as his best definition of a call of God He said It is the awareness of a need in the capacity to meet that need the awareness of a need in the capacity to meet that need he described that is a good definition of what it means to be called by God basically the purpose for Paul’s writing this letter to the Corinthians is to answer many questions because they had many questions within the church some in the church some had come into the church bringing some false teaching they were errant in their ways and they weren’t lining up with the ways that Paul had taught them when he planted the church there and he had spent 18 months with them in Qur’an so as to make clear how they should live their lives for Christ again the. First 10 said Now I plead with you brother and by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing that there be no new divisions among you but that you be perfectly joined together in the same line and in the same judgment Some said I am of Paul I am of Apollos I am of sci fi as I am of Christ’s. You can sense the vision you can sense clicks if you will with this click overhears of will I am of the Apostle Paul I’m greater than you if you will I am of saved this that makes me a little more special than you because you are only of Apollo’s Jesus said in Matthew $1225.00 But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself will not stand Paul was calling the church a Corinthian to fellowship the fellowship of Jesus Christ burst 9 said God is faithful whom you were called meaning you were invited into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord fellowship as it’s used in here means coin in the that is the Greek word coin nea it means close association between persons emphasizing what is common between them what is common between them friends if we would come together as a group and if all we focused on was the things that made us different we are going to fall apart we will soon disband but we are to focus on the things that we have in common we are all different we are every If you’re married you know we’re different men or women men and women are different in a pocket get a couple to focus on everything that they have different about one another they’re going to be going to see a divorce lawyer before you know it but if I could get in the focus on that which they have in common that marriage could last for many years if we as a body of believers come together and focus on what we have a cop and we will stay together and we will grow. Queen in the A was want to Paul’s favorite words to describe a believers relationship with the risen Lord fellowship is more than just coming together to share a meal it’s more than just coming together to have some social time together the fellowship of believers is the bond of a common perfect purpose and a devotion that binds Christians together the sun bind us together Lord bind us together with what I love that chord it cannot be broken by and us to guess not about having my way but it’s about being bound together in love in Christ Jesus you know some preachers will use elegant or impressive words to impress their listeners but Paul said that he was not sent to preach with words of wisdom to impress the people with his abilities and not cared to you’re not going to be impressed with my bill it is because sometimes I can really talk but he said if I preach with wisdom of words that makes the cross of Christ of no effect he came to preach to Paul pure truth of the gospel of Christ and Him crucified that’s it Christ and Him crucified He is the one to be exalted not ourselves for it is not the power of persuasive words that change a man’s heart and say’s a soul is the power of Jesus Christ it’s a power of the Holy Spirit that changes a man the changes assault saves his solve you know some things that we read in Scripture hard to understand but this is not that difficult to understand Peter says sometimes it’s hard to understand him 2nd Peter 314 through 16 therefore be love and looking forward to these things be diligent to be found in Him by him in peace without spot and blameless. We can be blameless and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is solve ation as also our beloved brother Paul according to the wisdom given to him has written to you as in all his a pistol’s speaking in them of these things and what some are some things hard to understand which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do also the rest of the Scriptures but friends that he’s addressing what Paul was addressing a Corinthians people come in and we’re twisting the scripture for their own benefit to make themselves look good Peter speaking of being blameless as Paul did that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ blameless means to be free from accusation that’s what it means to be blameless on the day of judgement you can be free from accusation how can we be blameless we can be found in peace and blameless by the Blood of Jesus Christ that’s how we are found blameless I found a story the a man shared he did not even give his name so it’s anonymous He titled it my insides were screaming he said in June 1997 I went to the Promise Keepers conference in Washington D.C. as I thought about that I may have been at that same conference because I believe in 1997 we went to the Promise Keepers in Washington D.C. so I may have been there with the same gentleman that wrote this he says the men on the stage kept asking do you want to be a godly man he says my insides were screaming yes yes. He says When I got home I knelt in prayer and listen to the conference tape he says I wept sweat poured from me he says I begged to be forgiven for my life of drugs and alcohol for being a poor father an abusive husband he said I felt of Rush come over me like goose bumps all over my body he says I woke up the next morning for the 1st time since I was 11 years old not feeling guilty the Lord the Lord’s mighty hand has raised a man of for detox is 5 rehabs a mental hospital and numerous jail stays into a caring husband a loving father a 2 Bible study a week man choir singing contributor to the church kind of guy and he says I take no credit for this it was God working to power keep the Promise Keepers and the power of God the change this man my friends that’s the power of God That’s the power of Jesus Christ to change us change us a believer as believers we are called we are invited you are invited into fellowship the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ God is inviting all of us he invites all in the world to come in be part of his fellowship I think I know that man has always had a competitive nature has any man has always had a competitive nature I believe we could trace it all way back to Cain and Abel I don’t know you can say necessarily competitive but jealous came was jealous of Abel Some said I am of Paul no doubt each one thought that they were special that they were in some way more important than the other believers in the church. I added a script added a scripture as I was working on this message the other night I came down and been working on it for actually 2 evenings quite some time and I brought it down I told Karen says she says you done I’m like well I just don’t feel done with it so it was a Lord will give it give it to you she said so I’ve added Romans 141 through 9 for one who was weak in the faith received one who is weak in the faith but do not dispute over doubtful things for one believes he made all things but he was weak it’s only vegetables let him not have let not him who eats despise him who does not eat and let not him who does not judge him who eats for God has received Him Who are you to judge another servant to his own master he stands or falls indeed he will be made to stand for God is able to make him stand this into that God is able to make him stand one person esteems one day above another another esteems every day alike let each be fully convinced in his own mind he who observes the day observes that to the Lord and He who does not observe the day to the Lord he does not observe it he eats to the Lord for he gives that gives God thanks and he who does not need to the Lord he does not eat and gives God thanks for not of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself for if we live we live in the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord therefore whether we live or die we are the Lord’s. For to this in Christ died and rose and lived again that he might be lord of both the living and the dead my friends there can be many things that divide is kind of what this whole thing’s been about right I mean there are many of their even divided over the food that we should eat my friends it’s not the food that we if you’re convicted for meat and certain food then don’t need it because it’s wrong for you if you’re convicted to keep a certain day while means keep that day but it’s not about the day it’s not about the food it’s not about who baptize us whether it was policy for Sir Pastor John or Pastor George that baptize us but it’s all about Christ and Him crucified being blameless in Him we are called into the fellowship of Christ Jesus you’re not called into fellowship with Pastor Ron you’re called in to fellowship with Jesus Christ the you to the bond that binds us is Christ and His love His love that was so great that he died for us you were called to come in him leave all that other stuff the of your selfishness behind leave your own desires I don’t care if you are proven right it’s not about me being right or me being wrong it’s about Christ and that’s it it’s about Christ yes we like to observe the day we observe this day because we believe it is the day that God bless that he’s sanctified and called holy but let’s not look down our nose that on those that do not because if they have Christ in their heart he can make them stay and receive that if they look down on us because we have served this day I don’t care what they think because he can make me stand when I believe or in Jesus Christ His Son Amen. I don’t say that arrogantly I really don’t I say that because my entire trust is in Jesus Christ not in self and that’s where we all need to be that our trust is in him and in Him alone and it’s about lifting him up in not ourselves Amen that’s what Paul is trying to teach the church in Corinthians and that church that word my friends is meant for all of us because all believers everywhere so it was meant for them many years ago and is for us today received one another we are called to be joined together Amen.