Latest / The Daily Word / March 16 – Persevering Toward Unity
Transcript
- Brandon Dirmann: Well, good morning and welcome once again to the Daily Word podcast. My name is Brandon and I am one of the pastors at our church and genuinely on behalf of all of our pastors and our leaders, thank you so much for joining us today on the Daily Word podcast. It is such an honor that you would take time out of your day to allow us to share with you and encourage you. And I've been saying this, but If you're enjoying this and if God really is using it to help you, bless you, minister to you, or even just today if you're super encouraged, I just want to encourage you. Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already. Like, leave a comment, and don't let the morning go by or the afternoon or evening, whenever you're listening to this, without sharing it. Just click that share button, share it with one, two, three, four, five hundred friends, and help us to get the word out. We just want to help people and want to be an encouragement, not just in what we're sharing each day, but also in reminding you that we serve a God who wants to meet with us individually every single day. We talk a lot in our church about the secret place and the secret place. It's the place where you meet daily and deeply with God. And we use the Life Journal. There's lots of great resources, but we use the Life Journal, which simply is a Bible reading and journaling plan. And we take time every day. Could be 15 minutes could be 20 minutes could be 30 40 minutes with whatever your Calendar allows and whatever God leads you to do we take time every day to simply read the scripture from the reading plan here in this podcast We're focusing on the New Testament reading for each day and we take time to read it prayerfully saying God speak to me show me something and Then we capture that in a journal. We write it down We write down what God is speaking to us and we process that what's the scripture that stuck out to me? What's it saying? How do I apply it to my life? And how can I respond in obedience today to what Jesus is speaking to me? I'm telling you that simple practice 20, 30 minutes a day, 15 minutes a day, it could literally change your life. It's my story and so many other people's stories of how a daily time with God has absolutely changed their life. So here is the reading for today. Today's New Testament reading, it is 1 Corinthians chapter one here on March the 16th. And I want to share with you from this verse, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 10, the apostle Paul, here's what he's writing. I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. In fact, I'll keep reading verse 11, for it's been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you my brothers. What I mean is that each of you says, I follow Paul or I follow Apollos or I follow Cephas or I follow Christ. And Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians chapter one verse 13, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius. I may have mispronounced those names, I probably did. So that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. Let me just go back to the top verse 10. Paul goes, I appeal to you that you all agree there'd be no divisions among you, but you'd be united in the same mind and of the same judgment. The apostle Paul is dealing with an issue in the Corinthian church where there is division. There's division. There's people who are at odds with each other. And he says, it's been reported to me that there's quarreling and fighting and there's division. And one person goes, well, you know, I'm with Paul and the other says, well, I'm with the Paulist. Well, I'm with Cephas. Well, I'm with Christ and, What the apostle Paul says is, Christ divided? It doesn't matter who you receive the gospel from, Paul, Apollo, Cephas, Christ himself, Jesus is not divided. And he's speaking to a church that is in disunity, a congregation, a group of people where there's fighting and quarreling and he goes, guys, I'm pleading with you, I'm urging you, be of the same mind, be united together as one. Jesus would say this in the Gospels. He would say surely a house divided cannot stand that where there is division where unity is lacking Things are not gonna go. Well, know, we can see that in just everyday life You know you get a business and a team of people in a business who are just fighting and quarreling and usually it doesn't go Well, you get a team basketball team football team soccer team whatever kind of team and when the team is not united and there's fighting and there's quarreling and they're at odds, normally they don't play well. All the way back to the Old Testament in the book of Genesis where they're building this tower, the Tower of Babel, and their language becomes confused and all of a sudden they can't understand each other and what they were doing came to nothing. Over and over and over again we can see that division, it disrupts what God can do or is doing or wants to do. that forward progress and us seeing all that God wants to do in our life and in our church and in our family, it requires unity. And here is Paul saying, guys, I've heard reports, there's quarreling among you. And so you stop that. Let's come together and be of one mind. Let's come together and may there be no division among you, but you be united together in the same mind and the same judgment. So that's what Paul's saying. Well, here's the application. How do I apply that to my life? You know, the old saying, it takes two to tango. So maybe I want to be united, but other people don't. Maybe I will get on the same page, other, the application that I'm here and just for my life and for maybe you today is you do what you can. We're not responsible for everybody else around us. We're responsible and accountable for our life. We're responsible and accountable for our. attitude. We're responsible and accountable for our words. We're responsible and accountable for the seeds that we are sowing. And the application that I hear in here today for us personally is that we need to make a decision that when it comes to us, we're not going to allow our heart to sow division. We're not going to allow our life to sow division. In fact, we're going to lay down our pride, lay down our personal preferences and persevere towards unity. I just want encourage you, whatever context this applies to you, maybe it's in your home today, maybe just your family right now. There's a lot of quarreling and bickering. Okay, lay down your personal preference, lay down your pride, and intentionally persevere towards unity. Maybe on a team you're a part of, or maybe as it relates to church, you're serving with some people right now. Lay down your pride, lay down your personal preference, and persevere towards unity. So often those are the things that limit us. It's our pride. Well, I'm well, but I'm right. But I don't want to seem like in pride, pride. The Bible says God gives grace to the humble. So lay down your pride. Secondary, it's our personal preference. Like, let's just be honest. So much of the stuff that we make a big deal about is actually not a big deal. It's just your personal preference. So often we make theological cases. And we, you know, I will die on this hill. This is the one that I'm not going to. And really, when you just start thinking critically about it, dude, that's not even what the Bible says. It's not even a ⁓ theological doctrinal essential. It's just your personal preference. It's how you were raised. It's what you like. It's what you prefer. And often our pride and our personal preference, they get in the way of us together, persevering towards unity. So my encouragement to you today is that unity is a big deal. In every part of our life, unity is a big deal. We can't control other people, but we can control ourself. So let's make it an effort as it relates to our life to lay down pride, lay down personal preference and persevere towards unity. Let's words of encouragement. Let's sow words of life. Let's choose to have the right attitude and the right perspective. God helping us do so. And let's be a part of the solution. and let's be a part of those who bring unity. You Jesus said that we're supposed to be peacemakers. ⁓ if I've heard Pastor Gill say it once, I've heard him say it a billion times. God didn't call us to be peacekeepers. No, we're peacemakers. We walk into situations and we make peace. We bring unity. How? Laying down pride, laying down personal preference, and persevering towards unity. I hope today that you're encouraged by this. and I hope that God uses it to strengthen you. Let's not just be hearers of word, let's be doers of the word. So today, let's go out in whatever context God's placing us in and let's persevere towards unity. Love you so much, hope today that this was a blessing to you and hope that you will, again, share this with someone and help us to get the word out. Lord, today, thank you for your word. Help us to apply it to our life, help us to live according to it, according to or by your grace. and your spirit helping us in Jesus name. Amen. Hey again, we'll see you on another episode tomorrow on the daily word podcast.